With Players in Better Shape, the Sun Is Setting on the Morning Skate in the N.H.L.

Abstract: Joe Watson was in his eighth N.H.L. season, his sixth as a defenseman with the Philadelphia Flyers, when Coach Fred Shero, a mystical innovator known as the Fog, transformed the team’s game-day routine. Before 1972, Watson recalled, there was really no such thing as a game-day morning skate. Players went to the rink early (often after spending a night on the town), checked their sticks and skates, had a meeting, and went home or to the team hotel for lunch and a nap. “I think Freddie wanted to get out of the house and away from his family,” Watson said, laughing. “He wanted us to come in and sweat out what we had taken in the night before.” Shero, inspired by Soviet training methods, decided to change the itinerary by having the Flyers put on gear and skate briefly on game-day mornings. The Flyers won their first Stanley Cup in 1974 and another in 1975. What was good for the Flyers was good for other teams. “At first we thought, Why are we doing this?” Watson said. “But it worked in our favor. Freddie was way ahead of his time.” But all things must come to an end, and the morning skate, a game-day staple for four decades, appears to be on its last legs — not that anyone seems disappointed to see it go. N.H.L. players, Watson conceded, are in far better shape than they were 40 years ago. Mike Cammalleri, a 33-year-old Devils forward in his 12th N.H.L. season, politely described himself as “not a huge fan” of morning skates. When asked what he tried to accomplish during morning skates, he said, “Try to keep the heart rate as low as possible.” Cammalleri added: “I’m a believer in getting energy on game days and trying to conserve as much energy for the games as I can. I try not to do anything too intense out there.” Morning skates were never that intense to begin with. Usually, teams — first the home team, then the visitors — take the ice for about a half-hour and skate just hard enough to fire the puck around the ice, maybe take a couple of shots on goal, break a sweat and talk to reporters. John Moore, a 25-year-old defenseman for the Devils, said he used morning skates to “get a better feel for the puck,” but he added: “I’m not sure what the science is behind it. I can’t imagine it adds up to doing more in games.” Backup goalies and players who will be scratched that night tend to stay out longer, although some front-line players, like Rangers forward Mats Zuccarello, like to get in a hard workout. The general purpose of a morning skate, most players agree, is to become focused on the game. “There are times throughout the season when you need that morning skate, like coming off a road trip to get back in the thick of things,” said Ryan McDonagh, the Rangers’ captain. “But ultimately, it’s about saving as much energy and excitement as you can in getting motivated for that game.” McDonagh’s coach, Alain Vigneault, said he had never gotten much out of morning skates. Rangers regulars are rarely required to skate on the morning before a game, even during the first half of the season, when their legs are fresher. In the first three weeks of January, the Rangers played eight games, held eight practices and had five days off. Because the Rangers played three afternoon games, only five morning skates were scheduled in those three weeks — and Vigneault made his regulars skate just once. “I’m not a big fan of the morning skates,” Vigneault said. “On days where we practiced the day before, we will barely touch the ice” until the game. He added: “I’m not sure I’m setting a trend. It’s just that a lot more teams are doing it. Before, I’d say maybe 10 years ago, all players seemed to want to touch the ice on a morning of a game that night. Now some teams will be doing stretching or video in the morning. We’ve sort of changed the dynamics of preparation for a game day.” Islanders Coach Jack Capuano gives all players the option of skating on the morning before a game. This month, Capuano decided to move morning skates to the team’s practice complex in Syosset, N.Y., from Barclays Center in Brooklyn, the Islanders’ new arena. The Islanders had been staying in a hotel near the arena before games. There was a lot of time to kill. “If a guy wants to go out in a tracksuit, if a guy wants to go out and feel the puck for five minutes, if our goalie wants to go out for a few minutes, I’m not going to stop him,” Capuano said. “Obviously, we know that rest is crucial. We want to be off our legs. We want to be fresh as you move through the season. But I’m not going to tell a guy, ‘You can’t go on,’ unless I feel it’s necessary, in that he’s tired or struggling a little bit.” Capuano said some players did not want to change routines, but he added, in reference to the optional morning skates, “There have been less and less and less and less who have gone on — for sure.” John Hynes, in his first season as the Devils’ head coach, already knows that rest and recovery are paramount for N.H.L. teams, who play 82 games over six months — even before the Stanley Cup playoffs. After ending a four-game trip last Saturday with a victory over the Arizona Coyotes , the Devils practiced hard Monday and skated Tuesday before hosting Calgary, but only because they had Sunday off. “If the guys are coming off a tough trip or back-to-back games, you want to let guys rest and recover more than you want to have guys get on the ice and skate,” Hynes said. “If you haven’t had a lot of practice time, then you may want to use it to keep the guys sharp and keep them going. For the most part, we keep them very limited.” Coaches figure they can get as much out of a meeting as a game-day practice. Anaheim Coach Bruce Boudreau, referring to morning skates, said he could “take them or leave them.” Boudreau, who is in his ninth season as an N.H.L. head coach, added: “To me, it breaks up the day. That’s what it does, so you don’t hang around your hotel room or your house and do nothing. It makes you get up and create the appetite for lunch and then to play the game.” That was sort of what Shero had in mind in 1972. Today, however, players do not spend as many late nights on the town. At least for now, morning skates are still around mainly because, as the Devils’ Moore said, “old habits die hard.”

Flyers
Devils
Rangers
Islanders
Ice hockey
NHL


John Maine Says He Feels Ready After Pitching Simulated Game

Abstract: John Maine threw about 60 pitches Friday in a simulated game and said he would be ready to come off the disabled list Wednesday and pitch in Washington against the Nationals. “Good, fine, ready to go,” Maine said before the Mets ’ 3-0 victory against Florida on Friday night at Shea Stadium in the opener of a three-game series. “I felt no pain, no soreness. I felt I could have pitched today.” The Mets placed Maine (9-7) on the disabled list Sunday (retroactive to July 29) with what the team called a mild strain in the rotator cuff of his right shoulder. He missed a start in Houston. As he spoke in the Mets’ clubhouse Friday, Maine amended his medical report to “no pain; still sore sometimes.” He said he tried to throw all his pitches and was “trying to get spin on my off-speed stuff.” Maine was originally expected to miss only the start against the Astros, then return to work Friday against the Marlins. But that was before the Mets decided to put him on the disabled list. Because the Mets need a replacement starter this weekend, the right-hander Brian Stokes was summoned from Class AAA New Orleans, where he was 10-8 with a 4.41 earned run average. He will pitch Saturday. To make room, the Mets optioned pitcher Ruddy Lugo, who had been with the team since Tuesday and did not make an appearance. Stokes, 28, pitched with Tampa Bay in 2006 and 2007, making 64 appearances and going 3-7 with a 6.46 E.R.A. General Manager Omar Minaya said that experience was among the reasons the Mets did not call up the left-hander Jon Niese. Niese, 21, started the season in Class AA Binghamton and has never pitched in the major leagues. CASTRO STILL HURTING Ramon Castro was in uniform Friday night but not fully recovered from the right ankle injury that resulted in his removal from a game last Saturday night in Houston, and his removal from Thursday’s game against San Diego after four innings. “Better, still sore though,” Castro said. “I’m O.K.” Castro, one of two backup catchers, said an X-ray revealed no serious damage. But Manager Jerry Manuel was asked whether Castro would be placed on the disabled list. The Mets might need roster space when second baseman Luis Castillo, playing at Class A Port St. Lucie, is fully recovered from a strained left hip flexor and ready to rejoin the roster. “That’s a good question,” Manuel said of whether Castro would go on the disabled list. “He could be, he could be, he could be. That would make room.” If Castro were to go on the D.L., the Mets would still have Robinson Cancel as a backup catcher to face left-handers. Damion Easley was back at second base Friday; the current backup there is Argenis Reyes. Manuel said he liked the way Reyes played the position, particularly on Thursday, when he started two late double plays in a 5-3 victory over San Diego. “That’s going to be a very, very tough call,” Manuel said, when asked about how to juggle players at that position. “You just don’t put aside guys who play for you to win games. As a manager, you’ve got to fight for them.” HELMET THEORY David Wright surprised some when said he had never before hit a game-ending home run at any level until Thursday, when his two-run homer with two outs in the ninth gave the Mets a 5-3 victory over San Diego. But Wright showed his inexperience in this particular role when he trotted around third base to a full-team reception at home plate and kept his helmet on his head. Most players in those circumstances discard their helmets to discourage teammates from pounding them on the head, which might give them a headache. “Aw, that’s overrated,” Wright said of the helmet-removal theory. Wright’s next time at bat came Friday night, in the first inning against Florida starter Ricky Nolasco. He hit an 0-2 pitch over the left-field fence to give the Mets a 2-0 lead.

