G.O.P. Chairman Says Clinton’s Health and Age Are Fair Issues

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, insisted on Sunday that Hillary Rodham Clinton’s health and age were fair targets for inquiry ahead of a possible 2016 presidential run, as both he and Karl Rove, the Republican strategist who injected those questions into the debate, suggested that such scrutiny might dissuade her from running. Mr. Rove infuriated Democrats recently when he said that Mrs. Clinton might have suffered a “traumatic brain injury” in a late 2012 fall in which she sustained a concussion. She was hospitalized for a few days for a blood clot, but she and her husband,former President Bill Clinton, have insisted that her recovery was complete. Mr. Priebus, asked on the NBC program “Meet the Press” whether he believed that lingering effects of the injury could impede Mrs. Clinton’s abilities to serve as president, replied: “I’m not a doctor. What I do know is that the issue is going to come up, as it does for any person running for president.” He added, “The issues that I talked about are going to be the issues that make her unacceptable” to voters, and said that he did not think she would run “if she has another month like she’s just had.” Mr. Rove, whose original comment drew scorching retorts from Democrats as a hardly subtle effort to undercut that party’s presumed frontrunner for 2016, said Sunday that he was not questioning Mrs. Clinton’s health, but rather “whether or not it’s a done deal if she’s running.” In a panel discussion on the program “Fox News Sunday,” he noted that Mrs. Clinton would be 69 at the time of the 2016 election and 77 at the end of a possible second term. “She would not be human if she did not take this into consideration,” he said. Should Mrs. Clinton run and be elected, she would be about eight months younger than the oldest president, Ronald Reagan, when taking office. The Rove remarks drew sharp new criticism from Democrats on Sunday. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who favors a Clinton presidential run, said on NBC that Mr. Rove was “struggling to stay relevant” but that “Karl Rove engaging in cheap shots is not going to frighten Hillary Clinton.” And Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, who backed Mrs. Clinton in her 2008 nomination contest against Barack Obama, dismissed Mr. Rove’s comments as “pathetic.” “In my view, she’s in the prime of her political life,” Ms. Feinstein said, appearing on the CNN program “State of the Union.” “She has got the energy. She’s articulate. She’s got the background. She’s got the smarts. She has all of the elements of a good leader.” Ms. Feinstein said that she had personally counseled Mrs. Clinton against declaring her candidacy too early, given her high favorability ratings among Democrats, “because somebody would do the stupid things that Karl Rove has just done.” The senator dismissed Republican efforts to further investigate the deadly September 2012 attack on the United States mission in Benghazi, Libya, as “ridiculous.” Republicans have suggested that Mrs. Clinton, who was then secretary of state, did too little to protect the mission and has evaded accountability. Ms. Feinstein, who chairs the Senate intelligence committee, called the Republicans’ push for a select congressional committee on Benghazi “a hunting mission for a lynch mob.” All relevant questions had been answered in past inquiries, she said, including a review by her committee.

Republicans
Democrats
Meet the Press
Hillary Clinton
US Politics
2016 Presidential Election
RNC
Reince R Priebus


Taiwan: Scores Die as Cold Descends

Abstract: Taiwan officials blamed an unusual cold front for the deaths of at least 57 people, mostly older, in the greater Taipei area. The semiofficial Focus Taiwan news website reported that 85 people had died from the cold. Temperatures abruptly plunged to 39 degrees Fahrenheit in the subtropical capital.

Taiwan
Weather
Old age,elderly,senior citizens
Fatalities,casualties


A Math Problem From Singapore Goes Viral: When Is Cheryl’s Birthday?

Abstract: A couple of months ago, it was a color-changing dress that blew out the neural circuits of the Internet . Though it may not have quite the mass appeal, this week it is a math problem that is making bushels of brains hurt. It started with a posting on Facebook, by Kenneth Kong, a television host in Singapore. Image From there, people around the world have been trying to figure out Cheryl’s birthday, or at least wondering why she couldn’t just save everyone a lot of trouble and be more direct with Albert and Bernard. The wording of the problem is terrible, so here is a clearer version, which makes some of the assumptions more obvious but which does not change any of the underlying logic of the problem: Albert and Bernard just met Cheryl. “When’s your birthday?” Albert asked Cheryl. Cheryl thought a second and said, “I’m not going to tell you, but I’ll give you some clues.” She wrote down a list of 10 dates: May 15, May 16, May 19 June 17, June 18 July 14, July 16 August 14, August 15, August 17 “My birthday is one of these,” she said. Then Cheryl whispered in Albert’s ear the month — and only the month — of her birthday. To Bernard, she whispered the day, and only the day. “Can you figure it out now?” she asked Albert. Albert: I don’t know when your birthday is, but I know Bernard doesn’t know, either. Bernard: I didn’t know originally, but now I do. Albert: Well, now I know, too! When is Cheryl’s birthday? Originally, Mr. Kong said this was a problem inflicted on fifth-graders, leading to hand-wringing that Singapore children were way better at math than everyone else in the world and worries that Singapore children were being mentally abused with convoluted logic at a young age. It turned out the problem actually came from a math olympiad test for math-savvy high school-age students. How would you fare in a room full of adolescent math competitors in Singapore? (Once you think you have figured it out — or if you don’t know where to start — here is the answer and an explanation .)


In Abuse Crisis, a Church Is Pitted Against Society and Itself

Abstract: VATICAN CITY — As the sexual abuse crisis continues to unfold in the Roman Catholic Church , with more victims coming forward worldwide and three bishops resigning last week alone, it is clear the issue is more than a passing storm or a problem of papal communications. Instead, the church is undergoing nothing less than an epochal shift: It pits those who hold fast to a more traditional idea of protecting bishops and priests above all against those who call for more openness and accountability. The battle lines are drawn between the church and society at large, which clearly clamors for accountability, and also inside the church itself. Uncomfortably, the crisis also pits the moral legacies of two popes against each other: the towering and modernizing John Paul II , who nonetheless did little about sexual abuse; and his successor, Benedict XVI , who in recent years, at least, has taken the issue of pedophile priests more seriously. He has had little choice, given the depth of the scandal and the anger it has unleashed. But when supporters defend Benedict, they are implicitly condemning John Paul and how an entire generation of bishops and the Vatican hierarchy acted in response to criminal behavior. “The church realizes that it doesn’t have a way out, at least not until it confronts the entirety of its problems,” said Alberto Melloni, the director of the liberal Catholic John XXIII Foundation for Religious Science in Bologna, Italy. This latest eruption of the scandal, nearly a decade after the costly turmoil in the American church, may just be beginning. Last week, a bishop in Ireland resigned, acknowledging he had covered up abuse, while one in Germany and one in Belgium also stepped down, admitting that they themselves had abused children. Other resignations are expected in Ireland after two government reports documented decades of widespread abuse and a cover-up in church-run schools for the poor. The question, Mr. Melloni said, is whether the Vatican will hew to old explanations that pedophilia is the byproduct of a sexual revolution it had always fought, or whether it will confront the failures in church leadership that allowed sexual abuses to go unpunished. Benedict expressed both views in a pastoral letter to Irish Catholics released March 20, his most complete remarks on the sexual abuse crisis. He said that secularism and “misguided” interpretations of the reforms of the liberalizing Second Vatican Council contributed to the context of the abuse. But he also strongly decried “a tendency in society to favor the clergy and other authority figures; and a misplaced concern for the reputation of the church and the avoidance of scandal.” Last weekend, the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi , said, “secrecy and reserve, even in their positive aspects, are not values cultivated in today’s culture. We have to be able to have nothing to hide.” Yet the culture of the church was for decades skewed against public disclosure and cooperation with the civil authorities. That secrecy was made bluntly clear in a 2001 letter written by a top cardinal, who contended that this was a policy supported uniformly from John Paul on down. Only this month did the Vatican affirm that bishops should follow civil laws in countries that require reporting pedophilia and other abuse to the authorities. This month, Cardinal Darío Castrillón Hoyos , 80, a former head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Clergy, made headlines when he said that John Paul had approved of the letter he wrote to a French bishop in 2001, praising him for facing prison rather than handing over a pedophile priest to civil courts. The priest was convicted of molesting boys, and the bishop received a three-month suspended prison sentence for not turning him in. In a radio interview last week, the cardinal upped the ante, saying the letter emerged from a meeting where the future pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, was also present, The Associated Press reported last week. Father Lombardi confirmed the letter’s authenticity. But in a rare if typically oblique critique of a sitting cardinal, he said it was evidence of “how timely” it was for the Vatican in 2001 to centralize authority over sexual abuse cases with the powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which Cardinal Ratzinger then headed. Indeed, even some of Benedict’s harshest critics concede that abuse cases have been handled better since then, even if they say they still believe there is a long way to go. But when supporters defend Benedict, they implicitly criticize John Paul. Even if few will acknowledge it openly, the sexual abuse crisis has cast a shadow over John Paul’s legacy. John Paul may have brought the church in line with the tides of history, but on sexual abuse he upheld a vision of the priesthood that critics say ultimately favors the hierarchy over the victims. Some place John Paul’s defense of priests in the context of his background in communist Poland, where the secret police accused clergy members of sexual crimes to undermine the church. Yet the pope never met with victims and never apologized for sexual abuse, even long after the end of the cold war. In contrast, Benedict has met with sexual abuse victims four times, including this month in Malta , but only in private and after intense pressure from the media. Last year, Benedict confirmed the “heroic virtues” of John Paul, moving him closer to sainthood, but Vatican experts say the renewed attention on historical questions may delay the process. And protecting the memory of John Paul has not completely silenced supporters of the present pope. They cite two of the most prominent and damaging abuse cases — those of the Rev. Marcial Maciel Degollado, founder of the powerful religious order The Legionaries of Christ, and Cardinal Hans Hermann Groër of Vienna — and contend that Cardinal Ratzinger advocated stronger measures. In the case of Father Maciel, a close friend of John Paul’s, his supporters say that Cardinal Ratzinger reopened the case and in 2006, he was sentenced to live out his days in prayer and penance. He died in 2008. By the standards of the Vatican, the punishment was extraordinary — impossible under John Paul. To the victims and many outsiders, it amounted to very little against a man who for decades abused seminarians, fathered several children and misappropriated funds. “While Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was perhaps the most powerful and influential churchman at the Vatican after Pope John Paul II, he would not buck the system to take action against Maciel, or earlier, in the Groër case,” said David Gibson, a biographer of Benedict who writes on religion for Politicsdaily.com . “His concern for the proper order of authority, and the clerical culture took precedence.” Critics and defenders of Benedict say healing the church will require action and a full accounting of the past. That will not be easy on the legacy of John Paul. And to protect the church Benedict has spent a lifetime nurturing, many are calling on him to explain his own past to show how he understands that the rules of the church do not conflict with the rule of law.

