A Year Ticks Over, and Zunes Get the Hiccups

Abstract: It has been nine years since the Y2K computer glitch inspired apocalyptic fears. On Wednesday, another time-related bug created its own small-scale panic. For some owners of the Zune, the portable media player that is Microsoft ’s answer to the Apple iPod , it was a day without Kanye West and Girl Talk. Owners of 30-gigabyte Zunes began flooding Zune-related Web sites with complaints early Wednesday morning. They said their players had suddenly stopped working, displaying only a frozen start-up screen. After spending much of the day digging into the problem, Microsoft said that it had traced it to a software bug “related to the way the device handles a leap year.” Apparently the Zune was expecting 2008 to have 365 days, not 366. The fix for the glitch? Patience. The company said the internal clock on the players should reset itself at 7 a.m. Eastern time on Thursday. Microsoft advised Zune owners to drain the battery and then turn the players back on after that time. Those who were hoping to provide the soundtrack to New Year’s Eve parties had no choice but to find a friend with an iPod . Some Zune owners, like Geoffry Houze, a 53-year-old entrepreneur in Las Vegas, were frustrated by the breakdown. “It’s inexcusable,” Mr. Houze said. “It’s surprising that Microsoft wouldn’t have been aware of something like this. They’re fortunate the problem will resolve itself. They dodged a very large truck here.” Microsoft has had trouble getting traction for the Zune against the iPod, which dominates the portable player market. It says North American sales of all Zune devices topped three million units in November, but it would not say how many of those were 30-gigabyte models. The end-of-year timing led some Zune owners to call the problem “Z2K9.” To some it offered a quick reminder of how daily life is full of highly complex systems that sometimes behave in unpredictable ways. “Sure, a Zune breaks and no one cares. No one is really affected,” said Peter Neumann, a security expert and principal scientist at SRI International, a nonprofit research institute in Menlo Park, Calif. “But if this were to happen on a much larger scale, in a life-critical situation like with a defense system or even a shuttle system, it would be a serious problem.” Another big Microsoft venture into hardware, the Xbox 360 video gaming console, has had its own share of breakdowns, the result of a manufacturing flaw. The company has offered to fix faulty machines free of charge, and it set aside a reported $1.1 billion for the repairs. Zune fans are hoping that the player won’t be quite as troublesome. Microsoft plans to release an update for the player’s internal software so the problem won’t resurface during the next leap year in 2012. On a more encouraging note, the various versions of Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which power PCs in millions of homes and corporate cubicles, appear to have made it through the last day of 2008 just fine.

Zune
Microsoft Corp
Digital Audio Players
Computers and the Internet


E.P.A. Proposes Changes to Fuel Standards

Abstract: The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday released a much-delayed proposal for the amount of biofuel that must be blended into conventional vehicle fuel, seeking to reduce the levels now specified but still require modest increases over the next few years. The proposal, which would become final by the end of November, would set levels for last year at what producers actually made but increase the total volume of renewable fuel required by 1.5 billion gallons, roughly 9 percent, by the end of 2016. That would bring the volume to 17.4 billion gallons, which falls short of the 22.25-billion-gallon mandate set by Congress for that year, which has been criticized as unrealistic. “There are real limits to the actual amounts of biofuels that can be supplied to consumers at this time,” Janet McCabe, the E.P.A. acting assistant administrator, wrote in a blog post. “These proposed volumes are achievable in the time frames under consideration. At the same time, the volumes steadily increase every year, reflecting Congress’s clear intent to drive up the nation’s use of renewable fuel.” The announcement — which seemed to please few — is the latest turn in the agency’s beleaguered journey since it began requiring increasing levels of ethanol to be incorporated into vehicle fuel under energy laws passed in 2005 and 2007. At that time, American dependence on foreign oil was high, and so were prices. But now gasoline prices and demand are lower. The market is already saturated with regular corn ethanol, and production of cellulosic, or so-called advanced, biofuel — made from nonfood parts of corn plants or other biomass like wood waste — is lower than what refiners are required to use. While some viewed the agency’s new proposal as an important step toward fixing a flawed system, many others were critical of the move and called for an overhaul of the mandate, known as the Renewable Fuel Standard. “Every year since the Renewable Fuel Standard was expanded, E.P.A. has missed implementation deadlines, waived entire portions of annual required volumes and has had to approve imported feedstocks for R.F.S. compliance,” Senator James M. Inhofe, Republican of Oklahoma and chairman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said in a prepared statement. “All of these actions by E.P.A. give a clear case for a mismanaged program in need of rigorous oversight.” Others focused on efforts to handle a limit called the “blend wall,” which Ms. McCabe defined as “the amount of ethanol that could be used if all gasoline contains 10 percent ethanol.” Most gasoline now contains that percentage, and most vehicles are not designed to handle more. According to AAA, less than 15 percent of the country’s vehicles are approved by manufacturers to use gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol. “Official recognition of the ‘blend wall’ may help protect consumers,” said Marshall L. Doney, the association’s president. “While ethanol can support jobs and promote energy independence, the E.P.A. must ensure that the fuel consumers use does not lead to costly repairs due to misfueling.” Others said the best way to break through the blend wall and use more ethanol was to continue to spur investment with an aggressive mandate. “The frustrating fact is the agency continues to misunderstand the clear intent of the statute — to drive innovation in both ethanol production and ethanol marketing,” said Bob Dinneen, chief executive of the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group. “The agency has eviscerated the program’s ability to incentivize investments.” Still, the administration signaled its support for continuing to develop the industry with an announcement the same day from the Agriculture Department of $100 million in grants to help increase the number of gasoline pumps that blend in higher amounts of ethanol. Though not large in the scope of government grants, the money “can be leveraged up to a lot of blender pumps,” said James H. Stock, a fellow at the Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy and a former member of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. “It’s really an opportunity for the industry to embrace this program to try to show that consumers are willing to buy these higher blends.”

Bioenergy and Biofuels
EPA
Oil and Gasoline
Renewable energy


Kuwait Arrests 6 in Plot to Hit a U.S. Base

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Kuwaiti authorities said Tuesday that they had arrested six jihadists who were planning to attack the main United States military base in the country and other sites. The six men, all Kuwaitis, gave “full confessions” about their plans to attack Camp Arifjan , a sprawling American logistics and supply base in the desert south of Kuwait City, along with Kuwaiti security agencies and other targets, according to a statement released by Kuwait ’s Interior Ministry. The men were a “terrorist network” under the influence of Al Qaeda , the statement said. The ministry did not provide further details. But the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai, citing a “security source,” said the men had confessed to buying a truck and filling it with chemicals and gas cylinders, with the intention of ramming it into Camp Arifjan. The Kuwaiti authorities had been tracking the men for some time, the newspaper said. One of the six was believed to have been involved in a 2002 attack in which Kuwaiti extremists opened fire on Marines training on Failaka Island, off the Kuwaiti coast, killing one and wounding another, the newspaper reported. Kuwait, a small, oil-rich country with a relatively vibrant elected Parliament, has been a staunch American ally ever since United States troops led the effort to liberate it from Iraq in 1991. It served as a crucial staging area for the American invasion of Iraq in 2003. A small number of militants who oppose the country’s relationship with the United States have periodically attacked American troops and civilians working with them.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Salim, a Reputed bin Laden Adviser, Gets Life Term

Abstract: A reputed former top adviser to Osama bin Laden who stabbed a federal jail guard in the eye with a sharpened comb in 2000, leaving the guard with severe brain damage, was sentenced to life in prison on Tuesday. The defendant, Mamdouh Mahmud Salim , was a founding member of Al Qaeda and helped manage Mr. bin Laden’s businesses, prosecutors have said. He was arrested in Germany in 1998 after the bombings of two American embassies in East Africa, and extradited to the United States, where he was awaiting trial on broader terrorism charges at the time of the assault. Mr. Salim has not been tried on the broader charges, which remain open. In 2002, he pleaded guilty to the stabbing of the correction officer, Louis Pepe, 52, and was sentenced to 32 years in prison. But a federal appeals panel overturned the sentence in 2008, agreeing with prosecutors that the judge had failed to apply a provision of sentencing guidelines related to terrorism that could have led to a longer term. On Tuesday, the judge, Deborah A. Batts of Federal District Court in Manhattan, imposed the life sentence, calling Mr. Salim’s attack on Mr. Pepe “unusually cruel, brutal and a gratuitous infliction of injury.” Mr. Salim participated in the proceeding through a video connection from the so-called Supermax prison in Colorado. Seated in what appeared to be a prison library and wearing manacles, Mr. Salim said he had pleaded guilty to the stabbing because he was “100 percent sure” that if he went to trial he would be convicted of crimes he did not commit, an apparent reference to the other charges. Mr. Salim, who is in his 50s, faced charges that included conspiracy to murder and use weapons of mass destruction. Mr. Salim, an electrical engineer, once tried to obtain materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons, prosecutors have said. In court, he denied that he was a terrorist and said he had not committed other crimes. “I became not myself,” he said in a seeming reference to the assault. Mr. Salim said that if Mr. Pepe wanted “to take my eye, let him take my eye.” He said: “If he want to take my hand, let him take my hand. My leg. You can take whatever you want to take from me.” He added, “I’m not a criminal.” His lawyer, Richard B. Lind, argued that although his client’s crime was “ghastly” and “despicable,” a life sentence would be “totally unfair and unjust.” He asked the judge to reimpose the original 32-year term, and later said he would appeal her decision. A prosecutor, Jonathan S. Kolodner, cited the premeditated nature of the crime and other factors in arguing for a life term. Mr. Pepe “has suffered through 10 years of surgeries and therapy, all to try to relearn a fraction of what he knew and what he was able to do before the attack.” Mr. Pepe was an officer in a high-security wing of the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan when Mr. Salim, assisted by another inmate, blinded him with hot sauce, kicked and punched him, and then stabbed him in the left eye in what prosecutors called an attempt to escape and take hostages. The weapon penetrated his brain. “The cold immediacy of the precision with which he plunged the sharpened weapon deeply into the eye of the downed but struggling man is appalling,” Judge Batts said, a statement she also made when she first sentenced Mr. Salim six years ago. United States attorney Preet Bharara said the life sentence “provides at least a small measure of vindication” for the officer and his family. Mr. Pepe lost his left eye and much sight in his right eye, the government has said in court papers. He also has difficulty speaking, suffered paralysis on his right side, and requires 16 hours a day of home care and assistance with most activities. Mr. Pepe, seated in a wheelchair, spoke haltingly but forcefully as he addressed the court. “Salim, how are you doing?” Mr. Pepe began. “I can’t talk any more. Or walk. Or anything. That’s what you did, Salim.” Contending that Mr. Salim had wanted to be a martyr, Mr. Pepe added: “Guess what, Salim? You’re not going martyr. You going hell. That’s where you’re going, Salim.” “I got one more thing,” Mr. Pepe said, fumbling with a small paper bag and removing a doughnut, which dropped on the table in front of him. “This is for you, Salim,” he said. Mr. Pepe’s sister Eileen Trotta, who accompanied him to court, said afterward that her brother had a reputation for being generous and fair to all inmates, including Mr. Salim. The doughnut was a sarcastic reminder, she added.

