4 Quotes From Theresa May’s Speech and What They Mean

Abstract: LONDON — Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech on Tuesday was the first public outline of how Britain intends to withdraw from the European Union. What’s her plan? Britain will leave Europe’s single market “This agreement should allow for the freest possible trade in goods and services between Britain and the E.U.’s member states. It should give British companies the maximum freedom to trade with and operate within European markets — and let European businesses do the same in Britain. But I want to be clear. What I am proposing cannot mean membership of the single market.” This was an explicit recognition of the fundamental tension between the government’s basic ambitions: unencumbered trade with the European Union, but also control of Britain’s borders and laws — issues that the prime minister identified as the primary force behind voters’ decision to leave the bloc. To gain that control, her priorities are twofold: controlling migration and exiting the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. Not accepting the court’s rulings means leaving the internal single market, which requires the free movement of capital and services. Without this free movement, it is likely that Britain’s lauded financial services industry will lose some of the rights that give it unfettered access to Europe. Several options for a customs union “I do want us to have a customs agreement with the E.U. Whether that means we must reach a completely new customs agreement, become an associate member of the customs union in some way, or remain a signatory to some elements of it, I hold no preconceived position.” Mrs. May wants a new deal on customs. The current agreement eliminates tariffs between European Union countries but limits their ability to strike individual trade deals with non-European nations. Throughout her speech, she repeatedly said that Britain wanted new deals with non-European Union countries such as India and China. She said she wanted a “truly global Britain” with the ability to negotiate trade agreements and also to maintain tariff-free business with Europe. Uncertainty for E.U. citizens’ rights in Britain “We want to guarantee the rights of E.U. citizens who are already living in Britain, and the rights of British nationals in other member states, as early as we can. I have told other E.U. leaders that we could give people the certainty they want straight away, and reach such a deal now. Many of them favor such an agreement — one or two others do not — but I want everyone to know that it remains an important priority for Britain, and for many other member states, to resolve this challenge as soon as possible.” The June 23 referendum caused much anxiety and uncertainty for the roughly 3.2 million E.U. citizens living in Britain and the 1.2 million Britons living in other member countries. Mrs. May’s latest comments are the same as those she expressed in November , when she refused to guarantee the rights of European residents in Britain unless the rights of British people living in Europe were also protected. Amid the uncertainty, the Home Office has been overwhelmed by applications for permanent residence . A warning against punishing Britain “I must be clear. Britain wants to remain a good friend and neighbor to Europe. Yet, I know there are some voices calling for a punitive deal that punishes Britain and discourages other countries from taking the same path. That would be an act of calamitous self-harm for the countries of Europe. And it would not be the act of a friend. Britain would not — indeed, we could not — accept such an approach.” Since the referendum, Britain’s European partners have taken a hard line, warning that it cannot have an à la carte membership in which it cherry-picks the benefits it wants to retain. Some European leaders have also said that Britain should be punished in some way to deter other countries from trying to leave the European Union. In her speech, Mrs. May emphasized Britain’s friendship with Europe and said that the nation did not seek to unravel the union. But those comments were quickly followed by the threat that punitive measures against Britain could easily backfire. Case in point: This week, Philip Hammond, the chancellor of the Exchequer, suggested that Britain could transform itself into a corporate tax haven if the European Union failed to strike a trade agreement with the country.

Theresa May
Brexit
EU
Great Britain
International trade


Ohio Republican, Jean Schmidt, Ordered to Repay Turkish-American Group for Legal Fees

Abstract: Representative Jean Schmidt, Republican of Ohio, has been ordered by the House Ethics Committee to repay a Turkish-American group $500,000 for legal services it improperly paid for to help her pursue a defamation lawsuit and other legal proceedings against a Democratic opponent in the 2008 election. The action by the House committee, disclosed Friday, did not come with a formal punishment, because ethics investigators concluded that Ms. Schmidt had been misled by her own lawyers from the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund about who was paying the legal bills. Ms. Schmidt was ordered to amend her annual personal financial disclosure reports to acknowledge the gift from the Turkish Coalition of America, which actually paid the bills, and then reimburse the lawyers. In other action announced Friday, the House Ethics Committee admonished Michael Collins, an aide to Representative John Lewis, Democrat of Georgia, and ordered him to pay a $1,000 fine for failing to disclose $54,000 worth of payments he had received for working on Mr. Lewis’s re-election campaigns over five years and for failing to pay income taxes on the money. The committee also dismissed an investigation into Representative Luis V. Gutierrez, Democrat of Illinois, for being arrested outside the White House in July as part of a political protest. And it decided to spend more time examining allegations that Representative Gregory W. Meeks, Democrat of New York, failed to properly disclose a payment he received in 2007 from a Queens businessman. The case involving Ms. Schmidt has its origins in the move in 2007 by Armenian-Americans to get the House to pass a resolution formally recognizing the massacre of Armenians in Europe just after World War I. Turkish-American groups objected to the resolution, as Turkey has disputed the description of the events as genocide. Ms. Schmidt sided with the Turkish-American groups. One of her opponents in the 2008 race, who lost the Democratic nomination, accused her of taking “blood money” in the form of campaign contributions in return for her opposition to the House resolution. Ms. Schmidt ended up filing a $6.8 million defamation lawsuit, and the legal bills were improperly paid by the Turkish Coalition, the ethics committee concluded. There were also other legal challenges to her election, which were handled by lawyers paid by the coalition. Investigators from the Office of Congressional Ethics, which initiated the inquiry, found evidence that she knew she was getting the legal work free. But Ms. Schmidt also told investigators that she believed the work was being done on a contingency basis and that she intended to create her own legal defense fund to pay the bills, although no such defense fund was set up at the time the investigation began. In a statement Friday, Ms. Schmidt said she had been working for two years try to comply with the rules and that she never sought or received free legal fees. Her defamation suit is pending. The case against Mr. Collins did include a formal punishment, in the form of a “letter of reproval” and the fine, asserting that he had brought “discredit upon the House.” Mr. Collins, in his defense, explained that he had never received tax forms from Mr. Lewis’s campaign reporting the income. But the committee ruled that this was “not a sufficient excuse.”

House of Representatives
Ethics (Personal)


After Building Boom, Sharp Drop in New York Residential Construction

Abstract: After five consecutive years in which residential construction in New York exceeded 30,000 apartments and houses annually, fewer than 6,300 units will be built this year, according to the latest report from the New York Building Congress , an industry trade group. The abrupt reversal of fortunes in the residential market is one of the main reasons that construction spending is expected to fall by 20 percent this year to $25.8 billion, from a peak of $32.4 billion in 2008, according to an annual report released by the group on Wednesday morning. Spending is down in just about every category, including hotels, office buildings and public works. The bright spot is that the situation could have been worse, said Richard T. Anderson, president of the Building Congress. A year ago, the group forecast a 30 percent drop, with as many as 30,000 construction workers losing their jobs. It turns out, the report says, that the industry has lost 11,000 jobs this year. “It’s a declining construction market,” Mr. Anderson said, “but not as much as we anticipated.” Further, the report contends that the downturn may have bottomed out. Construction spending is not expected to fall below $25 billion in 2010 or 2011, although Mr. Anderson acknowledged that some industry executives were more pessimistic. “They’re way too exuberant,” the developer Douglas Durst said of the report. Commercial vacancy rates are continuing to rise, he said, and rents are falling. Indeed, the report shows a sharp drop in the construction of office towers, with only two buildings, the Diamond Center on West 47th Street and 1 World Trade Center , under way. It is unclear whether three other office towers at the former World Trade Center site will be built soon. Meanwhile, Boston Properties canceled two proposed office buildings on Eighth Avenue, and Vornado Realty Trust abandoned plans for a tower over the Port Authority Bus Terminal. And the nearly completed 40-story tower at 42nd Street and Eighth Avenue, 11 Times Square, still does not have a tenant. “I don’t think you’ll see another new commercial building for some time,” Mr. Anderson said. The residential market is more bleak. More than 460 residential projects have been delayed, nearly a third of them in Brooklyn, according to the latest figures from the city’s Buildings Department. Many analysts say it will take several years for the market to absorb all the luxury apartments that have been built recently. Even with the slowdown, Mr. Anderson said, construction spending in 2009 will be 45 percent greater than it was in 2004. Government spending, which is expected to account for 60 percent of construction activity this year in New York City , has held up better than expected, according to the report. The city’s capital spending program has remained above $10 billion, with much of the money going to schools, the extension of the No. 7 subway line and a water filtration plant in the Bronx. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is also spending billions of dollars rebuilding the World Trade Center. But the future is uncertain, given the multibillion-dollar financing gap in the state budget. The Port Authority has also been forced to stretch out its capital projects with the drop in revenue from bridges and tunnels. And the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is struggling financially and may have to postpone its five-year capital program.

