India: Court Orders Release of Activist

Abstract: A court on Thursday ordered the release of an activist who has been on a hunger strike for nearly 15 years to protest a law that gives Indian security forces special powers to fight insurgents in India’s remote northeast and other areas. The court dropped the charge of attempted suicide against the activist, Irom Sharmila, witnesses at the court said. Since beginning her protest against heavy-handed security tactics, Ms. Sharmila, 42, has been kept in custody in a hospital in Manipur State and fed forcibly by a tube since 2000 under the anti-suicide law. She said she would continue her fast until the government scrapped the security law, which is in effect in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir and in northeastern areas like Manipur where separatist insurgents are operating.

India
Hunger strike
Irom Sharmila
Prison


Jonathan Vilma Asks for Hearing Thursday in Bounty Case

Abstract: New Orleans linebacker Jonathan Vilma is asking a federal judge for a hearing Thursday on his bid to block his season-long suspension stemming from the N.F.L.’s bounty investigation. Vilma’s lawyers asked United States District Judge Helen Berrigan to hear their request for a temporary restraining order before training camp opens July 23. ¶ The Pro Bowl running backs Matt Forte of Chicago and Ray Rice of Baltimore reached agreement on new contracts. Forte’s is for four years; Rice’s is for five.

Football
New Orleans Saints
Vilma Jonathan


At 12, Connecticut Boy Is in College and Pursuing His Eco-Goals

Abstract: A FEW weeks ago, the youngest of the 20,953 students at the Storrs campus of the University of Connecticut went shopping for a calculator. Colin Carlson, who lives in nearby Coventry, took his mother along, as she had the driver’s license and the money. He also took a reputation well beyond his 12 years. Another male student spotted him and said, “Hey, Colin, I hear you’re a babe magnet.” The boy smiled. But with a full course load and the usual schedule of public appearances ahead of him, he had yet to make finding a girlfriend a priority. So he suspected a bit of social manipulation afoot. The guys know that several female students have become friendly with Colin, and, in his view, they’re cozying up to him so that women will notice them. Even at Colin’s tender age, his emergence at Storrs is no longer an oddity. He became a full-time student this fall, but has been a familiar face since he was 8, beginning with a course in French, and a year later in environmental physics and European history. This made him a local celebrity but also resulted in a view in some academic quarters that he is too small for his breeches. UConn was not his first choice on his way to, eventually, a Ph.D. in environmental science and a law degree to go with it. (“Many scientists don’t know the law, and vice versa,” he said, explaining the dual goals.) His short list included small liberal arts schools, and, at the top, Connecticut College in New London. The story of his educational journey — ending in academic compromise — underscores a larger point, the struggle of the many gifted youngsters in this country who try to maneuver in a system that largely ignores them and, at worst, results in situations when many children with great potential flounder because they are not challenged enough. For Colin’s mother, Jessica Carlson, who holds a Ph.D. in social psychology, the answer, in part, was enrolling him in the Stanford University Online High School and encouraging her son to pursue his interest in the environment. The latter led to widespread recognition, including a National Geographic contest that earned him a trip to the Galápagos Islands, a Nestlé Very Best in Youth award and first place in the International Young Eco-Hero competition. He has built on this affirmation to get the word out about conservation, setting up booths at regional fairs, talking to New England classrooms at the request of teachers, and by starting the nonprofit Cool Coventry Club. He also testified on environmental matters before the State Legislature. All of this convinced Colin that he was ready for college. In his application letter, he wrote: “My ‘issue’ is this. I am currently 11 and will be 12 by the time I matriculate. Please don’t be alarmed by this — I am actually a very mature person.” Most deans of admissions, however, seemed wary of taking on the legal responsibility for an under-age student. Williams College wrote back: “What’s the rush?” Wesleyan University suggested a few years at a prep school. Happily, the school of first choice came to the rescue, or so it seemed. Connecticut College offered a generous aid package, but afterward added conditions that restricted Colin’s access to certain classes. Much of the work would be done in dormitories, from which he would be barred. Theresa Ammirati, the dean of studies, wrote, “We do not have the infrastructure that will guarantee the well-being of a young boy in the residence halls.” Rather than accept such restriction, Colin decided to stay at home in Coventry and commute to UConn and accept the offer of a scholarship in its honors program. A few weeks after classes began, I dropped by the house in the rural neighborhood where Colin and his mother live. I was curious about matters that can’t be measured by impressive I.Q. and SAT scores, like maturity. Colin, born on Harry Potter ’s birthday (July 31), looks like a young Woody Allen, but with better social skills. I asked him what he does when he meets people who are hostile to his environmental message, which includes the view that humans bear heavy responsibility for the planet’s ills. He said: “You can’t convince some people about the causes of global warming . But in response you can’t say, ‘You’re wrong.’ So I have to find common ground. I may say, ‘We can agree, can’t we, that we all want to save energy and money?’ ” Using tact as a weapon, he opens dialogues on a touchy issue that many with more life experience have had a hard time doing. Later, I asked Colin to play something on the baby grand in the living room. He confided that he doesn’t have much practice time but easily ripped through sections of a Beethoven sonatina. Not surprising for the son of a man who taught music for a living. When I asked Colin about his father, who used sleeping pills to commit suicide when the boy was 2, he replied, “I didn’t really know him.” But in the days after my visit, I called his mother and addressed the subject. She said that Colin’s father, Cory Carlson, was also brilliant, but that all his life he worried about what others thought of him, a circumstance that contributed to his fatal depression. In 12 years, however, his son has developed not only a first-class mind but also a relatively thick skin. Colin considers his job to seize the educational and environment moment. All the rest, he seems to be saying, is greenhouse gas.

Connecticut
Gifted Students
Children and Youth
Colleges and Universities
Education and Schools


Silicon Valley’s Water Conservation Conundrum

Abstract: Menlo Park, Calif. — Silicon Valley has a richly deserved reputation as the world’s engine of technology innovation, with a track record that includes developing integrated circuits, microprocessors, personal computers and smartphones. This is a culture of confidence and bravado. Ask a bunch of tech leaders about their goals, and it’s a good bet that many of them will utter the words, “To change the world.” Now would seem a ripe opportunity to find some groundbreaking answers, with California facing such a severe drought that Gov. Jerry Brown has imposed water restrictions. But the wizardry of the Valley’s innovation has its limits, at least for now. Here on Sand Hill Road, home of the region’s venture capital firms, there was a brief love affair with “clean tech” at the beginning of the last decade, but it fizzled and is now considered an ill-advised rush to invest in a range of sustainable energy startup firms. The Valley’s investors learned a hard lesson — that energy technologies often required larger investments and had longer development cycles than they would have liked. And when the market for solar panels was flooded by low-cost Chinese competitors, the “change the world” mantra of the venture capital community moved on to focus on social networking, software and other Internet investments. The water crisis simply may be a poor match for the Valley’s skill set. “Not sure I have much to say on the water crisis that is enlightening,” said Vinod Khosla, one of Silicon Valley’s pre-eminent venture investors who has made significant clean-tech investments, when asked about the drought last week. The challenge of the water crisis has complications that give investors pause, too: The solutions may have more to do with changing policy than technology breakthroughs at this stage. “Water is not a rational market today,” said Brook Porter, a partner in Kleiner Perkins Caulfield and Byers Green Growth Fund. The problems, he said, include inefficient or nonexistent pricing mechanisms, and regulatory bodies that may be resistant to change. “It is daunting for a startup to navigate,” he added. “The problem is more market-based than technology-based.” The lack of interest by Valley investors in water can be seen in the drastic decline in new investments in water and wastewater startups last year, even in the face of a worsening drought. New investments declined 39 percent last year to $358 million, and the number of deals fell by 42 percent to the lowest level since 2009, according to the i3 research group of the Cleantech Group based in San Francisco. Where the region shines is in “disrupting” existing markets. The Valley’s idealized image is of two partners toiling in a garage, developing a technology with the promise of delivering accelerating returns. The two Steves — Jobs and Wozniak — still embody this Silicon Valley ideal. One was an inventor who built a computer as a hobby to share with members of the Homebrew Computer Club (with no intention of creating a business or a product), and the other had the foresight to see a new commercial market. But that model is a poor fit for the water conservation conundrum in California, where roughly 80 percent of the state’s water is consumed by agriculture. Water is still inexpensive, as well, which serves as another barrier to innovation. “Silicon Valley has been talking about water technology since they started talking about clean tech, but there are no new big ideas,” said Joel Makower, the chairman and executive editor of the GreenBiz Group, based in Oakland, Calif. “It all comes down to the price of water. When it’s cheap, efficiency doesn’t pay.” To date, technology innovations around water conservation have largely come from Israel, home to an entrepreneurial culture that mirrors Silicon Valley’s, plus more flexible policies and market incentives. Indeed, the sensor-based irrigation innovations that might have been expected to come from the Valley have largely come from Israeli entrepreneurs, as well as more traditional businesses like the wine industry and farming equipment, said Michael Kleeman, a sustainability specialist and a senior fellow at the University of California at San Diego. He argues that the Valley has excelled in creating new markets rather than satisfying crying needs in existing ones. Much of the excitement in Silicon Valley today revolves around ideas like Elon Musk’s Hyperloop transportation system or colonizing Mars. There are exceptions. One example of a classic Silicon Valley startup that is growing quickly is WaterSmart , a San Francisco-based startup that marries the social networking reach of the Internet to the conservation needs of water utilities to change consumer behavior and to detect leaks. Earlier this month, the company announced a $7 million investment round. One of the company’s early investors was Steve Westly, a politically savvy venture investor who was an early executive at eBay. He acknowledges the Valley’s lack of interest in the water problem, but says that has played to his advantage. “We believe this space is booming and a lot of the other firms left at precisely the wrong time,” he said, noting that WaterSmart is rapidly picking up speed in signing on water utilities for its software. “The point is that our water system is in such disrepair. There are people with water conservation issues all over the country. It’s not just a California issue. It’s a global issue.”

