Subpoenas and Gag Orders Show Government Overreach, Tech Companies Argue

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — It has been six months since the Justice Department backed off on demands that Apple help the F.B.I. break the security of a locked iPhone. But the government has not given up the fight with the tech industry. Open Whisper Systems, a maker of a widely used encryption app called Signal, received a subpoena in the first half of the year for subscriber information and other details associated with two phone numbers that came up in a federal grand jury investigation in Virginia. The subpoena arrived with a court order that said Open Whisper Systems was not allowed to tell anyone about the information request for one year. Technology companies contend that court-imposed gag orders are being used too often by law enforcement and that they violate the Bill of Rights. The companies also complain that law enforcement officials are casting a wide net over online communications — often too wide — in their investigations. Justice Department officials, for their part, argue that these gag orders are necessary to protect developing cases and to avoid tipping off potential targets. The officials say that they are simply following leads where they take them. Through a spokesman, the Justice Department declined to comment on the case. The information request made of Open Whisper Systems is particularly sensitive, since its encryption app is used around the world, and it is often recommended to journalists and human rights activists. Microsoft sued the Justice Department over the gag order practice in April, arguing that law enforcement was relying on these orders too often. Specifically, the software giant said the gag orders violate the Fourth Amendment right of its customers to know if the government searches or seizes their property and also the company’s First Amendment right to speak to its customers. Microsoft also complained that the orders often came without time limits, unlike the Open Whisper Systems order. Dozens of other technology, media and civil liberties groups filed briefs supporting Microsoft last month, and the case is pending. Part of the gag order on Open Whisper Systems was lifted after a court challenge by the American Civil Liberties Union, and redacted versions of documents related to the information request were made public last week. But the small San Francisco company was still not allowed to tell specific account holders about the investigation. The documents made public show that the government asked Open Whisper Systems to turn over data associated with two telephone numbers, including web browsing histories and data stored in the tracking “cookies” of the web browsers attached to those accounts. But one of Signal’s biggest draws is that it does not collect most of that information. “The Signal service was designed to minimize the data we retain,” said Moxie Marlinspike, the founder of Open Whisper Systems. Mr. Marlinspike said Signal uses a technology called end-to-end encryption that kept the service from gaining access to the contents of its users’ messages. The company also does not store information on those with whom its users are communicating. Civil liberties lawyers argue the Justice Department request fell well outside the bounds of what is typically covered by a subpoena, including basic subscriber information. Additional information, such as computer logs or content, would require a search warrant under the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act. “The Justice Department is pushing the envelope,” said Jennifer Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society. Big companies like Apple and Microsoft have the wherewithal to push back, she said. But smaller companies may cave, rather than risk an expensive fight. The Justice Department came to Open Whisper Systems with a menu of information needs, including subscriber details, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses and method of payment. The request went on to demand information on internet addresses, browsers and internet providers that the account holders could have used, according to court records. One of the phone numbers the government was investigating was not a Signal user after all. For the other phone number, Open Whisper Systems turned over the only pieces of data it could: the time the user’s account had been created and the last time it had connected to the service — far less than the government sought. In other circumstances, the government has tried to force companies via court order to re-engineer their services to collect missing pieces of information, as it did with Apple earlier this year and in a similar case in 2013 against Lavabit, a small encrypted messaging service used by the former defense contractor Edward J. Snowden. The government did not make that request of Open Whisper Systems. “They need to pick those cases carefully,” Ms. Granick said. “They are only picking cases where they think they’re going to have the people on their side.” The Justice Department and F.B.I. tried to force Apple to break its own software security in the case of an iPhone used by a gunman in last year’s San Bernardino terrorist attacks, she said. Companies are having some success in getting courts to lift gag orders. Last year, Nicholas Merrill, the owner of a now-defunct internet service provider, got a gag order lifted, though it took more than a decade. After the court decision in Mr. Merrill’s case, a federal judge in the Eastern District of New York denied gag orders in more than a dozen cases related to Facebook subpoenas last May. And in June, Yahoo was successful in getting a court to lift gag orders on a number of law enforcement information requests. “Gag orders should be used in exceptional cases,” said Brett M. Kaufman, the staff attorney with the A.C.L.U. who represented Open Whisper Systems. “This one demonstrates that the exception has become the rule in routine proceedings.”

Subpoena
Justice Department
Tech Industry
Signal
Privacy
Government Surveillance
Search and seizure
FBI
ACLU
Computers and the Internet


Nebraska Revises Child Safe Haven Law

Abstract: DECATUR, Neb.— The Legislature on Friday revised an unusual law permitting parents to hand children up to age 18 over to state custody without prosecution, instead limiting its reach to infants up to 30 days old. The original law, enacted earlier this year, was intended to protect newborns from being abandoned or killed by panicked young mothers. But since Sept. 1, to the shock of officials and the public in Nebraska , 35 older children, many from 10 to 17 years in age, have been dropped off at hospitals. Most were left by desperate parents who said the children were uncontrollable and violent and needed more counseling or psychiatric services than they could find or pay for. The specter of parents’ giving up their children prompted national soul-searching about the limits of parental responsibility. It has also highlighted what child welfare experts say is a widespread shortage of public and private aid, especially mental health services, for overstressed families and teenagers — a shortage that is likely to worsen in the current economic crisis as state governments cut budgets. The Legislature on Thursday established a commission to propose new measures to help people like Lavennia Coover, a 36-year-old divorced mother of three and kindergarten teacher who was at the end of her rope, financially and emotionally, when she made the wrenching decision to hand over her son. “I still cry every night,” Ms. Coover said Friday in an interview at her home in Decatur, a speck of a farm town on the Missouri River, about 60 miles north of Omaha. “What parent wouldn’t feel guilty doing this?” Ms. Coover’s husband left her alone with three children, including an older bipolar daughter and a 12-year-old boy who is doing well. But her 11-year-old son, Skylar, is bipolar, abusive and violent, she said, and after three years of spotty, expensive and ineffective psychiatric care she could see no other way to get him the intensive help he needs. In September, when he refused to get out of bed and go to school, she physically dragged him out for a few days, then gave up trying. On Sept. 24, after he had become more aggressive and begun throwing food and trashing the house, she told the boy that they were going for a drive to Omaha. Instead she drove to the Alegent Health-Immanuel Medical Center and left Skylar there, invoking the safe-haven law. Skylar suspected what was up. On Labor Day weekend, after a particularly bad spell, he had spent three days — the maximum her insurance would cover — in that hospital’s psychiatric unit, and as she turned in its direction that day, he said: “You’re taking me back there, aren’t you? You lied to me.” “I promise I’ll behave,” he wailed. “I promise I’ll go to school.” “I said, ‘Skylar, you need help that I just can’t give you,’ ” Ms. Coover recalled. She wept in the emergency room. On Sept. 26 child welfare officials in Douglas County, which includes Omaha, filed a petition accusing Ms. Coover of neglect. She is working to have that changed to a “no fault” transfer of custody. Being officially declared neglectful could jeopardize her teaching credential and future parental rights. The abrupt handovers in Nebraska are striking examples of an ongoing, more orderly phenomenon that exposes the shortage of psychiatric help for children. A 2003 report by the General Accounting Office, compiling responses from only 19 states and 30 counties, found that 12,700 children in one year had been placed in child welfare or juvenile justice systems simply so they could receive mental health care. As the drop-offs continued through the fall in Nebraska, including five cases in which children were driven in from other states, Gov. Dave Heineman called an emergency session of the Legislature this week to revise the law. Earlier this year, Nebraska was the last of the 50 states to adopt a safe-haven law. But instead of specifying that it applied only to infants up to a certain age, as in other states, Nebraska’s version used the word “child,” opening the door to handovers of children up to age 18. Many legislators and advocates for children said the desperate actions by caretakers had exposed serious gaps in services, especially for families with troubled older children. The findings of the new commission are sure to be scrutinized by other states where the same unmet needs are rumbling. As in most states, Nebraska offers a patchwork of hot lines, private agencies like Boys Town and public programs that offer counseling and respite shelters to distressed families and runaway children. Some Nebraska officials have said that ample services exist, including free counseling for the poor, but that parents are not fully using them. Many legislators and advocates disagree. Ms. Coover said that her son had received psychiatric care off and on, with limited coverage by her insurance plan, but that he often refused to take prescribed medications. When he refused to go to school, she could not afford a sitter and did not know where to turn. She has spoken out, she said, because newspaper descriptions made her family easily identifiable in their town of 640 and because she resented the way state officials described parents like her as irresponsibly “abandoning” their children. Far from abandoning Skylar, she said, she gave her phone number to the hospital and state agencies, has visited him weekly — he is still in the same hospital but will soon move into a therapeutic foster home with specially trained parents and services — and hopes he can return home at some point. It was easy for officials to talk of available counseling and mental health services, Ms. Coover said. But in a rural area like hers, such aid is rare, and when she did find it, the offices were distant. “Good luck finding a counselor — they’re all filled up,” she said. “You call a psychiatrist and have to wait three months for an appointment.” Once during a snowstorm, she said, after she drove 25 miles to pick up the boys at school, then 45 miles to a psychiatric appointment, she arrived 15 minutes late. “They said we’d have to make a new appointment for six weeks later,” she said. The short-lived law has yielded many poignant scenes. The same night that Ms. Coover took Skylar in, a father went into another hospital in Omaha and dropped off nine children, saying that since his wife died last year, he could not cope with raising them. Those children, like some others handed to the state, have moved in with relatives, but most are in foster care or group homes. Courtney Anderson, a social worker at Immanuel Hospital, said that some of the children taken to the emergency room cried and begged their parent or guardian not to leave them. Some did not realize what was happening. “Some knew, but were just numb,” Ms. Anderson said. Nine of the 35 drop-offs occurred at Immanuel Hospital, but at least as many more families arrived intending to leave a child but were talked out of it by social workers who offered respite care, parenting classes and referrals to other aid that, Ms. Anderson said, the parents had not known about. Even with children suffering more severe psychiatric problems, Ms. Anderson said, state child welfare and other agencies “came together quickly” to offer help. “Everyone wants the families to stay together,” she said. “And we are looking forward to the solutions that the new commission proposes.”


