Tom Durkin, the Voice of New York Horse Racing, Retires

Abstract: SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — It was noon, and Tom Durkin was marking up his program with pastel colors for a final time, matching a kaleidoscope of jockey silks to the appropriate horses in each race. His binoculars were within arm’s reach, as was the coat hanger with a makeshift clipboard that holds his program and hangs around his neck as the thoroughbreds he describes make their way around the racetrack. No matter how crude or simple, these are instruments of a track announcer, and over the last 43 years, no one has coaxed a more beautiful symphony from them than Durkin. In his hands, they are transformed into a Stradivarius violin, and a two-minute horse race becomes a deeply felt movement of sweeping emotion and hard-earned triumph. Durkin, 63, has lent his mellifluous baritone voice and his vivid imagination to more than 80,000 races run at county fairs in Wisconsin and harness tracks in Illinois, as well as to the most famous race in America, the Kentucky Derby. For the last 25 years, he has been not only the voice of New York racing, but on telecasts of the Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup races, he has provided the real-time oral history of modern thoroughbred racing. On Sunday, after the 10th race here at the oldest racetrack in the United States, Durkin walked out of the cramped, splintered crow’s nest that is his office and into the uncertain life of a retiree. His last call of the 123rd running of the Spinaway Stakes was, of course, a beauty, mustering all his showmanship to brighten a bittersweet afternoon punctuated by showers. “Condo Commando is splish-splashing down the stretch in the Spa, and she’s all alone for the final furlong of the Spinaway,” Durkin roared before putting his binoculars down and leaning into a final flourish of a distinguished career. “Condo Commando was splash-tastic.” On cue, the rain stopped, and the roar of more than 38,000 appreciative horse enthusiasts washed over the man widely considered the greatest race caller in the history of thoroughbred racing. It is an abrupt change for Durkin and an unwelcome one for those who believe he is still at the top of his game and is ending his career prematurely. “It’s better to be a year too early than a year too late,” Durkin said. He will no longer start his day poring over the more than 2,000 words and phrases he has compiled in a notebook, embedding just the right image in his subconscious in the hope it can be retrieved as he stares through his binoculars, glances at his program and describes the drama of a herd of thoroughbreds running at 35 miles per hour. He will no longer open the file in his computer, called “On Race Calling,” that contains essays he has written to himself about his craft, helping him transform himself into an artist. “The key in good race calling and storytelling is see the conflict, build the tension and then knock ’em dead with the release,” begins one essay on plot and narrative. Durkin can also fire his hypnotist, ditch the medication and discontinue the breathing exercises that he has used to hold crippling performance anxiety at bay for more than 20 years. Three years ago, Durkin was so distraught that he did not renew his contract as NBC’s announcer for the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont Stakes , racing’s Triple Crown events. In the approach to his final day, Durkin sat for hours of news media interviews and tributes. He endured with good humor a popular online video clip of a younger, thinner and far more dashing version of himself matching wits with the comedian Jimmie Walker on the game show “Match Game.” Video Tom Durkin inside his booth at Belmont Park in 2014 during his eighth and final chance to narrate the crowning of a Triple Crown winner. For the last two days here, the sound and fury of some of Durkin’s signature calls flickered on the big screen in the infield and across televisions around the track. They showed him at his most whimsical — doing a hearty pirate imitation as he brought home a horse called Arrrrr and out-von-Trapping the von Trapps with a melodic and on-key scale for a horse named Doremifasolatido down the stretch. Scores of calls from Durkin have been memorialized in racing lore, but perhaps one of the most stirring happened here at the Spa, as Saratoga Race Course is known, in the town he calls home. That was the 1994 Travers Stakes , where Durkin crystallized a determined performance from the great Holy Bull. “And Mike Smith — lets the Bull roll!” he said. “He’s in front by five as they come to the quarter pole, but there is Cause For Concern! Concern comes on, second on the outside!” Then, a few seconds later: “Mike Smith’s asking Holy Bull for everything he has. Concern is coming hard under Jerry Bailey. It’s still Holy Bull, desperately trying to hold! Concern a final threat, but it is Holy Bull, as game as a race horse could be, coming down to the wire. Holy Bull wins! What a hero!” When pressed, Durkin says his favorite call came in the 1995 Breeders’ Cup Classic when the great Cigar was trying to close out an undefeated season of 10 victories and his first Horse of the Year title. The tremor in his voice and his clear admiration for the horse’s grit were giveaways as to how much Durkin loved the sport of horse racing. “And here he is: the unconquerable, invincible, unbeatable Cigar!” he said as the horse came to the finish line. Eight times in his career, a horse entered the gate for the Belmont Stakes with a chance to win the Triple Crown and to allow Durkin to be the voice of an immortal achievement. Silver Charm, Real Quiet, Charismatic, War Emblem, Funny Cide, Smarty Jones, Big Brown and, most recently, California Chrome all came up empty. “No regrets,” said Durkin. “I owe my life to this game.” What’s next? Durkin said he had no idea. He mentioned voice work, some personal writing and perhaps work as a tour guide in Italy, a country he has spent extensive time exploring. No matter what he does, horse racing will still be a part of his life. “I live six blocks from the racetrack here,” he said. “I love the game. This will afford me the opportunity to handicap a lot more. Maybe after calling 80,000 races, something has sunk in.” Fittingly, it was Durkin himself who lent the perfect words for his own run across the finish line. Standing in the winners’ circle with everyone who was anyone in New York racing, Durkin welled with tears as he addressed the crowd one final time. “There is one person that is completely responsible for this wonderful life that I’ve had the privilege to live in horse racing,” he said. “That person is here in Saratoga today. Right now he’s in the backyard sitting at a picnic table under a pine tree looking at this image on the television. She’s at the top of the stretch leaning over the rail, and she’s in a box seat or at a simulcast center in Syracuse or a track in Ohio or in front of a computer terminal in California.” Then, his voice caught and the tears tumbled. “The person that I owe an inexpressible gratitude is you,” he said. “The racing fan, the horseplayer. Thank you.”

Tom Durkin
Horse racing
Saratoga Race Course


A Curious Coalition Opposed Bailout Bill

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Senators who voted against the $700 billion financial rescue plan make up one of the most curious coalitions of lawmakers ever to share common ground. It included arch-conservative Republicans like Jim DeMint of South Carolina, liberal Democrats like Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Bernard Sanders , independent of Vermont, who is regarded as the Senate’s resident socialist. Taken together, the speeches of the 25 senators who voted against the plan on Wednesday amount to the Congressional equivalent of a dissenting opinion by the Supreme Court — impassioned, well reasoned, carefully articulated views on a landmark question of public policy that ultimately reflected the position of a minority of their fellow arbiters. If the bailout plan flops, they are the lawmakers who will be positioned to engage in a chorus of “I told you sos.” Their concerns spanned a panorama of issues: frustration over the lack of long-term regulatory changes in the legislation; alarm that $700 billion in taxpayer money would be at risk; anger that the Treasury secretary would not be subject to more stringent oversight; skepticism that executives of firms that seek help would face limits on their pay; and dismay that such an important bill was being rushed through Congress. And, perhaps most pointedly, they expressed skepticism that the bailout proposal would be able to restore liquidity to the credit markets, prevent the collapse of additional banks and safeguard the economy from a long recession. “This package is just a very costly Band-Aid for big banks that will do very little to help patients who need major surgery,” Senator Michael B. Enzi, Republican of Wyoming, said in his speech on the Senate floor. “Had Congress been able to use the regular committee process to craft a bipartisan and comprehensive legislation, the resulting bill may have gained my support,” Mr. Enzi said. “Unfortunately, Congress has been pressured into passing this bill in two weeks by Treasury and Wall Street. A rescue plan of this scale requires a clear plan of action with a substantial chance of success. This plan has neither.” Some of the harshest criticism was leveled by Senator Richard C. Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate banking committee, who normally would have been his party’s lead negotiator on the bailout bill but removed himself because he opposed the administration’s proposal at its very core. “The choice we faced was between pursuing an informed response or panic,” Mr. Shelby said. “Unfortunately, we chose panic and are now about to spend $700 billion on something we have not examined closely. Yes, in the end, we will have ‘done something.’ At the same time, however, we will have done nothing to determine whether it will accomplish anything at all.” Mr. Shelby, in his speech, laid out a modern history of the American housing, mortgage and securitization markets, explaining how a bubble in home values was fueled by loose lending standards, exotic mortgage products and complex financial instruments, pushed by financial firms that were leveraged heavily to maximize profits. And in many ways, he was already dishing out “I told you sos.” “We did not get to where we are today by accident, it was a path we chose,” he said. “My warnings about the risk of basing credit decisions on well-intended social mandates rather than sound, fact-based underwriting were dismissed. My concerns about the inadequacy of the regulatory structure put in place in the financial modernization legislation went unacknowledged. My efforts to ensure that bank capital standards were designed to ensure safety and soundness, rather than industry concerns, were conducted largely alone.” Mr. Sanders, the Vermont independent, complained that the bill did not put any limits on the types of distressed debt the Treasury could buy, that it did not provide enough oversight, that it did not include adequate provisions to limit home foreclosures, that it did not really limit executive pay at firms that seek help. “Under this bill, the C.E.O.’s and the Wall Street insiders will still, with a little bit of imagination, continue to make out like bandits,” Mr. Sanders said. He said the bill also did not do anything to prevent financial institutions from becoming “too big to fail,” effectively leaving open the potential need for future bailouts. Mr. Sanders also said he could not fathom giving Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. such broad authority over so much money. “Maybe I am the only person in America who thinks so, but I have a hard time understanding why we are giving $700 billion to the secretary of the Treasury, who is the former C.E.O. of Goldman Sachs, which, along with other financial institutions, actually got us into this problem,” he said. “Maybe I am the only person in America who thinks that is a little bit weird, but that is what I think.” He added: “This bill does not address the major economic crises we face — growing unemployment, low wages and the need to create decent-paying jobs, rebuilding our infrastructure and moving us to energy efficiency and sustainable energy.” In one of the more remarkable colloquies of the day’s discourse, Senator Jeff Sessions, Republican of Alabama, and one of the most conservative members of Congress, took to the floor to express solidarity with Mr. Sanders. “I would like to say to Senator Sanders a couple things,” Mr. Sessions said. “First, I think it is indeed breathtaking that this Senate would authorize basically one person with very little real oversight, a Wall Street maven himself, and allocate $700 billion in America’s wealth, which I would have to say would be the largest single authorization of expenditure in the history of the Republic.” Mr. Sessions added: “So I have to say, fundamentally, I think we have not done a good enough job in creating an oversight mechanism that will work, so I am not going to vote for the bill; I am not.” Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, said he opposed the bill because it did not do enough to help average Americans. “This bill sends a message to Wall Street that if they play fast and loose in the name of short-term profits, the government will actually make up for their losses,” Mr. Nelson said. “And the bill does very little to help individual homeowners. Until we stabilize the housing market, which is the underlying ability to restructure the economy from this crisis — until we stabilize the housing market, and until we stem the record number of foreclosures, our market simply is not going to improve.” Mr. Nelson continued: “The bottom line is, ultimately, this bill forces taxpayers to bail out investment banks that caused the crisis in the first place, and it does nothing to address the real problem, which is home foreclosures.”

