Kewaunee Nuclear Power Plant Shuts Down

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Kewaunee nuclear power plant in Wisconsin shut down for the last time on Tuesday, but it is preparing to break new ground for the American nuclear industry. It may go to sleep, Snow White-style, for 50 years, to be awakened when its radioactivity has subsided. Or it may be dismantled in the next decade or so. In either case, the responsibility and the expense, probably near $1 billion, will be borne for the first time by a for-profit company, not a regulated utility. The Kewaunee plant, which opened in 1974, was sold in 2005 to Dominion, based in Richmond, Va., by its owners, the Wisconsin Public Service Corporation and Wisconsin Power and Light. In the past, the lengthy decommissioning process that nuclear power requires was in the hands of local companies, which have had the option to go to a public service commission and ask for a rate increase to pay for the job if it proved unexpectedly difficult. But Kewaunee was a “merchant” plant, a sort of free agent on the grid, selling its electricity on contract, at a price set by the market, not by the government. Dominion says it has reserved enough money to do the job, and a big enough bank account if the reserve fund does not suffice. So far, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission agrees, although a commission expert said the actual budget was open to question. But “when you try to do any of these calculations beyond seven years, I’ll be frank with you,” said Michael Dusaniwskyj, an economist with the commission. “It’s a shot in the dark.” The variables for Kewaunee, which is about 35 miles southeast of Green Bay, include the amount it can win in a legal dispute with the Energy Department, which was supposed to start taking away the spent fuel more than a decade ago but will not begin doing so for many years to come. Other factors are the scrap value of the tons of steel and copper in its equipment and structure, and the rate of return it can earn, above inflation, on the $578 million reserve Dominion has set aside. Three Wisconsin state agencies said they had had no jurisdiction since the public service commission approved the sale of Kewaunee eight years ago. That does not mean that no one is concerned. Image Dominion closed its Kewaunee plant on Tuesday because it was no longer profitable. Credit Dominion Resources, via Reuters “It’s a strange situation for sure, for Wisconsin, which has very little to do with a decision made by another entity, and it’s going to be around for another 60 years,” said Charles Higley, the director of the Citizens Utility Board, a nonprofit agency that seeks to represent residential consumers, farmers and small businesses before the public service commission. But the chief nuclear officer of Dominion, David A. Heacock, said his company projected that the money on hand would be enough, even before recovering money from the Energy Department, which it estimates could amount to $350 million, or the income from the sale of scrap metal. Still, the retirement comes at a time of rapid cost inflation. Last month, Mr. Dusaniwskyj told stock analysts in a conference call organized by UBS Investment Research that the utilities’ estimate of the cost of decommissioning was rising 8 to 9 percent a year, pushed by the cost of burying the lightly contaminated concrete and steel. That cost could change markedly in coming years, depending on whether more low-level radioactive waste dumps open. Representative Edward J. Markey, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a letter sent to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Monday that several reactor owners had recently filed documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Those documents indicated that their plants were worth far less than previously assumed, since the market price of the electricity they produced had dropped sharply because of low natural gas prices. (That is what made Kewaunee unprofitable.) Earlier this year, he pointed out, the owners of the Crystal River 3 plant in Florida decided to retire it rather than repair its containment structure, because of unfavorable economics. Industry experts say that several reactors are operating at a loss while their owners wait for the glut of natural gas to disappear. How long that will be, and how many will last, is not clear. “Once these old nuclear reactors shut down — as we’re seeing now — it will take 60 years and hundreds of millions of dollars to decontaminate them,” Mr. Markey said in a statement. “Taxpayers should have assurances that these nuclear relics don’t outlive their corporate owners and their ability to fund nuclear cleanup costs, leaving ordinary Americans to foot the bill.” The concern is relatively new because in the past, reactors were locally owned, so their economic benefits — or their costs — accrued for a population that a utility could appeal to for money if it ran short. Mr. Heacock noted, however, that this was never assured. A public service commission might tell such a utility, “you collected the money already, you figure out how to make it work, or go to your shareholders for the difference,” he said. Dominion filed plans in February to shut down the reactor. Mr. Heacock said that the experience of another company, Energy Solutions, which is decommissioning Commonwealth Edison’s old Zion reactors north of Chicago, was that it might be cheaper to do the job in the next decade or so. Decommissioning Kewaunee will require equipment that is available now, and also human skills, including the intimate knowledge gained by workers who have been at the site for years. “After 10 years, people knowledgeable about the plant were no longer around,” he said of the Zion reactors.

Wisconsin
Dominion Resources
Nuclear energy
Regulation and Deregulation


Djokovic and Nadal Are Spectators in Chief as Davis Cup Begins

Abstract: Novak Djokovic was still collecting trophies this week, even if he is officially taking a break from the sport he dominates. Djokovic used winning the Davis Cup for Serbia in 2010 as a launching pad to “cosmic tennis,” the catchy term employed by his coach, Marian Vajda. But Djokovic is leaving the 2012 Cup to others for now, and while he was in London on Monday to accept the world sportsman of the year award, his former Serbian teammates, like Janko Tipsarevic, and his longtime rivals, like Roger Federer , were busy preparing for the first round. It will begin Friday, with eight World Group series spread over three continents: Europe, North America and, more unusually, Asia, where Kei Nishikori will lead Japan in its first Davis Cup match at this level since 1985. It will be played against Croatia in the Bourbon Beans Dome in Hyogo, Japan, and it will hardly pass unnoticed in the host nation, not with Nishikori ranked 20th in the world. He is coming off a convincing run at the Australian Open, where he reached his first Grand Slam quarterfinal. Switzerland and Federer are at home against the United States on clay in Fribourg; Canada and Milos Raonic are taking on France in Vancouver, British Columbia; and Spain and its new captain, Àlex Corretja, are at home with an understrength squad against Kazakhstan in Oviedo. In light of current headlines and underlying tensions, the most intriguing matchup would have been one that is not yet happening: France against Spain. The two-year ban of the Spanish cyclist Alberto Contador has revived the public debate in France over whether Spain has a serious doping problem. This week, a satirical French news show, “ Les Guignols de l’info ,” made Rafael Nadal one of the foils of its heavy-handed humor, depicting Nadal as a muscle-bound puppet urinating in his car’s gas tank to make it go fast and also signing a petition in support of Contador with a syringe instead of a pen. The Spanish Tennis Federation has threatened a lawsuit against Canal Plus France, in part because the show used the federation’s logo in one of the skits. Nadal, the six-time French Open champion, has never been found guilty of a doping offense. “With fewer resources we have achieved more than them,” Nadal said in comments reported by the Web site Marca.com . “We’re doing something better. It’s not because of pills or syringes.” Nadal played for nearly six hours before losing to Djokovic in the Australian Open final less than two weeks ago. But even before his marathon defeat in Melbourne, Nadal was planning to avoid Davis Cup during this Olympic year after leading Spain to a fifth title in Seville last December. But Federer has yet to win the Davis Cup, an event that he played with great fervor earlier in his career before reducing his commitment to focus on individual success. Now, at age 30, he will attempt to attack on multiple fronts, no small risk considering what playing too much too early could do to his own chances to win the Olympic gold medal in singles later this year. But with his Swiss teammate Stanislas Wawrinka slipping but still in the top 30, Federer surely figures that it is best not to wait another year to make a serious run in Davis Cup. The Swiss will be the favorites on clay against the Americans, who will use Mardy Fish and John Isner in singles but will only have one of the Bryans available in doubles. Mike Bryan is in Fribourg, but his twin brother, Bob, is in Florida after the birth of his first child. Mike Bryan will instead play with Ryan Harrison, 19, who is making his Davis Cup debut. Despite his hardcourt background and United States address, Isner can be a threat on clay. He pushed Nadal to a fifth set in the first round of the French Open last year and benefits from the extra time the surface allows him to get his 6-foot-9 frame organized. He will need to be impeccably organized to trouble Federer on Friday. Federer has won the French Open and is the best clay-court player of this era not named Nadal. Jim Courier, the United States captain, does not expect Federer to be vulnerable after his latest Grand Slam setback, a four-set loss to Nadal in the Australian Open semifinals. “I’ve seen Roger enough over the years to know he’s pretty good at shaking off disappointment,” Courier said. “What he did at the end of last year after the U.S. Open , regrouping and going undefeated the rest of the year, is just something that by now we should expect. He’s a champion. He responds like a champion.”

Davis Cup
Federer Roger
Djokovic Novak
Nadal Rafael


Bernie Sanders Draws Big Crowds to His ‘Political Revolution’

