WaMu Tarnishes Star Equity Firm

Abstract: David Bonderman ’s reversal of fortune is hardly one of the most dramatic on Wall Street, but it is one of the most startling. When Mr. Bonderman, co-founder of the giant private equity firm TPG, was part of a $7 billion capital infusion to Washington Mutual , many of the bank’s shareholders protested what they thought was a sweetheart deal. WaMu, as the bank is known, was drowning in mortgage-related losses, and in exchange for throwing the bank a lifeline, TPG and a group of institutional investors received about half the company — at a 25 percent discount. Mr. Bonderman, a legend in the world of private equity, received a seat on Washington Mutual’s board. But when WaMu collapsed on Thursday in the biggest bank failure in United States history, Mr. Bonderman’s reputation was suddenly at risk of becoming a devalued asset. “He should have known better,” said Christopher Whalen, managing director of Institutional Risk Analytics, a provider of ratings and analytic tools. “There is a certain bias people his age and stature have. He has hit home runs for years and he thought there would be a bounce.” Mr. Whalen said Mr. Bonderman and his colleagues would not have invested in Washington Mutual at all had they done their due diligence. “It was clear that WaMu’s losses were going to consume the bank’s capital and the confidence of investors. You could see it coming for quite some time,” he said. Mr. Bonderman declined to comment for this article. When the government seized Washington Mutual and sold large pieces to JPMorgan Chase, investors were wiped out, including TPG, which lost its entire investment of $1.35 billion, along with the other investors who joined the fund and put up an additional $5.65 billion last April in a futile attempt to save the bank. But a person knowledgeable about TPG’s funds, who requested anonymity because he is not authorized to speak about them, said that TPG’s losses are spread across three of its funds, including $475 million from its newest $20 billion fund, TPG Partners VI. All told, TPG oversees $55 billion. Of course, a lot of smart people made what have turned out to be losing bets on American banks: Asian and Middle Eastern sovereign wealth funds have invested and lost billions. Colin C. Blaydon, director of the center for private equity and entrepreneurship at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth, defended Mr. Bonderman. “A lot has to do with hindsight about a set of circumstances that were totally unforeseeable,” he said. To be sure, Mr. Bonderman, who hired the Rolling Stones to celebrate his 60th birthday at the Bellagio hotel in Las Vegas six years ago, is still a multibillionaire. He has a legacy of successful deals, including bringing Continental Airlines out of bankruptcy and buying J. Crew and Ducati, the Italian motorcycle manufacturer, and ultimately taking them public. Still, detractors say even with the sweeteners, the Washington Mutual deal was ill-starred from the start. Most important, they note, Washington Mutual specialized in option adjustable-rate mortgages — mortgages that let borrowers defer payments on interest and principal. Such loans are risky for the lender because borrowers often buy homes that are more expensive than they can afford under conventional loans. “We felt that WaMu’s balance sheet was toxic a year ago,” said Donn Vickrey, co-founder of Gradient Analytics, an independent research firm that specializes in earnings quality and balance sheets. He added: “In September 2007, we identified WaMu as the largest risk large capitalization bank. We focused on them because if you read their statements, without reading the footnotes, you thought things were fine. But they were not writing off anywhere near a sufficient amount of their bad loans per quarter.” Mr. Vickrey noted that in September 2006, the bank’s reserves stood at $1.6 billion, with its nonperforming assets at $2.4 billion. “A year later, they had increased their reserves to only $1.9 billion, when nonperforming assets had soared to $5.5 billion,” he said. “And you knew the number would get worse because their loans were getting worse.” He said income, assets and equity were all overstated. “I don’t understand why it took so long for people to realize that this was the beginning of a trend that would continue for some time.” One answer may be that Mr. Bonderman had bought ailing banks in the past with great success. In 1988, for instance, the Robert M. Bass Group, with which Mr. Bonderman was involved at the time, bought the troubled American Savings and Loan Association of Stockton, Calif., an insolvent savings bank. Eight years later the bank was sold to Washington Mutual at a lucrative price for the sellers. Mr. Bonderman joined the board of Washington Mutual; he was a director until 2002. Over the decades, his success ranged across a wide swath of the business world. Indeed, the bulk of his money was invested outside the financial sector. But now some industry observers say that diversity may have been a liability. “A lot of private equity firms look at the financial sector the way they look at other business — industrials for example — the solution is to inject a lot of capital,” said Jason Arnold, who follows banking for RBC Capital. “But with financial entities, they use a lot of leverage so that if you give them new capital, it may seem as if that is enough, but if the losses rise, the equity requirements to meet those losses rise exponentially.” Like many people on Wall Street, Mr. Bonderman may have failed to realize how bad times had become in the banking sector, in particular. “He thought that this would be like American Savings, but the difference here is that we were on the downside of the cycle, instead of the upside,” Mr. Whalen said. The precipitous decline in housing prices against a backdrop of a credit crisis only accelerated that decline, putting enormous pressure on a bank that had taken on far too much risk. And TPG, normally so prescient about economic trends when times were better, did not see it coming.

Bonderman David
Washington Mutual Inc
TPG Capital
Banks and Banking
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Stocks and Bonds


Motherhood Accomplished, Cyclist Sets Goal To Return

Abstract: A month after giving birth, Kristin Armstrong, the Olympic gold medalist and two-time world champion, is returning to professional cycling in hopes of joining the United States team for the 2012 London Olympics. That makes her the latest cyclist named Armstrong to shake off retirement: Two years ago, Lance Armstrong, no relation to Kristin, staged a comeback to ride again in the Tour de France . Kristin Armstrong, from Boise, retired in 2009. After giving birth Sept. 15, she figures the biggest obstacle to her comeback will not be training but the challenges that accompany being a new mother.

Armstrong Kristin
Olympic Games
Bicycles and Bicycling


Kevin McCarthy Withdraws From Speaker’s Race, Putting House in Chaos

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Representative Kevin McCarthy of California abruptly withdrew on Thursday from the race to succeed Speaker John A. Boehner, blindsiding his House Republican colleagues and throwing their already tumultuous chamber into deeper chaos with no clear leader in sight just weeks before a series of high-stakes fiscal battles. As lawmakers ate barbecue and sipped sodas during what was expected to be a pro forma vote to select Mr. McCarthy as their nominee, he did an about-face, saying that he had concluded he could not unite the increasingly fractious Republican majority. “I am not that guy,” said Mr. McCarthy, with his wife and family by his side, according to members who were in the room. Moments later, Mr. Boehner, who learned of Mr. McCarthy’s decision only minutes before he announced it, declared the vote postponed and the meeting adjourned even though there were two other candidates in the running, underscoring the weakness of the field. Some Republicans, including Mr. Boehner and Mr. McCarthy, are pressing Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the party’s nominee for vice president in 2012, to step up. Mr. Ryan, however, has repeatedly said he does not want the job , a point he reiterated Thursday even before his colleagues left the meeting. Image Mr. McCarthy quit the speaker’s race. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times “I have spent more time trying to talk him into running than I did my wife into marrying me,” Representative Trey Gowdy of South Carolina said. “Twenty-six years later, she’s still with me. I am just asking Paul for 14 months.” Mr. McCarthy’s decision leaves the House rudderless just weeks before the Treasury Department faces a debt default that could roil markets, and two months before a deadline for a budget deal to avoid another government shutdown. But it also represents another victory for the clutch of unyielding hard-line conservatives who toppled the ambitions of yet another member of the party leadership. The turmoil in the House only added to the uncertainty for the Republican Party , which is also dealing with a contentious presidential primary campaign in which obstreperous outsiders continue to ride the Tea Party swell against establishment politicians. While the presidential race has many months to sort itself out, House Republicans have little time to spare to restore order. After Mr. McCarthy’s announcement, many visibly shaken and nearly speechless Republicans emerged from a large hearing room in the Capitol complex. The acoustics inside were so poor that some had failed to fully take in what had happened: The man with the most votes to become the next speaker had just given up on what was once the most desired job in the House. “The first reaction was ‘Wow!’ or ‘What did he say?’ ” Representative Jeff Fortenberry, Republican of Nebraska, said. “The next reaction was, ‘Let me sit down and process this while eating lunch at the same time, because this was a shock, a surprise.’ ” Image Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah walks with his wife, Julie, at the Capitol. He is also running to become the speaker. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Rather than moving to vote on other announced candidates, Representative Daniel Webster of Florida and Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, Mr. Boehner said the ballot should be postponed and asked unanimous consent to adjourn — with no obvious path forward as Congress heads for a weeklong recess. Mr. Boehner, who said last month that he would leave at the end of October after more than four years of relentless needling from his right flank, issued a less definitive statement on Thursday, saying he would stay in the job until a replacement was chosen “in the coming weeks.” Mr. McCarthy’s turnaround appeared to stem from his growing realization over the last 24 hours that while many of his colleagues supported him, he risked a humiliating defeat on the floor. A group of about 40 hard-right House conservatives announced on Wednesday night that they would support Mr. Webster, making it clear that Mr. McCarthy would have had to accede to their demands as he struggled to assemble 218 votes over the next three weeks. (While only Republicans choose their nominee, a majority of the whole House, including Democrats, elects the speaker.) The Republicans who participated in the revolt were jubilant over the turn of events. “K Street has got to be really nervous around here,” Representative Tim Huelskamp of Kansas, the leader of the House Tea Party Caucus, said, referring to Washington’s lobbyist corridor. “And the American people out there are probably saying, ‘Wait a minute, there might be some real change in Washington.’ ” Possible Candidates for a Brokered House Speaker Race With Representative Kevin McCarthy’s stunning decision to withdraw from the race for speaker on Thursday, the Republican leadership elections were turned upside down. The competitive races were supposed to be those for lower-tier positions. Now the big uncertainty is who the next speaker will be. Mr. McCarthy has been dogged over the last week with questions about his verbal competence, his conservative credentials and his ability to fuse a group of members that may in fact defy unification. He said he would remain as majority leader, scrambling the races for all of the House Republican leadership positions. The Republicans who prompted Mr. McCarthy’s decision were pushing for a greater say in driving the House agenda. But Mr. McCarthy also caused his own damage when he suggested in an interview on Fox News last week that the House committee investigating the terror attack in Benghazi had the political aim of damaging Hillary Rodham Clinton’s presidential campaign. At a brief news conference, he acknowledged that his remarks about Benghazi had factored into his decision. Several people close to Mr. McCarthy said he had initially believed that Mr. Boehner’s resignation would have been enough to satiate the rebels in the party. But it became increasingly clear that to secure the votes to become speaker, he would face the same battles that repeatedly bloodied Mr. Boehner, his far more seasoned predecessor. “If we are going to unite and be strong, we need a new face,” Mr. McCarthy said. Only Mr. Webster and Mr. Chaffetz so far have offered to be that face. Mr. Webster, a low-profile former speaker in Florida’s House, said he would assemble “a principle-based, member-driven caucus.” That would presumably claim a great deal of power from the speaker. Hard-Line Republicans Clear the Way for Paul Ryan to Be Speaker Any candidate for the speakership — which requires the approval of a majority of the House — will need the support of at least some of the hard-line members. The other, Mr. Chaffetz, 48, an ambitious lawmaker and chairman of the House Oversight Committee, was the first member of Congress to focus vigorously on the Benghazi matter. Still, noting his own shock at Mr. McCarthy’s decision, Mr. Chaffetz said, “I really do believe it is time for a fresh start. That was the whole genesis of my campaign. But we need to have a lot more family discussions because we need to find somebody that our whole body can unite behind.” For Republicans, key fiscal matters with rapidly approaching deadlines compound their problems. The Treasury Department has said it would exhaust its authority to borrow money to fund the government on Nov. 5. If Congress does not raise or suspend the government’s statutory borrowing limit, the government would default on its debt days later, risking a ratings downgrade, and possibly economic calamity, including soaring interest rates and plunging stock prices. Then, on Dec. 11, a stopgap spending bill expires; without congressional action, much of the government will shut down. The White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said that officials were surprised by what he called the “chaos” among House Republicans, adding that they should “either tame the forces of that small but vocal group of extreme ideologues, or buck up the mainstream — or at least more mainstream — majority within the House Republican conference.” Several Republicans said they simply needed some time to contemplate the day’s events. “Kind of a crazy day,” Representative Cynthia M. Lummis, Republican of Wyoming, said. “We need a breather. We can’t elect a speaker under these terms. So I think we need a little time, a little space, a little healing. Nothing good ever happens in a crisis.”

