A Warning on Bankruptcy in Puerto Rico’s Debt Crisis

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Puerto Rico’s financial troubles are so complex and far-reaching that bankruptcy alone will not solve them, and might even make them worse, experts on financial distress told lawmakers in Washington on Tuesday. Instead, they recommended appointment of a federal control board, saying it would have a better chance of resolving Puerto Rico’s debt in the short term and preventing the island from falling into debt again in the future. As evidence, witnesses pointed to Detroit’s recent experience with municipal bankruptcy, the largest so far in American history. Bankruptcy proceedings helped Detroit reduce its debts, they said, but did not leave the city with a recovery plan. The impairment in value of Detroit’s bonds was so severe that it damped investors’ appetite for municipal bonds over all — not just Detroit’s but other cities’ too. By contrast, some pointed to the financial crisis that gripped Washington in the late 1990s. The district never went bankrupt but was placed under supervision of a financial control board and now enjoys a double-A bond rating. “In my view, the time is now for Congress to create an authority that would have as its goals both achieving financial stability and a balanced budget for the island,” said Anthony A. Williams, who served as Washington’s chief financial officer during the period of federal supervision. He and others who testified before the House Subcommittee on Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs said a strong control board could set the stage for an eventual restructuring of all of Puerto Rico’s $72 billion debt. Puerto Rico officials have been saying that they want to restructure the debt but do not expect to be able to do so without the protection of Chapter 9, the bankruptcy chapter used by insolvent municipalities. But some legal analysts now say the Territorial Clause of the United States Constitution gives Congress authority to enact laws that would give Puerto Rico the ability to restructure without declaring bankruptcy. Such a law has not yet been drafted. Tuesday’s hearing was one step in that direction. The subcommittee is one of the bodies that the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, Republican of Wisconsin, instructed to draft a suitable legislative package for Puerto Rico by the end of March. The full House Natural Resources Committee plans to hold one more hearing first. Even though such a measure would give Puerto Rico new powers for dealing with its creditors, Mr. Williams said he was sure it would also draw complaints that Congress was depriving Puerto Rico’s citizens of self-determination. He said that was the initial reaction when he took control of Washington’s finances. “Whatever negative hue and cry is initially heard readily erodes,” Mr. Williams said, “as positive developments, achieved by a neutral body, start taking hold.” The positive developments would appear, he and other witnesses said, if Puerto Rico took its steps toward recovery in the right order. That would mean straightening out its own fiscal affairs first, rebuilding business confidence, improving tax collections, stemming the tide of residents leaving the island — and only then restructuring its debts. “The people who leave are the people who pay taxes,” said Simon Johnson, a professor of entrepreneurship at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund. He said the loss of population was a critical problem because it left the island’s debt burden on fewer shoulders. Another witness, Carlos Garcia, a former chairman of Puerto Rico’s Government Development Bank, described the island’s previous experience with a control board, one created by its own legislature in 2009. Mr. Garcia said the board quickly found almost $4 billion in debt that no one had noticed before, slowed the growth of new debt, lengthened maturities and set up a program to cushion people who lost their jobs. The main problem with that board, he said, was that it was created with just a two-year mandate, which was too short. “What happened after the local control board disappeared is painfully known to all of us, as we sit here today, trying to find constructive solutions for a re-enacted Puerto Rico crisis,” he said. Puerto Rico has been struggling to keep up with the payments on its $72 billion debt, defaulting on some of its bonds while servicing others. But its biggest payments since the crisis began are due at the end of June, and if it defaults on those, there is talk of Congress having to create another unpopular bailout mechanism like the Troubled Asset Relief Program of 2008 that rescued banks on the verge of failure during the subprime mortgage crisis . That is why members of Congress and the Treasury Department are trying to get a law on the books in time to take Puerto Rico through that date without incident. Thomas Moers Mayer, a bankruptcy lawyer representing bondholders, said that Chapter 9 municipal bankruptcy would not help Puerto Rico, even if the island were allowed to use it, because it would limit restructuring to the debt of Puerto Rico’s public corporations. That would do nothing to help the government balance its own budget, he said. Mr. Mayer testified about the effect of Chapter 9 bankruptcy in Detroit, saying that it had given that city’s emergency manager a way to reduce debt, but not a way to bring about an economic recovery or streamline its government operations. “The city exited Chapter 9 with the same 28 government agencies it had when it entered bankruptcy,” said Mr. Mayer, a partner with the firm of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel. “Note that Puerto Rico has at least 120 government agencies, and 78 municipalities for an island with 3.5 million people.” Reducing debt even worked against Detroit in some ways, Mr. Mayer said. Investors took significant losses and have not been eager to invest there ever since. “Even now, over a year after Detroit emerged from bankruptcy, Detroit has no access to the low-cost ordinary municipal market,” he said. When Detroit must borrow, it does so with the help of the State of Michigan. The unsecured notes that it issued as part of its bankruptcy settlement “trade at around 23 cents on the dollar,” Mr. Mayer said.

Bankruptcy
Puerto Rico
Detroit
Municipal bond
Legislation
Simon H Johnson
Anthony A Williams


Illinois Lawmakers Look to Vote on Blagojevich Impeachment

Abstract: CHICAGO — Illinois lawmakers will be called back into session next week, which is earlier than expected, in an effort to expedite impeachment proceedings against Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich , and, ultimately, some said, to prevent his appointee from becoming the state’s next United States senator. In a letter to representatives, Michael J. Madigan, the powerful Democratic speaker of the Illinois House, said the chamber might be asked as early as next week to vote on an impeachment committee’s findings against Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat who is charged with corruption and accused of trying to sell the United States Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama. In Washington, meanwhile, senior Democratic officials say the party leadership remains determined to prevent Roland W. Burris, a Democrat and former Illinois attorney general, from joining the Senate because he was appointed by Mr. Blagojevich. Mr. Burris is expected to try to take a seat when the 111th Congress convenes Tuesday. “This isn’t about Roland Burris,” said Joe Shoemaker, chief spokesman for Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate. “This is about whether the governor of the state, who has been accused of trying to sell the Senate seat, made the appointment in an honest, fair and legal way.” Some highly placed Democrats have begun to question privately why Mr. Burris is being denied the seat if there are no problems with him personally. They said Democrats could dispose of the issue — and gain a reliable Democratic vote in the process — by acceding to the appointment if it met all legal requirements. But the Senate’s leadership remains united in barring Mr. Burris, and hopes to delay settling the matter until the Illinois legislature can impeach the governor and allow a new appointment to be made. Mr. Blagojevich seemed on Friday to try to raise questions about the motives of Senate leaders’ efforts to block Mr. Burris, disclosing for the first time that Senator Harry Reid, the majority leader, had — before Mr. Blagojevich’s arrest on Dec. 9 — called the governor to talk about whom he was considering appointing to fill Mr. Obama’s seat. Lucio Guerrero, a spokesman for Mr. Blagojevich, said that Mr. Reid called on Dec. 3 to discuss possible appointees, and expressed concerns that some being considered might not be able to win re-election when Mr. Obama’s Senate term ended in two years. Mr. Burris was never mentioned in the conversation, Mr. Guerrero said. “I think the governor thinks that it shows that Harry Reid may have a horse in this race, and it’s not Roland Burris,” Mr. Guerrero said. A person with knowledge of the call, which occurred during a period when federal investigators were recording Mr. Blagojevich’s calls, said Mr. Reid had seemed concerned that some candidates mentioned, including Representatives Jesse L. Jackson Jr. and Danny K. Davis, might be harder to elect than others. Mr. Reid thought Lisa Madigan, the state attorney general (and daughter of Mr. Madigan) and Tammy Duckworth, a former candidate for Congress and a veteran of the Iraq war, had better chances, said this person, who asked not be identified. Jim Manley, a spokesman for Mr. Reid, declined to comment on the candidates discussed, but said Mr. Reid had certainly talked to the governor about the appointment, just as he had talked to the governors of New York and Colorado when senators in those states accepted jobs in the new administration. “It is part of his job as majority leader to share his thoughts about candidates who have the qualities needed to succeed in the Senate,” Mr. Manley said. Mr. Manley denied any notion that the earlier conversation about other candidates had any role in efforts by Mr. Reid and other leaders to block Mr. Burris. “Again, this has nothing to do with Mr. Burris,” Mr. Manley said. “It is about the man doing the appointing.” For his part, Mr. Burris plans to arrive in Washington on Monday evening and hopes to begin working in the Senate the next day, his aides said. Despite the brewing conflict, Mr. Burris said he had no intention of “making a scene” at the Senate. “That’s not my style,” he said in an interview. “I’m not on some ego trip.” Democratic officials sketched out several situations that could keep Mr. Burris from becoming a member of the Senate. For example, while the Senate delays admitting him, Mr. Blagojevich would be removed as governor after a vote next week by the Illinois House, and then a trial in the State Senate; Lt. Gov. Pat Quinn would become governor; and Mr. Quinn would appoint a Senate replacement — all before Mr. Burris was allowed to take the seat. The impeachment committee will invite Mr. Burris to testify before it, Illinois House officials said Friday, though a time and day has yet to be named. Under the developing strategy in the Senate, Democrats intend to prevent Mr. Burris from making his case on the Senate floor or to steer the appointment to the Rules Committee for an inquiry in the hope that Mr. Blagojevich leaves or is forced from office before any showdown. To reach that point, Democrats plan to enforce a rule requiring that credentials presented by incoming senators be countersigned by both a state’s governor and secretary of state. The Illinois secretary of state, Jesse White, has said he will not sign the document, and Mr. Burris is seeking a court order requiring him to do so. That matter is awaiting a ruling in the Illinois Supreme Court, where an answer, legal experts said, seemed unlikely until at least the middle of next week. If Mr. Burris were able to get his credentials countersigned, he could by Senate custom be allowed to go on to the floor and seek to be sworn in along with the other incoming senators. But at the point that his swearing-in is imminent, Democrats currently plan to raise an objection and seek to have the question of Mr. Burris’s qualifications referred to the Rules Committee for up to 90 days or some defined period. Mr. Burris’s case is also spilling over into the still-unsettled results of the Minnesota election. With legal proceedings continuing in the race for the seat now held by Norm Coleman, a Republican, officials of both parties say it is unlikely that Democrats would try to seat their candidate, Al Franken, without final paperwork at the same time that they are trying to deny a seat to Mr. Burris on those grounds. Election officials in Minnesota will spend the weekend counting 953 absentee ballots that were mistakenly rejected in the lengthy recount. But even if the state certifies the results of the recount next week, the final outcome of the race is likely to be decided by the courts. The Minnesota secretary of state’s office received the 953 ballots on Friday, after both candidates and county officials agreed they should be added to the tally, but Mr. Coleman’s lawyers said that as many as 654 more ballots should also be counted, and went to court to include them. Mr. Franken’s lawyers disagreed. If after the 953 ballots are counted, Mr. Franken is able to hold on to his razor-thin lead, which stood at 49 votes Friday, a court challenge would make it unlikely he would be able to take office when the new Congress was sworn in on Tuesday. On Friday, the authorities also confirmed that after Mr. Blagojevich was arrested last month his federal security clearance for classified information was revoked by the Department of Homeland Security. Other officials in the state, including the head of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency, still receive such information when needed, state officials said. Mr. Blagojevich’s office said briefings were somewhat rare anyway.


