Momentous Hit for Yankees, but Not for Rodriguez

Abstract: A milestone was reached in the Bronx on Friday night, just as the Yankees had hoped. The crowd responded with a long and sustained standing ovation, serenading the prominent Yankee as the ball was retrieved, a keepsake for the collection of — Jorge Posada . In five plate appearances, Alex Rodriguez failed to hit his 600th home run, ceding the spotlight in the Yankees’ 7-1 win against the Kansas City Royals to Posada, who became the 12th player in franchise history to drive in 1,000 runs. Before a rain delay of 85 minutes, A. J. Burnett worked five shutout innings in his first start since cutting his hands last Saturday during an altercation with the clubhouse doors. Only one batter reached third base against Burnett, who threw 58 pitches but after the delay was held back from pitching the sixth to reduce his risk of injury. “I was hoping for a no-hitter and a home run today,” Burnett said. “That would have been storybook.” When play resumed, the crowd of 46,801 had thinned out, but those remaining greeted Rodriguez during his next two at-bats as they had for the previous three, by standing, clapping and hooting, snapping photographs of every swing, stride and smile in his pursuit of history. What they got Friday night were, in order, a walk, an infield hit, a strikeout, a sharp single, a broken-bat groundout and a reason to brave scorching temperatures on Saturday to visit Yankee Stadium. By containing Rodriguez, the Royals set up a return engagement with Kyle Davies, who surrendered his 500th homer on Aug. 4, 2007. “I don’t know how you could be immune to it,” Manager Joe Girardi said of the crowd’s reaction to Rodriguez. “I don’t think he necessarily hears it once he gets focused in on the pitch and the ball comes. But when you’re standing on deck there, you have to be able to hear it.” Rodriguez, who was lifted from the game after hitting in the eighth, left the locker room without speaking to reporters. As Davies said Thursday, no pitcher likes giving up home runs, especially milestones. And Brian Bannister, who started Friday for Kansas City, feels the same way. But he has a keen sense of baseball history, its charms and its oddities — he said his father, Floyd, a former All-Star pitcher, enjoyed watching him pitch opposite Gavin Floyd of the White Sox because of the Floyd-Bannister matchup — and being linked forever with Rodriguez in that sense might not have irked him as much. “No matter what the situation is in the game, it’s going to feel like bases loaded, bottom of the ninth in the playoffs,” Bannister said. “Everyone’s on their feet, there’s more flashbulbs than you’ve ever seen. It’s hard to explain. You feel like you’re on the red carpet and there’s 40,000 paparazzi taking pictures of you.” On the other hand, Bannister did not appreciate how the Yankees thrashed him in the first inning, pounding three doubles as they took a 4-0 lead. The second double, a scorcher into the left-center-field gap by Robinson Cano , cleared the bases with one out after Rodriguez walked. Posada followed by ripping a liner to right field, driving in Cano to join Derek Jeter as the only active Yankees with 1,000 runs batted in with the club. The Royals’ bullpen started to stir, but the door never opened. Bannister is a clever pitcher, and he figured out a way to silence the Yankees over the next four innings. He pitched out of a first-and-third, no-out jam in the third, retiring Posada and Curtis Granderson and picking Cano off first. As Rodriguez loosened up by the on-deck circle before his at-bat in the fifth, the wind picked up, thunder rumbled and lightning crackled beyond the outfield. With that dramatic scene as the backdrop, Rodriguez took only one swing, eliciting a loud groan as he fouled off a 2-and-1 pitch, before staring at a fastball for strike three. If only by a little, Rodriguez’s pursuit of 600 home runs partly obscured a more significant issue involving the Yankees: whether Burnett could redeem himself after his meltdown last Saturday against Tampa Bay. Furious with his performance in the first two innings against the Rays, Burnett retreated to the clubhouse and slammed his hands against a plastic lineup card holder affixed to a set of double doors. He told the training staff he had fallen while walking up the stairs, then apologized to Girardi and General Manager Brian Cashman before disclosing the truth to reporters. However confident that he would not erupt again, Girardi still monitored Burnett’s body language for the slightest hint of frustration. He came away pleased. After every inning, Burnett walked slowly toward the dugout, his head down, a man content with his work. Working at a crisp pace, Burnett kept his defense engaged, and his infield responded. It turned two double plays behind him, with none sweeter than the one Mark Teixeira initiated in the fifth, with a diving stab of a sizzling grounder by Alex Gordon. The crowd roared but saved its genuine adoration of Teixeira for the eighth inning. Teixeira worked a walk off Kanekoa Texeira to give Rodriguez a final opportunity for 600. Swinging at the first pitch, Rodriguez topped a grounder toward third, deflating the crowd but ensuring that the only milestone achieved Friday night would come from Posada. “I’m going to remember this day,” Posada said.

Kansas City Royals
Baseball
New York Yankees
Posada Jorge
Cano Robinson
Burnett A J


Building Firm Pleads Guilty to Defrauding Its Customers

Abstract: Structure Tone, one of the nation’s largest construction firms, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to corruption charges and agreed to forfeit $55 million for a scheme in which the company defrauded a roster of prominent financial institutions, law firms and ad agencies out of tens of millions of dollars. The company arranged for electrical, plumbing, drywall and other subcontractors to falsely inflate their bills for Structure Tone’s clients, investigators say, adding millions of dollars to the cost of building office space for Bank of America; Moody’s; Bloomberg; Proskauer Rose, a law firm; and other major customers between 2005 and 2009. The plea is part of the latest scandal to erupt in the largely hidden but vastly lucrative business of designing and building the walls and guts of corporate towers in New York City, an industry in which corruption often adds to the already high cost for developers, law enforcement officials say. The continuing investigation by the Manhattan district attorney’s office has resulted in guilty pleas or convictions against six other companies and at least half a dozen executives. For Structure Tone, the plea hearing in State Supreme Court in Manhattan was a replay of a past scandal involving interior construction contractors. In 1998, the company paid $10 million and pleaded guilty to felony charges related to its role in a $2 billion bid-rigging and bribery scheme involving Sony Corporation and other high-profile companies. But despite its checkered past, Structure Tone, the largest interior construction firm in the city’s $29 billion construction industry, continues to thrive; Sony recently hired the company to build its new New York headquarters on Madison Avenue. “Interiors construction is a multibillion-dollar industry in New York City and is vital to our city’s economy,” the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., said in a statement. “Structure Tone’s felony plea and forfeiture of $55 million — one of the largest forfeiture penalties ever imposed on a construction company — sends a clear message that this type of criminal activity will not be tolerated. This plea agreement addresses the severity of Structure Tone’s criminal conduct, while taking into consideration the remedial actions the company has implemented.” Mr. Vance said the construction industry “should be on alert.” “We are rooting out fraud,” he added, “and making sure that honest businesses can compete fairly.” Structure Tone officials said that they were satisfied to have the matter resolved and that the case would not affect the company’s ability to work on current and future projects. It pleaded guilty to a single count of falsifying business records in the first degree. “The record-keeping issues, which form the basis of this agreement, date back to the period 2005 to 2009, and we have fully cooperated with authorities from the beginning,” Structure Tone said in a statement. “The financial position of our company — which generates $3 billion annually in revenue — continues to be strong. Long before this process began, we strengthened our compliance protocols to improve transparency.” Structure Tone was not the only interior contractor to emerge relatively intact from the investigation. Robert N. Bennis, an executive who went to prison briefly for his role as a kingpin in the bid-rigging scheme, is now in charge of Condé Nast’s move from Midtown to 1 World Trade Center. In the current case, David Szuchman, the district attorney’s chief of investigations, said Structure Tone had falsified business records that allowed it to reap “tens of millions of dollars from easily dozens of companies,” by inflating purchase orders over the five-year course of the scheme. Mr. Szuchman said the scheme ended in 2010 after Structure Tone became aware of the investigation. Although the company has since taken remedial action to avoid illegal practices, he said his office would monitor the company’s business records for the next three years to ensure that there was no wrongdoing. After pleading guilty in 1998, Structure Tone said it worried that its reputation would be forever stained. The company was the largest beneficiary of the bribery and bid-rigging, having admitted to paying a bribe to ensure that it won a $500 million contract to renovate Sony’s former headquarters. Nearly three dozen companies and 40 executives pleaded guilty. Thomas D. Thacher III, a former prosecutor who led the Construction Industry Strike Force , a state unit investigating corruption and racketeering, described the second conviction of Structure Tone as “déjà vu all over again” for one of the most successful companies in the construction industry. “The opportunities to steal and the incentives to cheat are so huge in construction that fraud has always threatened every single building project in our city,” said Mr. Thacher, chief executive of Thacher Associates, which provides a monitoring service for companies engaged in construction projects. “Corruption adds many, many hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of construction each year in this city, and that cost is passed on to the public.” Structure Tone specializes in building office space, or interior construction, as opposed to erecting the core and shell of a skyscraper. In some instances, it acts as a construction manager for a firm, overseeing the work, negotiating contracts and hiring subcontractors, on behalf of a corporate client. On other jobs, the company serves as a general contractor hired to perform the work for a fixed price, or “lump sum.” According to investigators, when Structure Tone acted as a construction manager it would tell subcontractors to raise their prices to account for unnecessary “contingencies” under an addendum known as “Rider B,” whose existence was never revealed to the client. At the same time, the executives would demand a discount from subcontractors on “lump sum” contracts. “Rider B was the vehicle for the fraud,” Mr. Szuchman said. The district attorney’s current investigation began in 2009, with the Builders Group, a firm that was eventually indicted on a charge of stealing $7 million from clients at five condominium and office projects in New York. The company, as well as three executives, ultimately pleaded guilty, and the company is no longer in business. Months later, investigators raided the offices of Lehr Construction, another prominent firm that had been implicated in the 1998 bid-rigging scheme . As a result of information gleaned from a second set of business records discovered at the home of a Lehr executive, the district attorney’s office began interviewing 100 subcontractors about fake invoices and inflated bills. Many of the subcontractors provided information about not only Lehr, but also Structure Tone and other companies. The district attorney subsequently won convictions against Lehr and three of its top executives. Structure Tone initially denied charges of corruption. But on Wednesday, Structure Tone pleaded guilty to falsifying business records and paid one of the largest forfeiture penalties ever imposed on a construction company. “However they want to spin it,” said J. Bruce Maffeo, a former federal prosecutor who has represented subcontractors in the construction industry, “$55 million is still a lot of money, even in this town.”

