Snapchat Finds Itself on the Wrong Side of a Racial Lens. Again.

Abstract: With its lens tool, Snapchat allows some 150 million daily users to alter reality and play with identity in ways that border on the absurd. You can turn yourself into a pineapple, a dog or a character befitting a Roy Lichtenstein painting. The lenses are blunt, feature-warping tools that generate more than 30 million enhanced selfies a day. Any missteps quickly enter the public record. Snapchat lenses have drawn criticism in the past with accusations that the app was promoting blackface or encouraging whitened skin tones as an ideal of beauty. So when it pushed a lens to some users this week that gave them slanted eyes, distorted teeth and puffy cheeks, some critics called it a racist caricature of Asian people — “yellowface.” And they wondered if these repeated controversies pointed to a larger problem that the company has with diversity. The news and the outrage went wide on Wednesday, with reports by The Verge and Motherboard , a day after Snapchat said it had dismantled the feature. The company offered an explanation: The lens was meant as homage to anime characters, not as a caricature of Asian people. But for observers who have experienced racism, the lens reminded them of hurtful stereotypes in action. Others roundly rejected the anime comparison . In an email, Grace Sparapani, a Korean-American art student whose tweet about the photos was widely shared , said that the lens was “hurtful and uncomfortable to say the least.” She added that “it’s hard to argue with the side by side comparison of the very gross Asian caricature and the filter’s effects. It shows that the filter isn’t just yellowface, but yellowface taken to its derogatory extreme.” Snapchat is not the only company to cross these cultural tripwires. American culture seems involved in an endless struggle over diversity and inclusion, from corporate boardrooms to Hollywood and the devices we all carry in our hands. And Snapchat’s huge audience of younger people — who are more racially diverse than their older counterparts — might mean that they are even more likely to expect sensitivity. When one of Snapchat’s lenses creates an image that is insulting to a user, Katie Zhu, 25, said in an interview on Thursday, “it’s much harder for these types of things to go unnoticed like they did before.” On Thursday, Ms. Zhu, a product manager and engineer who works for Medium, decided to delete her Snapchat account and encouraged others to do the same. In an essay for Medium and in a telephone interview, she said she believed that the race-related controversies reflected a lack of diversity in hiring practices at Snapchat. Ms. Zhu criticized the company’s mostly white, all-male leadership and ended her essay with a hashtag: #DeleteSnapchat . “It’s either that they had no diverse representation of people of color on their staff to the point where they’re able to make decisions like this,” Ms. Zhu, who is Chinese-American, said, “or they do have some people of color who are working there, but they’re not in positions where they feel safe or comfortable to speak up.” Other observers share her view, a complaint that Snapchat has left largely unanswered. The company does not release figures about diversity on its staff, noting its status as a private company. On Thursday, Snapchat declined to discuss the racial backgrounds of its staff, but according to a spokesman, the company recently hired a recruiter to focus on underrepresented populations and on driving inclusion efforts internally. For her part, Ms. Zhu said she would keep her Snapchat account closed, adding, “I wonder if they actually need more users like us to be able to say that this is not O.K.”

Snapchat
Race and Ethnicity
Social Media
Asian American
Photography


With Senator Chosen, Paterson Tries to Move On

Abstract: Gov. David A. Paterson appeared eager to put the widely maligned process of selecting New York’s new senator behind him during a brief press conference on Sunday in Manhattan, when he praised his selection, Kirsten E. Gillibrand . He also explained his decision to travel to a global economic meeting in Switzerland this week, saying he had decided in December to attend. The governor’s remarks followed a lunch with Ms. Gillibrand; her predecessor, Hillary Rodham Clinton; and Senator Charles E. Schumer at the Waldorf-Astoria. They discussed foreign and economic affairs, Governor Paterson said. The governor has been criticized for his office’s handling of the appointment, particularly after Caroline Kennedy, who had been considered a top contender, withdrew from consideration on Wednesday. On Friday, Mr. Paterson said of the process, “In retrospect, I wish I had not showed all of you the wrestling match.” But that tone was not in evidence on Sunday, when the governor took two questions before leaving the hotel for a ceremony. The first question regarded the criticism of the treatment of Ms. Kennedy’s candidacy. “Caroline Kennedy called me on Wednesday, whatever date Wednesday was, Jan. 21, to inform me that for personal reasons she had to withdraw,” he said. “She had gotten no signal from me that she had to withdraw.” He added: “She is a great New Yorker. She is a great friend of mine and there is nothing that would have prohibited her from serving.” Regarding Ms. Gillibrand, a congresswoman from upstate, he said she was off to a good start by traveling to places where she is little known, including Harlem and Queens. The second question involved Mr. Paterson’s trip to Davos, Switzerland, which his office announced on Saturday. Much of the five-day forum will focus on how countries and central banks can address the global downturn, and Mr. Paterson said the United States stood to gain by lending money to other countries. “There’s an immense opportunity if we use some of those resources to try and make loans available to other countries,” he said. “It would give us bigger resources for the taxpayers.” “There’s a desire to have leaders from around the country be in Davos to talk about the interests of a lot of countries right now whose exports are limited,” he said, before leaving the hotel. The press conference was held in a small hallway outside the restaurant Oscar’s, where the quartet sat down at 1:30 p.m. Ms. Gillibrand is set to be sworn in on Tuesday in Washington. Neither Senator Schumer nor Mrs. Clinton appeared at the news conference. Ms. Gillibrand continued taking questions after the governor left. Addressing critics who have said she is lax on gun control, she said she would be flexible and consider the concerns of what is now her statewide constituency. Ms. Gillibrand said that her upstate district had a strong tradition of hunting and that although she supported gun control, she did not want to take rights away from hunters. “I very much believe in protecting hunters’ rights,” she said. Mrs. Clinton had offered her advice on how to be an effective senator. The bulk of it, Ms. Gillibrand said, was about how to organize her office to best serve the many requests that come from constituents across the state. She said she would follow Mrs. Clinton’s example and “hit the ground running.” Ms. Gillibrand also spoke of developing a plan for high-speed rail service to Montreal and to Buffalo, and emphasized her availability to those who are not familiar with her. “You will see me wherever you want to see me,” she said. As if to underscore this message, when she left, she walked the long way through the Waldorf, stopping to talk to members of the public.

Senate
Paterson David A
Gillibrand Kirsten E
New York State


British Open 2014: Sergio García Content With Second-Place Finish

Abstract: HOYLAKE, England — As he made his way to the 18th green, Sergio García experienced a sensation that had eluded him in his 17 previous British Opens. He felt no despair, no devastation, no defensiveness. García had been defeated, but en route to losing to Rory McIlroy , he had won a hard-earned prize: contentment. The fans in the grandstands ringing the green sensed the change in García, who produced his lowest final-round score in a British Open on Sunday at Royal Liverpool, a six-under-par 66. That would have lifted him to victory in perhaps any other British Open, against any opponent other than a Tiger Woods or a Rory McIlroy in possession of his A-game. The ovation that greeted García gave him goose bumps. After he made a final birdie, his fifth of the round, to finish at 15-under 273, he doffed his cap, pirouetted to the crowd, blew a kiss and repeatedly tapped his heart. Thunderous applause rolled in like waves at high tide, and García bathed in it as he left the stage. “That’s a feeling that nobody can take away from me,” he said. “And that’s one of the reasons why I love this championship.” García, 34, has always had an ardent following at this tournament, partly because he has been playing in European Tour events since he was 15, but mostly because of his honesty. He is temperamentally incapable of inauthenticity. The emotions that fuel his play have a way of backfiring. But on Sunday, García kept his composure. He did not follow a sub-70 third round with a 73, as he did in 2005, 2006 and 2007 to finish fifth (Woods won), fifth (Woods won again) and second (to Padraig Harrington in a playoff). He did not come unglued after his bunker shot on the par-3 15th did not clear the four-foot wall, setting up his lone bogey of the round. Two of García’s birdies came after that blunder. With those birdies, on Nos. 16 and 18, he finished five under for the round on par 5s. It was a valiant effort, but in the end, the seven-stroke deficit he had to make up was too much. “Every time I got closer, he kept making one birdie and not letting me get any closer,” García said. He was referring to McIlroy, who posted a 71 while playing in the final group, directly behind García, to win by two. “I felt like I did almost everything I could,” García added. “And there was a better player. It’s as simple as that.” Why has García not been the best player in a major? The question was posed to Jim Furyk, whose round of 65 put him in fourth place, as he stood answering questions with one eye on the telecast showing García’s finish. “Probably you all putting so much damn pressure on him,” Furyk joked. He added, “I’d be willing to bet, if he did win one, it would be a huge relief. And I could see him playing very well for the next five years after that.” McIlroy, 25, a three-time major winner, is having the kind of early success once forecast for García. He and García are good friends, and during the greenside awards presentation, McIlroy acknowledged the fine play of García and Rickie Fowler, who finished tied with García for second after posting four sub-70 rounds. “Well done for putting up such a good fight,” McIlroy said. García is far from finished, especially not at this tournament, where, at 64, Tom Watson came close to shooting his age with a 68 on Sunday. But García is no longer golf’s fresh face, a hard truth to accept for all who have the scissor-kicking Spaniard from the 1999 P.G.A. Championship frozen in their memories. Forty of the 72 players who survived the cut this year were younger than 34. If it is hard to picture García as an elder statesman, it may be because, by his own admission, he has had a lot of growing up to do. As he made his way around Royal Liverpool on Sunday knowing he could not afford to make a mistake if he was to have any chance at catching McIlroy, the steeliness García exhibited was a minor triumph. “It was close,” García said. “It was close. At least I’m proud of the way I played.” If people want to look at his latest near miss as a failure, well, for once García is not going to lend his voice to that chorus. “There’s always a lot more positives than negatives,” García said, “and to me, that’s where I want to take it.” Was the biggest positive his composure? “I would say so, yeah,” García said. “It looks like I’m finally growing up.”

