Takata Acknowledges Poor Records in Air Bag Recall

Abstract: One of the most critical safety components in cars, the air bag, is rapidly becoming a central concern of automakers and regulators. Recalls related to air bags have affected at least 10 million of the more than 30 million cars recalled in the United States so far this year, according to a New York Times review of regulatory records. On Monday, seven additional automakers said that they were recalling more than three million vehicles worldwide because their air bags, made by the Takata Corporation, could rupture and send debris flying inside a car. The move is the latest in a series of recalls related to air bags made by Takata, one of the world’s top automotive supply firms, which has run afoul of regulators and prosecutors. Image An employee sewed an air bag at Takata’s testing center. Some Takata air bags were found to rupture and send shrapnel into the vehicle. Credit Bill Pugliano/Getty Images In April and May of last year, several Japanese automakers, along with BMW, recalled a total of 3.6 million cars over the same defect. Then on June 11 of this year, Toyota expanded that recall by 2.3 million vehicles — many for the second time, though for a different air bag — because, Takata said, it kept inadequate records. The number of recalled cars could still rise as automakers discover more models fitted with defective air bags. Those numbers reflect in part stepped-up scrutiny by regulators, particularly in the United States. The recalls announced on Monday, which included cars made by Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Mazda, Ford, Chrysler and BMW — were responding to an investigation opened this month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration after it received three complaints of injuries caused by the air bag inflators’ rupturing. A Honda spokesman said the company was aware of more than 30 injuries and two deaths in the United States related to all the Takata air bags. For those who have been injured, the consequences have been devastating. In 2010, Kristy Williams was stopped at a red light in Georgia when the air bags manufactured by Takata in her 2001 Honda Civic spontaneously deployed. She was hit by metal shards from the canister that housed the air bag’s propellant; the shards were sharp enough to penetrate the fabric of the air bag and puncture her neck and carotid artery. Image Crash dummies in 2010 at Takata’s testing center in Auburn Hills, Mich. Credit Bill Pugliano/Getty Images Ms. Williams required several operations and later suffered seizures and several strokes, her lawyers said in a statement at the time. Within nine months, Honda and Takata reached a settlement to compensate Ms. Williams. The terms were not disclosed, and Honda had no further comment, though it confirmed Ms. Williams’s injuries were among the 30 cases it had linked to defective airbags made by Takata. The recall on Monday also reflects a long-term change in the auto industry, where more automakers use the same parts, said Brett Smith, the program director of industry analysis at the Center for Automotive Research in Michigan. Takata has about 20 percent of the air bag market, in a field dominated by three major suppliers: Takata; the Swedish-American manufacturer Autoliv, which has about 35 percent of the global market; and the American supplier TRW Automotive, which has about 20 percent. Takata began making air bags in 1988, seeing an opportunity when American regulators began to require them. Image Vehicles in recent recalls for faulty air bags include the Honda Element. Credit Honda The company grew rapidly, investing heavily in research and also expanding through acquisitions. In 1988, it acquired the industrial fabrics unit of Burlington Industries, based in Greensboro, N.C., and reorganized its operations to manufacture air bags there. Then in 2000, Takata acquired a majority stake in a German air bag manufacturer, Petri. Overnight, Takata had become one of the largest air bag manufacturers in the world. Takata’s experience, growing through acquisition, is not uncommon in the global auto supply industry. Mr. Smith said that the recession accelerated the consolidation among global parts suppliers. “The 2008-9 period led to a lot of acquisitions, a lot of closures,” he said in a telephone interview. Today, even though Takata has a spotty safety record — faulty seatbelts that it manufactured forced recalls of almost nine million cars in the 1990s — carmakers have continued to use the company. Image Vehicles in recent recalls for faulty air bags include the Toyota Matrix. Credit Toyota “There aren’t a lot of air bag companies left,” said Sean Kane, president of Safety Research and Strategies, a consulting firm in Massachusetts. “Takata is a global supplier for a number of automakers.” It is unclear when Takata became aware of possible defects in its air bags, some manufactured over a decade ago at its plant in Mexico. Takata said in a statement on Monday that it thought excessive moisture was behind the defect. Moisture and humidity could be seeping inside inflators, destabilizing the volatile propellant inside, said Haruo Otani, an official at the vehicle recall section of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism in Japan. American regulators said they had received six reports of air bag inflator ruptures, all in Florida or Puerto Rico, before Monday’s recalls. Image Vehicles in recent recalls for faulty air bags include the BMW 3 Series. Nissan, Ford and Chrysler also had air bag recalls. Credit BMW, via Associated Press “Based on the limited data available at this time, N.H.T.S.A. supports efforts by automakers to address the immediate risk in areas that have consistently hot, humid conditions over extended periods of time,” the agency said in a statement. Honda’s most recent recall covers about two million cars in North America and replaces defective parts in the vehicles’ air bags. Nissan also issued a recall of 755,000 cars worldwide with Takata-made air bags, including 228,000 in North America. Mazda said it would call back about 160,000 cars for the same issue, about 15,000 of those in North America. Image Offices of Takata Corporation, the Japanese auto parts supplier, in Tokyo. Takata has about 20 percent of the air bag market, Autoliv about 35 percent and TRW Automotive about 20 percent. Credit Franck Robichon/European Pressphoto Agency Honda has been hit particularly hard, with a total of about 7.7 million vehicles recalled worldwide because of problems with inflators provided by Takata, a spokesman, Chris Martin, wrote in an email. Typically, the inflator’s metal case ruptures because the propellant inside was not properly prepared and creates more pressure than intended, sending shards of metal into the passenger compartment. If the failure is on the driver’s side, the driver may be struck. On the passenger side — because the bag is in the dashboard — the shards are more likely to go up and not toward the occupant. Honda first issued a limited recall of its Accord and Civic models in 2008, saying air bag inflators could blow up violently, propelling dangerous debris into the car. Two deaths in the United States have been linked to exploding air bags, in Oklahoma and Virginia, both in 2009 and in Honda vehicles. In both cases, Honda and Takata settled with the families of the victims. Last week, Takata said that it had improperly stored chemicals and had mishandled the manufacture of explosive propellants, used in the air bags, at its plant in Mexico. The manufacturer had also failed to keep adequate records of quality control, making it difficult to identify vehicles with potentially defective air bags and prompting a second round of recalls. “We take this situation seriously, will strengthen our quality control and make a concerted effort to prevent a recurrence,” the company said.

Takata
BMW
Toyota
Honda
Recalls and Bans
Automobile safety
Mazda Motor
Nissan Motor
Ford Motor
Chrysler Group


Tornadoes Ravage the South; Toll Nears 300

Abstract: TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — A day after enduring a terrifying bombardment of storms that killed hundreds across the South and spawned tornadoes that razed neighborhoods and even entire towns, people from Texas to Virginia to Georgia searched through rubble for survivors on Thursday and tried to reclaim their own lives. At least 285 people across six states died in the storms, with more than half — 195 people — in Alabama . This college town, the home of the University of Alabama , has in some places been shorn to the slab, and accounts for at least 36 of those deaths. Thousands have been injured, and untold more have been left homeless, hauling their belongings in garbage bags or rooting through disgorged piles of wood and siding to find anything salvageable. While Alabama was hit the hardest, the storm spared few states across the South. Thirty-four people were reported dead in Tennessee , 33 in Mississippi , 15 in Georgia, 7 in Virginia and one in Kentucky . With search and rescue crews still climbing through debris and making their way down tree-strewn country roads, the toll is expected to rise. “History tells me estimating deaths is a bad business,” said W. Craig Fugate, the Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator, in a conference call with reporters. Cries could be heard into the night here on Wednesday, but on Thursday hope was dwindling. Mayor Walt Maddox said that the search and rescue operation would go for 24 to 48 more hours, before the response pivoted its focus to recovery. “They’re looking for five kids in this rubble here,” said Lathesia Jackson -Gibson, 33, a nurse, pointing to the incoherent heap of planks and household appliances sitting next to the muddled guts of her own house. “They’re mostly small kids.” President Obama announced that he was coming to Alabama on Friday afternoon, saying in a statement that the federal government had pledged its assistance. Gov. Robert Bentley toured the state by helicopter along with federal officials, tracking a vast scar that stretched from Birmingham to his hometown, Tuscaloosa. He declared Alabama “a major, major disaster.” “As we flew down from Birmingham, the track is all the way down, and then when you get in Tuscaloosa here it’s devastating,” Mr. Bentley said at an afternoon news conference, with an obliterated commercial strip as a backdrop. An enormous response operation was under way across the South, with emergency officials working alongside churches, sororities and other volunteer groups. In Alabama, more than 2,000 National Guard troops have been deployed. Across nine states, more than 1,680 people spent Wednesday in Red Cross shelters, said Attie Poirier, a spokeswoman with the organization. The last time the Red Cross had set up such an elaborate system of shelters was after Hurricane Katrina , a comparison made by even some of those who had known the experience firsthand. “It reminds me of home so much,” said Eric Hamilton, 40, a former Louisianan, who was sitting on the sidewalk outside the Belk Activity Center, which was being used as a Red Cross shelter in south Tuscaloosa. Mr. Hamilton lived in a poor area of Tuscaloosa called Alberta City, which residents now describe merely as “gone.” He wiped tears off his cheeks. “I’ve never seen so many bodies,” Mr. Hamilton said. “Babies, women. So many bodies.” Officials at the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center said they had received 137 tornado reports on Wednesday, with 104 of them coming from Alabama and Mississippi. Over all, there have been 297 confirmed tornadoes this month, breaking a 36-year-old record. Southerners, who have had to learn the drill all too well this month, watched with dread on Wednesday night as the shape-shifting storm system crept eastward across the weather map. Upon hearing the rumble of a tornado, or even the hysterical barking of a family dog, people crammed into closets, bathtubs and restaurant coolers, clutching their children and family photos. Many of the lucky survivors found a completely different world when they opened their closet doors. “We heard crashing,” said Steve Sikes, 48, who lives in a middle-class Tuscaloosa neighborhood called the Downs. “Then dirt and pine needles came under the door. We smelled pine. “When you smell pine,” he said, gesturing, by way of a conclusion, toward a wooden wreck behind him, so mangled that it was hard to tell where tree ended and house began. Some opened the closet to the open sky, where their roof had been, some yelled until other family members pulled the shelves and walls off them. Others never got out. Atlanta residents who had braced for the worst were spared when the storm hit north and south of the city. Across Georgia, many schools in rural areas sustained so much damage they will close for the rest of the year. In Mississippi, the carnage was worst in the piney hill country in the northeastern part of the state. Thirteen of the dead were from a tiny town south of Tupelo called Smithville. Most of the buildings in Smithville, which has a population of less than 800, were gone. “It looks to be pretty much devastated,” said Brent Carr, a spokesman for the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. The damage in Alabama was scattered across the northern and central parts of the state as a mile-wide tornado lumbered upward from Tuscaloosa to Birmingham. More than 1,700 people have been examined or treated at local hospitals , according to officials at the Alabama Hospital Association. The deaths were scattered around the state: six in the small town of Arab, 14 in urban Jefferson County. More than a million people in Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee were left without power, with much of the loss caused by severe damage to transmitters at the Browns Ferry Nuclear Plant west of Huntsville, Ala. The plant itself was not damaged, but the dozens of poles that carry electricity to local power companies were down. “We have no place to send the power at this point,” said Scott Brooks, a spokesman for the Tennessee Valley Authority, which sells electricity to companies in seven states. “We’re not talking hours, we’re talking days.” In Tuscaloosa, Governor Bentley, a Republican, made it clear that Alabama would need substantial federal assistance. “We’re going to have to have help from the federal government in order to get through this in an expeditious way,” he said. Mr. Fugate, the FEMA administrator, emphasized in a number of appearances that the agency’s job at this stage was to play “a support role” to the states in recovery efforts, not to lead them. “Everybody wants to know who’s in charge. I can tell you this. Alabama’s governor is in charge. We’re in support,” he said. The University of Alabama campus here was mostly spared, said Robert E. Witt, the president, but about 70 students with no other place to stay spent the night in the recreation center on campus. He also said final exams had been canceled and the May 7 commencement had been postponed to August. Along with the swath of destruction it cut through Tuscaloosa, the tornado smashed up the town’s capacity to recover. The headquarters of the county emergency management agency was badly damaged, as well as the city’s fleet of garbage trucks. At Rosedale Court, a low-income housing project, large crowds of former residents walked aimlessly back and forth in front of the mangled buildings where they had woken up the day before. A door-to-door search was continuing. Three women approached Willie Fort, the assistant director of the authority, and asked why the residents were just milling around the destruction and not moving on to shelters. Mr. Fort urged patience. “When folks lose everything they just looking and holding on,” he said to the women. “Everything’s gone. Their cars are gone. Everything. These people ain’t got nothing.”

