A Career in Ballet That Continued Offstage

Abstract: Kevin O’Hare is the director of the Royal Ballet in London. Q. You started your career as a dancer when you were very young. Did you think you would become the director of a company like the Royal Ballet? A. I didn’t think that two years ago! My dream was originally just to be on stage, and then when I decided to retrain in management, it was because I liked to be right in the thick of it. I realized that I did have that ambition. The job is the link between the dancers and the management, the orchestra and the marketing and all those people. And you hopefully keep that ship rolling. Q. What did you learn from people you worked for? A. It’s important to make people feel that they matter, whether you are in the corps de ballet or the top principal. Peter Wright was my director and was really somebody I admire. You could be there in a studio, tired, trying to get the will together, and he was somebody who would walk into the room and not scare you but actually get you enthused about what you’re doing. He would say to all the girls, “Each one of you, you’re all ballerinas, you’re all going to sparkle,” and you could see them physically grow. Q. Dancers are much admired for their discipline. Do you think that discipline helps you as a manager? A. A lot of that discipline comes from the daily class. You have to be in there at 10:30 a.m. or earlier, and you know that if you miss that more than once or twice in even a month, things will start sliding. It’s not even guilt — it’s just that you know that that’s what makes things possible. So I think from very early on, it’s a great lesson to see that if you put the work in, you might not be the greatest dancer in the world, but you will have a career, and it will be a good career. And it’s a great equalizer as well, because a star like Marianela Nuñez has to do that, as does the newest person in the corps de ballet. Q. So physical discipline is important. What else do you need to be a success as a dancer or a manager of dancers? A. Your brain has to be active all the time. People can’t believe that. You go to a reception and people ask, “What do you do during the day?” And of course during the day you’d be learning five ballets. Your brain is having to go from one to the other very quickly. You’d finish at 5:30 in the evening, and the next thing is you would go on stage and do the “Nutcracker” that you rehearsed weeks ago. And you have to go on stage and look like it’s easy or like you are in love or tell a story. Your brain is being worked constantly. In this management job now, it’s pretty long hours, but I’ve never felt as absolutely exhausted as I did as a dancer. Q. How was it to move from being among the dancers to someone who is managing the organization? A. Doing that is really hard. You have to walk away and then come back, because I do think it’s great to have that bit of separation. When people see that you’ve gone out and tried to get different experiences, I think they then feel that you’re more rounded and you’re more able to give them advice. Q. How do you hold together a bunch of extremely ambitious people? A. It’s a challenge. I want everybody to feel like they are worthy, and of course not everybody can be a principal dancer. It’s hard to make them feel their worth in what they’re doing, but of course some people measure that in titles or solos. In all the other jobs, I felt if I worked hard enough or gave it 150 percent, I’d be able to make everybody happy, but in this job there’s no way I can. And it’s this realization and thinking how can I do it and not bring people down. I haven’t found the answer to that yet. Of course you have to remember that just getting into the Royal Ballet is the ultimate goal for many people. Q. When times are difficult, where do you pull your strength from? A. I make decisions honestly and I stick with them. I’m thinking, yes it’s not really working now, or people are not that keen on the decision, but I believe in it. Everyone wants to be liked, and I have it in my character a bit, but I’m trying not to make decisions because of that. Q. How would you describe your leadership? A. There’s a saying: Look at the past, but don’t stare at it. We have a history now, and a lot of this history was quite amazing. You’ve got to acknowledge that, but you can’t hang on to that. You’ve got to move forward. Yes, we want wonderful dancers, and we have great stars, but it’s about the performance of the company. If you have two people dancing brilliantly in the middle and then nobody else is doing anything around the sides, I don’t think it works. Q. Who do you look to now for inspiration? A. Tony Hall, the chief executive of the Royal Opera House, is the most amazing person. He’s somebody who has time for everybody, who listens to what people say, and I’ve never heard him raise his voice. Q. Was it difficult to stop dancing? A. It was definitely the right decision. I had always in my mind that I would stop at 35, but then I had an injury. There is literally no cartilage in my knees, so they drilled into my knees and created some soft tissue, and one really worked well and the other one didn’t. So the nurse came and said, “Oh, I heard you’re a dancer and you will stop now.” I was determined to go back, but I found it very hard. While I was recovering, I spoke to the chief executive of Rambert [Dance Company] and said, “Can I just come and see what you are doing?” And that’s how I got the idea to retrain as management. Q. Do you miss being on stage? A. I thought I would miss the performance. And I didn’t miss that at all, but I miss the physicality of it. I miss going to class, sweating, knowing your body. Going to the gym just doesn’t do it for me. My mom used to say, “How lovely to go into work and you have music.” And it’s true. That’s just such a nice thing when someone’s playing the piano and you do your exercises.


UConn, Under New Coach, Upends No. 14 Michigan State

Abstract: Shabazz Napier is fairly confident that if Connecticut gets its running game going, nobody can keep up with the Huskies. No. 14 Michigan State could not, falling, 66-62, in the Armed Forces Classic in a hangar on the United States Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “We are too fast; we are a transition team, and when we get going, no one can keep up with us,” said Napier, who had a game-high 25 points. Kevin Ollie’s first game and win as the Huskies’ coach was watched by the former coach Jim Calhoun, who worked as play-by-play radio commentator. Calhoun retired in September. The Spartans hit just one of their first eight shots, while Connecticut made nine of its first 10 and raced out to a 20-6 lead. The Spartans were better in the second half, pulling to 62-60, but missed two shots in the last minute. INDIANA 97, BRYANT 54 Cody Zeller had 18 points and 10 rebounds and No. 1 Indiana gave visiting Bryant a rude welcome to Division I college basketball. KENTUCKY 72, MARYLAND 69 Jarrod Polson scored 10 points and made the clinching free throws with 7.7 seconds to play as No. 3 Kentucky held off a furious second-half rally by Maryland in the second game of the Barclays Center Classic, the first college basketball games in the new arena in Brooklyn. In the opener, Milton Chavis scored 24 points as Morehead State beat L.I.U.-Brooklyn, 77-74. MICHIGAN 100, SLIPPERY ROCK 62 Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 25 points, surpassing 1,000 for his career in No. 5 Michigan’s win over visiting Slippery Rock. N.C. STATE 97, MIAMI (OHIO) 59 Richard Howell had 16 points and 10 rebounds to help No. 6 North Carolina State beat visiting Miami (Ohio). KANSAS 74, S.E. MISSOURI ST. 55 Ben McLemore had 9 points, 12 rebounds and 5 assists in his Kansas debut, helping the No. 7 Jayhawks past visiting Southeast Missouri State. DUKE 74, GEORGIA STATE 55 Mason Plumlee had 19 points and 14 rebounds to lead No. 8 Duke over visiting Georgia State. U.N.C. 76, GARDNER-WEBB 59 James Michael McAdoo set career highs with 26 points and 14 rebounds, and No. 11 North Carolina beat visiting Gardner-Webb to improve to 91-12 in openers. CREIGHTON 71, N. TEXAS 51 Doug McDermott had 21 points and 11 rebounds to lead No. 16 Creighton over visiting North Texas. BAYLOR 99, LEHIGH 77 The Baylor freshman Isaiah Austin scored 22 points in 17 minutes before spraining his right ankle as No. 19 Baylor beat visiting Lehigh. O.S.U.-MARQUETTE CANCELED The game between No. 4 Ohio State and Marquette aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown at the Carrier Classic was canceled because of moisture on the court. Earlier, the No. 7 Notre Dame women beat No. 19 Ohio State, 57-51. There was no problem with the court during that game. The men’s game between No. 10 Florida and Georgetown on the deck of U.S.S. Bataan was called off at halftime because the court became too wet. Women CHATTANOOGA 80, TENNESSEE 71 In its first game since Pat Summitt stepped down and was replaced by her longtime assistant Holly Warlick, No. 20 Tennessee lost to host Chattanooga. Meighan Simmons scored 23 points for Tennessee, which had 26 turnovers. Taylor Hall had 24 points to lead Chattanooga. BAYLOR 80, LAMAR 34 Brittney Griner had 24 points, her 81st consecutive double-figure scoring game, as No. 1 Baylor routed visiting Lamar. TEXAS 70, ST. JOHN’S 60 Nneka Enemkpali scored a career-high 25 points and Chassidy Fussell scored 23 to lead Texas over No. 14 St. John’s in a WBI Tip Off Invitational game in Daytona Beach, Fla.

Basketball (College)
University of Connecticut
Michigan State University
Ollie Kevin