British Open
Rory McIlroy
Golf
Sergio Garcia


Tiger Woods Is Lost, on Course and in Thought

Abstract: LA JOLLA, Calif. — Using his wedge, Tiger Woods hit two dozen balls from just off the second green of Torrey Pines’ North Course. His compulsive chipping called to mind someone hoping that with enough swings of a fly swatter he could silence the buzzing around his head. There is nothing wrong with Woods’s short game that one solid chipping round could not cure. Unfortunately, his pro-am Wednesday was not that round. Because of dense morning fog, the outing was shortened from 18 holes to nine. By the time Woods finished, the fog had lifted, but the haze over his short game remained. “Even if I do happen to make a bad swing, I know what the fix is,” Woods said, adding: “My good is really good. Unfortunately, my bad is really bad.” Coming off his worst round as a pro , an 82 on the second day of the Phoenix Open last week, Woods is back at a course where he has a long and storied history of success as an amateur and as a pro. Can those sweet memories override the unpleasant flashbacks that threaten to hijack his thoughts every time he stands over a chip? What resonates in Woods’s technical speak about old and new release patterns and impact points is that he is lost with his once-trusty wedge in his hands. A decade ago, when his short game was the envy of his peers, Woods’s instincts around the greens were extraordinary. He would see the shot, feel the shot and then make the shot. No longer does he execute his chips as smoothly as an autograph with his dominant hand. Around the greens now, Woods evokes someone trying to remember his lines instead of inhabiting his character. His fluidity is gone, replaced by hitches and hesitations that are evidence of a mind in overdrive. Woods’s swing consultant, Chris Como, walked with him Wednesday and whispered suggestions. He was joined inside the ropes by Fred Couples, a 15-time PGA Tour winner who is so mellow that his next swing thought will probably be his first. Couples on occasion could be seen huddling with Como and swinging an invisible club as Woods struggled to hit fairways and greens. Instead of seeking out swing technicians, Woods might want to talk to stars of the theater, many of whom know what it is like to wrestle with dialogue that once rolled effortlessly off their tongues. A few would be able to relate to Woods, who in golf has long carried the production. They would understand how those stakes can stultify the process. The actor Lee Grant made an observation in her memoir, “I Said Yes to Everything,” that suitably frames Woods’s predicament. “The problem when you are a star, when the money rests on you as an actor,” she wrote, “is that your freedom to fail is gone. You can’t take chances. If you can’t take chances anymore, what kind of actor are you?” Eighteen months have passed since Woods’s last official victory. He has tumbled from atop the rankings to No. 56 , jeopardizing his participation in next month’s World Golf Championships event at Doral, a course where he has won four times. Tim Finchem, the PGA Tour commissioner, who has overseen a boom market on Woods’s watch, was asked if he was worried about the state of his leading man’s game. “I think if you asked me as a fan, if I was doing something else, I would say yeah because I want to see him challenge and continue to challenge the big records,” Finchem said. He added: “If you ask me from the standpoint of my current job, I would say not so much because it’s fascinating to fans. I think that — candidly, I think when he tees it up this week, everybody in the world’s going to want to see how he’s going to play because here you had a guy who was so incredible for such a long time and he’s struggling out there.” Woods’s difficulties, while alien to him, are not unusual in golf. Thirty years ago in The New Yorker, a summation of one star’s travails read: “It was the old story of the youthful sensation who becomes a standout at an indecently early age because he plays the game by feel. Somehow or other, he later loses that feel, and he must then learn how to consciously make the moves on which his natural swing was based.” The writer was Herbert Warren Wind, and his subject was Ben Crenshaw, a can’t-miss kid from the 1970s. In 1985, at the time Wind wrote that passage, Crenshaw was one year removed from winning his first major, at Augusta National. Crenshaw won a second Masters in 1995. He was 43 then, with a game whose obituary had been written by many of the same people now administering last rites to Woods’s career. “In Tiger’s case, there’s no question he’s trying to gain his imagination and feel back,” Crenshaw said this week in a telephone interview. “He’s very much filled with mechanical thoughts. That’s what it looks like to me.” Crenshaw added: “Golfers at one time or another are always afflicted by way too many extraneous thoughts. This is what I see with Tiger. I don’t have any qualms about him getting his game back.” Neither does Stan Utley, a one-time tour winner turned short-game specialist whose clients have included Bill and Jay Haas and Darren Clarke. As Utley sees it, all Woods needs is three or four solid chips in a competitive round to reboot his confidence. “I’m not too worried about Tiger’s short game,” said Utley, who does not work with Woods. “I don’t think in the long term he’s broke.” Woods said he could see progress. “I just still need to stick with it and keep doing it,” he said. Referring to Como, his consultant, Woods added: “Chris and I are working our tails off to try to get this. I want to get this. I want to be ready come Augusta and the rest of the majors.”

Tiger Woods
Phoenix Open
Chris Como
Golf


Part of the A.C.L. Family, With the Scars to Show for It

Abstract: MINNEAPOLIS — Vikings running back Adrian Peterson turned an anterior cruciate ligament tear into an N.F.L. Most Valuable Player award. Your turn, Robert Griffin III. Griffin, Washington’s quick-footed, strong-armed quarterback, had an outstanding rookie season, but this year, he might be the most watched player in the league. After Peterson’s swift recovery for Minnesota redefined the timetable for coming back from this once-career-threatening injury, Griffin is up next. “I know I set the bar high,” Peterson said. “I don’t say it’s unfair to some guys, that people are expecting them to come back the way I did, but I know it’ll be hard. I know the work I put in. Not every guy has that mind-set to work that hard.” Peterson returned a little more than eight months after the A.C.L. in his left knee was reconstructed, raced past the 2,000-yard mark and was voted the league’s M.V.P. after leading the Vikings to a surprise spot in the playoffs. Griffin followed a similarly aggressive program, putting himself in position to play for the Redskins in the season opener, pending doctor and coach approval. “I’m not Adrian, but when it comes to the pressure of coming back from the injury, it’s like the old saying, ‘You only feel pressure when you don’t know what you’re doing or you’re not confident in what you’re doing,’ ” Griffin said. “I feel confident in my body and the way it has been responding, so there is no pressure there.” Tampa Bay cornerback Darrelle Revis, a three-time All-Pro who tore his left A.C.L. in Game 3 with the Jets last year and was traded to the Buccaneers before the draft, has faced the same scrutiny. Patience has been the hardest part for Revis, because this is his first major injury. Advice is easy to come by, at least with so many peers in the sport who have endured the process. Revis took all kinds of tips, he said, from janitors to ski bums. “When you tear your A.C.L., you become a member of the A.C.L. family,” Revis said. Each family member heals differently, depending a lot on whether damage was done to other ligaments or tendons. But everyone has the mental hurdle to clear. Peterson said the voices in his head were a bigger hurdle to overcome than the range-of-motion exercises and grueling conditioning drills. “Just little things that can kind of make you jump off the deep end and think, Well, maybe something’s wrong with me” he said. “Or, Maybe that pain came because it’s not healed all the way.” Griffin has the advantage, if it can be called that, of tearing an A.C.L. in college. The best lesson he has learned is to take the field again without fear of being injured again. Really, after the operation, the ligament is as strong as ever. The toughest part of the physical recovery is usually strengthening the atrophied muscles around the joint. A quarter-century ago, this was a devastating injury. The career of Peterson’s coach, Leslie Frazier, ended after he tore an A.C.L. in the Super Bowl XX with the champion Chicago Bears. There is no prevention, of course, no matter how much strength a player can build in his muscles. The game is faster than ever, with some of the damage occurring without contact. With the league extra vigilant about head injuries, and stiffer punishments being levied to help limit concussions, tacklers have been trying to reteach themselves to hit ball carriers low instead of high. So guess what body part might become even more vulnerable? Yes, the knee. The sample size is small, but since training camps began, there has been no shortage of A.C.L. injuries. Philadelphia wide receivers Jeremy Maclin and Arrelious Benn. Green Bay left tackle Bryan Bulaga. San Diego wide receiver Danario Alexander. Giants free safety Stevie Brown. Denver center Dan Koppen. New Orleans wide receiver Joseph Morgan. Indianapolis defensive tackle Brandon McKinney. Miami tight end Dustin Keller. They are the leading men on the list of the latest to sustain season-ending A.C.L. tears — before the preseason was over. This is the N.F.L., and injuries are inescapable. Peterson, Griffin and other members of the A.C.L. family know that will not change. Peterson says he is not worrying about it. “I’m too focused on trying to help my team win, doing what I have to do,” he said, “but of course you’re going to hear in the media about what’s going on with these guys. And I wish them all the best.”

Robert Griffin III
Darrelle Revis
Sports injury
Football


F.C.C. Seeks Limits on TV Stations, to Curb Cable Costs

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Seeking to address what critics say is one of the biggest contributors to the ever-rising price of cable television subscriptions, the Federal Communications Commission said on Thursday that it would consider new rules that prevent local broadcasters from working together to negotiate deals with cable companies and advertisers. F.C.C. officials say the changes are intended to address recent efforts by stations to get around rules that limit the ownership of multiple broadcasters in a single metropolitan market. Seeking to contain costs, stations in the same market that are affiliated with different television networks have been increasingly adopting agreements to share resources like employees, administrative units and equipment. But the F.C.C. and the Justice Department have expressed concern that those agreements can drive up prices for consumers by reducing competition. For example, by joining together to negotiate with cable companies to include a broadcast station on its list of channels, broadcast stations can wield more leverage over a cable company, officials say. If cable companies have to pay more to broadcast stations to carry their signals — a process known as retransmission consent — cable companies are likely to pass those costs on to consumers. Similarly, agreements that let one station sell advertising for itself and a neighboring station can allow the broadcasters to charge higher prices to advertisers. Those extra costs also can often be passed along to consumers. Image Gordon Smith, of the National Association of Broadcasters, says the deals provide “competition to giant pay-TV providers.” Credit Mary F. Calvert for The New York Times Those practices effectively put the cooperating stations under the control of a single company, the F.C.C. says. The proposals, which the agency will consider at its March 31 meeting, come as part of the F.C.C.’s review of its media ownership rules, which it is required by Congress to undertake every four years. The agency has not completed a review since 2008, however. Broadcasters immediately objected to the new proposals. “Broadcast companies across America have demonstrated that sharing arrangements lead to more local news and provide robust competition to giant pay-TV providers,” Gordon H. Smith, president of the National Association of Broadcasters, said in a statement . “The real loser will be local TV viewers, because this proposal will kill jobs, chill investment in broadcasting and reduce meaningful minority programming and ownership opportunities,” Mr. Smith said. Consumer advocates and cable television companies supported the F.C.C.’s proposal. “For too long, broadcasters have used shell games to make a mockery of media ownership rules, as the F.C.C. looked the other way,” Michael Copps, a former F.C.C. commissioner who is a special adviser to Common Cause, said in a news release. The National Cable and Telecommunications Association, a trade group, said it was pleased with the F.C.C.’s attempt to crack down on the agreements, which have “resulted in increased prices which are ultimately borne by consumers.”