Tornado
Alabama
Weather
Southern US
Fatalities


Man Kills Two and Then Himself in Wyoming

Abstract: A man killed one person in a Casper neighborhood before going to a nearby community college on Friday morning and killing a faculty member and then himself, the police said. Officers found the suspect and one of the victims at a science building on the campus of Casper College, which was locked down for about two hours. The other victim was found about two miles away. The authorities said the suspect used a sharp weapon in at least one of the killings. The suspect was not believed to be a Casper College student, but it did appear that there was a relationship between him and the victims, Police Chief Chris Walsh said. The victims were a male and a female, the chief said.

Wyoming
Deaths (Fatalities)
Murders and Attempted Murders
Casper (Wyo)
Suicides and Suicide Attempts


Video: Swift and Severe Punishment for Sterling

Abstract: The new N.B.A. commissioner, Adam Silver, and the fans are best in position to punish Donald Sterling, should the racist comments on a tape recorder prove to be from the Clippers’ owner.


Iranian Photojournalist Reportedly Detained After Covering Protest Against Acid Attacks

Abstract: An Iranian photojournalist was reported to have been detained on Friday, two days after his images of protesters deploring acid attacks on women in the city of Isfahan were published by news organizations around the world. The arrest of the photographer, Arya Jafari , was reported by BBC Persian , a news service staffed by Iranian expatriates that is officially banned inside Iran but still widely seen there. The arrest was also reported by Iran Wire , an expatriate site, which said that Mr. Jafari, 26, was detained by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Mr. Jafari had covered the demonstration on Wednesday outside the gates of a local judiciary office for the semiofficial Iranian Students’ News Agency, which still features 20 of his images on its website. His photographs were also distributed internationally by Getty Images. The protesters rallied to demand justice for the victims of a spate of recent attacks , in which men on motorcycles tossed acid in the faces of women in Isfahan. Some of the chants at the rally on Wednesday were protesting the use of acid to punish “vice,” a reference to the assumption that the attacks were carried out against women suspected of an offense known as “ bad hijab ,” or immodesty, expressed by not covering their heads entirely with a scarf in the prescribed Islamic fashion. Iran’s state-run news media reported on Friday that President Hassan Rouhani had expressed his sympathy for the victims of the acid attacks and ordered the ministries of the interior, intelligence and justice “to step up efforts” to find the attackers. Iran’s first female vice president, Massoumeh Ebtekar , wrote on Twitter that she had visited one victim in an Isfahan hospital and told her that Mr. Rouhani was taking a personal interest in the case. Iran’s health minister also visited a victim earlier in the week. Even as senior officials expressed outrage over the attacks, more conservative forces pushed back against the contention that the victims were singled out for failing to cover their heads fully. A spokesman for Iran’s conservative judiciary dismissed local media reports that the acid attacks were the work of vigilantes making targets of women who did not respect the Islamic dress code, according to Fars News Agency, which is close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. As the Guardian correspondent Saeed Kamali Dehghan reported this week, Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, the head of the volunteer Basij militia, even claimed that “Western intelligence services” were behind the attacks, as part of an effort to tarnish the image of the Islamic Republic of Iran. However, news reports about the attacks, which left at least eight women disfigured, according to the police, appeared to put on the defensive conservatives pressing to enforce the laws on “un-Islamic” behavior, the expatriate journalist Arash Karami reported on Friday. Reformists in President Rouhani’s administration have battled with conservative forces in the judiciary and other branches of government on a host of issues, from homemade music videos posted on YouTube to international negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program. That split seemed to be underscored by the timing of Mr. Jafari’s detention, which came just after several of his images were shared on the @MeetIran Twitter account used by Foreign Ministry officials. Video shared on Facebook on Wednesday showed how little faith the protesters in Isfahan have that the justice system will act without pressure. After a judiciary official promised a firm response to the attacks, the protesters responded by chanting , “It’s a lie!”

Iran
Hassan Rouhani
Massoumeh Ebtekar
Vigilante
Civil Unrest
Women's rights,Feminism
Women and Girls
Muslim Veiling


Syracuse Wins in 2nd OT

Abstract: Punter Riley Dixon threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to tight end Kendall Moore on a fake field goal in the second overtime in Syracuse’s 27-26 victory over visiting Villanova on Friday night. Syracuse quarterback Terrel Hunt was ejected for punching Villanova linebacker Dillon Lucas. ■ Taysom Hill threw three touchdown passes and ran for two scores to help visiting Brigham Young beat Connecticut, 35-10, spoiling Huskies Coach Bob Diaco’s debut. (AP) ■ Connor Cook threw three touchdown passes in the first quarter to help No. 8 Michigan State to an easy 45-7 victory over visiting Jacksonville State. (AP)

Kendall Moore
Villanova
College football
Syracuse University


New Details Released on Troubled F-35 Fighter

Abstract: Shortly before making a final push to ensure that the Marine version of the F-35 fighter was not canceled, the service’s commandant, Gen. James F. Amos, called in a former Marine corporal for a frank talk. The onetime enlisted man, Robert J. Stevens, now heads Lockheed Martin , the giant contractor that has repeatedly run into difficulties in building the plane. And based in part on Mr. Stevens’s assurances that the problems could be fixed, General Amos was able to persuade top Pentagon officials to grant a reprieve — a two-year period to either save the Marine model or forget about it. In announcing that decision this month, the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, said that he was placing the Marine model — one of three versions of the radar-evading plane — on probation. And on Tuesday, the Pentagon’s program managers released new details about some of the parts problems and possible solutions, outlining the latest markers that could determine if, or when, the plane gets back on track. The officials said some parts related to the plane’s high-powered propulsion system were being redesigned and a bulkhead in the fuselage reinforced. They added that a new lift fan that generates the powerful thrust needed for the plane to take off and land in short distances also had some heating issues and problems with vibrating doors. But the officials said in a statement that the problems were “readily solvable through engineering adjustments.” Lockheed Martin officials said they were already making some of the changes. Mr. Gates said on Jan. 6 that the Pentagon expected to spend an additional $4.6 billion to develop and test all the planes, bringing the total for the Air Force, Navy and Marine models to $51 billion by 2016. The changes are the second significant revamping in less than a year for the program, the Pentagon’s most expensive, with projected costs of $382 billion for up to 2,456 planes. And as deficit-reduction efforts gain steam, the stakes continue to rise for everyone involved because the program represents a tempting pot of money if the military is forced to further tighten its spending. The Marines feel particularly vulnerable. They passed up chances to buy other planes, betting heavily on the version of the F-35 that can take off and land almost like a helicopter and stay close to the front lines. It would replace their aging Harrier jets. General Amos said recently that he had told program managers, “I intend to personally track the progress of our airplane over the next two years.” Given the problems, he added: “I will track every pound of weight growth, required engineering fixes and every test point completed.” The F-35, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, is likely to be Lockheed Martin’s largest military program for many years. But billions of dollars in revenue will also be delayed by the problems. Mr. Gates said the Pentagon would push back production of 124 of the planes to pay for the corrective work and additional flight tests and to cover some of the reductions in future military spending that the White House recently demanded. Program officials said on Tuesday that in addition to covering the extra costs on the F-35, delaying that many planes would also generate $6.9 billion in savings for the Pentagon. Mr. Gates also has a lot on the line politically. He promoted the coming of the F-35 as a reason to cancel the highflying F-22 in 2009. But some Republicans are questioning that decision again, especially now that China seems to be progressing more quickly than expected on its own fighter with radar-evading capability. In addition to the problems cited on Tuesday, a recent report by Pentagon testing officials raised questions about other systems on the F-35, including whether enough progress was being made on the millions of lines of software that control the plane. Winslow T. Wheeler, a military analyst at the Center for Defense Information, a research group in Washington, said the Marine version was “so problematic that I cannot believe that the two-year probation was anything other than Gates kicking the can to his successor to kill the thing.” But C. T. Burbage, a top Lockheed manager, said most of the difficulties stemmed from building a system that could lift more weight for every pound of thrust than any previous design. He said flight tests showed that parts of the lift system were buffeted by more air turbulence than expected. He said the lift fan’s drive shaft also expanded more than expected from the intense heat, but the company had found ways to ease that problem. Mr. Burbage also said Lockheed was concerned that the slowdown in production could complicate efforts to gain economies of scale and lower the cost of each plane. The Pentagon now estimates that each plane could cost $92 million, up from the $50 million projected in 2002.