Fraud
Structure Tone
Construction
Commercial Real Estate


The Few Who Elect the Mayor for All

Abstract: As conventional wisdom has it, New Yorkers are seeking a striking change in tone in the coming mayoral election, one that makes the selection of a Democratic mayor seem almost inevitable and the party’s primary process likely to represent the conclusion of the story rather than the plot-escalating middle. As we’ve also been made to understand, a relatively small number of voters will determine the outcome of the primary race. In the fall of 2001, after the historic calamities of 9/11, just over 785,000 people voted in the Democratic primary, which marked a robust showing, particularly since voting had been put off two weeks because of the terrorist attack. If similar numbers are achieved in this year’s primary, on Sept. 10 — and that is hardly assured — then one-sixth of the city’s electorate and a tenth of its population could in effect be choosing our next mayor. Who constitutes our class of decision makers? History is by no means predictive, but voting patterns in the city are at once not altogether surprising and defiant of certain assumptions. In New York, as in most parts of the country, presidential elections draw more voters than local ones. The ethos that compels us to buy bacon cured from the meat of pigs raised within a 100-mile radius does not reflexively translate into a sense of urgency about how our communities are governed. Approximately 2.6 million people in New York City voted in the general election that gave President Obama his first term, while 1.5 million people voted in the general election that gave Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg his — even though the impact of any individual vote cast in a presidential election in New York City is obviously less meaningful than one vote for a state or city office. There is also no certainty that because we find ourselves at a compelling juncture, after Mr. Bloomberg’s long reign, that tens of thousands of previously dormant or new voters will emerge. This past spring, Los Angeles, facing high unemployment and fiscal deficits, elected its first new mayor in eight years, the youthful Eric Garcetti. He won with fewer votes than any newly elected mayor since the 1930s, according to The Los Angeles Times. Only 23 percent of registered voters cast ballots. In New York City the electorate is older than the adult population on the whole, and skews more female. The dependable voting blocs in Democratic primaries are union members, Jews and the Fairway demographic of the affluent and educated. Within that universe, no part of the city has grown more popular over the past decade, or laid greater claim to media attention (and parody) than brownstone Brooklyn, the mindscape with which Bill de Blasio is most closely aligned. But its outsize image as a liberal Eden is not matched by its level of political engagement. Turnout is relatively strong but not astonishing. Data compiled by the longtime political consultant Jerry Skurnik looking at the percentage of Democrats who voted in at least one primary since 2009, in ZIP codes across the city, found neighborhoods like Fort Greene and Brooklyn Heights to have turnout rates of approximately 30 percent, which is six points above the citywide average. Poor neighborhoods typically vote in considerably lower proportion. But this also means that 70 percent of the registered Democrats in Park Slope did not vote in a recent primary. And while Park Slope has healthy turnout, it has by no means the highest. Forest Hills, in Queens, a neighborhood that in the minds of many New Yorkers might have no particular resonance beyond the fact of “Strangers on a Train,” had a primary turnout of 40 percent. While we are on the subject of anthropologically fussed-over urban social categories, what of the Earnest Young Hipster? Are there significant political consequences to the existence of such a person? Mr. Skurnik’s data has the colonies inhabited by this archetype, Greenpoint and Bushwick in Brooklyn, with turnout rates of about 22 percent. After the 2008 presidential election, a group called the New Kings Democrats formed to capitalize on the incredible enthusiasm Mr. Obama generated among young voters and to funnel that passion into challenging the old-school politics of the Brooklyn Democratic machine, then run by Vito J. Lopez. Five years later, the New Kings have fewer than 200 dues-paying members, one of its founders, Lincoln Restler, told me. Last year, when Mr. Restler, who is 29 and looks like Al Franken, ran to keep his seat as the Democratic leader in Brooklyn’s 50th Assembly District, he lost by 19 votes to a candidate backed by Mr. Lopez. Driving up voter registration is also a challenge. Two years ago, the New Kings began an effort to encourage Brooklynites in their 20s and 30s toward more active political participation. The group registered more than 1,000 people. “It sounds like not so big a number in a borough of two and a half million people,” Mr. Restler told me, “but the main targets are people who’ve moved recently and people who’ve been through the criminal justice system and don’t believe they can vote.” “It’s hard work,” he said. “We’d have three people spending two and three hours at the McCarren farmers’ market and getting eight or nine people.” Another question is what role Hispanics will play in the election, given that their numbers have grown over the past decade. John Mollenkopf, a political science professor at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York who analyzes voting patterns in New York, identified 736,000 voters in the city with Hispanic surnames. Of those, 193,000 have voted in at least one Democratic primary at the federal, state or city level since 2000. But only 7 percent of those primary voters registered in the past five years, Professor Mollenkopf said, with the median year of registration being 1997. “And the Dreamers,” he noted, “by definition aren’t going to vote.”


Paul Ryan Is Said to be Planning an Active Role

Abstract: CINCINNATI — Representative Paul D. Ryan may have largely disappeared from the national spotlight down the campaign homestretch, ceding attention to Mitt Romney . But if the Republican ticket prevails, Mr. Ryan plans to come back roaring, establishing an activist vice presidency that he said would look like Dick Cheney’s under President George W. Bush. Mr. Ryan would dedicate most evenings to dinners with senators and House members of both parties, aides said, as he steps into the role Mr. Romney promised: architect of a Romney administration’s drive to enact a budget that shrinks the government and overhauls programs like Medicare . On a grinding schedule in the election’s final hours, rushing to as many as five states in a day, Mr. Ryan avoids specifics in his speeches about his duties if elected. Behind the scenes, he speaks at least weekly to the office of Mike Leavitt, the former Utah governor who leads the Romney campaign’s transition team . The prospect of a deeply engaged vice president was described in interviews with campaign aides, close House colleagues and the few times Mr. Ryan has discussed his potential future job. Asked by a reporter last month if he expected the kind of broad responsibility for the economy that Mr. Cheney held for national security — as an aide suggested — Mr. Ryan said, “I do.” “A large reason he was chosen was to help Romney govern,” an adviser to the campaign said. “Paul’s going to focus on being a partner.” Democrats in the Bush years, of course, criticized Mr. Cheney for usurping for himself a kind of co-presidency. Mr. Ryan and Mr. Romney seem to have an effective partnership on the trail; the younger man has been deferential to a fault since he was tapped for the ticket, modifying long-held positions to conform with Mr. Romney’s. That said, Mr. Ryan has made clear that he would not be relegated only to attending funerals. Before Mr. Ryan accepted the nomination, aides said, he had extensive conversations about his position with Mr. Romney, who assured him he would play a guiding role on fiscal and economic matters. Already seen as an intellectual leader of the Republican Party because of his sweeping House budget proposals, Mr. Ryan would wield the clout that comes from being recognized as the party’s most likely next in line for the presidency, prominent Republicans said. “My guess is Paul will be an extraordinarily consequential vice president,” said Representative Tom Cole of Oklahoma, a member of the Republican House leadership, who was a visitor to the Ryan family box during the Republican convention in August. “He’s going to play an important role in outlining, shaping and passing the Romney agenda from the day he walks in the door.” “He becomes emissary in chief to the Hill,” Mr. Cole continued, “especially to House Republicans, who are likely to become the tip of the spear in terms of anything Romney wants to do.” Whether Mr. Ryan would be a wrangler of House conservatives in support of a White House seeking to reach across the aisle, or an agent of the Tea Party who keeps Mr. Romney from deviating from the true path, is a subject of much debate. Mr. Romney has promised over the past month to bridge the partisan chasm in Washington, as he has modulated his talk in an appeal to swing voters. “When I am elected,” he said Friday in Wisconsin, in a speech billed as a closing argument, “I will endeavor to find those good men and women on both sides of the aisle who care more about the country than about the politics.” Aides to Mr. Ryan said that he received congratulatory phone calls when he was selected from former Vice Presidents Cheney and Dan Quayle, but that they did not offer him counsel on how to define a role as vice president. Mr. Ryan’s friends and aides said his disarming personality and willingness to listen to opponents had made him well liked by lawmakers of both parties; and he would continue to build bridges through regular dinner discussions, he told aides. On a return to the House floor for a vote in September, Mr. Ryan spent several minutes in friendly conversation with Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic whip. “I think Mitt Romney wants to be realistic, but also work in a bipartisan way,” said Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, a Tea Party favorite who is a friend of Mr. Ryan’s. “You’re not going to get to the finish line unless you can get the House and the Senate to come together.” Among Mr. Ryan’s advisers on the campaign trail, many of whom come from the office of House Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio, it is accepted wisdom that one of President Obama’s biggest failings was to hold himself apart from lawmakers. Thus, the thinking goes, the president lacked the relationships to build bipartisan support on issues like health care and debt reduction. But Democratic lawmakers who have worked with Mr. Ryan said that he has no record of compromise. They said his idea of a meeting of the minds was sticking to his guns and persuading opponents that he was right. “He lives in an ideological bubble,” said Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, a Democratic member of the House Budget Committee that Mr. Ryan heads. “I’ve been on the Budget Committee two other times. The lack of bipartisanship was striking” under Mr. Ryan. Representative Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the senior Democrat on the Budget Committee, said Mr. Ryan became a favorite of conservatives because of his passionate advocacy for drastically reducing government. “He has said if Romney and Ryan prevail they will have a mandate to enact the Ryan budget or a close version of that budget,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “That’s not a recipe for compromise.” Mr. Ryan rejected the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles budget deficit compromise last year that included a balance between cuts to government programs and increased revenues through eliminating tax deductions and credits. He did so, he has explained, because it did not tame the increase in health spending. Should Mr. Romney win the election, it is widely expected that his first major legislative effort will be an attempt at a “grand bargain” that reforms the tax code, including across-the-board cuts, and an overhaul of entitlement programs. Republicans have said that they would seek to buy time to put together such a package by postponing the tax increases and automatic spending cuts known as the fiscal cliff that go into effect in January. With Republicans favored to keep their majority in the House, much of the success of a Romney administration’s ambitions will turn on which party controls the Senate. If Democrats’ current three-seat advantage slips to a 50-50 balance, a Vice President Ryan would be in position to cast a tiebreaking vote. But if Democrats retain a majority, and with it the power to prevent bills from reaching the floor, a President Romney would need to find common ground with at least a handful of Democratic senators. Then Mr. Ryan’s true mettle is likely to be tested, as he becomes the White House’s emissary to the conservative wing of the House. “That will be part of Paul’s job — to come in and sell it to people who otherwise will feel let down and disappointed,” said Mr. Cole, the congressman from Oklahoma.

