Donald Trump Opens New Line of Attack on Hillary Clinton: Her Marriage

Abstract: Donald J. Trump unleashed a slashing new attack on Hillary Clinton over Bill Clinton’s sexual indiscretions on Friday as he sought to put the Clintons’ relationship at the center of his political argument against her before their next debate. Mr. Trump, aiming to unnerve Mrs. Clinton, even indicated that he was rethinking his statement at their last debate that he would “absolutely” support her if she won in November, saying: “We’re going to have to see. We’re going to see what happens. We’re going to have to see.” In an interview with The New York Times, he also contended that infidelity was “never a problem” during his three marriages, though his first ended in an ugly divorce after Mr. Trump began a relationship with the woman who became his second wife. Speaking by phone from a campaign swing in Michigan, he said that he was “absolutely disgusted” that Mrs. Clinton had allied herself politically with a Miss Universe winner, Alicia Machado, whom Mr. Trump had derided for gaining weight. The Ways Clinton or Trump Can Win the Election Explore the paths to victory available for the presidential candidates. Mr. Trump said that Mrs. Clinton, who has portrayed Ms. Machado as a victim of Mr. Trump’s cruel insults, had “made this young lady into a girl scout when she was the exact opposite.” He asserted, without offering any evidence, that Ms. Machado had once participated in a sex tape. Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, argued that Mrs. Clinton’s support for Ms. Machado was part of a pattern by the Democrat of treating women to suit her own political ends, and raised Mrs. Clinton’s criticism of women who had been involved with her husband, such as Monica Lewinsky and Gennifer Flowers. He said he was bringing up Mr. Clinton’s infidelities because he thought they would repulse female voters and turn them away from the Clintons, and because he was eager to unsettle Mrs. Clinton in their next two debates and on the campaign trail. “She’s nasty, but I can be nastier than she ever can be,” Mr. Trump said. “Hillary Clinton was married to the single greatest abuser of women in the history of politics,” he added about Mr. Clinton. “Hillary was an enabler, and she attacked the women who Bill Clinton mistreated afterward. I think it’s a serious problem for them, and it’s something that I’m considering talking about more in the near future.” Mr. Trump said he believed that his own marital history did not preclude him from waging such an attack. He became involved with Marla Maples while he was still married to his first wife, Ivana, who divorced him in 1991. He married Ms. Maples in 1993; they were divorced in 1999. He married his current wife, Melania, in 2005. While Mr. Trump has bragged about his sexual exploits over the years, he charged in the interview that Mr. Clinton had numerous indiscretions that “brought shame onto the presidency, and Hillary Clinton was there defending him all along.” But when asked if he had ever cheated on his wives, Mr. Trump said: “No — I never discuss it. I never discuss it. It was never a problem.” Asked specifically about his affair with Ms. Maples when he was married to Ivana Trump, Mr. Trump said: “I don’t talk about it. I wasn’t president of the United States. I don’t talk about it. When you think of the fact that he was impeached, the country was in turmoil, turmoil, absolute turmoil. He lied with Monica Lewinsky and paid a massive penalty.” A Clinton campaign spokesman on Friday night described Mr. Trump as “unhinged” in his attacks on Mrs. Clinton over Ms. Machado. “As Hillary has said, Donald Trump can say whatever he wants about her, but she will not be bullied out of defending Alicia and the many other women Trump has attacked and demeaned,” said the campaign spokesman, Brian Fallon. Mr. Trump’s sharply negative attacks on the Clintons, and on Ms. Machado, pose a significant political risk to his own appeal: Two-thirds of voters already see him unfavorably, according to polls, and he is struggling to win over female voters — including white women, a majority of whom have historically supported the Republican candidate in presidential elections. On the Trail: Week of Sept. 25 20 Photos View Slide Show › Image Damon Winter/The New York Times The Clinton campaign is running a new attack ad against Mr. Trump featuring his insults of women over the years and has aggressively defended Ms. Machado; Mrs. Clinton called her on Friday to offer thanks “for all she had done and the courage she has shown, particularly as this became elevated through a war of some pretty unpleasant words,” according to Nick Merrill, a campaign spokesman. But Mr. Trump is also scrambling for ways to rebound from his widely panned performance in the first general-election debate on Monday, when he frequently interrupted Mrs. Clinton and failed to raise issues that he wanted to discuss, like her ties to wealthy donors to the Clinton Foundation and the attacks on the American diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya. Mrs. Clinton’s team, Democrats supporting her and many senior Republicans have braced for an attack on the Clintons’ marital history, seeing it as inevitable — particularly now that Mr. Trump is being advised by several people connected to efforts in the late 1990s to reveal Mr. Clinton’s affair with Ms. Lewinsky and to the subsequent impeachment battle. David Bossie, Mr. Trump’s deputy campaign manager, is the president of the conservative group Citizens United, and worked as an investigator who searched Arkansas for evidence of Mr. Clinton’s personal misdeeds during the 1992 presidential campaign. Some of Mr. Trump’s advisers have tried to suggest focusing on accusations that Mrs. Clinton tried to discredit women who said they had been harassed by Mr. Clinton. Chief among those suggesting this approach is Roger Stone, the longest-serving Trump adviser, who wrote a book called “The Clintons’ War on Women,” laying out accusations from Juanita Broaddrick and Kathleen Willey, who have accused Mr. Clinton of sexual assault — accusations the Clintons or their lawyer David Kendall have denied. Mr. Trump, however, has struggled to articulate that concept, and around 5 a.m. Friday he released a series of posts on Twitter attacking Ms. Machado once again. In the interview Friday afternoon, Mr. Trump said he would begin preparing as soon as this weekend for the next debate, on Oct. 9, and would be plotting ways to attack Mrs. Clinton on policy issues like trade and national security, as well as to unnerve her with possible targets like her husband’s past. As for his own vulnerabilities, Mr. Trump insisted that he did not think he bungled a question at his first debate about not releasing his tax returns, when he argued at one point that he was “smart” to have avoided paying any federal income tax earlier in his career. “I started getting such negative and unfair questions,” Mr. Trump complained. Mr. Trump said that he did pay some federal income tax last year, but declined to specify the amount, and continued to cite a federal audit as an excuse not to release his tax returns. People are free to release returns when they are under audit, and most presidential candidates have released their returns since the 1970s. Mr. Trump said he did not think he needed to prepare more rigorously for the next debate than he did for the first one, because any shortcomings on Monday, he argued, were because of a problem with the microphone at his lectern, which he “spent 50 percent of my thought process” dealing with. The Commission on Presidential Debates, which sponsors the events, said on Friday that there were “issues” with Mr. Trump’s audio. Looking broadly at the race, Mr. Trump said he was pleased that he was running close to Mrs. Clinton in many polls and expressed optimism that he would prevail in Ohio and Florida and ultimately take the presidency. “I have the issues on my side,” he said bullishly, “and I have Trump, which I’ll take.”

Donald Trump
Hillary Clinton
Marriage
Bill Clinton
Alicia Machado
2016 Presidential Election
Adultery
Women and Girls


Texas: Conservative Student Group Draws Fire for Immigration Game

Abstract: A conservative student group announced Monday that it will play a “Catch an Illegal Immigrant” game at the University of Texas at Austin, drawing condemnation from Democrats and a threat of expulsion. Members of the Young Conservatives of Texas will wander the campus Wednesday wearing signs that say “illegal immigrant,” and students who capture them and take them to the group’s recruiting table will get $25 gift certificates. The group’s spokesman, Lorenzo Garcia, said the purpose was to spark discussion about illegal immigration. The Texas Democratic Party condemned the game and pointed out that Mr. Garcia recently was a paid staff member with Greg Abbott’s Republican campaign for governor. The campaign’s press secretary, Avdiel Huerta, said it “has no affiliation with this repugnant effort.” Gregory Vincent, the university’s vice president for diversity, said that if the members carried out their plan, they would be “ignoring the honor code and contributing to the degradation of our campus culture.” Students found guilty of violating the honor code could face expulsion.