Kevin McCarthy
Republicans
Congress
US Politics
US
House of Representatives


Antitrust Fine for Supplier of Seat Belts

Abstract: A Japanese seat belt supplier said on Thursday that it had agreed to pay a $71.3 million fine to settle antitrust charges, less than a month after one of its executives was sentenced to prison for fixing the price of auto parts sold in the United States and abroad. The Takata Corporation is the latest auto parts maker to be charged in what the Justice Department said was its largest criminal antitrust investigation. The inquiry into price-fixing agreements, which began as early as January 2000, has involved authorities worldwide and resulted in more than $1.6 billion in fines since 2011. Last month, nine Japanese automotive suppliers and two former executives agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and to pay more than $740 million in criminal fines. Gary Walker, an American citizen and a former director of sales for Takata, agreed to pay a $20,000 fine and serve 14 months in prison on a one-count felony charge that he engaged in a conspiracy to fix the prices of seat belts sold to Honda, Mazda, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota from at least Jan. 1, 2003, through February 2010. The Justice Department said Mr. Walker had colluded with other executives, in person and on the phone, to rig bids, fix prices and allocate supply. The investigation covers more than a dozen separate conspiracies involving more than 30 kinds of auto parts that affected more than $5 billion in sales to Chrysler, Ford and General Motors, as well as the American subsidiaries of Honda, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Subaru and Toyota. Takata produces and sells seat belts, air bags, steering wheels, interior trims and child restraint systems.

Fines
Takata
Justice Department
Gary Walker
Seatbelts
Competition law
Cars
Automobile safety


Step to the Rear of the Bus, Please, or Take a Seat Upstairs

Abstract: For decades, they were a fixture of New York life: double-decker buses swaying along Fifth Avenue. They disappeared in 1953 and made a brief and ill-fated return in the 1970s. But now they may be ready for a third act. Howard H. Roberts Jr., the president of New York City Transit, said on Thursday that he is considering bringing the two-level buses back to Fifth Avenue. Mr. Roberts said his interest was based on simple economics. Double-deckers can carry about as many people as the longer bus that the transit agency now uses, according to Joseph Smith, senior vice president for the agency’s bus operations. But they cost less to maintain because they lack the complicated connector and accordion apparatus that links the two portions of an articulated bus. Those who rode the double-deckers in their heyday have fond memories. “Back in the days when money was important, it was great to take a date out and you could have a nice ride up and a nice ride back on a summer evening,” said William J. Ronan, 95, who first rode the buses when he came to New York during his student days in the 1930s (three decades later, he became the first chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority). “It was sort of a genteel way to travel and perfectly respectable,” he said. “Between that and the Staten Island Ferry you could have a wonderful date.” Mr. Ronan said the seats in front on the upper deck were considered the best ones. “You tried to get up in the front seats, which were great because you had the view up the avenue,” he said. Mr. Smith said that he was looking at buses made by three manufacturers but that it was too early to say when, or even with certainty if, double-deckers would be brought to New York for test runs. Double-decker buses were operated by the Fifth Avenue Coach Company starting at least in the early part of the last century. The company used both open-top buses — the ones that Mr. Ronan remembered so fondly and similar to those used today for sightseeing — and fully enclosed double-deckers. The transit agency is looking to bring back only the enclosed models. “The Fifth Avenue Coach was always a premium service,” said Charles F. Seaton, a transit spokesman. “When other buses were a nickel, the Fifth Avenue Coach was a dime. And their buses were pretty much viewed as a grand way to travel.” The company stopped running its open-top buses in 1946, while the enclosed double-deckers made their last run in 1953, according to news articles. Mr. Ronan tried to bring the double-decker buses back in 1976, when the transportation authority bought eight of them from a British company to be used in a pilot program. Mr. Seaton said the buses had mechanical problems and were off the road after about two years. But there were other problems, including on the continuation of some Fifth Avenue routes where the buses travel along Riverside Drive. “The problem then was all the trees along Riverside Drive had grown such that the branches were in the way of the bus,” said Robert A. Olmsted, who worked at the authority with Mr. Ronan. If the buses are brought back, he said, “they’d have to do some clearance runs and trim some trees, which may upset some people, too.” Walking downtown on Thursday, John Perchinski, 65, recalled riding on the upper decks of the buses as a child. “It was a really comfortable ride,” he said. An article in The New York Times in 1942, when the coach company was threatening to stop using the double-decker buses, offered a panegyric to their charms. “The young and ardent New Yorker brought his girl to the top deck of a Fifth Avenue bus and together they sailed into the fabulous land of the shop windows,” the article said. “The New Yorker grown old and a bit philosophical found these lofty seats, moving sedately up the Avenue, ideal places from which to watch the passing show of the pavements.”


Florida: Secret Service Agent Arrested

Abstract: A Secret Service officer was arrested early Friday after being found passed out and apparently drunk on a Miami street corner several hours after President Obama left the state following a trip to the city, police officials said. A Miami police officer found the agent, Aaron Francis Engler, around 7 a.m., lying near an intersection not far from a popular night spot in downtown. He was arrested on two misdemeanor counts after becoming combative with the arresting officer, the police said. Mr. Engler was in Miami in a support role for Mr. Obama’s trip, but his exact duties were unclear.

Florida
Secret Service
Police
Engler Aaron Francis
Miami (Fla)
Alcohol Abuse


Disney Earnings Gain 30%, Surpassing Estimates

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — If demand for spinning teacups is any indicator, consumers are more confident than anyone thought. The Walt Disney Company reported robust fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday, saying that its theme parks — closely watched as an informal barometer of discretionary spending in the broader economy — saw operating income climb 33 percent, to $421 million. The primary reason was an end to the deep discounting that Disney put in place to prop up attendance during the height of the recession. Attendance at Disney’s parks in Florida and California was only up 1 percent, but per capita spending rose 9 percent on higher ticket prices and increased spending on food and merchandise. “Spending is increasing at a pretty heavy level,” said Jay Rasulo, Disney’s chief financial officer, on a conference call with analysts. Mr. Rasulo added that group bookings have increased by “leaps and bounds.” It was a robust quarter all around for Disney, with operating income in every major division climbing by double-digit percentages. After parks, the strongest performer was Disney’s television business — ESPN, Disney Channel, ABC — with a 20 percent increase in operating income, to $1.46 billion. Disney Channel experienced solid international ad growth, while ABC benefitted from lower programming costs. For the quarter ended Oct. 1, Disney reported a profit of $1.09 billion, or 58 cents a share, a 30 percent increase from $835 million, or 43 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue climbed 7 percent, to $10.43 billion. Analysts had been expecting a profit of about 55 cents a share for the most recent quarter. Disney shares climbed more than 3 percent in after-hours trading, to $35.78. Disney’s fiscal year results were also strong, although Disney’s movie studio fell short of its performance in the previous year and losses at the company’s video game and Internet division mounted. Net income for the year rose 21 percent, to $4.8 billion, from $3.96 billion. Revenue was up slightly at $40.89 billion. Moviemaking continues to vex Disney. For the quarter, Walt Disney Studios recorded a 13 percent increase in operating profit, to $117 million, because of lower write-downs and strong ticket sales for “The Help” and “The Lion King 3-D.” But “Cars 2” did not meet expectations and most of the studio’s quarterly operating profit came from merchandising sales. Robert A. Iger, Disney’s chief executive, restated the company’s strategy to “make fewer, more profitable movies” and singled out “The Muppets,” set for a Thanksgiving release, as a potential blockbuster. In his remarks, Mr. Iger drew attention to Disney’s international business as an improved growth engine, noting a deal for a Disney Channel in Russia, the start of building a Disney World-style resort in China and the acquisition of one of India’s leading entertainment companies.

