5 Ejections, but Royals Still Defeat the Athletics

Abstract: The Kansas City Royals overcame five ejections to beat the visiting Oakland Athletics, 4-2, behind a tiebreaking two-run double by Kendrys Morales in a three-run eighth. The Royals’ manager, Ned Yost, and their pitching coach, Dave Eiland, were ejected in the first inning after Lorenzo Cain was hit by a Scott Kazmir pitch. Kansas City reliever Kelvin Herrera was tossed in the eighth after throwing behind Brett Lawrie. The Royals’ bench coach, Don Wakamatsu, acting as manager after Yost’s ejection, was also ejected, along with the injured shortstop Alcides Escobar. On Saturday, the Royals right-hander Yordano Ventura was ejected when he hit Lawrie with a pitch after a Josh Reddick homer. TIGERS 9, WHITE SOX 1 Yoenis Cespedes hit his first major league grand slam and had a two-run homer as Detroit beat visiting Chicago to improve to 10-2. Shane Greene allowed his first earned run of the season when a triple by Jose Abreu skipped past right fielder J. D. Martinez. BRAVES 5, BLUE JAYS 2 Jonny Gomes hit a three-run double in the first off the rookie Daniel Norris and added a sacrifice fly as Atlanta took the second of three at Toronto. Shelby Miller gave up two runs and five hits in six innings, raising his E.R.A. to 1.69, from 0.90. PIRATES 5, BREWERS 2 Pittsburgh’s Gerrit Cole improved to 9-1 in his last 10 decisions at home with a win over Milwaukee. He has won six straight. Pedro Alvarez homered for the Pirates, and Mark Melancon worked the ninth for his second save. NATIONALS 4, PHILLIES 1 Stephen Strasburg won for the first time in three starts this season, allowing one run in seven and a third innings against visiting Philadelphia. Drew Storen worked the ninth for his fourth save. Washington took three of four from Philadelphia, which has lost seven of eight. ORIOLES 8, RED SOX 3 Adam Jones went 4 for 5 with a three-run double and a two-run homer as Baltimore won at Boston. Ryan Flaherty added a solo homer, and Jimmy Paredes had three singles for the Orioles. ASTROS 4, ANGELS 3 Scott Feldman allowed two runs and six hits in six innings as Houston beat visiting Oakland. Luke Gregerson pitched a perfect ninth for his second save. TWINS 7, INDIANS 2 Torii Hunter hit his first home run for Minnesota since 2007, a three-run drive in the sixth off the former Minnesota pitcher Anthony Swarzak, and the Twins beat visiting Cleveland. PADRES 5, CUBS 2 Jon Lester gave up three runs and six hits in five and a third innings, and San Diego won at Chicago. Lester has a 6.89 E.R.A. in three starts since signing a $155 million, six-year contract. But he alertly tossed his glove — with the ball stuck in the webbing — to first baseman Anthony Rizzo for an out after fielding a comebacker in the second. Will Middlebrooks and Yangervis Solarte hit two-run homers for the Padres. DIAMONDBACKS 5, GIANTS 1 Paul Goldschmidt hit a two-run homer off Tim Hudson, helping send San Francisco to a loss against visiting Arizona. Chris Owings added a two-run single for the Diamondbacks, and A. J. Pollock had three hits, scored two runs and made a run-saving diving catch. DODGERS 7, ROCKIES 0 Howie Kendrick, Scott Van Slyke and the rookie Joc Pederson hit sixth-inning home runs off Scott Oberg, another rookie, and Los Angeles stretched its winning streak to seven with a victory against visiting Colorado. Brandon McCarthy allowed three hits in six innings, struck out six and walked two to defeat the Rockies for the first time in five career starts. MARINERS 11, RANGERS 10 Austin Jackson singled in the tying run in the ninth, Nelson Cruz followed with a two-out single for his fifth R.B.I. of the game, and Seattle overcame two five-run deficits to beat visiting Texas. CARDINALS 2, REDS 1 Adam Wainwright outpitched Mike Leake, and Kolten Wong had a tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the eighth inning as St. Louis swept visiting Cincinnati. Matt Carpenter hit his fifth career leadoff home run and singled — his eighth multihit game this season.

Kansas City Royals
Oakland Athletics
Baseball


Ah, the Genteel, Civilized World of Croquet. Well, Not Quite.

Abstract: I CONTINUED my re-entry into the wicket life of competitive croquet from behind a line of shot glasses at the Southampton, N.Y., home of my friend and part-time professional gambler, Reraise. He was giving the Sunday evening kickoff cocktail party for the 2007 United States Croquet Association National Championships to be held down the street at the Meadow Club. He’d asked me to help him tend bar pending the arrival of his 25-year-old son, the Kid, who was going to be my doubles partner. “We’re expecting over 100 people,” Reraise warned. The first wave of guests hit us like a ton of mallet heads. Men and women whose ages spanned the late 30s to early 80s, they were dressed in outfits that ranged from blue blazers on top of shorts to fancy cocktail dresses. They descended upon the bar and the dining room table buffet like unlettered castaways who hadn’t had anything to drink or eat in months. “I’m not hearing a lot of pleases and thank you’s,” Reraise muttered as the two of us scrambled to fill — and almost immediately refill — glasses of wine and whiskey. To my chagrin, the woman from the prestigious up-island country club who had falsely accused me of calling her an unprintable name at the Meadow Club Invitational tournament back in July was not among the contestants in the nationals. But the words coming from the mouth of an increasingly inebriated male contestant shocked even my ribald sensibilities. In a high-volume diatribe peppered with expletives, he complained to another male contestant that Johnny Osborn, 48, one of the world’s top-ranked croquet players, had shamed the sport by stripping off his tuxedo while auctioning some vintage apparel at a fund-raising banquet for the New York Croquet Club the night before. As a writer, I respect everyone’s right to have an opinion. But from my perch behind the bar, I could see that the man’s vulgar commentary was causing female guests standing nearby to cringe. When he finally departed for the dining room buffet table, I pulled Reraise aside. “I know this is your house and I’m only the assistant bartender,” I said, “but if I hear one more loud four-letter word from that guy, I’m going to kick him out.” Reraise nodded his head, frowning. “Let it go unless he starts up again,” Reraise said. “I don’t want to create any bad karma for the opening day of the tournament.” At 9 o’clock the next morning, the Kid and I commenced our executive pursuit of winning the U.S.C.A. National Championship doubles and/or singles titles. Between matches, I also began to piece together a narrative of what had happened at the New York Croquet Club banquet. If my journalistic investigation was secondary to my competitive quest, then it seemed to strike at a much larger issue: namely, the sociology of croquet as a microcosm of the deterioration of manners and civility in America. Johnny Osborn and I have been friends since my initial entry into croquet in 1985. We both know that croquet is in danger of dying out. Despite renewed interest among baby boomers, the croquet association has at most 3,000 members. One of the oft-cited reasons for croquet’s failure to attract newcomers is its image as a boring pastime for old snobs dressed in white. But from its inception, modern American croquet was meant to be fun, exciting and inclusive. Founded in 1967, the New York Croquet Club held matches under improvised “backyard” type rules on lawn bowling courts in Central Park. The rules of U.S.C.A. croquet were codified in 1977 by Johnny’s father, the late Jack R. Osborn, a former industrial designer turned sportsman and bon vivant. Combining elements of golf, pool, and chess into a war game on grass, U.S.C.A. croquet gained a loyal following of hard-partying foreign and domestic players. One of the most acclaimed international figures was the late John Young of Bermuda. The 2007 New York Croquet Club banquet celebrated the organization’s 40th anniversary, which happened to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the founding of the national croquet association. Astonishingly enough, I found no significant factual discrepancies between Johnny Osborn’s account of his performance and those of others attending, including the Kid and the man who had cursed Johnny. The event was a “black tie and tennis shoes” dinner dance at the New York Yacht Club. The master of ceremonies was the president of the New York Croquet Club, Douglas Moore, 37, a restaurateur and commodities trader. The notable guests included the national association’s president, Rich Curtis, 55, a lawyer, and Cathy Tankoos Barrett, one of the sport’s grand dames. True to form, Johnny took the stage after consuming a fair quantity of adult beverages. He doffed his tuxedo jacket and pleated shirt to reveal the first T-shirt his father had commissioned, to mark the 1977 U.S.C.A. National Championships. After auctioning the T-shirt for $600, he took it off and tossed it to the winning bidder. Now bare-chested, Johnny opened bids for a cummerbund owned by the late John Young. In an apparent effort to incite higher offers, he dropped his tuxedo trousers to his ankles and wrapped the cummerbund around his underpants. Most of the crowd responded with raucous laughter. “I could have stopped him,” Mr. Moore recalled. “But I looked over at Cathy Tankoos Barrett, and she was obviously good with what he was trying to do.” Johnny eventually sold the cummerbund for $1,300. All told, he raised a $1,900 for the nonprofit New York Croquet Club. The Kid called his auctioneering “awesome.” In a subsequent courtside interview in Southampton, I asked Johnny whether his performance was planned or spontaneous. “I don’t know,” he replied, blushing and puffing a cigarette. “Probably a little of both.” By the morning of the fourth day of the nationals, I reckoned I’d seen and heard enough on both the sociological and competitive fronts. The Kid and I had lost four of our seven preliminary-round doubles matches. I’d lost all but one of my singles matches, and the Kid had won only three of his. We weren’t even going to make the playoff rounds, much less win any titles. In my last preliminary round singles match, I faced the man who’d cursed Johnny Osborn at Reraise’s party. Before hitting my opening shot, I removed my white pullover to reveal a handmade cummerbund. I informed the man that I was wearing the cummerbund in honor of Johnny’s late father and the late John Young. I said I was going to talk to him in the only terms he seemed to understand. Then I cursed him, and told him to start the 80-minute time clock. Despite being a far more accomplished player, my opponent was obviously rattled. Each singles match pits the player with the blue and black balls, which by luck of the coin flip were mine, against the player with the red and yellow balls. The object is to score the most points with your two balls. You earn one point and one extra shot by making a wicket; you earn two extra shots by hitting your “partner” ball or one of your opponent’s balls. But in national championship croquet, the clearance between the ball and the cast iron rectangular stanchions of a wicket is only 1/16th of an inch. My opponent missed three routine (for him) wicket shots that gave me three openings to take control of the match. Alas, my own shot making was so incompetent, I squandered my chances to pull off an upset and lost 26-3. Even so, my cummerbund gambit won high-fives from numerous fellow competitors, including Johnny Osborn and Mr. Moore. During the banquet at the Meadow Club the next night, Mr. Curtis offered to buy me a drink. I accepted with a thank you. Then I asked the Kid to please buy Mr. Curtis a drink and charge it to Reraise.

