Florida Buying Big Sugar Tract for Everglades

Abstract: LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. — The dream of a restored Everglades , with water flowing from Lake Okeechobee to Florida Bay, moved a giant step closer to reality on Tuesday when the nation’s largest sugarcane producer agreed to sell all of its assets to the state and go out of business. Under the proposed deal, Florida will pay $1.75 billion for United States Sugar, which would have six years to continue farming before turning over 187,000 acres north of Everglades National Park, along with two sugar refineries, 200 miles of railroad and other assets. It would be Florida’s biggest land acquisition ever, and the magnitude and location of the purchase left environmentalists and state officials giddy. Even before Gov. Charlie Crist arrived to make the announcement against a backdrop of water, grass and birds here, dozens of advocates gathered in small groups, gasping with awe, as if at a wedding for a couple they never thought would fall in love. After years of battling with United States Sugar over water and pollution, many of them said that the prospect of a partnership came as a shock. “It’s so exciting,” said Margaret McPherson, vice president of the Everglades Foundation. “I’m going to do cartwheels.” The details of the deal, which is scheduled to be completed over the next few months, and does not require legislative approval, may define how long the honeymoon lasts. Previous acquisitions took longer to integrate than initially expected and because United States Sugar’s fields are not all contiguous, complicated land swaps with other businesses may be required. The purchase will be paid for with bonds and from fees already added to water bills. But if the price goes up or environmental remediation enters the picture, the state could have to renegotiate or find other money. The fate of the company’s 1,900 workers also remains in question and some former company executives have suggested that the state is overpaying, bailing out a company burdened with debt, a troubled new sugar mill and a lawsuit from former employees who said they were bilked out of retirement money. Company officials said the deal would amount to $350 a share, after taxes and other obligations were paid, a premium over two previous offers of $293 per share that the company had dismissed as inadequate. The accusations and concerns, however, did not dampen the mood. Even as workers from the mill in Clewiston tried to get a handle on their futures, and some cried foul, Mr. Crist emphasized the land’s environmental value. He said the deal was “as monumental as the creation of the nation’s first national park, Yellowstone.” Declining to provide details of how the state arrived at the price of $1.7 billion, he said it was a terrific bargain. “I can envision no better gift to the Everglades,” he said, “the people of Florida and the people of America — as well as our planet — than to place in public ownership this missing link that represents the key to true restoration.” The impact on the Everglades could be substantial. The natural flow of water would be restored, and the expanse of about 292 square miles would add about a million acre-feet of water storage. That amount of water — enough to fill about 500,000 Olympic size swimming pools — could soak the southern Everglades during the dry season, protecting wildlife, preventing fires, and allowing for a redrawing of the $8 billion Everglades restoration plan approved in 2000. It would essentially remove some of the proposed plumbing. Many of the complicated wells and pumps the plan relied on might never have to be built, water officials said, because the water could move naturally down the gradually sloping land. Kenneth G. Ammon, deputy executive director of the South Florida Water Management District, which would assume control of the land, said it would be a “managed” flow-way, with reservoirs and other engineered mechanisms to control water flow. David G. Guest, a lawyer for Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, joked that he might have to go to blows to keep the area all natural. “This is about putting it back to the way it was in the 1890s,” Mr. Guest said. “What will happen is that if you come back here in 20 years, it will look indistinguishable from the way it looked before the white man arrived.” The future challenges will probably intersect with the land’s more recent history. Since 1931, United States Sugar has farmed the area, using fertilizers that have often released phosphorous into the water. The legacy of its efforts could prove hidden at first, like pollution found during other environmental cleanup efforts. The company has long denied that its efforts severely damaged the land, and executives said that the sale would benefit the Everglades, and shareholders. “It’s dollars and cents and the right thing to do,” said Robert H. Buker Jr., the company’s president, in an interview after the announcement. “If I had to go out I’d rather — all of us would rather it went out to make the state of Florida better.” The company will face some hurdles. The lawsuit involving former employees will not disappear but will probably include fewer plaintiffs, said Curtis Miner, one of the workers’ lawyers. Some, like Randy Smith, 57, who cashed out last year at $194 a share after 25 years with the company, said Tuesday’s deal only proved that he did not receive his fair share. “I got ripped off pretty good,” he said. Those most affected though will be current workers, and they could decide whether the purchase goes through. United States Sugar took its stock off the public market in 1983 to create an employee stock ownership plan, so technically the company is owned by the workers. Mr. Buker said he expected the workers would approve the deal because of the money they could make. But at a meeting with workers in Clewiston on Tuesday, opinions seemed mixed. Some workers said they were angry they were left out of the loop. As recently as Tuesday morning, bosses told them that rumors of a sale were not true. They had a lot of questions: Why sell now? What would happen when the state took over? Would the mill still run? Would there be jobs? What would happen to Clewiston, the tiny town that has relied on United States Sugar since the 1930s? Mr. Buker tried to respond. He said it was a good deal, that wage earners would receive a year’s pay as severance; that salaried workers would get two years. And he said that the company had no choice but to sell because the state had the upper hand, and could have pushed them off the land with laws, rather than with $1.7 billion dollars. For many — both workers and environmentalists — it was all still hard to believe. “You got to hear it three times,” said Chris Harris, 36, a United States Sugar foreman, after the meeting. “It sinks in but...” His voice trailed off and he looked away. The company had seemed to be growing, revamping its mill. A new tower went up just last week. At the time, Mr. Crist was being lambasted by environmentalists for abandoning his opposition to drilling offshore for oil and natural gas. At least for some on Tuesday, all was forgiven. “ Offshore drilling is a mouse,” said Mr. Guest, of Earthjustice. “the Everglades is an elephant.”

Florida
Sugar
United States Sugar
Everglades National Park
Environment
Everglades (Fla)


Knicks Sign Forward John Shurna to One-Year Contract

Abstract: The Knicks signed John Shurna, a sweet-shooting forward from Northwestern, to a one-year contract, said his agent, Mark Bartelstein. The deal is partly guaranteed. Shurna, who stands 6 feet 10 inches, converted 44 percent of his 3-pointers last season at Northwestern while averaging 20 points a game. He is frequently compared to the Knicks’ Steve Novak because of his height and shooting ability. With Shurna, the Knicks have 16 players under contract, counting training camp invitees.


Ticketfly Lures 2 Prized New York Clubs Away From Ticketmaster

Abstract: In the live-music business, the most visible kind of competition is over who books the big stars. But behind the scenes, there is a never-ending contest over ticketing, with promoters, venues and technology companies making deals for the sales as well as the customer data that comes with them. Last year, Pandora Media paid $450 million for Ticketfly, an online ticketing service that competes with Ticketmaster to sign up clubs and theaters and has deals with 1,200 clients, including promoters and venues. Now Ticketfly has reached a deal to be the exclusive ticketing provider for the Bowery Ballroom and the Mercury Lounge, two of the most beloved clubs in New York. Both organizations, which were longtime Ticketmaster clients, announced on Thursday that they would switch to Ticketfly on Sunday. The deal is partly of symbolic importance for Ticketfly. The Bowery Ballroom — which Rolling Stone has called the best club in the country — has an estimated annual attendance of only about 130,000, and the Mercury Lounge just 80,000, according to a marketing document from the Bowery Presents, a promoter that is affiliated with the clubs but does not own them. The deal also extends the reach of Ticketfly in New York. Among the other venues it works with in the city are Central Park SummerStage, Forest Hills Stadium, Brooklyn Bowl, Output and Birdland. The Bowery Ballroom and Mercury Lounge agreement comes as the Bowery Presents is in talks to be acquired by the giant concert company AEG Live, but the Ticketfly deal is not expected to affect that transaction. Since it was founded in 2008, Ticketfly has been favored by many smaller promoters and venues for its technology and marketing abilities. Since Ticketfly was bought by Pandora, the wider music industry has been awaiting the integration of those two companies, which both said would allow much more extensive kinds of online marketing than had been available to promoters before.

Ticketfly
Ticketmaster
Bowery Ballroom
Music
advertising,marketing


Ad Watch: Under Armour Trains With Michael Phelps

Abstract: For 90 seconds, Michael Phelps’s training regimen is on display: He swims, lifts weights, eats. At one point, he undergoes cupping therapy (seriously, just Google it). The Under Armour ad featuring the Olympic swimmer is an extension of the company’s “Rule Yourself” campaign, which was introduced last year and seeks to shed light on how world-class athletes train. The Phelps spot will be introduced at an Under Armour event in Baltimore on Tuesday and follows the recent release of two other ads in the campaign, one showcasing the United States women’s gymnastic team and the other featuring the young Dutch soccer star Memphis Depay. The creative agency Droga5 is behind the campaign. "Rule Yourself" Credit Credit Under Armour The Message The overarching goal of the “Rule Yourself” campaign is to promote Under Armour’s training apparel. But the broader message of the campaign’s second installment — whose ads run under the tagline “It’s what you do in the dark that puts you in the light” — is to remind people that success does not come easy, an idea that can get lost in the age of YouTube where stars are seemingly made overnight. “That is the headline we want people to remember: You have to train when no one is watching,” said Adrienne R. Lofton, senior vice president for global brand marketing at Under Armour. The three new campaign spots are shot in plenty of shadow, underscoring the idea that much of the training required to be the best occurs out of the spotlight. Phelps’s spot, set to “The Last Goodbye” by the Kills, is intended to highlight his singular focus as he trains for what may be his last Olympics. The ad was shot in Arizona, where Phelps was training for the Games in Brazil, which start in early August. The Risk In an attempt to get the biggest bang out of its sponsorship buck, Under Armour is introducing a campaign featuring Olympic athletes like Phelps five months before the Games even begin. Under Armour’s push could be a bit premature and the spots could get lost once the barrage of Olympic-related ads really gets going. Bonus Video As part of the campaign, Under Armour is releasing a video of Phelps viewing the ad for the first time. The company brought Phelps and his fiancée, Nicole Johnson, to its Baltimore headquarters on the day before Christmas, where the couple watched the ad with Kevin Plank, the company’s chief executive. How did Phelps respond? In the video, Phelps, whom Ms. Lofton said knew very little about the ad before seeing it, is moved to tears. “That’s insane,” Phelps says. In His Own Words In a phone interview before a workout in the pool on Monday, Phelps said the spot reflected how hard he works. “I think it shows just exactly what I do,” he said. “It shows what I’m extremely passionate about and I don’t give up. For me, it was incredible.”

