War Weighs on Britain's Special Relationship

Abstract: LONDON — As he prepares to dine at the White House and take in a basketball game with President Barack Obama this week, Prime Minister David Cameron may recall, or even rue, a speech he delivered as leader of the British opposition on Sept. 11, 2006, five years after the attacks on New York and Washington. “We will serve neither our own, nor America’s, nor the world’s interests, if we are seen as America’s unconditional associate in every endeavor,” he said. “Our duty is to our own citizens, and to our own conception of what is right for the world. We should be solid but not slavish in our friendship with America.” Politicians, of course, tend to be looser with their language before the rigors of elected office demand more cautious usage. And, in evoking what successive British leaders since Churchill have yearned to call a “special relationship” with Washington, Mr. Cameron was sniping at Tony Blair , whose support for the administration of George W. Bush emboldened critics to label him a “poodle” of the United States. But these days, the British leader may wonder whether it is quite as easy as he suggested to pull out of an American slipstream that suddenly seems a comforting place to be, particularly at a time when Europe, embroiled in the euro crisis, is less welcoming. In the earliest days of his presidency, Mr. Obama earned a reputation as the least pro-British of recent U.S. leaders. But, as the elections approach, he seems friendlier, taking Mr. Cameron to a college basketball game in Dayton, Ohio, then on to Washington for a state dinner — often reserved for heads of state. Announcing the March 13-14 visit, the White House spoke of a “special relationship” across the Atlantic and a “strong personal bond.” But with the United States caught up in disastrous events in Afghanistan — the killing of civilians by a U.S. soldier Sunday, the burning of Korans — the mood will be freighted with painful questions for both leaders. Last week, six British soldiers — most of them barely out of their teens — died in the bloodiest single incident in six years, bringing the number of deaths among London’s 9,500-strong contingent to 404 and immediately raising the question of whether the planned U.S. drawdown, set to start next year, could leave the British exposed if they keep to their schedule for departure a year later. “It’s the case historically that when operations wind down, they become more vicious at the end,” said Michael Clarke, head of the Royal United Services Institute, the defense and security research group. With the U.S. timetable dominating the course of events, and regional players maneuvering for position, Mr. Clarke told the BBC, the “war is slipping away for reasons beyond our control.” In any event, the campaign in Afghanistan has never been popular or easily understood in Britain , whose historical memory reaches back to bloody debacles there in the 19th century. With the bloodletting of the past few days in a struggle that offers only the vaguest definitions of victory or defeat, pressures for an early withdrawal are mounting. “No more young men and women should die in this conflict,” said Carla Cuthbertson, whose son Nathan, 19, was killed four years ago by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan, the 100th British soldier to die. At that time, she believed that he had “died for a noble cause.” “But when another 100 lives had been lost, I started to question why we were sending soldiers to Afghanistan,” she wrote in an open letter to Mr. Cameron published in the leftist Daily Mirror. “This is not a war we are going to win.” Since Britain joined the war in Afghanistan after the 2001 attacks, successive politicians have argued that, by fighting on the faraway killing fields of Helmand Province, their soldiers are forestalling terrorism on the streets of Britain. Yet, when suicide bombers struck in London on July 7, 2005, they hailed from Britain itself, albeit with links to Pakistan. The deployments as America’s leading European ally in Iraq and Afghanistan merely offered lightning rods for homegrown jihad. Now, though, other troubled horizons are opening up in Syria and Iran and, emboldened by Britain’s prominence in the NATO air campaign that helped oust Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in Libya, Mr. Cameron has turned toward them in step with the White House, talking up the threat from Tehran in particular. The British leader recently told lawmakers that Iran was seeking the capability to launch intercontinental missiles — a term taken to mean weapons that could reach Britain — an ominous echo of Mr. Blair’s assertion in 2003 that Iraq possessed the firepower for an unconventional assault on British forces in the Mediterranean within 45 minutes of an order from Saddam Hussein. Never borne out, Mr. Blair’s warning contributed to the unraveling of credibility that led ultimately to his downfall. No one has suggested so far that Mr. Cameron is courting an entirely comparable fate. But the parallels are clear. In the British public gaze, Mr. Blair became indistinguishable from the U.S. strategic imperative, much as he sought to depict it as his own, brushing aside huge public protests to support the invasion of Iraq. Nine years later, Mr. Cameron risks stepping onto a similar tightrope, buttressing his U.S. ally’s arguments at a time when there is no suggestion of a public appetite back home for further perilous adventures in the Muslim world. Just before the British leader left for the United States, moreover, a parliamentary panel concluded that, while Britain’s national security strategy “is based strongly on the U.K.’s relationship with the U.S., it appears that the U.S.’s focus is moving away from Europe” toward the Asia-Pacific region — hardly the kind of assessment to cement the celebration of a special relationship over dinner at the White House, even among those nurturing the most powerful, personal bond.

United States
Great Britain
Afghanistan War (2001- )
Cameron David
Blair Tony
International Relations
Politics and Government


Elton Gallegly Chosen to Lead House Immigration Subcommittee

Abstract: The new Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, passed over an outspoken immigration hard-liner and Tea Party caucus member for chairman of the immigration subcommittee. In an announcement Friday, Mr. Smith unexpectedly gave the job to Representative Elton Gallegly of California. The man who was passed over, Representative Steve King of Iowa, who was the senior Republican on the subcommittee in the last session, was named vice chairman instead. Mr. King is known for his staunch, high-profile support for a crackdown on illegal immigration. On Thursday, Mr. King introduced a bill that would deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.

King Steven A
United States Politics and Government
Immigration and Emigration
Tea Party Movement
Smith Lamar S
Gallegly Elton


New York Plans to Replace Aging Tappan Zee Bridge

Abstract: Tarrytown THE recent announcement that transportation officials want to replace rather than repair the Tappan Zee Bridge, and have it accommodate new bus and Metro-North service to boot, sounds like a logical first step. The Tappan Zee, at 52 years old, is so outdated that 80 percent of it would have to be replaced to bring it up to current standards and to meet the growing needs of commuters, the officials said. Given the $6.4 billion price tag, not including the costs for mass transit, transportation officials said it was not worth trying to make the old structure new again. “This must be done,” Andrew J. Spano, the Westchester County executive, said at the Sept. 26 press conference at which transportation officials and Westchester and Rockland County leaders announced their recommendation that a new Tappan Zee Bridge be built. “This is a bridge whose time has come.” Those same officials, however, now plan to spend the remainder of this year and all of next looking long and hard at how to execute the plan, especially in light of concerns about the impact it will have on traffic, nearby towns and the environment. Starting this month, the state’s Department of Transportation, the New York State Thruway Authority and the Metro-North Railroad, as well as municipal, county and state leaders, will begin an extensive environmental study. The study, which is expected to take about a year and a half, will evaluate, in detail, the project and its ramifications — including financing and community concerns. So far, the officials know what they want: a new bridge, with one end in Tarrytown just north of the existing bridge, that can accommodate four lanes of traffic in each direction, as well as high-speed bus service between Port Chester, in Westchester County, and Suffern, in Rockland County. The bridge would also be able to handle commuter trains, with the idea that Metro-North would eventually create a line between Suffern and Tarrytown, where commuters could switch to trains bound for Grand Central Terminal. What the bridge will actually look like has not been decided. Proponents of the project want to make official by spring 2010 the decision to build a new bridge, contingent on the environmental study, and to begin construction by 2012, said Michael Anderson, the Department of Transportation official who is the Tappan Zee Bridge project manager. Official estimates put the cost at $16 billion, with $6.4 billion for the bridge; $2.9 billion for the bus service and improvements along the Interstate 287 corridor; and $6.7 billion to build a new Metro-North rail line. No state or federal financing has been arranged yet. If all goes as hoped, Mr. Anderson said, traffic could start using half the new bridge, which would be about twice as wide as the existing one, about two and a half years after construction begins. The remaining construction would be completed within another two and a half years, he said. During that time, the old bridge would be dismantled, with reusable metal sold as scrap and the rest disposed of, he said. None of that will be done without giving the Tappan Zee a proper send-off, however. Because the three-mile bridge is a designated historic resource, its history will be formally documented, and pieces of the bridge may even be salvaged for display, Mr. Anderson said. There are, however, a range of issues that need to be broached before the project can move forward, not least of which is how to pay for it, transportation officials said. Officials have hired a private financial consultant and will explore a range of financing options, including private investment in the project, Mr. Anderson said. Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, whose district includes Tarrytown, criticized the prospect of private investment in the project, saying that mixing private financiers in public projects is a dangerous proposition. “This is effectively transferring ownership or control to a private party,” Mr. Brodsky said. He added that such an arrangement can lead to increased costs, like higher tolls, for drivers. “I am at a loss to understand how a private entity that has to pay taxes on its borrowing and pay profits to its shareholders can build a bridge more cheaply than a public entity,” Mr. Brodsky said. Also looming is the question of whether building a new Metro-North line between Rockland and Westchester Counties is feasible, not to mention what it would cost on top of the financial investment in the bridge. While a new bridge could handle trains, whether Rockland’s topography and communities can — or want to — remains to be seen, officials said. “From a planning perspective, studying the bridge is simple; building a new commuter rail is not,” said Marjorie Anders, a Metro-North spokeswoman. “The engineering is not bad, but land-use planning and getting local support is something that requires a lot of proof that this is the right way to go.” Meantime, project managers say there is ample opportunity for the public to register its opinions on the project, which will be taken into consideration as it progresses. Public information meetings are scheduled at 4:30 and 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 at White Plains High School, 550 North Street. There are also opportunities to comment at the Web site www.tzbsite.com .