Roman Catholic Church
Priests
John Paul II
Benedict XVI
Sex Crimes
Child Abuse and Neglect
Cardinals (Roman Catholic Prelates)


Gold Cup Fans Thrilled to Cheer the Visitors Near Home

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — “The Star-Spangled Banner” kicked off the day’s events, but the nearly 79,000 fans at New Meadowlands Stadium on Saturday all came dressed in, and in some cases painted in, their own nation’s colors. They were on hand to see two Concacaf Gold Cup quarterfinal matches, both of which featured two Latin American nations looking to advance to the semifinals at Reliant Stadium in Houston on Wednesday. Honduras held off Costa Rica, 4-2, on penalty kicks in Saturday’s first game. After 90 minutes of regulation ended tied at 1-1, neither team could break through in the 30 minutes of extra time. Jerry Bengston sealed the victory in the penalty-kick shootout after Costa Rica’s Celso Borges and Alvaro Saborio hit their penalties off the crossbar, sending Honduras to its second straight appearance in the semifinals. Honduras will face Mexico, a 2-1 winner over Guatemala in Saturday’s second game. The other quarterfinal matches will be played at R.F.K. Stadium in Washington on Sunday. In the first game, the United States, which looked disappointing in group play, will face Jamaica, followed by Panama against El Salvador. The winners of those games will face off in Wednesday’s other semifinal in Houston. For almost 44 minutes of the nightcap on Saturday, the pro-Mexico crowd was on pins and needles as Guatemala looked poised to pull an upset. Trailing by 1-0 in the second half after Carlos Ruiz scored in the fifth minute for Guatemala, Mexico tied the score on a goal by the substitute Aldo De Nigris — its third shot in a goalmouth scramble. Javier Hernandez put Mexico fans at ease 17 minutes later with a goal in the 66th minute, his sixth in four games at the Gold Cup. The event’s magnitude — the biennial Gold Cup is the regional championship — combined with the setting in one of the most diverse areas in the nation, created a festive atmosphere divided by patriotism but united by Spanish. Proud fans waved flags, or tied them around their necks as capes, and scrambled through the stadium singing and chanting after a day of tailgating. Fans wearing American soccer jerseys were sprinkled in, but the night belonged to the three small Central American countries and their neighbor to the north. “It’s crazier than when America plays because the American fans are laid back,” said Dan Pearson, who was selling game apparel at a kiosk. Pearson added: “The atmosphere is hyped up. I like it a lot.” A small fraction of the announced crowd of 78,807 in the 82,500-seat stadium was in its seats for the first game. But that did not quiet those who were; they were boisterous from the start of each team’s national anthem. “We don’t get to see our teams play often, if ever,” a Costa Rica fan, Ramon Diaz, said in Spanish. “When we get the chance to, we have to take advantage.” As the first game entered extra time, chants of “Mexico! Mexico!” became more frequent from the large contingent of Mexico fans filtering in to see their team. By the time Mexico and Guatemala took the field to thunderous applause, the crowd was a sea of green and red interrupted by occasional flashes of white and blue. Jose Bernard, who also attended Mexico’s scoreless friendly against Ecuador in the stadium’s first professional sporting event in May 2010, came from Delaware with his two sons to watch Mexico. “With the way Mexico has been playing, it should be fun,” Bernard said in Spanish.

New Meadowlands Stadium
Honduras
Costa Rica
Mexico
Guatemala
Soccer
Gold Cup (Soccer)


Technology Makes Impulse Buying Easier - Advertising

Abstract: TELEVISION pitchmen for quirky products like Pajama Jeans and lighted slippers once tried to get viewers to place their orders by phone and then shifted to getting products into retail outlets with labels that screamed “As Seen on TV.” Now, they are trying to make impulse buying even easier by experimenting with new technologies. “Because we come from the world of video and TV, who better than us?” asked Kevin Harrington, founder of a direct response marketing company, TVGoods. Mr. Harrington, one of the “sharks” on ABC’s “Shark Tank,” where entrepreneurs pitch their ideas to direct response executives, bought AsSeenOnTV.com and its corresponding telephone number in June. The company, which says it has more than two million customers and 700,000 e-mail subscribers, is embracing technologies that use cellphones and remote controls to enable purchases directly from a television set. Daily Web videos with product demonstrations are also being produced, and Facebook pages where users can buy products directly are expected to start rolling out before the end of the year. “We anticipate most of our vendors being excited about this as a whole new way to generate products and profits,” Mr. Harrington said. AsSeenonTV.com lists 650 products from multiple vendors.  In the online videos, spokesmen like the former professional wrestler Hulk Hogan and the entertainer 50 Cent will host product demonstrations. “It’s much like what makes a home shopping network work — it’s a visual, it’s storytelling, it’s presenting and bringing the products to life,” Mr. Harrington said. The videos will also be pushed out by e-mail to subscribers to the site. Mr. Harrington hopes to use former hosts from home shopping channels in addition to celebrity endorsers. Some of the newer products being pitched by celebrities include a nonabrasive household cleaner product line called PumMagic, which is made of finely ground pumice and includes a spray, scrubs and sponges. The product will be endorsed by Hulk Hogan, whose physical strength is meant to mirror the strength of the cleanser, Mr. Harrington said. “Hulk, as a celebrity and a famous athlete, was always talking to us about endorsing products, “ Mr. Harrington said. “It just made sense. Hulk really fell in love with the pumice pitch.” A high-end set of wireless over-the ear headphones that is being promoted by 50 Cent, who is no stranger to product pitches after being a spokesman for Vitamin Water drinks, will sell for $300 to $400. “He’s a pretty aggressive entertainer,” Mr. Harrington said. “He’s been a great businessman.” When asked whether that price was a bit too rich compared to the usual cost of an infomercial product, Mr. Harrington said, “It’ll be three easy payments of $99 when we’re done.” Streamlining the way consumers buy these products is one a crucial goal. Mike Fitzsimmons, the chief executive of Delivery Agent, the company providing mobile and television commerce technology to AsSeenOnTV, said it is clumsy for television viewers to have to jot down an 800 number or go to a Web site. “Our whole business is taking friction out of the processing,” Mr. Fitzsimmons said. “Were placing a big bet on that industry that we think is in need of innovation” This fall, the company will roll out technology it calls audio fingerprinting, which will enable cellphones to decipher which infomercial a user is watching after the phone is held up to the television. The user will then be sent to a mobile Web site where the product can be bought through the cellphone. Another development will let viewers use ordinary remote controls to buy products off a television screen by clicking a button that opens a purchase window. Advertisers will also be able to track which commercials elicited purchases. The goal, Mr. Fitzsimmons said, is to have a “ubiquitous transaction mechanism for television.” Direct response marketers say they are closely watching the new technologies. “If we have the opportunity for them to see a commercial and to react that quickly, the chances for us to make a sale increase dramatically,” said Kevin Vick, a partner with Boston Ideas, which owns Bright Feet, a product that combines fuzzy house slippers with LED lights so people can see as they walk in the dark. “This takes several steps out. In our society today, we want it now, we want it faster. “ Sonia Makurdsik, a marketing consultant for Hampton Direct, which owns Pajama Jeans, said 70 percent of nonstore sales came from online purchases as opposed to over the phone. “Flipping through the channel is not enough,” she said. “Your brand message needs to be present wherever the consumer is.”  Data from Nielsen shows that direct response marketers spent $2.1 billion on television, radio outdoor and print advertising in 2010, and $550 million in the first quarter of 2011. John Yarrington, the publisher of Response Magazine, a direct response trade magazine, said that while these marketers are going to the Web, television is still critical for establishing a brand’s presence. “How would you know to go look for the Shake Weight, if you’ve never heard of it before?” he asked. Once online, however, marketers can sell products more cheaply since they eliminate the need for someone to take a phone order. “Television marketing fuels consumers to go to the Web and make purchases online or make purchases to their phone,” Mr. Yarrington said.

