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File this under: "Things that make you go, huh?" Just as Hillary Clinton attacked Bernie Sanders for not doing "his homework" when it comes to taking on the financial industry and its big banks, a group of former government officials — once in charge of regulating Wall Street and now working in the financial industry — are holding a fundraiser in her honor in Washington, DC. The Intercept reports the April 6 fundraiser described as a "conversation" with "Hillary for America" financial officer Gary Gensler and Sens. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and Carl Levin, D-Mich, is basically a who's who of Washington elites either advocating for corporate clients or advising them on how to best get around the regulations they themselves once helped write. See potential Clinton running mates: Hillary Clinton fundraiser hosted by former financial regulators who jumped ship to Wall Street Insiders confirmed that Clinton is definitely considering a woman as her vice presidential pick, and as U.S. Senator from Minnesota, Klobuchar has a seat Democrats would likely maintain. She's also been described as "by far" the most popular politician in her state. The Independent from Vermont has become Hillary Clinton's primary rival for the Democratic nomination, garnering a surprising amount of support. Bringing Sanders onto the ticket could help to unite both sets of supporters who have been split in Democratic primaries. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images) Insiders believe that the senior U.S. Senator from Ohio could help Clinton increase her popularity with working-class voters, a group she has yet to win in a big way so far in primary contests. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) The former mayor of San Antonio and current U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development has been rumored as a possible running mate for Clinton for months, but in May he said in an interview that the Clinton campaign hasn't talked to him about the role. A former 2016 rival of Hillary Clinton, and former Maryland governor, Martin O’Malley could help bring some executive experience, along with a slight youthful boost to the ticket. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) The U.S. Senator from New Jersey is both youthful and charismatic and would add racial diversity to a Clinton ticket. (Photo by KK Ottesen for The Washington Post via Getty Images) The current U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is popular among progressive Democrats, and some even tried to draft her to run for president herself in 2016. (Photo by Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images) The junior Democratic Senator from the swing state of Virginia could be a strategic selection for Hillary. Kaine also served as the governor of Virginia from 2006- 2010. (Photo by Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) The current U.S. Secretary of Labor is considered a sleeper pick by many Democrats because he is not well known outside of D.C., but some believe his strength and popularity among union workers and other progressive groups could be an asset to Clinton's ticket. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call) The Secretary of Agriculture since 2009, Tom Vilsack also served as the governor of Iowa from 1999 to 2007. Vilsack could bring some governing experience along with swing state influence. (BELGIUM - Tags: AGRICULTURE POLITICS BUSINESS) Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper delivers his annual State of the State address to lawmakers and guests, inside the state legislature, in Denver, Thursday, Jan. 14, 2016. Hickenlooper called upon Republicans and Democrats to return to an era of civility and compromise in his address to the Republican-controlled Senate and the Democrat-led House. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley) Evan Bayh could bring a more right leaning brand of politics to the ticket. Bayh previously served as the junior U.S. Senator from Indiana from 1999 to 2011, and also as the 46th Governor of Indiana from 1989 to 1997. While the likelihood of him agreeing to take on the veep job again might be low, Biden's popularity among Democrats would likely boost Clinton's chances. (Photo credit MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images) Hillary's husband is technically allowed to serve in the job, and some legal experts even think he'd be able to take office if necessary. Unfortunately for the diehard Clinton supporters, a Clinton-Clinton ticket will probably be a dream that never comes true. (Photo By Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call) The host of the event, for example, is Julie Chon, a managing director at the New York hedge fund Perry Capital, who once used to be a former Senate Banking Committee staffer. Also Read: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton Bad Blood Turns Toxic Over Sandy Hook Gensler, the finance chair, is a former Goldman Sachs staffer who later joined the Obama administration as a financial regulator. Another member, Raj Date, was the deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, who was basically in charge of reining in Wall Street but went on to start his own lending firm. He then became an adviser to Promontory Financial Group on how to comply with consumer protection regulation and managing complex risks. The list goes on ... Bob Heckart, who is also listed on the invite, is a former Senate staffer who worked on the implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act and tax reform legislation aimed at closing abuse of corporate tax loopholes. Today, he is a senior counsel at the same major Wall Street law firm he worked for before working for the government. Take a look at Clinton's 2016 campaign so far: Hillary Clinton fundraiser hosted by former financial regulators who jumped ship to Wall Street BALTIMORE, MD - APRIL 10: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a campaign rally at City Garage April 10, 2016 in Baltimore, Maryland. Voters will head to polling places for Maryland's presidential primary April 26. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) Democratic U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton laughs as she listens to Representative Steve Israel (D-NY) speak on a gun control panel in Port Washington, New York April 11, 2016. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 09: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton holds a Latino organizing event on April 9, 2016 while campaigning in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. The New York Democratic primary is scheduled for April 19th. (Photo by Andrew Renneisen/Getty Images) SPRINGFIELD, MA - FEBRUARY 29: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during a 'Get Out The Vote' rally at the Lyman & Merrie Wood Museum of Springfield History on February 29, 2016 in Springfield, Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Massachusetts and Virginia ahead of Super Tuesday. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) BOSTON, MA - Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to supporters at the Old South Meeting Hall during a rally in Boston, Massachusetts on Monday February 29, 2016. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MINNEAPOLIS, MN - MARCH 01: Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton greets patrons at Mapps Coffee on March 1, 2016 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Minnesota as Super Tuesday voting takes place in 12 states. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton greets supporters as she arrives at a rally at Abraham Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at Abraham Lincoln High School in Des Moines, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by her daughter Chelsea Clinton, reacts to applause as she arrives for a rally at Abraham Lincoln High School in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, left, hugs Annette Bebout, 73, of Newton, during a campaign event at Berg Middle School, Thursday, Jan. 28, 2016 in Newton, Iowa. Bebout told her story of how she lost her home to the audience. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, accompanied by former President Bill Clinton, right, and their daughter Chelsea Clinton, left, arrives to speak at a rally at Washington High School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks at a rally at BR Miller Middle School in Marshalltown, Iowa, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) Democratic presidential candidate, Hillary Clinton makes a point during the Brown & Black Forum, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, right, and high school teacher David Swaney laugh about their colorful outfits before Swaney asks Clinton a question during a town hall at NewBo City Market in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Monday, Jan. 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts to applause from the audience while standing with Brenda Bouchard, an Alzheimer's research advocate, during a town hall style campaign event, Tuesday, Dec. 29, 2015, at South Church in Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/Steven Senne) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks about her counterterrorism strategy during a speech at the University of Minnesota Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton meets local residents at Apple Orchard Cafe Friday, Dec. 4, 2015, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Hillary Rodham Clinton reacts as she talks to supporters after a Democratic presidential primary debate, Saturday, Nov. 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton greets supporters before speaking at a campaign rally in Boulder, Colo., Tuesday, Nov. 24, 2015. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton smiles as she arrives to speak at a town hall meeting Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015, in Clinton, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks from a gymnasium side porch to people who weren't able to fit in to hear her speech at Fisk University Friday, Nov. 20, 2015, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Mark Humphrey) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton shakes hand with a supporter during a town hall meeting Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2015, in Coralville, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to customers at the White Mountain Cafe & Bookstore, Thursday, Oct. 29, 2015, in Gorham, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a meeting of the Alabama Democratic Conference in Hoover, Ala., Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Clinton tells black Alabama Democrats that she'd champion voting rights in the White House. She says Republicans are dismantling the progress of the civil rights movement. (AP Photo/Mark Almond) MOUNT VERNON, IOWA - OCTOBER 7: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to voters during an outdoor town hall meeting at Cornell College in Mount Vernon, Iowa on Wednesday October 7, 2015. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton reacts to a supporter before speaking at a community forum, Tuesday, Oct. 6, 2015, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) MUSCATINE, IOWA - OCTOBER 6: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to a voter before leaving a farm in Muscatine, Iowa on Tuesday October 6, 2015. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) MANCHESTER, NH - OCTOBER 05: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton holds a town hall meeting at the Manchester Community College on October 5, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Clinton spoke about the need for gun control on the wake of a mass shooting at another community college in Oregon. (Photo by Alfredo Sosa/The Christian Science Monitor via Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton gestures as she speaks at Human Rights Campaign gathering in Washington, Saturday, Oct. 3, 2015. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) DAVIE, FL - OCTOBER 02: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks about gun control during her campaign stop at the Broward College à Hugh Adams Central Campus on October 2, 2015 in Davie, Florida. Hillary Clinton continues to campaign for the nomination of the Democratic Party as their presidential candidate. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at a grassroots organizing meeting at Philander Smith College Monday, Sept. 21, 2015, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Gareth Patterson) WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 19: Hillary Clinton attends the Phoenix Awards Dinner at the 45th Annual Legislative Black Caucus Foundation Conference at Walter E. Washington Convention Center on September 19, 2015 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Earl Gibson III/Getty Images) MANCHESTER, NH - SEPTEMBER 19: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton claps on stage during the New Hampshire Democratic Party Convention at the Verizon Wireless Center on September 19, 2015 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Challenger for the democratic vote Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has been gaining ground on Clinton in Iowa and New Hampshire. (Photo by Scott Eisen/Getty Images) PORTLAND, ME - SEPTEMBER 18: Hillary Clinton brings her Democratic presidential campaign to Maine for the first time, speaking at King Middle School. Clinton is welcomed as she is introduced at the event. (Photo by Derek Davis/Portland Press Herald via Getty Images) CEDAR RAPIDS, IA - SEPTEMBER 7: Democratic Presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton takes time to meet supporters and take photos at the Annual Hawkeye Labor Council AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic on September 7, 2015 at Hawkeye Downs in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Clinton spent a busy Labor Day weekend in Iowa, meeting supporters throughout the state while trying to maintain a lead over Bernie Sanders for the Democratic nomination. (Photo by David Greedy/Getty Images) US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton takes part in a discussion after speaking about the Iran nuclear deal at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC, on September 9, 2015. Clinton expressed firm support for the nuclear accord with Iran, calling it flawed but still strong. Clinton added that the agreement must be strictly enforced and said that if elected president next year, she would not hesitate to use military force if Iran fails to live up to its word and tries to develop a bomb. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) PORTSMOUTH, NH - SEPTEMBER 5: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen take an off the schedule stop in the River Run Bookstore before shaking hands with onlookers on September 5, 2015 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. (Photos by Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post via Getty Images) PORTSMOUTH, NH - SEPTEMBER 5: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton receives an endorsement from U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) September 5, 2015 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Clinton attended a Women for Hillary event at Portsmouth High School. (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images) PORTSMOUTH, NH - SEPTEMBER 5: Democratic Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton walks downtown Portsmouth and takes pictures with people September 5, 2015 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Clinton attended a Women for Hillary event at Portsmouth High School earlier in the day and received an endorsement from U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH). (Photo by Darren McCollester/Getty Images) LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - AUGUST 18: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton answers questions from journalists after speaking to north Las Vegas voters at a town hall meeting in Las Vegas, on Tuesday, August 18, 2015. The former Secretary was answering questions about emails sent and received a private server system, now in question, while she was the Secretary of State. (Photo by Melina Mara/The Washington Post via Getty Images) UNITED STATES - August 15: Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton greets fairgoers as she tours the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, Iowa, on Saturday, August 15, 2015. (Photo By Al Drago/CQ Roll Call) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton tours the Des Moines Area Rapid Transit Central Station with general manager Elizabeth Presutti, left, and building superintendent Keith Welch, Monday, July 27, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) CARROLL, IA - JULY 26: Democratic presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to guests gathered for a house party on July 26, 2015 in Carroll, Iowa. Although Clinton leads all other Democratic contenders, a recent poll had her trailing several of the Republican candidates in Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton greets supporters after a campaign event, Thursday, July 23, 2015 in Columbia, S.C. Clinton talked about what she said was a lack of educational and economic opportunities, and a criminal justice system that treats blacks more harshly than whites. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) Chelsea Galinos, 21, left, who painted a picture of the democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, greets Clinton after a campaign event in New York, Monday, July 13, 2015. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks during a campaign stop at the Iowa City Public Library, Tuesday, July 7, 2015, in Iowa City, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) FILE - In this June 20, 2015, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the U.S. Conference of Mayors 83rd Annual Meeting in San Francisco. Clinton’s presidential campaign jumped on the Supreme Court decision, changing its red campaign logo to a rainbow colored H, releasing a gauzy video of gay wedding ceremonies, and blasting out supportive tweets aimed at building its campaign list. But like President Barack Obama, such expressions of support mark a remarkable shift for Clinton, who opposed gay marriage for more than two decades as a first lady, a U.S. senator and a presidential candidate. (AP Photo/Mathew Sumner, File) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally, Sunday, June 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Seeking an army of volunteers, Clinton is trying to build an organizational edge in Iowa as some of her lesser-known Democratic rivals clamor for attention in the state that tripped up her first presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters during a rally, Sunday, June 14, 2015, in Des Moines, Iowa. Clinton's campaign has signaled Iowa will be the centerpiece of its ground game. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) Democratic presidential candidate former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton waves to supporters as her husband former President Bill Clinton, second from right, Chelsea Clinton, second from left, and her husband Marc Mezvinsky, join on stage Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks at the "Hillary For America" official campaign launch event at Four Freedoms Park, Roosevelt Island on Saturday, June 13, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Greg Allen/Invision/AP) Supporters watch as democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Democratic presidential candidate, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to supporters Saturday, June 13, 2015, on Roosevelt Island in New York. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton delivers a speech at Texas Southern University in Houston, Thursday, June 4, 2015. Clinton is calling for an expansion of early voting and pushing back against Republican-led efforts to restrict voting access, laying down a marker on voting rights at the start of her presidential campaign. (AP Photo/Pat Sullivan) CHICAGO, IL - MAY 20: Democratic presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrives for a meeting with parents and child care workers at the Center for New Horizons on May 20, 2015 in Chicago, Illinois. Clinton arrived in Chicago after campaigning Monday and Tuesday in Iowa. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton greets a local resident while visiting local shops on main street in Independence, Iowa, Tuesday, May 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) LAS VEGAS, NV - MAY 05: Democratic presidential candidate and former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (C) poses with students and faculty after speaking at Rancho High School on May 5, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Clinton said that any immigration reform would need to include a path to 'full and equal citizenship.' (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) Hillary Rodham Clinton, a 2016 Democratic presidential contender, steps to the podium to speak at the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum, Wednesday, April 29, 2015, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 23: Hillary Rodham Clinton (L) and actress Maggie Gyllenhaal attend the 2015 DVF Awards at United Nations on April 23, 2015 in New York City. (Photo by Michael Stewart/FilmMagic) NEW YORK, NY - APRIL 29: Democratic presidential hopeful and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks during the David N. Dinkins Leadership and Public Policy Forum at Columbia University April 29, 2015 in New York City. Clinton addressed the unrest in Baltimore, called for police body cameras and a reform to sentencing. (Photo by Kevin Hagen/Getty Images) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton meets with employees at Whitney Brothers during a campaign stop, Monday, April 20, 2015, in Keene, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole) Hillary Clinton announced her campaign for president on Sunday April, 12, 2015 with a video on YouTube. Also Read: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Agree to New York Democratic Debate Another fundraiser organizer, Tyler Gellasch, was, according to his biography, "intimately involved in drafting several high-profile pieces of legislation, including the Volcker Rule provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act." But today Gellasch works for the Healthy Markets Association, a group that advocates financial firms. Read original story Hillary Clinton Fundraiser Hosted By Former Financial Regulators Who Jumped Ship to Wall Street At TheWrap More from The Wrap: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Agree to New York Democratic Debate Hillary Clinton Likens Donald Trump to ‘a Political Arsonist’ on ‘Meet the Press’ (Video) Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton Bad Blood Turns Toxic Over Sandy Hook

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Hillary Clinton fundraiser hosted by former financial regulators who jumped ship to Wall Street

A group of former officials — once in charge of regulating Wall Street and now working in the financial industry — are holding a fundraiser for Clinton.

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James Frey's admission last week that he made up details of his life in his best-selling book "A Million Little Pieces" - after the Smoking Gun Web site stated that he "wholly fabricated or wildly embellished details of his purported criminal career, jail terms and status as an outlaw 'wanted in three states' " - created a furor about the decision by the book's publishers, Doubleday, to sell the volume as a memoir instead of a novel. It is not, however, just a case about truth-in-labeling or the misrepresentations of one author: after all, there have been plenty of charges about phony or inflated memoirs in the past, most notably about Lillian Hellman's 1973 book "Pentimento." It is a case about how much value contemporary culture places on the very idea of truth. Indeed, Mr. Frey's contention that having 5 percent or so of his book in dispute was "comfortably within the realm of what's appropriate for a memoir" and the troubling insistence of his publishers and his cheerleader Oprah Winfrey that it really didn't matter if he'd taken liberties with the facts of his story underscore the waning importance people these days attach to objectivity and veracity. We live in a relativistic culture where television "reality shows" are staged or stage-managed, where spin sessions and spin doctors are an accepted part of politics, where academics argue that history depends on who is writing the history, where an aide to President Bush, dismissing reporters who live in the "reality-based community," can assert that "we're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality." Phrases like "virtual reality" and "creative nonfiction" have become part of our language. Hype and hyperbole are an accepted part of marketing and public relations. And reinvention and repositioning are regarded as useful career moves in the worlds of entertainment and politics. The conspiracy-minded, fact-warping movies of Oliver Stone are regarded by those who don't know better as genuine history, as are the most sensationalistic of television docudramas. Mr. Frey's embellishments of the truth, his cavalier assertion that the "writer of a memoir is retailing a subjective story," his casual attitude about how people remember the past - all stand in shocking contrast to the apprehension of memory as a sacred act that is embodied in Oprah Winfrey's new selection for her book club, announced yesterday: "Night," Elie Wiesel's devastating 1960 account of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. If the memoir form once prized authenticity above all else - regarding testimony as an act of paying witness to history - it has been evolving, in the hands of some writers, into something very different. In fact, Mr. Frey's embellishments and fabrications in many ways represent the logical if absurd culmination of several trends that have been percolating away for years. His distortions serve as an illustration of a depressing remark once made by the literary theorist Stanley Fish - that the death of objectivity "relieves me of the obligation to be right"; it "demands only that I be interesting." And they remind us that self-dramatization (in Mr. Frey's case, making himself out to be a more notorious fellow than he actually was, in order to make his subsequent "redemption" all the more impressive) is just one step removed from the willful self-absorption and shameless self-promotion embraced by the "Me Generation" and its culture of narcissism. "A Million Little Pieces," which became the second-highest-selling book of 2005 (behind only "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince"), clearly did not sell because of its literary merits. Its narrative feels willfully melodramatic and contrived, and is rendered in prose so self-important and mannered as to make the likes of Robert James Waller ("The Bridges of Madison County") and John Gray ("Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus") seem like masters of subtlety and literate insight.

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Bending the Truth in a Million Little Ways

The controversey surrounding James Frey's memoir reveals how much value contemporary culture places on the very idea of truth.

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In general, rents downtown remain below those in midtown, though this is not true in prime locations, according to David. Baldwin, president of the Charles F. Noyes Company. “Rents in top locations on Broadway are as high as $100 a square foot,” Mr. Noyes says, a figure that is surpassed perhaps by only a few locations on Fifth Avenue in the 50's. The Nassau mall, in the view of Robin Burns, a planner/architect in the Mayor's Office of Development, represents recognition by the city that Nassau Street is “a significant retail center.” As described by Mr. Burns, the mall concept grew out of Nassau Street's having been closed to traffic during mid‐day hours because of pedestrian crowds since the late ‘60s. The mall, he says, makes “a virtue out of a necessity.” The plan, first proposed in 1979, languished during the city's fiscal crisis. Now, with the aid of the Federal Government, which is contributing close to two‐thirds of the mall's $2.2 million estimated cost, and after major construction delays caused primarily by the cave‐in of 19th century cold storage vaults under the pavement, completion of the mall is scheduled for this coming fall. The entire area will be covered in dark brown brick similar to that used in City Hall Plaza. New lighting will be installed, and the city hopes that street furniture and plantings will be ar ranged by a fledgling property owners association. All such property owner: will be assessed to pay for necessary mall maintenance, which will be carried out through the owners’ group. Retailers along Nassau Street gener ally seem to be taking a wait-and-see attitude on how much the mall will benefit them. Right now they are un. happy about the delays and the impact of the construction, which has left some stores temporarily accessible only by crossing makeshift wooden bridges. “We just don't know what will happen,” says Sion Shaby, who manages Bee Gee's Boutique, owned by his father, at 99 Nassau. “If it does any good we'll be happy. Over the summer business was very good but during‐the week, while construction was going on in front of our store, business was off 90 percent.” Richard Ginensky, who runs Richards, one of several stamp stores at the far north end of Nassau, is even less enthusiastic. “This is absolutely a mess,” complains Mr. Ginensky, who has been doing business downtown at various locations, for 25 years. “Besides, we don't need palm trees for people to be sitting under eating coconuts in the middle of the street. It will bring in the drug elements from City Hall Park and it certainly feeds the appetites of the landlords.” At the other end of the mall from Mr. Ginensky is a full‐block parcel of empty land that is to be the site of new retail complex. The Federal Reserve Bank, which assembled the land but then changed its mind about building on it, is expected to name a developer within a few weeks. The bank will play no role in operations, but will retain title to the land for possible future use. Among those in the running are the Charles F. Noyes Company, which has proposed a three‐story, $5 million structure with a sloping glass roof, and Harry Macklowe, of the Wolf and Macklowe Company. Mr. Macklowe is already involved in the area in the form of plans to build a multi‐level combined restaurant and retail operation at 38‐44 Broad Street, which is between Exchange Place and Beaver Streets. According to Martin Tener, an associate of Mr. Macklowe, demolition of buildings on the Broad Street site is expected to begin in March, with completion scheduled for 1980. “It took the experience of the World Trade Center to convince national chains that they could do well down here,” Mr. Tener says. “We expect to have about one‐half national chains, and restaurants the equal of those at Citicorp Center.” Mr. Tener declines to name specific prospective tenants but says inquiries have been numerous. Certainly, the experience of the shops in’ the Trade Center has had an effect on local retailers, as shown by eopxagder's decision to locate a store there. “Our analysis shows a large underserved market downtown,” says Robin Farkas, Alexander's senior vice president in charge areal estate and chairman of the executive committee. “The area could be a six‐day market even as it is, and if Battery Park City goes ahead it could be a six- or seven‐day market.” About half the Trade Center stores already have Saturday hours. Mr. Farkas estimates that store construction — there will be selling floors on both the concourse and plaza levels, plus a smaller selling balcony and administrative space — will take about nine months from the final signing date, which he expects within the next few weeks. The commitment for approximately 100,000 square feet .of retail space represents a financial commitment for Alexander's over the length of the lease in the tens of millions of dollars. For the Trade Center, which rented out its first retail space four years ago, Alexander's represents a prize catch, the “anchor” store needed to turn the concourse into the urban shopping center envisioned by its planners. “We think Alexander's is just right for the Trade Center,” says Stanley J. Markowitz, manager of Trade Center store rentals. “Unlike Sears and J. C. Penney's, Alexander's strength is in fashion merchandise at promotional values. Shoppers down here are no likely to be looking for items like lawn mowers which they'd have to carry home on the subway.” With the completion of the Alexan der's deal, according to Mr. Marko witz, the 250,000 square feet of retai space in the concourse will be full} rented. Banks account for about 30,00( square feet, and food operations 01 various sorts for another 30,000. The rest is occupied by shops ranging from F.A.O. Schwarz to Lamston's. “We wanted a number of nationall3 recognized stores like Lerner's but we also wanted to keep the flavor of down. town, so .we went after independents as well,” Mr. Markowitz says. He adds, “But don't get me wrong. We didn't turn anyone away. I can't tell you how many people we pleaded with and pursued. Now I wish I had more space.” Prices have gone up as the Trade Center's reputation has spread. “Five years ago we were quoting average rents of $12 to $15 a square foot,” Mr. Markowitz says. “Today we can command $25.” In addition, the Trade Center takes a percentage of stores’ gross, as is done in shopping centers. Accord. ing to Mr. Markowitz, in the case of one small bookstore the total rent plus percentage is already equal to $45 a square foot, a substantial figure since off-thestreet, underground concourse space is usually much cheaper than street space. So far, the Trade Center shopping complex has met with none of the hostility aroused by its office space, which went on the market as the bottom was falling out of real estate. from them,” says Mr. Heller, the Nassau Street property owner. “For a while people who worked in the Trade Center were coming to us but now they have a shopping mall of their own.” Trade Center as a giant that originally hurt, but now is helping, the neighborhood. Rather than drawing off retail business, he says, the Trade Center is stimulating business in its immediate vicinity. “The giant is finally satisfied and now he's giving a little something back,” Mr. Reilly says. We are continually improving the quality of our text archives. Please send feedback, error reports, and suggestions to archive_feedback@nytimes.com. A version of this archives appears in print on January 21, 1979, on page R1 of the New York edition with the headline: Downtown Finds a New Role As Retail Hub. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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Downtown Finds a New Role As Retail Hub

Retailing in NYC's downtown financial dist appears to have shaken off effects of slump and entered period of development and expansion, with higher-grade shops joining existing base of mainly discount store operations; illus (L)

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PANAMA CITY — Organized crime prosecutors raided the offices of the Mossack Fonseca law firm Tuesday looking for evidence of money laundering and financing terrorism following a leak of documents about tax havens it set up for wealthy international clients. Soon after news reports based on a trove of documents from the firm began emerging more than a week ago, Panama’s government had said it would investigate. A half-dozen police officers set up a perimeter around the offices while prosecutors searched inside for documents. The attorney general’s office said in a statement that the objective of the raid was “to obtain documentation linked to the information published in news articles that establish the use of the firm in illicit activities.” It said searches also were made at other subsidiaries of the firm in Panama and at the telephone company’s computer support center. Mossack Fonseca has denied any wrongdoing, saying it only set up offshore financial accounts and anonymous shell companies for clients and was not involved in how those accounts were used. The law firm said on its Twitter account Tuesday night that it “continues to cooperate with authorities in investigations being made at our headquarters.” The search came a day after intellectual property prosecutors visited Mossack Fonseca to follow up on the firm’s allegations that a computer hack led to the leak of millions of documents about tax havens. The firm filed a complaint charging the security breach shortly before the first media reports working with the documents offered details on how politicians, celebrities and companies around the globe were hiding assets in offshore accounts and shell companies. “Finally the real criminals are being investigated,” co-founder Roman Fonseca said in a message to the Associated Press on Monday. Fonseca has maintained that the only crime which can be taken from the leak was the computer hack itself. He has said he suspects the hack originated outside Panama, possibly in Europe, but has not given any details. The law firm is one of the most important in the world for creating overseas front companies. Panamanian President Juan Carlos Varela has defended the country’s financial sector, which is considered of strategic importance for the economy. But Varela has also promised the international community that he is willing to make reforms to make the sector more transparent. On Tuesday, Varela met with legal, banking and business professional associations. Afterward, he asked France to reconsider its decision to place Panama on a list of uncooperative countries in financial information. The government announced that Joseph Stiglitz, who won the Nobel Prize in economics in 2001, would be one member of an international panel formed to review Panama’s legal and financial practices and recommend improvements.

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Panama Papers law firm raided by organized crime prosecutors

PANAMA CITY — Organized crime prosecutors raided the offices of the Mossack Fonseca law firm Tuesday looking for evidence of money laundering and financing terrorism following a leak of documents a…

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We take Italian food for granted. Surrounded as we are by cookbooks, cooking shows, and restaurants, both fancy and humble, featuring the cuisine of everyone’s favorite footwear-shaped country, we often fail to wonder how this wonderful food was passed down to us. So much of French, English, and American food was preserved in cookbooks from an early date — France and England both have unbroken runs of recipe books starting in the 17th century, but Italy was a little different. Italy got off to a fast start, publishing the very first printed cookbook, “De Honesta Voluptate Valetudine” (“On Right Pleasure and Good Health,” Rome, 1474), itself cribbed from a slightly earlier cookbook by Martino da Como, a chef from the Milan area who traveled to Rome and became the most celebrated chef of the 15th century. Europe’s greatest Renaissance recipe book is also Italian, Bartolomeo Scappi’s “Opera” (“Works,” Rome and Venice, 1570), which introduced countless still-recognizable recipes for fine Mediterranean cuisine and featured the first image of a new invention that transformed eating forever: the fork. From this high point, Italian cuisine seems like it should have swept across Europe, but it didn’t. For more than two centuries, Italy fell under the spell of French cuisine, only starting to awaken with Vincenzo Corrado’s “Il Cuoco Galante” (“The Gallant Cook,” Naples, 1773), which detailed the great Mediterranean cuisine around that area. Most of the Italian food that we can’t imagine the world without had to survive in handwritten recipe books and passed down by instruction and tradition from generation to generation. When Italian cooks say that they are cooking the food of their grandparents, they often fail to mention that it is also the food of their grandparents’ grandparents, and their grandparents, and so on. All of which is to say that when I heard sisters Carla and Christine Pallotta of Nebo Cucina & Enoteca had acquired a rare complete set of the famously offbeat regional Italian cookbooks “In Bocca,” and were planning on cooking out of them, I was very excited. Each month, the restaurant is featuring a recipe from a different region. Published by Il Vespro from 1976 to 1979 in 20 volumes corresponding roughly to the 20 regions of Italy (“Toscana in Bocca,” “Roma in Bocca,” etc.), they are bound up in thick cardboard with vivid painted covers and printed on thick, unbleached paper called carta paglia that might be more at home wrapping sausages than housing sausage recipes. Most of the books feature each recipe written in the local dialect, translated into Italian and then translated, sometimes clumsily (and often charmingly literally, e.g. “Troublesome Omelette”), into English. The covers and interior art (also in vivid color and featuring gnocchi clowns, streetscapes, and cherubs firing arrows into steaming bowls of macaroni) borrow much from street and outsider art and the do-it-yourself aesthetic of the 1970s, but are intermixed with 19th-century engravings and documents. The seeming haphazard arrangement of materials — recipes mixed up with caricature, poetry, astrology, old broadside posters, weird anecdotes, obscure aphorisms, and regional micro history — speaks both to the DIY aesthetic at their core, and to a tradition of Italian cookbooks that mix food with the other stuff of life. The suggestion, in “Veneto in Bocca,” that you can dry cuttlefish in the sun and keep them for a year and that “this method was followed by the Americans in order to dry and hydrate astronauts food (with some variants)” exemplifies this unique mashup of old and new. “With some variants”! Italian restaurant Nebo serves a dish inspired by a set of vintage cookbooks. The first real pan-Italian cookbook, Pellegrino Artusi’s “La Scienza in Cucina e l’Arte di Mangiar Bene” (“Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well,” Florence, 1891), was also brimming with anecdotes and asides, most famously a story about eating minestrone in Livorno in 1855 during the beginnings of a cholera epidemic and spending a sick and fitful night at a lodging house run by a Mr. Domenici while shaking his fist at the minestrone. “Damned Minestrone! You will never fool me again!” The next morning, feeling drained and weak, Artusi caught a train to Florence and awakened the following morning much revived. A few days later, news came of a cholera outbreak in Livorno that had claimed no other than Mr. Domenici. He then unapologetically gives a recipe for minestrone: Buon appetito! The exuberant variety in presenting these regional recipes makes sense when we remember that Italy is a modern creation — the country was “unified” from a group of city states and kingdoms in 1861 — and that many individual regions have only rarely been allowed to shine on the world culinary stage. So we see a recipe for bagna cauda — a typical and robust Piedmontese dip — but also an ode to bagna cauda in Piedmontese, songs about parsley in Logudorese Sardinian, and recipes that can only be made with the unusually large carp from Trasimeno lake in Perugia. In Boccaccio’s “Decameron” (circa 1351), it tells of a land called Cockaigne where the vines are tied up with sausages and people live by a mountain of Parmesan cheese making ravioli and macaroni all day long — such are dreams in Italy. In contrast to Artusi, whose project, after all, was trying to bring science into the kitchen, and to most current recipes, the “In Bocca” recipes are informal, more like 18th- and early-19th-century recipes (or directions from your grandmother), and feature very few measurements. Directions are a pinch of this, a handful of that, moisten with stock, cook until done or until brown in a medium-hot oven — they assume a comfort with the recipes and ingredients and tacitly acknowledge that learning to cook Italian food is a process, and a space where cook and cooked can meet and talk it out. A recipe with precise measurements might have the advantage of coming out the same every time, but it’s never really ours, and when we pass it along, there’s no part of us that goes with it. When Carla and Christine Pallotta began cooking out of the “In Bocca” books — a gift from their brother, investor Jim Pallotta — they turned first, naturally, to recipes from their mother’s region of Puglia. (The current menu features braciole from “Puglia in Bocca,” along with other dishes of the region, such as a preparation of grilled octopus.) Puglia is, even for Italy, linguistically and historically complicated, with regions speaking four dialects of Italian, one of Sicilian (in the Southern portion, the heel of Italy’s boot), and even scattered towns that speak dialects of Greek, Franco-Provençal, and Albanian. As the sisters well know, the recipes aren’t so much recipes as memories passed down to be cooked but also interpreted, so that the old is made, at least a little bit, new.

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How did the Italian food we love come to be on our plates? A look at cookbook history.

The owners of Nebo restaurant are cooking from “In Bocca,” a set of rare, regional, and highly quirky cookbooks

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In July 1960, Democratic delegates from around America gathered in Los Angeles to nominate the party’s candidate for president. While a number of experienced and respected Democrats had their hats in the ring — including Missouri’s Stuart Symington, Hubert Humphrey, Adlai Stevenson (the party’s nominee in ’52 and ’56) and Lyndon Johnson — ultimately it was the young senator from Massachusetts, John F. Kennedy, who won the nomination on the first ballot, and went on to beat Richard Nixon, by the very slimmest of margins, in the general election. Kennedy’s aggressive, efficient campaign leading up to Los Angeles was led by his brother, Robert, and most of the old guard of the Democratic party was caught off-balance by the energy and the charisma that JFK exuded on the stump. He was, as many commentators have pointed out, greeted as something of a rock star wherever he went; the other candidates, to their great misfortune, were treated as mere politicians. That John Kennedy had a beautiful, sophisticated wife by his side, a young daughter at his knee and another child on the way only added to the image of a dad who could very likely relate to the concerns and hopes of young American families of every political persuasion. Here, LIFE.com remembers Hank Walker’s famous photograph of JFK and RFK conferring in a Los Angeles hotel suite during the 1960 Democratic convention — a photograph that speaks volumes about the bond between these two intensely ambitious and pragmatic brothers. In fact, Walker made his picture at the very moment when that brotherly bond and the vaunted Kennedy pragmatism clashed head-on. In John Loengard’s excellent book, Life Photographers: What They Saw, Walker described the scene playing out in front of his lens — a scene far more fraught than a cursory glimpse at the photo might suggest: At the 1960 Democratic Convention, where everybody was shooting pictures like crazy, I was doing a story on Bobby Kennedy. The morning after Jack was nominated, we went up to his room. The brothers talked very quietly, and Jack told Bobby he wasn’t going to choose [labor union leader] Walter Reuther for Vice President. . . . I waited outside for Bobby to come out. When he did, he was furious. We were walking back down the stairs, and Bobby was hitting his hand like this, saying “Shit, shit, shit.” You know, he really hated [Lyndon] Johnson. All these years later, knowing the awful fate in store for both of these complicated men, this quiet moment — shared, through Walker’s tough, sensitive artistry, with the rest of us — feels like the end of something. At the time it was made, though, Walker’s evocative photograph probably felt like the very beginning.

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John Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in a Los Angeles Hotel Room, July 1960

Remembering Hank Walker's famous photo of John and Robert Kennedy in a hotel suite during the 1960 Democratic National Convention

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Shares in Asia rebounded Monday with Japan leading the region higher, after getting slammed by Britain’s decision last week to leave the European Union However, a move by China’s central bank to weaken the yuan by the most since August last year proved unsettling, keeping investors and traders wary that the fallout from the ‘Brexit’ vote was far from over. The Nikkei Stock Average finished up 2.4%, recouping some of Friday’s losses when the market plunged 8%. The benchmark index remains near its lowest levels since October 2014, after four straight weeks of selling. Investors are pushing up safe-haven assets once again, buying everything from gold to the Japanese yen to Japanese government bonds. Gold prices were last up 0.6% at $992.90 a troy ounce, while yields on several Japanese government bond tenors slid to record lows. The 10-year bonds now return minus 0.209%. Meanwhile, the Japanese yen was last up 0.3% at 101.94 yen to one U.S. dollar. Traders and analysts said trading will remain volatile this week, as investors factor in how they think the U.K. will move forward in its relations with Europe, and monitor further financial contagion. “Things are settling down a little bit,” said Rob Levine, head of Asian equities at Hong Kong-based brokerage CLSA. But, “investors are still trying to digest who the big winners and losers are,” noting it may take a while for the street to figure that out. Still, as the day progressed, most major stock benchmarks pared losses. The Shanghai Composite Index finished up 1.5%, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 and South Korea’s Kospi closed up 0.5% and 0.1%, respectively. Hong Kong narrowed earlier losses in the afternoon, as U.K. Chancellor George Osborne moved to reassure investors, saying the country has robust contingency plans and that he plans to stay on in his post to help stabilize the economy. The Hang Seng Index closed down 0.2%, after losing as much 1.4% earlier. In China, shares largely shrugged off the yuan’s move. A subindex that tracks coal stocks jumped 4.2%, and shares of Xinyu Iron & Steel rallied 10% while Anyang Iron & Steel gained 4.5%. Investors were speculating about lower prices in those industries, following plans to cut capacity. China’s national economic planning body outlined a goal to cut 280 million metric tons of coal output capacity and 45 million tons of excess steel capacity. Also, Baosteel Group and Wuhan Iron & Steel Group, two of China’s biggest steel producers, said they plan to restructure, according to filings by their listed units on Sunday. Early Monday, the People’s Bank of China fixed the yuan at 6.6375 to one U.S. dollar, a 0.9% depreciation from its guidance early Friday. In August 2015, the central bank devalued the currency by 1.1% in one go. A weaker yuan comes after the U.S. dollar rallied 2.5% against major global currencies on Friday. That was the result of a surge in safe-haven currencies in the aftermath of the U.K. referendum. But the focus for currencies in Asia remains on the Japanese yen. The government and the Bank of Japan are under growing pressure to curtail its strength, after the yen reached its strongest levels since November 2013 on Friday. “Speculation is growing that the Bank of Japan will add an extra ¥10 billion a month to its asset purchasing program to try to stem the strength in the yen,” said Angus Nicholson, market analyst with brokerage IG. “And investors will be watching the yen very closely to see if it begins to move on intervention speculation.” The British pound, which tanked Friday, was weakening further during Asian hours Monday. It rose slightly after Mr. Osborne’s comment but was last still down 2.1% against the U.S. dollar. In other currencies, the Australian dollar was off 0.9% at US$0.74. —Yifan Xie contributed to this article. Write to Chao Deng at Chao.Deng@wsj.com

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Japan’s Rebound Leads Asian Shares Higher

Tokyo shares rise but investors fear the fallout from the ‘Brexit’ vote is far from over after China decided to weaken the yuan on Monday.

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DARIEN, Conn., Sept. 21—Prominent business and profes­sional men were among 12 per­sons arrested in this fashionable suburb today on charges of serving liquor to minors at house parties. Fourteen warrants were is­sued. Twelve persons appeared at the police station here and were booked on a charge of violating a Connecticut statute that prohibits the serving of liquor to minors by persons other than their parents. Two of the persons named in the warrants were out of the state today. Among the first of those ar­rested was Carlton Josselyn of Westport, a science teacher in the Fairfield public school. He had tended bar at one of two house parties at which teen‐agers were served liquor. Mr. Josselyn's lawyer, Louis Stein, a former City Court judge in Bridgeport, was in­dignant over the arrest. “There's not one person in 1,000 who ever heard of this law,” Mr. Stein said. “Also there were four Darien police­men at the party. They saw everthing that went on, in- The statute was invoked by Circuit Court Judge Rodney S. Eielson, who is presiding at the trial here of Michael Smith, 18 years old, of 1059 Post Road, in the death of Nancy Hitch­ings, 17, of Half Mile Road, both Darien, in an automobile crash. The youth is charged with reckless driving and negligent homicide as a result of the accident, which occurred on June 23 after the two house parties here. The youth has pleaded not guilty. Judge Eielson, regarded by his colleagues as a stern up­holder of the law, ordered war­rants issued for all adults “who had anything to do with serv­ing liquor to minors at the party. “The guilt of needless loss of life is in every living room in this community,” Judge Eiel­son said sternly in court last Thursday in announcing the move, “and in the conscience of every parent who knew his or her child was going to be served liquor or who served liquor to a minor on that night.” “I wish I had the power to get at every parent who is guilty,” he added. The parties were held at the homes of F. E. Dutcher, a vice president of the Johns‐Manville Corporation, at 18 Crooked Mile Road, and Dr. George S. Hughes a psychiatrist, at 10 Nickerson Lane. Dr. Hughes, who is 44, his wife, Julia Ann, and Mr. Dutcher were among those booked. Others booked included two couples described as co‐hosts at the Hughes's party—William F. Otterstrom, 55, and his wife, Lucile, 54, of 515 Middlesex Road, and Dudley Felt and his wife, Marguerite, of 6 Watering Lane, Norwalk. Mr. Otterstrom is general auditor of Olin Mathiesen Chemical Corpora­tion and Mr. Felt is an execu­tive with the New York adver­tising agency of Cunningham & Walsh. Also booked were Henry K. Clem, 44, a house cleaner and waiter, of 3 Summer Street, Norwalk; Alan Doeberl, 42, a carpenter and waiter, of 28 Butler Street, Cos Cob; Mrs. Emily Agnes Peterson, 51, of Oak Grove Place, New Canaan, a caterer, and Mrs. Helen Bus­sey, 56, a caterer, of 42 Meadow Park Avenue West. Stamford. The police declined to name the two for whom warrants had been issued. The police allowed most of those arrested to enter and leave the headquarters building Nancy Dutcher, the Dutchers’ teen‐age daughter, has testi­fied at the trial that no one drank excessively at her family's party, but that she thought that the Smith youth was “feeling his liquor at about 11 P.M.” at the Hughes's home. Judge Eielson, who has con­tinued the case until Sept. 30, said today in Greenwich, where he was presiding, that a medi­cal report said that young Smith had consumed 12 scotches and water. Those arrested today on the warrants were required to post $500 bail and were ordered to appear in Circuit Court here on Oct. 7. Judge Eielson said he would disqualify himself from presiding on that date. A penalty of one year in jail and a fine of $1,000 is provided for violations of the statute, which has rarely, if ever, been invoked, according to legal sources here and in Hartford. The minimum age for buying or drinking liquor in Connecti­cut is 21, compared with 18 in New York State. The case is attracting atten­tion not only in Darien, but also in other Fairfield County Many parents deplore the practice. For example, a Green­wich librarian who is the mother of two teen‐agers said: “We are responsible for our own. chil­dren's welfare and we should be equally responsible for other children when they are guests in our home. I hope Judge Eileson's crusade is successful.” A Darien minister observed that he did not believe liquor should be served at all, then added that he felt it was a “moral rather than a legal re­sponsibility.” Another Darien resident, a businessman, had a different view. “I think it's better to serve drinks to minors in homes,” he said, “than to have them sneak over the line into New York State. At least in the homes they can be watched.” A Westport housewife said that drinking was no problem when she was a teen‐ager. “We just didn’t have it,” she said, “and I don’t think the young people should be fur­nished with it today.” Judge Eielson, a short, stocky man with crew‐cut, gray hair, runs his courtroom with im- Not long ago the judge, who lives in Trumbull and has a 12-year‐old son, was arrested for speeding. He made no at­tempt to dissuade the authori­ties from revoking his license for 30 days in accordance with Connecticut law. “No man is above the law,” he said, “even a judge.” This article can be viewed in its original form. Please send questions and feedback to archive_feedback@nytimes.com

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DARIEN ARRESTS 12 IN YOUTH DRINKING

F E Dutcher and Dr G S Hughes, at whose homes parties were held, and 10 others held on charges of serving liquor to minors; statute, rarely invoked, provides jail terms and fines

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The days of private ownership will end soon for Greater Media Inc. now that the Braintree-based radio station operator has agreed to be sold to a Florida chain. In a press release Tuesday, Beasley Broadcast Group said it plans to buy Greater Media, which is controlled by the Bordes family, in a deal valued at about $240 million. In Boston, Greater Media owns five FM stations: WROR 105.7, a classic rock station; WKLB 102.5, a country station; WBQT 96.9, hip hop and modern R&B; WMJX 106.7, adult contemporary music, including soft rock; and WBOS 92.9, modern rock. Beasley, meanwhile, has just one local station: WRCA 1330, an AM station that airs ethnic and religious programming. Greater Media shareholders would get $100 million in cash and $25 million in Beasley stock, as well as the net proceeds from the sale of Greater Media’s tower assets, estimated to be $20 million in cash. Beasley will also refinance about $80 million of Greater Media’s debt. Greater Media has 21 radio stations, in comparison to Beasley’s 52. But many of Greater Media’s stations are in major media markets, such as Boston and Philadelphia, so the deal would more than double Beasley’s annual revenue. The company said its net revenue would have increased in 2015 from $106 million to $247 million if it had owned Greater Media’s stations. Greater Media also owns stations in the Detroit, New Jersey, and Charlotte, N.C., markets. Beasley said it plans to divest some of its radio stations in Charlotte to obtain Federal Communications Commission approval of the deal. It was unclear Tuesday what the deal would mean for Greater Media’s 800-person work force, including 197 people at Greater Media’s Dorchester studios and 14 at its Braintree headquarters. Greater Media chief executive Peter Smyth sounded a hopeful tone about his employees’ future in the press release: “I am thankful for their hard work and dedication and am confident they will continue to make many valuable contributions as part of a larger organization.” At the time of the deal’s closing, expected by the end of the year, Greater Media shareholders would hold 19 percent of Beasley’s outstanding shares and would get to appoint one board member, expanding Beasley’s board to nine. Greater Media has been independent since its founding in 1956, when Yale classmates Joseph Rosenmiller and Peter Bordes bought a small AM radio station in Southbridge. Rosenmiller sold his stake in the business in 1994.

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Braintree-based radio station operator sold in $240M deal

The days of private ownership will end soon for Greater Media Inc. now that the Braintree-based radio station operator has agreed to be sold to a Florida-based chain.

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Si el intento de golpe de Estado en Turquía fue una sorpresa, hay una buena razón para ello: lo que ocurrió contradice décadas de investigación acerca de cómo, cuándo y por qué suceden los golpes de Estado. El levantamiento de la noche del viernes parecía discrepar enormemente de los patrones usuales. Los politólogos que estudian los golpes de Estado dicen que Turquía tenía un riesgo mínimo de sufrir uno. El secretario de Estado estadounidense, John Kerry, reiteró su apoyo al gobierno de Turquía y, como otros observadores, expresó su desconcierto. “Nos sorprendió a todos, incluyendo a la población de Turquía”, manifestó Kerry, y agregó: “Tengo que decir que no parece que sea un evento muy bien planeado o ejecutado”. La diferencia entre la insurrección en Turquía y otros golpes de Estado ayuda a explicar por qué fracasó este intento, pero también subraya la cantidad de preguntas que quedan sin respuesta. Los golpes de Estado no solo suceden porque existen conspiradores, sino también por determinados factores estructurales. Los politólogos han identificado ciertas pautas de predicción a partir de tendencias económicas, de libertades políticas y de salud pública. Jay Ulfelder, quien se dedica a hacer proyecciones políticas, ha desarrollado un modelo matemático que sintetiza esta información para predecir el nivel de riesgo de golpe de Estado de un país. Según la investigación de Ulfelder, realizada en conjunto con el Early Warning Project, Turquía era un candidato “muy poco probable” a un golpe de Estado, de acuerdo con lo que escribió vía correo electrónico. Tenía solo un 2,5 por ciento de probabilidades de un intento de golpe de Estado en base a información de 2016. Turquía ocupaba el lugar 56.º de 160 países, entre Laos e Irán, y estaba en un rango en el que podía considerarse un país estable. Los países en riesgo por lo general tienen elevadas tasas de mortalidad infantil —una medida de pobreza— y economías con un mal desempeño. La economía turca ha estado creciendo y la tasa de mortalidad infantil ha disminuido rápidamente. Ulfelder también encontró que un país tiene menos probabilidades de enfrentar un golpe de Estado cuando hay un conflicto armado en Estados vecinos, quizá debido a un efecto de unidad interna. Aunque Turquía tenga un historial de golpes de Estado, el país ha cambiado mucho desde el último, en 1997, y Ulfelder destacó que lo más importante es que había pasado casi 20 años sin un evento de estas características. Otro factor crucial es lo que los expertos llaman fragmentación de la élite: si hay división entre los grupos poderosos —funcionarios electos, líderes empresariales, generales, jueces, etcétera—, la competencia por los recursos y el control terminarán en un golpe. Hasta ahora, no hay señales de que hubiera una división tal en Turquía. La economía en crecimiento hace que las élites busquen mantener el statu quo. Y a pesar de que las instituciones del Estado son imperfectas y los índices de corrupción podrían ser menores, ambos factores pueden hacer que las élites compitan por los recursos, pero no al grado de causar una crisis. Tampoco hay una polarización social como las que suelen aprovechar las élites para llevar a cabo un golpe de Estado. Aunque el presidente turco, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, puede ser una figura política que cause tensión, no vemos ese tipo de divisiones profundas —con grupos de la sociedad civil que hagan campaña en contra del Estado— que esperaríamos antes de un golpe de Estado. Según las investigaciones, lograr que un golpe de Estado sea exitoso es como hornear un pastel: hay una receta y si te saltas pasos o dejas de usar ciertos ingredientes, casi con certeza fracasas. Los conspiradores turcos no siguieron la receta. Los golpes de Estado exitosos parecen realizarse como “coreografías” escribió Naunihal Singh, un profesor en el Air War College, en su libro Seizing Power, que analiza por qué los golpes de Estado tienen éxito o fracasan. Según con esta teoría, los golpes de Estado funcionan cuando los líderes pueden convencer a otros oficiales y soldados de que su éxito está asegurado, y convierten la unión en un acto de interés propio. Los conspiradores por lo general logran esto en una serie de pasos predecibles. El peso de los militares detrás del golpe se deja ver con una gran demostración de fuerza. Un anuncio público por uno o más oficiales de alto rango prueba que hay apoyo de la élite. Asimismo, los conspiradores tienden a controlar los medios de comunicación y el flujo de información que llega a la población, y sofocan cualquier transmisión que pudiera socavar la sensación de un éxito inevitable e incontrovertible. Los golpes de Estado que tuvieron éxito en Turquía, en los que las instituciones políticas y militares eran muy sólidas, siguieron un modelo “institucional de golpe”, según Brian Klaas, de la London School of Economics. En un golpe de Estado institucional el ejército está unificado y usa todo su poder para forzar el control total del gobierno, como lo hicieron los militares turcos en 1980. Con un escenario así, la coreografía es muy sencilla: toda la coordinación de la élite militar se da incluso antes de que empiece el golpe de Estado y así las otras élites no tienen más opción que cooperar. Cuando el levantamiento solo involucra a una facción militar, menciona Klaas, el juego de confianza puede requerir que se detenga a los líderes más importantes o que se fuerce a un militar con mayor experiencia a que declare públicamente que el golpe ha triunfado para que se cree una percepción de éxito incluso antes de que cualquiera descifre qué está pasando. En esta ocasión, los militares disidentes turcos intentaron realizar solo algunos de estos pasos, y no tuvieron éxito en ninguno de ellos. Los rebeldes, para mostrar su fuerza, desplegaron tanques y jets en Estambul y Ankara, pero no fue suficiente para intimidar al resto del Ejército, que al final se impuso. Más importante aún es que no hubo una cara pública del golpe de Estado que demostrara el apoyo de la élite o que estableciera un plan claro. Los insurgentes también intentaron controlar los medios de comunicación, pero fallaron. El presidente Erdogan usó la aplicación FaceTime para llamar a un canal de televisión, un movimiento extraño en el que el mandatario se arriesgó a parecer débil, pero que minó el momentum de los conspiradores y le permitió convocar a la población para que saliera a las calles y mostrara su oposición al golpe. Tanto el servicio telefónico como el de internet mantuvieron sus operaciones, así el gobierno pudo comunicarse a través de redes sociales y ayudó a que las protestas a su favor se expandieran; de esta manera, el sentido de inevitabilidad del golpe de Estado fue socavado. Las protestas de los simpatizantes del gobierno —y la ausencia de grupos de gente a favor del golpe— también pudieron ser determinantes para el fracaso del levantamiento. Con frecuencia los golpes estallan e incluso se coordinan con movimientos ya existentes para mostrar que hay un apoyo amplio a las élites opositoras. Los líderes turcos del golpe de 1997, por ejemplo, trabajaron con grupos de la sociedad civil y otros que se oponían al gobierno. El golpe militar en Egipto en 2013 sucedió en medio de protestas masivas en contra del gobierno. Los líderes del intento de golpe de este fin de semana parecían carecer de aliados. No hubo un grupo de la sociedad civil ni partidos políticos que emitieran posturas a favor de la insurrección ni tampoco había élites que los apoyaran. En retrospectiva, el golpe parecía tan condenado al fracaso que solo surgen más preguntas. Aún no está claro qué provocó el intento, quién lo lideró y por qué pensaron que tenían suficientes posibilidades de éxito como para arriesgar sus vidas. Si tomamos a la historia como guía, la explicación más simple para el fracaso es la falta de planeamiento y su propia incapacidad.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160722103347id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/es/2016/07/18/turquia-un-candidato-improbable-a-un-golpe-de-estado-improbable/

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Turquía: un candidato improbable a un golpe de Estado improbable

Según algunos analistas, el país no reunía condiciones para sufrir un golpe de Estado, y los conspiradores no reunían las condiciones para triunfar con su levantamiento. El intento fallido de derrocar a Erdogan deja más preguntas que respuestas.

20160725183139

The 18-year-old gunman who killed nine people in Munich was obsessed with mass shootings but had no known links to the Islamic State group, German police say. Written material on such attacks was found in his room, and Munich's police chief spoke of links to the massacre by Norway's Anders Behring Breivik. The gunman, who had dual German-Iranian nationality, later killed himself. His name has not been officially released but he is being named locally as David Ali Sonboly. He has also been referred to as Ali David Sonboly, or David S. He had an illegally held 9mm Glock pistol and 300 bullets in his rucksack. Police do not yet know how the weapon was acquired, but said he had no permit for it and the serial number had been obliterated. They are investigating whether he may have lured his victims through a Facebook invitation to the McDonald's restaurant where he launched his attack on Friday evening. Friday evening's attack at the Olympia shopping mall also left 27 people injured, including children. Ten of them are critically ill, including a 13-year-old boy, police say. Seven of the dead were teenagers. Three victims were from Kosovo, three from Turkey and one from Greece. Police say the Munich-born gunman had been in psychiatric care, receiving treatment for depression. Authorities are also checking reports that he may have been bullied by his peers, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said. "We are in deep mourning... we share your grief," said Chancellor Angela Merkel after chairing a meeting of the national security council. Flags are to be flown at half-mast across Germany. People could be seen laying flowers and lighting candles outside the mall on Saturday. One placard left there simply asked "Why?" Munich police chief Hubertus Andrae said there was an "obvious" link between the attack and Friday's fifth anniversary of Breivik's attacks in Norway, when he murdered 77 people. The killer reportedly shouted anti-foreigner slurs during the rampage and yelled "I'm German" at one man who challenged him. Literature about mass killings was found at his home including a German-language translation of the book Why Kids Kill: Inside the Minds of School Shooters. Mr De Maiziere said the suspect had researched a 2009 school shooting in Germany as well as the Breivik attack. "There was material found in the apartment of the suspect that showed a particular interest in shooting sprees," he said. He murdered 77 people in Norway on 22 July 2011, killing eight with a bomb in the capital Oslo before shooting dead 69 at a summer camp for young centre-left political activists on the island of Utoeya. Now 37, he is held in solitary confinement in Norway after being sentenced to 21 years in 2012. He recently won an appeal against the tough regime of his incarceration. He harboured radical right-wing views and said his attack was aimed at stopping Muslim immigration to Europe. First reports of the shooting came in just before 18:00 (16:00 GMT) on Friday. Witnesses say the attacker opened fire on members of the public in Hanauer Street before moving on to the mall. A grainy video appears to show a man firing a gun outside McDonald's as people flee. Another video shows the gunman walking around alone on a flat roof before again opening fire. He can be heard shouting at the person filming, saying at one point: "I'm German." Witness Luan Zeqiri, who was in the shopping centre, told German broadcaster N-TV the attacker had been wearing military-style boots and a backpack. "I looked in his direction and he shot two people on the stairs," he said. Mr Zeqiri said he hid in a shop, but when he left, he saw dead and wounded people on the ground. Police said the gunman's body was found about 1km (half a mile) from the mall. His parents had come to Germany in the late 1990s as asylum seekers, Interior Minister Thomas De Maiziere said. Police have ruled out any connection to the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group. Fears of a new IS attack had been high just four days after a teenage Afghan asylum seeker stabbed and injured five people on a train in Bavaria before being shot dead by police. Claiming the attack, IS later released a video showing the 17-year-old brandishing a knife and making threats. Were you in or near Munich's Olympia Mall at the time of the attack? Did you witness the shooting? If you are willing to share your story please email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways. Please only contact us if it is safe for you to do so.

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Munich gunman 'obsessed with mass shootings'

The teenager who killed nine people in Munich was obsessed with mass shootings, including the Norwegian massacre by Anders Behring Breivik of 2011, German police say.

20160728145436

Victoria's peak motoring body wants a plan to ban cars from part of a CBD street in Melbourne to go even further. Lord Mayor Robert Doyle on Thursday unveiled plans to reduce car access to the busy south end of Elizabeth Street, adding more greenery and walking paths and providing better access to public transport. A 100m southbound section of the street, from Flinders Lane to Flinders St would be blocked to cars. But that is not nearly enough for the RACV public policy manager Brian Negus, who wants the centre of Melbourne turned into a "proper, interconnected, European-style mall". Negus says the car ban should go all the way from Flinders St to the Bourke St Mall shopping precinct. "That would allow a beautification that otherwise wouldn't be possible," he told AAP on Thursday. "This is a good start to at least say it's on the agenda but we would say it doesn't go far enough." Currently, cars are banned in the CBD from Bourke St Mall and Swanston St. The council has spoken numerous times over the past few years about rejuvenating the southern end of Elizabeth St area but no significant works have begun. Analysis of the area shows four in five users during the morning peak are pedestrians. That number is expected to increase when the Melbourne Metro project pushes trams off the congested Swanston St and onto Elizabeth St. "The first step is to talk to businesses, residents and key agencies in the area about what is going to be possible," Mr Doyle said. A council vote on whether to approve the car ban and street revamp will be held on Tuesday.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160728145436id_/http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/07/28/07/40/plans-to-improve-gateway-to-melbourne-cbd

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Go further with Melb CBD car ban: RACV

The City of Melbourne will investigate ways to reinvigorate one of the CBD's gateways by removing cars and increasing pedestrian access.

