Massachusetts Justices Clear Way for New Trials in Cases Chemist May Have Tainted

Abstract: A ruling by the Supreme Judicial Court on Monday is expected to help untangle parts of the sentencing mess left by the mishandling of drug samples by a state chemist that might have tainted tens of thousands of criminal cases. In the unanimous decision, justices ruled that defendants whose convictions were based on evidence tainted by the chemist, Annie Dookhan, can seek new trials without facing added charges or a more severe sentence. “It clears a path for people to challenge — when I say people, I say thousands, maybe tens of thousands of people — to challenge their convictions without fear that prosecutors will respond by seeking to revive harsher charges or harsher sentences that were relinquished in a plea bargain,” said Matthew Segal, the legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts. Ms. Dookhan pleaded guilty in 2013 to 27 counts, including perjury, obstruction of justice and tampering with evidence, and was sentenced to three to five years in prison plus two years of probation. Prosecutors said that during her nine years at a drug lab in Boston, where she processed drug samples seized from suspects, Ms. Dookhan failed to properly test samples before declaring them positive, mixed up samples and forged signatures and lied about her credentials. Ms. Dookhan’s lawyer said she was trying to be the best chemist on staff. More than 300 people were released from prison when their convictions were voided because of the tainted evidence. One defendant, Jamell Spurill, who was rearrested shortly after being released, told the police that he loved Ms. Dookhan because her actions had gotten him out of prison. Another, Donta Hood, was charged with first-degree murder a few months after his release. But there are most likely thousands more “Dookhan defendants,” the catchall term for those whose convictions relied on possibly tainted evidence, who had already served their time by 2012 but who would nevertheless benefit from having their convictions removed. By the end of 2014, according to court papers, fewer than 1,200 defendants had filed for post-conviction relief — which Mr. Segal attributed to fear by many that they could actually face previously dropped charges or additional prison time if their cases were overturned. “This dynamic was causing the entire effort to get justice, due process, causing that effort to come to a screeching halt,” Mr. Segal said. “People were not filing new motions. People were afraid.” Last year, the state and national A.C.L.U. organizations and the law firm Foley Hoag filed a petition on behalf of three defendants who had pleaded guilty based on Ms. Dookhan’s tainted evidence seeking protection for defendants and a mechanism to ensure faster reviews of cases. Image Annie Dookhan at her arraignment in 2012. Credit Pool photo by Steven Senne Lawyers representing prosecutors in Suffolk and Essex Counties — named as respondents — opposed the petition, which they said was based on hypothetical assertions. They said procedures were already in place to resolve post-conviction motions made by Dookhan defendants, and said there was no support for petitioners’ concerns about vindictive prosecutions. The prosecutors argued in late 2014 that defendants routinely face their original charges after repudiating a plea bargain. “In fact, such revival is consistent with the longstanding practices in Massachusetts,” the filing said. But Justice Francis X. Spina wrote that restoring all of defendants’ original charges would be unfair, because Dookhan defendants’ decisions to withdraw guilty pleas “must be viewed as an inevitable result of the disclosure of Dookhan’s misconduct.” “That being the case,” Justice Spina wrote, “the commonwealth cannot simply reprosecute the petitioners as if the plea agreements had never existed, thereby giving the commonwealth a second bite at the proverbial apple in its efforts to convict the petitioners.” The ruling, Justice Spina wrote, essentially caps a defendant’s sentence to what it was under the plea agreement. In 2013, a lawyer hired to review the issue by the state said some 40,000 cases could have been affected by Ms. Dookhan’s misconduct; at the hearing in January, lawyers for the prosecutors said that number was likely closer to 20,000. At the same hearing, a lawyer representing the state’s public defenders said it has been difficult to determine exactly who was affected. In Monday’s ruling, the justices stopped short of imposing a so-called “global remedy,” which would have vacated the convictions of all of the Dookhan defendants. The ruling encourages prosecutors across the state to provide information to speed up the process of identifying those defendants, as prosecutors in Suffolk and Essex counties had done earlier in the case. Jake Wark, a spokesman for Daniel F. Conley, the district attorney for Suffolk County, called the ruling “lopsided.” “These convicted defendants now have nothing to lose and everything to gain by withdrawing their evidence-based admissions of guilt,” Mr. Wark said, adding, “It provides defendants who unequivocally admitted their guilt the second bite at the proverbial apple that the high court was so careful to withhold from the Commonwealth.”

Massachusetts
Annie Dookhan
False arrest
State supreme court
Forensic science
Crime
Chemistry
ACLU
Lawsuits


Mexico’s Finance Minister Resigns Amid Fallout From Trump Visit

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — One of President Enrique Peña Nieto’s top ministers and closest allies resigned on Wednesday, an apparent casualty of Mr. Peña Nieto’s wildly unpopular meeting last week with Donald J. Trump. The spectacle of the Mexican president standing next to the Republican candidate who has disparaged Mexicans prompted widespread dismay and anger here, and reportedly divided Mr. Peña Nieto’s cabinet. Luis Videgaray, the finance minister who stepped down on Wednesday, had championed the idea of inviting Mr. Trump to Mexico City over the objections of other ministers, according to several Mexican news media reports, though Mr. Peña Nieto insisted it was his own initiative. Mr. Peña Nieto announced Mr. Videgaray’s resignation at a news conference. He did not give a reason for Mr. Videgaray’s departure. But some analysts interpreted it as the latest, and most dramatic, effort by the president to regain the trust of the Mexican public following his meeting with Mr. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, who has made criticism of Mexicans and Mexico an incendiary motif of his campaign. “It will help mitigate the anger,” said José Antonio Crespo Mendoza, a professor of politics at Centro de Investigación y Docencia Económicas, a Mexican research and higher education center. “President Peña Nieto realized things could not stay as they were, and that they could no longer insist that it had been a good call” to invite Mr. Trump. Mr. Trump cast his visit as a statesmanlike effort to reach out to a country he had alienated. But hours after his meeting with Mr. Peña Nieto, he gave a combative speech in Phoenix that struck many of the anti-immigrant themes that have defined his candidacy. The episode has left Mr. Peña Nieto and his government embarrassed at a time when his approval ratings were already at record lows over rising crime, poor economic growth and conflict of interest scandals. In the days after the meeting, the president scrambled to contain the fallout and to repair the damage — using a television interview, a newspaper column and a town-hall-style meeting held to mark his annual “Informe de Gobierno,” Mexico’s equivalent of the State of the Union address. But these steps seemed to do little to mollify many Mexicans, who accused the president of humiliating the nation, first by inviting Mr. Trump and then by failing to use the opportunity to push back against the candidate’s criticism of Mexico and Mexicans. The discontent has continued to simmer on social media and in the news, and an anti-Peña Nieto demonstration has been called for Sept. 15. On Tuesday, an opposition senator — seeking to provide the defense of Mexico that he said Mr. Peña Nieto had failed to offer — submitted a bill that would empower the government to fight several of Mr. Trump’s foreign policy proposals, including his promise to force Mexico to pay for the construction of a border wall and his threat to withdraw the United States from the North American Free Trade Agreement. Image Luis Videgaray Credit Henry Romero/Reuters “Of all the scandals Peña Nieto has faced, this is the most devastating,” said Alfonso Zárate, a political analyst and columnist in Mexico City. From Mr. Trump’s perspective, the trip was a risky move from the start, given the potential for embarrassment if the Mexican president were to criticize him publicly. It came together after Jared Kushner, the son-in-law and campaign adviser to Mr. Trump, began to lay the groundwork with Mexican officials in early August. Mr. Kushner dealt with Mr. Videgaray and other government officials in negotiating how the meeting would happen, according to a close ally of Mr. Trump who was involved in the arrangements. Mr. Trump’s visit was largely incident-free, and provided his campaign with pleasing visuals of the Republican nominee standing side by side with a head of state. But any positive effect was undone by Mr. Peña Nieto’s insistence afterward that he had told Mr. Trump that Mexico would not pay for a border wall, a claim that contradicted Mr. Trump’s account. Even so, the damage to Mr. Peña Nieto seems to have been far worse. While Mr. Videgaray’s resignation may have been intended to stanch the political bleeding in Mexico City and salvage the president’s standing, it also shifted the odds in the contest for future leadership of the governing Institutional Revolutionary Party, or P.R.I. In addition, it left Mr. Peña Nieto without one of his closest confidantes in his administration. Mr. Videgaray, who holds a doctorate in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, had been a rising star in the P.R.I., and his name was often mentioned as a possible presidential contender in 2018. He had worked for the president since 2005, when Mr. Peña Nieto was the governor of the State of Mexico, helping him restructure the state’s debt and coordinating Mr. Peña Nieto’s 2012 presidential bid. Mr. Videgaray became the president’s closest ally and adviser in the cabinet — “the power behind the throne,” Mr. Zárate said. His reputation was tarnished by reports he had bought a house at a golf club from a government contractor, though not enough to force him out of the cabinet or out of contention for 2018. The president, who is known for his loyalty to his inner circle, stuck by him. Have You Done Something to Support or Oppose Trump’s Brands? Have you registered your disapproval or approval for Donald J. Trump’s candidacy by, say, discarding or returning Trump-brand clothes — or by booking a night at a Trump hotel? We want to hear your stories. Indeed, Mr. Peña Nieto was accompanied by Mr. Videgaray when he made the announcement on Wednesday, and was warm and effusive toward his longtime adviser, thanking him for being “committed to Mexico and loyal to the president of Mexico.” Mr. Zárate said the departure of Mr. Videgaray was “very painful for the president.” He added, “we all know the enormous influence that he has.’’ “It leaves the president orphaned,” Mr. Zárate said. As finance minister, Mr. Videgaray was at the center of the administration’s efforts to overhaul the country’s telecommunications and energy sectors. He successfully pushed to open the nation’s oil industry , which had been a state-run monopoly since the 1930s. He also championed a tax overhaul that increased tax revenue but earned him some enemies within the business community. During his tenure, however, Mexico saw slow economic growth and a weak peso, and the country’s standing with credit-rating agencies has suffered. Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings have each lowered their outlook from stable to negative in recent months. Economic performance has been so underwhelming that some analysts believe Mr. Videgaray’s departure was an inevitability discussed well before Mr. Trump’s visit. Furthermore, Mr. Videgaray is rumored to be a possible P.R.I. candidate for the governorship of the State of Mexico. “I see this as a clear electoral play,” said Genaro Lozano, a professor of United States government and society at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. “The State of Mexico is what they are betting on, what they have their eye on. It is one of the largest states in terms of population, with a solid and powerful P.R.I. structure, electoral support base and political mobilization. Even if they would put Trump’s cousin as candidate for governor, P.R.I. would win.” The cabinet shuffle occurred a day before the Mexican government was scheduled to present its 2017 budget, a job that now shifts to the new finance minister, José Antonio Meade, whose appointment was announced at the news conference. Mr. Meade, 47, who has a doctorate in economics from Yale University, has been a significant player in the last two administrations. He was finance minister under Mr. Peña Nieto’s predecessor, Felipe Calderón, and Mr. Peña Nieto made him the foreign minister in 2012. In that post, he broke from his reputation as an apolitical technocrat when he led an angry defense of the government against a United Nations report condemning Mexico for its use of torture on suspects in detention. Thirteen months ago, Mr. Peña Nieto appointed him to head the Social Development Ministry, a post that elevated Mr. Meade to the level of a possible presidential candidate as he traveled around the country promoting the government’s programs for the poor.