Croquet
Hamptons (NY)
Contests and Prizes
Profanity


Aggies Land Two Top Prospects

Abstract: Texas A&M has signed a player who could replace quarterback Johnny Manziel and another who could boost its defense. The Aggies signed Kyle Allen, the top-rated quarterback prospect in the nation, to compete for the job left open when Manziel, the 2012 Heisman Trophy winner, declared for the N.F.L. draft last month. Allen threw for more than 8,000 yards and 86 touchdowns at Desert Mountain High School in Scottsdale, Ariz. The Aggies also signed the No. 1-rated defensive end, Arlington (Tex.) Martin’s Myles Garrett. Garrett had 81 tackles and 19 ½ sacks last season.

Kyle Allen
Myles Garrett
College football
Sports Drafts and Recruits


‘Stay Calm,’ Mexican Officials Tell Fearful Immigrants in U.S.

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, apparently responding to promises by President-elect Donald J. Trump to step up deportations, announced a plan on Wednesday to provide more protection and support for Mexican immigrants in the United States and urged the Mexican population to “stay calm.” In a statement and an accompanying video, both titled “We Are With You,” the ministry laid out an 11-point plan intended to help Mexicans in the United States get accurate information about possible changes in immigration policy and avoid falling victim to “abuse and fraud.” “Fellow countrymen, these are moments of uncertainty,” Mexico’s foreign minister, Claudia Ruiz Massieu, said in the video . “Stay calm, do not fall to provocations and do not let yourself be deceived.” She added: “We want to inform you about possible migratory actions” that could take effect starting in February. The ministry’s strategy promised an expansion of services offered by Mexico’s Embassy in Washington and its 50 consulates around the United States, including a 24-hour toll-free consular hotline to address migration concerns and report possible fraud; an increase in outreach efforts in neighborhoods with large Mexican populations; and more help for Mexican immigrants to secure identification documents for them and for their American-born children. While the statements did not specifically mention Mr. Trump or his deportation plans, Mexican officials have been worried about the possibility that he might follow through on his campaign promises to step up deportations beyond even the record rates that President Obama has achieved. Image Claudia Ruiz Massieu, the Mexican foreign minister. Credit Edgard Garrido/Reuters Mr. Trump’s victory has rattled the entire region. On Wednesday, the governments of El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras issued a joint statement announcing their intention to develop a unified strategy to contend with a Trump administration on shared concerns like migration. El Salvador’s foreign minister, Hugo Martínez, told Reuters that the three countries intended to seek Mexico’s collaboration. Central America is now a bigger source of migrants than Mexico, as people flee gang violence and poverty in El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala. Mr. Trump’s deportation proposals would certainly result in the return of many Central Americans to countries suffering widespread poverty and crime. In a television interview broadcast on Sunday, Mr. Trump said he planned to focus his deportation efforts on “people that are criminal and have criminal records,” estimating that this population numbered as many as three million. He suggested a focus on the most serious and dangerous criminals — “gang members, drug dealers,” he said — but left the details vague. His estimate contrasted with that of the Obama administration, which put the number of “removal criminal aliens” at about 1.9 million, including undocumented immigrants as well as legal permanent residents and immigrants with temporary visas. As a candidate, Mr. Trump took specific aim at Mexican immigrants. But it remained unclear how many of the deportees in his promised dragnet would be Mexican. In 2014, about 52 percent of the estimated 11.1 million unauthorized immigrants in the United States were Mexican, according to the Pew Research Center , and their numbers are thought to have declined since then. Immigrants and their advocates in the United States are worried that an acceleration of deportations could tear apart families and communities. In anticipation of policy changes, community-based organizations around the country are moving to help immigrants secure their footing and protect them against a possible rise in scams that often accompany changes in immigration policy . For the Mexican authorities, Mr. Trump’s deportation policy could also have major domestic implications in Mexico, including the return of hundreds of thousands of Mexicans who might struggle to find jobs in an economy already troubled by high unemployment rates. Mass deportations might also result in the loss of many millions of dollars in remittances for Mexico.

Immigration
Mexico
Deportation
Central America
Donald Trump
US Politics


Nintendo Wii to Add Netflix Service for Streaming Video

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — Owners of the Nintendo Wii can finally stop waving their video game controllers in the air and sink back onto the couch. Nintendo is bringing Netflix ’s online streaming video service to its Wii gaming console, the most popular in the industry, the companies plan to announce Wednesday. The service lets subscribers choose from a catalog of generally older movies and television shows and watch them instantly. The deal is further evidence of a movement by makers of game consoles to broaden their appeal by positioning them as a bridge between the living room television and a wider world of online multimedia. So far those efforts have not been enough to calm anxieties about the overall direction of the $16.8 billion video game business. The industry is threatened by a dearth of popular new franchises, which tend to attract gamers to an endless number of sequels, as well as the sudden rise of cheap games for smartphones and free casual games on social networks. “You just have to wonder if people are going to buy prepackaged $60 video games in the future,” said Mark Mahaney, managing director for Internet research at Citigroup. “If you are a console maker, you better quickly hurry to add more functionality and features to your console.” Nintendo’s rivals are generally further along in that effort. The Sony PlayStation 3 has a Blu-ray disc player and can use Sony’s own online movie store. Microsoft has outfitted the Xbox 360 with its Zune high-definition movie store and allows users to chat online while they watch films together. Both of those consoles already offer the Netflix service. The Wii has had only minimal video material, but it will take a big step forward in this regard with Netflix, when the Wii adds the service this spring. Wii owners with a broadband Internet connection who have at least a $9-a-month subscription to Netflix’s DVD-by-mail service will be able to use the online service at no additional cost. But Wii owners will need to receive a free software disc in the mail from Netflix and put it into their console when they want to watch a movie, as on the PS3. The Wii, unlike the PS3 and Xbox, is not powerful enough to display high-definition streaming video. Some analysts and industry observers expect Nintendo to announce a new Wii HD version of its console next year. Though it is now more than three years old, the original Wii continues to charm casual gamers with its unique style of game play, which involves physical gestures. Nintendo said it sold three million units in the United States alone over the holidays, outselling both of its rivals, and has sold a total of 26 million in this country. However, both Sony and Microsoft are expected to add gesture-style game play to their devices over the next year. And the PS3, at least, appears to be slowly gaining ground on the Wii. Sony introduced a slimmed-down version of the PS3 last year and said it sold 3.8 million units worldwide in December, a 76 percent increase over the year before. By adding Netflix to its service, Nintendo may be making a bid for customers who are considering switching. “Nintendo is saying, look, we are doing all the same stuff. You want to remain connected to us,” said Pelham Smithers, an independent video game analyst. Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, said the Wii had always been primarily about bringing video games to the mass market, including people who normally would not play a violent shoot-’em-up or pick up a traditional video game controller. But, Mr. Fils-Aime said, “from Day 1, we always had other capabilities within the console.” The deal with Netflix, he said, “is a continuation of an effort to bring more and more entertainment to consumers who interact with the Wii.” The deal gives Netflix a prominent hat trick in the video game console market and underscores its recent emphasis on its digital streaming business. The company, based in Los Gatos, Calif., now has more than 11 million subscribers to its traditional DVD-by-mail business. But more of those people are also watching movies and shows online: more than 50 percent, up from 20 percent a year and a half ago when Netflix first started adding its streaming service to devices like the Xbox. “Our growth in the last two years has been propelled in large part by our investments in streaming content and in the streaming platform,” said Reed Hastings, Netflix’s chief executive. “When the Wii application ships, it’s going to really open up a large additional opportunity.” One part of that opportunity is to expand the somewhat dusty catalog of films available online. Hollywood studios make mostly older movies available for streaming on Netflix: the 1976 version of “Carrie,” for instance, but not the 2002 remake. Mr. Hastings says the size of the streaming catalog correlates to the size of the checks it can write to Hollywood studios. So as Netflix adds customers — and cuts costs — it can gradually expand the catalog. Analysts say they believe it costs Netflix about 5 cents to stream a movie online, versus 60 cents to mail a disc to and from a customer. Netflix also hopes that the accessibility of its online service on devices like the Wii will encourage subscribers to stick around, helping it cut down on marketing expenses. Terms of the Nintendo deal were not disclosed. As its digital service expands, Netflix subscribers who want to ditch, say, an expensive $25-a-month plan, which allows them to keep four DVDs at a time, may be more easily persuaded to cut back to a cheaper plan instead of canceling outright. “Netflix is hoping more people will sample the streaming service and like it, and that it will ultimately limit churn,” said John Blackledge, a senior analyst at Credit Suisse. Analysts have been expecting a deal between Netflix and Nintendo for some time. Mr. Hastings said the Wii’s unusual interface, as well as the specifications of its hardware, created technical challenges to getting the service to work properly. “The other platforms have a pretty consistent and well-known paradigm, but the Wii is unique,” he said. “All of those things have taken a long time of experimentation and refinement.”

