Obama, in Speech on Spill, Calls on Americans to Reduce Oil Dependence

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama summoned Americans on Tuesday to a “national mission” to move away from reliance on oil and develop alternative sources of energy, casting the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico as an imperative for Congress to act quickly to overcome “a lack of political courage and candor.” Speaking to a national television audience for the first time from the Oval Office , Mr. Obama also promised a long-term plan to make sure that the gulf states suffering from the oil spill are made whole again. He said he was appointing Ray Mabus , the secretary of the Navy and the former governor of Mississippi , to develop a Gulf Coast restoration plan in cooperation with states, local communities, tribes, fishermen, conservationists and gulf residents. Even as Mr. Obama was preparing his speech, the government on Tuesday released a new estimate of the amount of oil flowing from the well. It said as much as 60,000 barrels could be spewing into the Gulf of Mexico each day, a sharp increase over the estimate last week of 25,000 to 30,000 barrels a day. The new estimate, reflecting the increased oil flow that began after a pipe was deliberately cut to help capture some of the oil coming from the well, continues a pattern in which every new estimate has been sharply higher than the one before. With the broken well’s owner, BP , capturing roughly 15,000 barrels a day, the new estimate suggests that as much as 45,000 barrels a day is escaping into the gulf, punctuating the scale of the substantive and political problems facing Mr. Obama. “Today, as we look to the gulf, we see an entire way of life being threatened by a menacing cloud of black crude,” Mr. Obama said. “We cannot consign our children to this future. The tragedy unfolding on our coast is the most painful and powerful reminder yet that the time to embrace a clean energy future is now.” Mr. Obama’s 18-minute address, delivered at his desk, took place in an atmosphere far different from the crowded campaign rallies and international university halls where he has produced some of his most soaring speeches. This time, Mr. Obama, wearing a dark blue suit and light blue tie, struck a solemn but hopeful tone, invoked military terminology to create a sense of urgency around his response to the crisis, and spoke of the American ingenuity he said was needed to help the country rein in its reliance on oil. He said he had authorized the use of 17,000 National Guard members to help with the cleanup effort, but only a small number have actually been dispatched by the governors in the region even though Mr. Obama has said that BP will pick up the cost. He also continued to strike an adversarial tone toward BP. “We will fight this spill with everything we’ve got for as long as it takes,” he said. “We will make BP pay for the damage their company has caused. And we will do whatever is necessary to help the Gulf Coast and its people recover from this tragedy.” Seizing on the widening calamity in the Gulf of Mexico to push for legislation he has advocated since his campaign, Mr. Obama said he was willing to look at approaches from Republicans as well as Democrats, including raising efficiency standards for buildings as well as cars and trucks. He said progress had been blocked time and time again by “oil industry lobbyists,” and he suggested that achieving energy independence was an issue of national security, saying the time has come for the United States to “seize control of our own destiny.” But, he warned: “The one approach I will not accept is inaction. The one answer I will not settle for is the idea that this challenge is too big and too difficult to meet.” Mr. Obama delivered the speech the evening before he was to meet at the White House with the top executives of BP to demand that they agree to establish an independently administered escrow account of billions of dollars to pay claims stemming from the disaster. He said he would inform the chairman of BP’s board, Carl-Henric Svanberg , “that he is to set aside whatever resources are required to compensate the workers and business owners who have been harmed as a result of his company’s recklessness.” Lawyers at the White House and for BP have been negotiating for days about an escrow account. While Mr. Obama has not put a figure on the account, Senate Democrats have called for $20 billion. BP released a statement after Mr. Obama’s address. “We share the president’s goal of shutting off the well as quickly as possible, cleaning up the oil and mitigating the impact on the people and environment of the Gulf Coast,” the company said from London . “We look forward to meeting with President Obama tomorrow for a constructive discussion about how best to achieve these mutual goals.” Mr. Obama also moved to address one of the weaknesses exposed by the spill, lax oversight from the agency with the most direct authority to regulate offshore drilling , the Interior Department ’s Minerals Management Service . He said he had named Michael R. Bromwich, a former Justice Department prosecutor and inspector general, to restructure the agency to make it a tougher regulator. Administration officials said the speech marked “an inflection point” in the nearly two-month-old crisis: the end of a phase in which BP tried and failed to stop the leak using the quickest available options, and the beginning of the “new reality” that plugging the leak could take months and the cleanup months or even years past that. The new estimate for the amount of oil spewing from the well is far above the figure of 5,000 barrels a day that the government and BP clung to for weeks after the spill began. It reflects a possible increase in the flow rate that occurred after BP cut an underwater pipe called a riser on June 3 to install a new device to capture part of the oil. It is based on new information, including high-resolution video made after the riser cut, and on pressure readings taken by a device that was inserted this week into the equipment at the sea floor. Energy Secretary Steven Chu , a Nobel Prize -winning scientist, was personally involved in using those pressure readings to help make the latest calculation. “This estimate brings together several scientific methodologies and the latest information from the sea floor, and represents a significant step forward in our effort to put a number on the oil that is escaping from BP’s well,” Secretary Chu said in a statement. “As we continue to collect additional data and refine these estimates, it is important to realize that the numbers can change.” The company has proven in recent days that it can capture roughly 15,000 barrels of oil a day, though the operation was interrupted briefly on Tuesday by a small fire after the Discoverer Enterprise drilling ship was apparently struck by lightning. BP has outlined plans to deploy new equipment so that it can capture a minimum of 40,000 barrels a day by the end of June, and a minimum of 60,000 barrels a day by mid-July. If the new range of flow estimates proves correct, and if BP is ultimately found guilty of gross negligence in actions it took that led to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, that would mean the company could be assessed fines of up to $258 million a day. Those fines could come on top of payments for cleanup costs and economic damage to Gulf Coast businesses. Fearful that the spill could ultimately cost BP tens of billions of dollars, investors have driven the company’s market valuation down by 48 percent since the spill began, erasing $91 billion of shareholder value. BP shares rose more than 2 percent during regular trading on Tuesday, but then gave up all that gain and more in after-hours trading. Mr. Obama has said all along that BP will pay for everything. People close to BP said that as asset-rich as the global oil giant is, its holdings are not so liquid that it can instantly set aside as many billions of dollars as the White House and leaders in Congress are seeking. Also being worked out are the terms by which BP would have to replenish the fund as it is drawn down. BP officials are adamant that the company should not be liable for the lost wages of oil workers laid off because of the six-month moratorium that the Obama administration imposed on deepwater offshore drilling after the Deepwater Horizon explosion and fire. But Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and other administration officials repeatedly have cited idled oil workers as among those who could press claims.

Speeches
Gulf of Mexico
BP
Offshore drilling
Minerals Management Service
Barack Obama
Oil and Gasoline
Accidents and Safety
Renewable energy


Senators Stay Alive With a Third-Period Goal

Abstract: Mika Zibanejad gave Mike Hoffman the opening he needed to help keep the Ottawa Senators alive. With Zibanejad screening Montreal goalie Carey Price, Hoffman scored midway through the third period and the host Senators beat the Canadiens, 1-0, on Wednesday night. “More times than not if he sees the puck, he’s probably going to save it,” Hoffman said of Price. “Mika did a great screen for me there, and if he wasn’t there it would probably not go in.” Craig Anderson made 28 saves to help the Senators cut Montreal’s lead to 3-1 in the Eastern Conference first-round series. Game 5 is Friday night in Montreal. “We weren’t going to win four games here tonight,” Hoffman said. “It’s one. We’re moving on to the next one now.” Senators Coach Dave Cameron moved Hoffman from the fourth line to the second unit with Zibanejad and Bobby Ryan during the first period. It paid off in the third when Cody Ceci kept Tom Gilbert’s clearing attempt in at the point and fed Hoffman in the left circle for a quick shot that beat Price at 9 minutes, 5 seconds. “It was a big hockey game,” Montreal Coach Michel Therrien said. “It was very close. The two teams played very hard. They got the last word tonight, but we have no reason to be embarrassed about our performance. I think we worked very hard as well.” For the fourth straight game, the Senators scored first, but this time the Canadiens did not answer. An anemic power play that has gone 1 for 16 in the series has not helped their cause. “They came out with that urgency tonight,” Canadiens forward Max Pacioretty said. “They were the better team in the third period tonight and you have to give them credit.” Price stopped 31 shots for the Canadiens. RANGERS 2, PENGUINS 1 Kevin Hayes scored at 3 minutes 14 seconds of overtime to give the Rangers a victory in Pittsburgh in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference first-round series. The Rangers lead the series, 3-1, heading back to Madison Squre Garden for Game 5 on Friday night. In overtime, Martin St. Louis started a goal-mouth scramble when he threw the puck in front on a wraparound attempt. The puck pinballed to Carl Hagelin and went across the crease for Hayes to flip it past the fallen goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. The point was Hayes’s first in the postseason. The Rangers’ Derick Brassard tied the score at 1-1 with 2:45 left in the second period with his third goal of the series. Patric Hornqvist opened the scoring at 2:22 of the first period. Fleury and the Rangers’ Henrik Lundqvist each made 22 saves. The Penguins are a loss away from elimination after dropping consecutive home playoff games to the Rangers, the N.H.L.’s best regular-season road team. The Rangers have won 12 of their last 13 on the road, allowing 15 goals. Nine of the last 11 playoff games between the teams have been decided by two or fewer goals, including four one-goal games in this series. Hornqvist nearly ended it in the final minute of regulation, but Lundqvist denied him with a sliding save and Dan Girardi swept the rebound away from a gaping net. DUCKS 5, JETS 2 Ryan Kesler scored twice in the third period on Wednesday, and the Ducks won at Winnipeg to sweep the Western Conference first-round series. Andrew Cogliano, Emerson Etem and Sami Vatanen also scored, and Frederik Andersen made 25 saves for Anaheim. The Ducks are the first team to advance to the second round. Anaheim will face Calgary or Vancouver in the second round. Calgary leads that series, 3-1. BLUES 6, WILD 1 Vladimir Tarasenko scored twice, and the revived Blues sent Wild goalie Devan Dubnyk to an early exit and thoroughly dominated Minnesota to even the Western Conference quarterfinal series, 2-2, in St. Paul. Game 5 is Friday night in St. Louis.