Texas
Immigration
Illegal Immigration
University of Texas at Austin
Democrats


When an Expansive Waterfront View Promises More Than It Can Deliver

Abstract: A few years ago, Elizabeth Mulvihill, a retired Suffolk County school principal, made the unlikely move from Long Island to South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Ms. Mulvihill had reached a time in her life when she did not want to be driving anymore. So she sold her car and started looking for a spacious apartment in the city that she could afford; something, above all, with convenient transportation. She ended up sinking a chunk of her savings into a $1,040,000 two-bedroom apartment with stunning views in Schaefer Landing, a development of three buildings on the East River that opened in 2006. The closest subway stop is a mile away, uphill, but Ms. Mulvihill’s real estate broker assured her that regular ferry service would connect her to Manhattan — a breezy 15-minute ride. And the developer’s brochure showed ferries crisscrossing the river from the new shiny tower. When Ms. Mulvihill arrived, in December 2006, the ferry — which makes four runs daily in each direction, at $4.50 per one-way trip (less for more frequent riders) — was one of those dream amenities that are usually the purview of other, more livable cities, places with direct trains to airports and unfailingly polite cab drivers. From her living room on the 10th floor, she could see the yellow New York Water Taxi coasting in her direction, and would head downstairs to catch it in time for a doctor’s appointment in Midtown or a meeting with a client of her educational consulting business. But last year, right around Christmas, the ferry stopped. The company told riders it could not afford to run in winter, when its year-round, tourist-friendly ferry lines around Manhattan were too short on business to subsidize the not-yet-profitable commuter line crossing the East River. Life changed dramatically for Ms. Mulvihill, who lives alone. She sometimes took the bus to the L train, but even that involved a haul uphill, and the wait seemed endless, and then she would have to transfer once she got to Manhattan. A trip to the doctor that once took 15 minutes stretched to over an hour. “I found myself feeling stranded,” Ms. Mulvihill recalled. “You get depressed. You just don’t want to leave the house.” Her bright, sunny apartment started to feel like a glass cage — through which she could still see that shiny strip of water separating her from a more active life. Water, water everywhere, but no way to cross it. The ferry service resumed this spring, but last week Ms. Mulvihill and other neighbors in Schaefer Landing learned that the company would be halting it again for the cold-weather months, this time starting Nov. 1. It seems that New York Water Taxi had been expecting to find out this summer whether the city had accepted a bid it submitted two years ago for a contract that would have made it the beneficiary of a subsidy in 2010 that the government had pledged for ferry service. The company had planned to keep running the ferry without interruption provided it could cover basic operating costs with some help from the city. But the city has not reached a decision, and given that agencies were just ordered to cut $1.5 billion from the budget over two years, any new financial commitments — even small ones, like the $40,000 per month the ferry company says it would need — strike some people as uncertain at best. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” said City Councilman David Yassky, whose district includes the area of South Williamsburg where glass towers are springing up at a pace that makes Duane Reade’s expansion look sluggish. “It’s very easy to picture this administration canceling that 2010 commitment,” added Mr. Yassky, who is pressing the city to offer a subsidy now. “Once they get started, it’s a lot harder to cancel it.” With city grants to nonprofits drying up and schools ordered to slash $185 million from the current budget, it is perhaps understandable that subsidizing a luxurious amenity for a few hundred owners of fancy condominiums might not seem a priority. But without steady ferry service, the developers will probably have a much harder time selling the buildings, which, even on younger legs than Ms. Mulvihill’s, are at least a 15-minute walk from the subway. Even before the stock market crashed, it seemed likely that the area was overextending itself with new housing; a ferry service that can’t be counted on could create a full-blown glut. And the ferry subsidy is a pittance compared with the tens of millions of dollars that the city has extended to the area to subsidize affordable housing (not to mention $1.25 million for the South Williamsburg ferry landing). “A priority for this administration is to encourage the use of waterborne commutation to ease congestion on our roadways,” said Janel Patterson, a spokeswoman for the city’s Economic Development Corporation, adding that the city and the City Council would eventually subsidize ferry service on the East River. But Councilman Yassky’s anxiety reflects the general fear of what happens when a city’s development expands ahead of the infrastructure — and a stock market collapse makes the chicken-and-egg dynamic all the more precarious, turning new expenses, no matter how small, into a hard sell. Sometimes even the smallest distances simply can’t be bridged. Now in limbo, an area that is eager to attract pioneers is already losing some of the ones it already has: Ken Stein, the president of the board of the south building at Schaefer Landing, says he knows of two tenants who will not renew their leases because of the loss of ferry service, and that an owner is selling for the same reason. Ms. Mulvihill said she never would have bought the apartment if she had known the ferry service would come and go with the seasons. “I thought this was a safe investment, given the stock market,” she said. These days, she’s come to think otherwise.

Ferries
New York Water Taxi
Housing
Williamsburg (NYC)


Saudi Held at Guantánamo Is Repatriated, Reducing Number of Detainees to 114

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it had repatriated a Guantánamo Bay detainee who intelligence analysts had concluded was probably once a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden . The United States held the man as a wartime prisoner for more than 13 years, government files show. The former detainee, Abdul Rahman Shalabi, 39, is from Saudi Arabia, and he was one of 32 Middle Eastern men who were captured by the Pakistani military along the Afghanistan border in December 2001 and turned over to the United States. He was among the first batch of detainees taken to the prison when it opened at the American naval station in Cuba on Jan. 11, 2002. Mr. Shalabi’s departure reduced the remaining detainee population at the prison to 114 men, of whom 52 are recommended for transfer if security conditions can be met in the receiving country. President Obama still wants to close the prison before he leaves office in 16 months. A leaked military dossier , citing statements other detainees made to interrogators, said Al Qaeda might have considered Mr. Shalabi for participation in a suicide attack 15 years ago. He denied involvement with Al Qaeda and said he was a religious teacher. Although a six-agency task force decided in 2009 that Mr. Shalabi was too dangerous to release, a parolelike panel called the Periodic Review Board, consisting of representatives from the same six agencies, decided in June that he could now be safely repatriated to Saudi Arabia. In a statement explaining its reasoning , the board said Mr. Shalabi had “terrorist-related activities and connections” in the past, but said it was confident that the Saudi government’s rehabilitation program and its ability to monitor former detainees would mitigate the risks. The board also cited the fact that Mr. Shalabi’s nephew , who was repatriated from Guantánamo in President George W. Bush’s second term and went through the Saudi rehabilitation program, has apparently lived quietly ever since. “The board also considered the detainee’s well-established family, their willingness and ability to support him upon his return, and their prior success in assisting with the rehabilitation and reintegration of a former Guantánamo detainee,” the review panel said. Mr. Shalabi appeared before the board at a hearing in April. He asked that his statements not be made public. But a lawyer helping to represent him, Julia Tarver-Mason Wood, told the board that he just wanted “to settle down, get married and have a family of his own, and put the past behind him.” The Obama administration’s efforts to close the prison have come in fits and starts, in part because of transfer restrictions imposed by Congress. They require the secretary of defense to tell Congress that he is personally satisfied that the risks of transferring any particular prisoner have been substantially mitigated. The secretary of defense, Ashton B. Carter, who took office in February, was initially slow to sign off on proposed transfers, leading to a cabinet-level meeting in July at which the National Security Council asked him to make decisions more quickly, according to officials familiar with the deliberations. Mr. Carter permitted the repatriation of a Moroccan detainee last week. Most of the remaining detainees on the transfer list are from Yemen, which is in chaos, and the United States is trying to find more stable countries to resettle them. For the 62 detainees not on the transfer list, Mr. Obama’s plan to close Guantánamo calls for moving them to a different prison, on American soil. But a statute currently bans relocating the wartime prison inside the United States.

Detainees
Pentagon
Abdul Rahman Shalabi
Guantanamo Bay
US Politics
US Military
Barack Obama
Ashton Carter


The Yellen Fed? Precise and Predictable

Abstract: There are no fast rules for running the Federal Reserve, but Janet L. Yellen has a few. Rule No. 1: Be methodical and transparent. Rule No. 2: See rule No. 1. Even before President Obama nominated her to lead the Fed on Wednesday, Ms. Yellen advocated a rigorous, predictable approach to steering the nation’s economy. In speeches in 2012, for instance, she talked about the virtues of using a mathematical formula to help determine when the central bank should raise or lower interest rates. Plug in economic growth, inflation and the like — and you have a decent guidepost for what policy should look like. At least in theory. In practice, setting monetary policy rarely comes down to one equation. And not even Ms. Yellen is advocating a policy-by-the-numbers approach just now, given the fragile state of the economy. But in public speeches and academic work, she has suggested that the Fed should be more systematic, predictable and transparent — in short, that it should lay down some rules and stick to them. It is a template that Wall Street likes, and one that underscores the Fed’s departure from the days of Alan Greenspan, its chairman from 1987 to 2006, whose Delphic pronouncements were endlessly parsed by economists and investors. Investors hope that a Yellen Fed will clearly telegraph its intentions to the financial markets, particularly as the central bank begins to taper its efforts to kindle growth. On Wednesday, that view was reflected in the stock market, which rebounded after two straight days of losses, in part on hopes that Ms. Yellen, if confirmed, would not rush to withdraw stimulus. The dollar also strengthened. On Wall Street and in Washington, the view is that Ms. Yellen will generally maintain the policies of the current chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, while pressing for even greater transparency. In interviews, people who have known Ms. Yellen and her work frequently use the same word to describe her: “methodical.” “She thought of things through models that were very methodical and transparent,” said someone who worked alongside her when she was at the president’s Council of Economic Advisers from 1997 to 1999. “It wasn’t like Alan Greenspan where you can’t quite follow what he’s saying, whether he has a superior model or is just confused. With Janet you could follow every step” and imagine all the assumptions and models she was working from in her head. Even those who disagree with what the Fed has done under Mr. Bernanke praise Ms. Yellen, currently its vice chairwoman, for her stated commitment to having stricter, clearer guidelines. “Janet is more interested and concerned with policy being more predictable, rules-based, that markets have some sense of where policy is headed over a long period of time, that you’re transparent about your future behavior and you can actually stick to it,” said John B. Taylor, an economics professor at Stanford who said the Fed’s policy had been too accommodative. Image President Obama with Janet L. Yellen on Wednesday at the White House. Investors hope that Ms. Yellen, if confirmed, would not rush to withdraw stimulus. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times “Bernanke is more ad hoc than Yellen, I’d say, more about putting rules on hold,” Mr. Taylor said. He also said that Ms. Yellen appeared to focus more on a rules-based, less “discretionary” approach than Lawrence H. Summers, who was said to be Mr. Obama’s first choice for before he withdrew in September. Mr. Taylor is best known for “the Taylor rule ,” essentially a mathematical equation that guides how the central bank should set interest rates in response to changes in inflation, output and other economic measures. Ms. Yellen, in speeches in April 2012 and November 2012 , spoke about variants on this rule, and the usefulness of such “simple rules” for guiding policy, though in the November speech she said she was not ready to enact such a rule now because these are not “normal times.” Despite Ms. Yellen’s reluctance to follow strict rules in setting policy immediately, Mr. Taylor still is heartened by her stated desire to return to them eventually, and the specificity with which she has laid out what her preferred “rule” would look like. “In that speech, she put on paper what she’s talking about, what the rules are,” said Mr. Taylor, who devotes a graduate course lecture to weighing his preferred interest-rate-setting rule against a variant Ms. Yellen has described. “Now people can understand them and have the opportunity to discuss the pros and cons. Without that framework, you’re just talking about things in the abstract.” He said that the lack of rules-based policy has caused chaos and volatility in the markets — particularly when it comes to scaling back its ongoing major asset purchases, known as quantitative easing (also called, in its latest incarnation, QE3). “You can see it with this taper/no taper,” he said. “September last year, they started QE3. Then in December they doubled it. Five months later they said they’d start the taper soon, then they have reversed themselves again. You can see it in the markets. Nobody knows what is actually going on.” Ms. Yellen voted alongside Mr. Bernanke and a majority of the Federal Open Market Committee for the actions related to starting, increasing and continuing quantitative easing. But Mr. Taylor still believes that a Fed under her leadership would shift back to more “normal” rules-based policy than it is inclined to do now. Ms. Yellen’s more deliberate approach to tackling economic questions may be a reason that her years at the Fed have been characterized as more successful than those at the Council of Economic Advisers. Peter R. Orszag, then a special assistant to the president for economic policy and later Mr. Obama’s budget director, said in a recent interview that Ms. Yellen did well at both the council and at the Fed. But he also said, “I could see why people believe she’s particularly good at situations in which there are important decisions to be made that involve pulling facts and weighing consequences carefully without pulling the trigger right away.” Another former colleague made a similar observation in an interview about how her temperament and approach to policy making might be better suited to work at the Fed than at the White House. “The Fed meets every six weeks and makes usually one big decision after careful forethought and research,” the colleague said. “The White House meets every day and has 18 million things to deal with.”