EMC Wins Bidding War for Data Domain

Abstract: Waving $2.4 billion in cash, EMC finally beat out NetApp, its archrival in the storage business, for the right to acquire Data Domain and its data deduplication technology. On Wednesday, NetApp dropped out of the bidding, and Data Domain’s board approved EMC’s offer. Even in the jargon-filled world of technology nomenclature, deduplication is a chunky term. Its promise, however, is straightforward enough: the technology can reduce a company’s need for costly computer storage systems by half or more. In this difficult economy, that is very appealing to customers. “There is the potential for an enormous savings in capital expenditures,” said Thomas M. Coughlin, the president of Coughlin Associates, a storage market research company. And it helps explain the bidding war over Data Domain in the midst of a nasty recession. The battle began at the end of May, when NetApp bid $25 a share for the company, using a mix of stock and cash for a $1.5 billion offer. While uninvited to the negotiations, EMC stepped in with a larger, hostile offer. NetApp countered, and EMC again raised its offer, culminating with an all-cash offer of $33.50 a share on Monday. EMC said the net price of the deal, after subtracting Data Domain’s cash on hand, was $2.1 billion. NetApp and EMC, the two largest independent storage technology companies, have deduplication products. But, in this part of the storage market, it seems that a company can never have enough of such technology, especially for corporate customers, whose volume of data grows 50 percent a year on average. Deduplication software lets companies reduce the number of backup copies they need to make of similar files. Workers will, for example, pass around a slide presentation via e-mail and make minor changes to it along the way. With deduplication, an initial copy of the file is made and stored. From that point on, only the minor changes need to be backed up every day. “It’s those huge PowerPoint attachments that are being sent around to 20 people that are the problem,” said Garth Gibson, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University. Data Domain, which is based in Santa Clara, Calif., specializes in handling the large, corporatewide backups that companies make to protect their information. It uses similar techniques to reduce the amount of data that must travel between offices, as companies look to place their data in diverse locations. EMC makes its living selling storage systems, and technology that lowers the need for such products could prove troublesome. But, according to analysts, EMC will benefit from the technology by capitalizing on the continuing shift to storage systems based on spinning disks from older tape technology. Companies have long used cheap magnetic tapes to hold backup files that are kept for emergencies rather than daily use. The problem is that the tape systems are slow and cumbersome. Companies would prefer to have their information stored on faster disks so they can retrieve files quickly. The price of such disk storage systems has fallen steadily, making them more attractive for backup procedures. EMC, based in Hopkinton, Mass., sells only disk storage systems and sees this technology disruption as a way to take business from I.B.M. and Sun Microsystems, two major tape storage companies. “The cost of disks are now low enough that you can entertain having all your backups on disk instead of tape,” Mr. Gibson said. The San Francisco Giants baseball team has used Data Domain’s technology for two years to back up its corporate files. The 150-person organization, with annual revenue of about $250 million, used to send employees home with tapes on the weekends. Now, it shuttles information between San Francisco and an operation in Arizona over the Internet, said Bill Schlough, the team’s chief information officer. “The system compresses all of our critical e-mail and file data, and sends it across the Internet on a daily basis,” he said. “It’s something we needed just in case there’s a big disaster at the ballpark.” EMC says it expects the Data Domain acquisition to close this month, and hopes to capitalize on Data Domain’s strength in selling deduplication technology to midsize companies. EMC is expected to add some sales reach and investment heft to Data Domain’s products. As for NetApp, the company intends to assess its options and decide whether to build similar technology in-house or try to make another purchase, said Tom Georgens, NetApp’s president. “I think it was a good company,” he said. “The price was just pretty hard for us to justify.”

Data Domain Inc
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
EMC Corporation
NetApp Inc


Out of the Search Business, Yahoo Shifts Its Focus

Abstract: SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Carol A. Bartz , chief executive of Yahoo , has been hobbled. Three weeks ago, doctors gave her a new left knee, made of titanium and plastic. As a result, she is limping around Yahoo’s headquarters here, occasionally standing to hold a chair and stretch her leg while a bottle of Percocet sits at the ready on her desk. Yahoo also underwent invasive surgery recently, selling its search business to Microsoft for an initial 88 percent share of search revenue in a 10-year deal. Since that move last week, Yahoo too has limped along, with disappointed investors asking whether Ms. Bartz could have won more favorable terms and with Yahoo shares tumbling more than 15 percent. In a lengthy interview on Friday before departing for a vacation, Ms. Bartz said she sold the search business because Yahoo could no longer continue to match the level of investment Google and Microsoft were making in searching, one of the Web’s most lucrative and technologically complex businesses. While reducing the marketing and infrastructure costs associated with search, the deal will also provide money that Yahoo can use to bolster other businesses. Ms. Bartz plans to invest the money in Yahoo’s display ad, content and mobile services technology. “My first reaction when I got here was that I wouldn’t even do a search deal,” she said, “until I looked at our expense structure and our actual options and looked at what our prime job was, which is to grow audience.” Yahoo will lose some of its most talented engineers to Microsoft and as many as 400 employees through layoffs. The deal also undercuts years of investment around search technology. By selling the technological crown jewels, the company may lose some of its high-tech credibility among employees and others in Silicon Valley, as well as among customers. But the core of Yahoo remains intact, according to Ms. Bartz. “We haven’t eviscerated the company,” she said. Given Yahoo’s battering by investors, Ms. Bartz lamented that Yahoo and Microsoft failed to explain the relationship better to Wall Street. She blamed herself for a comment she made several weeks ago, at an industry conference, that Microsoft would have to pay Yahoo “boatloads of cash” to win its search business. That statement, she said, helped to solidify an expectation that Yahoo would receive $1 billion or more upfront as part of the deal. “I made a mistake. I was never interested in doing it for upfront money. That doesn’t help me operate a business,” Ms. Bartz said. She noted that such a payment would have had significant tax consequences while contributing only $3 million in annual interest to Yahoo’s bottom line. Wall Street had become enamored with the previous, more immediately lucrative proposals between Microsoft and Yahoo. Last year, trying to improve its search business and better compete with its archrival Google, Microsoft offered $46 billion to buy all of Yahoo. Analysts estimate that the new deal — involving what many people saw as Yahoo’s most important asset — is worth only around $4 billion to $5 billion. “It’s rather like getting a Picasso and saying, ‘You know, the canvas costs $200, the paint cost $300, so we’ll sell it to you for $500,’ ” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein. “I’ve never seen investors so angry.” Microsoft’s chief, Steven A. Ballmer, has gone to unusual lengths to defend the deal on Yahoo’s behalf. Last week, he told a group of investors gathered at Microsoft’s headquarters that it was “sort of unbelievable” that Yahoo got to keep such a high percentage of the ad sales while spending nothing on the underlying infrastructure to run the search operation. And Ms. Bartz argues that the more generous offers came during far different economic times. In addition, she said, analysts have underestimated the two and half years it will take to integrate the two companies’ search and advertising systems. The companies also face the daunting process of getting approval from regulatory agencies that are now closely scrutinizing deals on antitrust grounds. Ms. Bartz said that she avoided Mr. Ballmer’s immediate advances after taking the helm of Yahoo. “He called my first day,” she said. “I told him: ‘Go away. I haven’t even found the bathroom.’ ” When Ms. Bartz finally began negotiations, Mr. Ballmer presented two options: a large upfront payment or a higher percentage of revenue tied to ads sold on Yahoo Web sites. “He wasn’t going to pay twice,” Ms. Bartz said. Ultimately, Mr. Ballmer, who was unavailable to comment, and Ms. Bartz ended up on the phone debating minute details, like how fast things like search results and ads would appear, at one point haggling over a margin of 100 milliseconds. Ms. Bartz also fought to play down Microsoft’s Bing brand on the Yahoo search results page, with just a bit of text instead of a logo, and she pushed Mr. Ballmer hard to make sure that Yahoo retained the right to sell its own display ads to big advertisers like Procter & Gamble and Unilever. “I had to get Steve through the, ‘we get to sell part,’ ” she said. Meanwhile, Ms. Bartz has plenty of other work to do at Yahoo. She has picked up on the dysfunction throughout the company during her eight months on the job. For one, Yahoo has not poured enough money into creating a top-class technology infrastructure capable of delivering a variety of services to consumers. “We are actually behind in investing,” she said. “We should have invested more.” Ms. Bartz also complained about a lack of balance among the different product groups. Motivated employees in the company’s sports section have turned it into a must-visit Web destination by breaking news stories and providing witty commentary. Other sections have languished. This is often a result of what Ms. Bartz sees as insufficient communication and barriers among the company’s various American and international properties over sharing videos and other content. “We had a fight for 18 months here on what a video button should look like,” Ms. Bartz said. Spending money to fix these problems made more sense to Ms. Bartz than hemorrhaging cash in a bid to keep pace with Google and Microsoft. Microsoft has backed its new search engine, Bing, with billions of dollars in infrastructure and marketing investments. So far, the search engine has been well received. While encouraged by some of Bing’s innovations, Ms. Bartz figures that Google will most likely match them soon. “That is the arms race I don’t want to be in,” she said. But some investors fear that Yahoo may be trading one of the most profitable businesses of the 21st century — search — for a deflating, hypercompetitive media business that appeared to peak in the 20th century. “I don’t think the surviving pieces are very interesting,” said Michael Lippert, manager of the Baron iOpportunity fund, which acquired Yahoo shares earlier this year on the anticipation of a lucrative search partnership. Mr. Lippert was disappointed by the terms of the deal but did not make out too badly; his fund also owns Microsoft stock, which rose slightly last week. “Ballmer got himself a fantastic deal,” he said.

Yahoo Inc
Microsoft Corp
Computers and the Internet
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Online Advertising
Google Inc
Bartz Carol A