Tappan Zee Bridge
Bridges and Tunnels
Transit Systems
Westchester County (NY)
Transportation Department


Ice Problems and Injury Plague Women’s Debut at the Winter Classic

Abstract: FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The last three weeks exposed women’s hockey to the hard business dealings of professional sports, along with its hierarchies and the need for more collaboration to advance the sport. After much confusion and delay, the lessons learned paid off with a seminal moment on Thursday afternoon, when the Boston Pride of the National Women’s Hockey League and Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women’s Hockey League played outdoors at Gillette Stadium as part of the N.H.L.’s Winter Classic festivities. The teams tied, 1-1, in a fast-paced contest. But an event that was already heavily scrutinized for its structure received another setback when a player was injured on ice conditions that had been questioned earlier in the day. Late in the first period, Denna Laing stepped on a stick and lost her footing as she went crashing into the boards, according to Pride Coach Bobby Jay. Replays were unavailable, since the game was not broadcast live. After about 10 minutes, Laing was placed on a stretcher, taken off the ice and transported to Massachusetts General Hospital, nearly 30 miles away. Before the women’s game, the Montreal Canadiens and the Boston Bruins practiced for Friday’s N.H.L. Winter Classic, and some players saw slushy and dangerous patches of ice. Laing’s injury occurred behind the net on an end of the rink where the sun was shining for much of the afternoon. After the game, Patrick Burke, the N.H.L. director of player safety, said that Dan Craig, a league official who oversaw the playing surface, had said the ice was fine. The injury was a somber moment in a game that was intended to be a landmark, but at times was overshadowed by planning snafus. After a report surfaced on Dec. 5 that an outdoor women’s hockey game was going to take place the day before the Winter Classic, the organizers said nothing until the N.H.L. officially announced the game on Monday. Image Denna Laing after sustaining an injury in the game. Credit Maddie Meyer/Getty Images During the silence, fans and even players were unsure of the details and baffled at how a formative opportunity might slip away. Sponsorship debates and fractures between influential hockey organizations were clouding negotiations and adding to the worry. “It’s super frustrating,” Pride forward Rachel Llanes said on Sunday before the official announcement. “I mean, not being informed pretty much about it, we’re getting informed last second with things, we don’t know the answers to our questions. We’re not trying to blame anyone, because no one knows anything and the N.H.L. hasn’t even released anything about it, so it’s just frustrating to hear it from the grapevines what’s going to happen.” After the Pride’s lone practice for the game on Wednesday, Jay said the players were realizing that business decisions occasionally outweigh hockey decisions. “Now that you’re a professional, you’re going to start to see the business side of it — it’s not always the prettiest side,” Jay said. “They’re going through it for the first time, some of these things; they kind of can be pawns sometimes.” Those business decisions included no streaming or television options, even though other events throughout the day, including the N.H.L.’s alumni game, were broadcast live. At times, the day felt like a full-fledged marquee event, except for the women’s game. Parking at Gillette Stadium cost $50. The pregame festivities for the alumni game lasted almost as long as the women’s game, which included two 15-minute periods played on a running clock. The alumni game was allowed an overtime shootout when their contest finished tied after regulation. During the women’s game, the N.H.L.’s official Twitter and Facebook pages did not provide any original content about it. Still, many players were just thankful for Thursday’s stage. “To be a part of such a historic moment for us, to partner with the N.H.L., I think it’s something that we don’t take for granted and we’re going to really appreciate this moment,” Canadiennes forward Julie Chu said. Chu, a former United States Olympian, hugged Pride players after the game. C.W.H.L. Commissioner Brenda Andress and N.W.H.L. Commissioner Dani Rylan took photographs together before the game. The two leagues have never declared themselves rivals, but they have had a less than amicable relationship since the N.W.H.L. formed last March and became the first major North American women’s hockey league to pay its players. The C.W.H.L., in its ninth season, does not pay its players, and it lost several top American players to the N.W.H.L. this season. Both leagues field premier talent — N.C.A.A. stars and members of the United States national team buoy the N.W.H.L., while the C.W.H.L. is led by players from the defending Olympic champion Canadian national team. Earlier this week, Andress said in a phone interview that she believed more collaboration was necessary to grow the sport. The game lost some luster because of the absence of members of the Pride who had a previous commitment to a United States national team training camp, including stars like Hilary Knight, Brianna Decker and Kacey Bellamy. Laing was one of eight players selected from the Pride practice squad or other N.W.H.L. teams as a replacement. In an interview with the Yahoo blog Puck Daddy, Burke said that U.S.A. Hockey had declined to let its players out for an exhibition. Earlier this month, U.S.A. Hockey did not respond to an email for comment. Llanes said that despite the advent of two viable professional women’s hockey leagues, U.S.A. Hockey retained overwhelming influence over the sport’s future. “Unfortunately, that’s women’s hockey right now,” Llanes said. “I think top priority for anyone in the women’s game is the Olympic team, whether it’s U.S.A. or Canada.” She added, “I don’t think we’re all on the same page right now at different levels of the game.” Earlier this month, the United States women’s national soccer team successfully protested against playing on unfit field conditions, taking a stand against U.S. Soccer, which, like U.S.A. Hockey, is the commanding presence in the sport. It is debatable whether playing in an exhibition game is currently worth losing a roster spot on a national team, but those involved in the Outdoor Women’s Classic hoped that the event was a step toward bringing women’s professional hockey on equal footing. “As it goes, the women will understand that they have some leverage,” Jay said. “They have to look out for themselves. You have to make sure you’re doing what’s best for yourself. I just think they got put in the middle and didn’t really have much — it’s a tough choice. “Off the ice, there are business aspects that are a little bit out of your control, and money’s a factor and sometimes political reasons that things don’t always go your way and you’re going to have to learn how to manage those, too.”

Boston Pride
Les Canadiennes
Denna Laing
Ice hockey
Canadian Women's Hockey League
National Women's Hockey League


As N.F.L. Talks Go On, Union Adjusts Its Schedule

Abstract: The N.F.L. and its players union met for nearly eight hours Tuesday, the fifth of seven scheduled days of negotiations with a federal mediator. With talks scheduled to continue until at least Thursday, the union called off a previously scheduled briefing with a small group of influential agents it had planned for Thursday. Instead, union leaders will update all player agents at a mandatory meeting Friday in Indianapolis during the scouting combine. That may be the first widespread indication about the direction of talks in the last week and whether there is hope for a new deal to be reached before the current collective bargaining agreement expires March 3. The talks have been conducted under a news media blackout requested by the mediator, George Cohen, after representatives of the owners and the players traded public barbs and leaked details of previous meetings. The recent meetings have included small contingents of representatives from both sides, with only a handful of players and no owners in attendance. Also on Thursday, oral arguments will be heard in a Minneapolis federal courtroom in a case in which the union alleges that the N.F.L. improperly negotiated television contracts when it built in provisions to allow the league to receive money even if no games are played. That money would eventually have to be repaid, but the union contends that the N.F.L. did not exact all the revenue it could have from those contracts in exchange for what the union has called lockout insurance. A special master earlier ruled largely in favor of the N.F.L., and the union appealed to the federal court. A ruling in the union’s favor would increase its leverage because owners would not have access to billions of dollars during a potential lockout. SAINTS CUT SHOCKEY The New Orleans Saints released tight end Jeremy Shockey, whom they acquired from the Giants in 2008, after his least productive season . He caught 41 passes for 408 yards, both career lows. (AP) BRONCOS RE-SIGN BAILEY The Denver Broncos signed cornerback Champ Bailey to a four-year contract, keeping him off the free-agent market. Denver pulled a four-year deal worth more than $40 million off the table in October but reopened talks this month. (AP) JETS RAISE LICENSE PRICES The Jets announced a 2.3 percent across-the-board increase on personal seat license ticket prices, with general P.S.L. seats going up $5 a ticket and increases for the 10,000 club P.S.L. seats based on location. Last season, the tickets cost $195 to $700. Upper-level, non-P.S.L. seat prices are unchanged. (AP)

Lockouts
Football
National Football League


Family of Akai Gurley, Man Fatally Shot by Officer in Brooklyn, Sues New York City

Abstract: The family of Akai Gurley, the unarmed man shot and killed in a Brooklyn housing-project stairwell by a police officer last year, has filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against New York City. The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, names the police officer, Peter Liang; the officer’s partner at the time, Shaun Landau; the New York City Housing Authority, which runs the public housing system; and the New York Police Department, along with the city. Kimberly Ballinger, the domestic partner of Mr. Gurley, brought the lawsuit on behalf of his estate and their 2-year-old daughter, Akaila Gurley. In November, Officer Liang shot Mr. Gurley, 28, while he and his partner were on a patrol at the Louis H. Pink Houses in the East New York neighborhood. Mr. Gurley and his girlfriend had just entered the darkened staircase on the seventh floor when the two officers entered the eighth-floor stairwell after inspecting the roof. Officer Liang, who had been on the job less than 18 months, unintentionally fired one shot that fatally struck Mr. Gurley in the chest. Officer Liang was indicted in February on several charges, including second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Ms. Ballinger’s lawsuit claims that Mr. Liang shot Mr. Gurley “without reason or provocation” and “negligently and recklessly.” Image Inside the stairwell in the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, where Mr. Gurley was shot. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times It also says that the housing authority “created a hazardous and traplike condition” by failing to provide adequate lighting in the staircases. Additionally, the suit charges that the officers did not perform or request medical aid after the shooting. And it says that the city was negligent “in training, hiring, supervision and retention of the police officers involved in this incident” and on training officers on “the use and abuse of power while in the field.” Ms. Ballinger’s lawyer, Scott Rynecki, said at a news conference on Thursday that the officers had been told to no longer conduct so-called vertical patrols , but were doing so anyway. He added that Mr. Liang had drawn his gun, and that “there was no reason or provocation for having a weapon out of a holster and in the hand.” Mr. Rynecki said he hoped the lawsuit would lead to some changes, like the city’s hiring an independent auditor to review the training on how officers handle their weapons while on patrol. “This incident was tragic, and we will review the complaint,” said Nicholas Paolucci, a spokesman for the city’s Law Department. Ms. Ballinger said that “it’s very hard and difficult to not have Akai in the home,” adding that Akaila asks about her father every day. “I will be in court every time to make sure that justice for him is kept, that justice for him is received,” Ms. Ballinger said.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


