A French Castle Built of Stone and Dreams

Abstract: TREIGNY, France — Maryline Martin, like a lot of little French girls, was besotted with the Middle Ages, with castles and maidens and knights. She worked for Pier 1 Imports for a while, then came back to this part of Burgundy and thought she would grow mushrooms. She worked instead in an agency trying to find work for the jobless, but the fakery and cynicism involved outraged her, she said. “I decided to do something for them instead, in this very small part of the world,” Ms. Martin said. So of course she decided to build a replica of a medieval chateau of the mid-13th century, using the techniques of the time: iron tools and no electricity. In partnership with Michel Guyot, a neighbor who restored the nearby Château de St.-Fargeau , she bought an abandoned red sandstone quarry and the woods around it, which contained the oak trees, clay, sand and water (found, she said, by diviners) that would be needed for construction. The first stone was cut and laid in 1997, and now the shape of the castle is taking form, with its round towers, great hall and ribbed, vaulted arches. The walls are now high enough that stones are raised using a pulley system driven by a man walking in a large wooden wheel, like a hamster in a treadmill. Plans call for a new wheel soon, in which two men can walk. The castle, called Guédelon, named after the surrounding forest, is now a self-sustaining concern. There are 67 employees, an annual budget of around $3.25 million and about 315,000 visitors a year, including 80,000 schoolchildren, to this fairly remote site two hours from Paris. The regular entrance fee is 9 euros, and the profitable tavern is leased to a private company. But it is not a Disneyland or a Colonial Williamsburg, though the workers here spend half their time, they say, talking to visitors and explaining what they are doing. The intention of Guédelon is essentially academic and didactic — to try to use or recreate, as nearly as possible, the building techniques of the time, which is supposed to be 1241, in the early years of Louis IX. The castle is meant to belong to a regional lord who sided with the crown after a failed baronial insurrection in 1226 — wealthy enough to use some cut stone, buy some spices and have a great hall, but not rich enough to have a drawbridge. The site director, Florian Renucci, is a stonemason who worked on restoring national monuments, like the Pont Neuf in Paris . And a scientific council of advisers approves the plans and techniques. While the castle is classified as art and not a home — so it does not have to meet modern building codes — the safety of the workers themselves is a constant issue. The directors negotiate with the local authorities and insurance companies, so that the stonemasons, for example, must wear goggles when they cut or chisel stone, and workers must wear steel-toed boots. The scaffolding of wood is supported by ropes, and the local authorities insist that modern rope that has met standard tests be used for load-bearing supports. One building inspector wanted to ban the human treadmill, saying that “it was bad for the dignity of man, men are not animals,” but he finally came around. While the workers make their own lumber, mortar and tiles, some big oak beams are bought in a neighboring town, along with some commercially sawn limestone blocks, which are then carved by hand. Still, nearly all the stone is the quarry’s hard red sandstone. While the workers are paid well and work long hours — because they get more than four months off in the winter, when it is too cold to build with the mortar of the time, which dries very slowly — the labor is both skilled and physical. Philippe Delage, 55, a stonemason, has an extravagant white beard. He came here to work in 2004, he said, “to come back to the stone.” He relies on his eyes to find fault lines and the inevitable imperfections of the human cutter. “Working this way,” with ancient techniques, “is almost impossible,” he said. “But a good mason is a cheat. You always have to compensate for error.” For Mr. Renucci, 44, the site director, the project was a path back to his real love, which is old stones. Even as a skilled renovator of monuments, he used modern materials — cement, metal bars, resin, electric tools, chemical cleansers. “It felt like a ‘face lifting’ of the stone,” inauthentic and unsatisfying, he said. He came here in 1998 as a worker, to watch the project and judge it, but soon decided to commit. “What is hardest to do is to enter the logic of the period,” said Mr. Renucci, who originally studied philosophy. “I don’t have to eat mammoth or think the world is flat to build a castle. But I have to think my way into the authenticity of the process.” While the tavern-restaurant at the site does not carry mammoth, it does try to serve a reasonably medieval meal heavy on lamb, ham, sausage and preserved fish. There is a honey-based mead, but this being France, there is also beer, cider and vin de pays. The castle kitchen itself is popular with visitors, overseen by Françoise de Montmollin, 62, who bakes flat bread with a flour of lentils, chickpeas and bran, makes pies with salted fish and roasts chickens on a spit with a “green sauce” cited in troubadour songs of the time. Still, much is unclear about the period and its techniques, and not all historians think Guédelon is sufficiently accurate. “For the public it’s an enormous success, and the pedagogic aspect is excellent,” said Jean-Jacques Schwien, who teaches medieval architecture at the University of Strasbourg. But there is not a sufficient scientific protocol to test methods, he said, and he believes the “glacis,” the sloping foundation of the castle, is too large and high. On the ground floor of the great tower, he insists, there should not be a door, because “they appeared only in the 15th century.” These concerns do not much bother Ms. Martin or Mr. Renucci, who are not trying to explain everything and who feel that they have rediscovered much, like a decent recipe for lime-based mortar and a method for creating the vaulted ceilings of the time. “After we built the first ribbed vault in 2002, people began to look at us with a bit of respect,” said Sarah Preston, a guide who first came here as a visitor and was captivated by the project. “It was the first ribbed vault built in 700 years.” While plans are to finish the castle in the next 12 to 15 years, with its great hall, family quarters, grand staircase and tower of nearly 95 feet, the point of the exercise is the construction, not the conclusion. For Ms. Martin, Guédelon has been “a delirious human adventure,” she said. “When they lay the last stone, it will be terrible, terrible.”

Burgundy (France)
Palaces and Castles
Restoration and Renovation


Desperate Retailers Try Frantic Discounts and Giveaways

Abstract: At a dealership on the outskirts of Miami, people who agree to buy one Dodge Ram truck can get a second truck or car — free. In 415 supermarkets across the East, customers who bring in a prescription can walk out with free antibiotics. And one clothing chain, not to be outdone, has started offering three suits for the price of one. An era of desperation marketing is at hand, with stores and automobile dealerships adopting virtually any tactic that might grab the attention of frightened consumers. After one of the worst holiday seasons in decades, businesses are doing whatever they can to clear their shelves and make way for spring merchandise. Sales of 50 percent off stopped capturing the attention of customers weeks ago, so stores are layering discounts on top of discounts, and trying to lure shoppers with promises of giveaways, bulk bargains and other gimmicks. “Retailers are trying everything in the book,” said C. Britt Beemer, chairman of America’s Research Group, a consumer research firm. “You’re seeing things like, ‘Buy one, get two free.’ That’s just unheard of, and the item you’re buying isn’t even full price.” He added, “When you’re advertising those sorts of price points, you’re just trading trash for cash. There’s no strategy. You’re just trying to get rid of it.” For stores, offers like free antibiotics, three-for-one sweaters and 90-percent-off Sony PlayStations are usually “loss leaders,” a retailing term for sweet deals meant to drive traffic. The stores hope not only to clear out merchandise that is not moving, but also to draw in customers who will spend money on other items. With sales of clothing, electronics, luxury goods and more down by double digits in the dismal economy, these loss leaders are more important than ever, analysts said. Stores began discounting long before the holiday season and slashed prices even more as Christmas approached, but the sales alone were not enough to clear away winter inventory. “Fear is very high right now,” said Dan de Grandpre, editor of the Web site DealNews. “What you’re going to see is retailers do as much as they can to be as creative as possible. You’re going to see more of this aggressive and sometimes panicky discounting from apparel stores and electronics stores.” At the Samsonite outlet in Castle Rock, Colo., two free pairs of boots come with the purchase of one pair; similarly, at the home furnishings store Domestications, three throw rugs go for the price of one. Toys “R” Us had three-for-one Crayola products, and there were three-for-one cashmere sweaters at Off Fifth, the Saks outlet chain, according to news reports. “They had so many freebies,” said Carrie Koors, who lives in Cincinnati and writes a blog about bargain-hunting. “It was really a great holiday season to shop and get stuff for next season.” Of course, selling items at two- or three-for-the-price-of-one is effectively just a fat discount on each item. But Dan Ariely, a professor of behavioral economics at Duke University, says the word “free” can work psychological magic on reluctant consumers. “When you offer something for free it’s more exciting,” said Mr. Ariely, the author of “Predictably Irrational.” “We don’t think of it in the same way. We just get tempted, because we think of it as only having pluses and no negatives. Free is like a whole new category.” And so the deals keep multiplying. The clothing company PacSun is offering a $10 discount coupon that allows customers to buy $9.99 T-shirts and slippers for only the cost of shipping. A Ford dealership in San Mateo, Calif., is offering a free scooter with the purchase of every 2009 Ford F-150. And shoppers at Jos. A. Bank can buy three suits for the price of one, while customers at Stop & Shop and Giant Food supermarkets can get free antibiotics to treat their winter ailments — with a doctor’s prescription, of course. “We’re going to take a leadership role in the industry, and we’re going to be different,” said Faith Weiner, Stop & Shop’s director of public affairs. In Davie, Fla., University Dodge dreamed up a “Buy 1 ... Get 2!” deal to attract the attention of potential customers and whittle excess inventory, which had spilled onto the lot next door. So far, the dealership has sold 40 vehicles under the promotion, which promises customers a free Dodge Ram, Dodge Caliber or PT Cruiser if they buy a 2008 Ram. “Most people think we’re crazy,” said Ali Ahmed, the sales manager. “More than anything, it’s a way to catch the customer’s interest than to just offer a percentage or dollar amount off. They’ve heard that before.” The dealership has advertised its two-for-one car sale online and in newspapers, Mr. Ahmed said, and customers have been calling and showing up to see whether the sale is a gag. But it is no joke from Mr. Ahmed’s point of view: an estimated 900 auto dealerships out of 20,770 nationwide went out of business in 2008, according to industry estimates, and Mr. Ahmed said he did not want to join the thousands likely to close this year. “It’s a tough environment,” he said. “Of the dealers around you now, you know some of them aren’t going to be on the map next year. If you can steal a little bit of market share now, you’re not going to be one of those.”

