Pattison’s West Skating Center Breeds Olympic Champions

Abstract: FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — At Pattison’s West Skating Center on Monday afternoon, three college students toted ice skates into a roller rink. The first family of Pacific Northwest roller skating opened this facility in 1979, and the only ice the Pattisons ever needed went directly into soft drinks. But the students’ confusion was also understandable. Because in this city of strip malls, 20 minutes south of Seattle, two elite short-track speedskaters used a different kind of training wheels. Between them, Apolo Ohno and J. R. Celski have won 11 world championships and 7 Olympic medals, including silver (Ohno) and bronze (Celski) last Saturday in the 1,500 meters. Soon after, someone called Pattison’s about ice lessons. “It’s nice and warm in here,” Mike Pattison, the family patriarch, told the students. “But this is where Apolo and J. R. learned how to skate.” The Pattisons traveled to Vancouver to watch the two Olympians they helped produce. They paid $1,200 for four tickets and sat in the front row, the best seats in the house. They watched Ohno win his sixth Winter Olympic medal, the most for an American man, and saw Celski secure his first. At that moment, the memories flooded back. Like a teenage Ohno break-dancing between skating sessions, performing his patented windmill. Or Celski rolling past adults at age 3, his skates and body nearly equal in size. “Everything started there,” said Yuki Ohno, Apolo’s father. “That was the beginning.” Pattison’s West sits on the Pacific Highway near a massage parlor, a storage facility and a chiropractor. The sign out front advertised this week’s adult R&B night. Instead of a training ground for Olympic speedskaters, it looked like any other roller rink: strobe lights, pop music, gumball machines, arcade, popcorn, pretzels. But Pattison’s West is not a normal rink. Elite inline skaters have traveled from Florida to practice here. Pattison’s Team X-treme has won the Northwest championship every year since 1988 and produced more than 100 national champions. The man considered the top inline skater in the United States, Joey Mantia , trains here. Most of the national inline records he continues to break once belonged to Chad Hedrick, now a long-track speedskater competing in his second Winter Olympics. Ohno stumbled in by accident. He lived down the street. Pattison’s son, Shaun, gave Ohno the nickname Chunkie, and the photographs on the wall show Ohno, who now has 2.8-percent body fat, with some heft around his midsection. Pattison remembered how Ohno always carried a lunch pail filled with juice, fruits and vegetables. Yuki remembered the line of children that snaked out the door of the arcade looking to challenge his son in video games. They called Ohno the I-5 speedskater back then, because he continually traveled up and down the interstate, to swimming, in-line skating, speedskating and for the Northwest Boys Choir . But that all served a purpose, Yuki said, because when Ohno started with the United States team, he had already cross-trained for years. Celski’s family discovered Pattison’s at the same time, despite an eight-year age difference between the Olympians. Celski comes from a large, close, skating clan. In 2001, he and his father, Bob, won national inline championships for their age groups. Ohno struck the Pattisons as more outgoing than Celski, but the two shared several traits, including parents who videotaped their races and studied skating, including drive and intensity and, above all, speed. “Both were incredible skaters,” Mike Pattison said. “They could really fly.” At Pattison’s, both future Olympians were infused with skating passion that runs four generations deep. The Pattison family tree doubles as local roller skating history. Weston Betts, Mike’s grandfather, built the first rink, the one at nearby Redondo Beach that burned down in 1951. Betts also opened Pattison’s North across the state, in Spokane. He eventually sold that rink to his daughter, who later sold it to her nephew, who still runs it. At one time, Mike and his three siblings each owned a rink. Among the siblings and their cousins, four generations of Pattisons have run the family business all over Washington State. Mike’s father, Pat, competed in one of the first sanctioned roller skating races, in 1938. By the time Mike Pattison finished high school, he wanted out of the skating business. But after four years in the Navy, he returned. At 60, he is still working 13-hour days. “As long as I can remember, I’ve skated,” said Darin Pattison, Mike’s son. “And so has everybody else here.” Only now, Pattison’s is known as much for ice skating as its rolling counterpart. Ohno switched to ice after watching the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway. Celski followed after watching Ohno grab gold at the Salt Lake City Games in 2002. Among the first to make the transition from in-line skates was K.C. Boutiette , who skated long track on four Olympic teams. Mike Pattison says those who made the transition have an advantage because in-line skates are heavier and do not glide like ice skates. “It’s running with weights on, or skating with a parachute behind you,” he said. “When they get to short track, it’s like they’ve been resistance training for 10 years.” Pattison says he wishes Ohno and Celski, who were scheduled to compete again Wednesday night in the 1,000-meter preliminaries, had continued with in-line skating, but he also recognizes the platform provided by the Olympics. He hopes that one day in-line skating will join the Summer Games. For now, he plans to plaster the front wall with pictures and clipped newspaper articles in homage to Celski and Ohno. He pointed to the picture of the 11-year-old Nick Snyder on the wall and other young in-line champions. The next Ohno, Pattison said, is up there somewhere. “Hopefully, some little kid right now is watching this,” Celski said. “And having the same aspirations that we did, the same goals.” Like Pattison’s 5-year-old granddaughter, who is already on skates and recently announced her goal — to compete in speedskating in the Olympics.

Roller Skating
Speedskating
Family Business
Olympic Games (2010)
Ohno Apolo
Celski J.R.
Short Track Skating


Nuclear Talks With Iran Fail to Yield Pact, Officials Say

Abstract: LONDON — The latest round of nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers ended on Friday in Vienna, with Iranian and American officials saying that progress was slow and difficult, with serious gaps between the two sides on basic issues like the size of any nuclear enrichment capability Iran would be permitted to retain. A senior American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic negotiations, said that Iran needed to be more realistic in the talks. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, told Iranian news media that “there was no tangible progress in this round of the talks” and that differences were too large to begin drafting an accord. But he said that the talks would continue next month. The American official agreed with Mr. Araghchi that “significant gaps” remained after three days of talks. “Iran still has to make some hard choices,” the official said. “We are concerned that progress is not being made and that time is short.” A senior European diplomat said that “we had expected a little more flexibility on their side.” Iranian officials, for their part, told the IRNA news agency that “the West has to abandon its excessive demands,” and that “we had expected the Western side to become more realistic, but this doesn’t appear to be the case yet.” The two sides had set a July 20 deadline to resolve their differences, although a temporary agreement late last year incorporated the possibility of another six-month extension, which seems likely. The five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, want a deal that would ensure that Iran’s enrichment capability was so constrained that it could not “break out” quickly to produce enough fissile material for a bomb, whether made from uranium or plutonium. They want intensive inspections and tough restrictions on enrichment to ensure that Iran cannot secretly build a nuclear bomb. Iran, which has regularly denied that it desires a nuclear weapon, wants economic sanctions against it lifted and recognition that it can continue to enrich uranium for what it asserts are peaceful uses: medicine and electricity. But the six powers want severe restrictions on the number and type of centrifuges Iran can possess — an issue that one American official characterized before this round of talks as “the sticker-shock conversation.” Mr. Araghchi said that the two sides would have “one or two more rounds of talks in June,” but no date for another round was set in Vienna. Negotiators have characterized the talks, which have included separate discussions among technical experts, as cordial and workmanlike, with little rhetorical speechmaking. They are carried out in English, so there is no time wasted on translation. But the cordiality of the discussions has not made an agreement that restores the Security Council’s trust in Iran’s peaceful intentions and Iran’s trust in Western aims any easier. Both sides say they want to reach a deal, so negotiations are expected to intensify as the July deadline approaches. Senior Western diplomats familiar with the talks, speaking anonymously in accordance with diplomatic practice, have said that they are skeptical of success by the deadline, but that neither side wants a breakdown in negotiations — Iran because it is being hit hard by the sanctions, and the six powers because a failure of the talks might lead to a military strike on Iran by Israel or the United States, which have vowed never to allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials have spoken of their desire to expand their enrichment capacity to 50,000 centrifuges of the most modern type, compared with the 19,000 currently installed, some of them outmoded, of which 10,000 are operating. Washington has said that an enrichment capacity “greater than a few thousand first-generation centrifuges would give Iran an unacceptably rapid breakout capability,” according to Robert Einhorn, a former United States negotiator, writing in The National Interest last week. Iran’s desire for 50,000 modern centrifuges, he wrote, “ is a showstopper, and Iran must know that .” Breakout capability means the ability to quickly and quietly produce a bomb. These talks began in February after a deal late last year that suspended some sanctions and freed some assets in return for Tehran’s agreement to sharply reduce its stockpile of more highly enriched uranium that could be more quickly turned into a weapon. That deal was meant to create space for these talks to produce a final agreement .

Iran
Nuclear weapon
International relations
UN


In a First, Chinese Navy Sails Off Alaska

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Five Chinese Navy ships were sailing in international waters of the Bering Sea off the coast of Alaska on Wednesday, in what Pentagon officials said was the first such foray by Beijing. The move came on the last day of President Obama’s three-day visit to Alaska , in which he became the first sitting president to travel to Arctic Alaska. The White House said that the intent of the Chinese operation was unclear, but that the Pentagon had not detected any threatening activities. The foray may be more about economics than defense. The Arctic has become hotly contested as the United States, Russia and China, among other nations, have expanded their economic and security interests. A growing number of vessels have been traveling north through the Bering Strait, and the Coast Guard has diverted ships from other core missions to manage the traffic. A Pentagon official noted that China has every right to patrol international waters, adding that American warships often ply waters off the coast of China. “I wouldn’t call this something we are very worried about,” the official said. He said that American officials had identified a Chinese amphibious ship, three surface combatant ships and a replenishment vessel in the Bering Sea. Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said that the Defense Department respected “the freedom of all nations to operate military vessels in international waters.” The operation, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal , came as China has been increasingly flexing its military muscle, particularly off its own coast. Beijing has increased military spending and is working on an aircraft carrier. Last year, Chinese officials took Chuck Hagel, the defense secretary at the time, on a tour of the carrier , the Liaoning. Many American officials interpreted the move as an effort to project naval power, particularly in light of tensions between Beijing and its neighbors over disputed islands in the East and South China Seas. China is also developing stealth fighters, and it has continued to reclaim islands in the two seas at a brisk pace.