Television
Advertising and Marketing
E-Commerce
Cellular Telephones
Online Advertising


Hamas Announcement Further Clouds Truce Talks

Abstract: GAZA — Confusion continued Saturday over the status of cease-fire talks Egypt is conducting between Hamas and Israel , as the Hamas prime minister announced progress regarding restrictions on the movements of fishermen and farmers in the border area, which the Israeli prime minister’s office denied. One day after Israeli soldiers killed a Palestinian and wounded nine others as they approached the fence on Gaza’s eastern border, some Gaza fishermen said they had ventured past the three-nautical-mile limit, long imposed by Israel, without provoking an Israeli response. The fishermen’s gambit followed an announcement by the office of the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniya, that the Egyptian intelligence service, which brokered the initial cease-fire deal announced in Cairo last week, told him the limit had been extended to six nautical miles. But Mark Regev, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, said Saturday that “nothing has changed on the ground or at sea until it is agreed to by Israel and Egypt.” He declined to discuss whether a meeting had been set for Monday, as the Hamas statement said, on the question of Palestinian movements in the so-called buffer zone, the 1,000-foot strip of land on Gaza’s northern and eastern borders where the shooting broke out on Friday. “The arrangements negotiated with Egypt led to an immediate cessation of hostile activities,” Mr. Regev said. “All other factors will be negotiated in an expeditious manner directly with the Egyptians.” The mixed messages raised the question of whether Hamas might be trying to provoke the Israelis to break the cease-fire, or perhaps to establish new facts on the ground — farmers tilling the borderland, fishermen fishing farther out — that would increase its leverage in negotiations. “Hamas is definitely trying to score points here,” said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al Azhar University in Gaza City. “Hamas is trying to say that the cease-fire is in the interest of Hamas and is in the interest of the Palestinians, that the cease-fire agreement is going to gradually put an end to the siege.” Mr. Abusada noted that Mahmoud Zahar, a high-ranking Hamas leader, had told Arab-speaking reporters at a news conference that Gaza militants had shot down seven Israeli aircraft during the eight-day conflict, something Mr. Abusada called “a big lie.” “We know this didn’t happen, so this is part of raising morale, part of playing with the emotions of Palestinians,” Mr. Abusada said, suggesting that the Hamas statement on fishermen and border zones had a similar purpose. “It’s like waging psychological warfare on Israel, that Israel is giving in to the Palestinians, and also on the Palestinian side that Hamas won this war on all levels.” Nizar Ayyash, the leader of the Gaza fishermen’s syndicate, said that after the Hamas statement, seven or eight large boats sailed out six miles into the sea on Saturday, encountering no resistance from Israeli gunboats that patrol the waters. Mr. Ayyash said that even six miles out, the sea is too sandy, and that during sardine season, the best catch was about 15 nautical miles from the coast. “Any mile we gain is our right,” he added. With Egypt erupting in turmoil over a decree issued Thursday by President Mohamed Morsi granting himself broad powers unchecked by judicial review, the prospects for further negotiations on the buffer zone, fishing and the expansion of Gaza’s border crossings for people and goods are also unclear. “Morsi is definitely preoccupied with internal Egyptian problems. He is definitely overwhelmed,” Mr. Abusada said. “That’s where the Egyptian intelligence role comes back. The Egyptian intelligence service is the Egyptian side who has been intervening and coordinating.”

Hamas
Israel
Palestinians
Gaza Strip
Defense and Military Forces
Fishing Commercial


On the Sidewalks, Structures That Serve to Protect and Obscure

Abstract: Welcome to New York, summer visitors, home of the endless sidewalk shed. You may already have noticed that the chief distinguishing architectural feature of New York is the pipe-and-plank structure known as a sidewalk shed or sidewalk bridge. There are miles and miles of them — 189 miles in all , according to an estimate by the law firm Helbraun Levey & O’Donoghue. Their intent is to protect pedestrians from stuff falling off buildings, but their effect is to darken and constrict the sidewalks around even the greatest landmarks. If poorly maintained, they can pose a danger themselves. And rarely is an effort made to design one thoughtfully; few landlords would be interested in spending extra money on something so utilitarian . The Department of Buildings says it issued 5,584 permits last year for sidewalk sheds. This was a 4.5 percent drop from the number issued in 2012, but was still about a 25 percent increase over the number issued five years ago. Construction, renovation, inspection and repair all contribute to the glut. The structures are supposed to be temporary, but have been known to stay up for six , seven or eight years. Tenants, neighbors and businesses all suffer. And so do visitors. For those who have only one chance to see the sights, sidewalk sheds are permanent blemishes in the photo album. Here are a few prominent buildings that you currently cannot see from the sidewalks in front of them. (Also, as a public service, we want to remind visitors that it is illegal in New York City to walk slowly, two or more abreast, through a sidewalk shed. The penalty for a first offense is $10,000. The penalty for a second offense is a prison term of up to 25 years. Just kidding. But seriously, don’t.)

Sidewalk
Construction
NYC
Restoration and Renovation


Chinese Group Bids $1.2 Billion for Company Behind Opera Web Browser

Abstract: HONG KONG — A group of Chinese investors sees $1.2 billion worth of potential in the world’s sixth-place Internet browser. The group, which includes a Chinese private equity firm and two upstart Chinese technology companies, said on Wednesday that it had offered to acquire the Norwegian company behind the Opera web browser. The deal would give the buyers a name that has faded amid intense competition from Google’s Chrome and other browsers but still has a following in the developing world. The offer is the latest effort by Chinese technology companies to look abroad. One of the partners behind the Opera bid, the mobile-game maker Beijing Kunlun Tech, acquired a 60 percent stake in Grindr , valuing that social networking app for gay men at $155 million. Chinese tech giants like Alibaba Group and Tencent Holdings have also made purchases outside their home market in recent years to expand their reach. Opera, a Norwegian browser developed in the 1990s, gained prominence a decade ago with a browser designed specifically for mobile phones that used compression technology to speed download times. But others have caught up, and Opera — with a 5.5 percent market share — is now the sixth most-used browser behind Chrome, Apple’s Safari, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Firefox and Alibaba’s UCWeb, according to the Internet metrics firm StatCounter. Still, Opera has pockets of strength in some fast-growing Internet markets. It is the top browser in Africa, according to StatCounter, and it is the third most popular in Russia and India and the fourth in Indonesia. Image Lars Boilesen, the chief executive of Opera Software, which makes a web browser. Credit Opera Opera Software, the browser’s parent company, said in August last year that it was undertaking a strategic review. It has reported annual losses over the past two years, and its growth prospects have disappointed investors. Even after takeover rumors drove up its shares in recent days, they are still down about one-quarter from a year ago. The Chinese group is led by Golden Brick Silk Road Fund Management of China and includes Yonglian Investment, an affiliate of Golden Brick Silk Road Fund Management, Kunlun Tech and the Chinese antivirus and search company Qihoo 360. Qihoo is well known in China for doing battle with China’s tech titans, like Tencent . Golden Brick is an affiliate of Golden Brick Capital, a private equity firm with headquarters in Hong Kong. The group has offered 71 Norwegian kroner, or $8.31, a share, a premium of about 56 percent, based on the average share price over the past 30 days. Opera said that the agreement would give Opera access to Kunlun and Qihoo’s Internet users in China, as well as funding. Kunlun and Qihoo will also be able to sell their products to Opera users and use its mobile advertising platform. Qihoo runs its own mobile browser, which it could combine with Opera’s, and it also could benefit from the company’s advertising network. Kunlun, which makes and licenses games, could use Opera’s apps as a way to broaden the distribution of those games. Opera’s board has unanimously decided to recommend that shareholders accept the offer. The deal is still conditional on Kunlun’s getting approval at its general meeting in March to participate in the consortium.

Beijing
Opera Software
China
Qihoo 360 Technology
Mergers and Acquisitions
Norway
Mobile Apps
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Grindr.com


Police Seek Clarett's Arrest on Armed Robbery Charges

Abstract: Maurice Clarett, who three years ago this week led Ohio State's football team to the national title, was sought yesterday by the police in Columbus, Ohio, as a suspect in an armed robbery. A police spokesman, Michael Woods, said that felony warrants were issued for Clarett's arrest. The police have filed two counts of aggravated robbery related to an incident in an alley behind the Columbus nightclub Opium Lounge at 1:45 a.m. yesterday. According to a police report, the club's owner, Tashona Corvi, identified Clarett as the person who displayed a .45-caliber handgun by raising his shirt and then took a black cellphone from a couple who were behind the club. According to the police report, the victims said Clarett "was drunk and might be sick." The police report said that after Clarett allegedly took the cellphone, Corvi went outside and Clarett "hugged her and began dragging her down the alley toward the vehicle he fled in." Clarett was said to have left with two others in a white sport utility vehicle. "We don't know where he is right now," Woods said. "He doesn't have a Columbus address. As with any warrant, especially a felony warrant, officers are out looking for him." Clarett, 22, was considered one of the most talented players in college football when he was a freshman running back at Ohio State. But after he scored the game-winning touchdown in the 2002 national title game, the Fiesta Bowl against Miami, his career sputtered. He was suspended for the 2003 season at Ohio State because of a variety of off-the-field problems, left the university and, in an effort to gain a quick entry into the National Football League, went to court in an unsuccessful attempt to invalidate league rules requiring that players wait until three years after high school to be eligible for the draft. The Denver Broncos drafted him last April in the third round, then let him go in the first round of cuts, a rare move for such a high pick. Broncos Coach Mike Shanahan called the pick a mistake. Clarett's agent, Steve Feldman, said in a telephone interview last night that Clarett had planned to sign with an N.F.L. team today, anticipating an assignment to play in N.F.L. Europe next summer. Feldman, who said he had not talked to Clarett since the incident yesterday morning, declined to name the N.F.L. team. Feldman said that Clarett had been working out in Los Angeles but recently returned to Columbus. He said that Clarett was in good financial standing. "The situation is not beneficial," Feldman said. "The allegation is not beneficial." Feldman acknowledged that Clarett already faced a long road to return to the N.F.L. because of his off-the-field issues. "But, it was a road he had the physical ability to travel," Feldman said. "Once again, at this point it was a question more of his personality than his ability. We were hoping and still hope we could send him to Europe and he could show he'd fit in socially and physically." Clarett has not played in a game since that national title game in January 2003. But he made headlines when he accused Ohio State and its boosters of arranging for him to receive cars, passing grades and money. None of the accusations were proved. "His behavior has never been criminal," Feldman said. "He's made some foolish decisions and opened his mouth when he shouldn't have and stood up when it was wiser to let it go. But his behavior has never been criminal." Clarett was, however, charged with misdemeanor falsification in 2003 in connection with filing a police report claiming that more than $10,000 in items and cash had been stolen from a car he had borrowed from a local dealer. He later pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. Ohio State is now in Tempe, Ariz., preparing to play Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl tonight. Tempe was where Clarett reached the high point of his athletic career as he scored the winning touchdown in the second overtime when Ohio State stunned Miami, 31-24, for the national title. If Clarett had stayed at Ohio State, he would have been a senior this season. "I don't know what happened; I feel bad about it," the Buckeyes senior free safety Nate Salley said in a telephone interview. "It's a sad situation." Ohio State Coach Jim Tressel, who had a rocky relationship with Clarett, was in contact with him many times over the past few weeks as Clarett tried to get a job in N.F.L. Europe. "Obviously, my reaction to that is it's sad because, as I said the last few times people have brought up the subject, my hope would be that he would have an opportunity to go over to N.F.L. Europe and make a comeback," Tressel said. "I hope it's not true." Thom McDaniels, who coached Clarett at Warren G. Harding High School in Warren, Ohio, said, "I just hope it's a case of mistaken identity." Clarett's mother, Michelle, reached by phone, declined to comment.