Aurora Gunman’s Lethal Arsenal

Abstract: The three types of weapons used by the man accused of killing 12 people in a Colorado movie theater — a semiautomatic variation of the military’s M-16 rifle, a pump-action 12-gauge shotgun and at least one .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol — are among the most popular guns available in the multibillion-dollar American firearms market. The weapons have become so common that a growing sport among gun enthusiasts is the “three-gun competition,” in which sharpshooters use a version of each of the weapons as they move from target set to target set, firing and reloading as rapidly as possible. It appears, the police say, that James E. Holmes , the man accused in the Aurora shootings, used all three types of weapons inside the theater as well, first firing the shotgun, then using the semiautomatic rifle until its 100-round barrel magazine jammed, and finishing off with a pistol. (A second .40-caliber pistol was also found at the scene, though it was unclear whether it had been used in the theater.) Many other details about the rampage also remain unclear, like whether the gunman used soft-point or full-metal-jacket ammunition, or whether any of the firearms had been modified with scopes or night-vision devices. The police have also yet to disclose how many rounds the gunman fired or which weapon killed or wounded which victims. Fifty-eight people were wounded. Without such information, much of the public and political attention has been focused on the potential deadliness of the semiautomatic rifle, which law enforcement officials identified as a Smith & Wesson M&P15. The rifle belongs to a class of weapons broadly known as AR-15s, after the original civilian version of the rifle. With its hereditary links to the M-16, the signature weapon of the Vietnam War and, until recent years, the principal rifle used by American infantry units, weapons like the AR-15 were tightly restricted under a 1994 law known as the assault weapons ban. The law expired in 2004. But weapons experts said that in a closed, crowded setting like a movie theater, any of the weapons could have been extremely deadly, even in the hands of an inexperienced or inaccurate gunman. If anything, the experts said, a shotgun in that situation might have been the most lethal, since every shell can spray a half-dozen or more pellets, each capable of killing or maiming a person. Twelve-gauge shotguns often fire five shells, and sometimes more, before needing to be reloaded. “Shotguns are a very good antipersonnel weapon at close range,” said John C. Cerar, the former commander of the firearms and tactics section for the New York Police Department. “With that kind of crowd, he didn’t have to be Annie Oakley,” Mr. Cerar said. “He could have closed his eyes and killed a lot of people.” Mr. Holmes purchased all of his weapons legally, law enforcement officials said. In the four months before the shootings, he also bought 3,000 rounds of handgun ammunition, 3,000 rounds for a semiautomatic rifle and 350 shells for a 12-guage shotgun, all over the Internet. The original AR-15 was produced by ArmaLite, which sold the design to Colt Manufacturing. Colt marketed a fully automatic version to the military as the M-16, and civilian semiautomatic versions under the trademark AR-15. In recent years, the Pentagon has been replacing the M-16 with smaller M-4 carbines. Semiautomatic rifles fire just one round with each squeeze of the trigger, while automatic weapons can fire continuously until the trigger is released. Fully automatic weapons are not widely available on the civilian market in the United States. Smith & Wesson is one of many firearms manufacturers to produce a version of the AR-15, marketing more than a dozen models that range in price from about $700 to $2,000. The weapon is popular among collectors, military veterans and target shooters who say it is easy to handle and can be modified in numerous ways. Some soldiers call it “a Barbie doll for men” because it has a wide range of accessories and replacement parts, including different styles of barrels, stocks, magazines and scopes. The M&P15 also comes in a variety of models that fire different sizes of ammunition, from .22-caliber to .30-caliber rounds. The rifle used in Aurora fired .223-caliber ammunition, law enforcement officials said. Those rounds — similar to the ammunition used in American M-16 and M-4 rifles — are smaller than the rounds fired by Afghan insurgents wielding Kalashnikov rifles, but pack far more power than .22-caliber rounds, even though they are only a hair’s-width larger in circumference. Law enforcement officials said the 12-gauge shotgun used by Mr. Holmes was a Remington 870. The gun, which can be purchased for around $400, requires the user to pump a handle underneath the barrel to chamber new cartridges after each shot. The handgun was a Glock .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol, the officials said. The weapon is similar to the 9-millimeter handgun made famous in gangster films and rap music. The 9-millimeter has also been adopted by many police forces that had used .38-caliber revolvers and felt that they were being outgunned by criminals. The .40-caliber Glock, versions of which sell for about $400, has become increasingly popular partly because its larger round makes it potentially more deadly than a 9-millimeter, Mr. Cerar and other experts said. Yet it has less recoil and is thus easier to handle than a .45-caliber handgun. The pistols typically come with magazines capable of holding 13 to 17 cartridges. Pistols are less accurate than rifles at longer distances and are widely considered harder to use because they cannot be braced against the shoulder. But in close quarters, they are plenty lethal.

Firearms
Smith & Wesson
Aurora Colo Shooting (2012)
Holmes James Eagan
Aurora (Colo)
Gun Control
Murders and Attempted Murders
Glock GmbH
Remington Arms Co


A Freshman in Trouble

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — Standing on the sidewalk a couple of Sundays ago, outside one of the black churches he was visiting in his district, Anh Cao, the unassuming Vietnamese-American former seminarian who is running for re-election to Congress as a Republican here, considered the day’s big news. In just a few hours, in the middle of the Saints game, President Obama would be on television urging the voters of the Second Congressional District to support Mr. Cao’s opponent, a 38-year-old state representative named Cedric Richmond. “It just complicates the race,” Mr. Cao said. Indeed it has. The race for the House seat here always promised to be something of a curiosity, with Mr. Cao (pronounced gow) running in a district that is overwhelmingly Democratic and three-fifths black. (Mr. Richmond is black.) In some ways, the district is a mirror image of much of the country, a world where the president and his policies are broadly popular and the Republican is the one who needs to keep his party at arm’s length. But in one short week, the race has gone from merely intriguing to potentially nasty. Mr. Cao, 43, must attract a large number of Democratic voters and at least some black voters to have a shot at a second term. He has frequently talked up his friendly relationship with Mr. Obama and the fact that he was the sole Republican in the House to vote for health care bill. (He voted against the Senate’s final version, he says, because it did not contain an explicit ban on federal financing for abortion.) But politics is an unforgiving sport, especially in a year when Democrats need every seat they can get. Last month, Mr. Obama endorsed Mr. Richmond, and then came the commercial , so far the only such ad Mr. Obama has taped this election cycle. It not only undercuts Mr. Cao’s claim of a having good relationship with the president, but it will almost certainly boost black turnout, which has been flagging. Mr. Cao was elected in 2008 in a special election in which few voters showed up. A high turnout could jeopardize his already long-shot chances. Mr. Cao, revealing how his campaign planned to respond to the president’s endorsement, said, “I’m just baffled that the president of the United States would endorse a potentially corrupt politician.” It was a resonant statement. Mr. Cao’s predecessor was William J. Jefferson, he of the bribe-filled freezer, whose name has become a byword for corruption here. Mr. Richmond has had his own problems, which he does not dispute. In 2005, he was tossed off the ballot for City Council after it was discovered that he did not live in the district he was running to represent, despite formally swearing that he did. His law license was later suspended for six months as a result. In 2007, Mr. Richmond was involved in a fight at a pool hall in Baton Rouge. In an interview, he said he was reacting to a “belligerent drunk” who was taunting him with racial epithets. And over the past few months, a local blogger named Jason Berry, whose work Mr. Cao has referred to in campaign ads, has been raising questions about Mr. Richmond’s relationship with the former director of a nonprofit organization to which Mr. Richmond steered hundreds of thousands of dollars in discretionary earmarks as a legislator. A campaign spokeswoman dismissed any allegations of wrongdoing. But it was last week that far more incendiary — and unsubstantiated — claims surfaced. Cheron Brylski, a paid media consultant to Mr. Cao, posted on her blog a series of questions for both candidates, including whether they had ever hit a woman (in a phone interview, she insisted that she was not insinuating anything, just asking questions). But she also linked to another, anonymous blogger, who did make specific, and far more serious, charges against Mr. Richmond, again with no evidence. The allegations have sparked an angry reaction from some quarters. A spokesman for the state Democratic Party called them “shameful race-baiting tactics” that will backfire on Mr. Cao. But supporters of Mr. Richmond — including Mayor Mitch Landrieu of New Orleans, who taped an ad on his behalf — have so far been taking it in stride, saying that they saw such attacks in the Democratic primary and only expected more. “Cedric’s going to need a flak jacket before this is over,” said Bernard L. Charbonnet, a lawyer who said he has given money to Mr. Richmond’s campaign. Mr. Charbonnet said he did not expect the allegations to gain much traction unless something else came out. The president’s ad, he said, took the race to a much higher level. “Come on, man, this is the guy himself, in the city that loves him,” Mr. Charbonnet said of Mr. Obama. “Washington has weighed in. To get past that, you’ve got to bring it.”