Victory by Japanese Teenager Highlights Day of Upsets

Abstract: During the points, Kei Nishikori showed no signs of distress, his movements flowing like silk. The effort it required Nishikori, an 18-year-old from Shimane, Japan, to make history at the United States Open on Saturday became painfully obvious afterward when he hobbled on quivering legs to the interview podium and appeared so exhausted he could barely keep himself upright in his seat. Nishikori, 126th-ranked player in the world, pulled off the men’s upset of the first week when he defeated the No. 4 seed, David Ferrer of Spain, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5. The third-round match started during the day session and was rumbling toward its dramatic conclusion after the first match of the evening session had ended. The final match of the day also ended in an upset, with Mardy Fish defeating his close friend and fellow American, ninth-seeded James Blake, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4). Blake, who had advanced at least as far as the fourth round at the Open the previous three years, arrived at the tournament in particularly high spirits after beating the former No. 1, Roger Federer, at the Beijing Olympics. Fish, who had never made it past the second round in eight previous Open appearances, recorded 55 winners against 28 unforced errors and broke Blake five times. It took Nishikori 3 hours 32 minutes and three match points to put away Ferrer, a veritable human backboard. Ferrer erased the first match point with a backhand passing shot with Nishikori serving at 5-3 in the fifth. Nishikori sealed the win by breaking Ferrer with his 28th forehand winner. When Ferrer could not return the ball, Nishikori let go of his racket and fell to the court on his back. With the victory, Nishikori became the first Japanese man to reach the fourth round of the Open and the first to advance to the Round of 16 in a Grand Slam event since 1995, when Shuzo Matsuoka made it to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. “I was already happy to play U.S. Open main draw,” said Nishikori, who attempted to qualify for the Open last year but lost in the second round of qualifying. Ferrer and Nishikori finished with the same number of points won (155), and each broke the other eight times. Nishikori had played only one other five-set match. He started cramping in the third set, and late in the fifth set, Nishikori required medical treatment. His malady was essentially exhaustion. He took off his sneakers and sat back while a trainer kneaded his legs, then Nishikori sat forward so his back could be rubbed. He also cramped during his four-set victory against the No. 29 seed, Juan Monaco, in the first round. “I was tired, but I tried to think, ‘I am playing David.’ He’s No. 4 in the world, and playing five sets with him I felt kind of happy and think more positive,” Nishikori said. “That’s why I think I could fight through everything.” But he acknowledged that after the match everything was hurting. “My ankle and my legs are sore and my back,” he said. “I couldn’t even move after the match.” At Wimbledon in 1995, Matsuoka was 27 and ranked 108th in the world when he defeated the American Michael Joyce, who was ranked 119th, in straight sets. The match took place on Court 13, which was intimate enough to enable Matsuoka to walk around shaking the hands of the fans in the stands who had cheered him on. The setting was much grander for Nishikori, who was bidding to become the youngest man to advance to the fourth round at the Open since Marat Safin in 1998. He was playing on one of the show courts, Louis Armstrong Stadium, and as word of his upset bid spread through the grounds of the National Tennis Center, curious fans filled the stands. By the end, Nishikori’s cheering section included his countrywoman, Ai Sugiyama, a veteran who made her way to Armstrong after losing to Serena Williams in straight sets in another day match at Arthur Ashe Stadium. “I think that was the most important thing today,” Nishikori said, referring to the crowd that he won over with his fearlessness. “That helped me so much. I get so excited today.” Ferrer, who had only three forehand winners in the fifth set, said, “I fight a lot, and Nishikori plays better than me, I think.” He added, “He’s a good player, no?” Matsuoka’s feat at Wimbledon made the front pages of the sports dailies in Japan. Nishikori was asked if he had a clue how his victory would be treated at home. He said he already had received some feedback. “Is it huge?” somebody asked. Nishikori, looking embarrassed, replied: “I think. I don’t know. Yeah.” NOTES Appearing under the lights at Arthur Ashe Stadium for the third time in seven Open visits, Dinara Safina played as if she had much to lose, and she did, namely a shot at the No. 1 world ranking and a $1 million United States Open Series bonus for winning the tournament. After a rocky start, the sixth-seeded Safina steadied her emotions, and her serve and ground strokes followed in a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Timea Bacsinszky. Safina improved her record in singles this year to 35-4. ... The hottest male player right now, Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina, ran his consecutive victory streak to 22 by staving off Gilles Simon of France, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in a third-round match on the Grandstand court that lasted 3 hours 47 minutes. Del Potro has not lost since falling to Stanislas Wawrinka in the second round at Wimbledon.

Tennis
United States Open (Tennis)
Nishikori Kei
Fish Mardy


U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates Asks Saudis for Help in Pakistan

Abstract: RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — As the Obama administration prepares for talks this week with senior leaders from Afghanistan and Pakistan , Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates flew to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to seek help in pushing back Taliban advances in Pakistan that, he said, threaten the very existence of the government in Islamabad. Mr. Gates said Saudi Arabia “clearly has a lot of influence throughout the region,” and he cited its “long-standing and close relationship with Pakistan.” The defense secretary called on Pakistan’s allies across the region to assist in countering insurgent successes that represent a growing danger to Pakistan, and Mr. Gates said a goal of this week’s meetings with Afghan and Pakistani leaders in Washington would be to reach consensus on the nature of the threat. In the past, the Pakistani government and its military have been far more focused on their traditional adversary, India, than on the domestic insurgency. As Mr. Gates concluded talks in Egypt earlier Tuesday, the shadow of Iran’s regional ambitions prompted the defense secretary to declare that efforts by the Obama administration to seek better ties with Tehran would not jeopardize its relations with allies in the region. He stressed that historic American partners in the Middle East would be kept fully informed of Washington’s diplomatic efforts toward Iran. The Obama administration was undertaking that effort to reach out to Iran “with its eyes wide open,” he said. “If we encounter a closed fist when we extend our open hand, then we will react accordingly,” Mr. Gates said. “Concerns out here of some kind of a ‘grand bargain’ developed in secret are completely unrealistic and, I would say, are not going to happen.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