FOOTBALL
COLUMBUS (OHIO)
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY
CLARETT MAURICE
ROBBERIES AND THEFTS
CELLULAR TELEPHONES
TELEPHONES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS


Postal Service Reports a Decline in Losses

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Aggressive cost cutting and increased revenue from its packing and shipping business helped the Postal Service stem its losses in the first quarter of its fiscal year, which ended Dec. 31. The Postal Service posted a $354 million net loss in the first quarter, compared with a $1.3 billion loss over the same period in 2012. The first quarter has traditionally been one of its strongest periods because it includes the Christmas holidays, when the agency experiences an increase in the number of packages and letters mailed. Total mail volume, however, continued to decline. It was 42 billion pieces for the quarter, down from 43.5 billion for the same period a year earlier, according to agency officials. Revenue from first-class mail, which provides the bulk of the revenue for the Postal Service, declined $209 million, or 2.8 percent, from the same period the previous year, with a decrease in volume of 817 million pieces, or 4.6 percent. The agency’s shipping and packaging business increased by $479 million, or 14.1 percent, over 2013 first-quarter results, fueled by the growth of online shopping, Sunday deliveries in limited markets and aggressive marketing campaigns to promote the shipping services, postal officials said. Post office officials said it was the 19th time in the last 21 quarters that it had lost money and called on Congress to pass legislation that would allow the agency to make changes to its business model, such as ending Saturday mail deliveries. “The Postal Service is doing its part within the bounds of law to right-size the organization, and I am very proud of the achievements we have made to reduce costs while significantly growing our package business,” said Patrick R. Donahoe, the postmaster general. “We cannot return the organization to long-term financial stability without passage of comprehensive postal reform legislation.” A Senate committee on Thursday passed a bill that would help reform the financially strapped agency. The bill, passed by the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, would allow the post office to end Saturday delivery and a recent temporary increase in the cost of stamps would be made permanent. The post office would also be allowed to ship beer and wine, something it is currently prohibited from doing. The legislation would also make changes to a 2006 law that requires the Postal Service to pay nearly $5.5 billion a year for health benefits to future retirees, a mandate that is not imposed on any other agency. The post office has defaulted on three payments since 2012.

Postal Service
Postal Service US
Earnings Reports


New York Archdiocese Appears Likely to Shutter More Churches

Abstract: The sweeping reorganization of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York, set to take effect next year, is likely to involve the merger or the closing of significantly more parishes than was originally announced last month, archdiocese documents show. Church officials said in November that 112 of the archdiocese’s 368 parishes would be consolidated to create 55 new parishes, the largest realignment of the parish structure in the history of the archdiocese, which stretches from Staten Island to the Catskills. In 31 of those new parishes, one or more of the original churches would no longer be used for regular services, effectively shuttering those churches by August. But the documents show that Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan has now proposed that an additional 38 parishes merge, to create 16 new ones. Among the affected churches, 11 would effectively close, with no regular Masses to be celebrated there. The remaining 27 church buildings would remain open for the celebration of the sacraments after the parishes merge. Cardinal Dolan, the archbishop of New York, hinted last month that a small number of additional parish consolidations might occur, but his new proposals have shocked many parishioners, who received word of them only in the past few weeks. Image Olivia and Will Fleming attended Mass on Sunday at the Church of St. Thomas More on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which may be closed. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times The earlier round of mergers and closings followed more than a year of discussions between parishes and an advisory panel, which was charged with presenting recommendations about parish consolidations to Cardinal Dolan. In the new cases, however, the proposals came directly from Cardinal Dolan and other senior archdiocesan officials, who felt the advisory group had not gone far enough in recommending changes, said Joseph Zwilling, the archdiocese’s spokesman. Rather than making the decisions unilaterally, the cardinal decided to return the new proposals to the parishes for comments before making his final decisions. “It must be noted that these are just proposals,” Mr. Zwilling said. “They are not decisions.” The parishes have until March 1 to respond to the cardinal with their concerns. The additional mergers and closings would most likely take place by Aug. 15, along with the earlier round, if Cardinal Dolan does not reconsider them. The parish reorganization is being driven by a shortage of priests, financial troubles and declining weekly church attendance, which hovers at less than 15 percent of the archdiocese’s Catholics on an average Sunday, according to the archdiocese. But church officials have been reluctant to comment on the reasoning behind specific mergers, which can be especially frustrating to parishes that appear to be flourishing. Among the parishes that are now endangered, for example, is the Church of St. Thomas More on the Upper East Side, which parishioners call vibrant and strong, with about 3,500 members and Sunday services that are filled with young families. The parish covers its costs and has $1.5 million in cash reserves. Its intimate sanctuary was the setting for John F. Kennedy Jr.’s memorial service, because it had been Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis’s parish. The parish has one of the highest per capita donor profiles in the entire archdiocese, Christopher E. Baldwin, a trustee, said. It recently finished an $800,000 round of improvements to the church’s buildings. Its community space hosts a highly regarded nursery school and accommodates some 400 community meetings per year. Shocked by the archdiocese’s recommendation, the church’s pastor, the Rev. Kevin Madigan, told his parishioners in a Nov. 23 letter that he pressed church officials for the reason St. Thomas was being recommended for closing. He was told, he said, that “since St. Thomas More will eventually close some day, it is better to do it now rather than later, when there is presently a momentum within the archdiocese to merge parishes.” The explanation was not satisfying to parishioners, who are now fighting to save the church, which was built as an Episcopal church in 1870 and was intended to resemble a small chapel in the English countryside. Mr. Baldwin warned that the archdiocese would be shortsighted to shutter an institution that generous donors love. “Closing St. Thomas More reminds me of a man who would eat his leg to fill his belly,” he said. “He may be full for a short period of time, but he soon will again be hungry. And God help him when he gets up to walk, let alone run.” The additional churches that are now being proposed for closing are St. John Neumann on Staten Island; St. John the Martyr and St. Gregory the Great in Manhattan; St. Joseph’s, Our Lady of Grace, St. Francis of Assisi and St. Anthony’s in the Bronx; Our Lady of Mount Carmel in White Plains; Our Lady of Pompeii, in Westchester County; and St. Mary’s, in Orange County. Image The children’s choir performed during Mass at the Church of St. Thomas More on Sunday. The parish recently finished an $800,000 round of improvements to the church’s buildings. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times At St. Gregory the Great on West 90th Street, parishioners had been confident that the church would remain open after the archdiocese’s advisory panel agreed that it was a vital part of the neighborhood’s Catholic life. Then, in November, they learned that the archdiocese was suggesting that their parish merge with Holy Name of Jesus six blocks north, and that their church be closed for regular use. “It is absolutely at the last minute; it is very, very distressing,” Marie LaMarr, a parishioner since 1970, said. “We are trying to get meetings with the cardinal, and we want to find out what exactly came up in the last two weeks that made him decide on this.” Though their small parish is tucked between two larger ones, parishioners say they relish the intimacy. It serves a diverse mix of Haitians, Latinos and whites, and shares a building with a thriving Catholic school that is to remain open. “It’s a wonderful place, and I’m sorry that it seems to be in danger,” said Msgr. Michael Crimmins, the pastor. Particularly upsetting to parishioners, he added, was that the archdiocese had assured them that the merger decisions would be guided by input from the parishes themselves, which did not appear to have happened in this case. “It almost seems as though because the answer that they gave wasn’t what the archdiocese wanted,” he said, officials “ignored it.”

New York
Closings
Cardinal Dolan
New York Metropolitan Area
Catholic Church
church,churches
NYC


Builder Confidence Rises After Two Strong Months

Abstract: An index of builder sentiment rose this month to 61, its highest level since November 2005, the National Association of Home Builders said on Monday. The reading was 60 in both June and July. Any reading above 50 indicates more builders view sales conditions as good, rather than poor. The fact that builder confidence “has been in the low 60s for three straight months shows that single-family housing is making slow, but steady progress,” said Tom Woods, chairman of the National Association of Home Builders, and a home builder based in Blue Springs, Mo. Builders’ view of current sales conditions and buyer traffic improved in August, while sales prospects over the next six months were stable. Still, builders say that they are finding it difficult to buy land and hire construction crews.

Construction
National Assn of Home Builders
Economy


Italian Leader Calls for Temporary Government

Abstract: ROME — Seeking to head off early elections, President Giorgio Napolitano asked the Senate president, Franco Marini, on Wednesday to try to form a temporary government aimed at fixing Italy ’s flawed election law. Mr. Marini, 74, a gruff former trade union leader, accepted the assignment but made it clear that such a solution might not be possible, given strong opposition from former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . “I know well that we are talking about a task that is not easy,” Mr. Marini told reporters after Mr. Napolitano’s announcement, nearly a week after Prime Minister Romano Prodi lost a confidence vote and resigned. “I also know that in the expectations of our citizens, there is a strong attention to a change in the electoral law.” Mr. Berlusconi’s allies reacted by keeping up the pressure for immediate elections, which they contend they would win even under the current law. “Now is the time to stop this sleight of hand,” said Umberto Bossi, the leader of the small Northern League, an important Berlusconi ally. Mr. Bossi argued that there was not enough support in the Parliament for a temporary government, and that the effort was a just a way to “pass time” before calling elections. Most polls have indicated that Mr. Berlusconi’s coalition would be the likely victor, though not the certain one, in any election. Giovanni Sartori, a political columnist for Italy’s largest newspaper, Corriere della Sera, said he saw a faint glow of hope in what he called a swell of public support for changing the law. This week two of the nation’s most influential interest groups — the industrial lobby Confindustria and the Italian bishops’ conference — said they strongly supported changing the law before elections. Center-left parties, led by Mayor Walter Veltroni of Rome, a likely candidate for prime minister in an election, also vowed to fight for a temporary government led by Mr. Marini. The current election law was pushed through Parliament by Mr. Berlusconi in the months before the balloting in April 2006, when he lost to Mr. Prodi. A broad consensus has formed — even among Mr. Berlusconi’s allies — that the law institutionalizes instability by favoring small parties and making it difficult to achieve a decisive majority in the upper house, the Senate. At times in recent months, Mr. Berlusconi has acknowledged the need to change the law. But since Mr. Prodi’s government fell, Mr. Berlusconi, who is seeking a third term as prime minister, has argued that the nation needs a strong government endorsed by voters, more than a change in the electoral law. “We believe that there’s no need to change the electoral law,” Mr. Berlusconi told reporters on Wednesday. “We are only losing time.” But in announcing his proposal for a temporary government, President Napolitano said that without changes in the law, “there will not be real stability.” One challenge facing Mr. Berlusconi would be to win the vote but to be strapped with the same small majority in the Senate that helped doom Mr. Prodi. Mr. Marini said any temporary government would be as brief as possible, to change the law, then head to elections.

