United Airlines Drops Fallon and Hires Start-Up Agency

Abstract: United Airlines Drops Fallon And Hires Start-Up Agency United Airlines has dismissed Fallon Worldwide in Minneapolis, which created campaigns for the airline since 1996, and awarded its creative account to a start-up agency in Minneapolis, Barrie D’Rozario Murphy. Two of the three principals of the start-up worked on the United account at Fallon before leaving in November. United, part of the UAL Corporation, spent $54.8 million on American advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, which tracks ad spending, and $78.4 million in 2005. A spokeswoman for Fallon, Rosemary Abendroth, described recent spending as far less than in previous years, when it totaled as much as $100 million, and said the loss would have “zero impact on the bottom line” for Fallon, part of the Publicis Groupe. The two principals of Barrie D’Rozario Murphy who worked at Fallon are Bob Barrie and Stuart D’Rozario; they helped produce the current United campaign, “It’s time to fly.” Fallon was named the sole creative agency for United in 2001 after sharing the assignment for five years with Y&R Advertising in New York, part of the WPP Group.

United Airlines
Fallon Worldwide
Advertising and Marketing


One Inning, Two-Sided Power for Angels’ Morales

Abstract: Kendrys Morales homered from both sides of the plate during a nine-run sixth inning, capping the burst with a grand slam that sent the Los Angeles Angels romping past the host Texas Rangers , 15-8, Monday night. Morales became the third switch-hitter in major league history to homer as a lefty and righty in the same inning. Carlos Baerga did it for Cleveland in 1993, and Mark Bellhorn for the Chicago Cubs in 2002. From the left side, Morales hit a two-run shot off Texas starter Roy Oswalt, putting the Angels ahead, 5-3. Morales later hit a grand slam off Robbie Ross from the right side. RED SOX 7, TIGERS 3 Dustin Pedroia hit a tiebreaking homer and drove in three runs to support Clay Buchholz’s eight solid innings as host Boston won its third straight. Red Sox outfielder Ryan Sweeney hurt his left hand punching a door and had to leave in the ninth inning. TWINS 7, WHITE SOX 6 Jamey Carroll’s sacrifice fly in the ninth scored Alexi Casilla and sent host Minnesota to its fourth straight win. Denard Span had two hits and made two spectacular catches in center field for the Twins. PADRES 11, REDS 5 Host Cincinnati’s winning streak ended at 10 games as Will Venable drove in four runs. The Reds walked a season-high 11. CUBS 14, PIRATES 4 Anthony Rizzo and Darwin Barney hit three-run homers for host Chicago, which won for the 11th time in its last 13 games at Wrigley Field. BRAVES 8, MARLINS 2 Jason Heyward homered and scored three runs as host Atlanta snapped a string of 16 straight losses on Mondays, including 12 this season. Starter Tommy Hanson (12-5) was the only Atlanta player or coach who did not wear high socks in a fashion attempt to end the curse. BREWERS 8, ASTROS 7 Cody Ransom’s homer capped a four-run eighth inning, and host Milwaukee, after firing its bullpen coach, held off Houston. The Brewers, who led the majors in relief losses and blown saves, dismissed Stan Kyles before the game, then watched their shaky relievers barely preserve this victory. JOSE RIJO CHARGED A prosecutor in the Dominican Republic said the 1990 World Series most valuable player Jose Rijo, now 47, had been charged with laundering money for a drug-trafficking suspect. The prosecutor, Soraime Vargas, said about 80 percent of the assets of the fugitive drug suspect Avelino Castro were in Rijo’s name, including two hotels. ZAMBRANO MOVING TO BULLPEN The Miami Marlins are moving Carlos Zambrano to the bullpen. Zambrano (5-9) had a 4.54 earned run average.

Texas Rangers
Baseball
Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim


Carter Page, Ex-Trump Adviser With Russian Ties, Visits Moscow

Abstract: MOSCOW — Carter Page, an early foreign policy adviser to Donald J. Trump who was scrutinized by the F.B.I. on suspicion of private communications with senior Russian officials over the summer, was back in Moscow on Thursday. Mr. Page was closelipped about the purpose of his visit, telling RIA Novosti , a Russian state-run news agency, that he would stay in Moscow until Tuesday and would meet with “business leaders and thought leaders.” Mr. Page, who founded an investment company in New York called Global Energy Capital , drew attention during the summer for a speech that criticized the United States and other Western nations for a “hypocritical focus on ideas such as democratization, inequality, corruption and regime change” in Russia and in other parts of the former Soviet Union. He worked as an investment banker in Russia for at least three years in the 2000s, advising on several major transactions involving Russian state companies. Mr. Page’s extensive business links in Russia prompted suggestions that he might be serving Mr. Trump as a back-channel liaison with senior Kremlin officials. Image Carter Page in Moscow in July. Credit Pavel Golovkin/Associated Press Mr. Page dismissed the accusations, calling the F.B.I. investigation a “witch hunt.” Dmitri S. Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, told journalists that government leaders in Moscow had no plans to meet with Mr. Page and that they had never had any contact with him. “We have learned about this from the press,” Mr. Peskov told the news agency Interfax. Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Sergei A. Ryabkov, said officials at his department had no plans to meet with Mr. Page. In Russia’s Parliament, Leonid E. Slutsky of the international affairs committee dismissed talk of Mr. Page as a foreign policy adviser to Mr. Trump, even though the American president-elect told the Washington Post editorial board in March that he was. “He is not Mr. Trump’s adviser. He is an impostor who likes to make a lot of media noise about himself,” Mr. Slutsky said. In his previous visit to Moscow, in July, Mr. Page gave a speech at a graduation ceremony at the New Economic School, a Moscow university. At the time, he insisted that he had traveled to Russia as a private person. Speaking to CNN in September, Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s campaign manager, said that Mr. Page was not part of the Trump team and that he was not authorized to speak to Russian officials on its behalf.

Carter Page
Russia
Politics
US Foreign Policy
Donald Trump


Romney Team Outpaces Obama in Fund-Raising Again

Abstract: The fund-raising machine behind Mitt Romney and the Republican Party once again outperformed President Obama and the Democrats last month, raising $25 million more in July than the president and his Democratic allies. Mr. Romney and the Republican National Committee took in $101.3 million in July, his campaign announced Monday, as Republican donors rallied behind their presumptive nominee with the national convention only a few weeks away. The president’s campaign announced on Twitter on Monday morning that his July fund-raising with the Democratic National Committee topped out at about $75 million — the third month in a row they have brought in less than the Republicans. Mr. Obama’s team appears to have all but conceded the money race, deluging the president’s grass-roots supporters this summer with fund-raising e-mails and warning supporters of the financial advantage that the Republicans will hold going into the final months of the campaign. “Make no mistake, we will be outspent,” a senior campaign official said during a conference call with reporters last month. More detailed information about the July fund-raising, including how much the candidates themselves raised and how they spent their money, has not yet been released by the two candidates. All campaigns are required to report their fund-raising to the Federal Election Commission by Aug. 20. But the Republican figure keeps Mr. Romney and his party on pace to bring in $800 million for the cycle, the target set by Mr. Romney’s team in April. Roughly a quarter of the Republicans’ haul, $25.7 million, came in donations under $250, as Mr. Romney worked to increase his appeal among small donors. “Americans are clearly looking for a change in the White House,” Reince Priebus, the chairman of the R.N.C., said in a statement. “While President Obama claims that his economic plan ‘worked,’ the American people know that his policies haven’t worked and he has failed to fix our economy.” Because Mr. Obama easily outraised Mr. Romney all of last year and early this year, the president does not need to beat Mr. Romney in the months ahead to bring in the roughly $750 million his team has said they wish to raise in this cycle. But heavy spending on field organizers, technology and advertising — more than $400 million through the end of June — appears to have cost Mr. Obama the impressive cash advantage he once had. And Democratic-leaning “ super PACs ” have raised far less money than their Republican counterparts, forcing Mr. Obama to spend heavily on attack advertisements against Mr. Romney, even while conservative groups pummel him on the airwaves. The Republicans have used the cash surge of the last two months to begin trying to match Mr. Obama’s field advantage, opening about 250 offices around the country, recruiting volunteers and hiring more than 600 staff members for the fall campaign. On Saturday, the R.N.C. announced that organizers had made their one millionth voter contact of the election cycle. The committee has also begun running general election advertisements, as Mr. Romney began doing in May. The campaign, the Republican National Committee and a joint fund established by the Republicans to raise presidential campaign cash ended July with $185.9 million in cash on hand. They did not disclose what part of the money would end up in Mr. Romney’s campaign coffers, which can accept only $5,000 from each donor every election cycle, and how much would go to the R.N.C., which can accept more than 10 times that amount from each donor. Mr. Obama did not disclose how much money his campaign and the D.N.C. have on hand. The strong fund-raising puts renewed pressure on Mr. Obama to bring in more cash and suggests certainty that Mr. Romney will remain financially competitive with an incumbent whose fund-raising prowess has long been a hallmark. Underscoring the campaign’s changed fortunes, Mr. Obama’s campaign is no longer announcing its fund-raising totals in lush videos featuring his senior staff or field workers. Instead, on Monday, not long after Mr. Romney made his announcement, Mr. Obama’s campaign put out its total in a brief message to his Twitter followers, thanking them for their money. “Every bit helps,” the campaign wrote.