Putting Candidates Under the Videoscope

Abstract: One late night last November, Mitt Romney, campaigning in Greenville, S.C., was approached by three young women in bright matching outfits looking for a hug. Mr. Romney, thinking they were cheerleaders from nearby Clemson University, obliged. The young women worked at a Hooters restaurant. Unfortunately for Mr. Romney, Scott Conroy, who works for CBS News, filmed the hug with his Sony hand-held camera and sent the image to the television network’s political desk in New York. The video was published online the next morning. “You’re standing there doing your job, and all of a sudden Mitt Romney’s hugging Hooters girls. It’s one of the times you’re glad you’re filming,” Mr. Conroy recalled. Mr. Conroy, whose job title is “off-air reporter,” (because he does not normally appear on television) is one of many young journalists hired by the networks to follow the candidates across the country, filing video and blog posts as they go. Originally hired to cut expenses — their cost is a fraction of a full television crew’s — these reporters, also called “embeds,” have produced a staggering amount of content, especially video. And in this election cycle, for the first time, they are able to edit and transmit video on the fly. As a result, the embeds have changed the dynamic of this year’s election, making every unplugged and unscripted moment on the campaign trail available for all to see. One particular video shot of American flags tilting over behind Hillary Rodham Clinton last November has been viewed more than 300,000 times on the ABC News Web site. A video of the Fox News host Bill O’Reilly shoving a member of Barack Obama’s staff at a New Hampshire campaign rally has drawn almost 150,000 views on YouTube. “There have always been cameras around campaigns. What is different now is how much more portable they’ve become and how much more prevalent,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, who was the traveling press secretary for Mr. Romney’s campaign until the Republican candidate dropped out last week. Through cable television, network news sites and video sharing sites, these unexpected and unguarded moments at rallies and during campaign stops have become part of the narrative of the election. The campaigns themselves are well aware of how video clips can magnify a mistake or attach a faux pas permanently to the candidate. “Whether it’s a metaphor for the campaign or just a funny moment from the trail, there’s a lot of demand for that kind of stuff,” said Aaron Bruns, a political embed for Fox News Channel. The methods of the off-air reporter trade are also increasingly being used as networks look for new ways to expand coverage while cutting costs. Bulky satellite transmission units are gradually being replaced by portable broadband-based gear. Last year, ABC News assigned seven young journalists to serve as one-person bureaus in foreign countries where the network had not previously assigned correspondents. Fox News Channel has promoted technology that allows it to broadcast live reports from a moving vehicle. Athena Jones of NBC News is, at 31, one of the oldest off-air reporters employed by the networks. She summed up the attitude of her colleagues: “We have a lot of mouths to feed. If you feed something in, someone will probably find a place for it in the 24-hour cable news beast.” Until January, off-air reporters like Mr. Conroy and Ms. Jones were the only television producers traveling with the presidential contenders. Since the Iowa caucuses, larger crews have followed the leading candidates to most campaign events, but the off-air reporters still film the rope lines and photo opportunities that are seemingly more intimate events for the candidates. The off-air reporters for ABC even post their itineraries on the social networking Web site Facebook. “We basically keep our eyes and ears open at all times,” said Eloise Harper, the ABC News off-air reporter who shot the video of the flags falling behind Senator Clinton. “We’re always watching the candidates.” The emergence of off-air reporters dates to 1988, when the networks sought to save money by sending full TV crews to only some campaign events. Partly because most off-air reporters are relatively young and not members of a union, they create some cost savings for networks. The off-air reporter role became especially prominent in 2004 when NBC News renamed them “campaign embeds,” in an allusion to the embedding of correspondents during the Iraq war. During that election, hand-held cameras became ubiquitous, but the reporters did not have a ready-made outlet for their video. Four years later, the 2008 presidential campaign is being conducted in the era of YouTube. Spurred by the proliferation of inexpensive hand-held video cameras and broadband Internet access, the dispatches that were once distributed internally are now published on blogs, and the video clips that would have wound up on the cutting room floor are posted on Web sites. The ubiquitous camcorders and immediate Internet access do make the campaigns more wary of potential pitfalls. If a candidate becomes irritated during a newspaper reporter’s interview, the instance may merit only a sentence in the next day’s article. But if the exchange takes place in front of video cameras, “It gets put on the Internet for the whole world to see, not just for that day’s news, but repeatedly over time,” Mr. Fehrnstrom said. Stephen Hess, a professor of media and public affairs at The George Washington University, noted that many people now own cellphones with picture- and video-taking abilities. “Every camera reflects the opportunity for someone to see what’s going on with the election, which is a good thing,” he said. “And yet, what’s going on is now so staged, so that’s a bad thing. Neither is going to be reversed.” In an unusual arrangement, NBC News shares campaign reporters with the political news service National Journal; National Journal pays the salaries, NBC pays the travel expenses and MSNBC.com supplies the equipment. CBS and ABC said their off-air reporters are full-time employees. A majority of Fox News’s embeds are also full time. CNN initially assigned producers to each early caucus and primary state and now embeds reporters with each candidate. David Westin, the president of ABC News, said the demand for campaign trail content is almost unlimited. “Originally, the off-airs were just used to inform our reporting behind the scenes,” he said. “Now, they do reports by themselves.” Unscripted moments can be recorded by other sources. The video of former President Bill Clinton dozing off during a Martin Luther King Jr. Day church service in Harlem was recorded by a stringer for The New York Post’s Web site. Mr. Romney briefly created an Internet video sensation last month when he used the word “bling” and the hip-hop song “Who Let the Dogs Out?” while surrounded by African-American teenagers at a campaign stop in Florida. Some of the reporters cringed, wondering whether the incident would be perceived as a “macaca moment” or merely “goofy Mitt Romney.” But Mr. Conroy had already filmed it, as had other TV crews. “None of the candidates have forgotten what happened to George Allen,” said Bret Hovell, the ABC off-air reporter assigned to John McCain. Campaigning for a United States Senate seat in Virginia in 2006, Mr. Allen pointed to a volunteer for an opposing candidate, commonly called a “tracker,” who was videotaping his speech and called him “macaca,” a term with racial overtones. Campaign “trackers” are still prevalent on the campaign trail, recording candidate events for opposition purposes, but the off-air reporters serve a similar function. “There’s never a moment when we can’t file something,” Mr. Conroy said. “That’s a big benefit in terms of getting things up quickly, but it also means that we’re working every waking minute of the day.” Most of the off-air reporters started shadowing the campaigns full time in September. Their relative inexperience, combined with the constant deadline pressure, has raised some concerns about this increasingly digital type of election coverage. “When you have young people covering their first campaign, it’s very difficult to hold campaigns accountable, to say, ‘The candidate should answer questions about this,’ or, ‘Why is this fund-raiser closed to the press?,’ ” said Mark Halperin, the senior political analyst at Time magazine, who followed Bill Clinton in 1992 as an off-air reporter for ABC at the age of 26. Mr. Halperin places some blame on major newspapers that rotate more experienced reporters on and off the campaign trail. Mr. Westin of ABC said he has never seen a correlation between a correspondent’s seniority level and willingness to ask tough questions. For Ms. Jones of NBC, the most memorable part of a recent day with Mrs. Clinton was the sighting of a black Elvis impersonator. Her camera was rolling as the impersonator, Dwayne Turner, who goes by the nickname Belvis, serenaded Mrs. Clinton at a Little Rock, Ark., restaurant on Jan. 30. “One for the money, two for the show, you can do it, Hillary, go, go, go,” Mr. Turner sang, bringing a smile to Mrs. Clinton’s face. It was a made-for-the-Internet moment. “I uploaded it as soon as I could,” Ms. Jones said.

Television
ABC News
Fox News Channel
NBC News
Presidential Election of 2008
News and News Media
Computers and the Internet
Wireless Communications
YouTube.com
MSNBC


Steinbrenner, a Legend, Deserves a Field

Abstract: One of the nicest things I have heard from baseball in a long time is taking place in Florida this spring training: the name of the Yankees ’ ballpark in Tampa is being changed from Legends Field to Steinbrenner Field. This gesture runs against the hideous trend of hanging transient corporate names on major league ballparks. It revives the ancient tradition of autocratic owners putting their names on their fields — Briggs, Comiskey, Shibe, Crosley and, a name that causes me to weep copious tears into my laptop, Ebbets. (Ask your grandfather.) Those were the days. It was their team, and their stadium, and they could name it after themselves if they wanted. Now officials in Tampa have voted to put the name of a civic figure on a public stadium, and more power to them. I know, I know, this may seem hypocritical, coming from a sports columnist who used to suggest that The Man From Tampa, that bumptious carpetbagger, get out of Gotham. But now that George Steinbrenner has relinquished some of the control and the spotlight to his two sons, he deserves this honor. Even with his periodic suspensions, feuds, bullying and blunders, The Boss did revive the Yankees as one of the great sports franchises in the world. He did it with a panache that was distasteful at times and visionary at others. We witnessed a blast from the past in October, when Steinbrenner predicted that Joe Torre was a goner if the Yanks didn’t go deep into the postseason. Not pretty, not necessarily fair, but pure Boss. The other day, my wife and I were driving through Tampa (heading for Cuban sandwiches and black beans in Ybor City) when she spotted the George M. Steinbrenner Family Boys & Girls Club. Yeah, I had to admit, the old so-and-so is something of a philanthropist. There is other intriguing news from spring training: another oldie-but-goodie, Tom Lasorda, will manage the Dodgers’ split squad while the peripatetic Mr. Torre takes a Dodger squad to Beijing for two exhibitions in mid-March. (Talk about long spring training bus rides.) Having Lasorda strut around in his familiar, perhaps tight, No. 2 uniform is a fitting way for the Dodgers to depart Florida for their new spring home in Arizona. I don’t know what the Orioles, or whoever takes over Dodgertown, are going to do about lanes named for Koufax and Campanella and Alston. I’m also assuming that old-timey Holman Stadium, without dugouts, named for the local who persuaded the Dodgers to move into the old naval air base in 1948, will soon be renamed after some corporation on the make. That seems to be the trend, even in the formerly bucolic world of spring training.  It’s all changing before our eyes, not necessarily for the better. The most delightful place on the planet to watch an exhibition is St. Petersburg, alongside the rippling waters of Tampa Bay. My introduction to spring training began in 1963, when the second-year Mets and the historic Cardinals shared the rudimentary Al Lang Stadium. (The Mets dressed at a funky lakeside camp not far away, then took cabs to Al Lang Stadium, spiked shoes in hands.) And just who was Al Lang, you ask? The mayor of St. Pete, who had lured major league teams to train there back in 1916. The way things happen, Lang’s name is now attached only to the field itself, while some power company pays to have its name on the entire bayside complex. Even worse, the Tampa Bay Rays are vacating the renascent downtown of St. Pete after this spring. If the Rays do get a regular-season stadium built on that site — instead of the ghastly nearby dome where they molder — it’s just a hunch on my part that it will not be named after a mayor. Corporate naming rights are the future, despite the high mortality rate for these sponsors on the make. (The Yankees, showing equal business sense and respect for their tradition, are keeping the name Yankee Stadium for their new palace, to open in 2009.)  Another vestigial homage to the past is Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Fla., home of the Tigers since 1934, the longest spring training residence in the majors. And who was Joker Marchant? The longtime parks and recreation director after the Tigers moved there in 1934. According to legend, when the ballpark was named after Marchant in 1966, he warned the fans, “Y’all put the peanut shells in your pockets and don’t be messing up my new stadium!” Which is undoubtedly why people called him Joker. I also note with delight that the Cubs still train in Mesa, Ariz., at Hohokam Field, named after an ancient tribe remembered for its irrigation canals and ball courts, where a form of soccer was played, with a ball that was either stone or rubber. If any company dares to buy naming rights for the Cubs’ base, may it be struck by some lethal pre-Columbian curse. In this short, sweet season, long may the Hohokam reign and Joker Marchant endure. As for the Yankees, I have written a song about the new name on their spring park: Steinbrenner Field — Forever.