Under Armour
Michael Phelps
Swimming
Olympics
Droga5
advertising,marketing


Iceland Considers Charges in Nation’s Banking Collapse

Abstract: Iceland’s Parliament will consider whether to charge the country’s leaders in 2008 with negligence in connection with the nation’s banking collapse, after a committee recommended on Saturday that they be indicted. A parliamentary committee will ask the full legislature to indict former Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde, former Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir, former Finance Minister Arni M. Mathiesen and former Business Minister Bjorgvin G. Sigurdsson, according to a written motion delivered to lawmakers on Saturday. Should Parliament vote in favor of indictment, it would be the first time a special court created in 1905 to oversee such cases would be convened. The 2008 banking collapse forced Iceland to turn to the International Monetary Fund for help and sent its currency, the krona, plunging as much as 80 percent against the euro in the offshore market. The government of Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir, in office since January last year, is struggling to rebuild the crippled economy as Icelanders come to terms with spiraling debt burdens and dwindling incomes. Parliament may reach a decision on the indictments within days, Ms. Sigurdardottir told reporters on Saturday in Reykjavik. Charges against Mr. Haarde, who was prime minister from 2006 until the beginning of 2009, should be based on “violations committed from February 2008 through the beginning of October of the same year, by intent or gross neglect, mostly violations against the laws of ministerial responsibility” as well as breaches of the Icelandic penal code, the committee said. The committee of nine lawmakers was appointed in April after a separate commission investigating the causes of the 2008 crisis found that government, central bank and financial regulator at the time had all been “negligent” in their failure to address some of the factors that exacerbated the collapse.

Iceland
Subprime Mortgage Crisis
Politics and Government
Crime and Criminals


EBay Reports Stronger Earnings, Fueled by PayPal

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — EBay’s net income soared in the fourth quarter, in large part because of the sale of its remaining investment in Skype and continued success of PayPal. But financial results released Wednesday by the company showed that eBay ’s core retailing business, what it calls Marketplace, finally seems to be making the turnaround that John Donahoe, eBay’s chief executive, has been promising investors. Four years ago, he outlined a plan to revive the company’s marketplace business by investing in new technologies, freshening the Web site and recasting it as an online outlet mall rather than a flea market. In the fourth quarter, its marketplace business pulled in $1.7 billion in revenue, a 16 percent jump from the same period a year ago and four times faster than the same quarter a year ago. “EBay’s results look workmanlike and impressive,” said Jordan Rohan, an analyst at Stifel Nicolaus. “We’re gearing our whole company to help retailers in this new multichannel world. EBay marketplace is one part of that equation,” Mr. Donahoe said in an interview after the announcement. “But the simple fact is that more and more people are using our mobile payment systems.” The payments unit, which consists almost entirely of PayPal, was responsible for more than 36 percent of the company’s fourth-quarter revenue — $1.24 billion — which grew 28 percent from the same period a year ago. EBay said net income in the fourth quarter rose to $1.98 billion, or $1.51 a share, from $559 million, or 42 cents a share in the same quarter a year ago. Excluding Skype and other items such as stock-based compensation expenses, eBay reported profit of $788.6 million or 60 cents a share, for the three months ending Dec. 31. The company said revenue climbed 35 percent to $3.4 billion from the same period in 2010. But income and revenue were higher than the consensus estimates of analysts. EBay’s future growth will continue to depend on the success of PayPal, and particularly its new mobile payment business. Last year, the company projected that its mobile payment volume would hit $1.5 billion in 2011. It later increased that estimate to $3 billion, but Wednesday reported it was $4 billion for the year, more than five times its payment volume in 2010. The company now projects that mobile payment volume will reach $7 billion in 2012. But the company’s earnings report comes on the heels of news this month that Scott Thompson, PayPal’s president, left the company to join Yahoo as its chief executive. Under Mr. Thompson’s leadership, PayPal more than doubled its user base and revenue. And Mr. Thompson’s departure came as eBay faces new competition in the mobile space. Mobile payment start-up Square, Google’s mobile payment product, Google Wallet, and Isis, a joint mobile payment venture by AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon, all recently entered the mobile payment space. “Scott’s departure was a surprise,” Mr. Donahoe acknowledged in an earnings call. “But PayPal has never been stronger and PayPal leadership has never been stronger.” Mr. Donahoe, who will serve as interim president, said he will worry about succession in February. “The whole organization is really focused on our 2012 plan,” he said. “We won’t skip a beat.” But the company advised investors that the current quarter’s results would be lower than analyst forecasts. For the current quarter, eBay said it expected revenue between $3.05 billion and $3.15 billion, slightly below analyst estimates of $3.18 billion. The company said that was because it plans to make investments this quarter in data centers and infrastructure for the year. For the full year, eBay said it expects revenue in the range of $13.7 billion to $14 billion, at or slightly higher than the $13.7 billion analysts have forecast.

PayPal
Company Reports
eBay Inc
Donahoe John


Giving Back a ‘Stolen’ Property to the Original Manhattanites

Abstract: The squat clapboard house overlooking the Hudson River in the West Village might not seem like an obvious place for a Native American prayer center. Its graffiti-strewn facade faces the busy West Side Highway, with a city bus stop out front. It once housed a series of bars, and the back of the building faces tiny Weehawken Street, which has traditionally been a popular gathering spot for gay and transgender people. The house’s ground floor now sits directly on Manhattan soil, said Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois, 76, a wealthy activist who bought the property in 2006. He says he is essentially donating it back to its original owners: the Lenape Indians. Mr. Bourgeois wants the building to be a prayer house , to be owned and operated by the Lenape nation, which inhabited Manhattan before it was appropriated by European settlers. Mr. Bourgeois pointed to a hole recently jackhammered through the thick concrete flooring of the house, which left black soil exposed underneath. “You can actually touch Manhattan soil — the idea is to be in touch with Mother Earth,” he said, adding that the plan was to remove the concrete and simply have a dirt floor. Anthony Jay Van Dunk, a former chief of the Ramapough Lenape Nation, a tribe based in Mahwah, N.J., is Mr. Bourgeois’s choice to start a prayer house, or a Pahtamawiikan, as it is known in one of the languages spoken by the Lenape. Image Mr. Bourgeois said he bought the squat clapboard house, at 392 West Street, in 2006 for $2.2 million. It is covered in graffiti and overlooks the Hudson River. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times Mr. Bourgeois said he had always been troubled by the well-known and not quite accurate legend that, four centuries ago, the Lenape sold Manhattan to Dutch settlers for the equivalent of $24 worth of goods. “It’s quite offensive,” he said. “It’s a form of conquest.” Mr. Van Dunk, 54, a Brooklyn woodworker who is active in Native American issues, pointed out that, if such a transaction had taken place, the Lenape might have meant it as a good-will exchange for sharing the land, and not as transferring ownership, especially because the tribe did not believe anyone could own land or water. The Lenape “tried to embrace and share,” Mr. Van Dunk said. “And in return, they got everything taken, even their lives.” Now, of course, Manhattan — whose name comes from the Lenape tongue, meaning roughly “the land of many hills” — has been developed to the hilt into a center of global commerce. “Manhattan is a capitalist rock; this is a quiet protest against that,” Mr. Bourgeois said of his gift. “I’m giving it back to whom the land was stolen from, and that’s really a joyful event.” Mr. Bourgeois, a longtime Greenwich Village resident and an architectural historian, is a son of the sculptor Louise Bourgeois , who died in 2010. His large inheritance, from the proceeds of her art, has financed his activism, which is aimed at social and environmental causes. Mr. Bourgeois said that he bought the building, 392 West Street, in 2006 for $2.2 million, and that it had probably appreciated in value to about $4 million. With three floors and less than 3,000 square feet, it is one of the last wood-frame buildings along the Hudson waterfront. Image A hole in the house’s concrete floor exposes soil underneath. “You can actually touch Manhattan soil — the idea is to be in touch with Mother Earth,” Mr. Bourgeois said, adding that the plan was to remove the concrete and simply have a dirt floor. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times Though some documentation describes the house as being built in the 1830s, Mr. Bourgeois said he believed it may actually date to the 1770s. The house was built on land that had been part of Newgate State Prison, a colonial jail, and then became part of the Greenwich Market, also known as the Weehawken Market, of which it is the last surviving segment. Over the centuries, it has been home to a saloon, a gambling parlor, an oyster house and a pool hall, Mr. Bourgeois said, and in recent decades it housed bars. He said that when he bought it, there were peep show machines inside, which he had removed. He said he initially hoped to turn the house into a museum dedicated to clean water issues that would include a seven-story waterfall installation designed by his mother. It would also have a waterless composting toilet restricted to people who ate only organic food. He admits now that the plan was “a bit too utopian.” Mr. Bourgeois lives half a block from the house in an apartment filled with files and books related to his activism. He recently returned from several weeks in North Dakota protesting a proposed oil pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. He said that he donated about $1 million to the campaign against the pipeline, and that he hoped the prayer house would be a way to celebrate and promote Native American ideals and political empowerment. The new center would be run by female tribal elders, Mr. Bourgeois said, as a nod to the matrilineal traditions of the Lenape and in memory of his wife, Carollee Pelos. Mr. Bourgeois was introduced to Mr. Van Dunk by a Native American man he met six years ago during the Occupy Wall Street protests in Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan. Mr. Van Dunk said the house would be a space for ceremonies, prayer, meetings and education. Image With three floors and less than 3,000 square feet, the house is one of the last wood-frame buildings along the Hudson waterfront. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times But Mr. Bourgeois’s generous gesture has not come without controversy. Some members of the Ramapough nation, which is also referred to as the Ramapough Mountain Indians and considers itself descended from the larger Lenape nation, took issue with his selection of Mr. Van Dunk as the recipient of his gift. Mr. Van Dunk served as the tribe’s chief in 2006 during a trying time: the fatal shooting of a tribe member by a New Jersey State Park Police officer. He then lost an election to Dwaine C. Perry, who has been the chief for the last decade. Mr. Perry criticized Mr. Van Dunk’s handling of tribal business and finances and said he had been barred from the nation by a tribal vote. “He’s a confidence man,” he said, adding that Mr. Van Dunk enjoyed posing as a “medicine man of the month.” Mr. Perry expressed concern that the tribe could be sued if anything went wrong with a Lenape center purportedly being run on behalf of the Ramapoughs. After hearing of the gift, Mr. Perry said he had invited Mr. Bourgeois to visit the Ramapough elders in New Jersey and to consider giving the property to the current leaders to establish a “native embassy site” there. Mr. Bourgeois never responded, Mr. Perry said. Mr. Van Dunk called being barred from the tribe a political vendetta by Mr. Perry, and said it did not affect his status as a Ramapough. And he said his accomplishments as chief — including dealing with the authorities after the shooting in which the officer was found not guilty of manslaughter, and creating many tribal programs — spoke for themselves. Mr. Bourgeois said he had confidence in Mr. Van Dunk and called his decision a “done deal.” Ownership of the house, he added, was currently being transferred to a nonprofit group overseen by Mr. Van Dunk. What mattered most, he said, was that the land was going back to the Lenape and that “we’re bringing back the spirits.”