Al Qaeda
Terrorism
Salim Mamdouh Mahmud
Pepe Louis
Sentences (Criminal)
Batts Deborah A


Representative Laura Richardson Reprimanded by House

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Representative Laura Richardson , Democrat of California, has agreed to be reprimanded by the House and pay a $10,000 fine for compelling her Congressional staff members to work on her 2010 campaign . The House Ethics Committee recommended the punishment in a biting report on Wednesday. The finding is a significant setback to her re-election campaign this year, in which she is facing another Democratic incumbent in a newly drawn district . The report said she also used official resources for personal purposes and obstructed the committee’s investigation. As part of a settlement negotiated with the committee, Ms. Richardson admitted to the wrongdoing and agreed to accept the reprimand and the fine, the committee said. A vote by the full House to affirm the finding could occur this week. Even so, Ms. Richardson challenged the case against her in a submission in July, contending that the committee and its staff had acted unfairly, and defended her actions. In its report, the committee dismissed her defense as baseless and misleading, rebutting her arguments at length, accusing her of stonewalling and citing “overwhelming evidence” against her. “In sum, Representative Richardson’s submission continues the approach she has taken in this matter from the outset: an utter absence of true remorse for her misuse of official resources and, equally as significant, for what she has put her staff through, as well as a near total deflection of responsibility for this matter,” the report said. In a statement, her office said that “Representative Richardson takes this matter with the utmost seriousness and takes full responsibility for her actions and those that were done by anyone else under her employ.” The committee issued separate letters of reproval to two of her employees. According to documents posted by the Ethics Committee, staff members at Ms. Richardson’s district office were required to report each evening to a campaign office where they were assigned to make phone calls or to canvass the district, meeting voters face to face. At one point in the fall of 2010, an appendix to the report says, Ms. Richardson ordered a staff member “to go to her opponent’s campaign office and volunteer to assist her opponent’s campaign, using a fictitious name, for the purpose of gathering information including fliers and leaflets from that opponent.” Almost immediately after being told of the committee’s investigation, which began when staff members complained to the committee in October 2010, Ms. Richardson took steps to cover up her actions, like changing an employee’s status from full time to part time and altering reports of official working hours, according to the committee’s documents. And, the report said, she continued to use staff members in her district and in Washington to work on her campaign this year. The committee has strongly discouraged Ms. Richardson from allowing official staff members to do any campaign work, whether for pay or as volunteers, and said that any staff member doing so should sign a waiver declaring that it was voluntary. In June, Ms. Richardson placed a distant second in the primary for California’s 44th District, behind Representative Janice Hahn, a fellow Democrat. Under California’s primary system, the top two candidates are put on the general election ballot regardless of party affiliation, and Ms. Richardson and Ms. Hahn will face off again this fall. Ms. Richardson, 50, is in her third term representing the 37th District; Ms. Hahn won the 36th District seat in a special election last year. A reprimand is not as severe as censure or expulsion, but it is a significant embarrassment, and in this case involved what the committee described as violations of federal law and House rules.

California
Elections
Richardson Laura
Ethics (Institutional)
Fines (Penalties)
United States
Congress


The Logistics Behind Mayweather and Pacquiao’s 60-40 Split

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — No matter who wins the richest boxing match in history on May 2, Manny Pacquiao will receive part of his pay the next business day from his promoter, Bob Arum. “On Monday morning, I will hand Manny a check for $50 million as a down payment, guaranteed,” Arum said. It is a bit more complicated than that — it is a wire transfer, actually, and 30 percent of it will be shaved off for the Internal Revenue Service, Arum said. But the bottom line is that the long-anticipated championship welterweight match between Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. will earn hundreds of millions of dollars, mostly for the fighters. Mayweather will receive a substantial portion of his earnings immediately after the fight, said Leonard Ellerbe, chief executive of Mayweather Promotions. He would not disclose how much. “I will tell you this,” Ellerbe said. “Floyd Mayweather’s check will be a lot more than $50 million. And then it goes from there.” The contract calls for Mayweather to receive 60 percent of the revenue. Pacquiao will get 40 percent. When all the accounting is done, each man should make well over $100 million, about double the biggest previous boxing payout, demonstrating that boxing’s slow fade in popular culture has not diminished the potential returns of the biggest bouts. “This is a unique situation, the confluence of time and event — the two biggest fighters in the world coming together,” Ken Hershman, the president of HBO Sports , said. Mayweather (47-0) and Pacquiao (57-5-2) are generally regarded as the two best fighters, perhaps in any weight class, of the past decade. But tangled in boxing’s familiar knot of egos, contracts and self-preservation, a head-to-head bout looked unlikely as the aging boxers (Mayweather is 38, Pacquiao is 36) moved toward retirement. A chance face-to-face meeting between Mayweather and Pacquiao at a Miami Heat game in January prompted true negotiations between the two sides, with Pacquiao agreeing to second billing in promotional materials and a lower percentage of the payout. “We’re both bigger names than we were five, six years ago,” Mayweather said at his gym in Las Vegas on Tuesday. “We’re meeting at the pinnacle of our careers. The time is right.” The numbers are dizzying, even for Mayweather, nicknamed Money, whose estimated $105 million for two fights last year made him the world’s highest-paid athlete. To keep it straight, HBO and Showtime, rival networks co-producing and co-distributing the pay-per-view event in a rare agreement, have created a central accounting system. HBO has a long-term contract with Pacquiao, while Showtime has rights to Mayweather’s fights. The only other time the networks worked together in such a way was when Mike Tyson fought Lennox Lewis in 2002. Image Manny Pacquiao has agreed to second billing in promotional materials and a lower percentage of the payout. Credit Monica Almeida/The New York Times “They distribute the revenue in accordance with the contracts of the two fighters, so that there is no side money,” Arum said. “We felt that this was the most reasonable way to go. It’s the way we’ve done it to prevent the accusations that we usually get, that this promoter is stealing from that promoter.” All revenue from the fight — the foreign broadcast rights, closed-circuit income from bars and theaters, ticket sales, sponsorships, merchandise sales and so on — goes into the pot. That will be about $130 million. The biggest revenue stream will come from the pay-per-view broadcast, sold to households by cable systems and satellite providers at a suggested price of $89.95. Mayweather’s 2007 defeat of Oscar De La Hoya was purchased by nearly 2.5 million households, but expectations are that this one will easily surpass that mark. Some suggest it could be bought and seen in four million homes. Three million households would bring in an estimated $270 million. Under the deal, cable companies and satellite providers will receive 30 percent to 40 percent of gross pay-per-view revenue, depending on the level of marketing each does. A majority of the pay-per-view revenue will go to the fighters, minus a small cut (7.5 percent, divided evenly, Arum said) for HBO and Showtime. When the revenue is combined, the two fighters could divide around $300 million for a 12-round fight that will take less than an hour. Promoters and television executives said the big payday was a result of pent-up demand to see the top fighters finally fight each other. “The demand is what’s driving the revenue,” Ellerbe said. The 60-40 split has a small wrinkle, Arum said. For revenue between $160 million and $180 million, the winner of the fight will get 51 percent ($10.2 million), Arum said, with the loser taking 49 percent ($9.8 million). Revenue below and above that window will be divided, 60-40, in Mayweather’s favor, Arum said. Ellerbe would not confirm or deny the breakdown, citing confidentiality. The pay-per-view numbers will not be tabulated until after the fight, but most other revenue streams are roughly set. The gate receipts for the MGM Garden Arena in Las Vegas, where the fight will be held, will be about $72 million. There will be at least $35 million from international broadcast sales, $13 million from closed-circuit broadcasts at bars around the country and $12 million from sponsorships. Merchandise sales may reach $1 million. That money is already accumulating. “We have the account number, and our foreign purchases are already wiring money into the account,” Arum said. On the other side of the equation — what comes out, and when — the only certainty is that the richest fighters are about to be much richer.

Boxing
Manny Pacquiao
HBO Sports
Showtime
Floyd Mayweather Jr
Cable television


U.S. Lawsuit Accuses AT&T of Age Bias

Abstract: NEW YORK (AP) — The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said Thursday that it had filed an age discrimination lawsuit against AT&T , the country’s largest telecommunications provider. The commission said AT&T had discriminated against older employees by denying them the chance to be rehired solely because they left under early retirement plans. That led to a disproportionate number of older workers not having the same opportunity to apply for re-employment with the company as younger workers, which amounts to age discrimination, the agency said. The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, claims that AT&T’s policy excluded a class of workers from being re-employed because of their age, regardless of their qualifications. An AT&T spokesman, Michael Coe, declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit. “But I can tell you AT&T makes diversity and inclusion a top priority, and has received national recognition for its programs and performance,” Mr. Coe said. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the policy had been in effect at AT&T since at least 2006. Louis Graziano, a commission spokesman, said the early retirement programs affected more than 50,000 people. He said it was not known how many of them had been discriminated against, though it would be only those who had sought to be rehired by AT&T.