New York City
Building (Construction)
Housing and Real Estate


Barriers Removed in Kyrgyzstan Despite Uzbek Protests

Abstract: OSH, Kyrgyzstan — Kyrgyz soldiers with heavy machinery pulled down barricades on Sunday that minority Uzbeks had erected to protect their neighborhoods and that have been among the most visible symbols of this city’s venomous ethnic divide. The work often proceeded under the sullen stares of Uzbeks who fear a renewal of attacks on them by ethnic Kyrgyz mobs that rampaged through Osh for several days this month. Witnesses said the Kyrgyz military committed some of the worst atrocities . All weekend long, Uzbeks had pleaded with the government to keep the roadblocks — a jury-rigged collection of damaged vehicles, cargo containers and other large objects — but officials refused , saying that all parts of this city had to be open to everyone. Some Uzbek leaders had said they were worried about a renewal of violence if the barriers were removed, but by Sunday night it appeared that most Uzbek neighborhoods were relatively quiet. Even so, both sides said they were deeply worried about more strife. “People do not believe anymore in this government,” said Zafar Akbaraliyev, 49, an Uzbek leader who owns a manufacturing business. “But we have no weapons and no armed forces of our own. So what can we do?” Many Uzbeks expressed resentment that the Kyrgyz military and the police were still maintaining checkpoints in Uzbek neighborhoods around Osh, saying that they were being regularly harassed. But at one checkpoint, one of the guards, an ethnic Kyrgyz named Bektemir Ergashev, 39, said the authorities were only searching for weapons to ensure that violence does not flare again. Still, Mr. Ergashev, who said he was a former Kyrgyz soldier called up to help with security, made clear that he believed the Uzbeks got what they deserved. He repeated a widely held rumor among ethnic Kyrgyz, saying that when the rioting broke out, Uzbeks had invaded a Kyrgyz women’s dormitory and raped several women. The police and hospitals have never provided any confirmation that such an assault occurred. Nor have Kyrgyz officials offered any evidence to back it up. “It was only when we heard that our women had been raped that we gathered together and decided that we had to defend the Kyrgyz people,” he said. “We had to take revenge on the Uzbeks.” Mr. Ergashev said he himself was not among those who attacked Uzbek neighborhoods. And he denied that the military was involved, saying that the assailants were ethnic Kyrgyz citizens. Numerous residents of Uzbek neighborhoods have said that soldiers on armored personnel carriers fired at them using automatic weapons. The violence in southern Kyrgyzstan killed thousands, mostly Uzbeks. It also touched off a major refugee crisis as hundreds of thousands of Uzbeks tried to escape, many going across the border to Uzbekistan, where large camps have been established. Ethnic Uzbeks make up only about 15 percent of Kyrgyzstan’s population, but they are concentrated here in the south, and they form a prosperous merchant class. The interim Kyrgyz government, which took office in April after the president was ousted in rioting, has accused him of instigating the bloodshed . He had denied it. The violence has severely destabilized Kyrgyzstan , which is the site of an American military base that assists the NATO mission in Afghanistan. In Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second largest city, arson fires set by ethnic Kyrgyz reduced many Uzbek neighborhoods to rubble, as if they had been strafed by bombs. With traffic flowing on many streets on Sunday, Uzbeks who had fled in terror were able to return for the first time to see what had happened to their homes and possessions. Some wailed or cursed or fell to their knees. Others just shook their heads silently. How would it be possible to recover from this? In the Cheryomushki neighborhood, a nursery school teacher, Feruza Mamasadikova, 33, wandered around the interior courtyard of her home, so livid she was talking to herself. She said she had hoped the back section of the house might have been spared, but it was not. Nothing was left. Hunks of charred debris were everywhere. Even the walls had burned to the ground. She said it seemed as if the rioters looted the place before igniting the gasoline. “They even took the carpets,” she said. “After that, they still had to set it on fire. Like beasts.” “We don’t know where we are going to get help,” she said. “Winter is going to come, and we don’t know where to live. Our ancestors lived here. Our grandparents and back and back. We don’t want to leave. We want to stay in this neighborhood.” “What kind of future do we have for our children?” Nearby, the home of Syedgulam Abdulladjanov, 66, was also destroyed. Mr. Abdulladjanov said there was only one way to resolve the bad blood between Uzbeks and Kyrgyz: Uzbeks must receive their own autonomous zone. “We must be separated from them,” he said. “We can rule over ourselves. We are a peaceful people.” Asked how he would rebuild, he sighed. He said he had kept all his life savings in cash in his home. The fire had taken that, too.

Kyrgyzstan
Osh (Kyrgyzstan)
Uzbeks (Ethnic Group)
Defense and Military Forces
Demonstrations and Riots


Boxing: Mayweather Knocks Out Ortiz in the Fourth Round

Abstract: LAS VEGAS — The final sequence came quickly, brutally, four rounds into Floyd Mayweather Jr. ’s latest boxing triumph on Saturday at the MGM Grand. One minute, his overwhelmed opponent, Victor Ortiz, was being deducted a point for a clear and illegal head butt, an egregious boxing sin. The next minute, Mayweather feigned as if to hug Ortiz, stepped back, and hit him hard, twice, first with a quick left hook and then with a devastating right hand. Ortiz fell to the canvas, knocked out, dazed, confused. He would not rise for several minutes. Ortiz had failed to heed one of boxing’s most basic rules: protect oneself at all times. He paid for it dearly. The crowd, though, which never seemed behind Mayweather, did not cheer the new World Boxing Council welterweight champion. In fact, it booed, loudly, lustily, as Mayweather assumed the role of villain once again. It is a role that Mayweather seems to relish more with each passing fight, that of heel, a champion, perhaps respected, but hated nonetheless. Mayweather swore at the HBO analyst Larry Merchant during an in-ring interview immediately after the bout. Even in victory, his mouth ran. And ran. And ran. Yet as the uproar rose to deafening, as the crowd rained boos around the ring, Mayweather again raised his arms in victory. He may be without filter, may be borderline unlikeable, but he is also now 42-0. “In the ring you have to protect yourself at all times,” Mayweather said. “We touched back after the break.” He added, “He did something dirty.” That was true, and the consensus at ringside afterward seemed to be that Mayweather, the victim of the purposeful headbutt, had not done anything illegal, even if he would not win any awards for sportsmanship. That is not his style anyway. The question now, as always, is whether Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao will ever cease with substandard opposition and actually fight each other. But that debate was for another night. Instead, one the strangest rounds in recent memory took center stage. The headbutt from Ortiz could in no way be construed as accidental, and in the aftermath, he did not even try to fashion an excuse. More bizarre still, after the headbutt, Ortiz pursued Mayweather into the corner, attempted to hug him and then planted what looked like a mid-fight kiss. “I’m not a dirty fighter,” Ortiz said afterward, claiming Mayweather had blindsided him. The television replays, however, showed a different story. Mayweather had walked slowly into MGM’s Grand Garden Arena, his shorts oversized and striped, as if designed by the Cincinnati Bengals, his rapper friend 50 Cent in tow. A hood hung over Mayweather’s eyes, and he did not smile, at least not until he stepped into the ring. All week, Mayweather promised he would stand with Ortiz, who outweighed him by 14 pounds on Saturday. And he did engage, early and often, feeding Ortiz with a steady diet of lead right hands. In the second round, Mayweather landed two big rights that snapped back Ortiz’s head. The longer the fight went on, the more Mayweather smiled as he danced around the ring, the more his right hand found Ortiz’s face. By the end of the fourth round, the question was not whether Ortiz would win the fight, but whether he could finish it. He was counted out at 2:59 of the round. The ending proved fitting, since the fight itself took place under a surreal backdrop, even by boxing’s circus-like standards, a confluence of crazy-strange to anyone not named Mayweather, but normal, too, given the Mayweather clan’s involvement. The fighter, a world champion in five weight classes, returned to the ring for the first time in 16 months. In recent weeks, he feuded with his father on HBO, contested numerous lawsuits and defended his legacy so loudly, so often, he seemed a bit jumpy, if not genuinely concerned. At the weigh-in Friday, he put his right hand on Ortiz’s neck, strange behavior for a 5:1 favorite. Ortiz, 10 years younger, visibly bigger, entered the ring with muscles carved like some sort of Greek boxing god. He came here with a back story worthy of the big screen: abandoned by his parents; guardian to his younger brother; a fighter who sang in the school choir and played piano; and whose leisure pursuits include skydiving and surfing and triathlons. If Ortiz had pursued another vocation, he said he would have become an architect. He constructed an unusual team. His trainers work day jobs, one a truck driver, one a landscaper, and his brother, when not in camp, drives a semi truck. Ortiz’s career path seemed equally unorthodox. In 33 career fights, he lost twice and earned two draws, yet he knocked every single opponent down. The power in both his hands was evident, but his mental state begged questions, especially after he quit two years ago in a fight against Marcos Maidana. Ortiz said he went into that contest with a broken wrist and had shot himself with cortisone, without telling his trainers. Still, doubt lingered, and even though Ortiz came into this fight as the W.B.C. titleholder, he said, “I don’t see myself as the champion.” And neither did anybody else. That status went to Mayweather, boxing’s most divisive figure, loved and hated, sometimes all at once. Ortiz often mentioned Mayweather’s “beautiful mouth,” and it worked overtime all month. In one odd twist, Mayweather took several shots at Oscar De La Hoya, the namesake of the company Mayweather hired to promote the fight, a boxing legend who recently left rehab. For his part, De La Hoya said Mayweather picked opponents too old, too green, or too damaged. The undefeated Mayweather bristled at that suggestion, although the last time he faced a fighter age 25 or younger was in January 2001. “I’ve been dominating the fight game since Victor Ortiz was 9 years old,” said Mayweather, who called this training camp his longest and most grueling. “And I’m still sharp.” So it went. So it ended, too. Thus another bizarre fight in Mayweather boxing history concluded. Boxing fans can only hope that Pacquiao is next.

