States Act to Cut Health Insurance Costs for Employers

Abstract: IN the last two years, at least three states have included health improvement in new programs intended to make health insurance more affordable for small employers. In Rhode Island, 350 employers with 50 or fewer eligible workers have enrolled in a state program offered by Blue Cross Blue Shield and United Healthcare. In return for reduced premiums, deductibles and co-payments, participants must select and visit a primary care doctor for a checkup, complete a 15-page health questionnaire and promise to try to adopt healthy behaviors and to abstain from smoking. People with chronic health problems have to agree to follow their doctors’ directions on how best to manage the disease. New Hampshire’s program, largely based on Rhode Island’s, will take effect next year. Both states hoped to dissuade small businesses from dropping or cutting back on health coverage. Maryland, under a law passed last fall, will pay up to 50 percent of the cost of insurance for companies that previously offered no health insurance and that have two to nine employees whose average income is less than $50,000. To participate, the companies must agree to offer employees a wellness program and incentives. Under the plan, some insurers are offering to waive deductibles and other costs for participants who fill out a health questionnaire and try, after their answers are analyzed, to improve their health. CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield, Coventry Health Care, United Healthcare and Aetna are participating. MILT FREUDENHEIM

Small Business
Health Insurance and Managed Care
Medicine and Health


Rodman Headed to North Korea Again Despite Turmoil

Abstract: Dennis Rodman’s trip to North Korea to help train the country’s basketball stars has not been disrupted by the political convulsions there, notably the execution of the leader’s uncle last week for treason and debauchery, the Irish online betting company sponsoring the visit said Tuesday. Mr. Rodman, who won five N.B.A. championships with the Detroit Pistons and the Chicago Bulls, would arrive in Beijing later in the day and then travel to North Korea on Thursday with a documentary film crew, Rory Scott, a spokesman for the company, Paddy Power of Dublin, said in a telephone interview from Beijing. Mr. Scott said they would leave North Korea on Monday. “We spoke to a lot of experts who said it’s safe for foreigners to travel to North Korea,” he said. Mr. Rodman visited North Korea this past winter and befriended its leader, Kim Jong-un, 30, a fan of American basketball. Mr. Rodman was one of the first Westerners to ever meet Mr. Kim after he took power two years ago upon the death of his father, Kim Jong-il. The plan for Mr. Rodman to revisit had been made before the abrupt change in North Korea’s politics, culminating in the announcement Thursday that Kim Jong-un’s uncle, Jang Song-thaek, who had long been considered the No. 2 leader, had been executed for charges that included plotting a coup, womanizing, gambling and drug abuse. Mr. Jang’s abrupt downfall and the unusual publicity given to it by the secretive North Korean government have created intense speculation of a political power struggle that could make the hermetic country more unstable and unpredictable. The United States, which has no diplomatic relations with North Korea, had already advised that no Americans should travel there, after the arrest of an 85-year-old Korean War veteran who had visited North Korea in October. The veteran, Merrill E. Newman of Palo Alto, Calif., was released and repatriated this month. Another American, Kenneth Bae, remains incarcerated in North Korea, arrested in November 2012 and convicted of hostile acts for Christian missionary work.

North Korea
Dennis Rodman
Basketball
Kim Jong-un


Saudi Coalition in Yemen Announces Inquiry Into Bombings

Abstract: Responding to criticism of its rampant bombings in Yemen, including a toughly worded appraisal from a United Nations panel that was leaked last week, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting there announced on Sunday the formation of a “high-level independent committee” to investigate the bombardments, which rights groups have called war crimes. In an announcement reported by Saudi news outlets, the coalition, which has been battling the rebel Houthi movement in Yemen for nearly a year, said the committee’s objective would be to “develop a clear and comprehensive report on each incident with the conclusions, lessons learned, recommendations and measures that should be taken” to avoid killing civilians and to respect international law. The coalition also said it was establishing a hotline with Doctors Without Borders, the medical charity, which has expressed outrage over repeated aerial attacks that have hit at least three of its facilities in Yemen in recent months . Brig. Gen. Ahmed Asseri, a spokesman for the coalition in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, told reporters at a news conference, “We seriously deal with the United Nations and its agencies.” He also said British and American military experts were advising the Saudis on how to improve aerial targeting to minimize risks to civilians. The announcement did not specify who would be part of the independent committee or the time frame for its work, but it did say committee members would be “tasked with assessing the coalition’s rules of engagement involving citizens during this conflict.” The military action in Yemen, the Arab world’s most impoverished country, has become an increasing drain on the Saudis, not only financially but also in world public opinion. The devastation in Yemen has put pressure on Western allies of the Saudis, most notably the United States and Britain , which are major arms suppliers. The pressure increased last week when a panel of experts on Yemen at the United Nations reported “widespread and systematic” attacks on civilian targets by the coalition in violation of international law. The panel’s 51-page report, which was submitted to the Security Council but has not yet been officially released, said the Saudi coalition had conducted airstrikes targeting civilians, including camps for internally displaced people, weddings, schools, religious centers, vehicles and markets. On Jan. 7, Human Rights Watch reported that Saudi coalition forces had dropped cluster bombs, which are banned under an international treaty, on residential neighborhoods in Yemen’s capital, Sana, on Jan. 6. Human Rights Watch has also found evidence of cluster bomb use elsewhere in Yemen in the past year, based partly on remnants of American-made munitions supplied to the Saudis that were recovered from bombing sites.

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Senator Kirsten Gillibrand Takes On Possible Ford Threat

Abstract: As United States Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand ’s allies have elbowed out her would-be Democratic challengers one by one, they emphasized what was perhaps her most formidable weapon: her fund-raising muscle. This month, Ms. Gillibrand will report that she has raised $7.1 million since her appointment last January, according to her advisers, making her one of the most prolific fund-raisers among Democratic senators during the off-election year despite the fact that she has never run statewide and has been in her post for roughly a year. Eric Schultz, director of communications at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee , described Ms. Gillibrand on Sunday as “a fund-raising star.” But it is not clear that the senator’s knack for amassing cash will be enough to scare off Harold E. Ford Jr. , the former Tennessee congressman who said last week that he was considering a primary campaign against her this year. Mr. Ford is quickly gaining attention and showing moxie where other challengers had not, saying he would run regardless of whether “party bosses” like the state’s senior senator, Charles E. Schumer, want him to. Ms. Gillibrand and her staff were clearly caught off guard by the emergence of Mr. Ford, who moved to New York three years ago for a job in the banking industry after his failed 2006 run for the Senate from Tennessee. After initially dismissing him, Ms. Gillibrand’s advisers are growing concerned that he could pose a real threat. Ms. Gillibrand interrupted a family vacation in Europe late last week to telephone the Manhattan Democratic Party chairman, Assemblyman Keith L. T. Wright, who has yet to endorse a candidate. She asked for his help in setting up a meeting with local party officials whose support she is courting. On Friday, Ms. Gillibrand’s advisers held a series of conference calls, scrambling to devise a strategy to deal with Mr. Ford. The consensus that emerged was that the former congressman is a blank slate, and Gillibrand supporters needed to move quickly to highlight parts of Mr. Ford’s record that might prove troublesome for him, like his position on abortion rights. (While he described himself during the 2006 Senate race as “pro-life,” a Ford adviser maintained that it was an attempt to take back a term that he felt anti-abortion groups had unfairly appropriated. Mr. Ford, the adviser said, has always supported abortion rights.) “They are going into overdrive,” said a person with direct knowledge of the deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the talks were supposed to remain private. The person added, “There is an intense focus on this threat.” On Sunday, at an unrelated event in Huntington, N.Y., on Long Island, Ms. Gillibrand addressed the potential candidacy of Mr. Ford for the first time, saying, “Every candidate makes their own decision whether to run or not.” Asked about Mr. Ford’s claims that her allies were trying to bully him out of the race, she suggested there was nothing untoward about her supporters’ making their preference known. “Every politician in our state will make their own judgments about who they think is best for New York,” Ms. Gillibrand said. “So each person who has articulated a view on this issue, they have every right to do that, and that’s what politicians do. They advise and they inform people about what they think are the best choices for the state and for the government.” Mr. Ford has said he will decide next month whether to enter the race. Among his considerations will be Ms. Gillibrand’s fund-raising performance, which she will officially report Jan. 31. There is no question that the $7.1 million is impressive, especially for a rookie senator. Even at the end of the first nine months of 2009, Ms. Gillibrand ranked third in fund-raising among Senate Democrats who will be on the ballot this year. Only the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, and Mr. Schumer were ahead of her. “Her money is going to be very sobering to him, as it has already been to others in both the Democratic and Republican Parties who have thought about running against her,” said Sarah Kovner, a prominent Democratic fund-raiser who is a member of Ms. Gillibrand’s finance committee. The senator generated contributions in part by tapping into the donor networks of Mr. Schumer, who has become her biggest advocate since she was appointed to fill the seat formerly held by Hillary Rodham Clinton. Ms. Gillibrand also drew from Mrs. Clinton’s financial supporters and from Emily’s List , an influential political action committee that backs Democratic women who support abortion rights. On Sunday, Ellen R. Malcolm, the president of Emily’s List, said the party could ill afford an expensive primary fight and made clear that her organization was fully behind Ms. Gillibrand. Ms. Gillibrand’s allies believe that Mr. Ford cannot compete with her financially. While he raised $16 million for his unsuccessful 2006 Senate run in Tennessee, he was aided in that contest by Mr. Schumer, one of the party’s top fund-raisers, who was in charge of running Senate races across the country that year. “Kirsten has developed an enormous network of financial supporters who are the usual suspects of New York Democratic fund-raising circles,” said Dennis Mehiel, an influential Democratic fund-raiser and former candidate for lieutenant governor. “The question, then, is, how much room does that leave for Harold or any other potential Democratic opponent?” Davidson Goldin, a spokesman for Mr. Ford, said, “This is not a surprise, and has no bearing on Harold’s plans.” Ms. Gillibrand’s political advisers declined to say how much money her campaign hoped to raise for her election effort. But typically, candidates aim to raise double their fund-raising tally in an election year, which would put her on course to raise $21 million in total. New York is an expensive state for campaigns. In 2004, Mr. Schumer spent about $17.7 million to be re-elected for a second term despite token opposition. Ms. Gillibrand has about $5.1 million left in her campaign war chest, according to her advisers. Politically, she has been a tempting target ever since Gov. David A. Paterson appointed her, partly because she remains largely unknown throughout the state, with polls showing that most New Yorkers have yet to form an opinion about her. Ms. Gillibrand’s advisers have said that they believe that situation can be remedied in the coming months with extensive spending on television ads as the campaign season gets under way. Several prominent party members have expressed dissatisfaction with Ms. Gillibrand, who held conservative positions on issues like gun control and immigration when she represented a more conservative district upstate in the House. While she has backed away from those positions since entering the Senate, her shift has been criticized as political opportunism. In an interview on WAMC radio on Saturday, former Gov. Eliot Spitzer said he would not have appointed Ms. Gillibrand “under any circumstance” because her “views on issues are either wrong or too malleable.” A spokesman for Ms. Gillibrand responded that the decision had not been up to Mr. Spitzer because he had been forced to resign after it was revealed that he had patronized a prostitution service. “Because of his own actions, it wasn’t his call to make,” said the spokesman, Glen Caplin. “It’s not surprising considering she was among the first Democrats to say he would need to step down if the allegations were true.”