Ottawa Senators
Playoffs
Ice hockey
Montreal Canadiens


In Mumbai Case, a Group of Assault Suspects Had Little Fear of the Law

Abstract: MUMBAI, India — At 5:30 p.m. on that Thursday, four young men were playing cards, as usual, when Mohammed Kasim Sheikh’s cellphone rang and he announced that it was time to go hunting. Prey had been spotted, he told a friend. When the host asked what they were going to hunt, he said, “A beautiful deer.” As two men rushed out, the host smirked, figuring they did not like losing at cards. Two hours later, a 22-year-old photojournalist limped out of a ruined building. She had been raped repeatedly by five men, asked by one to re-enact pornographic acts displayed on a cellphone. After she left, the men dispersed to their wives or mothers, if they had them; it was dinnertime. None of their previous victims had gone to the police. Why should this one? The trial in the Mumbai gang-rape case has opened to a drowsy and ill-attended courtroom, without the crush of reporters who documented every twist in a similar case in New Delhi in which a woman died after being gang-raped on a private bus. The accused, barefoot, sit on a bench at the back of the courtroom, observing the arguments with blank expressions, as if they were being conducted in Mandarin. All have pleaded not guilty. They are slight men with ordinary faces, nothing imposing, the kind one might see at any bus stop or tea stall. But the Mumbai case provides an unusual glimpse into a group of bored young men who had committed the same crime often enough to develop a routine. The police say the men had committed at least five rapes in the same spot. Their casual confidence reinforces the notion that rape has been a largely invisible crime here, where convictions are infrequent and victims silently go away. Not until their arrest, at a moment when sexual violence has grabbed headlines and risen to the top of the state’s agenda, did the seriousness of the crime sink in. An editor at the photographer’s publication, who was present when a witness identified the first of the five suspects, a juvenile, said the teenager dissolved in tears as soon as he was accused. “It was exactly like watching a kid in school who has been caught doing something,” said the editor, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the identity of the victim, who cannot be identified according to Indian law. “It’s like a bunch of kids who found a dog and tied a bunch of firecrackers to its tail, just to see what would happen. Only in this case it was far more egregious. It was malevolent, what happened.” In spots Mumbai is an anarchic jumble, its high-rise buildings flanked by vest-pocket slums and vacant properties that have reverted to near-wilderness. One such place is the Shakti Mills, a ruin from the prosperous days of Mumbai’s textile industry. When night falls, it is a treacherous span of darkness lined with sinkholes and debris, but still in the middle of the city, still close enough to look up and watch the lights flicker on in the Shangri-La Hotel. Image Suspects in the rape of a photojournalist in Mumbai. The photographer and her colleague, a 21-year-old man, were interns at an English-language publication and had decided to include this spot — the backdrop for any number of fashion shoots — as part of a photo essay on the city’s abandoned buildings, the editor said. On that Thursday last August, they reached the ruined mill about an hour before sunset. The five men they encountered there later came from slums near the mill complex, claustrophobic concrete warrens where electrical wires tangle at one’s head and acrid water flows in open gutters around one’s feet. None of the men worked regularly. There were jobs chicken-plucking at a neighborhood stand — a hot, stinking eight-hour shift that paid 250 rupees, or $4. The men told their families they wanted something better, something indoors, but that thing never seemed to come. They passed time playing cards and drinking. Luxury was pressed in their faces in the sinuous form of the Lodha Bellissimo , a 48-story apartment building rising from an adjacent lot. “Every boy in this neighborhood, including myself, would look at those buildings and say, ‘One day, I will own a flat in that building,’ ” said Yasin Sheikh, 22, who knew two of the accused men from the neighborhood. Because of his work helping find slum locations for film crews, he sometimes has a chance to interact with wealthy people, he said, and it fills him with yearning. “I feel really sad around them, because I want to sit at the table with them,” he said. Only Kasim Sheikh, 20, the card player who took the call, seemed to have shaken off the drag of poverty. A plump man in a neighborhood of the half-starved, he wore flashy shirts and hooked up his friends with catering jobs at weddings. He had been convicted of theft — iron, steel and other scrap from a railroad site — and occasionally provided information to the police, according to Mumbai’s joint police commissioner, Himanshu Roy. Some people steered clear of Mr. Sheikh. The grandmother of one of the accused men, a 16-year-old whose name is being withheld because of his age, had forbidden Mr. Sheikh to cross their threshold. But her grandson craved nice things; that was his weakness, his grandmother said. Mr. Sheikh “wore good clothes, he had a nice mobile, obviously he would, because he was a thief,” said Yasin Sheikh, the neighbor. When another of their friends, a 27-year-old father of two named Salim Ansari, spotted the interns in the mill that day, the first thing he did was call Kasim Sheikh to tell him that their prey had arrived. Image The Shakti Mills, a ruin from the days of Mumbai’s textile industry, where a photojournalist was raped by five men. Credit Sami Siva for The New York Times Nothing to Lose During the year since the Delhi gang rape, sexual violence has been discussed endlessly in India, but there are few clear answers to the questions of how much is it happening or why. One problem is that perpetrators may not view their actions as a grave crime, but something closer to mischief. A survey of more than 10,000 men carried out in six Asian countries — India not among them — and published in The Lancet Global Health journal in September came up with startling data. It found that, when the word “rape” was not used as part of a questionnaire, more than one in 10 men in the region admitted to forcing sex on a woman who was not their partner. Asked why, 73 percent said the reason was “entitlement.” Fifty-nine percent said their motivation was “entertainment seeking,” agreeing with the statements “I wanted to have fun” or “I was bored.” Flavia Agnes, a Mumbai women’s rights lawyer who has been working on rape cases since the 1970s, said the findings rang true to her experience. “It’s just frivolous; they just do it casually,” she said. “There is so much abject poverty. They just want to have a little fun on the side. That’s it. See, they have nothing to lose.” The photographer and her colleague reached the mill but, visually, it was not what they wanted. That is when two men approached them, the victim told the police later, offering to show them a route farther in. There the images were better, and the two had been working for half an hour when the two men returned. ‘The Prey Is Here’ This time they came back with a third, Mr. Sheikh, who told them something odd — “Our boss has seen you, and you have to come with us now” — and insisted they take a path deeper into the complex. As they walked, she called an editor, who said to leave immediately, but it was too late for that. “Come inside, the prey is here,” Mr. Sheikh called out, and two more men joined them. The men said that the woman’s colleague was a murder suspect, asked the pair to remove their belts and used them to tie the man up. After that, the woman told the police, “the third person and a person who had a mustache took me to a place that was like a broken room.” Image The grandmother of one of the accused, a 16-year-old. Credit Sami Siva for The New York Times The men had done the same thing a month before, said Mr. Roy, the police commissioner, taking turns raping an 18-year-old call-center worker who, accompanied by her boyfriend, had sprained her ankle and was trying to take a shortcut through the mill. They had done the same thing with a woman who worked as a scavenger in a garbage dump, and a sex worker, and a transvestite, Mr. Roy said. Mr. Sheikh took the broken neck of a beer bottle out of his shirt pocket and thrust it at the young woman, telling her: “You don’t know what a bastard I am. You’re not the first girl I’ve raped,” she told the police later, according to the charge sheet filed in the case. On the other side of the wall, her friend heard the woman cry out. “An inquiry is going on,” the man guarding him said. They went in to her and returned, one by one. “Did you inquire properly?” Mr. Sheikh said to one as he came out. “No, she’s not talking,” he replied. So Mr. Sheikh said he would “go inquire again,” and the rest of them laughed. At last they brought her out, weeping, and told the two to leave along the railroad tracks. Before releasing her, they threatened to upload video of the attack onto the Internet if she reported the crime, a strategy that had worked with previous victims. But this one did not hesitate. The two caught a cab to the nearest hospital. There they reported the crime, and the woman’s mother arrived. “I went inside. I saw her there crying,” her mother told the police later. “She told me in English, ‘Mummy, I’m vanished.’ ” The woman did not respond to a request for an interview. Mr. Sheikh, too, saw his mother for a few moments that night. He discussed the rape with her, she said, and tried to explain why it had happened. Image Chandbibi Sheikh, the mother of another suspect, who told her about the rape after it happened. Credit Sami Siva for The New York Times “I asked Kasim, ‘Son, why did you do this to her? If it happened to your sister, would you come here and tell me or would you beat him?’ ” said his mother, Chandbibi Sheikh. He told her that his friends had come upon the couple embracing in the mill, and “they thought: ‘What is she doing with this boy here? She must be loose.’ ” She related this exchange from the family’s home, a sort of shelf wedged between a gas station and a garbage dump; as she spoke, a rat the size of a kitten clambered over containers stacked in a corner. She said far too much onus was being put on the men. “Obviously, the fault is the girl’s,” she said. “Why did she have to go to that jungle? It’s her fault, too. Also, she was wearing skimpy clothes.” She did not deny that he had done it. “He must have,” she said. “He told me that they tied up the boy who was doing bad things to her and said, ‘Madam, let us also do it.’ The madam said, ‘Don’t do it to me, take my mobile, take my camera, but don’t do it to me.’ Her body was uncovered. How could he control himself? And so it happened.” High-Level Response Though the men in the mill may not have known it, rape had become a matter of great public import in India, a gauge of a city’s identity. Mumbai’s top officials, who had told themselves that the Delhi gang rape could not have happened here, were horrified and initiated a broad, high-level response, as if an act of terrorism had taken place. The police lighted up their networks of slum informants and all five were arrested and gave confessions in quick succession. Several made pitiful attempts to escape. Mr. Sheikh went to the visitor’s room of a nearby hospital and covered himself with a blanket, trying to blend in with a crowd of relatives. He was caught with 50 rupees, or about 81 cents, in his pocket. When the police asked him to sign his confession, he told them he could not write, so he signed it with a thumbprint. “It is incredible how quickly the whole thing unraveled,” said the editor, who was present when the photographer’s colleague picked the first of the five men out of a lineup. A second victim, the call-center worker, came forward, inspired by the first, and said she was ready to testify. The suspects confessed to the other rapes under questioning, the police said. Image Indian police officers in August escorted the fifth and last suspect arrested in the gang rape in Mumbai. Credit Punit Paranjpe/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The public prosecutor selected for the case is famous for prosecuting terrorists, with a résumé of 628 life sentences, 30 death sentences and 12 men, as he put it, “sent to the gallows.” Much news coverage over the next days zeroed in on the defendants’ poverty, but Mr. Roy shrugged off that line of inquiry. After interrogating the five accused men personally, he said they were “social outcasts,” not indicative of any deeper tensions in the city. “They were deviants, sociopaths, predators,” he said in an interview. “If there was a larger socioeconomic framework, these crimes would be happening again and again. It was only these guys. I’m 100 percent sure that this kind of crime doesn’t happen in Mumbai. I’ve been here all my life and have been born and brought up here.” But in a constellation of neighborhoods around Mumbai, people are still trying to match up the crime with the ordinary men they knew. Shahjahan Ansari, the wife of the oldest accused man, Salim Ansari, looked terrified when a stranger appeared at her door, at a hulking, trash-strewn public housing complex beside a petroleum refinery on a distant edge of the city. The neighbors had started to shun the family since Salim’s arrest became public, and she dreaded the extra attention. “We can’t even walk on the street. You don’t understand,” she said. Inside the apartment, she calmed down a little. The whole story baffled her; she said she had no idea who her husband’s friends were or what he did during the day when she went to work cleaning houses. All she knew was that until his arrest, he came home for dinner every night, “He was to me like any husband is to his wife,” she said. “How do I know how he got into this mess? It must be the Devil,” murmured Salim’s mother, who was sitting on the floor, one eye blind, cloudy white. Ms. Ansari was remembering better days before her husband lost his job, at a factory that made cardboard boxes. He was so proud of the factory, with its big machines, that he brought his sons to watch him on Sunday shifts. Tonight the younger one was streaked with dust; the older one watched from a cot, glassy-eyed and much smaller than his 10 years, bony limbs folded under his chin. She would try, Ms. Ansari said, to move them somewhere else, to a place where no one knew who their father was. “I want my children to grow up to be good human beings, that’s all,” the mother said.