Federal Reserve
Janet L Yellen
US Economy


An Indispensable Player on Obama’s Team Takes His Leave, at Last

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Pete Rouse, President Obama’s “indispensable man” with a low profile and big footprint, is the quirky insider who built the Obama organization, hired nearly everyone from the White House chief of staff on down, plotted strategy and regularly said he was about to leave. But now, as Mr. Obama is in a trough after the bungled opening of the health insurance marketplace and Democrats smell trouble in next year’s midterm elections, Mr. Rouse, 67, swears he finally is leaving at year’s end, nine years after agreeing only to help Mr. Obama, the newly elected senator from Illinois, set up his office. For once, people are starting to believe him — including his boss. “It will be a tough loss,” Mr. Obama said in a brief interview on Wednesday, acknowledging Mr. Rouse’s departure plans. Then he added, “But it may be a situation where he feels more comfortable with some discreet assignments here and there, and certainly I will continue to rely on him for the good counsel and advice that I really can’t get from any other people in this town.” Mr. Rouse will lead a small exodus in coming months of other longtime aides, younger yet also exhausted. While Mr. Obama said Mr. Rouse cannot be replaced — “Pete is unique,” he said, partly for “his relationship with me” — the White House is trying to fill voids that he and others would leave, and to bring in fresh recruits. John D. Podesta, the former Clinton administration chief of staff, is coming for 2014 as a counselor. Phil Schiliro, Mr. Obama’s former chief congressional lobbyist, will return, after two years away, to deal with health care issues temporarily. “Nerves are stretched, and to have a steady hand like Pete at the White House gives senators a lot of confidence that the president is getting good advice,” said Senator Dick Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, for whom Mr. Rouse once was chief of staff. “But there does come a point — I understand that — where you want to lead a different life. And Pete throws his heart and soul into his jobs.” Mr. Rouse, who shuns attention, declined to say much for the record. “I never really cared about the publicity in this, and in my ideal world I would go away without a party, without any fanfare,” he said. Mr. Rouse began building the Obama organization in 2004, plotting strategy especially about matters in the Senate (where he was once called “the 101st senator”), and serving as a sounding board for Cabinet members and junior aides, as well as the president’s troubleshooter. He has been as crucial to Mr. Obama as any presidential adviser in history, like Harry Hopkins to Franklin D. Roosevelt, said former Senator Tom Daschle of South Dakota, for whom Mr. Rouse worked for 19 years, including as chief of staff for a decade, when Mr. Daschle was the Democratic Senate leader. One colleague said Mr. Rouse has “almost a peer relationship” with the 52-year-old president, providing unvarnished advice. “I trust him completely,” Mr. Obama said in the interview. “He is a model of discretion and he has no ego, and he’s as wise as they come. So I think it’s fair to say that for the remainder of my term in office he will continue to be somebody who I talk to a lot and rely on heavily.” But critics suggest that Mr. Rouse must be partly culpable for complaints against this White House. The first is that the West Wing staff, which has lurched recently from crisis to crisis, is too insular. The second is that the White House outsources legislative strategy to Democratic Senate leaders, in particular Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader and Mr. Rouse’s friend. This year, Mr. Rouse internally announced his exit every season, but then always found reasons to stay — to vet second-term personnel, smooth summertime conflicts with senators over Syria policy and a new Federal Reserve chairman, and help with strategy during the fall budget showdowns with Republicans. “I can’t just walk out of here now,” he told a reporter in late summer, explaining another postponement. Officials say Mr. Rouse was not heavily involved in the response to the health insurance debacle this fall. Lately, he has been brokering an arcane but politically contentious policy dispute over ethanol and renewable fuels regulations that pits environmental, agriculture and oil industry interests against one another. He maintains ties to newer lawmakers as well as their leaders. Colleagues call Mr. Rouse “the Warren Whisperer” for his relationship with Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, a liberal whose independence and national following make her a potentially formidable intraparty opponent. Mr. Rouse advised Ms. Warren on her campaign and setting up an office. Ms. Warren’s chief of staff, Mindy Myers, once was his Senate assistant — reflecting the reach of Mr. Rouse’s network of protégés. Dan Pfeiffer, a senior White House strategist and another Rouse recruit, said Mr. Rouse is to young Democrats what Bill Walsh, the legendary coach of the San Francisco 49ers, was to aspiring coaches — a mentor whose successful followers can be charted like a family tree. Ms. Warren, before her election, also figured in an episode illustrating Mr. Rouse’s skill as troubleshooter. She had prominently criticized the administration, especially Timothy F. Geithner, then the Treasury secretary, as too close to Wall Street during the debate on legislation tightening financial regulations — in the process building her liberal base. Mr. Obama, after signing the bill into law, wanted to name Ms. Warren to Treasury, to set up the newly mandated Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. But that meant getting agreement from her and Mr. Geithner. As Mark Patterson, Mr. Geithner’s chief of staff, and another Rouse protégé, recalled: “One day he called and said, ‘I’m sitting here in my office with Elizabeth Warren. Can we come over and talk to you?” He continued, “I was inclined to be helpful because that’s what Pete wanted me to do. And he persuaded us it would work well, which it did.” In a city of conflict, Mr. Rouse has had one notable breach — with William M. Daley, Mr. Obama’s second chief of staff. It began, innocently, the day Mr. Obama announced Mr. Daley’s hiring in January 2011. Mr. Rouse shared the stage with Mr. Obama and Mr. Daley because he had been acting chief since Rahm Emanuel’s departure months earlier and planned to leave. But Mr. Obama announced that Mr. Rouse would in fact stay two more years. Staffers erupted in cheers and a 41-second standing ovation — an outpouring seen as an awkward welcome for Mr. Daley. Then the president pronounced Mr. Rouse his indispensable man, adding, “I cannot imagine life here without him, and I told him so.” Tension between Mr. Daley and Mr. Rouse grew when Mr. Obama gave Mr. Rouse more duties. In Mr. Daley’s view, Mr. Rouse had wanted the chief of staff job all along. Mr. Rouse insists that was never so, that he had told Mr. Obama for years that he would be unsuited for the very public position. Mr. Obama said he never asked Mr. Rouse to be chief of staff “because of his preference.” Soon after Mr. Obama’s re-election, Mr. Rouse said, he told the president that he would help with second-term staffing issues and then depart. “Four months?” Mr. Obama asked him. Sure, Mr. Rouse replied, he would stay four months. Weeks later, Mr. Obama told advisers in a January meeting that Mr. Rouse had committed to stay the year. As surprised colleagues looked at Mr. Rouse, he objected, “Excuse me, but I thought we said four months.” “Whatever,” Mr. Obama replied.


Long Island City Gains iPodMeister; Chelsea Loses Papaya King

Abstract: IPODMEISTER , on 41st Avenue in Long Island City, will bring a smile (and an iPod or other electronic goody) to anyone hoping to liquidate a CD collection. The company was started by Kris Schrey, who said that when he tried to sell off his CDs a few years back he was humiliated by snarky music shop employees who ridiculed his musical taste and then lowballed him. Learning of the demand overseas for CDs and DVDs, Mr. Schrey started an online business through which a customer could mail in a CD library and receive an iPod, iPhone or other device based on the size of the collection. (An iPod can be had for 200 discs; more ground rules are at ipodmeister.com .) Last month the venture rented a 4,000-square-foot loft with a loading dock and a waiting room. Now customers can bring in their collections in person — no ridiculing, Mr. Schrey promises. “The pop goes to the Caribbean, the rock goes to Eastern Europe, and the good classical and jazz goes to Korea and Taiwan.” PAPAYA KING , on the southwest corner of Seventh Avenue and 14th Street, was a familiar sight, with its yellow and red neon signs and a mural at the subway entrance claiming its hot dogs were “tastier than filet mignon.” One would think the inexpensive dog-and-fruit-juice outlet would thrive in this economy, but Dan Horan, chief executive of Papaya King , which has two other outlets in the city, said the company got an enticing offer to sell the remainder of its lease at the site. “For me that place was New York,” said Sara Harvey, 36, who moved here last year from South Carolina and works nearby. She liked the $4.59 special: a 16-ounce drink and two dogs with sauerkraut, onions or relish. Papaya King “made this area feel like a neighborhood,” she said. “It had chutzpah.”


