Karrie Webb Gets Another Chance to Savor the Fame

Abstract: On an L.P.G.A. circuit ruled largely by twentysomethings, the story of Karrie Webb’s first Women’s British Open victory must seem like it ought to be bordered in sepia tones. When the Australian romped to victory by six strokes in 1995 at the Woburn Golf Club in England, the event wasn’t considered a major championship. The L.P.G.A. had just started co-sanctioning the event a year earlier. Eighteen years later, Webb hasn’t lost her winning ways. Her triumph at the Ladies European Masters last weekend gave her three in 2013, each on a different continent. As attention rightly centers this week — at the British Open on the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland — on Inbee Park’s quest to become the first woman to capture four majors in a calendar year, the list of those most likely to spoil the attempt just might begin with the revitalized Hall of Famer. “I hold the majors as the five most important tournaments of the year,” Webb, 38, said recently. She said she wanted to add to her title count “before I finish up.” Webb’s last major title came in 2006, when she won the Kraft Nabisco Championship on the first hole of a playoff against Lorena Ochoa. It was her seventh major victory, a total that now stands alongside Juli Inkster’s as the most among active players. An eighth major not only would break that tie — and move Webb into a tie with Betsy Rawls for sixth on the all-time list — but would also give her a chance to savor success in a way she couldn’t during her meteoric rise. “I want it so that I can enjoy it more than I did when I was winning a lot,” acknowledged Webb, who also won her eighth Australian Ladies Masters in February and the Classic in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in June. When she came from three shots back on Sunday to win the Ladies European Masters in England, it pushed Webb’s victory total to 51 worldwide, including 39 under L.P.G.A. authorization. Not since that 2006 season has she won three in a calendar year. “Karrie is in my top five of greatest players that have ever played on the L.P.G.A. Tour,” said the four-time major championship winner Meg Mallon. The victories came almost too fast, though, for Webb to truly enjoy them. She was 20 when she captured the 1995 Women’s British Open, adding four victories during her L.P.G.A. rookie season and three more in 1997. She, along with Annika Sorenstam and Se Ri Pak, became the focal point of the L.P.G.A.’s new generation. When Webb won six events in 1999 and seven more the following year, the spotlight turned on her. When the golf questions ran out, reporters wanted to know more about the small-town Australian lass who took the tour by storm. In one instance, questions about a broken engagement to her coach’s son moved her to tears. Image Karrie Webb has won three L.P.G.A. Tour titles this year, each on a different continent. Credit Gregory Shamus/Getty Images “I didn’t handle the off-course stuff very well at all,” Webb acknowledged. “At 21, I was supposed to be the face of the L.P.G.A. and a personality that everyone wanted to ride with, and I apparently wasn’t.” “I was quite a shy person when I came over here, so it was a huge adjustment for me,” she said. “My desire to play golf got me through most of those years, but at some point I started wishing to be No.1 — and not No.1.” Before long, Sorenstam raised the ante with eight victories in 2001 and 11 the following year. The L.P.G.A. tried to build a campaign around a blossoming Annika-Karrie rivalry, but it never took off. When Sorenstam expressed an interest in testing herself at a P.G.A. Tour event, eventually accepting an invitation from the Colonial tournament in 2003, the spotlight shifted again. Webb didn’t seem to mind. Though she never had a winless season until 2005, when she became the Hall of Fame’s youngest inductee at age 30, Webb never found that push to keep pace with Sorenstam. “I would like to have continued to play the golf I played,” Webb said. “But I think subconsciously I backed off the pedal a little bit, because I wasn’t really enjoying everything that came with it.” That’s why Webb could relate this year when Yani Tseng, the L.P.G.A.’s dominant force in 2010-11, voiced a certain relief at having lost the No.1 world ranking to Stacy Lewis. But there is an unspoken warning there, Webb said. “I was in the back of my mind saying, ‘Be careful what you wish for,”’ she said. Tseng hasn’t had a top-15 finish since February and comes to St. Andrews on a slide of three straight missed cuts. Webb, meanwhile, is enjoying something of a renaissance. Though she may not be a constant presence at the top of leader boards, she is a threat to be in the hunt on any given weekend. After notching up two victories in 2011, a 2012 without a victory was tempered by seven top-10 finishes. The three victories this year have been accompanied by a tie for fifth at the Kraft Nabisco, the year’s first major. Webb hasn’t missed a cut in her previous 57 L.P.G.A. starts — a streak dating from September 2010 that stands as the tour’s active leader. “As I’ve gotten older, I have a better understanding of my abilities and what I’m capable of,” she said. “Whether I’m firing on all cylinders or I’m not quite there, I have an understanding of how I’m going to be able to put together a score that day.” That savvy could prove especially valuable if the elements come into play on the Old Course. She chased down Shanshan Feng during a windblown final round in the Atlantic City tournament in June, and the closing 65 on Sunday at the Ladies European Masters was three shots better than anyone else in the final four groupings. “It’s fun to watch her, watch how she prepares,” Lewis said. Both are South Florida residents and frequently team up for practice rounds. “I’ve been fortunate,” Lewis said. “She’s been a mentor and she’s been a friend to me. I’ve learned so much that the more you play with her, I think you learn something every time.” Webb still has a couple of targets in sight, not the least of which is representing her homeland when golf returns to the Olympics in 2016. If things come together at St. Andrews this week, she just might have another major to show the younger generation.


Beijing Goes After U.S.-Made Nylon

Abstract: BEIJING — Toothbrushes and nylon socks have become the latest projectiles in the continuing trade skirmish between the China and the United States. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued a preliminary ruling Monday that imposed a 36 percent tariff on American-made Nylon 6, a synthetic filament that ends up in a wide array of products, including toothbrushes, auto parts, socks and the handles of Glock handguns. Nylon 6 from Taiwan and Russia would also be taxed, but at much lower rates. In making its announcement, the ministry said it would begin collecting the tariff immediately, though the money would be kept as a deposit and returned, should the decision be reversed. The ruling was the latest in a series of punitive measures that started last month, when the administration of President Barack Obama imposed a 35 percent tariff on Chinese-made tires. Beijing quickly followed up with a threat to increase tariffs on American exports of chicken meat and car parts. The trade dispute has become an irritant in relations between the countries as they grapple with a number of pressing issues, including the nuclear programs of North Korea and Iran and efforts to revive the global economy. The latest tit-for-tat gesture came less than a month before Mr. Obama is expected in Beijing for his first visit to China. He Maochun, a professor of economics and diplomacy at Tsinghua University, said China had no choice but to combat American protectionist measures with its own. “We have learned our bad behavior from other countries,” he said. “China’s actions in this area will serve as a deterrence and warning to other nations.” According to the Commerce Ministry’s Web site, imports of Nylon 6 more than doubled from 2005 to 2007; in the first nine months of 2008, the Web report said, imports grew by nearly 21 percent, much of them from the United States. The ministry said the increased imports had harmed six Chinese enterprises. The dispute over a relatively obscure synthetic fiber pales by comparison with larger unresolved economic issues, including a trade imbalance between the two countries and pressure from the United States to get China to strengthen its currency. The trade imbalance has helped China accumulate $2 trillion in foreign reserves, much of it in U.S. Treasury bonds. Jean-Pierre Lehmann, a founder of the Evian Group, a free trade advocacy organization in Switzerland, said that taken on their own, such small-scale retaliatory acts would have minimal impact on trade relations, but that in the long term, they could build into something more perilous. “It’s worrisome because the overall environment for trade is fragile and potentially explosive,” he said. “These incidents don’t constitute a major conflict, but there’s a risk they’ll accumulate and then you’ll get the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back.”


Nepal: More Victims Reported in Helicopter Crash

Abstract: An American military helicopter that crashed last month in the mountains east of Kathmandu, the capital, was carrying five more passengers than had previously been reported, the Nepalese Army said Friday. Eight people — six United States Marines and two Nepalese soldiers — were initially reported to have been killed during a relief mission in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake in April. But Nepal’s Army said in a statement Friday that five additional passengers, all Nepalese civilians, had also been on the flight and had been killed. It has not been determined why the helicopter went down on May 12. The wreckage was found on a ridge at an altitude of 11,200 feet, the army statement said, close to the epicenter of a second major earthquake.

Nepal
Helicopter
Earthquake
Plane Crash
US Military
US Marines


Year After Resignation, Virginia Quarterly Review Names an Editor

Abstract: More than a year after Ted Genoways resigned as the editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review, the literary journal has named a successor. The new editor, W. Ralph Eubanks, is currently the director of publishing at the Library of Congress in Washington. His most recent book is “The House at the End of the Road: The Story of Three Generations of an Interracial Family in the American South.” He will begin at the magazine on June 3. “Ralph Eubanks is a gifted editor, acclaimed author and respected publishing industry leader,” Jon Parrish Peede, the publisher of Virginia Quarterly Review, said in a statement. “We are fortunate to hire a seasoned editor with such enthusiasm for new technologies as well as a steadfast commitment to literature and exceptional journalism. Having come from the highest level of book culture, Ralph is devoted to creating works of permanence.” The tiny journal, with a staff of five people, is housed on the campus of the University of Virginia and has been published since 1925. In 2010, after the suicide of its managing editor, Kevin Morrissey, the university suspended publication while it investigated complaints from staff members that Mr. Genoways had created a hostile work environment. University officials later said they would keep Mr. Genoways on as editor, but last year he said he would leave the position of editor to focus on his work as a writer.