Baseball
New York Yankees
Steinbrenner George M 3d
Stadiums and Arenas


Irish Premier’s Apology Fails to Appease Workhouse Survivors

Abstract: DUBLIN — Advocates for survivors of a Roman Catholic workhouse system that kept generations of young women and girls in virtual slavery expressed disappointment and anger on Tuesday at Prime Minister Enda Kenny’s failure to formally apologize after a report found extensive state involvement in the institutions. Reacting to the 1,000-page government report , which found the state responsible for committing thousands of young women to the workhouses, the last of which closed in 1996, Mr. Kenny told Parliament that the women had been sent at a time when Ireland was a harsh, uncompromising and authoritarian place. “I’m sorry that this release of pressure and understanding for so many of those women was not done before this, because they were branded as fallen women,” he said. However, Mr. Kenny stopped short of issuing an official apology on behalf of the state for its involvement in the so-called Magdalene Laundries, saying that a full parliamentary debate would take place in two weeks after politicians had time to review the document. James M. Smith, an associate professor at Boston College and a member of the campaign group Justice for Magdalenes , described Mr. Kenny’s statement as “egregious and insensitive,” adding that the government had received the report two weeks ago and had plenty of time to consider it. “Mr. Kenny has failed the test of moral courage,” he said. “Yet again an Irish government has let down the very people it purports to serve.” Professor Smith said the prime minister’s failure to apologize not only was a setback for the dwindling number of survivors but would also ultimately reflect badly on the Irish state. “The women really did expect something more from this government,” he said. “This fairly cynical response has lost it an awful lot of good will today as a result.” Steven O’Riordan, a member of another lobby group, Magdalenes Survivors Together , said that while the report recognized that the Irish state was directly complicit in allowing the laundries to exist, Mr. Kenny’s statement was “halfhearted at best.” “I am annoyed because it sounded like a throwaway gesture,” he said. The report found that 10,012 women and girls were detained in the laundries from 1922 to 1996, but this figure excludes two large laundries operated by one Catholic order. It stated that 2,124 of those detained in the institutions had been sent by the authorities. The survivors of the laundries are seeking a state apology for their treatment as well as redress for years of unpaid labor and pension payments. The “Maggies,” as they were known, were excluded from a previous compensation scheme for those who suffered in state-run institutions because officials said that the laundries were never under the aegis of the state. The institutions were named after Mary Magdalene, a biblical figure who, at the time of their founding in the mid-1800s, was generally thought to have been a prostitute redeemed by the teachings of Christ. While many women sent to work in the 10 laundries around the country were unwed mothers, the report found that the vast majority were referred for a wide range of other reasons, ranging from petty offenses to mental illness. In his introduction to the report , Martin McAleese, the committee chairman, said the women had for too long felt the social stigma of the “wholly inaccurate characterization” of them as “fallen women,” something “not borne out by the facts.” The report characterized the conditions in the laundries as “harsh” but found no evidence of systematic sexual abuse. Mr. McAleese said that did not mean the women had not suffered in other ways. “None of us can begin to imagine the confusion and fear experienced by these young girls, in many cases little more than children,” he said. “Not knowing why they were there, feeling abandoned, wondering whether they had done something wrong and not knowing when, if ever, they would get out and see their families again.” When women were admitted to the laundries, they were uniformly given different names, which survivors say was done to erase their identities. The report says that the religious orders that operated the laundries and cooperated with the committee explained that the new names helped to protect the women’s privacy.

United Nations Committee Against Torture


Nick Charles, CNN Sportscaster, Dies at 64

Abstract: Nick Charles , a former taxi driver who became CNN’s first sports anchor and served in that role for nearly two decades, died Saturday at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 64. He had been suffering from bladder cancer for two years, the network reported. Nicholas Charles Nickeas was born June 30, 1946. He grew up in Chicago, working late-night jobs in high school to help his family, CNN said. He eventually went to Columbia College Chicago to study communications and drove a taxi to help pay his tuition. He was still driving taxis in 1970 when he landed a job with WICS in Springfield, Ill. He adopted the name Nick Charles at the urging of his news director, the network said. Mr. Charles later worked at local stations in Baltimore and Washington and then began at CNN in Atlanta on the network’s first day, June 1, 1980. He worked with Fred Hickman for almost 20 years on “Sports Tonight,” a daily highlight show that battled with ESPN for viewers. Mr. Charles became such a popular TV personality that Topps put his face on a trading card, CNN reported. With his well-coiffed, curly black hair and sharp suits, Mr. Charles brought GQ-like style to CNN’s broadcasts. But he also was known as a skilled interviewer who related easily to subjects while not being shy about asking tough questions. In recent months, Mr. Charles openly discussed his battle with cancer. He made video diaries for his 5-year-old daughter Giovanna to see in years to come. Besides his daughter, Mr. Charles is survived by his wife of 13 years, Cory, and three children from two previous marriages, Jason, Melissa and Katie.

CNN
Charles Nick
News and News Media
Deaths (Obituaries)


Presidents Resolve Ukraine Gas Dispute

Abstract: MOSCOW — The presidents of Russia and Ukraine averted a threatened cutoff of natural gas supplies to Ukraine on Tuesday, at the same time that Russia’s president said his country might aim nuclear missiles at Ukraine if it followed through on its intention to join NATO. “It’s horrible to say and even horrible to think,” President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia said about the prospect of possibly aiming missiles at Ukraine. Mr. Putin made the remarks in response to a question at a Kremlin news conference. After speaking for a time about Ukraine’s long cultural ties to Russia, he said that NATO might deploy antimissile systems in Ukraine, and that Russia would have to respond. “Russia could target its missile systems at Ukraine,” he said. “Imagine that for a second.” Ukraine’s president, Viktor A. Yushchenko, who was sitting beside Mr. Putin at the news conference, responded, saying that Ukraine had the right to choose its own alliances and that his country’s Constitution prohibited foreign military bases on its territory. Mr. Putin and Mr. Yushchenko called the news conference to announce that they had resolved a dispute just minutes before the deadline for a threatened midwinter shutoff of a quarter of Ukraine’s heating fuel. Last Thursday, Gazprom , the world’s largest natural gas producer and a monopoly half-owned by the Russian government, demanded a settlement for what it said was $1.5 billion in debt and threatened to halt 25 percent of Ukraine’s natural gas supply at 6 p.m. on Tuesday. The two leaders announced the deal a few minutes before 6 p.m. The disagreement had worried European governments because 80 percent of Gazprom’s supplies to Western Europe cross Ukrainian territory, snaking through a network of old Soviet-designed pipelines from gas wells in the Arctic to homes and factories in the West. Mr. Yushchenko said Ukraine would start repaying the Gazprom debt on Thursday. Two years ago, Gazprom halted shipments of natural gas to Ukraine in the middle of winter in another dispute. That was a year after the so-called Orange Revolution installed Mr. Yushchenko’s pro-Western government in Kiev, leading critics to call the shutoff politically motivated, which Gazprom denied. The latest dispute, too, follows a change in government in Kiev. Yulia V. Tymoshenko, a leader of the Orange Revolution, resumed her duties as prime minister after elections last fall. Ms. Tymoshenko has said Ukraine should revise what it charges Gazprom to ship gas across its territory. Gazprom’s threat to cut off the gas came 22 days after Ukraine’s pro-Western leaders formally applied to be put on a path to NATO membership. The letter, signed by the president, the prime minister and the speaker of Parliament, asked Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer of NATO to review Ukraine’s status in time for an alliance summit meeting in April in Romania. In perhaps a favorable sign for Ukraine’s request, President Bush will attend the meeting and is to visit Ukraine afterward, Bloomberg News reported.


China Scolds Indian Government for Expelling 3 of Its Journalists

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Chinese state-run news media on Monday criticized a decision by the Indian government to not renew the visas of three Chinese journalists from Xinhua, the state news agency. An editorial in The Global Times, a Chinese tabloid known for its hawkish views, said the decision sent a “negative message” and was a possible retaliation for China’s opposition to having India join the Nuclear Suppliers Group last month. “We should take actions to display our reaction,” it said. “We should at least make a few Indians feel Chinese visas are also not easy to get.” Reports of the visa denials surfaced on Saturday. The editorial identified two of the journalists as Wu Qiang, the Xinhua bureau chief in New Delhi, and Tang Lu, the chief correspondent at the Mumbai bureau. An article on Monday in the newspaper The Hindu, in New Delhi, identified the third as She Yonggang, a reporter in the Mumbai bureau. All three must leave India by the end of the month, The Hindu said. The Hindu reported that two of the journalists had recently traveled to Karnataka, in southern India, to speak with Tibetans, and that they were traveling under assumed names when they were intercepted by the police. Kuldeep Singh Dhatwalia, a spokesman for the Indian Ministry of Home Affairs, said the journalists’ visas had expired four months ago and had been valid only on short-term extensions. He characterized the decision as routine and denied that it was an expulsion. “This time the extension is not there, so they’re going,” he said. But some in India viewed the country’s action as unnecessary and a rare provocation. India has been unnerved by recent aggressions with China, including confrontations with the Chinese military in the disputed border territory of Ladakh, Kashmir. Shekhar Gupta, an Indian political commentator, said in a Twitter post that there was a “steep decline” in a relationship “carefully managed” since the late 1980s. He added, “More sophisticated revenge would be subtle trade barriers and improving low-end manufacturing.” A potential source of friction was India’s failure to gain admittance to the 48-nation Nuclear Suppliers Group at a meeting in Seoul, South Korea, last month, apparently at least in part because of opposition from China . At a briefing on July 1, Vikas Swarup, the spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, said its pursuit of membership would be “a matter of continuing talks with China, because we eventually hope to convince China of our credentials and our need for joining the Nuclear Suppliers Group.” The editorial in The Global Times suggested that if India was taking revenge, “there will be serious consequences.” “It’s a pinprick, and it’s illogical,” Mohan Guruswamy, a distinguished fellow at the United Service Institution, a security think tank in New Delhi, said of the expulsion of three “low-level journalists” in the face of China’s provocations. “If somebody’s given you a slap on the face, you give a slap back,” he said. He said India lacked a “coordinated effort” on China. A spokesman for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs was not available for comment on Monday. A reporter for Xinhua in India who declined to be identified said the reporters whose visas were not renewed would not be available for comment.