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Discrimination
AT&T Corp
Suits and Litigation
Age Chronological


Charles Taylor, Liberia’s Ex-Leader, Is Convicted

Abstract: THE HAGUE — Charles G. Taylor , the former president of Liberia and once a powerful warlord, was convicted by an international tribunal on Thursday of arming, supporting and guiding a brutal rebel movement that committed mass atrocities in Sierra Leone during its civil war in the 1990s. He is the first head of state to be convicted by an international court since the Nuremberg trials after World War II . After 13 months of deliberation, a panel of three judges from Ireland , Samoa and Uganda found Mr. Taylor guilty of crimes against humanity and war crimes, including murder, rape , slavery and the use of child soldiers. They said he had helped plan the capture of diamond mines and the invasion of Freetown, the capital. But the prosecution failed to prove that Mr. Taylor had directly commanded the rebels responsible for the atrocities, the judges said. The conflict in Sierra Leone became notorious for its gruesome tactics, including the calculated mutilation of thousands of civilians, the widespread use of drugged children and the mining of diamonds to pay for guns and ammunition. A sinister rebel vocabulary pointed to the horrors: applying “a smile” meant cutting off the upper and lower lips of a victim, giving “long sleeves” meant hacking off the hands, and giving “short sleeves” meant cutting the arm above the elbow. Ten years after the war ended, Sierra Leone is still struggling to rebuild. An estimated 50,000 people died, while countless others fled the country or took refuge in camps. A large portion of the nation’s young missed their educations. Unemployment, particularly among the young men who emerged from the war with few skills, is crushing. Electricity is scant, even in the capital. The country has returned to democracy, but many educated Sierra Leoneans remain abroad, literacy is low and some industries, like mining iron ore, are just starting up again. “He is the one who started this,” Osman Turay, one of several amputees playing soccer on crutches in the concrete shell of an unfinished building in Freetown, said of Mr. Taylor after the verdict. Prosecutors said Mr. Taylor’s part in the devastation was motivated not by ideology, but by a quest for power and money — “pure avarice,” in the words of David M. Crane, the American prosecutor who indicted him in 2003. Rebels provided Mr. Taylor with “a continuous supply” of diamonds, often in exchange for arms and ammunition, the court found. The war, and the money siphoned off from his own government, allowed him to send millions of dollars to offshore companies, prosecutors said. Yet investigators never unraveled the web hiding this presumed fortune, and Mr. Taylor pleaded penury, leaving the court to foot the bill for his defense, which cost $100,000 per month in lawyers, staff and rent. Still, the trial has brought “a sense of relief,” said Ibrahim Tommy, who leads the Center for Accountability and Rule of Law , a human rights group in Freetown. “I’m not sure it will bring closure to the victims,” Mr. Tommy said, but the trial was “a genuine effort to ensure accountability for the crimes in Sierra Leone.” The tribunal, called the Special Court for Sierra Leone , has already sentenced eight other leading members of different forces and rebel groups. Mr. Taylor, who has maintained his innocence, is scheduled to be sentenced on May 30. There is no death penalty in international criminal law, and any prison term would be served behind British bars. The fighting for control over one of the world’s poorest regions also involved Liberia, where many more died, and threatened to spill over into neighboring Guinea and Ivory Coast . But only crimes in Sierra Leone between 1996 and 2002 are within the court’s mandate, and Mr. Taylor is the special court’s last defendant. His trial was moved to the Netherlands for fear of causing unrest in West Africa, where he still has followers. Not since Karl Dönitz, the German admiral who briefly succeeded Hitler upon his death, was tried and sentenced by the International Military Tribunal has a head of state been convicted by an international court. Slobodan Milosevic , the former president of Serbia , died in his cell in 2006 before his war crimes trial ended. Jean Kambanda, the first person sentenced for the crime of genocide , received a life sentence for his role in the 1994 Rwandan genocide, but he was a former prime minister, not the head of state. The former president of Ivory Coast, Laurent Gbagbo , has been charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court , but his trial has not yet begun. Similarly, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan is wanted by the court on genocide charges for atrocities in Darfur , but he has long evaded arrest. During Mr. Taylor’s lengthy trial, which began in 2006, the judges heard testimony from 115 witnesses. Before the formally robed court officers, they spoke of slave labor in captured diamond mines, rape, severed heads displayed on stakes to terrorize people, and lines of captured villagers, waiting to have their limbs hacked off. There were many chilling moments, as witnesses described the barbarism of the rebels. Mustapha Mansary, a villager, was twice asked by a defense lawyer if he could read and write English, until he held up his two bandaged stumps. “I have no hands to write anything,” Mr. Mansary replied. Witness 064, a rape victim, described the day rebels came to her village. With axes, they cut up and decapitated many adults and children as she was held indoors. The gang leader then ordered her to go outside to look for her family. The severed heads of her relatives were put in a sack dripping with blood, including the heads of her two children. “They gave me the heads to carry,” she said. She couldn’t, she told the court. But prosecutors struggled with a legal puzzle of how to link such atrocities to Mr. Taylor. There was no paper trail showing orders. He was not at the scene of the crimes, and they were not committed by Liberia’s army, which was under his command. To build their case, prosecutors used radio and telephone intercepts and brought in radio operators who had connected Mr. Taylor’s residence in Monrovia, the Liberian capital, to the rebels in Sierra Leone. People close to Mr. Taylor, his head of security, bodyguards and other associates, some of them relocated abroad as protected witnesses, testified about arms and ammunition shipments for the rebels and about seeing raw diamonds arriving as payment. Bank records were displayed in court, showing how tax payments and other government income moved into Mr. Taylor’s accounts, ostensibly to pay for the war effort, or to pocket for himself. Defense lawyers dismissed much of the evidence as hearsay. And they repeatedly said the trial was a political exercise by Western countries that wanted to keep Mr. Taylor out of West Africa. The defense presented as evidence two secret diplomatic cables from 2009, part of the cache revealed by WikiLeaks , in which American diplomats wrote about Mr. Taylor. One, dated March 2009, quoted the American ambassador to Liberia as saying that “the best we can do for Liberia is to see that Charles Taylor is put away for a long time.” The most important defense witness was Mr. Taylor himself. Eloquent and respectful of the court, he managed to stay for almost seven months on the witness stand, giving his version of his life and his role as a peacemaker, without being cut off by the judges during his many digressions. He told the court that he had been trained in Libya and had once received money from Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi for “medical expenses.” While he was in a Massachusetts jail, awaiting extradition on charges of embezzling $900,000 of Liberian government money, he said, he did not escape, but was let out with the help of the C.I.A. Mr. Taylor said he would “never, ever” have permitted atrocities. The many tales from his life, replete with details of his career as a rebel, a prisoner, a negotiator and a president, were followed by a large radio audience at home in Liberia and drove up his popularity. Lawyers said that judges seemed to be bending over backward to appear fair. “Taylor had every day in court he could have wished for,” said Stephen J. Rapp, a former prosecutor at the court and now a United States ambassador for war crimes issues. At the start of the two-hour hearing, Mr. Taylor waved and smiled at some of his relatives in the public gallery, but he left looking somber. Charen Taylor, one of his daughters, said: “Of course I’m not happy, but we have to be optimistic about the appeal. It’s been a very long process.”

War Crimes Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity


Peru: Jailed Ex-President Is Convicted of Corruption

Abstract: Former President Alberto Fujimori on Thursday was convicted of using public money to influence newspaper coverage during his 2000 re-election campaign. Mr. Fujimori is already serving a 25-year sentence, handed down in 2009, for ordering the killings of 25 people during a war with leftist guerrillas. On Thursday, he was sentenced to eight years to be served concurrently with his earlier sentence so it will not add to his time in jail. Mr. Fujimori, who was president from 1990 to 2000, was also ordered to pay restitution of about $1 million. Local news media reported that evidence showed that a representative of Mr. Fujimori paid newspapers up to $3,000 for articles smearing his opponents. The verdict could affect the political prospects of his daughter, Keiko Fujimori, a probable candidate for president next year.

Peru
Corruption
Alberto K Fujimori
Criminal Sentence


Tokyo Digs Out of Hole, Then Piles On for Little League Title

Abstract: SOUTH WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. — Tokyo won the Little League World Series on Sunday, pounding out 22 hits and overcoming an eight-run first-inning deficit to beat Lewisberry, Pa., 18-11. The teams broke the Little League record of 23 runs in a title game — by the end of the third inning. The old mark had stood since 1947. Lewisberry’s 10-run first inning was also a record, as was the teams’ hit total (30). And the eight-run gap was the largest deficit overcome in any Little League World Series game. The Tokyo team — from Kitasuna Little League, which also produced the tournament winner in 2001 and 2012 — gave Japan its 10th title. Lewisberry quickly fell behind by 2-0 but scored 10 times and sent 14 batters to the plate in the bottom of the first. Tokyo, which had given up a total of 10 runs in its other tournament games, responded with seven runs in the second inning, four in the third and five in the sixth. Masafuji Nishijima had four hits and six R.B.I., and Shingo Tomita hit two of Tokyo’s five home runs. Tokyo’s third pitcher, Nobuyuki Kawashima, held Lewisberry in check for most of the game, giving up one run and two hits over five innings. Lewisberry knocked out starting pitcher Daiki Fukuyama before an out was recorded in the first. Dylan Rodenhaber blasted a grand slam for his first hit of the tournament. Jaden Henline added a three-run homer. The Lewisberry team — from Red Land Little League, which draws players from several central Pennsylvania towns — scored three more times in the inning, sending what amounted to a hometown crowd, announced at more than 42,000, into a frenzy.