Maine John
New York Mets
Washington Nationals
Baseball


He Kicked a Stray Cat, and Activists Growled

Abstract: The video lasts all of 12 seconds: A stray cat — after being lured by a young man’s outstretched hand — is suddenly and violently kicked, its body propelled through the air, clearing a small fence and landing about 20 feet away, to a chorus of cackling laughter. The man, Andre Robinson, was soon arrested. Had it been a person he kicked, Mr. Robinson, 22, most likely would have received a quick plea bargain requiring no jail time — if, that is, he had even been arrested. But now, every time Mr. Robinson has appeared in court in Brooklyn, animal-rights activists have surrounded him, attending his hearings and calling for a jail sentence. He has not even received a plea offer from prosecutors, which is extremely rare in misdemeanor cases. Mr. Robinson, who has pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor animal cruelty charge, has admitted to the police that he kicked the cat at the Brevoort Houses in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, where he lives, and then posted a video of the kick on Facebook. He has not explained why he kicked the cat. Motive aside, Mr. Robinson has unwittingly placed himself at the center of an impassioned, growing debate. On one side are the activists. Once dismissed as cat ladies or fringe do-gooders, they have come to wield real power through funding, organization and a focus on legal remedies for animal abuse. They have embraced social-media campaigns; offered rewards to potential witnesses to animal abuse; trained prosecutors; and made inroads in pushing law enforcement across the country to arrest, and seek jail time for, animal abusers. Yet lawyers defending the accused say that punishment can seem disproportionate to the crime when an animal is the victim. They say that putting people in jail can have serious long-term effects, from starting or strengthening gang affiliations, to taking someone away from school or a job to which they may not return. “The nature of the crime should not automatically mandate a jail sentence if a person is found guilty,” said Tina Luongo, acting attorney in charge of the Legal Aid Society’s criminal practice. Image Mr. Robinson is accused of kicking a stray cat named King, seen at left in an image from a video of the attack posted on Facebook. At the moment, the activists seem to be winning the fight. The Federal Bureau of Investigation announced this month that it would track animal abuse as a separate crime, rather than lumping it in the “other” category. In New York City, the Police Department took over responsibility for animal abuse complaints in January, and created an Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad. Arrests for animal abuse increased about 250 percent through September, compared with the same period last year. And the Brooklyn district attorney, Kenneth P. Thompson, said Mr. Robinson’s case, which is scheduled to go to trial on Wednesday, was “indicative of my determination to be strong on folks who think they can just abuse any type of animal.” “It’s part of the new administration; we’re going to take these cases seriously,” said Mr. Thompson, who took office in January. The view from Brooklyn is widely shared. Houston’s district attorney said this month that she would seek jail time in animal cruelty cases, and Massachusetts passed a bill increasing maximum prison time for animal abuse cases to seven years from five. In Virginia, after a push from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, a man was sentenced in February to a year in jail for starving a pit bull. And in Texas this year, a man received five years after offering to guide a wayward pet donkey home, then dragging the donkey behind his truck. The donkey, which was found in a ditch, survived. Mr. Robinson’s case drew particular wrath because his actions were captured in a video that went viral. The cat, known as King, a stray who lived in Mr. Robinson’s housing project, was captured by animal activists, cared for by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and was adopted . Not long ago, animal cruelty was “considered a side issue, relegated to something a few overpassionate people cared about, basically,” said Assemblywoman Linda B. Rosenthal of the Upper West Side, who has backed several bills strengthening animal cruelty laws. “Now, it’s a mainstream concern.” And it is one that animal groups are trying to make even more central. In another animal abuse case, the Animal Legal Defense Fund, a California-based nonprofit, offered $1,000 for information leading to the arrest of the person who set a cat on fire in a Brooklyn apartment building. The fund posted fliers in the neighborhood where the episode occurred; four witnesses eventually came forward, leading to the arrest and conviction of Denzell Oglesby, who was sentenced in March to a year in jail. The fund began offering such rewards a few years ago, said Lora Dunn, a staff lawyer, and has put reward offers out for a horse shooting in California and for information about the torture of a coyote pup , also in California. Meanwhile, the A.S.P.C.A. has been training police officers on how to spot animal abuse. In New York, it has hired an increasing number of forensic veterinarians, who detail animals’ injuries for court cases. In New York City, the group has treated about 300 such animals so far this year, up from 100 last year. Image Mr. Robinson faces a year in prison on the misdemeanor abuse charge. Credit ASPCA In addition to pushing for jail time where appropriate, said Stacy Wolf, who leads the society’s anti-cruelty group, the society has been backing other legal punishments, such as an order that forbids the defendant to have or live with an animal, as a condition of probation. The groups say they have captured law enforcement’s attention in part by emphasizing that animal cruelty can be a “red flag” for future crimes, particularly domestic violence. Prosecutions nationwide are becoming much more frequent, said Sherry Ramsey, the director of animal cruelty prosecutions for the Humane Society of the United States, “and a lot of it’s based on what we know now about the link between animal cruelty and human violence.” Yet defense groups say animal abuse cases like Mr. Robinson’s should be handled individually, and are not necessarily predictive of worse behavior. “We don’t punish individuals for alleged future misconduct they might at some point in the future engage, but have not,” Theodore Simon, president of the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, said in an email. “To do so would be to punish a person for a ‘crime’ that has not occurred and was not committed.” Defense advocates also say more needs to be done if society wants to tamp down animal abuse. Spencer A. Leeds, the lawyer for Mr. Oglesby, the man who set the cat on fire, said that the act was very disturbing. Still, he said, “the district attorney was very strong-minded about it, and what bothers me is that they have a strong prosecutorial bent toward it, yet on the other end they don’t have anything to treat or address the underlying causes as far as programs.” Animal-rights activists were in full force at a hearing last week for Mr. Robinson, who faces up to a year in jail. Eight activists filled a row and a half. A Facebook page about the case, “Justice for King,” had drawn over 12,000 likes, with people following the case from as far away as Australia. “We’ve had enough,” said Roberto Bonelli, one of the activists. “Momentum is building.” As for Mr. Robinson, he seemed a little befuddled as to why what he had done had drawn so much negative attention. “People see me in the streets, they frown their face up and everyone’s like I’m this menace person,” Mr. Robinson said.

Cat
Andre Robinson
Animal Abuse
Kenneth P Thompson
NYC
Criminal Sentence


What It Takes to Open a Bookstore

Abstract: For more than 20 years, small bookstores have been vanishing, their business models under pressure from large competitors and internet retailers. In the last several years, though, there are signs that independent bookstores are making a comeback in New York and other cities, in part through innovative financing that gives neighborhoods a stake in the businesses. A case in point: Jessica Stockton Bagnulo and Rebecca Fitting, the owners of Greenlight Bookstore in Fort Greene, have just opened a new location in a second Brooklyn neighborhood, Prospect Lefferts Garden. I’m surely not the only bookworm who has fantasized about working in a bookstore: The quiet, convivial atmosphere; the rows of spines with titles you have always meant to read; the enthusiastic conversations about books. But as I learned, it’s not quite as relaxing as it looks. In interviews, the Greenlight owners and other bookstore entrepreneurs in New York walked me through some of the decisions that need to be taken into account in such a venture. Image The opening of the Prospect Lefferts Gardens Greenlight books follows the first location in Fort Greene. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Financing When Ms. Fitting and Ms. Bagnulo opened their first store, they found that banks were unwilling to lend to them. So they asked friends, families and neighbors for loans of $1,000 or more, and pledged to pay those loans back (with interest) over the course of five years. The store did not even have an opening date, Ms. Bagnulo said, so the backers were taking “a leap of faith.” They raised about $75,000 for the Fort Greene location that way, which helped to persuade conventional lenders to come on board. For the new store, they wanted to cleave to that model. With the help of 95 people, they raised $242,600 for the location, some of it from friends and family but the majority from people in the neighborhood. The lessons from Greenlight are being put to use in other places. Brad Johnson, the store manager of a location of a California bookstore chain, Diesel, is using a community lender program that draws direct inspiration from the Brooklyn store. Janet Geddis, the founder and owner of Avid Bookshop in Athens, Ga., also used a version of the community lending idea to open her first location, also using several other lines of support, including a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. Emily Russo, the co-owner of a bookstore named Print in Portland, Me., used an even smaller community to raise money for opening the store, putting together about half the necessary capital with the help of her parents and her husband. And a Bronx-born entrepreneur, Noëlle Santos, is relying partly on Indiegogo and on her own savings to open The Lit Bar in the borough. Geo Ong, who has worked at Diesel and will manage the new Greenlight location, said that the phenomenon of independents opening with these sorts of models across the country gave the lie to a recent narrative that “bookstores don’t succeed.” “A lot of a bookstore’s success is case-by-case,” he said. “But the fact that some bookstores are thriving and a lot of bookstores are opening means that there’s something inherently successful in the model.” Image The owners raised $242,600 for the new location, some of it from friends and family but the majority from people in the neighborhood. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Location Ms. Bagnulo said there were two major questions to consider when deciding where to open a bookstore: Which city neighborhoods are in need of one, and which can support one. “It’s sort of joking, but the rule of thumb is, if the neighborhood can support a farmers market, the neighborhood can support a bookstore,” she said. Ms. Santos, 29, is evaluating a location in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the borough. Image Noelle Santos, 29, and her sister Cheyenne Grant, 17, volunteer to open the Greenlight bookstore location. Ms. Santos plans to open her own book store in The Bronx. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times She said she was confident that the area could support a bookstore, saying The Lit Bar, as her store will be called, will be the only independent bookstore in the Bronx. Though she grew up as a self-described “Barnes & Noble kid,” she has embraced the need for neighborhoods to have their own independent bookstores. “When you come into a neighborhood like the South Bronx, where most of our population is Hispanic and African-American, you need your stores, your community centers and your organizations to reflect the people that actually live there,” she said. Image Co-owners, Rebecca Fitting, left, and Jessica Stockton Bagnulo. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Design For the new Greenlight store, Ms. Fitting and Ms. Bagnulo commissioned the work of the architect Frederick Tang, who also designed the Fort Greene store. “We want to make the store beautiful and thoughtful and designed but we don’t want it to be inaccessible and snobby,” she said. They worried about everything from the lighting to the color of the wood shelves (they settled on a honey tone). A narrow storefront and low-hanging pipes constrained some of the space, but Mr. Tang figured out a way to make the ceiling higher in places where the pipes were less plentiful. “It needs to be somewhere you can come hang out and have a conversation,” Ms. Bagnulo said, “or where you can have a loud party, or where you can have speakers who are going to curse, where kids and families and babies can come hang out during story time.” Image Books line the shelves of the new store. Credit Yana Paskova for The New York Times Book Purchasing Ms. Fitting, a former sales representative at Random House, where she helped sell books to independents, handles much of the book purchasing. “For this store, I handpicked every freaking title,” she said, all 7,248 of them. Ms. Fitting said that she tried to put her personal inflection on the inventory, for example, buying “The Gift” by Lewis Hyde, during the holiday season, which she said was “one of the best gifts that you could give to any creative person, or to yourself.” But she said she never avoided buying a book because she didn’t personally like it, and tried hard not to make assumptions about what might sell well. That said, it’s true that conservative political books are not big local sellers. “A new Bill O’Reilly book comes out, and we buy one because someone in our marketplace might want one, or might want to give it someone else,” she added. She said that big books like David Foster Wallace’s “ Infinite Jest ,” and Tolstoy’s “ Anna Karenina ,” tended to sell well in the winter, a combination of New Year’s resolutions to finally conquer certain tomes and the simple fact that people stay in more in the winters. In the summer, Greenlight does brisk business of newer books with seasonally fitting covers, like Jess Walter’s “ Beautiful Ruins ” and Colson Whitehead’s “ Sag Harbor .” The new store seemed to be off to a good start this weekend, having sold about 500 books. The best-seller on the first day was Mr. Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad.” The top book for the entire weekend, in a bookstore owned by two working mothers, was “Rad Women Worldwide,” by Kate Schatz.