Silicon Valley
Water
California
Drought
Venture capital
Startup
WaterSmart
Conservation of Resources


Perry Opens Slim Lead at 3M Championship

Abstract: Kenny Perry eagled the last hole after waiting out a thunderstorm to take a one-shot lead through the second round of the Champions Tour’s 3M Championship in Blaine, Minn. Perry, a six-time senior winner, shot a nine-under-par 63 to reach 16-under 128 at TPC Twin Cities. ■ Geoff Ogilvy got up and down for birdie from a greenside bunker on the par-5 closing hole to take a three-stroke lead in the Barracuda Championship in Reno, Nev. Ogilvy pushed his total to 35 in the modified Stableford event.


Clive Robbins, Developer of Influential Method of Music Therapy, Dies at 84

Abstract: Clive Robbins, a developer of an influential brand of music therapy designed to help people with various disabilities meet the physical, mental and social challenges that are facts of everyday life, died on Wednesday at his home in Jersey City. He was 84. His death was announced by the Nordoff-Robbins Center for Music Therapy at New York University . Alan Turry, the center’s managing director, said that Mr. Robbins had been ill with cancer and heart disease for some time. With his wife, Carol, Mr. Robbins established the center in 1989 and was its founding director. Part of the university’s graduate program in music therapy, the center is responsible for professional training, clinical care and research, rooted in the particular brand of music therapy conceived by Mr. Robbins and Paul Nordoff more than 50 years ago. Mr. Robbins, a British-born special-education teacher, and Mr. Nordoff, an American pianist and composer, first joined forces in England in the late 1950s. Their aim was to design a therapy, centered on music, that would help hard-to-reach children acquire linguistic and social skills. Known as Nordoff-Robbins music therapy, their method is now used by hundreds of therapists around the world to treat people of all ages. The conditions treated include autism , mental retardation , psychiatric illnesses, stroke, Alzheimer’s disease and physical and learning disabilities. Today there are also Nordoff-Robbins centers in London ; Seoul, South Korea; and Kingswood, Australia. The Nordoff-Robbins method takes as its philosophical starting point the belief that responsiveness to music lives in everyone, that music has deep power as a communicative tool and that the experience of two people making music together is an inherently empathetic one. Where other schools of music therapy might integrate music into more traditional treatment, like talk therapy, in the Nordoff-Robbins approach the music is not so much an adjunct to therapy as it is the stuff of therapy itself. Nordoff-Robbins therapists, who are skilled musicians and accomplished improvisers, use music to mirror a patient’s emotional state throughout a session. Joy, anger, sadness and the shifts among them — as well as physical behaviors like the repetitive movements made by an autistic child — can be immediately reflected in the changing melodic lines, rhythms and tempos the therapist plays on the piano or guitar. Patients are encouraged to participate in the music-making — beating drums, strumming guitars, singing — which enhances verbal, social and physical skills. “We are so full of rhythm and pitch,” Mr. Robbins told the newspaper The Australian in 2007, “so it’s very natural for us to move into music. Some of us like music that’s heavy with pulse: that makes us feel solid. Others like music that’s light and playful; some like romantic music or thoughtful music. We can find in music an extension of our own needs.” The Nordoff-Robbins method neither aims nor promises to cure its patients. Rather, as Mr. Robbins explained in a 1994 interview with the CBS News program “America Tonight,” “We try to unfold the abilities we can reach and develop them, so the child has more equipment for living.” A baker’s son, Clive Edward Robbins was born on July 23, 1927, in Birmingham, England. At 14 he began piano lessons, and at 16, during World War II , he joined the Royal Air Force. After the war, he began his career as a special-education teacher in England. He and Mr. Nordoff were close collaborators for nearly two decades, writing and lecturing, training teachers, treating patients and helping establish Nordoff-Robbins programs around the world. Mr. Nordoff died in 1977. Mr. Robbins, whose marriage to his first wife, Mildred, ended in divorce, married Carol Matteson, also a music therapist, in 1975. They spent the next several years at the New York State School for the Deaf in Rome, N.Y., where they developed an innovative curriculum that let even children with very little residual hearing learn, appreciate and express themselves through music. Carol Robbins died in 1996. Mr. Robbins is survived by his third wife, the former Kaoru Mochizuki, a music therapist whom he married in 1998; a son and daughter from his first marriage, Toby and Jenny; a half-brother; seven grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Mr. Robbins, who continued to treat patients almost until the end of his life, lived for years, quite contentedly, with tinnitus , an occupational hazard. “Too many children had breakthroughs on the cymbals,” he told The New Zealand Herald in 2007. “They were having a terrific time and I didn’t want to stop them.”


Court Strikes Down New York City’s ‘Prevailing Wage’ Law

Abstract: Handing a victory to the administration of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, a State Supreme Court judge on Monday struck down a law passed by the City Council last year that would have raised wages for janitors, security guards and other building service workers in structures that received substantial government subsidies or where the city was a major tenant. Mr. Bloomberg vetoed the legislation, known as the prevailing wage bill, saying that it would drive businesses away from New York City, but the Council overrode his veto. Enforcement of the law was then delayed. The Council also overrode the veto in the case of another wage measure, the so-called living wage bill, which would raise pay for a broader range of workers whose employers receive subsidies. The Bloomberg administration later sued the Council over both measures — the prevailing wage law in state court and the living wage law in federal court. A federal judge last month dismissed the lawsuit over the living wage law, saying the administration lacked legal standing. The administration said it would take the case to state court. The legislation would have mandated a wage of $10 an hour with benefits or $11.50 an hour without benefits. The state minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Prevailing wages are set by the city comptroller for work on public projects; they differ by occupation and are supposed to reflect union rates. But the prevailing wage law was not expected to have a major impact because most of the workers affected are already paid those rates. In his decision on Monday in the prevailing wage case, the state judge, Geoffrey D. S. Wright, said the law was invalid because it was pre-empted by the state minimum wage law. A spokeswoman for the mayor, Julie Wood, praised the decision, saying: “This ill-conceived legislation threatened some of the most important job-creating projects in the city. Legislation like this makes it harder for companies to invest in New York City, at a time when we need to be making it easier.” A Council spokesman, Jamie McShane, said, “We disagree with the judge’s decision and will take appropriate legal steps to have it overturned.” The Council passed the prevailing wage law as the speaker, Christine C. Quinn, was preparing a campaign to run for mayor and seeking to reignite support among liberal voters by highlighting her differences from Mr. Bloomberg. The building service workers union, Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union, strongly supported the bill. In June, the union endorsed Ms. Quinn in the mayoral race. Another mayoral candidate, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio, said, “This decision may be a victory for Mayor Bloomberg, but it is a setback for low-income and working people across our city.” Mr. de Blasio vowed that as mayor he would enact a version of the law that would withstand legal scrutiny. The judge expressed some regret for having to render such a decision. “This court believes that the prevailing wage law could benefit the people of New York and does not see wisdom in the mayor’s zeal for the possibility of welcoming to New York City a business that would pay its building service employees less than the prevailing wage,” Justice Wright wrote, while adding that “whatever my sympathies,” the weight of precedent was clearly on the administration’s side.