Abstract: DUBUQUE, Iowa — As 1,800 mad-as-hell supporters jumped out of their seats and pumped their fists last Sunday, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont delivered the message they had come to hear. We will “give these guys an offer they can’t refuse,” he shouted in the jam-packed gym, vowing to bust up the banks, bring down the billionaire class and smash the political establishment. “So I welcome you all,” he said, “to the political revolution of 2015.” The presidential election is, of course, in 2016, but Mr. Sanders can be forgiven for living in the moment. By overtaking Hillary Rodham Clinton in New Hampshire in some polls and drawing tens of thousands of people to his events on the West Coast, as well as thousands in Iowa and Nevada, Mr. Sanders, 73, has recaptured the enthusiasm that fueled the 2008 Obama campaign, with T-shirts that say “Feel the Bern” and show an image of floppy white hair and glasses replacing the famous image in the Obama “Hope” poster by Shepard Fairey . Unlike that of Mr. Obama, Mr. Sanders’s appeal is less about oratorical lift and finding common ground than about the opportunity his campaign gives disaffected Democrats to vent their anger at the list of national ills they believe are caused by big business and its conservative allies and have been left unaddressed by President Obama. If Mrs. Clinton’s pitch to voters is that she can make the system more effective, Mr. Sanders is arguing that Mr. Obama was naïve to even bother with a system that needs to be fundamentally changed. It is not a new message for Mr. Sanders, who came up in radical left politics , but the response is something unfamiliar. For someone who has always had a sweepingly macro, if not entirely Marxist, critique of America, having the largest crowds of the election cheering each description of income inequality, and each proposal to eradicate it, amounts to the validation of a career spent in relative obscurity. Mr. Sanders’s grumpy demeanor, his outsider status and his suspicion of all things “feel good,” are part of the attraction. “He’s feeling the weight of ‘Wow, people really need this,’ ” Jane Sanders said after one of the seven appearances her husband made last weekend in Iowa. She said Mr. Sanders was “humbled” by the success, remained as focused on the issues as ever, and “doesn’t believe in the cult of personality.” Yet when asked why Mr. Sanders was attracting so many people, she added: “Because if not now, when? And if not him, who?” Video Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont on a campaign visit to the Iowa State Fair. Anybody else appears to be the answer of the Democratic establishment. Yet while the candidate’s own staff sees the immense challenges before them with a professional eye, Mr. Sanders admits to no doubts. And he treats any trespassers to his circle of believers accordingly. When a gaggle of reporters — “corporate media” in Sanders parlance — mentioned Mrs. Clinton here, he snarled, “That’s the sport you guys like,” meaning their focus on the kind of political questions he disdains. When asked to reconcile his anti-establishment status with being a “career politician,” Mr. Sanders, who except for two years has held political office continually since 1981, glared at the young reporter who asked the question. “Career politician?” he said to her with a disdainful laugh. “Other questions.” Mr. Sanders is clearly a different sort of political animal. If the tradition is to campaign in poetry and govern in prose, Mr. Sanders does both with a long list of bullet points written on a yellow legal pad he looks at when he speaks. “We’re going to practice democracy. How’s that?” he exclaimed to huge applause at the start of the Dubuque event, before launching into an hourlong speech that left no time for questions. In front of crowds, Mr. Sanders dispenses with his biography as quickly as possible, introducing his wife, who waves back or shoots video on her iPhone, and mentioning that he has kids and grandkids and a father who immigrated to America from Poland with nothing. He seems to go through the motions of reaching for the emotional connection that other candidates try to seize, referring to the joy of childbirth as “extraordinary, unbelievable, O.K.,” before quickly shifting to the dearth of family leave time for working women. But the people don’t come to hear Mr. Sanders’s story. They come for his analysis of what’s gone wrong. Americans, Mr. Sanders says, live under an oligarchy of billionaires, the Koch brothers and Walmart owners and Wall Street chieftains who conspire to keep the workingman down. Their information is dumbed down by a news media that avoids the issues, treats campaigns like soap operas and begs him to “beat up on Hillary Clinton.” Image A day before, a supporter wore a T-shirt that is becoming a trademark of the campaign. Credit Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press In Iowa, where he is inching up in polls, the crowds nodded passionately as he cited the real unemployment level and bemoaned institutional racism and the “starvation wages” hobbling American workers already handicapped by international trade deals. There were also mentions of Republican attempts at voter suppression, which “profoundly disgusts me,” the increased oceanic acidity and rising temperatures that threatened the globe, as well as the pharmaceutical companies and enemies of Social Security who prey on the sick and elderly. “What’s wrong with that picture?” he asked at another Iowa appearance, and then proceeded to describe what life would be like “under a Sanders administration.” He would invest in enormous infrastructure projects that he said would create more than 10 million jobs. He would expand, not shrink, Social Security, and move the United States to a single payer health care system. Legislation that he intends to propose or already has would automatically register anyone older than 18 to vote, kick private corporations out of the prison business, make public college tuition free, guarantee sick and paid family leave and a “couple of weeks paid vacation” to workers. He would break up the banks that are too big to fail, keep us out of any more wars and pay for much of his spending program with a tax on Wall Street trading. “The middle class and working class bailed you out,” he bellowed. “Now it’s your turn.” As for the critique that none of these proposals is remotely plausible given the political realities in Washington, the Sanders campaign argues that the “nightmare scenario” of a Democratic president with a Republican Congress would never happen. “It is an unlikely outcome to have Bernie Sanders elected president and to keep the Congress in its current composition,” said Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager, explaining a sort of fantasy scenario. Or, as Mr. Sanders put it at a labor meeting in Clinton, Iowa: Without a revolution, “Forget about it, nothing’s going to happen.” And that, he says, was the problem with Mr. Obama. While Mr. Sanders offered “congratulations” to Iowa for having the courage to vote for an African-American in 2008, he said “one of his mistakes” that Mr. Obama made after winning with a movement behind him was then saying, “I’ll take it from here.” “What Obama should have known and what I know,” Mr. Sanders said, is that wealthy vested interests were too powerful for any one person to take on. It was around then that Fred Bowes , a 77-year-old Democrat, walked out of an event in Boone. “Everything he said is true,” Mr. Bowes said. “Implementing what he says is next to impossible.” That is a dissenting view among the crowds at Mr. Sanders’s rallies and events, where he welcomes gushing comparisons to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Bernie, Bernie, Bernie,” the crowd of Sanders supporters chanted as the senator approached the entrance of Iowa State Fair. As Mr. Sanders made his way toward the fair’s famous Soapbox Stage, Mitchell Wear, who had come from Columbus to hear Mr. Sanders speak, was able to shake his hand. “Oh my God, that was awesome,” Mr. Wear said as the entourage made its way past pork chop, caprese-on-a-stick and fried cheese curd stands. Back in Burlington after the weekend, Mr. Sanders called his close friend Richard Sugarman, a University of Vermont professor of Jewish philosophy and self-described “biblical socialist.” Mr. Sugarman said he grilled the candidate on whether he had eaten a pork chop (“I didn’t,” Mr. Sanders, who is also Jewish, assured him), listened to Mr. Sanders confide that “This celebrity stuff is strange,” and discussed “how far he’s come.” “His enthusiasm is growing” Mr. Sugarman said, because “people are responsive to what he is saying in a larger venue than has ever been the case before, and probably because they agree with him.”

Democrats
Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders
2016 Presidential Election
US Politics


Chinatown Fair’s Closing Leaves Gamers Bereft

Abstract: For decades, Chinatown Fair welcomed everyone — misfits, cool kids, world champions, novices, dancers, fighters, strategists, tourists carrying leftover dumplings from their dinner across the street. Then, two weeks ago, it disappeared. Even among the devoted gamers and urban nostalgists who had been whispering about its demise for weeks, the end came as a surprise. About midnight, a simmering rent dispute forced Chinatown Fair, a video-game arcade at 8 Mott Street for several decades, to shut its doors; by the next evening it was stripped bare , an empty shell of a retail space with an old battered sign. The place had always been hard to pin down. How did a dingy spot like that hang on so long? How did it have access to the newest Japanese games, long before they appeared elsewhere in the United States ? And how did the live chicken that for years stood near the entrance learn to play such a mean game of tic-tac-toe ? But nothing about Chinatown Fair was more mysterious than the speed with which it vanished, giving rise to a thousand theories about what had befallen the arcade and what would become of the community it used to house. “It was a home for those of us who felt we couldn’t find comfort in our own homes,” the gaming Web site Kotaku.com once wrote . “Rich or poor, black or white, gay or straight, and everyone in between, it didn’t matter what you were: Chinatown Fair was important to us all because it was an escape for us all.” Within days of its demise, devotees began discussing a new, more hopeful rumor : Henry Cen, the professional gamer who had started working at Chinatown Fair as a teenager and who became one of the arcade’s biggest draws, would resurrect it from the ashes. The rumors were half right. Mr. Cen is opening a new gaming space, but he is not resurrecting Chinatown Fair. In many ways, Next Level, as he is calling the new arcade, is the opposite of the beloved old venue. It is not yet open to the public, just to friends (and the occasional prying journalist), but some things are already clear: Instead of a crowded warren of consoles, perfumed by three decades of adrenaline, it is an antiseptic space decorated with nothing more than white Sheetrock. Instead of sitting amid the dense bustle of Mott Street, it occupies the first floor of a modest residential building on a quiet street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn . And instead of a broad spectrum of games, dating all the way back to the venerable Ms. Pac Man, it has, at the moment, exactly eight. The emphasis is on those same ultracool fighting games that so dazzled the cognoscenti on Mott Street, and which, it turns out, Mr. Cen had purchased for Chinatown Fair with his own money, at around $10,000 apiece. “Fighting games attract one thing: people that want to be respected,” Mr. Cen said. “There’s a lot of people in life that don’t get respected for a lot of things they do. So they have this pent-up anger, then they walk in the arcade, they play a fighting game, and if they beat someone, they gain their respect. And with that, it builds camaraderie. Respect is the most important thing in life.” With that spirit, Mr. Cen said Next Level would not be an arcade in the usual sense. It would be a showcase for fighting games and their star players, a way to advance the sport. It may help to win gamers newfound respect, but even when construction is finished — and the bubble tea service is installed, and the projection screens are streaming video game tournaments — it does not sound like the kind of place where passersby with a moment to kill would amble in and lose a few quarters. If you’re looking for more traditional settings in which to play games, well, you have to look pretty hard these days. “Arcades used to be where gamers got their fix,” said Matt Hawkins, a video game designer and journalist. But in an era when so many people have smart phones, home computers and game consoles, all loaded with more games than they could ever tire of, “the need to go somewhere to play a game seems a bit redundant,” he said. With the exception of Coney Island’s summer fun, a New Yorker in search of an arcade is mostly left to choose among postmodern variants like Barcade , in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, a bar that features old-school games with a chaser of craft beer; Dave & Busters , a garish Las Vegas -style chain with an outlet perched above Times Square; or Babycastles , a showcase for independent video creators that is housed in the basement of a performance space. For a few weird moments last week it looked as if Babycastles might resurrect Chinatown Fair (in a new location), resulting in a mash-up of indie innovation and corporate entertainment, of those who see video games as a form of art and those who see them as a way of life. But Kunal Gupta, the founder of Babycastles, said the logistics proved too formidable, at least for now. Which leaves the Chinatown Fair diaspora wandering in the desert, looking for a home. One freezing afternoon last week, Naquan Holland, a student at Brooklyn College , strolled by the Next Level storefront to see if the place had opened yet. Soft-spoken and apologetic, he said he used to go to Chinatown Fair every Friday night. “I found a whole group of friends who I was close-knit with,” he said. Where are they now? “I have no idea,” he said. “They’re all over the place. They have lives, too.”