Mexico
Mexico City
Luis Videgaray
Enrique Pena Nieto
Donald Trump
2016 Presidential Election
Appointments and Executive Changes
Immigration
PRI


Rivera Falters in Ninth and Blue Jays Escape With a Win in the 10th

Abstract: TORONTO — Just the other day Ivan Nova was speaking fondly of Rogers Centre, where he made his first start for the Yankees last August. He liked its atmosphere and the visiting clubhouse, and the feeling he got when he emerged from the dugout and gazed through the roof and saw the open sky. But in his first appearance back, Nova was thrust into an unfamiliar situation that produced a 6-5 loss in 10 innings to the Toronto Blue Jays on Tuesday. After scoring twice in the ninth against Mariano Rivera , saddling him with his first blown save of the season, the Blue Jays scored the winning run off Nova when Travis Snider’s two-out double scored Edwin Encarnacion. On a night when Alex Rodriguez rested with a sore oblique muscle, Manager Joe Girardi was similarly short-handed in the bullpen after the normal progression of late-inning relievers — Dave Robertson, Joba Chamberlain, Rafael Soriano, Rivera. Instead of Boone Logan or the rookies Hector Noesi and Lance Pendleton, Girardi chose Nova, who last pitched Friday. “You’re looking at the guy with the most experience,” Girardi said. It was an unexpected ending to a game that the Yankees trailed after the first inning, but not again until Snider’s liner split the right-center-field gap. Rivera had not allowed a run in eight and one-third innings, spanning nine outings, but he faced a lineup that under the new manager John Farrell is fashioning a new identity. After hitting the most home runs in baseball last year, the Blue Jays now have stolen the most bases. That aggressive approach buoyed them against Rivera in the ninth. Their most daring gambit came not from Yunel Escobar, who bolted home from third when Rivera’s pitch bounced away from Russell Martin — “I was upset at that one,” Rivera said — but from John McDonald, who replaced the injured Aaron Hill in the sixth. With runners on first and third and one out, McDonald noticed Mark Teixeira holding Adam Lind close at first base. He nudged a high-and-inside pitch up the first-base line for a safety squeeze. Jose Bautista dashed home with the tying run, sliding ahead of the flip from Teixeira. “That’s why you run it,” Teixeira said. “Because when it’s run well, it’s almost impossible to defend.” In five and a third innings, A. J. Burnett provided a snapshot of his career — alternately maddening and dominant — while allowing three runs (two earned) and six hits. His overpowering curveball finished off five of his six strikeouts, but his fastball deserted him, and he walked five. “I’ve got to throw more strikes, that’s what it comes down to,” Burnett said. Two of the walks came in the sixth inning, when Robertson replaced him with one out, the bases loaded and the Yankees leading, 4-3. Robertson blew a fastball past Escobar for the second out, then unfurled a slow curve that Snider flailed at for strike three. Burnett had a 14.04 earned run average in two starts at Rogers Centre last season, the first of which bore an eerie resemblance to the outset of Tuesday’s game. Once again, Jose Bautista’s first at-bat of the year against Burnett resulted in a mammoth home run, this one landing in the second deck in left field to put Toronto ahead, 1-0. However well Burnett has pitched this season, the fear of his unraveling always exists. “The main part is him being mentally ready every pitch,” Martin said before the game. That inability has sabotaged him in the past, as Burnett himself has acknowledged, but he has shown a greater capacity to move past a poorly executed pitch and retain his focus. From 60 feet 6 inches, Burnett acquitted himself fairly well Tuesday, escaping unscathed from a first-and-third jam with one out in the third, then stranding two runners in the fourth. Throwing from a shorter distance presented a problem, his third-inning error costing a run. After fielding Lind’s one-out comebacker, Burnett whirled and ran toward Bautista, who danced between second and third. Burnett chased him back to second, but threw low and a little wide of Derek Jeter, the ball glancing off his glove. Both runners were safe. Aaron Hill knocked in Bautista with a sacrifice fly, evening the score at 2-2. In Kyle Drabek, acquired from Philadelphia for Roy Halladay, the Yankees faced a pitcher somewhat reminiscent of Burnett — a powerful right-hander with an intimidating fastball but erratic control. They glimpsed his potential last Sept. 28, his third career start, and he entered Tuesday with a 1.93 E.R.A. That increased in the second, soon after Drabek issued consecutive walks to Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez. Jorge Posada’s single drove in Swisher, and Martin followed by grounding into a run-scoring double play that put the Yankees ahead, 2-1. The Yankees’ home run total stands at 29 after Teixeira and Curtis Granderson homered in consecutive inning, their most through 15 games since beginning play in New York in 1903, the Elias Sports Bureau said. Granderson was on first when Teixeira crushed a two-run shot in the sixth to snap a 2-2 tie, then matched him in the seventh by lining a homer to right-center, extending their lead to 5-3. But a two-run lead that seemed a sure victory heading into the last of the ninth was lost by Rivera and a makeshift bullpen.

Toronto Blue Jays
Baseball
New York Yankees
Rivera Mariano
Nova Ivan
Burnett A J


Car Stereo Ejects the CD in Favor of Newer Formats

Abstract: Selecting CDs for a car trip and juggling them in and out of a dashboard slot seems passé, now that you can carry hours of music on a digital music player, a U.S.B. thumb drive, a pocket-size hard drive or a memory card the size of a postage stamp. So Blaupunkt left the CD player out of its Brisbane SD48 car stereo, supplementing its radio tuner with inputs and card slots for all of those compact music carriers instead. The front panel has an analog auxiliary input, for connection to the headphone jack of a portable player or satellite-radio adapter, and an SD/MMC memory-card slot. A U.S.B. adapter cable plugs into the back. There are options to configure the Brisbane for use with iPods, Bluetooth or wired-in cellphones, navigation systems and CD changers. The Brisbane also has a built-in amplifier with four 50-watt channels, and four-channel preamp outputs for use with external amplifiers. Available for $160 from Crutchfield and other retailers, the Brisbane fits standard radio slots, and its dial illumination color can be adjusted to match virtually any car’s dashboard lights. The front panel is removable to deter theft. IVAN BERGER


Rookie Russell Henley Wins Sony Open

Abstract: Russell Henley became the first PGA Tour rookie to win his debut in 10 years with a record-setting performance in the Sony Open in Honolulu. Tied for the lead with another rookie, Scott Langley, to start the final round, Henley closed with a seven-under-par 63 for a three-shot win over Tim Clark. Henley finished at 24-under 256, breaking the Sony Open scoring record by four shots. It was the second-lowest score for a 72-hole tournament in PGA Tour history. The win gives Henley an invitation to the Masters. Louis Oosthuizen shot a six-under-par 66 to beat Scott Jamieson of Scotland by a stroke for the Volvo Champions title in Durban, South Africa. Oosthuizen finished at 16 under. Jamieson, who led by five shots heading into Sunday, had a final round 72. The win elevated Oosthuizen toa career-high fourth in the world rankings.