Elections
Cao Anh
New Orleans (La)
House of Representatives
United States Politics and Government


Police Investigate Death of Man in Midtown Manhattan

Abstract: A man died on Tuesday night after he was found unresponsive near Times Square, officials said. It appeared that the man had been stabbed. He was discovered around 9:30 p.m. at 213 West 40th Street, the police said. He was taken to Bellevue Hospital Center, where he was pronounced dead. The police were investigating late Tuesday, though they did not immediately release information about the circumstances that might have led to the man’s death. Around midnight on Tuesday, 40th Street was closed to traffic between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, and part of the block was cordoned off with tape so pedestrians could not pass. A subway entrance on the block was also closed as the police investigation continued. A security guard at The New York Times said officers had requested surveillance video from the company, whose offices are down the street from the crime scene.

Fatalities,casualties
Midtown Area Manhattan


U.S. and Chinese Officials Duel on Economic Issues

Abstract: XINGHE, China — A delegation of senior American economic officials led by Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. churned through a long day of meetings Wednesday with their Chinese counterparts, picking and poking at many economic issues while encountering arguments from the Chinese on several fronts. Mr. Paulson said he hoped that there would be a joint statement at the end of the discussions on Thursday signaling new commitments to ease economic tensions, but, he said, the main value of the conference was that it deepened the trust and openness between the countries. “The tone was comfortable and it was pragmatic,” he said, adding that there had been “interesting, lively but friendly exchanges” on changes in capital markets, the openness of China to imports and investments, and resistance by the Chinese to Western demands for a more rapid rise in its currency. The Treasury secretary has been pressing China since he took office in mid-2006 to allow the currency, the yuan, to increase in value. A stronger yuan would make exports from China to the United States more expensive and American exports to China cheaper. Some economists say a currency appreciation would ease the trade deficit with China, which could soar to nearly $300 billion this year. The Americans have recently avoided the argument that currency appreciation would alter the trade balance. Rather, Mr. Paulson said he had argued that China’s policy of keeping the value of its currency low requires keeping interest rates low, and that this contributes to an overheated economy and inflation. “There is no doubt the Chinese are increasingly hearing this from other members of the global economy,” Mr. Paulson said. “I don’t just think — I know — they’re hearing more from others.” But in a sign of the discord apparently going on in the meetings, a Chinese official said at a news conference that calls from outsiders for China to engage in “excessive” appreciation of the yuan were irresponsible. “We are not in favor of excessively fast appreciation of Chinese currency,” said Chen Deming, vice minister of commerce, who is scheduled to become the minister next year. “I don’t think it will serve all of us any good.” American officials say that China is worried that raising interest rates, slowing the economy and allowing the value of its currency to rise will shrink the economy and throw people out of work, leading to instability. Meeting in a conference center here south of Beijing modeled after buildings from the Forbidden City, the American and Chinese delegates moved from large halls to small side rooms in their efforts to reach understandings. They were fortified by what American officials described as the success of a separate process that resulted in the signing of agreements Tuesday, including one on food safety that called for American health inspectors to play a greater role in inspections in China. That agreement was negotiated over the last six months by Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, who said that without the dialogue set up last year, it would have been harder to arrange for officials from several agencies to meet with their Chinese counterparts. Other agreements signed by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez and Susan C. Schwab, the United States trade representative, called for market openings in some limited areas like exports of American medical devices. It was evident, on the other hand, that even as some issues were being solved, others were popping up. American officials were dismayed to learn, for example, of the latest action by the Chinese this week in barring imports of American-made films, many of them Hollywood blockbusters. The suspension of imports means that the Chinese will obtain pirated copies of the films at a time the United States has taken China to the World Trade Organization to try to force it to do more to crack down on piracy and counterfeiting of trademarks, videos, music and software. According to American officials, Ms. Schwab in one meeting raised other issues, including what she said was a lack of authorization for American credit cards and insurance services, and also the monopoly of the official news agency Xinhua. She and Mr. Gutierrez also raised concerns about China’s new antimonopoly law and a regulation on mergers and acquisitions, which American business leaders say they fear could lead to the exclusion of American companies from Chinese consumers and markets. Both have said they are concerned that the use of arcane regulations and rules, governing everything from the size of cellphone batteries to the types of wheels for motorcycles, appears aimed at keeping American products out. United States officials said they had been pressing China for a declaration at this session that this was not its intention. A top trade official said that a declaration at the opening meeting by Vice Premier Wu Yi, the leader of the Chinese delegation, that Beijing had no intention of abandoning its openness policy was somewhat reassuring, but many remain unconvinced. At one point, Mr. Gutierrez and his team brought a Harley-Davidson motorcycle into the conference center and asked the future commerce minister, Mr. Chen, to pose on top of it. Harley-Davidson maintains that it is barred from selling its motorcycles in China because of new rules on the size of wheels. “We heard a very strong, impassioned and lengthy defense of China’s open investment policy,” a trade official said. “That was encouraging, but we do continue to see these problems pop up.” Ms. Wu, a focus of much discussion among American officials, is an energetic and blunt alumna of China’s bureaucracy, with a reputation as a problem solver but also as someone who pushes back. On Wednesday morning she lectured the Americans about not blaming China for their problems at home. Earlier this week, she asserted that the American news media had “hyped” the problem of food safety and damaged China’s image. An American official said that she was susceptible to equally tough talk in return. “This was an opportunity for us to say to the Chinese, ‘You know what? It’s not media hype,’ ” a trade official said. But he said that those who want to open Chinese markets might increasingly be on the defensive against those who want to keep high barriers to foreign investments and products.

China
United States
Paulson Henry M Jr
International Trade and World Market
Economic Conditions and Trends
United States Economy


Newt Gingrich Urged to Be Himself at Debate

Abstract: GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As Newt Gingrich prepares for what may be the last debate of the primary season, much in need of another comeback, his campaign has a new saying born of frustration with two earlier lackluster debates: “Let Newt be Newt.” Mr. Gingrich, more than any other candidate, has seen his fortunes ebb and flow with debates, and there is a consensus in his team that his big loss in Florida’s Republican presidential primary last month was in no small part because of debates in which he strained to look above the fray. According to one top aide, Mr. Gingrich’s two daughters had advised him to strike a presidential pose, but that was not the Newt Gingrich voters craved. “To some extent,” said Bob Walker, another top adviser, “we didn’t let Newt be Newt in those debates.” In the debate on Wednesday in Mesa, Ariz., the first in nearly a month, Mr. Gingrich will not be center stage. His advisers believe that will allow him to remain unscathed while Rick Santorum , the current leader in national polls, and Mitt Romney do battle. “They can be the Chihuahuas, and he can be Churchill,” said Kellyanne Conway, a senior adviser to Mr. Gingrich. The stakes are high for Mr. Gingrich, who is low on money and facing eclipse by Mr. Santorum’s surge even in Southern states that were to be his bulwark. He needs to give voters, especially conservatives, a reason to return to him. “He’s got one shot,” said Keith Nahigian, who managed Representative Michele Bachmann’s campaign before her withdrawal. “He has to do something substantial. He blew two debates pretty badly.” After Mr. Gingrich won South Carolina on Jan. 21, he ignored openings at the two debates in Florida to criticize Mr. Romney, accepting advice that he refrain from being aggressive, even though the fiery, combative Mr. Gingrich is what rallied so many of his supporters. One of Mr. Gingrich’s daughters, Kathy Lubbers, a senior adviser to the campaign, said she did not recall what advice she gave her father about the Florida debates. Herman Cain, campaigning with Mr. Gingrich in Georgia, last week told crowds, “I knew I had the right guy when Speaker Gingrich at that debate did a smackdown of the media on the very first question,” referring to a CNN debate in South Carolina. Ms. Conway, who is a pollster, said she and the campaign’s top ad creator, Rex Elsass, “were beside ourselves” over the advice Mr. Gingrich received in Florida to remain above the fray, writing “memo after memo that you’ve got to go on the attack.” “Newt’s got to be Newt,” she added. “He doesn’t have to act presidential.” While candidates traditionally prepare for debates with fat briefing books and by practicing answers to anticipated questions, Mr. Gingrich likes to say his only debate coaches are his two grandchildren, who remind him to smile and be brief. That is not the full story. Although he does not hold formal debate prep sessions, senior advisers weigh in with suggestions about what issues he should expect to address and offer possible responses. “It’s important at times for the team to give him some ideas of what questions we think might come up,” said Mr. Walker, a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania who is a longtime friend. ”He has to feel comfortable in doing it the way he thinks it should be done. He’s had enough experience over the years to be able to handle it on his own. We just need to give him some things to think about in terms of issues so he has some responses in mind.” Mr. Gingrich’s advisers think he will have an advantage as Mr. Santorum is peppered with questions about the social issues that he has made the centerpiece of his campaign, especially controversial remarks against prenatal testing and contraception. Mr. Gingrich is being advised to emphasize instead his latest economic issue, rising gasoline prices and his pledge to expand drilling to drop the price of gasoline to $2.50 a gallon. One of Mr. Gingrich’s biggest applause lines while campaigning is that no American president should “ever have to bow to a Saudi king,” a reference to a 2009 incident in which President Obama bent deeply while greeting a Saudi ruler. His campaign recently added a photograph of the encounter to the home page of its Web site. Mr. Santorum is expecting Mr. Gingrich to come after him, but he will most likely repeat the effective point he made in Florida debates, in which he lumped Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Romney together as once favoring individual health care mandates, the heart of Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul . “There’s no doubt that Gingrich is a great debater, but there’s no great performance that will enable him to rewrite history,” said Alice Stewart, a spokeswoman for Mr. Santorum. One important difference heading into Wednesday’s debate, sponsored by CNN and the Arizona Republican Party , is that Mr. Gingrich has no other public appearances that day, a departure from previous debate days when he campaigned vigorously and, his staff believes, was tired during the debate. “You can’t help, after you’ve gotten the adrenaline going a couple of times during the day, being a little weary by the time you get on the stage that night,” Mr. Walker said. “A lot of the plan here is to make certain he has time to relax.” Ms. Conway said, “It’s tough for Newt to chill,” but that is the right plan for him on debate day. “The best prep for Newt is a Diet Coke and time to think,” she said. “Not to study. Time to think.” “In Florida he had one too many people talking in his ear, and nobody appreciated that until after the fact,” she said.