How ‘Hunger Games’ Built Up Must-See Fever

Abstract: SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Selling a movie used to be a snap. You printed a poster, ran trailers in theaters and carpet-bombed NBC’s Thursday night lineup with ads. Today, that kind of campaign would get a movie marketer fired. The dark art of movie promotion increasingly lives on the Web, where studios are playing a wilier game, using social media and a blizzard of other inexpensive yet effective online techniques to pull off what may be the marketer’s ultimate trick: persuading fans to persuade each other. The art lies in allowing fans to feel as if they are discovering a film, but in truth Hollywood’s new promotional paradigm involves a digital hard sell in which little is left to chance — as becomes apparent in a rare step-by-step tour through the timetable and techniques used by Lionsgate to assure that “The Hunger Games” becomes a box office phenomenon when it opens on Friday. While some studios have halted once-standard marketing steps like newspaper ads, Lionsgate used all the usual old-media tricks — giving away 80,000 posters, securing almost 50 magazine cover stories, advertising on 3,000 billboards and bus shelters. But the campaign’s centerpiece has been a phased, yearlong digital effort built around the content platforms cherished by young audiences: near-constant use of Facebook and Twitter, a YouTube channel, a Tumblr blog, iPhone games and live Yahoo streaming from the premiere. By carefully lighting online kindling (releasing a fiery logo to movie blogs) and controlling the Internet burn over the course of months (a Facebook contest here, a Twitter scavenger hunt there), Lionsgate’s chief marketing officer, Tim Palen, appears to have created a box office inferno. Analysts project that the “The Hunger Games,” which cost about $80 million to make and is planned as a four-movie franchise, could have opening-weekend sales of about $90 million — far more than the first “Twilight” and on par with “Iron Man,” which went on to take in over $585 million worldwide in 2008. Along the way the studio had to navigate some unusually large pitfalls, chief among them the film’s tricky subject matter of children killing children for a futuristic society’s televised amusement. The trilogy of novels, written by Suzanne Collins, is critical of violence as entertainment, not an easy line for a movie marketer to walk, even though the movie itself is quite tame in its depiction of killing. “The beam for this movie is really narrow, and it’s a sheer drop to your death on either side,” said Mr. Palen, during an unusually candid two-hour presentation of his “Hunger Games” strategy at the studio’s offices here last month. A built-in fan base for “The Hunger Games” certainly helps its prospects. More than 24 million copies of “The Hunger Games” trilogy are in print in the United States alone. About 9.6 million copies were in circulation domestically when the movie’s marketing campaign intensified last summer, so Lionsgate’s efforts appear to have sold the book as well as the movie. Lionsgate has generated this high level of interest with a marketing staff of 21 people working with a relatively tiny budget of about $45 million. Bigger studios routinely spend $100 million marketing major releases, and have worldwide marketing and publicity staffs of over 100 people. The studio has been able to spend so little largely because Mr. Palen has relied on inexpensive digital initiatives to whip up excitement. The irony is that all of this may still not be enough to save Mr. Palen’s job. In a corporate twist on “The Hunger Games,” Mr. Palen is being forced to fight for his professional life following Lionsgate’s acquisition in January of Summit Entertainment, which controls the “Twilight” franchise. That means Lionsgate now has two marketing chiefs, and there is only room for one. Mr. Palen declined to comment on his job status, but it is clear that Ms. Collins is perplexed at the possibility of a future without him. “He’s a generous collaborator,” she said in an e-mail. “His work is so exceptionally good, I rarely had any notes. If he keeps his e-mails, he must have about 50 from me that say, ‘That looks amazing!’ ” Early promotion for “The Hunger Games” started in spring 2009, when Mr. Palen flew to New York to meet with publicity executives from Scholastic to learn about the book franchise. Rubber didn’t hit the road, however, until last March, when the Lionsgate team, including Julie Fontaine, executive vice president of publicity, started methodically pumping out casting news via Facebook. They assigned one team member to cultivate “Hunger Games” fan blogs. Danielle DePalma, senior vice president for digital marketing, drafted a chronology for the entire online effort, using spreadsheets (coded in 12 colors) that detailed what would be introduced on a day-by-day, and even minute-by-minute, basis over months. (“Nov. 17: Facebook posts — photos, Yahoo brand page goes live.”) One important online component involved a sweepstakes to bring five fans to the movie’s North Carolina set. Notably, Lionsgate invited no reporters: The studio did not want consumers thinking this was another instance of Hollywood trying to force-feed them a movie through professional filters. “People used to be O.K. with studios telling them what to like,” Ms. DePalma said. “Not anymore. Now it’s, ‘You don’t tell us, we tell you.’ ” Last summer, the Lionsgate team, including Nina Jacobson, a producer, and Joe Drake, then the studio’s top movie executive, started debating how to handle the movie’s subject. The usual move would have been to exploit imagery from the games in TV commercials. How else would men in particular get excited about the movie? But Mr. Palen was worried. “This book is on junior high reading lists, but kids killing kids, even though it’s handled delicately in the film, is a potential perception problem in marketing,” he said. One morning, he floated a radical idea: what about never showing the games at all in the campaign? Some team members were incredulous; after all, combat scenes make up more than half the movie. “There was a lot of, ‘You’ve got to be kidding. I don’t see how we can manage that,’ ” Mr. Palen recalled. Eventually, he prevailed. “Everyone liked the implication that if you want to see the games you have to buy a ticket,” he said. Boundaries were also established involving how to position plot developments; in the movie, 24 children fight to the death until one wins, but “we made a rule that we would never say ‘23 kids get killed,’ ” Mr. Palen said. “We say ‘only one wins.’ ” The team also barred the phrase “Let the games begin.” “This is not about glorifying competition; these kids are victims,” Mr. Palen said. A few months later, when a major entertainment magazine planned to use “Let the Games Begin” as the headline on a “Hunger Games” cover, Ms. Fontaine, traveling in London, frantically worked her cellphone until editors agreed to change it. In August came a one-minute sneak peek, introduced online at MTV.com . People liked it but complained — loudly — that it wasn’t enough. “We weren’t prepared for that level of we-demand-more pushback,” Mr. Palen said. The footage did include a Twitter prompt through which fans could discover a Web site for the movie, TheCapitol.pn . (The Capitol is where the Hunger Games take place.) The site allowed visitors to make digital ID cards as if they lived in Panem, the movie’s futuristic society; more than 800,000 people have created them. October included another Twitter stunt, this time meant to allow those ID makers to campaign online to be elected mayor of various districts of Panem. November marked the iTunes release of the main trailer, which received eight million views in its first 24 hours. On Dec. 15, 100 days before the movie’s release, the studio created a new poster and cut it into 100 puzzle pieces. It then gave digital versions of those pieces to 100 Web sites and asked them to post their puzzle piece on Twitter in lockstep. Fans had to search Twitter to put together the poster, either by printing out the pieces and cutting them out or using a program like Photoshop. “The Hunger Games” trended worldwide on Twitter within minutes. “It was a silly little stunt, but it worked — bam,” Mr. Palen said. More movie hubs went live on sites like PopSugar, Moviefone and The Huffington Post in January, which also was the start of a lavish Tumblr blog called Capitol Couture dedicated to the movie’s unique fashions. Fifty more Web sites coordinated a ticket giveaway. Capitol TV — movie footage, user-generated “Hunger Games” videos — arrived on YouTube in February and has since generated almost 17.7 million video views. This week, remembering it is operating in the attention deficit era, Lionsgate will introduce a new Facebook game and, separately, a virtual tour of the Capitol in a Web partnership with Microsoft. “You’ve got to constantly give people something new to get excited about, but we also had another goal in mind,” Ms. DePalma said. “How do we best sustain online interest until the DVD comes out?”

Movies
Social Networking (Internet)
Advertising and Marketing
Lions Gate Entertainment Corporation
Hunger Games The (Movie)
Collins Suzanne (1962- )


Pfizer Profit Declines 19% After Loss of Lipitor Patent

Abstract: For years, drug companies have known that their days of plenty were numbered, that the moment would arrive when the best-selling drugs that had driven two decades’ worth of profits would lose their patent protection and succumb to competition from generic alternatives. Without new blockbusters to replace them, profits would tumble. For Pfizer , that day has arrived. Pfizer profited from hits like Lipitor and Viagra , and swallowed up smaller companies from the 1990s onward. But it has no immediate successor to Lipitor, the best-selling drug in history, which lost patent protection last fall. The problem was punctuated on Tuesday when the company said that profit declined 19 percent last quarter, largely because of declines in Lipitor sales. Pfizer — once the Big in Big Pharma — is making a radical shift, one being watched closely by the rest of the industry. It is getting smaller. Last week the company announced it was selling its infant nutrition business to Nestlé for $11.85 billion, and it is expected to divest its profitable animal health business by next year. At the same time, the company is slashing as much as 30 percent of its research budget as part of a plan to focus on only the most promising areas, like cancer and Alzheimer’s disease . “It’s not necessarily smaller per se, it’s focused,” Ian C. Read, Pfizer’s chief executive, said in an interview Tuesday. “We are at our heart a biopharmaceutical company focused on applying science to improving people’s quality of life. That is what our core is. That is what will determine our success.” Pfizer is one of many pharmaceutical companies racing to reinvent itself. This year alone, at least 19 drugs — including the antistroke drug Plavix — are scheduled to lose patent protection, a potential $38.5 billion in lost sales, according to an analysis by Barclays . Drug executives are asking themselves: “What is it that we now face, given that in the past decade — when everything was going right — we didn’t build with this future in mind?” said Jeremy Levin, who oversaw a similar reorganization of Bristol-Myers Squibb and is about to take over as chief executive at Teva Pharmaceuticals. At Pfizer, skeptics have questioned the decision to shed some of its most profitable units in favor of doubling down on the risky pharmaceutical business. Pfizer’s nutrition unit grew by 15 percent and animal health by 17 percent in 2011 , while its pharmaceutical sales dipped by 1 percent. And Pfizer has suffered some notable flops over the last several years, including the failure of an experimental cholesterol treatment that was seen as a potential successor to Lipitor and poor sales of an inhaled insulin drug that the company eventually abandoned. “It’s a high-risk plan,” said Erik M. Gordon, who teaches business at the University of Michigan . “They’re focusing on what they don’t have the best track record in and they’re spinning off things that are doing pretty well.” Pfizer spent the last decade buying other big companies. In 2000, it acquired Warner Lambert and with it the rights to Lipitor, which Pfizer had been co-marketing with the company. In 2003, it merged with Pharmacia and added the painkiller Celebrex to its lineup. It acquired Wyeth in 2009 in a $68 billion deal that brought a portfolio of biologic drugs. Last year, Pfizer bought King Pharmaceuticals, a maker of pain drugs. The acquisitions, some said, turned Pfizer into a Frankenstein’s monster — a giant stitched together from the scraps of smaller companies that lurched forward with little purpose. “I think the company sort of lost their way in the years before the Wyeth acquisition,” said Catherine J. Arnold, an analyst for Credit Suisse . Mr. Read said he agreed. “I think it was broken — I think we were spending huge amounts of money,” said Mr. Read, who took over as chief executive in late 2010 after Jeffrey B. Kindler resigned abruptly . “We weren’t producing the drugs we needed and frankly that was seen in the marketplace.” Analysts said Pfizer’s nutrition deal and the divestiture of the animal health business is a way to tide over shareholders while it undertakes more substantial changes to its business model. The company has said it plans to use most of the cash from the deals to buy back stock, though studies have repeatedly cast doubt on the efficacy of such moves by corporations. Pfizer said Tuesday that it had repurchased $1.7 billion in stock in the first quarter, and expects to buy back about $5 billion by the end of the year. The company reported earnings of $1.79 billion last quarter, or 24 cents a share, compared to $2.22 billion, or 28 cents a share over the same period last year. Investors seem to be buying into the company’s strategy so far: Pfizer stock has risen nearly 8 percent over the last year. Pfizer’s stock closed at $22.78 on Tuesday, down 12 cents, or less than 1 percent. Even so, the company’s decision to cut research budgets as it is planning to recommit to its pharmaceutical core struck some as risky. Mr. Gordon, the Michigan business professor, called it a “magic trick.” It’s a magic trick, however, that most major pharmaceutical companies are also trying. “The question is how do you remain successful and sustain your operations if you’re investing less and less in R&D?” said Kenneth I. Kaitin, a professor and director of Tufts University ’s Center for the Study of Drug Development. “The answer to that is to try to find a new way and a more efficient mechanism for discovering and developing drugs.” Pfizer plans to reduce its research budget from $9.4 billion in 2010 to $6.5 billion to $7 billion this year. It closed a research center in Britain and has been trimming its facility in Groton, Conn., and moving resources to areas closer to universities in Boston and Cambridge , England . In 2011, the company ended 91 projects, canceling programs aimed at treating bladder infection , for example, as well as one to treat nasal symptoms from allergies . Company executives have also said they will be on the lookout for smaller acquisitions to fill gaps in their portfolio, and will expand partnerships with academic institutions. Mr. Read said the cuts would not affect the areas that the company has prioritized. “Most of what I cut had a low probability of success,” he said. While Pfizer does not have another Lipitor, analysts say several drugs seem promising. On May 9, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is to consider recommending approval of an oral pill for rheumatoid arthritis . In June, the agency is expected to weigh approval of Eliquis, an antistroke drug that Pfizer is developing with Bristol-Myers Squibb. In corporate strategy, Pfizer is following the path of Bristol-Myers, which in 2009 announced plans to spin off the nutrition company Mead Johnson to focus on acquiring small biotech companies . The company has since fared well despite the loss of patent protection for Plavix on May 17. “So long as the blockbuster game was working, people kept playing it,” Mr. Gordon said.