Movies
Netflix Inc
Computer and Video Games
Wii (Video Game System)
Computers and the Internet
Nintendo Co Ltd


Long Floor Fight Over Spending Cuts Gets Personal

Abstract: WASHINGTON — It was billed as a battle over numbers, but the marathon floor fight in the House this week was more a drama over core political beliefs, with long-simmering resentments, partisan grandstanding and startling personal revelations sprinkled throughout the script. In the witching hours on Thursday night, Representative Barney Frank , Democrat of Massachusetts, denounced the fight over a short-term spending measure as an “orgy of self-congratulation,” and threatened to lengthen the already endless debate over the hundreds of amendments if he was not permitted to speak his mind about how much he hated the process. That same night, Representative Jackie Speier, her eyes narrowed and voice choked with rage, revealed on the House floor that she once had an abortion. For three riveting minutes , Ms. Speier, Democrat of California, denounced an amendment — that later passed — to take away federal financing from Planned Parenthood. “I’m one of those women” who had an abortion, she said, adding that it was because of a medical emergency. “For you to stand on this floor and suggest as you have that somehow this is a procedure that is either welcome or done cavalierly or done without any thought is preposterous.” There was a smattering of applause. On Friday, moments after Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Democrat of Florida, suggested that the term “Obamacare” be excised from the House floor because that term disparages the president, Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, used the term repeatedly. For hour after painstaking hour, Republicans presented their vision for America through a series of amendments designed to cut spending in Washington. There were proposals to curb environmental regulations, withdraw financing for space exploration, end the practice of rounding up wild horses, prohibit assistance to countries that oppose the United States in the United Nations, prevent members of Congress from naming programs after themselves and to cut money for the study of Asian carp. Virtually no aspect of American life, from farms to the Internet to sexuality to education, was left untouched. While Democrats spoke angrily in defense of programs, Republicans, like Representative Paul Broun of Georgia, who suggested that payments to the United Nations were akin to money tossed into “ratholes,” hit back in the name of fiscal austerity. But some Democrats took advantage of Speaker John A. Boehner’s willingness to allow almost all comers to offer amendments (a big shift in policy from the tight control of floor proceedings practiced by the Democrats when Nancy Pelosi was speaker). There was an effort to deny the Defense Department the right to sponsor Nascar (failed), and the withdrawal of financing for a peace-oriented policy institute (passed). While most of the amendments were permitted 10 minutes of debate, others were given 20 minutes or more, depending on the topic. It was, said member after member, a battle over ideas and principles, of a vision for what the nation will be. Representative Edward J. Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, summed up his view of it thusly: “Are we going to stand with big oil, or with Big Bird?” — an allusion to proposed cuts to public broadcasting. While Mr. Frank denounced the lengthy process that left members in the chamber into the wee hours, Republicans welcomed the spirited exchanges. Representative Louie Gohmert, Republican of Texas, was blistering in his response to Mr. Frank’s critique. “To sit here and listen, after having spent four years in the most closed Congress and then to be lectured” was, Mr. Gohmert concluded, “the real travesty.” Tones were angry and voices were raised, and legislators were reminded at times not to address each other directly, per the rules. But members also used their Congressional inside voices, as when Representative Lee Terry and Representative Norm Dicks clashed briefly over whose turn it was to discuss net neutrality . Mr. Dicks, Democrat of Washington, was convinced that Mr. Terry, Republican of Nebraska, had already spoken, and Mr. Terry, in protest, said: “Yield to me please. Give me a little bit of respect.” Mr. Dicks replied, “I yield to the gentleman,” then conceded: “You’re such a handsome guy, I thought you spoke twice. I’m sorry.” In the middle of it all on Friday, members stopped their fighting to give an acclamation to Representative Jane Harman, Democrat of California, who is retiring. This is what is known on the Hill as professional courtesy. It also takes a lot of time.

Federal Budget (US)
House of Representatives
Republican Party
Democratic Party
United States Politics and Government
Frank Barney
Speier Jackie


St. John’s Eliminates a Fading UConn

Abstract: For all the athleticism that UConn ’s lineup brought into Tuesday’s game against St. John’s, it was the unit’s collective apathy that was most striking on the court. Coach Jim Calhoun became fed up last Saturday with the effort of his three seniors in a loss to South Florida, so he benched them for the final 16 minutes. He promised to hold them accountable again Tuesday in the first round of the Big East tournament, but informed them shortly before the game that the same unit would go. No wake-up call ever came. “You could see it on their faces that they were giving up,” said St. John’s forward Rob Thomas, who helped the Red Storm to a 73-51 win over the Huskies. Calhoun was resigned to re-evaluating his team afterward. “I think it’s a good time to sit down and think about closing the curtain on this year or continuing on if we have the opportunity,” he said. St. John’s buried the Huskies’ last hopes for reaching the N.C.A.A. tournament. The Red Storm (17-14) will face No. 5 Marquette (20-10) on Wednesday, but UConn’s future is murkier, with a National Invitation Tournament bid likely. Calhoun was noncommittal on playing in the N.I.T., even if invited, given this team’s lackluster play. Point guard Kemba Walker (12 points) echoed Calhoun’s sentiments. “If we do go in the N.I.T. and play like that,” he said, “I’d rather not.” Calhoun’s own future has been called into question. Calhoun, who took a medical leave of absence in the middle of the season that lasted more than three weeks, dismissed reports that he was considering retirement. “I have had no thoughts about anything except hopefully getting to the game against Marquette,” Calhoun said, also noting that he has a contract offer from the university should he choose to come back. UConn (17-15), which finished last year in the Final Four and began this season as the nation’s No. 12 team, endured a quick fall from grace since upsetting No. 1 Texas on Jan. 23. The luster of a win at Villanova and a home victory against West Virginia proved fleeting as the Huskies fell in their last three contests. They finished 12th in the Big East. “I’ve never lost so many games in one season in my life,” Walker said. By the end, Calhoun, known for his colorful antics, was left to challenge his players face to face as they came off the court for timeouts. To read their body language was to be lulled asleep. The three players who had been benched against South Florida — Jerome Dyson, Stanley Robinson and Gavin Edwards — ended their Big East careers on the bench, as well. “Our coach never walks away from us,” Robinson said. “He’s a competitor. In a hallway afterward, Walker said he would most likely be back for his junior season. Asked whether he thought Calhoun would be, too, Walker said: “It’s up to him. We’ll just be waiting.”

Basketball
Big East Conference
University of Connecticut
College Athletics
St John's University


On Verge of Ending Slump, the Islanders Let a Victory Slip Away Again

Abstract: Alexander Ovechkin scored 2 minutes 7 seconds into overtime to lift the visiting Washington Capitals to a 3-2 victory over the Islanders on Saturday. The Islanders seemed poised for a rare win after Thomas Vanek gave them a 2-1 lead with a little less than two minutes left. But Washington tied the score with a short-handed goal by Nicklas Backstrom with 49 seconds left. The loss was the sixth straight for the Islanders and their 11th defeat in 13 games. The goal was Ovechkin’s 21st of the season. Braden Holtby made 37 saves for the Capitals. Vanek’s score off a goal-mouth scramble appeared to give the Islanders a win for the first time in two weeks. They appeared secure when Mike Green took an interference penalty with 1:10 left, but Backstrom slid the puck past Islanders goaltender Anders Nilsson for his sixth goal of the season. The Islanders have been on a downward spiral since beating Boston on Nov. 2 to move to 6-5-3. They are 2-11 since and 4-12 since they traded Matt Moulson and two draft picks to Buffalo for Vanek on Oct. 27. The Islanders host Pittsburgh on Tuesday before a five-game trip against Western Conference teams. All five opponents on the trip are among the top seven teams in the conference. DEVILS 1, SABRES 0 Steve Bernier scored at 4:19 of overtime and Cory Schneider made 15 saves to lead the Devils to a victory at home. Andy Greene stole the puck and passed it to Bernier, who beat Jhonas Enroth with a high shot for the Devils. Schneider has won back-to-back games after beating Carolina on Friday night. Devils forward Ryan Carter left the game just 12 seconds into his first shift on the ice, at the 2:05 mark of the first period, after fighting Marcus Foligno. The two squared off away from the play and the 6-foot-3, 223-pound Foligno threw a right hand that caught Carter on the side of his helmet. Carter went to the locker room for treatment. BLACKHAWKS 5, COYOTES 2 Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist in a dominant first period, Antti Raanta made 32 saves for his second N.H.L. win, and visiting Chicago beat Phoenix. Rob Klinkhammer and Martin Hanzal scored for the Coyotes, who lost for the fourth time in five games. PENGUINS 5, PANTHERS 1 Evgeni Malkin scored a goal and had three assists to lift visiting Pittsburgh. Jussi Jokinen, James Neal, Chris Kunitz and Joe Vitale also scored goals for the Penguins, who won their third straight. Jeff Zatkoff stopped 39 shots, including 15 in the first period. Tim Thomas, who allowed four goals on 13 shots, was replaced by Scott Clemmensen to start the third period. BRUINS 3, BLUE JACKETS 1 Milan Lucic scored two goals and Patrice Bergeron added another to lead host Boston. David Krejci added two assists for the Bruins, who are 10-2-2 in their past 14 games and lead the Eastern Conference. Boston’s Chad Johnson needed only 13 saves for the win in just his fifth start. The Bruins have not lost at home in regulation in 11 games (9-0-2). CANADIENS 4, MAPLE LEAFS 2 Max Pacioretty scored twice and added an assist to lead Montreal to a victory at home. P. K. Subban and Tomas Plekanec also scored for the Canadiens, and Carey Price stopped 34 shots. FLYERS 3, PREDATORS 2 Vincent Lecavalier scored the only goal in a shootout as Philadelphia started a six-game trip by edging Nashville. Steve Mason made 34 saves and stopped Craig Smith, Matt Hendricks and Matt Cullen in the shootout for the win.