20160729184154

Everything changed in 1992, however, with the Maastricht Treaty. Now, the political nature of the project took over. The Common Market became the European Union and its people citizens of the EU; timetables were set for economic and monetary union and the introduction of a single currency; areas of policy-making that had previously been agreed among member states were brought within the competence of the European Commission, which became a supercharged administration-cum-government. We did not like this development but were not given the opportunity to stop it. John Major, then prime minister, obtained an opt-out from the single currency. But it went ahead with all the safeguards to prevent economic disparities abandoned, with disastrous consequences. Subsequent treaties signed at Nice, Amsterdam and Lisbon, together with a string of political protocols, have further aggrandised the EU into a supra-national body within which the interests of individual states are secondary to the greater good of the overall Union. It now has the trappings of the nation state that we were always assured it would not become: a single currency; a central bank; no frontiers (even if these have been going up again recently in response to the migration crisis); a supreme court; a police force and judicial system (Europol and Eurojust); an embryonic gendarmerie; its own foreign policy; and, if some in the Commission get their way, it will have a European army. Nor will it stop there. The report of the EU’s Five Presidents published last year in response to the eurozone’s deep problems charts the way forward to a fully integrated EU, a superstate in all but name. The fact that Britain does not participate in some of its component parts, notably the euro or the borderless Schengen area, makes no difference since they have an impact upon us. It is suggested by those wanting to stay in the EU that this somehow gives us “the best of both worlds”. In truth it gives us the worst of a bad job: half in and half out of something we do not really wish to be part of but feel we cannot leave for fear of wrecking it. Indeed, so fragile is this political construct that the departure of one of its members, and especially one as big as the UK, threatens to trigger terminal instability. And why is that? If this were a robust democratic institution, underpinned by a thriving economy and a content and happy citizenry then Britain’s withdrawal should have no impact at all. Of course, if it were such a utopia then we wouldn’t be having a discussion about leaving in the first place; but it isn’t. Across Europe, disenchantment with Brussels is growing. A recent poll in Italy showed 48 per cent would vote to leave, an astonishing figure in the spiritual home of the EU. The MORI poll also suggested that 58 per cent of the French want their own referendum, and 41 per cent say they would vote to leave. Those who dismiss the referendum here as some British eccentricity whipped up by Little Englander Europhobes need to ask why the EU is so unpopular elsewhere. The principal reason is its anti-democratic nature - the dislocation between those who govern and the governed. While people can vote for their national leaders, who then have an input into collective decision-making, they are no longer able to influence events that affect them directly through the ballot box. In any case, by the time many directives that begin life in Brussels have got to the Council of Ministers for a decision it is too late to stop them. So we are not alone in Britain in feeling irritation with the EU. Most pernicious has been the way in which it has imposed its will on democratically elected governments in indebted eurozone countries in order to bail them out of the economic difficulties brought about by their membership of the single currency. The fact that the EU is a collection of democracies does not detract from the reality that this is a profoundly undemocratic institution. This has nothing to do with being anti-European. It is about the type of institution the EU has become. The question that arises, therefore, is whether we wish to stay in a club whose rules and membership have changed so markedly since we joined 43 years ago and which no longer delivers the benefits we were promised at the outset.

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Vote leave to benefit from a world of opportunity

On the day the United Kingdom joined the Common Market on Jan 1, 1973, the editorial in this newspaper captured the views of much of the country.

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They followed one another down, down into a seven-story hole in Lower Manhattan yesterday, thousands of them, filling with their sorrow the space where their husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, had died a year ago to the day. Some left cut flowers on the hard earth; some left photographs; some left whispered words. They lingered for a long while; a few even collected stones. And then the people who have become known as the ''family members'' -- as though they belonged to one international family -- trudged back to level ground, to the living. There, a city and a country were commemorating a date so freighted with emotion and imagery that simply uttering it seems to say everything: Sept. 11, 2001. The day that as many as 3,025 people died in terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center, damaged the Pentagon and crashed a jetliner in rural Pennsylvania. With moments of silence and recitations of familiar speeches, with the tolling of bells and the lighting of candles, with peaceful music and vows of military retribution, the United States observed that day's anniversary, joined by countries around the world that honored the date in their own, distant ways. President Bush led the country in a moment of silence at 8:46 in the morning, Eastern time -- the moment of the first strike, when American Airlines Flight 11 cut into the trade center's north tower at more than 400 miles an hour. Then, visiting the repaired Pentagon, the president spoke of a renewed commitment to the war against terrorism. ''The murder of innocents cannot be explained, only endured,'' Mr. Bush said. ''And though they died in tragedy, they did not die in vain.'' A short while later, in Lower Manhattan, Governor George E. Pataki read Lincoln's brief but powerful Gettysburg Address; Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg succinctly described the dead -- ''they were us'' -- and former Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani began the invocation of the names of every one of the 2,801 victims on the city's official list. It was Lower Manhattan that held the unfortunate claim as host to the largest, most elaborate observance, with foreign dignitaries -- including Hamid Karzai, the president of Afghanistan -- paying their respects. On a day almost as clear as the early Tuesday morning of a year ago, tens of thousands of people surrounded a 16-acre pit and watched the wind spin eye-stinging twirls of dust from the place where two 110-story towers once stood. All the while, they listened in virtual silence as a riveting, two-and-a-half-hour story was read to them. The story, whose words leapt from loudspeakers to ring through surrounding streets, had no verbs or adjectives; in a way, it was one epic paragraph. It began with ''Gordon M. Aamoth Jr.,'' ended with ''Igor Zukelman,'' and in between contained the names of 2,799 other people -- bond traders and secretaries, firefighters and assistant cooks. They have been dead, now, a year. A year may seem an arbitrary measure, but experts in the human condition say that first-year observances of cataclysmic events are fitting, even necessary. ''The date itself is emblazoned in memory,'' said Robert A. Neimeyer, a professor of psychology at the University of Memphis. ''The same ritual that allows us to remember also releases us to live.'' Yesterday's ritual began in the first hours of this Sept. 11, in the darkness. In each of the city's five boroughs, teams of bagpipers began their miles-long march toward the disaster site, the wail of their instruments summoning city residents to their apartment windows for pre-dawn reflection. As the Manhattan contingent made its way down Broadway, people in Washington Heights raised flags, fists and candles; some held their hands over their hearts. James Leyden of Yonkers was at the corner of West 96th Street well before 5, in time to see the lights in a nearby apartment building flick on as the loud procession passed. It gladdened him, he said, because he lost a nephew in the trade center calamity. ''I just liked the notion of marching down all the boroughs, and basically waking people up,'' he said. ''It's just such a bad day, a bad day for families to relive.'' The bagpipers, all employees of various city agencies, were slowly marching through a changed Lower Manhattan, part of a changed city. Those changes go beyond the 89-year-old Woolworth Building reclaiming a dominant piece of the city skyline. They are also in the unclaimed pairs of re-soled and polished shoes, dozens of them, at the Shoetrician shop on Fulton Street. The manager said he keeps the shoes because what else can he do. The bagpipers converged like skirling streamlets into a sea of people already gathered at the bottom of Manhattan to honor the dead. By 8 a.m. the people were four deep along Church Street to the east, a dozen deep along West Street to the west, and thick through every alley and side street. Gone, for now, were the vendors selling mass-produced photographs of the World Trade Center in distress; in their stead, family members -- distinguished by their ribboned pins -- holding aloft photographs of their lost loved ones. The photographs of the dead bobbed upon the swells of the living. Over here, one of Charlie Murphy, with the reminder to ''Remember Me''; he had four older sisters, a fiancée and a deft sense of humor, and he was 38. Over there, Shannon Fava; her son is 4 now, and she would have been 31. Then, suddenly, it was time: 8:46. Silence settled over Lower Manhattan and other corners of the world. In London, thousands paused during a memorial service at St. Paul's Cathedral, while in Dublin, the government asked for a minute of silence in factories, offices and schools. At the Dallas Market Trade Center, employees held a moment of silence around a reflecting pool surrounded by votive candles for each victim. At Logan International Airport in Boston -- where the airplanes that struck the trade center took off -- operations halted for one minute. That minute of silence, in a section of Manhattan not accustomed to silence, was followed by Governor Pataki's reading of the Gettysburg Address. Then up stepped Mr. Giuliani, who has been applauded for his leadership in the weeks after the terrorist attack and who a day earlier had attended the funeral of his 92-year-old mother, Helen. ''Gordon M. Aamoth Jr.,'' Mr. Giuliani said, reading the first name on a list of 2,801 that would take the rest of the morning to read. Mr. Aamoth, of course, was more than just the first name: he was an investment banker, just 32, and there is now a football field named after him in Minnesota. Mr. Giuliani was the first in a long line of dignitaries, city officials and family members to invoke names, while Yo Yo Ma and other musicians played ''Ave Maria'' and other selections in the background. Now and then, the wind would blow so hard that it would rumble like thunder through the microphones; now and then, brown billows would rise from the pit to anoint listeners with dust. David Hochman, a master electrician who a year ago lost more than a dozen friends and co-workers, watched quietly from a raised vantage point in the World Financial Center's recently restored Winter Garden. Then, pointing his hard hat at the scene, he said: ''You see that tremendous hole? That was New York.'' The invocation of names paused at 9:04 so chiming bells could mark the moment that United Airlines Flight 175 hit the south tower, when, everyone present knew, a year earlier thousands were fleeing for their lives while hundreds of firefighters and emergency workers were filing in. Family members would later say that it was important to hear the names of their loved ones read, though they could not say exactly why. Monica Ianelli, dressed in black and with head bowed, held a portrait of her fiancé, Joseph Ianelli -- whose name she took -- close to her body, now and then wiping away the dust. When his name was read at 9:53, she looked up and smiled. At 10:29, the moment when the second tower collapsed, the readings paused again, while bells chimed and the fog horns of boats on the Hudson sounded. An hour or so later, the last name was read; Gov. James E. McGreevey of New Jersey read the Declaration of Independence; and family members began filing down a ramp and into the pit. They went down together to be alone, it seemed, as people symbolized their grief in individual ways: a funeral wreath here, a photograph there. Many built small, almost primitive memorials by propping up photographs with mounds of pebbles; many took pebbles or fistfuls of dirt to bring with them. Kathleen Shay, of Staten Island, later said that the death of her 27-year-old brother, Robert J. Shay Jr., a bond broker at Cantor Fitzgerald, did not really sink in until she had descended into the pit. Her sister, Leanne, said that in building a small memorial there, they ''tried to figure out where his office was.'' Remembrances and services and seminars continued throughout the day in New York City, ensuring that year-old memories remained fresh. At St. Patrick's Cathedral in Midtown, for example, Cardinal Edward M. Egan concluded a memorial Mass by introducing four brothers who had served as altar boys -- all sons of Firefighter Vincent Halloran, killed in the trade center collapse. Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, the Arab-American Family Support Center sponsored a silent vigil at Borough Hall to honor the victims, as well as to highlight what it said were the difficulties that the Arab-American and Muslim communities have faced in the last year. In the late afternoon, President Bush and the first lady, Laura Bush, paid their respects at the disaster site. Mr. Bush seemed at ease amid the crush of grieving family members. He listened, occasionally smiled, rubbed the back of the neck of a father of a dead police officer. Someone handed him a palm-size photograph; he tucked it in a pocket. As dusk came to the city, dignitaries representing the dozens of countries that lost citizens began to file into Battery Park, at the bottom of Manhattan, for a memorial service that would include the lighting of an eternal flame in front of ''The Sphere,'' a battered sculpture that once graced the trade center plaza. Aaron Copland's ''Fanfare for the Common Man'' was performed; Mayor Bloomberg read the Four Freedoms speech of Franklin D. Roosevelt; vigil candles were clutched. Meanwhile, back at ground zero, all of the dignitaries and invited guests had left. It was dark now, but the wind was still gusting, and throngs of people were still lingering. They snapped photographs, trying to capture the emptiness of it. A petite woman named Marianna Dryl pressed her face against the chain-link fence along Liberty Street and looked north into the pit, set aglow by stadium-style lights. She said she was 53, an accountant from Kew Gardens, Queens; she said she had not been to the site since the first weeks after the disaster. ''When I first came, it was such a horrible pile,'' she said. ''I thought they could never take it all away. Now it looks so empty and clean. It is almost beautiful.'' Photos: PAIN AND MEMORY -- At the trade center site yesterday, a police officer knelt amid the offerings, top, and a girl carried a picture of a loved one. At the Pentagon, President Bush shed a tear during a speech. (Stephen Crowley/The New York Times); (Alan Chin for The New York Times); (Ruth Fremson/The New York Times)(pg. A1); At the start of yesterday morning's ceremony, rescue workers, police officers and firefighters, top, surrounded the windswept circular memorial that was set up at ground zero, where victims' relatives placed photographs, flowers and other mementos inside the circle. Crowds gathered in a thick line along West Street, left, as people waited to walk down into the area and pay respects and honor loved ones. Many held up photographs of the victims from Sept. 11, 2001. Bagpipes could be heard throughout the day, with teams of the musicians making their way from throughout the city toward where the World Trade Center's twin towers once stood. (James Estrin/The New York Times); (Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)(pg. B12)

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VIGILANCE AND MEMORY - CEREMONIES - A Day of Tributes, Tears And the Litany of the Lost - NYTimes.com

They followed one another down, down into a seven-story hole in Lower Manhattan yesterday, thousands of them, filling with their sorrow the space where their husbands and wives, mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters, had died a year ago to the day. Some left cut flowers on the hard earth; some left photographs; some left whispered words. They lingered for a long while; a few even collected stones. And then the people who have become known as the ''family members'' -- as though they belonged to one international family -- trudged back to level ground, to the living.

20160809041349

Mrs Palin was plucked out of relative obscurity by John McCain in the hope that her down-at-home populist style would solidify the Republican party’s conservative around his candidacy. The incident was revealed during research for Game Change, an HBO 'docu-drama' based on a book about the 2008 campaign by two leading American journalists. While the film is a dramatisation - with the Oscar-nominated actress Julianne Moore playing Mrs Palin - its producers conducted dozens of research interviews and Mr Schmidt confirmed its accuracy in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. A Palin spokesman said the film - with which Mrs Palin refused to co-operate - "distorted, twisted and invented facts to create a false narrative". The incident can be added to a long list of policy gaffes made by Mrs Palin during her three months as the Republican vice-presidential candidate. In an infamous series of interviews with Katie Couric, the CBS News anchor, Mrs Palin was asked about her claim that Alaska's proximity to Russia gave her an insight into foreign affairs. Her stumbling answer - describing how "[Vladimir] Putin rears his head and comes into the air space of the United States of America" - helped reinforce the impression that she was not ready for high office. Game Change describes panicked cramming sessions during the campaign, with aides beginning their history tutorial with the Spanish Civil War and carrying through to post-9/11 era. Mrs Palin was initially enthusiastic, making notes on hundreds of coloured flash cards, but became increasingly sullen and was described by tutors as going into a "catatonic stupor". Although the 2008 campaign ended in defeat, Mrs Palin’s political fortunes were briefly revived in 2010 with the rise of the grassroots Tea Party movement, but is now most often seen as a pundit on the conservative Fox News cable news channel.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160809041349id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/worldnews/sarah-palin/9094048/Sarah-Palin-believed-Queen-was-in-charge-of-British-forces-in-Iraq.html

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Sarah Palin 'believed Queen was in charge of British forces in Iraq'

Sarah Palin believed that the Queen rather than the prime minister was responsible for the decision to keep British forces in Iraq, according to research done for a new film chronicling her brief political rise.

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The resort town of Hua Hin was the worst-hit in a number of co-ordinated blasts across Thailand, targeting tourist areas and leaving four dead and many injured. English tourist Thomas, from Kent, is 19 and a regular visitor to Hua Hin. He was due to be at the scene of the blasts on Thursday, before being delayed. He says he is "very relieved and shocked". "I was walking towards the Soi Bintabaht area of Hua Hin when the attacks took place on Thursday night. "I was meant to go to a bar right where the attacks took place, but was held up on the way when I met my sister. "Had I not been delayed, I would have been there when the explosion happened. I feel very relieved and shocked this morning. "I can't believe it's happened here. It's usually just a laid-back beach resort. This is just totally unexpected "I have been coming to Hua Hin for three years as a tourist and my father lives here, along with a sizeable expat community. "It has never been as quiet as it is now. "I just returned from the scene again and the area is cordoned off and cars are not allowed to enter. "There are blood stains on the floor which point to last night's attack. "I arrived there just after the attacks took place. It was a chaotic scene. No one knew what was going on. "Police and emergency vehicles were arriving at the scene. People were fleeing quickly on scooters "When we arrived, we were sent away by police, and there was enormous speculation about what had happened and how many bombs had gone off. "I have Thai friends, whose friends have been injured. I have seen them posting about it on Facebook. "All bars closed after the attack. The main shopping centre, Market Village, which is normally heaving with shoppers, is now closed. "I have spoken to two local business owners today. Both told me how worried they are for their businesses and tourism following on from a difficult couple of years for the area anyway. "The roads are completely quiet this morning and businesses are shut. There is a clear police presence on the streets. "People are just in shock. I'm just relieved."

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Thailand blasts: 'I was meant to be there when attacks took place'

English tourist Thomas is a regular visitor to Hua Hin. He was due to be at the scene of the blasts there on Thursday, before being delayed.

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The NSW government is being urged to reintroduce and expand across the state a program to help teenage mums finish high school. Former principal Glenn Sargeant shot to fame across Australia in a 2003 documentary about a unique program he headed at Plumpton High, in Sydney's west, to help teenage mums finish school and find a job instead of relying on welfare. More than 200 girls took part in the program, which ran for 14 years until Mr Sargeant retired in 2004. Now on the eve of the release of a follow-up documentary about three of the teenage mums, Mr Sargeant wants the state government to introduce the program at all schools. "It's very, very hard and difficult (for teenage mums) and this is where the Department of Education should come in and insist that every school put in place some sort of support network for the students who fall pregnant," he told AAP. "We have support networks for autistic kids, we have support networks for all sorts of learning disabilities and so on and gifted and talented kids. This, to me, is just an extension of that. "I believe it's a right." The number of babies born to mums aged between 15 and 19 dropped by 630 to 8,574 in 2015, Australian Bureau of Statistics data shows. In 2001, when the original Plumpton High Babies documentary was filmed, there were 11,704 babies born to teen mums. The follow up documentary, Plumpton High Babies: 10 Years On to be screened on the ABC on November 28, catches up with three of the young mums from the original program to see what life is like for them in their 20s. Mr Sargeant, who was awarded an Order of Australia for his work, said many teenage girls mistakenly believe they can't finish high school if they have a baby. He says if more is done to support teenage mums finish high school, they are more likely to find jobs and not be a burden on taxpayers by relying on the welfare system. "We hear people like (federal Treasurer) Scott Morrison whingeing about the welfare payments that we've got to give out," Mr Sargeant said. "It would be a damn site cheaper if those girls who are teenagers ... if we educated them, got them to be fruitful members of society, got jobs in other words, it would be a cheap way of doing it." A NSW Education Department spokesman said teenage mums were given adequate support including counselling, time off before and/or after the baby's birth, flexible lesson timetables and the chance to complete their HSC over five years. "NSW high schools provide the necessary support and adjustments for students who are pregnant or parenting to support their continuing education," he said in a statement. "Teachers, year advisers, head teachers and the school's executive staff all work as a team to support pregnant and parenting students to develop local solutions to individual situations."

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Govt urged to support teen mums at school

A former principal who devised a unique program to help teen mums finish high school is urging the NSW government to reintroduce it across the state.

20161209171634

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson was not setting out government policy when he said Saudi Arabia and Iran were stoking proxy wars across the Middle East, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Theresa May says. Johnson, known for his colourful use of language and tendency to go off-script, told an audience in Rome last week that the absence of real leadership in the Middle East had allowed people to twist religion and stoke proxy wars. It is the latest in a series of gaffes to plague the foreign minister, who even May has jokingly said is hard to keep "on message for a full four days". He has been criticised by some EU officials for using less-than-diplomatic language in talks on Britain's decision to leave the bloc. May's quick response underlines the importance of Britain's alliance with Saudi Arabia, which is a major customer for British defence companies. "You've got the Saudis, Iran, everybody, moving in, and puppeteering and playing proxy wars. And it is a tragedy to watch it," Johnson was shown saying in footage posted on the Guardian website. "There are politicians who are twisting and abusing religion and different strains of the same religion in order to further their own political objectives. That's one of the biggest political problems in the whole region," Johnson said. It is unclear from the footage whether he specifically accused Saudi and Iran of twisting religion, though the Guardian reported that Johnson had accused Saudi Arabia of abusing Islam. The spokeswoman for May said: "Those are the foreign secretary's views, they are not the government's position on for example Saudi and its role in the region." May, who visited the Middle East this week, met Saudi King Salman and "set out very clearly the government's view on our relationship with Saudi Arabia, that it is a vital partner for the UK particularly on counter-terrorism", she said. "We want to strengthen that relationship." Her spokeswoman said May still supported her foreign secretary, adding that Johnson would have the "opportunity to set out the way that the UK sees its relationship with Saudi Arabia" during a visit to the region.

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UK PM slaps down Johnson over Saudi view

The British Prime Minister Theresa May has been quick to pour cold water on her foreign minister Boris Johnson's inflammatory comments about Saudi Arabia.

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Australia has an obesity problem because “people are sitting on their backside too much and eating too much food”, the deputy prime minister, Barnaby Joyce, has said. Joyce offered up some weight loss advice in response to a report from the Grattan Institute launched on Wednesday that calls for the federal government to introduce an excise tax of 40c per 100 grams of sugar in beverages to combat growing obesity-related healthcare costs. The price of a two-litre bottle of soft drink would rise by about 80c under the tax, Grattan estimates, and it would raise about $500m a year. Asked about the proposal, Joyce responded that people should take personal responsibility for their health rather than rely on government interventions. “The Australian Taxation Office is not going to save your health,” he told reporters in Canberra. “Do not go to the ATO as opposed to going to your doctor or putting on a pair of sand shoes and walking around the block. “The ATO is not a better solution than jumping in the pool and going for a swim. The ATO is not a better solution than reducing your portion size. So get yourself a robust chair and a heavy table and, halfway through the meal, put both hands on the table and just push back. That will help you lose weight.” More than 15 countries and subnational governments have already introduced such a tax, including Britain, France and parts of the US. The Grattan Institute estimates that about 10% of Australia’s obesity problem is due to the consumption of sugary beverages. It is not alone in calling for a tax. The Consumers Health Forum, the Australian Medical Association and the Australian Healthcare and Hospitals Association all support some kind of sugar tax as an evidence-based intervention. Joyce told reporters that the introduction of the tax in Mexico had led to job losses. A study published in PLoS Medicine this month found that, based on a reduction in sugar consumption in Mexico following the introduction of the tax, morbidity and mortality from diabetes and cardiovascular disease, as well as healthcare costs, would be “substantially decreased”. A separate study found a decrease of 7.3% in per capita sales of sugar sweetened beverages in Mexico and an increase of 5.2% in sales of plain water per capita in 2014-2015 compared with the pre-tax period [2007-2013]. Joyce said the National party would not support a sugar tax. “We believe in being healthy but we don’t believe you have a health policy that is led by a tax on sugar because, if you want to deal with being overweight – well, here is a rough suggestion – stop eating so much and do a bit of exercise,” he said. “There is two bits of handy advice and you can get that for free.” The concept of a sugar tax was “just bonkers mad”, he continued. “I want to make sure that we give everybody the opportunity to, in agricultural industry, to produce their product, whether it’s beef, whether it’s sheep, whether it’s wool, whether it’s grain, whether it’s chickpeas, and to do it without the government saying, ‘We now have a sort of moral assessment of the food you’re producing and we tax some and not tax others’,” he said. “If we start down this slippery slope, it will end in a lot of incredibly angry farmers.” The Greens’ leader, Richard Di Natale, announced a move to establish a parliamentary inquiry into the rise of obesity in Australia, particularly in children. The inquiry would inform the Greens’ draft legislation for a sugar-sweetened beverages tax as well as other policy responses to best combat obesity, said Di Natale, a former medical doctor with a public health background. “We have a major health crisis on our hands with one in four Australian kids overweight or obese,” he said. “We know that up to 30% of the sugar Australian kids consume daily comes from nutrition-free sugar-sweetened drinks. A tax on these drinks will drive down consumption and should form a part of the response to childhood obesity in this country.” He said if the government did not act the Greens would introduce a private senator’s bill to give effect to a tax on sugar-sweetened beverages into the Senate by the end of 2017. An author of the Grattan report, the health economist Dr Stephen Duckett, said introducing a sugar tax could not be described as promoting a nanny state. Rather, it empowered people to be more aware of the sugar in their drinks and to make better choices, he said. “We’re not taking a nanny state approach, we’re saying people should face the cost of decisions they’re making by having to pay extra tax recouping the costs of obesity to the taxpayers,” he said. The ATO will not solve your weight problem. #sugartax LIVE on #Periscope: No sugar tax. https://t.co/q4kFUfPIjq

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Barnaby Joyce tells voters to 'stop eating so much' in attack on sugar tax

Deputy prime minister rejects Grattan Institute’s suggestion and says tax office ‘is not going to save your health’

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F. Darrin Perry, who as design director of ESPN Magazine in the late 1990's introduced streamlined typography and cinematic pictorial approaches to appeal to a new generation of sports fans, died on Nov. 25 at his home in San Francisco He was 39. The San Francisco medical examiner's office said an investigation was pending, with the results to be announced in 14 to 16 weeks. By 1998, when Mr. Perry designed the magazine's format, the ESPN sports television network had raised its visibility through novel advertising graphics that included contemporary conceits like blurred and overlapping type, color-saturated images and surreal illustrations. While not exactly copying those ads, Mr. Perry also introduced playful typography and witty photographs that underscored the editorial concept that ESPN was something of a Rolling Stone of sports magazines, in which athletes were presented as rock stars. ESPN's larger-than-usual format had more visual impact than its competitors' publications, and with Mr. Perry's unconventional emphasis on big and dramatic photos it quickly drew more attention. He also used a film-strip approach of many small photos moving across a page or two pages, giving the magazine a TV-like air. In its first year of publication, ESPN Magazine won the National Magazine Award for Design. Floyd Darrin Perry was born on April 9, 1965, in Durham, N.C. After studies at the North Carolina School of the Arts in Winston-Salem, he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Parsons School of Design in New York City. He started his career as a designer at Condé Nast Traveler and later became creative director of design at Broadband Sports Interactive. Before moving to ESPN he was an art editor at Sports Illustrated and creative director of Wired, which he redesigned. Mr. Perry is survived by his mother, Pat Dennis Isaacs of Arden, N.C.; his father, Floyd E. Perry, and stepmother, Amy, of Durham; a sister, Debra Egan of Orlando, Fla.; and his partner, Jonathan Manzo of San Francisco. Correction: December 15, 2004, Wednesday: An obituary on Sunday about F. Darrin Perry, an innovative magazine designer, misstated the sequence of his jobs. He was art director of Wired magazine at his death, not before he worked at ESPN magazine. An obituary on Dec. 12 about F. Darrin Perry, an innovative magazine designer, misstated the sequence of his jobs. He was at Wired magazine at his death, not before he worked at ESPN magazine. A correction in this space on Wednesday misstated the title he held at Wired. He was creative director, not art director.

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F. Darrin Perry, Design Director of ESPN Magazine, Dies at 39

In the late 1990's, F. Darrin Perry introduced streamlined typography and cinematic pictorial approaches to appeal to a new generation of sports fans.

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In debut memoir Agorafabulous! Dispatches From My Bedroom (William Morrow, $24.99), author and stand-up comedian Sara Benincasa describes in hilarious and sometimes horrifying detail her struggle with panic attacks and the dark days when she was too terrified to leave her room. Why the book is notable: Benincasa has a growing reputation in comedy. She hosts the popular podcast Sex and Other Human Activities. Memorable line: "In simplest terms and most convenient definitions, my psychiatric diagnosis is that I'm afraid of the mall. Which, I can assure you, is untrue." Quick bio: Benincasa, 31, grew up in New Jersey and went on medication for depression and anxiety at 16, finding the right ones at 21. Today, she writes, performs and visits colleges, where she explores issues such as suicide prevention in her routines. The appeal of living in New York City: "I've always felt like such a weirdo and New York is full of weirdos." Why she loves performing: "Performing is an affirmation of life for me. I am doing something that would have been impossible 10 years ago." Up next: A young-adult novel based on F.Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. Gatsby is a girl, and the story is set among modern teens in the Hamptons. , visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor . For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to . Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to USA TODAY is now using Facebook Comments on our stories and blog posts to provide an enhanced user experience. To post a comment, log into Facebook and then "Add" your comment. To report spam or abuse, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box. To find out more, read the

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New Voices: Sara Benincasa's 'Agorafabulous!'

The comedian and writer delves into her anxiety, panic attacks and depression in a memoir out this week.

20120512203251

With summer practically here, many people are going to get the Vitamin D that they have been lacking in for the past couple months with the cooler seasons. Vitamin D is such an important vitamin and it plays many roles in the human body. Did you ever notice that you have much more energy and feel much livelier in the summer months and a little bit more tired and down in the winter months? Well, this has a lot to do with your intake of Vitamin D, which, among other sources, comes from sunlight. This vitamin is a fat soluble vitamin along with Vitamins A, E and K. These fat soluble vitamins are the vitamins that are stored in the body. As the name implies, these four vitamins are soluble in fats. Fat soluble vitamins don't really leave the body, instead they are stored. Although vitamins are good for you and are necessary for life, too many is a bad thing, especially of the fat soluble vitamins. Ingesting too many can cause hypervitaminosis (too much of a vitamin), which can lead to toxicity. Vitamin D is needed for many basic life functions such as bone growth, bone remodeling, cell growth, and reducing inflammation. Here are some of the most important things that Vitamin D does for us: Helps our bodies absorb calcium and phosphorus. Calcium and phosphorus are very important for the bones and teeth. Calcium also plays a very big role in muscle contraction, especially of the heart. Other functions of calcium include: transmission of nerve impulses, blood clotting, milk production in mothers, contractions of the uterus for childbirth, and regulates many hormones. Phosphorus works along with calcium to help maintain bone and teeth formation. Some functions of phosphorus include: proper digestion, transmission of nerve impulses, aids in kidney excretion, increases energy levels, and forms some proteins. So you see that without calcium and phosphorus, your body would be missing out on many important functions. And without Vitamin D, your body wouldn't be able to absorb calcium and phosphorus. Plays an important role in immune system function. Vitamin D interacts with many parts of your immune system. It has been shown to provide sort of like a shield to protect against bacteria and other foreign substances. T cells are the cells in the immune system that destroy any bad cells that your body may have and Vitamin D plays a big part in activating these T cells. May help maintain your weight. There have been numerous studies linked to Vitamin D and maintaining a healthy weight. People who don't consume an adequate amount of Vitamin D tend to have higher blood pressure, higher body fat percentage, and a higher amount of belly fat. Supports brain function. This is especially important for the older adults. It can help prevent or delay any signs or symptoms of dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Can help prevent certain cancers. There is always a debate over the things you can do to prevent cancer but consuming an adequate amount of vitamin D has been known to work. Vitamin D regulates the abnormal cells that begin to multiply in the beginning stages of cancer which can slow down or eliminate the entire process. The most common types of cancers prevented by Vitamin D are colon and rectal cancers. ThePostGame brings you the most interesting sports stories on the web. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to read them first! These are just some of the biggest roles that Vitamin D plays in the human body. Some other important things Vitamin D does is regulates blood pressure, improves skin by reducing wrinkles, improves cardiovascular function, reduces respiratory infections, relieves body aches and reduces stress. Now that you know all of the great things about this vitamin, it's time to get some in to your body. Here's how: Sunlight. Vitamin D has a nickname, "the sunshine vitamin." The sun is one of the best sources of vitamin D. This is the reason why you are happier and more energetic in the summer months than you are in the winter months. In the summer, there aren't as many Vitamin D deficiency cases and for good reason. People are always out in the sun during the summer months. During the winter months, people don't get out in the sun as much. Take advantage of the nice, sunny weather this summer. Cod liver oil. This is thebest animal source of Vitamin D. Only one teaspoon of the stuff can give you enough Vitamin D for the day. Other fatty fish. Aside from cod, many other fatty fish are good sources of Vitamin D. This include salmon, tuna, sardines and mackerel. Eggs. Eggs are great for a lot of reasons and their Vitamin D property is one of them. If you are someone who just eats the whites, you may want to add in those yolks. The egg whites are great for a low-cal, high-protein choice but the egg yolk is where the majority of the nutrients are, especially Vitamin D. Milk. Milk is an excellent choice for consuming an adequate amount of Vitamin D. Be sure to choose the low-fat kind. There are many sources of this vitamin. These are just a few that most popular because of the amount they provide. It's really important that you are getting the right amount of Vitamin D in your body. If you are unsure about whether you're on track, ask your doctor to mail you your test results the next time you get blood work. Your Vitamin D intake will be on that list and will give you a good idea of where you're at. If you aren't at an optimal level, don't panic. Just begin to consume more of the foods listed above -- and maybe take a vacation to the Caribbean. If your Vitamin D levels are very low or if you don't get enough sun or eat the right foods, try a Vitamin D supplement. Of course it's always better to get your vitamins from fresh, whole foods but if a supplement is what is going to get you that Vitamin D, by all means, take it. More From DualFit.com: -- Fitness Pro Larissa Reis Shares Her Workout Routine And Diet -- HIIT: High Intensity Interval Training -- Better Cardio Call: Track Or Treadmill? -- Interview: A.J Jacobs, Author Of 'Drop Dead Healthy' Popular Stories On ThePostGame: -- Disabled Veteran's Amazing Fitness Transformation -- Why High Heels Make Your Breasts Sag -- 5 Awesome Arm Curls You've Never Tried -- Coregasm Phenomenon Is Confirmed By New Scientific Study

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Are You Getting Enough Vitamin D?

By DualFit.com With summer practically here, many people are going to get the Vitamin D that they have been lacking in for the past couple months with...

20120902170646

The first time I saw Pokey LaFarge, I hadn’t heard him play music yet. There he was, wandering around the Newport Folk Festival last year looking like he worked either for Hank Williams or Al Capone. LaFarge’s black hair was slicked. His suit might have had mothballs in the pockets. He later turned up with his lady on his arm, and she, too, was a vision of Dust Bowl beauty - all red lips and swaying vintage dress. Together they could have been plucked from the set of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?’’ LaFarge, who’s based in St. Louis and performs with his band, the South City Three, at Club Passim on Wednesday, cut a striking presence that day. But it didn’t quite make sense until I saw him onstage. He was ferocious, a concentrate of some of his musical heroes, from Bill Monroe’s keen musicianship to Woody Guthrie’s way with storytelling. One look at LaFarge, who’s 28, and you get a warped impression. He was born Andrew, but nobody calls him that anymore. Pokey suits him, but let’s be clear: LaFarge is not a man out of time. “I don’t think I was born at the wrong time,’’ he says. “I’m really just playing American music. It’s not old. It’s always been around and always will be around.’’ If anything, LaFarge is a sincere torchbearer of a century of American music he loved and studied as a kid growing up in Illinois. He left home at 17 to hit the road and learn it firsthand. From Dixieland jazz and ragtime to rural blues and Western swing, LaFarge has made it his mission to breathe new life into those old-time genres. “When I first heard that music, I was just a writer,’’ LaFarge says. “I wasn’t a player until I heard Bill Monroe, and that stuff really made me want to play and sing. I started writing songs after that. It’s always been about finding my own style.’’ He says he had a typical Midwestern upbringing - “playing sports, working in cornfields, and blowing stuff up’’ - but he also had historically minded grandparents who exposed him to old music. He was ready. “I was looking for something different,’’ he says. “I always wanted to be different and nobody my age was listening to that stuff. To me, it was my own little haven.’’ Even as a youngster, LaFarge saw no reason why certain types of music belonged in the past, let alone did he think there should be restrictions on who could play it. “It’s not a black and white thing anymore. I don’t think it’s a North and South thing anymore. I just think it’s American music,’’ LaFarge says. “Some of these genres were mixed together almost a hundred years ago. And if they hadn’t been, they probably wouldn’t have survived.’’ After several years on the road, LaFarge eventually ended up in St. Louis and made a name for himself playing around town. With last year’s “Riverboat Soul,’’ which is as good as any description for LaFarge’s music, he started recording with the South City Three. The trio of young, like-minded virtuosos includes Joey Glynn on upright bass, Ryan Koenig on washboard and harmonica, and Adam Hoskins on guitar. As a quartet, they feed off one another and help LaFarge realize his vision. “Solo, I was writing for all these different things I was hearing in my head and trying to come up with them all by myself,’’ LaFarge says. “With a band, the sounds come to life now.’’ The band shares LaFarge’s commitment to historic preservation, a fact reflected in the video for “So Long Honeybee, Goodbye,’’ from the group’s new album, “Middle of Everywhere.’’ The various historic locations are identified, as if LaFarge is tipping his cap to them. He’s adamant that St. Louis is underrated when it comes to great music cities, citing its rich history with jazz, ragtime, and blues. He has also found a kindred spirit in Jack White. The former White Stripes frontman heard LaFarge and company on the radio and invited them to Nashville to record at White’s Third Man Records. “Chittlin’ Cookin’ Time in Cheatham County’’ was the resulting vinyl seven-inch single. The 45’s cover image captures LaFarge at his disheveled Sunday best: buttoning an old suit with fedora slightly cocked. Go ahead and get the wrong idea; LaFarge doesn’t mind. “I do dress like a weirdo, and I like to wear old clothes. Some people have their own interpretation of that and think we’re dressing up in costume and that it’s all a show,’’ he says. “But we’re getting paid well to travel around the world to play music. I could give a damn what they think.’’

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Pokey LaFarge breathes new life into old sounds

Pokey LaFarge, who comes to Club Passim on Wednesday, is a sincere torchbearer of a century of American music he loved and studied as a kid growing up in Illinois. He left home at 17 to hit the road and learn it firsthand. From Dixieland jazz and ragtime to rural blues and Western swing, LaFarge has made it his mission to breathe new life into those old-time genres.

20130630014348

A Volkswagen Passat TDI Clean Diesel achieved fuel economy of 77.9mpg on an 8,122-mile, 17-day tour of the 48 adjacent United States, which concluded this week at Volkswagen’s US headquarters in Virginia. Your mileage, of course, may vary – and likely by a considerable margin. The Passat's miserly metering of diesel fuel resulted in a new Guinness fuel-economy mark for the category defined as "lowest fuel consumption – 48 US states for a non-hybrid car". While the category is narrow, the Passat's numbers are gaudy, battering the previous mark of 67.9mpg and topping the hybrid record for a similar journey by more than 13mpg. Volkswagen spokesman Mark Gillies said the record-setting Passat's only modification was the replacement of standard-equipment tires with low-rolling-resistance models. The Passat TDI was equipped with a 140-horsepower, 2-litre turbocharged direct-injection diesel and manual transmission. The EPA rates the car at 43mpg on the highway, and while its horsepower rating is modest compared to gasoline engines – the Passat's standard 2.5-litre engine generates 170hp without turbocharging – the diesel produces an abundance of torque at low speed, a characteristic of diesels and one that makes them enjoyable to drive. At the wheel for the record attempt were Wayne Gerdes, a journalist who has set many fuel-economy marks, including the current 48-state hybrid vehicle record, and Bob Winger, an electronics engineer. Gerdes is a self-described hypermiler, a driver who employs specialised strategies to achieve better fuel economy than would be possible in normal driving. Some hypermiler techniques are obvious: coasting as much as possible, accelerating gradually and carrying minimal extra weight. Is one pair of socks sufficient for a 17-day journey? But hypermilers take their pursuit well beyond the obvious. Speaking with BBC Autos, Gerdes said he used a scanning gauge to determine engine load at any given time of his trip. Engines tend to be most efficient at 70% to 80% load, so the scanner helped him remain within the optimal rev range by dictating how much or how little throttle pressure to apply. "In steady-state driving, run at the lowest rpm possible for the conditions," Gerdes counselled. The manual transmission on Gerdes’ test car helped significantly there, as he could easily keep the car in the selected forward gear. Among other seemingly counterintuitive chestnuts, Gerdes said to drive “as if you don’t have brakes”, which encourages a driver to coast toward a stop as much as possible. His advice was not limited to deceleration. “Think about how traffic ebbs and flows,” he said. “Allow the car in front of you to accelerate ahead. I call that ‘expanding the bumpers’.” And he said drivers should not be afraid to adopt a trucker tactic on uphill sections: get in the right lane. “When you're climbing mountains, you're going to get hurt. Most people think they can do it on cruise control. Don't. Do what the trucks do. Get in the right lane and go up at 25 to 30mph. You can get 20mpg going up, and then going back down is free. It's just a few minutes. It doesn't hurt your time. Get in the truck lane with your emergency flashers on.” Steady as she goes, in other words.

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A diesel VW tiptoes to a fuel-economy record

By keeping a close eye on the tachometer, Wayne Gerdes achieved a 78mpg average on an 8,100-mile swing through the US.

20130809002727

In her magnum opus, “The Women of Will,” Tina Packer brings to life Shakespeare’s greatest female characters, from Juliet to Cleopatra to Lady Macbeth. But Packer finds her latest role, as monstrous mother Mag Folan in Martin McDonagh’s “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” to be a different kind of challenge. Starting, she says, with Mag’s limited vocabulary. “In Shakespeare you can do violent acts, but the poetry will sustain you, it lifts you up,” Packer said. “You’re OK, you can feel a soul through the poetry which is bigger than the violence itself. Even if you’re doing ‘Macbeth,’ for instance, and you’re doing these terrible, terrible things, there’s still some way the actor — not the character — can go through these things and not ultimately be corrupted by them. “I don’t think that’s true with McDonagh. I’m having a real struggle, because the language is limited, it’s very violent and there’s nowhere to go,” she said. “In Shakespeare there’s always a psychological depth to your character, he always gives you clues as to why your character does the things that he or she does. But here there’s no clues as to why they do what they do, other than poverty and leading insular lives. So it’s very hard to find, as an actor, what’s redemptive about it.” Packer is founding artistic director at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, where “Leenane” begins performances Thursday. Longtime company member Elizabeth Aspenlieder plays Mag’s middle-age, never-married daughter Maureen. The Folan women share a cottage in the west of Ireland, and the play documents the toxic consequences of their claustrophobic relationship. In Aspenlieder’s account, Packer is enjoying the 1996 play a little more than she makes it sound. “When she agreed to do it, she was kicking and screaming, but now she’s loving it,” Aspenlieder said. “You should see her in rehearsal. She is savoring all the brutality of it. In between all the harshness, we have to laugh, or else we’d slit our wrists, it’s so brutal and horrific the way we treat each other.” Packer founded the company 36 years ago. Aspenlieder is in her 18th season there as actor, and she is also an artistic associate and director of communications. “We have a relationship almost like a mother and daughter,” Aspenlieder said. “It’s teacher and mentor, sister and sister, girlfriend and girlfriend, but really mother and daughter. I’ve talked to Tina about situations in my life that I’ve never shared with anyone else, and she has talked to me about situations she has never shared. We really have that foundation of family, and it’s not always easy.” Another company member originally suggested that Aspenlieder read McDonagh, and she fell for “Leenane.” “As soon as I read it, I could see Tina and I,” she said. They did a reading last summer as part of Shakespeare & Company’s Studio Series and got a strong audience reaction. It was an easy choice when the company started planning the 2013 season last fall. “Elizabeth and Tina know each other so well, through thick and thin,” said director Matthew Penn. “They’re such marvelous colleagues both onstage and in the running of the theater, but there’s no way you can know somebody that long and not develop a history that is complicated and wonderful. “There was a lot [between them] as two people that stepped into the room the first day, so you weren’t having to work to fabricate that,” he said. Penn, son of the late, great film director Arthur Penn, is a veteran TV director (“Law & Order”) and co-artistic director of the Berkshire Playwrights Lab. The play becomes increasingly brutal — emotionally and, eventually, physically — for the two characters and the actresses who play them. (Shakespeare & Co. newcomers Edmund Donovan and David Sedgwick play the two other roles.) “I find myself really quite dark when I come out of rehearsal, because the character I’m playing, all of her survival depends on keeping her daughter trapped to look after her,” Packer said. “I’m trying to control her the whole time! She can’t do a thing without me trying to second-guess [and] control her. And then she does terrible things to me.” Is she, ahem, at all concerned that Aspenlieder choose “Leenane” for their first onstage meeting? It’s a jokey question, and Packer knows it. “If anything I would say our friendship holds us in good stead out there,” she said. “If we didn’t have a lot of friendship and trust it would be much more difficult. But since we do have as long a background as these two characters in the play, practically — well, maybe not quite that long, but we do have a lot of history together — that holds us steady as we go into these darker areas.” Still, Packer said she’s not quite sure how she feels about the play: “It’s very honest and it’s very funny, but I don’t know that you come out of there feeling, ‘My God, there’s hope for the human race.’ I’m not so keen on that. I like feeling as though there’s a way we can find through this.” She laughed. “But that sounds like I’m encouraging nobody to come, doesn’t it?” A hero — and trilogy — named Valentine The young Circuit Theatre Company gets ambitious this month with Nathan Allen’s The Valentine Trilogy in the Roberts Studio Theatre of the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts. With a cast of 20, including a live rock band, “San Valentino and the Melancholy Kid,” “Curse of the Crying Heart,” and “Valentine Victorious!” take the same unlikely hero, known as Valentine and played by Ryan Vona, through a western, a samurai film, and a superhero noir set in a Gotham City-like 1930s Boston. (The playwright worked with them on revising the trilogy, including moving the last play from Chicago to Boston with local references.) Skylar Fox directs. All three plays are being presented each weekend from Aug. 2-17. On Aug. 4, 11, and 17, the entire trilogy will be presented as a seven-hour marathon, with meal breaks. Full-price tickets to any one play are $18 at 617-933-8600 or www.circuittheatre.com.

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In Lenox, taking a real-life relationship to “Leenane”

Tina Packer finds her latest role, as monstrous mother Mag Folan in Martin McDonagh’s “The Beauty Queen of Leenane,” to be especially challenging. Packer is founding artistic director at Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, where the play begins performances Thursday. Longtime company member Elizabeth Aspenlieder plays Mag’s middle-aged, never-married daughter Maureen. The Folan women share a cottage in the west of Ireland, and the play documents the toxic consequences of their claustrophobic relationship. “When she agreed to do it, she was kicking and screaming, but now she’s loving it,” Aspenlieder says of Packer. “You should see her in rehearsal, she is savoring all the brutality of it. In between all the harshness, we have to laugh, or else we’d slit our wrists.”

20140522002005

AN international team of investigators reports that even mild caloric deficiencies in the diet of an infant or a pregnant woman can disrupt a youngster's emotional stability by the time he reaches school age. At the same time, the researchers have found, such ''mild-to-moderate undernutrition'' does not appear to affect the higher intellectual and learning abilities significantly. Although the devastating physical and mental effects of severe malnutrition are well known, the scientists say theirs is the first study to link minor nutritional problems in early life to the behavioral and social development of youngsters as old as 6 to 8 years. The researchers cautioned against minimizing the behavioral effects of other factors, such as general health care, family upbringing and neighborhood and school environment. Still, said one of the researchers. David E. Barrett, a psychologist at Harvard Medical School, ''Our findings suggest that simply providing calories to undernourished infants or mothers-to-be seems to have a lasting effect on the way the child deals with others and makes use of the environment.'' The results offer an intriguing, if somewhat puzzling, picture of early nutrition's role in the development of the brain and central nervous system. ''If social and emotional characteristics are indeed more vulnerable to nutritional stresses than are cognitive (learning) functions, why might this be so?'' the researchers ask in their study, published recently in the journal Pediatric Research. Their findings go beyond previous studies that reported behavioral problems in undernourished youngsters 3 years and younger. Dr. Barrett and Marian Radke-Yarrow, a child development psychologist at the National Institute of Mental Health, conducted two separate investigations: one was a five-year study of 138 boys and girls in three rural Guatemalan villages; the other was a survey of 65 youngsters from relatively poor families in San Diego. All the children were 6 to 8 years old. In the Guatemalan research, performed with Central American scientists, the investigators studied youngsters who had received supplemental high-calorie drinks in addition to their regular diets from birth to age 4, and whose mothers had received supplements during pregnancy. The average child in the villages studied was not grossly underfed; for example, a typical 4-year-olds, weighing about 35 pounds, was estimated to be living on about 1,300 calories a day, while standards established by the World Health Organization call for such a child to receive nearly 1,600 calories. The children were classified nutritionally as either ''good,'' ''average'' or ''poor,'' depending on the amount of supplement they and their mothers had received over the years as participants in an eight-year project of the Institute of Nutrition of Central America and Panama. The supplements provided varied in content from 59 to 163 calories per dose. In addition to giving each child a battery of psychological tests, the researchers observed the youngsters' interactions in small groups with other children. Their behaviors was rated in various play, competitive and problem-solving situations. Children who had better nutritional supplements prenatally and for the first two years after birth were consistently more active, involved and helpful than their peers, and less anxious; they were also more likely to express either happy or sad emotions than were others in the group, who often appeared withdrawn or uninterested. Whether a youngster received food supplements from 2 to 4 years, however, did not appear to influence behavior at ages 6 to 8. In contrast, nutritional supplements had almost no effect on performance on cognitive tests measuring verbal, memory, puzzlesolving and other intellectual abilities. The only exceptions occurred in the areas of ''persistence'' and ''following directions.'' The San Diego study examined children whose mothers were undernourished during pregnancy and whose weight was low at birth. Compared to children of mothers with better diets, the undernourished group interacted less with their school-age peers, were more dependent on adults and were sadder and more unfriendly. However, nutrition and health problems from ages 2 to 6 - but not before that - did lead to lower scores on cognitive tests. ''In general,'' Dr. Barrett said, ''the San Diego findings did support those of the Guatemalan research, which was our major study, indicating that these phenomena exist no matter what culture you're in.'' Why do minor adjustments in early nutrition seem vital to later emotional development but not necessarily to learning abilities at school age? Dr. Barrett concedes that without directly examining the brain structure, it is impossible to know exactly how it is affected by even slight undernutrition. Effects of Two Factors Join But according to the scientists, the results suggest a cycle in which subtle alterations in the development of the central nervous system and lack of energy often combine with a poor home environment to stunt the child's emotional growth. ''The result is withdrawal on the part of the child and neglect or rejection on the part of the caregiver,'' the scientists say in their report. ''It appears that the child attempts to adapt to the physiological stress of nutritional deficit by developing behaviors that remove and insulate him or her from the environment and which inhibit the later development of appropriate patterns of social interactions.'' Nutrition is so critical in the first two years, they say, because the child is beginning to develop patterns of dealing with the world and responding to others around him. In contrast, minor nutritional deficiencies, unlike severe malnutrition, probably do not trigger nervous system damage serious enough to affect the higher functions of learning and intellect, according to the scientists. Simply ''normal'' contact with the outside world as an infant seems to ensure adequate cognitive development, they say. ''Nutritional supplementation increases social energies, but the specific behaviors - be they pro-@ or antisocial - seem to depend on the environment,'' Dr. Barrett said. Dr. Radke-Yarrow, Dr. Barrett's co-investigator, cautions that although the results are intriguing, ''we must avoid the danger of taking the importance of nutrition out of context with the rest of the child's experiences.'' Nevertheless, Dr. Barrett says, ''the results from both these studies were rather striking. Our research indicates that malnutrition in early life may result in reduced social responsiveness, a lack of interest in the environment and inadequate emotional development by school age.''

http://web.archive.org/web/20140522002005id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/1981/08/18/science/unstable-emotions-of-children-tied-to-poor-diet.html

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UNSTABLE EMOTIONS OF CHILDREN TIED TO POOR DIET

AN international team of investigators reports that even mild caloric deficiencies in the diet of an infant or a pregnant woman can disrupt a youngster's emotional stability by the time he reaches school age. At the same time, the researchers have found, such ''mild-to-moderate undernutrition'' does not appear to affect the higher intellectual and learning abilities significantly. Although the devastating physical and mental effects of severe malnutrition are well known, the scientists say theirs is the first study to link minor nutritional problems in early life to the behavioral and social development of youngsters as old as 6 to 8 years. The researchers cautioned against minimizing the behavioral effects of other factors, such as general health care, family upbringing and neighborhood and school environment.

20140712161826

Thursday afternoon found Danielle Guigli performing a familiar routine: squeezing her Jeep Cherokee into a tight space on Newbury Street, forced by the city’s parking restrictions to hop from one metered space to another all day long. So the 24-year-old real estate broker was delighted at the prospect of a new mobile app, called Haystack, that will alert her to nearby parking spaces when they become available. “That would be awesome,” said Guigli, who was not put off by the $3 fee to lock in a space freed up by another Haystack user. “I’d do it.” But the real owner of those parking spaces, the City of Boston, is not so excited. Haystack debuts in Boston on Tuesday. Users receive an electronic notification when someone else in the Haystack network is about to leave a nearby public metered or free parking space. The driver giving up the spot gets $2.25, and Haystack gets 75 cents for brokering the exchange. But the Walsh administration contends Haystack essentially will be selling property it doesn’t own — city parking spaces — and profiting from a public asset. “That has implications that at first blush are alarming to us,” said Walsh’s chief of staff, Daniel Koh. “When a space is available, it should be available to anyone, regardless of whether they have extra money to pay for it.” Parking has long been a sore point for Boston residents and visitors alike. Mayor Martin J. Walsh has given his blessing to the longstanding tradition by residents of congested neighborhoods of using orange cones and folding chairs to save the spaces they shovel out after snow emergencies. But Koh said the administration is worried Haystack could escalate parking tensions by giving unfair advantages to drivers who can afford smartphones and the service’s fees. Haystack’s 24-year-old founder, who says his app is an innovative solution to one of urban living’s great frustrations, contends the company is not selling public property at all. Rather, it is selling information about public parking — specifically, when spaces are about to open up. “There’s no sale of physical property,” Eric Meyer said. “This is neighbors exchanging information for a fee, and they have every right to do that. What you’re really paying for is convenience.” Launched in Baltimore in May, Haystack works like this: An occupant of a parking space alerts other app users the spot is opening up. The first driver to respond gets to claim the space, then receives precise directions and a description of the departing vehicle. The holder of the parking space declares how long he will wait around for his successor, who pays only when the two exchange spots. Other companies with similar apps are running into trouble in another American city with a tech-savvy reputation and nightmare parking: San Francisco. City attorney Dennis Herrera has threatened to fine three services — MonkeyParking, Sweetch, and ParkModo — if they do not cease operations, accusing them of “hold[ing] hostage on-street public parking spots for their own private profit.” “It creates a predatory private market for public parking spaces that San Franciscans will not tolerate,” Herrera said in June. “Worst of all, it encourages drivers to use their mobile devices unsafely — to engage in online bidding wars while driving.” MonkeyParking and ParkModo recently disabled their services, but Sweetch founder Aboud Jardaneh said Thursday that his company had not received a formal cease-and-desist order and has no plans to halt operations. Like Haystack, Sweetch helps drivers find parking spaces for a flat fee, $5. MonkeyParking auctions off spaces to the highest bidders. ParkModo, meanwhile, has taken to hiring drivers — at $13 per hour — to occupy street spaces at peak hours in busy neighborhoods as a way of increasing app usage. Boston is itself using technology to make parking a little less stressful. In December, it rolled out an app called Parker that uses sensors to show which of 330 spaces in the Innovation District are available. The city is also soliciting bids from contractors for a system that will allow drivers to pay for parking meters electronically via a smartphone app, instead of having to fish for quarters in-between seats. The MBTA has allowed commuter rail passengers to pay for parking by phone since 2008. Unlike San Francisco, Boston is taking a conciliatory tone with Haystack Mobile Technologies, based in Baltimore. Rather than try to prevent it from operating, Koh said, the administration would like to work with Meyer to see if Haystack’s technology could help alleviate Boston’s parking problems — without profiting from the sale of parking or giving some drivers an unfair advantage. In theory, Haystack drivers could profit by finding parking spaces on their own and then selling them. At a minimum, Meyer said, motorists can recoup some of what they paid Haystack to get the spot in the first place by simply reselling it when they leave. After circling Boston Common twice before finding a metered space on Park Street Thursday, 24-year-old John Spencer of Quincy was excited by the prospect of an app like Haystack. “Oh, that’d be cool,” he said. But he seemed deterred by the $3 fee. On Newbury Street, Jim Hodgson, who gave his age at “just under 70,” was more decisive: In from South Dartmouth to shop, Hodgson bragged he had a special touch for finding parking and saw no need to pay for a tip about an open space. “I have the Force,” Hodgson cracked, referring to the fictional power from the “Star Wars” films. “Three bucks per use? No. I’ll take my chances with the Force.”

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App claims to be a new tool in the eternal quest for a city parking space

A fledgling app maker is adding a high-tech weapon to the tense battle for curbside real estate: a new digital service called Haystack that allows drivers to claim spots via smartphone.