Retail Stores and Trade
Discount Selling
Advertising and Marketing
Customer Relations


Russia: Snowden Waiting for Extension of Asylum

Abstract: The temporary asylum status of Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor accused of leaking secret documents, expired in Russia at midnight Thursday, but Mr. Snowden is expected to remain in Russia at least until Russian authorities decide on his application for an extension, his lawyer said. Mr. Snowden was stranded in Moscow last year on his way from Hong Kong to Cuba, shortly after he revealed secrets about the N.S.A.’s surveillance program. He received temporary asylum in Russia, a status that must be renewed annually. Mr. Snowden’s lawyer, Anatoly Kucherena, was quoted by the state news agency RIA Novosti on Thursday as saying that he expected a decision soon on the application.

Russia
Edward Snowden
Right of asylum
Europe
Government Surveillance
Classified Information
NSA


A Ringside Seat

Abstract: It’s easy now. Well, relatively easy. Not the writing, but getting your copy to your newspaper’s office. If you’re a sports reporter at ringside for a big fight, like the Floyd Mayweather Jr.-Manny Pacquiao extravaganza on Saturday night, you set up your laptop, type your words into the keyboard, move your mouse on the screen, click-click, hit “send,” and moments later, your article appears on a screen in your office. What a wonderful world. It wasn’t always this simple. In the late 1800s, when the heavyweight champions John L. Sullivan and Gentleman Jim Corbett popularized boxing in the United States, most reporters used those newfangled bulky metal typewriters, while others preferred longhand. Either way, they handed their copy to a Western Union telegrapher who transmitted Morse code over an electric connection to their newspaper offices, where another telegrapher translated those dots and dashes back into prose. The code was named for its inventor, Samuel Morse, who sent the first message over an experimental line from Washington to Baltimore in 1844: “What hath God wrought!” The dots and dashes may sound confusing, but to telegraphers, they were perfectly clear. Telegraphers were at ringside through the heavyweight reigns of Jack Dempsey and Gene Tunney in the Roaring Twenties after World War I, notably Dempsey’s wild second-round knockout of Argentina’s Luis Ángel Firpo, the 216-pound Bull of the Pampas, before more than 80,000 spectators at the Polo Grounds in 1923. In the first round, Dempsey knocked down Firpo seven times, then stood over him and punched him as he rose, a tactic that eventually led to the three-knockdown rule and the rule ordering the puncher to a neutral corner during the count. Late in that round, Firpo knocked the 192-pound Dempsey through the ropes into the ringside of reporters, photographers and telegraphers, the scene that inspired the artist George Bellows’s celebrated painting. Not that I was at ringside that night. After I began covering boxing in 1964, I met Dempsey at his Broadway restaurant and talked to him occasionally, although he didn’t tell his best story. Others did: how late one night, two muggers approached what they thought was a defenseless old man on a dark street, until he threw a right and a left, knocking down both, and continued on his way. As the nation stumbled through the Depression, telegraphers and radio announcers ushered the young Joe Louis to the heavyweight throne as the first popular African-American sports idol. He once defended the title with a first-round knockout of Max Schmeling, a fighter from Hitler’s Germany. After Pearl Harbor, Louis put the war in perspective when he said, “We’re on God’s side.” Image German Heavyweight boxer Max Schmeling turns his back to avoid punishment at the hands of American boxer Joe Louis during their rematch at Yankee Stadium. Credit Come Out Fighting: The Pictorial History of Heavyweight Boxing 1946. After World War II, operators of Western Union Teletype machines gradually replaced the telegraphers, but not completely. When I first entered the Ebbets Field press box in 1952 as a young reporter for The Brooklyn Eagle, the click-click of dots and dashes welcomed me. “See that distinguished gentleman over there,” someone said, pointing to silver-haired Roscoe McGowen, who covered the Dodgers for The Times. “You can’t get a scoop past Roscoe. He knows Morse code.” By then, boxing had a dynamic new name. On Labor Day 1950, my father said: “Sugar Ray Robinson is fighting at the Coney Island Velodrome this afternoon. Let’s go.” Half an hour away from our Bay Ridge apartment, Robinson danced through a unanimous 10-round decision over Billy Brown, ballooning his record to 112 wins, 1 loss (to Jake LaMotta in 1943) and 2 draws. Five months later, he stopped LaMotta in the 13th round for the world middleweight title, which he would regain four more times before he retired. Little did I think that day in Coney Island that I later would help the man most boxing people considered, pound for pound, the best boxer in history write his autobiography, “Sugar Ray,” for Viking Press. In our taping sessions at his Riverside Drive apartment, Ray spoke openly about his highs and lows in boxing and in life, but after about an hour, he would tire. “You my man, Dave, but that’s it for today,” he would say. “You went 15 rounds with Jake LaMotta,” I would say with a smile, “but you can’t go more than an hour with a tape recorder.” “Tomorrow,” he would say. Around that time, I was at ringside at the old Madison Square Garden on Eighth Avenue between West 49th Street and West 50th Street, in 1967 when Dick Tiger, the world light-heavyweight champion from Nigeria, was awarded a 15-round split decision over Jose Torres, the popular New Yorker from Puerto Rico. In that Garden’s steep balcony not far above the ring, many of Torres’s countrymen disagreed. Empty liquor and wine bottles suddenly were crashing in and around the ring. As I turned to look up at the balcony, a bottle thudded into the ring padding not far from my head. “Under the ring,” barked Jimmy Cannon, the New York Journal-American sports columnist. “Quick, under the ring.” Crouching, we hunched into the space under the ring as bottles continued to smash onto the floor around us. Minutes later, after security guards had herded the bottle-throwers out of the balcony, I hurried to the press room to write. Video The Sports of The Times columnist Dave Anderson describes meeting Muhammad Ali for the first time. Two years earlier, when I was a rookie boxing writer on The Journal-American, another ring provided my introduction to Muhammad Ali before his second fight with Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Maine. On my way to Lewiston, I stopped in Chicopee, Mass., where Ali was training. After a workout, his trainer Angelo Dundee asked me when I was going to drive to Lewiston. “Tomorrow morning,” I said. “I’ll be there around noontime.” “Will you do me a favor?” he said. “Will you measure the ring for me?” “Measure the ring?” “I hear they’ve got a small ring in the arena. My guy needs a 20-foot ring. He needs room to maneuver. In a small ring, Liston’s got an edge. Do me a favor. Measure the ring. Then call me.” When I arrived in Lewiston, I walked into St. Dominic’s Arena, where workmen in overalls were setting up rows of wooden-board desktops at ringside. On one of the boards was a steel measuring tape. “May I borrow that tape?” I asked. One of the workmen handed it to me and then held one end of the tape as I measured the ring inside the ropes: 16 feet by 16 feet. When I phoned Dundee, he said: “Then the fight’s off. If they don’t get a 20-foot ring or move this fight somewhere else, the fight’s off. And you can tell Bob Nilon I said that.” I found Nilon, one of the fight’s promoters, at an empty storefront that was being used as a ticket office. I told him I had measured the ring at 16 feet. “Is that so?” Nilon, whose brother Jack was one of Liston’s managers, said innocently. “Only 16 feet.” “And Angelo told me,” I said, “to tell you that if you don’t get a 20-foot ring here, the fight’s off.” Video The Sports of The Times columnist Dave Anderson recalls covering Muhammad Ali in a championship fight for the first time, against Sonny Liston in Lewiston, Me. It turned out the promoters had borrowed a small ring from the nearby Brunswick Naval Air Station gym. But when Dundee called their bluff and I wrote the story for a late edition of The Journal-American, a bigger ring was trucked up from Baltimore the next day. “It’s only 19 feet 6 inches,” Dundee told me at the weigh-in, “but that’s big enough.” Big enough for Ali to flatten Liston in 1 minute 52 seconds of the first round with a right hand that many ringside and television observers didn’t think was hard enough for a knockdown. I was at ringside, but when Ali threw that punch, his back was to me. I saw his shoulder muscles move, but I didn’t see the punch. Image Heavyweight champion Muhammad Ali stands over fallen challenger Sonny Liston, shouting and gesturing shortly after dropping Liston with a short hard right to the jaw on May 25, 1965, in Lewiston, Maine. Credit John Rooney/Associated Press When Joe Frazier knocked down Ali in the 15th round of their first fight in 1971 at the new Madison Square Garden, I also didn’t see the punch — Frazier’s thunderous left hook. But I did hear the thunderclap when Ali landed about three feet from me in a furious fight that lived up to its magical marquee. Each fighter was undefeated, each had a claim to the heavyweight title and each was guaranteed half of an unprecedented $5 million. Ali-Frazier I was also a morality play. Ali was the loudmouth, the Greatest, disliked by many for having refused to be drafted into the Army during the Vietnam War, a decision that led to his being stripped of the heavyweight title and exiled from boxing for three and a half years. Frazier was the friendly good guy who sometimes trained by punching sides of beef in a Philadelphia meat locker. With an unruly crowd expected, ringside reporters and columnists were issued red,white and blue baseball caps that, after the fight, would provide instant access past the security guards at the press room door where they would write. If you glance at the Associated Press photo of Frazier standing over Ali, you’ll see the Times delegation in the background, left to right, Robert Lipsyte on the telephone, Arthur Daley and me, with a ballpoint pen in my mouth as I typed round-by-round copy. Image Boxer Joe Frazier being directed to the ropes by referee Arthur Marcante after knocking down Muhammad Ali during the 15th round of the title bout at Madison Square Garden in New York on March 8, 1971. Credit Associated Press Photo Frazier’s unanimous and undisputed 15-round decision ignited what would be a dazzling decade dominated by the Frazier-Foreman-Ali heavyweight triumvirate. Frazier would be dethroned by George Foreman in a second-round knockout in Kingston, Jamaica, and then Foreman would be dethroned by Ali in an eighth-round knockout in Kinshasa, Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo). With the worldwide reporters lodged in a diplomatic compound outside Kinshasa, the promoters arranged for phone calls to their offices to go through special overseas operators, who would redirect their calls to their newspapers. In the days leading up to that fight, I dialed a special overseas operator who connected me to The Times and then I dictated my stories to The Times’s telephone room. But the night of the fight, which began at 4 in the morning so it could be shown at 10 in the evening on theater TV in the Eastern time zone, we had a special open telephone line from ringside to The Times. Sitting next to me was Tom Johnson, a Times foreign correspondent based in Kenya. During the early rounds, whenever I completed a paragraph or two on my Olivetti portable, Tom would lean over and dictate it to the telephone room in New York while I kept writing. When Ali knocked out Foreman in the eighth round to regain the heavyweight title, I wrote a quick lead and then dictated it while Tom hurried to the fighters’ postfight news conferences. As I wrote my final lead and then dictated it, Tom wrote his story, then dictated it. For one big fight on one big night, the telephone had replaced the telegrapher’s dots and dashes and the Teletype machine. About a year later, at what Ali titled the Thrilla in Manila, with Frazier, the Teletype reigned again in what I described as an “epic in brutality.” When Ali wobbled to his corner after the 11th round, he appeared exhausted. The way he plopped onto his stool, I wondered if he would answer the bell for the 12th round. But when that bell rang, he was on his feet and throwing punches, especially right handed — punches that continued to close Frazier’s left eye. The Escalation of Boxing Purses The fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao on May 2 will be the richest boxing match in history with the purse totaling more than $200 million dollars. A look at the rising paydays for boxers over the years. When the 14th round ended, Frazier’s left eye was virtually closed. He staggered to his corner where, I learned later, his trainer, Eddie Futch, asked him, “What’s with the right hand?” Joe replied: “I can’t see it. I can see the left but when I move away, I get hit with the right.” Hearing that, Futch said: “I’m going to stop it, Joe. The fight’s over.” Frazier hopped up from his stool and said: “Don’t do that. I can finish.” Futch tapped him on the shoulder and said: “Sit down. The fight’s over. This is the best thing to do.” Not every trainer would have thought, “This was the best thing to do,” especially a trainer thinking, as Futch was, that his fighter was ahead on points. Actually, Ali was far ahead on the scorecards of the referee, Carlos Padilla, and the two Filipino judges. I didn’t agree. I had Frazier ahead. So did some of the other writers at ringside. Whatever the scoring, when Futch told the referee that Frazier wasn’t going to answer the bell for the 15th round, the fight was over. Ali had retained the heavyweight title. But about 15 minutes later, the loser, Frazier, was first to appear in the interview room. He answered questions for about 10 minutes. Nearly half an hour later, the winner, Ali, finally appeared. Asked what the fight had been like, Ali whispered, “Next to death.” At Frazier’s postfight party at his Manila hotel, the great Times columnist Red Smith told me the loser danced and sang. When I stopped by Ali’s party, which President Ferdinand Marcos had arranged, the winner sat virtually motionless, his hands cupped as if he were holding a baby bird. When a visitor extended a hand, he would make a small fist with his right hand and gently touch his visitor’s right hand. He hardly spoke. He hardly looked up. If a stranger were to judge, by their postfight condition, which fighter had won the Thrilla in Manila, the loser would have been the winner. As the 1980s approached, SportsComm, basically a fax machine, briefly invaded press rooms everywhere, but computers soon ruled, including a bulky bubble-topped monstrosity that accompanied Larry Holmes’s coronation as champion in Las Vegas with his almost gentle termination of the Ali era. Video The Sports of The Times columnist Dave Anderson describes Muhammad Ali’s reaction to security precautions for the gloves in Kuala Lumpur. With a classic left jab, Holmes streaked to a 48-0 record. Hoping to match the heavyweight champion Rocky Marciano’s 49-0 career, he lost a unanimous decision to Michael Spinks, who was upstaged by Roberto Duran, Sugar Ray Leonard, Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns seemingly trading the lightweight, welterweight and middleweight titles among themselves. And then Mike Tyson arrived: Iron Mike, the “baddest man on the planet,” who mauled his terrified opponents until the journeyman Buster Douglas punched him back and knocked him out, and the fearless Evander Holyfield punched him back and knocked him out. Sitting ringside at a Tyson fight, I never knew what I might see, and in their rematch, I saw what I really didn’t want to see: Holyfield’s bloody ear, which Tyson had bitten. I didn’t cover many big fights after that, and now that I’m retired, I won’t be at Mayweather-Pacquiao in the MGM Grand on May 2, when millions of words will be transmitted from hundreds of laptops belonging to what is known now as the media. Somewhere the inventor Samuel Morse must be wondering: What hath all those dots and dashes wrought?

