A Queens Woman Begins Her Third Career, as a Designer

Abstract: A dream can be deferred for only so long. When Bertha Astor, 48, left her native Puerto Rico to move to New York at 27, she had a degree in biology from Pontifical Catholic University , she said. She spent a decade putting that education to good use, working as a laboratory technician at pharmaceuticals companies. Later, she obtained a certificate in office administration and spent a decade in jobs in that field. But childhood memories of helping her mother — a clerk who made clothes and sometimes sold them — sew buttons onto dresses still loomed large. And the body-hugging dresses that her grandmother Consuela, a professional seamstress, made for Ms. Astor’s Saturday nights on the town stayed on her mind. “I always have the dream to come up with fashion,” Ms. Astor said. But, she said, “The resources for me to pursue a dream as a fashion designer — it was nearly impossible in Puerto Rico.” Sober work as a lab assistant and an administrative assistant were the only jobs available to her, she said. With a new life to scrape together when she and her husband, Jose Olivar, now 49, moved to New York as newlyweds, who could afford to dream of runways and ruching? “I did it for the love of money back then,” Ms. Astor said of her career path. “I wasn’t passionate about it.” But she added, “I have to survive.” Couture it was not, but at least she had financial security, for a while. She was laid off from her job as an executive assistant at Beth Israel Medical Center in 2008, she said, and has found only temporary or part-time work since. But Ms. Astor, who seems to grow younger by 30 years when she speaks of the masters of the craft she loves — like Carolina Herrera, whose elegant aesthetic she adores; or her fashion idol, Ralph Lauren , whom she admires for being a self-made man — saw a silver brocade lining. At 47, Ms. Astor at last went to fashion school. “I said, ‘If I don’t step forward for what I really want, I’m not going to be able to do it ever,’ ” she said. “I said, ‘Well, this is my time; I’m going to do it now, and nobody is going to stop it.’ ” Her husband supported her. “You have to pursue your passion before life runs out,” said Mr. Olivar, who was laid off from his job as an electronics technician four years ago and has become a self-employed videographer. Unemployment payments of $94 a week and income from her husband’s event-based video business tided her over during her studies at Wood Tobe-Coburn School in Manhattan. In addition, Ms. Astor took out a loan to pay for school. While attending classes full time, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., she took on a night job, working after school, sometimes four days a week, but still managed to do her homework. “I was getting home at midnight and sketching to 3 o’clock in the morning,” she said. Ms. Astor, the oldest person in her classes by decades (classmates called her “Mama Bertha,” she said), flourished, obtaining a 3.87 grade point average and winning design competitions, including one for the perfect little black dress. A draped sleeveless number with Cleopatraesque brocade detailing, it is proudly displayed on a dress form in her basement apartment in Corona, Queens. Ms. Astor graduated in January. Afterward, it was back to sending out hundreds of résumés for jobs in her old field, coupled with frantic work to create her first collection: 20 fall pieces, like a houndstooth-lined swing coat with a pilgrim collar, an iridescent reversible kimono and a vermillion silk Shantung blazer with matching bloomers — all sewed herself on her tiny Kenmore machine. For the first time, however, the jobs did not immediately come. In late summer, her unemployment benefits ran out. By September, she was in arrears in rent on the $1,000-a-month apartment that she and her husband shared with Mya, their miniature Doberman pinscher, and Cholita, a Boston terrier they rescued last year. A social worker at a hospital where she once worked told her of Catholic Charities Brooklyn and Queens , one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. The agency gave Ms. Astor $400 from the fund to help with her back rent. It was enough to stabilize her life. In October, Ms. Astor started a job as a practice secretarial associate at a hospital in Queens. But each night in her basement apartment-cum-design studio, she sews and dreams of her ultimate fantasy, a runway show at Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and of her next step, a brick-and-mortar shop. And one day, perhaps, sartorial success on par with her hero, Mr. Lauren? “He started from nothing,” she said. “If he started from nothing, why wouldn’t I?”

Catholic Charities
New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Fashion and Apparel
Philanthropy
Labor and Jobs
Careers and Professions


Honduras Shuts Down Media Outlets, Then Relents

Abstract: TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — The de facto government backed off Monday from its attempt to shut down protests and limit free speech after congressional leaders warned that they would not support the measure. The revolt by Congress, the first public fracture in the coalition that ousted President Manuel Zelaya three months ago, showed that the de facto president, Roberto Micheletti , faces limits on his power to crack down on dissent. In an extraordinary televised news conference Monday evening, Mr. Micheletti asked for “forgiveness from the Honduran people” and said he would ask the Supreme Court to lift the decree “as quickly as possible.” But the government’s reversal came on the same day that the United States sent mixed messages about the crisis, comments that critics said could embolden the coup-imposed government. The Micheletti government announced the decree Sunday night, imposing sweeping restrictions on civil liberties. The decree allowed the government to shut down broadcasters and ban unauthorized public meetings, and let the police detain suspects without warrants. Early Monday, masked police officers took over a television station and soldiers formed a barricade around a radio station, shutting down two media outlets that had been the principal voices of opposition to the June 28 coup that ousted Mr. Zelaya. Later, hundreds of police officers cordoned off either side of a street where several hundred protesters had gathered for a march that Mr. Zelaya, who secretly slipped back into the country last week, had billed as a final offensive. His supporters appeared to have been scared off, and the march was prevented. But by midafternoon, the congressional leadership arrived at the presidential palace to tell Mr. Micheletti that Congress would not approve the decree, which Honduran law requires it to do. “We need to lower the pressure, and all begin to calm down so that we can have a dialogue,” said José Alfredo Saavedra, the president of Congress and a member of the delegation that met with Mr. Micheletti. The American response to the decree on Monday was somewhat equivocal. The State Department condemned the government’s actions. “I think it’s time for the de facto regime to put down the shovel,” said a spokesman, Philip J. Crowley. “With every action, they keep on making the hole deeper.” But at the headquarters of the Organization of American States in Washington, where diplomats met in an emergency session to discuss the Micheletti government’s expulsion of four of its diplomats on Sunday, the American envoy reserved his strongest condemnation for Mr. Zelaya. W. Lewis Amselem, the acting American representative, called Mr. Zelaya “irresponsible and foolish” for returning to Honduras before a negotiated settlement was reached. “The president should stop acting as though he were starring in an old movie,” Mr. Amselem said. Chris Sabatini, an analyst at the Council of the Americas , said that the United States was embarrassed at being linked to Mr. Zelaya, “a dangerously capricious leader.” But he said the mixed messages, which he said have characterized the American response since the coup, could also be an attempt “to soften Micheletti’s position by showing that they are even-handed.” “The effect is, however, that the United States looks a little weak-kneed before the de facto government,” he said. José Miguel Vivanco of Human Rights Watch said that if the United States was trying to spread the blame, the strategy was not working. “It has the effect of defusing the pressure,” he said. “Micheletti is the one who is taking away freedoms to an outrageous degree and the United States needs to be focusing all its attention on him.” Despite international condemnation and an aid cutoff, the Micheletti government has gambled that it can hold out until scheduled elections go ahead on Nov. 29 and a new president takes office in January. But Mr. Zelaya’s return to Honduras, where he has taken refuge in the Brazilian Embassy, seems to have forced Mr. Micheletti’s hand, drawing him into taking ever more severe and self-isolating measures. On Saturday, the de facto government told diplomats from Spain, Mexico, Argentina and Venezuela to turn in their credentials if their nations did not recognize the Micheletti government. On Sunday, the government turned back four diplomats from the O.A.S. who had arrived to begin setting up a visit of foreign ministers from O.A.S. countries. It threatened to shut down Brazil’s embassy within 10 days if Brazil did not either turn over Mr. Zelaya for trial or grant him asylum, a threat Brazil rebuffed. The congressional response to the decree appears to reflect differences in strategy within the governing coalition, if not in the final goal. While the government seemed willing to disregard international opprobrium in its efforts to muzzle the opposition, the main parties in Congress have a strong interest in finding a political way out of the crisis. The leaders who confronted Mr. Micheletti on Monday appeared to be concerned that the decree went too far and would undercut the legitimacy of the election and jeopardize the reinstatement of foreign aid, which had accounted for 20 percent of the country’s budget. The United States and other countries have suggested that they will not recognize a new president elected under the existing political conditions. The emergency decree, which was to have expired just two weeks before the elections, made it much less likely that the elections would be seen as free and fair. Over the past week, a few tentative steps at negotiations have begun. Four presidential candidates met with Mr. Zelaya at the Brazilian Embassy and the auxiliary archbishop of Tegucigalpa, Juan José Pineda, has been meeting with both sides. On Monday evening, the Micheletti government also announced that it would welcome another O.A.S. visit next week.

