Two Works Recount Texas A&M’s Flight to Another League

Abstract: The Texas A&M University football team’s win over top-ranked Alabama in 2012 will never be forgotten by the Aggie faithful, but the game is not the only memory that a Texas A&M University System regent carries from that day. Piloting his private jet to Tuscaloosa, Ala., for the game, the regent, Jim Schwertner, secured a prime landing slot at an airport and later persuaded security to let his limo park next to the stadium despite not having a permit — after telling officials he was traveling with the “first lady of Texas A&M.” “I’m sure the air traffic controller had no idea who the first lady of Texas A&M really was,” Mr. Schwertner said, sitting in his Georgetown, Tex., hangar, before launching into laughter. A&M’s “first lady” is a collie named Reveille . Mr. Schwertner recounted the story several times to Richard Box, a former Texas A&M System board chairman, who smiled with each telling. The repetition was not solely for their enjoyment. The men were filming a scene for a planned documentary about Texas A&M’s move to the Southeastern Conference in 2012. A&M’s decision to join the SEC, which has been widely heralded as a transformational move for the university, will be the subject of print and film accounts, set to come out this fall, that detail the behind-the-scenes moves that brought about the change. By leaving the Big 12 Conference for the SEC, the university cut ties with other Texas institutions, including its longtime rival, the University of Texas at Austin. The proposed shift drew a backlash from A&M alumni, threats of lawsuits from other institutions and lobbying from legislators. (The Texas A&M System, the university and U.T.-Austin are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune.) “Village idiots, they don’t understand we’re going to get creamed,” Mr. Schwertner recalled critics saying. “We got a lot of hate mail. Then when it happened and we were successful, everyone took credit then, which is fine with me.” “Victory has a thousand fathers,” Mr. Box agreed, “and defeat is an orphan.” In September, Texas A&M University Press plans to release “The 100-Year Decision: Texas A&M and the SEC,” by R. Bowen Loftin, who was president of Texas A&M from 2009-13 and now serves as the chancellor of the University of Missouri. He wrote the book with Rusty Burson, a vice president of Texas A&M’s 12th Man Foundation , a fund-raising organization that supports Aggie athletics. (Texas A&M University Press is a corporate sponsor of the Tribune.) Mr. Burson said Mr. Loftin’s leadership role in A&M’s move gave him the insight he needed to write the book. Mr. Loftin declined to be interviewed for this article. But Mr. Burson stressed that the book sought to provide one of many perspectives, and that Mr. Loftin was not the only key decision maker. “He certainly relied heavily on his inner circle, on the board of regents and a number of folks to get input,” Mr. Burson said. “But as the president, he was making decisions or was put in position to make some decisions that were very, very difficult. The book gives people a real insight to the thought processes that went into it.” “Breaking Tradition,” the working title for the documentary, aims to be a more definitive account. Individuals close to the project indicated that, because of the personalities involved, wrangling the necessary participants among the key players could prove challenging. John Robison , a 1985 A&M graduate who has led multiple technology and movie production companies, is spearheading the production. Returning to Texas last year after spending several years in Los Angeles, Mr. Robison began toying with the idea of producing a reality show on the Aggie football team’s summer training. But as he delved more into A&M’s decision to switch conferences, he said, “what I found was that the real story was better than a season of ‘Dallas.’ ” Mr. Loftin was largely the public face of the decision, but Mr. Robison, after conducting his own research, came to refer to Mr. Box; Mr. Schwertner; Cliff Thomas, an A&M regent; and Jim Wilson, a former A&M regent, as the “four horsemen” who helped secure the move. “There were people around the decision that had one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat, so to speak,” Mr. Robison said. “I noticed that a lot of people were taking credit for it, but my question was: Who actually had the resolve to get it done?” During a break in filming last week, Mr. Schwertner singled out Mr. Box. Though some university officials had pushed for staying put or moving to a different conference, Mr. Box never wavered in his belief that the SEC was the right choice. Mr. Box returned the compliments by noting that when administrators at Baylor University dangled the possibility of suing over the move, Mr. Schwertner sought the aid of 12th Man Foundation leaders. They came up with enough money to indemnify the conference. Regardless of where most of the credit should go, supporters of A&M’s move to the SEC argue that the change was as much about reputation as it was about revenue. Not only did the university become a part of a conference with a higher national profile, but it managed to step out of the shadow of Texas, which had angered A&M officials in 2011 by announcing a new Longhorn Network as part of a 20-year, $300 million deal with ESPN. Ultimately, an absence of Longhorns on the schedule did not translate to a lack of interest in Aggie football or Texas A&M University. In its first year as part of the SEC, the university announced that it had raised more than $740 million, or more than $300 million over its previous single-year high. “I don’t think football is the end all and be all of what a university is about, but what it does is it focuses attention on the university,” the Texas A&M System chancellor, John Sharp, who joined the system in 2011, said. Mr. Robison, who is aiming to screen “Breaking Tradition” for investors in August and center the film’s release on the Aggies’ October showdown with Alabama, said the conference switch and his film on the topic were about more than football. “A&M was suffering from battered-Aggie syndrome,” he said. “You can’t be great if your goal is only to be as good as the other guys. It took a major breakthrough to get out of that mind-set, and to me, this is also that story. It’s a maturing of our rivalries.” It also may have been a story of stars aligning. In 2012, the school’s football team had a new coach, Kevin Sumlin, and a new quarterback, Johnny Manziel, who won the Heisman Trophy as a freshman and was selected in the first round of the N.F.L. draft this year. If the last two seasons had not been so successful, Mr. Burson said, “I don’t think Aggies would be as likely to want to relive the whole transition.”

Texas
Southeastern Conference
Big 12 Conference
College Sports


Diana Taurasi Can Rest Easy, but W.N.B.A. Can’t

Abstract: When Diana Taurasi announced recently that she would not play in the W.N.B.A. in 2015, she did not have to explain herself to Sue Bird. After all these years, rest for rubles, Bird knew what Taurasi had earned. Bird had spent enough time braving Russian winters with Taurasi, her old college running mate at Connecticut, before rushing back to suit up in Seattle in the spring-summer N.B.A. women’s annex. “In your 20s, you’re on autopilot, you don’t think about it,” Bird said. “But between playing in Russia and the W.N.B.A., you’d get maybe a week off — and I’m not saying that to be dramatic. That’s how little time there was.” Taurasi’s decision was also an unavoidable commentary on the state of the professional game in the United States, just now short of two decades old, not far removed from its developmental cradle. The growth of the W.N.B.A. notwithstanding, its long-term forecast remains partly cloudy and it may never provide a lucrative, full-time living for its talent. But in acceding to the wishes of her Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, and not playing for the Phoenix Mercury for the coming season, Taurasi was heeding a competitive global market. Perhaps the W.N.B.A.’s most well-known and entertaining player for the past decade, she would have made close to the league’s maximum salary of $109,500, plus potential bonuses. Her contract in Russia for the current season is about $1.5 million and the team offered her more to sit out the summer. Playing for the women’s basketball cause would now seem to be secondary to the state of an individual’s career, and that, in the grander scheme, is progress. Image The Russian team UMMC Ekaterinburg is paying Taurasi, right, for her to sit out the summer. Credit Sefa Karacan/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images “It does show that there’s opportunity out there,” Bird said. “But more so, this is about Diana being smart with her body and her career. It’s easy to be nearsighted but you’ve got to take in the full body of work. Do you want Diana to play two more years, or five?” Taurasi is 32 and, like Bird, has been playing professionally year-round for a decade, saving time for the national team, too. There has never been any doubt where the good money has been, always abroad, where, Bird said, even the minimum salaried W.N.B.A. player can triple her pay. With some Russian clubs, the owners’ largess wasn’t dependent on attendance revenues and television ratings. When Taurasi and Bird were teammates for the Spartak Vidnoe Moscow team from 2006 to 2010, tickets were free and the team paid for broadcast privileges. That’s not all that the owner at the time, Shabtai von Kalmanovic, doled out to make himself a big-time operator and paternal women’s basketball figure. Von Kalmanovic, a construction magnate and onetime spy for the K.G.B., lavished his favorite players with cash bonuses for victories and diamond-studded jewelry. He took them on shopping sprees to Paris and Venice and on quick escapes from frigid Moscow to more hospitable climates, including trips to Israel. He called Bird “my Jewish daughter” and Taurasi “my Italian daughter” and gave them palatial housing with a pool, a chef and a piano. In 2008, Taurasi comically told Sports Illustrated that by comparison, “the W.N.B.A. is, like, communist.” Of von Kalmanovic, Bird said: “He used to say: ‘Some people with a lot of money, they gamble, buy 15 cars. I love women’s basketball — why not spend it on something I feel passionate about?’ ” Life overseas isn’t so grand at every Russian outpost, and certainly not in other countries. And no self-respecting American sports capitalist would consider the Russian business model to be a blueprint for everlasting success. Image From left, Lauren Jackson, Diana Taurasi, Shabtai von Kalmanovic, Tina Thompson and Sue Bird with the Spartak Vidnoe Moscow team in 2008. Credit Joe Klamar/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Von Kalmanovic was 59 when he was gunned down in Moscow inside his car in 2009, in what the police called a professional hit related to business activities. Bird mourned with Taurasi and attended the funeral in Israel. They eventually moved on to the team in Yekaterinburg, where another well-heeled ownership continued to pay and treat them like international luminaries. This season, Bird — a point guard from Syosset, N.Y. — decided to stay home. At 34, she can’t play forever, at least not year-round. She has appeared as an analyst on ESPN and the regional cable network SNY, which broadcasts UConn women’s games. She has spent overdue quality time with family and friends. Her playing preference remained the W.N.B.A., “the more physical game,” the more competitive challenge. Laurel Richie, the league’s president, would not touch the loaded if lighthearted question of whether the Taurasi maneuver might be the handiwork of Russian President Vladimir V. Putin in response to American-led sanctions for his aggression in Ukraine. Besides, Taurasi had indicated she would return to the Mercury in 2016. At least that is the plan right now. “I have great respect for Diana as a player and after 10 years of playing year-round, I completely understand,” Richie said. She mentioned younger stars — Elena Delle Donne, Brittney Griner — who are in the process of anchoring the league, and a number of veterans who have remained stateside (Bird, Kara Lawson, Swin Cash) to pursue vocational opportunities for their post-playing futures. What Richie wanted to say was that there would be no shortage of stars, but the league should understand that Taurasi may not be a singular case. The oligarchs want what they want and the W.N.B.A. may have to do more than its own overseas deterrents — bonuses it offers players for limiting commitments to three months. “I think this could be unique to a small group of players,” Bird said. “Unfortunately for the W.N.B.A., that’s going to be their best players.” Play less, earn more? Sounds like an offer Taurasi couldn’t refuse.