Alaska
Pentagon
Arctic
China
Military
US Coast Guard
Barack Obama


Exhausted Workers Recall Minimal Efforts to Enforce a Minimum Wage Law

Abstract: Two weeks ago, Pin Zhu Zheng, who says she worked 69 hours a week behind a steam table at a Chinatown restaurant on Centre Street, presented herself at a New York State office to report what seemed to be flagrant lawbreaking by her former bosses. “The first day of the month, they pay $1,500 cash,” Ms. Zheng, 55, said in an interview on Thursday. “Everyone got the same.” That works out to about $5 an hour for a six-day workweek that ran from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.; the law requires a minimum wage of $7.25 an hour for the first 40 hours a week. After that, workers must be paid time and a half, or a minimum of $10.88 an hour. “The Labor Department person told me that I had to wait a year for the follow-up,” Ms. Zheng said through a translator. But what good is a minimum wage law if it takes forever to enforce it? Complaints with the State Labor Department about wage and hour violations were stacked 14,000 high at the end of July, according to documents obtained by the Urban Justice Center through a freedom of information request. In May 2012, the records showed, 44 percent of the cases had been open for more than a year, said David Colodny, a lawyer with the center. Carlos Rodriguez, 28, said he made $4.40 an hour in a pizza franchise on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, cutting vegetables, cleaning, unloading trucks by day and making deliveries at night. “We paid for the uniform, the hat, the T-shirt, the pants, the shoes,” Mr. Rodriguez said. Did he speak to the boss about the pay rate? “He said if you don’t like it, just go,” Mr. Rodriguez said. So he did. “I went to the Labor Department in 2007 and told them they robbed me of 20 hours of pay per week,” Mr. Rodriguez said. “They took my information. They said we are going to call at the end of every month to bring you up to date.” Not once, he said, did they call, but he called religiously. “Every end of the month, they said the same thing: ‘We have a lot of cases,’ ” Mr. Rodriguez said. The state believes it can cut the time of the investigations to nine months by looking at three years of wage history, rather than six, as had been the practice, said Alphonso David, who works for Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo as the deputy secretary for civil rights. The investigations will not get bogged down in hard-to-resolve factual questions from the past, he said, and the result will be quicker, surer justice. The national minimum wage came into existence because a social reformer named Frances Perkins told Franklin D. Roosevelt that she would join his cabinet only if he agreed to a floor on the hourly pay rate, and a ceiling on the number of hours in a workweek. Roosevelt agreed. The law was fought almost as fiercely as the new health care act. In March, the State Legislature passed a bill raising the minimum wage by 75 cents to $8 an hour by the end of 2013, then to $8.75 by the end of 2014, and $9 by the end of 2015. To win the agreement of Republicans in the Senate, the law includes a tax credit for companies that keep or hire teenagers at the minimum wage. The governor’s office estimated the credit’s cost at $45 million. The law included no funds for faster investigation of wage and hour violations, and the budget for that has been flat for several years, said JoAnn Lum, executive director of the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops. Mr. David said the state was getting bogged down by looking back six years and would no longer do so. “That is ridiculous,” said Deborah Axt, an executive director of Make the Road New York , an organization that advocates better conditions for immigrants and low-income people. The group had urged the state in 2007 to use the full six years allowed by the statute of limitations to pursue the wage claims. “You are cutting off half your ability to recover wages under the law,” she said. Yu Dan Wong, 46, said she filed a complaint in 2006 that the fashion manufacturer she worked for had paid her $450 for a six-day, 54-hour week, a wage that covered none of the required overtime. Her job was to check garment quality at about 30 factories in Brooklyn, Queens and Chinatown. “I kept calling until 2010,” she said. “I never heard.” Were the workers in those factories paid minimum wage? The question was translated for her by Wing Lam, the director of the Chinese Staff and Workers Association . Both of them roared with laughter. “Nobody!” Ms. Wong said.

Minimum wage
New York
Jobs
Working Hours
NYC


Netherlands: Protests Over a Death in Police Custody

Abstract: The Dutch police arrested about 200 people Thursday night and Friday morning for disregarding a ban on public assembly in a neighborhood in The Hague hit by late-night rioting after the death of a man in police custody. The arrests capped four nights of rioting in the predominantly immigrant Schilderswijk neighborhood — a situation that has drawn comparisons with the angry protests that erupted in the United States following the deaths of black men at the hands of white police officers. Mayor Jozias van Aartsen, however, has strongly rejected such comparisons. “There is absolutely nothing in common between the work of American police forces and the Dutch police and the Hague force,” he told the national broadcaster NOS this week. Prosecutors investigating Sunday’s death of Mitch Henriquez, 42, from the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, say he probably died of oxygen starvation triggered by his arrest at a music festival Saturday night.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


U.S. Pushes Agencies to Free Up Spectrum

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Three years after President Obama laid out an ambitious plan to double the country’s supply of airwaves for use in high-speed wireless Internet service, the White House on Friday announced efforts intended in part to spur participation by government agencies that have been slow to join the cause. Without additional airwaves for consumer and business use, administration officials say, the “skyrocketing demand of consumer and broadband business users” for wireless service for smartphones, tablets and other devices will soon outgrow the supply. For consumers, the initiative could allow cellphone and wireless broadband companies to eventually increase the reliability of their networks, meaning fewer dropped calls and shorter delays in loading video and other large files. It also could create jobs, the administration says. It cites industry studies reporting that since 2007, more than 500,000 jobs have been created in what is known as the App Economy — the business of creating and selling applications and programs that take advantage of faster Internet speeds and more advanced devices. The administration said it would invest $40 million in the next year and $60 million more over the next five years to find ways for government agencies to share lightly used airwaves that are under federal control with private wireless communications companies. Image Gene Sperling, head of the National Economic Council. Credit Charles Dharapak/Associated Press Mr. Obama directed federal agencies to make more capacity available by enhancing the efficiency of their spectrum use and to recommend ways of using financial or other incentives to increase sharing of airwaves by government agencies. “The number of wireless devices is exploding, and that means increasing demands on the spectrum upon which they all rely,” Gene B. Sperling, director of the National Economic Council, said in a White House blog post on Friday. “The federal government helps manage that resource, and we know we can do a better job of unleashing innovation by ensuring more of it is shared, unlicensed for innovations like Wi-Fi, and better used by our departments and agencies.” One roadblock to that seemingly unlimited growth potential, however, is the reluctance of some parts of the government to part with any of their vast holdings of the nation’s electromagnetic spectrum — the airwaves used by cellphone and wireless communications companies. In 2010, Mr. Obama directed government agencies to work to free up 500 megahertz of spectrum from federal and private sector sources. Those efforts have been embraced by numerous federal departments, administration officials say. But a few others, including the Defense Department, have expressed wariness not only at sharing or giving up any of their designated frequencies, but even at revealing the amount and location of airwaves they control. Doing so could compromise national security, Pentagon officials say. An administration official cited one hypothetical example where an executive department might use a certain frequency for about 12 hours a week of training activities. One agency might be willing to confine its use to prescribed hours, and allow commercial users to share the airwaves at other times, while another department might say it needs the flexibility to be able to use the airwaves at any time. The Defense Department has said it supports the president’s goals of freeing up spectrum, but noted that an increasingly electronically armed military had its own rising needs for spectrum. The administration emphasized that any new plans to free spectrum should not interfere with “mission-critical capabilities” of military and other government departments. Image Senator Mark Warner. Credit Stelios Varias/Reuters Nevertheless, the intransigency of some departments has frustrated lawmakers. “I have long called for a thorough inventory of all public spectrum assets in order to gauge usage and improve efficiency, and have been frustrated by how this debate has dragged out over the past four years,” Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said Friday. “Federal agencies should have the spectrum they need to protect the public, but no one should be warehousing spectrum.” The Commerce Department has identified more than 300 megahertz of spectrum controlled by the federal government that could be set aside for other uses. The remainder of the 500 megahertz defined as the goal by the administration would come from the so-called incentive auctions that were authorized as part of the 2012 Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act. That law provided for the government to share the proceeds of auctions of newly cleared spectrum with television broadcasters who would willingly sell some or all of their spectrum licenses. Perhaps the most interesting and highly charged recommendation in the president’s directive is one ordering recommendations for incentives that could be used to persuade government departments to share or give up spectrum. A study released last year by a presidential advisory council on science and technology recommended that the government create a “synthetic” currency that could be used to entice federal agencies. The system would in effect increase an agency’s budget if it gave up or shared its airwaves. Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission, who has also been advocating such a system since joining the agency in May 2012, about the time the advisory council’s report was released, said federal spectrum policy should be built “on carrots, not sticks.” “Our traditional three-step process for reallocating federal spectrum — clearing federal users, relocating them, and then auctioning the cleared spectrum for new use — is reaching its limits,” she said. The new initiatives, however, “are a significant step toward meeting the country’s spectrum needs.”