Vice Presidents and Vice Presidency (US)


Harnessing the Net to Power a Green Revolution

Abstract: LONDON — At the intersection of clean power and information technology, a new breed of digital start-ups is harnessing the power of the Internet to make smarter, more efficient use of energy and other resources. Proponents call it “cleanweb,” and they say the sector is poised to bring about huge leaps in efficiency, saving money and cutting planet-warming carbon emissions. As its backers define it, cleanweb is any software or Internet application that makes it easier to use resources — like textiles or cars or electricity — more efficiently. The label is applied to a diverse mix of companies, some of them far removed from the power sector. Cleanweb enthusiasts often point to Airbnb, a Web site that connects people seeking vacation accommodation with others looking to rent out their homes, reducing the use of hotel rooms — and, in theory, the number of hotels that need to be built. The Nest, a sleek, smart home thermostat that can be controlled from a mobile phone, is cleanweb, too. So is Mosaic, a crowdfunding platform that links individual investors to solar energy projects that reduce the use of fossil fuels. RidePal tallies online votes from commuters to design routes to work for employer-funded buses, taking cars off the road in the congested San Francisco Bay area. “For me, it’s about bringing the optimism and the creative energy of the Web to the big challenges of sustainability,” said Jack Townsend, an organizer of Cleanweb U.K., a network of British entrepreneurs and technology experts. “It’s early days right now, but it’s very fast-developing.” “A lot of the problems of sustainability are information problems, so information and information technology can be a big component of the solution,” he said. Investors scared off by volatility and falling prices in more traditional areas of clean technology — big wind farms or solar arrays that require hundreds of millions of dollars to get up and running — are turning in growing numbers to cleanweb, where capital requirements can be lower and returns can come quicker. Globally, investors put at least $1.2 billion into cleanweb ventures in 2011, according to research by Pure Energy Partners and the Cleantech Group, a market research company. A quarter of clean technology deals had a cleanweb component that year, a 55 percent increase from 2009, said Nicholas Moore Eisenberger, the managing partner at Pure Energy Partners, a venture capital and strategy firm in New York. Mitch Lowe, the managing partner at Greenstart, a San Francisco venture capital and design company focused on cleanweb, said the number of start-ups in the area had doubled in the past year. “We’re seeing a lot of interest in this category right now,” he said. “The number of entrepreneurs who are starting businesses in this space has grown a lot in the last couple of years.” The growth of cleanweb is another example of the huge change information technology has brought to so many sectors of the economy, Mr. Lowe said. This time, he says, it is energy’s turn to be revolutionized by the Internet. “Cleantech is moving from its first chapter, where it was all about wind farms and solar panels and these huge industrial things,” he said. “Now that all that technology has been built, the question is how do you distribute it, how do you get it out to the world.” Fresh out of the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Archie Gupta, an electrical engineer, saw a way to help independent energy generators operate more efficiently. Big utilities have smart systems guiding their decisions about how much power to produce and when, but in the United States alone, there are 24,000 smaller-scale businesses and institutions — universities, hospitals, airports and factories — that also generate power, mainly for their own use, Mr. Gupta said. Because energy is not their main business, many have not bothered to install sophisticated systems to manage it, he said. Root3 Technologies, a start-up that he co-founded a year ago, offers software and services to do just that. “All the data is already there,” he said. “We are taking the data and converting it into actionable information — and this is actionable information hour by hour. What do you need to do? What do you need to turn on? How much do you need to produce?” “It’s a significant bottom-line benefit,” that helps clients cut their power generating costs by up to 30 percent, he said. Along with leaders in the field like the entrepreneurs Sunil Paul and Blake Burris, Mr. Eisenberger, of Pure Energy Partners, recently helped to start the Global Cleanweb Initiative to promote the sector. In cities including Houston and Rome, the group has sponsored weekend meetings for programmers to brainstorm and build apps that save energy or other resources. Information technology can have a bigger impact on resource management “than any hard technology in our lifetimes,” Mr. Eisenberger said. In addition to energy-related applications, the cleanweb world includes companies in what has been dubbed the “sharing economy,” connecting individuals who want to share baby clothes, appliances, cars and more. That saves money as well as the cloth, metal and other materials used in manufacturing such goods — and the greenhouse gases their creation would have produced. Brian Steel, the co-director of the Cleantech to Market program at the Haas School of Business, at the University of California, Berkeley, said the popularity of cleanweb could lead to a glut of companies in the area, followed by a shakeout and consolidation. Yet even if that happens, he said, the sector looks likely to play an important complementary role, alongside more traditional renewable power companies, in helping to cut carbon emissions and conserve resources. Mr. Lowe, of Greenstart, said that venture capitalists who had lost money on clean energy investments in recent years might still be wary. But investors from outside the energy sector have been showing lots of interest, he said, looking at the new companies simply as strong start-ups with good prospects. Greenstart is investing in one new cleanweb company every four weeks. “We’re superbullish on it,” he said: With a growing global population and tightening constraints on carbon emissions, “it’s just a massive financial opportunity.” Mr. Eisenberger said he hoped the opportunities would draw even more entrepreneurs with big ideas. “Instead of thinking about making a billion dollars by creating some sort of photo-sharing program, which is great,” he said, “we would like that next generation of entrepreneurs to see how they can make a billion dollars using tech to tackle resource problems.”

Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Environment
Energy industry
Energy Efficiency
Entrepreneurship


De Blasio Tweaks Bloomberg on Absence at Crash Site

Abstract: Even couched in disclaimers, there was no mistaking the sign of change: If Sunday’s train derailment had occurred under his mayoralty, the mayor-elect, Bill de Blasio, said on Monday, he would have been on the scene — not missing in action. “I’ll let the current mayor speak for himself about his choice,” said Mr. de Blasio, appearing at a news conference in City Hall Park, when asked about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s absence from the Bronx crash site. “For me it would be, generally speaking, important to be there.” Mr. Bloomberg, speaking to reporters at a bill-signing ceremony at City Hall, defended his decision. He said he had been told of the derailment within half an hour of its occurrence and was in touch with his commissioners throughout the day; he visited survivors in the hospital on Sunday night. What was important Sunday morning, he said, was that the emergency responders performed their job well. “It was a textbook kind of response,” he said. Searching for Answers After a Fatal Train Accident 11 Photos View Slide Show › Image Ángel Franco/The New York Times Mr. Bloomberg declined to provide his whereabouts at the time of the crash, saying, “You just have to check the public schedule for where I am at any point in time, and it will certainly tell you anything that’s germane to the job.” His public schedule for Sunday listed only the broadcast of a prerecorded radio interview. But The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Mr. Bloomberg was spotted on Sunday morning at a golf course in Bermuda, where he has a vacation home. The newspaper reported that he continued to play for several hours after the train derailed. One explanation Mr. Bloomberg’s aides offered for his absence was that, because the derailed Metro-North train was operated by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is overseen by the governor, the mayor did not want to get in the way of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who did visit the site. Mr. de Blasio agreed that the crash was “the governor’s purview.” But, he added, “My instinct is to be present even if the city is not the lead. Obviously it’s a bit of a case-by-case situation, but in this case I would have been.” As for Mr. Bloomberg’s policy of not revealing where he is on weekends, Mr. de Blasio said that he would do things differently. “I think it’s important to alert the public and the media broadly to my whereabouts,” he said, while adding that “for security reasons, and, you know, other important reasons, it may not be right down to the street address and where the front and back door are.”

Bill de Blasio
Mike Bloomberg
Train wreck
Metro North
New York Metropolitan Area
Spuyten Duyvil


