Celebration Gives Way to Questions and Doubt After a Record Swim

Abstract: Perhaps it was inevitable: Minutes after Diana Nyad, the 64-year-old marathon swimmer, landed on the sandy shores of Key West, Fla., succeeding in her fifth attempt to swim the straits from Cuba, fellow swimmers unleashed a barrage of censure and doubt. Swimmers asked: Was she truly unaided during all those hours in the open sea, with only her crew observing? Based on her GPS data released by her team, how did she manage to swim nearly 53 hours, crossing 110 miles, given that her average speed was 1.7 miles per hour at the start and end of the swim? And were her two handpicked independent observers truly independent? In the week since Nyad arrived in Key West to international acclaim, apparently becoming the first person to swim the 110-plus-mile route without a shark cage, doubters have multiplied. They have gathered on marathon swimming Web sites and other sites to criticize Nyad’s methods and her team’s transparency and to raise questions about the veracity of her claims. Nyad said she was not surprised by the questions and criticisms. “I’m an absolutely aboveboard person who never cheated on anything in my whole life,” Nyad said. “When someone does something they’ve been trying to do for a long time and you know how difficult it is, it’s only logical. I hope they’re not questioning if I’m an honest person. “They want to know how the facts came down so they can understand it. They have every right to ask all these questions, and we have every intention to honor the accurate information.” Her swim was not documented by independent news media, as were her previous attempts. Nyad acknowledged that the news media had wearied of the story because she had failed so often. Nor did members of Nyad’s crew take continuous video of the swim, a strange decision to some marathoners. “If I was doing a swim that had never been done before and everyone thought impossible, I’d have a video camera on me continuously,” said Evan Morrison, the San Francisco founder of Marathonswimmers.org , an online community of more than 700 athletes. But Steven Munatones, a former marathon swimmer and swimming official who has served on Nyad’s earlier crews, said he had no doubts. “I am 100 percent satisfied based on the GPS data, marine information, written information and personal interviews that she did the swim,” said Munatones, of Huntington Beach, Calif. Munatones said he intended to review all the data from Nyad’s crew with a panel of other swimming experts, including the president of the Catalina Channel Swimming Federation, so they could answer all the questions being raised. The federation president, Forrest Nelson, said he had agreed. Munatones’s involvement has added to the pique voiced by some marathon swimmers — a notoriously independent lot who cross waterways of 10 miles or more. Several have asked how Munatones and Nyad’s official observers could be impartial, because they all knew Nyad before the swim and Munatones had served on her previous crews. (Munatones says he considers observers part of any swimmer’s crew, a contention that many would fault.) Marathoner online forums have buzzed with speculation as to whether Nyad got a power boost by climbing aboard her boat. (She says no.) They have posited that by helping her don a protective silicone mask for jellyfish and a special suit to ward off stings, her crew helped her in ways that other channel associations would prohibit. (Nyad says the crew never buoyed her, and thus the swim was “unassisted.”) The biggest source of grousing pertains to Nyad’s speed and distance covered and the amount of push she got from the currents. Her previous attempts were undone by bad weather and uncooperative currents, which tend to sweep eastward toward the Bahamas. Nyad is a plodder; she says she averages less than 2 miles per hour. She swam at 1.7 m.p.h. when she left Cuba on Aug. 31 and again when she neared Key West. One marathon swimmer, Andrew Malinak of Seattle, used Firebug, a Web development tool that inspects code, to glean Nyad’s GPS data from the swimmer’s official Web site. He surmised that Nyad was traveling at an increasingly speedy clip on the swim’s second day — from 2 m.p.h. to more than 6 m.p.h. around 31 hours into the swim. After her crew made the data available with time stamps, Malinak revised his work and said that Nyad’s top speed was nearly 4.5 m.p.h. for a stretch. The pace was inconsistent, he said, with surges and then valleys, plunging her times to 2 m.p.h. Image Diana Nyad, who became the first person to swim the route without a shark cage, said she was an “absolutely aboveboard person.” Credit Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau “The rapid increase and two subsequent rapid decreases in her speed, combined with the already fast pace, still leave me skeptical of her swim’s authenticity,” said Malinak, a geotechnical engineer in Seattle, who has swum around Manhattan. Fellow swimmers have asked if it is possible that Nyad was on a boat when those surges happened. Nyad and some on board her flotilla said no. Her navigator, John Bartlett, a custom boat builder in the Florida Keys, says the fast water flows were predicted by a Connecticut physical oceanographer. Some of the fastest currents unfolded around noon on the swim’s second day, moving at 3.8 knots, close to 4 m.p.h. “They’re always that fast in the axis, the center of the flow,” said Bartlett, who crewed for Nyad on earlier attempts. “I didn’t record our speed per se at given moments,” Bartlett said about his written logs. “I was doing an average speed — calculated from the beginning.” Bartlett said that currents varied, and that the team had worked Nyad sideways and northward through the currents, a technique called crabbing. “Everyone is saying, Wow, she was going fast; how is that possible?” Bartlett said. “The currents were going fast.” The currents eased up to 1.4 knots on Day 3, but the direction was more northern, and thus more helpful to Nyad. “That’s how the speed increased,” Bartlett said. “The direction of the current was better.” Nyad said: “We were definitely traveling north at a faster speed than what I can do on my own. I just got lucky.” Besides getting fair weather, with just a short squall to slow her, Nyad also benefited from great currents, which she hit at the ideal time, said Mitchell Roffer, a biological oceanographer and owner of Roffer’s Ocean Fishing Forecasting Service in West Melbourne, Fla. Roffer, who independently checked the currents after the swim when the criticisms mounted, said Nyad was swept along by a moving gyre, a large counterclockwise rotating current that moves from the Gulf of Mexico into the Keys, taking Nyad on a fast ride. It forms less than once a month, he said. “She hit it at the ideal time,” Roffer said. “Rather than angle and have to fight it, in this case she actually rode with the current.” Bartlett, her navigator, cautioned the people crunching numbers. GPS data culled by Malinak from what was recorded by spot trackers set on the deck of the escort boat is far less reliable than the information from the professional GPS units Bartlett used. The spot trackers are “designed to be a convenience so the public can watch the progress, but they’re not infallible and not precise,” he said. “If there’s a discrepancy between what I have on paper and the spot trackers, you can just disregard the spot trackers.” Critics say the observers — typically people who have never met the athlete — are unknown in the swimming community, odd for such a high-profile event. Munatones was supposed to observe the swim. On earlier outings with Nyad, Munatones said he “did everything including getting sponsors, organizing the crew, blogging, and jumping in the water and helping feed her.” But when the team decided that the conditions were perfect, Munatones was on a plane to Tokyo. Nyad said she had to scramble to find two substitutes, both Key West locals who did not have a history of swimming or observing record crossings. One, Janet Hinkle, a licensed Key West boat captain, said she got the call at the last minute. She said she had met Nyad in 2011, providing her with a home to live in before a swim. Hinkle had never observed any swim, but she said she got tips from Munatones and said she was unbiased. “I believe she asked me because I would be an objective observer,” Hinkle said. She said she never observed Nyad getting on board the boat during the swim or being pulled by a craft. Nyad’s fans have called the critics “haters” who are jealous. Nyad has long been a lightning rod among swimmers who object to the publicity she seeks and the tactics she employs — like letting her crew remove her stinger suit and apply lotions. Many swimmers say those violate the most common rules of the sport, those followed by English Channel swimmers. “Nyad owes the swim world a look at her data and absolute transparency about how she was able to cross a waterway that has crippled other, younger swimmers,” said Bonnie Schwartz, a New York City resident who crossed the English Channel in 2005. “We’re her peers. She’s not above us.”