TV
Price
FCC
Regulation and Deregulation


MySpace Might Have Friends, but It Wants Ad Money

Abstract: When the News Corporation added MySpace to its portfolio nearly three years ago, it expected that if its base of 16 million users kept growing — and each user kept adding friends, sharing photos and swapping flirty messages — the advertising dollars would roll in. The social networking site has grown — to 118 million worldwide users — and the flirtations have not stopped. But the cash is not coming in as quickly as the company had hoped. In the fiscal year that ends in two weeks, the News Corporation unit that encompasses MySpace will miss its $1 billion revenue target. When the News Corporation announced the projected shortfall in April, several analysts downgraded the company, sending shares down 5 percent. With an eye toward monetization, MySpace is being redesigned beginning Wednesday with a new home page, which will be less cluttered and more hospitable to advertising. (The home page will also feature a “splash page” for an ad about the new Batman movie, “The Dark Knight.”) The redesign, to be done by early fall, will include a new navigation bar, search tool and video player. The redesign is intended to address a problem of social networking sites, which is that many user pages have the aesthetic appeal of a 14-year-old’s high-school locker. But there are still many questions left about the advertising value of social networks. In the last few months, the bloom has come off social networking’s rose. MySpace and its chief competitors, Facebook and Bebo, all have ambitious plans for making money but not enough proof that the plans are working. “The jury’s still out on MySpace’s ability to monetize,” said Michael Nathanson, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. The sites seem desirable to advertisers based on the traffic they receive. MySpace has an American audience of 73 million, and Facebook counts 36 million, according to comScore. (Worldwide, Facebook tied MySpace for the first time in April, averaging about 115 million users for each site.) Users spend hours on the sites. But because MySpace commands a majority of all the money spent on social networking, it is viewed as a bellwether for the growing industry. On a conference call last month, Peter Chernin, president and chief operating officer for the News Corporation, toned down the grandiose expectations for social networking advertising and acknowledged that selling spots on personal profile and group pages is not easy. Social networking represents an “entirely new form of Internet activity,” Mr. Chernin said. When MySpace’s parent, Fox Interactive Media, announced a three-year, $900 million advertising pact with Google in 2006, analysts started placing big bets that social networking would be a major new revenue stream. While the Web is becoming more social, it is hard to wring profits from it. Indeed, the balloon of unrealistic prospects is losing air. The attitude change was first detected at the end of January when, one year into its $900 million pact with MySpace, Google said that social networking inventory was not earning money as well as expected. (More recently, Google said the situation was improving.) The attitude change was confirmed in April when Fox Interactive Media said that it would miss its revenue target. By then, the chief revenue officer for the unit had been dismissed. Mr. Nathanson, the analyst, said that MySpace’s perceived shortfall had been frustrating. “We don’t have much conviction in the long-term ability to grow this business based on what we’ve seen lately,” he said. Other analysts hold a more bullish view. Anthony DiClemente of Lehman Brothers recommended the News Corporation’s stock on Friday partly because of MySpace’s 25 to 30 percent year-over-year revenue growth. MySpace, naturally, agrees with the more optimistic view. “We’re seeing the dollars come in,” said Jeff Berman, who was promoted to president of sales and marketing for MySpace in April, when Fox Interactive Media’s sales force was rearranged. Revenue per user is said to be up 50 percent over last year, but the site is still making only about $6 to $7 per user per year. EMarketer estimates that MySpace will post $755 million in revenue in the fiscal year ending June 30. MySpace would not comment on the estimate. About a third of the revenue is expected to come from the Google ad pact. For the year, Facebook is estimated to earn $265 million in ad revenue. The companies are acting swiftly to solve the social networking riddle. MySpace is constantly issuing press releases on new features or partnerships. The site is keen on hypertargeting, which places users in “buckets,” based on their interests, and delivers ads accordingly. Nearly a third of the buys on MySpace are hypertargeted now, Mr. Berman said. Facebook has a similar targeting system, called social ads. Advertisers choose an audience — say, Florida college students who watch “SportsCenter” on ESPN; there are 10,680 Florida college students on Facebook — then create a simple ad and set a budget. MySpace’s version, called SelfServe, is being beta-tested. Bebo, the third-largest social network site in the United States, was bought by AOL, a unit of Time Warner, last month. The company said that it intended to use AOL’s advertising entity to monetize the site. But for many media buyers, these advertising models remain experimental. At the same time, ad budgets are softening. Last December, eMarketer forecasted $1.6 billion in social network spending in 2008. In April, it revised that figure to $1.4 billion. “The challenge is that all these new forms of advertising are more difficult to plan, measure and quantify than advertisers are used to, and that has impacted spending growth,” Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer analyst, wrote in April. Mr. Berman of MySpace said that “with new advertisers, there is certainly an education process,” and that the sales staff was trying to oblige the advertisers. For example, executives from Procter & Gamble visited MySpace’s headquarters in April for meetings about social network advertising strategies. Yet there are concerns that social network users do not view ads, no matter how carefully the ads are placed. “Users’ attentions are the most scarce element on most social networks,” Chamath Palihapitiya, the vice president for product marketing at Facebook, said. “A successful ad product has to capture that scarce attention and engage it in a way that’s social and relevant.” So what can speed up ad fortunes for social networks? Social ads are Facebook’s first step. They can take social actions, such as a user’s identifying himself as a Nike fan, and pair it with an ad tailored to that user’s friends. “Your friend is a fan of Nike,” the ad would say. “Making ad campaigns even more effective on the site is part of what we’re doing” with the changes, Mr. Berman said. He noted that home-page ad displays, like last Thursday’s for “The Incredible Hulk” and this Wednesday’s for “The Dark Knight,” can reach 40 million users on a given day, “bigger than the biggest broadcast television shows.” Chris DeWolfe, the president of MySpace, thinks the skeptics should take a deep breath. “We are far ahead of where Google or Yahoo were at this stage of growth,” Mr. DeWolfe said. Mr. Palihapitiya of Facebook takes a similar view. “This is a journey that is going to unfold over the next five to 10 years. That’s when the winners will emerge,” he said.

News Corporation
Social Networking
Advertising and Marketing
Computers and the Internet
MySpace.com
Facebook.com
Bebo Inc


Rangers, Despite Odds, Have a Lot in Their Favor

Abstract: GREENBURGH, N.Y. — The Rangers and the Los Angeles Kings have met twice in the playoffs since the Kings entered the N.H.L. in 1967, but they have never met in the Stanley Cup finals. That will change Wednesday when the finals begin in Los Angeles. But when the Rangers practiced Sunday afternoon, they did not know who their opponent would be — only that they were bound to be underdogs against the Kings, the 2012 Stanley Cup champions, or the Chicago Blackhawks, the 2013 champions. Underdogs? Not so fast, Brad Richards warned. “Do I feel that way, or do you feel that way?” Richards said, pushing back against the characterization. “You get this far, you’ve got a 50-50 chance to win it. That’s the way I’ve seen it my whole career. The whole underdog-favorite thing doesn’t really mean anything.” Richards makes a strong case — otherwise the Rangers would not have reached the finals by beating the Pittsburgh Penguins, who finished with 13 more points in the regular season, or the Montreal Canadiens, who finished with 4 more. Image The Rangers at their first practice since Thursday’s series-clinching win over Montreal. They’ve played 20 games this postseason. Credit Kathy Willens/Associated Press But overcoming the Kings, the representatives of the stronger Western Conference, seems a tough task. The Rangers may have come back from a 3-1 series deficit to beat the Penguins in the second round, but the Kings rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the San Jose Sharks in the first round. And by winning in overtime Sunday night at Chicago, the Kings became the first N.H.L. team to win three Game 7s on the road in the same postseason. “They’re battle tested,” Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault said. But the Rangers can win, and not just because they will be considerably more rested. How will the Rangers try to go about it? FORWARDS Vigneault’s four-line approach paid dividends in the first three playoff rounds. If Rick Nash and Derek Stepan were slumping, Derick Brassard, Mats Zuccarello and Benoit Pouliot took care of the scoring. Or maybe the big goals came from Richards, Martin St. Louis and Carl Hagelin — or even from Dominic Moore, Brian Boyle and their fourth-line wingman, either Daniel Carcillo or Derek Dorsett. And now Chris Kreider is back from his hand injury and has rejoined the Stepan-Nash line. He has 10 points in 10 playoff games, the best scoring rate on the team. Add it all up, and 10 Rangers forwards have scored between three and six goals in the playoffs — a balanced attack that should trouble any defensive pair the Kings can put on the ice. Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin may stop the Rangers’ first line, but which is the Rangers’ first line? And who is going to stop Lines 1A and 1B, or that fourth line, which scored the only goal in the Game 6 clincher against the Canadiens? Image Henrik Lundqvist, who set career team records for wins and shutouts this season, prepared for his first Stanley Cup finals. Credit Kathy Willens/Associated Press DEFENSE The Rangers’ top four blue-liners — Ryan McDonagh and Dan Girardi as one pair, Marc Staal and Anton Stralman as the other — struggled at times in the first two rounds, against the Philadelphia Flyers and the Penguins. Against the Canadiens, however, McDonagh blossomed, adding a series-high 10 points to the 3 he earned against Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and he went plus 3 after bottoming out at minus 5 in the first two rounds. But they will have their hands full with the Kings’ big, productive forwards, like the former Ranger Marian Gaborik, Justin Williams, Mike Richards, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar or Jeff Carter’s combination, known as “That 70s Line.” There is one comforting constant: the strong play of the third defense pair throughout the playoffs. Kevin Klein, joined by John Moore or Raphael Diaz, usually plays against the opponents’ third and fourth lines. But Klein’s and Moore’s Corsi numbers, the statistic that measures puck possession, are the best on the team. GOALTENDING After a shaky performance in Game 5 at Montreal, Henrik Lundqvist bounced back with a magisterial Game 6 shutout, just as his teammates expected. His save percentage, .928, is once again among the best in the league. The Kings’ Jonathan Quick, at .906, has been spotty this spring. Lundqvist has waited a long time to get this far; he is almost certain to be at his best. SPECIAL TEAMS/EVEN STRENGTH The Rangers’ power play is a disaster one week and great the next; it is the same with penalty killing. More important is how teams perform at even strength, and the Rangers are the best in the playoffs. They have scored 40 goals to 30 by their opponents when skating five on five (33 percent more), and that is better than the Kings (45 to 40, just 12.5 percent better).