Boxing
Jack Dempsey
Muhammad Ali
George Foreman
The New York Times


Stimulus Projects Bring Broadband to Disconnected

Abstract: Government stimulus spending is a contentious issue right now in Washington . But the $7.2 billion in the last stimulus package for extending high-speed Internet access is just beginning to be spent, and the beneficiaries could not be happier. Cynthia K. Wegener and her husband, owners of a farm and horse-breeding business in western Kansas , will be able to upload a photograph of a horse to show a potential buyer in seconds, not the 20 to 30 minutes they now need with dial-up service. “I just cannot begin to tell you how frustrating it is to do anything with it,” she said. And in remote Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta in Alaska , with limited Internet access, the program will bring more fundamental changes, expanding the health care options, for example, to allow doctors in Anchorage , 400 miles to the east, to see patients via videoconference. “This is the first time in my 25 years in health care where technology has a direct impact,” David P. Hodges, the chief information officer for the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation. “It sure gives you a new perspective on what you do for a living.” The types of Internet activities that most Americans take for granted — watching videos, downloading songs, social networking — are out of reach for millions of homes across the United States . These people — many in poor, rural pockets — either have outmoded dial-up Internet service or have no affordable high-speed service. Sometimes the nearest high-speed connection is at the local library, 10 miles away. The $7.2 billion plan in the last stimulus package was approved without significant debate. The program is intended to extend broadband service to what is known as the “middle mile,” which can connect to institutions like schools and hospitals , and the “last mile” — homes and businesses — that big Internet providers have bypassed because the expected revenue was too small to justify the big investments needed. For some of the beneficiaries, the program will mean the difference between isolation and being connected to the rest of the world. “If you don’t have a high-speed Internet connection, it’s almost impossible to get anything done anymore,” said Martin Cary, vice president for broadband services at GCI Communication Corporation of Alaska, the largest Internet provider in the state. Julius Genachowski , the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission , said the extension of Internet service was a significant moment in communications. “Extending broadband in rural America is as important to jobs and growth in the 21st century as extending electricity was in the 20th century,” he said. So far, more than 200 projects have been awarded about $3 billion in grants and loans from the program’s administrators — the Agriculture and the Commerce Departments — mostly to small carriers. The stimulus law requires that all the money in the program be allocated by Sept. 30. Even so, many remote homes will still not get high-speed access. For those who will be connected, there are some mixed feelings. While most seem impatient for the greater access and many businesses are eager to attract new customers, some are concerned about the unintended consequences of their new connections. James W. Rowh, for instance, who owns an organic farm and natural foods store not far from the Wegeners in Norton, Kan., is wary that the Internet will lure his customers away. “You can find pretty deep discounts online,” he said. “There are only 3,000 people in this town. When you start losing people to the Internet, it’s going to have an effect on your bottom line.” Even the small companies that have been awarded the grants and loans to extend the broadband fiber lines and build the microwave towers are aware that once they do all the work and sign up the customers, the big carriers may move in with lower rates and lure their business away. “Typically, when we go into a town, competition will come on our heels,” said H. Rusty Irvin, the chief executive of StratusWave Communications, a small carrier in Wheeling, W.Va. “The Verizons and Comcasts may target that area for deployment.” The company won a $1.5 million loan and a $1.4 million grant to provide wireless service to three West Virginia counties in rural Appalachia. Bjorn Jones, a librarian in Salinas, Calif., an hour south of Silicon Valley, said that while the Web offered access to a seemingly limitless array of educational resources, it was also a source of mindless entertainment. “If broadband is contextualized within a library, then you are creating learning opportunities,” he said. “Without a plan, it’s going to be just kids watching YouTube .” The greater Salinas Valley, whose residents are mainly Hispanic immigrant farm workers, has limited high-speed Internet access mainly because of the expense of laying fiber optic lines. The surrounding mountains and beach make extending lines especially challenging for neighboring Santa Cruz County. Officials said they realized the need for additional fiber lines in April 2009 when the entire county, including its emergency services, lost the Internet for 21 hours after vandals cut cables miles away. The joint application with Santa Cruz County, Monterey County and San Benito County to extend access was rejected by the Commerce Department in the first round and officials are awaiting word on the second round. (The rejection was not all that unusual; the department received 1,885 applications in the first round and awarded only 82 grants.) While the stimulus program will reach hundreds of rural areas in all 50 states, there are people like R. Mark Fair, who lives in Leicester, N.C., in the mountains northwest of Asheville , who will not be helped. Mr. Fair and his neighbors have been trying unsuccessfully since 2006 to persuade AT&T to replace their dial-up service. “I go online every day for e-mail,” said Mr. Fair, an electrical engineer. “I can generally get around those O.K., but when it comes to online meetings and file transfers, it’s really frustrating.” In Elon, N.C., Chad Sowers said he had exhausted his options for a reliable and fast connection, even offering to pay $2,000 toward that goal. He works in information technology, and he and his wife, a registered nurse , both need high-speed Internet for continuing education, he said. They also want their children, 9 and 12, to have access for their schoolwork. “Broadband is no longer a luxury,” Mr. Sowers said. In a statement, Clifton Metcalf Jr., an AT&T spokesman, said, “We’ve taken efforts to still deliver the benefits of broadband to these customer locations, such as through our satellite-based broadband service, which reaches the vast majority of rural markets in our 22 states.” Since many of the new broadband recipients live in isolated, rural areas or are poor, the F.C.C. is proposing that money from its Universal Service Fund, which subsidizes telephone services for high-cost areas, low-income consumers, schools, libraries and rural health care providers, be expanded to broadband services. The fund receives its money from a monthly fee of about $2.78 a household — the fee is part of the telephone bill — and is expected to disburse $8.7 billion this year. “The biggest challenge is converting a fund that’s been focused for a very long time on telephones to one focused on broadband communications as quickly and as efficiently as possible to make sure we can extend broadband to rural America,” Mr. Genachowski of the F.C.C. said. Alaska is the largest recipient of rural health care Universal Service Fund subsidies, and the Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation is the largest recipient in the state, with $1.5 million in 2008. Mr. Hodges, of the health corporation, said many of the 48 villages it served did not have running water or roads between villages because they were on unstable tundra. “We can’t put in telephone lines,” he said, “and there are environmental issues because you don’t want to damage the tundra.” Mr. Hodges said his network of telepsychiatry through microwave and satellite would expand with the federal funds. The health corporation, which has a dearth of health professionals, offers behavior health services from psychiatrists in Minnesota , Seattle and Anchorage, he said. “We’re now able to increase the amount of time we spend with a patient,” he said. “We’re not limited by the lack of daylight in the winter and when planes because of weather can come in. We’ve taken those barriers out of the equation.” As for Mrs. Wegener, the horse breeder, she said she believed she was losing money by having to drive her horses to auctions as far away as North Dakota and Nebraska to be seen by potential buyers. The Internet could change that, she said. “We would love to sell them off the farm and not haul them anywhere.”