New York
Legislation
Building Service Employees
Wages and salaries
NYC
Decisions and Verdicts
Mike Bloomberg
New York City Council
Geoffrey D S Wright


Maynard Webb, Yahoo’s Chairman: Even the Best Teams Can Be Better

Abstract: This interview with Maynard Webb, a veteran technology executive whose current roles include serving as chairman of Yahoo, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. Early influences for you? A. The biggest thing that impacted me early on was my dad passing away when I was 7. We were a very successful middle-class family. He was a real estate appraiser and had his own company, but he died suddenly right before my seventh birthday. He had no life insurance, and we went from having most of what we needed to penniless. My mother was left to look after five kids and his mother. Mom was a rock star and took care of us all — she went back and got her graduate degree and was named science teacher of the year for the state of Florida. I am what I am today in large part because I was driven to never leave my kids in the same kind of position. I also had to start working early on. I was a paperboy. In high school, I worked at a bedding factory at night. Tell me more about your mother. My mother was fabulous but she was very, very tough on me. She ruled with an iron fist, so I was never confused about the values and ethics of our family. I feel her sitting on my shoulder every day, telling me whether she would be O.K. with what I’m doing. And what were the values? We treat people well. We stay humble. We don’t get ahead of ourselves. We work hard, and we take ownership of what we do. And if you act out or you do anything out of line, you will hear about it. I remember when I made the all-star team in the Babe Ruth League. We had just come together recently as a team. I was playing third base, and when it was my time to hit, I struck out. I went back to third base, and we were doing a bit of practice before the other team’s turn to bat. I was really mad and I was firing the ball as hard as I could over to first base, and my mother yelled out, “Hey, Webb, too bad you can’t hit as hard as you throw.” And the shortstop walked over to me and said, “Why don’t you tell that lady in the stands to shut up?” I said: “I can’t. That’s my mom.” She also taught us to give back and take care of the family first. I didn’t go hungry or anything like that, but we did live for three years without any TV or air-conditioning in a Florida house. I used to love Christmas as a paperboy because you got all these tips, and so I would always do something special for the family. One year I bought a Ping-Pong table and put it in the family room. It taught me how cool it is to get something for somebody else and to have them enjoy it. When you went to college, did you have an idea what you wanted to do? I could picture being in an office with a suit, and being a leader, but that’s about as far as I thought about it. I majored in criminal justice because I wanted to be a lawyer and chase bad guys. I got hired by IBM as a senior in college as a security guy. Then I taught myself how to program, and I became a computer security guy. I started volunteering for jobs, and my boss would say, “You’re not qualified to do that.” I’d say: “Well, I’ll do that for free for you and do my current job. No one else is doing it, so why don’t you let me do it? What’s the harm?” I became one of the early hackers, before the Internet existed, and the company asked me to look into our different systems and see what I could break into. That was a fun job. My career is filled with things that I wasn’t qualified to do that I thought I could do and nobody else wanted. What are some other lessons you’ve learned during your career? You have to get voted onto the team every day as an employee, and you have to be the employer of choice every day. I would often ask team leaders: “You have seven people working for you. How many of those would you rehire if all the positions were open again?” The point is that you can’t let mediocre performance impede where you can go. Most managers are good-hearted people, and it’s really hard to tell somebody they’re not performing well. I would just encourage people to get after that more quickly because the rest of your team is watching you and waiting for you to do something. In general, I think companies spend too much time on their poor performers and not enough time on making their A-plus players even better. How do you hire? I try to have a very big network, because the best hires are people I’ve already seen in a work environment and they did a great job. But if I’m meeting you for the first time, I’ll probably start by asking you about your first job and what you’ve done outside of school and work. I’ve found that there is a high correlation between work ethic and people’s extracurricular activities that weren’t driven by mom and dad. Then I would ask about other things to look for truth and self-awareness, like: “Six months from now, we’re going to know each other very well. What will your team and what will I say that you do really, really well? And then what will they say that we all wish you did better?” You’d be surprised at the number of times I’ve heard people say: “Oh, nothing. You’ll just love everything about me.” And I’ll say: “Dude, that’s not true. It’s not true for me. Let me give you some examples of the things you’ll wish that I did better.” I’m just looking for self-awareness and openness. And then I try to probe on value systems and how they work in teams. Tell me about situations that were really tough, and how you got out of them. I like to hear how they tell stories.

Maynard Webb
Management
Yahoo!
Job Recruiting and Hiring


Misch Pitches First Complete Game as Mets Top Marlins

Abstract: MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Pat Misch pitched the first complete game of his career Sunday as the Mets spoiled the Florida Marlins ’ home finale with a 4-0 victory . Misch (2-4) won for only the second time in 13 career decisions. Jeff Francoeur hit his 14th home run and preserved Misch’s shutout in the seventh by robbing Chris Coghlan of a homer in right field. “He’s going to buy me dinner and beers,” Francoeur said, referring to Misch. Misch was on the verge of being dropped from the Mets’ rotation after his last outing, when he allowed eight runs in an inning and a third against the Atlanta Braves. He had never gone more than seven innings, but he retired the final 13 Marlins, throwing 110 pitches on an 87-degree afternoon. “This was obviously rewarding,” he said. “I’m a little tired. The heat drains you out there — I’m glad I didn’t get any base hits. You just have to conserve your energy somehow.” Misch walked three and struck out two. His complete game was only the second this season for the Mets, who took two of three in the series to damage the Marlins’ dwindling playoff chances. The Mets were eliminated from playoff contention by Florida the last two years. “It was great to get a win,” Misch said. “These guys have been beating us the last few years and knocking us out.” Misch took the mound with a career earned run average of 10.13 in three games against the Marlins. He allowed 11 base runners in the first five innings, but the Marlins hit into three double plays and were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position. “Misch made some good pitches when he needed to, and got out of some jams,” said Dan Uggla, who stranded six runners. “Hats off to him.” The Marlins’ best threat came in the first, when they had runners at second and third with no outs before Misch retired Hanley Ramirez, Jorge Cantu and Uggla. In the seventh, Francoeur retreated to the 385-foot sign and leaped to catch Coghlan’s fly as it was about to clear the wall. “That sums up the day,” Coghlan said. Francoeur said: “I had a bead on it. You just jump and hope you timed it right, and I did.” The crowd of 31,167 was the Marlins’ fourth in a row over 30,000, increasing their average to 18,771 a game. But they will finish last in the National League in attendance for the fifth year in a row.

Florida Marlins
Baseball
New York Mets
Misch Pat
Francoeur Jeff


Pets of San Francisco, Earthquake Planners Have You Covered

Abstract: In a city known for accommodating for pets — where pet dogs, not to mention cats, outnumber the city’s school-age children — and where local laws regulate doghouse architecture, San Francisco emergency planners are working to take care of pets in the next big earthquake. The planners hope legions of trained pet-disaster responders will help transport household dogs, cats, rodents and reptiles to 125 temporary animal shelters. Injured pets will be treated at a $300,000 mobile animal disaster medical command unit. And thanks to a no-pets-left-behind policy promoted by the city’s department of Animal Care and Control, when people are rescued from collapsed or burning sections of town, their dogs, cats, birds and other animals will most likely be rescued, too. “Often, rescue workers will tell people to leave their animals. We’re telling them to take their animals with them,” said Kat Brown, deputy director of the city’s Animal Care and Control department. “I don’t think there is any question that they will take animals with them if instructed by authorities. And we consider ourselves authorities on this matter.” San Francisco’s pet-centric approach to disasters represents the vanguard of a national trend in post-Katrina disaster response that takes pets into ever-greater account. The poster dog in the movement was Snowball, who appeared in a post-Katrina Associated Press article that described how a rescue worker had told a 9-year-old boy that he would not be able to bring the little white dog on the bus while evacuating the Louisiana Superdome. The story became the centerpiece of Internet fund-raising appeals by animal welfare organizations. “The scene was too much to bear,” Representative Tom Lantos, who represented parts of San Francisco and San Mateo Counties, said at the time. “I know I wouldn’t have been able to leave my little white dog, Masko, to a fate of almost certain death.” Mr. Lantos, who died in 2008, sponsored an initiative, the Pets Evacuation and Transportation Standards Act of 2006, making federal money available for local animal disaster preparedness planning. “We were kind of considered the ugly stepsister,” Ms. Brown said of her agency. After the PETS Act passed, however, “we were able to get credibility with the disaster community,” she said. Now, Animal Care and Control has a role alongside other rescue agencies. “Other counties have a different approach to it,” said Rod Dudgeon, deputy director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management. “I have talked to a number of emergency managers who think this whole thing is ridiculous. San Francisco is one of the more progressive areas I’ve seen.” During the past three years the city has received $350,000 in federal funds to supplement local animal disaster preparedness, according to the city’s Department of Emergency Management. Part of the money supplements the salary of Bing Dilts, the Animal Care and Control veterinarian, so that she can serve as an animal disaster preparedness specialist. Ms. Brown’s and Dr. Dilts’s hopes for full disaster preparedness perches on the possibility of obtaining federal funds for a $300,000 mobile command unit, which they have been asking city officials for since 2007. The unit would be operated out of a small, customized motor home. “We could drive this vehicle out to, say, the Marina District if it collapsed again like in 1906,” Dr. Dilts said. “We’d have control poles, leashes and different things we could put cats and dogs in. Animal control officers could be dispatched out of the unit. We could do surgeries.” Dr. Dilts, who came to Animal Care and Control in 1995 as a staff veterinarian, drafted a citywide emergency response plan and created a classroom curriculum to train a volunteer Disaster Animal Response Team, which has 100 members so far, Ms. Brown said. Among the volunteers was Lynn MonSanto of San Francisco, who said he was inspired by the earthquake and tsunami last year in Japan. “There was a dog on a roof, swept out to sea, and they rescued him by boat and helicopter,” Mr. MonSanto said after attending a daylong training session at the city’s Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals office. More common among trainees were recollections of New Orleans. “When I saw what happened at Hurricane Katrina , my heart just broke, seeing all those animals on rooftops,” said Tina Delaney, who runs an errand service in San Francisco. “I have animals, and they are like my family.”