Senate
Troubled Asset Relief Program (2008)
Feingold Russell D
Sanders Bernard
Shelby Richard C


Optimistic Fed Outlines an End to Its Stimulus

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve, increasingly confident in the durability of economic growth, expects to start pulling back later this year from its efforts to stimulate the economy, the Fed chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said on Wednesday. Mr. Bernanke, offering new details, said the central bank intends to scale down gradually its monthly purchases of Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds beginning later this year and ending when the unemployment rate hits 7 percent, which the Fed expects to happen by the middle of next year. The central bank would then take several more years to unwind the rest of its extraordinary stimulus campaign, slowly raising short-term interest rates from essentially zero to more normal levels after the jobless rate has fallen to 6.5 percent or lower. He emphasized, however, that the timing of the retreat depends on the health of the economy; if growth falters, the central bank would slow, or even reverse, the process. The expectations of Fed officials for the next several years, published Wednesday, are more optimistic than the consensus of private forecasters. Pulling back “would basically say that we’ve had a relatively decent economic outcome in terms of sustained improvement in growth and unemployment,” Mr. Bernanke said. “If things are worse, we will do more. If things are better, we will do less.” Mr. Bernanke’s comments, which followed a two-day meeting of the Fed’s policy-making committee, appeared to disappoint investors on Wall Street who had hoped that the central bank would do more for longer. Stocks fell, with the broad Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index dropping 1.39 percent; interest rates rose. The impact on the economy will take longer to judge. The Fed’s goal is to pull back as the economy gains strength so its departure is barely felt, like a parent who lets go of a bike at the moment a child is ready to ride. But the Fed has removed its hands too soon several times in recent years. On the other side of the equation, the central bank, at some point, runs the risk of pushing too hard for too long, which can also cause crashes. Image Of the Fed's bond-buying program, Ben S. Bernanke, the central bank's chairman, said, "If things are worse, we will do more. If things are better we will do less." Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Gennadiy Goldberg, an analyst at TD Securities, described the market’s reaction as “emblematic of the lumpy path toward normalization,” illustrating the limits of the Fed’s ability to control the way that the economy will respond to its retreat. The housing market is an example. The Fed, deciding last year that it needed to do more, began to buy mortgage bonds in an effort to drive down borrowing costs. The lower rates spurred a wave of refinancing and home buying. But now, as the recovery gains momentum and the Fed signals that it plans to pull back, interest rates are beginning to rise and mortgage refinancing is beginning to wane. Mr. Bernanke said on Wednesday that the rate increases were a “good thing,” a sign that the economy is returning to health. But Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said the Fed still runs the risk of withdrawing its extra support for the economy too soon. “Later in the cycle, we will be happy to take that view too,” Mr. Shepherdson wrote Wednesday. “But not now, and it is very odd coming from a Fed chairman who has placed so much emphasis on the role of housing in the recovery. We do not think the market is yet ready to absorb higher rates.” The Fed, in a statement released after the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee , sounded notes of increased optimism about the economy, but unusually, the statement did not describe the bond-buying timeline. Mr. Bernanke said he had been “deputized” to share the details at the news conference. The statement said that the economy was expanding “at a moderate pace” and that the job market was improving. Most significantly, it noted that risks to growth had “diminished since last fall,” an important assertion because the Fed has been trying in part to shield the economy from the consequences of reductions in federal spending. Those consequences have been milder than expected. In a separate forecast released at the same time, Fed officials predicted that the unemployment rate would decline more quickly than they had projected, dropping to between 6.5 percent and 6.8 percent by the end of 2014. In March, they predicted that the rate would fall by the end of next year to between 6.7 percent and 7 percent. The Fed said that it would continue for now to buy $85 billion a month in Treasury securities and mortgage-backed bonds, in addition to holding short-term interest rates near zero. Both policies are intended to ease financial conditions, to encourage economic activity and to increase the pace of job creation. Video The Times’s David Gillen on market gyrations as Wall Street and world economies try to guess when the Federal Reserve will slow, or taper, its extraordinary measures to bolster the economy. Two of the 12 members of the Federal Open Market Committee dissented. Esther George, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, reiterated her concern that the Fed was doing too much. James Bullard, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, broke with the majority for the first time this year to express concern about the sagging pace of inflation. Economic conditions have improved modestly since the Fed began its latest round of asset purchases last September. The economy has added about 197,000 jobs a month, and the unemployment rate has fallen slightly to 7.6 percent in May from 7.8 percent in September. But the economic damage of the recession remains largely unrepaired. Job growth is basically keeping pace with population growth. The share of American adults with jobs has not increased in three years. Moreover, the Fed’s preferred measure of inflation has shrunk to an annual pace 1.05 percent, the lowest level in more than 50 years, as the economy continues to operate below capacity. The Fed would prefer annual inflation to run closer to 2 percent, diminishing the risk of outright deflation, or a general fall in the level of prices, which can paralyze economic activity as buyers wait for lower prices. Despite the fact that unemployment remains high and inflation remains low, the Fed has shown no sign of interest in expanding the pace of its stimulus campaign. Officials say that they are doing as much as they can. The debate instead has focused on how soon the Fed can afford to start buying fewer bonds. Mr. Bernanke said on Wednesday that even as the Fed pulls back, it still would be increasing its total bond holdings each month, and therefore that the stimulating effect also would continue to increase. He also emphasized the Fed’s intent to hold short-term rates near zero well beyond the end of the asset purchases, a policy that the Fed regards as significantly more potent. “Our intent from the beginning was to use asset purchases as a way to achieve some near-term momentum and then to allow the low interest rate policy to carry us through,” he said. The Fed has said that rates would remain near zero at least as long as the unemployment rate remained above 6.5 percent. Mr. Bernanke said the Fed might well hold rates low for longer, particularly if inflation remained weak. He added that the Fed would consider adopting a lower threshold. The goal, he said, was to stabilize unemployment between 5 percent and 6 percent. Mr. Bernanke is unlikely to preside over those decisions. His second term as chairman ends next January, and President Obama reinforced expectations Monday that Mr. Bernanke would not be nominated by the White House to serve a third term. Mr. Bernanke declined to answer several questions about the president’s remarks and his own plans at his news conference on Wednesday, insisting that Fed policy should be the sole focus.

Federal Reserve
Interest rate
Ben S Bernanke
US Economy
Quantitative easing


Return to Traditions Spurs Optimism at J. C. Penney

Abstract: J. C. Penney has brought back its cheerful coupons. It has revived familiar brands, like St. John’s Bay and Cooks. And now the retailer, which just two years ago appeared to be teetering on the brink of collapse, is back on sound footing, its chief executive, Myron E. Ullman III, told analysts on Wednesday. “We’re back. We’re driven. We’re once again competing effectively,” Mr. Ullman said at J. C. Penney’s first analyst conference since he returned as chief 18 months ago. “And we’re definitely back in the consumer’s mind-set.” But on a difficult day for retailers on Wall Street, investors were not impressed, sending J. C. Penney shares down 10.88 percent by the end of the day to $8.19. Reports of supplier trouble at Sears, another struggling retailer, sent its shares down almost 5 percent. Also weighing on investor sentiment were more immediate figures for J. C. Penney: Its third-quarter sales would be in the low-single-digit growth range, the retailer said, compared with its original guidance of mid-single-digit growth. The retailer blamed “softer selling than anticipated during the month of September” and a difficult environment for retailers over all, because of warmer than usual weather. “Hopefully we have seasonal weather soon, and gas prices low, and the consumer will feel good about the family budget, and will come out to shop,” Mr. Ullman said. There are longer-term challenges, too. Retailers like J. C. Penney and Sears have been suffering as e-commerce rivals like Amazon generate more and more sales and as middle-class consumers that make up the bulk of their shoppers continue to struggle in an uneven economic recovery. Neely Tamminga, a retail analyst at Piper Jaffray, said she was optimistic about J. C. Penney. The retailer’s “turnaround is very much underway,” she wrote in a note to investors after the analyst conference. “Indications for a soft September are likely to remain a dark cloud,” she added. Even some skeptics acknowledge that J. C. Penney has come a long way from a disastrous spell under its previous chief executive, Ronald B. Johnson, whose attempt to make the retailer slicker by introducing designer boutiques and stable prices instead of coupons flopped. Mr. Ullman, who returned to J. C. Penney in April 2013, has since undone most of those changes. On Wednesday, he laid out strategies that he said would add $2 billion to the retailer’s sales over the next three years, a figure he called “conservative.” The strategies included a refocusing on private brands like its Arizona jeans line and St. John’s Bay women’s wear. Mr. Ullman said J. C. Penney would also play catch-up in its online offerings, including same-day pickup and delivery, and would also invest in its home store and in services like its beauty salons, which he said were profitable and brought in shoppers. “You can’t get your hair done online,” Mr. Ullman said. During its most recent quarter, J. C. Penney reported a net loss of $172 million. But it said net sales rose to $2.8 billion from $2.66 billion from the same period the previous year. Over all, J. C. Penney’s road back to profitability is likely to be a long one. Analysts at Goldman Sachs estimate that at its current rate of growth, it will take over eight years for the retailer to return to the over $17 billion in annual sales that it enjoyed in the mid-2000s. “Back with the old, out with the new,” the Goldman analysts said. “What’s next?”