Rural area
Computers and the Internet
Telecommunication
Stimulus 2009


As Global Trade Revives, Imbalances Reappear

Abstract: WHEN the going gets tough, governments complain about trade. The meeting of the G-20 in Seoul, South Korea, this week was dominated by concerns about world trade, which has rebounded after falling sharply during the credit crisis and global recession . With the rebound, trade deficits and surpluses, which had appeared to be falling, have begun to rise again, setting off complaints from numerous countries that others are trying to hold down the value of their currencies to gain a trade advantage. The apparent shrinkage of trade imbalances, usually presented as a percentage of gross domestic product , was in significant part a mirage caused by the plunge in trade. After all, if world trade went to zero, so would surpluses and deficits. Looked at in another way, by comparing the value of each country’s exports with its imports, the declines were not nearly as sharp, and in some cases vanished altogether. Germany’s balance of payments — a figure largely made up of the trade balance — fell from 8 percent of G.D.P. in late 2007 to 3.8 percent in early 2009, for example, only to recover to 4.4 percent in the latest data. But, as the accompanying charts show, its total exports were about 20 percent larger than its imports throughout the period. Similarly, the United States’ balance of payments deficit fell to as low as 2.4 percent of G.D.P., less than half what it was a few years earlier. But the improvement was far more modest when looked at in terms of trade. The country exported 41 percent less than it imported in 2007, compared with 34 percent less in the most recent 12 months. As can be seen in the charts, Germany may have benefited over the last decade from the fact that other members of the euro zone were becoming less competitive in exports. France was exporting more than it imported when the decade began; now its exports are running 12 percent behind imports. Italy went from relatively small surpluses to relatively small deficits. Not shown are some of the peripheral members of the euro zone, which have been robbed of competitiveness by inflation. Greek exports are 60 percent lower than imports, and that ratio has improved lately only because it is less able to afford imports. The figures for Portugal and Spain are 36 percent and 23 percent, respectively. Had there not been a euro, it is probable that the value of the German mark would have risen relative to that of other European nations, reducing the competitive advantage Germany now enjoys. There were some significant changes in trade ratios during the downturn. Japan’s trade surplus briefly vanished, although its export/import ratio has recovered in recent months. China’s gap did narrow, although it now seems to be rising again. India’s substantial trade deficit widened, and its ratio of exports to imports is now lower than that of the United States. There has been little talk of that, however. In part, it is because the figures shown are for trade in goods, not services, an area where India is strong. But it also reflects the fact that India has been importing capital as it grows, offsetting the trade numbers. With much of the developing world now growing more rapidly than the developed countries, there has been a rush of capital into many of them, touching off worries that their currencies will become overvalued and their terms of trade worsen. That appears to have happened in Brazil, where the rising value of the real has been accompanied by a sharp reduction in the export-import ratio. Some countries are beginning to impose various forms of capital controls in an effort to keep that from happening to them.

International Trade and World Market
Group of Twenty


Carmelo Anthony Watch Provides a Few Clues

Abstract: In between his “I don’t want to talk about it” moments, Denver’s Carmelo Anthony revealed a couple of clues to the tea-leaf readers about his future Sunday. With the uncertainty caused by the league’s expiring labor agreement and how it will affect future contracts, Anthony said he would try to sign an extension with the Nuggets , or his next team if he is traded. “Whatever decision that I make, that’s going to be the first thing that gets done,” said Anthony, who can be a free agent after this season. That means Anthony will have a big say in where he plays. It is unlikely a team will trade for him and give up a healthy portion of its roster or future picks without assurances that it can keep him for the long haul. Anthony is well aware of that. “I don’t think that’ll happen,” he said when asked if he thought he could be traded to a place he doesn’t want to be. Anthony’s pending free agency has been an issue for the Knicks and the Nets, as well as for the Nuggets. The Knicks and the Nets are considered front-runners to lure Anthony through a trade or in free agency. The Nuggets remain hopeful that Anthony will sign the three-year, $65 million contract extension they have dangled for months. Masai Ujiri, Denver’s rookie general manager, was at Madison Square Garden on Sunday for the Knicks’ 129-125 victory. “He has his reasons for it, and I respect that,” Ujiri said of the unsigned extension from Denver. “We’ll leave it up to him.” Ujiri was an assistant general manager for Toronto when Chris Bosh left as a free agent after last season, with the Raptors receiving nothing but a large trade exception. Ujiri said he would navigate the best path for Denver, and it is unlikely that he will allow what happened with Bosh to happen with Anthony. “I will say there was plenty I learned just going through that experience,” Ujiri said.

Anthony Carmelo
Basketball
Denver Nuggets
New York Knicks
Trades (Sports)
Free Agents (Sports)


Former Executive of Korean Air Is Indicted in ‘Nut Rage’ Episode

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — A former Korean Air executive who flew into a rage over the way she was served nuts in a first-class cabin, forcing a plane back to the gate at Kennedy Airport to kick out a flight attendant, was indicted on Wednesday on criminal charges of violating aviation safety regulations and conspiring to hush up the episode. The executive, Cho Hyun-ah, the eldest child of Korean Air’s chairman, Cho Yang-ho, was fired from her position as a vice president of the airline and jailed last month after her actions on Dec. 5 set off a national uproar and turned her family and Korean Air into objects of international ridicule. Her fall from grace was the latest blow to South Korea ’s powerful family-controlled business empires, known as chaebol, which have been plagued by corruption scandals, tax evasion charges and sibling feuds over assets. Prosecutors said Wednesday that Ms. Cho, 40, verbally and physically abused first-class flight attendants on a Korean Air flight bound for South Korea from New York after one of them served her macadamia nuts in an unopened bag, instead of on a plate. During a 20-minute harangue, she ordered the plane to return to the gate to kick out Park Chang-jin, the head of the cabin crew, they said. “The unprecedented turnaround of the plane undermined the credibility of Korean Air and the national image of South Korea,” the prosecutors said in a statement. The “nut rage” incident, as Ms. Cho’s case became known, drew extensive attention in South Korea, where many people considered it to be far more than a tantrum by the spoiled daughter of a tycoon. They believed that the way Korean Air and the Transport Ministry had handled the episode confirmed some of their worst misgivings about the chaebol and their relations with government regulators. Since the Korean War, a handful of chaebol families have built conglomerates like Samsung and Hyundai that dominate the South Korean economy. But they have also developed a reputation for running their corporate empires like dictators and for maintaining collusive ties with regulators. Indicted along with Ms. Cho on Wednesday was a Korean Air executive, identified by the family name Yeo, who was accused of coercing airline officials to delete an email on what had happened on Dec. 5 and lie to government investigators to protect Ms. Cho. Prosecutors also indicted a Transport Ministry official on charges of illegally briefing Mr. Yeo on the confidential details of the official inquiry. Mr. Park, the attendant who was kicked off the plane, said in news interviews that Ms. Cho had made him and a junior flight attendant who had served the nuts apologize on their knees. He also said that Korean Air officials had pressured him to give Transport Ministry investigators a less incriminating version of what had happened. The ministry later said that its inquiry had been faulty and unfair, and it disciplined eight investigators. Ms. Cho, for her part, has repeatedly apologized for her actions.

South Korea
Flight attendant
Cho Hyun-ah
Cho Yang-ho
Park Chang-jin
Korean Air Lines
Airlines,airplanes