Pakistan and Taliban Appear Near Deal

Abstract: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Government officials and Taliban militants appeared to be near a deal Sunday on the violent Swat region of northern Pakistan, where the militants declared a unilateral 10-day cease-fire and the government indicated it was willing to accept the imposition of Islamic law. Any formal truce would be a major concession by the government, which, despite a military operation in Swat involving 12,000 Pakistani Army troops, has been losing ground to a Taliban force of about 3,000 fighters. The militants have kept a stranglehold on the area for months, killing local police officers and officials and punishing residents who do not adhere to strict Islamic tenets. High-level talks on Taliban demands for Shariah law in Swat and the surrounding region were to continue on Monday in Islamabad, Pakistan, involving President Asif Ali Zardari ; the army chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani ; and senior local officials. But on Sunday, a prominent regional official, Mian Iftikhar Hussain, said that there was already an agreement in principle. The Taliban made several gestures on Sunday that appeared to be aimed at moving the deal along, including declaring a 10-day cease-fire with government troops in Swat. A militant spokesman there, Muslim Khan, said the move was made out of good will and told reporters that “our fighters will neither target security forces nor government installations.” But he insisted that the militants would fight back if attacked. Earlier, Mr. Khan said that the Taliban had released a Chinese engineer, Long Xiaowei, who had been held hostage since August, The Associated Press reported. Previous attempts at truces in the region have fallen apart, most notably last May. And the United States has strongly opposed making political concessions to the Taliban, urging Mr. Zardari’s government to fight more vigorously. That appeared to happen last summer, when the army began an offensive in Swat. But the move quickly stalled, with troops reduced mostly to remotely shelling suspected Taliban sites and the militants effectively imposing their authority throughout the region. Since then, Taliban leaders have proscribed what they call un-Islamic activities by residents, including watching television, dancing and shaving beards, and they have sometimes beheaded offenders. The penalties are regularly, and terrifyingly, announced over radio stations under the militants’ control. Tens of thousands of residents of the area, which was once a popular tourist spot and considered a mainstream part of the country, have fled the intimidation and violence. It was unclear what any formal truce would include, and the government had recently said that it was not planning to withdraw troops from Swat. Mr. Hussain played down the significance of a formal acceptance of Shariah law in the area, saying that it would be mostly a technical agreement. “We are not enacting any new law,” he said. “The regulation already exists and is enforced in Swat, but the mechanism to enforce it is missing. We are only providing for an increase in the number of judges and setting a time frame for the disposal of cases.”

Pakistan
Taliban
Islam
Shariah (Islamic Law)
Swat (Pakistan)
Politics and Government
Zardari Asif Ali
Kayani Ashfaq Parvez


Court in Pakistan Muzzles Disgraced Nuclear Scientist

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An Islamabad court on Monday barred the disgraced scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan from giving interviews about the illicit nuclear network he once confessed to running, but eased some of the restrictions he has been under since President Pervez Musharraf placed him under house arrest in 2004. Public pressure to release Dr. Khan from house arrest has increased since a new, more nationalistic government took power a few months ago, eclipsing the power of Mr. Musharraf. Dr. Khan, 72 and revered by Pakistanis as the father of their nuclear program, has added to the pressure, giving interviews to Western news organizations in which he said he was innocent and had been coerced into confessing. The military has denied the coercion accusation. Early this month, in a telephone interview with The Associated Press, Dr. Khan said that Pakistan gave centrifuges to North Korea in a 2000 shipment supervised by the army, and that it must therefore have gone with the consent of Mr. Musharraf, who was then both president and army chief. The court ruling in Islamabad eased travel restrictions on Dr. Khan within Pakistan, and allowed him to undertake research and to choose a doctor for medical treatment, his lawyer said. Investigators found evidence that Dr. Khan’s network sold uranium enrichment technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. More recently, the investigators found signs that the Khan network was trafficking in a tested, compact and efficient bomb design that could significantly shorten the time needed to build a weapon and could be delivered by many existing missiles, like Iran’s Shahab-3. Henny Khan, Dr. Khan’s wife, expressed dissatisfaction with the court’s order. “We are not very happy,” she said. “My first impression of the order is that we are still hand-tied and gagged.” While denying speculation that the government and Dr. Khan had tried to reach a compromise, Mrs. Khan said the order “just showed how much the government had to hide. It is too afraid.”

Pakistan
Khan Abdul Qadeer
Atomic Weapons
Armament Defense and Military Forces
Decisions and Verdicts
Musharraf Pervez


U.S. Cuts Estimate of Sugar Intake of Typical American

Abstract: It was repeated so often it was accepted as true: the typical American consumed 95 to 100 pounds of sugar each year. Health experts said that consumption was surely contributing to a nationwide crisis of obesity . But in a move that has largely gone unnoticed, the Agriculture Department, keeper of the statistics on America’s sweet tooth, has employed new methodology that overnight shaved 20 pounds off its estimate and brought the number down to a precise 76.7 pounds. The decision raises questions about the entire notion of per-capita consumption just as the battles over sugar and sweeteners reach a peak. “There’s such an implication of precision and accuracy in that decimal point — boy, we’ve got this nailed now,” said Michael F. Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest. “But when you take a good look, it’s built on a foundation of sand.” Jean C. Buzby, the agricultural economist who headed the department’s team responsible for the data that led to the revision in sugar consumption, agreed that it was far from perfect but said it was better than what was used in the past. She pointed to the note on each page of the government’s data that labeled them “first estimates” that “are intended to serve as a starting point for additional research and discussion.” Few people are aware of the change, which quietly occurred two months ago. Dr. Jacobson stumbled across it recently while working on a project on sugar consumption. He takes issue with the new methodology and contends it could be a setback in the push for healthy eating. Suggestions that sugar consumption is down, or dropping, could take some pressure off companies that make sugary foods, for example. In e-mails the center obtained through a Freedom of Information request, officials at sugar industry trade groups discussed the benefits of the lower estimate and how they might persuade the U.S.D.A. to make a change that would reduce it even more. “We perceive it to be in our interest to see as low a per-capita sweetener consumption estimate as possible,” Jack Roney, director of economics and policy analysis at the American Sugar Alliance, wrote in an e-mail on March 30, 2011. Mr. Roney said in a telephone interview that he was pleased to have “more accurate” information about sugar consumption available. “The extent to which caloric sweeteners are in the public’s eye as a possible source or cause of increasing obesity in this country is huge,” he said. “If folks are assuming there is much greater consumption than there really is, then we are misleading the public unnecessarily.” Estimating sugar consumption is a tricky proposition, fraught with potential for misjudgments. It is based loosely on an educated guess at how much of various sweetener-laden foods that consumers buy is actually eaten, versus how much is thrown away. “It is difficult to obtain nationally representative estimates of consumer-level food loss,” Dr. Buzby wrote in an e-mail. There had long been a sense that the estimates the department was using failed to capture all of the loss that was occurring, Dr. Buzby said. Five years ago, just as debate over sugar use was heating up, the U.S.D.A. began an overhaul of what it called “consumer-level food-loss estimates.” It hired RTI International, a nonprofit consulting firm, to help it come up with new loss estimates more firmly anchored in data. Mary K. Muth, director of food and nutrition policy research at RTI, said she had used data from the Nielsen Company’s Homescan surveys of consumer food purchases and interviews done for the Centers for Disease Control’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey to come up with the new loss estimates for sugar and sweeteners. “It’s an improvement over how it was done before but an incremental one, and surely more work can be done,” Dr. Muth said. In all, RTI’s revisions called for higher loss estimates for 84 foods and lower losses of 54, while leaving a handful unchanged. In some cases, the change in loss estimates was drastic. RTI estimated, for example that 69 percent of fresh pumpkins are lost at the consumer level compared with the old estimate of 20 percent. A report on the changes written by Dr. Muth, Dr. Buzby and others concluded more pumpkins were being used for decorations and subsequently discarded. Conversely, RTI estimated that 15 percent of meat and poultry is lost today because so many of those products are sold boneless, trimmed lean and stored in conditions that preserve them longer. The previous estimate was 40 percent. The firm’s new estimated loss for cane and beet sugar is 34 percent, compared with the old estimate of 20 percent — although Dr. Muth and Dr. Buzby said it was improper to make such comparisons because of changes in methodology. The new estimate includes the amount of sugar consumers reported in the C.D.C.’s survey that they had eaten, by, say, stirring it into coffee or sprinkling it on oatmeal and experts’ estimates of how much sugar was used in food products — and subsequently discarded. “The new estimate is still relying heavily on experts making what seem to me to be largely guesses,” Dr. Jacobson said. “Other than the 4 percent they’re getting” from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, “what do they really know for certain?” The experts themselves have trouble remembering what they suggested. Park Wilde, associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, served on the RTI panel, which met in 2008. He said by e-mail that he recalled little of what happened; too much time had passed. “I can’t recall ever estimating or offering an expert opinion on loss rates for sweetener categories,” Dr. Wilde wrote. Similarly, Helen H. Jensen, a professor of economics at Iowa State University, said her memory of the panel’s discussions was dim. She said she did not recall whether the panel had addressed estimates of sugar and sweetener use. “I don’t remember that we (as the external group) addressed the sugar/sweetener estimates separately on that project,” she wrote in an e-mail. “It is a difficult sector to track. There are a lot of sweeteners that go into baked goods and pastries,” for example, that are thrown out as stale, discarded from food service, etc.).” Dr. Muth and Dr. Buzby said they had hoped more people would offer suggestions on the report, which was open for comment from January to April 2011. “We were relying on archaeological methods, which are pretty challenging,” Dr. Muth said. “I wish there had been more feedback because that perhaps would have given us some ideas about how to make improvements.” Although the report was viewed more than a thousand times, only two comments came in, Dr. Buzby said. One pointed out a misplaced decimal point — “We corrected this,” Dr. Buzby wrote — and the other comment was from “some people in the sugar industry.” The industry wanted to see the loss estimates increased for high fructose corn syrup, glucose and dextrose, which are sweeteners used in processed foods. “If they surrender to our reasoning,” Mr. Roney wrote, it was possible high fructose corn syrup consumption estimates “could dip and the total sweeteners estimate would drop even further.” The sugar industry argued that the loss estimates for high fructose corn syrup, glucose and dextrose should match those of sugar since they are used in much the same way as an ingredient. The U.S.D.A. agreed with that, the industry’s reasoning, Dr. Buzby wrote. The effect was to increase the amount of sweeteners lost, further reducing the amount eaten, from 88 pounds to 76.7 pounds, according to Mr. Roney’s e-mail. “I don’t disagree that high fructose corn syrup and the rest shouldn’t be looked at the same way as conventional sugar,” Dr. Jacobson said. “My objection is more fundamental — that they are just picking numbers, 20 percent, 17 percent, 34 percent, and giving them an authority that they don’t really have.”

