To Vladivostok and Beyond

Abstract: MOSCOW — Admiral, one of two new teams in the Kontinental Hockey League , cobbled together a roster in a matter of weeks this summer, picking up youthful prospects in an expansion draft as well as journeymen from Russia, Germany, Sweden and Canada. The team began practicing at an arena outside Moscow only last month, its foreign players delayed by hitches in obtaining work visas. Its home arena in Vladivostok , a port city on the Pacific Ocean, 4,000 miles from Moscow (and only 70 from North Korea), remains unfinished, forcing the team to play its first seven games on the road. “We’re starting from scratch,” said Alexander Mogilny, a former N.H.L. star who was hired as the team’s first general manager. “It’s not easy.” The K.H.L.’s ambitions never have been. Nor has its turbulent history, which has included the death of a player (the lack of medical equipment at the arena was blamed), two bankruptcies that forced teams out of the league, and a plane crash in 2011 that killed nearly all of the players and coaches of Lokomotiv Yaroslavl, one of the league’s most popular teams. Now, as it prepares to open its sixth season on Wednesday, the league has regained its confidence and momentum, moving markedly closer to its goal of creating a competitive, international alternative to the National Hockey League. It may not yet be a true rival as the world’s premier place to play the game — in large part because the business of sports in Russia today means none of the teams are profitable. Even so, the league and its teams enjoy the lavish patronage of Russia’s industrial giants and the political support of President Vladimir V. Putin’s Kremlin, which views sports as an instrument of Russia’s domestic and foreign policy. The league starts the new season with 28 teams, having added Admiral in Vladivostok and Medvescak in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb. The teams now play in eight nations across a staggering nine time zones, stretching from Central Europe to Asia. In June, a group of billionaires with personal ties to Putin bought a stake in one of Finland’s top teams, Jokerit, along with its arena in Helsinki, clearing the way for it to join the league next season and creating a furor at home. “I’m not the most popular man in Finland,” Harry Harkimo, Jokerit’s chairman, said in a telephone interview, referring to his decision to jump to the K.H.L. The league’s level of play, he said, was already competitive with the N.H.L. and would raise Jokerit’s level. With teams also in Croatia, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, the league has grown beyond the borders of the former Soviet Union, challenging, at least in part, its reputation as simply a glorified rebranding of the defunct all-Russian Superliga. Image Ilya Kovalchuk walked away from $77 million remaining on his contract with the New Jersey Devils to join SKA St. Petersburg after playing for them during last season’s lockout. Credit Alexander Demianchuk/Reuters “It’s a loss for the league,” Harkimo said, referring to his country’s professional league, SM-Liiga , “but this is part of globalization and a business plan. I can’t think about what others think.” The league’s most spectacular coup of the summer was luring one of the N.H.L.’s top stars, Ilya Kovalchuk, who walked away from $77 million remaining on his contract with the Devils to join SKA Saint Petersburg after playing for them during last season’s N.H.L. lockout. SKA announced last week that Kovalchuk, 30, would be the team’s captain. Barring injury, he will almost certainly anchor Russia’s national team in February at the Olympics in Sochi, where winning the gold medal has become an obsession among the nation’s hockey fans. Kovalchuk’s signing hardly signaled an exodus of N.H.L. players to the K.H.L., but it demonstrated the league’s increasing attractiveness — especially after dozens of players signed with teams during the last season’s lockout — and the deep pockets of at least some of the teams’ owners. More than a third of the league’s 700 players at any given time are non-Russians, including at last count 45 Canadians, 19 Americans and dozens of players from Europe, many of them veterans of the N.H.L., according to rosters still being completed. “Our aim is not to make a barrier — or iron curtain — between the K.H.L. and the N.H.L.,” the league’s president, Aleksander I. Medvedev, said in an interview in his Moscow office, where he also serves as the head of Gazprom Export, a subsidiary of the state natural gas empire that is the league’s biggest patron. “We would like that players, depending on their circumstances and vision of the world, can play everywhere. It will make hockey better if more North Americans will come to play here, and vice versa.” The bleeding of the best Russian players to the N.H.L. over the last two decades, beginning with Mogilny, who defected during the last years of the Soviet Union, dulled much of the enthusiasm from what many consider the national sport, but the league’s boosters are increasingly confident they have at least stanched the flow. The K.H.L., like the N.H.L. before it, is being accused of poaching the best players from smaller European national leagues with more lucrative contracts. It ultimately plans to expand to 32 teams, including Jokerit and at least one other European team. Since the league’s inception in 2008 with 24 teams, the quality of play has improved, as has its following among fans, who are particularly ardent in smaller cities with few other sporting or entertainment options. The league’s cable television network, KHL TV, now has 11 million subscribers, according to league officials. Even so, the league’s greatest challenge is a business model still shaped by a Soviet legacy and an uneven transition to a market economy. Tickets are comparatively inexpensive in Russia, as low as a few dollars, and many teams play in small or antiquated arenas they do not own or control, depriving them of added revenue from merchandise and concessions. Instead, the teams rely on the financing from owners or sponsors, which include Russia’s biggest state-run or -controlled corporations, whose stakes and spending are far from transparent. They include Gazprom; Rosneft, the state-owned oil company, which owns CSKA in Moscow; Tatneft, the regional oil company in Tatarstan, which controls Ak Bars in Kazan; and industrial giants like the steel maker Severstal, whose team by the same name plays in Vologda, and MMK, the iron and steel works that controls Metallurg in Magnitogorsk. Other teams, including Admiral, are owned in part or whole by regional governments. Image Players for Admiral, one of the two new teams in the Kontinental Hockey League, will play their home games in Vladivostok. Credit Sergey Ponomarev for The New York Times In hockey, as with much of Russia’s economy, the intersection of government and business is often blurred in ways that would be inconceivable in the free market. Dynamo Moscow’s board of directors includes prominent politicians and security officials, including the ministers of interior and defense and the head of the Federal Security Service, a legacy of the time when the security services ran the team. The governor of Chelyabinsk, a province in the Urals, is also the president of the local team, Traktor, which last season went to the finals of the Gagarin Cup , losing, four games to two, to Dynamo Moscow. Teams’ viability depends on how much money the companies and governments who control them can afford. “The business model is different for our clubs,” Medvedev said, “but nevertheless, step by step, quite a number of clubs are starting to generate cash from merchandise. It’s not only rich clubs like SKA, for example, in Saint Petersburg, but also Traktor in Chelyabinsk. They also generate from merchandise themselves $2 million. It’s already not peanuts.” Most teams are registered as noncommercial partnerships — in other words, nonprofits or even charities, which is in many ways what they are. In today’s Russia, companies are expected — some people say coerced — to provide extensive social services, including sports and cultural events, in the cities in which they operate. In the K.H.L.’s case, the expansion fits an explicit strategy of Putin’s government to bolster not only the sport, but also to serve the larger social and political purpose of creating opportunities for a rising middle class and new generations of sportsmen. Under the league’s charter, teams are required to create, and support financially, youth hockey leagues in their cities, building a farm system but also providing activities for children who have no prospect of turning professional. “None of them is profitable,” the league’s vice president for commerce and communications, Ilya Kochevrin, said of the 28 teams. The creation of a team in Vladivostok was a deliberate choice — much in line with Putin’s strategy to increase development in the Far East — to fill a social void in a port city that was in Soviet times the home of the Pacific fleet and a closed military zone. The government of the Primorye region built the team’s arena — named after the hockey star Viacheslav Fetisov — and joined in a partnership with Summa Group, a private conglomerate based in Moscow that recently acquired the company in Vladivostok that operates the city’s ports and other transportation links. As with most teams, the exact investment was not made public. “They really want to make the Far East an attractive place for people to live,” said Konstantin A. Panin, Summa’s vice president for public affairs. “They want it to be attractive from the point of view of infrastructure, from the point of view of culture and sports. And I think if you talk to some people in politics in Russia, they would probably say we want the Far East to be connected to the rest of Russia in more than just a geographical way.” The short window for building a team has been a challenge to the team’s players and Finnish coach, Hannu Jortikka, who signed with Admiral after being dismissed by the league’s only other team in the Far East, Amur, based in Khabarovsk. “One thing is that we have a short time and so many teams, so many new teams,” he said when asked about the competitive gap with the N.H.L. “The level for the game or the players is not so high when you build fast — a big league. That is a bit of problem, I think so, but it’s getting better and better.”