Labor Board Ruling Eases Way for Fast-Food Unions’ Efforts

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The National Labor Relations Board , in a long-awaited ruling, made it easier on Thursday for unions to negotiate on behalf of workers at fast-food chains and other companies relying on contractors and franchisees. The ruling, adopted in a 3-to-2 vote along partisan lines, was immediately attacked by business groups, who called on the Republican-controlled Congress to overturn it. Employers like McDonald’s and Yum Brands are also likely to challenge the decision if unions manage to organize a group of employees at one or more of their franchises, if not well before that. The labor board, which is charged with protecting workers’ rights to organize, changed the definition of a crucial employer-employee relationship that had held in some form since the Reagan era of the 1980s. Now, a company that hires a contractor to staff its facilities may be considered a so-called joint employer of the workers at that facility, even if it does not actively supervise them. A union representing those workers would be legally entitled to bargain with the parent company, not just the contractor, under federal labor law. “The decision today could be one of the more significant by the N.L.R.B. in the last 35 years,” said Marshall B. Babson, a lawyer who helped write a brief opposing the rule for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “Depending on how the board applies its new ‘indirect test,’ it will likely ensnare an ever-widening circle of employers and bargaining relationships.” For example, if employees at a fast-food restaurant run by a franchisee were to unionize — something almost none have succeeded in doing to date — they would immediately be entitled to negotiate not just with the owner of the individual restaurant but also with the corporate headquarters. If the corporate parent were to agree to pay higher wages or provide better benefits, it would apply only to that particular restaurant, in the same way that concessions granted to employees in a single unionized portion of a national company that is not franchised apply only to that portion. At the same time, however, the concessions may give unionized employees at other locations practical leverage in their negotiations with the company. Many large companies maintain that they should not be required to bargain with employees of their contractors or franchisees, and that they should not be held liable for violations of those workers’ rights, if they exert control over the employees’ work conditions only in indirect ways, such as limiting what they can be paid for certain tasks. The labor board explicitly rejected that logic. “It is not the goal of joint-employer law to guarantee the freedom of employers to insulate themselves from their legal responsibility to workers, while maintaining control of the workplace,” the Democratic majority wrote, addressing the purpose of the National Labor Relations Act. “Such an approach has no basis in the act or in federal labor policy.” Wilma B. Liebman, a former N.L.R.B. chairwoman who wrote a crucial dissent in a 2002 case on the subject, said that the ruling was especially important because “sometimes the contractor is such a small entity, it exists on such a shoestring, that you have to get the lead firm to the table.” The case the board ruled on involved a company called Browning-Ferris Industries of California, which the N.L.R.B. found was a joint employer of workers hired by a contractor to help staff the company’s recycling center. Unions are expected to seek to apply the ruling beyond the circle of companies that rely on contractors and staffing agencies, extending it to companies with large numbers of franchisees — even, some argue, to money managers who own significant stakes in corporations. The joint employer designation could also make it easier to unionize in the first place. There have been instances in the past in which corporations appear to have terminated a franchise or contractor when that particular outfit was on the verge of unionizing, simply to avoid a union. This is legal for the corporation to do under existing law, but the franchisee or contractor cannot shut down on its own for this reason. As a joint employer, however, the corporation could no longer resort to this tactic. “If you are a joint employer and you decide to shut down, there may well be liability,” Ms. Liebman said. The ruling may have an immediate effect on a case the labor board is litigating against McDonald’s and several of its franchisees. In that case, the N.L.R.B.’s general counsel, who essentially acts as a prosecutor, asserts that the company is a joint employer along with a number of franchisees, making it potentially liable for numerous reported violations of workers’ rights, like retaliating against those who have tried to organize unions. Business representatives said the labor board was making it much harder to operate franchises in the future, undermining a popular path for many entrepreneurs. Richard Adams, a former McDonald’s franchisee who runs a franchise consulting firm, said the ruling made no sense to him, given how most franchise businesses operate. “It’s so far from the reality of what actually takes place in the business that it can’t have any practical application,” Mr. Adams said. “McDonald’s doesn’t control these employees — it doesn’t hire them, it doesn’t train them, it doesn’t supervise them, it doesn’t pay them, it doesn’t even have their Social Security numbers.” Before the ruling on Thursday, the prevailing doctrine typically required the parent company to exert “direct and immediate” control over working conditions of employees at its franchisees or contractors to be considered a joint employer. But the ruling moves the standard closer to its more liberal, pre-1980s interpretation. Under the new test, a company can be considered a joint employer even if it has only indirect control over working conditions — say, by requiring the use of certain scheduling software that locks in the timing and length of workers’ shifts — or if it has the right to control certain conditions even if it doesn’t exercise that right. “This will clearly jeopardize small employers and the future viability of the franchise model,” said Steve Caldeira, president of the International Franchise Association , an industry group. “If I’m an existing and/or aspiring franchisee, why would I want to expand my business and/or get into franchising if I don’t have the ability to run the day-to-day operations of the business?” At the Browning-Ferris recycling facility, where workers had held an election on whether to unionize, the N.L.R.B. found that that the company laid out certain criteria for hiring workers, reserved the right to terminate them, set upper limits on what they could be paid and defined the length of the shifts that they could work, among other conditions. “This decision will make a tremendous difference for workers’ rights on the job,” said James P. Hoffa, general president of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters , which brought the complaint. “Employers will no longer be able to shift responsibility for their workers and hide behind loopholes to prevent workers from organizing or engaging in collective bargaining.” The board framed its ruling by noting that the proliferation of contingent workers in the labor market in recent decades had made the issue more urgent. “If the current joint-employer standard is narrower than statutorily necessary, and if joint-employment arrangements are increasing,” the N.L.R.B. majority wrote in the ruling, “the risk is increased that the board is failing in what the Supreme Court has described as the board’s ‘responsibility to adapt the act to the changing patterns of industrial life.’ ” The labor board’s action was in line with a key contention of the Obama administration. Top Labor Department officials have argued that the rise of franchising, contracting and other arm’s-length arrangements in recent decades has gradually pushed millions of workers outside the formal boundaries of the organizations that effectively control their working lives. According to David Weil, the head of the Labor Department’s wage and hour division and the author of an influential book on the subject titled “The Fissured Workplace,” this makes it more likely that workers will be deprived of such protections as minimum wages, overtime pay and the right to unionize. In a testament to the dread with which they regard Dr. Weil’s work on these issues, advocates for business were quick to see his influence. “Let’s assume what he says is correct,” said Mr. Babson, the lawyer who helped write the brief for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. “The answer is Congress needs to look at this, not the N.L.R.B.” In a reference to a former chairman of General Electric, he added: “David Weil calls it fissurization. Jack Welch calls it common sense.”

Franchising
Yum Brands
Restaurant
Browning-Ferris Industries
Jobs
NLRB
Labor Unions
Fast food
McDonald's


Texas Chases New Business but Worries About Water

Abstract: IRWINDALE, Calif. — Surrounded by blue storage drums, thousands of plastic bottles and chile grinders the size of refrigerators, a Texas politician this week urged a Southern California businessman to move his factory to someplace more hospitable — like the Lone Star State. “We’ll take care of you,” State Representative Jason Villalba , Republican of Dallas, told David Tran, the founder and chief executive of Huy Fong Foods, which makes the popular hot sauce sriracha. “I trust you,” Mr. Tran replied as the Texas state flag flew outside his shiny, 650,000-square-foot facility. As the Irwindale City Council has moved to clamp down on Mr. Tran’s factory because of itchy eyes and spicy smells , Mr. Villalba and other Texans have tried lure the plant east, arguing that such a dispute would happen only in overregulated California, not business-friendly Texas. The theme is one that has been trumpeted by other Texas politicians like Gov. Rick Perry, who has toured the country to lure businesses from other states. But Huy Fong Foods, which is staying put for now, is different from Toyota and other companies that have recently been wooed or moved to Texas. Huy Fong is an agribusiness, relying on thousands of tons of local fresh chiles to operate. And in rapidly growing Texas, where the population is approaching 90 percent urban, some farming advocates complain that agriculture is being left behind in the scramble to accommodate growth. That is especially true when it comes to doling out water, planning specialists say. “One of the dominant water management strategies for meeting future water supply needs is a conversion away from agriculture” in Texas and most of the West, said Bill Mullican, a former state water planner in Texas who now writes plans for nearby states. With that in mind, he said, “if you’re going to bring agribusiness to Texas, I would think that you want to focus on those activities that were not water dependent or at least heavily water dependent.” State officials disagree, pointing out that voters just approved $2 billion for new water projects, and 10 percent of that money was reserved for rural communities. Several dairy businesses have moved to the Texas Panhandle from California in recent years because of lower costs and less regulation, said the state agriculture commissioner, Todd Staples . “We have a success story to share with this company on how other successful moves have been made,” Mr. Staples said, referring to the sriracha plant. But agricultural lobbyists have complained that no one leading the Texas Water Development Board , the planning agency that will disburse the water fund money, came from a solid farming background. And most of the stories of Texas agriculture recently have been about high-profile closings and economic losses in the midst of drought, including the loss of a Cargill beef processing plant that employed more than 2,000 in the Panhandle and the decimation of the Gulf Coast rice industry. Some legislators have suggested that some crops should not be grown in Texas. As the reservoirs that supply both Austin and rice farmers downstream continue to shrink, Austin-area lawmakers argue that growing rice requires too much water, and that those who live and do business alongside the reservoirs have more economic muscle. Along the Brazos River basin , Texas regulators prioritized cities and power plants over rice growers when the river’s users were asked to cut back. “You already hear in the political realm, ‘Well, agriculture uses 95 percent of the water. We just need to turn the irrigation wells off,’ ” said Darren Hudson, an agricultural economist at Texas Tech University. “Those conflicts are going to just intensify.” Mr. Villalba has suggested that the red jalapeño peppers needed to supply Huy Fong could be grown in the Rio Grande Valley. But the water rights there, the result of a court case from the 1950s, prioritizes municipal use over agriculture. “Agriculture is basically the user of last resort. They get what water is not for cities,” said Ray Prewett, the executive vice president of the Texas Vegetable Association , which is based in the border city of Mission. Even before the drought, agriculture in the region had suffered because of dwindling water supplies and urbanization, Mr. Prewett said. Farmers have found it more profitable to sell their water rights to growing cities, and to shift to dryland farming, which pays more in crop insurance. Water for cities is also much more highly valued than irrigation water, according to the 2012 state water plan . The plan forecasts a shortfall of 260,000 acre-feet of agricultural water in the Rio Grande region by 2060, resulting in a loss of $48 million and 655 jobs. The water deficit for municipal users in the region is slightly above that, but its estimated impact is much greater — $2.2 billion and 54,000 jobs lost. “Yes, we need food,” said Dan Hardin, a senior water planner for the state, pointing out that water for irrigation is important. But “unfortunately, we still don’t pay a lot for food in this country,” he said, “so the value of the product per acre-foot is a lot lower in agriculture.” While chiles are a relatively drought-tolerant crop, requiring far less water than rice, other issues the agricultural industry faces could create problems. Ben Villalon, a horticulturalist from Texas A&M University who is called “Dr. Pepper” for his expertise in growing chiles, said chiles are largely gone from Texas because of higher labor costs and the difficulty of finding farm workers. Most Texas Republicans favor immigration policies that could further tighten the farm labor supply. “It’s a sinking boat,” Mr. Villalon said. “They’ll never make it. The money’s just not there. It’s not profitable anymore.” Mr. Tran’s supplier has used mechanization and other techniques to cut costs, and in 2011, chile yields per acre were almost 10 times higher in California than in Texas. (Texas A&M University is a corporate sponsor of The Texas Tribune.) Still, a single grower with a steady contract can prove more profitable for farmers. And Gene Hall, a spokesman for the Texas Farm Bureau , said agriculture’s water situation in the state was “just fine.” (The Texas Farm Bureau is a corporate sponsor of The Tribune.) After all, Mr. Hall pointed out, the farmers won their protest against state regulators who pushed them aside when restricting water use on the Brazos, although they had to go to court to do so. “We know where the courthouse is,” Mr. Hall said, “and we’ll go there again if we have to.”