Walt Disney Company
Company Reports
Amusement and Theme Parks


On Emotional Day, Stewart Beats Hendrick Racers

Abstract: MARTINSVILLE, Va., April 2 - Retaliation was the theme heading into the DirecTV 500 Nascar Nextel Cup race Sunday at Martinsville Speedway. A week after the bump-and-run tactics of Bristol Motor Speedway, payback was anticipated at another short track where racecars typically crunch and tempers often flare. The race was not quite that entertaining. Instead, Martinsville offered a classic two-car battle for most of the 500 laps, with 41 other cars providing primarily background scenery and few ugly moments. Tony Stewart passed Jimmie Johnson with just under 27 laps to go to end a daylong battle. Then he waited through a red-flag delay before holding off Jeff Gordon on a final restart with three laps remaining to win the race. It was an upset of sorts even for Stewart. Although he is the defending Cup champion and has raced well here in the past, he had to hold off a posse of Hendrick Motorsports drivers to win. Hendrick drivers have dominated at Martinsville in recent years, having won five of the past six races here, including a two-race sweep by Gordon last year. Stewart drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, and his main challengers were in Hendrick cars: Gordon in second place, Johnson in third and Kyle Busch, who finished fifth. Even Hendrick's fourth driver, Brian Vickers, made his way to the top 10, finishing eighth. Those performances came on the birthday of the team owner's son, Ricky Hendrick, who died in an airplane crash with other team and family members while they were on their way to a race at Martinsville in October 2004. Given the history, it was an emotional day for the team, as it always seems to be. "The fall race has the anniversary of our airplane going down, and then the spring race is right around the time of Ricky Hendrick's birthday," Johnson said. "Between all of us, we really wanted to win the race today and bring the trophy back to Rick." For most of the race, Johnson appeared to have the only shot at doing that. Although Stewart led for a race-high 288 laps, Johnson was in front for 195, with the rest of the field not able to seriously challenge. Johnson had the lead for nearly 100 laps before Stewart decided to use his front bumper to pound Johnson's racecar from behind in the closing laps before moving to the front. "I don't really have any complaints with the way that he raced me," Johnson said. "I think he hit me for four or five laps. The time he got by me, he had my wheels off the ground. Really hard racing on the racetrack, there just at the end, he got aggressive with me." Considering the combativeness of the racing this season, with enemies seemingly made weekly, Stewart said he thought his pass was fair. Last week at Bristol, Kurt Busch nearly put Matt Kenseth into the wall with a hit from behind that led to the winning pass. "There's no way he was going to give it away, so we were going to take it away," Stewart said. "We didn't turn him around; we didn't spin him out. We just got the position we were after, so I'm pretty happy with it." In the end, it was Gordon who had the best shot at Stewart. Gordon said he thought he could challenge Stewart on a restart with eight laps to go. But Kenseth lost his brakes and slammed into the wall in Turn 1, dropping him to 24th from the top 10. That forced a red flag for several minutes before the last restart. On the final green flag, Gordon bumped Stewart from behind, but Stewart raced away. Gordon's racecar slipped, and he was forced to slow down coming off Turn 2 with three laps remaining. From there, Stewart cruised to the checkered flag. Stewart, not always the fastest starter each season, moved into ninth in the points standings last week with a 12th-place finish at Bristol. With the victory Sunday, he stepped up to eighth. Johnson, meanwhile, regained the overall points lead with his third-place finish. Mark Martin moved up to second, with Kenseth third. Kenseth had been the overall points leader entering the race. Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished fourth Sunday, is now sixth in points. Gordon is seventh, just ahead of Stewart, as the field for the fall playoff Chase for the Cup begins to narrow to legitimate contenders. Stewart is showing that he plans to be in the mix in September as he attempts to become the first repeat Cup champion since Gordon in 1997-1998. He is already working on his postrace celebration. Last year, he made a habit of climbing the racetrack fence at the start-finish line after victories. He made his first ascent of the season Sunday. "I'm still too old, still too fat," he said. "But as long as those people keep cheering like they do when I get up there, I'm going to keep doing it for them."

NATIONAL ASSN OF STOCK CAR AUTO RACING
STEWART TONY
JOHNSON JIMMIE
DIRECTV 500 (AUTO RACE)
AUTOMOBILE RACING


Single-Family Home Prices Increased 9.3% in February

Abstract: WASHINGTON (Reuters) — Home prices rose in February at their fastest rate in almost seven years, another sign the housing market recovery will help counter the drag on the economy from government belt-tightening. The S&P/Case Shiller index of 20 metropolitan areas released on Tuesday showed single-family home prices rose 9.3 percent in February from a year earlier. The data reinforces the view that rising home prices could make Americans feel better about spending this year, helping counter a blow to economic growth from tax increases and government spending cuts. Image The biggest gains in home prices were in some of the cities that were hardest hit by the crisis, including Phoenix, Atlanta and Las Vegas. Above, homes under construction in Atlanta in March. Credit David Goldman/Associated Press “This will be a powerful positive fundamental, not only for housing, but presumably helpful for consumer spending as well,” said Stephen Stanley an economist at Pierpont Securities in Stamford, Conn. Another report showed consumer confidence rebounded in April as Americans felt better about the outlook for the economy and their income prospects. The Conference Board, a private industry group, said its index of consumer attitudes rose to 68.1 from a revised 61.9 the previous month. Economists polled by Reuters had expected a reading of 60.8. Still, there appears to be a growing risk that weakness in the labor market and broader economy could dial down the housing recovery’s strength. Hiring slowed drastically in March and economic growth was lackluster in the first quarter, raising fear that the economy could struggle to cope with Washington’s austerity drive. Business activity in the Midwest unexpectedly contracted in April to its lowest level since September 2009 as a gauge of employment declined, another report showed. The Institute for Supply Management-Chicago business barometer fell to 49, below the 50 mark that denotes contraction and falling short of economists’ expectations for 52.5.

Case Shiller Home Price Index,S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller Home Price Indices