Boxing
World Boxing Council
Mayweather Floyd Jr
Ortiz Victor


Cardinals Pick Up Pierzynski, Who Gives Them a Lift

Abstract: Matt Adams drove in four runs, A. J. Pierzynski had three hits in his Cardinals debut, and visiting St. Louis beat the Chicago Cubs, 6-3, to stop a four-game skid. Shelby Miller returned to the Cardinals’ rotation and pitched into the sixth inning. Adams hit a two-run double in the first and a two-run triple in the seventh, a four-run inning capped by Pierzynski’s single for a run. Randy Choate got the last out of the sixth in relief of Miller. Trevor Rosenthal worked around two hits in a scoreless ninth, earning his 31st save in 35 tries. Before the game, the Cardinals signed Pierzynski, a veteran catcher, and designated catcher George Kottaras for assignment to make room on the roster. The Cardinals have been looking for a steady presence behind the plate since Yadier Molina, an All-Star, went down with a torn ligament in his right thumb July 9. ROCKIES 8, PIRATES 1 Tyler Matzek allowed three hits over seven innings as host Colorado beat Pittsburgh for its third straight win. Ike Davis denied Colorado its first shutout at Coors Field this season with a one-out homer in the ninth. The game began with the Rockies handing out 15,000 jerseys with Troy Tulowitzki’s name misspelled in a giveaway gaffe. The second T was missing, so the backs read “Tulowizki.” The team said in a statement that it was aware of the misspelling but decided to hand out the jerseys because fans had come to the game specifically for the promotion. REDS 1, NATIONALS 0 Johnny Cueto struck out nine in seven innings, and Brayan Pena singled through a drawn-in infield for the only run, leading Cincinnati to a victory over visiting Washington that ended a seven-game losing streak. Cincinnati ended its longest losing streak in five years by getting several good defensive plays and another dominant performance by Cueto. MARINERS 4, ORIOLES 3 Chris Young allowed two hits in seven shutout innings, and host Seattle broke a four-game losing streak by holding off Baltimore. Dustin Ackley doubled twice and scored two runs for the Mariners. Over his past seven starts, the right-handed Young is 4-2 with a 2.12 earned run average and 43 strikeouts. Young has won nine games for the first time since 2007 with San Diego. ROYALS 7, INDIANS 5 Billy Butler homered for the second straight game, and Kansas City overcame a five-run deficit to defeat visiting Cleveland for its fifth straight win. A day after his pinch-hit, two-run homer in the eighth inning beat Cleveland, Butler connected for a tiebreaking shot in the fifth. BRAVES 5, PADRES 3 Freddie Freeman had three hits and a run batted in, Julio Teheran earned his 10th win, and host Atlanta beat San Diego. Tommy La Stella also had three hits and Chris Johnson drove in two runs as the Braves moved to one and a half games behind Washington, the National League East leader. RAYS 3, RED SOX 0 Tampa Bay beat visiting Boston for its ninth consecutive victory. The stretch is the second-longest in team history, three short of a 12-game winning streak in June 2004. Boston has lost five straight. Before the game, the Red Sox traded the right-hander Jake Peavy and cash to San Francisco for the minor league pitchers Edwin Escobar and Heath Hembree. ANGELS 4, TIGERS 0 Efren Navarro hit his first major league homer, off Justin Verlander, as Los Angeles blanked visiting Detroit. Matt Shoemaker threw just 78 pitches through seven innings, allowing three hits and no walks and striking out five. ATHLETICS 5, RANGERS 1 Sonny Gray won his sixth straight decision, helped when visiting Oakland hit four home runs in a six-batter span to beat Texas. John Jaso hit a two-run drive with two outs in the sixth inning. Yoenis Cespedes followed with his 17th home run. Josh Donaldson led off the seventh with another home run, and Josh Reddick connected two batters later. DIAMONDBACKS 10, PHILLIES 6 Martin Prado doubled, homered and drove in five runs, including a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the 10th inning, to lift visiting Arizona to a victory over Philadelphia. WHITE SOX 7, TWINS 0 Chris Sale tied a season high with 12 strikeouts in eight dominant innings, and Chicago beat host Minnesota for its third straight win over the Twins. Sale allowed five hits, all singles, and became the first White Sox starter to win 10 of his first 11 decisions in a season since Mark Buehrle in 2005. MARLINS 7, ASTROS 3 Giancarlo Stanton’s double in the second inning broke a 2-2 tie to give Miami a victory at Houston. Christian Yelich had two hits, including an R.B.I. single as part of the four-run inning. Houston lost its fourth straight and fell a season-high 20 games below .500 (42-62).

Chicago Cubs
Reds
Johnny Cueto
Baseball
Washington Nationals
St. Louis Cardinals


Perks Trimmed for Expatriate Financiers in Hong Kong

Abstract: HONG KONG — Reuters For most financial market professionals in this city and other hubs across Asia, the days of extravagant expatriate life have ended. For now, at least. The standard housing allowance of 200,000 Hong Kong dollars, or $25,641, per month for top bankers is gone or going, in most cases. Paid-for chauffeurs to carry executives and their families around the steep hills of Hong Kong are scarcer, as are free memberships to exclusive country, golf or dinner clubs that may otherwise cost more than 2.1 million dollars to join. Free private-school education for the children, costing about $10,000 per child per year at international schools, is getting scaled back, too. And in another sign of lean times, corporate boats for pleasure cruises around Hong Kong’s myriad beaches and outlying islands are getting auctioned off, with UBS among the financial institutions planning to part with a vessel reserved for employees and clients. Many banking executives from Wall Street and Europe still live a life of luxury in Asia. But for many others, the expatriate life of perks is a fading phenomenon. “Those kind of packages will not be offered to the extent they were in the past,” said Paul Lucas, vice president for real estate at Pricoa Relocation. Starting last December, Morgan Stanley, like other Wall Street banks, began rolling housing benefits into salaries. New hires, in most cases, will not be granted housing allowances, say three people inside the bank, who did not want to be named because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the policy. Hong Kong’s elite property agents, responsible for renting out the territory’s most desired addresses, including luxury condominiums and grand colonial mansions overlooking the iconic harbor, have been suffering of late. For one property specialist named Mr. Lai, the record was a 320,000 dollar-a-month mansion of about 4,000 square feet, or 370 square meters, with a full sea view. “Recently, though, we haven’t done many deals — only those around 100,000 dollars,” he said. Mr. Lai could only reveal his surname, given strict confidentiality agreements. Residential rental prices had dropped, by some estimates, more than 30 percent earlier this year. Prices have stabilized, and may soon rise, but they are still nowhere near the levels reached in early 2008. HSBC sold its boats several years ago but still owns bungalows throughout the region for off-site meetings and weekend getaways for employees lucky enough to be at the top of the waiting list. The cutbacks have been felt beyond Hong Kong. In Singapore, a rival expatriate haven sometimes preferred for its leafy, tropical environment and cleaner air, foreigners have also been pinched. “It is very rare now, unless you are talking about someone at a managing director level, for someone being offered an expat package,” said Craig Brewer, manager of banking and financial services at the staffing firm Hudson Global Resources in Singapore. But Singapore is less known for high-society privileges than Hong Kong, where ostentatious displays of wealth are a part of the city’s psyche. Most offshore recruits Mr. Brewer’s company deals with are hired on local terms, he said. The size of housing allowances may not seem like much for people within the financial industry. For those outside it, the numbers look staggering, especially considering that in New York City, between $5,000 and $10,000 per month will fetch an apartment with ample space. At many U.S. and European banks, the top housing allowance for expatriate managing directors was about 200,000 dollars a month. Even operations people within banks, who did not bring in fee revenue, could get 90,000 dollars a month. That is changing. And while the shift may not be public, its trail is evident. Anecdotal evidence gathered in the past six months suggests that many bankers have moved from palatial flats to more modest abodes, or relocated to less exclusive districts. “What we’ve seen amongst some financial institutions is that they’ve changed their benchmarks,” said Lee Quane, the Asian director of ECA International, which advises on expatriate packages and allowances. In addition to housing and school allowances, business-class air travel and free trips home used to be a given at financial institutions. For some, overseas packages included membership to recreation clubs like the Aberdeen Marina Club, where memberships can cost 2.1 million dollars. The pull-back is, not surprisingly, being met with some resistance. But given the extremity of the global financial crisis, a crisis fueled in large part by banks’ taking on too much risk, people generally understand the new policies. “They’re being backed into a corner,” said a U.S. fund manager and former banker, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. “They don’t like it, but there’s nowhere to go. There’s no alternative.” “Firms are saying, we need some of your skin in this game as well,” the former banker said.

Hong Kong
Investment Banking
Banks and Banking


Viacom in Cross Hairs of Activist Investor

Abstract: To Eric Jackson, an activist investor with SpringOwl Asset Management, Viacom appears to be a textbook-style target. The entertainment company, which owns Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount Pictures, has a slumping stock price, a well-compensated management team and board and a decade of missed opportunities online, according to Mr. Jackson. Viacom sold half its stake in Vice Media — a company now reportedly valued at more than $4 billion — for just millions in 2007, according to Mr. Jackson. He also took issue with Viacom counting the host of a CBS-produced show as an independent director, even though Viacom shares its chairman with CBS. In a new, 99-page report, Mr. Jackson outlined a plan — including replacing Viacom’s management and board, instituting a cost-cutting program and recruiting new leaders. He said these changes could increase the stock price by as much as 135 percent. But unlike Mr. Jackson’s previous campaigns, most notably at Yahoo, Viacom comes with the hurdle of a dual-class share structure. Sumner M. Redstone, Viacom’s 92-year-old chairman, holds a majority of the voting power through his holding company, National Amusements, meaning any changes would have to come at the will of the media mogul. Frustrated shareholders, who include Gamco Investors’ chief executive, Mario Gabelli, have had no recourse other than to complain publicly. “At the end of the day, they can tell us to pound sand, and we’re kind of stuck,” Mr. Jackson, a managing director at SpringOwl, said in a phone interview. “Viacom made sense to own because even though we’ve got some strong criticisms over the C.E.O., it’s so lowly valued, in our view, there could be a number of things that become catalysts.” Mr. Jackson owns a relatively small amount of Viacom, well below the threshold of 5 percent required to file with regulators. “Viacom’s board and management team are completely focused on delivering long-term value to shareholders,” said a Viacom spokesman, Carl Folta. “We are looking to the future, and the opportunities ahead.” Activist Investor's Report on Viacom The company, which owns Nickelodeon, MTV and Paramount Pictures, has a slumping stock price, a well-compensated management team and board and a decade of missed opportunities online, says Eric Jackson. He added that the company was “encouraged by the growth in our strong international business, the ratings upswings at most of our networks, Paramount’s strong start in 2016, our leadership position in advertising technology and other positive recent developments.” Viacom’s stock price has underperformed peers, currently trading at half the level of its July 2014 peak. The report estimates that replacing Viacom’s chief executive, Philippe P. Dauman, could provide the most upside to the stock. Mr. Dauman, along with the chief operating officer, Thomas E. Dooley, were granted a combined $432 million in cash and stock over the five years through 2014, higher than comparable executives at CBS, Disney, Time Warner and Fox, according to SpringOwl figures. Mr. Jackson declined to specify who would be a fit replacement for Mr. Dauman, but suggested that someone would need to have a better understanding of digital strategies. Viacom, under Mr. Dauman’s leadership, had sold the half of Vice Media it owned for $3 million in 2007, the report showed. He also suggested that the management team consider partnerships for Paramount Pictures with Alibaba or Amazon, as well as a merger with AMC. Mr. Jackson also notes how Mr. Redstone, facing a legal battle from a former companion questioning his mental capacity, has skipped earnings calls and shareholder meetings. Mr. Jackson criticizes the makeup of Viacom’s board, saying that only 27 percent could truly be classified as independent. Viacom counts Deborah Norville, host of the CBS-produced program “Inside Edition,” as an independent director, even though Mr. Redstone also owns a controlling stake in CBS. Mr. Jackson says he has had little luck reaching executives at Viacom. “We have reached out to the company to try and communicate these ideas, and it hasn’t been a great experience getting a hold of them so far,” Mr. Jackson said. Separately, a shareholder filed a lawsuit contending that board members of Viacom and CBS are conflicted and have put the interests of the Redstone family before that of those of the companies. The suit charges a breach of fiduciary duty and a waste of corporate assets. In the suit, E. F. Greenberg says that none of the directors are independent and that they are responsible for “substantial financial and reputational damages” at the companies. One example is the “many millions of dollars” paid to Mr. Redstone for serving as executive chairman of Viacom and CBS while “physically and mentally incapacitated.” The suit is based on the accusations made by Mr. Redstone’s former companion, Manuela Herzer, in a separate court battle. Mr. Folta, the Viacom spokesman, called the shareholder suit “without merit.” Dana McClintock, a CBS spokesman, declined to comment. Viacom’s chief executive has said that while Mr. Redstone has physical disabilities he is engaged and attentive. During the three-year period from 2012 to 2014, Mr. Redstone’s total compensation from the two companies was more than $169 million.