India
Mohammed Kasim Sheikh
Rape
Mumbai,Bombay


Abreu’s Stint as a Met Ends After Pinch-Hitting Struggles

Abstract: About 50 minutes after the Mets’ loss Monday, Bobby Abreu sauntered through the clubhouse and started his goodbyes. He approached Bartolo Colon, Jenrry Mejia and Jeurys Familia in a corner. He spoke to Wilmer Flores. Soon, others around the clubhouse, having gotten word, approached to pay their respects. After the game, the Mets designated Abreu for assignment. Because he is 40 years old, it was fair to wonder whether this might be his last day in the majors. Surrounded by members of the news media, Abreu shrugged and said, “Well, there’s nothing I can do, you know?” He spoke for about six minutes, thanked the Mets and shook hands with a few members of the news media. A year ago, this moment seemed improbable. After the 2012 season Abreu decided to take a year off. He spent his time training. He played winter ball in Venezuela and compiled a .416 on-base percentage. Dave Hudgens, the Mets’ hitting coach at the start of this season, was his manager there. He recommended that the Mets give Abreu a chance. The Philadelphia Phillies, Abreu’s old team, snatched him up first. But when they released him just before the season, the Mets signed him to a minor league deal. Around mid-April, they called him up, expecting him to be a part-time player and pinch-hitter. Every so often, he reminded the Mets of his brilliance. He homered in his fourth game. He batted .450 over a six-game stretch near the end of May. He went 4 for 4 one night against the San Diego Padres in mid-June. Then he slowly started to decline. He never truly adjusted to being a pinch-hitter. In 34 games as a substitute, he batted .118 and did not drive in a single run. Although he batted .284 and drove in 14 runs in 28 games as a starter, the Mets were wary of playing him for stretches. He was a liability in the field and was not that threatening at the plate. Such a drop-off was to be expected, though. Abreu’s career has spanned 18 years. If he never plays in the majors again, he will have finished with two All-Star appearances, 288 home runs, 1,363 runs batted in, 574 doubles, 400 stolen bases and a .395 on-base percentage. His last at-bat was Friday, when he came on as a pinch-hitter, saw two pitches and grounded out to second. “It’s not that easy coming off the bench,” he said Monday. The Mets felt that Kirk Nieuwenhuis, who was recalled from Class AAA Las Vegas, would be better in that role. Abreu did sound optimistic about the Mets’ future. He had taken on a mentorship role with three young players: Juan Lagares, Ruben Tejada and Wilmer Flores. Abreu said he had told them: “Go out there, be aggressive, but look for a good pitch to hit. And don’t ever be afraid to fail. Just go out there, do your thing that you already know how to do. You’re here, in the big league, for a reason. You’re not here for nothing. They have such good talent.” Lagares and Tejada appear to have improved this season. Tejada has proved to be a serviceable shortstop, and Lagares has shown signs of budding into a star. During Monday’s game, he batted 3 for 4, bringing his average to .283, and he threw out a runner at the plate. “I’m going to tell you, I keep saying it,” Manager Terry Collins said. “This kid’s going to be a really, really good player.” Abreu plans to play winter ball in October in his native Venezuela, and he hopes to become a hitting coach. “I want to keep playing,” Abreu said. “I love this game, you know. But I just got to see if there’s going to be any offer or something. I just have to keep working hard and wait to see what’s going on.” He added: “Let’s wait. Let’s see.”

Mets
Bobby Abreu
Dave Hudgens
Kirk Nieuwenhuis
Baseball
Terry L Collins


Roma Women’s Business Plan: Cook Their Way to a Better Life

Abstract: ROME — On a muggy July evening, a handful of Italian hipsters milled around a food stand at an alternative music festival in Rome, trying to decipher some of the exotic offerings: mici, sarmale and dolma. These Balkan delicacies — barbecued meatballs, cabbage wraps and stuffed peppers — are the basic ingredients of an entrepreneurial scheme cooked up by a group of Roma women looking to better their lives and leave the overcrowded and insalubrious camp in Rome where they currently live. They call themselves the Gipsy Queens . “Cooking? I’ve been cooking practically since I was born,” said one of the chefs, Florentina Darmas, 33, a mother of three, who is originally from Romania. Like many Roma women, Ms. Darmas was raised to adopt the traditional role of wife, mother and caregiver in the predominantly patriarchal society. But nowadays she is trying to break down some of the barriers faced by her traditionally marginalized group using the universal language of food. “I can learn from you, and you can learn from us,” she said, fanning puffs of thick smoke over dozens of tightly rolled pork mici sizzling on a charcoal barbecue. “We realized there was unexpressed potential in the community, especially on the part of women,” said Mariangela De Blasi, a social worker with Arci Solidarietà Onlus , a Rome-based nonprofit organization that works with marginalized people, and manages the burgeoning catering business. Their “dreams are often suppressed by the cultural conditioning of their society and by external prejudices,” Ms. De Blasi said, adding that “Roma women face a double discrimination.” Indeed, feeding hundreds of hungry customers, as they did at the Rome music festival, was nothing compared with the other challenges they face. Those challenges include a deeply ingrained prejudice against Roma people prevalent in Italian society, xenophobia stirred by ultraright groups across Europe, and resistance from the more tradition-minded members of the Roma community. In theory, Italy’s national policy aims to integrate the Roma, in accordance with European Union recommendations. In practice, results have been negligible, and municipal governments instead fund and maintain the construction of Roma camps in major cities throughout the country. The camps have drawn criticism for violating Roma rights . They not only fail to meet minimum standards for adequate housing, but also reinforce Roma segregation, said Carlo Stasolla, the president of Associazione 21 Luglio , a nonprofit organization that works for Roma people. Despite proclamations to better integrate the Roma, Rome’s newly instated Five Star Movement government has allocated 1.2 million euros (about $1.3 million) to build a new camp, he said. Image Florentina Darmas prepared sarmale, a Roma delicacy of cabbage rolls stuffed with rice and ground meat, for the Gipsy Queens food stand. Credit Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times “It’s a paradox to build camps to overcome camps,” Mr. Stasolla said. The money would be better spent inserting Roma families in public housing and work programs, he said. The municipal tender, in fact, has a second phase that calls for the progressive social inclusion of the camp’s residents. Though fewer than 10,000 Roma live in camps throughout Rome, they were a prominent issue in the mayoral election here in June. The outsize issue “demonstrated how Roma are always the object of the public and political debate in an exaggerated manner,” said Roberto Bortone, an adviser with Italy’s national antidiscrimination office. “The Roma question is always posed as an emergency in the public debate.” When an article appeared on the website of a local paper about the Gipsy Queens, the comments were full of racist insults. “It was shocking. People speculated on whether they cooked rats, or went food shopping in garbage cans,” Ms. De Blasi, the social worker, said. “We discussed it with the women, and even turned it into a joke,” she added. “But it also made us all reflect on the image that people have about Roma, and we discussed the difficulties that they would face. It’s good that they know what they are up against.” Image Mihaela Miclescu relaxed after preparing pita dough for the music festival. She said she was happy to join the Gipsy Queens catering business. “I hope it turns into a real job.” Credit Gianni Cipriano for The New York Times Even the Roma community has not universally backed the Gipsy Queens’ ambitions. Older women complained that the Gipsy Queens were neglecting their traditional roles by working long hours outside the home. One husband came to a meeting to drag his wife away. Out of an initial group of 20 women, only five now make up the catering team. “That’s why we’re taking this slowly,” Ms. De Blasi said, describing the camp as a small town with its prejudices and limitations. The hope is “to not create too many culture shocks and create an enormous distance between the inside and the outside.” The inside, for the Gipsy Queens, is the Via Candoni camp, one of Rome’s eight authorized “solidarity villages” for Roma. Just seven miles from the Colosseum, the rat- and garbage-infested camp might as well be on another planet. Ms. Darmas has lived in the camp on Via Candoni since arriving from Romania 15 years ago. She said that even if conditions are not as bad as some make them out to be, living in the camp bears a stigma that is hard to shake. “We have to leave,” she said. “When people hear that we live there, they don’t want to hire us.” That has been the experience, too, for Codruca Balteanu, 23. Six months pregnant with twins, and with a 3-year-old at home, she got a diploma to work in the restaurant and hotel business, but has found it hard to find a job. “When we apply for jobs, we dress in jeans, normally,” but prospective employers can usually tell she is Roma, she said. “Then they pretend they don’t have work.” So the Gipsy Queens have taken it upon themselves to create jobs of their own, in hopes of getting out of the camp. All of the Gipsy Queens dream of leaving Via Candoni, which was intended to hold 500 people when it was established 16 years ago but holds twice that many today. If their entrepreneurial plans pan out, the Gipsy Queens hope to buy a food truck or rent a kitchen on a more permanent basis — foundations for steady work that will bring in rent money. “Getting out is my first priority,” said Hanifa Hokic, 31, a divorced mother of five children between 8 and 12 years old, who is originally from Bosnia. They briefly made it out of the camp once before. Her children will have better chances outside the camp, she said, so she insists that they go to school. The catering business is a step toward the outside world, she said. “We’re determined to go forward.” Maria Miclescu, a 20-year-old mother of two, agreed that to give her children “a better future,” she had to leave. Her husband is trying to establish a small-appliance repair business, another start-up project that has the support of Arci Solidarietà Onlus. The oldest member of the group, Mihaela Miclescu, 49, who is a grandmother, was happy to join the Gipsy Queens. “I wanted to show Italians that we are not bad people, that we want to work, not to beg,” she said. “It’s a good project. I hope it turns into a real job.”