Dominican Baseball Prospects to Face Stricter Regulations

Abstract: The top official for Major League Baseball in charge of overhauling its operations in the Dominican Republic said Friday that baseball would require top prospects as young as 15 to provide fingerprints and have testing for performance-enhancing drugs before they can sign with teams. The official, Sandy Alderson, said that baseball would also expand its educational programs for performance-enhancing drugs in the Dominican Republic to unsigned players. “Age and identity continues to be a major issue, and it’s important to address it before the signing process begins, and the fingerprinting technology will help us do that and lock in their identities,” Alderson said in a telephone interview. “From the drug perspective, a vast majority of our positives have come from Latin America, in particular the Dominican Republic, and it’s important to expand our education and testing.” Commissioner Bud Selig appointed Alderson in February to tackle the problems Major League Baseball has faced in the Dominican Republic. The country has produced stars like Pedro Martinez, Robinson Cano and Jose Reyes, but there have been significant problems with the use of performance-enhancing drugs and players lying about their ages to appear precocious to scouts. Alderson, who completed a report for Selig last year on how baseball should revamp its operations, acknowledged on Friday that the problems in the Dominican Republic were greater than he first believed when he accepted the assignment in February. “It will require more time and hands-on commitment to effect these changes,” he said. “The other surprising thing I have learned is that much of the resistance we face is equally from the independent trainers but from club employees,” he said. “It’s not overt and it’s not coming from policy-making levels at clubs, but is coming from people in the system and are entrenched in how it is now. It includes Dominican and U.S. employees.” Alderson, a longtime baseball official, said that some of the resistance might be out of fear that he plans to start a draft of Dominican players for Major League Baseball. “I am not a precursor to the draft,” he said. “I am there to address several significant problems that exist. It’s not my purpose. To the extent we can solve the problems we face, the possibility of the draft will be less likely.” Alderson said the fingerprinting and drug testing were part of a new and larger registration for players that will also include a background check. To be eligible to be signed, players will have to provide consent for the drug testing and the background check. This year, the top 50 prospects will have to undergo the new registration. It will be expanded to all Dominican players next year. Fingerprint scanning machines, he said, would be installed at all team facilities and used to track how long the unsigned prospects were spending at the team academies as they showcased their skills leading up to when they can sign with teams on June 2. Under Dominican law, a player must be 16 years old by June 2 to sign with a team. “It will allow us to track players and make sure they are not spending more than 30 days with a team before they sign,” he said. “We will now know that a player needs to come out of that academy as the rules state, so other teams can see him. Ultimately, it will help the player and help their marketing of themselves to other teams.” The Dominican Republic’s unregulated system is dominated by independent trainers known as buscones , and baseball officials are concerned that they have been providing players with performance-enhancing drugs leading up to their tryouts. Baseball had been hesitant to test players for drugs before they signed because of concerns it was illegal under Dominican law. But Alderson said that after baseball officials extensively studied the measure’s legality, they decided to move ahead with it. The New York Times reported in February that baseball officials were studying a series of initiatives for the Dominican Republic. The initiatives included the fingerprinting of youths under the age of 16 and the creation of its own baseball leagues. Alderson said he was still working on expanding the youth leagues in the Dominican Republic that Major League Baseball has sponsored for several years. “We need more lead time and we haven’t had a chance to address that yet,” he said. “We are not there yet.”

Baseball
Major League Baseball
Dominican Republic
Doping (Sports)


Louis Brown Jr., Nicole Simpson’s Father, Dies at 90

Abstract: Louis H. Brown Jr., the father of O. J. Simpson’s former wife, Nicole Brown Simpson, and a public voice against domestic violence, died on Thursday at his home in Dana Point, Calif., a seaside community in southern Orange County. He was 90. Natasha Roit, a lawyer for the family, announced the death. Mr. Brown had Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Brown was a familiar presence at Mr. Simpson’s criminal trial in Los Angeles in 1995 in the killing of Ms. Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman. He sat in the courtroom day after day, often with his wife, Juditha, and other family members. At one point, he was seen embracing Mr. Simpson’s mother, who had come to court to support her son. When grisly photographs of Ms. Simpson’s body were shown as evidence, Mr. Brown and his wife chose to walk out. When the verdict was announced, finding Mr. Simpson not guilty of the murders, the Browns were stoic. A year before, just weeks after Ms. Simpson’s death, however, The New York Times reported that Mr. Brown “put his head down and began to sob” after a Los Angeles judge allowed certain items to be admitted as evidence, including a bloodstained glove that later became a focal point of the case. In 1997, a civil court found Mr. Simpson liable for the deaths and awarded more than $30 million in damages to the Brown and the Goldman families. When that verdict was announced, Mr. Brown stood and smiled, telling The Associated Press, “I want to get outside and scream.” Mr. Simpson is now in prison on an unrelated armed robbery conviction. In 1994, Mr. Brown created the Nicole Brown Foundation to help victims of domestic violence. In 1997, he was one of three authors of “Stop Domestic Violence: An Action Plan for Saving Lives.” Discussing his involvement with the issue, he told USA Today, “I’ve had a Ph.D. in domestic violence here.” Louis H. Brown Jr. was born on Aug. 10, 1923, in Havana, Kan., a small town east of Wichita. The son of Louis Sr., a truck driver, and the former Treva Pearl Bell, he left business college in Texas after the United States entered World War II. As an Army Air Force captain, he flew B-17 bombers. After the war, he flew photo missions in Europe and North Africa and went to work for Stars and Stripes Publications, based in Germany. He met his wife in Europe, where two of his daughters were born, and they married in Switzerland. Mr. Brown later went into real estate, insurance and other businesses. Mr. Brown is survived by his wife, of 58 years, as well as four daughters, Denise Brown, Tanya Brown, Dominique Brown and Wendy Kirk; and two sons, Tracy Brown and Rolf Baur. Another daughter, Margit Carr, died in 1989. Mr. Brown and his wife were, for a time after their daughter’s murder, the legal guardians of their grandchildren Sydney and Justin Simpson.

Nicole Brown Simpson
Murders
Louis Brown Jr
O J Simpson
Obituary
Ronald Lyle Goldman
Judiciary


Flat Out Takes Gold Cup

Abstract: NEW YORK (AP) — Flat Out is flat out brilliant at Belmont Park. After going winless in six starts away from the track, Flat Out returned to the scene of his last victory and edged Stay Thirsty by a head Saturday to take the $1 million Jockey Club Gold Cup for the second year in a row. He had one other race at Belmont, and won that, too, a 6 1/2-length victory in the Suburban Handicap last summer. “He likes it a lot here, and I do, too, now,” said winning owner Art Preston. “This is a very hard race ... he’s tough-minded.” Bill Mott, who trains Flat Out, knows all about the 6-year-old horse. A year ago, Flat Out was trained by Scooter Dickey when he won the Suburban and the Gold Cup. He was moved to Mott’s stable in February. Flat Out ran a solid third in the Whitney Invitational in his second start for Mott, and the trainer was encouraged. “He ran a huge race last time ... he was up for it today,” Mott said. It was a big day for Mott, too. He also won the $400,000 Beldame Invitational with Royal Delta, who beat rival It’s Tricky by 9 1/2 lengths on a day that featured five Grade 1 races and the Grade 2 Kelso won by Jersey Town. Ridden by Joel Rosario, Flat Out challenged pacesetter Stay Thirsty when the 10-horse field turned for home, and closed the margin with every stride before pulling ahead in the final two strides. “He was really game today,” Rosario said after his first ride aboard Flat Out. Fort Larned, the 5-2 favorite and Whitney winner, was third, followed by Atigun, Fast Falcon, Ron the Greek, Game Ball, Hymn Book, San Pablo and Ruler On Ice. The winning time for the 1 1/4 miles was 2:01.44. “I could see Flat Out building up some momentum, I knew it was going to be close,” Stay Thirsty trainer Todd Pletcher said. “I was hoping we had enough to hold on. It was a big effort.” In the other stakes races, The Lumber Guy won the Vosburgh, Nahrain took the Flower Bowl Invitational, and 4-5 favorite Point of Entry won the Joe Hirsch Turf Classic. Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez was aboard three of the Grade 1 winners — The Lumber Guy, Nahrain and Point of Entry. The winning horses in each of the six stakes races earned automatic berths in the Breeders’ Cup at Santa Anita on Nov. 2-3. Stay Thirsty, the 2011 Travers winner who was 0-5 since, shot right to the lead under Ramon Dominguez. The colt held off a challenge by Fort Larned with a quarter-mile to go, but was unable to handle the relentless run to the front by Flat Out. A year ago, Mott’s Drosselmeyer finished second in the Gold Cup and Royal Delta ran second to Havre de Grace in the Beldame. Now, Mott looks like he’ll have a chance to pull off a second straight Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic-BC Classic. A year ago, Royal Delta won the Ladies Classic and Drosselmeyer won the Classic. “It kind of worries you a little bit when you win them,” Mott said of races just before the Breeders’ Cup. “When you when the prep race, I don’t know if that’s a good sign. But I guess Cigar was able to win this race and go on to win the Breeders’ Cup.” Flat Out returned $9.30, $5.60 and $4. Stay Thirsty paid $10.80 and $6.70, and Fort Larned returned $4 to show. The win was worth $600,000 and boosted Flat Out’s career earnings to $2,042,383. Royal Delta kicked off the day with a dazzling win in the Beldame. The 4-year-old star filly ridden by Mike Smith cruised past It’s Tricky heading into the turn and easily pulled away in the stretch. It was the third win for Royal Delta over It’s Tricky in five meetings. Royal Delta ($3.70) already earned an automatic spot into the BC Ladies Classic with a win in the Delaware Handicap on July 21. Winning time for 1 1/8 miles was 1:48.80. “She ran a super race,” Mott said, “broke well, took it to the horse on the lead and she was much the best today. Just a very impressive performance.” Jersey Town ($18) surprised even-money favorite To Honor and Serve and second choice Shackleford in the $400,000 Kelso. The win was trainer Barclay Tagg’s first since June 16, ending an 0-for-48 streak. Shackleford, the 2011 Preakness winner, set a torrid pace for the first half mile, with To Honor and Serve the trailer in the six-horse field. But Jersey Town stormed into the lead in the stretch under Javier Castellano and beat Shackleford by 3 1/2 lengths, covering the mile in 1:35.24. With the 6-year-old’s first win in nearly two years, Tagg said Jersey Town would likely run next in the BC Dirt Mile on Nov. 3. The Lumber Guy ($6.20) overtook leaders Little Drama and Poseidon’s Warrior in the stretch and won the $400,000 Vosburgh by 1 1/4 lengths over Caixa Eletronica. Winning time for the six furlongs was 1:09.22. The win over older horses likely sends the 3-year-old colt to the Breeders’ Cup, for either the Sprint or the Dirt Mile. Nahrain ($12) won the $600,000 Flower Bowl by a half-length over Zagora. The 4-year-old filly’s first win of the year earned her a spot in the BC Filly & Mare Turf on Nov. 2. Nahrain covered the 1 1/4 miles on 2:05.56 over the yielding turf course. Dream Peace, the 2-1 favorite, was third. Point of Entry ($3.50) pulled away for a 1 3/4-length win over Treasure Beach in the $600,000 Joe Hirsch, and will go into the BC Turf with a five-race winning streak.