Republican National Committee
Democratic National Committee
Presidential Election of 2012
Campaign Finance
Obama Barack
Romney Mitt


Food-Safety Microscope on High-End Kitchens

Abstract: RIO DE JANEIRO — Tucked on a leafy street in Leblon, the seaside bastion of this city’s elite, Antiquarius ranks among Brazil’s most exclusive restaurants. Well-heeled regulars frequent Antiquarius, which is decorated in faux-farmhouse style with landscape paintings and porcelain vases, and charges $68 for a stew of codfish in coconut-tomato sauce. But while Antiquarius’s prices have long shocked many people here, the restaurant is now gaining notoriety for another reason. Inspectors raided it this week, finding more than 50 pounds of expired food like ham, endive and beef tripe in its kitchen, including more than 10 pounds of snails with an expiration date of July 2012. The inspection of Antiquarius, carried out on Tuesday in an operation code-named Ratatouille — after both the Provençal stewed vegetable dish and the 2007 animated film about a kitchen rat with dreams of becoming a chef — was one of several raids this year by officials seeking to improve the city’s restaurant standards as more visitors flock to Rio ahead of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, both of which will be held here. “Some restaurants think they will never be inspected, just because they are so chic and expensive,” said Cidinha Campos, director of Rio’s consumer protection agency, singling out an item on Antiquarius’s menu, grilled slipper lobster in beurre d’escargots, which costs about $78. The restaurant’s snail butter used in the recipe was also found to have expired, she said. “Well,” Ms. Campos said, “even Antiquarius is not above the law.” She added that the restaurant, which serves dishes largely inspired by the cuisine of Portugal, Brazil’s former colonial ruler, could face a fine from about $200 all the way up to $3 million, depending on its explanation of its kitchen practices and the size of its revenues. Many people have welcomed the raids of Antiquarius and other restaurants in Rio, a city where visitors are often wowed by the natural beauty of beaches and forested peaks and entranced by the city’s cultural offerings, like music and dance. But laments are common here about soaring restaurant prices and service that is somewhere between lackadaisical and dismissive. In another surprise raid this year, inspectors found rotting fish and expired beef in the kitchen of the Copacabana Palace, the Art Deco gem on Copacabana Beach that is one of Rio’s top hotels. Ms. Campos, the consumer protection official, said the hotel paid a fine of more than $100,000 and quickly enacted new food safety measures. An array of other high-end spots here have also recently been found to have expired food in their kitchens, including Quadrifoglio, an Italian restaurant in the Jardim Botânico district where inspectors found expired tomatoes, pasta and ice cream. At Brigete’s, a bistro in Leblon, the osso buco was deemed “unfit for consumption.” Image Protesters camped out near the home of Gov. Sérgio Cabral, on the same street where a fancy restaurant was raided. Credit Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times The food inspectors have also focused on cheaper restaurants, supermarkets and the kitchens found in Rio’s love hotels, its famed short-stay establishments. Several of the hotels — including Gallant, Panda, Bambina and Magnus — had expired food, according to the consumer protection agency. (In an exception to the trend, a few high-end restaurants raided by inspectors were found to have no expired food at all, including Gero, part of the Italian Fasano chain, and Zuka, which serves dishes like namorado fish in a foie gras broth.) Pedro Mello, a spokesman for Antiquarius, which was founded in 1977 and is owned by the Portuguese restaurateur Carlos Perico, said in an interview that the expired food found by inspectors was “unjustifiable,” and that snails (though not snail butter, which, its name notwithstanding, does not need to include snails at all, but involves butter, parsley, garlic and shallots) had been removed from the menu well before the raid. “The Perico family itself eats lunch and dinner at Antiquarius, so you can imagine our sense of surprise,” Mr. Mello said, adding that personnel responsible for the expired food were facing disciplinary action. The raid is just one problem for Antiquarius, which is on the same block in Leblon where Sérgio Cabral, Rio’s unpopular governor, lives. Mr. Cabral has been besieged since June by protesters fuming about police brutality and abuses of power by the authorities, including the governor’s extensive use of a fleet of helicopters to escape Rio’s traffic jams. Some demonstrators remain camped not far from his doorstep and the entrance to Antiquarius, causing the restaurant’s customer traffic to fall steeply at several points in recent weeks, said Mr. Mello, the restaurant’s spokesman. One Rio socialite, Narcisa Tamborindeguy, went so far as to tell a social columnist that Antiquarius was being “ripped off” because of its location on the governor’s street. “Cabral should refund the restaurant because it’s empty since the protests,” said Ms. Tamborindeguy, who recently starred in a reality show called “Rich Women.” As for the protesters, they also expressed indignation about Mr. Cabral, who is grappling with polling in which half of those surveyed say he is doing a bad job, but they stopped far short of fretting about Antiquarius’s fortunes. “The city is full of these contrasts, these paradoxical things,” said Ernesto Brito, 36, an ecologist camped among the protesters, some of whom were bathing less regularly than their new neighbors in Leblon. “We might be dirty in our skin, but they are dirty in their model,” he said, gesturing at Antiquarius. “We think there is a double standard; if someone came here and said, ‘I got poisoned by them,’ we’d go to jail for years,” he continued, referring to himself and other scruffy protesters near Mr. Cabral’s home. “They don’t,” he said, pointing again toward Antiquarius.

Antiquarius Rio de Janeiro Brazil Restaurant


Ford Recalls Vehicles for Air Bag Flaw

Abstract: The three Detroit automakers announced vehicle recalls on Friday, though they said none of the defects had resulted in accidents or injuries. Ford said it was recalling nearly 1.4 million vehicles from the 2013-14 model years for an air bag malfunction and door handles that may not latch properly. The air bag issue covers about 692,500 Escape and C-Max models, including 591,000 in the United States, about 78,000 in Canada and almost 19,700 in Mexico. The air bag problem involves what Ford calls its “safety canopy” — an air bag that deploys from the ceiling near the windows to protect an occupant’s head in a side impact crash or rollover. Ford said a computer software issue could delay the canopy’s deployment “in certain rollover circumstances, potentially increasing the risk of injury.” The door handle defect affects 692,700 Escapes, including about 580,000 in the United States, 89,500 in Canada and 20,000 in Mexico. Ford said any of the vehicle’s door handles could malfunction and fail to latch properly, allowing the doors to open when the vehicle was in motion. Chrysler announced two recalls, covering more than 784,000 vehicles. The company will replace window switches in an estimated 780,000 Dodge Grand Caravan and Chrysler Town & Country minivans from the 2010-14 model years, after episodes of overheating. Chrysler will also replace the power inverter module in more than 4,000 electric cars, including some 2013-14 Fiat 500e vehicles, because a defect could cause coolant to seep onto electrical component, elevating the risk of a short circuit and power loss while driving. In addition, General Motors is recalling almost 9,000 Buick LaCrosse and Chevrolet Malibu sedans from the 2014 model year because brake rotors intended for the rear brakes may have been installed on the front brakes, the automaker said in a news release. The rear brake rotor is thinner than front rotors, and G.M. said that although the braking performance should not be affected when the vehicle was new, there would be “reduced brake performance” over time. The automaker said only about 1,700 of the cars had been sold; the others were still at dealerships. Under federal law, the cars must be repaired before they are sold.

Automobile safety
Defective Products
Ford Motor
Recalls and Bans


Fox Canceled Hannity’s Attendance at Tea Party Rally

Abstract: For more than a week on his Fox News show, Sean Hannity promoted his planned Tax Day attendance at a Tea Party rally in Cincinnati. But as hundreds of Mr. Hannity’s fans lined up for a pre-rally book signing there on Thursday, he was whisked back to New York, his plans scrapped by his bosses at the last minute. Fox News executives said they canceled because they did not know that the Tea Party organizers were raising money based on Mr. Hannity’s widely promoted attendance at the rally. But Mr. Hannity’s producers at Fox were aware for months that tickets were being sold, said Chris Littleton, the president of the Cincinnati Tea Party, a nonprofit group. And Mr. Hannity mentioned the sales on his TV show a week ago. The incident caused consternation inside Fox News Channel, which is a unit of the News Corporation, over its perceived closeness to the antigovernment Tea Party movement , especially in its highly rated opinion shows. The network has faced regular accusations that it is promoting — not just covering — the Tea Party movement, something that its executives deny. Responding to a question from the media watchdog group Media Matters last week, News Corporation’s chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, said, “I don’t think we should be supporting the Tea Party or any other party.” Whether it is promoting the Tea Party or covering it, Fox is clearly the movement’s favored outlet; a New York Times-CBS News poll released this week found that 63 percent of self-described Tea Party supporters gain most of their television news from Fox, compared with 23 percent of all adult Americans. On Thursday, as Tea Party activists fanned out across the country for Tax Day events, Fox dispatched Mr. Hannity to Cincinnati and another opinionated host, Neil Cavuto, to Atlanta, for hours of live coverage, while other channels only sent reporters for occasional live reports. In both cases, organizers promoted Fox’s presence at the rallies well in advance of the events. Bill Shine, Fox’s executive vice president of programming, said in a telephone interview Friday that he had no problem with Mr. Cavuto’s coverage in Atlanta. Mr. Shine said he objected to Mr. Hannity’s coverage because “the Cincinnati folks were basically charging for access to Sean and one of our shows.” The Cincinnati organizers disagree. They say Mr. Hannity’s telecast was completely separate from the Tea Party rally, to be produced on a separate stage inside the arena. “Hannity was the bonus,” said Justin Binik-Thomas, the vice president of national affairs and strategy for the Tea Party group, adding that Mr. Hannity had not been expected to speak at the rally. Tickets costing $20 and $100 were sold for “Hannity seating” near his stage, according to the group’s materials. Mr. Littleton said proceeds were to go to the Cincinnati Tea Party, a group that has not donated to political candidates. He said he “received calls from Fox asking about ticket sales,” apparently referring to Fox producers. Asked about the producers’ and executives’ knowledge of the ticket sales, Mr. Shine said Friday that “I’m doing a big post-mortem and trying to get to the bottom of it.” Organizers said they were first told on Thursday afternoon, shortly before the rally began, that Mr. Hannity had rushed back to New York because of a “personal emergency.” They learned hours later, through a news media report, that the network had canceled his plans there. The group says it will give refunds to attendees who request them.

