Timofey Mozgov Comes Off Bench to Lead Knicks

Abstract: The long, frequently frustrating search for a productive, skilled big man led the Knicks to a dozen dead ends before ending, finally, back where it began: in the Russian-speaking quarter of the locker room. Necessity called, and Timofey Mozgov — his English and his game improving in lockstep — provided a bold reminder of why the Knicks found him so intriguing in the first place. He ran hard, dunked harder and took care of all the loose ends Sunday night, leading the depleted Knicks to a 124-106 rout of the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden. For Mozgov, a soft-spoken rookie, there was quiet satisfaction as he posted career highs in points (23), rebounds (14) and minutes (40). For the fans, there was happy delirium, and chants of “Moz-gov!” after he scored his final points on a 19-foot jumper. For the Knicks (25-22) , there was relief. They needed this victory over the woebegone Pistons (17-31). And they need an imposing, hustling, rebounding 7-footer to fill out this rotation if they hope to make any noise in the postseason. Mozgov, 23, had not played in the previous 10 games, and hardly at all since mid-November, when he lost the starting center job. There is no keeping him out now. “Twenty-three and 14?” Coach Mike D’Antoni said, chuckling. “I think I’ll try it again.” The opportunity came Sunday because of injury (Wilson Chandler’s sore calf), suspension (Shawne Williams) and foul trouble (Ronny Turiaf). Chandler and Williams are both expected back for Wednesday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, but the rotation will need another adjustment. Mozgov is the Knicks’ only 7-footer and earned an opening night start after a strong training camp. He struggled in the season’s opening weeks and soon fell out of the rotation. “But we always liked him,” D’Antoni said. “That’s why he started the year. We thought he had that potential.” The difference now? “He just wasn’t flustered,” D’Antoni said. “It just seemed like he was going way too fast earlier.” The Knicks needed everything Mozgov provided to hold off Detroit and the hot-shooting Ben Gordon (35 points). The Pistons shot 50.6 percent and led by 8 in the third quarter, but the Knicks held them to 15 points in the fourth quarter. Amar’e Stoudemire led the Knicks with 33 points. Danilo Gallinari added 29 points, making 7 of 12 field goals and all 11 of his free throws. For the second straight game, Stoudemire spent a few disturbing moments wincing on the court, this time after bumping his left knee in the fourth quarter. He limped and hopped a bit but stayed in the game. Stoudemire was already coping with a sprained right knee, an injury he sustained Friday in Atlanta. Stoudemire started anyway and played effectively, if not always with his usual verve. He grabbed only six rebounds in 39 minutes. Stoudemire conceded that he was “trying to save my legs a little bit” in the first half but said that his knees were fine — “No worries.” Mozgov alleviated any other concerns, by cleaning up all the missed shots. “He played great,” Stoudemire said. “He’s one of those players where he keeps working, and keeps trying to improve as a young player.” Anthony Randolph also rejoined the rotation Sunday, but with more modest results: five rebounds, one block and no points in 8 minutes 30 seconds. He is likely to return to the bench when Chandler and Williams return. Mozgov showed much more poise than he did in November. After missing his first three attempts Sunday — nervously flinging two shots long — he settled down and found a rhythm. He slammed through two putbacks and dunked a lob from Toney Douglas. “I just breathed a little bit,” Mozgov said, exhaling loudly for effect, “and tried to play aggressive, that’s it.” In Russia, the fans used to chant his full name. But he appreciated the enthusiastic chants of his last name. “I feel really, really excited,” he said. “Thank you, the fans.” REBOUNDS Mark Warkentien, a veteran N.B.A. executive, will soon be hired as a Knicks front-office consultant, reporting to the team president Donnie Walsh, a person briefed on the matter confirmed. Yahoo Sports first reported the news Sunday. The highly regarded Warkentien was let go as the Denver Nuggets’ general manager last summer. He shares an agent with Walsh and has long been rumored as a possible right-hand man and, perhaps, eventual successor. Warkentien’s ties to the Nuggets could in theory help the Knicks’ in their pursuit of Carmelo Anthony. Walsh declined to comment on the Warkentien news, saying, “I have nothing to report.”

Detroit Pistons
New York Knicks
Mozgov Timofey
Basketball
Stoudemire Amare


In ‘Love & Math,’ Fighting Discrimination Through Numbers

Abstract: In 1984, when he was 16, Edward Frenkel was subjected to a malicious interrogation. Already a brilliant budding mathematician, he had applied for admission to “Mekh-Mat” at Moscow State University, the top mathematics program in the Soviet Union. But when he attended the critical oral entrance exam, his dream of becoming a professional mathematician came crashing down. He quickly solved the problems presented to him, but the examiners studiously ignored him, paying attention to the other students. Finally, an hour into the exam, his special inquisitors arrived and began hammering him with questions. Each correct answer was parsed and questioned in minute detail, and new problems, far beyond the required level, were presented in rapid succession. Dr. Frenkel fought on, but didn’t stand a chance: in 1984, no Jewish student, no matter how gifted, could be admitted to Mekh-Mat. Mathematical brilliance was no match for institutional anti-Semitism. In many ways “Love & Math” is his response to that moment. For Dr. Frenkel, as he recounts in the autobiographical chapters of the book, did not give up. He continued his studies in a less prestigious (and less anti-Semitic) applied mathematics program, but his true education took place elsewhere. He tapped an informal network of mathematicians, many of them Jewish, who were denied employment in their field but kept up their work at the highest level. With their guidance, Dr. Frenkel was soon conducting groundbreaking research. When the government finally relaxed its restrictions on international travel, he was invited to Harvard on a short-term fellowship that later turned into a permanent appointment. A few years after being denied admission to the undergraduate program at Mekh-Mat, he was a rising international star in the world of mathematics. The story of his professional triumph against heavy odds is deeply satisfying, especially when he is given the opportunity to confront his former tormentors during a seminar at M.I.T. But his true answer to the bigotry he encountered in his youth lies in his passion for mathematics — the “love” of the book’s title. Image Love & Math The Heart of Hidden Reality. By Edward Frenkel.Basic Books. 292 pages. $27.99. The truths of mathematics, as he explains, are objective, eternal and unchanging, residing in a perfect Platonic universe where prejudice and vindictiveness hold no sway. In the Orwellian world of the Soviet state, mathematics offered a haven in which truth stood for itself, free from ideological orthodoxy or the whims of the powerful. The anti-Semites at Mekh-Mat might have crushed young Edward’s dreams of an academic career, but against the truths of mathematics, they were helpless. Now a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Frenkel specializes in the Langlands program , an ambitious effort to unify the disparate areas of research in modern mathematics. The world of math, to use one of his favorite metaphors, is made up of different continents, seemingly isolated from one another: Number theory is about the properties of numbers, harmonic analysis is concerned with the properties of wave functions, the study of Riemann surfaces deals with the geometries of two-dimensional manifolds, and so on. The Langlands program draws connections among several of these “continents” by revealing startling similarities in their structures. To Dr. Frenkel, these unexpected analogies suggest that the different fields are just the visible manifestations of a deep mathematical truth that remains hidden beneath the surface. His quest is to reveal this universal structure. He does his best to explain the substance of his work to the lay reader, but this, he admits, is no easy task. Galois groups , Kac-Moody algebras, Hitchin moduli spaces, A-branes, automorphic sheaves and other concepts that are the tools of his trade are bound to challenge even the most dedicated nonmathematician. Impressively, he does not give up. Believing that mathematics is a common human possession, he explains each concept in nontechnical terms, relying heavily on analogies from daily life. In the end, lay readers will probably acquire no more than a superficial sense of all this technical work. But far more important, they will gain an understanding of what modern mathematics is about — its ambition, its beauty and its power to enthrall. Is mathematics truly as universal, eternal and unchanging as Dr. Frenkel believes? The history of the field suggests that it may not be, that mathematics could, in fact, be quite different in different times and places. The idea that different geometries can describe spaces different from our own, for example, is self-evident to a modern mathematician, but would have seemed sheer nonsense to any practitioner before the 19th century. Conversely, the fast and loose methods of the early pioneers of the calculus would be completely unacceptable in the modern field. And Dr. Frenkel’s own experience in the Soviet Union makes it clear that mathematics is not entirely insulated from the political pressures of its day. But this matters little. “Love & Math” is not a detached philosophical overview of mathematics but a report from the trenches by a practicing mathematician at the forefront of the field. And as such it is powerful, passionate and inspiring. In 2010, Dr. Frenkel appeared in a short film he wrote, “Rites of Love and Math,” in which a mathematician tattoos the “formula of love” on the body of his beloved, to save it and prevent it from falling into evil hands. It is perhaps Dr. Frenkel’s ultimate answer to the trauma of his youth. The truths of mathematics cannot be erased; they live on, safe from the malignant designs of humans. In the world of mathematics the bullies of Mekh-Mat wouldn’t stand a chance.

