No Floating Gas Plant; States Weigh Options

Abstract: NOW that New York has rejected Broadwater Energy ’s floating natural gas plant in Long Island Sound, Connecticut and New York will rely on gas pipelines, conservation and renewable energy sources to meet emerging power needs, officials and others in both states said. Several officials said that turning away Broadwater opened the way for regional energy planning involving the two states as well as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and even Maryland to overcome what they said was an absence of coherent federal energy planning. Central to such planning, the officials said, would be a regional approach to locating liquefied natural gas projects like Broadwater, with Long Island Sound excluded as a site. L.N.G. projects proposed or under construction in Canada, Massachusetts and in the Atlantic off New Jersey and Long Island could meet regional demand, they said. “We are at the dawn of a new and very different era in energy cooperation,” said Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general and a Broadwater opponent. Meantime, while an impasse between Connecticut and New York continues over the federally approved Islander East pipeline, a planned capacity expansion of the Iroquois pipeline, which also has federal approval, would deliver 200 million cubic feet of natural gas from Connecticut to Long Island as soon as October. Islander East, which Connecticut is blocking because of concerns about the environmental effects of its underwater route, could deliver 250 million cubic feet a day. Broadwater, which could have delivered up to a billion cubic feet of natural gas daily to New York and Connecticut, must now decide whether to pull out or struggle on against heavy odds. The company has until mid-May to appeal to the federal commerce secretary; the appeal would have to be ruled on within a year. The New York Department of State found on April 10 that the project — which entailed a Queen Mary-size floating plant supplied by tankers — was inconsistent with the state’s Coastal Zone Management Act and inappropriate for the Sound. The plant would have been moored 9 miles off Long Island and 11 miles from Connecticut. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission unanimously approved the project on March 20, but New York’s approval was required. John Hritcko Jr., Broadwater’s senior vice president and regional project director, said it had not decided whether to appeal. He said the project was needed immediately to meet rising demand for natural gas and to stabilize prices. “Clearly, this is a terrible decision for working families and businesses in New York and Connecticut,” Mr. Hritcko said of the state action. In Connecticut, State Representative Leonard A. Fasano, a Republican from North Haven and the chairman of an L.N.G. task force appointed by Gov. M. Jodi Rell, said the state’s gas supply was sufficient until beyond 2025. “The federal government made this an issue of corporate greed, not gas need,” he said. “The New York decision makes it clear that Long Island Sound is not for sale.” Leah Schmalz, the director of legislative and legal affairs for Save the Sound, an anti-Broadwater group in New Haven, said, “Everyone agrees there is a need to look at our energy future, and the first step is conservation and energy efficiency programs.” Gov. David A. Paterson of New York opposed the project as “a dangerous precedent for industrializing a body of water that people have spent years and millions of dollars trying to clean up.” He said he would create a state energy planning board and work to increase pipeline capacity to Long Island and downstate New York. Kevin S. Law, president and chief executive of the Long Island Power Authority, backed Mr. Paterson’s position and noted that 85 percent of the gas would have gone to New York City. “LIPA was never counting on Broadwater to meet our needs,” Mr. Law said.

Broadwater Energy
Long Island Sound
Connecticut
Gas (Fuel)
Long Island (NY)


Place in Celtics Lore Is One Victory Away for Rivers

Abstract: BOSTON — In the basketball sanctuary known as Boston’s new Garden, history does not need to be sought out. It hangs from the rafters and wafts from the parquet. But Doc Rivers went looking anyway. Six years ago, Boston named Rivers its coach, and Rivers started compiling names of former Celtics . “When I first took the job, I wrote every single player that had played for the Celtics, even if it was just for one year, and just invited them back,” Rivers said on Sunday night. “I needed them around.” He added, “I don’t think you should ever run from tradition.” There is no longer much concern about that. With Rivers at the helm, tradition is mingling nicely with the present, and the eras are becoming harder to distinguish. Hours after Rivers retold that story, his team methodically squeezed out a 92-86 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers and took a 3-2 lead in the N.B.A. finals. The Celtics are now one victory from an 18th championship, their second in three years. If they win the title, Rivers will join K. C. Jones, Tommy Heinsohn, Bill Russell and the franchise patriarch, Red Auerbach, as Celtics coaches to win multiple titles. He would comfortably stand among the franchise’s greats. In modern terms, Rivers’s feat would be just as impressive. In the last 33 years, only six N.B.A. coaches have won multiple titles: Jones, Chuck Daly, Pat Riley, Rudy Tomjanovich, Gregg Popovich and Phil Jackson — Rivers’s rival in this series. Rivers would be the first coach to beat Jackson twice in the finals, and the first to beat any Jackson-coached team after losing Game 1 of a series. Jackson is 47-0 after winning a series opener. Not much was expected of Rivers when he came to Boston in 2004. The Celtics had won 36 games the season before under Jim O’Brien and John Carroll. Rivers had been fired by the Orlando Magic the previous fall. In Orlando, Rivers was the N.B.A.’s coach of the year for taking a roster of nobodies and forging a cohesive, competitive team that went 41-41 in 1999-2000. In Boston, he had one legitimate star, Paul Pierce, and an ever-changing lineup of young, insufficiently talented, role players. The Celtics became a powerhouse when they acquired Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in 2007, and Rivers became a championship coach the next spring. It would be easy to diminish the feat — as many have with Jackson — as the mere product of a loaded roster. But the Celtics are as moody and tempestuous as they are talented, and became more so this season with the additions of Rasheed Wallace and Nate Robinson. “This team is a difficult team to coach,” said the reserve guard Michael Finley, who has seen it all in 15 N.B.A. seasons. “And he has taken on that role, as the head coach, head psychologist, best friend, big brother, all those rolled up into one. And he’s done it well.” Where once Rivers had to manage the egos of three superstars, he now has four, with Rajon Rondo becoming possibly the Celtics’ best player. He must manage the maturity issues of Glen Davis and Robinson and hold in check the most volatile personality in the league, in Wallace. “Doc seems to keep us at peace,” Finley said. “He’s able to relate. He knows where the players are coming from, from a player’s perspective, but at the same time, he humbles us with true criticism.” Tactically, Rivers has also proved adept, and his instincts have been vital in this series. Faced with a potential 3-1 deficit, the Celtics pulled out a Game 4 victory when Rivers unleashed Davis and Robinson. They delivered a series of huge plays, and Rivers trusted them to play most of the fourth quarter, while his stars sat on the bench. Rivers’s defensive game plan, to absorb Kobe Bryant’s blows but contain his teammates, has worked perfectly, turning Bryant into a frustrated solo act in the last two games. The Lakers scored just 86 points in Game 5, their lowest output of the playoffs. Rivers has showed unwavering confidence in Allen despite Allen’s tremendous shooting slump. Nor did he abandon Garnett early in the series when it appeared that Garnett was overmatched by Pau Gasol. In fact, the so-called Big Three have been erratic throughout the finals, but the Celtics are in control anyway. It has been an unusual season. The Celtics won 23 of their first 28 games, then went 27-27 the rest of the way as Rivers managed roster changes, Garnett’s recovery from knee surgery, aging stars and a little boredom. If the Celtics win the title, they will do so with the worst regular-season record (50-32) since the 1994-95 Houston Rockets (47-35). The Celtics had home-court advantage only in the first round, against Miami, but they won two critical games in Cleveland in the second round and took Game 2 in Los Angeles in the finals. Now they need one more road win to clinch the title. “That’s the beautiful thing about this whole situation — the circumstances that have been before us all playoffs long,” Allen said. He added, “Definitely, this year has been a lot tougher, and I think the tougher it is the more you want it.” In the Celtics’ locker room hangs a poster showing the Larry O’Brien Trophy, given to the N.B.A. champion, accompanied by a quote from the motivational writer Stephen Covey, “Begin with the end in mind.” The Celtics have traveled this path before and know the directions. “It’s a moment that we’ve shared together before,” Allen said, “but we still have to work for that moment.”