Oklahoma State Makes Texas an Extra in Season’s Drama

Abstract: AUSTIN, Tex. — It has been a season rich in bizarre anomalies in college football. Consider that Missouri, with its long history of athletic irrelevance, has emerged as the key figure in conference realignment. Then there’s Boise State, which could be a member of the Big East by the end of this week. And don’t forget once-mighty Texas, less than two years removed from an appearance in the national title game, proving once again that its sputtering football program can’t back up its boardroom leverage, branding power and market reach. Perhaps the greatest paradox of this twisted football season is that the Longhorn Network, the controversial television channel that helped drive Texas A&M to the Southeastern Conference, is not available in the press box at Texas Memorial Stadium. As Texas muddles through its second consecutive undistinguished season, the Longhorns have rarely provided highlights for their distribution-challenged network. On Saturday, No. 6 Oklahoma State blistered Texas, 38-26, winning in Austin for the second straight year after not registering a victory here since 1944. While Texas still looks to be searching for an identity after a 5-7 finish last year, Oklahoma State again showcased the offensive fortitude and defensive apathy that make it only a tentative contender for the Bowl Championship Series title. Oklahoma State Coach Mike Gundy said that he believed Alabama, Louisiana State and Oklahoma were the country’s three best teams, and that the Cowboys had a distance to travel before joining them. “When you start playing to get into that elite group, all three phases have to do it,” he said. “You can’t be just good in one phase.” Oklahoma State’s only stellar phase is its hurry-up offense, which racked up 420 yards and an average of 6.2 yards a play against Texas. But the Cowboys’ defense looked porous in allowing Malcolm Brown to run for 135 yards on 19 carries, and their special teams negated a 100-yard kick return by giving one up on the ensuing kickoff. After being rolled last week by Oklahoma, 55-17, Texas mustered more of a fight, but it still looks like a shadow of the program that annually contended for the Big 12 title. Texas is 1-7 in its past eight Big 12 games, including five consecutive losses to ranked Big 12 teams. The Longhorns’ defense couldn’t muster a decisive stop Saturday after Texas cut an 18-point Oklahoma State lead to 28-24. Any hopes of a Texas victory dissipated when the Cowboys’ Jeremy Smith ran untouched through the middle of the Longhorns’ defense for a 74-yard score. With a 6-0 record, Oklahoma State has inserted itself into the national title conversation and will be near the top five when the first B.C.S. standings are released Sunday. The Cowboys’ Bedlam game against No. 3 Oklahoma on Dec. 3 in Stillwater will surely be a marquee matchup, but it is hard to imagine the Cowboys jumping past Wisconsin or Stanford if those two teams remain undefeated. Justin Blackmon finished with seven catches for 74 yards and a touchdown for the Cowboys. But quarterback Brandon Weeden, who was 23 of 41 for 218 yards, looked pedestrian. Weeden’s most important play might have been accidentally stepping out of bounds for a safety — an error that negated an interception return for a touchdown by Texas safety Blake Gideon. Although Weeden recorded no interceptions, he nearly threw two in the fourth quarter. “Weeden played good, not great,” Gundy said. Perhaps the biggest indictment of the Texas program is that it was pounded at home by an Oklahoma State team that did not play very well. The Cowboys finished with five dropped passes and never got on track offensively for long stretches. “We had some issues, and we’ll address those tomorrow,” Gundy said. “We have to get better.” Texas (4-2) will almost certainly make a bowl this year, but any hopes for a drastic turnaround this season after the hiring of Bryan Harsin as a co-offensive coordinator and Manny Diaz as the defensive coordinator have been dashed. Texas’ only prominent role in the football landscape this year has been in realignment, and now the Longhorns are handcuffed, just like everyone else, waiting for a decision on what Missouri will do. Texas is no longer a Big 12 bully on or off the field, as it has made numerous concessions to try to hold the Big 12 together. Now all it can do is hope that Missouri stays. “I really don’t know,” Oklahoma State’s president, Burns Hargis, said of Missouri’s decision before the game. “I hope they stay.” The notion that Texas can control the Big 12 as its fief becomes almost humorous when the Longhorns play this poorly on the field. Texas’ boardroom maneuvers played a large part in driving out Nebraska (Big Ten) and Texas A&M (SEC), and created much of the uncertainty and tumult on the college sports landscape. (Oklahoma and Oklahoma State seemed interested in leaving as well, but the Pacific-12 wasn’t interested unless Texas joined them.) But as the sun set on a day with few highlights for Texas fans, the public-address announcer had one plea for the 100,101 fans filing out. “Keep calling your TV service providers,” he said during the fourth quarter, “and ask for the Longhorn Network.” Highlights, however, will be shown sparingly this week.

Football
College Athletics
University of Texas at Austin
Oklahoma State University
Big 12 Conference
Brown Mack
Football (College)


Florida Woman Gets Life Sentence in Deaths of Husband and His Mother

Abstract: WHITE PLAINS (AP) — A woman who was convicted of orchestrating the killings of her millionaire husband and her mother-in-law was sentenced on Monday to life in prison. The defendant, Narcy Novack, of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., waived her right to appear at the sentencing, apparently in protest, and listened from an adjoining room. Judge Kenneth M. Karas of Federal District Court here called it “her final act of cowardice.” Ms. Novack did the same in June when she and her brother, Cristobal Veliz, were convicted of hiring two men who carried out the 2009 beating deaths of her husband, Ben Novack Jr., in New York and of his mother, Bernice Novack, in Florida. Mr. Veliz, of Brooklyn, was also sentenced Monday to a life term. The defendants were also convicted of domestic violence and stalking. Ms. Novack was convicted of money laundering and transporting stolen property, and Mr. Veliz was convicted of witness tampering. Mr. Novack, 53, was the son of the man who built the Fontainebleau hotel in Miami Beach, a celebrity hangout in the 1950s and ’60s, which was a location for the movies “Scarface” and “Goldfinger.” He was beaten to death with dumbbells in July 2009 at a hotel in Rye Brook, N.Y. Three months earlier, Mr. Novack’s mother, who was 86, was fatally beaten with a plumber’s wrench in Fort Lauderdale. Prosecutors said Narcy Novack, 56, a native of Ecuador, feared that her husband would divorce her and that a prenuptial agreement would bar her from the family estate. Her lawyer, Howard Tanner, sought to have the sentence capped at 27 years, arguing that she had a lesser role in Bernice Novack’s death. But the judge said she was “the person behind the scenes.” Mr. Veliz’s lawyer, Michael Keesee, also asked for a lesser sentence. The attackers, who cooperated with the prosecution, have yet to be sentenced. Mr. Tanner said he would soon file an appeal of Ms. Novack’s conviction. “She is still asserting her innocence,” he said.

Novack Narcy
Veliz Cristobal
Sentences (Criminal)
White Plains (NY)
Karas Kenneth M
Murders and Attempted Murders
Fort Lauderdale (Fla)
Novack Ben Jr
Novack Bernice
Rye Brook (NY)


For Now, Judge Lets Qualcomm Use Some of Rival’s Technology

Abstract: LOS ANGELES (Reuters) — A federal judge in California ruled on Monday that the wireless chip maker Qualcomm could keep selling through January 2009 some chips whose designs infringe patents held by the Broadcom Corporation . However, the judge, James V. Selna of Federal District Court, ruled that Qualcomm must immediately stop selling third-generation, or 3G, WCDMA cellular chips that infringe the Broadcom patents. Qualcomm also is restricted to selling only the EV-DO cellular chips it was offering as of May 29 — when a jury in Santa Ana, Calif., found that the company had infringed the Broadcom patents — and only to customers it had as of that date, a Broadcom lawyer said. A Broadcom spokesman had no immediate comment because the company’s lawyers were still reviewing the ruling. A Qualcomm representative could not immediately be reached for comment. Qualcomm also must pay mandatory royalties to Broadcom for the chips it sells during the “sunset period,” which is to end Jan. 31, 2009. Judge Selna ruled that after that date, Qualcomm would be permanently barred from infringing those Broadcom patents, which cover video compression for mobile phones, walkie-talkie-style technology and simultaneous communications between different types of networks. Broadcom had asked the judge to impose mandatory license fees for two of the infringed patents for a limited set of Qualcomm products. The licenses would have expired after an 18-month sunset period, after which Qualcomm would have been barred from using the technology. Broadcom also wanted an immediate and permanent ban with no exceptions for the third patent, on its QChat walkie-talkie function. Qualcomm had offered to pay three times the amount of a “reasonable royalty” so that it could continue using Broadcom’s patented technology with no injunction.

Broadcom Corporation
Computer Chips
Inventions and Patents
Qualcomm Inc
Wireless Communications
Cellular Telephones


Dancing the Night Away, With a Higher Purpose

Abstract: COLORADO SPRINGS — In their floor-length gowns, up-dos and tiaras, the 70 or so young women swept past two harpists and into a gilt-and-brocade dining room at the lavish Broadmoor Hotel, on the arms of their much older male companions. The girls, ages early grade school to college, had come with their fathers, stepfathers and future fathers-in-law last Friday night to the ninth annual Father-Daughter Purity Ball. The first two hours of the gala passed like any somewhat awkward night out with parents, the men doing nearly all the talking and the girls struggling to cut their chicken. But after dessert, the 63 men stood and read aloud a covenant “before God to cover my daughter as her authority and protection in the area of purity.” The gesture signaled that the fathers would guard their daughters from what evangelicals consider a profoundly corrosive “hook-up culture.” The evening, which alternated between homemade Christian rituals and giddy dancing, was a joyous public affirmation of the girls’ sexual abstinence until they wed. Yet the graying men in the shadow of their glittering daughters were the true focus of the night. To ensure their daughters’ purity, they were asked to set an example and to hew to evangelical ideals in a society they say tempts them as much as it does their daughters. “It’s also good for me,” said Terry Lee, 54, who attended the ball for a second year, this time with his youngest daughter, Rachel, 16. “It inspires me to be spiritual and moral in turn. If I’m holding them to such high standards, you can be sure I won’t be cheating on their mother.” Relying on word-of-mouth that brought families mostly from the thriving evangelical community in Colorado Springs and from as far as Virginia and California, Randy and Lisa Wilson built their Purity Ball into an annual gala that costs about $10,000, financed by ticket sales. This year, about 150 people attended the dinner, purity ceremony and dance. The purity pledges for the fathers to sign stood in the middle of the dinner tables. Unlike other purity balls, the daughters here do not make a pledge, said Amanda Robb, a New York-based writer researching a book about the abstinence movement who was at the Broadmoor event. “Fathers, our daughters are waiting for us,” Mr. Wilson, 49, told the men. “They are desperately waiting for us in a culture that lures them into the murky waters of exploitation. They need to be rescued by you, their dad.” The Wilsons organized what was considered the country’s first father-daughter purity ball 10 years ago, as their oldest girls entered adolescence. Randy Wilson is the national field director of church ministries for the Family Research Council, a conservative advocacy group, and Lisa Wilson is a stay-at-home mom. “The culture says you’re free to sleep with as many people as you want to,” said Khrystian Wilson, 20, one of the Wilsons’ seven children, including five girls. “What does that get you but complete chaos?” For the Wilsons and the growing number of people who have come to their balls, premarital sex is seen as inevitably destructive, especially to girls, who they say suffer more because they are more emotional than boys. Fathers, they say, play a crucial role in helping them stay pure. “Something I need from dad is affirmation, being told I’m beautiful,” said Jordyn Wilson, 19, another daughter of Randy and Lisa. “If we don’t get it from home, we will go out to the culture and get it from them.” Recent studies have suggested that close relationships between fathers and daughters can reduce the risk of early sexual activity among girls and teenage pregnancy. But studies have also shown that most teenagers who say they will remain abstinent, like those at the ball, end up having sex before marriage, and they are far less likely to use condoms than their peers. No one knows for certain how many purity balls are held nationwide, because they are grass-roots efforts. The Abstinence Clearinghouse, an advocacy group, says it sells hundreds of purity ball kits annually to interested groups all over the country and abroad. Abstinence is never mentioned at the Colorado Springs Purity Ball, but a litany of fathers’ duties is — mainly, making time to get involved in their daughters’ lives and setting an example. In a ballroom after dinner, bare but for a seven-foot wooden cross at one end, the fathers and daughters gathered along the walls. Kevin Moore, there with his three girls, told the men they were taking a stand for their families and their nation. Then he and Mr. Wilson walked to the cross with two large swords, which they held up before it to make an arch. Each father and his daughter walked under the arch and knelt before the cross. Synthesized hymns played. The fathers sometimes held their daughters and whispered a short prayer, and then the girls each placed a white rose, representing purity, at the foot of the cross. Mr. Lee and Rachel walked away holding hands. The girls, many wearing purity rings, made silent vows. “I promise to God and myself and my family that I will stay pure in my thoughts and actions until I marry,” said Katie Swindler, 16. Her father, Jim, said he brought her to show her how much he cherished her after almost losing her in a car accident two years ago. Loss tinged many at the ball. Stephen Clark, 64, came to the ball for the first time with Ashley Avery, 17, who is “promised” to his son, Zane, 16. Mr. Clark brought Ashley, in her white satin gown, to show her that he loved her like a daughter, he said, something he felt he needed to underscore after Ashley’s father left her family a year ago. Mrs. Wilson, the organizer, said that her father abandoned her family when she was 2, and that Mr. Wilson’s father was distant. One father said he had terminal cancer and came with his two daughters. Others were trying to do better in their second marriages. “I’ve heard from fathers that this challenged them, to guard their own eyes, for example,” Mr. Wilson said. “It is a call to covenant which basically says I as my daughter’s father will be a man of integrity and purity.” If most teenage girls would not be caught dead dancing with their dads, the girls at the ball twirled for hours with their game but stiff fathers. Every half-hour, Mr. Wilson stopped the dancing so that fathers could bless their daughters before everyone. The dancing continued past the ball’s official end at midnight. Mr. Wilson had to tell people to go home. The fathers took their flushed and sometimes sleepy girls toward the exit. But one father took his two young daughters for a walk around the hotel’s dark, glassy lake.