Kontinental Hockey League
Russia
Ilya Kovalchuk
Ice hockey


On the Prowl for the Red Sox in Left, Center, Right and Elsewhere

Abstract: There was the four-hit game against the Tigers, and the four-double game against the Rays. The game-tying single in Cleveland, and the rally-igniting single versus Atlanta. The ridiculous diving catch versus Minnesota , and the ridiculous lunging catch in Oakland , and the ridiculous running catch in Detroit. These events constitute an abridged account of Brock Holt’s exploits over the past month with the Boston Red Sox, a nationwide tour of destruction that arrived — and continued — in the Bronx on Friday night. He robbed Brian Roberts of a home run in the second inning, pulling it back with a well-timed leap at the right-field fence, and Carlos Beltran of a bloop single in the eighth. In between he ripped a double, one of three Red Sox hits in a 6-0 loss to the Yankees that symbolized Boston’s desultory season: The highlights, once again, were supplied by a 26-year-old rookie who leads the team in hitting and patrols the outfield (and first base) with a borrowed glove because he had never played those positions, at any professional level, before May. Actually, there was that one other time. “In one of my buddies’ slow-pitch softball games in college,” Holt said. “I played right-center field.” If that position existed in the majors, Holt would play there, too. After failing to make the team out of spring training, he has over the past seven weeks become a recognizable face of these Red Sox, a face framed not by two-day old scruff or an untamed beard or by gaudy diamonds glistening from the earlobes but a nest of blond hair visible only, it seems, when his cap falls off in pursuit. In left field, in right, in center, everywhere. A middle infielder by trade, Holt has started every game for the Red Sox since being recalled on May 17, playing every inning, and at five positions — but none at second base or shortstop (although the arrival Saturday of the outfield prospect Mookie Betts could result in Holt’s receiving a few starts at shortstop, Manager John Farrell said). “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said Friday afternoon when asked about this phenomenon. The hoary baseball adage holds: You hit, you play. Entering Friday’s games, no one in baseball had more hits than Holt, with 47, since May 23, when he ascended to the leadoff spot. He has hit safely in 21 of 26 games this month, raising his average to .321, with a .815 on-base plus slugging, while providing with regularity the sort of moments that maintain a fan base’s interest. One of those moments came last week at Fenway Park against the Twins, on a ball lofted into the twilight. The camera is fixed on left fielder Jonny Gomes, who cannot locate the ball, before Holt tumbles into the frame, ball in glove, having sprinted from the edge of right-center to rescue his teammate. It was Holt’s first career start in center. Naturally. After seeing the clip that night, his old minor league manager P. J. Forbes said Holt’s name as one word — Brockholt — just as he used to do in the Altoona Curve’s dugout. Holt’s old junior-college coach, Whoa Dill, who watched the play unfold on live television, had but one reaction. “Here we go again,” Dill said. It reminded Dill of when he recruited Holt, then a 5-foot-8, 145-pound shortstop from Stephenville, Tex., about 80 miles southwest of Fort Worth, to Navarro College in Corsicana, Tex. “He was an itty-bitty kid that could really play,” Dill said in a telephone interview. “He always did something that made you notice him.” Image On Friday night, Holt robbed the Yankees’ Brian Roberts of a home run in the second inning. Credit Brad Penner/USA Today Sports, via Reuters A scholarship to Rice followed. Holt, who has since filled out to 5-10 and 180 pounds, played second base, and Pittsburgh drafted him in the ninth round in 2009. In parts of three seasons with Holt, Forbes pushed him harder than he had any other player, in part, he said, because he recognized a bit of himself in Holt. For hours Forbes would drill him on the nuances of the shortstop position, on improving his angles and anticipation, footwork and focus — especially his focus. “I always knew he was going to hit,” Forbes said in a telephone interview. “For me, it was making sure that when he got the opportunity, his glove wasn’t going to be something that would hold him back.” Holt figured he would be given a chance to latch on with the Pirates at second or shortstop, especially after showing well in a September call-up in 2012, but being traded to Boston with Joel Hanrahan that December caused him to re-evaluate. With Dustin Pedroia entrenched at second and Xander Bogaerts considered the team’s shortstop of the future, Holt wondered about his path to the majors. “You know you’re not going to play much over there,” Holt said, referring to second. “I knew that I would probably be moving around. I didn’t know to this extent.” He started out at third base, replacing the injured Will Middlebrooks. Then to first, when Mike Carp got hurt. And then to the outfield, as Farrell searched for ways to keep Holt — a rare left-handed hitter who hits lefties better, .351 to .302, than righties — in the lineup. In Boston’s last 12 games, Holt had made starts at the corner infield spots and all three outfield positions. “He’s been open-minded,” Farrell said, adding, “It speaks to his athleticism and, I think, not being hung up on the fact that there’s been minimal exposure to the positions we’ve put him in.” By now, Holt comes to the ballpark each day knowing that he will play, just not whose glove he will use. In the outfield, he continues to break in a mitt lent to him by Alex Hassan, a Class AAA teammate. At first base, he appropriates Mike Napoli’s. This strange new existence of his Holt views with a mix of amusement and detached humility. He did not set out to become a utility player extraordinaire, but he is enjoying it, he said, even if he would not mind a little more stability at some point. “Everyone wants to have one position that they can focus on and be really good at,” Holt said. And if that does not happen, he was asked. “Then,” he said, “you try to be good at all of them.”


Russians Meet With an Uncle of Assad in an Effort to Jump-Start Peace Talks

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — As American diplomacy on the war in Syria flounders, unable to deliver the main exile opposition group to proposed peace talks, Russian officials on Wednesday stepped up their efforts to promote alternate opposition figures, meeting in Geneva with Rifaat al-Assad, an uncle of President Bashar al-Assad who was forced out of the country in 1984 after attempting to lead a coup. Siwar al-Assad, a son of Rifaat, said in a telephone interview from Geneva that his father wanted to attend the proposed peace talks, known as Geneva II, as an opposition figure whose presence would reassure government supporters and help bring about a compromise. He said his father did not insist that President Assad step down as a prerequisite for talks, a demand of the Western-backed exile opposition coalition that critics see as increasingly unrealistic. Attempts to set a November date for the talks have been scuttled by the persistent gulf between the government, backed by Russia and Iran, and its opponents — principally backed by the United States, France, Britain and Saudi Arabia — over who will attend and whether Mr. Assad can have a role in a transitional government. “By putting preconditions, nothing will change, and every day people are dying,” Siwar al-Assad said, calling President Assad’s imminent departure “a fantasy” and adding, “I’m not pro-Bashar, but I’m a person who is realistic.” It was unclear whether other parties would accept even sitting with Rifaat al-Assad at talks, much less whether talks will take place. But the Russian move was a sign of casting about for new ways to break the impasse. The meeting between Rifaat al-Assad and Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Mikhail Bogdanov, drew scorn from many opponents of the president. They call Rifaat al-Assad the Butcher of Hama, a reference to his role in the bloody suppression of a violent uprising in that Syrian city in 1982. Smoldering resentments from the uprising and the crackdown help fuel the current conflict. Critics of American policy on Syria — including regional analysts, government supporters and some opponents of President Assad — say it is time for United States officials to admit that he is staying at least for the early phases of any transition, and to broaden the range of figures involved in talks. They say American officials should also reassure Syrian government and security officials whose help would be needed to end the violence that has killed more than 110,000 people and displaced nine million. “Since we’re not having much luck bringing together regime and opposition figures who count, then it probably makes sense for us to broaden our range of contacts in both camps,” said Ryan C. Crocker, a former American ambassador to Syria who is now dean of the Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University. Yet Mr. Crocker expressed doubt that the diplomatic impasse would be solved by the participation of Rifaat al-Assad, who he said is despised by both sides. The president’s supporters mistrust him for attempting to depose the president’s father and predecessor, Hafez al-Assad. The president’s opponents loathe him over the Hama legacy. Image Syrians tended to a wounded man on Wednesday after bombings hit the Hijaz train station in the heart of Damascus. Credit Syrian Arab News Agency, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Still, the Russian overture was quietly welcomed by some Syrians. One influential Syrian, who supports the government but not Mr. Assad’s presidency, and who was in close touch with senior security and military officials, said some of them wanted to end the war but would only move toward compromise if figures like Rifaat al-Assad were involved. “Someone is finally thinking on the right track,” said the Syrian, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Siwar al-Assad said his father did not want to be president and advocated a gradual handover of power under a transition council including government and opposition members, a new constitution guaranteeing freedom of speech and of the press and an independent judiciary, and transparent elections in which anyone, including Bashar al-Assad, could run. Asked if Rifaat al-Assad expected to meet soon with American officials, Siwar al-Assad said, “maybe.” He said he believed that behind the scenes, American officials were gradually accepting that Mr. Assad’s immediate ouster was increasingly unlikely and, with the rise of extremist jihadist groups fighting him, undesirable. “The Americans want a stable Syria,” he said. “Everyone is tired of this — the Russians, the Syrians, the Americans.” In Syria on Wednesday, bombings hit the landmark Hijaz train station in the heart of Damascus, and a military intelligence office in what had been a largely peaceful southeastern city, the Syrian state news media reported, reminders that war can hit hard in areas where life remains relatively normal. SANA, the official news agency of Syria, said that women and children were among the eight dead and 50 wounded in the Damascus blast, which the agency said had been caused by an explosive device planted near the entrance to the Hijaz train station, a graceful Ottoman-era structure that houses the national railway authority. Other news accounts said the explosion shattered part of the station’s roof and the windows of nearby buildings. The Hijaz train station, which briefly served as the city’s main railway terminus and has long drawn tourists with its towering stained-glass windows, is the latest of many historical landmarks damaged by violence. The second bombing was in Sweida, a city mostly populated by the Druse, a small sect that has largely stayed out of the war, which had helped spare the city from violence. The bombing targeted the air force intelligence branch facility there, the Syrian state news media and antigovernment activists reported. The Syrian state news media said 34 people were killed and 41 were wounded in the Sweida bombing. Al Mayadeen, a Lebanese television channel sympathetic to the Syrian government, reported 35 dead — the head of the air force intelligence branch, seven air force members and 27 civilians, while opposition activists reported three civilian deaths, discrepancies common in casualty reporting from Syria.