Manhattan
Housing
Native Americans
Jean-Louis Goldwater Bourgeois
Anthony Jay Van Dunk
Dwaine C Perry
Real Estate


Charges Said to Be Voided for Bicyclist

Abstract: Prosecutors are expected to drop criminal charges on Friday against a bicyclist who was pushed off his bike in July by a police officer in Times Square, said Mark M. Taylor, a lawyer for the bicyclist. The encounter was captured on amateur video. The bicyclist, Christopher Long, 29, was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct on July 25 during a monthly ride called Critical Mass. The arresting officer, Patrick Pogan, wrote in his report that Mr. Long had been weaving in and out of traffic and that he had tried to hit the officer with his bicycle. But video recorded by an onlooker soon surfaced on YouTube, showing Officer Pogan lowering his shoulder and shoving Mr. Long off his bike on Seventh Avenue at 46th Street as Mr. Long tried to steer out of the way. On Thursday, prosecutors declined to comment on their case against Mr. Long and would neither confirm nor deny that they planned to drop the charges. After the video surfaced, Officer Pogan was stripped of his gun and badge and placed on desk duty, pending a department investigation. Mr. Taylor said his client planned to sue the city. Norman Siegel, a civil rights lawyer who has represented several Critical Mass participants, said that dropping the charges against Mr. Long would be the right thing to do, and that he hoped the prosecutors would go one step further. “I think they should give serious consideration to bringing perjury and assault charges against the cop,” Mr. Siegel said. “This is the way to get accountability over the police and reduce police misconduct. If you make this officer an example, then the message is: This kind of conduct is unacceptable and there will be legal consequences for it.” Tensions have long existed between Critical Mass riders and the police, who complain that the riders ignore traffic laws. Shortly before the Republican National Convention in 2004, a large number of officers arrested more than 250 riders on charges that included parading without a permit. In 2006, a state judge turned down a request by the city to forbid Time’s Up, an environmental group that promotes the monthly rides, to take part in them, to gather at Union Square Park beforehand and to mention the rides on its Web site.

Critical Mass
Police Brutality and Misconduct
Bicycles and Bicycling


N.F.L.’s Deal With Referees Brings Relief, but Resentment Lingers

Abstract: As the N.F.L. and its referees drew closer to a new labor agreement late Wednesday, reports flew across the Internet — each, it seemed, only slightly different from the last. The deal was done. Then it was not. Then it was close. Then it was really close. Then all it needed was a signature. By the time the N.F.L. confirmed a new agreement shortly before midnight, the reaction, at least from its players and coaches and agents, had quieted down considerably. Perhaps there was nothing left to say after all the criticism, all the debating, week after week, hour after hour, on television and radio, in newspapers and magazines and on blogs. That the sides did reach an agreement seemed like evidence that a nation of football fanatics frustrated with replacement officials had been heard. Consensus as to the end of the labor impasse, which seemed certain throughout Wednesday, remained consistent. Perhaps Matt Hasselbeck, the backup quarterback in Tennessee, best summarized the feelings of the league and its constituents. “Welcome back,” Hasselbeck posted on his Twitter page, before the final agreement had been reached. Even among those who agreed with that sentiment, resentment lingered. It came from Green Bay, which lost to Seattle on Monday on the most controversial call made by a replacement referee, and it came from the coaches who saw their wallets lightened by the league for their behavior toward the officials Sunday. Coaches who were fined Wednesday included Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots ($50,000) and Kyle Shanahan ($25,000), a Washington Redskins assistant. The N.F.L. announced the fines while it negotiated with its referees union and social media buzzed with reports of an impending deal. Belichick, who grabbed the arm of an official after the Patriots lost on a last-second field goal against Baltimore, acknowledged in a statement released by the team that “it was inappropriate for me to contact the official.” Shanahan was cited for abuse of officials, whom he berated from the sidelines and confronted in a stadium tunnel after the game. “Anytime you do what he did, you’re going to get fined,” said Mike Shanahan, his father and the Redskins’ coach. Reaction continued to come from all corners of the country, most notably from Seattle and Green Bay, the teams involved in the Monday night game often cited as the main impetus for the labor strides made this week. On his weekly radio show on WAUK-AM in Milwaukee, quarterback Aaron Rodgers railed against the N.F.L. and its statement that stood by the call that Golden Tate scored on a Hail Mary pass by Russell Wilson on the game’s final play. Rodgers apologized to N.F.L. fans first. Then he said: “I’m O.K. with replacement refs as long as they don’t have a direct impact on the game. Obviously, last night there was a direct impact on the game on multiple plays.” He continued: “The game is being tarnished by an N.F.L. that obviously cares more about saving some money than having the integrity of the game diminished a little bit.” Meanwhile, in Seattle, Tate told reporters he had been the target of vitriol from across the country. He also acknowledged he pushed off on the winning catch, but said he did not know that at the time. “If I mentioned those words, it would be bleeps, bleeps, bleeps,” Tate told The Seattle Times. “Some nasty stuff. It’s mean. I’ve been called a cheater. I don’t have any dignity. I’m not a Christian. A lot of hurtful things.” At least one Packer, Tom Crabtree, made his feelings known on Twitter. Note the sarcasm. “That was the right call for sure,” he posted. “Well done guys! But we’re gonna go ahead n get a deal done with these other guys n fire you IMMEDIATELY!” That post seemed like a roundabout way of agreeing with Hasselbeck: Welcome back.