Italy
Elections
Politics and Government
Law and Legislation
Napolitano Giorgio
Berlusconi Silvio
Prodi Romano


Dayton Handily Deals Pittsburgh Its First Loss

Abstract: It was a battle of streaks. Pittsburgh’s ended. Dayton’s did not. Brian Roberts scored 31 points Saturday night and Dayton upset No. 6 Pittsburgh, 80-55, extending the Flyers’ winning streak to 10 and handing the visiting Panthers their first loss of the season. Pittsburgh (11-1) had no answer for Roberts, who had numerous open looks and took full advantage. “Brian Roberts is phenomenal,” Dayton Coach Brian Gregory said. “I’ve been saying for a long time he’s the most efficient guard in the country, but now I think he’s becoming one of the best.” Marcus Johnson added 15 points and Kurt Huelsman 12 for the Flyers. Dayton (11-1) also made 22 of 28 free throws and outrebounded the Panthers, 41-34. The Panthers had been averaging 11.1 rebounds more than their opponents. “We knew what this was coming in,” Pittsburgh Coach Jamie Dixon said. “They’re a very good team. It’s a tough place to play. We didn’t play well.” WISCONSIN 67, TEXAS 66 Wisconsin’s Michael Flowers hit a long 3-pointer with two seconds remaining, then tossed a loose ball on the Longhorns’ inbounds pass high in the air to run out the clock and lift the Badgers (10-2) to an upset of No. 9 Texas (11-2), which lost its second game in a row. WINTHROP 76, MIAMI 70 The senior Chris Gaynor scored a career-high 21 points as visiting Winthrop handed No. 19 Miami its first loss. Jack McClinton scored a season-high 30 points for Miami (12-1) but committed 7 turnovers. Winthrop (7-5) is 4-31 against current Atlantic Coast Conference teams, with two of the victories this season. The Eagles beat Georgia Tech on Nov. 18. KANSAS 86, YALE 53 Russell Robinson had eight steals as Kansas (13-0) beat visiting Yale (3-7). MICH. ST. 93, WIS.-GREEN BAY 75 Raymar Morgan scored 24 points to help No. 7 Michigan State (12-1) defeat visiting Wisconsin-Green Bay (7-5). GEORGETOWN 78, AMERICAN 51 No. 8 Georgetown (9-1) recovered from an early 6-point deficit and shot 60 percent in a victory against visiting American (7-6). TENNESSEE 82, GONZAGA 72 JaJuan Smith scored 18 points and No. 11 Tennessee made up for Chris Lofton’s cold shooting with its usual searing defense in a victory against Gonzaga in Seattle. Tennessee is 12-1 for the first time since the 2000-1 team started 16-1. Gonzaga (9-4) lost for the third time in five games. VANDERBILT 92, U.T.-MARTIN 85 A. J. Ogilvy had 21 points as No. 15 Vanderbilt improved to 12-0, tying the 2003-4 team for the best start in university history, with a victory against visiting Tennessee-Martin (5-8). VILLANOVA 71, LA SALLE 58 No. 18 Villanova (10-1) beat visiting La Salle (4-7) and won its 14th consecutive game against a Big 5 opponent. BOISE STATE 73, B.Y.U. 70 Matt Nelson made all seven of his shots and scored 18 points as host Boise State (9-3) rallied from an 11-point halftime deficit to defeat No. 20 Brigham Young (10-3). OKLAHOMA 88, WEST VIRGINIA 82 Blake Griffin had 18 points and 16 rebounds before fouling out to help visiting Oklahoma (10-3) defeat No. 23 West Virginia (10-2) in double overtime. U.R.I. 85, GA. SOUTHERN 80 Will Daniels scored a season-high 28 points and No. 25 Rhode Island (13-1), off to its best start since 1946-47, beat Georgia Southern (9-3) to win the Islander Invitational in Corpus Christi, Tex. IN OTHER GAMES No. 5 U.C.L.A. (12-1) completed the nonconference portion of its schedule with a 76-48 victory against visiting California Davis (5-7). ... No. 12 Marquette (10-1) defeated visiting Savannah State (7-11), 77-37, for its sixth consecutive victory. ... No. 13 Indiana (11-1) defeated visiting Chicago State (4-12), 97-59, to win its seventh consecutive game. ... No. 14 Texas A&M (12-1) extended its winning streak to five with an 83-54 victory against visiting Florida A&M (3-8). ... No. 21 Clemson (11-1) rebounded from its first loss of the season with a 78-45 victory against visiting Samford (5-6). ... The freshman O. J. Mayo scored 20 points to lead No. 24 Southern California (9-3) to a 70-57 victory against visiting California Riverside (3-8).

Wisconsin
College Athletics
Basketball
University of Texas at Austin


N.H.L. Labor Talks to Resume Friday

Abstract: Formal negotiations are scheduled to resume Friday between N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman and Donald Fehr , the executive director of the N.H.L. Players’ Association — the first formal bargaining since Sept. 12, three days before the lockout began. Friday’s talks are expected to focus on secondary economic issues and will not address the core issue of how to split revenue. The remainder of the preseason schedule was canceled Thursday, including a game between the Islanders and the Devils on Tuesday that was to be the first sporting event held at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. The league’s regular season is supposed to begin Oct. 11. In recent days, several figures have voiced fears that the entire season will be lost to the lockout, as the 2004-5 season was. Those included Detroit Red Wings forward Dan Cleary, the former player Bobby Holik and the respected Canadian commentator Bob McKenzie , who said Tuesday, “I’m not at all optimistic that there’s going to be hockey this year.” But others believe that with their N.H.L. revenue growing robustly each year, to $3.3 billion for last season, the owners have too much at stake to risk the whole season. In 2004-5 Bettman and the owners said the league was deeply in the red. “I think the owners were willing to lose up to two seasons in the last lockout, but this time around, no,” said Jonathon Gatehouse, a Canadian business writer and the author of “ The Instigator ,” a new biography of Bettman. “I buy into the same idea that a lot of people have: There’s too much money on the table to leave behind,” Gatehouse added. “Just in May, Bettman was at a sports business conference in Boston, talking about how the league has never been in a better place financially.” He said he would not be surprised if the owners accepted a deal that gave them about 48 percent of the revenue, as opposed to the 43 percent they got in the seven-year collective bargaining agreement that expired Sept. 15. In their current offer, the owners are asking for about 53 percent. “What’s really different this time as opposed to the last lockout, is there’s a significant loss for the owners if they don’t run the season,” said Rod Fort , a professor of sports economics at the University of Michigan. “As soon as play that really matters for the owners’ pocketbooks starts to be forgone, about a week before that they’ll settle,” Fort said, estimating that point would arrive by the beginning of November. But by canceling regular-season games, the owners would also risk the lucrative sales of luxury suites to corporate buyers, said Tony Knopp , the chief executive of Spotlight TMS, a company that manages and tracks corporate ticket sales. Since the economic collapse in 2008, many corporations have cut back on buying corporate suites and premium seats at N.H.L. arenas, where they can account for more than 40 percent of ticket and suite revenue. If the current lockout drags on much longer, it may induce belt-tightening companies to cut back on ticket purchases still further. “Those guys leave — and you’re giving them an excuse to leave — some of those middle-market and low-market N.H.L. teams that are already having trouble financially, they can’t compete anymore,” said Knopp, who works with seven N.H.L. teams, including the Red Wings, the Maple Leafs and the Devils. He added: “If the N.H.L. offers them a hand to cut off, well, they’re going to do it. I don’t think they understand the gravity of that. Once these companies stop buying suites, they’re not coming back.” But Knopp, who worked as a sales executive for the Los Angeles Kings during the 2004-5 lockout, said he was not certain the owners were aware how much revenue was at stake. He cited a conference of luxury suite directors in Minneapolis last June attended by sales executives from several N.H.L. teams. “What blew everyone’s hair back at the conference was the news of corporate cutbacks,” Knopp said. “One of our customers went from 100 luxury suites to 65 in the last three years. Another had 17 in all sports and dropped all of them in three years.”