Basketball
Los Angeles Lakers
Rivers Doc
Boston Celtics
Playoff Games


Support Builds for a Tax Credit for Creating Jobs

Abstract: The idea of a tax credit for companies that create new jobs, something the federal government has not tried since the 1970s, is gaining support among economists and Washington officials grappling with the highest unemployment in a generation. The proposal has some bipartisan appeal among politicians eager both to help their unemployed constituents and to encourage small-business development. Legislators on Capitol Hill and President Obama ’s economic team have been quietly researching the policy for several weeks. “There is a lot of traction for this kind of idea,” said Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia , the Republican whip. “If the White House will take the lead on this, I’m fairly positive it would be welcomed in a bipartisan fashion.” In addition to the economists working on the proposal, some heavyweights support the concept, including the Nobel laureate Edmund S. Phelps, Dani Rodrik of Harvard and former Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich . One version of the approach, to be unveiled next week by the Economic Policy Institute , a labor-oriented research organization, would give employers a two-year tax credit if they increased the size of their work force or added significant hours of work (for example, making a part-time worker full time). Employers would receive a credit worth twice the first-year payroll tax for each new hire, amounting to several thousand dollars, depending on the new worker’s salary. “It’s beautiful if it can be timed at a dire moment like this, when unemployment is way too high and appears to be going somewhat higher,” said Mr. Phelps, an economics professor at Columbia, lamenting that the president dropped it from the $787 billion stimulus plan approved in February. “But it’s a pity that this wasn’t done a year ago.” One of a number of ideas being discussed, the policy is intended to encourage companies to start hiring again by making it cheaper to add new workers. It has raised concerns, though, that employers might try to exploit the system. States have dabbled with similar tax credits in recent years, with mixed results. The federal government last tried this measure in 1977-78. During that period, employment — which had been soft from the 1973-75 recession — climbed at a record pace. The creation of one out of three jobs that was awarded the credit then was attributed directly to the policy. But the permanence of those jobs was less clear, and some dispute how many of those positions would have been created eventually anyway. Supporters say that improvements upon the 1970s policy would increase its potency. These include better publicizing the credit; making it available even to concerns that are not making money, in the form of a direct payout to nonprofits and companies in the red; and distributing the credit quarterly so that companies see it sooner. Timothy J. Bartik, a senior economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research who is working on the draft with John H. Bishop of Cornell , estimates that it would cost about $20,000 for each job created. But some dismiss the idea as corporate welfare. “Some bad ideas never go away,” said Howard Gleckman, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute. “It’s just providing incentives to lots of companies that probably aren’t going to make it in the end anyway.” Under the proposal from Mr. Bartik and Mr. Bishop, the credit in the first year would equal 15.3 percent of the cost of adding an employee. In the second year, it would fall to about 10.2 percent. For example, hiring a worker might cost a small business $50,000 annually. But with the tax credit, the cost would fall to $42,350 in the first year, and then be $44,900 the next year. After that, the cost would return to $50,000. The credit would apply only to the portion of an employee’s salary under $106,800. Lowering the cap further, however, could provide an even greater benefit to low-wage, unskilled workers. The authors estimate their proposal could create more than two million jobs in the first year. “Businesses like those provisions that reduce the hurdle rate that you have to surmount in order to make an investment — like an employee — a profitable investment,” said Robert Willens, president of a tax and accounting advisory firm in New York. Of course, even in recessionary times, some companies are hiring without tax breaks . So a subsidy could merely benefit those businesses that already would have added new workers. An American Economic Review study has suggested that the 1970s policy was responsible for adding about 700,000 of the 2.1 million jobs that were awarded the credit. This may sound modest, but if accurate, economists say it would make this proposal a successful and relatively cheap way of creating jobs. Advocates argue that such incentives would be more effective this time around not only because of design, but also because of timing. In 1977, hiring was already on the upswing, whereas economists expect today’s job market to decline a bit more and then stagnate for months. “Now is a better time than ’77 was because we’re closer to the bottom of a recession,” said Daniel S. Hamermesh, an economics professor at the University of Texas , Austin , who helped create the 1970s plan. “This could help an uptick proceed more rapidly.” But critics of the idea argue that businesses hire based on actual demand for their products, and a minor subsidy for adding an employee will not make up for the collapse in demand across the broader economy. “Why would a business hire a new worker?” Bill Rys, tax counsel to the National Federation of Independent Business, a small-business industry group, said. “They’re hiring because they need to do work. Unless you have work to do, it’s still an expense.” Barack Obama — like Senator John Kerry before him — proposed a job creation tax credit during his presidential campaign, and then in discussions for the stimulus package. The proposal was eventually killed because of concerns that employers would exploit the tax credit. For example, companies might close and reopen, claiming credit for all their “new” employees. Even advocates acknowledge that, as with any tax incentive, employers and their accountants will take advantage of loopholes. But they argue that with strong rules — possibly by reducing the credit for “new” companies, or by requiring a company’s overall wage bill to rise along with its work force — the proposal could minimize such abuse. Deficit hawks still worry about the cost of the proposal, and whether it would be politically feasible for Congress to phase it out once businesses have grown used to it. The biggest fear among some, though, is that the proposal might unintentionally reduce job opportunities if it sits in Washington too long without passing. “Particularly for big employers, if they think a job creation tax credit is in the offing, it could certainly be an incentive to delay hiring,” said Lee E. Ohanian, an economics professor at the University of California , Los Angeles . “That means it could have the perverse effect of actually prolonging the recession.”


Vote Due on High-Tech Gunfire-Detection System for 2 Westchester Cities

Abstract: WITH shootings on the rise in Mount Vernon and Yonkers, the County Board of Legislators is scheduled to decide on Monday whether to buy a high-tech system that its proponents say would immediately detect and pinpoint gunfire within those cities. Supporters of the technology said that the sensors, which would cost $3 million, would help curb gun violence by giving the police the location of any gunfire within seconds and within 25 feet, allowing them to respond precisely and immediately. The detectors can also determine the number and kinds of guns fired, proponents said. Under the county’s proposal, video cameras linked to the system would be installed as well. In Yonkers , the number of shootings last year increased by about 70 percent and the number of shooting victims rose by 88 percent, the police said. In Mount Vernon , where overall crime last year dropped by almost 4 percent, the number of shootings rose by 59 percent and the number of victims increased by 67 percent, the police said. “We have too many kids being shot at,” said Andrew J. Spano, the county executive. “We have one killing a month in the city of Mount Vernon. Shots fired in Yonkers is something we hear all the time. We want it to stop. It’s simple.” Similar technology, which involves small sensors placed on sites like utility poles and buildings, is becoming increasingly popular in municipalities with high-crime areas. Nassau County started using gunshot detectors last year, and Newark and East Orange in New Jersey have used them for several years. The detectors combat crime by enabling the police to find both the gunmen and their victims immediately after shootings, supporters said. Currently, the police in Mount Vernon and Yonkers rely on 911 reports of gunfire, the accuracy and consistency of which vary, they said. If the county buys and installs the system, Mount Vernon and Yonkers would assume responsibility for maintaining them. Proponents, including Mr. Spano, said they hoped the system would be approved quickly so it could be in place by the summer. Some county legislators, however, said they had not received enough information to approve the $3 million expense at a time when Westchester is having budget problems. Legislator Michael B. Kaplowitz, Democrat of Somers, said he wanted system proponents to provide a more detailed analysis of the costs and benefits before asking the board to vote for it. “I want to avoid shootings and innocents getting hurt,” Mr. Kaplowitz said. “But $3 million is a significant amount of money, and I want to make sure that $3 million is a good investment.” That figure is much more than the $850,000 Nassau spent to install the sensors in parts of Uniondale and Roosevelt — primarily because the system would cover a substantially larger area, Westchester officials said. David E. Chong, the Mount Vernon police commissioner, said he believed that the sensors would be an invaluable resource. He said Mount Vernon, like other urban areas, was experiencing a rise in shootings as the number of illegal handguns on the streets increases. The detectors would aid police response times, deter criminals from using guns in the city and provide investigators with the exact number and kinds of guns fired during an incident, Commissioner Chong said. And gunshot victims would receive medical care faster, he said. ”This would be something that would quite honestly save lives,” he said. Commissioner Chong said that although the police want people to continue to report crimes, there are inherent delays associated with the 911 system because making, analyzing and responding to such reports takes time. “With this modern technology, we are eliminating the human element,” he said. “This is a self-taught system that can identify a gunshot and can send that message at the speed of sound to the 911 operator.” Chuck Lesnick, the Yonkers City Council president, agreed. “Anything we can do to stop gun violence is welcome,” he said. “Compared with other cities its size, Yonkers is safe. But even if we have one incident of gun violence a year, that’s one too many.”


Where Stars and Competitive Dancers Shop for Shoes

Abstract: When Broadway princesses need new glass slippers, they turn to Worldtone Dance , the city’s go-to place for theatrical and dancesport shoes. “I was thrilled to get to do the shoe for ‘Cinderella,’ ” said the store’s owner, Lani Spear, who recently outfitted the Broadway revival of the fairy tale musical. Other clients have included “Jersey Boys,” “Rock of Ages,” “Smash” and “Dancing with the Stars.” Perched above two gift shops at 580 Eighth Avenue, in the theater district, with a small sign and star-shaped paper lanterns in the windows, the store relies on customers who already know where they’re headed. The elevator opens onto a carpeted showroom with more than 500 styles of dance shoes on simple shelves under track lighting. Autographed posters adorn the white walls, and an eclectic mix of dance-friendly music plays in the background. The spacious room has a white tile dance floor, 6 feet by 9 feet, and large windows that look out on a dance studio across the street. Image “Our clients spend an average of 90 minutes trying on shoes,” said the owner, Lani Spear, 48, whose parents started Worldtone. Credit Benjamin Norman for The New York Times The space is new — Worldtone moved from Chelsea to Midtown in November. But the business goes back to 1969, when Ms. Spear’s parents, Kenneth and Nomi Spear, dance teachers who met dancing, began an international folk dance record label. In 1974, they moved the retail operation from their Queens basement to Manhattan and began selling dance footwear, which eventually became the bread and butter of the business. “I grew up there,” Ms. Spear, 48, said of the original location on Seventh Avenue. She has built up the theatrical part of the business since she took over nearly 10 years ago, but most sales still come from dancesport, a broad category of competitive and social partner dance that includes the waltz, the tango, the fox trot, swing, salsa, the cha-cha and many others. In 2006, Ms. Spear opened a shop in Los Angeles, which allowed for new opportunities in television. Worldtone can customize shoes and also designs its own lines from scratch. “These are athletic shoes disguised as sexy, high-heel shoes,” she said as Pico, her Yorkiepoo, sat on her lap. “When you see the workout people do in these shoes, you’ll understand why they need the right one.” On a recent Saturday, as the afternoon sun flooded into the showroom, a steady stream of dancesport enthusiasts came searching for the right shoe — out of the 14,000 pairs in stock. One was Haley O’Berrigan, 17, who had come with her mother from Montclair, N.J., to get a pair of Supadance brand shoes for an international Latin competition. Neighborhood Joint: Worldtone Dance 9 Photos View Slide Show › Image Benjamin Norman for The New York Times “These are nice,” she told her mother as she took some steps on the dance floor, doing a few pivots. She then stood in front of the mirror, examining the line of her leg and the gold shoe. “You want your shoes to be good enough so that when you’re dancing you have faith in them,” she said. Across the room, Nancy Radke, 60, who was in town from Syracuse for a wedding, was gleefully making her way through a stack of shoe boxes, with her daughter and son-in-law’s assistance. She and her husband took up dance a few years ago, she said, and they have been hooked since. “When I come to New York City,” she said, “I have to come here because it’s the only place I can try on dance shoes like this.” Toward the end of the day, as Pico mingled with customers, Alice Chiang, 23, an N.Y.U. graduate student who lives in Midwood, Brooklyn, was helping her friend Patricia Chan, 25, decide on shoes. On her most recent visit, Ms. Chiang said, she had spent two hours. “I was trying shoe after shoe after shoe,” she said. “It’s like Harry Potter finding a magic wand. Suddenly you know — this is it!”