Russia
Syria
Bashar al-Assad
Damascus
Arab Spring
Terrorism
Diplomats Embassies and Consulates


Arizona Bill Would Delay Disclosure of Names of Officers in Shootings

Abstract: PHOENIX — Gov. Doug Ducey has until Monday to decide whether to sign or veto a bill requiring state agencies to keep confidential for 60 days the identities of law enforcement officers involved in deadly or serious shootings. The bill , which passed the State Senate by a large margin on Tuesday, follows what supporters said were threats against officers here after two recent shootings as well as concerns raised by events in Ferguson, Mo. , where Officer Darren Wilson fled his home after being identified as the officer who shot an unarmed black teenager. After Ferguson, the issue of officer identification has become “one of the most emotional issues in American policing,” said Chuck Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which conducts research on law enforcement policy and convenes meetings of police leaders. The Arizona bill has stirred passionate debate in the state. Its proponents, including many police officers, say it will protect officers and their families from harassment or death threats. Opponents call it an unnecessary step that will deepen suspicion of the police among minority groups. The governor, a Republican, is reviewing the legislation, a spokesman said on Wednesday. Legal groups and national experts in law enforcement said that they were not aware of a similar law in any other state, but that local disclosure rules and procedures vary widely. In 2014, the California Supreme Court ruled against the practice of many local police departments of routinely withholding the names of officers in shootings. The court said officer identities could be protected only when there was specific evidence of danger. In Ferguson, in a sequence of events that the authors of the Arizona bill said they hoped to prevent, officials initially refused to identify Officer Wilson, but then did so days later, citing public records laws. In the end, the officer was not charged with a crime. Police chiefs in general want to be transparent, said Mr. Wexler, because they know that secrecy makes it seem as if they have something to hide, he said. But they have to worry about officer safety, a concern magnified by the recent killing of two officers in New York and other police murders. Proponents said the law would provide for a cooling-off period after shootings and possibly prevent disasters. Levi Bolton Jr., executive director of the Arizona Police Association, which represents 14,000 law enforcement officers across the state, said the bill was driven by a “real belief that if we’re not proactive about this, one day we’re going to hear about an officer and his family who were executed because someone was upset.” But the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police opposed the bill on the grounds that it takes decision-making power away from the local authorities. The bill has aroused strong opposition from civil rights advocates, who say it is unnecessary and will breed distrust. They note that under existing rules, agencies already have discretion to withhold officers’ identities on a case-by-case basis to protect their safety. “I’m hopeful the governor, who is a pragmatic individual, will realize this is not the best that Arizona can do,” said State Representative Reginald Bolding, a Democrat. “We trust our police chiefs to protect our cities, to make tactical decisions, but this bill says we don’t trust our police chiefs to decide to release officers’ names,” Mr. Bolding said. “When there is a strain between police departments and the community, it widens the gap by adding an extra layer of secrecy,” he added. Alessandra Soler, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona, said the bill “raises questions about potential cover-ups and misconduct.” “Police officers have this extraordinary power,” she said, “and when they decide to use their weapon and to shoot, the public has the right to know who the officer was. That kind of transparency provides the strongest form of oversight,” she said. But without stronger protective rules, law enforcement agencies are sometimes too quick to identify officers, putting them at unnecessary risk, said John Ortolano, a highway patrol officer and president of the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police, which supports the legislation. Steve Smith, a Republican who sponsored the bill in the State Senate, said he was prompted to act after a shooting in which an officer’s name was released and a round-the-clock detail had to be assigned to protect his family. The local authorities often disclose names too quickly because of public pressure or fear of lawsuits, Mr. Smith said, and the legislation would help reduce those pressures. He said that an officer’s record, including previous disciplinary action, could still be released, just not the name. But Ms. Soler said statutes already in place would make getting some of that information, in particular disciplinary files, difficult to obtain soon after a shooting. She cited a state law that prohibits the release of such records until the officer has exhausted appeals. Under the Arizona bill, the identities of officers in shootings leading to death or serious injury could not be disclosed for 60 days unless the officer has been arrested or formally charged in the case, or gives his or her consent.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


Thousands of U.S. Homeowners Blame Chinese Drywall for Ills

Abstract: When Bill Morgan, a retired policeman, moved into his newly built dream home in Williamsburg , Va., three years ago, his hopes were quickly dashed. His wife and daughter suffered constant nosebleeds and headaches. A persistent foul odor filled the house. Every piece of metal indoors corroded or turned black. In short order, Mr. Morgan moved out. The headaches and nosebleeds stopped, but the ensuing financial problems pushed him into personal bankruptcy . “My house is not worth the land it’s built on,” said Mr. Morgan, who could not maintain the mortgage payments on his $383,000 home in a Williamsburg subdivision called Wellington Estates and the costs of a rental property where his family decamped. Mr. Morgan, like many other American homebuyers who tell similar tales of woe, is blaming the drywall in his new home — specifically, drywall from China , imported during the housing boom to meet heavy demand — that he says is contaminated with various sulfur compounds. Hundreds of lawsuits are piling up in state and federal courts, and a consolidated class action is moving forward in Louisiana before Judge Eldon E. Fallon of Federal District Court, who will begin hearing cases in January. Three hundred cases have been filed in Louisiana alone, many with similar complaints from homeowners — a noxious smell, recurrent headaches and difficulty breathing . In Florida , the health department has received over 500 complaints with such symptoms. In addition, these suits say, metal objects in homes corrode quickly, causing kitchen appliances, air-conditioners, televisions and plumbing to fail. “There could be 60,000 to 100,000 homes that are worthless and have to be ripped completely down and rebuilt,” said Arnold Levin, a Philadelphia lawyer and co-chairman of the plaintiffs’ steering committee. While tainted Chinese imports like toothpaste, pet food and baby formula have been quickly removed from store shelves, drywall is installed throughout homes and does not lend itself to a quick fix. This month, the Consumer Product Safety Commission , whose investigation into Chinese drywall is the largest in its history, will release the results of a study to determine why the drywall is causing the problem, and what kind of remediation programs might be effective. Already, the commission has sent six investigators to Chinese gypsum mines and to meet with the government there. The Chinese government’s counterpart to the federal safety commission sent two of its experts here to inspect affected homes. The commission is also making sure that no more Chinese drywall comes into the country. “Our ports are on alert,” said Inez Tenenbaum, chairwoman of the commission. “They are not letting any in. The market, too, has corrected. No one wants Chinese drywall.” Even President Obama is being pressed by members of Congress to raise the issue on his November trip to China — the loudest cry coming from Senator Bill Nelson, Democrat of Florida, who has traveled to China on his own to learn more about the drywall problems. Investigators are finding that getting scientific data, establishing legal accountability and following a supply chain is difficult when so many drywall sheets — millions in all were brought into the United States — were simply marked “Made in China,” providing no clues to their actual source. The drywall was brought in because United States supplies ran low, not as a cost-saving measure for builders. One target of the lawsuits is Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin, a German company with manufacturing plants in China that supplied about 20 percent of the Chinese drywall brought into the United States. Don Hayden, the company’s lawyer, said that its own toxicology tests from affected homes showed that the drywall presented no health problems. Even so, he said his company was cooperating with American government investigations. “Unlike other Chinese manufacturers, we are the only one to come to the United States to address this problem,” said Mr. Hayden. “We’ve spent considerable time and energy and hope that we can provide a workable solution to U. S. homeowners.” One puzzle is why problems have surfaced in the United States and not Asia , where drywall was also sold. According to a safety commission official who declined to be named because of the delicacy of the issue, a theory offered by Chinese officials during their visit to the United States was that American homes are more tightly built, with less ventilation than homes in China. One drywall manufacturer, the Taishan Gypsum Company, which is controlled by the Chinese government, was found to be in preliminary default last week by a federal judge after the company failed to show up in court. But whether the Florida builders who brought the class-action lawsuit could ever collect on any future judgment remains unclear, because of the difficulty of gaining jurisdiction and enforcing rulings against foreign companies, especially in China. In other cases, many of the Chinese companies cannot be found or have disbanded. Homeowners, insurers, home builders, drywall suppliers and Chinese manufacturers, if they can be identified, are often suing each other. Drywall installers and suppliers are also expected to be targets of the next wave of litigation. Many lawsuits need to be translated into Mandarin and follow rules of international law, adding layers of difficulty. Among the homeowners filing suit are the lieutenant governor of Florida, Jeff Kottkamp; and Sean Payton , head coach of the New Orleans Saints , who has moved out of his Mandeville, La., home. The product safety commission has received more than 1,300 complaints from 26 states, but the bulk are from Florida, Louisiana and Virginia , where hurricanes led to an unprecedented housing boom in 2006 and 2007. In 2006 alone, nearly seven million sheets of drywall were imported from China. The federal court in the Eastern District of Louisiana has identified 26 brands of drywall, but 11 others had no markings other than variations of “Made in China.” Insurance companies, in particular, have become a popular target of lawsuits over their refusal to pay claims filed by homeowners and home builders, stating that their policies do not cover problems caused by pollutants. There are estimates that it costs $100,000 to $150,000 per home to rip out and replace tainted drywall and the electrical equipment attached to it. In these cases, homes are being stripped down to the studs and new drywall is installed. Some home builders, worried about their reputations, are doing just that. The Lennar Corporation has set aside $40 million for home repairs, while it tries to collect from its insurance company and sues several Chinese suppliers and American middlemen. Lennar declined to comment. But many smaller home builders, hoping to survive the downturn, do not have such deep pockets. “This couldn’t have come at a worse time for the industry,” said Jenna Hamilton, assistant vice president of government affairs at the National Association of Home Builders. For that reason, some members of Congress hope the federal government will provide financial assistance for their constituents, just as it does after natural disasters. There may be local relief, too. Broward County, Fla., has cut property assessments as much as 20 percent in some affected areas and Miami -Dade is considering a similar tax break. “Florida is hypersensitive to hurricanes and this is like a silent hurricane,” said Representative Robert Wexler, Democrat of Florida. “Whole neighborhoods are being wiped out in terms of property values and people’s ability to remain in their homes.” Help could not come soon enough for Mr. Morgan’s Virginia dream home. “Every piece of drywall in the house except for four pieces is Chinese,” said Mr. Morgan. ”We built our home to be safe from floods, and for three years we’ve been breathing this stuff.” Mr. Morgan said that metal fixtures in his house turned black. His air-conditioner and electrical outlets failed. Lamps and mirrors tarnished immediately. Neighbors, too, had similar problems.. Mr. Morgan bought his house in 2006 after his family spent two years living in a trailer provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency when their previous home was destroyed in 2003 by Hurricane Isabel. Mr. Morgan has lost the equity in his home, but he still drops by to cut the grass. “When I drive by my house, it breaks my heart,” he said.

