Quake Exposes Italy’s Challenge to Retrofit Its Architecture

Abstract: CASETTA, Italy — Romano Camassi, a seismologist, picked up a sand-colored speck as he surveyed the damage from this week’s earthquake on the green mountain crest where the village of Casetta, now ruins, once perched. “This is just ground, soil,” he said, sadly. “In so many buildings in this area, that was the material used to keep together the irregular stones found in the surroundings which people used to build their homes.” Experts like Mr. Camassi, who was part of the first team from Italy’s Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology to arrive at the quake zone in central Italy , say the destruction was amplified by vulnerable buildings whose upgrades to anti-seismic codes were deemed too costly for many Italians to carry out, too complicated to finance and too cumbersome to get approved. Italy is beloved for its rich architectural history. But that beauty comes at a steep price: both the lives lost when nature reminds its borrowers who is boss, and the money required in the attempt to even the scales. The country has spent an average of 3.5 billion euros a year, or $3.9 billion, for the past 50 years to fix earthquake damage, according to the Italian Association of Builders. And, in the aftermath of Wednesday’s quake, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi announced yet another plan to rebuild and buttress Italy’s ancient infrastructure. Image Rescue workers in Accumoli, Italy, on Friday. Two days earlier a powerful earthquake killed at least 250 people. Credit Roberto Salomone/European Pressphoto Agency Many experts maintain that Italy has among the world’s best anti-seismic standards already — at least on paper. But the problems in executing them are legion: money, corruption, tangled bureaucracy, shoddy construction and a lack of enforcement of national regulations at the local level. This quake, like many in the past, already seems likely to expose corners that were cut, contributing to the 280 or more deaths in about 80 villages in the area along the Apennines, Italy’s fragile spinal cord, where the 6.2-magnitude quake struck. Prosecutors quickly announced an investigation into why a school in Amatrice , the town of about 2,600 where the most deaths occurred, and the bell tower in nearby Accumoli collapsed. The bell tower, which had recently been refurbished, killed an entire family when it fell. The school, built in the 1930s and renovated in 2012, was supposedly built to new anti-seismic standards. “You can have the best rules, but if the weak link is the human factor then it’s all over,” said Gianpaolo Rosati, a professor of structural engineering at the Polytechnic University of Milan. “Unfortunately, we find ourselves always protesting about the same things.” Perhaps the most central, and inescapable, problem is that Italy is old. About 60 percent of its buildings are estimated to be more than 100 years old. That means that most of the country’s architectural heritage was built before any of the modern anti-seismic standards were instituted. Image Firemen check the facade of a church on Friday in Amatrice, Italy, a town of about 2,600 people where most of the deaths occurred. Credit Roberto Salomone/European Pressphoto Agency “You can’t ask that an ancient structure adhere to norms designed for modern structures, but you can try to improve them, that’s the path to take with the objective to save human lives,” said Donatella Guzzoni, an engineer and an expert in the preservation of historic buildings. “Italy has the best technologies to do this,” she added. “But it does come down to money.” Casetta, a hamlet of about two dozen homes, sat on the hill north of Amatrice on the east side of the Tronto River that cuts this valley between two mountain chains. The area was among the most devastated by the quake for a combination of historical, economic and cultural reasons, Mr. Camassi said. “In many cases, they used rounded river stones, put next to one another by someone who ignored even the most ancient best construction practices,” he said. He pointed to a long cement beam hanging perilously from the debris of a two-story house. “When residents decided to reinforce the buildings, they often substituted the light wooden roofs with cement beams and bricks like that, which only worsened the impact of the quake because they burdened the otherwise frail structure,” he said. Mr. Camassi and other experts pointed out that certifying an existing building to anti-seismic standards was difficult and often too expensive for most people. Just having a technical expert determine a building’s vulnerability has a price, Mr. Rosati said, estimating it would cost around 10,000 euros to evaluate a small house. “The cost of reinforcing a building to meet anti-seismic standards can be around 300 euro per square meter, which means the owner of a largish apartment faces a cost of some 300,000 euro,” he said, sometimes more than the apartment is worth. And it is not enough for just one homeowner to want to sleep a little easier. “The entire apartment building has to agree to do the same,” he added, and if the palazzos or apartment buildings are connected, the whole neighborhood must agree. Villages like Amatrice and Accumoli are loved for the charm of their narrow streets and spaces, where houses were built cheek to cheek over the centuries to use prime land, often atop narrow peaks. Image Rescue workers in Accumoli, Italy, on Friday. Credit Roberto Salomone/European Pressphoto Agency In those tightly packed places, the entire block must be reinforced or the buildings “interact” in an earthquake and can topple like dominoes, Mr. Rosati said. That is precisely the dynamic Mr. Camassi found in Casetta. “Neighbors built in different periods, different buildings with different materials, but adjacent,” he said. “So even those that would have resisted the quake were damaged or even taken down by the others.” Farther up the mountain is Cossito, an idyllic village of little houses with red geraniums on the terraces. One narrow street divides a recently restored building from the town square, where almost all homes collapsed, killing at least three people. The village had only four families, Mr. Camassi said, and they all lost a member or a close friend. “We thought we did all we needed, but now we simply need to erase this house,” said Roberto Paganelli, a former police officer in the Carabinieri, who was retrieving items from his 82-year-old mother’s home. The building dates to 1864, he said, and was reinforced in the 1960s. The costs of evaluating and retrofitting old structures are prohibitive for many in this corner of Italy, an easy drive from Rome. Many of these homes were used only in the summer and were not primary residences worth a huge investment. In many cases, the residents are old, living on a pension and barely getting by. The state cannot oblige homeowners to upgrade their buildings unless there are obvious reasons to intervene. “We have up-to-date norms, but they only apply to new buildings or important restorations,” said Luca Ferrari, the president of Italy’s Association of Seismic Engineers. “For the vast majority of buildings, we don’t have an anti-seismic classification, so no one knows whether they are dangerous or not during a quake.” With a government-coordinated group of experts, Mr. Ferrari drafted guidelines to classify buildings, with parameters similar to the energy efficiency of a building. This work finished in April 2015, but the government campaign — and its fiscal incentives — to reinforce existing buildings were still lacking, he said. “This area is at very high seismic danger, and we know that in these small towns of the Apennine Mountains, there are vulnerable buildings,” said Filippo Bernardini, a geologist who worked on Mr. Camassi’s team. “Unless we build better, we offer no hope for the future.” The alternative — razing ancient buildings to construct modern, up-to-date palazzos — is hardly an option. “In other countries there is greater renewal of the architectural patrimony. They don’t think much about knocking something down to rebuild to different standards,” said Sergio Lagomarsino, an engineering professor at the University of Genoa . But, as Mr. Lagomarsino pointed out, Italy has a more conservative approach and is aware that preserving its heritage has value for the country. “In the face of an important building you can’t demolish a historic center and rebuild it with fake stones,” he said. “It would ‘denaturalize’ Italy.”

Italy
Earthquake
Buildings
Amatrice
Restoration and Renovation
Historic preservation
Accidents and Safety


Pamela Geller, Organizer of Muhammad Cartoon Contest, Trumpets Results

Abstract: Less than a day after two gunmen were shot and killed while trying to attack a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Texas, Pamela Geller , the New York blogger who organized the contest, took to the Internet. “Here’s what the enemies of freedom sought to crush last night,” Ms. Geller wrote . “Truth and freedom.” She added, “They were crushed instead.” Though hailed by her supporters as a patriot and condemned by her critics as a bigot, Ms. Geller, everyone seems to agree, has never had trouble speaking her mind. The cartoon competition, which she says was held in honor of Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical newspaper that was itself attacked this winter by Muslim extremists angered by its caricatures of Muhammad, was only the latest in a long list of inflammatory events in which she has sought to marry a defense of free speech with assaults on Islam as a violent and hateful religion. But this was the first time her group came under violent attack. She has had victories. Last month, in a case brought by the American Freedom Defense Initiative , a pro-Israel organization that Ms. Geller runs, a federal judge in Manhattan ruled that New York transportation officials had to post subway advertisements purchased by the group despite concerns that they might lead to violence. The ads, which the judge in the case, John G. Koeltl of United States District Court, referred to as “offensive,” feature a man in a head scarf near the words “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us closer to Allah,” attributed to “Hamas MTV.” The ad also says: “That’s his Jihad. What’s yours?” Born on Long Island, Ms. Geller, 57, is perhaps best known for her role in helping shut down Park51, a proposed mosque and Islamic cultural center that its founders planned to build in 2010 near the site of the World Trade Center attacks in Lower Manhattan. With a typical blend of vitriol and media savvy, Ms. Geller assailed the project as “a stab in the eye of America,” saying that its construction, especially near ground zero, was an act “of Islamic domination and expansionism.” After getting her start in new media as a frequent commenter on the conservative website Little Green Footballs , Ms. Geller, who once worked on the business side of The New York Observer and The Daily News, began taking on issues relating to Muslims and Islam after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. In 2006, when Muslims rioted over cartoons of Muhammad printed in a Danish newspaper, she excoriated the rioters and published the images on her website , unlike much of the news media. She also played a role in winning the resignation in 2007 of Debbie Almontaser, a Muslim principal who started an Arabic-language school in Brooklyn. Allied with men like Robert Spencer, the proprietor of Jihadwatch.org and her partner at the American Freedom Defense Initiative, and Anders Gravers, a Danish “anti-Islamization” activist, Ms. Geller spends much of her time on the blog Atlas Shrugs, a website she uses to attack Islam with language so venomous that PayPal, the service she uses to collect donations, once branded it a hate site. On the site, Ms. Geller has called for the removal of the Dome of the Rock from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and suggested that the State Department was rife with “Islamic supremacists.” Among the similar groups that Ms. Geller has championed over the years is the English Defense League , which opposes the building of mosques in Britain and whose members have been photographed wearing swastikas. In June 2013, the British government barred Ms. Geller and Mr. Spencer from entering the country, where they were due to speak at a defense league march in Woolwich. The Southern Poverty Law Center currently includes the American Freedom Defense Initiative on its national list of hate groups, referring to the organization as “an active anti-Muslim group.” But her supporters consider her a truth teller. One of Ms. Geller’s board members, Pamela Hall, called her a “gift to the country” and said the Texas contest “was about freedom of speech.” “Some wanted to say that it was a form of taunting,” Ms. Hall said, “but it wasn’t.” A day after the shooting, Ms. Geller was not mincing words. “This incident shows how much needed our event really was,” Ms. Geller wrote of the cartoon competition in an email while flying from Texas back to New York. “Freedom of speech is under violent assault here in our nation. The question now before us is: Will we stand and defend it, or bow to violence, thuggery, and savagery?”