Lockheed Martin
F-35 Airplane
Military Aircraft
United States Marine Corps
Defense Department


Mikaela Shiffrin Looks Beyond Slalom to Overall Title

Abstract: BOSTON — If all goes according to plan Saturday at the opening slalom race of the World Cup season in Levi, Finland, Mikaela Shiffrin will walk away with a reindeer, the unconventional prize traditionally awarded to the winner, and kick off her march toward history. “Right now, the goal is Levi and I’d like to defend my title there. They’re still doing the reindeer prize, and hopefully I’ll get another reindeer,” said Shiffrin, who won last year’s race by over a second and collected her prize, a six-month-old fawn she named Rudolph. (Rudolph now lives on a farm near Levi.) With her impressive success at such a young age, Shiffrin, 19, has emerged as the face of a new generation of skiers who are starting to dominate the sport. Last season, all the women’s World Cup titles — except for the downhill — were won by a someone 24 or younger. Anna Fenninger, 25, of Austria, won the 2014 overall and giant slalom titles, as well as gold in the super-G and silver in giant slalom at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. Lara Gut, 23, of Switzerland, won the super-G title and took Olympic bronze in the downhill. Shiffrin won the World Cup slalom title, her second, by winning five of her eight races in the discipline. Several veteran icons, including Maria Höfl-Riesch of Germany and Marlies Schild of Austria, retired after the 2014 season. In a moment emblematic of the shift toward youth, Shiffrin became the youngest gold medalist in slalom by edging her childhood idol, Schild, 33, at the Olympics in February. “It’s inevitable that the next generation is going to come up,” Shiffrin said. While there have always been child prodigies, the newest generation has benefited from advances in sports science and has built on the experience of the athletes before them. “It took me many years to figure out what was good for me and what made me strong,” said Schild, who holds the women’s record with 35 slalom victories. “The younger skiers coming up now, they see what we have done, what I have done, and maybe it helps them know what to do.” Roland Pfeifer, the United States ski team’s women’s technical coach, believes the younger generation takes a more professional and individualized approach to the sport, which has allowed many of them, such as Shiffrin, to experience so much success at such a young age. “They kind of have their own specialists, their own slalom coach, downhill coach, P.T.s,” or personal trainers, said Pfeifer. “Ten years ago, there was just one conditioning coach for 15 ladies.” Shiffrin, now in her fourth World Cup season, also has a World Championship gold and 17 top-three finishes to go with her other titles. She has loftier objectives this season than just a slalom title. “The goal is to win as many races as I can. I have this dream of winning every race in a single discipline in a season. Nobody’s ever done that before,” said Shiffrin in a telephone interview from her home in Eagle-Vail, Colo. Shiffrin is already off to a strong start. Three weeks ago at the first race of the World Cup season, a giant slalom in Sölden, Austria, she tied for victory with Fenninger, the reigning World Cup overall and giant slalom champion. It was Shiffrin’s first win in an event other than slalom and a step toward establishing herself as a multidiscipline threat and serious contender for the overall trophy, which measures a racer’s success across all five disciplines over a season. To win the overall trophy, Shiffrin must consistently achieve the podium in slalom and in at least one other event, which will most likely be G.S., as it is the discipline the most similar to slalom. That’s how Marcel Hirscher of Austria has taken the World Cup overall title for the past three years. “If I ski to my potential in slalom and G.S. and hopefully super-G, then the overall will be a possibility,” she said. This season, Shiffrin will make her debut in the speed disciplines. According to Pfeifer, the United States ski team’s technical coach, Shiffrin plans to compete in her first World Cup super-G in Val d’Isère, France, in December, followed possibly by the super-G in Bad Kleinkirchheim, Austria, and a combined event featuring a super-G leg in Bansko, Bulgaria, in March. Not only will these speed races give her a better shot at the overall, but the events in France and Austria will also offer her the chance to qualify to compete in the super-G at the World Championships in February in Beaver Creek, Colo., where she also plans to race slalom and giant slalom. According to Pfeifer, Shiffrin’s super-G skiing is so strong at the moment that he believes she has the ability to beat Lindsey Vonn, one of the fastest female speed skiers in history, who is likely to return to competition in December after nearly two years away from the slopes due to a knee injury she sustained in 2013. “Definitely she can beat Vonn, especially in the technical super-Gs like Beaver Creek. If Mikaela didn’t think she had a chance to win, we would not start racing super-G now,” Pfeifer said.

Mikaela Shiffrin
Skiing
Marlies Schild
World Cup Skiing
Alpine skiing


Officials Seek Cause of Fatal Crane Crash in Lower Manhattan

Abstract: The long metal necks dotting the New York skyline have become familiar symbols of the city’s development rush in recent years. But as one of those cranes lay crumpled on a narrow Lower Manhattan street, toppled after a deadly collapse on Friday, the image of the machine took on a jarringly different meaning. On Saturday, beyond a line of fire trucks and caution tape, 565 feet of cherry-red steel was sprawled across Worth Street in mangled disarray. The day before, the crane being used to install generators and air-conditioners tipped over as its crew worked to secure it amid high winds. The collapse — and the downpour of debris that followed — killed a 38-year-old man, David Wichs, who was walking to work , and injured three other people, two of them seriously. Investigators continued to examine the wreckage, and crews began cutting the tangle of metal into almost three dozen smaller chunks to be carted away. “Piece by piece, they’re taking it apart,” said Joseph J. Esposito, the commissioner of the city’s Office of Emergency Management. Image Credit Nancy Borowick for The New York Times In a news conference at the scene on Saturday, city officials said investigators were still working to determine the cause of the collapse. They were reviewing data from a computer aboard the crane, which had been inspected by the city as recently as Thursday, and were seeking to pinpoint the wind speed at the time of the accident. Officials also said tests conducted on the crane’s operator for drugs or alcohol were negative. The scene drew workers and residents in the TriBeCa neighborhood as well as tourists, who took photos and hoisted children on their shoulders for a better look. Teddy Johnson, 72, who has worked at a nearby parking garage for 30 years, said the collapse was only the latest among a series of disquieting crashes. “New York is used to looking up toward the sky, to building as far as we can see,” Mr. Johnson said. “But sometimes what goes up must come down.” The collapse piqued a small but ever-present fear among some living and working in a vertical city. Last year, a crane in Midtown Manhattan dropped an air-conditioner that weighed several tons, sending it some 30 stories to the street. A few weeks earlier, a 2-year-old girl was killed by a falling piece of windowsill on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. “What worries me is that something like this can happen in spite of all those regulations,” said Terry Birnbaum-Horton, a 58-year-old financial planner from Great Neck, N.Y. “But I guess sometimes it takes an accident to realize a problem.” People on the street during the collapse recalled the creaks and clangs of buckling metal and the vibrations of the pavement as the crane hit the ground. They thought a building had fallen or a bomb had gone off. “You hear those booms, and you can’t help but feel the flashbacks to 9/11,” said Dan Cobotic, 47, a mechanic from Queens who was filling in for a friend as the manager at a nearby diner. Even amid the disarray, some saw heartening reminders of the city’s camaraderie. Immediately after the collapse, Mr. Johnson said he was among those who ran to the chaotic situation to look for victims who might be trapped or injured. “We didn’t even think,” he said, “we just rushed right over.” On Saturday, aside from people taking in the spectacle, the area near the scene lacked its usual bustle. T. Kang Taekwondo reopened after closing on Friday, and a morning class that usually accommodated 15 children saw only three. “Saturdays are normally the busiest part of our week, but barely anyone came today,” said Cristina Kang, 60, an instructor. Woops, a bakeshop on Worth Street, put out half its usual number of pastries and still struggled to sell the stock of cookies and croissants. “The only people coming by are cops and firefighters,” said Emily Asserson, 25, a manager. As the day wore on, crews prepared to haul away the wreckage. They brought in heavy machinery, flatbed trucks and a tall crane, which loomed over the street.