Republican Party
Gingrich Newt
Debates (Political)
Presidential Election of 2012
Romney Mitt
Santorum Rick


In a First for Cornell, a Woman Is Appointed as Its Next President

Abstract: Elizabeth Garrett, the provost of the University of Southern California, will become the next president of Cornell University, the first woman to hold that position, Cornell announced on Tuesday. Ms. Garrett, 51, will succeed David J. Skorton, who had previously announced that he planned to step down at the end of June to lead the Smithsonian Institution. Announcing Ms. Garrett’s appointment, Robert S. Harrison, chairman of the Cornell board of trustees, said, “I could not be more certain that we have found the perfect person in Beth Garrett.” At U.S.C., which is in the middle of Los Angeles, Ms. Garrett has held the second-highest-ranking position in the administration since October 2010, overseeing academic affairs for a university with a total of 41,000 undergraduate and graduate students, 17 professional schools, three hospitals and the largest number of international students of any institution in the country. Given that it has half as many students as U.S.C. and is in the remote town of Ithaca, N.Y., Cornell is in some ways a smaller domain for Ms. Garrett. At the same time, it is a member of the Ivy League and a land-grant college, that, in collaboration with an Israeli university, is in the midst of building an ambitious new applied sciences campus in New York City. “There are few universities in the world that are as complex and as ambitious,” Mr. Harrison said. In a conversation with reporters on Tuesday, Ms. Garrett, who will become the university’s president on July 1, described Cornell’s history as “one of commitment to egalitarianism, to diversity.” She said she viewed her status as its first female president within that context. “I think about some of the great women who have come before me who have laid a path I could follow,” she said. She specifically cited Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court, who earned her undergraduate degree at Cornell, and, Ms. Garrett said, “has always been a hero of mine.” By appointing Ms. Garrett, Cornell became the sixth Ivy League school to name a woman as president; only Columbia University and Dartmouth College have not done so. A graduate of the University of Oklahoma and the University of Virginia School of Law, Ms. Garrett has written extensively about democratic institutions and processes. She holds faculty appointments at U.S.C.’s law, public policy and business schools. She has a diverse political background, having served as a clerk for Justice Thurgood Marshall and having been appointed by President George W. Bush to serve on a tax reform panel. Jan Rock Zubrow, who led Cornell’s presidential search committee, said it was Ms. Garrett’s record of “creating cross-disciplinary programs at U.S.C.” that most impressed the members of the panel. Dr. Skorton, 64, who praised his successor, is stepping down after nine years as Cornell’s president. A practicing cardiologist and a professor of medicine and pediatrics as well as bioengineering, he has enjoyed considerable fund-raising success, adding $5 billion to the university’s resources. His impact has been felt in other ways. After a Cornell undergraduate died in a fraternity ritual in February 2011, Dr. Skorton vowed to ban pledging rituals of any kind. Perhaps most significantly, Dr. Skorton oversaw Cornell’s winning bid to build a new applied sciences campus on Roosevelt Island in a project that involves close alliances with Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and high-tech businesses based in New York. The creation of the new campus was made possible, in part, by $100 million in funding and $300 million worth of real estate from the city government. He will stay in office for Cornell’s 150th anniversary celebration next year. Ms. Garrett said that she was looking forward to “switching hiking trails from the Santa Monica mountains to the gorges around Ithaca.” She added, “I was in Chicago before I went to Los Angeles, so I have some knowledge of winter.”

Cornell
Elizabeth Garrett
College
Appointments and Executive Changes
USC
David J Skorton


Five Iraqis Killed in Attacks Across Baghdad

Abstract: BAGHDAD (AP) — Suspected insurgents killed four members of Iraq ’s security forces and a city engineer in separate attacks across the Iraqi capital on Sunday evening, officials said. The similar nature of the attacks — all were shootings by assailants armed with silencers — and the fact that they all occurred within less than an hour of one another suggested a coordinated campaign against security officials and government workers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility. Insurgents in Iraq frequently single out the country’s security forces and government employees for attack, sometimes for retribution or to intimidate others from joining the security services. December was the least deadly month of the least deadly year in Iraq since the American-led invasion in 2003. According to Iraqi government data obtained by The Associated Press, 151 people were killed in insurgent attacks in December, the lowest monthly toll of the year.

Iraq
Iraq War (2003- )
Murders and Attempted Murders


A Summer Island Rallies Around Its Aging Chapel

Abstract: COUSINS ISLAND, Me. — Gray-shingled with an inviting porch, this little island’s tiny chapel looks like a summer home, its stained-glass windows the only sign that it is something more. But look a little closer at the building, built in 1894, and the scars resulting from decades of pelting by the snow, wind and rain that come off Casco Bay can be seen. The roof needs work. A wall is bowing out. The paint is peeling. Still, in a community with no stores, no discernible center and a population that for the most part exists only in summer, the church, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, has long been a meeting place, the most vibrant location in a tranquil summer retreat. “It’s really the mainstay of the island,” said Karl Winslow, 75, who has summered here for most of his life. Now residents are banding together to save it. Last year the islanders undertook a fund-raising drive with the goal of raising $200,000 to replace the foundation, the roof, shingles and the electrical system, among other improvements. So far they have raised about $130,000, including a $20,000 grant from the R. K. Mellon Family Foundation. Members of the Mellon family summer on the island, said William Hoffman, a spokesman for the Cousins Island Chapel Association, which directs the fund-raising and took ownership of the chapel about three years ago from a Baptist church on the mainland. Already the foundation has been replaced, but many repairs remain, among them straightening a wall that bows out about four inches. Cousins Island is part of the town of Yarmouth, on the coast 11 miles north of Portland. Its chapel was commissioned in the 1890s as a Baptist mission church so summer residents would not have to take boats to the mainland to attend services. It was built almost entirely by islanders. A bridge to the mainland was opened in 1955, but the Sunday services, held only in July and August, continue, attracting some mainland residents as well as islanders. The chapel has been multidenominational Christian for decades, though rabbis have occasionally presided over Jewish services from its wooden altar. Congregants sit on the chapel’s original wooden benches. One of the dozens of extra benches found in the attic now rests in the yard, beckoning to passers-by. In the back of the chapel, photographs from decades past hang, along with a list of parishioners who served in war and the sea captains who founded the church. “It’s really the tie that binds here,” said Lisa Van Dine, whose family has spent summers on the island for generations. “You can feel all the people who have gone through this church.” Mildred and David Kenney sense their own history in the chapel. They married there in 1950, each having attended its services during childhood summers. “We were the first wedding in the chapel in 40 years,” said Ms. Kenney, whose mother invited guests by posting a notice on community bulletin boards. Later the chapel fell into disrepair, damaged by a hurricane and for a few years simply neglected. The Kenneys’ parents pitched in to help refurbish the church in the 1950s, and arranged for services on an adjacent island while the repairs were being made. That was the last major work on the church until now, said the Kenneys, both 81. The couple have taken the lead in helping with the new restoration of the chapel, locking it up after services and helping to organize cleanups. Ms. Kenney was also instrumental in starting a Christmas Eve service in 2001, as a way for the community to come together after the Sept. 11 attacks. Nearly 200 people, many from afar, attended the service, bundled up and shivering in the chapel, which has no heat. “People really focused on that service as a part of the community,” Ms. Kenney said. “The first year was unbelievable. So many people from away came.” The Kenneys see the Christmas Eve service, now an annual tradition, as another chapter in the little church’s history, making it imperative that they restore it for future use, as their parents did for them. “The chapel,” Ms. Kenney said, “needs to be passed to the next generation.”