Horse Racing
Jockeys Drivers and Trainers


State to Fight U.S. Limits on Children’s Health Plan

Abstract: ALBANY, Aug. 21 — The Spitzer administration will aggressively lobby against new federal rules that threaten the governor’s plans to make health care coverage universal for children in New York, state officials said on Tuesday. The officials said the rules, outlined in a letter sent to state health officials by the Bush administration on Friday, would make it nearly impossible for New York to proceed with a plan to grant federally subsidized health insurance to tens of thousands of children who lack health coverage. The expansion was one of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s priorities when he took office. “We expect that these rules will not stand,” Deborah Bachrach, New York’s deputy commissioner of the Office of Health Insurance Programs, said in an interview on Tuesday. Ms. Bachrach and other state health officials are preparing a written response to federal officials and will argue for revisions to the new rules, which toughen eligibility requirements. Should that effort fail, she and other Spitzer aides said, the administration will work with the Congressional delegations from New York and other states to alter the new rules by passing a law. The program under which the federal government provides such subsidies, the Children’s Health Insurance Program, expires in the fall, and Congress is considering legislation to renew it. “We’re going to reach out to every state possible to get them to join us,” said Paul Larrabee, a spokesman for Mr. Spitzer. At least 18 other states would be forced to scale back or abandon planned expansions of their children’s health care programs, including New Jersey, Ohio and California. In a statement, Gov. Jon S. Corzine of New Jersey said on Tuesday that he would also lobby against the changes. “This is a shortsighted and harmful policy that will leave over 10,000 New Jersey children without health insurance,” Mr. Corzine said. The federal program, which provides matching funds for children’s insurance programs offered by the states, was intended to benefit the children of families who were poor but whose incomes were too high to qualify for Medicaid. Many states have received waivers that allowed them to extend federally subsidized health insurance to children in families whose incomes total twice the federal poverty line figure, or $41,300 for a family of four. A few states have even higher thresholds. In New York, families whose incomes are two and a half times above the federal poverty line now qualify for the state’s program, known as Child Health Plus. Under a deal reached between Mr. Spitzer and the Legislature this spring, families with an income four times higher than the federal poverty line — $82,600 a year for a family of four — would become eligible over the next four years, effectively extending the program to all 400,000 of the state’s uninsured children. The change, for which the state was seeking federal approval, would have given New York the highest income ceiling in the nation. But the rules issued on Friday require states to meet stringent new yardsticks if they want to expand eligibility to families whose incomes are more than two and a half times higher than the poverty line. For example, states have to show that they have already enrolled 95 percent of children whose parents make less than two times the poverty line figure — a standard that Ms. Bachrach said no state in the country could meet. Currently, she said, New York enrolls about 88 percent of children at that income level; most states have enrolled 80 percent to 90 percent. She said the state believed that the best way to achieve higher enrollment at lower income levels was to make children’s health insurance universal, which would encourage people to seek programs for which they are eligible. The vast majority of New York’s 400,000 uninsured children are already eligible for Child Health Plus, she said, since most of them come from families earning below the current threshold. About 60,000 children would remain ineligible if the new federal rules stand. Should Mr. Spitzer pursue his planned expansion despite the new rules, New York would have to replace as much as $41 million in lost federal funds by the 2008-9 fiscal year. Mr. Larrabee declined to comment when asked whether the administration would seek to do so. Mr. Spitzer may face pressure to expand eligibility from other quarters. Judith Wessler, a spokeswoman for the group Medicaid Matters, said that she supported the administration’s efforts to fight the new rules, but that if that failed, her group would push for the expansion anyway. “I think it’s ludicrous where we’re in the position where we have to ask the state for that, when it should be a federal responsibility,” she said. “But if the feds are not going to come through, then we might have to do that.”

Health Insurance and Managed Care
Children and Youth
New York State


When Auto Plants Close, White Elephants Remain

Abstract: WIXOM, Mich. — The sheer size of the sites has inspired grand visions for redevelopment — a $1 billion football stadium, a huge Hollywood movie studio, even the world’s largest indoor tennis complex. But for the communities saddled with a huge, empty auto plant, the reality is dismal. Abandoned car factories, sprawling over hundreds of acres, often stand vacant for years awaiting demolition, environmental cleanup and a willing developer. Since 2004, General Motors , Ford and Chrysler have closed 22 major auto plants in the United States. Only eight of those have found buyers. And in the wake of the G.M. and Chrysler bankruptcies, another 16 plants will be shut by 2011. The most optimistic redevelopment proposals, like a football stadium for the Atlanta Falcons or a movie studio in the small Michigan town of Wixom, a Detroit suburb, are long shots at best. “The plants, whether they’re still standing or reoccupied, are always going to be a haunting reminder of what we were, what we’ve gone through, and where we still need to go,” said Representative Thaddeus McCotter, Republican of Michigan, whose district includes an old Ford plant in Wixom and a G.M. plant that will soon close. Even sites in attractive locations are hard to sell in the weak economy. With so many companies being squeezed financially, there is a glut of available commercial real estate. “Even if you only go back three or four years, it was easier than today,” said Phil Horlock, head of Ford’s land development division. The loss to the local community when a plant closes goes well beyond jobs. Tax revenue evaporates and related businesses vanish. Industry analysts estimate that each job in a plant helps create another five to seven jobs. “Some of those are direct suppliers, but then there are places that workers spend money, like grocery stores, restaurants and day care,” said Kristin Dziczek of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. Ford’s 4.7-million-square-foot Wixom factory, which closed in 2007, was the company’s largest assembly plant in the United States. More than six million cars were built there over 50 years. At its peak in the late 1980s, the factory employed nearly 4,000. Now it’s an empty shell of rusting corrugated metal, surrounded by desolate parking lots and a barbed-wire fence. The plant fronts an Interstate highway, and stretches almost a mile along Wixom Road. It once provided 40 percent of the town’s property taxes, but now accounts for less than 15 percent. The town has about 13,000 residents, and relied heavily on the paychecks of plant workers. “When it closed, a lot of businesses around us closed too,” said Moe Leon, owner of the Bullseye Sports Bar and Grill on Wixom Road. “We’re fighting night and day to stay above water.” Last year, a team of executives from Warner Brothers toured the plant as a potential site for a new studio. Other developers have floated proposals for a hotel, an ice hockey arena and a business district devoted to green technology. Ford officials said several ideas were under consideration, but there was no timetable for a sale. Mr. Horlock said Ford had sold five large factories in the last five years. He said the company generally did not raze a plant, or begin to clean up any toxic wastes, until a deal was sealed. The auto company sold one assembly plant, in Lorain, Ohio, to a developer who leases out space to small industrial firms. Honda, a competitor of Ford’s with two assembly plants in Ohio, recently started storing excess inventory of cars and minivans in the plant’s parking lots. But most closed plants languish. After G.M. closed a factory in Doraville, Ga., last year, there was an initial rush of interest from developers. One of them suggested the site be used for a new stadium for the National Football League’s Falcons, but the team’s owners have so far shown little enthusiasm for that idea. Luke Howe, an assistant to Doraville’s mayor, said other proposals for the 165-acre site range “from the ridiculous to the sublime,” and no developers had come forward with adequate financing. “We knew it would be a lengthy process,” he said. “It just happened to fall during one of the worst economic times.” But some factory sites have remained vacant through good times as well — a sign of just how difficult it is to create a second life for them. G.M. demolished most of its giant Buick City manufacturing complex in Flint, Mich., a decade ago. The 200-acre property appeared to finally have a future as a transportation hub for long-haul trucks and rail cars, but G.M. could not complete a deal before filing for bankruptcy on June. 1. The Flint site, along with dozens of other factories and properties, is part of the old G.M. that is still in bankruptcy and will most likely be sold, eventually, in the liquidation process. The company’s best assets were transferred to a new corporate entity that now operates as General Motors. Auto companies sell their old plants for a song, compared to what they put into them. The government in Oklahoma County, which covers much of Oklahoma City, for example, paid $55 million last year for a four-million-square-foot plant that will be leased to the United States Air Force to expand a nearby base. Just eight years ago, G.M. invested $700 million in the plant to modernize it. Environmental problems can also hamper a sale. While every plant has different pollution issues, G.M.’s restructuring chief, Albert A. Koch, estimated in bankruptcy court that the company’s liabilities for all its closed sites was $530 million. One old G.M. plant that has found a new life is in Linden, N.J. The company shut down the factory in 2005, demolished it two years ago, and sold it to a developer for a mixed-use project called Legacy Square. The 104-acre site will be anchored by a Super Wal-Mart store, and ultimately will pay more taxes to the city than G.M. did. But the 2,400 permanent jobs will fall far short of the 6,000 workers that G.M. once employed in the city. “The United Auto Workers had very high-paying jobs there, and those will not be comparable to the jobs that are going to be in the shopping mall,” said Linden’s mayor, Richard J. Gerbounka. But, he added, “We’re better off than having 104 acres of vacant property sitting there.” The worst of the empty auto plants is located, perhaps fittingly, on the downtrodden east side of Detroit. The 3.5-million-square-foot factory has been crumbling since the Packard Motor Car Company closed its doors more than 50 years ago. Trees grow on the plant’s roof, and chunks of concrete regularly fall from the bridge that connects two of its buildings. Trespassers often explore its rotted interior, and photographs and videos of the ruins are easily found on the Internet. Vandals have set fires several times this year in the piles of wooden pallets, tires and garbage that litter the complex. It is not unusual to see clouds of thick smoke pouring from the building on a summer evening.