Sugar
Agriculture Department
Artificial Sweeteners
Corn Syrup and Sweeteners
Diet and Nutrition
United States
Buzby Jean C
Muth Mary K


As Winds Ease, a Los Angeles Fire Is Fully Contained

Abstract: LOS ANGELES (AP) — A wildfire in northern Los Angeles that destroyed 15 homes and dozens of buildings has been surrounded. State and local fire officials said Saturday that the blaze in the San Fernando Valley had been completely contained. They could not say exactly when the nearly 30-square-mile fire would be put out. Roads were reopened, and evacuation orders for some neighborhoods were lifted. The fire, which broke out on Monday when harsh Santa Ana winds knocked a power line onto dry brush, has cost more than $12 million to fight. The blaze was one of two last week only a few miles apart in the San Fernando Valley. The other fire, which destroyed about 40 homes and left two people dead, was contained Thursday. The Santa Anas, which have fanned the wildfires with hot, dry winds, have diminished, but weather remained a concern because of low humidity.

Los Angeles (Calif)
Forest and Brush Fires


In Campus Shadow, Ohio State Closes In on a National Title

Abstract: CARY, N.C. — More than 105,000 fans attended Ohio State ’s first football game of the season Sept. 1, a slightly larger gathering than the Buckeyes’ men’s soccer team attracted Aug. 31 for its opener. That match drew 519. Such is the pecking order in Columbus. But Ohio State fans desperate to finally celebrate a national championship do not have to rest all of their hopes on the football team’s meeting with Louisiana State in the Bowl Championship Series title game on Jan. 7. The soccer program just may beat the football team to a championship. Ohio State’s soccer program will have a chance to make a name for itself around the country — and on its own campus — when the Buckeyes face Wake Forest on Sunday in the College Cup championship match at SAS Soccer Park outside Raleigh, N.C. It is the first appearance in the final for both teams, although it is hardly a stretch to see Wake Forest there. The Demon Deacons (21-2-2), seeded No. 2, were semifinalists last year and were ranked No. 1 through much of the season. Ohio State (17-3-5), the No. 5 seed, was not even ranked at the start of the season. This is the latest step in the long process of building a program worthy of national and local attention. “There’s no question that football and basketball are the headline sports,” Coach John Bluem said after practice Saturday. “And they’re driving the train that pulls the rest of us along with them and it’s great to be at a university that has such successful programs like that because financially, it makes it more comfortable and you can be well supported like we are.” There is no doubt that financial support is part of the reason Ohio State’s soccer program has improved. “We have tried to raise the standard of Ohio State soccer,” Bluem said. “In this decade, we’ve enjoyed quite a bit of success and this stage now, making it to the national championship game, has brought us to a new level.” A year ago, while the Demon Deacons were working their way to the College Cup, Ohio State was stewing after being left out of the N.C.A.A. tournament field. The Buckeyes had gathered to watch the announcement of the field, only to find out they had not been invited. “We had thought we definitely had a very good chance, we should be in,” goalkeeper Casey Latchem said. “After we saw the drawing, we were like, ‘Is that it? Is that what’s going to happen?’ The worst part about it for me was realizing our senior class didn’t get to play another game. As for me and the rest of the guys, it was total motivation for the next year and kept that in the forefront of our mind during winter training and spring season to really come out and prove ourselves.” Ohio State climbed into the rankings with a season-opening victory against No. 13 West Virginia, but briefly dropped out after falling to Wisconsin-Green Bay in overtime in September. It was the kick Ohio State needed. “That loss kind of sparked us to the run we’re having now,” defender Eric Brunner said. The Buckeyes have not lost since that match, running the unbeaten streak to 15 games (12-0-3) with a 1-0 victory against Massachusetts in the semifinals Friday. Now they have a chance to do what the Ohio State football and men’s basketball teams failed to accomplish earlier this year. The football team lost to Florida in January in the Bowl Championship Series title game, then the basketball team fell to the Gators in the N.C.A.A. tournament final in April. Maybe if the Buckeyes beat Wake Forest, people in Columbus will notice. “We want to be a part of it,” said Latchem, who had a team-record 14 shutouts this season. “We want to be able to prove ourselves. Yes, football in Ohio at Ohio State is the biggest thing. We just want to be on the same map as a great team and one that contributes to the stature of Ohio State University.”

Soccer
Ohio State University
College Athletics
Wake Forest University
Columbus (Ohio)
Athletics and Sports


As Orthodox Population Grows, So Do Tensions

Abstract: LAKEWOOD, N.J. — A fault line runs through Dr. Martin Luther King Drive in Lakewood, dividing the black families that have lived here for years, many in run-down apartment complexes at one end of the street, from their new neighbors, the Orthodox Jewish families who mostly occupy a row of two-story houses on the other side. The black families are slowly leaving this street, and the Orthodox Jewish families are moving in. Their lives barely intersect, though it is barely half a mile from one end of the drive to the other. Motti Schwartz, a 26-year-old student at a large yeshiva here, rents an apartment on King Drive. “You come into a neighborhood that’s not really yours,” he said. “I think there’s probably a lot of animosity.” Ronald Daye, who is black, lived in one of the apartment complexes but recently moved to another town. “There’s jealousy because they stick together,” he said, referring to the Orthodox Jews. “We all want our own schools. This town has too many people, and there will be problems.” The problems, many people say, are already here. Black residents charge that new housing is being built only for Orthodox Jews, who, they say, are pushing black residents out and taking over the town. Members of the Jewish community say such accusations sometimes cloak anti-Semitic sentiments. The tension has played out in a series of violent episodes over the last two years that have laid bare the strains in this town of 73,000 near the Jersey Shore. In 2006, a black teenager and an Orthodox Jewish teacher got into a fight in an alley behind a synagogue, and the teacher’s trial on assault charges still divides the town into angry camps. In October, another Jewish teacher was beaten with a bat by a black man with a history of mental illness. Last month, there was another beating: a 14-year-old Orthodox Jewish boy was attacked by what he described as a gang of black and white teenagers. The attackers, the boy said, used the word “Jew.” Lakewood reported 41 bias crimes to state authorities in 2005 and 26 in 2006, more than any other town in Ocean County. But officials say that this, in part, reflects Lakewood’s greater diversity, and no one believes that the relations between Lakewood’s black and Jewish residents have sunk to the depths that contributed to the 1991 riots in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. Still, interviews with people living in the town suggest that black and Jewish relations are, for the most part, locked in a deep misunderstanding because of cultural differences, economic disparities, or complaints by some members of each group about unequal treatment by the town’s authorities. “This is a divided town,” said Steve Sanders, who raked leaves on a recent afternoon at the home of his boss, an Orthodox Jew. Mr. Sanders, who is white, said he moved to Lakewood a year ago. Now, he said, he is considering moving to Freehold, N.J. “It’s not segregated there,” he said. There is a familiar ring to Lakewood’s story: One group arrives, another leaves, and in the upheaval, sparks fly. But town officials say that the changes here have been so rapid that they are struggling to keep up. The town’s population has almost doubled since 1990 — the 2006 census put the population at 73,000 but town officials say that figure is low — and much of that growth has been in the insular, strictly Orthodox Jewish community, which has increased to an estimated 40,000 people, up from about 18,000 in 1995. Thousands of Hispanic immigrants have also moved to Lakewood in the last five years, township officials said. Many Orthodox Jews have been drawn to Lakewood by the prestige of the town’s yeshiva, Beth Medrash Govoha, one of the largest rabbinical colleges in the world. The yeshiva was founded in 1943 by a Polish-born rabbi, Aaron Kotler. In 1962, when Rabbi Kotler died, the school had 250 students. It now has about 5,000. The wider yeshiva community includes more than a hundred temples, and about 50 schools. Large homes are sprouting everywhere. One development, called West Gate, will have room for 900 families when it is completed, along with its own shopping mall with businesses including Sinai Dental and Kosher West, a supermarket. The Jewish community has also vigorously participated in local politics. Last year, Meir Lichtenstein became the town’s first Orthodox mayor. The majority of the school board members are Orthodox Jews. Lakewood was a once a popular resort town, a winter retreat for wealthy New Yorkers on the edge of the Pine Barrens, and later, home to dozens of poultry farms. Many Jewish residents said they were drawn by the town’s bucolic character. “The air is so good here,” said Orly Helwani, standing in the hallway of her house on King Drive. “There was too much action in Brooklyn.” Some black residents say that the growing Orthodox population is displacing other groups. But town officials, including some black leaders, say the complaints ring hollow: Many long-term residents are selling their homes to developers or Orthodox families, often at a substantial profit. Black residents — who made up about 13 percent of the population in 2000, and about 9 percent now — are leaving every year and moving to other towns in Ocean County or to the South, leaders of the community say. Last year, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the owner of a Lakewood apartment complex, charging discrimination against black and Hispanic tenants in favor of Jewish ones. The case is still pending. And the increasing presence of Orthodox Jews in leadership positions — a point of pride for the Jewish community — is resented by some black residents. “People don’t think the town is being run fairly,” said the Rev. Thomas E. Simpson Sr., the pastor at the Intercessory Tabernacle Ministries, a black church. There have been fights about the administration of the school system. Orthodox Jewish students attend private schools, but are eligible for millions of dollars of public money for busing, according to the town’s current mayor, Ray Coles. Black residents have complained that decisions about public schools attended largely by black and Hispanic students are made by a school board where 5 of the 9 members are Orthodox Jews. Warren A. Sherard, the head of the local N.A.A.C.P. branch, said he had tried to get black residents more invested in the politics of the town. “I went to churches and told people, ‘We need to vote in school board elections,’ ” he said. “I know people want to throw stones, but everyone’s got to vote.” Similar resentment festers among the Orthodox Jews: In interviews, some said housing inspectors were overzealous in citing violations in Orthodox homes, and others accused the police of singling out Jews at times for minor infractions. Rabbi Moshe Zev Weisberg, who runs a local social service agency and is a member of the Vaad, a council of Orthodox leaders, said members of his community were especially hurt by talk of Jews taking over Lakewood. The recent episodes of violence have left scars on both sides. Some black residents say it was unfair that the Jewish teacher’s fight with the black teenager, Jamarr Dickerson, was not officially termed a bias crime. While finding the teacher, Elchonon Zimmerman, not guilty of assault, a judge scolded him for singling out the teenager because he was black. The two incidents involving attacks on Jews — the beating of Rabbi Mordechai Moskowitz, and the assault on a Jewish teenager, who has not been identified by officials — have reverberated in Jewish homes. “The beating of Rabbi Moskowitz was talked about at each and every dinner table,” said one Jewish resident. Rabbi Weisberg, Mr. Sherard and town officials say they are working to help everyone get along, and, they say, they have already made great strides in nurturing tolerance. At a monthly “dialogue” meeting, for example, representatives of the black, Orthodox Jewish and Hispanic communities try to work out problems. Orthodox Jewish voters helped elect a black school board member. Rabbi Moskowitz has been visiting Jewish schools and talking to students about improving relations with the black community. And the town has given its blessing to a nighttime civilian car patrol, to be staffed by blacks, Jews and Hispanics. “These might just be the growing pains of every town,” Rabbi Weisberg said. “What bothers me is when each community retreats to itself, and there is a siege mentality. The goal is to be fully integrated.”