Worldtone Dance Manhattan NY Retail Store


Savoring Deals and the Dishes All Over the Hudson Valley

Abstract: If economic stress has slowed the pace of your restaurant visits this year, a chance to catch up begins now. Hudson Valley Restaurant Week — a bit of a misnomer since it runs for 12 days — offers three-course dinners and lunches at some of the area’s best dining spots at substantially reduced prices. Now in its third year, Restaurant Week runs Sunday to Friday this week and next and covers 85 restaurants in Westchester, Putnam, Dutchess, Ulster, Rockland and Orange Counties, with the greatest number from Westchester, where 27 restaurants are participating. Dinners cost $28.09 and lunches (not available at all locations) are $20.09. Restaurant Week provides a good incentive to explore. The Hudson Valley is rich in history, and there are wonderful old spots to visit, including the Depuy Canal House in High Falls, built in 1797; Stissing House in Pine Plains, open since 1782; and Kittle House in Chappaqua, built in 1790. But no matter what the location — a place with a great view or in a town you’ve always wanted to visit — food is the main attraction. During the event, many area chefs make special efforts to impress and go out of their way to use Hudson Valley products. “The menus are truly special,” said Janet Crawshaw, Restaurant Week organizer and publisher of The Valley Table magazine. “We asked the chefs to use as many local and artisanal products as possible, and they really rose to the occasion.” For example? “The cheeses are off the charts,” Ms. Crawshaw said. “And there are going to be some amazing polentas this year.” Hudson Valley Restaurant Week, (845) 561-2022. HudsonValley RestaurantWeek.com includes links to participating restaurants. Reservations recommended. EMILY DeNITTO


G.M. Bets Big on a Resurgent Cadillac

Abstract: I learned to drive in my father’s black 1967 Cadillac , which my friends and I called the “Batmobile.” With its fins, 130-inch wheelbase and 4,675 pounds, there was no mistaking it for a Mercedes, not that any of us back then had ever seen one. That Cadillac turned heads, and there was no missing it in the parking lot. At a time when “understated” wasn’t widely considered a compliment, the Cadillac brand was synonymous with American style, quality and prestige. Cadillac sales reached a peak for that decade the next year, 1968, at over 200,000 vehicles. The same might be said of America’s self-image, as it was buffeted by student protests, the civil rights movement and Vietnam. Cadillac’s sales and reputation have pretty much been in decline since. Last year, Cadillac sales dropped 6.5 percent from 2013, to 171,000 cars in the United States, in a growing global market for luxury cars dominated by Mercedes, BMW, Lexus and Audi. Can Cadillac recapture the swagger? General Motors, Cadillac’s parent, is making a big bet that it can. G.M. is reconstituting Cadillac as a stand-alone division, with its own marketing, product development and management teams. Cadillac is moving its headquarters to Manhattan’s urban-chic SoHo neighborhood from Detroit. Image Rear-seat passengers can control the car's entertainment system with optional displays, which retract into the front seat backs. Credit John Minchillo/Associated Press It started a new ad campaign during this year’s Academy Awards with the theme “ Dare Greatly” featuring Edith Piaf (“Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien”) on the soundtrack. General Motors is pouring roughly $12 billion into new Cadillac models over the next five years, an effort “without parallel in the company’s history,” as Uwe Ellinghaus, Cadillac’s energetic chief marketing officer, put it. This week, Cadillac unveiled the first results of that investment at the New York International Auto Show , the new CT6 , in a dazzling stand-alone display featuring a stylized three-dimensional version of Cadillac’s classic crest. In a few weeks, it will make its debut in Shanghai. The CT6 is Cadillac’s new flagship full-size sedan, meant to compete head-on with the Mercedes S-Class and the BMW 7 Series without simply copying them. (Cadillacs, like their German luxury rivals, will now carry letters and numerical designations.) “The world doesn’t need another big German luxury car,” Mr. Ellinghaus said this week at the auto show. (As a former BMW executive, he should know.) “We have to be different. The old Cadillac ads showed our cars on a German autobahn. But we want to capture an American spirit in design and performance.” He described the new Cadillac as “Silicon Valley meets downtown New York.” Has Cadillac lived up to its own slogan by “daring greatly”? That may be in the eye of the beholder. Taking on the German luxury leaders in and of itself has to be seen as daring, given the size of the challenge. “It’s never been harder” to revive a premium car segment, said Adam Jonas, a Morgan Stanley automotive analyst. “It’s going to take tremendous time and money. I’m not saying it can’t work, but there’s a lot of cultural inertia behind Cadillac, and there’s a huge amount of competition coming from a German auto industry that’s getting even more aggressive. There’s not going to be any quick win.” Image “The world doesn’t need another big German luxury car,” said Uwe Ellinghouse, the chief marketing officer for Cadillac. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Gadi Amit, president of NewDealDesign in San Francisco and a car enthusiast who originally wanted to be a car designer, said: “I feel positive about any great American brand that’s trying to recapture the mojo. You have to say that taking on the Germans is daring.” He added: “I don’t see this car as a Mercedes threat, but it might make a dent. It really is an achievement for Cadillac to make a decision to aim at the highest level of the car industry and deliver a car that belongs there. I think they’ve done that.” At the same time, the new Cadillac is a traditional sedan with an internal combustion engine. It’s not an all-electric Tesla, and it’s not Apple, which is said to be developing its own electric car . “Cadillac is selling the traditional metrics of automotive excellence, which are design, engineering and performance,” Mr. Jonas said. “That’s what they’ve been doing for the past 100 years. That’s not really daring. Daring is having a robot drive you.” Image Cadillac introduced its new CT6 at the New York auto show this week. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times Mr. Ellinghaus brushed off comparisons with Tesla, saying Cadillac isn’t aiming at the “green” market, and, in any event, he said, every car company will eventually offer an all-electric drive train. The new Cadillac won’t be available at dealers until late this year, and few people have driven it, so it’s hard to evaluate its performance claims. Cadillac maintains the CT6 will deliver the agile handling of a high-performance sedan with the comfort of a traditional luxury car, thanks in large part to its lighter weight — less than the smaller BMW 5 Series . “We believe there’s a huge opportunity among people who don’t want to give up the driving quality of the smaller, sportier cars but want the comfort of a luxury sedan,” Mr. Ellinghaus said. In appearance, there’s no mistaking the CT6 for a Mercedes or BMW. “It’s going to appeal to the individualist,” Mr. Ellinghaus said. Still, it’s hardly so bold as to stop people in their tracks, and in many respects, its design seems less bold than the knife-edge Cadillac styling it replaces. Image Finishing touches are put on a cutaway model of the Cadillac CT6 at the New York auto show. Credit Victor J. Blue for The New York Times “To my mind, it’s a successful design,” Mr. Amit said. “There’s a certain amount of elegance to it. But the front end is fairly powerful and aggressive in its styling, while they’ve softened the back. The Mercedes isn’t really so beautiful, but there’s a harmony about it. I don’t think Cadillac is quite there yet.” The CT6 is a far cry from the Elmiraj , the sleek concept car from which the CT6 was derived, and which was on display at last year’s auto show. That was a worthy successor to my father’s DeVille. But evidently bold and daring have their limits, even for the new Cadillac. “The design was toned down” from the Elmiraj, Mr. Ellinghaus said, as often happens with concept cars. “We wanted distinctive, but we didn’t want the massive, bulky look from Cadillac’s past. We wanted something sleeker. People will always recognize this car.” Mr. Ellinghaus said the company’s market research showed that the new ad campaign has been appealing to Generations X and Y, especially the so-called Millennials, some of whom have taken to social media asking, “Who is Edith Piaf?” and “When is her next tour?” (She died in 1963.) These are people young enough that references to their “grandfather’s car” could well refer to the Mercedes and BMWs embraced by baby boomers. They’ve also responded to New York as a hip, urban setting, and the “epicenter of luxury,” as Mr. Ellinghaus put it. “For this group, Cadillac can be the new cool.” Whether this elusive demographic will actually buy Cadillacs (or any car, for that matter) remains to be seen. Although the greater New York metropolitan area is the country’s second-largest new-car market (after Los Angeles), relatively few people living in SoHo own cars. “Twenty-somethings with beards don’t drive cars in New York,” Mr. Jonas noted. Cadillac is already so far behind in the luxury car market that it needn’t depend on any one demographic to achieve its relatively modest goal of selling a half-million cars globally. That’s less than a quarter of the 2.1 million vehicles BMW sold in 2014. “The Germans make terrific cars, but they want to be No. 1 in volume,” Mr. Ellinghaus said. “They can’t be too distinctive because they have to please every customer. We can afford to take risks.”

Cars
New York International Auto Show
GM
Cadillac Division of General Motors


Cyclone Toll Exceeds 1,700 in Bangladesh

Abstract: DHAKA, Bangladesh , Nov. 17 (AP) — The official death toll from a cyclone that wreaked havoc on southwest Bangladesh reached 1,723 on Saturday. Military helicopters and ships joined rescue and relief operations and aid workers on the ground struggled to reach victims. The cyclone was the deadliest storm to hit this impoverished South Asian country in more than a decade. It tore apart villages, severely disrupted power lines and forced more than a million coastal villagers to flee. Rescuers, some relying on elephants, struggled to move along roads washed out or blocked by debris to deliver water and food. The disruption of power and communications has made it difficult for the Ministry of Disaster Management to compile an official death figure. “The toll is rising fast, as we receive more information from outlying areas where telephone lines have been restored,” said Mokhlesur Rahman, a ministry official in Dhaka, the capital. Many areas of Dhaka remained without power or water on Saturday. The storm killed at least four people in the capital, which was pounded by strong winds and driving rain on Friday. The army sent helicopters to take supplies to the most remote areas, while navy ships delivered items and dispensed medical aid to migrant fishing communities on and around hundreds of tiny islands, or shoals, along the coast, the Inter-Services Public Relations department said. The damage to livelihood, housing and crops will be “extremely severe,” John Holmes, the United Nations under secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said Friday. In a statement issued late on Saturday night, President Bush offered condolences to victims of the cyclone, “especially those who have lost loved ones, homes, and livelihoods in this tragedy.” The statement said that the United States had offered an initial $2.1 million for emergency relief. In addition, two American ships, the Essex and the Kearsarge, were en route to Bangladesh to offer assistance. Usaid was planning to airlift 35 tons of nonfood items, including hygiene kits and other supplies.