Sex
Families and Family Life
Evangelical Movement
Children and Youth
Colorado Springs (Colo)


Officials Admit Possible Loss of Life in New Zealand Mine Blast

Abstract: AUCKLAND, New Zealand — A New Zealand police official admitted for the first time on Monday the possibility of fatalities from a coal mine explosion that trapped 29 men underground near the west coast of the country’s South Island. “We still remain optimistic, we’re still keeping an open mind,” Police Superintendent Gary Knowles said. “But we are planning for all outcomes and as part of this process we’re planning for the possible loss of life as a result of what’s occurred underground.” The goal of the operation at the Pike River Coal Ltd. mine had not changed, Mr. Knowles said. “It is a search and rescue operation. It will remain that and we will keep pushing on until we have a result.” The men have been trapped underground since the explosion last Friday rocked the mine, located near the town of Greymouth. Pike River Coal, owner of the mine, said the site is the largest known deposit of hard coking coal in the country. The company said its coal preparation plant at the site is the largest in New Zealand. Rescuers were still being held back from entering the mine on Monday because of potentially explosive gasses inside. Air quality tests were being conducted every 30 minutes. There has been no contact with the miners since the explosion. Two miners managed to escape immediately after the blast. Work on a shaft being drilled down into the mine to test air quality was progressing, Mr. Knowles said, and could be completed overnight. Once the shaft was finished, equipment such as a video camera or audio recording device could be lowered down. The mother of the youngest trapped miner said her son had been looking forward to starting work in the mine. Joseph Dunbar turned 17 last Thursday, and went down into the mine the following day, when the explosion happened. “I just keep thinking about how happy he was, how ecstatic he was. That’s what keeps me going,” Pip Timms said.

New Zealand
Mines and Mining
Accidents and Safety


Chrysler Loses $172 Million in Quarter, but Sales Continued Climb

Abstract: DETROIT — Chrysler on Monday said it lost $172 million in the second quarter, mostly because of the interest it was paying on its government loans, but its automotive operations were profitable for a second consecutive quarter. Chrysler’s sales, revenue and cash reserves increased, evidence that the carmaker was making progress in its long recovery from last year’s bankruptcy. Still, Chrysler is the only Detroit automaker to report a net loss so far this year, and the earnings report did not definitively answer lingering questions about Chrysler’s long-term prospects. The questions could weigh heavily on potential investors as the company prepares for a public stock offering next year. Its chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, acknowledged that “an extraordinary amount of work still lies ahead.” Mr. Marchionne described 2010 as “a year of transition and stabilization” for Chrysler, which is introducing few new models this year because its previous owners invested little in product development. He highlighted surging sales of the Jeep Grand Cherokee , the only introduction for Chrysler in the 14 months since emerging from bankruptcy, as evidence that the company was regaining its ability to make desirable vehicles. The company hired 1,100 people last month to help build the Grand Cherokee in Detroit. But analysts said Chrysler would not be able to prove it had turned the corner until its dated lineup was almost wholly upgraded, a process that will take years. “Any turnaround in this industry is always going to be based on product,” said Charles Moore, senior managing director of Conway MacKenzie, a corporate turnaround consulting firm in Birmingham, Mich. “At this point at least, it appears Chrysler is marching toward that point where hopefully its product development efforts will come though.” Mr. Marchionne said Chrysler was on track to surpass its goals for this year and could be “significantly ahead” of its forecast for 2011. The company expects to raise its financial targets for 2010 after reporting its third-quarter results “unless all of us fall asleep here,” he said. Its financial goals for 2010 include an operating profit of up to $200 million and revenue of $40 billion to $45 billion. In the first half of the year, it recorded an operating profit of $326 million and $20.2 billion in revenue. “It is mathematically impossible for us not to exceed the targets we set out for 2010,” Mr. Marchionne said. After years of job cuts and plant closures, Chrysler has started hiring workers and increasing production. It recently said a suburban Detroit assembly plant scheduled to close in 2012 would remain open and add 900 jobs. Chrysler’s sales in the United States are up 10.8 percent this year from the first seven months of 2009, but only because it has increased deliveries to governments, rental car companies and other businesses. Such sales are generally less profitable than purchases by individual customers, which have declined this year for Chrysler while increasing for most other automakers. Mr. Marchionne on Monday defended those bulk sales as beneficial to the business but said Chrysler intended to rely on them less as its vehicle lineup improved. In the second quarter, Chrysler recorded $183 million in operating income, which excludes one-time charges, an improvement of $40 million over the first quarter. The overall loss was $25 million less than in the first quarter and far smaller than its fourth-quarter loss of $2.7 billion. Interest payments of $296 million in the second quarter accounted for nearly all of the swing between the operating profit and the net loss. Revenue rose 8.2 percent from the first quarter to $10.48 billion. Results from the year-earlier period are not public. Chrysler had $7.8 billion in cash as of June 30, an increase of $400 million over the end of the first quarter, and net debt of $3.4 billion. It owes $5.7 billion to the American government and $1.2 billion to Canada. Unlike General Motors, which earlier this year paid off the portion of its loans that remained on its balance sheet as debt, Chrysler is not in a hurry to repay the government. Mr. Marchionne has said Chrysler would retire its government debt by 2014. “We have enough cash to pay it all off, but you can’t run a business without cash,” Mr. Marchionne told reporters on July 30. Chrysler is also not rushing as quickly as G.M. to go public, which would allow the government and other shareholders to sell off their stakes. A health care trust fund for United Automobile Workers union retirees is Chrysler’s majority owner, and the Treasury Department holds 8 percent. The Italian automaker Fiat, which Mr. Marchionne also serves as chief executive, owns 20 percent. G.M. is expected to have an initial public offering later this year. It earned a first-quarter profit of $865 million and planned to release its second-quarter results Thursday. The Ford Motor Company, which did not file for bankruptcy protection or take a bailout loan, earned $4.7 billion in the first half of 2010.