Justice Alan Marrus, Unfazed by Drama of Police Brutality Case

Abstract: The afternoon court session grew more heated in its final hour. Michael Mineo , who prosecutors say was sodomized with a police officer’s baton during a stop, faced tough questions about the extent of his injuries and whether he remembered the color of his blood. In the middle of that critical testimony, a lawyer for the officer requested a recess. Justice Alan D. Marrus waved him off. The lawyer asked again. “I must go, judge,” he said, suggesting that it was nature and not strategy guiding the request. Then he caught a break: The court reporter needed to change paper. So Justice Marrus grudgingly agreed to do what he had been loath to in his 24 years on the bench in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn: slow down the action. “Go ahead,” he told the lawyer with a resigned shrug. It is not that Justice Marrus, 63, is impatient, or does not believe in breaks, he said later in an interview. “I try to run a trial on a schedule, and have a plan,” he said. “The jurors seem to like that, too.” Justice Marrus arrives at the courthouse in Downtown Brooklyn at 7 a.m. and is usually sitting in his courtroom before the day’s proceedings begin. “I don’t make an entrance,” he said. He tells lawyers not to show up late, and has been known to warn that if they do, he might seat the jurors without them. He often brushes off requests for sidebars, saying that most of the discussions can be public; but he also does it, lawyers suspect, because the sessions take up precious time. Since 1986, by his clerk’s count, Justice Marrus has heard more than 550 cases. “He’s probably tried more cases than most trial judges in the city, if not the state,” said Barry M. Kamins, the administrative judge for criminal matters in the Second Judicial District of New York. “He runs a tight ship. And he keeps things moving very quickly.” The latest case for Justice Marrus, which started more than a week ago, is a high-profile police brutality trial in which Officer Richard Kern is accused of repeatedly ramming a retractable baton between Mr. Mineo’s buttocks in the Prospect Park subway station and two other officers are accused of helping cover up the abuse. On Monday, the judge will preside over what may be the trial’s most critical moments: A transit police officer, Kevin Maloney, is expected to break ranks and testify that he saw Officer Kern jab Mr. Mineo with his baton. Surrounded by lawyers with outsize personalities, and confronted with an accuser whose testimony involved screaming and showing off tattoos, Justice Marrus has presided with a steady hand, unruffled by the drama or the public attention. He has warmed jurors each morning with a joke (“I’m still waiting to be discovered,” he said), smiled when lawyers made grand stands and calmed nervous witnesses. “Can I let my heart beat for a second?” asked one witness, Ashley Loney, a friend of Mr. Mineo’s. Let it beat for longer than that, Justice Marrus said. The judge’s smile disappeared when lawyers or prosecutors argued with witnesses or made lazy attempts to score points with jurors. “That was a bad question,” he said one day. “Come up with a good question.” Smile or no smile, the days have unfolded with precision: Court starts shortly after 10 a.m. and ends between 4 and 5 p.m. Everyone is off on Fridays. Not everyone appreciates the judge’s efficiency. A lawyer who has appeared before Justice Marrus several times and who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he expected to appear before him again, said that in tamping down lawyers’ “flowery” tendencies, the judge can stifle their efforts to connect with jurors. “He wants to get right to the point,” the lawyer said. But other lawyers praised the judge’s economy. Nicholas Gravante Jr. was trying a case before Justice Marrus during the Sept. 11 attack. “His ability to keep the jury together through that very difficult ordeal, and complete the trial in an efficient manner, was one of the most remarkable things I’ve seen,” Mr. Gravante said. “As a criminal defense lawyer, he allowed me to try my case.” Punctuality was a lesson that Justice Marrus said he learned early, from his mother, Sara Marrus, who told him, “It was inconsiderate to keep people waiting for you.” He was 13 when Mrs. Marrus moved her family from Mount Vernon, N.Y., to Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, after her husband died. Young Alan chose law in his junior high school career book, and that was that. After Brooklyn College and George Washington University Law School, he became the first lawyer in his family, then a prosecutor. In 1983, he was appointed to Manhattan Criminal Court as a judge. Justice Marrus raised two children in the Manhattan Beach neighborhood of Brooklyn, not far from where he grew up; his daughter is a federal prosecutor, and his son is in law school. His wife of 38 years, Iris, is a singer and teaches how to incorporate music in early childhood education at Kingsborough Community College and Lehman College. Those who know the judge call him a thoughtful jurist who trains new judges, lectures extensively and shows confidence in his legal rulings. Last year, in one such ruling, Justice Marrus harshly rebuked a mother who tried to prove her son’s innocence by seducing one of the jurors in the son’s murder trial. In his forceful ruling , he said the mother, Doreen Giuliano, had been “acting as a self-appointed juror misconduct vigilante, with the obvious intention to destroy the credibility of a jury verdict that went against her son.” In his spare time, Justice Marrus coaches the judges’ softball team and writes comedy routines — for a friend and former judge who performs stand-up or as M.C. of events like a statewide judges’ seminar. He has become known for the novel way he picks juries, using a technique he developed in 1986, when Joseph Pepitone, a former Yankee, sat in his court on drugs charges. “He was very famous at the time,” Justice Marrus recalled. “We figured it would be hard to get jurors right away.” In that case and in many high-profile cases since, including the current one, the judge prescreened jurors, speeding up the process. The jury in Mr. Mineo’s case was picked in less than three hours. Apart from the lawyer’s bathroom request, the judge has looked impatient only one other time — again, during a break he did not foresee. He paced at the bench for a minute, then started chatting with a witness. One day, as a prosecutor began questioning a witness, an undercover investigator, the action moved so fast that Justice Marrus realized he had forgotten something: the jury. It was not entirely his fault. It was a closed court session, and the judge seemed preoccupied with special arrangements he had made to secure the courtroom and make sure the news media could see the proceedings. “We became so security conscious that we forgot to bring out the jury,” he said, chuckling with embarrassment. “I’ve never done that before.”

Judges
Marrus Alan D
Mineo Michael
Police Brutality and Misconduct


Iraq: Sunnis Continue Protests Against Prime Minister

Abstract: Tens of thousands of Sunni Muslims blocked Iraq ’s main trade route to neighboring Syria and Jordan in a demonstration on Wednesday against Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki , a Shiite. The size of the protests in the Sunni stronghold of Anbar Province was an escalation in protests that erupted last week after troops detained the bodyguards of Finance Minister Rafe al-Essawi, a Sunni. The move against Mr. Essawi’s guards came hours after President Jalal Talabani , a Kurd who has mediated among Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish factions, left the country for treatment in Germany after a stroke that could end his steadying influence over Iraqi politics.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Slovenia Leader Withdraws From Bid for E.U. Energy Post

Abstract: BRUSSELS — A former prime minister of Slovenia who had been nominated to oversee European Union energy policy withdrew her candidacy on Thursday amid strong opposition from the bloc’s Parliament. Showing an eagerness to put their stamp on the way the European Union operates, lawmakers in two committees late Wednesday helped derail the candidacy of the former leader, Alenka Bratusek, who Jean-Claude Juncker, the incoming president of the European Commission, had picked to take over a top portfolio in his new administration. The withdrawal of Ms. Bratusek’s candidacy was the first time a former prime minister of a member state was denied a top job at the commission, the European Union’s executive body. “It’s a big scalp,” said Charles de Marcilly, the head of the Brussels office of the Robert Schuman Foundation, a research organization. “The fact that she would have been a vice president of the E.U.’s executive branch and she’s a former prime minister shows this Parliament already having a really significant impact.” The current crop of lawmakers at the Parliament came to power amid a backdrop of deep discontent, which has been aggravated by the perceived failure of the European Union to show austerity-weary citizens that an integrated Europe delivers jobs and prosperity. The Parliamentary panel soundly rejected Ms. Bratusek’s nomination after a stormy hearing on Monday, with 112 lawmakers voting against her and only 13 in favor. “Alenka Bratusek was rejected simply because she performed very badly at her hearing,” Gianni Pittella, the leader of the Socialists and Democrats group in the Parliament, said on Thursday. Manfred Weber, the chairman of the center-right European People’s Party, said on Thursday that his group would “only support a woman candidate with experience.” Ms. Bratusek would have been expected to help Europe break free of its dependence on Russian energy at a time when Gazprom, the country’s main gas exporter, has again cut supplies to parts of the Continent. But she raised the ire of a large number of lawmakers for previously supporting the construction of a pipeline, called South Stream, that would run through Slovenia and deliver more Russian energy to Europe. Another factor that damaged Ms. Bratusek’s candidacy was an investigation by an ethics panel in Slovenia, which has been looking into whether her decision to put her name forward as candidate for a job in Brussels while also caretaker prime minister was a lapse in judgment. That panel, the Slovenian Commission for the Prevention of Corruption, determined on Thursday that Ms. Bratusek’s nomination had been plagued by conflict of interest concerns, according to an English-language report by STA, a Slovenian news agency. While the European Parliament could not directly scuttle Ms. Bratusek’s nomination, the objections of lawmakers on the committees were a potential stumbling block. Parliament has the power to veto the full slate of 27 nominees for the top European Commission jobs in a single vote if it deems many of them objectionable. That vote, by the full Parliament, is scheduled for Oct. 22. The wrangling is part of the drawn-out process of selecting a new leadership for the European Commission every five years. The Parliament began holding committee hearings during the mid-1990s and it has weeded out unsuitable nominees in the past. A decade ago, Rocco Buttiglione of Italy was forced to withdraw his candidacy after describing homosexuality as a sin. Five years ago, a Bulgarian, Rumiana Jeleva, withdrew her candidacy to lead Europe’s humanitarian aid office after a poor performance at a confirmation hearing. “The successful rejection of Ms. Bratusek shows that parliamentary approval is unavoidable for a place on the executive,” said Richard Corbett, a lawmaker from Britain in the Parliament and a former adviser to Herman Van Rompuy, the president of the European Council, which represents the leaders of European Union states. Ms. Bratusek was not the only nominee to have been on the receiving end of the muscle-flexing by the Parliament, which has long sought ways to break free from its reputation as a junior partner in the European Union. Last week, the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee at the European Parliament demanded that Jonathan Hill, a former lobbyist selected by the British prime minister, David Cameron, to oversee the European Union’s financial markets, face an unprecedented second hearing because of concerns about his past work as a lobbyist for a company with financial services clients. Mr. Hill eventually won over the committee, which voted 45 to 13 on Wednesday in his favor, after he displayed his European credentials by pledging to strengthen eurozone financial institutions and expressing hope that his country would remain a member of the bloc. In a separate vote on Wednesday night, Pierre Moscovici, a former French finance minister, won endorsement from the same panel of lawmakers. Some lawmakers had accused Mr. Moscovici of failing to push necessary reforms in his home country and said he could not be trusted to apply budgetary rules fairly in the European Union. In the end, Mr. Moscovici, a Socialist, won a comfortable majority, with 44 votes in favor to 12 against, as part of political horse trading in which conservative nominees with reputations as fiscal hawks, including Jyrki Katainen, a former prime minister of Finland, also won endorsements.