Baghdad Hosts a ‘Marathon’ and Celebrates a Victory

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Naji Abdulamir used to run all over Baghdad but preferred the farmlands along the banks of the Tigris . Karim Aboud once ran for Saddam Hussein and has the gold watch and the newspaper clippings to prove it. Falih Naji ran for Iraq at a competition in India in 1982, and recalled, “There was no higher honor than representing your country.” The three men — now in their 60s, elder statesmen of Iraq’s tiny running community — were awash in memories last week ahead of the Baghdad International Marathon, the first in as long as anyone could remember. In fact, the race was not a marathon at all. Rather than the standard 26.2 miles, Baghdad’s version was a road race that allowed participants their choice of a lesser distance: two, four, eight or 10 kilometers. That mattered little. “I feel like a kid on Eid,” said Mr. Abdulamir, a running coach and former star of the Iraqi national team. Mr. Naji said the race, held Friday, was “a start of something, after a very long time.” “We used to have organized competitions like this in the 1970s,” he said. “I’m very happy. It’s a dream.” The 1970s and early 1980s still exert a powerful pull on Iraqis of Mr. Naji’s age. High oil prices were fueling a construction boom, the Baath Party had yet to show the full scope of its cruelty, and it was before wars and sanctions hollowed out Iraqi society. Then, Iraq was oriented toward the Arab world; Iran was not the patron and ally it is today, but rather an avowed enemy. All of this was felt through the arena of athletics. “There was a time when Iraq was like the master of Arab countries in sports,” said Maitham Taher, the spokesman for the Baghdad race. For the government, the run was partly an exercise in image-building for the city. It was a way to portray Baghdad as safe and pleasant, even though it faces frequent attacks by the Islamic State and suffers at the hands of ascendant Shiite militias that are controlled by Iran and blamed for a rise in kidnappings and gangland-style killings. The racecourse was symbolic enough: a strip of the airport road, the expressway once known as the “highway of death” and a grim symbol of the United States’ inability to control a growing insurgency. Organizers said that most of the nearly 2,000 participants who signed up were Iraqis, but there were 32 runners who flew in from eight countries, dressed in track suits of their nations’ colors: Morocco, Sudan, Egypt, Ethiopia, Somalia, Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Most arrived the night before the race, and hit the treadmill at the hotel and carbo-loaded on rice and pasta to prepare. Mohammed Hussein, the head of the Egyptian delegation, said that despite the violence gripping the country and the fact that a third of Iraq was in the hands of Islamic State extremists, “I came to deliver an important message: that Iraq is a stable country.” “I took a regular bus from the airport. I went for a walk last night without security. It was normal,” he said. Traveling from one war-torn country to another, Mohammed Dhaifallah, the coach of the two young Yemeni runners who participated, said: “We were very concerned. We were concerned about security. But we felt O.K. after seeing the streets filled with people and cars.” Image Runners in Baghdad on Friday. The event drew close to 2,000 participants. Credit Khalid Al-Mousily/Reuters The day before the race, Mr. Aboud was delving back into the old days, showing off vintage press clippings and photographs. There were races in Bahrain and Algeria, and he proudly recalled winning a 10,000-meter race put on by the military in 1986 in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, which has for more than a year and a half been under Islamic State control. “Once, Saddam came to watch a race,” he said, and he smiled as he recalled shaking the dictator’s hand. Riding the bus on the way to the race, Bashar Hamadi, a 30-year-old Syrian who moved from Hasaka to Damascus in recent years as a brutal civil war convulsed his country, said to a reporter, before a conversation had even started, “I don’t want to talk about politics, only running.” He explained his love of the sport: “Whenever I run, I think big dreams.” The weather for the race was picture-perfect, like a New England fall day: brilliant sunshine, a chilly bite to the air. As runners gathered at the start, the master of ceremonies praised the security forces, the militias and the revered Shiite martyr Imam Hussein, proclaiming: “Baghdad is victorious. Baghdad is the city of peace.” There were chants for the popular militia leaders Hadi al-Ameri and Qais al-Khazali. There was a sea of color, too — the pinks, oranges, yellows and blues of the official race T-shirt — and men in track suits and women in head scarves. All got medals. One of the racers was Thamir Khazal, a soldier two weeks off the front lines in Anbar Province. He stood at the starting line and smoked a cigarette, and said that running “keeps my health in good standing.” A cigarette, he said, is a better pre-race pick-me-up than an energy drink. Thrilled to be part of it all was Talib al-Safar, the president of the Iraqi athletic federation, who raced the hurdles for Iraq in the 1970s. “Baghdad is a great city,” he said. “We owe everything to Baghdad. We had to do something special for Baghdad.” He added, confidently: “Next year will be a half-marathon. And maybe in the future we will have a full marathon.”


In New Jersey, Party Bosses Meld Politics and Business

Abstract: TOMS RIVER, N.J. - Construction is expected to begin this year on a condominium project that will add cars to clogged roads, tax the sewer system and strain the nearly depleted water supply of this growing suburb along the Jersey shore. Getting the go-ahead to build near a congested stretch of Route 9 in Dover Township required an assortment of special arrangements including zoning changes that hinged on the support of local officials. It also had the help of John A. Lynch Jr., one of New Jersey's political power brokers. For years, the controversial 348-unit townhouse project called JSM at Hickory had languished, but the developer, Jack S. Morris, had the friendship and support of Mr. Lynch, a Democratic Party leader based in Middlesex County. The two men sprinkled around campaign contributions and helped elect a new mayor, who then revived the moribund plan. The rest soon fell into place. The saga of JSM at Hickory is a classic illustration of how citizens' concerns about traffic, pollution and overcrowded schools can be overcome by money and political connections. It is one small, striking example of the impact of New Jersey's political boss system. In New Jersey, say those who try to get things done, it is also typical of the way things work. Governor-elect Jon S. Corzine, a novice to politics in 1999, understood that from the start. To ease his way into the state, he immediately started donating more than $4 million worth of the fortune he made on Wall Street to a handful of Democratic Party power brokers around New Jersey. Among them was Mr. Lynch, then the Senate minority leader, who had declared himself an early supporter of Mr. Corzine's run for the United States Senate and later received more than $1 million from him for his various campaign funds and political action committees. Yet Mr. Corzine, who has given more money to the Democratic political machine than anyone in New Jersey history, was elected governor in November on a promise to rein in the bosses. "I want to be very clear: Our government should not and will not be about economic opportunities for politicians or anyone else," Mr. Corzine said during an election night victory speech so fiery, he repeatedly pounded the rostrum. But even with the vast powers that New Jersey's governor holds -- he is the only statewide elected official -- Mr. Corzine's ability to loosen the party leaders' grip on power will not be easy. For one, state law makes most of their activities perfectly legal. "It's not unusual," said Alan Marcus, a lobbyist and registered Republican who calls Mr. Lynch a friend. "It's common. And until somebody makes it illegal, they're going to keep doing it." And, in New Jersey, it remains strong, despite increased public scrutiny -- and even as similar systems have eroded elsewhere. The Democratic leaders operate a kind of unelected, permanent government, working behind the scenes with a complicated tangle of interests to control what gets done in their part of the state and beyond. While acting as emissaries between regulated businesses and the office holders who regulate them, the bosses amass millions of dollars in donations to distribute or withhold, as they see fit. A System Dominated by Money And in a bit of New Jersey alchemy, many of the power brokers mix business and politics and make handsome profits for themselves -- often representing the special interests that tend to drive the problems that state residents find most troublesome: sprawl, pollution, sky-high property taxes and a culture of pay-to-play and patronage that drives up pension costs, say leaders of groups that are critical of the system. "The way that New Jersey's political system runs now, it is so dominated by money and the powers and special interests who can use it for leverage, that ordinary citizens don't have a voice," said Harry Pozycki, who defied Mr. Lynch as a Middlesex County elected official years ago, and now heads the statewide watchdog group called the Citizens Campaign. "And they don't have a chance unless things change." As much as the term "boss" has been tossed around in recent years to describe New Jersey's political powerhouses, there remain widespread misconceptions about who they are. The bosses are not cigar-chomping cartoon villains, born in some back room then set loose to strangle the state in a web of money, power and influence. They are, in some cases, elected officials, such as Newark's Mayor Sharpe James, who is also a state senator, and State Senator Raymond Lesniak of Union County. In other cases, they hold neither elected office nor any official party position. Neither Mr. Lynch, for example, or George E. Norcross III, the Commerce Bank executive who operates a sprawling political empire from his base in Camden County, hold official party titles. Many have an impressive political and personal pedigree, and some can point to a substantial record of public service. Mr. Lynch, for example, is the son of a former State Senate president who grew up in New Jersey politics and polished his credentials by finishing fifth in his class at Georgetown University Law Center in 1975. He was elected mayor of New Brunswick, where he was widely lauded for reviving the blighted city. He served in the State Senate, winning respect for his unparalleled skill at balancing politics and policy, and followed in his father's footsteps to become Senate president in 1990. He was even considered a likely candidate for governor as recently as the late 1980's, but those prospects dimmed when he married a woman whose brother, Louis Auricchio, was associated with the Genovese crime family and who later was convicted of a mob murder. Like other Democratic county leaders, Mr. Lynch has worked largely behind the scenes. But he was forced into the public eye in November when federal agents raided his business as part of a corruption inquiry. The investigation has offered a glimpse of how closely Mr. Lynch has worked with developers, even before he retired from elective office in 2002. The New Jersey Legislature is considered a part-time job, and beginning in 1993, Mr. Lynch began supplementing his State Senate income by running a consulting firm named Executive Continental. Mr. Lynch explains Executive Continental's mission as helping developers win government approvals for their projects. If they succeed, the firm is paid a colorfully named "success fee." Federal investigators are now poring over the records of more than 50 deals involving strip malls, housing complexes, urban renewal plans and waterfront developments shepherded by Mr. Lynch and his partner in Executive Continental, Jack Westlake, according to court documents. Mr. Lynch said that his work with developers is not only legal, but also good for the state because he promotes the kind of projects that help improve the communities, including providing badly needed housing for low and middle-income people. He described his role as a political "choreographer" who provides clients with nothing more than strategic advice. "I'm probably the most investigated person in New Jersey," said Mr. Lynch, 67, who still has the wiry build and bulldog tenacity of a welterweight. "But anyone who says we were buying approvals or doing anything improper to help our clients get them is ridiculous." Mr. Lynch also dismisses the suggestion that his work contributes to suburban sprawl, saying most of his projects are in cities or in the state's so-called transit villages in downtowns and represent smart growth. "I'm not involved with paving over farmland or developing on open space," he said. "The state has to have some development, so you try to achieve a balance. That's why I'm proud of what I'm doing." But opponents of sprawl say a combination of campaign funds and political influence has driven New Jersey's penchant to build, helping to make it the most densely populated state in the nation. "When it comes to the pay-to-pave system of development in New Jersey, John Lynch is king," said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, which has opposed Mr. Lynch and his clients on dozens of development projects around New Jersey. "In parts of the state, you can't build unless you hire one of the lawyers or engineers or construction companies he's aligned with because you won't get the government approvals." A Languishing Project No More One example of Mr. Lynch's converging interests is a strip mall in Brick, called The Power Center. It was originally proposed by Mr. Morris, a developer who frequently hosts Mr. Lynch on his yacht and jet and has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to his political committees. In 2003, Mr. Lynch was brought in as partner in the languishing project and soon his political action committee began donating tens of thousands of dollars to the mayor of Brick and other local Democrats. The project, JSM at Brick, quickly won approval from local officials, and the town's mayor, Joseph Scarpelli, was hired as a consultant by an engineering firm working on the project. Mr. Lynch said that their donations were a mere coincidence, unrelated to the development. Mr. Morris has declined to be interviewed over the last month. Mr. Scarpelli has explained that he did not know Mr. Lynch had a stake in the project and later quit the consulting position, saying he wanted to avoid a conflict of interest. In other projects, such as the JSM at Hickory project in Dover Township, Mr. Lynch does not have an ownership stake, but he and Mr. Morris together gave $65,000 in donations to mayoral candidate Paul Brush in early 2003. Once he was elected, Mr. Brush embraced the plan and appointed one of Mr. Lynch's allies to the local planning board. The project's newfound support on the local level helped JSM at Hickory win two state zoning changes, even though hundreds of community residents had rallied against the development. Mr. Lynch said that the donations were intended solely to strengthen the Democratic Party, and had nothing to do with the development. "I don't even know where that project is," Mr. Lynch said during a recent interview. Mayor Brush said that his support for the proposal was based on its own merits. State officials said JSM at Hickory has been moving ahead because it will help the town meet its obligation to build affordable housing. But some local residents say they feel as if local officials sacrificed their quality of life for campaign contributions. "It was stopped until they came through with all the money," said Frank Kenny, who organized community opposition to the plan. "Then it was like we didn't even exist." 'Wheeling' Across New Jersey At the center of Mr. Lynch's political network is his political action committee, New Directions for Responsible Leadership, which raises and distributes hundreds of thousands of dollars, much of it from developers and government contractors. State election records show that since 2000, the PAC has distributed $3.1 million across the state, sometimes funneling it from one county to another , a practice known as "wheeling," which allows donors to legally give more than the $37,500 limit. Mr. Lynch has discretion over how that money is distributed, with the flexibility to reward those he favors and punish those who stand in the way of his agenda. But Mr. Lynch's lawyer, Jack Arseneault, said Mr. Lynch was civic-minded in allocating campaign money. "He's not one of those old-style political bosses who call up and try to affect policy just to line their pockets," Mr. Arseneault said. "I don't think you can find a single instance where John Lynch has directly interfaced with government officials on his own in order to financially benefit his pockets or his clients." Those politicians he favors can benefit handsomely. James E. McGreevey was a green, little-known state senator from Woodbridge in the early 1990's when Mr. Lynch recognized his intelligence and discipline as a campaigner and adopted him as a protégé and potential gubernatorial candidate. After Mr. McGreevey was elected governor in 2001, Mr. Lynch continued in his role as strategist and helped to choose key cabinet members and chart the administration's agenda. The current investigation into Mr. Lynch's business actually stems from a deal that took place in the months between Mr. McGreevey's election and inauguration, when two of Mr. McGreevey's aides used their positions on his transition team to pump up the value of a billboard company they sold at a $2 million profit. Federal investigators are examining whether their actions were a conflict of interest, and in the course of that inquiry began looking at Mr. Lynch's influence in the administration. In an interview, Mr. Lynch revealed that his firm, Executive Continental, received a small consulting fee when one of the billboards was sold. Unfettered Access to Power After the inauguration, Mr. Lynch could frequently be seen walking into the governor's office to discuss appointments, budget matters, development projects and other state business. One of Mr. Lynch's law partners, Al Kroll, was named labor commissioner, helping the firm's efforts to gain prestige and attract clients among unions. As Mr. McGreevey became hobbled by a variety of self-inflicted political wounds, his relationship with Mr. Lynch soured. In 2003, Mr. McGreevey distanced himself from his former mentor and Mr. Lynch began to publicly criticize the governor he had helped create. "He was more concerned with being liked than being respected," Mr. Lynch said at the time. "And you just can't lead that way." Mr. McGreevey, who resigned in August 2004 amid a sex scandal, did not respond to requests for an interview. But for all the criticism Mr. Lynch has received, there are those who insist he is simply playing by the free-wheeling rules of New Jersey politics, and being singled out because he has been so successful. Joseph Ferriero, the Bergen County Democratic chairman, said it is unfair that he, Mr. Lynch and other Democratic leaders are maligned for aiding developers, who play a crucial role in the state's economy by providing affordable housing and creating tens of thousands of jobs. "It's no different than a congressman lobbying for a defense contract in his district or supporting farmers in a rural district," Mr. Ferriero said. "A county chairman tries to take care of his own constituency. And John tries to do what's best for the people in his county and the whole state." Since Mr. Lynch's falling-out with Mr. McGreevey, many Democratic insiders say that he has become somewhat withdrawn from public life. He has suffered from a back ailment and prostate cancer. Mr. Lynch and his wife, Deborah, are also busy building a rambling estate in Lawrenceville, near the New Jersey governor's mansion, which is said to have a room large enough to seat 100. ("It's Deborah's house," he said. "You'll have to ask her.") He played almost no role in Mr. Corzine's governor's race, and many aides to Mr. Corzine privately questioned his support. Mr. Lynch said he is willing to back Mr. Corzine as he embarks on an ambitious new agenda to close the budget gap, lower property taxes and curb the influence of money in politics. "If Jon Corzine wants to do the right thing, and lead, I'll be behind him all the way," Mr. Lynch said. Power Brokers Articles in this series are examining Democratic Party leaders in New Jersey who wield influence on a variety of issues.