Wireless
Radio spectrum
Telecommunication
Barack Obama


Wiggling Their Toes at the Shoe Giants

Abstract: TODD BYERS was among more than 20,000 people running the San Francisco Marathon last month. Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, he might have blended in with the other runners, except for one glaring difference: he was barefoot. Even in anything-goes San Francisco, his lack of footwear prompted curious stares. His photo was snapped, and he heard one runner grumble, “I just don’t want the guy without shoes to beat me.” Mr. Byers, 46, a running coach and event manager from Long Beach, Calif., who clocked in at 4 hours 48 minutes, has run 75 marathons since 2004 in bare feet. “People are kind of weird about it,” he shrugs. Maybe they shouldn’t be. Recent research suggests that for all their high-tech features, modern running shoes may not actually do much to improve a runner’s performance or prevent injuries. Some runners are convinced that they are better off with shoes that are little more than thin gloves for the feet — or with no shoes at all. Plenty of medical experts disagree with this notion. The result has been a raging debate in running circles, pitting a quirky band of barefoot runners and researchers against the running-shoe and sports-medicine establishments. It has also inspired some innovative footwear. Upstart companies like Vibram, Feelmax and Terra Plana are challenging the running-shoe status quo with thin-sole designs meant to combine the benefits of going barefoot with a layer of protection. This move toward minimalism could have a significant impact on not only running shoes but also on the broader $17 billion sports shoe market. The shoe industry giants defend their products, saying they help athletes perform better and protect feet from stress and strain — not to mention the modern world’s concrete and broken glass. But for all the technological advances promoted by the industry — the roll bars, the computer chips and the memory foam — experts say the injury rate among runners is virtually unchanged since the 1970s, when the modern running shoe was introduced. Some ailments, like those involving the knee and Achilles’ tendon, have increased. “There’s not a lot of evidence that running shoes have made people better off,” said Daniel E. Lieberman, a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard, who has researched the role of running in human evolution . Makers of athletic shoes have grown and prospered by selling a steady stream of new and improved models designed to cushion, coddle and correct the feet. In October, for example, the Japanese athletic-shoe maker Asics will introduce the latest version of its Gel-Kinsei, a $180 marvel of engineering that boasts its “Impact Guidance System” and a heel unit with multiple shock absorbers. Already offered by Adidas is the Porsche Design Sport Bounce:S running shoe, with metallic springs inspired by a car’s suspension system. It costs as much as $500. Some question the benefit of all that technology. Dr. Craig Richards, a researcher at the School of Medicine and Public Health at the University of Newcastle in Australia — and, it should be noted, a designer of minimalist shoes — surveyed the published literature and could not find a single clinical study showing that cushioned or corrective running shoes prevented injury or improved performance. His findings were published last year in The British Journal of Sports Medicine. Other experts say that there is little research showing that the minimalist approach is any better, and some say it can be flat-out dangerous. “In 95 percent of the population or higher, running barefoot will land you in my office,” said Dr. Lewis G. Maharam, medical director for the New York Road Runners, the group that organizes the New York City Marathon . “A very small number of people are biomechanically perfect,” he said, so most need some sort of supportive or corrective footwear. Nevertheless, a growing number of people now believe in running as nature intended — and if not barefoot, then as close to it as possible. They remain a tiny segment of the population — some would say fringe. But popular training methods like ChiRunning and the Pose Method that promote a more “natural” gait, as well as “Born to Run,” a best-selling new book about long-distance running by Christopher McDougall, have helped spur interest. Proponents of this approach contend that naked feet are perfectly capable of running long distances, and that encasing them in the fortress of modern footwear weakens foot muscles and ligaments and blocks vital sensory input about terrain. “The shoe arguably got in the way of evolution,” said Galahad Clark, a seventh-generation shoemaker and chief executive of the shoemaker Terra Plana, based in London. “They’re like little foot coffins that stopped the foot from working the way it’s supposed to work.” The big shoe companies are clearly paying attention to the trend. Nike was first to market with the Nike Free, a flexible shoe for “barefootlike running” with less padding than the company’s typical offerings. It was introduced in 2005 after Nike representatives discovered that a prominent track coach to whom they supplied shoes had his team train barefoot. But some in the industry are critical of the barefoot push. Simon Bartold, an international research consultant for Asics, said advocates of barefoot running “are propagating a campaign of misinformation.” SPEND some time in Concord, Mass., and you might catch a glimpse of a fit 51-year-old man in a pair of funny-looking socks running down the bucolic streets. That would be Tony Post, the president and C.E.O. of Vibram USA, on a lunchtime run. And those socks? They’re actually thin rubber “shoes” with individual toe pockets. Called Vibram FiveFingers, they’ve been selling briskly to runners and athletes looking to strengthen their feet and sharpen their game. When Vibram, an Italian company known for its rugged rubber soles, designed the FiveFingers a few years ago, company officials figured that they would appeal to boaters, kayakers and yogis. Instead, the shoes, which sell for $75 to $85, caught on with runners, fitness buffs and even professional athletes: David Diehl, the New York Giants tackle, trains in them. Mr. Post, a shoe industry veteran, said he believed that the business was poised for a shakeup. “It used to be all about adding more,” he said. “Now, we’re trying to strip a lot of that away.” Strange as they look, the FiveFingers shoes hark back to a simpler time. Humans have long run barefoot or in flat soles. Professor Lieberman’s research suggests that two million years ago, our ancestors’ ability to run long distances helped them outlast their prey, providing a steady diet of protein long before spears and arrows. More recently, at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, Abebe Bikila, an Ethiopian runner, caused a stir when he ran the marathon barefoot and won. Things changed in the early 1970s, when Bill Bowerman, a track coach turned entrepreneur, created a cushioned running shoe that allowed runners to take longer strides and land on their heels, rather than a more natural mid- or forefoot strike. Mr. Bowerman and his business partner, Phil Knight, marketed the new shoes under the Nike brand, and the rest is history. At the same time, millions of Americans began taking up running as a pastime. Those twin trends ushered in a golden age of biomechanics research. “There was a lot of concern about injuries because of the boom,” said Trampas TenBroek, manager of sports research at New Balance. The logic, he said, was that “if you build a heel lift and make it thicker, you take stress off the Achilles’ tendon.” Walk into a sports store today and you’ll see the results: shoes with inch-thick heels and orthotics designed to correct overpronation, supination and a host of other ills. Mr. McDougall, the “Born to Run” author, ” said manufacturers, doctors and retailers were doing runners a disservice by pushing such shoes. “People are buying it thinking it’s going to do something for them, and it’s not,” he said. Mr. McDougall’s book is centered on the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico, known for epic 100-mile runs with nothing on their feet but strips of rubber. The book has become something of a manifesto for barefoot runners. After suffering chronic foot pain and being advised by sports medicine doctors to give up running, Mr. McDougall tried thin-soled shoes. Now, he said, he runs long distances without shoes — or pain. THAT seems to be a common experience among barefoot converts. “When people get it, it’s almost biblical,” said Mr. Clark at Terra Plana. His initial line of minimal shoes, the Vivo Barefoot, is intended for walking; a performance model, the $150 Evo, is due at year-end. Sales of minimalist shoes, while still tiny, are growing at a rapid clip. Mr. Clark figures that he will sell 70,000 pairs of minimal shoes this year, double last year’s volume. The shoes have sold mostly online and through 10 Terra Plana stores worldwide. Vibram says sales of its FiveFingers have tripled every year since they were introduced in 2006, and Mr. Post said he expects revenue of $10 million this year in North America alone. Many professionals agree that while barefoot running may have some benefits, those who are tempted to try running barefoot — or nearly so — should proceed slowly, as they should with any other significant change to their running habits. They also say that more research is needed. Sean Murphy, engineering manager for advanced products at New Balance, says that there have been many studies suggesting “that shoes can correct biomechanical abnormalities and risk factors, therefore minimizing the likelihood of injury.” When asked for an example, Mr. Murphy pointed to a 2006 study by three doctoral students that found that wearing the appropriate type of running shoe for one’s foot could reduce the shock of impact or unwanted rotation of leg bones. The study did not address injury rates. AMID all the controversy, barefoot running and natural gaits are the subject of intensive research across the shoe industry. Companies don’t want to miss out if it turns out to be more than just a fad. At New Balance’s sports research lab in Lawrence, Mass., Mr. TenBroek and Mr. Murphy are studying the biomechanics of running barefoot and in soles of varying thickness, while designing a “lower profile” shoe. Asics, too, sees promise in this area. “As technology improves, we will definitely go to a more minimal style,” Mr. Bartold said. Those big companies could end up profiting from the movement — or they could have trouble getting on board. Danny Dreyer, the founder of ChiRunning, which uses the tai chi principles of harnessing energy and core muscles to promote a more effortless way of running, said he had worked with a few shoe companies to help design minimalist shoes. In each case, he said, marketing and profit concerns trumped design: “Their profit and direction is based on ‘More shoe is better,’ ” said Mr. Dreyer, who is also a long-distance runner. Mr. Bartold of Asics, which has not worked with Mr. Dreyer, said the industry had runners’ best interests in mind. “It’s all about trying to protect the athlete,” he said. Nike describes the Free, its minimalist shoe, as a “training tool.” It offers models with varying degrees of cushioning; they are priced at $55 to $110. “The key is to offer a range of options, because every runner has different needs,” said Derek Kent, a Nike spokesman. “If you want that sensation of barefoot running, there is the Free, but if you want a product with a little more cushioning and support, we have that, too.” While Nike would not disclose detailed sales information, Mr. Kent said sales of the Free grew at double-digit rates in the last two fiscal years, with sales in Japan and China especially strong. Curt Munson, co-owner of Playmakers, a running shop in Okemos, Mich., said that in his conversations with major shoe companies lately, “they see that they need to address this” but “they’re just not sure how much.” But, he said, they must be thinking, “If we say this is the best, then are we saying that what we’ve done before is not good?” The back-to-basics movement is more than a fad, said Mr. Munson, who runs in FiveFingers. “Most people are not ready to run barefoot,” he said, “but I do think they are ready to go back to ‘less is more.’ ”