For Leonard, It’s All About Fairways, Greens and Rock ’n’ Roll

Abstract: LA QUINTA, Calif. — A fair wind blew across Justin Leonard ’s left shoulder in the second round of the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic on Thursday, and like any great Texas golfer he knew just what to do with it. Standing on the 15th tee at La Quinta Country Club, a 3-iron in one hand and a share of the tournament lead in the other, Leonard gauged the breezes gusting through the tall palms and pierced them with a textbook shot that stopped 4 feet from the hole, 209 yards away. He made the putt for a birdie and added two more at Nos. 17 and 18 to close out a round of 64 that vaulted him into third place at 12 under par — a stroke behind the leaders, D. J. Trahan (64-131) and Robert Gamez (65-131), in the 90-hole Bob Hope marathon. For Leonard, 37, it was another breath of fresh air in a surge that began late last season with his victory at the Valero Texas Open. He is picking up where he left off last year, with a jump from No. 161 on the money list to No. 33 in a five-tournament span in which he broke par in 16 of his 20 tournament rounds. He started this season with a tie for eighth place at the Mercedes Championship and he is now in the hunt at the same tournament he won in 2005. “I always enjoy coming to the Hope,” Leonard said. “It’s a great place early in the year to get some of the rust off, and it’s really a relaxed atmosphere.” Proving once again how deceiving appearances can be, the serious, sometimes-stoic and always meticulous Leonard would seem to be the last player to enjoy an atmosphere that tends toward chaotic. Some professionals would rather shake hands with a rattlesnake then play in a field with 384 amateurs, some with suspect handicaps, flailing away on four golf courses for four of the five days. The buttoned-down Leonard sort of digs it. In a foursome that included the shock-rocker Alice Cooper, the veteran rocker Meat Loaf and a LaQuinta member, Skeeter Holt, Leonard may have looked a little out of place, but he did not feel like it. “Alice is really a nice guy and very laid-back; he’s a good golfer,” Leonard said. “Meat Loaf couldn’t be a sweeter guy. And Skeeter, I think he has played in 25 Bob Hope Chrysler Classics and I think he did hit just about every fairway and a bunch of greens today, and he was fun to watch. “So, just a lot of good karma going with our group today.” Leonard’s overall golf karma has improved markedly since he reunited with Randy Smith, his longtime teacher, last season after not winning in 2006. At 5 feet 9 inches and 170 pounds, Leonard has always relied on superior shot making and an airtight short game to overcome his lack of length off the tee. When his ball striking became a little loose during the 2006 season, and he tumbled to 109th on the money list, he decided to go back to what has worked for him throughout his career. The results were evident during his round Thursday. With the exception of one loose iron shot at No. 12, a par 3, which he parred, and one mediocre chip shot after missing the green at No. 14, which resulted in a bogey, Leonard sailed through the day with nine birdies. He hit a wedge within 6 feet at the second hole, birdied the fourth hole with a 6-iron to about 6 feet, hit a wedge to a foot at No. 5, made 20-footers at the sixth and the 10th holes, two-putted from 25 feet at No. 13, a par 5, and finished with a flourish at the 17th and 18th with 7-iron shots to 3 feet and 10 feet. “I’m very excited about this year,” he said. “My whole goal in the off-season was to try to carry over the momentum from last year, and so far I’ve been able to do that.” As Leonard was waiting to hit his drive at No. 18, a fan leaned across the ropes and said: “How about you win another one of these this week and then another Open Championship? How does that sound?” Leonard, whose only major championship was at the 1997 British Open at Troon, turned his head toward the man and said, “That sounds real good to me.”

Golf
Leonard Justin
Hope Bob
Chrysler LLC


For Youngest Veterans, the Bleakest of Job Prospects

Abstract: COLUMBUS, Ohio — In Afghanistan , Cpl. Clayton Rhoden earned about $2,500 a month jumping into helicopters to chase down improvised explosive devices or check out suspected bomb factories. Now he lives with his parents, sells his blood plasma for $80 a week and works what extra duty he can get for his Marine Corps Reserve unit. Corporal Rhoden, who is 25, gawky and polite with a passion for soldiering, is one of the legions of veterans who served in combat yet have a harder time finding work than other people their age, a situation that officials say will grow worse as the United States completes its pullout of Iraq and as, by a White House estimate, a million new veterans join the work force over the next five years. Veterans’ joblessness is concentrated among the young and those still serving in the National Guard or Reserve. The unemployment rate for veterans aged 20 to 24 has averaged 30 percent this year, more than double that of others the same age, though the rate for older veterans closely matches that of civilians. Reservists like Corporal Rhoden have a bleak outlook as well. In July 2010, their unemployment rate was 21 percent, compared with 12 percent for other vets. “There’s been an upsurge in young people going into the military and not staying for a full 20-year career,” said Jane Oates, the assistant secretary for employment and training at the Labor Department, which has worked to improve the three-day transition assistance program for outgoing soldiers and enlisted companies like Facebook to reach them. “I think transitions have been difficult, with too few jobs out there and lack of clarity about what the employer wants.” The employment gap cannot be explained by a simple factor like lack of a college degree — despite their discipline and training, young veterans fare worse in the job market than their peers without degrees. Employers and veterans seem to view each other as alien species. Managers, few of whom have military experience themselves, may fear the aftereffects of combat or losing reservists to another deployment. They may have difficulty understanding how military accomplishments translate to the civilian world. Young veterans, whose work history may consist entirely of military service, often need to learn basics like what to wear to a job interview. More important, many say, they are overwhelmed by the transition from combat to civilian life. “It’s shell shock for a lot of them, going from such a structured lifestyle to a lifestyle that’s got so many variables,” said Daniel Hutchison, 29, who uses his own combat disability check to finance a shoestring transition assistance group, Ohio Combat Veterans. “They’re dealing with all the emotional things they went through, and they feel like they’re alone.” The Obama administration has championed veterans’ maturity, management skills and even their promptness. Employers have jumped on the bandwagon, and large companies like JPMorgan Chase and Verizon have signed a pledge to hire a total of 100,000 veterans by 2020. More than 220,000 veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan are out of work. Over a decade of war, the requirement that companies restore reservists to their old jobs has placed a heavy burden on businesses, said Ted Daywalt, who runs VetJobs.com in Georgia . “Nearly 65 to 70 percent of employers will not now hire National Guard and Reserve,” he said. “They can’t run their business with someone being taken away for 12 months.” Though employers typically ask about military service and status on job applications, it is illegal to discriminate based on that information. Corporal Rhoden said his reserve duties had interfered with one job to the point that he quit. “I’ve tried restaurants, shipping facilities, construction, snow removal businesses, landscaping — pretty much anything that you don’t need a college degree to do,” he said. Veterans have been coached to write résumés that emphasize leadership skills instead of “the killing or capture of 350 Al-Qaeda associates,” raising some skepticism. “I’m not necessarily convinced that they have great marketable skills,” said Rachel Feldstein, the associate director of New Directions, which offers drug rehabilitation, job training and other services to veterans in San Diego . “If you train someone to be a sniper, those are not necessarily skills that are transferable.” Young veterans face stiff competition for the jobs that fit them best, like policing. In Columbus, Dustin Szarell, 30, said he was passed over for work in the Akron Fire Department and as a juvenile corrections officer in favor of candidates who had experience in those fields. The Obama administration has stepped up hiring of veterans, adding more than 85,000 to the government payroll since the 2008 fiscal year. On Saturday, President Obama praised returning veterans and said “it is time to enlist our veterans and all our people in the work of rebuilding America.” The administration is trying to shape a “career-ready military” whose medics and electricians can more easily attain the licenses they need to work as civilians. As of October, the G.I. Bill that pays for college can also be used for vocational training or apprenticeships. But many young vets are still working through the aftermath of combat. In interviews, some veterans said employers overestimated these problems. “They have this misconception that we’re all struggling from P.T.S.D. in its most severe form, we’re all going to rage out,” said Sgt. Kobby Nyen, 25, a Marine reservist and student. “Even a Marine with P.T.S.D. has discipline.” But others acknowledged that coping was an issue. “I don’t know who in their right mind would want to hire me when I got back from Afghanistan, because I was a disaster,” said Jeff Mancino, 24, who is now studying to become a psychologist. “I was 22 and I had to go to rehab — what kind of 22-year-old does that?” Often, the veterans Mr. Hutchison of Ohio Combat Veterans sees need much more than a job. Recently, he traveled 50 miles to Logan, Ohio, to meet Ethan Tomblin-Brooks, 24, who lives in a shell of a camper in his parents’ driveway and gets construction work about once a week. Mr. Tomblin-Brooks, who was injured in Iraq, said he had registered with the Veterans Affairs department but had not heard back. Army psychologists first diagnosed P.T.S.D., then bipolar disorder , but Mr. Tomblin-Brooks said he had no money for treatment, and no transportation. Mr. Hutchison said he would help him get medical benefits, then tried to gently explain how little work is available in construction. Mr. Tomblin-Brooks, who has a G.E.D., was at a loss to suggest another prospect. If he could, he said, he would rejoin the Army. “I kind of like being told what to do,” he said. “It makes it a little easier than figuring it out on your own.”