Diana Taurasi
Sue Bird
Phoenix Mercury
Basketball
WNBA
Wages and salaries


Questions on Jadeveon Clowney’s Academic Record

Abstract: The anticipation for Jadeveon Clowney, considered the nation’s top high school football player, to announce his college destination has kept coaches and fans across the country in suspense. It will end Monday when he makes his choice on ESPN. But the buzz surrounding Clowney’s decision could be undercut by his poor academic record. Two people with knowledge of his classroom performance while attending South Pointe High School in Rock Hill, S.C., have raised questions about whether Clowney will be able meet the N.C.A.A. ’s minimum academic standard if he wants to play next season. Troy Davis, the coach at Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., said he had reviewed Clowney’s transcript and described it as consistent with those of other prospects who had failed to meet the N.C.A.A.’s standards. In those cases, the prospects needed to enroll in postgraduate programs like the one at Hargrave. The standards are a formula using high school grades and standardized test scores. Davis said he had met with Clowney last spring, when he visited one of Clowney’s teammates to pitch him on Hargrave. Davis’s program has taken in many top prospects while they worked to meet qualifying standards. “A lot of D’s on there,” Davis said of Clowney’s transcript, adding that Clowney had performed particularly poorly in his earlier years at South Pointe. Speaking of students who had enrolled at Hargrave, Davis said “it was pretty common” for a nonqualifier to have a transcript like Clowney’s. A defensive end, Clowney did not reveal his college decision on the Feb. 2 national signing day, delaying his announcement; his 18th birthday is Monday. He has narrowed his list to Alabama, Clemson and South Carolina. When asked about meeting the N.C.A.A.’s standards, Clowney said that he would qualify and that his academic record was not a matter of concern. He said he had not given consideration to enrolling as a postgraduate student at another institution. In a telephone interview this week, Clowney said he was not going to have to. Clowney’s recruitment has been overwhelming. Bobby Carroll, who coached Clowney at South Pointe and has since changed schools, described how Clowney’s cellphone and his own had been ringing continually with calls from college coaches and reporters trying to gain access. Clowney, who accumulated a reported 29 ½ sacks as a senior, was named the high school defensive player of the year by USA Today. A highlight video features his power and grace: engulfing a quarterback, chasing down a running back, scoring a touchdown off an interception. By his senior year, Clowney was widely considered one of the best college prospects in years. “He’s got everything you look for in a prototypical all-American,” Tom Lemming, a recruiting analyst for CBS College Sports Network, said by telephone. “He’s got an aggressive motor and that tall athletic body. He does not want to stay blocked. He doesn’t want to admit to anyone they can block him, and so far I don’t think anybody has.” Clowney said that his mother, Josenna, was the most important person in the recruitment process. She accompanied him on campus visits and provided her feedback, but he said that she was not steering him to a certain university. (His father, David Morgan, was released from prison in 2006 after serving nearly 12 years for robbery.) For his part, Clowney has shied from the news media and college coaches, trying to maintain something that resembles the life of a high school student. He said he had tired of the spotlight and tried to maintain normalcy by playing video games with his friends or competing on his high school basketball team. At South Pointe, Clowney is recognized for his size (6 feet 6 inches) and irreverent sense of humor (he plays good-natured pranks on his teachers with a plastic cockroach). Other students hold him in high esteem; the English teacher Joe Koon said the ninth-graders who use his classroom gravitate to the back wall to read an essay by Clowney, even though it is one of many that have been posted. Koon, who taught Clowney’s English class, said Clowney was “an abstract” to most people at the school of roughly 1,400 students, most of whom do not know him personally. Some of Clowney’s teachers, while admiring his athletic ability, wish that he would apply himself in the classroom. “He’s a smart kid, but he’s a born athlete,” Koon said. “I don’t mean to imply that he doesn’t have a strong mind. But his earlier years, he wasn’t focused on his studies. He’s not much focused on books. He can’t stand reading, and he’ll tell you that.” Koon said that coaches from some of the universities interested in Clowney had been closely following his academic progress. Koon said he had spoken frequently with Clowney about his academic situation, among other matters. Koon, who did not talk in specifics out of respect for Clowney’s privacy, said that he had encouraged Clowney to retake his standardized test to help increase his chances of qualifying. “That is possible,” Koon said of Clowney’s failing to qualify. “That’s not because he didn’t concentrate on his work now; it’s because he didn’t concentrate earlier in his years. He thought something else would carry him.” Koon added: “He kind of drifted along. He’s tried to straighten himself out about that. But he may play it down to the line about qualifying.” Clowney, who has been vague about his college intentions, delayed his decision to evaluate how his top-choice universities fared in the recruiting process. Observers from his home state to Tuscaloosa, Ala., and beyond have clamored for any news about his choice. Clowney said he developed more interest in Clemson after signing day. Despite finishing 6-7 last season, the Tigers staged a coup by signing the blue-chip linebackers Stephone Anthony and Tony Steward . Clowney said he had more closely considered Clemson because he could make its strong recruiting class even better. Before then, South Carolina, the Tigers’ in-state rival, was widely seen as Clowney’s top choice.

Football
Clowney Jadeveon
College Athletics
National Collegiate Athletic Assn
Interscholastic Athletics


Angelique Kerber, With a U.S. Open Win, Solidifies Her Claim on No. 1 Status

Abstract: The line can be so fine, even with all the work Angelique Kerber has done on herself and her game. And as she hoisted her second Grand Slam singles trophy of the year (and of her career) on Saturday at the United States Open, it seemed appropriate to wind back the tape eight months to the Australian Open. In the first round there, she faced a match point in the second-set tiebreaker against the unseeded Misaki Doi of Japan and escaped only when Doi’s shot hit the tape and fell back on Doi’s side of the net. “What would happen had she not won that match point?” Mary Joe Fernandez, the United States Fed Cup captain, asked on Saturday, shortly before Kerber went out and played her latest remarkable match under major pressure to defeat the 10th-seeded Karolina Pliskova, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, in the Open final. Lose to Doi in January, and Kerber would not have gone on to win her first major title at the Australian Open, where she beat Serena Williams in a three-set thriller. Lose to Doi in January, and Kerber might never have found the state of mind necessary to experience this remarkable midcareer renaissance at 28. Such tiny margins can have such big consequences. But the results were there for all to see down the stretch on Saturday in Arthur Ashe Stadium as Kerber, the No. 2 seed, won a very fine match in style, rallying from a break of serve down in the third set to defeat an opponent who had overpowered her, 6-3, 6-1, in the Cincinnati final just last month. “You saw it in the match,” Kerber’s coach, Torben Beltz, said of the changes in his pupil. “If she’s a break down, she never gives up. I think she never gives up. She’s the fighter she was before, but right now she believes more in herself. You really see that she doesn’t want to lose and wants to go for her shots. She has more self-confidence, and that’s very important for her.” Image Up a break early in the third set, Karolina Pliskova looked as though she might continue her wave of upsets at the Open. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Already guaranteed to become No. 1 in the world this week for the first time, Kerber will ascend to the top spot as a first-time United States Open champion as well. After she had finished off her victory, reached up to embrace the 6-foot-1 Pliskova and then climbed up to hug Beltz and others in the players’ box, she descended to her courtside chair, put a towel to her face and sobbed at length. “It was everything, I think, because of all the pressure in the last few months,” Kerber said. “To win here is very special for me. Everything starts for me here in 2011. This Grand Slam is really, really special.” In 2011, Kerber arrived in New York with a world ranking of 92 and made a most unexpected run to the semifinals before losing to the eventual champion, Sam Stosur, in three sets. Though she had considerable success in the seasons that followed, breaking into the top 10, she never managed until this year to break through to that same stage of a Grand Slam tournament. Now she has won two major titles and reached this year’s Wimbledon final, where she lost to Williams, and she also secured a silver medal in singles at the Summer Olympics last month. It all adds up to a phenomenal and unexpected season and further proof that it is possible to make a breakthrough at an advanced tennis age. The most recent previous example: Flavia Pennetta, who won her first major singles title at the United States Open last year at 33. Pennetta, an effervescent Italian, has since retired, but Kerber has every intention of continuing to ride her wave. Always a great defender and counterpuncher with a capacity to hit the crowd-pleasing shot, Kerber has made her big move by getting fitter and even quicker, by attacking with more frequency and by making subtle improvements to her still vulnerable serve. She won 51 percent of her second-serve points at the Open and 53 percent against Pliskova despite Pliskova’s best efforts to attack on her returns. Kerber will be the oldest player in the history of the WTA rankings to become No. 1 for the first time. She is the first German woman to win the United States Open since Steffi Graf, Kerber’s childhood idol and occasional mentor, in 1996. Graf sent her a good-luck text before the match, which at 2 hours 7 minutes turned out to be as grueling as it was entertaining. It was hot (close to 90 degrees) and muggy (63 percent humidity), but Kerber and Pliskova, both first-time Open finalists, kept hustling and taking chances right through the tape. In the end, Kerber won it with great defense, tracking down Pliskova’s big power in the corners. She won it by being steadier (she made 17 unforced errors to Pliskova’s 47). She won it with clever, sliced left-handed serves at the right moments. But above all, she won it by going for it. “She’s grown as a player,” Fernandez said. “She’s improved. She doesn’t just play defense anymore. She plays aggressively. I think her forehand down the line is one of the best in the game. She threads the needle beautifully.” She proved quite the seamstress again at 3-3, 30-all in the final set with Pliskova still pressing her. Pliskova hit a deep backhand crosscourt. It was not an obvious opportunity, but Kerber chose to seize it anyway. She went airborne and nailed a forehand down the line. It landed in the corner for a winner, and Kerber, eyes wide, pumped both fists and went back to the increasingly familiar business of winning Grand Slam titles — of staying on the right side of that very fine line between contender and champion.