Roma
Cooking
Rome
Discrimination
Segregation
Jobs
Women and Girls


Trying to Recognize America in a Wild Campaign

Abstract: Something, it seems, is off in America. What is it? I recently attended the Republican and Democratic conventions, where there were moments of unscripted drama — high dudgeon, low cuts and poignant testimony — typical of this year’s unusually polarized presidential race. Not only do the two main candidates, Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton, offer starkly different prescriptions for the United States, but their supporters are divided , too. Schisms among rival groups of Republicans and Democrats played out openly during the conventions, as rival factions booed and jeered one another. Another fault line opened when Khizr Khan, a Muslim immigrant whose son was killed on military duty in Iraq, made an impassioned critique of Mr. Trump, electrifying the Democratic convention audience. Mr. Khan’s emotive testimony reverberated through the national conversation for days. Now, less than 100 days until the vote, the campaigns are expanding to focus on the voters outside their core supporters who are likely to decide this election. What drives their choices? Where will the contest be hardest fought? Which issues will tilt the final result? As a foreign correspondent for The New York Times, I set out to write about the campaign with our broad global readership in mind. I’m approaching it much as I would any foreign assignment, bringing a correspondent’s curiosity and, hopefully, some of the fresh-eyed wonderment of a recently arrived outsider. This series is called Abroad in America — I’m from Ireland and normally based in Cairo, where I cover the Middle East. My aim is to try to cut through the political duststorm to find the stories that reveal the essence of this strange yet momentous election. The material is rich, largely thanks to Mr. Trump and his machine-gun mouth . But that doesn’t mean it will be easy: Among other things, the success of Mr. Trump’s unorthodox campaign suggests a society in flux. “I pity you,” one American friend told me. “Because right now we all feel like we are abroad in America. We’re having trouble recognizing ourselves.” In the coming weeks, I will explore the battleground states and pressure points on America’s shifting political map. As I take to the road, I am humbly soliciting your help: What puzzles, frustrates or amazes you about this election? Where should I go, or whom should I meet? What am I missing? International readers might see telling comparisons with their own countries. Some might have a story tip or an insight that can help to make sense of it all. More than ever, this American election is connected to broader global trends: rising frustration with globalization; surging nationalism and xenophobia; growing popularity of insular policies that seek to close borders and build walls. In the past, the United States has stood out for its restless, boundless sense of optimism. If, as some fear, that outlook is now dimming, this election may help determine what perspective will replace it. Ultimately, every question boils down to just one: What shapes the choices that American voters make on Nov. 8? Please share with me your questions, guidance and comments — or just come along for the ride.

Republicans
Democrats
Hillary Clinton
2016 Presidential Election
Donald Trump


Federer and Williams Sisters Bring Their Everyday Game

Abstract: MELBOURNE, Australia — Perhaps because the Australian Open heralds the arrival of a new season with new challenges for the world’s top tennis players, one line of questioning is persistent: “How’s your form? How’s your fitness? Are you playing well enough to win?” On Saturday, after taking apart Albert Montañés, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4, Roger Federer showed the slightest bit of impatience. “I don’t want to say I’m playing the best tennis of my life, because I haven’t had to so far,” he said. He might as well have been speaking for the Williams sisters, who also moved into the fourth round at Melbourne Park without having to reach for their A game. Serena Williams overpowered Carla Suárez Navarro, 6-0, 6-3, and Venus Williams disposed of Casey Dellacqua, 6-1, 7-6 (4). In fact, Serena Williams, who is seeded No. 1, had to manufacture a bit of drama and motivation for herself. She was up, 5-0, in the first set when Suárez Navarro forced deuce 13 times in a game that lasted longer than the previous five combined. So Williams took a moment, sitting on the court with a look of dismay. “I thought, O.K., Serena, don’t put too much pressure on this,” she said. “Worst-case scenario it will be 5-1. But way to keep fighting.” Venus Williams, seeded sixth, was ahead, 4-2, in the second set of her match when she lost concentration, letting Dellacqua, an Australian, and a raucous crowd back into the match. But after 1 hour 47 minutes, Williams ended it emphatically with an ace on her fourth match point. “Casey played well and raised her game,” she said. “She has a deep ball and can mix it up.” Venus Williams said that neither her form nor her fitness was at peak level after three months of not playing a tournament. “I’m trying, but it’s not easy,” she said. But it was Federer who signaled to his rivals that he is not getting out of the way anytime soon. Two of them, No. 3 Novak Djokovic and No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko, won in straight sets to advance. Federer’s everyday game was on display against Montañés, and it was plenty good . He won 88 percent of his first-serve points, converted 80 percent of his net points and captured 50 percent of his baseline points. The win was his 50th at the Australian Open, a tournament record. Afterward, he tipped his cap to some of his rivals, acknowledging that Andy Murray; Juan Martín del Potro, the United States Open winner; and Djokovic, the 2008 Australian Open champion, had matured into dangerous players. “I definitely think we have guys now — as they get older as well — they’re going to win bigger tournaments and have more experience,” Federer said. “Before, the group was Del Potro, Murray, Djokovic, and all those guys, they were just coming out of their teens. You can’t expect them right away to win Slams. Now they’re all in a good age where normally you either make your move or, you know, you definitely have a chance.” But Federer, the top-ranked player in the world, made it clear that neither he nor No. 2 Rafael Nadal was ready to relinquish his place. “So that’s what we’re looking at the moment,” he said. “A few guys have already won Slams. That’s not an easy thing to do, because, I mean, Rafa and myself are still around and making it extremely hard for guys to take home any Slams. Because over five sets in two weeks, I think we know best how it works.” If there is any doubt, a look at Federer’s numbers should erase it. Federer, 28, has made it to the last 16 of every Grand Slam tournament since the 2004 French Open . He has collected 3 of his record 15 major titles at Melbourne Park. He wants another, and a couple of more Grand Slam titles after that. Despite rivals’ questions about his motivation after an eventful year in which he married, became a father of twin daughters and captured his first French Open, Federer knows where he has been and where he is going. “I think you can always find ways to motivate yourself,” Federer said. “I obviously loved the time when I was dominating and winning 10 to 12 tournaments a year and not losing to any top-10 player. I mean, those were fantastic times for me, of course. But then again, it was also nice going through the time with the incredible rivalry I had with Rafa. “Before that, being able to play against guys like Sampras and Agassi and so forth and being the up-and-coming guy. So I think you take it as it is and try to make the best out of it. That’s the way I looked at it. I think today it’s a completely different situation. I’m still at the top of the rankings and I like to be challenged. That’s what makes me better.”

Tennis
Australian Open (Tennis)
Federer Roger
Williams Serena
Williams Venus


Board Accepts Resignation of Medical University Leader

Abstract: NEWARK, Feb. 1 - Trustees of New Jersey's financially troubled medical university voted on Wednesday to accept the resignation of its president, Dr. John J. Petillo, but only after he agreed that his $600,000 severance package could be revoked if a federal investigation of the university finds evidence that he should have been fired. Dr. Petillo, who was appointed to the board of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in 2003 and became the university's interim president a year later, announced his resignation last month after an assortment of revelations that the institution had overbilled Medicaid by nearly $5 million, spent hundreds of millions of dollars on no-bid contracts, and lavished perks on board members, administrators and their political allies. The University of Medicine and Dentistry's widely publicized financial irregularities have attracted scrutiny from an array of government officials, including Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who last week demanded the resignation of 25 senior administrators. In the United States Senate, leaders of the Finance Committee this week demanded a briefing on how the university has spent hundreds of millions of dollars in federal aid, saying they were "alarmed and deeply troubled" by the allegations. Investigators have now added to their list questions about $36.8 million in state funds that were sent to the university last year but are not accounted for. The United States attorney for New Jersey, Christopher J. Christie, has been investigating the allegations for nearly a year, and in December threatened to indict the university for Medicaid fraud unless administrators agreed to let a federal monitor oversee its finances. It was that monitor, Herbert J. Stern, a former federal judge, who urged trustees not to approve Dr. Petillo's severance package unless he agreed to cooperate with the federal inquiry and forfeit the $600,000 if it uncovered any evidence of conduct that might have led to his dismissal. John P. Inglesino, who represented the monitor at the board meeting, said there had been no evidence of any wrongdoing by Dr. Petillo. Governor Corzine, who in his first day in office pressed Dr. Petillo to step down, also issued a statement praising his recent efforts to improve the university. But the pressure exerted on Dr. Petillo from the state and federal levels offers the clearest indication yet that the institution, which describes itself as the nation's largest health sciences university, is in the early stages of a drastic overhaul. Eric S. Pennington, the interim board chairman, told the university's faculty members, employees and patients this week to brace themselves for upheaval. "We want to uncover as many problems now, address them, take care of them and move forward," he said after the meeting.