Brooklyn
Random House
Publishing
Barnes and Noble
IndieGoGo.com
Small business
Entrepreneurship


Quarantine for Ebola Lifted in Liberia Slum

Abstract: MONROVIA, Liberia — Liberia’s government announced Friday night that it would lift an Ebola quarantine on a large slum here in the capital, 10 days after attempts to cordon off the neighborhood from the rest of the city sparked deadly clashes and fueled doubts about President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s ability to handle the outbreak. Residents of the neighborhood, West Point, will be free to move in and out starting Saturday at 6 a.m., said Lewis Brown, the minister of information. The army, which had pressed for the quarantine and took the lead in enforcing it in the first two days, will be removed from West Point, leaving only the police, Mr. Brown said. A nationwide curfew, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., will remain in place, he said. “This was a tool intended to help the community to help themselves and get the help they desperately need,” Mr. Brown said in a telephone interview. “We’re pleased with the way that the community has owned up to this.” Ms. Johnson Sirleaf ordered the quarantine on Aug. 20, rejecting the advice of international Ebola experts and her own health officials who argued that such a large-scale quarantine, especially one led by the military, would be unmanageable and could exacerbate the spread of the disease. The quarantine immediately led to running battles between residents and the security forces; Shakie Kamara , a 15-year-old boy caught in the violence, died after suffering bullet wounds to both legs. During the quarantine, many residents have sneaked out of West Point by paying bribes to soldiers and police officers. Prices of food and basic goods have doubled, causing living conditions in the slum to degrade further. As state radio announced the news of the lifting of the quarantine Friday night, hundreds of residents in West Point gathered on its main road to celebrate, according to residents contacted by phone. Soldiers could no longer be seen at checkpoints, and only a light police presence remained, residents said. “The road is jam-packed,” said Abubakar Bah, who manages a drug dispensary near the main entrance. “Everybody is very happy. Most people here still don’t believe there is Ebola in West Point. They’re saying that the government came and didn’t find Ebola, and so that’s why they’re leaving.”

Ebola
Liberia
Monrovia
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf
Military
Epidemic


Merit Pay Contract Is Tough Sell for Newark Teachers

Abstract: NEWARK — On one side of the table was the union firebrand Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers . On the other was the state education commissioner handpicked by Gov. Chris Christie, who became a star among fellow Republicans for aggressively taking on public employee unions. During months of intense and late-night negotiations for a new teachers contract for the chronically troubled Newark school system, the parties settled on what they believed would be a landmark compromise. At the center of it was merit pay — the idea of paying teachers based on performance that has long been a flash point between critics of teachers’ unions who believe it would increase accountability, and union leaders who fear that performance would be based on test scores rather than the subtleties of classrooms. Though Ms. Weingarten had criticized what she calls “merit pay schemes,” she and the other union leaders agreed to embrace the concept in exchange for a promise that teachers would have a rare role in evaluating performance, declaring it a way to rebuild respect for a $1 billion school system that has bled students and money to the suburbs and, increasingly, to charter schools . Joseph Del Grosso, the leader of the local union who was jailed for striking 40 years ago, has been telling his members that approving the contract will turn them into “heroes.” But suspicion tends to run high in this New Jersey city, long rived by politics of race and class. Many teachers worry that the bonuses will never appear. And a faction has staged an insurrection against union leaders, saying the contract will weaken job security and pit teacher against teacher. “This is how they will break our union,” said Renee Pulliam, a high school special education teacher in her 24th year in Newark. On Monday, the city’s 4,700 union members are scheduled to vote on the contract. Both sides say they cannot predict the outcome, but either way, what happens here will echo among teachers’ unions across the country. If the contract is approved, it could prompt other districts to push for pay-for-performance, by suggesting that merit pay is no longer so symbolic a fight among the rank and file. Newark’s deal itself was prompted by recent changes to the state’s tenure laws that were once considered unthinkable. And both sides insist that this deal could be a model for union-management collaboration, giving teachers a voice they have often felt was denied in reform. If it fails, beleaguered union leaders could take it as a new sign of strength in contract negotiations — similar, some teachers said, to the example of the Chicago teachers’ strike last month. From novices to the most senior, Newark teachers would remain among the highest paid in the nation, earning average raises of more than 13 percent in the three-year contract. But teachers evaluated as “ineffective” would have to improve before they could earn the raises that under previous contracts have come automatically every year. Teachers could earn bonuses of $5,000 if they are evaluated as “highly effective,” and an extra $5,000 if they agree to teach in the district’s lowest-performing schools, or an extra $2,500 for teaching subjects like math and science that have a lack of qualified teachers. The money for bonuses will come from the $100 million gift that Mark Zuckerberg, a co-founder of Facebook, pledged to the city in 2010. As the union has mounted a push to pass the contract, Ms. Weingarten has insisted that the bonuses are not strictly “merit pay,” wanting to avoid the impression that the union sold out on a long-held principle. The local president, Mr. Del Grosso, worries less about semantics. “I’ve always found it strange that any union, when it heard the word ‘pay,’ would reject it,” he said in an interview. In presentations to members last week, Mr. Del Grosso argued that the contract would affirm teachers as professionals, like doctors or lawyers. “The doctors take away another doctor’s license, lawyers disbar lawyers,” he said. “Why shouldn’t teachers be the judges of their own peers? My doctor tells me he gets bonuses, lawyers at law firms get bonuses. Why shouldn’t teachers?” But at the first meeting last week, teachers challenged Mr. Del Grosso, calling him a “liar” as he tried to argue the merits of peer review. “I’ve been a distinguished teacher for years; I’ve bought kids clothes,” said Donna Tollinchi, an eighth-grade math teacher, still shaken outside the meeting, at a performing arts center downtown, where she confronted Mr. Del Grosso. “For them to turn around and say I don’t deserve my salary?” Some teachers, speaking anonymously out of fear of retaliation, argued that few will actually get the performance bonuses — not because they are ineffective, but because the system has had a way of wasting money fast. Others worried that even peer evaluations could be unfair. And even supporters of the contract acknowledge that there are about 650 teachers — those with more seniority or advanced degrees — who will lose the potential to earn as much as they did under the old contract. Those teachers could opt for a separate salary scale that pays somewhat more generously but does not offer the potential for performance bonuses. Branden Rippey, 41, a high school history teacher, is one of those. “I’m opposed to the principle of merit pay, and losing money to a new contract,” he said. The proposal, he argued, would just pave the way to staff the schools with young Teach for America teachers, “who get six months training and don’t work for more than 3, 4, 5 years.” He is among a coalition of union members who held their own meetings last week, urging their colleagues to vote no, oust Mr. Del Grosso and choose new leaders to negotiate a better deal. “I can’t believe I have counted on this union to negotiate all this time,” said Ms. Tollinchi, the math teacher. “This is the best they can do?” Supporters of the contract reply, bluntly, yes. (Trying to emphasize their respect for the teachers’ union, and its autonomy, the Newark schools superintendent, Cami Anderson, and the state commissioner, Christopher Cerf, have declined to comment on the contract in advance of the vote.) Governor Christie recently warned the city that it will see a significant cut in state aid next year. The state is struggling with one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates and lagging economic growth. Given the alternatives, is it not better, Mr. Del Grosso asked, to be known as the union that embraced change? “I’ve heard the people who call the Facebook money ‘blood money,’ ” he said. “But if I don’t take the money, I wonder who will get it.”

American Federation of Teachers
Bonuses
Teachers and School Employees
Performance Evaluations (Labor)
Newark (NJ)
Education (K-12)