Honduras
Micheletti Roberto
Zelaya Rosales Jose Manuel
Coups D'Etat and Attempted Coups D'Etat
Demonstrations and Riots


Bahrain Cancels Grand Prix Amid Political Unrest

Abstract: The organizers of the Bahrain Grand Prix announced Monday that the Formula One race next month had been canceled because of the political unrest in the country. The race, which was scheduled to run March 13 at the Sakhir circuit, outside the capital, Manama, was to have been the first of the 20-race season, which will now begin with the Australian Grand Prix on March 27. Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa, the son of the king, on Monday told the Formula One promoter Bernie Ecclestone by telephone that Bahrain was obliged to cancel the race date. “At the present time, the country’s entire attention is focused on building a new national dialogue for Bahrain,” Prince Salman said in a statement released by the Bahrain International Circuit. “We felt it was important for the country to focus on immediate issues of national interest and leave the hosting of Bahrain’s Formula One race to a later date.” Although there has been speculation in recent days that the race would be moved later in the year, the statement said no decision had been made. “It is sad that Bahrain has had to withdraw from the race,” Ecclestone said. “We wish the whole nation well as they begin to heal their country.” “We look forward to being back in Bahrain soon,” he added. Bahrain has held the race since 2004 at a purpose-built circuit about 50 kilometers, or 30 miles, from the capital city. But the majority of the teams, media and foreign spectators stay in hotels in the center of the city, many of them near Pearl Square, which has been the central meeting point of the demonstrations. At least eight people have been killed and hundreds injured in confrontations between the military and the police in Bahrain since last week. Bahrain is one of two countries in the region that hold Formula One races. Abu Dhabi is scheduled to run the second-to-last race of the season, on Nov. 13. Formula One had just expanded its calendar to 20 races this year with a new race in India, scheduled for Oct. 30. Countries have flocked to hold Formula One races over the past decade to cash in on the tourism dollars of the spectators who come to watch the race, and for the worldwide television exposure, with millions of television viewers from around the world. Last week, Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said the race had been seen as an opportunity for the protesters to publicize their cause. Adam Parr, the chairman of the Williams Formula One team, in reaction to the announcement: “It is obviously disappointing for everyone involved in the organization of the event, but it is clear that to race in Bahrain at this time would be inappropriate given the current circumstances.” Mark Webber, a driver at the Red Bull team, said Sunday at a testing session in Montmelo, near Barcelona, that the teams and drivers were philosophical about the possibility that the race would be canceled. “We know in terms of Formula One and priorities we’re not high on the list,” said Webber, an Australian. “They’ve got other things that clearly should come first. “If we can still go there and hold a sporting event in a few weeks, then it would be great,” he added. “But if we can’t, then it’s not a big deal.” The Formula One teams had also planned to hold a winter testing session in Bahrain next week. Instead, they will again test at the Montmelo circuit near Barcelona, where the Spanish Grand Prix will take place May 22.

Bahrain
Formula One
Arab World Unrest (2010- )


Exit Near, Gates Speaks Bluntly of U.S. Allies

Abstract: WASHINGTON— Robert M. Gates has 15 days left as secretary of defense — just ask him — and has become ever more unleashed from the constraints of the job. So in a hearing on Wednesday, when Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, demanded to know how long the United States would support Pakistan, or as he put it, “governments that lie to us,” Mr. Gates, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, had an unvarnished answer. “Well, first of all, I would say based on 27 years in C.I.A. and four-and-a-half years in this job, most governments lie to each other,” Mr. Gates said in his flat Kansas twang. “That’s the way business gets done.” The crowd in the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing room laughed, but Mr. Leahy pressed on. “Do they also arrest people that help us?” Mr. Leahy testily inquired, referring to Pakistan’s arrest of some of the Pakistani informants who fed information to the C.I.A. in the months before the raid that led to Osama bin Laden’s death. “Sometimes,” Mr. Gates said placidly, and then added, “And sometimes they send people to spy on us, and they’re our close allies.” The hearing was Mr. Gates’s last appearance before Congress as defense secretary and it is safe to say that for him, it did not come a moment too soon. Mr. Gates has increasingly lost patience with what he considers the most unappetizing part of the job, testifying to the House and Senate, where he has been grilled about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Pentagon budget, repealing “ don’t ask, don’t tell ” and dozens of other contentious issues. Wednesday’s hearing, to answer questions about the $671 billion the Pentagon is requesting from Congress for next year, was in fact mostly a lovefest as members of the committee lavished praise on Mr. Gates. On June 30 he is to walk out of the Pentagon and into a life of writing books lakeside near Seattle. “Secretary Gates, I look forward to you coming home to our home state,” Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, said at one point in the hearing. “I know you must be looking forward to that.” “Fifteen days,” Mr. Gates replied, to laughter. At another point, Mr. Gates referred to a NATO fund to pay for the training of the Afghan security forces as “a joke” because of paltry contributions from the European allies. “It’s about 350 million euros at a time when the United States is spending billions of dollars to support the development of those military forces,” Mr. Gates said, echoing tough remarks he made last week in Brussels about how NATO was not contributing enough to the war in Afghanistan. At another point, Mr. Gates defended President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan, who frequently criticizes the United States, particularly when Afghan civilians die in airstrikes, and who has exasperated the Obama administration since its inception. “Yes, he reacts publicly to things that are done and said,” Mr. Gates said. “He’s very sensitive to civilian casualties. This has been a continuing theme. It’s not a surprising theme.” Mr. Gates made no comment on the size of the American troop withdrawal scheduled for July, now under debate at the White House. But he did say that he had had conversations with President Obama about the forces to be left behind.“This is not a war without end,” he vowed to the senators. In Afghanistan, meanwhile, a mortar shell narrowly missed several senior government officials, including a vice president, at the opening of a new police training center outside Kabul, the capital. No one was injured. In addition, suicide bombers attacked government buildings in two provinces, killing at least 11 people, The Associated Press reported.

United States Defense and Military Forces


A Sidekick Adds Luster to a Star

Abstract: PHOENIX — Long after their Lakers teammates departed the locker room, Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher lingered in the adjacent trainer’s area, visible through a plate glass window and in no apparent hurry to explain a stinging playoff defeat to reporters before they had seethed over it with each other. Their postgame meeting, according to Fisher, was just getting started. “When you’ve lived through fire together, the comfort level is there, before and after games, on the bus, text messages and whatever,” he ultimately said after the Lakers lost Game 4 of the Western Conference finals to the Suns. “We’re constantly thinking about what this team needs in order to win a championship.” They will need four victories over the Celtics, after eliminating the Suns with a 111-103 win in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals Saturday night. Bryant and Fisher will be gunning for their fifth title together. In a league currently obsessed with mega free agents contemplating coexistence with another outsize ego, seldom has there been a pro basketball partnership like Bryant and Fisher’s — the highly credentialed and often contentious superstar and his special vocational friend, the man Bryant affectionately calls Fish. In their 11th season together, a run that was interrupted for three years when Fisher left Los Angeles, Fisher has become a Lakers authority in his own right, the one teammate of Bryant’s who has his ear along with the uncontested right to raise a voice. “We’ve gone through different facets of life together,” Bryant said. “He’s always been a standup guy, a friend who is more like a brother.” With his 36th birthday coming in August, Fisher is an older brother — by 4 years 14 days — but he also joined the Lakers in 1996, the year Bryant turned pro out of high school. “It started at a tournament in Long Beach over the summer,” Bryant said. “We were playing together over the summer, working long hours, and as the season went on, we didn’t play much, so we had to go in to work early and play a lot of one-on-one.” Fisher, a stumpy 6-foot-1 guard from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, would not back down to Bryant, who headed one of the gifted preps-to-pros classes of the 1990s. They clawed each other on court, commiserated off it and ultimately coalesced into an enduring tandem, the Lakers’ Lone Ranger and Tonto. “Kobe trusts him more than anybody on the team, and you can see it,” said Steve Kerr, the Suns’ president for basketball operations and general manager, who understands the complexities and risks in sharing the backcourt with such an imperious personality. In Chicago during the mid-1990s, Kerr replaced John Paxson in the role of the Bulls’ spot-up jump shooter. In their eight years together, Michael Jordan so appreciated Paxson that he made a personal appeal to ownership in 1991 when Paxson was in danger of being dropped. Two years later, Paxson repaid the debt, sealed the trust, when his 3-pointer from the left wing against the Suns nailed down the first of Jordan’s two three-peats . “The consummate pro,” Jordan called him that night. When Kerr joined the Bulls in 1993, Jordan was on his baseball-playing sabbatical, returning to the team before the 1995 playoffs, where Chicago lost in the second round. Jordan, according to Kerr, was “a man possessed” during training camp the following fall, lashing teammates verbally, jamming elbows into their chests. Kerr one day took offense, talked back and was promptly punched in the face. “Probably not a very smart thing to do,” he said. “But in the end, I think he respected me for standing up to him.” This was no punch line. In the 1997 finals against Utah, with the score tied late in Game 6, Jordan told Kerr to expect a pass out of the double team. Kerr drained the title-clinching jumper and “earned his wings,” according to Jordan’s postgame testimonial. But if Kerr reached the point with Jordan where “Michael would pass to me in any situation,” neither he nor Paxson had the relationship that Fisher has had with Bryant, said Phil Jackson, who coached them all. “There are some similarities with Michael and Pax, but with Fish and Kobe there is a lot more depth and feeling because of all they’ve been through,” Jackson said. For one thing, Jordan never had to share the franchise player mantle, or be a complementary star, as Bryant was for Shaquille O’Neal on three championship teams. Bryant was infamously restless in the role, telling Jackson early in his career that he believed he was ready to be captain. “No one is ready to follow you,” Jackson replied. Most teammates, in fact, thought Bryant was arrogant, aloof, out of touch with reality. Fisher believed he was just young and misunderstood. Having a good laugh at the question of whether Bryant initially viewed him as a mentor, Fisher said: “Listen, Kobe’s always been like, ‘Everybody’s in my way, I have goals, you’re either with me or not.’ From the start he had a visual of how he wanted his career to go, what he wanted to accomplish and how hard he was going to work to get it. I picked up on that early on, which is why I love the guy.” He added, “In reverse, as we’ve both aged, I think he respected the things I had to do to stay at a high level.” Jackson said he thought Bryant’s appreciation of Fisher grew exponentially in 2000-1, when Fisher missed 62 games but returned for the playoffs and made 51 percent of his 3-pointers while averaging 13.4 points. “He’s been giving him the ball ever since,” Jackson said, while noting that Fisher, as the quasi point guard in the triangle offense, had enough currency not to reciprocate when he thought the ball should go elsewhere. Bryant said the only threshold that was ever crossed was during the rookie-year workouts, in which he, of course, was the victor. “He might have won a fight or two, but I didn’t lose no one-on-one games,” he said. For all his talent, Bryant lacked Fisher’s perspective, his compassion. Fisher had the communicative skills to bridge the gap between the feuding Bryant and O’Neal. He was loyal to Bryant during very dark days in 2003 when Bryant faced sexual assault charges in Colorado. Fisher did, however, sign with Golden State one year later because the Lakers were in chaos, Jackson was leaving and Bryant had not yet committed to staying. “We communicated all the time when he was gone,” Bryant said. “Always on the phone, especially when the thing went down with his daughter, actually right before he went to the game in Utah.” In 2007, Fisher’s daughter Tatum, then 11 months old, was found to have a rare form of eye cancer . After emergency surgery in New York, Fisher rejoined the Jazz, to whom he had been traded, for a playoff game already in progress against the Warriors. Fisher hit the game-winning shot in overtime and Bryant, watching in Los Angeles, thought, “We need him back.” The Lakers missed Fisher’s high-arching southpaw jumper. Bryant clamored for a like-minded colleague, his best friend. He lobbied hard for Fisher when Utah released him from his contract so he could seek treatment for his daughter in a bigger city. Fisher’s return to the Lakers in 2007 just happened to coincide with the rehabilitation of Bryant’s reputation. And then, last spring, along came championship redemption, the title Bryant wanted most , his first without O’Neal. Making it sweeter were Fisher’s Paxson/Kerr moments, a pair of 3-pointers that tied Game 4 of the finals in Orlando with 4.6 seconds left in regulation and won it in overtime to give the Lakers a commanding 3-1 lead. Finding him open for both shots was Bryant, a dramatic flourish but no Hollywood finish. After playing in his seventh N.B.A. finals, Fisher will be a free agent, but Bryant expects him to stay and envisions them together far into the future. “We’ve got the stories, man,” he said. “The stuff you want to share in the rocking chair, the ones that bind you forever.”