Giving Women the Access Code

Abstract: CLAREMONT, Calif. — When Maria Klawe became president of Harvey Mudd College in 2006, she was dismayed — but not surprised — at how few women were majoring in computer science. A mathematician and computer scientist herself, she arrived at Harvey Mudd (the smallest of the five so-called Claremont Colleges) in the midst of a nationwide downturn for women in computer science. As recently as 1985, 37 percent of graduates in the field were women; by 2005 it was down to 22 percent, and sinking. And the situation at Mudd was even grimmer. Of the college’s 750 students, about a third were women (the figure is now closer to half), but for years the percentage of computer science graduates had been hovering around the single digits. How Dr. Klawe (pronounced KLAH-vay) and her faculty turned things around — this year, nearly 40 percent of Harvey Mudd’s computer science degrees will go to women — sheds light on a gender gap that elsewhere remains stubbornly resistant to changing times. Thanks in part to companies like Facebook, Yelp and Zynga and in part to cultural sensations like the movie “The Social Network,” coders are hip and computer science is hot. Departments across the nation are brimming with students. But those students are overwhelmingly male. In 2010, just 18.2 percent of undergraduates in the field were women, according to the National Center for Education Statistics — in spite of gains in chemistry, biomechanical engineering and other so-called STEM fields (the acronym stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics). “It must be the unique area of science and technology where women have made negative progress,” said Nicholas Pippenger, a mathematics professor at Harvey Mudd, who is married to Dr. Klawe. Dr. Klawe and others say the underrepresentation of women in the field is detrimental in a larger sense. Computer science, they say, is as vital to propelling society forward in the digital era as mechanical engineering was in the industrial age. “If we’re not getting more women to be part of that, it’s just nuts,” Dr. Klawe said. At Mudd, she continued, “we’re graduating 20 female computer science majors a year, and every one of them is a gem.” In 2005, the year before Dr. Klawe arrived, a group of faculty members embarked on a full makeover of the introductory computer science course, a requirement at Mudd. Known as CS 5, the course focused on hard-core programming, appealing to a particular kind of student — young men, already seasoned programmers, who dominated the class. This only reinforced the women’s sense that computer science was for geeky know-it-alls. “Most of the female students were unwilling to go on in computer science because of the stereotypes they had grown up with,” said Zachary Dodds, a computer scientist at Mudd. “We realized we were helping perpetuate that by teaching such a standard course.” To reduce the intimidation factor, the course was divided into two sections — “gold,” for those with no prior experience, and “black” for everyone else. Java, a notoriously opaque programming language, was replaced by a more accessible language called Python. And the focus of the course changed to computational approaches to solving problems across science. “We realized that we needed to show students computer science is not all about programming,” said Ran Libeskind-Hadas, chairman of the department. “It has intellectual depth and connections to other disciplines.” Dr. Klawe supported the cause wholeheartedly, and provided money from the college for every female freshman to travel to the annual Grace Hopper conference, named after a pioneering programmer. The conference, where freshmen are surrounded by female role models, has inspired many a first-year “Mudder” to explore computer science more seriously. Firsthand Experience The topic of women in computing was a preoccupation for Dr. Klawe well before she took over at Harvey Mudd, in part because when she chose her profession, women in male-dominated fields were especially rare. “She was consistently told by teachers in adolescence, then later by colleagues, that the things she was interested in were things women didn’t do, and that there were no good female mathematicians,” Dr. Pippenger said. Dr. Klawe persevered. A native Canadian, she received her Ph.D. in mathematics in 1977 from the University of Alberta. She started a second Ph.D., in computer science, at the University of Toronto, but was offered a faculty position there before completing the degree. In 1980, she married Dr. Pippenger, a highly regarded theoretical computer scientist, and for the first decade of their marriage Dr. Klawe was the professional afterthought. In the 1980s, they both worked at the I.B.M. Almaden Research Center in San Jose, Calif. “They only hired me so they wouldn’t lose Nick,” Dr. Klawe said. They moved to the University of British Columbia in Vancouver in 1988, and Dr. Klawe’s talents as an administrator began to blossom. In 2002, she was recruited to Princeton University as dean of engineering and applied sciences. “By the time we went to Princeton,” Dr. Pippenger said, “it was clear they were hiring me because they really wanted to get Maria.” Dr. Klawe, a slight and sprightly woman, had not been at Princeton long before she began receiving recruiting inquiries. “If you’re a female administrator at a place like Princeton, you’ll get a request to be president or provost twice a week,” she said. “A lot of times it’s not that they care about you, but they need a credible female candidate.” She seldom read beyond the first few lines. “I had this automatic message saying I was honored to be nominated, but had no intention of leaving Princeton in the near future,” she said. Then one day in 2005, an announcement about the search for a president at Harvey Mudd floated into her in-box. She knew about the college and couldn’t resist opening the attachment. “I read it and thought, ‘Oh, my God, the person they’re talking about for this job is exactly me,’ ” she said. Soon after arriving at Mudd, she gathered the school’s extended community to help formulate a long-term strategic vision. “She shut down the school for four days,” said Robert Cave, vice president for academic affairs. “She said, ‘I want the entire community to be involved in charting the course of Harvey Mudd for the next 10 years.’ ” In her third year on the job, Dr. Klawe landed the largest single contribution in the college’s 57-year history — $25 million from R. Michael Shanahan, a financier and the former chairman of Mudd’s board, who has since given an additional $6 million. Now 60, Dr. Klawe is most often seen on campus in jeans — even, sometimes, on a skateboard, a skill she taught herself in just the last few years. (“We would all really worry if she didn’t wear her protective gear,” Dr. Cave said.) Her leadership style is equally informal, and it has taken some of the faculty by surprise. Professor Libeskind-Hadas recalled that at one of the first full faculty meetings, she spoke while sitting on a table in front of the room. In a nod to Mudd’s very personal character, Dr. Klawe said, every summer she uses a flash card program to memorize the names of the nearly 200 incoming freshmen. On campus, she greets each student she passes by name. When the occasional prankster tries to stump her by presenting her with a non-Mudder, “usually I can figure it out,” she said, “but not always.” She is an inveterate booster and recruiter for Harvey Mudd. On planes and ski lifts, at conferences and in far-flung restaurants, she often wears a T-shirt reading, “The Most Amazing School You’ve Never Heard Of.” (The answer is on the back. Harvey Mudd, by the way, was a mining magnate in the first half of the 20th century.) Finding Success Efforts like these are bearing fruit. More high school seniors than ever are applying to Harvey Mudd. The college now accepts just 17 percent of applicants, and routinely snatches high school seniors who might otherwise choose better-known institutions like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon. Dr. Klawe sometimes does the recruiting herself, sending personal messages to fence-sitters. “You tell her about a kid you really want and within four seconds, she’s sent an e-mail,” said Thyra Briggs, Mudd’s vice president for admission and financial aid. Dr. Klawe and others speak of “converting” female students to computer science. The idea, they say, is to make the introductory course enjoyable and interesting enough that women who were thinking of other majors choose computer science instead. Bridgette Eichelberger, a sophomore, is one such convert. She entered Mudd interested in engineering, only to switch computer science after taking CS 5. “I’m in my required engineering course now, and it’s fun,” she said. “But it’s nothing like the happiness I’ve been getting from C.S. courses.” She has a job lined up for the summer, working for Microsoft. “If she had missed computer science, it would have been a missed opportunity for both sides,” Professor Dodds said. Whether Mudd’s success can be replicated on a broad scale is unclear. Only a handful of colleges make computer science a requirement, which creates built-in exposure to the subject. And with fewer than 100 female freshmen, Mudd can afford to send all of them to the Hopper conference. Still, signs of progress dot the higher education landscape. At Carnegie Mellon, the percentage of incoming women enrolled in the computer science program has been rising since 2008, and is at 32 percent. M.I.T.’s figure is 30 percent. “Close to 50 percent of our undergraduates are women,” said Barbara Liskov, a computer scientist there. “So having 30 percent is nice, and better than it used to be, but not as good as you might hope for.” The University of California, Berkeley, and a few other universities have also redesigned their computer science courses to be less intimidating. The Berkeley course aimed at nonmajors is called “The Beauty and Joy of Computing.” Brian Harvey, a computer scientist there, said half the students who finish the course go on to take the course for majors. “We are 150 students per semester and climbing,” he said, adding that half the students are women and women do as well as the men. Bucknell University, in Lewisburg, Pa., recently adopted the “gold” version of Mudd’s CS 5 course in its entirety. Stanford is also working to make computer science more attractive to women. “What Harvey Mudd has done is super,” said Stephen Cooper, a computer scientist there. “What other schools need to do is take a serious look at what works for their own environment.” Despite the success at her own campus, Dr. Klawe continues her crusade to lift the numbers. She visits other universities and corporations to give advice on recruiting women to STEM careers — and retaining them. Often she reminds her audience that for much of her career she felt like an impostor. Jennifer Tour Chayes, a friend of Dr. Klawe’s who is managing director of Microsoft Research New England, in Cambridge, Mass., says that is an important lesson. “Women are often questioned, and then they take the impostor syndrome as their inner voice, as proof they shouldn’t go on,” she said. “What they need to know is that women like Maria also had that inner voice, and luckily they went on, and look how they’re doing.” In spite of unequivocal evidence to the contrary, Dr. Klawe still has moments when she is convinced she is an impostor. “If you’re constantly pushing yourself, and putting yourself in new environments, you’ll feel it over and over again,” she said. “So the only really important thing is not to let it stop you.”

Harvey Mudd College
Science and Technology
Klawe Maria
Women and Girls
Computers and the Internet
Colleges and Universities


In the Cold of Morning, Descending Into Conflict

Abstract: MARJA, Afghanistan — The helicopter was filled with men and dark in its cabin when a voice cut over the whir of the rotors. “Five minutes out!” The men of Company K, Third Battalion, Sixth Marines , shoved their clips into their rifles and pulled back their bolts. A chorus of clanks rose and fell. The whir of the rotors filled the cabin again. The helicopter banked in the darkness. “One minute out!” The men of Company K hollered and whooped. The CH-47 touched down, and the ramps came down, and the young men scampered into the cold and dark. It was 2:40 a.m. The Marines had come to Marja’s northern edge, at the intersection of two roads, 605 and 608. There were three landing zones in all: Falcon, Hawk and Eagle. With hardly a sound, one of the platoons took over the intersection, while another set up to guard the approach to the east. The last platoon moved into a series of houses and compounds. Rifles and bullets rattled as they ran. The night was cold and still. A dog barked nearby. No gunfire, not even in the distance, broke the quiet. “I’m not nervous,” Capt. Joshua P. Biggers said just before liftoff. “My platoon commanders are ready. The boys are ready. They know what to do. It will become second nature.” No one expected the calm to last through the night. The village at Marja’s northern edge is believed to hold a number of Taliban fighters, as well as a school for making bombs. Marja is like that. In three years, this collection of farms and irrigation canals has grown to become the Taliban’s biggest sanctuary inside Afghanistan . From here, the insurgents plan and stage attacks, helping to make Helmand the most violent province. More than that, Marja itself breaks up the string of cities that the Americans, British, and Afghan forces, over the past two years, have cleared and secured along the Helmand River. And so, this morning, the Americans and the British and Afghans were taking Marja back. With its 300-plus men and a platoon of Afghan soldiers, Company K was one of several units that attacked Marja by helicopter on Saturday. Simultaneously, Marines from the First Battalion, Sixth Marines were moving, too, into the southern edge of Marja to seize the main bazaar and the defunct government center. A group of Special Forces troops had flown in the southern rim of town as well, into a place thought to hold a number of foreign fighters. There was no word from them. After a time, a low chopping sound broke the calm. It was an Apache gunship, loaded with rockets and guns, prowling for insurgents with its thermal sights. Whatever else they are, Taliban fighters are not known for their stupidity on the battlefield. In the quiet, one thing was clear: they were laying back. A dog barked again, and then the night went calm.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Myanmar’s Leader Has a Longtime Champion in Mitch McConnell