Office Buildings and Commercial Properties


With Near-Misses, Miller Shows He's Back and Primed for the Olympics

Abstract: KITZBÜHEL, Austria — Bode Miller of the United States rose from the ashes of his defeat in the downhill race here Saturday and skied a nearly flawless run to notch the runner-up position in the super-G on Sunday, his second top-three finish in two days. The back-to-back podiums definitively announced Miller’s return to prime form after missing all of last season to a knee injury and affirmed him as a serious medal contender in several disciplines at the Olympics in Sochi, Russia, which start in less than two weeks. In the end though, Miller’s effort wasn’t enough to stave off Didier Défago of Switzerland, who won the super-G on Sunday with a time of one minute 10.38 seconds, edging Miller by .05 seconds. Aksel Lund Svindal of Norway and Max Franz of Austria tied for third, with a time of 1:10.53. When Défago, who has not won a race since December 2011, skied into the finish area and realized he had taken the lead, he let out a roar and thumped his chest with his fists. “After you have pushed so hard in the run and you come down, there’s something inside that needs to come out,” Défago said of his finish-line bellow. At 36, Défago is one of the oldest athletes on the World Cup. Although he is the defending Olympic downhill gold medalist, until Sunday, his best result this season was a seventh place in the downhill in Bormio, Italy. Miller may not have won the race on Sunday, but it was nonetheless a taste of redemption after the downhill on Saturday, which Miller narrowly lost after making a series of mistakes that frustrated him deeply. He called the loss “heartbreaking.” Given the fact that Miller has discussed retiring after this season, the loss was made even more devastating by the fact that Saturday might have been his last chance to win the Hahnenkamm downhill, largely considered ski racing’s top honor and one that has eluded Miller during his 16-year World Cup career. He used that frustration to fuel his performance on Sunday. “You use the emotions if you can,” he said after the race, which was held on a shortened course due to high winds on the upper part of the mountain that forced race organizers to lower the start. “I knew that on a short course, skiing really aggressive, really angry can be helpful,” he said. “A little bit of extra aggression can make the difference. I definitely brought that in there.” The super-G was the first leg of a two run super combined, comprised of one speed run held early Sunday afternoon and one slalom run that evening. The skier with best aggregate time from both runs wins the super combined. Although he did not win the super-G on Sunday, Miller, who has always been more driven by performance than by results, was pleased with his skiing in the race. “I skied really well today. I didn’t leave a whole lot out there,” he said. “I’m much happier with the skiing today.” He believed the weather and a three-minute television break right before his run, which may have allowed snow to accumulate on the course causing it to slow down, might have contributed to his loss. Miller’s mood after the race on Sunday was a far cry from his comportment Saturday. After his run on Saturday, tears welled in his eyes. He knew that his mistake-ridden performance had most likely cost him the race. “Emotionally, when you’re that fired up and you’re putting everything you have into the race, and it goes poorly and you make a big mistake, it hurts. It really does,” Miller said. By Sunday morning, his disappointment had faded and he was ready to race. “You learn from it as much as you can and take as much valuable information into the next races that you can, then you move on. And I’m pretty good at that.” He skied a fast, clean and aggressive line that almost earned him victory. For a racer whose career, and persona, is anchored by his unpredictable nature, Miller’s return to prime form just in time for the Olympics is playing out precisely as planned. From the outset of the season, Miller’s strategy has been to peak around the Olympics, according to Sasha Rearick, head coach of the men’s United States ski team. It looks as though the plan is coming to fruition. Throughout the season, Miller has steadily climbed the ranks of the speed disciplines. He opened the speed season with a 16th in the downhill at Lake Louise, Alberta, and his best finish before this weekend was a fifth place in Val Gardena, Italy, and Wengen, Switzerland. Some doubted, however, if he would ever be able to return from the injury that ended his season in 2012 and required micro-fracture surgery in his left knee. “I definitely doubted if he could come back,” said Jan Hudec of Canada. “What he went through with his knee was pretty serious.” But Miller is back and optimistic about the Olympics, though eager for his first victory of the season. “I feel good. My fitness is good. My skis are coming around,” he said. “We’re coming around at the right time for the Olympics, but it’s disappointing to be this far into the season and not have any wins yet.” GUT CAPTURES SUPER-G Lara Gut of Switzerland won a windy super-G on Sunday in the final World Cup speed race before the Sochi Olympics, The Associated Press reported from Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. Tina Weirather of Liechtenstein finished second, 0.12 second behind, for her third consecutive podium result this week, and Maria Höfl-Riesch was third, 0.61 back, to maintain her lead in the overall World Cup standings. A combination of strong wind and a tough course led to 19 racers failing to finish. LIGETY AND MANCUSO AMONG 20 CHOSEN The Olympic gold medalists Ted Ligety, Julia Mancuso and Bode Miller were the most prominent names on the 20-skier contingent chosen to represent the United States Alpine ski team at the Sochi Olympics. There were few surprises in the selections. The absence of Lindsey Vonn, who is injured, gave the women’s side of the team a chance to include some Olympic newcomers, like Jacqueline Wiles, 21, of Aurora, Ore., and Julia Ford, 23, of Holderness, N.H. The youngest member of the team is the defending slalom world champion Mikaela Shiffrin, an 18-year-old Coloradan. The oldest member of the United States team is Miller, who has been surging lately on the World Cup circuit. It will be the fifth Olympics for Miller, whose five Olympic medals are the most of any American skier. BILL PENNINGTON


Rick Scott of Florida is a C.E.O. Prepared for Cuts

Abstract: MIAMI — Many of the newly elected Republican governors have said they want to run their state like a business. But few have been as brash and bold in corporate life — or with their economic campaign proposals — as Rick Scott , Florida’s new chief executive. Mr. Scott spent a decade buying up hospitals to create the country’s largest health care chain, Columbia/HCA. And while his Democratic opponent tried to convince voters that he was an untrustworthy “corporate raider,” even former colleagues describe Mr. Scott as a no-nonsense leader, fixated on costs, and willing to cut programs and employees if they fall short of his goals. “ ‘Chummy’ is not the word I would ever use to describe Rick Scott,” said Joshua Nemzoff, a mergers and acquisitions expert who has known Mr. Scott for 21 years. “He’s extremely focused, and very, very aggressive.” For many Floridians, that may be a welcome change. For most of its history, the Sunshine State has coasted along on tourism, real estate and population growth. But with the Great Recession driving unemployment to record levels, Florida has become desperate for something different. One in three voters on Tuesday said that a relative or member of their household had lost a job in the past two years, according to exit polls , which also showed that 73 percent believe the economy is in a serious, long-term decline, not just a cyclical downturn. Enter Rick Scott, presenting himself as a turnaround expert. “I won’t rest until we make Florida a model for the country in job creation and education,” he told supporters Wednesday in his victory speech. Yet if he manages to institute his plan for Florida — and chances are good, since the Legislature is overwhelmingly Republican — Floridians, and the country, may be in for a shock. His proposals, and his approach to business, suggest that residents here may soon see an approach to government closer to the conservative, budget-slashing overhaul proposed for Britain. Behind Mr. Scott’s campaign slogans (“Let’s get to work” with “seven steps to 700,000 jobs in seven years”) are proposals to privatize more prisons, give vouchers to parents for schools and to Medicaid recipients for health insurance, and to reduce what businesses have to pay for injured workers. To “lighten the burden of government on every Florida family,” as he said Wednesday, Mr. Scott has also pledged to shrink the state payroll by thousands of jobs, and to usher in hefty tax cuts — even though that would mean less revenue to help fill the projected $2.5 billion deficit that Florida faces next year. Democrats are predicting a return “to the Dark Ages.” Republicans are thrilled. “It’s a real opportunity for us,” said Mike Haridopolos, the State Senate president. Not since the 1860s, Mr. Haridopolos said, has the state had such a conservative concentration of power, and as a result, he said a lot of legislation would be likely to pass. Specifically, he said the state would probably revisit a Senate bill vetoed by Gov. Charlie Crist that would have established merit-based pay for teachers. Former Gov. Jeb Bush agreed that Mr. Scott “will have willing partners in the Legislature to do bigger things.” Mr. Bush said that Mr. Scott’s business expertise would be particularly useful. “Medicaid reform, continued education reform and business climate improvements are all places where I expect our new governor’s experience will be helpful,” he said. But Mr. Scott’s corporate past is likely to be both a blessing and a handicap. He grew up in Kansas City, Mo., the son of a truck driver, and he often describes himself as a self-made success. He was the hard-working child of strict parents who joined the Navy and worked as a transaction lawyer before starting his hospital company in 1987 with his life savings of $125,000. Over the next 10 years, he built the company into a behemoth with around 285,000 employees and annual revenue of $20 billion. His former colleagues say he was particularly successful in two areas: negotiating deals, and imposing more financial discipline (“accountability” is one of his favorite words) into the health care system. He may have been famous outside his company for $1.7 billion in fines that Columbia/HCA paid for defrauding Medicare and other federal programs. But inside his company, he was known for setting up a report card system for individual hospitals and their administrators, tracking everything from patient outcomes to revenue and growth in admissions “It was the classic management case; he gave them responsibilities, he gave them authority, and if they didn’t perform, he got rid of them,” said Mr. Nemzoff, who sold Columbia/HCA a series of hospitals during Mr. Scott’s tenure. Then Mr. Nemzoff laughed, adding, “It’s sort of the direct opposite of government.” And that may be Mr. Scott’s biggest challenge. He is a proud outsider who has never served in elected or appointed office. Critics and some supporters say they are worried that the new governor-elect has little or no experience with the web of state agencies and financing mechanisms that he will oversee. Despite his having named a transition team of conservative state lawmakers, they ask whether he can be trusted to make cuts, without dire consequences. For instance, his seven-step plan calls for laying off 5 percent of the state work force, rolling back state and local spending to 2004 levels, and adding drug screening as a requirement for welfare recipients. If he is unable to make such cuts, how will be pay for his other proposals — like a $1.4 billion reduction in the property taxes that support Florida’s schools? Republicans and Democrats predict a major clash with unions on many of these issues. “His only enemy in Tallahassee is the public service unions and the teachers union,” said Claude Kirk Jr., whose term as Florida’s first Republican governor in 90 years was rocked by a teacher’s strike in 1968. “They are still dominant.” Matthew Dowd, the chief pollster for George W. Bush’s 2004 presidential campaign, said that Mr. Scott had more going for him because the public mood has changed. “Voters want less government jobs in the system,” he said, “and more jobs in business, especially small business.” But Mr. Scott’s job creation plans — mainly cuts to regulations and taxes — are likely to have a lagging impact if they work, and he still has to win over more Floridians. He defeated Alex Sink, a Democrat, by only a single percentage point after spending $73 million on his own campaign, and 62 percent of voters said they still had reservations about him, according to exit polls. Mr. Dowd said Mr. Scott would be smart “to prepare people that the path to the promised land is not without struggle and pain.” For now, Mr. Scott seems to heading in a sunnier direction. “Here in Florida our problems are solvable and our blessings are countless,” he said Wednesday. “Even in these hard times, Florida is still pretty close to paradise.”