Senate
Elections
Gillibrand Kirsten E
Ford Harold E Jr
New York State
United States Politics and Government


IPhone 6s’s Hands-Free Siri Is an Omen of the Future

Abstract: The headline feature in Apple ’s latest smartphones, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, is something called 3D Touch, which lets you activate shortcuts on the phone by pressing a bit harder on the screen. For now, though, I found a less novel, but far handier feature in the new iPhone — one that has long been the butt of jokes but is now becoming a necessary part of modern computing. You may have heard of it: It’s called Siri, and together with voice-control initiatives from Google, Amazon, Microsoft and several start-ups, it is poised to change the way we think of computers. As David Pierce wrote recently in Wired , voice recognition and artificial intelligence are getting so good so quickly that it isn’t really a stretch to imagine that talking to computers will soon become one of the signature ways we interact with them. The new Siri is paving the way to what you might call “ambient computing” — a future in which robotic assistants are always on hand to answer questions, take notes, take orders or otherwise function as auxiliary brains to whom you might offload many of your chores. Image Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Mac software engineering, shows off the 3D Touch feature on the new iPhone 6s at a media event in San Francisco earlier this month. Credit Beck Diefenbach/Reuters Picture the “Star Trek” computer, but instead of powering a starship, it’s turning off the basement lights, finding you a good movie on Netflix and, after listening in on a fight between you and your spouse, reminding you to buy flowers the next day. It will be slightly creepy and completely helpful — and it’s coming faster than you think. There is one key improvement to Siri in the iPhone 6s that suggests these grand possibilities. Rather than having to reach for your phone, you can now activate Siri by yelling at it from a few feet away. “Hey, Siri!” you bellow, and the robotic assistant springs to life. This is not groundbreaking; hands-free voice control has been around in competing smartphones at least since Motorola introduced it in 2013, and several phone makers have adopted it since. Hands-free Siri is also available on older iPhones when the phone is plugged into its charger , because constantly listening for “Hey, Siri” consumes battery power. (The iPhone 6s, however, reduces the drain on the battery through hardware changes.) But “Hey, Siri” is not the only improvement. In iOS 9 , Apple’s new mobile operating system, Siri also has more powers to connect to deeper parts of your phone. It can control devices compatible with Apple’s home-automation system, called HomeKit — you can tell it to turn down the lights, for example. Siri also controls Apple Music, the company’s new streaming service. In the car, say, “Hey, Siri, play Dylan,” and up comes “Subterranean Homesick Blues.” Then there’s the ubiquity of voice-control devices. Besides the phone, Apple has put Siri in its watch and its coming Apple TV set-top box. Amazon has it on the Echo, a voice-controlled computer that is constantly listening and ready to help you out, and also in its TV streaming devices. Google and Microsoft also have embedded voice in phones, computers and TV devices. Video In many respects the iPhone 6s bears a strong resemblance to its predecessor. But a few new features warrant a look if it’s time to upgrade. Credit Credit Beck Diefenbach/Reuters A host of start-ups are entering the game, too. One, called SoundHound , offers a taste of the possibilities of talking to machines: Rather than going through several sites to make a hotel reservation, you can ask, “Find me a three- or four-star hotel in New York next Friday for less than $300,” and off it goes. The ubiquity of voice-controlled assistants changes the way we interact with them. When Siri and other voice systems were new, they seemed gimmicky. Nobody quite knew what to do with them, and interactions veered toward the awkward. But the more assistants there are, and the more you use them, the more natural they feel — and that means the more you’ll use them, feeding the cycle. I’ve felt this happen most impressively with Amazon’s Echo, a machine that one addresses with the keyword “Alexa,” and which I keep in my kitchen, the place I most often need a hands-free device. In my early days with the Echo, I didn’t quite know what to use it for, and when it got something wrong, I tended to penalize the device for its shortcomings . But the more I stuck with the Echo, the better I understood its capabilities. Now I consult the Echo several times a day for the weather, to set timers, to do quick kitchen math and to play music or audiobooks. It’s become one of the most useful gadgets I own. (And the voice-recognition hardware in the Echo is more powerful than that of the iPhone — Alexa can hear me from far across the room, while with the iPhone 6s, “Hey, Siri” stopped working beyond about five feet.) Image Amazon's Echo. Credit Amazon The coming pervasiveness of voice-controlled machines will not occur without some social anxiety. There will be conventions to work out — is it O.K. to call out “Hey, Siri!” on a bus? Probably not soon, but in time, that may happen; you’ll cringe, and then it could become normal. (The new iPhone tries to learn your voice to prevent other people from activating your device.) There will be questions of privacy, too. To start up when they hear certain keywords, systems like “Hey, Siri” have to constantly listen to their surroundings. Apple says Siri is watching for a pattern, not recording or storing any data. But you can imagine that actually analyzing all of your speech can’t be far off, because it would make voice assistants more useful. In fact, for years now, Google’s top search engineers have been describing the “Star Trek” computer as their vision of the future of search. “The ‘Star Trek’ computer is not just a metaphor that we use to explain to others what we’re building,” Amit Singhal, the head of Google’s search team, once told me . “It is the ideal that we’re aiming to build — the ideal version done realistically.” Image Cortana's launch screen. That fictional computer not only responds to commands, but is also passively listening, analyzing and predicting what you want based on what it’s hearing. It’s easy to see how such machines would become useful. After all, why should I have to ask my computer to do something — if it’s listening, shouldn’t it just notice that I told my wife we’re out of bread and add it to the grocery list? If I tell my 5-year-old that he has three minutes to brush his teeth or else, shouldn’t the computer set a timer and remind the distracted child that he might end up going to bed without a story? Indeed, a version of this voice-enabled disciplinarian made an appearance last season on “Silicon Valley.” I found it dystopian, sure, but also kind of wonderful. Parenting is a slog; why wouldn’t I want a computer to occasionally step in and have my back? That’s how it begins, of course. Then, over time, as we allow these assistants to listen in to more of our lives, they’ll start to use the data in unforeseen ways — to be more helpful, but also to get to know you better to better make a profit from your relationship. These are big worries. You don’t have to really think about them with the new iPhone, which isn’t doing anything nefarious with its audio assistant. But still, as you sing out “Hey, Siri,” “O.K., Google,” “Hey, Cortana” or “Alexa,” keep in mind that you’re ushering in a brand-new era in our interactions with machines. For years, we’ve had to go to our computers to get things done. Now the computers are all around us, in the air. They’re listening. They’re helping. They’re inescapable.