Pamela Geller
Cartoons
Charlie Hebdo
Islam
American Freedom Defense Initiative
Murders and Homicides
Terrorism
Garland TX


Tech Investors Cull Start-Ups for Pentagon

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, May 6 — The nation’s military, in its search for the next surveillance system, bioterror vaccine or robot warrior, has decided to take a peek into the garage. Through a program that recently emerged from an experimental phase, the Defense Department is using some of the nation’s top technology investors to help it find innovations from tiny start-up companies, which have not traditionally been a part of the military’s vast supply chain. The program provides a regular exchange of ideas and periodic meetings between a select group of venture capitalists and dozens of strategists and buyers from the major military and intelligence branches. Government officials talk about their needs, and the investors suggest solutions culled from technology start-ups across the country. It is in some ways an odd coupling of the historically slow-moving federal agencies and fast-moving investors, who deal in technologies that are no sooner developed than they are threatened with obsolescence. But the participants argue that the project, called DeVenCI for Defense Venture Catalyst Initiative, brings together two groups that have much to gain from each other and that have had trouble finding easy, efficient ways to work together. Those on the military side of things have adopted the Silicon Valley vernacular to explain the idea of systematically consulting investors to find new technology. “We’re a search engine,” said Bob Pohanka, director of DeVenCI, noting that the program is a chance for military procurement officials to have more intimate contact with investors who make a living scouring laboratories and universities for the latest innovations. Venture capitalists “have knowledge of emerging technology that may be developed by companies as small as two guys in a garage,” Mr. Pohanka said. “These are companies that are not involved in the D.O.D. supply chain.” For the investors, it is a chance to get closer to a branch of government with vast spending power that is a potential customer for the start-ups they have backed. That can be particularly valuable because the venture capital industry, far from enjoying the success of the dot-com boom, has languished in recent years and is looking for new markets and sales opportunities. The military is “like a Fortune No. 1 company,” said E. Rogers Novak Jr., managing director of the venture capital firm Novak Biddle Venture Partners, and one of the investors who consults with the government. “We may get a customer and the D.O.D. gets something that helps them.” The project is in its early stages, having convened three meetings since October. And there are questions about whether a bureaucratic and careful system built around long-term relationships between the military branches and their contractors can be compatible with the quicker culture of Silicon Valley. “Everybody is feeling their way through this relationship,” Mr. Novak said. “The potential is there. The devil is in the details.” There is nothing fundamentally new about the military trying to gain access to cutting-edge technology. For much of the 20th century, it financed and led that development. But that has changed in the last several decades as innovation has started to move at light speed in the private sector. Since the Sept. 11 attacks, the military has reached out more to the private sector, trying to make use of a range of technologies in pursuing security and fighting wars. Some venture capitalists have catered to those demands, creating firms aimed at military and security needs. On the public sector side, the Central Intelligence Agency in 1999 started In-Q-Tel, a venture that identifies and invests in start-ups and technologies whose products could be used in intelligence. And the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency backs new technology and has helped create many important advances, including the Internet. What makes DeVenCI unusual, its participants say, is that by bringing together military procurement agents and technology investors it is creating a kind of brokerage for ideas. But it had humbler beginnings, starting out on more of a special case basis not long after the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. One of the early participants was Ted Schlein, a partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Mr. Schlein said he and a handful of other venture capitalists met with military officials to hear about their needs and then looked for useful technologies. The relationship bore fruit, Mr. Schlein said. He cited a meeting he had several years ago with then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was carrying a confidential file. “Rumsfeld said, ‘I can’t show you what’s in this folder, but you solved some problems for us,’ ” Mr. Schlein recalled. By the end of 2005, this team had made suggestions that led to the adoption of 15 technologies for military and intelligence uses, DeVenCI participants said. In early 2006, the Defense Department decided to expand the project, and it paid for an office with four full-time staff members led by Mr. Pohanka. They signed up 11 venture capitalists from 30 applicants to serve two-year terms. These investors are sent hundreds of pages of information, most of it unclassified, about the needs of military agencies. Then the members of the group get together in person, as they did in March in Arlington, Va., with representatives from about 50 procurement agencies for various military branches. The idea of these meetings is not necessarily to short-circuit the usual military procurement process, which usually involves doing business with one of a handful of big companies like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon, DeVenCI officials said. Rather, the idea is that the military buyers will see technology that they can recommend to those massive contractors for new or continuing projects, or, conceivably, that they will sign small initial contracts with the start-ups so they can further develop a technology for military use. “Most of these companies wouldn’t dream of approaching the government because they’ve heard about a three-year procurement process,” Mr. Pohanka said. He said he tells the venture capitalists and start-ups that the Defense Department signs 6,000 or more contracts a week with various companies. “There are more than ample opportunities,” he said. Some companies have already profited from the program. In 2003, when DeVenCI was in its experimental phase, the Defense Information Systems Agency was looking for ways to protect computer networks. After speaking to several companies through DeVenCI and evaluating their technology, the agency wound up working with ArcSight, a software company based in Cupertino, Calif., which won $3.6 million in related contracts over the next few years, DeVenCI officials said. Mr. Novak of Novak Biddle said he brought with him to the March DeVenCI meeting two executives from a small start-up developing biometric technology that could be used for things like advanced fingerprinting or eye scans. Mr. Novak said the chief executive and chief technology officer from the Virginia company, which he declined to name for competitive reasons, gave a presentation to the roughly 50 assembled procurement agents. The executives took questions and were approached afterward by buyers from several agencies for a more detailed conversation, and business cards were exchanged. But it is not all business, the venture capitalists say. For some, there is a patriotic component, one that sometimes tests their own philosophies about the role of the military. In 1969, Kevin Fong, a high school student, attended antiwar protests on the campus of Stanford University in Palo Alto. Now 52 and a managing director with the Mayfield Fund in Menlo Park, he said he believes that American soldiers need the best equipment possible. He is one of the new participants in DeVenCI. “There’s a part of me that says the military and conflict are going to happen and you have to be prepared for it,” he said, explaining part of the reason for his interest. But he said his first impulse to help came from a recognition that participation in DeVenCI could be good for business. “When the DeVenCI people approached me, they said the magic words to a V.C.: ‘We’ll hook you up with buyers,’ ” Mr. Fong said. “How can you resist that?”

Defense Department
Science and Technology
United States Armament and Defense
Silicon Valley (Calif)


G.M. Jets Fly Again to Promote Stock Sale

Abstract: DETROIT — General Motors executives have been cleared for takeoff again. The automaker has met federal guidelines to use chartered aircraft as early as Thursday to ferry managers on a “road show” promoting G.M.’s public stock offering, according to government and company officials who declined to be identified. It is believed to be the first time that G.M. will use private jets for business-related purposes since the government demanded that it sell its fleet of corporate aircraft in 2008. As a condition for accepting emergency federal assistance, G.M. has required its executives to travel on commercial airlines. The use of private jets by the Detroit automakers to fly to Washington for Congressional hearings on an auto bailout in November 2008 was harshly criticized by lawmakers, who saw the jets as symbolizing the industry’s need to cut unnecessary costs. G.M. and other executives drove to the next hearing. But times and circumstances have changed, these officials said. The Treasury Department has not objected to G.M.’s use of private jets to woo potential investors because the arrangement does not violate the government restrictions against owning or leasing aircraft, said these officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly in advance of the stock offering. The Treasury Department, which oversees the American taxpayers’ 61 percent stake in G.M., would not comment directly on Wednesday about the company’s plans to rent the jets. “This is not an issue in which Treasury is in any way involved,” said Mark Paustenbach, a Treasury spokesman. People familiar with the travel plans said G.M.’s board and its investment bankers were concerned that the intense schedule of investor meetings could be disrupted by delays in commercial air travel. G.M. is sending two teams of executives, led by the company’s chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, as soon as Thursday to meet with potential investors in the United States, Canada and Europe. A spokesman for the automaker said it was meeting all federal guidelines for the temporary use of private planes. “G.M.’s corporate travel policy allows charter flights when supported by a business rationale,” said the spokesman, Tom Wilkinson. “This is consistent with our requirements under TARP and our Treasury loan agreement, as our shareholders know.” G.M. did not provide details on what type of jets would be used in the road show or how much they would cost. The company previously owned a top-of-the-line fleet of Gulfstream models that were equipped for international travel. For years, G.M., Ford and Chrysler maintained large aircraft operations for both domestic and global travel, often reserving specific jets for individual senior executives. Ford, which did not need a federal bailout, kept its planes even after the uproar in 2008 led G.M. and Chrysler to give them up. Tired of taking commercial flights to his Texas home on weekends, one G.M. executive found a way to cope with the ban. Edward E. Whitacre, chairman of the G.M. board and until recently its chief executive, flew home on private planes paid for by his previous employer, AT&T, as part of his retirement package. Or Mr. Whitacre simply paid to charter his own plane.