Tokyo
Little League World Series
Lewisberry
Baseball


A.E.P. Has Plan to Close Kentucky’s Big Sandy Power Plant

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Coal took another serious hit Wednesday — in the heart of coal country. American Electric Power , or A.E.P., the nation’s biggest consumer of coal, announced that it would shut its coal-burning boilers at the Big Sandy electric power plant near Louisa, Ky., a 1,100-megawatt facility that since the early 1960s has been burning coal that was mined locally. Big Sandy this year became a symbol of the plight of the coal industry nationwide. Strict new environmental regulations are forcing large utilities to spend billions of dollars to retrofit old coal-burning plants or shut them down, replacing them in most cases with equipment that uses cleaner-burning natural gas . A.E.P., which is based in Ohio, has repeatedly changed its mind over what to do with Big Sandy, a big employer in eastern Kentucky, both at the 120-employee plant itself and in the Appalachian-area coal mines that feed it 2.5 million tons of coal each year. In May, the power company withdrew a plan to spent $1 billion to retrofit Big Sandy so that it could continue to operate. But that would have required a 31 percent increase in electricity rates for eastern Kentucky residents. On Wednesday, A.E.P. announced that it would close both of the coal-burning furnaces at Big Sandy in 2015, but left open the possibility that one of the units would be retrofitted to use natural gas. Area residents, if the Kentucky Public Service Commission approves the plan, would see an 8 percent increase in their electricity rates — to replace Big Sandy’s production with electricity from West Virginia — much less than the earlier plan. But the decision still hurts, said State Representative Rocky Adkins , a Democrat who represents the area. “It’s kind of like we have had our heart and soul taken from us,” said Mr. Adkins, who also is the majority floor leader of the Kentucky House. “The impact on the economy here is just going to be devastating.” This has been a bad year for the coal industry. A total of 55 plants, including Big Sandy, have closed or have announced plans to shut down, according to a count by the Sierra Club. That will leave 395 coal-burning plants in the United States, compared with 522 in 2010, according to the Sierra Club. Last week, Dynergy of Houston announced that its Danskammer coal-burning power plant near Newburgh, N.Y., which was damaged during Hurricane Sandy , would also close permanently . Last month, Patriot Coal, based in St. Louis, which filed for bankruptcy this year, announced it would be shutting down its Bluegrass Mine Complex near Henderson, Ky., one of dozens of mines that are reducing production or closing operations as electric utilities shift at a record rate from coal to natural gas. Nationwide, coal production dropped this year by an estimated 7 percent even as exports grew to Asia and Europe, according to the Energy Department. Politically, this has been a disappointing year for the coal industry as well. Industry executives contributed heavily to Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign, while also sending large donations to important Congressional races, like Senate contests in Ohio, Virginia and Montana , in which their preferred candidates lost. “Anyway you count it, this is the worst year ever for coal,” said Bruce Nilles, one of the managers of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “And to see Big Sandy added to the list — it underscores how the economics of coal have turned so fast. This is eastern Kentucky, a place where the state was willing to do a lot to save it.” Mr. Adkins said the repercussions in eastern Kentucky will last for decades, adding that local hotels, trucking companies, and even schools, would be adversely affected by the shutdown. “We will get up, dust ourselves off and we will try our best to move forward,” Mr. Adkins said. Luke Popovich, a spokesman for the National Mining Association , said that there remained hope that the price of natural gas would rise in the coming year, making coal more competitive. He said surging demand in India and China could help replace declining domestic sales. “We have the most of the fuel — coal — that the rest of world wants the most of,” he said.

Kentucky
Big Sandy
Coal
Natural Gas
Electric Light and Power
American Electric Power Co Inc
Shutdowns (Institutional)


Swiss National Bank to Adopt a Negative Interest Rate

Abstract: PARIS — Switzerland is introducing a negative interest rate on deposits held by lenders at its central bank, moving to hold down the value of the Swiss franc amid turmoil in global currency markets and expectations that deflation is at hand. The Swiss National Bank said in a statement from Zurich on Thursday that it would begin charging banks 0.25 percent interest on bank deposits exceeding a certain threshold, effective Jan. 22. The bank acted as the crisis in Russia and plummeting oil prices have caused a run on emerging market currencies. Switzerland, known for its fiscal rectitude and banking secrecy, tends to attract capital inflows as money flees chaos elsewhere. But that puts pressure on the franc, threatening to make exporters less competitive and raising the risk that very low price pressures will tip the economy into outright deflation. “Over the past few days, a number of factors have prompted increased demand for safe investments,” the central bank said. “The introduction of negative interest rates makes it less attractive to hold Swiss franc investments, and thereby supports the minimum exchange rate.” In September 2011, with the eurozone’s sovereign debt crisis in full swing, the central bank announced a policy of restraining the franc’s value to no less than 1.2 francs per euro, and said it was “prepared to buy foreign currency in unlimited quantities” to defend that level. It said on Thursday that it remained committed to enforcing that policy “with the utmost determination.” The franc, which had been creeping toward the central bank’s limit on the currency, retreated modestly. The euro rose 0.3 percent to 1.2046 while the dollar rose 0.8 percent to 0.9805 francs. Analysts were skeptical that the new policy would significantly reduce demand for Swiss assets while emerging markets were in turmoil. “It’s an external factor that has precipitated them to take this action,” said Derek Halpenny, the European head of global markets research at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ in London. “Is a negative interest rate going to solve their problem? I don’t think so.” Still, Mr. Halpenny said, it was “a 100 percent certainty” that the Swiss National Bank’s 1.2-franc line in the sand would hold for as long as the central bank was willing to vacuum up as many euros as needed. The central bank maintains that floor by selling francs on the open market in exchange for euros, pushing down the franc and supporting the euro. Image Thomas Jordan, chairman of the Swiss National Bank. The negative interest rate is an effort to hold down the franc’s value. Credit Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters Since 2009, Mr. Halpenny noted, the central bank has quintupled its foreign currency holdings to 470 billion francs, as it intervened to hold down the franc. The central bank said the new policy was meant to push its key interest rate — the three-month London interbank offered rate for Swiss franc loans between banks — below zero. Doing so would tend to make short-term Swiss assets like franc-denominated money market funds and debt securities less attractive. The policy, which is not aimed at individuals, affects only financial institutions on the portion of their deposits over 10 million francs, or $10.2 million. Thomas J. Jordan, governor of the Swiss central bank, told a news conference in Zurich on Thursday that the effect on the rates paid on individual savers’ accounts by banks was beyond the central bank’s responsibility, but that the move was “no different from any other interest rate cuts by a central bank.” The interest rates paid to savers in Switzerland are already extremely low, so there is little room for lenders to cut further. In putting in place the negative rate, in essence a tax on excess deposits, the Swiss monetary authority joins the European Central Bank, which introduced its own negative 0.1 percent deposit rate in June, and then changed that to minus 0.2 percent in September. The European Central Bank action was aimed at a different problem: the failure of eurozone banks to increase lending to businesses, one of the factors that is holding back growth in the region. So far, the action has not borne fruit, and lending has continued to contract. For the Swiss central bank, which seeks to hold inflation at the consumer level to less than 2 percent, fears that an overvalued franc will choke growth and stoke deflation are real. Swiss consumer prices declined by 0.1 percent in November from a year earlier, the Federal Statistical Office reported on Dec. 8. The Swiss central bank said on Wednesday that it expected prices to be unchanged over all in 2014 and that next year, prices would contract 0.1 percent, slipping into outright deflation. Deflation hurts borrowers by increasing the burden of loan repayments in real terms, the last thing central bankers want when the financial system has not fully recovered from the global credit crisis. Falling prices also hurt the economy by reducing investment and consumption, and the monetary tools for addressing it are limited. But even ultralow inflation as is being experienced in the neighboring eurozone is hinders growth. Short-term interest rates, the main lever for monetary policy in normal times, have been cut to rock-bottom levels across the developed world, and nominal rates cannot go below zero. That has led central bankers to try unorthodox measures, including charging banks to hold deposits and so-called quantitative easing, purchasing bonds on a vast scale to increase liquidity. The Federal Reserve cut its target for the federal funds rate, the rate that banks charge one another for overnight loans, to near zero on Dec. 16, 2008. At a news conference in Washington on Wednesday, Janet L. Yellen, the Fed chairwoman, said that she expected to raise that rate sometime next year , but that the bank’s policy board would be “patient.” Forecasts that rates would rise from near zero have been proved wrong for six years running, as the global financial system remained fragile and growth failed to reach pre-crisis momentum.

Swiss National Bank
Interest rate
Switzerland
Swiss franc
Banking and Finance


Como o vírus Zika tem afetado você?

Abstract: A Organização Mundial de Saúde afirmou nesta semana que o vírus Zika pode atingir até quatro milhões de pessoas no continente americano em 2016. O vírus tem sido associado ao aumento exponencial de casos de microcefalia no Brasil. O New York Times gostaria de ouvir a opinião de mulheres que deram à luz recentemente, que estejam grávidas ou planejando engravidar, e estão preocupadas com o vírus Zika.