Virginia Quarterly Review
Ted Genoways
Books
University of Virginia


Now Comes the Hard Part as Yahoo Wrestles With a Question of Direction

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — There’s a new parlor game in Silicon Valley: guessing who will replace Jerry Yang at the helm of the troubled Internet giant Yahoo . Mr. Yang, a Yahoo co-founder, said on Monday that he would give up the chief executive role once a successor is named and revert to being “chief Yahoo,” the strategy position he held before his 18 turbulent months running the company. But even before its new boss is selected, Yahoo has an even more fundamental decision to make, say analysts and other Internet watchers. Does it want to remain an independent company, trying to expand in a range of businesses while it combats Google in the crucial arena of Web search? Or should it finally listen to the devotees of deal-making and sell some or all of itself to another Internet player, most likely Microsoft? Yahoo shareholders are clearly rooting for a deal. Shares of Yahoo rose 8.7 percent, or 92 cents, Tuesday to $11.55, largely on hopes that Mr. Yang’s departure might help push the company into the arms of an acquirer. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, has said he has no interest in making another bid for Yahoo, but he has expressed repeated interest in buying the company’s search business. Many observers and Internet veterans agree that this remains the company’s most attractive option. “Yahoo is still in many ways the definitive brand of the consumer Internet, but I don’t think they can or should compete with Google any longer,” said Ross Levinsohn, the former president of Fox Interactive Media. “That game is over.” If the Yahoo board agrees, it will want an experienced chief executive with a history of deal-making who is also capable of running the online media properties that are left behind. Potential candidates who could embrace this vision of Yahoo include Peter Chernin, the president of the News Corporation; Jonathan F. Miller, the former chief executive of AOL; and John Chapple, the former chief executive of Nextel who joined the Yahoo board this summer along with the activist investor Carl C. Icahn. But some observers think Yahoo’s board could forgo any kind of deal with Microsoft and select a leader who stabilizes the company, unifies its employees and tries to capitalize on its broad technological assets. Potential candidates that fit with this strategy have strong technical backgrounds and include Marc Andreessen, the co-founder of Netscape, and Jeff Jordan, a former eBay executive who runs the online reservations start-up OpenTable. Susan L. Decker, Yahoo president, will also be considered for the job, although analysts say anyone from Yahoo’s current leadership would encounter significant skepticism from investors. The Madison Avenue advertising industry is one constituency rooting for Yahoo to remain independent and intact. It often looks at Google and Microsoft as competitive threats that increasingly seek to broker the sale of ads in all media formats, and even in some cases to help advertisers create their own Internet spots. Yahoo, on the other hand, remains a largely unthreatening friend. “The ad community doesn’t want another big Internet player sitting in the hands of someone that competes with them,” said Mike Leo, the chief executive of Operative, a digital advertising technology firm. To avoid deals that would break up Yahoo, a new chief executive would need to finally tackle some of the well-chronicled cultural problems that former employees said seemed to get worse under Mr. Yang. They include a climate of indecision, constant, interminable meetings and widespread overlap of responsibilities. The new chief executive will also have to deal with a legacy of head-scratching management moves — like Yahoo’s announcement last month that it would lay off 10 percent of the company but only announce who was being cut in December. That put Yahoo employees under a two-month cloud of uncertainty. Whatever the Yahoo board decides to do, it still has some considerable assets with which to work. The company still attracts 500 million users a month, is the leading Web e-mail service, and has other profitable Internet franchises in news, sports and video. It also remains one of the top brands on the Internet, even if the exclamation point at the end of its name now looks wildly overexuberant. “This isn’t like AOL. They actually have a big loyal audience that isn’t going away,” said David Card, an analyst at Forrester. “They just need to pick their battles more sensibly.”

Yahoo Inc
Yang Jerry
Appointments and Executive Changes
Search Engines
Computers and the Internet


U.S. Warns North Carolina That Transgender Bill Violates Civil Rights Laws

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department warned the State of North Carolina on Wednesday that its new law limiting bathroom access violated the civil rights of transgender people, a finding that could mean millions of dollars in lost federal funds. In a letter to Gov. Pat McCrory, Vanita Gupta, the top civil rights lawyer for the Justice Department, said that “both you and the State of North Carolina” were in violation of civil rights law, and gave him until Monday to decide “whether you will remedy these violations.” A Justice Department official said that federal officials hoped that the state would agree to comply voluntarily with federal civil rights law by abandoning the measure. But the department has a number of tools it can use to try to force compliance, including denying federal funds or asking a court to do so, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The ultimatum escalated a contentious national debate over North Carolina’s new legal stance on transgender and gay people, and set up what could be a lengthy showdown between the state and the Obama administration. In a statement, Mr. McCrory, a Republican, said: “The right and expectation of privacy in one of the most private areas of our personal lives is now in jeopardy. We will be reviewing to determine the next steps.” Phil Berger, the president pro tempore of the State Senate, accused the Justice Department of “a gross overreach” that he said “deserves to be struck down in federal court.” Tim Moore, the speaker of the House, called the letter an attempt to “circumvent the will of the electorate and instead unilaterally exert its extreme agenda.” The state measure, House Bill 2, known as HB2, was signed into law in March and says the bathroom a person uses is determined by his or her biological gender at birth. That requirement “is facially discriminatory against transgender employees” because it treats them differently from other employees, Ms. Gupta wrote. As a result, “we have concluded that in violation of Title VII, the state is engaged in a pattern or practice of resistance to the full enjoyment of Title VII right by employees of public agencies,” she said. The letter was first reported by The Charlotte Observer. The law has become an issue in the presidential campaign and has prompted boycotts of North Carolina from celebrities like Bruce Springsteen, as well as calls for repeal by a number of businesses, some of which have canceled plans to create new jobs in the state. Opponents cheered the Justice Department’s move. “I think it makes clear what we’ve known all along, which is that HB2 is deeply discriminatory and violates civil rights law in all kinds of manners,” said State Representative Chris Sgro of Greensboro. Matt McTighe, executive director of Freedom for All Americans, an L.G.B.T. rights group, said in a statement Wednesday that “actions have consequences, and Governor McCrory and his legislative allies are now paying the price for this anti-transgender law that they so hurriedly enacted. “HB2 is a solution in a search of a problem that simply doesn’t exist, and lawmakers must take immediate action to fully repeal it,” he said. “The state’s economy and reputation have suffered enough, and now students all across the state stand to lose out on nearly $1 billion in critical funding because of HB2. The livelihoods of North Carolina’s families are at stake, and there is no excuse for inaction.” In December 2014, the attorney general at the time, Eric H. Holder Jr., directed the Justice Department to begin including gender identity — including transgender status — as a basis for discrimination claims under federal civil rights law. That decision reversed a policy at the Justice Department that specifically excluded transgender people from federal protection. Mr. Holder called the decision “an important shift,” meant to affirm the Justice Department’s commitment “to protecting the civil rights of all Americans.” In addition, the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission held last year that “equal access to restrooms is a significant, basic condition of employment” and that denying access to transgender individuals was discriminatory, Ms. Gupta noted, in her letter to Mr. McCrory. The Justice Department’s threat was not the only front opened Wednesday in the battle over transgender bathroom rights. In Illinois, a group calling itself Students and Parents for Privacy filed a lawsuit against the Department of Education, the Justice Department, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch and the school directors of Township High School District 211 in Cook County, Ill., seeking to stop the district from “forcing 14- to 17-year-old girls to use locker rooms and restrooms with biological males.” In November, federal education authorities ruled that the school district, near Chicago, violated Title IX, the federal law that forbids discrimination on the basis of sex in public education, when it did not allow a transgender student who said she identifies as a girl to change and shower in the girls’ locker room without restrictions. The fact that the student, who is biologically male, now uses the bathroom and locker rooms at William Fremd High School, the lawsuit states, creates an “intimidating and hostile environment” for girls, according to the lawsuit, which was filed Wednesday in the United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois. The suit also asks the court to set aside a Department of Education rule in which transgender students are covered under Title IX. Meanwhile, in Oxford, Ala., the City Council on Wednesday rescinded an ordinance it had passed the week before that forbade people to use a public restroom that did not match their gender at birth, according to the Alabama news website al.com. The news service reported that at least one of the three members who voted to rescind the ordinance in the 3-2 vote was influenced by a city attorney’s opinion that the ordinance might be illegal under Title IX.