In the Sun’s Glow, It’s Still Business, but Not as Usual

Abstract: It is a rhetorical question heard again and again in stuffy, sun-deprived offices on a beautiful day in spring. Man, wouldn’t it be great to have our meeting outside today? Employees laugh, pause wistfully and then get down to business — inside. Well, most do. On Tuesday, Julie Cosio, Dana Gartlan and Jenny Caswell, student clinicians at Terence Cardinal Cooke Health Care Center who had to compare notes, held their weekly meeting at the Conservatory Garden in Central Park, at Fifth Avenue and 105th Street. Ordinarily, after leaving the Cooke Center, where the three work with patients who have Huntington’s disease, they would have taken the No. 6 train back to the clinic, at New York University, and gathered with their laptops. But on Tuesday, the magnolia trees proved too much, so they forsook the commute. “We were walking down the street and saw the pink flowers,” said Ms. Cosio, who, like the others, is pursuing a master’s degree in speech language pathology at N.Y.U. “We decided to go old-school and write in a notebook so we could meet outside.” Many New Yorkers found themselves making a similar about-face on the first official day of spring, which arrived precisely at 1:14 a.m. and felt more like summer: The temperature hovered around a balmy 71 degrees in Central Park. Passing clouds added to the languor of the day. There are hazards to working en plein air, of course. The wind occasionally ruffles a sheaf of papers. A cloud of gnats makes a brief appearance. The sun, at times, is almost too warm. Keeping a computer charged can be a challenge. But there also seem to be obvious benefits, ones that might even appeal to those who measure worker productivity. “It woke us up a little bit,” Ms. Caswell, 25, of Hackensack, N.J., said of their business meeting amid beds of daffodils and stands of forsythia. “We were feeling tired, and now we’re more chipper and also more relaxed.” On the waterfront promenade behind the World Financial Center, two American Express employees, Jenna Hess, 28, a senior marketing manager, and Balaji Viswanath, 36, the director of online marketing, had abandoned their offices on the spur of the moment and were reviewing their progress on a Web site for small-businesses alfresco. “It energizes you, so when you go back inside, you’re raring to go,” Ms. Hess said. Mr. Viswanath admitted that outside was not always the best place to get more serious work done. “These meetings are more for catching up to make sure we’re all on the same page,” he said. “Looking at heavy material would probably be a little more distracting.” Not far away from Ms. Hess and Mr. Viswanath, a man in a striped shirt went over marketing strategies with a group of women, all of them sitting on a group of large stone blocks. “We thought it would be great scenery to help us tap into our creative juices,” the man said, declining to give his name because of office policy. Whether the bosses would agree that working outside boosts productivity is an open question. Sean O’Keefe, 28, was not worried about that. He is in the middle of a job search and had planned to hunker down at the New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue. But Bryant Park, whose green lawn spreads out behind the library, beckoned. Having quit his job at a hedge fund last week, Mr. O’Keefe settled into a bistro table with his MacBook just before noon. The sun filtered through the London plane trees, whose branches were still bare, as he began to compose a cover letter. “It’s so nice that I decided to come out here instead,” he said. “It’s very Parisian. The only downside is the glare.” On the High Line , a steady stream of tourists filed past three software developers who met over falafel to discuss a new educational gardening game they were developing. Dan White and Maurice Cheeks of Filament Games had flown in from Wisconsin for a series of meetings and visited the walkway at the recommendation of their associate. “He recommended this wonderful falafel place, Taim , which was right by this beautiful park, so we thought, Why not?” Mr. White, 31, said. There were times when the silken air, distant laughter and scent of spring flowers were at odds with the work itself. That incongruity was perhaps most stark on a boulder in Central Park, near East 66th Street, where Mitchell Quatinetz, a part-time student at Hunter College, and his tutor, Josh Manley, were taking part in a more common corollary to conducting business outside — holding class outside — and poring over a physics review book. “If we want to know the total capacitance of a circuit, we need to first figure out what type of circuit it is — whether series or parallel,” explained Mr. Manley, who held a dry-erase board on his lap. A few feet away, toddlers scampered over the rocks, while the strains of a nearby accordion provided an unusual soundtrack. As for the work at hand, it would not be inaccurate to say that at various outdoor sessions clients were discussed, problems explored, decisions made. But it is also true that at least one of the meetings morphed seamlessly into the afternoon break, without anyone having to go anywhere. “We actually finished our work,” said Ms. Cosio, one of the Cooke Center clinicians, dallying under a crab apple tree in Central Park. “But we’re still hanging out.”

Weather
Spring (Season)
Parks and Other Recreation Areas
New York City


‘Ten9Eight’ Documents the Dreams of Young Entrepreneurs

Abstract: MARY MAZZIO, a filmmaker who had already produced one movie about entrepreneurs, decided to make another on the subject last year, this one inspired by the work of a nonprofit group focused on at-risk youths. Ever since that first movie, “Lemonade Stories,” was produced in 2004, she said, “I’ve been obsessed with the notion of entrepreneurs,” adding, “It really is just a metaphor for being an adventure in life.” While “Lemonade Stories” looked at the influence of mothers on entrepreneurs, her new documentary “Ten9Eight: Shoot for the Moon,” follows a group of students from “Harlem to Compton and all points in between” as they compete in a business plan contest run by the nonprofit group Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship . “In America,” the trailer states, “a kid drops out of high school every nine seconds. Imagine if they didn’t.” Starting Nov. 13, the new movie, “Ten9Eight,” will be shown at select AMC theaters in cities including New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. In addition to a theater release, Ms. Mazzio is in talks with several companies to show the film next year on television. “I hope millions of kids see it,” said Steve Mariotti, the founder of Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship. For some youngster out there, he said. “it will be life-changing.” Next Wednesday, the competition that inspired the film, the OppenheimerFunds/NFTE National Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge 2009, will hold its final rounds at the Marriott Marquis in Midtown Manhattan. Twenty-nine aspiring entrepreneurs, ages 13 to 19, all of whom have had to overcome huge obstacles, Mr. Mariotti said, are vying for the $10,000 grand prize. There is a long history of promoting entrepreneurship among youths in this country. Junior Achievement was formed by business leaders, community volunteers and educators in the 1920s and is a worldwide program today. Its Web site, www.ja.org , notes that hundreds of thousands of volunteers reach millions of students each year. In September, a national survey from Junior Achievement found that most teenagers who were questioned thought that entrepreneurship should be taught in college or earlier. Nearly half, 46 percent, said kindergarten through grade 12 would be the best time to learn the essentials. Half the students surveyed by Junior Achievement said they would like to start a business someday. But most believed it would be “difficult but possible” or “somewhat challenging” to do so in this economic climate. “Teens are not only paying attention to the economy, but these poll results also clearly demonstrate that they’re also hungry to learn the skills it takes to start and grow a business,” Jack Kosakowski, president of Junior Achievement USA, said in releasing the survey results. Other groups are paying attention as well. The Young Entrepreneur Foundation, part of the nonprofit group National Federation of Independent Business, has developed an online small-business game for high school students. The simulation game, Johnny Money , was developed with the help of the Wharton Societal Wealth Program at the University of Pennsylvania. It allows students to create virtual businesses. According to Julie Carney, senior manager for the Young Entrepreneur Foundation programs, more than 100,000 virtual businesses have been created in the game’s first year. “Hopefully, playing the game will encourage students to consider careers as entrepreneurs and small-business owners,” Ms. Carney said. A byproduct of the game, said Prof. Ian C. MacMillan, co-director of the Wharton program, is that it creates “employability.” Not everyone will be an entrepreneur, but everyone will need a job, he said. Students who have played the game come away with practical knowledge about business decision-making, how to complete day-to-day tasks like taking inventory and how to treat people at work. “They learn a huge amount” and in the process become significantly more employable, he said. Wharton and the foundation intend to take the game to all English-speaking countries next, then to countries that teach English. The hope is to create a version in Spanish, Professor MacMillan said. “We think it’s something really profoundly far-reaching.” Mr. Mariotti started his Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship in the Bronx in 1987 and now has a annual budget of about $15 million domestically and $5 million overseas to work with more than 60,000 children worldwide. Eventually, he wants to create a world championship business plan competition. The goal is to provide students with tools to become entrepreneurs, with boot camps, incubators and contests. Participants receive at least 60 hours of training, which helps them prepare for the competition — and, as important, keeps them in school. The group has commissioned research to evaluate program effectiveness and maintains a vibrant alumni community. In a follow-up survey of alumni, the network found that 70 percent were students at the postsecondary level, 43 percent had part-time jobs and 33 percent were still running a business. One successful alumnae is Jasmine Lawrence, 18, now a computer engineering freshman at Georgia Tech. With the help of the group, she started a business called Eden Body Works, selling beauty products. The business took off, her products were sold in Wal-Mart and she was featured on “Oprah,” all as a teenager. “The boot camp with N.F.T.E. gave me all the tools I needed to be a young entrepreneur,” she said. “They still continue to nurture me.” Currently, she said, she is in confidential talks with a buyer for Eden Body Works, which has allowed her to focus on her next goal of “doing amazing things in technology.” “Being in college has been a big change for me,” Ms. Lawrence said. “My course load is huge, the classes are hard. I feel like a real student now.” Her story is told as well in “Ten9Eight.” Ms. Mazzio said, “I want as many kids who can see it and look at their lives and those in the film, and say, ‘Yes, I’m facing these same obstacles. They look like me and talk like me and they are moving ahead.’ ” She got the approval from a backer, the Templeton Foundation, to start shooting the film in the spring of 2008. “We were off and running,” Ms. Mazzio said. “It was really exciting. I didn’t know how this story would end. We were making bets: who do we think will take the cake, who will win the contest? We didn’t care, but their stories were so compelling, it was so interesting that I went from city to city to city.” Usually stories about disadvantaged youth in the inner cities are bleak, she added, but “this film is meant to be the exact opposite.”