Colt’s Owner Seeks to Create a Horse of a Different Color

Abstract: LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Dr. Kendall Hansen is a man of many words. Mike Maker, the trainer of Hansen’s namesake colt, is just the opposite. “You ask him, ‘How did Hansen work today?’ ” said Hansen, who operates a pain management clinic in Crestview Hills, Ky., referring to Maker. “And he’ll say, ‘Great.’ And then there’s a long pause.” The two exchanged words in the paddock before Hansen, the doctor’s nearly white colt , ran his final prep race for the Kentucky Derby , the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland. That day, Hansen had his colt’s tail dyed blue to match his racing silks, Maker had the color washed out, and Hansen nearly dyed it again. Maker said the stewards had told him the horse could be scratched if he showed up at the gate with a blue tail. Hansen, however, persuaded the stewards not to levy such a penalty. Maker, who said he could not reach Hansen because of poor cellphone service, never got the word. The horse finished second to Dullahan. Hansen acknowledged that fussing with the tail “probably didn’t help.” Maker said: “Some of it was a distraction, but do I think it cost us the difference between first and second? No, I don’t.” Their horse came in ninth in the Derby on Saturday at Churchill Downs. Hansen, 56, and Maker, 43, grew up near Detroit. Hansen’s grandfather, Harvey, was the president of the Detroit Tigers in the late 1950s. Maker’s father, George, was a trainer at Detroit Race Course, now closed, and Hazel Park in Michigan. At 13, Maker bought his first horse with money he earned working for his father and delivering newspapers; the horse won the first time he raced. Maker later became a trainer like his father, working under the Hall of Famer D. Wayne Lukas before going it alone. “Wayne was always the best of everything as far as with the horse,” said Maker, who has had five horses in the Derby. “Great organizational skills, and his speaking talents are second to none. He was like a second father to me.” Before going to medical school, Hansen learned handicapping from an older co-worker at a Ford plant in Indianapolis. Hansen studied racing forms, read books and practiced. When he had found two races in a row he liked in St. Louis, he jumped in his car after work and made it there in time to place a winning daily-double bet. “I bet $70 and got $1,600 back within 30 to 40 minutes,” Hansen said. “It felt like I robbed the place. And at that time, I thought, Oh, my God, everybody said it can’t be done; you can’t make money betting horses as a job. And when everybody told me I couldn’t do it, that’s when I wanted to do it.” Hansen, always up for a challenge, put off medical school and became a full-time horseplayer. He owned three horses before leaving the game to become a doctor like his father. But he never let go of the sport he loved. Hansen relishes the spotlight. He insisted that his Derby horse was named for his family, not himself. Married three times — “every 10 years,” he joked — Hansen is engaged to a Ukrainian woman whom he calls his soulmate. Because of visa issues, she has not been able to watch Hansen race in person. The colt’s full brother Tapanna, who was sired by Tapit, is named after “two women named Anna that I was dating at the time,” Hansen said. “They knew about it,” he added. At tradition-rich Keeneland last month, Hansen surrounded himself with female employees with blue tails affixed to the backs of their form-fitting white dresses with patches that screamed Hansen in glitter. They wore hats with blue feathers that resembled a horse’s mane. Hansen said he had ordered the accessories from Las Vegas. At Churchill Downs, Hansen hosted more than 200 people, including relatives and fraternity brothers. He passed out white Hansen squeeze-toy horses with blue tails and manes, which he had first ordered for his patients. His employees donned their tails on the party circuit but dressed more conservatively for the race. Afterward, Hansen made good on his promise to write the name of the Derby winner in the sky as “Another” hovered high above the track. When Hansen won the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile last November, his owner kissed the winner’s circle. That might have been a spontaneous reaction to victory. As for the tail dying, Hansen said, “several things just kind of have to come together before you do something that silly.” During the Juvenile victory, a broadcaster said Hansen was “running like his tail was on fire.” Afterward, Hansen received fan mail from children that included a reference to Pegasus, and artwork with Hansen’s tail painted an assortment of colors. (At home, he has a white horse figurine with a blue tail.) “I thought, man, kids really think he’s like a fairy-tale or a princess horse, or a unicorn or something, and I thought he’s like an open palette: what could we do?” said Hansen, whose original plan included conducting online voting to choose the color of Hansen’s tail for the Derby. He might have dyed the horse’s tail in March for the Gotham Stakes prep race , but word got around after he wrote about his intentions in a blog post. New York Racing Association officials sent him a letter asking him not to. Hansen ran anyway and won. Originally aiming for the Wood Memorial as his horse’s final prep, Hansen changed his mind and set his sights on the Blue Grass, where he hoped to dye the tail without alerting anyone. “I was trying to do something that would get on the 6:30 or 11 o’clock news, just bring some awareness to horse racing,” Hansen said. “Because this horse, if you spend some time around him, you feel like you’re in the presence of something special. It’s like the horse is blessed. And he’s white, and it’s rare, and he loves the track so much, he’s just so free-running, and I just think people need to see him.” Hansen the doctor has used his time in the spotlight to spread the word about his favorite charities. He donated $12,000 of Hansen’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winnings and proceeds from T-shirts with the slogan “The Great White Hope: 5-05-12” to New Vocations Racehorse Adoption Program. He also earmarked 1 percent of Hansen’s Derby purse to the organization, as well as 1 percent to ThoroFan.com , a Web site to attract horse racing fans. “He is a very smart guy,” Anna Ford of New Vocations said in an e-mail. “He knows he needs to enjoy every minute of this experience, and he has used Hansen’s success as a platform to give back to programs like New Vocations and also promote the racing industry. There’s something about a white horse that naturally draws attention from the public.” Maker has forgiven Hansen for what he calls “that little bump in the road” at Keeneland. He said they have a “great relationship.” Hansen echoed the sentiment, but not as succinctly. “Hansen hasn’t learned English yet, and Mike doesn’t say much, so I’m stuck doing all these interviews, and I’m losing my voice,” Hansen said, laughing as always, refusing to take himself too seriously.

Hansen
Kentucky Derby
Horse Racing
Hansen Kendall
Jockeys Drivers and Trainers
Maker Mike


Crayons Down. Now Dig Into That Healthful Parfait.

Abstract: The 22 children in a Head Start class in East Harlem shopped for plastic carrots and tomatoes at their own version of a New York City green cart, counted backward from five with a picture of blueberries, and jumped up and down to a song about bananas. But when it came time to twist and shape clay into their favorite fruits and veggies, Lauren Williams, 4, had another idea. She wanted to make an alligator instead. “Maybe we can make some fruits and vegetables that an alligator can eat,” suggested Laura Shortt, an educator who is working with the class on healthy food choices. A new obesity prevention initiative by the Children’s Museum of Manhattan in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health seeks to teach children who cannot yet spell the names of their fruits and vegetables to love them and eat them every day. While similar efforts have been aimed at older school-age children, this program is devised specifically to reach the under-5 set through interactive displays, classes infused with art and music, and workshops for their parents. “There’s a significant amount of research that points to lifelong habits being formed by the time you are 3 or 4,” said Andrew Ackerman, executive director of the Children’s Museum, who draws a comparison between healthy eating and literacy efforts. “If you get this right when kids are below 4, then you’re not spending enormous sums on remediation.” This month, museum and health officials are promoting a food-based curriculum called “Eat Play Grow,” which comes with ready-made lessons on things like portion control, healthy drinks, exercising and sleeping. The curriculum , in English and Spanish, is now available free on websites and blogs, and will be distributed to teachers in low-income areas nationally. In January, the museum will supplement it with a new website and additional training for teachers and caregivers. “Eat Play Grow,” which was supported with $300,000 in public and private grants and donations, has been tested since 2009 in 50 early childhood programs at housing projects, community centers and libraries in New York City and New Orleans, both cities that have sought to combat obesity. The Children’s Museum, which installed an interactive exhibition at its Upper West Side location in 2012, has also served as a research base and training center. Mr. Ackerman said that children’s museums in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and Youngstown, Ohio, planned to offer the same sort of exhibition, and that many other museums and libraries had expressed interest in offering the children’s classes and parent workshops in their communities. Image A book on healthy eating was given to children at the Johnson Houses, which has become a hub of anti-obesity activities. Credit Jennifer S. Altman for The New York Times In East Harlem, the initiative has transformed a child-care center at the James Weldon Johnson Houses, a public-housing project, into a hub of anti-obesity activities. Since February, the museum has sent its educators once a week to teach a class, and recently completed a $295,000 installation there that replicates some of the museum displays, including a green cart loaded with plastic fruits and vegetables for playtime and a talking green dragon named Alphie, which devours alphabet tiles while saying things like “B is for Banana.” David Nocenti, the executive director of Union Settlement Association, which runs the Head Start classes at the Johnson Houses and six other sites, said that his staff members had started incorporating lessons from “Eat Play Grow” into their daily routines. “There’s a huge difference between simply serving healthy food to children, and actually educating children, parents and staff members about the food that is being served,” said Mr. Nocenti, who hopes to expand the curriculum to all the locations. The other morning, Ms. Shortt and two museum educators reminded the children in the Head Start class to eat their “Go foods”: foods and drinks that can be consumed anytime (fruits, vegetables, low-fat milk). There are also “Whoa foods” — French fries, doughnuts and candy — to be eaten sparingly. Healthy choices were reinforced at story time when they read the preschool classic “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and during a rendition of “Old MacDonald” in which they sang: “Vegetables are good for me, E-I-E-I-O.” The lessons seem to have stuck. Lauren, the girl who wanted an alligator, settled for making an apple out of clay, then coloring it green. Half of it was for the gator, she said, and half for her. As the children gathered around tables at snack time to assemble their own parfaits from strawberries, blueberries and low-fat yogurt, Avery Cruz, 4, asked for another helping. “I want a lot,” he said. “Strawberries are my favorite.” Ms. Shortt said that she tried to broaden the children’s palates by introducing fruits and vegetables outside their comfort zones. Not long ago, she brought in a red pepper. Lauren tried it and liked it, but her older sister spit it out. That was still more successful, though, than the time Ms. Shortt tried raw green beans at a program in the Bronx with no takers (educators say it usually takes multiple tries for children to like new foods). To instill healthy eating habits at home, museum educators have held parent workshops to dispel misperceptions about food — say, that sugar-laden orange juice is good for you — over plates of veggies and hummus. Some low-income families, they found, were serving whole milk because they believed that was what wealthy families drank and therefore must be the best. The children are now teaching grown-ups. Last year, a director of a Head Start program in Brooklyn where the anti-obesity curriculum was tested walked into the classroom with a soda. The children gave her such a hard time that she not only gave up the drink, but also arranged for the soda machine to be removed. “You don’t want to take on a bunch of 4-year-olds,” Mr. Ackerman said.