Angelique Kerber
Karolina Pliskova
Tennis
US Open Tennis


Chad Kellogg, a Speed Climbing Pioneer, Dies in Rock Fall at 42

Abstract: Chad Kellogg, an elite climber known for his speed ascents of large mountains, died on Friday after being struck on the head by a falling rock while descending the Patagonian peak Fitz Roy. He was 42. His death was confirmed by his father, Ric, who was notified by a climbing partner. It was first reported by the climbing website SuperTopo.com . Kellogg was one of a small but growing number of climbers who had begun to make speed as much a priority as establishing a first ascent or a new route up a familiar peak. He had attempted a speed record on Mount Everest three times. “It’s not that I’m a great climber,” he said in 2011 , as he prepared to make his second attempt on Mount Everest without the supplemental oxygen used by many climbers to ascend the nearly 30,000-foot mountain. (Climbing without oxygen was, he thought, a greater challenge.) “It’s that I want it more than anyone else does, and I’m willing to go out there and put in the work, put in the days, to achieve what I think is important.” His death reverberated among climbing enthusiasts in the Northwest. “It’s like the loss of a family member,” said Christian Folk, the marketing manager for Outdoor Research, a Seattle equipment manufacturer that sponsored Kellogg on his climbs. Kellogg, who did his climbing all over the world, won the Khan Tengri mountaineering race in Kazakhstan in 2003 and held a variety of unofficial records for speed ascents of Mount Rainier, the 14,410-foot mountain that looms over the national park of the same name in Washington State. One of those records, now broken, included the first sub-five-hour ascent and descent, a trip that can take some climbers two days. “He was competitive,” said Mike Gauthier, the chief of staff at Yosemite National Park, who hired Kellogg as a climbing ranger on Mount Rainier in 1997, “but Chad really never spoke about it; he just did it.” Behind Kellogg’s prowess on rock and ice lay a crevasse of loss. His wife, Lara-Karena Kellogg, died while descending an Alaskan climb in 2007. Shortly after, he learned he had colon cancer. (It later went into remission.) A brother died, as did other family members and a close climbing partner. He continued to find solace in the mountains. Chad Kellogg was born on Sept. 22, 1971, in Omak, Wash. The son of missionaries, he grew up in Kenya and later in Seattle. He trained with the Olympic luge team in Lake Placid, N.Y., before turning his attention to climbing. In recent years, Kellogg gained recognition and more sponsors for his climbs, including first ascents, and had received grant money to ascend two unclimbed peaks in Nepal this fall. “He was a cardiovascular machine,” said Brent Bishop, a friend and fellow climber who helped document his Everest attempts. “He was really able to suffer. He just kept getting stronger. I think we were really robbed of seeing what this climber was going to do.” In addition to his father, Kellogg is survived by his mother, Peggy. His partner on the Fitz Roy climb, Jens Holsten, survived the rock fall.


Mets Win on Field in 14 Innings, but Big News Was Buzzing in the Crowd

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — A long, emotional Sunday night came to a happy conclusion on Monday morning for the Mets , who beat the Philadelphia Phillies , 2-1, in 14 innings in a game that became a backdrop for the nation’s reaction to the news of the death of Osama bin Laden. Amid chants of “USA, USA” from the sellout crowd of 45,713 at Citizens Bank Park, the Mets and the Phillies played their elongated game as word of the events quickly percolated throughout the stadium, but the players were seemingly the last to know. Third baseman David Wright was standing on second base during one of the chants in the ninth inning. He and Phillies second baseman Pete Orr didn’t know what the chanting was about until later. “I don’t like to give the Philly fans too much credit,” he said, “but they got this one right. It’s a proud moment to stand out there and you’ve got 45-50 thousand people chanting. That was pretty special.” The Mets have always felt a connection to the Sept. 11 attacks; many members of the team in 2001 were involved in supporting the rescue efforts. Also, on Friday, the team went to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and visited wounded veterans. “One of the first things I thought about was coming from Walter Reed,” Wright said, “the emotions that those guys must be going through hearing that same news. As proud and as great a moment it was for me being on a baseball field, you multiply that by a million. That’s probably what they’re feeling at the fire houses, the police stations, at the places like Walter Reed. It’s just an incredible moment.” The Mets made it an ever better evening by winning the game. Ronny Paulino, making his first start for the Mets and playing in only his second game for the team since coming off the disabled list Friday, had a career-high five hits, including the game-winning double off Kyle Kendrick. Wright scored from third base with two outs in the 14th inning as the Mets ended a three-game losing streak. The Mets went into the 14th having stranded 16 base runners; they had gone 0 for 14 with runners in scoring position before Paulino’s hit. They used all of their position players and six pitchers, and the Phillies used pitcher Cole Hamels to pinch-hit in the 14th inning of a game that took 4 hours 44 minutes and didn’t conclude until 12:53 Monday morning. Chris Young, who has been the Mets’ ace of sorts this season, outpitched Cliff Lee in a seven-inning duel, but the Phillies came back against the Mets’ bullpen, scoring once in the eighth to tie it. But then Francisco Rodriguez pitched a clean inning and a third, and Pedro Beato pitched three scoreless extra innings in relief, giving Mets hitters time to score. The Mets had seven scoreless innings after scoring their run in the fifth off Lee, when Carlos Beltran doubled in Wright. Young, pitching for the second time since returning from the disabled list with biceps tendinitis in his right shoulder, confounded the Phillies. He allowed only two hits, none after the fourth inning, and struck out seven. It was a tense game throughout, and word of the death of Bin Laden began to circulate around the same time that the Phillies began staging their comeback. It began in the eighth against Jason Isringhausen, who walked the first batter he faced, John Mayberry Jr. Shane Victorino sacrificed him over to second and then Placido Polanco hit a pop-up into shallow right field. Jose Reyes had to run for the ball, which popped out of his glove, before he secured it. But Isringhausen, who struggled with his command on Saturday, too, walked Jimmy Rollins, bringing the slugger Ryan Howard to the plate. Mets Manager Terry Collins called on his only left-hander in the bullpen, Tim Byrdak, who had stranded all eight of his inherited runners coming into the game. But Howard went the other way on a pitch, slapping it into left field, and Mayberry Jr. scored from second base to tie the score. Collins then called on Rodriguez, his closer, who walked Ben Francisco but got the struggling Raul Ibanez, who was hitless in his previous 33 at-bats, to ground out to end the inning. With his former pitching coach and mentor Orel Hershiser, an ESPN broadcaster, at the game, Young was superb. Using slow and slower breaking balls, some of which measured 71 miles per hour on the radar gun, Young was able to keep the Phillies off balance. Through six innings he had faced only two batters over the minimum, and after a leadoff single by Polanco in the fourth, he set down 10 consecutive Phillies. Young’s only difficulty came in the seventh inning, when the Phillies had the bases loaded and two outs. But Young got out of it with the assistance of the third-base umpire Lance Barksdale, who ruled Brian Schneider, batting .077 coming into the game, had swung for strike three. With one out, Young walked Howard and then hit Francisco with a pitch. Ibanez struck out, which was not surprising considering his prolonged slump. But Young walked second baseman Pete Orr on a full count. Then Schneider tried unsuccessfully to pull up on a 2-2 pitch, a 75-m.p.h. slider. When the Mets appealed to Barksdale, he made the call in their favor to end the inning. Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel ran all the way out to shallow left field, where Barksdale was standing between innings, to argue, and was eventually ejected. Before exiting, Manuel pulled Lee from the game after he had thrown 113 pitches, 78 of which were strikes. He allowed only one run and eight hits, and he walked two over seven innings. Like Young, he did not figure in the decision. There were indications in the first inning that Lee might not be at his best. He walked two and gave up a leadoff double to Reyes, and he required 34 pitches to get out of the inning. INSIDE PITCH Catcher Ronny Paulino threw out Ben Francisco as he tried to steal in the 10th, ending the inning. ... Terry Collins said the Mets expected pitcher Johan Santana to start throwing off a mound within the next two weeks. Once that happens, Santana could be six to eight weeks away from returning, barring setbacks. Santana, who had surgery on his right shoulder last September, has been throwing from 150 feet in his rehabilitation program.