Rangers
Los Angeles Kings
Stanley Cup
Chicago Blackhawks
Montreal Canadiens
Ice hockey


Gatlinburg Wildfires Force Evacuations: ‘It Was Like Driving Into Hell’

Abstract: PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — Deadly wildfires ripped through the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee on Monday night and Tuesday, forcing thousands to flee as emergency responders sought to contain a blaze that conjured biblical comparison. “Everywhere you looked, there were fires everywhere. It was like driving into hell,” said Rain Moore, 32, a lieutenant with the Sneedville Fire Department, about an hour and a half away. Mr. Moore said he arrived early Tuesday and, while fighting the fire in the darkness, saw orange flames burning from the center of trees, indicating a strong intensity. Fueled by high winds and a drought in Tennessee, the fires damaged about 150 buildings and forced thousands to evacuate. Three people died and 14 others were injured, officials said Tuesday afternoon. More than 14,000 people left Gatlinburg, and others were evacuated from nearby Pigeon Forge as well as other parts of Sevier County, in the eastern part of the state, according to the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency. More than 10,000 people had been left without power in Sevier County. “This is the largest fire in the last hundred years of the state of Tennessee,” Gov. Bill Haslam said on Tuesday afternoon. Dramatic videos shot by residents and shared online showed flames lining the edge of the highways used for evacuations. The fires, the result of human error, started in Great Smoky Mountains National Park and were spread by winds that reached 87 miles per hour on Monday night. Greg Miller, the chief of the Gatlinburg Fire Department, said the authorities expected winds of about 60 m.p.h. overnight Tuesday, but were hopeful that rain would come first. Image A building and a car were badly damaged by the wildfires around Gatlinburg, Tenn., on Tuesday. Thousands of people were evacuated. Credit Michael Patrick/Knoxville News Sentinel, via Associated Press.. Officials did not say how the three who died were killed. Gatlinburg’s mayor, Mike Werner, was among those who lost his home, he said on Tuesday. He also lost his business of more than three decades. “It’s a devastating time for us and for Gatlinburg,” he said. “But, as I said earlier this morning, we’re strong, we’re resilient and we’re going to make it.” By early Tuesday evening, a thick, eye-stinging haze cut visibility in Gatlinburg to only a few city blocks. The fire had hopscotched around the resort town of 3,900 people and 60,000 hotel beds, flattening some buildings while leaving others next door or around the block untouched. Emergency vehicles, lights flashing, cruised past burned-out cars and gutted businesses as a city spokeswoman took reporters on a tour of the destruction. The town, located at the base of Great Smoky Mountains National Park about 50 miles from Knoxville, relies heavily on tourism. Pigeon Forge, home to Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park, is among the premier tourist destinations in the region. On Twitter, the National Park Service announced that officials had “closed all facilities in the park due to the extensive fire activity, and downed trees.” Image Flames could be seen on Highway 441 between Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge, Tenn., on Monday. Credit Jessica Tezak/Knoxville News Sentinel, via Associated Press Pete Owens, a spokesman for Dollywood, said in a statement that the park had not been damaged but that more than a dozen cabins managed by the company had been damaged or destroyed. Ms. Parton said she was “heartbroken” by the destruction: “I am praying for all the families affected by the fire and the firefighters who are working so hard to keep everyone safe.” The fires spread through Tennessee as much of the South has been enduring a crippling drought, even though rainfall this week offered some relief. The United States Drought Monitor reported last week that 60 percent of Tennessee was in “exceptional” or “extreme” drought, the two most severe ratings. Wildfires, once a seasonal phenomenon, have become a consistent threat , partly because climate change has resulted in drier winters and warmer springs, which combine to pull moisture off the ground and into the air. Video Fuel, oxygen and heat combine to start wildfires, which destroy millions of acres each year in the United States. Credit Credit Mike Blake/Reuters The authorities closed Route 321 at the Rocky Top Sports World, barring access into downtown Gatlinburg. About 700 people gathered on Tuesday morning inside the complex’s main building, a two-story center on the 80-acre campus: mountain men with gray beards and canes alongside several people in blue surgical masks. One man was too choked up to talk, his tiny Chihuahua-pit bull mix shaking inside his battered camouflage jacket. Dozens of Red Cross volunteers and firefighters tended to people who seemed shellshocked. “I got my family, man,” said Greg Lanham, 36, who fled the flames around 8 p.m. Monday with his wife, Kara, 32, and their three children. The family moved from Henderson, Tenn., three months ago. Mr. Lanham, a maintenance worker, and Ms. Lanham, a maid, both worked at Sidney James Mountain Lodge, which survived the fire but remains closed . “We didn’t know what to do,” Mr. Lanham said. “We took what little money we had in our pockets and found a place to stay.” The family did manage to save their dogs, Gizmo, a Pekingese, and Scruffy, a Chihuahua-Jack Russell mix, along with their kitten, Snowball. Standing at the sports complex’s food counter, where Red Cross volunteers served free coffee, hot dogs, burgers and fries, and boxes of fried chicken, Ms. Lanham joined her family and, crying, told her husband: “It’s gone. It’s all gone.” “We did lose everything,” Mr. Lanham said. “We got the clothes on our back.”

Gatlinburg
Wildfires
Evacuation
Pigeon Forge
Tennessee
Fires
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Dollywood Amusement Park


Rangel Has Modest Lead Over Main Challenger in Democratic Primary, Poll Finds

Abstract: Charles B. Rangel, the scandal-scarred Harlem congressman seeking a 23rd term in office, holds a modest but meaningful lead in his Democratic primary battle against State Senator Adriano D. Espaillat, a Dominican-American who is hoping to harness the political ambitions of the district’s surging Latino population, a New York Times/NY1/Siena College poll of likely voters has found. Representative Rangel has the support of 41 percent of likely voters in the 13th Congressional District, which includes much of Upper Manhattan and part of the Bronx. Mr. Espaillat, Mr. Rangel’s nearest rival in the primary contest to be held June 24, has the support of 32 percent. Four in 10 voters, a plurality of those polled, said that out of the four choices given to them of candidate qualities, the ability to bring about change was the most important factor in their decision, suggesting that Mr. Rangel’s longevity has created an opportunity for a challenger. But it is not clear that Mr. Espaillat, who narrowly lost a primary challenge to Mr. Rangel two years ago, is capable of fully exploiting that opening, the poll found: Only 39 percent of voters who emphasized change are supporting him, and three in 10 say they are still behind Mr. Rangel. Despite Mr. Espaillat’s near-upset in 2012, as many voters said they still did not have an opinion of him as those who viewed him favorably. Though Mr. Rangel’s age — 83 — has been much talked about during the race, about six in 10 voters said they saw it as an asset that gave him the experience and wisdom to do a good job in Congress. Only 35 percent said Mr. Rangel’s age could be an obstacle. Don Levy, director of the Siena College Research Institute, said that Mr. Rangel’s lead among older voters could be a significant advantage in what is expected to be a low-turnout election. “The last time Rangel and Espaillat squared off, only about 15 percent came to the polls, and they were overwhelmingly older voters,” Mr. Levy said. “With Rangel holding a 15-point lead among older voters, one target for Espaillat will have to be to coax younger voters to remember to vote.” The poll, conducted from May 15 to 20 with 678 likely Democratic primary voters, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus four percentage points. Mr. Rangel’s district has undergone vast socioeconomic and demographic changes since he was first elected in 1970. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Espaillat, 59, has the support of more than half of Hispanics, who now make up a majority of the district; more than a quarter of the district’s residents are Dominican. Mr. Espaillat, who would be the first Dominican-American member of Congress, has sought to capitalize on the historic nature of his candidacy to inspire Hispanic voters. Half of the residents of the district have a household income of less than $35,000 a year, and many longtime residents are struggling as housing becomes more expensive. Asked the most important issue for their member of Congress to tackle, nearly three in 10 voters said jobs, and 22 percent said affordable housing. Mr. Rangel, for his part, has continued to suffer from the ethical scandals that cost him his chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee and led to his being censured by the House in 2010. One in five voters said that honesty and integrity were the most important qualities they looked for in a candidate, the poll found. But here again, Mr. Espaillat is not benefiting significantly: Those voters are only scarcely more likely to favor him than Mr. Rangel. With the race as close as it appears, the presence of two lesser-known candidates is further complicating factors for Mr. Espaillat. The Rev. Michael A. Walrond Jr., the pastor of First Corinthian Baptist Church in Harlem, is cutting into Mr. Rangel’s lead among black voters, of whom Mr. Walrond has the support of 11 percent. He is also drawing 8 percent of the voters who are seeking change. Over all, he has the support of only 6 percent of likely voters. Full Results of The New York Times/NY1/Siena College Poll Representative Charles B. Rangel holds a significant lead in the 13th Congressional District primary. A little-known female candidate, Yolanda Garcia of the Bronx, has the support of 5 percent of likely voters, and 7 percent of Hispanics, the poll found. In follow-up interviews, supporters of Mr. Espaillat and Mr. Walrond said that they thought Mr. Rangel had been in office long enough and that it was time for a change. “I’m looking for new blood,” said Domingo Belliard, 31, a Dominican accountant who is supporting Mr. Espaillat. “Rangel has been there for such a long time,” he added. “It would have been great if he had left gracefully.” Although he said he did not expect Mr. Espaillat’s policies to be very different from Mr. Rangel’s, Mr. Belliard said, “I think a new guy could have more influence and help the city.” Robin Bluford, 54, an African-American administrative assistant who has been looking for work since September, said she thought Mr. Rangel had grown “out of touch.” “Charlie Rangel has done some good things in the past,” said Ms. Bluford, who is supporting Mr. Walrond. “I think right now it’s all about him and not the community. Michael Walrond seems to be about change. In this particular area we need job creation and job development, and I think he can do that.” Supporters of Mr. Rangel, meanwhile, said they thought he remained more effective than either of his challengers would be. “Seniority counts in Congress,” said John Brian Murtaugh, 77, who was a state assemblyman until he was defeated in the 1996 Democratic primary by Mr. Espaillat. “Age is an asset as long as you are physically able to do the job. I think his knowledge and experience is an enormous advantage.”