Football
Officiating (Sports)
National Football League


Muslims Projected to Outnumber Christians by 2100

Abstract: Christianity has long been the world’s largest religion by far, but the population of Muslims is growing so fast that they will match Christians by the year 2070 and outnumber them by the end of the century, according to a report released Thursday that projects the global religious future. The report , from the Pew Research Center , projects a vibrantly religious planet, not the withering away of religion predicted by some futurists. The reason is not that religious groups will win significantly more converts, but simply that religious adherents are younger and have more children than secular people. Those demographic factors will drive the growth of Islam because Muslims are the youngest and have the highest fertility rates of any religious group, the report says. In the United States, the spread of secularism will probably continue: Those who claim no religion will make up about a quarter of the population by 2050 — an increase from 16 percent in 2010. Christianity will have the biggest losses, with its share of the American population declining to 66 percent in 2050 from 78 percent in 2010, according to the projections in the report. The number of Muslims in the United States will surpass that of Jews (at least those who claim “Jewish” as their religious identity) by 2035, but both groups will remain tiny portions of the American religious landscape, Conrad Hackett, the lead researcher and demographer for the Pew report, said in an interview. In Europe, the percentage of Muslims will rise to about 10 percent from about 6 percent of the population in the four decades from 2010 to 2050. That is a significant minority, but the picture is hardly that of the Muslim-dominated “Eurabia” that some nativist and anti-immigrant groups in Europe have warned of. “We just don’t see that happening,” Dr. Hackett said. He said that within one or two generations of arriving in Europe, Muslim immigrants — like immigrants in general — tended to leave behind the high fertility rates of their home countries and had smaller families, much like other Europeans. “In the next generation or two, those immigrant families increasingly look like other families,” Dr. Hackett said. The report, six years in the making, projects the change in religious affiliation from 2010 to 2050 by region and by country. Its projections draw on mortality and fertility rates, age assessments and patterns of migration and religious switching. The data came from more than 2,500 censuses, surveys and population registers from all over the world. “Wars, famines, religious revival and all kinds of things could change the picture,” Dr. Hackett said. Demographers, religious leaders and policy makers are likely to pore over the results, said David Voas, a professor of population studies at the University of Essex who looks at religious trends. He has read the report and has provided comment for its authors. “This is the most authoritative analysis we’ve had at the global level of the future of the religious population,” Dr. Voas said. “It will provide a good foundation for debates and give people a clearer picture of what’s likely to happen.” The biggest uncertainty is what will happen in China, the most populous country, whose 1.3 billion people have a tremendous effect on global trends. So many churches there are underground and not approved by the government that reliable figures on religious affiliation and switching are not available, the researchers said. They estimated that in 2010, about 5 percent of China’s population was Christian, 18 percent was Buddhist, 22 percent practiced folk religions and more than 50 percent had no religious affiliation. If notable percentages of China’s unaffiliated converted to Christianity — as some religion scholars predict — the global religious projections could change significantly. “It’s undoubtedly the case that the current government in China has been keeping the lid on religious growth,” Dr. Voas said in a telephone interview. “If at some point in the next few decades there are political changes in China that open up the country to more religious freedom, I think it’s not implausible that there would be a significant growth in Christianity, in particular, but perhaps other religious movements as well.” The shift in Christianity — from a faith identified as belonging to white Westerners to a faith belonging to Africans, Asians and Latin Americans in the global south — will intensify in the next 35 years, the report says. Now, about 25 percent of the world’s Christians live in sub-Saharan Africa, a trend already affecting debates over leadership and direction in churches such as the Roman Catholic Church, the Anglican Communion and the United Methodist Church. By 2050, four of 10 Christians in the world are expected to live in sub-Saharan Africa. Even though the Muslim share of the population there will grow slightly faster than the Christian share, Christianity will still be the largest faith in the region and an increasingly powerful presence globally. Already, in a historical reverse, African churches are sending missionaries and priests to the United States and Europe, where faith appears to be in retreat. “I think it can only be a matter of time before we have an African pope, because it will just seem reasonable,” Dr. Voas said.

Christianity
Pew Research Center
Islam
Religion and Belief
Polls


House Passes Bill Banning Insider Trading by Members of Congress

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Thursday to ban insider trading by members of Congress and to impose new ethics requirements on lawmakers and federal agency officials. The 417-to-2 vote occurred less than three weeks after President Obama demanded such action in his State of the Union address . The Senate approved a similar bill by a vote of 96 to 3 on Feb. 2. The lopsided votes concealed deep disagreements over details of the legislation, which now goes back to the Senate. The two chambers could try to work out their differences in a conference committee or through informal negotiations. House Republican leaders eliminated a provision of the Senate-passed bill that would, for the first time, regulate firms that collect “political intelligence” for hedge funds, private equity funds and other investors. Under the Senate bill, such firms would have to register and report their activities, as lobbyists do. In place of this requirement, the House calls for a study of whether to require the registration of people who collect political intelligence for the use of investors. The swift response and the debate in both chambers showed how defensive and anxious lawmakers have become about the low esteem in which Congress is held. Its public approval rating has sunk below 15 percent. “We need to stop the insidious practice of insider trading, giving members of this body an unfair advantage over Americans who sent us here to represent them,” said Representative Kathy Hochul , Democrat of New York. “Let us begin the long process of restoring the faith of the American people in this institution.” Representative Louise M. Slaughter , Democrat of New York, who has been pushing ethics legislation since 2006, said, “It appears that the House Republican leadership could not stomach pressure from the political intelligence community, which is unregulated and unseen and operates in the dark.” Senator Charles E. Grassley , Republican of Iowa , who wrote the proposed disclosure requirement, denounced “the chutzpah” of House Republican leaders, who he said had “wiped out any chance of meaningful transparency for the political intelligence industry.” He said he would fight to restore the requirement. The House majority leader, Representative Eric Cantor , Republican of Virginia , said the political intelligence section of the Senate bill was flawed. “That provision raises an awful lot of questions,” Mr. Cantor said Thursday on the House floor. “There is a lot of discussion and debate about who and what would qualify and fall under the suggested language that came from the Senate. That is why we are calling for a study.” The chamber’s Democratic leader, Representative Nancy Pelosi of California , said the House-passed bill had “serious omissions” and was “much diminished” from the Senate version. She supported it as a way to advance the legislation, but said, “I don’t want anyone to interpret the strong vote for it to be a seal of approval.” Some Republicans described the bill as an overreaction, but voted for it anyway, saying they could not easily explain their concerns to a restive public. The votes against the bill were cast by Representatives John Campbell of California and Rob Woodall of Georgia , both Republicans. The bill is known as the Stock Act, or the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act. The Senate version was written by members of both parties. The House version was prepared by Republican leaders — Democrats said they had not been consulted — and it was debated on the House floor under a rule that precluded amendments. House Republicans had their own reasons for supporting the bill. Representative Lamar Smith , Republican of Texas and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, said: “The risk of government self-dealing is heightened by the huge growth in recent years of the federal government and its increasing entanglement with the private economy. Big government can move markets. That’s why we need strong rules to reassure the public that decision makers are not enriching themselves by investing based on insider knowledge of government policies.” The bill would prohibit members of Congress from trading stocks and other securities on the basis of confidential information they receive as lawmakers. It makes clear that the insider trading ban in federal law applies to members of Congress and their aides and to officials in the executive and judicial branches of the federal government. Moreover, the bill requires members of Congress to disclose the purchase or sale of stocks, bonds, commodities futures and other securities within 30 to 45 days of transactions. The information would be posted on the Web. A similar disclosure requirement would apply to thousands of federal employees in the executive branch, including the White House, cabinet departments and independent agencies. The House added a provision to prohibit members of Congress and executive branch officials from receiving special access to initial public stock offerings because of their positions. Republicans said the provision was inspired by an investment in the initial public offering by Visa Inc. in 2008 by Ms. Pelosi , who was then the speaker of the House. The legislation, as passed by both houses, would deny federal pensions to members of Congress who are convicted of felonies involving public corruption. It would also require lawmakers to disclose the terms of mortgages on their homes. Ms. Slaughter and Representative Tim Walz, Democrat of Minnesota , led the charge for the legislation in the House. “The perception is that members of Congress are enriching themselves,” Mr. Walz said. “That’s not only an affront to our neighbors, that we are not playing by the rules. It is a cancer that can destroy the democracy.” Federal securities law does not explicitly exempt members of Congress, but experts disagree on whether and when lawmakers may be found to have violated the law. The bill is meant to eliminate any ambiguity. The legislation says that lawmakers have “a duty arising from a relationship of trust and confidence” to Congress, the federal government and citizens of the United States — a duty they violate by trading on nonpublic information. Explaining his vote against the measure, Mr. Campbell said, “This is an ambiguous bill that could potentially and unintentionally cause constituents and members of Congress to break the law by simply asking or answering a question about the prospects of federal legislation.”

US
Insider trading
House of Representatives
Senate
Legislation
US Politics


Bronx: Police Try to Identify Abandoned Infant

Abstract: An abandoned baby girl was found lying in a grassy area in the Allerton neighborhood yesterday morning, the police said. The baby, who was wearing a pink cap and a light blue one-piece outfit, was discovered around 11:30 a.m. opposite 1135 Pelham Parkway North. The girl, who was wrapped in a white and pink blanket with the words, “Thank Heaven for Little Girls,” on the blanket, was taken to Jacobi Medical Center, where she was in good condition last night. The police are asking people with information to call 1-800-577-8477.


