Events in Westchester for April 27-May 2, 2014

Abstract: A guide to cultural and recreational events in the Hudson Valley. Items for the calendar should be sent at least three weeks in advance to westweek@nytimes.com. Comedy PEEKSKILL Paramount Hudson Valley Joan Rivers. May 3 at 6 and 9 p.m. $49.50 to $89.50. Paramount Hudson Valley, 1008 Brown Street. paramounthudsonvalley.com; (914) 739-0039. PELHAM Rockwells Kevin McCaffrey. May 3 at 9 p.m. $10. Rockwells, 105 Wolfs Lane. (888) 983-2785; rockwellsusa.net. WEST NYACK Levity Live Sommore. Through April 27. $25. Pablo Francisco. May 1 through 4. $22 and $25. Levity Live, 4210 Palisades Center Drive. (845) 353-5400; levitylive.com. WHITE PLAINS White Plains Performing Arts Center The Magnet Theater Company, improvisation. May 3 at 8 p.m. $25. “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus Live,” one-man show by Peter Story. May 4 at 2 p.m. $25 and $30. White Plains Performing Arts Center, 11 City Place. (914) 328-1600; wppac.com. Film BETHEL Bethel Woods Center for the Arts “Sound City,” documentary by Dave Grohl. May 2 at 7 p.m. $5 to $8. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 200 Hurd Road. (866) 781-2922; bethelwoodscenter.org. HUDSON Time & Space Limited “The Missing Picture,” documentary by Rithy Panh. Through May 3. $6 and $8. Time & Space Limited, 434 Columbia Street. (518) 822-8448; timeandspace.org. PELHAM The Picture House The Westchester Future Filmmaker’s Festival. April 27 at 2:30 p.m. $3 and $7; children under 5, free. The Picture House, 175 Wolfs Lane. (914) 738-3161; thepicturehouse.org. PLEASANTVILLE Jacob Burns Film Center “Classic French Cinema,” film series. May 2 through 22. $7 to $15 per screening. Jacob Burns Film Center, 364 Manville Road. burnsfilmcenter.org; (914) 747-5555. ROSENDALE Rosendale Theater “Elaine Stritch: Shoot Me,” documentary by Chiemi Karasawa. Through April 30. $5 and $7. A screening of the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “Richard II.” April 27 at 2 p.m. and April 29 at 7:15 p.m. $10 and $12. Rosendale Theater, 408 Main Street. rosendaletheatre.org; (845) 658-8989. YONKERS Hudson River Museum “Gamer Age,” documentary screening and discussion with its director, Ian Santer. May 3 at 2 p.m. Free with museum admission. $3 to $6. Hudson River Museum, 511 Warburton Avenue. (914) 963-4550; hrm.org. For Children BETHEL Bethel Woods Center for the Arts “Much Ado About Nothing,” Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival. Ages 10 and up. May 2 at 4:45 p.m. Free. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 200 Hurd Road. (866) 781-2922; bethelwoodscenter.org. IRVINGTON Irvington Town Hall Theater “A Little Princess,” Broadway Training Center. May 2 and 3 at 7 p.m. and May 4 at 3 p.m. $15 to $22. Irvington Town Hall Theater, 85 Main Street. (914) 591-6602; irvingtontheater.com. KATONAH Muscoot Farm “Which Came First, the Chicken or the Egg?” Educational program. April 27 at 1 p.m. Free. Muscoot Farm, 51 Route 100. (914) 864-7282; muscootfarm.org. PEEKSKILL 12 Grapes Music and Wine Bar Kids’ Open Mike, showcase for musicians 17 and under. April 27 at 5:30 p.m. Admission is free. 12 Grapes Music and Wine Bar, 12 North Division Street. (914) 737-6624; 12grapes.com. WHITE PLAINS White Plains Performing Arts Center “Rent (School Edition),” musical by Jonathan Larson. Through April 27. $20 and $25. White Plains Performing Arts Center, 11 City Place. wppac.com; (914) 328-1600. Music and Dance BEACON Towne Crier Cafe John McCutcheon, folk. April 27 at 7:30 p.m. $25 and $30. Ellis Paul, folk. May 2 at 8:30 p.m. $20 and $25. David Wax Museum, folk and blues. May 3 at 8:30 p.m. $20 and $25. “Pete Seeger: the Storm King,” Dar Williams, David Amram, Richie Stearns, Jane Kelly Williams, Dave Richards and many more. May 4 at 7:30 p.m. $30 and $35. Towne Crier Cafe, 379 Main Street. (845) 855-1300; townecrier.com. BETHEL Bethel Woods Center for the Arts Simple Gifts, folk. April 27 at 2 p.m. Atl-Tlachinolli, Aztec dance. May 4 at 2 p.m. Free. Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, 200 Hurd Road. bethelwoodscenter.org; (866) 781-2922. BRONX Church of the Mediator di.vi.sion piano trio, classical. April 27 at 5 p.m. $10 and $15. Church of the Mediator, 260 West 231st Street. (347) 326-5846; division-artsandeducation.org. BRONX Wave Hill “Rakonto Wave Hill,” jazz suite by Daniel Kelly. April 27 at 2 p.m. $12 to $32. Wave Hill, 675 West 252nd Street. wavehill.org; (718) 549-3200. DOBBS FERRY Common Ground, at South Presbyterian Church The Ron Vincent Trio, jazz. May 3 at 7:30 p.m. $15 and $18. Common Ground, at South Presbyterian Church, 343 Broadway. commongroundfusw.com; (914) 693-1065. KATONAH Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts Rebecca Luker sings the music of Jerome Kern, cabaret. May 3 at 8:30 p.m. $75 to $200. Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts, 149 Girdle Ridge Road. (914) 232-1252; caramoor.org. MARLBORO The Falcon Bob Stump and the Roadside Attraction, country and blues. April 27, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. The Trapps and Twist and Shout, rock. April 27 at 7 p.m. Robert Sarazin Blake and Kristin Andreasson, folk. April 30 at 7 p.m. Reverend Jefferson, tribute to Jefferson Airplane. May 1 at 7 p.m. Paul Pesco, pop. May 2 at 7 p.m. Marshall Crenshaw, pop. May 3 at 7 p.m. Rob Paparozzi Quartet, jazz and blues. May 4, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wolff and Clark Expedition, jazz. May 4 at 7 p.m. Donations accepted. The Falcon, 1348 Route 9W. (845) 236-7970; liveatthefalcon.com. MOUNT KISCO Merestead “In the Quartet of the Negroes: The Musical World of Langston Hughes,” James Martin and Michael Boriskin. April 27 at 3 p.m. $10 to $25. Merestead, 455 Byram Lake Road. coplandhouse.org; (914) 788-4659. MOUNT VERNON PJS Jazz Society, First Presbyterian Church Dezron Douglas and the New Jazz Workshop, jazz. April 27 at 5:15 p.m. $14 and $22. PJS Jazz Society, First Presbyterian Church, 199 North Columbus Avenue. (914) 667-0823; pjsjazz.org. NEW ROCHELLE Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium, Iona College The Symphony of Westchester’s All-Gershwin Concert. May 3 at 8 p.m. $15 to $50. Christopher J. Murphy Auditorium, Iona College, 715 North Avenue. (914) 654-4926; thesymphonyofwestchester.org. OSSINING Ossining Public Library Professor Louie and the Crowmatix, blues. April 27 at 2 p.m. Free. Ossining Public Library , 53 Croton Avenue. (914) 941-2416; ossininglibrary.org. PEEKSKILL 12 Grapes Music and Wine Bar Johnny Fedz and Friends, blues. May 2 at 9:30 p.m. $5 and $10. Murali Coryell Band, blues. May 3 at 9:30 p.m. $6 and $12. Greg Westhoff’s Westchester Swing Band, jazz. May 4 at 5:30 p.m. $5 suggested donation. 12 Grapes Music and Wine Bar, 12 North Division Street. (914) 737-6624; 12grapes.com. PEEKSKILL Bean Runner Cafe Carlos Barbosa Lima and Larry Del Casale, guitar. May 2 at 8 p.m. $10. Orlando Marin, Latin jazz. May 3 at 8 p.m. $10. Bean Runner Cafe, 201 South Division Street. (914) 737-1701; beanrunnercafe.com. PIERMONT The Turning Point Doc Richmond’s Jazz Jam. April 28 at 8 p.m. $5. Garland Jeffreys Trio, rock. May 2 at 9 p.m. $30. John Batdorf, rock. May 3 at 5 p.m. $20. Professor Louie and the Crowmatix, blues. May 3 at 8:30 p.m. $20. The Turning Point, 468 Piermont Avenue. turningpointcafe.com; (845) 359-1089. PORT CHESTER Garcia’s at the Capitol Theater Electric Eclectic, rock. April 29 at 8 p.m. $7. American Pinup, rockabilly. April 30 at 9 p.m. $8. Sway, rock. May 2 at 9 p.m. $8. Garcia’s at the Capitol Theater, 149 Westchester Avenue. (914) 937-4126; thecapitoltheatre.com. PORT CHESTER The Capitol Theater The Word, rock. May 1 at 8 p.m. $35 and $45. Umphrey’s McGee, rock. May 3 at 7 p.m. $99. The Capitol Theater, 149 Westchester Avenue. thecapitoltheatre.com; (877) 987-6487. POUGHKEEPSIE Bardavon Opera House “Harmony on the Hudson,” Music at Marist. April 26 at 7 p.m. and April 27 at 3 p.m. $10 and $15. “Rach 3,” Hudson Valley Philharmonic. May 3 at 8 p.m. $20 to $55. Bardavon Opera House, 35 Market Street. bardavon.org; (845) 473-2072. PURCHASE The Performing Arts Center, Purchase College The Purchase Dance Company, classical and contemporary. Through April 27. $15.50 and $17.50. The Purchase Symphony Winds. April 30 at 7:30 p.m. $15 and $20. Michael Feinstein, American songbook. May 3 at 8 p.m. $25 to $50. Aspen Santa Fe Ballet. May 4 at 3 p.m. $20 to $55. The Performing Arts Center, Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road. (914) 251-6200; artscenter.org. SAUGERTIES Saugerties Pro Musica, Saugerties United Methodist Church Akiko Kobayashi, violin, and Eric Siepkes, piano. April 27 at 3 p.m. $10 and $12; students, free. Prometheus Brass, classical and pop. May 4 at 3 p.m. $10 and $12; students, free. Saugerties Pro Musica, Saugerties United Methodist Church, Washington Avenue and Post Street. saugertiespromusica.org; (845) 246-5021. Image ELMSFORD The musical “Ragtime” is playing through May 4 at the Westchester Broadway Theater, 1 Broadway Plaza. Tickets are $54 to $80 for a meal and the show. For further information: (914) 592-2222; broadwaytheatre.com . Credit John Vecchiolla TARRYTOWN Tarrytown Music Hall Jim Curry, tribute to John Denver. May 3 at 8 p.m. $35 to $45. Tarrytown Music Hall, 13 Main Street. tarrytownmusichall.org; (877) 840-0457. WEST POINT Eisenhower Hall Theater “The 10 Tenors on Broadway,” show tunes. April 27 at 3 p.m. $38. Eisenhower Hall Theater, 655 Pitcher Road. (845) 938-4159; ikehall.com. WHITE PLAINS White Plains High School The St. Thomas Orchestra, classical. May 3 at 7:30 p.m. $10 and $20. White Plains High School, 550 North Street. (914) 379-2260; storchestra.org. WHITE PLAINS White Plains Presbyterian Church The Hudson Valley Singers, classical. April 27 at 3 p.m. $25 and $30. White Plains Presbyterian Church, 39 North Broadway. (914) 674-2865; hudsonvalleysingers.org. WOODSTOCK Bearsville Theater Gratefully Yours, tribute to the Grateful Dead. May 2 at 9 p.m. $12 and $15. “Soundout: the Music of Pete Seeger.” Proceeds to benefit the Woodstock Day School and Hudson River Sloop Clearwater. May 3 at 7 p.m. $25 to $50. Bearsville Theater, 291 Tinker Street. (845) 679-4406; bearsvilletheater.com. WOODSTOCK Woodstock Playhouse Patti LuPone and Seth Rudetsky, cabaret. May 3 at 7:30 p.m. $150 and $175. Woodstock Playhouse, Routes 212 and 375. (845) 679-4101; woodstockplayhouse.org. YONKERS Yonkers Public Library, Grinton I. Will Branch Yonkers Community Band, jazz. April 27 at 2 p.m. Free. Yonkers Public Library, Grinton I. Will Branch, 1500 Central Park Avenue. (914) 337-1500; ypl.org/grinton. Outdoors CROTON-ON-HUDSON Teatown’s Cliffdale Farm Mother-Daughter Hike, guided walk. May 4 at 10 a.m. $5; members, free. Teatown’s Cliffdale Farm, 57 Teatown Road. (914) 762-2912; teatown.org. CROTON-ON-HUDSON Van Cortlandt Manor “Lightscapes,” immersive land-art evening experience. May 2 through 31. $12 to $18; children under 3, free. Van Cortlandt Manor, 525 South Riverside Avenue. (914) 366-6900; hudsonvalley.org. NORTH SALEM Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden The 49th Annual Blessing of the Animals. Bring pets on a leash or in a crate. May 4 at 3 p.m. Free. Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, 28 Deveau Road. hammondmuseum.org; (914) 669-5033. POCANTICO HILLS Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture Sheep Shearing Festival, demonstrations, workshops and more. May 3, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. $15 and $25. Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture, 630 Bedford Road. stonebarnscenter.org; (914) 366-6200. Spoken Word BRONX Bronx Museum of the Arts “Back in the Bronx,” discussion with the actor and comedian Robert Klein. April 27, noon to 2 p.m. $5 and $10. Price includes lunch. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse. (718) 681-6000; bronxmuseum.org. KATONAH The Harvey School Performing Arts Center Poetry readings by Billy Collins, former poet laureate of the United States. April 27 at 3:30 p.m. $15 and $40. The Harvey School Performing Arts Center, 260 Jay Street. (914) 232-3508; katonahpoetry.com. WHITE PLAINS Garden of Remembrance The Annual Westchester Countywide Yom Hashoa Holocaust Commemoration. April 27, 11 a.m. to noon. Free. Garden of Remembrance, 148 Martine Avenue. (914) 696-0738; hhrecny.org. Theater BRIARCLIFF MANOR Hudson Stage Company, Woodward Hall Theater “Family Reunion: ‘A Number,’ by Caryl Churchill, and ‘A Kind of Alaska,’ by Harold Pinter.” May 2 through 17. $30 and $35. Hudson Stage Company, Woodward Hall Theater, 235 Elm Road. (877) 238-5596; hudsonstage.com. ELMSFORD Westchester Broadway Theater “Ragtime,” musical by Terrence McNally, Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, Standing Ovation Studios. Through May 4. $54 to $80for meal and show. “Mary Poppins,” musical based on the 1964 film. May 8 through July 27. $54 to $80 for dinner and show. Westchester Broadway Theater, 1 Broadway Plaza. (914) 592-2222; broadwaytheatre.com. MAMARONECK Emelin Theater “Forbidden Broadway,” parody musical revue. May 2 and 3 at 8 p.m. and May 4 at 3 p.m. $37. Emelin Theater, 153 Library Lane. (914) 698-0098; emelin.org. MOHEGAN LAKE YCP TheaterWorks, at Van Cortlandtville School “Arsenic and Old Lace,” comedy by Joseph Kesselring. May 3 through 11. $15 to $18. YCP TheaterWorks, at Van Cortlandtville School, 3100 East Main Street. (914) 271-3698; ycptw.org. MONTROSE Hendrick Hudson Free Library “The Water Engine,” drama by David Mamet. April 27 at 2 p.m. Free. Hendrick Hudson Free Library, 185 Kings Ferry Road. henhudfreelibrary.org; (914) 739-5654. PEEKSKILL Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art “Acting Out: Words That Connect,” Tony Howarth and Donna Barkman. April 26 at 7 p.m. and April 27 at 5 p.m. $22 and $25. Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, 1701 Main Street. (914) 788-0100; hvcca.org. YORKTOWN HEIGHTS Yorktown Stage “The King and I,” musical by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II. Through April 27. $19 to $28. Yorktown Stage, 1974 Commerce Street. (914) 962-0606; yorktownstage.org. Museums and Galleries BEACON Fovea Exhibitions “War and Memory,” the Homecoming Project. Through July 6. Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Fovea Exhibitions, 143 Main Street. (845) 202-3443; foveaexhibitions.org. BEACON Matteawan Gallery “Scott Daniel Ellison: Green Moon.” Through May 4. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Matteawan Gallery, 464 Main Street. (845) 440-7901; matteawan.com. BEACON RiverWinds Gallery “Fired Up,” porcelain painting by Paola Bari. Through May 4. Wednesdays through Mondays, noon to 6 p.m. RiverWinds Gallery, 172 Main Street. (845) 838-2880; riverwindsgallery.com. BEACON The Lofts at Beacon Gallery “Fabric Art: From Traditional to Contemporary.” Through April 30. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The Lofts at Beacon Gallery, 18 Front Street. loftsatbeacon.com; (845) 202-7211. BEACON Theo Ganz Studio “Lost and Found,” paintings, drawings and video by Joseph Ayers. Through May 4. Fridays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Theo Ganz Studio, 149 Main Street. theoganzstudio.com; (917) 318-2239. BRONX Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum “Grandes Dames and Grand Plans: 100 Years of History at Bartow-Pell.” Through Nov. 16. $3 and $5; members and children, free. Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Bartow-Pell Mansion Museum, 895 Shore Road. (718) 885-1461; bpmm.org. BRONX Bronx Museum of the Arts “Bronx Lab: Performing the Library.” May 1 through 31. “Nina Talbot: Veterans.” Through July 6. “Shyu Ruey-Shiann: One Kind of Behavior.” May 1 through Aug. 17. “In Print/Imprint: Works from the Permanent Collection.” May 1 through Aug. 31. “Beyond the Supersquare,” group show. “Rethinking the Garden Casita.” May 1 through Jan. 11. Thursdays, Saturdays and Sundays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Fridays 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Bronx Museum of the Arts, 1040 Grand Concourse. (718) 681-6000; bronxmuseum.org. BRONX Lehman College Art Gallery “Cuban America: An Empire State of Mind,” group show. Through May 14. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lehman College Art Gallery, 250 Bedford Park Boulevard West. (718) 960-8731; lehman.edu/gallery. BRONX Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos “Gay,” group show. Through May 7. Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; Wednesdays, 2 to 6 p.m. Longwood Art Gallery @ Hostos, 450 Grand Concourse. bronxarts.org; (718) 518-6728. BRONX The City Island Nautical Museum “Water, Water Everywhere,” photographs by Jane Protzman. Through June 30. Weekends, 1 to 5 p.m. The City Island Nautical Museum, 190 Fordham Street. (718) 885-0008; cityislandmuseum.org. BRONX The New York Botanical Garden “Weird, Wild and Wonderful,” American Society of Botanical Artists. Through Sept. 21. $10 to $25; children under 2, free. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The New York Botanical Garden, Southern Boulevard. (718) 817-8700; nybg.org. CATSKILL The Thomas Cole National Historic Site “Master Mentor Master: Thomas Cole and Frederic Church.” April 30 through Nov. 2. $9 and $10; children under 12, free. Wednesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Thomas Cole National Historic Site, 218 Spring Street. (518) 943-7465; thomascole.org. COLD SPRING Gallery 66NY “The Picturesque, the Pastoral, and the Sublime,” Tarryl Gabel and Gregory Martin. Through April 27. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Gallery 66NY, 66 Main Street. (845) 809-5838; gallery66ny.com. DOBBS FERRY Palisades Building RiverArts 2014 Studio Tour, works by more than 80 artists. April 26 and 27, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Palisades Building, 145 Palisades. (914) 412-5120; riverarts.org. DOBBS FERRY The Donald Gallery Pastels by Cristine Kossow. Through May 18. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Donald Gallery, 343 Broadway. southpres.org/thedonaldgallery.shtml; (914) 693-0473. Image NEW PALTZ “C is for Chickadee,” an oil painting by Carolyn Edlund, is on view in the group exhibition “The Art of Birds” through May 17 at the Mark Gruber Gallery, 17 New Paltz Plaza. For further information: (845) 255-1241 or markgrubergallery.com . Credit Carolyn Edlund GARRISON Garrison Art Center “Closed Systems,” sculpture by Laura Moriarty. “Third Cultural World,” paintings by Eleen Lin. Through May 4. Tuesdays through Sundays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Garrison Art Center, 23 Garrison’s Landing. garrisonartcenter.org; (845) 424-3960. HARRISON Harrison Public Library “Southwest Landscapes,” Jim Maciel. Through May 2. Mondays and Wednesdays, 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Harrison Public Library, 2 Bruce Avenue. (914) 835-0324; harrisonpl.org. HASTINGS-ON-HUDSON Upstream Gallery “The Inner Self,” Allen M. Hart. May 1 through 25. Thursdays through Sundays, 12:30 to 5:30 p.m.; and by appointment. Upstream Gallery, 8 Main Street. upstreamgallery.com; (914) 674-8548. HUDSON 510 Warren Street Gallery “Kathy Korn: New Work.” Through April 27. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. 510 Warren Street Gallery, 510 Warren Street. (518) 822-0510; 510warrenstgallery.com. HUDSON Carrie Haddad Gallery “Under the Influence (of the New York School),” Lionel Gilbert, Judith Lindbloom and William Bond Walker. Through June 1. Mondays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Carrie Haddad Gallery, 622 Warren Street. carriehaddadgallery.com; (518) 828-1915. HUDSON John Davis Gallery Paintings by Yura Adams. Through May 18. Thursdays through Mondays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. John Davis Gallery, 362 ½ Warren Street. (518) 828-5907; johndavisgallery.com. KATONAH Katonah Museum of Art “Jasper Johns and John Lund: Masters in the Print Studio.” “The Art of Rosemary Wells: Picture Book Covers and Characters.” “Hot Off the Press,” print sale. Through June 15. $5 and $10; members and children under 12, free. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Katonah Museum of Art, 134 Jay Street. (914) 232-9555; katonahmuseum.org. LARCHMONT Mamaroneck Artists Guild The Tenth Open Juried Small Works Exhibition. April 30 through May 24. Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Mamaroneck Artists Guild, 126 Larchmont Avenue. mamaroneckartistsguild.org; (914) 834-1117. MAMARONECK Koslowe Gallery, Westchester Jewish Center “Filling the Frame: Holocaust Remembrance.” May 1 through July 23. Daily, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Koslowe Gallery, Westchester Jewish Center, Rockland and Palmer Avenues. (914) 968-2960. NEW PALTZ Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, at the State University of New York at New Paltz “1980s Style: Image and Design in the Dorsky Museum Collection.” “Along His Own Lines: A Retrospective of New York Realist Eugene Speicher.” Through July 13. Wednesdays through Sundays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, at the State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive. newpaltz.edu/museum; (845) 257-3844. NEW PALTZ The Mark Gruber Gallery “The Art of Birds,” group show. Through May 17. Mondays, 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Tuesdays through Fridays, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, by appointment. The Mark Gruber Gallery, New Paltz Plaza. (845) 255-1241; markgrubergallery.com. NORTH SALEM Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden “Brush With Nature,” Oriental Brush Artist Guild. “Transformations,” photographs by Tom Okada. “Transformations Through Clay,” ceramics by Marilyn Richeda. Through June 14. $4 and $5; members and children under 12, free. Wednesdays through Saturdays, noon to 4 p.m.; and by appointment. Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden, 28 Deveau Road. hammondmuseum.org; (914) 669-5033. NYACK Edward Hopper House Art Center “Grace de Coeur,” watercolors by Josephine Nivison Hopper, from the Sanborn Collection. Through June 15. “Josephine Nivison Hopper: Tree Studies.” Through Oct. 19. Paintings by Dan Graziano. May 1 through June 29. $2 to $6; members, children and students, free. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Edward Hopper House Art Center, 82 North Broadway. hopperhouse.org; (845) 358-0774. PEEKSKILL Field Library “Inside/Out: Teen Portrait Identity,” iPad portrait photography by area youth. Through April 27. Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Wednesdays, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 4 p.m. Field Library, 4 Nelson Avenue. peekskill.org; (914) 737-1212. PEEKSKILL Flat Iron Gallery “The Magic of Roses,” watercolors by Greta Corens. Through April 27. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Flat Iron Gallery, 105 South Division Street. (914) 734-1894; flatiron.qpg.com. PEEKSKILL Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art “Based On, If Any,” multimedia performance by Jordan Rathus. Through May 9. “Art at The Core: The Intersection of Visual Art, Performance and Technology,” group show. Through July 27. $2 to $5; members and children under 8, free. Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, 1701 Main Street. (914) 788-0100; hvcca.org. PELHAM Pelham Art Center “Big, Fat and Juicy,” group show. May 2 through June 28. Tuesdays through Fridays, noon to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Pelham Art Center, 155 Fifth Avenue. (914) 738-2525; pelhamartcenter.org. PORT CHESTER Clay Art Center “Potter’s Field: The Ceramic Art of Michelle Erickson.” Through May 31. Mondays through Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; and by appointment. Clay Art Center, 40 Beech Street. clayartcenter.org; (914) 937-2047. POUGHKEEPSIE Vassar College, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center “Mastering Light: From the Natural to the Artificial.” Through June 29. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Vassar College, Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, 124 Raymond Avenue. (845) 437-5632; fllac.vassar.edu. POUND RIDGE Pound Ridge Public Library “The Block Paintings,” David Hutchinson. Through May 10. Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.; Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pound Ridge Public Library, 271 Westchester Avenue. (914) 764-5085; poundridgelibrary.org. PURCHASE Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College “Forrest Bess: Seeing Things Invisible,” retrospective. Through May 18. “Domino Effect,” video by Donna Conlon and Jonathan Harker. Through May 2. $3 to $5. Tuesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Neuberger Museum of Art of Purchase College, 735 Anderson Hill Road. (914) 251-6100; neuberger.org. RHINEBECK Betsy Jacaruso Studio and Gallery “John Lennon,” photographs by Brian Hamill. Through April 27. Thursdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, noon to 4 p.m. Betsy Jacaruso Studio and Gallery, 43 East Market Street. betsyjacarusoartist.com; (845) 516-4435. RIVERDALE Gallery 18, Riverdale Y “Looking Back: People, Parties and Performances,” photographs by Bonnie Geller-Geld. May 1 through 30. Mondays through Thursdays, 5:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Fridays, 5:30 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Sundays, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Gallery 18, Riverdale Y, 5625 Arlington Avenue. (718) 548-8200; riverdaley.org. RYE Rye Arts Center “Edge of the Seat,” group show. Through May 17. Mondays through Fridays, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Rye Arts Center, 51 Milton Road. ryeartscenter.org; (914) 967-0700. SAUGERTIES Imogen Holloway Gallery New paintings by Pier Wright and Mandolyn Wilson Rosen. Through April 27. Thursdays, 3 to 8 p.m.; Fridays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Imogen Holloway Gallery, 81 Partition Street. ihgallery.com; (347) 387-3212. SPARKILL Elizabeth V. Sullivan Gallery “Bill Behnken: Chiaroscuro.” Through May 3. Wednesdays through Saturdays, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sundays, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Elizabeth V. Sullivan Gallery, 241 Kings Highway. theartstudentsleague.org; (845) 359-1263. TARRYTOWN Canfin Gallery “New Works,” Jean François Larrieu. May 3 through 18. Tuesdays through Fridays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Saturdays and Sundays, noon to 5 p.m.; and by appointment. Canfin Gallery, 39 Main Street. (914) 332-4554; canfingallery.com. TARRYTOWN Lyndhurst Estate “Crafts at Lyndhurst,” music, dance, craft demonstrations, vendors and more. May 2 through 4. $4 to $10; children under 6, free. Lyndhurst Estate, 635 South Broadway. (845) 331-7900; artrider.com. TIVOLI Tivoli Artists Gallery The 2014 Landscape Show. Through April 27. “Works Together: Mixed Media and Collaborations,” group show. May 2 through 25. Fridays, 5 to 9 p.m.; Saturdays, 1 to 9 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. Tivoli Artists Gallery, 60 Broadway. (845) 757-2667; tivoliartistsco-op.com. TUCKAHOE Westchester Italian Cultural Center “Apulia Then and Now: An Evocative Journey Into the Apulian Region.” Through June 7. $5 and $10, suggested donation. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.; Fridays, 2 to 8 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to noon. Westchester Italian Cultural Center, 1 Generoso Pope Place. (914) 771-8700; wiccny.org. WHITE PLAINS ArtsWestchester “Lest We Forget: Holocaust in Art,” group show. Through April 27. Tuesdays through Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. ArtsWestchester, 31 Mamaroneck Avenue. (914) 428-4220; artswestchester.org. WHITE PLAINS White Plains Public Library “Unseen Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Clapton and Other Photographs 1967-76,” Tapani Talo. Through April 27. Mondays through Thursdays, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; Fridays, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sundays, 1 to 5 p.m. White Plains Public Library, 100 Martine Avenue. whiteplainslibrary.org; (914) 422-1480. WOODSTOCK Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Center for the Arts “BASH: An Exhibition in Two Parts,” group show. April 26 through May 24. Thursdays through Sundays, noon to 6 p.m.; and by appointment. Byrdcliffe Kleinert/James Center for the Arts, 36 Tinker Street. (845) 679-2079; byrdcliffe.org. WOODSTOCK Woodstock Artists Association and Museum “Her Many Facets: Portrayals of Women from the Permanent Collection.” Through May 4. Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays, noon to 5 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, 28 Tinker Street. woodstockart.org; (845) 679-2940. WOODSTOCK Woodstock School of Art “The Print Show,” group exhibition. Through May 31. Tuesdays through Saturdays, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Woodstock School of Art, 2470 Route 212. (845) 679-2388; woodstockschoolofart.org. YONKERS Blue Door Gallery “Urbanlights,” paintings by Satish Joshi. April 24 through May 24. Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 5 p.m. Blue Door Gallery, 13 Riverdale Avenue. (914) 375-5100; bluedoorartcenter.org. YONKERS Hudson River Museum “The Art of Video Games,” exhibition on the medium’s graphics, storytelling and player interactivity. Through May 18. $3 to $5; members, free. Wednesdays through Sundays, noon to 5 p.m. Hudson River Museum, 511 Warburton Avenue. (914) 963-4550; hrm.org.


