Jerry Zucker, Industrialist and Inventor, Is Dead at 58

Abstract: Jerry Zucker, a self-made billionaire who turned a small holding company into an empire that eventually bought the Hudson’s Bay Company of Canada , died Saturday at his home in Charleston, S.C. He was 58. The cause was cancer, his company announced. Mr. Zucker, chief executive of the Hudson’s Bay Company, was a scientist and inventor before becoming a global businessman. In 1983, he founded the InterTech Group, a conglomerate that makes fabrics and plastics for items as varied as tarpaulins and insulation used in the minus-200-degree world of cryogenics. His wife, Anita, will take over as chairwoman and chief executive, InterTech announced, while his son Jonathan has been named president. Mr. Zucker is also survived by his mother, Zipora Zucker; a brother, Jacob; a sister, Rochelle Marcus; another son, Jeffrey; a daughter, Andrea Muzin; and two grandchildren. He acquired the Hudson’s Bay Company, based in Toronto, in 2006. It was created as a fur-trading venture under a royal charter in 1670 and now operates department stores and other retailers. Anita Zucker will become the first woman to be chief executive, or governor, in the company’s 338-year history. The acquisition of the Hudson’s Bay Company moved Mr. Zucker onto Forbes magazine’s list of billionaires, with a net worth of $1.2 billion in 2008. Mr. Zucker was born in Tel Aviv in 1949 and emigrated to Charleston with his parents and brother three years later. He majored in chemistry, mathematics and physics at the University of Florida and received a master’s degree in electrical engineering from Florida State University. He had more than 350 inventions and patents, devising his first major invention while he was in high school. Mr. Zucker also made pacemakers and surgical tools. He was known in Charleston as a philanthropist who gave away millions of dollars to local, national and international charities.

Canada
Inventions and Patents
Philanthropy
Deaths (Obituaries)
Zucker Jerry
Millionaires and Billionaires
Hudson's Bay Company


Charlie Sanders, Hall of Fame Tight End With Lions, Dies at 68

Abstract: Charlie Sanders, a tight end for the Detroit Lions from 1968 to 1977 whose sticky fingers, fleet feet and shifty elusiveness helped redefine a position that had traditionally been reserved for stolid blockers, died on Thursday in Royal Oak, Mich., near Detroit. He was 68. The cause was cancer, the Lions said on their website. Big — he was 6 feet 4 inches and played at 225 pounds and above — fast, strong and sure-handed, he was a potent force in the conventional role of run blocker, but he was as much or more of a pass-catching threat, an unusual enough set of skills at the time that he was sometimes referred to as the Lions’ secret weapon. A prototype of the 21st-century tight end, a progenitor of the likes of Kellen Winslow and Tony Gonzalez, he led the Lions (or tied for the team lead) in receptions six times, and caught more passes, 336, than any other Lion in history until the record was surpassed in 1996 by Herman Moore, a player Sanders coached. He scored 31 touchdowns, and for his career, he averaged 14.3 yards per catch, a figure more typical of wide receivers than tight ends. He was selected for the Pro Bowl seven times, and for three consecutive seasons, 1969 through 1971, he was named a first-team All-Pro by The Associated Press. Inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2007, he was also one of two tight ends (Dave Casper of the Oakland Raiders was the other) to be named by the Hall of Fame selection committee to the National Football League’s all-decade team for the 1970s. Image Sanders with his bronze bust during the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 2007. Credit Phil Long/Associated Press Charles Alvin Sanders was born on Aug. 25, 1946, in Richlands, N.C. His mother died when he was 2, and for much of his early life, his father was in the Army, so he was reared by an aunt in Greensboro, N.C., where he played basketball and football in high school. At the University of Minnesota, he played defense until his senior year, when he made the transition to tight end and led the team in receptions. The Lions drafted him in the third round, and he became an immediate star, making the Pro Bowl his rookie year. In 1976, Sanders hurt a knee making a catch during an exhibition game, and though the pain was considerable, he continued to play. The injury’s severity went undetected until November 1977, when an arthroscopic examination revealed bone damage that further play threatened to render permanent, forcing his premature retirement at 31. Sanders was a popular figure in Detroit who remained with the Lions in different capacities — as a receivers coach, a scout, a personnel evaluator and a broadcaster — for decades after his playing career was over. He worked in the team’s community relations department and was a spokesman for several charities. His own foundation , started in 2007, provided scholarships for local students and funds for heart examinations for student-athletes. His survivors include 10 children. At his Hall of Fame induction, he devoted his speech to thanking a long list of family members, coaches, teammates and advisers, but he concluded on a touching and surprising note. “You see, my brothers and I lost my mother when I was only 2,” he said. “Of all the things I’ve done in football, and there have been a lot, there’s one thing that I really, really regretted. Many times I’ve seen athletes — college, professional — often look into a television and say, ‘Hi, Mom.’ I always thought that was special and always something I’d want to do but couldn’t. So I take this time right here, right now in Canton, Ohio, at the Pro Football Hall of Fame to say: ‘Hi, Mom. Thank you for the ultimate sacrifice. This day belongs to you.’ ”

Charlie Sanders
Detroit Lions
Football
Obituary


Fire at Refugee Shelter in Germany Followed a Dispute Over Ramadan, Police Say

Abstract: BERLIN — The German authorities are investigating a fire that destroyed a warehouse used as a refugee shelter in the western city of Düsseldorf this week. The fire broke out after a dispute over a decision to scale back the midday meal during the month of Ramadan, when many Muslims fast during the day. The police say five male shelter residents are suspected of setting the fire, which broke out on Tuesday after the afternoon meal service was reduced in consideration for Muslim residents. All of the approximately 130 residents were able to escape the fire, but several suffered injuries related to smoke inhalation. Residents have complained for months about conditions in the shelter, which used temporary walls to divide the separate living areas but did not afford migrants full privacy, Ralf Herrenbrück, a spokesman for prosecutors in Düsseldorf, said Friday. After the fire, most migrants were transferred to temporary shelters set up in public gymnasiums. The blaze, which caused damage estimated at 10 million euros, or $11.3 million, has received widespread attention amid fears that it will serve as further fodder for the country’s rightist, populist Alternative for Germany party . Earlier this year, the party passed a platform that included language against Muslims. The Düsseldorf police said that since the start of the year, they had responded to more than 80 calls to the shelter to settle disputes, including several instances of attempted arson. Image Debris being removed this week from the Düsseldorf shelter. Credit Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters “There were conflicts, especially surrounding meals, between Muslims and others who were not fasting for Ramadan and complained at the lack of a warm meal at midday,” Mr. Herrenbrück said. “Following another serious fight on Tuesday, certain people went to the back of the shelter, and shortly afterward, a fire broke out and they came out with their bags packed,” he said. The police said they had found evidence that a mattress was set alight. The police have detained two 26-year-old men suspected of serving as ringleaders. They were identified only as Adel D., an Algerian who was already under investigation in a case of theft earlier this year, and Mohamed B. from Morocco, who has no known police record in Germany. The others suspected of involvement are a 16-year-old Algerian, an 18-year-old Moroccan and a 24-year-old Syrian. Several of the suspects had entered Germany under false names and nationalities, and had to be identified through their fingerprints, which are checked against an international database, the police said. The Alternative for Germany party is also campaigning against the proposed construction of a mosque on the outskirts of the eastern city of Erfurt, where local leaders have led regular rallies warning of the dangers that Islam poses to Europe and Germany in particular. German officials have warned of growing anti-migrant sentiment in the country. Since the arrival last year of roughly one million asylum seekers, many of them from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, Germany has seen a jump in the number of racially motivated attacks. At the same time, Alternative for Germany has attracted support with its slogans against Muslims and immigrants.