Pets
Earthquakes
Rescues
Disasters and Emergencies
San Francisco (Calif)
Evacuations and Evacuees


Friends at Service Recall Walter Cronkite’s Private Side

Abstract: Walter Cronkite told his children from time to time that he was “just” a reporter, one who had “just ended up reporting bigger and bigger stories.” Modesty aside, his son, Chip, sensed otherwise. In the turbulent 1960s, Mr. Cronkite, the legendary CBS anchorman, “seemed to help Americans on both sides of the political fence understand each other,” his son said at a funeral service at St. Bartholomew’s Church in Midtown Manhattan on Thursday afternoon. Much of the service, which drew a large contingent of television stars and a number of Mr. Cronkite’s former viewers, dwelled on the private side of Mr. Cronkite, rather than his professional role as the pioneering anchorman of the “CBS Evening News” from 1962 to 1981. Mr. Cronkite died July 17 at the age of 92. “Walter was such a good friend,” said Andy Rooney, the “60 Minutes” commentator and one of the speakers at the service. The two men worked together in London during World War II. “I just feel so terrible about Walter’s death that I can hardly say anything,” Mr. Rooney said before excusing himself from the lectern. Seated in the second row, the current anchor of the “CBS Evening News,” Katie Couric, dabbed at her eyes. Friends portrayed the side of Mr. Cronkite when he was at leisure, a side that viewers rarely, if ever, saw. They described his love of sailing, including frequent jaunts to Annapolis, Md., and explorations of the nooks and coves of the New England coast. He was known to some of his sailing friends as “the commodore,” said Mike Ashford, a longtime friend. Mr. Ashford said: “I was often asked, ‘What he’s really like?’ And I would always answer, ‘He’s just the way you hope he is.’ ” Friends also noted his love of music, which included, in recent years, drum-playing; they said Jimmy Buffett had serenaded Mr. Cronkite weeks ago with a ukulele at his home in the Yorkville neighborhood of Manhattan. “He was always a wire service reporter in his heart,” said Sanford Socolow, a former executive producer for Mr. Cronkite. “He always lived by the wire service adage,” which he described as “Get it first, but get it right.” Mr. Socolow fondly remembered Mr. Cronkite’s ill-fated idea to abandon scripts and ad-lib the news. He told the staff that he would signal when to roll the film projector by brushing his nose, said Mr. Socolow, in an account that prompted loud laughter from the TV anchors and producers in the front rows. “Needless to say, the director, especially, was crazed at this idea,” Mr. Socolow said, noting that evening newscasts are among the most scripted programs on television. The experiment lasted for two days, he said. Mr. Socolow also recalled that Mr. Cronkite could not quite pronounce the word February. “It got to the point where we would rehearse him for about the last week in January,” he said. “And it would work for a day or two, but then there was a relapse.” From his CBS anchor desk, Mr. Cronkite helped guide viewers nationwide through the Vietnam War, the civil rights movement, the moon landing, the Watergate scandal and other momentous news events. Among the admirers outside the church was Susie Henning, a tourist from Dallas. Ms. Henning, 59, remembered watching Mr. Cronkite during dinner in the 1960s on a black-and-white television in Toledo, Ohio. “He was just always so real and honest, no airs,” she said. “He always had a very fatherly feel to me.” Though Ms. Henning said that Charles Gibson, the anchor of “ABC World News,” nearly captured that quality, her friend Janet Raisor, 56, of Evansville, Ind., disagreed. “Nobody’s really like that anymore,” said Ms. Raisor, who recalled watching Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination on a television set wheeled into a classroom in her Catholic grade school. CBS is expected to hold a public memorial at Lincoln Center next month.

Television
Cronkite Walter
Rooney Andy
CBS Corp
St Bartholomew's Church
News and News Media


Bankruptcy of TransCare Strains New York’s Emergency Services

Abstract: At every moment, the population explosion of New York rolls across the city in not-so-slow motion. Last year, nearly 1.7 million people called 911 for medical help, the most since humans started answering telephones. On average that’s about one call every 20 seconds. On the evening of Feb. 25, a radio message came to 911 dispatchers from an ambulance in the Bronx: “Out of service.” It was the first of many such messages that night, all of them ambulances that signed off from the 911 system and returned to their stations. This was not a strike or a job action, and the people calling from the ambulances were not city employees. They were paramedics and emergency medical technicians employed by TransCare, a private company that provided ambulance coverage to large parts of the Bronx and some areas in Manhattan. TransCare had gone bankrupt. By the end of the evening, 27 TransCare ambulances had been pulled from the street. “They dropped off the face of the earth,” said Israel Miranda, president of the union representing the city’s paramedics and emergency medical technicians, Local 2507 of District Council 37. The city’s Emergency Medical Service, which is part of the Fire Department, scrambled to shift ambulances and crews from across the five boroughs, and brought in people to work overtime. In all, TransCare used to provide 81 tours a day in the city; it was teetering for months, so officials knew they needed a contingency plan . The city has muscles and nerve endings that most of us do not know exist. (Some cities and towns in Westchester County also relied on TransCare and have replaced it with other companies.) For now, the city has patched the problem, though the medics are starting to become frayed from the extra hours or the trips to boroughs outside their regular assignments, and warm weather, the busiest time of the year for medical emergencies, is coming up. Mr. Miranda’s union — with support from, among others, Elizabeth Crowley, the chairwoman of the City Council’s fire and criminal justice committee, and the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer — is arguing that the use of private ambulances is a false economy, and that the city should hire enough of its own workers. If it goes too far to call this a crisis, the episode disclosed a vulnerability that most members of the public did not realize existed. It also raises the kinds of questions that elected officials prefer to duck: There are fewer and fewer fires, and more and more medical emergencies, but there are twice as many firefighters as there are emergency medical workers. The two services were merged in March 1996, but there was only piecemeal integration. Firefighters now respond to many medical calls, and get there quicker than ambulances. For the most part, though, they do not have advanced training and cannot transport patients. It costs, on average, nearly four times as much to send a fire engine to a medical call as an ambulance, according to a report by the Citizens Budget Commission . Over the next five years, the department’s strategic plan calls for a shift to include more coordinated responses to medical emergencies. As things now stand, the budget commission’s report said, “The F.D.N.Y. does not efficiently address its most common job: responding to medical emergencies.” Greater efficiency in the Fire Department has long been the stuff of budget officials’ daydreams, but they have rarely made much headway. Tradition-bound, the department enjoyed broad public support long before the valor and sacrifice of firefighters and their leaders during the attacks of Sept. 11. If there were ever a poll of the most popular civil servants, firefighters might very well win in a landslide. The Emergency Medical Service, if more in public demand, is not so potent a political force. Mayor Bill de Blasio recently increased its budget to help cut response times in the Bronx, which happens to be the fastest growing county in New York State. When Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani was in office, the city made an arrangement with private hospitals that permitted them to operate their own ambulances within the city’s 911 network, and many chose to contract with companies like TransCare. From the city’s perspective, this saved some of the expense of running a fleet of ambulances. Other private operators have failed in the past, but the TransCare collapse — the loss of 81 tours, and 200 medical workers — was of a new scale. Joe Conzo, a city emergency medical technician in the Bronx for 19 years and now a union vice president, offered a sobering comparison. “Can you imagine,” Mr. Conzo said, “if an entire police precinct disappeared in the middle of the night?”

Bankruptcy
TransCare
Ambulance
Bronx
Manhattan
Emergency medicine
NYC
Fire Department NYC