Concerns About BP Drag Down Markets

Abstract: Investors were shaken Wednesday by the prospect that BP might cut its dividend, pulling down the broader market. In the last hour of trading, the major indexes on Wall Street — led by energy shares — turned lower, erasing gains of more than 120 points on the Dow Jones industrial average. BP shares fell 15.80 percent, cutting the company’s market capitalization in half since the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig exploded April 20. The costs of cleaning up the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico are growing, and some on Wall Street even fear the company could be forced to seek bankruptcy protection or a merger. But the company has a more immediate problem: mounting pressure from Washington. Lawmakers called on BP to suspend its dividend and advertising to pay for the cleanup, and a senior official said the Justice Department was “planning to take action.” The interior secretary, Ken Salazar, said that BP would be asked to compensate energy companies for losses if they had to lay off workers because of the six-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. Iain Conn, BP’s chief executive for refining and marketing, said at a briefing Wednesday in London that BP was “totally committed to the cooperation with the administration” and that they were “joined together in a desire to mitigate this problem.” The uncertainty surrounding BP reverberated in the markets. Exxon Mobil dropped 2 percent, and Anadarko Petroleum, which has a 25 percent stake in the disabled well, dropped 18.6 percent. The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index closed down 0.59 percent. “The market reaction is fear of the unknown,” Tim Guinness, chief investment officer at Guinness Atkinson Funds in London, said. “I am dismayed by how political this has become, and I don’t think the bringing in of politics helps.” The members of Congress were echoing comments by President Obama last week, when he criticized BP for spending $50 million on TV advertising while people whose livelihoods were wrecked by oil spill were reporting difficulties in getting their claims paid. Thomas J. Perrelli, the associate attorney general, testified before a House committee on Wednesday that “we are looking very closely at this, and we are planning to take action.” And the Coast Guard is pressing BP to come up with a better plan for capturing the thousands of barrels of oil spilling into the gulf. Of course, with the tremors in Europe over recent months and other uncertainty, investors were already unnerved. “I just think BP shows how fragile the investor psyche is right now,” said C. Brett D’Arcy, chief investment officer at CBIZ Wealth Management. “Here’s a situation that should not fundamentally impact the market or the Dow,” Mr. D’Arcy said, referring to BP’s slide to $29.20 a share. “But it seemed like the market really turned on that information.” The Dow fell 40.73 points, or 0.41 percent, to 9,899.25 on Wednesday. The S.& P. 500 lost 6.31 points, to 1,055.69, while the Nasdaq composite index dropped 11.72 points, or 0.54 percent, to 2,158.85. The financial and technology sectors also fell. In the Treasury market, the 10-year Treasury note rose 3/32, to 102 24/32, and the yield was unchanged. Before the new concerns about BP, the markets were substantially higher, mostly because of more reassuring words from the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, who said the sovereign debt crisis in Europe would probably have only a modest impact on the United States if the markets stabilized. He said he expected the economy would grow at a rate of 3.5 percent this year. Testifying before the House Budget Committee, Mr. Bernanke said, “The economy — supported by stimulative monetary policy and the concerted efforts of policy makers to stabilize the financial system — appears to be on track to continue to expand through this year and next.” His assessment was also reflected in the Fed’s latest “beige book” report, which said the economy was slowly improving throughout the country. “Bernanke didn’t rock the boat,” said Ryan E. Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer’s Investment Research. “But it was fairly significant that he said the European issues wouldn’t affect us that much, whereas a lot of people said they will.”

Economic Conditions and Trends
Stocks and Bonds
BP Plc


Big Apple Sign Recalled Harlem’s Jazz Era; Then It Vanished, Too

Abstract: The Big Apple was never more than a minor player among the many clubs that swung and bopped their way into the Harlem jazz scene in its heyday. Nobody seems quite sure when it closed; many don’t remember it was there in the first place. The club’s most enduring legacy appeared to be the sign set in the fake stone exterior of the building — a brown stucco coat of arms featuring an upside-down apple painted red and overlaid in white letters — which trumpeted the club decades after the music stopped. From its perch on 135th Street off Seventh Avenue — opposite the better-known club Small’s Paradise , which, after a number of owners (including the basketball great Wilt Chamberlain ), closed in 1986 — the sign bore witness to the death of the Harlem jazz scene a half century ago, and its revival over the last decade, dulling slowly with the city’s grime during those silent years in between. Then, three years ago, the sign — this relic from the days of Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday and Count Basie — suddenly vanished. It was chiseled out of the wall as the building was transformed into a Popeye’s Chicken and Biscuits . The loss has been a source of frustration for the handful of amateur historians who noticed its disappearance, particularly since so much of that history was already gone. “The sad thing is that virtually everything from that era was demolished,” said Hank O’Neal , whose book, “Ghosts of Harlem,” chronicles the faded jazz scene but who said he knew little about the Big Apple. In 2006, when Gordon Polatnick learned the building was being turned into a Popeye’s, he approached the franchise owners. “I tried to tell them that the sign was something to be cherished,” said Mr. Polatnick, who ran a short-lived jazz club on the block and now offers “Big Apple” tours of the neighborhood’s jazz history. “I was interested in preserving it in my place.” Soon afterward, Mr. Polatnick received e-mail from a stranger who said he had been given the sign as compensation for renovation work done on the restaurant. That person asked for $30,000 for the sign. Mr. Polatnick declined. Barry Popik, an amateur etymologist who researched the roots of the term “The Big Apple,” also received an unexpected message from the same e-mail address. The sender explained that he was in possession of the sign, which he was planning to sell. “I have gotten some offers but I really would like to find out for myself how much is it actually worth,” the sender wrote. Mr. Popik responded that the club played an important role in popularizing the term “the Big Apple” — a phrase used by jazz musicians and horse racing enthusiasts before the club opened — as a nickname for New York City. He said that he could not estimate the value of the sign, which he believed dates to the 1930s, but added, “I can tell you that it’s an important part of our city’s history.” Soon the item appeared in an auction on eBay . Since then, Mr. Popik has been complaining about the disappearance of the sign in periodic blog posts, letters to politicians and e-mail messages to newspapers, including one this week to The New York Times, upset that no official efforts had been made to preserve the artifact. “I have no idea where it is now,” he said on Monday. “I’m sure it’s still out there somewhere.” He was right. “I forgot all about it,” said Luis Maldonado, speaking from his home in Florida on Monday night. In the summer of 2006, Mr. Maldonado had just finished six years with the Navy and was working part time in demolition. While ripping down an old facade to make way for the fried chicken franchise, he stopped his stepfather — who had helped him get the job — as he was about to tear into a strange old sign of an upside-down apple. “He was actually going to destroy it — I said, ‘No.’ It seemed like something of interest,” said Mr. Maldonado, 31. “I spoke to the landlord and I asked if it was O.K. for me to take it down off the wall and he said sure.” As he researched the sign, Mr. Maldonado said he became excited that he had found something valuable. “I thought I had a piece of New York history,” he said. But his attempts to sell it — first for tens of thousands of dollars, then for more modest sums — provoked little interest, he said. When he got less than he was seeking on eBay, he tucked the plaque into his stepfather’s closet in the Bronx. Shortly afterward he moved to Florida, where the memory of the strange artifact faded. He still hopes to sell it, he said on Monday, adding that it was more important to him that it “go somewhere meaningful.”


China Raises Interest Rates to Cool Its Heated Economy

Abstract: BEIJING, Aug. 21 — China announced Tuesday that it would raise interest rates for a fourth time this year in an effort to contain its racing economy and rein in soaring consumer prices. The People’s Bank of China, the central bank, said on its Web site that the benchmark one-year lending rate would rise 18 basis points, or 0.18 percentage points, to 7.02 percent, as of Wednesday, and that the rate for deposits would rise 27 basis points, to 3.6 percent. Analysts said the rate increase was also aimed at cooling the Chinese stock market, which has so far escaped the turmoil that the subprime mortgage problem in the United States has unleashed on global financial markets. China’s decision, coming after the Federal Reserve cut its discount rate on Friday, demonstrates how the world’s fastest-growing major economy sometimes appears to be insulated from global forces. “China is now counteracting the U.S. cycle,” said Connie Leung, chief economist at ERA Economic Research Analysis, a research and advisory business in Hong Kong. “China is one of the few markets in the world to be raising rates rather than holding or cutting rates.” The ruling Communist Party fears that rising prices fueled by an overheated economy could hurt millions of poor Chinese, particularly in rural areas, where economic hardship or dissatisfaction with the government often leads to protests and unrest. But the authorities must avoid too sharp a slowdown because rapid economic growth is needed to provide jobs for millions of surplus rural workers. Ms. Leung and other analysts say they expect China to raise rates further before the end of the year, perhaps more than once, as part of a sustained campaign to bring growth under control. In addition to raising rates, the central bank has ordered lenders six times this year to increase the amount of funds held in reserve, as a way to tighten the supply of credit. Many economists had expected China to raise rates further after official statistics showed that inflation jumped to 5.6 percent in July, the biggest monthly increase since 1997, mainly owing to steep increases in the cost of food, including pork, and other household goods. The official target for inflation for 2007 is 3 percent. But China’s top economic planning agency and price monitor, the National Development and Reform Commission, said the country was not in danger of entering a period of “full scale” inflation, the official China Daily newspaper reported Tuesday. With limited options for investment outside bank deposits, millions of Chinese savers have turned to the stock market in recent years, driving a surge in share prices. The benchmark Shanghai Composite Index has risen 80 percent this year, after a 130 percent increase last year.