Lockouts
National Hockey League
National Hockey League Players' Assn
Bettman Gary
Fehr Donald
Hockey Ice


Clock Ticking on G.M. Bailout Plan

Abstract: General Motors must win approval to sell its best assets to a new government-financed company by July 10 or risk losing its bankruptcy financing, a Treasury Department official testified on Wednesday. Harry J. Wilson, a member of the Obama administration’s auto task force, said in United States Bankruptcy Court in New York that the government’s loan to G.M. expired July 10. If the carmaker — now in its second day of hearings to approve the sale — fails to complete the transaction by then, the administration does not intend to extend the loan by even one day, he said. “We have no intention to further fund this company if the sale order is not entered by July 10,” Mr. Wilson said. “It’s better to cut one’s losses.” He also said he expected an initial public offering of a new G.M. stock sometime next year. Later in the day, Harvey R. Miller, G.M.’s chief bankruptcy counsel, warned that the company had no alternative to the proposed sale. “No other entity can compete with the price offered by the purchaser,” he said, referring to the government. The tight timeline underscores the speed with which G.M. and the Obama administration are seeking to create a slimmed-down G.M. through the bankruptcy court. Using Section 363 of the federal bankruptcy code, the carmaker would place desirable brands in a new company owned largely by the American and Canadian governments and a health care trust for the United Automobile Workers union. The new G.M., which would continue to be led by Fritz Henderson, would leave behind several undesirable sets of claims in bankruptcy court, including asbestos litigation and some product liability claims. In his court testimony on Wednesday in New York, Mr. Wilson — formerly a senior executive of Silver Point Capital, a hedge fund specializing in distressed-debt investments — described some of the negotiation process that shaped G.M.’s bankruptcy case. The administration’s auto task force had decided upon an asset sale plan by mid-May, as G.M. began a debt-exchange offer with its bondholders as part of a government-supported restructuring plan. By pursuing an asset sale, G.M. could be assured of greater speed, certainty and the ability to shed unwanted liabilities, Mr. Wilson said. Because the government was essentially G.M.’s lender of last resort, it could effectively dictate what it found acceptable as a turnaround plan, Mr. Wilson testified. By the end of Wednesday’s hearing, Judge Robert E. Gerber had heard closing arguments from several parties, including G.M. and a number of opponents to its sale plan, as well as lawyers for asbestos litigants and accident victims. Other parties, including an unofficial committee of dissident G.M. investors holding about $2.3 million worth of bonds, are scheduled to deliver their statements on Thursday. In his closing arguments, Mr. Miller noted that the company’s sale proposal received more than 800 objections. But none had proposed a credible alternative plan, he said, leaving liquidation as the only other possibility, and one he described as “draconian.” But several of the plan’s opponents criticized it as unfairly circumventing their rights as creditors, something G.M. and the government planned from the beginning. And because G.M. is selling assets to a new government-backed company — as opposed to a third party, as Chrysler did in its asset sale to a Fiat-run entity — a number of these opponents argue that its turnaround plan was negotiated in bad faith.

Bankruptcies
Treasury Department
Automobiles
General Motors Corp
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


Spent Fuel Hampers Efforts at Japanese Nuclear Plant

Abstract: This article is by Hiroko Tabuchi , David Jolly and Kevin Drew. TOKYO — Workers at Japan’s ravaged nuclear power plant on Tuesday renewed a bid to bring its command centers back into service and to restore electricity to vital cooling systems, but an overheating spent fuel pool hampered efforts and raised the threat of further radiation leaks. The storage pool at Fukushima Daiichi Power Station’s No. 2 Reactor, which holds spent nuclear fuel rods, was spewing steam late Tuesday, forcing workers to divert their attention to dousing the reactor building with water. If unchecked, the water in the pool could boil away, exposing the fuel rods and releasing large amounts of radiation into the air. “We cannot leave this alone, and we must take care of it as quickly as possible,” Hidehiko Nishiyama, deputy director of Japan’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told reporters. Workers have now connected power cables to all six reactors at the plant, though some of the machinery, including the water pumps that cool the reactors, might be damaged, officials said, requiring more repair work. On Tuesday, Tokyo Electric Power Company, which owns the plant, said that power had been turned on in Reactor No. 3, but only for lights, not the cooling system. The cooling systems at all of the reactors were knocked out by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, and power was first restored to units 5 and 6. They were not operating before the quake but, like the other four reactors, have pools of spent fuel rods. Another major effort was under way to restore full power and resume operations at the plant’s central command centers, which will make it easier for workers to monitor heat and water levels at the reactors. Recovery efforts have been hindered by difficulties in gauging readings of crucial data, forcing officials to work off aerial photos and speculation. Workers also continued pumping water into three reactors with fire hoses, to keep them from overheating, while firefighters aimed streams of water at their spent fuel pools through gaps in the buildings housing the reactors, blown out in a series of explosions that rocked the site last week. In Vienna, an official at the International Atomic Energy Agency complained about a lack of information from the Japanese authorities. “We have not received validated information for some time related to the containment integrity of unit 1,” the official, Graham Andrew, said. “So we are concerned that we do not know its exact status.” He also said the agency lacked data about the temperatures of the pools holding spent fuel rods at the Nos. 1, 3 and 4 reactors. Another agency official said that the site continued to emit radiation but that the source was unclear. Separately, the Kyodo news agency reported that the I.A.E.A. had detected radiation levels 1,600 times above normal about 12 miles from the plant. The government has ordered people to evacuate a 12-mile radius around the plant and told those 12 to 18 miles away to stay indoors. The crisis has raised fears about the spread of contamination in the environment and the local food supply. The government has announced that traces of radioactive elements have been found in vegetables and raw milk from farms around the plant, prompting a government ban on shipments from those areas. Elevated levels of radioactive iodine and cesium have also been detected in the seawater near Fukushima, and the government is testing seafood as a precaution, Yukio Edano, the chief cabinet secretary, said Tuesday. Government officials and health experts stress, however, that the doses are low and do not pose an immediate threat to human health. Also on Tuesday, the public broadcaster NHK, citing the government’s Science Ministry, reported that radiation levels surpassing 400 times the normal level had been detected in soil about 25 miles from the Fukushima plant. In the NHK report, a Gunma University professor said that radiation released by iodine 131 had been found to be 430 times the level normally detected in soil in Japan, and that released by cesium 137 was 47 times the normal levels. The professor, Keigo Endo, said that there was no immediate health risk but that the radiation levels would require monitoring. The nuclear crisis has also overshadowed the monumental task in Japan of providing aid to hundreds of thousands of people displaced by the quake and the tsunami. More than 237,000 people remain in temporary shelters, NHK reported. The Japanese Red Cross has 300 to 350 people assigned to medical teams working in the disaster zone, said a spokesman, Francis Markus. The organization is still scaling up its relief operations but planning is under way to help with recovery and reconstruction efforts, Mr. Markus said. “Right now, people need hot showers daily, they need better sanitation systems,” he said. Medical teams are treating large numbers of cases of hypothermia and pneumonia, Mr. Markus said, as well as illness from swallowing polluted water. Doctors also are treating conditions tied to Japan’s comparatively older population, like diabetes and high blood pressure. The need for medicine is constant, Mr. Markus said. “One doctor in the field described the situation of receiving more medicine as pouring water in the desert,” he said. Unseasonably cold weather has added to the daily struggle for evacuees and relief workers. Local forecasters are predicting overnight temperatures this week to hover around freezing in the prefectures hardest hit by the tsunami, in the northeast, as a cold front moves into the region. On Tuesday, the government raised the official death toll to 9,079, and said more than 12,600 were missing, although officials cautioned that there could be overlap between the figures. The final death toll is likely to reach 18,000, the government has said. The economy has also taken a battering. Honda and Toyota both said they would suspend domestic auto production until at least this weekend because of the difficulty of procuring parts.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Japan)


Pitching at Altitude Remains a Riddle for the Rockies

Abstract: Scottsdale, Ariz. The quotation on the bulletin board above Bill Geivett’s desk here describes the mind-set of the Colorado Rockies. It comes from Lou Holtz, the former Notre Dame football coach, and encapsulates the defiance the Rockies may need more than any other major league team. “I don’t care who questions our ability to succeed,” it reads, “as long as they aren’t members of this team.” Only the Rockies can truly understand the punishing reality of playing a mile above sea level, the central challenge that has shaped their 20 years. Geivett, a senior vice president, has been with the team since 2000 and is the son of a meteorologist. Yet atmospheric conditions remain a mystery. Last year the Rockies had a 5.97 earned run average at home and a 4.41 E.R.A. on the road. The 1.56 difference was the widest since the team installed a humidor to store baseballs at Coors Field in 2002. The humidor is supposed to prevent baseballs from drying out in the low humidity. But on their way to a franchise-worst 64-98 record last season, the pitchers went haywire. “People tell you the air was really dry, and the number of fires in the state of Colorado are certainly evidence of that,” Geivett said. “Maybe that played into it; I don’t know. I don’t have any idea.” Really, though, Geivett has lots of ideas. He formally assumed responsibility of the major league team last summer, with General Manager Dan O’Dowd concentrating on the farm system, and said the guiding principle was that the Rockies should play the same way at home as they do on the road. But as they try, the Rockies have spent years devising strategies that do not apply to other teams. Should they field a team of sluggers who launch balls into thin air, or a team of speedsters to patrol the wide outfield gaps? Should they sign established, free-agent pitchers, or build a staff from within? Early last summer, they put into practice an idea percolating for more than a decade: a four-man rotation with a 75-pitch limit for starters. “In some ways, it was cool being out there more often,” the veteran Jeff Francis said. “Three days’ rest, it felt like you were pitching more. But as starters, you pride yourself on going deep in games and being a horse. That was hard to adjust to.” The Rockies, who lost four of their initial five starters because of injuries or ineffectiveness, did not adapt well. They have scrapped the plan for 2013, and expect to employ a traditional five-man rotation, with one wrinkle: they will carry three long relievers, not just one. But the experiment did leave a mark, historically. Rockies starters worked only 765 innings, the fewest for any team in a nonstrike season, according to research dating to 1900 by the Elias Sports Bureau. Francis led the team in innings with just 113, and no Rockies pitcher reached double digits in wins or losses. The team had only 27 quality starts (minimum six innings, maximum three earned runs). The next lowest team, Minnesota, had 62. “We knew there’d be some backlash to doing this, and people would feel like it’s not the way to go — maybe the majority of the people,” Geivett said. “But we were proving to everybody that we would try to do whatever we needed to do to win, and that’s what that was all about, putting ourselves at a better competitive advantage.” The idea symbolized the philosophical differences between the front office and Manager Jim Tracy, who resigned after the season . But it stands as a bold attempt, if a brief and desperate one, to combat some troublesome trends in pitching. Francis, the No. 1 starter on the Rockies’ 2007 World Series team, said the rigors of pitching at altitude could be taxing on the shoulder. Maybe it would help, the Rockies believed, to have pitchers working more often while eliminating the pitches they throw while tired. Statistics supported that philosophy, to an extent. The major league batting average against a starting pitcher the first time through the order, in 2012, was .250. The third time through the order, that figure rose to .272. Even in a five-man rotation, the new manager Walt Weiss said, those facts are important to remember. “The numbers are alarming,” Weiss said. “That’s one of the thoughts behind that philosophy, just keeping an eye on that. It doesn’t mean you’re going to pull a guy every time before he gets to the third time, but just have an awareness of it.” The overriding idea, several Rockies said, was to emphasize pitch efficiency. Tyler Chatwood, a pitcher who came from the Los Angeles Angels before last season, said the theory was to challenge hitters, and never to waste any pitches. Internalizing that mentality, Chatwood said, could only help. But fighting both the opposing team and an artificial pitch limit was too much for a young rotation. “I’m always the kind of guy who throws a lot of pitches, so it was tough for me to try to figure out how to make that work and get to five innings,” said Drew Pomeranz, 24, who got there just once in 10 starts from Aug. 1 through Sept. 21. “It was tough, but we knew what we had to do.” Ultimately, Geivett said, the plan fell apart largely because the pitchers had to reduce their bullpen work between starts, often throwing only 10 or 15 pitches per session. Younger, less refined pitchers tend to need longer sessions to improve. The Rockies’ top four projected starters — Jhoulys Chacin, Jorge De La Rosa, Juan Nicasio and Francis — are unimposing, but all have had some success in Denver, and the hope is that they will normalize the home/road disparity this season. Other teams have issues, Geivett said — the Chicago Cubs play the most day games; the Seattle Mariners log the most air miles; and so on. He would not use the word “frustrating” to describe the riddle of Denver baseball. “It’s interesting,” Geivett said. “At this point, I guess I’m one of these old war-horse baseball guys, but to be in professional baseball 25 years or whatever it is, and to be in a situation a lot of people don’t have to contend with, it really is fascinating.” Last season was a good year, Geivett insisted, because the failure in the standings allowed the team to evaluate itself honestly. He would not share all of his conclusions, but chances are we will see them on the field soon enough. If a team is willing to use a four-man rotation with a 75-pitch limit, it will not be afraid to try anything.