U.A.W. Contract Vote at Fiat Chrysler Takes a Populist Tone

Abstract: WASHINGTON — With Donald Trump and other political outsiders towering over Jeb Bush and the rest of the Republican presidential field, Bernie Sanders surging past Hillary Clinton in early polling in New Hampshire, and executives like Don Thompson, the former McDonald’s chief, ousted in the face of declining sales and labor strife, it is clearly not a good time to be an establishment figure. Now there is yet another establishment scalp to consider: the leadership of one of the country’s largest and most important unions, the United Automobile Workers . In voting that ended this week, the union’s members stingingly rejected the national agreement their leaders had painstakingly worked out with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. It was the first such defeat in decades. In many ways, the tentative contract negotiated by the U.A.W., under its president, Dennis Williams, had much to recommend it. It would have lifted the maximum pay of entry-level workers to over $25 an hour from around $19 an hour, and the pay of many veteran workers to around $30 an hour from around $28 — the first across-the-board raise in roughly a decade. It also gave every worker a ratification bonus of $3,000, and other bonuses worth thousands. “The leadership thinks they got a good agreement,” said Kristin Dziczek, an industry labor expert at the Center for Automotive Research , a nonprofit research group. “I think they did, too.” But the membership worried that the company’s commitments on health care were too vague, and that some domestic production might be moved to Mexico. Above all, rank-and-file workers complained that the union had abandoned a promise to rein in the so-called two-tier system, in which entry-level employees are consigned to a lower salary range with no hope of ascending to the higher pay scale. “People feel like the leadership has insulted them,” said Scott McGinnis, a worker at Chrysler’s plant in Sterling Heights, Mich. “Considering the trust people feel has been broken, they really feel questionable about” the possibility of improvements in future deals. Such was the level of suspicion toward the leadership that some workers uploaded photos of their ballots onto a handful of Facebook pages as evidence in the event the union failed to properly count them. Chrysler and the other two Detroit automakers have been consistently profitable in the last few years. In that context, members believed it was only fair to undo the most unsavory concessions they made when Chrysler lay on its deathbed around the time of the most recent recession. But while the union has some leverage — Chrysler in particular has so little redundancy in its production that a strike at a single plant could cripple its domestic operation — in a globalized economy the U.A.W. may simply not have the power to demand these changes. “There was an inability to manage expectations of the membership,” Ms. Dziczek said, noting that one of the union’s mottos dating back to Mr. Williams’s election last year, “It’s Our Time,” may have unrealistically implied to members that they would be made nearly whole after years of concessions. (A U.A.W. spokesman declined to comment.) Increasingly, the frustrations that result from this disparity between expectations and actual power appears to affect almost every institution set up to provide workers with a measure of economic justice, from labor unions to the government’s fiscal policy apparatus. “The old 20th-century income distribution system has broken down,” said Guy Standing, a professor of development studies at the University of London, whose book “The Precariat” traces the implications of a growing mass of economically insecure workers. Image Dennis Williams, center left, president of the U.A.W., chats with Chuck Hall, a union director, last month at a Labor Day parade in Detroit. Credit Regina H. Boone/Detroit Free Press, via Associated Press Professor Standing noted that while offshoring and outsourcing labor had been undermining workers’ leverage for decades, those forces had in recent years begun to affect a majority of workers, who now experience declining or stagnating real wages. (The book’s title combines “precarious” with “proletariat.”) “You’re getting a huge growth of the precariat, and more people feeling they could join it at any stage,” he said. “When they look to the old institutions, they don’t actually feel that these institutions are relevant for their particular way of life.” That frustration appears to be a major source of energy behind Mr. Sanders’s presidential campaign. But it’s not simply a phenomenon of the left. The Harvard social scientist Theda Skocpol, who has studied the Tea Party extensively, said that adherents tend to be older, white and frightened by spending on programs like the Affordable Care Act, which they see as redistributing resources away from them and toward the young, many of whom are minorities or immigrants. Beyond that, she said, they have “a generalized feeling that the country is being lost,” which helps explain the Trump phenomenon as well. (Professor Skocpol stipulated that the left- and right-wing versions of these populist revolts are not entirely analogous: the right-wing version, she said, has an element of cultural and racial grievance that is unconnected to economics.) In some respects, the rebellion at the U.A.W. looked like nothing so much as the kind of insurrection that House Republicans have directed against their speaker, John A. Boehner , who announced last month that he was resigning from Congress. In showdowns with the White House in late 2012 and late 2013, Mr. Boehner had to shelve his own proposals — which in both cases represented a better deal for the Republican Party than the one it eventually received — because he could not persuade enough of his members to back off their initial demands and support a plan that raised taxes on millionaires or one that didn’t entirely repeal the health care overhaul . Mr. Boehner’s aides repeatedly tried to explain that the desire of the Tea Partiers and their congressional representatives to thwart what they saw as the president’s redistributionist policies far exceeded the House Republican leadership’s ability to deliver it. But the Tea Partiers refused to dial back their ambitions. “His problem was he was speaking about what was realistic,” said former Representative Steven C. LaTourette, a Boehner ally and fellow Ohio Republican. “These guys wanted to go home and say they shut down the government over Obamacare and have the crowd go wild.” Mr. Boehner was haunted by the promises he made to appease his members — for example, an insistence that he would not raise tax rates — whenever it came time to close a deal with the president. Similarly, many autoworkers were irate that the union leadership had indicated in a summary document it distributed tied to its 2011 negotiations with Fiat Chrysler that the company would cap entry-level employees at 25 percent in 2015, only to claim in recent weeks that the promise was, in effect, a misstatement. “If this was in fact something that was not in the 2011 contract, why do so many people have the paperwork?” asked Mr. McGinnis, the Chrysler worker. “But nobody conveniently knows about it.” Both Mr. Williams, the U.A.W. leader, and Mr. Boehner were also hurt by the perception that they were too cozy with their ostensible adversaries. Workers dwelled at length on the hug that Sergio Marchionne, the Fiat Chrysler chief, gave Mr. Williams at a ceremony that began the bargaining in July. Still, in the end, the problem may have been less about any particular aspect of the negotiations than a distrust of any process that involves one side sitting across a table from the other and horse-trading at a time when anxious workers are seeking major improvements in their standards of living. Jonathan Westin, director of New York Communities for Change , a grass-roots organizing group that was heavily involved in the Occupy Wall Street movement, said the only truly significant gains workers had achieved in recent years had come through the application of political pressure, as with the recent near-doubling of the minimum wage for fast-food workers in New York. “A lot of victories won’t be achieved at the bargaining table, they’ll be achieved on the street,” he said. “It’s not till you flip over the table. For me, that’s what’s happening in Chrysler.”

Dennis Williams
Labor Unions
Theda Skocpol
UAW
Jobs
John Boehner


Investors With Madoff May Get Tax Relief

Abstract: For the legions of investors who appear to have been swindled in Bernard L. Madoff ’s giant Ponzi scheme, there may be a little relief. Tax rules allow investors who fall prey to criminal theft perpetrated by their investment advisers or brokers to claim a tax deduction stemming from their losses. The rules, which are in part tied to definitions under state theft laws, could potentially put hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, in the form of tax breaks, back into the pockets of Mr. Madoff’s stunned investors, including the publishing magnate Mort Zuckerman; the owner of the New York Mets, Fred Wilpon; and wealthy investors from Palm Beach to Europe. But it is unclear whether the Internal Revenue Service will see things that way. The agency, which never comments on issues specific to individual taxpayers or cases, declined on Monday to discuss whether it would allow Mr. Madoff’s investors to use the theft-loss rule. Gary A. Zwick, a tax lawyer at Walter & Haverfield in Cleveland, said, “It’s fair to say that many people will take the position that the theft loss rules will apply, but the government may not take that approach.” Under the rules, investors can deduct their losses against 90 percent, and in some cases all, of their adjusted gross income. So an investor who lost $1 million to Mr. Madoff and whose adjusted gross income is $600,000 can claim a tax loss of $939,900. That is the result of $1 million reduced by 10 percent of the adjusted gross income, and minus a $100 fee that is applicable under I.R.S. rules, according to Robert Willens, a tax and accounting authority who provided the example. The rules permit losses stemming from theft to be deducted in the year in which the loss is discovered by the investor. They also allow investors to carry back such losses for three years — one more year than under the rules for capital losses — and to carry forward losses for 20 years. Investors must compute losses according to the adjusted basis in their investment, not the fair-market value. For elite clients, the tax write-off may be the only positive outcome from what prosecutors have charged may be the biggest financial pyramid in history. But before investors can claim the deduction, they have to pass several hurdles. First, they have to be reasonably certain that they will not recover their losses. Because proving that could take months, if not years, investors may have to wait until next year or later to be able to claim any losses on their federal income tax returns. Investors who file claims for reimbursements are typically deemed to be in the process of seeking monetary recoveries. It is not known whether Mr. Madoff put any of his investors’ money in personal bank accounts overseas or used it underwrite a lavish lifestyle. Any such assets could be a source of recovery for investors that the court-appointed receiver for Mr. Madoff’s operations would try to find — and that could dilute any tax write-offs. A formal declaration that Mr. Madoff’s funds were bankrupt would help investors on the tax front. “Embezzlement followed by bankruptcy is a pretty good indication that you’re not going to get your money back and have a theft-loss claim,” said Mathew Richardson, a tax lawyer at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton in Los Angeles. Investors who paid taxes on their Madoff investments in previous years might also try to seek refunds from the I.R.S.