One More Collapse for the Crumbling Knicks

Abstract: MIAMI — Nobody needed Carmelo Anthony to confirm what everyone already knew. But given his uncertain future with the Knicks, his saying it only added to the angst that has gnawed at this team for months. “Anything that can go wrong,” he said, “is going wrong.” Anthony spoke roughly nine hours before the Knicks faced the Miami Heat on Thursday night at American Airlines Arena, and then — true to form in this ramshackle season — the Knicks went about their familiar business of making sure more went wrong. What made their 108-82 loss more disheartening than usual was that they had a chance against the Heat, the N.B.A.’s two-time defending champions — at least for a while. The Knicks were rebounding and scoring, but the game disintegrated amid a flurry of LeBron James dunks and Dwyane Wade jumpers. “We just didn’t respond,” Knicks Coach Mike Woodson said, adding, “It was like we stopped playing.” Anthony scored 24 of his 29 points in the first half and proved incapable of sparing the Knicks from their fifth loss in six games since the All-Star break and their 10th in their last 12 games over all. The playoffs are a sports car speeding away in the distance while the Knicks (21-37) lurch through the exhaust. Raymond Felton, playing in his first game since being charged with a pair of gun-related felonies , went 1 of 7 from the field and scored 2 points in 31 minutes. Tim Hardaway Jr., who grew up in Miami, had his own struggles, shooting 2 of 15. “You’re not going to beat a championship team shooting it like that,” Woodson said. The game was tight in the third quarter after the Heat (41-14) led by 5 at halftime. But James soared for a dunk over a flat-footed Amar’e Stoudemire, and Wade got Hardaway to leave his feet before Wade absorbed contact and tossed a 17-footer off the glass, both plays part of an 11-0 Miami run. The surge exposed the Knicks’ usual assortment of deficiencies: poor defense and poor decisions. The Heat outscored the Knicks by 32-14 in third quarter and shot 60.8 percent from the field for the game. Anthony spent most of the fourth quarter on the bench. “We’re not playing like a team that’s fighting to make the playoffs,” the Knicks’ J. R. Smith said. James, who missed one game after breaking his nose against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Feb. 20, returned Thursday and wore a black protective mask. It affected him little. He made five of his first six shots and finished with 31 points. Wade scored 23 points while shooting 10 of 13 from the field. Image LeBron James returned with a protective mask after missing a game with a broken nose. Credit Rhona Wise/European Pressphoto Agency “We gave up way too many points in the paint,” said Knicks center Tyson Chandler, who collected 19 points and 16 rebounds in the loss. “I don’t have an answer for it. I pride myself on that end. It’s tough to watch, to be honest.” It was a foregone conclusion that ample attention — from the fans and the news media — would be paid to Felton. He had spent much of Tuesday in police custody after his estranged wife had her divorce lawyer turn over an unlicensed (and loaded) semiautomatic handgun that she said belonged to Felton. “I think Raymond’s O.K.,” Woodson said before Thursday’s game. “We just got to put it behind him. That’s what he’s going to do, and that’s what we’re doing as an organization. We’re here to support him, and we got to get him ready to play.” Anthony, speaking at the team’s morning shootaround, called the situation sad and sounded as exasperated as he had sounded all season. While he has been upfront about his plan to opt out of his contract so he can pursue free agency in July, it was only two weeks ago that he said re-signing with the Knicks was his “first priority.” Early Thursday, there was no talk of re-signing, no talk of a hopeful future. Instead, he spoke vaguely about having options. “A lot of things will be thought about when that time comes: off the court, on the court,” Anthony said. “Just a lot of things will have to be put on the table.” Woodson said he felt that making the playoffs might make Anthony’s decision easier. Anthony dismissed the suggestion, saying, “I don’t think about it like that.” Anthony continues to lead the league in minutes played, his burden growing by the game. Consider his production in the team’s three games before its arrival in Miami: He had 44 points, 35 points and 44 points while shooting 52.4 percent from the field. The Knicks lost all three. It was more of the same against Miami. “I think it’s numbing to him now,” Smith said of all the losing, “and that’s not good for anyone.” The Knicks had recruited reinforcements for Thursday’s game, adding two newcomers — or, as Anthony put it, “two extra bodies” — in Shannon Brown and Earl Clark, who had signed 10-day contracts. Such was the state of the team that hope came in the form of two free agents looking for employment in the wake of last week’s trade deadline. Woodson described Brown, a shooting guard, as a player who had “been around” and “plays hard.” Clark, Woodson said, was someone “trying to find his niche.” So perhaps their imperfections made them perfect for the Knicks, whose frayed edges have been exposed by many other teams this season. Miami was merely the latest.

Knicks
Carmelo Anthony
Miami Heat
LeBron James
Raymond Felton
Basketball


Butler Relies on Defense to Stymie Wisconsin

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — The qualifiers that have been attached to Butler’s N.C.A.A. tournament success should be removed. As Butler storms toward a potential second consecutive Final Four and continues to mow down major programs with higher seeds, words like surprise, upset and Cinderella should be deleted from stories about the Bulldogs. After two heart-stopping, final-second victories over No. 9 Old Dominion and No. 1 Pittsburgh in Washington last weekend, No. 8 Butler methodically dispatched No. 4 Wisconsin, 61-54, in the Round of 16 on Thursday night. The Bulldogs ran their crisp and relentless offense, guarded the Badgers with fervor and annihilated Wisconsin so thoroughly that the only question was whether Wisconsin would put forth the worst effort of the N.C.A.A. tournament. With Butler, no one should be stunned anymore. Butler finds itself on the brink of its second straight Final Four, as it will face No. 2 Florida on Saturday. The Gators outlasted No. 3 Brigham Young in overtime, 83-74, earlier Thursday. If Butler wins Saturday, it will become the first team from outside college basketball’s six major conferences to reach back-to-back Final Fours since Nevada-Las Vegas in 1990 and 1991. Butler dominated the game thanks to a relentless man-to-man defense, as it held the Badgers to 17-of-56 shooting. Butler did not have any remarkable performances on offense, but got typically steady performances from Matt Howard with 20 points and 12 rebounds, and from Shelvin Mack, who finished with 13 points. Wisconsin cut the Butler lead to 4 points in the final minute, but a fadeaway jumper by Mack with 55 seconds remaining and with the shot clock winding down helped the Bulldogs take a 55-49 lead and avoid a potentially epic meltdown. Butler Coach Brad Stevens can add Wisconsin to the list of major programs he has beaten in the N.C.A.A. tournament. The Badgers join Pittsburgh, Syracuse, Michigan State and Kansas State. Wisconsin Coach Bo Ryan had perhaps his best chance to reach the Final Four with the No. 4-seeded Badgers. Wisconsin’s bracket opened up with Pittsburgh’s loss, and the Southeast was widely regarded as the weakest region in the tournament. But as Ryan’s career continues and his postseason success fails to match his regular-season accomplishments, he will continue to be asked if Wisconsin’s deliberate style will ever allow the Badgers to advance to the Final Four. Ryan gets annoyed at the question , but this marks the fourth time in the past five years that Ryan has lost to a team with a lower seed. Many of those were gaping disparities. Last year No. 4 Wisconsin lost to No. 12 Cornell; the No. 3 Badgers lost to No. 10 Davidson in 2008; and the No. 2 Badgers lost to No. 7 U.N.L.V in 2007. Ryan bristles at any notion that his style will change. Instead, he could be considered among the most accomplished coaches in college basketball not to reach the Final Four. “I’ve never had to explain how we win to anybody that knows basketball,” Ryan said. “There’s nothing to defend but my players when I defend the fact that they take care of the ball, they play good defense.” Ryan’s remarks appeared off the mark as Butler ran circles around the Badgers. One of the problems with a deliberate style is that it makes it hard to come from behind. Wisconsin trailed by 9 points at halftime and failed to get any closer. It had a nine-minute scoring drought that spanned the final three minutes of the first half and nearly six minutes of the second. Butler scored the first 9 points of the second half, with the best example of the Bulldogs’ superior coaching coming when Mack came out on the second half’s first possession for a deftly designed layup off a set play. It took Wisconsin nearly 30 minutes to score 30 points, as Butler’s pinpoint offense and aggressive defense left the Badgers inept on offense and flaccid on defense.