Entrepreneurship
Small Business
Teenagers and Adolescence
Documentary Films and Programs
Contests and Prizes
Colleges and Universities


Doubts in Asia Over Whether New Sanctions Against North Korea Can Work

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — As a new set of sanctions against North Korea circulated at the United Nations Security Council , analysts in South Korea and China expressed doubts on Friday that the measures would be tough enough to force the pariah state to give up its nuclear weapons . The United States presented a draft resolution it had negotiated with China to the Security Council on Thursday, calling for wide-ranging penalties against North Korea for a nuclear test it conducted on Jan. 6 and for its launching of a long-range rocket a month later, both of which violated previous council resolutions. The draft contained the most comprehensive and toughest sanctions against the isolated country that the council has ever considered. There was no doubt that they would squeeze North Korea’s ability to raise funds for its weapons programs, depending on how vigorously China, the North’s single largest trade partner, enforced the sanctions, analysts said. If adopted, the resolution would require United Nations member states to inspect all cargo passing through their territories to or from North Korea for illicit goods. It would also attempt to limit North Korea’s sale of minerals, especially coal and iron ore, two of its most important exports. But the draft contained no effective sanctions against a booming trade across the relatively porous 870-mile border between China and North Korea — a lifeline not only for the impoverished North Korean people but also for their government’s ability to earn cash. Nor did it require countries, especially China, to cut off oil exports to the North. It would also not affect tens of thousands of North Korean workers at factories, construction sites and logging camps in China, Russia, Africa and the Middle East. According to some estimates, they send home $200 million to $300 million a year, most of which human rights groups contend ends up in the coffers of the North’s leader, Kim Jong-un. “These sanctions will certainly hurt the North,” said Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Dongguk University in Seoul. “But I don’t think they will hurt them enough to abandon their nuclear weapons.” Video Hua Chunying, a spokeswoman for China’s foreign ministry, said on Thursday that her government was confident that new United Nations sanctions on North Korea could curb its nuclear arms program. Credit Credit European Pressphoto Agency Analysts in China said Beijing’s approval of the sanctions proposed by the United States was the result of a complex calculus by Communist Party leaders. A factor that has loomed large for them in recent weeks is plans by Washington to deploy an antiballistic missile system, called Thaad, in South Korea. Chinese officials are seeking ways to prevent that from happening. “If it was not for the Thaad issue, there might not be such cooperation between China and the U.S.,” said Shen Dingli, a professor of international relations at Fudan University in Shanghai. “By doing this, it is still possible for China to dissuade the Americans from deploying Thaad at China’s doorstep.” China’s agreement to limit imports of North Korean coal and iron ore, for example, came with an important caveat: It should be demonstrated that such imports would support illicit North Korean activities. North Korea’s minerals, mainly its coal and iron ore, accounted for 53 percent of its $2.8 billion in exports to China in 2014, according to data compiled by the government-run Korea Institute for National Unification in Seoul. But because of a slowing Chinese economy and sharp declines in global prices, those coal and iron ore exports have been decreasing since 2013. North Korea has already begun making up for the shortfall by exporting more workers abroad, the analyst Lee Seok said in a report published by the Korea Institute last month. The workers have therefore become an increasingly important source of cash for the North Korean government. Nor would the proposed sanctions affect North Korea’s growing business of making clothes on contracts from Chinese companies. North Korean textile exports to China expanded to $741 million in 2014 from $186 million in 2010, and the goods are made mostly at factories run by the North Korean military or the ruling Workers’ Party, analysts and officials in Seoul said. “There are still too many loopholes for us to predict that they will lead to North Korea’s denuclearization,” said Chang Yong-seok, an analyst at the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. “These sanctions are more like a warning to the North about how much more it could suffer if it conducted another nuclear test, and an inducement for the country to return to the negotiating table.” Currently, an estimated 75 percent of North Korea’s foreign trade, including almost all of its oil imports, is with China, providing Beijing with unique economic leverage over the North. The two-way trade amounted to $5.5 billion last year, according to figures from Chinese customs authorities. But China’s approach on how to solve the North Korean problem is fundamentally different from that of the United States or South Korea. It insists that sanctions should not aim to push North Korea toward instability but to induce it back to the negotiating table. After negotiating the proposed sanctions with his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that North Korea could ultimately have a peace agreement with the United States “if it will come to the table and negotiate the denuclearization.” North Korea has been hit with a series of ever-tightening sanctions because of its nuclear tests and rocket launches since 2006. But the effect on one of the world’s least trade-dependent economies has been limited, especially when China has opposed crippling penalties. The government has learned to shift the pain of international sanctions to its people by squeezing the resources available for the poor, while the elite has remained intact, defectors from the country have said. Still, the proposed sanctions, especially mandatory inspections of all cargo, would make it harder for North Korea to raise funds and import technology for its nuclear and ballistic missile programs, analysts said. Until now, countries were required to inspect North Korean cargo only if they had reasonable grounds to believe it contained illicit items. The proposed resolution would also ban countries from selling to the North all small arms and other conventional weapons, as well as dual-use nuclear and missile-related goods and items like trucks that could be converted for military use. It would also ban the sales of aviation and rocket fuel to hurt the North Korean military’s ability to conduct regular drills. The resolution is also expected to expand the list of luxury goods countries are banned from selling to the North. “This could be bad because most of the parts for the nuclear facilities could only come from the outside world,” Wang Junsheng, a researcher on North Korea at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said about the mandatory inspection of cargo. Mr. Wang said negotiations between the United States and China over the terms of the sanctions had dragged on for seven weeks because Washington had wanted Beijing to cut off more trade. That included exports of oil and imports of coal, he said. But although China was fed up with Mr. Kim’s aggressive and unpredictable behavior, it refused to enshrine those trade limits in the sanctions because energy supplies are tied to the well-being of civilians in North Korea and China — especially important during the harsh winter, he said. “Cutting off the trade could trigger a mass-scale humanitarian crisis,” Mr. Wang said.

North Korea
South Korea
China
Nuclear weapon
US
UN
Embargoes Sanctions
UN Security Council


E. Leroy Tolles, Law Firm Founder, Is Dead at 85

Abstract: E. Leroy Tolles, a co-founder of the Los Angeles law firm of Munger, Tolles & Olson, which grew from seven lawyers into a nationally prominent firm with about 200 lawyers, died on Jan. 28 in Palo Alto, Calif. He was 85 and lived in San Marino, Calif., and Montecito, Calif. The cause was cardiopulmonary failure after a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, his firm announced. Mr. Tolles, known as Roy, helped found the firm in 1962 with six colleagues. He spent three decades there, working in a range of fields, including tax law and mining law. Mr. Tolles was also an investor and partner at Wheeler, Munger & Company, an investment firm. He practiced “value investing,” an investment technique made famous by Warren E. Buffett, and became a wealthy man at a young age, said Charles T. Munger, a fellow founding partner, who is now vice chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Mr. Buffett’s holding company. Edwin Leroy Tolles Jr. was born in Winstead, Conn., in 1922 and grew up in Mount Vernon, N.Y. He graduated from Williams College and served as a Marine pilot in the South Pacific in World War II. He received his law degree in 1948 from Harvard. He is survived by his wife of 63 years, the former Martha Gregory, and four children in California, Stephen, of Pasadena; Roy III, of Piedmont; Thomas, of Santa Monica, and Cynthia Tseng of Palo Alto; and 11 grandchildren. Another son, Henry, died before him.

Legal Profession
Deaths (Obituaries)
Los Angeles (Calif)


Minnesota: Penalties for Airport Drivers

Abstract: Taxi drivers who refuse service to travelers carrying alcohol at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport face tougher penalties, officials said. The Metropolitan Airports Commission voted to suspend a driver’s airport taxi license for 30 days for the first offense and revoke it for two years for a second offense. The new penalties take effect May 11. Airport officials say more than 70 percent of the cabbies at the airport are Muslim, many of whom say Islamic law forbids them from giving rides to people carrying alcohol. Before, a driver who refused to transport someone carrying alcohol would have to go to the back of the taxicab line. Airport officials said that since January 2002 there had been more than 4,800 refusals to take alcohol-carrying travelers.

Minnesota
Airports
Islam
Alcoholic Beverages
Minneapolis (Minn)
St Paul (Minn)


Not Winning Gold Inspires, Too

Abstract: BOCA RATON, Fla. — Word got out about the seasoned fish and spread quickly through the restaurant. It started in the kitchen, where the wait staff stood in circles, whispering and stealing glances between delivering mounds of greens and slices of cheesecake. Pretty soon, diners picked up the scent. One by one, they approached the table tucked in the back where the Olympic swimmer Dara Torres was having lunch Friday. “My fiancée told me not to bother you,” a white-haired gentleman said, “but I just had to come over and say congratulations.” Two 20-something waitresses were close on his heels, gushing: “We don’t want to pester you. We just want to say you’re awesome.” A month after the closing ceremony at the Beijing Olympics, the procession to the table set by the 41-year-old Torres with her triple-silver-medal performance shows no signs of trailing off. To her amazement, her appeal seems greater than ever. Her fee for motivational speeches, which was $10,000 a year ago, has jumped to $50,000, and there are not enough days in a week to accommodate all the requests. Her agent, Evan Morgenstein, said that he had to ask for private flights for out-of-town engagements because Torres was being stopped so often in airports that she nearly missed her plane several times. Torres, the oldest Olympic swimming medalist, was cited by the cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong as one of his inspirations for ending his retirement. It was like the beacon calling the bonfire bright. “It’s overwhelming at times,” Torres said. At a Yankees home game against the Chicago White Sox this month, Torres threw out the ceremonial first pitch and found out that her fan base extended to the players in pinstripes. Before she posed for photographs with Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Joe Girardi, pitcher Brian Bruney sat next to her in the dugout and asked about the amino acids she took to aid in her training recovery. Speaking by telephone Friday, Bruney said he was “blown away” by Torres. “When you look at her passion and her preparation, I think all athletes could take something from that,” Bruney said. “After what she’s done, how can you not look in the mirror and say, Are you doing enough?” Morgenstein said there was talk that Torres, a former television commentator, might host her own daytime show, which he described by telephone Friday as “Oprah meets ‘Extreme Makeover.’ ” She turned down a spot on “Dancing With the Stars” because she didn’t want to spend more time away from her 2-year-old daughter, Tessa. The post-Games adulation has helped Torres make over her self-image. The intense disappointment she initially felt after failing in her fifth Olympics to win her first individual gold medal is gone. Seeing herself through the eyes of others, how can she feel like a loser? “Most people who come up to me,” she said, “don’t mention the results at all.” In the 50-meter freestyle, her only individual event in Beijing, Torres missed the gold by a hundredth of a second, touched out by Britta Steffen of Germany. Torres’s time, 24.07 seconds, was an American record and only a tenth of a second off the world record, held by Libby Trickett of Australia. Thirty-five minutes later, she recorded the fastest 100 freestyle split ever while anchoring the 4x100 medley relay that finished second to Australia. Torres hit the wall so hard at the finish that she sustained an injury that turned her left thumb black, blue and bulging. Torres pulled off the double on Aug. 17 despite an arthritic right shoulder that required surgery 10 days later; the arthroscopic procedure was shown live on CNN. “People have been stopping me to ask how my shoulder is doing,” Torres said. “They say, ‘I saw it on TV.’ ” Dr. Joseph Chalal, an orthopedic surgeon in Florida who performed the operation, said Friday by telephone, “She asked me if I minded it being televised, and I said I was fine with it.” He added, “It’s been a long, exciting, fun ride with Dara.” She said that she made it through the United States trials, in which she won the 50 and 100 freestyle events, with the aid of a cortisone injection and that she was in such pain in Beijing, it hurt to have her swimsuit strap rub against the shoulder. Torres’s double was overshadowed by the United States men’s victory in the 4x100 relay, which secured a history-making eighth gold medal for Michael Phelps. The significance of Torres’s swims was not lost on Morgenstein, who was in the stands. He sent her a text message that read, “Your revolution now got better.” He later explained to Torres that in losing, she had become more relatable to the women she was hoping to inspire. Morgenstein told her, “Wanting something so badly and you don’t get it, but you keep on trying, is something everyone can identify with.” That wasn’t much comfort to her at the time. A month later, Torres said, “I see what he meant.” She laughed. “But for me personally, I wanted to win.” After collecting five medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney, Australia, winning bronze in three individual events, Torres had trouble making the transition to a so-called regular life. “I went through a low for about two months,” said Torres, who has won 12 Olympic medals over all. It has been easier this time, she said, because of her daughter. “She’s made it much easier to get back to normalcy,” Torres said. The Olympics kept them apart for a month. Falling back into their routine has been easier for Torres than for Tessa, who clings to her mother’s leg when it’s time to leave for preschool, something she never did before. “Separation anxiety,” Torres said. “When I leave, she thinks I’m going to China.” Torres glanced at her watch. It was almost time to pick up Tessa. She asked for the check and was informed by the waiter that his general manager, Cindy Saravia, had paid for the meal. He said, “She asked: ‘Is that Dara Torres? Tell her I’m very inspired by her.’ ” On her way to her car, Torres, who was dressed to blend in, wearing a tank top, clam diggers and flip-flops, was stopped by a woman who described herself as a masters-level rower. The woman was with her sister, and while they took turns telling Torres what an inspiration she was, Torres smiled, thanked them and kept looking at her feet. Middle-aged mothers find the strength for self-improvement in Torres’s six-pack abs and chain-link limbs. Women in midlevel management positions take strength in Torres’s story of striving for a goal that so far has eluded her. And Torres? After proclaiming herself retired before leaving Beijing, she has found the strength, in the handshakes of everyone she meets, to keep swimming for another year — or four.