Viacom
Eric Jackson
SpringOwl
Shareholder Rights
Philippe P Dauman
Sumner M Redstone


Jay Bruce Homer Helps Mets Beat Marlins and Protect Wild-Card Lead

Abstract: MIAMI — Although he said the right things and carried himself well, the struggles and the time on the bench annoyed Jay Bruce. He was streaky at the plate, but he was a proven power hitter with three All-Star Game selections who had hit at least 20 home runs in eight major league seasons, including this year. The Mets had traded for him on Aug. 1, but by mid-September, with the Mets in a must-win situation, Bruce looked like a spare part. Last week, he was not in the starting lineup for five of six games, having been passed over for other options in right field. In the meantime, Bruce worked with the Mets’ hitting coaches to fix his timing. The efforts have proved fruitful for the Mets, highlighted by Wednesday’s 5-2 win over the Miami Marlins. As the Mets have inched to the threshold of a National League wild-card spot, Bruce has been the team’s most powerful hitter. “He’s locked in,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said. “It couldn’t come at a better time.” With the Mets clinging to a 3-2 lead in the fifth inning, Bruce smashed a two-run homer, his third home run in five games. James Loney had tied the score with a two-run blast in the second, and Jose Reyes gave the Mets a lead with an R.B.I. double, but Bruce’s homer and his recent improvements are encouraging signs for a team in a tight playoff race. Wednesday’s victory meant the Mets’ magic number — a combination of wins for them and losses for the St. Louis Cardinals — was at two. The soonest that the Mets, who are off on Thursday, can secure a wild-card berth is Friday. At the conclusion of their game Wednesday, the Mets held a one-game lead over the San Francisco Giants, who entered their late game against the Rockies a game and a half ahead of the Cardinals. “If we win, we’re in, and we’re going to play whoever we’re going to play at our place,” Bruce said. Bruce’s surge — along with strong recent contributions from Asdrubal Cabrera, Curtis Granderson and Lucas Duda — has helped a team that has been getting by on pitching. The rookie starter Seth Lugo, who has helped solidify the Mets’ rotation amid several other injuries, allowed two runs over five and a third innings. “This kid has done nothing but come here and save us,” Collins said. Holding a lead, Mets relievers Fernando Salas, Addison Reed and Jeurys Familia fired three scoreless innings. Familia became the first pitcher born in the Dominican Republic to notch 50 saves. “It’s something very important to represent my country,” said Familia, who thanked his coaches and teammates. For their critical final weekend of the season, the Mets are considering all their pitching options as they try to secure a wild-card berth, but they must balance that with their desire to have their best starters available for a potential wild-card game on Oct. 5. “Right now, we’re full-bore to get in,” Collins said. Collins said the Mets were debating whether to start Bartolo Colon on short rest Friday at Philadelphia. That would make him available to start a wild-card game in case Noah Syndergaard had to pitch in a meaningful game Sunday. Syndergaard, the Mets’ best healthy pitcher, pitched on Tuesday and is tentatively scheduled for the regular-season finale, on Sunday. If the Mets have secured a wild-card spot by then, Syndergaard might throw only 25 pitches in the game to keep him sharp for the wild-card game. But if they have not secured a berth, Syndergaard will pitch as normal, Collins said. Colon, the Mets’ second-best healthy starter, is scheduled to pitch Saturday but could serve as essentially Syndergaard’s wild-card-game backup. Colon started Monday and threw only 47 pitches, so losing one day of rest to pitch again on Friday makes some sense. Another wrinkle: Even if the Mets have a guaranteed wild-card spot by Sunday, the day’s results could determine where the wild-card game will be played. That could make it tempting to use Syndergaard in the finale, which would most likely rule him out for the wild-card game three days later. “We want to go as far as we can,” Collins said. “If that means saving him to get us to the next round, we’ve got to certainly consider it.” All the dizzying playoff scenarios and pitching possibilities aside, the Mets have not guaranteed anything yet. Their win on Wednesday kept them in position to decide their own future in their final three-game series, over the weekend at Philadelphia. Some help from the offense has benefited the Mets’ pitching staff. Duda was off on Wednesday as he slowly worked his way back into game shape, so Loney started at first. He fittingly provided the home run that tied the score in the second. Lugo helped his cause with a double in the fourth inning and scored when Reyes doubled to give the Mets a one-run lead. The Mets seized control of the game for good in the fifth inning. Granderson, who has contributed significantly this month, smacked a single with one out, one of his eight straight times reaching base since Tuesday. Bruce then smashed a pitch over the right-field wall for a three-run lead. “I just wanted to come here and play good baseball and be a professional and contribute to the team,” Bruce said. “Lately I’ve been able to do that more, and that’s very, very important.”


Scores of Migrants From Niger Found Dead in Sahara

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — The decomposing bodies of 87 migrants from the impoverished West African nation of Niger were discovered in the Sahara this week just a few miles from a well, apparently stranded after a desperate search for water, said the head of a local humanitarian organization who helped bury many of the bodies. Two trucks carrying the migrants — men, women and children — broke down in the northern desert while trying to reach neighboring Algeria, said Almoustapha Alhacen, speaking by telephone from Arlit, where they started their journey on Sept. 26. Responders, himself included, found groups of corpses — 15 here, 11 there — scattered in a wide radius around a well that the victims had tried to reach. Five other victims were discovered earlier, for a total of 92 dead. At least 52 of the victims were children, said Mr. Alhacen, who heads a nongovernmental organization called Aghirin Man in Arlit, 120 miles south of the border. One of the trucks broke down less than 10 miles from the well. The mayor of Arlit, Abderrahmane Maouli, said by phone, “Between the vehicle and the well, they were scattered here and there, a bit everywhere.” Mr. Alhacen described a grim scene. “It was horrible,” he said. “Very difficult. They were dehydrated, decomposed. Some of them had been eaten by jackals. You couldn’t recognize them. Some had died of thirst.” The victims are thought to have been Nigeriens fleeing one of the world’s poorest countries — Niger ranks last on the United Nations Human Development Index — in search of opportunity in relatively prosperous Algeria, flush with oil revenue, across the border. Image Men covered the bodies of migrants who died of thirst in the Sahara. At least 52 of the victims were children, an official said. Credit Almoustapha Alhacen/Associated Press Mr. Maouli said migrant deaths in the desert were relatively common. But the scale of the latest disaster was beyond anything the region had yet experienced. “This is the biggest,” he said. “We’ve never seen anything like this.” Migrants pushed back from more prosperous lands in the north congregate in the Nigerien desert city of Agadez to the south of Arlit, said Ismael Mahamane of the International Organization for Migration in that city; thousands more use Agadez as a staging point. Marou Amadou, Niger’s justice minister and the government spokesman, said: “This is a huge worry for the government. It’s growing by the day.” Scattered among the remains were copies of the Quran, as well as the small blackboards that young students use to copy verses, Mr. Alhacen said. Those details led him and the mayor to speculate that teachers and their students were among the victims — perhaps would-be mendicants in the regional culture of religious begging. Out of 113 who plunged into the desert in late September, bypassing the main road and its checkpoints, 21 survived, Mr. Alhacen said. Two, both smugglers, made it back to Arlit and are in jail, he said; 19 reached the Algerian city of Tamanrasset and were sent back. “They were doing this illegally, so they didn’t take the road,” Mr. Maouli said. The bodies were discovered over the course of weeks, Mr. Alhacen said. One of the trucks broke down about 30 miles from Arlit; the two smugglers were on that one, and their account led to the earlier discovery of five bodies, still on or around the vehicle. Then, a driver came upon the second truck, which broke down a few miles from the Algerian frontier. He reported to the police in Arlit that he had seen 11 bodies, Mr. Alhacen said. A rescue mission was then organized, and that led to the discovery of further groups of bodies in the desert. “This has been really, really tough,” Mr. Alhacen said.