Philadelphia Phillies
Baseball
New York Mets
Wright David


Fwd.Us Raises Uproar With Advocacy Tactics

Abstract: “Move fast and break things” has been the motto at Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook, embodying the Silicon Valley ethos of unapologetically finding new ways to solve old problems. His latest foray into politics in Washington, however, might be characterized as “Move fast, play hardball and be prepared for blowback.” Fwd.Us, the new nonprofit advocacy group created by Mr. Zuckerberg and several technology executives and investors to push for an overhaul of immigration law, has bankrolled television ads endorsing the conservative stands taken by three lawmakers, prompting an outcry from liberal groups and a call to withhold advertisements from Facebook. The uproar, some say, will be a lesson for Silicon Valley companies as they try to influence emotional political issues like immigration. But the group’s supporters brashly say they were ready for the reaction. “Our advertising decisions are being made by a very smart team of political operatives who know that passing major reform will require some different and innovative tactics,” Jim Breyer, a venture capitalist with Accel Partners and a contributor to the cause, said in an e-mailed statement. “I’m proud to support Fwd.Us as they work to pass comprehensive immigration reform.” The group has faced the most vocal criticism for television advertisements sponsored by its two subsidiaries, which are known as Americans for Conservative Action and Council for American Job Growth. One of those spots takes swipes at President Obama’s health policies. Another lauds the Keystone XL pipeline, fiercely opposed by many environmental groups. Those TV spots, which ran in several states for a week, prompted strong reaction from a coalition of liberal organizations that includes the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters and MoveOn.org. They announced earlier this week that they would suspend buying advertisements on Facebook, which they acknowledged was meant to send a message and would have little economic impact on the company. Cathy Duvall, director of strategic partnerships at the Sierra Club, said her group was especially disappointed to see the technology industry adopt a strategy that was more typical of old-fashioned, brass-knuckled Washington lobbying. “When the ads came out they were politics as usual and divisive and pitting one issue against another,” Ms. Duvall said. “We were really surprised that Silicon Valley would be moving into the political space by doing the worst of business-as-usual politics.” Fwd.Us, like other industry-backed interest groups, has said very little about how much money it has raised and from whom, except to name contributors on its Web site. It would say only that it spent in the “seven figures” on the television spots. The ads are particularly surprising considering some of the other backers. John Doerr, a venture capitalist, is known for his investments in clean technology companies, and his wife, Ann, has been a major donor to environmental causes. Reid Hoffman has described himself as “progressive” in an essay posted recently on LinkedIn, a company that he founded. Image Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook helped create Fwd.Us, an advocacy group. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, in 2010 backed an effort not to roll back California’s global warming law. None of them returned calls and e-mails requesting comment for this article, referring instead to Fwd.Us operatives in Washington. “We recognize that not everyone will always agree with or be pleased by our strategy,” said Kate Hansen, a spokeswoman for Fwd.Us. “Fwd.Us remains totally committed to support a bipartisan policy agenda that will boot the knowledge economy, including comprehensive immigration reform.” For his part, Mr. Zuckerberg has covered his political bases. He recently held a fund-raiser for Chris Christie, the Republican governor of New Jersey, at his home in Palo Alto, Calif., and Facebook has hired several former White House and Congressional aides to work in its Washington office. Mr. Zuckerberg has declined requests to be interviewed about Fwd.Us. Jim Manley, a former chief spokesman for Senate majority leader Harry Reid, Democrat of Nevada, said that the ads may have achieved their goal, but that Mr. Zuckerberg should learn from the negative reaction. “He is finding out it can be very, very problematic to get your company involved in hot-button social issues,” said Mr. Manley, who now directs the communications practice at the Washington lobbying and public relations firm Quinn Gillespie. “There is going to be blowback. You are going to pay a price for it.” Fwd.Us has been openly criticized by others in Silicon Valley. Josh Miller, founder of a start-up called Branch, denounced what he called the group’s “questionable lobbying practices” and said he was disappointed that the group had not been transparent about its intentions. “More discouragingly, the leaders of the technology industry (and of FWD.us) have built their careers on bringing meaningful change to the world,” he wrote in a BuzzFeed opinion piece. “They should be doing the same in Washington.” Vinod Khosla, a venture capitalist who finances clean energy companies and who was once a major partner at Mr. Doerr’s investment firm, said on Twitter over the weekend: “Will Fwd.us prostitute climate destruction & other values to get a few engineers hired & get immigration reform?” One advocacy group called CredoAction, based in San Francisco, tried to use Facebook ads to draw attention to the Keystone XL pipeline TV spot sponsored by Fwd.Us. The ads were prohibited by Facebook officials, because the company’s terms of service prohibit using Mr. Zuckerberg’s image in another organization’s ad. A coalition of organizations has also created a Facebook group to agitate against Fwd.Us. Still, others say the ads signal a calculated pragmatism. Fwd.Us is led by experienced political operatives, including Joe Lockhart, a former Clinton Administration official, and Rob Jesmer, a former Republican Senate political adviser. One executive involved in the effort said the advertisements were vetted with executives backing it — and that the executives realized before they were shown that they might alienate certain liberal audiences. But the group made a decision to back both Democrats and Republicans who support the immigration bill in order to get it passed. “We did not just fall off the turnip truck,” the executive said. “There are a lot of people involved in these organizations that have been involved in politics for a really long time.” The group e-mailed statements from prominent backers, including a former Facebook executive, Chamath Palihapitiya, who argued that Fwd.Us needs to be “disruptive” in politics, as in commerce. “In order to push Washington to do something different and pass major legislation like comprehensive immigration reform, groups like Fwd.Us can’t just do the same thing and expect different results,” he said. “As part of our work, we’re using a wide variety of tactics, some of which may ruffle some feathers, but we believe the passage of the bill will be worth it.”

Facebook
Immigration
Lobbying
Fwd.us
Mark E Zuckerberg
US Politics
Campaign advertising


Cassano Devoted to Family and Duty as New Fire Commissioner

Abstract: Arrayed throughout his office in Downtown Brooklyn are the touchstones of Salvatore Joseph Cassano ’s life — keepsakes that speak of family, faith and the Fire Department he will lead come Jan. 1 . A model of a military tank rests by a miniature of Ebbets Field, where the Brooklyn Dodgers used to play. An American flag pennant sits in a mug on his wraparound desk, and all around are small red fire trucks and photos of his children and grandchildren, including the latest, Leah Grace, born Oct. 5 at 10:48 p.m. In announcing his appointment as the city’s fire commissioner, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg made much of the four decades that Mr. Cassano, 64, has spent working his way through each of the Fire Department’s ranks, rising to his current position as chief of department. But he is more than a department lifer: he is a war veteran, a grandfather, a baseball fan, a New Yorker. He grew up in Brooklyn, raised his family on Staten Island. He remembers the Dodgers leaving for California; the sniper fire in Vietnam. And of all of his life’s mementos, physical and mental, there are some that he cannot help but carry with him. On his right wrist, a metal bracelet bears the name of the Rev. Mychal F. Judge, an old friend and the former department chaplain. On Sept. 11, 2001, Chief Cassano and the minister stood shoulder to shoulder. “That morning, we were speaking,” Chief Cassano said. “And we were in for the worst day of our lives, and I will never forget that.” “The north tower came down,” he said. “I was lucky enough to scurry up the street a little bit and dove under a rig and was lucky enough to make it out alive.” The chaplain, who taught him “humility, charity, love,” died in a sea of rubble . There are innumerable reasons, both rooted in principle and personal experience, why Chief Cassano said that his “No. 1 priority” is the safety of the department’s personnel, so that firefighters can return to their families each day, “safe and sound.” “This job is really another family,” he said. “I see the kids in the field as if they could be my own son or my own daughter and I would take care of them like I would take care of my own loved ones.” Born on Jan. 22, 1945, as the second son in an Italian-American family, he was named after the father of his mother, Madeline. The Cassanos lived in South Brooklyn, in a walk-up on First Place in Carroll Gardens. “Radiator bursting away,” he said. “There were six of us in a six-room apartment. We shared a bed. I didn’t have my own bed until I got married.” His father’s family came from Ischia, Italy, in 1909; his mother’s family came from Naples. His grandfather worked as a day laborer ; his father, Angelo, was a longshoreman on the docks in Red Hook, where he rose to become a boss of loading and unloading the trucks. “He was very well-respected,” he said. “He was a tough boss, but he was fair, so I had a good role model to follow.” As a boy, young Sal went to Public School 142 and Brooklyn Tech and then Boys High School, where he bowled. His parents took their four children to Roman Catholic Mass each Sunday, at St. Mary Star of the Sea. “My mom and dad taught us all about family life and how important your family is,” he said. At 10, he landed his first job, working for his brother-in-law delivering crates of soda in glass bottles, sometimes walking them up six flights on his shoulder. He rooted for the Dodgers. His godfather was single and had season tickets to Ebbets Field. “I used to go there three or four times a week when they were home,” he said. The shortstop Pee Wee Reese was his favorite, so he wore his number, 1, on his jersey in baseball and softball leagues he played in. After school, he worked with his dad on the waterfront, then found work in a bank. In 1965, at 20, he was drafted into the Army. He served two years, the last one in Vietnam, where he was stationed 40 miles north of Saigon in a base camp with the 11th Armored Cavalry. He started as an artillery specialist, but ended up doing a little of everything. “When you’re in Vietnam, there was no specialties there,” he said. “You ended up doing border patrol and base camp patrol.” He recalled when the camp was hit with mortar rounds, when it took enemy fire and sniper fire, but he declined to say more. “I don’t want to go into all that stuff,” he said. After the war, he found work on the waterfront again. His next career change would be his last, and it was again influenced by a family member: his older brother, Patsy, who was already a firefighter. Patsy took him to a firehouse and to a communion breakfast, and urged him to join the department because it was a secure job that would surround him with good people. “He says, ‘You’re able to help people,’ ” Chief Cassano said. “There’s not many people that have jobs that when they go to work are able to help people and serve the public. And really, that’s what we’re all about, whether you’re the fire commissioner or a probie.” The younger Cassano joined in November 1969. His brother, though, broke his leg in several places fighting a fire in Brooklyn and retired in 1977. In April 1978, Salvatore Cassano married Theresa Wallace, a hairdresser whom his sister Lucy had set him up with. “Blind date,” he said. “We went on a date and that was it. We were married probably a year and a half later.” He began his well-chronicled way up the ranks. He and his wife had four children. He learned how to move down a smoky hallway; the feeling of helping rescue a child from a fire. Today, Chief Cassano takes care of his health. He eats very little meat. He eats fruit for lunch. “There is no vegetables I don’t like,” he said. “I like a lot of pasta.” On Christmas Eve, the family dinner will be at his house. He and his wife will prepare an Italian specialty involving seven types of seafood, including shrimp, clams, crabmeat, calamari and flounder. Most mornings, when the weather is good, he leaves his family, his 10-year-old beagle, Jessie, and sets out for roadwork around his home in the Huguenot area of Staten Island. Four times, he has run the New York City marathon, breaking the three-hour mark. “I just go out my door and run,” he says of his daily four-mile jaunts. “You don’t need anybody to do it, you don’t need a membership. You need a pair of sneakers and running clothes.” “It’s a great stress relief,” he said, one that allows him to think about the past and the future. Mostly, he concentrates on breathing. He knows, from his days wearing the firefighter’s turnout gear, what it feels like to run out of air. “It’s a scary feeling,” he said.