Swimming
Torres Dara
Olympic Games (2008)
Olympic Games


Ovide Lamontagne’s House in New Hampshire Lures Candidates

Abstract: MANCHESTER, N.H. — The décor is plain, the food forgettable and the drink menu limited to coffee, bottled water and wine. But the parties taking place every few weeks in the rambling white house on Young Street here are of the can’t-miss variety, especially for Republican presidential hopefuls seeking credibility in this crucial primary state. The host is Ovide Lamontagne , an affable conservative lawyer and activist whom potential candidates are hustling to befriend this spring as their visits to New Hampshire multiply. Mr. Lamontagne and his wife, Bettie, are obliging by throwing house parties for any serious candidate who asks. While house parties are hardly a new concept in New Hampshire — dozens will be held between now and next year’s primary, tentatively scheduled for Feb. 14 — it is rare for one host to stand out as a potential kingmaker. But every Republican weighing a run seems eager to meet and greet in Mr. Lamontagne’s childhood home here, both to schmooze with him and to build the grass-roots support that primary candidates cannot survive without. “This whole program of house parties that he’s doing is unique,” said Harold Turner, a local businessman who has attended all three of Mr. Lamontagne’s parties so far. “Ovide has said publicly that he fully intends at the end of the process to endorse a candidate, and that will be a pretty significant thing to get.” So far, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota , former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania and Herman Cain , the former chief executive of Godfather’s Pizza, have trekked to the Lamontagne home here, with a wide porch, an American flag and a lone birch tree out front. Rudolph W. Giuliani and Newt Gingrich are next in line, with parties scheduled for May (Mr. Giuliani requested one when he met the Lamontagnes on a visit here last month, Mr. Lamontagne said). On Friday, Representative Michele Bachmann of Minnesota and former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts were scheduled to join Mr. Pawlenty, Mr. Santorum and Mr. Cain at a dinner here honoring Mr. Lamontagne as “conservative of the year.” Unlike house parties in fancier homes, people do not venture to Mr. Lamontagne’s, on Manchester ’s modest east side, out of nosiness, said Fergus Cullen, a former chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party . The house sits amid triple-deckers and other sturdy New England stock. During the party for Mr. Cain, one neighbor hosed down a fish tank in her driveway; others lounged on their porch in shorts. “This isn’t the big house up on Lake Winnipesaukee that everyone’s always wanted to get inside,” Mr. Cullen said. Mr. Lamontagne (his full name is pronounced OH-vid Luh-MAHN-tane) emerged as a power player after narrowly losing last year’s Republican Senate primary to Kelly Ayotte , the establishment candidate who went on to win in November. His surprisingly close finish energized conservatives, and his immediate offering of support for Ms. Ayotte after his defeat burnished his image as a principled party leader. Now Mr. Lamontagne enlists relatives and volunteers from his Senate campaign to help move furniture to the basement before each party; at the one for Mr. Cain, all that remained were two sofas, a piano and a grandfather clock. A velvet rope deterred potential snoopers from climbing the stairs to the second floor. Bettie Lamontagne, her strappy sandals and black shirt a chic contrast to the sensible shoes and patriotic ties of some guests, had set out cheese and crackers, cocktail franks and garlic hummus that she cheerfully admitted were not homemade. “A membership at B. J.’s is the key,” she said, referring to the wholesale club. Mike Castaldo, a Republican activist from Dover, said snacking was “something of a liability” at Mr. Lamontagne’s parties because with a mouthful of cheddar, guests might miss the chance to chat with a presidential aspirant. Mr. Pawlenty, who needed a microphone to address the 200 guests crammed into Mr. Lamontagne’s living, dining and family rooms one night last month, said Mr. Lamontagne was “offering grass-roots engagement at its best.” Mr. Lamontagne, 53, may run for governor next year, but for now he has formed a political action committee, partly to finance the house parties, which are free. “I just think it’s important to get involved in this process,” he said recently. “We’ve got to get a new president elected, and I’ve got to do what I can as a citizen to get the most conservative candidate elected.” Mr. Cain, who drew about 70 people to the house on Wednesday, spoke for about 20 minutes and lingered until the last guests departed. “You saw this crowd,” he said afterward, resting on Mr. Lamontagne’s leather couch. “I mean, I was thrilled! Maybe they leave remembering a few of my catchphrases.” Mr. Santorum joked in an interview that it was both an honor and a curse to have been the speaker at Mr. Lamontagne’s first house party, on a snowy night in January. More than 150 people braved bad weather to attend, he said, but the crowd was so unexpectedly large that many could not hear his speech. “I was a little bit of the guinea pig,” he recalled. By the time Mr. Pawlenty’s turn came around, Mr. Lamontagne had acquired a small sound system for the guests packed in “near-sardine conditions,” to use Mr. Pawlenty’s phrase, throughout the house. Mr. Pawlenty said his only regret was eating too many meatballs that night, which he blamed for his poor performance playing ice hockey the next day in Concord . The candidates leave Mr. Lamontagne’s house with e-mail addresses for all of the guests — a critical tool for the network-building they will do over the summer and fall. The guests, meanwhile, get nuggets about the candidates that they might not learn at larger events. Mr. Cain, for example, revealed that he despised the nickname Herm. Mr. Lamontagne said he expected the parties to continue into the fall, with a break in July and August because his house gets too warm. Mr. Romney wants to come, he said, as does Representative Ron Paul of Texas . He endorsed Mr. Romney in 2008, but in staying neutral for now, he is guaranteeing that his parties stay red-hot and that his own name does the same. “It’s a smart strategy on his part,” said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, pointing to Mr. Lamontagne’s possible run for governor in 2012. “I’m sure he’ll drag it out as long as he can.” Donald J. Trump has yet to reach out, but Jorge Mesa-Tejada, a friend of Mr. Lamontagne’s, joked that Mr. Trump’s main goal in visiting New Hampshire this week was to get on Mr. Lamontagne’s radar screen. “Trump probably came up here just to try to get an invitation,” he said.