Veteran
Jobs
Unemployment
US Military
Job Recruiting and Hiring
US Economy
Iraq War
Afghanistan War


Оружие Современного Террора: Как “Калашников” и AR-15 стали оружием выбора массовых убийц

Abstract: Это повторяется снова и снова. Стрелок одиночка, или небольшая группа вооруженных людей, совершают чудовищные преступления, которые приковывают внимание всего мира. Список этих преступлении берет начало десятилетия назад: убийство израильских спортсменов на Мюнхенской Олимпиаде в 1972 году; захват школы в российском городе Беслане в 2004 году; теракты в столице Индии, Мумбаи, в 2008 году; вооруженное нападение на торговый центр в столице Кении, Найроби в 2013 году; убийство более ста человек в столице Франции, Париже в 2015 году. Часто, орудием преступления являются различные модификации автомата Калашникова, наиболее распространенного в мире стрелкового оружия, доступного и простого в употреблении автомата Советского происхождения которое позволяет убить многих а устрашить гораздо больше людей, и бороться на равных с современными государственными военными и полицейскими формированиями. В последние годы также стало употребляться оружие AR-15, американский ответ на гегемонию советского “Калашникова.” Полуавтоматическая модификация AR-15 использовалась сочувствующими исламскому государству в Калифорнийском городе Сан Бернардино в 2015 году, и Мини-14 и MCX, автоматы которые имеют такой же картридж, как AR-15 и конкурируют с ним на оружейном рынке, использовались в массовых убийствах в Норвегии в 2011 году и в Орландо, Флорида, в июне этого года. В руках террористов, военное стрелковое оружие превращается в орудия смерти, позволяющее быстро уничтожить много людей за короткое время. Как получилось что “Калашников” — совершивший прорыв в оружейной технологии три поколения назад, и до сих пор доминирующий как оружия организованного насилия — стал символом носителя зла и агрессии? Как он повлиял на развитие AR-15 и его конкурентов? Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. Продукт Холодной Войны Ответы восходят к периоду сразу после окончание второй мировой войны, когда Советский Союз развивал разные виды оружия для различных целей. В то время как Советские ученые работали над ядерным оружием для сохранения безопасности своих границ, команды оружейников и инженеров, соревновались в создание обычного оружия — автомата — который бы сочетал поражающую силу артиллерийского огня с компактностью легкого индивидуального оружия. Автомат задумывался как концептуальная копия SturmGewehr, которая использовалась нацистской Германией в конце Второй Мировой Войны. В последовавших испытаниях и полевых стрельбах старшей сержант Михайл Тимофеич Калашников, танкист воевавший и получивший ранение на западном фронте во время Второй Мировой Войны, был признан создателем базисную конструкцию автомата средней мощности способного, как и SturmGewehr, поражать как и автоматическим так и полуавтоматическим огнём. АК-47, с радиусом поражения превышающим длину двух футбольных полей, был принят на вооружение в 1947 году. Спустя несколько лет, более простая и легкая в производстве модификация, АКМ, была принята к массовому производству в Советском Союзе, и начала свой победный путь к приобретению статуса стандартного вооружения сухопутных войск почти всех коммунистических стран. Очень скоро, “Калашников” оставит свой след в истории. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. Чем Привлекает Калашников? Линия Калашникова предлагала автоматы которые были короче и легче традиционных. Их производство было недорогим, они отличались прочностью и исключительной надежностью. Основные принципы использования автомата Калашникова, который имеет всего лишь несколько движущихся частей и конструкцию, делающий его сборку и разборку практический интуитивной, могут быть освоены бойцами любого уровня - от прошедшых стандартную подготовку солдат до практически необученных “герилл” - в очень короткое время. Патроны “Калашникова” меньше чем патроны традиционных винтовок. Это означает, что боец с “Калашниковым” может нести боевой запас гораздо большей поражающей силы чем стрелки до Калашниковой эры. Использования патроны “Калашникова” средней мощности также означает более легкую отдачу, что облегчает отработку точности стрельбы в стандартных боевых диапазонов. Эти качества способствовали популярности “Калашникова” среди тех, кто его использует; на территории подавляющей части мира, “Калашников” стал оружия “обычного человека.” Известность “Калашникова” не может быть объяснена только его техническими характеристиками. Широкие масштабы производства автомата и патронов к нему, существенно повлияли на формирования его статуса как мгновенно получившего признания продукта коммунистической эпохи, и одного из самых узнаваемых явлений в мире. Карты показывают многообразные пути его распространения. Производство началось в Советском Союзе в 1940 году, и затем в странах Варшавского договора, а также в Китае, Северной Корее, Югославии и за их пределами. Десятки миллионов автоматов производились плановой экономикой, независимо от их потребности. В С.С.С.Р., “Калашников” стал символом защиты Родины имевшим гражданскую значимость. Его изучали в школе. Для бесперебойного обеспечения боеприпасами в странах производящих автоматы были построены патронные заводы. Другие государственные силы приняли оружие и тоже начали производство картриджей. “Калашников” завоевал весь мир. В 70-е годы советская армия представила новую модель — АК-74 — стреляющую более маленькими и быстрыми пулями. Миллионы прежних “Калашниковых” вышедших из употребления оказались доступными для мирового оружейного рынка. Совокупность промышленных решений плановой экономики создала условия для практически повсеместного распространения этого автомата. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. Борьба Mятежников Распространение Калашникова изменило само содержание современной войны. После того как коммунистические правительства передали Калашников своим союзникам и прокси, автоматы сыграли неожиданную роль: уравнителя баланса военных сил. Это началось во Вьетнаме. Африка была колонизирована небольшими отрядами европейских солдат использующих автоматическая стрелковое оружие против местных сил во много превосходящих их по личному составу но не имеющего доступности к оружию эквивалентный поражающей силы. Во Вьетнаме, такого преимущества уже не существовала. Вооруженные автоматами Калашникова мятежники, сражались практический на равных против профессиональных войск супердержав. Современные войска были встречены крестьянами вооруженными недорогим современным огнестрельным оружие. Их амбиции часто оказывались недостижимыми. Превосходство автомата Калашникова над американской М-14 в войне джунглей во Вьетнаме стимулировало министра обороны США Роберта Макнамару подтолкнуть Пентагон к ускорению производство нового американского автомата, AR-15, который стал известен как М-16. Решение укрепило позиции автомата как стандартного боевого огнестрельного оружия по всему миру. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. В Руках Террористов После того, как его эффективность была доказана во Вьетнаме, “Калашников” получил свою неизменную репутацию оружия выбора террористов. Нападающее с автоматами Калашникова преодолели ограждение Олимпийской деревни в Мюнхене в 1972 году и захватили в заложники членов сборной Израиля. “Калашников” сорвался с поводка. Он больше не был оружием государства или коммунистической идеологии. Началась эра использования “Калашникова” как оружия террора который весь мир мог наблюдать по телевидению. Обучения автомату стало одним из основным занятиям негодусдарственных баз подготовки вооруженных формирование, в том числе в учебных программах в палестинских лагерях. Распространение “Калашникова” достигло таких огромных размеров, что противники Кремля тоже начали закупать это оружия. Для того чтобы победить советские войска в Афганистане в 80-х годах, американские и пакистанские офицеры разведки обучали исламских боевиков особенностям использования “Калашникова.” Первоначально используемый для укрепления авторитарных государств, “Калашников” приобрел репутацию попирателя закона, превращаясь в символ уничтожение, преступление и джихаде. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. Автомат Для Всех Возрастов Простота, компактность и легкость отдачи делают “Калашникова” чрезвычайно подходящим для детей-солдат. Во многих войнах командиры давали “Калашникова” подросткам, а иногда даже и детям более младшего возраста, которые несмотря на их малый рост, были способны управлять оружием и нести большее количество боеприпасов. “Калашников” является основным видом огнестрельного оружия для многих формирований детей-солдат, в том числе печально известной “Армии сопротивления Бога” Джозефа Кони, а также детьми, которых используют бандитские формирование в разных частях мира. Эксплуатируя эту традицию, “Исламское Государство” (ИГ, запрещенная в РФ) широко использует образ ребёнка с автоматам Калашникова как элемент своей пропагандистской машины. И это делают не только одни они. На протяжении нескольких десятилетий, изображения детей с автоматами Калашникова используются во многих вооруженных конфликтах. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. Американский Ответ Война во Вьетнаме быстро показала несостоятельность М-16 из за склонности этой винтовки к заклиниванию. Но большинство ранее выявленных недостатков М-16 были устранены, и эта винтовка завоевала свое место в американских арсеналах. С того времени, стандарты обороны НАТО стали побуждать европейские службы производить свои собственные штурмовые винтовки и распространять их в некоммунистическом мире. “Калашников” дал толчок необъявленной гонке вооружений. К 1980 году, АК-47 и AR-15, и их многочисленные модификации, стали парой наиболее распространенного огнестрельного оружия. В Соединенных Штатах закон ограничивал права владения гражданских лиц только полуавтоматическими модификациями АR-15 и их конкурентов. Но поскольку эти модификации получили популярность среди ветеранов, сторонников прав ношения оружия, а также среди преступников и террористов, их использование в криминальном мире выросло - в то время как производство “Калашникова” пошло на спад. Модификации AR-15 были использованы в следующих массовых убийствах: в кинотеатре города Аврора, штат Колорадо, в начальной школе Сенди Хук в 2012 году, а также в нападении совершенном сочувствующими Исламскому Государству (ИГ, запрещенная в РФ) в Сан-Бернардино. Стрелок в Орландо в июне текущего года использовал MCX, которая недавно была создана для сил специального назначения и доступна в полуавтоматической форме для гражданских лиц. Полуавтоматические модификации “Калашникова” также принадлежат к самым распространенным видом оружия массовых убийств. В 1989 году, стрелок в школьном дворе в Стоктоне, штат Калифорния, убивший пятерых детей и ранивший еще несколько десятков, напал на своих жертв с полуавтоматическим китайским автоматом Калашникова. Его преступление активизировало движение за запрещение огнестрельного оружия на уровне штата и государства. Ветеран армии, убившей пятерых полицейских в Далласе в июле текущего года использовал полуавтоматический “Калашников.” Он был произведен на головном заводе в России, и потому легальным на Западе и привлекательным для рынка охотничье-спортивного оружия. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки. Современные Конфликты В 1980-1990-х, во время падения коммунизма, рыночная экономика приветствовала продукты Сталинской эпохи. Посткоммунистическое правительство продолжало распродавать огромные оборонные запасы, которые наводняли мировой рынок. Пентагон, скупивший бессчетное количество “Калашниковых” для ведение прокси войн в Афганистане и Ираке, является одним из главных распространителей этого оружия. Для них-же, Пентагон также широко распространяет десятки тысяч M-16, и более короткую модификацию карабин М-4, которые основаны на конструкции AR-15. В случае поражения, воюющие в этих отрядов уступают оружие врагу или продают его на базарах, увеличивая тем самым количества автоматов на нерегулируемых рынках и в преступном мире. Сегодня модификации “Калашникова” и AR-15 остаются наиболее часто применяемым оружием на полях сражений; их использование составляет центральную часть практически каждой войны. Они принципиальны для мятежа, терроризма и чудовищной обыденности массовых убийств. Исламское государство (ИГ, запрещенная в РФ) убило гораздо больше людей в Европе пулями, чем бомбами, и контролирует территорию в многих государств в значительной части, за счет запасов стрелкового оружия. Правительства сделали немного, чтобы остановить распространение этого класса оружия. Часто, как в случае Соединенных Штатов, они напротив способствуют этому. Совершаемые над людьми находящимися под устрашающем огневым прицелом акты преступление, террора и угнетения стали неотъемлемой реальностью нашего времени. И конца не видно. Image Credit Иллюстрации Аттилы Футаки.