Fox News Channel
Tea Party Movement
Hannity Sean
Demonstrations and Riots


Health Care Rules Proposed to Shield Transgender Patients From Bias

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration proposed a rule Thursday that would forbid most health insurers and medical providers to discriminate against transgender patients, including by prohibiting insurers from categorically denying coverage of care related to gender transition. The proposal clarifies a civil rights provision of the Affordable Care Act that bans “any health program or activity” that receives federal funds from discriminating based on race, national origin, sex, age or disability. The proposed regulation expands on that broad language, specifying that the administration considers discrimination on the basis of gender identity a form of sex discrimination. “This rule actually contains the most significant affirmation of the rights of transgender individuals of equal treatment in health care and health insurance that has existed anywhere in the law,” said Samuel Bagenstos, a law professor at the University of Michigan. The proposed rule would apply throughout the health care system — affecting most health insurers, hospitals, nursing homes and physicians. It says that the provision applies to any providers or insurers who receive “federal financial assistance,” and lists an array of funding streams that would make them subject to the rule. Health insurers or medical providers who are found to violate the provision could risk losing their federal funding. They could also be subject to individual lawsuits from patients who think they are the victims of discrimination. The scope of the proposed regulation — which must go through a public comment period before it takes effect — was larger than some experts expected. The insurance industry had asked regulators to use a narrower definition of federal financial assistance that would have subjected far fewer plans to the rule. The proposal does not list a specific set of medical services that have to be covered under the civil rights provision of the health law. It says that health insurers can make decisions about whether care is medically necessary for individual patients, but they cannot impose blanket bans on covering services related to gender reassignment, as many do now. Transgender advocates said the language of the rule was a major victory. “Until now, the promise of health reform has not really been reached for many transgender people,” said Harper Jean Tobin, the director of policy for the National Center for Transgender Equality. “It’s been very common to have these categorical exclusions that say there’s no coverage of anything related to gender transition, no matter how medically necessary. This says that in plans that are covered, which is a lot of public and private plans, that’s no longer permissible.” The regulation also says that medical providers cannot discriminate against transgender patients, for example, by refusing to care for them or preventing them from using facilities that are consistent with their chosen gender. Ms. Tobin said her organization heard frequently from transgender people who had faced discrimination in health care — or were simply afraid to seek medical care. Mara Youdelman, a lawyer with the National Health Law Program, added that, for example, someone who was born female, identifies as a transgender male but has not had gender reassignment surgery, might be denied insurance coverage for a Pap smear without the proposed rule. “There was nothing to prohibit the exclusion of those services by an insurer,” Ms. Youdelman said. Ms. Youdelman said the proposed rule was significant because it “puts the meat on the bone” of a provision that for the first time prohibits sex discrimination in health care. For the other groups protected under the provision, Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act, it merely “reiterates longstanding prohibitions” on discrimination that other laws, including Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, already provide. “For the first time, you can’t discriminate in health care because of someone’s sex,” she said. “And the regulation that we got today greatly elucidates what’s expected.” Though the proposed regulation spells out more specifics than the two-paragraph provision in the health law, Jocelyn Samuels, the director of the Office for Civil Rights at the Department of Health and Human Services, said that her office had already been responding to complaints and negotiating settlements when they determined discrimination had taken place. For example, Ms. Samuels said her office had recently resolved a complaint that a transgender patient filed against Brooklyn Hospital Center, alleging she had been denied a room assignment consistent with her gender identity. Ms. Samuels also pointed to a case in which a male victim of domestic violence was denied services at a hospital because, she said, he did not fit “the traditional profile” of a domestic violence victim. “Sadly, we have ample evidence that there continues to be a persistent problem with discrimination in the health care industry,” Ms. Samuels said during a telephone briefing with reporters. But while her office receives thousands of complaints each year about discrimination in health care, she added, the proposed rule “provides a very valuable tool for us to be able to appropriately address them.” At least 10 states and the District of Columbia already require health insurers to cover some treatments for people undergoing gender transition, as do the health plans for federal workers and many large employers . Research suggests that the cost of providing treatments is relatively low. In a 2013 study of employer plans conducted by the Williams Institute at the Law School of the University of California, Los Angeles, fewer than one in every 20,000 employees used such services. The overall effect on insurance premiums was less than one percent. “The resounding response was that it cost little or nothing,” said Jody L. Herman, a scholar at the institute and the author of the report. The American Hospital Association and America’s Health Insurance Plans, the lobbying group for most private insurers, said they needed time to review the proposed rule. Though the proposal is quite clear in its application to transgender rights, it is more vague on whether the law’s anti-discrimination provisions apply to gay, lesbian and bisexual patients. The regulation says that lawyers for the administration believe that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation should be treated as a form of sex discrimination. But it also notes that court rulings are unclear on the question. The proposal also specifies how insurers and medical providers must provide care for patients with disabilities or difficulty speaking English. It says that insurers and medical providers must provide some form of translation services for patients, and that they must accommodate disabilities in offices and in electronic communications, including websites. The proposal said that the Department of Health and Human Services would like the public to comment on whether it needs to provide exceptions for religious organizations with “sincerely held religious beliefs” that conflict with some required services. It has made similar accommodations to another Affordable Care Act provision, one that required insurance coverage for contraception.

Health Insurance
Discrimination
Civil Rights
Health and Human Services
Transgender,Gender Dysphoria
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act


Iraq: Grim Discoveries in Baghdad

Abstract: The police on Monday said that they had found 17 bullet-riddled bodies in different areas of Baghdad and that other attacks killed 10 people. The authorities found the bodies of 14 men and three women dumped in the streets late Sunday and early Monday, two police officers said. Some had been shot, some were blindfolded and bound, and some showed signs of being tortured, the police said. Also Monday, gunmen killed four men in Baghdad, and bombs killed six people and wounded 21 in separate explosions, one just south of Baghdad and the other in northwestern Baghdad, the police said.


Sharpe Complaint Dropped

Abstract: The woman who accused Shannon Sharpe , the CBS Sports football analyst, of forcing her to have sex with him and threatening her has dropped her complaint in Fulton County Superior Court in Georgia. She had been granted a temporary restraining order against Sharpe that is no longer in effect. This week, Sharpe took a leave from CBS’s “The NFL Today” to deal with the case and a coming hearing. He will rejoin the program Sunday.


Money From Penn State Sought for Children’s Advocacy Centers

Abstract: Prosecutors in Pennsylvania said they hoped some of the $60 million in fines Penn State must pay the N.C.A.A. would be used to add to the state’s 21 children’s advocacy centers. District Attorney Seth Williams of Philadelphia said the group was not seeking a specific amount of money.

Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania State University
Fines (Penalties)
College Athletics
Football (College)
Colleges and Universities
Sandusky Jerry
Paterno Joe
Sex Crimes
Child Abuse and Neglect


Web Browser in Windows Is at Center of Complaint

Abstract: Less than three months after Microsoft lost a landmark antitrust case in Europe, a Norwegian software company filed a new complaint Thursday, challenging the software giant’s bundling of its Web browser with its Windows operating system. The complaint to the European Commission was filed by Opera Software, based in Oslo, a maker of browsers for personal computers and mobile devices. The company had $60 million in sales in 2006. The company’s chief technology officer, Hakon Lie, said that the bundling of Internet Explorer into Windows, which has more than 80 percent of the market share in Europe, violated European antitrust law. In September, the second-highest European court upheld a 2004 ruling by the European Commission that said Microsoft had illegally tied its media player to Windows. That ruling required Microsoft to market a version of Windows without the player. “Of course the European Court of First Instance decision strengthens our case, and that is in part why we decided to file this complaint now,” Mr. Lie said. Opera, founded in 1995, is one of the few companies, particularly rare in Europe, that have been able to eat into Microsoft’s share of the browser market. Its Web software, known for packing many features into a program that takes up little hard-drive space, has made strong moves in the market for Internet browsers on cellphones. In the complaint, Opera asked that the commission require Microsoft to unbundle Explorer from Windows, include rival browsers in the default Windows installation or do both. Microsoft, which dropped its appeals of the commission’s ruling after the September decision, said that its Windows operating system did not block the use of alternative Web browsers, and that consumers and computer makers were free to use any browser. Michael Reynolds, an antitrust lawyer with the firm Allen & Overy in Brussels, said that Opera’s legal case was probably strengthened by the outcome of Microsoft’s appeal. “What has changed is that we now have very clear guidance from the court as to what constitutes bundling and tying,” Mr. Reynolds said.