General Motors
Private Aircraft
Executives and Management
Initial Public Offerings


One Question for the N.F.L.: Why Insist on a Media Day Charade?

Abstract: PHOENIX — Marshawn Lynch is so polite that he told the dozens of reporters waiting for him on Tuesday at the Super Bowl’s media day that he was going to snub them before he actually went ahead and did it. “I’m just here so I don’t get fined,” he said from behind a pair of dark sunglasses. “So y’all can sit here and ask me all the questions y’all want to, I’m going to answer with the same answer. So y’all can shoot, if y’all please.” See how nice? The man said, “Please.” Then Lynch, the Seattle Seahawks’ star running back who has already been fined $100,000 this season for refusing to speak to reporters, responded to question after question by saying, “I’m here so I won’t get fined.” Throwing the reporters a morsel, he changed it up by saying, “I’m just here so I won’t get fined.” He said the same thing after every question, even to queries posed to him by Deion Sanders, even after a question that came from a young kid. Lynch did salute a couple of times. And he did smile, letting his golden grill gleam in the harsh lights of the television cameras. He flashed that grin when the gymnast Shawn Johnson — the tiny and eternally adorable gold medalist from the 2008 Olympics — threw him a bag of Skittles as part of her gig with “Inside Edition.” Lynch blew her a kiss and told her, “You’re sexy, too.” She ran off, blushing. Video Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson said that running back Marshawn Lynch should not be fined for refusing to answer questions at Super Bowl media day on Tuesday. Credit Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times (I cringed, only because I first wrote about Johnson when she was 15 — and she is 23 now, but still looks 15.) After less than five minutes of an hourlong media session, Lynch looked at his smartphone and said, “Time!” and walked off. He has said he doesn’t like to talk to reporters because it’s mandatory, and he doesn’t want to be forced into anything, and that’s completely sensible. My 3-year-old has been known to avoid things my husband and I make her do, too. But how about this for “Time!” Isn’t it time that we give Marshawn Lynch (and anyone else) a pass and do away with the rule that says N.F.L. players must make themselves available to reporters at the Super Bowl? Five minutes of his shtick this week was enough, thanks. How about for the rest of the week, the league gives Lynch’s mandatory media time to players who actually say something? To people who actually want to say something? Give Lynch’s time to Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner, who admitted on Tuesday that, yes, he does love puppies. (He has one named Roxy.) Or to Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, who said he sings gospel music to himself during games. Or hand the time to the Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski, who isn’t known for providing anything insightful but was willing to go along with the fun, laughing and grinning for the whole time he had to talk. “From zero to 100, what’s your favorite number?” (Eighty-seven, his jersey number.) “It’s the year of the booty. Who has your favorite one?” (J.Lo.) He answered everything, yet still gave nothing away. When someone asked him about the Patriots’ use of underinflated footballs in the A.F.C. championship game, Gronkowski said: “I don’t have to answer your question. I can always deflect it. That’s how we’re trained.” Another big smile. Frankly, if all Lynch’s media time was gifted to Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett, we’d all be better off. Bennett said he didn’t think it was “constitutional” to force players to speak to reporters, but that he does it anyway because he is a “businessman” and talking to reporters is part of the job. Besides, he said, why not? Wearing a straw cowboy hat — which cost $800, Bennett proudly pointed out, he was asked what motivates him to play hard. Image Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman showing off his dance moves Tuesday during the Super Bowl’s media day at US Airways Center in Phoenix. Seattle is set to play New England on Sunday. 1 / 12 “I have three daughters,” he said matter-of-factly. “That’s three weddings!” Asked about his beard, he said he loves it: “Moses had one. Genghis Khan had one. Just good guys, man. Jesus had one, too.” (It was perhaps the first time Genghis Khan was matched with the other two.) He answered another question by saying, “Behind Denzel Washington, I think I’m the second-best looking” and also had some pretty funny Deflategate jokes that cannot be repeated here. Bill Belichick has to talk to reporters because he is the voice of his team, but instead of dragging Lynch to the lectern every year, how about fining Belichick for every 15 minutes he answers questions in a monotone? Or offering him a bonus when he smiles, as he did Tuesday when he was asked what he would say to the “people of China.” “Go Patriots,” he responded. Then he cracked a smile, which was nearly as awkward as Lynch calling Shawn Johnson sexy. But whatever players said on Tuesday, it was clear that Marshawn Lynch did not want to join the fun. It’s too bad. He has a good story to tell, and he could have shared it with reporters from all over the world, some of whom might not have heard it. How he was raised by a single mom and how they sometimes wondered what they would eat that night, or how Lynch had only one pair of jeans that he’d sometimes iron the morning before school because they were still wet from being laundered the night before. Instead, reporters heard, “I’m just here so I don’t get fined.” Nearing the end of his five minutes, a microphone atop the table in front of him fell to the ground, and he rose from his chair to retrieve it. Or maybe he was just running out the clock. He doesn’t want to talk. He just wants to run. So why does the N.F.L. insist on this charade? Lynch is, by most accounts, a nice guy — all his teammates say he’s great — but in a perfect world, we’d never have to hear a peep from him again.

Marshawn Lynch
Super Bowl
Super Bowl
Seahawks
Football
NFL
Super Bowl 2015


Germany to Keep Troops in Afghanistan

Abstract: BERLIN, Oct. 12 — The German government won a crucial vote in Parliament on Friday to keep its troops in Afghanistan for another year, despite recent polls indicating that a majority of Germans want them to come home. The lower house of Parliament voted for the extension of the military mandate by a convincing 453 to 79, with 48 members abstaining. The vote allows the German military to keep as many as 3,500 troops and six Tornado reconnaissance jets in Afghanistan, part of a larger NATO force of roughly 41,000 in the country. The proposal was expected to pass, but the sizable margin of victory was a powerful signal both domestically and to the United States and other NATO allies of the government’s ability to sustain the Afghan mission even in the face of strong opposition. At the same time, it was largely a status quo vote and did not expand the mission, beyond giving the military added flexibility with 200 to 250 troops, a Defense Ministry spokesman said, speaking on the customary condition of anonymity. Allies have privately pressed Germany to allow its troops to be sent into the southern part of Afghanistan to take part in heavier fighting there. “It’s a relief to the Dutch, to the Canadians, to everyone who has troops on the ground,” said Julianne Smith, director of the Europe program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. “Nobody wants to take the blame for being the first country to roll back its commitment and start talking about the evil two words: exit strategy.” The discussion in Parliament was at times heated, with catcalls by some members over the course of the two-hour debate. Twenty-six German soldiers have been killed during the Afghan campaign, and attacks are covered extensively in the news media here, even when there are no serious injuries. “We have to see that we have to fight threats beyond our borders,” said Eckart von Klaeden, a foreign policy spokesman in Parliament for the Christian Democrats and an adviser to Chancellor Angela Merkel. “This necessity is not so well understood by most German people.” As a result of Germany’s involvement in World War II, many Germans strongly oppose military action on any grounds. In addition, analysts say, the years as a divided country under American and Soviet sway has led many Germans to believe that they are better off avoiding taking part in conflicts entirely. Though the government won this vote, it faces an even more serious test in November, when Parliament will be asked to approve continuing participation in the United States’ effort to curb terrorism. The Germans have authorized as many as 100 special forces troops to take part in those operations, though a Defense Ministry spokesman said the ministry did not comment on them. “The main focus of overall German criticism is U.S. behavior in southern Afghanistan,” said Citha Maass, an Afghanistan expert at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs in Berlin. She said the German people tried to differentiate between the rebuilding and training activities under NATO and combat operations, even though the reality on the ground is far more complicated, with elements of both in both missions. A poll of 1,000 Germans conducted this week for the newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger found that 61 percent opposed extending the Afghanistan mandate and only 29 percent favored it. The opposition Left Party, which includes elements of the old East German Communist Party, voted against the most recent proposal. By far the most public split on the troop deployment has been in the Green Party. The Greens were part of the governing coalition that first sent troops to Afghanistan, but party support has wavered. A majority of their members abstained in the vote, though the number voting in favor outweighed those voting against, 15 to 7. Omid Nouripour, a member of Parliament for the Green Party who took over the seat of the former foreign minister Joschka Fischer when he stepped down, said he had received letters criticizing his support for the Afghanistan mission. “They said: ‘You’re not a representative for the people of Afghanistan. You’re a representative of the Germans,’” Mr. Nouripour said. Canada to Review Role OTTAWA, Oct. 12 — Prime Minister Stephen Harper of Canada, a Conservative, on Friday appointed a prominent political opponent to lead a review of Canada’s military role in Afghanistan. The appointment of John Manley, a Liberal and former deputy prime minister, comes 16 months before the expiration of parliamentary approval for the mission — which began, at least in a limited way, in October 2001. To date, 71 members of the Canadian armed forces and one Canadian diplomat have died in Afghanistan. The casualty rate rose after Canada assumed a role in a dangerous area of southern Afghanistan last year. Some Canadian politicians have criticized other NATO countries for refusing to commit their troops to major combat roles in Afghanistan. The panel Mr. Manley leads also includes Derek H. Burney, a former Canadian ambassador to Washington; Pamela Wallin, a former broadcaster and consul general of Canada in New York; Paul M. Tellier, a senior public servant who later became the chief executive of Bombardier; and Jake Epp, a retired Conservative cabinet minister.