iPhone
Siri
Apple
Artificial intelligence
Speech recognition


New York Correction Officers Accused of Letting Inmates Run Rikers Island Jail

Abstract: Guards reputedly sent inmates to intimidate, threaten and silence uncooperative prisoners with brute force. Inmates were ordered to turn over money, and their every move, including when they could use the bathroom, was controlled. If word of an assault got out, the guards would allegedly orchestrate a cover-up. In fact, prosecutors said, a unit for teenagers on Rikers Island was run much like an organized-crime family — and two correction officers were the bosses. Those accusations were made on Thursday in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, where three Rikers Island correction officers were charged in connection with the ring, whose crimes, prosecutors said, reached a climax with the beating death of an 18-year-old inmate. Two of the officers, Michael McKie, 31, and Khalid Nelson, 34, were charged with enterprise corruption and accused of being the masterminds behind the operation, ordering the time, location and manner of some beatings, said Robert T. Johnson, the Bronx district attorney. Both Officer McKie, 31, of Brooklyn, and Officer Nelson, 34. of Staten Island, pleaded not guilty before Justice Steven Barrett, who ordered each held in $200,000 bail. Each faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. In court on Thursday, an assistant district attorney, James Goward, told Justice Barrett that the defendants were “not simply the author of a crime or the author of a series of crimes, but the architect of a criminal enterprise.” “They didn’t simply turn a blind eye to violence,” he added. “They authorized and directed it.” Mr. Johnson said the officers’ motive was simple: to make their jobs easier by making the inmates maintain order among themselves. Neither officer was charged in the Oct. 18, 2008, death of the 18-year-old inmate, Christopher Robinson. Officer McKie was on vacation when Mr. Robinson was killed, according to Joey Jackson, his lawyer. Officer Nelson was working that day, prosecutors said. Mr. Jackson said that Officer McKie was a husband and father of two who spent two years at the University of Buffalo on a basketball scholarship. The lawyer added that the officer had an exemplary record in his five years as a correction officer. “My client would have no motivation whatsoever to engage in this behavior,” he said, adding that the prosecution’s case was “predicated upon inmates who now, in an effort to save themselves, are pointing fingers.” Renée C. Hill, Officer Nelson’s lawyer, said her client “denies the charges adamantly.” The third correction officer who was indicted, Denise Albright, 43, of Manhattan, was not present when Mr. Robinson was killed, according to Mr. Jackson, who also represents her. She was charged with several crimes, including assault and conspiracy, and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. Officer Albright pleaded not guilty and was held Thursday in $50,000 bail. Twelve inmates were also indicted in connection with the criminal ring and were expected to be arraigned Friday. Three of them, Joseph Hutchinson, Anquant Bryant and Shaddon Beswick, all 18, were charged with first-degree manslaughter in the death of Mr. Robinson. Outside the courtroom, Mr. Robinson’s mother, Charnel Robinson, held up a photo of her and her son embracing. Tears rolled down her cheeks. “I have to live the rest of my life without ever getting to hug him again, because some officers didn’t do their jobs correctly,” she said. Ms. Robinson has filed a notice of claim, the first step toward a lawsuit, requesting $20 million from the city and the Department of Correction, claiming that they were responsible for her son’s death. Following Mr. Robinson’s death, the Bronx district attorney’s office and the city’s Department of Investigation launched an inquiry that uncovered what prosecutors said was a criminal enterprise known as “the Program.” It was confined to the Robert N. Davoren Center, a jail at Rikers for inmates ages 16 to 19, prosecutors said. Officers McKie and Nelson delegated the duty of maintaining order in the jail to chosen inmates, according to the indictment, and instructed them to exert authority over others by making them give up some of their commissary money and phone privileges. The participants also prevented other inmates from using certain chairs in a common room and restricted other inmates’ access to that room and the bathroom, the indictment said. Inmates who did not comply with the Program’s rules were assaulted, the indictment said, with Officers McKie and Nelson enabling the violence by letting some inmates out of their cells when they were supposed to be confined. The indictment said that the two officers instructed the inmates to strike their victims only in the body, to avoid leaving any facial marks that might attract attention. Signals were used to alert inmates to abort assaults when other guards were in the area. Officers McKie and Nelson covered up their actions by filing false reports about assaults and instructing the inmates to lie about them if questioned, the indictment said. Martin F. Horn, the city’s correction commissioner, said that the conduct the officers were accused of was isolated and that the department had taken measures, including installing additional cameras, to ensure the safety of inmates in the aftermath of Mr. Robinson’s death.

Guards
Rikers Island Prison Complex
Police Brutality and Misconduct
Prisons and Prisoners
Murders and Attempted Murders
McKie Michael
Nelson Khalid
Bronx (NYC)


United Splits Jet Order Between Airbus and Boeing

Abstract: United Airlines said on Tuesday it would spend billions of dollars over the next decade on 50 new jets, splitting its order between the Boeing Company ’s 787 and the Airbus A350. Deliveries of the planes, which will replace United’s Boeing 747s and 767s, are expected between 2016 and 2019. At list prices, the new jets would be worth more than $10 billion, with about $4 billion for Boeing’s 787-8 and about $6 billion for the Airbus planes. John Tague, president of United, said the carrier got a discount on the price, which is common for jet orders, though he did not specify how much. “We felt that we had a significant opportunity by timing the order with the backdrop of the current economic environment,” he said. United has not yet worked out financing for the planes, although Mr. Tague said the manufacturers had agreed to provide loans if needed. The deal requires United to put up $152 million over the next five years. In October United raised about $424 million in a stock and notes offering, and it has been mortgaging other assets such as spare parts to get it through the drop-off in travel demand brought on by the recession. United said it had signed letters of intent for both planes. John Leahy, chief operating officer of Airbus, said the company expected a firm order in a month or two. That would bring total orders for the A350 to 530, Mr. Leahy said. “We’re not surprised by the decision to split the order,” Mr. Leahy said. He said it was noteworthy because it was the first time United has ever ordered wide-body jets not made by Boeing. Both planes have two aisles and would usually be used on international flights. The 787-8 seats 210 to 250 people. Airbus said the A350 seats 314 in a typical configuration. Both can fly more than 9,000 miles enough to go nonstop from United’s hub in Chicago to Shanghai. “They give us access to virtually every region in the world from all of our hubs,” Mr. Tague said. Both planes are made with composites, meant to be lighter and more fuel-efficient than the usual aluminum construction. Neither plane has ever flown. Boeing hopes its 787 will make its first flight by the end of this year, while Airbus is aiming to deliver its first A350 in 2013. Shares of Boeing fell 16 cents, to $55.66. Shares of United rose 4 cents, to $9.87. Both companies are based in Chicago.