Pfizer
Lipitor
Research
Budget
Pharmaceuticals
Inventions and Patents
Earnings Reports


If the Shoe Fits, Wear It. If Not, Design One That Does.

Abstract: EVEN for the most dedicated shopper, finding just the right pair of shoes can be elusive. A store-to-store search — whether on the Web or at the mall — can take hours. Shoppers may think they’ve found the perfect pair, only to be stymied by a problem with fit, style or color. It’s not that retailers don’t try, as the huge shoe sections in department stores like Saks and Nordstrom, and Web sites like Zappos and Shoes.com , attest. But for those with very individual or exacting tastes — and with money to spare — some Internet retailers offer design-it-yourself options in footwear. Customization is more common with athletic shoes, but fashion footwear is beginning to catch up. Makers like Vans and Nike are among the companies that offer customized shoes, allowing both women and men to create their own look from existing styles, colors and materials. Cale Valdez, a college student in Huntington, Calif., went to vans.com to find a memorable look for his wedding last month. He designed some red and black canvas slip-ons for the wedding party, including matching lace-ups for his father-in-law. “My groomsmen had black tuxes and red vests, so we thought it would look great to have red shoes,” he said of the slip-ons, which cost $40 a pair. Nikeid.com , which attracts almost as many women as men, has customers who order hundreds of pairs. The hip-hop disc jockey known as Clark Kent, of Brooklyn, has designed 350 pairs of shoes on the site, including his favorite, a pair of purple, black and teal Air Force 1’s, which cost him about $275. “The biggest attraction is the ability to shock,” he said. “You want a pair that people notice so they ask you: ‘Where did you get those?’” While customized sneakers are available on many athletic shoe Web sites, fashion shoes are harder, although not impossible, to find. For women who are willing to spend a hefty sum, there is Tupli, started three years ago by two women who were leaving careers in banking. “This is ideal for the woman who can imagine the perfect shoe but can’t find it,” said Kathy Myczowski, 34. She went into the individual shoe design business with Tamara Chubinidze, 26, who is from the Republic of Georgia, where such shoemaking is more prevalent and where Tupli’s shoes are made. Clients can browse tupli.com for ideas and then send in their measurements, or be measured personally in New York. Tupli had a by-appointment shop in Manhattan for a couple of years, but switched to online last year because its customers were far flung, Ms. Myczowski said. Amolyn Peart, a banking manager who has purchased three pairs of shoes from the company, became intrigued with the idea after spotting a woman wearing Tupli footwear (a name derived from the Russian word for shoe) at a business gathering. “The shoes were so gorgeous and unusual, so I immediately asked her where she got them,” said Ms. Peart, of West Orange, N.J. Like many people, she is hard to fit: her shoe size is between 8 1/2 and 9, and ready-made shoes are often too tight in the toe. Tupli’s clients — who include the actress Susan Sarandon — have a choice of leather and suede, as well as embellishments like rhinestones and personal logos, and initials on the upper or even on the sole, said Ms. Myczowski. The first made-to-measure Tupli shoe that Ms. Peart designed for herself was a black and red pump for an event at work. “Everyone noticed it, especially because they were all wearing black shoes,” she recalled. Since then, she has ordered another pair of shoes and a pair of boots. Prices for Tupli shoes start at a hefty $750 for shoes and $1,450 for boots, and customers must wait six to eight weeks for them. Those who want a less expensive made-to-order shoe that won’t take as long to arrive can turn to Stevemadden.com . Steven Madden, founder of the company, says more than 100,000 pairs of design-your-own shoes have been sold through the site, where the prices range from $90 to $170. That’s what Robert Klemm, 27, a loan officer in Bethpage, N.Y., did last summer after he learned about Steve Madden Ltd.’s “Design Your Own Collection.” A shoe aficionado — he owns 60 pairs — he wanted to create some shoes to surprise his girlfriend, Kate Feehan, for her birthday. Starting with her size, 9, he clicked through the site to select a style, heel and color, putting together a navy gingham open-toe pump with a cork heel and sole that Mr. Klemm thought “would look good with everything from jeans to dresses.” He spent $150 plus shipping and tax. The site charges a 20 percent premium for made-to-order shoes, which are assembled in China and are not returnable. The turnaround time is three weeks, according to the site. RIGHT now, Stevemadden.com has almost no online competition. But Jeffrey Van Sinderen, apparel analyst for B. Riley & Company in Los Angeles, predicted that other makers would not be far behind, despite the large investment needed to set up a factory to make the shoes and a system to distribute them. Made-to-order shoes are profitable, he said, and “it answers the question of how you make the product more compelling to the consumer, and that’s to give them the power to design it.” In shoes, passion often trumps the practical. To Mary A. Johnson, 22, online design is about owning something unique. Ms. Johnson, a student at West Los Angeles College, owns 200 pairs of shoes, but that didn’t stop her from going to Stevemadden.com recently to design some ballet flats in a purple shade and trimming them in red. “This is something you make yourself,” she said, “instead of settling for what’s out there.”

Design
Shoes and Boots
Computers and the Internet
Retail Stores and Trade


Zone Near Fukushima Daiichi May Be Off Limits for Decades

Abstract: TOKYO — Broad areas around the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant could soon be declared uninhabitable, perhaps for decades, after a government survey found radioactive contamination that far exceeded safe levels, several major media outlets said Monday. The formal announcement, expected from the government in coming days, would be the first official recognition that the March accident could force the long-term depopulation of communities near the plant, an eventuality that scientists and some officials have been warning about for months. Lawmakers said over the weekend — and major newspapers reported Monday — that Prime Minister Naoto Kan was planning to visit Fukushima Prefecture, where the plant is, as early as Saturday to break the news directly to residents. The affected communities are all within 12 miles of the plant, an area that was evacuated immediately after the accident. The government is expected to tell many of these residents that they will not be permitted to return to their homes for an indefinite period. It will also begin drawing up plans for compensating them by, among other things, renting their now uninhabitable land. While it is unclear if the government would specify how long these living restrictions would remain in place, news reports indicated it could be decades. That has been the case for areas around the Chernobyl plant in Ukraine after its 1986 accident. Since the Fukushima accident, evacuations have been a sensitive topic for the government, which has been criticized for being slow to admit the extent of the disaster and trying to limit the size of the areas affected, despite possible risks to public health. Until now, Tokyo had been saying it would lift the current evacuation orders for most areas around the plant early next year, when workers are expected to stabilize Fukushima Daiichi’s damaged nuclear reactors. The government was apparently forced to alter its plans after the survey by the Ministry of Science and Education, released over the weekend, which showed even higher than expected radiation levels within the 12-mile evacuation zone around the plant. The most heavily contaminated spot was in the town of Okuma about two miles southwest of the plant, where someone living for a year would be exposed to 508.1 millisieverts of radiation — far above the level of 20 millesieverts per year that the government considers safe. The survey found radiation above the safe level at three dozen spots up to 12 miles from the plant. That has called into question how many residents will actually be able to return to their homes even after the plant is stabilized. Some 80,000 people were evacuated from communities around the plant, which was crippled by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and towering tsunami on March 11. Many of those residents now live in temporary housing or makeshift refugee shelters, and are allowed back to their homes only for brief, tightly supervised visits in which they must wear protective clothing.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Japan)


The Week Ahead: Apple iPad Upgrades, France’s Budget Review and Wall Street Bank Results

Abstract: FRANCE TO SUBMIT BUDGET FOR EUROPEAN REVIEW Finance ministers from countries using the euro will meet on Monday in Luxembourg, where the focus is expected to be on France, which must formally submit its draft budget to the European Commission by Wednesday. The commission could reject the budget this month, but reach an agreement with the French government that avoids a prolonged confrontation. On Tuesday, finance ministers from countries outside the eurozone will join the meeting to discuss an agreement aimed at curbing tax evasion and other measures. JAMES KANTER Image Tim Cook, Apple's chief executive. Credit Justin Sullivan/Getty Images APPLE EXPECTED TO OFFER HARDWARE UPGRADES FOR IPAD Apple’s iPhone sales continue to grow year after year, but its iPad sales have gradually shrunk. Analysts say competition from cheaper tablets and larger smartphones is eroding iPad sales. In an effort to lift sales, Apple’s executives, including Timothy D. Cook, plan a media event on Thursday on Apple’s campus in Cupertino, Calif., where upgrades for iPads are expected, including one with an extra thin body. BRIAN X. CHEN WALL ST. BANKS TO REPORT THIRD-QUARTER RESULTS Wall Street banks report third-quarter results this week. On Tuesday, JPMorgan Chase will release results, the first since it disclosed that a cyberattack had touched 76 million households. Citigroup and Wells Fargo also will report on Tuesday, followed on Wednesday by Bank of America, often seen as a bellwether for consumer banking. Investors will watch Goldman Sachs’s earnings on Thursday for signs of a turnaround in trading revenue amid volatility in the markets. MICHAEL CORKERY EUROPEAN COURT TO HEAR CASE ON BOND PURCHASE PLAN Judges at the Court of Justice of the European Union will hear arguments on Tuesday in a case brought by German academics challenging a 2012 pledge by the European Central Bank to buy sovereign bonds, claiming the bank had exceeded its authority. The case has drawn attention because the pledge greatly eased the debt crisis in Europe, even though bond purchases were never made. The German Constitutional Court cast doubt on aspects of the pledge in February, but referred the case for further clarification to the Court of Justice, Europe’s top court, which meets in Luxembourg. JAMES KANTER and JACK EWING