Software
Opera Software
Microsoft Corp
Antitrust Actions and Laws


Putin’s Syria Tactics Keep Him at the Fore and Leave Everyone Else Guessing

Abstract: MOSCOW — President Vladimir V. Putin ’s typically theatrical order to withdraw the bulk of Russian forces from Syria , a process that the Defense Ministry said it began on Tuesday, seemingly caught Washington, Damascus and everybody in between off guard — just the way the Russian leader likes it. By all accounts, Mr. Putin delights at creating surprises, reinforcing Russia ’s newfound image as a sovereign, global heavyweight and keeping him at the center of world events. In the case of Syria, the sudden, partial withdrawal more than five months after an equally surprising intervention allows Mr. Putin to claim a list of achievements without a significant cost to Russia in blood or rubles. If the roughly 4,000 Russian troops centered on a contingent of about 50 combat aircraft had remained in Syria, Mr. Putin risked becoming just another proxy force fighting for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad . But Mr. Putin wanted to make his mark by forging a solution in Syria, rather than lingering long enough to validate President Obama’s contention that Moscow had jumped headfirst into a quagmire. “Russia does not want to fight for Assad as such,” said Aleksei V. Makarkin, the deputy director of the Center for Political Technologies in Moscow. “If Russia continued, that would make it more dependent on Mr. Assad and would make it clash with other players directly.” Analysts noted that Mr. Putin had achieved most, if not all, of his goals — some stated, others not. First, to thwart another Western attempt to push for leadership change in Syria and to fight the very idea of outside governments forcing political shifts. Second, to show that Moscow is a more reliable ally than Washington, given that the Obama administration had abandoned long-term allies like former President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt when they faced political upheaval. Third, to restore to Russia the role it had in the Soviet era as an important actor in the Middle East and as a global problem solver, and to force respect for Mr. Putin as a world leader. Fourth, to shatter the isolation that Washington had tried to impose on Moscow after the crisis in Ukraine, forging a dialogue with the United States and, to a lesser degree, with Europe. Fifth, a subset of the previous goal, to distract attention from the war in Ukraine and to get lifted the economic sanctions imposed on Russia — a step the Kremlin is desperate to achieve in the face of continuing economic problems. Saving the estimated $3 million daily cost of the Syrian operations will also help, but it was not considered decisive. Sixth, to show off the effectiveness of a new generation of weaponry from Russia, the biggest arms exporter in the world after the United States. Many analysts thought the main goal, of forcing a dialogue with the United States and of reviving the Cold War idea that Washington and Moscow are the main global police forces, had been achieved. Mr. Obama’s spokesman first said that the president had no idea about plans for a Russian withdrawal, but soon after the Kremlin website noted that the Russian and American leaders had spoken by telephone. “The resurrection from oblivion of Russian-U.S. cooperation is one of the most important political results of the operation,” Vladimir Frolov, an expert on international relations, wrote on the Russian website Slon.ru . “It turns out only two superpowers can stop the war.” The arrival of the decision like a jack-in-the-box was vintage Putin. According to published accounts of how he seized Crimea from Ukraine in March 2014 , the Russian president, a former K.G.B. operative, consults a tiny circle of security and military advisers on crucial foreign policy questions. The inner circle consists of Sergei K. Shoigu, the defense minister; Sergei B. Ivanov, the leader of the president’s administration and a former top operative in state security; Alexander V. Bortnikov, the director of the Federal Security Service, known as the F.S.B.; and Nikolai P. Patrushev, secretary of the Security Council and a previous F.S.B. director. Given their backgrounds, the men believe that secrecy is the key to good government, said Ekaterina Schulmann, a political scientist, and they abhorred the leaky Kremlin of the 1990s. Signs of Hope Five Years After Start of Syria’s War The partial cease-fire in Syria, which began Feb. 27, has proved more effective and durable than expected, significantly reducing the level of violence. They also believe that surprise announcements provide a giant public relations payoff, keeping Russians riveted to the TV news and making them feel that they are included in a parade of thrilling events, Ms. Schulmann said. “A good decision in today’s Russia should be swift and surprising and take everyone unawares,” she said. “That is considered good political management.” They are also meant to emphasize that Russia acts alone. “The main goal is to show that Russia acts completely independently,” said Alexander Morozov, an independent political analyst. “We expand our military presence without any prior consultations and wrap it up without any warning.” A statement by Mr. Assad calling the announcement about the Russian withdrawal the result of a consultation process seems somewhat dubious given Mr. Putin’s habit of not sharing his thinking with many Russians, much less with foreigners. Some analysts said the sudden decision was intended to send a message to Mr. Assad, who by all accounts has exasperated Mr. Putin by becoming ever more inflexible at the negotiating table as his battlefield fortunes have improved. Mr. Assad recently earned a rebuke from Russia for saying that he would continue fighting until he had unified all of Syria, and after his foreign minister dismissed talk of presidential elections, which are supposed to be part of a transition to peace. Arab diplomats in Damascus said that their Russian counterparts had emphasized in recent weeks that Russia was intervening to protect the Syrian state, not Mr. Assad himself. “I think this is a shot into Assad’s bow, not over Assad’s bow, as Putin’s way of saying that it is now up to you,” said Cliff Kupchan, chairman of the Eurasia Group, a Washington-based consulting firm. “At least for now, Putin is a looming maven of peace, and that is pretty clever.” The stated goal of the military deployment in Syria was to take the fight against the metastasizing Islamic State to the “terrorists” themselves, before they could take the fight to Russia. Instead, the main targets proved to be immediate threats to Mr. Assad in western Syria, many of them allied with Western or Arab powers. In summarizing the achievements of the mission, Mr. Shoigu, the defense minister, noted that Russia had helped the government restore control over 400 towns and nearly 4,000 square miles of territory. Frozen Zones: How Russia Maintains Influence in the Post-Cold War Era Modern Russia has inflamed conflict in former Soviet republics to create “frozen zones,” allowing it to influence events and confound its opponents. Some analysts in Russia and elsewhere also said they thought that Mr. Putin had begun to realize that the violence that Russia was helping to perpetuate in Syria was working at cross purposes with the goal of showing Europe that he is a reliable partner and a peacemaker who does not deserve the economic sanctions that are denying Russia desperately needed access to Western credit markets. The European Union has hinged lifting sanctions to putting into effect the Minsk II peace accords in Ukraine. The Europeans have also been alarmed that the escalating violence in Syria, now entering its sixth year, is feeding an enormous refugee crisis. It remains unclear whether Mr. Assad will show a new willingness to negotiate after the loss of his principal military patron. Syria still has foreign allies in Iran and Hezbollah that have long shored up the government. They have no interest in a political transition, which risks replacing the government dominated by the Alawite minority, a Shiite sect, with the majority Sunnis. There have long been questions about just how much leverage Moscow has ever had over Damascus, and the coming weeks might tell. If Damascus begins to flounder without Russian support, the withdrawal is instantly reversible. Dmitri S. Peskov, Mr. Putin’s spokesman, noted that not all forces would be withdrawn from the Hmeymim air base near Latakia, nor from the longstanding Russian naval refueling and repair facility at Tartus. Russia will also keep its powerful S-400 air defense system in Syria to protect the forces staying behind, Mr. Ivanov, the head of the president’s administration, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying. That would maintain Russian dominance of Syrian airspace, where bombers were still carrying out attacks on Palmyra on Tuesday, even as others were shown on Russian TV flying home. In Russia, people were asking “What next?” as often as “Why now?” The rainbow of responses indicated that Mr. Putin was again leaving his own people guessing. Several members of the opposition dared to hope that with problems building up at home and parliamentary elections coming in September, Mr. Putin may be ready to focus more on domestic ills. “The choice is simple: It’s either a mobilization against an external enemy or mobilization against internal problems,” Dmitry Gudkov, one of few members of the opposition in Parliament, wrote on his Facebook page. “If suddenly, and almost unbelievably, it is the second, even ahead of elections, we at least have a slim chance.”