Basketball
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
Butler University
University of Wisconsin-Madison
College Athletics
Basketball (College)
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)
University of Wisconsin


VW’s Questions on Porsche’s Finances Stall Merger

Abstract: Volkswagen warned Porsche on Monday that it would have to do a better job of explaining its finances before merger discussions could proceed, the latest indication that the talks were in trouble. In a reference to Porsche’s troubled finances, Martin Winterkorn, the Volkswagen chief executive, said in a letter to employees that “absolute transparency” was required. “We must systematically analyze the starting point to combine Volkswagen and Porsche, and we must get a clear idea of the true state of affairs at Porsche,” Mr. Winterkorn said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The International Herald Tribune. “It is in the interests of all concerned, he said, “to ensure there is no threat to Volkswagen’s financial stability and autonomy.” On Sunday, Volkswagen canceled a meeting of the working group responsible for details of the merger, saying “the atmosphere was not constructive” for progress. On Monday, the Volkswagen chairman, Ferdinand K. Piëch, unexpectedly skipped a meeting of the Porsche supervisory board, on which he holds a seat. A spokesman played down the significance, saying Mr. Piëch remains in contact with members of the Porsche family. Mr. Piëch’s cousin, Wolfgang Porsche, heads the Porsche board. The two sides had said on May 6 that they hoped to have the deal wrapped up by June 3, but that deadline is looking less realistic. “It’s still up in the air when talks will resume,” a VW spokesman, Michael Brendel, said. Asked if the merger was in trouble, a Porsche spokesman, Michael Baumann, declined to comment. Porsche is facing more urgency than VW to lock up a deal. The sports car maker, which has a market value of about 7.2 billion euros, or $9.7 billion, ended up with debt of 9 billion euros on its way to acquiring 51 percent of Volkswagen Last year, it used so-called cash-settled options contracts to gain voting rights to an additional 20 percent or more. “The main thing right now is that no one outside of Porsche has the details to make a clean calculation about what’s going on with those options,” Frank Biller, an analyst at Landesbank Baden-Württemberg in Stuttgart, said. Additionally, there are rumors in the market that Porsche is sitting on risk positions that could leave it vulnerable to a decline in VW’s share price, he said. Porsche is being investigated by the German securities watchdog BaFin in connection with its trades. Mr. Winterkorn said in his letter that Volkswagen would not be pressured. “We are not in any hurry,” he said. “All the information and options must be thoroughly examined and a decision subsequently taken on the basis of the facts.” Shares of Volkswagen were unchanged in Frankfurt afternoon trading, while Porsche fell about 0.9 percent. On May 6, the companies agreed to create “an integrated automotive group in which each of the 10 brands would retain its independence.” The working group charged with drawing up the actual merger includes representatives of both companies, workers and the state government of Lower Saxony, the holder of 20 percent of VW shares. Thousands of Porsche workers demonstrated Monday to express concern that a deal would lead to job cuts. Uwe Hück, a labor leader, said in a statement that he had received assurances that “the owner families are strong enough to guarantee” Porsche’s independence.

Porsche AG
Volkswagen AG
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Automobiles


Sabathia’s Knee Swells Again, Threatening to Delay Return to Yankees

Abstract: MINNEAPOLIS — The Yankees expected C. C. Sabathia to rejoin their rotation after the All-Star break, a boost for a team that certainly could use one. Now, that may not happen. Sabathia made his second rehabilitation assignment start for Class AA Trenton on Wednesday night and awoke Thursday morning with swelling in his right knee. Manager Joe Girardi said Sabathia, who has been treated for degenerative cartilage in that knee, had a magnetic resonance imaging test Thursday afternoon. A magnentic resonance imaging test taken Thursday did not show any new damage, Girardi said. Sabathia will see Dr. James Andrews, who has treated him for degenerative cartilage in that knee, some time next week, according to Girardi. “It’s not what we wanted,” Girardi said. “You don’t want a setback like this. To have to shut him down like this, I’m concerned. Let the doctors determine what the next step is.” “Until I hear from the doctor, I don’t want to speculate, but it’s not the news you want,” Girardi said. “We were hopeful the swelling would stay away and he would be in our rotation fairly soon, but it doesn’t appear that’s going to happen.” Sabathia reported no problems during Wednesday’s start, Girardi said. He allowed five runs (three earned) on five hits in three and two-thirds innings against Portland. He was scheduled to make at least one more rehab start. In May, the Yankees placed Sabathia on the disabled list when he experienced swelling and discomfort in the knee twice after starts. Dr. James Andrews injected cortisone with stem cells into the knee to try to reduce inflammation and speed the healing. Sabathia had surgery in 2010 to repair a meniscus tear in that knee, but an M.R.I. taken in May showed no structural problems with the meniscus or ligaments. Girardi said Thursday that Sabathia told the Yankees the swelling was similar to what he felt in May. FINALLY GIVEN A CHANCE Zelous Wheeler was on deck Wednesday, ready to bat for Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre in the first game of a doubleheader in Buffalo, when RailRiders Manager Dave Miley called him back to the dugout. Wheeler, hitting .299 with seven home runs, was confused. “I didn’t know what was going on,” he said. In the runway between the dugout and the clubhouse, Miley cleared it up: The Yankees were sending down Yangervis Solarte and buying Wheeler’s contract. After seven and a half seasons in the minors with three organizations, the 27-year-old Wheeler was finally a major leaguer. “Wow,” he said. The first person Wheeler called was his mother, Laverne, back home in Birmingham, Ala. Wheeler flew to Minnesota, arrived early at Target Field and went for a jog. Joe Girardi put him right in the lineup at third base, batting eighth. “I don’t think it’s really set in, to be honest,” Wheeler said. “I was out there to get some running in, some cardio in. Just looking up I’m like, Yeah, I’m here. Wow.” Solarte, a nonroster invitee who beat out Eduardo Nunez for the final roster spot out of spring training, cooled off after hitting well over .300 through April and most of May. A former Twins minor leaguer who had never spent a day in the major leagues before this season, Solarte has batted just .162 since June 1. Lately, he had lost playing time to Kelly Johnson. Solarte was in a 3-for-41 slide when the Yankees sent him down. “As you can imagine, when you fought so long to get there and then you go down, it’s difficult,” Girardi said. “We made it known to him that, hey, you were a big part of our success the first two months. You’ve been struggling, so go get back on track, like you were in spring training.” ACEVES IS SUSPENDED Joe Girardi was displeased to hear Alfredo Aceves, who accepted a minor league assignment to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last month, had drawn a 50-game suspension without pay by testing positive a second time for a recreational drug — reportedly marijuana, according to CBSSports.com. “It’s not what you want from your players,” Girardi said. “It’s something I hope he gets worked out because I still think he has the ability to help the team. I really do.” TEIXEIRA BACK IN LINEUP Mark Teixeira was back at first base after having fluid drained from his left knee and sitting out Wednesday’s game.

Yankees
Joe Girardi
Baseball
C C Sabathia


Ensconced in Family, Top Prospect Tries to Grow Into a Man, and a Met

Abstract: PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — In the fall of 2013, after the Mets selected Dominic Smith out of high school with the 11th overall pick in the first round and gave him a $2.6 million contract, one of his first big purchases was a new six-bedroom, five-bathroom home in a gated community here. It was about 10 minutes from the Mets’ spring training facility, and it was big enough that his mother, two siblings and a young nephew could live with him. Smith was only 18, after all. “Am I grown now?” he asked his mother when they moved in. Not yet, she replied. When Smith played in Savannah, Ga., in 2014, in his first full season in the minors, his mother and sister lived with him in a two-bedroom apartment there and traveled to many of his road games. When Smith played for the St. Lucie Mets in 2015, his family went to the games, forming their own cheering section. His mother still did his laundry, and his sister cooked, and he spent some of his free time attending his nephew’s Little League games. This is the support system Smith has had in place since he was drafted. And as the Mets became contenders and promoted or traded their top prospects, Smith, a left-handed first baseman, has perhaps become the top prospect in the organization. He is set to start the season with the Mets’ Class AA affiliate in Binghamton, N.Y., but, the Mets said, if an injury were to occur, he could possibly make his major league debut later this year. More likely, he will emerge at the major league level in the 2017 season, which just happens to be the final one before Lucas Duda, the Mets’ incumbent first baseman, reaches free agency. Is Smith in line to replace Duda? It certainly seems possible, and in a sign of Smith’s progress, the Mets invited him to the major league camp this spring to give him a glimpse of what it is like to be at the top level and to evaluate him more closely. Image Dominic Smith, center, with his parents Yvette LaFleur and Clabe Smith before he was drafted by the Mets in 2013. Credit William Denson The Mets know all about his smooth swing and capable glove work, which bode well for the future. On the other hand, they also saw that he showed up in camp this month looking a little heavy. They also know he has yet to display the home run power that was projected for him when he was taken with such a high pick. But that, the Mets believe, will come. For now, they are satisfied with his steady climb through the minors, which, in turn, would seem to fit with his family’s move away from the South Central area of Los Angeles once Smith was picked by the Mets. “It was important to take him out of South Central so he could stay focused, stay grounded, stay humble,” said his mother, Yvette LaFleur. She said she did not need people telling her son “he’s the man and all that, because it may have changed his thinking.” “Maybe he starts thinking that he is the man,” she said. “No, you’re not. You’re not.” LaFleur said she first felt the impulse to move her family as she and her son were heading back to their hotel on the night of the 2013 draft, which was held in New Jersey. When they returned home to Los Angeles, the community’s response was overwhelming. Maybe too overwhelming. LaFleur said she envisioned the years ahead with her son’s newfound fame and thought it would be better if home became a place where he was not as well known. LaFleur had grown up in South Central Los Angeles after her family moved there when she was about 13. When she was in her mid-30s, she had no job and two children and had been addicted to drugs and alcohol for more than 10 years. Her mother took her children away and threatened to keep them if she did not sober up and straighten out her life. Image Awards line a wall at the home where Smith was raised in South Central Los Angeles. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times It was around then that she learned she was pregnant again. The father was Clabe Smith, whom she had been dating. “I was pretty sure I was going to terminate my pregnancy,” she said. “I just wanted my other two kids back. I couldn’t worry about a third baby.” But she changed her mind, and that child turned out to be Dominic. And all those years later, her children are with her, and Clabe Smith has stayed a friend and a father to Dominic, although he remains in California. And she said her son did not put up a fight when she decided to move the family to the other side of the country. For one thing, most of Smith’s good friends, the ones with whom he had grown up playing baseball with at one of Major League Baseball’s urban youth academies (at the time he was picked, Smith was the highest-drafted player to come from the program) had also been drafted by major league teams or were playing college baseball. He also had nowhere in Los Angeles that he thought he could train like a professional athlete. He could in Port St. Lucie. Coming from Los Angeles, Smith has understandably found Port St. Lucie to be more subdued. He took over the house’s master bedroom and outfitted it with a 60-inch television. Out back, he installed a Ping-Pong table. Still, he got bored enough this past winter to dye his hair caramel blond, giving himself a bit of an Odell Beckham Jr. look. Image Smith batting for the St. Lucie Mets, the team’s top Class A affiliate, last season. Credit Josh Ritchie for The New York Times “We try to keep things as normal as possible for him,” LaFleur said of her son. “On a Friday night, he’ll be home playing Trouble or Monopoly or a card game with his siblings. I’m not saying it will always be like this; he’ll be 21 in June. But for now, he’s still a homebody.” Living here has allowed Smith to continually train at the Mets’ complex, to take batting practice and field grounders year round. For three winters now, the Mets have had Smith attend an off-season program with Mike Barwis, the director of their strength and conditioning program, who has a training facility at the Mets’ complex. The Mets have invited only certain players to train with Barwis, another indication of how highly the team regards Smith. His manager for the past two years, Luis Rojas, said that Smith was such a natural defender that he had the potential to be a Gold Glove winner. Mets General Manager Sandy Alderson compared Smith’s plate discipline to that of Michael Conforto, who had a standout rookie season with the Mets in 2015. The Mets figure Smith will mature physically, and someday hit about 20 home runs a year. “If he continues to hit the way he has,” Alderson said, “he could accelerate pretty quickly.” As for his weight — he reported to camp around 230 pounds — Smith knows he needs to change his eating habits. Rojas has already spoken with him about taking better care of his body; his sister is now making more vegetables, and fewer starches, for meals at home. “At a younger age, it was harder for me to say no,” Smith said in reference to the foods he likes. “Now I’m starting to pay attention and realize what I really need, as opposed to what I want.” He will need to progress, too, in the power department. Corner infielders are expected to hit for power, and in Smith’s first full minor league season, at Class A Savannah, he hit only one home run in 518 plate appearances. That off-season, Smith tinkered with his swing, trying to make it more of a power stroke, and it threw him off. The following season, at St. Lucie, which is the highest level of Class A ball in the Mets’ system, he batted .157 and had just one extra-base hit during the first 19 games. As Smith tried to correct himself, every week or so he would chat with Drew Toussaint, the scout who signed him and knew his swing. They had first met when Smith was 12 and Toussaint was still playing in the minor leagues and working at the youth academy during the off-season. “He’s pretty much had the same swing since,” Toussaint said. “It’s the same swing, the same bat path. Very easy. Very simple. He was just naturally born to hit.” Now, Toussaint had to remind him what the Mets were trying to tell him: The power will come; just focus on developing as a hitter and learning the strike zone. Once Smith simplified his swing and returned to his natural mechanics, he batted .332 the rest of the season at St. Lucie. One of the youngest players on the team, he led the Florida State League with 33 doubles and finished fourth in slugging percentage, at .417. Then he batted .385 in the prospect-rich Arizona Fall League, although he played in only 12 games before being injured. Between the two leagues, Smith had 548 plate appearances last year but only hit seven home runs. Alderson came to his defense, noting that the parks he has played in the past two years were tough on developing power hitters. Neither the Mets nor Smith seem concerned — for now. “It’s the last tool to come, everybody says,” Smith said. Starting in high school and especially after he was drafted, Smith began filling his right arm with tattoos. On his upper arm, he now has a picture of Jesus showing a young boy how to swing a bat. On his forearm, he has the words “Your Dream” and, subtly, in the background, the outline of the state of California. This off-season, he acquired a new tattoo that seems to speak to his situation. “I don’t know the key to success,” it reads, “but the key to failure is trying to please everybody.”