Florida
Scott Richard L
Republican Party
Politics and Government
Governors (US)


On Abortion, Obama Is Drawn Into Debate He Had Hoped to Avoid

Abstract: WASHINGTON — In nearly four months in office, President Obama has pursued a careful two-pronged strategy on abortion, enacting policies that secure a woman’s right to the procedure while vowing to move beyond the culture wars that have divided the nation on the issue for more than three decades. Now, Mr. Obama is suddenly in the thick of the battle he had hoped to transcend, and his delicate balancing act is being put to the test. The confluence of two events — his commencement speech on Sunday at the University of Notre Dame , in Indiana, and his forthcoming choice of a candidate to replace Justice David H. Souter, who is retiring from the Supreme Court — threaten to upend Mr. Obama’s effort to “tamp down some of the anger” over abortion, as he said in a news conference last month, and to distract from his other domestic priorities, like health care. The invitation from Notre Dame, a Roman Catholic institution, has riled opponents of abortion, who object to giving such a platform to a supporter of abortion rights. The local bishop has vowed to boycott the ceremony. Some graduating seniors are planning to protest it. Conservatives, frustrated by what they regard as Mr. Obama’s skillful efforts to paint himself as a moderate, are all over the airwaves denouncing him as “the most radical, pro-abortion of any American president,” as Newt Gingrich, a former House speaker, said on Fox News. The White House must now decide whether to engage in the debate and, if so, how deeply. Mr. Obama’s communications adviser, Anita Dunn, said in an interview that the president was likely to “make reference to the controversy” in his speech on Sunday. “You can’t ignore it,” Ms. Dunn said, “but at the same time, you can’t allow it to become the focus of a day that’s actually supposed to be about the graduates.” While the address has galvanized abortion opponents, the Supreme Court opening has galvanized backers of abortion rights. Both sides expect Mr. Obama to pick a candidate who would uphold Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. But interest groups are taking no chances. “Take Action: Protect a Woman’s Right to Choose!” declared the Center for Reproductive Rights in an e-mail message to supporters on Wednesday. Mr. Obama frames his position on abortion as a nuanced one — he calls it a “a moral and ethical issue” best left to women and doctors — and he envisions himself forging consensus around causes like reducing unintended pregnancies and promoting adoption. As he said in a 2007 speech to Planned Parenthood , “Culture wars are so ’90s.” As president, Mr. Obama, who during the campaign answered a question about when human life begins by saying it was “above my pay grade,” has tried to straddle the abortion divide. He has done so partly by reaching out to religious conservatives, partly by avoiding the most contentious legislative battles and partly by reversing the policies of his predecessor, George W. Bush, a faithful ally of abortion opponents, in piecemeal fashion — all while the nation has been consumed by the economic crisis. He has named abortion rights advocates to top jobs; Dawn Johnsen, a former legal director of Naral Pro-Choice America, is his pick to run the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel. He has repealed the so-called Mexico City rule, which prohibited tax dollars from going to organizations that provide abortions overseas; lifted Mr. Bush’s limits on embryonic stem cell research; stripped financing for abstinence-only sex education; and is seeking to undo a last-minute Bush regulation giving broad protections to health providers who refuse to take part in abortions. Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said she told allies that their movement was emerging from “eight years in the wilderness.” But even as Mr. Obama has delighted abortion rights advocates, he has dialed back some earlier ambitions. In 2007, he promised Planned Parenthood that “the first thing I’d do as president” would be to sign the Freedom of Choice Act, which effectively codifies Roe v. Wade. Now he says the bill is “not my highest legislative priority,” as he put it at a recent news conference. Mr. Obama is also reaching out. At his direction, his top domestic policy adviser, Melody C. Barnes, is convening a series of discussions with people on both sides of the debate, with a goal to draft a set of policy recommendations by late summer. “What we’ve said to people is, ‘This isn’t an opportunity to relitigate Roe v. Wade,’ ” Ms. Barnes said. “The president wants us to talk about reducing unintended pregnancies, but he doesn’t want this to be the conversation that never ends. His goal is to get something done.” David P. Gushee, a professor of Christian ethics at Mercer University in Atlanta who backed Mr. Obama despite their differences on abortion, has participated in the talks. He said the president was sending a message to moderate Catholics and evangelicals that “he clearly knows what the bright red lines are and is trying to avoid stepping over them.” But religious conservatives and more ardent abortion opponents who have not been included say Mr. Obama is trying to have it both ways. Charmaine Yoest, president of Americans United for Life, an advocacy group, said that if the president really wanted to forge consensus, he would advocate rules allowing parents to be notified if their teenage daughters sought an abortion and banning the procedure known as partial-birth abortion. As an Illinois state senator, Mr. Obama voted “present” on such initiatives, enabling their defeat. “Moderate rhetoric, hard-left policies,” said Senator Sam Brownback, Republican of Kansas, a vocal abortion opponent, assessing Mr. Obama’s approach. Polls show that the American public is deeply conflicted over abortion and that support has declined steadily over the years. In 1995, roughly 60 percent of Americans believed abortion should be legal in all or most cases. Last month, in a survey by the Pew Research Center, that number stood at 46 percent. A Gallup survey that examined seven decisions early in Mr. Obama’s presidency found that the least popular was the one to overturn the ban on sending tax dollars to organizations that provide abortions overseas. Douglas W. Kmiec, a constitutional scholar and former Notre Dame professor who was an outspoken critic of abortion when he worked for Presidents Ronald Reagan and the elder George Bush, said he had been advising the White House to use the speech at the university on Sunday to tackle the controversy head on, with the president making the case that “we already have agreement, we both respect life, we both view abortion as a moral tragedy.” But as to whether Mr. Obama can indeed transcend the culture wars, Mr. Kmiec sounded uncertain. “If there’s anybody who can, it’s the president,” he said. “Whether the culture wars will let him is the question, and the answer is unknown.”


Paul Mayer, 82, Ex-Priest and Peace Activist, Dies

Abstract: Paul Mayer, a Jewish-born former Roman Catholic priest who was at the forefront of peace and social justice campaigns for five decades, for a time working closely with the radical pacifist priests Philip and Daniel Berrigan, died on Nov. 22 at his home in East Orange, N.J. He was 82. His son, Peter, said the cause was brain cancer. Mr. Mayer converted to Catholicism as a teenager and gave up the priesthood in 1968 to marry a former nun. But he said he still considered himself a priest — just as he still considered himself a Jew. “Jesus never stopped being a Jew, and frankly I don’t think I could stop being a Jew even if I wanted to,” he told the psychotherapist Alan Levin in an interview for a forthcoming book, “Crossing the Boundary.” He wore the priest’s collar for the rest of his life. He also became a devotee of Navajo religious tradition and the philosophy and practice of yoga. In the 1960s and ’70s, Mr. Mayer helped the Berrigan brothers plan some of their highly publicized antiwar sorties, including the 1968 raid on a draft board office in Catonsville, Md. , to remove and burn draft files in the parking lot outside. He also coordinated underground support for the Berrigans when they went into hiding, hunted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as among its 10 most wanted fugitives. In 1971, Mr. Mayer was named an unindicted co-conspirator in an alleged plot to kidnap Henry A. Kissinger , the national security adviser to President Richard M. Nixon, supposedly to ransom him in exchange for an end to the war in Vietnam. The defendants contended that the F.B.I. had fabricated the plot with the help of a paid informer. Mr. Mayer headed the defense committee for those charged in the case, known as the Harrisburg Seven. While awaiting trial, Mr. Mayer officiated at the wedding of two of the defendants, the Rev. Philip Berrigan and an activist nun, Elizabeth McAlister, at the federal detention center in Danbury, Conn. The trial, in 1972, ended in a hung jury, after which the government dropped all but minor charges against Father Berrigan and Sister Elizabeth. Mr. Mayer was a Benedictine monk for 18 years at St. Paul’s Abbey in Newton, N.J., before being ordained a Catholic priest in the mid-1960s. In 1966 he met Naomi Lambert, a nun at the time with the order of Medical Mission Sisters , while traveling in Mexico. They married two years later. By the time the Vatican relieved him of his priestly duties in 1971, they had had the first of their two children. The couple established a commune of sorts, called Project Share, in East Orange, where they and a group of families lived together and supported one another in two adjacent six-unit apartment buildings. His marriage ended in divorce in the 1970s. Besides his son, he is survived by a daughter, Maria. Mr. Mayer continued a life of extravagant disregard for conventions. In 1972 he toured villages in North Vietnam that the Communist authorities said had been carpet-bombed by American planes. He visited Cuba many times to deliver medical supplies, in defiance of the United States trade embargo. In 1973, while heading an American delegation to the World Peace Congress in Moscow, he caused a stir by criticizing the meeting’s sponsor, the Soviet Union, saying it was waging “a campaign to silence” any of its citizens “who seek to express their rights.” In response, his own delegation of activists stripped him of his leadership role. Paul Michael Mayer was born in Frankfurt on Feb. 24, 1931, to Ernst and Berthel Mayer. After Paul and a younger brother, Franz, were expelled from school as Jews under Nazi decrees, their father, a concert pianist who worked as a salesman, and their mother, a nurse, immigrated to the United States with their children in 1938. Mr. Mayer lived in an orphanage while his parents and younger brother stayed with relatives for about a year, until they could afford to rent an apartment in the Washington Heights section of Manhattan. His decision to convert to Catholicism at 16, he said, reflected a “driving adolescent drive to belong.” The writings of Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk and Christian mystic, cemented his commitment, he said. After being ordained, he was a parish priest in Panama. He took up the cause of social justice when he joined the civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Ala., in 1965. Almost 50 years later the passion had not subsided. In an unpublished memoir he completed shortly before his death, he recalled his arrest in December 2011 during the Occupy Wall Street protest: “I found myself climbing a 15-foot linked iron fence to cast my lot with this visionary youth movement that was sweeping the planet.”

Paul Mayer
Priest
Obituary
Philip F Berrigan
Daniel J Berrigan