Children
Obesity
Museum
Nutrition
NIH
Children's Museum of Manhattan
NYC


@_FloridaMan Beguiles With the Hapless and Harebrained

Abstract: MIAMI — Dangling into the sea like America’s last-ditch lifeline, the state of Florida beckons. Hustlers and fugitives, million-dollar hucksters and harebrained thieves, Armani-wearing drug traffickers and hapless dope dealers all congregate, scheme and revel in the Sunshine State. It’s easy to get in, get out or get lost. For decades, this cast of characters provided a diffuse, luckless counternarrative to the salt-and-sun-kissed Florida that tourists spy from their beach towels. But recently there arrived a digital-era prototype, @_FloridaMan, a composite of Florida’s nuttiness unspooled, tweet by tweet, to the world at large. With pithy headlines and links to real news stories, @_FloridaMan offers up the “real-life stories of the world’s worst super hero,” as his Twitter bio proclaims. Florida Man Tries to Convince Woman to Buy, Cook, Eat Iguanas Duct-Taped to His Bike http://t.co/8lOo4ML3AY — Florida Man (@_FloridaMan) March 20, 2015 His more than 1,600 tweets — equal parts ode and derision — are a favorite for weird-news aficionados. Yet, two years since his 2013 debut, the man behind the Twitter feed remains beguilingly anonymous, a Wizard of LOLZ. (The one false note is his zombielike avatar: The mug shot belongs to an Indiana Man.) His style is deceptively simple. Nearly every Twitter message begins “Florida Man.” What follows, though, is almost always a pile of trouble. Some examples: Florida Man Tries to Walk Out of Store With Chainsaw Stuffed Down His Pants . Florida Man Falls Asleep During Sailboat Burglary With Gift Bag on His Head; Can’t Be Woken by Police . Florida Man Arrested For Directing Traffic While Also Urinating . Florida Man Impersonates Police Officer, Accidentally Pulls Over Real Police Officer . Florida Man Says He Only Survived Ax Attack By Drunk Stripper Because “Her Coordination Was Terrible.” “Now I think there are people who actually aspire to Florida Man-ness,” said Dave Barry, who celebrates Florida’s brand of madness in his popular columns and best-selling books. “It’s like the big leagues. It’s the Broadway for idiots.” The number of @_FloridaMan’s followers is 270,000. Homages have proliferated: fan art, copycat Twitter feeds (California Man, Texas Man) and, most recently, a craft beer with Florida Man’s avatar. Florida Man is considerably more popular (and funny) than competitors like Texas Man (732 followers) or California Man (129). But is the Florida Man who Accidentally Shoots Himself With Stun Gun While Trying to Rob the Radio Shack He Also Works At truly more wacky than, let’s say, an Arkansas Man or New Jersey Man? Longtime observers insist that he is. Take the Florida Man whose surgically amputated leg was found in a hospital Dumpster. “The leg has a name on it,” said the best-selling author and Miami Herald columnist Carl Hiaasen, who has wisely peopled his novels with fictitious(ish) Florida Men. “If this is New Jersey, the leg does not have a name on it. In Miami, the leg has a name on it, and it’s the name of the person who owns the leg.” Again, this being Florida, the man sues — out of “humiliation,” Mr. Hiaasen noted — because his easily identifiable leg, via a hospital tag, was unceremoniously dumped. “There is always an extra twist of weirdness at the end of the Florida story,” Mr. Hiaasen said. “Weird stories happen everywhere, but they usually come to a logical conclusion. There is always one more shoe that drops in Florida.” And there is so much more of it in Florida, he added. “It’s not just shooting fish in a barrel,” Mr. Hiaasen said, “but shooting mutated, deranged, slow-moving fish.” He cited the car thief who had been caught by the police in the parking lot of the Miccosukee Tribe’s casino on the edge of the Everglades. The thief had the bad sense to try to escape by plunging into a pond behind the casino. “As soon as he hits the water, he gets eaten by an alligator,” Mr. Hiaasen said. “This is the way things must be here.” Mr. Hiaasen, chagrined at the authorities, added: “They kill the alligator. They should have given him a Crime Stoppers award. Does this happen in Arkansas? I don’t know.” There is the Florida man, high on the drug known as bath salts, who was recently arrested by police after having sexual relations with a tree. He called himself Thor and tried to stab the officer with the officer’s badge. How about the mailman who recently landed his homemade whirlybird near the base of the Capitol so he could deliver letters of protest to members of Congress: also a Florida man. In fairness, there is also @_Flor1daWoman, the only person @_FloridaMan follows. And while far less prolific, she is no less wacky: Florida Woman Arrested For Tying Boyfriend Up With Cellophane. Florida Woman Tells Police She Knew Truck Was Stolen, But She Didn’t Know It Was “That Stolen.” Florida Woman Attacks Man Who Accidentally Photobombed Wedding Picture. For writers, there is no greater muse than Florida Man or Florida Woman. “Stephen King comes here for material now,” Mr. Hiaasen said. “He’s out on the west coast.” Roy Black, a prominent lawyer who has represented his fair share of Florida Men and Women — the kind loaded with money — said he had put some thought into why Florida breeds or inspires its own brand of crime and criminals. He said it is partly the polarized nature of the state — very poor to very rich, very liberal to very conservative. It is partly the state’s cavorting culture — South Beach, spring break, half-naked people, late-night clubs. And it is partly the legions of immigrants from Cuba, South America, Central America and Haiti who sometimes import their old-country vendettas. “Where else do you get retired torturers from Argentina?” Mr. Black asked. California’s kumbaya vibe is absent here, and so is Texas’ ideological fervor. With so many transplants, allegiances lie elsewhere. New arrivals are often shocked to find that South Florida is segregated, cliquish, brazenly rude and typically indifferent to most annoyances, including its maniacal drivers. “That’s the most common misconception about Florida — that we are a melting pot,” said Billy Corben, who has made several Florida-esque documentaries, including “Cocaine Cowboys,” about the rise of cocaine violence and capitalism here in the 1970s and 1980s. “We are more akin to a TV dinner, where sometimes the peas spill over into the mashed potatoes.” “As long as the Champagne is flowing and the checks are clearing,” he added, “nobody asks a lot of questions here about anything.” Drugs and the weather are also culprits. The steaminess adds to the seaminess. And outdoor living makes for easy viewing and recording. As Mr. Barry put it, people do drugs and act erratically elsewhere. “But it’s not warm outside all the time everywhere,” he said. “In Ohio, they stay indoors.” Here, reinvention remains the national pastime, which is why hucksters and criminals do quite nicely. “As they say,” Mr. Corben remarked, “Los Angeles is where you go when you want to be somebody. New York is where you go when you are somebody. Miami is where you go when you want to be somebody else.” Hence the Ohio fugitive who was nabbed here last week in an isolated trailer park. He had been on the lam for 56 years.


Second Wind for Michael Phelps, as a Swimmer and a Person

Abstract: MESA, Ariz. — As his life unraveled, the athlete rued that all he knew how to do was swim. “So I was just this little hole where a man should be,” he said. The speaker, Danny Kelly, is a character in the recent novel “Barracuda,” by the Australian author Christos Tsiolkas, but his lament was echoed last week by the 18-time Olympic swimming champion Michael Phelps , who returned to competition after a six-month suspension resulting from a second drunken-driving arrest. Phelps, 29, who spent 45 days at an alcohol rehabilitation center in Arizona about an hour’s drive from here, said that in the years after the 2000 Olympics, which he qualified for as a 15-year-old, he gradually distanced himself from his mother and two sisters. He rewarded their unconditional love by ignoring their phone calls and texts and aligned himself with people interested in drafting off his celebrity. “A lot in the past I pushed away the people who really loved and cared about me,” Phelps said. “I know I’ve hurt a lot of people. It’s been terrible.” Phelps said he felt like a new person, but the results were the same as usual when he raced at an Arena Pro Swim Series meet at Skyline Aquatics Center. In his first competition since the Pan Pacific Championships last August, Phelps won the 100-meter butterfly , defeating his longtime rival Ryan Lochte. It was the first of four individual events he was scheduled to swim. No swimmer — not even the Olympians-turned-Hollywood-stars Johnny Weissmuller and Eleanor Holm — has achieved greater fame than Phelps, whose high profile saddled him with a public image of rectitude that was unsustainable. This was especially true as he navigated adolescence, a time when teenagers try on personas to see how they fit. “My hat goes off to him,” said Lochte, a five-time Olympic medalist in 2012. He said his brush with celebrity after those London Games, including a starring role in a reality show, was instructive. “It’s hard to get back to your normal routine of going to the pool, beating your body up,” Lochte said. “You get to sleep in, you don’t have to report to a coach, you get to meet famous people. It’s one of the hardest things to get back in shape.” Phelps’s life since his second Olympics in 2004 has been a virtual reality show, with his every move scrutinized. Over the past six months, as part of his self-evaluation, an exercise Phelps described as brutal, he said he has learned to accept himself, hyperactivity and all. “I’m perfectly imperfect,” Phelps said. “I’m a human being. If I have all this energy and I’m annoying, too bad. That’s who I am.” He has returned to the water with a joy that he said he had not felt in a long time. “I smile in workouts,” Phelps said. “When I’m in training, I do feel like I’m back in high school.” It is a telling admission. That was before swimming became his profession rather than simply his passion. It was also before Phelps and his sisters, Hilary and Whitney, drifted apart from their father, Fred, who was divorced from their mother, Debbie, when Phelps was in grade school. Swimming started out as a sanctuary from the school bullies and his parents’ disintegrating marriage. After Phelps’s record performance of eight gold medals at the 2008 Olympics , it became a kind of prison, he said. Image In his first competition since the Pan Pacific Championships last August, Phelps, right, won the 100-meter butterfly, defeating his longtime rival Ryan Lochte. Credit Matt York/Associated Press “I really only looked at myself as a swimmer,” Phelps said. “It’s sort of like for 15 years I was kind of living in a bubble. Swimming is what I did. That’s really all there was.” So how does Phelps move forward in his life by returning to competitive swimming? He said he was coming back with a happier outlook. “I’m looking at swimming a lot better,” he said. “The goals that I have are very lofty. I come into work with a purpose every day.” During the years Phelps was rewriting the Olympic record books, said his longtime coach at the North Baltimore Aquatic Club, Bob Bowman, “There is no question he took out some frustrations in the pool.” But Bowman, whose relationship with Phelps goes back almost 20 years, cautioned: “I don’t think you can say he just made swimming everything. The behaviors that led to our current situation, it’s pretty tough to draw a direct line to swimming.” Tsiolkas, the novelist, said he read Phelps’s autobiography as part of his research for the character of Kelly, an aspiring Olympian whose modest background, debasement by bullies and struggles in the classroom call to mind some of the challenges faced by Phelps. “If I am honest,” Tsiolkas said by email, “I think that I had a dislike for Phelps, initially. I hated his vehement triumphalism, the egoism of his success.” As Tsiolkas delved deeper into the world of high-achieving swimmers, interviewing Australians who became Olympians and others who narrowly missed, he had a change of heart. “I started ‘Barracuda’ envying the athletes and ended feeling compassion and tenderness toward them,” Tsiolkas said. “They are in a complex and cruel bind. Their training tells them that they have to strive, they have to believe in being the best, in winning, but their talents only have a finite life.” He added: “We turn these young women and men into gods. Their image is on countless products, their stories and their image circulate endlessly on social media, and when they make a mistake, we turn on them cruelly.” Phelps retired after the 2012 Olympics before returning to competition a year ago. Of the athletes to whom Tsiolkas spoke, the ones who fared best in their post-swimming lives, he said, were those who had a solid foundation “of an ethical life, of relationships, family.” Tsiolkas suggested that Olympic-caliber athletes would benefit from postcareer mentoring. It is a topic that has been tossed around for years within USA Swimming. Customized professional career planning services have been considered, but no consensus has been reached on how to finance such a program or how to best serve all athletes. Perhaps by example, Phelps will provide the blueprint for others whose lives have strayed off course. “I, of course, would like to show everybody in the world that I am in a different place and I am much better than I ever have been,” Phelps said before the Mesa meet got underway. “I understand that’s going to take a lot of time for me to be able to prove to whoever I need to prove to that I am different, that I have changed. This week will be the first week that I can start that.”