North Carolina
Civil Rights
Justice Department
Bathrooms
Pat McCrory
Discrimination
Transgender,Gender Dysphoria
House of Representatives
Congress
Gay and Lesbian LGBT


NATO Says It Mistakenly Hit Libyan Rebels Again

Abstract: TRIPOLI, Libya — NATO acknowledged Saturday that its aircraft had mistakenly hit a column of rebel military vehicles last week near the Libyan oil port of Brega, and early Sunday morning the Qaddafi government showed reporters a destroyed cinder-block house that neighbors and the government said was hit by an errant NATO airstrike in the capital. Two bodies were pulled from the rubble, and at the Tripoli Central Hospital, government officials showed reporters three others, including an infant and a child, who they said were killed in the house. It was the first time in three months of airstrikes that the Qaddafi government has presented credible evidence of what appeared to be direct civilian casualties of NATO attacks. Although the government has often claimed large numbers of civilian deaths, it has never previously presented bodies or consistent facts about the dead. The destroyed building was far from any obvious military facility, in the Souq al Juma area, which is known for its hostility to Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, and some neighbors who said they opposed him nonetheless confirmed the government’s account of an airstrike. Still, journalists visiting the site found no pieces of a bomb. NATO could not be reached for comment, and it was impossible to rule out another explanation. Neighbors said that three or more families lived in the building, and government officials said it housed 15 people in an extended family with the last name al-Ghrari. Moussa Ibrahim, a Qaddafi government spokesman, called the leaders of the NATO countries criminals and said they were “planting the seeds of hatred for generations to come.” The number of casualties from the strike on the convoy of vehicles, meanwhile, could not be determined. “We regret any possible loss of life or injuries caused by this unfortunate incident,” NATO said in a statement. The attack was at least the third such episode since the air campaign began three months ago. The strike, which occurred Thursday, took place against a backdrop of blurry battle lines as the rebels challenging Colonel Qaddafi pushed against his forces near Brega in the east, outside Zlitan in the midcoast, and in the Nafusa Mountains to the west. The fighting on each of the three fronts has been mired in a back-and-forth pattern without much movement for about five days, and Qaddafi forces have been using civilian vehicles like pickup trucks, just as the rebels do, in an apparent effort to confuse NATO. In this case, NATO said in its statement, its surveillance had spotted the column of military vehicles, which included tanks, in an area where Qaddafi forces “had recently been operating.” The statement added, “In a particularly complex and fluid battle scenario, it was assessed these vehicles were a threat to civilians.” In April, NATO admitted its planes twice hit rebel positions, killing more than a dozen men. Around the same time as Thursday’s mistaken strike, rebels based in the city of Misurata were complaining that NATO had been telling their fighters to hold back from the battlefront near Zlitan to avoid getting caught in attacks on Qaddafi forces there. The rebels said NATO had failed to deliver the promised attacks on the Qaddafi forces and in the process slowed the rebel advance. “If it wasn’t for NATO, we could have moved the combat line much further from Misurata,” said Mohamed, a rebel spokesman, though it is far from clear that the rebels could have held their ground without NATO support. The spokesman’s full name was withheld to protect his family.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Czechs Accept Modified Missile Shield Role

Abstract: PRAGUE — The Czech Republic agreed on Friday to host elements of the reformulated American missile defense system after Vice President Joseph R. Biden flew here to patch up relations damaged when President Obama canceled plans to deploy a sophisticated radar station on Czech soil. Jan Fischer, the Czech prime minister, said his country would participate in the new anti-missile shield, although neither he nor Mr. Biden gave details about how. Poland agreed during an earlier stop in Mr. Biden’s swing through the region to accept some of the mobile SM-3 interceptors at the heart of Mr. Obama’s reduced plan. “I used the opportunity to express our readiness as a NATO member to participate because the new architecture is going to be NATO-based and the Czech Republic is ready to participate,” Mr. Fischer said at an appearance with Mr. Biden. The vice president said a senior defense team would visit Prague next month to discuss how to structure that participation. The deals securing Polish and Czech involvement in the new system may go a long way toward reassuring Eastern Europe of America’s continuing commitment to its security. Many in this region interpreted Mr. Obama’s decision to scrap former President George W. Bush’s missile defense system, which was to have been based in Poland and the Czech Republic, as appeasement of Russia, which had strongly objected to it as a threat to its own nuclear arsenal. Mr. Obama denied that, but his administration did not inform Polish and Czech leaders of the policy shift until just before the announcement, fueling the discontent. As news of his decision was beginning to leak last month, Mr. Obama scrambled to reach Mr. Fischer by telephone after midnight to tell him first. The Bush plan called for stationing 10 ground-based interceptors in Poland and a so-called X-band radar in the Czech Republic as part of a system aimed at shooting down any future Iranian intercontinental ballistic missiles. A new assessment last spring concluded that Iran was not advancing quickly in developing such long-range missiles but had made considerable progress in building short- and medium-range missiles. The plan advanced by Mr. Obama would use smaller, mobile SM-3 interceptors to counter short- and medium-range missiles, based at first aboard Aegis-equipped ships and later on land in Eastern Europe. Although Mr. Obama attributed the switch to the changing assessment of the Iranian threat and the availability of new technology, the decision was welcomed in Russia as a concession and bemoaned in Eastern Europe for the same reason. That dismay was reflected by a statement issued here by former Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek, who worked closely with Mr. Bush on missile defense despite public opposition at home. Mr. Obama’s efforts to improve ties with Russia, Mr. Topolanek said in the statement, reported by The Associated Press, raised questions about “whether the United States is stepping back from the region of Central and Eastern Europe in exchange for better relations with Russia.” How firm Mr. Fischer’s commitment will be remains to be seen. The new prime minister took over as a caretaker in April until national elections next spring. The missile defense system and the question of Czech participation could be a factor in the campaign. Mr. Biden’s stop here was the last of three in the region following visits to Poland and Romania. After a day of meetings, the vice president planned to return to Washington on Friday evening.

United States Defense and Military Forces


For Yahoo, Question Is What to Do With $40 Billion in Leftovers

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo has agreed to sell the bulk of what people know as Yahoo — its mail services, its news sites, the Tumblr social network — to Verizon for nearly $5 billion. So what’s left? A lot of more financially valuable pieces that Yahoo has yet to figure out what to do with. Assuming shareholders and regulators bless the sale of the core Yahoo businesses to Verizon, what will stay are a 15 percent stake in the Alibaba Group, the Chinese internet giant; a 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo’s Japanese affiliate; the company’s cash; and a collection of noncore patents that will eventually be sold off. The total value of the so-called RemainCo, as company officials refer to the rump: more than $40 billion. But the sticking point for Yahoo, as was the case in the past, is the fact that selling the Alibaba stake in particular will generate a huge tax bill. That’s why Yahoo had previously explored permutations of a spinout of its core business, leaving the Alibaba stake in a separate publicly traded company of some kind. Monday’s deal effectively does that, although it also leaves behind the Yahoo Japan stake and a few other assets. Where does that leave the company? Thomas McInerney, the Yahoo board member who led the company’s sales process, said on a call with investors that RemainCo would essentially exist as a publicly traded investment company “with no current intent.” Of the remaining assets, the Alibaba stake is the trickiest one to manage. Yahoo would incur an enormous tax bill if it sold the stake outright — to the tune of billions of dollars — since its initial investment in the Chinese e-commerce titan has skyrocketed in value. Yahoo’s previous attempts at dealing with the Alibaba stake were aimed at minimizing the tax bill. But the Internal Revenue Service dealt a blow to the company’s plans last year when it refused to deem such a move tax-free. It’s possible for a buyer to come in and purchase the Alibaba stake without incurring a huge tax bill, though Yahoo executives on Monday didn’t enumerate all the possibilities. Mr. McInerney did raise one potential situation, however: Alibaba itself buying RemainCo, but essentially keeping it whole and not reabsorbing the shares. RemainCo would become what the director referred to as a “hook stock.” It’s not quite clear that either side would be interested in pursuing such a transaction. Other parts of RemainCo are much easier to deal with. The Yahoo Japan stake isn’t subject to as nearly a contentious tax bill as the Alibaba holdings, though for the moment the rump company will hold on to that stake. (The majority owner of Yahoo Japan, SoftBank, has the right of first refusal if RemainCo decides to sell those shares.) And Mr. McInerney said that the rump company would return virtually all of the remaining cash and continue to work on selling the patents. In case investors and analysts did not grasp the message, he added during the call: “We’re not intending to make new investments with the cash out of RemainCo. The intent is to return it.”