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SimpleSave Photo & Video Backup DVDs by Memorex

Abstract: Hard drives are fast becoming huge photo and video archives, but not everyone has the foresight or patience to install a backup system in case that drive takes a dive. Memorex eliminates the need for a dedicated backup program with its SimpleSave Photo & Video Backup DVDs, which include the necessary software right on the recordable disc. The SimpleSave discs work with Windows 2000 and later and require a computer with a DVD burner. Once the disc is inserted, the onboard software starts automatically and searches the PC for photo and video files. In addition to the common JPEG, MPEG, QuickTime and Windows Media Video files, the disc’s program can recognize dozens of other picture and movie file formats. A full list is available on the product’s page at www.memorex.com . A five-pack of SimpleSave discs sells for about $15 in retail stores. Each DVD stores about 4.4 gigabytes of files and can be used only once. The backup program lets you know when one disc is full and when it’s time to insert another. J. D. BIERSDORFER

Software
Computers and the Internet
Recordings and Downloads (Video)


Witness Confesses in 1990 Killing, but Prosecutors Keep Pursuing Suspect

Abstract: It was salsa night at the Palladium, a popular East Village nightclub, in the early morning after Thanksgiving 1990, when shots rang out on the street outside, killing one bouncer and wounding another. Ballistic evidence from two guns was found, and the next day, the police said they were searching for two gunmen in their early 20s. True to that scenario, two men were tried, convicted and sentenced to 25 years to life for murder in the Palladium case. Seventeen years after the shootings, the case is being tried again after the original convictions were overturned. In dramatic testimony in a Manhattan courtroom that was closed to the news media and the public, a man confessed to being one of the gunmen and identified an accomplice. Neither one of them is on trial. Instead, prosecutors have reconfigured their theory of the case to add a third gunman — the closed-door witness — and they are arguing the new version just as passionately as the old one. But because of a web of evidentiary rules and legal maneuvering, the jury, which is expected to get the case for deliberations after closing arguments tomorrow, has very little way of knowing what has changed. “It kind of really calls into question the notion of the search for the truth when you say one thing at one trial, and turn around and say exactly the opposite at another trial,” one lawyer close to the case said last week. Both sides have declined to comment during the trial. In the original trial, in 1992, prosecutors identified the two gunmen as David Lemus and Olmedo Hidalgo, saying they were part of a group of people who went to the Palladium that night. Mr. Lemus was ejected from the club, and to avenge his honor, prosecutors said, the two men returned with guns. But the prosecutors offered no evidence that Mr. Lemus and Mr. Hidalgo knew each other, according to court papers. Now Mr. Lemus is standing trial alone. The district attorney has dropped the charges against his former co-defendant, Mr. Hidalgo, who was deported to the Dominican Republic. The ballistic evidence — two .38-caliber bullets and a live 9-millimeter round that fell to the ground — still indicated that there were two guns, and that only one was fired, while the other one jammed. In the closed-door testimony last week, the defense brought in a new witness, Thomas Morales, who testified that he and a friend, Joey Pillot, not Mr. Lemus and Mr. Hidalgo, carried out the shooting. To the defense, it is obvious that the Palladium trial is based on a case of misidentification, and that Mr. Morales and Mr. Pillot are the real gunmen, while Mr. Lemus and Mr. Hidalgo were wrongly convicted. Not so to prosecutors. They have reshaped their case to cast Mr. Morales as “the man in red” described by some witnesses at the first trial as being on the scene. Eric Sears, Mr. Lemus’s defense lawyer at the first trial, said last week that the man in red was such a minor figure during the first trial that he cannot even remember whether he was described as having a gun. “I think that was unclear,” Mr. Sears said in an interview. “I don’t think there was any evidence that there were more than two shooters. I don’t remember there was any evidence in any case that more than one gun was fired.” The three-gunmen theory has led to some odd contortions during the three weeks of trial in State Supreme Court in Manhattan. Mr. Hidalgo, Mr. Lemus’s original accomplice, has become a phantom presence in the courtroom, alluded to indirectly, if at all. Witnesses have said that Mr. Lemus had an accomplice, but the jury has been left to guess at who that might have been. Meanwhile, some of the same witnesses who identified Mr. Hidalgo as one of the gunmen at the first trial have now identified Mr. Morales as one of the gunmen. To Mr. Lemus’s defense lawyers, a team of high-powered litigators from a large law firm, Cooley Godward Kronish, who have taken on the case pro bono because they believe two innocent men were originally convicted, Mr. Morales and Mr. Pillot are inseparable. It was Mr. Pillot who forced authorities to reinvestigate the Palladium shooting after he was arrested on federal murder charges in 1993. While being questioned by federal prosecutors, he said that he was responsible for the shooting, then added that he was with his friend and fellow drug-gang member, Mr. Morales. Joel Seidemann, the lead prosecutor, has said that he wants to argue that Mr. Morales fabricated his testimony about Mr. Pillot, falsely implicating him in the shooting because he knew that Mr. Pillot was immune from prosecution. But Mr. Pillot’s lawyer, Robert Gottlieb, said that when Mr. Pillot first confessed, he was not immune. He admitted to the Palladium shooting under what is called a “queen for a day” agreement with federal prosecutors, Mr. Gottlieb said, which meant that his statements could not be used against him, but he still could be prosecuted for the underlying crime. That queen for a day agreement was later converted to a formal grant of immunity, Mr. Gottlieb said. Mr. Gottlieb said that the district attorney consented to immunizing Mr. Pillot from prosecution. In December 1994, Mr. Gottlieb said, the district attorney’s office wrote a letter saying there was no basis for prosecuting Mr. Pillot in the Palladium case, since two men had already been convicted of the crime and since he could face life imprisonment in the federal case. But the district attorney’s office never gave immunity to Mr. Morales, and in 2005, as questions about the original case became a matter of public debate, it indicted him on murder charges as what prosecutors described as “a third shooter.” Within months, the original case began to fall apart. A judge overturned the original convictions. Last year, the current trial judge, Bonnie G. Wittner, threw out the indictment of Mr. Morales, saying it came too late. Now the jury will have to weigh his credibility against that of Delores Spencer, a prosecution witness who — in an opposing account — says that Mr. Lemus confessed to her his role in the shooting. Defense lawyers argue that Mr. Morales’s testimony is more powerful than what they describe as Mr. Lemus’s banter and braggadocio. They say that it makes more sense that a tightly knit gang would have shot the bouncer than two men who appear not to have known each other. “This was a group of well-known killers,” the lead defense lawyer, Jonathan Bach, told the jury. “They’re trying to shoehorn him into it.”