Manhattan
Accidents and Safety
Derricks and Cranes
TriBeCa Manhattan
Fatalities,casualties


Economic Reports for the Week of July 15

Abstract: ECONOMIC DATA Data to be released this week includes retail sales for June and business inventories for May (Monday); the Consumer Price Index and industrial production for June (Tuesday); building permits for June and the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book (Wednesday); and weekly initial jobless claims and leading economic indicators for June (Thursday). CORPORATE EARNINGS Companies scheduled to report results include Citigroup (Monday); Goldman Sachs, Coca-Cola, Johnson & Johnson and Yahoo (Tuesday); Bank of America, American Express, I.B.M., Intel and eBay (Wednesday); Google, Morgan Stanley, BlackRock, Microsoft, Verizon, Nokia and SAP (Thursday); and General Electric and Vodafone (Friday). IN THE UNITED STATES On Monday, the Securities and Exchange Commission begins its civil fraud case against Fabrice Tourre, a former Goldman Sachs trader. Also on Monday, Calpers, the large public pension fund in California, will report its results for the fiscal year ending June 30. On Wednesday and Thursday, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, will deliver his semiannual monetary policy report before Congress. On Thursday, shareholders of Dell will vote on the $24.4 billion buyout offer by the company’s founder, Michael S. Dell. OVERSEAS On Monday, China will announce its gross domestic product numbers for the second quarter; it reported growth of 7.7 percent in the first quarter. China will also release data on industrial output, retail sales and fixed asset investment. Also on Monday, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, begins a two-day trip to Romania, which has requested a third financing deal with the fund. On Tuesday, Carlos Ghosn, chief executive of Nissan, will attend a discussion on emerging markets in Chennai, India, as the company reintroduces Datsun as a global brand. Also on Tuesday, Stephen Poloz, the new Bank of Canada governor, will make his first interest rate announcement; he is expected to keep rates unchanged. On Wednesday, Britain will release its unemployment figures for June. On Thursday, the German finance minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, will meet the Greek finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, in Athens, where they are scheduled to hold a news conference in the afternoon. On Friday, central bankers and finance ministers of the Group of 20 nations will meet for two days in Moscow, where they are expected to discuss topics that include Japan’s economy, global stimulus efforts and tax evasion. Also on Friday, a federal judge in the United States will hold a hearing on final approval of Toyota’s $1.1. billion in claims over unintended acceleration in its vehicles.

US Economy
Banking and Finance
Earnings Reports


Sitting Pretty at Rio Tinto

Abstract: Chinalco, China’s top aluminum maker, is under increasing pressure to reorganize its $19.5 billion deal with the heavily indebted Australian mining company Rio Tinto. A revision of the terms is almost inevitable, and Rio has everything to play for. Rio Tinto’s shares have almost doubled since February when the agreement with Chinalco was struck. Rio’s position has already been modified by its newly installed chairman, Jan du Plessis, who insists that he won’t submit a deal to his shareholders if he thinks they will vote it down. The original agreement was two-pronged. Chinalco, Rio’s largest shareholder, agreed to inject $7.2 billion into the mining company in the form of a convertible bond. That would potentially double the Chinese group’s stake in the Anglo-Australian miner to 18 percent, enough to set off a review by Australia’s foreign investment watchdog. Chinalco also agreed to spend $12.3 billion on minority stakes in a range of Rio’s mining assets. With these investments, the Chinese were to get two board seats. Chinalco appears to be considering limiting its equity stake to 15 percent, but not giving up board seats or reducing its direct asset investments. That may address some concerns of Rio investors, but it also suggests the Chinese company is prepared to be flexible only in areas that won’t dilute its behind-the-scenes influence at Rio. If Rio investors are concerned about Chinalco’s clout, they should demand that it make concessions on the other parts of the deal, for example, by taking smaller stakes in Rio assets or dropping a board seat. There are about four weeks before either Rio or Chinalco need to show their hands. The Australian regulator isn’t due to make a ruling on the original deal until mid-June, and in the meantime Rio’s chairman is sounding out shareholders. A month can change everything in volatile markets. If Rio’s share price holds up, a rights issue remains a viable alternative. The other good news for Rio shareholders is that Chinalco seems determined to stay in the game, but probably won’t give enough ground to rule out a counterproposal from Rio Tinto’s rival Australian mining company BHP Billiton, possibly with others. For now, that leaves Rio with plenty of options. Free Money Risks Free money is usually a good thing. So three-month unsecured loans carrying less than 1 percent interest would normally be seen as a boon for banks. It allows banks to borrow cheaply and lend for several percentage points more, giving them a way to earn their way out of their current troubles. The problem is that the interbank rate is low largely because the government is propping up the industry. When it rises to a market level that reflects the true health of the banking industry, it could crimp banks’ earnings. The three-month dollar London interbank offered rate, or Libor, a benchmark for many types of loans and mortgages, fell to a multiyear low of 0.66 percent on May 21. That’s good for owners of the $360 trillion of debt tied to the rate. It’s also good for banks that borrow in the interbank market to pay for loans to customers — and they should be making out like bandits. But a major reason for the decline in Libor, aside from a renewed willingness by banks to lend to each other as credit markets thaw, is the Federal Reserve’s many emergency lending facilities, which have reduced the risk that any major bank will suffer serious problems. When the Fed withdraws these initiatives, the cost of bank loans will increase, especially while banks are still working through their difficulties. If banks have been too aggressive in pricing the loans they have made, the rising costs for them might make the loans uneconomical. That’s what happened in the United States savings and loan crisis in the late 1980s. A repeat could cause significant trouble for the American banking system, just when a rebound seems to be on the horizon. True, it’s hard to price a loan too richly when the cost of funds is low, because competitors will race to undercut the lender. But only those banks that build in big enough margins will still have profitable loan books when Libor rates start to rise once again. UNA GALANI and DWIGHT CASS


Consumer Spending Spurs Forecasts for Faster Growth

Abstract: WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh signs of a strengthening economy emerged on Friday in reports that consumers spent and earned more in November and that companies for a second month increased their orders for some manufactured goods. In light of the latest figures, some analysts said the economy could end up growing faster in this quarter and next year than they had thought. “I see momentum building,” said Joel Naroff, chief economist at Naroff Economic Advisors. “If Washington makes the moves it needs to make, then the economy should pick up speed next year,” he said, a reference to the bumpy negotiations between the White House and Congressional Republicans to avert tax increases and spending cuts that are to take effect on Jan. 1. The Commerce Department reported that consumer spending, which fuels about 70 percent of the economy, rose 0.4 percent in November compared with October. Spending dipped 0.1 percent in October. But that decline was linked in part to disruptions from Hurricane Sandy . Incomes rose 0.6 percent in November, the biggest gain in 11 months. That reflected a rebound in wages and salaries, which were depressed in October. Damage from Hurricane Sandy in the Northeast prevented some people from working at the end of October and reduced wages at an annual rate of $18 billion. A separate report from the Commerce Department showed that a category of durable-goods orders that tracks business investment had risen 2.7 percent. That gain came after an upwardly revised 3.2 percent increase in October, the biggest in 10 months. The back-to-back increases came after a period of weakness in so-called core capital goods that had raised concerns about business investment, a driving force in the economy. The economy grew in the July-to-September quarter at a solid 3.1 percent annual rate. But some analysts said they thought growth would slow significantly in the October-to-December period. They predicted that consumers and businesses would cut back on spending because of worries about tax increases and spending cuts. But after Friday’s reports, Peter Newland, an economist at Barclays Capital, said Barclays was raising its estimate of growth in the current quarter to a 2.4 percent annual rate from a previous estimate of 2.2 percent. Mr. Naroff said fourth-quarter growth could reach a 2.6 percent annual rate. He said he expected growth to reach 3.2 percent in the first quarter of 2013 and 3.6 percent in the second quarter. He said those estimates were based on his confidence that Washington policy makers would avert the sharp tax increases and spending cuts, which could set off a recession if they remained in place for much of 2013. “I remain hopeful that saner heads will prevail in Washington,” Mr. Naroff said. Economists said the budget impasse and the uncertainty it had created about tax rates were hurting consumer confidence. The University of Michigan said on Friday that its index of consumer sentiment for December fell to 72.9, its lowest point since July. It was a sharp drop from the November reading of 82.7, a five-year high.

Consumer Confidence (Economic Indicator)