E.U. Cash Tunnel Ends in Slovakia

Abstract: BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA — In 2007, a department of Slovakia’s government decided it needed to bring in outside consultants. So it advertised, but only on the notice board of an official building closed to the public, helping to ensure that a favored firm landed a €120 million European Union -funded contract. Then another ministry gave €600,000, or about $830,000, of E.U. money that was earmarked for educating the Roma community to two soccer teams. Meanwhile, the same government forked out about €1 million to teach leadership skills— in a cabbage-processing plant. Money has always gone astray within the vast budget of the 27-member European Union, whether to dishonest farmers or corrupt officials. But, as Europeans face painful austerity measures, a succession of scandals in Slovakia is casting new doubt on how billions of euros in regional aid are spent. The revelations point to deep-rooted problems within funds designed to help develop poorer regions, which each year account for more than one-third of the bloc’s €120 billion budget. Officials say money often goes toward worthless work or ends up with politically connected lawyers who excel at drafting proposals for European funding — and get kickbacks through consulting contracts. Critics say the problems are widespread in the European Union, where there are few checks on the quality of regional programs — known as structural and cohesion funds — which, officials concede, are more vulnerable to abuse even than the bloc’s notoriously generous farm subsidies. Slovaks, used to the scams needed to get by in Communist days, have a term for it: “tunelovanie” — tunneling to siphon off taxpayers’ money. But they may soon find there is less cash to tunnel for. This week, cash-strapped E.U. governments are seeking to curb a proposed 6 percent increase in the bloc’s 2011 budget, conscious that this will go down badly with voters as governments in France and Greece are raising retirement ages, Spanish civil servants are taking pay cuts and Britain is slashing public spending. Governments have already begun debating guidelines for 2013-2020 budgets. “In a climate of austerity, this will be a very serious point,” said Jorge Núñez Ferrer, associate research fellow of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. “The E.U. can only defend the structural funds if you can justify them and show that you are not misusing them.” Many of the scandals in Slovakia, a country of 5.5 million people that joined the bloc in 2004, came to light when a new government took power after elections in June. Some involve national as well as E.U. funds. “I wasn’t expecting anything positive, but what I found shocked me,” said Zsolt Simon, who became Slovakia’s minister for agriculture and regional development. He said his inheritance from the previous administration was “catastrophic.” The state secretary for labor, social affairs and the family, Lucia Nicholsonova, described how two soccer clubs each received about €300,000 from E.U. programs to educate a few dozen Roma people. “A bad comedy,” she said — particularly as the clubs are in a region with a relatively small Roma population. “We have a group of professionals whose main business is to profit from the structural funds,” Ms. Nicholsonova said. “They don’t actually do anything. They sit in their office and write papers about nothing for a lot of money.” She said it was “quite a shock for Brussels” to discover how cash had been used. The new government will “cut off the group of people who were tunneling the structural funds,” she added. Such comments are unusual in nations that receive billions from the European Union and where politicians worry that honesty can lose them funding. But in Slovakia, the new government is — for now, at least — willing to embarrass its predecessor, aided by a vibrant media and vocal transparency campaigners. The scandals in Slovakia over the misuse of funds are just part of a much larger picture involving the European Union’s regional program. Across the Union, €123 billion was invested through the bloc’s biggest fund for regional development from 2000 to 2006, creating an estimated 1.4 million jobs and building 2,000 kilometers of highways, according to the European Commission. But the European Union’s financial watchdog, the Court of Auditors, found errors, including technical mistakes as well as fraud, in 36 percent of regional aid projects sampled in 2009. It estimated that about €700 million should not have been paid out. Separately, in 2009 the E.U.’s anti-fraud unit, Olaf, reported 4,931 “irregularities” in these funds, accounting for €1.22 billion — an increase of 109 percent in the cost of questionable projects since 2008. Slovakia, Poland and Estonia, along with one long-established E.U. country — Italy — presented the “highest suspected fraud rates.” Critics say that weak bureaucracies in ex-Communist countries like Slovakia are a problem. “What is lacking in regional policy is a check on whether the funds are doing something useful,” Mr. Núñez Ferrer said. “There will always be a strong temptation of politicians to abuse the system, given the large lucrative contracts and weak administrations.” Oto Hudec, professor of public administration at the Technical University of Kosice, said that from 2004 to 2006, this regional aid brought no significant improvement in competitiveness in Slovakia. Though infrastructure spending was positive, the rest of the aid did not do much for sustainable employment. “In the common understanding, the funds are not something that is going to support competitiveness,” he said. “It is some extra money from a good uncle who is helping out.” State paternalism was a familiar feature of Communist life. Now, a more generous uncle has emerged: the European taxpayer. Even Slovakia, a small beneficiary, is to receive €11.7 billion from 2007 to 2013. The Slovak police are investigating 23 cases of suspected E.U. subsidy fraud, from the past two years. Two have gone on to the public prosecutor. So far there have been no convictions. Yet money has undoubtedly gone astray, officials say. Zuzana Polackova, a senior official, sifts through mountains of paper generated by projects bankrolled by the European Social Fund. That is how the cabbage scandal came to light. One method of “tunneling” begins when a well-connected lawyer drafts a proposal for an E.U.-funded project. The successful client then commissions the lawyer to write an expensive analysis. “That is worth €21,000,” said Ms. Polackova, pointing to a seven-page document, one page containing the title and another an index and the rest written in large type. She said that even legitimate projects could often be won only by using this system, with the average “bribe” worth 10 to 30 percent of the project cost. In the biggest scandal to date, a notice was displayed in 2007 on the first floor of a ministerial building closed to the public. The sole bid for the €120 million contract for legal and consulting services to the government came from a consortium of two companies, Zamedia and Avocat. The co-founder of Avocat, Juraj Hatvany, acted as a lawyer for Jan Slota, leader of the S.N.S., a nationalist party that was then part of a coalition government. When a pro-transparency group, Alliance-Fair Play, publicized the case, the outcry led to the resignation of two ministers, first Marian Janusek, then Igor Stefanov (who was then briefly rehired as an adviser) and the contract was canceled. Mr. Stefanov attributed the scandal to the media and political opponents. He declined to explain his resignation. The European Commission said that where malpractice is detected, the European Union withholds funds, as in this case. A spokesman, Ton van Lierop, noted that decisions on programs worth less than €50 million are left to national governments because that is what the member states want. Miroslav Beblavy, a Slovak parliamentarian and former state secretary, outlined several ways open bidding rules were circumvented. These including classifying work as “nonpriority” thereby avoiding any bids, specifying conditions that favor one firm or rerunning tenders won by the “wrong” company. When in government Mr. Beblavy was pressed to spend funds quickly, he said. Funds not spent two or three years after a deadline expires are lost. At the office of the prime minister, a spokesman, Rado Bat’o, referred to a €11 million advertising contract under audit because of fears of overcharging, and another, worth €20 million, that financed TV spots publicizing highway construction. Then there were the companies, funded to increase employment, that bought expensive vehicles but created no jobs. And a €1 billion information technology contract looks like it may be 40 percent too costly, Mr. Bat’o said. The list goes on. “You have to rebuild the whole construction for using E.U. money,” he said. “From the top — from the ministers and prime minister — to the bottom-level decision makers to the bureaucrats whose job it is to spend E.U. money.”