United Airlines
Airlines and Airplanes
Airbus Industrie
Boeing Co


Phillies Catcher’s Statistics Cry Out for a Win Column

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — Brian Schneider could easily be in a worse spot right now. All he needed to do Monday night was look across the diamond to his former club, the Mets , who are now 23 ½ games behind his first-place Philadelphia Phillies during a season mired in injuries and a financial scandal that engulfed ownership. After toiling on mediocre teams for 10 seasons — eight with the Montreal Expos and Washington Nationals and two with the Mets — without a playoff appearance, Schneider is finally part of a contender. That it also happens to be the team that Schneider, an Allentown, Pa., native, grew up rooting for is only icing on the cake. “For me it’s been fun; I’ve had a blast on this team,” said Schneider, a backup catcher who signed with the Phillies before last season. “It’s a different situation and I love it. I’m having a blast and I’m having a lot of fun winning.” At first glance, Schneider’s numbers are pedestrian at best, anemic at worst. In 31 games, Schneider, who was on the disabled list with a strained hamstring in May, has a .172 batting average and .245 on-base percentage with two home runs and eight runs batted in. He has not hit a home run since April 21 and has not had a multiple-R.B.I. game since he knocked in two runs 12 days before that. His offensive numbers — including a .248 career batting average and a career-high 12 home runs for the Expos in 2004 — indicate he is not in the majors because of his hitting. Still, 2011 has been a down season at the plate. But on a team with potent bats at nearly every other position, Schneider’s struggles are more than compensated for. With expectations set at a World Series championship, victories are what matter in Philadelphia, and when Schneider is behind the plate, the Phillies win at a remarkable rate. In his 27 starts this season, the Phillies are 24-3; they are 25-3 if you add their win against the Arizona Diamondbacks on April 27, in which Schneider entered the game in the first inning. “I give him a lot of credit after games because he does catch that good,” Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said. “He deserves it. The way he calls the game and how he works the pitchers. He does a super job.” Manuel added: “I like his bat, too. His stats don’t tell it, but he’s had some real good at-bats for us and big hits at the right time for us. He’s capable of hitting better, too.” Even more impressive is that most of Schneider’s starts have fallen on days when a pitcher in the back end of the rotation is on the mound. Schneider has worked the most with the rookie right-hander Vance Worley, who is 9-1 with a 2.65 earned run average after pitching seven innings and allowing one run in the Phillies’ 9-4 victory Tuesday. Schneider was the starting catcher in eight of his victories. In all, Schneider has caught 12 of Worley’s 16 starts — all Phillies victories. “He knows the ropes and he’s been around the game a long time,” said Worley, who had Schneider catch his major league debut last season. “We’ve bonded and have a close relationship to where I don’t really have to shake him because he knows what I want to throw before I even throw it. Before I even step on the rubber, he’s already flashing a sign at me.” Even though he knew what his role would be when he signed with the Phillies, being a backup last season behind Carlos Ruiz was difficult for Schneider. Manuel said he had been better this season after getting used to his new role and team. At this point in his career, Schneider, 34, said his focus was on winning. “We just don’t have good ballplayers,” he said. “The front office just doesn’t bring superstars in here. They bring guys that know how to play the game the right way and they bring them all together. They got a winning way here. It’s a good thing we got going on now. Hopefully, we can keep it going.” With a .172 hitter behind the plate, the Phillies might have their best chance.

Philadelphia Phillies
Schneider Brian
Baseball
New York Mets


Pushing the G.O.P. to Support Gay Rights

Abstract: When the Rhode Island State Senate tallied up the votes against a same-sex marriage bill passed there on Wednesday, something was missing: Republicans. All five of the chamber’s Republican lawmakers had voted for the bill, stunning opponents and sending the measure to the governor’s desk and almost-certain victory next week. The vote reflected not only the rapidly shifting tides of public opinion on same-sex marriage, but also the influence of a new Republican advocacy group called the American Unity Fund, which spent weeks helping the state’s gay rights organization cultivate Republican senators. Now the group is preparing a major push in Washington and in state capitals intended to reshape the Republican Party, by building support for same-sex marriage and bolstering its acceptance among candidates and party activists around the country. Founded and financed by some of the country’s leading Republican fund-raisers and strategists, the fund expects to raise up to $7 million this year, officials said. The fund’s organizers include Paul E. Singer and Clifford S. Asness, libertarian-leaning New York investors; David Herro, a prominent Chicago money manager; and Seth Klarman, a billionaire Boston philanthropist and hedge fund manager. “The concept of gay unions fits very well within our framework of individual liberty and our belief that strong families make for a stronger society,” Mr. Singer said in an e-mail. “The institution of marriage is in very bad shape in this country, yet gay and lesbian couples want very much to be a part of it, to live as committed husbands and wives with their children in traditional family units. This should be what we want as conservatives, for people to cherish and respect this model and to want it for themselves.” The fund is one of several advocacy organizations backed by wealthy Republicans and business leaders to shift their party’s stance in recent months on issues like immigration and same-sex marriage. And the new effort traces a rift between Republican elites and grass-roots voters over a handful of hot-button social issues that one group views as handcuffing the party and the other sees as essential to its identity. “We were fighting for years on the life issue, with the same group of people,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, referring to abortion rights. Mr. Perkins attended the Republican National Convention last year as a delegate and wrote the party’s marriage plank, which states that “the union of one man and one woman must be upheld as the national standard.” Mr. Perkins added: “They have money, but they’re small in number. It’s still a tension between those who care about social issues and those who would rather not deal with them.” Those involved with the American Unity Fund said its initial efforts would be focused on more socially liberal states, like Illinois and Delaware, where a handful of Republican votes could enable advocates to win passage of same-sex marriage legislation in the coming months. The group has already set up shop in Minnesota, where the Legislature may vote as early as next week on a same-sex marriage bill that advocates do not yet have enough votes to pass. But the group is also beginning a long-term push in more conservative states like West Virginia and Utah, seeking to build conservative support for nondiscrimination laws that could help pave the way for same-sex marriage in coming years. A critical part of the effort, fund strategists said, is building lists of Republican supporters of same-sex marriage around the country that could be used to pressure lawmakers in Washington and elsewhere. That could prove critical at the state level, where Republicans now control majorities or supermajorities in more than half the state capitols. “We want to change the complexion of which people are calling their lawmakers from these legislative districts,” said Jeff Cook-McCormac, a senior adviser to the American Unity Fund. “It’s usually gay people calling and saying, ‘We want this.’ What we want is for legislators to hear from their straight friends and neighbors, people who will say, ‘I’m a Republican, and I want this for my neighbors and my friends.’ ” In Rhode Island, the unity fund helped Republican senators create their message in a way that would help them navigate opposition from more conservative constituents. “They were a resource of experienced political professionals operating on the Republican side of the aisle,” said State Senator Dawson Hodgson, a Republican who co-sponsored the marriage bill. “It was important to be able to draw on some national level experience in making sure that our Republican perspective in supporting same-sex marriage was at the forefront of our dialogue with constituents.” Mr. Singer, the fund’s founder, helped bankroll the successful same-sex marriage push in New York two years ago, persuading Republicans in Albany that some of the party’s top donors would be there to help defend them against primary challenges and attacks from same-sex marriage opponents. Despite such successes — including passage of measures in four states last fall either legalizing same-sex marriage or overturning existing bans — same sex-unions remain illegal in most of the country. As a tax-exempt social welfare group, the American Unity Fund is not required to disclose its donors or finances. The group is affiliated with a “super PAC,” the American Unity PAC, that spent $2.2 million during the 2012 election, defending a handful of Republican candidates deemed sympathetic to gay rights. Much of the super PAC’s money came from firms owned by Mr. Singer and Mr. Klarman. Support for same-sex marriage remains relatively rare among Republican elected officials, despite some high-profile changes of heart. Just two Republicans in the United States Senate — Rob Portman of Ohio and Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois — say they support it. A November 2012 Gallup poll found that fewer than a third of self-identified Republicans support laws that permit same-sex unions. And some Republican officials have faced backlash when they do support same-sex marriage: Three of the four Republican state senators in New York who voted for a same-sex marriage bill there in 2011 did not return to Albany this year. Tension over the issue broke into the open at the Republican National Committee meeting in Los Angeles this month, after a task force charged with assessing the party’s failures in the 2012 election recommended that officials rethink their language and approach to young voters, particularly on same-sex marriage. A coalition of religious and social conservatives leaders sent a letter to Reince Priebus, the Republican chairman, accusing the party of seeking to marginalize social conservatives who were urging conservative donors to withhold contributions. Party officials ultimately passed a resolution affirming the Republican commitment to heterosexual marriage. Mr. Perkins was among those who called Mr. Priebus during the debate. “What I expressed to him is that these are folks who will vote for Republicans when the Republicans express their values, but if they depart from those issues, they lose the support,” Mr. Perkins said. “You want to see where the money will get you? Look to 2012. That was the money part of the party having their candidate and access to the resources. And it wasn’t enough.”

Rhode Island
Republicans
American Unity Fund
Legislation
Same-Sex Marriage,Gay Marriage
Paul E Singer
Clifford Scott Asness
US states