Alibaba
SoftBank
Yahoo!
Mergers and Acquisitions
Federal Taxes


Advocate’s Post Gave de Blasio Platform for Political Ambitions

Abstract: The anxious executive cornered Bill de Blasio in an elevator, with an urgent plea. New York City was planning to allow thousands of new taxis to operate outside Manhattan, directly threatening his car and limousine business. Would Mr. de Blasio, the city’s public advocate, help block it? It was hard to imagine Mr. de Blasio, a Brooklynite who built his reputation on standing up for the boroughs beyond Manhattan, opposing a proposal to improve transportation for his chronically taxi-starved neighbors. But soon after the elevator encounter that day in 2011, the car service executive, Avik Kabessa, heard back from the public advocate’s office. The message, Mr. Kabessa recalled, was clear: “Bill is looking to help.” Mr. de Blasio would emerge as the taxi plan’s most prominent opponent, leading sidewalk rallies and using his office to fight it in court — and confounding allies who found his stance incongruous with his typical stands. “I was flabbergasted,” said David S. Yassky, the taxi and limousine commissioner whose former City Council district borders Mr. de Blasio’s. “After hearing all his rhetoric about standing up for the outer boroughs, here’s a program that actually would help 80 percent of New York City, and he did everything he could to stop it.” The powerful taxi and limousine industry, which bitterly opposed the city’s plan, made its gratitude clear, sending about $200,000 in contributions to Mr. de Blasio’s mayoral campaign in the last two years, far more than his rivals received. And Mr. Kabessa, the chief executive of Carmel Car and Limousine Service, now sits on the campaign’s finance committee and was a host of a fund-raiser for Mr. de Blasio this spring. Before becoming a Democratic front-runner in this year’s race for mayor, Mr. de Blasio was an ambitious Park Slope City Councilman who scrambled into the public advocate job in 2009, looking to turn the often-overlooked office into a fierce champion of neglected communities and the downtrodden. But a review of his years as public advocate shows that the office often served another aim: Elevating Mr. de Blasio’s political ambitions and his profile in anticipation of a run for mayor. Aides to Mr. de Blasio say he kept a sharp focus on bettering the lives of his least-empowered constituents. Despite a meager budget and a small staff of 40, his office has handled some 20,000 complaints from residents, helping tenants avoid eviction and assisting small-business owners with disputes over utility charges and city fees. But early on, Mr. de Blasio, a former strategist who cut his teeth on Bill and Hillary Rodham Clinton’s political campaigns, also showed a shrewdness in identifying issues that would yield political benefits and sometimes connect with financial backers. His most visible advocacy work was on an issue far removed from the kind of workaday complaints that the office typically grapples with: campaign finance reform, a cause that earned Mr. de Blasio enormous media attention, especially on liberal outlets like MSNBC, despite doubts from financial experts about its impact. And even as he gained acolytes by warning of the excesses of Wall Street, Mr. de Blasio nurtured a relationship with George Soros, the billionaire financier, whose foundation became the single biggest benefactor of an obscure nonprofit organization that paid for Mr. de Blasio to promote his advocacy work around the country. In an interview on Friday, Mr. de Blasio said he approached the office not only as a community organizer, seeking to empower residents to correct injustices in their neighborhoods, but also as a strategic consultant, finding new ways to maximize the impact of a position with few pre-existing powers. “The office needed a lot more creativity, a lot more strategic innovation if it was going to have a meaningful role,” Mr. de Blasio said. About the bill to expand taxi service to boroughs outside Manhattan, Mr. de Blasio said he initially supported the idea, but became concerned after meeting with Mr. Kabessa’s trade association and other members of the taxi and car service industry. He also objected to the bill being considered in Albany, rather than the City Council. He did not offer an alternative plan, saying in the interview: “I want to make sure it’s done in a way that doesn’t undermine the economics of the current industry.” Mr. de Blasio emerged from a crowded field in 2009 to win the job of public advocate, a post created in 1993 to serve as a watchdog over city government but frequently considered as a target for elimination because of its ill-defined mandate and the usurping of its services by the city’s 311 phone system. His aides said he re-energized the office, creating a watch list of negligent landlords, organizing rallies against school and hospital closings, and helping residents receive medical attention and relief funds after Hurricane Sandy. Among his proudest accomplishments, Mr. de Blasio said, was pushing for new protections for at-risk children after the death of Marchella Pierce , a 4-year-old Brooklyn girl who was beaten and starved by family members, in 2010. Mr. de Blasio helped lead an effort to overhaul city services for vulnerable children, winning accolades even from some of his sparring partners in the Bloomberg administration. “It’s easy to turn things into a three-ring circus,” said John B. Mattingly, a former children’s services commissioner. “He was willing to listen and work together to get results, rather than simply to grandstand and get public attention.” Image Bill de Blasio last year in Park Slope, Brooklyn, where he had served as a councilman. Credit Ángel Franco/The New York Times But it was an effort Mr. de Blasio undertook on a national issue that brought him to the attention of influential figures in the world of liberal politics. After the Supreme Court ruled in January 2010 in the Citizens United case that corporations could spend unlimited amounts to influence elections, Mr. de Blasio seized on the issue and began an effort that he predicted would have broad impact on corporate involvement in politics. “I just literally found myself on a human and ideological level fundamentally unwilling to be silent,” he recalled. His office had no oversight over campaign finance regulation. Still, in 2010, he sought meetings with major investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, and later announced that four of the banks would voluntarily refrain from taking advantage of the ruling. But virtually no major American corporation has made the type of unfettered independent political expenditures permitted by Citizens United, and officials at the banks said that — even before Mr. de Blasio asked — there was never an intention to do so. A former Goldman official, who requested anonymity to speak frankly about private deliberations, said the bank was fully aware of the public criticism it would confront if it engaged in “super PAC”-style spending; the official recalled Mr. de Blasio’s staff seeking a statement from Goldman that acknowledged the role of the public advocate, which the bank declined to provide. Roy Smith, a professor of finance at New York University and a former Goldman partner, said the pledges announced by Mr. de Blasio’s office amounted to grandstanding. “It’s giving up nothing, because they weren’t doing this anyway,” Mr. Smith said. “It would be completely stupid for a large bank to be an active political donor in a hostile public-relations context.” Mr. de Blasio dismissed the criticism, saying that, at the time, no one knew for sure how the banks would behave. “I am sure that from this remove, it looks like, ‘Oh, there was nothing that could have happened,’ ” he said. “I never assumed that.” Mr. de Blasio’s crusade on Citizens United — and the savvy choice of Wall Street as a target — earned headlines. He became a regular on the media circuit, delivering scathing critiques of the Supreme Court decision and earning praise on MSNBC and from Mother Jones, which described him as the “Citizens United Avenger.” Since 2010, he has held more than 80 meetings on the topic with aides, activists and other officials, according to records of his schedule. His advocacy brought him into contact with a powerful ally: Mr. Soros, who had long deplored the influence of corporations in the political system, even as he poured millions of his own fortune into campaigns. The billionaire banker and the Brooklyn activist met on an autumn evening in 2010, when Mr. de Blasio spoke on a panel about Citizens United held in Mr. Soros’s grand Fifth Avenue home. The two chatted afterward, and Mr. de Blasio promised to stay in touch. Four months later, Mr. Soros’s foundation pledged $400,000 to the Fund for Public Advocacy , a sleepy nonprofit group created in 2002 to support the work of the public advocate’s office. The donation was the largest single contribution to the fund, a tax exempt 501(c)(3), during Mr. de Blasio’s tenure. And by last year, more than half of the fund’s spending was dedicated to issues related to campaign finance reform. It was a marked shift for the nonprofit organization that, under Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Betsy Gotbaum, had focused mostly on local issues, like public school governance. But Mr. de Blasio was thinking bigger. One of his first actions was to bring in an old friend and mentor as the fund’s president: Harold M. Ickes, a prominent figure in the Clinton White House. Mr. Ickes, who resides in Washington, was initially skeptical of Mr. de Blasio’s entreaties. “I said, ‘Do you really want a non-New Yorker?’ ” Mr. Ickes recalled in an interview. But Mr. de Blasio was insistent. “He thought it would be an asset,” said Mr. Ickes, who also advises Mr. de Blasio’s mayoral campaign. The infusion from Mr. Soros’s group expanded the ambitions of the Coalition for Accountability in Political Spending, an entity Mr. de Blasio created to organize officials around the country to rein in corporate influence. Mr. de Blasio predicted big changes would follow: he called for pledges from a quarter of the nation’s leading 100 companies to restrict campaign spending; a dozen states to pass legislation limiting such expenditures; and expanding his coalition to at least 100 elected officials across the country. Other backers of Mr. de Blasio’s political operation joined the cause. One was Bernard L. Schwartz, a retired communication executive who had given the maximum $4,950 to his mayoral bid, then poured $25,000 into the Fund for Public Advocacy. But despite the generosity of wealthy supporters and the hours spent by Mr. de Blasio and his staff, the effort has fallen short of his goals. Only a few companies have made the pledge. The group’s social media, never robust to begin with, all but ceased last year. And as of Friday, the coalition counted only 12 public officials as members.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission


United Nations Agency Criticizes Treatment of Refugees Seeking Asylum in Greece

Abstract: PARIS — The United Nations refugee agency has advised European Union countries to stop sending asylum seekers to Greece until further notice, a step that amounts to a condemnation of Greece’s treatment of people fleeing conflict and persecution. In a sharp response, Greece called the agency’s criticism unfair and said other countries needed to share the burden of tackling irregular migration into the European Union. Meanwhile, lawyers for refugees said they were concerned that the United Nations’ advice would result in Greece’s neighbors in the union taking even tougher measures to push people away at their borders. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said Friday in a statement that asylum seekers faced “undue hardships” in Greece, often lacking “the most basic entitlements, such as interpreters and legal aid, to ensure that their claims receive adequate scrutiny from the asylum authorities.” The United Nations agency and human rights organizations have been concerned for some time about the treatment of refugees in Greece, where migration routes carry economic migrants and asylum seekers from Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan and Somalia into the union. The refugee agency described Greece’s recognition rate for refugees as “disturbingly low.” The overall protection rate for refugees of all nationalities in 2006 was 1 percent in Greece, compared with 24 percent in Britain, 45 percent in Italy, 19 percent in Spain and 50 percent in Sweden. The agency also said detention conditions in Greece continued to fall short of international and European standards. Greece routinely arrests all illegal immigrants and asylum seekers found in its territory and detains them for three months; last year, the agency urged Greece to close a detention center on the island of Samos because conditions there were so bad. For these reasons, the agency advised governments “to refrain from returning asylum seekers to Greece under the Dublin Regulation until further notice.” The regulation is intended to deter multiple asylum claims by ensuring that such requests are fairly examined in the first member country the refugee enters. The accord, however, puts a disproportionate burden on countries that lie on the union’s border, like Greece, Italy and Spain. They not only have to deal with illegal immigrants, but also have to accept the return of asylum seekers who have crossed into neighboring member countries. The Greek interior minister, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, on Friday called the agency’s criticism “not only unfair but unfounded.” Mr. Pavlopoulos said Greece, one of the union’s smallest and poorest nations, was “in favor of revising the Dublin system so that countries with adequate infrastructure take the lead in the reception and handling of asylum requests.”