Retail
JC Penney
Myron E Ullman III
Earnings Reports


‘It Is Over’: Democrats’ Efforts to Deny Trump Presidency Fail

Abstract: WASHINGTON — One by one, the Democratic lawmakers stepped to the microphone on Friday, holding on to their letters and an impossible dream: denying the presidency to Donald J. Trump, two weeks before his inauguration. And one by one, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — presiding over a joint session of Congress to validate the Electoral College results in Mr. Trump’s victory — turned back their challenges with a stoic message, pounding his gavel without hesitation. “It is over,” Mr. Biden said at one point, as Republicans rose to their feet to cheer. After weeks of fitful grumblings about the long-shot maneuvers that might obstruct Mr. Trump’s path to the White House, the proceedings on Friday appeared to close the book. Lawmakers are permitted to make objections to both individual and state tallies, but they must be submitted in writing and signed by at least one member of both the House and the Senate. No senator chose to join the cause of the half-dozen or so House Democrats who raised complaints. The result was a parade of clipped protests from House members, drowned out quickly by the questioning of the vice president, who also serves as the president of the Senate. The members spoke of voter suppression, of Russian interference and of the bracing fear consuming many Americans. “Mr. President, I object because people are horrified,” began Representative Barbara Lee of California. Repeatedly, Mr. Biden asked if anyone could produce an objection that was joined by a senator. “In that case,” he said, to Republican applause, when no one could, “the objection cannot be entertained.” As the exercise neared its end, Representative Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, stepped forward. “I do not wish to debate,” she said. “I wish to ask: Is there one United States senator who will join me?” Mr. Biden reached for his gavel. For Republicans, the state-by-state recap supplied a heartening reminder of November’s great surprises: victories for Mr. Trump in Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. When the results in Colorado, a rare swing state victory for Hillary Clinton, were read aloud, a faint voice could be heard from the Democratic side: “Yea, Colorado.” But as Mr. Biden read the final numbers — including a single vote from an elector in Washington State for Faith Spotted Eagle, a Native American tribal leader who has led opposition to the Keystone XL pipeline — more conspicuous demonstrations against Mr. Trump erupted among visitors to the gallery “I rise to defend our democracy. We reject this electoral vote,” one woman shouted as she was escorted out. “I rise to defend free and fair elections,” a man cried a moment later. “Donald Trump as commander in chief is a threat to American democracy.” A spokeswoman for the United States Capitol Police said two men and one woman had been arrested.

Democrats
Congress
Congress
Republicans
Senate
Donald Trump
US Politics
2016 Presidential Election
House of Representatives
Joe Biden


G.E. Beats Expectations With Help of Industrial Units

Abstract: General Electric posted lower overall revenue and profit in the third quarter, but improving sales of complex industrial equipment gave hope to investors that the company’s transformation of its business was succeeding. G.E. said on Friday that net income fell 9 percent to $3.19 billion and revenue fell 1 percent to $35.73 billion in the third quarter. In last year’s comparable quarter, the company earned $3.49 billion on revenue of $36.3 billion. G.E.’s earnings per share dropped to 31 cents, from 33 cents last year. Still, the company’s results exceeded Wall Street expectations on the strength of 11 percent growth in profit at its industrial divisions — those that make aircraft engines, CT scanners, gas turbines, locomotives and oil and gas drilling equipment. Adjusted to remove the effects of restructuring and other charges, the company said it earned 40 cents a share. Analysts had expected G.E. to earn 35 cents a share, on average, according to FactSet. Shares of G.E. rose 3.6 percent, to close at $25.57 on Friday. Since 2008, G.E. has sold or reduced the size of its banking operations and other nonindustrial businesses like NBCUniversal. The company has not yet fully replaced the lost revenue and profit. GE Capital’s revenue slipped 5 percent in the third quarter, pulling down the company’s overall revenue. But G.E. has worked to expand the parts of its business that build and service equipment, products and services sold to utilities, hospitals, oil and gas drillers and aircraft manufacturers around the world. Sales and profit from its industrial units — which both G.E. and investors are most concerned about — have improved. “Our business lines are in big infrastructure, the stuff that companies and countries are investing in,” said Jeff Bornstein, the chief financial officer. “We’re getting to the point where we have the mix of businesses we want to go forward with.” G.E. had predicted that its industrial operations would show strong growth later this year. Industrial segment profit rose 11 percent to $3.97 billion in the third quarter. “We’re doing double-digit growth in a world that isn’t growing double digits,” Mr. Bornstein said. G.E.’s aviation, oil and gas, transportation and home and business solutions divisions all had profit of more than 10 percent. The company’s power and water division, which had been hurt earlier in the year by lower sales of wind turbines, posted a 9 percent rise in profit. Health care grew 7 percent, but profit at the company’s energy management division declined by 57 percent. “They are going to have to deliver on better expectations for the (fourth) quarter, but they are making good progress toward that,” said Christian Mayes, an analyst at Edward Jones. G.E.’s global operations give it a close look at the pace of economic growth around the world. The company said its orders improved in Europe, Asia, North America, the Middle East and North Africa, suggesting continued widespread growth, though Latin America and India were relatively weak. The company said orders rose 19 percent in the quarter to $25.7 billion and that its backlog of future orders hit a record $229 billion. Jeffrey R. Immelt, the chief executive, said that would help the company stay on track to improve its profit margin by 0.7 percentage points for the year, and continue to grow in 2014. “We should see earnings growth accelerate in the fourth quarter,” Mr. Immelt said in a conference call with investors.

General Electric
Earnings Reports
Oil and Gasoline
Natural gas
Stocks,Bonds
International trade


The Truth, Revealed by Bugs: The Case of Brookey Lee West

Abstract: When Brookey Lee West’s mother, Christine Smith, disappeared from her Las Vegas apartment in 1998, Ms. West had a convincing explanation: She had sent Ms. Smith to stay with her son, Ms. West’s brother, in California. The story seemed to hold up at first, but by February 2001, when the police found Ms. Smith’s body stuffed into a garbage can in a Las Vegas storage unit, the situation smelled undeniably foul. The authorities suspected Ms. West of killing her alcoholic mother, with whom she had frequently sparred since childhood. Nevertheless, it seemed that time was on Ms. West’s side. So many months had passed that a medical examiner testified that he was unable to determine how Ms. Smith died. Ms. West said that her mother had died peacefully of natural causes, and that she had panicked and crammed the decaying remains into the garbage can. That might have been the end of it, if not for the testimony of Neal Haskell, a forensic entomologist at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer, Ind. Dr. Haskell determined that blow flies, insects that usually appear on corpses right after death, were nowhere to be seen on Ms. Smith’s body. Instead, most of the larvae Dr. Haskell found came from scuttle flies, or “coffin flies,” insects that cannibalize dead bodies after they have undergone initial decomposition. “We knew it was a long time since Mom had been seen, and I thought, ‘If we have the blow flies, we can tell what season she went missing,’ ” Dr. Haskell said. “When I got the insect specimens, I was really disappointed.” But then Dr. Haskell realized the significance of the blow flies’ absence: Ms. Smith had to have been put into the garbage can either directly after she died or while she was still alive, barring the blow flies’ access to the corpse. (Coffin flies, on the other hand, could have gotten to the body because they often tunnel through tiny nooks and crannies.) “That showed me that West had to have lied about what she did with her mother,” Dr. Haskell said. After only two hours of deliberation, a jury pronounced Ms. West guilty of her mother’s murder. Ms. West is serving a life sentence at a prison in southern Nevada.

