Politico’s Creators Plan Local News Web Site for Washington

Abstract: The creators of Politico plan to do for local news in Washington and its suburbs what they already have done for national politics, announcing on Wednesday that they will build a large, Web-based local news organization from scratch, at a time when traditional news organizations are struggling and shrinking. Allbritton Communications said its new operation would start with a newsroom of about 50 people — far larger than those of other local news start-ups around the country, though still smaller than the local news staffs of major metropolitan newspapers. The editor will be Jim Brady, the executive editor of washingtonpost.com until early this year, who said his journalists would earn salaries competitive with those at large papers. Robert L. Allbritton, who heads the family-owned company, and Mr. Brady said they had concluded that the venture had to be done on a large scale or not done at all — essentially the same premise that accompanied the founding of Politico. “To really staff it appropriately and make a compelling product is a very expensive project,” Mr. Allbritton said. “It’s definitely an investment in the millions. It’s not dissimilar to what we were looking at when we launched Politico.” So after having taken on The Washington Post in one of its signature areas, national politics, Allbritton now wants to compete in another, a local news market dominated by The Post. Marcus W. Brauchli, executive editor of The Post, says the paper takes all competitors seriously, but “much of what they aspire to do, we already do, and do well.” The Post has recently shifted its focus toward local news, including starting a local home page on its Web site and introducing a new section called Local Living. The planned organization does not yet have a name or a Web address, and Mr. Brady has not hired anyone — though the supply of journalists who are unemployed or willing to jump to the Internet is vast. In fact, the people involved in the planning — including the founding editors of Politico, John F. Harris and Jim VandeHei — had not intended to make the project public yet, but their hand was forced when the news broke Tuesday night on TNR.com , the Web site of The New Republic. The creators say it will start operation in the spring. Mr. Brady said it was far too soon to say how the site would pick its spots — whether, for example, he would assign specific reporters to the traditional reporting beats like police, courts or the City Council. “But it will have some of Politico’s DNA,” he said, focusing on speed and scoops. In addition to having its own staff, the new site will share resources and some content with two other Allbritton Communications properties, a local television station and an all-news local cable channel. It will sell ads jointly with those stations and it will function as the Internet portal for all three. Dozens of local and regional news sites have sprung up around the country in the last two years, but few have news staffs of even 15 people and many are nonprofits backed by foundations and wealthy individuals. “And none of them make money,” said Lauren Rich Fine, a journalism professor at Kent State University and a former media analyst at Merrill Lynch. As for the new Allbritton Communications venture, she said, “I really have trouble seeing how it would make money.” Politico, which faced similar skepticism when it began in 2007 but attracted well-known journalists, said that it was now profitable. In terms of audience, it is a smashing success, averaging over three million unique monthly visitors, according to Nielsen Online — more than all but 10 American newspaper sites. But Politico’s largest source of revenue has been a printed newspaper, circulation 32,000, that attracts interest group advertising and is distributed to Washington power players. Mr. Allbritton and Mr. Brady said they intended the new operation to be profitable, eventually — they would not say when — but acknowledged that it might be harder without the kind of newspaper produced by Politico. “The experimentation on the business side has to match the experimentation on the content side,” Mr. Brady said.

Start-ups
Newspapers
Washington Post
Computers and the Internet
Allbritton Communications Co
News and News Media
Politico The