At 50, Major League Draft Has Sharpened Its Focus

Abstract: Brendan Rodgers had been to New York once before this month, to play at Citi Field in a summer showcase for top high school players. He has also played at Wrigley Field in Chicago and Petco Park in San Diego. “It was an honor to play at those events, and I had a blast,” Rodgers said. “How they treated us and everything, it was awesome.” Major League Baseball celebrated Rodgers on Monday, hosting a luncheon in Midtown for him and the three other high school prospects who agreed to take part in the hoopla for the annual draft. The players toured city landmarks in the morning and were whisked to the league’s TV studio in New Jersey for the draft, where Rodgers, a shortstop from Lake Mary High School in Florida, was chosen third over all by the Colorado Rockies. The instant gratification of the N.F.L. and N.B.A. drafts — and the flurry of trades surrounding them — makes those events more digestible for the casual sports fan. Even so, the baseball draft, now 50 years old, has come a long way. Rodgers, 18, is already friends with the others who showed up. He was roommates at the San Diego showcase with Ashe Russell, a pitcher from Indianapolis, and knew Mike Nikorak, a pitcher from Stroudsburg, Pa., from another event. He spent Monday’s boat ride around Manhattan getting to know Garrett Whitley, an outfielder from Niskayuna, N.Y. The former pitcher David Cone, representing the Yankees on Monday, smiled as he recalled his opposite draft experience in 1981. “I didn’t know anybody; nobody knew me,” Cone said. “When I was drafted, I was shocked. I thought I might get drafted — maybe top 20 rounds.” Cone, whose Kansas City high school had no baseball team, pitched in summer leagues and performed for two scouts, from the Royals and the St. Louis Cardinals, at a tryout camp at the Royals’ stadium. He had no idea where he ranked as a prospect until the Royals called and said they had taken him in the third round. Cone signed for $17,000. The Royals’ first pick that June, Cone recalled, was an outfielder named Dave Leeper who had starred at the University of Southern California. Leeper had three singles in 40 at-bats in his major league career. Cone did not remember who went first overall that year, but it was Mike Moore, a right-hander chosen by the Seattle Mariners. Moore would earn 161 career victories, the most of any pitcher taken first over all. But Cone, of course, was much better, and another player picked in the third round, Tony Gwynn, went on to the Hall of Fame. Image Shortstop Carlos Correa of Puerto Rico, the top overall draft pick in 2012, was promoted to the Astros on Sunday at age 20. Credit Stacy Revere/Getty Images “Teams are much more prepared nowadays than they were back then,” Cone said. “Somebody picked in the third round would never sneak through like I did. It could still happen, but it’s few and far between compared to 1981. There’s sleepers, but there’s not so much, ‘Who the heck is that guy?’ ” The downside to the amateur travel circuit, Cone said, is the strain it puts on developing pitchers, who may rest, then ramp up for scouts, then rest and ramp up again. Many pitchers run parallel tracks to the pros and to major elbow surgery. This is less of an issue for a shortstop like Rodgers, a multiskilled player who wore a Florida State pullover to Monday’s luncheon but probably will not go there. He dreamed of the majors, not the N.C.A.A. “I started playing when I was 6 years old,” he said. “And ever since I picked up a ball, I wrote down — like on kindergarten work sheets — that I wanted to play professional baseball one day.” If that sounds like a story from the life and times of Derek Jeter, it is no coincidence. Though Rodgers rooted for Boston as a boy, he idolized Jeter and met him, through his adviser, in Orlando, Fla., last week. “The player I kind of look up to, role-model-wise, is Derek Jeter; it’s kind of a given,” said Rodgers, who added that Jeter had given him valuable tips. “He always said you never know who’s watching, you always play the game hard, make sure you enjoy it and have fun the next few days, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Little things like that, I’m never going to forget.” Jeter was the first high schooler chosen in 1992, but five teams — Houston, Cleveland, Montreal, Baltimore and Cincinnati — passed on him. The Yankees have had less luck with high school shortstops since: C. J. Henry (chosen 17th over all in 2005) peaked in Class A, and Cito Culver (32nd in 2010) was hitting .175 through Sunday for Class AA Trenton. Teams still find late-round gems, like Houston’s Dallas Keuchel (seventh round), Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt (eighth) and St. Louis’s Matt Carpenter (13th), but the obvious top-of-the-first-round choices, like Rodgers, arrive polished and poised to make an impact. It did not escape Rodgers’s notice that Carlos Correa, the No. 1 overall pick in 2012, was promoted to the Astros on Sunday night, at age 20. “I follow Carlos a lot,” Rodgers said. “I don’t really know him, but I follow his success. He seems like a great player and a great person.” With health, Rodgers said, he could see himself playing in major league parks again very soon. Jeter is the role model, but Correa is the modern inspiration. “You want to play the game right and play the game hard, and success comes along with it if you’re doing pretty much everything right,” Rodgers said. “I hope to be in kind of the same position he is.”

Brendan Rodgers
Baseball
David Cone
Mike Moore
Tony Gwynn
Derek Jeter
Sports Drafts and Recruits


Japanese Elder Says Premier’s Resignation Might Aid Impasse

Abstract: TOKYO (Reuters) — A Japanese governing party elder suggested Saturday that Prime Minister Naoto Kan ’s resignation was an option to win opposition support for bills to enact a workable budget, adding to pressure on the unpopular leader as he struggles with a divided Parliament. Mr. Kan, whose public support ratings have fallen to about 20 percent, had already been facing pressure from inside and outside the governing Democratic Party either to quit or call a snap election to break a political deadlock that is keeping Japan from dealing with pressing problems including an enormous public debt. “We need to put top priority on the passage of the budget and related bills” over the Democratic Party or Prime Minister Kan, Kozo Watanabe, a senior adviser to the party, told reporters. But he added that as long as Mr. Kan wanted to stay on, it was the duty of party members to “protect” him. Rifts in the party, which deepened after its power broker, Ichiro Ozawa, was indicted last month on accusations that he had misreported political funds, have also weakened Mr. Kan’s grip on power and distracted the government from dealing with policy problems. On a television show earlier in the day, Mr. Watanabe, a veteran lawmaker, ruled out the chance of a snap election for Parliament’s powerful lower house, the Kyodo News Agency reported. Sounding a theme he has raised before, Shizuka Kamei, the leader of a small coalition party, the People’s New Party, called for a shuffle of the cabinet that would bring in opposition lawmakers as a way to break the political impasse, Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, reported. “Prime Minister Kan must forget the past, forge ahead and stand at the forefront of such a choice,” Mr. Kamei said. But the Democrats’ secretary general, Katsuya Okada, dismissed talk of Mr. Kan’s resignation in return for opposition help with passing bills, including one to allow the issuance of deficit-financing bonds to carry out steps in the budget for the year starting in April. “The opposition has rejected the idea of such an exchange, so to focus on that debate is meaningless,” Mr. Okada said. The government wants to have the lower house of Parliament, where the Democrats hold a big majority, approve the $1 trillion 2011-12 budget on Monday, but it plans to hold off on submitting related bills. The budget itself can be enacted by Parliament’s lower house alone. But the related bills to implement the budget require approval of the opposition-controlled upper chamber.

Japan
Kan Naoto
Politics and Government
Legislatures and Parliaments
Democratic Party (Japan)


Heyward Isham, a Negotiator With Hanoi, Dies at 82

Abstract: Heyward Isham, a career Foreign Service officer who helped negotiate the American peace accord with North Vietnam in 1973 and later became ambassador to Haiti, died Thursday in Southampton, N.Y. He was 82 and lived in Sagaponack, N.Y. The cause was heart failure, his son Christopher said. Mr. Isham was deputy chief and then acting chief of the American delegation to the Paris peace talks. In that capacity he worked with the chief American negotiator, Henry A. Kissinger, who was then President Richard M. Nixon’s national security adviser. The talks began in 1968, after President Lyndon B. Johnson announced an end to American bombing of most areas of North Vietnam and said he would not seek re-election. Signed on Jan. 27, 1973, the accord was intended to establish peace in Vietnam. It did end direct American military involvement in the war, but only temporarily stopped the fighting between North and South Vietnam. A breakthrough in the negotiations came in October 1972, when the North Vietnamese dropped their demand that the South Vietnamese government be replaced. “On that basis we negotiated a cease-fire and a peace agreement,” Mr. Kissinger said in an interview on Monday. Mr. Isham, he said, “represented the State Department, primarily on legal matters, in this final negotiation. He handled extremely complicated issues, among them disarmament provisions and the relationship between the organizations that were set up to supervise the agreement.” “He made a tremendous contribution,” Mr. Kissinger said. While ambassador to Haiti from 1974 to 1977, Mr. Isham supervised a series of development projects and, after a yearlong drought in 1975, a program that helped feed 120,000 Haitians. Born in Manhattan on Nov. 4, 1926, Mr. Isham was one of two sons of Ralph and Margaret Hurt Isham. He received a bachelor’s degree in international relations from Yale in 1947 and later studied at Columbia University’s Russian Institute. He continued his Russian-language studies at the United States Army Russian Institute in Germany. His career in the Foreign Service started in 1950 with his assignment to the American mission in Berlin. From 1955 through 1957, he was chief of the consular section and political office at the United States Embassy in Moscow. While there, he negotiated the release of a number of people who had been detained by the Soviets despite their claims to American citizenship. He retired from diplomatic service in 1987 and later became a senior editor at Doubleday, where he supervised the publication of the memoirs of Andrei A. Gromyko, the Soviet foreign minister from 1957 to 1985, and other books by Russians. Besides his son Christopher, who is the Washington bureau chief for CBS News, he is survived by his wife of 59 years, Sheila Eaton Isham, an artist; another son, Ralph; his brother, John; and nine grandchildren. His daughter, Sandra Isham Vreeland, died in 1996.

Foreign Service
Vietnam
Haiti
State Department
Isham Heyward
Deaths (Obituaries)
United States International Relations
Hanoi (Vietnam)
New York State


Russian Mother of Adopted Boy Who Died in U.S. Wants His Brother Back

Abstract: MOSCOW — The Russian mother of two young boys who were adopted by a Texas couple requested on Wednesday that the younger child be returned to her, after his brother died under unclear circumstances in a case that has given new impetus to a long-running controversy over foreign adoptions. The older boy, Max Shatto, 3, died in a West Texas hospital in late January . His birth mother, Yulia A. Kuzmina, pleaded with President Vladimir V. Putin in a letter on Wednesday to restore her parental rights to the younger boy, Kirill, 2. Russian social services officers took the children from Ms. Kuzmina in 2011, when Kirill was an infant, saying that she was unfit to raise them because of alcohol addiction. The American couple, Alan and Laura Shatto of Gardendale, Tex., adopted the two boys from a Russian orphanage late last year. Texas officials have received complaints that Max was physically abused and are investigating his death. “I am the birth mother of Maksim Kuzmin, murdered in the United States by his adoptive family, the Shattos,” Ms. Kuzmina wrote, referring to Max by his pre-adoptive Russian name. “These people have my second son. I accept my guilt before the children, have found work and have the ability to provide for the child. Help me please, don’t allow the death of my second child, Kirill.” The case has revived an aggressive campaign in Russia to curb adoptions by foreigners, and particularly by American families. The country banned adoptions of Russian orphans by Americans in late December. Opponents criticized the move, saying the Russian authorities were using children for political leverage during a period of tense relations with the United States. Russian investigators say Ms. Shatto beat Max to death, and count him as one of 20 Russian children who were adopted by American families and then died over the past 20 years. On Wednesday, Russia’s chief investigator said he had opened 11 criminal cases in Russian courts against American parents who were acquitted by American courts in connection with such deaths. In an interview on Russian state television Wednesday, Ms. Kuzmina said she was returning home from a store with sweets for the children in 2011 when she learned that social services had taken Maksim and Kirill. “I am guilty for everything that has happened,” she said through tears during the interview. “Now I want to take him back.”