At CBS, Bad News Doesn’t End at 7

Abstract: Katie Couric may be the least of Leslie Moonves ’s worries. While the fate of Ms. Couric and the “ CBS Evening News” is in the headlines, the entire CBS News division represents only a fraction of the CBS broadcast network’s revenue. More perplexing is the prime-time schedule, where no new hit has emerged this year, and as a result, CBS is likely to lose the crown of most-watched network to the Fox network. And there are concerns over other parts of the CBS Corporation. The radio division is lagging. Pressure to make a digital acquisition is intensifying. Advertising revenue is softening. The good news includes the CBS billboard business, which seems to be doing pretty well. The challenges facing the company fall squarely on the shoulders of Mr. Moonves, chief executive of CBS since 2004, a year before it was spun off from Viacom. Without the cushion of Viacom’s other properties, CBS has been more exposed to the struggles of the advertising market. In 2007, it earned $1.25 billion, down from $1.66 billion the year before. CBS stock closed at $21.40 on Friday, compared with $30.99 a year earlier. Mr. Moonves’s next public hurdle, assuming that the situation with Ms. Couric is resolved, will be the earnings report on April 29. Like many Wall Street analysts, Jessica Reif Cohen of Merrill Lynch expects a 3 percent decline in revenue, in part reflecting the fact that the network did not broadcast two major sports events in the first quarter of 2008 — the Super Bowl and the Final Four basketball tournament. And like most other analysts, Ms. Reif Cohen praises Mr. Moonves, who has been considered one of the smartest programmers and executives in the business. He is also one of the better paid. While the news media focused their attention on Ms. Couric’s estimated $15-million-a-year contract, Mr. Moonves’s compensation rose to $36.8 million in 2007, from $28.6 million in 2006, according to the company’s proxy statement, an increase of more than 28 percent. “Les wants to win,” Ms. Reif Cohen said. “It’s difficult to envision him leading a company that is showing no growth or declining growth. He’s very aggressive, he’s very smart, and I just don’t see him standing still.” CBS has slumped in prime time, starting the season with a 10 percent decline in its total audience and a 15 percent drop among viewers in the 18-to 49-year-old group from the levels a year earlier. The lack of scripted shows as a result of the winter writers’ strike accelerated the losses, leaving CBS with 20 percent fewer viewers. The only network to post steeper year-over-year declines is CW, a small network co-owned by CBS and Warner Brothers. CBS spokesmen declined to make Mr. Moonves available for comment. The network’s chief scheduler, Kelly Kahl, said the year-over-year figures were largely irrelevant because of the writers’ strike. In the last three weeks, as new episodes of scripted shows have returned, CBS ratings have returned to their levels before the strike. The lone standout among the ratings has been Fox, which weathered the strike better than others by stockpiling unscripted shows and relying on television’s most popular show, “ American Idol .” Ms. Reif Cohen, a staunch supporter of the broadcast television business, who calls herself “a little less bullish” these days, said the writers’ strike and the economic contraction present the networks with an opportunity to rethink costs. “The networks are going to have to look very different,” she said. “Audiences are going to get content very differently,” Steering CBS through these changes and finding new hits for prime time will presumably be priorities for Mr. Moonves. Last week, the network canceled a talent showcase called “Secret Talents of the Stars” after only one low-rated episode had been broadcast. While CBS renewed 11 series last month, many of its franchises — including “CSI,” “Survivor” and “Big Brother” — have shown signs of decline. Of the five shows introduced last fall, only a comedy, “The Big Bang Theory,” has been renewed. At its upfront presentation to advertisers next month, CBS is expected to add three to five new shows to the schedule. Within CBS News, “60 Minutes” — which largely operates on its own — continues to show strength, but the news division’s other programs are less stable. Viewer age remains a concern. While CBS has traditionally attracted more total viewers than its competitors, its average viewer tends to be older, beyond the demographic groups that many advertisers prefer to reach. To date this season, the network’s median age is 52.9, compared with 45.2 for Fox, 48.4 for NBC and 49.6 for ABC. This year, perhaps trying to appeal to younger viewers, CBS will introduce four mixed martial-arts shows on Saturday nights. Of the CBS Corporation’s $14 billion in annual revenue, two-thirds comes from television. Prime time programs are only one piece of the division, which also includes local stations, the cable channel Showtime and the relatively strong television production and syndication arms. Two weeks ago, Mr. Moonves named John Nogawski the president of CBS Television Distribution, filling the post previously held by the syndication titan Roger M. King, who died in December. Of the last third of CBS’s revenue, outdoor advertising accounts for about 16 percent, radio roughly 12 percent and publishing about 6 percent. John Blackledge, an equity analyst with J. P. Morgan, said the radio division had underperformed the industry for the last two years. CBS owns 140 local radio stations, most of them in major media markets. Dan Mason, the president of CBS Radio, emphasized the company’s progress on the Internet, including a deal with AOL to combine the two groups’ online radio networks. Mr. Mason also said CBS was streamlining the advertising-buying process for its radio stations, operating the stations in each local market as a cluster. “Radio is very heavily local-driven, so when retail is down, radio is affected,” Mr. Mason said. “The flip side of that is when retail is down, radio becomes much more cost-effective versus TV or other mediums.” A Lehman Brothers report said last week that billboards and other outdoor advertising were showing less weakness, adding that “outdoor has been by far the ‘growthiest’ segment for CBS within an otherwise slow-growth company.” Still, a sluggish advertising market is expected to adversely affect CBS’s properties across the board. When G.E. reported its first- quarter earnings on Friday, NBC Universal said local ad sales declined by 11 percent. However, some of the advertising slowdown will be offset by political-ad purchases; CBS’s local stations are expected to draw $200 million to $220 million in revenue from the campaign season. “They’ve been aggressive and smart in beefing up their digital initiatives,” Mr. Blackledge said. He estimated that the interactive assets generate several hundred million dollars in revenue; CBS does not break out the figures. But Ms. Reif Cohen said that while the network had taken “baby steps” in the digital business, “it’s not enough to move the needle and probably won’t be for a while.” She maintains that CBS’s need for an acquisition is becoming apparent. Some CBS executives privately agree. On Monday, the company’s interactive unit will officially open a fully staffed office in Menlo Park, Calif., in Silicon Valley, to stir innovation and content development. Also, in recognition that the online operation of CBS News has lagged behind competitors, the company is expected to name Jason Kint, general manager of CBSSports.com , to oversee CBSNews.com as well. And then, of course, there is Ms. Couric and the evening news. “It’s not working. That’s clear,” Mr. Blackledge said. “But for the investment community, I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.” Still, the uncertain future of Ms. Couric could represent another black eye for the company, where arguments sometimes break out in public. There was Dan Rather’s protracted departure in 2005, then Don Imus’s dismissal a year ago. Last summer, in a New York magazine article on Ms. Couric, Mr. Moonves said he deserved no responsibility for the failures of the “CBS Evening News.” “I really don’t,” he said. Some executives and staff members express a positive view. “It’s an amazing news operation,” said Susan Zirinsky, executive producer of “48 Hours.” “But we lose sight of it because everybody — the news industry, the music industry, the entertainment industry — is facing challenges and changes.” Others who were given anonymity so they could speak freely about internal matters expressed frustration with the intense media focus on Ms. Couric’s future to the detriment of the rest of the news division. Some acknowledged that budget cutbacks and layoffs had left people feeling demoralized. The staff of “The Early Show,” the third-place morning program, is still reeling from the departure last month of the hard-charging executive producer, Shelley Ross. But the employees say they think they are on an equal playing field with the other network news divisions, regardless of the anchor. “I would attribute most of the agitation to the state of the industry,” a midlevel news employee said. “Nobody likes negative growth, from the guy who shines shoes to the C.E.O. Everybody feels the pain.” Paul Friedman, a senior vice president of CBS News, acknowledged that the ratings for the evening news have been disappointing, but said that they were not an indicator of the news division’s strength. Over the last year, the news divisions at NBC and ABC have laid off “many more people,” he said. And a large number of “first-rate people from those networks and cable operators have applied with us for jobs,” he added, “right now many more than we can make room for.” Asked whether anchors like Ms. Couric simply need to stick with their newscast and wait for its standing to improve over time, Mr. Friedman sounded an uncertain note. “Traditionally, longevity has been the solution, absolutely,” he said. “I don’t know if that still holds or not.”

Radio
Television
CBS Corp
Moonves Leslie
Company Reports
Couric Katie


Fatality in Iraq Is First After Deadline

Abstract: BAGHDAD — An American soldier was killed in Iraq ’s southernmost province on Sunday, marking the first American fatality since the military declared last week that the last combat unit had pulled out of the country, the military said. The military withdrawal under way is supposed to bring the number of American troops in Iraq to 50,000 by the end of August, under a deadline set by the Obama administration. While military officials have said that casualties are likely to occur after that date, Sunday’s death underscores the semantic difficulties in describing precisely what their mission will represent and what roles they will be engaged in. The military said the soldier was killed by indirect fire, a phrase that usually means a rocket or mortar attack. It said that the soldier was killed in “a hostile attack” in the province around Basra, and that the attack was “under investigation.” The fatality came three days after what the military described as the departure of the last combat unit from Iraq. It left through Kuwait, to the south. About 52,000 troops remain, though the last 2,000 are scheduled to leave over the next week or so.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Big Ten Network Alters Landscape of College Athletics