UNIVERSITY OF MEDICINE AND DENTISTRY OF NEW JERSEY


Music Labels Offer Teasers to Download

Abstract: For all the disquiet the Internet has fostered in the music business, almost every rock star and record executive is intrigued with the prospect of marketing to music fans directly instead of wrangling for exposure with radio programmers or retailers. But the expansion of the online marketplace, coupled with ever-worsening CD sales, is now all but forcing the music companies to tread on ground they once viewed as off limits. Starting this week, Suretone Records, a label distributed by the Universal Music Group, plans to distribute video files featuring popular acts like Weezer and new bands like Drop Dead Gorgeous on file-sharing networks that the industry has long viewed as illicit bazaars for pirates. Unlike the music audio and video files that major labels sell at services like iTunes, the video files will not be wrapped in protective software to limit copying, executives say. But they will also be incomplete: users who download them will see perhaps half the video and will be directed to the label’s own Web site to watch the complete version — and the advertising planned to run alongside. The plan represents one of the latest signs that, after years of suing individual users and file-swapping services, the recording industry is recognizing that it might have to loosen its control to attract the giant audience found in largely unregulated corners of the Internet. And there is new reason for urgency. The music business has been buckling beneath the pressure of widespread piracy and plunging sales. Album sales declined 5 percent last year, and the scarcity of hits after the holidays has put the industry on a course to fall behind even last year’s lackluster performance. Sales for the year so far are down more than 15 percent, according to Nielsen SoundScan data. That has brought a profit warning from one music corporation, the EMI Group, and prompted dire forecasts industrywide. Digital sales are increasing, but not nearly enough to offset the drop. As a result, many executives are searching for other ways to reach the people who are trafficking in music and other media files in free file-sharing networks and on social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook. But how far the industry should go to appeal to them is now the subject of intense debate. One big issue is whether the four music conglomerates that dominate the industry should drop copy protection software, known as digital rights management, from the music files they license for sale online. The industry has already been dabbling in unprotected content, allowing the sale of songs from artists like Norah Jones, Jessica Simpson and Jesse McCartney on Yahoo and other sites. An array of online music retailers has called for doing away with the software completely. Steven P. Jobs, the chief executive of Apple, whose iTunes music store is the most powerful of the those retailers, recently added his voice to the chorus, arguing that digital rights management has not halted piracy and that the industry’s main format, the compact disc, carries unprotected files. EMI has discussed the idea of distributing unprotected music files with certain retailers, but there is little indication that the four companies, which control more than 70 percent of the world’s music sales, will be willing to offer much of their catalogs without such software anytime soon. Still, there are indications that the record labels are re-examining their practices. RCA Records, for example, plans to advance its promotional campaign for Avril Lavigne’s new album with the first in a series of short manga — Japanese comic-book episodes — in a storyline featuring the singer. The video clips, which run two to three minutes each, are expected to be released in unprotected form as free podcasts on iTunes, among other outlets. Fans will also be able to use special software, probably offered on a label’s Web site, to take snippets of the episodes and rearrange them, executives said. Terry McBride, a longtime talent manager who represents Ms. Lavigne and other performers, said the campaign was a rare instance of a major label’s agreeing to an uncontrolled release, and that he fully expected fans to post the clips on file-sharing networks. “This becomes public property,” he said. “We’re not going to tell the consumer how to consume.” But Mr. McBride predicted that sharing the files would promote the album and set the stage for other ventures, including the sale of higher-quality versions of the video clips, or possibly advertising to go along with them. In any event, he added, the more CD sales suffer, the more pressure will build on record labels to rethink the rules of distribution and to drop limits on copying digital music. “At the end of the day the whole object should be, let’s fix the problem,” said Jordan Schur, who set up the Suretone label last year as a joint venture with Universal after leaving another Universal label, Geffen Records. “We know people are stealing music. We’re not going to sit in judgment of them and say, ‘Well, they’re bad.’ ” The label’s files are being distributed online in an arrangement with ArtistDirect’s MediaDefender unit, which is better known as a contractor hired by labels to place fake, or decoy, versions of songs or other media files on file-sharing networks to thwart would-be pirates. Before the Suretone video deal, the company had also begun planting fake files containing promotional messages for advertisers like Coca-Cola. ArtistDirect separately runs one of the most popular music Web sites on the Internet, ArtistDirect.com , and plans to have a channel there devoted to Suretone’s video clips. Record labels are not shifting their view toward file-sharing across the board. Executives at Geffen recently found themselves at odds with the rap star Snoop Dogg, for example, after he started selling songs in unprotected form on his MySpace page, in a partnership with a San Francisco-area rap entrepreneur. Snoop Dogg also offered to sell other performers’ songs on his page for a fee, a complete “push and promote” package costing $1,500. The offer was removed last week after The New York Times inquired whether it conformed to MySpace’s terms and conditions, which generally prohibit users from selling space on their pages to outsiders. A number of independent artists offer their songs on MySpace. The reggae act Shaggy charges 99 cents a song, for example, and the band Barenaked Ladies charges 83 cents.

Music
Recordings and Downloads (Audio)
Computers and the Internet


Yonkers as Gallery

Abstract: A video installation in a pop-up gallery, a fashion show in a garden, artist studio tours — these and more are part of the first Yonkers Arts Weekend. Organized by the City of Yonkers , the event next weekend aims to showcase the breadth of artistic activity throughout the city with exhibitions, performances and public art. Programming will take place at four locations, accessible via free shuttle buses. YoHo Artist Studios , in the old Alexander Smith carpet mills, is hosting the 11th annual YoHo Artists Open Studio. Fifty artists will welcome guests, among them Catherine Latson , who uses organic materials to make garmentlike sculptures, and Librado Romero, a painter (and former photographer for The New York Times) whose sprawling work space teems with fanciful landscapes. The natural landscape sets the stage at the historic and glorious Untermyer Gardens . In an amphitheater flanked by sphinxes sculpted by Paul Manship, Marshall Field and Company, a bluegrass band of Sarah Lawrence College students will perform on Saturday, and “Fashion as Art: A Runway Exhibit,” organized by the Fashion Institute of Technology ’s Urban Studio, will take place on Sunday. Garden tours will be offered both days. The shuttle stops farther south at the Hudson River Museum , where the exhibition “The Art of Video Games,” investigates the games’ evolution over four decades. Also on view are selected Hudson River School paintings and “The Bookstore,” the multimedia artist Red Grooms’s topsy-turvy, room-size installation. Downtown, exhibitions include paintings by Satish Joshi at Blue Door Gallery and YonkersArts’ “Sixth Annual Yonkers Artist Showcase” at the Riverfront Library . Works by Urban Studio and Torche’ Galerie artists will fill 10,000 square feet at the iPark Hudson office complex, and Vinnie Bagwell’s “ Enslaved Africans’ Rain Garden ,” at Philipse Manor Hall State Historic Site , will feature maquettes of five life-size figures who will inhabit the artist’s proposed sculpture garden commemorating the manor’s former slaves. Visitors can wander through Van der Donck Park, where the recently unearthed, or “daylighted,” Saw Mill River flows, and along the riverfront, where sculptures adorn the esplanade. Or they can climb inside Isra Abdo ’s sculpture of a largemouth bass at the Center for the Urban River at Beczak and experience the Hudson from a fish’s point of view.