Insects
Forensic Science
Science and Technology


N.C.A.A. Change Is Coming, Maybe

Abstract: Throughout Wednesday morning, some of the most important people in college sports settled into ballrooms on the seventh floor of the Marriott Marquis in Manhattan. There was talk and talk and more talk, forums and discussions and presentations. There were athletic directors and administrators and N.C.A.A. officials. Everyone seemed to agree on a basic premise: N.C.A.A. change is coming, perhaps as soon as next summer. The more everyone talked, though, the less grand potential reforms seemed. One commissioner, Karl Benson of the Sun Belt Conference, said during a panel discussion that he expected changes would look more like “tweaks.” He was not alone in that sentiment. But it seemed like a step back from the supposed impending “historic moment” detailed by officials in recent months. The discussions took place at the IMG Intercollegiate Athletics Forum, which featured a question-and-answer session with Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president; a panel of commissioners from the five major conferences; and a separate panel of five other conference commissioners. If the N.C.A.A. collected $1 for every time the term “student-athlete” was used, it could have afforded to pay all players in all sports a significant stipend. At least enough for pizza. There was plenty of the usual: calls for a more streamlined process of governance, for more direct involvement by athletic directors, for a thinning of the thickest rule book known to sports. Some of that will happen. The N.C.A.A. will change. But seismic, or even systemic, change seemed less likely than a day before. Instead, three takeaways emerged. ■ The N.C.A.A. will not pay players, will not consider paying players and will not entertain the notion of paying players — never, ever, no matter how much revenue is generated. This notion came up a few hundred times, until it became clear that “student-athletes” would be paid only when, if , the N.C.A.A. is forced to do so by legislators or the courts. ■ Reform would probably not include a new N.C.A.A. division, but instead would grant more autonomy in making decisions to the universities in the five major conferences. This came up a few dozen times and tied directly into athletic directors’ being more involved. (The right idea, opposed by few.) ■ The N.C.A.A., the conference commissioners and officials from member universities feel unfairly picked on, or inaccurately characterized. They kept saying they had done a poor job of communicating what they do well, that they allowed the negative aspects of the narrative to overwhelm a greater body of work. This came up a few times. On the last point, it was hard to sympathize. The reason the N.C.A.A. has come under more criticism than normal in recent years has little to do with a lack of attention to women’s golf, as one panelist suggested. The N.C.A.A. earned its critics, one botched investigation or unnecessary rule complication at a time. It was hard, then, to tell whether the power brokers considered the system broken. They said it needed reform. And they said they would defend it and its honor and what worked. We also heard a lot about student-athletes and how happy they were and how much they benefited from their scholarships. We heard about this from men in tailored suits who profit handsomely off college sports and whose universities and conferences cull revenue from the same. “The countervailing voices of this notion that student-athletes are being taken advantage of has been the dominant theme and had played out pretty loudly,” Emmert said. “The reality is schools are spending in between $100,000 and $250,000 on each student-athlete.” The forum lacked one important voice on this subject: the voice of the student-athlete, like those who wrote “All Players United” on their gear this season. Or the football team at Grambling that boycotted a game. Contradiction dominated. There was much talk about how football teams would continue to build palaces for facilities, with rugs from Nepal and waterfalls in locker rooms; how that arms race could be explained by market forces, even as the markets for players continue to be suppressed. “It was a lot of more of the same,” David Ridpath, an assistant professor in sports administration at Ohio University and a member of the Drake Group, a network of professors who lobby for academic integrity in college sports, wrote in an email from his office. “Still too much rhetoric and not enough action.” There is a subcommittee of university presidents looking at changes, and there will be meetings next month, including two days set aside at the annual N.C.A.A. convention to discuss change. What kind of change is what’s important for the future of college sports. At the heart of that is the notion of amateurism, of student-athletes. Jim Delany, the Big Ten commissioner, said asking colleges to pay players was tantamount to asking professional teams to require their players to enter into full-time study. The N.C.A.A. does appear willing to budge here. Their argument trends toward the idea that amateurism should be upheld because if it’s not, so much else would need to change. That’s circumspect, not about right or wrong, but about logistics. To go to an Olympic model, in which players endorse products relative to their value on the open market, would affect recruiting. To pay players beyond an increased stipend for the cost of tuition would strike at the heart of the idea that they’re students first. It would reinforce that the billions generated by college football and men’s basketball, in particular, demonstrate that they might be something else. Those are the arguments, anyway. “If college athletics establishes an employer-employee relationship, we will truly have lost our way,” said Bob Bowlsby, the Big 12 commissioner. Perhaps, with another round of grand reform either impendent or oversold, they already have.


A Beat and a Bike: The First Lady’s Candlelit Habit

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The first lady arrives without fuss or fanfare, although her armored sport utility vehicle and Secret Service detail set her apart from the usual Lululemon-clad throng. Michelle Obama is here to work out. She has come to put on professional cycling shoes, clip in to a stationary bicycle and engage in the steamy, heart-pounding, candlelit fitness obsession known as SoulCycle. “I love it when my girls join me for a little SoulCycle,” Mrs. Obama said of her daughters in a video posted to Twitter last year, when she talked about her favorite ways of staying active with her family. “We all are in the dark, moving to the beat on the bikes. We love it.” That was Mrs. Obama’s first public admission of her SoulCycle habit, and since then the White House has guarded details about it not quite as vigilantly as it does the nuclear codes. Mrs. Obama’s East Wing staff declined to comment for this story. But over the past two years, as the TriBeCa-based fitness chain has expanded its footprint in the nation’s capital, the first lady has made stealthy trips to at least three SoulCycle studios in downtown Washington — one in the West End near Georgetown, another on 14th Street and yet another in Mount Vernon Square. Mrs. Obama arranges for private sessions, held outside normal class hours and away from security risks and photo opportunities, with friends, aides and sometimes her daughters. She is not the only political figure to seek sweaty solace at the trendy, high-end cycling boutique, where 45-minute classes average $28 ($32 if you are riding in New York, New Jersey or Connecticut) and the walls are emblazoned with slogans like “inhale intention and exhale expectation.” Chelsea Clinton announced last week that she would hold a fund-raiser for her mother’s presidential campaign on Jan. 27 at SoulCycle’s flagship TriBeCa studio, where donors will pay $2,700 for a “premium reserved bike” to ride with Chelsea and her “pack,” and pose for a photograph with her. The younger Ms. Clinton is a longtime devotee of SoulCycle, where she and former President George W. Bush’s daughter Jenna Bush Hager have been spotted cycling in the same crowded New York classes. For Mrs. Obama, who has made healthy eating and fitness a policy focus and a personal brand, SoulCycle is the rare workout that takes her outside the confines of the White House and into what the chain’s disciples like to call a “cardio dance party.” SoulCycle is known for its style of studio cycling, which combines the intensive cardio of a spin session, core-toning moves such as the “tap back” — standing on the bike and pedaling while touching one’s derrière to the seat behind — and the meditative aura of a yoga class. It unfolds in a nightclublike atmosphere: a dark room with candles burning (some with SoulCycle’s signature grapefruit scent), rhythmic music pulsing and meticulously groomed instructors sporting skulls and flywheels on their outfits while shouting instructions and inspirational mantras from an elevated bike in front. Image For Michelle Obama, at the White House in December, SoulCycle provides a chance to work out away from home. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times Megan Kelly, an instructor whose sessions Mrs. Obama is known to have frequented, shouts, “Yes, you can! ... Yes, you can!” — a mantra from President Obama’s political campaigns — to get her riders through steep climbs and fast sprints. Wearing a sleeveless black T-shirt that says “Spiritual Gangster” and black spandex capri pants, as well as a full face of makeup and a manicure, Ms. Kelly packs her playlist with hip-hop music like “Stand Up” by Ludacris and “Power” by Kanye West. Ms. Kelly declined to comment for this article, in line with a confidentiality policy that prevents the company from discussing any of its clients, said Gabby Etrog Cohen, a spokeswoman. But the company has become close to the first lady. Its founders and instructors have been invited to holiday parties at the White House, said Julie Rice, who co-founded the chain in 2006. “We’re enormous fans of her,” she said of Mrs. Obama. Ms. Rice said riders, and public figures like Mrs. Obama, sought out the sessions for their “sanctuary”-like atmosphere. “It definitely delivers a workout — you’re guaranteed to have results with your body — but it’s also an escape,” Ms. Rice said in an interview. Riders “know it’s safe and anonymous, and they can actually engage in a group activity as part of a community.” Not that Mrs. Obama gets complete anonymity. She is routinely spotted by riders and passers-by when she is arriving or leaving one of the three studios for her private classes. “Just spotted my girl Michelle at Soul Cycle!!” @kayjulers wrote on Twitter in September, adding Mrs. Obama’s Twitter handle, @FLOTUS, which stands for first lady of the United States. Jodi Richardson, who estimates she rides three or four times a week at the Mount Vernon Square studio, said she “freaked out” on a recent Monday night when she walked out of what she thought was the final class of the night and happened upon Mrs. Obama, who was striding in for a session. “Nobody else was freaking out,” said Ms. Richardson, 30, a lobbyist. “I’m a Republican, and I still freaked out. I mean, it’s the first lady within feet of you.” Ms. Richardson said she had run to the front desk to check the bike manifest and see if she could reserve a bike to pedal with the first lady. “They grabbed the clipboard and were like, ‘No! This is a private class,’ ” she said.

Biking
First Ladies
Michelle Obama
SoulCycle
Exercise,Fitness
Washington DC


Mets Erupt From Slump Against Cubs

Abstract: CHICAGO — Under slightly different circumstances, the Mets ’ 17-1 victory against the Chicago Cubs , as impressive as it was, would not have carried such importance. But the Mets had sleepwalked through the first two games of their series here, dropping two in a row to the owners of baseball’s worst record. Suddenly, a getaway game on a hot afternoon at Wrigley Field became loaded with meaning. Lackadaisical play can infuriate a manager. But it can also be a spring of gratification, depending on what immediately follows. After the Mets’ sloppy loss Tuesday night, Terry Collins’s skin seemed to simmer as he described the bevy of mistakes his players had made. Late Wednesday afternoon, he appeared to be glowing with pride. “If this was a team that had huge expectations, it could bother you,” Collins said. “But because we weren’t expected to be very good, you can let some of the stuff go because you know you’re dealing with young guys that are learning on the job here.” Collins added, “That’s what’s fun about these guys.” The young Mets responded to Collins’s unspoken challenge with emphasis, exposing every Cubs weakness without mercy. Their 17 runs was a high mark for the season, as was their 4 home runs. They had 16 hits and drew 7 walks. The margin of victory was the Mets’ largest since 1999. There were positive individual contributions up and down the lineup. Daniel Murphy, who entered the game with the most at-bats this season of any player who had not hit a home run, smacked his first one of the season and then added his second just an inning later. Ike Davis had two doubles and a home run, raising his batting average above .200 for the first time this season. Scott Hairston hit his second career grand slam. And David Wright had a season-high five runs batted in while lifting his average to .357. “We’ve haven’t had a lot of days where we’ve had multiple guys in the lineup come up big,” Collins said. “We kind of thought during spring training we’d have more of those. I’m hoping that’s something that continues.” Wright got the Mets started with a sacrifice fly in the first inning. The Cubs tied the score in the second when Luis Valbuena’s two-out double scored Darwin Barney from first base. But that would be the only run allowed by Jon Niese, who pitched seven innings. “Jon, you could tell even before the game, had that edge to him,” Collins said. “In the second inning, he was furious that he gave up the run. I thought the way he approached the game today was great.” Niese, who gave up eight hits and one walk while striking out six, said his job was made easier by the offense, which began to creep away in the fourth, when Davis drove a double to right field to score Lucas Duda from first base for a 2-1 lead. One out later, Cubs starter Jeff Samardzija tried to bury a cutter low and inside to Murphy, but Murphy whipped it well over the wall in right-center field. After hitting a home run last July 16, Murphy had gone 352 at-bats without another. “Home runs are a bonus,” said Murphy, telling reporters he had not been affected by the drought and thus was not relieved to end it. “I don’t know the at-bats, but apparently it was a long time because you guys asked me a lot of questions about it.” The next inning, Murphy, who had never hit multiple home runs in a game, walloped another one, this time to left-center field, to put the Mets ahead, 10-0. The blast capped an explosive inning that included a two-run double by Wright and a three-run homer to left-center by Davis, whose average climbed to .201 by the end of the game. Davis, who called the milestone a “step in the right direction,” said he still imagined he was batting .150 as a motivational tool. The Mets kept going. Wright bounced a bases-loaded single through the middle of the infield in the sixth, scoring two. After the Mets reloaded the bases, Scott Hairston cleared them, blasting the first pitch from Casey Coleman into the left-field stands. Soon after, the Mets prepared to board a flight to Los Angeles to face the first-place Dodgers — lessons learned and disasters averted. INSIDE PITCH Terry Collins was disappointed to hear that Vinny Rottino, who was designated for assignment earlier this month, had been claimed off waivers by the Cleveland Indians. “It does sting a little bit,” Collins said of Rottino, who could play multiple positions, including catcher. “He’s a good little player.”