Mathematics
Soviet Union
Books
Antisemitism


Australian Ends Attempt to Prove He Founded Bitcoin

Abstract: LONDON — The mystery behind who created the online currency Bitcoin deepened on Thursday. Craig Steven Wright, an Australian entrepreneur and computer programmer who earlier this week said he was that person, on Thursday withdrew an offer to prove his assertion, removing the contents of his blog and replacing it with a post simply titled, “I’m sorry.” “I believed that I could do this,” Mr. Wright wrote on his blog. “I believed that I could put the years of anonymity and hiding behind me. But, as the events of this week unfolded and I prepared to publish the proof of access to the earliest keys, I broke. I do not have the courage. I cannot.” Mr. Wright was first identified as Bitcoin’s founder in December 2015 by Wired magazine and the technology website Gizmodo, but he did not come forward then. This week that changed, and he said in interviews with the BBC, The Economist and GQ that he was the digital currency’s creator , known by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Almost as soon as Mr. Wright announced he was the creator of Bitcoin on Monday, skepticism surfaced in the Bitcoin community about the authenticity of his claims. In a news release on Monday, Mr. Wright said that he had decided to make his identity public to “dispel any negative myths and fears about Bitcoin.” “I cannot allow the misinformation that has been spread to impact the future of Bitcoin” and the blockchain, the currency’s communal digital ledger, he said at the time. “I’m now able to build on what I have previously completed by releasing my research and academic work and help people understand just how powerful this can really be.” Outside Organization, a public relations company that distributed his release on Monday, verified that the comments on the blog were from Mr. Wright and did not provide any additional comment on Thursday. Bitcoin was founded as a digital competitor to existing currencies, and it has gained traction as financial institutions and others have begun researching how they can use the blockchain technology to improve transactions. The currency is created by people using computers to solve complex math problems, and it can then be traded digitally. Each coin is associated with its owner by a digital key. The mysterious identity of its founder created an aura around the digital currency since it surfaced in 2009 and fueled a parlor game of speculation about Satoshi Nakamoto’s identify. Satoshi Nakamoto communicated only by electronic message and never revealed his or her true identity before ending all communication in 2011. To verify his assertions this week, the BBC said, Mr. Wright provided digitally signed messages using cryptographic keys inextricably linked to Bitcoins generated by Satoshi Nakamoto. Mr. Wright also posted evidence on his blog, including a technical walk-through of how to verify cryptographic keys. All of that information was wiped from his blog on Thursday. “When the rumors began, my qualifications and character were attacked,” Mr. Wright said on his blog on Thursday. “When those allegations were proven false, new allegations have already begun. I know now that I am not strong enough for this.” In his post on Thursday, Mr. Wright apologized to Jon Matonis, one of the founding directors of the Bitcoin Foundation, and Gavin Andresen, who succeeded Satoshi Nakamoto as the lead Bitcoin developer. Both men said on Monday that, after reviewing evidence provided by Mr. Wright, they believed that he was Satoshi Nakamoto. “I can only hope that their honor and credibility is not irreparably tainted by my actions,” Mr. Wright said on his blog. “They were not deceived, but I know that the world will never believe that now. I can only say I’m sorry.” After the Wired and Gizmodo articles last year, Australian Federal Police raided Mr. Wright’s home in a suburb of Sydney in connection with a tax investigation. Tax authorities in Australia said at the time that they had determined that Mr. Wright was not Satoshi Nakamoto. On Thursday, Mr. Wright seemed determined to return to the shadows, ending his post with the words, “And goodbye.”


River search finds body, may be Reed brother

Abstract: Searchers recovered a body from the Mississippi River near where Brian Reed, the brother of Baltimore Ravens safety Ed Reed, jumped into the water after being confronted by a deputy sheriff earlier this month in St. Rose, La. Tim Miller of Texas EquuSearch told WWL-TV that although searchers could not confirm anything until after an autopsy, they believe it is Reed’s body. ¶New England Patriots wide receiver Wes Welker said he regretted comments he made referring to foot-fetish reports involving Jets Coach Rex Ryan. “Yeah, sure I do,” he told The Boston Herald. At a news conference Jan. 13, three days before the Jets beat the Patriots, 28-21, in a playoff game, Welker made about a dozen references to toes and feet, a not-so-subtle dig at Ryan. Coach Bill Belichick benched Welker for the game’s first offensive series. welker ¶Green Bay linebacker Nick Barnett and tight end Jermichael Finley posted complaints on their Twitter accounts after learning that players on injured reserve, as they are, will not be in the team picture taken at the Super Bowl . Jeff Blumb, a Packers spokesman, said the decision “was based primarily on the sheer number of players we have on injured reserve” — 16. packers ¶Michael Vick has signed his first endorsement contract since his release from prison in 2009. Vick, the Philadelphia Eagles’ Pro Bowl quarterback, signed a two-year contract with Unequal Technologies, a provider of the football pads Vick wore most of last season. The deal will be announced Thursday. vick (AP) ¶Bengals wide receiver Chad Ochocinco suggested at the end of an interview with ESPN that he was planning to change his name back to Johnson. He did not give a specific reason, other than saying he’s “done enough with the Ocho thing.” Ochocinco


The Fight over Prices on the Internet

Abstract: Where’s the price? On some pages of e-commerce sites selling products like televisions, digital cameras and jewelry, a critical piece of information is conspicuously missing: the price tag. To see how much these items cost, shoppers must add the merchandise to their shopping carts — in effect, taking it up to the virtual register for a price check. The missing prices are part of a larger battle sweeping the world of e-commerce. Wary of the Internet’s tendency to relentlessly drive down prices, major brands and manufacturers — and now, book publishers — are striking back, deploying a variety of tactics and tools to control how their products are presented and priced online. “You are seeing firms of all types test the waters” with strategies to control online pricing, said Christopher Sprigman, associate professor of intellectual property at the University of Virginia School of Law and a former antitrust lawyer at the Justice Department. “They feel they have more freedom to do it now.” In many cases that freedom stems from a 2007 Supreme Court ruling in the case of Leegin Creative Leather Products v. PSKS. The ruling gave manufacturers considerably more leeway to dictate retail prices, once considered a violation of antitrust law, and it set a high legal hurdle for retailers to prove that this is bad for consumers. Ever since that decision, retailers say manufacturers have become increasingly aggressive with one tool in particular: forbidding retailers from advertising their products for anything less than a certain price. For offline retailers like Wal-Mart Stores and Best Buy, that means not dropping below those prices in the circulars and ads in newspapers. But online retailers have a greater burden. Manufacturers consider the product pages on sites like eBay and Amazon.com to be ads, and they complain whenever e-commerce sites set prices below the minimum price. This leads the sites to replace prices with notes that say things like “To see our price, add this item to your cart.” One day last week, prices were missing on Amazon.com for an array of products like the Milwaukee Sub-Compact Driver drill kit, a Movado men’s Esperanza watch and an Onkyo 7.2-channel home theater receiver. As a result, those prices also did not show up on search sites like Google Product Search and PriceGrabber.com . The trend has arguably weakened one of the implicit promises of e-commerce: that quick searches and visits to comparison shopping sites will yield the best deals. Most online retailers complain that the missing prices confuse consumers and give an advantage to big chains like Wal-Mart, which do not bear the same burden in their stores. They also say the practice of enforcing minimum advertised prices has gradually spread from the consumer electronics business to companies in other industries like sporting goods and jewelry, which are also trying to stem the downward pressure of prices online. Amazon declined to comment on the issue, but the company’s feelings on the matter are public. “Retailers like Amazon have the legal right to set their own prices independently, but some manufacturers place restrictions on how those prices may be communicated,” reads an explanation on Amazon product pages that lack prices. “We realize that this is an inconvenience and are regularly working to educate manufacturers on how their policies impact our customers.” A few online retailers, like Buy.com, say advertising restrictions have not measurably affected sales. But most other e-commerce companies volubly protest. “We think consumers are best served when the retail marketplace is open and transparent and retailers have an opportunity to offer the best prices and services, and are not controlled from above by manufacturers,” said Brian Bieron, eBay’s senior director for domestic government relations. Manufacturers, of course, have a different view. They say the competitiveness of the Internet has unlocked a race to the bottom — with everyone from large corporations to garage-based sellers ravenously discounting products, and even selling them at a loss, in an effort to capture market share and attention from search engines and comparison shopping sites. They also worry that their largest retail partners may be unwilling to match the online price cuts and could stop carrying their products altogether. “If there isn’t that back-and-forth between manufacturer and retailer, it’s just a natural tendency to drive the price down to nothing,” said Wes Shepherd, chief of Channel Velocity, which sells software that allows companies to scour the Web looking for violations of pricing agreements. Southern Audio Services, based in Baton Rouge, La., sets a suggested retail price of $80 for its Woodees Inner-Ear Stereo Earphones, while their minimum advertised price is $50. Most online retailers sell them for around $50, but Amazon sells them for $48.40, keeping the price off the product page. “At the end of the day, it will become a race to zero if you don’t do anything to manage the issue,” said Jon C. Jordan, chief executive of Southern Audio Services. “Then you’ve devalued your product to the point where it’s difficult to get distribution and consumers lose interest in it.” The battle may shift back to Washington. Companies like eBay and Amazon are asking Congress to override aspects of the Leegin ruling. One bill that would repeal provisions of the ruling is now being considered in the House. In October, 41 state attorneys general wrote a letter to members of the House Judiciary Committee, arguing that the court’s decision had resulted in higher prices for shoppers. Just like other product makers, book publishers have also been emboldened by the Leegin decision. In their case, they want to prevent low prices on electronic books from cannibalizing their more profitable hardcover sales. Instead of selling e-books wholesale to retailers like Amazon.com, the publishers want to sell them directly, setting prices and having the retailer act as an agent, taking a fixed 30 percent commission. Macmillan recently struck such an agreement with Amazon.com after a protracted dispute that led Amazon to remove, briefly, Macmillan’s electronic and physical books from its site. Deals with the other major publishers will most likely follow. Book publishers “are using a different set of levers, and a different vocabulary, to get what they want,” said Scot Wingo, chief executive of ChannelAdvisor, which helps companies sell online. “But it’s the same outcome. Manufacturers are effectively controlling the price that the consumer sees on the Web.”