20140814110659

Mother Nature long coddled Mexico’s national oil company, blessing it with fountains of homegrown black gold. But in recent years she has gotten ornery, frustrating Petróleos Mexicanos with juicy but recalcitrant fields of oil. One day this spring she played a nasty joke. She unleashed a 6.4-magnitude earthquake on Mexico that caused the 50-story headquarters of the company known as Pemex to sway woozily, like an aging prizefighter struggling not to fall. Inside the iconic but timeworn building, the second-tallest in Mexico City, doors rocked on their hinges, metal blinds banged against windows, and frightened workers braced themselves inside door frames, hoping to ride out a threat they all knew was beyond their control. Scant hours later, Pemex’s 39-year-old chief executive, Emilio Lozoya, sits at at the head of the massive conference table in his cloud-level office. The Pemex tower has stopped shaking, but the Pemex corporation faces a foundational challenge. In a move that has both shocked and thrilled the global oil industry, Mexico’s government is performing an about-face. For the first time in three-quarters of a century, it intends to invite international oil firms into the country to sink their drills into its petroleum-rich earth. That decision has infuriated many Mexicans, and it fundamentally threatens Pemex, which has always been a monopoly. As the oil giants prepare to pounce, Lozoya, a Harvard-educated investment executive and an oil industry newcomer, has the task of whipping the bloated behemoth into competitive shape. “It is, by all means, the most important transformation Pemex has suffered in our entire 76 years,” says the fresh-faced CEO, who speaks excellent English and chooses his words—including his verbs—deliberately. As he talks, he jots talking points onto a small white notepad that has been placed in front of his high-backed chair. By his right hand sits a red phone, a direct line to the office of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, the oil reform’s architect and Lozoya’s friend and boss. Everything about Mexico’s energy opening is being carefully choreographed. But in Mexico’s rough-and-tumble energy business, even the most meticulous plans have a way of getting blown up. Ever since 1938, when Mexico expropriated its gushing oilfields from foreign companies in a burst of revolutionary nationalism, that bounty has been off-limits to outside producers. The oil has been the exclusive purview of Pemex. Favored by geology as well as by law, the company has had the luxury of getting most of its oil from a couple of huge, easy-to-tap underground formations—known in the industry as “elephants.” Indeed, Pemex has become legendary in the oil world for its factory-like approach to pulling oil from a particularly Mexican type of elephant: fields in shallow water, just off the country’s Gulf coast. But along the way, Pemex has become notoriously inefficient. The company ranked No. 36 among the Fortune Global 500 last year, with revenue of $126 billion. But Pemex also posted a $13 billion net loss. The company is laden with bureaucracy, teeming with superfluous workers, and, by its own executives’ admission, thwarted by corruption. The result is both stunning and not very surprising: In a country that ranks ninth or 10th in global oil production, depending on who’s counting, and that some geologists say contains the largest unexplored petroleum area beyond the Arctic Circle, Pemex has presided over a steep decline in Mexico’s oil output. That decline—Mexico’s oil production has tanked 25% over the past decade, to 2 million barrels per day—threatens the country’s ability to pay its bills. Pemex’s oil revenue is the single biggest contributor to the Mexican treasury, supplying roughly one third of the national budget. It’s doubly embarrassing for this proud country because it comes as an oil boom is exploding next door in the U.S. That’s why Mexico now is rolling out the red carpet for the international oil firms it once threw out. If it works, foreign players ranging from super-majors to wildcatters will pour into Mexico and pull up the crude and natural gas that Pemex has failed to tap from Mexico’s increasingly technically challenging fields. Pemex will be guaranteed favored-son status, granted an initial slate of fields in a much-anticipated government decision known as Round Zero that was to be unveiled as this issue went to press. But unless Pemex can prove itself competitive, it will be largely relegated to the relatively simple fields it has learned to exploit well, while foreign companies will dominate the vaster troves of Mexico’s harder-to-get hydrocarbons, from the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico to shale plays near the U.S. border. The government hopes this race will boost the amount of Mexican oil that flows onto the market—raising the take for the state, which will get a cut of every barrel. Equally important, it hopes the surge in Mexican oil and gas production will have a raft of spillover benefits for the country, slashing electricity prices, attracting industry, and bankrolling services for the people. But whether Mexico rocks the energy world will depend on whether it can execute its pledge to reform Pemex, a sprawling bureaucracy that for generations has had its hands in every aspect of the country’s oil sector. A few months in, the attempt is hitting major roadblocks. The difficulty is partly that Pemex is a poster child for corporate dysfunction. It’s also that Pemex, however dysfunctional, is seen by much of the Mexican public as the guardian of the nation’s patrimony. Everywhere it sits, oil is big business. In Mexico it’s a cultural keystone. Haydee Figueroa, a dentist working one afternoon on her iPad at a café in Polanco, a tony district of the capital, serves up a pithy summation: In Mexico, she says, “oil represents something similar to corn.” March 18, the day Mexico’s revolutionary government grabbed the country’s oilfields from the gringos in 1938, is a national holiday. The event is a key element in Mexican schoolbooks and part of the country’s stick-it-to-the-man folklore. Pemex is the most recognizable brand in the country; its gas stations, painted in the national colors, green, white, and red, are the only mainstream places in Mexico to fill up a tank, and the government-subsidized prices don’t vary from pump to pump. The Pemex empire is by far the country’s biggest employer, providing paychecks to more than 150,000 Mexicans; it operates a network of hospitals, recreation centers, and libraries; and it has made not a few influential Mexicans very rich. Source: PEMEX; EIA; Mexico National Hydrocarbons Commision Adrian Lajous was Pemex’s CEO in the late 1990s and remains deeply involved in the country’s energy debate. One recent afternoon, dressed in a tweed jacket and jeans in the living room of his book-lined, modernist Mexico City house, he delivered a lecture on Mexico’s oil history. “We copied the U.S.,” he says, “but here, it was the wild, wild West.” Petroleum was discovered in Mexico in the late 1800s, and production ramped up between 1900 and 1910. Almost immediately, Lajous explains, “you just had these fields spurting oil.” Oil companies, notably from the U.S. and England, set up shop. In 1910 the Mexican Revolution broke out, yet oil production kept rising. “The oil companies simply paid off all the factions in the civil war,” Lajous says, “and they were protected.” After the Mexican Revolution ended in 1920, the trade union movement in Mexico gathered steam. In 1937 oil workers walked off the fields on strike, protesting their pay. In March 1938, Mexico’s supreme court sided with the workers; days later Mexican President Lázaro Cárdenas declared the country’s oil the property and business of the state. With Cárdenas’s declaration—a moment known ever since in Mexico simply as la expropiación, or the expropriation—Pemex was born. In the lobby of the Pemex tower today, 44 stories under Emilio Lozoya’s chair, stands a larger-than-life bronze statue of a triumphant Cárdenas, the populist who launched the firm. One good way to understand the intensity of feeling about oil in Mexico is to wander around the National Museum of Anthropology, an architecturally stark building each of whose rooms displays artifacts from a different Mesoamerican culture. A common narrative unites many of the displays: A resource-rich Mexico is invaded and exploited by greedy foreigners, and then its heroes rise up against the outsiders, sometimes forcing them out and sometimes being martyred in the attempt. In the Aztec room an exhibit explains that Hernán Cortés, the Spanish explorer who arrived in Mexico in 1519, killed Moctezuma II, the Aztec leader, which ultimately led to the ascension of Cuauhtémoc as the Aztecs’ head. On a rainy Saturday morning, standing in the Aztec room and speaking to a crowd of mostly European visitors, tour guide Julieta López distills the story to what she sees as its essence: The Spanish invaders “used knowledge to manipulate the people, just as, today, we are manipulated.” Later, asked about her view of the energy reforms, she offers a similar critique. “I am completely against the reforms,” she says. “It took us a long time to get rid of the foreigners. Now this President wants to open the doors to have them come again.” MEXICO – CIRCA 1956: Pemex filling station. Mexico, January 1956.Roger Viollet/Getty Images It’s a consensus view on the Mexican left. Ursus Sartoris is a Mexico City poet, editor of a literary magazine, and self-described leftist activist. He has wild brown hair, sees the world through thick, black-rimmed glasses, and wears suspenders over a belly that betrays his fondness for good food. One evening in Mexico City, sipping red wine and munching a corned-beef sandwich in a French café, he spins a parable. It likens Pemex not to an elephant but to another four-legged creature. “You have a cow,” says the poet. “For a long time this cow produced a lot of milk. And then some guy comes and says, ‘You have a very nice cow. I want that. Sell it to me.’ And you say, ‘No, this is for my small farm, because from this cow all my family eats.’ And he says, ‘No, please sell me the cow.’ The cow is Pemex.” The cow may be past its prime, but it still belongs to the family. “The relationship between Pemex and the Mexican people is very complex,” says Fluvio Ruiz, an energy economist who had invited his friend Sartoris to dinner that evening. “People say it’s dirty and corrupt. But it’s our dirty and corrupt.” Ruiz’s own relationship to Pemex is a study in those contradictions. He is, he notes, a niño Pemex, or child of Pemex. He grew up in the Pemex petrochemical town of Coatzacoalcos, the son of a lawyer and a teacher, both of whom worked for Pemex. He spent his college days in the late 1980s in student protests, agitating for Mexican political reform. Today, as a result of an earlier attempt to reform Pemex that effectively set aside four board seats for people picked by Mexico’s leading political parties, the bushy-haired agitator has an unlikely job as a full-time, salaried Pemex director. Posters of Che Guevara, Lenin, and Marx cover the walls of his office—a capacious suite on the Pemex tower’s 14th floor. The intellectual, who wears colorful rope bracelets on his wrist, is ferried around Mexico City in a gray Nissan Pathfinder supplied by Pemex and driven by a chauffeur. He sees reforming Pemex as necessary to saving it—and his mission as helping shape the reforms so that they strengthen the company rather than snuff it out. “The main problem, the base of it all,” he says, “is that Pemex is not a company. Pemex is a public organism.” Sergio Guaso’s daily life is a testament to the frustrations of Pemex’s position as an ossified arm of the state. Guaso, a no-nonsense, ruddy-faced man, wears monogrammed white shirts and works at a desk with nothing on it but his laptop. He is vice president of business development for Pemex’s exploration and production division, a job for which he travels a lot. When he files his expenses he often isn’t paid for three months. Why? “No other reason than bureaucracy,” he says in his barren office. “Many desks, many people, the same paper.” Mexican law imposes many restrictions on how, when, and in what quantity Pemex can spend money. The rationale is that Pemex is just another government agency, competing with others for its annual slice of the federal fiscal pie. But Pemex doesn’t just consume government money; it also supplies a good chunk of it. If there’s one common refrain within Pemex’s C-suite, it’s that this short-term outlook by government bean counters all but ensures that Pemex will stumble in the long-term business of producing oil. Guaso ticks off example after example of those inefficiencies. Mexican law, for instance, limits the amount of debt Pemex can incur. But it eases that limit for debt that Pemex certifies it can repay within a year. So Pemex focuses on incremental improvements to its existing fields rather than less immediate—but necessary—bets on new fields. In short, it keeps riding its elephants until they drop. Pemex can’t pin all its shortcomings on a federal fiscal straitjacket. Exhibit A of the company’s own failures is a fiasco at one of Mexico’s juiciest oil formations, an elephant called Chicontepec. It’s enormous, and it contains one-third of all the certified oil and gas reserves, or hydrocarbons in the ground, that Mexico currently claims. Chicontepec was discovered nearly a century ago but has remained largely undeveloped. At the most basic level, that’s because its oil, mostly heavy and lurking in countless tiny pockets, is hard to reach. Pemex began prioritizing Chicontepec in the early 2000s, roughly when Mexico’s most prolific field, a legendary elephant called Cantarell, was heading into decline. By 2005, Pemex had bored a few hundred wells. Those results were encouraging, and over the next several years Pemex announced inc00reasingly bullish plans to develop the formation. But it soon ran into a buzz saw: Mexico’s oil regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Commission, which the government created in 2008 largely out of frustration with Pemex’s declining output. The commission’s mandate was to get Pemex’s production up again. The new commission disputed the amount of oil reserves Pemex was claiming from Chicontepec. Reserves are a crucial metric the market uses to judge an oil company’s health, and strict international rules govern their tabulation. One rule is that, to be counted as reserves, an oil deposit must be “economic.” That means the company asking to book the oil must show that developing it would bring sufficient financial returns to justify the effort. At Chicontepec “we had doubts about this production being economic,” explains Edgar Rangel, a commission member. Like most employees of the commission—indeed, like many of the top players in today’s fast-moving Mexican oil scene—he’s young, well educated, convinced he’s helping his country at a formative moment, and therefore brash. One reason the commission “started to be suspicious,” he says one afternoon, sipping lemonade at a Mexico City café, is that although Pemex had hired third parties to certify its reserves claims, Pemex “would keep the reports of the certifying companies in a drawer, locked up.” When the commission got hold of the reports, it found “huge discrepancies” between the numbers the certifiers gave and the numbers Pemex claimed, Rangel says. “But Pemex would hold to its numbers. They says, ‘We’re correct.’” Mexico’s state-run oil monopoly Pemex’s platform “Ku Maloob Zaap” is seen in the Northeast Marine Region of Pemex Exploration and Production in the Bay of Campeche April 19, 2013. © Victor Ruiz / Reuters REUTERS In 2010 the commission issued a public report that put an asterisk by Pemex’s reserves numbers. It counted only some Chicontepec oil as economic, labeling the rest as technically but not necessarily economically possible. “Pemex was, as you can imagine, extremely unhappy,” says Rangel, who once worked at the oil giant. “I believe that I lost eight to 10 friends” as a result of the dispute. Reserves are only a theoretical measure of an oil company’s prospects. What’s incontrovertible is oil production. In early 2013, Pemex expected to pull 94,000 barrels of oil a day out of Chicontepec by the end of that year. Today it’s producing far less. Part of the blame lies with the geologists Pemex relied on. Committing an error of extrapolation, they figured the entire formation looked similar to the area plumbed by the initial wells. Instead, Pemex later discovered, the formation varies hugely from spot to spot, so it will require a variety of sophisticated and costly techniques to get out the oil. “From the limited information we had at the time,” says Gustavo Hernández, Pemex’s head of exploration and development, “we were expecting more production.” It wasn’t just Pemex scientists who fumbled Chicontepec. Pemex managers did too. In the past few years Pemex has hired outside companies to try different methods to get at Chicontepec’s oil. Pemex has spent about $3.5 billion on those attempts, and thus far it has little to show for it. The root of the problem, Hernández says, is that Pemex’s Chicontepec managers flouted Pemex policy and paid the companies merely for drilling wells, rather than predicating payment for the drilling on finding oil. “They didn’t drill smart holes,” he says, “because the incentive was just well completion, not additional production.” As a result of the Chicontepec experience, heads at Pemex have rolled. Lozoya, the CEO, describes his response upon learning of the financial blowout this way: “Firing some people, moving some people. But you know what? Very honestly, I cannot look to the past. I need to look to the future.” For Mexico that future rests on bringing in foreign oil companies with technical expertise. Executives of several of those companies—some of the biggest oil producers in the world—declined to comment, fearful of offending the government and imperiling their hopes of landing permission to pull up and sell off some of Mexico’s oil. Like a thick steak, that prize is so big they can taste it. One outside oilman who did agree to talk is Harry Bockmeulen, at the time Mexico director for Petrofac, a London-based firm that has operated for several years as a Pemex contractor. It has been paid a fee by the Mexican giant to help it squeeze more oil from its aging fields. What Petrofac and the world’s biggest oil companies anticipate under Mexico’s reforms is something more profitable: the freedom to bid on Mexican fields and sell the oil they produce. Bockmeulen has watched this movie before. He has spent much of his career stationed in oil-rich Latin American countries, positioning his employer to snag a piece of the local action at whatever moment it opens up. All the big international oil firms “will have a cut in the new regime” in Mexico, he predicts, chatting on a Sunday morning hours after flying back to Mexico City from Europe. “The resource is here,” he says, his cheeks flecked with a day’s gray stubble. “And we always go to where the resource is, don’t we?” Lozoya, the young CEO, is moving to gird Pemex for battle. He is flattening the company’s four main operating units into two, because traditionally, he says, the heads of each unit “don’t care” if another unit is losing money, “as long as their [own] numbers are fine.” From there, he wants to rationalize Pemex’s refinery business, which is bleeding billions. Pemex CEO Emilio LozoyaALFREDO ESTRELLA—AFP/Getty Images More grandly, he wants to lay new oil and gas pipelines across his country and beyond it—pipes he asserts could modernize all of Central America. He gets up from his conference table, walks over to his desk, and grabs a not yet public map of his pipeline plans. One priority, he says, is to use a north-south pipeline at the narrowest point in the country between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific Ocean to send increasing amounts of Mexico’s oil west to China, other parts of Asia, and California. Another is to build a pipeline ferrying Mexican oil and gas down to Guatemala and beyond. “Think about the impact this will have on immigration,” he says. “It will create a much more competitive region.” But for Lozoya to construct Pemex 2.0, he’ll have to get his hands on a lot more oil. That has set up a power play between Pemex and its owner, the Mexican government. The government’s priority is to boost Mexico’s oil and gas production, maximizing the national rent. Pemex’s goal is to raise its corporate take. That means Pemex is gunning for authority to drill as many of Mexico’s fields as it can. The fight is over whether Pemex will be the most efficient producer. The government was to announce in August which fields it would give Pemex and which fields it would, over the next several years, open for bidding to outside companies. Both sides have long agreed that Pemex should get most of Mexico’s shallow-water fields and conventional onshore fields—Pemex’s traditional bread and butter. But Pemex also asked for sizeable chunks of the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, which it has begun drilling, and of Mexico’s extensive though undeveloped shale plays. “My concern is they’re asking for too much in areas where they don’t have the technical expertise,” says María de Lourdes Melgar Palacios, undersecretary for hydrocarbons in Mexico’s energy ministry. All this talk of clipping Pemex’s wings is contemptible to the son of the man who engineered la expropiación in 1938. At age 80, Cuauhtémoc Cárdenas, son of the late Lázaro Cárdenas and namesake of the Aztec chief, is trying to engineer his own revolution: a plebiscite to roll back what he sees as the auctioning of the nation’s wealth. One evening Cárdenas chats on a white couch in his office, in the walled compound that once was his parents’ house. His shelves hold books about Simón Bolívar and other Latin American fighters, and a huge oil painting of his father hangs on a wall. Outside, under the porte-cochère, sits his father’s 1966 brown Oldsmobile, as if parked in time. The son pronounces the current reforms both “a big mistake” and “a violation of the law.” Cárdenas and his colleagues are working to collect signatures to force a public vote to negate the oil reforms at the country’s next election, to be held next year. He says that as of last spring his movement had collected 1.7 million signatures, and that it was trying for 1.5 million more. That sets up a race against the clock. While Cárdenas and the left try to roll back the reforms, which the Mexican legislature approved in August, Peña Nieto’s government is scrambling to implement them. “We are in a hurry. We cannot delay,” says Javier Treviño, a Mexican congressman who’s helping lead that push on behalf of the president. Treviño, speaking in the bar of Mexico City’s Four Seasons hotel, brushes off the left’s opposition as naive and outdated. “They still want to have Mexico as the vision of oil nationalism. They are very parochial,” he says, fingering his BlackBerry. In particular, the Mexican left doesn’t fully grasp that oil companies have many spots around the world where they can go to hunt for crude, Treviño asserts. “We are not the only dish at the table.” Hanging over the push to reform Mexico’s oil and gas sector like a storm cloud is fear about the energy boom already exploding north of the border. The U.S. long has been the biggest buyer of Mexican oil exports, but lately its purchases have fallen sharply, in part because private oil companies have succeeded stupendously in squeezing more oil from U.S. shale. And U.S. imports probably will fall a good deal further if Washington approves the Keystone XL Pipeline, a controversial tube that would move Canadian crude to many of the same U.S. Gulf Coast refineries that now process tankersful of Mexican oil. The world has shrunk, and the easy elephants have been shot, in the nearly 80 years since an ascendant, post-revolutionary Mexico had the bravado to tell the foreign oilmen to go home. Today, though it pains many in Mexico to admit it, the country needs cutting-edge technical help to convert its prolific fossil-fuel resources into cash. The real question is whether Mexico has the muscle to carry out its reforms so that this time the oil and gas produced by the international drillers ends up, for the long haul, enriching the country. This story is from the September 1, 2014 issue of Fortune.

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The drama of Mexico’s Black Gold

Seventy-six years after nationalizing its oil business, Mexico invites foreign companies back to drill. What will it mean for mighty PEMEX—and for the nation's self-image?

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Alibaba said it has sold more than $7 billion in goods so far during the Chinese e-commerce giant’s “Singles Day” promotion, an event the company concocted in 2009 that is reminiscent of Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the United States. The sales were a record for Alibaba, and they were just for the first 19 hours of the promotion. Last year, Alibaba BABA recorded about $5.8 billion in retail sales on “Singles Day.” The figure was still under $1 billion as recently as 2011. To put the sales figure in comparison to the major sales events in the United States, brick-and-mortar retail sales totaled $12.3 billion on Thanksgiving and Black Friday last year. Cyber Monday’s online sales were nearly $2.3 billion in 2013. Cyber Monday is the first full working day after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Alibaba’s shopping promotion, which is also referred to as “11.11,” kicked off in 2009 when 27 merchants participated in the event. This year, Alibaba said more than 27,000 brands are participating. Though the transaction value of the promotion has soared since it began in 2009, research firm IDC noted that Alibaba set an “ambitious” target of more than $8.1 billion in sales for November 11 this year. But IDC expects Alibaba at the end of the day will overachieve that target and report $8.65 billion in transactions. Alibaba’s “Singles Day” promotion is also expanding beyond its own internally developed focus. Other e-commerce players have aimed to piggyback on the sales event’s success, IDC has reported, efforts that should only minimally affect Alibaba as it has far more comprehensive collection of goods.

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Alibaba's "Singles Day" hits new sales record, over $7 billion so far

Event was concocted in 2009 and is reminiscent of Black Friday or Cyber Monday in the United States.

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As the white Toyota SUV bounces over the rutted dirt roads of Sichuan province in western China, Shell’s Bill Quanbai Li points to a drilling site with a derrick rising on the horizon. Nearby, a farmer tills a canola field with a wooden plow pulled by an ox. Li is a community liaison officer for Shell, and his job is to smooth over relations between the energy giant and the villagers as the company explores for shale gas in this rural area about two hours northeast of Chengdu, a city of some 14 million. He says he spends a lot of time explaining to the locals — many of whom make only $150 a year — how hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” will affect their land and their lives. “You can’t believe what comes up,” he says with a smile. One time, he recalls, a man who raises cobras in his living room worried that the vibrations from the drilling process used to extract gas from underground rock formations would disorient his snakes — including a prized albino cobra. In another instance, a farmer complained that his chickens stopped laying eggs once the fracking started. (Li explained to both that the process lasts only one to two hours a day over a couple of weeks and is unlikely to create tremors strong enough to upset the animals.) Then there was the old woman who sat in a chair in the middle of the road, blocking a convoy of trucks headed to a drilling site. It turned out that she wanted Shell to hire her son. To win hearts and minds, Shell has helped build new roads in the area, funded an addition to the local elementary school, and created an old-age home for widows. Why would an oil major go to such lengths to curry favor in this rural farming community? Simple: If China contains as much shale gas as Shell thinks, the company could be in the early stages of developing one of the biggest energy discoveries in history. Shell says it is investing $1 billion a year to tap into China’s vast basins of shale gas, including here in Sichuan province. And the company doesn’t want that investment endangered by any public-relations blunders. Granted exclusive access to Shell’s fracking sites in Sichuan earlier this year, Fortune got to see firsthand the challenge and opportunity the company is tackling. How much shale gas does China have? The short answer is that no one exactly knows yet. Exploratory drilling is still in the very early stages; Shell first broke ground in Sichuan in 2010. But most in the industry agree that China’s shale potential is vast. The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates that the country has total reserves of 1,275 trillion cubic feet of shale gas — more than Canada and the U.S. combined. (The U.S. alone is now estimated to have a 100-year supply.) Shell is not the only Western energy company hoping to capitalize on China’s shale potential. Chevron recently formed a joint venture with the China National Petroleum Corp. and has begun drilling exploratory wells in Sichuan. And Conoco Phillips — in a joint venture with Sinopec — announced in December that it plans to drill wells in Sichuan later this year. The gold rush has begun. If shale gas lives up to its promise, it could be a game changer for China. The nation’s thirst for energy continues to surge. Over the next 20 years the country is expected to double its demand for power. For perspective, Daniel Yergin, in his book The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World, writes that in some recent years China has added the power equivalent of a France or a Great Britain. To meet its voracious demand, the country is currently building 29 nuclear plants and adding vast amounts of wind, solar, and hydro power. But coal remains king for now. China generates 80% of its electricity from coal and consumes almost as much of the fossil fuel as the rest of the world combined. What’s more, the country is opening new coal-powered plants at a rate of about one a week. Given that coal plants are the largest generators of greenhouse gas, China’s love affair with anthracite has serious implications for climate change. The sooner China can begin producing a significant portion of its electricity from shale gas — which emits only half the CO2 of coal — the better off the world will be. But perhaps more compelling to China’s party leaders is that cleaner-burning shale gas could also help address the country’s increasingly dire air-pollution problem. In Beijing in late January the pollution darkened the air so badly at times that some flights had to be canceled. The atmosphere was heavy with what’s called PM 2.5 — for particulate matter that’s 2.5 micrometers in diameter. These small particles of black carbon — the same substance that gives coal miners black lung — are fouling the air. The EPA considers PM 2.5 concentrations of over 35 parts per million to be hazardous. In Beijing the level in January at times approached 1,000 parts per million. A recent report in the British medical journal The Lancet concluded that 1.2 million Chinese died prematurely in 2010 because of air pollution. Environmental protests are on the rise across the country. And even state-owned newspapers have begun running lengthy articles on air pollution. The government says it is working hard to crack down on industrial polluters and limit the number of cars on the road. It has some of the strictest environmental laws of any nation, yet enforcement often proves elusive. Long term, one of the most effective ways to reduce pollution will be to switch to cleaner fuels. That’s why, two years ago in its 12th five-year plan, Beijing set highly ambitious targets for shale gas production. The National Energy Administration announced the goals of producing 230 billion cubic feet of shale gas annually by 2015 and at least 2.2 trillion cubic feet per year by 2020 — the equivalent of about a quarter of America’s current production. For all the excitement over shale gas in China, however, the country stands at an important crossroads. Much could go wrong. The shale gas boom in the U.S. happened after years of development of new drilling techniques. China, by contrast, is playing catch-up on fracking technology and trying to do it virtually overnight. Fracking — if done improperly — has the potential to pollute water tables and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas. (More on safety issues later.) Unlike in the U.S., where “frack” is practically a four-letter word to environmentalists, in China the risks of shale gas development are not yet widely known. But even here, where the will of the state is not usually swayed by the wants of the public, an environmental disaster could derail the fracking revolution before it really gets started. Not everyone in the oil and gas industry believes that China will hit its 2015 target. The numbers for 2020 are even more ambitious. In a recent report, BP said it thinks it will be at least 2030 before China reaches those levels of production. But Martin Stauble, Shell’s VP of Gas China, is optimistic: “The 2020 number is a huge number. It all hinges on the geology being conducive and the regulators providing the right framework. There are still huge hurdles, and I don’t want to be naive about it, but Beijing is very clear about what it wants, and it wants to make it happen.” One big challenge is that no one knows for certain where the shale gas sweet spots are or how much of it can be extracted economically. Geologists have concluded that China’s most promising shale gas deposits lie in three giant basins: the Tarim Basin in the northwest, the Ordos Basin in north-central China (including Inner Mongolia), and the Sichuan Basin in the southwest. Millions of years ago these areas were the bottoms of oceans and lakes. Plant and animal matter buried there was covered by sediment, and the heat and pressure from the rock turned the organic sludge into oil and gas. This band of hydrocarbons — now two miles beneath the surface of the earth — is often referred to as “nature’s kitchen.” Over millions of years some of the oil and gas seeped upward through pores in the rock and sand and was trapped in reservoirs. Those reservoirs have provided most of the hydrocarbon production over the past century. But in the Sichuan Basin — as in large shale formations in the U.S., such as the Barnett and the Marcellus — much of the gas became trapped in sedimentary rock. Oil and gas present in such formations are called unconventional because they do not flow into wells by themselves — the rocks first need to be split open to release the hydrocarbons. In the U.S. drillers have perfected this process by fracking wells, or injecting a mixture of water and chemicals at high pressure to create pores in the shale rock. This technique, combined with advances in horizontal drilling, is what has unlocked unconventional gas. Of the three basins in China, Shell picked the Sichuan and Ordos basins to develop first. Both have promising geology. (The Tarim Basin in the northwest is in a desert, and fracking requires vast amounts of water — as much as 4 million gallons per well.) The company is currently developing one block in the Ordos and three in Sichuan. Shell is working on these shale assets as part of a joint venture with PetroChina, the massive state-owned oil company, which has 1.7 million employees. So far the partners have drilled 40 exploratory wells in China, or two-thirds of the 60 total fracking wells drilled in the nation so far. That compares with the roughly 35,000 wells that are fracked each year in the U.S. At Shell’s Jinqiu block, in the rural area outside Chengdu, Shell has drilled 19 wells, all in different stages of development. The company won’t say yet that this area will be a winner, but one completed well was producing significant amounts of gas during a visit in late January. Says Tony Cortis, the general manager at Jinqiu and a 25-year veteran of Shell with extensive fracking experience in Canada: “All I can say is that we’re pleased with the results so far.” Visiting these drill sites, one comes away with the realization that fracking isn’t easy. For starters, not all unconventional gas deposits are created equal. In some the gas is trapped in sandstone, which is trickier than shale to drill through. Reaching gas trapped in shale isn’t much easier, because every shale is different and the types of formations in China are largely new to drillers. So far Shell has found that the shale is harder and therefore more difficult to drill and frack than the deposits in the U.S. In its joint venture with PetroChina, Shell provides the advance technology for finding and analyzing the shale deposits, and the management skills for setting up these wells to be operated profitably. PetroChina, which has been drilling conventional oil and gas wells for decades, provides the equipment, manpower, and local operational know-how. “The geology is complicated,” says Xiong Jianjia, the vice president in charge of PetroChina’s unconventional gas projects in southwestern China. “The most important thing for us is to learn and get up to speed on the technology and management surrounding shale gas production. Shell is helping us here.” When asked why PetroChina is diving headlong into fracking, he replies: “Our new government is calling for a beautiful China. We need clean energy, and shale gas will be one of the sources.” The drilling teams do not want for resources. At one of the Jinqiu plots, a dozen fire-engine-red Mercedes trucks, with pumps that provide a total of 26,000 horsepower, stand ready to force millions of gallons of water down the well to a depth of more than two miles. “The beauty of partnering with the Chinese,” says Cortis, “is that they built these trucks in China, they built them fast, and the equipment works.” The ability of the government to mobilize rapidly is what makes supporters of Chinese fracking believe that the country will be able to ramp up production faster than skeptics think. One common criticism of fracking in China is that the country doesn’t have a pipeline system in place to bring the gas to market. Xiong of PetroChina counters that plenty of pipeline capacity already exists to carry the shale gas from the Sichuan Basin to southwest cities such as Chengdu and Chongqing. And the government is moving aggressively to add new kilometers of pipeline in other regions. “Gas pipelines are getting built out rapidly,” says Xizhou Zhou, head of China energy at the consultancy IHS. “In China the companies don’t have to worry about grandmothers gathering 200 signatures and filing a lawsuit.” The shale gas boom in the U.S. has generated a wave of resistance from the environmental community. Fracking opponents are understandably concerned about the risks of shale development — from gas leaking into the water table to wastewater being dumped into rivers to the disruption that the drilling causes to natural habitats and nearby communities. Unfortunately, those concerns have been validated at times by slipshod drilling practices, often traceable to operators that don’t have the operating experience of the oil and gas majors. Shell wants to make sure that fracking doesn’t acquire a bad rep in China. At its Jinqiu site, the energy giant — which has drilled thousands of fracking wells in the U.S. and Canada — is trying to create a model for proper unconventional drilling in the country. The fracking water is recycled, the well casings are tested multiple times to make sure gas doesn’t leak into the water table on its way to the surface, and the company says it uses state-of-the-art equipment to avoid surface leaks of methane. The danger is that, as in the U.S., a flood of non-oil major operators eager to participate in the boom will create problems. Beijing announced in January that 16 companies had won a second round of bidding to explore 19 shale gas blocks in central China. None of the contracts went to large oil and gas companies. Instead, the winning bids were made by domestic Chinese utility, coal, and trading companies with little or no experience in fracking. “If there are any shortcuts, Chinese companies will take them, and our grandkids will pay for it,” says Ming Sung, an environmentalist based in Beijing for the nonprofit Clean Air Task Force. Shell’s Stauble agrees that the environmental track record of China’s industrial companies is not all that great and that the flood of new operators poses a risk. But he says Shell is doing what it can to be a positive influence. “We are telling newcomers what we believe the operating procedures for shale gas should be,” he says. “And we hope they take up these world standards.” On one level, at least, that’s already starting to happen. The Chinese are reaching out to the West to learn as much as they can, as fast as they can, about shale gas. In February the Sinopec Group announced a $1 billion deal to buy half of Oklahoma City-based Chesapeake Energy’s oil and gas assets in the Mississippi Lime deposit. PetroChina is buying a stake in a big Canadian shale gas field for $2.2 billion. And a third Chinese oil giant, CNOOC, recently spent $15 billion to acquire the Canadian energy company Nexen, which has huge shale reserves. Will Chinese shale live up to its promise? It’s in the early days, but back at the Jinqiu site, one of the wells has been giving off a soft hiss for months — a sign that there could be bountiful amounts of gas trapped in the rock beneath the rich Sichuan soil. As Shell’s Cortis walks away from the wellhead, he stops and looks back and says, “This is why I do this — to create energy, to leave something behind after I’m gone.” If his hunch is right and Sichuan holds one of the richest basins in the world, both Shell and China will be reaping the rewards for years to come. This story is from the April 29, 2013 issue of Fortune. This month in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Fortune hosts the fifth annual Brainstorm Green conference as part of our continuing coverage of corporate sustainability. These stories explore some of the cutting-edge ideas driving green technology. After you’ve read them, we think you’ll come to the conclusion that today business and environmentalism are vitally intertwined.

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Fracking comes to China

With help from Shell and other western energy giants, Beijing hopes to turn vast shale gas assets into a new source of clean(er) energy through fracking. The trick is to avoid an environmental disaster.

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It is all downhill from here. The cloud hangs low, snagged on crooked evergreens, wreathing the head of Mount Seymour in a cold, grey blanket. This slice of coastal British Columbia is wet – wetter than any place on earth this side of the Amazon Basin. A bitter chill seeps into the bone, and in the muffled, foggy silence, there is the zip and snap of armour being strapped on, the metallic clink of machinery being adjusted. Helmets, spine protectors, shin guards, elbow pads, neck braces – the trappings of battle are donned, already holed and muddied from previous skirmishes. A pair of Toyota pickup trucks stand silent as bicycles are lifted from their beds. The trucks are part chairlift, part toolbox, part duffel bag and part beast of burden. If you walk into the aftermarket section of any major motor show in North America, you would spot gleaming, full-size pickups with cartoonishly large wheels and improbable lift kits. The trucks in these damp woods, however – smaller and significantly dirtier – are the antithesis of those glossy, preening leviathans. Having unloaded the bikes and set off down a short section of road, knobby tires buzzing like angry hornets on the tarmac, the riders duck between the trees down a double-black-diamond trail. The course is a whip-crack of granite, mud and cedar, with the wooden sections made ice-slick by the unshakeable damp. It is a dangerous business, this downhill riding, with cyclists risking broken collar bones, compressed vertebrae, concussions and contusions. The armour is not just for show. In earlier times on these slopes, it might have been a hunting party diving into the lair of the cave-bear, to prove both bravery and athleticism. Here the threat of a heavy, murderous paw is replaced by the spectacularly unyielding nature of an 80ft Douglas fir, but the game is the same: the brotherhood of the ride, the skill, the danger. Off the pack goes into the woods, hooting at the cold, wheels skittering over the slick cedar planking. Mountain biking is a British Columbia pastime, worth tens of millions in tourism dollars to local economies. As winter edges closer, tourists seek snowier climes, heading to state-of-the-art ski resorts such as Whistler, site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. But the temperate coastal rainforest is relentlessly damp. The riding season consequently can extend deep into winter – provided the rider has the right equipment. Judging by the impromptu parking lots at trailheads, one of the most valuable pieces of that gear wears a Toyota badge. Tacomas and 4Runners of all generations are almost an official vehicle for thrill-seekers throughout the coastal ranges, down into the US. It is quite common to see $15,000 or even $20,000 worth of mountain bikes hanging off the tailgate of a battered Toyota worth a quarter of that amount. In the parking lot at the base of Mount Seymour, there are other vehicles to be found, too. Several Subaru Outbacks arrive, cross-country mountain bikes spilling out of them. A Ford F-150 with eight downhill bikes and two extra riders crouched in the bed motors off for the climb up the mountain. There is even a Suzuki Sidekick, looking like a proto-cute-ute with its suspension lift and outsize all-terrain tires. A woman walks along the line of vehicles, leaving fliers for a local pub. “Hose and Beer”, it reads, advertising a place to wash down a mount post-ride, as well as to slake thirst with a shared pitcher of lager. Toyotas, however, dominate the landscape. At one point, no fewer than four identical white crew-cab Toyota Racing Development (TRD) pickups are parked in a line. “I guess this is the white Tacoma parking section,” one owner jokes as he rides out to the trailhead. The mid-size Toyota pickup truck, known as the Hilux in overseas markets and the Tacoma in North America since 1995, is something of a cultural icon for outdoor enthusiasts. A black, pre-Tacoma-nameplate example appeared in the 1985 blockbuster film Back to the Future, stirring palpable desire in Michael J Fox’s Marty McFly – and in countless viewers. This was a vehicle built for fun; it could work, too, but the Toyota was a born sport truck, ideal for surfers, skiers, snowmobilers and cyclists. Its toughness is chronicled worldwide. The Chadian-Libyan conflict of 1987 is colloquially referred to as “The Toyota War” owing to the overloaded Hiluxes that Chadian guerillas piloted across deserts, en route to routing their adversaries, despite the Libyans’ infinitely superior firepower. While nobody on this deeply gladed hillside has mounted Browning .50cal machine guns on their Tacomas, all the trucks show signs of exceptional use. Bumpers are dented, fenders are chipped. “Real trucks should be dirty,” says rider Mark Godard. “Inside and out.” These particular downhillers are also members of the local Toyota off-roading club. Mitch Garvey drives a black 2007 Tacoma, one of the two trucks pulling shuttle duties on this particular day. “Upgrades are just wheels and tires,” he says. “I've got plans, lots of plans, but I'm saving for school, trying to be responsible.” The rest of the crew drives Toyota 4x4s in various incarnations. Bryan Sloan has driven down from Squamish in his 1997 4Runner. “A cold trip down with that back window open,” he laughs. Sean Anderson has a diesel-powered, Japanese-market Hilux Surf with an exhaust system that makes it sound like a steroidal John Deere. Wyatt Heesterman's green '92 pickup is possibly even louder. Kyle Robinson is in a 2009 crew-cab, one of the four white Tacomas in a line: he also is fixing up two older 4Runners. The knot of riders emerges at the base of the mountain sweaty, elated and mud-spattered. Another 1,000 vertical feet or so descended, another day, another lap downhill. There are 50-odd miles of official North Shore trails to shred, and who knows how many more wildcat routes scraped together in the woods and kept secret. On this day, there are fist-bumps and handshakes, a post-mortem of the ride, an examination of new bruises and parts shaken loose by the pounding. Propulsion here comes from muscle, bone and sinew, but when a group gets together, the same banter emerges as that you’d encounter at any hot-rodder convention. Get within earshot, and it's difficult to discern whether a slice of that future paycheque is going to bike or truck. Absent a new Tacoma to discuss (a full redesign, the truck’s first in nearly a decade, is in the works), the riders turn to the new Chevrolet Colorado pickup, ostensibly General Motors’ response to the Toyota’s long, lucrative run. Opinions are mixed. “The lower valence is too low, it's just going to get ripped off the first time you go off-road,” Mark Burill opines. His dark grey '09 Tacoma is freshly lifted and wears with pride a bend in the rear bumper. Anderson, owner of the Hilux Surf, has a calf tattoo of a bike-riding Buddha, the normally serene deity pumping his first in the air. The message is clear: nirvana is to be found on two wheels, on the downhill rush. For those who seek this enlightenment, however – this freedom of spirit – a mountain climb is in order. Among the winter mists and moss-coasted trees, dignified, battered chairlifts stand eager to lead their charges back into battle. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Autos, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter.

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Meet Canada’s gravity warriors

Deep in the coastal ranges of British Columbia, the mania for downhill mountain biking extends to the trucks that return riders to their favourite runs.

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Here’s a new one: Beazer Homes CEO Ian McCarthy is actually doing something for his shareholders. Not that he had any choice in the matter. McCarthy agreed Thursday to return a $7 million bonus he received from Beazer bzh for fiscal 2006. The payment allows McCarthy to settle a suit the Securities and Exchange Commission brought to recover incentive pay McCarthy got while Beazer was committing a big accounting fraud. The SEC said McCarthy agreed to pay $6.5 million in cash and return some restricted stock to settle a case brought under the Sarbanes-Oxley law of 2002. That law gives companies the right to claw back pay issued to top executives when a company’s books were being cooked, regardless of whether the executive had any culpability in the accounting fraud. McCarthy wasn’t charged in the SEC’s accounting-fraud case against Beazer, which the company settled in 2008. The agency is still pursuing a civil suit it brought the next year against the company’s chief accounting officer at the time of the fraud. Under Sarbanes-Oxley, McCarthy was liable to repay his 2006 bonus as well as any stock sale proceeds he garnered that year after Beazer admitted in 2008 that it had overstated its profits by manipulating cost accounts and improperly recording financings as sales. McCarthy received $7.1 million in bonuses that year, including $5.7 million in stock. No doubt intent on diversifying his holdings for the sake of his family’s financial security, he also managed to make $7.3 million by selling off some of his rather large holdings of Beazer stock — at much higher prices than prevail now, needless to say. So all told McCarthy owed Beazer shareholders $14 million for the company’s stay in fraudville. You wouldn’t think that would be an unbearable burden for a guy who made $21 million that year and $18 million over the previous two. But showing the great leadership he has displayed throughout his career, McCarthy simply declined to repay his company, prompting the SEC suit to recover funds due Beazer under Sarbanes-Oxley. And you would have to say that the gamble paid off for McCarthy: Owing $14 million in bonus and stock-sale profits, he gets off by paying just half that. Of course, this isn’t the first time McCarthy has short-changed Beazer shareholders. He received $21.8 million in compensation between 2007 and 2009, according to the company’s SEC filings. This for a period in which the company lost $1.2 billion and saw its shares plunge 89%. There are signs Beazer shareholders are catching on to this trend. Given a vote on the company’s executive pay arrangements under the Dodd Frank Act, they soundly rejected Beazer’s pay plan — even though McCarthy and other insiders no doubt voted to keep their ridiculous, money-losing gravy train rolling. That is not something you see every day. Beazer didn’t respond to a request for comment. “Shareholders are signaling they are going to be looking very carefully at the link between pay and performance,” says compensation watcher Andrew Liazos of McDermott Will & Emery in Boston. In Beazer’s case, it is high time.

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Here’s a new one: Beazer Homes CEO Ian McCarthy is actually doing something for his shareholders. Not that he had any choice in the matter. McCarthy agreed Thursday to return a $7 million bonus he received from Beazer for fiscal 2006. The payment allows McCarthy to settle a suit the Securities and Exchange Commission brought…

20150509092440

Mike Daisey has released the script of his controversial monologue on the Internet UPDATE: Anybody who is interested in Mike Daisey’s work should first listen to the retraction prepared by This American Life here. Even as he performs an extended stay of his monologue The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve Jobs at the New York Public Theater, Mike Daisey has done a rare thing for a professional writer and performer. He has released the full text of his controversial exposé of working conditions in China’s electronics factories, inviting anyone who is interested to read, adapt, re-publish or perform it, in whole or in part. “I’ve already received requests from more than 500 groups in 11 countries,” he says, “from mid-size regional theaters to a small community in Kurdistan on the Iraq border.” You can download the pdf here. “I don’t require credit,” he says, “but I do ask for it. And I do request that you let us know when you use it.” The show, which debuted last January at the Berkeley Repertory Theater, helped draw worldwide attention to the low pay, long hours and, according to Daisey, underage workers in Foxconn’s Shenzhen factories. Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer, assembles roughly 40% of the devices sold under such U.S. brands as Apple AAPL , Cisco CSCO , Dell DELL , Hewlett-Packard HPQ , Intel INTC , Microsoft MSFT and Motorola Mobility MMI . Foxconn has recently raised its wages and, at Apple’s request, opened its doors to a camera crew from ABC’s Nightline (see here). The moves followed a widely read series in the New York Times and the publicity generated by Daisey’s monologue, which was excerpted for radio and broadcast in January on PRI’s This American Life. “The Mira Hotel in Kowloon, Hong Kong,” Daisey’s piece begins, “is exquisitely designed. It’s like the inside of a sailing ship: everything has a place and everything is in its place. I actually find myself opening and closing the little drawers just to see the intricate way they’re fitted together … I can’t help it. It’s just the way I’m wired.” Click here for the rest.

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Mike Daisey has released the script of his controversial monologue on the Internet UPDATE: Anybody who is interested in Mike Daisey's work should first listen to the retraction prepared by This American Life here. - - - - Even as he performs an extended stay of his monologue  The Agony and the Ecstasy of Steve…

20150524081209

FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH A True Story. By Cameron Crowe. 253 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. Cloth, $14.95. Paper, $5.95. If you are a product of the postwar baby boom, if you loved high school and if you sometimes wish you'd never left, you'll love this book. Even if you hated adolescence, you'll probably laugh out loud at Cameron Crowe's often hilarious account of one of our least changed rituals. Mr. Crowe was 16 when he wrote his first cover story for Rolling Stone magazine. When he turned 21, he decided to impersonate a student at Ridgemont High in Redondo Beach, Calif. Though he felt old, he looked young, and his perspective is always affectionate, never condescending. He loved his fellow students, and the school turned out to be every bit as ''sublime and forbidding'' as he remembered it from a brief summer session seven years earlier. (Mr. Crowe was then attending a ''rather strict Catholic School''). The major characters at Ridgemont include S tacy Hamilton, who firstheard about sex from her mother in such clini cal terms that her firstquestion was ''Does a doctor perform the oper ation?''; Jeff Spicoli, the surfer who wanted nothing more when he wo ke up in the morning than ''a decent buzz and six- to eight-foot b reakers with good shape''; Lieut. Larry Flowers, the high schoo l's dean of discipline, whose ''overall appearance was that of Nat Ki ng Cole with a license to kill''; and the mostly invisible but alway s omniscent Mr. Crowe, who was able to gain the confidence of the Ri dgemont principal by revealing his friendship with Kris Kristoffer son. There is evidence the drug scene has peaked (many students now say, ''I went through my drug phase in junior high''), while the decline in educational standards hasn't. (Most of the teachers use the ''contract'' system, under which a student agrees to do a certain amount of work: ''Grades were given according to the amount of contract work done, and such matters as attendance didn't matter to the contract teacher.'') The social structure is based almost entirely on the nature of a student's fast-food employment. Fifteen-year-old Stacy Hamilton is a hostess at Swenson's and one of Mr. Crowe's most precocious subjects. Stacy tells her date, ''The Vet,'' that she is 19. ''The Vet leaned over and kissed Stacy on the cheek. Was that the first move? She sat quietly for a moment, her hands folded in her lap. It had to be the first move. ... She lunged for The Vet and kissed him squarely on the mouth.'' Stacy will always remember the graffiti above her that night in the Ridgemont baseball dugout: ''Heroin in the neck,'' ''Lincoln Was Here - Sieg Heil,'' ''Led Zeppelin'' and ''Dan y Roberto.'' Mr. Crowe says the names have been changed, but ''all the incidents are true.'' The sources for some of his stories are difficult to imagine, but the narrative is always pleasantly amusing. The movie rights have already been sold to Universal. THE FISH IS RED The Story of the Secret War Against Castro. By Warren Hinckle and William W . Turner. Illustrated. 373 pp. New York: Harper & Row. $15.50. Warren Hinckle is the former editor of Ramparts and Scanlon's. William M. Turner is a 10-year veteran of the F.B.I. and ''an expert on the paramilitary right in the United States.'' Both men hate the C.I.A. and love Fidel Castro, who (''it was said'') could ''outfight, outrun, outswim, outride and outtalk any man in Cuba.'' Their book is about the C.I.A.'s secret war against Cuba (among other things), and you always know which side they're on. They like colorful images. ''Papa Doc'' Duvalier ''beefed up his military defenses by a Faustian lend-lease pact with the Mafia.'' The gambler Johnny Roselli exhibited ''the diplomatic skills of a Mafia Kissinger.'' The Bay of Pigs ''turned out to be a combination of 'The Longest Day' and 'The Gong Show.' '' There is also some serious reporting here, which reveals myriad new details about raids by Cuban exiles against the Motherland. But how shocked can we be when we already know most of the stories about how the C.I.A. conspired with the mob to kill Fidel Castro? While much of this work is admirably footnoted, as is so often the case with books of this kind the most dramatic suggestions are also the least documented ones. Thus while the authors endorse the conclusion of the House Assassinations Committee that the ''most probable conspirators'' in John F. Kennedy's assassination were ''mobsters and possibly anti-Castro Cubans,'' like everyone else who has ever written about that troubling event they fall far short of providing conclusive proof of a conspiracy. ENVOY TO NEHRU By Escott Reid. Illustrated. 301 pp. New York: Oxford University Press. $24. This affectionate portrait of Jawaharlal Nehru by a former Canadian High Commissioner in New Delhi also includes dozens of fascinating footnotes about East-West diplomacy in the early years of the cold war. Escott Reid, who served in New Delhi from 1952 to 1957, has the brisk reporting style of a seasoned diplomat. While he displays all the sympathies ambassadors typically develop for the countries that have provided them with their most exciting experiences, Mr. Reid's prejudices rarely interfere with the quality of his analysis.

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FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH A True Story. By Cameron Crowe. 253 pp. New York: Simon & Schuster. Cloth, $14.95. Paper, $5.95. If you are a product of the postwar baby boom, if you loved high school and if you sometimes wish you'd never left, you'll love this book. Even if you hated adolescence, you'll probably laugh out loud at Cameron Crowe's often hilarious account of one of our least changed rituals. Mr. Crowe was 16 when he wrote his first cover story for Rolling Stone magazine. When he turned 21, he decided to impersonate a student at Ridgemont High in Redondo Beach, Calif. Though he felt old, he looked young, and his perspective is always affectionate, never condescending. He loved his fellow students, and the school turned out to be every bit as ''sublime and forbidding'' as he remembered it from a brief summer session seven years earlier. (Mr. Crowe was then attending a ''rather strict Catholic School'').

20150524083410

On a recent rainy morning at La Guardia Airport, about 15 travelers approached a modern, round white counter in the course of an hour. A few, merely curious, were attracted by the counter's computer equipment, such as the Wang Laboratories terminal into which an employee was feeding information. But some business executives homed straight in on the Bunker Ramo terminal, typing in the codes for various stocks themselves or asking Theodore F. Thomas, a staff member who is also a licensed stockbroker, for assistance. ''How's the market doing?'' asked one, poised at the keyboard. ''Up seven points,'' Mr. Thomas said. The businessman, a tobacco and candy wholesaler, rapidly punched in the codes for several stocks. Normally, he said, ''I check with my broker every day; now I don't have to.'' Others concurred. ''If I've taken a long-term position in the market, knowing the quotes wouldn't make much difference,'' said Larry Belanger, president of Bionomics, a medical diagnostic consulting concern. ''But if I've taken a short-term position I would probably want to live at one of these things.'' The travelers were utilizing the first of an estimated 25 business information centers to be installed at American airports by the BIS Communications Corporation. Sports and Weather, Too At La Guardia, where the first center began operation in March, travelers can now learn about the latest latest sports, weather and other news, track their stocks through a computerized quotation system and walk off with an assortment of literature from a cross section of corporate America. They can also get answers ''to anything from what Rabbit Maranville hit in 1915 with the Boston Braves to questions on government agencies, corporate subsidiaries or where to have your stenography done in another city,'' according to David C. Esty, who engineered the project using barter, creative marketing techniques and little capital. The second such center is scheduled for the Pittsburgh airport. Plans call for all 25 airport centers to be installed within the next 18 months. And Mr. Esty is preparing to take BIS public through an underwriting being handled by Verrilli Altschuler Schwartz Inc. of New York and Donald & Company of Jersey City. Two years ago he relinquished the presidency of Transportation Displays Inc., now TDI-Winston Network Inc., in New York, a company that specializes in advertising for buses, subways and airports, in order to found BIS. Tied to Major Sources The BIS centers are connected to major news and information sources. The Bunker Ramo Corporation has made its stock quotation system available at participating airports. The latest news from United Press International will roll continuously across overhead screens. American Express will sponsor hotlines for card-carrying travelers in distress. Complimentary airline schedules will be on hand, condensed from Dun & Bradstreet's Official Airline Guides. And the entire contents of The New York Times Information Bank, which stores a diverse spread of news daily from 50 major newspapers and magazines, will feed directly into Wang's video display terminals at each center. The Wang terminals at La Guardia seem to hold the most fascination for the public. Hands-on experience is denied to the curious, but staff members will key in any questions that travelers care to ask. Middle-of-the-Road Questions Considering the range of information available, executives tend to keep their questions as middle-of-the-road as their gray pin-striped suits. Elizabeth Nardi, one of three business information specialists who staff the center, said that most recent questions were concerned with ''companies and the people who run them,'' news items such as ''the status of Reagan's budget proposals and how the fight was going in Congress,'' and, of course, the locations of the restrooms and baggage claim areas. For its part, La Guardia Airport welcomed the center with open arms. BIS has a three-year renewable lease on its space, for which it pays 25 percent of its advertising revenues each month. The airport's manager, Tim Peirce, went so far as to insure that La Guardia was the first to have BIS as a tenant. ''It's truly an addition to the professional services we can provide,'' he said. ''The staffers are very sharp in catering to the business traveler.'' The La Guardia center has been earning about $30,000 a month from corporate advertising. While almost $900,000 went into setting up BIS, Mr. Esty said, packaging the center itself took little more than the $50,000 it cost to build. Instead of a major capital investment, Mr. Esty says he invested a year and a half of legwork and bartered with corporations to obtain services and equipment by offering them publicity at the centers in exchange. Pamphlets Offered Free Boardroom Reports, for example, emblazons its name across the city guide pamphlets it will be publishing for business travelers, at no cost to BIS, for each city that has an information center. BIS, in turn, offers the pamphlets free to executive travelers, who are thus directed to local hotels, restaurants, business resources and secretarial services. The link-up to The New York Times Information Bank is also without charge, Mr. Esty explained, because ''The New York Times gets a free way to make the Information Bank known, and that's the kind of product you have to touch and smell and feel.'' In addition, all the suppliers can run free commercials throughout the day on the center's two television monitors. Joining them are paid advertisers, including Bache Halsey Stuart Shields Inc., the Manufacturers Hanover Trust Company and the American Express Company. Advertisers also have the option to leave literature on display for an extra monthly charge. ''We really do have a captive audience,'' Mr. Esty said. ''Some 1.2 million people pass through La Guardia every month, and a good 60 percent of them are on business.'' Illustrations: Information center at LaGuardia

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On a recent rainy morning at La Guardia Airport, about 15 travelers approached a modern, round white counter in the course of an hour. A few, merely curious, were attracted by the counter's computer equipment, such as the Wang Laboratories terminal into which an employee was feeding information. But some business executives homed straight in on the Bunker Ramo terminal, typing in the codes for various stocks themselves or asking Theodore F. Thomas, a staff member who is also a licensed stockbroker, for assistance. ''How's the market doing?'' asked one, poised at the keyboard. ''Up seven points,'' Mr. Thomas said.

20150524104804

"A TENANT shouldn't have a baseball bat at his head," State Senator John E. Flynn said. "But if an owner wants to sell his building, you have to respect that feeling." The Yonkers Senator plans to re-introduce a bill that he submitted last year to protect tenants when their apartments are sold as cooperatives, a trend that is escalating in the county and one that, he recalled, began in his home city four years ago. He said cooperatives have advantages over rentals to many tenants, and he does not oppose all conversions - but he wants them to be conducted in a way that "won't cause harassment to tenants and will be orderly, equitable and reasonable." Besides last year's bill, which was considered only hastily in the closing days of the session, he will submit nine other bills, in the hope of achieving at least part of his aims. "If we can't get it all, we'll nibble away at it," he said. "It's like if you want ice cream, pie and coffee. In the big bill, you get them all. In the little bills, you get one at a time." Meanwhile, the state's Attorney General, Robert Abrams, has also made several suggestions for tightening the conversion laws. Some of them have been included in Senator Flynn's bills, which will be submitted in the Assembly by Alexander B. Grannis of Manhattan. Others have been announced to the Senate and Assembly, but they can be introduced only by Senators and Assemblymen and are awaiting sponsors. The most important proposal, to the suburban counties, is one that would allow tenants to remain in a converted building for five years without buying. Under current laws, tenants may stay for two years, except in a rent-stabilized apartment, where they can be evicted with 90 days' notice only if the apartment is being sold to a person who will occupy it, not to the sponsor or an investor. Another proposal would extend protection to the entire state. There is now one law for New York City and another for Westchester, Nassau and Rockland Counties. In other areas, owners may convert buildings and evict tenants at will. Until recently, there has been little demand for legislation. The Flynn-Grannis omnibus bill is an aggregate of separate bills that would do the following: Define the differences between rent-controlled apartments, rentstablized apartments and unregulated apartments. Require that in an eviction plan, 35 percen t of the apartments in each category be bought by the occupants in o rder for a building to go cooperative, and 51 percent of all apartme nts be sold to occupants. (The present law does not set a re quirement in each category and requires a total of 35 percent.) Most buildings f all under only one category, but a few in Westchester still ha ve both rent-controlled apartments, which date from a law passed i n 1974. Require, in noneviction plans, that 15 percent in each class would have to buy - and a total of 25 percent - for conversion to take place. (The requirement now has no break-down for different classes of apartments and is 15 percent of the total.) Require the sponsor to wait for 18 months before reapplying, if a conversion plan fails to be carried out 12 months after acceptance by the Attorney General. Westchester already has this regulation, and it would be extended to New York City. (There is no waiting period now, but a plan is dead if not enacted in 12 months.) Require, after a plan is accepted, that the owner announce-every 30 days how many tenants had agreed to purchase their apartments. Require the sponsor to provide an engineering report if 20 percent of the tenants requested it. Require the sponsor to provide an auditor's report if 25 percent of the tenants requested it. Require a reserve fund of 3 percent of the building's sale price to be set up when the building is converted by the owner to pay for later repairs. Give a tenant the exclusive right to purchase the apartment for 120 days after the plan was accepted, instead of the current 90 days. The Attorney General's proposals also include the following: If a landlord is found guilty of harassing a tenant to get the tenant to leave, the state could bar the landlord from converting that building or any other property for as long as five years. (The current law allows a 30-day suspension while harassment is investigated, and action is considered harassment only if the tenant has been forced out of the building.) The handicapped, who may not be evicted, are defined as persons with disabilities which prevent them from "engaging in any substantial employment." (The current law says they must be prevented from "any employment.") Besides the proposals that have been put forth publicly, Senator Flynn mentioned several that were discussed with other legislators. And a new tenant group, the Westchester Cooperative and Conversion Association, has several more. The Senator said he and other legislators had considered asking owners to set up equity loans, so that tenants could borrow 80 percent of an apartment purchase price for 20 years; a "moving allowance," for tenants who do not buy, which would be larger if they moved out promptly; and 30-month leases for nonbuyers. He also considered some changes that would benefit owners. One was to make a simpler procedure for buildings with 10 apartments or fewer. Another would be to eliminate the entire tenant procedure for new buildings, because, he said, "there's nobody there, or they know what they're getting into." Ira Fischer, a White Plains lawyer who has organized the new tenant association, said that the best plan would be "no eviction at all." "If a landlord want to convert, go ahead, but nobody should be out," he said. He conceded, however, that it was "unrealistic" to stop conversions altogether. "What we want, really," he said, "is some degree of control over our own destiny." Recent Home Sales A Random Selection Cross River 7-room, 2 1/2-bath frame raised ranch . . $107,500 Debbie Lane Built 1978; cathedral ceiling; taxes $3,817 Croton-on-Hudson 6-room, 2-bath masonry ranch .......... $142,500 Quaker Bridge Road Built 1940; skylight, brook; taxes $2,644 Irvington 8-room, 3-bath frame contemporary ..... $128,000 Whitetail Road Built 1957; playroom, deck; taxes $3,056 Larchmont 8-room, 2-bath masonry colonial ....... $165,000 Myrtle Boulevard Built 1913; encolosed porch, deck; taxes $2,717 Mount Kisco 8-room, 2-family frame ................. $80,000 Lundy Lane Built 1900; taxes $1,925 Yorktown Heights 8-room, 1 1/2-bath contemporary ....... $104,000 Maxwell Dr ive Built 1975; patio, dec, 1 /2 acre; taxes $3,179 SALES IN OTHER AREAS New Canaan, Conn. 4-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath colonial ........ $205,000 Charter Oak Drive 17 years old; 2 acres; taxes $2, 191 North Haledon, N.J. 4-bedroom, 2 1/2-bath split-level ... $175,000 Manor Road Swimming pool, horse barn; taxes $2,952 Illustrations: photo of John Flynn, Royden Letson, Ira Fischer

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"A TENANT shouldn't have a baseball bat at his head," State Senator John E. Flynn said. "But if an owner wants to sell his building, you have to respect that feeling." The Yonkers Senator plans to re-introduce a bill that he submitted last year to protect tenants when their apartments are sold as cooperatives, a trend that is escalating in the county and one that, he recalled, began in his home city four years ago. He said cooperatives have advantages over rentals to many tenants, and he does not oppose all conversions - but he wants them to be conducted in a way that "won't cause harassment to tenants and will be orderly, equitable and reasonable."