Apple
iPad
France
Budget
Banking and Finance
EU


Judges Question Bonds Verdict

Abstract: Judges on the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Cicruit on Thursday questioned the soundness of Barry Bonds’s conviction for obstruction of justice stemming from his rambling response to a grand jury in 2003 and left open the possibility that they could throw out the verdict. During oral arguments, the judges asked a lawyer for the federal government how an evasive answer could be obstructive, since the Supreme Court has ruled that it is a prosecutor’s duty to pin down a witness who gives an evasive answer. “I don’t see how there is sufficient evidence where the question was re-asked immediately and answered repeatedly,” Judge Susan P. Graber said. “So it’s as if someone says, ‘Well, I can’t remember what time it was. Oh, yeah, it was seven o’clock.’ It just doesn’t make sense to me that a jury could find the elements as instructed given the specifics of this case.” The jury at Bonds’s trial in 2011 failed to reach a verdict on three charges, later dismissed, of making false statements. Bonds has served his sentence of 30 days of home confinement and paid a $4,000 fine. A decision by the 11-judge panel is not expected until next year.

Barry Bonds
Fines
Decisions and Verdicts
Judiciary


Parking Rules

Abstract: Because of Election Day, alternate-side street-cleaning regulations will be suspended in New York City on Tuesday. Other regulations will remain in effect.


White House Defends Inspector General’s Firing

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The White House said Wednesday that President Obama had dismissed a government agency’s internal watchdog because he was incompetent and had behaved bizarrely, disputing accusations that he was fired because he had uncovered embarrassing problems in the AmeriCorps program. Last week, Mr. Obama abruptly fired the watchdog, Gerald Walpin, the inspector general of the Corporation for National and Community Service, who was a holdover from the Bush administration, saying little except that he had lost confidence in Mr. Walpin. But the president quickly encountered resistance from the Senate, including from a fellow Democrat, Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who said Mr. Obama had not provided sufficient reason for the dismissal, as required under a recent law intended to protect the independence of the corps of inspectors general. Mr. Walpin suggested in interviews that his dismissal was connected to two recent reports in which he was critical of programs that received money from AmeriCorps, which provides living allowances and education grants to volunteers for community groups. One program in California was run by an Obama supporter, Kevin Johnson, a former N.B.A. star who is now the mayor of Sacramento. The other was run by the City College of New York and involved a teacher-training program. “My firing came after we had issued these two very substantial reports,” Mr. Walpin said in an interview. He said the board of the service corporation, whose chairman is Alan Solomont, a major Democratic fund-raiser, was very unhappy about the reports. After complaints about the dismissal grew, the White House fired back on Wednesday, releasing a letter from a senior counsel to the president sharply criticizing Mr. Walpin’s record. The letter, sent to Senators Joseph I . Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, justified the dismissal on several grounds, including what it said was Mr. Walpin’s “confused, disoriented” behavior at a meeting of the agency’s board on May 20, when, according to the letter, he was unable to respond to questions. The letter, from Norman L. Eisen, the special counsel to the president who handles ethics matters, also noted that a career federal prosecutor in Sacramento had filed an ethics complaint about Mr. Walpin’s actions in the case involving Mayor Johnson. And the Eisen letter said that Mr. Walpin chose to work in New York, not in Washington, over the board’s objections and that he “had become unduly disruptive to agency operations.” Mr. Walpin issued a rebuttal late Wednesday in which he charged that the board of the corporation wanted his dismissal because he was doing precisely what he is supposed to do — aggressively probing how money is being spent. He also said he felt ill at the May 20 meeting and might not have been at his best. But he said that was only one meeting of many in which he had performed admirably. He said he believed that working from New York and “telecommuting” was working well. The most significant issue appeared to be Mr. Walpin’s actions in connection with St. Hope Academy of California, which was run by Mr. Johnson and Dana Gonzalez. St. Hope Academy received federal money from 2004 to 2007 from AmeriCorps. Mr. Walpin said a large amount of the money was spent improperly, some of it on personal expenses. Mr. Walpin made a referral to the United States prosecutor in Sacramento, recommending that Mr. Johnson and Mr. Gonzalez face criminal charges and be banned from future contracts. The acting United States attorney, Lawrence G. Brown, complained in a letter to the ethics officer for inspectors general that after he decided to settle the case without criminal charges, Mr. Walpin acted improperly. Mr. Walpin, he said, continued to campaign via news releases for a prosecution and barring the two men from receiving contracts. Mr. Walpin, he said, “sought to act as the investigator, advocate, judge, jury and town crier.” He also said that Mr. Walpin had been given testimony that showed some of the money had been properly spent but that the evidence was deliberately excluded from his report. In his final report, issued on June 4, Mr. Walpin concluded that AmeriCorps grants to the Research Foundation for the City University of New York were inappropriate because they did not fill a community need, as required. He wrote that “taxpayers are not getting their money’s worth” because there was no need to grant education awards to ensure there were enough teachers in New York City, as there had already been an abundance of qualified applicants for teaching jobs. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, who has taken up Mr. Walpin’s complaints, has asked the Obama administration to provide further information about the dismissal. On Wednesday, Mr. Grassley asked Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. to look into whether Mr. Brown’s complaint was appropriate. He also wrote to Gregory B. Craig, the White House counsel, asking questions raised by Mr. Eisen’s letter.

Obama Barack
Walpin Gerald
Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations
United States Politics and Government


Ivy Title and N.C.A.A. Berth for Harvard

Abstract: Siyani Chambers scored 17 points as Harvard captured the Ivy League title and became the first team to clinch a berth in this year’s N.C.A.A. tournament with a 70-58 win over Yale in New Haven. Steve Moundou-Missi added 16 points for the Crimson (25-4, 12-1). Harvard will make its third straight trip to the N.C.A.A. tournament, after a drought that dated to 1946. ■ No. 2 Wichita State (32-0, 18-0) stayed unbeaten with an 80-58 romp over Evansville in the quarterfinals of the Missouri Valley Conference tournament in St. Louis. Cleanthony Early and Ron Baker scored 17 points apiece, and Wichita State set a tournament record with 11 blocked shots. (AP) ■ With the Harvard women’s 69-65 victory at home against Yale, Coach Kathy Delaney-Smith surpassed the record for the most basketball victories by an Ivy League coach with 515. The Hall of Fame coach Pete Carril won 514 as the men’s coach at Princeton from 1967 to 1996. (NYT)

Harvard
Ivy League
Kathy Delaney-Smith
College basketball


Blue Jays Among Teams Said to Be Eyeing Mets’ Reyes

Abstract: Fred Wilpon’s recent published comments and the Mets ’ financial distress paint a dreary picture for the team’s prospects of re-signing Jose Reyes . But there are other teams that have the resources and interest to land him, one of which presents a surprising possibility. The Toronto Blue Jays contacted the Mets in spring training to find out their plans regarding several of their players, including Reyes, according to two baseball officials aware of the situation. It is believed that Alex Anthopoulos, Toronto’s general manager, made only exploratory contact and that no trade proposals were made. Anthopoulos is an aggressive general manager who values athletic players like Reyes, and he is expected to have a lot of money to spend in free agency. Toronto is monitoring Reyes’s progress and could become involved if, as seems likely, Reyes reaches free agency after this season. Yunel Escobar is the Blue Jays’ shortstop, but he could be moved to another position, like third base. Other teams have also been connected to Reyes, most notably the San Francisco Giants, who need a shortstop. Brian Sabean, the Giants’ general manager, was not believed to have contacted the Mets about Reyes, and there has been no substantial interest in him around baseball because the trade deadline is more than two months away. The St. Louis Cardinals, the Boston Red Sox and the Washington Nationals are among several teams that could be interested in acquiring Reyes as a free agent. Reyes, immensely popular with Mets fans for his talent and flair, has been healthy all season and is having a strong start. In Wednesday’s rain-shortened game against the Chicago Cubs, he went 2 for 5 and scored a run as the Mets won, 7-4 , after the game was called with two outs in the top of the seventh after a 41-minute rain delay on a frigid and soggy night at Wrigley Field. Mets starter Dillon Gee had a wobbly beginning, allowing four runs in the first inning, but he stood fast the rest of the way. Trailing by 4-1, the Mets scored five times in the second in part because of Carlos Beltran, who hit a two-run double to score Gee and Reyes. Beltran also had a triple in the Mets’ 12-hit attack. Reyes is batting .316. Going into Wednesday’s game, he was at or near the top of the National League in many offensive categories, including hits (second with 66), triples (first with six), stolen bases (second with 17) and doubles (tied for third with 14). Many observers believe Reyes, who turns 28 on June 11, could command a contract similar to the $142 million, seven-year deal the Red Sox gave to Carl Crawford, who was 29 when he agreed to that deal in December. But in an interview with The New Yorker, Wilpon, the Mets’ principal owner, said that Reyes would not get a deal like Crawford’s, reinforcing the notion that the Mets would not give him such a contract. Then, in an interview in Sports Illustrated, Wilpon indicated that the Mets’ payroll would be around $100 million next year, which would all but preclude the possibility of re-signing Reyes. Sandy Alderson, the Mets’ general manager, contradicted the notion that the payroll will be below $100 million. “From my standpoint, that’s not a number we have discussed,” he said, “and I would expect our payroll to be somewhere above that number and somewhat below where we are now,” which was $142 million on opening day. Alderson said a factor that could increase the payroll is the cash injection the Mets are hoping to get from a new investor. At some point before the July 31 trade deadline, Alderson said he would reach out to Reyes to get a sense of where he is, and could even make him an offer. If he learns Reyes is not willing to take what the Mets can afford, the team may trade him, although its position in the standings may dictate its approach. “We’re still in the first third of the season,” Alderson noted, “barely past the quarter mark.” On Tuesday, Alderson addressed the comments that Wilpon made in The New Yorker that were critical of several of the Mets’ star players, including David Wright, Beltran and Reyes. At that point, he said he had not read the Sports Illustrated article, and playfully asked reporters to wait a day until he could read it and then respond to its content. On Wednesday he said there was nothing in the Sports Illustrated article that made him cringe, but defusing multiple controversies surrounding Wilpon wasn’t something he expected to be doing on back-to-back days. “If the world had ended on Saturday, as it was supposed to,” Alderson said, referring to the predictions about Judgment Day, “we wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.” INSIDE PITCH David Wright was flying back to New York on Wednesday after seeing Dr. Robert Watkins, a back specialist in Los Angeles. Watkins confirmed the original diagnosis of a stress fracture in the back. Wright’s return from the disabled list is not imminent.