Review: At Limani Seafood Grill in Westfield, Bringing Greece Home

Abstract: As I sat at Limani Seafood Grill in Westfield on one of the warmest days of the year and devoured a salad of sweet watermelon, tangy feta cheese and fresh mint, I was certain that there was no better antidote to the oppressive heat. When temperatures rise, there’s nothing I crave more than fresh salads and lighty prepared seafood. How fortunate, then, that my visits to this almost nine-year-old Greek-influenced seafood restaurant coincided with the dog days of summer. George and Vasilia Vastardis own Limani, which can usually be found bustling with diners who all seem to be well acquainted with both the menu and the friendly waiters. Mr. Vastardis is the chef and manages the day-to-day operations while Mrs. Vastardis, who has a full-time retail job, helps on weekends. He was born in the port city of Piraeus in Greece and chose the name Limani, which means harbor in Greek, to reflect his upbringing. Image The horiataki Greek salad. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times “I wanted to capture the spirit of how I grew up eating, which was seafood caught that same day paired with lots of different salads,” Mr. Vastardis said. Produce is delivered daily, sauces and dressings are made in-house, and many of the fish offerings, such as branzino and orata, arrive from Greece several times a week. For varieties found stateside, such as grouper and red snapper, Mr. Vastardis relies on a few local vendors. But the salads come before the seafood. Besides the watermelon salad I so enjoyed, the horiatiki Greek is a must. Here, chunks of juicy red tomatoes, diced seedless cucumbers, strips of red and green bell peppers, red onion slivers, kalamata olives, capers and crumbled feta cheese are held together beautifully with dried oregano and a peppery Greek olive oil. Another winner was the combination of crunchy shredded romaine hearts, diced scallions and dill in a shallot vinaigrette. Salads, however, are only a part of the expansive appetizers. A raw bar with oysters, lobsters and other shellfish is a good option, and so are the Greek starters like the spanakopita, a savory phyllo dough pastry stuffed with spinach, leeks, scallions, dill and feta. Spanakopita is comfort food to the Greeks, and the version at Limani, with a flaky outside holding an interior that’s worthy of a side dish on its own didn’t disappoint. Neither did the tender chargrilled shrimp, octopus and calamari tossed in an olive oil, lemon and oregano dressing. The letdown was the saganaki. This sheep’s milk cheese, imported from Greece, is pan-seared and flamed with ouzo, the anise-flavored Greek liquor. Though it sounded tempting, the cheese had a gummy texture and indiscernible taste. Image The corvina, a white saltwater fish, has a spicy sauce that includes lime juice, powdered chipotle, pequin peppers and adobo seasoning. Credit Bryan Anselm for The New York Times Then, the whole branzino appeared, and I forgot all about that blunder. Grilled on an open flame and then finished in a high-heat oven, it had a divine crispy skin and moist meat and sat in a sauce of olive oil, lemon, diced garlic, dried oregano and capers. It was so unimaginably fresh that if Mr. Vastardis had told me that he caught the fish that morning in Greece, I would have believed him. I didn’t think seafood could get any better — that is, until I tried the corvina. This white saltwater fish, popular in South America, is firm fleshed, like swordfish. The half-pound fillet was grilled and then topped with a spicy sauce of fresh lime juice, olive oil, powdered chipotle, Mexican crushed pequin peppers, adobo seasoning and white wine. Presented with haricot verts and a scoop of white rice, it was more Latin than Greek but so delicious that no one in my dining party cared. We also tried the pan-seared crab cakes, and though the three patties were loaded with jumbo lump crab meat, they were surprisingly bland. Even the mayonnaise-based paprika seasoned rémoulade sauce couldn’t help them out. There are two desserts that must be tried. There’s the baked semolina pastry called galaktoboureko — a puddinglike custard of milk, sugar, semolina and eggs cradled in sweet, buttered phyllo dough layers. And there’s a baklava, also baked, that I can’t stop thinking about. The baklava uses chopped raw pistachios, instead of walnuts, as is the typical Greek style, mixing them with powdered and brown sugar, surrounded by the same buttered phyllo as the custard. A tray had just emerged from the oven, and our waiter presented us with four still-warm, bite-size squares. Yes, it was hot outside, and a cold option might have more fitting, but here, in the cool dining room at Limani, it didn’t seem to matter. We ate every bite in glee.

Limani Seafood Grill
Restaurant
Westfield NJ


Knicks, Nearing Full Strength, Search for Right Combination

Abstract: GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Carmelo Anthony will “probably not” play Sunday afternoon against the Dallas Mavericks, Coach Mike D’Antoni said, but J. R. Smith and Baron Davis could be in uniform as the Knicks pull closer to full strength. D’Antoni said Anthony was more likely to be back on Monday against the Nets. Upon his return after missing six games with a strained right groin, Anthony will enter a new world full of frothing fans and quick-to-judge reporters, many of them, perhaps unfairly, waiting for his shot selection and isolation play to single-handedly subdue the Jeremy Lin phenomenon known as Linsanity. Smith, Anthony’s former teammate with the Nuggets, was signed by the Knicks on Friday, but he missed practice Saturday. D’Antoni originally said Smith was not likely to play Sunday because of the missed practice. But Smith told a fan on Twitter that his first game with the Knicks would be Sunday. It was not clear if Smith would play, but the Twitter message helped Smith’s Knicks career get off to an inauspicious start before he even landed in the area. Informed that Smith posted a Twitter message that he was playing Sunday, D’Antoni deadpanned, “Well, then he’s playing.” “I’ll introduce myself before he plays,” D’Antoni added. “He can dress, and we’ll see what happens.” Davis, who has been recovering from a herniated disk in his back, is also close to making his debut for the Knicks. He played three-on-three full court in practice Saturday and has run some five-on-zero offense. “He’s close,” D’Antoni said. “He could play tomorrow. We’ll see.” Davis said: “I’m feeling a lot better than I was a couple of weeks ago. I’m moving with more fluidity out there and a little bit more grace.” Asked if Davis and Smith could just check themselves into the game, D’Antoni said, “They’ll have to tweet it first.” Davis, who crossed paths with Smith in 2004-5 in New Orleans, praised him. “J. R. Smith is like a brother to me,” Davis said. “High octane. A lot of energy offensively. He doesn’t get enough credit for his defensive ability and his hustle, but he’s a game-changer.” The Knicks started 3-8 last season as they incorporated Amar’e Stoudemire, Raymond Felton and Landry Fields into the offense and learned to play together. Adjustments were made, and those Knicks found their groove by playing frenetic, team-oriented basketball, winning 18 of the next 24 games. Heading into the All-Star break, the Knicks had regressed closer to an expected mean of about .500, but they had an established identity. Two days after the All-Star Game, they started from scratch, trading most of their young core for Anthony and Chauncey Billups. The deal forced the Knicks to go through a second lengthy adaptation period. This off-season, the Knicks signed Tyson Chandler and drafted rotation-caliber players in Iman Shumpert and Josh Harrellson. “It does seem like the third team I’ve played for since I’ve been in New York,” Stoudemire said during the abbreviated preseason. Three renditions quickly turned into four, as the injury-riddled Knicks failed to meet early expectations until another franchise savior, Lin, engineered a swift turnaround that once again put emphasis on egalitarian offense. Now, for the fifth time in 114 regular-season games, the Knicks will try to succeed as the names on the court and in the locker room play a much-hyped game of musical chairs. Four pieces to the puzzle are expected to return by the end of the All-Star break. The integration of Anthony, Smith, Davis and Harrellson — who is expected to return from a fractured wrist after the All-Star break — will provide the Knicks once unimaginable depth and potential. A team that gave regular minutes to Bill Walker, Mike Bibby and Toney Douglas in January will probably relegate those three players to mop-up duty. Whereas the Knicks’ second unit lacked one starting-caliber player earlier in the season, it will now have three in Davis, Smith and Shumpert. They will complement a solid defender and interior presence (Jared Jeffries) and two floor-spacing shooters (Harrellson and Steve Novak) fighting for minutes as well. Including the All-Star break, the Knicks will have one game in a nine-day stretch beginning Friday to start figuring things out. “We have about four or five practices we can do,” D’Antoni said. “And we’ll get everybody together, and that will be big, major.”

Basketball
New York Knicks
Davis Baron
Smith J R
D'Antoni Mike
Lin Jeremy
Anthony Carmelo