Islanders
Washington Capitals
Devils
Ice hockey
Buffalo Sabres


Lucrative Getaways

Abstract: Here is a look at some fund-raising events that lawmakers hosted, often far from their home states. The charges represent the hotel and meal costs that lawmakers or their leadership PACs paid. St. Regis Deer Valley Park City, Utah REP. DAVE CAMP Michigan (R) Chairman of House Ways and Means Committee CHARGES $63,000* in 2013 REP. JEB HENSARLING Texas (R) Chairman of House Financial Services Committee CHARGES $21,000* in 2013 SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI Alaska (R) CHARGES $12,000* in 2013 Canyons Resort Park City REP. RON KIND Wisconsin (D) CHARGES $10,000* in 2013 Four Seasons Resort Vail, Colo. REP. ROBERT B. ADERHOLT Alabama (R) Chairman of Appropriations subcommittee on agriculture, food and drug administration CHARGES $13,000 in 2013 REP. JIM HIMES Connecticut (D) CHARGES $11,000* in 2013 The Breakers Palm Beach, Fla. SEN. SAXBY CHAMBLISS Georgia (R) CHARGES $55,000* in 2013 Cheeca Lodge & Spa Islamorada, Fla. REP. FRED UPTON Michigan (R) Chairman of House Energy and Commerce Committee CHARGES $32,000 in 2013 Ocean Reef Club Key Largo, Fla. REP. HOWARD P. MCKEON California (R) Chairman of House Armed Services Committee CHARGES $28,000* in 2013 Longboat Key Club and Resort Longboat Key, Fla. REP. DARRELL ISSA California (R) Chairman of House Oversight and Government Affairs Committee CHARGES $20,000 in 2013 Gasparilla Inn & Club Boca Grande, Fla. REP. ROBERT HURT Virginia (R) CHARGES $15,000 in 2013 Casa Marina Resort Key West, Fla. SEN. MICHAEL B. ENZI Wyoming (R) CHARGES $13,000 in 2013 Kiawah Island Golf Resort Kiawah Island, S.C. SEN. PATRICK J. TOOMEY Pennsylvania (R) CHARGES $22,000 paid to a campaign consultant for event SEN. ROY BLUNT Missouri (R) CHARGES $31,000 in 2012 and 2013 Ritz-Carlton Dorado Beach Dorado, Puerto Rico REP. STENY H. HOYER Maryland (D) House Minority Whip CHARGES $91,000* in 2013 Fairmont Southampton Bermuda REP. G. K. BUTTERFIELD North Carolina (D) CHARGES $2,600 in 2013 Bandon Dunes Golf Resort Bandon, Ore. SEN. JOHNNY ISAKSON Georgia (R) CHARGES $45,000* *Event sponsored by so-called Leadership PAC run by the lawmaker, not the lawmaker’s personal campaign. SOURCE: Federal Election Commission

PACs
US Politics
Travel,Tourism
Campaign finance
Lobbying


ESPN’s Curt Schilling Criticized Again After Post About Transgender People

Abstract: Curt Schilling , a baseball analyst for ESPN whose outspoken social media presence has led to his suspension from the network before , is defending himself again after making comments on Facebook about transgender people. According to Outsports , a website focused on the intersection of sports and L.G.B.T. issues, Schilling shared an image that appeared to be a response to a recent North Carolina law that bars transgender people from using bathrooms and locker rooms that do not correspond with the gender on their birth certificates. This is ESPN's Curt Schilling's disgusting view of transgender people #HB2 https://t.co/7DKRXDL4GL pic.twitter.com/hLNhtRf9xe — Outsports (@outsports) April 19, 2016 “A man is a man no matter what they call themselves,” Schilling, a former Major League Baseball star, wrote in a comment on the photo, according to a screen capture gathered by Outsports. “I don’t care what they are, who they sleep with, men’s room was designed for the penis, women’s not so much. Now you need laws telling us differently? Pathetic.” In a statement late Tuesday, ESPN said: “We are taking this matter very seriously and are in the process of reviewing it.” Also on Tuesday night, Schilling wrote an 841-word response on his blog that shooed away those “dying to be offended so you can create some sort of faux cause to rally behind,” though he did not defend the content of the Facebook post. “This latest brew ha ha is beyond hilarious,” he wrote of the brouhaha. “I didn’t post that ugly looking picture. I made a comment about the basic functionality of mens and womens restrooms, period.” It was not clear if Schilling was denying that he had shared the photo or was referring to the fact that the image was originally posted by someone else. Schilling focused more on criticizing those who were offended as the story spread on Tuesday. “There are things I have deeply held beliefs in, things I have that are core to who I am, things I am passionate about,” he wrote. “If you ask me about them it’s likely I’ll give you a passionate answer, whether you like that answer or not is completely up to you. I am not going to give you answers to make sure you like what I say, let the rest of the insecure world do that.” He added: “I don’t represent anyone but myself here, on Facebook, on Twitter, anywhere.” But ESPN has not seen it that way in the past. In August, the network suspended him after he shared a Twitter post that compared extremist Muslims to Nazi-era Germans. The network called the tweet “completely unacceptable” and said it “in no way represents our company’s perspective.” He deleted the post and apologized on Twitter, writing: “I understand and accept my suspension. 100% my fault. Bad choices have bad consequences and this was a bad decision in every way on my part.” That ban was extended through the baseball postseason after Schilling wrote an angry letter to a writer from the website Awful Announcing about its coverage. ESPN said his actions “have not been consistent with his contractual obligations nor have they been professionally handled; they have not reflected well on the company.” Schilling’s co-workers include Christina Kahrl, an ESPN baseball writer and editor who is a transgender woman. In 2014, she wrote a critical examination of an article that outed a transgender woman on the website Grantland, an ESPN-owned property. Before his broadcasting career, Schilling pitched for 20 years in the majors, perhaps best known for his “ bloody sock ” performance in the American League Championship Series for the Boston Red Sox during their World Series run in 2004.

ESPN
Curt Schilling
Transgender,Gender Dysphoria
Outsports.com


Rhode Island House Elects a Speaker After an Abrupt Resignation

Abstract: PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Nicholas A. Mattiello, who on Tuesday was elected speaker of the state House of Representatives, said he had always wanted to be speaker — he just did not expect it to happen so soon. “I never expected such a stunning and rapid turn of events,” Mr. Mattiello, a Democrat, told the packed House chamber in his maiden speech as speaker. “There is no time for transition. To say that I am hitting the ground running is a vast understatement.” Mr. Mattiello, who was House majority leader, assumed the speakership under bizarre circumstances. On Friday, seemingly out of the blue, federal and state officers staged a daytime raid on the office and home of Gordon D. Fox, then the speaker. They carted out several boxes labeled “evidence” without anyone ever explaining what was going on. On Saturday, Mr. Fox, a Democrat, announced his resignation as speaker, remaining silent on his reasons. Even now, no one has disclosed what the authorities were looking for or why Mr. Fox stepped down. Nonetheless, a succession race quickly ensued. On Tuesday, Representative Michael J. Marcello, a moderate Democrat, dropped out of the race, and Mr. Mattiello, an old-guard conservative, was elected with 61 votes. Six voted for Mr. Marcello, and six abstained. Mr. Mattiello, 50, a personal injury and family law lawyer, said his priorities would be creating jobs and improving the economy, which he said he would do by collaborating with businesses. Rhode Island’s unemployment rate of 9.2 percent is the highest in the country . Afterward, Mr. Marcello, who had hugged Mr. Mattiello upon his election in the cheering House chamber, said he thought Mr. Mattiello won because he had an “institutional advantage” of being in the leadership. “When you can give out jobs and favors and threaten people, that kind of thing, that weighs heavily,” he said, but when asked if he had evidence that Mr. Mattiello had done so, he demurred. He said his fellow representatives had stuck with the status quo and predicted that the Balkanization that developed in the aftermath of Mr. Fox’s exit would be a problem. “There are so many competing interests in this room that it’s going to be very difficult to pass a budget when we get into June,” Mr. Marcello said. Some were still wrestling with the implications of the sudden change, since the speaker, who controls the budget and sets the agenda, is widely perceived to have the most powerful job in state government. “The concern I have is that to storm the Statehouse and go into the speaker’s office like that is a pretty aggressive and unprecedented act,” said Prof. Maureen Moakley, a political scientist at the University of Rhode Island. Beyond that, she said, multiple issues are hanging in the balance, including a potential overhaul of the state pension system, a yawning deficit, and the likely loss of a major source of revenue now that casino gambling, a big revenue-generator in Rhode Island, appears to be coming to neighboring Massachusetts. “We’re in a fragile economic and political state,” Professor Moakley said. “From a public policy point of view, this a mess.”

Rhode Island
Gordon D Fox
Nicholas A Mattiello
US Politics
Michael J Marcello
State Legislature elections


Q&A With Putin Ranges From Iraq to Food Costs

Abstract: MOSCOW, Oct. 18 — President Vladimir V. Putin used a three-hour session in which he answered questions from the Russian people on Thursday to reiterate his criticism of the Bush administration’s missile-defense plan, its stance on Iran and the Iraq war. Mr. Putin also waded into domestic issues, trying to tamp down fears of rising inflation and saying that he wanted a powerful Parliament in place after legislative elections in December. But he did not offer any hint about whom he would endorse to be his successor as president when his term ends next year. Mr. Putin announced this month that he would lead United Russia , the party that he created and that dominates the political landscape, in the parliamentary elections and that he might become prime minister after his term as president ends. As he has in previous years, Mr. Putin displayed a detailed knowledge of numerous topics as he spoke before a live television audience and answered questions from Russians around the country, some delivered live, some phoned in or sent by e-mail. Officials said more than 2.5 million questions were submitted; the president answered more than 50 of them. The questions were screened in advance. While many people expressed concern about specific issues — including housing, the cost of food and the quality of health care — none of the questions that were answered during the session were overtly hostile to Mr. Putin. Though most questions focused on domestic matters, Mr. Putin was also asked about foreign policy, and he often responded with criticism of the United States. Apparently referring to President Bush’s intensified warnings to Iran over its nuclear program, Mr. Putin said dialogue was more productive than “a policy of threats, various sanctions or power politics.” He described the Iraq war as “absolutely pointless” and said the United States should set a date for withdrawing its troops. Mr. Putin met last week in Moscow with the American secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, attacking the Bush administration’s plans to build parts of a missile-defense system in Central Europe. Speaking on Thursday, Mr. Putin indicated that he thought that the Americans were taking into consideration Russia’s alarm about the system. But he noted that Russia was prepared to retaliate if changes were not made, though he did not say how. “I assure you that such steps are being planned, and we will take them,” he said.