Automobiles
Company Reports
Chrysler LLC


In a Faded City, Plans to Build a Hotel Build Hope

Abstract: CAMDEN, N.J. — The old Plaza Hotel downtown is a tomb, sealed shut for more than 20 years now, its windows shattered and its green marquee worn and stripped of letters. Trapped inside the hotel are the memories of a once-thriving industrial town, where business people and job seekers and even the occasional entertainer came to visit and dine. Since it closed in 1985, the hotel, battered by the city’s decline, seemed to deliver a warning: Camden was not a place to linger after dark, not a place one stayed. But a group of developers is seeking the planning board’s approval this week for a 140-room Hilton Garden Inn on Camden’s waterfront, what would be the first new hotel built here in about 70 years. “We want to get in at a time when there are things to be done here,” said Vijnan Chandra, of PRA Development and Management, the Philadelphia-based company that would build the Hilton. “We don’t paint Camden with a broad brush. This signals to the public that the city is open for business.” For a city struggling to revitalize, a hotel is a signature, a symbol. It suggests there is a critical mass of tourists — in Camden’s case, lured by a new aquarium and a minor-league baseball team — and supporters of the new hotel say that Camden, offering tax breaks and cheap rents, has started to lure businesses again, too, and that there are not enough hotel rooms in Philadelphia, a 10-minute drive over the river, to house the new visitors. “A hotel can start to leverage quite a bit,” said William H. Hudnut III, a senior resident fellow at the Urban Land Institute, an education and research group in Washington, D.C. “It brings people, and it brings rooftops — restaurants, bars and eateries. One hotel won’t do the trick, but it’s certainly a positive piece in the jigsaw.” In the years since the Plaza closed, the business that thrived here was the drug trade, and the superlatives thrown at Camden usually concerned its status as one of the nation’s poorest or most dangerous cities. Thousands of residents have left the city, leaving behind neighborhoods of boarded-up row houses and empty lots. For those people who have remained, there are few comforts: no supermarkets or movie theaters, and, for a generation, no hotel rooms. Camden was different place in the 1930s and 1940s, when employers like Campbell Soup, RCA Victor and New York Shipbuilding Corporation made the city, positioned strategically on the Delaware River, a center of industry. Several hotels operated here over the years, including the Walt Whitman Hotel, where Red Skelton is said to have requested a room on the second floor, so he could lower his dog, rather than walk it, according to Paul W. Schopp, a local historian. The hotels were not just way stations for businessmen and itinerant salespeople, Mr. Schopp said; the region was considered a “mecca for the jazz supper clubs,” and entertainers would stop in Camden as well. The Plaza was a business hotel, where professionals who worked on Cooper Street would gather for lunch. The Walt Whitman was the scene of the city’s fancier soirees, where M. Allan Vogelson, a retired judge, saw several friends get married. “Our high school fraternity had its annual sweetheart ball there,” recalled Judge Vogelson, who grew up in Camden. “The Walt Whitman brings back wonderful memories. It was a different time for Camden.” By the time the Rev. Michael Doyle arrived in Camden in the late 1960s, middle-class residents had begun fleeing the city, an exodus that accelerated after race riots in 1971. He found that the city’s shoreline — its great treasure — was “gobbled up by crude industry,” Father Doyle said. “I remember walking through abandoned factories and sumac trees to get to that river,” he said. Efforts to revive Camden have focused on that waterfront, and in the last two decades, large swaths of the riverfront property under the Benjamin Franklin Bridge have been transformed, with new office buildings, an aquarium, a concert hall and upscale apartments. About nine months ago, a developer was found for the hotel, according to Thomas P. Corcoran, the president of Cooper’s Ferry Development Association, the master developer of the waterfront. The five-story hotel, with an indoor pool, would cater to several different kinds of travelers, Mr. Corcoran said, including business people and visitors to Campbell Soup, Cooper University Hospital and Rutgers University’s satellite campus here. The developers also hope to lure families visiting the waterfront’s entertainment attractions, as well as visitors to a new convention center in Philadelphia, where hotel rooms can cost far more than the Hilton’s planned rate of $125 per night. Mr. Corcoran said that rock stars playing the concert hall, the Susquehanna Bank Center, usually stay at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia, but their road crews could stay at the proposed Hilton. Several hurdles remain, he said, including gaining approval from the local planning board and obtaining large bank loans in a weakening economy. Talk of the new hotel could revive the debate about the revitalization process here. Community activists have complained that Camden’s beleaguered neighborhoods have garnered far less attention from developers than the waterfront, and they worry that the riverfront is becoming an enclave — an annex to Philadelphia — rather than part of Camden. But Mr. Corcoran said that the waterfront plan was designed to be an extension of Camden’s downtown, and not a “gated community.” Projects like the hotel, he added, also promised to bring the city badly needed tax revenues. Father Doyle is among those working to restore Camden’s neighborhoods, and last month an organization affiliated with his church, Sacred Heart, broke ground on a new community theater. That new building gained far less attention than the plans for the new hotel, but Father Doyle and several people involved in the project say that it is no less important, and will be the first theater for live performances to be built in the city in decades. None of that diminished the pastor’s enthusiasm for the new Hilton. “It’s a long time since I walked through that sumac,” he said. “I want to go in that hotel, hold a glass of wine and look across that river.”

Hilton Garden Inn
Camden (NJ)
Hotels and Motels
Urban Areas
Area Planning and Renewal


Attack on Russian Journalist Stirs Online Allies

Abstract: MOSCOW — Two years ago, Oleg Kashin was sitting in a sleek little coffee shop around the corner from the Kremlin when a novelist walked in and punched him in the face. The fight had begun online, during an exchange that included such phrases as “a legless bum that crawled out of the sewer” and “unprincipled prostitute” and “primitively smash you in the mug.” The novelist was in the process of doing just that when he realized several things about his adversary. First, despite his shock-jock online persona, Mr. Kashin was not a fighter. Second, he was not afraid. “I began to look more attentively at him,” said the novelist, Eduard I. Bagirov. “I think that if you hit him in the face it won’t scare him, he does not care.” Mr. Bagirov was right. What Mr. Kashin did after that was take on bigger and bigger enemies, a pattern that ended Nov. 6, when he was beaten nearly to death outside his doorway. His name has now been added to the list of journalists who have been silenced through violence in Russia , alongside opposition icons like Anna Politkovskaya and Natalya Estemirova, who were both killed. But Mr. Kashin, 30, is from a different generation — one wary of both the state and the opposition, one that has flooded the Internet and has come of age speaking freely there. And his brutal beating with a metal bar has hit a nerve somewhere deep in that group. “I am reading the commentaries of people who have always been completely apolitical, and I am just stunned,” said Aleksei A. Navalny, 34, a prominent blogger. “It is a completely different generation, in their relation to life, to technology and to everything else. These are the people who Kashin was closest to, and these are the people he wrote for.” The response to the attack on Mr. Kashin stands out not so much for its proportions as for who is speaking out. The news spread instantly online on that Saturday morning, penetrating an entire subculture before dawn. By the end of last week, some of the same people — a group allergic to political parties or demonstrations of any kind — were rallying at Pushkin Square. “He is one of the best of us,” Vitaly Shushkevich told Vesti, a cable news station. “So the reaction of the blogosphere is understandable: they are beating us.” Though Mr. Kashin worked for Kommersant, a major newspaper, many of the people at the rally knew him best through the stream of doggerel and profanity and Zen koans that was his Twitter feed. His online readership was not a huge group — maybe 5,000, Mr. Navalny estimated — but it included much of Moscow’s young media elite, and they followed him not only as a writer but also as a character. He reveled in the extraordinary freedom of Russia’s blogosphere and seemed to take a particular glee in challenging powerful men in the open air of his LiveJournal blog. “Do you consider I have to apologize?” he wrote, during an online exchange this summer with the governor of Pskov. “What will happen if I don’t?” Mr. Kashin arrived in Moscow at 23 from the port city of Kaliningrad. “Russian sailor Kashin,” as he sometimes referred to himself, became a persona — a blunt-spoken outsider in the ingrown world of Moscow politics. His own politics varied, he acknowledged cheerfully, in a list of 100 facts about himself. “Kashin can find an ideological base for any nonsense,” he wrote. “Kashin would have been a dissident if he lived under Soviet power.” In his mid-20s, Mr. Kashin found work at pro-Kremlin publications, which sought to mobilize young Russians against the pro-Western wave that had swept Ukraine. He took aim at liberal icons like Ms. Politkovskaya, the Kremlin critic who was killed in 2006, writing that he considered her more of a newsmaker than a journalist. “I can disillusion the romantic reader,” he wrote. “There is no such frightening truth for which a journalist can be killed.” Then, two years ago, Mr. Kashin switched sides. He stopped writing for pro-government outlets and turned his attention to the youth movements around Vladislav Y. Surkov, the Kremlin’s leading ideologist. Some of his posts were needling — he circulated a screen shot of an online chat that appeared to show a former leader of one of the movements, Nashi, acknowledging having sex with a minor. And some turned ugly. When Mr. Kashin, writing on LiveJournal in August, used a derogatory term to refer to Andrei A. Turchak, 34, the governor of Pskov and a former leader of the pro-Kremlin youth group Molodaya Gvardiya, a response appeared within two hours: “Young man, you’ve got 24 hours to apologize. You can do it here, or in a separate post. The clock has started.” “Excuse me, is it a threat?” Mr. Kashin wrote, and gleefully elaborated: “I consider your appointment an insult to federalism, common sense and other things of the same order. I consider being related to a friend of Putin’s insufficient grounds to lead a region. I am sure if there were free elections you would not win more than 5 percent.” Oksana Shiran, a spokeswoman for Mr. Turchak’s office, told Kommersant that the governor would not comment until the investigation was completed, except to say that he wished Mr. Kashin a speedy recovery. The list of people known to have been offended by Mr. Kashin seemed to grow longer every day this past week. He infuriated the police and Molodaya Gvardiya this summer with his coverage of antigovernment protests in Khimki . He clashed online with white supremacist gangs, according to Maksim G. Avdeyev, a close friend, and was finishing a book about Viktor I. Petrik, a scientist allied with leaders of the ruling party, United Russia. “Kashin created enemies every day, and in huge quantity,” said Mr. Bagirov, 35, the novelist who hit Mr. Kashin in the coffee shop. (Their difference of opinion was about a woman, he said.) But all those clashes happened in a space that was protected — or at least seemed to be. He reacted with horror to the attack, saying he reads Mr. Kashin’s articles “from the first word to the last period.” “Those like Kashin — there are only a dozen of them in the country,” he wrote in his blog. “And if the mastermind is found, and his legs are inserted in his intestinal tract, I personally will be completely satisfied.”

Russia
News and News Media
Kashin Oleg
Blogs and Blogging (Internet)
Assaults
Freedom of the Press


No. 25 Louisville Tops Kentucky

Abstract: Jeremy Wright ran for 105 yards and 3 touchdowns, and No. 25 Louisville opened the game with three long scoring drives en route to a 32-14 victory over Kentucky, ending a three-game home losing streak against the Wildcats.

Football (College)
University of Kentucky
University of Louisville


Louisiana: New Orleans Ends Smoking in Bars and Gambling Halls

Abstract: To protect the health of musicians and other entertainers, the New Orleans City Council on Thursday voted unanimously to ban smoking in bars and gambling halls, even as the owners of those establishments said such a move would hurt business and tax revenue. New Orleans has been one of the last major American cities to allow people to smoke tobacco in bars. Smoking at indoor restaurants is no longer permitted. The ban, which was tweaked before being approved, is expected to take effect in about three months. Among the revisions, smokers will not be allowed within five feet of bar entrances, instead of the 25 feet first proposed. Smoking will be allowed in parks. Also exempt from the ban were cigar shops and hookah bars already in existence. Smoking will be allowed, too, at outside areas of bars, restaurants and gambling halls.