E-Commerce
Shopping and Retail
Computers and the Internet
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Online Advertising
Book Trade
Amazon.com Inc
Buy.com Inc
Google Inc
Barnes & Noble Incorporated


Tense Search, Chilling Note and an Arrest in Brooklyn Stabbings

Abstract: Around 8 p.m. Wednesday, a man paused at a corner in Ozone Park, Queens, and scrawled letters and symbols on a stop sign: $Killzz I will BK At the bottom he drew a smiley face, one eye winking. A moment later, two detectives stepped up and called the man by name: Daniel St. Hubert. He was placed under arrest, and the police now believe he committed a string of shocking crimes between Friday and Wednesday morning. He was carrying a brown-handled knife in his waistband and a cellphone in his pocket, said Stephen Davis, the Police Department’s chief spokesman. The words on that stop sign — since removed — were the last traces that the police found of Mr. St. Hubert, 27, as they tracked him from the scene of one slashing to the next: an 18-year-old woman, killed in the East New York section of Brooklyn on Friday night as she was going to meet her friends after band practice. A short distance away on Sunday afternoon, two children set upon as they rode the elevator on their way to get a treat — a 6-year-old boy knifed to death and a 7-year-old girl slashed within an inch of her life. And near dawn Wednesday, a 53-year-old homeless man on a subway platform in the Chelsea section of Manhattan, stabbed and slashed as he slept on a bench. As of late Thursday, Mr. St. Hubert had been charged with the attacks on the children. At nearly every step in three boroughs, the authorities said, Mr. St. Hubert left digital and physical evidence, all of which began to be unlocked midday Wednesday in an eight-hour avalanche of revelations. Around noon, a laboratory report on the knife used in the Sunday elevator attack came back with Mr. St. Hubert’s DNA profile, which was in a state database. It was the first time detectives had a name for their suspect. They obtained the number of a cellphone that he was using, and tracked its beacon signal as he moved around the city Wednesday afternoon and evening. Early on, it showed that he was on Queens Boulevard, but the signal disappeared. Assuming that he had gone into the subway system, the chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, ordered investigators to scramble to stations along the E line, hoping to see Mr. St. Hubert as he emerged, but the next sign of his whereabouts came when his phone signal was detected on a street in Queens, several blocks from the subway. Investigators rushed to the neighborhood, but again saw no sign of him. As they were speaking with people on the street, they noticed a camera outside a store, Mr. Davis said. Its hard drive showed that a few minutes earlier, Mr. St. Hubert had walked right past. “I was very excited, because now we have a real-time picture of him, how he looks, and what he is wearing,” Mr. Davis said. That included black sneakers, a gray shirt and blue shorts — fitting the description of clothing worn by a man seen fleeing the housing project where the children were stabbed on Sunday. It also showed he had a tattoo of a ram’s head and the word Aries. The video was obtained while Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner William J. Bratton were giving a news conference to publicize the hunt. Moments later, the two detectives arrested Mr. St. Hubert after seeing him write on the stop sign. “Ordinarily, you would call for backup, but they did not want to wait and take any chances with him,” Mr. Davis said. “He was cooperative.” Mr. St. Hubert’s MetroCard showed him entering a subway station in Chelsea around the time of the slashing. In the case of the 18-year-old woman who was stabbed in Brooklyn, lab tests have found physical evidence that was consistent with Mr. St. Hubert’s DNA, but it has not been linked to him with certainty. Investigators believe signals from his phone place him in the vicinity of the crime. There are only grainy video images of that assault, but they show that after a few initial thrusts with the knife, the man continued with multiple shallow stabs. That is similar to the pattern of attacks in the elevator and the subway, authorities said. Mr. St. Hubert has spent much of his time in custody sleeping. During his waking hours, his conversation has rambled, with references to Satan, but has also been coherent at times, one investigator said. Five years ago, Mr. St. Hubert’s mother, Marie Bauzile, told prosecutors in Queens that she did not want them to proceed with a criminal case against her son after he wrapped an electric cord around her neck, took $1,000 and stole her Toyota. He was 22 years old and she already had an order of protection against him. Her son needed psychiatric care, not prison, Ms. Bauzile told an assistant district attorney, according to Kevin Ryan, a spokesman for the Queens district attorney’s office. Nevertheless, he was charged with attempted murder, and because the crime was so violent, the case was not sent to a special mental health court, Mr. Ryan said. It would be three years before the charges were resolved. On three separate occasions, Mr. St. Hubert was committed to a state psychiatric hospital because he was found to be unfit to stand trial. In June 2012, he pleaded guilty to attempted murder and an assault on a corrections officer. Because of that conviction, he had to provide a sample of his DNA. In late May, he was released from prison. Less than two weeks later, a trace of evidence on a knife led to his DNA profile in the state database.

Murders
NYPD
Daniel St Hubert
NYC
East New York Brooklyn


For Rhesus Macaques, to Know Her May Mean to Love Her

Abstract: Among rhesus macaques, a female’s face becomes darker when she ovulates, and males can pick up the signal — but some males get the message more clearly than others. Researchers writing online Wednesday in The Proceedings of the Royal Society B have found experimental evidence that males are much better at picking up signals from females they already know than from those they are unfamiliar with. The scientists tested free-ranging male macaques in Puerto Rico by presenting them with images of females’ faces during fertile and infertile periods. Males who already knew the females gazed longer at the darker faces of the fertile period, suggesting that they were getting the point. Those who were from other groups, and therefore unfamiliar with the females, showed no more interest in the fertile than in the nonfertile. The researchers speculate that it is not a darker face alone that attracts a male, but how comparatively dark a familiar female’s face gets as she becomes fertile. To make that judgment, the male must already know the female. The lead author of the study, Dr. James P. Higham, who was with the University of Chicago when the research was done but is now at the German Primate Center in Göttingen, said that humans seem to face the same problem in interpreting nonverbal communication. “If you don’t know the range of signals an individual gives off, it’s hard to know what they mean,” he said. “I don’t think these things have been studied in humans, but it’s the sort of effect that seems intuitive.”

Puerto Rico
Monkeys and Apes
Science and Technology


Mariners and Top Pick Are Thinking Big

Abstract: Phillippe Aumont is big — 6-foot-7 big. He talks big, beyond his 18 years. And based on his potential, on how much the Mariners are gushing over him and on Seattle’s most recent history with its top draft choice, Aumont should be thinking big, too. It is not a stretch to think that Aumont, an 18-year-old Canadian and the 11th overall selection in June’s draft, may join Brandon Morrow, the Mariners’ top pick last year, and the 21-year-old ace Félix Hernández as part of a flame-throwing rotation in Seattle soon. Why? “I’ll start with: 6-foot-7, 225 pounds,” said Wayne Norton, the Mariners’ scouting supervisor for Canada, drawing a room full of laughs as Aumont was being introduced Friday after signing a contract with a $1.9 million signing bonus. “Then, he throws in the mid-90s.” So does Morrow, selected fifth over all out of the University of California 14 months ago. Morrow, 23, pitched one game at Class A last fall before finding himself in the Mariners’ bullpen this season. Seattle is expected to put him in its rotation to begin next season. Aumont noticed. “It’s a fun thing to know that a pitcher they drafted in the first round last year ended up playing in the big leagues right away,” said Aumont, the highest Canadian selected in the major league draft since 2002, when Baltimore chose Adam Loewen fourth over all and Colorado took Jeff Francis ninth. “The thing is, he’s a college guy, so he’s older,” Aumont said of Morrow. “I can probably do it, too. But I don’t want to rush things.” The temptation could be there for the Mariners. Aumont, a native of Gatineau, Québec, throws his fastball up to 97 miles an hour. His sinking two-seam fastball routinely zooms at 93 or 94. “How many guys can hit that velocity now in the major leagues?” said Dan Lawson, Aumont’s agent. “One per staff, maybe.” But Aumont began playing baseball only four years ago. He did not begin considering a career in professional baseball until early last year — about the time he refused an invitation to join a top all-star team of high school basketball players in Québec to concentrate on being a pitcher. The Mariners equate Aumont’s experience pitching for the Canadian junior team, which he will rejoin for tournaments in Illinois and Mexico through Sept. 1, to a player with community college or rookie-level minor league experience in the United States. So he has some developing — and proving — to do before he reaches Seattle. Next month, he will join Mariners instructional league prospects in Arizona. Then in February, the Mariners will invite him to their spring training camp, as they do each spring after signing their top pick. They extended the same opportunity to Morrow as a nonroster invitee this spring — and he blew them and the Cactus League away to win a roster spot. “There’s more to come,” Norton said of Aumont. “I think he’s obviously going to get bigger, stronger.” Norton projected Aumont to be a front-of-the-rotation power pitcher. Norton said he had scouted some of Canada’s best, going back to Loewen and Francis, “who are doing quite well right now. This guy doesn’t take a back seat to those two gentlemen. “I want to take the opportunity to thank him. Guys like him make scouting easy.”


3 Rikers Officials Charged in Brutal Beating of Inmate

Abstract: Two New York City correction officers and a captain were arrested Wednesday on charges that they handcuffed and beat an inmate unconscious with a baton at Rikers Island and then falsified documents to cover it up, the authorities said. The arrests were part of a monthslong inquiry by the city’s Investigation Department into “a pattern of lawless conduct at Rikers that must be brought under control,” Mark G. Peters, the department commissioner, said in a statement. “The victims here were not simply the injured inmate but the justice system itself, which cannot properly function when sworn law enforcement officers falsify documents to cover up crimes,” Mr. Peters said. The captain, Moises Simancas, 43, who has nearly 17 years’ experience, and the two correction officers, April Jackson, 34, and Tyrone Wint, 28, who were both hired in 2008, were each charged with attempted first-degree assault, which carries a maximum of 15 years in prison. They were also charged with falsifying business records, among other offenses. They were arraigned on Wednesday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx and released on $50,000 bail each. All three were removed from contact with inmates after the beating and were suspended after their arrests. The beating occurred on Oct. 30, 2012, just after Hurricane Sandy. Tensions were high after the storm, according to a statement by the Bronx district attorney, Robert T. Johnson. Rikers was short-staffed and inmates had been locked in their cells for much longer than usual because of the storm. At the George R. Vierno Center, one of the 10 jails at Rikers, an inmate named Gabino Genao became verbally abusive to one of the defendants, officials said. In response, the defendants went into Mr. Genao’s cell, handcuffed him from behind and led him to a vestibule, “where one of the officers allegedly threw the first punch, but missed when the inmate ducked,” Mr. Johnson said. The officers then pushed Mr. Genao to the floor, and all three began to punch and kick him in the head, neck and torso, officials said. At one point, one of the officers grabbed a baton and hit him multiple times. He then lost consciousness. Mr. Genao, now 27, suffered multiple contusions that officials said were consistent with the imprint of a standard-issue baton used by the Correction Department. He had been incarcerated for a parole violation. After the beating, officers submitted reports that omitted the use of the baton and were “inconsistent with both the assault of the inmate and the injuries he sustained,” the Investigation Department said. The beating was part of a pattern of brutality, neglect and corruption among correction officers and supervisors that officials say is rampant at Rikers Island. Several recent deaths, including a homeless veteran who died in an overheated cell in February, have prompted fresh scrutiny of the city’s jails. Mayor Bill de Blasio has vowed reforms, particularly to treatment of inmates with mental illnesses, who have surged into Rikers in recent years and suffer abuse disproportionally. Jail beatings rarely result in prosecution, but there are exceptions. In June last year, the Bronx district attorney’s office charged 10 jail officers and supervisors, including a former Rikers security chief, with savagely beating an inmate and then conspiring to cover up the attack. The inmate, Jahmal Lightfoot, suffered two fractured eye sockets and a broken nose. After the beating, officers then accused Mr. Lightfoot — wrongfully, according to prosecutors — of slashing one of the officers with a makeshift razor. The three arrested on Wednesday are among at least 12 correction workers referred for prosecution as part of an Investigation Department inquiry into contraband smuggling, brutality and corruption at Rikers Island. Last month, 22 people were arrested, including two correction officers, in a contraband sweep . The Investigation Department said Wednesday that more arrests were expected.