Iraq
Russia
Putin Vladimir V
Politics and Government
International Relations


A Frog That’s a Living, Breathing Pac-Man

Abstract: The South American horned frog is a sit-and-wait predator. It huddles close to the ground or partly buried, well camouflaged, and waits until a juicy cricket or other prey wanders too close. Then it shoots out its tongue, slapping the unsuspecting prey with the sticky underside, and pulling the insect — or sometimes, for large frogs, the lizard, other frog or mouse — back into its wide-open maw, all in milliseconds. Thomas Kleinteich of Kiel University in Germany decided that the amphibian, also known as the Pac-Man frog, was ideal for an experiment he had in mind to test the adhesive strength of a frog tongue. “They eat a lot and they don’t move a lot,” he said. So Dr. Kleinteich and his colleague Stanislav N. Gorb set up a mechanism to trick the frog into striking out at a force-measuring device. They discovered that crickets and lizards scarcely posed a challenge for the sturdy frog: Its tongue can pull in more than its entire body weight. The researchers study the evolution of feeding behavior in amphibians, and the sticky-tongue approach to prey capture is of interest because it was one of the evolutionary innovations that allowed the first amphibian predators to succeed on land. From the amphibians came reptiles, mammals and eventually scientists who study evolution. For the experiment, Dr. Kleinteich suspended a cricket behind glass, which tempted the frog to shoot out its tongue, hitting a force plate. The researchers recorded high-speed video of the strike and correlated the action, which is too fast to be seen by the naked eye, with the force measurements. The adhesive strength of the tongue was impressive, going up to 3.4 times the frog’s body weight in one instance, averaging around one and half times body weight. By examining the print left on the force plate, the researchers determined that the smaller the area of tongue covered by mucus, the stronger the stickiness. So the structure of the tongue, the researchers wrote in a recent issue of Scientific Reports, must have something to do with its adhesive strength. That is what they intend to study next. The frogs, Dr. Kleinteich said, were given the cricket after each thwarted strike so they wouldn’t learn to connect the research apparatus with inevitable failure.

Frog
Thomas Kleinteich
Amphibian
Research
Stanislav N Gorb


Again, the Journal’s Cartoon Is Off the Editorial Page

Abstract: Amidst a sea of changes at Rupert Murdoch ’s Wall Street Journal, here’s a shift that might catch the eye of only a devoted editorial reader: “Pepper ... and Salt,” the slice-of-life cartoon that has appeared at the bottom right corner of The Journal’s editorial page on and off for the last 58 years, has decamped to a new home on the Leisure & Arts page. “Pepper ... and Salt” moves to Leisure & Arts, said a box on April 22, wedged in the corner where the cartoon used to be. And there it was — smaller than before, featuring a woman welcoming her husband home with the news that she had figured out how to make her cat’s purr serve as her cellphone ring tone. “Pepper” has resided on the Leisure & Arts page before, but was moved back to the editorial page — briefly, as it turns out — in April 2007. Edited since 1950 by Charles Preston, the cartoon, which is culled from hundreds of submissions each week, skewers fat cats, irritating bosses and anyone partaking too much in the good life. (Some Journal readers, masters of the universe themselves, might have squirmed a little.) The Journal would not comment on why the 58-year-old cartoon was moved last week, or what the future holds for “Pepper ... and Salt” in the new Murdoch era. But Pepper’s move could make way for a more Murdochian brand of editorial cartoon, cartoonists said. The paper disclosed the change on April 21 when it announced revisions to its editorial and op-ed pages. “Murdoch’s papers are known for their great editorial cartooning,” said Rex Babin, the editorial cartoonist for The Sacramento Bee. Mr. Babin noted that Pepper’s targets — the foibles of offices and other institutional oddities of American life — were not distinctly editorial in nature, and The Journal page might benefit from an actual conservative editorial cartoonist, as opposed to a feature cartoon whose spiritual sibling is The New Yorker. “The Wall Street Journal editorial page is a showcase for conservative opinion,” said Ted Rall, an editorial cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate, who reeled off a list of conservative cartoonists, like Mike Ramirez (formerly with The Los Angeles Times and now with Investor’s Business Daily) and the semi-retired Chuck Asay, who could brighten The Journal’s page. “You could see possibly Murdoch having some fun with it in some ways.”

Wall Street Journal
Newspapers
Cartoons and Cartoonists
Murdoch Rupert
Rall Ted
Preston Charles


Helen F. Holt, Who Elevated Elder Care Across the U.S., Dies at 101

Abstract: Helen F. Holt, who led the federal government’s effort to establish and standardize modern long-term care facilities for the elderly in the pre-Medicare era, died on July 12 at her home in Boca Raton, Fla. She was 101. Her son, Rush D. Holt Jr., a former congressman from New Jersey, said the cause was heart failure. President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed Mrs. Holt to oversee a program established by the Housing Act of 1959 for the Federal Housing Administration to insure mortgages on nursing homes that were to meet high new standards. The president had met Mrs. Holt when she served as secretary of state in West Virginia, the first woman to serve in statewide office there. She had gone on to oversee the state’s long-term care facilities as a commissioner for public institutions. She served in the federal government through seven administrations, until 1984, creating standards for the financing, construction and operation of about 1,000 new nursing homes with 100,000 beds. The program, now run by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, has built more than 7,000 facilities since it began. “All there had been up until this time were ‘old people’s homes,’ ” Mrs. Holt said in a 2014 biography, “Helen Holt, Memoir of a Servant Leader,” by Patricia Daly-Lipe. “Some were called ‘poor farms’ and some were ‘pop and mom’ care places. They needed something better and with higher standards.” Mrs. Holt encouraged architects, developers and operators to get to know at least one person in each home. “Knowing this person’s needs would allow them to understand on a personal level what was required at the facility,” she said in the biography. Recognizing that different residents needed different levels of care, she helped create what are now known as assisted-living facilities for people who did not need full nursing home care. She also worked with universities to establish degree programs in nursing home administration. She encouraged facilities to create prayer groups and visitation programs between young people and the elderly. She began the work at a time when it was so rare for women to serve in public roles that The Sun in Baltimore described her in an article about her swearing-in to the housing agency as an “attractive and well-dressed widow,” adding, “Hatless, Mrs. Holt looked pretty and chic in a handsome print suit.” Helen Louise Froelich was born on Aug. 16, 1913, in the Central Illinois farming town of Gridley, where her father later served as mayor. She graduated from Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., then a two-year college for women, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in zoology from Northwestern University. She went on to become a professor of biology and zoology. A group of students submitted her picture for an article about teachers in Life magazine, where it was noticed by Senator Rush D. Holt of West Virginia. The two married in 1941. She entered public service when he died in 1955 at 49, finishing his term in the West Virginia House of Delegates. A daughter, Jane Holt Seale, died in 2008. Besides her son, she is survived by David Chase, a nephew whom she raised, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Helen F. Holt
Obituary
Elderly care,Geriatrics
US Politics


Vatican Says Scandal Involving Pope’s Butler Erodes Trust

Abstract: The Vatican acknowledged Monday that the newest crisis in Pope Benedict XVI ’s papacy was damaging trust in the church, even as it tried to contain a scandal that has sent the Italian news media into a frenzy since the pope’s butler was arrested days ago and accused of leaking the pontiff’s confidential correspondence. Italian news media have suggested that the butler, Paolo Gabriele, could not — and would not — have acted alone, and several newspapers suggested that a cardinal was the guiding force behind the dissemination of the documents. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, on Monday dismissed those news reports as “unfounded speculations” that were causing the church harm. “There is no cardinal under suspicion,” he said flatly. “It is painful to see such a negative image” emerge of the Holy See, Father Lombardi told reporters hastily convened for a briefing. The scandals “put trust in the church and the Holy See to the test.” He added, “That’s why we must confront them directly and not hide.” The arrest last Wednesday of Mr. Gabriele in connection with the illegal possession of confidential documents was the latest act in a scandal called Vatileaks , which has been punctuated by the periodic release of correspondence laying bare conflicts and clashes within the Holy See, including internal accusations of cronyism and corruption. News of Mr. Gabriele’s arrest capped a turbulent stretch of days in which the president of the Vatican Bank, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi, was dismissed by the bank’s board, which accused him of failing to do his job, acting erratically and not attending board meetings, according to a memorandum by the board published in the Italian news media over the weekend. The board also suggested that Mr. Gotti Tedeschi might have leaked some of the documents himself. Mr. Gabriele, who has been the pope’s butler since 2006, is being held in a Vatican detention facility and on Monday morning he met with this wife and his lawyers. One lawyer, Carlo Fusco, said that his client would “cooperate fully” with Vatican magistrates investigating the leaked documents.