Mongolia’s Democracy Tested by Ex-President’s Arrest

Abstract: BEIJING — Mongolia ’s previous president has spent more than a week on a hunger strike , protesting a detention that he says is aimed at preventing him from running in the country’s coming parliamentary election. With the health of Nambaryn Enkhbayar, the former president, deteriorating rapidly, the government is holding firm, throwing Mongolia’s young democracy into turmoil in a crisis freighted by dueling accusations of corruption and human rights abuses. “This is likely to open a Pandora’s box,” said Mark C. Minton, a former American ambassador to Mongolia. “It will do no good for Mongolia’s reputation and due process or rule of law, which is already shallowly rooted.” In an eerie echo of a political protest in Ukraine, Mr. Enkhbayar, who served as prime minister before leading the country as president for four years until 2009, has refused to cooperate with his interrogators, who barred his lawyers during the questioning. The confrontation intensified when Mr. Enkhbayar, 53, stopped eating and drinking after a local court extended his detention until the eve of the June 28 parliamentary election. The drama began one evening last month when men from Mongolia’s anticorruption agency dragged Mr. Enkhbayar from his car in front of his parents’ home in the capital, Ulan Bator, and tried to arrest him. After his bodyguard intervened and the attempt failed, hundreds of police officers raided the house at dawn the next morning, witnesses say, and hauled the former president, shoeless and with a bag over his head, to jail. All of it was captured on live television. Mongolia, a country with just three million people but abundant natural resources wedged between China and Russia, has been widely lauded by American officials as a bastion of democracy in a region where the rule of law and due process are rare. That reputation is now being called into question. The government and its supporters see the jailing of Mr. Enkhbayar on corruption allegations as long-overdue justice for a man they say enriched himself and his family at the country’s expense. Mr. Enkhbayar’s allies say his detention is a naked attempt by the government to vanquish a political foe and a dangerous regression to practices honed during the Soviet era, which ended two decades ago. “This is a purge,” his son Batshugar Enkhbayar, 25, an American-educated investment banker, said in a telephone interview. “The true motivation is purely to keep him away from the election and remove him from politics.” The government, headed by Mr. Enkhbayar’s rival, President Tsakhia Elbegdorj, has remained largely silent on the matter. Much is at stake in the parliamentary election, whose outcome will guide the exploitation of Mongolia’s vast deposits of coal , copper, uranium and gold. The country’s economy is booming as global demand soars. But most Mongolians have yet to benefit from this wealth. In the capital, thousands of herders who left the countryside in recent years live in slums, while the elite drive sports utility vehicles along its crumbling streets and shop at Louis Vuitton and Armani stores. Mining is a major source of contention for Mongolians, many of whom bristle at deals giving multinational corporations much of the spoils. Ivanhoe Mines of Canada, for example, owns a 66 percent stake in the Oyu Tolgoi mine, one of the world’s largest deposits of copper and gold. Mr. Enkhbayar was campaigning in opposition to that deal. Public frustration over corruption and poverty has a history of turning violent in Mongolia. Hundreds rioted during the last parliamentary elections four years ago when the leader of the Democratic Party, Mr. Elbegdorj, accused Mr. Enkhbayar’s government of voter fraud. Mr. Elbegdorj was swept into power the next year, and the mutual enmity has only grown. After his defeat, Mr. Enkhbayar founded the Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party, which is expected to play kingmaker after the parliamentary election. So when Mongolia’s Independent Agency Against Corruption showed up last month forcefully demanding to question Mr. Enkhbayar, his supporters cried foul. The allegations, which relate to his time in office, include the purchase of a hotel and an accusation that he misdirected donations intended for a Buddhist monastery. Some complaints appear to be rather picayune, including suggestions that he used his authority to decrease a customs duty on the shipment to South Korea of eight copies of a book he had written. To fight the allegations, Mr. Enkhbayar’s family has used its connections and media savvy to raise global attention, staging candlelight vigils at the prison gates and hiring a powerful legal team. One of Mr. Enkhbayar’s lawyers is Peter Goldsmith, a former British attorney general and a member of the House of Lords, who visited Mongolia but was not allowed to see his client. He called the accusations “insubstantial, stale and petty.” Just as troubling, Mr. Goldsmith said, are Mr. Enkhbayar’s detention without formal charge and the mistreatment of his supporters. Mr. Enkhbayar’s party secretary was harassed after being called into a police station, and another party member was detained for collecting petition signatures, Mr. Goldsmith said. “Everyone had hoped Mongolia had broken away from the Soviet chain,” he said in a phone interview. “But this is Soviet stuff.” The saga surrounding Mr. Enkhbayar is similar, in the accusations and the protest, to the recent controversy in another erstwhile Soviet dominion, Ukraine. Last year, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko was convicted of abuse of power and sentenced to prison in a case that critics say was driven by the political motives of her main rival, Ukraine’s president. To protest her imprisonment, which has drawn widespread international criticism, Ms. Tymoshenko began a hunger strike in April, agreeing to end her 20-day fast only after being transferred to a hospital. Mr. Enkhbayar’s supporters have used his fast to highlight what they perceive to be evidence of government malfeasance. They are particularly suspicious of Bat Khurts, whom President Elbegdorj appointed deputy director of the anticorruption agency last year. A former director of Mongolia’s top spy agency, Mr. Khurts was arrested in Britain in 2010 in connection with the drugging and kidnapping of a Mongolian dissident seven years earlier. According to the European arrest warrant, Mr. Khurts drove the kidnapped dissident from France to Berlin, where the man was trundled onto a Mongolian Airlines flight to Ulan Bator and forcibly repatriated. A British court extradited Mr. Khurts to Germany, where he was imprisoned. He was released last year. After he began his hunger strike, Mr. Enkhbayar was moved to a hospital, but his family has been allowed to see him only briefly. “He’s very weak,” his son Batshugar said. The last time he saw his father, he said, a pair of interrogators sat in the room, one videotaping and the other writing down the conversation. The visit lasted 20 minutes. Still, Mr. Enkhbayar’s hunger strike, said Mr. Minton, the former American ambassador, has left Mongolia’s government looking confused and uncoordinated. “They got a lot more than they bargained for,” he said.

Mongolia
Hunger Strikes
Elections
Enkhbayar Nambaryn
Corruption (Institutional)


On Central Park Benches, Inscriptions Remember the Dead and Celebrate Life

Abstract: In this city, known for its writers, even Central Park’s benches have stories to tell. From marriage proposals and deaths to cast members celebrating a Broadway success, each adopted bench is maintained for life and engraved with a personal message. “Michelle, will you marry me? Love, John,” reads a brass plaque on a bench near the zoo. She said yes. “I love you very much and look forward to marrying you ... but if we have a fight you can always sleep here,” are the words inscribed on the bench Leelee Brown Jaffe gave her husband as a wedding present. The personalized messages are part of an adopt-a-bench program started in 1986 by the volunteer women’s committee of the Central Park Conservancy , a nonprofit group that manages the park under a contract with the city. The program finances the maintenance and care of the park’s roughly 9,000 benches. So far, 2,000 benches have been adopted, most for $7,500 each, depending on the model. Besides the women who love the park, two men named Lou are central to the operation. Lou Young, 50, is a big man with a shaved head, resembling a thinner Mr. T, with a gold tooth engraved with the number 13. He has worked for the city’s parks department for 25 years and is responsible for installing the message-bearing plaques on the benches. The other Lou, Lou Urruttia-Orme, builds one type of bench, the Rustic Bench, which sells for $25,000. Other styles include the Central Park Settee and the World’s Fair Bench. While many benches are still awaiting adoption, some areas of the park no longer have any available. These popular areas include any space next to water, as well as spots near the Literary Walk, the Alice in Wonderland and Hans Christian Andersen statues, and Strawberry Fields. Not too long ago, Naomi Bishop, 21, arrived at the conservancy’s offices on East 60th Street, with a gold Godiva chocolate box filled with crumpled bills and checks that she had collected from friends and relatives. She started to cry as she told Laura Hall, the associate vice president of development of the women’s committee, about her father’s dying wish for a bench. “I promise I’m going to get it for you,” she had assured her father. Her father was nicknamed Joyo, the name of a Javanese magician, after whom he named his online news service. Ms. Bishop said her father was a poet and a political activist who raised her by himself on West 56th Street after her mother was killed in a car accident. On a frigid December afternoon, Ms. Bishop admired the plaque in her father’s memory on a bench on Cherry Hill, off West 72nd Street. “1946-Gordon ‘Joyo’ Bishop-2007, ode to his poetry, revolution & magic, love from cherished family & friends ‘Eons passed a multitude of miracles.’” “Central Park was his getaway,” Ms. Bishop said. Farther south and on the park’s eastern side, the message to be inscribed on a bench near Scholars’ Gate at East 60th Street will read, “59th wedding anniversary 2008 on June ’43 Lt. Nathan Polsky and his love Janet sat here from dusk to dawn before he left to serve overseas.” The bench was recently adopted by Janet Polsky, who is now 84. “Every time I walk past that bench, I remember,” she said. “We were only 19. I recall looking behind me and seeing the light coming up through the trees. We sat without fear. We always seemed to have a world of things to say to each other, what we were studying, what we wanted to do, who we wanted to become.” Mr. and Mrs. Polsky had gone to high school and prom together in Brooklyn. Nathan had just started college when he was sent to be a cadet in the Army Air Corps. It was a warm June night. She was lightly dressed. He wore his uniform, his suitcase packed. Laughing softly, Ms. Polsky remembered, “We kissed lightly. We were rather young and innocent.” For years she had her eye on the bench. This year, when she finally decided to officially adopt it, all of the surrounding benches were taken, except for that one. “It was waiting for me,” said Ms. Polsky, a retired social worker, who will share the bench and the memories with her husband, who is also 84. Sara Cedar Miller, the conservancy’s Central Park historian, has a bench. Annie Leibovitz recently bought one for her aunt. The Helmsleys bought many benches. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg gives them out as gifts. Many are inscribed in code, “To my knight in shining armor; the love of my life,” reads one, signed at the bottom, “Mouse.” On a recent day, Paul and Shirley Harrison, bundled-up visitors from York, England, were sitting on one of four benches near the model boat pond, honoring “H.B.P. 1889-1984.” Read together, the four benches spell out a love poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson. “It’s a little too deep for me,” Mr. Harrison said with a shrug, holding his wife’s hand. “It means something to somebody.” Linda C. Kobetitsch, 42, recently adopted a bench along her running route around the Great Lawn. Working in finance can be stressful, so she runs in the middle of the workday, three or four miles, several times a week. “Sit. Relax. Take a deep breath. Enjoy the day. Linda C. Kobetitsch,” the plaque reads. “My bench is not a memorial,” emphasized Ms. Kobetitsch, who lives in West New York, N.J. “I’m not a yogi, but I try to be calm. My bench is for New Yorkers, for when you need to take a break from the craziness which surrounds us.” Though the benches are available to anyone who might need a breather, some people do get proprietary about their particular benches. “We get calls from people who say, ‘Somebody’s sitting on my bench,’” said Ms. Hall of the women’s committee. “They want us to call the park police.”