Rikers
Moises Simancas
April Jackson
Tyrone Wint
Assault
Prison
Gabino Genao
Security guard
NYC
Correction Department NYC


This Time, Error Benefits Cardinals

Abstract: BOSTON — The St. Louis Cardinals returned to playing the brand of baseball they cherish: clean and crisp, coolheaded and clutch. And it still was not working. Still they trailed by a run in the seventh inning, thanks to a go-ahead home run by the irksome Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz, sinking toward a two-games-to-none deficit in the World Series. So they took a chance — a double steal, with one out, putting two runners in scoring position and pressuring the Red Sox’ defense. And in a redemptive twist, Boston proceeded to throw away its lead Thursday, one night after the Cardinals’ defensive miscues were the focus in Game 1. The result was a 4-2 victory for St. Louis at Fenway Park, evening this World Series at one game apiece and affirming that, yes, the Cardinals can loosen up in the spotlight and, yes, the Red Sox can be beaten on this stage. It had not happened since October 1986, Game 7 against the Mets — a streak of nine consecutive Boston victories in the World Series — but St. Louis had seen and heard just about enough of all that. “The guys stayed aggressive,” Cardinals Manager Mike Matheny said. “That’s the difference between yesterday and today. You saw the aggressiveness offensively.” It was to be expected that the Cardinals, considered among the soundest teams in baseball with 97 regular-season wins, would regroup after Wednesday’s defensive collapse: three errors that ushered in three unearned runs during the Cardinals’ unsightly 8-1 loss. Matheny called it a wake-up call and said his players were embarrassed by their lackluster Series debut. For good measure, he replaced the struggling shortstop Pete Kozma, who committed two errors, and center fielder Shane Robinson, who bobbled a ball, in the Cardinals’ lineup. Image Pete Kozma scored in the seventh, with Jarrod Saltalamacchia unable to corral the ball. Then came a throwing error. Credit Jared Wickerham/Getty Images The result was a near-flawless defensive effort, and a plucky offensive performance that did not wilt after the homer by Ortiz in the sixth tarnished another sensational Michael Wacha performance. In the seventh, the Cardinals put two runners aboard with one out against Boston reliever Craig Breslow, with Kozma pinch-running for David Freese at second base. On a 2-2 pitch to Daniel Descalso, Kozma broke for third (with Jon Jay trailing him to second) and both players reached without a throw after Boston catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia bobbled the pitch. Jay said the steal call was not something issued from the dugout; Kozma read the situation on his own, and Jay alertly followed. “It’s one of those situations where I know he might take a chance and go for it,” Jay said. After Descalso walked, Matt Carpenter hit a fly ball deep enough to left field to score Kozma on a sacrifice fly, as the throw from Jonny Gomes skittered a bit up the first-base line. But after backing up the throw, Breslow tried to nab Jay, who was advancing to third. His throw sailed into the photographers’ pen along the left-field line, allowing Jay to jog in with the go-ahead run while Descalso moved to third. Carlos Beltran, back in the lineup after a bruised rib knocked him out of Game 1, drove in the third run in the inning with a single to right. It was the second time in the game that St. Louis held a lead — noteworthy, considering that in 2004, the Cardinals trailed Boston in every inning of the four-game sweep that ended the Red Sox’ 86-year title drought. The Cardinals did not have Wacha then — he was 13 years old — but the rookie right-hander continued his dominating postseason run on Thursday, limiting the Red Sox to two hits in his first five innings. Only one player on the Red Sox had faced Wacha before, and that was Will Middlebrooks, in high school in Texarkana, Tex. At one point they were teammates on an American Legion squad. Whatever scouting report Middlebrooks could have provided from those memories served little use on Thursday. Wacha, now 22, with his own deep and dark playoff beard, seemed as comfortable as he might have looked on those playing fields of East Texas. Image The Cardinals rookie Michael Wacha had another sensational performance, although his 20-inning scoreless streak was snapped in the sixth. Credit Jared Wickerham/Getty Images His fastball seemed to explode off the top of his 6-foot-6 frame, mixed with a changeup that died off his fingertips. The potent Boston offense that bombarded St. Louis for eight runs on Wednesday was muzzled early. Wacha, only the 11th player age 22 or younger to start a World Series game, struggled with his command at times, and the Red Sox’ patience soon became a factor. Boston’s hitters drew four walks, including Dustin Pedroia with one out in the sixth. The next batter, Ortiz, worked the count full before homering over the Green Monster in left, on a changeup, Wacha’s 103rd pitch. “I made a mistake,” Wacha said, “and he made me pay.” That snapped a 20-inning scoreless streak for Wacha, a postseason record for a rookie, dating to the solo homer he surrendered to Pittsburgh’s Pedro Alvarez in the eighth inning of Game 4 of the National League division series. It also halted Wacha’s bid to match Jon Lester’s shutdown performance the night before, a start that drew additional scrutiny Thursday after speculation flickered on social media outlets that Lester had doctored his pitches. The hubbub began when a Cardinals minor leaguer posted a screen shot on his Twitter account that showed what appeared to be a greenish substance inside Lester’s glove. Red Sox Manager John Farrell wound up addressing the matter along with Lester, who said the discoloration was caused by resin, which helps pitchers maintain their grip on a ball. Matheny said the Cardinals never instigated the matter or questioned anything about Lester’s glove or uniform. “We don’t deny that some things have been acknowledged,” Matheny said before the game. “And if that’s what he claims, then that’s what it is. That’s all there is to it. And right now, it’s pretty much a dead issue.” The matter receded quickly once the game — a tense and taut affair throughout — got under way. The Red Sox threatened a final time in the eighth. With Jacoby Ellsbury on first, the Cardinals left in the right-hander Carlos Martinez to pitch to Ortiz, who singled to center. The next batter, Mike Napoli, popped out to shortstop to end the inning. The night before, that ball might have dropped safely or been bobbled or botched by Cardinals players who continually tripped themselves up. Instead, they realigned the series with a reminder of how they reached this point. “We’re just worried about playing our kind of baseball,” Jay said. “That’s what we did today.” s.

St. Louis Cardinals
Baseball
Red Sox
World Series
Michael Wacha
Carlos Beltran
John Lackey


Unable to Match Success of Elway Era, Shanahan Is Fired by Broncos

Abstract: Broncos Coach Mike Shanahan spent a decade trying to duplicate the championships he brought to Denver with John Elway as his quarterback. Winning only one playoff game since Elway retired, and knocked out of the playoff hunt again with a season-closing three-game losing streak, Shanahan was fired on Tuesday by Pat Bowlen, the team owner. Shanahan had the second-longest tenure among N.F.L. coaches, behind Jeff Fisher of Tennessee. His dismissal further rocks a rapidly spinning coaching carousel, where four coaches have been fired and several more anxiously await word of their fate. Shanahan should find plenty of suitors if he decides to step immediately into another job. His Super Bowl rings, his reputation as an offensive innovator and his relatively young age (56) make him an attractive candidate to the Jets, the Browns and the Lions. A turn in college football is not out of the question, either. Shanahan seriously considered becoming the coach at Florida in 2002, a job that ultimately went to Ron Zook. Shanahan’s spot in the Colorado landscape was long considered as secure as that of Pikes Peak. Revered for lifting the Broncos and Elway from perennial contender to Super Bowl champions after the 1997 and 1998 seasons, Shanahan earned enough good will for Bowlen to say, a few years ago, that he could coach the Broncos as long as he wished. He had three years left on a contract that was to pay him about $20 million, The Associated Press reported. Last spring, Shanahan and his wife, Peggy, sold their suburban mansion for $16 million, according to The Rocky Mountain News, and began building a 35,000-square-foot home. Then the Broncos became the first team since divisional play began in 1967 to blow a three-game lead with three games remaining. On Sunday, with the American Football Conference West division title at stake, the Broncos lost to the San Diego Chargers, 52-21, to finish 8-8. They missed the playoffs for the third year in a row, the franchise’s longest drought since 1980-82. “After giving this careful consideration, I have concluded that a change in our football operations is in the best interests of the Denver Broncos,” Bowlen said in a statement. “This is certainly a difficult decision, but one that I feel must be made and which will ultimately be in the best interests of all concerned.” Shanahan spent 21 seasons in Denver, initially as a quarterbacks coach and offensive coordinator under Dan Reeves, who led the Broncos to three Super Bowls in the 1980s — all defeats. After a 20-game stint coaching the Raiders (Al Davis fired Shanahan four games into the 1989 season, and the two have feuded since over money that Shanahan says he is still owed) and two more seasons as a Broncos assistant, Shanahan became the offensive coordinator of the San Francisco 49ers. Working under Coach George Seifert and tutoring quarterback Steve Young, Shanahan helped the high-octane 49ers to a championship in 1994. Bowlen brought Shanahan back to Denver as the coach in 1995, as Elway’s career was winding down and his legacy seemed saddled by those three Super Bowl losses. The Broncos went 13-3 in 1996, losing to Tom Coughlin’s Jacksonville Jaguars in a playoff upset. But the Broncos went 12-4 and 14-2 the next two seasons, capped by Super Bowl victories that bestowed heroic status on Shanahan and Elway in the Mountain Time Zone. Shanahan could not find another quarterback to mold into a champion. He invested four seasons with Brian Griese, four with Jake Plummer and the past two with Jay Cutler. Although Cutler gave the Broncos hope for the future, Shanahan was ultimately undone by an increasingly leaky defense, something a revolving door of defensive coordinators could not seal, and a string of questionable draft picks and free-agent signings that Shanahan made as the team’s executive vice president for football operations. In Shanahan’s absence, the Broncos are in the market for a general manager as well. The Broncos’ defense was ranked among the league’s top seven in seven of the nine seasons beginning in 1997. In the last four years, however, the defense plunged to middle-of-the-pack status, then to No. 29 in 2008.In 16 seasons as an N.F.L. head coach, Shanahan compiled a 146-98 record. His teams were 8-5 in the playoffs, but 1-4 in the decade since Elway retired after Super Bowl XXXIII.