Families Can Crumble Under Deportation Threat

Abstract: Sara Martinez never wanted her two daughters to grow up poor and anxious about life, the way she had in Ecuador. But that is what happened. Ms. Martinez lives in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, with her younger daughter, a United States citizen who was born not long after Ms. Martinez, her husband and their older daughter arrived here on a tourist visa from Ecuador in 2005. Ms. Martinez later sent her older daughter to live with friends in another state because she feared the girl would be discovered by immigration officials and deported. Ms. Martinez and her husband faced deportation themselves in 2011, after being apprehended by a border patrol agent during a family trip to Rochester. As their daughters watched in shock, they were led away in handcuffs and detained for a day before being released. Their marriage did not survive, crumbling under the constant stress of living illegally in this country, Ms. Martinez said. Now it is just Ms. Martinez and her younger daughter in a rundown, three-bedroom apartment furnished with hand-me-downs from friends and Craigslist. “I don’t have money, I don’t have papers, I don’t have a family, but I have my faith and my hope that something is going to change,” said Ms. Martinez, 50, wiping away tears during an interview in her apartment To hear Ms. Martinez’s story is to encounter precisely the kind of ordeal that President Obama aims to alleviate with sweeping executive actions on immigration, which would give many undocumented parents whose children are citizens or legal residents temporary reprieves from deportation as well as work permits, though no formal legal immigration status. The White House plan may also include some parents of young undocumented immigrants who came here as children. Ms. Martinez’s struggle to stay in this country helped break her family apart, and it still exacts a daily toll as she toils in a clerical job that does not require her to show work papers, earning so little that she cannot afford to buy new clothes or hire a tutor for her daughter, she said. “She’s exactly why this country needs immigration reform,” said Jacqueline Esposito, a lawyer who has worked on behalf of Ms. Martinez and has become a friend. “We should be taking obstacles away from Sara, who has so much to offer.” There are millions of undocumented parents like Ms. Martinez across the country, including 250,000 to 350,000 in New York State, according to the New York Immigration Coalition, a policy and advocacy organization. “We can no longer wait for a do-nothing Congress to address the needs of millions of immigrants who are critical to the fabric of America,” Steven Choi, executive director of the coalition, said in a statement. “By acting boldly on administrative relief, the president will demonstrate the enormously positive impact of giving immigrant families a chance to live without fear, come out of the shadows and contribute to the economy in a meaningful way.” As Ms. Martinez told her tale, she hugged a framed photo of the aged woman who raised her in Ecuador, a neighbor who took her in when her own mother abandoned her as a three-month-old. Ms. Martinez said she could not go to her funeral in Ecuador in 2012 because she feared she would not be able to come back to New York. “For us, family is everything,” she said. “Sometimes, I think it’s not worth it, because where is the family now?” Ms. Martinez’s younger daughter, who is 9 and in fourth grade at a public elementary school, said she worries that they might have to move to Ecuador some day. “I want to live here because I know it a lot and I have friends,” she said. “If I go over there, I don’t know anyone.” Image Fearing an older daughter would be discovered by immigration officials and deported, Sara Martinez sent her to live with friends. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times Ms. Martinez asked that the names of her daughters and former husband not be disclosed to protect their privacy. Ms. Martinez grew up living in a one-room shack in the riverfront city of Guayaquil. She would rise at 5 a.m., she recalled, to get in line to use the single outdoor bathroom shared with five other families. Her adoptive mother worked long hours washing clothes in the homes of the wealthy to pay for her school books, and brought table scraps home to feed to her. Ms. Martinez studied hard, graduating at the top of her high school class, and earned a university degree in business administration. She worked for a lumber company for two decades, starting as a secretary’s assistant and eventually running the purchasing department. She bought a two-bedroom, one-bath house for herself and her adoptive mother, and added a third bedroom after she married a co-worker, an accountant, and their first daughter was born. When she was 40, her husband, who had lost his job, said he was moving to Sunset Park, where his brother was living; he had heard that opportunities were plentiful there. She gave up her job and went with him. They moved in with her husband’s brother, and he found a job selling costume jewelry. She cried constantly, she said, and cried even harder when she found out she was pregnant. “I didn’t know what to do,” she recalled. “If I left, my daughters were going to grow up without their father. I didn’t want them to have the life I had: no love, no father, in poverty.” Ms. Martinez signed up for English classes at a family support center. The social workers held a baby shower for her. At night and on weekends, she cleaned other people’s homes, usually earning $200 a week or less. It was the first of many jobs she was overqualified for. Her family joined a church. The pastor helped them rent an apartment of their own, vouching for them with the landlord. Their new life was derailed in 2011 after the trip to Rochester to visit friends for Christmas. As Ms. Martinez and her husband tried to get on the bus to go home, a border patrol agent asked to see their papers. As her husband panicked, Ms. Martinez said, she told the truth. Deportation proceedings were started. Ms. Martinez turned for help to the New York Immigration Coalition. Ms. Esposito, then its director of immigration advocacy, said the group fought to keep Ms. Martinez from being deported under a directive from the Obama administration that expanded the use of prosecutorial discretion in such cases. But Ms. Martinez’s appeals were repeatedly rejected until United States Representative Nydia M. Velázquez called top immigration officials on her behalf, Ms. Esposito said. Ms. Martinez’s case was closed. “All it was,” Ms. Esposito explained, “was a decision not to deport Sara. It did not give her any way to gain legal status, essentially leaving her in limbo.” Since then, Ms. Martinez said she has not taken any buses out of town, ever fearful that she might be stopped again and her case reopened. Her ex-husband comes to visit their daughter every two weeks, but she does not ask about his status. His brother was deported to Ecuador a couple of years ago, she said. Her younger daughter has suffered from depression, and is small for her age because she barely eats, Ms. Martinez said. Her older daughter, now 20, was angry at first, but has thrived in her new life, she said. She finished high school and attends college in another state. “She’s in a safe place,” is all Ms. Martinez will say.

Family
Deportation
Ecuador
Illegal Immigration
Barack Obama
NYC
Sunset Park Brooklyn


Tax Plans of G.O.P. Favor the Rich Despite Populist Talk

Abstract: NEW YORK — Ben Bernanke, the former Federal Reserve chairman appointed by President George W. Bush, recently expressed regret about the government’s response to the 2008 financial crisis. He wished some Wall Street executives had gone to jail. Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican presidential candidate, isn’t so sure. “I’m not necessarily a person who’s looking for that sort of thing,” he said in an interview at the New York Stock Exchange. The reticence of Mr. Rubio, who casts himself as a champion for Americans “living paycheck to paycheck,” underlined a striking reality of the 2016 campaign. For all their talk of anger and angst among working-class voters, Republican candidates have shied away from economic populism. Mr. Rubio, in New York for fund-raising at the time of the interview, offers an example. He proposes a significant new tax credit for households with children. But he would also cut the top federal income tax rate to 35 percent, from nearly 40 percent, and eliminate levies on capital gains, dividends and multimillion-dollar estates. All told, the conservative Tax Foundation estimates that Mr. Rubio’s plan would cut taxes an average of 17.8 percent for all taxpayers — but 27.9 percent for the top 1 percent of earners. Mr. Rubio’s rivals would also deliver disproportionate gains to the most affluent. Former Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida would adjust tax brackets so that the number of families that owe no income tax would rise to 81 million, from 66 million. But he would cut the top income tax rate of 39.6 percent more than twice as much as his brother did as president, to 28 percent, while reducing the top capital gains rate to 20 percent and eliminating the estate tax. The Tax Foundation estimates that Mr. Bush’s plan would raise the after-tax incomes of top earners 16.4 percent, more than any other group. The foundation says the proposal from the real estate magnate Donald J. Trump, who leads Republican polls, would raise incomes of the top 1 percent of earners 27 percent — also the most of any group. That pattern reflects a party still wedded to the theories of supply-side economics 35 years after President Ronald Reagan championed them under far different circumstances, when the top income tax rate was 70 percent. And the reaction to Mr. Bernanke’s suggestion reflects deferential instincts toward financial executives, despite voters’ anger after Washington bailed out Wall Street. Mike Huckabee, the former governor of Arkansas, represents an exception. In his recent book, “God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy,” Mr. Huckabee emphasized the vast cultural and economic distance between Middle America and the cosmopolitan coastal giants of Los Angeles and New York. Still stung by opposition on Wall Street to his previous presidential bid, in 2008, he seconds Mr. Bernanke in suggesting that some finance executives should have gone to jail. “Absolutely, they should have,” he said. “These were all Ivy Leaguers and they knew darn well what they were doing — shuffling paper around and getting paid ridiculous sums of money. “If the same kind of shell game had been practiced on the street,” he concluded, “do you think the cops in the bunco division wouldn’t have gone down and busted ’em?” The absence of prosecutions, Mr. Huckabee said, reflects the flow of campaign contributions more than the intricacies of the law. “Washington is like a strip club,” he said. “You’ve got people tossing dollars, and people doing the dance.” Blunt talk aside, Mr. Huckabee also favors a tax plan that analysts say also disproportionately benefits the affluent. The so-called fair tax, a national 23 percent sales levy, would tax consumption instead of income — shielding savings that the wealthy can afford to set aside but that the working class cannot. Rand Paul, a Kentucky senator whose proposed 14.5 percent flat tax the Tax Foundation says would most benefit incomes above $1 million, reacted to Mr. Bernanke’s regret by turning the tables. “He should also admit that he was part of the problem and that his policies led to a great deal of this, too,” said Mr. Paul, a persistent critic of Fed policy. In his newly published memoir , Mr. Bernanke dismissed such criticism while lamenting the “know-nothingism of the far right.” He no longer considers himself a Republican.

Marco Rubio
Income tax
Mike Huckabee
2016 Presidential Election
Federal Taxes
Capital gains tax
Inheritance Tax and Estate Tax
Ben S Bernanke


Pittsburgh Steelers Put Themselves Back in the Playoff Hunt

Abstract: PITTSBURGH — Pittsburgh Steelers Coach Mike Tomlin likens the season to a moving train that stops for no one. Not even his talented if enigmatic team. After a month teetering on the brink of being left behind, the Steelers appear to be primed for another late playoff push. Their clinical 28-7 victory over Indianapolis on Thanksgiving night vaulted Pittsburgh (6-5) back over .500 and into first place in the A.F.C. North, at least briefly. “It lets us set the stage of what we know we can do,” running back Le’Veon Bell said. That is particularly true when Bell, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger and wide receiver Antonio Brown are working in rhythm and the defense is free to be aggressive. Bell ran for 120 yards and a touchdown, while Roethlisberger and Brown hooked up for three scores against the undermanned Colts. The defense picked up three sacks, for a total of 11 in a span of five days after the Steelers recorded just 13 through the first nine weeks. The defense added two goal-line stands to avoid the kind of road meltdown that has plagued the Steelers far too often in recent years. “Guys are definitely trying to make plays,” linebacker Ryan Shazier said. “Trying to be around the ball a lot more. Trying to be more physical and force the people to do what we want them to do.” N.F.L. Playoff Simulator: Every Team’s Playoff Path Explore every team's path to the playoffs. Those were things the Steelers failed to do during a four-game losing streak that sapped them of the swagger that had carried them to a 4-1 start. They were not quite as flashy while stopping the Browns and methodically dismantling the Andrew Luck-less Colts, but that might not be a bad thing. Three early scores Thursday night gave them plenty of breathing room, and while they did not quite overwhelm Scott Tolzien, Luck’s replacement at quarterback, the Colts never really threatened the rest of the way. Yet the typically brash Brown was not quite ready to say his team’s midseason swoon was firmly in the rearview mirror. Asked after the game — the first three-touchdown outing of his career — if the Steelers had finally found their identity, he shrugged his shoulders and said simply that it was “to be determined.” Maybe, but the blueprint might have been laid over eight quarters spanning barely over 100 hours. With defensive end Cam Heyward out for the season with a torn pectoral muscle, Pittsburgh has ditched the no-huddle offense and relied heavily on Bell to carry the load and run the clock to keep the defense off the field. Bell touched the ball 63 times (51 carries, 12 receptions) for 345 total yards against the Browns and the Colts. The Steelers are 9-2 in Bell’s career when he rushes for more than 100 yards, including 3-0 this season. Center Maurkice Pouncey said earlier in the week that offensive linemen needed to do some serious self-examination after any game in which their running back failed to reach the century mark on the ground. Pouncey, guards Ramon Foster and David DeCastro and tackles Marcus Gilbert and Alejandro Villaneuva then went out and backed it up, giving Bell plenty of room to do his thing and, for a second straight game, keeping Roethlisberger from being sacked. “I don’t think Ben was really under duress too much, and I wasn’t hit in the backfield too many times,” Bell said. “So those guys did a great job. They were hungry. They love running the ball. They love hitting people.” It is something the Steelers will need to continue to do as they prepare for a three-game stretch that includes a visit from the streaking Giants on Dec. 4. Then come trips to Buffalo and Cincinnati, places where the weather can be a factor as the calendar creeps toward Christmas. Pittsburgh heads in that direction with something akin to momentum. “We know it’s time,” Brown said. “It’s time for us to roll our sleeves up, show our identity, put our will on display and find a way to do what we desire to do.”