Rockies
Bill Geivett
Baseball
Jeff Francis
Jim Tracy


Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Glimpse Housing Up Close

Abstract: In the days leading up to the presidential primaries in New York, both Democratic candidates visited public developments operated by the New York City Housing Authority. Hillary Clinton went to the Corsi Houses, a complex for older people in East Harlem, and Bernie Sanders traveled to the Howard Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where two years ago a 21-year-old was shot to death, his body found outside an early learning center on the ground floor. Senator Sanders, who had been shocked to learn that the Housing Authority, the largest in the country, was in need of $17 billion in capital repairs, followed that visit with one to another complex, Twin Parks West, in the Bronx, where he observed an abandoned community center and lamented the general state of affairs that could lead to such decay. Image Bernie Sanders at the Howard Houses in Brownsville, Brooklyn, on April 17. Credit Lucas Jackson/Reuters “He saw a 10-story building with one elevator and asked, ‘What happens if this elevator breaks down?’” Eric L. Adams, the Brooklyn borough president, who accompanied the senator to Brownsville, told me. “Being on the ground and walking through gave him an opportunity to see three things: one, that the people who live in the projects are no different from anyone else; two, how much we have really divested from public housing; and three, just how much that divestment impacts people’s lives every day. I live in a building where I press the elevator button and it comes.” Both Mrs. Clinton and Senator Sanders made their visits only after local activist groups and politicians pressed them to do so , which in itself suggests the extent to which even liberal candidates on the national stage view public housing as a malady from which it is safest to maintain a distance — a grim architecture of benighted and failed idealism. Neither Nicholas Bloom nor Edward G. Goetz, academics and leading historians of the country’s public housing system, could recall the last time a presidential candidate made such an appearance. “It is really rare, and it’s a politically risky thing to do,” Mr. Bloom remarked to me. “The environment isn’t controlled, and if you go, you become urban identified.” It is in one obvious sense a striking paradox, that in a country in which nearly two-thirds of the population live in cities, urbanism and particularly the problems of urban poverty receive so little attention during presidential election cycles. Catering to the urban underclass is hardly politically expedient, on one level because the poor vote in far fewer numbers than the affluent, and on another because poverty is not an obsession of people with money. A study released last fall by the Pew Research Center, which surveyed 1,504 people around the country, found that the “poor and needy” ranked 10th as a public policy priority, behind crime (despite the fact that it is at historic lows), the budget deficit and terrorism, which held first place. Both candidates used their visits to pledge more federal funding to the country’s ailing public housing system, where more than one million people — approximately a third of them in New York City — reside. This is a promise whose execution would, of course, rely on a compliant Congress. In terms of immediate impact, though, the visits demonstrated the power of attention to beget engagement. In all three of the housing complexes visited by the two candidates, voter turnout rates increased significantly over those recorded during the 2008 presidential primary, even though residents then had the chance to cast a vote for the candidate who would be the first black president. Of the 466 registered Democrats living in the Howard Houses, 112 voted on Tuesday — a lower turnout rate than the one for Democrats citywide, which was 37 percent, but an increase over the 2008 figures, when only 81 voted. (These figures, calculated by the political consultancy Prime New York, also show Hillary Clinton having won all three housing developments.) Even Franklin Delano Roosevelt, under whose administration the federal public housing system was born, had a certain hesitation about getting too close. It wasn’t until 1937, when liberals in New York pushed his administration to build by organizing mass rallies and housing exhibitions (as Mr. Bloom recounts in his book “Public Housing That Worked: New York in the Twentieth Century”), that the president finally acquiesced, having believed all along that Americans should own their own homes, “however modest,” as he put it. As early as 1963, Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller, a committed urbanist who held on to utopian ideas about renewal, began to back away from the idea of housing subsidies, saying in a speech to the New York State Women’s Legislative Forum that he was trying to get taxpayer money out of housing, and private capital into it, to create “an irrigation system, as you do getting water to an arid area.” No matter what sort of fiscal innovations public housing officials conceive, the government spigot needs, in effect, to run. Now, at least, the conversation has been revived.

Hillary Clinton
Public Housing
2016 Presidential Election
Housing Authority NYC
NYC
Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders
2008 Presidential Election


Bills Coach Is One More Test of N.F.L.’s Personal Conduct Policy

Abstract: The N.F.L.’s revamped personal conduct policy is being tested again, this time by a coach, not a player. On Sunday, sheriff’s deputies in Walton County, Fla., arrested Buffalo Bills offensive line coach Aaron Kromer on a misdemeanor battery charge for assaulting a boy . According to the sheriff’s office, Kromer and his son confronted three boys on Saturday who had been fishing out of chairs they had left on a beach. The victims told the police that Kromer “grabbed their fishing pole and threw the pole into the water and then pushed one of the boys to the ground and punched him in the face.” Kromer then told the boys to put the chairs back where they found them, the police said. Kromer also told one of the boys that if he reported the incident to the police “he would kill his family,” the sheriff’s department said. Kromer was arrested early Sunday morning and has been released on bond. The case will be another test for the N.F.L., which is determined to crack down on employees of the league who have committed domestic violence and assault. In December, the league unveiled new, stronger guidelines, which include six-game suspensions for players and other league employees who are found to have committed domestic violence. A league spokesman said the case was under review. It is possible that the N.F.L. puts Kromer on paid leave while it continues its investigation, something it has done in other cases. The Bills said they were “aware of the report and in the process of gathering the facts.”

Aaron Kromer
Assault
Football
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015


Biden Meets With Pakistani Leaders

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. met for talks here on Wednesday with top civilian and military leaders, looking to reinforce a strategic partnership with Pakistan and to reassure a skeptical nation of American intentions. It was Mr. Biden’s first trip to Pakistan as vice president, intended to signal both the United States’ unbroken commitment after the sudden death in December of Richard C. Holbrooke, the special envoy to the region, and its high-level concern. As American officials have for months, Mr. Biden was likely to use the occasion to push the Pakistani military for operations in North Waziristan, where insurgents run a virtual ministate, training militants and organizing attacks against NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani officials say they want to undertake the offensive when they choose, but for American officials, looking to lock in tentative gains in Afghanistan, time is of the essence. Largely successful American operations this fall in southern Afghanistan pushed many Taliban across the border to Baluchistan Province in Pakistan. American officials will now be seeking Pakistani cooperation in preventing the Taliban from returning to Afghanistan to fight in the spring. But Mr. Biden’s public remarks indicated that he also wanted to continue to shift relations to a broader, longer-term agenda, including economic assistance, and to move the two countries away from what he described as a “transactional” relationship. Flanked by Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani, Mr. Biden sought to dispel what he described as misconceptions about the United States in Pakistan, including that it was anti-Islam. He dismissed notions that the United States wanted to dismantle or weaken Pakistan and that it favored India, Pakistan’s archrival. He emphasized that the United States would not abandon the country, as many Pakistanis feel it did in the past. He underscored the threat of extremism and rebuffed criticism that the United States was violating Pakistani sovereignty, saying it was instead groups like Al Qaeda that had done so. Pakistan and the United States have forged a partnership against extreme ideologies, he said. “Our relationship, in my view and the view of President Obama, is absolutely vital, absolutely vital, to the interest of the United States, and I believe you believe it is vital to the Pakistani interest as well,” Mr. Biden said in remarks to reporters broadcast live on state-run television. “There are those who accuse the United States of violating your sovereignty,” he added. “I respectfully suggest that it is the extremists who violate Pakistan’s sovereignty and corrupt its good name.” He said the United States would work with Pakistani leaders “to restore and strengthen sovereignty in those areas of the country where extremists had violated it.” The only productive way forward for the United States and Pakistan, he said, is “a long-term, enduring partnership.” The White House’s strategic review of policy in December made particular mention of the need for Pakistan to do more to eliminate havens for extremist groups. American strikes by drones , which have provoked popular outcries in Pakistan over its sovereignty, have degraded Al Qaeda, but progress remains uneven, the review said. “Furthermore,” it stated, “the denial of extremist safe havens cannot be achieved with military means alone, but must continue to be advanced by effective development strategies.” The competing forces squeezing Pakistan were on full display on Wednesday. Eighteen people were killed when a suicide bomber in a district adjacent to North Waziristan rammed a vehicle packed with explosives into a mosque during evening prayers, according to a security official. Meanwhile, an American drone fired two missiles into a compound in Mirali, in North Waziristan, killing five people believed to be militants, a local official said. Given the success of the drone strikes in North Waziristan, Mr. Biden may also push to expand their use. The vice president took no questions, saying he was late for a meeting with the country’s army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani. Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, the director general of the Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, was expected to attend. Earlier in the day, Mr. Biden met with President Asif Ali Zardari. “The atmosphere of the meeting was good,” said Farahnaz Ispahani, media adviser to Mr. Zardari, who was present then. Mr. Biden said he had made a telephone call to express condolences to Aamna Taseer, the wife of the Punjab governor, Salman Taseer, who was assassinated by a religious extremist on Jan. 4. “Societies that tolerate such actions end up being consumed by those actions,” he warned. Mr. Zardari, in turn, expressed hopes for an early recovery for Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona, who remained in critical condition after being shot in Tucson on Saturday. After a week in which economic reforms all but collapsed as the prime minister sought to hold together his coalition government, Mr. Biden and Mr. Zardari also discussed the economy. However, Ms. Ispahani said Mr. Biden announced no concrete aid package before he left for Baghdad, where he touched down early Thursday.