China
India
Visas
Xinhua
News media,journalism


U.S. to Hold Talks With N. Korea on Nuclear Program

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced on Monday that it would hold its first talks with North Korea over its nuclear weapons program since the death of the country’s leader, Kim Jong-il, in December. The talks, to be held in Beijing on Feb. 23, will be the third since last summer to explore the possibility of resuming negotiations to get North Korea to dismantle its nuclear arsenal. They will offer a chance to gauge whether Mr. Kim’s son and successor as supreme leader, Kim Jong-un , is more open to diplomacy. The United States, along with South Korea, Japan, Russia and China, has called on North Korea to suspend activities at its nuclear sites and allow international inspectors to verify a freeze as a condition for resuming talks on a broader agreement that would provide economic and other assistance in exchange for dismantling the weapons program. The American delegation in Beijing will be led by the administration’s special envoy, Glyn T. Davies, who took over the post last fall. North Korea’s delegation will be led by its long-serving nuclear negotiator, Kim Kye-gwan. Two rounds of exploratory talks, in New York in July and Geneva in October , made no progress, and Mr. Kim’s death put the issue on hold as the country orchestrated the ascension of his son, who has so far signaled little change in the country’s policies. “They’ve had a change, so I think the question is whether they are prepared to respond to what we are looking for in order to get back to talks,” said the State Department’s spokeswoman, Victoria Nuland. She added, “We thought it was a good time to see where they are.” Since Mr. Kim’s death, the Obama administration has suggested that it was open to exploring whether it was possible to cool tensions with North Korea, if not yet to warm relations. The assistant secretary of state for Asian affairs, Kurt M. Campbell, said two weeks ago that the United States was “open to diplomacy” with the new leadership in North Korea, though he emphasized that officials wanted to see it improve relations with South Korea first. The negotiations to end North Korea’s nuclear weapons program — known as the six-party talks — collapsed in 2008 at the end of the Bush administration. Since then, North Korea has expanded its nuclear ambitions, conducting a second nuclear test in 2009 and unveiling an advanced uranium enrichment plant in 2010. Relations between the two Koreas have also worsened, with the South Korean government curtailing aid shipments to the North and the North’s military attacking a South Korean island that it claims.

North Korea
Nuclear Weapons
Kim Jong Un
United States International Relations


Egypt in Tumult as Court Orders Mubarak Freed

Abstract: CAIRO — A court on Monday ordered the release of former President Hosni Mubarak, and for the first time it was conceivable he might go free — a measure of how far the tumult now shaking Egypt has rolled back the sweeping changes and soaring hopes that followed his exit two and a half years ago. Few legal analysts thought a release was likely, at least in the coming weeks. But under the government installed last month by Gen. Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, they say, it is no longer a foregone conclusion that prosecutors will continue to find reasons to detain the former autocrat, who was arrested after the uprising against his rule in 2011. Some analysts said that even the possibility of Mr. Mubarak’s release, previously unthinkable, provided another sign of the return of his authoritarian style of government. Since the ouster of President Mohamed Morsi , the interim government has brought back not only prominent faces of the Mubarak era but signature elements of that autocratic state, including an “emergency law” removing the right to a trial and curbs on police abuse, the appointment of generals as governors across the provinces and moves to outlaw the Muslim Brotherhood again as a terrorist threat. The Brotherhood’s spiritual leader, Mohamed Badie, was arrested early Tuesday. A private television network that supports General Sisi broadcast footage of Mr. Badie in custody. The police scarcely bothered to offer a credible explanation for the deaths of three dozen Morsi supporters in custody over the weekend. After repeatedly shifting stories, they ultimately said the detainees had suffocated from tear gas during a failed escape attempt. But photographs taken at the morgue on Monday showed that at least two had been badly burned from the shoulders up and that others bore evidence of torture. Security officers have a new bounce in their step. They are again pulling men from their cars at checkpoints for interrogation because they have beards, or dealing out arbitrary beatings with a sense of impunity — Mubarak-era hallmarks that had receded in recent years. Among civilians, even those outside the Muslim Brotherhood, fear of the police is growing. Badr Abdelatty, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, denied any resemblance between the new government and Mr. Mubarak’s. “The emergency law is just for one month and for one objective: fighting terrorism,” he said, using the term that the new government applies to both civil disobedience and acts of violence by Islamist opponents of the military takeover. “The only way to fight terrorism is to apply the rule of law, and some emergency measures for just one month, to bring back law and order.” More than 1,000 Brotherhood members and other supporters of Mr. Morsi have died since Wednesday in a police crackdown, and his ouster has set off a wave of retaliatory violence from his supporters, mainly targeting churches around the country and security forces in the relatively lawless northern Sinai. In the latest episode there, militants killed 25 police officers and wounded 3 others on Monday in an attack on their minibuses. Officials said the bodies were face down with bound hands, evidently assassinated. Egyptian state and private television networks, all pro-government now, broadcast images of the bodies’ return to Cairo, sometimes under a heading about Egypt’s fight against terrorism. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has denounced those killings, held protests and marches by thousands of its supporters in Cairo and across the country, as it has every day for the six weeks since Mr. Morsi’s ouster. Some analysts said Monday that the new government was arguably more authoritarian than Mr. Mubarak’s. “The Mubarak state was actually less repressive than what we are seeing now,” said Shadi Hamid, research director for the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar . “In terms of sheer number of people killed, what we are seeing is unprecedented for Egypt.” Image The release of former Egypt President Hosni Mubarak, shown in detention near Cairo on April 15, was ordered on Monday. Credit Reuters But where Mr. Mubarak’s supporters were diffident or self-serving, Mr. Hamid said, General Sisi “has the fervent backing of millions of ordinary Egyptians, many of whom think the army has not been sufficiently brutal against the Muslim Brotherhood.” “That is what makes this new authoritarian order much more resilient and harder to dislodge,” he said. One human rights advocate said the symbolism of Mr. Mubarak’s release might help. “For someone like me, it would be greatly helpful,” said Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights and one of only a few advocates who have questioned General Sisi’s declaration that he was advancing the 2011 revolution by removing the elected president. “It is better to end the theatrics and have some clarity,” Mr. Bahgat argued, if only to convince former revolutionaries of the danger that the authoritarianism of “the Mubarak state” may be re-emerging in a different guise. Judges have dismissed many charges originally brought against Mr. Mubarak, including directing the killing of protesters. But the previous post-Mubarak governments always made clear that they would keep finding new allegations to keep the former leader behind bars. The council of generals that succeeded Mr. Mubarak was too desperate to placate the public and preserve its own legitimacy to release him, and Mr. Morsi campaigned on promises to keep him locked up. But the Sisi government has no such insecurity about its power, or hostility to Mr. Mubarak. Some members of political factions that had previously joined rallies for Mr. Mubarak’s incarceration, or even execution, said they believed the public did not care so much anymore. “I don’t think people are paying the slightest attention,” said Hussein Gohar, a spokesman for the Social Democratic Party. “And if it happens, it will not have anything close to the impact it would have had a year ago,” he said of Mr. Mubarak’s release, in part “because people have moved on” and in part “because of the paradigm shift to support for the army.” Besides, Mr. Gohar said, he did not think the new military-backed authorities would allow massive protests against Mr. Mubarak, once an Air Force general. “At the end of the day, Mubarak is part of the military,” Mr. Gohar said. “He is one of them.” The interim government bears other resemblances to the Mubarak government. General Sisi, the defense minister, was Mr. Mubarak’s head of military intelligence. The figurehead president, Adli Mansour, a judge, was appointed to a top court under Mr. Mubarak. The interior minister was a high-ranking official under Mr. Mubarak. The foreign minister is a senior ambassador who served in Washington. The finance minister is an economist who worked closely with Mr. Mubarak’s son and designated successor, Gamal, who became a senior figure in the old ruling party. And the justice minister is another judge appointed to a top court under Mr. Mubarak. But many pointed to crucial differences between now and the Mubarak era. Mr. Gohar of the Social Democrats said the revolution had inculcated a new demand for participation and accountability that would prevent a return to the old order. “There is still a deep state, of course, but you cannot go back,” he said, adding that continued pro-Morsi protests demonstrated Egyptians’ new assertiveness. “People are not going to be passive anymore and just accept what is handed to them by the government.” Mr. Bahgat argued that General Sisi’s government might rely on the same people, institutions and tactics that Mr. Mubarak did, but said it was a new authoritarianism, not a restoration. This time, he said, there is a much greater emphasis on “the propaganda machine,” suggesting that attention to public opinion may be the main legacy of the 2011 revolt. Many analysts say that whatever its inclinations, the government is unlikely to risk even a small public backlash at this volatile moment by releasing Mr. Mubarak. If it does not, his continued incarceration opens the intriguing possibility that he and Mr. Morsi, now detained at an unknown location, might end up in jail together. Mr. Morsi is no stranger to jail: he was there as a political prisoner just before Mr. Mubarak’s ouster.