Middle East and Africa Migrant Crisis,European Migrant Crisis


All Downtown Is Inbounds When 3-on-3 Basketball Invades Spokane

Abstract: SPOKANE, Wash. — The air was cool and the bleachers practically empty Saturday morning when a woman stepped onto Center Court at Riverfront Park and sang the national anthem. Another voice followed on the public-address system. “Let’s play basketball,” it cheerfully ordered. Wires and speakers carried that tip-off to all 428 blacktop basketball courts that smothered the streets of downtown Spokane over the weekend. In moments, games were being played on bridges spanning the Spokane River by third graders shooting at eight-foot baskets. They were played by schoolgirls inside the four-lane Washington Street tunnel. They were played by former college players in the elite division on Spokane Falls Boulevard, by gray-haired men and women on Post Street and by people in wheelchairs on Bridge Avenue. And so began the 20th annual Spokane Hoopfest , the world’s largest 3-on-3 basketball tournament, and the numbers were more staggering than ever: 6,701 teams, 26,253 players and an estimated 13,000 games covering 40 city blocks and two sun-drenched days. Hardly an original idea — 3-on-3 basketball tournaments have been around for decades — Hoopfest has grown unlike any other. Just how an out-of-the-way city of 200,000 people became the 3-on-3 capital of the world says a little about Spokane’s hoop madness (it is home to the former professional star John Stockton and to the college basketball powerhouse Gonzaga University) and a lot about a little city’s penchant for pulling off big events. After all, more than 50,000 people participate in Spokane’s annual springtime 12-kilometer race, the Lilac Bloomsday Run . But Hoopfest is unique among sports events. It is one thing to hold a single-site basketball tournament for thousands of teams. It is another to have a street festival that attracts roughly 200,000 people. To combine them into one weekend? Hoopfest. “How do we do it?” said Kirstin Votava, one of six full-time employees for the nonprofit organization that runs Hoopfest. Her cellphone rang repeatedly as the games got under way, each caller requesting that something be done right away, please. “I work here and I don’t know sometimes,” she said. The basics go something like this: Teams sign up months in advance. Teams give themselves names meant to amuse, confuse, titillate, intimidate or advertise. One intriguing first-round match featured Tom Selleck’s Moustache versus Cocoa and His Butter. Grade schoolers love names including “hoopsters.” Teenagers prefer “ballerz,” using a “z” wherever an “s” would suffice. Young adults often incorporate Spokane’s 509 area code to brand themselves with street cred. Older players like self-deprecating monikers, like Dormant Muscle or Wounded Knees. Teams are divided into brackets, usually 16 teams each, by age, skill level, gender (there are co-ed teams, too) and (sometimes) height. About half of the players are children. On Friday night, streets are shuttered and some of the event’s 3,000 volunteers measure and mark courts with eight miles’ worth of shiny highway tape — yellow for boundaries, white for the key, take-back line and 3-point line, which is actually a 2-point line, because baskets are worth 1 and 2 points, not 2 and 3. Basketball standards, stored in a warehouse outside of town, are arranged by forklifts according to the sponsor logo tattooed on each backboard. Nike brings the balls. Up to 10 courts fit on a block. Downtown Spokane is not exactly flat, so baskets are sometimes slightly uphill, downhill or on the side of a hill. Some hoops are in the middle of intersections. Many have manhole covers. Some are bounded by curbs. There is a risk, however slight, of being impaled on a parking meter. That is life on the streets. Potholes are not acceptable, however, which is why crews were out on Friday and Saturday nights looking for some to fill. This spring, part of Main Avenue was deemed unplayable because of ruts, which led to seven courts inside the tunnel. Some high-arcing shots hit the concrete ceiling. Players converge from just about every state and several countries. One of the 70 people to play all 20 Hoopfests (a group that includes two women) is 37-year-old Erik Johnsen. He and his wife, Stacey, teach at an American school in Taiwan and time their annual trips home to Spokane to play together on a co-ed team called Are You Kidding Me? “It keeps me young,” Johnsen said. “Mom and Dad come and cheer like I’m back in high school. And now I hear my daughters yelling, ‘Go, Daddy.’ It’s a great reason to come back.” Teams create their own uniforms. Tie-dye is popular. Fortunately, the eye-catching, wince-inducing look of Like a Rash — four 20-something men from Idaho wearing only the briefest of briefs — is not. (“In the last few years, we’ve gotten all Spandexy and just had fun,” one member said.) Each bracket (449 of them this year) is assigned a court. Each court is assigned a monitor who oversees the action and settles disputes if the teams cannot. Only the elite brackets and children — who, surprisingly, do not tattle much when asked to call fouls on others — have referees. By midafternoon Sunday, first-aid officials reported 15 fractures, 290 wounds/lacerations, 220 sprains/strains and, rather mysteriously, 806 “other.” That covered everything from concussions to bloody noses to, presumably, bruised egos. Teams play a double-elimination tournament to determine the winner of each bracket. T-shirts are awarded. The power of such booty should not be underestimated. “The prize is really bragging rights,” Rick Betts, a Hoopfest co-founder, said. “And wearing your T-shirt around.” Each participant receives a T-shirt, declaring him or her a “player.” Bracket champions and runners-up get shirts proclaiming their success. But the Loser King shirt may be the most coveted of them all. They go to the 13th-place finisher, a team that lost its first two games but won the consolation rounds. Teams have been known to intentionally lose twice for the right to earn one. Years ago, a parent complained about a child’s being declared a “loser king.” So the shirts no longer say that — at first glance. A graphic designer, Steve Kutsch, has designed Hoopfest shirts since the event’s second year. Loser Kings are his favorite challenge. “They’re the ones where I get to have a lot of fun,” he said. Kutsch’s favorite was inspired by inside back covers of Mad magazine. When folded perfectly, the innocuous design of the 13th-place shirt changed to spell out “Loser King.” He once used raised ink dots in the design to spell out “Loser King” in Braille. One year’s version used glow-in-the-dark sign language. (Kutsch now regrets expending two tricks for one design.) Pulling last year’s shirt tautly stretched the printed design to say “Loser King,” upside-down. This year, the design was constructed with dots. A few had small numbers next to them. They spelled “Loser King” when connected. But it seemed on Sunday that most teams wanted to be crowned winners. Some games at the eight-foot rims, where dads sometimes coached with startling intensity, ended with children crying. Winners of the elite brackets, where intensity led to raised elbows and street rashes, met at Center Court to determine overall winners. Thousands of sun-baked fans surrounded the court to watch the best teams play. One by one, across 40 blocks, the rest of the 428 courts went idle, waiting to be dismantled in time for Monday’s rush hour.

Basketball
Spokane (Wash)
Stockton John
Contests and Prizes


121-Year-Old Pier Seen as Portal to ‘Harbor District’

Abstract: For the past 20 years, Pier A has been an overlooked remnant on the waterfront of Lower Manhattan. A once-grand Victorian structure that juts toward the Statue of Liberty from the northern edge of Battery Park, the pier has been the object of some big redevelopment plans but little activity. Frustrated by the pace of progress, city officials said last week that they had taken back control of the pier from a private developer and had plans to transform it into the gateway to New York Harbor. In just a few years, the pier’s three-level structure could be bustling with tourists hopping ferries to the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Governors Island, Brooklyn Bridge Park or the beach at Jacob Riis Park in Queens, said Daniel L. Doctoroff, the deputy mayor for economic development. In Mr. Doctoroff’s view, Pier A could be the linchpin in the city’s plan to pull together all of its waterfront recreational areas into a “harbor district.” In late 1987, the administration of Mayor Edward I. Koch announced a plan to revitalize the 121-year-old pier, which once housed the harbor police and later was a marine fire station. A decade later, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani announced the signing of a 49-year lease with a private development group that he said would bring back “the splendor and economic vitality of our famous waterfront.” The developers, known as Wings Point Associates, began rehabilitating the pier, but the project became bogged down in a legal dispute with the city. A few weeks ago, the city’s Economic Development Corporation regained control of the pier, paying about $8 million to buy back the lease and settle the litigation with the developers, who were represented by William Wachtel, a Manhattan lawyer who owns part of the New York Waterway commuter ferry service. With that settlement, Mr. Doctoroff said, the city is prepared to move forward aggressively. Mr. Wachtel had hoped to win the bid with the National Park Service to ferry visitors to the statue and Ellis Island and to remake Pier A into the base of those operations. In fact, in April, he struck a tentative deal with the park service to move the passenger-screening checkpoint for the Liberty and Ellis Island ferries to Pier A from the promenade of Battery Park. The current security operation on the promenade has been less than ideal, blocking views of the statue and the harbor. But in late June, the park service rejected Mr. Wachtel’s bid and chose a different ferry operator, Hornblower Yachts, to run the ferries. Mr. Wachtel, who plans to continue operating the commuter service, said he was disappointed that he could not hold on to Pier A, especially after having finally worked out a tentative deal with the park service. But Mr. Doctoroff said Mr. Wachtel’s agreement was too narrow to satisfy the city. Under that deal, he said, the “city would have effectively lost control” and would have no leverage to persuade the park service to expand access to other attractions around the harbor. Now, city officials must negotiate a new contract for the park service’s use of Pier A. Darren Boch, a spokesman for the park service, said Pier A was still the park service’s preferred location for passenger screening and boarding. “We’ve had a hiccup of sorts regarding Pier A, but it’s still something that we’re working closely with the city on,” Mr. Boch said. City officials must also decide who will manage the pier. Mr. Doctoroff said he had held preliminary discussions with the Battery Park City Authority, a corporation controlled by the city and the state. “We concluded that our vision for creating a unified harbor district would be best served with the city in control of Pier A,” Mr. Doctoroff said. “We now have all of the pieces being put in place to create what we believe will be the greatest harbor destination anywhere in the world.”

New York Harbor
Parks and Other Recreation Areas
New York City
Area Planning and Renewal


Rare Qualifying Defeat for Spain

Abstract: Spain’s eight-year unbeaten run in qualifying matches ended in a stunning 2-1 defeat at Slovakia in qualifying for the European Championship on Thursday. It was Spain’s first loss in 36 qualifiers for the European Championship and the World Cup dating to 2006, and ended a run of 14 straight away wins. “This was completely unexpected,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque. “We didn’t fail, they won this on their own merits. We played with patience but their keeper made some standout saves.” Spain goalkeeper Iker Casillas did not, however, shine. He let the opener by him in the 17th minute when he failed to punch out Juraj Kucka’s free kick. Paco Alcacer leveled for Spain in the 82nd, but fellow substitute Miroslav Stoch headed a cross past Casillas in the 87th with Spain caught looking for the winner that instead fell to the hosts in Zilina. Slovakia took the lead of Group C. Spain was left level on three points with Macedonia and Ukraine after they both rebounded from losses in their first matches. Besart Abdurahimi scored in injury time to grab Macedonia a 3-2 win at home over Luxembourg, while Ukraine won 2-0 at Belarus. Defender Aleksandr Martynovich scored an own goal in the 82nd to gift Ukraine the lead before Serhiy Sydorchuk added another goal in stoppage time. Striker Diego Costa has nine goals in as many games for his Chelsea club, but he again failed to find the net in his sixth appearance for Spain despite generating its best chances. After exiting the World Cup by losing its first two matches, Spain bounced back with a rejuvenated team to thrash Macedonia 5-1 in its first Euro 2016 qualifier. But the same problems in Brazil returned at Slovakia: Casillas, once considered among the best in the world, again let a shot that was powerful but stoppable past him. Costa couldn’t mesh with Andres Iniesta and David Silva in the tight spaces Spain’s passing game causes, and its defense proved brittle when faced with counterattacks. Despite fielding a starting 11 who all played at the World Cup, it fell to Alcacer to score his second goal in as many games to finally break through Slovakia’s defense when he timed his move to stay onside and reach Jordi Alba’s lobbed pass. Del Bosque sent Alcacer and forward Pedro Rodriguez on in the second half at the cost of pulling defenders Raul Albiol and Juanfran Torres. “I took off Albiol and Juanfran because Slovakia were not attacking anymore,” Del Bosque said. “With Cazorla, Pedro and Alcacer, we wanted more attacking power.” The decision led to the equalizer but also left Spain undermanned when Stoch played a one-two with Marek Hamsik before beating Santi Cazorla to head home a cross for the winner that sent the home crowd into raptures. Casillas was both at his best and his worst early in the match. He was caught wrong-footed but reacted in time to make a superb one-handed save of Robert Mak’s strike in the 11th. But moments after Costa headed Cesc Fabregas’ pass by the bottom of the post, Casillas made an error in Slovakia’s opener that was rare to see before his poor displays in Brazil. Casillas misjudged the free kick Kucka struck hard but right at him, falling to one side and letting the strike glance off his fists and hit his net. Spain didn’t force Slovakia goalie Matus Kozacik into action until the 38th when he got low to parry Iniesta’s dipping effort. Spain can take solace that the top two from the nine groups qualify automatically for the tournament in France. The best third-placed team also qualifies automatically, and the other eight teams can qualify through a playoff. Spain visits Luxembourg on Sunday, while Slovakia visits Belarus.