Basketball
Playoff Games
Bryant Kobe
Fisher Derek
Los Angeles Lakers


New-Home Sales Fell to 12-Year Low in November

Abstract: Home builders are sharply curtailing construction and cutting prices across the country as they struggle to break out of the worst housing slump since the early 1990s. But buyers remain scarce, and analysts say the market may not bottom out until well into next year or even later. Sales of new homes plunged to a 12-year low in November, an annual pace of just 647,000, the government said Friday. That is the slowest pace since April 1995, when sales ran at a pace of 621,000. New-home purchases are down 34.4 percent from a year earlier, the biggest year-over-year drop since January 1991. That leaves a large, if shrinking, inventory of unsold homes to be worked off before the glut can be dissipated. Americans appear to be holding out for real estate prices to drop even further in 2008. “Right now there is a huge gulf between what buyers are willing to pay for a house and what sellers are willing to take for it,” said Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia. Even as new homes become more affordable, the Friday report from the Commerce Department underscores the challenges facing the residential construction industry as tighter credit and the fear of further declines in values continue to shrink the pool of potential buyers. Rising foreclosures and a wave of cancellations have crippled the nation’s biggest home builders and sent their stock prices into a steep decline. Shares of KB Home and D. R. Horton both fell more than 4 percent in trading on Friday. “People are sitting on the sidelines for a good reason,” said Patrick Newport, an economist at Global Insight, an economic research firm in Lexington, Mass. “You’re taking a big risk because the asset you are buying may depreciate a lot between now and a year from now.” Mr. Newport said builders would have to keep cutting prices to entice buyers back into the market. Until then, they face a supply surplus of nine months’ worth of unsold homes. While groundbreakings have slowed, Friday’s report suggests the backlog is still damping demand. “Sales are dropping at such a pace that the pullback in new home building remains insufficient to make any headway in clearing out the sizable inventories of new homes for sales,” Richard Moody, chief economist at Mission Residential, wrote in a research note. Analysts say home sales could bottom out as early as the middle of 2008 but any recovery will be gradual. “The laws of supply and demand will work,” Mr. Vitner said. “We built around 800,000 more units of housing than the market needed. It’s going to take us a couple of years of reduced home construction in order to clear up its excess.” Statistically, the size of the slump is staggering. In the summer of 2005, annual sales of new single-family homes hit a high of 1.39 million. They have since dropped to an annual rate of 647,000 — a loss of 53.4 percent. The current decline is the steepest peak-to-trough drop since the 1982 housing bust, said Michael T. Darda, chief economist at MKM Partners, and it could grow steeper if sales continue to flag. Still, he took a slightly more optimistic view of the data. “With prices going down and income continuing to grow, that’s helped to push up affordability,” he said, adding that the industry appeared to be coming closer to “the lows of this cycle.” The decline in the housing market, while long predicted by many economists, caught many home builders by surprise. In 2006, companies like Toll Brothers were predicting they could easily ride out any slowdown. And Donald J. Tomnitz, the chief executive of D. R. Horton, predicted that his company, the largest home builder in the nation, “can earn our way through any economic cycle, except one like the Great Depression.” The biggest change occurred after the subprime market collapsed in the spring, which led to a temporary freeze in the lending and mortgage markets this summer. Buyers vanished; new-home sales have dropped nearly 25 percent since April. There was one mildly hopeful sign for builders in Friday’s report. The number of unsold new homes on the market has gradually fallen over the last year, and it dropped another 1.8 percent in November. Previously reported sales for August, September and October, however, were revised downward by the Commerce Department. Sales dipped from October to November in every region of the country except the West, which had a 4 percent rise. The steepest drop occurred in the Midwest, at 27.6 percent. Northeastern sales fell 19.3 percent and sales in the South fell 6.4 percent. The median price of a new single-family home dropped in November to $239,100, a 0.4 percent decline from a year earlier. That number masks the real fall in prices: more expensive homes are the ones most likely to sell because the remaining buyers are likely to be affluent, and builders have been offering increasingly costly hidden incentives to encourage buyers to take their completed homes off their hands.

Sales
Housing
Commerce Department
Economic Conditions and Trends


Florida State Stands Between Clemson and Another Chance at a Title

Abstract: Clemson quarterback Deshaun Watson is driven by the goal of winning another Atlantic Coast Conference championship and returning to the College Football Playoff’s title game. He also knows that the Tigers’ biggest obstacle sits in their division: Florida State. “We have to start over,” Watson said Friday at the A.C.C. preseason media days. “Last year’s wins, touchdowns or stops isn’t going to do anything for us this year. We know we have a target on us, and we have to go 10 times harder to get where we want to go this year than we did last year.” The Tigers or the Seminoles have won the past five A.C.C. championship games. The last time either lost a game to another Atlantic Division opponent is approaching four years. Both have carried an unbeaten record into the four-team championship playoff following F.S.U.’s national-title season in 2013. Last season, Clemson’s 23-13 home win over Florida State snapped a three-game skid against the Seminoles. They meet again Oct. 29 in Tallahassee, Fla. “That’s a game that the fans and the players, our whole staff looks forward to,” said F.S.U.’s Dalvin Cook, who led the conference with 1,691 yards rushing last year. “They recruit talent just like we do. That’s just becoming one of the rivalries, between Florida State and Clemson — and I love it.” While the A.C.C.’s Coastal Division has featured a revolving door at the top and off-target preseason predictions, Clemson and Florida State have left little doubt about who is in control in the Atlantic. The teams have combined to go 57-3 against the rest of the conference — Clemson is 28-1 and F.S.U. is 29-2 — since the start of the 2012 season. During that span, F.S.U.’s 17-16 loss at North Carolina State in October 2012 was the only loss by either team to another Atlantic opponent. North Carolina State Coach Dave Doeren has seen that gap up close. His Wolfpack hung with the Seminoles and the Tigers in shootout losses the past two years, only to see the then-No. 1 squads assert control by the fourth quarter. Last year the Wolfpack led the Tigers, 20-19, late in the first half before losing, 56-41, the same score as the loss to Jameis Winston and F.S.U. a year earlier. “I think their depth is what makes them different than everybody else,” said Doeren, who is entering his fourth season. “I think all of us have some really good players. They’re in a position now because of the recruiting classes they’ve had back to back to back and the longevity those coaches have had — they’ve both been in the league quite a while now where their whole team is theirs and then some. “They can lose a guy and the next guy comes off the bench and doesn’t look any different. Most of us can’t do that.” Louisville would appear to be the best contender to crack the Atlantic’s top two with nine returning starters, including the mobile quarterback Lamar Jackson, from an eight-win team that beat Texas A & M in the Music City Bowl. The rest of the division is murky. North Carolina State has some key returnees at skill positions but is looking for a new quarterback to run a new offense. Syracuse has a new coach, Dino Babers. Dave Clawson, in his third year as Wake Forest’s coach, has a young team in the midst of a slow rebuilding project, while Boston College is coming off an 0-8 conference record under Steve Addazio. “You have to shoot to beat them,” Louisville Coach Bobby Petrino said of Clemson and F.S.U. “But you have to take care of all your business if you’re going to accomplish what we want to be able to accomplish.”

Clemson
College football
Florida State University


Sidney Crosby’s Hat Trick Lifts Penguins Past Senators

Abstract: PITTSBURGH — Sidney Crosby scored three goals in 22 minutes for his second career playoff hat trick, leading the Pittsburgh Penguins to a 4-3 victory over the Ottawa Senators on Friday night. Brenden Morrow added his first playoff goal in more than five years, helping Pittsburgh take a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference semifinal series. Crosby’s third goal, during a power play at 1 minute 15 seconds of the second period, sent Craig Anderson, Ottawa’s starting goaltender, to the bench. Anderson, who had stopped 18 of 21 shots, was replaced by Robin Lehner. “He’s one of the best in the game,” Ottawa defenseman Chris Phillips said of Crosby, “and if you give him time, space to make plays, to shoot the puck, he’s going to burn you.” Kyle Turris, Colin Greening and Jean-Gabriel Pageau scored for the Senators, who have never won a playoff series after losing the first two games. Game 3 is Sunday at Ottawa. The Senators insisted they did not have to play a perfect game against Pittsburgh, pointing to the way they controlled play at even strength for long stretches in a 4-1 loss in the series opener Tuesday. They said they would be in good shape if they stayed out of the penalty box and scored when they had a man advantage. In the first period of Game 2, Ottawa killed two penalties and got a power-play goal from Turris, and they still trailed, 2-1. More to the point, they trailed Crosby, 2-1. Crosby, the Penguins’ captain, became the franchise’s fifth player with 100 playoff points. Less than four minutes into the game, he collected a pass at the Pittsburgh blue line and darted up the left side. He split two Senators, including the Norris Trophy-winning defenseman Erik Karlsson, and ripped a shot under Anderson for a 1-0 lead. Turris tied the score when he banked the puck off Penguins goalie Tomas Vokoun at 13:15. It was the first soft goal Vokoun had allowed since taking over for Marc-Andre Fleury in Game 5 of Pittsburgh’s first-round series against the Islanders. Crosby one-upped Turris a few minutes later, zipping down the left side once again. This time, Crosby appeared to be looking to pass to his linemate Pascal Dupuis as they raced toward Anderson. But at the last moment, Crosby flipped a wrist shot near the goal line that smacked off Anderson’s pad and into the net. “I was kind of running out of space to make a pass,” Crosby said. “I was hoping that it was able to find a way somehow.” Crosby recorded his first postseason hat trick since 2009 by powering a slap shot over Anderson’s glove from the left circle to push Pittsburgh’s lead to 3-1. Greening responded almost immediately after Ottawa’s goalie switch, beating Vokoun with a wrist shot 40 seconds later to cut the Senators’ deficit to 3-2. But Morrow restored a two-goal Pittsburgh lead by redirecting a blast from Paul Martin. Despite Morrow’s goal, the 21-year-old Lehner was stellar in his playoff debut. Of his 20 saves, several were point-blank stops. Shortly after replacing Anderson, he robbed Jarome Iginla on a two-on-one.