New York City
Cassano Salvatore J
Fire Department (NYC)
Fires and Firefighters


N.F.L. Wild-Card Matchups: Who We Think Will Win

Abstract: Follow our live N.F.L. playoffs coverage here. The Giants leapt through an arctic Lambeau Field in the postseason nine years ago, on their way to a Super Bowl parade. The 1972 Dolphins won a playoff game in wind-chilled Pittsburgh on their path to a perfect season. Both the Giants and the Dolphins may want to channel their former selves in Sunday’s wild-card playoff games. Each team’s road to this year’s Super Bowl in Houston winds through freezing conditions (temperatures will peak in the midteens) and the city limits of a divisional champion. Precedent makes for a great pregame speech in the visiting locker room. Expect the Packers and the Steelers to offer in-game rebuttals on their home tundra. The tale of Saturday’s two playoff games is all about the headline names who will not be taking their Pro Bowl talents to the line of scrimmage in Houston and Seattle. Odell Beckham’s Hands Are Great, But His Feet Are Lethal Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. has compiled a highlight reel of spectacular grabs. But what sets Beckham apart is not that he holds onto the football. It’s what happens after the ball is in his hands. Texans defensive end J. J. Watt (back surgery) will not be chasing down Raiders quarterback Derek Carr (broken leg), and Seahawks safety Earl Thomas (broken leg) will not be blitzing Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, an injured star who will play, albeit with a 1-3 record since dislocating his right middle finger. Here is a look at this weekend’s wild-card playoff games and who we think will win them. All times Eastern. Raiders (12-4) at Texans (9-7) 4:35 p.m. Saturday. Line: Texans by 3 ½ The Texans have the No. 1-ranked defense in the N.F.L. The Raiders counter with the clubhouse leader for the Defensive Player of the Year Award, Khalil Mack. Given the available quarterbacks, this game has all the makings of an offensive slog. In Carr’s absence, the Raiders rookie Connor Cook is set to become the first N.F.L. quarterback to make the first start of his career in the postseason. With Houston’s late-season starter, Tom Savage, in the concussion protocol, its $72 million quarterback, Brock Osweiler, will come back from the bench — where he was sent in Week 15 along with his 16 interceptions against 14 touchdowns. The Texans will saturate the pocket with unhealthy amounts of the Pro Bowl pass rusher Jadeveon Clowney (16 tackles for a loss). Combine that with the return of the 1,073-yard rusher Lamar Miller (ankle), plus a 7-1 home record this season, and Houston should like its chances. The Raiders’ defense will struggle to get off the field. Oakland’s offense has only 13 first downs in its 15 post-Carr drives — a sure way for the Raiders to wear out their own defense from overexposure. They will need their sixth-ranked rushing game to buy time if they are to survive the franchise’s first postseason game in 14 years. Pick: Texans Image Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford has a 1-3 record as a starter since dislocating his right middle finger. Credit Raj Mehta/USA Today Sports, via Reuters Lions (9-7) at Seahawks (10-5-1) 8:15 p.m. Saturday. Line: Seahawks by 8 Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has never lost a playoff game at home. But then, he has never been asked to do so without the Pro Bowl services of Earl Thomas and running back Marshawn Lynch, who retired after last season. In Wilson’s 10th postseason home game in five years, he will have to compensate for his team’s suddenly vulnerable pass defense and 25th-ranked rushing offense if the Seahawks, the N.F.C. West champions, are to advance. Wilson has the requisite accuracy (64.7 percent completion rate) to pick apart the Lions’ secondary; Detroit opponents completed 72.7 percent of their passes, an N.F.L. season record. As shaky as Seattle’s offensive line has been, it will not capitulate to a Detroit pass rush that has 26 sacks, the second fewest in the league. The Lions have lost three consecutive games since quarterback Matthew Stafford dislocated his finger, tumbling from the N.F.C. North leaders to the last wild-card team. Stafford’s ability to throw will determine if the Lions win a playoff game for the first time since 1991, and one on the road for the first time since 1957. Pick: Seahawks Image Pittsburgh Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell in the second half of a game last month against the Buffalo Bills. Credit Bill Wippert/Associated Press Dolphins (10-6) at Steelers (11-5) 1:05 p.m. Sunday. Line: Steelers by 10 On Oct. 16, the Dolphins were 1-4, worst in the A.F.C. East. The Steelers were 4-1, kings of the A.F.C. North. They met in Pittsburgh, and Miami won, in a game no one considered a postseason preview. But here they both are, together again in a playoff showdown. The Dolphins won Round 1 because running back Jay Ajayi gained 204 yards on 25 carries and scored two touchdowns. It helped that Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill completed 24 of 32 passes for 252 yards, but he has been out with a sprained knee since Week 11. It is up to Tannehill’s replacement, Matt Moore, who is making the first postseason start of his nine-year career, to provide air cover for the running game. Steelers running back Le’Veon Bell missed the past two postseasons with knee injuries. Now, his ligaments are as healthy as his numbers. Bell rushed 110 times in the last four games of the regular season, for 569 yards, and he averaged 187 yards from scrimmage. Pittsburgh quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, who played with an injured knee in the first meeting with the Dolphins, has led the Steelers to seven consecutive victories. Defense tips the scoreboard in Pittsburgh’s favor. This season’s team is not the Steel Curtain of old, but it pinches up inside the 20-yard line — with the N.F.L.’s fourth-ranked red-zone defense. Pick: Steelers Giants (11-5) at Packers (10-6) 4:40 p.m. Sunday. Line: Packers by 4 ½ Giants fans keep waiting for the return of the good Eli Manning, the quarterback who won two Super Bowl rings with wild-card teams — both of them after having successfully passed through Green Bay. Only one defense has allowed fewer points than the Giants’ this season. The Giants kept opposing teams to 10, 6 and 7 points in their last three victories. That was necessary because the Giants scored 19, 17 and 10 points in those games. The Giants need Manning to flip the playoff switch, especially if Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers turns this game into a Lambeau Leap-a-thon. That is what happens when Rodgers has at least five seconds to find open receivers. Giants cornerbacks Janoris Jenkins and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie cannot cover their men forever, not against one of the best ad-lib throwers in the league. Rodgers has not thrown in an interception in 245 consecutive passes, which helps explain how Green Bay won its final six games (three against playoff teams). The Packers have scored at least 30 points in each of the past four weeks to outpace the shortcomings of their own defense. Did we mention that they beat the Giants once already this season? Pick: Packers

Playoffs
Giants
Packers
Steelers
Football
Raiders
Seahawks
Houston Texans
Detroit Lions
Miami Dolphins


Minnesota: Minneapolis Mayor Won’t Seek 4th Term

Abstract: The mayor of Minneapolis, R. T. Rybak, said Thursday that he would not seek a fourth term next year. Several potential candidates have expressed interest in running, although some were waiting for him to announce his plans. Mr. Rybak, a Democrat, said the job had required personal sacrifices. “I owe it to those around me, and to myself, to get a bit more balance in my life,” he said. “I also think that after 12 years, the city will benefit from a fresh perspective.” The mayor, 57, has been mentioned as a possible addition to President Obama’s administration or as a contender for governor. Mr. Rybak recently opened a state political action committee that will allow him to play a more prominent role in state races. He is vice chairman of the Democratic National Committee and said he would seek another term in that position next year.

Minnesota
Rybak R T
Elections Mayors
Democratic Party
Minneapolis (Minn)


Decaying Long Island V.A. Hospital Closes Operating Rooms

Abstract: Usually, there are 10 operations a week scheduled at the Northport Veterans Affairs Medical Center on Long Island. But since mid-February, the hospital’s five operating rooms have stood empty and unused, shut down after sand-size black particles began falling from air ducts. The ducts are part of the hospital’s HVAC system. Providing heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, the system is integral to improving the hospital’s air quality and mitigating the airborne transmission of germs that could lead to infections. Patients in need of surgical treatment have been sent to other facilities, such as Stony Brook University Hospital a half-hour away, or to sister facilities like the James J. Peters V.A. Medical Center in the Bronx or the Manhattan campus of the V.A.’s New York Harbor Healthcare System , said Philip Moschitta, Northport’s director. Others are being referred to the V.A.’s Choice Card program , which allows some veterans to obtain taxpayer-funded care from private doctors, though it has been troubled by delays . The Veterans Affairs medical system, the nation’s largest integrated health care organization, has been under scrutiny since 2014, when the department confirmed that numerous patients had died awaiting treatment at a V.A. hospital in Phoenix, where officials had tried to cover up long waiting times for 1,700 veterans seeking medical care. A study released by the Government Accountability Office last month indicated that the system has yet to fix its scheduling problems. Northport is a 502-bed teaching hospital that serves about 18,000 patients per year. Doctors there perform 633 inpatient and 1,822 outpatient surgeries a year. Some procedures that do not require a sterile room, such as colonoscopies or cataract surgeries, are currently taking place in other parts of the hospital, Mr. Moschitta said. “Cutting into the body, those types of procedures are not being done in those rooms at this time,” he said. Two or three of the operating rooms were reopened for a few weeks in April, but they were again shuttered and sealed off with yellow caution tape because contamination returned. An environmental analysis of the air quality at the Northport hospital by Environmental Analysis Associates , a San Diego firm that specializes in the identification of indoor air-quality problems associated with dust contamination, found that the particulates came from oxidizing metal and crumbling concrete in the building’s duct system, which was built in the early 1970s. The report, which was obtained by The New York Times, linked the operating room contaminants to Northport’s decaying building. The kinds of particles deposited in the operating rooms were “typically associated with galvanized duct corrosion and metal piping/fittings,” the report said. It also mentioned that “low concentrations of fiberglass fibers” — irritants to the skin, eyes and upper respiratory tract — were detected. Mr. Moschitta said the problems stemmed from rusted sound attenuators in the ducts, which reduce mechanical equipment noise. “As the forced air goes through the ducts, little fragments break off,” he said. “When you have a 45-year-old facility, things rust,” he added. The report also noted the presence of spores of cladosporium, a common mold that can grow indoors on surfaces when moisture is present and can cause allergic reactions and respiratory problems. Ronald Brattain, the chief of the hospital’s engineering service, said that the operating room air-supply ducts have been wet and regularly exposed to high humidity because they pull air from the outside, as is common in older V.A. hospitals. “The humidity that is in the air is drawn through the air handler, and so that by itself creates a moist environment,” he said. The entire V.A. system has been plagued with crumbling buildings and deferred maintenance. According to the V.A., roughly 60 percent of its medical facilities are more than 50 years old. The department’s inspector general issued an audit report in 2014 warning that there was a $10 billion to $12 billion backlog in maintenance throughout the system, jeopardizing patient safety at a time when aging baby boomers and newly enrolled veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan increasingly sought care at V.A. hospitals. Mr. Moschitta said that one backup plan under discussion at Northport was to bring in mobile surgical units that would be parked outside the emergency room on the lawn, but those units rent for $70,000 to $85,000 per month. Mr. Moschitta said he is confident the problem will be solved with the installation of high efficiency particulate air filters in each of the vents in the operating rooms, and that at least one of the surgical suites will be up and running in the near future. “Barring any mishap, we’re ready to go on June 1,” he said. “A lot of these facilities are vintage.” It is not only the operating rooms that have been affected at Northport. In the basement of Building 200, one floor down from the operating rooms, the air-conditioning broke down in March 2015, and since then particulates have accumulated in five ultrasound rooms and an M.R.I. area. Mr. Brattain said the problem was a rupture of the cooling tower on the roof. Since then, air-conditioning has been provided by temporary air-cooled chillers, which cost $30,000 a month each to rent, Mr. Brattain said, and two more will be brought in for the summer months. A new system is supposed to be installed in the spring of 2017. An internal email from an engineer and safety officer at the hospital, obtained by The Times, details staff complaints about the particulates. “The dust is depositing on HVAC registers, ceilings, walls, and on medical equipment,” the email said. “Maintenance continues to clean the surfaces but, as the staff has observed, the dust reappears within a short time. At least three staff members have indicated their concern that this environment has affected them. They have been to employee health and to their individual physicians.” The email was sent in April to administrators at the hospital. In a statement, Mr. Moschitta said that he took “very seriously concerns about the air quality” in the M.R.I. area and the ultrasound rooms, and that he had asked for “air sampling to be conducted to ensure the safety of our patients and employees.”