Syria
Russia
Bashar al-Assad
International relations
Military
Vladimir Putin


Indictment of Doctor Tests Drug Marketing Rules

Abstract: At first, Dr. Peter Gleason thought his arrest was a joke. In the early afternoon of Monday, March 6, half a dozen men in suits surrounded Dr. Gleason, a Maryland psychiatrist, at a train station on Long Island and handcuffed him. “I said, ‘Well, this is a gag,’ ” Dr. Gleason recalled in a recent interview. “They said, ‘No, this isn’t.’ ” Dr. Gleason, 53, was taken aback because he was arrested, and later charged, for doing something that has become common among doctors: promoting a drug for purposes other than those approved by the federal government. But prosecutors say that Dr. Gleason went too far. At hundreds of speeches and seminars where he was rewarded with generous fees, Dr. Gleason advised other physicians that a powerful drug for narcolepsy could be prescribed for depression and pain relief. In doing so, he conspired with the drug’s manufacturer to recommend it for potentially dangerous uses, the prosecutors claim. The case has put the spotlight on the murky financial relationships between drug companies and the physicians they use to promote their medicines. Companies cannot directly advertise drugs for purposes not approved by the Food and Drug Administration . But getting drugs prescribed for unapproved uses can increase a drug’s sales, so companies often skirt the rules by sponsoring seminars where doctors are paid to make presentations promoting their drugs, including the “off label” uses. For doctors, these and other payments they receive for discussing drugs can be very lucrative. Dr. Gleason acknowledges that he received more than $100,000 last year alone from Jazz Pharmaceuticals , which makes Xyrem, the narcolepsy drug he has promoted. His case could establish limits on what doctors can do to help companies sell their drugs. But any precedent could be complicated by the history of Xyrem, which differs in one important way from other drugs. Because the active ingredient in Xyrem is gamma hydroxybutyrate, or GHB, an illegal street drug with a history of use in date rape and of overdose hazards, Xyrem is listed as a federally controlled substance, with distribution tightly monitored. Some doctors who have researched Xyrem say that Dr. Gleason, in his enthusiasm for the drug, may have understated its very real risks. Still, at least one former F.D.A. official says that the government appears to be overreaching in going after Dr. Gleason and may chill a common and legitimate form of medical discussion. “This is a very, very scary development,” said Daniel E. Troy, a partner at Sidley Austin and the former chief counsel of the F.D.A. Dr. Steven Nissen, the interim chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, said the case could “have a chilling effect on physicians, because when we give lectures, we assume that giving an opinion about the use of a drug is not going to get us into legal difficulty.” The F.D.A. and federal lawyers, he said, need to restrict criminal prosecutions to especially egregious cases of off-label promotion. Continuing to Practice Dr. Gleason, who is now free on bail and continues to practice medicine, insists that he is not guilty of conspiracy. He says that he was charged only after he refused to help the government build a case against the drug’s maker, Jazz Pharmaceuticals — a sequence of events that court documents seem to support. Dr. Gleason freely acknowledges that in meetings with other doctors, he advocated Xyrem as a treatment for many conditions, including depression and fibromyalgia, a poorly understood pain disorder. In a news release about the indictment, an assistant F.B.I. director compared Dr. Gleason to a “carnival snake-oil salesman.” But the doctor says that based on his own experience giving Xyrem to patients, he believes everything he said about the drug and that his right to express his views are protected by both F.D.A. rules and the First Amendment. Some lawyers who have reviewed Dr. Gleason’s case, but are not representing him, say they agree. Dr. Gleason has been trapped in the complex rules that cover what doctors and drug manufacturers are allowed to say about prescription drugs, according to Harvey A. Silverglate, a lawyer in Boston who specializes in civil liberties cases. “What they are doing is criminalizing conduct that is not clearly criminal,” said Mr. Silverglate, who is not involved in Dr. Gleason’s defense. Neither the F.D.A. nor the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn, which indicted Dr. Gleason, would comment on the case. Nor would David Loftus, a public defender who took over the case after Dr. Gleason determined he could not afford a private lawyer. Jazz Pharmaceuticals, which has not been charged, also declined to comment. F.D.A. rules allow doctors to prescribe federally approved drugs for any purpose, even if it is not indicated on the medicine’s label. But drug companies are tightly constrained in what they can say about their medicines. Companies can promote drugs only for their federally approved purposes — their so-called “on label” use. “Off label” promotion by drug companies is illegal, and since 2000 drug makers have paid large fines to settle federal criminal cases over off-label prescriptions. Pfizer, for example, paid $430 million in 2004 to settle allegations that it had promoted Neurontin, an anti- epilepsy medicine, for pain and bipolar disorder . Despite the F.D.A.’s constraints on drug makers, though, the companies are allowed to hire independent doctors to talk to other physicians about their medicines. Companies can also sponsor “continuing medical education” sessions, ranging from lunches to weeklong conferences, where specialist doctors tell other physicians about the latest developments in their fields — including off-label uses for drugs already on the market. For such speaking engagements, doctors can receive $3,000 or more a day from the companies. In other words, the F.D.A. rules allow drug makers to pay independent doctors to discuss medicines in ways that might be illegal for the companies themselves. Beyond the federal rules, guidelines by doctors’ groups give physicians wide latitude to talk about off-label use. The American Medical Association considers continuing-education sessions valuable and believes that doctors should be free to prescribe drugs for off-label use, according to Dr. Edward Langston, a member of the A.M.A. board. In general, though, he said, the A.M.A. believes doctors should rely on peer-reviewed research, not anecdotal evidence, when they write off-label prescriptions. The Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education, which oversees the groups that create medical education sessions, loosened its rules in 2004 so that speakers would not have to disclose whether a recommended use is on-label or off-label, said Dr. Murray Kopelow, the council’s chief executive. “The A.C.C.M.E. abandoned the distinction between off-label and on-label,’’ Dr. Kopelow said. Instead speakers should make recommendations based on accepted medical and scientific evidence, he added. Dr. Gleason acknowledges that he did not follow those evidence-based guidelines when discussing Xyrem in hundreds of speeches and seminars from 2003 to 2006. The talks were paid for by the original maker of Xyrem, a company called Orphan Medical. Orphan was acquired by Jazz Pharmaceuticals in June 2005. In one seminar cited in the federal indictment, a session last August in Denver, Dr. Gleason told doctors that “table salt is more dangerous” than Xyrem — a statement scoffed at by other experts on the drug. An Aid to Sleep Quality Xyrem’s active ingredient GHB is a fast-acting central nervous system depressant developed as an anesthetic in the 1960’s. The drug improves sleep quality, enabling narcoleptics to stay awake the next day, according to physicians who specialize in treating sleep disorders . But because GHB can suppress breathing, overdoses can cause coma or death. “It has the potential to do a lot of good if it’s used properly, the potential to do a lot of harm if it’s used improperly,” said Dr. Martin Scharf, the director of the Tri-State Sleep Disorders Clinic in Cincinnati, who said he had studied GHB in hundreds of patients since the early 1980’s. In 2000, after highly publicized cases in which young women died or were raped after GHB was slipped into their drinks, Congress designated the drug a Schedule I controlled substance, in the same class as heroin. But by then, doctors had shown that GHB could treat cataplexy, a variant of narcolepsy that causes people to suffer temporary paralysis. After lobbying from doctors and Orphan Medical, Congress said that if the F.D.A. chose to approve prescription GHB, it would be designated as a Schedule III controlled substance, legal for medical use, like the painkiller Vicodin or steroids . In 2002, after Orphan presented clinical trial data showing GHB’s effectiveness against cataplexy, the F.D.A. approved the drug, under the brand name Xyrem, as a cataplexy treatment. In 2005, the agency approved Xyrem for the treatment of all forms of narcolepsy. To help persuade the F.D.A. to approve Xyrem, Orphan Medical agreed to make the drug available only from a single pharmacy in Missouri, which ships it to patients nationally. No other prescription drug, even other Schedule III medicines, is so tightly controlled. For now, Xyrem, which costs more than $600 a month, is a niche product, with sales of about $25 million last year. Dr. Gleason said he had been interested in Xyrem even before the drug was officially approved because he believed that other medicines for insomnia and depression were addictive or had serious side effects. “I immediately just started prescribing this stuff in 2002,” he said. He prescribed the drug to about 100 of the patients he saw in his private practice in Maryland, almost always for off-label conditions like insomnia and severe depression. Xyrem seemed to work better than existing treatments, he said. By early 2003, a sales representative for Orphan Medical, noting Dr. Gleason’s high rate of prescriptions, asked him if he would give talks to other doctors about Xyrem. “I started doing those, and I started getting requested a lot,” Dr. Gleason said. He received $450 to visit a doctor in the office, $750 for speaking at a luncheon and $1,500 for a dinner speech. He made as much as $3,000 a day, he said. Although he continued to see some patients, the Xyrem talks gradually became his primary source of income. In April 2005, after a tip from a whistleblower inside Orphan Medical, the government began investigating Dr. Gleason and the company, according to an affidavit that Darren Petri, a criminal investigator for the F.D.A., filed in February in support of an arrest warrant for Dr. Gleason. The affidavit says that a cooperating witness repeatedly taped Dr. Gleason as he discussed Xyrem, including the Denver talk where he compared Xyrem to table salt and a meeting in November where he said Xyrem was safe for children. The indictment also charges that Dr. Gleason committed fraud against insurance companies by advising doctors to leave blank an area on the Xyrem prescription form that asked for a disease diagnosis. Dr. Gleason acknowledges that he told doctors not to offer a diagnosis but says he never told them to lie if they were asked for one. Dr. Gleason says he did not know he was under investigation when he went to Great Neck, N.Y., on March 5 to talk to doctors about Xyrem during a lunch meeting at the office of Dr. Richard Blanck, a neurologist. The meeting had been arranged by a Jazz Pharmaceuticals salesman, Al Caronia, Dr. Gleason said. An Unexpected Arrest Dr. Blanck confirmed the meeting and said Dr. Gleason’s comments seemed typical for a sales presentation sponsored by a drug company. Mr. Caronia did not return calls seeking comment. Afterward, Dr. Gleason says that Mr. Caronia drove him to the Long Island Rail Road station in the village center, to begin his journey home. When he stepped out of the car, Dr. Gleason says, Mr. Petri and other investigators surrounded him, bundled him into a sport utility vehicle and drove him to the Great Neck police station. Mr. Caronia was not arrested. The federal agents said he would have to cooperate in their investigation into Jazz Pharmaceuticals, Dr. Gleason contends. “They said, ‘Who in this company roped you into this conspiracy?’ ’’ Insisting that he had broken no laws, Dr. Gleason said he tried to persuade Mr. Petri and the others that his views on Xyrem were scientifically based. He was released later that day. Dr. Gleason’s account is at least partly supported by a letter on March 13 from Geoffrey Kaiser, an assistant United States attorney, to Lois Bloom, the federal magistrate judge overseeing the case. In the letter, Mr. Kaiser asks that the case be kept quiet because Mr. Gleason may “be willing to cooperate with this office in its broader investigation.” On Bail and Short on Work The same day, Dr. Gleason was arraigned in Federal District Court in Brooklyn, where he was released on a $150,000 bond. It was not until three weeks later, on April 5, that the federal attorney’s office announced Dr. Gleason’s arrest, with the news release comparing him to a snake-oil salesman. As he awaits further hearings and trial, Dr. Gleason, who is divorced, is supporting himself by working as an in-house doctor on short-term contracts. For a brief period, he worked at a Maryland state hospital, before being let go. He said the hospital told him he had been fired because of the indictment; a spokesman for the hospital declined to comment. Now he is filling in at various hospitals in Western states, which he did not want to identify for fear of losing the work. As for his former benefactor, Jazz, Dr. Gleason says the company told him it was now cooperating with the investigation and that he would have to face the indictment on his own. “They’re just cutting me loose,” he said. For all that, Dr. Gleason said he still believed in Xyrem. “The only thing symmetrical with the efficacy and safety of GHB is the hysteria about it.” Those sorts of claims discomfort even other doctors and researchers who agree that the drug may be useful. “He is a very smart man, and I believe he is extremely well intentioned,” Dr. Scharf said. “But this is not candy. It’s not a cure-all.”

Doctors
Food and Drug Administration
Jazz Pharmaceuticals
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Advertising and Marketing


U.S. Could Lift Sanctions Before Iran Accounting

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry signaled for the first time on Tuesday that the United States was prepared to ease economic sanctions on Iran without fully resolving evidence suggesting that Iran’s scientists have been involved in secret work on nuclear weapons. In his first State Department news conference since breaking his leg last month in a bicycling accident, Mr. Kerry suggested major sanctions might be lifted long before international inspectors get definitive answers to their longstanding questions about Iranian experiments and nuclear design work that appeared aimed at developing a bomb. The sanctions block oil sales and financial transfers. “We’re not fixated on Iran specifically accounting for what they did at one point in time or another,” said Mr. Kerry, who appeared by video from Boston. Instead, he said: “It’s critical to us to know that going forward, those activities have been stopped, and that we can account for that in a legitimate way. That clearly is one of the requirements in our judgment for what has to be achieved in order to have a legitimate agreement.” The question of how far to press Iran to formally acknowledge in extensive detail what its nuclear scientists have been working on for more than a decade has been a highly contentious issue in the negotiations. Robert J. Einhorn, who was part of the American delegation to the Iran talks until 2013, wrote recently for the Brookings Institution that the question was “perhaps the most difficult unresolved issue” standing in the way of a nuclear agreement with Iran. With the June 30 deadline for reaching an agreement approaching, Mr. Kerry said that the issue of Iran’s past suspected nuclear activities needed to be “addressed.” But he made it clear that sanctions could be lifted before definitely resolving concerns of the International Atomic Energy Agency about Iran’s past nuclear research. Mr. Kerry insisted that the deadline for an agreement was still real and said that he planned to attend the talks, which are to be held in Vienna this month. The arguments over whether Iran would be compelled to describe the activities of teams of scientists who worked for several organizations run by Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, long ago identified as the leader of the military effort, have usually broken down along two lines. Those favoring full disclosure of what diplomats have delicately called the “possible military dimensions” of Iranian nuclear research say that the West will never know exactly how long it would take Iran to manufacture a weapon — if it ever developed or obtained bomb-grade uranium or plutonium — unless there is a full picture of its success in suspected experiments to design the detonation systems for a weapon and learn how to shrink it to fit atop a missile. For a decade, since obtaining data from an Iranian scientist on a laptop that was spirited out of the country, the C.I.A. and Israel have devoted enormous energy to understanding the scope and success of the program. Failing to require disclosure, they argue, would also undercut the atomic agency — a quiet signal to other countries that they, too, could be given a pass. Those who oppose requiring Iran to describe the past fully say that Iran will never tolerate the embarrassment of disclosing what its scientists were doing and will never violate its vow that its scientists, some of whom have been killed in car bombings attributed to Israel, will not be challenged by foreigners about their past work. The important thing, they say, is not to insist that Iran acknowledge its suspected pre-2003 program to develop nuclear weapons, but to establish the principle that the atomic agency can interview Iranian nuclear scientists and visit key military research sites so the United States and its negotiating partners can be sure that such weapons work is not continuing. Mr. Kerry seemed to lean in that direction on Tuesday when he said assurances about the future were more important than excavating the past. “Access is very, very critical,” Mr. Kerry said. “It’s always been critical from Day 1.” In suggesting that it was not imperative to resolve questions of Iran’s past research before lifting sanctions, Mr. Kerry asserted that American intelligence had a clear picture of what past work Iranian scientists had done, even if the atomic agency did not. “We have no doubt,” Mr. Kerry said. “We have absolute knowledge with respect to the certain military activities they were engaged in.” Some experts outside the government challenged that assertion. “It looks like a weakening of the United States’ prior position, or at least laying the initial basis for a weakening later,” said David Albright, the president of the Institution for Science and International Security. “If the U.S. government knows so much about Iran’s nuclear weapons program,” Mr. Albright added, it “should publish openly a detailed history of Iran’s nuclear program, including names, dates, activities and places.” Mr. Einhorn said that Mr. Kerry’s comments appeared to be an explicit acknowledgment of an unstated assumption behind the Obama administration’s negotiating stance. “The administration has long believed that what is most important is having confidence that Iran is not continuing nuclear weapons-related activities at present and will not pursue those activities in the future,” he said in an interview.

