With Microsoft in Sights, China Starts to Squeeze U.S. Tech Companies

Abstract: BEIJING — China, once the hottest growth market for United States technology companies, is turning chillier. In the latest sign of the change in climate, officials from a Chinese government agency that enforces antimonopoly laws and other business regulations visited four Microsoft offices across China on Monday, the company said. China is still one of the largest and most promising markets for United States tech companies, as well as home to the factories that make devices as varied as iPhones and Xboxes. But tensions between the United States and China have escalated over spying concerns by both sides. And in recent months Chinese authorities have increased their scrutiny of foreign tech companies. At the same time, they appear to be stepping up their use of laws to help bolster the fortunes of native technology companies. “The U.S. tech companies are much more concerned than they were two or three years ago,” said Robert Atkinson, president of the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, a technology policy think tank. “Most of them were looking with growing interest at the China market. Now they’re much more concerned that the rug is being pulled out from under them.” The officials from the State Administration for Industry and Commerce visited Microsoft offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Chengdu, Joanna Li, a public relations officer for the company, confirmed in a phone interview, answering questions about earlier reports in the Chinese news media. “There was a visit from government officials to our offices,” she said. “Given the sensitivity of the issue, I can’t say any more.” There was no announcement about the visits on the State Administration’s website, and calls to its Beijing headquarters after working hours were not answered. The news may add to the growing anxiety among foreign corporate executives who have watched Chinese authorities take on some of the largest Western companies, including GlaxoSmithKline, the British pharmaceutical giant whose employees in China have been accused of bribing doctors and hospital staff to use the company’s products. But China has used its antimonopoly law, which went into effect in 2008, with a special zeal against United States technology companies. Last week, the state media announced that a separate regulatory body, the National Development and Reform Commission, was looking into possible antitrust violations by Qualcomm, one of the world’s largest makers of the chips used in mobile devices. According to the Securities Times newspaper, the agency is investigating accusations that the company overcharged Chinese customers and abused its dominant market position. Whether intentional or not, the announcement coincided with a visit to China last week by Qualcomm’s chief executive, Steven M. Mollenkopf, who held talks with government officials and announced the creation of a $150 million “strategic venture fund” to invest in Chinese technology start-up companies. In May, Bloomberg reported that the Chinese government has started to examine the dependence of Chinese banks on computer servers made by IBM. In April, the United States Chamber of Commerce sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry and Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew expressing concern that Chinese authorities were using their antimonopoly law “to advance industrial policies that nurture domestic enterprises, rather than the internationally accepted norm of using competition law to protect consumer welfare and competition.” Meanwhile, Chinese news media reports have named Microsoft as among the foreign technology companies likely to come under tighter government checks for security risks after the revelations by Edward J. Snowden about United States government surveillance. “It’s a combination of punishment and paranoia,” said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a research group. “The Chinese government has always been suspicious of U.S. I.T. products and is using Snowden as an excuse.” Duncan Clark, chairman of BDA China, a consulting firm in Beijing, said Chinese investigations into American tech companies operating in China appeared to have gathered momentum after the Justice Department’s decision in May to indict the Chinese People’s Liberation Army on charges that it hacked into the networks of American companies, including the United States Steel Corporation. “Previously there would be hesitation before taking on a big iconic U.S. company and the impact it might have on trade, but not anymore,” he said. “The gloves are off.” In May, Chinese police accused the former head of Glaxo’s China operations, Mark Reilly, of ordering his subordinates to form a “massive bribery network” that resulted in higher drug prices and illegal revenue of more than $150 million. The State Administration for Industry and Commerce, which led the investigation into Glaxo, is the agency whose employees visited Microsoft’s offices on Monday. The targeting of American tech companies began in earnest four years ago, after Google, complaining about hacking and requirements that it censor its search results, announced that it would move most of its China-based search functions to Hong Kong. Since then, Google services like Gmail and Google Books have been almost inaccessible here at times, although the Chinese government denies any role in the interference. Microsoft’s operating systems and software are widely used by Chinese businesses and government offices. Often, those products have been bootleg copies, but the company also has been the subject of citizens’ complaints that its dominance amounts to a monopoly that has allowed it to charge too much. In another blow to Microsoft, China’s Central Government Procurement Center forbade state agencies from using the company’s new Windows 8 operating system on its computers over security concerns prompted by Microsoft’s decision to end technical support for its older Windows XP operating system, according to Xinhua, China’s official state-run news agency. “We aim to build products that deliver the features, security and reliability customers expect, and we’re happy to answer the government’s questions,” Ms. Li said in an email. In June, President Xi Jinping of China reinforced longstanding government demands that China master and control new technologies, and reduce the country’s reliance on foreign suppliers. “Only if core technologies are in our own hands can we truly hold the initiative in competition and development,” Mr. Xi told Chinese scientists and engineers.

Microsoft
China
Competition law
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry


With Le’Veon Bell Running Loose, Steelers Rally Past Titans

Abstract: Ben Roethlisberger threw a 12-yard touchdown pass to Antonio Brown with 9 minutes 1 second left, and the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the Tennessee Titans, 27-24, on Monday night. The Steelers (7-4) staged an impressive rally in the second half to take sole possession of second place in the competitive A.F.C. North heading into their bye. Le’Veon Bell ran for 204 yards and a touchdown, and William Gay returned an interception 28 yards for a score. Shaun Suisham kicked two field goals. The Titans (2-8) blew a 24-13 lead on a night on which they sacked Roethlisberger five times and intercepted a pass in the end zone. The rookie Zach Mettenberger threw for 263 yards and two touchdown passes, and Bishop Sankey, another rookie, ran for score. But Tennessee’s offense fizzled in the fourth quarter. When Pittsburgh got the ball back with 6:58 left, the Steelers did not give it back and eventually knelt with it for the win. DRUG CHECKS CONFIRMED Officials of the Cincinnati Bengals and the Detroit Lions have confirmed that federal drug enforcement agents visited their teams over the weekend to check on how their medical staffs handled prescription drugs. Bengals officials said Monday that Drug Enforcement Administration agents from New York had met with the team at a New Orleans airport and had asked to see registrations and paperwork for controlled substances being carried by Cincinnati’s medical staff. No problems were found, the officials said. The Bengals said in a short statement that the team had never had any problems with prescriptions or controlled substances. The statement said that “any issues which might be present elsewhere are not present within our organization.” Image A teammate said Chargers quarterback Philip Rivers had a “very severe” injury; his coach disputed that. Credit Denis Poroy/Associated Press Detroit Coach Jim Caldwell said the Lions were one of the teams that had been questioned by agents. When asked if the Lions had been approached, a team spokesman referred to comments Caldwell made to WXYZ, a Detroit-area television station. Caldwell told the station, “From what I understand, they did interview one of our doctors, and I know we were in compliance.” JAGUARS CORNERBACK CHARGED Dwayne Gratz, a starting cornerback for the Jacksonville Jaguars, missed practice after being arrested on misdemeanor charges. A report from the Miami Beach police said Gratz had been arrested at 5:53 a.m. Sunday after he tried to use bubble gum to purchase items from a store. He argued with an employee, refused to leave the store after the police arrived and had bloodshot eyes and smelled of alcohol, according to the report. Gratz, a third-round draft pick in 2013 who has started seven games this season, was charged with disorderly intoxication and trespassing after being given a warning. He was released from jail Monday after posting bail. RIVERS’S RIBS AT ISSUE San Diego Chargers Coach Mike McCoy disputed a comment by tight end Antonio Gates, who said quarterback Philip Rivers had suffered a severe rib injury Sunday against Oakland. After the game, commenting on Rivers’s toughness, Gates said: “For those who don’t know, he’s been dealing with a rib injury, a very severe rib injury. So he’s been toughing it out these last three, four weeks.” McCoy said that Rivers had “never missed a snap in practice” and that he had not been in treatment with the team’s trainer, “so I would not say ‘severe injury.’ ” INJURY REPORT The Cleveland Browns may have lost the starting linebackers Karlos Dansby and Jabaal Sheard for the season. Dansby injured his left knee in Sunday’s loss to Houston. Sheard has a foot injury. ... New Orleans Saints receiver Brandin Cooks had surgery on a broken thumb, his agent said, adding that Cooks’s recovery time was expected to be four to six weeks. Saints safety Rafael Bush said he had a fractured bone in his lower right leg.

Steelers
Titans
Bengals
Detroit Lions
Jim Caldwell
Football
DEA


Victim in Colorado School Shooting Dies

Abstract: A Colorado high school student who was shot in the head on Dec. 13 by a schoolmate died on Saturday afternoon, her family and hospital officials said. The victim, Claire Davis, 17, had been in critical condition since the shooting at Arapahoe High School in Centennial, a suburb of Denver. “It is with unspeakable sadness that we write and say that Claire has passed away from the gunshot wound she received,” her family said in a statement. “We ask that you give us time to grieve the death of our daughter by respecting our wishes for privacy.” Littleton Adventist Hospital, where Ms. Davis had been in a coma, said she died about 4:30 p.m. with her family by her side. “Despite the best efforts of our physicians and nursing staff, and Claire’s fighting spirit, her injuries were too severe and the most advanced medical treatments could not prevent this tragic loss of life,” the hospital said in a statement on Facebook. “Claire’s death is immensely heartbreaking for our entire community, our staff and our families.” Ms. Davis, a senior, was sitting near a school entrance when Karl H. Pierson, 18, fired a shotgun five times, hitting Ms. Davis in the head before killing himself. She was not a planned target, the authorities have said. Mr. Pierson, a student at the school, possibly had planned to confront a librarian who had disciplined him, but he had enough weapons to hurt many others, the authorities have said. He was carrying three gasoline bombs, a machete and 125 rounds of ammunition, in addition to the shotgun, Sheriff Grayson Robinson of Arapahoe County has said.