Lawsuit
Consumer Product Safety Commission
Lennar Corporation


Apps to Protect Your Array of Passwords

Abstract: We all know that we need to use strong passwords on Web sites. In fact, a different password for every site you frequent is wise. Good Web security hygiene creates two problems, however. First, you have to remember all those different passwords. Second, if you lose your smartphone, your many passwords may be at risk. But there are various password manager apps meant to solve those problems. The best-known password manager app is 1Password by AgileBits . This app keeps your many Web site passwords, for your bank and so on, safely locked up. It also can keep track of other data like passport details, addresses and more. Image 1Password safely stores personal data, and it has an automatic strong password generator, too. Its price tag, $18, is high, though. The app has a plain yet attractive interface that makes using it a breeze, because its various icons and controls are obvious at one glance. Tapping the “+” icon brings up a menu that offers you many data categories, like bank account numbers, e-mail details and wireless router passwords. You simply select the appropriate category and enter as much data in the boxes on the next page as you prefer. All your entries are then listed in the main app, and you can group them into folders if you want to keep work and home data separate. 1Password also has a secure browser built into it. It allows you to surf to your bank’s Web site, in one typical case, where it will automatically enter your passwords for you or enter credit card details into shopping sites. If you think your passwords are too weak, 1Password has an automatic strong password generator that will randomly put together a complex password for you. These may be harder to remember than your usual passwords but, of course, the app remembers them for you. Image OneSafe stores passwords, credit card data and personal documents. This app excels in security. There’s a master password that protects your data, and data stored inside the app is encrypted — which makes it safe even if someone steals your device. Its main downside is the price: It’s $18 on iOS. There is a free Android version , but it’s much simpler and you can’t enter new data. LastPass is an alternative password and personal data manager available on iOS and Android . It also stores Web site passwords, credit card information and more behind a master password. It’s also designed with simplicity in mind: there’s no getting lost in overly complex menus. Although it’s simpler than 1Password, it still has some nice features. It can upload photos or videos to “secure notes” that you store inside the app, so you can keep snippets of text or media private. It’s similar to 1Password in use and quality. But there is one issue: While the app is free, to make the most of all its powers, like automatically filling in details on Web sites, you have to pay a subscription of $12 a year. A great alternative to these two, on iOS only, is the $6 app oneSafe. This app has cuter graphics than its rivals and it offers most of the same features. Image The Wolfram Password Generator Reference App, creates secure passwords. It stores passwords, credit card data and personal documents, and it locks them up securely, so if you lose your device, your data is safe. Its great design makes it easy to use, and it has a couple of nice extras. For example, if you prefer not to use a secure “master” password to access the app, you can use a pattern lock access — where you swipe a unique pattern on the screen with your finger. It also can automatically alert you if someone tries to access your data. A rough equivalent to oneSafe is Keeper. It’s popular, and though it looks different from oneSafe, it definitely has an emphasis on ease of use through a simple design. Like 1Password and LastPass, Keeper can automatically fill in Web site logins and card data for you. It even includes a neat feature that lets you share some of your information with someone you trust. Keeper is available on Android, as well as on iOS. To help you create really strong passwords that may foil all but the most determined hackers, you can check out the $1 iOS app Wolfram Password Generator Reference App. This app uses high-powered math to come up with tricky passwords full of numbers, letters and other characters that you can use for your accounts. It’ll even tell you how long it should take to crack them. Quick Calls Classic do-it-yourself magazine Family Handyman has a new app jammed with tips for your home improvement projects. It’s free on iOS, though you can upgrade to a “pro” version with more tips for $5. ... A major upgrade to Twitter for Windows Phone 8, which is free , added new features like suggestions for users to follow. If you’ve not tried Twitter before, now’s a good time.


Greece: The Fury, Act II

Abstract: The spokesman for the far-right Golden Dawn party who caused an uproar last week by slapping one female politician and throwing a glass of water on another has sued the two women as well as the television channel that hosted the news show. The spokesman, Ilias Kasidiaris, filed lawsuits against Liana Kanelli, a Communist Party candidate, and Rena Dourou, a Syriza party member, accusing them of making unprovoked insults, and against Antenna television for what he claimed was illegal detention. Mr. Kasidiaris contends that he was provoked by insults during the television show and that Ms. Kanelli hit him first with a newspaper. Attempts were made to hold him in an office while the police were called, but he broke through the door and left.

Greece
Television
Kasidiaris Ilias
Golden Dawn (Greece)
Suits and Litigation
News and News Media
Assaults


The Girls Who Haven’t Come Home

Abstract: The city Administration for Children’s Services responded to a July 7 article in which N. R. Kleinfield chronicled a woman’s attempts to regain custody of two of her daughters, who have been in foster care for the last eight years. The article on Ms. Vernice Hill and her daughters failed to describe the nuances of these types of cases, while using part of one family’s experience to impugn the child welfare system and case workers who struggle daily to do what’s best for neglected, abused and abandoned children. The Administration for Children’s Services is serving more families at home, and removing far fewer children from their parents, than at any time in recent history, with removals down 28 percent in just the last two years. We are using evidence-based practices to help families remain safely together. We are currently piloting ChildSuccess NYC, a new model of foster care that provides intensive support to parents immediately after children are removed to ensure a shorter time to safe reunification. Approximately two-thirds of children are reunified with their parents; the median time to reunification is 7 months. Contrary to the old stereotypes of child welfare agencies perpetuated by this article, New York City is finding new ways to keep families together — while still keeping children safe from harm. Ronald E. Richter, Commissioner, New York City Administration for Children’s Services

Administration for Children's Services NYC


Union Seeks Stronger Ethics Rules Amid Scandals

Abstract: The Service Employees International Union , the nation’s fastest-growing and most politically powerful union, said Tuesday it was setting up a high-level ethics commission after scandals at several of its largest locals. Andrew L. Stern, the union’s president, said in an interview that this commission would be led by an outsider and would establish tougher ethics rules that all of the union’s leaders — at headquarters and in locals — would have to follow. Mr. Stern announced the commission three days after the president of a local in Los Angeles representing 77,000 county workers stepped aside amid accusations that her local had paid thousands of dollars to her former boyfriend. The announcement comes 11 days after a second Los Angeles local, representing 155,000 home-care workers, was placed into trusteeship because the local and its training center had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to companies run by the wife, mother-in-law and friends of the local’s president. “When we who have worked hard to rid ourselves of leaders who don’t respect our laws, when we hold ourselves out as people who expect companies to have high moral standards, and when we work for reforms in our union, our labor movement and our country, these things hurt,” Mr. Stern said. Senator Barack Obama and the Democrats are looking to the service employees’ union and its 1.8 million members to provide more campaign help than any other union. The revelations have come as Mr. Stern, who has ousted numerous corrupt officials in the past, has been preoccupied with politics, unionizing more workers and combining locals into larger, more powerful groups — actions that critics say have led to less accountability for local leaders. Mr. Stern said the commission, expected to have 15 members, would consult anticorruption groups, including the Association for Union Democracy and Teamsters for a Democratic Union, to discuss what ethics rules to adopt and how best to enforce them. “We will ask every local and every state council to immediately adopt as their minimum standards the international union’s code of ethics, which deals with conflicts of interest, self-dealing and gifts,” Mr. Stern said. He announced the ethics measures after an internal discussion in which several top advisers urged him to take forceful action. According to e-mail messages obtained from a Stern critic, one longtime adviser, Matt Witt, wrote Mr. Stern that the scandals “will make it hard for you to pursue other opportunities outside S.E.I.U., whether with the administration or a foundation or whatever.” Mr. Stern said he had no interest in another job. Mr. Witt added, “If you leave while what you built is steadily eroding, the blame will fall on you, not your successor.” In another e-mail message, Jono Shaffer, a leader of the union’s Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles, wondered why it had taken so long to uncover the problems in that city’s giant home-care local. “I wish I could say this is unbelievable, but for those of us in Southern California, the only surprise is that it took so long to make it to the public,” Mr. Shaffer wrote. The Labor Department is investigating that Los Angeles local, and a Congressional committee has begun an inquiry about it. Last week, the president of the union’s 55,000-member health care local in Michigan stepped aside amid accusations of financial wrongdoing. Also last week, the parent union served notice to a 130,000-member health care local in Northern California, threatening to place it into trusteeship because it set up a fund that the parent union says was used for improper purposes. That local is headed by a prominent Stern opponent, Sal Rosselli. Mr. Rosselli and the other union leaders say they have been wrongly accused. “By the time our board meets in January, we hope to have in place a world-class set of standards that make sure that the members’ moneys and rights are protected,” Mr. Stern said. “We want to articulate bright lines of right and wrong, and we want to enforce them.”