Egypt
Hosni Mubarak
Military
Arab Spring
Muslim Brotherhood Egypt


As Border Efforts Grow, Corruption Is on the Rise

Abstract: SAN DIEGO — The smuggler in the public service announcement sat handcuffed in prison garb, full of bravado and shrugging off the danger of bringing illegal immigrants across the border. “Sometimes they die in the desert, or the cars crash, or they drown,” he said. “But it’s not my fault.” The smuggler in the commercial, produced by the Mexican government several years ago, was played by an American named Raul Villarreal, who at the time was a United States Border Patrol agent and a spokesman for the agency here. Now, federal investigators are asking: Was he really acting? Mr. Villarreal and a brother, Fidel, also a former Border Patrol agent, are suspected of helping to smuggle an untold number of illegal immigrants from Mexico and Brazil across the border. The brothers quit the Border Patrol two years ago and are believed to have fled to Mexico. The Villarreal investigation is among scores of corruption cases in recent years that have alarmed officials in the Homeland Security Department just as it is hiring thousands of border agents to stem the flow of illegal immigration . The pattern has become familiar: Customs officers wave in vehicles filled with illegal immigrants, drugs or other contraband. A Border Patrol agent acts as a scout for smugglers. Trusted officers fall prey to temptation and begin taking bribes. Increased corruption is linked, in part, to tougher enforcement, driving smugglers to recruit federal employees as accomplices. It has grown so worrisome that job applicants will soon be subject to lie detector tests to ensure that they are not already working for smuggling organizations. In addition, homeland security officials have reconstituted an internal affairs unit at Customs and Border Protection , one of the largest federal law enforcement agencies, overseeing both border agents and customs officers. When the Homeland Security Department was created in 2003, the internal affairs unit was dissolved and its functions spread among other agencies. Since the unit was reborn last year, it has grown from five investigators to a projected 200 by the end of the year. Altogether, there are about 200 open cases pending against law enforcement employees who work the border. In the latest arrests, four employees in Arizona, Texas and California were charged this month with helping to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. While the corruption investigations involve a small fraction of the overall security workforce on the border, the numbers are growing. In the 2007 fiscal year, the Homeland Security Department’s main anticorruption arm, the inspector general’s office, had 79 investigations under way in the four states bordering Mexico, compared with 31 in 2003. Officials at other federal law enforcement agencies investigating border corruption also said their caseloads had risen. Some of the recent cases involve border guards who had worked for their agencies for a short time, including the arrest this month of a recruit at the Border Patrol academy in New Mexico on gun smuggling charges. The federal government says it carefully screens applicants, but some internal affairs investigators say they have been unable to keep up with the increased workload. “It’s going to get worse before it gets better,” said James Wong, an internal affairs agent with Customs and Border Protection. “It’s very difficult for us to get out and vet each and every one of the applicants as well as we should.” The Border Patrol alone is expected to grow to more than 20,000 agents by the end of 2009, more than double from 2001, when the agency began to expand in response to concerns about national security. There has also been a large increase in the number of customs officers. James Tomsheck, the assistant commissioner for internal affairs at Customs and Border Protection, said the agency was “deeply concerned” that smugglers were sending operatives to take jobs with the Border Patrol and at ports. Mr. Tomsheck said the agency intended to administer random lie-detector tests to 10 percent of new hires this year, with the goal of eventually testing all applicants. His office has contracts with 155 retired criminal investigators, adding 36 since last fall, to do background checks. In one of the new corruption cases this month, at a border crossing east of San Diego, a customs officer allowed numerous cars with dozens of illegal immigrants and hundreds of pounds of drugs to pass through his inspection lane, investigators said. The officer, Luis Alarid, 31, had worked at the crossing less than a year, and the loads included a vehicle driven by Mr. Alarid’s uncle, the authorities said. Mr. Alarid has pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to smuggle. Investigators found about $175,000 in cash in his house, according to court records. In another recent case, Margarita Crispin, a customs inspector in El Paso, Tex., began helping drug smugglers just a few months after she was hired in 2003, according to prosecutors. She helped the smugglers for four years before she was arrested last year and sentenced in April to 20 years in prison and ordered to forfeit up to $5 million. Although bad apples turn up in almost every law enforcement agency, the corruption cases expose a worrisome vulnerability for national and border security. The concern, several officials said, is that corrupt agents let people into the country whose intentions may be less innocent than finding work. “If you can get a corrupt inspector, you have the keys to the kingdom,” said Andrew P. Black, an F.B.I. agent who supervises a multiagency task force focused on corruption on the San Diego border. Comparing corruption among police agencies is difficult because of the varying standards and procedures for handling internal investigations, said Lawrence W. Sherman, the director of the Jerry Lee Center of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania and an authority on corruption. But he described policing the border as “potentially one of the most corruptible tasks in law enforcement” because of the solitary nature of much of the work and the desperation of people seeking to cross. Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, declined an interview. But in response to questions at a recent news conference, he suggested that the breadth and depth of border security improvements would inevitably produce problem officers. “There is an old expression among prosecutors,” he said. “Big cases, big problems. Little cases, little problems. No cases, no problems. Some people take the view we ought to make no cases and then we would have no problems. I think that is a head-in-the-sand view, which I do not endorse.” A Veteran Gone Bad The customs inspector stands just outside his booth, his hand waving a stream of cars through the Otay Mesa crossing just east of San Diego. They zip past, one after another, no questions asked, an unusually easy welcome into the United States where inspectors are known to grill citizens about their travels before allowing them through. But time was running short for this Customs and Border Protection officer, Michael Gilliland, a revered veteran on the late shift expecting a special delivery — a vehicle with several illegal immigrants — in his crossing lane. Rather than intercept them, he had arranged for their safe passage through his lane, federal prosecutors said. Mr. Black, the F.B.I. agent from San Diego, shook his head as he watched a surveillance videotape of Mr. Gilliland. “You’re basically giving that smuggling organization an opportunity to conceal whatever else they want in that vehicle,” he said, “whether it's drugs, weapons, terrorists.” The smugglers use any ruse available to lure border workers but seem to favor deploying attractive women as bait. They flirt and charm and beg the officers, often middle-aged men, to “just this once” let an unauthorized relative or friend through. And then another and another. Prosecutors believe this is how smugglers ensnared Mr. Gilliland, who eventually pleaded guilty to taking $70,000 to $120,000 in exchange for letting hundreds of illegal immigrants pass through his lane. He was sentenced last year to five years in federal prison. Two women he had befriended also pleaded guilty. The case against Mr. Gilliland, 46, stands out for the number of immigrants he helped and the shock of a respected veteran gone bad. To young inspectors, Mr. Gilliland was a mentor, quick with advice, even an embrace, a burly go-to type with 16 years under his belt. “He knew the laws backward and forward,” said Edward Archuleta, an internal affairs agent with Customs and Border Protection who once worked with Mr. Gilliland and eventually helped bring him down. A tip steered F.B.I. agents to Mr. Gilliland’s illegal activities, but it took agents two years to build the case. The evidence against him included secretly recorded phone conversations in which Mr. Gilliland coordinated with Mexican smugglers when to drive their cargo of illegal immigrants through inspection lanes. One morning, while Mr. Gilliland was taking a break from his shift, agents called him over and told him he was under arrest. They had braced for Mr. Gilliland to become belligerent, but instead he collapsed into a chair, weak-kneed. “My grandfather always told me that when you’re born, the only thing you’re born with is your word, and only you can give that away, your integrity,” Mr. Gilliland said at his sentencing hearing. “And I’m sorry.” A Breach of Trust The case against the Villarreal brothers — the former Border Patrol agents in San Diego — illustrates how hard it has been for investigators to hunt for and root out corrupt officers, many of whom know how to game the system. The Villarreals would meet illegal immigrants near the border. The doors of their government-issue truck would swing open and Mexicans and Brazilians would climb in. Off they drove, Border Patrol agents at the wheel, but not to a station or jail, investigators said. Instead, they said, the migrants were taken to a drop house in San Diego and later transported by others in the smuggling ring to cities and towns far from the border. The case against the Villarreals had shock value, even to those on the inside. “Just really brazen, broad daylight,” said an investigator, who was granted anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss a continuing investigation. “They could say, ‘We picked these guys up, we’re taking them in.’ ” As they closed in on the brothers, a squad of agents from several federal agencies met. Some had qualms about speaking openly in front of such a large group, fearing internal leaks. Their fears were apparently borne out when, a couple of weeks after the meeting, the brothers quit their posts, left their badges at their family’s home in National City, Calif., and have not been seen publicly since. A lawyer for the family, Jon Ronis, declined to say where the brothers were and said neither they nor family members would comment. Mr. Ronis said Raul and Fidel Villarreal were ready to defend themselves if the government brought a case. Federal officials declined to comment because the case was still open. But investigators described some aspects of it on condition of anonymity. When the public service announcement was being made for Mexico, for example, Raul Villarreal spoke excitedly about his role in producing it, even suggesting camera angles and lighting, said a person familiar with its production. Just when and why the brothers turned against the Border Patrol is unclear, even to the investigators. There is speculation that Raul had grown disgruntled with the work, chafing at having been moved back into the field from his public affairs job, considered a comfortable, high-profile position. The Villarreal case is especially alarming for the level of trust the brothers had earned within the Border Patrol. Their betrayal has had the effect, at least in some investigations, of leading the authorities to move in more quickly when agents are suspected of wrongdoing. In the case of Jose Olivas Jr., a Border Patrol agent in San Diego who was discovered serving as a scout for smugglers, an arrest was made within a year. Mr. Olivas, an agent for 10 years who had worked as a liaison between the agency and the United States attorney’s office, was sentenced in January to three years in prison. The drawback to moving in fast, investigators said later, is that they probably will never know how deep Mr. Olivas’s ties were to the smuggling organization. He suggested to a judge that he had been drawn to smuggling to help pay his bills. Policing the Police An internal Web site at Customs and Border Protection features a page devoted to a rogue’s gallery of agents and officers recently convicted of corruption-related charges. The intention, homeland security officials say, is to send the message that corruption will not be tolerated. That message has taken other forms, as well. When Mr. Olivas, the San Diego border agent, was sentenced to prison, several agents attended the court hearing at the behest of homeland security officials to shame him publicly. “I am truly embarrassed just looking at them,” Mr. Olivas told the judge. “I am truly sorry for the breach of trust that was given to me.” But if the department is serious about catching wrongdoers, investigators of corruption cases say it also needs to make fundamental changes in the way it polices the border police. One result of the awkward marriage of agencies that begat the Homeland Security Department is that three internal affairs units, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have a hand in corruption investigations. In the best case, having more than one unit investigate corruption can be a “force multiplier,” in the words of one investigator, but more often, it can slow cases down and lead to confusion over who should take the lead, several investigators said. The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general has nearly 170 investigators to police 208,000 department employees — including other large agencies like the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Transportation Security Administration, the Secret Service — and gets first crack at cases. When it passes on an investigation, the case is picked up by either the Immigration and Customs Enforcement ’s office of professional responsibility or the Customs and Border Protection internal affairs unit. The F.B.I. also develops its own cases. Don Allen, a retired agent who until 2005 supervised a multiagency task force in San Diego investigating corruption among border officers, said internal affairs units did not always readily share information and often resented any sense of being big-footed by an outside agency. He said law enforcement agencies often “had a negative impression of the bureau.” Thomas Frost, an assistant inspector general with the Homeland Security Department, said the limited number of investigators meant his office focused on “those most important cases and what resources we can bring to bear.” He suggested it would be “more efficient” if his office had more investigative resources under its control so that it could better track “everything going on.” “Let’s face it,” Mr. Frost said, “part of the issue of the border is it is kind of a balloon. When you squeeze one part, another bulges.” Some Recent Cases Jose Ramiro Arredondo, 33, a Customs andBorder Protection officerin Laredo, Tex., wasarrested in March after asmuggler who had beendetained told the authoritiesthat Mr. Arredondohad helped bring illegalimmigrants across theborder. Miguel Angel Avina, atrainee at the Border Patrolacademy in Artesia, N.M.,was arrested in May on fraudand conspiracy chargesrelated to his participationlast year in a ring thatsmuggled at least 110 gunsinto Mexico, the governmentsaid. He has been dismissedfrom the academy. Juan Luis Sanchez, 31, aBorder Patrol agent,pleaded guilty May 20 todrug, bribery and fraudcharges. He admittedtransporting at least 3,000pounds of marijuana in hisBorder Patrol truck fromsummer 2002 to January2004 in exchange for$45,000 in bribes. Jose Magana, 44, aCustoms and BorderProtection officer at theSan Luis, Ariz., bordercrossing, was arrestedMay 12 on charges ofconspiring to smuggleillegal immigrants. Theauthorities say he allowedpeople to passuninspected through. Luis Francisco Alarid, 31, a Customs andBorder Protection officer, was arrested May16 on charges of conspiring to smuggleillegal immigrants and drugs into the UnitedStates. Mr. Alarid allowed numerousvehicles with migrants or drugs to passthrough his inspection lane since at leastFebruary at a border crossing east of SanDiego, the authorities say. One vehicle,containing 18 illegal immigrants, was drivenby his uncle. He has pleaded not guilty.