Toronto Blue Jays
Baseball
Free Agents (Sports)
New York Mets
Reyes Jose
Trades (Sports)


9 in Senegal to Be Jailed for 8 Years

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — Nine men were handed harsh sentences of eight years in prison after being tried on charges of conspiracy and “unnatural acts,” a term used to criminalize homosexuality, according to their lawyers and gay rights groups here on Thursday. The men were arrested on Dec. 19 at the home of Diadji Diouf, a prominent gay activist who works with AIDS organizations to prevent the spread of the disease in the largely clandestine gay community in Senegal, according to Jöel Nana, a program associate for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. Mr. Diouf, who was among those arrested and sentenced, runs an organization that provides condoms and counseling to gay men in Senegal, a largely Muslim country that has become increasingly intolerant of homosexuality in recent years despite its reputation for liberalism and openness. The arrests took place just a few weeks after a conference on AIDS in Africa was held in Dakar. Antigay sentiment has been on the rise across Africa in recent years. Nigeria’s Parliament tried to pass a law last year that would restrict the rights of homosexuals to even meet to discuss their rights. Gambia’s president threatened to behead any homosexuals found in his country. And even in Senegal, one of the most liberal and tolerant countries in Islamic Africa, tensions over homosexuality have been on the rise. Last year, a group of men were arrested after a magazine printed photographs of what purported to be a gay wedding. One of the men who was arrested, a popular singer, was forced to flee the country and seek asylum in the United States. Mr. Nana, speaking in an interview from Cape Town, said that such episodes were extremely worrying and symptomatic of a growing problem. “It is really sending the wrong message to a community that needs help and protection,” he said.


Hurdles Ahead for Beckham and M.L.S. in Miami

Abstract: MIAMI — The soccer star David Beckham delivered a long-awaited but in many ways provisional commitment to Miami on Wednesday when he confirmed it as the future home of a Major League Soccer expansion team that he will own — alongside partners not yet named — and run. Beckham made the announcement during a somewhat giddy news conference overlooking a sunny Biscayne Bay, an event punctuated by vigorous chants from fans who have been without a top-flight team since 2001, when M.L.S. folded the Miami Fusion. “This is an exciting time for myself, for my family and friends,” Beckham told the crowd while perched on a stool between the M.L.S. commissioner, Don Garber, and the mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos A. Gimenez, who is on record as opposing the use of public money for privately owned sports facilities. As if to assure Gimenez of his access to deep pockets elsewhere, Beckham made a point of saying that “a lot of great people want to invest in this team and this club,” a remark greeted with cheers. “We don’t want public funding,” he said. “We will fund the stadium ourselves.” But the news conference raised more questions than it answered. There is no deal in place for the financing to build a stadium, or to buy or lease the land on which to put it. The team has no name, and there seems to be only a vague notion of when the team might start playing in M.L.S. — perhaps in 2016, more likely 2017. Nor was it clear where the team might play, temporarily, until its own stadium is completed. The Miami team would be the 22nd in M.L.S. The league currently has 19 clubs, but it will add two more — in New York City and Orlando — next year. Beckham had inserted the right to buy a team for $25 million into his original playing contract when he joined the Los Angeles Galaxy in 2007, but he had to exercise that option before Dec. 31, 2013. Wednesday’s announcement was merely confirmation that he had done so by the deadline. In an interview after the news briefing, Garber said that in the last month or so he had personally looked at three properties in downtown Miami that might be suitable stadium sites for Beckham’s team. “We want that stadium to be downtown,” Garber said, mentioning in particular a site in Miami’s seaport near the arena where the N.B.A.’s Miami Heat play. Asked why he had chosen Miami for his new venture, Beckham replied, “I mean, why not?” More concretely, he said Miami had become a truly international city that was especially appealing to visitors and immigrants from Latin America and Europe. Those audiences, he said, flock to soccer games, as evidenced by huge turnouts to matches in recent years featuring teams like Real Madrid, A.C. Milan, Chelsea and national teams from Brazil and Honduras. Those games were played in the Sun Life football stadium in Miami Gardens, a suburb northwest of downtown. “In this market, if you put a soccer team together, you have a lot of sophisticated soccer fans who will go,” said Norb Ecksl, who was general manager of the Miami Freedom soccer team in the early 1990s and is now the editor of Sunshine Soccer News. “If you put a good product on the field and promote it properly, it’s going to work. And you have to have a state-of-the-art stadium that people will be willing to come to. It’s all about entertainment.” Beckham, he said, “has got to have the money, and cooperation from the government” to make the venture succeed. “We’ll see,” Ecksl added, the failure of previous teams in South Florida fresh in his mind. During the news briefing, Beckham and Garber insisted that things had changed since the Fusion folded, and that it was time for Miami to take its place in the booming business of soccer. “Miami is a vibrant city, a city with a lot of passion,” Beckham said. “It’s ready for football, for soccer. And I’m looking forward to spending a lot more time here.” Asked whether he had any players in mind as potential hires, Beckham demurred, although he acknowledged that some prominent players had already contacted him. Beckham, 38, is a former captain of England’s national team. He began playing for Manchester United when he was 17 and went on to become one of soccer’s most prominent players. He said he was “living the dream” by starting his own team. “For me, I wanted to create a team that we can start from scratch,” he said. “I wanted to create a team that’s very personal.” Beckham mentioned two potential partners in the venture: the Bolivian billionaire Marcelo Claure, founder of the Miami-based wireless distributor Brightstar Corporation, and the “American Idol” producer Simon Fuller, both of whom, he said, were “very excited” about the project. For the soccer fans who attended Wednesday’s announcement, the possibility of a return to regular local play by a first division professional team was more than welcome. Jonathan Urbaez, a 20-year-old student at Miami-Dade College and one of about 150 members of the Southern Legion , a soccer supporters’ group formed expressly to push for a new M.L.S. team in Miami, said that when he heard that Beckham might start a team here, it “sounded too good to be true.” “Once I heard that the wheels were rolling,” Urbaez said, “I knew it was something I had to be a part of.”

Soccer
David Beckham
MLS
Miami-Dade County FL


F.B.I. Gets Mixed Review in Interrogation Report

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A new Justice Department report praises the refusal of F.B.I. agents to take part in the military’s abusive questioning of prisoners in Guantánamo Bay , Iraq and Afghanistan, but it also finds fault with the bureau’s slow response to complaints about the tactics from its own agents, people with knowledge of the still-secret report said. The department inspector general’s office is expected to conclude that no agents for the Federal Bureau of Investigation took part in the military’s rough interrogations, a key validation for the bureau, officials said. “The F.B.I. should be credited for its conduct and professionalism in detainee interrogations in the military zones,” the inspector general said in one section of the report, which is likely to be released publicly next week. At the same time, however, the report is also expected to say that the F.B.I. was sometimes too slow to respond to what were often serious misgivings from its agents about interrogation tactics, officials said, and that it lacked clear guidelines and training on how such complaints should have been handled. The F.B.I. stationed agents at Guantánamo Bay and other military detention sites to assist in the questioning of detainees taken into custody after Sept. 11, but the rough tactics by military interrogators soon became a major source of friction between the bureau and sister agencies. F.B.I. agents complained to superiors beginning in 2002 that the tactics they had seen yielded little actual intelligence, prevented them from establishing a rapport with detainees through more traditional means of questioning and might violate F.B.I. policy or American law. One F.B.I. memorandum spoke of “torture techniques” used by military interrogators. Agents described seeing things like inmates handcuffed in a fetal position for up to 24 hours, left to defecate on themselves, intimidated by dogs, made to wear women’s underwear and subjected to strobe lights and extreme heat and cold. Ultimately, the F.B.I. ordered its agents not to participate in or remain present when such tactics were used. But that directive was not formalized until May 2004, and it governed only the F.B.I. Robert S. Mueller III, director of the F.B.I., told Congress that he was not made aware of his agents’ concerns until 2004. The inspector general’s report is expected to focus on the questions of what the F.B.I. agents observed, how their complaints were handled internally and whether agents were involved in any improper interrogation tactics themselves. The review is limited to the F.B.I. because the inspector general does not have jurisdiction over the Defense Department or the Central Intelligence Agency , which led the interrogations at various sites. Beyond the tactics used by military interrogators, it is not clear whether the report will address interrogations by the C.I.A. that may have been witnessed by F.B.I. agents. An F.B.I. official with knowledge of the criticisms in the report said: “Could we have done more, more quickly? Or could we have provided better guidance?” The answer, the official said, was probably yes, but he added, “It was difficult to tell agents what the rules were because we didn’t know ourselves.” The inspector general’s office refused to comment on the investigation, which was started in late 2004, and many details of the report remain unknown. The inspector general’s office has produced a series of often blistering reports about key counterterrorism policies in the Bush administration. In contrast, one Congressional staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the criticisms of the F.B.I. in the report are expected to be relatively mild. But Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which unearthed many of the F.B.I.’s internal e-mail messages on the Guantánamo tactics through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, said: “We’re anticipating some very significant findings. It would not have taken three and one-half years to issue a clean bill of health.” Mr. Romero said the key question to be answered in the inspector general’s report was how senior officials at F.B.I. headquarters responded to the uncomfortable issues raised by lower-level agents. “Did they turn a blind eye to the reports by their own agents?” he asked. A military investigation in 2005 examining the complaints of F.B.I. agents at Guantánamo Bay concluded that the treatment was sometimes degrading, but did not qualify as inhumane or torture. Nonetheless, lingering tensions have continued to dog both the Defense Department and the F.B.I. Just three weeks ago at a House hearing, Mr. Mueller was pressed on whether the F.B.I. had moved quickly enough to answer its agents’ complaints. “If we received allegations from our people,” he said, “it was then over a period of time passed on to the authorities responsible for the investigation of such allegations, which at Guantánamo would have been D.O.D.,” or the Department of Defense. In an appearance Friday at the National Press Club, Mr. Mueller said once again that the F.B.I.’s policy was “not to use coercion” in interrogations. Asked whether interrogation policy should be made clearer through a national policy, Mr. Mueller paused a moment and said, “I will speak for the F.B.I.”