P.C. Richard Takes On the New Jersey Turnpike

Abstract: CARTERET, N.J. — Turning old industrial land into a sprightly new retail area is rarely easy, even in the best of times, but the task can seem especially daunting when the land in question sits next to a highway that is not a natural retail draw to begin with. Unlike certain highways in the state, the 148-mile New Jersey Turnpike, with widely dispersed interchanges and a paucity of retail sites, has long held more appeal for distribution companies and truckers than for shoppers. Still, that is not stopping one longstanding New York area retailer, P. C. Richard & Son of Farmingdale, N.Y., from pursuing a 15-acre development project that fronts the turnpike in this still heavily industrialized borough. The company, a regional seller of consumer electronics and appliances, is banking on the project to help it expand to the west and north of New York City and Long Island and improve its distribution operations. While few electronics retailers across the country are expanding and Circuit City is shuttering all of its 567 stores nationally, P. C. Richard, which in 2008 had sales of $1.5 billion, is still increasing its store numbers and its reach. It opened a store last fall, for instance, in Nanuet, N.Y., giving the company its first outlet in Rockland County. Founded by the Dutch immigrant Peter Christiaan Richard, who opened a hardware store in Brooklyn in 1909, the company now has 51 stores in New York and New Jersey. Until recently, P. C. Richard operated both a one-million-square-foot warehouse in Farmingdale and a 158,000-square-foot distribution center in Whippany, N.J., which it had leased for 10 years. Served by 50 to 75 trucks a day, the Whippany center was also home to a large employee training center. In early January, the company moved its Whippany distribution and employee training operations to a renovated 300,000-square-foot warehouse in Carteret that was once used by the Herman’s sporting goods chain, now defunct, and then by a variety of shorter-term tenants. It sits on a development site in western Carteret that directly fronts the turnpike at Exit 12. This is in a rundown section of the borough, but it has been tagged for retail redevelopment, partly because it is connected by Roosevelt Avenue, one of the borough’s main thoroughfares, with heavily trafficked Route 1, one of the busiest retail corridors in the state. Last year, P. C. Richard signed a four-year lease for the warehouse, with a commitment to buy it, at a price it would not disclose. Elsewhere on the site, the company bought a 64,370-square-foot building, which is still occupied by an automotive parts company, but which is to be remade within a year into a large P. C. Richard store and clearance center. The company already has a 55,000-square-foot center in Deer Park, N.Y. “We think our new facility puts us in an enviable position for our next round of growth in the state,” said Gregg Richard, the president of the company, which is now run by fourth-generation family members. Mr. Richard said the larger distribution center in Carteret would enable the company to more efficiently serve customers who now live as far west as Pennsylvania, as well as the growing number of buyers who ask the company to both deliver and install products like flat-screen television sets. He said P. C. Richard offered next-day delivery seven days a week on any product in stock. Thomas R. Carragher, branch manager for the northern New Jersey office at Studley, a real estate firm that specializes in representing tenants, said that P. C. Richard first began looking for a larger New Jersey warehouse and training facility about five years ago, and that the search eventually extended to some half-dozen counties. “We wanted to find the needle in the haystack — a modern distribution building that would give them highway signage, retail potential, and that could also be purchased,” said Gregg K. Najarian, a Studley managing director who worked with Mr. Carragher to find the site in Carteret, which is in Middlesex County. Still, borough officials, as well as some local real estate owners, are clearly hoping that P. C. Richard will eventually help to put Carteret on the retail map. One factor that is expected to improve Carteret’s prospects for attracting a broader business base is an overhaul now under way at Exit 12, where ramps, toll gates and toll lanes are being redesigned to alleviate truck traffic on local streets like Roosevelt Avenue and allow for easier turnpike access. Until recently, the interchange was a chronic source of congestion for motorists and for the many distribution companies, even though they generally liked Carteret’s proximity to New York and to the New Jersey port area and Newark Liberty International Airport . The exit overhaul is still only about two-thirds finished, but Frank V. Caccavo Jr., an executive vice president for Cushman & Wakefield of New Jersey, said it had already led to a positive change in how distribution and warehouse companies look at the borough. William Sitar Jr., a vice president at the Sitar Company, a real estate services company in Iselin, noted that it was already easier for motorists to get to some of the retail businesses in the eastern part of the borough. Like many towns in New Jersey, Carteret’s fortunes were once closely tied to the chemical industry, with companies including DuPont, Mobil and Agrico, and more recently to warehouse and distribution companies. While the borough still has sizable brownfields, it now also has 17 areas, including some former polluted sites, that have been designated for development. Some of the borough’s old industrial pockets have already gone to new residential development, like the 288-unit Bristol Station, a gated luxury apartment project that opened in 2007 in an area near the waterfront. But so far retailers have been slow in moving to the 4.4-mile-square borough, even though its population is growing, unlike many towns in New Jersey. One problem is location: Sitting opposite Staten Island on the Arthur Kill Waterway, with the Rahway River to its north, the almost peninsula-shaped borough is often bypassed for nearby towns like Woodbridge and Linden, which are easier to reach. “P. C. Richard is one of the most dynamic retailers here so far,” said Kathaleen R. Shaw, the borough’s director of economic development.

Office Buildings and Commercial Properties


Redskins Try to Dazzle Without Putting on a Show

Abstract: RICHMOND, Va. — Chris Thompson saw his friend and former teammate Robert Griffin III at the airport before camp. They chatted and went their separate ways. Their early October meeting was still a long way away. With Griffin now in Cleveland and the Redskins’ starting quarterback job firmly in the hands of Kirk Cousins, the Washington Redskins’ training camp has lacked the buzz and the drama of past years. At this year’s camp, the only remnants of Griffin’s tumultuous tenure with the team are the No. 10 jerseys worn by a few fans. Welcome to Camp Boring — which was exactly what Coach Jay Gruden wanted. “Well, we don’t want a three-ring circus out here,” Gruden said Tuesday. “I don’t know if it’s been like that in the past, probably when I first got here, but our goal is to coach football and play football. “We’re trying to get the best out of our guys. We’re not trying to do any crazy stunts off the field. We just want to focus in on our job at hand, and that’s to get better every day.” The sense of calm around the Redskins was unusual for an organization that has had a chaotic recent past. The team made an off-season splash by signing the All-Pro cornerback Josh Norman. He has been notable in camp so far by going up against the star receiver DeSean Jackson during drills and kicking a soccer ball around afterward to build camaraderie with his teammates. The biggest question regards receiver Josh Doctson, the first-round pick with the nagging Achilles’ tendon injury. He has been wearing a walking boot on his left foot. General Manager Scot McCloughan has been walking around with his left hand wrapped, reportedly the result of hitting something in anger after learning that Doctson was expected to remain out for weeks. “We’re trying to work him hard one day and then let him rest the next day, and keeping him in the boot is the best option we feel like right now,” Gruden said. Doctson has no time frame for joining practice, let alone being ready for games. But if that is the biggest cause of consternation around the Redskins, they will take it. “There’s no drama; there’s no distractions,” said Thompson, the Redskins’ second-string running back. “It’s just come to work and get better,” he added. “It’s boring in a good way. We’re just all here to work, and that’s just the goal. That’s what we’ve been wanting to do for the longest — just get all the drama out and play football. Now we’re able to do that.” Smaller crowds than previous years will not make Richmond officials happy, but there have been plenty of fans during workouts. Veterans who have been through plenty of camps brushed off the idea of boredom but conceded that this was not like any other year. They were not being asked about Griffin, the team’s nickname or any other issues. “It is good because you don’t have the frenzy of the reporters, and what we’re talking about is football and talking about football can only make you better, especially when you’ve got the right guys in the locker room,” said defensive lineman Kedric Golston, who is entering his 11th season with Washington. “We don’t have to talk about it or waste an ounce of energy on things that’s not going to help us win.” Coming off an improbable N.F.C. East title, the Redskins say that having Cousins as their quarterback, Matt Jones as their featured running back and Norman as their No. 1 cornerback will bolster their record. The signings of tight end Vernon Davis and safety David Bruton Jr., who both won the Super Bowl with the Denver Broncos, have added to the depth and have provided competition in camp. The fiercest competition might be Bruton vs. Duke Ihenacho for the starting strong safety job. Perry Riley vs. Mason Foster at inside linebacker and Spencer Long vs. Shawn Lauvao at left guard also bear watching. Told that his camp was calm and almost boring, Gruden laughed and said, “Thanks.” He would like to keep it that way. “We have a long ways to go, but all the off-the-field stuff and the entertainment value that people are looking for, hopefully they don’t find it here,” Gruden said, adding, “We’re very businesslike in our approach, and we’re trying to rebound from last year’s loss to the Packers and repeat as N.F.C. East champions and go a little bit further.”