Iran
John Kerry
Nuclear weapon
US
Embargoes Sanctions
US Foreign Policy
CIA
US Military


Chasing a Playoff Spot, the Jets Must Win and Hope

Abstract: Instead of going Christmas shopping, as he thought he might wind up doing, Todd Bowles spent much of Sunday at the Jets’ complex. He and his staff analyzed film from the Jets’ 19-16 victory over the Dallas Cowboys and then started to prepare for their rematch with the New England Patriots. Those responsibilities prevented Bowles from watching any of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ comeback against the Denver Broncos, whose loss after they led by 17 points foiled the Jets’ hopes of improving their playoff status. Despite sharing a 9-5 record with Pittsburgh and the Kansas City Chiefs, the Jets slipped behind them in the A.F.C. wild-card standings on tiebreakers. “You’ve got to win the last two games and just hope for the best — that’s all you can do,” Bowles said in a teleconference Monday. He added: “We’re just going to try to win those two games and make positive steps going forward. If the football gods deem that we’re worthy and somehow we win the last two games, maybe we will, maybe we won’t” — make the playoffs — “but you can’t worry about it because you can’t control it.” As Bowles said, the Jets are at the mercy of other teams. By this time next week, they will be preparing for a finale, at Buffalo, that could determine their presence in the postseason. Or they could be eliminated from contention, failing to reach the playoffs for a fifth consecutive season. The only certain way to maintain relevance is to defeat the Patriots. Even if that happens, the Jets will need some assistance. Winning their final two games, and finishing the season on a six-game streak, would not guarantee the Jets a postseason berth. Pittsburgh, Kansas City or Denver would have to lose once. Only two 11-5 teams have missed the playoffs since the season expanded to 16 games in 1978, the 1985 Broncos and the 2008 Patriots. The Jets could slide in at 10-6 as long as one of those three teams lost their last two. According to the N.F.L., four A.F.C. teams can clinch a playoff berth in Week 16, but the Jets are not one of them. They could be eliminated, though, by a combination of results: a loss to New England coupled with victories by Pittsburgh (at Baltimore), Kansas City (versus Cleveland) and Denver (versus Cincinnati), which plays next Monday night. If the first three outcomes happen, chances are that Bowles will find a way to have the television on. There could surely be worse positions for the Jets — heading into their Week 16 meeting with New England last season, they were 3-11 — but it must frustrate them that winning the last four games has hardly improved their standing. The Chiefs keep winning, with eight victories in a row. So do the Steelers, who have won five of six. And now the Jets face an opponent vastly superior to the teams they have dispatched during this streak. Those four victories came against teams — the Miami Dolphins, the Giants, the Tennessee Titans and Dallas — that are a combined 18-38 this season. The A.F.C. East champions, the Patriots, are 12-2, and with a victory Sunday, they would clinch home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. “There’s a different feeling about the game; it’s not necessarily the Patriots,” Bowles said, adding; “We’ve got to give ourselves a chance. It doesn’t matter who we were playing this week — it would be an important game; it would be a big game.” The last time the Jets played New England, on Oct. 25, they held a 20-16 lead with less than eight minutes left but allowed two late touchdown passes by Tom Brady. That loss showcased a team struggling to handle late-game situations. Since then, the Jets have bungled away potential comebacks in losses to Buffalo and at Houston , but they went on to demonstrate impressive composure in comebacks against the Giants and Dallas, which led by 13-9 with nine minutes remaining. Until the Jets edged the Giants on Dec. 6, all six of their previous victories had come after they led at halftime or went ahead early in the third quarter. Across the fourth quarter and overtime against Dallas and the Giants, Ryan Fitzpatrick completed 71.8 percent of his passes (28 of 39) for 326 yards, two touchdowns and no interceptions. More than any Jets quarterback in years, Fitzpatrick has inspired confidence and belief among his teammates. “We’ve grown some,” Bowles said. “You have to play the game on Sunday to find that out.” That game will reveal whether the Jets are a potential force or if they have just beaten inferior opponents. It will decide their playoff viability. It will also be the most important of Bowles’s tenure, although he does not choose to view it that way. “Hopefully, I have a long career,” he said, “and have bigger ones.” EXTRA POINTS Todd Bowles said the back contusion that sidelined linebacker David Harris for the final three quarters Saturday night should not jeopardize his availability for the New England game. Bowles said cornerback Dee Milliner, who strained his hamstring on special teams, was day to day.


France’s Largest Labor Union May Have Overplayed Its Hand

Abstract: PARIS — There is a back story to the strikes that have made life miserable for millions across France in recent weeks, and it isn’t about high unemployment, immigration or the other issues confronting the country and its increasingly unpopular president, François Hollande. It has to do with raw labor politics — and the disproportionate role played by the General Confederation of Labor, France’s oldest union, which has ties to the once-powerful Communist Party, from which it has kept a Marxist-Leninist call to class struggle. With just under 700,000 members, most of them in the public sector, the C.G.T., as it is commonly known, has moved its fight against a proposed labor law beyond the streets. It has spearheaded mass demonstrations, and small numbers of militant strikers have blocked the gates of oil refineries, nuclear power stations, wholesale food markets and waste treatment facilities. Joined by smaller, more radical unions, the strikes have spread, as rail workers and Air France pilots piled on with narrow demands unrelated to the labor law. Fueling the unrest is widespread dissatisfaction with a Socialist government seen as having betrayed its leftist principles, which explains recent vandalism against local party headquarters. At the heart of it all is the C.G.T., which is now battling to hold its place as France’s No. 1 union, a position it has traditionally used to face down successive French governments on the right and on the left. This time, the union has resorted to strong-arm methods that have been described as terrorist by Pierre Gattaz, president of the Medef, the main business lobbying group in France. The most striking example came on May 26 when the union shut down publication of France’s largest newspapers after they refused to publish a full-page opinion piece written by Philippe Martinez, the union’s recently elected general secretary. Image Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the General Confederation of Labor, or C.G.T. Asked last month if it was time to end the strikes, he said: “I am like an airplane. I am just taking off.” Credit Bertrand Langlois/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “The C.G.T. is going for broke,” wrote Michel Noblecourt, the labor correspondent at Le Monde , the French newspaper. “It has been weakened in its historic bastions and ahead of union elections in March 2017, there are strong risks that it will find itself” in second place. The paradox is that France is one of the least unionized countries in Europe. According to a government study issued last month , only 11.2 percent of French workers, about 2.9 million, belonged to the country’s eight main unions in 2013, more than two-thirds in the public sector. In 2014, the C.G.T. had 676,623 members, down 2 percent from the previous year, according to the union’s figures. At union elections in 2013, it earned 26.7 percent of the votes, just ahead of the 26 percent received by its moderate rival, the French Democratic Confederation of Labor, which did not join the strikes this spring. After his election last April as leader of the C.G.T., Mr. Martinez was open about his agenda. “Our fear,” he said at the time, “is to no longer be the first union organization in France.” Asked on May 26 whether it was time to end the strikes, Mr. Martinez said, “I am like an airplane. I am just taking off.” The question is whether these militant tactics will pay off. The French are traditionally tolerant of labor action, but this time, as the garbage piles up and commuters fight their way onto crowded trains, there are signs that the union may have overplayed its hand. But it has already exacted a price. Seeking to end the social unrest, the government has stripped the proposed labor law of most of its consequential elements. Little is left of the original ambition to loosen France’s rigid labor market, but with an exception that is a source of extreme concern for the C.G.T.: a rule that would allow employers to negotiate with unions at the factory — rather than the sector — level. The union’s influence has always come from its role as an actor on the national stage, capable of going head-to-head against the government. A devolution to the local level would be a blow to its disproportionate power, which could mean that these last weeks of chaos might end up being the C.G.T.’s swan song.