United Nations
Greece
European Union
Illegal Immigrants
Immigration and Refugees
Asylum (Political)


Braden Holtby Stays Hot as Capitals Prevail

Abstract: Braden Holtby made 26 saves to help the Washington Capitals beat the visiting Ottawa Senators, 2-1. Holtby lowered his N.H.L.-best goals against average to 1.83 and improved to 20-4-1. He has allowed three goals in his last three games. ■ Tuukka Rask made 34 saves for his fourth shutout, Jimmy Hayes ended a 15-game goal-scoring drought, and the Boston Bruins beat visiting Pittsburgh, 3-0, keeping the Penguins’ new coach, Mike Sullivan, winless in two games. (AP)

Braden Holtby
Washington Capitals
Ottawa Senators
Bruins
Ice hockey


A Steeler’s Early Departure Becomes a Permanent Exit

Abstract: Pittsburgh released running back LeGarrette Blount on Tuesday less than 24 hours after Blount left the field early in a victory at Tennessee on Monday night. Blount was in for one play during the Steelers’ 27-24 win and watched his teammate Le’Veon Bell run for 204 yards and a touchdown. The Steelers signed Blount to a two-year deal in the off-season hoping he would provide power near the goal line. He rushed for 118 yards and a touchdown in a Week 3 win over Carolina, but his playing time diminished recently. Blount also ran into trouble off the field. He was cited for marijuana possession during a traffic stop in August. COLTS’ BRADSHAW ON I.R. Indianapolis has signed the former Pro Bowl return specialist Josh Cribbs and tight end Weslye Saunders after it placed running back Ahmad Bradshaw on season-ending injured reserve with a fractured left leg. Cribbs worked out with the Colts (6-4) last week but has not played since being injured late last season. He is third in N.F.L. history with 10,505 career kickoff return yards. Bradshaw was injured Sunday night against New England. He rushed for 425 yards and had a career-best six touchdown catches. HARDY ‘PROBABLY’ DONE Carolina Coach Ron Rivera said he had “probably” given up hope that Greg Hardy would play again this season after the N.F.L.’s decision to suspend Vikings running back Adrian Peterson for the remainder of the year. Hardy, a Pro Bowl defensive end, was placed on the exempt commissioner’s permission list Sept. 17, two months after being convicted on two counts of domestic violence. Hardy is appealing. His court date was recently pushed back to next year. BAILEY MAKES IT OFFICIAL Champ Bailey said goodbye to the N.F.L. on Tuesday after signing a one-day contract with the Denver Broncos. Bailey retired with a dozen Pro Bowl selections, 52 interceptions and no regrets. Dozens of current players joined his former teammates John Lynch, Brandon Stokley, Brian Dawkins, Jake Plummer and Rod Smith in celebrating Bailey’s career. Bailey became the Broncos’ most decorated defensive player and helped them reach the Super Bowl last season. BENGALS CLEAR MCCARRON Cincinnati cleared the rookie quarterback A. J. McCarron to practice on Tuesday, saying he has recovered from a sore shoulder that has sidelined him since training camp. A fifth-round draft pick, he has not practiced or played because of the injury. He was put on a nonfootball injury list and will get three weeks to practice before the Bengals have to decide whether to activate him. The Bengals want to develop him as a backup to Andy Dalton. CARDINALS LOSE NIKLAS Arizona has placed the rookie tight end Troy Niklas on season-ending injured reserve and signed tight end Matthew Mulligan. Niklas, a second-round pick from Notre Dame, missed much of the early season with an ankle injury, then sustained a high ankle sprain in last Sunday’s win over Detroit. Niklas appeared in seven games with three receptions for 38 yards.


Washington: Lawsuit Challenges Authority to Tax Marijuana

Abstract: A federal lawsuit is challenging Washington State’s authority to tax marijuana as long as marijuana remains illegal under federal law. The case arises from the state’s attempt to collect sales taxes from a medical marijuana dispensary. Douglas Hiatt, who filed the suit late Thursday on behalf of a dispensary owner, said it could throw a wrench in Washington’s plans for collecting taxes on recreational marijuana, too. Mr. Hiatt’s client, Martin Nickerson, is simultaneously being prosecuted criminally for marijuana distribution and targeted by the State Department of Revenue for not paying taxes on the marijuana he was accused of distributing.

Washington
Tax
Marijuana,Pot,Weed
Federal Taxes


A Source Takes the Day Off as the Heat Builds

Abstract: Kirk Radomski had the day off Wednesday. Radomski’s black chair inside the office of Pro Touch Detail Center in St. James, N.Y., was empty. Vinny Greco, Radomski’s business partner, stressed that Radomski’s absence had nothing to do with the impending release of George J. Mitchell ’s steroid report Thursday. “That’s just the way we scheduled it,” Greco said. As reporters visited Pro Touch or called the office, some leaving messages on the hour, to try to interview Radomski, he was nowhere to be found. Greco said Radomski had planned to take his wife and their 8-year-old daughter to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. When Mitchell’s 20-month investigation into the use of performance-enhancing drugs in Major League Baseball is made public, Radomski’s words will be a crucial component in the report. Radomski, a former Mets batboy and clubhouse attendant, pleaded guilty to steroid distribution last April and faces up to 25 years in prison. As part of the plea agreement, he consented to cooperating with Mitchell. Greco, who was the Mets’ assistant clubhouse manager, said Radomski will open the glass door to Pro Touch at 8 a.m. on Thursday and start cleaning and customizing cars. That is six hours before Mitchell is scheduled to have a news conference in Manhattan, where names that Radomski gave Mitchell will be released. In Radomski’s plea agreement, he said that he provided dozens of players with steroids, human growth hormone and stimulants from 1995 to 2005. Radomski and Greco share an office inside a one-story cinder-block building that is also home to an automobile body shop. Greco, whose 26-year tenure with the Mets overlapped Radomski’s 10-year stint with the club, said he had no knowledge of anything that Radomski told to investigators. Federal authorities asked Radomski to refrain from speaking about his case. It can be tricky to find Pro Touch, off Middle Country Road, because it is located behind the far side of the building. There are advertising sheets by the entrance offering detailing jobs that run from $44.99 for the Simonize Express to $229.99 for the Super Complete Detail. A toy basketball hoop is attached to the office wall, and a scuffed baseball sits atop a file cabinet. “That’s from Dave LaPoint, the manager of the Long Island Ducks,” Greco said. “He’s one of our customers.” While driving to work Wednesday, Greco saw a photographer parked outside Radomski’s house in Manorville, N.Y. Greco called Radomski’s wife, Christine, and alerted her. Because the pursuit for Radomski’s reaction to the Mitchell report will increase Thursday, Greco, who does not work the same days as Radomski, was ready to adjust the schedule. “If he calls me and says he doesn’t want to come in on Thursday, I’ll do it,” Greco said. “I’ll work for him.” Greco had known Radomski since they were youngsters playing stickball together in the Bronx. Radomski worked for the Mets from 1985 to 1995; Greco was with the team from 1981 until he was let go in 2006. Greco’s father and brother also worked in the clubhouse. Inside the yellow walls of Pro Touch, Greco tapped away on one of the two computer keyboards, answered the telephone and answered questions about Radomski in a careful manner. Behind Greco, employees had finished detailing a black Hummer and had moved on to a maroon Jeep. Another car was expected in a few minutes. When a television producer arrived and asked for Radomski, Greco told her Radomski was off and would return to work Thursday. The producer asked Greco what Radomski looked like. Greco described him as a big kid with short hair. When she produced a photograph of Radomski in the Mets’ clubhouse from the late 1980s, Greco said, “Yeah, take that and add 20 years.” Before the producer departed, she thanked Greco for being polite. A few minutes later, she called Greco and asked him for Radomski’s cellphone number. Greco said no, then hung up and stared at his computer screen. In less than two months, Radomski will be sentenced. “I just want it to be over for him,” Greco said. “He’s got a wife and a daughter. He’s been through a lot. He’s got a lot ahead of him. I just want it to end.” INSIDE PITCH The Mets did not tender contract offers to catcher Johnny Estrada, outfielder Ben Johnson and pitcher Juan Padilla.

Steroids
Major League Baseball
Baseball
Radomski Kirk
Mitchell George J
Athletics and Sports