Texas
Water
Huy Fong Foods
Agriculture
Relocation


Devils Continue Their Slump Against the Blues

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — Patrik Berglund scored twice, including the go-ahead goal in the second period, and Ty Rattie scored his first N.H.L. goal to lead the St. Louis Blues to a 5-2 victory over the Devils on Tuesday night. Scottie Upshall and David Backes also scored for St. Louis, which converted on its first two power-play attempts. The Blues won in regulation for the first time since Dec. 22. St. Louis also won its fifth in a row against the Devils, who lost for the fourth time in five games. Brian Elliott made 22 saves and earned his second successive win after taking over for Jake Allen, who is out with a knee injury. Elliott improved to 7-4-4. Berglund returned to the lineup on Jan. 2 after missing 40 games with a shoulder injury. It was the 10th multigoal game of his career and the first since April 3. Lee Stempniak and Bobby Farnham scored for the Devils. The backup goalie Keith Kinkaid made 32 saves but fell to 3-5. He was making his eighth start of the season. Berglund tipped in a shot from Alex Pietrangelo with 2 minutes 46 seconds left in the second period to break a 2-2 tie. Rattie deflected a shot from Kevin Shattenkirk early in the third to make it 4-2. Backes added an empty-net goal with 36 seconds left. The Devils scored twice in a 2:35 span in the second period to go ahead by 2-1. Berglund gave the Blues a 1-0 lead by converting off a scramble in front midway through the opening period. The Devils’ last victory in St. Louis was by 4-3 on Dec. 30, 2008.


For the Yankees’ Other Rodriguez, Little Fanfare but Big Adventures

Abstract: DUNEDIN, Fla. — When the Toronto Blue Jays’ public-address announcer boomed the arrival into the batter’s box of a Yankees player named Rodriguez on Saturday, there was neither a boo nor a cheer, nor even a single pair of clapping hands from among the 5,511 fans at Florida Auto Exchange Stadium. Just silence. This Rodriguez, after all, was the other Rodriguez in Yankees camp: Eddy Rodriguez, a 29-year-old journeyman catcher. Not the famous No. 13, Alex Rodriguez, although if you add the two digits on the back of Eddy Rodriguez’s pinstriped jersey, they equal 13. He wears No. 67, a sure sign that he is a nonroster invitee, though one whose journey, in his telling, is worthy of an ovation. On a balmy summer day, Aug. 31, 1993, Rodriguez, then age 7, gathered with his family in El Santo, a speck of land on the northern part of Cuba protected by several barrier keys. The family often went there to fish. What young Eddy did not realize was that his father, Edilio, had been burying drums of diesel fuel in the sand at El Santo. As the sun set, Rodriguez; his parents; his 10-year-old sister, Yanisbet; and his 16-year-old cousin, Carlos, boarded a 17-foot wooden boat, left everything behind and ventured into the Straits of Florida for what they hoped would be an uneventful 90-mile journey to the United States. “We had more than most other Cubans,” Rodriguez said, explaining that the family had land, livestock and produce. “We had an abundance, and my father would share what we had with others. He also built a hydroelectric power plant for the neighborhood so we could have electricity, because the government electricity was always going out. “We had a lot compared to others, but what we didn’t have was a future. I think a big part of why my parents risked everything was for me, so I could have a future.” Over the next four days, they faced an open sea, a violent storm and sharks. The storm, with 20-foot waves, happened on them almost immediately, Rodriguez said. His mother, Ylya, kept feeding the children sleeping pills, trying to shield them from as much terror as possible, but Eddy was awake long enough to see the pounding waves and water leaking into the vessel. “My cousin was throwing up and trying to hand-pump water out of the boat at the same time,” Rodriguez said. “We weren’t making any progress. We’d get to the crest of a wave and then roll straight back, burning fuel but not going anywhere.” With her daughter interpreting from their home in Colorado Springs, Ylya recently told how a flying piece of wood opened a gash on her head, and how they compressed the wound with towels, frantic not to allow her blood to mingle with the water they were pumping out of the boat, for fear it would attract sharks. By Day 3, Rodriguez said, the storm continued to rage, and the food and fuel were nearly exhausted. The castaways huddled in the middle of the boat and prayed as Ylya sat between her husband’s legs and draped her arms around the children. Everything was black — the sea, the sky, and especially their dreams of a new life. And then, Rodriguez said, a miracle. “I know people don’t believe it, but I was there,” he said. To the left and right, the storm raged. “But where we were, straight ahead, it opened up,” he said. “It was like a clear tunnel for us.” With the little fuel they had left, they motored into calmer waters. Eventually, a freighter en route to Chile, from New York, spotted them. The crew fed them scrambled eggs, bread, apples, cantaloupe, bananas, water and coffee. The freighter also radioed the United States Coast Guard. Almost five hours later, the Rodriguez family arrived in Miami, where relatives helped them settle into a small apartment. Rodriguez went from playing baseball with broomsticks and wadded-up medical tape passing as a ball to playing with real equipment. He latched onto a South Florida player with the same surname: Alex Rodriguez. “I had a plaque of him in my bedroom, when he played for Seattle,” Eddy Rodriguez said. “My friends started calling me E-Rod. “Later, when I began playing catcher, Pudge Rodriguez became my favorite player,” he added, referring to Ivan Rodriguez. Rodriguez said he told his mother that one day he would attend the University of Miami, and when he was a high school sophomore, the program sent him a questionnaire. “When I saw it, I cried,” he said. He eventually played for the Hurricanes before signing with the Cincinnati Reds as a 20th-round draft pick in 2006. The Yankees are Rodriguez’s fifth organization in 10 years, with his only major league experience coming in 2012, when he had five at-bats with the San Diego Padres, hitting a home run in his first plate appearance. His career minor league batting average is .235. Last season, he worked as a minor league coach in the Boston Red Sox organization, ready to move into the next phase of his career. But then, in January, while Rodriguez was on his honeymoon in Puerto Rico, the Yankees called and offered him another shot at playing. “He can catch — we know that,” Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said. With Austin Romine out of options and expected to be traded or released, and with John Ryan Murphy expected to be Brian McCann’s backup, Rodriguez will very likely serve as insurance at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, which is fine with him. “I use to stress about what was going to happen,” Rodriguez said. “I don’t anymore.” Several years ago, while working out at Miami, he met the other Rodriguez on the Yankees’ roster and forged a relationship. “I’ve reached out to him a lot over the last few years,” Eddy Rodriguez said of Alex. “We’ve hit together, trained together. I think I’m a good catcher, but hitting has always been my Achilles’ heel. This off-season, and this spring, Alex has helped me a lot, simplifying my swing and my approach. He’s always been very, very giving.” Alex Rodriguez smiled when those words were relayed to him. “Eddy is a great guy,” he said. “He’s been working hard, improving his swing, asking a lot of questions. The thing about Eddy, when you can catch and throw and call a good game like he does, anything you can do offensively is a bonus.” For Eddy Rodriguez, everything in life is a bonus. When he saw his name on the same lineup card with Alex Rodriguez, he took a picture of it with his camera phone and texted it to his buddies with the question, “Is this a typo?” “You couldn’t script all the things that have happened to me in my life,” he said. “My story is already a success story.”

Yankees
Blue Jays
Eddy Rodriguez
Alex Rodriguez
Cuba
Baseball


Family of Former South Korean Dictator to Pay His Fines

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — The children of a former military dictator of South Korea, Chun Doo-hwan, said on Tuesday that they would pay 167 billion won, or $154 million, that their father owed the government in fines. “We bow deeply in apology,” Chun Jae-kook, the eldest son of Mr. Chun, said in a family statement that he read in front of the prosecutors’ office in the South Korean capital, Seoul, on Tuesday. Their decision closes a chapter on South Korea’s prolonged struggle with the legacy of one of its most brutal former leaders. Mr. Chun, then an army major general, came to power in a coup in 1979 after the assassination of another military-backed strongman, President Park Chung-hee, the father of the current South Korean leader, President Park Geun-hye. Mr. Chun ruled until 1988, when he was succeeded by Roh Tae-woo, his partner in the 1979 coup. After South Korea’s transition to democracy, Mr. Chun and Mr. Roh were convicted of treason for their roles in the coup and in a 1980 military crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising in the southern city of Kwangju that left hundreds dead. They were also convicted of collecting huge bribes from big business while in office. In 1997, Mr. Chun was sentenced to life in prison and Mr. Roh to 17 years. Although they were later pardoned and freed, Mr. Chun and Mr. Roh failed to pay the $203 million and $248 million that they were fined. Mr. Chun has so far paid only a quarter of his fine, claiming to have only $267 in his bank accounts. But opposition lawmakers have said he may have huge assets stashed away. The statute of limitations on confiscating assets from Mr. Chun was to expire this year. But in June, the National Assembly passed a bill that extended it to 2020 and allowed prosecutors to collect from his family members as well if they can prove that any of their properties originated from Mr. Chun’s illegal funds. Prosecutors have since raided 90 facilities owned by the Chun family members, confiscating a total of $83 million worth of assets. Mr. Chun’s brother-in-law was arrested on tax evasion charges this month. Chun Jae-yong, one of the former leader’s three sons, is also under investigation on similar charges. Chun Jae-kook said he and his two brothers and sister would give up buildings, land, paintings and other assets to help pay their father’s fine. He said the house where Mr. Chun and his wife live would also be sold to help pay the fine, though he asked government officials to let his parents live there until they die. Mr. Chun is 82. Lee Jin-han, a senior prosecutor, told reporters that the assets prosecutors have secured so far from Mr. Chun’s family members, including those they said they would give up on Tuesday, amounted to $156 million, enough to cover Mr. Chun’s unpaid fine. Mr. Roh paid off his fine this month. His brother and a businessman whose daughter divorced Mr. Roh’s son helped him pay the $21 million he still owed.