Spain
Slovakia
Vicente del Bosque
Soccer


Even Chrysler Officials Were Surprised at New Owner’s Leadership Choice

Abstract: AUBURN HILLS, Mich., Aug. 9 — Not only did Robert L. Nardelli ’s appointment as the new head of Chrysler surprise people in the auto industry when it was announced on Monday, it shocked officials inside the auto company as well. As recently as Aug. 2, Chrysler officials were planning to announce on Monday that Wolfgang Bernhard would become the chairman of Chrysler, people with direct knowledge of those plans said Thursday. They asked not to be identified because the meetings were intended to be private. While the officials prepared that announcement, they did not know that Mr. Nardelli, a former executive at Home Depot and General Electric, was being courted to replace Thomas W. LaSorda as chief executive, these people said. Mr. Bernhard, most recently at Volkswagen, served as Chrysler’s No. 2 executive earlier this decade and advised Cerberus Capital Management, Chrysler’s new owner, in its negotiations with DaimlerChrysler. The deal closed last Friday. A number of news organizations, including The New York Times, reported Mr. Bernhard’s expected return, based on confirmation from within Chrysler. Instead, on Monday, Chrysler said Mr. Bernhard had turned down the chairman’s job for “family reasons,” clearing the way for Mr. Nardelli’s appointment as both chief executive and chairman. Mr. LaSorda is now the company’s No. 2 executive. A company spokesman declined to comment on Thursday on what those family reasons were. A spokesman for Cerberus had no comment. People with knowledge of the discussions involving Mr. Bernhard, however, said that Cerberus wanted him to serve with Mr. Nardelli, whose appointment they also planned to announce on Monday. They said they did not know whether Mr. Nardelli’s hiring ultimately played a role in Mr. Bernhard’s decision to turn down the position. Neither Chrysler nor Cerberus has offered more specifics about Mr. Bernhard, who told the two companies last weekend of his decision not to accept the job. On Monday, Mr. LaSorda said that the discussions with Mr. Nardelli had been under way for about two weeks and that he had offered to accept a demotion if Cerberus decided to appoint another executive in his place. Mr. LaSorda said he had had several talks with Mr. Nardelli before he accepted the Chrysler job, meaning he was one of only a few people at the company who knew Mr. Nardelli might be joining. Analysts say the credit squeeze that Cerberus faced when its bankers tried unsuccessfully to sell $10 billion in loans to finance the deal appears to have played a key role in the hiring of Mr. Nardelli. Cerberus did not comment on reports this week that bankers had pressured the company to hire an outside executive. On Wednesday, Automotive News cited speculation at an industry conference in Acme, Mich., outside Traverse City, that the problems in credit markets, which kept bankers from being able to sell $10 billion in loans meant to finance Cerberus’s purchase of Chrysler, prompted financiers to push the company to find a cost-cutting specialist. The five banks involved in the deal, headed by JPMorgan Chase, decided on July 26 to finance $10 billion themselves, with Cerberus and Chrysler each carrying $1 billion. “I think Cerberus panicked,” said Gerald Meyers, the former president at the American Motors Corporation and an expert on crisis management. He said the problem selling the financing to investors may have prompted Cerberus to grab Mr. Nardelli now rather than give Mr. LaSorda time to get the new company turned around. Mr. Meyers said, “The timing makes it look that way.”

Chrysler Group
Nardelli Robert L
Bernhard Wolfgang
LaSorda Thomas W
Appointments and Executive Changes
Automobiles


Olympic Disappointment Hangs Over Capitals’ Practice

Abstract: The Washington Capitals held their first post-Olympics practice Tuesday, a session overshadowed by residue from the Winter Games even as they tried to focus on the resumption of their N.H.L. schedule. Alex Ovechkin was one of the faces of Sochi, bent on winning the gold on home ice. Instead, the Russians were eliminated in the quarterfinals for the second consecutive Olympics. “First of all, I want to say sorry to the fans,” Ovechkin said. “Because it’s once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to represent your country in the Olympics, and you didn’t get the results, you didn’t get any medal. Of course the fans, the media and the people who support Russia, family, was upset, but life goes on.” Ovechkin took the Olympic disappointment especially hard four years ago, but this time he had to immediately turn his attention to his family. His father, who has a history of heart problems, became ill after one of his son’s games and required surgery. Ovechkin was not told until three days later, after Russia had been eliminated. “Soon as I found out that he’s in hospital and he’s feeling not that good and he could be dying, I just forget the game that we lose against Finland,” he said. “Just go there and spend time with him and saw him. It was great feelings to see what’s happening and how he’s feeling.” Ovechkin, 28, said he understood the criticism he received for his play during the Olympics — “I didn’t score lots of goals out there” — but he appeared ready to refocus on the Capitals, who resume play Thursday at Florida. The lingering Olympic sting was more evident on the face of Nicklas Backstrom, who helped lead Sweden to the gold medal game but was pulled from the lineup shortly before the face-off because he had failed a doping test. Without one of its top players, Sweden lost, 3-0, to Canada. “I’ve had allergies for seven years, since I got here,” Backstrom said. “Everyone that lives in the Washington area knows how bad it is here. I’ve been taking Zyrtec-D for the last seven years and I haven’t been doing anything differently. I’ve been playing internationally, in the world championships, Olympics before, and so I haven’t done anything differently.” An ingredient in the allergy medicine is on the list of banned substances for Olympic competition, but Backstrom said he was told by the Swedish team doctor that he could take one pill a day without triggering a positive test. Backstrom said he expected a two-week wait to find out whether he would be awarded his silver medal, which is being held at the International Ice Hockey Federation offices in Zurich. TAVARES WON’T NEED SURGERY The Islanders captain John Tavares said he would not require surgery on his injured left knee, even though he will be sidelined for the rest of the regular season. Tavares, a 23-year-old center who leads the Islanders with 66 points, said he would need 8 to 12 weeks of rehabilitation for a partly torn medial collateral ligament before he can resume his off-season regimen. ALLAN KREDA WEARY RANGERS Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault announced that Cam Talbot would start in goal against Chicago on Thursday, the team’s first game after the Olympic break. At the Sochi Games, Henrik Lundqvist, the Rangers’ regular goaltender, started all six games for Sweden. Lundqvist, Carl Hagelin, Rick Nash, Ryan McDonagh, Ryan Callahan and Derek Stepan, whose teams all advanced to the final days of the Olympic tournament, returned to the Rangers on Tuesday but did not practice. (NYT) SABRES 3, HURRICANES 2 Christian Ehrhoff scored twice, including the go-ahead goal with 44 seconds left, in lifting the Sabres to a win in Buffalo over the Carolina Hurricanes in the N.H.L.’s first game after its Olympic break. Ryan Miller played a key role in stopping the first 20 shots he faced and 36 overall in what might be the star goalie’s final game in Buffalo before the league’s trade deadline on March 5. (AP) PENGUINS’ MARTIN SIDELINED Pittsburgh Coach Dan Bylsma said defenseman Paul Martin would miss four to six weeks with a broken hand he sustained at the Olympics. (NYT)