Redskins
Robert Griffin III
Kirk Cousins
Football


Schwarzenegger, Brown and Whitman Finally Share a Stage

Abstract: LONG BEACH, Calif. — With less than a week until Election Day, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California has become a chunk of kryptonite that the candidates to succeed him lob at each other. But even as the candidates, Meg Whitman and Jerry Brown, scrambled to distance themselves from the governor, they shared a stage with him on Tuesday for the first time this election cycle. The event was a panel discussion, titled “Who We Are, Where Are We Going” and moderated by Matt Lauer of NBC’s “Today” show, that was the centerpiece of an annual women’s conference organized by Maria Shriver, Mr. Schwarzenegger’s wife. The governor entered to a swell of music after a short video that extolled his time in office. Ms. Whitman — who, like Mr. Schwarzenegger, is a Republican — and Mr. Brown, the Democratic nominee, followed. After perfunctory handshakes, they flanked Mr. Schwarzenegger around a small table. Mr. Schwarzenegger has not endorsed either candidate, but his image has loomed large in recent days. The Brown campaign introduced an advertisement featuring sound bites from Mr. Schwarzenegger spliced with clips of Ms. Whitman making nearly identical remarks. In response, Ms. Whitman said Mr. Brown’s tax strategies and environmental ideas augured more of what the Schwarzenegger administration had been dishing up. The conference program also included speeches by Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, as well as talks about “work-life balance” and weight loss. When Mr. Lauer pressed the candidates to “pull all negative ads and replace them with positive ads” in the remaining days of the race, Mr. Schwarzenegger sat back as Mr. Brown pledged to comply and Ms. Whitman smiled at the cheering audience. “I will say,” Ms. Whitman said after a pause, “the things I have been called in this campaign, it’s not fair to the voters of California.” Mr. Lauer asked for a handshake, a verbal pledge, any clear agreement to his challenge before time ran out on the panel. Mr. Schwarzenegger leaned forward and assumed the role of referee. “Maybe it’s hard to come to an agreement now, in front of an audience,” he said. “I can already see the political spin masters in the back saying, ‘Why did you do that?’ ” The three then stood for a photograph, posing with hands stiffly at their sides for several seconds, to a soundtrack of frantic drumming. Mr. Schwarzenegger reached up and gripped Mr. Brown’s and Ms. Whitman’s shoulders, pulling their heads close to his big grin.

California
Whitman Margaret C
Brown Jerry
Schwarzenegger Arnold
Lauer Matt


Accretive Denies Claims It Pressured Patients to Pay

Abstract: Accretive Health , one of the nation’s largest collectors of medical bills, took issue on Sunday with a report by the Minnesota attorney general’s office that it puts bedside pressure on patients to pay their bills. The allegations “grossly distort and mischaracterize” the company’s revenue cycle services, it said in a statement. The suggestion that Accretive puts bedside pressure on patients to pay their bills out of pocket is a “flagrant distortion of fact,” the company said. It said it was working with its advisers to address those allegations. Accretive shares plunged nearly 42 percent on Wednesday after Attorney General Lori Swanson of Minnesota issued a report contending that Accretive violated federal and state patient-privacy and debt-collection laws. She said that in some cases patients at Fairview Health Services, a Minnesota hospital chain, were pressured for payment before they received care and that Accretive’s debt collectors did not properly disclose their role. Accretive said in its statement that it did not deny access to patient care and that the allegations were “flatly untrue.” Ms. Swanson said last week that employees at Fairview, a nonprofit chain of seven hospitals based in Minneapolis, were required to use a system to track whether patients paid their bills. Accretive said late Friday that Fairview had canceled its contract with the company.

Minnesota
Hospitals
Accretive Health Inc
Swanson Lori
Medicine and Health


Tibet Self-Immolations Moves to Lhasa

Abstract: BEIJING — One man died and another was seriously injured when they set themselves on fire outside Tibetan Buddhism’s holiest temple in the center of Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, according to Xinhua, the Chinese state news agency. It was the first time that such protests against Chinese rule have occurred in the city. The self-immolations occurred on Sunday afternoon outside the Jokhang Temple during the holy month of Saga Dawa, when followers of Tibetan Buddhism celebrate the birth, enlightenment and death of Buddha. They were the most significant act of protest in Lhasa since an uprising in 2008 that was crushed by Chinese security forces. The authorities stepped up security in Lhasa after the uprising, particularly in the central market area known as the Barkhor. The Jokhang Temple, which is a pilgrimage destination, is in the heart of the area. That two men set themselves on fire in Lhasa, far from the sites of earlier self-immolations in eastern Tibet and under tight security since 2008, underscores the widening discontent over Chinese rule. At least 36 people in the Tibetan regions of China have set themselves on fire since March 2011, when a monk named Phuntsog from the Kirti Monastery set himself on fire in Ngaba, a town in a Tibetan area of Sichuan Province. Xinhua identified the two protesters on Sunday as Dargye, from Aba County, the Chinese name for Ngaba, and Tobgye Tseten, from Xiahe County, or Labrang in Tibetan, the seat of the famous Labrang Monastery and a center of protests against Chinese rule. Both counties are in the region of eastern Tibet that is traditionally known as Amdo and where the worlds of the ethnic Tibetans and ethnic Hans have overlapped. The Han rule China, and many Tibetans resent Beijing’s policies in Tibet and the Han who migrate into Tibetan regions for work and business opportunities. Tobgye Tseten died in the fire he set, Xinhua said, but Dargye survived. He was seriously injured, the news agency said, but was in stable condition and able to talk. Harriet Beaumont, a spokeswoman for the advocacy group Free Tibet, identified the man who died as Dorjee Tseten, 19, from Bhora in Labrang County. She said the two men shouted three times outside the temple before setting themselves on fire, but it was not immediately clear what they said. Afterward, she said, security officers began detaining Tibetans, especially those from Ngaba County. A man who answered the telephone at the Yarlung Tsangpo Hotel in Lhasa said security in the city had been tightened and additional security forces sent in. The man, who gave his name as Mr. Liu, said it was unclear whether the new forces were made up of regular police officers or were units of the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force that is usually called out to quell riots and maintain security in the restive ethnic regions of western China. Robert J. Barnett, a scholar of modern Tibet at Columbia University, said a Tibetan in Lhasa had told him the city was in a “boiling situation” after the self-immolations. “We’re now seeing self-immolations that seem to be political expressions that are in sympathy with the core incidents that happened earlier,” Mr. Barnett said. “The Chinese officials are really worried,” he said, because the latest protests seem to be “driven by an idea, a political goal.” By contrast, he said, the earlier self-immolations in Ngaba were largely in reaction to security clampdowns at the Kirti Monastery after the 2008 uprising. Ngaba has been the center of the self-immolations, but Tibetans have now set themselves on fire in areas across the vast Tibetan plateau. Most have been members of the clergy. Before the self-immolations in Lhasa, there had been just one such protest in the Tibet Autonomous Region, by a layman in the eastern area known as Chamdo. The self-immolations on Sunday were first reported by Radio Free Asia and Voice of America, which have contact with Tibetans in western China. Voice of America reported that the two men worked at a restaurant in Lhasa called Nyima Ling. Radio Free Asia said the two were monks who were taken away in security vehicles within 15 minutes of setting themselves on fire. In March, President Hu Jintao of China told the Tibet delegates to the National People’s Congress in Beijing that they must exert a “continuous effort in sustaining social harmony and stability.” Official news reports say Chen Quanguo, the current party chief of Tibet, repeated Mr. Hu’s words in public meetings and said officials would “persist in the thought that stability overrides all.”

Tibet
Buddhism
China
Immolation
Demonstrations Protests and Riots
Dalai Lama


Vatican Priest Likens Criticism Over Abuse to Anti-Semitism

Abstract: ROME — A senior Vatican priest, speaking before Pope Benedict XVI at a Good Friday service, compared the world’s outrage at sexual abuse scandals in the Catholic Church to the persecution of the Jews, prompting angry responses from victims’ advocates and consternation from Jewish groups. The Vatican spokesman quickly distanced the Vatican from the remarks, which came on the day Christians mark the Crucifixion. They underscored how much the Catholic Church has felt under attack from recent news reports and from criticism over how it has handled charges of child molesting against priests in the past. The pope and his bishops have denounced abuses in the church, but many prelates and Vatican officials have lashed back at news reports that Benedict failed to act strongly enough against pedophile priests, once as archbishop of Munich and Freising in 1980 and once as a leader of the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The Vatican has denied that he was at fault, and Vatican officials have variously described the reports as “deceitful,” an effort to undermine the church and a “defamatory campaign.” Speaking in St. Peter’s Basilica, the priest, the Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, took note that Easter and Passover fell during the same week this year, and said he was led to think of the Jews. “They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence, and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms,” said Father Cantalamessa, who serves under the title of preacher of the papal household. Then he quoted from what he said was a letter from a Jewish friend he did not identify. “I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole world,” he said the friend wrote. “The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.” Good Friday has traditionally been a fraught day in Catholic-Jewish relations. Until the liberalizing Second Vatican Council in the 1960s, Catholic liturgy included a prayer for the conversion of the Jews, and Catholic teaching held Jews responsible for the Crucifixion. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, stressed that Father Cantalamessa’s sermon represented his own thoughts and was not an official Vatican statement. Father Lombardi said the remarks should not be construed as equating recent criticism of the Catholic Church with anti-Semitism. “I don’t think it’s an appropriate comparison,” he said. “That’s why the letter should be read as a letter of solidarity by a Jew.” Yet the official Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano, published the remarks in its Saturday edition, which appeared online on Friday evening. Even as the priest spoke out against attacks on the church, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch of Freiburg, head of the German Bishops Conference, said Friday that sexual abuse victims were not helped enough “out of a misplaced concern for the reputation of the church.” The church, he said, was shaken by “the suffering inflicted on the victims, who often for decades could not put their injuries into words.” Bishops around Europe have been offering similar remarks in recent days, following a major statement by the pope on molesting in the Irish church. Father Cantalamessa’s comments about the Jews came toward the end of a long talk about Scripture, the nature of violence and the sacrifice of Jesus. He also spoke at length about violence against women, but gave only slight mention of the children and adolescents who had been molested by priests. “I am not speaking here of violence against children, of which unfortunately also elements of the clergy are stained; of that there is sufficient talk outside of here,” he said. Disclosures about hundreds of such cases have emerged in recent months in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Austria and France, after a previous round of scandal in the United States. A leading advocate for sexual abuse victims in the United States, David Clohessy, called comparing criticism of the church to persecution of the Jews “breathtakingly callous and misguided.” “Men who deliberately and consistently hide child sex crime are in no way victims,” he said. “And to conflate public scrutiny with horrific violence is about as wrong as wrong can be.” Another American victims’ advocate rejected the Vatican’s statement distancing itself from the remarks. “Father Cantalamessa chose to equate calumny against the Jewish people as the same as criticism of Pope Benedict,” said Kristine Ward, a spokeswoman for the National Survivor Advocates Coalition. “It is incomprehensible that Father Cantalamessa did this and that Pope Benedict, the ultimate authority in this church who presided at the service, did not stand during the service to disavow this connection to anti-Semitism.” The comments also ruffled Vatican-Jewish relations, which have often been tense during Benedict’s papacy. Rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, the chief rabbi of Rome, who was host to Benedict at the Rome synagogue in January on a visit that helped calm waters after a year of tensions, laughed in seeming disbelief when asked about Father Cantalamessa’s remarks. “With a minimum of irony, I will say that today is Good Friday, when they pray that the Lord illuminate our hearts so we recognize Jesus,” Rabbi Di Segni said, referring to a prayer in the traditional Catholic liturgy calling for the conversion of the Jews. “We also pray that the Lord illuminate theirs.” Abraham Foxman, the national director of the Anti-Defamation League in the United States, attributed the remarks to ignorance, not malice. “You would think that a senior priest in the church would have a better understanding of anti-Semitism than to make this hideous comparison,” he said. Benedict caused friction with Jewish groups in 2007 when he issued a ruling making it easier to use the Latin Mass , including that Good Friday prayer. In January 2009, he stirred outrage when he revoked the excommunication of four schismatic bishops, one of whom turned out to have denied the scope of the Holocaust. Father Cantalamessa’s remarks come after weeks of intense scrutiny of Benedict, which some in the Italian news media have seen in conspiratorial terms. Last week, the center-left daily newspaper La Repubblica wrote , without attribution, that “certain Catholic circles” believed the criticism of the church stemmed from “a New York ‘Jewish lobby.” Father Cantalamessa is a longtime fixture in the papal household, having been appointed its official preacher by Pope John Paul II in 1980. The apostolic preacher, as he also is called, gives meditations — especially during Advent and Lent — for the pope and Vatican hierarchy. The role was established by Pope Paul IV in the middle of the 16th century, and the job was later reserved for a member of the Franciscan Order of Capuchin Friars Minor. Father Cantalamessa was also tasked to deliver a meditation on the problems facing the church and need for careful consideration to the college of cardinals shortly after the death of John Paul II, as they prepared to elect his successor. Their choice was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict.