Madoff Bernard L
Taxation
Brokers and Brokerage Firms
Frauds and Swindling


I.B.M.’s Quarterly Earnings Cast Light in a Darkening Economic Cloud

Abstract: Amid the deepening economic anxiety, I.B.M. delivered a dose of reassuring news on Wednesday evening after the close of the stock market. Big Blue, long regarded as a barometer of corporate technology spending, reported its quarterly earnings ahead of schedule and the results slightly surpassed Wall Street’s expectations. The I.B.M. report, analysts said, might be an early sign that the corporate sector outside of banking is withstanding the turmoil in the financial markets better than had been expected. More evidence is needed, however, before investors will be convinced, they cautioned. While some other technology bellwethers, like Oracle, have said they see little sign of a slowdown, others, like Dell and SAP, have warned that the weakening global economy was hurting their results. “Every bit of sunshine helps here, but the stock market is totally obsessed by the credit crisis ,” said Edward Yardeni, an independent investment strategist. “But if we start getting better-than-expected numbers from other companies, that could provide a big lift.” I.B.M. said its third-quarter net income rose 22 percent, to $2.05 a share, which was 3 cents higher than analysts’ consensus estimate, as compiled by Thomson Reuters. On a dollar basis, net income rose 20 percent, to $2.8 billion; the technology giant has been buying back its own shares so its earnings were spread across fewer shares than a year earlier. I.B.M., which is based in Armonk, N.Y., made the early announcement of its third-quarter results with an eye on the sinking stock market. The company had been scheduled to report its quarterly sales and profits on Oct. 16. “But with these market conditions, we thought it was important to get our results out as soon as possible,” said Edward Barbini, an I.B.M. spokesman. In recent days, some Wall Street analysts had been paring back their estimates for I.B.M.’s earnings for the quarter and the remainder of the year, given the deteriorating global economy and its probable impact on I.B.M.’s sales of computer hardware, software and services. The company’s shares have dropped nearly 18 percent in the last week, and closed at $90.55 Wednesday, down more than 5 percent. After it announced its quarterly results, I.B.M.’s shares gained more than 5 percent, or $5.35, to $95.90 in after-hours trading. I.B.M. went beyond saying it did well last quarter. It also reaffirmed its previous guidance for its profits for the entire year, despite the weakening economic outlook in the United States and elsewhere. The company expects to earn $8.75 a share for 2008, a 22 percent increase over 2007. In its announcement, the company also noted its solid financial footing, with ample cash flow from its operations and $9.8 billion in cash in the corporate treasury. Analysts noted that I.B.M. was well positioned to withstand cyclical swings in business conditions that might batter other companies. Nearly two-thirds of I.B.M.’s revenue is from stable streams of corporate software licenses and longer-term technology services contracts. Today, the majority of I.B.M.’s business is outside the United States, and it has had particular success winning big technology contracts with corporations and government agencies in fast-growing foreign markets like India and China. I.B.M.’s revenue growth did slow to 5 percent in the quarter, coming in at $25.3 billion. Excluding currency gains, the revenue growth was 2 percent. Still, analysts said that the strong performance in the quarter was impressive. “This reaffirms the notion that I.B.M. is a safe haven,” said A. M. Sacconaghi, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “There are unique factors at work for I.B.M., but the fact that a company with as broad a reach across so many sectors of the economy as I.B.M. can do this well in this environment has to be viewed positively.” In a statement, Samuel J. Palmisano, I.B.M.’s chief executive, said the company’s strong portfolio of products and services, investments in emerging markets and sturdy financial foundation work to give the company “a competitive edge in good times and tough times.”

International Business Machines Corporation


In State of the Union, Obama Sets an Ambitious Agenda

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama claimed credit on Tuesday for an improving economy and defiantly told his Republican adversaries in Congress to “turn the page” by supporting an expensive domestic agenda aimed at improving the fortunes of the middle class. Released from the political constraints of a sagging economy, overseas wars and elections, Mr. Obama declared in his sixth State of the Union address that “the shadow of crisis has passed,” and he vowed to use his final two years in office fighting for programs that had taken a back seat. Video The president delivered his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, addressing a wide range of issues, including the economy, immigration and national security. Credit Credit Jabin Botsford/The New York Times He called on Congress to make community college free for most students, enhance tax credits for education and child care, and impose new taxes and fees on high-income earners and large financial institutions. “We have risen from recession freer to write our own future than any other nation on Earth,” Mr. Obama said in an hourlong address to a joint session of Congress seen by an estimated 30 million people. “Will we accept an economy where only a few of us do spectacularly well? Or will we commit ourselves to an economy that generates rising incomes and chances for everyone who makes the effort?” Video The president discussed the military campaign against the Islamic State, and the larger battle against violent extremism, during his State of the Union address. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Confident and at times cocky, the president used the pageantry of the prime-time speech for a defense of an activist federal government. He vowed to continue a foreign policy that combines “military power with strong diplomacy,” and he called on Congress to lift the trade embargo on Cuba and pass legislation authorizing the fight against the Islamic State. He said approval of a resolution granting him that power — something he has long argued he does not need to carry out the five-month-old campaign — would send an important signal. “Tonight, I call on this Congress to show the world that we are united in this mission,” Mr. Obama said. “We need that authority.” Limits on Presidents Acting Alone How a handful of presidential actions have been challenged in court, by Congress and by later presidents. “This effort will take time,” he said of the battle to defeat the Islamic State, the Sunni militant group that is also known as ISIS or ISIL. “It will require focus. But we will succeed.” Mr. Obama met a skeptical but respectful Congress hours after vowing to veto Republican legislation that would restrict abortion and speed the approval of natural gas pipelines, the latest in a series of veto threats that reflect his eagerness to confront conservative ideology. The president made no mention of the major losses that his party endured in congressional elections last fall, choosing to ignore the assertion by Republicans that voters had rejected his vision. In the speech, he promised that any attempt to roll back his health care law, an overhaul of regulations on Wall Street or his executive actions on immigration would also face vetoes. Mr. Obama implied that the Republican economic agenda lacked an ambition equal to his own. At one point, he mocked the party’s unshakable determination to force approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry 830,000 barrels of petroleum per day from Canada to the Gulf Coast. “Let’s set our sights higher than a single oil pipeline,” he chided. Image The audience included, from left, Eric H. Holder Jr., Chuck Hagel, Jacob J. Lew and John Kerry. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Speaker John A. Boehner, behind the president, and a sea of Republican lawmakers facing him in the House chamber sat impassively as Democrats stood to applaud Mr. Obama’s recitation of the brightening domestic picture during his presidency. The improvements include job growth, falling deficits and the slowing of the growth of health care costs. “This is good news, people,” Mr. Obama interjected at one such moment, looking out at the motionless Republicans. Video The president discussed tax increases on high-income earners and large financial institutions that would fund new initiatives during his State of the Union address. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times The president sought to cement an economic legacy that seemed improbable early in his first term, when the country was in near-economic collapse. The speech aimed to live beyond his presidency by helping to starkly define the differences between Democrats and Republicans ahead of the 2016 presidential election. “The verdict is clear,” Mr. Obama said. “Middle-class economics works. Expanding opportunity works. And these policies will continue to work, as long as politics don’t get in the way.” Video The president discussed the move to normalize relations with Cuba during his State of the Union address. Credit Credit Ramon Espinosa/Associated Press Mr. Obama did highlight some potential areas of collaboration with Republicans. He called on Congress to approve a business tax overhaul, the granting of authority to strike trade deals, and a major initiative to repair crumbling roads and bridges. But the president vowed to push forward with policies that have generated Republican opposition. He called for aggressive action to fight climate change and said he would not back down on changes to the nation’s immigration system. He repeated his support for new regulations on Internet providers and for overriding state laws that limit competition for high-speed service. Video The president discussed the continuing negotiations to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran during his State of the Union address. Credit Credit Jonathan Ernst/Reuters In the official Republican response, Senator Joni Ernst, the freshman Republican from Iowa, said, “Americans have been hurting, but when we demanded solutions, too often Washington responded with the same stale mind-set that led to failed policies like Obamacare.” Hitting back at his political opponents and critics, Mr. Obama dismissed as “cynics” those who rejected the lofty vision he campaigned on, even as he said he recognized the criticism of his decade-old claim that there is not a “black America or a white America, but a United States of America.” He urged members of both parties to reach for a better politics, “one where we spend less time drowning in dark money for ads that pull us into the gutter.” Image President Obama meeting hours before his address on Tuesday with members of the public who have written letters to him. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times He called on his adversaries to “appeal to each other’s basic decency instead of our basest fears,” and he said he longed for a political reality free of “gotcha moments or trivial gaffes or fake controversies.” He said a better politics would allow Republicans and Democrats to come together on reforming the criminal justice system in the wake of killings by police officers in Ferguson, Mo., and on Staten Island. Mr. Obama’s plans — which would offer free community college for millions of students, paid leave for workers and more generous government assistance for education, child care and retirement savings for the middle class — are to be financed in large part by $320 billion in tax increases over the next decade on higher income earners as well as a fee on large financial institutions. The tax plan would raise the top capital gains tax rate to 28 percent, from 23.8 percent. It would also remove what amounts to a tax break for wealthy people who can afford to hold on to their investments until death. Mr. Obama also said he wanted to assess a new fee on the largest financial institutions — those with assets of $50 billion or more — based on the amount of risk they took on. Those proposals would pay for the community college initiative, which would cost $60 billion over a decade, as well as an array of new tax credits intended for the middle class. They include a new $500 credit for families with two working spouses; a subsidy of up to $2,500 annually to pay for college; and the tripling, up to $3,000, of an existing tax break to pay for college. “It’s time we stop treating child care as a side issue, or as a women’s issue,” Mr. Obama said, “and treat it like the national economic priority that it is for all of us.” Mr. Obama said that the approach of walling off the United States from Cuba had been ineffective, and that it was time to try a new strategy. Seated in the first lady’s box overlooking the House chamber, Alan P. Gross, the American prisoner freed in December as part of the new détente, repeatedly mouthed “thank you” when Mr. Obama recognized him. The president argued that the United States had an opportunity to strike a deal with Iran to prevent its development of a nuclear weapon, and he made it clear that he opposed legislation — backed by some Democrats and Republicans — to impose new sanctions before those talks had played out. “We lead best when we combine military power with strong diplomacy, when we leverage our power with coalition building, when we don’t let our fears blind us to the opportunities that this new century presents,” Mr. Obama said. And after several high-profile cyberattacks, including one against Sony Pictures that his administration blamed on North Korea, Mr. Obama called for legislation to bolster protections against such computer-enabled assaults. “No foreign nation, no hacker should be able to shut down our networks, steal our trade secrets or invade the privacy of American families, especially our kids,” the president said. “If we don’t act, we’ll leave our nation and our economy vulnerable. If we do, we can continue to protect the technologies that have unleashed untold opportunities for people around the globe.”