Gunmen Seize Government Buildings in Crimea

Abstract: SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine — Masked men with guns seized government buildings in the capital of Ukraine’s Crimea region on Thursday, barricading themselves inside and raising the Russian flag after mysterious overnight raids that appeared to be the work of militant Russian nationalists who want this volatile Black Sea region ruled from Moscow. Police officers sealed off access to the buildings but said that they had no idea who was behind the assault, which sharply escalated tensions in a region that serves as home to Russia’s Black Sea Fleet and also to a number of radical pro-Russia groups that have appealed to Moscow to protect them from the new interim government in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital. Adding to the confusion, Viktor F. Yanukovych, the ousted president of Ukraine, declared on Thursday that he remained the country’s lawful leader and appealed to Russia to “secure my personal safety from the actions of extremists.” Russian news agencies reported that he had already arrived in Russia, but officials did not immediately confirm that. In the Ukrainian Parliament in Kiev, lawmakers dismissed Mr. Yanukovych’s statement as irrelevant and a reflection that he had lost touch with political reality. “Yanukovych is no longer president,” Arseniy P. Yatsenyuk, who was overwhelmingly approved as acting prime minister by the Parliament on Thursday, told the Ukrainska Pravda news site. “He is a wanted person who is suspected of mass murder and crimes against humanity.” In an interview outside the Parliament chamber, Kateryna Vashchuk, a lawmaker from the Volyn region in western Ukraine, said, “It shows once again that this person does not evaluate the situation objectively as it is.” Amid the turmoil in Crimea, Arsen Avakov, Ukraine’s acting interior minister, called for calm in a posting on his Facebook page, saying that unspecified measures were “being taken to counter the extremist actions and prevent an escalation of an armed conflict in the center of the city.” But it was unclear how much authority Mr. Avakov has over the police and other state services in Crimea, where a heavily ethnic Russian and Russian-speaking population mostly views the Ukrainian government installed after the ouster last weekend of Mr. Yanukovych as the illegitimate result of a fascist coup. “Provocateurs are on the march,” Mr. Avakov added. “It’s a time for cool heads, the healthy consolidation of forces, and careful action.” Outside the occupied legislature building, columns of several hundred pro-Russia protesters forced their way through police lines chanting “Rossiya, Rossiya” — “Russia, Russia” — and waving Russian flags. The leader of a group called the Russian Movement for Crimea read out Mr. Yanukovych’s reported statement declaring himself to be the legitimate president. “We agree, we agree,” the crowd shouted. One man shouted through a bullhorn: “We are not separatists. Russia, Ukraine and Belarus are one country.” As the standoff unfolded, the entrance to the Crimean Parliament was barricaded with wooden boxes, metal garbage skips and other objects. Most streets in Simferopol were empty of traffic after the authorities ordered a citywide holiday, and the Crimean legislature called an emergency session for Friday afternoon. Video Scuffles erupted outside the regional Parliament in Crimea as thousands of pro-Russia demonstrators confronted Muslim Crimean Tatars backing the new Ukrainian leadership. Credit Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times Refat Chubarov, a member of the assembly and a leader of Crimea’s ethnic Tatar minority, said he had not been informed about the session and warned that any vote to separate Crimea from Ukraine would be “very dangerous.” Asserting that Russian armored vehicles were waiting outside the city, he called for calm but also urged Tatar residents to form “self-defense” units to protect their interests. He blamed pro-Russia forces for the overnight seizure of government buildings, describing the action as “a direct interference in the affairs of Crimea and of Ukraine.” The overnight raids left Simferopol residents stunned and took place just hours after thousands of Crimean Tatars, the region’s minority indigenous Turkic population, and a separate throng of ethnic Russians staged dueling rallies Thursday outside Crimea’s regional legislature. The rallies, which ended in a chaotic melee and left several people injured, disrupted a session of the regional Parliament that hard-line pro-Russia groups had hoped would declare Crimea’s secession from Ukraine. “This is the first step toward civil war,” said Igor Baklanov, a computer expert who joined a group of anxious residents gathered in a cold drizzle at a police line near the seized regional legislature. Rumors swirled of Russian troops on the way from Sevastopol, the headquarters of Russia’s fleet, of Russian nationalists arriving in force to reinforce the blockaded government buildings and of negotiations between the local authorities and the unidentified gunmen. “Nobody knows who, what or why,” said a resident who identified himself only as Gennady and who voiced alarm that the armed action could set off a spiral of violence in a region riven by political, ethnic and religious differences. The developments came as the authorities in Kiev and Moscow traded bellicose warnings. Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia was quoted as saying that his country would defend its compatriots in Ukraine “uncompromisingly,” and officials in Kiev were said to tell the Russian military to remain within its Crimean naval base. Failure to remain on the base “will be considered a military aggression,” Ukraine’s acting president, Oleksandr V. Turchynov, told the national Parliament, news reports said. Russian news agencies quoted military officials as saying Russian warplanes had been ordered onto “combat alert,” although that appeared to be in connection with large-scale military exercises announced earlier this week. As the crisis deepened, Reuters said, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the ranking Russian representative in Ukraine to call for immediate consultations with Moscow after the seizure of the Crimean regional government and Parliament buildings. A diplomatic note handed to the Russian envoy, Andrei Vorobyov, requested that the Russian military based in the Crimean port of Sevastopol stay on base, Reuters reported. The events came a day after thousands of protesters in Simferopol, the capital of Ukraine’s Crimea region and a tinderbox of ethnic, religious and political divisions, clashed in the tumultuous struggle for Ukraine that drove the president from power last weekend and that has pushed Russia and the West into a face-off reminiscent of the Cold War. Image President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered surprise military exercises on Wednesday. Credit Mikhail Metzel/RIA Novosti, via Associated Press Eight hundred miles away, President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia ordered a surprise military exercise of ground and air forces on Ukraine’s doorstep on Wednesday, adding to the tensions with Europe and the United States and underscoring his intention to keep Ukraine in Moscow’s orbit. Taken together, the events illustrated the continuing challenges that the new government in Kiev faces in calming separatism at home and placating a frustrated Russian leader who sees Ukraine as a vital part of his strategy to rebuild Russian influence not along the lines of the former Soviet Union, but of the czars. While few analysts expected a Russian military intervention in Ukraine, most said that Mr. Putin was likely to respond in some fashion to such a stinging geopolitical defeat. The question was how, and on Wednesday he provided a first answer, when Russia’s military put tens of thousands of troops in western Russia on alert at 2 p.m. for an exercise scheduled to last until March 3. The minister of defense, Sergei K. Shoigu, also announced unspecified measures to tighten security at the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet on the Crimean Peninsula. Senior defense and government officials later said that the exercise was not related to the events in Ukraine, which officials here have watched with growing alarm, but they also said that there was no reason to postpone them either, and the geopolitical message was clear. The orders came as thousands of ethnic Russians gathered outside the regional Parliament in Crimea’s capital, Simferopol, to protest the political upheaval in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev, that felled the government of Mr. Yanukovych over the weekend and turned him into a fugitive. Crimea was Russian territory until the Soviet Union ceded it to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine in 1954, and Russians there have already pleaded for the Kremlin’s intervention to protect the region from Ukraine’s new leadership. The military maneuvers were widely seen as saber-rattling by a Kremlin that has spent a decade or more trying to extinguish separatist sentiments in the North Caucasus and elsewhere. They nevertheless elicited new warnings from Western governments, notably the United States, which reminded Russia of its own admonishments to the West about its military interventions in Libya and other nations. Speaking to a small group of reporters in Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry said it was important for the Russians “to heed those warnings as they think about options in the sovereign nation of Ukraine.” Mr. Kerry did not specify what the United States was prepared to do in response to a Russian military intervention, focusing instead on what he said the Russians would sacrifice. “I think it would cost them hugely in the world, where they are trying to assert a sort of greater legitimacy with respect to their diplomacy,” he said. Mr. Kerry also said that the United States was considering a $1 billion package of loan guarantees to Ukraine, as well as direct aid to the Ukrainian government, to help address the deepening economic crisis there. Russia has refused so far to recognize the legitimacy of the new political powers in Ukraine’s Parliament, and denounced their actions since Mr. Yanukovych’s flight as inflammatory and divisive, including what the Foreign Ministry described on Wednesday as discrimination toward Russian Orthodox believers. Two days earlier Prime Minister Dmitri A. Medvedev said the turmoil posed “a real threat to our interests and to our citizens’ lives and health.” Mr. Putin himself has yet to make public remarks on the crisis in Ukraine, but senior officials have vowed not to interfere directly and called on the United States and Europe to do the same. Even so, the public clamor of ethnic Russians in Crimea and eastern Ukraine has raised fears that Russia could be provoked to intervene.

Crimea
Ukraine
Black Sea
Viktor F Yanukovych
Vladimir Putin


Solid Consumer Spending Expected to Help U.S. Push Past Market Sell-Off

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Consumer spending rose in July as American households stepped up vehicle purchases, but consumer sentiment dipped in August. Though confidence remains at levels consistent with solid spending growth, many households have been fretting over a recent stock market sell-off. The Commerce Department said on Friday that consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of economic activity in the United States, increased 0.3 percent last month, after a similar gain in June. Spending on long-lasting goods like automobiles increased 1.1 percent, reversing June’s decline. Auto purchases accounted for about half of the increase. When adjusted for inflation, consumer spending rose 0.2 percent; it was flat in June. “We score this report as a solid adjunct to yesterday’s strong G.D.P. report that should encourage members of the Fed’s policy-making committee that income and spending fundamentals remain in good shape,” said John Ryding, chief economist at RDQ Economics in New York. Economists say that underlying strength — also highlighted by a rebound in business spending, and buoyant housing and labor markets — gives the economy muscle to weather the fallout from the market rout. The economy grew at a 3.7 percent annual rate in the second quarter, according to revised data released on Thursday. The consumer spending data was the latest report indicating momentum in the economy as it confronted global markets turbulence, sparked by concerns over a slowing Chinese economy, which has diminished the chances of an interest rate increase next month. The personal consumption expenditures index, excluding food and energy, rose 1.2 percent in the 12 months through July, the smallest rise since March 2011. In another report, the University of Michigan said its consumer sentiment index fell to 91.9 this month from a reading of 93.1 in July. Still, the index remained at levels consistent with a 2.9 percent growth pace in consumer spending this year. The University of Michigan survey showed a mild decline in buying intentions for durable goods and an increase in home purchase expectations. “We continue to see relatively stable buying intentions as a positive for consumer spending activity in the months to come. And as the global equity markets have rebounded, we expect consumer confidence to pick up over the next few months,” said Cheng Chen, an economist at TD Securities in New York. Consumer spending should be supported by steady income growth and higher savings. Last month, personal income increased 0.4 percent in July. Income has risen by that same percentage for four straight months. Savings increased to a $651.1 billion annual rate, from $627.3 billion in June. “The economy has built up a huge amount of steam to push it forward in the months to come with the substantial cash reserves that consumers are holding,” said Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at MUFG Union Bank in New York.