Baptist Churches
Historic Buildings and Sites
Restoration and Rehabilitation
Maine


Olga Méndez, First Puerto Rican in New York State Senate, Is Dead at 84

Abstract: Olga A. Méndez, the first Puerto Rican woman elected to a state legislature in the continental United States, who represented East Harlem and parts of the Bronx in the New York State Senate for 26 years, died on Wednesday at her East Harlem home. She was 84. The cause was cancer, said her nephew, Erick Vazquez. In March 1978, Mrs. Méndez, who had been deputy commissioner of the Agency for Childhood Development in New York City, won the Democratic nomination for the State Senate in the East Harlem-South Bronx district. The next month, she won a special election to succeed Robert Garcia, who vacated the seat when he was elected to the House of Representatives in another special election that February. Mrs. Méndez was defined as much by her pragmatism — some critics said opportunism — as by her ethnicity. In the 1989 Democratic primary battle between Mayor Edward I. Koch, who was seeking a fourth term, and David N. Dinkins, the Manhattan borough president, Mrs. Méndez backed the incumbent despite Mr. Dinkins’s strong support among minority voters. (Mr. Dinkins won the primary and the general election to become the city’s first black mayor.) In a 1991 City Council primary race, Mrs. Méndez backed Adam Clayton Powell IV, son of the well-known Harlem congressman, over William Del Toro, a Puerto Rican candidate. In recent years, Mrs. Méndez became known for bucking the Democratic establishment. In 2002 she switched her party affiliation and joined the Republicans, who had been in charge of the State Senate since the 1970s, saying that Democrats had done too little to benefit her constituents. The switch prompted several Democrats to challenge her, and one, José M. Serrano, defeated her in the 2004 general election. Mr. Serrano, whose father is a longtime representative from the Bronx, was helped by the fact that the Senate district had been redrawn to include a large swath of the South and West Bronx, accounting for more than 60 percent of the district’s voters. Gov. David A. Paterson, who served with Mrs. Méndez in the State Senate, said “she championed the issues important to her constituents, fighting for affordable housing, education and Rockefeller drug law reform.” Olga Aran was born in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico, on Feb. 5, 1925, and moved to New York City in the 1950s. She became a doctoral candidate in educational psychology at Yeshiva University. She married Anthony Mendez, a politically active lawyer. He was the son of Antonio Mendez, who in 1954 became the first native-born Puerto Rican to become a district leader of a major political party in New York City. Mrs. Méndez’s husband died in 1970; his father died in 1982. Proud of her heritage and theirs, Mrs. Méndez insisted on being known as Puerto Rican and rejected the terms Hispanic and Latino.

Puerto Ricans
State Legislatures
Méndez Olga A
Deaths (Obituaries)


Wholesale Prices Show Few Inflation Pressures

Abstract: Wholesale prices in the United States increased only slightly in October, the Labor Department said Tuesday, easing concerns that inflation might soon emerge as a threat to the economic recovery in a period of extraordinarily low interest rates. A separate report on industrial production showed weaknesses in the manufacturing sector, which is grappling with tepid consumer demand. The stock markets, meanwhile, rose slightly. Higher oil prices lifted energy stocks, and trading volume remained light. David M. Darst, chief investment strategist for Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, said investors took the mixed signals on the economic data in stride. “It’s a two-steps-forward, one-step-back type of environment,” he said. “Many people have worried inflation will snap back with a vengeance, but there still seems to be so much global overcapacity that in the short term we can focus on the play at hand.” The Dow Jones industrial average rose 30.46, or 0.3 percent, to 10,437.42. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 1.02, or 0.1 percent, to 1,110.32, while the Nasdaq rose 5.93, or 0.3 percent, to 2,203.78. The Labor Department’s wholesale prices report said that higher food and energy costs contributed to a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent rise in the producer price index , which measures the cost of goods to companies. That fell short of the 0.5 percent jump economists had forecast. The index factors in the cost of items like gasoline, food and construction materials to businesses. It is often considered a leading indicator of consumer inflation because it monitors changes in prices before products reach store shelves. The data showed a 1.6 percent increase in energy prices in October, driven by higher prices for gasoline and electricity. Food prices , particularly fresh and dried vegetables, also increased 1.6 percent. Excluding food and energy costs, which tend to be volatile, the price of goods to businesses fell 0.6 percent in October. Inflation has been a chief concern of policy makers as the government tries to revive the economy by keeping interest rates extremely low and pumping billions of dollars into the economy. At the same time, the dollar has fallen to 15-month lows, stoking fears about inflation arising from higher prices for imports. Even as the Labor Department’s numbers suggested inflation was under control, some economists said that was only because high unemployment and unused factory capacity had kept inflationary pressures in check. While the price of finished goods remained steady, Dan Greenhaus, chief economic strategist for Miller Tabak, said that the price of crude goods, those in the earliest stages of production, increased in an indication that some inflation might be in the pipeline. “There is little doubt that over the last few months, inflation has picked up in the economy,” Mr. Greenhaus said. “But we’re nowhere near concerns about a crazy outbreak.” Many analysts say they expect the Fed to keep interest rates low for much of next year. A report on the state of manufacturing released Tuesday by the Fed said industrial production rose 0.1 percent in October, falling short of the 0.4 increase projected by Wall Street analysts. Manufacturing output fell 0.1 percent, the first decline in four months. In September, industrial production increased 0.6 percent. Gold climbed $2.10 to $1,141.30. The Treasury’s 10-year note rose 3/32, to 100 14/32. The yield fell to 3.32 percent from 3.33 percent late Monday. Following are the results of Tuesday’s Treasury auction of four-week and 52-week bills:

Producer Price Index
Inflation (Economics)
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
United States Economy


A Taylor Swift Moment for Mergers and Acquisitions

Abstract: M.&A. is having its Taylor Swift moment. The health insurer Cigna brushed off a $47 billion merger proposal from its rival Anthem on Sunday just as the pipeline operator Williams Companies was doing the same to a $53 billion approach from Energy Transfer Equity. All the while, the 25-year-old pop singer renowned for her songs of relationship angst forced Apple to pay up for music. In a seller’s market like this, love isn’t usually unrequited for long. Companies are chasing each other now like hormone-addled teenagers. Some $1.9 trillion of deals were announced worldwide through early June, a 36 percent rise from a year ago. The pursuits are getting bolder, too, with cross-border bids also on the rise. Along with the aggressive tactics of Anthem and Energy Transfer, the Brazilian meatpacker JBS traversed nearly 6,000 miles of the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend to buy the British poultry producer Moy Park for $1.5 billion. Suitors are putting on a show of bravado. There have been $250 billion of unsolicited or hostile deals announced so far this year, accounting for more than 12 percent of all activity in mergers and acquisitions, according to Thomson Reuters data. Over the last two decades, the rate was higher only in the exuberant 1999. The high school nature of current corporate mergers is further evidenced by a FOMO mentality, or a “fear of missing out.” As industries consolidate rapidly, failing to move fast enough could exclude one participant. In health insurance in the United States, for example, Cigna — along with Aetna — wants to hook up with Humana, even as Anthem pursues Cigna. A similar frenzy is occurring in pharmaceuticals, where Teva Pharmaceutical Industries desires Mylan, while Mylan seeks Perrigo. Forlorn deal makers could fill a Swift box set. As the songstress herself showed this weekend, prey have the upper hand. Apple quickly reversed itself on a royalty payment plan after Ms. Swift threatened to yank her hit album “1989” from the company’s new streaming service in protest. Corporate buyers with healthy stock prices, abundant cash and access to cheap debt are bound to give in to similar pressures. Many will find, however, that the objects of their desire at too high a price eventually bring nothing but heartache.

Taylor Swift
Mergers and Acquisitions
Health Insurance
CIGNA
Energy Transfer Equity
JBS
Aetna
Humana
Perrigo


Wichita State Muscles Past La Salle Into the Round of 8

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — For about 10 minutes Thursday night, as part of its pregame warm-up in the Round of 16, La Salle practiced rebounding. First, the Explorers shadowed one another and boxed out. Then, one by one, as Coach John Giannini tossed basketballs at the rim, they maneuvered around one person, grabbed the rebound and shot the ball, over another, taller person, in the paint. It would not matter. Ninth-seeded Wichita State would still impose its will, no matter how much No. 13 seed La Salle and its four-guard lineup practiced. It was a matter of positioning. Wichita State was simply taller. The Shockers beat La Salle, 72-58, and advanced to the West Region final against No. 2 seed Ohio State on Saturday. It was never really in doubt. Wichita State outrebounded La Salle, 47-29, and scored 40 points in the paint, most of them on layups. “They were little down there, so we tried to feed the paint,” the 6-foot-8-inch forward Cleanthony Early said. One scene became all too familiar. It played out on the game’s first possession and was repeated for much of the night: Wichita State (29-8) lobbed an easy pass into the paint, which led to an easy finish, with no defender in sight. Or, at least, not in the Shockers’ plane of sight. Wichita State’s first five baskets were layups, and La Salle misfired on eight of its first nine shots. The Shockers coasted to a 17-3 lead. Image Wichita State's Carl Hall is hit in the face by La Salle's guard Tyreek Duren (3) as he goes after a rebound. Credit Danny Moloshok/Reuters “We had a commanding lead early and just were able to play with that cushion throughout,” Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall said. La Salle (24-10) would have its moments. When Tyrone Garland, the reserve who made the winning floater to beat Mississippi and send the Explorers to the Round of 16, entered the game, he hit two quick 3-pointers. This sparked the Explorers, and at one point in the first half, they closed the gap to 8. But mostly, La Salle’s guards were off. Garland and Ramon Galloway combined to miss 21 of 30 shots. Galloway, who had averaged 21.3 points in the tournament, eked out 11 points. At halftime, the Shockers led by 38-22. After that, their lead was never less than 11. All the while, Marshall kept pacing the sideline, clapping and pointing, not content with a double-digit lead. He should have felt safe, with his pair of 6-foot-8 forwards roaming the paint. Carl Hall, the bulkier of the two, had converted the game’s first layup. And Early, the lankier one, was usually a head taller than his defender. Hall in particular was impressive, scoring 16 points and grabbing 8 rebounds. “After playing Pitt and Gonzaga, man, I didn’t think it could any more physical than that,” Hall said. “So it was kind of an easy night for us on the inside.” After Hall picked up his third foul and La Salle tightened its defense, Marshall, his arms now crossed, still had his point guard, Malcolm Armstead, to lean on. Armstead weaved his way to the basket, scoring 12 points in the second half, including, at one point, 9 straight for the Shockers. He will now face Aaron Craft, Ohio State’s stingy point guard. The Buckeyes will be favored. But the Shockers have knocked off the West Region’s No. 1 seed, Gonzaga. They manhandled No. 8 Pittsburgh and, on Thursday night, La Salle. Ask any of them just how favored Ohio State should be.