Economists Seek to Cure a Defect in National Data

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A widening gap between data and reality is distorting the government’s picture of the country’s economic health, overstating growth and productivity in ways that could affect the political debate on issues like trade, wages and job creation. The shortcomings of the data-gathering system came through loud and clear here Friday and Saturday at a first-of-its-kind gathering of economists from academia and government determined to come up with a more accurate statistical picture. The fundamental shortcoming is in the way imports are accounted for. A carburetor bought for $50 in China as a component of an American-made car, for example, more often than not shows up in the statistics as if it were the American-made version valued at, say, $100. The failure to distinguish adequately between what is made in America and what is made abroad falsely inflates the gross domestic product , which sums up all value added within the country. American workers lose their jobs when carburetors they once made are imported instead. The federal data notices the decline in employment but fails to revalue the carburetors or even pinpoint that they are foreign-made. Because it seems as if $100 carburetors are being produced but fewer workers are needed to do so, productivity falsely rises — in the national statistics. “We don’t have the data collection structure to capture what is happening in a real time way, or what is being traded and how it is affecting workers,” said Susan Houseman, a senior economist at the W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in Kalamazoo, Mich., who has done pioneering research in the field. “We have no idea how to measure the occupations being offshored or what is being inshored.” The statistical distortions can be significant. At worst, the gross domestic product would have risen at only a 3.3 percent annual rate in the third quarter instead of the 3.5 percent actually reported, according to some experts at the conference. The same gap applies to productivity. And the spread is growing as imports do. That may help to explain why the recovery from the 2001 recession was a jobless one for many months and why the recovery from this recession is likely to generate few jobs for many months. In addition, more detailed import data would help to explain wage inequality, by linking some low wages more accurately to particular industries exposed to import competition. On another front, many argue that labor productivity is rising faster than the pay of workers who made the greater productivity possible. That argument would be watered down if more accurate data showed that productivity had been overstated. “What we are measuring as productivity gains may in fact be changes in trade,” said William Alterman, assistant commissioner for international prices at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The federal agencies that compile the nation’s statistics increasingly acknowledge that they lack the detailed data needed to calculate the impact of imported goods and services as imports rise from an insignificant 5 percent of all economic activity 35 years ago to more than 12 percent today, not counting petroleum. As a result, many imports are valued as if they were made in the United States and therefore higher in price than their imported counterparts. The problem is particularly acute in manufacturing. Imported components constitute an ever greater share of the computers, autos, appliances and other finished merchandise that roll off assembly lines in the United States — and an ever greater share of all of the nation’s imports. But the statistical system is not yet up to the task of sorting out which components are made here, which are made overseas and the resulting impact on employment. As Lori G. Kletzer, an economist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, put it, “We don’t know what jobs have been offshored.” The same holds for services. An accounting firm in New York with 50 employees outsources some of its functions to less expensive accountants in India: the paperwork on an income tax return, for example. That work comes back to New York by computer transmission and is billed at New York rates, as if it were value added in this country. Grappling with these blind spots, nearly all of the 80 experts at the conference, which was sponsored by the Upjohn Institute and the National Academy of Public Administration, agreed that the statistics now published tend to overstate the strength of the economy. That view was shared by those who attended from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Reserve, all big players in measuring economic performance. The stated goal, among those at the conference, is to repair the statistics, but that requires several years, lots of money (from Congress) to gather more information about what companies are doing, and whole new procedures for measuring imports. Much of the conference was devoted to an analysis of the gap between existing data and reality, and ways to close that gap. Imports and exports are recorded, of course, as they enter and leave the country. The American trade deficit speaks volumes. But when it comes to who gets what import — particularly which manufacturer gets what component or what metal or what machine — these details are not gathered. Instead, the federal agencies use an import price index, much of it imputed from small samples, that fails to capture just when an auto company switches from a domestically made carburetor to a less expensive Chinese model, and whether that shift is in all of the company’s plants or just those in Michigan. “We can’t pick up the price shift,” Mr. Alterman said. “We are not designed to do that.”

Economics
Productivity
United States Economy
International Trade and World Market
Economic Conditions and Trends
Gross National Product (GNP)


Despite Fears, Traffic Flows On After Tappan Zee Ramp Is Closed

Abstract: TARRYTOWN, N.Y. — The traffic nightmare did not materialize. Fears that the closing of an entrance ramp to the Tappan Zee Bridge would produce gridlock throughout this village and neighboring ones were assuaged, at least on Day 1 of a closing planned to last years. At 6:30 p.m. Monday, during the evening rush hour, traffic was flowing smoothly on Route 9, where the ramp is set, and on the bridge itself. Officials of the New York State Thruway Authority credited multiple alerts, including the mailing of 11,000 postcards and new signage, for the glow of carefree, moving traffic. The ramp will be closed for four years, and a combination state police barracks and Thruway maintenance building next door is being demolished so Tappan Zee Constructors, the consortium building the new bridge, can set up a staging area for equipment. The bottom of the ramp will eventually become a lane of the Thruway. Video A huge crane arrived in New York Harbor in January, after a 6,000-mile ocean journey from San Francisco. It will be used to build the new Tappan Zee Bridge across the Hudson River. At 10 a.m. Monday, workers for Tappan Zee Constructors put up five-foot orange and white barriers to block the ramp until more permanent fencing could be erected. At that hour there were few cars on South Broadway — part of Route 9 — so the closing did not appear to affect traffic. Drivers were urged to use a jughandle less than 100 feet farther south on Route 9, which would lead them onto Route 119, where another entrance ramp would take them to the Thruway and Tappan Zee. Brian Conybeare, a special adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo on the rebuilding of the Tappan Zee, said traffic should be manageable even during the evening rush hour, when commuters need the bridge to return to Rockland County and points north, unless the Tappan Zee itself becomes jammed. When the bridge was closed for several days in December, logjams ensued because of unusual events that included a snowstorm and a tractor-trailer fire. An important factor, Mr. Conybeare said, was the drivers on the Saw Mill Parkway. After hearing that traffic was backed up on the Thruway, they decided to use local roads like Route 9 and Route 119, clogging traffic as far away as Irvington and Sleepy Hollow. “We want people to know this is not a good option,” he told reporters in the morning. “The only issue is whether the bridge itself turns into gridlock. “That’s why we’re building a new bridge.”