Palladium
Decisions and Verdicts
Murders and Attempted Murders


France: Hostages in Niger Are Freed

Abstract: The four French hostages who were kidnapped three years ago in Niger by Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb have been released, President François Hollande of France said Tuesday. Mr. Hollande did not describe the conditions of the release of the hostages — Daniel Larribe, Pierre Legrand, Thierry Dol and Marc Féret — who were working for the French nuclear giant Areva, and Sogea-Satom, a subsidiary of the French construction group Vinci in Arlit, in northern Niger, when they were kidnapped in September 2010. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb claimed responsibility and later posted videos showing that the men were alive. They were believed to have been kidnapped by Abu Zeid, the militant group’s deputy commander, who was killed in an airstrike in Mali this year.

France
Hostage
Niger
Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb


Brothel’s Site Becomes an Oasis

Abstract: SPARKS, Nev. — Watching bulldozers pour crushed rocks to force the Truckee River into a more natural serpentine pattern, Mickey Hazelwood, project director for the Nature Conservancy , mused that like many acts of salvation, this one has its roots deep in sin. For decades, this high-desert site eight miles east of Reno was best known as the home of the Mustang Ranch , the first licensed brothel in the United States. From thin to plump, dwarflike to Amazonian, women hired to suit a range of tastes would line up for inspection by clients in pink stucco buildings tucked into a cottonwood grove 300 yards from the river’s bank. The brothel reopened a few miles downriver in 2006, after the land was confiscated by the Internal Revenue Service and the name and buildings were sold to the highest bidder. Working 12-hour shifts at their new complex, part of which was airlifted from the old site, the women still greet customers in knee socks, push-up bras and other intimate wear. The old property, meanwhile, is undergoing a transformation. Workers are restoring it to floodplain , undoing the damage wrought when federal engineers straightened the Truckee River a half century ago. For most of its recorded history, the Truckee meandered lazily 110 miles from mountainous Lake Tahoe through Reno, once a floodplain, to the great basin in Nevada. Dense forests grew at its banks, and 20-pound cutthroat trout swam its length. But as rivers tend to do, the Truckee would flood. In Reno, where the population had been steadily growing since 1900, and passed 50,000 by 1950, the effects could be devastating. So in the next decade, the Army Corps of Engineers moved to control flooding by straightening and widening the river. The unintended result was that the Truckee deepened in its own channel, and the entire water table dropped along its banks. Within years, the lower Truckee lost a majority of its native plants as well as dependent birds and wildlife. Only ancient cottonwoods with deep roots survived. Invasive weeds took over, and the river became an eyesore. More threatening to local residents, water quality declined. Without the plants and with increased surface area, the river was also heating up. Its capacity to absorb treated waste water from the city declined and threatened to choke Reno’s growth. As city officials grew worried, the Nature Conservancy began peddling an ambitious plan that included moving the river back to its old beds, exterminating invasive weeds and replanting forest and other native plants along the Truckee’s banks. In 2000, the $20 million effort to restore an 8 ½-mile stretch of the river began. The old Mustang Ranch is the final piece; bulldozers arrived at the site this month to begin forcing this stretch of the river back into a path constructed to mimic its old curving pattern. Legalized prostitution, as it turns out, has made this parcel particularly promising to conservationists because it essentially kept development at bay, improving the chances of restoring the flora and fauna. “We joke that in Nevada that we only work on properties near brothels,” said Mr. Hazelwood of the conservancy. “They like their privacy — they stay concentrated instead of developing out so they can keep an eye on things. It works for us.” For years the brothel was run by Joe Conforte, an ambitious cigar-smoking Sicilian who had already served time in prison. He bought the 420-acre Mustang Ranch site in 1967, and lobbied to make prostitution legal. Storey County obliged in 1971. Built to resemble a prison, complete with guard towers, the Mustang Ranch was a gritty survivor. It endured an arson and the murder of a boxer, Oscar Bonavena. A movie set at the ranch , starring Joe Pesci as Mr. Conforte and Helen Mirren as his wife, Sally, was recently filmed and is scheduled for release next year. The brothel also had to endure decades of soggy conditions. Susan Austin, who runs the ranch nowadays at the new site, was a “working girl” back then and recalls that women would sometimes have to be rescued in the buckets of front-loader trucks when the river rose suddenly. Mr. Conforte might have kept going except that in 1990, the I.R.S. charged him with tax evasion, and seized and sold off the ranch to pay his bills. He avoided prosecution by fleeing to South America. The ranch resumed business, again turning a profit. But in 1998, the I.R.S. asserted that the new owners were fronts for Mr. Conforte, who Ms. Austin said was receiving cash in paper bags at a hideaway in Brazil. After that, the Treasury Department was not eager to sell the land again. At the behest of conservationists, the land was transferred to the Bureau of Land Management for the reclamation project. “People were skeptical at first,” Allen Biaggi, director of the Nevada Department of Conservation and Natural Resources , said of the project. “But we needed to deal with water quality. And now this provides a vision of what it can be. It can be about beauty and peace and recreation.” The Treasury Department got some reimbursement by auctioning the ranch’s assets. Several paintings of naked women frolicking brought thousands of dollars each, Ms. Austin recalled. She and some partners passed on those, but bought the name and the main buildings and moved the largest upriver. Mr. Biaggi said the nine-year Truckee project would be a model for restoring the similarly blighted Carson River 50 miles to the south. For now, the Truckee’s new bed looks like nothing more than a barren dirt lot. But five miles downstream, the McCarran Ranch , the first piece of property to undergo restoration, offers a view of what the old Mustang site might look like in five years. Young cottonwoods are sprouting along the bank, and native plants like Wood’s rose and river grasses are proliferating a few feet inland. Native birds including bald eagles have returned to fish. The Mustang Ranch’s current complex is visible from the McCarran Ranch at its site on a hillside perch. The owners spent millions to refurbish the structures, adding Japanese- and Hawaiian-themed suites. A heart-shaped pool and hot tub grace a patio with a view of the river. Ms. Austin, who presides as “Madame,” likes the new location. Not only does being on high ground mean that flooding is no longer a problem, but there is also a new piping system instead of the old septic drain field upriver, which leaked. “Waste used to go into the river,” she said. “Not anymore.”

Truckee River
Nature Conservancy
Mustang Ranch
Nevada
Environment


Knicks Find Solace in Quality of Losses

Abstract: DENVER — The mood lifted in the Knicks’ locker room after Friday night’s game here. Raymond Felton said that they had “turned this thing around.” Carmelo Anthony said he could sense “the trust in one another out there.” J. R. Smith seemed relieved that the Knicks were “getting over the hump.” But the Knicks did not win. They lost to the Nuggets, 97-95, in crushing fashion, as Anthony’s attempt at a buzzer-beating, game-tying jumper was an air ball. In other words, the result was merely more of the same for this ragtag crew at the Pepsi Center. But when things go bad — and they have gone bad for the Knicks — the standard by which a team judges itself becomes skewed, warped, myopic. Once upon a time (four weeks ago), the Knicks had championship aspirations, or at least that was the company line. The season has not gone as planned, and the struggles have become so all-consuming that the players have been reduced to taking solace in the quality of their losses. There are now good losses and bad losses, and in fairness to them, they have been left with little else by which to assess their progress. “When you go out and play like we did tonight, we competed, so there’s no reason for us to hang our heads,” Anthony said after Friday’s game, which concluded an empty four-game trip. “We lost, and that’s a bitter feeling, but we want to get better, and I think tonight we took a step forward.” Image Carmelo Anthony had an air ball at the buzzer against Denver, but he said the Knicks “competed.” Credit David Zalubowski/Associated Press Winning is but a threadbare memory for the Knicks (3-12), who have lost eight straight games, their longest stretch of futility since 2010, when they were shedding salaries in a failed bid to lure LeBron James to Madison Square Garden. The team’s rotation included such luminaries as Sergio Rodriguez and Eddie House. The difference this season is that the Knicks are actually trying to win games. Their bloated payroll is the second highest in the league. Only the Nets are spending more, and their season has been just as much of a mudslide. One of these teams has to win next Thursday’s game in Brooklyn, but only because it is in the rules. During the Knicks’ four-game trip, the Knicks shot 42 percent from the field, including 30.2 percent from 3-point range, and scored 88.8 points per game. It was a microcosm of a season in which they have shot 41.9 percent from the field (which ranked 27th in the league before Saturday’s games), including 31.7 percent from 3-point range (26th), while scoring 92.4 points per game (25th). Their defense has not been especially stout, either. When the Knicks left New York last weekend, their hope was that it would provide them an opportunity to unearth some chemistry — a nebulous concept in sports, but one that the Knicks have cited often. Anthony said the team had great chemistry last season, when they won the Atlantic Division title. For various reasons, the Knicks’ collective psychology is now as fragile as a Fabergé egg. Anthony’s impending free agency has cast a shadow over the team. Iman Shumpert’s confidence has been shaken by trade talks. Smith is shooting 32.8 percent after off-season knee surgery. And there is a leadership void, with the departures of Jason Kidd, Rasheed Wallace and Kurt Thomas looming larger than anyone could have anticipated. It was a bad sign when Anthony felt the team needed a players-only meeting after the fourth game of the season. It was an act of early desperation, and the Knicks continued to free-fall, their effort bottoming out when they found themselves trailing by 22 points in the first half of Monday’s loss to the Portland Trail Blazers. Image Despite a hamstring injury, Chris Paul, right, led the Los Angeles Clippers to a 13-point win over the Knicks on Wednesday. Credit Michael Nelson/European Pressphoto Agency Above all, the team has clearly missed Tyson Chandler’s stabilizing influence. Doc Rivers, the coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, said it was apparent just how much the Knicks were struggling without Chandler, who fractured a bone in his right leg nearly four weeks ago. “Not only the way he plays, but his voice on the floor,” said Rivers, who compared Chandler’s role to the one that Kevin Garnett had with the Boston Celtics. “When Kevin didn’t play, that one guy who held everybody accountable was gone.” Chandler traveled with the team, though he said it was a helpless feeling. During games, he retreated to the trainer’s room to continue with his rehabilitation. He refused to offer a timeline on his return. He has yet to resume basketball activities. “It’s obviously painful for me to watch,” Chandler said. “When times get tough, you have to lean on one another.” There are reasons for the Knicks to be cautiously optimistic. Chandler will return at some point, and their schedule has been unforgiving without him. During their recent trip, they faced three of the N.B.A.’s better point guards in quick succession: the Washington Wizards’ John Wall, the Blazers’ Damian Lillard and the Clippers’ Chris Paul, each of whom eviscerated the Knicks’ perimeter defenders. (Paul was hampered by a hamstring injury, but the Clippers still won by 13 points.) And, of course, there is the woeful Atlantic Division — perhaps the Knicks’ greatest ally. They left Denver just three games out of first place, with more than four months of basketball to play. If the Knicks can find their way back to being mediocre, it might be enough to repeat.