Policy on Storing Nuclear Waste Is Challenged by States

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The attorneys general of New York, Connecticut and Vermont sued the Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Tuesday, challenging a new commission policy stating that nuclear waste can be safely stored at a nuclear power plant for 60 years after a reactor goes out of service. The three states argued that the policy, adopted in December, violated two federal laws requiring that a full environmental review be carried out at each nuclear site before permission for long-term storage could be granted. “Our communities deserve a thorough review of the environmental, public health and safety risks such a move would present,” New York’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman , said in a statement . In a phone interview, Attorney General William H. Sorrell of Vermont said “a prudent federal response to the problem of spent fuel storage might be different from one site to the next — that’s what this is about.” The attorneys general noted that storage of nuclear waste remained a nagging issue for the federal government. After years of work by the Energy Department to prepare Yucca Mountain in Nevada as a permanent repository for nuclear waste, the Obama administration in 2009 ruled out using that site . (State utility regulators have challenged that decision in a lawsuit.) “It puts more pressure, frankly, on the federal government and the nuclear power industry to come up with long-term — and by that I mean permanent — solutions,” Mr. Sorrell said of the suit. “If we take our feet off the accelerator there, the politics and other considerations of permanent storage will be allowed to go unresolved for a longer period of time.” Yet the potential impact of the lawsuit filed on Tuesday, and even the commission’s position on waste, is unclear. David McIntyre, a spokesman for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission , said the lawsuit by the attorneys general had mischaracterized the nature of the December decision. He described it as a commission “opinion” on how long waste could be safely stored rather than a rule permitting any plant to store spent fuel. But people who favor building new reactors said the adoption of the policy was important because it helped outline a legal basis for approving the construction of new reactors and long-range plans for handling their spent fuel. Most of the nuclear plants running today were designed at a time when engineers thought that spent fuel would be stored for a few years in an earthquake-proof pool at the site. Then it would be moved to a different site where it would be chopped up and chemically processed so that some parts could be reused, the thinking went. But efforts to develop storage and reprocessing sites for nuclear waste stalled, and most nuclear plants ended up with too little storage space in their pools to accommodate the waste. With no place to send the fuel, nuclear operators have instead built “dry casks,” small steel and concrete silos, filed with inert gas, into which old fuel can be sealed. Most nuclear plants in the United States either store fuel in casks now or have plans to do so. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission licenses dry casks for 20 or 40 years, and then decides whether the licenses can safely be renewed, or whether additional precautions should be taken. The first casks were initially licensed for 20 years, and some have received 40-year renewals. Mr. McIntyre said the underlying reason for the commission’s December “opinion” was that such casks were “working really well.” The commission does not require that an environmental-impact statement be prepared for a site before it grants an extension, he acknowledged, but he said that in some cases there had been public hearings. The casks require security guards, and at some sites the presence of the waste has made it impractical to reuse the land for any other purpose. At the Connecticut Yankee nuclear power station in Haddam Neck, Conn., torn down in 2007 , all of the fuel ever used by the reactor over its 28 years of operation is now sitting in dry casks. In announcing in 2009 that it would drop its application for a license for Yucca Mountain, the Obama administration established a commission to pursue other solutions. The panel is exploring technologies for reuse of some components of the fuel and developing a process for choosing the site for a repository. In New York, the lawsuit on Tuesday had another political subtext. The licenses of the Indian Point 2 and 3 reactors in Buchanan are nearing expiration, and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo opposes a 20-year extension sought by the plant’s owners.

Nuclear Wastes
Attorneys General
Connecticut
Vermont
Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Storage
Suits and Litigation
Schneiderman Eric T
New York State


Promising Much, but Doing Little to Aid the Terminal’s Homeless

Abstract: Scott James writes a column for The Bay Citizen. When San Francisco’s decrepit Transbay Terminal bus station was demolished last fall to make way for a new $4 billion transit hub that is scheduled to open in 2017, more than just a travelers’ crossroads was reduced to rubble. Around 100 homeless people, many suffering from severe mental illnesses, lived in and around the terminal. As the final Aug. 6 evacuation of the building approached, city leaders pledged to help the Transbay homeless. But eight months later, it appears that most did not receive help. City officials responsible for attending to the homeless said the city did everything possible to assist the Transbay population, but critics say that it was too little too late, and that the city has exaggerated the number of people it did help. “I think it’s outrageous when lives are literally in jeopardy that political games are being played,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness , San Francisco, a nonprofit advocacy group. “The city is pretending to house people.” A review of hundreds of pages of documents regarding the Transbay homeless recently obtained using state and local open-records laws found these facts: ¶The city has repeatedly misstated that 88 people, the majority of the Transbay homeless, received housing or shelter. Internal records show the official number was just 48. (Advocates for the homeless contend it was only 14.) ¶Despite the city’s knowing for many months that the building would be demolished, concentrated efforts to assist the Transbay homeless began only in June, which advocates say was not enough time to enroll people in government assistance programs. ¶For those who did receive help, shelter was provided for only a matter of days in many cases. ¶One woman died while in the city’s care. Details of the death could not be released because of patient privacy laws. ¶Two key top managers took time off during the week of the evacuation. The documents also revealed disagreement among city officials over what the public has been told about how many Transbay homeless had been helped. While Dariush Kayhan, director of homeless policy for the mayor, had told The Bay Citizen and The San Francisco Chronicle that the city had sheltered 88 people, Jason Albertson, a social worker with the Homeless Outreach Team at the Department of Public Health who worked closely on the evacuation, said the number was 48. “It is unclear to me where the higher numbers that were repeated by other staff were derived from,” Mr. Albertson wrote in an e-mail to Mr. Kayhan on Feb. 9. Mr. Kayhan declined to be interviewed for this column, but he did contend in an e-mail that “I provided the best information I had at the time.” Other city officials also declined to discuss the Transbay homeless. Trent Rhorer, executive director of the San Francisco Human Services Agency, which oversees shelters and housing for the indigent, barred staff members who worked on Transbay from being interviewed and referred all questions about Transbay to Mr. Kayhan. “This is my preogative as Executive Director of the Human Services Agency,” Mr. Rhorer wrote in an e-mail. “Per the U.S. Constitution and within the constraints as set out by the Courts, you are free to print whatever you want to print.” (Mr. Rhorer also asked for the name of my boss.) In an interview this week, Mr. Albertson of the health department theorized that misstatements about the number of homeless who got help could be due to the “fog of war,” recalling that the final days of the terminal evacuation were frenetic. “We did everything we could,” Mr. Albertson said. “Any encampment of more than just a few people is a significant challenge, especially with our resources.” Marykate Connor, a longtime advocate for the homeless who has worked with the terminal’s residents over the past three decades via federal and local programs, said the city missed an opportunity to deal with a grave problem, and she predicted consequences. “The ball was dropped,” Ms. Connor said, adding that the terminal’s homeless were now “scattered in the downtown canyons,” often found sleeping in Financial District doorways at night. Without shelter, she said, it is likely that the city will now shoulder the cost of expensive emergency medical care for these people. “If these were endangered deer, people from all over the country would care,” she said. “I’m sorry to say that the public just doesn’t care.”

Homeless Persons
Demolition
San Francisco (Calif)


After 5 Months, China to Try Would-Be Protester

Abstract: BEIJING — On Monday, a 62-year-old woman named Zhong Ruihua who traveled from southern China to Beijing during the Paralympics to conduct a protest is scheduled to go on trial for disturbing the public order, according to one of her daughters. Ms. Zhong will be the first of 10 people from the industrial city of Liuzhou to come to trial for planned protests in September . The group came to petition for redress for property seizures or destruction that involved local officials, a common complaint among Chinese. The oldest member was a 79-year-old woman. They never got to protest; within an hour of being interviewed by The New York Times about their plans, they were detained by scores of plainclothes police officers who had followed them from their home in the Guangxi Autonomous Region. They were then driven back south. The daughter, a woman whose name is Ms. Dang, said no one had been allowed to see Ms. Zhong since she was driven back to her hometown. Another daughter who had come to Beijing with Ms. Zhong is also being detained, said Ms. Dang, who asked that only her surname be used, citing fear of government reprisal. “I’m not sure how her health is,” Ms. Dang said of her mother. “Of course I’m anxious.” Ms. Zhong’s original plan when she flew to Beijing was to apply for a permit to hold a protest. During the Summer Olympics and Paralympics, the Chinese government had said anyone could apply to hold a protest in one of three designated parks in Beijing. In the end, no permits were granted, and the government even detained some people who had applied, including two frail grandmothers in their 70s. Ms. Zhong, who had heard about the earlier detentions, said she became too scared to apply for a permit when she heard that she had to do so in person. So on Sept. 10, she and one of her daughters walked out of an apartment in Beijing where Liuzhou’s would-be protesters had been hiding. They were on their way to hold their protest when they were picked up by the police from Guangxi. The other people in the apartment were also detained when they walked out the same afternoon. One of the other women, Huang Liuhong, and her 4-month-old son have not been seen since September, when the two were put under arrest in a government hotel in Liuzhou, said one of her sisters. Two other sisters and Ms. Huang’s mother, 79, had also gone for the protest and were arrested in September. The mother has been released, but the other sisters are still in jail. As Ms. Huang was being driven back to Liuzhou in September, she said by cellphone that the police had stripped her of her clothes so she would not flee. “I have no idea where they are,” the sister said Saturday. “The police won’t let me see them.”