Economy
Consumer Confidence
US Economy
Consumer behaviour


Albanese Takes Mayoral Bid Underground

Abstract: “Hi,” Sal Albanese said the other day, greeting a commuter on the Seventh Avenue line. “I’m Sal Albanese.” The salutation lingered, curdling. The man did not look up. Mr. Albanese, a Democrat running for mayor, trudged off to another corner of the No. 2 train. He had been working the rails for a while now, nodding politely at talk of malodorous subway cars, insufficient underground restrooms and why the Yankees ought to invest in some younger players. Then the man, apparently realizing that the bespectacled guy in a suit was neither a beggar nor an evangelist, returned. “Sorry I didn’t shake your hand,” he told Mr. Albanese as he alighted. “I thought you were a Mormon.” “I’ve got to change my shirt,” Mr. Albanese replied. Politicians are keen for the public to know basic units of information about them — for instance, their names. This is an area where Mr. Albanese, a former city councilman from Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, has struggled. In a Marist poll released last month , more than half of Democratic voters surveyed said they had never heard of him or were unsure how to rate him. So Mr. Albanese, already under the radar, went underground on a recent morning to meet the electorate. He added a masochistic twist: Mr. Albanese chose to ride the city’s worst subway lines in terms of rider satisfaction, per a Straphangers Campaign study — including an A train at Rockaway Boulevard and a No. 4 train from Harlem to City Hall — and ask riders what they disliked about them. This was no easy task: he was hoping to meet voters in a space at once overstuffed and antisocial. But if he occasionally breached subway protocol — tapping riders on the shoulder or speaking to those listening to music — most travelers appeared forgiving. On the No. 3 train, Mr. Albanese joked with two veteran riders about the subway system’s old ceiling fans inside cars, though it seemed unlikely that he had secured any votes. “It’s such an interesting primary,” one of the riders said after Mr. Albanese left, “between Christine Quinn and Weiner,” referring to two leading Democrats, Ms. Quinn, the City Council speaker, and former Representative Anthony D. Weiner. Mr. Albanese eagerly detailed his positions on mass transit, which include the creation of a national Mayors for Mass Transit program modeled on Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns and a bid for city control of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Waiting for a train at Fulton Street, Hugh Pinkett, 62, from Canarsie, Brooklyn, had been more thoroughly convinced — flattered that the candidate had agreed with his critique of subway air as too “heavy.” “Sal Alba-nee-nese,” Mr. Pinkett said, thumbing at a handout he had been given. “I’ll remember it.”


Updated Uber App Will Connect Your Calendar With Your Ride

Abstract: Uber has redesigned its app with new features that anticipate more of a passenger’s needs as the company works to differentiate its ride-hailing service in a crowded field of rivals. Uber introduced the changes on Wednesday. They include letting people connect their calendars to the app so the company can fill in a rider’s destination. People who have synced their contacts with Uber’s app can also enter a person, rather than a place, into the destination field of a ride. The app then sends that person a one-time request to use his or her location and directs the car there. Uber has also teamed up with Pandora, Snapchat and Yelp so that riders can more easily get information about the places they are going, learn more about the music their drivers are playing and send messages to friends. People can also use the new app to order food through UberEats, Uber’s food delivery service, while they are on the road. While Uber regularly updates its app, the changes are the most significant since 2012, when the company last redesigned its app. Even as Uber has become a huge business whose brand is synonymous with ride services, it remains vulnerable to price competition from competitors like Lyft, which offers a similar service of similar quality. James Currier, a managing partner of NFX Guild, a start-up investment firm in Silicon Valley, said that to stay relevant, the most successful technology companies rely on some combination of branding and size, and they become more convenient the more that people use them. “Now the company can be your meeting app that is embedded with your calendar, your scheduling and your daily life,” Mr. Currier said of Uber. “It’s a smart move for a company that wants to find new defenses against competitors.” In a briefing with reporters, Uber executives described many features of the new app as fun, interesting bets. “Uber’s ultimate goal is to save you time and to know what you want before you want it,” said Didier Hilhorst, Uber’s design lead for the new app. Uber, which has been working on the redesign for the better part of this year, has begun introducing the new features globally. The company said it would study how people interact with them. The Uber app now also loads faster and will work better in places with slower network speeds. Information has been reorganized so that each screen is less cluttered. Uber also streamlined its logo, which is now black and white rather than a wallpaperlike swirl of blue lines on a dark teal background. That logo was gently mocked by Vanity Fair’s editor in chief, Graydon Carter, when he interviewed Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, at a conference last month. Uber is not the only company adding new features to keep users more engaged with its app. On Tuesday, Instagram said it had teamed up with 20 retail brands based in the United States to let users shop directly in its photo-sharing app.


G.O.P. Senate Victory Stuns Democrats

Abstract: BOSTON — Scott Brown , a little-known Republican state senator, rode an old pickup truck and a growing sense of unease among independent voters to an extraordinary upset Tuesday night when he was elected to fill the Senate seat that was long held by Edward M. Kennedy in the overwhelmingly Democratic state of Massachusetts. By a decisive margin, Mr. Brown defeated Martha Coakley , the state’s attorney general, who had been considered a prohibitive favorite to win just over a month ago after she easily won the Democratic primary. With all precincts counted, Mr. Brown had 52 percent of the vote to Ms. Coakley’s 47 percent. “Tonight the independent voice of Massachusetts has spoken,” Mr. Brown told his cheering supporters in a victory speech , standing in front of a backdrop that said “The People’s Seat.” The election left Democrats in Congress scrambling to salvage a bill overhauling the nation’s health care system, which the late Mr. Kennedy had called “the cause of my life.” Mr. Brown has vowed to oppose the bill, and once he takes office the Democrats will no longer control the 60 votes in the Senate needed to overcome filibusters . There were immediate signs that the bill had become imperiled. House members indicated they would not quickly pass the bill the Senate approved last month. And after the results were announced, one centrist Democratic senator, Jim Webb of Virginia, called on Senate leaders to suspend any votes on the Democrats’ health care legislation until Mr. Brown is sworn into office. The election, he said, was a referendum on both health care and the integrity of the government process. Beyond the bill, the election of a man supported by the Tea Party movement also represented an unexpected reproach by many voters to President Obama after his first year in office, and struck fear into the hearts of Democratic lawmakers, who are already worried about their prospects in the midterm elections later this year. Mr. Brown was able to appeal to independents who were anxious about the economy and concerned about the direction taken by Democrats, now that they control both Beacon Hill and Washington. He rallied his supporters when he said, at the last debate, that he was not running for Mr. Kennedy’s seat but for “the people’s seat.” That seat, held for nearly half a century by Mr. Kennedy, the liberal lion of the Senate, will now be held for almost three full years by a Republican who has said he supports waterboarding as an interrogation technique for terrorism suspects, opposes a federal cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions and opposes a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants unless they leave the country. It was a sharp swing of the pendulum, but even Democratic voters said they wanted the Obama administration to change direction. “I’m hoping that it gives a message to the country,” said Marlene Connolly, 73, of North Andover, a lifelong Democrat who said she cast her first vote for a Republican on Tuesday. “I think if Massachusetts puts Brown in, it’s a message of ‘that’s enough.’ Let’s stop the giveaways and let’s get jobs going.” Mr. Brown ran strongest in the suburbs of Boston, where the independent voters who make up a majority in Massachusetts turned out in large numbers. Ms. Coakley did best in urban areas, winning overwhelmingly in Boston and running ahead in Springfield, Worcester, Fall River and New Bedford, but her margins were not large enough to carry her to victory. In a concession speech before cheering supporters, Ms. Coakley acknowledged that voters were angry and said she had hoped to deal with the concerns. “Our mission continues, and our work goes on,” she said, echoing well-known remarks by Mr. Kennedy. “I am heartbroken at the result, as I know you are, and I know we will get up together tomorrow and continue this fight, even with this result tonight.” The crowd at Mr. Brown’s victory rally, upset by reports that Democrats might try to vote on the health care bill before he takes office, chanted, “Seat him now!” Mr. Brown, for his part, noted that the interim senator holding the seat had finished his work, and that he was ready to go to Washington “without delay.” And he effusively praised Mr. Kennedy as a big-hearted, tireless worker, and said that he hoped to prove a worthy successor to him. Ms. Coakley’s defeat, in a state that Mr. Obama won in 2008 with 62 percent of the vote, led to a round of finger-pointing among Democrats. Some criticized her tendency for gaffes — in a radio interview she offended Red Sox fans when she incorrectly suggested that Curt Schilling, a beloved former Red Sox pitcher, was a Yankee fan — while others criticized a lackluster, low-key campaign. Mr. Brown presented himself as a Massachusetts Everyman, featuring the pickup truck he drives around the state in his speeches and one of his television commercials, calling in to talk radio shows and campaigning with popular local sports figures. The implications of the election drew nationwide attention, and millions of dollars of outside spending, to the race. It transformed what many had expected to be a sleepy, low-turnout special election on a snowy day in January into a high-profile contest that appeared to draw more voters than expected to the polls. There were reports of traffic jams outside suburban polling stations, while other polling stations had to call for extra ballots. The late surge by Mr. Brown appeared to catch Democrats by surprise, causing them to scramble in the last week and a half of the campaign and hastily schedule an appearance by Mr. Obama with Ms. Coakley on Sunday afternoon. “Understand what’s at stake here, Massachusetts,” Mr. Obama said in his speech that day, repeatedly invoking Mr. Kennedy’s legacy. “It’s whether we’re going forwards or backwards.” He all but pleaded with voters to support Ms. Coakley, to preserve his agenda. As voters went to the polls, Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, made it clear that the president was “not pleased” with the situation Ms. Coakley found herself in. “He was both surprised and frustrated,” Mr. Gibbs said. Although the race has riveted the nation largely because it was seen as contributing to the success or defeat of the health care bill, the potency of the issue for voters here was difficult to gauge. That is because Massachusetts already has near-universal health coverage, thanks to a law passed when Mitt Romney, a Republican, was governor. Thus Massachusetts is one of the few states where the benefits promised by the national bill were expected to have little effect on how many of its residents got coverage, making it an unlikely place for a referendum on the health care bill. On Capitol Hill, the fate of the health care legislation was highly uncertain as Democratic leaders quickly gathered to plot strategy in the wake of the Republican victory. Sentiment about how to proceed was mixed, with several lawmakers saying the House would not accept the Senate-passed plan. Top officials had said that approach was the party’s best alternative, and many members said they still believed it was crucial that Democrats pass a plan. “It is important for us to pass legislation,” said Representative Baron P. Hill, a conservative Democrat from Indiana.