Knicks
Carmelo Anthony
Tyson Chandler
Basketball


An App That Will Never Forget a File

Abstract: Some photos are on your smartphone. Others sit on your home computer. Your digital work documents, favorite web clippings and notes from meetings? Scattered like confetti after New Year’s Eve. If you’ve embraced a digital lifestyle, this situation is probably all too familiar. Thankfully, there are services available to help those of us in need. Dropbox lets you upload files to a central online repository. Google Drive has a search engine with image recognition technology so you can search for a photo of the Statue of Liberty from your last vacation. The Doo app is focused on organizing documents of any kind — presentations, receipts, tickets — on your phone. But the easiest catchall tool for saving anything you might need later is an app for computers and mobile devices called Evernote. Evernote provides a comprehensive single archive of your digital life, giving you one location to store and find practically everything saved on a computer or phone. And the files are automatically backed up on Evernote’s servers. It even makes sharing things with others far easier than emailing attachments around — but it will do that, too. The only real downside with Evernote is that it has so many features, which can make getting started with the app daunting. But once you understand how to do a few things with it, you can get working and worry about the rest later. Here’s the big point to understand: Use Evernote as the place you put everything you might need later. You can drag it in, tap it in or forward it in, and then search for it, share it or post it later. When you need to dig it up, you don’t first ask yourself which device it’s on — it’s in Evernote, from whatever device is at hand. The free version of the app lets you add up to 60 megabytes of content to your folders every month, enough for a couple of dozen full-size iPhone photos or a hundred big Word documents. The archive can grow as big as it needs to be. The premium version costs $5 a month, which increases the limit to a gigabyte a month, enough for hundreds of photos, and adds a few more features for heavy users. To begin, download Evernote onto every computer and mobile device you own and create an account. Evernote works on Windows and Mac computers, and on iPhones, iPads, Android and Windows phones and tablets, BlackBerry devices, and even Hewlett-Packard’s WebOS gadgets. In other words, you should be covered. The interface is a little different on each platform, so plan a few minutes to figure out each one. The best way to start is to toss a photo into Evernote. You can drag and drop an image from anywhere on a computer desktop to the Evernote app, or select the photo icon from the mobile version of Evernote to choose a photo already on your phone. Within a few minutes, the photo will be synced to Evernote’s servers and available on your other devices. By default, everything goes into one folder, but you can create new folders to keep things better organized. The same trick works for Word files, PDFs, spreadsheets, MP3s and even videos. And it’s possible to move files to the service even if you don’t have the app installed on the particular device you are on. Each Evernote user is given an email address for the account, and sending a file to that address will save it into the account. It’s a nice trick that lets you forward emails and attachments to Evernote for keeping. You can even specify which folder each forwarded message goes into by putting the destination folder in the subject line, like “@family-photos.” You can also save the contents of web pages into Evernote. To do so on a desktop or laptop, install the Evernote Web Clipper found on the Products page at Evernote.com . It’s a web browser add-on that creates an extra button on your browser in the shape of Evernote’s elephant logo. Click it, and you’ll be prompted for how much of the page to save. For news articles, recipes or reviews, Simplified Article is best. It strips away the surrounding links and ads, and saves only the text and images of the main content of a page. The Web Clipper isn’t built for phone or tablet browsers, but someone has filled the void with an app called EverWebClipper for iOS and Android that costs about $3 and does the job. Getting items out of Evernote is easy. Once you find the desired file in the app, use the Export Note menu option on a computer or tap the icon at the bottom of the screen on the mobile interface to export the item to your phone. Then send it as a message or post it to Facebook. To find something you’ve saved, Evernote has a search function that will find just about any text anywhere in a saved file — it’ll even recognize text inside a photo. That makes it possible to use your phone as an archival scanner, by taking pictures of printed pages and then searching for words in these documents later. One important caveat: The free version of the app won’t search the text inside Word or PDF documents. For that you need the premium upgrade. Individual items or entire folders can be shared with other people. Look for the arrow icon at the upper right of an item to create a public URL. Once you have that URL, you can send it to others so they can view your items or folders. The premium version also lets you allow other Evernote users to add content to your folders. This can be useful for group planning — say, for a trip for which several people want to collect suggested sights. You’re not restricted to sharing within Evernote, though. The same arrow button presents options to post an item to Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn, or to forward it as an email attachment. At first, Evernote may seem redundant to existing tools like email and iCloud, but the service is hard to give up after a week’s use. You won’t want to return to a life of running from device to device for your files. If you start to use the program frequently, you’ll probably find that the premium upgrade makes a lot of sense. With the upgrade, you will have a hard time reaching the storage limit unless you are saving a lot of video. Second, it allows you to search within documents, which can come in incredibly handy. Third, it will let you store copies of important items on your computer or phone, an inevitable lifesaver for anyone who travels without reliable Internet access. If Evernote has a shortcoming, it’s that its interface is perhaps too enthusiastic. There are controls, options and messages all over the screen, which can be confusing for a new user. Once you’ve figured out its dozens of functions and options, though, it’s an invaluable tool for organizing a messy digital life. Where did you put that gingerbread recipe Mom sent to your other phone? You put it in Evernote.

Evernote
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Computer data storage
Mobile Apps


With Confession in the Patz Case, the Difficult Work Begins

Abstract: The man breaks down and cries and says yes, I did it. I killed that 6-year-old boy 33 years ago. I did it. It should be a detective’s dream come true. The police have their man, their investigation sewn up with a tidy bow of his own damning words. Far from it, for now the police must try to prove that he did what he said he did. And in the case of the suspect, Pedro Hernandez, and the boy, Etan Patz , that is not going to be easy. In many ways, this confession is a worst-case scenario of corroboration, starting with the body. The police said Mr. Hernandez confessed to strangling Etan in the basement of the SoHo bodega where he worked in 1979 and dumping the body in a bag with the garbage on the street. Had he buried it in a lot someplace, the police could dig, but Mr. Hernandez’s version of events renders the haystack too big, the needle almost certainly gone for good. The prosecution of Mr. Hernandez ground forward on Friday, with his arraignment on second-degree murder charges. At the same time, officers tried to return to the past, stepping down into the basement of what is now a boutique eyeglasses shop to document its current appearance, not even pretending to believe there are any clues to be found. The modern training that detectives receive goes out the window here: video from street cameras; incriminating e-mails; MetroCard swipe data; cellphone logs. “Time is an enemy here,” said Vernon J. Geberth, a retired New York City police lieutenant commander in the Bronx. He said he was struck by the absence of corroborating details in the news accounts of Mr. Hernandez’s confession. “I have to ask myself a question, do they have something they’re not telling us?” he said. So how do you corroborate Mr. Hernandez’s story? A New York detective and an assistant district attorney, both veterans and both speaking on the condition of anonymity because they are not involved in the Patz case, spoke of ways to tackle such a difficult case. “Usually, there is a scene, usually there is a body,” the prosecutor said. “If you don’t have physical evidence that points to your guy, you go into your guy’s background. How did his mother treat him? Why this? Did his brother die? So, he wanted revenge? You look for family members, you look for relatives, you look for teachers. Why would he do such a thing?” “You want to make sure he’s not a chronic confessor,” the detective said. Many books are about those who confessed to crimes they did not commit. Detectives have most likely returned to Mr. Hernandez’s story. “You always go back for more detail, more detail, more detail,” Mr. Geberth said. “The confession is usually devoid of a lot of facts. They just want to get it out. Once it’s out, the barrier has been crossed.” The need to confess behind him, the suspect may relax. “Get him something to eat, something to drink. ‘By the way, did you speak to anybody? Did you go to work the next day, or take the day off?’ Important things.” The police know who worked at the bodega in 1979 because several employees were interviewed when Etan disappeared. Did Mr. Hernandez say or do anything strange at that time? Mr. Hernandez’s family said he spoke of having done “a bad thing and killed a child in New York,” Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Thursday night. The detective I spoke with said he would return to those people, and find others. “What he said to them, when he said it, what details he gave. What was his demeanor? Has he ever admitted to doing anything else?” He would try to find other people with whom Mr. Hernandez spoke about the boy. “Interview people who haven’t come forward.” The detective said he would have revisited the scene with the suspect as it was in 1979, in a room with photographs from that time. “I would take the photographs and say, ‘Point to where you met him. Point to where he was,’ ” the detective said. “I’d have him put an ‘X’ on it with a Magic Marker and sign it.” Why? “Great evidence in court,” he said. “When you go to court, you not only have his statement saying that’s what happened, but you have evidence for jurors to see.” Jurors. That there are 12 people walking around who may one day sit in judgment of Mr. Hernandez is what has the police hunting for proof and for the holy grail — motive, the prosecutor said. “Corroboration is such a legal thing, it’s a thin requirement,” he said. “The question is, do you get the jury to believe this is the real thing?” Jurors, he said, “care about why.”