Washington Capitals
Ice hockey
John Tavares
2014 Winter Olympics


Trial of Chad’s Ex-President Is Punctuated by His Noncooperation

Abstract: PARIS — Most mornings since September, the former president of the African nation of Chad was woken at dawn in his specially refurbished prison quarters for a trip he loathed. Armed guards hauled Hissène Habré, the former ruler, to the main courthouse in Dakar, Senegal, where he was on trial , and confined him to the defendant’s chair. From then on, he seemed to go into a trance for hours on end, barely stirring in his crisp white robes, his turban wrapped across much of his face, the way desert nomads hide from sandstorms. After the first day, when he yelled insults at the three judges, Mr. Habré never opened his mouth until he was taken out of court. That daily ritual came to an end last week, when lawyers made closing arguments and the prosecutor asked for the confiscation of all his property along with a life sentence for Mr. Habré, 73. The special court created for Mr. Habré in Senegal, where he had been freely living in exile, is expected to announce a verdict in May. Lawyers following the trial believe the prosecution has made a strong case, presenting almost 100 witnesses and stacks of documents that aim to tie Mr. Habré to crimes against humanity, war crimes and torture during his rule from 1982 to 1990. No one knows the exact number of victims, although a Chadian truth commission formed after Mr. Habré was ousted attributed 40,000 political killings to his government. Witnesses at the trial who were brought from Chad, aging men and women who had survived torture, starvation and illness in prisons, testified that they never knew why they, or their relatives who had been killed, had been abducted and incarcerated. Beyond presenting witnesses, the prosecution built its case around thousands of pages of recovered archives of Mr. Habré’s dreaded secret police, the Directorate of Documentation and Security. The archives listed people who had been jailed, transferred between jails or had died in custody, without further explanation. The records included intelligence reports and notes from interrogations. “It’s very, very rare for the prosecution to gain access to such a library of crimes,” said William Bourdon, a French lawyer for the victims who has long practiced before international tribunals. If Mr. Habré is found guilty by the judges — one from Burkina Faso and two from Senegal — he is expected to serve any sentence in Senegal. Chad convicted Mr. Habré and sentenced him to death in absentia in 2008 for conspiring to overthrow the present government, but has not requested his extradition. The question of Mr. Habré’s property may be harder to resolve. Although the Chad government said that he had emptied the national treasury before fleeing in 1990 and that he had arrived in Senegal flush with cash, the whereabouts of his entire presumed fortune is not publicly known. Mr. Habré’s rise and fall took place during a period of instability that predates the current mayhem in North Africa: He seized power in a coup with covert help from Washington, and received arms and advice from France, Israel and the United States to contain Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi of Libya. France, which once colonized Chad, also played a covert role in helping to depose Mr. Habré. Since his overthrow, many African countries have endured abusive dictators, warlords and large-scale bloodshed that has gone unpunished. But the Habré case has stood out because of determined victims who were advised and supported by Human Rights Watch and other advocates. “It’s been incredibly rewarding to see these long-buried events finally recounted in court,” said Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch who has worked with a victims’ group for more than a decade. Many atrocities of the Habré period were known, but at the trial, witnesses revealed new details about the extent of rape of women held in prisons or in army camps. Khadidja Zidane, a middle-aged woman, caused a stir when she blurted out that when she was his prisoner, “Hissène Habré raped me four times.” Questions about weaknesses in the trial have been raised by issues like Mr. Habré’s refusal to present a defense because he deemed the court illegitimate. The judges had to name a team of Senegal lawyers unfamiliar with the case. Despite his noncooperation, Mr. Habré was hardly indifferent to his trial. His private lawyer from France, François Serres, worked the corridors, providing interviews and commentaries. Mr. Habré’s loyalists ran his “official” website , presenting rebuttals to events in court and attacking witnesses. Questions have been raised about the role of Idriss Déby, the president of Chad, who once led Mr. Habré’s army, drove him from power in 1990 and has remained in office since. Mr. Déby’s government, aside from paying one-third of the trial’s $11 million budget, prevented court investigators from questioning former police and army chiefs and other insiders in Chad. Mr. Déby also prevented these people from testifying, which prompted Mr. Serres to write that evidently “they could have incriminated Déby or provided evidence embarrassing to him.” Some African and European commentators have criticized Western pressure on Senegal, which had long frustrated efforts by victims to bring Mr. Habré to trial. “In the end, I believe the trial was essentially fair, considering that the accused refused to participate,” said Thierry Cruvellier, an author of books and articles about international tribunals. “I’d even call this trial expeditious and cost-effective. But I believe a similar case will not be repeated in Africa.”

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Racing the Clock to Bring Back the Intrepid

Abstract: Getting stuck in the mud on its first attempt to leave Manhattan was not the last or the least of the troubles that the aircraft carrier Intrepid has encountered in the past 18 months. The military museum the ship houses was at risk of going out of business last year, as the costs of overhauling the carrier and rebuilding its home pier spiraled past $100 million, almost double the original estimate, said Bill White, president of the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum. To keep the work going and to stay on schedule to reopen this fall, the museum’s directors borrowed against the museum’s $15 million endowment, a move they had promised never to make, Mr. White said. “This museum and this whole project was in danger of shutting down,” Mr. White said. “If we hadn’t taken this drastic measure to use the endowment, which I consider sacred, for this purpose, there would be no more Intrepid — unless someone was willing to write a check for 15, 20 million bucks.” Now, with an electronic timer on a pier on the West Side counting down the days to the Intrepid’s return, museum officials are still pleading for additional public and private financing to complete the renovations on time. On the schedule that the museum set, the ship is due to be towed back from Staten Island on Oct. 2 — 134 days from Tuesday — and to have its official reopening on Veterans Day, Nov. 11. For most of the past year, the 900-foot-long carrier has been the only warship moored at the Homeport on the north shore of Staten Island. But this week, it will have company when some active military ships sail in for Fleet Week, an event that revolved around the Intrepid until last year. To bring the ship back in style, Mr. White has pressed the trustees of the foundation that runs the museum and other supporters to pitch in $10 million. He also has lobbied elected officials, including the city’s five borough presidents and Christine C. Quinn, the City Council speaker, to add as much as $10 million to the $25 million they already had promised to the Intrepid project. But he has failed to persuade Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg to let the museum sell naming rights to the pier, now known simply as Pier 86, to a corporation, said John Gallagher, a spokesman for the mayor. The mayor is considering allowing the sale of sponsorship of the Intrepid’s visitor center, which sits at the edge of the pier, Mr. Gallagher said. With the city budget being squeezed, city officials have not decided how much, if any, additional money they will provide. “We are aware that the Intrepid has been facing financial challenges and that the renovation expenses are exceeding their original budget,” said Anthony Hogrebe, a spokesman for the Council. He added that the Council expected the ship to float back on time, with or without additional public money. Moving the Intrepid became synonymous with futility in November 2006 when, with a clutch of elected officials standing by, a team of tugboats failed to budge the carrier from its mooring. City officials required the removal so that the pier could be rebuilt. After the Navy dredged out more of the muck, tugs towed the ship away for the first time in 25 years. To prevent a repeat of that initial embarrassment, the Army Corps of Engineers plans to dig an extra-wide slot in the river bottom before the return, Mr. White said. In all, the cost of moving the ship out and back will total about $19 million, four times the original estimate, he said. The main improvements to the ship’s exterior were completed a year ago, when it spent a few weeks in dry dock in Bayonne, N.J., en route to the Homeport. Workers at Bayonne Dry Dock and Repair patched up parts of the hull and repainted the entire ship. But when the time came for the dry dock operator to collect nearly $5 million for its work, the city funds were not yet available. Officials of the Hudson River Park Trust, the state authority that is the Intrepid’s landlord and manages payments to the contractors, asked the museum to come up with some other money to tide the company over. Mr. White said he scraped together $100,000 and hand-delivered a check to Bayonne. The trust later paid off the debt and repaid the Intrepid’s $100,000, according to Noreen Doyle, a vice president of the trust. Ms. Doyle said the tight schedule set by the Intrepid’s managers necessitated such unusual measures. “The whole thing has been crunch time,” Ms. Doyle said. “It’s a very aggressive project schedule.” Rebuilding the pier also will cost much more than initially expected. Mr. White said the original estimate for the pier was about $38 million. But with the prices of essential materials like steel and cement having soared and various amenities having been added to the pier, the total cost will exceed $60 million, he said. At a board meeting in March, the Hudson River Park Trust’s directors approved an increase of $620,000, or about 40 percent, on the amount to be paid to Skanska, the construction manager for Pier 86 to account for all of the changes to the pier rebuilding plan. A few weeks ago, workers installed the first of two stair towers that visitors will climb to reach the Intrepid’s main decks. Eventually, the pier, which will offer free access to the public, will have trees, seating and, if the museum can arrange its retrieval, a Concorde supersonic jet. Before the ship left, museum officials struck a deal to temporarily move the plane from a barge tied to the pier to a recreation complex in Brooklyn. The original operators of that complex, Aviator Sports, agreed to pay $15,000 a month to borrow the plane and promised to return it this fall. But the managers who took over last year did not inherit that obligation, and Mr. White said he did not know who would pay for its return, at an estimated cost of at least $250,000. Another of the museum’s popular exhibitions, a decommissioned submarine that carried missiles with nuclear warheads, the Growler, produced an unpleasant surprise when it was towed to Brooklyn. The crew found holes in the sub’s hull, pushing the cost of repairing it past $1 million, Mr. White said. Getting the museum ready to welcome paying visitors again will be another matter. Last week, moored next to a fire boat at the Homeport on Staten Island, the dark gray Intrepid looked more like an abandoned warehouse than a museum. Weeds sprouted from its flight deck. The wooden surface of one its exterior elevators had been crushed by forklifts that hoisted equipment on and off the ship. Inside its cavernous hangar deck stood several vintage warplanes and helicopters that had been restored, their wings and rotors shrouded in plastic wrap. The only sounds emanated from the machines four young men in face masks used to strip the top layer off the steel floor. With less than five months remaining on the deadline clock, Mr. White and his staff are pushing an ambitious plan to revamp most of the ship’s interior. They have hired a design firm to reinstall the exhibitions in a more cohesive layout and open to the public sections of the ship where crewmen worked, slept and ate. The aim, said Susan Marenoff, the museum’s executive director, will be to emphasize “the humanity behind the hardware.” Mr. White said he also hoped to repair a flight elevator that carried fighter planes to the top deck for takeoff so that museumgoers could ride it. He said that executives of Otis Elevator Company had agreed to fix the giant platform and that the Disabled American Veterans had pledged to sponsor that part of the project. Dave Autry, a spokesman for the veterans group in Washington, said its charitable trust had recommended a grant of $450,000 for the repair. “We can’t just slap a paint job” on the ship, Mr. White said. “We need to make a new museum. It’s got to come back brand-spanking new.” Mr. White acknowledged that the museum probably would not be exactly shipshape when it returned. The last few weeks before the reopening will be a true scramble. Along with completing the interior redesign, the remaining tasks will include connecting the new power and plumbing lines from the pier. Crews will also have to adjust for the ship’s rising and falling with the Hudson River tides until the muck takes hold of it again.