Long Island
Hospital
Veteran Affairs
Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Veteran
Northport NY


Kansas 76, Nebraska 39

Abstract: LAWRENCE, Kan., Nov. 3 (AP) — No. 8 Kansas is having so much fun in the present, the Jayhawks cannot be bothered with their mostly forgettable past. For Nebraska, the present keeps getting worse. Todd Reesing threw a team-record six touchdown passes and Kansas clobbered Nebraska on Saturday, 76-39. The Jayhawks kept themselves in the national championship picture while rolling up the most points ever scored against the Huskers in their 117-year football history. It was only the second victory for Kansas in the last 39 games against Nebraska, which appears to be falling to pieces in its fourth season under Coach Bill Callahan. “People continue to look at the past history, and the past records teams have had against us,” said Reesing, who completed 30 of 41 passes for 354 yards. “That has no effect on us. It’s a whole new season. You can’t just look in the past. Our team doesn’t. We’re a whole new team.” Reesing shattered Kansas’ single-season record with 23 touchdown passes and directed touchdown drives on 10 consecutive possessions as the Jayhawks (9-0, 5-0 Big 12) went to 9-0 for the first time since 1908. With the interim athletic director Tom Osborne watching from a pressbox suite, Nebraska (4-6, 1-5) lost its fifth straight for the first time since 1958. Osborne, who coached Nebraska to three of its five national championships, replaced Steve Pederson when Pederson was fired after a 45-14 loss at home to Oklahoma State. Osborne spoke briefly to Callahan after the game but declined to meet with reporters. “There’s really no words to explain this loss,” Callahan said. “They outexecuted us in all phases today. We are just going to keep working. As coaches, we are just going to keep working, coaching and motivating. We need to help the players get through this because this is a tough time for us.” Kansas Coach Mark Mangino acknowledged that the Jayhawks were exceeding even his expectations. “I thought we had a chance to have a really good football team,” he said. “Those kids have stepped up and developed, and here we are.” Brandon McAnderson ran for 119 yards and tied a team record with 4 rushing touchdowns for Kansas, which was picked to finish fourth in the Big 12 North. “Coach Mangino has instilled an attitude in us that this is K.U. 2007,” McAnderson said. “When you put it like that, history doesn’t matter. Put up against us, there’s been a lot of history how, ‘You guys haven’t won road games, you haven’t beaten them, or them.’ There’s all kinds of stats about when you can’t do something. But history doesn’t matter.” The previous record for points given up by Nebraska was 70, to Texas Tech on Oct. 9, 2004 — Callahan’s fifth game as the coach. “You would never think a team would score 76 on you,” Nebraska safety Bryan Wilson said. “We came in with a good scheme. We thought we could take advantage against them in some areas.” The average score in Kansas-Nebraska games from 1971 to 2000 was 47-7, Nebraska, and only once since 1974 had Kansas come into the game with the better record. This year the unbeaten Jayhawks were 20-point favorites. Playing before a Memorial Stadium-record crowd of 51,910, Kansas scored on its last seven possessions of the first half and its first three of the second. In what must be another embarrassing note for Nebraska, Reesing could be in line to become the fifth player in a row named the Big 12 offensive player of the week after playing the Huskers. Reesing, a sophomore who has not thrown an interception in his last 128 attempts, still has not lost as a college starter. He threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Kerry Meier, 26 yards to Jake Sharp, 5 yards to Marcus Henry and 13 yards to Dezmon Briscoe as Kansas roared to a 48-24 halftime lead, setting a record for most points against the Huskers in the first two quarters. Virtually as unstoppable in the second half as he had been in the first, and playing until only a few minutes remained on the game clock, Reesing connected with Briscoe on touchdown strikes of 14 and 9 yards in the second half. McAnderson scored on runs of 2, 9, 1 and 6 yards. “It was obviously one of those games you’re never going to forget,” Reesing said. “Any time you can score over 70 points on a great team like Nebraska, it’s unbelievable. We’re ecstatic.” Joe Ganz, making his first start at quarterback for Nebraska after Sam Keller sustained a season-ending injury last week, was 25 of 50 for 405 yards with four touchdowns but was also intercepted four times.

Nebraska
Football
University of Kansas
Callahan Bill
Osborne Tom


A Victory for Same-Sex Marriage, With Roots in New York

Abstract: Friday morning, sitting in her apartment on lower Fifth Avenue, Edith Windsor was dialed into a conference room at a Midtown Manhattan law firm to hear the news that Supreme Court had decided that people of the same sex were entitled to marry. A petite, elegant Greenwich Village widow who turned 86 last week, Ms. Windsor was a dynamic force in a legal and social avalanche that gathered power in New York and has changed the country. “She wept,” her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan said. Two years ago this Friday, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Ms. Windsor was entitled to the same estate tax benefits as any other person who had lost a spouse. It didn’t matter, the court found, that Ms. Windsor’s spouse was another woman, Thea Spyer. The court did not legalize same-sex marriage, but it said that the federal government could not deny what New York and a few other states had decided. “The laws of New York came to acknowledge the urgency of this issue for same-sex couples who wanted to affirm their commitment,” Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote for the majority in 2013. “New York acted to enlarge the definition of marriage to correct what its citizens and elected representatives perceived to be an injustice that they had not earlier known or understood.” At that moment in 2013, Justice Kennedy was not yet ready for the ruling and opinion that he issued Friday on behalf of the court, Ms. Kaplan said. But the trajectory of change was steep, and its velocity was rising. The opinion he issued Friday was, Ms. Kaplan said, “a beautiful and powerful explanation of why the Constitution exists, the courts exist, and why all people in our nation need to be afforded equal respect, dignity and liberty under the law.” People have spoken about same-sex marriage for decades, but there was neither political will nor popular sentiment for it until recently. Four years ago this week, on June 24, 2011, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed a new law that recognized same-sex marriage in New York State, after Mr. Cuomo steered the bill through the Legislature. Before New York passed its law , only five states had recognized same-sex marriage, and it had been two years since the most recent of them — New Hampshire — had acted. The issue was stalled. Then New York joined the list, the sixth and by far the largest state , instantly doubling the number of people covered by equality laws. More states followed. Two years later, when Ms. Windsor’s case was decided, 12 states allowed same-sex couples to marry. “Today, it’s 37,” said Ms. Kaplan, who argued the case for Ms. Windsor. “There have been 58 court decisions allowing marriage to gay people relying on Windsor. There have been three courts that ruled the other way.” Internationally, voters in Ireland last month recognized same-sex marriage through a national referendum , the first country to do so. If the pace of change seems astounding, it is a matter of the law catching up with life as actually lived. A legal ruling can uphold a national health care act , as happened on Thursday, but judges don’t make social history. It was on a Friday night in 1963, at the Portofino restaurant in Greenwich Village , that Ms. Windsor spotted Ms. Spyer. They danced until Ms. Windsor wore holes through her stockings. They bought homes together. Ms. Spyer gave Ms. Windsor an engagement brooch in 1967. Because the law was not ready for them, they married each other in all the day-to-day ways that matter. When Ms. Spyer, a psychologist, got multiple sclerosis, Ms. Windsor, an early computer programmer, quit her job to care for her. They loaded Ms. Spyer’s wheelchair into a van for a trip to Ontario, where they legally married in 2007. They were still at it, the fine grain of love raised by the needs of their aging bodies, when Ms. Spyer died in 2009. To obtain the estate tax benefits that widowed people get when their spouses die, Ms. Windsor went to court to challenge the Defense of Marriage Act, a law Bill Clinton signed in 1996 while campaigning for re-election. It excluded people in same-sex marriages from those and other benefits. Justice Kennedy wrote in 2013: “It seems fair to conclude that, until recent years, many citizens had not even considered the possibility that two persons of the same sex might aspire to occupy the same status and dignity as that of a man and woman in lawful marriage.” After the Supreme Court ruled that the Defense of Marriage Act was unconstitutional, the State of New York and the Internal Revenue Service had to give back about $638,000 in taxes collected from Ms. Spyer’s estate. (Plus interest.) That was not a trivial outcome or sum for Ms. Windsor. Ms. Kaplan recently argued against a same-sex marriage ban in Mississippi before a federal judge, Carlton Reeves, who was not interested in claims by the state that things were moving too quickly. It was not until 1970, Judge Reeves said, when he was a first grader in the Mississippi Delta, that his school was integrated. Segregation had been outlawed by the Supreme Court long before, in 1954. “He said, ‘In my opinion, 20 years is too long,’ ” Ms. Kaplan said.