Hernandez Pedro (1961- )
Murders and Attempted Murders
Patz Etan
SoHo (NYC)


Britain Reopens News of the World Phone Hacking Inquiry

Abstract: The Crown Prosecution Service said Friday that it would reopen the investigation into allegations of phone hacking by the newspaper The News of the World. The prosecutors said they would “conduct a comprehensive assessment” of all evidence turned up by Scotland Yard during its original criminal investigation into phone hacking at the newspaper in 2006 and any material that had come to light since then. “The purpose of this assessment is to ascertain whether there is any material which could now form evidence in any future criminal prosecution relating to phone hacking,” the prosecutors said in a statement. It said the move was prompted by developments in the civil courts in Britain , where several people whose phones were hacked have filed lawsuits against The News of the World’s parent company. The newspaper, one of Britain’s largest circulation publications, is owned by News International, part of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire. Evidence has emerged in those cases suggesting that the phone hacking may have been more widespread than The News of the World had admitted. In 2007, a News of the World editor, Clive Goodman, and an investigator employed by the newspaper, Glenn Mulcaire, were jailed after pleading guilty to having illegally intercepted voice-mail messages of Prince William, Prince Harry and their chief aides. The case was reopened by Scotland Yard in September after The New York Times Magazine published an article quoting former employees as saying that the phone hacking went beyond Mr. Goodman and Mr. Mulcaire and was condoned by the newspaper’s top editors. The article also raised questions about whether the police had fully investigated evidence pointing to widespread hacking at the paper. Last month, the prosecution service said that there was not enough evidence to bring charges against Andy Coulson, the newspaper’s former editor. Mr. Coulson, who is now Prime Minister David Cameron’s communications director, has denied any knowledge of phone hacking. Scotland Yard has defended its original inquiry and has said there is no need to reopen the case. But in a letter made public by the prosecution service on Friday, Assistant Police Commissioner John Yates said that “there remain outstanding public, legal and political concerns.” In a statement, The News of the World promised to “cooperate fully” with prosecutors, The Associated Press reported.

Wiretapping and Other Eavesdropping Devices and Methods

Scotland Yard (Metropolitan Police Service)


Growth Slows a Bit in Chinese Services Sector

Abstract: BEIJING — Growth in China’s services sector slipped to a six-month low in July, data showed Sunday, as new orders rose at their weakest rate in at least a year. The official purchasing managers’ index for the nonmanufacturing sector slowed to 54.2 in July from 55 in June, the National Bureau of Statistics said Sunday. That is the weakest reading since January. A reading above 50 in P.M.I. surveys indicates expansion. The slight retreat in the services sector came as China’s factories started to recover from a slow start to the year. By contrast, China’s services companies have held up through each slowdown since P.M.I. records began in January 2007, with the index staying above 50 in every month. A mixed performance from other measures in the reading on Sunday suggested that the services sector enjoyed an encouraging, although slightly muddy, outlook. Growth in new orders fell to the lowest rate in at least a year in July. At the same time, companies’ business expectations jumped to a level not seen in at least a year. Cai Jin, vice president of the China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing, which publishes the services P.M.I. in conjunction with China’s government, advised investors to not read too much into the divergence. “The volatility in the various subindexes for the July services P.M.I. was not great,” Mr. Cai said. “The market in general is still stable.” He said that weakness in China’s property sector persisted last month because of seasonal factors and muted demand. “The market remains subdued. Prices are still in a downtrend, and declines have increased.”

China
National Bureau of Statistics China


Forest Fires Fed by Heat Close in on Athens

Abstract: ATHENS, June 28 (Reuters) — Dozens of forest fires fanned by strong winds in a six-day heat wave raged across central and southern Greece on Thursday, killing two people and burning scores of homes. Athens was under a cloud of thick black smoke as a forest fire that started Wednesday about 50 miles to the north spilled over Mount Parnitha and was closing in on the capital’s northwestern suburbs. Hundreds of firefighters and volunteers battled the blaze about 15 miles north of Athens as airplanes and helicopters were forced to land because of the dark. The deputy eastern Attica prefect, Charis Damaskos, told reporters near a casino hotel on the mountain that had been evacuated, “This is a very difficult situation. The fire has climbed over the mountain and is now coming down the southern slope. I do not know how this fire can be stopped.” Fire brigade officials said many of the fires had been started by explosions of electricity pylons because of the heat, but in some cases they were investigating suspected arson. The two men died of smoke inhalation when a fire near Agia, in central Greece, encircled their car.

Athens (Greece)
Forest and Brush Fires
Weather
Forests and Forestry


Katrina’s Damage to Trees May Alter Carbon Balance

Abstract: The world knows the kind of destruction that Hurricane Katrina brought to New Orleans and other cities and towns on the Gulf Coast. But destruction of a different sort is the subject of a study in the journal Science by Jeffrey Q. Chambers of Tulane University and colleagues. They report that the storm uprooted or severely damaged roughly 320 million trees, making an impact on the carbon balance in the region. The researchers analyzed satellite imagery from before and after the hurricane to determine the net change in “nonphotosynthesizing vegetation” — in other words, the increase in dead wood and ground litter. Then they went to sample plots in the region’s forests, corresponding to data points from the images, and counted downed or damaged trees. “A lot of material moved from being a living tree to being litter,” Dr. Chambers said. The findings have implications for the carbon footprint of the region’s forests. Through photosynthesis, living trees store carbon, but when they die they begin to decompose, and the action of those decomposing organisms releases carbon. While trees eventually grow back in a heavily damaged forest, Dr. Chambers said, “it takes a lot longer to recover the biomass than it does to lose it.” In some cases, he added, it is possible for a forest to go from being a net storer of carbon to a net source. That may happen more in the future, he said, because one expected result of global climate change is more severe storms. That means more damaged forests, with fewer living trees and more decomposing ones. “You could see terrestrial ecosystems becoming closer to sources of carbon than to carbon sinks,” he said.

Hurricane Katrina
Forests and Forestry
Global Warming
Carbon Dioxide


Penn State Extends Lead at Wrestling Championship

Abstract: Penn State sent five wrestlers to the semifinals of the N.C.A.A. wrestling championship at Madison Square Garden and extended its lead in the team standings at the tournament’s halfway point. The No. 1 Nittany Lions went 5-1 in their championship matches during the third session and led No. 7 Ohio State, 68.5-54, in the team race.

Penn State
Wrestling
NCAA Wrestling
College Sports


Scientists Report Advance in ‘Therapeutic Cloning’

Abstract: Scientists have moved a step closer to the goal of creating stem cells perfectly matched to a patient’s DNA in order to treat diseases, they announced on Thursday, creating patient-specific cell lines out of the skin cells of two adult men. The advance, described online in the journal Cell Stem Cell, is the first time researchers have achieved “therapeutic cloning” of adults. Therapeutic cloning means producing embryonic cells genetically identical to a donor, usually for the purpose of treating disease. But it is also the first step in reproductive cloning — a technique that has set off controversy. In 2005, the United Nations called on countries to ban it, and the United States prohibits the use of federal funds for either reproductive or therapeutic cloning.


New Rules Proposed for Tanning Beds

Abstract: The Food and Drug Administration on Monday proposed new regulations for tanning beds that would require their makers to affix labels warning young people not to use them. Nearly 28 million Americans use tanning beds every year, according to the American Academy of Dermatology. The agency said the proposal was its first step toward potentially restricting access to the beds altogether for minors. Manufacturers would have to apply to the F.D.A. to get approval for their tanning bed products before selling them, “The science is clear,” said Dr. Mary Maloney, vice president of regulator policy at American Academy of Dermatology. “The risk of developing melanoma increases by 75 percent for individuals who’ve been exposed to ultraviolet radiation from indoor tanning.”

Label
American Academy of Dermatology
Melanoma
Sun tanning
FDA
Skin cancer
Youth


I.M.F. Chief Lagarde Calls Trade Restrictions ‘Economic Malpractice’

Abstract: The leader of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, warned in a speech on Wednesday that an increase in protectionist trade measures could derail a fragile economic recovery in the United States and the rest of the world. Ms. Lagarde spoke at Northwestern University, in what was billed as a kickoff for the fund’s annual fall meetings to be held in Washington next week. “Restricting trade is a clear case of economic malpractice,” Ms. Lagarde said, making the case that workers and families would be worse off if global trade were restricted. Ms. Lagarde’s comments come in the midst of a polarizing election in the United States, where the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates have both criticized trade deals as hurting, not helping, American workers. The Republican presidential candidate, Donald J. Trump, has been most vocal in this regard, calling the North American Free Trade Agreement among the United States, Mexico and Canada the “single worst trade agreement” ever approved in the country. Both Mr. Trump and the Democratic candidate, Hillary Clinton, have said they are against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-country deal involving the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim nations. Since the end of World War II, when it was formed, the I.M.F. has been the most vocal global proponent of free trade policies in which countries around the world agree to trade with each other and keep impediments such as tariffs or quotas to a minimum. This doctrine lies at the root of all the advice that it parcels out to its member countries, and liberal trade policies are one of its major conditions when the fund lends money to a country in crisis. But in today’s global climate of weak growth and inward-looking politics, these textbook notions that freer trade benefits all are being questioned by many. Recent research from the fund also shows that since the crisis, the growth in global trade has slowed sharply — barely keeping pace with global output. From 1985 to 2007, global trade expanded at twice the level of overall economic growth, according to fund economists. One reason for the slowdown, the report concludes, has been a steady rise in protectionist rules and regulations over the last three years. “If we were to turn our backs on trade now, we would be choking off a key driver of growth at a point when the global economy is still in need of every good piece of news it can get,” Ms. Lagarde warned. While Ms. Lagarde was reappointed to a second term as the fund’s managing director earlier this year, her ability to make a difference on such broad, controversial issues is unclear. During the Greek crisis, for example, European leaders did not heed her insistent counsel to reduce Greece’s debt burden, as a recent study from the fund’s watchdog lays out in detail.