School shooting
Claire Davis
Murders
Karl H Pierson
Centennial CO


Bank Survey Shows Credit Is Growing Even Tighter

Abstract: WASHINGTON (AP) — Banks tightened the spigots further on all sorts of lending, from home mortgages to credit cards and business loans, as the worst financial crisis in seven decades took a bigger toll on the economy. The Federal Reserve said Monday that its latest quarterly survey of bank lending practices found high numbers of banks reporting tighter credit standards across a broad range of loan products. Nearly 60 percent of banks responding to the survey said they had tightened lending standards on credit card debt. The latest Fed survey was taken in the first two weeks of October, too soon to reflect possible effects of the government’s program to inject about $250 billion into banks by directly buying shares in them as part of a broader financial rescue effort . The government also plans to buy billions in distressed mortgage-related assets that banks hold. The Fed survey of 55 domestic banks and 21 United States offices of foreign banks found that sizable percentages of banks had “continued to tighten their lending standards and terms on all major loan categories over the previous three months.” The Fed found 85 percent of the domestic banks responding to the survey reported that they had tightened their lending standards for a major type of business loan known as “commercial and industrial,” up from 60 percent in the June survey. Nearly all banks, 95 percent, reported tighter standards for the lines of credit they extend to large and medium-size businesses. A large number of banks also reported they were tightening standards for both credit cards and other types of consumer loans. Besides the nearly 60 percent of banks tightening standards on credit card debt, 65 percent said they had tightened lending standards for other types of consumer loans over the last three months. About 20 percent of the domestic banks reported cutting limits for existing credit card accounts held by prime, or strong credit, customers. Credit card lenders have been reducing customers’ credit lines, raising interest rates or even closing accounts as they tighten the reins to reduce their risk. Continuing a pattern seen since the housing bubble burst, large majorities of banks reported tighter lending standards on prime mortgage loans, as well as nontraditional mortgage loans and subprime mortgages extended to borrowers with weak credit histories.

Credit
Banks and Banking
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Federal Reserve System


Warner Bros. Enlists Walmart Stores to Promote ‘Man of Steel’

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Which is more powerful: Superman or Walmart? In an unusual promotional partnership that starts on May 18, customers at 3,718 Walmart stores in the United States will be able to buy tickets to early screenings of “Man of Steel,” the coming Superman movie from Warner Brothers. About one million tickets will be put aside. Sellouts are expected. Prices will vary but will generally stay in line with the cost of tickets at the local theaters. The promotion is designed to fill seats on opening weekend; Warner is counting on extensive in-store advertising and a burst of chatter on social media. Simultaneously, the goal is to send shoppers cascading into the arms of the world’s largest retailer. Warner and Walmart billed the partnership as a Hollywood first. Image Souvenir tickets from the promotion between Walmart stores and the new film "Man of Steel." “You hear these staggering numbers of how many people walk through a Walmart every day, and that gives us an exposure that we really can’t put a dollar number on,” said Dan Fellman, Warner’s president of domestic distribution. At the same time, Chris Nagelson, Walmart’s vice president of domestic entertainment merchandising, said, “These movies create a lot of energy in our stores.” Walmart added that the unusual deal showcased its ambition and the depth of its studio relationships. (Studios want to make it happy: Walmart is one of the world’s last volume sellers of DVDs.) Walmart shoppers will be able to buy up to four tickets a visit, choosing between traditional and 3-D viewing formats (where available), for a local screening on June 13. “Man of Steel,” perhaps the most anticipated movie of summer, arrives nationwide on June 14 and stars Henry Cavill. (For about 100 of those Walmart stores, a suitable movie theater is more than 30 miles away, Mr. Fellman said.) People who buy the advance tickets will also be able to pre-order the movie on DVD or Blu-ray disc. They will also receive a free digital comic book written by the “Man of Steel” screenwriter, David Goyer.

Walmart Stores
Man of Steel
Warner Bros
advertising,marketing


Ohio Senate Passes Bill to Weaken Collective Bargaining Clout of Public Workers

Abstract: COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio took its first step Wednesday toward passing sweeping legislation that would curtail collective bargaining rights for public sector workers by banning strikes and putting the power of breaking labor impasses in the hands of local elected officials. Amid boos and shouts of “shame on you,” the Republican-controlled Ohio Senate voted 17 to 16 for the bill, with 6 Republicans voting against it. The bill is expected to be passed next week in the House and signed into law by Gov. John Kasich, who issued a statement applauding the Senate vote. Democratic lawmakers said they would take it to a ballot referendum this fall. Unions call the bill the biggest blow to public sector workers since the legal framework was put in place to protect them in 1983. Republican lawmakers argued that it was required in order to keep financially pressed local governments solvent. “This is the first big step in restoring fiscal responsibility in Ohio,” said Kevin Bacon, a Republican senator. The battle in Ohio has unfolded over the past month along with similar confrontations in Wisconsin and Indiana. Unlike in the other states, where Democrats are needed for a quorum, in Ohio, Republicans make a quorum on their own. In Wisconsin, a standoff over legislation that would cut collective bargaining rights for public employees intensified. Democrats in the State Senate, who left Wisconsin last month to prevent a vote from taking place, learned that the Republicans left behind were taking steps to start fining missing lawmakers $100 for each day they stay away. Though some of the Democrats and Republicans met early in the week, it was clear by Wednesday that the sides were farther apart than ever. And each side suggested that the other caucus appeared to be fracturing under the tension. From an undisclosed location in Illinois, Mark Miller, a leader of the Senate Democrats, issued a statement accusing the Republicans of “schoolyard bully tactics.” Scott Fitzgerald, leader of the Senate Republicans, then issued his own and reminded the Democrats of Gov. Scott Walker ’s warnings that some 1,500 state workers might be laid off soon if the lawmakers did not act on the bill. In Ohio, Nina Turner, a Senate Democrat, said, “This bill seeks to vilify our public employees and turn what used to be the virtue of public service into a crime.” At its heart, the bill redraws rules governing how several hundred thousand public-sector workers bargain with the governments that employ them. Among the most objectionable parts, workers said, are the rules giving local officials the final say in breaking labor impasses. Currently, non-elected, third parties decide. Shannon Jones, the senator who sponsored the bill, argued that elected bodies, like city councils, were responsible for appropriating taxpayer money and so should ultimately decide disputes involving it, an argument that Democrats and even some Republican rejected. “The elected representatives have the responsibility to oversee the services that people elected them to provide,” she said. Republican senators who voted against the bill said many of its proposals were badly needed, but that it ultimately went too far, erasing too many rights for public-sector workers in a way that risks its repeal in a ballot referendum later. One such senator, Bill Seitz, argued that the new rule was unfair because it placed the power to decide in the hands of city councils who would always take the side of local managers. His proposal to use judges, who are elected in Ohio and would be more neutral, was rejected. “It’s like a husband and wife going to negotiate and it doesn’t work, so the wife gets everything she wants,” he said. “Who would go for that?” Tim Grendell, another Republican who voted against the bill, argued that it was elected bodies that were largely responsible for the country’s current budget mess. “The people we want to entrust the genie of the future to are those who created the morass of problems we are trying to solve,” he said. “That’s schizophrenic thinking.” City administrators said they thought the law, which was amended over the weekend, had been softened in favor of public-sector workers, because it preserves the right to collective bargaining. Mike Bell, the mayor of Toledo, said the law would help ailing local governments “push a reset switch” when they have nothing left to offer at the bargaining table. “Most contracts are silent on what to do when you can’t afford to pay your employees,” he said. But the bill also bans the right to strike for all public-sector workers, an option currently forbidden only for emergency workers. Dissenting Republican senators said the stipulation made the right to collective bargaining that the bill ultimately preserved, purely cosmetic. “Without having something to lose, collective bargaining is not bargaining, it’s just a conversation,” Mr. Grendell said. Lawmakers who supported the bill said it would allow government to function more like the private sector, with the flexibility to have more control over its operating costs. But its opponents argued that the private sector had slashed older workers, something the new bill was in danger of allowing. “Who says the private sector has the golden standard on what it means to treat folks?” Senator Turner said.

Ohio
Wisconsin
Indiana
Organized Labor
State Legislatures
Budgets and Budgeting
Wages and Salaries
Walker Scott K