Mexico’s Universal Health Care Is Work in Progress

Abstract: YAUTEPEC, Mexico — When her twin girls were born seven weeks early, Azucena Mora Díaz did not have to worry about how she would pay for expensive hospital care, even though her husband has only a low-wage job as a construction worker’s assistant. Under a government insurance plan for the poor, the girls were treated at the Women’s Hospital here and continue to receive follow-up care to monitor their development. The couple pays nothing. “We owe everything to this,” Ms. Mora said as one of the twins , now 13 months old, squirmed in her arms, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with a single word: “Smile.” A decade ago, half of all Mexicans had no health insurance at all. Then the country’s Congress passed a bill to ensure health care for every Mexican without access to it. The goal was explicit: universal coverage. By September, the government expects to have enrolled about 51 million people in the insurance plan it created six years ago — effectively reaching the target, at least on paper. The big question, critics contend, is whether all those people actually get the health care the government has promised. Under the plan, children with leukemia have been cured, women receive breast cancer treatment, elderly people get cataract operations and people with H.I.V. are assured their drugs. Usually at no cost. Even critics who argue that the government is failing to live up to the promise of universal health coverage acknowledge that Mexico ’s program saves lives and protects families from falling into poverty in many cases of catastrophic illness. But the task of covering so many people’s care, with a budget of about $12 billion this year, is enormous. Still, Salomón Chertorivski, who is in charge of the government’s system of social protection for health, believes it is possible. “It’s an ideal moment for the transformation that we’re carrying out,” he said, arguing that because only 9 percent of Mexicans are over 60, health costs for the country’s relatively youthful population are low. “Easy it isn’t. And it shouldn’t just be sufficient, but it should also have the quality that you would expect.” In Mexico’s poorer states and among its most destitute, that quality is still lacking. A study by Mexico’s National Institute for Public Health questioned how well the plan was being carried out at the state and local levels, saying their contributions and lack of transparency “leave much to be desired.” This month, Mexico’s health minister, José Ángel Córdova, acknowledged the gaps, noting that 8 percent of the country’s municipalities still lacked any kind of health facility. “There is still first-, second- and third-class medicine,” he said in a speech. While the undertaking is relatively young, the Health Ministry’s own statistics show that it is behind its own targets in reducing infant and maternal mortality — key health indicators — in the poorest states. But 10 years ago, only about half the population was covered by insurance. A small sliver at the top have private insurance, and most salaried workers are treated in a giant, but fraying, public health system known as the Mexican Social Security Institute. Because that system links coverage to employment, much like in the United States, it leaves out tens of millions of people: workers getting by on odd jobs, farmers, the self-employed, street vendors. A health safety net for those people did exist, with clinics and hospitals run by state governments. Treatment often came with a fee, and once patients were discharged from the hospital, they had to buy their own medication. Unable to afford it, many simply gave up. This rickety infrastructure served as the base of the new Seguro Popular, or popular insurance, which was begun in 2004. Any Mexican can sign up. A broad package of basic medical services is guaranteed, along with medicine and coverage for some catastrophic illnesses. The program was designed to charge a yearly fee based on income, but in practice hardly anybody pays because, the government argues, most of the participants are too poor. Dr. Julio Frenk, the former health minister who designed the effort, says it ties government spending directly to how many people enroll. “We changed the budgeting logic,” said Dr. Frenk, now dean of the faculty at the Harvard School of Public Health. In that respect, the program has met one of its basic goals, increasing public health spending — by an additional 1.5 percent of gross domestic product, Mr. Chertorivski said. But that still leaves it below developed nations and some other Latin American countries, like Chile and Costa Rica, according to figures from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Pan American Health Organization. Analysts question how the government came up with a budget of about $200 per patient, arguing that it is too low, and they ask how efficiently the money is being spent. “It is probably true that the Seguro Popular has increased people’s access to health care,” said Jason Lakin , an expert at the International Budget Partnership in Washington. But “the system was not efficient before,” he added. “It’s unclear whether the Seguro Popular has made it more efficient.” The money goes from the federal government to state governments, depending on how many people each state enrolls. From there, it is up to state governments to spend the money properly so that patients get the promised care. That, critics say, is the plan’s biggest weakness. State governments have every incentive to register large numbers, but they do not face any accountability for how they spend the money. “You have people signed up on paper, but there are no doctors, no medicine, no hospital beds,” said Miguel Pulido, the executive director of Fundar , a Mexican watchdog group that has studied the poor southern states of Guerrero and Chiapas. Mr. Chertorivski acknowledges that getting some states to do their work properly is a problem. “You can’t do a hostile takeover,” he said. The result is that how Mexicans are treated is very much a function of where they live. Lucila Rivera Díaz, 36, comes from one of the poorest regions in Guerrero. She said doctors there told her to take her mother, who they suspected had liver cancer , for tests in the neighboring state of Morelos. Ms. Rivera’s mother has been admitted to the main public hospital in the Morelos state capital, Cuernavaca. Meanwhile, Ms. Rivera has been living in the waiting room for two weeks with her 13-month-old son, sleeping on blankets stretched out over metal chairs and guarding a few possessions crammed into plastic bags. Her case suggests the contradictions of the new plan. Better access to doctors led the family to seek treatment, but they received none in their own state. And while the overstretched hospital in Cuernavaca has gotten new money and hired more doctors, it is also receiving patients who might never have turned up before. Morelos State officials point out the successes, like the women’s hospital where Ms. Mora’s twins were born. Opened three years ago, it handles high-risk pregnancies, treats breast cancer and offers birthing classes and neonatal intensive care for premature babies . “The Seguro Popular was really a watershed for us because with it came resources,” said Dr. Ludmila Vite Torres, the hospital’s director. But the standards seem to fall at local clinics. “There is hardly any medicine there,” said Ms. Mora, the mother of the twins. “It’s just good for vaccinations .” The lack of medicine is a complaint that pops up frequently, and has been confirmed by government reports. Ángela Casarrubias Crespo, 69, says she often buys her diabetes medicine herself because there is none in the local clinic, leading her husband, Roque Nava, 77, a farmer, to view the Seguro Popular program with skepticism. “They are just trying to grab more votes for the elections,” he said. But that did not stop the couple from coming to a diagnostic center the state health service set up for a week to offer free mammograms and pap smears, along with tests for glucose and cholesterol , advice on depression and addiction, and testing for H.I.V., the virus that causes AIDS. Mobile centers like that are at the center of Mr. Chertorivski’s plans for 2011 , to focus on prevention and patients’ rights. But he acknowledged that ambitions and reality sometimes diverged. “Well,” he said, “I’m telling the story of what should be.”

Mexico
Health Insurance and Managed Care
Medicine and Health


Falling Economic Tide in India Is Exposing Its Chronic Troubles

Abstract: MUMBAI — India had seemed tantalizingly close to embarking on the same dash for economic growth that has lifted hundreds of millions of people out of poverty in China and across East Asia. Its economy now stands in disarray, with the prospect of worse to come in the next few months. Vinod Vanigota, a Mumbai wholesaler of imported computer hard drives, said sales dropped by a quarter in the last two weeks. The rupee, India’s currency, has been so volatile in recent days that he began revising his price lists every half-hour. Business activity at Chip Com Traders, where he is the managing director and co-owner, has slowed so sharply that trucking companies plead for business. “One of the companies called today and said, ‘Don’t you have a parcel of any sort for us to deliver today?’ ” Mr. Vanigota said. The economic decline has laid bare chronic problems, little remarked upon during the recent boom. An antiquated infrastructure, a sclerotic job market, exorbitant real estate costs and bloated state-owned enterprises never allowed manufacturing, especially manufacturing for export, to grow strong. The rupee fell further and faster in August against the dollar than any of the world’s 77 other internationally traded currencies as investors in affluent countries took their money home for higher returns. It was down 20 percent since May, a period in which the stock market followed suit and fell almost 8 percent. The real estate market is teetering after soaring to vertiginous heights over the last few years. Cranes on Mumbai’s skyline perch nearly immobilized as developers struggle for cash. The things the emerging middle class coveted, Chevrolets, iPhones and foreign vacations, have all jumped sharply in price in recent weeks. The price increases threaten to worsen consumer price inflation — already among the highest in Asia at an annual rate of almost 10 percent — and widen the country’s already large international trade deficit and government budget deficit. India’s government is now bracing the country for a swift increase in the price of diesel fuel and other imported necessities priced in dollars. Diesel is the lifeblood of the Indian economy, from the trucks that crawl along the country’s jammed, potholed roads to the backyard generators that struggle to compensate for the high-cost yet unreliable electricity grid. Some economists say that they hope India will have only a V-shaped economic downturn, with a rebound starting by early next year if a weak rupee rejuvenates India’s struggling exporters. “India is not Greece — we never binged on debt on a grand scale,” said Ajay Shah, a prominent economist at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy in New Delhi. The root of the problem is India’s failure to create a vibrant industrial base with the strength to export. As Western buyers scour Asia for alternatives to increasingly expensive Chinese factories, India and its enfeebled manufacturing sector are mostly ignored. Soeb Z. Bandukwala, a managing director of Ansons Electro Mechanical Works, a maker of water pumps and electric motors, wonders how a recovery can arrive, given India’s structural problems. He runs a business that has been in his family since 1967 and has grown to four factories. Yet he keeps each factory at fewer than 50 workers and has maintained some metal grinding machines and other equipment in use since the 1970s without replacement. His worry is that if he exceeds 50 workers or surpasses certain benchmarks for total investment, he will become subject to extensive labor legislation. Image Ansons Electro Mechanical Works in Mumbai has kept fewer than 50 workers at each factory to avoid regulations. Credit Santosh Verma for The New York TImes “There is a fear, and the fear is the labor laws,” said Mr. Bandukwala, who is also a regional leader in the Confederation of Indian Industry. Infrastructure is also a problem. Ansons is only 35 miles from the port through which it exports machinery to Europe. Yet trucks require four to seven hours to reach the port because promised expressways have never been built. Speeds barely faster than walking at least help protect pumps and motors from harm. “If the speed is greater, damage will take place because of the potholes,” Mr. Bandukwala said. Poor infrastructure has also driven up costs for industrial real estate in India, which are high compared with China’s. Just in the last five years, China has opened 5,800 miles of high-speed rail routes and 400,000 miles of highways of two or more lanes. That has allowed tens of thousands of factories to move to smaller towns in the interior with much lower land costs. India has been unable to open up its interior the same way, building half as many miles of highways over the same period and no high-speed rail routes. At the same time, rent control and other land regulations make it extremely difficult to tear down and replace even the most dilapidated buildings. So cities like Mumbai have ended up with dozens of square miles of mold-stained, low-rise buildings with spots of bright green fungus, interspersed by the occasional skyscrapers that were somehow built. Remote, outer fringes of factories and office buildings have sprouted on what was once farmland. The acute shortage of real estate less than a day’s drive from ports has produced steep real estate prices and rents. Challenge Overseas, a trousers manufacturer, paid $1.3 million five years ago to buy the 20,000-square-foot top floor of a decrepit, four-story factory building with blocked fire escapes on a muddy alley on the outskirts of Mumbai, and sold it for $2.7 million last month. The floor underneath, the company’s 60-employee factory, sold for $410,000 in 2003 and is now valued at $1.2 million. Roads and bridges to inland towns are not the only infrastructure problem. Shakti Industries, which thins and cuts aluminum wires for jewelry manufacturers, pays the equivalent of 15 to 18 cents per kilowatt-hour for electricity. In China, even after a round of price increases coming in late September to pay for more clean energy, factory owners will pay half as much. Shakti has only seven employees. Yet it is regulated by more than a dozen government agencies, each of which sends a separate inspector each year before issuing licenses for things as diverse as electricity use and water pollution. Many of the inspectors demand bribes, said Vipul S. Kamani, the managing director of Shakti. High real estate and electricity costs leave businesses with very little money to pay workers and remain competitive in the global markets for garments and other manufactured goods. Arun Prajapati, 21, a migrant worker at a fabric fusing machine at Challenge, said that he earned about $100 a month, just a fifth of what Chinese workers earn these days. He pays $9 a month for rent and electricity for his sleeping space on the floor of a 10-foot-by-10-foot room that he shares with five other migrant workers in a nearby shanty. He spends $38 a month for a subsistence diet of roti bread, lentils and, once a week, some chicken or eggs. He sends his meager savings to his widowed mother in their home village in central India. “With expenses rising each month, things are only getting harder and harder,” he said. “I am just trying to get through life.” One private sector industrial giant that bet heavily on an economic takeoff in India is the Essar Group, based in Mumbai. In the last five years it has invested nearly $18 billion to build one of the world’s largest refineries and one of the world’s biggest steel mills in northwestern India while tripling capacity at its ports and quadrupling the output of its power plants. But the company now plans to collect income from these projects instead of building more, and it is even selling three steel-related businesses to pay down debt. Haseeb A. Drabu, a former government economic planner and bank chairman who is now Essar’s chief economic adviser, said that at Essar and across India, “I don’t see any fresh wave of investment.”