Aircraft Carriers
Museums
Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum


Genzyme Rejects Bid From Sanofi-Aventis

Abstract: The biotechnology company Genzyme said on Monday that it had rejected Sanofi-Aventis’s $18.5 billion buyout offer on the ground that it undervalued the company. On Sunday, Sanofi-Aventis , the French drug developer, bid $69 a share for Genzyme, which has been struggling in the aftermath of manufacturing problems for some crucial drugs. Genzyme’s shares traded above the offering price Monday, suggesting that investors expected the bid to go higher. In a letter to Sanofi-Aventis, Genzyme’s chief executive, Henri A. Termeer, said the board had unanimously rejected the offer. He said the board was “not prepared to engage” in negotiations with an “unrealistic” starting price. On Sunday, Sanofi-Aventis, based in Paris, made a long-expected buyout offer that represented a 38 percent premium over Genzyme’s closing price of $49.86 on July 1, just before speculation over a deal emerged. Genzyme is trying to bounce back from manufacturing problems with its drugs Cerezyme and Fabrazyme, which treat genetic conditions and are two of its most important products. In June 2009, the company shut down its Boston plant for about three months to clean up viral contamination that had been slowing production. Then in November, the Food and Drug Administration said it had found tiny particles of trash, including steel, rubber and fiber, in drugs made by Genzyme. The agency recommended that doctors closely inspect vials of four drugs made at the plant — Cerezyme, Fabrazyme, Myozyme and Thyrogen. The company has been overhauling its manufacturing operations since January. Genzyme, based in Cambridge, Mass., said it responded to Sanofi-Aventis’s previous offer on Aug. 11, calling the offer an “opportunistic takeover proposal” that did not recognize the progress the company had made. Sanofi-Aventis’s chief executive, Chris Viehbacher, maintained on Monday that the price was fair and represented “a sizable premium over the share price.” He said in a conference call with analysts that the deal would create value for shareholders of both companies. He said Monday’s letter from Genzyme was “not surprising, and continues the approach of the stonewalling that we’ve seen up till now.” Genzyme is considered attractive because, in addition to its lucrative drugs for rare genetic conditions, it has promising drugs for high cholesterol and other disorders in late development. Like other major drug developers who are facing more generic competition for blockbuster drugs, Sanofi has been buying smaller companies or rights to experimental drugs. Genzyme’s share price rose $2.29, or 3.4 percent, to $69.91, on Nasdaq Monday.

Genzyme Corp
Sanofi-Aventis SA
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)


In New York, Debating a Flat Tax on Gasoline

Abstract: With gasoline prices hitting new records daily, oil companies are not the only ones raking it in. New York City is profiting, too. The city’s 4 percent sales tax on motor fuel sold brought in $26.4 million in December, January and February, or 8.6 percent more than the same period the year before. (Figures for March and April, when gas prices rose even higher, are not yet available.) In all of 2007, the city collected $105 million, a 7 percent increase from $98 million in 2006, which was 25 percent more than the $79 million in gas taxes from 2005. The 4 percent city tax is one of eight surcharges on gas sold in the city, where prices hit a record average high of $4.03 a gallon on Friday. But all of the other taxes are fixed, cents-per-gallon rates rather than percentages, so they do not change with gas prices. The city’s motor-fuel tax receipts, however, grow as prices rise, creating an unexpected — if small — bright spot in the city’s otherwise dimming fiscal picture. Some politicians have seized on the tax as a way to potentially give drivers relief from escalating prices at the pump, suggesting that percentage-based taxes be abandoned in favor of a fixed charge on each gallon. “The city shouldn’t be entitled to this huge windfall every time the price of gas goes up,” Tony Avella, a city councilman from Queens who plans to run for mayor next year, said this week. “What’s happening is people who have to drive have to drive, and it’s hitting them in the pocketbook.” Most states charge a flat gas tax rather than a percentage, but the picture is widely varied for cities and counties. Mr. Avella’s proposal comes as lawmakers across the country, including Senators John McCain of Arizona and Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York, call for gas-tax holidays during the summer travel season. Republican state senators in Albany, noting that New York has the nation’s third-highest motor-fuel taxes, want to suspend three state gas taxes, amounting to about 32 cents a gallon, from Memorial Day to Labor Day. The idea of switching from a percentage-rate tax to a flat fee on each gallon is not new: Two years ago, a law change invited counties in New York to do just that and cap their sales taxes on motor fuel at 8 cents a gallon. Fourteen counties — but not New York City — made the switch, to ease the burden on consumers. But several of those counties found the change fell short of its promise. Prices at the pump barely budged, while tax receipts fell. Some county officials accused oil companies of soaking up the tax breaks that were meant to benefit drivers. Half of the 14 counties have reinstituted percent-based taxes. “You’re kidding yourself if you think that an industry that makes as much as it can will pass along the savings to the public,” Michael F. Conners II, the comptroller in Albany County, which abandoned its flat-fee tax after six months. “The oil companies say they would never take this tax away, but it’s absorbed into the price.” Mr. Conners said that his county would have lost $4.6 million in taxes had it kept its cap in place for a full year. That would have amounted to 3.4 percent of the county’s total receipts from all sales, property and other taxes. “This was not help for the driving public,” he added, “but a transfer gift to the oil industry.” Next month, Onondaga County will scrap its flat tax and return to the percentage system. A study by the budget office compared gas prices in Syracuse, which is in Onondaga County, to those in Buffalo and Rochester, whose counties did not change their formulas, and found Syracuse stations consistently charged 2 to 5 cents less before and after Onondaga switched systems. So Onondaga stood to lose an estimated $10.3 million a year in taxes without saving drivers any money at the pump. “The bulk of our budget is funded on property taxes, which have been escalating and strangulating people,” said Benjamin T. Dublin, the director of intergovernmental relations in the Onondaga County executive’s office. “If we got the $10 million, we wouldn’t have to tax them as much.” The experiences in these counties have only bolstered Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s resistance to changing New York City’s gas taxes to a flat fee. Speaking to reporters earlier this month, Mr. Bloomberg said a gas-tax holiday was “about the dumbest thing I’ve heard in an awful long time from an economic point of view.” He added, “We’re trying to discourage people from driving, and we’re trying to end our energy dependence.” A spokesman for the mayor, John Gallagher, said that the extra money being pocketed by the city in gas taxes as prices go up is not nearly enough to offset the slowdown in revenue from commercial real-estate transactions and profits on Wall Street. “Any characterization that this is a windfall is misleading,” he said. While a precise correlation is impossible to calculate, because of fluctuating patterns in gas purchases among other factors, the 8.6 percent increase in tax receipts this winter compared to last winter is dwarfed by the estimated 31 percent jump in gas prices in the city over the same period. Part of that is probably because higher prices lead people to buy less gas, especially in a city where public transit is a viable option: A 75-cent-a-gallon tax the city charges on behalf of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority amounted to $4.5 million over the December-February period this year, 15.4 percent less than the same three months the year before. Each gallon of gas sold in New York actually includes eight different taxes. In addition to the city’s 4 percent sales tax, and the transportation authority surcharge, there is a federal excise tax of 18.4 cents. The state also collects an 8-cent excise tax, an 8-cent sales tax and a petroleum business tax of 16.4 cents a gallon. In addition, drivers pay a “spill tax” of 0.3 cents a gallon for environmental preservation and a petroleum testing fee of 0.05 cents. Drivers in New York welcomed the idea of a flat gas tax. “Of course it’s a good idea, come on,” said Dogan Soylemez, 32, who spends $600 a week filling up his Mister Softee truck, which was parked one afternoon this week near an On the Run gas station at Fort Hamilton Parkway and McDonald Avenue in Brooklyn where regular unleaded was $4.07 a gallon. “They have to explain to the people why they have to sell at that price.”

New York City
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Gasoline Tax (US)


Google and News Corp. Do Need Each Other

Abstract: PARIS — When a media industry insider last week floated the idea of an exclusive deal to list News Corp. content on Microsoft’s Bing search engine, stiffing Google in the process, it drew some predictable responses. Bloggers and technology analysts crowed that Rupert Murdoch, News Corp.’s septuagenarian chief executive, had conclusively proved that he just didn’t understand the Internet. Some people in the newspaper business said hooray for Uncle Rupert, standing up for the value of old-fashioned content and telling the geeks with their algorithms to get lost. Google, meanwhile, made the reassuring noises it does anytime anyone raises the possibility that its goals, and those of the media companies whose content it indexes, might not be 100 percent aligned. Google said it provided news organizations’ Web sites with 100,000 clicks a minute, every one of which “offers a business opportunity for the publishers to show ads, win loyal readers and sell subscriptions.” That is debatable, for the recession has exposed the folly of the idea that huge volumes of online traffic automatically translate into significant new ad revenue. Most news publishers have a glut of Web advertising space on their hands, and no amount of traffic is going to give them the pricing pressure they would need to make real money online. Even if the economy improves, the supply-demand imbalance in online advertising seems unlikely to improve much, because new Web businesses will spring up, too, and soak up increases in ad spending. As for winning loyal readers, from the standpoint of media owners it is hard to imagine anything that has undermined loyalty more than search engines, which allow readers to jump in and out of sites at will. That leaves subscriptions. Mr. Murdoch has repeatedly said his company is working to implement a subscription system or other forms of “pay walls” for News Corp. newspapers, which include The New York Post and The Times and The Sun in Britain. The move toward subscriptions, which is being studied by many other newspaper publishers, helps to explain why talk of an exclusive deal between Microsoft and News Corp. may be little more than a negotiating tactic. Very few newspapers — News Corp.’s Wall Street Journal is an exception — have the size or the amount of exclusive content necessary to set up successful pay walls on their own. As a result, to earn new revenue from sources other than advertising, online publishers will need the help of gatekeepers like Google and Microsoft. Google, too, seems increasingly willing to explore paid content, as it looks for ways to diversify beyond advertising, which now accounts for all but a tiny fraction of the company’s revenue. Google has already endorsed the idea of paid book downloads, and is exploring ways to create payment systems for online news sites. But the terms of any such agreements have yet to be worked out, and news publishers are wary about repeating what they see as the mistakes of other content companies in similar situations. Some book publishers, for example, are unhappy with the deals they negotiated with Amazon to sell their content via the Kindle electronic reader. Music companies still chafe over the pricing control they handed Apple in exchange for selling their songs via iTunes. Critics of News Corp. said last week that Google should just let Mr. Murdoch walk away, and that he would be shooting himself in the foot by doing so. News is a commodity on the Web, and the loss of one of many sources of it will make little difference to Internet users, this argument goes. That may well be true. But Google cannot take for granted its continued role as the primary hub for online content, consumers and commerce. Ten years from now, could its role as the preferred global gateway to the Web be supplanted by a social network, an Internet television portal, an Internet service provider, a mobile network operator or some yet-to-be-identified digital vision? Google and Mr. Murdoch may yet decide they like each other more than the current mood music might indicate.