Christine Lagarde
Northwestern University
Hillary Clinton
Protectionism
International trade
IMF
Donald Trump


All Is Bright. Very, Very Bright

Abstract: Tony Pampena used to go by the nickname Clark Griswold, after the holiday-obsessed character played by Chevy Chase in “ National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation .” But that was 15 years and several thousand strands of Christmas lights ago. Now his fellow firefighters in Greenwich, Conn., just call him Tony Christmas, he said recently from his front yard in Stamford, as scores of strangers meandered through his property, sucking candy canes and gaping at an artificial forest of white Christmas trees. In the movie , the bumbling Clark faultily rigs his suburban home with 25,000 lights, to disastrous effect. This year, Mr. Pampena single-handedly affixed 58,000 colored lights to his two-story home. Barely a square foot of the house remains light-free. In 30 years of stringing lights, he has never had to call the Fire Department. Image Hot pink trees on Mr. Pampena’s property. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times “Last night over 850 people came by, and tonight I expect even more,” Mr. Pampena, wearing a Santa hat, said just after dusk on a recent Sunday. He counts neighbors among the fans of his holiday decorations. “They come over to thank me because they can read books at night by the lights on my house.” Mr. Pampena is one of the many homeowners in Connecticut and Westchester County who make an annual practice of attracting the public to their doorsteps with elaborate holiday light schemes. As do many of those homeowners, he invites viewers to get out of their cars and explore. Mr. Pampena’s tradition was inspired by his fond childhood memories of driving around with his family to look at lights. There are several commercial Christmas light displays in the area that charge viewers a small fee. Holiday Light Fantasia, in Hartford, a two-mile trek that attracted more than 90,000 visitors last year, is a fund-raiser for the nonprofit Channel 3 Kids Camp. Fantasy of Lights, in New Haven, raises money for Easter Seals Goodwill Industries and offers 3-D glasses and a special radio broadcast to supplement the viewing experience. Westchester’s Winter Wonderland, in Valhalla, N.Y., is an out-of-car experience that has added food trucks and a forest of illuminated candy canes to its offerings this season. “My father used to say to me and my brothers, ‘If you boys are good, we’ll go out and look at the lights,’” said Andre Platt, of Ossining, N.Y. In 1990 he began ornamenting his home with Christmas lawn displays, including a life-size Santa’s workshop and a musical Ferris wheel. Image Chuck Barringer, who has switched to LEDs from incandescent lights, makes an adjustment to his display, which he calls the North Kensico Christmas Light Show. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times Like Mr. Pampena, Mr. Platt, an elementary school physical education teacher, does not count on help from others when decorating. “My family doesn’t like going out in the cold,” he said. The last few years his preparations, which start in October, have gone more slowly than usual. “I’m 60, and four years ago I fell while setting up and broke my arm in 15 places,” he said. Still, Mr. Platt says he has never missed a year. Chuck Barringer is now in the 10th year of lighting his White Plains property. He calls his display the North Kensico Christmas Light Show. “We noticed people started coming to see the house about seven years ago,” he said. Since then, he has continued to add to his display of glowing gingerbread men and candy canes. Mr. Barringer has bolstered the underlying technology as well. For instance, in recent years Mr. Barringer has broadcast a soundtrack of Christmas carols on an FM radio frequency to visiting drivers. His lights are set up to blink to the music. “If a song mentions the word ‘Santa,’ the Santa on my porch lights up,” he said. Image Chuck Barringer’s home, center, on North Kensico Avenue in White Plains. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times And some of Mr. Barringer’s neighbors have become key players, too, with impressive displays synchronized with his system. He has also switched to LEDs from incandescent lights. “Now everything is on a controller and computerized, and it’s much more efficient,” he said. And the new lights are less expensive: Mr. Barringer estimates that the cost of powering his roughly 10,000 lights from 5 to 11 p.m. is $2.25 a night. “It’s like paying for a cup of coffee,” he said. While Mr. Barringer’s display may make him a leader among tech-oriented Christmas light impresarios, Roy Aletti, of Harrison, N.Y., is more interested in leading visitors to his home on a journey back in time. “The unique thing about my Christmas display is that most of it is antiques from the ’40s, ’50s and ’60s,” he said. “I’m an antique collector, so that just kind of incorporated itself into what I do.” Mr. Aletti, the owner of Harrison Paint Supply , has been lighting his house for 40 years. After the first 15 years, he said, “it started to become a spectacle.” He now estimates that 3,000 to 5,000 people visit from Thanksgiving weekend, when he opens the display for the season, to Jan. 6, when he begins to dismantle it. Image Tony Pampena, whom his fellow firefighters call Tony Christmas, has decorated his Stamford home with 58,000 colored lights. Credit Gregg Vigliotti for The New York Times On the property, which is decked with 10,000 lights, are stalls in which antique reindeer bob their heads, two 17-foot toy soldiers and other antique decorations. “We don’t have timers, nothing is digital,” Mr. Aletti said. “And the electric bill is horrible, probably $400 to $500 more than what I pay for the regular bill.” Like most homeowners, though, he does not charge a fee for gawking. “It’s worth it just to see the looks on children’s faces.” John Terwilliger is hooked on seeing the faces of visitors to the impressive light display at his Trumbull, Conn., home. Like Mr. Barringer, he also broadcasts on an FM radio frequency so viewers can tune in from their cars. “People have knocked on the door after midnight and asked me to turn the lights on,” he said. “Sometimes when I come home and it’s starting to get dark, I see cars on the street waiting for me to go inside and turn them on.” Mary and Eugene Halliwell of Fairfield, Conn., whose holiday display includes 200 animated figures, like Mickey Mouse and SpongeBob, and some 300,000 lights, take donations for the Shriners Hospitals for Children. “We’ve been able to write the hospital a check every year,” Mrs. Halliwell said. The Halliwells’ display, which Mrs. Halliwell calls the Wonderland at Roseville, is now in its 16th year. Last year, she said, 13,000 people came to look, and by early December she had already counted 3,000 visitors. “All of us love seeing people come up and say, ‘My gosh, you’ve made my Christmas!’ ” Mrs. Halliwell said. Despite the effort of putting on a nightly show, she is never happy to be done with Christmas. “It awfully dark outside when it’s over,” she said.

Christmas Lighting Connecticut Westchester Philanthropy


Crash of Malaysian Jet Shakes Business Travel

Abstract: ON any given day, there are about 100,000 commercial airline flights, flying more than 50,000 separate routes, around a world where armed conflict is always occurring, somewhere. As companies send business travelers on assignments that often venture into — and even more often over — dangerous areas, employers have become ever more cognizant of a legal and ethical issue called duty of care. This means, basically, that employers need to take reasonable precautions to ensure a “safe working environment” for travelers as it is described in a 2012 report , “Duty of Care: Are You Covered?” by the corporate risk-management and security company iJet. This includes evaluating security conditions in destination countries, knowing their employees’ whereabouts and keeping in contact. But the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 last Thursday near the Ukraine border could add a new factor for employers and “has considerable implications for companies and business-travel managers responsible for duty of care,” said Greeley Koch, the executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. “Will it now be necessary for travel departments to make sure that preferred carriers do not overfly war zones, areas of civil conflict or regions of crisis?” Image Credit Chi Birmingham That, of course, would be a tall order, but the downing of the commercial airliner, evidently by a sophisticated military surface-to-air missile capable of hitting planes at high altitudes, underlines growing complexities in duty-of-care matters. While obviously no airline or company deliberately puts people at risk, “sometimes new risks are identified and steps have to be taken,” Mr. Koch said. It isn’t clear what those steps might be, but travel managers have told the association that they are evaluating the specific air-travel issues raised by the Flight 17 disaster. Top among these are questions about the prudence of flying over a troubled region where combatants had recently shot down a Ukrainian military transport plane at about 21,000 feet. While there had been international aviation prohibitions on flying over Crimea, farther south, the operative orders for the area where Flight 17 was downed said that the route was safe for flying — at over 32,000 feet. Flight 17, bound from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, was at 33,000 feet, on a standard airway heavily used until recently by hundreds of flights between northern Europe and Asia. “This is a well-established international route,” said Anthony C. Roman, a security consultant who is also a former commercial pilot and flight instructor. “It’s regularly traversed by other airlines. However, in April, the European aviation authorities issued warnings to member states that the Crimea area should be avoided. In May, the F.A.A. actually restricted flights over Crimea itself and warned about eastern Ukraine.” He added: Airlines often decide “it’s the smartest route; the most available route; the route is legally available; and as long as it’s legally available, we will fly it. Or likely it’s a combination of these things.” Wreckage Offers Clues on Why Flight 17 Went Down Photographs of a piece of wreckage from Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 offer evidence about what could have caused it to crash. As to corporate duty of care, Mr. Roman points out, managers planning employee travel have no prior knowledge of the routings of particular aircraft, which are determined by airline dispatchers, subject to in-flight modifications by captain and air-traffic control, including for weather or congestion. And given the growing overlapping routes caused by growing consolidation in global airline alliances, it may not even be immediately apparent which airline is even flying the plane. Malaysia Flight 17, for example, was also a code share for KLM Flight 4103 — and most of the passengers on the plane were Dutch citizens who had most likely booked through KLM. Airlines rerouting around Ukraine airspace face tough choices and potential controversy. On Sunday, for example, Flightradar24 , the real-time global flight-tracking service, showed that Malaysia Airlines Flight 4 from Kuala Lumpur to London, an A380 capable of carrying 494 passengers, flew over Syria, rather than taking its usual route over Ukraine. A year ago, the Federal Aviation Administration warned American carriers of a potential danger in Syrian skies from surface-to-air missiles. Malaysia Airlines said Flight 4 over Syria “was in airspace approved by the International Civil Aviation Organization.” Airlines now avoid Ukraine’s skies. Maps on Flightradar24.com show Ukraine as a vast hole within the air-traffic network in Europe, Russia and Asia. Victims of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 Among the 298 people aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 were a renowned AIDS researcher, a Dutch senator and an Australian novelist. On Monday, for example, only a handful of commercial flights were over Ukraine, all of them on approach or departure from Boryspil International Airport near Kiev, which is 350 miles west of the Flight 17 crash site near Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Radar showed a narrow river of flights bowing along the western Russian border with Ukraine and over the Black Sea, and a very broad river of flights to the west of Ukraine between Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia. Reacting to the Flight 17 disaster, some airlines rushed to announce that they had not been flying over Ukraine for some time — but Flightradar24.com posted on Twitter right after the Malaysia crash that “several airlines that have been tracked over Ukraine as late as yesterday claim they have been avoiding Ukraine for months.” Flightradar24 did not name those airlines. Over the weekend, Finnair had to backtrack after it was called out on social media for claiming that “Finnair does not fly over Ukraine. Your safety is our top priority.” Flightradar24 data showed that the airline was in fact flying over western Ukraine in recent days. Finnair subsequently conceded that Flightradar24 was correct and said it had stopped flying over Ukraine.