Barroso Wins Second Term as European Commission President

Abstract: STRASBOURG — José Manuel Barroso won parliamentary endorsement Wednesday for a second term as president of the European Commission, giving him a place in a new triumvirate of leaders that the European Union hopes to create during the next weeks. The vote, won by a bigger margin than expected, secures Mr. Barroso a seat at the E.U.’s top table as the bloc embarks on a shake-up aimed at expanding its geopolitical role. The E.U. is trying to keep up with the United States and China as the global economy shakes off the worst downturn since the Depression of the 1930s. But if the bloc manages to add two major leaders to take over new roles, it remains unclear how big a profile Mr. Barroso will enjoy in representing Europe on the world stage. By the end of October, the bloc wants to increase its visibility by appointing a full-time president, representing its 27 national governments, and create a more powerful head of foreign policy to help expand its global influence. These two new appointments fall under the Lisbon Treaty, which, before it can come into force, still needs a yes vote Oct. 2 in Ireland’s second referendum on the accord, and final ratification by the Czech Republic, Poland and Germany. A former prime minister of Portugal, Mr. Barroso, 53, confounded critics who had suggested he would limp to victory and then face another vote later this year. In the end he won an absolute majority, with 382 deputies supporting him, 219 opposed and 117 taking part but not casting a ballot. “Honestly, I think now I have reinforced authority,” said a clearly overjoyed Mr. Barroso after the vote, adding that he would fight “naked nationalism and extreme populism.” The vote Wednesday in the European Parliament provides one element of stability by ensuring that the European Commission, the E.U.’s executive body, will be led for a further five years by a pragmatic center-right politician who has promised to defend the bloc’s internal market from national protectionist threats. Despite criticism, mainly from France for what it calls his “ultra-liberal” economic stance, Mr. Barroso pledged not to compromise on open markets, arguing in his policy agenda that the economic crisis had been used “as a pretext to attack the single market,” which is “the rock on which European growth is built.” During the economic downturn the Commission, which is the guardian of the single market, has had a series of tense debates with national governments over the bailout of banks and failing industries. With extensive powers over antitrust policy, trade, agriculture and several other dossiers, the European Commission in Brussels is an important regulator in some areas, and has the right to propose legislation in many others. For the E.U., the challenge now is to overcome uncertainty over the fate of the Lisbon Treaty and to ensure that the jockeying for positions does not degenerate into political gamesmanship. If the treaty is approved, a lot will depend on whom national political leaders name as president of the European Council, the body where national governments meet, and as foreign policy high representative “The treaty doesn’t give them formal powers,” said Charles Grant, director of the Center for European Reform, a research institute in Brussels. “They will have as much power as the force of their personality will permit.” “Both people will have influence,” he added, “if they are trusted and if they develop a network of contacts while avoiding treading on too many toes in national capitals — in other words, giving leadership without empire building.” No contenders have declared themselves publicly, but Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, is seen as a leading candidate for the top job. He would be a controversial choice, however, because of his association with the Iraq war and his lack of support on the European center-left. He would also have to overcome resistance on the Continent because of Britain’s refusal to take part in key E.U. policies like its single currency. One other large nation, Spain, has a potential contender in Felipe Gonzáles, the former Spanish prime minister, although his lack of English language skills and long period out of office would count against him. Diplomats say that E.U. leaders are divided over whether to appoint a big figure who might overshadow them. Other potential contenders from small nations include Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende of the Netherlands, Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy of Belgium, and former Prime Minister Paavo Lipponnen of Finland. The new foreign policy chief would also be a vice president of the European Commission and would have the use of a new European diplomatic service. Germany’s foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is seen as a candidate for this job, though other possible contenders include Sweden’s foreign minister, Carl Bildt; Greece’s foreign minister, Dora Bakoyannis; Austria’s former foreign minister Ursula Plassnik; and Olli Rehn, the E.U. enlargement commissioner. After the vote Wednesday, Mr. Barroso promised to work more closely with the European Parliament, which was originally scheduled to vote in July. His new team of commissioners will include specific portfolios for fundamental rights and civil liberties, internal affairs and migration, and climate change action, Mr. Barroso said before the vote. Although some leaders were decidedly less than enthusiastic, Mr. Barroso eventually won the formal backing of all 27 member states. For Mr. Barroso, the endorsement by the European Parliament puts to rest any doubts that E.U. leaders might go back on their word during horse-trading on the bigger package of jobs.

European Commission
European Union
Barroso Jose Manuel
Treaty of Lisbon (2007)


Credit Card Companies Pledge Help in Fighting Child Pornography

Abstract: WASHINGTON, Sept. 21 — Executives from credit card companies, including Visa, MasterCard and American Express, told a Congressional panel Thursday that they were determined to eliminate the use of their services in the Internet child pornography business. But they also said it was difficult to keep pace with those who seek to exploit children on the Web and called for broad collaboration among those in the financial services industry and law enforcement authorities around the world. “Child pornography is a global problem in need of a coordinated response,” said Mark MacCarthy, a senior vice president for public policy for Visa U.S.A. Mr. MacCarthy said that by working together with other financial services companies, the industry could “enhance our efforts to identify Web sites and pinpoint merchants that are trafficking in this illicit activity, cut them off from use of our network and provide assistance to law enforcement to put them in jail and shut them down for good.” “The way forward lies in collective action,” he said. Mr. MacCarthy and other executives testified at a hearing of the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The hearing was the sixth this year convened by the subcommittee to examine the growth of child pornography online. Others who spoke to the committee included Ernie Allen, the president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and Christopher J. Christie, the United States attorney for New Jersey, who led an investigation that in 2004 dismantled an Internet child pornography service stretching from Eastern Europe to Mount Laurel, N.J. Mr. Allen described tactics adopted in recent months to combat child pornography Web sites, including the creation of the Financial Coalition Against Child Pornography, a group of major financial institutions and Internet companies. The coalition will seek to “follow the money,” Mr. Allen said, in an effort to eradicate such business by 2008. MasterCard, Visa, American Express, Bank of America, Citibank, PayPal, Yahoo and AOL, among others, have joined the coalition. “We have changed our process for monitoring the Internet,” said Arne L. Christenson, a senior vice president for federal government affairs at American Express. “In the past our search for child pornography sites took place as part of our broader efforts to enforce our Internet pornography policy, and there was not always a clear differentiation between the two in our review and reporting.” Among purveyors of child pornography, Mr. Christenson said, there is a “growing trend toward steering visitors of these sites to various alternative payment methods.” Mr. Christie said one of those methods involved granting access to Web sites in return for explicit photographs of children. “That phenomenon is something that we are very concerned about,” Mr. Christie said.


Kuwaiti Leader Dissolves Parliament

Abstract: The emir of Kuwait dissolved Parliament on Tuesday, setting the stage for elections in the oil-rich Persian Gulf nation that has faced some protests but has thus far been spared the revolutionary wave of the Arab Spring. The dissolution decree by the emir, Sheik Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-Sabah, reported by Kuna, the official news agency, followed the resignation of the prime minister, who faced what Kuna called “enormous obstacles” from some members of the 50-member Parliament. The opposition had called for the dismissal of the prime minister, Sheik Nasser Mohammed al-Ahmed al-Sabah, a member of the ruling family whom they accuse of corruption, which he denies. “Due to the deteriorating conditions that led to obstruction of process of achievements and threatened the country’s higher interests, it became necessary to resort to the people to select their representatives, overcome existing obstacles and realize national interests,” the Kuwaiti leader said in a statement published by the news agency. The report did not specify when elections would be held; under Kuwaiti law, the emir must call for new elections within 60 days of dissolving Parliament. An outspoken opposition movement exists in Parliament and tensions had been mounting over the fate of the prime minister. Last month, dissent boiled into open protest as crowds overpowered guards and burst into the parliamentary chamber, while hundreds of sympathizers rallied outside. The catalyst for those protests, which resembled a small echo of the vast protests that toppled autocratic rulers in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya this year, appeared to be the government’s rejection of a request by some opposition lawmakers to question the prime minister about the use of public funds. Yet sustained protests have not been seen in Kuwait, a leading oil exporter and important American ally, largely because the Sabah royal family, which has ruled since 1752, has responded to calls for political change with vast amounts of public spending and fuel subsidies for its population of 2.6 million people, including foreign-born workers. Most Kuwaiti citizens, who number 1.3 million, are employed by the state and pay no taxes; many have received pay bumps this year. It was unclear whether dissolving Parliament would succeed in quelling public outrage over corruption or whether new elections would usher in an even more combative legislature with more assertive demands for political change. The emir has dissolved the legislature repeatedly in recent years, most recently in 2008, amid scandals and stalled efforts to overhaul the country’s welfare state.

Kuwait
Legislatures and Parliaments
Demonstrations Protests and Riots
Sabah Sabah al-Ahmed al-Jaber al-


Janet Redmond-Mercereau Gets Maximum for Killing Husband

Abstract: The widow of a New York City fire marshal was sentenced on Thursday to 25 years to life in prison for killing him, a sentence that was greeted by spontaneous applause from a courtroom filled with the dead man’s colleagues, friends and relatives. The marshal, Douglas Mercereau, 39, was fatally shot on Dec. 2, 2007, while he slept in his bed in his Staten Island home. A jury convicted his wife, Janet Redmond-Mercereau, of second-degree murder on May 21. Ms. Redmond-Mercereau, 40, betrayed no emotion after the sentence was pronounced in State Supreme Court in Staten Island. She averted her gaze from the crowd when being led in and out of the courtroom and stared straight ahead throughout the hearing. Justice Robert J. Collini twice offered her the opportunity to speak on her own behalf, but she said she would “stand by” what her lawyers had said. James Mercereau, one of the victim’s brothers, spoke during the hearing of the fire marshal’s warmth and compassion. “Justice feels really, really great,” he added outside the courtroom after the hearing. Bill Kregler, president of the Fire Marshals Benevolent Association, said, “There’s no winning, no satisfaction, no pleasure — only justice served.” Mr. Kregler also criticized Ms. Redmond-Mercereau’s behavior in court. “She could have said something today,” he said. “But she left the courtroom with the same smirk that she’s come into the courtroom with for the last few weeks.” Lawyers for Ms. Redmond-Mercereau continued to assert her innocence , and one of them, Joseph Benfante, said the forensic evidence “just did not add up.” “All I’m saying is, juries make mistakes,” he said. During the trial, prosecutors said that the couple’s marriage was unhappy and that Ms. Redmond-Mercereau was “a volcano” who killed her husband after years of being teased and criticized about her housekeeping and her weight, which increased after the birth of the couple’s second daughter. Another of Ms. Redmond-Mercereau’s lawyers, Mario Gallucci, in asking the judge for leniency, said she was a loving wife and mother. The couple had two daughters, who are 6 and 8 and are in the custody of one of the marshal’s brothers. Yolanda L. Rudich, an assistant district attorney, argued that Ms. Redmond-Mercereau deserved the maximum sentence and recounted the events of the killing: Douglas Mercereau was shot three times in the head at the couple’s home in the Oakwood neighborhood, and evidence indicated that he was still alive after the first shot. “But she didn’t care,” Ms. Rudich said, “and she didn’t stop there.” The second shot, she said, was fired only four inches from his head. Just before the sentencing, the judge read a presentence report by the Department of Probation that described the crime as “cold, calculated and callous.” Justice Collini said the department had recommended the maximum punishment, “and this court agrees.” Cindy Thompson, a sister of Douglas Mercereau, said: “I lost a good friend. The world has lost a really good person.” The sentence, she added, is “the icing on the cake. We’re done with her.”