Bounce, Launch, Splash! The Joy of the Diving Board

Abstract: Warren Davis, 18, had trekked over from Avenue D for this moment, and he made the most of it. After a preliminary bounce on the diving board at the pool at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center , he took three steps, paused and started his signature move, a lofty dive with a midflight spin that ended with his slicing effortlessly into the water. “I just like the high-flying,” he said after taking his turn in the line of people waiting to back flip, cannonball, swan dive and yes, belly-flop, at the pool in the West Village in Manhattan. “I try to get as much air as I can.” In the late 1970s, diving boards began disappearing from public and private pools — a victim of changing ideas about safety and childhood that ushered in such lifesaving measures as car seats and bicycle helmets and warnings about choking hazards. “We live in a safety-conscious age, which is a good thing,” said Sam Biederman, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation , which operates 67 pools. “But it means that facilities change.” At one time, many of the city’s pools had diving boards, including the 11 giant Works Progress Administration pools that opened under Robert Moses, the parks commissioner, in summer 1936. Today, the diving board in the West Village is one of only three that remain in regular use. The others are at John Jay Park in Yorkville, on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, and Fort Totten Park in Bayside, Queens. Video Remember the summertime thrill of leaping off a diving board? Since the 1970s it has gotten harder to find in New York, as diving boards have steadily disappeared from the city’s pools. Credit Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times “The W.P.A. pools brought modern swimming conveniences, hygiene and beauty to very underserved neighborhoods,” said John T. Krawchuk, the director of historic preservation for the parks department, “and they very often had diving pools associated with them.” Interest in the sport had been touched off by the Americans’ diving success at the 1928 Olympics in Amsterdam, including a gold medal won by Helen Meany of New York City in the 3-meter event. “Some of the diving pools had five to eight diving boards configured in a semicircle, ” he added, of city pools at the time. Mr. Krawchuk said the city’s diving pools were eventually ripped out or converted to other uses like volleyball courts and spray showers. One diving pool, at the vast pool at Astoria Park in Queens, is still empty ; there are plans to turn it into an amphitheater. In addition to safety concerns and fear of litigation, the fiscal crisis of the 1970s also conspired against diving boards. “The diving pools required an intensive amount of maintenance and staffing,” Mr. Krawchuk said. AND YET, FOR SOME PEOPLE, the boards still call. There is a public pool around the corner from Mr. Davis’s home in the Jacob Riis Houses in the East Village, but it does not have a diving board. He started coming to the Dapolito pool, also known for its Keith Haring mural, three summers ago. Wolf Louissant, 38, had brought his 12-year-old twins, Myles and Mason, on the subway from Crown Heights, Brooklyn, a 45-minute trip. He was content to simply do a dive. But his sons were set on flips and cannonballs. “That’s what they love — to dive in and flip and not get whistled at,” he said. Image A diver at the pool at the Tony Dapolito Recreation Center in the West Village. The diving board at the public pool measures just 10 feet long and hovers barely four feet above the water. But it provides just enough spring to, at times, draw a line of dozens of people. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times A retired firefighter, Mr. Louissant remembered when he and his childhood friends went to a city pool in Red Hook, Brooklyn. There was no diving board, but they made do by jumping from the steel railing that encircled the deep end. “There was a line for the railing,” he recalled. “The lifeguards let us get away with it.” Things are not so casual at the Dapolito center, where about a third of the 100-foot pool is devoted to diving, with a steel railing that runs its width to keep swimmers out of the area. A lifeguard monitors the diving activity, making sure people wait until the previous diver is nearly out of the pool before going off the board. The guard has a so-called reach pole at the ready, offering it to people whose dives turn into belly-flops. “Hitting that water a certain way is like hitting concrete,” John Silvers, the head lifeguard there for 25 years, said. “Most kids just panic.” SOME PARENTS SAID they were grateful for a place that allowed their children to take physical risks. “There are so few places for kids to be a little dangerous and maybe hurt themselves, but then come up and realize they’re fine,” said Elisha Cooper, 44, a children’s book author from Greenwich Village who regularly brings his daughters Mia, 10, and Zoe, 13, to the pool. His derring-do extends only to his children, however. “I did a flip for the first and last time, I hope,” he said. Image Two divers before taking the plunge in the West Village pool. At one time, many of the city’s pools had diving boards. Today, the diving board in the Village is one of only three that remain in regular use. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times The diving board in the West Village is not big, measuring only 10-feet long and hovering barely four feet above the water. But it provides just enough spring to, at times, draw a line of dozens of people waiting for a chance to leap into the shimmering aqua basin. From the pool deck, they offered a parade of styles and approaches, often eliciting cheers or commiserating groans from swimmers. Mia, a ballet student, paused before doing a perfectly executed back flip. Zoe, a gymnast, was up next with an energetic roundoff that dropped her into the water feet first. Timothy DeJesus, 18, did a modified cannonball that splashed water 15 feet in the air. “I stretch my legs out and jump on my butt,” he explained, dripping and out of breath. “It makes a huge splash and a sound like a ‘bah-boom.’ ” But they all had one thing in common. “Everybody wants to be a star,” Mr. Silvers, the lifeguard, said. Then there was Rolando Veras, a 26-year-old Bronx resident who works as a concierge in an apartment building in the West Village. While everyone else tried their hardest to avoid doing a belly-flop, he pursued it with gusto. As his fellow divers cringed, Mr. Veras did one after another. “I have an extremely high pain threshold,” he said.

Diving
Tony Dapolito Recreation Center
John Jay Park
Fort Totten Park
Children
Swimming pool
NYC
SCUBA
NYC Parks and Recreation
West Village Manhattan


Dead Chickens, Amends, and an Outcry

Abstract: Last week before Rosh Hashana, Rabbi Shea Hecht of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, said he was bombarded with hundreds of e-mail messages, phone calls, faxes and letters within a short time, one of them threatening. In general, the messages protested the tradition of kaparot — sometimes spelled kapparot or kapparos — in which Orthodox Jews take live chickens, swing them over their heads as a means of symbolically transferring sins to the chickens, and then slaughter them on the eve of Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement. “I got over a thousand e-mails in one hour,” Rabbi Hecht said on Wednesday before the start of Yom Kippur. He said that he showed the messages to the police, but that no formal investigation was under way. He immediately suspected People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , which has mounted a campaign against the practice over the past few years, even producing a 10-minute video of the practice in Brooklyn (one of the scenes shows the chickens being stuffed into orange traffic cones). The tradition consumes tens of thousands of chickens each year in Brooklyn. But Bruce G. Friedrich, vice president of PETA, denied that his organization was behind the organized bombardment, though he was vocal about the chicken ritual in an interview on Thursday. “Rabbi Hecht is supporting grotesque cruelty behind thousands and thousands of animals,” he said. PETA has been documenting the rituals over the last few years, but Mr. Friedrich said the group was not behind the anti-chicken-ritual spam. “If anyone is really sending threatening or anti-Semitic e-mails, that is both immoral and counterproductive,” Mr. Friedrich said. “It’s unfortunate when someone hands an animal abuser cause for self-righteousness.” PETA representatives had met previously with Rabbi Hecht. According to some rabbis , the kaparot custom may trace its origins to the destruction of the Holy Temple, when the high priest chose one of two goats on Yom Kippur through a lottery and designated it to absorb the sins of the people of Israel. Now, chickens and roosters are commonly used. Rabbi Hecht’s father, J. J. Hecht, now deceased, played an instrumental role in the early 1970s in reviving the tradition, which had slowly died out in Brooklyn. “It was less and less observed because there were no kosher slaughterhouses down the block anymore,” Rabbi Hecht said, “so you didn’t have the ability of going to your local butcher.” Now the Brooklyn rabbis arrange for local slaughtering, which takes hours based on the sheer volume of chickens. “We’re still out there, still koshering the chicken,” Rabbi Hecht said early Wednesday. Asked if multiple people could use the same chicken before it was killed, as a strategy to reduce the volume of chicken carcasses, Rabbi Hecht said yes. but then he explained, “In today’s world, when a chicken doesn’t cost that much money, people are like, ‘I can afford my own chicken.’ ” To make it easier, he said his congregation subsidized the chickens by buying them in bulk. “We charge the people only $2,” he said. But as part of a fund-raiser on Tuesday night, the rabbi said he charged as much as $13 for the chickens, with a discount for students. (Can live chickens really cost as little as $2? Even with the rising cost of food and the state of the economy , apparently so.) Rabbi Hecht defended the practice: “What I do is 100 percent within the right of my religious freedom within the country.” But the ritual has come under criticism even within the local Jewish population. Few of the chickens are eaten, and one report from 2005 said that they were not being slaughtered in a manner consistent with kosher standards. A number of cases were reported in which proprietors left for Yom Kippur and the chickens were abandoned and died en masse. And last year, rabbis met to discuss evidence that chickens may have been mistreated in past years. Some rabbis have strongly opposed kaparot, suggesting either that it is a pagan ritual or that it violates Jewish teaching about the humane treatment of animals. Some have suggested alternatives to chickens, such as fish, or a charitable contribution.