China
Interest Rates
Economic Conditions and Trends
United States Economy


Luis Severino Pitches Yankees a Step Closer to a Playoff Berth

Abstract: As Dustin Ackley recently contemplated his future with the Yankees, he did not need to examine any tea leaves. Outfielders Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran are all signed for next season, to the tune of $49.6 million. If Mark Teixeira, who is owed $23.1 million next year, cannot stay healthy at first base, Greg Bird has proved to be a capable replacement. What about second base, a position Ackley did not learn to play until he left college, and barely played over the past two seasons with the Mariners and the Yankees? Why, of course. “I can definitely see it’s a position that I think that guys are fighting for,” Ackley said last week , knowing that the incumbents, Stephen Drew and Brendan Ryan, will be free agents and that the prospects Rob Refsnyder and Jose Pirela are not yet proven. “Hopefully, I can be an everyday player again. I’d love to win a job.” Ackley may not have to wait until next year. He may have won the job now. Ackley, a left-handed hitter, further cemented his standing, at least against right-handed pitchers, by ripping a solo home run into the second deck in right field Sunday, backing six shutout innings from Luis Severino in a 6-1 win over the Chicago White Sox. The victory, though it did not close the gap on Toronto, which maintained its four-game lead in the American League East, did reduce the Yankees’ magic number for clinching a wild-card berth to three. As attention begins to pivot toward the playoffs, Ackley was not the only one who made a compelling case Sunday for a more involved role. Slade Heathcott started in right field, and though he was picked off first, he also had four productive plate appearances: two singles, a walk and a sacrifice fly. Rico Noel, a pinch-running specialist, goaded reliever Daniel Webb into a wild pickoff throw and raced to third, then scored on Bird’s single. Ryan, a versatile defensive infielder, delivered a hit-and-run single and walked while filling in at third. Though the Yankees managed 13 hits and their most runs (in a nine-inning game) since last Sunday, the offense did not resemble a juggernaut. The Yankees’ 1-0 lead, which they clung to until the sixth, was aided by White Sox first baseman Jose Abreu, who made errors on two routine grounders. The Yankees scored another on a passed ball and left 15 runners on base. So with the team’s offensive production flagging, Ackley has become an intriguing possibility, even as Manager Joe Girardi revealed after the game that Drew, who started most of the season at second base, had been battling dizziness stemming from an inner-ear infection for nearly two weeks. But asked if Ackley was playing because of Drew’s illness or his own merit, Girardi offered a Yogi Berra-like retort: “He’s playing because of the way he’s playing.” Drew said his problems began Sept. 9, when he took a bad-hop ground ball to the face. Around that time he also contracted a severe cold, which led to fluid in both ears. Though Drew does not believe he sustained a concussion — he said he had not seen results of tests — he believes the dizziness is related to one he sustained in 2013, when he was hit in the head by a pitch. It took more than three months for a vestibular nerve to recover, he said. The dizziness now is constant. “It’s very frustrating, because I felt fine and it’s something I’ve never really dealt with,” he said. “We’re just trying to pinpoint it so I can get over it and get well.” With seven games left in the regular season, there is pressure on Drew to earn a spot on the playoff roster. Though Drew said he had been available, Girardi used him only as a 10th-inning defensive replacement Tuesday at Toronto. He has not started since Sept. 15. In the meantime, Ackley has steadily constructed a strong case. Acquired just before the July 31 nonwaiver trade deadline, Ackley landed on the disabled list after just three at-bats with a herniated disk. He is hitting .324 with seven extra-base hits since his return. He might have had another Sunday had J. B. Shuck not ranged far into the right-center gap to snatch his bases-loaded drive. Ackley is blossoming the way the Mariners hoped when they made him the No. 2 pick in the 2009 draft behind Stephen Strasburg. He was drafted as a center fielder and moved to second base, but the Mariners soured on him in 2013, sending him to the minors and then making a free-agent splurge for Robinson Cano. “In the past, I’ve spent time worrying about things out of my control, but now I’m to the point where whatever happens, happens,” Ackley said, relating his experience in Seattle with any concerns he might have now about making the playoff roster. He added: “You have to have your mind focused on one goal, and that’s going up there and seeing the ball and hitting it; not worrying about your swing or where your hands are or if you’re starting the next day.” Ackley also said his transition to the Yankees, and his blossoming at the plate, had been helped by his knowing the two hitting coaches — Alan Cockrell, who he worked with in his first season in pro ball in 2010, and Jeff Pentland, who was with the Mariners in 2012 when Ackley was called up. There are other familiar faces. Ryan was his double-play partner in Seattle, and Adam Warren and Andrew Miller were his college teammates at North Carolina. “Maybe a change of scenery has helped,” Warren said. “In college, he was one of the best hitters I’ve ever seen. He always had that confidence at the plate, and you’re starting to see that develop.”

Luis Severino
Yankees
Dustin Ackley
Jacoby Ellsbury
Greg Bird
White Sox
Rico Noel
Baseball


Pregnancy Clinics Fight for Right to Deny Abortion Information

Abstract: EL CAJON, Calif. — “Free Pregnancy Testing,” reads the large sign in front of the East County Pregnancy Care Clinic, on a busy intersection of this impoverished city east of San Diego. Inside the clinic, a woman will not only receive a free pregnancy test, but she will also see a counselor to discuss her options. She will see models of fetuses at early stages of development, which show that “at Week 12, you see a recognizable human,” said Josh McClure, the executive director of the clinic. If she is pregnant, she can receive a free ultrasound and attend childbirth classes. If she gives birth, she may receive help with diapers and a car seat. What she will not receive from this center is advice on where to obtain an abortion. The clinic is one of more than 3,000 crisis pregnancy centers around the country that are operated by religious opponents of abortion, with the heartfelt aim of persuading women to choose parenting or adoption. Now it and others in California are in a First Amendment battle with the state over a new law that requires them to post a notice that free or low-cost abortion, contraception and prenatal care are available to low-income women through public programs, and to provide the phone number to call. The clinics argue that the law, which took effect in January, flagrantly violates their rights of free speech, and it appears that many of the dozens of licensed pregnancy centers in California are not yet complying. “I don’t want to put up a sign telling you where you can go for an abortion,” said Mr. McClure of the clinic here, which is a plaintiff in one of several legal challenges. “The sign is not up here now because it’s unconstitutional.” Many states are passing restrictions that could force abortion clinics to close, a tactic under scrutiny in a major Supreme Court case to be argued next month. Here in California, it is the abortion opponents who are seeking to block a law — one adopted by a liberal state government to offset what officials call the misleading advice dispensed by pregnancy centers. Abortion rights advocates have long accused the centers of luring women in without revealing their bias, then providing false accounts of medical and emotional risks of abortion, among other tactics, to steer them away from the procedure. But the Constitution’s high bar for interfering with free speech has largely protected the centers from regulation. Previous efforts in New York City and a few other places to require them to state, upfront, that they do not provide abortion referrals and make other disclosures have been largely struck down by federal courts. So far, California’s law has fared better, with three federal district courts and one state court refusing to block it as the cases proceed toward trial. Officials say their law is written to comply with the First Amendment because it does not force the centers to say anything about their beliefs. Rather, it requires licensed centers to prominently post, or hand out, factual notices about public programs. According to NARAL Pro-Choice California, whose investigation of pregnancy centers was cited by legislators, around 170 to 200 such centers are operating in California. At least 70 are licensed, meaning they are under the supervision of a physician and employ nurses and volunteer counselors. The rest are unlicensed. In a twist of First Amendment law, it is harder to justify regulating their speech than it is to oversee the statements of state-sanctioned professionals. So the law simply requires these centers to post that they are not licensed. On Jan. 28, in the third such effort in a federal court, a lawyer from Alliance Defending Freedom , a conservative legal group that is representing the El Cajon clinic and others, argued in San Diego for a preliminary injunction. In the 90-minute hearing, Matt Bowman, a lawyer for the conservative group, argued that the law imposed an onerous and unconstitutional burden. “You’ve got to give women information about abortion even though the reason you exist is to give them alternatives to abortion,” he said, arguing against the mandate. Anthony Hakl, a deputy attorney general, replied that “the interest of the state is compelling — that is to ensure women’s access to a complete range of reproductive health services.” On Tuesday, Judge John A. Houston, who in the hearing had suggested that the notices may be essential to “an informed decision,” became the third federal judge to refuse to grant the preliminary injunction requested by the pregnancy centers. In the previous two cases, the federal appeals court had also refused to block the law. Mr. McClure denied that the center in El Cajon tries to mislead anyone, saying it provides honest information that allows women to make their own decisions. The clinic was established by evangelical churches in 1993; its annual budget, close to $300,000 in 2014, is met with donations from churches, individuals and businesses. In 2015, Mr. McClure said, the clinic served 674 clients — 32 percent Caucasian, 29 percent Hispanic, 12 percent African-American and 15 percent Arabic, drawn from the population of Iraqi and Chaldean refugees in El Cajon. Close to half were unmarried. More than one in three clients were initially considering an abortion, he said, but all but a small percentage ended up deciding to give birth. By around 12 weeks of pregnancy, he said, women are referred to doctors for prenatal care. The clinic has one nurse manager and about 10 nurse volunteers. Volunteer counselors first take women into a small room to discuss why they have come, and describe the options of parenting, adoption and abortion. Beyond assistance for needy new mothers, the center also gives advice on how to avoid another pregnancy: abstinence for the unmarried, “natural” methods for the married. Many centers across the country provide what mainstream medical experts say are misleading accounts of rare abortion complications, and of disproved longer-term effects. The centers often suggest, for example, based on what critics describe as a selective or outdated review of research, that abortion raises the risks of premature births, depression and breast cancer. Some written materials of the El Cajon clinic describe the evidence on breast cancer as “disputed,” while at least one brochure in the facility flatly says that abortion causes “an increased risk of breast, cervical and ovarian cancer.” “We believe there is a link,” Mr. McClure said of the breast cancer claim. But the National Cancer Institute states that “women who have had an induced abortion have the same risk of breast cancer as other women,” and that abortion has not been linked to other cancers, either. The court battles appear likely to continue over the next year. The legal groups representing the centers, which also include the Pacific Justice Institute and the American Center for Law and Justice , vow to pursue the issue to the Supreme Court. Things may come to a head sooner. The office of Kamala D. Harris, the California attorney general, who strongly supports the law, would not comment on enforcement. But NARAL Pro-Choice California said that it plans to monitor compliance and urge city and county lawyers to act.