Sidney Crosby
Playoffs
Pittsburgh Penguins
Ottawa Senators
Ice hockey


Housing Bill Has Something for Nearly Everyone

Abstract: If you are ignoring the housing bailout bill because you think it benefits only troubled homeowners, you may miss out on a windfall. The bill, expected to be passed by the Senate in the next few days and then signed by President Bush, does offer incentives to certain overextended borrowers and their mortgage lenders. But it also includes many handouts to first-time homebuyers, longtime homeowners, returning veterans and senior citizens seeking to tap their home equity without getting hit with big fees. Millions of people have the potential to benefit in some way. Huge numbers of people buying homes for the first time, for instance, will be eligible for what amounts to an interest-free loan from the government. Meanwhile, older Americans will now be able to borrow more and possibly pay less for reverse mortgages that allow them tap the equity in their homes. Whether larding up the bill with all these benefits is good for taxpayers is a debate for another part of the newspaper. But there is no shame in taking advantage of what is offered. In fact, you would be foolish not to. Here are some of the new benefits: RENEGOTIATING MORTGAGES Part of the bill is devoted to the creation of a program that may allow some people to cancel their old mortgage loans and replace them with new fixed-rate loans lasting at least 30 years. The amount of the new loans would be no more than 90 percent of what their property is actually worth now. So who is eligible? You need to have originated your troubled loan or loans on or before Jan. 1, 2008. The loans in question must be on your primary residence. Vacation homes and investment properties are ineligible. You will also need to verify your income, which many borrowers did not have to do in recent years. Also, as of March 1, 2008, your monthly housing payment (including the principal on all your various mortgage payments, interest, taxes and insurance) has to have been at least 31 percent of your monthly household income. So if you were earning $5,000 a month and had housing payments of $3,000, you are eligible. But if you had payments of just $1,400, you would not be, presumably because that loan is affordable given the size of your income. Lenders, however, are not required to give you a better deal under the new law, even if you do meet the qualifications. They may not be willing to negotiate unless they think you are truly on the cusp of foreclosure. If you manage to get a new loan, you cannot take out a home equity loan for at least five years after you get the new mortgage. You will also have to pay a 1.5 percent fee each year on the remaining balance. Finally, you have to hand over no less than 50 percent of any appreciation on the home to the government once you sell. Sell the house in less than five years, and you will have to turn over as much as all of the gain. This program ends on Sept. 30, 2011. While it does not officially take effect until Oct. 1, lenders may be willing to start their negotiations with borrowers now. BREAK FOR FIRST-TIME BUYERS If you are buying a home for the first time, and it is your primary residence, you are eligible for a federal tax credit of $7,500 or 10 percent of the purchase price, whichever is smaller. With a tax credit, you subtract the credit amount from the total you would otherwise pay to the Internal Revenue Service. So if you owe $1,500 and you qualify for the credit, you would end up getting a $6,000 refund. There are two big catches, though. If you earn a modified adjusted gross income of more than $75,000, or $150,000 if you are married and filing your tax return jointly, the credit starts to phase out. For single people, it phases out completely at $95,000 of annual income, while for married people filing jointly, it phases out at $170,000. But you have to pay back the credit over the next 15 years, in equal amounts each year when you pay your federal taxes. That makes this more like an interest-free loan than a true credit. According to the National Association of Realtors , there were about 2.5 million first-time home buyers in 2007. A large proportion of them would have qualified for this credit, but whether it is enough to push would-be buyers over the edge this year remains to be seen. The tax credit is retroactive to home purchases on April 9, 2008, and expires on July 1, 2009. If you purchase a home from Jan. 1, 2009 to June 30, 2009, you can claim the tax credit on your 2008 tax return. ADDITIONAL DEDUCTION If you are a homeowner who takes the standard deduction on your federal income taxes and does not itemize, this one is for you. You can now take an additional federal tax deduction of $500, or $1,000 if you are married and filing your tax returns jointly. Again, this one is gravy; you get it in addition to the standard deduction. Since itemizers are often people who pay a lot of mortgage interest, this deduction will generally benefit people who pay little or none, like those who have paid off their mortgages entirely or close to it. There is one hitch here: you will need to report the property taxes you paid on your tax form. If they are less than $500 (or $1,000 if you are married and filing a joint return), your deduction will be limited to the amount of the property tax you paid. REVERSE MORTGAGE CHANGES Reverse mortgages allow older Americans, generally 62 and older, to get a lump sum or a monthly check that comes out of their home equity. They do not have to pay the money back until they stop living there permanently or their heirs sell the house. The problem with these loans, however, is that they often come with high fees. Moreover, some salespeople pressure borrowers who are applying for the loan to purchase annuities, long-term care insurance or other financial products that are not necessarily in the borrower’s best interest. The bill tries to address both issues. First, it limits origination fees on reverse mortgages at 2 percent of any loan up to $200,000 and 1 percent beyond that, up to a maximum of $6,000. The bill also states explicitly that borrowers cannot be forced to purchase an annuity or other financial or insurance product as a condition of qualifying for a reverse mortgage. Finally, the bill raises the maximum amount that people can borrow. Before, the limits were set on a county by county basis, according to AARP’s legislative policy director, David Certner. The biggest allowable mortgage available anywhere was just over $400,000. Now, there is a nationwide cap of $625,500. REDEFINITION OF JUMBO LOANS Often, if you want the mortgage loan with the lowest possible interest rate, it has to be small enough to be purchased by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac from whatever bank or other institution originated it. Under the new bill, Fannie and Freddie have permanent authority to buy bigger loans in areas with high housing costs. (Temporary measures allow them to buy bigger loans, but those expire on Dec. 31.) They can buy loans up to 115 percent of the local median home price, though they cannot buy any loans larger than $625,500. Any larger loan will generally be a jumbo loan, which will cost more in interest. A BREAK FOR VETERANS Lenders will have to wait nine months, instead of 90 days, before beginning foreclosure proceedings on homes owned by someone returning from the military. Lenders must also wait a year before raising interest rates on a mortgage held by someone returning from military service. These provisions expire on Dec. 31, 2010.

Housing
Mortgages
Home Equity Loans
Law and Legislation
National Assn of Realtors
Bush George W
United States Economy


Anthro 101: Intro to Flirting

Abstract: The seasonal agony known as going back to school isn’t usually a sexy process, but every now and then, in between buying textbooks and arranging class schedules, scholars catch one another’s eyes. The following poems about the erotic aspects of the start of the academic year were all found this week in the Missed Connections section of newyork.craigslist.org. They are printed verbatim with only line and stanza breaks added; their titles are their subject headings. NYU Running Team on the 5 Downtown I was standing next to you from 86th down to 14th. I was captivated by you — your hair plastered to your neck, glistening with sweat, the damp T-shirt, and your flushed cheeks. I was reading the newspaper next to you, trying (unsuccessfully) to keep my eyes off of you. I’d love to be your cool-down next practice. Modern Occultism in Late Imperial Russia you had an ET tattoo, and a book titled modern occultism in late imperial russia from the nyu library, where you’re in the film preservation masters program. i sat next to you and asked you about the book. you were kind of thrown off but i’m pretty sure you started to warm up just as we split ways, and that last smile made me wish i followed you towards the G just to keep talking, but i didn’t want to creep you out. holler if you wanna chat more and share our first missed connection reconnection. Young Guy in Grey Skinny Jeans at 111th st/Bway Tuesday at about 3 pm, I struck up a conversation with you — you’re a Columbia student, history/bio major, I think? you were wearing really tight grey skinny jeans which looked great on you. you went into the pizza place at 111th St and bway... would love to get to know you better. Columbia Student on 1 train I got on the train and you immediately looked at me, and then looked at me again, and again. I sat down opposite of you and watched you read your book. I asked the woman beside me if I could borrow a pen so I could write my number down. I was going to hand it to you — but I spazzed. You got off at 110. I followed you into the grocery store. I bought espresso for no reason. So basically I’m a creep — and I should have given you my number. Riding the Downtown 1 — Thurs 10am You are the cute dirty blond (or is it light brown) haired guy standing against the doors, who was wearing a t-shirt and shorts, backpack in tow. I was the bearded guy who got on at 157th and got off at the 116th, Columbia University stop. I had an olive tote/shoulder bag. We kept on exchanging glances, but neither of us quite worked the nerve to approach the other. I felt there was a connection happening and would love to explore it further. Hopefully, you felt the same and are looking on here hoping I’ve reached out. Let’s meet for tea or drinks sometime. What was I wearing? Hunter Collage Sexy Girl outside of hunter collage (the leubsdorf art gallery on east 68 st ) was smoking and drinking coffie Wednesday Brandon We met Friday at a back-to-school party. I was wearing a light blue tank top and jean shorts. We talked a bit but then my roommates dragged me away too soon and I didn’t give you my phone number as I had promised you. If you want to email me, put my name in the subject line (you DO remember me, don’t you?). Sorry I was such a tease and evading your questions. No, I don’t live with my parents. Yes, the color of my thong matched my bra. No, I don’t go all the way on a first date.