20150524120850

SOMERS SOMETHING new about something old has been introduced at the county-owned Muscoot Park - a once-a-month series of lectures on late Victorian ''American Writing and Art.'' Jack Robbins, a member of Muscoot's advisory committee and a trustee of the nearby John Jay Homestead, is the commentator. ''This was a time of great expansion and growth almost unparalleled in our society,'' Mr. Robbins said. ''The end of the Indian wars and opening of the West coincided with the first flowering of a truly American school of writing and painting, as distinct from the extended European tradition reflected in earlier periods of American art and literature. He said the series would explore ''the growth of literary and cultural trends during the 'Gilded Age' of mansioneering,'' as well as the ''high culture, industrial heroes and robber barons that marked the American scene between the late 19th century and the period before the first World War.'' Mr. Robbins, who has a doctorate in political science, said he had long been interested in this period of American culture. ''We decided to offer this program to further enrich and enlighten people on an exciting era of American history,'' he said. The next lecture in the series, which began last month, will be held Tuesday at 7:30 P.M. at the Muscoot Farm Manor House. On the agenda will be a presentation of ''The Rise of Silas Lapham,'' written in 1885 by William Dean Howells. Several well-known illustrators of that era, including George Fuller and Childe Hassam, will also be discussed. Fuller was a luminous painter of New England landscapes, while Hassam, according to Mr. Robbins, was one of the first exponents of French Impressionism in the United States. ''We are making attendance at these programs as attractive and convenient as possible,'' said Carl Specht, the park's manager. ''There is no admission charge, and there's plenty of free parking. We can accommodate about 50 in the Manor House's living room.'' The lectures, which last about an hour, are followed by question-andanswer periods. The first lecture, which was not widely publicized and drew about a dozen people, was devoted to Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer novels and such landscape artists as Albert Bierstadt, George Inness and Jasper Cropsey. The discussion about Bierstadt, a painter of Middle West outdoor scenes, opened a new area of inquiry for Mr. Robbins. ''I knew that Bierstadt lived in Westchester County - in Irvington - for most of his life and was a prominent Hudson River painter. I began wondering how many other well-known writers and painters also lived in Westchester. After a little research, I learned that there was a great number of artistic people who made their home here.'' Of course, Mr. Robbins said, he knew that Washington Irving, whose classics include ''The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,'' had lived in Tarrytown. But he subsequently determined that F. Scott Fitzgerald lived for a time in Mount Vernon and that Dashiell Hammett, the mystery writer, and John Reed, author of ''Ten Days That Shook The World,'' had lived in Croton-on-Hudson. In addition, there was Frederick Remington, who painted some of his important American Indian oils in his studio in New Rochelle. ''There are more,'' said Mr. Robbins. ''Charles Dana Gibson, the painter of the famed Gibson Girls, lived in Bedford and Horace Greeley, the 19th-century newspaper editor who advised young men to head west, lived in Valhalla. The Hudson River and its magnificent scenery was a natural magnet for landscape painters, while the quiet in many parts of Westchester's countryside provided an excellent haven for reflection and creative effort. ''Howells, of course, did not live in Westchester,'' Mr. Robbins said, explaining that a discussion of his work should prove of particular interest because he is so eminently readable. His many writings, Mr. Robbins said, provide a clear understanding of daily American life as it existed in post-Civil War days. ''Many of his novels deal with summer vacationing at such New England resorts as Nantucket, Kittery in Maine and Far Rockaway in Queens County,'' he said. ''Hassam, I should point out, was Howells's favorite illustrator.'' Other authors to be discussd during the rest of Mr. Robbins's series include Owen Wister, whose best-known effort was ''The Virginian,'' and Harold Frederic, who wrote ''The Damnation of Theron Ware.'' ''I first became cognizant of 'The Virginian' because of the motion picture, in which Gary Cooper appeared in the leading role,'' Mr. Robbins recalled. ''I, like lots of youngsters, was fascinated by cowboys and Indians. So I am looking forward to talking about Wister, who was a close friend of Theodore Roosevelt. Wister was a member of Boston's Beacon Hill society, and saw the West as a backdrop of emerging, rugged aristocracy.'' Following is the schedule of topics for the rest of the series: June 22. Harold Frederic (''The Damnation of Theron Ware,'' 1896). The artist Frederic E. Church. July 27. The author Henry James (''The Spoils of Poynton,'' 1897). John Singer Sargent artist. Aug. 24. Owen Wister (''The Virginian,'' l902) and Stephen Crane (the Western writings). Frederick Remington and Charles Russell, the artist. Sept. 28. John Reed (''Insurgent Mexico,'' 1914). Winslow Homer, the artist. Oct. 26. William Dean Howells (''The Leatherwood God,'' 1916).James McNeil Whistler, the artist. The lectures begin at 7:30 P.M., and the Muscoot Farm Manor House is on Route 100 in Somers. Illustrations: photo of Howells with illustrator Childe Hassam photo of detail of Hassam's impressionistic work photo of Owen Rister with illustrator,Frederick Remington photo of detail from one of Remington's oils

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A LOOK AT WRITERS AND ARTISTS OF THE PAST AT MUSCOOT

SOMERS SOMETHING new about something old has been introduced at the county-owned Muscoot Park - a once-a-month series of lectures on late Victorian ''American Writing and Art.'' Jack Robbins, a member of Muscoot's advisory committee and a trustee of the nearby John Jay Homestead, is the commentator. ''This was a time of great expansion and growth almost unparalleled in our society,'' Mr. Robbins said. ''The end of the Indian wars and opening of the West coincided with the first flowering of a truly American school of writing and painting, as distinct from the extended European tradition reflected in earlier periods of American art and literature.

20150524120851

ALBANY FOR the first time in the eight years she has served in the State Senate, Linda Winikow rose from her seat, representing the 38th district, and voted last Monday for legislation to restore the death penalty in certain cases of murder. The bill was passed by the Republican-led Senate by a vote of 41 to 17. Mrs. Winikow's switch in support of the bill was a blow to civil libertarians who had sought throughout the weeks preceding the vote to convince the Democrat-Liberal from Spring Valley to maintain her position against capital punishment. It also suprised many of Mrs. Winikow's colleagues who have tried unsuccessfully for years to win her support for the death-penalty measure. The dramatic departure from her previous stand immediately prompted speculation that Mrs. Winikow - whose new district will include more of conservative Orange County - had yielded to political pressures. Mrs. Winikow's name has also been mentioned as a potential candidate for Lieutenant Governor on a ticket with Mario Cuomo. Mr. Cuomo is the only one of the major gubernatorial contenders - who include Democratic Mayor Edward Koch, and Lewis Lehrmann and Paul J. Curran, Republicans - who is opposed to capital punishment. When questionned about her motivations, Mrs. Winikow denied that politics had anything to do with her decision. What had prompted the sudden change, she said, was an incident that she called ''the massacre that engulfed a commmunity.'' The reference was to the robbery in Rockland County last October of a Brink's armored car in which two police officers and a security guard were killed. ''I don't really believe that those killings would have been prevented if we had had a death penaty,'' she said when she rose to state her case before the Senate. ''But maybe somewhere, sometime, one innocent victim will be saved.'' At the same time, Mrs. Winikow reiterated her conviction that capital punishment was an immoral act and not a practical deterrant to crime. However, she chastised her colleagues in the Legislature for failing to enact tougher measures to combat violent crime. ''All we do is talk,'' she said moments after the bill had passed. ''We haven't taken action to reform our judicial system in 10 years. I could not let the massacre that took place in my community go by without trying to do something about it.'' Mrs. Winikow, an imposing woman whose usually raspy voice had succumbed to laryngytis last Monday, has long been associated with liberal causes. She said the decision was one of the most difficult she has had to make during her years as a Legislator. ''You don't take 10 years of philosophy and change it without serious thought,'' Mrs. Winikow said. ''It's easy to stand on old decisions.'' But a sudden and dramatic change of events may bring the bill before the Senate for another vote. Last Wednesday, the Assembly sponsor of the bill postponed a vote on the measure to consider an amendment that would allow juries to impose a sentence of life without parole as an alternative to the death penalty. If such an amendment is agreed upon by the sponsors of the bill, the amended version of the bill would be sent back to the Senate for a vote. The bill as approved by the Senate would establish the death penalty for anyone who murdered an on-duty police officer or prison guard or who committed murder while engaged in another violent felony such as rape. However, the death penalty could be imposed only by a second jury - different from the one that convicted a defendant of murder. Governor Carey has vetoed the death-penalty legislation in each of the last five years and is virtually certain to do so again this year. Although the 41 affirmative votes in the Senate represented more than the two-thirds necessary to override the Governor's veto, top Assembly officials say the bill's supporters do not have a twothirds majority in their house. Thus the proposal is likely to fail again. Mrs. Winikow, who expressed confidence that she could be re-elected on her record, said she has actively supported other proposals to toughen sentences for violent offenders, such as life without parole. She also voiced support for a constitutional amendment to require the death penalty in certain cases of murder. The amendment would require the approval of two successively elected Legislatures and approval by a majority of voters in a referendum. Illustrations: photo of Linda Winikow

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A WINIKOW SHIFT ON DEATH PENALTY

ALBANY FOR the first time in the eight years she has served in the State Senate, Linda Winikow rose from her seat, representing the 38th district, and voted last Monday for legislation to restore the death penalty in certain cases of murder. The bill was passed by the Republican-led Senate by a vote of 41 to 17. Mrs. Winikow's switch in support of the bill was a blow to civil libertarians who had sought throughout the weeks preceding the vote to convince the Democrat-Liberal from Spring Valley to maintain her position against capital punishment. It also suprised many of Mrs. Winikow's colleagues who have tried unsuccessfully for years to win her support for the death-penalty measure.

20150714182727

FORTUNE — In retrospect, the biggest blunders often seem inexplicable. Four different book publishers, for instance, passed on J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter novel. A weird story about the adventures of a juvenile wizard and his friends just didn’t seem worth a $5,000 advance. Oops. According to author George Anders, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor at The Wall Street Journal, most big companies make comparable mistakes all the time. For a new book, The Rare Find: Spotting Exceptional Talent Before Everyone Else, Anders set out to analyze how some of the most successful enterprises choose extraordinary new hires. What he found will come as no surprise to anyone who has worked with someone who looked good on paper but turned out to be less than stellar in action. Instead of insisting on a rigid set of credentials, Anders says, hiring managers ought to focus on what the job really requires and give a fair shot to candidates whose resumes may be what Anders calls “jagged,” or full of ups and downs. Someone whose background “appears to teeter on the edge between success and failure,” he writes, can do “spectacular work in the right settings, where their strengths dramatically outweigh their flaws.” Consider, for example, legendary Facebook engineer Evan Priestley. He had changed his college major three times before dropping out altogether, and was working as a low-level web designer at a small firm in Portland, Me., when, in 2007, he happened to come across a programming puzzle that Facebook had put out over the Internet. Priestley’s solution was so elegant that Facebook flew him to Palo Alto for an interview, where he impressed everyone with his skills. Facebook hired him, and the rest is legend: Priestley led a team of programmers that sped up Facebook’s infrastructure and made it easier to add games, maps, and other applications. At one point, Facebook’s site stopped working for a small group of users who, it turned out, were hampered by an obscure, out-of-date security program. The only publicly available manual was written in Danish. No problem! Priestley and a coworker stayed up all night learning enough Danish — mastering terms like foutmelding and beveilaging — to untangle the trouble. The point: If hiring managers had considered only Priestley’s lackluster resume, he’d never have gotten a foot in the door. Drawing on other case studies from organizations as diverse as the FBI, the National Basketball Association, General Electric GE , and (a cautionary tale) Enron, this is thought-provoking stuff for anybody who’s frustrated with trying to find exceptional talent using the same, tired old methods. The Rare Find is also a rare find in itself: A business book that is actually fun to read.

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How to spot exceptional talent

Most companies say they have trouble finding the right people these days. A new book argues that identifying brilliant hires depends on a willingness to abandon the usual criteria.

20150823142434

When Beth Schiavone moved from a three-decker in Mission Hill to the small Central Massachusetts town of Boylston in 2001, she realized she didn’t know what day her trash would be picked up. “Whatever day you like” came the partial answer when she called Town Hall. How quaint and accommodating, Schiavone thought — until she heard the rest. She would have to hire a private contractor to pick up her trash, and they often let you choose your day. Yup, she and her husband weren’t in Boston anymore. But in truth, they weren’t that far away either — at least in terms of miles. The center of town is 43.6 miles from Copley Square. Yet in many ways, the town feels more Mayberry than that distance, and its location just outside Worcester, would suggest. There’s a “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” town center, with an expanse of green and a lone gazebo on the common, plus a few attractive historic buildings, including the library. The one and only business in the center of town is the eclectic Boylston Deli Cafe & Catering, where you can get breakfast all day; a wide variety of sandwiches; chicken, broccoli, and pasta tossed with herb-infused oil; or a package of Lorna Doone cookies. Books and board games are stacked on the shelves for use by customers. Embracing the now, the deli doesn’t offer paper menus but can e-mail one to you. It’s all charming in a town where the population is just 4,431 . Schiavone’s 11-year-old son, William, has about 60 students in his grade, with class sizes hovering at an enviable 20. “By the time your kid’s in second grade, you pretty much know everybody that he’s going to go through high school with,’’ Schiavone said. “We’re very happy here.” A sampling of homes for sale in Boylston includes a 115-year-old Colonial with canvas ceilings for $264,000 and a contemporary on 20.1 acres for $999,999. Amount of land in town the Wachusett Reservoir covers. Starting in 1897, more than 4,000 acres in Boylston and surrounding towns were flooded to create it. The year that the city of Nagasaki, Japan, named a road there in memory of a Boylston native. Colonel Victor Delnore helped oversee reconstruction of that city after World War II. The year temperance leader John B. Gough built his Italianate home, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, at the top of a hill The number of municipal sewers in the town, which is studying whether a microsystem would help spur business development along Route 140 Though its creation meant a loss of taxable property for the town, Wachusett Reservoir, the second-largest inland body of water in Massachusetts, is just so pretty. Passive recreation opportunities include shoreline fishing, hiking, bird-watching, and snowshoeing. The lack of sewers has been a drain on development, which means the townspeople shoulder a lot of the tax burden. Headquarters for the Worcester County Horticultural Society, the property offers 132 stunning acres of flora and fauna, plus special programs, exhibits, classes, plant sales, Twigs cafe, and a gift shop. Boylston, MA - 8/15/2015: The Wachusett Reservoir lies in the town of Boylston, MA on Aug 15, 2015. (Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe) Boylston, MA - 8/15/2015: The Boston Historical Society building sits next to the Boston Deli and across from a memorial in Boylston, MA on Aug 15, 2015. (Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe) Boylston, MA - 8/15/2015: Southborough residents Norman and Merril Leferman walk off of the green at Cyprian Keyes Golf Course in Boylston, MA on Aug 15, 2015. (Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe) Boylston, MA - 8/15/2015: Birds are designed in a windowpane in Boylston, MA on Aug, 15 2015. (Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe) Boylston, MA - 8/15/2015: Birds are designed in a windowpane in Boylston, MA on Aug, 15 2015. (Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe) Boylston, MA - 8/15/2015: A cemetery lied in the middle of the town of Boylston, MA on Aug 15, 2015. (Harrison Hill for The Boston Globe)

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What is it like to live in Boylston?

The Worcester County town has a “don’t blink or you’ll miss it” center, with an expanse of green and a lone gazebo on the common, plus a few attractive historic buildings, including the library.

20150825064103

Question: On a scale of 1-10 how hard was it to leave Wall Street? Answer: 8.It was 2007 when I left and everyone thought I was leaving money on the table. Q: Why did you leave? A: I didn't care about the business or money as much as everyone else did; I didn't want it. I believe you have to be passionate about what you do. For me, money doesn't buy happiness, but it took me three years to realize that. I needed to put my efforts behind something that I cared about. Read MoreMy biggest mistake on Wall Street: Turney Duff Q: How's it been since you left the business? A: I've been able to blend my life's passion and what I do every day. Things don't move as fast. I've learned, over time, how to be more patient as the gratification of your work isn't as instantaneous. Q: What do you miss about Wall Street? A: The constant, but exhausting, action. It wasn't for me, but I like to constantly be learning and Wall Street taught me how to think like an opportunist. I apply that thought process to my work current work. Read MoreThe 12 types of people on Wall Street Q: Is Wall Street dead? A: The culture might continue to shift and move with the times — i.e. more transparency — but no, it's not dead. Q: Would you ever go back? A: Never say never. Purpose is the new buzz word. Funds are popping up focusing exclusively on making change. Corporations are realizing that doing good might actually increase profits. So, yes … Never say never.

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Q&A: Leaving Wall Street for 'conscious' marketing

Turney Duff checks in with former Wall Street friend Max Katbat, who left his job as a trader for a career in "conscious" marketing.

20150905211008

The first charge to which Fogle will plead guilty is "distributing and receiving visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and conspiring with others to do so," according to the filing. The second count charges Fogle with traveling "in interstate commerce in order to engage in unlawful sexual acts with minors, and attempted to do so." Fogle became the face of Subway for more than 15 years after shedding more than 200 pounds as a college student, in part by eating the chain's sandwiches. Subway says it has ended its relationship with Fogle. Subway still featured at least one mention of Fogle on its site until midday Wednesday—"Jared's Pants Dance game" said it could "Bring Your Kids Meal to Life!" As part of his plea agreement, Fogle will pay $1.4 million in restitution—$100,000 to each of 14 underage victims. Speaking to the media Wednesday, Jeremy Margolis, one of Fogel's attorneys, said his client "will fully and completely acknowledge the responsibility for his wrongdoing." Margolis added that Fogle "knows the restitution can't undo the damage that he's done, but he will do all in his power to try and make it right." In the filing, Fogle stipulates that the government would be able to prove that he received visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct on multiple occasions, that he knew they were under 18 years of age, and that the former Subway pitchman even "met the minors during social events in Indiana." None of the minors in the content created by Fogle's primary pornography supplier knew they were being filmed—and were instead captured in images and videos by hidden cameras. Additionally, Fogle was provided with content from other sources with victims who were "as young as approximately six years of age." Fogle also stipulated to the government's evidence that on at least two occasions he traveled to New York City "in order to engage in commercial sexual activity with minors." This included sex-for-money encounters with a 17-year-old woman in the city's Plaza Hotel and Ritz Carlton Hotel. Read MoreSubway and Jared suspend relationship Fogle agreed to participate in sexual disorder treatment and to register as a sex offender in any state he will live or work in. Margolis said his client "knows he has a medical problem," and has sought evaluation from a psychiatrist. After it came to light in July that Fogle was the subject of a child porn investigation, Subway provided CNBC with the following statement: Subway and Jared Fogle have mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation. Jared continues to cooperate with authorities and he expects no actions to be forthcoming. Both Jared and Subway agree that this was the appropriate step to take. Katie Fogle, the former pitchman's wife, said in a statement that she was shocked and disappointed by the recent developments, and that she is filing for divorce, Indianapolis NBC affiliate WTHR-TV reported. —The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Fmr Subway spokesman Jared Fogle to plead guilty to child porn, sex with minors charges

Former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle will plead guilty to charges related to child pornography, according to documents seen by CNBC.

20150908010424

The ECB's chief economist Peter Praet, who is also a member of the ECB's executive board, said last week that falling commodity prices and a slowdown in China were hindering the central bank's goal of getting inflation back up to around 2 percent and pledged the bank would do more if necessary. In the face of continued weakness and the heightened risk of deflationary shocks, there are three main options for additional policy support according to analysts. The ECB could cut interest rates again, increase the size of its monthly asset purchases, or extend the program beyond the current scheduled end date of September 2016, they said. But further cuts to the deposit rate, which is already at -0.2 percent, would risk having negative consequences, including the prospective damage to banks' profitability, which could cause them to cut their own deposit rates or increase lending rates, moves that would likely hurt the growth of businesses in the euro zone. Read MoreEuro zone unemployment hits 3-year low - but don't get out the flags yet "Governing Council members have already indicated quite strongly that short-term policy rates have reached a floor. Accordingly, we expect hints of potential future policy support to centre on the Asset Purchase Programme," said McKeown at Capital Economics. She expects the ECB to extend its QE program beyond next year and probably increase the pace of purchases in the meantime. Barclay's Gudin agreed. "We now expect further easing to be announced before year-end as we believe inflation is unlikely to return to levels consistent with the ECB's objective of price stability over the next two years," he added.

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Euro strength puts pressure on Draghi as ECB meets

The euro could be in focus at Thursday's European Central Bank meeting, as currency strength threatens to undermine efforts to lift inflation.

20150910140614

* Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea given provisional nod for payments bank * Reliance Industries, billionaire Shanghvi also among 11 winners * India central bank says will give more permits in future MUMBAI, Aug 19 (Reuters) - India's leading mobile phone network operators Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone India are among the 11 companies selected by the country's central bank to help set up "payments banks," aimed at granting millions of citizens access to basic banking. Energy-to-telecoms conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd , controlled by India's richest man Mukesh Ambani, which plans to set up a payments bank in a partnership with top lender State Bank of India (SBI), was also among the winners. Payments banks will be able to take deposits and remittances but will not be allowed to lend. They are part of India's financial inclusion push, meant to bring banking services to a country where less half the adult population has a bank account. The aim is for payments banks to piggy-back on existing retail or other networks. Analysts also expect them to be technology-driven although they must have a physical presence. "We see this license as an opportunity to promote financial inclusion by providing banking and transaction services to unbanked, under-banked and small businesses," said Arundhati Bhattacharya, chairman of SBI, which will have a 30 percent stake in the planned payments bank. Dilip Shanghvi, the second-richest Indian, was also among those who won a permit. His company Dilip Shanghvi Family and Associates will partner Norway's Telenor and Indian financial firm IDFC Ltd for the planned payments bank. IDFC previously won a full-service banking permit and plans to start the bank from October. The country's postal office, and a joint venture of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd and third largest Indian cellphone carrier Idea Cellular were among others selected by the Reserve Bank of India.(http://bit.ly/1hMiyRB) Nationwide retail store network of telecoms carriers including Bharti Airtel - whose minority partner in the planned payments bank is lender Kotak Mahindra - and Vodafone's Indian unit are expected to help drive their payments bank operations. Both carriers welcomed the central bank move. Fino PayTech Ltd and Cholamandalam Distribution Services Ltd, which already work with banks as agents or distribute financial products were also given provisional approval. Fino PayTech has planned more than 3 billion rupees ($46 million) investment in the payments bank and aims it to break even in three years, its chief executive Rishi Gupta said. The companies selected will be given "in-principle" approval for 18 months, after which they will be given licenses if they fulfill all conditions stipulated by the RBI, the central bank said on Wednesday. A total of 41 companies had applied for the permit, the RBI said, adding "some of the entities who did not qualify in this round, could well be successful in future rounds." Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of mobile wallet services provider Paytm that is partly owned by Alibaba's Ant Financial, was also selected. India's fifth-biggest software exporter Tech Mahindra was also named among the winners. (Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy; Editing by Keith Weir and Greg Mahlich)

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UPDATE 2-India picks phone carriers among 11 firms awarded niche bank permits

*Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea given provisional nod for payments bank. MUMBAI, Aug 19- India's leading mobile phone network operators Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone India are among the 11 companies selected by the country's central bank to help set up "payments banks," aimed at granting millions of citizens access to basic banking. Energy-to-telecoms...

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Some of the pension's holdings are invested in the Russell 3000 index, which tracks 3,000 companies including coal producers Peabody Coal and Arch Coal and tobacco giant Philip Morris, according to the employees' research note. Others are invested in funds tied to Morgan Stanley's MSCI index, which includes major fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil, according to that note. MSCI and other indexes offer portfolios that screen out companies in industries with perceived ethical problems. Some of these funds have performed as well or better than the bank's current investments. The MSCI's two Fossil Fuels Exclusion Indexes have outperformed the main MSCI index for the past three years, according to annual performance fact sheets. Read MoreWorld Bank money funds 'trail of misery,' In its statement to Reuters, the bank said were it to consider such funds it "would have to be convinced of their superior return and risk properties in order to make the investment consistent with fiduciary responsibilities." In a blog post on the bank's in-house Web site last October some employees argued that the bank's target of 3.5 percent annual real returns could be met through socially responsible investments, and raised concerns that the bank's pension investments contradict its public mission. Bank employees have investment choices within their plans, but none offer ethical alternatives, they said. In response, Madelyn Antoncic, treasurer of the World Bank, posted that "things aren't always black and white." She cited the case of a bio-medical subsidiary of tobacco company Reynolds American Inc. which is working to develop a vaccine for the Ebola virus from modified tobacco leaves. Antoncic, who oversees more than $140 billion in World Bank assets as well as the pension fund, said that 60 percent of the plan's equity holdings are in separately managed accounts. Read MoreChina's new 'World Bank' gains support despite warnings Several other large pension funds have shifted toward more ethical investments. Norway's $850 billion Government Pension Global Fund, the world's largest sovereign wealth fund, announced in February that it had moved out of companies connected to Alberta's oil sands and gold miners. And the $53 billion staff pension fund of the United Nations invested in two low-carbon funds by BlackRock and State Street last December. "Just two years ago, investments that met ESG principles were the domain of smaller funds; now interest has spread to the largest pension schemes in the world," said Kevin Bourne, a managing director of ESG at the FTSE Group.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150924133017id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/04/world-banks-pension-investments-clash-with-principles.html

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World Bank's pension investments clash with principles

World Bank invests part of its $18.8 bn staff pension fund in companies in industries, holdings that clash with the institution's own calls.

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In 1916, LS Lowry had missed his train from Pendlebury, the Salford suburb where he lived, into Manchester. "It would be about four o'clock and perhaps there was some peculiar condition of the atmosphere or something. But as I got to the top of the steps I saw the Acme Mill; a great square red block with the cottages running in rows right up to it – and suddenly I knew what I had to paint." Dickens and Mrs Gaskell had written about Manchester. DH Lawrence found a language for the rough beauty of the Derbyshire mines. George Bernard Shaw, JB Priestley and George Orwell were fascinated by the culture of the industrial working class: its see-saw alcoholism and tee-totalism; its unrepentant godlessness versus its low-church evangelical fervour; its brawling brutality and sudden gentleness. But no one was painting it. "My ambition was to put the industrial scene on the map, because nobody had done it – nobody had done it seriously." That was his brief; it became his obsession. Lowry, the sensible night-school-trained amateur artist in search of a subject, was overtaken – possessed would be a better word – by an unconscious force far bigger than either the man or his mission-statement. For the rest of his life, he spoke of that moment seeing the Acme Mill in 1916 as his vision. He was as much a mystic as William Blake was with his "dark satanic mills", or WB Yeats's "foul rag and bone shop of the heart". Where? In Lancashire. It is pointless to try to understand Lowry the painter as Lowry the Tory, the rent-collector, the virgin who lived with his mother, the timid voyeur in the buttoned-up mac (the man can't really be an artist, he worked for a living and he never had sex). And it is beside the point to talk about his pictures as belonging, fleetingly, to a vanished world. All of us belong, fleetingly, to a vanishing world. It is fashionable to look back at Warhol and talk about how his repetitions provoked us out of familiarity when he piled up the soup cans and screen printed the Monroes – multiplying two iconic brands; the one glamorous, the other mundane – his genius to recognise that they vibrated on the same cultural wavelength. Lowry is popular but unfashionable – a deadly combination in the art world, so his critics use his repetitions against him. It is true that one Lowry looks a lot like another, though that seems to me to be a view closer to prophecy than to criticism in our post-Lowry global village of chains and brands. This Lowry sameness interests me. At the loom, on the assembly line, on the track, the human being must perform the same task in the same way every working hour. The machine does not tire of this repetition, a repetition reinforced by the uniform lines of the mill windows, the identical terraced houses leading down to the factory. Lowry paints his figures as repeats because that is what they are – clones for the industrial machine. Units. The means of production. The machine is the antithesis of the human. If Lowry had been painting Mao's great leap forward or Stalin's five-year plans, his faceless figures, over-sized factories, underfed bodies and drab housing would have been celebrated as critical commentary on the de-humanising evils of Communism (whose 1848 Manifesto, don't forget, was written by Marx after he had spent time with his friend Engels in Manchester). As it is, Lowry's pictures unsettle the myth of our land of hope and glory, blowing the cover story of capitalism: freedom and choice. Look at a Lowry and you are looking at a rebuke to that class whose wealth depends upon the ceaseless labour of others. These are also the people rich enough to buy art. Lowry would have laughed at this analysis. He voted Tory all his life and worked all his life as a rent collector, bagging the pounds, shillings and pence from families who would never own their own home. Lowry's world was a week away from destitution. The weekly wage went on the weekly rent, on the weekly food, on medicine, on booze. Yet Lowry's workers, like Lowry, often voted Tory too. Margaret Thatcher tapped into the British working-class distrust of socialism, a distrust that persuades those whose labour creates our wealth to believe it is safer in the hands of those who manipulate it. Lowry did not intend to be a political painter, but he is one. He painted what was real – the industrial life of the north of England – but he painted it past documentary and into a dialogue of the soul – what happens to a human being when they are forced to couple with the machine? The demon world of industrialisation forces meaningless repetition. The Industrial Revolution is a story we tell about progress, about the coming of the modern. It is also the story of a collective nervous breakdown – "I have seen hell and it's white," Mrs Gaskell on Cottonopolis – the nickname for Manchester. "The piston of a steam engine worked monotonously up and down like the head of an elephant in melancholy madness," – Dickens on Manchester. Agricultural societies and cottage industries work long hours every day, but no matter how poor and backbreaking, it is not repetitive in the way that factory work is repetitive. The seasons, the weather, the cycle of crops and gestation, all make for variety – not ease of labour, but variety. The imperative behind the Factory Acts and the trade unions' focus on cutting factory hours, happened out of a late understanding that you cannot use the work practices of agriculture as a template for industry. Look at the famous Lowry figures. There is something static about them even in movement. This has been used to criticise his technique. But have those art critics ever looked at what happens to the human body when its only purpose is to serve the machine? Repetition produces rigidity. The body seizes up in certain positions – it's why professional musicians and athletes spend a fortune on physiotherapy. Lowry's figures suffer even in their gaiety. The park pictures are the saddest. The bent-over bodies, the thin legs, the bewilderment of those who stand and stare. How did we get here? How did this happen to us? Mental distress is somatised as posture. Freud recognised that humans go on repeating a trauma as a means of revealing it, with the hidden hope of healing it. Lowry kept painting the trauma. The trauma of industrialisation, the shock to the system that is the machine – until clock-out time, until the whistle blows, until death. My father worked in a factory from the age of 14 until he was 65, with time off to kill six men with a bayonet at the D-Day landings because the ammunition was only given out to the ranks of sergeant and above. His body held all of that. He was scarred, fit, misshapen, proud. He was a working man. Who was going to paint the likes of him in his machine-stamped life? (A jaunty hat for Saturday sport). Lowry. The closer I look at the pictures, the more variety I see. Take any of Lowry's industrial scenes and look closely: the urban drab is relieved by a bunch of flowers in an upstairs window, by a figure in a doorway, by a hand stuffed in a pocket in a whistling sort of a way, by somebody waving, by a slash of colour, by a break across the rigidly divided canvas. Lowry's use of the flat surface of the canvas is both rigid and anarchic. Put a ruler on the picture, see what happens in what section, and where it breaks its own rules of ordered composition. Check out the horse's ears in Coming Home From the Mill (1928). Look again. The monotonous palette? The colour is there. Manchester is made of red brick, blackened by soot. Red and black are the colours of the inferno. Lowry takes the red and turns it into defiance and blood. Pride is as important as pain. Lowry's figures are fighting back; the houses show tiny flares of human resistance against the baleful factory chimneys that stand like arrogant, blasphemous, broken crosses – the hanging beam gone; the hope of redemption gone. His critics say there is no interiority, no inner world, in Lowry. They say this because his scenes literally happen on the streets, and they say it as a description of what he lacks. As a rent collector, he was a man who stood on doorsteps, not invited in. And his own private world, without passion as he called it, had no glass for self-reflection. Yet it seems to me that the again and again repetition of these scenes of working-class life is more than a surface show. Where is the inner life when you work a 12-hour day six days a week? It is not found in the cold, cramped back room of your damp terrace, it's in the talk over the fence or fishing with the dog on the canal, or listening to the street preacher and wondering if you believe a word of it. It's saving up for a mouth organ because you want to play a tune. It's the boy – any boy – watching the girl – any girl – and he's Romeo and she's Juliet, and she'll be pushing the pram like the girl behind and he'll be drunk like the man in front, but the machine hasn't broken all the dreams – not yet. Look at them – art's not for them is it? Art is for the galleries, for the money, champagne, good taste, fancy language, the posh boys at the Courtauld, Christie's, the Tate. No wonder they keep the Lowrys in the basement.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150925013449id_/http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2013/jun/13/ls-lowry-industrial-world/amp

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LS Lowry's rage against the machine

Lowry's critics have used the fact of his paintings' repetitiveness against him, but he brilliantly reveals what happens when human beings couple with the industrial world, says Jeanette Winterson

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Nonetheless, the pace of growth in countries across the region will vary, IMF said Among the major economies, China's economy expected to slow to a more sustainable pace of 6.8 percent in 2015 and 6.3 percent in 2016, while growth in Japan poised to pick up to 1.0 percent this year and 1.2 percent next year. Elsewhere, there is a divergence between net commodity exporters and importers. Read MoreFree trade with Asia will juice the economy "Exporters of non-oil commodities whose prices have fallen sharply (Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, and New Zealand) will be adversely affected by the terms-of-trade swing; elsewhere, however, growth is expected to stabilize or increase," it said. India, a major beneficiary of lower commodity prices, will be a bright spot in the region. Asia's third-largest economy is projected to expand 7.5 percent this year and next, making it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. There are reasons to be cautious, however, with the balance of risks tilted to the downside, the IMF warned. Read MoreWealth effect? Why Asia's missing the boat Risks include significantly slower-than-expected growth in China or Japan and persistent U.S. dollar strength, which could ramp up debt servicing costs for firms with sizable dollar-denominated debt and curtail demand. "Debt levels — including foreign currency-denominated debt—have increased rapidly in recent years, and Asia is now more vulnerable to financial market shocks," the IMF said. On the flip side, lower energy prices present an upside risk for Asia's growth if more of the savings on oil import bills is spent. "The decline in oil and food prices provides a window of opportunity to further reform or phase out subsidies, thereby improving spending efficiency and shielding public spending from future commodity price fluctuations," it said.

http://web.archive.org/web/20150925023900id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/05/06/imf-asia-will-remain-the-global-growth-leader.html

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IMF: Asia will remain the global growth leader

Asia will continue to outperform the global economy thanks to robust domestic consumption spurred by healthy labor markets, low rates and the fall in oil prices.

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Though they formed decades apart, Franz Ferdinand and Sparks are two bands that share a similarly idiosyncratic philosophy — and now, an album and a stage. Enter FFS (Franz Ferdinand & Sparks), a recently formed supergroup that avoids simply recontextualizing old material, but instead creates a distinct new sound. FFS plays Boston’s Orpheum Theatre on Oct. 2, where Franz Ferdinand singer-guitarist Alex Kapranos and his mates will team up with Sparks’ Ron and Russell Mael to make some witty, provocative noise. To set the stage, we asked Kapranos to pick five essential Sparks songs. 1. “This Town Ain’t Big Enough for Both of Us” “This is the song that really brought them to the UK audience. It’s such a good pop song, [but] it doesn’t follow the conventions of pop songwriting. . . . It doesn’t really follow one particular scale all of the time, it works in sections, it’s led by this really long piano riff . . . and it’s cool, it really rocks, it’s really heavy, and it’s all based around that one line, which you used to hear in western movies.” 2. “Achoo” “It’s one of the first songs we tried to play when we got together as Franz Ferdinand. . . . It was great because we all loved Sparks. The music that they wrote — and this song is a great example — is very direct. And while it doesn’t sound like pop music in a conventional sense, it works like pop music should, in that you have an instant reaction to it.” 3. “The Number One Song in Heaven” “It sounds completely different from anything they’d done before as a rock band. . . . The bass guitars, even Ron’s piano style, has disappeared. We now have synthesizers and a disco drum beat leading the arrangement. Which is a massively brave move for a band to do: You’ve established yourselves and you have a distinct following that’s already defined, and then you completely leave that behind.” 4. “Sherlock Holmes” “This song has this strange ethereal wallow-iness to it, which is beautiful, almost a little fragile and gentle. It’s written with the chord progression you’d hear almost in a Ramones or a Phil Spector song, but the choice of melody is not an obvious melody; it’s what you’d find more in jazz.” 5. “When Do I Get to Sing ‘My Way’ ” “It’s implied that that’s how Ron feels, because you have this strong creative partnership between Ron and Russell, where Ron is the writer and remains back behind the keyboards throughout all the performances. And Russell is the star as the vocalist, singing the words that Ron’s written, but Ron never gets to be the singer himself. There’s something incredibly poignant about that, and quite beautiful about it; it’s quite emotional, and yet it’s funny.” FFS performs at the Orpheum Theatre on Oct. 2 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets $23.50-$33.50. 800-653-8000, www.ticketmaster.com MALLORY ABREU

http://web.archive.org/web/20150927210450id_/http://www.bostonglobe.com:80/arts/music/2015/09/24/franz-ferdinand-kapranos-five-essential-sparks-songs/5ibfHhA1OopEcNZaGs9z4M/story.html

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Franz Ferdinand’s Kapranos on five essential Sparks songs

Alt-rock bands Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, formed decades apart, share a similarly idiosyncratic philosophy — and now, an album and a stage.

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The 28-year-old expo has a new brand, a new focus and hundreds of fizzy new products When Apple AAPL announced in 2008 that it was pulling out of Macworld — no longer exhibiting its products or staging Steve Jobs’ closely-watched keynotes — many wondered whether the venerable expo could survive. It was touch and go there for a while, but it turns out there is money to be made providing a venue where third-party vendors and Apple’s preternaturally loyal customers can get together once a year. So this week in San Francisco’s Moscone West convention center, some 300 companies will be exhibiting their wares at the freshly renamed Macworld|iWorld — a new brand, explains general manager Paul Kent, that formalizes the show’s evolution since the rise of the iPhone and iPad. Kent has taken a page from Austin’s South by Southwest, setting up performance spaces and galleries and booking a roster of Apple-flavored name-brand artists, including jam-band Moe, writer Susan Orlean, Public Enemy’s Hank Shocklee and the creators of South Park. But at its heart, Macworld|iWorld is about the software and accessories on display — some silly, some substantive, some a little scary. Here are the themes that caught our eye on Day 1: Bottle openers. We spotted three different iPhone cases with built-in church keys, one from Opena Case that slides from the bottom and two from Intoxicase that are affixed to the back. Intoxicase also makes a free app that counts how many brews you’ve opened. Microphones. To improve on the built-in model, Mic-W makes its iSeries “professional” mics that plug into the headphone jack. Blue Microphones has one with a pop filter and a shock mount that wouldn’t look out of place on David Letterman’s desk. iPad holders. To make it easier to hold an iPad with one hand, Grablet offers an attachment with big plastic clips and an adjustable pad. Octa’s Tablet Tail comes in two pieces: a vacuum dock and a flexible WhaleTail that looks just like it sounds. We still haven’t seen the perfect iPad pillow for watching movies in bed.

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What’s new at Macworld

The 28-year-old expo has a new brand, a new focus and hundreds of fizzy new products When Apple announced in 2008 that it was pulling out of Macworld -- no longer exhibiting its products or staging Steve Jobs' closely-watched keynotes -- many wondered whether the venerable expo could survive. It was touch and go there…

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So much data – so little space. A big fight is brewing over who gets the best parts. We all know that our use of mobile data and video is exploding. But not everyone understands that the bandwidth needed to operate that technology is limited — and at risk of overload. The radio spectrum is a fixed range of frequencies, controlled by the federal government (which owns 59%). Now a debate over who most deserves the “sweet spot” best suited for mobile video and data communications, the range from 225 MHz to 3,700 MHz, is heating up. Below, the current situation. The 2010 National Broadband Plan called for 500 additional megahertz (MHz) of spectrum to be reallocated for broadband use. Where that new space will come from was left up to the FCC and legacy licensees — but no one can agree. The FCC — with support from AT&T T , Verizon VZ , and Sprint S — is pushing TV broadcasters to auction off an additional 120 MHz, but the National Association of Broadcasters says that’s unfair to poor viewers with no other access to TV. The impasse means the auctions are stalled. Spectrum reallocation – is it enough? Since the 1990s the FCC has held 91 spectrum auctions, raising more than $50 billion; most recently, Verizon and other telcos were able to buy new spectrum in 2008. But the telecom providers claim that if they don’t get more, service will suffer. Fewer TV viewers vs. a mobile data explosion The trend is indisputable: Broadcast television viewership is declining, and it has been for the past two decades. But since the birth of the iPhone and the Android operating system, mobile data use has exploded. By 2015 traffic will be some 20 times its 2010 level. –Sources: FCC, Spectrumwiki, Nielsen, CTIA, National Association of Broadcasters, Cisco, Rysavy Research This article is from the July 25, 2011 issue of Fortune.

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Spectrum squeeze: The battle for bandwidth

So much data - so little space. A big fight is brewing over who gets the best parts. By Tara Moore, reporter We all know that our use of mobile data and video is exploding. But not everyone understands that the bandwidth needed to operate that technology is limited -- and at risk of overload.…

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So what happened on Dec. 1, according to traders, is that a big hedge fund with a nice track record for 2014 wanted to sell its most successful investment (Apple at that point was up 50 percent year to date) in order to lock in that nice year-end performance. So the hedge fund sent a big sell order down to the trading desk. The order was meant to be a limit order, one only to be executed at a certain specified price over a certain time, but instead was mistakenly entered in as a market order, causing the big slide in the stock. It was no coincidence this occurred on Dec 1, when investors start to close up their books for the year. The list of top Apple holders are also some of the best hedge fund performers for the year. The tech giant makes up 16 percent of Carl Icahn's portfolio, according to Symmetric.io, and his Icahn Associates is up 15 percent in 2014. Greenlight Capital, which David Einhorn has guided to a 9 percent 2014 return, has 13 percent of its money in Apple, according to Symmetric. Other top-performing hedge funds with more than 10 percent of their money in Apple include Valiant Capital, Andor Capital and Coatue Management, according to Symmetric.io data. We'll find out just who exactly was anxious to pull the sell trigger on Apple when 13-F filings come out next year. Read MoreApple products won't have a happy holiday: Survey For more evidence of profit-taking in Apple, look at what stocks were up most of the day Tuesday as Apple was taking a hit: energy. The Energy Select Sector SPDR, down more than 20 percent since July on oil's rout, was higher in Tuesday morning trading. "Guys are flipping over their portfolio," said Grasso. "They're locking in profits in the momentum names like Apple and buying some value energy stocks."

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Mysterious ‘glitch’ trade foretold Apple’s fall

Apple shares fell below the low they traded on Dec. 1, when a mistaken trade sent the shares down 6 percent in one day.

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SEOUL, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Brent and U.S. crude oil futures hit their fresh 6-1/2-year lows on Monday as investors continue to worry about weak demand as China's economy slows amid a global supply surplus. Brent oil lost 44 cents at $45.02 a barrel as of 0125 GMT after hitting its intraday low of $45.00 earlier the day. That's the lowest since $42.59 marked in March of 2009. On Friday it ended $1.16, or 2.5 percent, lower at $45.46 a barrel. U.S. October crude also had dropped 60 cents to $39.85 a barrel, after hitting $39.71 a barrel or the lowest since $39.44 in March of 2009. In the previous session it settled 87 cents, or 2.1 percent, lower at $40.45 a barrel. "Supply-side news continues to dominate the market...Fears of surging Iranian oil are likely to increase further after Iran's oil minister stated the country had plans to raise oil production at any cost," ANZ said in a note on Monday. Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Sunday that holding an emergency OPEC meeting may be "effective" in stabilising the oil price, Iran's oil ministry news agency Shana reported. There was a similar call by Algeria earlier this month, which other OPEC delegates said no meeting was planned. "Latest oil pricing pressure appears more financial than physical. While oil fundamentals aren't strong, physical markets do not corroborate the substantial weakness in flat price," Morgan Stanley said on Monday. Asian stocks fell on Monday after Wall Street suffered another bruising blow as deepening concerns over the slowing Chinese economy continued to unnerve global equity markets. The safe-haven yen rallied and key government bonds were bought from the widespread unrest in the financial markets. China on Sunday allowed pension funds managed by local governments to invest in the stock market for the first time, potentially channelling hundreds of billions of yuan into the country's struggling equity market. (Reporting by Meeyoung Cho; Editing by Michael Perry)

http://web.archive.org/web/20151110213728id_/http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/23/reuters-america-brent-and-us-oil-mark-fresh-6-12-year-lows-on-china-and-oversupply.html

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Brent and U.S. oil mark fresh 6-1/2-year lows on China and oversupply

Brent oil lost 44 cents at $45.02 a barrel as of 0125 GMT after hitting its intraday low of $45.00 earlier the day. Iran's Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Sunday that holding an emergency OPEC meeting may be "effective" in stabilising the oil price, Iran's oil ministry news agency Shana reported. There was a similar call by Algeria earlier this month, which other...

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01/08/2016 AT 11:05 AM EST In 1969, 21-year-old Vernette Eklund spent her summer at a disco club in Regina, Canada, dancing with a man named Gary. Nine months later, she gave birth to their daughter Bonnie in 1970. But Gary, who was no longer in the picture, never found out he fathered the baby girl. Now, 45 years later, Bonnie Eklund, a nurse practitioner who lives in Southern California, is hoping that a classified ad her half-sister Toni published in a newspaper, might get her one step closer to finding him. Bonnie Eklund and her mother Vernette "I'd just want five minutes with him in a room," Eklund tells PEOPLE. "I had the best family and upbringing but I’m just curious. There is this missing piece. I just want to complete the puzzle." What Vernette, who was a nurse at the time, remembers about Gary today is vague. He would travel back and forth from Calgary to Regina for business, his last name ends with "ski"and he might have worked as a pharmacy representative. After she was born, her mother's parents officially adopted her, so she still always had a father figure in her life. Bonnie Eklund and Vernon, her grandfather who raised her But even then, she often thought about who her biological father was and what he became in life. "What does he look like, his family history, medical history, these kinds of things," she says. "Because he was never told I was born, I think it would be nice for him to know. Who knows, maybe he didn’t have children and wants to know he fathered one." At the end of the day, Eklund says finding her dad is "not to complete myself," but to "understand more about myself." "I don’t want to disrupt someones life," she says. "I just want some information."

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Woman Takes Out Classified Ad to Find Lost Father : People.com

"I've been asking questions about him for years but we only know so much about him," says Bonnie Eklund

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Chyna has been called "The First Lady of Sports Entertainment". Her accomplishments have gone far beyond the wrestling ring and far beyond anyone's expectations. Before exchanging body slams, modeling for top magazines and guest-starring on hundreds of shows, Chyna was a shy girl who was born in Rochester, New York. She spent most of her childhood in a home filled with alcoholism and domestic problems. She found her escape through working out, and began doing aerobics and lifting weights at a gym near her home. This is where she found her true niche: in the world of fitness.As the only female in the gym, Chyna always stood out but developed bonds and friendships with the gym members that gave her the encouragement to keep going in the world of fitness. She broke all gender barriers everywhere she went and continued her love of fitness throughout her college days. Chyna graduated from the University of Tampa with a 3.9 GPA and a double major in Spanish Literature in under two years. She also studied foreign languages and can speak English, Spanish, German and French. Chyna is a true humanitarian and has served in the US Army ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps) and the Peace Corps, helping to teach illiterate third-world children to read. She is a strong supporter of the National Animal Rescue charity, which helps domesticated animals find good, loving homes.Throughout her life Chyna always dreamed of being an entertainer. She began that career in the early 1990s as a belly dancer and soon moved on to fitness competitions, but at 6'0" the star found her real calling in the entertainment world: professional wrestling. She began training to be a professional wrestler under the guidance of the wrestling legend Walter 'Killer' Kowalski, in a professional wrestling school in which all the other students were men. She soon took the world of women's wrestling by storm and began competing in the PGWA, where she was named the 1996 Rookie of the Year award for the Women's Championship.After dominating the world of women's wrestling Chyna was discovered by Paul Levesque (aka "Triple H") and Shawn Michaels (HBK), two WWF (World Wrestling Federation) superstars who helped Chyna break into the big time. She made her worldwide television debut in February 1997 as a bodyguard for Triple H but soon went on to break all gender stereotypes by competing with some of the toughest men in the WWF, under the name "Chyna". Years later she became the only woman to qualify for the Royal Rumble and King of the Ring tournaments and became the only female Intercontinental Champion and the only undefeated Women's Champion in WWF history.Five years after she debuted as a professional wrestler in the WWF, Chyna parted ways with the company. She then toured Japan, taking the country by storm and battling in the ring with the likes of such champions as Keiji Mutô, The Great Kabuki, and most notably, Masahiro Chôno. Her 2002 Tokyo Dome match against Chono earned her the title of Nikkian Sport's 2002 Women's Wrestler of the Year.Meanwhile, back in the US, Chyna appeared in several films, hosted a variety of shows and showed that women can combine strength and beauty in two top-selling issues of "Playboy" magazine, which proved to the world that women can be beautiful without having the anorexic "Twiggy" look. She also appeared in the first-ever Playboy documentary, which did in-depth interviews with Chyna, her former manager Rich Minzer, her friend Joe Gold and Hugh M. Hefner himself.Her strong will to the best and "survival of the fittest" attitude made her one of the top wrestlers in history. She has served as a role model to millions of men and women by proving anything is possible through hard work and determination. In her best-selling autobiography "If They Only Knew" she discussed what it took to make it to the top and showed the world what she had to overcome to make her one of the most well-known pop culture icons in the world. Shortly after her first appearance in "Playboy" she released her own fitness video, Chyna Fitness: More Than Meets the Eye, which won awards from fitness and lifestyle magazines. The video is still popular with both Chyna's fans and fitness fans alike.Unlike most former pro wrestlers, Chyna has had success on her own two feet. She has been on nearly every talk show and has been featured on hundreds of magazine covers from "Playboy" and "Newsweek" to "TV Guide" and "People". She has been featured on Reggie Benjamin's CD "2X-Centrix", performing drums and back up vocals. She was on the top of the "dance music" billboard charts for five weeks with the CD single "Ride". She also sang with her own rock band, "The Chynna Dolls", for a short time, playing venues like The Roxy, Elrey Theater, Hollywood Athletic Center and two performances on Howard Stern. She has starred in two comedies, Cougar Club and Illegal Aliens. She has also hosted a variety of shows, from Robot Wars: Extreme Warriors to FYE and AMC's "Tough Guys series. She had many guest-starring roles on TV series, such as Whose Line Is It Anyway?, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Pacific Blue, The Nick Cannon Show, Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, MADtv, MTV's "Diary" and many others. She was also featured on season four of The Surreal Life and VH1's spin off, The Surreal Life: Fame Games as well as films including Alien Tracker, Alien Fury: Countdown to Invasion, Frank McKlusky, C.I., Hunter: Back in Force. In 2008 she was featured on VH1's Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew TV series to conquer personal demons and depression caused from an abusive relationship and childhood trauma.In 2009, she released a fashion book, "Paper Doll", which became a best-seller. In May 2011 she returned to the world of wrestling with TNA, debuting on the May 12 edition of TNA Impact! Wrestling, and followed it up with one last match at the TNA Sacrifice Pay Per View, where she and Kurt Angle took on Jeff Jarrett and Karen Angle. That episode was one of the highest-rated for the company in many years. Although her match with TNA was a one-time-only deal, Chyna showed the world she had turned her life around--she overcame depression, emotional trauma and was finally where she wanted to be in life.In June 2011, Chyna released her first adult video with Vivid Entertainment called, Backdoor to Chyna, which sold over a million copies. She said the movie allowed her to regain control of her life, gave her a newfound confidence and got her back on her feet. She embarked on a huge media tour, appearing all over the US. She began feature dancing at high-end nightclubs, appeared on dozens of radio shows including Howard Stern on Demand and ABC radio and in November 2011 won a Fleshbot Award for her "Backdoor to Chyna" video. In 2012, she appeared in A Night at the Silent Movie Theater and appeared in the music video "Gonna Make You Love Me" for the band Lovechild. She also appeared in a tell-all interview with KayFabe Commentaries in which she discussed everything from her childhood to drugs, porn and everything in between. Chyna's future looks bright these days; with her past behind her she is ready for her next project. See full bio on IMDb »

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Chyna News, Pictures, and Videos

Chyna on TMZ, your go-to source for celebrity news, photos, & videos. Latest Story: Chyna -- Death Certificate ... Family Requests Ashes Spread At Sea

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THE restaurant consultant Roger Martin began a long career in New York restaurants by checking coats at the ''21'' Club in the early 1950's while still a New York University student. Mr. Martin, who died on Dec. 4, went on to work for Restaurant Associates and Windows on the World, and for a time he ran his own place in the Hamptons. Last spring, when Food Arts magazine ran an excerpt from his memoirs, about his ''21'' days, it reminded me that somewhere I had my own ''21'' memento, a copy of the club's wine list from 1945, when it was known as Jack & Charlie's ''21.'' I pulled it out. Today, greasy spoons have wine lists. Fifty years ago, New York was a steak-and-potatoes town for the most part and wine sophistication, such as it was, was confined to a handful of restaurants and a couple of European-style hotels. The ''21'' Club was one of those places. Its celebrity-laden clientele may have consisted largely of whiskey drinkers and martini addicts, but the club was proud of its wine cellar. In 1945, any wine list was bound to be mostly French. The ''21'' list was no exception. But long before anyone else did it, ''21'' also offered wines from Italy, Spain, Germany, Hungary, Chile and Switzerland. And, yes, the United States. Nowadays, recent vintages will predominate. Anything more than eight years old is special. In 1945, just the opposite was true. The youngest Bordeaux on the ''21'' list were nine years old -- from 1936 -- and many dated from the 1920's. In fact, it could hardly have been otherwise. World War II had ended earlier that year. Some of the best vineyards in Europe had been devastated, and wine shipments had virtually come to a halt. California and New York, which might have been expected to fill the void, had only begun to make fine wine in the 1930's and 40's, and very few people in watering holes like ''21'' were inclined to drink it. So ''21'' was selling its old wines, and what wines they were. Château Lafite-Rothschild 1934 was $11; so were the 1933 and the 1928. The 1924 was $9.50 and the 1920, a 25-year-old wine, was $14. The 1934 Haut-Brion was $10. The 1920 was $12.50 and the 1916 a dollar less. A magnum of Château Latour from the memorable 1929 vintage was $23 and a magnum of Château Margaux was $21, but a magnum of Mouton-Rothschild, listed among the Second Growths because it would not become a First Growth for another 28 years, was $25. The depth of the restaurant's Bordeaux cellar was exceptional: five vintages of Château Brane-Cantenac, the youngest being 1929; six of Gruaud Larose; five of Pichon Longueville; six of Château Margaux going back to 1904 ($17.50); and eight vintages of the famous Sauternes, Château d'Yquem, from 1936 back to 1919, ranging in price from $8 for the 1936 to $18 for the 1920. A separate cellar held truly old Bordeaux, including the 1865 Lafite, made three years before Baron James Rothschild bought the estate, and Mouton-Rothschild 1869, made 16 years after Mouton had become Rothschild property. The Burgundy list was long and distinguished, with great wines like a 1934 Chambertin from Liger-Belair and a 1929 Clos de Vougeot 1929 from Mugnier priced at $8 and $11 respectively. The most expensive of the Burgundies was a 1929 Romanée-Conti from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti for $18. Surprisingly, Beaujolais was not much cheaper than Burgundy. A 1933 Beaujolais was $7, a 1926 Fleurie $7.50, the same price as a 1928 Beaune or a 1934 Pommard Rugiens. Wine drinkers who are just now beginning to discover German wines would be fascinated by the six pages of German rieslings ''21'' offered 58 years ago. On average, they were priced two to three dollars more per bottle than the Bordeaux. True, there were 15 Liebfraumilch, but there were dozens of fine estate wines under $15 and a priceless spätlese Moselle, a 1934 Bernkasteler Doktor, Dr. Thanisch, for $18. Bear in mind that a full dinner at ''21'' might cost as little as $15 in 1945, and working men and women paid 35 or 50 cents for an adequate lunch at the Automat. Inflation would bring all of these fantasy prices more in line with what we must pay for these wines today. The Bernkasteler Doktor from a current vintage would sell for close to $100 in a restaurant, while contemporary versions of many of those $10 and $11 Bordeaux sell for $200 and more. Most intriguing to me were the listings in the American wine section part of the old ''21'' list. Inglenook, Beaulieu Vineyards, Louis M. Martini and Wente Brothers are all represented. There is a nonvintage B.V. cabernet, four different cabernets from Martini and a sauvignon blanc from Wente. Inglenook is represented by a white wine and not by one of its memorable prewar cabernets. New York is represented by American grapes like Niagara, Delaware and Elvira, from Widmer's Wine Cellars in what the list spells as the ''Canadaigua District.'' The restaurant must have been nervous about offering American wines. Napa rieslings were described as ''Alsatian type,'' a Wente chardonnay as a ''Burgundy type'' and a Martini cabernet from Santa Clara as a ''Château Latour type.'' The Beaulieu Vineyards B.V. cabernet (Bordeaux type) sold for $3; most of the other American wines for about $4. These days at ''21,'' $4 might get you a big smile from the coat checker, but not much more. Photo: THE BOOGIE-WOOGIE YEARS -- The wine list from the ''21'' Club in 1945, when the restaurant was known as Jack & Charlie's ''21'' and dinner cost $15. (Tony Cenicola/The New York Times)

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WINE TALK - A Stroll Through the '21' List, Circa 1945 - NYTimes.com

THE restaurant consultant Roger Martin began a long career in New York restaurants by checking coats at the ''21'' Club in the early 1950's while still a New York University student. Mr. Martin, who died on Dec. 4, went on to work for Restaurant Associates and Windows on the World, and for a time he ran his own place in the Hamptons. Last spring, when Food Arts magazine ran an excerpt from his memoirs, about his ''21'' days, it reminded me that somewhere I had my own ''21'' memento, a copy of the club's wine list from 1945, when it was known as Jack & Charlie's ''21.'' I pulled it out.