Anti-Semitism
Benedict XVI
Sex Crimes
Roman Catholic Church
Cantalamessa Raniero
Child Abuse and Neglect


Magic Sign a Center

Abstract: The Orlando Magic signed center Dewayne Dedmon for the remainder of the regular season. Dedmon, who signed the first of two 10-day contracts on Feb. 25, is averaging 2.3 points and 1.0 rebound per game for Orlando.


Advocate Faults I.R.S. on Collecting Delinquent Taxes

Abstract: The Internal Revenue Service ’s collection of delinquent taxes from 2005 to 2007 was substantially less than initially reported, an agency watchdog said Wednesday. The I.R.S. collected only about $86 billion in delinquent taxes over the 2005-7 fiscal years — about 27 percent less than the $118 billion it originally reported as having taken in, the Taxpayer Advocate Service, the oversight arm of the I.R.S., said Wednesday in its annual report . “There is an astonishing lack of transparency as to what is included in these revenue figures and how they are computed,” wrote Nina E. Olson, the report’s author and the national taxpayer advocate. She added that “a thorough assessment of the effectiveness of I.R.S. collection practices” was “impossible.” The report, which is required by law, criticized the I.R.S. for burying the lower figure in a footnote and for not explaining how either number was calculated. In addition to the collection information, the report singled out poor customer service at the agency, saying that the single biggest problem at the agency was getting an I.R.S. representative to pick up the phone when a taxpayer called with questions. Only six out of 10 callers now get through, after an average waiting time of 12 minutes, compared with eight out of 10 three years ago. The report called the I.R.S.’s customer service — a focus of the agency — “unacceptable.” In a response to the report, the I.R.S. said that the “resources available to deliver telephone services are finite and staffing allocations must be made in light of competing demands necessary to meet other customer needs and preferences.” The report criticized the I.R.S. for what it called its excessive use of liens, which are claims levied on property or income to secure a taxpayer’s unpaid tax bills. The liens, it said, which are processed by computer, not by people, are increasingly filed against taxpayers with little or no property. In its response, the I.R.S. said that claims filed against property or future income increased the odds that taxpayers would eventually pay their overdue tax bills. The report also criticized an I.R.S. initiative that would increase monitoring of tax preparers, a largely unregulated industry used by many of America’s more than 131 million tax filers. The rules do not cover so-called back-room tax preparers — the majority of actual preparers — who fill in the returns and then hand them to a superior for signature.

Internal Revenue Service
Federal Taxes (US)
Customer Relations


Target Steps Out in Front of Bathroom Choice Debate

Abstract: A new policy over bathroom choice has thrust the retailer Target into the center of a nationwide debate over gender identity, civil rights and privacy. Last week, Target announced on its website that it would allow transgender employees and customers to choose the restroom and fitting room that corresponded with their gender identities. About a month earlier, North Carolina passed a law restricting bathroom access to transgender people, a bill that set off a national debate that has even extended to the presidential campaign. The company’s announcement — the most prominent position taken by a national retailer — was greeted by cheers from supporters of transgender rights. It has since also made Target the intense focus of conservative activists, lawmakers and consumers, who oppose the company’s stance, highlighting the potential risks when a company takes a position on a hotly debated social issue. Some groups have used Target’s announcement as a rallying cry, arguing that Target’s policy threatens the public’s safety. An online petition started by one group, the American Family Association, calling for a boycott of Target stores, has been signed by more than 900,000 people. On Tuesday, the City Council in Oxford, Ala., passed an ordinance forbidding people to use a bathroom that does not match the gender assigned to them at birth. Target has a store in the city. “I will no longer be shopping at your store and neither will any of my family members and friends,” one person commented on Target’s Facebook page. “You have all lost your minds.” Equipped with a growing arsenal of digital tools to organize boycotts, spread poor reviews and otherwise negatively impact sales, consumers are increasingly putting pressure on companies to address their concerns. Policies on gender and sexuality have repeatedly become points of contention, putting some businesses on the front lines of battles over social issues. Last year, for example, a number of companies vocally opposed so-called religious freedom laws intended to give businesses legal cover to deny services to gays and lesbians. Walmart, the nation’s largest retailer, was among the most prominent voices, and its influence was widely credited with pushing the governor in its home state of Arkansas to sign an amended version of the state’s religious freedom bill. And the head of Chick-fil-A, the restaurant chain, took a position against gay marriage in 2012 only to back off two years later and say that he had not meant to alienate customers. “Generally speaking, as you saw in the gay marriage debate, the big corporations tend to be out in front of Congress and most of the states in implementing anti-discrimination policies,” said William Eskridge, a professor at Yale Law School and a co-author of “Sexuality, Gender and the Law.” “The policies generally do not cost the corporations anything or very much, and they create some degree of good will,” he said. The ordinance in Oxford would make it a misdemeanor for people to use bathrooms that do not correspond to the gender on their birth certificates. Target’s liability in such a situation is unclear. A company spokeswoman, Molly Snyder, said Target would comply with all local laws. But she also said, “Our belief in and commitment to inclusivity has not changed.” Ms. Snyder said the company’s policy had applied to employees for years, though it had not been as widely distributed. She referred to the original announcement, which said that Target “regularly” assesses issues that could affect business, guests and employees, and “given the specific questions” raised by recent legislative proposals, “we felt it was important to state our position.” Target may be betting on a more progressive shift in national attitudes on gender and sexuality. Many states have updated their statutes barring employers from discriminating based on sexual identity to include gender identity, too. “Making these progressive value statements is a new form of advertising,” said Jonah Berger, an associate professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. There may also be more practical benefits than just netting good will: The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces workplace anti-discrimination laws, has made it clear that blocking workers from using bathrooms that correspond to their gender identities violates federal law . “Any employer that has a rule to the contrary is going to find itself in very hot water,” said Jillian T. Weiss, a professor of law and society at Ramapo College who has worked on a number of cases involving transgender workplace issues. “Companies have got to be aware that federal law essentially prohibits them from having rules like the one passed in Alabama.” Other companies, including Barnes & Noble and Hudson’s Bay Company, also have policies explicitly allowing transgender people to use a bathroom that does not correspond to their birth certificate gender. “We’re hoping that other corporations will see that there is a price to pay, potentially at least, for pushing this L.G.B.T. agenda too far,” said Tim Wildmon, the president of the American Family Association. “We just think this is a bridge too far.”

Target
Bathrooms
Boycott
Discrimination
Transgender,Gender Dysphoria
American Family Assn