Ethics
Service Employees International Union
Labor
Stern Andrew L
Organized Labor


For One Publisher, the Life of Every Comic Book Starts on the Web

Abstract: For generations of Americans, comic books were the first real page-turners. But the audience for their digital counterpart, called Webcomics, has for the most part been limited to a niche group of comic book creators and their most ardent followers. Scott Mitchell Rosenberg, the chairman of Platinum Studios, a privately held California entertainment company that develops and adapts comics for other media, wants to change that. Platinum, a relative newcomer in an industry dominated by Marvel and DC Comics, took the first step last month when it bought DrunkDuck.com , a popular Webcomics site, for an undisclosed sum. It is opening the revamped site today at the same Web address as DrunkDuck 2.0. Mr. Rosenberg plans to begin publishing Platinum’s comic books online before they go to press for traditional distribution through stores and newsstands. “We’re tearing down the wall” that has separated traditional printed comic books from those emerging online, he said. “We completely believe in this model.” The digital impact on previously print-only content reflects similar pressures on other traditional media. Comic books, which have appealed almost exclusively to children and young adult readers — who are more likely to be lured to electronic entertainment than their parents — have been especially hard hit as sales decline and press runs grow more costly. But the comic-book industry has more than $500 million a year in revenue, and still has many very popular titles. And Mr. Rosenberg has shown that he can produce hits. With his previous company, Malibu Comics, he published “The Men in Black” comic books and was credited with taking the concept to Hollywood, where it became a billion-dollar movie franchise for Sony Pictures, starring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones. That payoff for what began as an independent comic series is something Mr. Rosenberg hopes to repeat, starting with DrunkDuck. DrunkDuck was founded four years ago by Dylan Squires, then a freelance computer programmer. (The name came from a logo created by a friend, based on Mr. Squires’s pet duck.) Mr. Squires, who lives in the Canoga Park section of Los Angeles, operated the site in his spare time, and it quickly became an extended community of Webcomics artists, writers and fans. As part of the deal with Platinum, he has been named director of software development for Platinum Studios’ New Media Group. The revamped DrunkDuck site will continue to encourage the growth of independent comic book creators by distributing their work digitally at no cost to them or to consumers, Mr. Rosenberg said. Some of the comics appear as static panels, while others are lightly spiced with soundtracks, audio effects and minimal animation, and this will continue. But a crucial difference, he said, will be in how Platinum plans to use the site to create a broad mix of revenue streams, “full-circle commercialization,” for the company and its content contributors. For example, Mr. Rosenberg said he planned aggressive marketing of the site — which already receives a million unique viewers a month, mostly drawn by word of mouth — coupled with advertising sales. While the advertising revenue would not be shared with the comic creators, artists would share in the revenue from downloadable comics for cellphones and mobile media devices like iPods, comics-related ring tones, wallpaper and items like T-shirts or plastic scale models of comic book characters. Product creators, Mr. Rosenberg said, can expect to receive 10 percent of the adjusted gross revenue earned by sales. At the same time, Platinum, which has the rights to thousands of comics characters, is moving to make the Web another outlet on a par with its print publications. “We are making online our first window,” Mr. Rosenberg said. He said that beginning this week, all of Platinum’s comics, including 100 graphic novels and series in production, would be published online at DrunkDuck 2.0 before any are printed. “We want to make a statement that it is safe to do this, that people can do this.” Some Webcomics that draw a large readership could be printed and distributed as traditional comic books, as well as be developed into television shows and feature films, he said. Platinum recently announced that it was creating Platinum Studios Mobile, a division that will sell sound and image downloads for cellphones. And products could begin with simply a catchy logo on a T-shirt or a mug, which could ultimately drive interest for the development of a full-fledged comic book. “We can make them work for the Web,” Mr. Rosenberg said, “and then we can figure out how to make them work for print.” Marvel Entertainment, the industry leader, also has digital comics on its Web site ( www.marvel.com ). But the Web-based comics are used to promote printed Marvel comic books, like Daredevil and Marvel Adventures Fantastic Four, said Marvel’s publisher, Dan Buckley. “We realize what a great promotional tool the Internet is,” he said. But like other print media, “we’re all waiting” as digital technologies create challenges and opportunities, he said. Mr. Buckley said he was not yet convinced that reading a comic book online delivered the “whole experience” of reading a printed comic book. In the meantime, Marvel Mobile sells Marvel character-based products, including downloadable ring tones, wallpaper and video games for mobile phones. Many see no alternative for the industry but to adapt to digital technology. “With the Net, you can get to a smaller group of people at a larger scale,” said Heiko Ramirez, who produces a popular podcast about Webcomics on the blog Digital Strips ( www.digitalstrips.com ), where he is editor in chief. He noted that a comic that might attract only a handful of readers locally could, at no additional cost, find a readership of 10,000 nationally. Nonetheless, “print will never go away,” he added. “People like to own what they love.”

Platinum Studios
Comic Books and Strips
Computers and the Internet
Advertising and Marketing
Cartoons and Cartoonists


Governor Rell Vows to Keep Death Penalty in Connecticut

Abstract: HARTFORD (AP) — Gov. M. Jodi Rell vowed on Friday to veto a newly approved bill that would ban the death penalty, saying capital punishment is appropriate for certain heinous crimes. The measure, approved early Friday by the State Senate and last week by the House of Representatives, would replace capital punishment in Connecticut with life in prison without the possibility of parole. At least two-thirds of the members of each chamber would have to vote to override a veto. But achieving that margin is in doubt, given the tight 19-to-17 vote in the Democrat-led Senate. The bill passed 90 to 56 in the House, which is also led by Democrats. Mrs. Rell, a Republican, said on Friday that while she understood the “passionate beliefs of people on both sides” of the debate, she would veto the measure “as soon as it hits my desk.” “I also fully understand the anguish and outrage of the families of victims who believe, as I do, that there are certain crimes so heinous — so fundamentally revolting to our humanity — that the death penalty is warranted,” she said. It was not immediately clear when the bill would be sent to the governor’s office. New Jersey and New Mexico are the only states that have abolished the death penalty since the United States Supreme Court allowed states to reinstate capital punishment in 1976. Thirty-five states have death penalty laws, although some have not executed a prisoner in decades. There are 10 men on Connecticut’s death row, including three who committed their crimes in the 1980s. The legislation would not retroactively affect their cases.

Connecticut
Capital Punishment
Rell M Jodi


Lynne Stewart’s 10-Year Prison Sentence Is Upheld

Abstract: A panel of federal judges in Manhattan upheld the 10-year prison sentence imposed on Lynne F. Stewart , the disbarred lawyer convicted in a terrorism case who had been resentenced to that term after boasting that she could do a much shorter sentence “standing on my head.” Judge Robert D. Sack, writing for a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, dismissed Ms. Stewart’s arguments that the judge who had resentenced her to 10 years in prison had penalized her for comments she had made, in violation of her First Amendment rights, and that the new sentence had been too severe. “From the moment she committed the first act for which she was convicted, through her trial, sentencing and appeals,” Judge Sack wrote, “Stewart has persisted in exhibiting what seems to be a stark inability to understand the seriousness of her crimes.” He added that she had also failed to understand “the breadth and depth of the danger in which” her crimes had “placed the lives and safety of unknown innocents, and the extent to which they constituted an abuse of her trust and privilege as a member of the bar.” Ms. Stewart, who had built a reputation for defending unpopular clients and causes, was convicted in 2005 for smuggling messages from an imprisoned client, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman , to his violent followers in Egypt. He was convicted in a 1990s plot to blow up New York landmarks. In 2006, Ms. Stewart was sentenced to 28 months in prison by John G. Koeltl of Federal District Court. The appeals panel sent the case back to determine if Ms. Stewart deserved a longer term, given the seriousness of her conduct and the possibility that she had perjured herself at trial. In 2010, Judge Koeltl, in sentencing Ms. Stewart to 10 years, cited comments that she had made, which he said showed a lack of remorse. In addition to the “standing on my head” comment, he noted another statement to an interviewer who had asked Ms. Stewart whether she would have done anything differently. “I might handle it a little differently,” Ms. Stewart had said, “but I would do it again.” Jill R. Shellow, a lawyer for Ms. Stewart, said Ms. Stewart and her legal team were considering their options, including whether to ask for review by the full appeals court. “Our intent is to pursue all of the legal remedies available to Lynne to redress her unreasonable sentence,” Ms. Shellow said. “The opinion is disappointing,” she added. “Lynne was not and is not a terrorist. She was a fine and dedicated lawyer. She is almost 73, and under the best of circumstances will not be released from prison until 2018. That’s a lifetime, her lifetime.” Ms. Stewart has been in prison since 2009. The 51-page appellate decision was joined by Judges John M. Walker Jr. and Guido Calabresi. The panel found that Judge Koeltl’s consideration of Ms. Stewart’s statements had not violated her First Amendment rights. Judge Koeltl had been evaluating characteristics of Ms. Stewart that “were legally relevant to a determination of the appropriate sentence,” the panel said, “through the contents of statements she voluntarily and publicly made.”