Smuggling
Illegal Immigrants
Homeland Security Department
Border Patrol (US)
Immigration and Refugees
Customs and Border Protection (US)


Breeders’ Cup: Arrogate’s Win Ends California Chrome’s Perfect Year

Abstract: ARCADIA, Calif. — The 33rd running of the Breeders’ Cup Classic was supposed to be the coronation of California Chrome, widely regarded as not only the best horse on the planet but also one of the most beloved. He is the Horatio Alger of the equine set, a determined athlete who outran his modest pedigree and endured the chaos often foisted upon him by the humans around him. Happy endings, however, are hard to come by at the racetrack, especially when there is a $6 million purse on the line, as there was on Saturday at Santa Anita Park for the Classic. Such a purse is catnip for deep-pocketed owners and the Hall of Fame trainers they employ. Exhibit A is Juddmonte Farms, the name under which members of the royal family of Saudi Arabia breed and race some of the most expensive and exquisite horses in the world. Among those horses is Arrogate, a late-developing 3-year-old whom the Saudi royal family paid $550,000 for as a yearling and parked in the barn of Bob Baffert, one of America’s most successful trainers, who bounces slow horses from his barn at a rate that would make “Dancing With the Stars” contestants dizzy. How good is Baffert? Two words: American Pharoah, a colt who last year became the first Triple Crown champion in 37 years and only the 12th in history. How good? In August, Arrogate showed up in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., for the Travers Stakes as an 11-1 outsider and left not only with the trophy but also with the record for the fastest mile and a quarter in more than 150 years of racing at the Spa. Arrogate’s dramatic upset of California Chrome on Saturday punctuated just how good they both are. Art Sherman, the 79-year-old trainer of California Chrome, knew what he was up against. He is a racetracker, a man who as a teenager slept in a boxcar from California to Louisville, Ky., with a colt named Swaps who, once they arrived, won the Kentucky Derby. He has never had more than a couple of dozen horses, and he had to work part time as a mutuel clerk during some of his barn’s leaner times. Sherman loves his horse, the best one that he has ever had and probably ever will. Chrome, as he is known, came to Santa Anita a perfect 6 for 6 this year after a globe-trotting campaign that took him to the desert of Dubai and to the beach party that is Del Mar in Southern California. His more than $13 million in purse earnings made him the richest horse in the history of North America. Sherman will probably never be in the Hall of Fame, but thanks to Chrome, he will forever be known as the trainer of a Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Dubai World Cup winner. He is the first to say that Chrome — whose name was pulled from a cowboy hat, combining his birthplace with the term used by horse people for the flashes of white on a horse — owes him nothing. “I think Chrome’s going to run a race that everybody is going to admire,” Sherman said before the race. California Chrome did, too. His rider, Victor Espinoza, gunned him from the gate and led a field of eight rivals around the first turn, down the backstretch and into the stretch as if he were the grand marshal at the Thanksgiving Day parade. Chrome’s ears were pricked up, and he looked as if he were running by himself — controlled, relaxed and wickedly fast. In the clubhouse, Baffert thought Arrogate had lost. “When Chrome was out there cruising, I thought, ‘No way he’s going to catch him; he’s going to run second,’” Baffert said. But Arrogate’s rider, Mike Smith, knew better. He may have been seven lengths behind California Chrome entering the stretch, but Smith had not asked his colt to turn it on yet. Smith started scrubbing on Arrogate’s neck and smooching in his ear, coaxing the colt to find that supercharged gear. He did. Arrogate bounded down the lane as if he were on a trampoline, his strides widening, his momentum matching a runaway steamroller on a downhill slope. “It was incredible,” Smith said. “I’m at a loss for words.” Sherman was not. He watched Arrogate get his head to Chrome’s hip and then his neck and then pass him altogether yards before the finish line. “He ran his race but just got beat in those last couple of jumps,” Sherman said. “That winner is the real McCoy.” The record books will reflect that, yes, Arrogate caught Chrome at the wire of the mile-and-a-quarter race. He won it by a half a length, in 2 minutes 0.11 of a second. The $3.3 million made his rich owners, Juddmonte Farms, richer. It gave Baffert his third consecutive victory in one of the world’s most prestigious races: American Pharoah won it last year and Bayern the year before. Arrogate was the 8-to-5 second choice and paid his backers $5.40 for a $2 bet. But Sherman was hardly heartbroken. He still loves his horse, the best he has ever trained, and knows that old Chrome ran his heart out. This ending was happy enough. “We had no excuses,” he said. “He’s been so good all year long, but it just shows that you can’t win every race.”

California Chrome
Horse racing
Breeders Cup


Danish Driver Dies After Crash at Le Mans

Abstract: The Danish driver Allan Simonsen, 34, died after a crash at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France, race organizers said. Simonsen’s Aston Martin crashed about 10 minutes after the start of the race. ■ A. J. Allmendinger slid past Justin Allgaier with seven laps to go to win the Nascar Nationwide Series race at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis. Allmendinger sat out part of last season because of a violation of Nascar’s substance-abuse policy.

Allan Simonsen
Le Mans Race
Fatalities,casualties
Car Racing


Artist’s Unusual Reward Offer Becomes an Urgent Bid for Shelter

Abstract: THE only bright spot on the Bowery at Great Jones Street that rainy evening was a halogen-lit storefront packed floor to ceiling with ink studies of jazz musicians, dancers and slinky nudes. Behind the window, a tall, hulking figure wearing a dark, double-breasted suit befitting Sunday Mass slouched over a sketch pad. Pressing the point of his silver pen onto the page, he looped it around a couple of times, sloped down toward a corner and moved it back up, forming a long, inverted bell. Less than a minute later, the artist flashed his finished work, which had been completed in a single stroke: a wiry three-piece band, the instruments melded seamlessly into limbs, hands and heads. With these motions, the Lower East Side artist who calls himself Sir Shadow hopes to make millions. A longtime habitué of the Whitehouse Hotel, the last single-room occupancy building on the Bowery, Sir Shadow recently offered to pay $1 million to the person who helps him earn his first $2 million. “The Third Million I Make Is Yours,” says a flier affixed to the door of his 200-square-foot art gallery adjoining the Whitehouse, a shabby youth hostel-cum-flophouse that sits opposite the gleaming new Bowery Hotel. The reward, continues the flier, is open to “anyone, any team, any group, or any corporation who can help take my art to the next level.” “I would like to see my one-line art on pillowcases, sheets, towels, merchandise, leather jackets, silks, dishware, clothing line, jewelry, animation, neon, and any other capital venture.” It’s a lofty goal for a 59-year-old formerly homeless man who dreamily describes his art as “medicine” and his home as “the universe.” It’s also an act of desperation. Sir Shadow may soon find himself without a place to hang either his art or his hat. For the past decade, the artist has squeezed into a dimly lighted cubicle at the hotel. About 6 feet tall, he sleeps diagonally in a twin bed. But his tiny universe may be coming to an end. Last summer, a group of investors led by a Long Island developer bought the building, including the gallery. Although they have not settled on a plan, one thing is certain: It does not include Sir Shadow. Pat Jones, a spokesman for the developer, said the building’s fate may depend on whether the City Council supports a recent vote by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to designate several properties on the Bowery, including the hotel, as part of a historic district. A decision is expected in a few months. On a recent afternoon, Sir Shadow parked his long limbs on a wooden bench at Think Coffee, a cafe near the hotel, and talked about the changing face of a neighborhood once home primarily to the down and out. “There’s no soul, no touch,” he said. “There’s people looking at you like, ‘Where you come from?’ I’m like: ‘Where y’all come from? Y’all just moved to my neighborhood.’ ” Sir Shadow, “Master of the Flow,” as he calls himself, is also a master of self-promotion. He and his artwork, which includes his signature one-line drawings, star in a couple of YouTube videos, and his Web site, SirShadow.com , offers his drawings for $80 each. WHAT Sir Shadow will say about his background is this: He was born Thomas Allen Paxton, a name he retired some time ago, along with an assortment of temporary handles, among them Flowetry, Passing Through and Ice Cream. He grew up in Jamaica, Queens, and dropped out of Jamaica High School. Twenty years ago, he lived fast, but now, he says, seltzer water is as wild as it gets. He never went to art school, having learned the single-line technique simply through repetition. “It develops itself,” he says. “You feed it with action, and it starts developing feet, legs and it starts walking. The next thing you know, people calling you an artist.” Sir Shadow has been producing these drawings for three decades, but his gallery in the Whitehouse was born 15 months ago, when Meyer Muschel, then the building’s owner, abandoned plans to convert part of the hotel’s ground floor space into a cafe, and instead handed it over to Sir Shadow rent-free. “My accommodation to him,” said Mr. Muschel, who sold the building last June, but handles day-to-day operations and keeps a calendar illustrated with Sir Shadow’s drawings in his office. Despite the exposure Sir Shadow gets from the gallery, his $1 million offer remains unclaimed. “People came and said they down,” he said. “They say they got this new person, that middleman or something. And for some reason, nothing’s happening. The universe is at a standstill.”