Tappan Zee Bridge
New York State Thruway Authority
New York
Tappan Zee Constructors
Commuting
Roads and Traffic
Demolition


Ex-Prosecutor Details Robert Durst Case in New Book, but Some Fear It Could Aid Defense

Abstract: Just when the story of Robert A. Durst, the New York real estate scion who is a suspect in two murders, could not get any stranger, a new book arrives from a former Westchester County district attorney, Jeanine Pirro, describing her quest for justice in his case. As she frequently reminds readers of “He Killed Them All,” Ms. Pirro donned custom-made armor — Armani suit, Chanel bag and Manolo Blahnik pumps — to pursue an investigation from 1999 to 2005 into the mysterious disappearance of Mr. Durst’s first wife, Kathleen. But details in her 313-page account, which was published on Tuesday, are already being challenged by some of her former investigators; friends and relatives of Kathleen Durst; the Durst family; and the original co-author of the book , who was fired in June. Ms. Pirro’s critics fear that her memoir could aid Mr. Durst’s defense and provide a major headache for prosecutors in Los Angeles, where Mr. Durst is accused of murdering a onetime confidante to prevent her from disclosing what she knew about how Mrs. Durst vanished in 1982. Aside from recounting the history of Mr. Durst’s misdeeds in three states, Ms. Pirro devotes many pages to excoriating a half-dozen figures long associated with the case who have been critical of her role or, in her view, committed some other offense. Her enemies list includes the original State Police investigator (Joseph Becerra) who reopened the case in 1999 and brought it to her office; the prosecutor whom she promoted (Kevin Hynes) and put in charge of the case; the judge in Galveston, Tex., (Susan Criss) who presided over Mr. Durst’s 2003 murder trial there and placed Ms. Pirro under a rule of silence; an acquaintance of Mrs. Durst (Ellen Strauss) who has been critical of Ms. Pirro’s actions; and Douglas Durst, Mr. Durst’s brother, whose lawyer has warned her against repeating “factual errors” about the family. Whatever the merits of Ms. Pirro’s accusations, investigators worry that she has handed Mr. Durst’s defense team a playbook to impugn their testimony. Mr. Becerra and Douglas Durst are among those expected to be prosecution witnesses in the Los Angeles murder case. Even if the accusations are groundless, the statements in her book could be used to undermine their credibility with the jury. “It sure sounds like payback time,” Gerald L. Shargel, a prominent criminal defense lawyer in New York, said. “In my opinion, she’s giving the defense team more ammunition for cross-examination.” But, Mr. Shargel added, the rules of evidence may limit the impact of anything in a book published long before a trial would probably begin. Mr. Durst, 72 and in poor health, is in prison outside New Orleans, where he is being held on gun charges. Years ago, Ms. Pirro’s public statements did renew interest in Mrs. Durst’s disappearance; investigators from Ms. Pirro’s office unearthed new evidence and tore holes in Mr. Durst’s alibi. But Ms. Pirro was never able to bring an indictment. “We didn’t have much more than they had in 1982,” she acknowledged in the book, “other than an additional 21 years of witnesses’ memories fading, lost opportunities and minus one central witness.” Mrs. Durst’s disappearance resulted in what is now regarded as a sloppy investigation. Susan Berman, a Mr. Durst’s confidante and a magazine writer, served as his shield against the spotlight of the news media. Mr. Durst, who waited five days to report his wife missing, hired a lawyer and briefly talked to investigators. In a television documentary broadcast this year, he conceded that he did not tell the truth about his whereabouts at the time. The investigation soon lost steam and disappeared from the headlines for 17 years until 1999, when Mr. Becerra, a New York State Police investigator, got a tip prompting him to interview witnesses and Mrs. Durst’s relatives. He eventually brought the case to the Westchester district attorney’s office. Image Jeanine Pirro’s 313-page account of the case against Robert A. Durst was published on Tuesday. Credit Simon & Schuster “Joe was a stand-up guy,” Mrs. Durst’s brother, James McCormack, said. “Joe was the only guy I talked to until the end of 2000.” But that is not the way Ms. Pirro describes Mr. Becerra, whom she scorns as someone who “always managed to get his mug in front of the camera,” a complaint often lodged against her. She accuses Mr. Becerra of jeopardizing the case against Mr. Durst by leaking information to reporters and alerting Mr. Durst and Ms. Berman. Mr. Becerra has always denied doing any such thing, but he did respond to questions about Ms. Pirro’s accusations. Ms. Pirro complained to Mr. Becerra’s boss. Ultimately, he was thrown off the case, banished to a distant barracks and investigated. But not before he traveled 10 months later with Ms. Pirro and other investigators to Galveston, where Mr. Durst had been arrested on murder charges. One evening after a round of drinks with her investigators at a hotel, Ms. Pirro related, she rose to go to her room. Mr. Becerra, she says, slipped into her elevator and propositioned her. “There was no question in my mind what he wanted,” she wrote. The broadside against Mr. Becerra, however, has infuriated other investigators who worked on the case. “She had him thrown off the case because he was getting more press than she,” said Ed Murphy, a retired senior criminal investigator who is praised by Ms. Pirro in her book. “I don’t understand it. Joe was the one who did all the legwork.” Lisa DePaulo, who was Ms. Pirro’s original co-author, cast doubt on her account of Mr. Becerra’s unwanted affections. She had flown to Galveston in 2001 with her and joined the group at the hotel bar. Ms. DePaulo said she continued talking with Mr. Becerra and the investigators after Ms. Pirro went to her room. “I’m pretty sure Joe and I were the last ones there,” she added. Ms. DePaulo filed a lawsuit last month against Ms. Pirro claiming that they had a falling out after she refused to write things that she knew to be untrue. Ms. Pirro did not return phone calls seeking comment. “He Killed Them All” dismisses Mr. Hynes, Ms. Pirro’s former prosecutor, as a “nosy” assistant who “had nothing to offer about Durst, or to law enforcement in general,” despite her having promoted him to the No. 2 spot in her office and sending him to California to interview witnesses. Ellen Strauss, a retired lawyer who has criticized Ms. Pirro publicly since 2003 for failing to interview Ms. Berman before her death, fares no better. Ms. Strauss is portrayed as a liar who falsely claimed to have been a friend of Mrs. Durst and to have uncovered evidence in the case. Susan Criss, the judge who presided over the 2003 murder trial in Galveston, is dismissed as “completely out of her depth” and all too willing to accommodate Mr. Durst’s defense lawyer, Dick DeGuerin. “This book should be classified as a romance,” Ms. Criss said. “But I am not sure love stories that only involve one person sell.” One former investigator in the Westchester County district attorney’s office, who requested anonymity because he may be called as a witness in Los Angeles, lamented that Mr. Durst had escaped justice for so many years. His last hope, he said, lies with the prosecutors. “I just hope that Jeanine’s book doesn’t hurt the California case,” he said.

Robert Durst
Books
Jeanine Pirro
He Killed Them All
Los Angeles
Murders and Homicides


Ex-Chicago Police Commander Denies Abuse

Abstract: CHICAGO — For almost three decades, allegations of brutality have swirled around Jon Burge, dogging him through his last years as a police commander all the way to his retirement in a beach town near Tampa, Fla. For all that time, some here have called for Mr. Burge to publicly answer, under oath, charges that he routinely tortured confessions out of suspects who were largely poor black men from the South Side. Mr. Burge, 62, took the stand for the first time on Thursday, ending the silence. He told federal prosecutors, over and over again, that he had never harmed men in his custody. Referring specifically to some of the most notorious allegations against him — that he used electric shocks on the legs and genitals of a man accused of killing two police officers in 1982 — Mr. Burge testified that, to the contrary, he had ordered his detectives to handle the man, Andrew Wilson, “with kid gloves.” “I wanted them to treat Mr. Wilson in the nicest possible way,” Mr. Burge said, so as not to hinder the prosecution. The trial, in Federal District Court here, is in connection with long-known cases of abuse by dozens of police officers at the station Mr. Burge led in the 1980s. Mr. Burge, who was fired in 1993, has not been charged specifically with abuse because the statute of limitations has expired. Prosecutors have charged him instead with perjury and obstruction of justice, accusing him of lying about the abuse in one seven-year-old civil lawsuit. He has pleaded not guilty. Most of the questioning on Thursday revolved around the claims of abuse. “Did you take an electric shock device and apply it to Mr. Wilson’s genitals?” asked Marc Martin, one Mr. Burge’s defense lawyers. Mr. Burge answered, “No, sir.” Mr. Martin continued, “Did you run it up and down his leg?” Again, Mr. Burge answered, “No, sir.” Asked whether he had played “Russian roulette” with another man who claimed he was abused, Mr. Burge testified, “I’m not that stupid.” In his testimony, Mr. Burge seemed by turns obstinate, agreeable and choked with emotion, at one point weeping. Whatever the outcome of the trial, which is expected to last two more weeks, Mr. Burge has already left a mark on Chicago: relations between the police and South Side residents have never mended since his tenure. In 2006, a report based on more than 700 interviews by special prosecutors supported what dozens of inmates had said about being brutalized while in custody. And in 2008, the city approved a $20 million settlement with four former death row inmates who said Mr. Burge had abused them. Mr. Burge’s testimony is expected to continue Friday.