Pregnancy
Abortion
California
First Amendment
Legislation
Birth control
El Cajon CA
Freedom of speech


G.M. to Make a 60-Day Money-Back Offer

Abstract: DETROIT — Can a straight-talking Texan and a money-back guarantee persuade American consumers to buy a car from General Motors? In its first major marketing campaign since emerging from bankruptcy, G.M. is putting its new chairman, Edward E. Whitacre Jr., in the spotlight as the spokesman for its offer to give customers a full refund within 60 days on any G.M. car or truck. The campaign, called “May the Best Car Win,” is part of G.M.’s effort to change its lingering image as a financially struggling company with substandard products. The first television ads will begin Sunday, featuring Mr. Whitacre, the 67-year-old former AT&T chief who was recruited by the federal government to lead G.M.’s reconstituted board. Mr. Whitacre, with his Texas drawl and folksy manner, dismissed comparisons to Lee Iacocca in an interview, though he said he hoped to restore confidence in G.M. just as Mr. Iacocca did with his ads for Chrysler in the 1980s. “I’m happy to do it, I wanted to do it, and I think it is important to do it,” Mr. Whitacre said in an interview. “I am convinced that our cars are as good, if not better, than anybody else’s.” He joked that he did not expect to become as famous as Mr. Iacocca, but he did say G.M. needed to repair its image. “People are going to like this guarantee,” he said. “We’re putting a lot on the line here, but I think that these risks are necessary.” In the ads, Mr. Whitacre does not mention the $50 billion that American taxpayers provided to bail out G.M., or the fact that the federal government holds a 60 percent ownership stake in the company. Mr. Whitacre is filmed walking through G.M.’s design studios in Warren, Mich., and sharing his own skepticism about the company before he came out of retirement in July. “Before I started this job, I admit, I had some doubts — probably a lot like you,” he says to the camera. “But I like what I found. I think you will too.” Other automakers, such as Hyundai, have offered to take cars back if buyer lose their jobs, or to replace a lemon with a new vehicle. But the G.M. program, which goes into effect Monday, simply guarantees product satisfaction or your money back. “It’s a pretty powerful statement of confidence in our products,” said Fritz Henderson, G.M.’s chief executive. “It’s really all about getting people to consider our brands and our vehicles.” G.M.’s sales in the United States have fallen 35 percent this year, and its market share has dropped to a record low of about 19 percent. Mr. Whitacre has vowed that G.M. must stem the slide and begin increasing its sales. But he said it wasn’t until he and other new board members actually drove the automaker’s newest products that they felt G.M. had a lineup worthy of a money-back guarantee. “The board was like a lot of Americans in that they didn’t know how competitive we are on fuel economy and other attributes,” said Bob Lutz, G.M.’s veteran car czar, who recently took charge of its marketing and advertising. Mr. Lutz and Mr. Henderson first discussed the idea last month, over lunch, of having Mr. Whitacre represent G.M. in its new ad campaign. “Neither Fritz or I would be good in that role because we’re tainted,” Mr. Lutz said. “We’re part of the gang that took G.M. through Chapter 11. But Ed is definitely not one of the Detroit insiders.” Mr. Whitacre said he wasn’t sure he wanted the attention the ads would bring. “I was a little taken aback at first, because that’s not exactly my bag,” he said. But he realized that standing up for G.M. on camera could send a powerful message to consumers who might be on the fence about considering its products. “I just know if you get into one of our cars, you’re going to like what you see,” Mr. Whitacre says in the ads. “So we’re putting our money where our mouth is.” While Mr. Iacocca became a legendary figure in automotive history partly because of the success of his ads, other auto executives have not fared as well in TV ads. Three years ago, a Chrysler campaign featuring Dieter Zetsche, the head of DaimlerChrysler, fell flat when consumers were confused by who exactly “Dr. Z” was. The TV spots featuring Mr. Whitacre will be phased out rather quickly, with more emphasis directed to the money-back guarantee and G.M.’s core brands — Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. Mr. Lutz said the company had no way of knowing how many consumers would return cars after buying them. There are restrictions to prevent fraud in the program, including a requirement that customers make regular payments on the vehicle to qualify for a refund. Analysts saw little downside to the campaign. “The risk that G.M. has in buyers returning its vehicles is very minimal,” said Jeremy Anwyl, chief executive of the auto research Web site Edmunds.com . G.M. expects to continue the money-back guarantee at least through November and possibly longer. The marketing campaign will also include head-to-head comparisons between G.M. vehicles and competing models from Toyota, Ford and other companies. Mr. Whitacre declined to put a price tag on the overall campaign, although he acknowledged that it was more expensive than other, less ambitious options. “But if it can generate sales, which we certainly think it will, that will result in us being able to pay back the American taxpayer quicker,” he said.

General Motors
Automobiles
Advertising and Marketing


Tanaka’s Matchup Against Ex-Teammate Falls Through

Abstract: KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Masahiro Tanaka could not have known it when he boarded his flight to Seattle on Monday afternoon: His pitching matchup on Tuesday night with Hisashi Iwakuma, his former teammate with Tohoku Rakuten in Japan’s Pacific League, was not going to happen. Afternoon rain and a dismal forecast forced the Kansas City Royals to postpone Monday’s final game of a four-game series against the Yankees. It will be made up Aug. 25, before the start of a Yankees trip to Detroit and Toronto. An earlier mutual day off, June 26, was ruled out because it conflicted with a Royals on-field charity event at Kauffman Stadium. Rather than skip a pitcher’s turn, Yankees Manager Joe Girardi pushed his entire rotation back a day. So Vidal Nuno, the scheduled starter Monday night, will oppose Iwakuma at Safeco Field. Tanaka draws Chris Young on Wednesday night. “It gives all our guys an extra day, which in this long stretch I think they can use,” Girardi said. The Yankees, who had played 10 consecutive days, are not scheduled for a day off until next Monday, after returning from this three-city trip. With little else to talk about as rain pelted the tarp on Monday, Girardi faced more questions about his team’s season-long problems hitting with runners in scoring position. Sunday’s 1-for-17 effort in a 2-1 loss to Kansas City was the 30th time the Yankees managed one or no hits in such situations. They are 11-19 in those games, and with Sunday’s loss their record dropped to .500, at 31-31, over all. Three times the Yankees have gone 0 for 10 with runners in scoring position, beginning with the second game of the season, a 3-1 loss to Houston on April 2. But this has been a particularly rough stretch for the Yankees’ offense, which in the past 10 games has gone 19 for 105 (.181) with runners in scoring position, while averaging 2.5 runs per game. The Yankees lost seven of those games. On Sunday, the Yankees’ one hit with a runner on second or third was a second-inning single by Ichiro Suzuki with Yangervis Solarte at second. They went on to load the bases with nobody out but were unable to score, as Kelly Johnson struck out, Brett Gardner bounced into a force play at the plate, and Derek Jeter struck out trying to check his swing. They also stranded the tying run in the seventh and ninth innings. Going into Monday, the Yankees were 16th among the 30 major league teams in batting average with runners in scoring position at .250, according to MLB.com. But the Yankees rank 26th in OPS (.662), the combination of on-base and slugging percentage. The club is also 20th in runs, 23rd in runs batted in, and tied for 27th in home runs. “It’s been two months,” Girardi said in his office Monday afternoon. “We struggled the last three or four weeks scoring runs. Obviously we know we need to score more, but guys are going through a tough time. Sometimes you’ve just got to ride it out.” Jeter, who has one of the Yankees’ better averages with runners in scoring position at .269, said as much after Sunday’s game. “It seems like when guys are scuffling, sometimes they scuffle in bunches,” he said. “And when you get hot, a lot of guys are hot. “It happens a lot. You’re usually not as bad as you look when things are going bad, just like you’re usually not as good as you are when things are going good. We’ll turn it around.” Brett Gardner said: “We’ve got a lot of guys in here who have been around a long time and take a lot of pride in what we do. When we come up in situations where we’ve got guys in scoring position, especially with less than two outs, we’ve got to find a way to get those guys in. We haven’t really been doing a good job of that. We know that. We’re aware of it. We see it. We feel it.” The latest failings, and the need to remain optimistic, reminded Girardi of his former Yankee teammate Paul O’Neill. Girardi and O’Neill had lockers next to each other in Yankee Stadium from 1996 through 1999, and O’Neill’s manic obsession with hitting — and sometimes, with not hitting — drove Girardi crazy. “He used to say all the time: ‘I’ll never get another hit again. I’ll never hit another home run again,’ ” Girardi said. “And I would tell him: ‘Shut up. You’re hitting .310.’ ” Girardi’s Yankees could use similar convincing, along with better results. INSIDE PITCH JACOBY ELLSBURY hurt his right hip legging out a double in Sunday’s 2-1 loss. He finished the game but reported soreness Monday and would not have been in the lineup. “I had an awkward step and caught myself,” Ellsbury said. “I plan on being in there tomorrow.” Ellsbury spoke briefly near DEREK JETER’S locker, and Jeter playfully warned him not to tell reporters which hip he injured. “They’re going to talk about it for a month,” Jeter said as he walked away, drawing a laugh from Ellsbury.