Kindle Users Gain Access to Library E-Books

Abstract: Library books are finally going to be compatible with the Kindle . Amazon said on Wednesday that it would allow Kindle users to read e-books from more than 11,000 public libraries on the devices beginning later this year, a reversal of the company’s previous policy. “We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” Jay Marine, director of Kindle at Amazon, said in a statement. Until now, library users who borrowed e-books could read them on Barnes & Noble’s Nook, the Sony Reader, the Kobo reader, and on laptops and smartphones. Librarians, who have grown accustomed to telling disappointed Kindle owners that they cannot be used for free library e-books, said they were relieved that Amazon was opening its device and its Kindle app to libraries. “That’s always the question we get — you lend out e-books? How can I get them on my Kindle?” said Ingvild Herfindahl, the children’s librarian at the Kasson Public Library in Kasson, Minn. “People will be thrilled.” Bobbi L. Newman, who writes the blog Librarian by Day and is a manager at the Richland County Public Library in Columbia, S.C., said Amazon’s decision proved that libraries were “a key player” in the e-book business. “We’ve been waiting for Amazon to play ball with libraries since they came out with the Kindle,” Ms. Newman said. “Even Amazon can’t overlook us anymore.” E-book use in libraries has been growing at a rapid pace, particularly in the last year as more consumers have bought e-readers. The New York Public Library said last month that e-book use in its system was 36 percent higher than it was one year ago. Some publishers have remained uneasy about allowing their e-books to be borrowed from libraries at all. Borrowers can download the books easily from home, so there is less incentive to buy. Two major publishers, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, have still not allowed their e-books to be available in libraries. HarperCollins, which has allowed its e-books to be lent by libraries, angered librarians last month when it announced a new policy requiring that e-books be checked out only 26 times before they expire, forcing libraries to buy them again. Roberta A. Stevens, the president of the American Library Association, said that considering the growth of e-books in libraries, Amazon’s decision was all but inevitable. “I can’t say that I’m surprised,” she said. “They were just shutting off a whole part of the market place. It’s just logical that this would happen.” Amazon said it would work with OverDrive, a large provider of e-books to public libraries and schools. Barnes & Noble introduced its first e-reader, the Nook, in 2009 and opened it up to library e-books. “This is not news for Nook customers who have always had access to library services on their Nook Color, Nook and Nook Wi-Fi devices given Barnes & Noble’s open platform and Adobe technology partnership,” Mary Ellen Keating, a spokeswoman for Barnes & Noble, said in an e-mail.

Amazon Kindle
Electronic Books and Readers


In Battle to Defang ISIS, U.S. Targets Its Psychology

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Maj. Gen. Michael K. Nagata, commander of American Special Operations forces in the Middle East, sought help this summer in solving an urgent problem for the American military: What makes the Islamic State so dangerous? Trying to decipher this complex enemy — a hybrid terrorist organization and a conventional army — is such a conundrum that General Nagata assembled an unofficial brain trust outside the traditional realms of expertise within the Pentagon, State Department and intelligence agencies, in search of fresh ideas and inspiration. Business professors, for example, are examining the Islamic State’s marketing and branding strategies. “We do not understand the movement, and until we do, we are not going to defeat it,” he said, according to the confidential minutes of a conference call he held with the experts. “We have not defeated the idea. We do not even understand the idea.” General Nagata’s frustration is shared by other American officials. Even as President Obama and his top civilian and military aides express growing confidence that Iraqi troops backed by allied airstrikes have blunted the Islamic State’s momentum on the ground in Iraq and undermined its base of support in Syria, other officials acknowledge they have barely made a dent in the larger, longer-term campaign to kill the ideology that animates the terrorist movement. Four months after his initial session with the outside advisers, General Nagata, one of the military’s rising stars and the man Mr. Obama has tapped to train a Pentagon-backed army of Syrian rebels to fight the Islamic State, is still searching for answers. “Those questions and observations are my way of probing and questioning,” General Nagata said in a brief email this month, declining on orders from his superiors to say any more. The minutes of internal conference calls between General Nagata and more than three dozen experts he convened through Pentagon channels in August and October offer an unusual insight into the struggle to understand the Islamic State as a movement, and where the American military’s top leaders are most focused. Video How has ISIS, a 21st-century terrorist organization with a retrograde religious philosophy, spread from Iraq to Syria, Libya and beyond? One of the panel’s initial observations that has intrigued General Nagata is the Islamic State’s “capacity to control” a population, according to the minutes. It is not so much the number of troops or types of weapons the militants use, the experts said. Rather, it is the intangible means by which the Islamic State, also called ISIS or ISIL, wrests and maintains control over territory and its people. This ability, they discussed, centers on “psychological tactics such as terrorizing populations, religious and sectarian narratives, economic controls.” The minutes, which are confidential but not classified, reveal disagreements among the experts over whether ISIS’ main objective is ideological or territorial — General Nagata encourages competing views, urging the group to have “one hell of a debate” over his questions. But the panel raised doubts whether ISIS “has the bureaucratic sophistication necessary to govern.” “The fact that someone as experienced in counterterrorism as Mike Nagata is asking these kind of questions shows what a really tough problem this is,” said Michael T. Flynn, a retired three-star Army general and former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency who has publicly raised similar concerns. A final report by the group, which draws from industry, academia and policy research organizations, is due next month. How to defang the Islamic State’s enticing narrative weighs heavily on many other senior administration officials, as well as top leaders in the Middle East and Europe. How ISIS Works With oil revenues, arms and organization, the jihadist group controls vast stretches of Syria and Iraq and aspires to statehood. This month, Lisa Monaco, Mr. Obama’s counterterrorism and homeland security adviser, said the increasing effort by the Islamic State to branch out to countries like Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Lebanon and Libya “is a huge area of concern.” About 1,000 foreign fighters flock to Iraq and Syria every month, American intelligence officials say, most to join arms with ISIS. “We have to, I think, as an international community, come to terms with how we’re going to deal with these ideologies and movements that are exploiting the weaknesses of various countries,” John O. Brennan, the C.I.A. director, said this fall. “We have to find a way to address some of these factors and conditions that are abetting and allowing these movements to grow.” Enter General Nagata. He has fought in the shadows most of his 32-year Army career, serving in Special Operations forces and classified military units in hot zones such as Somalia, the Balkans and Iraq. Colleagues say he has displayed bureaucratic acumen in counterterrorism jobs at the C.I.A. and the Pentagon, and diplomatic savvy as a senior American military liaison officer in Pakistan during the turbulent period there from 2009 to 2011. “He’s the rare warrior who is most comfortable in complexity,” said Stanley A. McChrystal, a retired four-star general and former commander of allied forces in Afghanistan. Complexity is precisely what General Nagata, by then head of American commandos in the Middle East, wanted in July when he asked a tiny think tank within the military’s Joint Staff, known as Strategic Multilayer Assessment, for help in defeating the Islamic State. In the past year, the group has produced studies on the security implications of megacities around the world and how to apply neuroscience to the concept of deterrence. When General Nagata first convened the specialists on a conference call on Aug. 20, he described his priorities and the challenges that ISIS posed. Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. “What makes I.S. so magnetic, inspirational?” he said. He expressed specific concern that the militant organization is “deeply resonant with a specific but large portion of the Islamic population, particularly young men looking for a banner to flock to.” “There is a magnetic attraction to I.S. that is bringing in resources, talent, weapons, etc., to thicken, harden, embolden I.S. in ways that are very alarming,” General Nagata said. During the call, General Nagata alluded to the Islamic State’s sophisticated use of social media to project and amplify its propaganda, and insisted the United States needed “people born and raised in the region” to help combat the problem. “I want to engage in a long-term conversation to understand a commonly held view of the psychological, emotional and cultural power of I.S. in terms of a diversity of audiences,” the general said. “They are drawing people to them in droves. There are I.S. T-shirts and mugs.” “When I watch Americans use words like cowardly, barbaric, murder, outrageous, shocking, etc., to describe a violent extremist organization’s actions, we are playing right into the enemy’s hands,” General Nagata added. “They want us to become emotional. They revel in being called murderers when the words are coming from an apostate.” He continued: “We have to remember that most of their messaging is not for us. We are not the target. They are happy to see us outraged, but they are really communicating to people we are being drawn to their banner.” Six weeks later, in a second conference call on Oct. 3, General Nagata praised the group’s initial efforts, but again noted, “I do not understand the intangible power of ISIL.” General Nagata scoffed at those who he said had questioned his decision to focus so much on understanding the intangibles of ISIS. “What we have been asked to do will take every ounce of creativity that we have,” he said. “This may sound like a bizarre excursion into the surreal, but for me it is about avoiding failure.”

Psychology
Terrorism
US
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
US Military
Michael K Nagata


Lily McBeth, a Focal Figure for Transgender Rights, Dies at 80

Abstract: After a career selling medical supplies, William McBeth retired to a seaside New Jersey community, where he was hired as a substitute elementary schoolteacher. He had always felt that he was at least as much female as male, and in 2005, at age 70, he had a sex-change operation. During his surgery and recuperation, his new female self, Lily McBeth, stopped teaching for a while. When she applied to return to the classroom, in February 2006, the Eagleswood Township school board reinstated her. The action proved volatile, angering some parents and setting off an intense debate on opportunities for transgender people, an emerging human rights issue. And it made Ms. McBeth, who died at 80 on Sept. 24, a rallying point. Steven Goldstein, founder of the Garden State Equality rights group, called her the state’s most important civil rights figure in the last two decades. The case drew attention in the national news media. ABC News examined it on “Good Morning America.” Bill O’Reilly addressed it on Fox News, saying he would withdraw from school a young child of his to avoid a transgender teacher. The issue came to a boil weeks after Ms. McBeth’s reinstatement, when a town meeting on the issue, with Ms. McBeth present, became a raucous debate. A father, Mark Schnepp, had taken out a full-page ad in a local newspaper protesting the rehiring. At the meeting, he said, “You are forcing sexuality questions on my children they are not capable of understanding.” Another father, Vincent Mustaccio, accused Ms. McBeth of trying to foist her “abnormality” on young children. One man screamed, “Repent, sinners!” School administrators defended their decision, saying Ms. McBeth was a good teacher who had received positive evaluations in five years of substitute teaching. They said her rehiring was mandated by New Jersey civil rights laws. Some parents took Ms. McBeth’s side. “There’s really nothing to fear because a person is transgender,” said Karina Mari, the mother of three school-age children. Ms. McBeth told the gathering: “What’s so difficult about me being a teacher? If I was so good before, what’s the difference now? Just because I had a gender change?” William McBeth was born in 1934, had a successful career selling medical equipment, was married with three children and surfed, skied and hunted ducks. In a 2006 interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer, Ms. McBeth said her surface masculine identity had long battled with her inner feminine one. Before her sex change, she said, she had taken two suitcases on business trips, one containing William McBeth’s gray flannel suit, striped tie and Cordovan shoes, the other holding Lily McBeth’s dresses, heels and jewelry. “You prayed for it to go away,” she said of her feminine proclivities. “You invoked every spirit and power you could think of. You threw away and burned all your clothes, and then three months later, you’re right back where you started.” William McBeth started working as a substitute teacher in several New Jersey districts in the mid-1990s, after his 33-year marriage had ended and he had retired from his sales career. He lived in Little Egg Harbor. At 68, he learned he had serious heart problems and decided to have the sex-reassignment surgery he had long pondered; it cost $35,000. After he was reinstated, now as a woman, by the Eagleswood board, a neighboring district, Pinelands, where he had also worked, unanimously rehired him as well. Ms. McBeth told ABC that she would never “under any circumstances” discuss her sexual identity with children in her classrooms. “You simply say, ‘I could discuss that with you another time out of the classroom.’ ” But she was seldom called by either district. Before the surgery, the districts had each used William 15 to 18 times a year. Afterward, each used Lily only twice. She acknowledged that teachers with more qualifications were, and should be, called first. But she said she had, sadly, come to view her reinstatements as more symbolic than real. “All they did was put me in a closet again,” she told The Associated Press in 2009. “They boxed me in and kept me there.” So she told the districts that she would no longer work for them. She turned to other interests — playing the ukulele, carving wooden ducks, acting in local theater productions and participating in a group seeking to reestablish the clam population in Barnegat Bay. Ms. McBeth’s survivors include her daughters Colleen and Maureen McBeth, who told The A.P. that she had been ill for some time but did not specify the cause of death. A son, William Jr., died this year. Lily McBeth never wrote the autobiography she had intended. But she told The Inquirer that she had come up with a catchy title: “From He to Shining She.”