China
Demonstrations and Riots
Paralympic Games


Mets’ Rally Goes for Naught as Cardinals Storm Past Jeurys Familia

Abstract: Jeurys Familia walked off the mound with an unfamiliar feeling on Wednesday night. Although he blew three saves during the World Series, the Mets’ All-Star closer had not done so in the regular season since July 30, 2015. Entering the ninth inning with a one-run lead against the St. Louis Cardinals, Familia had converted 52 consecutive save chances — the third-longest streak in history. Familia walked a tightrope and survived many times this season, but he finally stumbled, allowing two runs in a 5-4 loss at Citi Field that negated Yoenis Cespedes’s dramatic, go-ahead two-run homer in the seventh, which had felt like the game’s turning point. “This is a really tough one to take,” Manager Terry Collins said. The inning unfolded like others this season for Familia. He got Matt Adams to line out but walked Jedd Gyorko on four pitches. Familia had escaped these situations before and used his trademark sinker hoping to get Yadier Molina to ground into a double play. Instead, Molina doubled in a run. “I leave it a little bit in the middle, he made a good swing, and that’s it,” said Familia, who later allowed the decisive, go-ahead double to Kolten Wong. So often this season, the Mets have been betrayed by their offense and boosted by their bullpen, but the reverse happened on Wednesday. Still, Cespedes’s home run against Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals starter, could be a sign that he is poised to carry the offense, as he did last season. Image Yoenis Cespedes hitting a two-run homer to put the Mets ahead in the seventh inning against the Cardinals on Wednesday night. Credit Kathy Willens/Associated Press Still stuck in third place in the National League East, the Mets remain a game and a half out of the second wild-card spot — despite their woefully underperforming offense. But as he said earlier this week, General Manager Sandy Alderson said he believed that a big move would be unlikely before the nonwaiver trading deadline on Aug. 1, and he said the Mets’ most realistic upgrade would be acquiring a strong reliever. Although the Mets have one of the worst offenses in baseball, Collins felt the roster had the players with past track records to improve, and he told the team that before Monday’s series opener. “So quit looking at the outside and look at the inside and look at what we’ve got to do with guys in this room to get it done,” Collins said he told players. “They’re here. We’ve just got to go out and execute.” The Mets did not lose Wednesday because of starter Logan Verrett. Since Matt Harvey’s season-ending injury, Verrett has been the fifth starter, and for his third consecutive start he did not allow more than three runs. He ate up seven innings and left the game with the Mets trailing, 3-1. Until the seventh inning Wednesday night, the Mets’ offense showed few signs of breaking out. They had put nine runners on base against Wainwright, one of the best starters in baseball this month, and had scored only one run. The Mets rallied with singles by Travis d’Arnaud and pinch-hitter Alejandro De Aza. D’Arnaud scored on a wild pitch, but the top-of-the-order hitters, Curtis Granderson and Asdrubal Cabrera, struck out, and it felt like a replay of much of the season. But Cespedes battled Wainwright for nine pitches, fouling off three straight. Forcing Wainwright to work, Cespedes’s patience paid off. The last pitch of the at-bat was a curveball that Wainwright threw over the middle of the plate. Cespedes had not hit a home run since July 5. Wainwright had not allowed one since May 28. But Cespedes’s powerful swing sent the ball 439 feet to left-center field for a 4-3 lead, and the game felt secure with the dominant bullpen duo of Addison Reed and Familia. “I can’t say 100 percent because it’s baseball and until the 27th out you don’t know, but with the confidence we have in Familia, I thought so,” Cespedes said. Reed tossed a perfect eighth, but Familia struggled. After the game, Familia was optimistic about one blip in an otherwise strong season. “What I’ve done so far, I never in my life think I’m going to do in the big leagues,” he said. As Familia continued talking to reporters, Alderson appeared in the clubhouse to shake his hand and congratulate him on the historic streak. Familia thanked him and returned to his thought. “I know sometimes things aren’t always going to go the way I want them,” Familia said. “Things happen. Tomorrow is a new day.” INSIDE PITCH The Mets were without third baseman Jose Reyes because of a left intercostal muscle strain he sustained in the first game of Tuesday’s doubleheader. Wilmer Flores , who has recently started only against left-handers, was in Wednesday’s lineup instead. “I hope it’s going to be a few days,” Reyes said. He received treatment on Wednesday, and Terry Collins indicated he would be cautious about using him on Thursday.

Mets
Jeurys Familia
St. Louis Cardinals
Yoenis Cespedes
Baseball


Cori Bargmann Puts Her Mind to How the Brain Works

Abstract: Cornelia Bargmann, a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York, studies how genes interact with neurons to create behavior. Two years ago, President Obama named Dr. Bargmann, who is known as Cori, a co-chairwoman of the advisory commission for the Brain Initiative , which he has described as “giving scientists the tools they need to get a dynamic picture of the brain in action.” I spoke with Dr. Bargmann, 53, for two hours at the Manhattan apartment she shares with her husband, Dr. Richard Axel , a neuroscientist at Columbia University. Our interview has been edited and condensed. Q. As an M.I.T. graduate student, you made a discovery that ultimately led to the breast cancer drug Herceptin. How did it happen? A. What I did was discover a mutated gene that triggered an obscure cancer in rats. Afterwards, it was discovered — by others — that this same gene is also altered in human breast cancers. Since our work in the rat cancer showed that the immune system could attack the product of this gene, Genentech developed a way to deploy the immune system. That’s Herceptin. It is an antibody against the gene product that sits on the surface of a cancer cell. It can attack the cancer cell growing because of that gene. Currently, you spend your time trying to understand the nervous system of a tiny worm, C. elegans. Why do you study this worm? Well, the reason is this: Understanding the human brain is a great and complex problem. To solve the brain’s mysteries, you often have to break a problem down to a simpler form. Your brain has 86 billion nerve cells, and in any mental process, millions of them are engaged. Information is sweeping across these millions of neurons. With present technology, it’s impossible to study that process at the level of detail and speed you would want. Now, about 25 years ago when I was transitioning from cancer biology to neuroscience, this little worm’s brain had just been mapped — every connection between every nerve cell and the brain. That’s roughly 7,000 connections and 300 neurons. You could look at a brain cell — which you could see because the creature is transparent — and say, “I know what that cell does. I know what it’s connected to. I know what genes it expresses.” For a researcher, that’s a lot. But is a simple worm really an appropriate model for studying the human brain? Most of what we know about the human nervous system, we have learned from simpler animals. The most famous animal in neuroscience is the squid because it has these huge nerves that enabled people to understand the basis of the electrical transmission of information. In fact, one of the biggest surprises in modern biology is that the genes are not that different between the different animals. Almost every gene we are interested in with humans is recognizable in a mouse. Most are recognizable in a worm or in a fly. So what have you learned from your worm? In 1993, we did an experiment showing that worms could smell. This wasn’t known before. Our next experiment, I think the most important my lab did, is that we made a worm neuron smell an odor it had never smelled before, and we made the animal completely change its opinion of that odor by doing that. We had an animal that loves an odor that smells like a certain food it likes. Usually, the worm runs right toward the odor. We took the gene that is a sensor for the food from where it was normally supposed to be. We put it into a different neuron that senses things the worm finds dangerous. Then, we “asked” the worm what it thought of this smell it usually loves. It ran away from the smell, as if it were dangerous. This said that the odor-sensing nerve cells form an innate map where each one knows whether something is good or bad about the environment. There’s a completely unlearned internal set of preferences, a set of instincts about what’s good and bad. For the past two years, you’ve headed the advisory committee to the Brain Initiative. On the phone, you told me that the experience made you into a better scientist. In the lab, you have to make choices about what you think is important. On this commission, we had to do something similar. Our problem was this: There was an appropriation of $100 million for the first year. That’s a limited amount of money. We didn’t want to be in a situation where you’re giving $14.99 to every neuroscientist and calling that a Brain Initiative. So then, what to invest in that will move the science forward? What parts of the field are coming along? What is science fiction? Eventually, we came to an agreement on a basic outline: Use the money for mapping brain activity in circuits and networks. The first step is to create new and improved technologies to study the brain. With better tools, all of neuroscience will move forward. The second step is to apply those technologies to make discoveries about how the brain functions. The theme is understanding brain activity, the flow of information through millions of interconnected nerve cells. The long-term goal is to use that knowledge to help prevent and treat brain disorders. That may be decades or more away. Some of your critics have complained that you don’t have enough funds to tackle such a huge question. I do not think that the goal of the initiative is to map every connection or detect every neuron firing anywhere in the brain. The goal is to develop and apply new ways of studying networks of neurons involved in thought, emotion, perception and action. In recent weeks, there’s been a lot of renewed discussion of the role of women in science. Have you encountered much gender bias? On the whole, no, though on my graduate school interviews, I do remember someone asking why I should take a slot in graduate school when I was probably going to get married and have children. I thought, “You dinosaur!” I didn’t get that message every day. I actually got a lot of encouragement. At M.I.T., I had a wonderful Ph.D. adviser, Robert A. Weinberg. In his lab, there was a postdoc from Europe who used to call the women “the bossy ladies.” One day, Weinberg heard this, and he took the postdoc into his office. When the postdoc came out, he was pale. We never heard anything about that again. Weinberg is really a mensch. What were you like growing up? I read indiscriminately. I enjoyed mystery stories. When I read “Microbe Hunters,” it seemed scientists were like detectives following a set of clues. Some clues were red herrings. Discarding them was an important step to getting to the right idea.