College basketball
NCAA Men's Basketball,March Madness
Wichita State University
La Salle University Philadelphia


Thompson Calls for Option of a Simplified Income Tax

Abstract: Fred D. Thompson recommended yesterday that people have the option to pay a simplified tax on their income. The proposal was part of Mr. Thompson’s plan to overhaul the nation’s tax code. Mr. Thompson, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president, would allow individuals and families to stay with the existing tax structure or to choose to have their earnings taxed under a system with only two rates — 10 percent on income of up to $100,000 for joint filers and $50,000 for singles, and 25 percent on income above these amounts. The proposal has been advocated by, among others, the Republican Study Committee, a conservative caucus in the House of Representatives. An analysis by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, which looked into the kind of plan Mr. Thompson proposed, found that the federal government would stand to lose at least $2.5 trillion in revenue over 10 years. But Mr. Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, said in an interview yesterday on “Fox News Sunday” that such studies “always overestimate the losses to the government” and that tax cuts would spur the economy, leading eventually to greater revenues. Mr. Thompson’s proposal is the most specific yet among the leading Republican candidates in support of a flat tax. Rudolph W. Giuliani, for one, had assailed the flat tax while he was mayor of New York but recently spoke in favor of it without endorsing a specific plan. In detailing his plan, Mr. Thompson joined other leading Republicans in calling for making permanent the tax cuts instituted during the Bush administration and repealing the estate tax. He also called for reducing the corporate tax rate to 27 percent from 35 percent. Additionally, Mr. Thompson favors abolishing the alternative minimum tax, which was created to make sure that the wealthiest Americans did not use loopholes and deductions to avoid paying their share of taxes. While many Democrats and Republicans agree on the need to revise the structure of the tax since it has increasingly been hitting upper-middle-income families, scrapping it would cost the government billions of dollars in revenue.

Income Tax
Taxation
Alternative Minimum Tax
Presidential Election of 2008
Thompson Fred Dalton
Federal Taxes (US)


Vick’s Path to Redemption Is Clear

Abstract: Philadelphia Wayne Pacelle was not here Thursday night for the Eagles debut of Michael Vick , his controversial pitchman in the battle against dogfighting . Pacelle , the president and chief executive of the Humane Society of the United States , stayed in Washington, where the group is based, while Vick played in his first game in the N.F.L. since 2006. Vick participated in six plays , completed all four passes he threw for a total of 19 yards and ran for a yard. The Eagles beat the Jacksonville Jaguars, 33-32, in the preseason game. In May, the Humane Society broke ranks with other animal rights groups by announcing a partnership with Vick . Pacelle said the decision prompted some members — as many as 1,000, he said — to quit the organization. But in an interview Thursday, Pacelle said the benefit of having Vick speak out against dogfighting outweighed the fallout. “I do not believe he is ever going to get back into dogfighting,” Pacelle said. “I’m absolutely convinced of that. Do I believe that he cares about animals and wants to see dogfighting end? Yes, I do believe he wants to see dogfighting end. In terms of the depth of his passion, I’m not a mind reader, but I believe he’s going to say the right things to kids and that he’s going to stick with the program.”  Vick has been saying the right things, and on Thursday he appeared to speak from the heart, not a script. Vick met the news media after the game. For the first time, and that includes his initial news conference and an interview on “60 Minutes,” he seemed completely relaxed, candid, reflective, introspective and even joyful. He had spent the day traveling between Philadelphia and Newport News, Va., where a federal bankruptcy judge approved a plan for Vick to repay creditors, who are owed $20 million, provided he enlists the services of a financial adviser. He entered the game Thursday on the second play, and for the first time in a long time, he saw the bright lights and heard the roar of the crowd. “It was a great day for me over all,” Vick said, adding: “I can’t explain the feeling. It was unbelievable the way that I was embraced and the warm welcome I received. It actually made me screw up one of my reads.” Vick talked about going off the script on a play that called for him to pass to a running back. Instead, he took off and ran. “It was just the excitement and being out there,” he said. “After a while, I just told myself to calm down and the big plays will come.” Vick shouldn’t judge acceptance from the response he received from Eagles fans inside the stadium. There, he is preaching to the choir, one desperate for its first championship since 1960 . The positive response inside Lincoln Financial Field was offset by anti-Vick demonstrations outside it, a sobering reminder that not everyone is happy with Vick or the Eagles. Peter Bentivegna was part of what he called “an organic, independent citizen-run demonstration ” to bring public attention to the issue of animal cruelty. “In an ideal world, this would help reduce the number of animals that are murdered at shelters every day,” Bentivegna said. “We’re hoping to take the publicity that’s surrounding the signing of Michael Vick and get people to be aware of the plight of these animals and help either rescue, foster or adopt.” Bentivegna says he wants to use Vick at a local level, the way the Humane Society is using him nationally to call attention to a dimension of the animal-welfare problem. The relationship between Vick and the Humane Society is part of a well-manicured initiative that benefits Vick as well as the organization. Vick uses the Humane Society for validation. The society plans to use Vick to discuss the evils of dogfighting and animal cruelty with young adults in urban areas. Thursday’s protest, while tame, reflected a polarization concerning animal rights and Vick that exists in Philadelphia and probably in every city the Eagles will visit this season. A cluster of animal-rights demonstrators, who were predominantly white, were in one area outside the stadium, while a predominantly African-American group of Vick supporters were in another area. “I think it’s fascinating that it seems to have fallen out along racial lines,” Bentivegna said. “It seems just from listening to talk radio and hearing comments on the street, it does seem to be that most of the African-American people are supportive of Michael Vick having a second chance and playing N.F.L. quarterback, and most of the people who are supportive of the animals are white people. “That to me is fascinating, but I don’t think from our standpoint it has any intended issue of race.” Pacelle said he noted the same racial divide nationally. “I’m simply saying I’ve noted that the black community has been more embracing of Mike than the white community,” he said. “There seems to be a stronger strain of redemption and providing second chances in the African-American community maybe than in the white community.”  In an interview Friday morning, Pacelle said he didn’t really care how Philadelphia fans reacted to Vick. “We haven’t been boosters or P.R. people for Vick,” he said. “We’re giving him an opportunity to fulfill his pledge to combat dogfighting.” Vick will be a lightning rod for a number of intriguing issues. But ultimately, the central theme — the only theme — for Vick, more than anything he does on the field, must be anti-dogfighting. Effectively hammering home the gospel of animal rights and animal welfare will be Vick’s ticket to redemption.

Humane Society of the United States
Vick Michael
Pacelle Wayne
Football
Philadelphia Eagles
National Football League


Agencies Suspect Iran Is Planning Atomic Sites

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Six months after the revelation of a secret nuclear enrichment site in Iran , international inspectors and Western intelligence agencies say they suspect that Tehran is preparing to build more sites in defiance of United Nations demands. The United Nations inspectors assigned to monitor Iran’s nuclear program are now searching for evidence of two such sites, prompted by recent comments by a top Iranian official that drew little attention in the West, and are looking into a mystery about the whereabouts of recently manufactured uranium enrichment equipment. In an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency, the official, Ali Akbar Salehi, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, said President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had ordered work to begin soon on two new plants. The plants, he said, “will be built inside mountains,” presumably to protect them from attacks. “God willing,” Mr. Salehi was quoted as saying, “we may start the construction of two new enrichment sites” in the Iranian new year, which began March 21. The revelation that inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency , the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, now believe that there may be two new sites comes at a crucial moment in the White House’s attempts to impose tough new sanctions against Iran. When President Obama publicly revealed the evidence of the hidden site at Qum last September , his aides had hoped the announcement would make it easier to win international support for a fourth round of economic sanctions, particularly from a reluctant China and Russia . Since then, however, the White House has been struggling to persuade those countries to go along with the toughest sanctions and the administration is now being forced to scale back its proposed list of sanctions. The United Nations inspectors operate separately from the diplomats who are developing sanctions. Still, the disclosures may be intended, at least in part, to underscore the belief of Western officials that the Iranian efforts are speeding ahead, and the assertions could aid in efforts to press Iran to open up locations long closed to inspectors. This article was based on interviews with officials of several governments and international agencies deeply involved in the hunt for additional nuclear sites in Iran, and familiar with the work of the I.A.E.A., the only organization with regular access to Iran’s known nuclear facilities. All the officials insisted on anonymity because the search involves not only satellite surveillance, but also intelligence gleaned from highly classified operations. American officials say they share the I.A.E.A.’s suspicions and are examining satellite evidence about a number of suspected sites. But they have found no solid clues yet that Iran intends to use them to produce nuclear fuel, and they are less certain about the number of sites Iran may be planning. In any case, no new processing site would pose an immediate threat or change the American estimates that it will still take Iran one to four years to obtain the capability to build a nuclear weapon. Given the complexity of building and opening new plants, it would probably take several years for the country to enrich uranium at any of the new sites. One European official noted that “while we have some evidence,” Iran’s heavy restrictions on where inspectors can travel and the existence of numerous tunneling projects were making the detection of any new enrichment plants especially difficult. Iran boasted several months ago, after the disclosure of the Qum site, that it would build 10 more enrichment plants in coming years. That number was dismissed by American officials and others as a fantasy, far beyond Iran’s abilities, or its budget. But I.A.E.A. inspectors in Vienna now believe that Mr. Salehi was probably accurate when he referred to two sites. According to American officials, in recent weeks Israel — which uncovered some of the evidence about Qum — has pressed the case with their American counterparts that evidence points to what one senior administration official called “Qum look-alikes.” The most compelling circumstantial evidence, people familiar with the inspectors’ view say, is that while Iran appears to be making new equipment to enrich uranium, that equipment is not showing up in the main plant that inspectors visit regularly. Nor is it at the Natanz site in the desert, or the new facility at Qum, which inspectors now visit periodically. That has heightened suspicions that the equipment, produced in small factories around Iran, is being held in a clandestine storage area for later shipment or installed elsewhere. The small manufacturing factories, spread around Iran to avoid detection and sabotage, are a particular target of American, Israeli and European intelligence agencies. Several of the plants appear to have been penetrated by intelligence agencies, which are receiving sporadic reports about what Iran is producing and troubles it has encountered in manufacturing centrifuges, the machines that spin at very high speeds to enrich uranium. Assessments of the potential for hidden enrichment sites beyond Qum, and the continued production of centrifuges, is one of the main subjects of an update to the 2007 National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. That update is being prepared for distribution to President Obama, his top national security team, and selected members of Congress. Drafts of the highly classified document are now being circulated inside the intelligence community, officials say, but its broader publication has been delayed, in part because of concerns that the early drafts failed to deal with key decisions that Mr. Obama must soon address, especially if long-delayed sanctions fail to change Iran’s current course. When the last intelligence estimate was published, in November 2007, officials did not know about the Qum plant. Evidence of the plant was discovered later, and contributed to criticism of the report, which also concluded that Iran had halted work on designing nuclear weapons in 2003. That conclusion, officials say, is also being rewritten, with the United States now joining European and Israeli assessments that research and development work, if halted seven years ago, has probably resumed. “The new report walks away, carefully, from many of the key conclusions of the previous version,” said one person familiar with its contents. Besides Qum, it is unclear whether the new conclusion is based on new intelligence breakthroughs, or a revised interpretation of the existing evidence. Iran revealed the existence of the Qum plant to the I.A.E.A. last September, apparently after learning that its existence was now known to the West. Iran subsequently told inspectors that it began work on the plant in 2007 and planned to complete it by 2011, and that it would be filled with 3,000 centrifuges. Though Tehran’s leaders insist the plant, like their entire program, is for peaceful purposes, that is considered too few centrifuges for a commercial site but ideal for a clandestine military plant meant to make bomb fuel. But little progress has been made. In their most recent report, the inspectors said that some construction at the Qum site was continuing, adding, however, that “no centrifuges had been introduced” as of Feb. 16. But officials note that for all the digging, nuclear fuel production in Iran is behind schedule. While the Qum plant is only partly built, its main enrichment plant, at Natanz, operates at a tiny fraction of its intended capacity. If Iran is indeed making plans to build new facilities, it would be in violation of its agreement with the I.A.E.A. In reports and interviews, inspectors have said they received no notice of new Iranian preparatory activity. In 2003, Iran signed an agreement with the agency to turn over design information on new facilities. Iran repudiated the agreement in March 2007.