Senate
Elections
Massachusetts
Coakley Martha M
Brown Scott P
Voting and Voters


Dance Dance Party Party: A Freestyle Workout

Abstract: IN a room no different from many rehearsal spaces — small, bare, air-conditioned — some 20 women dance as if no one is watching. The room, in the 440 Studios in the East Village, is rented by the hour and equipped with little more than an iPod dock, an (unused) upright piano in the corner and a plastic rotating disco ball lamp plugged into the wall. All the other lights are off, and the women are dancing together or by themselves, often goofily but rarely self-consciously, as the Ramones, Michael Jackson and, during the cooldown, Wilson Phillips’s “Hold On” play. This is Dance Dance Party Party, an unusual freestyle workout started by Glennis McMurray and Marcy Girt in 2006. There are three rules: “No boys, no booze, no judgment.” Ms. McMurray and Ms. Girt, actresses who have been friends since taking an Upright Citizens Brigade class in New York, came up with the idea after going to a bar in the city that didn’t have a cabaret license and would not allow them to dance. They decided that night to find a space for women to let loose without the hassle of a nightclub. “It was about not feeling inhibited and not feeling like in order to dance we had to go out and drink and get hit on by guys and wear uncomfortable shoes,” Ms. McMurray explained. “It was about being able to express yourself without feeling like you’re being judged.” A regular participant volunteers as guest D.J., coming up with a 90-minute mix of fast songs and one slow one. Women show up wearing whatever they want, pay $10, and dance however they want. The group meets two Sundays a month, and participation is on a drop-in basis. The party has caught on, with chapters all over the country, including Chicago (where the coordinators have taken over the administration of D.D.P.P., as the founders Ms. McMurray and Ms. Girt have stepped down); Austin, Tex.; and Portland, Ore. Although they do not explicitly begin with a workout in mind, for many of the women, the dance is clearly the fitness class of choice. In an era of pricey gyms offering classes like Crunch’s “Turning Tricks,” which combines pole dancing with cardio strip (and encourages participants to “show some skin” and wear heels), some women say Dance Dance Party Party provides refuge from the constant objectification and the feeling of being checked out while they exercise. “The mirror culture and the class culture and the women who are out-yogafying each other is something that I really don’t respond to,” said Jennifer Brandel, one of the Chicago chapter coordinators. Instead, the sessions give women the freedom to work up a sweat without worrying about how they’re presenting themselves, and without the goal of changing the way they look. “There just seems to be a premise that all these classes rest on that there’s something wrong with you,” Ms. Brandel said. “I think at D.D.P.P., the premise is, ‘We’re all awesome; let’s have fun together.’ ”


Killing of Pilot Highlights Tanzania’s Struggle With Poachers

Abstract: ARUSHA, Tanzania — Roger Gower, an experienced British helicopter pilot, was flying low over a wildlife reserve near the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania on Friday, searching for signs of poaching, when he spotted an elephant carcass. He circled back for a closer look. Then gunshots rang out from below. Apparently he had happened on the carcass just after the elephant had been killed, and the poachers were still on the scene. A bullet punctured the underside of the helicopter and sliced through Mr. Gower’s leg and shoulder. He managed to crash-land the helicopter, but died of his injuries soon afterward. “It’s tragic, what happened, but this is the reality of what’s going on,” said Frank Pope, the chief operations officer for Save the Elephants , a prominent wildlife organization in neighboring Kenya. “You’ve got desperate people who are armed and committing a crime. When you’re doing antipoaching operations, you’re on the sharp end.” Dozens of wildlife rangers have been killed in recent years across Africa, as elephant poaching has reached a frenzied pitch. Tens of thousands of elephants have been slaughtered for their ivory by the poachers, who have grown increasingly militarized and more ruthless. Tanzanian officials said on Monday that they were closing in on the poachers who shot at Mr. Gower’s helicopter, and that they had already arrested several accomplices, including two who the authorities said had helped hide the poachers. According to Pratik Patel of the Friedkin Conservation Fund , a nonprofit wildlife charity that employed Mr. Gower as a pilot, the suspects in the shooting are Tanzanian and have poached in the area before. “We know their names,” Mr. Patel said. Tanzania’s elephant population has declined drastically because of poaching, to just 43,000 in 2014 from 109,000 in 2009. The country’s National and Transnational Serious Crimes Investigation Unit has arrested several high-profile suspects recently, including Yang Feng Glan, a Chinese woman who Tanzanian officials say is “the ivory queen,” responsible for exporting thousands of tons of ivory to China. She is awaiting trial in Dar es Salaam, the country’s largest city. Both poachers and wildlife rangers across Africa have turned to military-style tactics. In October, poachers killed three rangers and a military officer who were conducting an antipoaching operation in Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Wayne Lotter, the director of the PAMS Foundation, a nonprofit organization that supports antipoaching efforts in Tanzania, said that elephant poaching there decreased in 2015 but that it remained a serious problem. “The more you go after them,” Mr. Lotter said, “the more situations where confrontation between poachers and rangers will take place. There are going to be risks.” Mr. Gower, originally from Birmingham, England, had spent much of the last decade working in East Africa, often flying antipoaching patrols, a mission his friends said he believed in deeply. “Very reliable, very safe pilot,” said Tom Lithgow, who knew him from a previous wildlife job. “He was a special character, he had a great sense of humor, he loved cricket and he loved his family.”

Tanzania
Poaching
Roger Gower
Serengeti National Park
Elephant
Ivory
Plane Crash


Renovation of a Terminal, Keyed to San Francisco

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — If the prospect of flying holds all the appeal of a cross-country bus trip, the $6,500, lipstick-red leather Egg chairs at San Francisco International Airport’s Terminal 2 are intended to return some long-lost glamour to air travel. More Standard Hotel than standard airport gateway, T2, as it is known here, is one of the few terminals renovated top to bottom since the 9/11 terrorist attacks and represents an ambitious attempt by the airport and airlines to take both stress and carbon out of air travel. The $383 million renovation gutted a drab 1950s-era building that last served as the international terminal before being shuttered more than a decade ago. Even compared with more contemporary terminals at San Francisco International, T2 represents a new approach to airport design. It opens on Thursday. “It’s about the intersection between passenger delight and bringing back the joy of flying with the high-performance building aspects,” said Melissa Mizell, a senior associate with Gensler, the San Francisco firm that designed the renovation. “That really guided a lot of our decisions, even with sustainability.” The words delight, joy and flying do not usually appear in the same sentence. But airport officials, airlines and architects said that they put as much emphasis on redefining the travel experience as on lessening its environmental impact. “We wanted this to feel like a San Francisco terminal and not a terminal anywhere else in the world,” Raymond Quesada, an airport project manager, said as he stood in the soaring, light- and art -filled ticket lobby shared by Virgin America and American Airlines , the terminal’s two tenants. Those San Francisco values include a city mandate to achieve at least LEED Silver status for the renovation. LEED — Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design — is a rating system administrated by the United States Green Building Council that ranks structures according to points earned for energy efficiency, water conservation and other environmentally beneficial attributes. Airport officials intend to apply for LEED Gold certification, and if it is awarded, T2 will be the first airport terminal in the United States to achieve such a ranking, according to Ashley Katz, a spokeswoman for the building council. Drivers of hybrid and electric cars get preferential parking in the nearby garage, and there are vehicle-charging stations for the electric cars. Cool air seeps from perforated white wall panels in the terminal rather than being forced down from the ceiling. The system, called displacement ventilation, cuts energy use by 20 percent because the air does not need to be cooled as much since it displaces the rising warmer air, Mr. Quesada said. Reclaimed water is pumped into the restrooms, reducing water consumption by 40 percent. The abundant natural light through walls of windows makes most daytime artificial lighting unnecessary. Passengers are encouraged to carry reusable bottles and fill them at blue “hydration stations” in the terminal rather than buy throwaway bottled water. “Originally, we were considering banning the sale of bottled water, but we got a lot of pushback from the concessionaires,” Mr. Quesada said. “But they are required to sell more environmentally friendly plastic bottles. But again, we’re hoping they won’t have to do that and people will bring their own bottles to the airport.” Under their leases, food sellers must use utensils and packaging that can be composted, and compost bins are prominently displayed in the terminal. The airport scores more LEED points for making the green experience educational through signs and even a mobile phone tour. But passengers will probably pay most attention to the terminal’s food, fashion and flow, all of which reflect the esthetic of Virgin America, which has its headquarters in San Francisco. The neon mood lighting found on Virgin planes is mirrored in the lobbylike ticketing area, where pods of those high-backed, Danish-designed Egg chairs are clustered around sculptures and paintings by local artists. The security checkpoint has six lanes to expedite screening and passengers exit into an airy “recompose area” that features colorful ottomans, installed with the Transportation Security Administration dispensation in place of the government’s usual utilitarian benches. That area opens into a food hall modeled after the one in San Francisco’s Ferry Building and offers some of the same upscale Bay Area restaurants, including Cowgirl Creamery, Acme Bread, Napa Farms Market and Lark Creek Grill. Travelers hungering for a Burger King or Dunkin’ Donuts are out of luck. “The whole idea is that you feel like you’re in San Francisco, with an emphasis on local, organic produce,” Mr. Quesada said. Beyond the food hall are the gates, arrayed in two wings. “The concept was to make this area very much like a lounge,” he said. “You could be in the food area and still be within ear- and eyeshot of your check-in podium and thus minimize stress.” Free Wi-Fi and the presence of some 350 power outlets — available on work tables and every few seats in the gate areas — may well also be a major stress reducer for travelers accustomed to sprawling on terminal floors with their laptops. Virgin does not plan on having a separate airport lounge. “We feel like the gate area is the lounge,” Ross Bonanno, Virgin’s vice president for airports and guest service, said as he rested an arm on an Egg chair. (American Airlines has built a dedicated lounge, which will seek LEED Silver status.) David Cush, Virgin America’s chief executive, said he was hoping the green-tinged amenities would give the airline an edge with sustainable-minded travelers. “Certainly for San Francisco and people who live in the Bay Area, this is a top-of-mind issue,” said the tan and long-haired Mr. Cush, who could be mistaken for a local surfer. “It’s becoming a bigger and bigger top-of-mind issue for corporate America in terms of travel policies.” But how much impact can a low-carbon terminal really have on the most carbon-intensive form of transportation? “Not traveling is really not an option, so the real question is how do we make it more sustainable,” Mr. Cush said, noting that in January Virgin America placed an order for 30 Airbus A320neo jetliners, which will be 15 percent more efficient than current models while emitting far fewer pollutants. “It can be green and fun,” he added. “You don’t have to choose one or the other.”

Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)