Polls
Harlem
Congress
New York
House of Representatives
Charles Rangel
Adriano Espaillat
US Politics
House races
Congressional elections


Five Homers Lift Blue Jays

Abstract: Edwin Encarnacion hit two of Toronto’s five home runs, and the host Blue Jays beat Philadelphia for the eighth consecutive time with a 12-6 win on Thursday night. Juan Francisco, Adam Lind and Colby Rasmus also hit homers to help Toronto extend its winning streak to a season-best five games. Encarnacion hit a leadoff shot in the second inning against A. J. Burnett and added a two-run drive off Luis Garcia in the seventh for his 12th career multihomer game. Lind hit a two-run shot in his return from the disabled list. Toronto’s 49 home runs lead the American League. Colorado entered play Thursday with a major league-high 50. ASTROS 6, TIGERS 2 Dallas Keuchel outpitched Drew Smyly, his former roommate at Arkansas, to help Houston win at Detroit and end the Tigers’ eight-game winning streak. Image Asdrubal Cabrera, who had four hits for the Indians, scoring in the seventh inning. Credit Tony Dejak/Associated Press Houston also ended its own five-game skid. INDIANS 9, TWINS 4 Asdrubal Cabrera had four hits and three runs batted in to help host Cleveland beat injury-riddled Minnesota and reach its first three-game winning streak this season. Minnesota played a fourth straight game without first baseman Joe Mauer, who could be headed to the disabled list because of back spasms. ORIOLES 3, RAYS 1 Steve Pearce hit a two-run homer as Baltimore completed a three-game sweep of host Tampa Bay. RANGERS 5, ROCKIES 0 Prince Fielder homered, Matt Harrison earned his first win of the season and Texas beat visiting Colorado after being overwhelmed by the Rockies the previous three games. Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado extended his hitting streak to 28 games with a single in the third, breaking the team record.

Blue Jays
Astros
Dallas Keuchel
Drew Smyly
Baseball
Detroit Tigers
Phillies


In Fantasy Football, Refining the Search for Points

Abstract: After finishing near the top of standard fantasy football scoring in each of the past four seasons, Green Bay quarterback Aaron Rodgers appeared more than worthy of his No. 2 average draft position (fantasypros.com) in this past season’s fantasy drafts. Rodgers finished second over all, trailing New Orleans quarterback Drew Brees by fewer than 30 points and seemingly rewarded those owners who chose him with their first-round pick. Of the several ways to judge fantasy performance, one of the common approaches is to look at the total number of fantasy points scored by a player over an entire season. But is looking at cumulative scoring the most accurate method of judging a fantasy player’s value? In some cases, looking at cumulative points scored per player can actually distort fantasy football analysis. The first and most obvious red flag that relates to cumulative points is that different positions produce different levels of fantasy points. You do not need a spreadsheet full of data to know that Miami quarterback Ryan Tannehill was less of a fantasy asset than Kansas City running back Jamaal Charles, even though Tannehill scored more total fantasy points. But it goes deeper because quarterbacks generally score more points than running backs. (Eighteen of the top 20 fantasy point scorers were quarterbacks in standard scoring leagues.) When focusing on one position, you can separate the players who are the more consistent big-game performers from those whose numbers are skewed by spikes in their statistics. This is important because the fantasy team that collects the greatest number of top performances is likely to win that week’s matchup. You will see separation between players when you start identifying how many games in a season a player’s production ranks among the best at his position. Let us look at two quarterbacks who had similar fantasy point totals in 2012 (again, using standard scoring): Detroit’s Matthew Stafford (365) and Cincinnati’s Andy Dalton (327). Image Quarterback Andy Dalton had a better fantasy football season than his cumulative points scored indicated. Credit Larry W. Smith/European Pressphoto Agency It is tempting to assume that they are of about equal fantasy value, given that they play the same position and each started the same number of games. But Dalton had the better fantasy season when you look at week-to-week consistency and level of performance. In 7 of his 16 starts, he was either among the top six fantasy quarterbacks for that week or he totaled at least 25 fantasy points. Stafford had only three such performances. Using this same criteria for what constitutes a big game or a top fantasy performance (either a top-six performance for the week or at least 25 points for quarterbacks, 15 points for running backs and wide receivers, and 10 points for tight ends), we can assign a number value — for lack of a better term, call it Top Performance Probability, or T.P.P. — to each player’s 2012 season using a simple equation. First, determine the number of big games a player had using the parameters defined earlier. Divide that number by 16, to account for a season of games. I divide by 16 regardless of the number of games actually played because injuries are a part of the game, and I do not want to ignore that factor when assessing a player’s overall fantasy value. Dalton had a value of .44. You can assign him a score of 44, which means he was a top performer in roughly 44 percent of his games. Either way, this shows that Dalton made his points count for fantasy owners more than most quarterbacks, as his fantasy point total placed him 12th over all while his T.P.P. was the fifth highest among all quarterbacks. To account for the typical fantasy playoffs in Weeks of 15 and 16, when top performances are most crucial, and Week 17, when many fantasy leagues have ended, we can alter the value of the final three weeks. If a player has an elite performance during a fantasy playoff week, that game gets a value of 1.5 rather than 1 for Weeks 1 to 14, and a big game for Week 17 receives a lower value of 0.5. Many of the top quarterbacks’ T.P.P. score benefited from clutch performances in Weeks 15 and 16, including Brees, who led with a 66 score. Rodgers, who despite a four-week slump in which he averaged 15 points a game, also fared well using this model, posting nine top performances, including two in Weeks 15 and 16 for what amounted to a T.P.P. score of 59, second best among quarterbacks and fifth among offensive players. The accompanying chart shows that comparing T.P.P. with average draft position can also help determine what players from 2012 fantasy drafts were the biggest disappointments. Stafford, and running backs LeSean McCoy of Philadelphia and Darren McFadden of Oakland were all first-round fantasy picks who produced only three top performances during the 2012 season, for a T.P.P. of 19. The chart also highlights that total fantasy points scored were misleading in the cases of quarterbacks Tom Brady of New England, Cam Newton of Carolina and Stafford. T.P.P. ranked Brady, who was third in points, as the sixth most effective fantasy quarterback. Newton was fourth in points but 10th in T.P.P., and Stafford, who finished 10th in points, was 15th.