Central Park Conservancy
Parks and Other Recreation Areas
Writing and Writers
Central Park (NYC)


Palestinian Assailants Are Killed After Knife Attack on 2 Israeli Women

Abstract: JERUSALEM — Two Palestinian assailants stabbed two Israeli women in a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Monday, wounding one of them severely, before being fatally shot by a security guard, according to the Israeli police. It was the third stabbing attack inside a West Bank settlement in eight days, and in all three cases the victims were women. A 23-year-old woman was critically wounded in Monday’s attack in the settlement of Beit Horon, and another woman, 58, was in moderate condition, according to the Magen David Adom ambulance service. In a new twist — after four months of Palestinian stabbings, car rammings and gun attacks against Israelis — the police and the military said three explosive devices had been found near the scene of the attack. The devices, which the police described as improvised pipe bombs, did not explode. The police identified Monday’s assailants as a Palestinian man and teenager, about 22 and 16. The older one, they said, was a resident of the Palestinian village of Beit Ur al-Tahta, near Beit Horon. The two women were stabbed outside a grocery store in the settlement, according to the police. The assailants then headed for the store. Security camera footage appeared to show two men in dark hoodies trying to enter with knives in their hands as the store owner blocked them with a shopping cart. As they ran further into the settlement, a security guard shot and killed them. About 25 Israelis, an American student and one Palestinian bystander have been killed in the attacks since Oct. 1. About 150 Palestinians have been killed during the same period. Up to two-thirds of them have been described by Israel as assailants. Others have been killed during protests and clashes with the Israeli security forces in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, and along Israel’s border with Gaza. An Israeli mother of six, Dafna Meir, was stabbed to death in the doorway of her home in the settlement of Otniel on Jan. 17, and a pregnant woman was wounded in a separate attack in a secondhand clothing charity store in Tekoa, another settlement, a day later. In both cases the suspects, who are under arrest, are 15-year-old Palestinian boys. Israel’s Shin Bet security agency said the Otniel attacker told his interrogators that he had been influenced by Palestinian television broadcasts that cast Israel as “a killer of young Palestinians.” Israel’s leaders attribute much of the violence to what they describe as incitement in the Palestinian news media and on social networks. Palestinians say the frustrations caused by the Israeli occupation are at the root of the outburst of violence. Many settlements employ Palestinians for maintenance and other work. While some settlements are surrounded by fences fitted with sensors and security cameras, others have refused to be fenced off on ideological grounds. On Saturday, a Palestinian girl, 13, was fatally shot by an Israeli security guard at the entrance to the West Bank settlement of Anatot after she ran at him with a knife. The police and relatives said she had set out from her home in the nearby Palestinian village of Anata after arguing with her family. “These difficult times are fraught with confrontation and we will overcome,” Israel’s president, Reuven Rivlin, said in a statement. “We will continue to fight against terrorism and the incitement which drives it. In the face of terror, we choose life.” Also Monday, the Israeli authorities announced that they had arrested twin sisters from a Palestinian village in the West Bank who were plotting terrorist attacks against Israelis. The 18-year-old sisters were arrested about a month ago after pipe bombs, materials to prepare explosives and headbands of Hamas, the Islamic militant group, were found during a search of their home, according to Shin Bet. The agency said in a statement that one of the sisters bought the chemicals after learning how to make bombs from instruction videos on the Internet. The other sister helped hide the bombs, Shin Bet said. They have been charged in an Israeli military court on counts including building explosive devices.

Palestinians
West Bank
Israel
Terrorism
Assault
Women and Girls
Israeli settlement
Fatalities,casualties


Australian Central Bank Cuts Key Interest Rate

Abstract: HONG KONG — The Australian central bank dropped its key interest rate to a record-low 2.75 percent Tuesday, becoming the latest central bank in recent weeks to try to stimulate growth. Few analysts had expected the central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, to deliver a rate cut at its policy meeting, and the reduction, by a quarter of a percentage point, prompted the Australian dollar to decline about half a cent against the U.S. dollar, to $1.019. In a statement accompanying the rate decision, Glenn Stevens, the central bank’s governor, struck a sanguine note about the global economy, saying it was “likely to record growth a little below trend this year before picking up next year,” with the United States currently on a path of moderate expansion and China’s growth running at a robust pace. And although commodity prices — which are important to resource-rich Australia — have moderated in recent months, they “remain high by historical standards,” he added. Still, unemployment has edged up despite a string of rate cuts in recent years, and investment in mining, a major source of economic activity, is projected to peak this year. A persistently strong Australian dollar has weighed on the economy. The currency has climbed against the U.S. dollar for much of the past 12 years, with only a brief slump after the Lehman Brothers collapse in late 2008, and reached parity with the U.S. dollar for the first time since 1982 in late 2010. It has been worth more than $1 for much of the time since then. The exchange rate’s strength over the past 18 months, Mr. Stevens said, “is unusual, given the decline in export prices and interest rates during that time.” The central bank thus decided that “a further decline in the cash rate was appropriate to encourage sustainable growth in the economy,” he continued. The fact that inflation in Australia, at 2.5 percent during the first quarter of this year, remains within the central bank’s comfort level also provided the leeway for a reduction in interest rates, analysts said. The rate cut Tuesday was the seventh by the Australian central bank since November 2011 and took the total reduction in borrowing costs to 2 percentage points. “Further easing looks unlikely at the moment,” analysts at Standard Chartered said in a research note, adding that the central bank was likely to wait for more data before making further moves. “However, continued sluggishness in both the domestic and global economies will increase the risk of a rate cut, inflation permitting,” they said. The Australian move follows recent efforts in several other regions and countries to prop up growth. Both the European Central Bank and the Reserve Bank of India lowered borrowing costs last week in a bid to bolster growth, which has been flagging. And in Japan, the central bank and the government have announced spending plans and asset purchases and have promised measures to attract investment in an effort to combat deflation and reignite growth.