New Hampshire
Republicans
Ovide M Lamontagne
2012 Presidential Election


Bradley Struggles and Says Uproar Over His Putter Is to Blame

Abstract: PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. — Few golfers were happier to leave the West Coast behind than Keegan Bradley, and not just because this week’s Honda Classic, the first of four consecutive PGA Tour stops in Florida, is a short drive from his home in Jupiter. In his first six starts, Bradley’s highest finish in a full-field event was a tie for 16th at the Northern Trust Open, where in 2012 he tied for second after forcing a playoff. After taking fourth at the winners-only event in Maui, Bradley finished tied for 49th at the Sony Open, missed the cut at the Farmers Insurance Open, tied for 24th at the Phoenix Open and lost to Marcus Fraser in the first round of the W.G.C.-Accenture Match Play Championship. The statistics suggest his putter is to blame. Bradley ranks 60th in strokes gained putting after finishing 28th in the category in 2012. Bradley suggested that the public uproar over his putter has contributed to his slow start. He anchors his long putter, and since November, when the United States Golf Association and the Royal & Ancient announced their proposed ban on the stroke, Bradley has become the public face of the issue because he was the first golfer to win a major using an anchored stroke. “It’s been actually pretty difficult, you know, especially lately,” Bradley said. “I’m being called a cheater more than ever by fans.” He added: “It’s been really difficult, and I’m sick of it, to be honest. I’m ready to be over it.” Bradley’s anchored stroke at the 2011 P.G.A. Championship became a major story only in retrospect. At a news conference after his playoff victory against Jason Dufner, Bradley fielded 22 questions, only one of which was about his long putter. It was preceded by 16 questions, and nobody in the interview room pressed Bradley after he said he did not consider his long putter an oddity, explaining, “Last year in the Nationwide Tour, to be in a group with three guys that had unconventional putters, it happened all the time.” Fast forward to Tuesday and Bradley’s news conference at PGA National, where he fielded 14 questions. Nine were about long putters, including the first question, in which he was asked to react to PGA Tour Commissioner Tim Finchem’s announcement on Sunday that the tour is opposing the proposed ban. “I’m very proud,” Bradley said, “and it makes me feel good that my tour, the tour I play on, has my back.” The U.S.G.A. and R&A’s 90-day assessment period, during which it solicited feedback on the proposed ban, ended Monday. The U.S.G.A. said on Sunday that it planned to announce its final decision in the spring. Speaking before Bradley, Rory McIlroy, the world No. 1, said, “It seems like the European Tour is going the other way” on the issue, suggesting the PGA Tour is at odds not only with the U.S.G.A., but with its European counterpart. The possible implications are crazy to contemplate: a player winning the P.G.A. Championship with a long putter after having to use a conventional putter at the United States Open and British Open earlier in the year; a player using a long putter on the PGA Tour one week and having to switch to a conventional putter the next week for an event in Europe; players using a long putter in a Ryder Cup on United States soil and a conventional one in a Ryder Cup in Europe. Finchem said the decision to oppose the ban reflected the views of the tour membership. But McIlroy, one of two major winners since Bradley to use a conventional putter, revealed on Tuesday the schism that existed within the tour membership when he said: “We’ve trusted this game of golf, we’ve put it in the hands of the R&A and the U.S.G.A. for I don’t know how many years, and we’ve always abided by the rules that they have set. I don’t think this should be any different.” No matter your opinion, the result, the 26-year-old Bradley acknowledged, “is a mess.” And squarely in the middle of it is Bradley, who noted that any story published on the proposed ban invariably is accompanied by a photograph of him putting. So intertwined has he become with long putters that it is hard for Bradley not to take personally any criticism of the anchored stroke. Bradley said the week the proposed ban was announced, a fan at Tiger Woods’s event outside Los Angeles called him “a cheater.” In a sport that places such a premium on integrity that players are expected to call penalties on themselves, the word carries a powerful sting. “The word ‘cheater,’ I mean it’s amazing that people can say that,” Bradley said. “It’s probably the worst thing you could ever say to an athlete.” The controversy has left Bradley in a bind. If his results improve during the Florida swing, it is likely to be because more of his putts are falling, which will provide the fans who want to shoot down his success with more ammunition. Bradley’s solution? “It can’t be just one group here and one group here,” he said. “Let’s get together and figure this out.”


Trump Repeats Lie About Popular Vote in Meeting With Lawmakers

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Trump used his first official meeting with congressional leaders on Monday to falsely claim that millions of unauthorized immigrants had robbed him of a popular vote majority, a return to his obsession with the election’s results even as he seeks support for his legislative agenda. The claim, which he has made before on Twitter, has been judged untrue by numerous fact-checkers. The new president’s willingness to bring it up at a White House reception in the State Dining Room is an indication that he continues to dwell on the implications of his popular vote loss even after assuming power. Mr. Trump appears to remain concerned that the public will view his victory — and his entire presidency — as illegitimate if he does not repeatedly challenge the idea that Americans were deeply divided about sending him to the White House to succeed President Barack Obama. Mr. Trump received 304 electoral votes to capture the White House, but he fell almost three million votes short of Hillary Clinton in the popular vote. That reality appears to have bothered him since Election Day, prompting him to repeatedly complain that adversaries were trying to undermine him. Moving into the White House appears not to have tempered that anxiety. Several people familiar with the closed-door meeting Monday night, who asked to remain anonymous in discussing a private conversation, said Mr. Trump used the opportunity to brag about his victory. As part of that conversation, Mr. Trump asserted that between three million and five million unauthorized immigrants voted for Mrs. Clinton. That is similar to a Twitter message he posted in late November that said he would have won the popular vote “if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” Voting officials across the country have said there is virtually no evidence of people voting illegally, and certainly not millions of them. White House officials did not respond to requests for a comment on Mr. Trump’s discussion of the issue. Representative Steny H. Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland, who attended the meeting, said that Mr. Trump also talked about the size of the crowd for his Inaugural Address. “It was a huge crowd, a magnificent crowd. I haven’t seen such a crowd as big as this,” Mr. Hoyer told CNN, quoting Mr. Trump. He added that Mr. Trump did not “spend a lot of time on that, but it was clear that it was still on his mind.” The president’s comments about the election results and his inauguration came as he gathered the bipartisan leadership of Congress for a White House reception. He also sought to build support for an ambitious legislative agenda, despite days earlier castigating the very institution he needs to approve it. Mr. Trump has said he intends to press Congress to move quickly to repeal and replace Mr. Obama’s health care law, pass a large investment in the nation’s infrastructure, make changes to the country’s immigration laws and overhaul the tax system. Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, called the meeting a “good sort of get-to-know-you session” and noted that “relationships count for a lot in this business.” Mr. Cornyn said he thought such sessions would be more frequent while Mr. Trump is in office than they were during Mr. Obama’s tenure. Mr. Obama famously disliked socializing with members of Congress. Referring to Democrats, Mr. Cornyn said, “They said they’d never been over to the White House for anything like this before.” Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, said it was an “interesting” meeting. Along with health care and infrastructure, she said they discussed China and currency manipulation, as well as issues involving intellectual property rights, which she said were a point of agreement. “We talked about the Affordable Care Act and said what the Affordable Care Act has been successful in doing is improving quality, expanding access and lowering costs,” she told reporters. “And any proposal that they might have that does that, we’d be interested in hearing about.” Even with Republicans in control of Congress, Mr. Trump will have to build relationships in a city that he spent more time mocking than praising during his campaign. In his Inaugural Address , the president criticized the political establishment, saying the people assembled behind him — including the leaders he met with on Monday — had “reaped the rewards of government while the people have borne the cost.” White House officials said the meeting was designed to press the lawmakers on the need to move quickly. The reception included, among others, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin and Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, as well as Ms. Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York. “The American people are frustrated with the lack of progress here in Washington, and the president wants no delay in addressing our most pressing issues,” said Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary. “He’s taking every opportunity to forge strong bonds with congressional leaders on both sides of the aisle.” As the group sat around a dining room table for photographs, Mr. Trump described his interactions with lawmakers. A “beautiful, beautiful relationship,” Mr. Trump told reporters. That has not always been the case. Before Mr. Trump secured the Republican nomination, Mr. Ryan pointedly declined to endorse him. At one point, Mr. Ryan said he was “not ready” to back Mr. Trump after his remarks about women and Hispanics and because of his divergence from Republican orthodoxy. That relationship slowly improved after Mr. Trump became the party’s nominee and later won the election to become the 45th president. Monday’s reception, officials said, was another step in that process.

Congress
Congress
Senate
Donald Trump
US Politics
2016 Presidential Election
House of Representatives


Michigan Eliminated

Abstract: Kimberlee Souza’s infield single in the sixth inning ended up bringing in the go-ahead run when it was misplayed by Michigan, and Washington beat the Wolverines, 4-1, in a Women’s College World Series elimination game in Oklahoma City. Michigan (51-13) did not get done with its previous game until 2:28 a.m.

College World Series
University of Michigan
Softball


Trial Begins in Hit and Run That Killed Expectant Brooklyn Couple

Abstract: It was Saturday night in Orthodox Williamsburg, and Shabbos had ended not long before. Raizy Glauber, who was almost seven months pregnant, was leaving her parents’ house with her husband, Nathan. She affectionately tapped her older brother, Joseph Silberstein, on the shoulder as he entered the house and they left. As Mr. Silberstein walked home soon after, he saw a commotion on the street, but even when his wife got news that a young couple had been in an accident, it “didn’t register,” Mr. Silberstein said. It was only when he got a call from his brother-in-law that he realized what had happened. “Raizy’s gone,” he testified. Mr. Silberstein was the first witness in a manslaughter trial that started on Monday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn, where Julio Acevedo is accused of plowing his car into the livery cab carrying the Glaubers in March 2013. The couple was en route to the hospital because the baby had not moved in a few hours. The Glaubers, both 21, were killed . The baby, a boy, was delivered through a cesarean section, but died a day later. Mr. Acevedo is also accused of leaving the scene of the accident. Mr. Acevedo had a long criminal history, which explains why he fled the scene, his family and defense lawyer have said — he did not trust prosecutors because they had withheld evidence in an earlier case against him. He could be facing up to life in prison if convicted. On Monday, a prosecutor, Timothy Gough, said Mr. Acevedo was going 70 miles an hour when he slammed the borrowed silver BMW he was driving into the Toyota Camry carrying the Glaubers. The car service driver had stopped at an intersection where the stop line is several feet back from the crossroad, and drivers often edged out into traffic to see if someone was coming. The driver saw nothing and pulled out, Mr. Gough said, and was hit squarely by Mr. Acevedo’s car. Ms. Glauber was ejected 20 feet from the car, Mr. Gough said, while Mr. Glauber was crushed inside. Neither of them was wearing a seatbelt, a point the defense lawyer, Scott Brettschneider, underscored during his opening statement. The car service driver, Pedro Nuñez Delacruz, was taken to a hospital and released. After the crash, Mr. Acevedo walked over to the Camry, “looked inside, and walked away,” Mr. Gough said, abandoning his car. The police found fingerprints on a bag of frozen rats in the BMW (Mr. Gough did not explain why they were there), as well as DNA particles on the airbag that deployed during the crash. The evidence was linked to Mr. Acevedo. After several days at large, Mr. Acevedo surrendered in Bethlehem, Pa. “This isn’t a question, ladies and gentlemen, of right of way,” Mr. Gough said, noting there were no skid marks associated with Mr. Acevedo’s car, meaning he “didn’t hit the brakes at all.” However, Mr. Brettschneider said there was a “major defect” in the design of the intersection in question, at Wilson Street and Kent Avenue, and the livery driver’s view was blocked as he drove into the intersection. During Monday’s testimony, several spectators were seen wiping away tears as Mr. Gough detailed the Glaubers’ injuries. More tears were shed as Mr. Silberstein, who assumed care of the baby, said what he had later been named: Tanchum, which, according to one translation, means consolation.