Benedict XVI
Cardinals (Roman Catholic Prelates)
Roman Catholic Church
Gabriele Paolo


South Korea’s Whistle-Blowers Sound Off at Their Own Risk

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — Five years ago, South Koreans began calling a number in Britain in droves. They were trying to sway an international phone poll to name Jeju Island in South Korea — a verdant spur of volcanic rock famous for its fresh air and succulent seafood — one of the “new seven wonders of nature.” South Koreans, from then-President Lee Myung-bak to schoolchildren, pitched in. On Jeju Island alone, government officials voted up to two million times a day on their office phones, generating $20.3 million in phone bills. But Lee Hae-gwan smelled something fishy. Mr. Lee, a union leader at South Korean’s main telephone company, heard from fellow workers that their employer was handling the calls locally, even as it charged South Koreans millions for calling Britain. Mr. Lee blew the whistle — and paid for it. Over the last four years he has endured a suspension, a transfer, a pay cut and being fired. All, he says, were the result of his whistle-blowing. His plight — which ended only this year, when he won his job back — demonstrates why South Korea is having trouble getting inside executives and officials to call out wrongdoing, despite a broader push to uproot corruption. “I would do it again,” Mr. Lee said. “But if my children or friends ask me what to do in the same situation, I would not encourage them to do as I did. You pay too big a price.” Corruption is becoming a pressing issue in South Korea as economic growth slows and its people begin to demand higher standards from their leaders and big companies. After a string of corruption scandals that implicated prosecutors and judges, opposition parties are calling for the establishment of an independent agency to investigate graft among senior public servants. A new law went into effect in September that, among other things, bans public servants, schoolteachers and journalists from getting free meals worth more than $27 to prevent conflicts of interest. Meanwhile, prosecutors are increasingly examining the conduct of corporate executives . Crucial to those efforts, say supporters, is empowering whistle-blowers. Already the government encourages tattling by camera-toting bounty hunters who collect evidence of petty crimes as well as serious infractions like bribery. The Horuragi Foundation, a civic group, and others are lobbying Parliament to extend coverage from current whistle-blower protection laws, which are not as broad as in the United States and elsewhere. But the groups expect progress to be slow because of broad political gridlock as well as entrenched attitudes toward whistle-blowers, especially among government officials and corporate executives. “They do whatever it takes to find an excuse to expel whistle-blowers,” said Lee Young-kee, a lawyer who heads the Horuragi Foundation. South Korea’s past military dictatorship spawned a rigidly hierarchical office culture that made whistle-blowing difficult. With “loyalty to the organization” upheld as a key value, whistle-blowing was seen as an act of betrayal. Rules were routinely ignored in the name of meeting management goals, but few spoke out against colleagues because life in the office revolved around hometown, family and school connections, reinforced through nepotism and late-night wining and dining. Image Mr. Lee shows the documents from a government anticorruption commission back in 2012, when he shared his misgivings with a local TV station and the panel. Credit Jean Chung for The New York Times In its 2013 survey of 42 whistle-blowers, the Horuragi Foundation found that 60 percent were fired after exposing corruption in their organizations. Whistle-blowers reported financial straits, divorces and suicidal impulses as they were ostracized by their colleagues and harassed with defamation and other lawsuits from managers. In 1992, in one of the first cases of whistle-blowing in a democratized South Korea, an army lieutenant revealed vote-rigging within the military barracks during parliamentary elections. He was demoted to private and dishonorably discharged. In 2003, when four Red Cross officials revealed that their group shipped blood tainted with AIDS, hepatitis and malaria viruses to hospitals, the Red Cross reprimanded them for “disorderly behavior.” In 2008, because of whistle-blowing by Kim Yong-chul, a former legal counsel of Samsung, South Korea’s largest conglomerate, investigators uncovered 4.5 trillion won ($4 billion) that its chairman, Lee Kun-hee, kept hidden under his aides’ names, and convicted him of tax evasion. Samsung vilified Mr. Kim as an untrustworthy former employee. Mr. Kim later wrote a book about the company. When Lee Hae-gwan blew the whistle on the Jeju Island situation in early 2012, he was taking on a popular cause. At the time, he was a midlevel marketing staff member at KT Corporation, South Korea’s largest telecom company. Kim Yoon-ok, South Korea’s first lady, was appointed as honorary chairwoman for a national committee supporting Jeju’s bid. The National Assembly adopted a unanimous resolution supporting the effort. Local campaigners encouraged people to vote as many times as they could, offering them free Hyundai and Kia cars via a lottery. Citizens, including children with their piggy banks, donated $5 million to help finance the telephone voting. It worked: The poll sponsor, a Swiss foundation called New7Wonders , named Jeju Island one of the new seven wonders of nature . But Mr. Lee and other workers wondered how KT’s lines could handle that volume of international calls, as well as how the fees from the phone calls might be divided between the phone company and New7Wonders. In early 2012, he shared his misgivings with a local TV station and a government anticorruption commission. Authorities later fined KT less than $3,200, but the company also donated $4.1 million to help Jeju Island pay its phone bill. Eamonn Fitzgerald, spokesman for New7Wonders, said his group took “a small portion” of the telephone fee paid by each voter and collected fees from corporate sponsors in the places competing for the title. Mr. Fitzgerald declined to say how many votes Jeju ultimately received, and the Jeju government declined to comment. The furor died, but Mr. Lee began to feel rising pressure from his employer. First KT suspended him for two months. It then transferred him out of Seoul. In his new post, he was shunned by colleagues. In late 2012, KT fired him, citing factors like taking sick leave without permission. In February, South Korea’s top court affirmed an earlier decision that Mr. Lee’s punishments were a pretext and that he should be reinstated. But KT was not done with him. In March, he was punished with a month’s pay cut for the same reasons it had fired him in 2012. In a statement, KT said its action was justified and was not a reprisal for whistle-blowing. It has since rescinded the pay cut without explanation. Mr. Lee cited what many workers in South Korea call “the bitter taste of organization.” “I blew the whistle expecting KT to apologize, fix the problem and move on,” he says. “How naïve I was.”

South Korea
KT
Whistleblower
Jeju Island South Korea


NATO Formally Agrees to Transition on Afghan Security

Abstract: CHICAGO — President Obama and the leaders of America’s NATO allies on Monday agreed to end their guiding role in the decade-long war in Afghanistan next summer, saying it is time for the Afghan people to take responsibility for their own security and for the United States-led international troops to go home. Declaring that “our forces broke the Taliban’s momentum,” Mr. Obama used the summit meeting of NATO leaders here in his adopted hometown to begin an exit from a conflict he embraced during his first campaign for president as America’s good war. “We’re now unified behind a plan to responsibly wind down the war in Afghanistan,” Mr. Obama said during a news conference after the meeting. He called the decision a “major step” toward the end of the war. But Mr. Obama acknowledged that “real challenges” remained in dealing with the problems across the border in Pakistan, and that the conference had not resolved the impasse over reopening supply lines or the other tensions about the fight against insurgents operating from safe havens there. “We think that Pakistan has to be part of the solution in Afghanistan,” he said. “Neither country is going to have the kind of security, stability and prosperity that it needs unless they can resolve some of these outstanding issues.” Pakistan closed supply lines to Afghanistan after an American airstrike in November that killed 24 Pakistani solders. Mr. Obama has refused to apologize for the strike, as Pakistan has demanded in negotiations with the Americans, and he pointedly exchanged only a few words with the country’s president, Asif Ali Zardari, during the two-day summit meeting — “very brief, as we were walking into the summit,” he said. The two men also stood and spoke briefly with the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, before all three joined the other leaders for a group photograph. The plans to withdraw from Afghanistan are “irreversible,” Mr. Obama and the world leaders said in their communiqué, a deliberate word choice that underscored the political reality in America and in Europe. After 10 years of war and with the global economy reeling, the nations of the West no longer want to pay, either in treasure or in lives, the costs of their efforts in a place that for centuries has resisted foreign attempts to tame it. “The Taliban is still a robust enemy, and the gains are still fragile,” Mr. Obama conceded. “But think about it. We’ve been there now 10 years,” he said. “Ten years in a country that’s very different, that’s a strain, not only on our folks but also on that country, which at a point is going to be very sensitive about its own sovereignty.” Mr. Obama and his fellow leaders said they were not abandoning Afghanistan. “Afghanistan will not stand alone,” they declared in their formal statement. “We affirm our close partnership will continue beyond the end of the transition period.” That period begins now. Afghan national security forces will soon be in the lead role keeping the peace for around 75 percent of the population, NATO and Afghan officials said. But significantly, Afghan forces are not in the lead in many heavily contested areas in the south and the east of the country, where Taliban and Pakistan-based insurgents continue to engage NATO troops in day-by-day battles for control. By next summer, the Afghan forces will have to assume those lead roles even in the heavily contested areas. How that will come to pass remains to be seen. American military officials, as recently as Sunday, said they fully expected that American troops would continue fighting after next summer. In fact, the American presence in Afghanistan will continue even after 2014. The strategic partnership agreement between the United States and Afghanistan calls for a residual troop presence after 2014 to act in an advisory role. In Afghanistan, the Taliban released their own statement on the NATO conference. The Taliban commended President François Hollande of France for saying he would bring troops home early, adding that “the mujahedeen of the Islamic emirate will keep proceeding with their ongoing jihad until it attains its goal.” For Mr. Obama, the NATO agreement is a turning point in an evolving position on how to manage America’s longest war. Mr. Obama staked his first campaign for president in part on his opposition to the war in Iraq; the war in Afghanistan, by contrast, was the one he had said needed American troops and attention. But Mr. Obama forever tied his own legacy to Afghanistan as Americans and his NATO allies were suffering from combat fatigue. NATO says it will cost about $4.1 billion a year to finance the Afghan forces. Officials at the summit meeting were looking for ways to come up with the money; it is expected that the United States and other donor countries will finance the training and support. While officials at the summit meeting sought to highlight the progress made in the past two years by Afghan forces, especially the army, many conceded privately that the shift still represented a significant gamble on Afghanistan’s future stability. It is far from certain that the Afghans can hold areas that coalition troops have wrested from the Taliban in recent years, even with close support from Western allies. The Afghan Army has become a more effective fighting force and less of a threat to its own people — there are far fewer reports these days of soldiers getting high on patrol, for instance. But the force remains “a work in progress,” one American official said, and it lacks almost all the support functions needed to fight the war. The ranks of the police, meanwhile, are filled with drug users, thieves and “shakedown artists,” said the official, who asked not to be identified because he works with the Afghans. If the hand-over strategy is going to work, “it’s going to be on” the Afghan Army, which is going to need a lot of hands-on American support well past the end of the NATO combat mission in 2014, the official said. American field commanders say they are already pushing Afghan forces to the forefront. Their reasoning: Better to have the Afghans make mistakes while American forces are still thick on the ground rather than a year from now, when there may not be enough backup for the Afghans to recover from battlefield stumbles. Maj. Gen. James L. Huggins of the Army, the top coalition commander in southern Afghanistan, said in an interview that he was telling his Afghan counterparts: “If you will step forward now, we’ll help back you up. You may learn what you don’t know and stumble somewhere, but it won’t be a catastrophic failure, because we have your back.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