More Than a Social Worker, a Friend

Abstract: Mariana Duenas is a caseworker from Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of New York, where she has worked for almost four years. She has been working passionately on behalf of her client Martha Palomino for almost that long. “She is an opportunity for me to bring the best of me, as a professional and as a human being,” said Ms. Duenas, 46. Her dark eyes are animated as she speaks quickly and insistently, gesturing to be extra sure that her meaning is clear. “I think when you work in this field, you have to think that way. You have to rescue the dignity of every person.” Ms. Palomino is a political refugee from Colombia who fled to the United States after her husband was kidnapped and killed by guerrillas. For Ms. Duenas, the story hit close to home. “I came from Venezuela,” she said, “and I’m married to a Colombian guy.” Her husband, Alfredo Duenas, is a case manager at the Yonkers Department of Social Services. He has also worked on Ms. Palomino’s behalf. “Colombia is an amazing county: their people, the country itself, is so beautiful,” Ms. Duenas said. “It’s so hard when you see this group of people, so powerful, that make every Colombian live in fear every day. You never know if someday your little one is going to be kidnapped or your husband is coming back from his job.” Ms. Palomino was helped by a broad range of services that Ms. Duenas coordinated. Among them was getting money from The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund to help secure two apartments. “That was the key, for Martha and her daughter to have a place to live,” Ms. Duenas said. “Without that money, forget it. Because we found support from Social Services with a security deposit, but the first month, who else? And we got the money one, two, three. “We were able to engage so many people, different kinds of organizations,” Ms. Duenas said. “I think that the beauty is how it could be possible to engage the human part of different sides: organizations, families, parish.” In Spanish, Ms. Palomino used similar language to describe her caseworker. “She’s not a social worker. She’s not a person from the Catholic Church. She’s my friend,” Ms. Palomino said. “It’s the humanity of Mariana,” she said. “This is Mariana.”

Colombia
New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Yonkers (NY)


Old West Traditions, and Tensions, at the Pendleton Round-Up

Abstract: PENDLETON, Ore. — The sign at the entrance to the rodeo’s bleachers said “Wrist Bands Required.” So Reggie Queampts dutifully wore his: “2010 Round-Up NDN Seating.” “That’s NDN — as in ‘Indian,’ ” said Mr. Queampts, a member of the Yakama Nation. “This is where they usually put the Indians, the cheap seats.” The Pendleton Round-Up — which celebrated its centennial last weekend — did not become one of the West’s oldest, biggest and most beloved rodeos by bucking tradition. The arena where it is held just underwent an $8.5 million renovation, but the bulls still burst out of weathered old wooden bucking shoots. The names of corporate sponsors are not splashed on the arena walls. No motorized vehicles are allowed at the “Westward Ho!” parade that coincides with the rodeo, only people and horses and wagon wheels. Even rodeo riders are impressed with the frontier authenticity of this high-desert town in eastern Oregon. “This one is different,” said Paul Eaves, a Texan who travels the country roping steer on the rodeo circuit. “This is a cowboy town.” And that, some Indians say, can be a problem. Some are offended by the sun-scorched bleachers where they get to sit for free (anyone can pay to sit in the shaded grandstand). Others are uncomfortable with Indians’ daily appearances in traditional dress in the rodeo arena — where they are applauded but not expected to stay long. Some say the Round-Up sends mixed signals to the Native Americans who have lived here for thousands of years: we want you, in your place. That is an attitude with plenty of Western tradition as well. “They did all these renovations and improvements but the Indians are still sitting out in the sun,” said Fred Hill, a board member of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation, which includes the Cayuse, Walla Walla and Umatilla tribes. “Everybody has taken notice of it.” One Indian woman, gesturing toward those in the Indian section on a hot afternoon, said, “It’s a subclass.” Yet Indians have been choosing to come to Round-Up since it began, and this year’s turnout was particularly strong. “The story, as it goes,” said Carl Culham, a Round-Up board member and the publicity director, “is that the first board of directors in determining what the Pendleton Round-Up was, decided that we need Native American participation but it had to be more realistic than things like Bill Cody Wild West Shows.” With the help the owners of the Pendleton Woolen Mills, a system of bartering and stipends was developed in which Indians were given food and blankets and paid to set up teepees in the Teepee Village, directly outside the arena. Some were paid — and many still are — to participate in an outdoor theater performance that still goes on called “Happy Canyon.” Adults recall appearing in the arena as children in traditional Indian dress, then receiving silver dollars from rodeo organizers as they made their exit. A century later, the mill still provides blankets, and families are still paid to appear, $5 per person each day at the arena. Beef and vegetables are provided, as are tokens for other food. The winner of the “Best Dressed Indian Award” at the parade gets 50 silver dollars. The winner of the “Oldest Indian Couple Award” gets 100 silver dollars in a pouch. Blankets are also among the gifts for the “All-Around Cowboy Award,” though silver dollars are not. And there have long been prominent Indian riders in the regular rodeo, in addition to those who ride bareback in the raucous Indian relay races. One of the Round-Up’s most famous rodeo champions is Jackson Sundown, a Nez Perce Indian who won it all in 1916 when he was over 50 years old. Earlier, in 1911, after judges denied first place to a popular black rider, George Fletcher, the crowd roared its disapproval and soon collected money on his behalf, more than he would have received had he won, according to historical accounts. The weeklong event goes on now much as it did before. Over the years, many Indians said, the artificial gathering evolved into a traditional one, bringing together disparate tribes from the Northwest. Many said they loved sharing the tradition with their children. More than 300 teepees were set up this year, a larger number than organizers could remember. “We could be clear up in the mountains and we’d have to get back to the reservation to get ready for Round-Up,” recalled Jesse Jones Jr., chief of the Cayuse tribe. “But it’s not a place to get rich. My mother stressed that to us. It’s about tradition.” For all the complaints about the Indian seating, some Indians said they did not mind, particularly since the seats were free, compared with $20 for those in the shade. Mr. Culham noted that Round-Up is run largely by 1,500 volunteers, many of whom are given vouchers to buy meals in return for their service, but not free seats. Speaking of the Native Americans, he said, “They get a special section to sit in plus they get access to the Round-Up grounds like the volunteers do.” But volunteers do not bring their children and grandparents out to the rodeo in traditional dress, make their way on horseback and on foot from the Teepee Village to the historic arena, smiling and waving and singing and dancing. Before the procession this year, Wayne Brooks, the rodeo announcer, called local Indians “our friends, our family” and during the procession he handed over the microphone to Jess Nowland, who spoke for the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla. “We’re all glad to welcome all of you here to our homeland,” Mr. Nowland said. Mr. Nowland described the tribes’ long history here on the Columbia River plateau, how they had “ceded” much of their land to white settlers but were now striving to improve tribal social and economic health through projects as varied as improving salmon habitat and the steadily expanding Wildhorse Resort and Casino, which opened in 1995. It was then that a man in the crowd called out, “To suck us all dry! So we can spend all our money there.” Not everyone heard the heckler. Most people were polite and took pictures. The casino is now a sponsor of the Round-Up. Soon enough, out came the water truck to wet down the dirt so the rodeo could resume. “This,” Mr. Brooks said, “concludes the Indian portion of our show.”

Pendleton Round-Up
Rodeos
Oregon
Native Americans


Man at Scene of Nassau Officer’s Killing Is Interviewed, Union Says

Abstract: Nassau County police investigators have interviewed a retired New York City police sergeant who witnesses said may have shouted “Gun!” when he saw a plainclothes officer carrying a rifle on Saturday, a shout that possibly prompted another police officer to fatally shoot the officer with the rifle, the president of the Nassau police union said on Tuesday. A Nassau police spokesman, Lt. Kevin Smith, declined to comment on the investigation, but said it had not been determined who had yelled “Gun!” The retired sergeant, John B. Cafarella, 58, lives a little more than a mile from the site of the shooting, in Massapequa Park. Mr. Cafarella was apparently passing by and offered his assistance to Nassau County police officers who had just shot dead a 21-year-old man they said lunged at them with knives. A few minutes after that shooting, Officer Geoffrey J. Breitkopf pulled up to the scene in plain clothes and began walking toward the house, carrying a rifle. According to James Carver, president of the Nassau County Police Benevolent Association, Nassau County officers at the scene said that a civilian, possibly Mr. Cafarella, yelled “Gun!” Officer Breitkopf was then shot dead by a Metropolitan Transportation Authority officer, Glenn Gentile, who also had stopped by to help and apparently did not realize that Officer Breitkopf was a Nassau police officer. There was no answer at Mr. Cafarella’s home on Tuesday. The police have not said that they intended to charge anyone with a crime. Mr. Cafarella spent most of his more than 20 years in the New York Police Department with its Emergency Services Unit, an elite team of officers who often respond to violent encounters with disturbed subjects in heavily equipped trucks. Officer Breitkopf’s funeral will be held at St. Margaret of Scotland Roman Catholic Church in Selden, N.Y., at 12:30 p.m. Friday.