South Korea
Fines
Chun Doo-hwan
Park Geun-hye
Coups D'Etat


Olympus Faces Credibility Gap

Abstract: Olympus shares will probably languish until it comes up with some answers. The Japanese manufacturer fired its chief executive, Michael Woodford, last week and has since acknowledged effectively paying two advisers a 35 percent commission for a British acquisition in 2008. While its core business looks sound, the fear is that Olympus could be forced to take big write-downs or even delist. The stock has declined 44 percent since the company dismissed Mr. Woodford, wiping $3.9 billion from its market value. Mr. Woodford said he was forced out after pointing out governance problems surrounding overseas acquisitions, in particular a $1.9 billion deal for Gyrus, a British medical equipment firm. He accuses the board of violating British law against paying a buyer for an acquisition, false accounting and breach of fiduciary duties. For all the chaos, Olympus is still in the black. But it needs restructuring: poor performance in digital cameras is dragging down its more profitable medical equipment business. The fear is that Mr. Woodford’s departure will scuttle efforts to cut costs and rationalize, hopes for which had driven Olympus shares up 20 percent before the global market downturn in August. There are three pressing issues. One is a credibility gap, after revealing a $687 million payment to two merger advisers whose ownership is unclear and whereabouts unknown. As well as getting an explanation of who they are, Olympus investors will want to know why the company paid the advisers $620 million for preferred shares it valued at $177 million when they were issued in 2008. The second worry is potential write-downs. Olympus booked nearly $2 billion in good will after buying Gyrus. Goldman Sachs calculates that Olympus’s good will now exceeds the heavily indebted company’s net assets. If it were forced to write down that good will, it might have to take provisions or, if earnings didn’t cover the shortfall, raise additional capital. Finally, Mr. Woodford’s accusations could prompt an investigation by the Tokyo Stock Exchange. At worst, the result could be the company being delisted. The clouds surrounding Olympus are so thick that parting them may require a third-party investigation. Its board, however, can start by shedding some light on the questions frightening investors away. Temasek Falls Short Temasek, the Singapore investment fund, appears at first glance to have hit on an ingenious way of raising money cheaply. It has sold 650 million Singapore dollars ($512 million) of bonds, exchangeable into shares of Standard Chartered, the emerging market lender. If the bank’s shares rise more than 27 percent within three years, holders of the bond can convert at a profit. If not, bondholders get back exactly what they put in, with no interest. Consider the deal as two different bits of paper, exchangeable into a single Standard Chartered share. One part would be a zero-yield bond, with a face value of 36 Singapore dollars. Assume lenders to Temasek, rated triple-A, normally demand a 1.8 percent annual return and that bond is worth around 34.50 Singapore dollars today. The other part is a call option on Standard Chartered shares. Plug the bank’s current price, its forecast 3.5 percent dividend yield, and the implied volatility of its stock into an options calculator, and the option is worth about 4.50 Singapore dollars. Combined, the two pieces have a total value of 39 Singapore dollars, or about 8 percent more than investors paid. But the deal probably isn’t so sweet. The value of the call option is inflated because Standard Chartered shares are twice as volatile as they were before the summer. If the shares return to their steadier state, the option is worth closer to 1 Singapore dollar, leaving the value of the whole package a little below the sticker price. For Temasek, there are obvious attractions. Even if all the bonds are exchanged for shares, it will retain a 17 percent stake in Standard Chartered. And if the shares don’t increase much, the Singaporeans will have borrowed 650 million Singapore dollars interest-free. For all that, though, the savings are small. Say Temasek had simply borrowed directly from the bond markets. Over three years, its total interest bill would be less than 40 million Singapore dollars. Moreover, the bond issue led to a mini-rout on Standard Chartered shares, leaving Temasek with a paper loss on its remaining stake 10 times the size of the interest costs it saved. Other than demonstrating its financial prowess, Temasek doesn’t have much to show for its wizardry.

Credit Ratings and Credit Rating Agencies


Shiffrin Breaks Career Slalom Record

Abstract: Rediscovering her strength in slalom, Mikaela Shiffrin became the most successful United States skier in the discipline on Monday in Kühtai, Austria. Shiffrin racked up her 10th career slalom win, beating the records set in the 1980s by Tamara McKinney and on the men’s side by Phil Mahre; each had nine wins. Shiffrin had struggled during the first two months of the new season, but she posted the fastest time in both runs. Sarka Strachova of the Czech Republic was second, 0.80 of a second behind.

Mikaela Shiffrin
Skiing
Records and Achievements
Alpine skiing


Ghana Cracks Down on Chinese Gold Miners

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — The lucky ones have hidden out on cocoa farms and in Chinese-owned companies, surviving on yams and water, moving about constantly and trembling at the prospect of being discovered by Ghana’s security forces. The unlucky ones have been beaten, robbed and swept up by soldiers. A dream of wealth in a far-off land has been turned on its head for hundreds of Chinese gold miners in Ghana. At least 169 of them were rounded up by the government this month , accused of sneaking into the country and overstaying visas to illegally mine one of Africa’s richest gold fields. “We have no food, no water, no sleep,” a Chinese migrant said as she hid from the government on a cocoa farm late last week, adding that more than 100 others were there too, fearing arrest. Now the group has fled again, she said, hoping to make it safely back home. “Everyone is scrambling for a way to go back to China.” The mass roundups have injected a bitter twist into a relationship that is vital for Ghana , which counts China as one of its most important economic partners. Ghana has oil and other coveted minerals, and the Chinese are busy there erecting government ministry buildings, a giant dam and even a stadium. But much further down the economic scale, Chinese workers — plumbers, electricians, small shopkeepers — have also made their way to a West African success story to dig up the land, many of them fleeing poverty at home. The polluted holes that now dot the Ghanaian countryside from these small-scale mines have proved too much for the government, which agreed over the weekend to release the migrants it was holding as long as they left the country. More than 200 others have given themselves up voluntarily, and the pressure continues, with an anti-illegal mining task force “still in operation,” said Michael Amoako-Atta, a spokesman for the Ghana immigration service. Spurred on by popular resentment toward the Chinese miners, the Ghanaian authorities have raided camps, mines and hotels, wherever the migrants gather. Their methods, the Chinese migrants say, have not been gentle. “The soldiers broke my windows and came into my room,” said a miner’s wife, recounting a nighttime raid on June 2 at a hotel in the gold-mining town of Dunkwa. “They just yelled ‘Go! go! go!’ and ‘Fast! fast! fast!’ at me,” said the woman, who gave only her last name, Huang. “They even hit me.” The soldiers were not simply seeking to make arrests, she said. “They didn’t ask whether we were gold miners,” she said. “They just took all the cash away first. If they found any car key, they would also ask you which car is yours and they would drive the car away.” She said she was taken to a local jail but managed to buy her way out. Others were sent to a detention center in Accra, the capital, but she said she was determined to stay in the country “because I’m a businesswoman.” The roundups have stoked fear among the Chinese migrants and anger at home, generating more than one million posts about the topic on one popular microblog. Chinese officials said they had dispatched personnel to mine sites to investigate, while the authorities in Guangxi, the Chinese region that many of the miners call home, have urged residents not to go to Ghana. The Chinese Embassy has agreed to pay bail, fines for breaking the immigration law and passage home for scores of the miners. “We went to hide in cocoa farms for three days,” said Shi Jian, a 34-year-old miner from Guangxi Province in southern China. “There was no food, so we ate yams only.” “When the military police came, they first took whatever valuables they could take — gold, cash,” Mr. Shi said. “Then they poured out the diesel we keep on the site to power the generators and burned all of our excavators and camps.” A long furtive walk in the bush preceded a nighttime dash to a Chinese-owned company in Obuasi that sheltered him from the authorities. “We scurried to this company at night like rats crossing streets.” Others described a huddling together in a large group, hoping to evade detection. “There is no rest,” the woman who hid on a cocoa farm said late last week. Fearing reprisals, she gave only her last name, Li, and took deep breaths as she described her predicament. “We have to move on to a new spot in the cocoa farm every hour because we don’t want the villagers to see us.” Now, she says, the group no longer hopes to stay in Ghana, having abandoned the cocoa farm on Friday night to make its way to the capital — and eventually back to China. “We don’t ask for anything now,” she said. “Just let us go back to China safely.” Some had only recently begun mining operations. With the raids, they have lost everything, they said. “I’ve been working on my site for only two months and then came this raid. I haven’t even produced any gold, so now I don’t have anything left,” said Pan Huarong, who had been in hiding since May 20, when word of an impending raid came down. Like others, he barely had time to gather up a few clothes before fleeing. Analysts in Ghana said the government had little choice but to act against the illegal miners. Mineral concessions, in theory, are controlled by the government, and many accuse the Chinese of using Ghanaians as fronts to engage in small-scale mining from which foreigners are otherwise barred. “It comes in the context of growing public agitation over the destructive, quite predatory, medium-scale mining operations engaged in mainly by the Chinese and some Indians,” said Emmanuel Gyimah-Boadi , executive director of the Center for Democratic Development in Accra . “The public has been quite agitated, and has put a lot of pressure on the government to act.” The migrants suggested that the local authorities had tolerated their presence, at a price. “Every day my heart was trembling,” said Lan Qihua, an electrician from Guangxi who came to Ghana in September. “Police, military, they came every other day. Sometimes our Ghanaian partners came, too, seven or eight people together, brandishing machetes and asking for money. A lot of the time I was just totally exhausted, like there wasn’t enough oxygen in the air.” The migrants are critical of the Chinese authorities in Ghana for not doing more to protect them. “We called the embassy,” Mr. Shi said. “They told us, ‘You are all illegal; how dare you to call us now?’ ” Now, the only aspiration of many is to leave the country. Luo Mingjun, 35, said that he formerly worked in a factory in Yiwu, in Zhejiang Province, but that his boss owned a gold mine in Ghana and sent him to work there late last year. He and 10 other Chinese miners escaped from the mining site during the night, he said, unable to retrieve the belongings they had left behind in their rented room in Dunkwa. “I feel very insecure because of the violent way Ghana has enforced its law,” he said, “so I want to go back to China very much.”