Abstract: WASHINGTON — As Myanmar’s pro-democracy figure and government leader, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi , makes her way through Washington’s power centers this week, one face is particularly familiar: Senator Mitch McConnell, who has been watching her for decades, usually at great remove. Mr. McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has spent nearly three decades trying to promote democracy in the country formerly known as Burma, about which he once lamented, “I have never spent more time on an issue and made less difference.” He has been a lead sponsor of every major sanctions measure against the Burmese government over the last 20 years and has worked quietly and tirelessly with several administrations to try to bring democracy to the country. In 2002, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi wrote to thank him for his support in a letter she had secretly sent out of the country. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi impressed Mr. McConnell with her steely resolve during years of house arrest, which kept her from visiting her dying husband, and her refusal to leave for countries offering refuge, the senator said. “She could have chosen the route of Gandhi and just been an icon,” Mr. McConnell said in an interview Wednesday. “Instead she chose the route of Margaret Thatcher by accepting responsibility by bringing along a country that was essentially in the dark ages.” Mr. McConnell first took an interest in Burma the late 1980s and early ’90s, long before most Americans had ever heard of it, when the military invalidated election results. “It was a totally unknown cause,” said Robin Cleveland, Mr. McConnell’s former longtime foreign affairs adviser. “In the case of South Africa, there was a huge constituency in this country and a rallying call against apartheid,” she said. “Here, there were like three guys on the U.S.-Burma campaign who had been tortured, and that was it. It was his commitment to the person and the principle that drove him.” Their relationship, which was fostered with phone calls and other correspondence over the years, grew closer in 2012 when Mr. McConnell visited her in Yangon, and Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi visited him in Kentucky later during her first visit to the United States. Mr. McConnell’s support is not unlike his early push for sanctions in South Africa, at the time unpopular with many Republicans, including President Ronald Reagan, and another component of the senator’s longstanding interest in civil rights . “You can tell from observing him that the issue of Burma is deeply felt,” said Derek Mitchell, a former ambassador to Myanmar, who encouraged the foreign minister to issue Mr. McConnell a closely held visa. “There is a strong affection and commitment he has shown to her personally when he was driving sanctions.” Mr. McConnell introduced the Burmese Freedom and Democracy Act in 2003, imposing additional sanctions on the Burmese government, which was adopted that year after Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi’s motorcade was attacked by junta operatives. Further sanctions followed. In 2008, Mr. McConnell and Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of California, introduced legislation to award her the Congressional Gold Medal. In early 2009, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was about to embark on a diplomatic outreach effort to Myanmar’s military leaders, she went to see Mr. McConnell in his office first. Mr. McConnell was skeptical, she said, mindful of his importance to Burma policy, but acknowledged that the sanctions-only approach had not produced results. He grudgingly agreed to support her diplomatic efforts. In 2011, Mr. McConnell talked to Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi for the first time, by telephone, and began to work with Mrs. Clinton and the State Department to re-examine the United States’s relationship with the changing nation. In 2012 the senator traveled to Yangon where Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi greeted him with an embrace on the front porch of the house where she had lived under house arrest for years. “It was actually quite an emotional moment,” he said. Late that year, Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi visited Mr. McConnell in Kentucky during a packed trip to the United States. During a day of downtime that she had built into the trip, Mr. McConnell showed her horses, which he had learned she loved from childhood, in central Kentucky. “I wanted to come here because of Senator McConnell,” she said, “because I wanted to see what his home was like. I wanted to thank him for everything he did for us over, well, two decades. That’s a long time.” (She also got to finally collect her gold medal in Washington.) On Wednesday, Mr. McConnell joined a small group of lawmakers at the residence of Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. for breakfast with Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi. One of them, Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed the sort of impatience that some lawmakers and human rights advocates have expressed about her nascent leadership. Critics have faulted her reluctance to condemn the systematic mistreatment of Myanmar’s Muslim Rohingya minority. “While we certainly appreciate the work Aung San Suu Kyi has done to ensure a democratic transition in Burma,” Mr. Corker said in a news release, “I am somewhat appalled by her dismissive reaction to concerns I raised this morning about the problem of human trafficking in her country.” Mr. McConnell said “inevitable disappointment” with the pace of change, especially among her compatriots, was part of the less pleasant aspects of accountability that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi had agreed to take on. On Thursday Mr. McConnell will once again greet his friend at the Capitol, and he will continue to take her advice on how to proceed with sanctions. “This woman is truly heroic,” the senator said Wednesday, “and it’s so gratifying to see her today as, in fact, the head of state.”

Mitch McConnell
Aung San Suu Kyi
Myanmar,Burma
US Foreign Policy


Political Conventions, Olympics and Storms Clog Summer Travel

Abstract: Summer, with its often-violent storms, does not always mix well with business travel. But the wildfires in the West and high-security events like the London Olympics and two political conventions are making this summer particularly challenging. For those headed west, for example, the wildfires that forced hotel evacuations and closings in Colorado in June were the start of a record-setting fire season that is expected to continue into October and November. Last Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration raised its prediction of hurricanes this season. “We are increasing the likelihood of an above-normal season because storm-conducive wind patterns and warmer-than-normal sea surface temperatures are now in place in the Atlantic,” said Gerry Bell, the lead hurricane forecaster at the Climate Prediction Center. Then, of course, there are the man-made high-security events, beginning with the Summer Games, which ended on Sunday in London, and continuing with the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., from Aug. 27 to 30, with an expected 50,000 visitors, and the Democratic National Convention for three days in Charlotte, N.C., starting on Labor Day, which is expected to attract 35,000 people. Along with anticipated protests, the conventions may lead to road closings and general disruptions. What this all means to business travelers and employers, said Wendy Lane, a labor and employment attorney with Greenberg Glusker in Los Angeles who drafts travel policies for corporate clients, is “an extra level of delay as airlines maximize efficiency by canceling flights and consolidating flights.” To deal with the unexpected, business travelers may need self-reliance and flexibility. “The most important thing to pack is patience,” said Henry Harteveldt, chief research officer and co-founder of the Atmosphere Research Group in San Francisco. He recommended that travelers explore alternative transportation options like trains and ferries. And he suggested carefully monitoring potential problems at their destination. Exploring transportation alternatives made sense to Roy Berger, president and chief executive of MedjetAssist, a medical transport membership company in Birmingham, Ala. Mr. Berger said he was caught in a hailstorm at La Guardia Airport in New York in mid-July. Buttonholing the pilot of his flight to Birmingham, he learned that the gate attendant was about to announce the cancellation of the flight. Mr. Berger hailed a cab to Penn Station, where he caught a train south to Baltimore. There, he was able to connect with another southbound plane with minutes to spare after persuading fellow passengers to let him cut in front of them at the security screening. Weather, and other hazards, can now be better anticipated. Starting in late June, a system that sends emergency alerts via texts began operating on compatible cellphones. The system is the result of a partnership among the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Federal Communications Commission and the wireless industry. “This new public safety system allows customers who own an enabled mobile device in an area where their service provider has deployed the capability to receive geographically targeted textlike messages alerting them of imminent threats to safety in their areas,” said Damon Penn, FEMA program director. Events like tornadoes, hurricanes, an active shooter or an industrial accident will be the subject of notifications. Almost all wireless carriers have signed on, but consumers need to check if the service is available in their area. As to the impact of the Olympics, Mark Naysmith, the Games readiness director at Deloitte UK, based in London, began in 2009 to consult with London-area clients about dealing with heightened security and transportation delays and traffic restrictions, all while anticipating a possible increase in business during the Olympics. Some things did not quite work out as planned. While many consumer businesses, particularly in hospitality, leisure and retailing, experienced rises in demand, according to a survey the firm took during the first week of the Games, that bounce was less than they had expected earlier in the year. The end of the summer will bring the quadrennial nominating conventions. “Fair to say visitors are not going to be able to travel as freely as in a normal week in Charlotte and Tampa,” said Daniel J. Kaniewski, deputy director of the Homeland Security Policy Institute at George Washington University. Mr. Kaniewski said that in his experience, travelers should expect a range of issues, including, “fences, screening including metal detectors and rerouting transportation.” The possibility of such measures has given some Tampa businesses pause. Rhea F. Law, the chief executive and chairwoman at the law firm Fowler, White, Boggs, said she expected her office to start earlier, at 7:30 a.m., and close early while the convention was in town. Partners are being advised to work from home. The support staff will be paid their regular salary for shorter days. Others are taking a more active approach. Douglas Brewer, an executive vice president at In-Rel, a property management firm that has its headquarters in Lake Worth, Fla., and offices in Tampa, said his firm sent an e-mail advising tenants at the city’s Rivergate complex to stay away and work from home if possible. “I can see a half-hour commute turning into a two-hour commute,” he said. He anticipates having to juggle to arrange building deliveries and garbage removal, and expects cleaning to be suspended until the building returns to a normal schedule. In Charlotte, Michael Smith, the president and chief executive of the Charlotte Center City Partners, a nonprofit group that cultivates economic development in the central business district, where the convention will be held, is optimistic. He said he was encouraging the area’s 83,000 employees to come to work despite tight security and expected transportation disruptions. The light rail line that serves the area will skip at least two stops and pedestrian access to streets and businesses near the Bank of America Stadium will be limited. And Mr. Smith acknowledged that it would be difficult to find hotel rooms for anyone other than conventioneers. “There will be no room at the inn,” he said. Sid Smith, executive director of the Charlotte Area Hotel Association, said business travelers might need to find lodging in Raleigh, a two-and-a-half-hour drive away.

Business Travel
Republican National Convention
Democratic National Convention
Travel and Vacations
Airlines and Airplanes
Security and Warning Systems
Hurricanes and Tropical Storms


Lessons From an Insect’s Life Cycle: Extreme Sibling Rivalry

Abstract: To understand the rules that govern life, biologists often seek out the weird extremes. And when it comes to family life, it is hard to find a weirder example than that of a common wasp known as Copidosoma floridanum. “You couldn’t dream up a more surreal life cycle than these guys have,” said Mike Strand, a professor at the University of Georgia. Copidosoma floridanum, native throughout the United States, is a parasite. The female wasps lay one or two eggs inside the egg of the cabbage looper moth. As the host egg develops into a caterpillar, the wasp egg grows into a microscopic cluster of grapes. Each grapelike mass of cells develops into a wasp embryo. A single egg can give rise to more than 3,000 genetically identical siblings, each about a fifth of an inch long. “The caterpillar is about two to three inches long, so you can stuff a lot of wasps in there,” Dr. Strand said. Most of the larvae are maggotlike creatures that drink the caterpillar’s blood. But up to a quarter of the wasps take on an entirely different form. They develop slender, snakelike bodies and rasping jaws. Instead of slurping blood, these hundreds of soldiers attack other wasp larvae. “They just latch on and suck away,” Dr. Strand said. The blood-suckers that are not killed by the soldiers eventually begin to devour the organs of their host, become pupae, and then develop into adults that fly away. The soldiers, on the other hand, cannot escape. “It’s lights out for the soldiers when their siblings eat the caterpillar,” Dr. Strand said. Biologists have known about Copidosoma floridanum’s strange soldiers for more than a century, but they are enjoying a new surge of interest as a model that scientists can study to learn about the evolution of families. The forces driving this evolution can be particularly intense for the wasps, because thousands of them are struggling for food inside a single host. Biologists are trying to understand how the soldiers fit into that struggle. “The big debate about these soldiers is what they’re doing in their host,” said Andrew Gardner, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Edinburgh. Some of the evidence scientists have gathered suggests that soldiers exist to wipe out the competition. A cabbage looper often plays host to larvae from several wasp mothers. It may even carry larvae from other species of wasps. Soldiers kill off unrelated wasps, and thus allow their siblings to enjoy a bigger meal. The soldiers themselves cannot reproduce (they do not even have sex cells). Yet natural selection might favor genes for these dead-end creatures. By killing off competitors, they increase the odds that their genetically identical siblings will survive and have offspring. Dr. Strand and his colleagues have found that soldiers can tell the difference between their siblings and unrelated wasps — a crucial skill for killing off rivals. In another experiment , they injected unrelated Copidosoma wasp eggs into a cabbage looper that was already host to developed larvae. The intruders were almost always annihilated by the resident soldiers. On the other hand, Dr. Strand and co-workers have also documented that soldiers will even kill members of their own family. When Copidosoma mothers lay two eggs in a host, one egg produces thousands of males, and the other produces thousands of females. The female soldiers will kill off many of their brothers. Dr. Gardner and his colleagues recently built a mathematical model of Copidosoma floridanum’s soldiers and blood-feeders to understand how this kind of fratricide might have evolved. While the soldiers are genetically identical to the sisters, they share only some of their genes with the males, which come from a separate egg. That means that the soldiers get a bigger evolutionary benefit from the success of their sisters than from that of their brothers. A few males are more than enough to fertilize thousands of female wasps. Any more males inside a host are just competition for the sisters. “There’s a war between the two sexes,” Dr. Gardner said. “The female soldiers are eating the males so that the females can take more of the resources.” Dr. Gardner’s model predicts that if a sex-ratio conflict is driving the evolution of soldiers, female eggs should develop into more soldiers than male eggs do. And that does appear to be the case. In fact, male soldiers do not even attack other wasps. Dr. Gardner and Dr. Strand are now joining forces to study the wasps. They agree that the full story of the soldiers may actually combine their two explanations. “It’s got to be both,” Dr. Strand said. It turns out that soldiers come in two different forms. Soldiers that develop early tend to attack their own family. Late-developing soldiers are more likely to attack other species of wasps. Dr. Strand and Dr. Gardner plan to combine their experimental data and mathematical models to see if the soldiers benefit their siblings in two ways, rather than one. Scientists have estimated that several hundred other wasp species also produce soldiers, but they do not know how they are related. Their evolutionary tree may reveal whether soldiers began as brother-killers, or as a way to wipe out wasps beyond the family. “Did they start out one way, or did they start out the other way?” Dr. Strand asked. “We don’t have good answers yet.”