Federal Bureau of Investigation
Torture
Defense Department
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington (DC)
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
Prisons and Prisoners


Several Big Banks Halt Foreclosures Until March

Abstract: WASHINGTON (AP) — Several big banks, including JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup , are expanding efforts to halt home foreclosures while the Obama administration develops a plan to help struggling homeowners. The White House said President Obama would outline his plan to spend at least $50 billion to prevent foreclosures in a speech on Wednesday in Arizona, one of the states hardest hit by the foreclosure crisis. “It’s not intended to be measured by one day’s market scorekeeping, but instead to ensure that the 10,000 Americans each day that have their homes foreclosed on — and the millions more that are barely getting by — are protected,” the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Friday. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner announced a revised effort to stabilize the financial system on Tuesday. It included outlines of a foreclosure relief effort. Although lenders have bolstered their efforts to aid borrowers over the last year, their action has not kept up with the worst housing recession in decades. More than 2.3 million homeowners faced foreclosure proceedings last year, an 81 percent increase from 2007, and industry analysts say that number could soar as high as 10 million in the coming years, depending on the severity of the recession. JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and the Bank of America said Friday that they were halting foreclosures through March 6. And Citigroup said it would halt foreclosures until the Obama administration completed the details of the loan modification program or until March 12, whichever is earlier. Citigroup’s action expands on a similar effort that it started in November. The banks’ pledges apply to owner-occupied homes, not those owned by investors. Mr. Obama’s announcement is expected to include details about how the administration plans to prod the mortgage industry to do a better job of modifying the terms of home loans so borrowers can have lower monthly payments. Howard Glaser, a mortgage industry consultant who served in the Clinton administration, said that if the payments of two million borrowers were lowered by $500 a month, it would cost the government and lenders $6 billion each year — assuming lenders match half the cost. Unlike previous loan modification plans, borrowers would not have to be in default to qualify, according to people briefed on the plan. Figuring out who would qualify would be a challenge, especially as foreclosures continue to soar. More than 274,000 American households received at least one foreclosure-related notice last month, according to RealtyTrac, a foreclosure listing service.

Foreclosures
Morgan J P Chase & Co
Citigroup Inc
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


A Populist Shift Confronts the U.S. Catholic Church

Abstract: To say she was a practicing Catholic would be an understatement. For years, Maria Aparecida Calazans was a mainstay at her Long Island church, joining dozens of fellow Brazilian immigrants for the Portuguese language Mass on Sunday mornings. She and her husband, Ramon, were married at the church. Their two daughters were baptized there, and every Friday she attended a prayer meeting that she had helped organize. But six years ago, her husband went to a relative’s baptism at a Pentecostal church in a warehouse in Astoria, Queens, and came home smitten. The couple made a deal. “We would go to the Pentecostal service on Thursdays and to Mass on Sundays, and then we would decide which one we felt most comfortable with,” Mrs. Calazans said. Within 40 days, they had given up Roman Catholicism and embraced Pentecostalism, following the path of the estimated 1.3 million Latino Catholics who have joined Pentecostal congregations since immigrating to the United States, according to a survey released in February by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. “I feel whole here,” Mrs. Calazans, 42, said one recent Sunday in the Astoria sanctuary, the Portuguese Language Pentecostal Missionary Church, as she swayed to the pop-rock beat of a live gospel band. “This church is not a place we visit once a week. This church is where we hang around and we share our problems and we celebrate our successes, like we were family.” As Pope Benedict XVI completes his visit to the United States on Sunday with a Mass at Yankee Stadium, in a borough that has been home to generations of Latinos, he does so facing something of a growing challenge to the church’s immigrant ranks. For if Latinos are feeding the population of the church, many have also turned to Pentecostalism, a form of evangelical Christianity that stresses a personal, even visceral, connection with God. Today, it has more Latino followers in the United States than any other denomination except Catholicism; they are drawn, they say, by the faith’s joyous worship, its use of Latino culture and the enveloping sense of community it offers to newcomers. As the Pew survey revealed, half of all Latinos who have joined Pentecostal denominations were raised as Catholics. They are part of a global shift. Pentecostalism, the world’s fastest-growing branch of Christianity, has made such sharp inroads in Latin America, particularly in Brazil, that in an address to bishops there last year, Pope Benedict listed its ardent proselytizing as one of the major forces the Catholic Church must contend with in the region. Catholic leaders and experts on the church in the United States say that the impact of Pentecostalism has been less dramatic here. Still, the pope has urged the nation’s bishops to make every effort to welcome immigrants — “to share their joys and hopes, to support them in their sorrows and trials, and to help them flourish in their new home.” And any number of Catholic clergy and laypeople have conceded that the church needs to work harder at reaching, and keeping, its Latino flock. “That some of the newly arrived Latinos are drawn to Pentecostalism is certainly reason for concern,” said the Rev. Allan Figueroa Deck, the executive director of the Office for Cultural Diversity, which was created last June by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops to help the church adjust to its changing ethnic makeup. “But we can counter that with the kind of music we use, with the sense of celebration that we bring to our worship, the spontaneity and some of the popular customs that are not part of the official liturgy of the church. We’re doing some of that, but we could do better.” The Pentecostal church in Astoria vividly shows what Catholicism is up against. It offers enough activities to fill a family’s calendar: services on Sunday and Thursday, youth group meetings on Friday, a Bible study group on Wednesday and all-night prayer vigils throughout the year. Then there are the birthday and engagement parties, to which every congregant is invited. The church, on the second floor of a stucco building opposite a nightclub and three blocks from the subway, is half house of worship and half community center. It ministers primarily to a single immigrant group, Brazilians, in the group’s language, Portuguese — much as the ethnic urban parishes founded by European Catholics did more than a century ago. The Sunday service starts at 4 p.m., but the front door opens at least two hours earlier, and families trickle in. One recent Sunday, children giggled and ran around while mothers greeted one another with a kiss on each cheek, as is the custom in Brazil. The pastor, Zeny Tinouco, himself a former Catholic, preached to about 100 people from a pulpit framed by American and Brazilian flags. Arms rose into the air and hands were turned to the ceiling as a guitar-and-drums band tore through pop-inflected hymns. Over and over in his sermon, the pastor exclaimed, “Alleluia!” and the congregants fervently responded, “Glória a Deus!” (“Praise the Lord!”). “The first thing I tell the newcomers is that there are no lambs without a shepherd in our church; no one is a stranger,” said Pastor Tinouco, 62, who has a high school education and 11 churches — three each in New York City, Portugal and his native Brazil; one in Switzerland; and one in Newark. “Our mission is to welcome the immigrant and be his guide and his support,” he said. “If they need money to pay the rent, we’ll raise the money for them. If they need work, we’ll find them work. If they need someone to talk to, they can come to me.” He counts more than 500 members among his churches in the United States — more than half of them, by his estimate, former Catholics. They include people like Renato C. Silva, who converted to Pentecostalism right after he immigrated in 2005, then met his wife at Pastor Tinouco’s church. And there are others like Tatiana DeMauro, who said her conversion in 2000 had strained her marriage. “My husband is American and he is Catholic, and he won’t come here with me,” Ms. DeMauro, 40, said as she fed pretzels to her 2-year-old twin daughters. “He says I’ve changed and that this church has brainwashed me, but he doesn’t get it. I have friends here. Some of the strongest relationships I have I made at this church.” The Rev. Virgil Elizondo, a professor of pastoral and Hispanic religions at the University of Notre Dame, said that Latinos who practiced a populist, emotional brand of Catholicism in their home countries experienced a cultural clash when they encountered the more traditional, low-key ways of the church in the United States. “To Latinos, the church is a place for socializing,” Father Elizondo said. “Even people with the deepest of Catholic beliefs, if they’re in a foreign country and they can’t find a church where they can experience companionship, they will look elsewhere.” Father Deck, of the Office for Cultural Diversity, said the Catholic Church was making progress. Latinos now make up about 15 percent of all seminarians. “And we’ve had an explosion in what we call lay ministry,” he added. “There are thousands of Latinos who are lectors during Mass, do outreach work, are catechism teachers, and we have some who are administering parishes.” Latinos have also fueled the growth of the church’s charismatic movement, whose high-energy Masses are reminiscent of Pentecostal services. Many parishes, particularly in the South and the West, have introduced mariachi Masses, colorful processions, and communal meals after the liturgy. Luís D. León, a professor of American religions at the University of Denver, said many of those gestures toward Latinos were “token changes.” “Latino immigrants still find some kind of solace and connection with their home country through Catholicism, and they’re looking for a reason to hang on to the church in this country,” he said. “But for that to happen, they need to feel that their culture is being understood and recognized. They need to feel that the church is their caretaker in a much more profound and personal way than it is today.” Adriara Mello, who came from Brazil in 1996, said many of her Brazilian friends began attending Pentecostal churches after immigrating. But she has remained faithful to Corpus Christi Church in Mineola on Long Island — the same parish that Mrs. Calazans and her family left to join the Pentecostal congregation in Astoria. In fact, the two women had started a series of prayer meetings, which Ms. Mello has continued. Corpus Christi is a mainly English-speaking parish, but it has a long history of catering to immigrants. Aside from its Portuguese Mass, which has been celebrated by the same Brazilian priest for 35 years, the church has a Portuguese ministry offering translation services and tutoring for immigrant students who attend the parish’s school. Ms. Mello said Brazilian parishioners have also raised money for compatriots facing financial difficulties, and have cooked and cleaned for a man who had to raise his children alone after his wife’s death. “We’re trying to be a faith community and a support community,” Ms. Mello added. “We’re here to help.” Still, just a few minutes after the 8:30 a.m. Mass ended last Sunday, the Portuguese-speaking faithful had dispersed, to make way for the English language service that followed. “I can see how people might get turned off by that,” Ms. Mello said. “I mean, if you’re alone in this country, there goes an opportunity to make the church part of your life. There goes a chance to make friends.”