Ghana
Gold
Mining
China
Immigration
Foreign Workers


Americans Scramble for Propane Amid High Prices and Bitter Cold

Abstract: As a second arctic blast barreled through most of the Midwest and Northeast this week, Americans who use propane to heat their homes are scrambling to deal with sharply higher prices and a limited access to the fuel. Distribution problems have left swaths of the rural Midwest vulnerable to the cold, and governors in states from New Mexico to Maine have issued decrees to hasten propane delivery. In central Ohio, the Morrow County emergency management director, Joe Edwards, said supplies of the propane, which is used by at least one-third of families in the county, were “dangerously low.” Mr. Edwards said he was working with the Red Cross to make sure shelters were available, though he had not yet received calls from families who had run out. Distributors and analysts say the problem is twofold: a sharp increase in exports of the propane that has led to a spike in price, and substantially higher use of the fuel to dry grain that came in too wet to store that has made it hard to keep up with demand. Jeff Petrash, the general counsel for the National Propane Gas Association , said that while “there is plenty of supply of propane,” the difficulty was getting that supply where it needed to be. About seven million homes, mostly in rural areas that are not served by a gas pipeline, use propane for heat. Domestic production has increased to an estimated 17.8 billion gallons in 2013, from 15.2 billion gallons in 2008, Mr. Petrash said. But offsetting the increased production is a robust export market, he said. The country exported an estimated 4.3 billon gallons of propane last year, compared to 800 million gallons in 2008. Propane distributors like David Randall, the general manager for Apollo Propane, which serves thousands of customers in southwest Ohio, said the tighter supply has led to wholesale price increases, to $2.20 a gallon from $1.10 a gallon a year ago. Prices for his customers, he said, have risen to nearly $3 a gallon from $1.90 a year ago. While most customers are still able to heat their homes, Mr. Randall said, “Some will have trouble paying the bill.” Joseph Draeger, who has owned Draeger Propane in Antigo, Wis., for 20 years, said he was shocked by the price increases. “There are going to be a lot of frozen homes here shortly,” Mr. Draeger said. “It’s the single parent, it’s the older people that just don’t have that type of income.” In addition, much of the fall corn crop was harvested while wet, forcing farmers and elevators to burn propane to dry their crops, further squeezing supplies. In response to the squeeze, federal and state regulators, hoping to quicken deliveries, have waived rules that govern how long delivery drivers can be on the road. But many distributors said those efforts were insufficient and that they were filling customers’ tanks halfway and sending drivers to terminals in faraway states to wait in lines for as long as 10 to 15 hours. “Ultimately, we’ll have to make more trips, and the gas is costing folks a lot more than they used to pay,” Mr. Randall said. Mr. Draeger was critical of the increase in American propane exports. “That blows my mind that we have no product here and these homes are about to freeze up and they are allowing exports,” he said. One solution in the Northeast is the import of propane to supplement domestic supplies. Joseph Rose, the president of the Propane Gas Association of New England, said New England distributors were getting shipments from Europe and Africa and blending that with domestic supplies in an effort to keep prices from rising too sharply. Some consumers may have been able to mitigate these costs by buying propane in advance or signing up for a fixed price rate earlier in the year, others are being hit hard by the increases, said John Foster, the president of Blue Flame Propane in Richmond, Michigan. “There’s kind of the haves and have-nots in this propane business.” “There’s people out there who are buying at $1.79 and have no idea that’s an issue,” Mr. Foster said. “They may get a little sticker shock when their gallons run out.”

Propane
Price
Rural area
Midwestern United States
Northeastern States


Michel Faulkner, Harlem Minister, Announces G.O.P. Bid to Unseat Mayor de Blasio

Abstract: With Mayor Bill de Blasio ’s poll numbers in a prolonged slump, Republican leaders have vowed to put up a strong challenger in 2017. But to compete in strongly liberal New York City, Republicans would most likely need either a candidate of some political celebrity to challenge the Democratic mayor, or at least someone with vast personal wealth to spend on a campaign. Michel J. Faulkner does not fall into either category. On Monday, Mr. Faulkner, a Harlem minister who once played football for the New York Jets, began what he described as a marathonlike campaign to unseat Mr. de Blasio, broadly criticizing the mayor’s leadership style and management of the police. Mr. Faulkner, a Republican, said it was essential to announce his long-shot bid more than two years before the 2017 election. Defeating Mr. de Blasio, he said, would require a full-scale political movement rather than a conventional campaign. Standing at a busy intersection north of Times Square, periodically drowned out by the noise of construction and traffic, Mr. Faulkner said Mr. de Blasio had proved to be a divisive leader without the charisma to lead a great city. “I don’t think he really understands the core of who we are as a city — the greatness, the history of this city,” Mr. Faulkner said in an interview. “That’s what I want to be able to tap into.” A spokesman for Mr. de Blasio declined to comment on Mr. Faulkner’s criticism of the mayor. At an unrelated event on Monday, the mayor shrugged off the Republican’s announcement. “The more the merrier,” Mr. de Blasio said of his aspiring challengers. “I feel very good about what I have to say to the people of this city over the next two years.” Mr. Faulkner has sought political office before , challenging Representative Charles B. Rangel in the 2010 election. He won about 10 percent of the vote in an overwhelmingly Democratic district. Mr. Faulkner has broadcast his intention to run for mayor for months. On Monday, he said that he had already begun knocking on doors in neighborhoods like Bensonhurst and Sunset Park in Brooklyn. But Mr. Faulkner also acknowledged that his mayoral bid was very much a work in progress. The pastor said he had yet to speak with either of the city’s last two Republican mayors, Michael R. Bloomberg and Rudolph W. Giuliani, about his campaign. Queried about his ideas for affordable housing, Mr. Faulkner said he would have more specific policy proposals within a year. Although Republicans intend to back a strong candidate against Mr. de Blasio, the party does not have a deep bench. Speculation so far has focused on Raymond W. Kelly, who was the police commissioner under Mayor Bloomberg, and Eva S. Moskowitz, the charter school executive who was previously elected to office as a Democrat, but has clashed bitterly with Mr. de Blasio over education policy. Mr. Faulkner is a social conservative who has opposed abortion rights and same-sex marriage . (Asked about his views on same-sex marriage on Monday, Mr. Faulkner said that the mayor of New York City had no role in the issue.) Still, clad in a pinstriped suit with a blue ribbon pinned to his chest — to show support for the police, he said — Mr. Faulkner said he had the force of personality and the right philosophy of government to lead New York. Mr. Faulkner, who served on a task force on police relations under Mayor Giuliani, faulted Mr. de Blasio for failing to reassure police officers that he “has their back,” and for alienating the business community. Mr. Faulkner pledged that he would get along better with Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, who is a Democrat, than Mr. de Blasio has. The two Democratic leaders have clashed, with increasingly open hostility . “This governor has been pretty independent of his party,” Mr. Faulkner said. “I have no doubt that I will have a much better relationship, a working relationship, with this governor.” And if Mr. Faulkner were to advance to a debate with Mr. de Blasio, he would at least be able to challenge the mayor eye-to-eye: At 6-foot-4, Mr. Faulkner is, at most, only one or two inches shorter than Mr. de Blasio.

Bill de Blasio
Republicans
Michel J. Faulkner
NYC
Mayoral races


Young Drivers and Alcohol: A Deadly Mix

Abstract: WASHINGTON — It is well known that young drivers are more likely than older ones to have accidents. But a visual analysis of national data on drunken driving puts the disparity into stark relief — and suggests whose lives might be saved by a proposal to lower the legal blood-alcohol limit. The recommendation , by the National Transportation Safety Board, urges the 50 states and the District of Columbia to lower the limit of 0.08 percent to 0.05 percent, the standard in most industrialized countries. Drivers younger than 26 cause the most auto fatalities in the United States, regardless of alcohol consumption. But 21 percent of young drivers involved in a fatal accident have some alcohol in their system — higher than in other age groups. Researchers have shown that even a small amount of alcohol can disrupt a person’s ability to concentrate or do two things at once. For less experienced drivers, one or two drinks can cause the loss of reasoning and reaction time that might result in a fatal crash. “Young drivers have a far greater risk differential in the 0.08 to 0.05 range,” said Deborah A. P. Hersman, the board’s chairwoman. “Lowering the legal limit can make people more thoughtful about having the second, third or fourth drink — because every drink raises a driver’s crash risk level exponentially.” More than 6,600 impaired drivers are involved in fatal accidents every year, causing about 10,000 deaths. About half of those accidents are caused by drivers with blood alcohol levels at or below 0.16 percent. The chart shows that the red “hot spots” start with young drivers at even the lowest blood-alcohol levels, and decline as drivers get older. If the proposed legislation is adopted by the states, young drivers and their passengers may be the biggest winners.