Police Brutality and Misconduct
Burge Jon
Chicago (Ill)


Jury’s Deliberations May Be a Focal Point of Appeal

Abstract: At the beginning of deliberations, the panel weighing the fate of a black man from Long Island charged with manslaughter turned to its lone black juror for guidance. “The forewoman said, ‘You’re the only African-American here, we want to know how you feel about the racial stuff and the N-word, and we’ll follow your lead,’ ” recalled Richard Burke, at 66 the eldest of the 12 Suffolk County residents on the jury. “He said, ‘Being African-American, I really hate to hear the word.’ But he was against this thing being a racial thing from the beginning. After that, we went around the table, each giving our views.” Then the jury listened to prayers led by Mr. Burke, a born-again Baptist who insisted that God would assure a just verdict if the jury followed “our country’s laws as handed down by Moses.” For four days last month, six men and six women locked in a windowless jury room in Riverhead agonized over the fate of the man, John H. White, before finding him guilty of second-degree manslaughter for shooting an unarmed white teenager point-blank in the face on Aug. 9, 2006. After more than three weeks of testimony, the jurors heard defense lawyers say in closing arguments that Mr. White, 54, had been defending his home and family against what he had regarded as a “lynch mob” after he was awakened by a group of white teenagers shouting racial epithets at his son, Aaron, then 19, and baiting Aaron to come out and fight. The lawyers said that Mr. White grabbed a loaded, unlicensed pistol to confront the mob and wound up accidentally killing Daniel Cicciaro Jr., 17. The guilty verdict, delivered on Dec. 22, was immediately denounced by Mr. White’s lawyers as proof of racism in Suffolk County. The Rev. Al Sharpton has planned a protest at the courthouse for Saturday. Two jurors have told reporters that they buckled under duress, a decision they say they regret. They say they still have reasonable doubt that prosecutors proved the charges against Mr. White, who is free on $100,000 bail and faces a maximum sentence of 5 to 15 years when he returns to court on Feb. 21. Now those four days of deliberations are of extreme interest to Mr. White’s lawyers, who hope to use the testimony of the jurors in their appeal. They have already spoken to one of the holdout jurors, Donna Marshak, 63, who said she changed her mind and her vote after another juror blurted out that Mr. White would be safer in prison because the victim’s father would kill him if he were acquitted. The other, François Larché, said last week that he was willing to speak to the lawyers. Their comments characterized the tense proceedings by a jury that included a black man and a white South African who grew up during apartheid, according to interviews with Mr. Burke, Mrs. Marshak and Mr. Larché, the South African. The other nine jurors either could not be contacted or declined to speak, though several told news organizations the deliberations had been thorough and the holdouts had not been pressured. Given the racial overtones, the black juror’s immediate support of a guilty verdict helped pave the way for the other jurors to speak more freely in support of a guilty verdict, according to Mrs. Marshak and Mr. Burke. “He was adamant that White was guilty, and they all went with that,” Mrs. Marshak said of the black juror. “It was a touchy subject, and once they all saw that he felt that way, it was easier for them.” The battle lines were drawn: Mrs. Marshak and Mr. Larché against the others, who compared Mr. Larché to Henry Fonda’s character in the film “Twelve Angry Men.” That character frustrated the other jurors by insisting they not rush to a guilty verdict. But the Fonda character, Mr. Larché persuaded no one. For four days, jurors tried to convince Mrs. Marshak and Mr. Larché. Two jurors knitted. Six took part in frequent prayer sessions — repeating the Lord’s Prayer and Hail Marys — punctuated by sermons from Mr. Burke. Mr. Larché and Mrs. Marshak did not participate. “I would bow my head, but not pray aloud,” Mrs. Marshak said. “I didn’t think it was the place for it.” Deliberating the week before Christmas, the jurors got more anxious to arrive at a verdict and go home, the three jurors said. One single mother of two had already shipped presents to Florida, and a holiday trip hung in the balance. Another woman had a son in the military visiting her before being sent to Iraq. Mr. Burke was annoyed at both holdouts, especially Mr. Larché, whom he called “a spoiler.” “We all thought he was a plant,” Mr. Burke said. “He had a closed mind going in: He wanted that man off.” To pin down the timing of the fatal encounter, the jury requested key evidence: a surveillance tape and records of crucial cellphone calls. That evidence led many jurors to conclude that Mr. White had been awake for at least 10 minutes before the teenagers showed up and had calculated his aggressive response, Mr. Burke said. “He knew the kids who were coming over, and he knew he and his wife weren’t in danger at all,” said Mr. Burke, a former marine and lifelong hunter who said that until recent years he kept a shotgun at home. Even so, jurors sympathized with Mr. White, especially when he sobbed while explaining shooting Daniel and calling him “another child of God.” “Mr. White really got to the jury when he broke down, especially the girls,” said Mr. Burke. During the trial, jurors kept up a running commentary about the courtroom events, guessing the identities of reporters jostling for seating and scrutinizing their reactions. They saw a courtroom gallery divided by race, white spectators seated closer to them and black spectators on the far side. They saw the imposing bodyguards from the Nation of Islam escorting Aaron White into the courthouse in a bulletproof vest, and Daniel Cicciaro Sr. sweeping in flanked by burly friends with shaved heads, tattoos and fashionable leather outfits. By the third day of deliberations, a Friday, the jury told the judge it was “hopelessly deadlocked,” prompting the judge to call the jury in on Saturday, three days before Christmas. Jurors were frustrated, later saying that the judge, Barbara Kahn, had assured them the case would be finished before that weekend, Mr. Larché said. By 8 p.m. Saturday, Judge Kahn indicated they would return on Sunday; 45 minutes later, they came back with a guilty verdict. During that time, Mr. Larché decided to join the others. He later told reporters that he would have held out “until Easter,” but felt that he was holding the other jurors hostage, and that in any event, another Suffolk jury would hear the case and convict Mr. White. As for Mrs. Marshak — who was the last to give in — she said she endured four days of pressure and “psychological tricks” from a male juror she would not identify. “He said, ‘If we set Mr. White free, Mr. Cicciaro is just going to kill him anyway,’” she recalled. “Everyone in the room heard it. It wasn’t whispered.” The remark rang true to her. Mr. Cicciaro had cut an imposing figure in the courtroom and had done little to hide his fury at Mr. White. Mr. Larché also said he heard the remark, but he refused to identify the juror. “That was the idea, that he was safer in prison,” Mr. Larché said. But Mr. Cicciaro, reached at his auto body shop, dismissed such talk as nonsense. And with that he said, “We’ll see everybody on the 21st” — the sentencing date for Mr. White.

Race
White John H
Decisions and Verdicts
Long Island (NY)


Tech Companies Leave Phone Calls Behind

Abstract: Quora is a Web site that crowdsources answers to just about any question imaginable, including “What is the meaning of life?” and “Is it possible to stick someone to the wall with Velcro? ” But anyone searching for a phone number for the company is out of luck. Not only is the number unlisted, but the very question “What is the phone number for Quora?” has gone unanswered for months. Quora is not the only social technology company that presents an antisocial attitude to callers. Twitter ’s phone system hangs up after providing Web or e-mail addresses three times. At the end of a long phone tree, Facebook ’s system explains it is, in fact, “an Internet-based company.” Try e-mail, it suggests. LinkedIn ’s voice mail lists an alternate customer service number. Dial it, and the caller is trapped in a telephonic version of the movie “Groundhog Day,” forced to work through the original phone tree again and again until the lesson is clear: stop calling. Voice calls have been falling out of fashion with teenagers and people in their 20s for some time (text only, please). But what is a matter of preference for the young is becoming a matter of policy for technology companies; phones cost money, phones do not scale. Besides, why call when you can use Google , or send a Twitter message? On the other end of the line, however, some people may not know how to Google, or do not want to use Twitter. These users may be older, or less technically adept, and they are finding the method of communication they have relied on for a lifetime shifting under their feet. It does not make sense, they say, that a company with products used by millions every day cannot pick up the phone. The companies argue that with millions of users every day, they cannot possibly pick up a phone. “A lot of these companies don’t have enough employees to talk to,” said Paul Saffo, a longtime technology forecaster in Silicon Valley. Facebook, for example, has just one employee for every 300,000 users. Its online systems process more than two million customer requests a day. Google, which at 14 years old is a relative ancient in Silicon Valley, is one of the few companies that publishes phone numbers on its Web site. Its phone system sends callers back to the Web no less than 11 times. Its lengthy messages contain basic Internet education in a tone that might be used with an aging relative, explaining, slowly and gently, “There’s nothing Google can do to remove information from Web sites.” Google initially tried to handle requests by e-mail, but even that proved too cumbersome. The company now steers incoming questions to online forums. “All these companies stay away from phone support,” said Mikkel Svane, the chief executive of Zendesk, whose products help companies manage incoming requests. “People get aggressive or aggravated; people are depressed or crying. It’s just hard talking to customers,” he said, adding that these companies have paved the way in large-scale customer service by keeping everything online. Officials at Facebook, Google and Twitter (all reached first by e-mail) say their users prefer to go online, finding it more pleasant and efficient than wading through a phone tree. But what about other business matters? What if, say, a prospective investor wants to call? “If people need to get ahold of us, they definitely have sources inside,” said Derek Stewart, the finance director of Foursquare, whose personal cellphone has been mistaken for the company’s main office line. In Foursquare’s offices in New York, phone calls are considered a distraction to the developers and are conducted away from the main work area, in British-style red phone booths, the company’s spokeswoman said, explaining that calls are not part of developer culture. Still, others see a social cost to this change, a deepening of the digital divide. “The phone users are getting left out,” said Mari Smith, a consultant who trains businesses in how best to use social media. She should know. Because her consulting company lists an 800 number, frustrated people call all the time, looking for help with their Facebook accounts. She eventually adjusted her phone message to callers to explain that she does not provide technical support for Facebook. “I just got bombarded,” she said. “They’re just so desperate to reach a real human being.” Ms. Smith said she believed that large Internet companies might someday return to phones to set themselves apart from competitors. “The ability to call up and get a real human being — the companies who can do that and go back to basics are really the ones that will be winning out and humanizing their brand,” she said. But for now, some people still feel frozen out when they pick up the phone. Gabriel McKean, for example, was eager to start using Twitter. His 5-year-old daughter has a rare and painful genetic condition that turns her body’s soft tissue to bone, and the McKeans, who live in Bellevue, Ohio, started a Twitter account for “Ali’s Army” to raise awareness of her disease. But the account was suspended in a matter of hours — Mr. McKean’s repeated posts of the family’s Web site were quickly flagged by Twitter’s systems as spam. Upset and confused, he searched Twitter.com for a phone number, but found nothing. He sent an e-mail, but received only automated replies filled with jargon that confused him further. Without other options, he had no choice but to wait for someone to reinstate his account over e-mail. He hoped to “plead his case” to someone over the phone, but that never happened. Two days later his account was reinstated via e-mail. Given that Twitter handles nearly 400 million messages every day, that might be considered a victory for efficiency and scale, but it did nothing to remove the sting Mr. McKean felt when he could not connect with a real person. “The plain and simple fact is that they’re too busy or too important to talk to us,” he said.

Twitter
Foursquare
Computers and the Internet
Customer Relations
Quora.com
Facebook Inc
LinkedIn Corporation
Google Inc
Social Networking (Internet)
Telephones and Telecommunications