Football
Aaron Rodgers
Drew Brees
Statistics
Fantasy sport


Barvikha, Russia, Draws Embattled Leaders Like Assad

Abstract: BARVIKHA, Russia — A few years back, before he settled in this bucolic town in a pine forest near Moscow, Askar Akayev , then the president of Kyrgyzstan , had a very stressful day. Outside his presidential palace, an angry mob had gathered. An overturned car was on fire. Protesters had shinned over a wrought-iron fence and were breaking ground-floor windows and prying open doors. Then came word from a security adviser: The time had come. “I left in the suit I was standing up in,” Mr. Akayev told a journalist soon after his downfall in March 2005 . Within days he was here, staying in a government-owned sanitarium — and in good company. This improbable small town of villas and luxury boutiques, built around the sanitarium where Mr. Akayev stayed, is home to half a dozen or so deposed leaders and members of their families. And in its snowy tranquillity, it offers one strange, possible future for the embattled president of Syria , Bashar al-Assad , as Western governments have been pressuring Russia since summer to smooth his departure with an offer of asylum. For now, even with rebel fighters closing in on Damascus, diplomats in Russia, Mr. Assad’s most important ally, have denied they are considering granting him safe haven as a step toward resolution of the conflict. But the Russians have come through with 11-hour rescues of their allies before. “The Russians have experience with getting heads of state out in the nick of time,” said Mark N. Katz, a professor of government and politics at George Mason University in Virginia. “They could be trying to signal to Assad there is an offer, but the window of opportunity is not going to remain open for a long time.” Leaders’ hurried packing and just-in-time flight to this place from angry street crowds or the nearing sound of gunfire brought measures of resolution to conflicts in the former Yugoslavia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere. Russia has been inching closer to agreeing to a settlement that would include Mr. Assad’s departure, if that is even possible at this juncture, with rebels occupying parts of the capital and firing mortar rounds at the presidential palace in the Muhajireen neighborhood of Damascus. On Thursday, the United Nations envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, and Russian diplomats agreed to revive a peace initiative that stalled last summer after the Russians insisted it refrain from specifically excluding a role for Mr. Assad in any transition government. It was unclear whether Russia would accede to such a demand in any new agreement, and if so, whether the Syrian leader would land here. Not all political exiles live in the districts of spacious country homes that lie here, along the Ryublyovsky Highway, but many do. By many accounts, once here, these people enjoy the quiet and privileged afterlife of former elites of Soviet or Russian client states that have folded. In a snowy shopping center, the Barvikha Luxury Village, Gucci, Ralph Lauren and Dolce & Gabbana shops were open on a recent visit, of possible interest to Mr. Assad’s wife, Asma al-Assad, who is known to dress fashionably. Borislav Milosevic, the brother of Slobodan Milosevic, the former Serbian leader who was accused of war crimes and who died in 2006, said that family members who had settled in Barvikha had been getting on swimmingly since the Yugoslav conflicts faded from the news. The former leader’s widow, Mirjana Markovic , and son, Marko Milosevic, live in separate villas here. “People come from Serbia to visit,” Borislav Milosevic said in a telephone interview about Ms. Markovic’s nine years in exile, a life he described as wholly “ordinary” in its daily routines. “She has friends over all the time. She lives a respectable, normal life.” Ms. Markovic has been compiling a book of her husband’s interviews, and her son is married to a Russian woman, with whom he has a daughter. Ms. Markovic’s experience of exile in this town, with children and grandchildren nearby, is not burdensome or isolating, Borislav Milosevic said. The neighborhood would by no means be seen as going downhill if the Assads came to Barvikha, Mr. Milosevic said. Accepting Asma al-Assad and the children in particular, he said, would be a “humanitarian gesture.” Ms. Markovic, asked by phone if a reporter could visit her country home for an interview, declined. A telephone number for Mr. Akayev, the deposed president of Kyrgyzstan who took up residence here after escaping the street protests known as the Tulip Revolution in 2005, could not be found. But a shop attendant at the Bentley dealership in Barvikha, Anna Shkoda, said she regularly saw Mr. Akayev’s son, Aidar, around town. The dealership sold the family a Flying Spur model Bentley in its first year or so of exile. “They had much more money when they just arrived,” Ms. Shkoda said. The town, home mostly to Russian nouveaux riches, is blocked from Moscow by traffic jams, but is otherwise a fine alternative to becoming the star in a show trial, or a victim of a summary execution on some dusty roadside. It is a sprawl of narrow lanes in a pine forest, where every house hides behind a gigantic wall, and the lenses of closed-circuit television cameras stare blankly at passers-by. Five years after Mr. Akayev was ousted, his successor, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was similarly deposed in a popular uprising when protesters stormed the presidential palace. But he fled to Belarus, avoiding the potential embarrassment of the two exiles, one of whom overthrew the other, becoming neighbors. Moscow’s reputation as a welcoming city for deposed autocrats was reinforced in 2004, when the mayor at the time, Yuri M. Luzhkov, provided his private jet to Aslan Abashidze, the separatist leader of the Ajaria region of Georgia, in a timely gesture. Federal troops had already started their advance into his capital city, Batumi. Mr. Abashidze reportedly lives in Barvikha. Not all asylum bids in Moscow have gone smoothly. After losing power in East Germany, Erich Honecker and his wife, Margot Honecker, who was known as the Purple Witch for her violet hair dyes and support for repressive policies, fled to Moscow from a Soviet air base in Germany. They took up residence in the Chilean Embassy, but President Boris N. Yeltsin extradited the couple back to Germany. In 1998, the leader of the once Communist-leaning Kurdistan Workers Party, Abdullah Ocalan, fled from Syria to Moscow. But the Russians twice refused to take him. The second time, in January 1999, he was expelled to Greece, where he spent three days before flying to Africa; his enemies, the Turks, have kept him locked in an island prison since. Today, time may be running short for the Assads. This week, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Russia did not want even to broker Mr. Assad’s asylum with a third country. “Some countries in the region have turned to us and suggested, ‘Tell Assad we are ready to fix him up,’ ” Mr. Lavrov said. “If these people are wishing to give him some kind of guarantees, be our guest.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Success Spoils a U.S. Program to Round Up Wild Horses

Abstract: OSAGE COUNTY, Okla. — As the sun set on the honey-colored prairie here, a herd of wild horses grazed belly deep in Indiangrass and big bluestem. On the next ridge, a dozen more horses nibbled in the pasture, and beyond them even more, dotting the hills almost as far as the eye could see. The head of the Bureau of Land Management’s wild horse program, Dean Bolstad, tipped up his cowboy hat and looked out at the animals from a hilltop. “I love seeing this,” he said, “but it’s also an absolute anchor around our neck.” The horses were grazing on a ranch the agency rents, one of 60 private ranches, corrals and feedlots where it stores the 46,000 wild horses it has removed from the West’s public lands. The cost: $49 million a year. Trying to make that rent has pushed the wild horse program into crisis. The expense eats up 66 percent of the federal budget for managing wild horses, and it is expected to total more than $1 billion over the life of the herds. The program cannot afford to continue old management practices that created the problem in the first place, or afford to come up with solutions that might fix it. In short, the agency cannot break its cycle of storing horses because it is too busy storing horses. Image Robert Hughes maintains just over 4,000 horses on thousands of acres of his Oklahoma ranch. “I basically run an old folks home for horses,” he said. Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times “We’re in a real pickle,” Mr. Bolstad said. “We have huge challenges ahead of us, and we don’t have the resources to respond.” Spending a billion dollars on pastures is a symptom of a broader problem. The agency says there are far too many wild horses roaming the West, and it must limit them to stave off damage to fragile ecosystems. But it never found a strategy that does not put more horses on storage ranches. Some critics say management must become broader and include other options, like fertility control drugs for horses in the wild. Others say policies that eliminated predators like wolves, which once helped keep the horse population in check, need to be reconsidered. Still others say it is time to kill horses to free up resources. Animal-rights groups, meanwhile, oppose any killing of horses. The bureau has struggled to limit wild horse populations since Congress passed a law in 1971 protecting the wild horses and burros that roam patches of public land in 10 Western states, and whose numbers increase naturally every year. The agency says the land can support only about 27,000 animals, but these days, there are about 77,000. Repeated government audits going back 26 years have warned the bureau to find alternatives to storing horses before the cost crippled the program, but it never has. For decades the bureau used helicopter roundups to thin herds, but it can now barely afford that because it spends so much on storing horses. Image The Bureau of Land Management spends $49 million a year renting private land for wild horses. Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times In recent years, the bureau tried fertility control drugs — administered through an annual shot delivered by dart gun — that would reduce the need for roundups. Now money for that has been spent on storing horses, too. “The entire budget is tied up in feeding horses; we need to do something drastic, now,” said Ben Masters, a filmmaker who adopted seven wild horses and made a movie about riding them to Canada from Mexico. He now sits on the program’s nine-member advisory board. In a phone interview from a wild horse area near Eureka, Nev., Mr. Masters described seeing thousands of acres damaged by overgrazing. “It’s totally degraded, and we need to save it, both for the horses and for the other wildlife.” In September, the board voted 8 to 1 to kill the horses in storage. Mr. Masters said voting for the measure broke his heart. “It kills me. I’d love for there to be another way out, but I just don’t see it.” After the vote, though, the bureau was flooded with outraged calls and emails, and officials quickly assured the public they had no plans to kill any horses . They have just signed contracts with ranches that can store 6,000 more horses. Image Renting private land like Hughes Ranch in Oklahoma eats up 66 percent of the federal budget for managing wild horses, and it is expected to total more than $1 billion over the life of the herds. Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times Ginger Kathrens, a longtime wild horse advocate who sits on the bureau’s advisory board, cast the lone vote against killing the horses in storage, saying she favored increasing adoptions and finding places to put horses back out on the range. “There are lots of things the B.L.M. could do besides selling horses to kill buyers,” she said. Federal law allows the agency to kill excess horses to maintain what it calls “a thriving natural ecological balance.” But regulators never took the step, in part fearing public reaction, and in part because Congress in recent years has added riders to various bills banning the killing of healthy wild horses. Instead, the agency has encouraged people to adopt wild horses. But the number of people offering homes has rarely equaled the number of horses gathered in roundups. The rest go to places like the Hughes Ranch, here in Oklahoma, where for about $2 per horse per day, Robert Hughes, a cattle rancher, maintains just over 4,000 horses on thousands of acres of prime grassland. “I basically run an old folks home for horses,” he said with a chuckle as he looked out at the grazing herds. “They’re in good groceries right here, I can tell you that.” Image After a vote last month to kill the horses in storage, the Bureau of Land Management was flooded with outraged calls and emails. It later assured the public it had no plans to kill any horses. Credit Hilary Swift for The New York Times Asked whether the agency should continue to store horses or euthanize them, he shook his head: “Hey, look, man, I’m in the grass-farming business.” He said he did not have anything to do with policy. “If this deal ended, we’d get back into livestock in a big way.” The agency now finds itself buffeted on all sides by lawsuits. Ranchers who share the range are demanding that horse numbers be brought down to prescribed levels. Animal rights groups are demanding an end to roundups and darting. By next year, the agency expects an increase of 15,000 horses. In September, the advisory board toured a wild horse herd area in Nevada that had not been grazed by cattle in eight years. Sue McDonnell, a board member who teaches equine behavior at the University of Pennsylvania, said she opposed euthanasia until she saw the battered grasses and invasive weeds. “It was awful,” she said in an interview. “A lot of that land is under severe stress. If we don’t act now, there will be parts that will be lost effectively forever. The horses will die, other wildlife will die, and that will be that.” While few people disagree that regions of the West are overgrazed, critics of the agency say it is wrong to blame wild horses, which are outnumbered by cattle 10 to one on bureau lands. Killing horses in storage would only enable unsustainable practices that favor ranchers, they say. “The population problem is just a symptom of a failed public lands wildlife policy,” said Michael Harris, a lawyer for Friends of Animals. To find a lasting solution, he said, the federal government must address decades of management policies that have eradicated wolves and mountain lions, which prey on horses, from public lands, creating a landscape where horses reproduce rapidly. “We’re not going to solve this problem unless we have a policy that makes room for wildlife on the land — all wildlife, not just horses,” he said.