Hit and Run
Raizy Glauber
Julio Acevedo
Murders and Homicides
Nathan Glauber
Williamsburg Brooklyn


Yanks' Rasner Waits for Chance, but Isn't Sitting Around

Abstract: CHICAGO — The Yankees ’ commitment to young starters has been tested so far, with Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy combining for an 0-5 record and a 9.20 earned run average. But a much less heralded prospect is quietly dominating for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. It is Darrell Rasner, the 27-year-old right-hander whose season ended last May with a broken finger at Shea Stadium. Throughout spring training, the Yankees said they would carry a long reliever. They decided not to, and Rasner was among the final cuts. “It kind of caught me off guard,” Rasner said by telephone from Scranton on Wednesday. “I felt good about my spring. It was disappointing, but they went a different way.” Rasner has responded to the demotion by going 3-0 with an 0.72 E.R.A., the best in the International League with a minimum of 20 innings pitched before Wednesday’s games. Rasner was tied for third in strikeouts, with 21 in 25 innings, and opponents were hitting .153. He said he kept track of the Yankees but tried not to dwell on how he might fit with them. “I know better than to really look into anything,” Rasner said. “It wears me down. I try not to pay attention and just do what I can do.” Rasner praised the new Class AAA pitching coach, Rafael Chaves, who was the Mariners’ pitching coach for the previous two years, for helping him develop a cutter to complement his curveball. Having command of another breaking ball has helped Rasner keep hitters off his curveball, and he has thrown it with confidence to both sides of the plate. He is 4-4 with a 4.20 E.R.A. in 12 games for the Yankees the last two seasons, and he is making a case for another look. “I pull for those guys, and I wish them nothing but the best,” Rasner said. “But we used 28 pitchers last year, so I know my chance is going to come. I just need to continue to work down here and stay sharp.” RODRIGUEZ TO RETURN Third baseman Alex Rodriguez is still expected to rejoin the team Thursday, according to Manager Joe Girardi. Rodriguez, who strained his right quadriceps Sunday, has been in Miami with his wife and newborn daughter. “I’d be shocked if he played tomorrow,” Girardi said. “If he came in and said he’s ready, believe me, I’m putting his name in there. But we’ve got to make sure.” Another banged-up Yankee is reliever Brian Bruney, who received treatment before the game on his foot, which he injured when he slipped while running to cover first base Tuesday. Bruney did not join the team on the field for pregame batting practice. BLOOMBERG PAYS A VISIT Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg was in town to receive an award from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, and he stopped by the Yankees’ clubhouse before the game. Bloomberg chatted at length with Joe Girardi and signed autographs for fans. “We talked baseball,” Girardi said. “I’m not much into talking politics. He was just talking about how to handle situations you have, taking about the city and the heartbeat of the city. It was good.”

International League
Baseball
New York Yankees
Rasner Darrell


In China, Steel Consumption Drops as Economy Slows

Abstract: DALIAN, China — China’s steel consumption dropped this year for the first time since at least 2000 because of slower economic growth, leading to a surplus of iron ore in the country and a plunge of more than 40 percent in its price. The consumption dropped 0.3 percent, to 500 million metric tons, in the first eight months of the year compared with a year ago, Wang Xiaoqi, vice chairman of the China Iron and Steel Association, said during an industry conference Thursday. “There are many reasons for this — the economy slowing and the economy undergoing restructuring,” he said. “Steel-consuming sectors have cut their demand.” With China now steering growth toward consumption and away from the investment that has propelled years of expansion in the domestic steel sector, Mr. Wang said, “from now, domestic steel output and consumption won’t rise along with economic growth.” The decline in China’s steel consumption this year is the first time demand has shrunk since 2000, said Ian Roper, a commodity strategist at the brokerage firm CLSA, who has tracked the data since that year. “We’ve been bearish for a while, saying property construction activity has peaked, but maybe the scale of the decline will be faster than we anticipated,” Mr. Roper said. “This reinforces our view that there will be a multiyear downtrend in demand for iron ore, and there’s no hope for a recovery in prices to anywhere near $100 per ton,” he added. Iron ore supply exceeded demand in China by 81 million tons in the period from January to August, Mr. Wang said. Iron ore fell below $80 a ton this week for the first time since September 2009 and is on track for its biggest annual drop amid a deep supply glut stoked by global mining companies like Vale and Rio Tinto, which can produce the ore at a lower cost than smaller companies. Shanghai rebar futures, an indicator of demand for steel, plunged more than 3 percent to a record on Thursday. The futures have shed about 30 percent of their value this year and could come under further pressure if output remains high amid poor demand. Estimated crude steel consumption in China, the world’s top consumer and producer of the metal, fell 1.9 percent in August, compared with a year ago, to 61.9 million tons, Mr. Wang said. China’s crude steel output is likely to hit 826 million tons for the year, Mr. Wang said, up 6 percent from the official 2013 output figure released by the government, but only slightly above the 822 million tons cited in August by the leading Chinese steel maker, Baoshan Iron and Steel. But the major mining companies, which have invested billions of dollars to increase output in order to sell more iron ore to China, are still convinced that Chinese demand has yet to peak. Claudio Alves, the global director of iron ore marketing and sales at Vale, the Brazilian company that is the top iron ore producer, said the “cycle of development and urbanization in China will continue for another 10 years.” Vale is planning to raise its annual output to 453 million tons by 2018, compared with 306 million tons last year. Rio Tinto, the second-largest producer, agrees, saying that the long-term fundamentals remain strong. “We expect Chinese growth in steel consumption per capita to continue out as far as 2030,” said Alan Smith, president of the company’s iron ore unit for Asia. “Rio Tinto’s assessment remains that China will reach around 1 billion tons of crude steel demand by 2030.” Less optimistic is Dai Zhihao, a top executive at Baosteel, who said that low iron ore prices were here to stay. He estimates that China’s steel production will peak at 800 million to 900 million tons around 2018. “I personally feel this fall represents a new status quo,” Mr. Dai said. “Looking at the distribution of profit across this industry and at the relationship between supply and demand, the current price is rational. An even lower price will be rational.”


Top Aide to Paterson Evaded Tax for 5 Years

Abstract: Gov. David A. Paterson found himself trying to contain an embarrassing situation on Saturday after the disclosure that his top aide and closest political confidant, Charles J. O’Byrne, failed to file and pay income taxes for several years. Mr. O’Byrne acknowledged in a written statement on Saturday that he did not file his state and federal income taxes for five years, from 2001 to 2005, saying that he had been suffering from depression and “became neglectful of certain responsibilities.” He said that he has since repaid the full amount, which including penalties came to more than $200,000. “This is a part of my past for which I take full responsibility,” he said in a written statement. The disclosure, reported by The New York Post on Saturday, clearly rattled the Paterson administration. Mr. Paterson quickly expressed his full support for Mr. O’Byrne, saying in an interview that his top adviser was “the single best employee that I have had the honor of supervising.” Mr. Paterson said that word of Mr. O’Byrne’s back taxes was leaked by the administration’s political opponents, though he would not say who he believed made the leak. “I’m very aware of where this came from. I can’t prove it, so I’ll just leave it at that,” he said. Democrats offered different views privately on Saturday about whether Mr. O’Byrne could survive politically. Some pointed out that he appeared to be contrite and forthcoming and had paid what he owed to state and federal authorities. These people also said that Mr. Paterson was likely to stand behind Mr. O’Byrne, at least for now, because he trusted Mr. O’Byrne deeply and had come to rely on him to help lead the administration. As the governor’s top assistant, Mr. O’Byrne is at the heart of the administration’s decision-making and is essentially a gatekeeper for Mr. Paterson. The revelations have raised fears inside and outside the administration that Mr. O’Byrne will be at best distracted and at worst incapacitated at a time when the state is facing a major fiscal crisis. “Ultimately, he only has one constituent, and that’s David,” said one Democratic lawmaker, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter. “If David is happy with his performance and accepts the explanations given, then he shouldn’t be fired.” But other senior Democrats in Albany said that the revelations handed Mr. Paterson’s opponents a weapon at a time when the state was trying to plug a projected $1.2 billion deficit. To learn that the administration’s second-in-command was delinquent in his financial responsibilities to the government, they said, was embarrassing at best. And Democrats warned that the disclosure could provide fodder for those in government who have clashed with Mr. O’Byrne, who is known for his aggressive and sometimes abrasive style of managing. Mr. Paterson said he learned of Mr. O’Byrne’s tax problems in 2004. Mr. Paterson, who was then minority leader of the State Senate, was in the process of hiring Mr. O’Byrne, a former Jesuit priest whose career has included corporate law and speechwriting for Howard Dean’s 2004 presidential campaign, when the issues surfaced. “I got the impression that this was something that was very hard for him to say,” Mr. Paterson said on Saturday. “He said it was being addressed. That it was fine.” A spokeswoman for Mr. Paterson could not immediately explain why it appeared that Mr. O’Byrne continued to not file and pay his taxes after disclosing the oversight to Mr. Paterson. When Mr. Paterson was being vetted for the lieutenant governor position by Eliot Spitzer’s campaign in 2006, the issue surfaced again. Mr. Paterson said Mr. O’Byrne asked him if he should step aside to avoid any potential embarrassment. “He says to me maybe he should go,” Mr. Paterson said, adding that he told Mr. O’Byrne that there would be no problem with him staying on.

O'Byrne Charles J
Paterson David A
Taxation