At Junoon in Manhattan, Indian Food and Ambience

Abstract: When Rajesh Bhardwaj, who co-founded the Cafe Spice chain in 1997, decided to open a new Indian restaurant, he had something very different in mind from the typical hole in the wall a diner might find on East Sixth Street or in Jackson Heights, Queens. With hand-hewn stone walls, an antique wood palace gate and a long reflecting pool leading to a soaring dining room, Junoon , on 24th Street west of Fifth Avenue, offers high-toned food that spans India’s many regions and cooking techniques, formal service and an extensive wine list — with prices to match. Open since December, the restaurant has attracted affluent Indian immigrants like Salman Rushdie, guests from the Wyndham Garden hotel down the block and, on Tuesday evening, two friends chatting about work. IN THE SEATS Lyn Hughes, a photographer who focuses on food and lifestyle subjects and said she was in her 50s, and Mark Stern, 56, a pet industry entrepreneur. ON THE PLATES Star anise sea scallop with cracked white peppercorns and cinnamon roasted pepper chutney to start ($15); shrimp ghassi ($29), a curry with tamarind, roasted coconut and fenugreek seeds; chicken Malvan ($22), a curry with fresh coconut, green chilies, cilantro and bay leaf; saag aur gobi ke bhurji ($16), cauliflower and spinach cooked in a cast iron griddle with ground coriander, fenugreek and garlic; mint raita ($6); garlic naan ($7); sparkling water ($5) all around; a glass of Louis Roederer Brut Premier ($18) for Ms. Hughes. “I succumbed,” she said, laughing. “It’s very hot. I couldn’t take it. My sinuses are opening, I’m sweating — I need more bubbles.” WHY THEY CAME Ms. Hughes, a professed “foodie” who lives in the neighborhood, had enjoyed the restaurant before, both for the food and the ambience, and thought Mr. Stern would like it. WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT Their respective businesses. Ms. Hughes had just finished a big shoot for a bank, and Mr. Stern has been having some success with his most recent venture, a company called PetMatrix that manufactures foods, treats and chews for dogs and cats. “People are looking for healthier choices, more natural choices,” he said, to feed their pets like “they would feed themselves.”

Junoon
Restaurants
Cooking and Cookbooks
Jackson Heights (NYC)


State Analysts Predict a Shallow Recession

Abstract: NEW BRUNSWICK THE price of existing housing in New Jersey will drop an additional 12 percent to 15 percent during the next 12 months and remain flat through 2010, financial analysts said at a conference at Rutgers University earlier this month. The good news is this is a relatively modest adjustment to what had been an overheated market, and it improves affordability of houses for many buyers, said Patrick O’Keefe, director of research at the accounting and consulting firm of J.H. Cohn in Roseland. And it is nowhere near as painful as the waves of foreclosures that are destroying family finances in states like California and Florida. Mr. O’Keefe’s remarks came in the context of an economic report for the state presented at the conference. Produced by the Rutgers Economic Advisory Service and written by its director, Nancy Mantell, the outlook predicts a shallow recession that will last a little more than two years and cut 31,000 jobs from the employment peak of 4.08 million jobs set near the end of 2007. New Jersey may be spared the sharper economic declines that could occur in other states, the report says, because there was relatively little speculative building during the real estate boom and not as much use of subprime lending to finance purchases. The report predicts that the state’s economy will bottom out in early 2010 and resume growth through 2018 with employment increasing modestly, at an average 0.7 percent a year. “We expect further job losses here for the next two years,” Ms. Mantell said, “but we anticipate adding 250,000 jobs over the next 10 years.” In the last year, nearly 80 percent of the state’s new jobs were in service sector areas like education, health care, leisure and hospitality. Major job losses were in manufacturing and finance, the latter a direct result of a general softening of the housing market. “Manufacturing and finance will continue to lose jobs, though more slowly than in the recent past, and employment in the information industry will decline as well,” Ms. Mantell said. “The cyclical nature of the construction industry will leave it with almost no net job change.” One of the few nonservice parts of the state’s economy where jobs are likely to be added is transportation and warehousing. And that shift may be attributable to high fuel prices, said James W. Hughes, dean of the university’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Increasingly, cargoes landing at the ports in Newark and Elizabeth are being shipped to warehouses in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley, where land and labor costs are lower than in New Jersey, he said. Meanwhile, space in buildings along the Turnpike’s midsection at Exits 7A and 8A — half that distance from the port — is going begging. With higher fuel prices the longer trips could become increasingly uneconomical. “With diesel fuel at $5 a gallon, the situation may change,” Mr. Hughes said. “In the long run, you cannot change geography.” Despite the slump in housing prices, the fundamental factors that drive demand for housing are positive, Mr. O’Keefe said, pointing out that the state’s population is growing and people need somewhere to live. The state added 254,000 residents between 2000 and 2007. According to the report, 629,000 more people will make the state their home in the next 10 years, pushing the total to more than 9 million by 2013. Employment is expected to grow, albeit slowly. New Jersey residents’ income has grown and is expected to continue to do so. It rose by what the report termed an “extraordinary” 7.4 percent in 2006, before falling to 5.4 percent the following year. The recession in the state will cut income growth to 4 percent for the next two years before resuming at an average rate of 5 percent for the remainder of the forecast. With the frenzy for single-family homes abated for now, Mr. O’Keefe noted that other trends have started to emerge. Multifamily housing in older, urban areas is increasing while restrictions on developing the dwindling stock of open land are limiting classic suburban development. Mr. O’Keefe said that through May of this year, 40.1 percent of all building permits in the state were issued in Hudson, Essex and Bergen Counties and 80.1 percent of them were for multifamily buildings.

Housing
New Jersey
Economic Conditions and Trends


Chicago Bears Frustrated by James Jones and Green Bay Packers

Abstract: If the Green Bay Packers were worried about what life might look like without Jordy Nelson, then James Jones did plenty to allay those fears. Jones, who had not played with the team since 2013 and was not on their roster last week, seemed like his old self as Aaron Rodgers threw four passes his way in a 31-23 victory over the Chicago Bears . Jones caught them all, including touchdowns of 13 and 1 yards. His second touchdown put the team up 17-13 and Green Bay held on to win in a game that was closer than some expected. It was quite a turnaround for Jones, who was among the final cuts for the Giants despite leading the team with 15 receptions for 187 yards in the preseason. Jones was at his best for the Packers in 2012 when he scored 14 touchdowns. He helped the team win the Super Bowl in 2010, but last season he signed with the Oakland Raiders and had a productive season as a slot receiver before he and the team parted ways. In his first game back in a Packers uniform, the 31-year-old easily re-established his connection with Aaron Rodgers, which had to be reassuring for the Packers as they look to find solutions at wide receiver with Nelson out for the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament. And everyone who has Davante Adams on their squads hates James Jones right now #FantasyFootballProblems — Marilynn Funk (@mfunk89) September 13, 2015 Asked after the game if he was happy with his two-touchdown performance, Jones focused more on what could have been. “I should’ve had three,” Jones told reporters. “I’m probably going to lose sleep over that.” The Bears, on the other hand, walked away from another loss to the Packers wondering what could have been. Driving for what could have been a game-tying score in the fourth quarter, the Bears’ hopes were dashed when Jay Cutler was intercepted by Green Bay linebacker Clay Matthews. The interception led to an Eddie Lacy touchdown and a tough N.F.C. North divisional loss for the Bears. Cutler is now 1-12 in his career against the Packers.

Chicago Bears
James Jones
Packers
Jay Cutler
Football


U.S. Importers and Greek Suppliers Stymied by Cash Controls

Abstract: Ted Diamantis, an importer of Greek wines who is based in Chicago, has been helping his suppliers stock up on bottles, labels and printing ink. The barrels, though, have him worried. In two or three weeks, some of Greece’s winemaking regions will begin their annual grape harvest. The wineries Mr. Diamantis buys from age their wine in barrels from Italy and France, but Greece’s capital controls make it difficult for them to send money out of the country to pay for the barrels they need for this season. No barrels means no wine for Mr. Diamantis. “Without the ability to access your capital, you can’t buy anything,” said Mr. Diamantis, who is in Greece meeting with his business partners. “The marketplace is frozen.” American companies that import Greek products have been battling uncertainty for the last month. Export shipments are still leaving the country, but Greece’s debt crisis is disrupting its supply chain in both significant and subtle ways, threatening the livelihoods of Greek merchants and their distant trading partners. “The domestic market in Greece has dried up,” said Jim Tsiboukis, who imports Greek wine and foods to his warehouse in San Jose, Calif. “My suppliers count on exports, but they can’t get the materials they need to pack their products. This is going to slow the economy there down to nothing.” Mr. Tsiboukis estimated that he has three months of inventory stockpiled, but every day that Greece’s capital controls — stringent restrictions on international money transfers — remain in place eats into his safety margin. The olive oil producer he buys from has not been able to import the bottles it needs for its oil, and his winemakers are scrambling for supplies like yeast, bottles and equipment. Image Jim Tsiboukis imports Greek wine and foods, like feta cheese, yogurt and olive oil, to his warehouse in San Jose, Calif. Credit Preston Gannaway for The New York Times The United States imported $1 billion in Greek goods last year, many of them flowing through small, family-run businesses like Mr. Tsiboukis’s. Greek products make up about 10 percent of his company’s $24 million in annual sales. Some businesses have to juggle their finances and payments to work around Greece’s restrictions. The moment Greece’s banking system seized up, Mr. Tsiboukis’s suppliers asked him to stop sending money into the country. Those with accounts in other countries — Cyprus is a popular choice — redirected the payments for their invoices. Jeremy Johnson’s vendors made the same choice. His family’s importing business, Encore Foods in Hingham, Mass., is delaying payments for several suppliers that are setting up accounts outside the country. “They have more faith in us right now to hold on to their money than they do in their own banking system,” he said. Greece’s economic crisis is the most extreme problem Encore Foods has run into, but the import industry is always facing challenges, Mr. Johnson said. Supply shortages, dock strikes, customs delays and shipping problems are common, especially in Europe. Encore hasn’t yet experienced delays in any shipments from Greece, but Mr. Johnson is increasing his order volume to build a buffer in his inventory. Concerns about Greece are beginning to ripple out to his customers. One of his buyers, an e-commerce business that sells global goods, recently canceled a planned 2016 promotion featuring Greek products. Image Freshly gathered olives. Credit Petros Giannakouris/Associated Press “They said, ‘You know what, I’m going to focus on a different country,’ ” Mr. Johnson said. “They didn’t want to set it all up and then suddenly find they couldn’t get any products from Greece.” Many American importers who have personal ties to Greece say that watching the crisis ravage the local merchants they work with is one of the most painful costs. Monica Dreger, whose mother and husband are Greek, is the creative director of CultureBaby , a children’s boutique of international products. Domestic sales have collapsed for the jewelry and home decoration designers she works with; few Greeks can afford such luxury goods. A shoemaker she buys from is struggling with increased competition from discounters trying to capture a piece of the export market with rock-bottom prices, and the materials the designer needs for her handmade sandals are in short supply. “For me, it’s not a problem, because she’ll find new materials and make some changes to the sandals to work with what she has,” Ms. Dreger said. “But on her end, she’s having to do double work, and she’s making less money.” Greece’s economy is heavily dependent on imports, and the current crisis has exposed just how many parts of its supply chain no longer exist domestically. Mr. Diamantis, who spends about four months a year in Greece, started his wine business in 1992, nine years before Greece adopted the euro. That move reshaped Greece’s industrial landscape. “All the industries that supplied this small market, but supplied it efficiently — they disappeared,” he said. “Once we became part of a greater economy, the small suppliers couldn’t compete on a global scale.” Video Greece’s economic crisis has taken its toll on businesses in the country, but some entrepreneurs are fighting to build their companies in the midst of it all. The wineries he works with rely on Italian glass and German machinery. Greece no longer makes the paper they need for wine labels or the ink to print them. Efstathios Martinis, the owner of Kalamata Food Purveyors , an import business in Hayward, Calif., is on the verge of sending a wire payment to Italy to buy the bottles his Greek supplier needs to package its olive oil. Doing business in Greece is becoming more expensive, he said, as new taxes pile up and imported supplies become costlier. Greece’s turbulence has settled a bit since mid-July, when the European Union approved a bridge loan that allowed Greece to make two crucial debt payments, but its economic outlook remains bleak . The prospect lingers of Greece exiting the eurozone, a move the country’s government secretly prepared for as a contingency plan . Switching to a new drachma would be “a whole different ballgame,” Mr. Martinis said. The cost of Greek goods would rapidly plunge, but producing and shipping them out of an economically isolated country would be a logistical nightmare. Even if Greece’s situation stabilizes, the damage has been immense. “When I talk to our partners, there’s a sadness in their voice about what’s happening to their beloved country,” Mr. Johnson said. Greek importers have spent years building up the country’s image overseas, and Americans have fallen in love with products like Greek yogurt , Mr. Diamantis said. He’s worried all that progress will be undone by a perception of the Greek people as deadbeat debtors. “We need to protect the brand of Greece and get the right message out,” he said. “This crisis that’s occurring, it’s not a crisis of bad culture. It’s bad governance. It’s like a drug dealer and a drug addict. Who is to blame? Europe has been so eager to lend money and sell to Greece. Now, all of a sudden, in the last year or two, you see people looking around and going, ‘We have nothing left.’”