Gas Prices Soar in Iran as Subsidy Is Reduced

Abstract: TEHRAN — Gasoline prices nearly quadrupled on Sunday and the riot police guarded filling stations around the capital as deep cuts in subsidies on fuel and other essential goods took effect. After midnight on Sunday, the price of subsidized gasoline jumped to about $1.44 a gallon from about 38 cents a gallon. Similar increases went into effect for compressed natural gas and diesel fuel, with subsidy reductions for other commodities expected to be phased in gradually. Security forces with riot shields took positions at gas stations in Tehran, bracing for a possible repeat of the unrest that followed the introduction of gasoline rationing in 2007, but there were no reports of violence. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced the long-anticipated subsidy reductions in a live television interview on Saturday night, calling the reform “a great victory for Iran .” Policy makers have described the program as a “rationalization” or “targetization” of Iran’s vast and inefficient subsidies system, but some analysts fear it could increase living costs for millions of middle- and low-income households. Mr. Ahmadinejad said that the government was spending $114 billion a year on energy subsidies. “If we can save one-quarter of that, it will amount to a vast economic transformation,” he said. He said that the prices of water, electricity and natural gas would increase “gradually,” and that the subsidy for bread would also be gradually eliminated. He predicted that the bottom 60 percent of income earners would be better off under the new plan while the wealthier 40 percent would “need to economize.” The reduction in subsidies comes as Iran’s economy is starting to show signs of strain caused by international sanctions. Economic restrictions imposed by the United Nations Security Council and further measures added by Western countries mainly to press Iran on its nuclear program have made it increasingly difficult for the oil -exporting country to conduct international business. Iranian governments have sought for years to rein in the expensive and unwieldy subsidy system but have feared a strong public backlash. Price supports amount to $4,000 per family per year, a recent International Monetary Fund report found. The government tried to cushion the blow by making a one-time payment to each household of about $77. Although the funds were deposited in October, Iranians were not allowed to withdraw the money until Sunday, the day the reductions took effect. Despite Mr. Ahmadinejad’s call for Iranians to refrain from spending the money immediately to help prevent a sharp jump in inflation, witnesses reported that many customers were withdrawing the full amount at once. “I want to spend it on living costs,” said one bank customer quoted by Iran’s semiofficial Fars news agency. “I know that prices haven’t risen yet but I know for sure that they will.” The gasoline price increase was expected to be the most wrenching of the changes because of the country’s heavy reliance on private vehicles. Iran’s long-distance bus and taxi drivers’ guild predicted that fares could increase by as much as 125 percent. The new price of about $1.44 a gallon applies to the monthly ration of about 16 gallons per personal car. Gasoline bought over and above the monthly ration will increase to about $2.64 a gallon. Mr. Ahmadinejad said the government would monitor and control increases in transportation costs that arise from the subsidy cuts. In recent months, his administration has insisted that any price increases above government-ordained limits would be considered part of an “economic conspiracy” and would be dealt with by the police and judiciary. The political opposition has been skeptical of the plan but seemed to be taking a wait-and-see attitude. “In the dark of night the subsidy targetization plan began, a plan which the government has begun to execute detached from the people, without wisdom or long-term planning,” read an article published on the Kaleme news Web site, which is associated with the opposition leader Mir Hussein Moussavi.

Iran
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Rationing and Allocation of Resources
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline


You Finish, You Win

Abstract: As an Alpine spectacle, the Hahnenkamm in Kitzbühel, Austria, is unrivaled — two minutes of fear, skill and brinkmanship delivered at close to 90 miles per hour on a mountainside packed with 45,000 schnapps-sodden fans. “There’s no comparison,” says Doug Lewis, a five-time American competitor at Kitzbühel, when asked tocompare the annual event with winning Olympic gold. “For pure skiing and for the respect of your peers, it’s the Hahnenkamm.” Daron Rahlves , the only American ever to win the event (in 2003), describes it simply as “the big one.” Six key sections determine whether a racer wins, makes it down or gets medevacked off the hill. This season’s race will be run Jan. 23-25. 1. THE START Here, skiers go through the same poised, surreal settling-in that cowboys do before their two-ton bull leaves the chute. And like a rodeo corral, the inside of the Hahnenkamm’s squat, cedar-sided start shack is sweaty and charmless. Many athletes say the place is a claustrophobic, fog-bound nuthouse where racers prod themselves into a psychological frenzy as they prepare to attack the most frightening course on earth. Some don’t even make it out of the gate. Lewis, who competed in the 1980s before retiring to work in TV, was one of 12 American skiers his first year. “Of the first six who went, three ate it, badly. The next six guys just got their skis, walked to the tram and went down.” Johno McBride, coach of the two-time World Cup overall champion Bode Miller (and the former head speed coach of the United States men’s team), describes the pressure this way: “Standing in the start house is terrifying, even for guys who’ve done it before. The best athletes are able to ramp up their intensity and get angry at the hill before they leave the gate.” 2. THE MAUSEFALLE Mausefalle is German for “mouse trap,” and it’s the race’s first major feature — a 250-foot blind jump that is Alpine ski racing’s version of going over Niagara Falls in a barrel. And it waits in full view of the racer at the start. It’s not that blind leaps are rare on the World Cup tour — it’s that racers have to leap off the Mausefalle, going 65 m.p.h., about five seconds into the race. To survive, skiers skate hard out of the start and drop into an aerodynamic tuck, then stand up, slam all of their weight onto the right ski, veer left and exhale. If an athlete properly times the hard left turn above the Mausefalle, he will shoot straight off the 85-degree cliff. If he times it badly, he will end up on the boulders outside the safety fence like the American racer Bill Hudson did in January 1991. Hudson was in the hospital for two weeks and was seeing double for three months. “The Mausefalle is a mental block,” says the US Ski Team member Marco Sullivan, who took sixth at Kitzbühel last year. “It sets the tone for the whole race. Within four seconds, you’re hauling; you have to turn your mind off and go back to instincts.” 3. THE STEILHANG You’ve landed safely at the bottom of the Mausefalle. Then, at 60 m.p.h., you’ve run through the three right-to-left-to-right turns that follow. It’s time for the dive down into a long right turn called the Steilhang — the most unforgiving arc in the race’s top half. Regulars in the Austrian Army drill holes in the snow here and pump in water, turning it to ice. For competitors, the effect is memorable. “You’re just completely hauling through these gnarly turns,” McBride says, “and it’s dark, dark, dark, and you’re getting hammered across brutal bumps. It’s like a video game, never letting up.” The only way to survive the huge, fast, bumpy turn to the right is to focus on technique. “Put all your weight on your left ski,” Lewis says. “For every 10 feet you travel forward, you drop 1 foot to the left.” Lewis describes the Steilhang as “skiing on the outside of a basketball.” Last year, Bode Miller actually skied so low on the hill that he shot along the course’s red plastic safety fence, as if he were surfing a giant billboard. Amazingly, he still finished second. 4. THE HAUSBERG JUMP AND TURN One of the toughest things about the Hausbergkante, or “Hausberg edge,” is that it comes after a lull in the race. “Lull” is relative, of course, happening as it does at 60 m.p.h.; but after the Steilhang, there is a series of arcs and straight shots, giving racers a dangerous sense that they’ve made it through the worst. They haven’t. A little after the 90-second mark looms the Hausberg jump and the strategically vital turn below it. The Hausberg, too, is blind. But in this case, the landing is to the left, not to the right. The key is to drop into a tight tuck and point your tips directly between the head-butting bulls on the sponsor’s banner that arches over the takeoff. If you time it properly, you’ll fly 75 feet straight down and land, going into a sudden, wrenching fall-away tilt to the right. Unfortunately, racers have to turn almost immediately to the left. “The Hausberg turn sets you up for the next long, really important traverse,” Lewis says. “This is where bad things start to happen. Or more bad things — because there have already been a lot of bad things.” 5. THE ZIELSCHUSS The Zielschuss, or “finish schuss,” is a microcosm of Alpine ski racing, jamming every possible code-red scenario into five seconds of 85-m.p.h. skiing. “Here you have to click back into survival mode,” Sullivan says, “because the Zielschuss will rattle your brains out.” Academically speaking, the Zielschuss is simple: just go straight for less than five seconds. Indeed, if you’ve exited the Hausberg turn high enough on the course above the Zielschuss, all you have to do is point the skis directly toward the next gate, which sits a few hundred yards away from the finish. But the traverse has been made almost unsurvivably bumpy by race organizers who use special machines to add terrain variations, waves and ruts — the impacts of which are magnified by the speed. “It’s insanity. It’s like a horrible grooming mistake,” Lewis says. What’s more, the dropoff is so steep that racers who have stopped to inspect the course during practice can perform an unusual trick: they can actually reach straight out and touch the slope with their uphill hand. 6. THE ZIELSPRUNG Most of the 45,000 crazies packed at the bottom of the Zielsprung (or “finish jump”), the final, 100-foot leap, are watching their favorite racers, who have made it through two minutes’ worth of near wrecks, try to survive one more brush with catastrophe. The skiers come in hot and use the same jump technique as they did on the Mausefalle. The goal is to keep the body compact — no flailing or windmilling, which would otherwise give the skis unwanted lift. The problem is that the jump has been built for maximum spectacle (read: lift), and it comes just after a fast flattening of the hill at the base of the slope above it, which tends to throw skiers back just as they hit the jump’s lip. This is what happened to Scott Macartney this past January; the American dropped into his curled position slightly off balance, spun out into the air to the left and landed so hard his helmet was knocked off. The race was suspended until his convulsions subsided and he could be removed from the hill by helicopter. You’d think he learned his lesson. You’d be wrong. “I’ll be back this year,” Macartney says.