Federal Subsidy Programs Show Political Staying Power

Abstract: JOHNSTOWN, Pa. — It is called the airport to nowhere, and for years taxpayers have footed the bill. On the outskirts of this faded steel town, the John Murtha Johnstown-Cambria County Airport boasts a modern runway, a high-tech security area and even a trendy restaurant. It lacks one thing: passengers. Each year, Washington’s Essential Air Service program pays about $1.6 million for three daily flights between here and Dulles International Airport outside Washington. Most flights have 10 or fewer people on board and the airport is virtually deserted. Many travelers drive two hours to Pittsburgh , where fares are often lower and flights are plentiful. Governments have long financed wasteful or even unnecessary programs, but at a moment when both parties seem to agree that spending is out of control, the durability of small-town airport subsidies, which have outlasted four presidents who opposed them, underscores the political difficulties of cutting even the smallest projects. Subsidies for little-used airports and roads, special interests like peanut and cotton farmers and a plethora of other programs have survived thanks to powerful interest groups and strong bipartisan support in Congress. The Johnstown airport ’s name honors the late congressman who made sure his hometown got its fair share of Washington money. The subsidy programs are as varied as warehouses that allow farmers to store cotton and peanuts at government expense until prices rise and an estimated $100 million tax break for owners of Nascar racetracks. Various private and government studies show that nearly $1.8 trillion over the next five years could be saved by eliminating or reducing spending on some of the subsidies. “You can’t blame the survival of these programs on just Democrats or Republicans, it’s both,” said Representative Jeff Flake, Republican of Arizona , who has proposed cutting several of the programs. “But if we can’t cut small programs worth millions of dollars that benefit a few, how are we going to make serious cuts and get this country on the right track?” A close look at two programs highlights the age-old politics protecting government spending. The peanut and cotton storage program, which costs $1 million a year, has repeatedly survived cuts thanks to bipartisan support. Under the program, the government picks up storage costs for cotton and peanut farmers when they defer selling crops until prices rise. The peanut storage credits have been around since 2002. The cotton subsidy dates to the 1990s. President George W. Bush tried to eliminate the storage credits in 2008, specifically mentioning them when he vetoed the farm bill . But his veto was overridden by a bipartisan coalition of rural lawmakers who supported farm programs and legislators from urban areas who backed food stamp and school nutrition programs. The Obama administration has twice tried to kill the storage program, but the National Cotton Council and the American Peanut Shellers Association , as well as lawmakers from cotton and peanut producing states like Georgia and Florida , teamed up to save it. The program’s biggest champion has been Representative Sanford D. Bishop Jr., Democrat of Georgia, whose district has many of the state’s nearly 3,000 peanut farmers. Mr. Bishop, a member of the Appropriations Committee, has for five years blocked efforts to cut the program, taking to the floor last month to denounce amendments to eliminate the credits. “I’m in favor of making the necessary cuts needed to reduce our debt,” he said in an interview. “But it shouldn’t be made off the backs of farmers, the people who produce our food.” Mr. Bishop’s allies include Representative Jack Kingston and Senator Saxby Chambliss , both Republicans from Georgia. When the program was due to expire in 2007, Mr. Kingston, who is chairman of an agriculture appropriations subcommittee, pushed to continue it. After the White House tried to scrap the payments last year, Mr. Chambliss, a member of the Agriculture Committee, said the administration was “unfairly targeting farmers.” But in an e-mail statement last week, Mr. Chambliss indicated that the program might not escape the Congressional ax. “Everything must be on the table, and everyone must share in the budgeting pain,” he said. Like the cotton and peanut payments, the Essential Air Service program is a survivor. It began in 1978 as a $7 million effort for 10 years to help small towns keep air service when airlines were deregulated. By 1996 it was permanent, and now costs about $200 million a year covering 150 mostly small and rural communities. After President Ronald Reagan failed to eliminate it in 1985, Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush tried, only to see Congress add money to the program. This year, Senators John McCain of Arizona and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma , both Republicans, proposed ending the program, but the Senate voted it down by a wide margin. A 2009 government report found that low-cost airlines gave travelers more options than they had decades ago. Surveys by the Transportation Department show that in more than 90 percent of the communities, travelers said they were willing to drive 150 miles or more for cheaper fares. Still, William Polacek, vice chairman of the Johnstown-Cambria County Airport Authority, said the program was critical to growth and economic development in the area. “Take away the flights and it would be really inconvenient for local businesses to get to other markets and for those who want to do business here,” he said. Airport and aviation groups have repeatedly rallied in opposition to any cuts in the program. Roger Cohen, president of the Regional Airline Association , said the program was modest government investment . “It’s called essential for a reason,” Mr. Cohen said. “In many of these areas there is no other way to travel other than to drive for hours.” A powerful coalition of rural and urban Democrats and Republicans agree, and have managed to save the program, even increase its financing this year to $200 million, up almost 50 percent. When Mr. McCain proposed ending the program, he faced opposition from rural Republican lawmakers in Kansas and Mississippi who joined Democrats from Nebraska and West Virginia . The coalition drew support from senators like Charles E. Schumer , Democrat of New York, who said eliminating the subsidy would cost jobs and stifle growth. The Senate agreed to scale back the program to fewer cities. A House-approved bill would reduce financing for the program until 2013, before eliminating it except in Alaska and Hawaii . The House and Senate will work out their differences but already a bipartisan effort lead by Representatives Adrian Smith, Republican of Nebraska, and Michael H. Michaud, Democrat of Maine , is under way to preserve the program. Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition , a nonpartisan budget watchdog group in Washington, predicted the subsidies might yet survive. “These programs are like vampires, you just can’t kill them,” Mr. Bixby said. “Just when you think they are dead, they manage to rise up.”

Airport
US Politics
Federal Aid
US Economy
Crop Subsidies


Protesters Say They’ll End Blockades in Bangkok

Abstract: BANGKOK — In what appeared to be a major retreat by the movement to overthrow the Thai government, protesters on Friday said they were abandoning their campaign to shut down Bangkok and would dismantle their blockades of major intersections set up in January. The leader of the main protest group, Suthep Thaugsuban, told a dwindling number of supporters on Friday night that he apologized for the inconveniences of the blockades and that demonstrators would adopt a new strategy to disrupt the government from a new base in central Bangkok. A statement by the broader protest movement said intersections would be unblocked by Monday “as a token of our appreciation.” The protesters’ retreat came after an escalation of violence in recent weeks and a rare speech by the powerful head of Thailand’s army on Monday. In the speech he distanced himself from the protest movement’s goals and emphasized the importance of adhering to the country’s Constitution. Image Suthep Thaugsuban, told a dwindling number of supporters Friday night that he apologized for the inconveniences of the blockades. Credit Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press Yet analysts said the change in tactics by the movement did not mean the end of Thailand’s power struggle, which has left Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra leading a weak caretaker government after protesters hampered elections in early February, preventing the formation of a new government. Two smaller factions of protesters have vowed to continue their blockades of government offices. And the protest movement retains considerable support in the Thai bureaucracy, among the elite and middle class in Bangkok, and in southern Thailand. A series of contentious rulings in the courts have hampered the government, including a court order banning the dispersal of the protests. And a hasty and aggressive investigation by a government agency into a costly rice subsidy program could result in Ms. Yingluck being barred from politics. Somsak Jeamteerasakul, a prominent historian, said Friday’s announcement was the biggest retreat since the protest movement began four months ago, and many people might feel relieved. But he said the street protests were no longer the biggest impediment facing the government. “If the protest ended today, the crisis would not be over,” he said in a posting on Facebook. Even if the election went forward and Parliament were able to convene, Ms. Yingluck’s party would be unable to govern until the opposition movement returned to the electoral process, he said. The Democrat Party, the country’s oldest one and historically the voice of the Bangkok ruling class, allied itself with the protesters and boycotted the election. The party is seeking the appointment of a prime minister to replace Ms. Yingluck. Image Antigovernment protesters in Bangkok on Friday. Credit Athit Perawongmetha/Reuters Sombat Boonngamanong, an activist in the Red Shirt movement, which supports the government, said the protesters were forced to retreat because, unlike in previous crises, the military leadership was noncommittal to them. “Suthep was stuck in the street and waiting,” Mr. Sombat said. “But they never arrived. He felt disheartened.” The military in 2006 overthrew Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms. Yingluck’s brother and the founder of what is the most successful political movement in recent Thai history. It has won every election since 2001, and its dominance is one of the major grievances of his detractors. Mr. Thaksin now lives in self-exile after what he says was a politicized trial in 2008 in which he was convicted of illegally procuring land. The protest movement, which in December and January drew tens of thousands of office workers and wealthy Bangkok residents into the streets, struggled to attract similar crowds in recent weeks. At its height, the so-called shutdown of Bangkok affected only a limited number of areas in the vast metropolis.


Brazil Faces a New Corruption Scandal

Abstract: SÃO PAULO, Brazil — Even as President Dilma Rousseff of Brazil has moved energetically to stamp out corruption in her government, a new scandal is surging to the fore, centered on charges of influence peddling by an aide to the popular former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva . The latest revelations have put the governing Workers Party on the defensive yet again, as investigators expose a bribery scheme across several high echelons of government. The scheme largely involved selling falsified public documents needed for transportation projects, and it extended into the attorney general’s office, the Education Ministry and the regulatory agencies for civil aviation and ports, according to the federal police, which carried out raids of government offices here in São Paulo and in the capital, Brasília, in recent days. The breadth of the scandal is rocking governing institutions just as the groundbreaking trial of defendants in another scandal , a vote-buying scheme involving Mr. da Silva’s former chief of staff , winds down. The newest scandal was not as vast as the cash-for-votes conspiracy — called the mensalão, or “big monthly allowance,” in a reference to the regular bribes received by legislators — that went to trial. But it points to how corruption remains ingrained in Brazil’s political system. “Perhaps the mensalão wasn’t the watershed that was celebrated, but rather a partial game-changer,” said David Fleischer, emeritus professor of political science at the University of Brasília. Like the mensalão, this month’s scandal already has a catchy moniker, with political journalists dubbing it “ Rosegate ,” a riff on Watergate and the condensed name of Rosemary Nóvoa de Noronha, the former head of the presidential office here in São Paulo, who has emerged at the center of attention. Mr. da Silva named Ms. Nóvoa de Noronha in 2003 to lead his office here, and his successor, Ms. Rousseff, kept her in that position until she was dismissed last Saturday. She is facing charges of influence peddling. Several other senior officials have been forced from their posts, including the No. 2 official in the attorney general’s office, José Weber Holanda Alves. Throughout the years, Ms. Nóvoa de Noronha gained prominence in government circles thanks to her proximity to Mr. da Silva and her scheduling of his meetings in São Paulo, Brazil’s financial capital and his home before rising to the presidency. She obtained a diplomatic passport and accompanied him on trips to 23 countries from 2007 to 2010. Investigators say she also assisted Paulo Vieira, a regulatory official who organized the false-documents scheme, by arranging meetings for him. In return, they say she received cruise-ship voyages, plastic surgery, money and legal advice for a divorce. She also obtained strategic-level postings for at least two officials in the scheme, including Mr. Vieira, in addition to well-paid public jobs for her daughter and husband. Senior figures in the Workers Party have said it would be wrong to associate Mr. da Silva with Ms. Nóvoa de Noronha. José Chrispiniano, a spokesman here for Mr. da Silva, declined to comment on the matter, saying that nothing was found linking the former president to the investigation.