Insects
Wasps
Parasites
Biology and Biochemistry


U.S. Open 2015: Once Again, a Late Burst Propels a Spotlight Grabber

Abstract: Saturday’s matches at Arthur Ashe Stadium began around 11:10 a.m., about 10 hours after Rafael Nadal and Fabio Fognini departed it. The stadium had been meticulously cleaned and was mostly empty. There were no echoes of “Vamos!” or “Forza!” remaining from another memorable night session at the United States Open, when, for the first time in more than 10 years, Nadal lost a match after winning the first two sets. But it was fun to imagine which of the scuff marks on the Ashe court Saturday morning could be evidence of one of Fognini’s scorching forehands or footprints of a long rally from the 3-hour-46-minute slugfest that ended at 1:27 a.m. Still, it was a new day at the Open, a time for someone else to step into the spotlight. That someone was Donald Young. Before this tournament, Young, a former teenage prodigy who recently turned 26, was 0-17 in matches in which he lost the first two sets. Then in the first round he rallied from a two-sets-to-none deficit to defeat No. 11 Gilles Simon, a match he said he would not have won in his days as the great young hope of American tennis. The Top Tennis Player in the World Started Here Long before he found his way to the top of the sport, where did Novak Djokovic learn to swing a racket? We visit the childhood courts of some of the world’s tennis greats. On Saturday, in his third-round match against No. 22 Viktor Troicki, Young again lost the first two sets. He lost the second, 6-0, winning only 13 points, and needed medical treatment on his back when it was over. But he was not ready to concede. “I felt like I still had more to give,” Young said, adding: “I was going to give it. If that was enough, I would win.” In front of an overflow crowd at the Grandstand, Young absorbed the electricity from the fans and won, 4-6, 0-6, 7-6 (3), 6-2, 6-4. He closed it out with a forehand winner down the line that set off a robust celebration. “It was 90 percent you guys, 10 percent me,” Young told the fans in a postmatch interview. Young matched his best result in a Grand Slam event by reaching the round of 16. He will play No. 5 Stan Wawrinka, whom he beat in five sets the last time they played at the Open, in 2011. “More matches, more money — it’s a lot of things to fight for,” Young said. “I’ve kind of had a lot of times when I didn’t fight. I’ve done that. Why keep doing that? Do something else.” Young’s match was one of the last main-draw singles matches to be scheduled on the Grandstand, which is expected to be torn down and replaced by a new, bigger court next year. Image Petra Kvitova, the No. 5 seed in the women’s draw, had no trouble with Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. Credit Geoff Burke/USA Today Sports, via Reuters “Once the crowd gets going, you start playing better,” Young said. “It’s almost like the other guy’s playing two versus one. They jump on him, boo him if he’s taking an extra five seconds, lifting you up, getting a rub on the back. It’s an awesome feeling.” Victoria Azarenka felt the same way about the crowd in Ashe Stadium during her 7-5, 2-6, 6-4 victory over Angelique Kerber, a worthy successor to Fognini-Nadal, with its go-for-broke shot-making. “To see support for both players, really pushing us, motivating us to get even better at the matches is absolutely fantastic,” Azarenka said. She did plenty of self-motivating, consulting funny notes in her bag during changeovers to keep loose. But Azarenka said that as she worked her way back from injuries, what she missed most was the intensity of battle. For nearly three hours, No. 20 Azarenka and No. 11 Kerber traded winners and fist-pumping, arm-raising exhortations. Azarenka had 51 winners to Kerber’s 46. There were 52 rallies of nine shots or more, nearly evenly split, with Kerber taking 27 and Azarenka 25. There were eight games with 10 points or more. Kerber saved five match points in a 16-point game at 3-5 in the third set. “She was pushing me, I was pushing her,” Azarenka said. Azarenka will next play Varvara Lepchenko, a 29-year-old American, who advanced to the fourth round of the Open for the first time with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Mona Barthel. Lepchenko is the fourth American woman in the round of 16, and for a change they will be joined by two American men. John Isner is in the fourth round with Young, making it the first time since 2012 that two American men have advanced to the second week of the Open. Isner defeated Jiri Vesely, who retired after losing the first two sets, 6-3, 6-4. Vesely is the 16th retirement in singles, and the 14th on the men’s side. Like Young, Isner, the No. 13 seed, will be playing a Swiss star in the round of 16. He will face Roger Federer in their first match at the Open since 2007. “Absolutely no pressure on me that day, and I honestly probably didn’t believe I could beat him, either,” Isner said of that 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 third-round loss. “I was happy to be on that court. “I was fresh out of college, and no one knew anything about me. He certainly didn’t. I won one set, which was incredible.” Image Roger Federer, the men’s No. 2 seed, made short work of Philipp Kohlschreiber on Saturday in the third round. Credit Mike Segar/Reuters Federer, the No. 2 seed, enters the second week having not lost a set after topping No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. His week has been so relaxed that he is spending his off days as a tourist. He has gone to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has seen “Hamilton” and “Finding Neverland” on Broadway. Third-seeded Andy Murray won the final match of Saturday night, beating 30th-seeded Thomaz Bellucci, 6-3, 6-2, 7-5. Murray will face 15th-seeded Kevin Anderson in the fourth round, as Anderson beat 20th-seeded Dominic Thiem in straight sets. Fifth-seeded Petra Kvitova, who was found to have mononucleosis last month, had been spending most off days resting at her hotel and has also conserved energy on court, playing for a total of only 3 hours 15 minutes after dispatching Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, 6-2, 6-1. Kvitova said that she was avoiding the locker room as much as possible, which may be wise. Andrea Petkovic needed medical attention during her match against Johanna Konta for what she said was a cold that had hit many players. Konta, ranked 97th, followed her upset of No. 9 Garbiñe Muguruza by ousting the No. 18 Petkovic, 7-6 (2), 6-3. It was her 16th win in a row, and she is in the second week of a Grand Slam tournament for the first time. Konta, 24, is the second qualifier to reach the fourth round, after 152nd-ranked Anett Kontaveit, who will play Venus Williams on Sunday. Kontaveit is the lowest-ranked woman remaining in the tournament after No. 154 Shelby Rogers lost to second-seeded Simona Halep, 6-2, 6-3. NOTES Eugenie Bouchard, the No. 25 seed in women’s singles, withdrew from her doubles and mixed-doubles matches after sustaining a head injury when she fell in the locker room Friday night. No decision was made about her singles match against Roberta Vinci on Sunday.


Idaho: Abortion Ban Found Unconstitutional

Abstract: An Idaho law that prohibits abortions of fetuses 20 or more weeks after fertilization is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday. The ruling, from the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, in San Francisco, also struck down an Idaho law that required all second-trimester abortions to be performed in a hospital. Bans on abortion after 20 weeks have been passed in 12 states since 2010, according to Naral Pro-Choice America, an abortion rights advocacy group. The Idaho laws have not been enforced in the state, as a lower court judge had reached the same conclusion as the Ninth Circuit. A spokesman for the Idaho attorney general was not immediately available for comment.

Idaho
Abortion
United States courts of appeals
Naral Pro-Choice America
Decisions and Verdicts


Logging in Congo River Basin Imperils Sea Turtles Very Far Downstream

Abstract: The growth of logging in the rain forests of central Africa appears to be posing a long-distance threat to one of the world’s most important nesting grounds for several species of rare sea turtles — the coast of Gabon . Critically endangered leatherback turtles and turtles of other species have been found dead or unable to build viable nests amid mazes created by thousands of stray logs washed up on Gabon’s shore along the Gulf of Guinea, according to a new study published in the conservation journal Oryx. The study involved aerial surveys in two recent nesting seasons that counted 11,000 logs, worth an estimated $11 million as lumber, blocking the turtles’ access to long stretches of important nesting grounds. The stray logs come from logging operations along rivers that empty into the South Atlantic off the west coast of Africa. At Pongara Beach, a critical nesting area for leatherbacks, about a third of the beach was blocked by logs. The researchers estimated that 8 to 14 percent of all nesting attempts during a two-year monitoring period failed because of the barriers. The most frequent disruptions occurred when barriers forced females to dig their nests below the high-tide line, where saltwater would almost surely drown the eggs, or when they aborted the nesting attempt altogether, according to the researchers, who were led by William F. Laurance of the Smithsonian Institution and J. Michael Fay of the Wildlife Conservation Society. Slightly more than one in 100 females of the endangered species were dying in the tangle of timber, the scientists said. The threat from lost logs is likely to increase in the region as timber cutting intensifies in the Congo River Basin, Dr. Laurance said in a telephone interview. It is another in a long list of hazards posed to sea turtles by human activities, from long-line fishing to plastic trash, which turtles can accidentally eat. Marydele Donnelly, the director of international policy for the Caribbean Conservation Corporation, a private group not associated with the study, described reports of similar problems in northeastern South America and parts of Costa Rica, but said, “The extent of the problem in Gabon, however, is appalling.”