Iran
International Atomic Energy Agency
Nuclear energy
UN


Fighting for the Right to Drink Beer on His Stoop

Abstract: Kimber VanRy was sitting on his stoop in the Prospect Heights section of Brooklyn, drinking a beer and sending e-mail messages on his BlackBerry, when a police car slowed to a stop on the street in front of him. It had been a pleasant evening for Mr. VanRy, 39, who lives in a four-story, 20-unit co-op building with his wife and two children. He had watched Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s speech at the Democratic convention on television, helped put his sons to bed and washed the dishes. The time was 11:52 p.m., the date was Aug. 27, and the beer, for the record, was a 12-ounce bottle of Sierra Nevada. The police officer in the driver’s seat said something to Mr. VanRy. He left the stoop, walked to the car and, several minutes later, was handed a small pink slip — a $25 summons for drinking in public. Mr. VanRy, who is the president of his building’s co-op board and whose last brush with the law was about 12 years ago, when he got a speeding ticket in Pennsylvania, was shocked to learn that drinking a beer on his stoop was unlawful. He said that he and his neighbors in the building have for years gathered on the short stoop, talking and drinking, without officers from the 77th Precinct ever showing up. “I think this is a real gray area,” said Mr. VanRy, an international sales manager for a supplier of stock film footage, video and music. “I don’t think I was doing anything wrong.” In Brooklyn, the borough of the brownstone, few spaces are more sacred than the stoop, the place where the city goes to watch the city go by. Mr. VanRy’s summons, news of which has spread on Brooklyn blogs, message boards and in a community newspaper, The Brooklyn Paper, has stirred debate about the legal status of stoops and stoop drinkers. New Yorkers who enjoy drinking wine or beer on their stoops are indeed violating the law, according to the police. The city’s open-container law prohibits anyone from drinking an alcoholic beverage, or possessing and intending to drink from an open container containing an alcoholic beverage, “in any public place.” The law defines a public place as one “to which the public or a substantial group of persons has access, including, but not limited to,” a sidewalk, street or park. Exceptions include drinking at a block party or “similar function for which a permit has been obtained” as well as premises licensed for the sale and consumption of alcohol. The punishment for violations is a fine of no more than $25 or imprisonment of up to five days, or both. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said in statement about Mr. VanRy’s summons: “The officer observed a violation. The subject has a right to dispute it.” Mr. VanRy will contest the summons at a court appearance in November by pleading not guilty. He questioned the notion that his stoop is considered a “public place” as defined by the law. Besides, he pointed out, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was photographed by The New York Post in May sipping a glass of wine at Brooklyn Bridge Park. “It’s one of those laws that a lot of people know it’s there, but how heavily it should be enforced is a question,” Mr. VanRy said. Steve Wasserman, a lawyer with the criminal practice of the Legal Aid Society, questioned the wording of the law, adding that legal arguments could be made that a stoop is not a place that a “substantial group of persons” can gain access to. “This is an open question,” he said of the law. “There’s also a larger constitutional question, if a piece of your private property were being treated as if it were a public place. You couldn’t get arrested for drinking that beer in your kitchen. Now you’re sitting on your stoop. The stoop may be more like your kitchen than your sidewalk.” Richard Briffault, a professor at Columbia University Law School and an expert in property and local government law, said Mr. VanRy’s summons illustrated the thin line between private and public property. “It’s quite possible to be on private property and in public at the same time,” he said. Indeed, last year, a State Supreme Court justice in the Bronx ruled that an apartment building lobby qualified as a “public place” in relation to the open-container law. A police officer had confronted a man who was drinking a beer in the lobby of a building on the Grand Concourse, and Justice Joseph J. Dawson ruled that the officer had probable cause to arrest him. The details of Mr. VanRy’s tale have fascinated his friends, neighbors, the four lawyers who sent e-mail messages offering advice and Brooklynites who read about the incident on local blogs. The officer who gave Mr. VanRy the summons asked him, for example, what brand of beer he was drinking. “I thought it was strange why it mattered,” Mr. VanRy said. Mr. VanRy’s stoop does not have a gate and is set back from the sidewalk by a few feet, and the officer told him that if he were behind a gate on his stoop, he would not have received a ticket. In Mr. VanRy’s posting that night to a message board at www.brooklynian.com , he made a point of mentioning the other officer in the police car, who, Mr. VanRy wrote, “was playing Tetris on his iPod the whole time.” Mr. VanRy’s building on Sterling Place is in a gritty but gentrifying part of Prospect Heights, and Mr. VanRy knows neighborhood residents who have been mugged. “The question that sort of lingers in my mind is, given all the other kinds of things that are constantly going on and how little I see of police in the neighborhood, that this was the best use of their 20 minutes of time?” he said of the two officers. He has already made up his mind about whether to risk drinking on his stoop again. “Absolutely,” he said.

Police
Alcoholic Beverages
Sidewalks
New York City
Brooklyn (NYC)
Law and Legislation


President of Bayern Munich Is Charged With Tax Evasion

Abstract: BERLIN — German prosecutors have charged Uli Hoeness, the president of the soccer juggernaut Bayern Munich, with tax evasion. The charge came after a long investigation into the financial dealings of one of Germany’s most storied sports figures. Hoeness helped guide Bayern, the dominant team in German soccer, to the Champions League title this year. Hoeness’s announcement in April that he had maintained a bank account in Switzerland for years and used it to evade taxes shattered his image as a straight-talking, upstanding sports hero. Hoeness said the account was strictly for his personal use for trading on the stock market and had no connections to Bayern. Hoeness’s lawyers have one month to respond to the charges, a Munich state court said Tuesday. After that, a criminal court that handles financial cases will decide whether to go to trial, dismiss the case, or request more information. A decision is not expected before the end of September, Andrea Titz, a spokeswoman for the Munich court, said in a statement. She refused to talk about the details of the charges, including the amount of money involved, pending the financial court’s announcement on how it will proceed. “No details of the charges can be released before the court’s decision whether to open the case, particularly given that certain obligations of confidentiality apply to tax evasion cases,” Titz said. It has been a year of contrasts for Hoeness, 61, a former national team player who helped West Germany win the 1974 World Cup on its home turf. He has spent the past 30 years helping Bayern Munich build up financial reserves rarely seen in European club soccer. In April, he went public with his story that he had informed the tax authorities about a private bank account he held in Switzerland at the start of the year. Prosecutors then began an investigation and issued a warrant for his arrest. He was released on bail. “Between 2002 and 2006, I really gambled,” Hoeness told the German newspaper Die Zeit in an interview in May. “Day and night, I traded with sums that today are hard for me to get my head around, they were extreme. It was a kick, pure adrenaline.” His revelations, coming in an election year in Germany, stirred a national debate over social justice and equality. Opposition politicians seized on the opportunity to hold up Hoeness, who had close ties to Chancellor Angela Merkel, as an example of her government’s leniency toward wealthy tax evaders. The chancellor distanced herself from Hoeness, but Bayern fans circled their wagons around him, chanting, “Uli Hoeness, you are the best!” through the stadium June 1 after the team secured the final jewel in the triple crown of German soccer, the German Cup, after winning the league title and the Champions League. It is the first team in the country to have won all three in a season. Instead of joining in the festivities of beer showers and a series of parades through the streets of Munich in the following weeks, Hoeness stayed largely in the shadows. The team’s supervisory board voted unanimously in May to keep him as president, saying at the time that it would address the issue again when more information became available. The club declined Tuesday to comment on the charges. In his most recent remarks on the affair last week, Hoeness credited Bayern fans and the board members for supporting him in the months since he came forward, and he sounded upbeat about the outcome. “We need to wait and see how things develop,” Hoeness told public ZDF television last week on the sideline of a friendly between Bayern Munich and Barcelona that carried his name, the Uli Hoeness Cup. “I am confident that a satisfactory solution will be found.”