Police
Breitkopf Geoffrey J
Nassau County (NY)


For SNY, It’s All Randolph From Dawn to Dusk

Abstract: Willie Randolph ’s firing was a major story for SportsNet New York. Major? It was a news crisis, an all-day story, a one-story day and an occasion to use urgent, percussive music (“Perpetrator,” by Emanuel Kallins), as if war had been declared in Midtown. SNY devoted the bottom-line crawl to the only darned news that mattered, save for short breaks to post the night’s pitching matchups. In this critical juncture of our history, as we shift from Shea Stadium to Citi Field, SNY demonstrated the enormous importance of wielding its multiplatform Metsiness by scheduling the first “Special Willie Randolph Edition of ‘WheelHouse.’ ” And a special edition of “SportsNite” that was dubbed “Mets in Transition.” As an editor of mine often said, usually with his arms waving, “This could be big!” Big? “Monumental,” Matt Yallof, an SNY host, said around 7:30 p.m. SNY staged an amazin’ marathon that didn’t make the Mets look very nice in how they handled Randolph’s firing. The Williepalooza began when SNY learned about his firing around 3:15 a.m. Tuesday. That led to the news zipping along SNY’s on-screen crawl by 4, and to Steve Overmyer, a studio anchor, recording a segment with the network’s traveling Mets reporter, Kevin Burkhardt, that appeared on SNY.tv by around 4:30 a.m. Burkhardt’s bites were then reused every 15 minutes from 7 to 9 a.m. during the replay of the Mets’ victory Monday night in Anaheim. By 9 a.m., SNY had gone live with a 38-minute report that was repeated continually until 1 p.m., when Gary Apple hosted a four-hour, mostly live, salon during which 19 analysts, commentators and reporters weighed in on le fin de Randolph in the studio, by telephone and on location. The news conference with Omar Minaya, the general manager, and Jerry Manuel, the interim manager, was followed by the all-Willie “WheelHouse,” the all-Willie “Loud Mouths,” and more “Mets in Transition,” accompanied by still more “Perpetrator.” “Man, what a day it’s been,” Apple said, and it was only 3 p.m. No one recalls such attention paid to the axing of Joe Frazier in 1977. A distinct theme ran through the commentary, from the sober — like Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen, the Mets’ voices on SNY — to the cacophonous, like Scott Ferrall of “WheelHouse” and Chris Carlin of “Loud Mouths,” whose voice I heard even after muting SNY. The inexorably repetitive discussions focused largely on how Minaya and the Wilpon family let the Randolph death watch drag on so long that he had to fly to Anaheim to be fired rather than be dismissed in New York last weekend (or earlier). Mike Vaccaro, a columnist for The New York Post, called it a “long, public perp walk.” Darling: “The hammer fell at an inopportune moment.” Cohen: “Clearly minds had been made up, but it was a matter of timing, but the timing couldn’t have been handled a whole lot worse.” Bill Madden, of The Daily News, was asked about historic managerial dismissals that paralleled the bungled Randolph situation: “The closest was George firing Yogi 16 games into the 1985 season. That was the worst until this.” Vaccaro, not even half-jokingly, said that not even Madison Square Garden’s Jim Dolan, no one’s C.E.O. ideal, would have handled a coach’s firing so maladroitly. “That’s a serious indictment,” Apple said, and asked if he wanted to retract his statement. But Vaccaro didn’t and added, “If anything, Dolan spent too much time worrying about Isiah Thomas’s feelings, and the Wilpons spent too little thinking about Willie Randolph’s.” Hernandez emerged as the day’s wise man, discussing the lack of alpha personalities on the Mets and the impact of in-season managerial changes. But he refused to give in to a theory that Minaya dawdled because firing Randolph fully exposed him to criticism. “Almost Hamlet-like, he vacillated and made a bad situation worse,” he said, then continued: “I really think there was a bond between Willie and Omar; Omar felt a closeness. He was his hire, really his first hire, and that’s why it took so long.”

SportsNet New York
Randolph Willie
Television
New York Mets


Obama, in New Stand, Proposes Use of Oil Reserve

Abstract: LANSING, Mich. — Senator Barack Obama altered his position on Monday to call for tapping the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve to lower gasoline prices as he outlined an energy plan that contrasts with Senator John McCain’s greater emphasis on expanded offshore drilling and coal and nuclear technology. In a speech here and in a new advertisement, Mr. Obama, the presumptive Democratic nominee, also sought to portray his Republican rival, Mr. McCain, as “in the pocket” of oil giants that are profiting from gasoline priced at more than $4 a gallon. And in his speech, Mr. Obama called for a windfall profits tax on oil companies to finance rebates for Americans. At the heart of Mr. Obama’s proposals is a focus on fostering alternative energy development by investing $150 billion in emerging technologies and renewable fuels. Seeking to put a million fuel-efficient hybrid plug-in automobiles on the road, he said that he would offer a $7,000 tax credit to buyers, the overall cost of which he did not specify. In addition, Mr. Obama said his goal was to have 10 percent of the country’s energy needs met by renewable resources by the end of his first term, more than double the current figure. While focusing on alternative energy production, Mr. Obama has veered in recent days toward increasing access to fossil fuels, both in seeking to tap the strategic oil reserve and in softening his opposition to offshore oil drilling. He said he might be willing to accept some exploration of limited offshore drilling as part of a more comprehensive energy bill that would include things he favors, like renewable fuels and batteries for electric-powered cars. The proposals Mr. Obama offered Monday represented an effort to return the campaign’s focus to bread-and-butter issues after he found himself repeatedly on the defensive last week against a newly aggressive McCain campaign. “We should sell 70 million barrels of oil from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve for less expensive crude, which in the past has lowered gas prices within two weeks,” Mr. Obama said. “Over the next five years, we should also lease more of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for oil and gas production, and we should also tap more of our substantial natural gas reserves and work with the Canadian government to finally build the Alaska natural gas pipeline, delivering clean natural gas.” Mr. McCain and his campaign have been increasingly tweaking Mr. Obama and his energy policy. The McCain campaign distributed tire pressure gauges outside the event here in response to Mr. Obama’s statement last week that Americans could reduce gasoline use substantially if they kept car tires at optimum pressure. Mr. McCain has called Mr. Obama “Dr. No” and said that his energy policy could be reduced to the phrase “just say no” to proposals to increase energy production. “We have to drill here and drill now,” Mr. McCain said Monday in Lafayette Hill, Pa. “Not wait and see if there’s areas to explore, not wait and see if there’s a package to put together. But drill here and drill now.” Mr. McCain has focused much more on the supply side of the energy equation, supporting increased reliance on nuclear power, the use of so-called clean coal technology and expanded offshore drilling. But he has called for halting purchases to replenish the strategic oil reserve, rather than tapping into it. Aides to Mr. Obama said that he now favored releasing light oil from that emergency stockpile, 707 million barrels stored in salt caverns, and replacing it with heavier oil, which they said would be more appropriate for the country’s long-term energy needs. They described that action — meant to help drive down oil prices, which have begun falling in the last month after a long, sharp increase — as a “limited swap” rather than a depletion of the reserve. Mr. Obama said that through a mixture of investment, discipline and more restrained consumption it would be possible to completely eliminate oil imports from the Middle East and Venezuela within 10 years. Through a combination of similar measures, he said, Americans could at the same time reduce electricity consumption by 15 percent and create 5 million jobs. “I will not pretend we can achieve them without cost, or without sacrifice, or without the contribution of almost every American citizen,” Mr. Obama said of his objectives. “But I will say that these goals are possible, and I will say that achieving them is absolutely necessary if we want to keep America safe and prosperous in the 21st century.” Repeating his call for a windfall profits tax on companies like Exxon-Mobil, which he singled out in his speech on Monday, Mr. Obama said he would use part of the tax to provide consumers with an “emergency energy rebate” of $1,000 per family. Mr. Obama and his campaign have criticized Mr. McCain for accepting what they call excessive campaign donations from energy interests. Campaign Money Watch, a watchdog organization, said the McCain campaign received a burst of donations in June from oil company employees after he came out in favor of offshore drilling. Together, Hess employees or their relatives contributed more than $300,000 in June to Mr. McCain’s joint fund-raising committee with the Republican National Committee, according to campaign finance records. Brian Rogers, a spokesman for the McCain campaign, said officials had examined the donations and found nothing untoward. Mr. Obama offered details of his energy plan as Democrats have been under continuing pressure to allow offshore drilling. Though Congress is in its August break, a band of Republicans occupied the darkened House floor Monday to criticize the Democratic leadership for refusing to allow a vote on lifting a ban on drilling off much of the nation’s coastline before heading out of town. About 25 lawmakers, many from the most conservative wing of the Republican Party, railed throughout the day at Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, saying her “San Francisco mentality” was impeding domestic energy production. Republicans circulated a petition to urge Ms. Pelosi to call the House back into session, and some called for President Bush, who was on his way to China for the Olympics, to demand that Congress return. The White House said Monday that such a step was unlikely.

Presidential Election of 2008
Obama Barack
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline


Ales Mikhalevich, Ex-Presidential Candidate, Flees Belarus

Abstract: MOSCOW — For two months Ales Mikhalevich, an opposition presidential candidate in Belarus , sat in prison after protesting the results of the December election as blatantly rigged. He said he had been tortured and then released only on the condition that he collaborate with the security service. On Monday Mr. Mikhalevich, fearing that he would be jailed again, announced that he had fled the country. His decision to flee, leaving behind his wife and two young daughters, underscored the pervasive uncertainty and fear among Belarus’s opposition in the face of a continuing crackdown by the security service, still called the K.G.B. in the authoritarian former Soviet republic. “I have reason to believe that I will not be leaving the K.G.B. building,” Mr. Mikhalevich wrote in his blog at 12:20 a.m. Monday, referring to a coming interrogation. “I am now in a safe place, beyond the reach of the Belarussian K.G.B.” Yuri Gubaryevich, a colleague, said he had spoken with Mr. Mikhalevich, who confirmed that the blog post was genuine. He said he was unaware of Mr. Mikhalevich’s whereabouts. Mr. Mikhalevich’s wife, Milana, said she had not had direct contact with her husband since Saturday and could not say where he was or how he was able to leave the country. Mr. Mikhalevich was one of seven former presidential candidates arrested when the police violently dispersed a large antigovernment protest after the December election. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the government headquarters in Minsk, the capital, angered over the sweeping victory of Belarus’s strong-arm president, Aleksandr G. Lukashenko , in the election. Independent observers said the vote was rife with fraud. Several of those candidates have now been released from jail while they await trials on charges of organizing mass unrest. Facing up to 15 years in prison, they have been barred from speaking publicly about their cases. Most have remained silent. Mr. Mikhalevich has not. Shortly after his release in February he issued a statement accusing guards at the K.G.B. holding facility in Minsk of abusing detainees arrested on the night of the protest. He said prisoners were made to stand naked and spread-eagle in frigid temperatures for about 40 minutes as many as six times a day. There were 15 prisoners in a cell made for eight, he said, and people had to sleep in shifts. Several times during his imprisonment, he said, guards coated the walls of the cell with a noxious paint and forced detainees to remain locked inside until it dried. Through all this, he said, he was denied access to his lawyer. In a report released Monday , Human Rights Watch detailed widespread abuse similar to that described by Mr. Mikhalevich. It is not clear how Mr. Mikhalevich was able to leave the country. In an interview at his apartment in Minsk last week, he said he was sure he was under heavy surveillance. The authorities had taken his passport and ordered him not to leave Minsk. In the interview he gave no indication of plans to flee. “My goal right now is to stop the torture and to ensure that political prisoners are freed,” he said. In his blog post on Monday he said he would continue such efforts.