Germany and Greece Locked in a Mutual Obsession

Abstract: BERLIN — Lest Greeks forget, the Germans are watching. Closely. When the leftist Syriza-led government was elected in Greece on Jan. 25, public broadcasters broke into Germany’s favorite crime series to announce the result. Television stations went live to Athens several times that night. Years of crisis over Greece’s finances have often pitted Europe’s weakest economy against Europe’s economic powerhouse. German admiration for ancient Greece — dating back at least to Goethe — has given way to hard-nosed pragmatism, even in the face of increasing hardship in Greece. Having contributed the largest share of the 240 billion euros, or $255 billion, of credits extended to Athens, Germany believes that it has done the most to keep Greece solvent and in the eurozone. And Germans keep tabs on their money. Journalists and politicians here fret daily about Athens’ willingness to keep agreements with international creditors, or, by accident or design, leaving the eurozone. Complex graphs on Greek debt are a staple of newscasts that veer from patronizing to panicky. Less seriously, they ponder whether Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, 40, will ever wear a tie. For weeks, the countries’ finance ministers sparred almost daily. Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany and Mr. Tsipras called a halt when the Greek leader came to Berlin and was received with full honors. But tempers were not assuaged for long. As Mr. Tsipras headed to Moscow last week, his deputy finance minister declared that Germany owed Greece €287 billion in reparations for the Nazi occupation in World War II. That argument over compensation for tens or hundreds of thousands of deaths, and repayment of a forced loan, has endured for decades. Ms. Merkel’s government insists that the matter is closed, while recognizing continued “moral responsibility” for war crimes. Some opposition figures in Germany are open to new payments to Greece. But the latest demand tested even Ms. Merkel’s vice chancellor, Sigmar Gabriel, leader of the center-left Social Democrats. “Honestly, I find it stupid,” Mr. Gabriel said. “The Greeks have an interest in opening up space for a changed policy. That has nothing at all to do with World War II, or reparations.” Predictably, in the Greek echo chamber, Mr. Gabriel was presented as branding all Greeks as “dumb.” German politicians, meanwhile, backed by a Brussels chorus, worried that Greece would break ranks on sanctions against Russia over Ukraine. The visit to Moscow was “a threatening gesture,” thundered Elmar Brok, a Merkel party ally and veteran of European politics. Martin Schulz, the German who heads the European Parliament, warned Greece not to seek “solidarity” in Moscow and to remember which government (Europe, Germany) had shown the most “solidarity” to date. Hundreds of thousands of Germans and Greeks living in each other’s country feel squeezed. Jens Bastian, a German economist in Greece for 16 years, was on morning television in Germany last week, pleading for calm. “I am often surprised and frustrated” by the German news media, he said by telephone afterward. “Tone it down,” he said. “Don’t get hysterical.” Meanwhile, he says, the Greek news media seizes on almost any utterance about Greece for at least 10 minutes of any evening’s hourlong newscasts. That attitude compounds what he calls two mistakes of the Greek government. First, it won a mandate not for change in Europe, but for “a change — or at least attempting one — in Greece.” Second, “you cannot take a confrontational approach to Germany,” a main creditor and trade and political partner. “You need to have Germany on side, not off.” Pigi Mourmouri, 67, a retired social worker from Greece who has lived in Berlin for over 40 years, resents some of what she sees here. “I have felt bad, because I had to justify myself,” she said. “And that is not a good feeling.” Besides, the “arrogance and superiority” of some German news outlets is hard to miss. Instead of advancing European unity, as the euro was supposed to do, she said, people are thrown back on themselves. “You feel it in small ways,” she said, citing a carnival two years ago. The host welcomed her and a friend warmly but ignored them once he realized that they were Greek. From both Germany and Greece, she said, “I try to take the best. That is a luxury I still have.”


The Mets’ Bat Whisperer

Abstract: PITTSBURGH — Whenever he receives a new box of bats, Carlos Beltran takes each bat out, holds it to his ear and raps it, gently but convincingly, with the base of his hand, his head cocked, one eye shut, concentrating like a virtuoso tuning his violin. Mark Fidrych was once considered an eccentric for talking to baseballs. Carlos Beltran listens to his bats. “I’ve been doing this since my second year in the big leagues,” he said. “It’s part of me, part of feeling comfortable. As a player, you know what is best for you. This doesn’t make me the hitter I am, but maybe it gives me a little edge.” Hitting a baseball is first and foremost about seeing a pitch, but for Beltran, it’s about hearing a pitch, too: the sound a bat makes when struck with his hand. When Beltran hears the right pitch vibrate from a 32-ounce piece of lumber, it produces a tone that for him is as sweet as music. Ever since he was taught by one of the great hitters in the game to appreciate the melody that each bat inherently produces, Beltran has followed the practice religiously. The higher the pitch tone, the harder and more dense the wood, Beltran said. The harder the wood, the farther the ball is expected to travel. “The higher the pitch, the better,” he said, referring to the tone. “Better means stronger and harder, more compressed.” Beltran, who leads the Mets in home runs with 9 and runs batted in with 37, and is tied for the lead in the National League with 20 doubles, learned the auditory technique from Edgar Martinez, the Seattle Mariners designated hitter, who used his high-pitched bats to rap 2,247 career hits. In Beltran’s second full year with the Kansas City Royals in 2000, he was chatting with Martinez at the batting cage at Safeco Field about their bats. Beltran was using a Louisville Slugger C243 at the time, and Martinez had an M356, which is similar but has a thinner handle. Known for meticulously weighing each bat, Martinez asked Beltran how much his weighed, and Beltran said they were usually 31.5 to 32 ounces. Martinez took one, held it close to his ear and banged it with his hand as he listened. Beltran was immediately curious. “I said, ‘What are you doing?’ ” Beltran recalled. “He said, ‘I just like to hear the pitch of the sound of the bat.’ I said, ‘For what reason?’ And he said, ‘The higher the pitch, the better the wood.’ ” For Beltran, those became words to hit by. When Beltran sifts through a box of new bats, he places them into three categories: best, medium and batting practice. He said that in a typical box of a dozen new Marucci maple bats — model CB15 — his preferred brand the past five years, he might find five or six with a high enough pitch to use in a game. Then he labels each one in tiny print with a pen on the handle butt. “I separate them in three classes,” he said. “Good, so-so and batting practice. I put BP on those, and on the other ones I put 1 and 2. A 1 means it’s the best. Sometimes, when I run out of bats, I might take a 2 for a game. Nobody has really asked me about it, so I haven’t really shared it with anyone. It’s just something I do myself. I don’t even think about it. I just get my bats and listen to them and separate them.” Jack Marucci, the founder and president of the company bearing his name, called Beltran a master technician, and said his listening technique reflected more scientific density measurements his company did on its wood, from trees grown in central Pennsylvania and shipped to the factory in Louisiana. But Marucci, not wanting to tip off the competition, would not reveal what those measurements entail. Like Martinez before him, Beltran also carefully weighs his bats, using a digital scale in the Mets’ clubhouse, and will keep track of even one-tenth of an ounce difference. On days when he is feeling tired and is about to face a closer throwing 98 miles per hour, he might drop down in weight from 31.5 ounces to 31.1. Or, if he is feeling strong, he might leave behind the 32-ouncer and upgrade to 32.2. “I try to make sure that I know my weights, because every day you feel different,” he said. Some players are oblivious to the method of listening to the bats’ vibrations, but others are at least familiar with it. That includes Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, who has used the same model and size bat since he was 18. He said that he was aware that some players listened to their bats, but that he didn’t practice it himself. “I wouldn’t even know what to listen for,” Jeter said. Every player listens to the sound the ball makes when it makes contact with a bat. Beltran says the dulcet tones he hears when he tests the bat with his hands often reflect the sound he hears when the bat cracks the ball in play, and the results. “The sound off a good bat is different than the sound of a bad bat,” he said. “I believe the ball will come out of the bat a little harder. No one has told me that, and I can’t prove it. But sometimes, I bring two bats to batting practice, a good one and the other ones, and for sure when you hit the ball, a good bat always has a better sound, a higher-pitch sound.” For most of a career in which he had pounded out 1,824 hits, 371 doubles and 289 home runs, that has been something to hear.


New Vaccine Shows Promise Against Mosquito-Borne Virus

Abstract: A new vaccine in its first human trials may offer protection against the chikungunya virus , a mosquito-borne infection that causes fever and severe joint pain, researchers reported Thursday in The Lancet . As of June 13, there were an estimated 166,000 suspected cases in the Caribbean and South America. Last month, the first cases in the United States were reported in Florida. The first phase of the trial — to test for safety and immune response — involved 25 participants and found no serious side effects. All participants developed antibodies that lasted at least six months after the last of three injections, suggesting the vaccine might provide long-term protection. “The exciting finding in this trial is both the fact the vaccine was so well tolerated and we measured impressive antibody levels in the recipients” that were similar to levels in people who had recently recovered from chikungunya, said Dr. Julie E. Ledgerwood , the senior author of the study and chief of the clinical trials program at the Vaccine Research Center, part of the National Institutes of Health. That similarity is important, she said, because “people who make a robust response after recovering appear to be protected from future infections.” The vaccine uses particles that contain the outer structural proteins of the virus, but because they don’t contain the virus’s genetic material, they cannot cause infection. The trial’s next phase will test for efficacy in a larger, more diverse group of participants. Predicting a disease’s spread can help nations plan, but it’s tricky. And it’s usually based on historical data. On Friday, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced a cash-prize challenge for a model that can most accurately predict the chikungunya virus’s spread in the Americas and the Caribbean over a six-month period starting in September. The aim is to interest meteorologists, entomologists and financial forecasters to work with new data sets to address this public-health need.

Virus
The Lancet
Caribbean
South America
Vaccines Immunization
Mosquito


ConocoPhillips Earnings Set Record, but Lag Forecast

Abstract: ConocoPhillips posted its highest quarterly earnings ever on Wednesday as crude prices topped out above $140 a barrel, but it still lagged analyst expectations as expensive oil sapped results at its refining business. The oil company said that profit rose 13 percent from last year, excluding a $4.5 billion charge taken in the year-earlier quarter related to Venezuela’s takeover of Conoco’s operations there. Net income in the quarter rose to $5.44 billion, or $3.50 a share, from $301 million, or 18 cents a share, last year. Excluding the charge from Venezuela, ConocoPhillips earned about $4.81 billion in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts, on average, had expected the company to earn $3.53 a share in the quarter, according to Reuters Estimates. Revenue in the quarter rose more than 50 percent, to $71.4 billion. Oil companies have been reporting record or near record earnings for the last several years as oil prices have surged nearly fivefold. Prices have moderated in the last two weeks, dropping back to around $125 a barrel. Shares of ConocoPhillips fell $2.48, or 2.9 percent, to $81.83 as lower oil prices weighed on the whole sector. Although oil prices in the United States in the second quarter were nearly double those of a year earlier, gasoline prices rose only 25 percent in the same period. That resulted in weak product margins for companies like ConocoPhillips that not only produce oil, but also refine it to make gasoline and other products. Production fell to the equivalent of 2.2 million barrels of oil a day, from 2.38 million barrels last year, mostly because of the loss of production in Venezuela. ConocoPhillips expects third-quarter production in line with second-quarter levels.

ConocoPhillips Inc
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Company Reports


Brooklyn: Sentence Imposed for Norman

Abstract: Former State Assemblyman Clarence Norman Jr. , left, was returned to State Supreme Court in Brooklyn yesterday from the Oneida Correctional Facility in Rome, N.Y., for imposition of another sentence of one to three years in prison, prosecutors said. That sentence had been stayed while Mr. Norman appealed a lower court decision, but was imposed after the appeal was denied, prosecutors said. Mr. Norman, who is now sentenced to serve three to nine years, has been imprisoned on two other charges since June. He was convicted in February of extorting money from judicial candidates.