Bringing Universities to Refugee Camps in Kenya

Abstract: NAIROBI, Kenya — The Dadaab refugee camps in northern Kenya sit in a bleak landscape; remote, dusty and arid, they are sun-scorched by day and whipped by fierce dust storms that blow up seemingly out of nowhere. The first three camps were opened in the early 1990s, when the civil war in Somalia brought thousands streaming across the border. Two more camps have since mushroomed out of the desert. In total they are home to about 500,000 people, making them the largest refugee complex in the world. Proximity to Somalia makes Dadaab a sometimes dangerous place. Several aid workers have been kidnapped there in recent years, including two seized in 2011 who were freed only this summer. One incident ended last year in a shoot-out between kidnappers and Kenyan soldiers. While there is access to primary and secondary education, opportunities for tertiary education have been extremely limited over the years. That is not unusual. The United Nations refugee agency estimates that fewer than 1 percent of refugees globally are enrolled in higher education programs. Now however, a pilot program has been developed that aims to offer 400 students in the Dadaab camps a chance, over the next few years, to earn accredited diplomas in teaching and also a chance to earn university degrees in subjects including community health, development, business and natural sciences. “Once you get your secondary school degree, there is no other place to go to improve your education,” said Abdullahi Abdi, a 20 year-old taking part in the program, called Borderless Higher Education for Refugees, or BHER. “A lot of people remain in the refugee complex and become idle. So you cannot even imagine what a golden opportunity this is for us.” Of more than 600 people who have applied to the program, which is open to refugees and local Kenyans, Mr. Abdi and almost 200 others have been chosen for the first intake to a preparatory course, the Increased Access and Skills for Tertiary Education Program, or Instep for short. Kenyan law does not allow refugees to have formal jobs within the camps but many of the participants hold what are known as “incentive” positions in the camps’ teaching and community health services. Taking account of their time constraints, the program has been scheduled to coincide with the Kenyan school holidays, starting in August with follow-up modules in December and April. The participants, who have all completed secondary education, are receiving intensive training in English, information technology and research methods. In February, they will apply for places in the diploma and certificate courses, which start next August. Funding is in place for a second cohort of 200 students to start the preparatory program, also next August. “There is not the same kind of community around emergency higher education that there is around basic education,” said Julia Paulson, editor of a book, “Education and Reconciliation: Exploring Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations.” Nongovernment organizations “usually do not deliver higher education in the same way that they can come in and support primary and secondary schooling,” she said: “So this initiative is an exciting thing.” The idea of bringing university education into refugee camps grew from a long-term scholarship program run by the World University Service of Canada, or W.U.S.C., which has offered scholarships in Canadian universities to 1,350 refugees from around the world over the past 35 years. “Time and again, W.U.S.C. scholarship students would speak to the fact that while it was fantastic to have this opportunity, so many of their siblings and peers remained in the camps,” said Jacqueline Strecker, an education specialist with the U.N. refugee agency. “The amount of money to bring them to Canada could go a lot further if opportunities were made available within the camp itself.” With that in mind, W.U.S.C. and the Kenyan branch of the Windle Trust, an international education charity, contacted York University, in Toronto, which has a research center on refugees and forced migration. Windle Trust Kenya runs seven secondary schools in the Dadaab camps complex, with refugees making up 50 percent of their teaching staff. Around the same time, the University of British Columbia, which has long been a host to W.U.S.C. scholarship students, was working with Moi University in Kenya to create a teacher training curriculum for primary and secondary education in the camp. “It was felt that training the teachers was the most important thing that we could do,” said Thomas Sork, senior associate dean in U.B.C.’s education faculty. “It would be the greatest multiplier effect on the opportunities people might have in the camps, in the future, if they were able to get out of the camps.” Starting in 2010, a series of workshops brought together the African Virtual University, an online learning network; Kenyatta University in Nairobi; Moi University; W.U.S.C.; Windle Trust Kenya; York University and U.B.C. From these meetings, Borderless Higher Education for Refugees was born. “We knew it would be big in terms of resources, organization and thinking,” said Wenona Giles, a professor at York University and a co-leader of the project. “We are going to be offering degree programs and that had not been done before, so that took a lot of chutzpah.” Scholarships like those offered by the Canadian world university program have been in place for decades. The Albert Einstein German Academic Refugee Initiative, for example, provides higher education scholarships to refugees in their host countries while a program run by the Catholic Jesuit order, Higher Education at the Margins, offers a higher education diploma in liberal studies for refugees in Kenya, Malawi and Syria. Still, the Borderless program is breaking ground by offering refugees access to accredited pre-existing university degrees that are partially professor-taught in Dadaab. Students who successfully complete the Instep program and are admitted to a university program will spend two years taking courses in either secondary or primary education. York University will offer its 30-credit certificate of educational studies while Kenyatta University will offer a diploma in primary teacher education. A diploma course in secondary teacher education will be run jointly by Moi University and U.B.C. The program is stackable, meaning that its graduates will not only be qualified teachers but also will be positioned to go on to an advanced university degree — important, Ms. Giles said, for jobs in fields like community health and development. Classes, taught in person and online, will take place in a learning center in the town of Dadaab, funded by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development. A mentoring program is also being set up, that will link students with mentors in Canada and Kenya, who will help them with academic issues and personal ones — like time management and family constraints. An estimated 18,000 children in primary and secondary schools in the Dadaab camps will be the ultimate beneficiaries as their teachers — who will be teacher-certified under the Kenyan system — acquire the skills and knowledge represented by college degrees. “This is an idea of broadening the pipeline,” said Sarah Dryden-Peterson, an assistant professor of education at Harvard University and BHER’s educational specialist. “Having their teachers get certified means kids will have a chance to benefit in their schooling.” In the first cohort of Instep students, about 17 percent are women, reflecting the reality that refugee girls tend to drop out of secondary education under family and religious pressures. Still, the plan is to raise that to at least 40 percent with the next group. If the program works, elements of it could be taken to other camps elsewhere. “I think the BHER program captures people’s imagination to see what else we can do,” said Mary Tangelder, project director for the International Rescue Committee and the University of Nairobi’s “Education in Emergencies” program. “Often in the humanitarian world, we get excited about solutions and we quickly try it everywhere else,” Ms. Tangelder said. “The trick here is to monitor and, if we try it somewhere else, we have to adjust it to that context.” With rising Islamic jihadist violence in eastern Africa and rumors that sympathizers of the Somali Shabab militant group may be living in the Kenyan refugee camps, higher education opportunities in Dadaab are particularly relevant. Typically, people living precarious lives have less access to knowledge when they need as much access as possible to find a way forward, said Ms. Giles, of York University. “Higher education gives an alternative, to, for example, entering a militia or taking up dangerous forms of employment,” she said. “It gives them a chance to re-envision the refugee camp, a chance to go to graduate school, a chance to maybe go home and rebuild Somalia.” Mr. Abdi, who was born in the camps and teaches primary school in Dadaab, agreed. “Now we lack the skills for teaching,” he said. “This program will give us the capability and the knowledge we need to become better teachers and improve our students’ — and our own — lives.”