Human Rights and Human Rights Violations


Yemen: Houthi Rebels Seize a Northern City

Abstract: Shiite Muslim rebels captured Omran, one of the main cities in northern Yemen, on Tuesday, a local official and residents said, putting them on the outskirts of the capital. The fall of Omran is a major blow to the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who has been trying to stabilize the country after nearly three years of turmoil that forced his predecessor to step down. Local officials and witnesses said the Houthis seized Omran after battles in which about 100 were killed and 150 wounded on Tuesday alone. Medics said dozens of bodies lay in streets strewn with the rubble of homes. The conflict pitted the Shiite tribal militias against Sunni Muslim tribesmen allied with government troops. The current round of fighting began last week after a June 23 cease-fire collapsed.


Baseball Seeks to Limit Champagne Celebrations

Abstract: This postseason, the baseball clubhouse has seen a twist to its ritualized, made-for-television Champagne celebration: the ginger-ale spray. Twice now, Texas Rangers teammates of Josh Hamilton, the tattooed slugger whose team is in the World Series opposite the San Francisco Giants, have doused their most valuable player contender with soft drinks instead of the Champagne they kept for themselves in a separate celebration. It was a respectful acknowledgement of Hamilton’s sobriety after a past of drug and alcohol abuse. Now Major League Baseball is making its latest attempt to crack down on the alcoholic version of those celebrations. Last week, on the eve of the World Series, the league quietly issued new guidelines to teams, said Rob Manfred, M.L.B.’s executive vice president. Teams must limit Champagne; offer a non-alcoholic version; beer and other types of alcoholic drinks are banned; and teams are not allowed to bring the drinks on the field. “We have concerns that these celebrations that have traditionally been held not get out of hand,” Manfred said. “This is an issue that we periodically revisit.” Hamilton’s ginger ale bath is a sideshow to what has become a choreographed ritual of baseball, one that increasingly causes purists to cringe at the over-the-top emotion they see as unsportsmanlike, and serves every autumn as a reminder of the enduring and sometimes ugly place alcohol has had in the baseball culture, stretching back to the 19th century when the precursor to the American League was known as the “beer and whiskey” league. “I think the celebrations are unattractive in large measure because they involve alcohol,” Fay Vincent, the former baseball commissioner, said in a telephone interview. “It’s ritualized, and I think it’s silly.” Dr. Bobby Brown, who enjoyed more subdued clubhouse parties during his playing days with the Yankees in the 1940s and 1950s, tried to persuade teams to substitute ginger ale for Champagne when he was the president of the American League in the 1980s and 1990s. He had received complaints that the celebrations set a bad example for children. “It’s very hard to change things in sports,” he said. As commissioner, Vincent also tried to curtail the celebrations, but said he was never able to rally support among the players and owners. “We had no real success,” he said. “The sadness is that no one thinks this is very important.” Baseball, Vincent said, has always had its share of men “who are serious alcoholics,” and a new biography of Mickey Mantle attests to the demons faced by one of the game’s greatest players. So Vincent does not view the separate dry ritual for Hamilton necessarily as a sweet moment of team caring. “I think it’s a sad witness to the fact that for some of these guys, alcohol is a serious problem,” Vincent said. After his ginger-ale soaking after the Rangers’ pennant-winning victory over the Yankees, Hamilton told reporters: “Hopefully, it will set a precedent for sports teams. Don’t flaunt it. We’re role models.” There is precedent for Hamilton’s experience. In 1999, the Yankees celebrated with a non-alcoholic version of Champagne out of respect for their recovering teammate, Darryl Strawberry. Other scenes were incongruous. Last season the Angels doused the jersey of their teammate Nick Adenhart, killed earlier in the season by a drunken driver , with beer. The Tampa Bay Rays player Willy Aybar, who has been through alcohol rehabilitation and has spoken out about sobriety, was sprayed with alcohol after the team clinched a playoff spot this year. “From the earliest days, alcohol abuse was a huge destructive force in baseball,” said Ken Burns, the historian and documentary filmmaker. And the Champagne-spraying, goggle-wearing revelry that marks victory at each postseason stage often occurs in clubhouses that are otherwise dry, the result of an inconsistent crackdown in recent years on club-provided alcohol that began after the 2007 drunken-driving death of Josh Hancock, a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. Roughly half of baseball’s 30 clubs forbid alcohol in clubhouses during the regular season, according to Manfred. That group includes the Yankees, the Mets, the Cardinals, the Twins, the Athletics and the Nationals. An article last year in the Vanderbilt Journal of Entertainment and Technology Law suggested baseball should follow other professional sports leagues and ban alcohol altogether in its clubhouses. The article made a legal argument that teams could be held liable if a player left a clubhouse celebration drunk and injured someone while driving home. “Considering the lengthy tradition of baseball and alcohol consumption, as well as the clubs’ support for the postgame buffet and bar, it is only a matter of time before an intoxicated player injures an innocent third party,” the article said. But the postseason celebrations are more about spraying alcohol than drinking it. “I think if they were limited to milk, they would have a milk ritual,” said Jim Bouton, a pitcher for the Yankees in the 1960s who is highly critical of how the present generation of ballplayers celebrates success. The alcohol aside, another chief complaint from critics like Vincent and Bouton is that the celebratory displays seem procedural and routine — in the way workers seal the clubhouse in plastic sheeting, hand out Champagne bottles and goggles and championship T-shirts and hats, which then go on sale to fans, turning the party into more of a marketing tool than an act of exuberance. “It has become this sort of horribly staged event,” Burns said. “They were at one point spontaneous but have become de rigueur.” Bouton said the news media and team owners “have corporatized and commoditized the celebration.” The series-ending celebration has become a news media event with greater participation by the fans than in previous generations (it is common now for players to bring Champagne on the field). In 1997, for the first time, the champion Florida Marlins were presented the championship trophy on the field instead of in the clubhouse. In the modern age, when anyone with a cellphone can become a documentarian, images that baseball would probably prefer to keep private have leaked out. A video of Giants infielder Freddy Sanchez’s dirty dancing during the team’s division-clinching celebration has circulated on the Internet, and Sports Illustrated provided a link on its Web site. A photo of outfielder Jonny Gomes drinking beer from his athletic cup during a celebration when he played for the Rays was posted by Yahoo Sports. Yogi Berra, veteran of 10 Yankees championship teams, recalled in an e-mail that players usually saved the Champagne for the team party at the Biltmore Hotel. In the clubhouse, he said: “It wasn’t as wild as today. We had a couple of beers, Ballantine, I’m sure.” He added, “I know George Weiss wouldn’t have wanted us to waste so much Champagne,” referring to the team’s general manager at the time. “He was pretty tight.” But press reports from the time suggest the old celebrations might not have been much different from those of today. After the Yankees beat the Giants in the 1936 World Series, an Associated Press reporter wrote, “the Yankee marauders blew their vocal gaskets in a wild dressing room celebration today.” Soon enough, a television audience will watch another wild celebration that may, or may not, include ginger ale.

Baseball
Texas Rangers
World Series
Major League Baseball
Beer
Alcoholic Beverages
Parties (Social)
Hamilton Josh
Champagne (Wine)
Playoff Games


Letters to the Editor

Abstract: Addressing the Whys To the editor: Re “ A Menace Afloat ” (July 19): The Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University in Philadelphia has been studying algae and the causes of algal blooms for more than 70 years. In streams and rivers, most algal blooms are caused by fertilizers, animal waste and other pollution that runs off farms and paved suburban areas during heavy rain. This type of pollution is difficult to control because it comes from multiple sources on multiple private properties. Better land management is needed. The Delaware River Watershed Initiative involves more than 50 nongovernmental organizations that know their landscapes and landowners. They are working together to restore suburban and agricultural lands and to improve water quality in the basin, the drinking water source for 15 million people in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware. Carol R. Collier, Philadelphia The writer is a senior adviser of watershed management and policy, Academy of Natural Sciences, Drexel University, and former executive director of the Delaware River Basin Commission. To the editor: Re: “ Uncertain Forecast for Fight Against Algae ” (July 19): Harmful algae blooms are a global problem. On Long Island, they are now a politically recognized crisis. Red tides, brown tides and rust tides kill fish and shellfish. Green algae smothers beaches. Toxic blue-green algae puts people and pets at risk if they come in contact with water from impacted ponds. On Long Island, the state and counties have already taken steps to reduce pollution and are now working on the Long Island Nitrogen Action Plan . Nancy Kelley, East Hampton, N.Y. The writer is the executive director of the Nature Conservancy on Long Island. Loud Restaurants To the editor: Re “ A Do-It-Yourself Option for Moderate Hearing Loss ” (Well, July 19): Paula Span notes that Richard Einhorn, a Manhattan composer who suddenly lost most of his hearing because of a virus, “struggles to hear in noisy environments like restaurants.” As the head of the noise committee of GrowNYC ( www.growNYC.org ), I get complaints about loud restaurants from New Yorkers, most of whom do not have a hearing loss problem. It may be time for our city’s Health Department to work with restaurants to address the issue of loudness as it did smoking and cleanliness. Arline L. Bronzaft, New York City

Algae
Delaware River
Long Island
Hearing
Hearing aid
Water pollution


EMC Is to Acquire RSA

Abstract: By Bloomberg News The EMC Corporation, the world's biggest maker of storage for computers, agreed to buy RSA Security for about $2.1 billion to expand its security software business. RSA shareholders will receive $28 a share in cash, EMC, based in Hopkinton, Mass., said yesterday in a statement. That represents a 22 percent premium to the closing stock price yesterday. The acquisition gives EMC radio tags and software to make online communication more secure. EMC is building its security offerings as data thefts raise demand for products that control access to corporate networks. Shares of RSA jumped to $27.25 in extended Nasdaq trading. The stock rose 18 percent, to $22.88, earlier yesterday.