Lily McBeth
New Jersey
Civil Rights
Teachers
Transgender,Gender Dysphoria
K-12 Education
Obituary


Brust Beats Buzzer, and Wisconsin Beats Michigan in Overtime

Abstract: With a 3-point lead and less than three seconds on the clock at the end of regulation, Michigan Coach John Beilein wanted his players to foul. Wisconsin’s Ben Brust never gave the Wolverines the chance. Brust tied the game with a shot from just inside midcourt as time expired and then hit a 3-pointer with less than 40 seconds left in overtime to give Wisconsin a 65-62 home victory over No. 3 Michigan on Saturday. Just moments before Brust’s shot at the end of regulation, Tim Hardaway Jr. hit a contested 3-pointer for the Wolverines (21-3, 8-3 Big Ten). After a timeout, Mike Bruesewitz of Wisconsin (17-7, 8-3) passed up his first option in the inbounds play and then hit Brust in stride. Brust dribbled once across halfcourt and shot. Beilein said the order coming out of the timeout was to foul. He also put Caris LeVert on Brust to bolster the defense. “You’re always picking them up in overtime,” Beilein said. “You’re always saying something — even if you’re lying like crazy. ‘Guys, we’ve got them where we want them. We’re in better shape.’ ” The teams managed only 7 points combined in overtime, including the winning 3-pointer by Brust, who finished with 14 points. FLORIDA 83, MISSISSIPPI ST. 58 Mike Rosario scored 18 points, and No. 2 Florida bounced back from a humbling loss earlier in the week to rout visiting Mississippi State. Casey Prather, playing in place of the injured forward Will Yeguete, had 12 points and 5 rebounds for the Gators (19-3, 9-1 Southeastern Conference). Yeguete had arthroscopic surgery Friday to remove loose bodies in his right knee and will miss at least the rest of the regular season. Mississippi State (7-15, 2-8) played without Jalen Steele, who did not make the trip after being suspended indefinitely for violating team rules. OKLAHOMA 72, KANSAS 66 Romero Osby had 17 points, and host Oklahoma beat No. 5 Kansas (19-4, 7-3 Big 12) to give the Jayhawks their first three-game losing streak in eight years. The Sooners (15-7, 6-4) took down a top-five opponent for the first time since 2006. Kansas’ Jeff Withey had his 258th career block, tying the team record. GONZAGA 74, LOYOLA-MARYMOUNT 55 Kevin Pangos and Kelly Olynyk each scored 20 points as No. 6 Gonzaga (23-2, 10-0 West Coast) beat visiting Loyola Marymount (8-16, 1-10). MICHIGAN ST. 78, PURDUE 65 Branden Dawson had 20 points as No. 12 Michigan State beat host Purdue (12-12, 5-6 Big Ten). The Spartans (20-4, 9-2) have won 9 of their last 10 and will retain at least a share of the league lead regardless of what happens Sunday, when Indiana visits Ohio State. KANSAS ST. 79, IOWA ST. 70 Rodney McGruder scored 22 points, Angel Rodriguez added 20, and No. 13 Kansas State (19-4, 8-2) beat visiting Iowa State (16-7, 6-4) to take sole possession of first place in the Big 12. U.N.L.V. 64, NEW MEXICO 55 Anthony Bennett had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead Nevada-Las Vegas to a home victory against No. 15 New Mexico (20-4, 7-2 Mountain West). The Runnin’ Rebels (18-6, 5-4) entered the game desperately needing a win after surprising losses to Boise State and Fresno State. Although they shot just 37.1 percent (23 of 62) from the field, the Rebels were 9 of 22 (40.9 percent) from beyond the arc. OREGON 73, UTAH 64 E. J. Singler had 21 points, and No. 19 Oregon overcame a poor start to end its three-game losing streak with a home win over Utah (10-13, 2-9 Pacific-12). Oregon (19-5, 8-3) trailed, 30-22, after the first half but pulled in front midway through the second. The Ducks led by as many as 13 points down the stretch. MISSOURI 98, MISSISSIPPI 79 Alex Oriakhi had a career-high 22 points, 18 rebounds, 3 blocks and a central role in a second-half fracas as No. 21 Missouri (17-6, 6-4 SEC) easily beat visiting Mississippi (18-5, 7-3). Phil Pressey had four assists to break Missouri’s career record and had 22 points. With about seven and a half minutes to go, Reginald Buckner was apparently tripped by Oriakhi and came up swinging with a couple of wild punches that missed Laurence Bowers as Oriakhi danced away. Buckner was ejected, and Oriakhi was called for a flagrant foul. Missouri’s Bowers and Jabari Brown and Mississippi’s Murphy Holloway were whistled for technical fouls. OKLAHOMA ST. 72, TEXAS 59 Marcus Smart scored 23 points, and No. 22 Oklahoma State (17-5, 7-3 Big 12) cruised past host Texas (10-13, 2-8) for its fifth straight win. Saturday was the end of the 23-game N.C.A.A. suspension for Texas guard Myck Kabongo, who is expected to play the rest of the season. MARQUETTE 89, DEPAUL 78 Vander Blue scored 18 points as No. 24 Marquette held off visiting DePaul (10-13, 1-9 Big East). Marquette (17-5, 8-2) moved a half-game ahead of No. 9 Syracuse for first place in the Big East.

College Sports
Basketball
University of Michigan
University of Wisconsin-Madison
College basketball


Fire on Indian Express Train Kills Dozens

Abstract: NEW DELHI — More than two dozen passengers, many of them headed home for the holidays, were killed early Saturday when an express train traveling through the center of India caught fire. The fire started around 3:30 a.m. on a train moving through India’s southern tropical region, between Nanded and Bangalore, the heart of India’s burgeoning technology industry. Video A train traveling between Nanded and Bangalore caught fire at 3:30 a.m. on Saturday. An electrical short-circuit was suspected as the cause, according to local media reports. Credit Credit European Pressphoto Agency Twenty-six people died, and their bodies were charred beyond recognition, S. Senthil Kumar, the chief of police in nearby Anantapur, said by telephone. Seven other passengers were badly injured and were taken to nearby hospitals, Mr. Kumar said. Most of the passengers in the compartment where the fire broke out were sleeping at the time, and an electrical short-circuit was suspected as the cause, according to local media reports. India’s train system is the world’s most extensive, but fares are kept so low to accommodate the poor that the government has been unable to invest in repairs. Many trains are in terrible disrepair and many stations are decrepit. An effort last year by a reformist railway chief to raise fares to pay for needed repairs was reversed immediately, and the official resigned after an outcry followed his announcement.


Quick and Easy Shopping for Tablet Users

Abstract: Those days of dashing through the mall on Christmas Eve, searching for the perfect book or DVD, may be history. Procrastinators this year can sit at home, alone and unruffled, and send books, music and even video in time for Christmas delivery — on tablets like the Kindle Fire, the Nook and the iPad . The makers of these devices have added to their software the capability to send personalized gifts, easing the strain on gift-givers and perhaps also ending the era of handing out less thoughtful gift cards. Each system varies, though, in how to give the gift and what can be given. Here is a primer on how to give gifts to your favorite owners of the most popular tablets. Apple Since its introduction in 2010, the iPad has become by far the dominant tablet on the market. To send music, videos, audio books and apps as gifts, you need to download iTunes to your computer, or use your iPhone or iPad to gain access to the iTunes store, and register with an account name and password. When you find the gift you want to buy, click the arrow to the right of the Buy button and choose the Gift option. It will send you to the Give a Gift page, where you can fill in the recipient’s name and e-mail address, and send a message. You can e-mail the gift as a link or print it out and give it in person. Recipients simply click on the link and the song, album, television show, movie or app will download to their iTunes library, ready to play or sync to an iPod , iPhone, iPad or Apple TV. For more details, see the gift information on the iTunes Web site . Amazon The Kindle Fire, just introduced in November, is expected to move Amazon into second place in the global media tablet market this quarter, with a 13.8 percent share of the market, according to IHS iSuppli research. ISuppli predicts that nearly four million Fires will be sold through year-end. The firm predicts that Apple will ship an estimated 18.6 million iPads in the quarter for a commanding 65.6 percent share. The Kindle line also includes dedicated e-book readers — Kindle, Kindle Touch and Kindle Touch 3G. To give electronic books for Kindle owners, visit the Kindle Store , and use the Give as a Gift option there. You must have or sign up for an Amazon account to complete the transaction. For books, you can send your gift through e-mail, and the recipient can read it on his or her Kindle, on a free reading app on a mobile device or on Kindle’s Cloud Reader . If recipients already own the book they received, they can exchange it by using an Amazon gift credit. To send music through Amazon’s MP3 store , the process is the same. In a few steps, the recipient can download and listen on an MP3 player or on Amazon’s Cloud Player. (The player is a browser-based digital music player that gives a listener access to music stored on his or her own free and secure Amazon Cloud Drive.) At the moment, the only way to designate a gift for apps and video to be played on the Fire is through Amazon’s Gift Cards, which can be bought and delivered by physical mail (if there’s enough time), by e-mail or by Facebook (if you link your Amazon and Facebook accounts), or can be printed out to present in person. A brief personalized message can be added to describe your intended gift. Barnes & Noble The book retailer now has three tablets — Nook Simple Touch, Nook Color and its latest Nook Tablet, which competes directly with the Kindle Fire. IHS iSuppli predicts that the company will ship 1.3 million tablets this quarter, coming in fourth place just behind Samsung. With the new Instant Gifting feature on its Web site, Barnes & Noble allows you to give Nook books and apps, including the time-eating favorites Angry Birds, Scrabble and Solitaire. Gifts can be sent instantly through e-mail. Your eGift recipient is notified by e-mail and can claim the gift by clicking on the included link. Once the gift is accepted, the recipient can get to the book or app through his or her Nook Library. Books can be read on a Nook, or on a free Nook Reading app for smartphones, computers and mobile devices. Apps can be retrieved only on a Nook Color or Nook Tablet. Barnes & Noble also offers eGift Cards for other purchases. If you buy the wrong book or app, don’t worry. Recipients can exchange Nook books and apps for an eGift Card. Kobo The now-defunct Borders once held a small stake in Kobo, which may be how some people are familiar with the brand. But Kobo, a Canadian e-reading company, has other backers and is continuing to offer new products like the Kobo Vox. The Vox features a multimedia screen optimized for reading outdoors, and gives owners access to the Web, e-mail, music, video and thousands of Android apps. Kobo has a supporting cast of devices, including Kobo Touch, Kobo Touch with offers and sponsored screens, and Kobo Wi Fi. Kobo, too, allows you to send electronic books as gifts. Visit the Web site , browse the store, purchase a title and send it electronically with a personalized Kobo holiday e-mail that can be delivered on a specific date. For other gifts, Kobo offers eGift Cards. Customers can define the amount they would like to give and send the gift electronically. Recipients can read their e-books on all platforms on which Kobo is available, including Apple products, BlackBerry, Android, computers and other devices.