U.S. Open 2014: Mirjana Lucic-Baroni Upsets Simona Halep

Abstract: After she popped an ace past Simona Halep on match point, Mirjana Lucic-Baroni dropped her racket to the court, turned to a small group of family and friends who were sitting nearby and stretched her arms out wide with her palms up. It was an expression with a meaning understood by everyone at the Grandstand on Friday afternoon: What just happened? Many shared the disbelief. Disbelief from Lucic-Baroni, a former teenage prodigy who, at 32, found herself advancing to the fourth round of a major for the first time since 1999. Disbelief from Halep, the world No. 2, who could do little to contend with Lucic-Baroni’s forehand. And disbelief from the crowd, which stood to salute Lucic-Baroni at the very end. “After so many years,” Lucic-Baroni said moments after her 7-6 (6), 6-2 victory in the third round of the United States Open . “My God, this is just so incredible.” Her story is one of pain and perseverance, a difficult childhood and premature success — success that she took for granted, she said. After an extended hiatus from the game, she returned as a fixture on various minor league circuits, her form never quite coalescing amid a tour of tennis outposts: from Fort Walton Beach, Fla., where she once earned $68 in prize money after a loss in qualifying, to Rock Hill, S.C., where she actually managed to improve her ranking to No. 261. In recent years, her career had become a sad tug of war between obscurity and irrelevance. Which made everything that has happened here in Flushing Meadows over the past two weeks all the more intriguing and dramatic. After needing three wins in qualifying just to earn a spot in the main draw — consider that she trailed by 4-2 in the third set of her first qualifying match — Lucic-Baroni said she was savoring the experience. “Best day of my life,” she said. “People don’t realize how much I want this and how hard I worked for this. It’s these moments in these last two weeks that are just — I mean, it’s what I work for. It’s just so fulfilling, so amazing.” Image Mirjana Lucic-Baroni, right, with her doubles partner Martina Hingis after their 1998 Australian Open win. That year, Lucic-Baroni, her mother and four siblings left Croatia, moving to Florida. Credit Mike Fiala/Associated Press Once upon a time, Lucic-Baroni was a young star on the rise. As a 14-year-old in 1996, she won the U.S. Open junior title. A year later, she advanced to the third round of the main draw. The apex came in 1999, when she upset Monica Seles on the way to a semifinal matchup at Wimbledon. She experienced so much success at such a young age, but it all came at a price. In an interview with Tennis magazine that year, Lucic-Baroni described years of mental and physical abuse from her father, who was also her coach. She had left Croatia for Florida in 1998 with her mother and four siblings, but there were other challenges. After losing in qualifying at the Open in 2003, Lucic-Baroni rarely played for several years because of financial troubles. “It’s really uncomfortable for me to talk about it,” she said Friday. “Obviously that was the main reason why I didn’t play. It wasn’t any lack of desire or anything. It’s just circumstances were such. I still played with my brothers a lot. I was still in tennis a lot. I was still waiting for my opportunities.” She made a halting return in 2007 and plugged away, largely by entering qualifiers at second-tier tournaments. She slowly regained enough of her form to play in bigger events. Yet there was little evidence to suggest, even in recent months, that she was capable of doing what she did against Halep on Friday. In fact, Lucic-Baroni had lost eight straight matches entering the qualifying draw at the Open. Her ranking, at No. 121, seemed almost generous. She cited a rash of injuries and the pressure of performing for her trouble. “It’s been one thing after another,” she said, adding: “When I would get to the stage at Grand Slams, I wanted it so bad that when I would get my chance on a big court against a big player, I was kind of paralyzed. I couldn’t do it. It was always like, O.K., how many more do I have? I have to do it now. I have to do it now. I finally relaxed and said, ‘Just play tennis.’ ” Against Halep, the plan was fairly simple: Hit the ball hard. Lucic-Baroni will never be confused with a backboard. At 5 feet 11, she whips her forehand. It was her power that saved her when Halep was serving for the first set at 5-2 — Lucic-Baroni staved off three set points — and again at 5-4, when Lucic-Baroni ripped a forehand to set up three break points. Halep then double-faulted. Halep could not recover. Lucic-Baroni went for broke, which meant taking the good (31 winners) with the bad (36 unforced errors). But she was clearly the aggressor. “It wasn’t my best day,” said Halep, a 22-year-old Romanian who had reached the finals at the French Open and the semifinals at Wimbledon. “Still, I did everything I could on court.” Lucic-Baroni said she was shocked by how easily she had been able to close out the match: “Did I just do it? Did I look at the score right?” What followed were the staples of unexpected victory: hands on top of her head, hugs from her entourage, being left speechless. “Oh, my God,” she said. In a corridor beneath the Grandstand, her husband, Daniele Baroni, said that his wife had gained a lot of confidence by winning three matches in qualifying. That whole process had made her tougher and more resilient, he said, and in some ways, it was a microcosm of her life. “She lives for this,” Baroni said, “and unfortunately, some time was taken away from her. Now she’s 32, so she’s trying to enjoy every single moment.” Lucic-Baroni said she had watched some of CiCi Bellis’s second-round match on Thursday night. It was faintly surreal for Lucic-Baroni, who was once in a similar position: 15 years old, with a promising career ahead of her. There was no way of knowing just how difficult it would be, or how long it would take for her to return to this sort of stage. “You’re just such a little kid,” Lucic-Baroni said. “You don’t know what’s happening.” On Friday, after the greatest victory of her career, she was aware of it all.

Simona Halep
Tennis
Mirjana Lucic
US Open Tennis


G.O.P. Now Praises Parts of Stimulus Plan, Which It Opposed

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers nearly unanimously resisted supporting the president’s $787 billion stimulus package , but what has proved irresistible is the temptation to take credit for at least a few of those billions. Despite criticizing the bill as wasteful, a handful of Republican members of the House and Senate have found some provisions to cheer. Just hours after voting against the bill on the House floor last week, Representative John L. Mica of Florida issued news releases lauding the inclusion of $8 billion for high-speed rail projects around the nation. Mr. Mica said the bill would also help pay for a commuter train project in his Central Florida district. “If we could put a man on the moon, we should be able to move people from city to city quickly instead of wasting time on a congested highway,” said Mr. Mica, the ranking Republican on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. “I applaud President Obama’s recognition that high-speed rail should be part of America’s future.” Jennifer Crider, a spokeswoman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, called the unlikely chorus of praise from Mr. Mica and other Republican lawmakers “the height of hypocrisy.” Rusty Roberts, chief of staff to Mr. Mica, disagreed. “Certainly it’s possible to oppose the entire bill on principle and favor certain sections of it,” Mr. Roberts said. Representative Don Young of Alaska, for example, praised the stimulus as “a victory for the Alaska Native contracting program and other Alaska small-business owners.” And Representative Leonard Lance of New Jersey, after touring a flood-control project in his district that could receive stimulus financing, pronounced it “shovel ready.” Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan sounded almost giddy on Wednesday in a post on the microblogging Web site Twitter: “If you know of someone thinking of buying first home, now may be the time. Stimulus incentive is very generous! Up to 8k! Check it out.” Mr. Hoekstra, who also voted against the bill, appeared less optimistic last week. “House passed spending bill. I don’t believe it will work,” Mr. Hoekstra wrote on Twitter. “Hope we’re wrong but I don’t think so.”

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (2009)


Reporters Say Networks Put Wars on Back Burner

Abstract: Getting a story on the evening news isn’t easy for any correspondent. And for reporters in Iraq and Afghanistan, it is especially hard, according to Lara Logan, the chief foreign correspondent for CBS News. So she has devised a solution when she is talking to the network. “Generally what I say is, ‘I’m holding the armor-piercing R.P.G.,’ ” she said last week in an appearance on “The Daily Show,” referring to the initials for rocket-propelled grenade. “ ‘It’s aimed at the bureau chief, and if you don’t put my story on the air, I’m going to pull the trigger.’ ” Ms. Logan let a sly just-kidding smile sneak through as she spoke, but her point was serious. Five years into the war in Iraq and nearly seven years into the war in Afghanistan, getting news of the conflicts onto television is harder than ever. “If I were to watch the news that you hear here in the United States, I would just blow my brains out because it would drive me nuts,” Ms. Logan said. According to data compiled by Andrew Tyndall, a television consultant who monitors the three network evening newscasts, coverage of the war in Iraq has been “massively scaled back this year.” Almost halfway into 2008, the three newscasts have shown 181 weekday minutes of Iraq war coverage, compared with 1,157 minutes for all of 2007. The “CBS Evening News” has devoted the fewest minutes to the war, 51, versus 55 minutes on ABC’s “World News” and 74 minutes on “NBC Nightly News.” (The average evening newscast is 22 minutes long.) CBS News no longer stations a single full-time correspondent in Iraq, where some 150,000 United States troops are deployed. Paul Friedman, a senior vice president at CBS News, said the news division does not get reports from Iraq on television “with enough frequency to justify keeping a very, very large bureau in Baghdad.” He said CBS correspondents can “get in there very quickly when a story merits it.” In a telephone interview last week, Ms. Logan said the CBS News bureau in Baghdad was “drastically downsized” in the spring. The network now keeps a producer in the country, making it less of a bureau and more of an office. Interviews with executives and correspondents at television news networks suggested that while the CBS cutbacks are the most extensive to date in Baghdad, many journalists shared varying levels of frustration about placing war stories onto newscasts. “I’ve never met a journalist who hasn’t been frustrated about getting his or her stories on the air,” said Terry McCarthy, an ABC News correspondent in Baghdad. By telephone from Baghdad, Mr. McCarthy said he was not as busy as he was a year ago. A decline in the relative amount of violence “is taking the urgency out” of some of the coverage, he said. Still, he gets on ABC’s “World News” and other programs with stories, including one on Friday about American gains in northern Iraq. Anita McNaught, a correspondent for the Fox News Channel, agreed. “The violence itself is not the story anymore,” she said. She counted eight reports she had filed since arriving in Baghdad six weeks ago, noting that cable news channels like Fox News and CNN have considerably more time to fill with news than the networks. CNN and Fox each have two fulltime correspondents in Iraq. Richard Engel, the chief foreign correspondent for NBC News, who splits his time between Iraq and other countries, said he found his producers “very receptive to stories about Iraq.” He and other journalists noted that the heated presidential primary campaign put other news stories on the back burner earlier this year. Ms. Logan said she begged for months to be embedded with a group of Navy Seals, and when she came back with the story, a CBS producer said to her, “One guy in uniform looks like any other guy in a uniform.” In the follow-up phone interview, Ms. Logan said the producer no longer worked at CBS. And in both interviews, she emphasized that many journalists at CBS News are pushing for war coverage, specifically citing Jeff Fager, the executive producer of “60 Minutes.” CBS News won a Peabody Award last week for a “60 Minutes” report about a Marine charged in the killings at Haditha. On “The Daily Show,” Ms. Logan echoed the comments of other journalists when she said that many Americans seem uninterested in the wars now. Mr. McCarthy said that when he is in the United States, bringing up Baghdad at a dinner party “is like a conversation killer.” Coverage of the war in Afghanistan has increased slightly this year, with 46 minutes of total coverage year-to-date compared with 83 minutes for all of 2007. NBC has spent 25 minutes covering Afghanistan, partly because the anchor Brian Williams visited the country earlier in the month. Through Wednesday, when an ABC correspondent was in the middle of a prolonged visit to the country, ABC had spent 13 minutes covering Afghanistan. CBS has spent eight minutes covering Afghanistan so far this year. Both Ms. Logan and Mr. McCarthy noted that more coalition soldiers were killed in Afghanistan in May than in Iraq. No American television network has a full-time correspondent in Afghanistan, although CNN recently said it would open a bureau in Kabul. “It’s terrible,” Ms. Logan said in the telephone interview. She called it a financial decision. “We can’t afford to maintain operations in Iraq and Afghanistan at the same time,” she said. “It’s so expensive and the security risks are so great that it’s prohibitive.” Mr. Friedman said coverage of Iraq is enormously expensive, mostly due to the security risks. He said meetings with other television networks about sharing the costs of coverage have faltered for logistical reasons. Journalists at all three American television networks with evening newscasts expressed worries that their news organizations would withdraw from the Iraqi capital after the November presidential election. They spoke only on the condition of anonymity in order to avoid offending their employers.