Abstract: CHICAGO — These are confusing times to be a college football fan. The Big Ten will soon have 12 teams, the Big 12 only 10, and the Pacific-10 is on its way to having 12 teams. It really wishes it had 16. A land grab is under way in college athletics, a media-savvy, multiplatform one — led by Nebraska’s defection to the Big Ten this summer — and nothing is driving the change more than the Big Ten Network . In three years, it has grown to 42 million subscribers, covering 35 percent of the nation, and has opened powerful revenue sources for the biggest players in college athletics. Now, conferences like the Pac-10 and the Big East and individual universities like Texas want their own network and are willing to abandon longtime allegiances to get them. Colorado and Utah, for example, will leave the Big 12 and the Mountain West for the Pac-10 next year. “It has unleashed value for us and given us options and opportunities we never had before,” said Jim Delany, commissioner of the Big Ten and a driving force behind the network. “When President Obama comes to the University of Michigan, we can televise it. When there are flood relief efforts in Iowa, we can be part of that. It has not only extended, but has changed the shape of our brand.” In 2008-9, programs in the Football Bowl Subdivision — the top tier of college football — increased their spending by nearly 11 percent from the previous year. At the same time, universities also increased their contribution to athletics by 28 percent. Still, only 14 of the 120 athletic programs in the F.B.S. made money in the 2008-9 academic year, down from 25 the year before, according to the N.C.A.A. The network has also raised the profile of sports that do not attract big crowds. In 2003, Delany complained to the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics that its Directors’ Cup competition , which rewarded the best all-around athletic department, was driving up costs in Olympic and women’s sports that do not come close to paying for themselves. He wanted the competition to end, or for the Big Ten to at least be excluded from it. “It is our belief that the Sears Cup Competition tends to exacerbate demands for greater resources by coaches, make cost control more difficult and finally fails to adequately recognize the accomplishments of the most broad-based programs,” Delany wrote about the competition, which was once sponsored by Sears, in a letter obtained by The New York Times. Seven years later, however, the Big Ten Network relies on, in the parlance of college athletics, those nonrevenue generating sports for a bulk of its 24-hour, 365-day programming, as well as its live streaming broadcasts. “We didn’t know what they’d do, but most have overperformed,” Delany said. “Women’s softball, wrestling and volleyball are pretty good and compelling programming.” The Big Ten Network’s primary moneymakers, however, remain the more than 35 football games it airs, followed by 105 regular-season men’s basketball games. On Sept. 18, for example, four nonconference and hardly marquee games — like Michigan versus Massachusetts — averaged a 5.64 Nielsen rating in the eight local markets, numbers that rival the local ratings on ESPN and the broadcast networks. The network is a joint venture between the Big Ten (51 percent majority owner) and Fox Cable Networks, a division of News Corporation, and industry experts have estimated their 25-year agreement is worth $2.8 billion. Neither Delany nor the Big Ten Network president, Mark Silverman, would discuss specific numbers, saying only its profit has already more than doubled over 2009 as its ad revenue has risen 30 percent. The Big Ten’s I.R.S. filing for the year ending June 2009 showed the network paid the conference $72 million. The media research firm SNL Kagan has estimated that the network had operating revenue of $203.9 million and cash flow of $35.9 million in 2009. This year, the figures are expected to rise to $229.5 million in revenue and $75.9 million in cash flow, according to SNL Kagan. No one doubts the Big Ten’s rabid fan base. The 100,000-plus crowds at the Big House in Michigan or the Horseshoe at Ohio State on autumn Saturdays are evidence of that. So is Mojo Rosa’s bar and restaurant in the village of Egg Harbor, Wis., population 284, where the Big Ten Network is advertised on the front window and shown inside. Its reach, too, is staggering. Neal Pilson, a former president of CBS Sports and a television consultant, says the Big Ten’s footprint encompasses 35 percent of the nation’s population. It is available in 19 of the top 20 television markets. “It’s not only widely viewed within its stronghold regions, but there is a very large and devoted alumni base in all parts of the country,” Pilson said. “When I was at CBS, we always knew we could put the Big Ten on in any region and it would do well.” In the media-saturated modern world, the Big Ten Network has become yet another recruiting tool. Last summer, Treyvon Green, a highly regarded running back from suburban Dallas, verbally committed to play for Northwestern in 2011. He had never stepped foot on Northwestern’s campus in Evanston, Ill.; most everything he knew about the university he had learned from the Big Ten Network. “Northwestern is a good fit for me and my family,” Green told Wildcat.com shortly after he committed. “They’ll be able to watch me on TV on the Big Ten Network, and that’s important. I know they have great academics and a good football team.” Nebraska left the Big 12 for multiple reasons, chief among them that the balance of power and revenue tilted south to the University of Texas and Oklahoma. Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne said, however, that the Big Ten Network was a draw and that the alliance would be mutually beneficial. Nebraska football, after all, is a public trust, one cherished by the denizens of the state. “We have 1.8 million people, I don’t know how many television sets, but what we do bring is that most of them will be turned on when we play,” Osborne said in a bit of understatement. There is no doubt that the Big Ten Network has not only roiled college athletics but has also increased its value. When the Pac-10 commissioner, Larry Scott, tried to woo such Big 12 stalwarts like Texas and Oklahoma over the summer, discussions about a network were part of the promises. He remains willing to steal the Big Ten Network’s playbook. Scott might have failed to create the first true super conference — this time — but by adding Colorado and Utah, he strengthened the Pac-10’s foundation to add members and build a network. The conference currently has football contracts with ESPN/ABC and Fox Sports Net, and a basketball agreement with FSN. Each football contract expires after the 2011 season and the FSN basketball deal after the 2011-12 season. “Twelve teams gives us more content,” Scott said. The Big Ten still has a 10-year, $1 billion deal with ABC/ESPN that runs through 2016. When it is up, Delany said he believed those rights would be worth even more. It is not the goal of the Big Ten Network to be the sole rights holder. “This is an evolutionary, not revolutionary arrangement,” he said, adding that it was important that all conferences continued to have a relationship with the major networks, including ABC/ESPN and CBS. Silverman, the Big Ten Network’s president, remains busy creating programming for a very particular audience. Its prime-time football ratings are up 30 percent from last year, and the studio shows are showing increases from last year. But it is the success of the new show, “Big Ten Icons” — its highest-rated nonevent show — that best demonstrates that the conference’s devotees have a deep connection to their universities. The 20-episode series is hosted by Keith Jackson and profiles superstars like Jack Nicklaus, Charles Woodson and Steve Alford. “I think the size and scale of our audience, and how they understand history and appreciate tradition is unique to the Big Ten,” Silverman said. “We are profitable, and we will continue to grow more.”

College Athletics
Football
Television
Basketball
Big Ten Conference


A Renewed Multilateral Effort to Protect East European Banks

Abstract: FRANKFURT — A group of officials and bankers who helped prevent Eastern Europe from being thrown into the financial crisis in 2009 has reconvened, seeking to avoid a credit squeeze and economic downturn caused by problems at parent banks in Western Europe. The International Monetary Fund , European Commission , World Bank and other institutions this week formally revived an effort known as the Vienna Initiative, which three years ago succeeded in preventing panicked West European banks from draining capital from their subsidiaries in Eastern Europe. Vienna Initiative 2.0, as it has been named, is concentrating on ensuring that national regulators do not work at cross purposes, inadvertently provoking a flight of capital as banks respond to pressure to reduce risk. The first Vienna Initiative “was based on voluntary commitment by banks,” said Otilia Simkova, an analyst at the consulting firm Eurasia Group in London. “Now it seems everything is focusing on regulators.” Banks in the euro area supply 80 percent of the foreign lending in emerging Europe, which includes countries like Poland and Hungary as well as Turkey. That means problems among euro area banks can quickly spread east. In fact, West European banks drained $35 billion from the region in the third quarter of 2011, according to figures published this week by the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland. A shortage of credit would undercut economic growth at a time when countries like Romania are still recovering from the last crisis. “There is no question things were very serious in the second half of last year,” said Erik Berglof, chief economist at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, another of the institutions taking part in the Vienna Initiative. Representatives of the I.M.F., reconstruction and development bank and other institutions met in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday, with managers of commercial banks joining in on Tuesday. The group issued a statement late Tuesday setting out principles designed “to avoid disorderly deleveraging in emerging Europe.” In what bankers said was a positive sign, Austrian bank supervisors on Wednesday eased pressure on their country’s banks to reduce their exposure to risk in Eastern Europe. Banks had complained that rules proposed last year would have forced them to curtail lending to the region. Raiffeisen Bank International, the Erste Group and UniCredit Bank Austria, all based in Vienna, are among the most active banks in Eastern Europe, so the actions of Austrian regulators have a broad effect on the region. A spokesman for the Austrian Financial Market Authority, Klaus Grubelnik, said it was a coincidence that the announcement of milder rules came a day after the Vienna Initiative meeting. But the action provided an example of what Vienna 2.0 hoped to achieve, namely preventing regulators from trying to protect their domestic banking systems at the expense of other countries. “We welcome the agreement reached in Brussels as a further important step to supporting the stability of Central and Eastern Europe’s financial sector,” Herbert Stepic, the chief executive of Raiffeisen, said in a statement. “Of course, what counts now is that the principles adopted at the meeting are actually implemented.” The participants hope to agree on concrete proposals within six months, said Mark Allen, senior regional resident representative for Central and Eastern Europe at the I.M.F. “Everyone agrees this was a good idea but it’s going to be hard work,” he said. More than 100 people attended the meetings in Brussels hosted by the European Commission, participants said. Other organizations represented included the European Banking Authority and the European Investment Bank, as well as regulators and central bankers from some of the affected companies. The European Central Bank sent observers. The group also aims to try to find ways to avoid the boom-and-bust nature of banking in Eastern Europe, in which countries are overwhelmed with credit in good times and starved of credit during slowdowns. They also plan to work on ways to wind down insolvent banks without creating a broader crisis. Mr. Allen of the I.M.F. and Mr. Berglof of the reconstruction and development bank said there was a lack of up-to-date information on lending in the region. But there have been clear signs that some euro zone banks were pulling out money in response to regulatory pressure. In Poland, foreign credit shrank by $13 billion, or 8.6 percent, in the third quarter of last year, according to the Bank for International Settlements. The decline occurred even though Polish banks are generally profitable and the economy is among the healthiest in Europe. All banks in the euro area are under pressure from regulators to increase capital and decrease risk. Adding to the financial stress in Eastern Europe, hard-pressed Greek banks are among the biggest investors in southeastern European countries like Bulgaria. Bad loans are also at high levels, topping 14 percent of total loans in Hungary and Romania near the end of last year. Tension has eased this year after the European Central Bank provided commercial banks in the euro zone with about 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) in emergency three-year loans at 1 percent interest. That has taken pressure off the West European parent companies, but it is not yet clear whether the money is trickling down to Eastern Europe, Mr. Berglof said. As part of the Vienna Initiative in 2009, the European Commission, I.M.F., reconstruction and development bank and others committed tens of billions in loans to the region, but they have not yet agreed to increase aid as part of Vienna 2.0. “I can’t say we are stepping up assistance,” Mr. Allen said, “but we stand ready to support any country that needs it.”