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For a guy known for his hard work, former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter seems to think being Donald Trump's running mate would require too much effort. Jeter and New York Times reporter Maureen Down recently crossed paths in Cuba. SEE ALSO: 25 interesting facts about LeBron James you may not have known She asked Jeter about being Trump's vice president. "The Captain's" response? "That sounds like too much work." PHOTOS: Derek Jeter through the years Derek Jeter won't be joining Donald Trump's ticket New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter smiles at a news conference Monday Nov. 4, 1996 at Yankee Stadium. Jeter was the unanimous choice as the American League winner of the Jackie Robinson Rookie of the Year Award for 1996 in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America. (Ron Frehm, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees poses for this photograph prior to a Major League Baseball game circa 1992. Jeter has played for the New York Yankees from 1995-2014. (Focus on Sport/Getty Images) Rookie Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees warms up Monday, May 29, 1995 in Seattle prior to a game against the Mariners. Jeter joined the Yankees in the day after being promoted from their Class AAA team in Columbus. Jeter was the Yankees’ first pick in the June 1992 free-agent draft. (Gary Stewart, AP) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter. (Linda Cataffo, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) New York Yankees vs Minnesota Twins. Twins #4 Paul Molitor is forced out at 2nd base on #40 Mart Cordova' single as Yanks # 2 Derek Jeter covers. Baseball. (Gerald Herbert, NY Daily News via Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (R) tags out Baltimore Orioles Mike Devereaux (L) between third and home after Devereaux left third early on a grounder by the Orioles Billy Ripken in the second inning in Baltimore, 13 July. New York went on to win, 3-2. (Ted Mathias, AFP/Getty) New York Yankees Chuck Knoblauch (left) and Derek Jeter at spring training camp in Florida. (Linda Cataffo, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter at spring training. (Linda Cataffo, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter takes time to sign autographs before a game against the Oakland Athletics 05 August in Oakland, CA. The Athletics defeated the Yankees, 3-1. (John G. Mabanglo, AFP/Getty) American League All-Star Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees looks on during the 1998 All-Star Game at Coors Field on July 6, 1998 in Denver, Colorado. (Rich Pilling, MLB Photos via Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (R) forces Detroit Tigers player Trey Beamon (L) out at second, then throws to first in the seventh inning of the Yankees' 13-2 win over the Tigers 22 July. Bobby Higginson, who grounded to Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch to start the play, was safe at first. (Henry Ray Abrams, AFP/Getty) Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees celebrates following Game Four of the World Series against the San Diego Padres on October 21, 1998 at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California. (Sporting News via Getty) Yankees' Derek Jeter in the dugout during game against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium. (Linda Cataffo, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Yankees player Derek Jeter, the second batter of the game, watches the flight of his home run, which followed a leadoff homer for Chuck Knoblauch. It was the first time since 1955 that the Yankees had led off a game with consecutive home runs. The Boston Red Sox hosted the New York Yankees in a game at Fenway Park. (John Bohn, The Boston Globe via Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter at the All Star Cafe to host a fundraiser for his charity. (Ken Murray, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Scott Brosius (left), Tino Martinez (center) and Derek Jeter celebrate after the New York Yankees beat the Oakland Athletics, 4-0, in Game 2 of the American League Division Series at Network Associates Coliseum. (Linda Cataffo, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees poses on April 1, 2000 at The Ballpark in Arlington, Texas. (Ronald C. Modra, Sports Imagery/Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter brandishes his bat outside the batting cage before a spring training game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at McKechnie Field in Bradenton, Fla. (Linda Cataffo, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Nomar Garciaparra #5 of the Boston Red Sox, Alex Rodriguez #3 of the Seattle Mariners and Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees pose for a photo before the 71st MLB All-Star Game at Turner Field on Tuesday, July 11, 2000 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Rich Pilling, MLB Photos via Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter runs off the field as play is stopped due to a thunderstorm with two outs in the top of the eighth inning against the Minnesota Twins Saturday, Sept. 2, 2000 at Yankee Stadium in New York. After a delay, the game was officially called giving the Yankees a 13-4 win over the Twins. (John Dunn, AP) New York Yankees Manager Joe Torre(R) has champagne pour over his head by Derek Jeter(L) after the Yankees defeated the Oakland Athletics 7-5 in Game 5 of the American League 2000 Division Series in Oakland, CA 08 October, 2000. The Yankees now advance to the American League Championship series against the Seattle Mariners. (John Mabanglo, AFP/Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter, wearing an ice pack on his shoulder, is congratulated in the locker room by principal owner George Steinbrenner after the Yanks' 5-3 win over the Oakland Athletics in Game 5 of the American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium. The Bombers took the series, 3-2, becoming the first team ever to win a best-of-five playoff series after losing the first two games at home. (Corey Sipkin, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) New York Yankees' infielder Derek Jeter, wearing an FDNY cap, practices before game against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium. The Orioles defeated the Yanks, 7-2. (Howard Earl Simmons, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) New York Yankees Derek Jeter celebrates after game five of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners 22 October, 2001 at Yankee Stadium in New York. The Yankees won the game 12-3 to win the best-of-seven game series 4-1. The Yankees will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks in the World Series staring 27 October. (Jeff Haynes, AFP/Getty) Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees bats during Game One of the American League Championship Series against the Seattle Mariners at Safeco Field on October 17, 2001 in Seattle, Washington. (Sporting News via Getty) SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE -- Episode 7 -- Air Date 12/01/2001 -- Pictured: (l-r) Derek Jeter, Seth Meyers during 'Weekend Update' on December 1, 2001 (Dana Edelson, NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter dives to make a stop on an infield single against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 05 April, 2002 at Yankee Stadium Opening Day in the Bronx, NY. The Yankees beat the Devil Rays 4-0. (Matt Campbell, AFP/Getty) Rickey Henderson #35 of the Boston Red Sox steals second base beating the throw down to Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees during an Major League Baseball game circa 2002 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Jeter has played for the New York Yankees from 1995-2014. (Focus on Sport, Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter, currently on the disabled list with a leg injury, leans against dugout roof as he watches action on field during game against the Toronto Blue Jays at Yankee Stadium. The Blue Jays pummeled the Yanks, 8-3. (Howard Earl Simmons, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees watches the Anaheim Angels celebrate after the Yankees were defeated in Anaheim, CA 05 October 2002. The Angels defeated the Yankees 9-5 to win the best-of-five series 3-1 to advance to the American League Championship. (Lucy Nicholson, AFP/Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees bobbles a groundball hit by Gabe Kapler of the Boston Red Sox in the first inning during game 2 of the American League Championship Series on October 9, 2003 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. (Doug Pensinger, Getty) Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees during spring training in Tampa, FL. (Sporting News/Sporting News via Getty) Infielder Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees waits for the Texas Rangers pitch during their game at Ameriquest Field in Arlington on May 23, 2004 in Arlington, Texas. The Yankees won 8-3. (Ronald Martinez, Getty) New York Yankees Derek Jeter dives to catch a fly ball in the twelfth inning against the Boston Red Sox at New York's Yankee Stadium Thursday, July 1, 2004. Jeter left the game and was injured on the play. The Yankees won the game 5-4 (Frank Franklin II, AP) New York Yankees' shortstop Derek Jeter smiles as he warms up at Shea Stadium, where the Yanks are taking on the New York Mets. Jeter has scrapes and bruises on his face from diving into the stands to make a game-saving catch during last night's game against Boston. (Ron Antonelli, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter singles in the seventh inning against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks clinched their 10th consecutive playoff berth with a 7-3 victory over the Rays. (Ron Antonelli, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Jubilant New York Yankees, including Derek Jeter (2nd left) and Alex Rodriguez (center), greet Bernie Williams at home plate after he hit a game-winning, two-run homer in the ninth inning against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks beat the Twins, 6-4, in their 100th victory of the season, and clinched their seventh straight AL East title. (Keith Torrie, NY Daily News Archive via Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees receives high-fives from his teammates after hitting a solo home run in the third inning against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim at Angel Stadium on July 23, 2005 in Anaheim, California. (Jeff Gross, Getty) The New York Yankees' Derek Jeter smiles in the dugout shortly before the start of the game against the Detroit Tigers at Yankee Stadium in New York Thursday, May 26, 2005. The Yankees won, 4-3. (Gregory Bull, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees waits for the throw as Chone Figgins #9 of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim slides into the base during the MLB game on July 22, 2005 at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, California. The Angels won 6-3. (Stephen Dunn, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of Team USA laughs with coach Ken Griffey Sr. during the Round 1 Pool B Game of the World Baseball Classic against against Team Canada on March 8, 2006 at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. (Jed Jacobsohn, Getty Images) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter throws the ball after making the catch on a fly out by Boston Red Sox's Kevin Youkilis in the third inning Wednesday, May 10, 2006, at Yankee Stadium in New York. (Kathy Willens, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees slides ot third base against the Boston Red Sox during their game on September 16, 2006 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. (Al Bello, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees in the dugout in a game against the Detroit Tigers during Game Four of the 2006 American League Division Series on October 7, 2006 at Comerica Park in Detroit, Michigan. The Tigers won the game 8 to 3 and won the series 3 games to 1. (Rob Tringali, Sportschrome/Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, left, jokes around with Yankees special advisor Reggie Jackson in the dugout during the Yankees spring training baseball game against the Cleveland Indians in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, March 11, 2007. (Kathy Willens, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees looks on against the Boston Red Sox on May 21, 2007 at Yankee Stadium in The Bronx, New York. The Yankees won 6-2. (Rob Tringali, Sportschrome/Getty Images) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, right, jokingly pops his head into the frame behind Andy Pettitte who was posing for a photograph on photo day before spring training baseball workouts Thursday, Feb. 21, 2008 in Tampa, Fla. (Julie Jacobson, AP) Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees looks on during batting practice before the 79th Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York, U.S., on Tuesday, July 15, 2008. This will be the final All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium before the team moves to a new USD 1.3 billion home across the street. (Craig Ruttle, Bloomberg via Getty) In this April 26, 2008, file photo, New York Yankees' Derek Jeter reaches for a ball hit by Cleveland Indians' Jhonny Peralta in the second inning of a baseball game in Cleveland. A five-time World Series champion and sixth on the career hits list, Jeter, now 40, is set to retire after this season after spending two decades as the shortstop for the Yankees. (Ron Schwane, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees throws to first against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim during their game at Yankee Stadium on August 2, 2008 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees won 8-2. (Rob Tringali, Sportschrome/Getty) Derek Jeter of the New York Yankees runs during the game against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York on May 16, 2009. The Yankees defeated the Twins 6-4. (Rich Pilling, MLB Photos via Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter tips his cap after hitting a single during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays Wednesday, Sept. 9, 2009 at Yankee Stadium in New York. The hit tied hit with Lou Gehrig for most hits by a Yankee. (Bill Kostroun, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees holds up the trophy as he celebrates with A.J. Burnett (L), Jorge Posada (2nd L), Mariano Rivera (2nd R) and Robinson Cano after their 7-3 win against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game Six of the 2009 MLB World Series at Yankee Stadium on November 4, 2009 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Jed Jacobsohn, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees attempts to throw out Vernon Wells (not pictured) of the Toronto Blue Jays in the ninth inning on July 6, 2009 at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Jays defeated the yankees 7-6. (Jim McIsaac, Getty) Derek Jeter # 2 of the New York Yankees slides into third base against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium on May 15, 2010 in the Bronx borough of Manhattan. The Yankees defeated the wins 7 to 1. (Rob Tringali, SportsChrome/Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter signs autographs as he warms up before a minor league rehab start for the Trenton Thunder at Waterfront Park in Trenton, N.J., Saturday, July 2, 2011. (Mel Evans, AP) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter dives for a ball hit by Cleveland Indians' Austin Kearns in the fourth inning in a baseball game, Wednesday, July 6, 2011, in Cleveland. Matt LaPorta was out at second base, and Kearns was safe at first base. (Tony Dejak, AP) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter waves to the cheers of the crowd after he hit a solo home run, his 3000th career hit off of Tampa Bay Rays starting pitcher David Price in the third inning of a baseball game on Saturday, July 9, 2011 at Yankee Stadium in New York. (Kathy Kmonicek, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees tips his hat to the crowd prior to the game against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on August 13, 2011 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees won 9-2. (Rob Tringali, SportsChrome/Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees walks off the field in between innings during the game against the Baltimore Orioles at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on May 14, 2012 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Rob Tringali, SportsChrome/Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees looks on during the game against the Texas Rangers at Yankee Stadium on August 16, 2012 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Rob Tringali, SportsChrome/Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees in action against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium on June 29, 2012 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The White Sox defeated the Yankees 14-7. (Jim McIsaac, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees in action against the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium on July 11, 2013 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees defeated the Royals 8-4. (Jim McIsaac, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees tags out Jemile Weeks #19 of the Oakland Athletics as he tries to steal second during the game at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum on May 27, 2012 in Oakland, California. The Yankees defeated the Athletics 2-0. (Michael Zagaris, Oakland Athletics/Getty) New York Yankees' Derek Jeter, right, is congratulated by Eric Chavez after he scored on a single by Nick Swisher off Minnesota Twins pitcher Brian Duensing in the third inning of a baseball game Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2012 in Minneapolis. (Jim Mone, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees leads his team onto the field to start the game against the Boston Red Sox during their game at Yankee Stadium on April 10, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Al Bello, Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter fields a ball hit by Tampa Bay Rays' Evan Longoria during the first inning of a baseball game Friday, May 2, 2014, at Yankee Stadium in New York. (Bill Kostroun, AP) Derek Jeter #2 and Alfonso Soriano #12 of the New York Yankees walk on the field for batting practice before their game against the New York Mets at Yankee Stadium on May 13, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Al Bello, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees looks on from the dugout prior to the game against the New York Mets on May 15, 2014 at Citi Field in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. Yankees defeated the Mets 1-0. (Mike Stobe, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees in action against the New York Mets at Citi Field on May 14, 2014 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. The Yankees defeated the Mets 4-0. (Jim McIsaac, Getty) Tony Sanchez #26 of the Pittsburgh Pirates dives back to second base as Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees waits for the throw during the game at Yankee Stadium on Saturday, May 17, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Rob Tringali, MLB Photos via Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees bats against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field on May 24, 2014 in Chicago, Illinois. The Yankees defeated the White Sox 4-3 in 10 innings. (Jonathan Daniel, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees in action against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on July 2, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Rays defeated the Yankees 6-3. (Jim McIsaac, Getty) American League shortstop Derek Jeter, of the New York Yankees, singles during the third inning of the MLB All-Star baseball game, Tuesday, July 15, 2014, in Minneapolis. (Jeff Roberson, AP) MINNEAPOLIS, MN - JULY 15: American League All-Star Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees acknowledges the crowd before his first at bat during the 85th MLB All-Star Game at Target Field on July 15, 2014 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Elsa, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees stands on deck before batting against the Boston Red Sox in the first inning on August 1, 2014 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. (Michael Ivins, Boston Red Sox/Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees smiles during Derek Jeter Day on September 7, 2014 before the game between the New York Yankees and the Kansas City Royals at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Elsa, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees in action against the Tampa Bay Rays at Yankee Stadium on September 10, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. The Yankees defeated the Rays 8-5. (Jim McIsaac, Getty) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees looks on before batting in the first inning against the Baltimore Orioles during game two of a doubleheader at Oriole Park at Camden Yards on September 12, 2014 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Patrick Smith, Getty) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (2) throws on the field warming up before a baseball game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in New York, Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2014. (Kathy Willens, AP) New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter walks out of the clubhouse before a baseball game against the Baltimore Orioles, Saturday, Sept. 13, 2014, in Baltimore. (Patrick Semansky, AP) Derek Jeter #2 of the New York Yankees smiles prior to a game against the Baltimore Orioles at Yankee Stadium on September 22, 2014 in the Bronx borough of New York City. (Mike Stobe, Getty) So, there you have it. The dream of a Trump-Jeter ticket is dead -- but it leaves us fantasizing about what could've been. Jeter would've almost definitely had Trump's backing if he wanted the job. "I like Derek for a lot of reasons- one of them is he happens to live in one of my buildings and he's a prime, prime guy. Great." Trump said in a video posted in 2011. Jeter also definitely has the leadership qualities. He was captain of the New York Yankees for 11 years, the longest in team history. He led the Yankees to five World Series championships. Jeter was also ranked the world's 11th greatest leader by Fortune back in 2014 -- ranking just behind Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos. Trump could also use help from Jeter in New York. In a recent Emerson poll, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton beat Trump by 19 percent in the sate. Trump, who has yet to secure the Republican nomination, hasn't said who his running mate will be. Sadly though, it looks like we'll have to cross Jeter's name off the list. RELATED: The many faces of Donald Trump Derek Jeter won't be joining Donald Trump's ticket FORT WORTH, TX - FEBRUARY 26: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a rally at the Fort Worth Convention Center on February 26, 2016 in Fort Worth, Texas. Trump is campaigning in Texas, days ahead of the Super Tuesday primary. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures as he speaks at a campaign rally Friday, Feb. 5, 2016, in Florence, S.C. (AP Photo/John Bazemore) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop Wednesday, Feb. 3, 2016, in Little Rock, Ark. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up a child he pulled from the crowd as he arrives to speak at a campaign rally in New Orleans, Friday, March 4, 2016. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert) TOPSHOT - Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, February 19, 2016. / AFP / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump gestures during the Republican Presidential Debate, hosted by CNN, at The Venetian Las Vegas on December 15, 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada. AFP PHOTO/ ROBYN BECK / AFP / ROBYN BECK (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign event at Plymouth State University Sunday, Feb. 7, 2016, in Plymouth, N.H. (AP Photo/David Goldman) Pastor Joshua Nink, right, prays for Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, as wife, Melania, left, watches after a Sunday service at First Christian Church Sunday, Jan. 31, 2016, in Council Bluffs, Iowa. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, February 19, 2016. / AFP / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump blows a kiss after speaking at his caucus night rally, Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in West Des Moines, Iowa. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Pensacola Bay Center in Pensacola, Fla., Wednesday, Jan. 13, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Snyder) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign stop before next months earliest in the nation presidential primary, Monday, Jan. 11, 2016, in Windham,NH (AP Photo/Jim Cole) RENO, NV - JANUARY 10: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds a campaign rally at the Reno Event Center on January 10, 2016 in Reno, Nevada. Donald Trump continued to raise doubts Sunday about rival Ted Cruzs eligibility for the presidency, saying Republicans will risk losing a lawsuitand potentially the nations highest officeif they nominate Cruz as their candidate. (Photos by Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post via Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pops through a doorway as he arrives to address a gathering during a campaign stop at a Rotary Club luncheon in Manchester, N.H., Monday, Feb. 8, 2016. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, Monday, Nov. 23, 2015. (AP Photo/Paul Vernon) MESA, AZ - DECEMBER 16: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to guest gathered during a campaign event at the International Air Response facility on December 16, 2015 in Mesa, Arizona. Trump is in Arizona the day after the Republican Presidential Debate hosted by CNN in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ralph Freso/Getty Images) Republican Candidate Donald Trump arrives to speaks to the press with Rev. Darrell Scott(R), senior pastor of the New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland Heights after meetings with prominent African American clerics at Trump Tower in New York November 30 ,2015. AFP PHOTO / TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP / TIMOTHY A. CLARY (Photo credit should read TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP/Getty Images) COLUMBUS, OH - NOVEMBER 23: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses supporters during a campaign rally at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23, 2015 in Columbus, Ohio. Trump spoke about immigration and Obamacare, among other topics, to around 14,000 supporters at the event. (Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images) DORAL, FL - OCTOBER 23: Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump attends a campaigns rally In Florida at the Trump National Doral on October 23, 2015 in Doral, Florida. Trump leads most polls in the race for the Republican presidential nomination. (Photo by Johnny Louis/FilmMagic) COLUMBIA, SC - SEPTEMBER 23: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves a campaign event September 23, 2015 in Columbia, South Carolina. Earlier today, Trump tweeted 'FoxNews has been treating me very unfairly & I have therefore decided that I won't be doing any more Fox shows for the foreseeable future.' (Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump reacts during the CNN Republican presidential debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum, Wednesday, Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, Calif. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill) NEW YORK, NY - JULY 22: Donald Trump greets supporters, tourists and the curious after taping an interview with Anderson Cooper at a Trump owned building in mid-town Manhattan on July 22, 2015 in New York City. Trump, who is running for president on a Republican ticket, has come under intensifying criticism for his behavior on the campaign trail. The billionaire's most recent comments on Senator John McCain's war record in Vietnam have resulted in almost universal criticism from fellow candidates. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump leaves for lunch after being summoned for jury duty in New York, Monday, Aug. 17, 2015. Trump was due to report for jury duty Monday in Manhattan. The front-runner said last week before a rally in New Hampshire that he would willingly take a break from the campaign trail to answer the summons. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, left, looks on as Sam Clovis, newly appointed national co-chairman of Trumps campaign, speaks during a news conference ahead of a rally at Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa, U.S., on Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2015. President Barack Obama's top business ambassador dismissed Trump's call for a wall along the Mexico border, saying the U.S. is focused instead on expanding business with one of its biggest trade partners. Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images BILOXI, MS - JANUARY 02: Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump pauses with supporters after speaking at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum on January 2, 2016 in Biloxi, Mississippi. Trump, who has strong support from Southern voters, spoke to thousands in the small Mississippi city on the Gulf of Mexico. Trump continues to split the GOP establishment with his populist and controversial views on immigration, muslims and some of his recent comments on women. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump pulls his hair back to show that it is not a toupee while speaking during a rally at the TD Convention Center, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2015, in Greenville, S.C. Trump says his trademark hairdo is for real. He told 1,800 people in South Carolina Thursday: "It's my hair ... I swear." (AP Photo/Richard Shiro) Supporters reach to great Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump as he leaves a brief stop to speak to supporters and the media in Laredo, Texas, Thursday, July 23, 2015. Trump predicted Hispanics would love him, because as president he said he'd grab jobs back from overseas and give more opportunity to those who live in the U.S. legally. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump gestures during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/John Minchillo) Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump remarks about Texas Gov. Rick Perry's glasses at his South Carolina campaign rally in Bluffton, S.C., Tuesday, July 21, 2015. (AP Photo/Stephen B. Morton) LAREDO, TEXAS - JULY 23: Republican Presidential candidate and business mogul Donald Trump talks to the media at a press conference during his trip to the border on July 23, 2015 in Laredo, Texas. Trump's recent comments, calling some immigrants from Mexico as drug traffickers and rapists, have stirred up reactions on both sides of the aisle. Although fellow Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry has denounced Trump's comments and his campaign in general, U.S. Senator from Texas Ted-Cruz has so far refused to bash his fellow Republican nominee. (Photo by Matthew Busch/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump responds to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's closing remarks during the first Republican presidential debate at the Quicken Loans Arena Thursday, Aug. 6, 2015, in Cleveland. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik) DES MOINES, IA - AUGUST 15: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump eats a pork chop on a stick and gives a thumbs up sign to fairgoers at the Iowa State Fair on August 15, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. Presidential candidates are addressing attendees at the Iowa State Fair on the Des Moines Register Presidential Soapbox stage and touring the fairgrounds. The State Fair runs through August 23. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images) CLEVELAND, OH - AUGUST 06: Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump (R) and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker participate in the first prime-time presidential debate hosted by FOX News and Facebook at the Quicken Loans Arena August 6, 2015 in Cleveland, Ohio. The top-ten GOP candidates were selected to participate in the debate based on their rank in an average of the five most recent national political polls. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) OSKALOOSA, IA - JULY 25: Republican presidential hopeful businessman Donald Trump speaks to guests gathered for a rally on July 25, 2015 in Oskaloosa, Iowa. During his last visit to the state Trump sparked controversy when he said Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a former POW, was not a war hero. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump, speaks during the Values Voter Summit, held by the Family Research Council Action, Friday, Sept. 25, 2015, in Washington. ( AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) Republican presidential candidate, businessman Donald Trump addresses supporters at a campaign rally, Monday, Dec. 21, 2015, in Grand Rapids, Mich. (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio) TURNBURRY, SCOTLAND - JUNE 08: Donald Trump Visits Turnberry Golf Club, after its $10 Million refurbishment, on June 8, 2015 in Turnberry, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) DERRY, NH - AUGUST 19: U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump hugs an American flag as he takes the stage for a town hall meeting in Derry, New Hampshire, August 19, 2015. (Keith Bedford/The Boston Globe via Getty Images) DES MOINES, IOWA - AUGUST 15: Donald Trump at the Iowa State Fair on August 14, 2015 in Des Moines, Iowa. The Iowa State Fair is one of the oldest and largest agricultural and industrial expositions in the United States. The annual fair, the largest event in Iowa, attracts over a million visitors each year. The fair runs through August 23. After a brief walk around its time for Mr Trump to board his club cart again and leave the fair. (Photos by Charles Ommanney/The Washington Post via Getty Images) AYR, SCOTLAND - JULY 30: Republican Presidential Candidate Donald Trump visits his Scottish golf course Turnberry on July 30, 2015 in Ayr, Scotland. Donald Trump answered questions from the media at a press conference. (Photo by Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images) TURNBURRY, SCOTLAND - JUNE 08: Donald Trump visits Turnberry Golf Club, after its $10 Million refurbishment on June 8, 2015 in Turnberry, Scotland. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) Donald Trump, president and chief executive of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 U.S. presidential candidate, gestures while speaking during The Family Leadership Summit in Ames, Iowa, U.S., on Saturday, July 18, 2015. The sponsor, The FAMiLY LEADER, is a 'pro-family, pro-marriage, pro-life organization which champions the principle that God is the ultimate leader of the family.' Photographer: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images PASADENA, CA - JANUARY 16: Donald Trump arrives at NBCUniversal's 2015 Winter TCA Tour - Day 2 at The Langham Huntington Hotel and Spa on January 16, 2015 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images) Donald Trump, president and chief executive officer of Trump Organization Inc. and 2016 Republican presidential candidate, pauses while speaking during a news conference at Trump Towers in New York, U.S., on Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015. 'I have signed the pledge,' he said, referring to a document stating that he would not run as an independent candidate in the event that he does not win the Republican nomination. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images US tycoon Donald Trump arrives to speak at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at National Harbor, Maryland, outside Washington, on February 27, 2015. AFP PHOTO/NICHOLAS KAMM (Photo credit should read NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP/Getty Images) EDISON, NJ - AUGUST 30: A golf fan takes a 'selfie' with presidential candidate Donald Trump during the final round of The Barclays at Plainfield Country Club on August 30, 2015 in Edison, New Jersey. (Photo by Ross Kinnaird/Getty Images) ABERDEEN, SCOTLAND - JULY 10: Donald Trump plays a round of golf after the opening of The Trump International Golf Links Course on July 10, 2012 in Balmedie, Scotland. The controversial £100m course opens to the public on Sunday July 15. Further plans to build hotels and homes on the site have been put on hold until a decision has been made on the building of an offshore windfarm nearby. (Photo by Ian MacNicol/Getty Images) BIRCH RUN, MI - AUGUST 11: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a press conference before delivering the keynote address at the Genesee and Saginaw Republican Party Lincoln Day Event August 11, 2015 in Birch Run, Michigan. This is Trump's first campaign event since his Republican debate last week. (Photo by Bill Pugliano/Getty Images) BOCA RATON, FL - APRIL 16: Billionaire Donald Trump speaks to a crowd at the 2011 Palm Beach County Tax Day Tea Party April 16, 2011 at Sanborn Square in Boca Raton, Florida. Trump is considering a bid for the 2012 precidency and is expected to announce his running in the coming weeks. (Photo by John W. Adkisson/Getty Images) Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally Saturday, Dec. 5, 2015, in Davenport, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall) More from AOL.com: Ted Cruz: Trump is a 'sniveling coward' Trump, Carson change words to 'Stand By Me' to 'Stand By Trump' at sing-along Donald Trump won another key primary state

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Derek Jeter won't be joining Donald Trump's ticket

When asked about being Donald Trump's vice president, the MLB icon said it sounded like 'too much work.'

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A member of the New South Wales parliament belonging to the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party has revealed he once shot and ate an elephant while hunting in Zimbabwe. Robert Borsak has previously admitted shooting an elephant during an African hunting tour, with a picture of the state senator kneeling beside the kill sparking controversy. He defends the hobby by arguing the “rogue, crop-raiding” animals are not endangered in southern Africa and are culled as part of managed programs. Related: Kenya's new front in poaching battle: 'the future is in the hands of our communities' In a late-night sitting of the state parliament on Tuesday, Borsak was railing against animal rights groups and propounding his philosophy of only eating meat he had hunted himself when a Greens MP interjected. “Did you eat the elephant?” Jeremy Buckingham asked. “Yes,” Borsak replied, without missing a beat. He confirmed to News Corp on Wednesday that he had indeed eaten an elephant, “but not in one sitting”. Borsak said he shot the animal in Omay, a tribal area in the Zambezi Valley. He said he had eaten elephant both in dried and cured form and as fresh cuts, which he reportedly enjoyed. Though he added: “There are a lot of cuts of elephant meat I wouldn’t want to eat.” Managed trophy hunting – where people pay to hunt large elephants populations, the fees flowing back to local communities – has been backed by groups such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature, despite concerns that corruption eats away much of the revenue. Related: African elephants 'killed faster than they are being born' According to the Zambezi Society, a conservation group, elephant populations in Zimbabwe have fallen dramatically in the past 15 years, particularly in the Middle Zambezi Valley, where last January there were around 11,500 elephants, down from 18,000 in 2001. “It’s sick to shoot and kill an elephant for thrills, and it’s revolting that Mr Borsak would eat the elephant,” he said. “He’s unfit for office.”

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Australian state MP admits eating elephant he shot in Zimbabwe

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers party MP Robert Borsak, who previously revealed shooting an elephant while on a hunting trip in Africa, says he ate the animal ‘but not in one sitting’

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Ms. Courts plans to invite Mr. Welker over for dinner at her house, so her four sons can get to know him. ''It really makes people human you admire from afar,'' she said. In turn, Mr. Welker plans to give Ms. Courts backstage tours, cook her dinner and send her birthday gifts. He said he would never refuse an invitation from her. ''She is really a cornerstone of this community,'' he said. ''I would definitely rotate my schedule to accommodate anything.'' He added, ''To be quite frank, they are paying your salary.'' The sponsorship, he said, does bring pressure -- but only to become a better artist. ''In a way, she's investing in a product,'' he said. ''And you're that product.'' IT'S just that kind of unabashedly pecuniary logic that has caused three of the country's large ballet companies -- New York City Ballet, Houston Ballet and San Francisco Ballet -- to decide against the sponsorship of individual dancers. The purists argue that dancers should spend their time dancing, not worrying about where their salary is coming from or kowtowing to their sponsor. Ballet companies impose strict artistic rankings on their dancers, and some fear that allowing donors to single out individuals will undermine that system, either by creating an alternative measure of a dancer's worth or by allowing donations to influence casting. ''It starts to get into areas that should be at the sole discretion of the artistic management,'' said Christopher Ramsey, the director of external affairs at City Ballet. ''People might have an honest difference of opinion. It's best if you can avoid those, especially with people who are trying to help you.'' He added: ''You're opening a door where funding is contingent on individuals performing certain roles.'' City Ballet sees itself as an ensemble company, to such an extent that it refuses to reveal casting decisions before a show. ''The idea has always been that we are presenting art, and you come on a given night to see art,'' Mr. Ramsey said. As such, he continued, ''we attempt to gain support for our more general endeavor.'' On a more practical level, some worry that donors might bolt when their chosen dancer moves to another company or retires. ''Dancers come and go,'' said Thomas W. Flynn, the director of development at San Francisco Ballet. ''We want people to support the ballet as an institution, rather than supporting an individual artist.'' At Atlanta Ballet, one couple was interested in sponsoring Stacey Slichter, a gregarious and popular dancer. But next year Ms. Slichter will be teaching, not dancing, and so far the company hasn't been able to align the donors with another dancer. To counteract an excessive emphasis on individual dancers, some companies, including Atlanta Ballet and Ballet Theater, route all sponsorship donations to their general funds. ''The money doesn't go to pay that dancer's salary,'' said Rachel S. Moore, Ballet Theater's executive director. ''That's not what this is about. It's about supporting the company.'' Houston Ballet took an even more conservative tack. It offers donors the opportunity to endow a dancer position, in the manner of an endowed chair at a symphony or university, rather than to sponsor an individual artist. It costs $500,000 to endow a principal dancer position; income from that capital is used to pay half the dancer's salary. When the dancer leaves, the endowment stays. Pacific Northwest Ballet, Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and Pennsylvania Ballet, among others, have similar programs. Another concern is that individual sponsorship -- along with the extracurricular attentions of a wealthy, powerful patron -- could stoke the already intense competition among dancers. At Houston Ballet, endowed positions are typically filled by seniority. ''That way it doesn't become some kind of popularity contest with an individual donor,'' said Cecil C. Conner Jr., the company's managing director. At Ballet Theater, the dancers participated, but requested that management find sponsors for all principals within a year. Luckily, donors cooperated, and every dancer found a match. ''You don't want any dissension, or people feeling unwanted,'' Mr. Stiefel said. ''Dancers are artists. We are sensitive people.'' At Ballet Theater, which is better known for its individual stars than for its ensemble work, sponsorships have pulled in about $1.2 million so far this year, just over 6 percent of estimated nonendowment fund-raising. Not everyone has been so successful. No dancers at Pacific Northwest Ballet have sponsors yet; prices range from $25,000 for a corps dancer to $100,000 for a principal. At Pennsylvania Ballet, 2 out of 22 eligible corps dancers have sponsors, and at the Joffrey, 3 of 8 apprentices have been picked up. Since Atlanta Ballet's program was founded last February, only 2 of the company's 23 dancers have been chosen. John Clark, the director of development, said the unsponsored dancers joke about the disparity, as in: ''Well, you're sponsored, so you must be special.'' But he said that the teasing was light: ''They're joking that they are hurt, but they aren't. It's a big family.'' Indeed, the ballet world's most pressing fears about dancer sponsorship have so far failed to come to fruition. Even a recent case in which a patron was allowed to actually hire a company's dancers turned out just fine. Three years ago, Dennis Law, a retired surgeon who is a board member of Colorado Ballet, went to China, his birthplace, and scouted for dancers. He found two he liked and offered to pay their living expenses and salaries for a year. Martin Fredmann, the artistic director of Colorado Ballet, promptly hired them, without ever having met them. ''I did something I rarely do,'' Mr. Fredmann said. ''I accepted them from videotape.'' Mr. Fredmann does not feel his artistic vision was compromised. ''The situation was: these dancers come, if they don't work out, they don't work out,'' he said. ''There was nothing that said that I had to do anything. I was in complete control of the situation.'' It turned out that Kang Hua, the young woman Mr. Law had selected, was too tall for the company. She languished in the corps, and after one year returned to China. But Mr. Law's other pick, Zhuang Hua, went on to principal roles and stayed with the company for three years, until he was hired away by Ballet West, based in Salt Lake City. ''Of course, people were wondering what kind of dancers they were and how they look and whether they would be favored for casting,'' said Sharon Wehner, a principal with Colorado Ballet. ''But what happened is the dancers just basically had the same kind of opportunity that everybody else had -- which is the opportunity to succeed or fail.'' Mr. Zhuang's story has the ring of a happy capitalist fable. He had never been to America before Mr. Law arranged his passage. He now speaks English, owns a car and most important to him, he says, his dancing has improved. ''When I'm ready,'' he said, ''I can go back to my Chinese company and teach them what I got here.''

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How Much Is That Dancer In the Program?

American ballet companies have recently begun allowing donors to sponsor individual dancers, for amounts range from $2,500 to $100,000 a year; some ballet companies even compile and distribute rosters, which look eerily like shopping lists, specifying their dancers' ranks and prices; new initiative has generated good deal of controversy; in process, it has raised awkward questions about how far companies will go to generate revenue; about relative popularity of various dancers, and about what exactly patrons are buying; some sponsors and dancers they sponsor comment; photos (M)

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Going back to the lever and the wheel, technology has always been meant to make our day-to-day tasks easier. And while it’s obvious that smartphones, computers, and social networks have greatly enhanced our lives, you can’t ignore the physical effects and and anti-social behavior that have accompanied these modern trappings. Of course, you can change your tech tune at any time, but the New Year is an excellent opportunity to reset your ways. So should bad tech habits be forgot, and never brought to mind? Here’s some tech resolutions to consider…and auld lang syne. If you have a teenager, this one’s a no-brainer, but even if you’re childless, it’s a good rule to live by. Firstly, no one wants to see photos of every meal you eat on Instagram. But more importantly, in a time where we all feel stretched thin and barely have a moment to ourselves, setting the phone down at mealtimes assures that you have at least a few minutes to collect your thoughts. If it feels forced, try taking baby steps — instead of mindlessly devouring Twitter with your lunch, read a book (but not an e-book). At this stage of Android’s and iOS’s development, it’s hard to imagine mobile operating systems without the ability to throw alerts at us every three minutes, but that was the norm back in the day. Heck, the original iPhone didn’t even have third-party apps. Retake control of your apps and your attention span by turning off all your push notifications — every badge, alert, and banner. Then, once you realize if you’ve actually been missing particular apps’ updates, turn them back on one at a time. Turn on Find My iPhone This resolution is easy — all it takes is a swipe, some taps, and inserting your password. And even better, there’s no reason for you not to have this smartphone-saving tool operating in the background. Okay, well there are suspicions that Apple’s iCloud service was at the center of the massive celebrity photo hack this past year, but 1.) those were highly targeted attacks, 2.) you are (probably) not a celebrity, and 3.) Apple has since beefed up its login security, making it even safer to use iCloud. So when you do indeed lose your iPhone, whether it’s under a couch cushion or at a crowded bar, you’ll be able to track it down. There are as many reasons to go paperless as there are trees in the forest, but here’s one that may hit home with you: Collecting various scraps is just plain overwhelming. This step-by-step walks through exactly what you need to de-ink your life. But if you want to tackle going paperless with your smartphone, Scanbot is an excellent Android and iOS app that turns paper into PDFs, ready to store in the cloud or on your device. If you’re worried about receipts for your taxes, check out Wave Receipts, a free iPhone-only solution that scans and categorizes your sales slips. In 2015, 44 states will ticket you for sending texts while driving and 14 will bust you for just holding your phone in your hand. Even if you’re not in one of those states, you’re still playing it fast and loose with safety. In 2012 (the last year they were tabulated), 421,000 people were injured in distracted driving accidents, and you may not care if you’re one of them, but you have an obligation towards everyone you share the road with. Put the phone down, and keep your eyes up. And if you need to be connected, pick up a Bluetooth headset. The Jawbone Era works great, won’t make you look like a cyborg, and will only set you back $99 — which is about $300 less than a ticket. Take Your TV Out of the Bedroom Did you catch last night’s episode of Homeland? I know, right? Mind. Blowing. But watching it at 10 p.m. on Sunday night might be the worst thing you can do — not just for your 8 a.m. conference call, but for your health. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, late night shows contribute to chronic sleep debt. Getting fewer than seven hours of sleep is associated with increased obesity, morbidity and mortality, and for as many as 40% of Americans, this is their reality. And don’t even think of putting a TV in the kid’s room. Research has shown that placing a television in there will cause your children to gain weight even beyond screen time. Disrupted sleep patterns are the culprit here, too — so keep it in the family room. Sure, using one password for everything makes your login info much easier to remember, but it also makes it amazingly simple to hack all of your accounts. Easier still — not remembering any passwords. Password managing apps like 1Password and LastPass make this possible by helping you to replace your standard “Kittens123!” password with strong strings of random characters, numbers, and symbols. Then, when you need to log in to a service, just pull up their mobile or computer-based apps (or easier still, use their browser plugins) to insert the login information. It’s all protected behind one passcode to log into the app, but if you really want to go password-free, set up your mobile apps with Touch ID on your iPhone or iPad, and you’re freed up to forget everything. Back Up Three Different Ways Of course you backup your computer regularly, but do you do it right? Three-way backups are the best way to ensure your data doesn’t get lost. The first, and easiest, way to backup your files is locally onto an external drive. On Windows 8, daily backups can be done easily by enabling File History, and on Macs it’s a feature called Time Machine. But cloud backups are all the rage lately, and rightfully so, because if there’s a fire and your external drive gets torched, you’d be out of luck. So put your critical files online (and encrypting them is probably smart, too). But the third way to backup is called off-site backups. Because if there’s something worse than a fire — like an earthquake — and your external drive is toast and everyone’s Internet connection is down, you’ll still need your files. So, once a month, make a copy of your external drive, and bring it over to your mother’s house to store it safely. Yes, this resolution requires more frequent visits to your mother — but consider that a bonus resolution. Mind Your Ps and Qs (posts and quotes) In 1864, the Great Emancipator Abraham Lincoln famously said, “The problem with Internet quotes is that you cant always depend on their accuracy.” Okay, you got me — he didn’t say that. But chances are you’ve posted equally bogus information on Facebook, like that Facebook Copyright post (not real), and some of the Ebola “news” stories that were floating around. This year, resolve to stop spreading misinformation online — with more than half of Facebook and Twitter users getting news from the sites, it’s just an irresponsible thing to do. Lifehacker has an excellent step-by-step on how to determine if what you’re sharing is true. So, research before you repost. While we’re on the subject of social media, there’s a time and place for everything — except on Facebook, where it’s everything all at once. Younger, more tech-savvy users are already hip to using Friends Lists to block groups of people from posts en masse, and you should do it, too. (That’s why you think little Kevin is working so hard at college, Aunt Carol. His friends actually know him as the keg-stand champ of Sigma Nu.) First, going through your Facebook friends and categorize people into various groups, like co-workers, high-school friends, baseball fans, whatever. You can then make pertinent posts only to the people who would be most interested in reading them. For instance, if there’s a fundraiser at your local church, post that to friends in your town, not to everyone on your list. And there’s another good reason for doing this — your second cousin who lives three states away has probably already blocked you because of all those fundraiser reminders you posted last year.

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10 Tech Resolutions to Consider in the New Year

Are you anti-social, getting poor sleep, and have a terrible attention span? It’s time to clean up your act.

20160613004506

Owners of buildings with six residential units or more -- which are often rent regulated -- can demand only one month's rent as security and must put security deposits in interest-bearing accounts. Owners of smaller buildings can set their own security-deposit requirements and are not required to put the funds in interest-bearing accounts. However, Ms. Russo said, if an owner does deposit the funds in such an account, any interest earned must be paid to or credited to the tenant each year, less an administration fee of 1 percent of the amount on deposit. One way property owners can run into trouble is by renting out an ''illegal'' apartment. Lucas A. Ferrara, a Manhattan real estate lawyer, said that if a building is classified on city records as a two-family property, and the owner adds another apartment without getting the required approval, that extra apartment would be considered illegal. ''Everything may be fine and dandy while the tenant is paying the rent,'' Mr. Ferrara said. ''But if the tenant stops paying, the owner may be precluded from collecting the rent in court.'' He explained that under the state's Multiple Dwelling Law, a landlord could lose his right to collect rent if he leases an apartment in a multiple dwelling in violation of the building's certificate of occupancy. Gregory Diebold, director of litigation for the Hudson County office of the Northeast New Jersey Legal Services in Jersey City, said that while New Jersey has some ''very protective legislation for tenants,'' those laws generally do not apply to two- or three-family homes occupied by their owners. Mr. Diebold noted that unless a tenant in such a building makes a specific written demand to be covered by the law regulating security deposits, for example, the law will not apply. If the tenant makes such a demand, however, the security deposit law will apply and the landlord may require a deposit of no more than one and a half months' rent and must put the money in an interest bearing account. While the state requires registration of buildings with tenants that are not occupied by their owners -- including one-family homes that are rented out -- the requirement does not apply to owner-occupied one-, two- and three-family buildings. Mr. Selsberg, the lawyer, said that in Connecticut property owners cannot require more than two months' rent as a security deposit (one month if the tenant is 62 or older), and must put the money into interest-bearing accounts. Finally, he said, every home and apartment in Connecticut must have a valid certificate of occupancy, including apartments in two- and three-family homes occupied by their owners. Failure to have a certificate for a rental apartment could make it difficult for an owner to use the courts to collect rent arrears from a tenant. Joel E. Miller, a Queens tax lawyer, said that tax issues were one of the most significant aspects of being a homeowner-landlord. When an apartment in a multifamily home is rented out, he explained, ''the building is in effect treated as if it were two separate buildings -- one held for business purposes and one for personal use.'' Using a simple example, if one apartment in a two-family house is being rented out, and both apartments are roughly the same size, then half the house would be treated as owner-occupied and the other half would be treated as a business. Since buildings used to produce income are depreciable for tax purposes, the owner is entitled to take a depreciation deduction on his tax returns. (Land is not depreciable.) For residential property, Mr. Miller said, the business part of the building is depreciable over 27.5 years. So, if a taxpayer buys a two-family home for, say, $400,000, and the land the building is on is worth $100,000, one-half of the $300,000 value of the building is subject to depreciation at the rate of $5,454 a year. And that, Mr. Miller said, can have an impact if the house is sold. Under federal tax law, he said, a taxpayer who owns and uses a house as his principal residence for two of the five years preceding its sale is entitled to a capital gains tax exclusion of up to $250,000. Married couples filing jointly can get an exclusion of up to $500,000. However, any gain on the sale of a two-family house attributable to the rental part -- in our example, half the property -- does not qualify for the tax exclusion. (The gain is the difference between the sale price less expenses of the sale and the tax basis. The tax basis is the original cost plus or minus adjustments like improvements or depreciation). Since the rental part is subject to depreciation, the tax basis would be reduced by that amount, thereby increasing the taxable gain. In fact, Mr. Miller said, this would occur even if the homeowner never claimed a depreciation deduction for the business part of the home. ''The tax code refers to depreciation that is 'allowed or allowable,' '' Mr. Miller said. ''That means that even if the taxpayer didn't get a benefit by claiming the depreciation as a deduction over the years, the amount he could have taken reduces his tax basis and increases his gain.''

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YOUR HOME; When Owner Rents Out Part of House

Advice on issues faced by owners of two- and three-family New York City homes who rent to tenants; drawing (M)

20160624120258

When it comes to hotel stays, Gary Burris is loyal to a fault. In about 20 years of traveling, he has stayed 1,079 nights in Marriott International ( ) hotels, where he expects -- and receives -- a certain level of service, says the 51-year-old sales manager for Oregon-based Tec Laboratories. Hotels covet loyalty from customers like Burris. More than two-thirds of frequent travelers stay with the same hotel company more than half their days on the road, according to a 2014 study on hotel loyalty by Deloitte Consulting. The drive to keep them coming is creating a kind of loyalty program escalation, just ahead of the busy summer travel season. Hilton ( ) and Marriott have by far the most popular hotel loyalty programs, according to a 2014 study by MMGY Global, and Wyndham ( ) unveiled a plan for its hotels in early April that it hopes will jump it ahead in market share. The idea Wyndham claims will be transformative is awarding a free room-night for 15,000 accumulated points (you get 10 points per dollar spent) at any of the chain's 7,500 properties on any day without blackouts. In other words, you could earn your reward staying at the chain's lower-end Super 8 or Microtel motels and get your free room at one of its top-end properties. By comparison, Hilton and Marriott have the standard tiered system of reward redemption: The higher the level hotel, and the busier the season, the more points it takes to get a room. Marriott has five tiers; Hilton has 10. Wyndham Chief Marketing Officer Josh Lesnick says travelers have complained about all the complexities of earning free stays -- with numerous levels to sort out. Instead, in Wyndham's plan, all 7,500 hotels are in the same bucket. Busy travelers say that their loyalty is less about earning points and more about how they are treated. Especially good treatment warrants an especially deep loyalty. Leora Lanz, for one, is particularly devoted to The Lenox Hotel for her frequent stays in Boston. "The staff knows me and my family already, and treat us like we're in our home away from home," Lanz, 50, says. While she is a consultant to hospitality companies, based in Long Island, The Lenox isn't a client. The hotel earned her respect the old-fashioned way -- through good service. %VIRTUAL-pullquote-You want to hear your name. You want to know the company knows you're a loyal customer.%When Hurricane Sandy knocked out power on Long Island and Lanz sought an escape from the devastation, she called The Lenox. After her family's 10-hour drive to get there, she says they were warmly welcomed, given snacks and led to a room set up to accommodate all five of them and even their dog. "You want to hear your name. You want to know the company knows you're a loyal customer," says Matthew D'Uva, president and chief executive officer of the Society of Consumer Affairs Professionals. Extra-special service includes running routes mapped out for a frequent jogger, allowing repeat guests to leave things behind or having a treat awaiting a known foodie. "Use the data to create unique experiences," D'Uva says. Road warriors who have experienced an extraordinary level of service explain that loyalty is a two-way street. Making one-on-one connections with staff you see on each stay is key. Those relationships, they say, can be the entree to having the hotel call a sister property you're going to stay at and extend that same red carpet. "By building relationships with the property and key staff, expressing your personal gratitude, and most of all, being a friend, not a guest, you'll find that being loyal to the property far outweighs being simply brand loyal," says Andy Abramson, CEO of the marketing firm Comunicano Inc.

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Are You Too Loyal to Your Favorite Hotel Chain?

The drive to keep repeat customers coming is creating a loyalty program escalation in the hotel business, just ahead of the busy summer travel season.

20160714230749

Neighbors of an Airbnb homeowner will soon be able to rant or rave about their experiences (and the guests) through the company website. The company said it will offer a new product globally that will allow neighbors to submit comments online, which Airbnb's customer service team will review. Yasuyuki Tanabe, who heads Airbnb in Japan, announced the feature at a panel in Tokyo earlier today. It's not clear if Airbnb customers can view feedback from neighbors. A spokesman for Airbnb told ABC News that the company will provide more details when the company formally launches the new tool in the "coming weeks." "Most Airbnb hosts are sharing the home they live in and we give them tools they need to only welcome respectful travelers," Airbnb spokesman Nick Papas said in a statement. "If issues do arise, we work with our community to try and resolve them." Some Airbnb neighbors have other outlets, like social media, to complain about the temporary house guests next door. The San Francisco-based company already encourages "responsible hosting" with a toll-free hotline for neighbors to offer feedback. my neighbors Airbnb has the most wretched LOUD pack of children staying rn & they r running AMOK Cities such as Los Angeles and New York are trying to regulate Airbnb rentals, which can be found in more than 190 countries. Chris Danna, a real estate agent and board president of Franklin Village co-op in Los Angeles, has seen a range of Airbnb renters in the neighborhood. “In the past few years, I have personally seen over 75 different people who litter, block cars, wake people up at 3 to 4 a.m., throw bottles in the swimming pool, have all night parties, vandalize property, leak oil, and break every operating rule in existence,” he said. The neighbors in the Airbnb were noisy last night so I DL'd a fan white noise app. I was out in about 1 minute flat. Fans = sleep. With more than 2 million Airbnb listings globally, the company touts the ability for homeowners to earn extra money. Some residents complain about the neighborhood changes and noise that short-term renters bring. Jan Lehnardt of Berlin has rented properties multiple times on Airbnb, but described the growing number of listings in his neighborhood as “terrible.” “It forces out people who have lived their whole lives here,” Lehnardt said. “It’s not that cities shouldn’t ever change, far from it, but it should be done with an eye on how this affects people’s lives and in a socially conscious way. I dread Berlin turning into a city like London, where these days, essentially only rich people can live anywhere close to the center. All the while our politicians are trying to plaster the last remaining parks of our city with more luxury flats.”

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Airbnb to Launch Feature for Neighbors to File Complaints

Neighbors of an Airbnb homeowner will soon be able to rant or rave about their living situation on the renting website.

20160718212423

New York magazine had a long, in-depth piece recently about the race for the publisher’s seat at the New York Times, a race that consists solely of people whose last name is Sulzberger, or who are otherwise related to the current publisher. It’s a great look at the closest thing that the media world has to a royal family (next to the Murdochs, perhaps), with all of the in-fighting over whose nephew or cousin will advance, and a glimpse of the noblesse oblige the Sulzbergers feel as stewards of the Times. There’s one glaring error in the story, however: At one point, it says “the selection of the next publisher is perhaps the most critical challenge facing the Times.” This is not even close to being true. Choosing a publisher may be the most critical challenge facing the various branches of the Sulzberger family, but it’s nowhere near the most important challenge for the newspaper company itself. The challenge facing the New York Times is the same one that virtually every traditional media entity is facing, whether it’s the Washington Post, or Time Inc. (which owns Fortune) or even TV giants like CBS. The time when a handful of news outlets controlled the only platforms for distribution — and hence, the advertising revenue attached to those platforms — is gone. And it’s not clear what the NYT’s role is going to be in the new world. Will it be primarily a supplier of news to other platforms like Facebook FB ? Given that kind of monumental challenge to the very foundations of the Times and its journalism, is this really the moment when the fifth generation of a founding family should be holding the reins? I would argue that it is not. In some ways, in fact, it is the worst possible time to do that (and many of these same arguments also apply to the Murdoch family and News Corp., incidentally). From most accounts, all three of the men in the running for the NYT publisher job are smart and driven. Arthur Gregg Sulzberger, son of the current publisher, helped put together the internal Innovation Report, which outlined the challenges facing the paper. David Perpich, the current publisher’s nephew, is a Harvard MBA and helped build the paywall for the paper. Sam Dolnick, the son of Sulzberger’s cousin, has worked on mobile apps, among other things. Despite all that, however, their most compelling qualification for the job, and the one that has set them above every other potential candidate anywhere in the media world, is that they are related to someone named Sulzberger. In effect, their ability to understand the way newspapers work or the way the Internet works is secondary. If that was truly the most important decision criteria, someone else would have the job. Having a feudal structure in which various branches of a single family control the fate of such a massive media entity might have made sense when the newspaper business was a boring, dependable money-spinner, but those days are gone. And so are the days when a founding family could take $24 million or so out of the newspaper’s coffers every year in the form of dividends without anyone noticing. Could the Sulzbergers achieve what they need to without selling the paper? Perhaps. They could search for a publisher with the right skills and then give them carte blanche to do whatever they needed to in order to succeed. But in some ways that might be even more difficult for the family to stomach than selling. And the publisher would feel the weight of all that combined family pressure, just as the current editor does now. Donald Graham, whose family had a similarly iron grip on the Washington Post — thanks to the magic of multiple-voting shares — decided in 2013 that he simply couldn’t continue as the owner, and sold to Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. Did Graham do this because he no longer believed in or cared about the Post? Not at all. Just the opposite, in fact: He decided to sell because he couldn’t bring himself to make the kinds of cuts and changes that he felt would be necessary. Was this cowardice? I don’t think so. Based on what I know about Don Graham, and conversations with those who know him, I think he believed Bezos was the best possible owner for the Post at a time like this. Not just because he is wealthy, and therefore not as likely to be driven by short-term thinking, but because he understands the Internet and how digital media is changing the way that content functions. In other words, he had the tools and the skills to help the Post adapt for the future. Do any of the Sulzbergers have those tools and skills? Perhaps. But if they do, then they should be able to win an open competition for the job, not be awarded it in the same way the king hands out jobs on Game of Thrones. Would Michael Bloomberg be any better a steward for the Times? Maybe not, but at least he would be looking for the best person to run it, not the best person named Sulzberger. The Times may have a tremendously successful paywall, with over a million paying subscribers, but even that is still barely making up for the loss of print advertising, for the simple reason that print readers are worth at least 20 times more than digital readers. New apps like NYT Now have been well received, but as yet aren’t making much in the way of revenue, and the paper has so far only tip-toed into areas like native advertising. Meanwhile, the newsroom is as large as it has ever been, at 1,300 or so. Like every other traditional media entity going through these challenges, the Times needs more than just a tweak to its business model here or there — it needs radical surgery. There have been hints that the current publisher might be willing to make the sacrifice required to sell the paper if large cuts necessary. For the sake of the Times, I hope those rumors are true.

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Why the Sulzberger family should sell the New York Times

Given the challenges confronting the Times as it tries to adapt to an online world, is being controlled by a single family really the best approach?

20160719162510

BORN as a Great Depression-era utopian cooperative for unemployed Jewish New York City garment workers, Roosevelt, N.J., looks pretty much as it did when it was started by the United States Department of the Interior in the late 1930's. Its streets meander around hills and stream beds, and most of its houses back up to green belts or woods, including the sprawling, 5,600 acre state-owned Assunpink Wildlife Management Area to the south. Of the 334 homes in the 1.8-square-mile Monmouth County borough, 200 are the original Bauhaus-style structures, which resemble low-slung concrete bunkers and have so much steel rebar reinforcement in their walls that cordless telephone reception is obstructed. ''Although our housing lots are a half acre,'' said the planning board chairman, Ralph Seligman, 79, a 50-year resident, ''the woods give us the feeling of infinite privacy.'' Roosevelt has just a handful of commercial buildings, the largest of which is the Worker's Aim Cooperation Association Building on North Valley Road. Constructed as part of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal in 1936, it started as a garment factory that was owned and operated by the homeowners. That structure has since been subdivided into artists' studios and nonpolluting industrial businesses. The town's two gasoline stations, which closed long ago, remain eyesores. There are no traffic lights, virtually no crime, no police and little traffic on internal roads. The one store is Rossi's Deli on North Rochdale Avenue, next to the post office, where residents collect their mail because no letter carriers are assigned to Roosevelt. Residents do their grocery shopping in neighboring towns. The closest major mall is the Freehold Mall 12 miles to the southeast. ''When referring to Roosevelt institutions, we use the word 'the,' -- as in 'the' school, 'the' store, 'the' post office -- because there is just one of each,'' said the mayor, Michael Hamilton. The only town in New Jersey on both the National and State Registers of Historic Places in its entirety, Roosevelt was originally named Jersey Homesteads. It was one of 34 municipalities started by the federal Subsistence Homesteads program, an experiment that gave workers cooperative ownership over local farms and factories. In 1945, after President Roosevelt's death and long after the government had sold off the factory and farms, the borough renamed itself Roosevelt to honor F.D.R. ''The economic experiment was a failure, but what developed was a tightly knit social fabric,'' said the borough historian. Arthur Shapiro, who has lived most of his 63 years in Roosevelt. ''The original residents were all Eastern European Jews, and the minutes of the first borough council were even taken in Yiddish,'' Dr. Shapiro said. ''Within weeks of its founding, there were already 36 organizations. School friends became like brothers and sisters, and we all still keep in touch 50 years after we graduated.'' Mel A. Adlerman, 70, owner of the Adlerman Agency in nearby Monroe and one of the original settlers in Roosevelt, says that many home buyers in the town are children of the first residents, returning to their roots. Currently, only three houses, all in the Bauhaus style, are on the market. They range in price from $124,900 to $142,900. Mr. Adlerman said he had a waiting list of half a dozen people seeking homes in town. The Bauhaus-type houses were built in two styles: detached and semidetached, with the connection between houses being at the garages. ''These homes typically sell for between $95,000 and just under $150,000,'' Mr. Adlerman said. ''Price is determined by whether the house is detached or semidetached and whether it has been updated or expanded.'' Roosevelt also has about two dozen geodesic dome houses that were built in the 1970's, when there was a dome factory in town. They sell for between $125,000 for a small two-bedroom model and $175,000 for an upgraded three-bedroom unit. A two-bedroom, two-bath dome house sold in October for $149,900. There are also several dozen small ranches, colonials and bilevels in the Lake Drive section that go for about $135,000 to $150,000. Larger four-bedroom colonials built on four-acre lots during the 1990's along Eleanor Lane, named for the former first lady, can go for as much as $250,000, according to Mr. Adlerman. The only multifamily project is Solar Village, a 21-unit low-income senior-citizen housing development on Valley Road, that is heated by solar energy. Among the newer residents is Lois Hunt, a retired opera singer who has several family members in town. In 1997, she moved from Oyster Bay on Long Island, into one of the original structures. ''I moved for family, but I love the community,'' she explained in a recent interview. ''It's one of those places where everyone knows and speaks to one another. And there are many artists and musicians, which makes this a highly cultured place to live.'' THE central focus of the borough is the 105-student Roosevelt Elementary School for kindergarten through sixth grade. The entire borough attends its graduation ceremony, and its meeting rooms are used practically every night for community functions.

http://web.archive.org/web/20160719162510id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2002/02/03/realestate/if-you-re-thinking-living-roosevelt-nj-new-deal-enclave-friendly-arts.html?