India
Economy
International trade
Indian rupee
Infrastructure,public works


3 Blasts at a Baghdad Market Kill 21

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Three explosions ripped through a public market on Thursday evening, killing at least 21 people and leaving a gruesome scene of scattered body parts and bloodied shoppers. The attack, in a largely Shiite neighborhood, was notable in that it struck at civilians in the heavily fortified capital and left a high death toll. Many of the large-scale attacks lately have been against government institutions, like the police, as well as local officials. Earlier in the day, an attack on an American convoy killed a civilian working for U.S.A.I.D. The victim, Dr. Stephen Everhart, was working with Baghdad University to develop a new business curriculum, according to a statement from the State Department. One witness to the market attack, a dentist who owns a clinic nearby, described what he saw in the street after he heard two blasts. “Everyone was screaming and crying, and everyone was covered in blood,” said the dentist, Mustafa Saoih. Mr. Saoih, a Sunni, added that he had endured the sectarian strife of 2006 and 2007 but until Thursday had “never seen such things.” He said that he feared a return of rampant violence, and that he would not go back to his clinic for at least two weeks. “It’s all about sectarian war,” he said. A couple hours after the explosions, an official in the Interior Ministry put the casualty toll at 21 dead and more than 100 wounded. The official said that improvised explosive devices had been hidden among the groceries at the market. The Associated Press, citing police officials, reported that 34 people had been killed. The bombing was the latest in a particularly violent week for Iraq , and it came two days after two suicide bombers detonated vehicles packed with explosives near a provincial governor’s house in the southern part of the country. That attack left at least 27 people dead. Just after the market explosions, a car bomb detonated in another southwest Baghdad district. The early report from the Interior Ministry was that two people had been killed and that five people had been wounded. In the northern city of Kirkuk on Thursday, at least five people were hurt when two police patrols were attacked with improvised explosive devices, according to a local official. The spurt of violence on Thursday occurred as Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in a speech rebuked his ministries and promised to dismiss many incompetent officials. The speech came after the expiration of a 100-day deadline that Mr. Maliki had imposed on his ministries to improve their performance. The deadline, which passed weeks ago, was prompted by street protests this year by people demanding improved services.


Japan Election, a Landslide for Abe, Could Allow a Bolder Military

Abstract: TOKYO — The Liberal Democratic Party of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has governed Japan in one way or another for all but four of the past 61 years, a winning record that reflects the political inertia of a society that values stability and tradition. But even by the standards of Japanese politics, Mr. Abe’s landslide victory in national elections on Sunday was stunning. For the first time, voters gave the Liberal Democrats and their allies more than two-thirds of the seats in Parliament — a supermajority that could allow Mr. Abe to realize his long-held ambition of revising the clause in the Constitution that renounces war and make Japan a military power capable of global leadership. Opinion polls show only lackluster support for Mr. Abe’s security agenda or even his program to revitalize the Japanese economy, but the public appeared unwilling to take another chance on the opposition Democratic Party, which stumbled badly in its last, rare stint in power , most notably in its response to the 2011 earthquake and Fukushima nuclear disaster . The vote for stability at home, though, is likely to provoke unease across Asia, where memories of Japanese militarism in World War II endure and the prospect of a more assertive Japan will add to worries over China’s territorial ambitions and North Korea’s nuclear program . In China, Xinhua, the state news agency, warned in a commentary on Monday that the election results “could pose a danger to Japan and regional stability.” Experts say that Mr. Abe’s governing coalition will not be able to push through constitutional revisions immediately, given that some of the partners have differing opinions on what needs to be amended and how. For example, the Liberal Democrats’ main ally, a small Buddhist party, has said that it opposes changes to the clause that renounces war. At a news conference on Monday, Mr. Abe said that he intended to press for debate on constitutional revision, though he acknowledged that “it’s not so easy” and added, “I expect the discussion will be deepened.” Mr. Abe’s party, in a draft proposal of a revised Constitution, has also recommended amendments to the clause on freedom of speech and the press that could limit these rights in cases deemed dangerous to the public interest. Another proposal would expand emergency powers for the prime minister. Any revision would need to be approved by a majority in a public referendum. But the party’s victory on Sunday appears to have less to do with its proposals and more to do with the disarray in the opposition Democratic Party. “The people’s distrust towards the Democratic Party is very high,” said Lully Miura, a lecturer on international politics at Tokyo University. “In 2009, the Democratic Party won the government, but they failed and failed and failed, and even once-supporters of the Democratic Party now distrust them.” Some analysts said the opposition may have overestimated the public’s worries about Mr. Abe’s constitutional agenda at a time when so many remain concerned about Japan’s weak economy. Mr. Abe, for his part, spent most of his time on the campaign trail exhorting voters to allow his economic plan — called Abenomics — to continue, and he barely mentioned the Constitution. “Probably the opposition parties pushed too much on the constitutional issue as a political agenda,” said Koji Murata, a professor of international relations at Doshisha University in Kyoto who supports constitutional changes. “But people didn’t care about the constitutional agenda in this upper-house election.” Toshio Ogawa, an opposition candidate from Tokyo who narrowly won a seat, said voters might have had a hard time understanding how his party’s economic plans differed from those of the Liberal Democrats. But, he said, “I knew that Abe’s real goals were security and the Constitution. So I thought I had to point it out clearly.” Critics said Mr. Abe’s party deliberately played down its agenda on constitutional change. Some also accused the Japanese news media, particularly the public broadcaster, NHK, of conspiring to help the governing party and failing to air enough information about the issues at stake in the election. Voters seemed more interested in staying the course and giving Mr. Abe’s economic policies more time to yield results than in the debate over rewriting Japan’s pacifist policies. “I want them to accelerate their economic policy to increase more jobs and improve social welfare,” said Akemi Machida, 29, who voted for Liberal Democratic candidates at a polling station in Sagamihara, a suburban town southwest of Tokyo. As for the opposition, she said, “There were no particular alternatives besides the L.D.P., whose policies sounded more convincing.” Opinion polls show a majority of respondents in Japan oppose Mr. Abe’s security policies. But when the news media conducts these surveys, the questions are often vague. “The opinion polls ask whether there is a need to revise the Constitution at all,” said Yasuo Hasebe, a constitutional scholar at Waseda University. “This is quite a strange question. People can’t answer that question before knowing which clause and in what way this change will be made.” The very language used to describe constitutional revision may also confuse voters. “In Japanese, the word for revise, ‘kaisei,’ gives an impression that something is improved or made better,” said Minako Saigo, 28, a mother of three children in Kyoto who founded Mothers Against War last July to protest legislation that gave the military some powers to fight in foreign conflicts for the first time since World War II. “People stop thinking,” Ms. Saigo added. “They don’t question what will happen next.” Outside Japan, Mr. Abe’s new supermajority is likely to further unsettle an increasingly tense region. South Korea defied China last week by announcing that it would deploy an advanced American missile defense system to protect itself against North Korea. And many in Asia are waiting to see how China and the United States respond to a ruling expected on Tuesday in a complaint brought by the Philippines challenging Beijing’s territorial claims in the South China Sea. “The Chinese will fear that Abe will find a way to work the system to his advantage,” said Bonnie S. Glaser, a senior adviser for Asia and a China expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. At a regular news briefing on Monday, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry, Lu Kang, said that China and other Asian countries were “concerned about political moves in Japan” because of its past military action in the region. In South Korea, an editorial in Munhwa Ilbo, a right-leaning newspaper, said the election results “opened the door for a Japan that can go to war,” though it added that a rearmed country “will also help deter North Korea’s nuclear threat and check the rising military power of China.” The White House had no immediate comment on the election, but Jonas Stewart, a spokesman for the United States Embassy in Tokyo, said the Japanese government remained “a steadfast ally across our broad agenda of regional and global issues.” The United States supported Mr. Abe last year in the passing of the security bills that enable the military to participate more fully in foreign actions. While constitutional change may be a long way off, some analysts said they worried the consequences of Sunday’s election were more fundamental. “Democracy needs a system of checks and balances,” Gerald L. Curtis, a professor of political science at Columbia University, wrote in an email. “But if the opposition parties are impotent and the L.D.P. is firmly under Abe’s control, that system will be weakened to an unprecedented degree.”