New York
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Edith Schlain Windsor
Supreme Court,SCOTUS


Banks Are Poised to Resume Dividends

Abstract: Investors in bank stocks are about to get a big cut of the profits again. Financial analysts say the nation’s largest banks are ready to begin restoring their dividends in the first half of the year, after a three-year pause to repair their damaged balance sheets. The reversal could put billions of dollars in the pockets of pension funds and retirees who had viewed bank shares as dependable sources of income. Clues to how big a payout is in store could come as early as Friday, when JPMorgan Chase announces its 2010 financial performance, the first of many earnings reports to come over the next week from the likes of Bank of America , Citigroup , Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo . If the big banks deliver a second straight year of rising profits, as many analysts expect, the conditions would be in place for regulators to approve dividend increases by as early as March. As the financial crisis worsened in 2008 and 2009, all but a handful of financial institutions cut their once-lucrative dividends to just pennies a share, hurting ordinary investors who had come to see them as sources of income. JPMorgan, for example, now has a dividend of 20 cents a share annually, down from $1.52 before the crisis. Over all, the financial sector of the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index paid out $51 billion in dividends in 2007. By 2010, that figure had shrunk to $19 billion. “It’s a significant milestone,” said Gerard Cassidy, a veteran bank analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “The return of dividends signals that the banks are back, and the Federal Reserve wants to inspire confidence in the marketplace so that banks lend more.” The financial industry has returned to health much faster than expected, helped by an alphabet soup of federal aid programs totaling more than $3 trillion, ultralow interest rates and a surging stock market. Banks are expected to record $70 billion in profits in 2010, according to Foresight Analytics, a financial research firm. That would be up from $12.5 billion in 2009 but remains about half the level reached in 2006, before the housing market collapsed and the financial system almost came undone. The earnings reports for the fourth quarter of 2010 are also likely to show that corporate and consumer lending is starting to come back while losses on bad loans are continuing to ease. Wall Street’s trading businesses are expected to turn in a strong performance because of an increase in deal-making activity late in the year. This week the Federal Reserve began another round of so-called stress tests of the nation’s 19 largest banks, evaluating their ability to remain financially healthy in the face of a still-anemic economic recovery and tough new regulations that will cut deeply into revenues. Unlike the first round of tests, the findings this time will not be made public. Before approving a dividend increase, regulators must sign off on a bank’s stress test and conclude that the bank can meet the higher capital requirements put in place by new international agreements and the recent overhaul of financial regulations in the United States . They also must have fully repaid any federal bailout funds they accepted at the height of the crisis. While the return of dividends will be welcomed by ordinary investors, it remains a delicate issue for the banks as well as regulators and politicians in Washington , said Chris Kotowski, a bank analyst with Oppenheimer. Many voters are still angry about the government-led bailout that rescued banks after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. More recently, the return of bonuses on Wall Street has stirred outrage. “It’s purely a matter of making it palatable to the public,” Mr. Kotowski said. “Banks are fully capable of doing it. But everyone’s afraid of headlines that say just two years after the bailout, the fat cats are getting dividends again.” Partly as a result, he said, dividends will probably be restored in stages, and it could be take until the end of 2012 for them to return to historical norms. For decades, shares of banks, along with utilities, were the favored choice of retirees and other conservative investors who looked forward to a steady payment each quarter. That all changed when the financial crisis struck, forcing Citigroup to cut its dividend as it braced for a wave of huge losses tied to loan defaults. Although the federal bailout program did not require banks to lower their dividends in most cases, regulators all but forced many banks into making cuts by insisting that they hold more capital in reserve to cushion against losses. By the spring of 2009, several of the largest banks — including JPMorgan, Bank of America and Wells Fargo — cut their dividend to just pennies a share each quarter. Just as the banks cut their dividends at different rates over the course of months, the timing of dividend increases will probably also vary widely across the industry. The strongest banks, including JPMorgan, State Street, U.S. Bancorp and Wells Fargo, should be in the first wave this spring, several analysts said. For Bank of America and Citigroup, which continue to suffer steep losses on mortgages and consumer loans, the analysts said higher dividends probably would not come until later this year or early next year. Several regional lenders, including Fifth Third Bank, KeyCorp , SunTrust and Regions Financial , are barred by regulators from raising their dividends. None of these banks have repaid their bailout money in full. In particular, analysts and investors are eagerly anticipating what the chief executive of JPMorgan, Jamie Dimon , will say on the company’s earnings call on Friday, looking for any hint of the bank’s dividend plan. JPMorgan emerged from the financial crisis in far better shape than most of its rivals, and Mr. Dimon has been outspoken about his desire to raise his company’s payout. “We’re going to be building up a lot of excess capital,” he said in a CNBC interview on Tuesday. “So, we would like to restart a dividend.” Eventually, JPMorgan’s restored dividend could equal $1.50 a share annually, said Michael Scanlon, senior equity analyst with Manulife Asset Management in Boston . That would equal a yield of 3.3 percent based on its closing price of $44.45 on Thursday. That would be up from 0.5 percent now. More important, it would catapult the yield on JPMorgan shares to far above the 2.26 percent yield on certificates of deposit, a popular vehicle for investors seeking income. “It won’t come right out of the chute at that level,” Mr. Scanlon said. “But it’s definitely the end of a long drought.”

Banking and Finance
Stocks and Bonds
US Economy


National Dish Comes Wrapped in Foreign Flavoring

Abstract: BERLIN — There is no shortage of contradictions when it comes to this city. Like the rest of Germany , Berlin demands conformity to certain rules (think twice about crossing against the light), but leaves moral judgments up to the individual (no problem with nude bathing in public parks or gambling in storefront casinos). Germans are largely blind to the contradictions, of course, because they are in concert with their tastes and values. But they can be jarring for newcomers, especially Americans, who are often cautioned to cast aside preconceptions, ignore the seemingly familiar terrain of the modern cityscape and brace for the unexpected. That may be especially true when it comes to currywurst, the most popular fast food in the city, some say the nation. The dish, generally eaten from a paper plate with a tiny disposable fork while standing up, is itself a culinary contradiction: a greasy pile of pork sausage (very German), smothered in ketchup (quintessential American), sprinkled with curry powder (thank you, Britain, India). “Currywurst is a culinary symbol of Berlin and of all Germany,” said Birgit Breloh, who said she eats currywurst once a week, stays fit by going to yoga class and is the director of the world’s only Currywurst Museum , near the better known Checkpoint Charlie. Germans, or at least Berliners, look a bit puzzled (maybe offended?) when asked how they could be so health conscious, with their regular walks and emphasis on organic foods, and yet devour the fat-laden dish, often accompanied by a shimmering pile of french fries doused in ketchup, mayonnaise or both. According to Ms. Breloh, currywurst is consumed in huge quantities, with Germany’s 82 million people consuming 800 million curry sausages annually. “You can eat a lot of currywurst without getting fat,” said Mario Ziervogel, the strapping, svelte, owner of one of the most popular currywurst stands in the city, called Konnopke’s , in the trendy neighborhood of Prenzelauer Berg. “You have to move! If I sit and watch TV, all day, of course I will get fat.” In many ways, Germans are misunderstood. From the historic — “How could such a civilized society have produced the Holocaust?” — to the contemporary assessment that Germany is the tightwad of the euro-zone, even while its own economy booms. People here are often determined to explain certain facts about the place as a way to help others understand; that Germans are very guarded about their privacy, for example, and proud of their collective discipline and focus on quality. “It’s true, they see themselves as being the only world-class economy, and maintaining their standards is important to their success,” said John Kornblum, a former United States ambassador to Germany who still lives here and cautions newcomers not to try to psychoanalyze the place. But how does this explain the love for fried pork sausage smothered in ketchup and curry powder? “It is my favorite meal,” said Peter Ossig, 55, a businessman from Stuttgart who barely paused to chat as he popped a steaming currywurst into his mouth. He happened to be quite trim in his full-length blue coat. However, taste is not where the explanation ends, because currywurst is not merely extolled as a meal. It is a political statement, as well. Berlin, in particular, likes to see itself as egalitarian, and currywurst fits neatly with that image. It costs about $2 for a sausage, and the sloppy nature of the dish generally requires diners to stand together eating off chest-high snack tables on the sidewalks (though one restaurant in Düsseldorf supposedly sells the dish coated in gold leaf and accompanied by Champagne). “Currywurst is very democratic, poor or rich love it the same way and at the booth, all people come together,” said Ms. Breloh, as she gave a guided tour of the museum, which tended more toward the kitsch found along a beach boardwalk. Like much of the substructure of modern Germany, currywurst has its roots in the last world war and its aftermath. Ms. Breloh of the museum says the dish was first fixed in 1949 by Herta Heuwer, a Berliner, who like many others in postwar Germany struggled to make ends meet. Sausage, or wurst, has long been a staple, the hamburger of Deutschland. But Ms. Breloh said when Berlin was divided into occupied sectors, Germans saw Americans eating steak with ketchup. They could not afford steak, but they could manage to whip up ketchup. Ms. Heuwer, a rather stout woman who despite her eating habits — or perhaps because of them — lived to 86 years old, traded some alcohol to someone in the British sector for curry powder, or at least that is how the story goes. There is some dispute about this, with Hamburg also claiming to be the birthplace of the now beloved dish. The rest of the recipe is rather straightforward: Plop the sausage in oil and fry until crisp. Slice it into five chunks. Squirt on a mess of ketchup (Ms. Heuwer famously took her ketchup recipe to the grave.) and then shake on curry powder. And that’s it. “It’s good pork sausage, yes, yes, I have it three times a week,” said Guido Neumann, a brick layer with multiple piercings, as he slowly lifted the morsels on his tiny fork during a lunch break. There was a time, not long ago, when it appeared that currywurst might be knocked off its mantle as the most popular fast food, said Eberhard Seidel, who wrote a book about the challenger: the doner kebab, which is effectively the same as a Greek gyro, or a Middle Eastern shawarma, but retrofitted to German taste, slathered in a choice of sauces. “The doner kebab is the story of the survival of the guest workers,” Mr. Seidel said. Germany has a large population of ethnic Turks, brought here as part of a guest worker program half a century ago. The guest workers became residents, had families and when their factory jobs started to disappear many began to sell a dish popular in Turkey, meat cooked on a rotating upright post, sliced off and packed with salad in doughy bread. “It doesn’t look pretty, but it’s delicious,” said Kemal Akar, 19, as he and a group of his buddies took a break from their studies recently to enjoy a cheap lunch of doner kebab in Mitte, the center of the city. The doner is cheaper than currywurst but it ran into some public relations problems, Mr. Seidel said, amid cases of questionable quality meat. It remains popular, some say even more popular than currywurst, especially among students and the poor, but Mr. Seidel said it has slipped as Berlin has become more of an international city, and in some ways, a wealthier city. Now the kebab must compete with specialty soup shops, noodle houses and sushi vendors, to appeal to the taste of diners on the run. But the currywurst continues to hold its own even as noodlebox shops become more popular. “Currywurst,” said David Schultze, 19, a high school student and friend of Mr. Akar, “is a German tradition.”