Horse
Western States
BLM
Federal lands
Land use
Conservation of Resources


Muslim Girls in Switzerland Must Attend Swim Classes With Boys, Court Says

Abstract: In 2008, school officials in Basel, Switzerland, ordered a Muslim couple to enroll their daughters in a mandatory swimming class, despite the parents’ objections to having their girls learn alongside boys. The officials offered the couple some accommodations: The girls, 9 and 7 at the time, could wear body-covering swimsuits, known as burkinis, during the swimming lessons, and they could undress for the class without any boys present. But the parents refused to send their daughters to the lessons, and in 2010, the officials imposed a fine of 1,400 Swiss francs, about $1,380. The parents, Aziz Osmanoglu and Sehabat Kocabas, who have both Swiss and Turkish nationality, decided to sue. On Tuesday, the European Court of Human Rights upheld the Swiss officials’ decision, rejecting the parents’ argument that the Swiss authorities had violated the “freedom of thought, conscience and religion” guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, which the court enforces. “The public interest in following the full school curriculum should prevail over the applicants’ private interest in obtaining an exemption from mixed swimming lessons for their daughters,” the court found. The case was the latest to pit freedom of religion against the imperative of social integration, and to raise the question of whether — and how much — a government should accommodate the religious views of Muslim citizens and residents, many of them immigrants. The ruling could set an important precedent in other cases in which religious and secular values or norms come into conflict. The decision comes as Europe has been struggling to integrate migrants, many from majority-Muslim countries where religious and social mores, particularly around gender and sexuality, can be at odds with liberal and secular norms of the societies where they have sought refuge. Far-right political parties with anti-immigrant bents, from the National Front in France to the Danish People’s Party in Denmark and the Swiss People’s Party in Switzerland, have argued that too many Muslims have not managed to assimilate. In May, the authorities in the canton of Basel-Landschaft — which is next to the canton of Basel-Stadt, where the swimming case occurred — ruled that two Syrian immigrant brothers , who studied at a public school in the small town of Therwil, could not refuse to shake their teacher’s hand on religious grounds. Their refusal to do so had provoked a national uproar. The challenge of integrating immigrants has spilled over into culture, and, at times, helped fan a simmering culture war. In Denmark , pork meatballs and other pork dishes that are popular staples became part of a debate on national identity last year after the central Danish town of Randers voted in January to require public day care centers and kindergartens to include the meat on their lunch menus. Supporters of the proposal said that serving traditional Danish food such as pork was essential to help preserve national identity. Critics said the proposal did nothing more than stigmatize Muslims, who had made no attempts to ban pork from school menus. Germany was shaken during New Year’s Eve in Cologne in 2015 when young men, many of them of North African origin, committed sexual assaults during the street celebrations there. The attacks became an uncomfortable symbol of the challenges of integration in the country. In France, the clash between secularism and religious conservatism came into sharp relief this summer when nearly 30 towns, mainly in the country’s southeast, introduced burkini bans, suggesting that the garments impinged upon French culture and way of life. In the case of the swimming classes in Switzerland, the authorities ruled that lessons mixing boys and girls were an important part of the school curriculum; they did allow that the girls could apply for an exemption on religious grounds, but only if they had gone through puberty, which was not the case for the daughters of Mr. Osmanoglu and Ms. Kocabas. The parents argued that even though the Quran does not require girls’ bodies to be covered until puberty, “their belief commanded them to prepare their daughters for the precepts that would be applied to them from puberty” onward, according to the court’s summary of the case. The decision , by a chamber of seven judges, did not dispute that the denial of the parents’ request interfered with their religious freedom, but it emphasized that the need for social cohesion and integration trumped the family’s wishes. The court also noted that schools play “a special role in the process of social integration, particularly where children of foreign origin were concerned,” and that, as such, ensuring the girls’ “successful social integration according to local customs and mores” took precedence over religious concerns. The parents have three months to appeal the court’s decision. Representatives of the family could not be reached for comment on Tuesday. In Switzerland, politicians and civic groups across the political spectrum welcomed the ruling, calling it an important validation of the supremacy of secularism and the rule of law, even as some Muslims complained that it reflected growing intolerance for religious minorities. “The swimming pool verdict unfortunately is what we expected,” Qaasim Illi, a board member of the Swiss Central Islamic Council, wrote on Twitter . “Tolerance toward the religious is diminishing throughout Europe.”

Switzerland
European Court of Human Rights
Immigration
Islam


State of Emergency Declared in Missouri for Grand Jury’s Decision on Ferguson

Abstract: FERGUSON, Mo. — Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency on Monday, allowing him to activate the Missouri National Guard in preparation for a grand jury decision on whether to indict a white police officer for shooting to death an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, three months ago. The declaration was certain to add to mounting tension here as people awaited the grand jury’s decision, which officials have said is expected in mid- to late November. Many here have said they expect the grand jury to decide against indicting the Ferguson officer, Darren Wilson, and they anticipate a show of anger and protest afterward. Some protesters said that calling up the Guard before a grand jury decision was a premature, antagonistic move that presumed that demonstrations would be violent. Mr. Nixon called up the Guard in August during demonstrations that sometimes grew violent. Although the Guard’s role was limited to protecting a police command post, its presence drew vehement criticism from demonstrators, who said it was further indication of a military-style approach by the law enforcement authorities. Image Protesters on Monday in Missouri, as Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency. Credit Michael B. Thomas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Mr. Nixon said last week that he was considering the Guard as part of a contingency plan. A spokeswoman for the governor said on Monday that the new order was “simply the next step in continuing efforts to plan and be prepared for any contingency, and that means making sure these resources are in place in advance of any announcement.” Nonetheless, the governor’s order made National Guard involvement a certainty and suggested that a decision was near. His order will last for 30 days. In a conference call with reporters Monday night, Mr. Nixon said his decision to send the Guard to the St. Louis area came from a desire to protect what he called “the dual pillars” of ensuring public safety and allowing protesters to speak. “To achieve those goals, we need to be prepared,” he said, “and we need to be proactive and to have resources in place in advance of any announcements.” The governor would not say how many troops were being mobilized, and he said his declaration of a state of emergency did not mean that he believed violence was inevitable. He said having Guard members present in a support role would “free up law enforcement to focus on community policing and protecting constitutional rights.” Image Jay Nixon, the governor of Missouri, declared a state of emergency on Monday. Credit Scott Olson/Getty Images “My hope and expectation is that peace will prevail,” Mr. Nixon added. “But I have a responsibility to plan for any contingency that might arise.” The governor’s order gave responsibility to Missouri’s adjutant general to call “such portions of the organized militia as he deems necessary to protect life and property and assist civilian authorities.” The governor’s move also formalizes an arrangement that local law enforcement officials have made to handle the St. Louis region, including this small suburb, in the days and weeks after the grand jury returns: Three departments — the State Highway Patrol, the St. Louis County Police and the Police Department for the city of St. Louis — have created a “unified command” to oversee the area, including Ferguson, whose police department is notably not included. The mayor of St. Louis, Francis G. Slay, said Monday that he supported Mr. Nixon’s decision to send the Missouri National Guard to the city in case there was unrest after the grand jury’s decision. But Mr. Slay said troops operating within the city would have a “secondary role” and that police officers would be the ones dealing directly with demonstrators.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