iPad
Gifts
Shopping and Retail
Tablet Computers
Mobile Applications
Computers and the Internet
Amazon Kindle
Barnes & Noble Nook
Apple Incorporated


Bomb Attack on Allied Convoy Kills 3 in the Afghan Capital

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — A suicide car bomb hit a convoy of the NATO -led forces on the eastern outskirts of the capital on Monday, killing three civilians and wounding about a dozen others, Afghan police officials said. The attack occurred in midafternoon, when three military vehicles were on the main eastern highway, where a number of foreign military bases are situated. It was the first suicide bombing in Kabul since July 7, when an attacker killed nearly 60 people at the Indian Embassy. Separately, the United States military said it had killed eight civilians and wounded three on Sunday when it bombed a house occupied by militants in the southern province of Uruzgan. In a statement, the military said it had also killed 25 militants who had mounted ambushes on Afghan and coalition forces from buildings in the town of Khas Uruzgan. At the scene of the suicide bombing in Kabul, human remains and wreckage of the bomber’s car were spread across the road. The Kabul police chief, Muhammad Ayub Salangi, confirmed that three civilians had been killed and said that a dozen had been wounded. An initial statement from NATO-led forces gave different numbers, saying that one civilian had been killed and 17 people wounded, along with “a small number” of soldiers. One witness, Meher Kamal, 23, who runs a small shop selling flour, described the blast. “I saw a Toyota Corolla car stopped on the side of road,” he said. “Then, seconds later, three military vehicles of foreign troops were about to pass the small car when a strong explosion with dark smoke blackened the area. “There was not a huge damage to the vehicles, but I saw a civilian driver was killed and another man who probably was walking by was on fire.”

Afghanistan
Bombs and Explosives
Terrorism
United States Armament and Defense
North Atlantic Treaty Organization


Romo Expects to Play Against Giants

Abstract: Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo was limited in practice Wednesday because of his swollen and bruised right hand but said he expected to play Sunday against the Giants in a showdown for the N.F.C. East title. Romo said on a conference call that the swelling was subsiding more each day and that he thought he would play, and without wearing a glove. “Today was good,” he said. “I was able to do some things with the ball that we weren’t sure about, so it was a good start to the week. We are going to keep working on it and get all the treatment and stuff. We should be good to go for this weekend.” His coach, Jason Garrett, was more reserved, however. When asked if Romo would be ready Sunday, Garrett said it was early. “It seemed like he was able to throw the ball O.K., but he still needs to make some progress with that thing — hand is still swollen,” Garrett said. “Typically, he gets a full complement of reps. He didn’t get all the reps.” Stephen McGee, who finished Saturday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles after Romo was injured, also took snaps with the first-team offense. DOLPHINS’ LONG IS OUT Miami Dolphins left tackle Jake Long was placed on injured reserve with a torn right biceps and will miss the team’s final game Sunday against the Jets. The move came one day after Long was chosen a Pro Bowl starter for the third consecutive year. MIAMI’S TAYLOR RETIRING Linebacker Jason Taylor said he would retire after this season, his 15th in the N.F.L. and 13th with the Dolphins. Taylor, who played a year with the Jets, leads active players with 139.5 sacks, which ranks sixth in N.F.L. history. PHILLIPS BACK ON SIDELINE Wade Phillips, the Houston Texans’ defensive coordinator, returned to the practice field, two weeks after undergoing kidney and gallbladder surgery. The linebackers coach Reggie Herring ran the defense in Phillips’s absence, and Houston lost its next two games. Coach Gary Kubiak said he hoped Phillips, 64, would feel strong enough to work from the press box Sunday, when the Texans play Tennessee. MCCOY PROBABLY WON’T PLAY Cleveland Browns quarterback Colt McCoy, who still has not been cleared by team doctors to practice after sustaining a concussion Dec. 8, will most likely miss the season finale against Pittsburgh. Seneca Wallace is expected to start again against the Steelers and James Harrison, whose hit injured McCoy. A BREAK FOR TEBOW (SORT OF) Tim Tebow has one fewer interception, and the Buffalo Bills lost a franchise record for touchdowns on interception returns in a season. In a scoring change announced by the Bills, the third of Tebow’s four interceptions in Denver’s 40-14 loss last weekend is now being ruled a lost fumble. The play came in the fourth quarter, when Tebow had the ball knocked loose by linebacker Chris Kelsay. Spencer Johnson caught the ball in midair and returned it 17 yards for a score.

Dallas Cowboys
Football
Romo Tony
New York Giants


Security Network Planned for Midtown

Abstract: The Police Department has been planning a high-tech security network for Midtown Manhattan involving surveillance cameras, license plate readers and chemical sensors, although it was not clear whether it could have prevented the attempted car bombing in Times Square on Saturday night. The network, patterned after one under development in Lower Manhattan , would eventually use public and private security cameras and license plate readers and would be able to record and track every vehicle moving between 34th and 59th Streets, river to river. But because neither the S.U.V. used in the attempt nor the license plate on it had been reported stolen, it would not have raised any immediate red flags. Eventually, police officials have said, the networks would be able to notice whether a car was circling any area suspiciously. Because the security network is not yet in place in Midtown, it was not known whether the S.U.V. was driven directly to its target on Saturday night. The network could have been triggered via its chemical, biological and radiological sensors, presuming that the material in the vehicle, which is not yet fully analyzed, was detectable. The department secured a $24 million Department of Homeland Security grant last fall to begin building the network. Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said he was seeking more federal money to complete it. Paul J. Browne, a spokesman for the department, said that license plate readers are already being used. “There really isn’t a downside to it,” said Louis Anemone, a former official for the New York Police Department and former head of security for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. “Next time it may not get this far because of the technology.” Even if it could not help prevent an attack, he said, “it helps to clearly identify the people involved and get good photos so officers can follow up.” Mr. Kelly, calling the network “a whole new area for us,” said Sunday, “It has a lot of promise; in that regard we are very enthusiastic about it.” The New York Civil Liberties Union has raised privacy concerns about the networks, and has sued the Police Department and Department of Homeland Security for information about the networks and how long the surveillance images and data would be retained in their databases.

Midtown Area (NYC)
Bombs and Explosives
Security and Warning Systems
Surveillance of Citizens by Government
Terrorism


‘Submarine’ With a Head and Eyes, 500 Million Years Old

Abstract: A 500-million-year-old fossilized arthropod found in the Burgess Shale , a fossil field in the Canadian Rockies, may provide clues to how heads evolved in early animals. The fossil is a submarine-shaped arthropod, Odaraia alata , of the Middle Cambrian Period. A paper in Current Biology reports that both Odaraia alata, originally found about 100 years ago, and another ancient arthropod have a hard plate, known as the anterior sclerite, and eye-like features that were connected by nerves to their brains. They may have controlled their vision in much the same way that modern insects, crustaceans and spiders do.

Fossil
Burgess Shale
Paleontology
Current Biology Journal


Giants Kicker Josh Brown Says Domestic-Violence Arrest Led to Suspension

Abstract: Giants kicker Josh Brown said Thursday he had been suspended for one game by the N.F.L. because of a domestic-violence arrest after an incident at home with his wife in 2015. Although the charges were dropped in the case, the N.F.L.’s personal-conduct policy states that a conviction is not required for a player to be disciplined by the league. Brown’s appeal of the league suspension was denied. “While I’m not O.K. with the decision, I have to respect it,” Brown said after practice. Asked how he felt having his name attached to a domestic-violence charge, Brown answered: “Is it good? No, it’s not.” Brown, 37, will miss the season opener at Dallas on Sept. 11. He can continue to participate in preseason practices and games. Although Brown said that the charges had been dropped five days after his arrest at his home in Woodinville, Wash., on May 22, 2015, a representative of the King County prosecutor’s office, which handled the case, said that there had been an investigation and review of the case. Ultimately, the representative said, prosecutors determined that there was insufficient evidence to prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt. Brown and his wife have since divorced. Giants Coach Ben McAdoo reiterated the team’s position against domestic violence, saying: “My stance stays the same. I’m a father, I’m a husband, and my stance on personal conduct stays the way it is.” McAdoo added: “We support the league office in their decision and their stance on personal conduct. I do support Josh as a man, a father and a player. We treat these situations on a case-by-case basis.”