Masahiro Tanaka
Hisashi Iwakuma
Kansas City Royals
Yankees
Joe Girardi
Jacoby Ellsbury
Baseball


In Sex Arrests Hailed by Pirro, Little Jail Time

Abstract: In press releases she issued over six years, Jeanine F. Pirro , the Westchester County district attorney, trumpeted the arrests made in Internet sex stings that her office ran. By the time she left office at the end of 2005, that undercover pedophile operation had snared 111 men, including a Roman Catholic priest, a private-school headmaster, a New York City detective and a former Brooklyn prosecutor. Now, as the Republican candidate for attorney general, Ms. Pirro has made her pursuit of these sex predators a central theme. Her campaign Web site says that the sting operation, which she started in the summer of 1999, led to the arrests of “over 100 pedophiles — with a 100 percent conviction rate.” While Ms. Pirro’s press releases repeatedly pointed out that the crimes were felonies punishable by up to four years in state prison for each count, a review of the cases shows that the overwhelming majority of people received sentences that let them avoid extensive jail time. In most nearby counties, prosecutors have had a higher rate of felony convictions in similar cases, because Ms. Pirro allowed nearly one in five defendants to plead down from felonies to misdemeanors, according to prosecutors’ statistics. Only eight of the men prosecuted by Ms. Pirro were given outright prison sentences by judges, according to records from the district attorney’s office. The rest, 93 percent, received some form of probation. “In many cases, we asked for jail time and didn’t get it,” Ms. Pirro said. According to Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for the current Westchester district attorney, Janet DiFiore, who has continued the sting program, 54 people indicted in the operation under Ms. Pirro received only probation, generally of five years. Mr. Chalfen said 46 others received so-called shock probation, which called for weekends behind bars. Two cases went to trial. Both defendants were convicted, but one conviction was overturned on appeal, and the other will be appealed on similar grounds. Ms. Pirro said that she wanted more prison sentences for those who were arrested in the stings, in which investigators posed as teenagers in chat rooms and in e-mail exchanges. It was generally the judges handling the cases who decided to give the defendants probation instead, she said. Asked about the felony charges that were dropped to misdemeanors by her office, Ms. Pirro said that the plea offers were decided “on a case-by-case basis.” Other district attorneys’ offices in counties of comparable size, like Nassau, as well as in larger ones, like Manhattan and Brooklyn, that have prosecuted Internet sex crimes involving the same statute that Ms. Pirro’s office used — attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor — seem more resistant to bargaining with defendants. The Nassau County district attorney, Kathleen Rice, said that of the 40 individuals charged by her office since 2001 for trying to sexually entice minors over the Internet, 34 pleaded guilty to the initial felony charge and only one pleaded to a lesser count, harassment. Of the others, one was found guilty, one died and three cases are pending. “When we have someone arrested on the top count, my general position is, absolutely no pleas,” Ms. Rice said. Of the 49 people indicted on the felony charge of attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor in Manhattan between July 1999 and the end of 2005, all but three were convicted on that charge, said Barbara Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney, Robert M. Morgenthau. And Jonah Bruno, a spokesman for Charles J. Hynes, the Brooklyn district attorney, said that his office had used the same statute to indict eight people since the spring of last year, when prosecutors started up a cybersex crimes unit. Two of the defendants pleaded guilty to the top charges and were required to register as sex offenders, Mr. Bruno said, adding that they received probation. The remaining six cases are still pending, he said. As for the convictions that resulted in probation under Ms. Pirro, one defendant, who was arrested in a sting in February 2003, and was sentenced to four weekends in jail and five years’ probation, was caught again in December 2004 after engaging in sexually explicit online conversations with an investigator posing as a 14-year-old boy. As a result of the second offense, that man, Spencer Davis, a former sixth-grade science teacher and a wrestling coach, was sentenced to up to three years in prison, according to the district attorney’s office. Ms. Pirro’s perfect conviction record was broken on July 25 by an appeals court that overturned the conviction in one of the two sting cases that went to trial. In a one-paragraph ruling on the 100th case of the Westchester sting operation, the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court reversed the 2005 conviction of Jeffrey Kozlow, a Manhattan real estate lawyer, because Ms. Pirro’s office had failed to show that his Internet communications with an undercover police officer “depicted sexual conduct,” since they did not contain visual “sexual images.” The defendant in the other case that went to trial, Paul Wicht, a former earth science teacher at Bronxville High School, intends to appeal his conviction of three counts of attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor. The appeal is based on the decision in the Kozlow case, his lawyer, Scott L. Fenstermaker, said. Because 105 people charged during the course of the stings while Ms. Pirro was in office pleaded guilty — either to felonies or misdemeanors — they waived their right to appeal. Four other cases are pending, according to the Westchester prosecutor’s office. During the first three years of Ms. Pirro’s cyberspace sex operation, people convicted of attempting to disseminate indecent material to a minor — the main charge brought — did not have to register on a sex offender list because state law did not require people convicted of such crimes to do so. That changed in March 2002, when that felony was added to the list of sex offenses requiring registration. Anyone who had been convicted of that crime and was on probation — generally five years under Ms. Pirro’s stings — or serving a jail sentence at the time of the change had to register. In a telephone interview, Ms. Pirro expressed alarm at the Kozlow decision. She called it “outrageous and frightening,” adding that it added new urgency to the need to protect children from “these deviants” on the Internet. Ms. Pirro, who has expressed concern about recidivism among pedophiles, said the judges in the sting cases brought by her office were perhaps reluctant to be tougher because most of the men charged in the operation did not have criminal records. “I cannot be prosecutor and judge at the same time. It is the provenance of judges to make the sentences,” she said. Defense lawyers said that in cases like the ones Ms. Pirro brought, it was easier to get defendants who did not have criminal records to plead guilty, in part because they wanted to avoid the publicity of a trial. And the pleas to misdemeanor charges kept Ms. Pirro’s conviction rate high. Bennett L. Gershman, a professor of law at Pace University in Westchester and a former Manhattan assistant district attorney, who is a frequent critic of Ms. Pirro’s tactics, said that the lack of prison sentences in her sting cases also reflected the evidence developed in the operation. “The responses by judges show that they think these cases are not strong enough, that the defendants are not culpable to the extent that they should receive prison terms,” Mr. Gershman said. “It seems that the court is looking at these cases more as social nuisances than serious criminal acts.” Among those arrested in Ms. Pirro’s sting operation, conducted by her office’s high-technology crimes bureau, were teachers, lawyers, a lighting technician for a rock band, an actuary, an auto mechanic, a postal worker, a medical student, a fitness trainer and a mathematician. “People thought predators were guys in movie theaters or in parks wearing raincoats,” Ms. Pirro said. “We showed they are from every economic strata and professional field.” The vast majority of the cases in Ms. Pirro’s undercover sting operation involved men exchanging written electronic communications with investigators whom they thought were teenage children, but in some instances the offenders also sent explicit sexual images over the Internet or were found to have pornography on their computers. For the most part, the arrests in the stings were made when the individuals arrived at prearranged locations thinking that they were going to meet the boys or girls they believed they had been communicating with over the Internet. In a number of cases, these men had condoms and petroleum jelly with them, and, in some instances, showed up with props like handcuffs and rope. Sometimes, the adults even brought stuffed animals to give to the youngsters. Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, lauded Ms. Pirro for pursuing Internet pedophiles and contended that her job had been made harder because state courts tended to impose more lenient sentences in such cases than federal courts do. “I think what she has done is exactly the kind of aggressive prosecution effort that we need for this problem,” Mr. Allen said. “And if you can’t get prison time, you are still creating a record, identifying an offender and providing a conviction, so that next time the sentence will be more substantial.” One former federal prosecutor, William I. Aronwald, a White Plains criminal defense lawyer who represented two men who were arrested in the stings, praised Ms. Pirro for being one of the first district attorneys in the state to pursue those kinds of sex cases “full bore.” But he said that she tried to manipulate and overstate the significance of the operation for political gain. “By constantly harping on the sex sting cases, I think that she was pandering to the bedroom community, hoping people would say that she was a crusader who took all these offenders off the streets,” Mr. Aronwald said. Ms. Pirro dismissed criticism from Mr. Aronwald and others that she had ignored more-important areas of law enforcement. “We prosecuted and convicted about 100 made members and associates of organized crime for murder, loan-sharking, assault, organized criminal enterprises and gambling,” she said. “We prosecuted and convicted more than 200 corrupt officials.”

Attorneys General
Sex Crimes
Pirro Jeanine
Elections
New York State


Lawyer and Author Objects to Google Book Deal

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — A growing chorus of authors, academics and other book industry figures is objecting to the settlement of a class-action suit that would allow Google to profit from digital versions of millions of books it has scanned from libraries. When the settlement was announced last October, Google and the groups representing authors and publishers who had originally sued the company hailed the agreement as a public good. Readers and researchers would have access to millions of out-of-print and rarely seen books online, libraries nationwide would gain access to new volumes in electronic form and authors and publishers would have new ways to profit from digital copies of their works. More recently, those questioning the agreement, which is subject to a court review, have raised concerns about whether it is fair to authors, whether it protects the privacy of people whose reading habits might be tracked and whether Google is being improperly given what amounts to exclusive rights to commercialize millions of out-of-print books. The Justice Department has begun an antitrust investigation. In the latest objection , Scott E. Gant, an author and partner at Boies Schiller & Flexner, a prominent Washington law firm, plans to file a sweeping opposition to the settlement on Wednesday urging the court to reject it. “This is a predominantly commercial transaction and one that should be undertaken through the normal commercial process, which is negotiation and informed consent,” Mr. Gant said in an interview. Google and its partners are “trying to ram this through so that millions of copyright holders will have no idea that this is happening.” Unlike most previous objections to the project, which focused on policy issues and recommended modifications to the settlement, Mr. Gant argues that the agreement, which gives Google commercial rights to millions of books without having to negotiate for them individually, amounts to an abuse of the class-action process. He also contends that it does not sufficiently compensate authors and does not adequately notify and represent all the authors affected. Legal experts, who had not seen the filing but heard a description of it, said it could be the most direct attack on the agreement so far. “It may be the most fundamental challenge to the settlement yet,” said James Grimmelmann, an associate professor at the Institute for Information Law and Policy at New York Law School, a critic of the agreement whose blog tracks filings and commentary related to it. The court has set a Sept. 4 deadline for briefs on the settlement and has scheduled a hearing for early October. Objections to the settlement have been raised by groups including the National Writers Union, the American Society of Journalists and Authors, representatives of the faculty of the University of California and the literary arm of the William Morris Endeavor entertainment agency. The settlement has plenty of backers. Google and its former adversaries, the Authors Guild and the Association of American Publishers, who originally sued Google in 2005 in Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York, continue to promote its benefits, and say it does not create a monopoly. Some outside groups, including the Association of Independent California Colleges and Universities and the National Federation of the Blind, have supported it. The parties to the settlement, who had not seen Mr. Gant’s filing, dismissed his stand, saying that the agreement was an appropriate use of the class-action rules, that the Authors Guild fairly represented all authors and that those whose books might become part of Google’s database had been appropriately notified. “It is not surprising that for something this big and interesting, there will be multiple viewpoints, including some critics,” said Daphne Keller, managing product counsel at Google. “The rights holder has 100 percent control and choice,” said Richard Sarnoff, former chairman of the Association of American Publishers and co-chairman of the American unit of Bertelsmann , the parent company of Random House . “If any author doesn’t want Google to be marketing or displaying their work, within 48 hours any of these works get pulled by Google.” But Mr. Gant, who wrote “We’re All Journalists Now: The Transformation of the Press and Reshaping of the Law in the Internet Age” and is filing the action on his own behalf, not his firm’s, insisted that class actions were never intended to establish the kind of licensing agreement that Google obtained. Legal scholars say that class actions have been used to reshape institutions and industries, as this settlement appears to do. “It is an interesting challenge, but how the court will respond is uncertain,” said Deborah R. Hensler, a professor at the Stanford University Law School. While not opposing the settlement outright, William Morris advised its clients to opt out of it, on the grounds that it set non-negotiable royalty terms for works that are out-of-print but still in copyright. The Authors Guild has disputed that, saying authors have the right to renegotiate the terms at any time. “I opted out of the settlement just on ornery grounds,” said Christopher Buckley , author of “Thank You for Smoking” and “Losing Mum and Pup,” a memoir. He said he was suspicious of the claims by Google and the Authors Guild that the settlement would help breathe new life into out-of-print works. “I think books either stay in print or don’t pretty much on their own,” he said. He said he was skeptical that the agreement was increasing the public good. “Whenever I hear capitalism proclaiming noble motives,” he said, “something makes me check my wallet.”