Skiing
Alpine Skiing
Rahlves Daron
Miller Bode


Bell Sounds on a Lifetime in the Boxing Ring

Abstract: LAS VEGAS — As the referee Joe Cortez lifted Saul Alvarez’s right hand as the winner of his junior-middleweight title bout against Josesito Lopez, Cortez was surprised to have his other hand hoisted in the air by Oscar De La Hoya, a former champion who is now a promoter. Alvarez then placed the champion’s belt around the referee’s waist. In front of a capacity crowd here at MGM Grand Garden Arena, De La Hoya leaned toward Cortez and told him, “You’re the champion.” “It was very touching,” Cortez, 69, said. “I will treasure it forever. When do you see a championship fighter say this to a ref?” With that Sept. 15 fight, Cortez retired after 35 years as a referee. Cortez’s career was built on such one-of-a-kind moments. Last year, he became only the seventh referee inducted to the International Boxing Hall of Fame. He has refereed nearly 200 title fights, a record, according to the boxing historian Herb Goldman. In 1993, Cortez was the third man in the ring before the largest outdoor boxing crowd in history, when 136,274 saw the unbeaten Julio César Chávez beat Greg Haugen at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City. He was also the referee in 1994 when George Foreman became the oldest heavyweight champion. On a recent afternoon, Cortez shared his memories from some of about 3,000 fights he had worked. Answering the door in pressed jeans and a silk shirt, he began with a tour of his rambling house at the northeast edge of the Las Vegas Valley. The gated compound includes a boxing ring, a “wall of fame,” and a movie theater. The ring is surrounded by life-size caricatures of championship fighters and a few enlarged photographs of Cortez’s short-lived boxing career. He and his brother Mike won national Golden Gloves titles, and Joe Cortez had an 18-1 professional record. One room has a wall lined with glass cases displaying gloves he wore in 1960, a bell signed by Muhammad Ali, and photographs of Cortez with Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush. In a pile of photographs yet to be framed, one pictures Mike Tyson folding Cortez into an embrace. The inscription by Tyson says, “I’ll always love you.” As Cortez talked in a living room dominated by a pool table, the streets of Spanish Harlem, where he was born in 1943, seemed as if they were right outside the door. “There was a good restaurant on 106th,” he recalled, squinting as if to see it. “They had gangs: the Dragons, the Viceroys, the Enchanters, the Red Wings — they were the Italians, up on 111th. We had to walk through their territory to get to the Boys Club gym. They used to look at my brother and I; we had gloves hanging on the outside of our bags, so they wouldn’t mess with us.” When he was about 12, Cortez met Gaspar Ortega, then a pro boxer from Mexico. Ortega, known as El Indio, was only eight years older, but he quickly became a father figure to Cortez, who was raised with his three brothers by a single mother. “He was clean-cut, a good role model,” Cortez said. Before he and his brother Mike met Ortega, “We were jumping across alleys, from one roof to another.” Ortega, now 76, recalled Cortez as “always running behind me, wherever I went.” Although Cortez is of Puerto Rican descent, he became Ortega’s interpreter. After victories, he would accompany Ortega and his manager to their hotel room. He watched them divide the prize money; the manager would toss $5 to Cortez. This was his introduction to boxing as a career. Although Cortez went on to win six Golden Gloves tournaments, and quickly strung together 19 pro fights, he also married young. At 23, he started thinking about working to support his family. He got a job as an exterminator. Soon he started an exterminating business. One day, a customer offered to buy it. The customer paid $6,000 in cash. “I came home, opened the door, my wife, Sylvia, was on the floor with two of my daughters, Cindy and Sandy, who were then infants,” Cortez said. “I threw the brown bag of money in the air and said, ‘Let’s go to Puerto Rico.’ ” Cortez and his family lived there for eight years. He worked at El Conquistador hotel, rising quickly from desk clerk to assistant manager. At the hotel, Pat Mascia, who had refereed some of Cortez’s Golden Gloves bouts, recognized him. Mascia encouraged Cortez to consider refereeing. After Cortez was promoted to executive manager and was sent to work in New York, he called Mascia in 1976. Cortez was assigned to referee some Golden Gloves fights in Brooklyn. Despite a snowstorm, the fighters and some judges made it, but Cortez was the only referee. He worked all 27 two-round fights that night. He was asked to come back for the quarterfinals, then the semifinals. Then he worked two Golden Gloves championship fights at Madison Square Garden. Shortly after, Cortez said, Frank Morris, the state’s deputy boxing commissioner, called. Cortez still remembers the conversation. “We would like you to consider going pro,” Morris said. Cortez said, “I’ve only been refereeing six months.” Morris replied, “We feel you have the skills.” Cortez also “felt comfortable in the ring,” he said. “I could work all night long,” he added. “It felt like I was dancing, like it was my domain. I remember telling my wife, ‘I really love doing this.’ ” The first fight he remembers in detail had a terrible ending. “In 1994, Wangila Napunyi, an Olympic gold medal winner from Kenya, was fighting at the Aladdin,” Cortez said. “He had taken heavy blows to the head. In the 10th round, he gets hit with an uppercut. It’s a concussive episode. The other fighter holds him, pushes him. He fell down, but then he jumped back up. He gets hit by a combination. I jumped in, stopped it. The fans were booing me. But the fight was over. “A few minutes later, he started having seizures. They rush him to the hospital. I went to the hospital. The doc said, ‘It doesn’t look good.’ ” Cortez teared up and paused. “Two days later, he was dead .” Napunyi had a blood clot on his brain. “That was one of the saddest days of my life,” Cortez said. The experience made him more determined to teach new referees about safety, he said. Cortez now serves on the advisory board for the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas, which does research on the effect of repeated blows on the brain. He also has ideas about making the work of judges easier, including seating them in high chairs similar to those used by tennis umpires. Asked which other fights stand out in his mind, Cortez named two. First, George Foreman’s 1994 attempt, at 45, to reclaim the heavyweight championship. His opponent, Michael Moorer, had “given him a pretty good shellacking in the first nine rounds ,” Cortez said. “Other fighters in his position would’ve given up on themselves,” he added. “But Foreman was not a quitter.” In the 10th round , Foreman knocked Moorer to the canvas. “When Moorer went down, I’m counting over him, it was like a dream,” Cortez said. “I started counting, ‘Seven!’— uh oh, he’s not getting up. Then, ‘Nine!’ — same thing. At 10, he tried to get up but couldn’t. I waved my hands. I looked over. Foreman dropped to his knees, looked up to the sky and thanked the Lord. He inspired a lot of fighters that day.” He also inspired Cortez, who sees himself in Foreman. “As a fighter, I was the same way,” Cortez said. “Gaspar taught me that. As you’re getting older, you don’t stop. You keep going forward.” Five years earlier, Cortez had refereed the Roberto Duran-Iran Barkley fight . “Duran was 37,” Cortez said. “There was three feet of snow in Atlantic City. I left my house in Yonkers early in the morning to get to the fight on time. Duran was fighting a hard-hitting middleweight champion. About the sixth or seventh round, a left hook by Barkley spun Duran around. He didn’t go down. I said to myself: ‘He didn’t go down. He wants to take this championship so desperately.’ He came back like a lion. He hit Barkley with a beautiful combination of four punches. The last one put Barkley on his back, in the 11th round. Duran won by a split decision.” “That was such a thrilling fight,” he added. “I thought, this is something I want to do for the rest of my life. This is what I was born to be.”

Boxing
Officiating (Sports)
Cortez Joe (1945- )


Local-Guide Requirement Considered for Nepal Peaks

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Struggling to cope with a crush of climbers and garbage on Mount Everest, Nepal is also considering a proposal that would require every foreign climber to hire a local guide to ascend the country’s highest peaks. The intention is to increase local employment in an industry that is increasingly reliant on foreign guides, officials said Thursday. The policy could also help avoid the kind of on-mountain disputes that led to a confrontation last year when three professional climbers from abroad told a group of Sherpas that they wanted to climb on their own. Officials from Nepal plan to present the proposal at a meeting of Himalayan nations, including Pakistan, India and China, which is scheduled to be held in Katmandu, Nepal’s capital, next month. Nepal hopes to persuade its counterparts to adopt similar policies, which would require the employment of local guides by climbers ascending any mountain higher than 8,000 meters, or about 26,250 feet. “We want to ensure the safety of climbers and generate job opportunities for local guides to boost our economy,” said Madhu Sudan Burlakoti, a joint secretary at Nepal’s tourism ministry. If adopted, the policy would go into effect for the 2015 climbing season, Mr. Burlakoti said. Nepal’s government announced on March 3 that it would require every climber returning from the summit of Mount Everest to bring back at least 18 pounds of garbage , the first concerted effort to eliminate the estimated 50 tons of trash that has been left on the mountain over the past six decades. The waste includes empty oxygen bottles, torn tents and discarded food containers. The government also announced that it would lower the fees for foreigners to climb Mount Everest to $10,000 from $25,000. It is unclear whether the measures will improve the climbing experience. In recent years, lines of hundreds of climbers have snaked up Mount Everest, creating a dangerous situation in poor weather. On a single day in 2012 , 234 climbers reached the peak, with some unable to stand on Mount Everest’s highest point because of the crush of people.