Eastern Europe
International Monetary Fund
European Commission
World Bank
Vienna Initiative
European Central Bank
European Union
European Sovereign Debt Crisis (2010- )
Banking and Financial Institutions


Get Me Makeup! Some Rouge Dresses Up French Open

Abstract: PARIS — It really is not red clay. The famous courts of the French Open are white limestone, frosted with a few millimeters of powdered red brick dust. This was evident as Bruno Slastan, second in command of court maintenance at Roland Garros, scraped the surface of Court Suzanne Lenglen with his shoe. With a few swipes, the reddish powder gave way and revealed a firm white base below. The “brick broken,” as Slastan, a Frenchman, gamely explained in English, is a cover-up, applied for three reasons. It keeps the otherwise white courts from blinding players and fans. It allows the players to move and slide. And it looks cool. In other words, the beauty of the Roland Garros courts is only skin deep. It is created by a powder with the look and feel of ground cinnamon. For 20 euros (about $24) at the souvenir stands, fans can buy a flacon de terre battue — a glass, bell-shaped flask filled with a few ounces of pulverized brick from a factory about 60 miles north of Paris. Roland Garros estimates that it uses 99,000 pounds of the crushed brick each year on the courts. All those tons are spread to about the depth of a tenth of an inch across 20 courts. Each of the courts, including the surface surrounding them, measures nearly 10,000 square feet. Every morning during the tournament, the courts are dusted again, ever so lightly. Much of it ends up in that night’s laundry, especially on the players’ socks. But the crushed brick is just deep enough to allow footprints and, quite helpfully, ball marks. It is shallow enough not to make the court too spongy or slippery, or to allow all of the powder to accumulate into tiny piles that could affect the way the ball bounces. “With one millimeter, if you slide, you see the white limestone,” Slastan said. “But with a few millimeters, you don’t see the white limestone on the television.” Before matches and between sets, a couple of workers smooth the red surface by dragging rectangular swatches of chain-link across the surface, a quick fix commonly used on baseball infields. Other workers hurriedly sweep the dust from the white lines. The result is a satisfying dress-up, like a just-vacuumed carpet. By the end of a set, the baseline areas are trampled from the foot traffic. There is a worn line on either side of the net where the ball boys and girls zipped back and forth. The space between the net and the baseline is a Pollock rendering of the recent action. Tennis began as a lawn game in England. But in warmer, drier climates, grass courts are not practical. “It’s too hot,” Slastan said. “In England, it is raining very long.” Most courts at Roland Garros are constructed of several layers of materials, about three feet deep. Most of that is filled with small stones topped with smaller gravel. (The two main show courts and three other courts are built on slabs of concrete, topped with a thick layer of sand.) The base is topped with a six-inch layer of volcanic rock and three inches of porous limestone. Drainage is the reason play after a rain delay can begin just minutes after the tarps are pulled. “All clay courts are different,” Venus Williams said. “None play the same. This one plays the best.” Each April, a tractor churns the limestone, like plowing a field. The limestone on Court 11 has been there 20 years, Slastan said, but the other courts received fresh limestone about 12 years ago. Over time, it takes on a pink hue as it mixes with what is left of the previous year’s crushed brick. The courts are pressed back into shape with rollers and exacting planes. For a day, they are white. But about a ton of the crushed brick is pressed onto the surface of each court with rollers, then drenched in water. The process is repeated several times until a thin, compact layer of red frosting tops each court. Lines are measured and scraped out of the red surface, down to the limestone, and then painted white with the same type of thick paint used on roads. Getting all the courts ready takes about a month. When the French Open begins, four workers (six on the show courts) are assigned to the care of each court. At the end of each day’s play, the courts are doused in water, then covered for the night. The limestone can dry and crack if allowed to simply bake day after day, Slastan said. During the first few days of this year’s French Open, the courts were dry and played fast, but rain and cooler weather slowed the action. Early each morning, long before the crowds arrive, 55 pounds of crushed brick, packaged in a plastic bag like topsoil, is spread evenly around the court. The courts were pristine and ready on a recent morning. A couple of players and coaches came to practice at Lenglen Court. Slastan spotted an enemy of his handiwork — a specific style of shoe that, he said, scrapes the court’s surface more than others. He watched with a bit of resignation as the players dug up his handwork. “They attack,” he said.


Environmental Cost of Shipping Groceries Around the World

Abstract: Cod caught off Norway is shipped to China to be turned into filets, then shipped back to Norway for sale. Argentine lemons fill supermarket shelves on the Citrus Coast of Spain, as local lemons rot on the ground. Half of Europe’s peas are grown and packaged in Kenya. In the United States, FreshDirect proclaims kiwi season has expanded to “All year!” now that Italy has become the world’s leading supplier of New Zealand’s national fruit, taking over in the Southern Hemisphere’s winter. Food has moved around the world since Europeans brought tea from China, but never at the speed or in the amounts it has over the last few years. Consumers in not only the richest nations but, increasingly, the developing world expect food whenever they crave it, with no concession to season or geography. Increasingly efficient global transport networks make it practical to bring food before it spoils from distant places where labor costs are lower. And the penetration of mega-markets in nations from China to Mexico with supply and distribution chains that gird the globe — like Wal-Mart, Carrefour and Tesco — has accelerated the trend. But the movable feast comes at a cost: pollution — especially carbon dioxide, the main global warming gas — from transporting the food. Under longstanding trade agreements, fuel for international freight carried by sea and air is not taxed. Now, many economists, environmental advocates and politicians say it is time to make shippers and shoppers pay for the pollution, through taxes or other measures. “We’re shifting goods around the world in a way that looks really bizarre,” said Paul Watkiss, an Oxford University economist who wrote a recent European Union report on food imports. He noted that Britain, for example, imports — and exports — 15,000 tons of waffles a year, and similarly exchanges 20 tons of bottled water with Australia. More important, Mr. Watkiss said, “we are not paying the environmental cost of all that travel.” Europe is poised to change that. This year the European Commission in Brussels announced that all freight-carrying flights into and out of the European Union would be included in the trading bloc’s emissions-trading program by 2012, meaning permits will have to be purchased for the pollution they generate. The commission is negotiating with the global shipping organization, the International Maritime Organization, over various alternatives to reduce greenhouse gases. If there is no solution by year’s end, sea freight will also be included in Europe’s emissions-trading program, said Barbara Helferrich, a spokeswoman for the European Commission’s Environment Directorate. “We’re really ready to have everyone reduce — or pay in some way,” she said. The European Union, the world’s leading food importer, has increased imports 20 percent in the last five years. The value of fresh fruit and vegetables imported by the United States, in second place, nearly doubled from 2000 to 2006. Under a little-known international treaty called the Convention on International Civil Aviation, signed in Chicago in 1944 to help the fledgling airline industry, fuel for international travel and transport of goods, including food, is exempt from taxes, unlike trucks, cars and buses. There is also no tax on fuel used by ocean freighters. Proponents say ending these breaks could help ensure that producers and consumers pay the environmental cost of increasingly well-traveled food. The food and transport industries say the issue is more complicated. The debate has put some companies on the defensive, including Tesco, Britain’s largest supermarket chain, known as a vocal promoter of green initiatives. Some of those companies say that they are working to limit greenhouse gases produced by their businesses but that the question is how to do it. They oppose regulation and new taxes and, partly in an effort to head them off, are advocating consumer education instead. Tesco, for instance, is introducing a labeling system that will let consumers assess a product’s carbon footprint. Some foods that travel long distances may actually have an environmental advantage over local products, like flowers grown in the tropics instead of in energy-hungry European greenhouses. “This may be as radical for environmental consuming as putting a calorie count on the side of packages to help people who want to lose weight,” a spokesman for Tesco, Trevor Datson, said. Better transportation networks have sharply reduced the time required to ship food abroad. For instance, improved roads in Africa have helped cut the time it takes for goods to go from farms on that continent to stores in Europe to 4 days, compared with 10 days not too many years ago. And with far cheaper labor costs in African nations, Morocco and Egypt have displaced Spain in just a few seasons as important suppliers of tomatoes and salad greens to central Europe. “If there’s an opportunity for cheaper production in terms of logistics or supply it will be taken,” said Ed Moorehouse, a consultant to the food industry in London, adding that some of these shifts also create valuable jobs in the developing world. The economics are compelling. For example, Norwegian cod costs a manufacturer $1.36 a pound to process in Europe, but only 23 cents a pound in Asia. The ability to transport food cheaply has given rise to new and booming businesses. “In the past few years there have been new plantations all over the center of Italy,” said Antonio Baglioni, export manager of Apofruit, one of Italy’s largest kiwi exporters. Kiwis from Sanifrutta, another Italian exporter, travel by sea in refrigerated containers: 18 days to the United States, 28 to South Africa and more than a month to reach New Zealand. Some studies have calculated that as little as 3 percent of emissions from the food sector are caused by transportation. But Mr. Watkiss, the Oxford economist, said the percentage was growing rapidly. Moreover, imported foods generate more emissions than generally acknowledged because they require layers of packaging and, in the case of perishable food, refrigeration. Britain, with its short growing season and powerful supermarket chains, imports 95 percent of its fruit and more than half of its vegetables. Food accounts for 25 percent of truck shipments in Britain, according to the British environmental agency, DEFRA. Mr. Datson of Tesco acknowledged that there were environmental consequences to the increased distances food travels, but he said his company was merely responding to consumer appetites. “The offer and range has been growing because our customers want things like snap peas year round,” Mr. Datson said. “We don’t see our job as consumer choice editing.” Global supermarket chains like Tesco and Carrefour, spreading throughout Eastern Europe and Asia, cater to a market for convenience foods, like washed lettuce and cut vegetables. They also help expand the reach of global brands. Pringles potato chips, for example, are now sold in more than 180 countries, though they are manufactured in only a handful of places, said Kay Puryear, a spokeswoman for Procter & Gamble, which makes Pringles. Proponents of taxing transportation fuel say it would end such distortions by changing the economic calculus. “Food is traveling because transport has become so cheap in a world of globalization,” said Frederic Hauge, head of Norway’s environmental group Bellona. “If it was just a matter of processing fish cheaper in China, I’d be happy with it traveling there. The problem is pollution.” The European Union has led the world in proposals to incorporate environmental costs into the price consumers pay for food. Switzerland, which does not belong to the E.U., already taxes trucks that cross its borders. In addition to bringing airlines under its emission-trading program, Brussels is also considering a freight charge specifically tied to the environmental toll from food shipping to shift the current calculus that “transporting freight is cheaper than producing goods locally,” the commission said. The problem is measuring the emissions. The fact that food travels farther does not necessarily mean more energy is used. Some studies have shown that shipping fresh apples, onions and lamb from New Zealand might produce lower emissions than producing the goods in Europe, where — for example — storing apples for months would require refrigeration. But those studies were done in New Zealand, and the food travel debate is inevitably intertwined with economic interests. Last month, Tony Burke, the Australian minister for agriculture, fisheries and forestry, said that carbon footprinting and labeling food miles — the distance food has traveled — was “nothing more than protectionism.” Shippers have vigorously fought the idea of levying a transportation fuel tax, noting that if some countries repealed those provisions of the Chicago Convention, it would wreak havoc with global trade, creating an uneven patchwork of fuel taxes. It would also give countries that kept the exemption a huge trade advantage. Some European retailers hope voluntary green measures like Tesco’s labeling — set to begin later this year — will slow the momentum for new taxes and regulations. The company will begin testing the labeling system, starting with products like orange juice and laundry detergent. Customers may be surprised by what they discover. Box Fresh Organics, a popular British brand, advertises that 85 percent of its vegetables come from the British Midlands. But in winter, in its standard basket, only the potatoes and carrots are from Britain. The grapes are South African, the fennel is from Spain and the squash is Italian. Today’s retailers could not survive if they failed to offer such variety, Mr. Moorehouse, the British food consultant, said. “Unfortunately,” he said, “we’ve educated our customers to expect cheap food, that they can go to the market to get whatever they want, whenever they want it. All year. 24/7.”