Muddy Road Molds Debate on the Future of Guyana

Abstract: FIFTY EIGHT, Guyana — A battered, decades-old Bedford truck that would not look out of place in a “Mad Max” movie pulled off the road. Gold miners crawled out of its mud-splattered cab, sauntered into Peter Rajmenjan’s diner and asked if he had any bush hog for sale. “The only wild meat I have left today is deer,” replied Mr. Rajmenjan, 55, whose establishment lies at the 58-mile marker on the main road cutting through the Guyanese jungle. Over plates of deer curry, travelers chatted in Caribbean-accented English or murmured in indigenous languages like Macushi, Arawak and Wapishana. Around them, the forest buzzed with mosquitoes. The siren moan of howler monkeys could be heard in the distance. Then they climbed back into their Bedfords and continued their journey on one of South America’s most remarkable roads. It runs more than 300 miles, from Georgetown, the sleepy capital of this former British colony, to Lethem, a boomtown on the border with Brazil . The status of this muddy, sometimes impassable road represents nothing less than the future of Guyana itself, many Guyanese say. Investors from Brazil, the region’s rising power, want to pave the road and dredge a deepwater port near Georgetown, giving northern Brazil a modern artery to export its goods to the Caribbean and North America. For Guyana, which has just 753,000 people in a country about the size of Britain (population 61 million), the project holds both risk and reward. Many here liken the debate over the road to a battle for the identity of Guyana, a nation pulled between competing desires to delve into the global economy or pursue a slower, more ecologically sustainable path toward development. President Bharrat Jagdeo, a Moscow-educated economist, has won plaudits for the nation’s forest protection policies, but his government is also considering far less pristine endeavors, like oil drilling. The road is a physical manifestation of these two poles. At one end are echoes of the nation’s colonial past, like cricket pitches and hackney carriages (taxis). Hindu temples, for the many Guyanese descended from laborers from the Indian subcontinent, dot Georgetown’s canalled streets. At the other end of the road, on the border with Brazil, every other conversation seems to be in Portuguese. Chinese merchants sell goods to traders, businessmen broker deals to lure Brazilian rice farmers and signs welcome Brazilians and their robust currency, the real, to this outback. Between these two worlds lies a frontier: thick rain forest and empty savannas in one of the hemisphere’s poorest and most sparsely populated countries. Environmentalists are especially concerned about the road’s potential impact on forests that are home to animals like river otters, the 400-pound arapaima fish , even jaguars that can be glimpsed at dusk along a stretch of the road through the protected Iwokrama rain forest . Studies show that more than two million acres of rain forest could be affected if the road is paved. “Asphalted roads in tropical areas cause deforestation, poaching and attract settlement, and this road happens to run through one of the most species-rich areas in the world,” said Graham Watkins, a biologist and resource management consultant in Georgetown. Those arguing for the road to be paved acknowledge some upheaval will occur. But they also say the road could ease Guyana’s poverty, a legacy of isolationist economic policies. Forty-four years after Guyana gained independence, the country remains the poorest in South America, with a per capita income lower than Bolivia’s. Up and down the road, signs of daily struggle abound. Close to where the pavement ends, Dennis Williams, 42, an Arawak Indian, eked out a living in a downpour that stymied even vehicles with four-wheel drives. “Rain don’t humbug the coals,” said Mr. Williams, pointing to a lumpy bag at his feet. Translation: the rain doesn’t spoil the cooking charcoal that Mr. Williams harvests from trees around his village and sells for about $3 a bag to feed his children. Only about 100 vehicles a week make the trip all the way to Lethem, taking anywhere from 12 hours to two days to complete it, depending on weather conditions. The muddy, pot-holed road might seem atrocious today — drivers place their vehicles on a pontoon ferry to cross the Essequibo River — but it used to be worse before the early 1990s. “That’s when I shifted Guyana’s gaze from the Caribbean toward South America,” said Colin Edwards, 63, a Briton who oversaw the upgrading of the road from a cattle trail. “Now Guyana’s continental destiny hinges on the road’s asphalting,” said Mr. Edwards in the foothills of the Pakaraima Mountains, where he settled, married a Macushi woman, had three sons and opened a roadside hotel. It has a watering hole called the Dakota Bar, where cattlemen used to gather to watch DC-3s depart with steers bound for the coast. Samuel Hinds, Guyana’s prime minister, said it was Henry Ford who originally had the idea of cutting a road through Guyana’s forest in the 1920s. Some Guyanese argue that Ford was searching for a way to export cultivated rubber from Fordlândia , his failed outpost of capitalism on a tributary of the Amazon River in Brazil. Companies in Brazil still want the road improved, and many Guyanese consider it a foregone conclusion that it will be. Still, the Brazilians may have to wait. “Sleeping with a big neighbor, 200 times your size, you know they might not intend it, but if they roll over it could be the end of you,” said Mr. Hinds, reflecting concerns in Guyana over being swallowed up by its southern neighbor. Still, Mr. Hinds said he could support the project, as long as Guyana could find $350 million to finance it. For now, the road captures both the splendor and the squalor of Guyana’s isolation. At one spot where a logging truck had overturned, the piercing song of the screaming piha resonated through the canopy. Loggers gossiped about recent reports of jaguar attacks on people . Ali Shazeez, a truck driver, rolled up his window. “Malaria,” he explained, gesturing toward mosquitoes. Farther down the road, past the lyrically named “bush mouth,” where the Rupununi savanna abruptly unfolds from the rain forest, the lights of Lethem beckoned. Workmen labored on dozens of structures on Lethem’s outskirts. The dirt bikes weaving between Land Rovers on Lethem’s dirt roads, as Jamaican dance hall music boomed from speakers, gave the town an almost frenetic vibe. For the “coast landers” from Georgetown, Lethem was their journey’s end. But for those dwelling in Lethem and the surrounding frontier of savannas, where cattle rustlers still abscond into the Brazilian state of Roraima, the dirt road unfolding from the edge of town represented something else. “That road is going to end our way of life,” said Justin de Freitas, 35, who worked as a porter along the road before returning to Dadanawa, a sprawling cattle ranch where he grew up. Dadanawa’s vacqueros, or cowboys, are still Wapishana Indians clad in jaguar pelts who ride their horses for days over the empty savanna. “Nothing,” he said, “will be the same around here once it’s paved.”

Guyana
Brazil
International Trade and World Market
International Relations


Driver Plows Into Group at Jerusalem Train Station, Killing Baby, Police Say

Abstract: JERUSALEM — A Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem plowed his car into a group of pedestrians at a light-rail station in the northern part of Jerusalem on Wednesday, killing a 3-month-old Israeli baby and injuring eight other people. The police said they were treating the crash as a terrorist attack. The driver tried to flee on foot and was shot by police officers, according to Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for the police. The official Palestinian news agency, Wafa, later reported that he had died of his wounds. Mr. Rosenfeld said there was a “strong possibility” that the driver had deliberately run people over. Footage from a security camera showed the car swerving off a main road and speeding across the light-rail tracks toward the station. The footage was broadcast on Israeli television. The baby who was killed was identified as Chaya Zissel Braun. Her grandfather, Shimshon Halperin, told reporters, “She was a pure girl, with a holy soul, who had done no wrong and was murdered for no reason.” Palestinian news outlets called the crash an accident and identified the driver as Abd al-Rahman al-Shaloudy, 20 or 22 years old. Mr. Rosenfeld said the driver had served time in an Israeli prison for security offenses. Palestinian reports said Mr. Shaloudy had been released in December 2013 after 16 months in prison. Mr. Shaloudy was a resident of Silwan, a predominantly Palestinian neighborhood in territory that Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 war and later annexed, a step that has not been recognized internationally. An influx of right-wing Jewish settlers who have acquired property in the area in recent years have made the neighborhood a flash point in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Mr. Shaloudy was reported to have been the nephew of a leader in the military wing of Hamas, the militant Palestinian group that dominates Gaza, who was killed in 1998. Mr. Rosenfeld said that intensive police operations were taking place in several areas. A police helicopter hovered above Silwan on Wednesday night. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel ordered a reinforcement of security forces in Jerusalem and issued a statement accusing President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority of inciting violence against Jews in Jerusalem. In a speech over the weekend, Mr. Abbas called on Palestinians to use all means to defend Al Aksa Mosque, regarded as Islam’s third-holiest site. His call followed a series of violent confrontations in the mosque compound between Muslim worshipers, protesters and the police. Many of the recent clashes have centered on visits to the compound by hard-right Israelis who have been increasingly demanding the right to pray there. The mosque is on the Temple Mount, revered by Jews as the location of ancient Jewish temples and the holiest site in Judaism. Tensions have been running high in Jerusalem since early July, when Jewish extremists murdered a local Palestinian teenager, Muhammad Abu Khdeir. The killing was in retaliation for the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in the occupied West Bank by Palestinian militants affiliated with Hamas. Some Palestinians drew a line between Wednesday’s crash and a case a few days ago when a Jewish settler ran over and killed a Palestinian girl, Inas Shawkat, 5, in the West Bank. The settler fled the scene but reported the episode to the Israeli police when he reached the nearest Jewish settlement. Hours before Wednesday’s crash, gunshots and an antitank missile were fired into Israel from across the Egyptian-Israeli border, wounding two Israeli soldiers in a vehicle, according to the Israeli military. The attack came from the rugged desert terrain of the Sinai Peninsula, where Islamic militants have been battling Egyptian forces and have occasionally carried out attacks against foreign targets or Israel . But Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, said that, based on a preliminary inquiry, drug smugglers appeared to be responsible for the firing, rather than militants. Israeli forces returned fire and killed at least three of the assailants, according to the military.