Business travel
Malaysia Airlines
Kiev
Finnair
Plane Crashes and Missing Planes
Malaysia Airlines 17
FAA
Airlines,airplanes


Europe Moving Toward Small Steps to Promote Growth

Abstract: BERLIN — The outlines of a potential compromise in Europe’s battle between deficit-cutting austerity and policies to promote growth have begun to take shape. The question is whether the kind of cautious measures palatable to Germany , austerity’s champion, will do enough to combat the Continent’s imbalances and do it soon enough to put its weaker countries on more solid economic footing. In typical German fashion, the steps under discussion are incremental and spread across a range of policy areas so as not to raise the ire of German voters. Germany’s rigid central bank has signaled a willingness to tolerate slightly higher inflation, while the government has indicated its openness to modest but real wage growth in Germany. Most important for the stricken economies, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel , may be prepared to accept a longer timetable for curtailing budget deficits for countries like Spain that are reeling from recession. For Ms. Merkel, the most important prize is ratification of the fiscal compact , signed in March by the leaders of 25 of the 27 European Union countries, to control deficits in the long run. Ever since the victory of François Hollande in the French presidential election on Sunday, the debate in Europe has shifted, with attention focusing on Ms. Merkel’s growing isolation over austerity and whether she would yield to calls for stimulus spending to promote short-term economic growth. The recognition seems to be dawning even here that forcing heavily indebted countries to cut spending too quickly and deeply can be counterproductive. “The mood appears to be shifting in Germany,” said Sebastian Dullien, a senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations in Berlin. “Even conservative economists are beginning to question whether this austerity is too brutal at the moment.” Despite marked differences in tone, Ms. Merkel and Mr. Hollande may not be so far apart in substance, said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at Eurasia Group, a consultancy in New York. Germany may ultimately accept minor adjustments to Greece ’s aid program if a viable government emerges, Mr. Rahman said. “This is Germany’s way of signaling both to Hollande and the Greek political elite it is willing to be constructive to keep the system together,” he said. German officials have been adamant in saying the bailout terms would not be renegotiated with Greece. The sharp reduction in public spending in the teeth of a recession has sent Greek unemployment to over 20 percent and, in Sunday’s elections , brought radical parties on the right and left into Parliament. Speaking in Berlin on Thursday, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble repeated Germany’s mantra that Greece had to stand by its commitments, but this time he added that Berlin could tolerate a slightly higher inflation rate. Germany has traditionally found inflation “in the corridor between 2 and 3 percent” acceptable, Mr. Schäuble said, even though the European Central Bank’s official target is about 2 percent. Mr. Schäuble was echoing a statement to the German Parliament the day before by the German Bundesbank, normally a bastion of price stability, that higher inflation rates in Germany were acceptable as long as the euro zone average remained on target. The Bundesbank said the country might have inflation above the euro zone average as other countries regained competitiveness. A more flexible line by the powerful German bank, after which the European Central Bank was modeled, would create space for the E.C.B. to cut interest rates further or take other steps to encourage growth. Earlier in the week, Mr. Schäuble said higher wages for German workers could also help combat imbalances in the euro zone, where years of wage discipline have made German companies far more competitive than those in many of Germany’s neighbors. His statement coincided with warning strikes across Germany by IG Metall, a powerful union, which is pushing for higher wages for workers in the automobile, steel and electronics industries. If prices and wages rise in Germany, it will be easier for countries like Spain, Italy and Greece to compete. Other measures under consideration include increasing financing for the European Investment Bank as well as helping struggling countries tap unspent resources in existing European Union funds. But these proposals would offset just a tiny fraction of the cuts in public outlays pursued by countries trying to rein in their debt. While her subordinates were talking of compromise, Ms. Merkel maintained her tough line before a domestic audience with little sympathy for Europe’s laggards, particularly Greece. Germans will vote in an important election on Sunday in North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s most populous state. Speaking to Parliament on Thursday, Ms. Merkel rejected proposals to allow more deficit spending in the name of growth. She said “growth through debt,” pumping up government spending to stimulate growth, would “send us back to the beginning of the crisis.” At the Group of 8 summit meeting next week at Camp David, Ms. Merkel is sure to face pressure from allies — in particular the United States — to loosen the purse strings and encourage growth. But in Thursday’s address, she rejected “wonder weapons” like issuing joint European debt and warned that the Continent faced a long slog. Mr. Dullien of the European Council on Foreign Relations said deficit spending to stimulate the economy and delaying spending cuts were not the same thing in the eyes of voters here. “You can sell that much more easily to the German public,” he said of delays in cuts. “They are trying to do what’s politically palatable to ease the burden and allow more room for growth.” German policy makers have played down disagreements with Mr. Hollande since his victory on Sunday, pointing to the long and successful cooperation between Chancellor Helmut Kohl, a conservative, and President François Mitterrand, a socialist. Chancellor Merkel spent her first term combating the financial crisis with a Social Democrat, Peer Steinbrück , as finance minister. The fiscal compact remains the most important prize for Ms. Merkel, and she needs the Social Democrats’ help in Parliament to pass it. She has proved adept at shifting with the circumstances to get what she wants, to the frustration of her opponents. Sigmar Gabriel, the leader of the Social Democrats, said Wednesday that Ms. Merkel “will make the shift” toward more growth policies, the German news agency dpa reported. “She’ll even explain that it was her idea.”

Germany
Greece
Economic Conditions and Trends
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Inflation (Economics)
Merkel Angela


New York Police Divers Work by Touch in Hudson Recovery

Abstract: Underwater, the river was like ink. So the two New York Police Department divers fell back on an alternate sense: touch. They followed a safety line to a spot where the remnants of a sightseeing helicopter were resting on the bottom of the Hudson, embedded among rocks, mud and the rotting, jagged pilings of a collapsed pier off the New Jersey shore. “It was basically a ball of metal,” said Officer Jeffrey Dowling, 37, who has been a member of department’s scuba team for four years. “Visibility is below one foot; sometimes it is zero.” It was Sunday morning, and Officer Dowling and his partner, Detective Michael Delaney, were near the bottom, about 30 feet down. Currents of up to four knots pulled at their legs. They reached out for the wreckage of the Liberty Helicopters six-person aircraft. Then they came upon the body of a man — one of six people who had been riding in the copter on Saturday morning when it collided with a small airplane carrying three people. “It is all done by touch,” Officer Dowling said in an interview on Monday. Officer Dowling and Detective Delaney each kept a hand gripped on a safety harness leading to a boat on the surface. They let flashlights, attached to their suits, fall away. They still had radio communications with colleagues above, and tanks with air. The body was still strapped into the seat. “We could not unbuckle him,” Officer Dowling said. “My partner cut his shoulder strap and I cut his waist strap, and we removed him from the seat.” The aquatic recovery went without a hitch, and moments later the two officers gently guided the body, leading it up through the silent waters. As they swam, Officer Dowling thought of the man’s family, saying he was “kind of glad I was able to give the family closure and that we were able to find the victims.” The scuba team, which was founded in 1964 and now has 35 members, is generally used in the investigation of crimes — they recover evidence like stolen cars or guns used in murders. But in a region that is bounded by an ocean and cut through with rivers and has three major airports, the team’s members often play a role after air disasters. When the alarm rang on Saturday, they sprung into action, and have been working at a consistent pace since. “Difficult and treacherous,” is how Paul J. Browne, a department spokesman, described the team’s task. Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly said Monday that five police boats and eight divers were working on the recovery. On Monday morning, they began to focus on another spot — toward the center of the river — where the depths reach up to 60 feet or so. They were homing in on the airplane. Police divers have now recovered the bodies of all six people who were in the helicopter. The body one of the passengers in the plane was found floating on the Hudson on Saturday afternoon. On Monday afternoon, divers entered the wreckage of the plane and located another body, but could not dislodge it. Mr. Kelly, who had met with the team just before the divers splashed into the water on Monday, reflected on their job. “It’s such tough, daunting work, in the worst conditions imaginable,” he told an aide. “Yet, they were energetic, eager to get back to the grim task at hand. They made you proud.”

Helicopters
Liberty Helicopters
Accidents and Safety
Hudson River
Airlines and Airplanes