Iraq
Afghanistan
CBS News
Television
Fox News Channel
News and News Media
Newspapers
ABC Inc
National Broadcasting Co
Logan Lara


For New Cadet, Army Football Season Is a Break From Plebe Year

Abstract: Larry Dixon was looking for someone to hug. He had just scored the first touchdown of his collegiate career, a 2-yard burst straight up the guts of the Tulane defense to tie the game. He crashed into offensive tackle Mike McDermott’s chest and then banged helmets with guard Matt Villanti. He threw his arm around Raymond Maples and accepted a handshake from Trent Steelman. Larry was beaming. He had put the Black Knights on the scoreboard for the first time on this afternoon in 2011. He would go on to average 5 yards a carry, pick up a big third down in one scoring drive, and catch a 25-yard pass to set up another touchdown. Larry was one of the stars in Army’s 45-6 victory over the Green Wave. He finally felt that he had contributed to his team and that he belonged on the field against Division I opponents. In the previous three weeks, Larry had felt the game moving way faster than he was. Holes opened in an instant and then closed before he got there. Every time he got hit, it seemed harder than the hit he took the previous time. Larry had expected that there would be a learning curve, but he had not figured that it was going to be as steep as it proved against Northern Illinois, San Diego State and Northwestern. He felt as if were a boy playing against men. Still, being a Division I fullback was a picnic compared with being a West Point plebe. College football is plagued with stories of players violating rules, receiving cash gifts, not doing their own schoolwork, even committing crimes. They are catered to and coddled at every turn, and often allowed to violate the guidelines the average student is expected to follow. But the football team at the United States Military Academy is not like other college football teams. At West Point, football players carry the same course loads as their fellow cadets, shouldering an Ivy League-caliber education and year-round military training. After graduation, they are destined not for the N.F.L. but to danger zones halfway around the world. These men are not just football players, they are soldiers first. In the locker room, Larry would listen to his older teammates as they talked of using weekend passes to take excursions to Montreal and Aspen, Colo., Paris and London. He smiled and laughed but didn’t contribute to the conversation. He followed the chain of command around the football team as well, partly because he felt that he had no standing as a plebe and a backup, and partly because it was just easier. The football team was a brotherhood within a brotherhood, and democracy reigned in the football center far more than it did anywhere else on campus. Still, Larry figured if he didn’t say much, then he wouldn’t say the wrong thing, and if he watched and listened he would get a little better each day. For Larry, practice was an escape, a perfect one from the total immersion that West Point demanded. For a couple of hours at least, the noise in his brain got quiet, and his anxiety about rules and regulations evaporated. He hid behind his helmet, bit into his mouth guard and gave his head over to his gut. He was naturally on high alert on the football field, his instinct launching him into action, leading him into holes, pulling his shoulder low into a tackler. Larry didn’t have to puzzle and think on the field as he did the rest of the day. And against Tulane, everything snapped into place like the Legos he had played with as a child. Larry had demonstrated the power and explosiveness that Coach Rich Ellerson had touted the previous spring when Larry was still in prep school. Larry was a handful on the field, pure and simple, and was among the reasons Army put in a wishbone formation last season to complement its triple option. Ellerson finally had a stable of big, punishing backs — Jared Hassin, Raymond Maples, Terry Baggett and Hayden Tippett, in addition to Larry — who had the vision to see holes open and the bodies to hurt the defenders who tried to plug them. The triple option relied on the backs cutting through and running away from the defense; the wishbone was about giving the backs a 5-yard head start and then blasting into the defense like a missile. There was more potential for violence, which kept defenses on their heels. Against Tulane, the wishbone had helped 11 Army running backs roll to 353 yards rushing and 6 touchdowns. It had pulled the Black Knights’ record to a respectable 2-3 and had raised their hopes for another bowl game. Even better, it had made for a more festive postgame tailgate. It eliminated the questions about what went wrong and the armchair analysis that accompanied the hot dogs and brats and potato salad after losses. The postgame tailgate was as good as it got in terms of a social outing for cadets, especially the plebes like Larry. They rarely got to leave the post, so wandering around the plateaus of parking lots and the grass oasis near the Lusk Reservoir was something all cadets enjoyed. The parents of various teammates were anchored in A Lot, right above Michie Stadium, and for hours after the game groups of players shuttled among the various buffets. Larry smiled as he accepted congratulations and piled his plate higher with food. Thinking of Home The Black Knights were in high spirits after the victory over Tulane. They had played well, washing the doubt that had lingered after being destroyed by Ball State. Larry knew he had been a major part of that victory. The Black Knights needed four more wins to be eligible for a bowl game, and the vibe in the locker room was that it was an attainable goal. They could move closer to it on Saturday, Oct. 8, against Miami in Oxford, Ohio. Larry was confident he could help his team in that game as well. All Larry wanted to do in the meantime was lose himself in practice and count the days to Thanksgiving when he could go home and see his mother and his older sisters, Karisha and Shakira. They had come to West Point a month earlier for the San Diego State game, and it had been one of the proudest moments in both Larry’s life and his mother’s. Discipline and determination had helped Laura Ashley to the second-highest level of chief petty officer in the Navy, and she had imparted those virtues to her children. Shakira had graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle and, with her husband, Matt Jarin, was raising an 8-month-old son, Liam. Karisha was married to Staff Sgt. James Stanley and they, too, were living in the Seattle area with their children, Kiyanna, 12, and Marcus, 6. Stanley was in a recruiting office after serving his third combat tour, his second in Afghanistan. Larry’s mother had demanded accountability from all of her children. She knew exactly where he was, who he was with and when he was going to be home. There was no roaming the streets or hanging out. She knew Larry’s friends and their parents. She did not allow idle time in her home. Larry’s outlet was sports. For his sisters, it was part-time jobs and art classes. Larry was in junior high school when his parents divorced. He blamed his mother and rebelled against her authority. He took out his anger with hostile exchanges, flagrant disobedience and “a lot of weekends that I spent at home in my room as punishment,” he recalled. But none of that had mattered when his mother came to West Point. She and Larry walked the campus, breathed in its history, and, when Larry took the field against San Diego State, shared a warm heart and a few tears. “It was really emotional,” Larry said. “She got to see how all my dreams had come true. And she gave me those dreams and believed in me and gave me what I needed to climb that mountain.” Now, a month later, Larry was homesick and wanted to hug his mom. He needed some relief from the grind. He may have been one of the stars of the Tulane game, but among his fellow cadets in D Company he was just another lowly plebe learning how to be a follower. He stayed close to the walls of the building as he walked with his hands cupped at his side and greeted everyone who crossed his path by name. Those were the rules, and only in the classrooms during the school day did they not apply. “Go, Ducks,” he called out as three third-year cadets, known as Cows, from his company passed. It was the day’s mandatory greeting for all members of D Company. Formations and Trivia Larry had been up since 6 a.m. It was the Wednesday morning after the Tulane game, and a half-hour later he had his back pressed against the second-floor wall of Grant Barracks. The plebes were there to call out “minutes” in intervals until the 6:50 a.m. breakfast formation. “Ten minutes until formation,” he called at 6:40 a.m., standing at full attention. His voice ricocheted along the tiles and granite in the darkness. Then, Larry and his classmates returned to parade-rest position for another five minutes. On Wednesdays, a hair inspection was part of the regular formation and often added another 10 minutes to the process. It was merely cool this morning, but Larry was bracing for the dark winter days he had heard about, when the snow and the rain and the wind whipping through the valley could turn watery rivulets on your hat into icicles. Larry kept his hair as short as a putting green. His shoes and belt were shined to a gloss high enough to twinkle in the right light. There were other cadets, however, who tried to push the hair standards to the limits: three inches on top and one inch on the side, no strands touching your ears, and tapered on the neck. It was hard to pull off, though, and often resulted in demerits for the vain plebes, which then were rolled into “hours.” That could mean that your weekend could be chewed up with marching or sergeant’s hours, extra duties like cleaning the bathrooms and common areas. The inspection was concluded and the march to Washington Hall was on. The assault of more than 4,000 cadets on the Cadet Mess is in itself a demonstration of poise, precision and poetry. They marched in, in waves, and waited behind the chairs at tables for 10 until the daily announcements from the poop deck above were completed and they were told to be seated. The mess hall’s baroque stained glass illuminated battle scenes from throughout the country’s history and bathed the cavernous room in timeless sepia. The mural in the southwest wing takes up 2,450 square feet and depicts the various weapons of warfare used in the 20 most decisive battles in history. But none of the cadets noticed. They had 25 minutes to make the food on the table disappear and get to their first class of the day at 7:30 sharp. Larry was the day’s cold beverage corporal. “Sir, the beverage for this meal is orange juice,” he said to his tablemates, members of the football team and mostly upperclassmen. “Would anyone care for a glass of ice, sir?” Once the drinks were prepared and the coffee, fruit and yogurt fetched, Larry addressed the table commandant once more. “Sir, the new cadets at this table have performed their duties and are now prepared to eat,” he said. Then the knowledge questions came fast and furious at the new cadets who were seated at tables throughout the mess hall. “How many gallons in Lusk Reservoir?” “Seventy-eight million gallons when the water is flowing over the spillway, sir.” “What is the significance of Foundation Eagle and where is it located?” “It is the eagle in front of Washington Hall. Tradition states that if one looks at it during the academic year he or she will not be found deficient in academics.” The purpose of the incessant trivia, the cupped hands and the rote greetings and formalities was to break plebes down. Before Larry or any of his classmates could lead, they first must learn to follow. This seemingly useless information may, indeed, be the minutiae of leadership, but by accumulating it and flawlessly reciting it, Larry and his classmates were taking the first steps on the road to a daily self-assessment: “Am I doing enough to prepare myself?” By the time cadets left West Point as second lieutenants, the hope and design was that they would become so obsessed with that question that he or she had the will and the tools to succeed in any life-or-death situation. Prepared for Inspection Maj. Chad Bagley was as good as anyone when it came to reading a cadet’s personality and understanding where on the journey from new cadet to second lieutenant he or she might be. He had taken the same path himself and then guided thousands of others as a TAC officer here. For the past six years in football operations, Major Bags, as he was known, had had a front-row seat to cadet development, which is even more complicated for the young men who had signed on to play football at West Point. He had watched the lights go on — ever so dimly — for some as late as December of their senior, or Firstie, year, when they learned on Branch Night whether they were headed to a military career in the Infantry or Aviation or Armor. In Larry, however, he saw that rare cadet who knew where he was, what he was doing here, and why — even in the tough, early days known as Beast Barracks. “Some young men and women are just meant to be here,” Bagley said. “I’m not talking about the overachieving cadets, either. I’m talking about the ones that get here and everything is just right. They may not have known it before they got here, but something goes off, and they know this is the place for them.” Larry was one of them. He took to the rules and idiosyncrasies of the military as if he had been a soldier in a past life. He absorbed everything from plebe knowledge to grenade manuals. He walked and spoke with gravity. He pulled for his fellow plebes to succeed and was generous with his time, whether it was helping them study or getting down and doing situps and push-ups with those struggling to pass the physical test. Larry truly believed that stacking W’s mattered — on the football field, on the battlefield and in life. He was a natural perhaps because he grew up as the son of a chief petty officer who taught him to find the joy in being accountable. Larry did not exactly relish the Saturday Morning Inspections, or SAMIs, that were conducted twice a semester. But he appreciated the preparation they required — the 10 hours of cleaning and the focus needed to master the tiniest detail. West Point left no room for interpretation on what barracks rooms ought to look like or what was expected from the cadets. The SAMI guidelines ran 17 pages with photos and were exacting in their expectations. Larry’s bookshelf almost always matched the photos perfectly. His books were displayed vertically, pushed to the rear of the bookshelf, arranged by height, in descending order from left to right, just as required. There was precision in his wardrobe, too: his white hat, gray hat and parade hat were lined up from left to right as mandated. His six uniforms hung on wood hangers and were evenly spaced and canted to the right. Larry was competitive, of course, but he was as fired up for his roommate, Casey Childress, who had recently been named Soldier of the Quarter for the whole brigade. “He was the No. 1 plebe in military standards — that’s pretty cool, huh?” Larry said, his eyes alight. In fact, it was hard to reconcile Larry’s childlike exuberance with the serious adult life he was leading. His brother-in-law Matt Karin had turned him on to comic books, and together they had built a collection into the thousands, with Larry favoring the Batman and Outsiders series. He had quickly figured out the tricks cadets had passed down to one another to make plebe life easier and recounted them with glee. His bed was bungeed together to keep its linens and appearance inspection ready, if not truly hospital corners standard. It meant that he slept on top of the bed with his “green girl,” the thermal blanket that was probably the most valued and beloved piece of “equipment” in all of West Point. “The goal is to have to make your bed like 12 times, in your whole career,” he said, delighted that he might be getting one over on military life. The Attrition Rate Larry was an eager participant in his duties, cleaning up the bathroom and picking up trash in the hallways. He had not received a single demerit or earned any “hours” or time marching for bad behavior or failure to perform duties. He was a rock star at the “Knowledge Parties” that broke out as well, usually as he delivered the laundry to members of his company as part of his plebe duties. All in all, it was pretty tame stuff that passed for hazing these days at the United States Military Academy. Over the years, there had been all kinds of acts of cruelty and physical punishment done to plebes in the name of building character and toughness. The issue was first addressed by West Point’s administration in the years after the Civil War, but despite the attention of one superintendent after another, the incidents of physical intimidation and humiliation continued. Gen. Douglas MacArthur not only testified before Congress, he later wrote in his memoirs that hazing was a staple of West Point culture and practiced “with methods that were violent and uncontrolled.” Until 1998, the notion remained that plebes were at West Point to be tortured and that it was the upperclassmen’s duty to see the torture carried out. In fact, it was viewed as sport — the ultimate score was forcing plebes to quit. Older cadets were good at it, too. The attrition rate for West Point plebes approached 40 percent in the 1990s. West Point in those days was a frightening place where plebes could be tormented with “shower detail,” when they would wear ponchos while being harassed and made to answer knowledge questions until they dripped sweat and became weak enough to pass out. Plebes could be dangled by their armpits on the closet doors, otherwise known as “hanging out.” They also lived in fear of being “sharked,” a practice in which three upper-class cadets surrounded a plebe, one in front and one on either side, then screamed insults and demanding knowledge answers at a rapid clip. The only safe place on-post for a new plebe was in his own room. It was Brig. Gen. John Abizaid who finally began enforcing the no-hazing policy when he became commandant of cadets in 1997. The next year, he eliminated the yelling and physical punishments and threatened to separate cadets who were caught violating the prohibition on hazing. In the years since, the attrition rate for plebes has been reduced to 20 percent. Do not tell Larry Dixon, however, that this is a kinder, gentler era. One evening, like most, he left the Kimsey Athletic Center at 6:30 for his barracks, where he barely had time to pick up his backpack. Then it was off to the library for three hours, until 9:45, when he had to return for trash duty. He would be up until 1 a.m. studying for math and chemistry tests and then back on the wall for minutes by 6:30 a.m. “The worst thing about being a plebe is not having your voice heard,” he said. “Nobody wants to hear you. They only want to see you when they want to see you. You are on other people’s schedules. The hardest thing about it is being told what to do, how to do it and when to do it every single day.”