Africa
Gabon
Turtles and Tortoises
Endangered and Extinct Species
Logging Industry
Forests and Forestry


Art Larsen, Quirky Tennis Champion, Dies at 87

Abstract: Art Larsen, a national tennis champion whose career was marked by eccentricity and cut short by a motor scooter accident that nearly killed him, died on Dec. 7 in San Leandro, Calif. He was 87. His death was reported on the Web site of the International Tennis Hall of Fame & Museum. With a solid if not overly powerful left-handed serve, reliable groundstrokes, excellent foot speed and quick hands at the net, Larsen was the top-ranked player in the country in 1950, when he won the United States National Championship, the precursor to the United States Open , in Forest Hills, Queens, defeating Herbert Flam in a five-set final. In 1954 he lost to Tony Trabert in straight sets in the finals of the French Open . He also won U.S. Indoor, U.S. Hard Court and U.S. Clay Court titles. In 1955 he was ranked No. 3 in the country. More than for his victories, however, Larsen was known for his personality quirks. On side changes during a match, his routine included stepping on certain lines and avoiding others. He sometimes addressed an imaginary bird on his shoulder, and he was widely known as Tappy because of his superstitious habit, perhaps a compulsion, of tapping people and things a given number of times on given days. “Every day was a onesie day, or a fivesie day — that’s what he called them — and if he happened to run into you on, say, a threesie day, he’d tap you three times,” Dick Savitt , the 1951 Wimbledon champion, said in an interview this week. Savitt also recalled that Larsen was not an ascetic athlete. A smoker, a drinker and a partygoer, he earned his success in spite of his disdain for training. “That’s the understatement of a lifetime,” Savitt said. “I don’t think he knew what the word ‘training’ was, but he was in great shape. He was thin and he could play all day.” Savitt, who lost to Larsen in the semifinals of the 1950 United States championship and beat him at Wimbledon in 1951, had a long history of playing against him, beginning with the national collegiate tournament in 1947. “The first time I met him, he came on the court wearing long pants with his pockets bulging with cigarettes and keys and things,” Savitt said. “He thought he had a lucky eagle following him; he’d always be looking behind him to see if the eagle was there. One day at Wimbledon a bird flew on the court, and it stayed there for a while, and then it started to fly off, and in the middle of a point he threw his racket at the bird.” On Nov. 10, 1956, Larsen lost control of his Italian motor scooter on a Northern California highway, an accident that sent him into a coma for three weeks, eventually cost him the sight in his left eye and left him partially paralyzed. Two months later, in a much publicized event, Savitt and other tennis players, including Don Budge , held a benefit tennis match to raise money for Larsen’s medical bills. He never competed on the tennis court again. Larsen was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 1969. Arthur David Larsen was born in Hayward, Calif., on the east side of the San Francisco Bay, on April 17, 1925, and grew up in nearby San Leandro. According to San Leandro Bytes, a news Web site, he began playing tennis at age 11 and won a tournament at the Olympic Club in San Francisco when he was 14. After high school he fought in World War II, and the trauma of that experience is sometimes offered as an explanation for the tics and peculiarities he evinced afterward. After the war he played tennis for the University of San Francisco, which won the national championship in 1949. Survivors include his companion, Aline Mestas, and a sister, Joyce A. Stengel. “He was a very amusing sort of guy,” Gardnar Mulloy , Larsen’s former doubles partner, recalled this week. “It was easy to play jokes on him because he’d believe everything. Just point out some beautiful woman and say she said she’s frantically in love with him: ‘Just go up to her and ask her if she wants to make out.’ A couple of times he got slapped.”

Tennis
Larsen Art
United States Open (Tennis)
Deaths (Obituaries)


New Internet Law Gets Hostile Reception in Philippines

Abstract: MANILA — A new Internet law that took effect in the Philippines on Wednesday could lead to imprisonment for common activities like sharing Facebook and Twitter posts, critics say. The new law, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012, which was signed by President Benigno S. Aquino III on Sept. 12, sets penalties for several computer-related crimes, including child pornography , identity theft, online fraud and illegally accessing computer networks. But critics are concerned about the law’s provisions related to libel, which in the Philippines is a criminal offense that can result in imprisonment. Harry S. Roque, president of Media Defense South East Asia , an advocacy organization, said the law applied the existing legal definition of libel to the online activities of individuals, meaning that if a comment on Facebook or Twitter were deemed libelous, the writer of the item and those who shared it could be prosecuted. “It exposes Internet users to prosecution,” said Mr. Roque, a law professor at the University of the Philippines. “You can be sued. You can be forced to post a bond. You will need to get a lawyer. You can imagine the mayhem this can cause. “The Philippines has been a leader in Internet freedom,” Mr. Roque continued. “This law makes the Philippines at par with other oppressive regimes in Southeast Asia that imprison and intimidate bloggers.” There has been considerable public outcry against the law in the weeks leading up to its implementation. Hackers have attacked the Web sites of the president, both houses of Congress and a variety of government agencies. On Wednesday, some Facebook users replaced their profile pictures with black silhouettes and bloggers created blank posts to protest the law, while others took to the streets, staging a demonstration in front of the Supreme Court. Some government offices have also struggled with the new law. “Foul words against our police officers can be used as evidence now to file a case against you in a court of law,” a post by the Philippine National Police on its official Facebook page read Monday, in response to a negative comment by a visitor to the site. Police officials later apologized and removed the post. Philippine senators who voted for the law, many of whom are up for re-election next year, have been scrambling to address critics’ concerns. Some senators have had to admit that they did not actually read the law before voting for its passage. Senator Francis G. Escudero acknowledged on Tuesday on his Web site that he had not read the provision of the law dealing with online libel, but said he had introduced a bill to decriminalize libel. Senator Edgardo J. Angara, who voted for the new law, said Wednesday that he supported amending the legislation. “Not all the laws that we pass are perfect,” Mr. Angara told reporters. “At least in this case we are responsive.” A spokesman for Mr. Aquino sought Wednesday to calm public fears after the barrage of protests and an announcement by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima that her department would be hiring 150 investigators to enforce the new law. “Our Constitution is clear and uncompromising in the civil liberties it guarantees all our people,” said the spokesman, Edwin Lacierda. “As the basic law, its guarantees cannot, and will not, be diminished or reduced by any law passed by Congress.” At least nine petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent the prosecution of anyone under the law. The court has said it will rule on the matter next week. In a study released before the law was passed, the American group Freedom House ranked the Philippines sixth in the world in terms of Internet freedom.

Philippines
Twitter
Law and Legislation
Computers and the Internet
Computer Security
Social Networking (Internet)
Facebook Inc


Bristol-Myers to Eliminate 4,800 Jobs

Abstract: Bristol-Myers Squibb said yesterday that it would cut approximately 10 percent of its work force of 43,000 employees, continuing a year of pharmaceutical industry layoffs as drug makers adapt to a more competitive environment. Besides layoffs, the company said it would sell or close half its 27 manufacturing plants worldwide, farm out some manufacturing and winnow its portfolio of more than 500 products by about 60 percent. That will be accomplished both by selling mature products and eliminating product lines. Generic competition, a dearth of new drugs and a more safety-conscious posture by the Food and Drug Administration are among factors that have led to the announcements of at least 35,000 industry layoffs during the last year, industry analysts said. The chief executive of Bristol-Myers, James M. Cornelius, delivered the layoff news to investment analysts yesterday at a conference in Manhattan. He said that while it was difficult to cut employees, his company was late in doing so. “I’ve counted: since 2000, there have been 100,000 job eliminations in what we think of as big pharma,” Mr. Cornelius said during a break in the conference. “We’re about the only company that has had the same head count.” Mr. Cornelius took over on an interim basis in September 2006 after the company’s board sought the resignation of his predecessor, Peter R. Dolan. More recently, Mr. Cornelius agreed to remain as chief executive until May 2009. Of more than 43,000 people employed by Bristol-Myers, 1,300 were notified of their layoffs last week and an additional 3,500 will be let go in 2008. The cuts will be part of an overhaul that the company says will reduce annual expenses by $1.5 billion by 2010 and help it adjust to a business model that emphasizes specialty biotechnology products rather than big-market pharmaceuticals. The company declined to say exactly where the layoffs had occurred, other than an unspecified number at a biotechnology plant in East Syracuse, N.Y. Many of the 1,300 jobs already eliminated are in administrative positions like human resources, information technology and finance, the company said. Bristol-Myers had already announced that it would close manufacturing and packaging plants in Colón, Panama; Mayaguez, P.R.; and Barcelona, Spain. The company is facing the same problem as many other drug makers: the looming loss of patent protection for an important drug. In Bristol-Myers’s case, that is the blood-thinning agent Plavix. A generic equivalent will be available beginning in 2011, when the company hits what it is calling the generic cliff. Plavix generates about $3 billion in annual sales for Bristol-Myers Squibb. Industrywide, drugs with combined annual sales estimated at $60 billion will lose patent protection in the next five years. That reality is frequently cited for layoffs at drug companies, including Pfizer, the world’s biggest drug maker, which has announced job cuts of about 10,000 in the past year, or about 10 percent of its work force. Johnson & Johnson said this year that it would cut 4,800 position, or about 4 percent of its employees. Merck announced a global revamping in November 2005 that included an overall work force reduction of about 10 percent. There have already been 6,000 jobs cut, and the company is expected to lay off 1,000 more workers by the end of next year. James Kumpel, an analyst for the investment house Friedman, Billings, Ramsey, said that part of the problem facing drug makers was an increasingly cautious F.D.A. This year through October, the agency approved only 14 new molecular entities — drugs that are entirely new compounds rather than changes in formulations. That is a decline of about 18 percent from the comparable period in 2006, and it is well below recent norms, according to Mr. Kumpel’s analysis. Mr. Kumpel said the trend appeared to reflect the lowest rate of F.D.A. approvals since 1994. “If the F.D.A. is not allowing drugs to get to the market, or is just holding them to much tougher standards than before, drug makers face the prospect of a lot of new drugs going off patent and no new blockbusters to take their place,” Mr. Kumpel said. Despite the higher regulatory hurdle, Bristol-Myers appears poised to move away from its nonpharmaceutical health care businesses to focus even more narrowly on drugs. Mr. Cornelius, in a presentation, said Bristol-Myers would sell its medical imaging division, which is based in North Billerica, Mass. The unit employs about 800 people, 400 of them in North Billerica. The company might also sell its baby formula business, Mead Johnson Nutritionals, based in Evansville, Ind., and its ConvaTec products business, based in Skillman, N.J. ConvaTec specializes in products for wound care and ostomies — surgical openings in the abdomen to eliminate bodily wastes. Analysts have said Mead Johnson and ConvaTec together might bring in about $13 billion if sold. After its overhaul, Bristol-Myers, which has been based in Manhattan since the 1940s, is expected to maintain a mere toehold in the city. A spokesman said the company was expected to vacate all but one floor of its headquarters at 345 Park Avenue, where it occupied 550,000 square feet as recently as 10 years ago. Bristol-Myers has announced plans to streamline operations before. Its past efforts, however, have not been seen as having much effect on expenses. “Bristol has really been unable to cut costs on an absolute basis,” Jon LeCroy, a pharmaceutical analyst for Natixis Bleichroeder, said in a telephone interview. The company also announced that it was increasing its quarterly dividend for the first time since 2002, to 31 cents a share from the current 28 cents. The stock, which has ranged from about $25 to $32 in the last year, closed yesterday at $29.26, up 20 cents.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Co
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)