Newspapers
Online Advertising
Google Inc
Microsoft Corp
Computers and the Internet
Copyrights and Copyright Violations
News Corporation
Murdoch Rupert


New Homes and New Hope for Horses Neglected at Upstate New York Farm

Abstract: One horse is being retrained to become a hunter-jumper in Virginia. A half-dozen or so of his former neighbors rollick in the pasture and munch carrots in Pennsylvania. Seven more are being nursed to health by inmates at a New York prison. Then there is the aptly named Escapedfromnewyork, who is convalescing with champions and legends at a retirement home amid the plush bluegrass in Kentucky. They were all among the 177 horses found malnourished and neglected in April at the upstate New York farm of the prominent thoroughbred breeder and owner Ernie Paragallo. Over the last six months, the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, with the help of rescue groups and horse lovers from across the nation, has found homes for 96 of those horses. The agency has spent $82,000 treating, feeding and finding homes for the horses. Six horses were too sick to recover and were euthanized. The plight of the animals has touched the hearts and united a disparate group of horse lovers who have mobilized largely through the Internet to give these animals a second chance. Paragallo, meanwhile, has been indicted on 35 counts of animal cruelty by a Greene County grand jury and faces up to two years in prison and $35,000 in fines if found guilty. He has denied that he starved and neglected his horses and is free on $5,000 bail. He is scheduled to appear in court this week, but no trial date has been set. “There has been an awful lot of hard work and imagination put in by strangers to save these horses’ lives,” said Ron Perez, the president of the Columbia-Greene Humane Society/S.P.C.A. The last of the adopted horses — a colt and two filly yearlings — left Friday from Paragallo’s Center Brook Farm in Climax, N.Y., for North Carolina. It is the first step on a path that embodies the creative thinking that has become the hallmark of horse rescue groups. The horses’ new owners are Angelika Hala and Sean Kerr. They are sending them to Paula Turner, who broke the 1977 Triple Crown champion Seattle Slew, and is considered something of a horse whisperer for her patience in developing them mentally as well as physically. “We’d like to see if they can make it to the racetrack,” said Hala, who met Kerr, her fiancé, at the Claremont Riding Academy, a fixture on Manhattan’s West Side for more than 100 years. The couple have never owned racehorses; they rescued two mares that they have begun to breed. In fact, they had no intention of adopting three racehorses. They did, however, have a similar reaction to that of most adoptive owners: They were horrified at how badly they had been neglected. “We came to horses late in life and are just nuts about them,” said Hala, who lives in New York City and is a photo editor for a German magazine. “When we saw the colt and the two fillies with their ribs sticking out, there was no way we could pick one over or another. We just had to take all three of them.” Hala and Kerr also saw an opportunity to educate the public and perhaps help reform racing. They formed the 5R Racehorse Trust , a nonprofit partnership whose mission is to “rescue, rehabilitate, race, retrain and retire” horses. If the horses are deemed fit for the racetrack, the partnership will choose a trainer who does not have any violations for medications and who agrees to race them drug-free. “If the horses are not fit for the racetrack, we’ll retrain them for dressage or find them a home as a backyard racehorse,” said Kerr, a banker based in Manhattan. “The point is to take care of these horses and let people experience the joy they give.” Almost everyone smiles when telling stories of the 96 adopted horses. Christy Sheidy, the co-founder of Another Chance 4 Horses , which spread the word about the neglect at Center Brook Farm, told how Jennifer blossomed from a sickly mare into a vivacious one. Jennifer grew so robust, Sheidy suspected she was pregnant. “She has gotten so round we just had her palpated, and she is open,” Sheidy said. “No baby.” In April, Escapedfromnewyork looked like a yearling when he arrived at Old Friends at Dream Chase Farm, the retirement center in Georgetown, Ky. He was actually 5 years old. He took up residence alongside thoroughbred icons like Sunshine Forever and Ogygian — and more than 50 other horses worth tens of millions of dollars when they raced. Among them was Escapedfromnewyork’s grandfather Fortunate Prospect . Still, Snake — the horse is nicknamed for the protagonist in the movie “Escape From New York” — has quickly become one of the star attractions for the thousands of horse lovers who visit the farm. “Snake has grown about 10 inches and gained about 200 pounds,” Michael Blowen, the farm’s president and founder, said. “The tragedy is that I think with his build and intelligence he would have made a very nice racehorse.” Now, people like Hala and Kerr, Blowen and Sheidy, and dozens of others who gave the horses homes, are looking for a storybook ending to what has been an unnecessarily sad tale.

Horses
Cruelty to Animals
Paragallo Ernie
Horse Racing
Breeding of Animals


Boeing Halts Production of Dreamliner Fuselage Sections

Abstract: The Boeing Company has hit another snag in its 787 Dreamliner program, raising fresh concerns about when the fuel-efficient plane will be ready for its first test flight. Boeing confirmed Friday that in June it instructed an Italian company, Alenia Aeronautica, to stop making fuselage sections for the aircraft after small wrinkles were discovered in the carbon composite skin that covers them. Howard A. Rubel, an analyst at Jefferies & Company, said Alenia had a lot of experience with composite materials, and the latest problem sounded “more like a question of sloppiness.” But, he said, “You kind of look at the issues with the plane, and you say, ‘When is this going to stop being a problem?’ ” The order to stop production came the same day Boeing announced that the 787’s first flight would be delayed indefinitely to fix a structural flaw where the wings join the fuselage. A spokeswoman, Lori Gunter, said Friday that Boeing had created a patch to fix the wrinkling problem on the mid-fuselage section. She said the company had not disclosed the problem in June because it was not expected to affect the plane’s overall cost or production schedule. But stock analysts said the problem would undoubtedly add to the nervousness about whether other flaws would surface with the plane, which is considered crucial to Boeing’s future. The jetliner is supposed to be lighter and more fuel-efficient than other airliners, and Boeing has 850 advance orders. Even though the company says it has identified a fix for the structural problem involving the wings, it has not announced a new date for the first flight test. The plane is already two years behind its original schedule. The problems with the wrinkling on the fuselage skin were first disclosed on Thursday by the FlightBlogger Web site. It quoted the stop-work order that Boeing issued to Alenia on June 23 as saying that the problems could “lead to significant degradation of the structure.” Ms. Gunter, the Boeing spokeswoman, said the problem would be fixed with external patches, which would have to be applied to the first 23 planes. She also said that while Alenia had not started any new mid-fuselage sections, it was continuing other work under its contract. Boeing has outsourced much more of the production work on the 787 than on previous planes, to both American and foreign suppliers. “So there’s an awful lot that we still don’t know about where things stand,” Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group, said. Shares of Boeing fell $1.75, or 3.8 percent, to close at $44.87 on Friday.

dreamliner
Airlines and Airplanes
Boeing Co


Britain to Add 700 Troops to Afghan War

Abstract: LONDON — Calling the border area between Afghanistan and Pakistan “the crucible of global terrorism,” Prime Minister Gordon Brown confirmed Wednesday that Britain would send an additional 700 troops to Afghanistan to fight alongside American and NATO forces battling the Taliban. But he made clear that the deployment — which had been expected and will raise Britain’s commitment to 9,000 from 8,300 — would be intended primarily to build security around the coming elections in Afghanistan and that the extra forces would be withdrawn by early 2010. “For Afghanistan, our strategy is to ensure the country is strong enough as a democracy to withstand and overcome the terrorist threat,” he said, unveiling what British officials called a new strategy that resembled the Obama administration’s approach, particularly in treating security issues in Afghanistan and Pakistan as intertwined. “The greatest international priority is the border areas of Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Mr. Brown told Parliament . “They are the crucible of global terrorism. They are the breeding ground for international terrorists. They are the source of a chain of terror which links the mountains of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the streets of Britain.” The British leader visited both countries in recent days. Britain has close historical and other ties with the region, from military debacles in the 19th century “Great Game” for influence in Afghanistan to the links British counterterrorism officials have traced between militants in Britain and Pakistan. Mr. Brown said two-thirds of the terrorism plots uncovered in recent years involved clandestine ties to Pakistan. “Tackling terrorism in and from the borders of Afghanistan and Pakistan drives forward our new set of proposals today,” he said. “Our aim is to divide, isolate and then remove the insurgents, offering to those prepared to renounce violence and accept the Afghan Constitution the prospect of work and security.” He said Britain wanted to help train the Afghan Army to fight the Taliban and to support development projects in Pakistan to prevent young people from “falling under the sway of violent and extremist ideologies.” Last month, President Obama announced plans to send extra combat forces and military trainers to Afghanistan as part of a plan that would bring the overall American deployment there to about 60,000, including 26,000 who are under NATO command. Compared with those numbers, the British deployment is modest, particularly since Britain is set to complete a pullback from southern Iraq within months. Still, Britain is the second largest contributor to the 42-nation, 58,000-member international force in Afghanistan, according to its Web site . While Washington has been pressing for greater contributions from European countries, Britain argues that its forces are already playing a significant role in the dangerous Helmand Province of southern Afghanistan. According to Britain’s Ministry of Defense more than 150 service members have died in Afghanistan since the American-led invasion that toppled the Taliban in 2001. Australia plans to add 450 soldiers, increasing its force to about 1,550, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced Wednesday, saying Mr. Obama persuaded him to increase the deployment during discussions last week. Mr. Brown’s newest proposals, coupling military action and training with a boost in development spending, drew some criticism in Parliament. Comparing the British plan to President Obama’s resolve to defeat Al Qaeda and the Taliban, David Cameron, the leader of the Conservative opposition, told Parliament on Wednesday: “Isn’t it essential that our strategy is as tightly defined, as hard-headed and as realistic as that? “We are not in the business of trying to create a new Switzerland in the Hindu Kush — we want to help provide security and deny Al Qaeda those training bases.”