Brain
Rockefeller University
Brain Initiative
Herceptin
Worm
Cornelia I Bargmann
Genetics and Heredity
Nobel Prize


6 Cited in Honduran Leader’s Ouster

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — Six military officers involved in the ouster of Manuel Zelaya from the Honduran presidency last year were charged this week with abuse of power, but the charges are expected to be dropped as part of a deal to ease tensions in the country, officials said. The matter will now go to the Supreme Court, which will decide whether to pursue a case against Gen. Romeo Vásquez Velásquez, the country’s military chief, and five of his subordinates. The nation’s chief prosecutor, Luis Alberto Rubí, issued arrest warrants for the officers for forcing Mr. Zelaya from the country , still in his pajamas, aboard a flight to Costa Rica on June 28. The prosecutor did not question the military’s decision to detain Mr. Zelaya, which had been ordered by the courts. Mr. Zelaya’s forced departure was widely condemned around the world. Backers of his ouster, however, contend that Mr. Zelaya had broken the law by pushing for a vote on changing the Constitution even though the Congress and the courts had ruled the referendum illegal. At bottom, the issue was whether Mr. Zelaya was trying to get around the Constitution’s limit of a single four-year term for the presidency. Besides General Vásquez, others charged Wednesday were one of his top aides on the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Venancio Cervantes; Luis Javier Prince, the air force commander; Carlos Antonio Cuéllar, inspector general; Miguel Ángel García, army commander; and Juan Pablo Rodríguez, navy commander. The military has acknowledged that it made the decision to force Mr. Zelaya out of the country because of fear that his presence would cause unrest. The charges against the military commanders are not expected to go far. Porfirio Lobo , who won a presidential election on Nov. 29 and is to be inaugurated this month, has said he supports granting amnesty both to Mr. Zelaya, who has been accused of treason and abuse of power, and to those who removed him from office. The Honduran Congress is scheduled to begin debating an amnesty motion next week. The United States, seeking a diplomatic solution to the long and bitter standoff, continued pressing this week for the formation of a temporary unity government and the resignation of Roberto Micheletti , who became de facto president after Mr. Zelaya’s ouster. After a meeting in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, with Craig Kelly, deputy assistant secretary of state, Mr. Micheletti angrily said that he intended to remain in office until Mr. Lobo’s inauguration on Jan. 27. “Washington should respect the sovereign decisions of our people,” he said, according to news agency reports. Mr. Zelaya remains holed up inside the Brazilian Embassy in Tegucigalpa with a small group of supporters. Mr. Micheletti has threatened him with arrest if he steps outside, and talks to have him flown out of the country have not produced results. Mr. Zelaya dismissed the charges filed against the military brass as a smokescreen. “It’s a trick from prosecutors to charge the army officers with a minor crime instead of with the grave crimes they committed,” he said in a statement, suggesting that the military leaders who ousted him and later cracked down on his supporters be charged with treason, murder and human rights violations instead.

Zelaya Rosales Jose Manuel
Honduras
Coups D'Etat and Attempted Coups D'Etat
Micheletti Roberto
Lobo Sosa Porfirio


Mourning a Club Fixture, and an Internet Pioneer

Abstract: When the body of Cal Chamberlain, or Judge Cal as many people knew him, was found in his Chelsea apartment more than two weeks ago, his friends wondered not only what had happened to him, but whether they could find any of his family members. He had apparently been dead several days, the friends said. His real name was Mark Chamberlain, and he came to New York in the early 1980s after running away from his Seattle home when he was in high school. Over the next 20 years he became a fixture in Manhattan’s nightclub world, worked for a time as a model, and was an Internet pioneer, broadcasting Web videos long before “YouTube” and “blogger” entered the lexicon. He worked briefly as a blog reporter for CNN, and recently immersed himself in the world of what is called outsider art, helping to build a towering sculpture made of parts of two 18-wheelers. With his spiky blond hair, silver rings and combat boots, Mr. Chamberlain, who turned 40 in April, was a hard figure to forget. But it was the distinctive tattoos that covered his arms that enabled his friends to identify his body at the morgue. Amid the mourning, a sense of mystery lingers around Mr. Chamberlain. The cause of death is under investigation, the medical examiner’s office said. The police said there were no signs of foul play, and no suicide note, and his friends said they knew of no serious ailments afflicting him. His body remains at the morgue, and it was not until Thursday that his friends were able to reach a sister of Mr. Chamberlain’s in Seattle. Despite his distinctive style, he kept parts of his life very private. “He’s somebody who touched hundreds and hundreds of people’s lives,” said John Christopher Morton, who worked with Mr. Chamberlain in the 1990s. “But few people knew him intimately.” Parts of Mr. Chamberlain’s public life sound like scenes from a Jay McInerney novel. He modeled for the fashion designer Stephen Sprouse and befriended the singer Deborah Harry. He performed with his own band, Icon Man, and appeared in a video made by David Byrne of the Talking Heads. Friends said he once made liberal use of drugs and alcohol, but emerged sober from an era of excess. Lisamarie Grosso, who met Mr. Chamberlain when both were teenagers and hung out with him in nightclubs, said: “He was in a way a very archetypal personality. He was a rebel and a seeker.” Living in the West 20s, sometimes in his own apartments and sometimes with a longtime girlfriend at the Chelsea Hotel, Mr. Chamberlain was present at the intersection of Manhattan’s art, fashion, music and technology scenes. Soon after arriving in New York, Mr. Chamberlain landed a job at Danceteria, a nightspot run by Rudolf Pieper, where Madonna, Run DMC and the Beastie Boys rubbed shoulders with club kids still in their teens. Mr. Chamberlain thrived in the bustling environment and was soon well known within the tightknit nightclub world. “From the Palladium to the Cat Club, he could get you in anywhere,” said J. P. Lund, a lawyer in Austin, Tex., who knew Mr. Chamberlain when they skateboarded in the streets surrounding Washington Square Park. “He seemed to know everybody at every club.” In 1994, Mr. Chamberlain was among the first to be hired at Pseudo.com, a company that became a new-media trailblazer by broadcasting video on the Web. Mr. Chamberlain hosted a program called “Judge Cal’s High Weirdness.” The title was inspired by a character in the sci-fi comic book series Judge Dredd. The show’s content, which included explications of conspiracy theories and discussions of the mysterious and macabre, provided for Mr. Chamberlain’s dark wit. During one episode, broadcast live, he had his lip pierced. Mr. Morton, who also worked at Pseudo.com, said Mr. Chamberlain’s talent rested in his ability to move beyond a niche audience during a time when the Web was still in its infancy. “The Web created new social realms and situations and he understood that,” Mr. Morton said. In 2000, Pseudo.com assigned Mr. Chamberlain to report from the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia. He arrived wearing a headset and vest equipped with earphones, a Web cam and keypad, which Josh Harris, the founder of Pseudo.com, said was later donated to the Smithsonian Institution. Resembling a character out of the film “Blade Runner,” he roamed the convention hall floor, conducting interviews and posing for photographs with party leaders like Newt Gingrich. “He would engage in really fascinating debates,” said David Bohrman, who was running Pseudo.com in 2000 and is now a vice president at CNN and the network’s Washington bureau chief. “The interviews were spectacular.” Mr. Chamberlain also covered the Democratic convention that year. He later served for a time as a blog reporter on CNN, talking about national political issues being discussed on various Web sites. In recent years, Mr. Chamberlain was active with the Madagascar Institute, a Brooklyn-based art combine. That led him to participate in Burning Man festivals, where he helped create metal sculptures including one called “Big Rig” that featured parts of two 18-wheelers welded together. One close friend, Belisa Vranich, a clinical psychologist, wrote on a blog on The Huffington Post that when Mr. Chamberlain’s “pessimism would plummet to depression, I’d just watch the epic ‘Lord of the Rings’ trilogy with him again.” She said that regardless of what ends up being listed on his death certificate, she believed that it was Mr. Chamberlain’s “choice, one way or another,” adding: “He hated summers. I can’t help being angry, maybe not directly at him, but at the world for not making it easier for someone who was an independent thinker, someone who was sensitive and talented and ethical in a way that made day-to-day living hard.” No burial service is yet scheduled, but several memorials honoring Mr. Chamberlain are planned during Burning Man events at the end of the month in Nevada. Another memorial will be held during the Electric Picnic music festival in Ireland. And on Saturday night, friends from his Danceteria days and the Pseudo.com days will gather in the East Village at the Theater for the New City to remember Mr. Chamberlain. “I’m going to miss his presence,” Ms. Grosso said. “I’ll miss knowing that he’s somewhere in the world.”

Computers and the Internet
Nightclubs and Cabarets
Blogs and Blogging (Internet)
Manhattan (NYC)
Chamberlain Cal