Chicken
Jews
Cruelty to Animals
Brooklyn (NYC)
Hecht Shea


U.P.S., Encouraged, Raises Earnings Outlook

Abstract: United Parcel Service , the package delivery company, said Thursday that its second-quarter net income increased 90 percent and raised its earnings outlook for the year, citing encouraging indications of future global trade. Increases in its international business, particularly from Asia, raised the volume of its export shipments by 15 percent. “Our approach to international expansion using alliances, service partners and acquisitions has proved to be successful,” the chief executive, D. Scott Davis, said during a conference call with analysts. The company had an overall 7 percent increase in its revenue per freight piece because of heavier average shipment weight, higher prices and fuel surcharge increases. Mr. Davis said that despite expectations for a slow recovery in the United States and the uncertain economic outlook in Europe, “we are more confident than we were earlier in the year in U.P.S.’s ability to grow and generate substantial profits.” The company raised its forecast for full-year profit to a range of $3.35 to $3.45 a share from the outlook of $3.05 to $3.30 a share it forecast with its first-quarter results. Analysts said the improved forecast was a factor in a rally in its stock price, which rose $3.14, or 5.2 percent, to $63.15 a share. The company reported net income of $845 million, or 84 cents a share, in the quarter, up from $445 million, or 49 cents a share, a year earlier. Second-quarter revenue was $12.2 billion, up from $10.8 billion. Income per share was better than the 77 cents a share forecast by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters, and revenue topped the forecast of $11.96 billion. While U.P.S. reported an improvement in all business segments, including a 57 percent increase in its domestic segment operating profit to $748 million, its average daily package volume increased only 1.2 percent. “We are not yet where we need to be, but we are moving in the right direction,” Mr. Davis said about domestic segment profit, which was hurt in part by a decline in its letter delivery business. Kurt Kuehn, the chief financial officer, attributed the decline in domestic letter deliveries in part to fewer new-home sales and mortgage refinancings. Kevin W. Sterling, transportation services analyst with BB&T Capital Markets, said time-sensitive financial and legal documents in those areas were a large component of next-day letter delivery. Mr. Sterling said U.P.S. and FedEx, which announced its fourth-quarter profit last month, presented similar outlooks for modest global economic growth, driven in part by Asia. Analysts follow the two companies, which survey customer shipping needs, as a proxy for overall economic health. “If you’re looking to gauge the global and domestic economy, look no further than U.P.S. and FedEx,” Mr. Sterling said. While Mr. Davis said he anticipated a business-led recovery, Mr. Sterling said he would be cautiously watching consumer activity around the back-to-school and early holiday seasons. “Right now they’re seeing strong trends, but no one knows what August and September hold,” said Mr. Sterling. “If the fall peak shipping season is strong, it usually means retailers are doing a little bit better and consumers are spending.”

Company Reports
United Parcel Service Inc


Contrary to Hopes, Afghan Vote Disappoints

Abstract: KABUL, Afghanistan — Afghanistan ’s Western backers put up $150 million this year for parliamentary elections, hoping that a credible vote would demonstrate progress in the war, help stabilize the country and encourage efforts toward peace. Instead, the complete results announced Wednesday from the September balloting have thrust Afghans into a new period of uncertainty, deepened skepticism of the government and stirred Afghanistan’s always volatile ethnic fault lines. Despite some improvements over last year’s discredited presidential election, the final results were widely perceived as being seriously tainted by fraud in important places. Rampant insecurity because of the Taliban insurgency also skewed the vote, keeping large numbers of people from the polls, especially in the Pashtun south and east. The result is that the elections propelled to power the wealthy and candidates with connections to old warlords, and left the country’s largest ethnic group, the Pashtuns, who live in areas where the insurgency is active, under-represented in some provinces. Rather than being the boost to Afghan credibility that Western supporters and the country itself had hoped for, the elections have underscored the difficulty of rooting out fraud, and the Taliban as well. “Those who spent money to buy votes are traitors,” said Haji Abdul Majeed, a tribal elder from Kandahar Province. “And the fact is, everyone spent money, and we are not expecting them to work for the people and the country. In fact, we are afraid they will sell the country and its people.” In most areas, the people’s voices have been lost in the din of candidates and power brokers who are now pressing presidential officials and the attorney general to overturn the results in key places, or even to invalidate the entire process. For now, no one is sure what steps President Hamid Karzai will take, or whether the attorney general he appointed will be able to take cases of fraud before the Supreme Court. Behind the scenes the fight between the election commission, which stands by the results, and the government, which is challenging them, is in part about who has final say over the process. “There is a very complex power play under way,” said one Western diplomat in Kabul, who did not want to be identified because of the delicacy of the issue. “We’re in a dangerous situation.” As important, however, is the fact that there are 2,251 losers and the president cannot satisfy all of them. By recommending that they take their grievances to the courts, Mr. Karzai has offered them hope without promising to deliver it himself, draining off some of the anger and buying time to figure out what to do. There is, of course, always the possibility that the attorney general’s investigations will disqualify candidates the president did not want in Parliament to begin with. But while Mr. Karzai may have bought himself some breathing space, he has also made his Western backers nervous since they badly wanted a successful election and view the job done by the Independent Election Commission as a quantum leap forward over last year. They are anxious not to undermine its work. Regardless, the strife-filled process has battered the country’s fledgling democratic institutions. One possibility, said Western and Afghan election watchers, is that when the Parliament finally convenes, it will be so weakened by the many accusations of fraud that it will not be an effective counterbalance to the executive branch. Another possibility is that the fraud cases will delay the seating of the new Parliament, and with it important policy initiatives like those on peace and reconciliation. The earliest the Parliament is likely to be inaugurated by Mr. Karzai and able to begin work is Jan. 21, according to parliamentary officials. The seven weeks between now and then leave ample time for competing interests to further muddle the results. Perhaps most dangerous is that the results did not yield a Parliament whose ethnic proportions match those of the country, and will therefore be perceived as unfair, whether the seats were won by fraud or not. And while many fraud cases were weeded out, many others slipped through because the fraud and abuse were so pervasive, according to Afghan election officials and several international election experts. “We worked very hard to make sure that the votes we counted were valid votes, but we had 86,000 employees and they did not come as angels from the sky,” said Fazal Ahmad Manawi, the chairman of the election commission, who has not shied from referring hundreds of his own employees for investigation. The problem, said Thomas Ruttig, the co-director of the Afghan Analysts Network, a research group in Kabul, is the perception that the election officials acted arbitrarily. “Many people who stuffed ballot boxes got through, others were disqualified,” he said. “If we take the votes at face value, these people are now in Parliament and you have to make a decision about whether that is good enough.” In other cases, the inability of people to safely reach the polls because of the Taliban insurgency disenfranchised important groups like the Pashtuns in several provinces, reflecting less the failure of election officials than of Afghan and coalition forces to secure broad parts of the country. Ghazni is one example of a province where the results, which were announced Wednesday after a delay, met the letter of the law, but will almost certainly be seen as unfair. The province has the fifth-largest population in Afghanistan and is mixed ethnically, with a Pashtun majority and a minority of Hazaras. However, the Pashtun areas are heavily infiltrated by Taliban insurgents, and many Pashtuns could not safely vote. While voting places opened, in some places as few as three people turned out. That means that in this Parliament there will be 11 Hazara representatives, leaving the Pashtuns completely disenfranchised. The Independent Election Commission considered declaring the result invalid, but decided it could not. “The fact that the I.E.C. was able to open polling centers so that people could cast their ballots, even if some of them couldn’t come out, made the election legally acceptable,” said Abdullah Ahmadzai, the head of the commission’s secretariat. The inequities in Ghazni reflected the outcome in several mixed provinces, including Kunduz, Badghis and Herat, all areas where Pashtuns previously had more representatives in the last Parliament than they will have in the new one. According to policy advisers to Mr. Karzai, the number of Pashtuns dropped by more than 30 seats; Western diplomats estimate the drop between 12 and 20 seats. The worry, said Daoud Sultanzoi, a Pashtun member of Parliament from Ghazni who did not win re-election, is that when people feel unrepresented, they turn to the insurgency. “I am afraid people are being driven into the arms of the Taliban,” he said. “This was happening, but the election exacerbated this,” he said, adding that he was urging Mr. Karzai to declare the results invalid nationwide because so many people could not vote because of the insecurity. “We were not ready for the election,” he said.

Afghanistan
Elections
Politics and Government
Afghanistan War (2001- )


The History of the Sweeney Building in Brooklyn

Abstract: Q. Many years ago, when I was still Mrs. Sweeney, our three boys in Brooklyn Heights never had to ask us, “Where did we come from?” because the answer was plain to see: the Sweeney Manufacturing Company, just to the right of the Brooklyn Bridge. Alas, the sign is gone. What happened? A. The Sweeney Building, at 30 Main Street in Dumbo (also known as 74-86 Water Street), is now a condominium building. According to the website Condopedia.com , the W. H. Sweeney Manufacturing Company was founded by three brothers from Marysville, Ontario, who manufactured copper, brass, nickel and silver kitchenware. The company erected the 12-story Brooklyn building in 1908 (above left) and fully occupied it in 1913. According to the website, the condo conversion was completed in 2003. The former industrial building has 87 apartments, with higher-than-normal ceilings and oversize windows. Image Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, Queens. Credit Robert Stolarik for The New York Times As for the Sweeneys, they quit the manufacturing business around 1924 and began a real estate company, according to the website. Q. My husband, whose last name is Brennan, regularly jogs in Brennan Field in Juniper Valley Park in Middle Village, Queens, which has a nice track and field area. So naturally we are curious: Which Brennan was the field named after? A. The field, dedicated in 1959, was named to honor John P. Brennan, a Fordham University track star and Olympic team coach. A former police sergeant, Mr. Brennan died in 1956 while he was on his way to watch one of the track and field teams he coached. He was responsible for organizing the citywide track and field program for the Police Athletic League, and several people he coached were members of the 1952 and 1956 Olympic teams, according to an article in The Long Island City Star-Journal that was sent by Christina Wilkinson, the president of the Newtown Historical Society. Juniper Valley Park has an unusual history. According to the Parks Department, its name comes from Juniper Valley Swamp, which covered about 100 acres south of Caldwell Avenue and was blanketed with junipers and white cedars. The 55-acre park contains a 19th-century cemetery created by a farmer, Thomas Pullis; it is one of the city’s few surviving farm burial grounds. The park site also formerly contained a 10-acre peat bog, whose partly decomposed vegetable matter, 16 feet thick, was cut, dried and used for fuel during the Revolutionary War after the British cut down most of the local timber for firewood and shipbuilding. In the 1930s, New York City acquired the bog to settle a claim for back taxes against the estate of the notorious Arnold Rothstein (1882-1928), the gambler and racketeer who was accused of fixing the 1919 World Series. The city acquired other parcels in Middle Village on which Rothstein had built 143 cheap houses in hopes of reselling them for a quick profit. In the 1940s, the Work Projects Administration transformed the land, which had included a former dump, into an extensive athletic and recreational center, which has been kept green by volunteers.