Chicago Cubs
Baseball
New York Mets
Davis Ike
Murphy Daniel (1985- )


At La Cocina de Marcia in Freeport, Dominican Fare

Abstract: LA COCINA DE MARCIA — Marcia’s Kitchen — is named for one of its owners, Marcia Beltre. But the name does not tell the whole story: Marcia’s mother, Angela Beltre, is in the kitchen as well. The Dominican restaurant, in a sunny storefront on Merrick Road in Freeport, has a warm, accommodating staff, huge portions of good food and very low prices. Ms. Beltre and her husband, Irving Ramirez, opened Marcia’s Kitchen in July. The restaurant is casual with a centerpiece take-out counter, bare tables and paper napkins. Our amiable waitress warmed up the atmosphere. One night a diner at our table misheard the waitress and thought that mashed potatoes were among the choices of side dishes. They were not, but our waitress insisted that the kitchen would be happy to make them. They were creamy and delicious. Another night we ordered a rib-eye steak that turned out to be overcooked, dry and tough. We didn’t eat it, but we said that it was O.K. and we were just full. That same savvy waitress didn’t believe us and took the entree off our bill. As that steak indicates, not every dish here hits a home run, but many do. The best appetizer was the flavorful chicken soup, with big chunks of meat (on the bone), fine noodles, carrots and potatoes. On Fridays, a seafood soup is a possibility. It was equally good, with chunks of lobster and whole crab claws among the tasty ingredients. The beef empanada ($1.50) was a fine start to the meal. The half-moon of pastry was flaky, its filling of shredded meat tender. Not at all Dominican but right on the mark were fried mozzarella sticks, gooey inside and crisp outside, and a standout shrimp cocktail ($7.95) that contained six firm jumbos. All entrees come with a salad . It was saucer-size and mainly iceberg lettuce, but the ingredients were cold and crisp and the house-made lemon-olive oil dressing was light and appealing. My favorite entree was a combination plate of barbecued chicken and ribs. The half chicken was succulent; the two ribs were not delicate baby backs but big ones that included cartilage. Nevertheless, they were tender and tasty and had us licking our fingers and wishing for more. Another hit was the plate of chopped roast pork, which included soft meat and crunchy skin. Shrimp in garlic sauce was also good. The baked salmon was moist and flaky, and a better bet than the whole grilled red snapper, which was dry. The side dish of rice and beans is the one to order. Diners choose between yellow or white rice and red or black beans. We got a platter of fluffy white rice and a bowl of very tasty red beans in sauce. Crispy tostones (fried green plantains) were well turned out, too. The crinkle-cut French fries are best forgotten, as are the waterlogged broccoli and cauliflower, served lukewarm. Desserts are homemade and include a moist tres leches cake and a silken flan. Two of the desserts were unfamiliar to us. One consisted of dulce de leche granules that Marcia said her mother made by boiling milk, sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice for four hours. A second, similar dish, boiled for five hours, included coconut in the mix. Both were interesting but too sweet for our tastes. A thick banana shake ($3.45) was the best dessert of all. La Cocina de Marcia 77 B West Merrick Road Freeport (516) 442-2462 lacocinademarcia.com O.K. THE SPACE Sunny storefront with yellow, gold and burnt-orange walls decorated with bright paintings. Wheelchair accessible. THE CROWD Very casual. A mix of couples and small groups. The smiling staff includes at least one top-notch waitress. THE BAR No actual bar, but wine ($5 a glass) and beer ($4) are sold. THE BILL Sandwiches: $2.95 to $6.95. Dinner entrees are $5.45 to $22.95 (combination plate); some lobster dishes are higher, but most entrees are under $10. Portions are huge and prices low. MasterCard, Visa and Discover are accepted. WHAT WE LIKED Chicken soup, seafood soup, beef empanada, fried mozzarella sticks, shrimp cocktail, roast pork, barbecued chicken and ribs, shrimp in garlic sauce, baked salmon, rice and beans, tostones, flan, tres leches cake, banana shake. IF YOU GO Open daily from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. Reservations are not needed. There is a parking lot behind the restaurant. RATINGS Don’t Miss, Worth It, O.K., Don’t Bother.


Trust Acts to Open Research Findings to the Public

Abstract: The trend toward open access scientific publishing gained strength last week when the Wellcome Trust, the second-largest nongovernmental funder of scientific research in the world, said it was considering sanctions against scientists who do not make the results of their research freely available to the public. The London-based trust, which funds £650 million, or about $1 billion, of medical and scientific research every year, already has a policy requiring researchers to “maximize the opportunities to make their results available for free” and a presumption in favor of publication in open access journals available on the Internet. But Sir Mark Walport, the trust’s director, told the Guardian newspaper that only 55 percent of Wellcome-funded researchers comply. Scientists often prefer to publish in journals that refuse to make the work available without paying a fee. One option reportedly under consideration is to withhold the last installment of a grant until the research is publicly available; another option would be to make grant renewal contingent on open access publication. The open access movement arose in response to the high subscription fees for scientific journals, which in some cases can amount to thousands of dollars a year. Initiated by scientists, the movement has grown rapidly in recent years, partly because of support from university librarians who saw their acquisitions budget swallowed up by rising subscription costs. The success of journals such as PLoS One, an on-line journal that began by publishing 138 articles in 2006 and is now the largest scientific publication in the world, has also encouraged imitation. Last year the Wellcome Trust announced that it would begin a new open-access journal, eLife, aimed at competing with prestigious subscription-based publications such as Science and Nature. — D. D. GUTTENPLAN  E.U. to upgrade research ties with Mediterranean states The European Commission is re-affirming its commitment to fostering research and development ties among universities, research centers and other institutions of the European Union and the southern Mediterranean states, participants at a recent conference said. “The events of the Arab Spring called for a new vision for cooperation in research and innovation,” Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, the European Union’s commissioner for research, innovation and science, said in Barcelona early this month. “Our agenda should mobilize all the relevant stakeholders and participants, such as universities, research centers, industry, organizations that promote innovation, financial institutions and investors,” said Ms. Geoghegan-Quinn in opening remarks at the Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Research and Innovation. The European Union, which according to the commissioner is already funding such cooperation measures, with €40 million, or $52.5 million, is looking to fund additional joint innovation and research projects. Starting in 2014, part of the additional funding will come from the European Union’s proposed Horizon 2020 program for research and innovation, with its budget of €80 billion over seven years. “We had a partnership, but we need to up participation from southern Mediterranean countries,” said Michael Jennings, spokesman for the Commission. Though cooperation projects have been ongoing over the years, said Mr. Jennings by telephone last week, the recent conference was the first such meeting since political revolt began its sweep of the Arab region more than a year ago. — CHRISTOPHER F. SCHUETZE

Research
European Commission
European Union
Education
Colleges and Universities
Great Britain


Alonso’s Bid for Team Is in Doubt

Abstract: The Formula One driver Fernando Alonso’s plan to buy the Spanish cycling team Euskaltel-Euskadi has collapsed. The team said it would shut down.