Kenya
Education
College
Refugees,Internally Displaced People
Dadaab Kenya


E-Mail Can’t Replace Interaction, Says Henkel’s Chief

Abstract: This interview with Kasper Rorsted, the chief executive of Henkel, the consumer and industrial products company based in Düsseldorf, Germany, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant . Q. Do you remember the first time you were somebody’s boss? A. That was in 1989, right when I got promoted from being a sales rep in the Digital Equipment Corporation to being a sales manager at the age of 27. I had about 20 people at that point in time. All but two of them were older than I was. Q. Was that a good experience? A. When you’re 27, you’re inexperienced, so you don’t know what to fear. I didn’t know what I probably should have known. The first time I realized it was serious was when, after about six months, I had to lay somebody off. And then suddenly you move from the sunny side of the deal to the real deal. I remember I was sleeping very poorly for almost for a week. He had a family. So one of the lessons I learned from that, which I’ve been very aware of since, is to be friendly, but not a friend. I had grown up in the company and I knew everybody, so I was more a friend. But then I had to start having honest conversations with people about how they performed, and that taught me a lesson. I’ve always been friendly but never been friends anymore. When we have parties, I’m the one who will leave early. Q. What were some other lessons? A. Later on in my career, I realized that there is nothing personal in business because most decisions are made for business reasons. Q. How did you learn that? A. In 2004, I was dismissed by Hewlett-Packard. My immediate reaction was to take it very personally and say, "What are they doing to me?" I was running a division with 40,000 people and $30 billion in revenue. I learned a lot from that. Within a month, I had 11 job offers, all in high tech, and I had one that came from a completely different industry. It was from Henkel, a consumer goods and adhesives company. And I decided I would take the job offer from Henkel because there was a clear path I could see to get the C.E.O. job. But I realized when I came in that I had no clue. I didn’t know the industry. I didn’t know the employees. I didn’t know the customers. I didn’t know the competitors. And when you grow up in an industry, you tend to know more and more, and a lot of people, me included, become a bit complacent or arrogant because you know it all. You’ve seen all the problems before. Here, I had to start from scratch again. It was like going back to first grade in school and I had three years of questions. It was a reminder of just how important it is to ask questions and listen and listen and listen and just be humble again. It was a great lesson for me, and I think I’ve changed my leadership style, to be much more humble and listen much more and ask questions. Q. It was your first C.E.O. job. Were you surprised by anything? A. I was surprised about a couple of things. One was how much conflict actually ends up at the C.E.O.’s desk. All of the problems that nobody else wants or can’t sort out, they end up on your desk. And there’s the immense amount of time you deal with people, and how important it is for you to be there and be visible, not sitting in the office, so people can see you and feel you and ask you things instead of just sending an e-mail. Q. How would you say your leadership style has evolved over time? A. I do less e-mail and a lot more of being present. Last year, I just moved my office to the U.S. and traveled around for six weeks without going home. This year, I’ll go to Asia for six weeks and will visit as many sites, employees and customers as I can. So that’s one — just understanding how important it is to be where the business is and understand how it works. The second part is being very clear on what is urgent and what is important and being very selective about the battles I pick. Q. You mentioned you’re doing less e-mail. A. I think e-mail is very often disruptive in corporate cultures. You sit next to people and send e-mail to each other instead of walking over or making a call or just trying to look for the personal interaction. I use e-mail more and more as text messaging — just very, very short messages. It’s very efficient, but I am convinced that e-mail does not replace presence. Also, I never read cc e-mails. Q. What do you mean by that? A. When I see on an e-mail “cc Kasper,” I delete it. I don’t read it. Q. Why? A. Because it’s a waste of time. If they want to write to me, they can write to me. People often copy me to cover their back. They need to deal with their business and I need to deal with my business. If it’s important, they need to write it to me, but I’m not going to read a cc e-mail. I’m not advocating against e-mail, but you can get into a great argument in e-mail because people can read whatever they want into the words. It takes two minutes to pick up the phone, so I try to encourage that as much as I can. It’s not either/or. I’m just saying you’ve got to get the balance right. Q. And when you became C.E.O., did you already know who you were going to keep on the executive team because you’d been working with them? A. Yes, I knew a lot of them, so I had the bigger picture. Some were yay-sayers, which I don’t want. I want people not to say what I say. We need to get alignment on where we go, but I want them to have opinions. I don’t want people to say every time I say something: “You’re fantastic. You’re great. What a good idea.” I want to hear what the real deal is. So I took a number of the yay-sayers out because I didn’t want them to be part of our corporate culture, a culture where the end result is most important. It’s not who got the idea. Q. How do you hire? A. I want to know who you are, who you’ve worked for, what kind of successes you’ve had, what are the failures or missteps in your career. But what I try to spend a lot of time on is trying to understand the person I’m speaking to. Did you work in an ice cream parlor when you were young? Do you have sisters? Do you have brothers? Why are you now living here? I’m trying to figure out who’s actually behind the person, and what are the value sets that drive you as a person. Then I always ask the question, what would you do if you won 10 million bucks? Would you leave? Would you retire? Do you want to do charity work? Will you stay? I never look at grades from university. I look at what they’ve done, but I look very much at what they’ve done outside work. How do they spend their time? Who do they relate to? Have they moved? Have they been put in situations in their personal and professional lives that were not very straightforward? I’m concerned about people who have come through their career with “A” grades throughout their entire life, and have never really had any setbacks and have always been in environments where they knew the environment. Also, do they say goodbye and hello to the person who stands in front of the building, and do they say hello to the person who sweeps the floor? How do they act as a person? The personal part is, for me, equally important to the professional part. Because I think you can get a lot of people who are professionally very good, but I think the personal part and the value part are the difference between a good manager or leader and a great leader. Q. How do you get feedback on your leadership style? A. What I try to do is I spend an enormous amount of time at all levels, and I try to listen and say, “What do I do well and what don’t I do well?” Q. And you’ll just ask people that? A. I’ll just ask. And if they only say, “You’re great,” then I say: “That’s not what I’m asking for. I’m interested in trying to improve.” And the better they know me, the more they tell me. And then it’s up to me to say, “O.K., do I listen to it?” And sometimes you’ve got to listen to it and take it seriously. Sometimes you just say, “I know what you’re saying but I’m not going to change it,” because you can’t behave according to the polls. You’ve got to behave according to what you believe is right. But you’ve got to show interest. I don’t believe in hierarchy. I really believe that you don’t establish power by hierarchy. You establish power by who you are in the organization. And if you really try to reach out, people will speak to you. If you don’t, they don’t bother saying anything to you. Q. Let’s say that you’re on a cross-country flight and you’re sitting next to somebody who’s on track to become a C.E.O. What’s your best advice to them? A. I would ask them the question, “Do you really want the job?” Q. Why? A. Because it’s such a demanding job. On the outside, it looks very shiny. But there’s a lot of hard work. You get paid to do all the uncomfortable things. You don’t get paid to go play golf in Savannah. It’s not just glamour. I’m not saying it’s hardship, but are they able to live with it? So that’s the first one — “Is it really what you want?” And the second part is asking them to reflect and say, “Why do you think you’re good at what you’re going to do?” You’ve got to be clear in your own mind why you want to be C.E.O., besides the fact that you get a good paycheck and you have it on a business card.


Amid Giants’ Minicamp Controversy, Eli Manning Calmly Returns to the Stage

Abstract: East Rutherford, N.J. The Man is staying characteristically calm, shaking off minicamp controversies as he did Patriots tacklers last February on third-and-Tyree, brushing off praise as he did all doubters, accepting his new standing as the sleepy-eyed face of the Giants with a familiar aw-shucks shrug. Tiki Barber is long gone, Michael Strahan recently retired and Jeremy Shockey may be angling to be traded. Eli’s the man now, but the same Manning, Super Bowl ring notwithstanding. “He’s not changing,” Amani Toomer said Friday at the end of the last assembly before the Giants reconvene next month for countless more repetitions, of which there apparently can never be enough. “He’s not going all Broadway on us.” Not a chance, even if Manning can actually be called the hottest sports star in the New York area, the deliverer of its most recent championship and one that instantly ranked among the classics. As evolutions go, Manning was Opie Taylor to Ron Howard, child of innocence to director of a blockbuster, but still the proverbial little brother at heart.  “I tried not to do anything too different in the off-season,” Manning said. “Just because you win the Super Bowl doesn’t mean you do more stuff. I tried to do the same charity events and work with the people I have sponsorships with. I might have been in the newspapers more, but it was about the same. I really didn’t do anything unusual.” “Didn’t you get married?” “Right, yeah, that was good.” Is it possible that Manning, ever the earnest earner, packed his playbook for the honeymoon? While two of his veteran targets, Shockey and Plaxico Burress, generated minicamp headlines by practicing the art of self-interest, Manning drew high praise from Coach Tom Coughlin and the offensive coordinator, Kevin Gilbride, for being considerably sharper with his passes than his locker room quotations. “You have to get your work done,” Manning said to the question of how he had stayed focused, in shape, still capable of hitting the target, the top of a helmet, well downfield. “You watch your film. I have a computer at home. I can watch everything, all the plays from last year. It doesn’t stop. It just keeps going.” Isn’t that the truth? Hasn’t it seemed as if Coughlin and colleagues were drilling one group or another at the Giants’ Meadowlands base every other week not long after they painted the most conspicuous blemish on the face of Patriots perfection? Strange world, the N.F.L., where the players union passively allows the brutality of the regular season to beget an off-season with asterisks, some minicamps that are optional, others that are mandatory and all of them, especially those for veterans, possibly accomplishing little more than providing a platform for players unhappy and underpaid. Shockey, we are told, falls into the category of the unhappy, Burress the underpaid. What will make Shockey happy? Quite possibly a trade to a city where he will not be reminded of how a Super Bowl was won without him. Burress? With a contract upgraded to pay him fair-market value, no outrageous demand in a league in which most contracts are not guaranteed and in which the Giants could have cut him had he performed miserably, not valiantly, on the sore ankle he played on last season. Whatever happens between now and training camp, the notion that the Giants will suffer because Burress and Shockey showed up but refused to participate plays right into the league’s militaristic propaganda machine. Strahan, remember, didn’t arrive until the end of the real training camp last season, and he was a team captain. Burress, who seldom practiced last season, was Manning’s primary receiver and merely caught the winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl. “There’s a lot to be said about extra time off,” said Toomer, the wise, 12-year veteran receiver. “I mean, everybody’s going to stay in some kind of shape, no matter where they are. I do kind of think it’s all overrated. I remember playing seasons where we would switch quarterbacks in the middle of the year and it really didn’t matter.”  Even Manning, the good company man, agreed that the typical minicamp drama is Off Off Broadway, and therefore just fine with him. “We have plenty of time; we’re dealing with veteran guys who know what they’re doing,” he said. “Once training camp comes, we’ll be working hard and get everyone going.” Six more weeks until passers and catchers, until Manning and whomever.