Terrorism
Stewart Lynne F
Koeltl John G
Sack Robert D
Abdel Rahman Omar
Sentences (Criminal)
Decisions and Verdicts
Freedom of Speech and Expression
Legal Profession


Sports Industry Tries to Bring the Living Room to the Game

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — Bob Hirsch and Mark Wolchock have watched Giants football games on television together for decades. Increasingly, their view is clearer than that of friends with season tickets. Invariably, the telephone rings. “Guys will call up from Giants Stadium, asking what happened,” said Mr. Hirsch, a 56-year-old from New City, N.Y. “Because they know we saw the play from 15 different angles.” It is not lost on league officials, industry executives and entrepreneurs that the best seat in the house may be in the living room, not at the game, even for events like the Super Bowl here on Sunday. Technological advances, ranging from high-definition flat-screen televisions to laptop computers, have provided fans on the couch with information that those in the stands never have. That has forced sports officials to rethink the game experience and desperately attempt to bring the living room to the game, not the other way around. The Dallas Cowboys’ new stadium will feature a 160-by-71-foot high-definition screen spanning more than half the field. The Jets’ and Giants’ new stadium, scheduled to open in 2010, will have gigantic video screens in each corner, 20 video boards outside the stadium aimed at tailgaters, and 2,100 high-definition flat-screen televisions inside. Companies like Kangaroo Media and WiseDV are fervently marketing hand-held devices, available at events like Nascar and Formula One races, and tennis and golf tournaments. The units provide various camera feeds, updates and statistics, allowing fans to essentially create a broadcast of the event that they are also watching live. Arenas and stadiums everywhere are adding bandwidth capacity and wireless Internet to appease the ever-growing number of high-tech gadgets that fans carry. “As a society, we have become so conditioned to having access to a virtually limitless amount of information that our expectations have changed,” said Tim Herbert, senior director for market research for the Consumer Electronics Association. “For many, it’s enough to sit and watch a game. But for many others, especially younger fans, they’re looking to have a different type of interaction.” Every year, more fans watch sports on giant televisions, pause or rewind the live action themselves, flip through a dozen or more other games available on different channels, and have a laptop nearby to check everything from biographical data to up-to-the-minute fantasy-league statistics, or maybe join a fan forum for running commentary on the proceedings. “People do view the home experience significantly better now than they did, say, 10 years ago,” Mr. Herbert said. When those people go to a game — if they go to a game — they are forced to leave many of those capabilities behind. The issue facing the sports industry is just how much that matters. Already, half of sports fans believe that watching in high definition is “almost as good” as watching in person, according to a survey conducted last January by the C.E.A. and the Sports Video Group. The survey also found that 30 percent planned to watch last year’s Super Bowl with a computer nearby, to look up information during the game. Still, officials from the N.F.L., the N.B.A. and Major League Baseball said that they do not view the allure of home viewing as a threat to attracting ticket buyers, even in a battered economy. A live event is unique, they said, and nothing can replace its sights, sounds and smells — or the “tribal enthusiasm,” as the N.F.L. executive vice president Eric Grubman put it, of like-minded people who believe that they can have an impact on the contest’s result. “Football is the ultimate television sport,” Mr. Grubman said. “I would also submit that it’s the ultimate in-stadium sport.” Bob Bowman, chief executive of MLB.com , Major League Baseball’s official Web site, said: “I don’t think anything is going to replace the value and sheer pageantry of a live event. That said, it’s incumbent on all of us to provide content to enhance the experience for the fan, regardless of where they are.” Ticket buyers have always gambled on unpredictable elements ranging from weather to the personalities of fans around them. They have also known that if replays are shown in the stadium, they are usually not repeated from various angles. There are no announcers to explain what has happened. The down time between plays and during commercial breaks can be yawn-inducing. And at sporting events spread over large areas, like golf tournaments and car races, most fans miss the key moments. They are left to catch the highlights later — at home, probably. But if executives truly did not worry about fans choosing to stay home, there probably would not be such extravagant plans for the latest and biggest video screens at N.F.L. stadiums. Without a nudge from tech-savvy fans, Major League Baseball probably would not promote its “MLB At Bat” application for users of iPhones and new-generation BlackBerrys, which might be the next generation’s transistor radios. For a price (less than $10 for this season, Mr. Bowman said), users get live scoreboards and box scores, pitch-by-pitch graphics, live radio play-by-plays and near-instant replays. Without a nod to the future, the N.B.A. would not continue its foray into three-dimensional broadcasts, widely seen as the next big trend in home viewing. The league first offered a 3-D game to fans in a Cleveland arena during the 2007 finals. About 160 theaters in 35 states will host 3-D broadcasts of next month’s All-Star Game. And without the technical gadgets at home, people might not find a need for the gadgets from the likes of Kangaroo Media and WiseDV. “People have more and more stuff at home, which, in a way, brings them closer to the game,” said Martin Greenwood, WiseDV’s senior vice president for business development and operations. “And the question is, if you’re already at the game, can we bring you even closer to it?” Robert Mimeault, president and chief operating officer of Kangaroo Media, said that his company typically rents out about 10,000 devices at Nascar’s Daytona 500, at more than $50 each. At the Super Bowl 11 years ago, the backs of some seats featured Vyvx ChoiceSeat touch-screen displays — “the granddaddy of all of us,” said Tim Hayden, who started a company called Vivid Sky to connect fans at events to the type of information they expect at home. But at Sunday’s Super Bowl in Tampa, Fla., there will be no special technological gizmos beyond the ones people bring themselves. There will be just a game, a halftime show and the typical eye candy to get fans through the commercial breaks. At last year’s Super Bowl, Ken Kerschbaumer, editorial director of the Sports Video Group, was struck by how disconnected ticket holders were from the pre-game buzz, when millions at home watched television and scanned the Internet. “You go through the turnstiles, and all of a sudden you don’t have the pregame coverage,” Mr. Kerschbaumer said. “You just go in and sit there.” Eventually, technology at home and at the sports sites might be nearly the same, so fans in both places have similar access to views and information. “And then it gets back to the old-fashioned stuff,” said Mr. Bowman, the MLB.com executive. “Do you want to be able to smell the grass, or do you want to be closer to your refrigerator?”


Solar Industry Borrows a Page, and a Party, From Tupperware

Abstract: GOODYEAR, Ariz. — The neighbors had gathered on the patio of a sun-baked ranch here, eager to hear the party’s hosts talk about their products and how they could enhance their lives. But in place of the timeworn arrangement of plastic storage containers or cosmetics on the coffee table, the couple was showing off an array of a different sort: the 32 solar panels on the roof. “It’s just wonderful, the savings that we’ve had on our bills,” Pat Peaper, one of the hosts, told the crowd as it sipped iced tea and lemonade and picked at cookies and crudités. “We have a neighbor next door,” her husband, Jim, added, “who’s averaging $350 a month” in energy bills without solar. “If they put it in, they can certainly cut that, probably by two-thirds.” Environmentalists, government officials and sales representatives have been trying to get Americans to go solar for decades, with limited success. Despite the long push, solar power still represents less than 1 percent of electricity generated in the United States. Home solar panel setups, which typically run $25,000 or more, are considered by many consumers to be the province of the rich or idealistic. So now solar companies are adhering to a path blazed by Tupperware decades ago, figuring that the best sales people are often enthusiastic customers willing to share their experiences with friends and neighbors — and perhaps earn a referral fee on any sales that result. In Arizona, a nonprofit marketing company called SmartPower has had surprising success building networks of neighbors who install solar in their homes and then spread the gospel at promotional gatherings like the Peapers’ party. Solar companies, like SunWize Technologies and SolarCity, are running party-plan programs of their own, which makes it easier and cheaper for them to find new customers. The effectiveness of such marketing is apparent in Pebble Creek, the gated community for older adults where the Peapers live. About 10 percent of the roughly 6,000 homes in the community, which is just west of Phoenix, have installed solar arrays, and more are about to sign up. “You might or might not believe the salesperson,” said Ted Lindhorn, a guest at the Peapers’ September party who was considering a purchase. “But if it’s a friend or a neighbor that has nothing to gain for it, you’re going to believe them.” In many cases, those friends and neighbors do have something to gain: they can earn bonuses for steering customers to installation companies. SolarCity offers $400 for each residential referral, while a local Arizona outfit called SolarParty.org advertises paying $250. For SmartPower, which gets the bulk of its income from foundation grants and government and utility contracts, the parties are part of its effort to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. After a pilot program in Connecticut, the group challenged 13 Arizona towns in 2011 to install solar on 5 percent of owner-occupied homes by 2015. A town reaching that goal gets a sign designating it an “Arizona Solar Community,” a reward meant to encourage both communal spirit and extramural competition. The group, under the direction of its vice president, Toni Bouchard, created a Web site and hired solar coaches, local experts who can advise customers on which installation companies they can use and what kinds of rate plans would maximize their savings. The coaches also help recruit solar ambassadors like the Peapers: ordinary residents who have solar and are willing to organize parties to encourage their friends and neighbors to do so as well. Almost half the towns have already exceeded the 5 percent solar goal, with Goodyear and three others passing 10 percent. SmartPower is now expanding its program in New England. “On-the-ground outreach tied to the online communication is really what’s making the difference here,” said Brian F. Keane, president of SmartPower. “You need to meet people in the communities where they live, work and play.” The party-plan model has traditionally been aimed at women, selling products for the home, bedroom and body, from Botox injections to Longaberger baskets. But the solar parties are intended to sell big-ticket items and appeal to men as well. Just as Tupperware failed to fly off store shelves without a salesperson showing customers how to work the airtight seal, which inspired the party-plan model, solar panels often require demonstration and explanation to make the sale. “If you can talk to someone who’s gone through it who has a positive view, then they could really alleviate some of the concerns,” said Bryan Bollinger, an assistant professor of marketing at the Stern School of Business at New York University who has studied patterns of solar adoption. Mr. Bollinger found that people were more likely to install solar once their neighbors had. He said it was not clear what was behind that phenomenon, known as the peer effect, but it could be the combination of a conspicuous way of being green with the momentum of word-of-mouth. That dynamic has been particularly strong in Pebble Creek, which has an active online network where residents offer referrals and advice. “People here are real big on references,” said Joe Wallace, one of the Peapers’ guests, who said that he and his wife had thought about installing solar for a long time but decided to take the plunge only after learning more from their neighbors. Dru Bacon, a former Solar Coach who lives in Pebble Creek and has been a driving force behind solar adoption there, said that while the promised savings on electricity had spurred many customers to install solar, that was not all that motivated them. “I’ve had at least 10 people say, ‘I have the biggest solar system in the community,’ ” he said. “They don’t say, ‘I have the lowest electric bill.’ ”