State of the Union,SOTU,State of the Union 2015


Ramani Ayer, Chief of Hartford Financial, to Retire

Abstract: The Hartford Financial Services Group said Thursday that its chief executive, Ramani Ayer, 62, would retire by the end of the year. The insurer has been under pressure from shareholders as it struggles with record losses, and is expected to receive $3.4 billion in taxpayer funds. Hartford said in a statement that it was looking outside the company for a successor. Shareholders questioned Mr. Ayer’s leadership after Hartford reported billions of dollars in losses over the last three quarters, leading the company to cut major international operations and reduce its dividend by 84 percent. The announcement is the latest in a string of senior management changes at Hartford since last year. David M. Johnson, who had been the company’s chief financial officer, resigned in May 2008. And its chief operating officer, Thomas M. Marra, seen by many as a possible successor to Mr. Ayer, announced in February that he would step down and also quit the board immediately.

Retirement
Insurance
Hartford Financial Services Group Inc
Ayer Ramani
Executives and Management
Appointments and Executive Changes


Prospect of Extended Primary Season Alarms Republican Leaders

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Even as the Republican presidential contenders zigzag through Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, an uncertain and potentially unwieldy primary schedule in subsequent states is alarming party leaders, who fear that the voting could start earlier, last longer and complicate efforts to confront President Obama next year. The 2012 presidential race is the first to fall under new rules from the Republican National Committee, which had intended the contests to start in February, a month later than in 2008. But at least a half dozen states are threatening to defy the rules and move up their primaries. The result is that the first ballots are once again likely to be cast in January as Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina move up the dates of their contests to protect their franchises as the early voting states. At the same time, the rush toward the front of the calendar by Florida, Michigan, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia and Missouri is accompanied by another trend: several states are pushing back their presidential primaries — or canceling them entirely — because of tight state budgets. The outcome is a sharply scaled-back set of contests in the weeks after the initial flurry — with Super Tuesday in particular diminished in importance — followed by a stretch of primaries lasting until summer. The California presidential primary, which in 2008 took place in February, is most likely to be held in June, the same day as the statewide primary, to save the state $100 million. New York, which also held its presidential primary in February last time, has pushed back its date to April 24. And the state of Washington will not hold its presidential primary to save $10 million. “If there was ever a calendar that was designed for the nominating battle to go the distance, this is it,” said John Weaver, the chief strategist for the campaign of Jon M. Huntsman Jr., a former governor of Utah. “It could easily go into April and May.” The unsettled calendar has created anxiety and opportunity for Republican candidates. If Gov. Rick Perry of Texas enters the race, as his advisers believe he will in the next few weeks, he could face a hospitable run of primaries. The Texas primary on March 6, which comes with a large trove of delegates, will be followed by several other contests across the South. Mitt Romney, a former governor of Massachusetts, has been working to build a muscular political organization to help fortify him through a drawn-out nominating fight. His associates have urged Utah, which he won in 2008, to move up its primary so a clutch of Western states could provide friendly terrain. Republicans in Idaho voted last week to hold caucuses on March 6. A game of leapfrog takes place every presidential election cycle, with states trying to break the monopoly that Iowa and New Hampshire have held for decades by holding the first caucus and first primary. Yet every effort has produced the same result: Iowa and New Hampshire simply move up their contests. “At this point, there are a few more states in play than there were four years ago,” said William M. Gardner, New Hampshire’s secretary of state. “New Hampshire will be the first. I just don’t know when it will be.” The catalyst in the intense jockeying among states is Florida. Republican leaders want the state to hold a prominent spot in the early phase of the nominating process. The Legislature formed a committee to select a primary date, which is likely to be in early March, but could move to February or late January if other states advance their contests. The ambitions of Florida are being carefully watched by Republican leaders in other states that have their own aspirations to play a key role in helping to select the party’s nominee. “We can’t let Florida establish an early beachhead in the process,” said Saul Anuzis, a member of the Republican National Committee who is from Michigan. “There’s been this game of chicken between Florida and Michigan, saying if you guys go early, we’re going to go early.” For all of the precision that presidential campaigns require, the process of selecting a nominee is dictated by a haphazard set of rules that vary by state. Some states conduct closed primaries (registered Republicans only), and others have open primaries (independents and Democrats can vote, too). In Arizona, the primary is scheduled by the governor, and Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, is considering moving the date to mid-February to coincide with the state’s centennial celebration. In Georgia, the primary is the purview of the secretary of state, Brian Kemp, who is Republican. “It’s kind of like poker, really,” Mr. Kemp said in an interview. “You’re gambling if you go early. If you get penalized, is it worth it?” Under Republican Party rules, states are stripped of half their delegates to the nominating convention if they jump ahead of the proposed guidelines, while states that adhere to them get additional delegates. Josh Putnam, an assistant professor at Davidson College who studies presidential primaries and writes the blog FrontloadingHQ , said the biggest change to the calendar was the shrinking of Super Tuesday — from 24 states last time to about 10 next year — and the lengthening of the nominating season. “Four years ago, there was a mad rush to the first Tuesday in February,” Mr. Putnam said. “This time, a sizable chunk of states are deciding to move back.” Another dynamic in the calendar fight has made this round of behind-the-scenes competition among states even more chaotic. Republicans have long operated under a winner-takes-all system, which has allowed the party to wrap up its nominating fight more swiftly than Democrats, who allow states to award delegates proportional to the share of votes received by the candidates. This time, most Republican delegates will be awarded proportionally for all primaries and caucuses taking place before April 1, which means finishing second can be nearly as fruitful as winning. If the campaign narrows to a head-to-head match between two candidates next year, it has the potential to become a Republican version of the extended 2008 Democratic delegate fight between Barack Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton that was not resolved until all states had voted. Even as Republican candidates are criticizing Mr. Obama’s policies, campaign strategists say they are studying his campaign playbook, taking particular interest in how his advisers mastered the intricate rules of awarding delegates from primaries and caucuses, which ultimately delivered him the nomination.

Republican Party
Primaries and Caucuses
Presidential Election of 2012
United States Politics and Government