Football
United States Military Academy
College Athletics
Football (College)
Dixon Larry


India: Bail Denied for Human Rights Activist

Abstract: A court refused bail Thursday for a human rights activist who had been sentenced to life in prison on charges of aiding Maoist rebels, despite an appeal for his freedom from 40 Nobel laureates. The activist, Binayak Sen, 60, a physician and government critic, sought bail while appealing his conviction. Dr. Sen and his supporters say he treated rebels at a prison in Raipur but deny that he passed notes between jailed rebels and their compatriots in the field. His lawyer said he would appeal the bail decision to the Supreme Court.

India
Bail
Sen Binayak
Prisons and Prisoners


Pope Francis’ Homily at the Canonization Mass for the Rev. Junípero Serra

Abstract: Following is the text of the English translation of Pope Francis canonizing the Rev. Junípero Serra , a Spanish-born Franciscan friar, the first canonization in the United States. The text of the homily, which the pope gave in Spanish, was prepared for delivery and released by the Vatican: Rejoice in the Lord always! I say it again, rejoice! These are striking words, words which impact our lives. Paul tells us to rejoice; he practically orders us to rejoice. This command resonates with the desire we all have for a fulfilling life, a meaningful life, a joyful life. It is as if Paul could hear what each one of us is thinking in his or her heart and to voice what we are feeling, what we are experiencing. Something deep within us invites us to rejoice and tells us not to settle for placebos which simply keep us comfortable. At the same time, though, we all know the struggles of everyday life. So much seems to stand in the way of this invitation to rejoice. Our daily routine can often lead us to a kind of glum apathy which gradually becomes a habit, with a fatal consequence: our hearts grow numb. We don’t want apathy to guide our lives… or do we? We don’t want the force of habit to rule our life… or do we? So we ought to ask ourselves: What can we do to keep our heart from growing numb, becoming anesthetized? How do we make the joy of the Gospel increase and take deeper root in our lives? Jesus gives the answer. He said to his disciples then and he says it to us now: Go forth! Proclaim! The joy of the Gospel is something to be experienced, something to be known and lived only through giving it away, through giving ourselves away. The spirit of the world tells us to be like everyone else, to settle for what comes easy. Faced with this human way of thinking, “we must regain the conviction that we need one another, that we have a shared responsibility for others and for the world” (Laudato Si’, 229). It is the responsibility to proclaim the message of Jesus. For the source of our joy is “an endless desire to show mercy, the fruit of our own experience of the power of the Father’s infinite mercy” (Evangelii Gaudium, 24). Go out to all, proclaim by anointing and anoint by proclaiming. This is what the Lord tells us today. He tells us: A Christian finds joy in mission: Go out to people of every nation! A Christian experiences joy in following a command: Go forth and proclaim the good news! A Christian finds ever new joy in answering a call: Go forth and anoint! Jesus sends his disciples out to all nations. To every people. We too were part of all those people of two thousand years ago. Jesus did not provide a short list of who is, or is not, worthy of receiving his message, his presence. Instead, he always embraced life as he saw it. In faces of pain, hunger, sickness and sin. In faces of wounds, of thirst, of weariness, doubt and pity. Far from expecting a pretty life, smartly-dressed and neatly groomed, he embraced life as he found it. It made no difference whether it was dirty, unkempt, broken. Jesus said: Go out and tell the good news to everyone. Go out and in my name embrace life as it is, and not as you think it should be. Go out to the highways and byways, go out to tell the good news fearlessly, without prejudice, without superiority, without condescension, to all those who have lost the joy of living. Go out to proclaim the merciful embrace of the Father. Go out to those who are burdened by pain and failure, who feel that their lives are empty, and proclaim the folly of a loving Father who wants to anoint them with the oil of hope, the oil of salvation. Go out to proclaim the good news that error, deceitful illusions and falsehoods do not have the last word in a person’s life. Go out with the ointment which soothes wounds and heals hearts. Mission is never the fruit of a perfectly planned program or a well-organized manual. Mission is always the fruit of a life which knows what it is to be found and healed, encountered and forgiven. Mission is born of a constant experience of God’s merciful anointing. Pope Francis’ Visit to America, in Pictures Photographs of the pope’s first trip to the United States, as Catholics and non-Catholics alike will navigate crowds in three cities to catch a glimpse of the “people’s pope.” The Church, the holy People of God, treads the dust-laden paths of history, so often traversed by conflict, injustice and violence, in order to encounter her children, our brothers and sisters. The holy and faithful People of God are not afraid of losing their way; they are afraid of becoming self-enclosed, frozen into élites, clinging to their own security. They know that self-enclosure, in all the many forms it takes, is the cause of so much apathy. So let us go out, let us go forth to offer everyone the life of Jesus Christ (Evangelii Gaudium, 49). The People of God can embrace everyone because we are the disciples of the One who knelt before his own to wash their feet (ibid., 24). The reason we are here today is that many other people wanted to respond to that call. They believed that “life grows by being given away, and it weakens in isolation and comfort” (Aparecida Document, 360). We are heirs to the bold missionary spirit of so many men and women who preferred not to be “shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security… within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving” (Evangelii Gaudium, 49). We are indebted to a tradition, a chain of witnesses who have made it possible for the good news of the Gospel to be, in every generation, both “good” and “news”. Today we remember one of those witnesses who testified to the joy of the Gospel in these lands, Father Junípero Serra. He was the embodiment of “a Church which goes forth”, a Church which sets out to bring everywhere the reconciling tenderness of God. Junípero Serra left his native land and its way of life. He was excited about blazing trails, going forth to meet many people, learning and valuing their particular customs and ways of life. He learned how to bring to birth and nurture God’s life in the faces of everyone he met; he made them his brothers and sisters. Junípero sought to defend the dignity of the native community, to protect it from those who had mistreated and abused it. Mistreatment and wrongs which today still trouble us, especially because of the hurt which they cause in the lives of many people. Father Serra had a motto which inspired his life and work, a saying he lived his life by: siempre adelante! Keep moving forward! For him, this was the way to continue experiencing the joy of the Gospel, to keep his heart from growing numb, from being anesthetized. He kept moving forward, because the Lord was waiting. He kept going, because his brothers and sisters were waiting. He kept going forward to the end of his life. Today, like him, may we be able to say: Forward! Let’s keep moving forward!