Brazil
Corruption (Institutional)
Da Silva Luiz Inacio Lula


Knicks Survive Late Run by Sixers

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — If the Knicks lost Friday night, there would have been major explaining to do. They led the Philadelphia 76ers by 17 points with 5 minutes 17 seconds left to play. The 76ers entered the game riding a 22-game losing streak, one of the longest in N.B.A. history. No way the Knicks could blow this one. But they almost did. The Knicks escaped with a 93-92 victory , after Coach Mike Woodson nearly paid for pulling his starters. And how did Woodson react after the Knicks (29-40) extended their winning streak to eight games? “They scared the hell out of me,” Woodson said. With Carmelo Anthony (21 points), Amar’e Stoudemire (22 points, 10 rebounds) and Tyson Chandler (17 points, 10 rebounds) sitting on the bench, the 76ers went on a 16-1 run and closed to within 92-90 with 32.9 seconds to play. Woodson called timeout and rushed Anthony, Stoudemire and Raymond Felton back into the game, but after Tim Hardaway Jr. missed a 3-point attempt from the corner, the 76ers had a chance to tie or go ahead. However, leave it to the 76ers (15-54) to waste the opportunity. James Anderson drove to the basket and passed to Thaddeus Young in the corner, but he did not seem to be expecting the basketball. Young lost the ball out of bounds with 8.6 seconds to play. Anthony was fouled intentionally with 7.3 seconds to play. He made the first free throw but missed the second, giving the 76ers one last chance. Michael Carter-Williams (22 points, 13 rebounds and 9 assists) launched a 3-pointer that would have tied the score, but it was no good with two seconds to play. Young added a meaningless put-back at the buzzer to make the final margin one point. It was another night of disappointment for the 76ers, and you could almost hear the Knicks breathe a sigh of relief. “It happens,” Stoudemire said, after another of his recent strong performances. “The positive is that we got the win.” Image Michael Carter-Williams was one of just two 76ers to score consistently. Credit Matt Slocum/Associated Press The Knicks pulled to within three games of Atlanta for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. The first 60 games of the season cannot be erased, and the Knicks’ recent stretch of solid basketball might be too little, too late. All the they can do is keep winning and hope the Hawks cool off. “We got to keep doing what we do,” Anthony said. “We don’t want to rely on what Atlanta do. We got to focus on us. Right now we’re winning basketball games. We’ve got to continue.” Leading by 72-65 heading into the fourth quarter, the Knicks finally decided to assert their authority. Stoudemire scored while rolling across the middle, then Chandler added a reverse layup that put the Knicks ahead, 76-65. A few minutes later, their lead had grown to 91-74. To the 76ers, that probably seemed like 37 points. They usually do not have enough firepower to overcome large deficits, but on this night they did not give up. The 76ers are desperate to win anywhere, against anyone, and on Friday they came close to ending the losing. “Once we cleared the bench and tried to get other guys involved, of course guys were thinking it was going to be a cakewalk,” said J. R. Smith. “But we have to realize that teams aren’t going to just give up. We have to play better and our bench has to play better.” The 2010-11 Cleveland Cavaliers own the largest losing streak in N.B.A. history — 26 straight games. This defeat tied the 76ers for the third-longest streak in league history at 23 with the 1995-96 Memphis Grizzlies, the 1997-98 Denver Nuggets and the 2011-12 Charlotte Bobcats. The Cavaliers lost 24 consecutive games in both 1981-82 and 1982-83. The 76ers also lost a key player in the fourth quarter when Tony Wroten, their starting point guard, badly turned his ankle while driving to the basket. Wroten was helped off the court by his teammates, who had to be wondering what else could go wrong. The Knicks led by 41-36 at halftime, despite shooting just 32.6 percent from the field. Anthony missed 7 of his first 8 shots, but the Knicks could afford to do that against the 76ers. Philadelphia had two players who scored consistently — Carter-Williams and center Henry Sims (16 points). They combined for 21 points in the first half to keep the 76ers within striking distance. Then came the crazy ending. But to Anthony, a win was a win. “We kind of had the game in the bag,” he said. “You go from taking your headband off to having to borrow one from your teammate.” Nothing comes easily for the Knicks this season, but on this night, they escaped.


2012 N.C.A.A. Tournament: Unerring From Outside, Wisconsin Routs Montana

Abstract: ALBUQUERQUE — Even when things went wrong for Wisconsin, they turned out right. Guard Jordan Taylor fell to the court, and he still managed to get away a pass to an open Mike Bruesewitz for an easy layup. Wisconsin turned over the basketball nine times, but only three led to Montana baskets. Even Badgers Coach Bo Ryan cleanly caught an errant pass that sailed out of bounds and into his grasp. With bobbles causing little damage and 10 of its 18 3-point attempts finding the mark, fourth-seeded Wisconsin cruised to a 73-49 win over 13th-seeded Montana at the Pit Thursday. In earning their sixth consecutive N.C.A.A. tournament-opening win, the Badgers (25-9) overpowered the Grizzlies (25-7) down low and rarely let them penetrate. Wisconsin limited Montana to a season-low 21 rebounds, and its complex, switching defense prevented Montana’s guards from attacking the basket. “We like to roll, we like to set picks-and-rolls, and that kind of messes up everything,” said forward Art Steward, who led the Grizzlies with 18 points. “It kind of spread it out and left the bigs down low and the guards on the wings. It kind of kept it hard for us to switch on things.” Ryan Evans scored 18 points and Taylor 17 to lead the Badgers. Taylor won his duel of guards with Montana’s leading scorer, Will Cherry, who shot 3 of 14 and was held to 9 points — 7 below his season average. “We just made sure that we tried to run him off the 3-point line and tried to get some help to him and squeeze the court, make the driving line smaller,” said Ryan, who improved to 10-1 in tournament-opening games at Wisconsin. The Badgers never trailed after Josh Gasser hit a 3-pointer to tie the score at 5-5 3 minutes 2 seconds into the game. Gasser’s basket began a barrage in which Wisconsin hit 6 of 7 shots from beyond the 3-point arc, allowing the Badgers to build a 20-14 lead that they stretched to 39-29 by halftime. Any hopes of a Montana rally died early in the second half after errant passes led to turnovers on two of its first three second-half possessions. An exasperated Montana Coach Wayne Tinkle called a timeout immediately after the second giveaway. Desperate to catch up, Montana began pressing the Badgers, but after Cherry stole the ball from Evans right after the timeout, the Badgers settled down and beat the trap with little difficulty. Meanwhile, Montana’s offense continued misfiring; it missed six consecutive field-goal attempts until consecutive 3-pointers cut a 16-point deficit to 10 with 12:25 remaining. Montana drew no closer. Wisconsin replied by hitting its next three shots to push the lead to 17 points with 9:46 remaining and cruised from there. “We made a nice little run there in the second half, and they always had an answer,” Tinkle said.

Basketball
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)
University of Wisconsin-Madison
University of Montana


Brent Musburger Forsakes Fact for Emotion

Abstract: Brent Musburger : the name conjures a dramatic, if hyperbolic, voice at big events and drinking games inspired by his verbal idiosyncrasies. His analysts are “pardners.” His current pardner, Kirk Herbstreit, is Herbie, which Musburger says so often it sounds as if he’s played his cassette of “The Love Bug” to dust. But if Musburger’s performances at the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day and the B.C.S. title game Monday night are exhibits of the State of the Brent, it is clear that he has veered from the factual precision needed to maintain his status as ESPN ’s No. 1. college football announcer. Musburger is one of sports broadcasting’s great survivors and one of its most recognizable and excitable voices. Fired by CBS Sports in 1990 , he was soon picked up by ABC Sports. Being grateful for his second chance, he did virtually anything the network, and then ESPN, asked him. Big Game Brent did not keep a low profile doing the Little League World Series or the World League of American Football for too long; he rose to the big events he was accustomed to and eventually succeeded Keith Jackson atop ESPN’s college football depth chart. This year, all five Bowl Championship Series games were on ESPN for the first time. Musburger called his two bowls with characteristic brio as well as a strange propensity for not routinely stating where the ball was spotted or giving the yardage gained on a play. TV announcers should not have to give a radio call — the screen tells us a lot more than it used to — but regularly giving basic game data keeps audiences (not all of whom are riveted to every play) informed and builds drama when used the right way. Based on my notes on both bowls, Musburger gave that information 25 percent of the time when it should probably have been more than 50 percent. Instead of giving the spot and the yardage gained as often as he should have, Musburger relied on dodges that helped him avoid making errors but also perpetuated a lack of precision you would never encounter with, say, Al Michaels. “First down” was often Musburger’s default description of a play, however long it went. If the ball ended up on the 3-yard line, it became “inside the 5.” Why the vagueness? On an 11-yard run by Auburn’s Michael Dyer on Monday night, Musburger’s call was all too typical: “Dyer starting to make a little difference in the backfield.” Or: “Thomas is out of bounds, short of a first down.” How short was he? Cameras cannot pick up everything. A little help, Brent! Sometimes, even when he called the yardage, as he did on an 81-yard pass from Oregon’s Darron Thomas to Jeff Maehl, he waited until a replay and then the start of the next play. These might seem like trivial details to those who simply love to hear Musburger’s voice, which is still the best in the ESPN stable. But the details add up to inattention to his job or an odd attempt to be the master of a new paradigm of announcing where emotion trumps fact. If he ignores the building blocks of his job, what about the big plays that define a play-by-play announcer? On a third-quarter Oregon play, Musburger fell into a trap borne of excitement and anticipation while forgetting a simple rule: don’t call a touchdown until it is a touchdown. That is a variant on the John Sterling Rule: don’t call a home run a home run until it lands in the seats. Musburger said: “Darron Thomas strikes deep, Tuinei, touchdown! Oh! No! He’s tripped on the 3-yard line.” Musburger declared Lavasier Tuinei’s touchdown when he was on the 11, within reach of his tackler, Demetruce McNeal. No touchdown came on the Ducks’ possession; they surrendered the ball on downs. Anticipation of a less critical sort came late in the fourth quarter, with the score tied at 19-19, as Musburger set the scene. “It is 10 o’clock mountain time in the Phoenix, Ariz., area,” he said, “and we are two and a half minutes from the second overtime in the history of the B.C.S. national championship.” He might have been answering a question that viewers were asking themselves, but the word “potential” didn’t creep into his certainty about the future. More important, he seemed not to have heard Herbstreit say moments earlier that Oregon’s 2-point conversion to tie the score gave Auburn quarterback Cam Newton enough time to engineer a victory, which was what happened. But Musburger’s B.C.S. title game performance will be remembered most for his silly recasting of himself as a marketing man. It was probably a momentary lapse of judgment, a lost trip into humor or an absurd conflation of game and sponsor. But as Auburn lined up for the field goal by Wes Byrum that would win the game, 22-19, Musburger said, “This is for all the Tostitos.” While viewers cringed or laughed nervously, Frito-Lay got a bonus for its tortilla chips brand that it could not have imagined or bargained for. Big Game Brent delivered the snacks.

ESPN
Football
Musburger Brent
College Athletics