Food
Air Pollution
International Trade and World Market
Ships and Shipping


Hit by Low Prices, Lobstermen Are at Odds in Maine and Canada

Abstract: OTTAWA — Lobsters do not respect the lines on maps that define the Canada-United States border. They traverse the seabed contentedly munching on herring from New England to Newfoundland. For the lobstermen up top, the international boundary is very real and respected. But there has been more cross-border tension as both sides struggle to find ways to earn more in an era of record harvests that are lowering the prices they get. Last year, Canadian lobstermen, angry about a surge in low-cost imports from Maine, briefly blocked lobster-laden trucks from entering Canadian plants, raising charges of threats and intimidation in Maine. That was followed this year by a strike for higher prices in Canada, one swiftly undermined by the tactical error of lobstermen setting their traps before tying up their boats. On the other side of the border, Maine lobstermen and the state’s governor fear that the state’s new $2.4 million marketing plan to help lobstermen will be undermined by trade rules that transform most Maine lobsters into a Canadian product. The surfeit of lobsters has pushed prices that fishermen get down to levels not seen in decades, as low as $1.20 a pound this summer in some parts of Maine, from a 10-year average price of just under $4. Much of that decline has not been passed along to consumers feasting on lobster rolls or a whole steaming crustacean. Lobster can go for $15 a pound at a grocery store. “Something is seriously wrong, somebody’s getting a whole ton of money,” said Charles McGeoghegan, a lobsterman on Prince Edward Island since the age of 6. “We know that the fishermen aren’t getting it.” The price drop has brought anxiety to lobstermen in both countries. “I love what I do for a living. Every trap is like opening a Christmas present; I can’t wait to see the next one,” Steve Train, a lobsterman for 35 years who lives on Long Island, Me., said by telephone while eating a lobster sandwich for dinner. “I think we can survive this, but after two years in a row of it, you get a little nervous.” Image Rob Tetrault II on the “Wild Irish Rose” lobster boat off Maine. Prices have fallen because of a surplus of the crustaceans. Credit Brian Snyder/Reuters “There’s a real injustice here,” said Michael McGeoghegan, also a lobsterman for 35 years, president of the Prince Edward Island Fishermen’s Association and the father of Charles. “If the consumer wasn’t paying the big dollars, I’d say: it’s O.K., it’s fair. One billion dollars changes hands in the Atlantic Canada lobster fishery and somebody’s getting the money.” Each side thinks it is the other. Depending on who is counting, 50 to 70 percent of Maine’s lobsters end up in Canadian processing plants. Geoff Irvine, the executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada , said that while a majority of Canadian lobstermen probably want a ban on imports from Maine, Canadian plants are economically viable only if they receive American lobsters when the Canadian fishermen are idle. He said that Canadians should also remember that the United States buys about three-quarters of Canada’s harvest. “We’ve got a lot of eggs in the American basket,” Mr. Irvine said. “We don’t have any intention of getting into a fight with the Americans.” Too late for that. Across the border in the United States, Gov. Paul R. LePage of Maine is bothered by trade rules that transform Maine lobster into Canadian lobster once it is processed in Canada. He claims that the processing industry in Canada is heavily subsidized. Governor LePage has pushed for Maine to become self-sufficient in processing within three years, an objective most in the industry believe is unattainable. While it would like more local processing, the Maine Lobstermen’s Association is looking for a compromise that would see those Canadian lobsters labeled: “Harvested in Maine, Processed in Canada.” That’s an idea that many Canadian lobstermen support, although not for reasons that will restore cross-border harmony. Charles McGeoghegan, who is also a member of Prince Edward Island’s provincial assembly, said that the current system means that “lower quality” Maine lobster is being sold as a Canadian product. Fighting words, indeed, but the fishermen on each side of the border look for very different crustaceans. Fishermen from Maine, who bring in the overwhelming majority of the American catch, largely harvest recently molted, soft-shell lobsters in a season that is concentrated in July and August. Throughout their lifetimes, lobsters will molt and regrow their shells about 30 times, assuming they’re not trapped before then. Before and after Maine’s summer season, it’s time for the Canadian hard-shell lobster. Canadian fishermen trap the live lobsters that most of the world, including Americans, buy. Image Fishing boats with lobster traps head from out from Nova Scotia. Canada traps the live lobsters that most of the world buys. Credit Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press, via Associated Press Unsurprisingly, the merits of hard-shell and soft-shell lobsters are almost a matter of religious dogma. It requires no prompting for almost anyone in the Maine fishery to say that meat of soft-shell lobsters is, as Patrice McCarron, executive director of the Maine Lobstermen’s Association, puts it, “incredibly fresh and tender.” Hard-shell lobsters, which sometimes are stored live in tanks filled with frigid water for months, have “a little more of a metallic taste.” More fighting words. Charles McGeoghegan said he was confident that Maine lobsters would fail any comparative taste test. If they are more tender, he added, “it’s because they’re mainly filled with water.” Robert C. Bayer, the executive director of the University of Maine Lobster Institute , which works with fishermen and officials on both sides of the border, diplomatically said that he was not aware of any scientific flavor comparisons. But Ms. McCarron acknowledged that soft-shell lobster has a significant shortcoming, aside from its relatively short harvesting season. They are so delicate, she said, that ideally they need to be handled “like an egg.” That leaves traditionally large export markets for live lobsters, particularly Europe at Christmas, controlled by Canada’s four Atlantic provinces. Canada dominates the lobster processing business, with products ranging from fresh meat to a variety of canned and frozen offerings. Innovations intended to increase sales include something called “Popsicle packs”: small lobsters that would normally supply meat for canning are instead cooked whole, then dropped into plastic bags with brine and flash frozen. Sold mainly in France, the product seems to be a source of embarrassment to the Canadian industry as fishermen and even lobster marketers acknowledge that the small size of the lobsters and the packing method make them less than ideal for a classy meal. While European importers still bring over chartered cargo planeloads of live lobsters from Canada, the Continent’s economic crisis has reduced their numbers. Lobstermen in the United States and Canada hope that Asia will ultimately be the industry’s answer. But expanding that market requires convincing Asians that Atlantic lobsters are better than the clawless lobster species they have traditionally eaten. The industry’s ability to expand the live lobster market appears limited. While there is no firm data, several people in the industry said that they believed that retailers in the United States were gradually phasing out live lobster tanks in their stores. Not only are consumers looking for more convenient — that is, dead — forms of lobster, but even with lobsters still going for upward of $15 a pound at some stores, they were historically a loss leader for supermarkets. Whatever resentments they harbor, Canadian and American lobstermen are firmly united on one point. It rankles them that the low prices they are now getting have not been followed by similar declines in retail prices. The problem with prices is there are just too many lobsters and there have been for the last five years, Dr. Bayer and others have noted. Warmer oceans and the overfishing of cod that prey on lobsters have allowed more of them to abundantly reproduce. “I think we’re going to see this situation for a while,” Dr. Bayer said. “I don’t know how long, and I don’t think anyone really does.”