Art
Landmarks Preservation Commission
Bowery (NYC)


Favre Fined $50,000 but Avoids Suspension

Abstract: Brett Favre ’s 20 years in the N.F.L. will most likely end on Sunday, when the Minnesota Vikings play their final game of the season. On Wednesday, the N.F.L. added an ignominious coda to Favre’s career, fining him $50,000 for what it said was a lack of candor and a failure to cooperate with a league investigation. He was accused of sending graphic photos and suggestive messages to a woman while both were employed by the Jets in 2008. The N.F.L. said it found no evidence that Favre’s behavior toward the woman, Jenn Sterger, violated league policy on workplace conduct. “The forensic analysis could not establish that Favre sent the objectionable photographs to Sterger,” the league said in a statement. “The review found no evidence to contradict the statements of both Favre and Sterger that they never met in person, nor was there anything to suggest that Sterger engaged in any inappropriate conduct.” The league added that Commissioner Roger Goodell also determined that: “Favre was not candid in several respects during the investigation, resulting in a longer review and additional negative public attention for Favre, Sterger and the N.F.L. Commissioner Goodell stated to Favre that if he had found a violation of the league’s workplace conduct policies, he would have imposed a substantially higher level of discipline.” The fine represents less than 1 percent of Favre’s $16 million salary this season and is less than some of the fines the N.F.L. has handed out in its crackdown this season against helmet-to-helmet hits. The punishment prompted an angry reaction from Sterger and her lawyer, Joseph R. Conway. Saying they were “extremely disappointed, but not surprised” by the decision, Conway disagreed with the league’s contention that it had insufficient evidence. “To the contrary, our evidence and the personal testimony of Ms. Sterger clearly showed a pattern of lewd and offensive behavior by Mr. Favre that lasted all of the 2008 season,” Conway said in the statement. In a telephone interview, Conway went further, saying that Favre had received preferential treatment and that Sterger had not yet decided whether to pursue further action. He rejected speculation that a two-year statute of limitations on bringing a case might have expired Tuesday — the second anniversary of the final game of the Jets’ 2008 season — because, Conway said, that was not the last date that Favre had sent Sterger a message. The N.F.L. began its inquiry in early October , after the Web site Deadspin published the photos and messages it said Favre sent to Sterger in 2008, when he was the Jets’ quarterback and she was employed by the team as a game-day hostess. ( Deadspin later said it paid $12,000 to an unidentified source to acquire the photos and messages.) Deadspin also reported that Favre had sent lewd text messages to two female massage therapists who worked for the Jets, citing comments by one of the women. The N.F.L. said those allegations could not be substantiated because people with potentially relevant information declined to cooperate. Sterger did not initially report Favre’s contact with her in 2008 because, Conway said on Wednesday, she was advised by colleagues in the sports industry that such a complaint could damage her career. Once Deadspin published its article, Sterger waited several weeks before agreeing to speak to the N.F.L. for its investigation, raising speculation that she was hoping to reach a financial settlement with Favre in exchange for her silence. That, Conway said, was never the case. “This wasn’t about money,” he said. “This is not anything she sought out,” Conway said in the telephone interview. “She didn’t come forward in ’08. She did not want to come forward in 2010. She was forced to do so. This has taken a toll on her. She has lost some employment opportunities. She has been dragged through the mud. It has taken a toll on her, emotionally and financially. She is certainly angry at the way this whole thing has come down.” The N.F.L. has been criticized for allowing the investigation to drag until the end of the season, thus making the possibility of a suspension that might have ended Favre’s record streak of consecutive starts moot. In response, the league said the investigation took so long because it had difficulty arranging to speak with certain people, because of the time required to review stored electronic records, and for Goodell to meet with both Favre and Sterger. She last met with Goodell in New York on Dec. 16. “The investigation was limited in several respects because the conduct occurred in 2008 but was not brought to our attention until this fall,” the league said. “As a result, certain records and individuals were unavailable to the N.F.L.” The league said it was also unable to determine how Favre acquired Sterger’s phone number and whether a Jets staff member acted as an intermediary, a point disputed by Conway. In a statement, the Jets said they considered the matter closed. “Mr. Goodell completely failed to address the complicity of the New York Jet organization in Favre’s conduct,” Conway’s statement said. “The evidence was explicit that Ms. Sterger’s personal telephone numbers were provided to Favre by still-current employees of the New York Jets. This was done without Ms. Sterger’s knowledge and consent.” As for Conway’s charge that Favre had received preferential treatment, Stephen M. Paskoff, a lawyer who is the president of ELI Inc., an ethics and workplace behavior training firm in Atlanta, said that in most other settings, an investigation like this would have been handled much differently. “If this had been a workaday person, not a star, not a celebrity, you would have handled it much more quickly,” said Paskoff, who has worked with professional sports franchises, among other clients. He added that when an employee is dishonest or deceptive in an investigation, the result is often dismissal. “What really is going on is that in certain workplaces, there is a whole different culture,” Paskoff added. “People don’t understand that the laws have been in place for everybody else for 35 or 40 years.” Favre, 41, has retired and returned to action several times, but he has said repeatedly he will retire for good after the season ends Sunday. Favre has had numerous physical ailments this season — he has not yet been cleared from a concussion to play Sunday — and his consecutive starts streak ended Dec. 12 . After a season of injury and investigation, even Favre may finally decide it is time for him to go.

Minnesota Vikings
New York Jets
Favre Brett
Football


Nets’ Tyshawn Taylor Eager to Prove He Is No Fluke

Abstract: The first big break of Tyshawn Taylor’s career, one might say, arrived at a playground in Clearwater, Fla., when Taylor was 8, shooting hoops alone outside his housing complex. He had just moved from New Jersey and did not have a team or a coach or much instruction, but Stephanie Crawford, a local boys’ basketball coach, noticed him anyway. She encouraged him to sign him up for her A.A.U. team, Prime Time Hoops, spinning his career into motion. He went on to star at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J., and at the University of the Kansas. Then he was the 41st pick in last year’s N.B.A. draft — the first draft selection made by Brooklyn’s rebranded franchise (acquired via trade with Portland). But it had been tough for Taylor, a 6-foot-3 pencil-thin point guard, to see the floor. He had been languishing on the bench and had already spent two stints in the Development League until, one might also say, his latest big break: the ankle injuries to Deron Williams last week. With Williams out of the lineup Monday against the Indiana Pacers, Taylor stepped in and scored 12 points — including 7 in the fourth quarter and overtime — providing a sudden, unexpected glimpse at his N.B.A. potential. He made the most of his opportunity. “I understood D-Will was out — he didn’t travel with us, so I knew there would be a good chance I was going to play,” Taylor said at shootaround Wednesday. “I didn’t know how much, and I didn’t know I would play this well. But I was ready.” Taylor was still beaming about his breakout performance, the newfound attention, the hundreds of text messages on his phone, the razzing from teammates in the locker room. He had played a career-high 34 minutes. Other than in rookie league or D-League games, Taylor had not seen that much time since he played 36 minutes in the N.C.A.A. national title game against Kentucky in April. As the starting point guard all four years at Kansas — including 15 Big 12 and N.C.A.A. tournament games — Taylor had plenty of experience under pressure, and his ability was never an issue. Whether he could make good decisions (3.5 turnovers per game as a senior) and shoot consistently were reasonable to question. Nets Coach P. J. Carlesimo said Taylor’s confidence helped him through the frustration of his first months in the N.B.A. “I don’t think it ever entered his mind that he couldn’t do it,” Carlesimo said. “I think it was good to go out there and do it, against a quality opponent, on the road, and in a close game where he finished the game. Couldn’t ask for much more in terms of going out and doing it in a big situation.” Taylor was born in Hoboken, N.J., but raised in Florida, where his mother and sisters moved when he was in elementary school. He was small and thin, with no father figure present. He spent most of his time at a local Boys and Girls Club. But after Crawford saw him in the playground, he joined her A.A.U. team, and she helped him develop into a dynamic player. He returned to New Jersey, at St. Anthony, which he helped lead to a 32-0 record and a state title in 2008, his senior season, as the team’s starting point guard. He wound up at Kansas after initially committing to Marquette. At Kansas, Taylor needed some time to mature, on and off the court. He made national headlines following an altercation with members of the football team as a sophomore, in 2009. As a four-year star in a basketball-centric state, he was heavily scrutinized, and his play was often overshadowed by the all-American forward Thomas Robinson. The Nets saw things they liked in Taylor, including his change-of-pace athleticism, a nice contrast with the more brutish style of Williams. “His quickness, his ability to run the middle pick-and-roll and get into the lane,” Carlesimo said. “And he’s got that little floater.” Taylor came off the bench again in Wednesday’s win over the Nuggets, scoring 6 points (2 of 5 from the field) with 4 assists and 1 turnover in 16 minutes. When Williams returns, Taylor will probably settle back into his third-string point guard role. His objective now is proving that Monday’s flash of success was not just a fluke. “I stayed in college and played in a lot of big games,” Taylor said. “I’ve been well coached. I think I’m prepared to play at this level.”

Tyshawn Taylor
Basketball
Brooklyn Nets
St Anthony High School
University of Kansas


Former High School Football Player Sues in Illinois Over Lack of Protection

Abstract: A former high school quarterback sued the Illinois High School Association, saying it did not do enough to protect him from concussions when he played and still does not do enough to protect players. The lawsuit, filed in Cook County Circuit Cook, is among the first legal actions taken for former high school players as a whole against a group responsible for overseeing prep sports in a state. The lead plaintiff in the suit is Daniel Bukal, a star at Notre Dame College Prep in Niles, Ill., from 1999 to 2003. He sustained multiple concussions while playing and has frequent migraines and has experienced memory loss, the 51-page suit says. Bukal did not play beyond high school.

Football
Illinois
Concussion
School Sports