Murders and Attempted Murders
Redmond-Mercereau Janet
Staten Island (NYC)


The Crumbling Case for a Mexican Border Wall

Abstract: Is there actually a case for the Wall? Donald Trump’s boast to build a “big, beautiful” wall along the southern border clearly provided a lift to his candidacy, arguably delivering him the Republican presidential nomination. Along with his promise to deport millions of immigrants who are living in the United States without legal authorization, it remains the leitmotif of his campaign, despite occasional bursts of softer rhetoric. Mr. Trump is not wrong that immigration from Mexico and other countries in the poorer south over the last quarter-century has injured some American workers who competed with immigrants in the job market. It is not his concern alone; similar fears are shared by organized labor and others on the left of the political spectrum . Improbable as this may sound, the question he raises is legitimate. But even looking at a best-case situation, the answer is still straightforward: No. Even if you care only about the workers most hurt by new immigrant labor, Mr. Trump’s proposals simply aren’t worth the cost. In an article in the Journal of Economic Perspectives scheduled to be published this fall, Gordon H. Hanson and Craig McIntosh of the University of California, San Diego, lay out the most obvious reason walling off Mexico would be pointless: Mexicans aren’t coming anymore. Those arriving in the 1980s and 1990s were born in the 1960s and 1970s, when Mexico’s fertility rate was as high as seven children per woman. Mexico was hit by repeated macroeconomic crises. To Mexicans growing up at the time, the prospect of a job in the prosperous American economy of that era was worth braving the Arizona desert and the Border Patrol. Mexico is a different country today. It is older. Since 1970, fertility rates have declined to just above the replacement rate of 2.1. Its labor supply is growing at about the same pace as that in the United States. And though Mexico is still much poorer, it is no longer prone to crises and unemployment spikes every couple of years. “The completion of the demographic transition in most of the Western Hemisphere leaves one to wonder whether the benefits of continued U.S. enforcement spending will justify its costs,” Professors Hanson and McIntosh concluded. Of course, this won’t settle the argument to the satisfaction of Mr. Trump’s angry base of white working-class men. And perhaps the demographic analysis has blind spots. What about unauthorized immigrants from Africa and the Middle East, where fertility rates remain high, conflicts frequent and job prospects poor? They might not be stopped with a literal wall — they are more likely to arrive legally and overstay their visa. But don’t they justify spending more on immigration enforcement? I can’t think of anybody among the ranks of top immigration experts who would make for a better adviser to the Trump campaign than George J. Borjas. Over a long and prolific career, Mr. Borjas, a prominent Harvard economist, has written innumerable papers and books making a case for fewer immigrants and more restrictive immigration policies. He has advocated a points system to favor more highly skilled migrants, arguing that the quality of immigrants deteriorated since national quotas were abolished in 1965. That opened the door to Mexicans and others of less schooling and skill, more likely to rely on public benefits. Perhaps most uncomfortably for those on the left, he forcefully makes the case that immigration hurts less-skilled Americans, those in most direct competition against low-wage immigrants from south of the border. But even Mr. Borjas’s dire conclusions about the damage inflicted by immigration on American-born workers makes a weak case for tougher border controls. Image United States Border Patrol agents guided detained immigrants through the brush last month in Roma, Tex. Credit John Moore/Getty Images Mr. Borjas is not advising Mr. Trump. But he has waded into the political arena , once advising Pete Wilson, a Republican governor of California who ran a successful uphill battle for re-election in 1994 by proposing to bar illegal immigrants from schools and other government services. Mr. Borjas acknowledges that the immigration surge to the United States from 1990 to 2010 produced a net benefit to the economy — $50 billion a year, according to a report to be published one of these days by the National Academies of Science. Still, he notes, none of this went to workers. Workers who dropped out of high school, he states, lost big. Professor Borjas’s economic research, outlined in his 2014 book “Immigration Economics” (Harvard University Press) and reiterated in his coming “We Wanted Workers” (W. W. Norton), concluded that the two-decade immigration binge cut the wages of American-born high school dropouts over the long term by 3.1 percent. This penalty, which takes into account how businesses would react by investing more in enterprises that could profit from the new immigrant labor, amounts to about $900 a year. This analysis has been criticized by other scholars for making assumptions that make the picture look bleaker than it really is. For instance, it assumes that undocumented immigrants without a high school diploma are perfect substitutes for American workers without a high school diploma, an implausible proposition on language grounds alone. But my argument is blunter: 3.1 percent, so what? This is not to be callous. Of course $900 makes a difference to a worker making less than $30,000 a year. Nonetheless, a pay cut of 3.1 percent for 10 percent of the American work force seems modest compared with the price tag of ramping up immigration enforcement. What’s more, there are probably cheaper and more effective policies available than walls and police officers on the border. Today immigration enforcement costs $30 billion a year and, by Mr. Trump’s own account, the border still feels like Swiss cheese. Should that be doubled? Quadrupled? What about the cost of finding and deporting 11 million people who have made their lives in the United States, in many cases having children who have a legal right to stay? More significantly, perhaps, is the immense cost to the immigrants themselves — measured in lost opportunities to achieve a better life. This may be of no concern to Mr. Trump’s supporters. But it is worth pondering the cost to Mexican stability — and its knock-on effect on the United States — had Mexico suffered through the many crises of the 1980s and 1990s without the escape valve of migration. And for all Mr. Trump’s charges about immigrants becoming public charges, living at taxpayers’ expense, noncitizens are barred by law from most means-tested federal programs. While their children benefit from public education, most of those children are United States citizens, and their education is an investment that will pay off down the road, when they grow up to pay their share of taxes. American immigration policy over the last couple of decades may look like a mess. Still, “if we could turn back the clock,” Mr. Hanson said, “I’m not sure we would have done things differently.” And if economics teaches us anything, it is that much of the money could have been better spent on something else. Instead of a new wall, how about an expanded earned-income tax credit? Or how about more training for low-skilled workers? “Where should immigration policy be among the options to help workers with stagnant wages?” Mr. Hanson asked. “I think it should be pretty far down the list.” For all his skepticism about the benefits from immigration, this is something even Mr. Borjas might agree with. “Maybe we have to think about immigration in broader terms,” he told me. “Maybe the discussion should not be just about who gets a green card but about how the benefits of immigration could be more evenly distributed. That would clarify what is at stake.”

Donald Trump
Immigration
Mexico
Jobs
Illegal Immigration
Foreign Workers
George J Borjas
2016 Presidential Election


Premier of Ukraine Urges Europe Not to Ease Russia Sanctions

Abstract: The new prime minister of Ukraine appealed to European countries to maintain economic sanctions against Russia, warning that those who might ease pressure would serve as the “aggressor’s accomplices.” The prime minister, Volodymyr B. Groysman, said Friday that, “any softening or removal of sanctions may take place only when the aggressor returns national borders and stops violations of international law.” His remarks in an interview at the Ukrainian Mission to the United Nations came as senior European officials and executives made a rare visit to Russia, apparently in a bid to temper the worst estrangement in relations between Russia and the West since the Cold War. In the aftermath of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in March 2014, and the Kremlin’s support for insurgents in Eastern Ukraine, the European Union and the United States imposed wide-ranging economic penalties against Russia. Image Prime Minister Volodymyr B. Groysman of Ukraine earlier this month. Credit Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters European officials on Friday extended sanctions on doing business in Crimea, and are scheduled to consider next week whether to extend broader sanctions. But some European officials appear keen for a thaw with Russia. “If our relationship today is troubled and marked by mistrust, it is not broken beyond repair,” Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission president, said Thursday on a visit to St. Petersburg. “We need to mend it, and I believe we can.” On that, the Ukrainian prime minister was adamant. He said it was imperative to maintain the strictest penalties, and he repeatedly referred to Russia as an “aggressor” that threatens the security and sovereignty of other countries. “Countries that support the removal of sanctions will turn into the aggressor’s accomplices,” he said. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia commemorated Mr. Junker’s visit by posting a photograph of their meeting on Twitter. Trade between Russia and Europe is still vital for both, but it has plummeted since 2014. The Western sanctions prohibited oil equipment exports to Russia and barred some of Russia’s largest banks from European capital markets. Russia struck back by banning vegetable, dairy and meat from Europe. Mr. Groysman acknowledged the hit that European businesses had taken. But he insisted that moral and political stakes were higher. “The economic impact of the sanctions on the European economies is negligible compared to the damage from the encouragement of the aggressor,” he said. Mr. Groysman was appointed to lead the Ukrainian government in mid-April, and this was his first visit to the United States since taking up his post. Ukraine’s bid to keep its conflict with Russia at the center of the Western diplomatic agenda has been frustrated. Ukraine has long wanted United Nations peacekeepers sent to its embattled east, but Russia, a veto-wielding member of the Security Council has blocked any consideration of that idea. Ukraine this year joined the Council as a temporary member. Ukraine has lobbied for the Council to visit the contested area in the east, but Russia has blocked that, too.

Ukraine
Europe
Russia
Volodymyr B. Groysman
International relations
Embargoes Sanctions
Vladimir Putin


Lever Voting Machines and New Runoff Date Are Approved by Cuomo

Abstract: The New York City Board of Elections voted unanimously on Tuesday to use lever voting machines for the mayoral primary election and the runoff that is expected to follow. The board’s action came a day after Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed legislation that authorized the return of the machines, which had been replaced in 2010 by more modern electronic voting devices. The measure signed by Mr. Cuomo also moves the date of the runoff to Oct. 1, from Sept. 24. “Using the lever machines gives us a much greater degree of confidence that we’ll be able to conduct a primary and runoff in the time frame appropriated,” said Steven H. Richman, the general counsel for the Board of Elections, who described the change as a “temporary, short-term accommodation.” Government watchdog groups and advocates for people with disabilities had hoped that Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, would veto the legislation allowing the return of the lever machines. And his approval message suggested that he was signing the measure with misgivings: The governor described the return of the lever machines as “a poor solution” that “poses significant problems for voters,” including people with disabilities. “Nevertheless, circumstances require that I sign this bill into law,” he wrote. “Preventing the use of lever voting machines through a veto could profoundly impact the integrity of this year’s elections.” The elections board asked for the change, arguing that it would probably not be able to tabulate the primary results using the optical scan voting machines and then prepare for a runoff. “Obviously this process has been a wake-up call for us,” said Simon Shamoun, the Republican elections commissioner from Brooklyn. He said the optical scan machines “are not going anywhere” and added, “We have four years to figure it out, and hopefully we’re not in this position next time around.” The primary is scheduled for Sept. 10. The Oct. 1 runoff will be held if no candidate for mayor, public advocate or comptroller gets 40 percent of the vote. The general election is Nov. 5, and on that date, the city would again use optical scan voting machines. Lawmakers opted to move the date of the runoff because the original date, Sept. 24, was during the Jewish holiday of Sukkot.