Women Supportive but Skeptical of Clinton, Poll Says

Abstract: Women view Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton more favorably than men do, but she still faces skepticism among some women, especially those who are older and those who are married, according to the latest New York Times/CBS News poll. Women hold more positive views than men of all the leading Democratic candidates. But winning the support of women, who made up 54 percent of voters in the last presidential election, is especially important to Mrs. Clinton, who has sought to rally them behind her quest to become the nation’s first female president. The poll found that over all, women tend to agree with her on the issues and see her as a strong leader and as a positive role model. A majority of those polled — both women and men — said they thought Mrs. Clinton would be an effective commander in chief, suggesting she has made headway in diminishing concerns that her sex would impede her from leading the nation in wartime. A majority of those polled also said they thought she would win the White House if she captured the Democratic nomination. But the poll also held some warning signs for Mrs. Clinton, 59, the junior senator from New York. Forty percent of voters view her unfavorably, more than for any of the other major candidates for president (although they are not as well known). Neither men nor women fully trust that she is saying what she really believes, the poll found. Mrs. Clinton’s choices as a woman and a political figure have been intensely scrutinized during her 15 years on the national stage, and as she runs for president, the debate about her remains polarizing, politically and culturally. Her role as the first woman to contend so seriously for the White House has also raised questions about how much to trust polling about her. Some polls in other elections have overstated the strength of minority candidates, perhaps because respondents were not being honest about their feelings or changed their minds in the privacy of the voting booth. It is unclear whether a similar phenomenon may occur in the case of a woman. A third of Americans in the poll say most people they know will be “less likely” to vote for Mrs. Clinton because she is a woman — more than twice the number who say her being a woman will make people more likely to vote for her. Still, half of those polled said her sex would not matter. The vast majority of all voters — more than 80 percent — think it very likely or somewhat likely that Mrs. Clinton will win the Democratic nomination. More than 60 percent think she is likely to win the presidency. The poll was conducted by telephone across the country from July 9 to July 17 among 1,554 adults. Of those, 1,068 were women, a deliberate oversampling designed to examine the views of different groups of women. The margin of sampling error for all adults and for women is plus or minus three percentage points. Among all registered voters, 46 percent of women have a favorable view of Mrs. Clinton, while 33 percent have an unfavorable view. The rest are undecided. The numbers are opposite for men, with 34 percent having a positive view of her and 47 percent holding a negative one. The support for Mrs. Clinton is most pronounced among unmarried and less affluent Democratic women. More than 8 in 10 working women say she understands their problems. The older the woman, the more negatively she views Mrs. Clinton: 27 percent of those under age 45 view her negatively; 33 percent of those 45 to 64 view her negatively; and 40 percent of those 64 and older view her negatively. “I like her strength, and I like that she’s been behind the scenes in the White House and knows the process and has the Senate experience,” Karla Whitt, 32, a small-business owner in Charlotte, N.C., said in a follow-up interview. “I do like that she is a woman,” Ms. Whitt added, “but that’s not the main thing.” Marilyn Bielstein, 69, a retired nurse in Gig Harbor, Wash., said flatly, “I don’t like her politics, and I don’t admire her as a woman.” Ms. Bielstein added, “I’ve followed her history back to her college days, and I just don’t trust her. I think she’s a socialist, and I think that’s exactly where she wants to take us.” A majority of single women view Mrs. Clinton favorably, while married women are split. Thirty-nine percent of married women like Mrs. Clinton — about as many as like her two closest Democratic rivals, Senator Barack Obama of Illinois and former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina. But 39 percent also view her negatively — significantly more than have a negative view of Mr. Obama and Mr. Edwards, who are not as well known. Linda Carroll, 59, who lives in Crystal Springs, Miss., and works at an assembly plant, said she supported Bill Clinton and admired Mrs. Clinton for standing by her husband through their marital problems. But Ms. Carroll said she was “not ready for a lady president.” “I’m not for this women’s lib stuff,” she said. The poll shows that Mrs. Clinton might find additional supporters among certain groups. A third of politically independent women say they have not made up their minds about her. Similarly, liberal women make up one of her most reliable bases of support (66 percent of them have a favorable view) although one-fourth of them are still undecided. But she faces skeptical voters like Mona Hughes, 64, an independent who lives in Orlando, Fla. “There are certain things she has voted on since she has been in Congress that seem to me to lean more toward the Republican view of things, which doesn’t make me too happy,” said Ms. Hughes, a retired newspaper columnist. “I want her to be strong and express strong feelings, not just fit her feelings to that audience at that moment,” she said. Those who like Mrs. Clinton offered adjectives like forceful, courageous and strong to describe her. Thirty percent of women used those words, compared with 24 percent of men. The second-most-offered reason was that she is smart and well spoken, the view of 19 percent of women and 12 percent of men. Among those who do not like her, women and men equally (2 in 10) said that they did not trust her. They also said equally (12 percent) that they disagreed with her views and values. A similar percentage said they saw her as “too much of a politician” and “a phony.” But her favorable ratings have inched up in the past few months, and her unfavorable ratings have ebbed to where they are now even. Mrs. Clinton entered the nation’s consciousness in 1992 as her husband sought the Democratic presidential nomination. Since then, The New York Times and CBS News have been tracking her favorability ratings. She started out in March 1992 with 31 percent of registered voters viewing her favorably, 17 percent unfavorably and the rest undecided or not knowing enough about her. As time went on, public opinion was generally divided about her. Shortly after she announced her presidential candidacy in January, the balance of opinion was beginning to turn negative. But opinion is now evenly divided with 40 percent of registered voters having a favorable opinion and 40 percent unfavorable. (Among all respondents to the poll, 41 percent viewed her favorably and 38 percent unfavorably.) Sonya McMahon, 57, who lives in San Diego and works in health care administration, said she had long viewed Mrs. Clinton as “harsh and cold.” Although still undecided, Ms. McMahon said she was now finding Mrs. Clinton more appealing. “Watching bits of her actual comments, I think some of that softening is coming through,” said Mrs. McMahon, who was not part of the poll but who was contacted after her daughter, who did participate, discussed her views with a reporter. “I say to myself, ‘That’s not so bad.’ I’ve warmed up to her.”

Women
Public Opinion
Clinton Hillary Rodham
Presidential Election of 2008


Derrick Rose’s Agent a Big Assist Man Then and Now

Abstract: BOSTON — Derrick Rose, the baby-faced Chicago Bulls point guard, is similar to nearly every other N.B.A. player in that he talks with his agent, B. J. Armstrong, about everything from the meaningful to the mundane. Their relationship diverges only because they discuss not only signatures on endorsement deals but also signature plays. Once, Armstrong was also a baby-faced point guard for the Bulls. Their futures are conjoined through the agent-player relationship and by similar career paths. Armstrong churned through the Midwest pressure cooker first, delivering the ball to Michael Jordan during a period when they won three N.B.A. titles together. Before Rose’s scintillating postseason debut against the Boston Celtics, he and Armstrong contemplated what to expect. The game’s intensity would be raised. Armstrong told Rose to attack early and play the same way he had throughout a season that will probably end with his being named the league’s rookie of the year. “This is what he does,” Armstrong said in a telephone interview. “He has had this type of focus. That’s one of his many gifts. He has the ability to set his mind, and his focus after the game starts is to win the game and that’s it.” In stock-market fashion, Rose witnessed the highs and lows of the N.B.A. playoffs in his first two games. His 36 points in a Game 1 overtime upset of the Celtics tied Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s record for the most by a rookie in his first playoff game. Two quick fouls jarred him in Game 2, and he never gained traction before ending with 10 points and 7 assists. “It kind of threw me off a little bit,” Rose said. “It’s a learning process for me, the playoff game.” Rose, 20, is even-keeled and seasoned beyond his years. His mannerisms do not change with his play. They did not waver after Game 1, and will probably stay the same after Game 2. In Armstrong, Rose found someone who walked the path before him. “With B. J., I can say anything to him,” Rose said. “I ask him, did he see how somebody played? I ask him how his kids are doing. Anything. He’s just like a big brother to me.” Armstrong is relatively new as an agent. He works under the umbrella of the powerful agent Arn Tellem’s Wasserman Media Group. Initially, Armstrong was hesitant to discuss Rose. He is proud of him, very much so. But the agent in him is sprouting. Armstrong prefers the spotlight to be focused solely on Rose, and deservedly so. But even Armstrong cannot exactly pinpoint where Rose’s intangibles were born. “I know it’s not sexy or anything, but all this kid cares about is winning,” Armstrong said. “All the other things that happen, they don’t resonate with him other than winning the basketball game. That’s just who he is. He’s just a humble kid and he’s just trying to go out there and do his thing. “I wish I could say some secret formula or training method, but sometimes you got to let things be. That’s who Derrick Rose is.” In his playoff debut, Rose did something that Jordan was never able to accomplish: lead the Bulls to a postseason victory over the Celtics. The comparisons between Jordan and Rose are inevitable, but they are about a decade premature and possibly forever unfair. “M. J. was M. J.,” Armstrong said. “His body of work speaks for itself. We’ve seen his career, we’ve dissected his career and had the chance to watch it. That’s done. Here’s Derrick Rose, let’s look at him. Here’s the first we’re seeing of him. Here is a young man that will come out and compete and play.” Rose’s playoff debut served as an extension, a well-timed one, of his play throughout his rookie year. “If people aren’t familiar with Derrick, then they’re not basketball fans,” Bulls Coach Vinny Del Negro said. “The kid has just been phenomenal all season.” The Celtics, with an assist from the officiating crew, limited Rose on Monday. Even so, Celtics Coach Doc Rivers is still exploring and examining how to fully stop him. When asked how to keep him from dominating the ball, Rivers responded: “You don’t. He’s the point guard. If you can figure that one out, we’ll have a whole new way of guarding everybody.” That way has yet to be figured out. Armstrong was a sidekick for Jordan, watching as teams tried in vain to scheme against him. In Armstrong’s second season, 1990-91, the Bulls captured the championship. They repeated twice, and in the third title season, Armstrong started. Chicago fully embraced Jordan. And after years of futility and frustration, it could happen again with Rose. “He’s from there,” Armstrong said. “He grew up there. He understands the city of Chicago. His family is from here, this is home for him. In many ways, he is Chicago.” Rose grew up watching the Bulls, who introduced him to Armstrong. When Rose declared for the N.B.A. draft after a stellar freshman season at Memphis, he and his family met with Armstrong. In honesty, Rose watched Armstrong only after he first saw Jordan. “Then, of course, you’ve got to watch the guy passing Michael the ball,” Rose said with a laugh. “But he was in a lot of the film.”

Chicago Bulls
Basketball
Rose Derrick
Armstrong B J