Confederation Generale du Travail France


Even as Army Seizes Power, Egyptians Claim Revolt as Their Own

Abstract: CAIRO — Soldiers killed her brother Mina almost two years ago , when the generals still ran Egypt. But on Thursday, a day after President Mohamed Morsi was deposed and generals again took a leading role in the country, Mina’s sister, Mary Daniel, said she was “happy, and the people are happy.” “It was not a military coup,” said Ms. Daniel, who sat in Tahrir Square as air force helicopters buzzed the crowd in a display at once exultant and vain. A general may have announced Egypt’s new order, but legitimacy belonged to the millions who had marched, she said. “Now, the sight of the people will scare anyone,” she said. In protest squares and elsewhere in Egypt, it was hard to find much hand-wringing about the circumstances that forced Mr. Morsi from power, swept away in disgrace by an army edict just a year after becoming Egypt’s first freely elected president. Instead, the military was widely seen as a servant of the popular will — moved to step in after the largest demonstrations anyone could remember — and not some rogue actor, instigating change. Egyptians coined new phrases that better suited the character of their second revolt in less than three years while distancing it somewhat from the military. “It was a people’s coup,” said Hussein Abdulrazak, who sat outside his clothing store near Tahrir Square, where revelers carried portraits of Egypt’s defense minister. For Mr. Morsi’s most strident opponents, who hated the blend of religion and politics that the president represented, the elation needed no caveat, no explanation. Most people, though, said they were willing to bless a temporary role for the army only after considering what they said were the president’s dangerous and extraordinary failures. They included pocketbook issues and deeper worries about identity, as Egypt fractured in alarming ways. The loss of stature in the world that many hoped would ease after Mr. Mubarak’s ouster instead grew more pronounced, as on the day last month when the government appointed a former member of a militant group as governor of Luxor, Egypt’s prized tourist destination, embarrassing the country. The president frequently saluted young people killed by the authorities. But their cases stayed cold, and Mr. Morsi never made public a report about their deaths. Mr. Morsi said he was the leader of the whole country, but sat silently last month, listening, when a cleric called Egyptian Shiites unclean. “The military helped. But the people made him leave. God willing, we’re celebrating,” said Mr. Abdulrazak, whose own complaints started in his shop when safety concerns in the area kept customers away. Cairo Reacts to Overthrow of President 14 Photos View Slide Show › Image Tara Todras-Whitehill for The New York Times There was no getting around the fact that Mr. Morsi was the winner, however narrowly, in an election. Some people tried revising history to explain why disregarding the vote might be acceptable. In a tent near what had been Mr. Morsi’s palace, Moussa Moussa, a political activist and real estate developer, called the elections that had brought Mr. Morsi to power and allowed Islamists to capture 75 percent of the seats in the parliament “a Hollywood movie,” suggesting that the internationally monitored elections had been rigged. And he said that the jurist who became Egypt’s interim president — and whom most Egyptians had scarcely heard of — was “one of the best judges in one of the best courts in the world.” Near the tent, opponents of the president prepared to slaughter sheep that had been marked with the names of Mr. Morsi and other Muslim Brotherhood leaders, to celebrate. And the country was riveted by cascading news updates about the arrest of the Brotherhood’s leaders. “We are going to start a new relationship with the world,” Mr. Moussa said. But there was alarm, too, at the Brotherhood arrests. “It’s not clear on what authority this is happening,” said Sally Sami, a human-rights activist. “I want a state of law, and for institutions to be respected. What happens to them,” she said, referring to the Brotherhood leaders, “will be acceptable one day for me.” But her sense of caution did not preclude happiness at Mr. Morsi’s fall. Critics of his ouster seemed to have relied on a narrow definition of democracy, Ms. Sami said. “Why is it just ballot boxes? Are ballot boxes the only forms of democratic expression when the rulers fail the people?” she said. “Why did we have to bear his bad administration at a time when the country cannot cope with such failure?” She was satisfied, for now, with the road map proposed by the army for a civilian-led transition. Ms. Sami and other activists said they would take to the streets again, if the army did not keep its promises. “My conscience is comfortable,” she said. In his coffee shop, Ayman Hakim said that what had happened to Mr. Morsi may have been unfair, but that the alternative was worse. Egypt did not have four years to dither as the economy collapsed. And he could not wait any longer for the customers to fill his cafe. Under Mr. Morsi, religion had become a wedge, and “Egyptians did not feel comfortable,” said Mr. Hakim, who as a teenager had been a Brotherhood member. Egypt’s only other power, the army, stepped in “like a big father” to protect the country, he said. And that was just fine with him. “I’m looking toward the future,” he said.

Egypt
Mohamed Morsi
Military
Tahrir Square
Election
Arab Spring
Coups D'Etat
Muslim Brotherhood Egypt


Dwight Howard Trade Gives Lakers Large Piece of Puzzle

Abstract: The N.B.A.’s premier center — a towering, talented mass of muscle, shot-blocking and bravado — was fitted for a Los Angeles Lakers jersey Friday, leaving fans of 29 other teams a small range of emotional options. Envy is a given. Anger and despair are understandable. Bewilderment, justifiable. The Orlando Magic seemingly had better options than the four-team trade that sent Dwight Howard to Los Angeles for a package of good-but-not-great players and three first-round picks of limited potential. The Magic gained some serenity but lost in every other category that matters. The Denver Nuggets (Andre Iguodala) and Philadelphia 76ers (Andrew Bynum) got a little better for helping Los Angeles and Orlando make the deal. And the Lakers? They simply landed the best big man of the era — for the second time in 16 years. In 1996, Shaquille O’Neal left Orlando for Los Angeles as a free agent to join a young Kobe Bryant . This time, it is Howard — O’Neal’s physical and spiritual heir — who will join an aging Bryant in hopes of extending the Laker dynasty. The N.B.A. is a parity-conscious league, the first to institute a salary cap, maximum contracts, a draft lottery, a luxury tax and an increasingly byzantine array of rules aimed at dispersing talent across 30 franchises. The Lakers, in defiance of it all, keep accruing the best players, exploiting every wrinkle in that array. So, amid the envy and anger, there should be room as well for a little awe and appreciation. The Lakers have missed the playoffs just twice in the last 36 seasons. They have hung 10 championship banners since 1980, with Magic and Kareem passing the legacy to Kobe and Shaq, who gave way to Kobe and Pau Gasol. Each time a championship core fades, crumbles or self-destructs, a new one rises. Laker dry spells (hello, Nick Van Exel, Cedric Ceballos and Kwame Brown) are rare and generally brief. By all indications, the Lakers — after titles in 2009 and 2010 — were hurtling toward another rut. Their last two postseasons ended in humiliation — a sweep by Dallas in 2011 and a five-game beatdown by the Oklahoma City Thunder last spring. The Lakers had a deal to acquire the All-Star guard Chris Paul last December — a trade that would have gone down as another noteworthy achievement — but it was vetoed by Commissioner David Stern, acting in his role as the de facto owner of the New Orleans Hornets. So Bryant pushed his team through another season, looking more vulnerable than ever on 33-year-old knees. Still, it was Bryant who serenely declared, after losing to the Thunder in May: “I’m sure we’ll figure it out. We always have, and I’m sure we will again.” He was more right than even he could ever have imagined. Last month, the Lakers acquired Steve Nash, still one of the N.B.A.’s most dazzling playmakers, to revive a sluggish offense. Now they have Howard, a three-time defensive player of the year, to protect the rim. Howard never wanted to follow O’Neal’s path from Orlando to Los Angeles, or to assume the legacy of Kareem, Wilt Chamberlain and George Mikan. He preferred the relative comfort of Brooklyn, where he would find a clean slate and low expectations. But Magic officials were never enamored of the Nets’ assets (Brook Lopez and draft picks), nor sufficiently moved by the combination of prospects, picks and cap relief offered by Houston. Nor did Orlando want to take a chance on the Lakers’ All-Star center, the 24-year-old Bynum, with his history of moodiness and knee problems. It took the participation of Denver and Philadelphia to make a deal possible. It took the relentless focus of the Lakers’ front office, led by General Manager Mitch Kupchak, to put Howard in purple and gold. “I told him Los Angeles is the perfect place for him,” Bryant told reporters at the Olympics in London. “Look at history and all the great centers that have come to L.A. Now he’s the next in line.” The Lakers can now claim the N.B.A.’s best starting backcourt (Nash and Bryant) and its top big-man tandem (Gasol and Howard), albeit built on 30-something talents with a small window to contend. Bryant, who turns 34 this month, has two years left on his contract, and perhaps in his career. Gasol, 32, also has a contract expiring in 2014. Nash is signed through 2014-15 and could help bridge the eras, from one dominated by Bryant to one built around Howard. “Now,” Bryant said, “they have a player who can carry the franchise well after I’m gone.” In the meantime, the Lakers should be brilliantly entertaining as Bryant chases a sixth ring and Howard and Nash aim for their first. It will cost them plenty — an estimated $70 million in luxury tax in 2013-14, when the new system takes effect, a sum that only the Lakers and the Knicks could likely afford. If it all looks unseemly in the wake of a lockout that was partly aimed at competitive balance, consider this: It took the participation of two small-market teams (Orlando and Denver) and one midmarket team (Phoenix) to build the Lakers’ new behemoth. The hand-wringing also ignores the work done by the Lakers to put themselves in this position. They used a trade exception — acquired in a deal for Lamar Odom last December — to fit Nash into the payroll. They used Bynum, who may be the second-best center in the league, to land Howard. Bynum, incidentally, was the Lakers’ last lottery pick, taken 10th in 2005. Perhaps the forces of nature and market size have conspired to place the best players in Los Angeles. Or maybe the Lakers are just better at this game than everyone else.

Los Angeles Lakers
Orlando Magic
O'Neal Shaquille
Howard Dwight
Bryant Kobe
Basketball
Trades (Sports)


College Football - Syracuse and Pittsburgh Join A.C.C.