Price
Lobster
Maine
Canada
Commercial fishing
International trade


License Issue Figures Large in Local Races

Abstract: BUFFALO — When she arrived at an assisted living center for a candidates’ forum here recently, Kathleen C. Hochul, the Erie County clerk, spent a few minutes explaining what county clerks do. As the audience listened sleepily, Ms. Hochul, a no-nonsense lawyer, quickly reeled through an explanation of housing permits, business registrations and her plan to shorten lines at the downtown auto bureau. And then, Ms. Hochul, a Democrat, made a point — as she often does these days — of describing one service she most definitely does not intend to offer. “I do not support the governor’s plan to give driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants,” she said to whooping cheers and applause. “I have a problem with that, ladies and gentlemen.” So do lots of other local office seekers across the state. The plan, which Gov. Eliot Spitzer unveiled with little warning in September, has triggered widespread opposition and injected into the normally sedate off-year elections volatile debates over immigration policy and terrorism. And much anger remains even after Mr. Spitzer revised his plan last Saturday, saying the state would also offer two other kinds of licenses, neither of which would be available to illegal immigrants and both of which would satisfy new federal security rules. Even under the new plan, critics point out, illegal immigrants could still get a state license. “Nothing’s changed,” Ms. Hochul said in an interview on Tuesday. “It’s all anyone wants to talk about.” None of the state’s top officials or legislators is on the ballot in Tuesday’s elections. But dozens of clerks, county executives and town supervisors are. And in some areas, Mr. Spitzer’s proposal has the potential to overwhelm the more parochial concerns on which such contests usually turn. For Mr. Spitzer himself — now struggling to regain the overwhelming public support that sent him to office in a landslide — Tuesday’s election will be the first chance to gauge whether the anger he now faces is merely a passing storm, or something more lasting. Republicans have seized on the controversy and say it is energizing their voters. In Nassau County, for example, the issue has come to dominate the tight race for a seat on the County Legislature that, if won by the Republican candidate, would swing control of the body back to that party, dealing a significant blow to state Democrats. The Democratic incumbent, David L. Mejias, said he opposed the initial plan, and he called the governor’s revised version “unworkable.” But his Republican opponent, Joseph Belesi, has nonetheless painted him as a close ally of the governor — and his license plan — in a series of fliers and mailings that have blanketed the district. “This issue resonates with the people here because they see it as illegal, and immoral, and I think it has shifted things in my favor,” said Mr. Belesi, a retired police officer. Mr. Spitzer’s new policy has sent a particular shudder through the ranks of county clerks, 23 of whom are up for re-election Tuesday. In most counties, the clerks process driver’s license applications on behalf of the State Department of Motor Vehicles. A majority of those clerks voted for a resolution condemning the policy during a hastily called meeting of the state clerks’ association last month, and some have said they would refuse to enforce the policy, which is scheduled to take effect late next year. Ms. Hochul went a step further. If anyone comes to the main clerk’s office seeking a license with a foreign passport but without a valid visa stamp, Ms. Hochul said, she will process the application — and then pass the person’s name on to the county sheriff as a possible violator of immigration law. The clerk of neighboring Niagara County is making similar plans, and others may follow. Kathleen A. Marchione, the clerk of Saratoga County and head of the clerks’ association, said that the governor’s revised plan had done little to allay the clerks’ concerns. “Our position as an association has not changed,” Ms. Marchione said. “This is still a major issue for us.” But perhaps no local official has been put on the spot quite like Ms. Hochul (pronounced HOKE-ul). Though Erie County residents seem to support one part of Mr. Spitzer’s new plan — the introduction of two kinds of federally recognized licenses, one of which could be used by United States citizens to cross the Canadian border without passports — Ms. Hochul said that they continued to oppose allowing illegal immigrants to obtain the new plan’s third tier of license, akin to the current standard driver’s license. “This has really become the centerpiece of this race,” Ms. Hochul said. Buffalo is a border city, she notes, and memories of the six Qaeda recruits, American citizens of Yemeni descent, who once lived in nearby Lackawanna are still fresh. In fact, Ms. Hochul’s husband, an assistant United States attorney for the Western District of New York, was the lead prosecutor on the case. The six men, who had traveled to a Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in 2001, pleaded guilty three years ago to charges of providing support to a terrorist organization. Moreover, Ms. Hochul is herself a Spitzer appointee; she got the job in April after Mr. Spitzer appointed David J. Swarts, the previous Erie clerk, to be the new state commissioner of motor vehicles. Ms. Hochul even held a meet-and-greet for Mr. Spitzer at her home during last year’s campaign. “I support him on the environment. I support him on worker’s comp reform. I support him on job creation. I support what he’s doing on the waterfront here,” Ms. Hochul said. “But this is an issue I disagree with him very strongly on. And he knows that.” Ms. Hochul abstained from voting on the clerks’ resolution last month. But she has since registered her disagreement with Mr. Spitzer in myriad ways. She has asked the State Legislature to hold hearings in Buffalo on the issue, sent letters of protest to the governor and to Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo. She also requested a formal opinion from the Erie district attorney on whether the new policy is legal and enforceable. But her Republican challenger, William A. O’Loughlin Jr., whose otherwise uphill bid for the Erie clerk’s job has received a boost from public outrage over the licensing issue, has said that is not enough. Mr. O’Loughlin, a local businessman and councilman on the Amherst town board, had previously built his campaign around promises to extend the office hours at satellite bureaus and to root out patronage in the operation. Now Mr. O’Loughlin tells campaign audiences that he, unlike Ms. Hochul, will go to jail rather than enforce Mr. Spitzer’s driver’s license policy. If the governor “brings along a contingent of state police and says, ‘Here’s two illegal immigrants, give them a driver’s license or I’ll put you in jail,’ I’ll say, ‘Show me the handcuffs,’ ” Mr. O’Loughlin said in an interview. Though no public polling is available on the race, interest in the licensing issue is intense. The two candidates spent most of a recent 90-minute debate discussing Mr. Spitzer’s policy, which has dominated local talk radio. Their positions on the issue are often the first thing the candidates are asked about, and each is running television advertisements explaining how they will oppose the policy. “We wanted to talk about our record during the last seven months,” said Ms. Hochul, sounding wistful. She noted that she had expanded electronic filing, created a new call center and added satellite auto bureaus during her brief tenure. But the license issue, she said, is “all anyone wants to talk about.” The clerks’ protests are not likely to have much practical effect on illegal immigrants seeking licenses. The Spitzer administration estimates that about 80 percent of those seeking licenses will do so in the 10 counties — including Nassau, Suffolk, Onondaga and the five boroughs of New York City — where the state runs its own D.M.V. offices rather than relying on county clerks to process the paperwork. But the issue has brought a swift response from local lawmakers and candidates. About 20 county legislatures are considering resolutions condemning the new policy or orders to their county clerks not to comply, and several have already passed such legislation, according to Ms. Marchione, the Saratoga County clerk. Meanwhile, candidates who may never have mentioned illegal immigration now find their positions on the licensing issue closely scrutinized. Mr. Belesi, for example, has been arguing that Mr. Mejias spoke against the governor’s plan only after Mr. Belesi made an issue of it — a criticism that seems to frustrate Mr. Mejias. “As a county legislator, I never spoke out against the genocide in Darfur, either. I had no reason to raise the issue of the governor’s license plan because it had nothing to do with the business of the Legislature.” Ms. Hochul, for her part, is not about to let anyone mistake her position. “I feel very strongly that the Erie County Auto Bureau should not facilitate violations of immigration law,” Ms. Hochul explained. Asked how many illegal immigrants she expects to come in seeking licenses, Ms. Hochul responded with a single word. “None,” she said.

Illegal Immigrants
Drivers Licenses
Immigration and Refugees
Spitzer Eliot L
New York State


Bottle Ban? What Ban? Supervisors May Ask

Abstract: In 2007, Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco banned the use of city money to buy bottled water for municipal employees. For the mayor, it was a point of principle: the local tap water, direct from Yosemite National Park, is among the best anywhere, and in a town where even plastic bags are regulated, water delivered in plastic dispensers appeared to be an unseemly use of resources. Nearly every city department and agency duly kicked the habit, with one exception: the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. The city’s 11 current supervisors and their staff members have guzzled $4,387 worth of bottled water since the prohibition went into effect more than three years ago, public records show. Over the last year and a half, David Chiu, the board president, and three other supervisors have since switched to tap water. The supervisors’ water is paid for out of discretionary funds that each official can spend on office expenses. The cost, in a city that recently grappled with a $483 million budget deficit, may be trivial, but the symbolism is not. “Particularly in lean budget times, a dollar spent on bottled water is a dollar better spent on city services, especially when it is cheaper from the tap,” said Tony Winnicker, a spokesman for Mr. Newsom. Bottled water in the Bay Area costs roughly $4 a gallon — about 900 times more than tap water. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd said bottled water was more convenient. “It’s nice to have cold water here in the office,” Mr. Elsbernd said. “We don’t have sinks in our office; it’s nice to provide water to our guests.” The supervisors Michela Alioto-Pier, David Campos, Carmen Chu, Bevan Dufty, Chris Daly, and Sophie Maxwell did not return calls about their bottled-water consumption. After receiving inquiries, an aide to Supervisor Eric Mar said he was canceling the water service. After paying a visit last year to the city-owned Hetch Hetchy reservoir in Yosemite, which serves some 2.5 million Bay Area residents, Supervisor John Avalos and his staff began refilling jugs from a faucet at City Hall. Mr. Chiu and Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi followed suit last spring. Under a city-run public outreach campaign, scores of residents have received free stainless steel canteens after signing a pledge to forgo bottled water. Some emergency services personnel and public health clinics are exempt from the ban, because they may have to distribute bottled water during a crisis. “Frankly it wasn’t something I had focused on,” Mr. Chiu said. “Then at one point I realized, why are we doing this? It is important for elected officials to lead by example.” Some city residents were aghast to learn that most city supervisors buy bottled water for their offices. “That sounds hypocritical to me,” said Alexis van Gelder, a graduate student who won the city’s “I Love SF Water” video contest last year. “It’s a shame that the people who represent us won’t practice what they’re preaching.”

Bottled Water
San Francisco (Calif)
Politics and Government
Environment