Nepal
Mount Everest
Mountain
Mountain
Himalayas
Waste management
Mountaineering


Anti-Immigrant Focus in, of All Places, Nebraska

Abstract: CRETE, Neb. — Nebraska may appear to be an unlikely setting for swelling anti-immigrant sentiment. This agricultural hub is far removed from any border. It has long been more preoccupied with bolstering its population than keeping people out. And immigrants, legal and otherwise, have been fixtures for years in the fields and meatpacking plants here, helping this state put meat and vegetables on dinner tables around the country. But even as the state enjoys relative economic health — unemployment, at 4.6 percent, is the third lowest in the nation — illegal immigration has taken a more central and more divisive place in the politics of communities like this one, visibly transformed by an influx of immigrant newcomers. That shift in political dialogue has been propelled here by Gov. Dave Heineman — even before it was a national issue. Four years ago, Mr. Heineman, a Republican, made his unyielding opposition to illegal immigration a central part of his underdog campaign for governor. Now, as a popular incumbent heavily favored to win, he recently announced that one of the first acts of his second term would be to press for a law that would make it easier for local police officials to arrest illegal immigrants, which he said would be closely modeled on the controversial law adopted in Arizona that is now being challenged by the Obama administration in court. “I’m very adamant about this — the federal government has failed to solve the immigration issue,” Mr. Heineman said in a recent interview in his offices in Lincoln, where the shelves are stocked with college football paraphernalia and the ceilings and walls are adorned with murals celebrating cultures from around the world. “Next January I believe in every state in America there will be an Arizona-type law introduced.” In an election cycle defined by concerns over jobs and mortgages, government spending and debt, the issue of illegal immigration has become a common talking point on the campaign trail. Candidates running for office in a dozen states have pledged to introduce legislation similar to the Arizona law, according to a count by the Immigration Reform Law Institute, which supports the passage of such laws. But while some of those efforts are given slim chances of passing, such a law is favored by a large majority of Nebraskans. This summer, Fremont, where Mr. Heineman got his start on the City Council, barred businesses from hiring illegal immigrants and landlords from renting to them — a contentious battle that unnerved Hispanic residents across the state. Residents here say that Crete, a city of 6,000 that is dominated by the meatpacking plant looming over downtown, does not share the conflicts that have affected other communities with growing Hispanic populations. Still, there is a palpable unease when talking about immigration. “We’re just getting too many Hispanic people in town,” said Gerry Boller, 78, who works at the counter at New Beginnings Thrift Store on Main Avenue. “It seems like they come in and take over.” At Super Latina, a grocery store next door, Jose Banos, the 36-year-old owner, said that when he moved here from El Salvador 15 years ago, there were no stores that catered to the Hispanic community. Now his is one of many. But immigrants are worried by the situation in Fremont and the talk of replicating the Arizona laws, and some are talking about leaving. “Arizona needs the law more than we do because on the border, problems with immigrants come with other problems, like guns and drugs,” Mr. Banos said. “Here in Nebraska, it’s a whole different story. Immigrants in Nebraska are coming for work.” Just over a decade ago the state’s two most prominent Republican elected officials — Chuck Hagel, then a senator, and Mike Johanns, a governor who is now in the Senate — banded together to successfully pressure federal authorities not to create a program aimed at cracking down on the hiring of illegal immigrants in the state’s meatpacking plants. Since that time the number of foreign-born residents — the majority of whom are Hispanic — has increased drastically, more than 40 percent since 2000, according to census estimates. The number of illegal immigrants grew more than 50 percent in that time to 45,000, according to estimates by the Pew Hispanic Center, a nonpartisan research group in Washington. But even if concern about these new arrivals simmered across the state, it did not become a central part of the political dialogue until 2005, when Mr. Heineman was elevated from lieutenant governor to the top post after Mr. Johanns resigned to be United States agriculture secretary. Mr. Heineman’s tenure was expected to be short. The next year, in the Republican primary, he faced the University of Nebraska’s much-beloved football coach turned congressman, Tom Osborne. But Mr. Heineman proved a more deft campaigner and lavished attention on the issue of illegal immigration. “It was the defining issue of his campaign,” said David J. Kramer, a lawyer and former state Republican chairman who also ran for office that year. “It was the issue that made the difference between him winning and losing.” As governor, Mr. Heineman has emphasized that the state welcomes immigrants, as long as they are legal. He has battled repeatedly, though so far unsuccessfully, to rescind in-state college tuition rates for children who grew up in the state but are in the country illegally. He put in effect a system to perform mandatory checks of those applying for government benefits to ensure that they are not illegal immigrants. And, more recently, he upset some of his anti-abortion supporters by ending a program that provided prenatal care for pregnant women who are in the country illegally. But while Mr. Heineman’s previous efforts addressed circumstances that affected dozens if not hundreds of illegal immigrants, an Arizona-style law would be far more sweeping. Mike Meister, a Democrat who is running against Mr. Heineman, has strongly opposed the proposal, which he said was “clearly unconstitutional” and would waste money by forcing the state to fight an inevitable lawsuit. Mr. Meister, a lawyer who is trailing badly in the polls, accused Mr. Heineman of using the proposal as a wedge issue. “He is pandering to the least common denominator,” Mr. Meister said. “Our fear of difference.”

Nebraska
Illegal Immigrants
Heineman Dave


Prior Problems In 787 Battery Set Off Concerns Boeing Was Aware of 787 Battery Problems Before Failure

Abstract: Even before two battery failures led to the grounding of all Boeing 787 jets this month, the lithium-ion batteries used on the aircraft had experienced multiple problems that raised questions about their reliability. Officials at All Nippon Airways, the jets’ biggest operator, said in an interview on Tuesday that it replaced 10 of the batteries in the months before fire in one plane and smoke in another led regulators around the world to ground the jets. The airline said it told Boeing of the replacements as they occurred but was not required to report them to safety regulators because they were not considered a safety issue and no flights were canceled or delayed. National Transportation Safety Board officials said Tuesday that their inquiry would include the replacements. The airline also, for the first time, explained the extent of the previous problems, which underscore the volatile nature of the batteries and add to concerns over whether Boeing and other plane manufacturers will be able to use the batteries safely. In five of the 10 replacements, All Nippon said that the main battery had showed an unexpectedly low charge. An unexpected drop in a 787’s main battery also occurred on the All Nippon flight that had to make an emergency landing in Japan on Jan. 16. The airline also revealed that in three instances, the main battery had failed to start normally and had had to be replaced, along with the charger. In other cases, one battery showed an error reading and another, used to start the auxiliary power unit, failed. All of the events occurred from May to December of last year. The malfunctioning batteries, made by the Japanese manufacturer GS Yuasa, were serviced by All Nippon maintenance crew members. (The battery from the plane involved in the emergency landing was sent back to GS Yuasa.) Japan Airlines, which operates seven 787s, said Wednesday that there had been “several cases” in which maintenance crew members needed to replace 787 batteries after irregularities, but the carrier declined to give details. The switches were not considered a safety risk and were conducted “within the scope of regular maintenance,” said Kazunori Kidosaki, a company spokesman. Kelly Nantel, a spokeswoman for the National Transportation Safety Board, said investigators had only recently heard that there had been “numerous issues with the use of these batteries” on 787s. She said the board had asked Boeing, All Nippon and other airlines for information about the problems. “That will absolutely be part of the investigation,” she said. Boeing, based in Chicago, has said repeatedly that any problems with the batteries can be contained without threatening the planes and their passengers. Boeing officials said the need to replace the batteries also suggested that safeguards were activated to prevent overheating and keep the drained batteries from being recharged. Company officials said the batteries can drain too deeply if left on without being connected to power sources. Trying to recharge such batteries could generate excessive heat, so safety mechanisms lock out any attempts to do that. Boeing officials said that improperly connecting a battery can also render it unusable. And they acknowledged that some of the new batteries were not lasting as long as intended. They said that could cause airlines to replace them more frequently but did not pose a safety problem. A GS Yuasa official, Tsutomu Nishijima, said battery exchanges were part of the normal operations of a plane but would not comment further. Image A National Transportation Safety Board inspector examined pieces of a Boeing 787 battery involved in a fire in Japan. Credit Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Federal Aviation Administration decided in 2007 to allow Boeing to use the lithium-ion batteries instead of older, more stable types as long as it took safety measures to prevent or contain a fire. But once Boeing put in those safeguards, it did not revisit its basic design even as more evidence surfaced of the risks involved, regulators said. In a little-noticed test in 2010, the F.A.A. found that the kind of lithium-ion chemistry that Boeing planned to use — lithium cobalt — was the most flammable of several possible types. The test found that batteries of that type provided the most power, but could also overheat more quickly. In 2011, a lithium-ion battery on a Cessna business jet started smoking while it was being charged, prompting Cessna to switch to traditional nickel-cadmium batteries. The safety board said Tuesday that it had still not determined what caused a fire on Jan. 7 on a Japan Airlines 787 that was parked at Logan Airport in Boston. The fire occurred nine days before an All Nippon jet made its emergency landing after pilots smelled smoke in the cockpit. Federal regulators said it was also possible that flaws in the manufacturing process could have gone undetected and caused the recent incidents. The batteries’ maker X-rays each battery before shipping to look for possible defects. But some battery experts said that scans might be unable to detect minute anomalies in the battery, like trapped micro-shavings in any of the tightly wound conductive material used in each battery’s eight cells. So far, Boeing appears reluctant to consider alternatives. Lithium-ion, experts say, is particularly attractive because it packs more power in a smaller size, and is therefore lighter than more traditional battery designs — a factor that was part of Boeing’s strategy to build a lighter aircraft. Also for that reason, it is now widely used in personal electronics and is finding greater acceptance in other industries. But unless investigators can point out the precise cause of the 787’s battery problems or how to prevent them, some experts believe Boeing may have little choice than to pick more traditional battery designs to restore confidence in its airplanes. Switching batteries would come at a steep cost, and would most likely entail months of engineering work as well as new certification by regulators. It would also go against the efforts by other manufacturers, including Airbus and Gulfstream, to adopt lithium-ion batteries in airplanes. Regulators have long known about the risks of lithium-ion batteries, which can overheat and ignite — a condition known as thermal runaway — if improperly charged or discharged. For that reason, the batteries are integrated into a sophisticated electronic system that is intended to monitor the battery and prevent it from overcharging. The F.A.A.’s battery tests in 2010 highlighted the hazards of lithium cobalt batteries. When they overheat, the batteries showed “much more severe increases in temperature and pressure” than other battery types. Another risk of lithium batteries also became apparent with the Cessna episode in 2011, when a technician working on a new model plane, the CJ4, hooked up the plane to a power source to recharge the battery and soon after saw smoke coming out of it. According to a government safety official with knowledge of the episode, the Cessna battery had drained below 5 percent of its charge. The problem with lithium batteries, however, is that recharging a battery that has been drained to a low point can create a risk of fire because the battery is unable to accept a charge. Recharging it then creates heat that can cause it to ignite. But after discussions with the F.A.A., Cessna decided to replace the battery on its planes with nickel cadmium batteries, which are heavier, but do not ignite easily. Boeing has said its system has safeguards that prevent a drained battery from being recharged without first being sent back to the manufacturer for reconditioning. A Cessna spokesman declined to comment about the episode. According to investigators in Japan, the battery on the jet that made the emergency landing showed a stable reading of 31 volts, near its full charge capacity, until 15 minutes into the flight when pilots detected a strange smell. About that time, sensors detected a sudden unstable discharge of the battery to near zero for reasons that Japanese investigators still cannot explain.