Farmer’s Real Prizewinner Is Fantasy Baseball Team

Abstract: The National Fantasy Baseball Championship , a contest paying a top prize of $100,000, draws an elite collection of contestants: computer geniuses, deep-pocketed stockbrokers and money managers, maybe a young man or woman looking to be the next Billy Beane or Theo Epstein. But the contest over the years has produced only one two-time champion, Lindy Hinkelman, a 59-year-old pig farmer from Greencreek, Idaho. Hinkelman, who has won two of the last three titles in one of the country’s most highly regarded contests, does not have a perfect answer for how he has been able to do it, but he is happy to offer his gut take on it all. “Raising pigs and this baseball thing really go together,” he said. “There are certain things in farming: keeping track of productivity, indexes for your sows, the genetic lines there. To do well, you’ve got to be pretty proficient in numbers. Math has always been my strong suit. I can see things with the numbers.” He cautioned with modesty: “That’s just my theory. I have no proof.” What he does have is in excess of $300,000 in prize money earned over the last three years. Some fantasy football leagues offer bigger prizes, but the National Fantasy Baseball Championship says its payout is tops in fantasy baseball, and the Fantasy Sports Trade Association , which represents more than 100 member companies in the fantasy sports industry, said it was unlikely that anyone had won more prize money than Hinkelman. Hinkelman, however, is not looking to, oh, get involved in fixing the Baltimore Orioles. “These guys working in front offices know so much more about this than I would ever dream of,” he said. “These guys grew up in the game. I have no ambitions of doing that.” Fantasy baseball got its start around 1980 with the development of Rotisserie League Baseball, named for a New York restaurant where a group of people, led by the longtime journalist Daniel Okrent , first played it. In the game, participants draft actual players and follow them throughout a season, earning points based on how those players perform in major league games. The games exploded in popularity with the rise of the Internet. And although fantasy football has eclipsed baseball in popularity, the fantasy sports association said, roughly 13 million people play fantasy baseball. Hinkelman looks for undervalued players, as does Beane, the Oakland Athletics general manager, who was played by Brad Pitt in the movie “Moneyball.” Hinkelman volunteered to draft 14th in his 15-team league this year, and he focused on three players who ended up doing significantly better in 2011 than in 2010: Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers and Curtis Granderson of the Yankees. His faith was rewarded; Kemp and Granderson turned in seasons worthy of the Most Valuable Player award and Verlander should be a lock for the American League Cy Young Award. “Those three guys really made up my team there,” Hinkelman said. He had Kemp and Verlander on his 2009 prizewinner, giving him a personal connection of sorts, even though he has never met any of the players. “These guys are like personal friends to you, even though you don’t know them.” He also got top performances from late-round picks like Cleveland shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera and Tampa Bay relief pitcher Kyle Farnsworth . But the 2011 season still came down to the final game for Hinkelman, who battled K. J. Duke, a San Diego investment portfolio manager, for most of the season. Duke, who played in a different league, also had Kemp and Verlander, along with Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers, a contender for the Cy Young Award in the National League. But an off-year by his first-round pick, the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, held him back. As in “Moneyball,” in which little-known Scott Hatteberg hits a dramatic game-winning home run, a relative unknown cinched Hinkelman’s victory. Hinkelman plucked the St. Louis Cardinals’ Allen Craig off the waiver wire late in the season, and when outfielder Matt Holliday went down with an injury, Craig stepped in and went on an offensive tear. In the final game of the season, an 8-0 Cardinals victory over the Houston Astros, Craig hit a ninth-inning solo home run. “For that baseball game, it was a meaningless hit,” Duke said, “but it cost me $80,000.” The National Fantasy Baseball Championship attracted 390 players last year, each paying a $1,400 entry fee. Players can enter more than one team. Players have included the film director Nick Cassavetes , the television actor James Roday and the entertainer Meat Loaf . There were 26 leagues of 15 teams each, and in March, drafts were held in Las Vegas, St. Louis, New York and Atlantic City and online. Each league had a prize of $5,600, and the leaders in each league compete against one another for the overall prize. In 2009, Hinkelman raked in an astonishing $241,300 in prize money. He won the $100,000 contest, and another for $40,000. The N.F.B.C. had said anyone who could win both would get a $75,000 bonus, which it had insured — and he took that home as well. In 2011, he paid $8,750 in entry fees for his various teams and took home $116,750 in prizes, according to Greg Ambrosius, who runs the N.F.B.C. as the general manager of consumer fantasy games for Stats LLC. “You can’t do this twice in three years and have it be luck,” said Paul Charchian, the president of the trade association. “This is somebody who is extremely skilled at what he’s doing.” Hinkelman’s business suits his fantasy baseball hobby, even though the hobby has eclipsed farming in earnings the past three years. He typically has about 500 pigs on his farm, and he now sells most of them to youths participating in 4-H programs. The pigs are typically born in February and March, and he sells them in April and May so the youngsters can raise them for fairs in August and September. That means that for most of the summer — baseball season — Hinkelman does not have many pigs on his farm, and he can spend four to six hours a day watching baseball via his package of major league games on DirecTV. He has no employees and only a 300-yard walk to work. He has four grown children and a wife who does not know much about baseball, although she has learned who Justin Verlander is. Hinkelman grew up on the farm in Greencreek, population 211, three hours southeast of Spokane, Wash., by car. His father raised cattle and pigs, and his brother still grows wheat on the farm. His youngest son, Gabe, 29, helps him with the team. He played high school basketball, helping to lead his team to the Idaho state tournament, and sat on the bench at the University of Idaho as a 6-foot guard. He played some slow-pitch softball after that, and now bowls two or three times a week. He did not play baseball growing up. “There was a Little League in a bigger town,” he said. “None of the farm kids played baseball. I never did.” At night, he could hear the broadcasts of Vin Scully calling Dodgers games, carrying tales of Maury Wills and Sandy Koufax across the wide-open West. He remains a Dodgers fan to this day, and said he thought the addition of Davey Lopes as a base-running coach would help Kemp realize his potential in 2011. Hinkelman got on the Internet in the 1990s to feed his fantasy baseball habit, but says he is not too obsessed with technology. At the annual draft in Las Vegas, he said, half the participants have laptops. “I go down with three pieces of paper, is all I go with,” he added. “I’ve got everything ranked. “I’m not proficient at computers. I don’t have a smartphone where you can look up stats or anything like that. I just have a cellphone for calls. A lot of people have smartphones so they can look up box scores instantaneously. I’m not at that stage yet. I don’t know if I want to be. You can get married to that stuff.” Two years ago, he bought a tractor and a livestock trailer with his winnings, and put new windows on the house, paid off a lot of debt and gave some money to his children. “This year, we’ll probably do some remodeling on our house,” he said. He joked to the N.F.B.C. that he might buy “a boar for my sows,” and the organization put it online, which surprised him. “It makes me sound like a hick, which is O.K.,” he said. It keeps his competitors from taking him too seriously, he said. “They say: ‘How’s this guy win? All he is is a pig farmer,’ ” Hinkelman said. “I don’t mind that at all.”

Baseball
Fantasy Sports
Verlander Justin
Kemp Matt
Granderson Curtis
Awards Decorations and Honors
Hinkelman Lindy


College Football Around the Country

Abstract: JOHN HUBERT The Kansas State back ran for 220 yards and a touchdown as Kansas State won at Kansas, 31-10. TODD GURLEY The Georgia back ran for 122 yards and 3 touchdowns, including one in each of the two overtime periods, as the Bulldogs rallied from 20 behind to win at Georgia Tech, 41-34. TREVOR SIEMIAN AND CHRISTIAN JONES Siemian threw for 414 yards and 4 touchdowns, and Jones had 13 catches and 2 scores in Northwestern’s 37-34 win at Illinois. TRE ROBERSON The Indiana quarterback threw for 273 yards and 6 touchdowns and ran for 154 yards in a 56-36 home win over Purdue. JARIUS HOLLMAN His touchdowns on a 90-yard punt return and on a 34-yard interception return helped Furman to a 30-20 victory at South Carolina State in the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs. Victory at Last Nick Mullens threw a career-high five touchdown passes and rushed for another as Southern Mississippi won its finale, 62-27 at Alabama-Birmingham to avoid going winless for a second straight season. Image John Hubert Credit Orlin Wagner/Associated Press The Golden Eagles (1-11, 1-7 Conference USA) trailed the Blazers (2-10, 1-7) by 8 points at the start of the third quarter. Mullens led a 28-0 rally with three touchdown passes and a 1-yard touchdown rush to put Southern Miss ahead by 20 points at the start of the fourth. Southern Mississippi had a Football Bowl Subdivision-worst 23-game losing streak. No F.B.S. team has had two straight winless seasons since Kansas State in 1987 and 1988. Supporting Coaches Nebraska Athletic Director Shawn Eichorst issued a statement expressing support for Coach Bo Pelini and his staff and quashing speculation that Pelini’s job was in jeopardy after a disappointing 8-4 regular season. “We very much look forward to our upcoming bowl game and Coach Pelini continuing to lead our program in the future,” the statement said. After Friday’s 38-17 loss to Iowa, Pelini, who has a 57-24 record in his sixth season, said, “If they want to fire me, go ahead.” ■ Florida Athletic Director Jeremy Foley said he had “total confidence” in Coach Will Muschamp, whose Gators then went out and lost at home to No. 2 Florida State, 37-7, to cap a 4-8 season. Hawaii Player Dies Hawaii running back Willis Wilson was found dead off Oahu’s Sandy Beach after a wave overcame him in shallow water. He was 21. Hawaii’s athletics department confirmed Wilson’s death. A Honolulu Fire Department report says Wilson was among a group of three men and two women who were wading in shallow water early Saturday morning. Fire officials and Coast Guard rescuers were called after the group noticed that Wilson was no longer with them. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported that his body was recovered a few hours later. Wilson, a walk-on who transferred after being with Washington for three seasons, did not appear in any games for Hawaii.

College football
Kansas State
University of Georgia
Northwestern University