Voting machine
Primaries
Andrew Cuomo
Mayoral races
Board of Elections NYC
NYC


A Bid to Keep Youths Out of Adult Prisons

Abstract: DENVER — James Stewart died alone. The 17-year-old from Denver had committed a terrible act: while driving drunk, he slammed into another vehicle head on and killed its driver. Initially placed with other juvenile offenders, he was moved to the county lockup after the district attorney charged him as an adult. Left alone in his cell despite his frantic pleas to be with others, he tightened his bedsheets around his neck and killed himself. His death, in 2008, was one of two suicides by young people in Colorado jails that helped spur a significant change in state law last year by narrowing the authority of prosecutors to charge juveniles as adults and to place them in adult jails, part of a wave of such laws nationwide. In a reversal of the tough-on-crime legislation that swept the nation in the late 1980s and ’90s, nearly half of the states have now enacted one or more laws that nudge more young offenders into the juvenile justice system, divert them from being automatically tried as adults and keep them from being placed in adult jails and prisons. Sarah Brown, a director of the criminal justice program at the National Conference of State Legislatures, said the shift stems from a decline in juvenile crime, concerns about the costs of adult prisons and a growing understanding of adolescent brain development showing that the young have a greater potential for rehabilitation. The Supreme Court has increasingly taken neurological research into account on juvenile justice issues — most recently in a 2012 case, Miller v. Alabama , which barred mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole for those who committed their crimes before they turned 18. Justice Elena Kagan’s majority opinion in the case cited adolescents’ “diminished culpability and heightened capacity for change.” Eleven states, including Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia, have passed laws that keep most young offenders out of adult jails and prisons. Eight states, including California, Missouri and Washington, passed laws that alter mandatory minimum sentencing for young offenders charged as adults. Four — Connecticut, Illinois, Massachusetts and Mississippi — have broadened the powers of their juvenile courts, enabling them to take cases of juveniles who would have automatically been tried as adults. And 12 states, including Arizona, Nevada, Ohio and Utah, have adjusted the laws governing the transfer of young offenders into the adult system in ways that make it more likely that they will be tried as juveniles. Image James Stewart with his mother, Barbara Stewart, center, and sister Vanessa Miera. Charged as an adult after a fatal drunken-driving accident, James died alone in his county lockup cell. Many of these bills have passed with bipartisan support in states both Republican and Democratic and with the testimony of the young who are affected and their families, said Liz Ryan, the president of Campaign for Youth Justice, which recently issued a report on the shifts. In Colorado, James Stewart’s sister Nicole Miera worked with a local advocacy group, the Colorado Juvenile Defender Coalition, and testified before the state legislature. The bill passed with bipartisan support. Kim Dvorchak, the executive director of the coalition, said that since the changes, the number of young people put directly into the adult system in Colorado has dropped by nearly 85 percent and that the rate of adult jailing of minors has fallen by 92 percent, with no increase in juvenile crime. “We gave more kids an opportunity to have a second lease on life,” she said. It was in 1993 that Colorado passed its laws giving prosecutors broad authority to charge young offenders as adults. Ms. Dvorchak said the system became little more than a “plea mill,” with juveniles represented by lawyers who worked chiefly with adult defendants, and who urged many of them to accept plea bargains. “No one had any independent review of whether that was appropriate for the child,” she said. Juveniles who lost at trial faced mandatory sentencing guidelines and felony convictions that could ruin their career prospects. Ms. Dvorchak’s initial attempts to change the system failed. Legislators, she found, had been convinced by prosecutors that the minors they chose to try as adults were the worst offenders — “serial killers and rapists.” Her group produced a report that showed that 85 percent of the 1,800 cases over a 10-year period involved middle- to low-level felonies like robbery, assault and burglary; only 15 percent involved homicides and 5 percent first-degree murder. When Ms. Miera joined forces with Ms. Dvorchak, her compelling story about her brother and the new data from the advocacy group helped change lawmakers’ minds just as other states were changing their laws. They found an ally in State Representative B. J. Nikkel, a Republican, who assembled a bipartisan coalition that overcame prosecutors’ objections. “It was the hardest-fought bill I ever worked on,” Ms. Nikkel said. She said the old system “put too much power in one place — the district attorneys,” who, she argued, were biased in favor of racking up convictions. Her legislation is about “giving a role back to a judge to actually look at the information from both the prosecution side and the defense side, so they can weigh this out.” Her work, she added, was influenced in part by groups like Right on Crime , a conservative organization that highlights the potential for budget savings in criminal justice reform. The state’s district attorneys are unhappy with the change. Peter Weir, a prosecutor in Jefferson and Gilpin Counties, called the law “abysmal,” and a step back from a system for young offenders that he said was working. Prosecutors do not follow a bias to convict people, he said, and prosecutors develop acute insight when it comes to juvenile cases — better, he said, than most judges. “This is a function of experience and is a function of years and years of weighing one case against similarly situated cases,” he said. Image A Colorado law gives prosecutors like Peter Weir less authority in charging juveniles. Credit Matthew Staver for The New York Times Tom Raynes, the executive director of the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, said the new system has led to extensive delays in prosecution that he called “a disservice, we think, to victims, to the public and frankly, we think, to the defendant.” Mr. Weir cited a recent case involving months of wrangling over whether a young defendant charged with murder should be tried as an adult. He said that while all defendants deserve the right to representation and due process, in the case so far there have been 16 filings by prosecutors, 27 by the defense, and dozens of witnesses lined up for the hearings to come, which he called “horribly counterproductive.” He said, “What we’re fighting is a philosophy that a juvenile should never be tried as an adult.” Ms. Miera disputed Mr. Weir’s interpretation of the activists’ view: She said that she believed some juveniles show such cruelty and viciousness that they should be charged as adults. But James, she argued, was not one of those. “My brother didn’t premeditate to go out and murder somebody,” she said, adding that during the weeks he was in the juvenile system, James spoke of wanting to visit schools to talk about drunken driving. When he was moved into the adult system, he grew despondent. The family found out about the suicide the day after it happened; they were sitting in a courtroom waiting for one of his hearings when detectives came in with the news. Her brother, Ms. Miera said, had done “something terrible.” Still, she said: “He was a good kid. He was the poster boy of how your life can change in two minutes.” She dug in her purse and pulled out the pen that Gov. John W. Hickenlooper used to sign the Colorado bill. “My brother thought he never accomplished anything,” she said. “And here we are.”

Prison
James Stewart
Colorado
Crime
Mandatory sentencing
Juvenile delinquency


The Mock Drafts Before the N.F.L. Draft

Abstract: We have finally reached the big day in N.F.L. mania circles. It is mock draft day, when you have either created one of your own ahead of Thursday night’s festivities, or you are mocking the people who have. It certainly does form the line in football fandom between the folks who have gone a bit around the bend and those who just want to know who will be on their team come September. Of course, we long ago identified the around-the-bend types because they have been poring over this stuff for weeks, watched over by their Mel Kiper Jr. bobblehair dolls. For the rest of us, this draft does not have much sex appeal. It takes people truly drawn by the magnetic pull of Kiper’s hair products to be wrapped up in a debate on whether Eric Fisher (who?) or Luke Joeckel (huh?) will be the top pick. The offensive-tackle-a-thon is a far cry from the Andrew Luck vs. Robert Griffin III glitterfest. Astute football observers, like The New York Times’s Judy Battista , will tell you that what this draft lacks in sizzle it makes up for in depth and talent. But will that glue you to a television screen for hours of listening to Kiper’s twang? Maybe Fisher and Joeckel can mud wrestle for the top pick? Play a game of H-O-R-S-E? Belt out show tunes? If you do want to dabble in the world of mock drafts, there are oodles of them waiting to be made irrelevant by the nonevent they are forecasting. Feel free to check out Peter King’s on SI.com , Mike Mayock’s on NFL.com , Jason La Canfora’s on CBSSports.com or Doug Farrar’s on Yahoo.com . In an exercise in both stamina and inanity, Peter Schrager goes the full seven rounds on FoxSports.com . This is just a tiny starter list. It you want the almighty Mel list, you have to pony up to be an ESPN.com insider, but we’re not sure reading Kiper is enough of a thrill unless your computer screen has the ability to waft out the smell of Just for Men. In case you were worried about the networks spoiling the drama of the picks, SI.com’s Richard Deitsch reports that ESPN and NFL Network have vowed not to scoop themselves on Twitter, or show the guys in the greenroom answering their phones. You’ll still get plenty of greenroom drama, which, as Elizabeth Merrill writes on ESPN.com , is always full of agony for at least one guy. This year that guy may be quarterback Geno Smith, who seems half-prepared for his televised tumble down the first round, La Canfora writes on CBSSports.com . Image ESPN's Mel Kiper. Credit Gail Burton/Associated Press For those who want a bit more action in their sporting events, the N.B.A. playoffs will again serve up a smattering of games. Wednesday night’s included the Los Angeles Lakers’ continued thud against the San Antonio Spurs, in which more Lakers got hurt , the Spurs looked more and more like that boring team that wins a lot because of teamwork and depth, as Ian Thomsen writes on SI.com , and Dwight Howard fell short of reaching savior status, as Bill Plaschke writes in The Los Angeles Times . In this N.B.A. version of the fable, the franchise representing the tortoise is drubbing the hare, Bill Reiter writes on FoxSports.com . In the other playoff games, Jeremy Lin was injured in the Houston Rockets’ loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Indiana Pacers tried unsuccessfully to remind everyone there is another series going on and beat the hapless Atlanta Hawks . Hockey threw in a few tidbits in its playoff chase Wednesday night, with the Blackhawks clinching the President’s Trophy and home-ice advantage in the playoffs. Detroit moved into the last playoff spot in the West with all intents of keeping alive its incredible streak of 21 straight playoff seasons, Nicholas Cotsonika writes on Yahoo.com . To vie for attention, baseball threw in some quirky gems Wednesday. They included the Mets’ game-ending grand slam to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in another example of Matt Harvey pitching magic, as John Harper writes in The Daily News . Detroit’s win over the Kansas City Royals featured the nonhighlight of the Tigers’ Victor Martinez making a U-turn and forgoing the chance to barrel into the Royals catcher. The Tampa Bay Rays probably topped the day, though, before their game with the Yankees even began, thanks to a penguin making a clubhouse visit . Now that’s what could liven up the N.F.L. draft. Penguins! Anyone have them in their mock draft? Follow Leading Off on Twitter: twitter.com/zinsernyt

Football
Eric Fisher
Geno Smith
Jeremy Lin
Matt Harvey
Sports Drafts and Recruits
Mel Kiper Jr