United States
Benedict XVI
New York City
Roman Catholic Church
Hispanic-Americans
Christians and Christianity


Bankruptcy Could Be More Costly

Abstract: Businesses filing for bankruptcy need loans to work out their troubles, or face liquidation. But General Motors and its smaller rival, Chrysler , have threatened that they will need $125 billion, in what would be the largest bankruptcy financing packages ever, if they do not receive the additional federal aid they are requesting. G.M. alone has said that it needs $100 billion to finance its bankruptcy. To many, that figure seems far too high, and may be a negotiating tactic to keep the companies out of bankruptcy. Several bankruptcy experts doubted that G.M. would need to draw upon anywhere near that amount to get court protection from creditors. “That could be a ploy so they will not be forced to file,” said Edward I. Altman, a bankruptcy expert and a professor at the Stern School of Business at New York University. Chrysler has said that it needs up to $25 billion, which would put the combined aid at $125 billion. Even in ordinary times, pulling together such financing from private lenders alone would be nearly impossible. But with the troubles disrupting the economy, some of the financiers who specialize in so-called debtor-in-possession, or DIP, loans have been skittish. That would leave the Treasury Department responsible for the vast majority of any financing for the carmakers. The largest DIP loan on record, made to Lyondell Chemical last month, was $8 billion, and that was obtained only after three weeks of breakneck negotiations. Mr. Altman had earlier thought that G.M. would need $50 billion in DIP financing to survive. Yet others contend that having that much financial cushion could assuage the fears of the creditors to the companies, leaving the carmakers with the cash necessary to keep the lights on and the factories running. DIP loans are actually relatively safe for the banks that make them, said Andrew O’Brien, co-head of syndicated and leveraged loans at JPMorgan Chase. That is because these loans typically mature within two years and must be paid back before other loans. Most professionals can recall only one big DIP loan, to Winstar Communications, that failed to be paid back. In fact, some experts, including Mr. Altman, have advocated pushing G.M. and Chrysler into bankruptcy with the government providing the DIP financing. That would help ensure that taxpayers are repaid first. The Treasury Department has already hired the investment bank Rothschild and the law firms Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft and Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal as advisers, largely to work on this very issue. Mr. Altman’s plan would most likely work by the government providing money through a bank or a financial firm like GE Capital. That, in turn, would be doled out in portions after G.M. hit certain milestones. He also suggested strong-arming banks that have received federal bailout money into contributing to the DIP package. The government could also benefit from the fees it would earn by providing DIP loans. According to lenders like GE Capital, the average interest rate on DIP loans has nearly doubled in the last two years, to 6.5 to 9.5 percent above benchmark interbank rates. Lenders have also doubled their fees. Lyondell, for instance, is paying more than 20 percent for its financing, a rate normally seen on credit cards. G.M. and Chrysler also have other options to a full-fledged Chapter 11 filing. The government could provide more bailout money or other aid while the companies try to restructure themselves outside of bankruptcy, a prospect that many see as an endless abyss. Another alternative is what is known as a prepackaged bankruptcy, in which the carmakers would line up restructuring agreements with their creditors and use the courts to make these accords binding. Yet such a plan would still require billions of dollars in financing, most of which would certainly come from the government. Some parts of the credit markets have begun to revive, but the market in bankruptcy loans remains a big worry for many. Despite the safety of DIP financing, many lenders are pulling back as they grapple with their own problems. “DIPs are no longer taken for granted,” said Deryck A. Palmer, the co-chairman of the financial restructuring practice at Cadwalader, which is representing Lyondell in its bankruptcy proceedings. The same financial turmoil that has pushed companies into bankruptcy is also taking a toll on the DIP market. Companies that gorged on debt in good times are struggling to pay that money back. Many pledged virtually all their assets as collateral on those debts, leaving little left to back DIP loans. “We haven’t changed the parameters by which we do a deal,” said Rob McMahon, the managing director of restructuring at GE Capital. “But companies have higher leverage and decreasing cash flow. They have more troubling prospects.” Some big players in DIP loans have run into trouble themselves. One big DIP financier was Lehman Brothers, which went bankrupt last September. Two others, Merrill Lynch and Wachovia, have sold themselves to other banks to avoid a similar fate. Hedge funds and private equity firms that also arrange such financing are suffering as well. Many of the biggest DIP lenders insist they are open for business. JPMorgan Chase, for example, is actively involved in the market, Mr. O’Brien said. GE Capital says it is too. But virtually everyone in the field says that the majority of loans are what are known as defensive DIPs, in which a company’s existing lenders provide new loans to protect their investment and their position in the capital structure. Companies and their bankers are more likely to piece together lending from existing lenders than seek fresh capital, or offensive DIPs, for some time.

Bankruptcies
Automobiles
General Motors Corp
Chrysler LLC
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


Alabama Stays Undefeated Behind a Defensive Wall Auburn Can’t Breach

Abstract: TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Alabama’s defense still seemed to have a wall erected at the goal line, and quarterback Jalen Hurts remained unflappable enough to shrug off his mistakes. The combination has been good enough in every game so far. Hurts rebounded from two early interceptions, and the defense of the top-ranked Crimson Tide did the rest in a 30-12 victory over No. 16 Auburn on Saturday to finish an undefeated regular season. It may be just the start for the Crimson Tide, who will face Florida in the Southeastern Conference championship game for a second consecutive year. “We have bigger goals in mind,” tight end O. J. Howard said. The Tide (12-0, 8-0) led at halftime by just 13-9, dominating the stat sheet but taking over on the scoreboard only in the second half. The defense pushed its string of quarters without allowing a touchdown to more than 14 and shut down Auburn’s potent running game. Auburn (8-4, 5-3) failed to muster much offense without the injured quarterback Sean White and could not reach the end zone despite starting several drives in Alabama territory. “We had some really, really challenging field-position situations in this game, and our players responded really well to it,” Alabama Coach Nick Saban said. Hurts, in overcoming his two first-half interceptions, displayed the kind of poise that has helped him lead the Tide to the top of the SEC West. He completed 27 of 36 passes, mostly on short and midrange throws, for 286 yards and two touchdowns as Alabama won a third straight Iron Bowl for the first time since 1992. Saban said, “At halftime, I guess everybody thought I was going to throw a fit, but I told them, ‘Look, guys, all we’ve got to do is go out there and play with some poise and confidence.’” Hurts also ran for 37 yards and a score, leading two straight touchdown drives in the third quarter to all but put the game away after a first half marred by mistakes. He capped a 57-yard drive with a 4-yard touchdown run to give Alabama a 20-9 lead. Then, after Auburn missed a field-goal attempt on the next drive, he hit ArDarius Stewart on a fourth-and-4, and Stewart spun away from a defender en route to a 38-yard touchdown and a 27-9 lead for the Crimson Tide. Stewart had 10 catches for 127 yards, and Bo Scarbrough ran for 90, including 83 after halftime. Auburn’s Jeremy Johnson, who started a second straight game in White’s place, completed 4 of 13 passes for 34 yards. Another quarterback, John Franklin III, connected on two downfield passes in the second half that totaled 85 yards. The Tide’s defense held the Tigers to 182 total yards and kept Auburn from getting a first down until nearly 25 minutes into the game. Kamryn Pettway, Auburn’s leading rusher, ran 12 times for just 17 yards after missing the two previous games with a leg injury. The only real bright spots for Auburn were Daniel Carlson’s four field goals, including one from 52 yards. “Offensively, we just didn’t get first downs; we just didn’t get it done,” Tigers Coach Gus Malzahn said. “Two of 12 on third downs — I really think that caused the problem. Third downs, didn’t hit explosive plays, defense was on the field too long, was really the story of the day.” He added: “Obviously, we’ve got players in there that are hurting, coaches that are hurting. This is a tough one.”

Auburn
College football
University of Alabama