Greece
US
International trade
Small business
Euro Crisis


Horse Stable to Open in Central Park

Abstract: Central Park is laced with bridle paths and dotted with pastures, and its plants were once fertilized with manure. But though carriage horses trot through it, police horses occasionally patrol it, and wooden steeds gallop around the carousel, horses have not called the park home for more than 100 years. This summer, they will return. The Central Park Conservancy has, since last year, been overseeing the construction of a stable in the park, and it is now set to welcome its first two residents. The red-brick, five-stall barn cost about $700,000 to build and will house horses ridden by the parks department’s seven Mounted Parks Enforcement Patrol officers, as well as volunteers. It is tucked away on the edge of a small parking lot on the southern side of the Central Park Zoo, just off Fifth Avenue. “We just thought it was really important to keep an equine presence in Central Park,” said Adrian Benepe , commissioner of the parks department, who said it was his idea to build the barn. Mounted officers are effective at crowd control, and their high visibility may be a deterrent to crime, he added. “The park was built with bridle paths,” Mr. Benepe added. “It’s historically part of what happens in Central Park, and has over the past 150 years.” Mr. Benepe said this might be a first step to a more expansive vision; the department announced on Tuesday that it was accepting proposals for a privately run riding center in the park. Up until four years ago, the patrol horses lived at the Claremont Riding Academy , a block and a half outside the park on West 89th Street. But the academy, which was also home to horses that could be used by the public, closed in 2007. The parks department’s horses were sent to another borough, and the overall number of horses in the park was significantly reduced. Two will now be stationed in the new stable: draft horses named Monty and Pete, both geldings. They will be ridden by both the patrol officers and volunteers in the Parks Enforcement Patrol Mounted Auxiliary Unit , who are trained in park protocol and rotate patrol duty. The auxiliary officers do not have police power, their mounts functioning more like four-legged (or is that six?) park docents. The volunteers give directions, tell people to clean up after or leash their dogs and keep cyclists in the bike lanes. “They’re peace officers,” said Nancy Hodin, vice president of the board of the auxiliary unit, who used to patrol several times a month. “I missed seeing them. I’m a firm believer that all the great parks in the world should have horses. I think it’s important to have them back in because it’s just another sign that the city cares about the park.” The patrol horses for Central Park moved to the Riverdale Equestrian Center in the Bronx. Since then, they have mostly patrolled Van Cortlandt Park , occasionally taking a trailer ride into Manhattan for high-volume park events like the ING New York City Marathon. The horses’ eviction from Claremont helped pay for their new home. When Paul Novograd, the longtime proprietor of the academy, bought it from the city in the late 1990s, the contract stipulated that he provide free housing for the park’s horses until 2008, the parks department said. When he closed the building in 2007, Mr. Novograd and the new owners agreed to pay $400,000 to the city. That money went toward the new barn. “I think it’s great,” Mr. Novograd said. “It was part of the original Olmsted design to have all these beautiful bridle paths,” he added, referring to Frederick Law Olmsted, who, with Calvert Vaux, designed the park in the 19th century. The auxiliary group raised an additional $100,000, and $200,000 came from the city’s capital fund, Mr. Benepe, the parks commissioner, said. The Central Park Conservancy donated the design services of Christopher Nolan, its vice president of planning, design and construction. Site excavation began in October, after reviews by the Landmarks Preservation Commission to make sure the designs were in keeping with the circa-1930 aesthetic of the buildings at the zoo. “We tried to find an area of the park where you aren’t taking something away, that would be secure,” Mr. Benepe said of the site, a parking lot near the zoo’s utility garage. “The zoo seemed the perfect place because they’re already caring for all the animals.” And, he added, “it’s no more smelly than any of the other animals there.” Horses were once essential in the park. “The park was built with horses,” said Sara Cedar Miller, the historian for the Central Park Conservancy. “In 1857, when they started clearing the park, the only way to get around was by horse and carriage,” or on horseback, she said. “They actually brought in the soil, manure, plants — everything was transported by horses.” And, she said, horse-drawn omnibuses ferried visitors to bus stops like the Ladies’ Pavilion . The work and police horses lived at what is now the Police Department’s Central Park Precinct, on the 86th Street park transverse, as well as, perhaps, near the North Meadow at 97th Street, Ms. Cedar Miller said. Though she could not pin down exactly when the last horse was stabled in the park, she said they were gradually phased out in the early 1900s as automobiles gained traction. No horses for the public will be kept in the new barn. But Mr. Benepe is accepting proposals for every urban horseperson’s dream, with the North Meadow as a potential spot. The deadline for submissions is June 13.

Horses
Central Park Conservancy
Barns
Central Park (NYC)
Parks and Recreation Department (NYC)
Benepe Adrian


Man Gets 13-Year Term for Lying About Plan to Join Jihad

Abstract: A former Staten Island man was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation about his attempts to join the Taliban or Al Qaeda to wage violent jihad against the United States. Prosecutors in United States District Court in Brooklyn had sought the maximum 21 years behind bars for the man, Abdel Hameed Shehadeh, arguing that he was following a proven formula of other would-be, homegrown terrorists who succeeded in aligning themselves with extremist groups by traveling to Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan. Judge Eric N. Vitaliano imposed the lesser term, however, after suggesting the defendant proved too inept to pull it off. Mr. Shehadeh, 23, appeared in court with his long hair in a ponytail. He spoke briefly, telling the judge a letter he had written asking for leniency expressed his position. His outlook on jihad “has matured over time,” he wrote. “Jihad and terrorism are not synonymous, they are conflicting in my view.” The letter portrayed his failed attempt to get to Pakistan as “an impulsive move” by a misguided young man. Mr. Shehadeh also said that while he was under investigation, he had provided the F.B.I. with valuable information on aspiring jihadists he knew from a mosque in Brooklyn. Among them were Najibullah Zazi, Zarein Ahmedzay and Adis Medunjanin, all convicted in a failed plot to attack the New York City subway system as suicide bombers in 2009. He offered “information on persons who shortly thereafter were arrested on terrorism charges,” Mr. Shehadeh said. But, he added, “I was never credited for my information.” Prosecutors said in court papers that Mr. Shehadeh knew Mr. Medunjanin. But they also insisted his information did not advance the investigation of the subway plot. A jury convicted Mr. Shehadeh earlier this year after hearing some of his friends testify that he spoke of wanting to die while waging violent jihad, or holy war, abroad against the American military. They said Mr. Shehadeh, an American citizen, had hoped to attend a terrorist training camp in Pakistan. Mr. Shehadeh first drew the attention of federal investigators in 2008 when he bought a one-way plane ticket to Islamabad. Pakistani officials would not allow him into the country, and he returned to New York. Prosecutors said that when members of the F.B.I. and the New York Police Department’s joint terrorism task force interviewed him about the trip, he lied by saying he had tried to travel to Pakistan to “study Islamic law.” Four months later, Mr. Shehadeh went to a Times Square military recruiting station and tried to sign up, the authorities said. A friend with whom he had worshiped later told investigators that Mr. Shehadeh had hoped the Army would deploy him to Iraq, where he could desert and join insurgent forces.