Making an Android Tablet Easier to Read

Abstract: Q. The seven-inch Nexus tablet itself is just big enough, but I find the type too small. Is it possible to increase the size of the text on the screen? A. You should have your choice of a few preset text sizes on the Nexus 7. On a tablet running Android 4.4 (the KitKat version of the operating system), open the Settings icon from the Apps screen. As an alternative, you can swipe down from the top right corner of the screen to open the Quick Settings box and then tap the Settings icon. On the Settings screen, in the Device area, tap Display. In the list of Display settings, tap Font Size. Here, you can move from the default Normal and switch to Large or even Huge to increase the screen text size for apps and menus on the tablet. For those who find the normal text size too big, the Font Size options also include a Small option. Changing a Wi-Fi Network’s Name Q. How do I change the default name of my home wireless network from my Mac? The network is running from an Apple AirPort Extreme. A. Changing the wireless network’s name to something less generic is a good idea for general security and can be done by logging into the router. As with all of Apple’s AirPort base stations , you can get into the settings through the AirPort Utility program. If you set up the network yourself, you should already have a copy of the software in your Applications or Programs folder; OS X usually deposits the AirPort Utility inside the Utilities folder that is within the Mac’s Applications folder. The AirPort Utility software for Mac and Windows can also be downloaded from Apple’s support site. (An app version for iOS devices is also available.) On the Mac, open the AirPort Utility program. In the window that appears, click the icon for your AirPort Extreme router and then click the Edit button in the box that pops up. Type in the password you picked when you first set up the base station to get into the settings. Click the Wireless tab at the top of the settings window, and in the Wireless Network Name box, type in a new name for your network. In this same settings area, you also have the option to change the password needed to use the network. Click the Update button when finished. If you have forgotten the password for the base station, you can perform a soft reset to temporarily disable the security so you can pick a new password. Apple’s site has instructions for resetting its AirPort hardware , as well as recommended settings for Wi-Fi network names and other AirPort security options.

Wireless
Apple
Tablet computer
Typography


2 Plead Guilty as Kingpins in Drug Gang

Abstract: Days before the start of a trial that had been expected to last three months, eight members of a large PCP drug ring that operated in Harlem pleaded guilty on Thursday evening to charges that will send some of them to prison for decades. In January, the authorities arrested 35 members of the ring at the Milbank-Frawley public housing complex, where it was based. About $4.8 million worth of the drug, commonly known as angel dust, was confiscated. The ring used an 8-year-old boy as a lookout. One of the gang’s customers burned herself to death in an apartment hallway while getting high. The case was a result of a long-term joint investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office and the Police Department. The two men who prosecutors described as the ringleaders — Bernard Moultrie, 40, and Lamont Moultrie, 42, brothers — pleaded guilty under New York State’s drug-kingpin law, which requires lengthy sentences, and to a manslaughter count in the killing of a rival drug dealer. Each brother is expected to receive a sentence of more than 30 years. All but one of those arrested have pleaded guilty in recent weeks. Because of the anticipated length of the trial of the Moultries and six other defendants, 4,000 potential jurors had been scheduled to arrive at State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Monday. Residents of the housing project, at 117th Street and Madison Avenue, had avoided its enclosed courtyard because it was serving as a drug market. They have since cleaned up the courtyard, and held a party there over the summer. “What happens after the takedown is more important than the takedown itself,” said Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the Manhattan district attorney. “A neighborhood that was captive is now back.”

Drug Abuse and Traffic
Decisions and Verdicts
Murders and Attempted Murders
Manhattan (NYC)
New York City
Harlem (NYC)


Press Conference Transcribers Have Unique Vantage of French Open

Abstract: PARIS — Linda Christensen and Julie C. Rabe spend their year around professional athletes, mostly tennis players; travel the world from tournament to tournament; adjust to the players’ personalities and tics, their speed and pace. They care little, though, about Rafael Nadal’s forehand, or whether he will win his seventh French Open championship Sunday. They care far more about the cadence, speed and delivery of his speech, the way “matches” sounds like “match-cheese” and “limiting” comes out “lim-might-ing.” Christensen and Rabe prefer to be called stenographers, or transcribers, although they have come to expect the inevitable pun. In their business, though, court reporters actually work in courtrooms. Christensen and Rabe just happen to work near tennis courts, not legal ones. They, too, have seen the stereotypical stenographer on courtroom dramas, usually an older woman typing incredibly slowly, her hair tied tightly in a bun. Their jobs are nothing like that, except for the whole typing part. “I teach students that while husbands and boyfriends may come and go, but this machine will be in your life forever,” Christensen said, as she gestured at her machine, the one with 23 condensed keys that resembled a mini-organ. Both work for ASAP , a transcription service whose motto is “When all is said we’re done.” They transcribe all postmatch news conferences, usually from the English translation, word for word, every “um,” every “like,” every swear word from Marat Safin. In five years together, this transcription twosome has become part of the men’s and women’s professional tennis tours, a patch in the quilt, part of the periphery, like umpires or ballboys or publicists. They know that players from Spain and Argentina are more likely to be late and Nadal will apologize for his tardiness. They know Ana Ivanovic will speak as if paid for each word uttered, at 330 words each minute, according to their records. They know that some players, like Li Na, will react glumly after losses. They know, in fact, whether their job is likely to be easy or difficult, depending on which player comes inside the interview room and how that player did. “Andy Roddick?” said Christensen, who is from Phoenix. “Oh my goodness gracious. Wow. He can be quick.” For transcription, though, speed matters far less than cadence. That is why they like the Serbians, who speak in mostly perfect rhythm. That is why the Russians, with their machine gun-like staccato, are more difficult to follow. Even the Americans can be tough, because they generally speak quickly and with many “ums” and “likes.” “James Blake says, ‘I know the stenographers hate me,’ ” Rabe said. “And we don’t disabuse him of that notion. He’s very difficult.” Christensen added: “We just nod and say, ‘You’re right.’ I’m sure he’s a very nice man.” Then there are the Scottish players, difficult even for professionals who transcribe between 260 and 300 words per minute. “They say they speak English,” Christensen said. For the most part, these tennis typists love their jobs. Both are language buffs, the kind of people who police social media to clear up confusion over “your” and “you’re.” Rabe freely admitted she would call her children’s school if she spotted an incorrect sign. (Sample: “Every day is not one word!”) While many similarly minded people end up in legal transcription, where perhaps two students in every beginning class of 25 will stick with it, few work in sports. The number of people who perform jobs similar to Christensen and Rabe is believed to be fewer than 50, closer to 35. They must book their own travel, get from tournament to tournament, understand players who speak in different accents, at different speeds, and talk their way into arenas in different languages to pick up credentials. “This job is a sprint,” said Rabe, who is from Vancouver, Wash. “In court, you can stop people, slow people down. Here you just hang on for dear life.” For the tournaments they work alone, they expect to provide a full transcript in the same amount of time or less than the interview itself. Rarely does it take more than 15 minutes. Except for when they must look up obscure references, like a tournament played in some Latvian village at age 12. The actual typing is done in phonetic combinations. Instead of m-u-c-h, they tap “m”, “uh,” and “ch” in a single stroke, like a note on the piano that requires more than one key. They also have shorthand for words certain to be used often — backhand, rhythm, crosscourt, atmosphere, Roland Garros — a “one-stroker” in stenographers’ parlance. Reporters seem to find the transcripts handy, the quotations available, quickly, while on deadline. The players seem pleased that there is an accurate record of what they said. Sometimes, for repeat questions, they will instruct reporters to “check the transcript.” Others times, Christensen added, “they’ll lean over and say, ‘Don’t type that.’ ” Theirs is an unusual vantage point. Nadal sliding from his chair at the United States Open last year with a cramp, only a few feet away. Or when Lleyton Hewitt did one Australian Open interview at 5:30 a.m. Or when Roger Federer talked about breast feeding. Should a particular transcription go well, or poorly, they take the same view as the players: there will be more “match-cheese” tomorrow.

Tennis
French Open (Tennis)
Secretaries Stenographers and Typists
Christensen Linda
Rabe Julie C