Giants
Josh Brown
Domestic violence
Football


Case of Etan Patz, Missing Since 1979, Captivates Twitter

Abstract: DECADES can dull the shock and ease the sting of even a great tragedy. But, as New Yorkers learned this past week, some horrors never lose their grip. As news broke on Thursday that a vigorous police and F.B.I. search had resumed for the remains of Etan Patz , whose disappearance as a 6-year-old in 1979 focused national attention on the issue of missing children, raw emotional reactions flooded Twitter . For some, the case was fresh in their memories. Others — many were not yet born when he disappeared — learned Etan’s story for the first time. “What breaks my heart about the Etan Patz thing,” wrote @subwaytovenus__ , “is that it was the first time he was walking to the bus by himself. (I’m 30 years late).” @amandastern , who wrote an essay for The New York Times Magazine in 2001, after Etan was declared legally dead, about being a child during his disappearance, asked that newcomers to the story refrain from calling him “the milk carton kid.” “His name is Etan Patz,” she posted . “He means a lot to many, including me.” Many people recalled the torrent of attention the case received at the time. “I was a nabe kid then,” @erinnyc wrote , “but whole nation was captivated.” Parents and their children, of all ages, were ready to attest to this fact. @GlebaMcHamish relayed a conversation with her mother from Thursday. “Me: ‘They’re searching in SoHo today for the body of a missing child from 1979,’ ” she wrote. “Mom: ‘Not Etan Patz!’ Amazing how these terrors stay w ppl.” @daisy17 wrote that Etan’s “name was invoked when my parents didn’t want me to go somewhere alone.” She tagged her post #nyinthe80s . @AlexSalta said his mother was even more explicit. “Mom used to say ‘you’ll end up like Etan Patz and no one will ever see you again’ when I walked too far ahead in NYC as a kid,” he wrote. “It worked,” he added. Perhaps few parents were more aware of Etan’s tale than @RoeFmLI , short for Roe From Long Island. Her oldest child was born on May 25, 1979, she wrote — the day Etan disappeared. “I think of him every year on that date,” she said . For many users, Etan’s return to the news presented an opportunity to offer condolences to his family. “Altho the outcome is the same,” @jeanmariemoody wrote , “i hope the parents of etan patz find some closure.” More than three decades later, @burlesquebishop wrote , the entire city has joined the Patz family in grief once again. “I wish them peace,” he said. “NYC mourns.”

Twitter
Patz Etan
New York City
Missing Persons


The Thrill of It All: Picasso, War, Racing

Abstract: David Douglas Duncan, 97, is one of the world’s most influential photographers and photojournalists, having reported for Life magazine for a decade and then working freelance, covering World War II, the Korean and Vietnam Wars, and many of the 20th century’s historic moments. He also published eight books of photographs of Pablo Picasso, whom he befriended in 1956. Duncan has lived in the same house in the south of France for 50 years with his wife, Sheila, and he is a longtime fan of Formula One racing. He has recently completed a book about the Monaco Grand Prix, based on photographs of a television broadcast of the race that he took while recovering from a broken hip. In the first of a series of articles about famous and unusual Formula One fans, Duncan spoke with Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune. Q. When did you become interested Formula One? A. It was back in the late ’50s. I had come back from Russia in my Mercedes — I had a 300SL Mercedes — and there was a fabulous guy who was the head of press at Daimler-Benz in Stuttgart and he introduced me to Ami Guichard. Guichard had a book in Lausanne called Automobile Year. That was the definitive book at that time devoted to racing, as far as I know. And that’s how I met my friend Bernard Cahier (a Formula One photographer), and it was through him. Q. What interests you in the sport? A. First, the beauty of it. There is inherent danger, of course. But the beauty of these lethal machines, side by side. And then the astonishing ability of the pilots to go through the mist and the dust at Abu Dhabi or the rain at Silverstone. They are risking their lives at tremendous speed. Q. Is there a link between war and racing? A. Very much so. It’s like between war and bullfighting. Dominguín, this rather slender little guy, a great toreador, could fell a 2,000-pound bull by just the twist of his sword. That’s technique, because the bull outweighed him almost 1,500 to 1. So imagine. And so I don’t understand how a guy like Schumacher, who is now 44 and has gone from manual shifting of a car, throttle control of the car, to electronic control of the car, and it’s all in the steering wheel now, and that’s amazing. And to watch going in Monte Carlo from 60 kilometers to 200 in seconds, all controlled by the steering wheel and that mechanism — I just don’t understand how a person can think at that speed. It is not amateur, this is life and death. If they make a mistake they will kill the guys next to themselves, they will kill themselves. It is just extraordinary. But that’s happening in front of your eye! But like war, one mistake and you’ve had it. Time and again.War is different, though. War is national involvement, involuntary. These racing drivers are voluntary — they are doing it for the fun of it! As Schumacher explained, we are doing it for the fun of it — “a bit crazy, but we are a bit crazy.” The idea of racing at that speed and in principle trusting the other drivers to know what the hell they are doing — that they are driving with the same care as you are but that they are within inches of each other. It’s just amazing, at that speed. With all the uncertainties. And then in the rain. Heaven. Can you imagine? Q. And Formula One’s place in history? A. It is a binding force now. It is international. It is wonderful. Because now the other countries are coming in, the economy in India and Brazil has picked up. The major economies are not American anymore. They are Asian and South American. So as I say, Formula One is a unifying force. For sure. And thanks to television it is understood and viewed, and the danger, the thrill, the beauty. Q. How did you meet Picasso, and why do you think you became friends? A. I went to Picasso knowing nothing. I hadn’t the faintest idea of his type of painting. I was trained as an archeologist at the University of Arizona and then in marine zoology. And nothing to do with art except my personal interest in principally medieval and 14th-century art. Picasso was just a name. I was in Istanbul in 1947 working with the Turkish Army on the Russian frontier, and Bob Capa, the famous war photographer, was there, and he said: “You live in Italy and sometimes go through France for stories. Go say hello to my friend Pablo Picasso.” They were very good friends, respected each other, because Capa had covered the Spanish Civil War, which was very close to Picasso. Image The photographer David Douglas Duncan in Spain in 2011. He recently finished a book about the Monaco Grand Prix. Credit Jorge Zapata/European Pressphoto Agency Nine years later, I was going through from my home in Rome to photograph the Berbers in Morocco; I was doing a story on the Muslim world at that time. So I said, “Gee, Capa once said to go and say hello to Picasso.” So I called and I started in Spanish, I speak Spanish modestly. A girl answered the telephone and said, “Speak in English, I’m Jacqueline” — Jacqueline Roque at that time, who became Mrs. Jacqueline Picasso. “You’re a friend of Capa? Come now.” So she told me how to get there and I went up. She was dressed all in black — scarf, sweater, pants — tiny, about five feet tall. Into the house, upstairs, nothing but crates, paintings, sculptures, drawings all over the place. It was a Victorian house. Upstairs into a sitting room with a sketch of herself. And the bathroom. Here is Picasso sitting in the bathtub. I had brought him a ring from Afghanistan, and I said, “Here is a carnelian, carved with an image.” And I thought it looked like a Picasso, in my ignorance. I gave it to him and then asked his permission to go back to my car to get a camera. I got the camera and photographed him, and that was the first. But interestingly enough he looked at this ring, which had the image of a rooster carved at the time of Christ, and said, “I wonder what he used?” Picasso wondered what that artist, 2,000 years before, used to carve the stone. Q. You see a war analogy with Formula One, but covering it is nothing compared to sitting a foxhole in Korea…. A. That’s something I didn’t understand ever. I was in World War II as a marine, but by the time Vietnam came around I was in my early fifties, and living the same life as an early marine. I could never understand ever, and I still don’t understand, going into a dangerous area, to have a young guy, 18 years old, hardly old enough to shave, killed right beside me. The innocence of the guy, and myself 30 years older, more, and with all my failings, and all my mistakes in life, my lack of, let’s call it ‘protective Godly qualities,’ I’d have got hit. I have been hit very casually over the years, but I have been very lucky. And this young kid killed right beside me, I don’t get it. And I see these guys praying all the time; I’ve never prayed in my life. Ever. I always depend on…. It’s true, I believe in luck, but more than beyond luck I was born into a family where faith was strong, but not church faith. Something else. Faith, faith. Maybe it wasn’t misplaced; I am 97 now, so I’m a very lucky guy. I have taken some hits here and there, but I’ve been most damaged carrying my little terrier to bed and I broke my hip turning off the lamp. I’ve been nicked a few times, but he put me out of business. So life is a very strange adventure. Q. You also photographed Gandhi. A. People ask me, “Have you ever been in India?” I say, yes, the first day, the 15th of August, 1947, when Lord Mountbatten was the last viceroy of India. Gandhi was a strange guy. There was this simplistic manner; but nobody knows what it cost to provide the simple life of Mohandas Gandhi. Nobody. He traveled on a train by himself. Q. What kept bringing you back to war? A. That was my profession: The news of the world. After I left the Marines in ’46, I wanted to stay in the Marines, I was very happy, I loved that life. I thought, maybe the Foreign Legion here in France. It was my world, I liked that kind of men there; in that world, especially the Marine Corps, you go into combat, similar training, similar responsibilities, you knew that the guy next to you would get you out if you got hit. They would make an effort to drag you out whether you were dead or alive. That wouldn’t be true in many businesses in the world today. That type of comradeship was terrific. Q. You were in Indochina before Vietnam? A. I started in Indochina in ’51. It was the end of the world that had been run by colonial powers. So I wanted to do a story for Life that was based on the end of the colonial world, and Indochina, Hong Kong, and then Iran, and Egypt, many places. Then in ’53 I got a story in Life, ran for 10 or 12 pages: ‘Indochina All But Lost.’ Lost, in ’53. The fury I faced from the American government! I was persona non grata in France for one year. And tragically, back to Bob Capa ... I had been working in Germany on the Iron Curtain. And I got a message from New York: “David, your ban has been lifted, you are no longer persona non grata in Indochina. Would you like to go back?” Instantly I wanted to go back to see what had happened since I was last there. This was ’54. Six hours later, a message came back in on the wire: “Bob Capa is in Tokyo. He has always said he will never go back to war again, but he will go back one more time. So David, don’t go back.” Capa went back to Indochina on my story, and in May 1954 he stepped on a land mine and it killed him. He was with the Legion at that time. I operated by myself, so there is no way to assume that I would have been killed on the same job. We worked differently. But the point is Capa was killed on my job. I was in Egypt when I heard the news. Capa was killed on my job. It was horrible. Life is a mystery.