Germany
Meat
Cooking and Cookbooks
Curry (Cuisine)


Alberto W. Vilar, Patron of the Arts, Gets 9 Years in Prison

Abstract: In his years as a prominent patron of the arts, Alberto W. Vilar sat in red velvet seats in the first row at the Metropolitan Opera, where he watched performances he had helped finance. But on Friday, Mr. Vilar himself was at center stage, standing in front of a packed wood-paneled courtroom in Lower Manhattan as a judge sentenced him to nine years in prison for his role in a $22 million fraud scheme. Mr. Vilar was convicted in 2008 of 12 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and money laundering, among other charges. Federal prosecutors said that Mr. Vilar and a partner in his company, Amerindo Investment Advisors, had spent clients’ money on volatile technology stocks instead of the more stable investments they had promised. After losing millions, the prosecutors said, Mr. Vilar turned to fraud in an effort to pay expenses and to satisfy investors asking for money. “You made use of investors’ assets as if they were your own,” the judge, Richard J. Sullivan of Federal District Court, told Mr. Vilar, 69, on Friday. “This kind of behavior just can’t be tolerated.” Judge Sullivan said that Mr. Vilar, a philanthropist who had donated more than $100 million to cultural causes, had essentially gambled other people’s money without permission. “He rolled 7s for years,” the judge said, adding that eventually, “the 7s turned into snake eyes.” Judge Sullivan listed five victims of the fraud seeking restitution, including Lily Cates, the mother of the actress Phoebe Cates, who lost $9.7 million, and Dr. Herbert Mayer, a retired surgeon, who lost $11 million. Dr. Mayer, 89, was one of three fraud victims who spoke during the hearing, telling the judge that his life had been “full of terror and anxieties and worries” since he lost most of his assets to Mr. Vilar. Prosecutors said that the scheme lasted for nearly 20 years, but that it unraveled after Mr. Vilar’s financial difficulties became public in 2002, when he was unable to honor commitments he had made to donate money to opera houses in New York, Chicago and Washington. For Mr. Vilar, who lived in a luxury apartment with marble floors and a large bronze statue of Mozart, the fall from grace was swift. The Met took his name off its grand tier; the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden in London removed “Vilar” from its Floral Hall; and the Salzburg Festival took his picture out of its programs. Mr. Vilar’s lawyer, Jonathan Marks, asked the judge for leniency and said that about $40 million could be gained by liquidating his clients’ assets, enough to repay the people he had swindled. “He did not intend to steal that money,” he said. “The money is just sitting there frozen, and they will get that back.” A prosecutor, Marc Litt, emphasized that Mr. Vilar had taken money that was not his and “has never accepted responsibility, really, for what he has done.” A few moments later, Mr. Vilar appeared to bolster that assertion as he gave a lengthy, discursive speech, sometimes blaming victims like Dr. Mayer and then downplaying his own misdeeds. “I deeply regret any inconvenience that our 14,000 clients might’ve suffered,” he said. “Fortunately, there are only five victims.”

Vilar Alberto W
Frauds and Swindling
Sentences (Criminal)
Philanthropy
Sullivan Richard J


Data on Iran Dims Outlook for Economy

Abstract: Daily oil production in Iran , the most important component of its economy, fell in September to the weakest level in nearly a quarter-century, according to monthly data released on Friday by the International Energy Agency. The agency forecast declines in Iran’s ability to produce oil for years to come if Western sanctions were not lifted. The agency’s report came as other signs of economic weakness were further revealed, notably severe drops in port calls and automotive production. Taken together, they depicted a stressed economy likely to exert new pressure on the rial, Iran’s currency. The rial lost 40 percent of its value against the dollar this month in panicky selling before the Iranian banking authorities moved to severely restrict currency trading. But acute inflation in Iran from the rial’s weakness is a major source of concern in the country, and outside economists have pointed to this as evidence that the sanctions, which have severely restricted Iran’s ability to sell oil and do international banking transactions, are having a profound impact. Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has repeatedly said that the sanctions, meant to press Iran into suspending its nuclear energy program , will fail. Iran says the program is peaceful, rejecting Western claims that it is a cloak for developing the ability to make atomic bombs. The oil data from the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based group, showed that Iran produced 2.63 million barrels a day in September, down 220,000 barrels a day from August. That is the lowest since the average of 2.49 million barrels a day in 1988, said the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries. In a separate midyear outlook, the agency forecast more pain for Iran because of the newest sanctions, saying they are “wide-ranging and have had far-reaching impact on global oil trade.” In another measure of Iran’s isolation, Reuters reported Friday that only 980 vessels called at Iranian ports in the first nine months of 2012, quoting private data from IHS Fairplay, a maritime intelligence publisher. That compares with 2,740 port calls for all of 2011 and 3,407 for 2010. On Thursday, the Iranian Students’ News Agency reported a 42 percent drop in automotive production in the past six months compared with the same period a year earlier, without providing an explanation. But the rial’s severe drop has made imports of auto parts far more expensive. Last February, Peugeot, the French automaker that is a partner of Iran Khodro, Iran’s leading domestic automaker, withdrew from the country because of the strengthened Western sanctions.

Iran
International Energy Agency
Currency
Economic Conditions and Trends
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
Iranian Rial (Currency)
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline


Priest for Women’s Ordination Fights His Dismissal

Abstract: A Roman Catholic priest who is campaigning to open the priesthood to women says he will contest a move by his religious order to dismiss him for his dissent. The priest, the Rev. Roy Bourgeois, said he had retained the Rev. Thomas Doyle, a canon lawyer best known as a whistleblower in the priest sexual abuse scandal, to press the case with the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers. Father Doyle said he would argue that Father Bourgeois had a right to follow his conscience, and that the prohibition on women’s ordination was not an infallible church teaching, despite Vatican declarations. A Maryknoll spokesman said its general council would decide the next step.

Priests
Women and Girls
Roman Catholic Church
Bourgeois Roy


Interest Rate Raised to 17% in Russia

Abstract: MOSCOW — Russia has a new enemy: the currency markets. Russia’s government is in the middle of an all-out fight to preserve the value of the ruble in the face of plummeting oil prices and Western sanctions over the Ukraine crisis. In the boldest move yet to stanch the bleeding, the Central Bank of Russia announced a stunning interest rate increase in the middle of the night. Its main deposit rate is now 17 percent, up from 10.5 percent when Russian banks closed for business on Monday. The rate increase, one of the largest ever announced by the central bank, echoes the drastic measures taken during the 1998 crisis when Russia defaulted on its debt and devalued the ruble. The question is whether the move — announced on the central bank’s website at 1 a.m. in Russia — will appease the markets. If it doesn’t, investors may view the rate increase as a sign of increasing disarray. Some economists are concerned that Russia is now stuck in the quagmire of stagflation, or high inflation and low growth. The government expects inflation of 10 percent or more by the end of this year and for the country to fall into a recession next year. In a worrying sign, Russians have been buying up big-ticket items as the ruble depreciates, converting savings into consumer goods lest their savings become worthless. Appliance stores in Moscow have seen runs on refrigerators, washing machines and televisions. The strategy behind the rate increase is straightforward. The central bank, led by Elvira Nabiullina, is hoping that the large rate increase will encourage Russian individuals, companies and banks to hold savings in rubles, rather than moving them into dollars. It is also aimed at helping to help keep inflation in check. “This decision is aimed at limiting substantially increased ruble depreciation risks and inflation risk,” the central bank said in its statement. But the surprise rate increase also underscores the limited options for Russian policy makers. The central bank has spent at least $75 billion this year to prop up the ruble, with little effect. The ruble plummeted yet again on Monday, by more than 10 percent, to about 64 per dollar. The ruble has lost nearly half its value since the start of 2014. Image TV shoppers in Moscow. Russians have been acquiring big-ticket items as the ruble depreciates. Credit Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Aleksei L. Kudrin, a former Russian finance minister who is widely credited with having steered Russia through the 2008 financial crisis by persuading President Vladimir V. Putin to strengthen sovereign reserves, said that uneven policy making was adding to the erosion of confidence. “The fall of the ruble and the stock market is not only a reaction to lower oil prices and sanctions, but also distrust in the government’s economic measures,” Mr. Kudrin posted on Twitter. The central bank is in a difficult position. The hope is that by stabilizing the value of the currency, the interest rate increase will reduce the sense of financial panic and rapid outflows of money. Russians have pulled more than $100 billion in capital from the country this year. But the increase could also choke off growth in a Russian economy already reeling from falling oil prices. Oil and natural gas make up about 60 percent of Russia’s export earnings. Earlier Monday, the Russian central bank said it expected the country’s economy to contract 4.5 percent in 2015 if oil prices averaged $60 a barrel. Oil is now hovering around that level. The central bank had been striving to keep rates low to bolster business activity and growth. It shifted to raising rates only last spring after the Ukraine crisis put additional pressure on the ruble. Since then, the central bank has steadily increased rates in relatively small increments. Just last Thursday, it increased rates to 10.5 percent, from 9.5 percent. The dead-of-night action seemed to catch even seasoned market watchers by surprise. Russian news agencies close to the government described it in unusually breathless terms. Noting the “rapid collapse of the ruble,” the Interfax news agency declared that the central bank had gone to “emergency measures, leaving far behind the most radical assumptions of analysts.” Analysts said that the rate increase might be a last-ditch move by the Russian government to try to contain the drop in the currency without adopting controls on the flow of capital or other more extensive measures to keep money in the country. “If today’s measures fail to stem the ruble rout, there is a high probability that policy will veer in a more unorthodox direction,” said Alexander Kliment, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, in a research note. “Some top advisers to Putin are openly hostile to rate hikes.”

Interest rate
Russia
Ruble
Price
Central Bank of Russia
Embargoes Sanctions