Taliban
Al Qaeda
Abdel Hameed Shehadeh
Terrorism
Criminal Sentence
FBI
Eric N Vitaliano


Counting Blessings After a Harrowing Flood Escape

Abstract: When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City, Yuliana Oleynik and Stanislav Izgiayev trekked for three miles through flooded streets to deliver their two children to safety. Their son Nicholas, then 10 months, rode atop Mr. Izgiayev’s shoulders, while Ms. Oleynik was responsible for their other child, Isaac, whom she was quite literally carrying: She was seven and a half months pregnant. The family had been in pajamas when the storm surge from the hurricane hit their neighborhood in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn. Their two-bedroom apartment was one block from the water. “It was like a Hollywood movie,” recalled Mr. Izgiayev, 34. “It’s the end of the world. I’m with the baby and pregnant wife. You don’t know where to run.” The couple scrambled, grabbing a cellphone and a diaper bag, before fleeing the apartment with their son. They managed to drive about half a block before the floodwaters halted their journey and trapped them in their vehicle. The current made it hard to open the doors, and the rising water was starting to seep into the car. They were rescued by some neighbors, who helped pry the doors open. Once on the street, Mr. Izgiayev and Ms. Oleynik had no idea what their next move would be; they knew only that they had to keep moving and find dry ground and safety. “There was no thought process,” said Ms. Oleynik, 25. “To be honest, you’re blank. You’re completely blank.” And so they weathered the deluge, swimming and wading through varying depths until they were finally picked up by Ms. Oleynik’s cousin, whom the couple had managed to reach despite the wretched cellphone service. Ms. Oleynik said little Nicholas kept her strong throughout the ordeal. “He wasn’t crying,” she said. “He was calm, so why wouldn’t I be?” The family spent the next few nights with friends; Ms. Oleynik’s cousin was sheltering others that night and could not house them. When they returned to their apartment days later to survey the damage, they discovered that it was uninhabitable, and that most of their possessions were ruined. They also learned they had been robbed. Before leaving, Mr. Izgiayev had gathered some of his more important items, a laptop and desktop computer among them, on a table on a higher floor of the apartment. His plan to spare them from damage seemed to work, though he was unable to reap the reward of that foresight: the belongings were in good enough condition for thieves to steal. Mr. Izgiayev said the couple had renter’s insurance, but it did not cover damage from flooding; they are seeking compensation for the stolen items but have not received word on the claim yet. A grant of $2,400 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, they said, helped secure a new apartment. The couple said they were waiting to find out about possible assistance for personal losses. Before the storm, the couple was financially stable, but just days before it hit, they had lost their source of income: Mr. Izgiayev had to close a small trucking company he owned after an accident damaged the single truck he used. Not long before, Ms. Oleynik had left her job working as an operations manager for an eBay seller to help her husband with the business. With their income gone, they were unable to afford to replace basic household supplies. The couple received aid from the Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House of Bensonhurst, a beneficiary agency of UJA-Federation of New York , one of the seven organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund. Marks JCH used a Neediest Cases grant of $500 to buy diapers, formula, wipes, clothing and food for the couple. The family also received a crib that had been donated to Marks JCH. Mr. Izgiayev keeps his current struggles in perspective. “I’m a healthy man, and I’m a really happy man, because I have two beautiful children,” he said. Ms. Oleynik gave birth to Isaac on Dec. 2. But money remains tight. Ms. Oleynik is planning to return to work at her previous job as soon as she is able. Mr. Izgiayev said he was planning a career change and hoped to soon acquire a real estate license. The family now lives in another apartment in their old neighborhood. It is on the building’s sixth floor, which they say gives them a bigger sense of security in addition to stability. And Mr. Izgiayev, who recently took on work as an electrician, is eager to ensure their stability and remains grateful for all in his life that has remained intact. “I have a head; I have a hand,” he said.“I can work with both my tools in hand and head.”

UJA-Federation of New York
New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Philanthropy
Hurricane Sandy (2012)
Oleynik Yuliana
Izgiayev Stanislav


Supreme Court Justices Seek Broad Solutions

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court heard arguments in two very different cases on Wednesday, one about flooding and the other about murder . Together, they illuminated a central preoccupation of the justices: how to fashion legal principles that will not only resolve the disputes before them but also work when applied by lower courts in countless other cases. In both arguments, the lawyers with the better answer to that question seemed poised to come out ahead. “What I want is the definition of the operable baseline that we can use in order to define whether or not there has been a taking,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy said, for instance, to a lawyer for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission. The commission is seeking millions of dollars from the federal government for timber it says was destroyed by intermittent flooding caused by the Army Corps of Engineers. The lawyer, James F. Goodhart, hedged, proposing a balancing test that would weigh how substantial the government intrusion on private property was. “I guess I must say it may not be a bright line,” Mr. Goodhart said. He returned to the point unprompted a half-hour later. “I don’t know, Justice Kennedy, where the line should be drawn,” he said. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg asked whether a single flood could ever be a taking. Mr. Goodhart responded that “it’s going to going to depend on the facts, Your Honor, in the case.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor pressed him. “Tell me how your rule makes this a manageable situation,” she said, and he repeated his balancing test. Edwin S. Kneedler, a lawyer for the federal government, took the more promising categorical approach, proposing two different lines. Temporary flooding is never a taking of private property, he said. And harm caused by flooding downstream from a dam, as opposed to flooding from the reservoir it creates, is also not a taking, he said. The second distinction seemed to strike some of the justices as overreaching. Justice Antonin Scalia said, “That doesn’t seem to me particularly fair.” Justice Kennedy said the second distinction reminded him of “the old moral of refuge that the rocket designers take.” “You know,” he said. “I make the rockets go up. Where they come down is not my concern.” Justice Elena Kagan was disqualified from the flooding case, Arkansas Game & Fish Commission v. United States, No. 11-597, presumably because she had worked on it as United States solicitor general. The question in the murder case was how to decide when a state court has actually ruled on an issue. The point matters because a 1996 federal law limits federal court review of state convictions where an argument has been “adjudicated on the merits” by a state court. But people convicted of serious crimes often make many arguments, and state courts often reject them wholesale in terse decisions. Last year, in Harrington v. Richter , the Supreme Court ruled that a state court decision was “on the merits” even though it offered no reasoning at all. The question in the case argued on Wednesday, Johnson v. Williams, No. 11-465, was what to do about a decision that addressed one argument but said nothing about another. (That other argument was over whether the removal of a juror in a murder trial violated the Sixth Amendment’s guarantee of an impartial jury.) Stephanie Brenan, a deputy California attorney general, said judges should be assumed to have considered all arguments presented to them whether they address them directly or not. Kurt D. Hermansen, a lawyer for the inmate, Tara Williams, said federal courts should examine the issue case by case. Justice Kennedy proposed an alternative. “If you took $28.52 out of the state’s judicial budget and bought them all a stamp which just says, ‘We have considered and rejected all constitutional claims,’ then there would be no problem,” he said. Ms. Brenan said such language was already implicit in all rulings. Justice Scalia, who is often attracted to bright line rules, said allowing case-by-case determinations would produce endless litigation. “In many cases, especially capital cases,” he said, “one could argue for years over whether, in fact, there was enough indication that the court did not consider it or not, right? And every year is a reduction of sentence, so to speak.”

Supreme Court
Floods
Decisions and Verdicts
Murders and Attempted Murders


Funeral for Ex-Nazi in Italy Is Halted as Protesters Clash

Abstract: ROME — To shouts of “assassin” and “murderer,” the hearse bearing the corpse of Erich Priebke, the former Nazi who died under house arrest in Rome last Friday, wound on Tuesday through the streets toward a church in a tiny hilltop town 20 miles south of Rome. Police officers in riot gear had to hold back enraged citizens who kicked and punched the vehicle as it passed. Eventually, the funeral was halted, Italian news media reported. Afterward, protesters and hard-right sympathizers battled in the streets. It was unclear when — even whether — it would actually take place. For a while, it did not seem as if the former SS captain, associated with one of the most gruesome massacres of civilians in World War II, would find anyplace to rest in peace. The Diocese of Rome refused Mr. Priebke a public funeral in a church. His hometown in Germany wanted nothing to do with him, nor did his adopted home, Argentina. Image Hard-right sympathizers marched in support. Credit Yara Nardi/Reuters Then up stepped the Society of St. Pius X , a Roman Catholic group that rejects the church’s modernizing overhauls — in particular, the teaching that absolved Jews of responsibility for the crucifixion of Jesus — and agreed to celebrate a furtive funeral in the town of Albano Laziale. The Society of St. Pius X is no stranger to controversy. During his papacy, Pope Benedict XVI devoted considerable energies to bringing the group into the fold, and the church has never fully abandoned that effort. But in 2009, he incurred widespread outrage when he revoked the excommunication of four bishops from the Society of St. Pius X, including Bishop Richard Williamson, who publicly claimed that there was no historical evidence for the Nazi gas chambers. Mr. Priebke made the same claim in an interview published posthumously by some Italian newspapers over the weekend. When he died, Mr. Priebke, who turned 100 in July, had been serving out a life sentence for his role in helping to organize the execution of 335 men and boys — including 75 Jews — at the Ardeatine Caves in Rome in March 1944. The mass murder was in retaliation for a partisan attack on a regiment that killed 10 police officers. Image Erich Priebke in 1996. Credit Massimo Capodanno/European Pressphoto Agency But even as Mr. Priebke’s death reopened wounds in the Italian capital, there were calls, too, for toning down the vitriol. While sympathizing with the victims of the Ardeatine massacre, a front-page editorial in Il Giornale said the discourse was spiraling out of control. “We are not in the presence of a ruthless officer of death, but a cadaver who is no longer anything,” wrote Vittorio Feltri, a columnist. “Pity in front of a corpse costs nothing, but fuels the hope that vendetta is not the right criteria to select souls.” Some of the heirs of the massacre added their voices to those who said it was time to make peace with the past. “I am not interested in this fury over a cadaver,” Massimiliano Smeriglio, a regional lawmaker whose grandfather was killed in the caves, told the news agency Ansa. “I think it’s an error that doesn’t help those who honor the values of the Resistance and the Italian Republic.”

Funerals
Italy
Erich Priebke
Society of Saint Pius X
Holocaust and Nazis