Batteries
Boeing
All Nippon Airways
GS Yuasa
Japan Airlines
Plane Crashes and Missing Planes
Lithium Mental


Putin Says He Will Run for Parliament

Abstract: MOSCOW, Oct. 1 — President Vladimir V. Putin , who is barred from seeking another term, suggested Monday that he might become prime minister next year, seeming to confirm what many analysts had assumed: that he plans to hold on to the power he has accrued over eight years. Mr. Putin, who spoke at the congress of the United Russia party, the country’s dominant political force, said he would lead that party’s candidate list in the December parliamentary elections. The announcement was at once consistent and surprising. The president, who is popular among Russia’s citizens and has a centralized lock on his government, has often said he intended to remain involved in politics beyond his second term. He has even said that he may seek re-election after another president holds the office, as the Russian Constitution allows him to do. But he had not previously suggested a new political office for himself immediately after the presidential election next March, as he did when he said he could become Russia’s next prime minister. “Heading the government is quite a realistic proposal,” he said, before adding a qualifier he often uses when publicly discussing his plans for 2008. “But it is too early to think about that.” In Mr. Putin’s years in the Kremlin, Russia’s economy and international influence have expanded, and many Russians have seen their living conditions improve. Mr. Putin’s speech here elevated the Kremlin’s stagecraft to new levels. United Russia’s party congress led the national news broadcasts, which featured scenes of Mr. Putin sitting on an elevated viewing stand above each speaker as a crowd looked up toward him adoringly. One speaker, a weaver from the Ivanovo oblast, or district, pleaded with party officials to find a way to keep Mr. Putin in office for a third term. “I see so many big bosses and just smart people at this congress,” said the weaver, Yelena Lapshina. “I appeal to all of you — let’s think of something together so that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin will remain the president of Russia after 2008 as well.” The use of a weaver from Ivanovo borrowed directly from Soviet iconography and the pantheon of state-endorsed heroes of the proletariat. Mr. Putin’s managers quickly topped even that clear symbol, as an athlete in a wheelchair rolled onto the stage and praised the president. “Vladimir Vladimirovich, you are lucky,” said the athlete, Mikhail B. Terentyev, a ski champion from the Paralympic games. The crowd broke out in applause. Mr. Terentyev continued: “And while you are the president, the luck accompanies Russia. You have become a talisman for tens of millions of people, a symbol of the successful development of the country. Of course it is up to you to decide which place in the country’s political life you will occupy, but no matter what decision you make, I want you to stay with us, with Russia.” Mr. Putin looked down from his seat, head tilted, eyebrows raised, emanating calm and power. The day’s events ignited a new round of speculation about Mr. Putin’s path through the elections ahead. The prime minister’s position in Russia is often viewed as a step toward the presidency; Mr. Putin briefly held the job under President Boris N. Yeltsin before swiftly rising to the seat of power. Last month Mr. Putin abruptly appointed Viktor A. Zubkov, a confidant of little prior prominence, to the prime minister’s post. He then hinted that Mr. Zubkov could succeed him as the president. The president’s remarks, taken together, suggested that when his term expires he might step one rung down the government’s ladder — and then step back up. But Mr. Putin’s latest speech also accompanied his acceptance of a new type of prominence: as the symbolic head of Russia’s dominant political party, United Russia. The party unfailingly supports the Kremlin and Mr. Putin, although the president has never joined it and did not join it on Monday. By accepting the position at the head of the party’s candidate list, Mr. Putin instantaneously lent the party his vast domestic political stature — and, in all likelihood, the resources of the Russian government — to its efforts to extend its dominance in Russia’s 450-seat Duma, the lower house of Parliament. The party had appeared already to bank on its close relationship with Mr. Putin. Its slogan for the parliamentary campaign, even before Mr. Putin agreed to be on the party list, was “Putin’s Plan: Russia’s Victory.” The party holds a strong majority of the Duma’s seats. Its leadership said Monday that Mr. Putin’s new public support guaranteed it an unconditional victory in the next round of elections, scheduled for Dec. 2. The small remaining opposition conceded as much soon after the president’s remarks were broadcast on national television. Grigory A. Yavlinsky, the leader of the opposition Yabloko party, said on the Ekho Moskvy radio station that the day’s events were further proof of a “one-party system in Russia.” Whether Mr. Putin could serve in Parliament and as president simultaneously is an open question. Russia’s Constitution and electoral law allow parties to nominate candidates for the legislature who are not party members, but the Constitution also requires a separation of powers as one of its fundamental principles. However, Maya Grishina, a member of the federal Central Election Commission, told the official RIA Novosti news agency that “the head of the state is not banned to nominate his candidacy at any election, including the parliamentary election.” “Along with this he can still carry out his duties,” she said. “The law doesn’t contain any restrictions on this.” Gleb O. Pavlovsky, a political scientist who leads a research institute closely connected with the Kremlin, said that Mr. Putin would give his name to the party as an electoral locomotive, but would not actually seek a seat in the Parliament after the results were tallied in December. Instead, Mr. Pavlovsky said, Mr. Putin had identified the party and the parliamentary campaign as another possible base of power after he leaves office. “The party may become his main tool after the end of his presidency,” he said by telephone. “The new president won’t be able to appoint a prime minister without the support of the party leader.” A State Department spokesman, Tom Casey, was reluctant to interpret Putin’s move. “Look,” he said, “to the extent that he’s doing this in the context of the laws of Russia, then certainly that’s his choice and his party’s choice.” American officials will watch the Russian elections closely to see whether they are free, fair and transparent, Mr. Casey said. One senior Western diplomat proposed the idea that the latest public remarks were in part a charade, and that Mr. Putin, fearful of betrayal or a loss of influence in the Kremlin’s mercurial inner sanctum, may yet reverse his course and decide to serve another four-year term, no matter the constitutional ban. “I think what is clear, one way or the other, is that he is setting up a parallel structure,” the diplomat said by telephone. “But in the end he may ditch it all and decide to stay.”

Russia
Elections
Putin Vladimir V
Politics and Government
Appointments and Executive Changes
United States International Relations


Weekend Entertainments From the Archives of The New York Times

Abstract: 77 YEARS AGO The glass slippers have worn well. Cinderella is making money hand over fist, not from her marriage to a wealthy prince but from box-office coffers stuffed largely by female moviegoers. “Cinderella” joins “Maleficent” and “Snow White and the Huntsman” as the latest fairy tale to get a live-action remake decades after Disney made classics out of animated versions. Like “Maleficent,” last year’s revisionist telling of “Sleeping Beauty,” “Cinderella” — decidedly unrevisionist — was made by Disney. Disney could yet return to the wishing well for its own live-action remake of “Snow White,” but it was not involved with “Huntsman.” All three Disney animated tales were hits in their day. And for the most part, critics loved them, too. Writing in 1938, when “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” had its New York premiere at Radio City Music Hall, the Times film critic Frank S. Nugent said “there is magic in the film, and hearts’ ease, and tonic for disillusion.” A dozen years later, in 1950, Mr. Nugent’s successor Bosley Crowther wrote that “Cinderella” was “well worth the love and labor spent.” Weighing in on “Sleeping Beauty” at its premiere in 1959, Mr. Crowther wrote that “it all comes out nicely in a crisply stylized fairyland, where the colors are rich, the sounds are luscious and magic sparkles spurt charmingly from wands.” The harshest assessment of any of these films might have come not from a film critic but from the caricaturist Al Hirschfeld, who was unsparing in a 1938 article about “Snow White” in The Times titled “An Artist Contests Mr. Disney”: “The illusion created by a well directed pen line is an art not to be confused with the gingerbread realities of a Snow White. Disney’s treatment of these characters belongs in the oopsy-woopsy school of art practiced mostly by etchers who portray dogs with cute sayings. Snow White with her full complement of fingers and fingernails, eyelashes, one dimensional head, bare arms without solidity and uninventive neck is an anatomic automation. These awkward symbols do not articulate, and the lovely voice with which she is endowed only heightens the effect of a ventriloquist’s dummy. The staccato movements of Snow White and her cardboard lover, both wired for sound, are distinctly bad influences in this new art form.” Well, ouch. Let’s return to Mr. Nugent’s review of the film: “Memory is a notorious trickster, yet, after cudgeling it soundly, I can recall no more joyous picture than ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.’ ” It is, he wrote “so delightful, so engaging, so very merry a fantasy that I suspect Santa Claus himself must have had a hand in the making.” Here is not so much a criticism as a question, reported in The Times later that year. “Was the handsome, stouthearted Prince who answered Snow White’s prayers,” the article said, “was the Prince a Yale man?” A lawsuit filed against Disney claimed that Snow White’s song “Some Day My Prince Will Come” was essentially pirated from the “Old Eli March.” The suit failed. Even as early as 1950, merchandise was an integral part of the Disney way. A Cinderella fashion show at the old department store B. Altman, The Times reported, featured shoes “appropriately named and trimmed to tie in with the fairy tale. There was ‘Clock,’ a suede shoe with the hours marked around the kid binding of the opening.” The article said that other shoes were called Magic Wand, Royal Ball, Princess and Pumpkin Coach. Pumpkin Coach? One can only imagine the toes that sought to fit those. MARY JO MURPHY

The New York Times
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Movies
Walt Disney
Animated Films


Georgia: Schools Close for King Day, After All

Abstract: Three North Georgia school districts that were criticized for planning to use the Martin Luther King ’s Birthday holiday as a makeup day after being shut down by snow and ice last week took the day off after all because road conditions remained hazardous. Fannin, Gilmer and Habersham County school officials had planned to hold classes Monday to make up for the days lost last week when ice and snow covered the highways. The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, among others, said schools in Georgia and other states should find alternative ways to make up the lost days. Continued icy conditions kept the schools closed anyway.