Pope Francis
Beatification
Junipero Serra


UConn’s Edsall Says No to Coaching at Syracuse

Abstract: It appears that Coach Randy Edsall did not become nostalgic after his trip to the Carrier Dome on Saturday, when his Connecticut Huskies defeated Syracuse, 39-14. Edsall will not be returning to become the next football coach at Syracuse, where he played and served as an assistant coach. The Orange will soon have a coaching vacancy; the university announced Sunday that Greg Robinson’s tenure as head coach would be over at the end of this season. Robinson, in his fourth season at Syracuse, has a 9-36 record. In a telephone interview Monday, Edsall’s agent, Gary O’Hagan of IMG, said Edsall was not heading back to Syracuse. “Randy is not interested in returning to his alma mater to coach the football team at this particular time,” O’Hagan said. Those comments echoed what Edsall told The New London Day for Monday’s editions: “With all due respect to my alma mater and the people at Syracuse, I am not interested in being a candidate.”

Edsall Randy
Syracuse University
University of Connecticut


Man Who Shot Officer in Manhattan Gunfight Is Sentenced to Prison

Abstract: The police officer who was shot on a cold February night two years ago was lucky . The bullet bounced off a spare ammunition magazine on the officer’s belt instead of penetrating his belly. No such good fortune was to befall the gunman, Luis Martinez, 27, during his sentencing in State Supreme Court in Manhattan on Friday. As several police officers looked on, Justice Michael J. Obus said the shooting had not started when two uniformed officers jumped out of an unmarked car on Columbia Street near Delancey Street on the Lower East Side and chased Mr. Martinez, yelling at him to stop. It had not even begun, Justice Obus said, a few minutes earlier, when Mr. Martinez saw the officers stop and frisk another man, mistaking them, in his account, for muggers. “It began when Mr. Martinez took the gun he purchased, put it on his person and left his home,” Justice Obus said. “That was a shooting waiting to happen, and that is exactly what did happen.” Then the judge gave Mr. Martinez, a small-time marijuana dealer who had no previous convictions, a sentence of 28 years to life. Justice Obus said whatever the merits of the New York Police Department’s stop-and-frisk practices, the two officers had been risking their lives to prevent violence in a high-crime neighborhood around the Baruch Houses, where the shooting occurred. “The attack he made is an attack on these officers and, because of who they represent, it is an attack on everybody,” Justice Obus said. Mr. Martinez, who was convicted on Jan. 31 of attempted murder and possession of a weapon, told the judge he “objected to the case” and intended to appeal. Shawn McMahon, an assistant district attorney, had argued for a 30-year minimum sentence. He accused Mr. Martinez of lying in court when he said he did not see the uniforms of the two men pursuing him: Officers Thomas Richards, whose ammunition clip deflected the bullet, and Thomas Dunne. The shooting occurred at 1:40 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2012. Evidence presented at his trial showed that Mr. Martinez fired several shots at the officers. They then drew their guns and returned fire, hitting Mr. Martinez once in the buttocks. Mr. Martinez’s lawyer, Matthew D. Myers, tried to convince the judge that the 20-year minimum sentence for attempted murder of a police officer would be appropriate. He emphasized that Mr. Martinez, who was a student at Baruch College, was not a major drug dealer and had never been convicted of a crime. Mr. Myers also said the police practice of stopping young men in bad neighborhoods and frisking them had also been a factor in the incident. “It creates altercations,” he said. “It creates dangerous situations.” Mr. Myers added that Mr. Martinez had not committed a crime and was walking away from the officers when they started chasing him. He testified that he had mistaken them for robbers. Both of the officers have since been promoted to detective. Detective Richards was not in the court. His partner, Detective Dunne, embraced his colleagues and shook the prosecutor’s hand. He declined to comment as he left. “We are just happy with the verdict,” one of his supporters, Sgt. Robert Clark, said.

Luis Martinez
Murders
Thomas Richards
Thomas Dunne
Attacks on Police
Criminal Sentence
Michael J Obus
Lower East Side Manhattan


Harnessing Ocean Power

Abstract: SINGAPORE — Generating renewable energy from the ocean through Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion, known as O.T.E.C., has been studied for nearly a century but, although several demonstration plants have been built to prove that the technology works, it has never been put into commercial operation. Now, however, despite the high costs involved, several companies are working toward commercial projects. O.T.E.C. generates electricity by exploiting the temperature differential between warm surface water and the cold ocean depths. Surface water is pumped through a heat exchanger, where it heats a fluid with a very low boiling point, such as ammonia, which expands as it vaporizes. The vaporized gas drives turbines producing electricity before being piped into a condenser, where cold deep ocean water chills it, returning it to its liquid state. The liquid is then pumped back to the warm water heat exchanger to repeat the cycle. To work effectively, the technology requires a temperature differential of at least 20 degrees Celsius (36 Fahrenheit). This can be found in large expanses of the tropical oceans. “Every additional degree will help produce 15 percent more energy,” said Philippe Dubau, general manager of Pacific Otec, a subsidiary of Pacific Petroleum, an oil product distributor in French Polynesia, New Caledonia and Vanuatu that has been moving into the renewable energy sector. According to Kevin Joyce, a renewable energy consultant at Black & Veatch, based in Overland Park, Kansas, one of the more exciting characteristics of the technology is that, unlike most renewable energy sources, it can provide steady, reliable baseload power. “This would generate electricity 24 hours a day in a predictable and dependable manner,” Mr. Joyce said. “Other renewable technologies with this kind of resource potential, like wind and solar, are intermittent, which means that they need conventional generation to fill the gaps.” Sometimes, he said, that could mean building additional, fast-response, conventional power plants to kick in with power to the grid when the renewable sources go dark. O.T.E.C., in contrast, “has the ability to avoid those requirements and even displace some of our baseload plants. “That means that it has more potential for CO2 reduction than many other renewable technologies,” Mr. Joyce said. It also has other advantages. “The technology is compact compared to wind and solar,” he said, adding that it can be “offshore and out of sight.” Pacific Otec is working with DCNS, the French government-owned naval architect and military shipbuilder, and Xenesys, a Japanese specialist in desalination and thermal energy conversion technology, on a feasibility study for a commercial O.T.E.C. plant in Tahiti. Financial backing for the project has been provided by the French and French Polynesian governments, which are paying 50 percent and 18 percent, respectively, of the cost of the feasibility study. The project aims to build an offshore O.T.E.C. platform, with a 10 megawatt-hour generating capacity, which will be connected to the Tahiti power grid and could produce enough electricity to cover 10 percent of the islands’ needs, Mr. Dubau said. “We are in the same situation as the people who were making the first steam engine,” he said. “There is still a very long and difficult road in front of us, but if we succeed, we can bring something interesting and relevant in terms of energy and water supply to the communities, so it is worth trying.” The Tahiti project will center on an offshore O.T.E.C. plant 25 meters, or 80 feet, high and submerged 25 meters below the surface to avoid strong currents and big waves. “Below that sea level, it’s much more stable,” Mr. Dubau said. “This feasibility study is not about the technology; we know it works. We also know the design of the plant is correct. But what we need to do now is to design the optimal energy system, considering local environmental data; to design the integration of the process into the chosen platform type; and, of course, study the economic feasibility of the whole project.” Engineering and design work in the yearlong study will be supervised by DCNS, with Xenesys providing the generating system technology. The feasibility phase should be followed by a contract for DCNS to build a commercial plant, he said. The science behind ocean thermal energy conversion was first explored in France in the late 19th century and an experimental O.T.E.C. plant was built and briefly operated by a French engineer, Georges Claude, in Cuba in 1930. In the 1970s, as the first oil crisis hit, several countries started to look more seriously at the technology. A test facility was built with U.S. government funding at Keahole Point in Hawaii and another, by Tokyo Electric Power of Japan, on the island of Nauru. In the 1980s however, as oil prices slid back, attention shifted away. “It didn’t make sense at the time to go into the technology,” Mr. Dubau said. “It is still extraordinarily expensive because there is a lot of innovation, not only in the process itself but also in the pipeline.” Because the technology uses large volumes of cold water from the deep ocean, it calls for an extremely long, wide-bore intake pipe. “You need special materials to build pipelines that are over three to five meters in diameter, which is extraordinarily big, and the pipeline needs to go about 1,000 meters deep, to get the cold water,” Mr. Dubau said. Michinaga Takeda, a Xenesys project engineer for the Tahiti project, said his company had also done some preliminary studies for an onshore O.T.E.C. project in Cuba that would utilize waste heat discharged from a thermal power plant to increase the temperature of the surface seawater. He said the combination of onshore construction and the use of recycled heat could result in both cost savings and higher efficiency; but the project had been stalled by the difficulty for the Cuban government of finding external sources of financing. In the United States, Lockheed Martin’s alternative energy development team is currently working on the design of a pilot plant, with a generating capacity of 5 to 10 megawatts, which could become operational in Hawaii by 2014. But while this system is the same size as Pacific Otec’s feasibility project in Tahiti, Lockheed Martin’s prototype will serve to validate technologies for much bigger O.T.E.C. plants with capacity of more than 100 megawatts. Larger O.T.E.C. plants would benefit from lessons learned building and operating the pilot plant, with anticipated improvements like streamlined maintenance strategies, better monitoring and control of the thermodynamic cycle, said Ted Johnson, director of alternative energy development at Lockheed Martin. The pilot plant would also help to determine the cost and technical risks associated with scaling up to larger, utility-scale capacities of 100 megawatts or more, he said. “I think our approach and theirs is different,” Mr. Dubau said. “The U.S. is looking at the use of such plants to generate electricity for their military base in Guam and Diego Garcia, for example. We’re looking at a much smaller-sized plant that would meet the needs of a small island community.”