Electric Scooters, and a Network

Abstract: TAIPEI, Taiwan — Across Asia, motorized two-wheeled vehicles provide mobility for the masses, but emissions from hundreds of millions of scooters and motorcycles are responsible for more than half of traffic pollution in many cities, choking the air with hazardous levels of benzene and particulate matter, in addition to greenhouse gases. This year, a Taiwan-based startup called Gogoro has been using the scooter-filled streets of Taipei to test its Smartscooter, an electric scooter with an efficient all-electric drive train, sleek design and Internet of Things ingenuity. But Gogoro doesn’t want to be called a scooter company. It sees itself as an energy services company at heart. “What technology has done to content, it can also do to energy,” said Horace Luke, Gogoro’s chief executive. The company operates a 4G-connected network of 90 battery-swapping stations around metropolitan Taipei serving a fleet of 2,000-plus smartscooters that are challenging their gasoline-powered rivals in performance — zero to 30 in just over 4 seconds — convenience, and environmental impact. The Smartscooter is quickly gaining market share. As of late November, Gogoro’s flagship vehicle accounted for 95 percent of Taipei’s electric vehicles and 5 percent of scooters overall, Mr. Luke said. Gogoro scooters are powered by two lithium-ion batteries that use the same Panasonic cells as Tesla batteries, with one charge enabling travel of up to 60 miles. When it’s time to swap in fresh batteries, a smartphone app offers directions to the closest station with available batteries (one is a 7-eleven convenience store). In seconds, the user replaces used batteries — which send vehicle diagnostics to the Gogoro network via Bluetooth — with the newest and most-charged batteries at the station. Panasonic has bought into Gogoro’s vision. In November, Gogoro announced that the Japanese company had joined the Taiwan government and the billionaire Samuel Yin as Series B, or second round, investors in Gogoro, making it the second electric vehicle maker to attract Panasonic capital, the other being Tesla. Shortly after raising $130 million in Series B funding, Gogoro announced that it would expand into Europe, beginning with Amsterdam. “The fundamentals of how people live changed in a decade with the smartphone,” Mr. Luke said. “If we put the same effort into how energy is consumed, how much can we change things in 10 years?” Mr. Luke speaks from experience. He was chief innovation officer at the Taiwan-based smartphone maker HTC from 2006 to 2011, helping transform the company from one that made products for other companies to a global brand. While at HTC, Mr. Luke and a colleague, Matt Taylor, began discussing their vision for a new company that would leverage technology for social impact. Being based in Taiwan — where 14 million scooters serve a population of 23 million — scooters seemed like a good place to start. “The scooter hasn’t seen much evolution in the last 20 years,” Mr. Taylor said. “We asked ourselves if we could apply modern technology to something we see buzzing in the streets every day and make a better product in the process.” In 2011, the two men co-founded Gogoro, with Taylor as chief technology officer. They decided to rebuild the scooter from the ground up. Their initial focus was on performance and innovation, but minimizing environmental impact quickly became important. In Taiwan, pollution from scooter exhaust is a public health concern. Studies have found correlations between higher measurements of the fine particulate matter classified as PM2.5 in the air and increased cases of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in local hospitals. During peak traffic hours, exhaust hangs heavy on the city’s scooter lanes, also affecting air quality for nearby pedestrians. The amount of pollutants found in emissions from a new gas scooter exceeds the pollution found in new car emissions by a factor of 100 to 1,000, said André Prévôt of the Switzerland-based Paul Scherrer Institut. Scooters using two-stroke engines are the worst culprits, he said. “The two-stroke engine scooter is the first vehicle to think about in terms of going all-electric, even before larger vehicles, because the pollution is much worse,” said Mr. Prévôt, who researched scooter emissions from 2010 through 2014. “It’s the logical next step in reducing traffic pollution in many Asian cities.” Image As of late November, Gogoro’s scooter accounted for 95 percent of Taipei’s electric vehicles and 5 percent of scooters overall, said Horace Luke, the company’s chief. Credit Sean Marc Lee for The New York Times The Taipei government agrees, and is actively promoting electric scooter purchases. The city’s Department of Environmental Protection offers replacement subsidies of around $45 for residents who retire their two-stroke scooters. A subsidy of up to $800 is available to those who replace their gas motorcycles with electric scooters. Gogoro Smartscooters currently cost between $2,200 and $2,375. In Gogoro’s most recent round of funding, the government also invested $30 million via its Taiwan Development Fund. The company appeals to a government concerned by the vulnerability of its semiconductor industry, an economic pillar that faces increasing competition from China. “They see Gogoro as a huge opportunity for furthering the tech sector,” Mr. Luke said. Taiwanese themselves have welcomed Gogoro. Elaine Kuan, a 29-year-old corporate accountant in Taipei, said she bought her Smartscooter in late July for its ease of riding and convenient technology, but also for its low environmental impact. “I have asthma, so air pollution is a big deal to me,” Ms. Kuan said. “I hope that starting with myself I can slowly influence others and make the planet a place without vehicle emission pollution.” Performance and convenience were the two main reasons Darren Liu, a 31-year-old pastry chef, bought his Smartscooter. “The riding experience and acceleration are much better than my previous gas-powered bike,” Mr. Liu said. “It’s the first electric scooter I’ve seen that can get up into the hills.” The battery swap model was also a big selling point. His previous experience using a relative’s electric scooter required hours of charging, compared with 30 seconds to swap his Gogoro batteries. As it expands beyond greater Taipei to Taoyuan — where it is headquartered — and the tech hub Hsinchu, Gogoro is exploring the possibilities offered by a growing network of battery stations. “At our core, we’re an energy company,” Mr. Taylor said. “Once the mix is actually working, it’s readily scalable.” The stations cost less than $10,000, have a small footprint and require only an outlet and Internet access, he said. Mr. Luke said his company envisions an open system in which other companies develop products that can use Gogoro’s batteries. Many companies — in fields as diverse as robotics, logistics and appliances — have inquired, he said. But he added that Gogoro’s longer-term vision was focused on “how to take energy and give it back to the grid when it needs it most.” Gogoro’s entrance into the market this year comes as car companies including General Motors, Ford and Daimler-Benz are beginning to view themselves as service providers rather than manufacturers. “There’s a transformation in the market where companies are being expected to expand into energy services,” said John Gartner of the consultancy Navigant Research. Companies that get involved in electric-powered mobility will naturally move toward stationary storage, he said. “They’re looking to expand both markets by getting to economies of scale faster,” Mr. Gartner added. Mr. Luke said that taking the scooter to Amsterdam in the first half of 2016 would provide a platform for demonstrating the role of Gogoro’s scooters and battery stations to new markets. “If you think about smart cities in the world today, Amsterdam comes up in the top three, if not the top one,” he said. “We’ve seen a lot of success in Taipei. We’re taking that momentum and building on that to move into Europe quickly.”

electric scooters
Taipei
Motorcycles
Batteries
Vehicle Emissions
electric bikes


A Simple Gesture Between Husband and Wife Says More Than Words

Abstract: Journalists see many things in high-profile court cases that never get reported. Jurors fall asleep. Lawyers roll their eyes. Family members shake their heads. The hand-holding of Rod and Patti Blagojevich as they walked into and out of court would normally fall into that category. The difference is that several of us noticed it — the one constant in the news media frenzy surrounding Mr. Blagojevich’s comings and goings. On many days his wife pulled him away from the crowds and the cameras that always seemed to lure him as the couple made their way back to the car waiting outside the courthouse. On other days, he tugged her hand as he led the way into the building. When Mr. Blagojevich stepped out of the car each morning and started to shake supporters’ hands, his other hand was almost always searching for hers. But when they entered the 25th-floor courtroom on most days, it appeared that he was pulling her hand to lead her inside. When court was in session and the Blagojeviches were out of reach of each other, she often knitted in the front row of the gallery and the couple kept in contact with an occasional glance or whisper. Mrs. Blagojevich was not at the trial just as a spectator or as a companion. Her voice was heard through the courtroom speakers on the dozens of wiretapped telephone conversations played at the trial. Outside the courthouse, however, she had little to say to the reporters or spectators crowded at the door. José Moré, a veteran photographer whose job it is to capture nuance, noticed the pattern. He focused on this image as the couple headed to their car outside the courthouse on Aug. 12, the day Judge James B. Zagel told jurors to continue working toward a verdict after the jury told him they had not reached agreement on several counts. JIM KIRK

Blagojevich Rod R
Decisions and Verdicts


Son to Succeed Father as an Iraqi Shiite Leader

Abstract: BAGHDAD — One of Iraq ’s leading Shiite political parties moved quickly on Monday to fill the vacuum left by the death of its influential leader last week, nominating his son to take over a party now poised to challenge Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki in national elections next year. The nominee, Ammar al-Hakim , the scion of a respected political and religious family that fought Saddam Hussein’s government from exile and emerged as a political force after its fall, was widely expected to take over the party, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council . His father, Abdul Aziz al-Hakim , who died of cancer in Tehran last week , provided for the succession in his will, heading off any potential leadership challenges. The party’s television network announced the nomination, and a spokesman said it would be ratified by the party’s leadership on Tuesday. Mr. Hakim’s ascension came as Iraq and Syria intensified their clash over claims that the catastrophic attack on two government ministries in Baghdad on Aug. 19 was organized by Iraqis living in Syria. Iraqi officials have demanded that Syria turn over two men it says masterminded the attacks, which killed at least 132 people and raised doubts about the ability of Mr. Maliki’s government to provide basic security, a liability in his campaign for re-election. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria responded angrily to Iraq’s assertions on Monday, saying that Iraq had provided no evidence for its claims. “The least that can be said about this accusation is that it’s immoral,” Mr. Assad said, saying that Syria was host to 1.2 million refugees from the war in Iraq, The Associated Press reported from Damascus, the Syrian capital. Mr. Maliki, for his part, claimed that 90 percent of foreign fighters involved in attacks inside Iraq passed through Syria. Officials have long accused Syria of failing to halt the flow, though American military officials have recently said the number of fighters had dwindled, perhaps as a result of diplomatic entreaties from the Obama administration. On Sunday, Iraq’s state television network broadcast remarks from a second suspect officials said had been trained in Syria, one week after a similar video confession was shown. “Since 2004, Iraq has given to Syria the names, addresses, information, documents and evidence on the activities of terrorists and some known extremist groups, their locations and methods of infiltration across Syrian territory,” Mr. Maliki said after meeting Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, who arrived in Baghdad on Monday in an effort to mediate. The younger Mr. Hakim takes over at a time when the once-dominant Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council has lost ground among Shiites, largely at the expense of Mr. Maliki’s Dawa party, which prevailed in provincial elections with a less overtly sectarian appeal based on restoring security. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Hakim can command the same authority as his father, who led the party from 2003 until illness forced him from active participation. Though the son has long been groomed for the party’s leadership and served as the head of its social organization, which builds and runs hospitals, libraries, schools and food banks , he was not instrumental in the party’s transition from an exiled opposition group to a major force in Iraq after Mr. Hussein was toppled. “It’s not his age, per se,” Kenneth Katzman, who follows Iraqi politics for the Congressional Research Service in Washington, said of Mr. Hakim’s challenge in leading the party. “It’s because he was not involved in the big decisions,” he said, including the party’s founding in Iran in 1982 and its cooperation with the United States before and after the 2003 invasion. Only days before the death of its leader, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council joined a new coalition of mostly Shiite parties that hopes to prevail in elections now scheduled for January. Mr. Maliki refused to join , splintering Iraq’s largest electoral bloc. At one of several eulogies for his father over the weekend, Mr. Hakim called on Mr. Maliki and others to reconsider their decisions not to join the new coalition, the Iraqi National Alliance. Despite his new position, Mr. Hakim is not expected to take over the alliance and thus run as its candidate for prime minister. The alliance has not yet signaled who will lead it in the elections, though the leading contenders are Vice President Adel Abdul Mahdi, a member of the party Mr. Hakim now leads, and Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a former prime minister. In Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, a car bomb killed at least 4 and wounded 17, most of them civilians, Monday evening. The bombing, in the Qara Taba district north of Baquba, occurred on a street of markets as Iraqis broke the Ramadan fast.

Iraq
Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council
Hakim Abdul Aziz al-


Usain Bolt Withdraws From Meet

Abstract: Usain Bolt pulled out of Friday’s Van Damme Memorial in Brussels, unwilling to risk injuries before next year’s Olympics.