Abstract: In a move that was as swift as it was stunning, the Atlantic Coast Conference introduced Syracuse and Pittsburgh as conference members Sunday morning. Citing the desire for more long-term financial stability, the two universities departed the Big East to make the A.C.C. the country’s first major conference with 14 football teams. Before they join the A.C.C., Syracuse and Pittsburgh are contractually obligated to wait more than two years and pay a $5 million exit fee. But they could negotiate an earlier exit. Perhaps more important for the delicate conference landscape in college sports, the move could be a harbinger of more moves around the country. Texas A&M is awaiting legal clearance to join the Southeastern Conference, and Oklahoma and Texas’ boards of regents are scheduled to meet Monday to discuss a move to the Pacific-12. There has been enough chaos that it could raise the interest of Congress this week. “In all my years of collegiate administration, I’ve never seen this level of uncertainty and potential fluidity among schools and conferences,” said A.C.C. Commissioner John Swofford, who said more than 10 colleges inquired about joining his conference. “Schools are looking for stability. When that stability doesn’t exist, as long as that’s going on, I think that the conferences that appear to be stable moving forward are going to receive inquiries from schools that desire that kind of stability.” The move leaves the Big East scrambling — much as in 2003, when Boston College, Virginia Tech and Miami decided to leave for the A.C.C. As the league attempts to regroup again, probably by collaborating with universities from the Big 12, league officials say they are not pleased that Swofford has discussed holding the A.C.C. basketball tournament at Madison Square Garden. The Big East has played there since 1983 and has a contract with the Garden through 2016. A Garden spokesman did not comment on the possibility of the A.C.C. tournament’s being played there. The Big East is expected to retain its automatic bid to a Bowl Championship Series game through the 2013 season. This move by Pittsburgh and Syracuse, like others around the conference landscape, was driven by the money that comes from televising football games. The administrators at the A.C.C., Pittsburgh and Syracuse issued statements discussing academics, geographic footprints and peer institutions, but the decision came down to more money in a more stable environment. (The A.C.C. presidents also agreed to increase the league’s exit fee to approximately $20 million.) Big East officials will open negotiations for television rights in September 2012, and they had been optimistic that new deals would be richer than the A.C.C.’s, which is worth $155 million annually. That possibility is now remote. Swofford said that the addition of the two universities would allow the A.C.C. to renegotiate its contract with ESPN. “We’re confident that it will have a positive impact,” Swofford said of the addition of Pittsburgh and Syracuse. Swofford said he was comfortable with the size of the league but not averse to change. Two universities that are interested in joining the A.C.C. are Connecticut and Rutgers, with UConn making much more of an effort to be invited. Swofford declined to answer a question specifically about Rutgers, but did say that further expansion was an option. “We are not philosophically opposed to 16,” Swofford said. The A.C.C. has spoken with Texas, one of the biggest prizes remaining in the conference landscape, but Swofford’s comments hinted that the conference’s philosophies would not mesh with Texas and its Longhorn Network. He declined to comment specifically on Texas, but did say that it could not get more money than its peers in the A.C.C., as it does in the Big 12. “Equal revenue-sharing is sacred,” Swofford said. “That’s been a very important, fundamental part of this league since the early 1980s. I do not see that changing.” Swofford said the additions of Syracuse and Pittsburgh came after assessing the shifting college-sports landscape, not specifically the threat of a current A.C.C. university leaving for the SEC. “In a subtle way, when you look at the past year or so and see the movement with the Pac-12 potentially having gone further and may still, the Big Ten expanding and the SEC expanding,” he said, “all of that comes into play, not necessarily in a measurable way.” In a telephone interview early Sunday morning, a congressman from a state with a university that could be harmed by realignment said that the issue raised concerns over taxes, antitrust law and, potentially, Title IX. While no one has formally approached Congress yet, the congressman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the situation was “spinning out of control.” “I think the situation is rising to a level where getting Congress engaged may be unavoidable,” he said. He added: “Congress has the nexus to engage. These are tax-exempt organizations now making billions off of unpaid athletes. When it’s a regional league, it seems to make sense. When you’re taking schools practically from coast to coast and putting them in big-profit revenue leagues, we may be at a point where the N.C.A.A. has lost its ability to create a fair system for all to play in.” When Miami, Virginia Tech and Boston College left the Big East for the A.C.C. in 2003, the most vocal critic was the Pittsburgh chancellor Mark Nordenberg. He told The Post-Gazette then that the A.C.C.’s move to take them would be viewed as “somewhat of a low point” and accused the A.C.C. and the departing universities in a lawsuit of “broken commitments, secret dealings, breaches of fiduciary responsibility, the misappropriations of conference opportunities and predatory attempts to eliminate competition.” Nordenberg took umbrage at the notion among Big East officials and athletic directors that he had done the same. “We did make clear within the Big East we were willing to work to improve the conference in any way that we were asked,” Nordenberg said. “At the same time, we also made very clear that if other opportunities would arise, we would feel as if we were obligated to assess them.”

Football
Atlantic Coast Conference
Bowl Championship Series
Football (College)
Syracuse University
University of Pittsburgh
Big East Conference
College Athletics


Obama Privately Tells Donors That Time Is Coming to Unite Behind Hillary Clinton

Abstract: In unusually candid remarks, President Obama privately told a group of Democratic donors last Friday that Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont was nearing the point at which his campaign against Hillary Clinton would end, and that the party must soon come together to back her. Mr. Obama acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton was perceived to have weaknesses as a candidate, and that some Democrats did not view her as authentic. But he played down the importance of authenticity, noting that President George W. Bush — whose record he ran aggressively against in 2008 — was once praised for his authenticity. Mr. Obama made the remarks after reporters had left a fund-raising event in Austin, Tex., for the Democratic National Committee. The comments were described by three people in the room for the event, all of whom were granted anonymity to describe a candid moment with the president. The comments were later confirmed by a White House official. Image Senator Bernie Sanders, the Democratic presidential hopeful, at a rally on Tuesday in Phoenix. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times Mr. Obama chose his words carefully, and did not explicitly call on Mr. Sanders to quit the race, according to those in the room. Still, those in attendance said in interviews that they took his comments as a signal to Mr. Sanders that perpetuating his campaign, which is now an uphill climb, could only help the Republicans recapture the White House. Mr. Obama’s message came at a critical juncture for Mr. Sanders, who had just upset Mrs. Clinton in the Michigan primary and has been trying to convince Democrats that his campaign is not over, despite Mrs. Clinton’s formidable lead in delegates. Mr. Obama has been careful in public to avoid disparaging Mr. Sanders, given his deeper history and relationship with Mrs. Clinton. Mr. Obama also does not want to alienate the liberal voters who have flocked to Mr. Sanders. Mr. Obama acknowledged what have emerged as the central complaints about Mrs. Clinton among Democratic activists: that she is not generating enough excitement in her campaign, and lacks the “authenticity” of Mr. Sanders. Those in attendance described an urgency in Mr. Obama’s tone as he suggested that Democrats needed to come together to prevent an opening for the Republicans, whose leading candidate is Donald J. Trump , to exploit. Clinton’s Growing Delegate Lead Is Nearly Unbeatable An interactive delegate calculator that lets you simulate how the 2016 Republican nomination could unfold. Mr. Obama addressed the group four nights before Tuesday’s nominating contests, in which Mrs. Clinton was heavily favored. As it happened, Mrs. Clinton won at least four of the five states that voted — Missouri has yet to be called — further padding her delegates lead. Mr. Obama indicated that he knew some people were not “excited” by Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, a White House official confirmed. But, while he stressed that he was not endorsing either candidate, and that both would make good presidents, Mr. Obama went on to lavish praise on Mrs. Clinton, describing her as smart, tough and experienced, and said that she would continue the work of his administration. Mr. Sanders has publicly criticized Mr. Obama on certain policies and has called for a “political revolution.” Mr. Obama said that he understood the appeal to voters of a candidate who is authentic, the official said. But he also reminded the Texas donors in the room that Mr. Bush was considered authentic when he was running for president, suggesting that being authentic did not necessarily translate into being a good president, in his view. Mr. Trump’s admirers have often praised him for his authenticity and blunt style, contrasting it with Mrs. Clinton’s more cautious approach. The Austin event was hosted by Kirk Rudy, a real estate executive, and raised money for the Democratic National Committee. Attendees paid as much as $33,400 a ticket. Mr. Sanders is trying to reassure supporters and the public that he is still in pursuit of the presidency despite the long odds against him. Some of his supporters have complained that the Democratic National Committee has favored Mrs. Clinton in the primary battle. Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, and his senior campaign adviser, Tad Devine, told reporters Wednesday afternoon that they believed that the senator could still make up Mrs. Clinton’s delegate lead. They added that Mr. Sanders expected to do very well in coming contests in Arizona, Wisconsin, Idaho, Utah, Washington and New York. “We are literally about halfway through,” Mr. Weaver said. Mr. Devine echoed those sentiments. “We agree we are behind, but we also think we are going to win this game,” he said. “We are just not intimidated by the numbers.” Both men also said that it would be unfair to not allow voters in all states to be able to cast their ballots for Mr. Sanders and that he had the money to continue his campaign through the Democratic convention this summer.

Hillary Clinton
Democrats
2016 Presidential Election
Barack Obama
Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders


With Demand Slipping for Its Pickups and S.U.V.’s, G.M. Will Lay Off 3,550

Abstract: DETROIT — General Motors said Monday that it would slash production of big trucks and sport utility vehicles by nearly 140,000 units this year, a move that would eliminate assembly shifts at four plants and cause about 3,550 workers to be laid off. G.M., the world’s largest automaker, has gradually slowed production of many vehicles because of declining demand, but this is the largest one-time cut in recent years. G.M.’s need to make such a large cut, even after many of its truck and S.U.V. plants have been shut down for much of March and April because of a strike at a parts supplier, indicates how sharply sales of these vehicles have fallen. Sales of G.M.’s full-size pickups, the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, which were redesigned for the 2007 model year, fell 16 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Autodata, which tracks industry statistics. Sales of G.M.’s large S.U.V.’s were down 28 percent in the same period. The declines mirror overall decreases in those segments for the industry, but G.M., the top player in both segments, has been hurt the most by the rapid shift in consumers’ preferences. The announcement came on a day when the national average price of regular gasoline hit a high of $3.603 a gallon and a slumping housing market continued to cause a decline in demand for trucks. “With rising fuel prices, a softening economy and a downward trend on current and future market demand for full-size trucks, a significant adjustment was needed to align our production with market realities,” the president of G.M.’s North American operations, Troy Clarke, said in a statement. “This is a difficult move,” he said, “but we remain committed to retaining and growing our leadership position in the full-size truck market.” One of two shifts will be eliminated on July 14 at a plant in Janesville, Wis., that builds the Chevrolet Tahoe and Suburban and GMC Yukon S.U.V.’s and at a full-size pickup truck plant in the Detroit suburb of Pontiac, G.M. said. Also on July 14, one of three shifts will be cut at a plant in Flint, Mich., that builds heavy-duty pickup trucks, and a pickup plant in Oshawa, Ontario, will go to one shift from two on Sept. 8. G.M. said the cuts would reduce truck production by 88,000 units, about 11 percent of its total full-size truck sales in 2007. The planned 50,000 cut in S.U.V. production represents about 15 percent of its sales last year in that segment. Affected workers who do not leave the company voluntarily through an ongoing buyout program that offers them as much as $140,000 will continue receiving benefits and most of their pay under the automaker’s “jobs bank” program, as part of the contract with the United Automobile Workers. G.M.’s 74,000 hourly workers have about three more weeks to decide whether to take a buyout.

Sales
General Motors Corp
Utility Vehicles and Other Light Trucks
Layoffs and Job Reductions
Detroit (Mich)