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If You're Thinking of Living In/Roosevelt, N.J.

BORN as a Great Depression-era utopian cooperative for unemployed Jewish New York City garment workers, Roosevelt, N.J., looks pretty much as it did when it was started by the United States Department of the Interior in the late 1930's. Its streets meander around hills and stream beds, and most of its houses back up to green belts or woods, including the sprawling, 5,600 acre state-owned Assunpink Wildlife Management Area to the south. Of the 334 homes in the 1.8-square-mile Monmouth County borough, 200 are the original Bauhaus-style structures, which resemble low-slung concrete bunkers and have so much steel rebar reinforcement in their walls that cordless telephone reception is obstructed. ''Although our housing lots are a half acre,'' said the planning board chairman, Ralph Seligman, 79, a 50-year resident, ''the woods give us the feeling of infinite privacy.''

20160722021909

Not only was Wawrinka in his first Australian Open final, but in 12 previous matches against Nadal, he had lost each of their 26 sets. Yet Nadal was being bullied, something that happens rarely and almost never in Grand Slam tournaments and about as often in a major final as a unicorn discovery. Wawrinka served-and-volleyed. He laced one-handed-backhand winners down the line. He took Nadal out of position and went the other way. He won with shotmaking and creativity and force. He out-Nadaled Nadal. “I was more surprised about how well I was playing,” Wawrinka said. One game proved particularly instructive. Wawrinka served for the first set, ahead by 5-3 but behind by 0-40. Nadal faced three second serves on those break points and failed to convert on each of them. Wawrinka boomed an ace wide to hold for a 34th consecutive service game. Wawrinka cruised early in the second set. He ripped forehand winners. He smacked one return on the backhand side at such an extreme angle that Nadal could only watch as it bounced and kicked sideways. Birds circled above, and it seemed fair to wonder if a buzzard or two were not up there among them. Throughout the tournament, Nadal had toughed out victories despite a blister about the size of a quarter on his left palm — the most analyzed, discussed and shown-on-television blister, it seemed, in the history of tennis. He took a medical timeout not because of the blister, however, but because of his back, and the pain, which appeared severe, seemed to worsen as the second set wore on. Nadal, who had clutched his back a few times before the timeout, retreated to the locker room, and Wawrinka talked to an official about what seemed like perhaps more of a stall tactic than an emergency. When Nadal returned from the locker room, he did so shirtless, and the crowd booed him when he stepped back onto the court. That seemed harsh as the set continued and Nadal basically flicked serves over the net because he could hardly turn on them. Nadal spent one second-set changeover with his head buried in his hands. He spent the time between the second and third sets being rubbed down. He grimaced and moved gingerly and generally played like an old man, or least a far older one. Afterward, Nadal tried to keep the attention off his injury. He did allow that his back hurt during warm-ups. He did acknowledge how often he seemed to miss this tournament with an injury or sustain one while playing here. He seemed reflective and tired, but mostly sad. “I talk enough about that, I think,” he said to another question about his back. As Nadal fought through the pain, Wawrinka looked to be weighing how he should play, how aggressive he should be, whether to step on the throat of a clearly diminished opponent. Then again, with the stakes involved, what was he supposed to do? Ease up? Wawrinka’s level slowed some, and Nadal’s picked up. It was clear that Nadal’s injury had affected both players, even if inadvertently. Nadal held serve to start the third set and broke Wawrinka after that. There was some daylight, and although he still could not serve or move all that well, he mounted an odd comeback. “Sorry to finish this way,” Nadal said in his runner-up speech. “I tried very, very hard.” For Nadal, there would be no 14th Grand Slam singles championship. He would not tie Pete Sampras for second place, would not creep closer to Federer’s total of 17, would not become the first player in the Open era to secure every major tournament title at least twice. For Wawrinka, there was elation, even if the back injury slightly overshadowed, perhaps unfairly, what he had managed to pull off. Not only did he upend the top two seeds, including a longtime foil in Djokovic, but his victory will push him to No. 3 in the next ATP World Tour rankings, ahead of a certain Swiss tennis superstar who has overshadowed him for his whole career. That man, Federer, called with congratulations. Hours after the match ended, Wawrinka finished up his news conference. Someone asked how he planned to celebrate. “There’s a big chance I get drunk tonight,” he said. A version of this article appears in print on January 27, 2014, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: A Bizarrely Fitting Finale Yields a Most Unexpected Champion. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

http://web.archive.org/web/20160722021909id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2014/01/27/sports/tennis/wawrinka-defeats-an-ailing-nadal-to-win-australian-open.html

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A Bizarrely Fitting Finale Yields a Most Unexpected Champion

Stanislas Wawrinka defeated Rafael Nadal, bringing the strangest match of an odd tournament to a conclusion one couldn’t have expected.

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Britain goes to the polls on Thursday, 5 May in the biggest set of elections, outside of a general election, for some years. These include elections to the Scottish parliament, Welsh assembly, Northern Ireland assembly and local council in England. And in London, voters elect a new mayor and members of the London assembly. So how can you judge how the parties have done? Dr Robert Ford, professor of politics at the University of Manchester, takes a look at what would constitute bad, average and good results for the major parties. Scotland All constituency seats lost. Well behind Conservatives in vote share. Wales Record worst performance on vote share. Fall below 2007 low of 26 seats. Lose multiple constituencies to Conservatives and Plaid Cymru, serious Ukip threat in South Wales. Local elections Projected vote shares close to worst performances over past 20 years. Loss of 300-plus seats, and a range of important councils. London Sadiq Khan goes down to shock defeat. Labour finishes behind Conservatives in assembly seats. Scotland Nearly all constituency seats lost. Finish in third, behind the Conservatives on both vote share and seat totals. Wales Vote shares fall sharply, to around the record lows of 2007. Key marginals lost to Plaid and Conservatives; large vote loss to Ukip too. With 27 seats or less, little prospect of governing alone. Local elections Sharp decline in projected vote share, and losses of 150-300 seats. Labour loses control of key councils. London Sadiq Khan barely scrapes home in mayoral election, despite double-digit poll leads. Labour lose ssembly seats. Scotland Substantial constituency seat losses to SNP, but somewhat offset by list seat gains. Finish clear second ahead of Conservatives. Wales Vote shares a little below 2011. Limited seat losses. Local elections Significant projected vote share decline on 2012, reflecting rise of Ukip; 50-150 seat losses, lose some councils. London Comfortable win for Sadiq Khan in mayoral election. Retain all assembly seats won in 2012, remain largest party in assembly. Scotland Stablise vote shares above 25%, below 2011 but suggesting some recovery from lowest ebb. Successfully defend most or all remaining constituency seats from SNP, perhaps regain one or two ultra-marginals. Wales Vote shares at or a little above 2011. Finish at or a little above 30 seats, so able to govern alone. Local elections Projected vote share a little down on 2012, but under 50 seat losses, well below some forecasts. Retain key councils. Scotland Vote share at or above 2011 level, suggesting party has definitively “turned the corner”. Defend constituency seats and win back some marginals from SNP. Wales Vote shares well above 2011, clear majority in assembly, best ever performance in Wales. Local elections Vote shares close to or above 2012 levels with net seat gain. London Big win for Sadiq Khan in mayoral election. Pick up at least one assembly seat, enabling majority control of assembly. Scotland Sharp decline; loss of constituency and list seats. Poll recovery under Ruth Davidson proves false dawn. Wales Sharp decline in votes, lose several seats to Labour and Plaid Cymru, fall behind Plaid in seats. Local elections Major (100-plus) seat losses across country suggesting broad popular turn against David Cameron and party. Large losses to Lab, Lib Dems and Ukip. Safe-looking councils lost. London Zac Goldsmith thumped by Khan in mayoral election. Assembly seat losses. Conservatives becoming marginalised. Scotland Further stagnation or slow retreat, continuing long trend of decline. Wales Sharp drop in support. Loss of constituency seats to Labour and Plaid; evidence of large scale vote loss to Ukip too. Local elections Vote share down on 2012, with significant loss of seats (50-150). Loss of support in multiple directions: to recovering Lib Dems in suburban south; Labour in north; Ukip in east & blue-collar areas. Scotland Modest gains in vote share and add one or two seats. Wales Stable vote share and seats, remaining clearly second largest party. Local elections Modest recovery in projected vote share on 2012, some seat gains. Recovery of control in some tightly contested councils. London Defeat but not disgrace in mayoral election. Stability but not advance in London assembly. Scotland Significant vote share advance, at or above best showings in 1999-2003. Wins in some marginal battles at constituency level. Closing on Labour in votes and seats. Wales Win some key marginals from Labour, increase vote share on 2011. Local elections Significant improvement in projected vote share on 2012, 50-150 seat gains. Win control of a number of councils. London Narrow defeat in mayoral election. Increased vote share in London assembly. Scotland Best ever vote shares and seat totals. Overtake Labour to become largest opposition party. Wales Vote share up significantly; claim a number of Labour seats on significant swings. Wales begins to look competitive? Local elections Major improvement in projected vote share and more than 150 seat gains. Exceptional performance for party in government. London Shock win in mayoral election; multiple seat gains in assembly. Scotland Vote down sharply again, lose all remaining seats. Wales Lose all remaining seats, well short of regional list thresholds. Local elections Further decline in projected vote share, and seat losses. London Lose both assembly members. Scotland Lose one of their constituency seats, lose ground on regional lists. Down to 2-3 MSPs. Wales Kirsty Williams loses last constituency seat. Lose all regional seats, out of Welsh assembly for first time. Local elections No recovery in projected vote share, little or no net seat gain. London Vote share declines, lose one assembly member, well behind Greens. Scotland Hold on to their remaining two islands constituency seats, and enough regional votes to pick up regional seats in several areas. Stabilisation after 2011 collapse. Wales Leader Kirsty Williams holds on in last Lib Dem constituency seat. All regional seats lost as Ukip advances. Local elections Modest gains in projected vote share and recovery of up to 50 seats. First green shoots? London Vote share recovers enough for party to hold both its assembly list seats. Scotland Hold on to both constituency seats, recover enough vote share to pick up a seat in most regions, meaning a net gain of seats. Wales Hold last constituency seat, and recover another. Hold on in regional lists as Ukip advance proves smaller than expected. Local elections Healthy rebound in projected vote share and 50-100 seat gains suggesting party recovering in its traditional local government strongholds. Scotland Major rebound in vote, outperforming polls and making significant seat gains at the regional-list level. Wales Gain two seats at the constituency level, hold off Ukip challenge and retain regional seats, or even gain extra ones. Local elections Major recovery from the trauma of coalition; 100-plus seat gains. London Rebound in vote share takes Lib Dems past Greens as the leading “third party” in London. Scotland Nowhere near contention for seats. Vote share no better than 2011. Wales Win only a couple of regional-list seats after underperforming polls. Fail to provide credible challenge at constituency level. Local elections Handful of scattered seat gains. Projected vote share below 2015 despite EU focus. Ukip in decline? London Barely a flicker of life, limited to outer East End. Challenge no more credible than George Galloway. Scotland Fall well short on regional lists everywhere. Wales Win 3-5 regional-list seats, under-performing polling expectations. Fail to mount credible constituency level challenges. Local elections Modest (15-30) seat gains. Disappointing given recent successes, and current context. London: Well short of the regional-list threshold. Scotland In running for at least one regional-list seat. Wales Win regional-list seats in all regions. Become local opposition to Labour in range of constituency seats. Local elections Significant seat gains (30-60), though less than in 2013 and 2014 – enough to point to another advance in local representation. London In contention for a regional-list seat. Scotland Win multiple regional-list seats. Wales Win eight or more regional list seats. Become genuine threat to Labour in several South Wales constituencies. Local elections 60-100 seat gains, and projected vote share close to 2013-14 highs. Party can point to another major advance in local government presence. London Win a regional-list seat, and score above 7% on vote in a demographically difficult region. Significant decline in vote shares on 2011. Lose a wave of constituency seats back to Labour. Well short of majority in Scottish parliament. Small decline in vote share on 2011. Loss of some ultra-marginal seats to Labour. Narrowly lose majority in Scottish parliament. Modest increase in vote share. Gain some constituency seats from Labour. Retain majority in Scottish parliament. Big increase in vote share, to near 50% on both constituency and regional list. Gain most remaining constituency seats from Labour, make gains from Conservatives and Lib Dems too. Increased majority in parliament. Above 50% in constituency and regional polls. SNP wins in all or nearly all constituency races. Total dominance of Scottish parliament; 76 plus seats. Significant decline in vote share, suffer constituency seat losses. Drop into fourth place, behind Ukip. Modest decline in vote share. Fail to win any constituency seats. Finish well behind Conservatives and in fight with Ukip for third place. Modest increase in vote share. Gain Llanelli from Labour. Behind Conservatives in votes and seats. Substantial increase in vote share. Gain constituency seats from Labour and Conservatives, finish narrowly ahead of Conservatives to become second party in Wales again. Large increase in vote share. Constituency gains on big swings and evidence of emerging strength outside traditional heartlands. Begin to look like a genuine future challenger for power. Scotland If the SNP advance strongly as expected, Coatbridge and Chryston; Glasgow Provan and Renfrewshire South are the seats to watch – they are Labour’s safest remaining seats with majorities of about 10%. The Liberal Democrats will be trying to hold on in their two traditional islands strongholds of Orkney Islands and Shetland Islands. Wales Llanelli is the most marginal Welsh seat, swings back and forth between Labour and Plaid Cymru. Currently, Labour hold it by a razor thin margin. Carmarthen West and South Pembrokeshire is a tight three-way contest between Conservatives, Labour and Plaid. The Liberal Democrats will hope to defend their sole remaining seat of Brecon and Radnorshire, and try to win back Cardiff Central where Labour have a tiny majority. On a good night, the Conservatives will hope to challenge Labour for Cardiff North; on a bad one they face threats from Plaid in Aberconwy and Labour in Preseli Pembrokeshire Local councils Big English councils where Labour defend small majorities include Southampton (1 seat); Dudley (3 seats); Derby (4 seats) and Cambridge (4 seats). Big councils where the Conservatives have a precarious grip on power include: Amber Valley (2 seats), Swindon (4 seats) and Winchester (5 seats). The Liberal Democrats will be looking to begin their recovery in current or former strongholds – Eastleigh, Cambridge and South Lakeland are worth watching for signs of life, post-Coalition. Ukip will look to make further gains in their traditional east coast strongholds such as Great Yarmouth, and struggling blue collar areas such as Thurrock. Norwich is worth watching closely - Labour hold a narrow 2 seat majority, but if the Greens take 4 seats they will gain control of a council for only the second time in their history. Mayor and London: The key “swing” seats in the assembly are Ealing and Hilling (Labour lead Conservatives by 2 points); Havering and Redbridge (Conservatives lead Labour by 3 points); and Croydon and Sutton (Conservatives lead Labour by 6 points). If Sadiq Khan wins the mayoral vote in these areas, he will be well on track to become London’s next mayor, while assembly wins for Labour in the latter two could see them take majority control of the assembly (they are one seat short at present). Havering and Redbridge is worth watching for evidence of Ukip strength - they performed well in parliamentary constituencies in the eastern part of this seat in 2015. The Greens, Liberal Democrats and Ukip will all be vying for seats on the city-wide list, so watch their overall vote shares - 5-6% should be enough for one seat while 7-9% should secure two. Currently the Greens and Lib Dems have two list seats each while UKIP have none. Dr Robert Ford is professor of politics at the University of Manchester.

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How to read Thursday’s election results

Understanding what would be a bad, average and good result for the major parties in the local and regional elections

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New Orleans is home to one of the few true indigenous cuisines of the USA. Creole, the rich, seafood-heavy, largely urban cuisine of New Orleans (not to be confused with Cajun – the rustic food of rural Louisiana) is reinterpreted on a daily basis by adventurous fusion chefs in the area. But what about the places cooking the New Orleans favourites that the hot young chefs are modifying? Bywater, now flooded with post-Katrina transplants, is regularly touted as New Orleans’ answer to Brooklyn (a fact New Orleanians both embrace and hate with the passion gentrification tends to engender). On Dauphine Street you can find international street food and vegan breakfasts – a far cry from traditional gumbo. Across the street from those trendy outlets is Frady’s One Stop Food Store. This corner shop turned café is not a hotbed of slickly dressed waiters. At Frady’s, folk crowd in for plate lunches that follow the Southern meat-and-three tradition – one meat (smoked sausage, baked chicken) with two or three vegetables or starchy sides. Po’boys, the local version of a sandwich served on softer-than-French-but-reminiscent-of-baguette bread, are also popular. While tucking in to a po’boy at the few wrought-iron tables on the sidewalk outside, enjoy the view of the old Piety Street Recording studio, which has hosted the Dave Matthews Band and the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, among others. If you like the sound of po’boys, head to Freret Street and have a seat at Freret St Poboy & Donut Shop (freretstreetpoboys.com). On a corridor dominated by intensely designed dining spaces, it offers simply a room with a few tables, often populated with their delicious sandwiches. Of particular note are the fried oysters (always plump and liable to burst with seawater when you bite into them) and roast beef slow-cooked for hours in garlic, spices and its own “debris” (local slang for drippings gravy). They do a mean cup of gumbo too – far better than some that can be found in the busy French Quarter. The doughnuts are also good, but they don’t approach the feverishly addictive qualities of the Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Café (buttermilkdrop.com). The buttermilk drop, popularised by the now defunct McKenzie’s Pastry Shoppe, warrants definition: it is the hole of a doughnut (the part you don’t usually see), with a slightly crumbly texture, infused with buttermilk, fried and drenched in a sugary coating. Dwight Henry’s drops at the Buttermilk Drop Bakery and Café are the platonic ideal of a sweet that make strong men weep with joy. While New Orleans is not well known for world cuisine, it does boast a large Vietnamese population. In the suburb of Gretna, in a concrete strip mall as removed from the elegant and well-established New Orleans architecture as The Gherkin in London, is Tan Dinh, which may be the best-value restaurant in the city – and serves up delicious food too. The pho is fragrant and simultaneously hearty, the charred Korean short ribs are moreish and the garlic butter chicken wings may be the best thing ever to go with a cold beer. New Orleans is a lush, subtropical city with an abundance of parks. The two largest, Audubon and City Park, are justifiably famous beyond the city borders, but smaller parks remain undiscovered by visitors. After years of delay, Crescent Park opened in the Bywater in February. For a city that is so culturally and geographically ingrained with the Mississippi, there are not many well-manicured spots to watch the river in peace (the Riverwalk along the French Quarter is often very busy and bustling). The Crescent, which will one day link to the Riverwalk, is popular with families, dog walkers and the curious, who flock to its industrial-aesthetic inspired edge to see the “Big Muddy” flow slowly by. The city hosts an art market in Palmer Park In Faubourg St John, a neighbourhood of shade trees and elegant old homes, Alcee Fortier Park (usually known as Fortier Park) is an excellent example of urban planning done well. It’s little more than an irregularly shaped plot of land, but neighbours pitched in, adding fairy lights, lawn chairs and art to create a perfect little copse-and-clearing that sits across from a strip of worthwhile restaurants and shops. While New Orleans is deeply linked to the Mississippi, it also shares a shore with the enormous Lake Pontchartrain. At the intersection of St Bernard Avenue and Lakeshore Drive, there is a small public shorefront complete with picnic tables, flowering trees and, best of all, easy swimming access. Clean-up efforts have left the lake safe for swimming, but no one in the city seems to know where to access it. This is the spot. While some come here to cool off during the hot summer, it’s still largely unknown for most New Orleanians, not to mention tourists. New Orleans has always attracted the oddballs, eccentrics and iconoclasts of the generally conservative American South, and, as a result, the arts scene is rich and ever-changing. Those seeking a film outside the blockbuster roster would do well to look up the schedule at Indywood (indywood.org). A pair of cinephile siblings run this art-house cinema from a converted laundromat. It’s perfect as an evening opener, given its proximity to the music along well-known Frenchmen Street and the slightly more obscure clubs popping up along St Claude Avenue. All sorts of shows – from experimental dance to puppet festivals to performances associated with the city’s famed Fringe Fest – tromp along the main stage in the artfully dilapidated Marigny Opera House (marignyoperahouse.org), a converted church and beloved venue of the local performing arts scene. In Palmer Park, Uptown, on the last Saturday of every month, the Arts Market is a good place to find handmade art and craft products made by locals, including glassware and original prints. There is also a family-friendly day-long festival, organised by the Arts Council of New Orleans. Music, food and dozens of vendors selling at cut-rate prices make for a bazaar where you can find a unique piece of local work that doubles as the perfect souvenir. There are no direct flights from the UK to New Orleans. Services to the city’s Louis Armstrong Airport connect from JFK and Newark airports in New York as well as Miami airport in Florida. American Airlines (americanairlines.co.uk) also flies internally from many other US states. Non-stop flights take around three hours from New York and two from Miami. A taxi from the airport to central New Orleans costs $33 (£20) for a couple or $14 per person for three or more people. An airport shuttle is available for $20 per person and can be booked in advance (airportshuttleneworleans.com). Getting around by bike is fairly easy or, if you prefer to take taxis, United Cabs operates an efficient service (unitedcabs.com). Information on bus routes can be found at norta.com. For more information on visiting the USA, go to discoveramerica.com A new museum puts Johnny Cash at the heart of the country music pantheon Download the free Telegraph Travel app, featuring expert guides to destinations including Paris, Rome, New York and Amsterdam https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/travel-guides-by-telegraph/id793779955?ls=1&mt=8

http://web.archive.org/web/20160728115333id_/http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/travel/destinations/north-america/united-states/new-orleans/articles/New-Orleans-the-unseen-side-of-the-city/

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New Orleans: the unseen side of the city

As the Jazz Festival entertains the city, a New Orleans local shares lesser-known hotspots for food, culture and outdoor spaces

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Chris Ratcliffe | Bloomberg | Getty Images Uber CEO Travis Kalanick gestures as he speaks during the Institute of Directors annual convention in London, Oct. 3, 2014. Uber has hired a law firm to audit its handling of customer data, the ride-sharing service announced Thursday after a week full of data-related controversies. The firm Hogan Lovells "will conduct an in-depth review and assessment" of Uber's practices and make recommendations, the company announced in a blog post Thursday. The firm's Harriet Pearson, a lawyer with deep experience in privacy and cybersecurity issues, will join Uber's privacy team. Read MoreWhat does Uber know about you? "The trip history of our riders is important information and we understand that we must treat it carefully and with respect, protecting it from unauthorized access," Uber wrote. Uber made the announcement after a week of reports around how it handles data. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick apologized on Twitter for comments made by executive Emil Michael, who according to Buzzfeed News suggested Uber could look into hire opposition researchers to dig up dirt on reporters who write negative things about the company. More from NBC News: Amnesty's New App Scans For Spyware Travel in Time With This Flux Capacitor Watch 9 Hot Android Apps from 2014 Meanwhile, Uber is also reportedly investigating claims that a different executive tracked a Buzzfeed News reporter's car ride with an internal "God View" tool without her consent. After the pair of controversies, Uber publicly released its data privacy policy for the first time. Uber's Thursday announcement came one day after Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) publicly called on Uber to clarify its policies around how it handles riders' data.

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Under Pressure, Uber Hires Privacy Czar and Launches Audit

Uber has hired a law firm to audit its handling of customer data after a week full of data-related controversies, NBC reports.

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PARIS — Cristiano Ronaldo spends a lot of time alone. Alone on the wing, alone in his kitchen, alone in his thoughts, where, by his own admission, much of his focus is on whether he will again win the Ballon d’Or award — the world player-of-the-year honor, which, of course, is for a single, solitary superstar. Ronaldo does not mind this (or, at least, he says he embraces it). Even by modern athletic standards, his entourage is necessarily small: his agent, his manager, a few close friends and his family. That is it. He often eats lunch by himself, often drives to practice by himself. Over the last 13 years, he has cultivated an image as someone who lives lavishly and luxuriously — estimates are that he is worth $320 million and so the pictures of him on a yacht are to be expected — yet also in relative quiet. He has his 6-year-old son, Cristiano Jr. He has his agent and father or brother figure, Jorge Mendes. He has his soccer and his stardom and, depending on the particular parameters of the argument, his place on or near the top of the list of soccer’s greatest figures. But here is the thing: Much of Ronaldo’s life is built upon his place at his club team, Real Madrid. This is not to say that Real Madrid is a house of loners or that there is no team spirit there; to the contrary, the club is strong and rich, and many of its supporters are passionate and devoted and true. But it is also undeniable that because of Madrid’s exorbitant resources — last year’s payroll was estimated at $180 million — there is a culture of stars, many of whom come and go. And Ronaldo, who has been the rare mainstay, is the brightest. With Portugal’s national team, though, it is different. Ronaldo is still the biggest star, even more so than with Madrid, but the meaning of his presence, and the results, are not the same. On Sunday, Ronaldo will captain Portugal when it faces France in the final of the European Championships, the first time Portugal has been in a major final since it was stunned, on home soil, by Greece in the 2004 Euros. Ronaldo was 19 then, a wunderkind who cried on the field after the final whistle. It was a brutal, bitter experience, but it did not stick to him, did not tarnish him. Neither did disappointing defeats in the semifinals of the 2006 World Cup or the 2012 Euros. In this era, results in international play are an additive to a player’s legacy, a bonus. Consider: Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are the near-universal choices as the best players in the game, yet neither has helped his country lift a significant trophy. On Sunday at the Stade de France, that may change. Ronaldo has said, many times, that he craves a title for Portugal, that it is a dream for him. It is, presumably, a pure one, too: Winning will do little for Ronaldo financially. It will not make him more famous, either. Portugal has a population of a little more than 10 million; Ronaldo has six times that many Instagram followers. What it would do, however, is bind Ronaldo to a group. It would bring him together, forever, with his teammates, with the support staff, with the coach, Fernando Santos, who watched Portugal lose to Greece while serving as a radio commentator and now, more than a decade later, has brought his country back to the cusp again. At Real Madrid, Ronaldo’s winning the club’s 10th (and 11th) Champions League title or its umpteenth Spanish league title does not come with a similar immortality. The team’s dominance makes any one squad’s glory bleed together with the rest. With Portugal, there is nowhere else for the color to run. It is sometimes difficult to know whether Ronaldo actually wants that kind of collectiveness. In a recent documentary about him (titled, simply, “Ronaldo”), he describes himself as “an isolated person” and, in explaining why he played in the 2014 World Cup for Portugal despite being injured, says: “If we had two or three Cristiano Ronaldos in the team, I would feel more comfortable. But we don’t.” Similarly, in an interview with GQ published this year, Ronaldo was asked to name the most important game of his career. After a moment’s pause, he said, “When I score five goals.” Many athletes would have immediately pivoted the question to the team, to the fate of the unit. After Antoine Griezmann scored both goals in France’s semifinal victory over Germany, his first response to a question included a lengthy ode to the team’s training staff and equipment crew for their contributions. And a few seconds after Ronaldo’s first response, he did relent and cite the Champions League final victories. But his initial reaction was telling. Such an answer does not mean he is selfish or self-absorbed (though one could argue that the life-size wax figure and museum devoted to his personal history do). Instead, it may simply show just how little experience Ronaldo has with being part of a group. At this tournament, Portugal has had the expected mix. Younger players, like midfielders João Mário and Renato Sanches, have shown poise and promise, while veterans, like Nani and Pepe, have offered balance and steadiness. Portugal did not impress for much of the last month — three draws in the group stage followed by an extra-time victory, a win in a penalty shootout and, finally, a solid defeat of Wales in the semifinals — but it did enough. Along the way, even as others contributed, many of the key moments, including the decisive goal against the Welsh, came from Ronaldo. If he, and his teammates, can do it one more time Sunday, it will be a seminal moment for Portugal and its fans, as well as for Ronaldo, who, for a change, would not go down in history alone. He and his teammates would be celebrated together, praised together, lionized together. Most important, they would be remembered together. So will he be giving something to them, or will they be giving something to him? In this case, it feels as if it would be a little of both. A version of this article appears in print on July 10, 2016, on page SP1 of the New York edition with the headline: After a Lonely Journey, Hope for an Embrace. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

http://web.archive.org/web/20160802012541id_/http://www.nytimes.com:80/2016/07/10/sports/soccer/cristiano-ronaldo-portugal-euro-2016-final.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2FOn+Soccer

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Cristiano Ronaldo, Quiet Superstar, Can Win Portugal’s Heart With Euros Title

Ronaldo has had years of success at Real Madrid but still seeks his first major title for Portugal, which faces France in the European Championships final on Sunday.

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They have been around since the late 1980s but have rapidly grown in popularity since. Not only do they do all the hard work, hunting down the best properties to match each buyer’s requirements, they secure the most competitive prices, saving money for their clients – even after their fee. In central London, with only 5,000 sales a year, competition for units is stiff and gazumping is rife, so the demand for buying agents is increasing. This is particularly true for buy-to-let properties, which make up almost 40pc of all purchases. Here, you need an expert who knows their marketplace, where the up-and-coming areas are, which are the most desirable buildings and which properties rent the best. London Central Portfolio (LCP) was one of the first such buying agents in the market but its services go even further. It provides full refurbishment, letting and management and a detailed financial analysis of every property it recommends. Having operated in the six square miles of central London for more than 25 years, the firm usually hears about the most sought-after properties becoming available before they officially hit the market. The appeal of buying agents for overseas buyers is obvious. Unlikely to spend hours trawling websites like Zoopla or flying in to meet teams of agents, they can benefit from a hassle-free service and a guiding hand to take them through the legal and tax intricacies of the UK market. According to Naomi Heaton, chief executive of LCP, British investors can benefit from the service. “The buy-to-let sector in central London is very much a ’commercial’ investment market,” she says. “For those in the know, a property’s weekly rent can be estimated to within a few pounds. If you know what that is and what return the market should deliver, you can calculate exactly what a property is worth. Get it wrong and pay the price. “Over-estimating your rent by just £25 per week would mean over-paying for your property by about £30,000”, she adds. “This is where we aid our clients, helping them put emotional factors aside so they can make the most prudent business and financial judgements.” On top of this, LCP can manage the entire renovation process, a necessary chore in central London, where units only change hands on average once every 39 years, and where tenants have clear ideas about what they want – something the firm knows all too well as they let the properties too. All of this means that the company’s rental property portfolio runs at 96pc occupancy, and their clients have seen the growth of their investment exceed the market average by over 27pc on sale. For overseas investors, this kind of service is a far more attractive alternative to the speculative new-build property exhibitions held abroad. “New builds are marketed off-plan at glamorous property exhibitions as investments. Buy-to-let investors may see them as a hassle-free option, negating the need for searching and travel. However, as investment choices, they need to be entered into with care,” says Heaton. “Investors tend to pay a premium for new units, which suffer limited re-sale potential once they are no longer new and buyers have moved on to the next marketing phenomenon. “The initial high rents, often guaranteed by developers, are usually unrepeatable as the glut of identical properties coming back onto the market at the same time almost inevitably forces the rents down,” she adds. It seems estate agents are a dying breed. No longer the only avenue to sell or buy your property, improving technology and portals like Rightmove and Zoopla means they are likely go the same way as travel agents. In a world where people increasingly seek added-value services, buying agents, however, look here to stay. It’s easy to assume that they are only for the wealthiest elite. But with so much competition to find the best properties at the best possible price, more and more buyers are turning to buying agents for what is likely to be the largest purchases they will ever make. • For more information on LCP’s one-stop service or investing in their new fund, London Central Apartments III, go to londoncentralportfolio.com or follow them on Twitter @LCP_Ltd

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The demise of the estate agent

Finding and buying a house online is easy but with estate agents focused on the seller, the real value to house buyers can be found elsewhere

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Or maybe Ben is getting a 'Boomer Belly’ – a term many used to describe the onset of mid-life spread that can creep up on men from their mid thirties onwards. 'During your twenties men naturally have great adrenaline, testosterone and stamina,’ says trainer Matt Roberts, who trains David and Samantha Cameron (www.mattroberts.co.uk). • Did fatherhood give me my dad Bod? 'As a man approaches his forties certain things happen in the body like a slowing metabolism and reduced elasticity in the ligaments. All male body types are prone to this in later life. However, there are plenty of things men can do slow this process down. 40-year-olds like David Beckham are proof that if you keep your exercise consistent and varied, you don’t have to suddenly see yourself described as portly once passed a certain age. Matt says: 'I’m 42 and I’m fitter now than I was at 22.’ Trainer Matt Roberts Picture: Heathcliff O'Malley Matt says that while your teens and twenties are the best time to hone your fitness, it’s never too late to get into shape. A recent study, published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, found men who keep fit were seven times more likely to have a healthy old age, even if they only took up exercise when they retired. 'It’s never too late to get fit,’ says Matt. • Dad dancing the number one way to embarrass children 'If you haven’t exercised before do a gradual catch up and build your fitness up. In a year you can achieve an incredible amount of fitness – it takes a year to train for a marathon and just two years to train for an Iron Man marathon.’ David Beckham's fitness regime still makes him underwear model material Picture: H&M/Rex Features That said, Matt says it’s important for older men to incorporate rest and recovery in their workouts. 'Slightly older men have less elasticity in their ligaments which can restrict joint movement and make them more prone to shoulder, knee or elbow injuries. If you’re new to exercise don’t push yourself too far or do it every day. • Inspiration: Wounded servicemen pose for revealing photos Have rest days, use a foam roller (available in sports shops and on-line) to massage muscles after exercise to aid recovery, iron out knots and improves blood flow and book in for physiotherapy sessions every month or so. And learn to stretch properly – an occasional. Pilates class is great for this.’ Matt says Ben’s rounder portlier shape is common among men who swap an active 20-something existence for a slower paced, office-bound 40-something one: 'Often they have habitual eating patterns that are hard to change,’ explains Matt. • Why girls love the Dad Bod 'When you’re young and exercising like crazy you can eat like a horse and you won’t gain weight. You get this sense of security of eating what you like and getting away with it. With some athletes there’s also some relief when the training stops and they can relax a bit. Whereas athletes like David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Gary Lineker retire and this doesn’t happen – they stay in terrific shape. Why? Because they continue to exercise regularly. One study shows men aged between mid-twenties and mid-fifties will lose a mere 5% of their fitness if they exercise moderately and consistently every week.’ So use it or lose it. Ryan Giggs retired from premier league football at the age of 40 Picture: PA 'Alcohol raises insulin and the sugary alcohols like beer and wine lead straight to your mid-section,’ says nutritionist Amelia Freer, author of Eat. Nourish. Glow. 'You don’t have to cut it out entirely but you do need to cut right back – especially as you get older and your metabolism slows down.’ It’s never too late to get fit As for sugar, Matt says: 'As we get older our bodies cope less well with sugar and cutting it out will encourage your body to use its own fat stores more efficiently.’ Amelia adds: 'Sugar has emerged as the real dietary villain in the last few years, something nutritionists have known for decades. And it’s not just biscuits or sweets we’re talking about. Many of us are having huge amounts of sugar without realising in the form of ready meals, pasta and salad sauces, yoghurts and refined carbs like bagels, pasta, bread and rice. All this sugar stimulates the production of insulin which leads to weight gain, especially around the stomach and waist.’ Matt advises his clients to cut out sugar and replace white carbs with brown rice, wholemeal bread and quinoa. Former footballer Gary Lineker keeps trim despite the crisps he advertises Picture: Getty From their thirties onwards, the average man loses a fifth of a pound of muscle a year and after 50 he loses 1lbs of muscle per year. This reduced muscle mass increases body fat, which can lead to obesity and heart disease. The answer is to lift weights. 'Hormonally, lifting weights increases testosterone levels,’ says Matt. 'As men age their testosterone levels decline which causes fat gain. So lifting weights works on two levels – you create muscle mass by lifting them and you also increase your testosterone levels, which speeds up your metabolism. Weights also improve your sex drive, you look more toned and better in clothes which increases your self esteem and it also boosts bone density (this also declines with age).’ Indeed, a 2015 study from the University of Missouri in the US found that middle aged men who regularly lift weights are at a reduced risk of osteoporosis. Ben is currently going through a rather public and bitter split from his wife Abby Cohen, the mother of his 7-year-old twin daughters, and recently he has been rumoured to be in a relationship with his Strictly dancer partner, Kristina Rihanoff (they previously denied an affair). 'We know that stress is linked to increased abdominal fat,’ says Amelia. 'Your thirties and forties are a prime stress time, as you juggle increasing work pressure alongside family commitments and possibly elderly parents. Elevated cortisol (the stress hormone) production can impair thyroid function and can inhibit how well it performs as does lack of sleep, which can also be a problem in your thirties and forties.’ So take steps to de-stress and try to sleep more. Ben Cohen in 2003 Picture: David Rogers/Getty Images One trait Amelia often finds among her male clients is disorganisation in the kitchen: 'They tend not to shop or plan ahead when it comes to their food,’ she says. 'They don’t think about food until they’re hungry and then they just want to buy something quickly and eat it which can often mean they eat the wrong things. But men – whether they’re married, single or living alone – should learn from the wonderful Jamie Oliver and embrace cooking. You don’t need to be a chef to do this – you just need to know how to throw ingredients together or to master a few basic recipes.’ A recent study found people who spend 45 minutes in the kitchen a day are healthier than those who dip in and out of it. The study also found they had healthier BMIs (body mass indexes), were more active and ate more fruits and vegetables. From Amelia Freer, author of Eat. Nourish. Glow. To order your copy for £14.99 plus p&p call 0844 871 1514 or visit books.telegraph.co.uk For more recipes visit www.ameliafreer.com. 1 parsnip, peeled and grated into sticks using a mandoline or grater A pinch of sea salt and freshly ground pepper 1 tbsp coconut oil, melted Mix all the ingredients (except the coconut oil) in a bowl until combined, then using your hands or a spoon divide the mixture into six and mould each together roughly. Heat the coconut oil and fry the fritters for about 2 minutes on each side until crisp and golden brown. Saute some chopped onions and peppers in a pan with a little coconut oil. Remove. Beat two eggs and pour into the pan. Sprinkle the onions and peppers on top and fold the omelette in half and heat until the egg is cooked through. Top with some sliced avocado and a sprinkle of chopped fresh chilli. Dinner: Chickpea & Pumpkin Curry 2 cups of chopped pumpkin (or any squash) 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into cubes 2 leeks, diced into half moons 1 white onion, peeled and finely diced 1 400ml can of coconut milk 2cm cube of fresh ginger 1 tsp ground turmeric (or a nice 2cm chunk of fresh turmeric) 1 glass jar of cooked chickpeas in water, rinsed and drained 400ml filtered water or stock Salt & pepper to taste Fresh coriander to sprinkle on top Heat oven to 160 C Sauté the onion, garlic and leeks in the coconut oil to soften. Do not brown. Add the pumpkin, sweet potato and ginger and mix well. Add the chickpeas and spices then pour over the coconut milk and water/stock. Stir well. Cover and put into the oven for 30 mins. Before serving, sprinkle with fresh coriander and season to taste. Breakfast: 2 Poached Eggs with Greens Poach two eggs and serve with half an avocado or your favourite green juice. Lunch: Rainbow salad in a jar ‘Super easy and so much nicer than a packed lunch.’ 1 cucumber, made into noodles using a spiralizer 1 packet feta cheese, crumbled 1 beetroot, washed, peeled and grated, and dressed in lemon juice & a little salt 2 carrots, washed, peeled and grated 1 avocado, stone, cubed and mixed with lemon juice 8 cherry tomatoes cut into quarters 6 green olives, pitted and cut into quarters 1/2 large red onion, peeled and finely diced (or spring onions) 2 handfuls of lettuce leaves such as lambs, rocket or baby gem Alfalfa or broccoli sprouts (optional) 10 basil leaves, finely chopped 10 mint leaves, finely chopped Juice of 2 lemons (to marinade the avocado and beetroot) Salt & pepper to taste Prep all of the ingredients and then layer them in jars. Make the dressing by putting all of the ingredients into a jam jar and shake vigorously and store in a small pot at the top of the mason jar with salad or separately. Dinner: Steamed Spring Vegetables & Salmon Steam your favourite in-season vegetables (courgettes, broad beans, asparagus and peas) served topped with poached wild salmon. Breakfast: Buckwheat Toast & Poached Egg Toast buckwheat toast, smear with a little coconut butter and top with a poached egg. Poached salmon on gluten free oatcakes with a dash of my herby nut ‘Mayo’* and rocket. *Soak a large handful of cashew nuts overnight in water. The next day, drain the cashews and blender with a little Himalayan pink sea salt, some fresh lemon juice, garlic and any herbs you have. If it’s too thick add a little water until it’s a mayonnaise consistency. Peel and finely chop carrots, onions and garlic and gently fry with a little coconut oil on a medium to high heat. Add some tinned tomatoes, fill the tin with water and add to the pain. Keep stirring on a medium heat. Finely chop some basil – or any other herbs you fancy – and add them to the sauce. Turn the heat down low and let simmer for 30 minutes. Add a splash of water if the sauce starts to thicken. Breakfast: Pear & Prune Breakfast Bowl 1 apple, cored and grated Put the prunes and 250ml water in a bowl. In another bowl, put the walnuts and cover with salted water and leave both to soak overnight. Drain. The next day, drain the prunes reserving the liquid. Soak the chia seeds in the prune liquid for about 20 minutes. Put the pears, prunes, walnuts, chia seeds and cinnamon into a blender and blend until smooth. Serve with grated apple. 2 chicken breasts, bones & skin removed 1 lemon, peeled & pith removed, flesh finely diced 50g spinach, kale or collard greens, roughly chopped 1/2 glass of white wine (optional) or water 1 handful of flat leaf parsley, mint leaves, fresh dill, fresh basil, all roughly chopped 8 spring onions, washed and finely sliced at angles Sea salt and fresh black pepper Put the chicken stock into a pan. Add the chicken breasts (making sure the stock covers them) and bring to a light simmer. Then remove the pan from the heat, put a lid on and leave to stand for 30 minutes (or until chicken is cooked through). Meanwhile, chop all of the herbs together mixing well and add the spring onion. Set aside in a bowl. In a large frying pan, add the olive oil and heat on a medium heat. Add all of the vegetables, lemon, wine or water and let it simmer for 3-4 minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste. Remove the chicken from the poaching liquid (check it is cooked right through) and shred with forks. Add to the pan and mix well, you can add a little of the poaching liquid if you like more liquid. Take off the heat and sprinkle all of the chopped, mixed herb and spring onion and serve onto 2 separate plates or in one bowl. 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped 1 fennel, very finely shredded 2 courgettes, washed, halved and turned into short “zoodles” (you will need a spiralizer for this, alternatively you could use a vegetable peeler to make thin strips of courgette) ½ glass white wine (optional) 200g fresh white crab meat 1 avocado, cut into thin strips Fresh chilli, finely diced (or dried chilli flakes if you prefer) Heat a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic, fennel and olive oil. Sauté for a few minutes to soften (not brown) then add the “zoodles” and wine (if adding) and cook for a few minutes to soften. Finally, stir in the crab and avocado and then serve garnish with the chilli, lime juice and a little salt to taste. Breakfast: Almond, apricot & Rose ‘Yoghurt’ 1 tbsp unflavoured coconut oil 2 fresh apricots, stoned and cut into quarters Soak the almonds in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes, or overnight. In another bowl, soak the apricots, cardamom and rose water for 30 minutes, or overnight. When ready to serve, drain all the soaked ingredients, put into a blender, add the coconut oil and milk and blend until it’s a creamy texture. Divide the mixture evenly between 2 bowls, then top with the fresh apricots and a sprinkling of flaked almonds. Put in the fridge and serve chilled. 4 slices of buckwheat bread, lightly toasted 1 carrot, peeled and grated then mixed with a little lemon juice 2 cooked beetroot, peeled and very thinly sliced with a mandoline 4 radishes, thinly sliced with a mandoline (or grated) 1 yellow pepper, cut in half, then each half cut into 3 and grilled ½ red onion, peeled and thinly sliced with a mandoline 1 tomato, sliced into thin rounds A small handful of watercress Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper Spread one slice of toasted bread with the artichoke paste and the other with the pesto. Layer the carrot on one slice, followed by the beetroot, the radishes, yellow pepper, red onion, tomato, then the watercress on top and finish with the herbs. Season with salt and pepper. Put the other slice of bread on top and push down. Cut in half and serve. Dinner: Super Simple Chicken & Chips 1 chicken breast, cut into 6 thin strips 1–2 red chillies, finely chopped (deseed and use 1 chilli if you don’t like heat) 1 large garlic clove, minced Juice and zest of 1 lemon 2 tbsp unflavoured coconut oil, plus extra olive or coconut oil for the chicken (optional) 1 sweet potato, peeled and shredded into thin sticks with a mandoline Sea salt or Himalayan salt and freshly ground black pepper Put the chicken strips, chillies, garlic, lemon juice and zest in a large bowl and mix well. Cover and leave to marinate in the fridge for as long as possible (I often don’t have time and just cook it immediately, but it is better if marinated for at least 30 minutes). Add a little olive or coconut oil if leaving overnight or longer than 3 hours. Heat 1 tablespoon coconut oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the potato sticks and fry, turning and moving continuously – they are so fine they can quickly and easily burn so keep an eye on them. Once browned on all sides and crisp, put them on a plate and cover with kitchen paper. Using the same pan, heat a little more coconut oil, then add the chicken strips and fry on each side until golden brown and cooked. Turn off the heat, add about 2 tablespoons water and cover with a lid. This allows the chicken to cool slowly without getting too dry.

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How to avoid a Middle Age Man Spread

As former rugby player Ben Cohen is photographed looking portlier than usual, experts reveal how men can avoid piling on those extras kilos

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WASHINGTON — The push to impose criminal penalties on auto executives who fail to disclose deadly automobile defects hit another roadblock last week when a Senate committee voted down such a proposal. Lawmakers and safety advocates who were pushing to institute criminal penalties for such behavior expressed dismay as that and a series of other auto safety reforms — including barring used-car dealers from selling vehicles with unrepaired recalls — also failed to proceed. “Hiding these deadly defects with near impunity is what the industry has succeeded in doing,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, who introduced several provisions that were voted down. A few measures like raising the maximum civil penalty on automakers from $35 million to $70 million won approval, however. Republicans also agreed to give the Obama administration the funding increases it had requested for certain National Highway Traffic Safety Administration programs, provided the agency first adopts all of the inspector general’s recent recommendations. A record year for auto recalls has led to multiple congressional hearings since last spring: Victims recounted their stories of injuries and lost loved ones, and auto executives came under withering criticism from lawmakers. But despite the attention on Capitol Hill, new legislation has largely gone nowhere, as automakers’ lobbyists flexed their muscles to keep new regulations and penalties from moving forward — a task made easier for the lobbyists by the switch to a Republican-controlled Senate in January. On Wednesday, in the same room where many of the hearings had taken place, the United States Senate committee on commerce met to complete its contribution to the huge transportation bill that Republican leaders intend to take to the floor this month. The transportation funding bill is the last viable chance for the current Congress to pass auto safety reform, aides on both sides say. As a result, lawmakers vied during the meeting to attach auto safety provisions to it — a common tactic for passing legislation that had otherwise stalled. But one after another, Democratic senators’ proposals were defeated. The exception was a measure to ban rental companies from renting cars with unrepaired safety recalls. Still, a similar proposal to prevent used-car dealers from doing the same failed on a party-line vote. (The committee’s chairman, John Thune, Republican of South Dakota, said that banning used-car dealers from selling recalled cars “could have unintended consequences,” like complicating trade-ins.) As for making it a specific crime to knowingly conceal information on safety defects, that, too, failed. Three Democrats — Claire McCaskill of Missouri, Gary Peters of Michigan and Joe Manchin of West Virginia — joined the Republican majority in blocking it. The auto industry resisted what it said was “criminalizing the business of manufacturing” in a document that auto lobbyists circulated to lawmakers before Wednesday’s meeting. (The lack of criminal statutes has complicated efforts by federal prosecutors to bring charges against individual employees at General Motors over the cover-up of faulty ignition switches.) Mr. Thune tried to highlight several auto provisions that made the cut, like the increase in the civil fine maximum to $70 million, an increase in certain funding and the rental car proposal. But most Democrats, irritated by what they said was a lack of any real negotiating, were having none of it as the meeting concluded. Senator Maria Cantwell, Democrat of Washington, said the group was “breaking a long tradition” of committee bipartisanship on safety issues. Senator Ed Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, became so discouraged that he withdrew two of his proposals before they could be voted down — saying he would most likely propose them as amendments directly on the Senate floor. For now, congressional staff members from both parties say that behind-the-scenes negotiations will continue until the bill reaches the Senate floor. It is possible that at least a handful of the defeated auto safety reforms could still be resurrected. A Republican aide with knowledge of the negotiations said proposals that had received unified Democratic support during Wednesday’s meeting were more likely to be considered than those in which Democratic senators broke off. A version of this article appears in print on July 20, 2015, on page B4 of the New York edition with the headline: Senate Committee’s No Vote Incenses Lawmakers Seeking Auto Safety Reforms. Order Reprints| Today's Paper|Subscribe

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Senate Committee’s No Vote Incenses Lawmakers Seeking Auto Safety Reforms

A series of measures — including an effort to impose criminal penalties on executives who fail to disclose deadly automobile defects — failed to proceed on Capitol Hill.

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Before you go, we thought you'd like these... College is often a time of great personal and scholarly discovery, and that is particularly true of a recent graduate at the University of British Columbia. While working on her bachelor's degree in physics and astronomy, Michelle Kunimoto found four previously unknown planets. Until they've been confirmed, they are all being regarded as "planet candidates" and each carries the cataloging distinction KOI, or Kepler Object of Interest. Of the four planets, KOI 408.05 is capturing the most attention. The Neptune-sized celestial body is in its star's habitable zone. Said Kunimoto of the orb, "Like our own Neptune, it's unlikely to have a rocky surface or oceans. The exciting part is that like the large planets in our solar system, it could have large moons and these moons could have liquid water oceans." Kunimoto plans to do more planet searching in the near future, as she will be returning to the school in the fall to pursue a master's degree. RELATED: Experimental space habitat Bigelow Expandable Activity Module on ISS: College student finds 4 previously unknown planets The unexpanded Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is seen attached to the Tranquility module on the International Space Station in this still image taken from NASA TV May 26, 2016. NASA called off an attempt to inflate an experimental habitat attached to the International Space Station after the fabric module failed to expand as planned on Thursday. NASA TV/Handout via Reuters THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS. FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) is seen during a media briefing at Bigelow Aerospace in Las Vegas, Nevada, January 16, 2013. Astronauts aboard the space station will inflate early on Thursday a prototype expandable module, which will be tested for two years as a possible habitat for crews on long-duration missions around the moon or to Mars. Bill Ingalls/NASA/File Photo/Handout via Reuters FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NOT FOR SALE FOR MARKETING OR ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS. THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. IT IS DISTRIBUTED, EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY REUTERS, AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS Bigelow Aerospace president Robert Bigelow, left, and NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver answer questions for the media during a news conference, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Las Vegas. NASA has awarded a contact to Bigelow Aerospace to provide NASA with a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, a habitat module for the International Space Station. Pictured here is a one third scale model of the BA 330 module, a different module similar in function to what the new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will be. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) This image made from video provided by NASA shows the inflation of a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, May 28, 2016. Saturday was NASA's second shot at inflating the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), named for the aerospace company that created it as a precursor to moon and Mars habitats, and orbiting tourist hotels. (NASA via AP) This combination of images provided by NASA shows the inflation of a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, May 28, 2016. Saturday was NASA's second shot at inflating the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM), named for the aerospace company that created it as a precursor to moon and Mars habitats, and orbiting tourist hotels. (NASA via AP) NASA deputy administrator, Lori Garver, left, and Bigelow Aerospace president Robert Bigelow, pose for photos and video in front of the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module during a news conference, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Las Vegas. NASA awarded a contact to Bigelow Aerospace to provide NASA with the BEAM, a habitat module for the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) Bigelow Aerospace founder and president Robert Bigelow, listens to questions from members of the media during a news conference, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Las Vegas. Bigelow spoke about the company's new contract to provide NASA with a habitat module for the International Space Station. Pictured with Bigelow is a BA 330 module, similar in function to what the new Bigelow Expandable Activity Module will be. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) A model of a concept space station made with Bigelow Aerospace habitat modules is on display at the company's headquarters during a news conference, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Las Vegas. NASA has awarded a contact to Bigelow Aerospace to provide NASA with a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, a habitat module for the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) A model of a space complex is on display during a news conference with Bigelow Aerospace president Robert Bigelow and NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Las Vegas. NASA has awarded a contact to Bigelow Aerospace to provide NASA with a Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, a habitat module for the International Space Station. (AP Photo/Julie Jacobson) More from AOL.com: Adorable boy has a dog with the same condition as him Rebecca Louise reveals the secret to staying in shape Microsoft to cut nearly 1,800 jobs in mobile

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College student finds 4 previously unknown planets

College is a time of great personal and scholarly discovery, and that is particularly true for one bachelors student at the University of British Columbia.

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WILMERDING, Pa.—The tiny business district here includes a Dollar General store, a body-piercing parlor and a convenience shop whose front window displays pictures of shoplifting suspects. "There's nothing to draw people here," Dominic Parisi, the 90-year-old mayor of Wilmerding, lamented one recent afternoon over lasagna at Johnny's restaurant. "Except the castle." The castle, as it is known here, looms incongruously over this town of 2,200 in the Turtle Creek Valley, a deep gouge in the Allegheny foothills about 15 miles east of Pittsburgh. The five-story sandstone building, listed in the National Register of Historic Places, was erected in the 1890s as the headquarters of Westinghouse Air Brake Co., a maker of train equipment founded by George Westinghouse, inventor of the air brake and a pioneer in electricity. The octagonal clock tower still chimes every 30 minutes. The castle imparts a "baronial feel of weight, importance and permanence" to what might have been just another factory town, said Diane Shaw, an associate professor of architecture at Carnegie Mellon University, who calls the style Medieval Revival. Most days, though, the castle is padlocked. Tours are by appointment only. The local nonprofit that owns the castle has turned off the water and gas to save money. Weeds choke the gardens. Plastic barrels in the attic catch some of the rainwater that seeps through the steeply sloping slate roof. Past efforts to save the castle, involving Elvis impersonators and ghosts, have fallen short. Like the castle, Wilmerding has seen better days. Most of its factory jobs are gone. Median household income, at about $20,800, is 60% below the national level. Even so, John Graf, a Pittsburgh entrepreneur, has proposed to buy the castle and turn it into a luxury hotel. That plan hinges on whether he can raise $11 million to buy and renovate the leaky, creaky structure. Tom Setz, sitting alone at the U-shaped bar in his Wilmerding restaurant, the Station Brake Café, a few hundred yards from the castle, said the hotel plan seems worth a try. "We don't have a lot of problems," he said of Wilmerding. "We just don't have a lot of commerce. A lot of people got older." Wilmerding, named for the wife of a local landowner, was born when Mr. Westinghouse (1846-1914) bought farmland in the late 1880s to set up an office building and a factory. Modest houses went up for the workers, and larger ones for managers. Marguerite Avenue, on a hillside behind the castle, was named for Mr. Westinghouse's wife. The planners avoided "barracks and monotonous rows of operatives' houses," according to Henry G. Prout's biography of Mr. Westinghouse. The company held contests for the best gardens and lawns. "Thus," Mr. Prout wrote, "the little town has become a focus of taste in a commonplace and even dreary region." Known as a compassionate employer, Mr. Westinghouse provided a separate factory lunchroom for women, with tablecloths. Prince Albert of Belgium, eager to learn about the Westinghouse business empire, toured Wilmerding in 1898. Employment at the brake factory, now run by Wabtec Corp. WAB 0.44 % , peaked at more than 4,000 in the 1940s and has since dwindled to about 350. Wilmerding Renewed Inc., a local nonprofit, acquired the castle in 2006 and had high hopes for a revival. Tenants, including a funeral directors association, moved into some of the offices. A historical society opened a tea and gift shop on the ground floor, offering $3 refrigerator magnets with pictures of the clock tower. To raise money, the nonprofit rented out the castle for weddings and brought in entertainers, including Elvis Presley mimics. "They were so good, believe me," said Geraldine Homitz, a retired beautician and former mayor who serves as the castle's volunteer caretaker. Still, she said, "no matter how much money you made, it was never enough." Just paying for utilities and maintenance cost $10,000 a month. For several years, at Halloween, part of the castle was turned into a "Spooky Vault" featuring a casket that opened when guests approached. That theme seemed appropriate because the castle was rumored to be haunted. "I never heard anything or saw anything, but a lot of people have," said Ms. Homitz. Three years ago, she allowed the Pittsburgh Paranormal Society to investigate. Shawn Kelly, the society's lead spiritual investigator, is foggy about the details of his castle tour: "That was so long ago, dude," he said. But Ms. Homitz recalled being told by the spiritual gumshoes that the castle was "a hotbed for ghosts." The theory, she said, was that "these people who used to work here, they think they still work here." She hoped the spiritual angle would lure tourists. That didn't happen. "Maybe we should just stick with George Westinghouse," whose artifacts are still displayed in the castle, Ms. Homitz concluded. In late 2010, an overflowing toilet flooded the building, forcing the remaining tenants out. Now paint is peeling, and mold speckles the carpet. A musty smell has permeated the dim corridors since the dehumidifier broke down. The oak-paneled offices, with walk-in fireplaces and transoms over the doors, were built for another era, when men in stiff collars dictated letters to secretaries. A hotel is the best and perhaps only option, Ms. Homitz said. But what would hotel guests find to do in Wilmerding? "That is a good question," Mayor Parisi said. He shook his head. "Nothing. I'm sorry to say that." But, Mr. Parisi added, Wilmerding remains "a nice, nice town." Mr. Graf, the Pittsburgh hotel operator who has proposed to buy and restore the castle, acknowledged that Wilmerding's charms are faded but said the castle, if renovated, "creates its own destination." He would offer billiards, croquet and lawn bowling for people seeking a romantic weekend in Wilmerding. Buses could shuttle guests to downtown Pittsburgh—or to the nearby Monroeville mall. If the hotel project succeeds, Wilmerding still will need some spiffing up. Ms. Homitz hopes someone will buy a vacant building next to the castle—a former public school, which is on the market for $449,900. "I was thinking an indoor mall or something," she said. Write to James R. Hagerty at bob.hagerty@wsj.com

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A Castle in Wilmerding Searches for Its White Knight

Some in a tiny Pennsylvania town are hoping the restoration of the historic Westinghouse Air Brake headquarters can help revive the community.