Afghanistan
Great Britain
Afghanistan War (2001- )
North Atlantic Treaty Organization


South Korea and China Said to Plan Trade Talks

Abstract: BEIJING — South Korea and China are likely to open free-trade talks next year, South Korea’s ambassador to China said in an interview published on Thursday. The negotiations could be a first step toward a three-nation trade zone with Japan and would rival the European Union and the North American Free Trade Agreement in size. In an interview with China Daily, the state-run English-language newspaper, the ambassador, Yu Woo-ik, cautioned that a trade pact with China would face deep skepticism from South Korea’s farming, fishing and forestry industries, which fear being undercut by cheap Chinese imports. But the ambassador also was quoted as saying that the agreement would be in South Korea’s long-term interests. The Chinese have been striking similar agreements with some of South Korea’s economic competitors, like Taiwan and countries in Southeast Asia. Asked about Mr. Yu’s remarks, the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said on Thursday that no decision had been made on whether or when to open formal negotiations with China. Two-way trade between China and South Korea amounted to $141 billion last year; South Korea sends a quarter of its exports to China. The two nations have said they will increase their bilateral trade to $300 billion a year by 2015. South Korea and China completed a feasibility study for a possible trade accord in May, and at the time they agreed to have more consultations on agriculture, fisheries and other sensitive areas before deciding to begin formal negotiations. Such consultations have not begun, though South Korean officials expect them to start soon. “We don’t know how long those consultations will last and what results they will bring about,” Kim Jin-wook, director of the ministry’s free-trade accord policy planning division, said on Thursday. “Until those consultations are over, we cannot say whether and when formal negotiations for an F.T.A. will take place.” China has been more aggressive in pursuing a trade deal with South Korea than vice versa, South Korean officials said. When South Korea’s president, Lee Myung-bak, met with China’s premier, Wen Jiabao, in May, Mr. Wen told South Korean business leaders that negotiations for a trade agreement would begin “within a year.” South Korea said no such schedule was set. Still, members of Mr. Lee’s governing Grand National Party have recently called for negotiations with China for a trade pact to help South Korean firms in the face of a “Chiwan economy.” The recent trade deal between China and Taiwan “can deliver a serious blow to our companies, which have been engaged in fierce competition with Taiwan for the Chinese market,” Kim Moo-sung, the floor leader of the governing party, said in a speech in July. “The government must prevent us losing all the market by pushing for an F.T.A. with China.” In the United States, President Obama is struggling to win support from his party’s legislators for a free-trade pact with South Korea that has gone unratified by Congress for more than three years. The accord is strongly opposed by the beef and auto industries in the United states, as well as by labor unions, which say it fails to end what they say are unfair restrictions on United States auto and beef sales in South Korea. The White House has pledged to address those concerns. But South Korea’s trade minister said in June that talks were complete and that the agreement would not change. Beijing is making trade pacts a centerpiece of its commerce strategy, signing or starting agreements since early 2007 with New Zealand, Taiwan, Singapore, Peru and a 10-nation Southeast Asian alliance. If South Korea and Japan reach a trade accord, the alliance would remove tariff barriers among three of the four largest Asian economies. Preliminary discussions on a trade pact have been under way for eight years. Even if South Korean domestic opposition to a pact with China were overcome, a three-nation alliance including Japan faces daunting obstacles. Relations between Japan and China have long been darkened by mutual suspicion; efforts by South Korea and Japan to lower their trade barriers have stalled.

South Korea
China
International Trade and World Market
United States International Relations


Accounts and People of Note in the Advertising Industry

Abstract: Victor Abramson joined the Portland, Ore., office of Advanced Broadcast Solutions in a new post, national sales manager for cable television solutions. He had most recently been a regional sales manager at the Satellite Engineering Group division of TVC Communications. Adconion Media Group, New York, is folding its Joost Media unit into Smartclip, its video advertising division. Allison & Partners, San Francisco, part of MDC Partners, reorganized senior management as the founding partners — Scott Allison, Andy Hardie-Brown and Scott Pansky — move into what were described as broader roles focused on larger issues like strategic vision and growth efforts. Jonathan Heit, senior vice president in the agency’s New York office, overseeing the digital media and technology, will now oversee day-to-day agency operations as he is promoted to president and senior partner. (Mr. Allison, who was president and chief executive, becomes chairman and chief executive.) Also, the general managers of three Allison offices — Anne Colaiacovo, in New York; Brian Feldman, in Atlanta; and Phil Carpenter, in San Francisco — have been promoted to senior partners. And three executives have been named partners, joining the management team: Matthew Della Croce, managing director for the corporate communications practice; Larry Krutchik, senior vice president in the social impact and public affairs practice groups; and Cathy Planchard, general manager of the Phoenix office. American Student List, part of Euro RSCG Discovery, and Alloy Direct Marketing, part of Alloy Media and Marketing, are merging to form AlloyASL. Financial terms were not disclosed. Two senior executives of Alloy Direct Marketing will assume the senior leadership roles in the merged company: Andrew Belth, senior vice president, becomes president at AlloyASL, and Steven Stolls, vice president for sales, becomes executive vice president at AlloyASL. Euro RSCG Discovery is part of the Euro RSCG Worldwide unit of Havas Worldwide, part of Havas. Alloy Media and Marketing is part of Alloy Inc., which is owned by an investor group led by ZelnickMedia. Art Directors Club, New York, made its 91st annual awards presentation on May 8. Among the winners were: Agency of the Year, BETC Euro RCSG, Paris, part of the Euro RSCG Worldwide division of Havas; Network of the Year, BBDO Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group; Design Team of the Year, The New York Times Magazine, published by The New York Times Company; and School of the Year, the School of Visual Arts, New York. Michael Bassik, United States digital practice chairman at Burson-Marsteller, New York — part of the Young & Rubicam Group unit of WPP — was also named to serve as chief executive of a division of Burson-Marsteller, Proof Integrated Communications. He assumes duties from Tony Telloni, who had been serving as interim chief executive; Mr. Telloni becomes managing director for brand integration and innovation at the consumer and brand marketing practice of Burson-Marsteller. Hope Boonshaft joined Gibraltar Associates, Washington, in a new post, executive vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles office. She had been executive vice president and general manager of the Los Angeles and Irvine, Calif., offices of Hill & Knowlton Strategies, part of WPP. Amy Ferranti joined Designkitchen, Chicago, in a new post, vice president for client services. She had been vice president and client partner at the Chicago office of Razorfish, part of the Publicis Groupe. Designkitchen is part of the Wunderman unit of the Young & Rubicam Group, which is owned by WPP. GumGum, Los Angeles, which offers in-image advertising to online publishers like Gannett, Hearst and Time Warner, will expand into Canada through an agreement with Oboxmedia, Montreal. Financial terms were not disclosed. Sabrina Guttman, global client leader on the SAP account at Burson-Marsteller, New York, was named United States technology practice chairwoman. She assumes duties from Jim Goldman, who had been United States technology practice chairman until being named managing editor for global media in January. Burson-Marsteller is part of the Young & Rubicam Brands division of WPP. Eric Hyman joined the Partnership, Atlanta, in a new post, chief marketing officer. He had been vice president for sales at Networked Insights. Nancy Jo joined Bravo Media, New York, in a new post, vice president for digital strategy and business development. She had been senior director for business development at Vevo. Bravo Media is part of NBCUniversal Cable Entertainment, a division of the NBCUniversal unit of the Comcast Corporation. LifeSpan, Salt Lake City, which sells fitness gear, chose Adam Ritchie Brand Direction, Boston, as its first communications agency of record, helping to introduce products that include the Treadmill Desk. Spending has not been determined. Marie Claire magazine, New York, part of the Hearst Magazines unit of the Hearst Corporation, hired three employees. They are: Carol Atalla, international fashion and luxury director; Stephanie Clement, director of the magazine’s Detroit office, based in Troy, Mich.; and Brian Roy, account director overseeing lifestyle accounts. New Ulm, Minn., selected Haberman, Minneapolis, as its agency for increasing tourism, handling tasks like advertising, digital work and public relations. There was no previous agency and the budget was not disclosed. New York Festivals presented its 55th annual awards on May 2 and 3. DDB Worldwide, part of the Omnicom Group, won the most awards of any global agency network. The winners of the Idea of the Year Award were Crispin Porter & Bogusky, part of MDC Partners, and Digitas, part of the Publicis Groupe, for the Small Business Saturday campaign for American Express. The Netherlands office of Publicis Worldwide, part of the Publicis Groupe, won the grand gold award for work on a campaign to fight A.L.S. And Tom Burrell, chairman emeritus of Burrell Communications, Chicago, won the Hall of Fame Award. Promotional Products Association International, Irving, Tex., reported that distributor sales of promotional products in the United States last year totaled $17.7 billion, up 7 percent from $16.6 billion in 2010. It was the second consecutive year of growth, the association reported, after declines in 2008 and 2009. The record figure, $19.7 billion, was set in 2007, according to the organization. Rockland Trust Company, Hanover, Mass., named Forge Worldwide, Boston, as its agency for brand strategy and advertising. Billings were not disclosed. The assignment had previously been handled by Vox Marketing, Dedham, Mass. Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Innovations, Yardley, Pa., was renamed Saatchi & Saatchi Science. The agency is part of the Publicis Healthcare Communications Group, owned by the Publicis Groupe. Sloan Hunt Communications, New York, was opened by Pat Sloan, who for many years had been senior vice president and corporate director for public affairs and public relations at DDB Worldwide and its parent, the Omnicom Group. Ms. Sloan is principal at Sloan Hunt, which is working for clients like Brodeur Partners and We Are Social. Amanda Soder joined the Mintz & Hoke Communications Group, Avon, Conn., as a media assistant. She had been an analyst in the office of clinical and translational research at the UConn Health Center, Farmington, Conn. Emily Steel joined The Financial Times in its New York office as United States media and marketing correspondent. She succeeds David Gelles, who was named the United States mergers and acquisition correspondent and will continue to be based in New York. Ms. Steel had been a social media editor at The Wall Street Journal and before that wrote articles about the digital media and marketing industries. Warpaint, a commercial production company, was opened by Warrior Poets, the New York-based production company of the documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock; Snoot Entertainment, Los Angeles, a film production company; and Shannon Lords, a producer who works with movie and commercial directors. Warpaint will have offices in New York, Los Angeles and London. Betty White will receive the PromaxBDA Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2012 PromaxBDA annual conference, to be held in Los Angeles on June 12 to 14. Michael Wright, executive vice president and head of programming for the TBS, TNT and Turner Classic Movies cable channels, was promoted to president and head of programming. He will continue to be based in Los Angeles. The channels are part of the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner.