US Constitution,United States Constitution


France’s View of Strauss-Kahn Case Tinted by Courts’ Differences

Abstract: PARIS — The sexual assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn , which continues to crowd out much other news here, is becoming something of a civics lesson in American justice — one that has inspired both biting criticism and some respect. Legal experts say much of the consternation here over what many consider rough treatment in the news media and the courts is rooted in a general unfamiliarity with an American justice system that differs profoundly — in procedure, tone and philosophy — from the French model. “There is an aspect of pageantry that we don’t have in our country,” said Judge Marie-Blanche Régnier, who is national secretary of a French magistrates trade union. While the American justice system has its origins in British common law and involves ordinary citizens at almost every level, the French judicial system is rooted in the Napoleonic Code and is largely conducted behind closed doors. Suspects are typically ushered into courthouses through discreet side entrances, out of view of the public. State-appointed magistrates prosecute and pass judgment in most trials without the oversight of citizen jurors, who serve only in the most serious cases. In such cases, formal charges come — if they come — only after a lengthy inquest by an investigating judge, who collects evidence on behalf of both the prosecution and defense before determining if a trial is warranted. And in further contrast to the American system, investigating magistrates are legally bound to secrecy during an inquest. All too often, critics say, the French system allows cases against well-known people to go nowhere or result in reduced charges without explanation. “For the powerful,” Judge Régnier said, “there is a treatment that can be different.” Because the magistrates are considered impartial investigators, and are tasked with seeking the truth without bias, the defense typically does not conduct a separate investigation. Building their arguments primarily on evidence collected by investigating magistrates, and only rarely introducing significant evidence of their own, French lawyers seldom attack the credibility of witnesses or plaintiffs, a common tactic in American court cases. “We’re going to see the man who could have been the embodiment of the French left obligated — because it’s the American judicial system that wants it — to crush this woman,” Jean-Dominique Merchet, a deputy editor at the weekly magazine Marianne, said on France Info radio. “It’s going to be terrifying.” Much also has been made here of the 74-year sentence that Mr. Strauss-Kahn, who stepped down as the managing director of the International Monetary Fund, could face if convicted on all counts. American audiences pay little heed to such numbers. But French law puts far stricter limits on sentencing, and discrepancies between maximum terms and sentences as they are handed down are often less drastic. Noting that the Manhattan district attorney is elected, many French also see the influence of politics in the muscular approach taken toward Mr. Strauss-Kahn, accused by a hotel housekeeper of attacking her in his room. The “deliberate destruction” of Mr. Strauss-Kahn would probably be a “very winning” electoral strategy, Robert Badinter, a Socialist senator and former justice minister, said on France Inter radio. Bradley D. Simon, a New York defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor, said some American lawyers also disliked the “theatrics of the criminal justice system.” But he rejected French assertions that Mr. Strauss-Kahn had been unfairly singled out. Rather, Mr. Simon said, he is being “treated as badly as everyone else.” The European Court of Human Rights has repeatedly criticized the French judiciary as lacking independence. Writing on his blog after Mr. Strauss-Kahn was arrested, the respected Paris magistrate Philippe Bilger praised the diligence of an American system that “does not hesitate to apprehend even the most emblematic personalities with lightning speed.” In France, he said, such people “would have had the time to prepare their truth or their lie.”

France
Strauss-Kahn Dominique
Politics and Government
Courts and the Judiciary


For Homeless Families, Christmas at the Temple

Abstract: It is Christmas time at the synagogue, and the social hall is ringed with more mattresses and sheets-that-pass-for-curtains than in other years. Newly homeless families will bunk here for two weeks before moving to another house of worship — and then another and another. In the Oneg Shabbat room at Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, children hooked angels on a tall Christmas tree. Volunteers taught excited girls how to knit while other girls squealed with delight as they shaped papier-mâché balloons. A man galloped by with a laughing boy on his back. With Candy Land, PlayDoh, a miniature motor scooter — and teenage girls bubbling with good intentions — there is almost everything here to please a child. For the adolescents though, the toys and attention cannot obscure what is not there. A 14-year-old boy with a nervous smile misses his TV, computer and a bed, and he does not like being confined to a few rooms. His younger brother has his own worries: “Some of the kids who come help here I hope are not people I know.” These suburban families reflect a growing nationwide population of the homeless, who have shed jobs and housing. They couch-surf and sleep in cars until, alternatives exhausted, they come to rest at a shelter. Last year the federal government estimated there were 1.6 million homeless in the United States, of which one-third were families. The number of individuals in shelters dropped by 2 percent, thanks to the Bush administration’s efforts to house the chronically homeless, while the number of people in families increased by 9 percent. The Obama administration is spending close to $3 billion on preventing homelessness and putting people into permanent housing. Contra Costa County will receive $3 million over three years. While local experts concur that they are overwhelmed with the needs of homeless families this year, local surveys do not reflect the increase. A once-every-other-year snapshot survey shows a decline in the number of homeless families from 2007 to 2009 in most Bay Area counties. But Tim O’Keefe, executive director of Shelter Inc., which provides shelter for families in Contra Costa County, disagreed with the statistics. “Those numbers are not what we’ve experienced,” Mr. O’Keefe said. “Our numbers are going through the roof.” Throughout the nation, cities rely on religious institutions to shelter homeless families on a rotating basis. While no one doubts that moving from congregation to congregation is better than sleeping in a car, rotating shelters are criticized as denying children a sense of place. “They are very disruptive to a child’s development to move all the time,” said Barbara Duffield, policy director for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth. With budget tightening five years ago, Contra Costa County handed over responsibility for housing families to nonprofit and interfaith groups. “We would go to county meetings and say, ‘As people of faith, we ask you to increase the number of beds,’ ” said Gwen Watson, who is founder and president of Winter Nights, an organization that represents over 100 congregations and provides shelter from October through April. It operates on a $127,000 budget. After the City of Concord refused access to the local armory, Ms. Watson learned that the old Orinda library building was available. “We thought we had died and gone to heaven,” she said. But the issue nearly provoked a municipal civil war. Some residents said they moved to escape city life and the homeless; others worried that children might find hypodermic needles in their park sandbox. It was during those debates that Ms. Watson heard opponents shout, “Let the churches handle it!” Volunteers at Temple Isaiah and at 25 other congregations cook spaghetti casseroles, tutor and take families on outings. Responsibilities are shared among houses of worship that take the families for two weeks at a time. While it might be better for the families to stay in one church for months, that would not work “because of Nimby,” Ms. Watson said, referring to the not-in-my-backyard attitude. Monday through Friday, the families must leave the church or temple after dawn and not return until after 5 p.m. Volunteers drive children to school, and for parents and young children with no place to go during the day, they offer “the oasis,” a St. Vincent De Paul facility in Pittsburg with a computer, a shower and a play area for preschool children. By spring, it is hoped that everyone will have a home. Failing that, they will be sent to another shelter. Traditional homeless shelters rarely allow minors. With children now making up one-fourth of the county’s 5,000 homeless, Winter Nights is therefore crucial. This Christmas, as in years past, Temple Isaiah agreed to host homeless families, Ms. Watson said, because the people at the temple “know the Christians are so busy getting ready for Christmas.” Sandy Anderson, who runs the temple program, said: “As Jews, we don’t know how to celebrate this time of year. This is our way.” More than 300 families help provide meals, tutors, and the Christmas tree, carolers, a jovial Santa and toys. With 10 families, Winter Nights is at capacity; eight families are on the waiting list, and there are extraordinary requests. A woman scheduled to give birth on Christmas Eve appealed to a local church for housing this week, because the singles shelter where she resides was adults only. “I can’t think of anything sadder than when a baby is born into homelessness,” Ms. Watson said. “How can we refuse?” Every venue is the same, with blue, red, yellow and white sheets strung from irrigation pipes encircling each family’s patchwork of mattresses. A family’s belongings are stuffed into tall, dented cardboard boxes, which volunteers cart to each new location. The fastest-growing population of homelessness in the country remains invisible. “It’s not like San Francisco, where you are walking over bodies,” said Cynthia Belon, director of Contra Costa County’s homeless program. Fearful that their children will be put in foster care , homeless families tend to hide from public view. Shelter operators say families are staying longer because finding work is so much more difficult. “The front door is open,” said Mary Kay Sweeney, executive director of Homeward Bound, a residential service program in Marin County. “We can’t find the back door.” With the recession , the image of homelessness — “the man with a beard and smelling bad” — changed, Tim O’Keefe of Shelter Inc. said. Homeless families do not suffer as much from substance abuse and mental illness as homeless individuals; they are more likely to be victims of foreclosure and the recession. All of the adults at Winter Nights who were interviewed said they did not mind moving from place to place, but critics contend that the merry-go-round model is designed from the perspective of the volunteers. “People are trying to do the best they can,” said Barbara Poppe, executive director of the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness, which coordinates the federal response to homelessness. But, Ms. Poppe said, the moveable shelter “is not a stabilizing environment” for children. “The best solution is to get them into an apartment as quickly as possible,” she said, adding that congregations could pay the first month’s rent. “If there is no housing available, Ms. Poppe said, homeless families are better served if they can “stay in the same place and have their own room and have volunteers come to them.” But doing good is never simple. “If the families were at one site, we would not get the active participation from volunteers,” Ms. Anderson said. The volunteers want to remain where they are, she said: “That’s part of what makes it attractive.. They’re comfortable in their home church.”

Temple Isaiah
Homeless Persons
San Francisco Bay Area (Calif)
United States Economy