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Life has never been so fast-paced. Our days are dominated by constant demands: appointments, deadlines, emails and texts; spurred on by the endless march of technological innovation. According to a new study, we now spend more time on our smartphones and tablets than asleep, and by 2015 it is predicted that we will consume an average of 15.5 hours of media a day. It’s no surprise, then, that more and more of us are looking for an escape. Celebrities such as Mia Farrow, Steve Jobs, Oprah and now the supermodel Gisele have chosen to get as far away from modern life as possible by enrolling themselves on silent retreats. What better way to recover from a frantic summer than a stay in total silence to recover your serenity? This autumn, the Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bundchen kicked off the A-list trend with a silent holiday in Costa Rica. For three days she attempted to get in touch with her inner Zen through silence and meditation. We know this because the 34-year-old posted a picture of herself on Instagram next to the hashtag "#goinginward", which had more than 81,000 ‘likes’. I hope she understands that the phone won’t be able to stay. If you, too, fancy a moment of total calm (and we really do mean a calm. When Telegraph writer Charmain Evans went on one such retreat recently, she discovered a place where even reading and writing was banned), then here some of the places you should consider visiting… Located on the coast of Costa Rica in a forested valley, this retreat markets itself as “an oasis of an alternative lifestyle” with a “transformative spiritual voyage”. Sounds blissful. Simple Peace Retreat Hermiatage, Assisi Italy Stretching from one to three weeks, this hermitage retreat is set in 25 acres surrounded by hundreds of acres of farmland in the ancient town of Assisi. You’ll experience relative freedom at this retreat, as trips into the town are encouraged in the afternoons after a day of meditation. If you’re looking for somewhere a little closer to home, this silent meditation retreat in the Buddhist tradition might be the thing. You’ll be guided by experienced Dharma teachers from around the world, and will learn meditative movements and the benefits of total silence. This is an eco-community offering a restorative sanctuary. Your days will be filled with yoga and meditation in an open air octagon tent surrounded by nature and “garden-to-table organic cuisine”.

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Shhh! Why celebs are jetting off on silent retreats

The supermodel Gisele has been away on a holiday that demands total silence. We have a look at the best places to experience the sound of silence this autumn

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HE’S recently denied they’re getting back together again but our exclusive pictures show Gary Lineker and his ex-wife Danielle Bux look as cosy as ever while on holiday in Ibiza. The couple divorced in January but sparked rumours of a reconciliation when Gary had his arm wrapped around Danielle while on a shopping trip in Notting Hill earlier this month. However, Gary has denied they are getting back together, despite holidaying in the sun with Danielle and her daughter Ella, 14, and pal Jackie. He wrote: “More fabricated nonsense in press. @DanielleBux and I remain close friends. Our kids do too, but we’re not back together. We’re grown-ups.” More fabricated nonsense in press. @DanielleBux and I remain close friends. Our kids do too, but we're not back together. We're grown-ups. — Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) July 24, 2016 They might not be consciously re-coupling but Gary, 55, and Danielle, 37, looked like they were getting along famously as they enjoyed the sun together. They arrived at the beach in his car alone and looked relaxed as they chatted while reclining on some sun loungers. In one picture, Gary can be seen gazing at his former wife while she looks at her phone, and in another the Match of the Day host is seen taking a snap of the brunette beauty. They later looked like they were deep in conversation as they faced each other from their sun loungers. Former model Danielle tied her brunette locks in a high bun and showed off her svelte figure in a red bandeau top bikini. She styled her sizzling two-piece with gold hoop earrings, a silver watch and a number of rings. Gary and Danielle were married for six years before their divorce but had secretly split a year earlier. They famously decided against using expensive divorce lawyers and used a government website where they filled out the forms together. The process cost just £400 rather than the huge sums usually associated with celeb divorces. Gary was reportedly worth in the region of £30million before his divorce from first wife Michelle, with whom he had four boys, George, Angus, Harry and Tobias. Michelle was granted a “quickie” divorce over his “unreasonable behaviour” by a High Court judge in August 2006. The former soccer ace is now believed to be worth in the region of £20million and he is reported to have reached an “agreeable” financial settlement with second wife Danielle. The pair reportedly called it quits because Danielle, who is mum to a teenage daughter, wanted to have another child but dad-of-four Gary felt he was too old to have more children. They spent last Christmas together but had been apart before then as model Danielle was trying to carve out a career for herself as an actress in LA while Gary had work commitments here. A source at the time said: “They made a great couple but their different views on having children is what made them realise they had to split. “They both know it is the right thing to do and are looking forward to the future. “They are convinced they will stay friends.” It’s not unusual for the pair to holiday together as Gary recently visited Danielle and her daughter Ella in LA for Memorial Day weekend back in May. Gary said he wanted to remain close to his ex and said they “get on brilliantly”. He added: “We have a lovely relationship, and that’s how we are. And that’s genuine.” Speaking about his simple divorce, he said: “Just generally speaking, it’s very easy to get married and very difficult to get divorced. "And we know that lawyers try to manipulate it to make you spend more money and basically end up hating each other. "I think there should be a mathematical equation that goes straight to the courts and they sort it out.” Got a story? email digishowbiz@the-sun.co.uk or call us direct on 02077824220

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Gary Lineker and ex Danielle Bux look incredibly cosy as they enjoy a holiday in Ibiza together

HE’S recently denied they’re getting back together again but our exclusive pictures show Gary Lineker and his ex-wife Danielle Bux look as cosy as ever while on holiday in Ibiza. The co…

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Australia often prides itself on its multiculturalism but may not have been prepared for an influx of immigrants from South Sudan and other African countries. African immigrants experience up to five times more racial discrimination than people born here, a new survey from the Scanlon Foundation reports. "It's pretty clear that Australia as a society was not ready for very dark skinned people coming," report author Andrew Markus told AAP. More than three in four South Sudanese migrants - most of whom have arrived as humanitarian refugees - say they have experienced discrimination. This often takes the form of property damage or physical attacks, unfair treatment at work or being denied jobs, but Professor Markus says experiences can also be more insidious, everyday occurrences. "For example, a bus doesn't stop and a second bus doesn't stop and a third bus doesn't stop," he said. "Or someone gets on the bus and the bus driver takes off before the person is seated." South Sudanese immigrants were also much less likely to trust police compared with Australian-born residents. The Australians Today survey, released on Wednesday by the Scanlon Foundation and Monash University, highlights the experiences of more than 10,000 people across 20 languages. It found the majority of Australians supported the immigration program, although when asked what they like least about the country nearly one in five said there was too much migration. Almost a quarter said had they negative feelings towards Muslims - much higher than for Christians and Buddhists. Similarly, nearly one in four people had negative feelings about immigrants from Iraq and Lebanon while about one in 10 were negative towards those from Vietnam or China. Among Muslims who responded to the survey, there was a sense of deteriorating relations, Prof Markus said. Many saw Australia as a place of opportunity and freedom but were critical of the wider community and media lumping all Muslims together when they were in fact quite a diverse group. "There's a minority within the Muslim community who are not happy campers, who aren't comfortable with the secular society, but that's very much a minority," Prof Markus said.

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Australia 'not ready' for African refugees

The biggest survey of people's experiences of Australian life has found African immigrants experience much more discrimination than any other group.

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This month, with little fanfare, the most popular chat app among teens in the U.S. launched a feature that could be the future of advertising. Or, at the least, it marks the dawn of a new age in how brands engage. People conversing directly with brands via bots. I call it chatvertising. I can hear hisses from the peanut gallery already, and you could argue advertising is the last area of human endeavor where we need more innovation. But what if the metaphorical "conversation" marketers always claim to be having with us became literal? Kik, a chat service like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger, claims that four in 10 U.S. teens are active users of its service. And now, thanks to the application of a decades-old technology—the chat bot—those Kik-using teens are having something like actual conversations with a half dozen brands, including Moviefone, Funny or Die, and the Kik team itself. Here's what's going on: In the mid-1960s, MIT professor Joseph Weizenbaum developed a computer program called ELIZA, which could engage in open-ended conversation with a real human being. Over time these chat bots have gotten better and better at interacting with humans, mostly because programmers have loaded them up with knowledge about the real world. They can also learn from their conversations, becoming ever more skilled at fooling us into thinking that they, too, are intelligent. Thanks to the rise of chat apps—WhatsApp has 500 million users world-wide and agreed to be purchased by Facebook Inc. for $19 billion in February, and its competitors in Asia are no less popular—there is finally a place in which smartphone users are spending their time where a chat bot might be a good fit. And transforming inanimate objects—"brands"—into things we can converse with, is what Ted Livingston, founder of Waterloo, Ontario-based Kik has in mind. "If you could chat with a brand in the same way you chat with a friend, that's powerful," says Mr. Livingston. If it all sounds a bit far-fetched, consider this precedent from Line, a chat app from Japan with 400 million registered users. In October 2013 Paul McCartney's handlers registered an account on Line, and paid the company to create "stickers," which users exchange on chat apps and are so popular they have become a major source of revenue. To get the stickers, users had to opt-in to Mr. McCartney's Line account that "chats" with its followers by sending them updates about the singer. Mr. McCartney has 2 million followers on Twitter, but on Line he has 9.3 million. Kik's vision is to take this model and go one better: What if Mr. McCartney (or his handlers) wasn't just talking at his fans, but actually conversing with them? Presently, Kik's chat bots are primitive. The one run by the Kik team itself will tell jokes and is the closest to simulating actual conversation, while the ones belonging to brands can respond only by pushing more content at the user. That's deliberate, says Mr. Livingston, as there is some worry at this stage in the development of the technology that a more autonomous chat bot might start saying things that could damage a brand. Chat apps are enormously popular outside the U.S., where carriers' practice of charging users for every text message they send provided a powerful incentive to use the free apps. But there has always been some question about how they would make money. WhatsApp, for example, doesn't carry advertising, and Mark Zuckerberg has declared his intention to keep it that way. And WeChat , which has 400 million users, mostly in China, severely restricts how often advertisers can reach out to users. Simply spamming users with ads in such an intimate space won't work. Part of the problem is that until now, it hasn't been clear what a "native" advertisement in a chat app looks like. Yet in the first week of offering its "promoted" chats, 1.5 million people opted in to one of the campaigns, according to a Kik representative. And Kik's own chat bot, which began as an experiment and has been running for years, gets 1.8 million messages a day. If it seems improbable that so many teens—80% of Kik's users are under 22—would want to talk to a robot, consider what the creator of an award-winning, Web-accessible chat bot named Mitsuku told an interviewer in 2013. "What keeps me going is when I get emails or comments in the chat-logs from people telling me how Mitsuku has helped them with a situation whether it was dating advice, being bullied at school, coping with illness or even advice about job interviews. I also get many elderly people who talk to her for companionship." Any advertiser who doesn't sit bolt upright after reading that doesn't understand the dark art of manipulation on which their craft depends. Chat bots built by brands can be used for entertainment, but they can also be used to inform; imagine conversing with your bank or utility company's bot when you have a customer-service question. And the ones Kik is working on can learn, says Mr. Livingston. So imagine this scenario, which is a version of what Mr. Livingston says his team aspires to: Taco Bell wants to roll out a new flavor of Doritos Locos Tacos. Maybe this one is "X-tra spicy," and it has the personality and verbal tics to match. Fifty or so brand representatives, real human beings, could have chat conversations with customers at the outset, and the chat engine would learn from those interactions, gradually becoming more autonomous, until it could automatically handle thousands of simultaneous conversations. This is what native advertising in chat apps looks like. And chat apps, we keep hearing, are the future of social media. Mark Zuckerberg, are you listening? Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims@wsj.com

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Advertising's New Frontier: Talk to the Bot

This month, Kik, a popular chat app among teens in the U.S., launched a feature that could be the future of advertising. Or, at the least, it marks the dawn of a new age in how brands engage: people conversing directly with brands via bots.

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When a low-profile activist investor gained a board seat at Microsoft Corp. two years ago, corporate boards around the country were stunned. How had a shareholder with less than 1% of the software giant’s stock forced its way into the boardroom? It turns out that ValueAct Capital Management LP had some serious muscle behind the scenes. Founder and Chief Executive Jeffrey Ubben and President Mason Morfit had reached out to some of Microsoft’s biggest stockholders—large mutual-fund companies not known for rocking the boat—to ask for help. Several of them, including Franklin Templeton Investments and Capital Research & Management Co., which together held more than 6% of Microsoft’s stock, then contacted the company. Within five months, ValueAct had its board seat. Activist investors are prevailing more than ever in their battles to force change at large U.S. companies, in many cases because of support from big investors who traditionally have stayed quiet. And that is changing the way U.S. businesses respond to challenges from activist campaigns. The shift comes as activist investors set their sights on bigger companies. Last week, investor William Ackman ’s Pershing Square Capital Management LP disclosed a $5.5 billion stake in food giant Mondelez International Inc. It also emerged that ValueAct has taken a roughly $1 billion stake in American Express Co. Large mutual funds have long been seen as friends of management who buy a stock because they liked what a company is doing. A decade ago, they would rarely even pick up the phone to talk with activists bent on challenging the status quo, according to activists and corporate advisers who specialize in such situations. These days, mutual funds often are siding with activists. They quietly have backed some of the most prominent activist campaigns, including Starboard Value LP’s removal of the entire board at Darden Restaurants Inc. last year and a push at General Motors Co. this year for a quicker share buyback. Although Nelson Peltz ultimately lost his campaign to get on the board of DuPont Co., he came close thanks to the support of many investors. In a survey this year of more than 350 of mutual-fund managers, Rivel Research Group, which polls investors for companies, found that half had been contacted by an activist in the past year, and 45% of those contacted decided to support the activist. “In contrast to the situation of just a few years ago, companies must examine their long-only shareholders with a critical eye,” J.P. Morgan bankers wrote to clients earlier this year. “There are no ‘management friendly’ investors.” That shift is changing the way fights play out in boardrooms. Rather than face one loud activist, companies sometimes are forced to contend with pressure from multiple shareholders. That has made some companies more receptive to activists and their ideas, such as share buybacks, cost-cutting and asset sales, even as debate continues about how such moves affect the health of companies. Activist investors take stakes in companies they think are underperforming and push for financial, strategic or leadership changes. Last year, activists gained board seats at a record 107 companies, 91 of them through pacts negotiated with the companies, according to data provider FactSet . This year has gotten off to an even faster start, with activists gaining seats at 86 companies in the first half alone. When companies resist, they are more often losing shareholder votes. In 2014, activists won in a record 73% of battles for board seats in the U.S., up from 52% in 2012, according to FactSet. The increasing involvement of mutual funds comes as retail investors have been moving money from stock-picking mutual funds to index funds and other funds that track baskets of securities. That is increasing the pressure on mutual-fund managers to beat the market, investors say. “Everybody is looking for an edge,” says Peter Langerman, the head of a large mutual-fund unit at Franklin Templeton, which oversees about $75 billion. Some mutual funds are voicing public support for activists’ positions. But many funds worry that admitting to working with activists will cost them access to management at companies in which they hold stakes, according to investors and corporate advisers. Private talks between activists and mutual funds are becoming more common. In April at the Milken Institute’s annual conference in Los Angeles, a group of activists and major institutional investors gathered in a closed-door meeting to discuss their relationships, according to one person who attended. They debated whether activists work in the long-term interest of all shareholders, or are only after shorter-term profits. The two groups agreed that companies are listening more to investors of all stripes, which they saw as a positive. The 10 largest shareholders of an S&P 500 company, on average, hold 44.7% of the company’s stock, says Lazard Ltd. banker Jim Rossman, who specializes in helping companies deal with activists. That means winning the support of major shareholders can put an activist on the path to victory, while losing it can spell doom. The average size of an activist’s stake in a target company shrunk to 6.1% last year, from 7.7% in 2006, according to FactSet, which suggests that activists can spend less and still win. Companies recognize the importance of courting their institutional shareholders and have been bulking up investor-relations departments, according to corporate advisers and investor-relations experts. Corporate lawyers and bankers urge companies to articulate a clear strategy or risk having an activist-recommended strategy sounding better. Some companies are having directors engage with shareholders regularly. Institutional funds, for their part, have “realized they have influence” and are saying, “We have a responsibility to have a sophisticated approach to voting,” Lazard’s Mr. Rossman said. Mutual funds have moved slowly into voting against management. They started on governance issues, such as forcing annual elections for directors and rejecting corporate pay in nonbinding referendums. This year, a widespread push forced companies from General Electric Co. to Citigroup Inc. to change their corporate rules and allow shareholders to more easily nominate directors. In the spring of 2013, San Francisco-based ValueAct, which has about $20 billion under management, asked for a single board seat at Microsoft for either its chief executive, Mr. Ubben, or its president, Mr. Morfit, according to people familiar with the request. ValueAct indicated it would fight publicly for the seat if it couldn’t reach an accord. Messrs. Ubben and Morfit aren’t known for starting such proxy fights. ValueAct representatives have served on the boards of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. and Adobe Systems Inc. ValueAct’s Microsoft plan was ambitious, given its less than 1% stake. But it has been building relationships with mutual funds for years. Tapping those contacts, Messrs. Ubben and Morfit called investors such as Martin Flanagan, chief executive of Invesco Ltd., and Mr. Langerman of Franklin Templeton’s Mutual Series unit, according to people familiar with the conversations. Their pitch: They wanted a board seat, and, if necessary, planned to run a campaign against the record of Steve Ballmer, then Microsoft CEO, these people say. ValueAct claimed management had been slow to adapt to new technologies and had lost the pioneering position it once held, hurting shareholder value. It wanted Microsoft to refocus on its technology aimed at large companies, such as software for corporate computing centers and a version of its Microsoft Office software that had been remodeled for the Web and mobile devices, these people say. Franklin’s Mr. Langerman and his team spoke several times with ValueAct executives to hear their pitch and agreed that Microsoft needed a change. Later, in discussions with Microsoft, they urged support for the activist’s position, according to those familiar with the talks. Capital Research, a mutual-fund giant with $1.5 trillion under management, had been expressing concern to Microsoft about its slumping share value before ValueAct came along, according to people familiar with the talks. When the firm’s technology analyst Paul Benjamin spoke with ValueAct executives, they agreed that Microsoft needed help quickly. Mr. Benjamin contacted Microsoft board members and urged them to work with ValueAct. In November 2012, in a sign of the brewing discontent, Capital Research’s funds and others withheld their support for the re-election to the board of Mr. Ballmer and Microsoft founder Bill Gates, according to vote-tracker Proxy Insight. The two directors were still elected by a wide margin. More than 96.6% of shares voted for both, but the other directors got 99%. Such “no” votes are rare. Capital Research’s American Funds, for instance, back management in 97.4% of all campaigns, according to Proxy Insight. In August 2013, Microsoft announced Mr. Ballmer would retire. The company has said the leadership change was in the works before ValueAct arrived, and that the fund played no part in Mr. Ballmer’s departure. After his retirement was announced, Microsoft reached out to ValueAct to ask if it still wanted a board seat, according to people familiar with the discussion. ValueAct said it was happy with the change, but wouldn’t budge on its board demand. The following week—just before a deadline for an investor to launch a fight for seats—Microsoft announced Mr. Morfit would join the board. Darden Restaurants, which owns the Olive Garden chain, triggered a fight with activists when its board decided last year to sell its Red Lobster chain even as shareholders were seeking a vote on the matter, people on both sides have said. New York-based Starboard, fellow activist Barington Capital Group LP and Darden duked it out publicly. Starboard released a 300-page PowerPoint presentation that criticized everything from Darden’s management to the lack of salt in Olive Garden’s pasta water. Capital Research, once the largest shareholder, tried to broker a settlement. Capital Research executive Gregory Wendt acted as a go-between with Darden management and Starboard. He tried to find a way to change the board but leave some members in place for continuity’s sake, a common concern among institutional holders, people involved in the fight say. The fight turned bitter, and no settlement was reached. Investors voted out the entire board last October, a particularly whopping defeat for management. Capital Research voted for all 12 of Starboard’s nominees, say people familiar with the vote. At times, mutual funds offer only qualified support for activists. Investor Harry J. Wilson went public in February with plans to push General Motors for a stock buyback and a board seat. Mr. Wilson’s team quietly put out feelers to big investors to see if they would support him, according to people familiar with his campaign. At Franklin Templeton’s offices in Short Hills, N.J., Mr. Wilson made his pitch to portfolio manager F. David Segal and others. He said he wanted GM to repurchase $8 billion in stock. Shortly thereafter, Mr. Segal called GM’s head of investor relations and said Franklin’s Mutual Series unit was sympathetic to Mr. Wilson’s views but thought the buyback number was aggressive. Mr. Segal told GM that while shareholders had been grumbling about the issue in the past, it had become more public and the company needed to address it head-on, according to people familiar with the call. In early March, GM announced it would undertake, earlier than originally planned, a $5 billion buyback that was already in the works. Mr. Wilson pulled his request for a board seat a month after he had made it. ValueAct also has gotten fast action at times. In January, ValueAct released a letter it wrote to stock-market-indexing company MSCI Inc. ValueAct wrote that MSCI had rebuffed its attempts to get a board seat and hadn’t even checked the references ValueAct had sent. Other MSCI holders quickly weighed in. Independent Franchise Partners LLP and T. Rowe Price Group, both top five holders, wrote letters arguing ValueAct’s track record warranted a spot on the board. Three weeks later, ValueAct got the seat and two others. Write to David Benoit at david.benoit@wsj.com and Kirsten Grind at kirsten.grind@wsj.com

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Activist Investors’ Secret Ally: Big Mutual Funds

Activist investors are winning more fights with big companies, partly because of private backing from big mutual funds.

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TEMPE, Ariz. -- The Arizona Cardinals returned to practice Tuesday after a long bye weekend off and the biggest news was Tyrann Mathieu's rapid recovery from a shoulder injury. Coach Bruce Arians said he "really has" been surprised by how quickly Mathieu is coming back. The do-everything All-Pro defensive back was projected to be out three to six weeks after he sustained a shoulder subluxation in the team's Oct. 30 loss at Carolina. Arians described Mathieu as "real close" but didn't know if that meant he could play Sunday when the Cardinals are home against the San Francisco 49ers. Mathieu is coming off an offseason knee surgery and was getting closer to being his old self when the shoulder injury hit. His absence could mean another chance for rookie Brandon Williams, a starter at cornerback when the season began. Williams lost his job to Marc us Cooper after struggling mightily and has been inactive in recent weeks. "I thought Brandon has gotten better and better," Arians said. "He had a nice interception today. He is more than ready if he is needed." Arians said tight end Darren Fells (ankle) and outside linebacker Alex Okafor (calf) were ahead of schedule in their return from injury. There was no official injury report because Tuesday's workout was a bonus practice due to the bye week. "We actually should get a few guys back that might be able to play in this ball game that I didn't think we would," Arians said. The Cardinals entered the bye with a disappointing 3-4-1 record midway through their season. They fell two games behind first-place Seattle in the NFC West when the Seahawks beat Buffalo on Monday night. The schedule gets tougher after the 49er game, with five of the Arizona's final seven games on the road, including trips to Minnesota, Atlanta and Seattle. "There is no doubt" the bye week did the Cardinals a lot of good, Arians said, "a lot of rest and a lot of guys that wouldn't have been able to play last week that are healthy and practicing now." He insisted the season is still salvageable. "Just go to work every day," Arians said. "Everything that we set our goals for in April is obtainable. We just have to play better." During the bye weekend, the coach and his staff spent "a bunch" of time reviewing film of the team's first-half games. "I wouldn't care to share that part," Arians said, "but there were a lot of things we learned about ourselves."

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Cardinals return from bye, Tyrann Mathieu 'close' to return

Tyrann Mathieu is coming off an offseason knee surgery and was getting closer to being his old self when the shoulder injury hit.

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A Brisbane coffee shop owner has been swamped with support after saying she didn't mind if a customer who changed her baby's nappy twice at a table while people were eating never returned. The mother of a newborn wrote a scathing review on Google about Park Bench Espresso Bar in Bulimba for the reception she received for changing her baby in front of diners. The review, attributed to Stephanie Plahn, first praises the quality of the coffee before taking aim at owner Jocelyn Ridgway and other customers. She says her baby is 12-weeks old and that she put a mat down before changing the nappy. "I approached her (the manager) upon leaving and asked if she had a problem with my baby and I sitting there. She said in quite a critical tone, that she didn't think it was appropriate to change my baby there," the review states. "To this woman and the 2 other customers who made comments regarding this. Mothers don't need your judgment or criticism. We have enough pressure and stress we deal with on a daily basis. We rarely get the opportunity to get out and have a coffee amidst the long list of things we are doing for our families every single day. "I am sorry (not sorry) you are so terribly offended by a tiny baby's tiny little dirty nappy that you think it necessary to criticise." The store's Google reviews have exploded from a handful to almost 40 with almost everyone dumping on Ms Plahn. "5 stars for not backing down when you were challenged by the lady with the dirty nappy! I would be disgusted if someone changed a nappy while I ate," wrote Alana Templeton. Another customer wrote "I just wanted to support the owner against the selfish arrogant self entitled post", while Sharna Allen posted "I am so ashamed of my self absorbed generation! show some respect for people around!" (Via the "Is It Child Friendly" blog) Ms Ridgway told AAP the lady was at the coffee shop for two hours last Friday. "She was there that long the baby did two poos," Ms Ridgway said. "There were people next to her. We had complaints from a group of older women who did not think it was that great." The coffee shop is an extension of Green Grass and Home Body retail store which Ms Ridgway started 15 years ago. The al fresco area opened up in 2011 and a park, with several sheltered tables, is located directly across the road. Since Ms Ridgway shared the review on Facebook with friends, she's said she's had nothing but support. "I know in my heart that that was not cool. It's an etiquette thing. She won't be back as a customer, that's fine. I can't afford to have customers like her anyway," she said.

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Social media dumps on nappy-changing mum

A Brisbane coffee shop owner was shocked to see a customer changing a baby's nappy while customers were eating.

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The head of an investigation into embarrassing failures by Queensland Rail claims key documents provided have been "heavily redacted". Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk met with Commissioner Phillip Strachan on Friday afternoon after granting him increased powers to investigate a train crew shortage that plunged commuter services into chaos last month. Ms Palaszczuk's decision to increase Mr Strachan's powers came two weeks after he wrote to her saying he hadn't been given documents he'd requested from QR. The premier finally upgraded the probe into a full commission of inquiry on Thursday, and on Friday said she was "furious" over the lack of co-operation with the inquiry. "It is unacceptable, absolutely unacceptable, that Queensland Rail, and the board, and the opposition in this state, are not co-operating with this investigation," Ms Palaszczuk said on Friday morning. "So now my government has given him the full powers to get to the bottom of it." The increased powers bore fruit, with Mr Strachan having a "positive" meeting with QR later on Friday, however he reported the new documents handed over were censored in many places. The rail debacle has embarrassed the Labor government but Transport Minister Stirling Hinchliffe has refused to take ultimate responsibility. Mr Hinchliffe says that lies with Queensland Rail's board, who didn't tell him about the looming staff shortage even though they'd been warned about it. Queensland Rail's chief executive Helen Gluer and board chairman Michael Klug have resigned over the failures. Labor has also suggested the former LNP government may be partly to blame, accusing it of making savage job cuts when it was in power and imposing a recruitment freeze. Opposition Leader Tim Nicholls, who criticised the premier for "sitting" on the commissioner's letter, said he would be happy to co-operate with any review. But he said Mr Strachan had not contacted him about the LNP's time in power from 2012 to early 2015. "Mr Strachan has not approached us in the three weeks since his appointment requesting any documents," Mr Nicholls said on Friday. "He hasn't called us, he hasn't emailed us. I'd be very happy to sit down with Mr Strachan and discuss what his requirements are." QR issued a brief statement on Friday afternoon, noting the upgrading of the inquiry and pledging to continue to fully support it, saying it was critical to restoring confidence in the rail operator.

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Premier boosts probe into Qld Rail debacle

A probe into Queensland Rail's staffing and other failures has been given more powers, after the inquiry chief complained about a lack of cooperation.

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Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg suspended the Correction Department's top chaplain for two weeks yesterday in connection with remarks he made about the White House being occupied by terrorists. The mayor acknowledged that the words were "inappropriate and offensive," but he also offered a vigorous defense of the right to free speech, which he said was under increasing attack. Keith Meyers/The New York Times Umar Abdul-Jalil, an imam employed by the Correction Department, at his mosque in Harlem on Monday. Expounding on that theme, the mayor alluded to a Danish newspaper's publication of a cartoon ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad and the controversy that engulfed Harvard's president, Lawrence H. Summers, after he suggested that women lacked men's innate abilities in science and math. "Looking across America, it seems that free speech is being attacked by the right under the guise of patriotism and by the left through academic intolerance that stifles necessary debate," he said. He later added: "As Americans, we should never pander to xenophobia, anti-intellectualism or convention. We must never be afraid of free speech or multiculturalism — the genesis of America's founding. And we must never use the war on terror, or political correctness, as the pretext for stifling political speech." The mayor made his remarks in discussing how he handled the case of the chaplain, an imam who, in a speech to Muslim students in Tucson last April, asserted that "the greatest terrorists in the world occupy the White House" and made a comment about what he called "the Zionists of the media." The chaplain, Umar Abdul-Jalil, was placed on paid leave last Thursday. Yesterday, the mayor announced the imam's two-week suspension without pay for bringing discredit to the department by failing to make clear that he was speaking only for himself. The mayor said the content of the speech was not the cause of the suspension. "I know that this decision will not satisfy extremists on either side of the political spectrum," the mayor said. "Some will demand he be fired and others would prefer no penalty at all." The mayor's remarks came as he increasingly wades into searing national debates in his second term, taking potshots at both the right and the left. Just last week he faulted politicians critical of the Bush administration's deal with a Dubai company to take over operations of American ports, suggesting they were political opportunists. And he has repeatedly gone after the National Rifle Association and the tobacco industry. For his part, Mr. Abdul-Jalil said he was "very disappointed" at the suspension and was considering an appeal. "It was never my intention to be disrespectful or to hurt anyone," he said. "I preach love and respect for all people of all faiths. I am sorry if my words were taken out of context and caused offense to anyone." The correction commissioner, Martin F. Horn, concluded that Mr. Abdul-Jalil violated two departmental rules. He failed to tell his audience that he was speaking as a private citizen and not as a city official, the mayor said, and by not doing so, broke another rule prohibiting "conduct of a nature to bring discredit upon the department." Mr. Abdul-Jalil did follow departmental policy by informing his supervisors and obtaining approval before giving the two speeches, but his failure to distinguish his personal and official roles was "a significant violation" that "has brought criticism upon himself and the Correction Department," the mayor said. The mayor, who had promised to make the decision himself because it involved matters of principle, consulted extensively with city lawyers, including the corporation counsel, Michael A. Cardozo. In 1996 and 1997, federal judges struck down policies that required New York City employees to obtain permission before talking to the press or making a speech. Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Cardozo said that the decision to suspend Mr. Abdul-Jalil was consistent with previous cases. It was not clear, however, if the mayor's decision would withstand a legal challenge. The departmental rule — in effect since June 24, 2004 — requiring employees to make clear that their public statements reflect "solely the employee's opinions" appears to apply only to speech "regarding department policies or operations." In his remarks, Mr. Abdul-Jalil referred repeatedly to his work at the Correction Department and criticized the high incarceration rate in the country, but he did not claim to be speaking for the department. Even so, city officials appear to have treated Mr. Abdul-Jalil leniently. As executive director of ministerial services, officials said, he serves at the pleasure of the commissioner without civil service protections, and could be dismissed at will. Mr. Bloomberg, who was joined by 11 clerics, including several chaplains who work with Mr. Abdul-Jalil at the Correction Department, said that an investigation had shown the chaplain to be "a conscientious and dedicated employee" who "is genuinely liked, trusted and well regarded" and "teaches a message of tolerance, forbearance, peace and respect to the law to all faiths, equally." Three of the six Jewish chaplains at the Correction Department — Leib Glanz, Baruch Leibowitz and Herbert D. Richtman — appeared at the news conference to support Mr. Abdul-Jalil. "The man has no, not even a fraction of, anti-Semitism in his bones," Rabbi Glanz said. He added that the other Jewish chaplains were busy with a Purim service but supported Mr. Abdul-Jalil as well.

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Mayor Suspends Top Jail Chaplain While Defending Free Speech

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg suspended the Correction Department's top chaplain in connection with remarks he made about the White House being occupied by terrorists.

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Sunday, July 25th 2004, 1:15AM In retrospect, Robert Reuland's first novel, 2001's "Hollowpoint," was prescient. The book ends with soul-weary Brooklyn prosecutor Andrew Giobberti exiled from the homicide bureau. Shortly after it was published, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes similarly banished Assistant District Attorney Reuland after he was quoted saying Brooklyn "has more bodies per square inch than any place else." Earlier this month, a jury returned a mixed verdict, concurring that Reuland had been wrongfully demoted because of his statement. The jury, though, rejected his complaint that his later dismissal was also due to his comments to New York magazine. Hynes had claimed that Reuland only applied to homicide in order to promote his book. He might also have accused him of using his day job as research, because the Brooklyn District Attorney's office he returns to in "Semiautomatic" is grimly authentic. So, too, is the characterization of the veteran pol who runs it. But that may have more to do with Reuland's terse yet evocative prose, his ability to marshal ­details for maximum effect. Less a crime novel than an agonized contemplation of where justice actually lies, "Semiautomatic" is telling in both small ways and large. Gio, as he's known, is given a reprieve from the dreary appeals division when he's ordered downstairs to prosecute the murderer of a bodega owner. His suspicion that there's something dirty in the case is confirmed by the secretive demeanor of the idealistic, and lovely, junior prosecutor who's still working it. What she knows, and he'll learn, is that their sole witness is lying. Still, the man being charged fired the fatal shot. "Brooklyn murderers do not deserve long stories," Gio reflects. Perhaps not, and it's true Reuland doesn't waste words. But "Semiautomatic," a story at least pegged on a murderer in Brooklyn, is one to dwell on.

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SOMETHING DIRTY IN BROOKLYN

SOMETHING DIRTY IN BROOKLYN BY SHERRYL CONNELLY Semiautomatic By Robert Reuland Random House, $24.95 In retrospect, Robert Reuland's first novel, 2001's "Hollowpoint,"was prescient. The book ends with soul-weary Brooklyn prosecutor Andrew Giobberti exiled from the homicide bureau. Shortly after it was published, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes similarly banished Assistant District Attorney Reuland after he was quoted saying Brooklyn "has more bodies per square inch than any place else."Earlier this month,

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Friday, March 17th 2006, 9:42AM 'V FOR VENDETTA. With Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, John Hurt. Director: James McTeigue (2:12). R: Strong violence, language. 3 Stars. You wouldn't think a movie character hiding behind an immobile smiley face would be as fascinating as, say, Jason in his hockey mask or Zorro in those sexy raccoon eyes. But Hugo Weaving, weaving deftly beneath a fixed plastic grin and Prince Valiant wig as the mysterious avenger in "V for Vendetta," both chills and amuses throughout this enjoyable - if occasionally irresponsible - comic-book thriller. Even if the mask wears out its welcome, there's always Natalie Portman giving a fiery performance as Evey, a nice girl who turns political activist after V saves her from some dark-alley nastiness. Portman joins a select group of actresses (Sigourney Weaver, for one) who look just as sexy with their heads shaved. V patterns himself after Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the English Parliament in 1605. Fawkes has no resonance this side of the pond, but the Wachow­ski brothers, who adapted Alan Moore's graphic novel for the screen, reconfigured the futuristic, Orwellian England of the comic book into something that feels more like an allegory for the present-day United States. That's partly why Moore has washed his hands of the film, directed by the Wachowskis' "Matrix" collaborator James McTeigue. In the world of "V for Vendetta," politics is all about spin, delivered by John Hurt as an emperor under a perpetual black cloud. A Bill O'Reilly-like pundit foams at the mouth while public (and even private) dissent is crushed. High culture is forbidden, civil liberties are under siege. Weaving (Agent Smith in the "Matrix" movies) uses physical agility to compensate for facial expression as the scarred, tormented V. The character is clearly an intellectual. But he's also a madman, and this boldly stylish movie lets the audience disapprove of him even as it's drawn to him, an unusual twist for a story that offers Philosophy Lite along with some stellar action. With able support from Stephen Rea as a reluctant detective, the movie raises uncomfortable questions about power and rebellion. Though you're initially inclined to side with V against the fascist gloom that has settled on London like radioactive dust, a lot has happened since Moore and illustrator David Lloyd wrote their comic book. The movie's release was moved back after the London Underground bombings. Today, one person's idea of social liberation through symbolic fireworks is another person's suicide bombing.

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V': NOT LETTER-PERFECT, BUT FUN

'V': NOT LETTER-PERFECT, BUT FUN V FOR VENDETTA. With Natalie Portman, Hugo Weaving, Stephen Rea, John Hurt. Director: James McTeigue (2:12). R: Strong violence, language. 3 Stars. You wouldn't think a movie character hiding behind an immobile smiley face would be as fascinating as, say, Jason in his hockey mask or Zorro in those sexy raccoon eyes. But Hugo Weaving, weaving deftly beneath a fixed plastic grin and Prince Valiant wig as the mysterious

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BY MITCHELL FINK WITH LAUREN RUBIN Wednesday, November 1th 2000, 2:14AM Barbara Sinatra has not - and will not - read Tina Sinatra's new book. "Why should I?" asked Frank Sinatra's widow in her first public comment about her stepdaughter's book, "My Father's Daughter," which came out early last month. In the book, Tina portrayed her stepmother as greedy and shrewd and blasted Barbara for not immediately alerting her, sister Nancy or brother Frank Jr. when their father was rushed to the hospital on the day he died in May 1998 - which in effect denied them the opportun-ity to say their goodbyes. On the outside, at least, Barbara is taking the "Stepmommy Dearest"-like hit in stride. "I'm not hurt by what she said, and frankly, I didn't expect anything else from her," Barbara told me, adding that it's Tina who has to live with what she wrote. "She's not a happy person," said Barbara. Even though "My Father's Daughter" is already in the top 10 on most best-seller lists, Barbara predicted it will wind up in remainder bins sooner rather than later. "I think it's two weeks and out for the book," she said, "and that will be the end of it." Reps for the publisher, Simon & Schuster, declined comment. Check the lines for "Charlie's Angels" when the movie opens on Friday. Bill Murray may be standing on one of them. Even though he's in the film, Murray told "Access Hollywood" that he hadn't seen it yet, but will do so soon as a paying customer. Murray, who owns a piece of the Tribeca Grill, claimed Monday at the restaurant's 10th-anniversary party that he didn't attend the movie's recent premiere because he never received news regarding the event, owing to a broken fax machine. I'm more inclined to believe he bailed because of the difficulty he reportedly had during the shoot, especially with co-star Lucy Liu. Moviegoers "don't come to see the guys in the movie," said Murray. "They come to see the girls. What do they need me for?" TORI'S GOT A BRAND NEW BAG So much for being shy. When Tori Spelling walked into Saturday's Carousel of Hope juvenile diabetes gala with her parents, Aaron and Candy Spelling, she quietly told me, "I feel like Cinderella. This is my first time at the ball." But by the time the main course was being served, the Beverly Hills princess was hardly demure as she was overheard dictating style to a rapt group in the ladies' room at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. "I want to tell you, I've been a loyal Fendi person for about two years, and I have a collection of about 20 [beaded handbags]," Spelling said. "But this year, my mom and I think Dior's the way to go. And gold's the way to go." For Rory Kennedy, it was like déj ... vu all over again. On Monday, the 31-year-old documentary film maker and daughter of the late Robert F. Kennedy went to the Tribeca Grand Hotel to be part of a Creative Coalition-sponsored screening of "Quills," a drama about the Marquis de Sade, starring Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, Michael Caine and Geoffrey Rush. But Kennedy and others, including John Ritter, Bebe Neuwirth, artist Andres Serrano and First Amendment lawyer Martin Garbus, waited for an hour because the film was late in getting to the theater. This was old hat to Kennedy, who went through a similar experience last year with her documentary "American Hollow." Except that that time, it happened in Cuba. Kennedy had gathered a large entourage of friends and family, including her mother, Ethel, to travel to the Havana Film Festival, where her film about a poverty-stricken family in the Kentucky Appalachians was to have its debut. When they arrived, however, Kennedy discovered that the film had been lost. Recalled Kennedy: "They told me, 'Oh, it's at the airport. Don't worry, we know where it is.' " But the print was never found, and Kennedy said she's going down to Cuba again this year to try to screen it. Fortunately, "Quills" did not meet a similar fate; the film did eventually arrive at the hotel. Efficient party planners turned things around so that instead of having a party after the screening, the waiting time wound up as a pre-screening event. There's a difference between the kind of fame Harry Belafonte enjoys and the celebrity status normally associated with talk-show host Sally Jessy Raphael. Just ask her husband, Karl Soderlund. At Monday's Friars Foundation dinner honoring Belafonte, Soderlund noticed that his wife was not being asked to join the famed singer and actor during a round of pictures he was taking with the likes of Morgan Freeman, Ossie Davis and Tony Bennett. So he implored his wife to get in there and mix it up with the others. "Sally, go say hello to Harry," Soderlund said, as she dutifully scurried to Belafonte's side. Although he was standing on the civilian side of the velvet rope, Soderlund managed a smile as he watched his wife accomplish the tricky feat. A PAGE IN TV HISTORY Today is the day the Disney Channel officially becomes part of Time Warner Cable. So ends the public rancor between the two conglomerates, which had its apex in May when Time Warner temporarily suspended Disney-owned ABC programming from its cable service. That is all history now. Over the weekend, Disney heralded the new arrangement with a party that stretched from its Times Square studio to another of its properties, the ESPN Zone theme restaurant. The party was so spread out that, upon entering, guests were given pagers to apprise them of all the activities about to happen. Christina Aguilera, a former Mouseketeer, was to have performed at the event, but she called in sick from Hawaii. The British boy band BB Mak, originally scheduled to be the event's opening act, picked up the slack and put on a longer set. As for the pagers, they had to be turned in as guests left the party. Darn. • As if Liza Minnelli didn't have enough problems, now comes word that she needs both knee and hip surgery. • Dwight Gooden intends to visit Darryl Strawberry in a Tampa jail tomorrow. Tagging along with the pitcher will be ex-Yankees consultant Ray Negron. Gooden and Negron, both former substance abusers themselves, said the other night at Zocalo they're working on a film that deals with recovering addicts and alcoholics. Naturally, they hope Strawberry gets the message and cleans up, too. • What's in a name? Plenty, if you're WWD: The Magazine. On Monday, I reported that Madonna had sounded off about her '80s style in Women's Wear Daily, the newspaper. She actually discussed the return of her fashion influence in WWD's new bi-annual magazine, which hits newsstands this week. • Several cast members of the Off-Broadway benefit staging of "The Exonerated" had to rush through their dinner at Five Points restaurant to make it onstage Monday for the play's opening night. Tim Robbins, Charles Dutton, Curtis McClarin and Frankie Faison took their cappuccinos and espressos in to-go containers to ensure they made the curtain. The play is directed by Bob Balaban and also stars Susan Sarandon and Edie Falco.

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FRANK'S WIDOW WRITES OFF SLAM

Barbara Sinatra has not - and will not - read Tina Sinatra's new book. "Why should I?"asked Frank Sinatra's widow in her first public comment about her stepdaughter's book, "My Father's Daughter,"which came out early last month. In the book, Tina portrayed her stepmother as greedy and shrewd and blasted Barbara for not immediately alerting her, sister Nancy or brother Frank Jr. when their father was

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By LINDA DEUTSCH, Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- The doctor convicted of killing Michael Jackson remained silent during his trial, but Conrad Murray defended himself in interviews taped just days before a jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter. Murray defended his use of the surgical anesthetic propofol to put Jackson to sleep in interviews set to air Thursday and Friday on NBC's "Today" show. NBC released excerpts of the interview Wednesday. "I think propofol is not recommended to be given in the home setting," Murray said, "but it is not contraindicated." The Houston cardiologist also said Jackson had been using the substance long before the pop star met Murray. Under questioning by the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie, Murray said it was not necessary for him to monitor Jackson because he had given him only a small dose of propofol, and he said that was the reason he didn't mention it to paramedics when they arrived at Jackson's mansion. "That's a very sad reason," he said, "because it was inconsequential - 25 milligrams and the effect's gone. Means nothing." Guthrie asked, "Well, you told them about the other drugs, but you didn't tell them about propofol?" "Because it had no effect," Murray said. "It was not an issue." The coroner would subsequently find that Jackson, 50, died of "acute propofol intoxication" after a huge dose of the drug complicated by other sedatives. Murray's defense tried to show that Jackson gave himself an extra dose of propofol while Murray was out of the room, but prosecution experts said there was no evidence of that and it was a crazy theory. Asked by Guthrie if he became distracted by phone calls, emailing and text messages, Murray said, "No I was not." "When I looked at a man who was all night deprived of sleep, who was desperate for sleep and finally is getting some sleep, am I gonna sit over him, sit around him, tug on his feet, do anything unusual to wake him up? No," Murray said. "You walked out of the room to talk on the phone?" Guthrie asked. "Absolutely, I wanted him to rest." He insisted Jackson was not on an infusion that would stop his breathing and, "I was not supposed to be monitoring him at that time because there was no need for monitoring." Other doctors testified at Murray's trial that leaving a patient alone after giving him an anesthetic was an egregious deviation from the standard of care expected of a physician. In one exchange, Murray suggested that had he known that Jackson had a problem with addiction to medications he might have acted differently. Experts testified that he should have researched Jackson's medical history before he undertook his treatment for insomnia. On the day Jackson died, June 25, 2009, Murray said he believed he had weaned the singer off of propofol, the drug Jackson called his "milk." But when Jackson could not sleep, Murray told "Today," he gave the entertainer a very small dose of propofol. In retrospect, he said he probably should have walked away when Jackson asked for propofol. But he said he would have been abandoning a friend. Meanwhile, the disclosure that MSNBC will air a documentary about Murray brought outrage Wednesday from the executors of Jackson's estate, who said Murray is getting a prime-time platform to smear Jackson's reputation without fear of cross-examination. The executors, John Branca and John McClain, demanded the program entitled "Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship" be cancelled. The network said it had no comment. Murray, 58, was hired by Jackson at a promised salary of $150,000 a month to accompany the singer on his "This Is It" concert tour to London. A jury that heard six weeks of testimony convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter on Monday. He is now being held in Los Angeles County Jail awaiting sentencing Nov. 29 and could face up to four years in prison. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff said in an interview aired on KCAL-TV Wednesday that he wasn't surprised by the verdict. "I can't say I was surprised," Chernoff said. "Look, it was a tough case." Chernoff said earlier this week that the verdict was disappointing and would be appealed. In a separate interview broadcast Wednesday, one of the jurors said there were contentious moments, including yelling and cajoling, during the two days of deliberations. Debbie Franklin, 48, told ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" in the first juror interview so far that most of the jurors had decided on guilt Friday, the first day of deliberations. But, she said "not everyone was convinced that Dr. Murray was solely responsible for Michael Jackson's death." "Toward the end of the day, we finally took a vote," Franklin said. "It was not unanimous and we talked a little more about it." The panel decided to think it over during a weekend break. "It was stressful," said the mother of two, who is a paralegal. She said there was "yelling and we had to keep saying, `Nobody talk while this person is talking. Raise your hand if you have something to say." The majority managed on Monday to convince all jurors that Murray was negligent and his mistakes led to Jackson death, Franklin said. "He had addictions. He asked other doctors to do it (give him the operating room anesthetic propofol). They said no. He was looking for somebody to say yes. And Conrad Murray said yes," she said. An Associated Press reporter approached Franklin for an interview Wednesday but she refused. She said all jurors had agreed not to speak to the media, but she did not explain why they made that agreement or why she spoke to ABC. "I think propofol is not recommended to be given in the home setting," Murray said, "but it is not contraindicated." The Houston cardiologist also said Jackson had been using the substance long before the pop star met Murray. Under questioning by the "Today" show's Savannah Guthrie, Murray said it was not necessary for him to monitor Jackson because he had given him only a small dose of propofol, and he said that was the reason he didn't mention it to paramedics when they arrived at Jackson's mansion. "That's a very sad reason," he said, "because it was inconsequential - 25 milligrams and the effect's gone. Means nothing." Guthrie asked, "Well, you told them about the other drugs, but you didn't tell them about propofol?" "Because it had no effect," Murray said. "It was not an issue." The coroner would subsequently find that Jackson, 50, died of "acute propofol intoxication" after a huge dose of the drug complicated by other sedatives. Murray's defense tried to show that Jackson gave himself an extra dose of propofol while Murray was out of the room, but prosecution experts said there was no evidence of that and it was a crazy theory. Asked by Guthrie if he became distracted by phone calls, emailing and text messages, Murray said, "No I was not." "When I looked at a man who was all night deprived of sleep, who was desperate for sleep and finally is getting some sleep, am I gonna sit over him, sit around him, tug on his feet, do anything unusual to wake him up? No," Murray said. "You walked out of the room to talk on the phone?" Guthrie asked. "Absolutely, I wanted him to rest." He insisted Jackson was not on an infusion that would stop his breathing and, "I was not supposed to be monitoring him at that time because there was no need for monitoring." Other doctors testified at Murray's trial that leaving a patient alone after giving him an anesthetic was an egregious deviation from the standard of care expected of a physician. In one exchange, Murray suggested that had he known that Jackson had a problem with addiction to medications he might have acted differently. Experts testified that he should have researched Jackson's medical history before he undertook his treatment for insomnia. On the day Jackson died, June 25, 2009, Murray said he believed he had weaned the singer off of propofol, the drug Jackson called his "milk." But when Jackson could not sleep, Murray told "Today," he gave the entertainer a very small dose of propofol. In retrospect, he said he probably should have walked away when Jackson asked for propofol. But he said he would have been abandoning a friend. Meanwhile, the disclosure that MSNBC will air a documentary about Murray brought outrage Wednesday from the executors of Jackson's estate, who said Murray is getting a prime-time platform to smear Jackson's reputation without fear of cross-examination. The executors, John Branca and John McClain, demanded the program entitled "Michael Jackson and the Doctor: A Fatal Friendship" be cancelled. The network said it had no comment. Murray, 58, was hired by Jackson at a promised salary of $150,000 a month to accompany the singer on his "This Is It" concert tour to London. A jury that heard six weeks of testimony convicted Murray of involuntary manslaughter on Monday. He is now being held in Los Angeles County Jail awaiting sentencing Nov. 29 and could face up to four years in prison. Defense attorney Ed Chernoff said in an interview aired on KCAL-TV Wednesday that he wasn't surprised by the verdict. "I can't say I was surprised," Chernoff said. "Look, it was a tough case." Chernoff said earlier this week that the verdict was disappointing and would be appealed. In a separate interview broadcast Wednesday, one of the jurors said there were contentious moments, including yelling and cajoling, during the two days of deliberations. Debbie Franklin, 48, told ABC-TV's "Good Morning America" in the first juror interview so far that most of the jurors had decided on guilt Friday, the first day of deliberations. But, she said "not everyone was convinced that Dr. Murray was solely responsible for Michael Jackson's death." "Toward the end of the day, we finally took a vote," Franklin said. "It was not unanimous and we talked a little more about it." The panel decided to think it over during a weekend break. "It was stressful," said the mother of two, who is a paralegal. She said there was "yelling and we had to keep saying, `Nobody talk while this person is talking. Raise your hand if you have something to say." The majority managed on Monday to convince all jurors that Murray was negligent and his mistakes led to Jackson death, Franklin said. "He had addictions. He asked other doctors to do it (give him the operating room anesthetic propofol). They said no. He was looking for somebody to say yes. And Conrad Murray said yes," she said. An Associated Press reporter approached Franklin for an interview Wednesday but she refused. She said all jurors had agreed not to speak to the media, but she did not explain why they made that agreement or why she spoke to ABC.

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Conrad Murray Interview: Jackson Doctor Defends Himself

By LINDA DEUTSCH, Associated Press LOS ANGELES -- The doctor convicted of killing Michael Jackson remained silent during his trial, but Conrad Murray defended himself in interviews taped just days before a jury found him guilty of involuntary manslaughter.

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By Svea Herbst Bayliss and Joseph A. Giannone BOSTON/NEW YORK | Wed Oct 21, 2009 7:52pm EDT BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Galleon Group, whose founder has been charged with masterminding the biggest-ever insider-trading scheme involving hedge funds, is shutting down. Less than a week after being arrested at his New York home, Raj Rajaratnam told investors and employees in a letter that he was winding down the Galleon funds. He initially said he planned to keep his 12-year-old firm intact. "I have decided that it is now in the best interest of our investors and employees to conduct an orderly wind down of Galleon's funds while we explore various alternatives for our business," the 52-year-old billionaire wrote. Rajaratnam, who says he is innocent, said in the Wednesday letter that he plans to defend himself against the charges in the same way he managed money -- with "intensity and focus." His New York-based firm, which managed $3.7 billion at the end of last week and boasted strong returns through September, has attracted potential buyers, a source familiar with the matter said. Federal prosecutors accused Rajaratnam and five other individuals of illegally trading on nonpublic information in a scheme that netted them $20 million. Rajaratnam is free on $100 million bail. The news that Galleon was shutting down was hardly a surprise. Many Galleon investors, ranging from endowments to wealthy individuals, have asked for their money back, and many of the firm's 130 employees are looking for new jobs. "I would imagine it is hard to have an ongoing business when you are dealing with an issue like this," said Dick DelBello, senior partner at hedge-fund service provider Conifer Securities. "So, I am not surprised." Pressure on Galleon has built since Rajaratnam and the other five accused were arrested on Friday. By Monday, investors had asked the firm to return $1.3 billion. Under ordinary circumstances, investors would have to notify Galleon by the middle of November of their plans to exit, and they would get their money 45 days later, in early 2010. To raise cash, Galleon traders began selling off positions this week. Because the funds invested primarily in large and heavily traded companies like Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Google Inc (GOOG.O) and Bank of Americs Corp (BAC.N), investors expect to see their money returned promptly in January, one investor said. Soon after Rajaratnam was arrested, some of his portfolio managers and analysts began looking for new jobs in an industry that only recently began hiring again after heavy losses in 2009. "Galleon had some top-flight people, and why should their careers be ruined only because they got caught up with the wrong leader?" said Brad Alford, founder of Alpha Capital Management, an advisory firm that invests in hedge funds. "Some of the top shops are picking over the wreckage already." While news of the insider-trading scandal came as a shock, many lawyers and investors feel it will hurt Rajaratnam rather than the entire hedge fund industry. "This shows that regulators are doing their jobs, and that might be a positive thing for the industry," said Marc Gottridge, a partner at law firm Lovells LLP. Lawyers and industry observers agree that this marks the end of Rajaratnam's once flourishing career, which allowed him to rub shoulders with the world's savviest investors and top government officials. His degree from the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton School and his knack for building a team of top investors turned Galleon into one of world's most prominent technology hedge funds, along with Pequot Capital and Bowman Capital. Pequot and Bowman have also closed. "Now his name is totally toxic and will go down in the annals of hedge fund history as a prominent failure," Alpha Capital's Alford said. (Reporting by Svea Herbst-Bayliss and Joseph Giannone; editing by John Wallace)

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BOSTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Galleon Group, whose founder has been charged with masterminding the biggest-ever insider-trading scheme involving hedge funds, is shutting down.Less than a week after being

20130427034831

NEW YORK — Out in the dusky backyard, a little boy named Ira is camping solo in a canvas tent. Inside, his parents, Bev and Morty, are down in the brand-new basement rec room, hosting an impromptu party and serving fruit-festooned cocktails from their well-stocked bar. It’s 1950-something in a Chicago suburb, and beneath the determinedly cheery surface lurks an ominous alienation. This is “Blood Play,” a somewhat enigmatic dark comedy from the Debate Society. The Brooklyn, N.Y.-based theater company is bringing the piece, its seventh full-length play, to ArtsEmerson’s The Next Thing Festival for three performances Feb. 21-23. “We’re struggling always with how to tell the story, and sometimes they’re very ambiguous on purpose, because it’s more interesting what’s in your imagination,” said playwright and actress Hannah Bos, one-third of the Debate Society and a graduate of Harvard’s ART/MXAT Institute for Advanced Theater Training. On a frigid afternoon, Bos was sitting beside Oliver Butler, one of her two co-artistic directors, in an East Village bar near the Public Theater, where “Blood Play” was part of January’s Under the Radar Festival. Michael Cyril Creighton and Hannah Bos in the Debate Society's "Blood Play." “We’re sort of interested in the moments before and the moments after what most plays maybe tend to be about, or what most stories focus on,” said Butler, who directed and developed the play, written by Bos and their other co-artistic director, Paul Thureen. “We sort of like to create whatever the moment of the play is in relief to the other things around it. So we spend a lot of time trying to sort of release just enough information.” “We over-create a world,” explained Bos, who plays Bev in “Blood Play,” “and then we chisel it down over a long period of time and get really specific with everything. So we have this whole other world: Like, we know where the people are coming from last week.” In the nine-year-old company’s plays, characters might allude to events that are never fully explained; certain guiding notions — like Munchausen syndrome by proxy in “Buddy Cop 2,” from 2010 — are entirely inexplicit; and some details are secrets that the Debate Society keeps to itself. The exact year that “Blood Play” is set is one of those, not even specified in the stage directions. And then there are the company’s inspirations. “We’ll have, like, an invisible file cabinet of ideas for future plays,” Bos said, miming the cabinet as she spoke. “For a long time, I had been like, ‘Guys: Skokie. Let me just put this out there. Skokie’s crazy.’” That would be Skokie, Ill., which borders Evanston, where Bos grew up. Another idea in the invisible file cabinet: ranch houses, which are plentiful in Skokie. “Also,” Bos said, “we all kind of have a love for, like, sad suburbia.” They were intrigued, too, by the thought of neighborhoods springing up where farming land used to be: “this natural world that had been sort of stripped away to make room for this new development,” Butler said. So when they decided to apply for a Six Points Fellowship, given to support work about Jewish culture, those elements were blended with their desire to explore the medieval myth “that Jewish men menstruate and eat Christian babies to replenish their menstrual symptoms,” said Bos, who is Jewish. “Antiquated anti-Semitism and using feminization to kind of fear-monger, that was sort of interesting to us,” she added. “We were also interested in what it meant to be Jewish in post-World War II and the specifics of being American and how important it was to fit in.” “Blood Play” is set in Skokie, which Butler and Thureen — who also appears in the play, as a portrait photographer named Jeep — visited with Bos a year and a half ago. “We took my mom’s car, and we parked it and we walked around Skokie during the day, and then we went back at night,” Bos said. “The alleys there were like the creepiest things ever. Just like, Lake Michigan mist, and shadows, and not a lot of light, and house after house, and just these perfectly manicured bushes.” “During the day,” Butler said, “it’s like the most sort of boring, toothless place ever, and at night, it became like the set of a horror film.”