Advertising and Marketing
Public Relations and Publicity
Appointments and Executive Changes


Mets Alter Closer Rodriguez’s Contract

Abstract: Acting aggressively, and maybe unrealistically, the Mets said Tuesday that they would not pay Francisco Rodriguez while he recovered from his torn thumb ligament and that they would no longer guarantee the remainder of his three-year contract, which runs through 2011. The Mets made their announcement in a conference call, and it drew a quick response from the players union, which said it would immediately contest every action the Mets were taking. So the battle lines were drawn six days after Rodriguez injured himself in an altercation with the father of his common-law wife and then, a day later, was marched into a Queens courtroom in handcuffs to be arraigned on two misdemeanor assault charges. Whether any of the steps the Mets are taking will be upheld by a baseball arbitrator remains to be seen. But if nothing else, the Mets, by taking a tough stance, could win substantial support from their angry fans, many of them unhappy with the team’s management. As for Rodriguez, the Mets probably could not care less what he thinks. The Mets’ steps caught some people in baseball by surprise. They assumed the team would simply attempt to penalize Rodriguez by not paying him for the remainder of this season while he recovers from his injury. Instead, the Mets took a tougher and more provocative approach by converting Rodriguez’s guaranteed contract — $11.5 million next season, with a $17.5 million option in 2012 — into a nonguaranteed one. The move, which has little precedent in Major League Baseball, would give the Mets tremendous leverage. Under a nonguaranteed contract, the Mets would not owe Rodriguez anything from his 2011 salary if he were released before spring training. If he were with the team in Port St. Lucie, he would be paid somewhere between one-sixth and one-fourth of his contract if he were cut before the 25-man roster is set. Only if he were named to the 25-man roster would his contract for the season become guaranteed. These parameters would leave Rodriguez extremely vulnerable and, no doubt, resentful. But first, the Mets would have to convince an arbitrator that they have the right to make Rodriguez’s contract nonguaranteed, and that may be a very tough assignment. For the moment, though, the Mets do not seem to care. They took their action Tuesday without negotiating with Rodriguez’s agent or the players union, although they informed them of their intent. In response to the Mets’ steps, Michael Weiner, the head of the players union, said Tuesday night that the union would challenge what the Mets are trying to do. “The Mets’ actions are without basis, and the union will grieve them right away,” he said. He said he expected the grievance to go before an arbitrator by this fall. Before then, there will be probably be a face-to-face meeting between the Mets, the union and Rodriguez’s agent. In such a setting, it is conceivable a deal could be worked out under which the Mets would settle for the union’s not contesting Rodriguez’s loss of pay in 2010 and the Mets, in exchange, agreeing to guarantee Rodriguez’s salary for 2011. As for the conference call, it proved revealing in that Jeff Wilpon, the team’s chief operating officer, and Omar Minaya, the team’s general manager, clearly seemed to differ in their feelings about Rodriguez’s future with the team. Wilpon seemed somewhat dismissive of Rodriguez, suggesting the possibility that someone in the Mets’ bullpen could step up in the final weeks of the season and demonstrate he can do Rodriguez’s job as closer. In that case, Wilpon implied, there might not be a need to bring back Rodriguez in 2011, assuming the Mets are not obligated to pay him. Meanwhile, Minaya, who signed Rodriguez to a three-year contract before the 2009 season, sounded a more optimistic tone about his embattled closer. “Right now, we plan on bringing him back next year,” Minaya said. During the conference call, Wilpon disclosed that Rodriguez had surgery on the thumb Tuesday afternoon at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan. But Wilpon also said he was not concerned about any claim that Rodriguez actually hurt his thumb when he pitched one inning last Saturday night, saying “there’s strong evidence and witnesses” that Rodriguez injured himself during the altercation last Wednesday and that Rodriguez “told our trainer that is when it happened.” Wilpon also said that in the wake of Wednesday’s incident, the Mets wanted to place Rodriguez on baseball’s restricted list for more than two games but settled on that amount after discussions with the union. Now, however, the Mets seem intent on doing exactly what they want. Wilpon even held out the option of eventually moving to void Rodriguez’s contract, saying: “We are going to reserve our rights on that.” For now, though, the move to make Rodriguez’s contract nonguaranteed will get attention. Gabe Feldman, the head of the sports law department at Tulane University, said he could not recall an instance in which a team had attempted such a step. “The players union is going to do everything they can to uphold the sanctity of contracts,” he said. “They fight hard to make sure they get guaranteed contracts for their players. What the Mets did is something that is buried in major league rules. It’s rare to void contracts and even more rare to convert to nonguaranteed contracts, particularly with a star player.”

Baseball
New York Mets
Rodriguez Francisco


Race Narrows as Campaign Enters Its Final Week

Abstract: COLUMBUS, Ohio — President Obama and Mitt Romney enter the closing week of the campaign in an exceedingly narrow race, according to the latest poll by The New York Times and CBS News, with more voters now viewing Mr. Romney as a stronger leader on the economy and Mr. Obama as a better guardian of the middle class. The president is holding his coalition together with strong support from women and minority voters and is supported by 48 percent of likely voters nationwide, the poll found, while Mr. Romney holds a wide advantage among independents and men and is the choice of 47 percent. The race for the White House, which has been interrupted by the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy ’s deadly assault on the East Coast, is heading toward an uncertain conclusion. The president was set to stay off the campaign trail for a third straight day to tour storm damage on Wednesday with Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey, a Republican. Mr. Romney was set to resume a full schedule in Florida. In the final days, the most intense competition between Mr. Obama and Mr. Romney has narrowed to seven states, but the national poll illustrates why the Romney campaign is working to expand the battleground and seize upon the deep concern in the electorate about whether the president should win a second term. The economy continues to be the overwhelming issue on the minds of voters, with about three-quarters selecting the economy as either their first or second most important concern. Another 23 percent named the budget deficit as one of their top two issues. Most voters consider Mr. Romney the better candidate to deal with both of those challenges. The president has a slight edge on terrorism and foreign policy, but the poll found that Mr. Romney may have made some inroads with his strong critique of how Mr. Obama managed the Libya crisis after the killing of the American ambassador and three others in Benghazi. When asked specifically about the administration’s handling of the attacks on the consulate in Libya, the poll found that only 38 percent of voters approved and 51 percent disapproved. A week before the election, even as millions of Americans have already cast their ballots through early-voting programs in many states, voters are closely divided between the candidates, with men and women practically mirror images of each other. The poll found that Mr. Obama is supported by 52 percent of women and 44 percent of men, while Mr. Romney is preferred by 51 percent of men and 44 percent of women. Throughout the campaign, most voters have given Mr. Obama the advantage over Mr. Romney when asked which candidate understands their needs and problems. And even more see Mr. Obama as the candidate who appreciates the issues faced by working women. Two-thirds of voters, both men and women, said Mr. Obama understands the problems of women in the work force, while 46 percent said the same about Mr. Romney. But slightly more voters describe Mr. Romney as a strong leader than they do Mr. Obama. As Mr. Romney seeks to emphasize the moderate elements of his record, the poll found that voters across the country see deep philosophical differences between the two candidates, with 67 percent saying that Mr. Romney would very closely or somewhat closely follow the policies of former President George W. Bush. Since becoming the Republican presidential nominee, Mr. Romney has become more moderate, according to 33 percent of voters, while 18 percent said he has moved more to the right. Among those who say Mr. Romney’s positions have become more moderate, 42 percent still say he is too conservative, 44 percent say his political values are about right and 11 percent say he is not conservative enough. The poll was conducted in the days before Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast. The telephone interviews were conducted Thursday through Sunday, although they were originally intended to continue through Tuesday evening. Though the survey was cut short by the approaching storm, all numbers in the sample were attempted at least once. The nationwide survey was conducted by landlines and cellphones to reach 898 adults, of whom 798 said they were registered to vote. The likely voter model includes voting history, attention to the campaign and likelihood of voting. Party identification for likely voters has been adjusted to its average in the two most recent polls by The Times and CBS News. The margin of sampling error for 563 likely voters is plus or minus four percentage points.

Presidential Election of 2012
Obama Barack
Romney Mitt
Polls and Public Opinion