Pakistan
United States International Relations
Biden Joseph R Jr


Georgia Democrat’s Senate Campaign Plan, Not Meant for Public Eyes, Is Published

Abstract: ATLANTA — Less than one week after Republicans selected their nominee for a United States Senate race in Georgia, the campaign of the Democratic candidate, Michelle Nunn , was jolted on Monday by the publication of an internal document that charted plans for a contest that is expected to be one of the country’s most competitive and one of the few where Democrats have any realistic chance of retaking a Republican-held seat. The document, labeled “The Campaign Plan” and distributed to Ms. Nunn and key supporters last year, includes standard plans for the campaign to coordinate with other Georgia Democrats, sketches out timetables for contacting voters and sets out a schedule for opposition research. But it also lists potential political liabilities in a way the Nunn campaign surely did not expect to become public, saying that Ms. Nunn might be attacked as a “lightweight,” “too liberal” and “not a ‘real’ Georgian,” and laying out strategies to respond to criticisms of her biography and record. The presentation, which was published on the website of National Review , is candid in its assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of Ms. Nunn, who is seeking public office for the first time, and her campaign. In one portion of the document, Ms. Nunn is described as “in many ways a fund-raiser’s dream” for reasons that include her ties to potential donors — she was previously the chief executive of Points of Light, a nonprofit group, and is the daughter of former Senator Sam Nunn — and what it described as “a real gift” for public speaking. But in other portions of the presentation, strategists lay bare her potential vulnerabilities and recommend ways to counter possible misgivings among voters, like “the notion that she is an Atlanta-based candidate uninterested in, or unfamiliar with, the rural parts of the state.” It also identifies as possible lines of attack “grants to problematic entities” and “service awards to inmates, terrorists” when she worked for Points of Light . National Review reported that Internal Revenue Service filings showed that Points of Light had provided money to Islamic Relief USA, the American branch of an international charity that has been accused of links to Hamas. ( Islamic Relief Worldwide said last month that it had no connection to Hamas.) The Nunn campaign said Points of Light had merely vetted charities as a contractor for eBay and said references to Islamic Relief in tax filings were to comply with accounting standards. The Nunn campaign said in a statement that the leaked document was an example of its planning for a lengthy and difficult campaign. “This was a draft of a document that was written eight months ago,” said Jeff DiSantis, Ms. Nunn’s campaign manager. “Like all good plans, they change. But what hasn’t changed and is all the more clear today is that Michelle’s opponents are going to mischaracterize her work and her positions, and part of what we’ve always done is to prepare for the false things that are going to be said.” But in a post on its website, the National Republican Senatorial Committee said it was clear that Ms. Nunn had mapped out a strategy “to hide who she is from Georgia’s voters.” For most of the summer, Ms. Nunn’s campaign has avoided attention as Republicans here scrambled to pick their nominee in a sharply contested primary election. Only last week, after a runoff, did David Perdue , a former chief executive of Dollar General, emerge as the Republicans’ candidate. The presentation’s disclosure was seen as an embarrassment for Ms. Nunn, but analysts said it was unlikely to have an immediate effect on the race. “The average voter isn’t going to come across this and wouldn’t spend the time to read it,” said Charles S. Bullock III, a political scientist at the University of Georgia. “But it gives ammunition to the Perdue campaign. They know what the opposition sees it as its own weaknesses, and it can bore in on those.”

Georgia
Republicans
Senate races
Michelle Nunn
National Review
Points of Light
Islamic Relief USA
David Perdue
2014 Midterm Elections


James’s 41 Points Top Bryant And Lakers

Abstract: LOS ANGELES (AP) — The final seconds ticked away, with the Los Angeles Lakers needing a 3-pointer to send the game into overtime. That shot was never even attempted. LeBron James won his personal matchup with Kobe Bryant in a duel of the N.B.A.’s leading scorers Sunday, tallying 14 of his 41 points in the fourth quarter, and the Cleveland Cavaliers won, 98-95, in Los Angeles for their fifth consecutive victory against the Lakers. After James’s two free throws with nine seconds to play gave Cleveland a 3-point lead, the Lakers took a timeout to formulate strategy. The Cavaliers focused their defense on Bryant. “That’s really what you want; you want to not allow Kobe to get a clean look from the start of the play, make those guys make a couple passes, which we did, and not let them get a clean look,” Cleveland’s Larry Hughes said. “Nobody wanted to shoot it.” Luke Walton appeared to be the player who should have fired away. “Has to, he’s the open guy,” Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said before quickly adding: “The game wasn’t lost on that sequence.” Walton, who had scored only 17 points in the Lakers’ previous five games, shooting 6 for 20, shouldered the blame. “We ran our last-second play, I was hoping to get the shot off,” said Walton, who shot 4 for 8 in scoring 9 points and also had 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals. “I kind of fumbled the ball a little bit, wasn’t aware the clock was as low as it was, and as soon as I passed it back to Kobe, I realized that that was a mistake, and, unfortunately, it cost us big.” Bryant scored 9 of his 33 points in the final period, and also had 12 rebounds and 6 assists, but it was not be enough to keep the Lakers from losing their third straight, matching their longest losing streak of the season. “It was designed for me to come up from the top of the floor and get a good look at a 3,” Bryant said regarding the last play. “We had to run a dribble weave in that situation and they both came with me, so I kicked it out. I don’t know if he had a clear look at the basket. I think they rotated to him pretty quickly. There’s always other options.” The Cavaliers took a 94-93 lead on a basket by James with 1 minute 16 seconds remaining, and Bryant drew an offensive foul nine seconds later. After a possession by each team, James ran the shot clock down before hitting from outside with 20 seconds to go, giving the Cavaliers a 3-point lead. Ronny Turiaf made a follow shot with 13 seconds left, trimming Cleveland’s lead to 1, setting the stage for James’s last points and the final sequence. Zydrunas Ilgauskas had 16 points and 11 rebounds before fouling out with 6:14 to play, and Hughes also scored 16 points for the Cavaliers (24-19), who won for the 12th time in 15 games. Lamar Odom had 14 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists for the Lakers (27-15), who have a 2-4 record since center Andrew Bynum injured his left knee. It was their fourth game without Trevor Ariza, who broke his right foot. Neither player is expected to return before the middle of March. The game was delayed for 12 minutes late in the first quarter because of a small leak in the Staples Center roof. It resulted in a steady flow of drops under the north basket — out of bounds but less than a foot from the baseline. Regarding the final nine seconds, James said: “For them to not even get a shot off, that’s what it’s been about for us lately. We’ve been extremely conscious of playing defense the right way. We thought that Kobe was going to take the shot, of course. We just tried to get a hand up, contain them.” James also had nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. The Lakers used a 23-9 run to finish the third quarter and begin the fourth for an 84-75 lead. The Cavaliers responded with a 15-2 spurt to take a 4-point lead. Neither team led by more than 4 points after that.

Los Angeles Lakers
Cleveland Cavaliers
James LeBron
Bryant Kobe
Basketball
National Basketball Assn


Toll Brothers Says It Expects a 22% Decline in Revenue

Abstract: Toll Brothers, the builder of luxury homes, said on Wednesday that it expected to report a 22 percent drop in first-quarter revenue and that it saw no sign of improvement in the depressed housing market. “The housing market remains very weak in most areas,” the chief executive, Robert I. Toll, said in a statement. “Based on current traffic and deposits, we are not yet seeing much light at the end of the tunnel.” Prospective buyers canceled 28 percent of contracts signed in the quarter, Toll Brothers said. Preliminary results for the quarter ended Jan. 31 showed home-building revenue of $842.7 million, down from $1.09 billion in the quarter a year earlier. Final results for the quarter are scheduled to be released on Feb. 27. The company expects to take $150 million to $300 million in first-quarter pretax write-downs of land and land options. To navigate the downturn, builders have shifted their focus to survival, turning the excess land and inventory accumulated during the boom times of 2002 to 2006 into cash. The balance sheet at Toll is stronger than that of most other publicly traded home builders because it bought or optioned many of its lots earlier, when prices were lower and in more expensive areas. Toll ended the quarter with about $950 million in cash and more than $1.2 billion available under a multibank credit facility, which matures in March 2011. The company said net signed contracts in the quarter, after cancellations, totaled 647 homes, down 37 percent from a year earlier. The fall was even more pronounced — 50 percent — in dollar terms, to $375.3 million.