World War II
Vietnam War
Pablo Picasso
Formula One
Monaco Grand Prix
Car Racing
Mohandas K Gandhi
Korean War
Robert Capa
Photography


Hurricane Makes Landfall on Carolina Coast

Abstract: KILL DEVIL HILLS, N.C. — As darkness fell over the Carolina coast on Thursday, anxiety about Hurricane Arthur rose the nearer the strengthening storm moved toward landfall. At 9 p.m., the National Hurricane Center said the storm had sustained winds of 100 miles per hour and upgraded it to a Category 2 hurricane. North Carolina state officials said they were surprised that the storm had veered a little to the west and they began to prepare for it to pass over part of the Outer Banks on its way north toward Nova Scotia. By 11:30, Hurricane Arthur had crossed over the strip of land just east of the town of Beaufort, making it the first hurricane to make landfall in the continental United States since 2012. By then, Hatteras Island had been evacuated, Gov. Pat McCrory had declared emergencies for 26 counties and curfews had been imposed in several communities. “This is a serious storm,” Gov. McCrory said at a late evening briefing. He said the storm’s move toward land had raised the threat of flooding inland and he advised people near the edge of the storm’s path to stay indoors until daylight. For much of the day Thursday along the coast, thousands of residents and visitors had mostly shrugged off the first named storm of the Atantic hurricane season. The sun was still shimmering when Bill Peters stared out of the Cypress House Inn and pronounced his property nearly ready for Hurricane Arthur . Most of the storm shutters were closed. He would soon be contacting scheduled guests to see whether they wanted to delay their arrivals by a day or two. And, scrawled in blue chalk outside the front door, someone had left a message: “Go away, Arthur!!!” Image Cheryl Blankenship with Boston, her 9-month-old son, in Nags Head, N.C., where the family was vacationing on Thursday. Hurricane Arthur is expected to pass over or near North Carolina on Friday, forcing thousands of people to abandon their Independence Day plans. The Blankenship family is hoping to ride out the storm. Credit Libby March for The New York Times As Mr. Peters, who has run his inn here on the Outer Banks for a decade, prepared for the arrival of a surprisingly strong storm, some of his guests were still at the beach. “My friends paid a lot of money for their vacation,” said Shane Sanner, 23, who was visiting from Pennsylvania with about a dozen others, as he arrived at Jennette’s Pier in nearby Nags Head with a fishing pole. Although a waitress at a popular local restaurant laughed and shook her head when asked whether she knew anyone evacuating, a steady flow of automobiles headed inland on Thursday and only a few vehicles could be seen on the highway traveling to the coastline. Ashley Scadding, who spent Thursday morning on the beach and decided in the afternoon to leave, said she and her husband chose to depart after meteorologists announced that the storm had strengthened. But she said they were not evacuating because they feared for their safety. “To be honest, we weren’t sure about flooding for our car, and we need to be back for work and need the car to be back,” said Ms. Scadding, who had planned to stay until Saturday. Many communities rescheduled Independence Day celebrations, and the storm forced shutdowns of the federally operated Wright Brothers National Memorial and Cape Lookout National Seashore . Image Kevin Taylor watched the waves from a beach on Tybee Island, Ga., on Thursday as Hurricane Arthur approached. Credit Stephen B. Morton/Associated Press Emergency officials along the coast were preparing for the possibility of flooding and isolated tornadoes, and lifeguards placed yellow flags reading “dangerous current” on beaches by midday. But for Cheryl Blankenship, who was holding her 9-month-old son at the edge of the Atlantic, Thursday was another day at the beach, even if the pleasantness of its early hours was a surprise. “I thought that I wouldn’t get to come here today,” Ms. Blankenship said as she stood below a pier that Hurricane Isabel heavily damaged in 2003. “I thought the red flags would be flying and there would be sand blowing. But it’s beautiful now.” Dan and Erica Robinson, who were passing through Kill Devil Hills on their honeymoon, actually intended to drive through the storm as they traveled toward South Carolina. They briefly considered retreating to Virginia before opting for what they said would be a bit of adventure. “At the red light, we said, ‘Left or right?' ” Ms. Robinson said. “And right took us south.” Her husband added, “You don’t want to end up in a Category Five, but this is going to be wimpy.” Others who considered leaving the Outer Banks chose to stay because, without an ordered evacuation, they were ineligible for refunds on their lodging. Image The Dare County, N.C., authorities ordered a mandatory evacuation of Hatteras Island. Credit Mark Wilson/Getty Images Although plenty of vacationers were sticking with their plans, members of the hospitality industry were concerned about the loss of business on a weekend that is among the most lucrative of the year. “It’s not a season-killer, but it’s a chunk of revenue that we won’t get back,” said Mr. Peters, who had cancellations. Part of the problem for others whose livelihoods depend on tourism is that even if visitors stay on the Outer Banks for the storm, the damage could restrict their movements in the days ahead. In anticipation of that, many of those who chose to stay were preparing for extended power failures and had stockpiled food and entertainment. “We’re hoping we don’t lose power,” said Thelma Skinner, a New Yorker visiting the coast. “We have puzzles and games, and if we lose power, I guess we’ll sleep.” They had little choice but to stay, Ms. Skinner said, because of the limited prospects of securing inland hotel rooms for the 14 people in her traveling party. “I think we’re just going to wing it and hope and pray we’re going to be O.K.,” she said.


Red Sox Grind Rays Down and Out of the Playoffs

Abstract: ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The Red Sox have bonded over their beards, of course, but another charm has been with them since August: a cigar-store Indian, owned by Jake Peavy. It wore its own fake beard and held what Peavy said were “celebratory cigars” somewhere in the recesses of Tropicana Field. The statue was once said to have healing powers, but now it may just bring luck, not that the Red Sox need it. They flexed their might Tuesday night, with timely hitting and Peavy’s solid outing, to beat the Rays, 3-1, and win their American League division series, three games to one. The statue will follow the Red Sox on to the A.L.C.S. to face either Detroit or Oakland, who will play Game 5 on Thursday. Peavy pitched five and two-thirds innings, allowing just one run. Shane Victorino delivered the winning hit, an infield single fitting of this gritty game. And Koji Uehara, the closer, who had served up Jose Lobaton’s game-winning, ninth-inning home run on Monday night, pitched a clean ninth. Rays Manager Joe Maddon had done all he could, it seemed. He started Jeremy Hellickson, who struggled this season. Hellickson admitted he was surprised by the decision. The last two months had been, as he put it, “very inconsistent.” By the end of the night Maddon had used nine pitchers. Hellickson’s fastball command was inconsistent. His changeup was shaky. His curveball was off. In August, he went 0-4 with a 9.15 earned run average. The Rays made him take eight days off before his next start, and in September, he improved a bit, posting a 4.87 E.R.A. He hardly seemed like the pitcher who was among the game’s best in 2011 and 2012. He got through the first inning unscathed. However, he walked David Ortiz to lead off the second and then Mike Napoli on eight pitches. Jamey Wright started warming up in the bullpen, and after Daniel Nava singled to load the bases, Maddon pulled Hellickson. Wright came on, and Matt Moore, the Game 1 starter, began warming up. The quick decision by Maddon proved smart. Wright struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia, then Stephen Drew lined out to James Loney, who made a nifty leaping grab near first base, turned and doubled off Napoli at second. When Wright walked Will Middlebrooks to start the third, Moore came on and got Jacoby Ellsbury to ground into another double play and struck out Dustin Pedroia swinging. As Maddon shuffled his pitchers, Peavy cruised. Peavy, making his first postseason start in seven years, got through four innings on only 47 pitches. He allowed three hits and induced two double plays. This was why the Red Sox acquired him from the White Sox at the trade deadline: to add reliable depth and pick them up after such an emotional loss, like Game 3 on Monday night. Lobaton’s home run had ignited Tropicana Field and given the Rays new hope. They had faced elimination and survived for days. They could do so again. Moore stranded two runners in the fourth and was replaced by Alex Torres, who stranded two more runners in the fifth and pumped his fist as he headed to the dugout. Torres stayed on to work the sixth and set down Ortiz, Napoli and Nava in order. Peavy, meanwhile, had matched the Rays inning for inning. He breezed through the fifth: Ben Zobrist and Desmond Jennings flew out and Kelly Johnson struck out. The crowd, though, seemed undeterred. This was the fourth win-or-go-home game the Rays had played in nine days. The fans had no reason to doubt Maddon. When Yunel Escobar doubled to lead off the sixth inning, the anticipation grew. Two batters later, as Peavy bore down and the crowd hummed, David DeJesus singled to right field, giving the Rays a 1-0 lead and igniting earsplitting screams. Jake McGee started the seventh, as the Rays’ fifth pitcher. The fans were so at ease, so used to this moment, they did the wave. But soon, McGee had runners on first and third, with two outs, and was pulled for Joel Peralta. His first pitch was low and wild and kicked away from Lobaton. Xander Bogaerts, who had pinch-hit for Stephen Drew, dashed home, and Ellsbury, who was running on the play, sprinted into third. Shane Victorino beat out an infield single, scoring Ellsbury. Deep into the Rays’ bullpen, the Red Sox had taken a 2-1 lead. They would manufacture a run in the ninth, on a sacrifice fly by Pedroia, for good measure, and they would soon be celebrating, with their good-luck charm in tow. Peavy bought the charm — a cigar-store Indian statue — in San Francisco in August. At the time, Peavy explained Monday, the Red Sox had been in a funk when, on his walk to AT&T Park one day, the statue caught his eye in a store window. “I looked at him and he looked at me. And I just kept walking,” said Peavy, who has American Indian heritage. “I took a few more steps, and I kind of looked back, and he was still looking at me. And he said: ‘Am I not one of the boys? Look at me, I’m your people.’ I said, ‘You know what, you are one of the boys.’ Peavy bought the statue and brought it to the park. The Red Sox won that series and the next, and it has been with the team ever since. “He’s going to ride on my Duck Boat if we win the World Series,” Peavy said.

Red Sox
Jake Peavy
American League
Koji Uehara
Baseball
Tampa Bay Rays


Minnesota: Dispute Over Deer Feeding Is Said to Lead to Fatal Shooting

Abstract: A suburban Minneapolis man who had a long-running dispute with two neighbors over feeding deer opened fire on the couple and killed one of them, hours after his son was arrested on suspicion of threatening to burn down their house, according to criminal charges filed Wednesday. Neal Curtis Zumberge, 57, of New Brighton was charged with second-degree murder and second-degree attempted murder. Prosecutors say he killed his neighbor and wounded the man’s girlfriend on Monday after the girlfriend called the police about Mr. Zumberge’s adult son — who had allegedly accused the couple of causing Mr. Zumberge to contract Lyme disease by feeding deer in their yard.

Minnesota
Deer
Neal Curtis Zumberge
Murders


Kyle Busch Takes Fontana Race

Abstract: Kyle Busch earned Joe Gibbs Racing’s ninth consecutive Nationwide Series victory at Fontana, Calif., comfortably beating Sam Hornish Jr. for his third win in five races this season.