A Veterans of Foreign Wars Post in Denver Trades Beer for a Sun Salute

Abstract: DENVER — At a meeting in the country’s oldest Veterans of Foreign Wars post, a Marine began by asking members to close their eyes and inhale. “Bring your hands to your heart center,” he said. “Notice all the air that is moving around you.” It was a Tuesday at V.F.W. Post 1 : yoga night. Wednesday is meditation. Friday is photography class — unless it is open gallery night, when hundreds of civilians peruse veteran artwork while a D.J. spins records. The post hosts a monthly film series. And meetings often have as many backward ball caps as V.F.W. hats. Do not come expecting a bar. There is none. “We didn’t want a dark dive bar,” said the senior vice commander of the post, Brittany Bartges, a 29-year-old veteran of the Iraq war. “We wanted a healing place where veterans could come together and bring their families.” By abandoning the traditional model of a dim, members-only tavern in favor of a bright gallery space, Iraq and Afghanistan veterans in Denver have transformed the V.F.W.’s oldest post into one of its youngest. Once a dying post like many others, Post 1 began recruiting aggressively among veterans at nearby colleges and threw open the doors, welcoming other veterans’ groups to use the building. It is now a hub for volunteering, exercise and art, where the focus is on camaraderie and community service. And the membership is thriving. Before, some meetings drew only five people. Now, more than 40 regularly attend. Post members say they hope to create a model for attracting young veterans that could be adopted across the country. And just in time for the 116-year-old V.F.W. The nationwide network has lost more than 500,000 members in the last decade, tracing the declining number of veterans from World War II and Korea. More than 1,000 posts have closed. The average age of its 1.3 million members is now 68. Young veterans have shown little interest in joining. Only about 15 percent of eligible Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are members. The percentage is even smaller among women, who make a growing proportion of war veterans but tend to see traditional veterans’ groups as out of touch with their needs. (It was only last year that the V.F.W. changed references in its congressional charter from “men” to “veterans,” and the incentive for recruiting members is still a tie clip.) Where Veterans Gather VFW halls are trying to attract new veterans. They are hoping to become timeless retreats where all kinds of warriors come together and help one another. The V.F.W. is not the only traditional veterans’ group that is struggling to connect with the next generation. Membership in the American Legion, which was founded in 1919 and is open to all veterans (not just those who fought in foreign wars), has declined by more than a million people since its peak in the 1990s as older veterans have died and fewer young veterans have joined. At the same time, hundreds of new groups have sprung up, often with narrow missions that resonate with younger veterans, such as Team Red, White and Blue, which encourages veterans to exercise together, and Team Rubicon , which coordinates disaster response teams of veterans. The older groups retain political clout and an infrastructure of thousands of posts that few veterans’ groups can match. But their leaders acknowledge they face an image problem with the next generation. “People think it’s just a bar,” said the V.F.W.’s senior vice commander in chief, Brian Duffy, who will lead the national organization next year. “They don’t want to join. We have to be more innovative to reach the millennials. Post 1 is doing that.” Not long ago, Post 1 faced a grim future. Membership in the post, which was founded in 1899 by Spanish-American War veterans, was shrinking. The aging group could no longer pay rent on its bar. In 2002, it became homeless, and the remaining members held meetings where they could. The national V.F.W. threatened to revoke its charter. “I joined the V.F.W. for the $1.25 Jack and Cokes, but I never wore the funny hat or went to meetings,” said Michael Mitchel, a veteran of the Persian Gulf war of 1991 who is the post commander. “Then we lost the building and almost lost the charter, and I finally got involved. Someone had to do something to save it.” He and another Persian Gulf war veteran, Izzy Abbass, began recruiting student veterans in Denver. They preached a message that the V.F.W. was about coming together to help others, and in the process finding the sense of purpose and camaraderie many veterans feel they lose after leaving the military. In a way, it was a return to the original mission of the group, which in the 1920s was a young upstart that lobbied hard to get the government to stop spending lavishly on war memorials, and instead give better care for the thousands of troops with psychological injuries stemming from World War I. Lobbying by the V.F.W., the American Legion and other groups also helped create veterans’ health care and education benefits that millions of veterans now rely on. To keep young members, Post 1 dropped what it saw as outdated orthodoxy, cutting the number of official prayers at meetings to two from seven, and easing rules on the wearing of the V.F.W.’s distinctive hats. It dropped a rule modeled on secret fraternal organizations that barred nonmembers from attending, adopted a “try before you buy” open-door policy and moved meetings to Thursday nights, when more young veterans could attend. It also offered free child care. Some older members at other posts have blasted the changes. But Post 1 has continued to encourage other posts to follow its lead, and at least a handful of others have, though none have gone quite as far. Image Members of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1 in Denver after reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Credit Benjamin Rasmussen for The New York Times “You have to evolve or die,” said Mr. Mitchel, 47. “It used to be all World War II guys. Now I’m the old guy in the room.” A year ago, with membership growing, Post 1 bought a new home: a run-down but spacious two-story gallery spot in Denver’s hip Santa Fe Drive arts district, surrounded by other galleries, architect studios and a “paleo bistro.” Members hang their art and invite the public to mingle during the monthly art walk. “We’ve become the opposite of a dark bar,” said Curt Bean, 30, a former cavalry scout with tattoos covering both arms who holds weekly painting classes at the post. “We’ve become a bridge to the community.” He never thought he would join the V.F.W., he said, but after two hard combat tours in Iraq, Post 1 helped him reconnect with other veterans and society. The focus on service has attracted unlikely members. “I never thought I would join,” said Marla Keown, 34, a professional photographer who wore a long, flowing skirt and green highlights in her hair during a recent interview. “I went to my hometown V.F.W. when I got home from Iraq. All the old guys in there looked at me like I was someone’s daughter. But Post 1 is different.” The post commander drew her in by asking her to teach a photography class once a week. The class has attracted other young women. They recently started collaborating with a nearby gallery to teach art to children. “That never would have happened if we were sitting in a bar,” she said. The young membership has pushed Post 1 in other new directions. It has reached out to gay veterans, who traditionally have not been embraced by the V.F.W. A doctor recently came to the post to give a lecture on what is known about treating post-traumatic stress disorder with medical marijuana. At the same time, Post 1 has tried not to alienate older generations. It sponsors home health care for elderly members, and young veterans drive older ones to meetings. At a recent monthly meeting, Vietnam veterans in silver ponytails hugged men half their age. A woman with a tattoo on her biceps stood up next to a man with hearing aids and was welcomed to her first meeting with a round of applause. A service dog snoozed in the aisle. A 94-year-old World War II veteran named Raymond Starkey read the opening prayer. He has been a member of Post 1 since the 1950s, and thought he might outlive it until the new generation brought new life. Now traveling with a walker and an oxygen tank, he said he was proud to see the younger veterans in the room with him. Asked about all the recent changes, he smiled and said: “Life is changes. It’s good for you.”

Veteran
Veterans of Foreign Wars
Denver
Iraq War
Afghanistan War


Softball Case Raises Question: Who Qualifies as Gay?

Abstract: The five ballplayers summoned before a protest committee at the Gay Softball World Series stood accused of cheating. Their alleged offense: heterosexuality. Inside a small room, surrounded by committee members and other softball officials, the players said they were interrogated about their sexual orientation. Confusion reigned. According to court records, one player declined to say whether he was gay or straight but acknowledged being married to a woman. Another answered yes to both gay and heterosexual definitions. A third asked if bisexual was acceptable and was told, “This is the Gay World Series, not the Bisexual World Series.” Ultimately, the committee ruled that three of the five were “nongay” and stripped the team of its second-place finish. That decision, at the 2008 competition near Seattle , provoked a federal lawsuit against the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance , which governs the softball World Series, and compelled the alliance to change its rules. The case has also escalated into a flashpoint in organized gay sports. Sports leagues that exclude members based on sexual orientation — which is generally legal — are watching how the courts address the vexing question at the heart of this dispute: how should a group determine who qualifies as gay? “It definitely takes an organization down a rocky path,” said Jennifer Pizer, the legal director at the Williams Institute , a policy group focusing on sexual orientation law. “It can be quite intrusive, awkward at best.” Dozens of gay leagues exist throughout the country for most sports, from flag football to volleyball, with tens of thousands of participants. The Gay Softball World Series is celebrating its 35th anniversary this summer, and several hundred teams from around the country vie for the title. Leagues often allow some heterosexual participants, in the spirit of inclusiveness, but still wrestle with rules regarding the limits on heterosexual players. The National Gay Flag Football League , for example, has long used the honor system to impose its heterosexual limit (20 percent of each roster for the annual Gay Bowl). “We’ll look at our rule later this year, and we’ll ask ourselves the same questions: Is this the right rule? The right approach to a complex topic?” said Shane Kinkennon, the founder of a Denver flag football league and the national association’s commissioner. “The L.G.B.T. community has become increasingly sensitive to the way people self-identify their gender expression,” he added, referring to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. The North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance limits the number of heterosexual players teams can have. The rule — jokingly referred to as the “straight cap” — is often a subject of spirited debate, and over time it has changed, from barring heterosexual players outright to the current policy of two per team. At the 2008 World Series, the application of the rule prompted more debate. A protest was lodged during the championship game — the source remains unclear — against D2, a team from San Francisco . The hearing started “immediately following their championship loss,” according to court documents. The plaintiffs — Steven Apilado, LaRon Charles and Jon Russ — contend that the hearing was intrusive, a notion disputed by the defense. They are seeking to have the team’s second-place finish restored and to recover more than $75,000 each in damages for emotional distress. Through their lawyers, the players declined to be interviewed. Roger Leishman, chief counsel for the defense, said that he spoke to all but one protest committee member and that each said any player who claimed to be bisexual would have been considered gay. The defense insists that bisexuality never came up. Instead, Mr. Leishman said, the players provided evasive answers to challenge the rule limiting the number of heterosexuals per team. “Some of the things the plaintiffs have said are just not true,” Mr. Leishman said. “They characterize it as a windowless room. It wasn’t. They characterized the questions as intrusive. They weren’t. It’s the Gay Softball World Series. It’s not shocking that someone would ask whether or not you’re gay.” Three of the accused players were ruled “nongay,” although they said there were multiple votes and even a discussion about the definitions. After D2 lost its appeal, the three plaintiffs filed suit. This month, in United States District Court in Seattle, Judge John C. Coughenour ruled that the gay alliance could legally limit the number of heterosexual participants, just as the Supreme Court ruled in 2000 that the Boy Scouts of America could exclude gays. But Judge Coughenour scheduled a trial for Aug. 1 to further examine what happened at the hearing and whether the players were victims of discrimination. Ms. Pizer, of the Williams Institute, and other experts argue that sexual orientation is more complicated than a simple gay-or-straight definition. Experts describe a fuller spectrum of human sexuality, influenced by how a person acts, thinks and self-identifies at a given time. Those factors could change over time, Ms. Pizer said. The problem with a narrow definition, said Christopher Stoll of the National Center for Lesbian Rights, which represents the plaintiffs, is how to define “gay.” “How do you prove if someone is gay or straight?” he said. “One of the most disturbing things about the league’s position in this case is that there’s only one way of being gay, or one view of being gay. The definition did not include bisexual, or transgendered. Our clients break the stereotypes of what gay is supposed to be.” Since the lawsuit was filed, the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Alliance has changed its definition of gay to include bisexual and transgender people. It also clarified that it would determine sexual orientation by self-declaration. The implications of the lawsuit stretch beyond the clarification, said Helen Carroll, the sports project director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. She said she hoped it would spotlight the often-overlooked issues that face bisexual athletes and highlight the movement in gay sports leagues away from such limits. But not everyone agrees that the rule is outdated. Chris Balton, the assistant commissioner of the gay athletic alliance, explained that he came out late in life and that a gay softball league provided support after his partner committed suicide. “His family didn’t want me to be part of the funeral,” Mr. Balton said. “Those guys got me through that. That’s why I love this organization. That’s what the rule means. If we allow it to be open, it would be just another softball tournament.”

Softball Cheating Discrimination Homosexuality