Dumbo Brooklyn
Historic preservation
Middle Village Queens


U.S. Weighs Direct Military Action Against ISIS in Syria

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is debating a more robust intervention in Syria, including possible American airstrikes, in a significant escalation of its weeks-long military assault on the Islamic extremist group that has destabilized neighboring Iraq and killed an American journalist, officials said Friday. While President Obama has long resisted being drawn into Syria’s bloody civil war, officials said recent advances by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria had made clear that it represents a threat to the interests of the United States and its allies. The beheading of James Foley, the American journalist, has contributed to what officials called a “new context” for a challenge that has long divided the president’s team. Officials said the options include speeding up and intensifying limited American efforts to train and arm moderate Syrian rebel forces that have been fighting both ISIS as well as the government of President Bashar al-Assad. Another option would be to bolster other partners on the ground to take on ISIS, including the Syrian Kurds. But American officials said they would also take a look at airstrikes by fighter jets and bombers as well as potentially sending Special Operations forces into Syria, like those who tried to rescue Mr. Foley and other hostages on a mission in July. One possibility officials have discussed for Iraq that could be translated to Syria would be a series of unmanned drone strikes targeting ISIS leaders, much like those conducted in Yemen, Somalia and Pakistan. Whether Mr. Obama would actually authorize a new strategy remained unclear and aides said he has not yet been presented with recommendations. The president has long expressed skepticism that more assertive action by the United States, including arming Syrian rebels as urged in 2011 by Hillary Rodham Clinton, then the secretary of state, would change the course of the civil war there. But he sent out a top adviser on Friday to publicly hint at the possibility a day after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said ISIS could not be defeated without going after it in Syria. “If you come after Americans, we’re going to come after you, wherever you are,” Benjamin J. Rhodes, the president’s deputy national security adviser, told reporters in Martha’s Vineyard, where Mr. Obama is on a much-interrupted vacation. “We’re actively considering what’s going to be necessary to deal with that threat and we’re not going to be restricted by borders.” Image Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, fielded questions about events in the Middle East and Ukraine on Friday. Credit Win Mcnamee/Getty Images American operations against ISIS in Syria would expand the scope and goals of the military intervention Mr. Obama ordered in Iraq two weeks ago. At the time, the president said he authorized airstrikes to defend American personnel and prevent the genocide of religious minorities threatened by ISIS. But he has also ordered strikes to help Iraq’s government reclaim control of the vital Mosul Dam from ISIS. Sending American warplanes or drones to cross the border into Syria would mean that he was now taking on the mission of degrading or even crippling ISIS, which has established what it calls an Islamic caliphate on a wide band of territory across the two countries. “Common sense suggests you need to hit them in Syria,” said Steven Simon, a former White House adviser to Mr. Obama on the Middle East. “Everyone understands well enough that you can’t defeat an insurgency that has a cross-border safe haven, so you have to do something.” Critics of the original Iraq intervention said escalating into Syria would represent exactly the kind of mission creep they warned against. “We’ve seen this movie before and we know how it ends,” said Stephen Miles, advocacy director of Win Without War, a national coalition formed to oppose the 2003 invasion of Iraq ordered by President George W. Bush. “Unfortunately, we see at the end of the day it’s almost always the case that the extremists are emboldened. We play into their hands by giving them what they want, which is a battle with the West.” An expanded intervention into Syria would represent a striking turnaround for a president who has opposed such a move before, and some administration officials therefore doubt that he will agree. From the start of the Syrian civil war, Mr. Obama’s response has been marked by a pattern of heightened public statements and indications of stepped-up involvement, followed by far less action than suggested. At one point, Mr. Obama declared Mr. Assad had to “step aside” and at another he laid down a “red line” against any use of chemical weapons. But the president rejected the 2011 proposal backed by Mrs. Clinton to arm and train small groups of vetted rebels, fearful that the weapons could fall into the wrong hands. A Rogue State Along Two Rivers The victories gained by the militant group calling itself the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria were built on months of maneuvering along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Just a year ago, he vowed to retaliate against Syria for using chemical weapons on civilians, only to abruptly reverse himself and ask Congress to decide whether to go forward. He then pivoted again to embrace a Russian plan to remove Syria’s chemical weapons without taking military action. The episode was widely seen as damaging Mr. Obama’s credibility, but the joint Russian-American initiative recently finished destroying all of Syria’s chemicals, achieving the goal the president set. Mr. Obama eventually approved a limited effort to arm and train vetted rebels and this summer asked Congress for another $500 million to help, but lawmakers are unlikely to act until next year and the flow of current aid has been so tightly controlled that some rebel leaders have said it seemed designed less to turn the tide of war than to keep them alive — while creating an impression that the United States is helping. As recently as two weeks ago, Mr. Obama rejected the notion that arming the rebels earlier would have made a difference, saying that has “always been a fantasy.” He said the administration had difficulty finding, training and arming a sufficient cadre of secular Syrians. “There’s not as much capacity as you would hope,” he said. What is now under consideration would be a different goal: not to punish Mr. Assad’s government or to further his ouster but to cripple ISIS. As it happens, that would actually work in Mr. Assad’s favor, since ISIS has been one of the most effective of the various factions fighting Syrian government forces. But it might be more directly in the interest of the United States, given the threat posed by an ISIS caliphate whose brutality was captured in the video image of a masked man beheading Mr. Foley. “Given what’s happened to Jim Foley, given the public profile that this ISIS bunch has taken, I think it’s easier for the president, and for that matter for members of Congress, to make the case to the public that the United States really ought to be operating in the skies over Syria against this particular group,” said Frederic Hof, a former Syria adviser in Mr. Obama’s State Department. American officials had long worried about the dangers from Westerners fighting in Syria, including about 100 Americans, returning home to carry out attacks here. As of this spring, ISIS was viewed as an immediate threat to the region and a potential threat to the continental United States. But the intelligence community concluded that ISIS did not yet have the capability to strike here. In recent months, however, concerns over ISIS’s capability to attack American personnel and interests in the region have increased as the group swept into northern Iraq. Fears of threats to the United States itself have also increased, mainly because of reports of growing collaboration between ISIS and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which has the most sophisticated bombmaker in the militant world and a demonstrated willingness to attack the United States.

Syria
Iraq
James Foley
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
US Military
Barack Obama
Martin E Dempsey


North Korea Still a Threat, South Korean Tells Gates

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea , Nov. 7 — The military threat presented by North Korea has not diminished despite its early steps to dismantle its nuclear weapons program, the South Korean defense minister said Wednesday. During a news conference with Robert M. Gates , the visiting American defense secretary, South Korea’s minister of national defense, Kim Jang-soo, said there was no clear intelligence that the Communist North had halted its pursuit of “asymmetrical weapons.” “Although it’s true that North Korea has begun the process of disabling its nuclear program, we cannot say that the threat from North Korea has reduced tangibly or discernibly,” Mr. Kim said. “In order for us to change our view of the situation, we would need very real and very tangible military intelligence to that effect,” he said. “What is certain is that North Korea is continuing to pursue the acquisition of asymmetrical weapons. We cannot conclude that the threat from North Korea has been reduced.” Asymmetrical weapons is another term for unconventional weapons. Mr. Gates, midway through a week of meetings in China, South Korea and Japan, said the United States “would welcome, and do welcome, the beginning of disablement of nuclear facilities in the North.” A senior State Department expert on Korea said Monday that he had confirmation that work had begun to disable North Korea’s nuclear facilities at the main Yongbyon complex, 60 miles north of Pyongyang. But Mr. Gates cautioned that much work remained to make certain that North Korea had surrendered its nuclear weapons and its weapons development programs. He said North Korea must offer to disclose all of its nuclear weapons facilities and nuclear weapons activities. “So there are several steps in this process,” he said. “Of course, the object is the denuclearization of North Korea. So we are started on a path, but we are far from reaching our destination.” Sung Kim, the State Department official who visited the Yongbyon complex, said that North Korean officials were “very cooperative” and that the effort was “off to a good start.” North Korea turned off the reactor at Yongbyon in July and pledged to disable it — but not dismantle it — by Dec. 31. In exchange, North Korea will receive concessions, including energy assistance, in a deal negotiated with the United States, China, Japan, South Korea and Russia. The agreement, first reached in February, also grants North Korea political concessions. But Mr. Gates said Wednesday that North Korea’s desire to be removed from the American roster of terrorist states would be fulfilled only when North Korea had met a list of official criteria — implying that such a determination had not yet been made. Mr. Gates, at the end on Wednesday of annual security talks with South Korea, said the North Korean conventional and nuclear threat remained “the focal point” of a “strong and vibrant” alliance between the United States and South Korea. North Korea has about one million people in its armed forces and conducted its first nuclear detonation in October 2006. The American military force stationed in South Korea has been diminishing. Three years ago, 37,500 American military personnel were in South Korea. One American brigade formerly based in South Korea deployed to Iraq in 2004. The current American presence here is 28,000, which will drop to 25,000 by 2012. South Korea fields 680,000 in its armed forces, which are among the most modern in Asia. In 2012, the South Korean military is to take over wartime operational control of its own forces, a command responsibility previously exercised by the American four-star general here. Underscoring the importance of the alliance with South Korea, Mr. Gates was joined here by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Adm. Timothy J. Keating, commander of American forces in the Pacific; and Gen. B. B. Bell, the American commander in South Korea.

North Korea
South Korea
State Department
Gates Robert M
Atomic Weapons