Michael Phelps
Swimming
Bob Bowman
USA Swimming


World Bank Ends Effort to Help Chad Ease Poverty

Abstract: DAKAR, Senegal — When the World Bank agreed in 2000 to help finance a $4.2 billion pipeline to tap the undeveloped oil wealth of Chad , one of the world’s poorest and most unstable nations, the agreement was a novel response to a persistent African quandary: how to make the continent’s rich natural resources pay off for its people, not only for its powerful. The strategy was to use the World Bank’s money and credibility to persuade Chad to dedicate its earnings from oil to attacking its poverty by building schools, roads and hospitals. That experiment ended quietly this week. Chad repaid the $65.7 million it owed the World Bank out of national coffers swollen by more than $1 billion a year in oil revenues, but it had not honored its bargain, the bank said. “Chad failed to comply with the key requirements of this agreement,” the World Bank said in a statement on Tuesday. “The government did not allocate adequate resources critical for poverty reduction.” Thus concluded one of the most ambitious efforts to escape Africa’s “resource curse,” wherein the wealth of mineral-rich nations gets siphoned by corrupt officials. Under the plan, the World Bank helped finance a 665-mile pipeline for an oil consortium led by Exxon Mobil, linking oil fields in southern Chad with Atlantic Ocean terminals in Cameroon. In exchange, the government of Chad agreed to channel most of its royalties into fighting poverty. An independent oversight board was to approve or deny spending projects based on their prospects for reducing poverty. But it never really worked that way. In May 2005 the board, in a damning investigation, found that much of the money was being wasted on abuses like shoddy school desks made of buckled wood, computers and printers purchased at inflated prices, and wells, schools and hospitals that were paid for but not completed. Life has gone from bad to worse for most people in this landlocked country. According to Unicef, child mortality rose from 1990 to 2006. Only one adult in four is literate, and 37 percent of children are underweight. Civic groups and opposition political parties had opposed the pipeline, saying Chad was too corrupt and poorly governed to manage the gusher of oil money. “We knew from the very beginning how this would end,” said Antoine Berilengar, a Roman Catholic priest and anticorruption activist in Chad who served on the oversight panel. “Chad is a corrupt country with no real democracy. The government has simply enriched itself.” Ian Gary, an Oxfam America specialist in managing mineral resources, said it was no surprise that the experiment had failed. “The World Bank made a gamble,” he said. “It knew the situation in Chad going in, but it argued it could build the capacity of the Chadian government and the governance situation would improve alongside the oil boom. But what we have seen in Chad and in so many other places, it is that boom and that flow of revenue that undermines governance rather than improving it.” Chad’s government repeatedly tried to change the World Bank arrangement. It argued that the threats it faced from a rebellion and from the humanitarian crisis that spilled over from the neighboring Darfur region of Sudan required it to spend oil money on security. In 2006 a compromise was reached that gave the government a freer hand, but the terms were never fully respected. The World Bank agreement was conceived in the late 1990s, when oil sold for about $20 a barrel, making the prospect of building a 665-mile pipeline through deepest Africa a money-losing proposition. That has all changed — Chad produces 170,000 barrels a day and expects to collect $1.4 billion in oil revenues this year. Michel Wormser, the bank’s director of operations for Africa, said by telephone that the World Bank would continue to help Chad invest its oil windfall in fighting poverty. But he said the demise of the pipeline deal showed that a nation’s mineral resources could benefit its people only if “the government is truly committed to sharing these resources in an inclusive manner.”

World Bank
Chad
Poverty
Pipelines
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Third World and Developing Countries


Picking Sarkisian, U.S.C. Makes Gut Decision, if Not Sentimental One

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Pat Haden, the Southern California athletic director who still remembers what it feels like to be booed by angry fans from his days quarterbacking the Los Angeles Rams, stood in a hallway of the McKay Center and shrugged at the less-than-enthusiastic response to his hiring of Steve Sarkisian as the Trojans’ new football coach. “I don’t pay much attention to reaction,” Haden said Tuesday. “I could have named Vince Lombardi or Mother Teresa, and somebody would have objected. I’ve been around U.S.C. since I was 14 and I’m not sure a lot of people know U.S.C. football like I do. When it came down to it, it was just a gut feeling.” Haden’s gut feeling, that Sarkisian, a former assistant, can return the Trojans to national relevance – and now – felt like a punch to the gut for some players, who were left in tears Monday by the decision not to appoint charismatic interim coach Ed Orgeron. It also felt like disappointment to some U.S.C. fans who wondered just what Sarkisian had done in five seasons at Washington to warrant this job. And if some Trojans fans were taking consolation that the vacancy in Washington might lure U.C.L.A. Coach Jim Mora — a graduate of Washington — those were dashed by the time the news conference was over, when U.C.L.A. announced it had given Mora a six-year contract extension and assurances that it would continue to improve the program. The bizarre 24 hours since Sarkisian was hired — which also included the interim U.S.C. coach Ed Orgeron quitting, and players meeting with Orgeron and later Sarkisian — turned the news conference into less of an introduction than it was a sales pitch. Haden offered a pre-emptive strike as to why critics should not put too much weight in Sarkisian’s lackluster Washington record (34-29) or inability to lift the Huskies beyond the middle tier of the Pac-12, which earned him the nickname Seven-win Sark. Haden noted that Washington was 0-12 the season before Sarkisian was hired and that the Huskies have won more than eight games only three times in the last 21 seasons. What Haden did not mention was that Washington’s rebuilding effort was made easier by the return from the injury of quarterback Jake Locker, who was a first-round draft pick, and that Washington, a big-city school with a strong football history, is in many ways similar to U.S.C. Sarkisian offered “the smoothest, fastest, cleanest transition to our program,” said Haden, whose candidate list included Boise State Coach Chris Petersen, Texas A&M Coach Kevin Sumlin, Vanderbilt Coach James Franklin and the Denver Broncos defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio. Sarkisian danced around several topics — what he might have learned from Lane Kiffin, his close friend and predecessor; or why the reaction to his hiring has been tepid — but he did not shy away from embracing expectations. “We’re here to win championships,” he said. “I wouldn’t have taken this job just to come home.” Later, he acknowledged that he has rarely been short of confidence. “I’ve never had a problem having a little swagger,” he said.Hiring Sarkisian was not inexpensive. The Los Angeles Daily News reported that his five-year deal is worth close to $4 million per season, close to what Kiffin made. And The Seattle Times reported that Sarkisian has a $1.5 million buyout. Two assistants who may join Sarkisian will also require buyouts if they leave Washington: defensive coordinator Justin Wilcox ($1 million) and the recruiting coordinator Tosh Lupoi ($410,000). Typically, universities that hire coaches pay for the buyouts. Haden spent a good portion of the news conference answering questions about why he did not hire Orgeron, who took over when Haden fired Kiffin on Sept. 29. The Trojans went 6-2 with Orgeron, the gravel-voiced former line coach, in charge, including an upset of Stanford. But the two defeats were also to U.S.C.’s fiercest rivals — Notre Dame and U.C.L.A., a decisive 35-14 defeat last Saturday. Haden hoped Orgeron might have stayed on as a recruiting coordinator, but his immediate resignation has led to speculation that he was miffed that Sarkisian — who got his start as a volunteer assistant when they both coached under Pete Carroll — was chosen. Orgeron has not spoken to reporters. “I have such great respect for Coach O,” Haden said. “It was hard. He was hurt. I knew I was doing that. On the other hand, my job is to make the best decision for U.S.C. He could have been a great choice here. Who knows? I hope he calls me in five years and says, ‘See, I told you I was the right guy for the job.’ ” Until then, he may not be the only one wondering.

Pat Haden
Steve Sarkisian
Coaches
Ed Orgeron
College football
USC
Pacific-12 Conference
University of Washington


Britain Grants Refugee Status to Ex-President of Maldives

Abstract: NEW DELHI — The former president of the Maldives has been granted refugee status in Britain, his office said in a statement late Monday, months after he entered the country on medical leave from a 13-year prison sentence on terrorism charges. The former president, Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected head of state, was jailed for ordering the military to arrest a sitting senior judge, which the court said was an abduction punishable under a section of an antiterrorism law. Mr. Nasheed’s supporters denounced the action as politically motivated , imposed by a government loyal to the longtime leader he had replaced, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom . Mr. Nasheed and his supporters have been joined by a chorus of countries that have objected to his imprisonment, including Canada, India and the United States. His trial was described as deeply unfair by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, and human rights lawyers, including Amal Clooney, have lobbied for his release. The Maldives, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean with nearly 400,000 people, has experienced continued turmoil in the months since Mr. Nasheed’s sentencing. The government has ousted or arrested officials whose loyalty to the current president, Abdulla Yameen, Mr. Gayoom’s half brother, has been questioned, and it has cracked down on protest rallies. “President Yameen has jailed every opposition leader and cracked down on anyone who dares to oppose or criticize him,” Mr. Nasheed said in his office’s statement. “Given the slide towards authoritarianism in the Maldives, myself and other opposition politicians feel we have no choice but to work from exile — for now.” The British Home Office said in a statement that it did not comment on individual political refugee cases. The Maldives Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Monday that it was “concerned” about the reports of Mr. Nasheed’s refugee status in Britain, though it said that those reports were unconfirmed. It said that Mr. Nasheed had sought medical leave to “avoid serving his prison sentence,” adding that he “has once again exhibited a distinct lack of commitment to the legal process and continues to manipulate the process for political gain, believing that he remains above the law.” The ministry added, “Further, the government of the Maldives is disappointed, if confirmed, that the U.K. government is allowing itself to be part of this charade, and further, is enabling an individual to circumvent his obligations under the law.”