Driving Under the Influence DUI
Car Crash
Cars
NTSB
Youth


Obama Defends Actions on Cuba and Promises Some Compromise With Congress

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday rejected criticism that he should not have reopened American relations with Cuba because of the nation’s human rights record, saying the historic thaw would give the United States more sway over the Cuban government. “I share the concerns of dissidents there and human rights activists that this is still a regime that represses its people,” Mr. Obama said at a wide-ranging news conference after a period of extraordinary domestic and foreign policy changes at the White House. But even as he acknowledged that Cuba might take actions the United States opposes, Mr. Obama said, “The whole point of normalizing relations is that it gives us a greater opportunity to have influence with that government.” “Change is going to come to Cuba,” he said. “It has to.” It was the first time Mr. Obama had taken questions from reporters since his announcement on Wednesday that he would move to normalize relations with Cuba, establishing an embassy in Havana and relaxing trade and financial restrictions that have been in place for a half-century. He also scolded Sony Pictures for pulling back the movie “The Interview” after a cyberattack for which the White House is blaming North Korea . “I think they made a mistake,” he said. As in previous years, the president used his annual late-December news conference to make the case that his policies had helped the economy and burnished the United States’ reputation around the world. “We’ve set the stage for this American moment,” he said, “and I’m going to spend every minute of my last two years making sure that we seize it.” Mr. Obama was upbeat in the nearly hourlong exchange with the news media, in which he called only on women. It was his last public event before departing Friday for a vacation with his family in Hawaii. He said he had shown that he could tackle steep challenges, including the fight against the Islamic State militant group, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa and a mass migration of unaccompanied minors from Central America across the border. Mr. Obama vowed to seek compromise with Republicans in Congress where possible, such as on a tax overhaul and rebuilding infrastructure, but pledged to veto efforts to roll back his health care law and financial regulations. He also indicated that he had no intention of pulling back on his executive measures to circumvent Congress, which he has used in recent weeks to take sweeping unilateral action on immigration , re-establish diplomatic and commercial ties with Cuba and strike a climate agreement with China. “I intend to continue to do what I’ve been doing,” he said, “which is where I see a big problem and the opportunity to help the American people, and it is within my lawful authority to provide that help, I’m going to do it.” Still, the president acknowledged that he would have to work with Congress on contentious issues, including lifting the 54-year-old American trade embargo against Cuba. “We cannot unilaterally bring down the embargo,” he said, although his administration is undertaking a major effort to loosen key elements. Video At his end-of-year news conference, President Obama talked about his executive action on immigration and his hopes that Congress will work with him to pass a variety of bills. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times “Ultimately, we need to go ahead and pull down the embargo, which I think has been self-defeating in advancing the aims that we’re interested in,” he said. “But I don’t anticipate that that happens right away.” While he said he had no plans to visit Cuba in the near term, he recounted friendly moments during a telephone call this week with President Raúl Castro. He said the two had joked about being long-winded and about Fidel Castro, Raúl’s brother. After Mr. Obama apologized for speaking for so long during the call, he said, Mr. Castro told him, “You’re still a young man, and you have still the chance to break Fidel’s record: He once spoke seven hours straight.” Then, Mr. Obama added, the Cuban president proceeded to speak for twice as long as he had. Closer to home, Mr. Obama told reporters he was eager to compromise with the new Republican-controlled Congress, including on revamping the nation’s tax system, which he said he would push to make simpler and fairer. “I want to work with this new Congress to get things done,” the president said. “We’re going to disagree on some things, but there are going to be areas of agreement, and we’ve got to be able to make that happen, and that’s going to involve compromise once in a while.” Mr. Obama said he would push to change rules that allow “corporate inversions,” when American companies move their headquarters “on paper” to another country in order to avoid taxes. He reminded Republicans that they would also have to consider his priorities. “In order for their initiatives to become law, I’m going to have to sign off,” he said, “and that means they have to take into account the issues that I care about, just as I’m going to take into account the issues that they care about.” Mr. Obama refused to say what he would do if Congress tried to force his hand on approving the Keystone XL pipeline, saying only, “I’ll see what they do.” But he played down the advantages of the pipeline and said he wanted to make sure it would not accelerate climate change. “There’s been this tendency to really hype this thing as some magic formula to what ails the U.S. economy, and it’s hard to see on paper where exactly they’re getting that information,” he said. Mr. Obama said he would seek to carry out quickly the recommendations of a task force he named this week on law enforcement and race relations, some of them by executive order and some by legislation. The public conversation set off by the deaths of unarmed black men at the hands of white police officers in places like Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island is healthy, he said, adding that he was willing to take on big problems. “My presidency is entering the fourth quarter,” Mr. Obama said. “Interesting stuff happens in the fourth quarter, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Cuba
North Korea
Barack Obama
US Politics
US Foreign Policy


South Korea’s Sunshine Policy Dims

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — The president-elect on Wednesday proposed eliminating a government agency that has long led efforts to build reconciliation with North Korea , but which he has accused of being too soft on the Communist government there. There was no immediate response from North Korea, but analysts here said it was likely to react harshly, further complicating six-nation talks on ending its nuclear weapons programs. The proposal by the president-elect, Lee Myung-bak , to abolish the Unification Ministry and have its duties taken over by the Foreign Ministry is subject to parliamentary approval. Liberal lawmakers, who dominate Parliament and take great pride in the thawing they have long pursued between the Koreas, are expected to fight to save the ministry. The Unification Ministry has represented Seoul in inter-Korean talks that have resulted in billions of dollars of South Korean aid for the North. The issue of unification should be handled consistently with foreign policies, Mr. Lee’s transition team said Wednesday in a report on his plans to streamline the government. The reorganization plans call for closing, merging or downgrading five ministries. Besides the Unification Ministry, they include the Ministries of Information and Communication, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Science and Technology, and Gender Equality and Family. The election of Mr. Lee, a conservative, on Dec. 19 ended a decade of liberal government here. A former chief executive of Hyundai Construction and mayor of Seoul, he has vowed to run his government like an efficient business. He will be sworn in as president on Feb. 25. Signaling the ideological shift, Mr. Lee also called for abolishing government commissions that have investigated Korean collaborators during Japanese colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula in the early 20th century and human rights abuses by past South Korean military dictators — investigations that have angered the conservatives. A spokesman for the Unification Ministry declined to comment. The ministry has been the focus of criticism throughout the administrations of the departing president, Roh Moo-hyun, and his predecessor, Kim Dae-jung. The two leaders, promoting a so-called sunshine policy, brought about profoundly closer relations with the North, but they have been faulted for pouring aid across the border without managing to end North Korean nuclear weapons programs and human rights abuses. Mr. Lee said Mr. Roh’s approach to North Korea had caused friction with the United States, a South Korean ally, and promised to work more closely with Washington in dealing with the North. While absorbing the Unification Ministry into the Foreign Ministry, which represents Seoul in international talks on ending North Korean nuclear arms programs, would reflect Mr. Lee’s new approach, it appeared at odds with his announcement on Monday that he would continue to engage the North and be willing to meet with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il. “What we see is a lack of coordination between pro-engagement forces and hard-liners within Lee’s camp,” said Cheong Seong-chang, a specialist on North Korea at the Sejong Institute.

South Korea
North Korea
Lee Myung-bak
International Relations


Quarterback Who Led Title Run Stays at Ohio State, Forgoing N.F.L. Draft

Abstract: Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones, fresh off leading the Buckeyes to victory in the inaugural College Football Playoff national championship game, announced Thursday that he would return to the university instead of declaring for the N.F.L. draft. Jones, a redshirt sophomore who at one point was the team’s third-string quarterback, completed 16 of 23 passes for 242 yards and a touchdown as the Buckeyes upset Oregon , 42-20, on Monday night in Arlington, Tex. He also had 21 carries for 38 yards and a touchdown. Jones, who wore a scarlet-and-gray T-shirt that referred to his nickname, 12 Gauge, given because of his strong arm and his number, called the decision “simple.” He added, “Most important for me is to graduate.” A large news media contingent gathered at a high school he attended, Ginn Academy in Cleveland, and the announcement was broadcast live on ESPN. After he announced his plans, Jones joked, “I don’t know why you guys made it such a big deal.” Thursday was the deadline for underclassmen to declare for the draft, which begins April 30. If Jones had chosen to turn professional, it would have been an extraordinary decision because he has started just three games in his college career. Before the season, Ohio State’s first-choice quarterback, Braxton Miller, widely considered a Heisman Trophy favorite, sustained a shoulder injury. J. T. Barrett stepped in and grew into a Heisman contender himself, but he broke his ankle in the regular-season finale against Michigan. Jones took over the Buckeyes (14-1) and led them to a shutout rout of Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game, which convinced the playoff selection committee of their worthiness. Ohio State then upset Alabama , 42-35, in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1 to advance to the title game. Image Ohio State’s Cardale Jones at a news conference in Cleveland. He said of his decision, “Most important for me is to graduate.” Credit Mark Duncan/Associated Press Jones passed for 742 yards and five touchdowns with two interceptions in the wins over Wisconsin, Alabama and Oregon, and he rushed for 90 yards and another touchdown. Gil Brandt, who was the Dallas Cowboys’ player personnel director for 28 years and is now a draft analyst, said he thought Jones’s decision was wise. “It’s getting harder and harder to play quarterback in the National Football League,” Brandt said. “The offensive game plan is more complicated than ever before. It’s not like it was 10 years ago, when a quarterback could come into this league that didn’t have a lot of college experience and play well, because what’s happening now is the defenses are, like, taking courses in graduate school in M.I.T.” At 6 feet 5 inches and 250 pounds, Jones has the body of a tight end, but his arm has received the most attention. “He has a tremendous arm,” Alabama Coach Nick Saban said of Jones after the Sugar Bowl. Ohio State wide receiver Evan Spencer said last week that he had seen Jones throw the ball 65 yards on one knee. Before the Buckeyes’ run, Jones was perhaps best known for a message he posted on Twitter: “Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.” On Thursday he said, “Of course I want to play in the N.F.L., but I want the time to be right.” With all three quarterbacks expected to be healthy entering next season, Ohio State will have to decide which one to start. In recent days, Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer has used Jones as an example of a young athlete who has matured quickly. “Some guys change when they’re 50 years old; it’s too late,” Meyer said Tuesday. “Other guys change when they’re going through the journey like we all did when we’re 17 to 21 years old, 22 years old in his case. Very proud of him.”

Ohio State
Cardale Jones
College football
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015