Rivals Split on U.S. Power, but Ideas Defy Labels

Abstract: WASHINGTON — John McCain has said his worldview was formed in the Hanoi Hilton, the jail where as a prisoner of war he learned to stand up to his country’s enemies and lost any youthful naïveté about what happens when America shows weakness. Barack Obama has written that his views began to take shape in the back streets of Jakarta, where he lived as a young boy and saw the poverty, the human rights violations and the fear inspired by the American-backed Indonesian dictator Suharto . It was there, Mr. Obama wrote in his second autobiography, that he first absorbed the “jumble of warring impulses” that make up American foreign policy, and received a street-level understanding of how foreigners react to “our tireless promotion of American-style capitalism” and to Washington’s “tolerance and occasional encouragement of tyranny, corruption and environmental degradation.” As the campaigns tell the story, those radically different experiences in different corners of Southeast Asia have created two men with sharply different views about the proper use of American power. Mr. McCain’s campaign portrays him as an experienced warrior who knows how to win wars and carries Theodore Roosevelt ’s big stick, even if he occasionally strays from Roosevelt’s advice about speaking softly. Mr. Obama’s campaign portrays him as a cerebral advocate of patient diplomacy, the antidote to the unilateral excesses of the Bush years, who knows how to build partnerships without surrendering American interests. But as the campaign has unfolded, both men have been forced into surprising detours. They may have formed their worldviews in Hanoi and Jakarta, but they forged specific positions amid the realities of an election in post- Iraq , post-crash America — where judgment sometimes collides with political expediency. The result has included contradictions that do not fit the neat hawk-and-dove images promoted by each campaign. As spelled out in presidential debates , in written answers provided by their campaigns, and in an interview with Mr. McCain in January, some of their views appear as messy and unpredictable as the troubles one of them will inherit. For example, it is Mr. McCain — the man who amended the words of a Beach Boys song last year to joke about bombing Iran ’s nuclear sites — who says he could imagine a situation in which Iran’s behavior changes so much that he would be willing “to consider” allowing Iran to enrich its own uranium, producing a fuel that could be used for nuclear power — but only under highly restrictive conditions that ensure it could never be used for weapons. Mr. Obama, the candidate who has expressed far more willingness to sit down and negotiate with the Iranians, said in an e-mail message passed on by an aide that in any final deal he would not allow Iran to produce uranium on Iranian soil, the same hard-line view enunciated by the Bush administration. Consider the delicate issue of Pakistan , where it is Mr. Obama who has been far more willing than Mr. McCain to threaten sending in American troops on ground raids. Mr. McCain, by contrast, argues that Pakistan must control its territory. “I don’t think the American people today are ready to commit troops to Waziristan,” he said, months before Mr. Bush signed secret orders this summer authorizing ground raids in Pakistan, including the violent sanctuaries of North and South Waziristan. Mr. McCain, now the Republican nominee, agreed to an interview during the primary campaign. Obama aides answered questions at length, but Mr. Obama, the Democratic nominee, citing the pressures of time in the campaign, declined requests dating to June to be interviewed in detail on how he would handle potential confrontations beyond Iraq that could face the next president. It is worth remembering that presidential campaigns are usually terrible predictors of presidential decision-making. John F. Kennedy said virtually nothing about building up troops in Vietnam in 1960, nor did Richard M. Nixon talk in 1968 about engineering an opening to China . George W. Bush , in an interview at his ranch 10 days before his first inaugural in 2001, lamented that sanctions against Saddam Hussein looked like “Swiss cheese” but did not appear, at that time, to be heading toward a military confrontation with him. New Look at Engagement With the endgame slowly playing out in Iraq, the potential confrontation over neighboring Iran and its nuclear program has emerged as the No. 1 case study in how Mr. Obama and Mr. McCain would use diplomacy and the threat of military force against a hostile state. Based on their careers and their statements, Mr. McCain’s threshold for pre-emptive military action seems lower than Mr. Obama’s. For each candidate, the debate over Iran has been somewhat treacherous. Mr. Obama knew his interest in pursuing diplomacy could leave him vulnerable to criticism as a potential appeaser; Mr. McCain, known for his “Bomb Iran” ditty, had to demonstrate that he would not be trigger-happy. In the end, both men have proved more comfortable in declaring that they would never allow Iran to become a nuclear weapons state than in explaining how they would obtain the leverage to stop Iran’s nuclear program peacefully. And neither has dealt publicly with the harder question of what to do if Iran assembles all the fuel and components needed for a weapon but stops just short of actually making one. Mr. Obama’s declaration that he would engage Iranian leaders without preconditions has dominated the debate and opened him to Mr. McCain’s accusation that he is a naïf, willing to give legitimacy to the Iranian regime. Mr. Obama has backtracked a bit, arguing that he never suggested that the first meetings would be at the presidential level, and that preconditions are less important than “careful preparations.” When pressed, Mr. Obama has said that “we will never take military options off the table” and that he would not give the United Nations “veto power” over deciding to strike nuclear facilities. The harder question is how to force Iran to give up its uranium enrichment quickly, before it produces enough material to build a weapon — a threshold American and European intelligence officials say may be crossed fairly early in the next presidential term. Mr. McCain has been more vociferous in emphasizing that “we have to do whatever’s necessary” to stop Iran from obtaining a weapon. In 1994, when North Korea was at a similar stage in its nuclear weapons program, Mr. McCain said on “Meet the Press” on NBC that if diplomacy failed to shut down the country’s production facilities within months, “then yes, military air strikes would be called for.” But in a post-Iraq world, Mr. McCain has been more circumspect. He no longer talks about “rogue state rollback,” the phrase he used in 2000 to describe a strategy of undermining governments like those in North Korea, Iran and Iraq under Saddam Hussein. Mr. McCain said in interviews last year and early this year that risking military action against Iran might be better than “living with an Iranian bomb.” Recently, he has expressed more interest in changing Iran’s behavior than changing the government, and has said that his Beach Boys ditty was a bad attempt at humor: “I wasn’t suggesting that we go around and declare war.” But the main prescription Mr. McCain has offered relies on gradually escalating economic sanctions, the same path taken by the Bush administration. So far that strategy has been a complete failure: Iran has 3,800 centrifuges, up from a few hundred experimental centrifuges when the administration began, and enough, in theory, to make a bomb’s worth of fuel in a year. Questions to both campaigns in the past few weeks have yielded another example of role reversal. While Mr. McCain seems willing to consider that Iran might someday be trusted to produce its own nuclear fuel, Mr. Obama does not. The director of foreign policy for the McCain campaign, Randy Scheunemann, said that if Iran was in compliance with United Nations resolutions, “it would be appropriate to consider” letting it produce uranium under inspection, which Iran has said is its right. Mr. Obama’s position is closer to the zero-tolerance approach adopted by the Bush administration. “I do not believe Iran should be enriching uranium or keeping centrifuges,” he said in an e-mail message passed on by aides. Mr. Obama does seem more willing to dangle in front of the Iranians a “grand bargain” that would spell out benefits — diplomatic recognition, an end to sanctions — as a reward for halting its enrichment of uranium and allowing full inspections of the country. Richard J. Danzig , considered a candidate to be secretary of defense in an Obama administration, said Mr. Obama was willing to “put out a more positive side to the agenda to lead the Iranians toward making the right choices here.” But Mr. Obama has also been more specific in describing the kind of sanctions he might reach for if the Iranians continue on the current path. “If we can prevent them from importing the gasoline that they need, and the refined petroleum products, that starts changing their cost-benefit analysis,” he said. Some experts have counseled caution about such an approach, one that the Bush administration has stopped short of taking. A blockade, however, could constitute an act of war, and most experts believe Iran could respond in kind by cutting off oil exports, increasing prices and leading to shortages. When to Intervene While Mr. McCain reminds audiences that he vowed to do whatever it took to win in Iraq, he has been extraordinarily reluctant when it comes to the war in Afghanistan to advocate cross-border attacks into Pakistan, even though top military commanders have publicly said that is a prerequisite to victory. Mr. McCain has dismissed Mr. Obama’s advocacy of military action inside Pakistan as unwise, saying his rival does not appreciate how Pakistanis would react to an incursion by an ally, even into ungovernable territory Pakistan itself has never really controlled. That was Mr. Bush’s view as well until July, when he issued secret orders allowing American Special Operations forces to conduct ground incursions into Pakistan, to keep insurgents from forming a safe haven. Mr. McCain has not condemned Mr. Bush’s action, but he has suggested that such operations should never be discussed in public and that Mr. Obama had made a rookie’s mistake by raising the possibility. “The last thing we should be doing is telegraphing to Pakistan that we are going to violate their sovereignty,” Mr. Scheunemann said last week, when asked if Mr. McCain was opposed to military action over the border, or just opposed to talking about it. “Senator Obama’s stubborn insistence on publicly threatening to attack targets in Pakistan and limit military assistance is swagger, not statesmanship.” Mr. Obama has frequently said he would send American personnel over the border to kill leaders of Al Qaeda . In his speech at the Democratic convention, Mr. Obama accused Mr. McCain of focusing on the wrong war — Iraq — and he vowed to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants. But American policy since the attacks of Sept. 11 has backed hunting down Qaeda members anywhere, including inside Pakistan. A harder question is whether to go into Pakistan to hunt down Taliban or other militant groups using the sanctuary to mount attacks against Americans in Afghanistan or to strike the Pakistani government. On that question, Mr. Obama has been ambiguous, and his campaign has declined to clarify his statements. Humanitarian Aid When it comes to sending troops to protect the oppressed, it is Mr. Obama who has sounded a lot more like an interventionist than Mr. McCain. Mr. McCain has long been a skeptic of sending American troops on humanitarian quests — whether for peacekeeping, peacemaking or missions that morphed from one to the other. He has reminded voters that he opposed military interventions in Lebanon in the early 1980s, and in Somalia , Haiti and Bosnia in the 1990s. He has often asked what good American troops can do in a single year when the conflict they are parachuting into has roiled for centuries, and he has often demanded to see an exit strategy before troops were committed. Mr. Obama has praised what the United Nations calls a “responsibility to protect,” a doctrine that elevates aiding oppressed populations over respecting national borders. Mr. McCain has agreed, but both men have emphasized the need for case-by-case judgment. In Foreign Affairs, Mr. Obama laid out a position that is the opposite of President Bush’s attitude in 2000 but sounds much like his attitude now. Mr. Obama wrote that he would use the military to “support friends, participate in stability and reconstruction operations or confront mass atrocities.” But he cited the first President Bush as the example to follow in gaining “the clear support and participation of others.” In a debate in early October, Mr. Obama said that in Darfur the United States “could be providing logistical support, setting up a no-fly zone, at relatively little cost to us” if it had help from other nations. But when pressed, Mr. Obama’s aides said that he would be hesitant to commit American ground troops, who are in short supply because of the demands of Iraq and Afghanistan. Dealing With Great Powers Within hours of the Russian attack on Georgia in August, Mr. McCain was on the phone to his foreign policy advisers, seeking to calibrate the right response. It was a critical moment for a man who has surrounded himself with members of both warring camps in the Republican Party — the neoconservatives nursing their wounds after Iraq went bad, and the pragmatists who rose again in Mr. Bush’s second term. “He had people telling him, ‘John, you want to think about the long term — we need the Russians on Iran, and the Georgians sort of invited this,’ ” a friend who talked to him in that period said. But in the end, Mr. McCain stepped out with a strong defense of Georgia, while Mr. Obama issued a more even-handed statement, calling for all sides to return to the uneasy status quo that had prevailed in South Ossetia . While Mr. Obama’s reaction was much closer to the Bush administration’s, Mr. McCain seized on the moment to portray Mr. Obama as weak. Mr. McCain’s friends say his criticism of Russia was a direct outgrowth of his prisoner-of-war experience and his cold war upbringing. He regularly reminds voters than when he looks into the eyes of Vladimir V. Putin , the Russian prime minister, he sees three letters: K.G.B. The difference has also played out in how Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama have embraced a proposal by four prominent cold warriors — former Senator Sam Nunn , former Defense Secretary William J. Perry , and former Secretaries of State George P. Shultz and Henry A. Kissinger — toward reducing the American nuclear arsenal to zero. Both candidates have said they support the goal, but Mr. McCain has sounded less enthusiastic, saying he would reduce nuclear weapons “to the lowest level we judge necessary.” Many conservatives also object to deep cuts in the arsenal, saying that could harm the country’s ability to remain the world’s dominant superpower and encourage nuclear challengers to build up to American levels. By contrast, Mr. Obama, who was only 28 when the Berlin Wall fell, has argued that unless the United States and Russia radically reduce their stockpiles, they will never persuade smaller nations like Iran and North Korea to forgo their nuclear weapons programs. Both men say they share the goal of keeping the United States the most powerful nation on earth. Mr. McCain emphasizes hard power first, though his advisers say that on global warming , among other issues, he has shown a flexibility that President Bush rarely demonstrated. More than any previous presidential candidate, Mr. Obama has emphasized the idea of soft power — the ability to lead by moral example and nonmilitary action — and his challenge if elected, his advisers acknowledge, is to convince the world that an untested young senator also has a steely edge.