Google
Books
Copyrights
Google Book Search
Computers and the Internet
Lawsuit


Banker of Standard Chartered Held in Investigation

Abstract: SHANGHAI — A Standard Chartered banker has been detained by the police in eastern China on suspicion that she aided a wealthy client who was accused of having fled the country with millions of dollars in state assets. The banker, Wu Yidian Eden, a 31-year-old naturalized Singaporean citizen, has been held since March 6 in Wuxi, a city about 125 miles west of Shanghai. She was held after about a month of questioning about one of her clients in the private banking division, according to her fiancé, Jason Tan. Ms. Wu, who was scheduled to be married later this month, has not been charged with any crime but is being held as part of the investigation, Mr. Tan, an American living in Shanghai, said. The police are apparently investigating the disappearance of an executive from a state-owned bank on suspicion that he fled with as much as $50 million, Mr. Tan said. The authorities in China have been trying to crack down on financial fraud and government officials who flee with state assets, a rather common occurrence in a country where corruption is widespread. Mr. Tan, 34, said by telephone Thursday that he did not know many details of the case. But he said that Ms. Wu had worked for about nine months in the private banking division at Standard Chartered Bank in Shanghai and that the client under suspicion had been referred to her by others within the bank. He said the man had transferred some money out of the country through Singapore. Apparently, he said, the client was an executive at a branch of the Agricultural Bank of China, one of the big four state-owned Chinese banks. Mr. Tan said he had spoken to Ms. Wu by telephone earlier Thursday. He said consular officials from Singapore were expected to visit her this week at a detention center. Jonathan Tracey, a spokesman for Standard Chartered in London, said Thursday that Ms. Wu had been detained as part of a police investigation. Mr. Tracey declined to comment further, except to say that the bank was not under investigation. A spokesman for the Wuxi police could not be reached for comment late Thursday. Standard Chartered, which has origins that date to 19th-century British colonial rule in Africa and Asia, earns a majority of its profit from corporate and wholesale banking. It has produced nine consecutive years of record profits, in large part as a result of its sharp focus on Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The bank recently announced plans to hire at least 2,000 people.

China
Wu Yidian Eden
Banking and Financial Institutions
Suits and Litigation
Standard Chartered Bank Plc


Phelps Retains Mazda Sponsorship After Apology to Chinese

Abstract: At the behest of a sponsor, Michael Phelps has recorded a video apology to the people of China, expressing his remorse over the recently published photograph showing him using a marijuana pipe. He thanked them for their support and forgiveness. The 52-second video has been posted on several Web sites in China, and one major Chinese newspaper said the video had been sent directly from the Japanese auto company Mazda, which last month signed Phelps to an endorsement deal believed to be worth more than $1 million. Phelps was signed to promote Mazda cars in China after his record-breaking eight-gold-medal performance at the Beijing Olympics last summer. In the video, Phelps begins by saying, “To my Chinese friends,” and goes on to apologize for behavior that was “regrettable and not what people have come to expect from me.” Phelps’s words are subtitled in Mandarin. Phelps, 23, never specifically addresses what the picture captured: he was at a house party in South Carolina, appearing to inhale from a marijuana pipe. After the photo was published in a British tabloid, the fallout included a three-month suspension by USA Swimming. Another of Phelps’s sponsors, Kellogg, said that it would not renew his contract. But Mazda apparently decided an apology to the Chinese would suffice. Mazda issued a statement saying it would continue its sponsorship of Phelps. “His expression of remorse and his determination to make amends, and especially his video apology and expression of thanks to the Chinese people, give us confidence that Phelps can make a healthy return to the pool and have even more brilliant achievements,” the statement said. Mazda joins other sponsors of Phelps, including Visa, Omega and Speedo, that have stuck with him. Phelps’s deal with Mazda is said to be the most lucrative sponsorship deal for a foreigner in China.

China
Marijuana
Phelps Michael
Mazda Motor Corp


Young Soccer Star Is Close to Completing His Italian Dream

Abstract: ATTERIDGEVILLE, South Africa — As a young boy, Giuseppe Rossi threw a baseball now and then, but he preferred the ball at his feet instead of in his hand. Just before his 13th birthday, he left Clifton, N.J., to play soccer and never came home. The son of Italian immigrants, Rossi joined Parma’s youth system in 2000, hoping one day to play for the Azzurri, Italy’s national team. The United States invited him to a training camp before the 2006 World Cup , but Rossi demurred, ignoring criticism that he was dismissive of American soccer and suspicion that he might be pursuing a father’s dream instead of his own. After becoming the leading goal scorer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Rossi, 22, made his debut with Italy’s senior team in October. Then, last Saturday night during a friendly against Northern Ireland in Pisa, Rossi blasted a left-footed shot from 20 yards and scored the maiden goal he had often imagined back when he was playing in his backyard in New Jersey. “It was something I’ve been waiting for a long time,” said Rossi, who scored 12 goals last season for Villarreal in the Spanish League . “Something that I always dreamed about, playing with the national team and scoring with them. A great feeling.” He made Italy’s roster for this month’s Confederations Cup , a kind of dry run for next year’s World Cup to be played here in South Africa. On Monday, Rossi is expected to play in Italy’s opening match against the United States, continuing what will amount to a yearlong audition for a World Cup spot as a forward or attacking midfielder. Italy has won the World Cup four times, and is the defending champion, but Coach Marcello Lippi is seeking someone who can provide what is translated as “fantasy,” a creative attacking style based on refined touch and vision and reliable scoring. “Rossi is a little champion,” Lippi said Tuesday after a blustery training session. “He has a lot of experience. He is a modern player. He can play with his left foot or right foot. He can play anywhere on the front line, in the middle or outside, the way Messi plays for Barcelona .” Clearly, Rossi, who is 5 feet 8 inches, feels he made the right choice in choosing national teams. “Just me living out my dream,” he said. His father, Fernando, now retired, was a successful soccer coach, and a teacher of Italian and Spanish, at Clifton High School. (His mother, Cleonilde, was also a language teacher.) Fernando Rossi heard about Parma’s youth team while the family was on vacation in Italy. Giuseppe showed inordinate skill for a boy, so an invitation was issued. He moved to Italy a month before his 13th birthday, and his father joined him, while Giuseppe’s mother and younger sister remained in New Jersey. “I always thought for Giuseppe to go to the next level, he had to go where they live and breathe soccer,” Fernando Rossi said. While Giuseppe played for various Italian national youth teams, he remained eligible to play for the United States until his 21st birthday. But when Bruce Arena, then the American manager, invited Rossi into a training camp before the 2006 World Cup, Rossi declined. His heart was set on Italy. At the time, Rossi’s professional career was in an uncertain stall. He had been signed by Manchester United at 17, but found it difficult to crack the lineup, then was loaned to Newcastle United, where he was also underutilized. If Rossi was not interested in playing for the United States, the United States was not interested in him, Arena told reporters at the time, saying, “We’re not chasing around 18-year-old players that can’t get games for their club team and tell me they want to play for Italy.” On Tuesday, Rossi said Arena’s remarks had not bothered him much. Fernando Rossi, though, said in a recent telephone interview that he thought Arena had been “out of line.” “It made it sound like Giuseppe was disrespectful,” Fernando Rossi said. “He just made a decision. A lot of people try to blame me, say I pushed the kid. I didn’t. He didn’t even ask for my input. He was big enough to make his own decision. We have to respect their choices. They are the ones who have to play the game. Giuseppe took a big chance that he would make the Italian team. It was his goal. He was born here, but he grew up soccer-wise in that environment.” In a recent telephone interview, Arena suggested he had not been quoted accurately at the time. “At the end of the day, who could argue?” he said of Rossi’s decision. “It was his dream to play for Italy. His father was influential. We tried for a while, over some time. But at the end of the day, he’s doing well in his club career and continues to have opportunities to play for his national team.” On Monday, opportunity will most likely place Rossi against the United States in the Confederations Cup. He and the American forward Jozy Altidore are both under contract to Villarreal. And midfielder Michael Bradley is a friend from youth soccer, Rossi said. “It’s a great feeling, playing against the country I came from,” Rossi said. “I’ll be playing against friends. It’ll be a great game, I’m sure.” A year from now, Rossi appears to have an inviting chance to return to South Africa for the World Cup. “I’ll just keep trying to impress and see where it takes me,” he said, a youthful journey from New Jersey verging on a magical mystery tour.