Maldives
Mohamed Nasheed
Great Britain
Political prisoner
Refugees,Internally Displaced People


U.S. Drone Strike in Pakistan Is Said to Have Killed 6 Militants

Abstract: PESHAWAR, Pakistan — At least six foreign militants were believed to have been killed in an American drone strike in the North Waziristan tribal region on Sunday morning, a Pakistani security official said. The Pakistani official said a drone fired two missiles into a compound in the Datta Khel subdistrict at 6:40 a.m. The area is close to the border with Afghanistan and to Miram Shah, the main town in North Waziristan and the site of the region’s administrative headquarters. “The drone targeted a base of an Uzbek commander known as Usman, killing six Uzbek militants. Two militants are wounded,” the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the news media. It was unclear whether Usman was there at the time of the attack. The local news media has reported that he is allied with Hafiz Gul Bahadur, a local warlord and militant commander. Pakistan’s Military Campaign Against the Taliban Maps of the major attacks since June. Drone strikes in Pakistan, often attributed to the United States, prompt regular diplomatic protests from the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Separately, the Pakistani military said four terrorist hide-outs and a training center for suicide bombers were destroyed by fighter jet strikes late Saturday in the remote Tirah Valley of the nearby Khyber tribal region. In a brief statement, the military said that “31 terrorists, including some suicide bombers, were killed in precise aerial strikes.” There was no independent confirmation of the military’s claim. Last summer, the Pakistani military launched a long-awaited offensive against Taliban and foreign militants holed up in the North Waziristan region. The military claims that it now controls 90 percent of the region. On Sunday, Gen. Raheel Sharif, the Pakistani Army chief, arrived in Peshawar, the capital of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province in the northwest of the country. General Sharif was scheduled to hold meetings with senior civil and government officials to review security in the region. A Taliban attack last month on an army-run school in Peshawar left at least 149 people dead.

Drones
Pakistan
Waziristan
Targeted Killings


Gordon Captures Pole for Daytona 500

Abstract: Jeff Gordon and his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson swept the front row for next weekend’s Daytona 500, with Gordon capturing the pole in Daytona Beach, Fla., on Sunday. They were among a small group of drivers who were pleased with the qualifying format; Nascar abandoned single-car qualifying runs, the format used for 56 years at Daytona International Speedway, for the knockout group sessions it used at the speedway in July.

Daytona International Speedway Daytona Beach Fla


Washington: Pentagon’s Top Lawyer Is Leaving

Abstract: Jeh C. Johnson, the Obama administration’s top lawyer at the Pentagon, will step down at the end of December, the military said on Thursday. Over the course of President Obama’s first term, Mr. Johnson was a central player in some of the most important legal policy deliberations of the administration. During the 2008 presidential campaign, he was a key legal adviser and fund-raiser for Mr. Obama. Mr. Johnson, a former prosecutor, has been mentioned as a potential attorney general should Eric H. Holder Jr. step down during Mr. Obama’s second term. That speculation has been centered more among his colleagues rather than among civilian law enforcement officials, however.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Queens: Brief Power Failure in Flushing

Abstract: A malfunction in overhead power lines caused a 58-minute power failure yesterday afternoon that affected 968 residential and business customers in Flushing, a Consolidated Edison spokesman said. The spokesman, Chris Olert, said power went out at 1:32 p.m. and was restored at 2:30 p.m. Councilman John C. Liu, above, who represents the area, said about 5,000 people were affected. Mr. Liu said it was at least the fourth blackout in Flushing in the past nine weeks. “The frequency of these blackouts, albeit troubling, is not surprising,” he said in a statement.

Blackouts and Brownouts (Electrical)
Queens (NYC)


A New Italian Restaurant Continues a Theme of Almond Names

Abstract: VISITORS traveling to the East End this summer will notice a newcomer with a somewhat familiar name perched alongside Montauk Highway in East Hampton . Over the winter, Almondito, a spirited Mexican restaurant, was transformed into Almoncello, a rustic Italian place. All the almond nomenclature began in 2001 when Eric Lemonides and Jason Weiner opened Almond in Bridgehampton, a wildly popular French bistro that is still going strong. In 2005 Mr. Lemonides and Mr. Weiner created Almondito, which lasted for just over two years. In December, after extensive travels in northern Italy by Mr. Lemonides and Mr. Weiner, Almoncello was born. Mr. Lemonides is the fun-loving host in the dining room. On our first visit, on a busy Saturday night, he stopped at our table (and every other) several times. On our second visit, two nights later, we were treated like regulars; he even got into the Italian spirit and offered us an after-dinner drink. Since Mr. Lemonides is everywhere, it’s no surprise that his staff is on the ball. Warm slices of Italian bread and olive oil made an instant appearance. Runners delivering the food knew who ordered it; waiters and waitresses were familiar with the menu and noted diners’ food preferences and allergies. (One alert waitress averted a possible disaster by informing a person with a nut allergy that there were pine nuts in the meatballs.) Almoncello has a warm, rustic look, with butter-yellow walls, brown leather booths in the bar area and lines of wine bottles marching along shelves on the walls in both restaurant and bar. Brown kraft paper covers the white tablecloths; napkins are old-fashioned dish cloths. The kitchen is run by Mr. Weiner and his chef de cuisine, John O’Connell. The food is recognizably Italian but never boring or predictable. A luscious leek-and-roasted-fennel soup was garnished with a seared sea scallop, crispy cardoon logs and a bit of candied orange. The many flavors played off one another beautifully. Fennel also had a role in a wonderful charred squid salad. A mound of greens was laced with toasted bread cubes, onions sautéed with saffron, julienned strips of preserved lemon, crisp prosciutto, baby fennel and tender grilled squid. Two other salads also drew raves: escarole, mint and pecorino cheese in a pistachio and lemon vinaigrette; and chilled fresh artichoke hearts, shaved Parmesan and house-cured pancetta tesa (similar to bacon) over baby greens. Far less successful was the piccolo fritto: a threesome of fried gnocchi, salt cod croquettes and battered and fried fennel. It was a bland starch overload. Two very tender meat entrees were among the dishes I’d order again: the osso buco atop saffron risotto and the lamb shank over a bed of vibrantly green assorted beans — haricots verts, soybeans and fava among them — bound in a basil velouté. The baked yellowtail flounder was lightly cooked and the roast chicken impressively crisp. The house-made linguine with cockles, sliced garlic, white wine and parsley was a spirited dish, but with its unadvertised red pepper flakes, it was too spicy for the diner who had ordered it. There was lots of praise for the rich, moist chocolate-espresso torte garnished with gelato, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and chopped hazelnuts. Still, nothing could compare with the strawberry shortcake. This American classic was given an Italian accent by the balsamic syrup enrobing the berries, the rosemary in the biscuit shortcakes and the anisette in the whipped cream. Yum. Almoncello 290 Montauk Highway East Hampton (631) 329-6700 www.almoncello.com VERY GOOD THE SPACE Casual Italian spot with a warm, welcoming attitude. Restrooms are not wheelchair accessible. THE CROWD Spirited; mainly couples and small groups. Few children. THE BAR Mirror-backed with a marble top and a dozen stools; there are also four large leather-upholstered booths in the bar area. All-Italian list of 41 wines by the bottle ($27 to $150) and 8 by the glass ($8 to $10 ). THE BILL Dinner entrees range from $17 (pasta) to $36 (steak). American Express, MasterCard and Visa are accepted. WHAT WE LIKE Escarole-mint salad, artichoke salad, leek-fennel soup, charred squid salad; flounder, osso buco, lamb shank, roast chicken; chocolate-espresso torte, strawberry shortcake. IF YOU GO Open Sunday to Thursday, from 6 to 11 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m. to midnight. (Closed Tuesdays off-season.) Reservations are a must. Reviewed May 25, 2008

Restaurants
Hamptons (NY)
Cooking and Cookbooks


Four New York City Hospitals to Receive $1.6 Billion for Storm Improvements

Abstract: Four public hospitals in flood-prone parts of New York City are getting at least $1.6 billion in federal money to protect them from the kind of damage wrought by Hurricane Sandy, officials announced Thursday. Money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will create a new, storm-resilient building to house the emergency room and such key equipment as X-ray machines at Coney Island Hospital in Brooklyn, where the storm inundated the basement and came into the first floor in 2012. The water plunged the hospital into darkness and sent staff members scrambling to move patients on stretchers to higher floors before ultimately evacuating. Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, which also was evacuated after flooding and losing power, is getting money to build a floodwall and flood-proof elevators, among other improvements. Coler Specialty Hospital on Roosevelt Island and Metropolitan Hospital Center in Manhattan are getting funds for flood barriers and other modifications. “This money will allow us to do the kinds of things we know are necessary for resiliency,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Congress approved $60 billion for relief efforts related to Hurricane Sandy in 2013, but specific projects have needed approval from FEMA or other agencies. Senator Charles E. Schumer called the funding “a massive shot of adrenaline” for the hospitals’ recovery. It includes $65 million to reimburse repairs already made. The storm dealt a heavy blow to several New York hospitals, public and private. Many already have made major changes. Bellevue moved many electrical and mechanical components to higher floors and expanded its generator power system to reach such areas as M.R.I. and chemotherapy facilities. NYU Langone Medical Center — which had to be evacuated in the midst of the storm after losing electricity — has expanded its fleet of generators, moved its usual utility power feed from underground to a higher point and plans to finish its own power plant. The hospital has also gotten taller flood barriers. Mr. de Blasio announced last month that Staten Island University Hospital would get $28 million from the city for resiliency measures, including moving electrical equipment higher and improving the roof.

Hospital
Flood
Hurricane Sandy
Coney Island Hospital
Bellevue Hospital Center
Metropolitan Hospital Center
FEMA
Coler-Goldwater Memorial Hospital
NYC