John McCain
Barack Obama
2008 Presidential Election
US Foreign Policy


A Giants Receiver, Steve Smith, Is Living Up to His Name

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — After catching a touchdown pass from Eli Manning against the Redskins on Monday night, the Giants ’ Steve Smith briskly performed some dance steps . “I’ve seen better,” Manning said. “But as long as he gets in the end zone, he can do whatever he wants.” Smith, with roots in Southern California, said it was “just a dance we do in L.A., something you do when you’re happy.” “A happy dance,” he said. It ended with Smith’s leaping body bump with Mario Manningham, another wide receiver, who provided more detail about Smith’s celebration. “That’s the ‘C-Walk,’ ” Manningham said, referring to a popular hip-hop dance. Smith has had much reason this season for happy feet. With 90 receptions in the first 14 games, he has set a team record for catches in a season, surpassing the 82 of Amani Toomer in 2002. Along with leading the Giants in catches, Smith also tops his team’s receivers in yardage with 1,093 and is tied for the lead in touchdown receptions with Hakeem Nicks at six. And when the Giants (8-6) host the Carolina Panthers (6-8) on Sunday, he will again see another top receiver named Steve Smith. Last season, before the Giants played the Panthers, Carolina’s Smith objected to the suggestion that the Giants’ Smith was one of two great N.F.L. receivers with the same name. “I didn’t know they had a great receiver named Steve Smith on the Giants,” he said 12 months ago. “He’s a young guy. It’ll take a little bit more time to really consider somebody great.” Smith of the Giants is now in his third year; Smith of Carolina is in his ninth. This week, in a conference call with New York reporters, the subject came up again. “He has done exceptionally well,” the Panthers’ Smith said. “His stats are great. He has run some great routes. I can’t say anything bad.” But a few weeks ago, Smith of the Giants said that Carolina’s Dwayne Jarrett, his former college teammate at Southern California, warned him to avoid Smith of the Panthers. “He’s mad at me for some reason,” the Giants’ Smith said of his Carolina namesake. “I didn’t say anything. I respect him. He’s a good player.” Smith of the Panthers said this week that he would not discuss what he may or may not have said to Jarrett, but added that his Giants counterpart might be worthy of the Pro Bowl and already had a Super Bowl ring, and that he would express no disrespect for him. But he also said: “This game is very interesting. One year, you could be the cream of the crop. Next year, you could be jobless. So I don’t want to spend too much time comparing myself because it requires too much energy.” Smith of the Panthers is known for saying and doing things with an edge and carrying a chip on his shoulder pads. Last Sunday night, during a 26-7 victory over Minnesota, he caught nine passes for 157 yards, both season bests, and scored a touchdown. Cameras showed him shouting with emotion. After the game, when interviewed by NBC, Smith first praised the Lord, then directed verbal ammunition toward Vikings defensive back Benny Sapp. Referring to him by his number, Smith said, “Twenty-two had something to say to me,” and called Sapp “a little youngster.” But what did Sapp say? “You know, just telling me who he is,” Smith said. “So I just had to establish the rules and regulations of the game.” A few days later, Smith denied being riled up. “I’m cool and collected,” he said. “Joe Cool, right here.” Smith of the Giants has the cooler statistics. In receiving yards , the Giant Smith is ninth in the N.F.L. with 1,093; the Panther Smith is 22nd with 922. In receptions , the Giant Smith is tied for fourth with 90 and the Panther Smith is 32nd with 60. In touchdowns , they are tied with 11 others for 20th place at six each. Although the Smiths do not speak much to each other, when Nicks was drafted by the Giants last April out of North Carolina, Smith of the Panthers heard Nicks admired him. So he called Nicks. “He reached out to me,” Nicks said. “He just talked to me and gave me some advice.” Smith of Carolina said: “I think we talked for an hour. I just told him the sky is the limit. I think he will be a star. Only time will tell if he listened or not.” Smith of the Giants has heard this year from Toomer, in person, and from Plaxico Burress, in a letter from prison. Both former Giants receivers offered encouragement and support as he has helped fill their role. Smith said he was still startled when people around New York stared at him in public. “I think, like, What are you looking at?” he said, until he realizes they just recognize him for his football fame. “I said before the season I wanted to have one of the greatest Giants seasons ever,” Smith said. “I didn’t really realize it could come true.” EXTRA POINTS Giants running back Brandon Jacobs was fined $7,500 and Redskins defensive tackle Albert Haynesworth was fined $10,000 by the N.F.L. for an altercation late in their game Monday. Haynesworth hit Jacobs after a play, and Jacobs struck back. Redskins cornerback DeAngelo Hall was also involved, but he was not fined.


Florida Earns Top Seed in N.C.A.A. Baseball Tournament

Abstract: OMAHA — The Florida Gators were awarded the top seed in the N.C.A.A. baseball tournament Monday, leading a record four Southeastern Conference teams among the eight national seeds. Florida (47-13) was ranked No. 1 in the polls for most of the season and finished as the runner-up to Texas A&M in the SEC tournament. It has never won a national championship in baseball. The Gators have been a national seed seven times under Coach Kevin O’Sullivan, including No. 1 in 2012. No top seed has won the championship since Miami in 1999, the first year of the current tournament structure. The other SEC national seeds are No. 4 Texas A&M (45-14), No. 6 Mississippi State (41-16-1) and No. 8 Louisiana State (42-18). The Atlantic Coast Conference has three national seeds in No. 2 Louisville (47-12), No. 3 Miami (45-11) and No. 7 Clemson (42-18). The Big 12 has the other national seed in No. 5 Texas Tech (41-16). The SEC also set a record Sunday when the N.C.A.A. selection committee picked seven of its teams to host regionals. Six A.C.C. teams will host regionals, including the defending national champion, Virginia (37-20). The 16 regionals are scheduled from Friday through next Monday, and each includes four teams playing a double-elimination format. Regional winners advance the next week to best-of-three super regionals, which will determine the eight teams that will play in the College World Series in Omaha beginning June 18. The 64-team field is made up of 31 automatic qualifiers and 33 at-large selections. Ten A.C.C. teams are in the tournament, tying the record for the most from one conference. “I’ve never seen a league as strong as this year,” Florida State Coach Mike Martin, who has led the Seminoles for 37 years, said. “Ten teams is quite an accomplishment.” North Carolina nearly gave the A.C.C. an 11th entry. At No. 19, the Tar Heels (34-21) have the highest Rating Percentage Index of any team ever left out. The R.P.I. is one of several metrics the selection committee uses to determine at-large teams. Joel Erdmann, the selection committee’s chairman, said the Tar Heels were the first team left out after following an 18-2 start with a 16-19 finish and a fifth-place ranking, at 13-17, in the A.C.C.’s Coastal Division. “What makes it unique is they are within the top conference in the nation, but when you really break down their field of work, their résumé, they, within the conference, struggled a bit,” Erdmann said. Four teams are in for the first time as automatic qualifiers: Fairfield (32-24) of the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, Alabama State (38-15) of the Southwestern Athletic Conference, Utah Valley (37-21) of the Western Athletic Conference, and St. Mary’s College of California (33-23) of the West Coast Conference. Western Michigan (22-32) upset Kent State in the Mid-American Conference title game and was one of two teams that made it as automatic qualifiers with losing records. The other was Utah (25-27), which won the Pacific-12 Conference regular-season title — the league does not hold a conference tournament — with a 19-11 league mark. The Utes are in their fifth season in the Pac-12 and finished last in each of the previous four, never winning more than seven conference games. Erdmann said the final three teams picked for at-large bids were Southeastern Louisiana (39-19, No. 40 R.P.I.), Nebraska (37-20, No. 48) and South Alabama (40-20, No. 50). The next two teams left out after North Carolina were Oregon State (35-19, No. 44) and West Virginia (36-22, No. 61).


Oklahoma: Shortage of Drugs Delays Executions

Abstract: An Oklahoma court has rescheduled executions so that state prison officials have more time to find a supply of lethal drugs. While two inmates had sued, challenging Oklahoma’s execution procedures, the Court of Criminal Appeals declared on Tuesday that their request for a stay was moot because the prison system did not have enough drugs to execute them. In their brief order, the judges moved the execution of one of the inmates, Clayton Lockett, to April 22 and the one of the other, Charles Warner, to April 29. They had been set to die this week and next week. The Oklahoma attorney general’s office told the court on Monday that prison officials did not have enough doses of lethal drugs on hand and that it was unlikely they could find some in time to execute Mr. Lockett on Thursday.

Oklahoma
Capital punishment
Pharmaceuticals
Charles Frederick Warner
Clayton Darrell Lockett


Duke Rolls, Giving Kyrie Irving Plenty of Playing Time

Abstract: CHARLOTTE — Duke opened the N.C.A.A. tournament Friday with a rout that would have been uneventful if it had not produced a significant milestone. The West Region game against No. 16 seed Hampton marked the return of the prized point guard Kyrie Irving, who played for the first time since injuring his toe Dec. 4. Irving finished with a game-high 14 points including and a few highlight-reel drives to the basket that had Duke fans at Time Warner Cable Arena roaring in the final minutes of an 87-45 victory. Top-seeded Duke (31-4) took an early 16-4 lead and Hampton never made a serious run at the Blue Devils, who advanced to a Round of 32 game against No. 8 Michigan on Sunday that will renew an old rivalry. By the time Duke built a 30-point margin about five minutes into the second half, the Blue Devils had subbed out their starting lineup. That allowed Irving, still working his way back into game shape, to play significant minutes in the second half, when the game was out of reach. He entered the game in the first half and played seven minutes, scoring 2 points and grabbing a rebound in limited action. He saw extensive action in the second half with the rest of the reserves, showing some rust but finishing with flourish that included a steal and a driving layup with under four minutes left to play that drew cheers from the crowd. Irving missed 26 games and there was some thought he would not make it back this season. He began practicing with the team again during the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament last weekend. He worked with the team this week as well before Coach Mike Krzyzewski declared Thursday that Irving would be back. Irving averaged 17.4 points, 5.1 assists and 3.8 rebounds as a starter in the season’s first eight games before being injured. Hampton Coach Edward Joyner Jr. said he planned to have his players watch the movie “Rudy” to them prepare to face Duke. And Hampton (24-9) has pulled off a big upset in the tournament before. It beat No. 2 Iowa State in the first round in 2001. There was no replay of that drama Friday.

Duke University
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
Basketball
College Athletics