Jerusalem
Palestinians
Murders
Israel
Sinai Peninsula
Car Crash


Dispute on Sri Lanka War Crimes Escalates

Abstract: NEW DELHI — About 100 government supporters marched to the American Embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, last week and smashed coconuts on the embassy’s doorstep in a Hindu ritual meant to curse an enemy. “We will not let them take our president to the electric chair!” the protesters shouted. The next day, thousands of miles away, Jen Psaki, a spokeswoman for the State Department, performed a ritual of her own by releasing a statement that condemned Sri Lanka’s recent arrests of human rights activists. “It is disturbing that the government of Sri Lanka has taken punitive measures against its own brave citizens who have devoted their careers and lives to investigating alleged human rights abuses by both sides during Sri Lanka’s long and brutal civil conflict,” Ms. Psaki’s release stated. The dueling rites were part of an escalating conflict between the United States and Sri Lanka that is expected to rise to another level this week with a crucial vote at the United Nations Human Rights Council on whether the international body will start its own investigation into possible war crimes committed by government forces and separatists during Sri Lanka’s 26-year civil war. On Tuesday, the Sri Lankan police released Ruki Fernando, one of Sri Lanka’s most prominent human rights activists, along with the Rev. Praveen Mahesan, a Roman Catholic priest and the former director of the Center for Peace and Reconciliation, based in Jaffna. But the two, who had been in custody for three days, were barred from speaking to foreign reporters and ordered to surrender their computers and cellphone memory chips. Jeyakumari Balendran, an activist working on behalf of families still searching for loved ones who disappeared in government custody, remained in an infamous government detention camp. All three were detained because of their links with a militant, K. P. Selvanayagam, who escaped from government custody and then established an undercover rebel base in Norway, the Sri Lankan government said. The government reported that it had uncovered a cache of weapons in Kilinochchi, a former rebel stronghold where all three human rights activists were detained. The cache included mortars, grenades and antipersonnel mines. Several human rights organizations condemned the arrests, and some have warned that Ms. Balendran could be tortured. Also last week, Sri Lanka’s former president, Chandrika Kumaratunga, filed a complaint saying that state intelligence services had placed her under surveillance and were harassing her friends and acquaintances. The arrests and complaints of harassment led Paikiasothy Saravanamuttu, executive director of the Center for Policy Alternatives in Colombo, to question the government’s competence in its fight against the resolution at the human rights council in Geneva. “Is the government trying to prove the case against it?” he asked in a recent interview. The government sent a diplomatic note to other nations explaining that the police actions “are well within the existing legal framework and following due process.” Five years after the end of a civil war in which government forces battled Tamil Tiger insurgents, the Sri Lankan government has shown little appetite for any robust investigation into possible war crimes. About 40,000 people, many of them civilians, are estimated to have been killed in the war’s final stages in 2009. Fearing that a failure to investigate the past could rekindle a violent insurgency, the United States and other nations have lost patience with the Sri Lankan government and are now pressing for an outside investigation. President Mahinda Rajapaksa is popular in Sri Lanka because he ended the insurgency, and the country’s economy has revived since the war’s end, but an independent investigation of conduct during the war would be risky for him and at least one of his brothers, Defense Secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who led the government’s military campaign.

War Crimes,Genocide,Crimes Against Humanity


Paterson Gives St. Vincent’s Hospital Another Loan

Abstract: Gov. David A. Paterson provided the second cash infusion in a week Sunday to St. Vincent’s Hospital Manhattan in Greenwich Village, but said concessions from unions and physicians would be needed to keep the hospital open. The governor said Sunday that after “hours of intensive discussions and calls between all parties” the state had agreed to put up $3 million and creditors another $3 million to keep the hospital going temporarily. It was not clear how long the cash would last, and Mr. Paterson challenged other stakeholders to help as well. The 160-year-old hospital is $700 million in debt and has stopped accepting new outpatients to its well-known H.I.V. and community health programs because it may be forced to close. The governor said in a statement that saving St. Vincent’s would require “shared sacrifice,” adding: “We believe this assistance, if combined with assistance from the sponsors, concessions from the unions, management and physicians, cost-cutting actions and aggressive cash management will allow St. Vincent’s Medical Center the time needed to develop short-term and long-term plans for the future.” The loan came on the heels of an $8 million loan from the state and the hospital’s main creditors, GE Capital and TD Bank, that was announced last Tuesday. The first loan was used for payroll and supplies and was exhausted almost immediately, in part because vendors are now demanding cash in advance or on delivery, hospital officials said. City Council Speaker Christine C. Quinn, state and federal elected officials, and union leaders have become part of a group working with the governor and the state health department to save the hospital. But so far, neither the city, the federal government nor the unions have proposed to contribute to the state’s efforts to keep the hospital going until a more permanent solution can be found. A spokeswoman for the hospital workers’ union, Local 1199 of the S.E.I.U., declined to comment Sunday evening. As a political matter, wage concessions are sometimes more damaging to unions than layoffs, because laid-off workers do not vote in union elections while those whose salaries have been cut do. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken a neutral, almost philosophical approach to the hospital’s plight. On Friday, he said in his weekly radio program that he doubted the hospital could stay open longer than six months, but he did not offer any help. “People want to keep it open; that would be great if you could find a way to do it,” Mr. Bloomberg said. “I will say I find it hard to see how you can do that. You might be able to get it through another six months or something. The governor’s giving them a loan to pay their employees for another month, but unless you can really come up with a business model that works, which is difficult in the best of times for the best of hospitals, it’s a really tough proposition to come up with.”

Hospitals
St Vincent's Hospital
Paterson David A
Manhattan (NYC)


In One Village, Making a Balanced Display for Two Celebrations

Abstract: Briarcliff Manor THE village spent $853 on oversize ornaments for the Christmas tree in Law Park and $3,065 on a custom-made six-foot-tall dreidel. But what it really sought to buy was harmony surrounding this year’s holiday display. The effort to balance this year’s display came after a local resident sued the village last December in a case of free speech and religious expression. The resident, Henry Ritell, who is Roman Catholic, sued the village after it rejected his offer to donate a Nativity scene. Mr. Ritell said he wanted the crèche to balance the religious symbolism of the nine-foot-tall menorah. A federal judge sided with Mr. Ritell and ordered the village to take the menorah down or to allow the Nativity scene. Instead, the village not only took down the menorah, but also stripped the tree of its lights and the silver star on top. In a consent agreement reached this summer, the village vowed to use balanced symbols during the Christmas and Hanukkah seasons or forgo them. A committee was formed to recommend a new approach, and last week villagers got their first glimpse of the result. The tree was back, with its lights and star, but it featured large ornamental balls that made it recognizable as a Christmas tree during the day. The oversize dreidel, with Hebrew lettering on its sides, has been added along with a banner declaring, “The Village of Briarcliff Manor Extends Holiday Greetings and Wishes for Peace to All.” Last week, Mr. Ritell said he still was not sure why the village would not put up a menorah and a crèche. But after viewing the display, all lighted, he was pleased. “I think they’ve come up with something that is certainly acceptable,” he said. “They’ve done a nice job. God bless them.” Robert Siebert, a co-chairman of the committee that was formed to make recommendations for the holiday display, said the group talked with friends and neighbors to get a sense of what they wanted. He said the committee reviewed the results of similar lawsuits and took into consideration how most residents celebrate the holidays. Since Briarcliff is predominantly Christian and Jewish, residents wanted a display that represented both faiths, but was not particularly religious, he said. That thinking was backed by the Northern Westchester Interfaith Council, a group of 21 clergy members that released a statement in November urging communities to avoid using religious symbols in public places. The council said the best place for displaying religious symbols was on private property, “where the meaning of the symbol is clearly only an expression of the property owner’s beliefs.” But, Mr. Siebert said, while the Briarcliff display committee wanted something that was secular, they did not want to sanitize the holidays completely. “We didn’t want just a snowman and snowflake,” he said. “There was a strong sentiment on behalf of everyone to have the tree that has always been there and to have some balance for the Hanukkah season. We wanted the children to see a recognizable symbol of what they celebrate.” On an afternoon of strong winds and freezing temperatures last week, the park was empty, and the response from residents in the area was mixed. “It’s nice they try to show both faiths, but they should do it in a more spiritual way,” said Margaret Prendergast, who lives across the street and whose husband was on the display committee. “I kind of prefer the menorah, although I’d rather have this than nothing.” Rabbi Steven C. Kane, of the Congregation Sons of Israel in Briarcliff Manor, said he was pleased to see the village work hard to come up with something that would be acceptable to everyone. “I think they really tried to be sensitive,” he said. “We’re very touched they’ve gone to such an extent to do this.”

Christmas
Hanukkah
Signs and Symbols
Religion and Churches


Pakistani Court Sentences Briton to Death for Blasphemy

Abstract: A mentally ill British man has been sentenced to death in Pakistan after being convicted of blasphemy charges, defense lawyers said Friday. The Briton, Mohammed Asghar, was arrested in 2010 in Rawalpindi for claiming to be the Prophet Muhammad in letters that were later produced at his trial, the prosecutor, Javed Gul, said. But a lawyer who previously helped to defend Mr. Asghar, who is of Pakistani origin, said that the case was really a property dispute and that Mr. Asghar had a history of mental illness. Mr. Asghar returned to Pakistan in 2010 after being treated for paranoid schizophrenia in Edinburgh, said the lawyer, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because those involved in blasphemy cases often face threats and violence. The defendant later fell into a dispute with a tenant who brought the blasphemy complaint against him to the police, the lawyer said. Prosecutors disputed that Mr. Asghar had mental problems. Lawyers representing Mr. Asghar said that they would appeal his conviction.

Pakistan
Capital punishment
Great Britain
Mental Health
Muhammad Asghar