Senior Aide to Hussein Sentenced to 15 Years

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Tariq Aziz, the senior aide to Saddam Hussein who gained international renown as the public face of Iraq during the Persian Gulf war in 1991, was sentenced to 15 years in prison on Wednesday for crimes against humanity. It is the second verdict to be issued in a case involving Mr. Aziz, 73. Earlier this month he was acquitted on charges of ordering a brutal crackdown against Shiite protesters after the assassination of a revered cleric. He still faces charges in a third trial involving a massacre of Kurds in 1983. Two of Mr. Hussein’s half brothers, Watban Ibrahim al-Hassan and Sabawi Ibrahim al-Hassan, were sentenced to death in the same case, the 1992 executions of 42 Baghdad merchants accused of speculating on the price of food while the country was under severe international sanctions after its invasion of neighboring Kuwait. Also sentenced in the case was Ali Hassan Majid, known as Chemical Ali , who received 15 years in prison. One of Mr. Hussein’s most notorious henchmen, Mr. Majid has been sentenced to death in three trials. However, while Mr. Hussein’s death sentence was swiftly carried out, it remains unclear when Mr. Majid will be executed. Mr. Aziz has said he is not guilty of any wrongdoing in any of the cases against him, and one of his lawyers said he would appeal. “The decision was surprising and a shock for me as lawyer and for all lawyers and legal experts in the world,” said the lawyer, Badea Araf Azzit, speaking by telephone from Jordan. “Tariq Aziz had nothing to do with the security issue under Saddam. He was in charge of only a diplomatic and political portfolio.” At the time of the executions, he said, Mr. Aziz was on an official mission to Europe. As Mr. Hussein’s longtime confidant, Mr. Aziz played a prominent role in all of Iraq’s wars, including its 1980-88 conflict with Iran. In the gulf war, he rejected a last-minute overture from President George Bush for talks, citing what he called the American leader’s humiliating tone. In 2003, two weeks after Mr. Hussein’s government was toppled, Mr. Aziz turned himself over to coalition forces. There was scattered violence across the country on Wednesday, including a car bomb attack in Mosul that killed three Iraqi soldiers and another car bomb in Kirkuk that left at least one person dead and a dozen wounded, security officials said.

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Matt Barnes Suspended After Clash With Knicks’ Derek Fisher

Abstract: The N.B.A. suspended forward Matt Barnes of the Memphis Grizzlies for two games Monday for his role in a physical altercation in October with Derek Fisher, the coach of the Knicks. Barnes, 35, confronted Fisher, 41, on Oct. 3 at the Redondo Beach, Calif., house of Gloria Govan, Barnes’s estranged wife and a star of the “Basketball Wives” reality television series. The quarrel became physical and Barnes threatened Fisher, according to the N.B.A. The police were called, but no charges were filed. The league conducted its own investigation of the events before issuing the penalty. The N.B.A. did not discipline Fisher on Monday. Fisher and Barnes played together on the Los Angeles Lakers from 2010 to 2012. The Knicks are scheduled to play the Grizzles on Jan. 16 in Memphis. Barnes’s suspension is likely to begin Tuesday night, when the Grizzlies play the Miami Heat. He would then miss another game Saturday night against the Utah Jazz. NETS 111, HEAT 105 Wayne Ellington tied a career best with seven 3-pointers and scored 26 points, Brook Lopez added 26 points and 12 rebounds, and the Nets rallied from 16 points down in the third quarter to beat host Miami. Shane Larkin was inserted into the second-half starting lineup and had seven assists in the third quarter to ignite the comeback. Chris Bosh was a career-best 5 for 5 from 3-point range and finished with 24 points and 12 rebounds for Miami, which got 24 more points from Dwyane Wade. Miami scored the first 2 points of the second half to go up by 60-44. By the time the quarter ended, the Heat were down. Ellington made a 3-pointer late in the third to cap a 32-14 run and give the Nets the lead, and his seventh of the night — with 1 minute 11 seconds remaining in the game — put the Nets up, 103-93. (AP) PACERS 93, HAWKS 87 Monta Ellis scored 26 points as host Indiana ended Atlanta’s six-game winning streak. (AP)

Matt Barnes
Knicks
Derek Fisher
Memphis Grizzlies
Gloria Govan
Basketball


Great Lawn Just Got Better, Park Visitors Agree

Abstract: One day after the city rescinded a regulation that had limited the size of the crowds allowed on the Great Lawn in Central Park, there were no blankets, no tents, no fans with picnic baskets — and no picnic baskets, either. And no Paul Simon, no giant stages and no giant video monitors, as there were when Mr. Simon appeared there in 1991. On a day that felt more like June than January — temperatures in the 60s, far too warm for the heaviest coat in the closet but far too blustery for shorts — there was the fence. There were the 13 acres of Kentucky bluegrass. And there was talk of the court settlement on Tuesday under which the city dropped a limit that had held the size of crowds allowed on the lawn to 50,000. There was also Sofie, who, the person with her said happily, is developing a beard. That makes Sofie sound like an aspiring circus sideshow act. An up-and-coming bearded lady? No. Sofie is a 5-month-old bloodhound who was born in France, and she was on the right side of the fence, the wrong side being the side where the grass is. The idea is to give the grass a rest in the winter, unless there is enough snow for cross-country skiing. The person with Sofie, Heather Conley of the Dog House NYC, a walking-and-boarding service, had struck up a conversation with Robin Grieves, who used to live on West 60th Street. He now lives in Dunedin, New Zealand, and teaches at the University of Otago. He said he and his wife, Jane, were celebrating 40 years of marriage. Mrs. Grieves said they had moved 13 times in those 40 years. They were asked about the settlement agreement, in which the city not only stepped back from the crowd-limitation policy, but also raised the maximum number of people permitted on the lawn to 75,000. The city had said the rule had been adopted to protect the lawn. But under the rule, antiwar demonstrators were denied permits. The Partnership for Civil Justice, a public interest organization, took the city to federal court on behalf of two antiwar groups, the National Council of Arab Americans and the Answer Coalition, which had been denied permits for a rally in 2004. Under the agreement, an independent committee will now study “the optimum and sustainable use of the Great Lawn for large events.” Mr. Grieves did not need to wait for the study. “One answer is, you post a bond if you’re going to use the lawn” for a large event, he said. “When you leave, if the lawn just needs to be picked up, fine — the cost is nearly zero. If it’s torn up, the money you posted is used to clean up the lawn.” Ms. Conley nodded. “You should be able to have a rally here,” she said. “It’s a public space, with the caveat that if you open it to one, you open it to others. Freedom of speech, the right to gather.” She said she remembered when the case had first been in the headlines. “I supposed at the time that there was a political reason,” she said. They passed a man with baseball cap that had a “C” and a “1956” above the brim, 1956 being the year the man, Dr. Alan Miller, graduated from Columbia University. “They have, I think, five kinds of grass in there,” said Dr. Miller, a retired nephrologist. “I’m not an authority, but they’ve done a phenomenal job.” (In fact, a Parks Department spokeswoman said later that there are only three kinds of grass in that part of the park.) “The park as a whole is an extraordinary place,” Dr. Miller said. “It’s private money that’s resurrected it. The money didn’t come from the city, and the park is what makes Manhattan what it is. If you put another 150 apartment houses in here, that wouldn’t do anybody any good.” Like Ms. Conley, he remembered the court case about events on the Great Lawn, and he had an opinion: “They shouldn’t discriminate because of political leanings.”

Great Lawn
Parks Department
Central Park (NYC)
Demonstrations and Riots
Parks and Other Recreation Areas


Ukraine: Gay Pride Rally Banned

Abstract: A Ukrainian court on Thursday banned what would have been Ukraine’s first gay pride demonstration, upholding a suit by city authorities in Kiev who argued that the rally would disturb the annual Kiev Day celebrations and could prompt violence. The highly influential Orthodox Church strongly opposes the gay rights movement. Amnesty International said in a recent report that gay Ukrainians suffer attacks and abuses as well as widespread discrimination.