Georgia
King Martin Luther Jr
Education (K-12)
Shutdowns (Institutional)


How the New York Times/CBS Poll Was Conducted

Abstract: The latest New York Times/CBS News poll is based on telephone interviews conducted Oct. 21 to 25 with 1,289 adults throughout the United States. Of those, 1,136 said they were registered to vote. SSRS of Media, Pa., conducted sampling, interviewing and tabulation for the survey. Interviews were in English or Spanish. The sample of landline telephone exchanges called was randomly selected by a computer from a complete list of more than 82,000 active residential exchanges across the country, maintained by MSG of Horsham, Pa. The exchanges were chosen to ensure that each region of the country was represented in its proper proportion. Within each exchange, random digits were added to form a complete telephone number, thus permitting access to listed and unlisted numbers alike. Within each landline household, one adult was designated by a random procedure to be the respondent for the survey. Cellphone numbers were generated by a similar random process. The two samples were then combined and adjusted to ensure the proper ratio of landline-only, cellphone-only and dual phone users. A New York Times/CBS News Poll on Schisms in the G.O.P. A new New York Times/CBS News national poll of Republicans details divisions within the party extending from the choices for presidential nominee to willingness to compromise on legislative matters. For purposes of analysis, Republican registered voters were oversampled in this poll. Phone numbers at which a self-identified Republican registered voter had been interviewed in recent SSRS polls were recalled, and a random member of the household was interviewed. If that person was a Republican registered voter, he or she was included in the oversampling. The Republican oversample was adjusted to account for possible nonresponse to the callback. All partisan categories were then weighted to their proper proportion of the overall population, as determined by averaging the partisan shares from several recent SSRS polls. Interviewers made multiple attempts to reach every phone number in the survey, calling back unanswered numbers on different days at different times of day and night. The combined results have been weighted to adjust for variation in the sample relating to geographic region, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, age, education and (for landline households) the number of adults and number of phone lines. In addition, the sample was adjusted to reflect the percentage of the population residing in mostly Democratic counties, mostly Republican counties and counties more closely balanced politically. In theory, in 19 cases out of 20, overall results based on such samples will differ by no more than four percentage points in either direction from what would have been obtained by seeking to interview all American adults. This margin includes the effects of weighting procedures that enlarge sampling error slightly. For smaller subgroups, the margin of sampling error is larger. For example, it is plus or minus six points for the 575 Republican primary voters and seven points for all Republican registered voters. Shifts in results between polls over time also have a larger sampling error. In addition to sampling error, the practical difficulties of conducting any survey of public opinion may introduce other sources of error into the poll. Variation in the wording, order and translation of questions, for instance, may lead to somewhat different results. Michael R. Kagay of Princeton, N.J., assisted The Times in its polling analysis. Complete questions and results are available at nytimes.com/polls .

Polls
Republicans
2016 Presidential Election


Jay Feely Is Unlikely Leader for Jets With Strong Mind and Opinions

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Jay Feely is the family member who makes political arguments in 10-page e-mail messages. He is the student who asked professors questions he knew they could not answer. He is the teammate who talks health care in the ice tub. Feely dispenses opinions the way vending machines do snacks — all day, with variety. He is the Jets ’ titan of Twitter , a kicker who leads like a quarterback, a licensed stockbroker who parents, plays golf, prays, holds political aspirations, devours books, debates — and sends all that into cyberspace, no more than 140 characters at a time. “He’s like the toned-down version of a defensive lineman, or a smaller version of Rex Ryan,” his teammate Kris Jenkins said, comparing Feely to the Jets’ coach. “If you came into the locker room, if you heard him talk, you would not know he’s a kicker.” July 22, @jayfeely: Heres my issue with both our political parties right now. No one has the guts and ability to find the real answers and committ to them. Feely comes from a family of intellectuals. One uncle is a leading scientist with a background in oceanography. One cousin is a doctor of internal medicine, another a genetic specialist. Each summer, the family rents cabins in northern Minnesota, where they compete in seeded tennis tournaments, volleyball games and card championships in hearts. Each night, by the bonfire, three generations debate global warming , presidential candidates and abortion. Sometimes, the debates turn into arguments. Sometimes, they last until morning. Feely researches for a month before these vacations, consuming information on topics he knows the family will discuss, searching for counterpoints and weaknesses. “Jay is the most outspoken,” said John Feely, his younger brother. “He has a boxer’s mentality. He’s not trying to be argumentative. He wants to stand there and duke it out.” Oct. 2, @jayfeely: H1N1 is so new we don’t know about the longterm effects of the vaccine. But I want to protect my children: a quandry Feely’s postings on Twitter reflect the range and force of his personality. Football fans can glean the difference between massages (deep tissue painfully digs into injured areas), the reason he wears gloves (they aid in tackling) and his response to the boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s ribbing him at practice (“I’ll fight you if you give me half the purse”). Parents can relate to his struggles with his 2-year-old (“call me dumb with a chance of insane”). Politicos know that he felt Congressman Joe Wilson was disrespectful to President Obama, that Mr. Obama had “egg all over” after Chicago’s failed Olympic bid , that the country’s character “is attacked by special interests, lobbyists, corrupt business, greedy attorneys, people without empathy.” Feely has posted photographs of Jets quarterbacks Mark Sanchez and Kellen Clemens in the ice tub at training camp. He has encouraged followers to urge their local congressmen to pass health care legislation. For Feely, Twitter serves a dual purpose: to inform and to, his words, effectuate change. Feely jokes that most kickers are thoughtful because they have more time to research and read. He often buys 10 books at a time, the topics ranging from history and parenting to philosophy and sports. “I try and be honest,” Feely said. “I’ve never worried about the ramifications.” Sept. 23, @jayfeely: The punishment disparity between Vick, Stallworth and Plax is just preposterous. Feely believes his outspoken nature cost him a job when Miami released him after a career season in 2007. That the Jets play the Miami Dolphins on Monday night carries extra meaning, because Feely wondered if he had killed his career with too many strong opinions. “They didn’t envision that position as a leader,” Feely said. “I’ve always taken the opposite approach.” The negativity that characterizes discourse in this country, the vitriol that dominates debate, bothers Feely. He says he wishes that athletes took more active positions on social issues, as Muhammad Ali, Jim Brown and Arthur Ashe did. He says he sympathizes with superstars who keep their opinions to themselves rather than risk losing marketing opportunities and money. But then he looks at some, like Florida quarterback Tim Tebow and the “generational impact” Tebow has on the lives of others. Some followers love Feely for this honesty. Others instruct him to quiet down, reminding him to “just kick the ball.” Sept. 29, @jayfeely: My brother lived 26 years as a severely disabled child and though he could never communicate his legacy left a lasting image on so many. Some fans who meet Feely for the first time feel like they already know everything about him through his postings. One woman approached him at training camp and rattled off the names of his four children. That unnerved Feely, but for the most part, he said, his profile and use of the platform make him easier to relate to. This week, Feely posted about his grandmother’s death. He has also written about his brother Michael, who lived with muscular dystrophy until age 26 despite doctors’ predictions he would die six months after his birth. By discussing every aspect of his life, by charging down the field after kickoffs, Feely has endeared himself to teammates. Tight end Dustin Keller, a Twitter man himself, ranked Feely among the most respected players in the locker room. Jenkins said the Jets looked to him for leadership. His uncle Dick Feely said: “I don’t think it’s any accident that he’s been a leader on any team he’s every played on. He shows leadership not just from his athletic prowess, but from his outgoing personality, and his genuine concern for everyone on the team.” Aug. 14, @jayfeely: For those of you who are so condemning to Mike Vick; take a look at your own life and think about if your darkest secrets were left bare Vick’s return to the N.F.L. marked the first time Feely experienced what he calls “real dialogue” on Twitter. He wrote a post and titled it “the precarious case of Mike Vick,” his former teammate in Atlanta. Feely did not condone Vick’s actions, but he advocated for a second chance, and this sparked dozens of responses. Feely said his stance stemmed from a conversation at a January dinner with former President Bill Clinton, who told Feely “a man should not be defined by his greatest mistake.” Feely never allowed his worst moment to define him, despite the three field goals he missed in 2005 against Seattle, a brutal performance that led to a skit on “ Saturday Night Live .” Feely has given speeches since his college days at Michigan. Each time, without fail, he brings up the skit, or even plays it for the audience. “In our country, we don’t talk about that,” Feely said. “The only way to move past failures, mistakes, is by not hiding from them, but embracing them.” Sept. 30, @jayfeely: Watching H’wood denounce arrest Polanski arrest. Do they make the same defense for Catholic priests who assaulted altar boys? Feely is the student who asked his English teacher to serve as his best man. He is a debater whom family members call the General because he always takes charge. He is the teammate rookies seek out for advice. “Jay is usually at the epicenter of it all,” his brother John said. Feely says this will help him after football, help him write a book, or go into television, help him eventually take his platforms into politics. Until then, @jayfeely will dispense his opinions into cyberspace. Feel free to disagree. But be prepared for his response.

Twitter
Football
Feely Jay
New York Jets