Tax Evasion
Uli Hoeness
Soccer
Bayern Munich Soccer Team
Fraud


Hillary Clinton Rejects F.B.I. Claim That She Was ‘Careless’ With Emails

Abstract: Hillary Clinton on Friday rejected the F.B.I.’s assertion that she had been “extremely careless” with classified material as secretary of state, offering her first public comments on the matter since the Justice Department closed its inquiry without bringing charges against her this week. In interviews on CNN and MSNBC, Mrs. Clinton tried to put the controversy surrounding her use of a private email server to rest, brushing off a rebuke from James Comey, the F.B.I. director, who had criticized her for being negligent. Although Mr. Comey, in a congressional hearing on Thursday, pointed out several contradictions between what Mrs. Clinton had said publicly about her email use and what she said in sworn testimony, Mrs. Clinton insisted Friday that she did not intentionally send or receive any classified information through her private account. She also appeared to be spreading the responsibility to her State Department staff. “I think there are about 300 people in the government, mostly in the State Department, but in other high positions in the government with whom I emailed over the course of four years — they, I believe, did not believe they were sending any material that was classified,” Mrs. Clinton said on CNN. “They were pursuing their responsibilities. I do not think they were careless.” She added, “And as I have said many times, I certainly did not believe that I received or sent any material that was classified.” Mrs. Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has been under fire from Republicans this week after Mr. Comey announced on Tuesday that while she did not violate any laws, she did mismanage classified material. Mr. Comey said that there was evidence that Mrs. Clinton and her team “were extremely careless in their handling of very sensitive, highly classified information.” Some leading Republicans have argued that Mrs. Clinton should not be given access to the classified information that presidential nominees usually receive because she could not be trusted with it. Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has been hammering her as inept as well. At the congressional hearing on Thursday, Mr. Comey also criticized Mrs. Clinton’s lawyers for their handling of her emails and suggested that they might have deleted classified material without her knowledge. And he said that thousands of Mrs. Clinton’s work-related emails had not been turned over for review, despite claims that they were. During her television interviews on Friday, Mrs. Clinton clung to Mr. Comey’s remark at the hearing suggesting that some of the emails that she sent or received were not clearly marked as classified. “Well, I think the director clarified that comment to some extent, pointing out that some of what had been thought to be classified apparently was not,” Mrs. Clinton said, when asked to acknowledge that she was careless. Mrs. Clinton also maintained that there was no reason to believe that her server had been compromised even though Mr. Comey said this week that “it is possible that hostile actors gained access to Secretary Clinton’s personal email account.” On MSNBC on Friday, Mrs. Clinton said she was confident that such a breach did not occur. “I think he was speculating,” she said of Mr. Comey. “But if you go by the evidence, there is no evidence that the system was breached or hacked successfully. And I think that what’s important here is to follow the evidence.” What We Know About the Investigation Into Hillary Clinton’s Private Email Server The F.B.I. recently uncovered new emails potentially related to the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Hillary Clinton
Classified Information
2016 Presidential Election
FBI


Recent Cases Shed Light on China’s Feared Interrogation System

Abstract: BEIJING — Membership in the Chinese Communist Party has many advantages. Officials often enjoy government-issued cars, bottomless expense accounts and the earning potential from belonging to a club whose members control every lever of government and many of the nation’s most lucrative enterprises. There is, however, one serious downside. When party members are caught breaking the rules — or even when they merely displease a superior — they can be dragged into the maw of an opaque Soviet-style disciplinary machine, known as “shuanggui,” that features physical torture and brutal, sleep-deprived interrogations. And that is exactly what appears to have happened to Bo Xilai, once one of China’s most charismatic and ambitious politicians. Mr. Bo has not been seen in public since mid-March, when he was stripped of his position as party chief of the sprawling municipality of Chongqing in southwest China. He was later accused of “disciplinary violations” and removed from the Politburo. Few who have been pulled into the system emerge unscathed, if they emerge at all. Over the last decade, hundreds of officials have committed suicide, according to accounts in the state news media, or died under mysterious circumstances during months of harsh confinement in secret locations. Once interrogators obtain a satisfactory confession, experts say, detainees are often stripped of their party membership and wealth. Select cases are handed over to government prosecutors for summary trials that are closed to the public. “The word shuanggui alone is enough to make officials shake with fear,” said Ding Xikui, a prominent defense lawyer here. Although the leadership has not disclosed details of its investigation into Mr. Bo, insiders say it involves a number of allegations, including corruption, spying and obstructing justice on behalf of his wife, who has been implicated in the death of a British businessman , Neil Heywood. Two people who have been briefed said Mr. Bo’s troubles had been compounded by his effort to rise to the top levels of power and protect himself by currying favor with the military. In addition to inquisitors from the party’s commission for discipline, the army’s political division is playing a role in the interrogations, the sources said. By contrast, the case against his wife, Gu Kailai, is being handled as an ordinary criminal matter, according to several people who have been briefed on the investigation. On paper at least, China’s criminal justice system has far more safeguards against abuse. Shuanggui (pronounced shwang-gwei) is rooted in the ancient imperial justice system and was used by the Red Army to punish wayward soldiers during the civil war. The term is often translated as “double regulation,” a reference to a pair of rules that require party members accused of wrongdoing to appear at a specific time and place for questioning. Over the past decade, it has become increasingly institutionalized through party-issued guidelines that have scaled back some of its excesses. Nonetheless, secrecy, isolation and harsh interrogation techniques remain hallmarks of the system, according to Flora Sapio, a visiting scholar at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Unchanged as well are the main objectives: to extract confessions from those accused of violating party rules, most often through financial corruption. The secrecy, Ms. Sapio said, is intended to shield the public from details that might harm the party’s image and to limit any collateral damage to those higher up the food chain. If history is any guide, many of the accusations against Mr. Bo are unlikely to be made public or lead to formal charges. “It’s as if you’ve fallen into a legal black hole,” Ms. Sapio said, noting that those in custody are not allowed to see family members and do not have access to a lawyer. “Once you are called in, you almost never walk out a free man.” The Dui Hua Foundation , an organization in San Francisco that promotes changes to the Chinese prison system, says simulated drowning, cigarette burns and beatings are common tactics for getting detainees to talk. “The system is just Kafkaesque,” said John Kamm, the group’s executive director. One former propaganda bureau official from Zhejiang Province who was subjected to interrogation a decade ago said he spent nearly two months confined to a series of hotel rooms. He was whipped with a TV antenna and kept awake for 12 days until he began to hallucinate. The windows were papered over and a red light bulb was kept on 24 hours a day, heightening the disorientation. “In the end I was so exhausted, I agreed to all the accusations against me even though they were false,” said the man, 48, who asked for anonymity because he hopes one day to regain his government job. The man said his detention was orchestrated by his boss, who was angry that he had tried to interfere with his nepotistic hiring practices. There are few official studies of the detention system, but according to Xinhua, the state news agency, more than 880,000 party members were punished under it from 2003 to 2008. It is unclear how many of them were expelled from the party, but the Xinhua report said only 25,000 officials were criminally prosecuted. The Communist Party has 80 million members. Mr. Bo made abundant use of the system in Chongqing during his crackdown on criminals and those he deemed political opponents, leading to thousands of arrests and a number of executions. Among the party members targeted were Peng Changjian, a former deputy police chief who, according to the official news media, died of a heart attack during his interrogation, and Chen Honggang, Chongqing’s traffic police chief, who reportedly died after smashing his head against a wall. All the investigations are carried out by the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, whose decisions must be approved by senior leaders. One recent high-profile case involved Liu Zhijun, a former railway minister whose downfall was precipitated by a deadly train crash in Wenzhou last July. In announcing his expulsion from the party last month, the state media described Mr. Liu as “morally corrupt.” Beyond pocketing bribes of more than $157 million, Mr. Liu was also said to have had a dozen or so mistresses. In another case, Xu Maiyong, the former vice mayor of Hangzhou, was executed last year after he was convicted of embezzling more than $32 million. Getting out of line in other ways can also lead to such investigations: Lu Jiangbo, the director of a village in Fujian Province, was sentenced to 11 years in prison after organizing a protest against illegal land seizures. A number of Chinese legal scholars say the system is not unlike the overseas renditions and detentions that the United States uses in its battle against terrorism. Though he finds the coerced confessions disturbing, He Jiahong, faculty director of the Renmin University Law School in Beijing, said shuanggui, by operating apart from local courts that are easily manipulated by party officials who control their funds, was a vital tool for fighting corruption. “Although we do criticize shuanggui for being outside the legal framework, it is quite effective,” Mr. He added. “As the saying goes, all they need is a piece of paper, a pen and their mouth.” Given the widespread hatred of official graft, it is hard to find much grass-roots sympathy for those caught up in the system. In a rare glimpse, the authorities invited a blogger, Chu Zhaoxian, to tour a modern-looking shuanggui center in April 2011. The images he posted online — which were later deleted — showed rooms with “advanced instruments” that can supposedly detect lies and interrogation chambers with padded walls to “prevent accidents.” “I have heard that all corrupt officials who are summoned to the investigation facility have their contemptuous behavior exposed,” Mr. Chu wrote. “Do not be invited here. If you come here, your days will seem like years.” Some still doubt, though, whether the terror associated with the interrogation system is an effective deterrent. “Shuanggui is useless because corruption is everywhere,” a young official said. “They might shuanggui some leaders, but the new leaders will be as corrupt as the old ones.”

China
Interrogation
Torture
Bo Xilai
Corruption
Communist Party of China
Chongqing China