Area to Be Set for Mourning

Abstract: The International Olympic Committee said it would create a mourning area in the Olympic Village at next year’s Rio de Janeiro Games where participants could remember family or friends during a moment of reflection at the closing ceremony. The remembrance area will “remember all those who have lost their lives at the Olympic Games,” Thomas Bach, the I.O.C.’s president, said at a news conference in Rio. Bach said that a “solemn moment of reflection” would recall events such as the deaths of 11 Israelis killed when Palestinian gunmen invaded the athletes’ village at the 1972 Munich Games.

International Olympic Committee
Olympics
Rio de Janeiro
2016 Summer Olympics
Fatalities,casualties


Conservative Politicians Abroad Seem More Accepting of Evolution

Abstract: On Wednesday, in an interview in London, Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a potential Republican presidential candidate, sidestepped the question of whether he believed in evolution. “I’m going to punt on that one,” he said to an audience at a research organization in London, which he was visiting for a trade mission. “I’m here to talk about trade, not to pontificate on other issues. I love the evolution of trade in Wisconsin.” Mr. Walker’s response was not all that surprising — evolution is a sensitive issue for the evangelical Christian base of the Republican Party and presidential candidates have had to tread carefully around it. The theory of evolution may be supported by a consensus of scientists, but none of the likely Republican candidates for 2016 seem to be convinced. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida said it should not be taught in schools. Former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas is an outright skeptic. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas will not talk about it. When asked, in 2001, what he thought of the theory, Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey said, “None of your business.” After Mr. Walker’s response, the interviewer in London, an incredulous Justin Webb of the BBC, said to the governor: “Any British politician, right or left wing, would laugh and say, ‘Yes, of course evolution is true.’ ” Unlike the United States, where Republicans and conservative Christians are more likely to deny evolution and climate change , most conservative politicians in other countries, as well as other branches of Christianity, see Darwin more favorably. The BBC reporter’s response to Mr. Walker could serve as a reminder that American evangelicals, and the Republicans who woo them, are the exception, not the rule. Britain, for example, has its Darwin skeptics, and its climate-change deniers, said the historian David N. Hempton, the dean of Harvard Divinity School, who is from Northern Ireland. “But the proportions are different,” he said, with British residents and evangelicals more likely to be comfortable with Darwin and climate science than their American counterparts. He attributed the difference in part to Britain’s more unified national culture. “You can get school boards in the U.S. that will try to prevent the teaching of evolution in schools,” Professor Hempton said. “That’s almost impossible to do in Britain, because school curricula are set more nationally.” American evangelicals and fundamentalists can secede into their own churches and Christian schools, and read magazines and watch television aimed at them, he said. But that is harder to do across the Atlantic, “where things like the BBC have a kind of generic influence over the whole culture.” In the United States, a widespread theological opposition to Darwin is found mainly among conservative Protestants. Many Orthodox Jews believe that evolution is compatible with the teachings of the Hebrew Bible, and Islamic scholars have, with some exceptions, generally supported the theory. Roman Catholics in the last half-century have only become more accepting of Darwin. In 1950, Pope Pius XII said that evolution was not at odds with Catholic teaching, an opinion reiterated by Pope John Paul II in 1996. Pope Francis thrilled science teachers, and large numbers of Catholics in October, by saying that God was not a “magician, with a magic wand,” but rather worked through principles like evolution. Image Mr. Walker left 11 Downing Street on Wednesday after a meeting with George Osborne, Britain's chancellor of the Exchequer. Credit Tim Ireland/Associated Press “Evolution in nature is not inconsistent with the notion of creation, because evolution requires the creation of beings that evolve,” Francis said . Ilia Delio , a scientist and theologian, and a Catholic nun, who teaches at Georgetown, said that Catholic theology, because it had always been based on more than just the Bible, had more freedom to accept science than conservative Protestantism does. “Protestantism places a much greater emphasis on Scripture alone,” Sister Delio said. The literal reading of Genesis favored by conservative evangelicals, who infer from it that “the earth was created less than 10 thousand years ago,” is “very problematic from a Catholic perspective,” with its more enthusiastic embrace of modern science. As Molly Worthen , who teaches Christian history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, put it, “Catholics are not biblical literalists.” They acknowledge that the Bible does not interpret itself, “and they place the final authority for that interpretation in the pope and the bishops.” While non-Catholics might stereotype the papacy as a conservative institution, it paradoxically “gives Catholics an orderly method for revising church teaching and hedging the ‘literal’ meaning of scripture,” Professor Worthen said, “without feeling that they’ve given away the cornerstone of their faith.” Popes favor evolution, giving other Catholics permission to. By contrast, evangelicals’ commitment to the Bible — for many, the 17th-century King James Version — can come between them and new scientific learning. But all of this theological discourse assumes that Governor Walker, or anyone else, actually understands what evolution is. Edward Humes, author of the 2007 book “Monkey Girl,” about the court battle over anti-evolution “intelligent design” theory in Dover, Pa., schools, said that many evangelicals did not really understand evolution. “When the people on the school board were asked to explain in Dover what they took the theory of evolution to be, they couldn’t,” Mr. Humes said. “Nor could they explain the intelligent design theory they were embracing.” For example, Mr. Hume said, some evangelicals believe that evolution is a theory of how life began. In fact, he said, “it explains the diversity of life on our planet, and why so many have become extinct and others have risen to prominence.” Many Christians do not understand, he said, that they can believe that life forms evolved via natural selection, while still believing in a divine origin of the first life forms. Sister Delio, from Georgetown, agreed that much of the controversy over Darwin was ill-informed, and not just among evangelicals. “A lot of people just don’t know science,” she said. “They don’t even know basic science. They don’t read anything from science, not even popular science magazines.” For many Protestants and Catholics alike, she said, “it’s a half-brained understanding of things.” Mr. Walker, as it happens, has backpedaled on his anti-evolution stance — sort of. “Both science & my faith dictate my belief that we are created by God,” he wrote on Twitter, later on Wednesday. “I believe faith & science are compatible, & go hand in hand.”

Evolution
Scott Walker
Wisconsin
Religion and Belief
2016 Presidential Election
Great Britain
US
Politics
US Politics


Red Sox Put Bobby Valentine’s Strategy to the Test

Abstract: The Boston Red Sox have set up an extensive and rigorous interview process for their vacant managerial position involving pointed questions about in-game strategy, with video accompaniment and specific scenarios of almost every situation a manager might encounter in the course of a baseball season. The process was designed by a smart front office group, but there may be no more qualified person to take such a meticulous examination as Bobby Valentine , considered to have one of the sharpest minds in baseball. Having already met with and impressed the three-member ownership group of the Boston Red Sox, Valentine took the next step in the process of possibly becoming Boston’s next manager when he interviewed with the new general manager Ben Cherington and his analytical baseball staff in Boston on Monday. The interview process, which the former Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein said he had also put into place in his new position as president of the Chicago Cubs, has been described as lengthy and intense. For Valentine, who espoused the statistical principles of Bill James and sabermetrics years before they became fashionable, it was a chance to flex his strategic muscles in front of a bright staff. Cherington came out of the interview praising Valentine’s intelligence and passion for baseball. He also told reporters that Gene Lamont, the third-base coach of the Detroit Tigers, who has already interviewed with Boston, would also get a chance to meet with the owners, as Valentine has. Valentine, the former manager of the Texas Rangers, the Mets and the Chiba Lotte Marines in Japan, met with John Henry, the Red Sox principal owner; Tom Werner, the chairman; and Larry Lucchino, the president and chief executive, on separate occasions this month. Cherington was said in some news media reports to initially have favored Dale Sveum, who was hired by the Chicago Cubs last week. Those reports suggested that Cherington resisted including Valentine, a forceful personality brimming with ideas, favoring instead the perhaps more controllable Sveum. But according to one of several people in baseball canvassed by Cherington for a report on Valentine, he is actually intrigued by Valentine and not opposed to hiring him. The person insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about another team’s personnel matters. The same person said he had the impression that Valentine is the front-runner for the job, even going as far as to believe it is his to lose.