EMC Corporation
Computers and the Internet
RSA Security Incorporated


Public Urination in New York Becomes Test Case for Policing

Abstract: Evidence pools beneath rows of pay phones, between parked cars, outside bars where last call has come and gone. The culprits can be found in any neighborhood of New York City: the West Village or Williamsburg, Chelsea or Elmhurst. And teams of plainclothes police officers, unsympathetic to the urge, know where to lie in wait. Sometimes. “This is tradition,” Alejandro Gomez, 31, said recently from a bench in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, where he shared a six-pack with two friends who rose to urinate, undetected, beside a park around 2 a.m. As city leaders wrestle with how to adapt police tactics to a lower-crime era, the Police Department in recent months has suggested it would loosen its approach to public urination, a quintessential quality-of-life crime whose effects have a tendency to linger — both on the street and for the person cited. Skeptics have bemoaned any proposed shift as an emblem of backslide after decades of aggressive policing. But Commissioner William J. Bratton, in a May letter to the City Council, said he was open to treating the offense as a violation only, rather than a misdemeanor, so long as officers preserved the right to make an arrest if necessary. The offense — and others subject to possible changes, like biking on sidewalks and staying in parks after hours — cuts to the core of the debate over policing in New York City: Are minor crimes the harbingers of neighborhood decline, or are they largely victimless acts that needlessly entangle residents, particularly young black and Hispanic men, in the justice system? Public urination has emerged as an especially thorny test case, scrambling traditional political allegiances among even left-leaning lawmakers who generally favor less aggressive policing. “We lived in a city, not that long ago, where the smell of urine was so prevalent in some of our economically challenged communities, people felt that they were afraid to go out at night,” Scott M. Stringer, the city comptroller, told reporters this year. “I just think that we should enforce the law fairly, but also keep in mind that we have to have some laws.” Mayor Bill de Blasio, who ran on a pledge to reshape the department, has largely remained out of the public fray this year as the Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, has pushed for major changes in how the city handles low-level offenses, arguing that a civil process in many cases could replace a criminal one. Those potential changes would follow shifts already underway, including less stringent penalties for low-level marijuana possession. The discussions have assumed particular resonance in recent weeks as the city pursues what it calls a new approach to community-based policing, adding nearly 1,300 officers in the hope that they will be able to spend more time getting to know the neighborhoods they serve. The force has already stepped back from blanket enforcement of minor offenses. Summonses have fallen. Arrests are down. Street stops barely register compared with record heights in 2011. Mr. Bratton heralded the ebbing numbers as a “peace dividend,” even as he called for a larger army. For Mr. de Blasio, it is a difficult balancing act: promoting so-called broken-windows policing while striving to reduce the often far-reaching consequences of the current approach among certain groups. The administration has also contended with weeks of unsettling headlines about rises in shootings and homicides through the first several months of the year. (Crime figures in recent weeks have been more encouraging.) For two decades, police officials viewed the enforcement of minor infractions as a way to prevent crime and violence. “Quality-of-life enforcement works to reduce crime,” wrote Jack Maple , a primary architect of the approach during Mr. Bratton’s first tour as police commissioner in the 1990s, “because it allows the cops to catch crooks when the crooks are off duty, like hitting the enemy planes while they’re still on the ground.” On the issue of public urination, enforcement need not be evenhanded, according to Mr. Maple. In his 1999 memoir , “The Crime Fighter: Putting the Bad Guys Out of Business,” he wrote that “Wall Street analysts doing Jell-O shots” on Madison Avenue may be just as likely to urinate in public “as a crew of robbers drinking malt liquor” in East New York, Brooklyn. “But only one of those groups is likely to include somebody who’s relaxing after a long day of robbing,” he added, suggesting that officers should more heavily enforce the law in those areas. But a review of police statistics suggests that enforcement against public urination has not followed that guidance and does not track with neighborhoods historically subjected to the highest numbers of recorded police stops. Image A bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, on a recent Friday. The police precinct that covers Williamsburg had the second-highest number of citations issued for public urination in the first quarter of this year. Credit Bryan Thomas for The New York Times “This is not stop-and-frisk ,” said Stephen Davis, the New York Police Department ’s top spokesman. “This is: ‘That guy is pissing in the street. You’re not supposed to be doing that. Let me see your ID.’ ” He added: “I don’t think you’re out there looking for bigger fish. It’s an offense in and of itself.” Last year, 28,609 people were cited for public urination, an offense that must be witnessed by an officer to be charged. As of June 14, there have been 6,799 such tickets, down from 8,329 at this point in 2014. (During that same period, officers wrote 33,971 summonses for public alcohol consumption, down from 44,339 last year.) A particularly egregious example appeared on the cover of The New York Post on Saturday: a man relieving himself in broad daylight in the middle of Broadway traffic. But more common are arrests around late-night hangouts. In 2014, the 110th Precinct, covering stretches of Corona and Elmhurst in Queens with restaurants, bars and nightclubs, wrote 1,329 summonses for public urination, nearly 400 more than in any other precinct. Other top areas included East Harlem and the West Village in Manhattan, Bedford-Stuyvesant in Brooklyn, and Astoria and Long Island City in Queens. So far this year, the top precincts are similarly replete with bars and drinkers. “It happens a lot, especially in the darker side streets,” said Jessica Perdomo, who works at a restaurant along Roosevelt Avenue in Jackson Heights, Queens. Councilman Corey Johnson said that though penalties for some nonviolent offenses should be reduced, public urination was a separate matter. “There is already a significant problem every single weekend with widespread, out-of-control peeing,” Mr. Johnson, who represents much of Manhattan’s West Side, said. Ms. Mark-Viverito and her allies have been careful to point out that reduced penalties would not imply an acceptance of the behavior. Only the punishments would change. Image Jason Stern, a lawyer specializing in public-urination cases, charges $500 to $1,000 per case. Among his clients are working professionals, college students and taxi drivers. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times In many cases, the $50 ticket can be paid by mail, provided the person pleads guilty. That can create ramifications for job seekers and immigrants, said Jason Stern , 45, a lawyer who specializes in public urination cases. For example, he said, when applying for a green card, a person is asked to disclose anything more serious than a traffic infraction. “None of my clients are hiring me to save themselves $50,” said Mr. Stern, who charges $500 to $1,000 per case and whose clients include working professionals, college students and taxi drivers. “Taxi drivers get a lot of public urination tickets.” That Mr. Stern can sustain a legal practice in this way underscores the stigma that comes with having to put down “public urination” on an official form. Mr. Stern said he has been able to get the charge changed to littering; the same fine applies, but the stigma is substantially reduced. Officers use two laws to enforce the prohibition against public urination: a misdemeanor-level provision in the city’s health code and a section of the city’s administrative code that classifies the offense as a violation. Mr. Bratton said in his letter that he was considering directing officers to enforce only the administrative code violation, which can be paid by mail, reducing the number of people who get warrants issued for failing to appear in court. A civil administrative process already exists for certain low-level offenses, including being in a park after dark and noise violations, and the Police Department already makes modest use of it. Last year, officers wrote 21,875 tickets that ended up in an administrative hearing. A fine is the most serious outcome; a failure to appear results in a default judgment, not a warrant. (The city collected about 41 percent of the fines owed last year, according the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings.) More often, it seems, offenders achieve bladder relief without detection, like Mr. Gomez and his friends in Williamsburg. (Also, like Mr. Gomez and his friends, most offenders are men.) As two of the men returned to their seats, after leaving their mark on a tree and a park gate, clouds of marijuana smoke wafted their way from down the block. “Party tonight!” one of Mr. Gomez’s seatmates, Arturo Carranza, shouted. “Everybody’s crazy in New York.” He raised his can in a toast: “Salud!”

Police
Crime
Fines
Bathrooms
Indecency Obscenity and Profanity
Hygiene
NYPD
NYC


N.F.L. Backs Program for Ex-Players in Need

Abstract: Almost exactly one year since Gay Culverhouse sat before a Congressional committee and blistered the N.F.L.’s treatment of its retired players, the league announced Tuesday that it would support her Players’ Outreach Program to help identify and assist former players in need. Culverhouse, a former executive and team president of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, has devoted most of this year — and about $400,000 of her money — to helping dozens of retired players apply for and receive disability and pension benefits. She and an associate tracked down Jerry Eckwood, a former Buccaneers running back suffering from dementia, and arranged for the doctors’ examinations that qualified him for benefits of more than $100,000 a year. Culverhouse said that the N.F.L. would not donate a specific amount to her organization, but has pledged to finance its operation almost fully. The N.F.L.’s support will allow the organization to hire more case workers, operate a toll-free hotline and travel to more players to provide services. “We look for the players who do not attend retired-player meetings, who do not have a TV, who do not remember they were once heroes on a ball field,” Culverhouse said. “We locate players in trailers with no power or water. I have been overwhelmed at what I have found — one expects arthritic joints and hip replacements, but what I did not foresee was the long line of mental disabilities.” Culverhouse said that she approached the league and the players union this summer to solicit their support, and that the union had not expressed much interest. A union spokesman declined to comment. “I was disappointed not for me, but for my players who had paid union dues,” Culverhouse said. The N.F.L.’s support continues its strategy of aligning with groups that have been critical of its handling of retired player issues. Earlier this year, the league donated $1 million to Boston University researchers whose discoveries of brain damage among some deceased veteran players have led to questions about the safety of football at all levels. “N.F.L. clubs are committed to doing the right thing for former players,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

Retirement
Football
Sports Injuries
Culverhouse Gay
National Football League