SmartPower
Solar Energy
SolarCity Inc
SunWize Technologies Inc
Advertising and Marketing


Donors Press Myanmar to Let Aid Workers In

Abstract: BANGKOK — Delegates from 52 donor nations meeting on Sunday in Myanmar pressed its government to make good on a promise to give foreign aid workers free access to millions of isolated cyclone survivors. Leading the one-day meeting, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon , said that the government was “moving fast in the right direction” and that he was confident Myanmar would honor the pledge, made to him on Friday by the leader of its military junta, Senior Gen. Than Shwe. Mr. Ban offered no details, according to reporters from news agencies who were permitted to accompany him in Myanmar. “There is good reason to hope that aid to the worst affected areas of Myanmar will increase significantly in the coming days,” Mr. Ban said. But he insisted that donors would need “unhindered access to the areas hardest hit by the disaster,” access that has been denied to most foreigners. Several countries made preliminary pledges of more than $150 million in aid, The Associated Press reported, but most were contingent on gaining greater access. Myanmar is asking for about $11 billion in reconstruction aid. Asked at a news conference about Daw Aung San Suu Kyi , the opposition leader, whose year-to-year house arrest was expected to be extended soon, Mr. Ban said, “We must think about people just now, not politics.” Mrs. Aung San Suu Kyi, the Nobel laureate who is the symbol of her people’s democratic aspirations, has been held under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years. Until now, her freedom had been at the top of the agenda of the United Nations in its dealings with Myanmar. Cyclone Nargis, which struck on May 3, left at least 134,000 people dead or missing. Three weeks later, only 23 percent of the two million people living in the hardest hit areas had been reached by aid, the United Nations said in a new assessment issued on Saturday. Relief experts speak of a second disaster involving deaths from disease and lack of medical treatment should large-scale aid continue to be delayed. In the first public comment by the government since the pledge to Mr. Ban, Myanmar’s prime minister, Lt. Gen. Thein Sein, appeared to confirm the new policy on access. “We would warmly welcome any assistance and aid which are provided with genuine good will from any country or organization, provided that there are no strings attached nor politicization involved,” he said. That invitation did not appear to include American, British and French naval ships that had been cruising off the Myanmar coast loaded with supplies, equipment and small boats. The official news media in Myanmar has said no naval vessels would be permitted to deliver supplies. Over the past week, under an agreement with the government, American military aircraft have made 60 landings with relief supplies in Yangon, the country’s main city, but Americans arriving with the deliveries have been confined to the airport. Americans took part in the conference and were among the parties seeking greater access for their aid workers. At least one United Nations aid agency, Unicef, said there were signs that its foreign workers would be allowed to travel to the hard-hit countryside as early as Monday. Like most foreigners, the Unicef employees have been confined to Yangon, formerly known as Rangoon. Until now, the military has mostly insisted that all aid go through its hands and has even confiscated supplies from residents who tried to distribute it. Like some other relief agencies, including the Red Cross, Save the Children and World Vision, Unicef has been able to deploy local staff members in the affected areas and to deliver supplies, mostly those already stockpiled in the country. But the groups say that foreign experts would bring crucial knowledge and experience to a huge and complex task. About 500 delegates from donor nations attended the conference, headed jointly by the United Nations and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. A point of contention between Myanmar and potential donors is the nature of the emergency. The government asserts that the emergency phase of recovery is over, and it is asking for economic assistance to rebuild shattered towns, rehabilitate contaminated rice fields and replace livestock swept away by the storm. But hundreds of thousands of survivors remain stranded without help. Mr. Ban emphasized that their basic needs remained unmet and said that he expected the relief effort to last several months. The United States was prepared to offer much more than the $20.5 million it had already donated, said Scot Marciel, deputy assistant secretary of state for Southeast Asia. But he said further aid was contingent on improved access to the worst-hit areas.

Myanmar
Foreign Aid
Cyclones
United Nations
Ban Ki-moon
Aung San Suu Kyi Daw
Shwe Than


Santana Says He Expects to Pitch Mets’ Opener

Abstract: VIERA, Fla. — The Mets recognized the extent of Johan Santana ’s competitiveness on his first official day with the team, when he flew to New York from Florida to negotiate the final stages of his contract. And they were reminded of it last September, during the season’s final weekend, when he volunteered to pitch on short rest with a torn meniscus in his left knee. That character trait, both admirable and risky, showed up again Wednesday. A day after the pitching coach Dan Warthen mapped out a detailed schedule that all but guaranteed that Santana would not be ready to start the April 6 opener in Cincinnati, Santana, with a hint of defiance, said that he believed otherwise. After a 46-pitch bullpen session, Santana said that his left elbow, the one in which he had experienced tightness, felt fine, and so did the rest of him. Unless that changes, he said he expected to pitch on opening day. For the moment, so do his manager, Jerry Manuel, and general manager, Omar Minaya. “You have templates that you like to follow, and everybody don’t fit those templates,” Manuel said. “That’s why he is who he is.” That upbeat evaluation was a shift from the Mets’ cautious approach to Santana during a weeklong drama that began last Thursday, when he was scratched from a start the next day against Italy. At one point, the Mets considered sending Santana to New York for a magnetic resonance imaging exam. Now they seem willing to send him to the mound in Cincinnati on April 6 to throw the team’s first pitches of the season. “We kind of backed him off when the word discomfort came up, and I said extra, extra cautious,” Manuel said. “I don’t hear that word anymore. I don’t hear discomfort. I don’t hear that word anymore.” The Mets are wary of stifling Santana’s competitiveness. Still, if it were up to him, Warthen would probably prefer the plan he described on Tuesday, one in which Santana would make his first Grapefruit League start March 18 and his regular-season debut April 11 in Florida. In Warthen’s view, that would give Santana ample time to build up his pitch count for the regular season. Warthen declined on Wednesday to revisit the plan he had laid out, but he said he could accelerate it if Santana seemed physically sound. “All plans have to have room for modification,” Warthen said. How sensible such an adjustment would be is up for discussion. Although the Mets say that Santana’s elbow troubles are normal and did not develop until after he learned he would not pitch in the World Baseball Classic, it is possible that they initially arose because he pushed himself too quickly to be ready for the Classic, even though the Mets did not want him to participate. He now seems to be pushing himself again, but Minaya said he was not worried. “It’s our responsibility to make sure that we’re cautious, but we have to work with the player, and that’s what’s going on,” Minaya said. “I have full confidence and trust in Dan and Johan and Jerry.” Santana views the opening day start as more than just a ceremonial honor. To him, it is a way of setting an example. He wants his teammates to follow his lead, and he has already looked more comfortable in his second season with the Mets, joking around and becoming more of a visible clubhouse presence. “You always want to start on the right track, the right way,” Santana said. Perhaps trying to act unconcerned, Manuel was already on the team bus at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday when Santana started throwing. Neither Minaya nor any other front-office officials attended the bullpen session either. What they missed was Santana’s mixing in some sliders, a taxing pitch on the elbow, and throwing 15 more pitches than he did Sunday. That uptick in volume, although at a diminished intensity than in a game, gave Santana confidence that he could adjust his schedule to be ready for opening day. “I’m a professional,” Santana said. “I know exactly what I have to do and I’m pretty sure I’ll be ready for opening day.” INSIDE PITCH A day after Freddy García struggled for the second straight time this spring, Liván Hernández missed an opportunity to distinguish himself further in the competition to be the Mets’ No. 5 starter. Hernández allowed three runs, walked three and gave up five hits in two and two-thirds innings of the Mets’ 6-4 loss to the Washington Nationals. Mike Pelfrey gave up three first-inning runs before settling in, while Fernando Tatis and Ramón Castro homered. ... Tickets for the Mets’ April 3 and April 4 exhibition games at Citi Field against the Boston Red Sox go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.