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With ‘Blood Play,’ the Debate Society pays a visit to suburbia

Out in the dusky backyard, a little boy is camping solo in a canvas tent. Inside, his parents are down in the brand-new basement rec room, hosting an impromptu party and serving fruit-festooned cocktails from their well-stocked bar. It’s 1950-something in a Chicago suburb, and beneath the determinedly cheery surface lurks an ominous alienation. This is “Blood Play,” a dark comedy from the Debate Society that comes to ArtsEmerson’s The Next Thing Festival for three performances Feb. 21-23.

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LISBON — Portugal’s immediate political crisis is contained, but the country’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, may have inadvertently pushed it further into political uncertainty and the possibility of another international bailout. Following 10 days of political tension and suspense during which the coalition government came close to breaking up, Cavaco Silva sought Wednesday to restore calm by ruling out snap elections and keeping the current government in office. Cavaco Silva’s announcement ensured the country continues, for the moment at least, complying with the terms of the three-year, $101 billion rescue it received two years ago. However, in his presidential address Cavaco Silva asked the country’s feuding political parties to surrender their political agendas and work on a shared medium-term economic recovery strategy. He also suggested the possibility of an early election in the middle of next year, but with the agreed economic strategy covering a period beyond that so as to ensure stability. Investors are afraid the politicians may fail to find common ground on Portugal’s economy and consequently pitch the country into chaos, or come up with a watered-down compromise that fails to reassure financial markets. Either result could end in the country being unable to support itself financially and going back to its creditors for more help. That is precisely the kind of development the other 16 countries sharing the euro currency have long feared and fought to avoid after struggling for more than three years to escape their debt crisis. Citigroup economists said in a note Thursday ‘‘the political crisis in Portugal is far from over.’’ It added that ‘‘the president’s proposal is likely to keep political uncertainty high in coming weeks.’’ The Lisbon stock exchange closed down 2.01 percent, at 5,423, Thursday while Europe’s main exchanges were higher. The interest rate on the country’s 10-year bonds, an indicator of how risky investors see the country, crept up to 6.79 percent. Portugal first had to ask its fellow euro countries and the International Monetary Fund for help in 2011 to avert bankruptcy after investors, spooked by its high debts and low growth, stopped lending it money. The bailout program runs out in one year. After that, Portugal needs to go back to markets — where investors dislike uncertainty. The three major international ratings agencies still classify Portugal’s credit worthiness at junk status. Portugal’s fiscal health has improved over the course of its bailout program — the deficit fell to 6.4 percent GDP last year from 10.1 percent in 2010 — but the sacrifices made are now at risk.

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Portugal crisis abates, but expected to return

Portugal’s immediate political crisis is contained but the country’s president, Anibal Cavaco Silva, may have inadvertently pushed it further into political uncertainty and the possibility of another international bailout. Following 10 days of political tension and suspense during which the coalition government come close to breaking up, Cavaco Silva sought Wednesday to restore calm by ruling out snap elections and keeping the current government in office. Cavaco Silva’s announcement ensured the country continues, for the moment at least, complying with the terms of the three-year, $101 billion rescue it received two years ago. But it was what came next that raised concerns about how Portugal will survive beyond the bailout and whether the country, like Greece before it, may need a second lifeline.

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Who will emerge as the 49ers' No. 2 wide receiver? Well, it won't be rookie Quinton Patton. At least, not anytime soon. Patton sustained a broken foot in a 35-11 win over the Rams on Thursday night and is "going to miss some time," head coach Jim Harbaugh said Friday. Patton will not be placed on injured reserve, meaning he is expected to return this season. Patton, who sustained a broken finger during training camp, limped off the field on the final play of the first quarter Thursday and did not return. Based on his first-quarter playing time, the fourth-round pick was poised to assume a more prominent role in the offense. Patton played seven of 12 first-quarter snaps Thursday after averaging 7.7 snaps in the first three games. Patton had his first NFL catch against St. Louis (it went for no gain). He and other wideouts have numbers that have paled in comparison with those of Anquan Boldin (24 catches, 372 yards, two TDs). The rest of San Francisco's wideouts have combined for 13 receptions, 112 yards and no touchdowns, with Kyle Williams accounting for nine catches and 87 yards. Williams played 22 snaps and did not have a catch against the Rams. On Thursday, Jon Baldwin, the No. 26 overall pick in 2011, made his debut with the 49ers after he was acquired in trade from the Chiefs last month. Baldwin had two catches for 19 yards and earned postgame praise from Harbaugh. Baldwin was a disappointment in Kansas City, where he had 41 catches for 579 yards in two seasons. On Friday, Harbaugh hailed Baldwin's competitiveness. "Feel like sometimes I've got an eye for a competitive heart. I see it with Jon," said Harbaugh, who added, "He made a couple tough catches. Handled it. There'll be more action for him." With Patton sidelined, Marlon Moore presumably will assume his spot on game days. Moore was inactive Thursday after he had one catch for 6 yards in the first three games. Eric Branch is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: ebranch@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Eric_Branch

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Patton sustained a broken foot in a 35-11 win over the Rams on Thursday night and is "going to miss some time," head coach Jim Harbaugh said Friday. Patton, who sustained a broken finger during training camp, limped off the field on the final play of the first quarter Thursday and did not return. Based on his first-quarter playing time, the fourth-round pick was poised to assume a more prominent role in the offense. The rest of San Francisco's wideouts have combined for 13 receptions, 112 yards and no touchdowns, with Kyle Williams accounting for nine catches and 87 yards.

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June 21 marked the solstice, beginning the season of school vacations, beach time, big league baseball disappointments, barbecues, sunburns, insect bites, insufferable humidity, passion, conflict, and a renewed belief in the world’s beauty and limitless possibility. The screen has captured it all, and here are five of the best films about summer. He’s 19, she’s 17. They fall in love and spend an idyllic summer together. Then they have a baby and settle into the grind of responsibility, disillusionment, and betrayal. What else would you expect from Ingmar Bergman? But he does capture that ephemeral bliss of summer love and young lust, and when the film debuted in the US in the late summer of 1955 it steamed up the screen with its casual nudity. On the other end of the age spectrum from Monika, Katharine Hepburn’s schoolmarm spends a summer holiday in Venice, where a handsome stranger kindles a fire that not even a dip in a canal can quench. But will David Lean, director of the tearjerker “Brief Encounter,” allow her a happy ending? Delphine has no one to spend her summer vacation with, which is understandable, since she’s a pill. But Eric Rohmer not only makes her lovable, he lets her fall in love, and in the process comes up with a tenderly cosmic denouement. What makes the movie so magical? “The wind and the sadness, the talking,” writes Cinemania reader Russell Thayer. “A great performance by Marie Rivière. And the ending. I wanted that so badly.” Spike Lee hasn’t made a better movie than this account of a summer day in Brooklyn, and not many films have captured how claustrophobia, resentment, and simmering rage intensify as the temperature rises. Lee also stars as the easygoing pizza delivery guy who must fulfill the title directive when the heat becomes metaphorical during a racially charged crisis. Richard Linklater’s picaresque account of the last day of school in ’70s Texas has grown to iconic status for its exacting re-creation of that quintessential American rite of passage. Hazing, making out, chugging beer, puking, choosing between conformity and independence. Ah, memories. As one of the characters says, “If I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself.” They’re currently shooting his story in Boston, but how does Whitey Bulger match up with other movie mobsters? Who tops him on your most wanted list? Let us know by June 23. And coming up, to celebrate Independence Day, who do you think are the best independent directors? E-mail me to cast your votes.

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Our list of five of the best films about summer includes “Summer with Monika” (1953) and “Summertime” (1955).

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FORTUNE — For this installment, 250 Words’ Sam McNerney sits down with the influential and incendiary libertarian author Charles Murray. Murray’s 1984 book Losing Ground helped shape welfare reform under President Bill Clinton, and his 1994 release, The Bell Curve, ignited national outrage over its arguments about race. His new book comes out on Tuesday. This time around, though, Murray isn’t courting controversy. He just wants to help. Murray’s latest, The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead: Dos and Don’ts of Right Behavior, Tough Thinking, Clear Writing, and Living a Good Life, is a vade mecum for the recent graduate. It was released by Random House on Tuesday. Here, Sam talks to Murray about how to write well, the difference between being nice and being good, and the Bill Murray movie that can help teach morality. McNerney: You begin The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead by outlining a few tips “on the presentation of self in the workplace.” What are your favorites? Murray: Without question, tip #3, “Excise the word ‘like’ from your spoken English.” People who use “like” as a verbal tic drive me nuts. Tip #5, “On the proper use of strong language,” is also a favorite. If you want the f-bomb to be a bomb, for example, you’ve got to hold it in reserve for when it’s the mot juste. Repeating it five times in a row doesn’t cut it. The English language is a thing of beauty. Tap into its power. A portion of your book provides a number of suggestions for thinking and writing well. You write that “the process of writing is your most valuable single tool for developing better ideas.” What is the most valuable writing advice you’ve ever received? I learned it on my own: Rewrite, rewrite, rewrite. I don’t know about other writers, but I don’t so much write a book as sculpt it. I go through drafts endlessly, chipping away, adding detail, polishing a little with each pass. And frequently throwing out whole paragraphs and starting from scratch. MORE: About that big, glaring gap in your employment history What’s wrong with the celebration of “nonjudgmentalism”? The only you way can avoid making judgments is if you deliberately refuse to think. That’s a rejection of what makes human beings special: the cognitive capacity to make judgments. Tolerance of ideas and behaviors of which you do not approve, but which people should be free to hold and do, is good. Nonjudgmentalism regarding ideas and behaviors is a form of moral cowardice. Will you explain the difference between being nice and being good? Being nice means behaving in ways that have immediately pleasant consequences. Being good means behaving in ways that contribute to the welfare of your fellow human beings. Sometimes being nice and being good call for the same behaviors, but often they do not. You write “be open to a startup marriage instead of a merger marriage.” What’s the difference between the two? In a merger marriage, both partners are well established in their careers and usually have comfortable incomes when they tie the knot. In a startup, the bride and groom are both getting started. Each kind of marriage has its own advantages and strengths. I think symbiosis in a marriage is more common in startups. Making your way together from the beginning can create a special bond. MORE: A new reason to love your super-demanding job Many people reading your book will be either atheist or agnostic. They might participate in religious traditions, but they are not religious. Why should they “take religion seriously”? People who decide that the Sunday school stories weren’t true and don’t give religion another thought are failing to take advantage of a rich, intellectually demanding, and — in my view –productive way of trying to understand the universe. I don’t mind people being atheists. Being a confident atheist seems to me to be silly, unreflective, and ignorant. Let’s say I’m in my twenties, I attended a well-known college, and I aspire to become successful within my industry. Besides The Curmudgeon’s Guide to Getting Ahead, what books should I read? I’m so naïve that I think virtue is rewarded in the workplace as well as in one’s soul. So study Aristotle’s Nichomachean Ethics. Or, failing that, watch Groundhog Day several times.

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Fortune.com selects the most compelling short essays, anecdotes, and author interviews from "250 Words," a site developed by Simon & Schuster to explore the best new business books—wherever they may be published.

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Ally Capellino/Tate bagsThe designer's bespoke line for the nation's favourite gallery: distinctive, durable canvas chic - for lovers of functional design. Bag £35. Also available in same range: pencil case £10.50; apron £20. www.tate.org.uk/shop Adopting a book at British LibraryHelp protect the world's greatest book collection for future generations by 'adopting' a title, and present a bookworm with a unique and ethical gift that will last a lifetime. You can select from a range of books on the library's revamped website. £25-£500, bl.uk/adoptabook ArtkerchiefAn edition of 1,000 hand-edged illustrated handkerchiefs by artist Emma Magenta, silkscreened and embroidered on soft cotton. £20, www.tate.org.uk/shop Art study days A gift for the art lover who has everything: see Britain's treasures in a new light and learn from the experts. Topics range from Hogarth to London Transport posters to the art of the picture frame. £30-£60 a day, www.inscapetours.co.uk Andy Warhol - Enormous Picture BookWeighing over four pounds and measuring 42cm by 32cm, this is a beast of Andy Warhol homage, from reproductions of his work to rare archive documents and photos of the man himself. Definitive - and lovely to look at. Andy Warhol: Giant Size £75, Phaidon Press A 'Ballot Box' of knowledgeOne for the news junkies: stylishly presented box set of 'Very Short Introductions' - to Politics, Capitalism, Democracy, Socialism and Fascism - written by leading experts. Brilliantly concise and up-to-date. Also available: The Picture Box (art and architecture), The Brain Box (science), The Boom Box (music). £25, Oxford University Press 'Best of' CDsThis is surely a record year for money-spinning greatest hits collections. Perfect for the musical completists in your life - choose from U2, Sugababes, Girls Aloud and Oasis for pop lovers, George Michael, Depeche Mode and Robert Plant for nostalgists and Tori Amos and Mercury Rev for frustrated indie kids. George Michael, Twentyfive (Sony BMG £12.99); Oasis, Hit Collection (Big Brother £7.99); Sugababes, Overloaded (Island £8.99); Tori Amos, A Piano (five CDs, Rhino £34.99); Robert Plant, Nine Lives (nine CDs, Rhino £48.99); U2, 18 Singles (Mercury £7.99); Depeche Mode, Best of Vol 1 (Mute £8.99); The Sound of Girls Aloud (Fascination £8.99); Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes (V2 £11.99) Camouflage 'Hero' pet cushionThe Imperial War Museum has thought of everything - not least this army themed bed for brave cats and dogs. Squidgy, machine-washable, and cool! £39.99, www.iwmshop.org.uk Colouring booksFail-safe options for budding Traceys and Damiens: do-it-yourself painting, drawing and doodling book kits, fun for children and adults alike. Watercolor for the Artistically Undiscovered (Klutz £12.99); Drawing for the Artistically Undiscovered (Klutz £12.99); Do you Doodle? (Buster pounds 9.99); Johnny Joe's Colouring Book (Now & Then pounds 5.99). All on www.amazon.co.uk Cultural mugs Quirky, pretty or just plain colourful - arty mugs for a more refined cup of tea. Wind in the Willows mug (£3, www.rohshop.org ); Blue stencilled Royal Opera House mug (£7, www.rohshop.org ); Blue, turquoise and red De La Warr Pavilion mugs (£9.99, www.dlwp.com); Shakespeare's Signature mug (£5.50, www.rsc.org.uk); Churchill with tommy gun mug (£9.99, www.iwmshop.org); ' Your Country Needs You' mug (£4.99, www.iwmshop.org); Sandra Blow mug (£9.95, www.royalacademy.org.uk); Edward Bawden hare and tortoise mug (£12.95, www.royalacademy.org.uk); 'Modern' mug (£5, www.tate.org.uk/shop); Holbein map mug (£7, www.tate.org.uk/shop); Hockney mug (£7.99, www.npg.org.uk, phone order only); Lace detail mug (£35, www.vandashop.com) Francis Torond silhouette mug (£10, www.vandashop.com); Henry Raeburn's Reverend Walker mug (£7.99, www.natgalscot.ac.uk, phone order only). Classy calendars Forget wild flowers of Britain and cuddly pets: some year planners have real design nous. Rotate your favourite postcard images on the Tate's 'Perpetual Postcard Calendar' for a different look whenever you fancy (£15, www.tate.org.uk/shop) or try the V&A for eye-candy calendars featuring Leonardo Da Vinci drawings or Sixties kitsch (£10 and £5, www.vandashop.com) 'Collecting Contemporary Art' courseA tailor-made five-week course for 20 participants involving lectures from international artists, advice from influential collectors and much more. £595, www.whitechapel.org Charlie and Lola lunchboxFour DVDS and four colour-it-yourself postcards from the kids' TV favourites - the lunchbox tin will bring some envious looks in the playground. £34.99, www.bbcshop.com Dirty Dancing bib! Not quite what Jonny had in mind when he uttered the film's famous line: 'Nobody puts baby in the corner', but makes for a great joke at feeding time. For thirtysomething mums still harbouring Patrick Swayze fantasies. £8, www.dirtydancinglondon.com Donut broochWitty and unusual: this brooch, hand-made by artists Paige Gratland and Rayne Baron, is so realistic you'll want to dip it in your coffee. £25, www.tate.org.uk/shop, phone order only Door signs Charming choice of two door warnings for stroppy teens: 'Do Not Disturb the Star' and 'Thou Canst Not Enter But By Death'. pounds 2.99, www.rsc.org.uk Dick Cavett Show DVDsRock Icons is a selection from Cavett's witty and wonderful late Sixties/early Seventies US talk-show chats with Janis, Joni and Jefferson among others. The John & Yoko Collection contains three complete Cavett Show episodes featuring Lennon and Ono's most candid interviews and rare live performances. Rock Icons £22.99/ The John & Yoko Collection £16.99 (Vital Distribution) Diva make-up bag Aspiring divas will love the silky red make-up bag from the Royal Opera House - where they know a thing or two about star appearances. £15, www.rohshop.org Dalek cookie jar Chomp down your chocolate-chips (while hiding behind the sofa) from this limited edition hand-painted china Dr Who jar. Also available - Tardis and cybermen. £35.99, www.bbcshop.com Diaries Give a culture vulture a head start on their bookings: Royal Opera House diary (includes mini-directories, composers' births/deaths, music venues, festival, lists of musical terms and more, £5.99, www.rohshop.org) ; British Museum pocket diary (hard-cover week-to-view, £4.99, www.britishmuseum.co.uk), Royal Academy diary (features high-quality reproductions of work by 14 Royal Academicians, £6.95, www.royalacademy.org.uk) Earth on film The Complete Planet: Planet Earth/Blue Planet is a special edition nine-disc BBC box set of David Attenborough's definitive series - quite possibly the best wildlife DVD you could ever own. £54.99 (2 Entertain Video) Ella Doran bowl and plateTasty colour-soaked striped products from the designer's range of colourful products for children. £3.50 each, www.tate.org.uk/shop Elvis Presley Ed Sullivan DVD Box set of three legendary live performances from The King. (Sony BMG £19.99) Fashion origami kits An ideal gift for any fashionista who enjoys handicrafts. Stick your pop-ups on greeting cards or in your own fashion scrapbook. Heels £9, skirts £9, jackets £9, www.vandashop.com Four-shot cameraIngenious four-lens camera, which gives you four sequential images with just one press of the shutter. Designed by the artist known as Dalek, it comes with a book full of inspiring lomographic photos. £40, www.balticmill.com/shop Fancy strip pokerPurveyors of saucy-but-classy lingerie Agent Provocateur tap into Britain's poker addiction. Includes playing cards and chips for six players and a steamy story. For naughty fashionistas. £15, www.agentprovocateur.com/ Graffiti stencilsPerfect for teenagers, who can pretend to be Bansky and produce their own piece of street art. Designs by Stencil 1 for Newcastle's Baltic gallery. £5.95, www.balticmill.com/shop Grayson Perry samplerA limited-edition (of 250) of a work from the Turner Prize winner's recent London show: silk sampler embroidered with a poem and illustrations. £500, www.victoria-miro.com/recipeforhumanity Glowing light cubeFrom the V&A's 'Designing a New World' show. See in the dark with this Modernist light cube. £6, V&A (www.vandashop.com, phone order only) Honey by Joseph Beuys Art, naturally: honey collected from the bees on the 'Omnibus for Direct Democracy', Beuys's living art sculpture in Germany. £13, www.tate.org.uk/shop, phone order only Henry VIII wives tree ornaments Divorced, beheaded, died, divorced, beheaded, survived - or hanging on your Christmas tree, thanks to the National Portrait Gallery. £6.50, www.npg.org.uk iPod guideEvery family's got an iPod refusenik: this book can help them. The Perfect Thing, by Steven Levy (£14.99, Ebury Press) Ice rink tickets Become a skating star at the Natural History Museum, or just sit on the sidelines watching everyone fall over. Until 21 Jan, £30 for a family of four (two adults and two children or one adult and three children; www.nhm.ac.uk). Or try: Somerset House until 28 Jan (www.somerset-house.org.uk); Eye of York, until 7 Jan(www.icefactor.co.uk); or East Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh, until 17 Jan (www.gildedballoon.co.uk.) Jokes! With jokes, toasts and put-downs for every occasion, a juicy compendium that is perfect ammunition for when the stir-craziness sets in. The Mammoth Book of Jokes £7.99, Constable and Robinson Julie Verhoeven cup and saucer Litho prints on fine bone china, inspired by an oil painting A Family Taking Tea, attributed to Richard Collins. Limited edition of 200, exclusive to the V&A. £40, www.vandashop.com James Bond in a briefcaseLethally cool limited edition attache case-style box set, housing all 20 of the two-disc Bond ultimate edition James Bond DVDs. Completely remastered with oodles of new extras for each film. £299.99, MGM Home Entertainment Keeler chairFeaturing famous images of Christine Keeler taken at the height of the Profumo Affair, a witty 'semi-disposable' chair made from recycled paperboard. Designed by Factum, £29.95, www.balticmill.com/shop Kylie bookFodder for every little girl's dreams, a sumptuously illustrated book following Kylie through a night on her 'Showgirl Princess' tour. Kylie the Showgirl Princess £12.99, Puffin Leonardo Da Vinci model kits Bring Leonardo's original inventions to life with these self-assembly kits. Camera Obscura £11, Perpetual Motion Kit £20, Wings Kit £21, www.vandashop.co.uk/ LOVE sculptureA pint-sized steel reproduction of Robert Indiana's LOVE sculpture. Will look great on any coffee table. In gold, red or silver. £60, tate.org.uk/shop/, phone order only Lego artistsExecutive toys with a twist: mini Lego sculptures of some of the world's most famous artists, including Dali and Jeff Koons, each in a limited edition of 10. £325, tate.org.uk/shop/, phone order only Magic Numbers dolls The Stodart and Gannon siblings release their inner superhero: plastic figurines for fans of the pop's chirpy romantics. £20, www.playbeast.com MySpace guideWhat do you mean you haven't got your own myspace page and 376 myspace friends? A useful guide to online communities by boffin Peter Buckley, for addicts and beginners alike. Rough Guide to MySpace £6.99, Rough Guides Magazines for art loversPeriodicals for culture junkies: Modern Painters (year's subscription £53.90, www.modernpainters.co.uk/); Paris Review (£26.90, www.parisreview.com); ICON (£54, icon-magazine.co.uk). Mighty Boosh DVD Those for whom Christmas is not quite surreal enough. A feast of zaniness from this year's hottest comics, recorded live at Brixton Academy. (£21.99, Universal Pictures Video) Nostalgia animals Guaranteed to get ladies (and gents) of a certain age all misty-eyed: 'Best of' annuals of the finest teen weekly magazines from one of history's finest decades (the 1980s). Best of My Guy (£12.99, Robson Books), Best of Jackie £12.99, Jackie Problem Pages £6.99, Best of Girl £16.99 (all Prion Books), Best of Smash Hits (£12.99, Little, Brown). All available on www.amazon.co.uk Nostalgia games Simple games for those seeking solace from video games and hi-tech toys. Flipping Fishes £7.99, Laripino £6.99, Slinky £4.99, Tweedledum and Tweedledee £6.99, Beetle game £9.99, all from www.iwmshop.org.uk Opie fridge magnetsEvery fridge worth its pickled herrings will want a few - or indeed all nine - of these magnetic portraits by artist Julian Opie, the man who immortalised Blur. £4 each, tate.org.uk/shop/, phone order only Penguin books deck chair Perfect for settling down with a novel on a lazy summer's day. A modern classic. £59.95, balticmill.com/shop/ Poetry on CDPoems by TS Eliot, Philip Larkin, Emily Dickinson and others read by a cast of famous actors including Ralph Fiennes and Harold Pinter. Catching Life by the Throat: How to Read Poetry and Why £15.99, Time Warner AudioBooks Punk DVDAll the new-wave greats are on The Tomorrow Show with Tom Snyder: Punk and New Wave , including Johnny Rotten (in a notorious interview), Iggy Pop and a nervy Patti Smith. £24.99, www.roughtrade.com Punk Sleeve-art Guide Know any nostalgic punks? Treat them to this comprehensive and colourful guide to the single-sleeve art of the era. Punk on 45: Revolutions on Vinyl 1976-79, by Gavin Walsh, £16.99, Plexus Peep Show box setAll three seasons of one of the funniest British comedy shows of recent years. £29.99, Channel 4 DVD Paint-it-yourself kitA proper canvas (with outlines) and a paint set to keep the future Turners and Warhols in the family occupied over the holidays. £25, tate.org.uk/shop/ QuizzesFrom Noel Edmonds to Barry Norman, via the Prince of Wales pub in Highgate, north London: the best books and interactive DVDs. Q: The Essential Music Quiz DVD (£19.99 Dernon Vision); Deal or no Deal interactive game (£19.99, Channel 4 DVD); Barry Norman's Interactive Film Quiz (£12.99); Tom Baker's Ultimate Sci-Fi Quiz (£12.99, Liberation); Prince of Wales pub quiz Book (£12.99, Hodder) QuillsFor retro-writing: pack of five goose-feather ballpoints from the home of the bard. £9.95, www.rsc.org.uk Reference booksGreat ideas for know-it-alls: Brewer's Dictionary of Modern Phrase and Fable (£30, Cassell); Stephen Fry's QI: Book of General Ignorance, (£12.99, Faber); New Penguin Dictionary of Music (£15.99). Russell Ash's The Top Ten of Everything: The Ultimate Book of Lists (£14.99, Hamlyn) Rodin luggage tagsCarry around a little piece of genius. Choose from The Kiss or The Thinker. £19.95, Royal Academy of Art shop (available in shop only) Richard Wentworth measuring glassHelp someone measure their Christmas drinking in 'liquid time' and 'oral temperament' with these quirky glasses from artist Richard Wentworth. £6.50, tate.org.uk/shop/ RSC membership Ticket offers, newsletters and priority booking on top productions for the Shakespeare buff. From £15, www.rsc.org.uk Spamalot rabbit slippersWho said bunnies were cute? Not this pair of Killer Rabbits of Antioch, surely the snappiest thing for dads this Christmas. £15, www.dresscircle.co.uk/ Seventies style book From polyester paisley to avocado bathroom sets, the crimes of the Seventies are laid bare by Tracey Turner in all their hideous glory in The 1970s: The Decade That Style Forgot (£9.99, Prion) Sound of Music companionIncludes photos from the film and stage productions across the world, song lyrics and the story of the real Maria von Trapp. £25, Pavilion Superman DVD box set 13 DVDs, covering five films of superhero action and including stage versions and the previously unseen Richard Donner cut with Marlon Brando as Superman's father. Superman Ultimate Collector's Edition, £76.99, Warner Home Video Stephen Fry alarm clockBring a bit of PG Wodehouse gentility to your mornings. 'I'm so sorry to disturb you, Sir, but it appears to be morning,' says a respectful Mr Fry. How could anyone refuse? £28.45, www.amazon.co.uk Showbiz pants You wait all year from some stage-star knickers, and ... canny merchandisers from Spamalot , X Factor and Dirty Dancing all produce a pair at once. Classy. Dirty Dancing shorts, £16, dirtydancinglondon.com; Spamalot boxer shorts, £15 www.dresscircle.co.uk/; X Factor trunks, £11.99, www.xfactor.tv Simon Schama box set Relive the Beeb's extraordinary exploration of eight of the world's most famous pieces of art. Power of Art box set, £25.99 Shrigley stickers Stocking fillers with a twist: stickers with oddball David Shrigley phrases including 'I Am A Skanky Whore'. (Not recommended for granny.) £3.50, balticmill.com/shop/ Shakespeare jigsaw An image of Shakespeare made of hundreds of randomly chosen faces. Look closely and you might spot someone you know. £9.99, www.rsc.org.uk Terry frost socks Sexy circle-square socks, suitable for the corporate exec (with a creative soul) or the casual dude (with a sensitive sole). £9.95, royalacademy.org.uk/ Theatre CDs Relive this year's top shows: Sondheim's Sunday in the Park With George (£13.99, Etcetera ) to Pinter's The Caretaker (£7.99, CFP) and Tony Kushner's Caroline or Change (£20.99, Hollywood) 'Understand Art' breath sprayInstantly comprehend complex modern art theories with just one spritz. We kid you not ... £4.50, balticmill.com/shop/ Umbrella from WickedFrom the hugely successful stage show: you'll never get wet again with Madame Morrible to protect you. £19.99, www.dresscircle.co.uk/ Vintage Fashion BibleOver 200 pages of inspirational images and fashion history covering every decade of the 20th century from 1900-1980. Vintage Fashion: Collecting and Wearing Designer Classics by Emma Baxter-Wright, Karen Clarkson, Sarah Kennedy and Kate Mulvey £20, Carlton Velasquez tickets Help someone beat the crowds at the year's most celebrated art show with a ticket for late night opening (6-9pm, Wednesdays and Saturdays). £13, nationalgallery.org.uk Village Voice Film Guide A compendium of alternative film reviews from the past 50 years edited by New York's peerless critic Dennis Lim. Village Voice Film Guide £9.99, John Wiley Wallace and Gromit in a tinThe Wrong Trousers , A Grand Day Out and A Close Shave on DVD, all in a handy storage tin - ideal for cheese and crackers. Tin with DVD and postcards, £17.99, www.amazon.co.uk Wallpaper city guidesUltra-glam, uber-chic pocket-size new range of insider guides aimed at the design-conscious traveller. Barcelona; LA; NYC; Tokyo; Milan and 20 others. £4.95, Phaidon 'Wicked' baby groWe're not quite sure why this exists - but a combed cotton one piece with 'Green Babies Rule' printed on the front will certainly stand out down the nursery ... £15, wickedmerch.co.uk/ War of the Worlds on DVD After this year's live UK stage tour, Jeff Wayne's 1978 musical is released on DVD for the first time. War of the Worlds, recorded at Wembley Arena, £19.99, Universal Pictures Video X is for ... Xmas tree poster Racked with guilt at the thought of another dead tree outside your house come New Year? This handsome life-size Christmas tree poster designed by Udo Peterges makes the perfect mess free eco-friendly alternative. £12.95, 2dchristmastree.com (includes a £1 donation to the Coram Family Children Charity) X Factor Karaoke Kit Didn't make it on the show? Who cares? After a few sherries, you'll have the whole family recreating The X Factor in the living room. Karaoke machine, £89.99, www.argos.co.uk Xmas music with a twistPlease your party guests by replacing Slade with something less predictable: Sufjan Stevens Songs for Christmas (Asthmatic Kitty £16.99), Fron Male Voice Choir, Voices of the Valley (Soundline £8.99), Billy Idol's Happy Holidays (Bodog £7.99) Yoshitomo nara dogA perfect piece of retro-desirable design: fetching wooden pull toy dog by Japanese artist Yoshimoto Nara, better known for his images of children brandishing weapons. £60, tate.org.uk/shop/ Zidane filmArt meets cinema meets rock music: Turner Prizewinner Douglas Gordon's mesmerising movie tracks French footballer Zinedine Zidane though a whole match via 17 cameras. Beautifully scored by Mogwai. £19.99, Artificial Eye Books, CDs and DVDs available from all good book or music shops or online. Order by 5 Dec Dress Circle 6 Dec National Portrait Gallery 11 Dec Royal Academy, Imperial War Museum 15 Dec V&A, Victoria Miro (phone order only) 16 Dec Baltic Art Gallery (phone only) 18 Dec British Library, British Museum, De La Warr Pavilion (phone order only), National Galleries Of Scotland, RSC, Whitechapel Gallery 19 Dec Royal Opera House, Rough Trade 21 Dec 2-D Christmas Tree (online only), Agent Provocateur, Magic Numbers Dolls (online only) 22 Dec Argos, Stephen Fry Clock (3pm), www.amazon.co.uk (6pm)

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The A-Z of Christmas presents

Killer Rabbit slippers, anyone? Dalek cookie jar? Stephen Fry alarm clock? We've trawled the best galleries, museum shops and websites for the best cultural gifts.

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Q. As I was checking for a flight last month, I was informed that if I had booked my flights directly with Cape Air instead of Expedia, I would have been given a senior discount, making the total cost of airfare $201 instead of $247. I am beyond disappointed in Expedia because it did not provide me with the lowest possible fare, as it promises, and did not inform me that a lower fare was available. Can you help? A. Expedia wasn’t exactly warm and fuzzy in its response to you or my attempt to get to the bottom of this. Instead, the company spent weeks — and probably a heck of a lot more than $46 — to not comment, and then send us both the same letter with a less-than-satisfying offer to you of a $50 limited-use Expedia coupon. It was hardly a magnanimous gesture. But it’s an interesting lesson in how using online booking services. While they can help track down good airfares, they also can introduce other problems. The senior discount is a bigger issue. Since you checked off that you’re a senior, you had every reason to believe that if there was a discount you would get it. Expedia explained that a technical glitch apparently prevented the discount from going through, but since the service couldn’t nail down just how much the ticket would have cost, it offered the coupon. When you’re mad at a company, a coupon that requires you to spend still more money is a win only for the company. You could keep making noise about this with the attorney general or Better Business Bureau, but Expedia can say it offered compensation, in this case the less than satisfying $50 coupon, and likely prevail. Next time, consider using its database (or a rival’s) to find a good fare and then book through the airline. You could get a lower fare.

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A lesson in using online booking services

Online booking services can help track down good airfares, they also can introduce other problems. In this case, missing a senior discount.

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A St. Louis County grand jury’s decision Monday not to indict a police officer in Ferguson, Mo., over the fatal shooting of an unarmed teenager has led to demonstrations around the nation. The lack of camera footage means no one knows for sure exactly what happened when the controversial shooting took place. Would better technology have helped? Taser thinks so. Taser, of course, is best known for the tiny stun guns carried by police and sometimes civilians, made particularly famous a few years ago when a student at the University of Florida screamed “Don’t tase me, bro!” at officers arresting him during a speech given by then-Sen. John Kerry. Now, though, Taser is looking get the word out that it’s more than just a weapons company. In addition to those stun guns, Taser TASR sells Axon body-mounted cameras to police departments, and they’re used to record officer interactions with civilians. After an interaction is recorded, it’s automatically sent to Evidence.com, a cloud storage system run by Taser and built using technology provided by Amazon AMZN . Earlier this month, Scottsdale, Ariz., -based Taser announced its biggest client yet — the Los Angeles Police Department. Although the order hasn’t come in yet, Taser’s CEO Rick Smith said he thinks the agency will make Taser’s Axon cameras standard equipment for all officers. Smith said an official order from the LAPD would likely come before the end of the year. The LAPD would be the first of the five biggest police departments to make the cameras standard issue. Taser has also added the business of a number of other big city police departments — including Pittsburgh and San Francisco — over the past year. Of course, Taser is not the only company looking to capitalize on the increased focus on police technology. Utility Inc., based in Tucker, Ga., has been making wireless routers that are used in cars for years. Recently, though, it has brought to market an on-body camera that’s similar to Taser’s Axon. Taser’s CEO Smith says there’s a pressing need for better technology for police officers to increase transparency. “We have [departments] that are still using VHS tapes to store their video,” Smith said. “The better way to think, from a practical perspective, about law enforcement, isn’t like the surveillance state of advanced technology, it’s like your local city government. This is a small department.” Smith said there is a particular market for Taser’s cameras and cloud service because it all comes in one user-friendly package, meaning police departments don’t have to go through the bureaucratic procurement process for cameras, storage or servers — instead, Taser takes care of it all. Utility also uses an Amazon-based cloud storage system for its cameras. CEO Bob McKeeman said he considers his company’s technology to be “Second Generation” because turning on a squad car’s lights, or opening the door automatically activates the cameras. Taser plans on introducing similar technology early in 2015, with the added bonus that when one camera is triggered, other cameras in the vicinity will also turn on. For now, not every police officer is wearing a camera, mostly because not every police department can afford to buy the technology. McKeeman thinks prices will eventually come down as the price of the technology declines, and eventually cameras will become as commonplace as a radio in the police officer’s daily equipment set. “We see it as inevitable,” he said. “Every police officer is going to have a body-worn camera.”

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Taser, rival think their body cameras could have helped in Ferguson

The LAPD could be the first top police department to outfit every officer with Taser’s Axon body-mounted camera.

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Bill O’Reilly’s dramatic accounts of covering the Falklands War as a young journalist have been challenged by competitors and former colleagues, prompting questions about the Fox News host’s credibility. But in 1982, O’Reilly’s reporting from a protest in Buenos Aires, 1,200 miles from military action on the Falkland Islands, impressed television executives in Boston enough to help him land a high-paying job at Channel 7 later that year. “We were looking at hundreds of audition tapes, and this one stood out for precisely that episode,” said Bill Applegate, then the station’s vice president of news. A critical article published last month by the left-leaning magazine Mother Jones noted that in various retellings of his experience over the years, “The O’Reilly Factor” host has claimed to have survived a “war zone” during the brief conflict between Argentina and the United Kingdom. He has described scenes of carnage, such as soldiers shooting civilians, and has detailed a harrowing moment when his own cameraman was knocked to the ground and injured during a demonstration, requiring O’Reilly to drag the man to safety. Mother Jones chronicled some versions of that incident that the magazine said were examples of O’Reilly implying he was reporting from the Falkland Islands, where the fighting took place. With wall-to-wall opinion shows, it sometimes seems that everything but the weather is processed through an ideological filter. “I was in a situation one time, in a war zone in Argentina, in the Falklands, where my photographer got run down and then hit his head and was bleeding from the ear on the concrete,” O’Reilly said during a 2013 on-air interview with Boston Globe photographer John Tlumacki, who had witnessed the bombings at that year’s Boston Marathon and photographed the aftermath. “And the army was chasing us. I had to make a decision. And I dragged him off.” Since the publication of the Mother Jones article, O’Reilly has faced a barrage of accusations that such stories are either exaggerated or fabricated. Several former CBS colleagues told CNN they don’t remember the cameraman incident. A man believed to be the video journalist in question now lives in Venezuela and has declined to speak publicly. CBS released about 14 minutes of archived protest coverage, which did not show or mention violence of the magnitude described by O’Reilly. Mother Jones noted contemporary newspaper reports depicted a milder scene with soldiers using tear gas and rubber bullets to control demonstrators. O’Reilly has responded by saying he never meant to suggest he was on the islands. But he has maintained his frightful encounters in the streets of Buenos Aires happened just as he described in the past. Distinguishing the protest from the war zone amounts to “splitting hairs,” he told fellow Fox News host Howard Kurtz on the network’s “Media Buzz” program. O’Reilly declined an interview request through a Fox News spokeswoman, who pointed to earlier comments O’Reilly made to Kurtz and others. In a statement Fox News accused “far left” organizations of mounting a campaign against O’Reilly. “Responding to the unproven accusation du jour has become an exercise in futility. FOX News maintains its staunch support of O’Reilly, who is no stranger to calculated onslaughts,” the statement said. Meantime O’Reilly’s program has enjoyed a ratings bounce amid controversy; “The O’Reilly Factor” averaged 3.1 million viewers last week, according to Nielsen, 11 percent more than during the same period last year Applegate and Nick Lawler, the Channel 7 news director in 1982, said that to the best of their recollection, the audition tape they received 33 years ago included clips of O’Reilly’s Falklands coverage and that his gritty on-the-ground reporting made the Boston University graduate seem like a perfect fit for WNEV-TV (now WHDH-TV). O’Reilly had left CBS in a huff — upset that some of his footage from the demonstration in Buenos Aires had been commandeered for a report by veteran journalist Bob Schieffer — and Applegate and Lawler jumped at the chance to hire a reporter with network experience. Both of the executives were recent hires at the time, brought in to elevate the third-place station’s ratings. Applegate had quickly become known in local TV circles for a large sign he posted in the newsroom, which read, “This is War.” Channel 7 made the 32-year-old O’Reilly a weekday reporter and weekend anchor, giving him a two-year contract worth about $200,000 a year, according to Applegate. It was big money in the early ’80s. “He had an innate ability to understand the connection between the emotions of a story, its intellectual substance, and the viewer,” said Lawler, now a media consultant in Iowa. “He could make an important story — what some would consider a dull story — and make it relatable to the viewer.” Despite high hopes, O’Reilly’s run at WNEV ended poorly. Citing low ratings, the station canceled “New England Afternoon,” the weekday news magazine he hosted after moving off the weekend anchor desk. After a brief stint at a station in Portland, Ore., he returned to Boston in 1985 as a reporter at WCVB. He quickly transitioned into a role as the station’s columnist-at-large, delivering forceful opinion pieces on the nightly news, and in 1986, ABC News called him back up to the big leagues. O’Reilly came back to the area one more time to study at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, and then it was on to Fox News in 1996.

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O’Reilly’s Argentina war stories, challenged by critics, led to stint on Boston TV

Bill O’Reilly’s dramatic accounts of covering the Falklands War as a young journalist have been challenged by competitors and former colleagues, prompting questions about the Fox News host’s credibility. But in 1982, O’Reilly’s reporting from Buenos Aires, 1,200 miles from military action on the Falkland Islands, impressed television executives in Boston enough to help him land a high-paying job at Channel 7 later that year. “We were looking at hundreds of audition tapes, and this one stood out for precisely that episode,” said Bill Applegate, then the station’s vice president of news.

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FORTUNE — On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in a case that could decimate the class-action shareholder-suit industry, crippling a litigation juggernaut that extracted $73 billion in settlements from corporations between 1997 and 2012. Nearly $17 billion of that sum went to plaintiffs attorneys and a roughly equal sum — on top of the $73 billion — was paid to the corporate defense bar. Will the Court really pull the trigger? Filed against Halliburton (HAL) almost 12 years ago, this lawsuit, which could boomerang so catastrophically against the lawyers who brought it, was fittingly once led by Bill Lerach, the greatest pioneer, architect, and impresario of the genre. Lerach went to prison in 2007 for conspiring to obstruct justice, but not before winning billion-dollar settlements from crime-ridden firms like Enron and WorldCom, while also bringing scores of more pedestrian suits against the likes of Apple (AAPL), Citigroup (C), Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Exxon (XOM), Goldman Sachs (GS), and — as we should disclose — Time Warner (TWX), the parent of Fortune‘s publisher. The case today is known as Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, though many lawyers call it Halliburton II because it already reached the Supreme Court once, in 2011, on a slightly different issue. MORE: Supreme Court may endorse fee-shifting in frivolous patent suits The subject this time is the so-called fraud-on-the-market doctrine, or “FOTM” to the initiated. FOTM is a judge-made doctrine without which the vast majority of garden-variety shareholder, class-action fraud suits simply could not be brought (more on the mechanics of FOTM in a minute). The Court is reassessing whether that linchpin theory — blessed by the Supreme Court in 1988 by an anemic 4-2 vote, with three justices (all conservative) not participating — ever made sense and should still be adhered to. With such momentous stakes it’s no surprise that the case has attracted nearly two dozen amicus briefs, from the likes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Council of Institutional Investors, AARP, former SEC commissioners, former congressmen, economists (including Nobel laureate Eugene Fama), and loads and loads of law professors. (The Obama Administration, through Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, Jr., is urging adherence to the FOTM doctrine.) Yet, the stakes of this case are so momentous that the single, most decisive factor will probably be one that can’t be openly broached in any of those briefs. In deciding a case like this one, Chief Justice John Roberts, Jr. — who is widely assumed to represent the swing vote — must engage in a lonely act of supreme judicial statesmanship. He must gauge how quickly his Court can continue to change American society without compromising its own legitimacy and reservoir of goodwill in the eyes of the public it serves. As someone who famously — many would say infamously — pledged at his confirmation hearings in 2005 to act as a neutral “umpire,” passively calling balls and strikes, and to be sensitive to the institutional demands of stare decisis — respect for precedent, basically — he will have to calibrate whether the country is ready for yet another 5-4 ruling, along ideological lines, that overturns decades of precedent and violently upends the existing legal and, in this instance, business landscape. MORE: 10 biggest patent troll targets in business The fraud-on-the-market doctrine addresses the following difficulty. To prove a traditional fraud case, the plaintiff has to show not only that the defendant lied to him, but that he fell for that lie — i.e., “relied” on it — in a way that caused him injury. So in the securities fraud context, if a company’s CEO publicly understates what he really thinks his company’s asbestos liabilities are — one of the frauds Halliburton stands accused of — that lie might obviously lull an individual investor into purchasing the stock, believing it to be a safer bet than it really is. When the truth later emerges, and the stock falls precipitously — 42% in Halliburton’s case, after it got hit with a mammoth asbestos verdict in December 2001 — that investor can credibly claim to have been injured. But if that investor wants not just to sue on his own behalf but to bring a class action, how can he prove that the entire class of investors who bought Halliburton stock during the same time period attached the same importance as he did to the CEO’s allegedly false statement — or that, indeed, they ever even knew that the statement had been uttered? One answer might be: He can’t. In that case the investor couldn’t bring a class action and, if he was just an individual, with only a few thousand bucks worth of stock losses at stake, it probably wouldn’t make economic sense for him to bring suit of any kind. The FOTM doctrine comes to that person’s rescue. It theorizes that when there is an efficient market, in which stock analysts routinely pore over 10Qs, 8Ks, media reports, and, indeed, every passing rumor implicating the companies they cover, any material statement by a company’s CEO quickly gets incorporated into the price of its shares. Every investor can then further be assumed to rely on the “integrity” of the share price — i.e., the assumption that that price isn’t being artificially depressed or inflated by fraudulent statements. With the benefit of the FOTM assumption, an investor can now bring a class action because the CEO’s allegedly false statement can be assumed to have been incorporated into the share price, and all investors can be further assumed to have relied on the integrity of that price, whether or not they actually ever knew the statement had been made and attached any significance to it. MORE: Who won the battle of Apple antitrust monitor? The FOTM doctrine appears to have been first accepted by an appeals court in 1975. Every appellate panel to consider the question afterward then followed suit. Finally, in March 1988, the U.S. Supreme Court, sitting with a bare quorum of six justices and splitting along ideological lines, approved the FOTM doctrine by a 4-2 margin in Basic v. Levinson. Writing for the plurality, Justice Harry Blackmun (joined by Justices William Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, and John Paul Stevens) based his decision on “common sense and probability,” since “market professionals generally consider most publicly announced material statements about companies” and “most publicly available information is reflected in [the] market price.” He alluded also to some of the then-recent economic scholarship advancing the so-called efficient capital markets hypothesis, a theory generally holding that share prices reflect all publicly available information. (The dissenters were Justices Byron White and Sandra Day O’Connor. Not participating were Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony Kennedy.) That’s where things stood until last February, when the Supreme Court decided Amgen [(AMGN)] v. Connecticut Retirement Plans and Trust Funds. Though that case was a victory for the class-action plaintiffs, four of the more conservative justices — Justice Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, Anthony Kennedy, and Samuel Alito — suggested in separate opinions that Basic needed to be reconsidered. Seven months later Halliburton’s lawyers at Baker Botts, led at the Supreme Court level by Aaron M. Streett, gave the Court that opportunity, and here we are. One nominal basis for reexamination was that, in the intervening years, economics scholars have become more skeptical of some of the claims of the “efficient capital markets hypothesis,” or “ECMH,” which Justice Blackmun had cited in his opinion in Basic. But Blackmun’s opinion was really based as much on common sense as on any nuanced, highfalutin economic theory. The lawyers for the plaintiff Erica P. John Fund, led by David Boies of Boies, Schiller & Flexner, are probably correct when they write: “Basic is built upon the obvious fact … — which even critics of the ECMH almost uniformly accept — that stock prices generally react reasonably promptly to material, public information by incorporating that information into the stock price.” MORE: Supreme Court hears case on the limits of bankruptcy judges’ powers There are, however, better reasons to reexamine Basic than arcane schisms among ECMH scholars. One might be that it has “produced a litigation leviathan” that Congress and the Basic Court “could not possibly have conceived.” This argument is advanced by former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Joseph Grundfest, a professor at Stanford Law School, in an amicus brief he has co-written with lawyers at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. They dub FOTM “the most powerful engine of civil liability ever established in American law.” Beyond citing statistics on the volume of litigation FOTM unleashed, Grundfest advances a textualist legal argument for why the original Basic court reached the wrong conclusion in 1988. Though the details of his logic would take us deep into the weeds, suffice it to say that it is the sort of argument to which Chief Justice Roberts would very likely be receptive if he were writing on a clean slate (i.e., not being asked to overturn long-standing precedent). It relies on an argument made more fully in one of Grundfest’s own articles, which appears to be — judging from my eyeballing of the parties’ and amici’s submissions in the case — roughly the second-most-referenced law review article in the totality of the briefing. The most-referenced article, by the same crude methodology, is one that Columbia Law School professor John Coffee, Jr., published in the Columbia Law Review in November 2006. That is a thoroughgoing critique of FOTM securities fraud litigation itself, calling into question whether, all told, investors are net winners or losers as a result of its very existence. The article focuses on the central “circularity” of these cases, given that their costs — “both the settlement payments and the litigation expenses of both sides — fall largely on the defendant corporation,” meaning that they are ultimately borne by the company’s “innocent shareholders, not the responsible parties.” Writes Coffee: “To punish the corporation and its shareholders in such a case is much like seeking to deter burglary by imposing penalties on the victim for having suffered a burglary.” MORE: Medical cannabis distributor becomes mayor of California town For diversified investors, who will be receiving recoveries in some suits but dishing them out in others, the cases in aggregate are a wash at best, but more likely a “deadweight loss,” Coffee argues, after factoring in all the transaction costs — attorneys fees and insurance premiums — they are paying for. For undiversified investors, he continues, the results are even more untoward, because unsophisticated, buy-and-hold investors usually won’t have bought or sold within the narrowly circumscribed time periods necessary for inclusion in the plaintiff class. “Ironically,” Coffee writes, “the clear winner under such a system is the more rapidly trading, undiversified investor — which is the profile of the contemporary hedge fund. The clearest loser is the small investor who buys and holds for retirement — exactly the profile of the American retail investor.” Coffee himself has not signed onto any of the amicus briefs in Halliburton II. In a blog essay in January he predicted a compromise outcome, which stems from yet another possible objection to Basic, and reason for reconsidering it. MORE: Google to co-head open source patent defense alliance The Basic plurality thought they were setting up a “rebuttable” presumption of reliance, which the defendant would have an opportunity to disprove. In practice, however, lower courts have permitted defendants to rebut FOTC only in very limited ways — by arguing, for instance, that the market for the securities in question was not “efficient.” But such an argument is methodologically hard to prove — no one’s sure exactly how to do it — and, many people feel, beside the point. The more pertinent rebuttal argument from the defense perspective — and one defendants often feel they could prove if they were only given the chance — is that the alleged false statement never had any impact on the price of the securities in question in the first place. That genre of rebuttal has generally been precluded by courts, at least at the all-important class-certification stage of the proceedings, on the theory that it should be postponed for consideration by a jury at trial. In practice, though, postponement means never, because once a class gets certified, defendants almost always settle rather than risk a multibillion-dollar jury verdict. (From 1995 through 2012, plaintiffs filed 3,988 securities class-actions, of which only 14 — about one-third of 1% — went to a jury verdict, according to a NERA Economic Consulting report cited in Halliburton’s brief.) For this reason, Halliburton is urging as a backup argument, in case the Court refuses to abandon Basic altogether, that it at least afford defendants a meaningful opportunity to challenge at the class-certification stage whether the alleged false statements had any impact on share price. This outcome has also been urged as the most appropriate result by two securities law professors, Adam C. Pritchard of the University of Michigan, and M. Todd Henderson, of the University of Chicago, in an brief written by John P. Elwood of Vinson & Elkins. (It is also the result predicted by professor Coffee in his blog post as well.) Counterbalancing all these weighty arguments for reconsidering or modifying Basic, the Erica P. John Fund contends not only that the case was correctly decided in 1988 but that, even if it wasn’t, principles of stare decisis would weigh heavily against overturning it now, a quarter century after the fact. A number of academic securities law experts have supported these positions — many more than joined Grundfest’s brief — including Jill E. Fisch of the University of Pennsylvania, the brief’s principal author. Five more academics, stare decisis experts, have filed an additional brief urging adherence to Basic. MORE: New chapter begins in net neutrality fight A key point they all make is that subsequent to the Court’s ruling in Basic Congress has twice — in 1995 and 1998 — passed major amendments to the securities laws, choosing on neither occasion to overturn or even fine-tune Basic, which it could have done. They argue that such inaction should be understood as “ratification” by Congress of the Court’s ruling. Professor Donald Langevoort of Georgetown University Law Center has argued, in an article also cited frequently in the briefing, that the 1995 legislation in particular “makes no sense except when read as a political compromise that preserves the foundation of the fraud-on-the-market class action while making it harder for plaintiffs to bring, plead, and prove a successful claim through a variety of reforms.” For the Court to eliminate FOTM now would be to pull the rug out from under the delicately balanced framework Congress has crafted. What, then, will Chief Justice Roberts do? My SWAG (scientific wild-ass guess) is that he’ll split the difference. He’ll reaffirm Basic, allowing him to honor the principle of stare decisis. But he’ll go on to say that Basic contemplated a rebuttable presumption of reliance, which many lower courts have, in practice, allowed to wither away into irrebuttability. Accordingly, to truly honor stare decisis, he’ll argue, the Court must give defendants a meaningful opportunity to challenge at the class-certification stage whether the alleged false statements had any impact on share price — the result favored by professors Pritchard and Henderson, and predicted by Coffee. A challenge to reaching this compromise is that it would come quite close to overruling two very recent Supreme Court rulings — last February’s ruling in Amgen and the 2011 ruling in this very lawsuit, Halliburton I. In each of those decisions the Court rebuffed requests by defense lawyers for a chance to present evidence at the class-certification stage very similar to what the Court would now be permitting — a showing by defendants that the allegedly false statements had no impact on share price. Though the legal rubrics at issue in the earlier cases were different — those cases were about what lawyers call “loss causation” and “materiality” rather than about “reliance” — the upshot for practitioners would be nearly indistinguishable. So the compromise would require some fancy footwork. But Chief Justice Roberts is up to the task, and I think he will take it on rather than face either unpalatable alternative: (a) leaving Basic completely intact — a result at war with every fiber of his conservative being — or (b) blasting it to smithereens and fueling perceptions of a politicized, agenda-driven, pro-corporate Court.

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Could this be Armageddon for shareholder class actions?

In the biggest business case of the term, the Supreme Court will weigh whether to decimate class-action stock fraud suits as we know them.

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For the better part of a century, General Electric was the king of all dividend stocks. It returned money to shareholders every quarter since 1899, and increased its payout for 32 years in a row, making it one of the S&P 500’s “Dividend Aristocrats.” But it gave up its crown in 2009 when the toll of the financial crisis forced it to cut its dividend by more than two thirds—its only reduction since the Great Depression. Now, after the industrial conglomerate said Friday it would sell off its financial unit GE Capital, it’s poised to retake its position as a dividend growth stock for the ages with a promise to return more than $90 billion to investors by 2018 through share buybacks and dividends. Following the market crash in 2008, GE began raising its dividend again in 2010. Since then, it has almost doubled its quarterly payout from 12 cents to 23 cents per share. While that amount is still lower than the pre-recession distribution of 31 cents per share, investors expect that the dividend will only accelerate from here—especially after GE rids itself of its financial arm. “The dividend history of the company is important in judging management’s commitment to paying a dividend and sharing their success with shareholders,” says Jack Leslie, a portfolio manager at Miller/Howard who helps oversee $9 billion, including the Touchstone Premium Yield Equity Fund. “But investors need to be forward-looking and not focused exclusively on what happened in the past.” Leslie bought GE shares after the company resumed increasing its dividend after the cut – and after appearing to be healthy enough to sustain that growth for a long time to come. Already, the stock has more than doubled in value since he bought it. “You want to make sure that [a company] can pay its creditors, pay its taxes, and have enough left over to pay and increase its dividends,” he says. “You want to see that the business is improving, and has the growth to support the dividend increases. “ Although GE said Friday that it does not plan to raise its dividend until after 2016 (it aims to complete the sale of GE Capital over the next two years), the company is expressing an almost unprecedented amount of shareholder friendliness. The $90 billion it intends to return to investors includes a $50 billion stock buyback that ties Apple AAPL for the biggest share repurchase ever. Besides, without its financial businesses, GE will be able to loosen its purse strings and give away a lot more cash. Cutting ties with GE Capital means the parent company can likely free itself of the restrictions government regulators imposed on GE in the wake of the financial crisis—effectively treating it like a bank that is too big to fail. The “systemically important” status (which regulators also slapped on AIG AIG , among others) has required GE to keep more money in its coffers than it otherwise might, and subjected its dividend and buyback plans to government approval. GE said in its a statement that it is already working with regulators to remove the yoke of GE Capital’s designation as systemically important. While GE shares GE rose nearly 11% Friday, the stock still has a dividend yield of 3.2%, and some investors see it as a value play, in addition to a sure-fire source of income. “I just think a lot of investors have written them off and say to themselves, why own something that’s half industrial, half financial, when they can go out and recreate that by buying individual stocks?” says Tom Huber, manager of the $4.8 billion T. Rowe Price Dividend Growth Fund, who just recently bought GE again after avoiding it following the recession. “I guess that’s essentially what the opportunity is: As that business makes changes, the earnings stream is, in my opinion, more dependable and more durable, and there’s room for the valuation to improve.”

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Why GE could retake throne as king of all dividend stocks

After selling off its financial arm, GE Capital, General Electric is poised to once again become one of the best dividend growth stocks around.

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Lumber Liquidators LL said the U.S. Department of Justice was seeking criminal charges against the company, related to some flooring products it imported. The hardwood retailer’s shares slid as much as 20.6% to a near-three-year low on Wednesday after the company also swung to a quarterly loss. Lumber Liquidators said it recorded a $10 million charge in the first quarter ended March 31, related to the investigation. The charges stem from an investigation started in 2013, when some Lumber Liquidators offices were searched under the Lacey Act by the Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The 1900 anti-wildlife trafficking law was amended in 2008, to include plants and plant products. Lumber Liquidators said on Wednesday that Chief Financial Officer Daniel Tarrell would step down in June. Ernst & Young executive Gregory Whirley will take on the role on an interim basis. The company also said it faces 103 class action lawsuits related to its laminate flooring made in China. The U.S. government started investigating the company after CBS’s “60 Minutes” show in March alleged that its laminates from China had excessive levels of cancer-causing formaldehyde. Lumber Liquidators sales fell 13% in March. Orders dropped 8.2% from April 1-April 27. “We wouldn’t expect a very significant bounce back in sales until next year this point,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Laura Champine told Reuters. She expects gross margins to be down throughout the year. Lumber Liquidators, which gets about 52% of its laminates from China, said on a post-earnings call that it would not add laminate flooring from the country to its inventory for now. It would make sense if the company goes back to getting laminates from China once demand returns, Champine said. Aggregate costs could rise by 8-15% if the company made in the United States those products it sourced from China, Lumber Liquidators said in March. The company reported a first-quarter loss of $7.8 million, or 29 cents per share, compared with a profit of $13.7 million, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. Lumber Liquidators shares were down 17.5% at $27.57 on the New York Stock Exchange in afternoon trading after touching a low of $26.54.

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Lumber Liquidators says DoJ seeking criminal charges, shares plunge

The charges stem from an investigation started in 2013, when some Lumber Liquidators offices were searched by government agencies.