Ukraine
Kiev
Discrimination
Homosexuality
Human Rights


Attorney General Moves to Forefront of Virginia Conservative Resurgence

Abstract: RICHMOND, Va. — In campaigning to become Virginia’s attorney general, Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II made no secret of his conservative views, winning enthusiastic endorsements from the National Rifle Association and the National Coalition for Life. But since taking office in January, Mr. Cuccinelli, a former state senator from Fairfax County, has surprised even his most ardent supporters with several high-profile legal actions that have ignited political firestorms extinguished only with help from Gov. Robert F. McDonnell, a fellow Republican more moderate in style if not beliefs. This month, Mr. Cuccinelli instructed the state’s public colleges to end policies that banned discrimination against homosexuals, spurring angry protests and forcing the governor to issue a statement that workplace discrimination is illegal. This week, Mr. Cuccinelli said he planned to sue the federal government over the health care reform law’s requirement that everyone carry health insurance. “We are in the minority in Washington and here in Virginia because Republicans abandoned their core principles,” Mr. Cuccinelli said as he accepted his party’s nomination in front of a Revolutionary War-era yellow flag with a coiled snake and the words “Don’t tread on me” that have become the symbol of the Tea Party movement. “If you want an A.G. with a record of defending the Constitution as it was written,” he said, “I’m your candidate.” Mr. Cuccinelli is quickly and deliberately moving to the forefront of a conservative resurgence in Virginia, which just two years ago was hailed by Democrats as a symbol of their party’s ability to capture the South. But his toughest challenge may be to position himself among his Republican peers. Outspoken and unwavering in his opposition to abortion and homosexuality and in support of property and gun rights, Mr. Cuccinelli is a purist among pragmatists. He stands out as a pugnacious culture warrior in a party more eager to court moderate and fiscal conservatives, and in a state whose governor hopes to portray himself as a consensus builder. “Ken was a tea partier before there was a Tea Party,” said David B. Albo, a Republican delegate from Fairfax County and close friend of the attorney general. “I tend to take my job responsibility as doing what a majority of my constituents want me to do. Ken sees his job as setting a path and trying to explain to his constituents that this is the way we want to go.”  In recent weeks, though, some of Mr. Cuccinelli’s hard stands have become a headache for Governor McDonnell. Last week, the governor was left to respond to questions about his attorney general after an audio clip surfaced on the Web in which Mr. Cuccinelli, in a recorded telephone conversation. offered a legal strategy for testing the notion, popular among certain conservatives, that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States and therefore lacked eligibility to run for president. It was “possible,” Mr. Cuccinelli said, that a person could “challenge” a federal law as illegitimate because “someone qualified to be president didn’t sign it.” The governor quickly made clear that he had no doubts Mr. Obama was born in this country, and later so did Mr. Cuccinelli, in a statement that explained he had given a hypothetical answer to a question. Still, stylistic differences aside, Mr. McDonnell and Mr. Cucinnelli agree on many policy matters. (Both men declined to be interviewed for this article.) Mr. McDonnell has resisted legal protections for gay state employees, and in 2006 he described as unconstitutional part of an anti-bias order issued by the governor at the time, Tim Kaine, a Democrat. Nevertheless, Mr. McDonnell was blindsided and deeply annoyed by the legal opinion Mr. Cuccinelli issued to colleges about homosexuals. “I think it’s fair to say that the governor and lieutenant governor are not happy that the attorney general opened this new front in the culture wars while they’re focused on a terrible fiscal situation,” said Larry J. Sabato, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. Mr. Cuccinelli’s action also jeopardized the governor’s efforts to lure the defense giant Northrop Grumman, which has gay-friendly employee policies, to move to Fairfax County from Los Angeles, said a staff assistant to Mr. McDonnell who is not authorized to speak to the press and insisted on anonymity Some people did not see that as such a bad thing. “Ken is in tune with typical family people, people who work in this state,” said Robert G. Marshall, a Republican delegate from Prince William County. Mr. Cuccinelli’s popularity, he said, derives from his sharp legal mind and steadfastness to his principles regardless of what others think. “When others make him seem controversial, it just raises his name recognition,” Mr. Marshall said. Mr. Cuccinelli’s former law partner, Chris Day, described him as headstrong and contrarian. Mr. Cuccinelli insisted that his law office phone extension and suite carry the number 13, to thumb his nose at superstitious people who think the number brings bad luck, Mr. Day said. When lawyers suggested that Mr. Cuccinelli replace his “hideously purplish jalopy” — a 1999 Dodge Intrepid with more than 200,000 miles — Mr. Cuccinelli refused. He preferred its more humble image. As a lawmaker from one of the state’s most liberal regions, Mr. Cuccinelli proudly described himself as “the most aggressive pro-life leader in the Virginia Senate.” He favored legislation granting legal rights to fetuses at conception and voted against a bill stating that contraception is not abortion. He also sponsored bills requiring regulations so strict they would have put most abortion clinics out of business. More recently, he has been channeling the fears and frustrations many tea partiers feel toward the federal government. While campaigning last year, he told a crowd he was considering not registering his son for a Social Security number because “it is being used to track you.” Still, Mr. Cuccinelli’s rhetoric has had some subtle political upsides for the governor, burnishing his image as a moderate on social issues and softening the fallout from Mr. McDonnell’s 1989 master’s thesis in which he described working women and feminists as “detrimental” to the family and criticized government policies that support “cohabitators, homosexuals or fornicators.” Noting that “politics works in strange ways,” Mr. Sabato, the political science professor, said, “Mr. Cuccinelli is proving to be one of the most unusual statewide officials Virginia has ever had.”

Virginia
Tea Party Movement
Politics and Government
Conservatism (US Politics)
Cuccinelli II Kenneth T.
Republican Party


Pressed by White House, Treasury Chief Expected to Stay On

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Timothy F. Geithner , the Treasury secretary and dean of President Obama ’s economic team, is expected to stay through the president’s term after intense White House pressure, according to officials familiar with the discussions. But Mr. Geithner has not yet notified the White House of his intentions, and family considerations could still win out, advisers say. Speculation from Washington to Wall Street has intensified because Mr. Geithner, the only holdover at the center of Mr. Obama’s original economic circle, said a month ago that he would decide on his future after the White House and Congress reached a deal to increase the nation’s debt ceiling . Mr. Obama signed that deal into law on Tuesday. Mr. Obama and his chief of staff, William M. Daley , have been urging Mr. Geithner to stay, administration officials say, not only for continuity when the economy has weakened and to avoid an all-but-certain confirmation fight in the Senate over a successor, but also because Mr. Obama has developed a close rapport with Mr. Geithner. Whether the president persuades Mr. Geithner to stay will be a central development for the White House as it girds for a re-election race expected to turn on the economy and the continuing battle of the budget with Republicans. Mr. Geithner has been considering an exit since early this year, administration officials say. None would speak directly on what Mr. Obama has said to his Treasury secretary because the two men have private meetings alone once a week. On Monday, after the previous night’s announcement of the debt accord, Mr. Geithner convened advisers to talk about his future agenda, including dealing with the European debt crisis , housing and overhauling the corporate tax code. Aides say they took that as a clue he was staying, only to wonder on Tuesday, when a photographer came in to capture Mr. Geithner watching the final vote for the debt deal, if the photos were intended as a record of Mr. Geithner’s final days. Especially in recent weeks, the issue has become a running joke, officials say: Mr. Geithner and Mr. Daley tease about the ankle bracelet that the White House makes him wear, or Mr. Geithner asks if Mr. Daley has yet read his resignation letter, to which Mr. Daley answers in unprintable language. But the pressure from the top on Mr. Geithner was more serious one day about two weeks ago, officials say. Mr. Daley has also told Mr. Geithner’s top lieutenants — Deputy Secretary Neal S. Wolin and Mark A. Patterson, the chief of staff — that he wants them to remain, though Jake Siewert, Mr. Geithner’s counselor, is returning to New York as soon as this week. Neither Mr. Geithner nor Mr. Daley would comment. “I haven’t made that decision yet,” Mr. Geithner said Tuesday in an interview with ABC. He added, “We’ve got a lot of challenges, president’s got a lot of challenges, and, you know, I got other pressures on me, too.” Chief among those pressures are his family. Mr. Geithner’s wife and son moved back to New York in June so his son could complete high school there. And Mr. Geithner has been working at a breakneck pace since the early days of the financial crisis in 2007. Formerly president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York , he has been among the three top stewards of the economy, along with Ben S. Bernanke , the Federal Reserve chairman, and the Bush administration Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson . “He’s had a tough job during a tough time, and I think he’s really slogged through and made some really tough choices,” said Senator Mark Warner , Democrat of Virginia . “I can understand why he might want to cash it in.” But, he added, “My fear is not only who would you get that would have the experience to grapple with another crisis but also, do we really need a massive confirmation fight?” From the start, Mr. Geithner’s biggest critics have been on the left. But Jared Bernstein , a former member of the administration’s economic team and a liberal economist close to some of the critics, said: “To the extent people vilify Tim as only caring about banks , they’re way off. He’s always understood that Main Street depends on credit from Wall Street, and I know for a fact that he advocated the steps we took for that reason, not to preserve anyone’s capital or profits. I’ve actually heard him say some pretty nasty stuff about those guys.” The prospects of being drawn into an election-year confirmation brawl could deter some who might be considered as Mr. Geithner’s successor. Among those named by people familiar with administration thinking are Jamie Dimon , the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase ; Jeffrey R. Immelt , the chairman of General Electric and of Mr. Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness; Roger Altman, a deputy Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration; and Erskine Bowles , a former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s fiscal commission in 2010. Some Democrats say Mr. Bowles might be one of the few people who could surmount the opposition of Senate Republicans, given his good relations with some of them after his work on the bipartisan fiscal commission. “In rational times, absolutely” Mr. Bowles would be confirmed, Mr. Warner said. “But I’m not sure we’re in rational times.”

Timothy F Geithner
Treasury Department
US Politics
Appointments and Executive Changes
US Economy
Barack Obama


Northern Iowa Ekes One Out Against U.N.L.V.

Abstract: OKLAHOMA CITY — Northern Iowa had plenty of time to break a tie with one final shot, and for a few shaky moments as the Nevada-Las Vegas defense converged, it looked as if the Panthers might turn the ball over. Then the ball sailed to Ali Farokhmanesh. Farokhmanesh was about 30 feet from the basket, but he was open and he had not been bashful about shooting even when covered. His shot swished through the net with 4.9 seconds left, and Northern Iowa advanced in the N.C.A.A. tournament with a 69-66 victory over U.N.L.V. The victory for the Panthers (29-4), seeded No. 9 in the Midwest Region, moved them into a second-round game against the winner of the Kansas-Lehigh game. Northern Iowa stayed close to the Runnin’ Rebels through the first half, which ended with U.N.L.V. holding a 36-35 lead. Jordan Eglseder, the 7-foot, 280-pound Northern Iowa center, was a particular challenge for U.N.L.V. He scored nine first-half points on 4-of-7 shooting and wrestled down 7 rebounds. Farokhmanesh, a senior from Iowa City, had 8 points for Northern Iowa. U.N.L.V. made nearly 45 percent of its shots and often sprinted past the Northern Iowa players to drop in layups, dunks and short jump shots. Northern Iowa struggled to keep up. But then U.N.L.V. lost its shooting touch, and with 8 minutes 40 seconds left in the second half, Farokhmanesh scored a 3-point basket from the left corner, giving the Panthers a 53-48 lead. Northern Iowa extended its lead to 58-51 with 6:31 left. Just when it looked as if the Panthers would build a lead too big for a Rebels’ comeback, U.N.L.V. rallied, scoring 8 of the next 10 points. Chace Stanback hit a 3-pointer from the corner and followed a missed shot with 4:08 left to trim the deficit to 62-61. When Northern Iowa broke the U.N.L.V. press and Kwadzo Ahelegbe hit a contested shot with 2:11 left, the Panthers had a 3-point lead. Oscar Bellfield tied the score for U.N.L.V. by calmly sinking a 3-pointer. But Northern Iowa had the ball one more time, making it count.

NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
University of Northern Iowa
University of Nevada
Farokhmanesh Ali