Coalition in Germany Withholds a Few Votes for Merkel

Abstract: BERLIN — In what should have been a formality, Angela Merkel ’s official re-election as chancellor of Germany was dampened Wednesday by the fact that at least nine members of her coalition withheld their votes in the secret parliamentary ballot. Though it was more of a protest and warning shot than a sign of any lasting damage to her standing, the vote served as a reminder that even with a comfortable majority, Mrs. Merkel will face difficulties and second-guessing within her own ranks as she tries to govern at a moment of economic uncertainty and conflicting priorities. The newly re-elected chancellor received applause, bouquets and the congratulations of opponents as well as allies after the announcement on the floor of the Bundestag, the lower house of Parliament, but not what she needed most, the votes of all the members of the parties that had pledged to support her candidacy. Of the 612 votes cast, 323 members voted to give Mrs. Merkel a second term, with 285 votes against and four abstentions. But her center-right coalition counts 332 votes, leaving her nine shy of that total, in what local analysts described as a surprise result that revealed tensions in the new government before it could even get to work with the first cabinet session on Wednesday. “The votes against and votes withheld represent anything but the dream start for the new government that Mrs. Merkel wanted,” said Lothar Probst , political science professor at the University of Bremen . “It showed relatively quickly that there is ground for conflict between the partners and a lot of interpretation as to what they agreed to.” Like many analysts in Germany, Mr. Probst said he suspected that it was conservative members of Mrs. Merkel’s own party who were dissatisfied with her centrist course and decided to take advantage of the safe majority to register their protest under the protection of the secret ballot. After three weeks of negotiation to agree to a platform, the new government parties announced plans to cut taxes by $36 billion despite the fact that budget deficits have widened sharply since the financial crisis began. The Finance Ministry estimates that net new borrowing will soar to $129 billion next year from a record $71 billion this year. In 2005, Mrs. Merkel missed 51 delegates from her coalition , in part because it was an unhappy marriage of the two centrist rival parties, her Christian Democrats and the left-leaning Social Democrats, but she at the time also received the second highest share of the votes ever for a chancellor. This time, with the governing parties getting exactly the result they campaigned for, at best a handful of abstentions or protest votes were expected. Mrs. Merkel’s center-right coalition comprises her conservative Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, as well as the pro-business Free Democrats, who ran on a platform of tax cuts and economic liberalization.


1944 Conviction of Black G.I.’s Is Ruled Flawed

Abstract: SEATTLE, Oct. 26 — Guglielmo Olivotto, an Italian prisoner of war, died with a noose around his neck, lynched at a military post on Puget Sound 63 years ago. Samuel Snow, 83, hopes that people will stop blaming him and the 27 other black soldiers convicted of starting the riot that led to Mr. Olivotto’s death. It was one of the largest Army courts-martial of World War II. This week, a review board issued a ruling that could lead to overturning the convictions of all 28 soldiers, granting honorable discharges and providing them with back pay. The board found that the court-martial was flawed, that the defense was unjustly rushed and that the prosecutor, Leon Jaworski, a young lieutenant colonel who went on to fame three decades later as a Watergate special prosecutor, had important evidence that he did not share with defense lawyers. All of the 28 have died except for Mr. Snow and another soldier. “It means a lot to me that it’s going to come out in the paper,” Mr. Snow said Friday from his home in Leesburg, Fla. “Now people are going to see that I wasn’t a villain. And I’m not a villain.” Mr. Snow’s son Ray, 55, said his father came home from prison “highly disappointed.” “He walked with it all his life,” Ray Snow said. Samuel Snow, who said he spent 45 years working as a janitor in Leesburg after serving one year in a military prison for his conviction on the rioting charge, requested the review, as did the families of three of the dead soldiers, Pvt. Booker M. Townsell, Pvt. William G. Jones and Cpl. Luther L. Larkin. Private Jones and Corporal Larkin were also convicted of manslaughter. United States Representative Jim McDermott, a Democrat whose Seattle district includes Fort Lawton, where the riot occurred, said a senior military officer in charge of the review told him that the convictions of all four men would be overturned. The ruling, by the Army’s Board for Correction of Military Records, specifically set aside the conviction of Private Townsell, and an Army spokesman said Friday that he could confirm only that the one conviction had been overturned. Last year, the House, led by Mr. McDermott and Representative Duncan Hunter, Republican of California, passed a measure directing the Army to open the review after the 2005 publication of a book, “On American Soil,” by a Seattle author and journalist, Jack Hamann. The book detailed evidence from the case that had not been made public. Mr. McDermott has suggested that the convicted soldiers were “victims of racial injustice.” The case could be the largest Army court-martial of World War II. The largest court-martial of the war is thought to be that of 50 black sailors who were convicted of mutiny and sentenced to 15 years in prison for refusing to load ammunition aboard a ship at Port Chicago, a Navy depot 30 miles northeast of San Francisco. The 28 soldiers in the Puget Sound case were stationed at Fort Lawton on Aug. 15, 1944, when Mr. Olivotto was found dead after a night of fighting among American and Italian soldiers on the base. Some American soldiers — white and black — objected to what they saw as lenient treatment of the scores of Italian prisoners held there. The 28 black soldiers were among 43 initially charged with rioting, but charges were dropped against 2 of the 43 and the other 13 were acquitted. Two defense lawyers, representing all 43 initially charged, had 13 days to prepare for trial. According to the board’s ruling, they did not have full access to a confidential Army inspector general’s report that Mr. Jaworski had seen, which suggested that evidence at the scene had been destroyed, and that white military policemen with animosity toward the Italians may have played a role in the riot. “Under military law as it stands today, people would laugh,” said John Tait, an Army lawyer who reviewed the case for the board. “You don’t have two people represent 43 people. It just doesn’t happen. And when three people are charged with murder? No.” The board’s decision instructs the Army to set aside Mr. Townsell’s conviction, and to change his dishonorable discharge to honorable, making his family eligible to receive back pay. Members of his family did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday. The analysis used by the board in reaching its decision about Mr. Townsell would apply “to anybody who was convicted in that court-martial,” Mr. Tait said. Soldiers or their families must request that their case be reviewed. Mr. Townsell’s family requested the review after hearing Mr. Hamann discuss the case in a radio interview. Mr. Hamann, a former reporter for CNN, said he struggled to locate many of the families during his research, which he conducted with the help of his wife, Leslie. “There are still a lot of families out there that have never heard about this,” he said. “They’re all over the United States.” It was not immediately clear what kind of back pay or benefits the soldiers or their families might receive. The ruling says Mr. Townsell or his estate should receive “all back pay and allowances due as a result of the above corrections.” Col. Dan Baggio, chief of media relations for the Army, said late Friday: “I’m not really sure how much that is going to amount to. I’m sure there are folks who are going to look at what is the right and equitable thing to do.” The ruling does not say that the convicted soldiers were not guilty, but that the process by which they were convicted was unjust. The ruling notes that white military police were lax in quelling the riot. And it suggests that Mr. Jaworski, who died in 1982, would have been aware of testimony, which he did not share with the defense, that suggested a white military policeman could have been involved in the Olivotto killing. One black soldier had told an investigator that a white military policeman had threatened to “bust” the skull of an Italian soldier. In his book, Mr. Hamann said the evidence pointed to a white military policeman who had been present at every critical moment in the days leading up to the lynching, and who discovered Mr. Olivotto’s body. The policeman, who is deceased, was convicted of going absent without leave.

Courts-Martial
United States Army
World War II (1939-45)
Decisions and Verdicts
McDermott Jim
Murders and Attempted Murders
United States Armament and Defense
Jaworski Leon


Bringing In the Righty. And the Lefty.

Abstract: Nearly 20 years ago Greg Harris, a journeyman reliever, finally fulfilled his dream to pitch with each hand in a major league game. In the ninth inning of a loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Sept. 28, 1995, Harris, then with the Montreal Expos, came into the game as a right-hander and retired Reggie Sanders on his first pitch. He switched to his left arm to walk Hal Morris and retire Eddie Taubensee, then was back to his right to induce a groundout from Bret Boone. Harris’s ability to exploit matchup advantages might have seemed revolutionary, but the experiment did not last long. He pitched in just one other game, using only his right hand, then retired having thrown 1,466 innings as a right-hander and one as the modern era’s first switch-pitcher. (Harris was also a switch-hitter.) With Friday’s call-up of Pat Venditte by the Oakland Athletics, baseball has its second switch-pitcher. In his eighth professional season, Venditte turns 30 this month and stretches the definition of the word prospect, but he has proved effective in the minor leagues, compiling a 2.37 E.R.A. for his career and striking out an impressive 10 batters per nine innings pitched. His numbers should be taken with a grain of salt; he has often been far older than his competition — including this season, when he was 3.1 years older than the average pitcher in the Pacific Coast League. But as a long reliever who can adapt to whichever side a batter hits from, he may provide some versatility in the Oakland bullpen. Venditte got off to a good start Friday, switch-pitching two scoreless innings against Boston. Given the various strategies tried over the years in hopes of gaining an advantage, the scarcity of switch-pitching is somewhat surprising, making a case that mastering pitching with each hand is truly a rare skill, and rendering Venditte’s effectiveness from both sides even more remarkable. This season, in 192/3 innings as a right-hander, he held opponents to a .208 batting average. In 131/3 innings as a left-hander, he was even better, holding them to .095. Last season, in 26 appearances for the Yankees’ Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre affiliate, Venditte allowed a .250 batting average with each arm. For an MLB.com article in 2000, Jerome Holtzman, the longtime Chicago sports columnist and former official Major League Baseball historian, found several instances of switch-pitching, with the most recent one before Harris coming in 1893. But other pitchers, including Tug McGraw with the Mets, reportedly lobbied to try it in a regular-season game. In his first appearance, Venditte was able to give a brief demonstration of Rule 5.07(f), which requires a switch-pitcher to declare which arm he will use before a batter steps to the plate. The rule was meant to avoid a standoff with the pitcher and the hitter refusing to pick sides. With the switch-hitting Blake Swihart approaching the plate as a right-handed batter, Venditte indicated he would pitch with his right hand, and Swihart went back to the dugout for his lefty-hitting helmet. Having joined Harris in the record book as a modern switch-pitcher, Venditte now gets a chance to prove that the strategy can be sustainable.