Boston Red Sox
Baseball
Valentine Bobby
Cherington Ben
Coaches and Managers


Bank of England Divided on Continuing Stimulus Measures

Abstract: LONDON — Policy makers at the Bank of England are divided over the future of their multibillion-pound program of bond purchases to stimulate the economy, according to minutes of their discussions released on Wednesday, suggesting that prospects for an expansion of the program in the near term may be fading. With the British economy likely to emerge from recession in the third quarter but still facing extremely weak growth, many analysts expect more stimulus in November. But there is also a growing sense that, with interest rates already at a record low and the economic effects of the central bank’s asset purchases unclear, monetary policy is becoming less effective as a means of stimulus. Instead of central bank stimulus measures, some economists favor a slowdown in the pace of large government spending cuts intended to reduce the country’s budget deficit. The bank’s policy makers also said that consumer price inflation was still above the bank’s 2 percent annual target and probably would not decline this year, as had been hoped, because of rising energy and food costs. Economists note that inflation argues against an increase in stimulus, for fear of overheating the economy. The release of the minutes coincided Wednesday with positive new data on jobs. Britain’s unemployment rate for June to August 2012 was 7.9 percent of the economically active population, down 0.2 percentage points from March to May 2012, according to the Office for National Statistics, an independent agency that prepares data for the government. There were 2.53 million unemployed, down 50,000 from March to May 2012, the office said. The record of the October meeting of the central bank’s Monetary Policy Committee showed unanimous agreement to hold interest rates at a record low of 0.5 percent and not to expand the £375 billion, or $603 billion, purchasing plan, known as quantitative easing . But the minutes also indicate that the debate on what to do at next month’s meeting will be finely balanced. “There were some differences of view between members about the outlook and the likelihood that further easing in policy would be required,” the minutes said. “But there was agreement that there was little to be gained at this meeting in changing the current program of asset purchases.” The bank minutes noted that consumer price inflation had fallen to 2.5 percent in August, from 2.6 percent in July, still slightly above the 2 percent target. “But higher oil prices and likely rises in domestic energy prices and some foodstuffs meant that inflation might remain broadly flat over the rest of the year, rather than gently falling as expected,” the minutes said. Martin Weale, a member of the bank’s monetary policy committee, damped expectations about more asset purchases last week when he said in an interview with The Daily Mail that it was “not self-evident” that “substantial extra support for the economy would be compatible with the inflation target.” His comments, along with the labor report, “provided some support for more hawkish members” of the central bank’s policy committee, Neville Hill, director of European economics at Credit Suisse, wrote in a note. Rob Wood, chief economist for Britain at Berenberg Bank in London, said that the central bank’s position on continuing the stimulus would also depend on other signs of recovery in the economy. “Productivity will be absolutely critical to the outcome of the committee’s November decision,” he said. “If productivity growth remains weak, there are limits to how much more monetary policy” can do “to boost growth without raising inflationary pressures.”

Bank of England
Interest Rates
Great Britain
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Economic Conditions and Trends
Banking and Financial Institutions


Business Schools Break Tradition in Global Education

Abstract: SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA universities have long led the nation in the number of students enrolled from other countries. Now the universities’ business programs are taking the globalization of education to a different level, offering courses that go beyond dry corporate case studies and broadening their collaboration with universities and businesses abroad, particularly in Asia. The Anderson School of Management at the University of California, Los Angeles, and the National University of Singapore have programs allowing students in the executive master of business administration program to be awarded degrees from both universities after 15 months of taking classes in Singapore and Los Angeles, and also in Shanghai and Bangalore, India. The Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California in collaboration with Jiao Tong University in Shanghai has a global M.B.A. program involving executives from 10 countries studying in China and Los Angeles. The Paul Merage School of Business at the University of California, Irvine, collaborates with the Indian Institute of Technology, Peking University in Beijing, City University of Hong Kong and others in teaching business courses around the world. The programs are not simply overseas duplications of standard courses in accounting and finance. “In our global access courses, we challenge teams, in a language that is not that of the United States, to drop an egg from two stories without breaking it,” said Andrew Policano, dean of the Merage School. “One must learn to innovate with other cultures.” Judy Olian, dean of the Anderson School at U.C.L.A., agreed. “It is critical to learn other cultures,” she said. “We are taking entrepreneurial leaders to operate in Palestine and Israel, in India and China” She added: “That has not been thought of as the mission of business schools, but it is in the emerging world of today. If we did not do this, we could be accused of staring at our own navel.” C. L. Nikias, provost and head of academic affairs at the University of Southern California, wants the university to become a place where “students and faculty can cross academic and geographic boundaries to innovate, an institution with a public service mission that spans continents.” About 21 percent of the students at the university’s Marshall School are international. The university is “receiving requests to put branches of the school in many countries,” said Adam Clayton Powell III, vice provost for globalization. The Global Access Program at the Anderson School provides a good illustration of the new types of offerings. The program enrolls 175 M.B.A. candidates who are working at other jobs during the three years it takes to earn their degrees. Their average age is about 33. Students consult for six months at a time for international companies that want to get into the American market or simply “operate beyond their current borders,” explained Robert Foster, dean of the program. The students, who work in teams of five or six, average 500 hours of work on a typical project. Payam Tehrani, who graduated last year, counseled ICAR Vision Systems, a developer of identification cards and equipment in Barcelona, Spain. ICAR wanted to break into the American market. But after the students surveyed that market and worked in Spain, Italy and other countries, “we found that its equipment was not advanced enough to make it in the U.S. market, but that ICAR had opportunities for expansion in Italy,” said Mr. Tehrani, a 35-year old electrical engineer who now works for Yahoo. The Spanish company, like all other corporate customers of the program, contributed $15,000 to the Anderson School to cover part of the program’s expenses. Gerald Gutierrez, 33, who also graduated from the program last year, worked with an Italian company that wanted to sell thermoplastics to Boeing and Airbus. But the company’s products were less advanced than the thermoplastics the companies already used to build aircraft. “We advised the company that it needed to do more research and development,” Mr. Gutierrez said. In another case, a team of students studied markets in Russia for the Technology Agency of Finland, a government office, on behalf of software, communications and construction service firms. Why would Finland hire American students to study a market in Russia? The answer, Mr. Foster said, is that the Americans “know how to commercialize technology, to map out the complex of distribution channels, marketing and finance that any product needs to be successful.” The global access program is expanding in 2008 to 240 students and 48 projects, reaching out to India and China, Mexico, Spain and Austria for new companies and opportunities. Global study brings perspective. Ronald Lewis, 21, a student at the Marshall School, studied for four months at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and visited the bustling port city of Shenzhen, China. It was, he said, “my first time immersed in another culture,” an experience that he will bring to a management consultant job at Bain & Company after graduation this year. Alda Mostofi, 28, found that his fellow students of many nationalities, had differing views about Western culture when they visited the General Motors plant in Shanghai as part of their studies for the dual business degree from U.C.L.A. and the National University of Singapore. Ronson Wong, an executive at Reach.com , a Hong Kong-based provider of cable and satellite communications, said, “A degree from an American university, from U.C.L.A., is highly valued in Asia.” He received a dual degree from U.C.L.A. and Singapore last year. American universities are so prized abroad because “we have a different kind of pedagogy,” said James Ellis, dean of the Marshall School. “We are much more inclusive of students, allowing their participation on many levels, in contrast to the classic Oxford lecture model. The students learn from one another, particularly in the global classes where individuals from different cultures work together.”

Business Schools
Colleges and Universities
Education and Schools


State Will Oversee Asbury Park School Finances

Abstract: CITING myriad financial oversights, errors and discrepancies, the New Jersey Department of Education said last week that it would appoint a monitor to oversee finances in the Asbury Park school district, as it has in five other troubled districts. Jon Zlock, a department spokesman, said it would appoint the monitor under the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum, a program that began in May 2006. It allows the state to oversee a school district’s finances without actually taking over its operations, as the state had in the past with Jersey City, Newark and Paterson. “We’re in sort of a transition period on this,” Mr. Zlock said. The program “allows us to give some control back to the local folks in a way a takeover can’t.” Among the problems the Education Department found in the Asbury Park district were $898,447 in overspending in budget items for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006; misclassification of purchase orders; contract and bidding irregularities; and other accounting problems. “This is to be a good thing to help the board help the superintendent,” said Robert DiSanto, the Asbury Park school board president, who said he was nonetheless disappointed that the department appointed the monitor without first discussing it with the board. “Whatever it takes, whatever we need. It is important for a district that has been in decline for more than 30 years.” The Education Department previously appointed financial monitors in Camden, Irvington, Paterson, Willingboro and Pleasantville. “We were having some difficulties and having problems balancing our budget,” said Bart Leff, a Camden school district spokesman. “The monitor came in with a wealth of experience and helped us untangle things.” At a school board meeting on Tuesday, the Camden district announced that the new measures had resulted in a $3 million surplus, allowing the district to qualify for state financing of up to $12 million that it might have lost had it not balanced its budget. The problem may be more difficult in Asbury Park, where Superintendent Antonio N. Lewis has been suspended with pay for more than a year amid local and state investigations of his performance since his appointment in 1999. No charges have been filed. The district has had several interim superintendents, resulting in a lack of continuity in decision-making. It has 3,500 students and an 11 percent dropout rate, about four times the Monmouth County average. Mr. DiSanto, who was elected five years ago as part of a reform movement, said he was confident the monitor would eventually be good for the district. “There has certainly been a decline in all this in students’ education and staff morale,” said Mr. DiSanto, who said he was told the monitor will have superintendent experience. “It is not an easy solution, but we are laying the brickwork for a much better Asbury Park school system.”