To Raise Shopper Satisfaction, Web Merchants Turn to Videos

Abstract: FOR years Internet merchants have poured millions of dollars into new technologies to make their sites easier to use. So why aren’t online customers happier? Customer satisfaction levels have remained almost flat through the last several years, according to a survey of about 20,000 online shoppers recently released by ForeSee Results, a consulting and research firm based in Ann Arbor, Mich. The problem, according to Larry Freed, ForeSee’s chief executive, is not so much that consumers have ignored the many improvements made in recent years. Rather, he said, they still expect more from Internet shopping than it has delivered. “If we walk into a local store, we don’t expect that experience to be better than it was a couple years ago,” Mr. Freed said. “But we expect sites to be better. The bar goes up every year.” In ForeSee’s latest survey, released last month, just five e-commerce sites registered scores higher than 80 out of 100, and no site scored higher than 85. They were, in descending order, Netflix, QVC.com , Amazon , Barnes & Noble and the pet supplies site Drs. Foster & Smith . It was much the same story a year ago, when just five scored higher than 80, with no site surpassing 85. “Scores have inched up over time for the best e-commerce companies, but the overall numbers haven’t moved drastically,” Mr. Freed said. “At the same time though, if you don’t do anything you see your scores drop steadily.” That dynamic has been a challenge for online merchants and investors, who a decade ago envisioned Internet stores as relatively inexpensive (and therefore extremely profitable) operations. Now some observers predict a future where online retailers will essentially adopt something like the QVC model, with sales staff pitching the site’s merchandise with polished video presentations, produced in a high-tech television studio. QVC.com is evolving in that direction. The Web site, which sold more than $1 billion in merchandise in 2006, has for the last five years let visitors watch a live feed of the network’s broadcast. But in recent months, QVC.com has also given visitors the chance to watch archives of entire shows, and in the coming months visitors will be able to find more video segments from recent shows, featuring individual products that remain in stock. Bob Myers, senior vice president of QVC.com, said the Web site’s video salesmanship is especially effective when combined with detailed product information, customer reviews and multiple photographs. About eight months ago, for instance, a customer said that she could not determine the size of a handbag from the photographs on the site because she could not tell the height of the model who was holding it. Within two weeks the site tested and introduced a new system, showing the bags with women of three different heights. The results were immediate: women who saw the new photographs bought the bags at least 10 percent more frequently than those who had not. Still, Mr. Myers said, video is a critically important element to sales. “E-commerce started with television commerce,” he said. “The sites who engage and entertain customers will be winning here in the near future.” Such a prospect is not necessarily daunting to other e-commerce executives. Gordon Magee, head of Internet marketing for Drs. Foster & Smith, based in a Rhinelander, Wis., said a transition to video “will be seamless for us.” The company, Mr. Magee said, has in recent weeks discussed putting some of its product on video “so customers could see a 360-degree view they don’t have to manipulate themselves.” Because Drs. Foster & Smith lacks a history in video production, Mr. Magee said the company would rely on vendors “who’ll do the video for you and just send you a piece of code to get it on your site. It’ll be an easy switch for most people. And I do think it’ll become a major thing in e-commerce.” Whether it will be an expensive transition is unclear. In the meantime, Mr. Magee said the company should sustain its customer satisfaction levels as long as it continues to anticipate even basic needs. For instance, he said the company’s customers expect prices on the Web site to reflect what they see in the printed catalog, even though other retailers often post different prices in stores, in their catalogs and online. “The other approach has the potential to alienate the customer, we think,” Mr. Magee said. “And we actually think this is a cheaper approach, because we’re not keeping track of different prices on the same item.” While customer satisfaction levels have stagnated, customer service spending among Web sites has not. According to a recent survey by Forrester Research, online retailers this year will spend 32 percent more on customer service than last year — a rate nearly double the expected increase in online sales for the year. Some businesses, however, have managed to build extensive customer service systems without spending much money — and build them in a way that, they say, improves their overall customer satisfaction levels. Take, for example, Lala.com, the online barter service for CDs and DVDs. When the company began last year, it did not have enough money to hire an extensive customer service staff. But the site’s founders created online discussion boards to encourage a sense of community among customers. Shortly thereafter, they witnessed customers helping others with problems or questions, and a de facto customer service team was born. Now, according to Anselm Baird-Smith, one of Lala’s founders, customers find help through so-called guides — a designation earned by a few thousand volunteers who have shown a propensity to answer questions in the forums. Not only do the customers get help, he said, but the volunteers are more loyal to the site than they might otherwise be. “Those guys like coming to our site, spending a few minutes and contributing,” Mr. Baird-Smith said. “People like being known in their own community.”

Lala.com
Computers and the Internet
Retail Stores and Trade
Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Netflix Incorporated
Amazon.com Inc
Barnes & Noble Incorporated
Forrester Research Incorporated


Westminster Dog Show: Glossy Photos and Well-Groomed Hair

Abstract: David and Judith Johnson of Middleboro, Mass., own 18 pugs. But it was clear by the time he was 6 months old that McGee, who is competing in the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show , was “an incredible example of the breed,” David Johnson said. So two years ago, the Johnsons did what many dog owners do: they started a campaign. McGee’s victories are chronicled about once a month in full-page color ads in Dog News, including one in this week’s Westminster issue. The couple occasionally buys online ads as well, and McGee is in more than 100 shows a year. He has made the cover of Pug Talk magazine, and his owners, who have matching pug wedding rings, say their efforts have made a difference. “The pug people get it,” Judith Johnson said Monday at Madison Square Garden. “But you want to get people talking about the dog. You want to educate them about the breed and show them what a pug is. Sometimes, there are judges who just don’t know.” For many dogs, Westminster caps months, and in cases like McGee’s, years of campaigning. “The thing about it is, it’s a hobby,” David Frei, Westminster’s director of communications, said. “You can dip a toe in the water or you can dive all the way in.” The budgets for such campaigns can vary widely, with some owners spending next to nothing and others pouring tens of thousands of dollars into multicity tours and splashy spreads in trade publications. “It can easily get into six figures,” Frei said. But the campaigning, similar in spirit to the wave of advertisements and screenings before the Academy Awards, has resulted in criticism from some competitors. “We’re definitely the underdogs,” said Cynthia Geiser of Peoria, Ill., as she petted her longhaired dachshund, who competes as Insight’s No Bias No Bull. Geiser and her friend Sandy Arnold of Bloomington, Ind., who has two longhaired dachshunds, said they enter their dogs in about 15 shows a year and advertise only in small newsletters. “It’s so much money,” Arnold said. “We hope we get judges that really know the breed, that really pay attention to the details.” The two combed their dachshunds, one wrapped in a towel, before hitting the ring Monday afternoon. “We don’t have ads, but we have good quality,” Geiser said. “It’s a very big dog in a very little package.” Organizers said that judges were not swayed by campaigns, which also double as advertisements for breeding services or to show off a winning dog to other breeders. “From a judging point of view, it makes no difference,” Donald Sturz, a judge at Westminster, said. “Your job is to judge the dogs as you see them that day, how they handle the competition.” Sturz said that there were regularly upsets by lesser-known dogs. Jolene, a bichon frisé, will embark on a schedule of weekly competitions in 2012 with a handful of advertisements in Canine Chronicle, her owner, Michael Fahy of Hicksville, N.Y., said. “You campaign because if you have a good dog, you want the judges to know,” Fahy said as he petted Jolene, who could be mistaken for a cotton ball with legs, backstage at the Garden. “Her coat is magnificent. And it’s natural. It’s your textbook coat for a bichon.” To be on the inside front cover of the weekly Dog News costs $1,800. A single full-page color ad costs $600. Seventy-five percent of the magazine is advertisements, and all ads are unsolicited, the publication’s co-founder Matthew Stander said. Last year, Dog News upgraded to glossy paper from newsprint. “It’s the opposite of what’s happening everywhere else in the industry,” he said. Canine Chronicle charges $400 for a full-page color ad. The inside front cover goes for $1,600, and the back cover costs $3,500. It is unclear whether the months of campaigning will pay off, dog watchers say. Best in show will be announced Tuesday night. Among those being judged were Vito and Zip, wirehaired dachshunds who will soon be backed by “moderate campaigning,” said their handler, Emalia Williams of Anza, Calif. That means adding competitions to their schedule and taking out three or four advertisements, she said. Williams, who was wearing a light green skirt and jacket as she rolled their coats with a brush, said campaigning was just another part of the year-round work that goes into competitive dog showing. “Some of us are crazy,” she said, adding that the 2000 comedy film “Best in Show” was sometimes amusingly close to the truth. “But in the best way possible.”

Dogs
Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
Magazines
Advertising and Marketing


Sebelius Stands Firm Despite Calls to Resign

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, has no intention of bowing to Republican demands that she resign after the troubled rollout of President Obama’s health care law, people close to her said Wednesday. And the White House expressed “full confidence” in her. In the last week, Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, a longtime friend of the Sebelius family, said she should take responsibility for the technical problems that have thwarted millions of people eager to buy insurance through the federal exchange that opened on Oct. 1. He accused Ms. Sebelius of “gross incompetence,” saying, “We need new leadership.” Representative John Fleming, Republican of Louisiana, said Ms. Sebelius should resign or be fired. “Taxpayers should not have to tolerate this kind of waste and incompetence,” he said. But in an interview, Ms. Sebelius’s older brother, Donald D. Gilligan, said, “I don’t think you resign in the middle of a fight.” Moreover, Mr. Gilligan said: “The fact that people are calling for her head does not surprise her or alarm her particularly. People have been calling for her head for a long time, and it’s still there. I don’t think that fazes her much.” Mr. Gilligan said Ms. Sebelius was “just digging in on a daily basis and trying to figure out how to fix” the problems that have riddled the insurance exchange. The secretary’s sister, Ellen M. Gilligan, said, “To my knowledge, she is not going to resign,” despite the “wishful thinking” of some Republicans. “She serves at the pleasure of the president,” she said. “If the president decides that it is her responsibility and that she is ultimately responsible for the failure of the exchanges, then, of course, she will resign.” But Ms. Gilligan said that was unlikely. “The White House is smart enough to know that if she steps aside or they ask her to resign, they will never get anybody else confirmed,” Ms. Gilligan said. “Plus, I don’t think they hold her responsible.” Image Kathleen Sebelius Credit Joe Raedle/Getty Images Discussing the new online insurance market during a visit to Cincinnati on Wednesday, Ms. Sebelius acknowledged the problems with the exchanges, but said that fixes were in the works. “I am the first to admit that the launch was rockier than we would have liked,” she said. But after two weeks, she added, “there are vast improvements,” and people who were frustrated should “come back” and try again. Some consumers who did so said they were still unable to log in and shop for insurance on Wednesday. Mr. Roberts was one of nine Republican senators who voted to confirm Ms. Sebelius in 2009. From 1969 to 1980, he was an aide to her father-in-law, Keith Sebelius, a Republican who represented western Kansas in the United States House of Representatives. Robert Gibbs, the former White House press secretary, said Monday on MSNBC that the debut of the insurance exchange had been “bungled badly” and had been “excruciatingly embarrassing for the White House and for the Department of Health and Human Services.” After the problems are fixed, he said, “I hope they fire some people.” But Jay Carney, the current White House press secretary, said Ms. Sebelius had “the full confidence of the president.” For months, Ms. Sebelius had been projecting optimism and confidence about the exchange, built by her department, with help from dozens of contractors. “I think we’re on target,” she said in a television interview in July, adding, “We are on track to flip the switch on Oct. 1 and say to people come on and sign up.” A new study by a market research company suggests that traffic on the federal Web site has decreased since Oct. 1 and that relatively few people have signed up for health plans. The number of visitors to the Web site declined to 4.1 million in the second week, from 9.5 million in the first week, said Matthew A. Pace, a vice president of the company, Millward Brown Digital, a unit of WPP, a holding company for advertising and market research agencies. In the first week, he said, 196,000 people began to enroll, and 36,000 completed the process. In the second week, he estimated, 368,000 began enrollment, and 47,000 finished the process. The Obama administration has not yet disclosed enrollment data.

Kathleen Sebelius
Health and Human Services
Pat Roberts
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Health Insurance
Barack Obama
US Politics