Indiana Jones and the Temple of Absurdly Implausible Excess

Abstract: Has the phrase “jump the shark” jumped the shark? Or, more to the point, should we be saying that it has “nuked the fridge”? There is ample evidence that “jump the shark” — which emerged from a 1980s dorm-room discussion of a particularly ridiculous episode of the TV show “Happy Days” — has gone mainstream, and then some. New York Times columnists casually invoke the phrase to describe things that they perceive as being past their prime. Last week, the Motley Fool Web site used it to speculate that the Berkshire Hathaway annual meeting might have lost its mojo, much the way that Fonzie, the leather-jacketed lothario on “Happy Days,” did when he water-skied over a shark. In recent weeks, a similarly ridiculous episode — in this case from the movie “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull” — has produced a similar term, “nuked the fridge,” that is gaining traction online. A Google search comes up with 64,000 hits. In “Indiana Jones,” the hero’s improbable achievement was to survive a nuclear blast by hiding in a refrigerator. Hence, “to nuke the fridge” means to introduce a wildly implausible element to a once-respected franchise, or more generally, to signal the abandonment of past standards of quality. Newsweek has already chronicled the new phrase, describing it as a synonym for “movie-franchise meltdowns.” The Web site Urban Dictionary has taken note of it. There are already Web sites under the names nukedthefridge.com and nukingthefridge.com that hope to take advantage of the burst of notoriety; the latter says “nuke the fridge” is a term “used by movie fans and critics alike to denote the point in which a film or television program veers off into the realm of the ridiculous and stupid.” Jason Nicholl, a 37-year-old high school teacher who runs one of the sites, said he went to a message board shortly after the new “Indiana Jones” film was released and saw that the phrase had already caught on. He thought it was likely to be more than a passing fad. “‘Jump the shark’ is for people over the age of 60, who remember the show,” he said, adding that “nuke the fridge” was a “new, fresh take.” He and a friend, Luis Lecca, bought the nukedthefridge.com Web address and are making it into a site about film news. For all his attempts to distinguish “nuked the fridge” from “jumped the shark,” Mr. Nicholl in many ways is trying to recreate the success of Jumptheshark.com , a popular Web site that in 2006 was acquired by TVGuide.com . The site lists TV shows that, in its opinion, may have outlived their usefulness (current candidates include “The Simpsons” and “Army Wives.”) Jon Hein, who created the jump-the-shark Web site, said in an interview that he wished the fridge-nuke people well, though he advised waiting to see if the phrase would stand the test of time. After all, when Tom Cruise made a spectacle of himself on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” Mr. Hein said, “ ‘jump the couch’ was going to be the new phrase.” NOAM COHEN

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (Movie)


Bobcats Take Another Step Forward and Hand the Nets a Setback

Abstract: CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It’s late March, and the Charlotte Bobcats still matter in the N.B.A. playoff picture. Who would have figured that from a team that set a record for the worst winning percentage in league history just two years ago? To be fair, these are not the Bobcats of 2011-12, when they were 7-59 in the lockout-shortened season, or even last year’s version, which was merely awful at 21-61. These Bobcats have a new coach, Steve Clifford, a post presence, Al Jefferson, and a chance to make fans forget how horrible this franchise has been for so long. That will happen only if the Bobcats can make the playoffs for merely the second time in franchise history — hardly a lock for a team that has made the leap to middling success, but is still learning how to be a winner. They are currently seventh in the Eastern Conference and can still fall out of the playoff picture, something they are fighting to avoid, as Wednesday’s 116-111 overtime victory against the Nets at Time Warner Cable Arena attests. The game was also critical for the Nets and the Knicks. The Nets are focused on moving up to fourth in the conference and possibly overtaking Toronto for the Atlantic Division lead. The Knicks, who are in ninth in the conference, are hoping that the Bobcats, or the eighth-place Atlanta Hawks, will falter in the regular season’s final games. The Nets’ task became a little harder because of the loss as they fell two and a half games behind Toronto. The Nets entered the game with a depleted roster; they were without Kevin Garnett (back spasms), Brook Lopez (broken foot), Andrei Kirilenko (sprained left ankle) and Marcus Thornton (bruised lower back). They did have Deron Williams, and that was almost enough, as he scored 29 points, including 18 in the first quarter. It was the third overtime game in a row for the Nets (37-33), who have won only one of the three. A flagrant foul on the Nets’ Jorge Gutierrez, who was ejected with 6 minutes 42 seconds to go in the fourth quarter for pulling down Charlotte’s Cody Zeller under the basket, helped the Bobcats build a late 98-90 lead. The Nets rallied to tie the score at 105-105 on a 21-footer by Williams with 26.8 seconds left to send the game to overtime. The former Net Chris Douglas-Roberts scored 5 points for Charlotte in overtime, including a 21-foot baseline jumper with 10.1 seconds to go that sealed the win. Jefferson had 35 points and 15 rebounds to pace the Bobcats (35-37). “A loss is always tough to swallow,” said the Nets’ Paul Pierce, who scored 8 points. “We don’t want to lose. I don’t think there’s any moral victories. It doesn’t go into the win column. They played outstanding. “Al Jefferson, no one on the planet can guard him,” Pierce said. “We tried to double him, single, triple — there’s nothing we could have did with him tonight when he was in that type of zone. It’s so surprising he didn’t make the All-Star team or M.V.P. discussion. He’s one of the more underrated players in the game.” Jefferson, a free agent from Utah, was coaxed to Charlotte in the off-season with a three-year deal worth about $40.5 million. He was not dissuaded by the Bobcats’ 28-120 record over the previous two seasons. “I liked the coaching staff here,” Jefferson said Wednesday morning of his decision to join the team. “I liked the group of guys, the young guys they had here. “I just knew we had an opportunity to turn things around.” Much of the credit for that has been given to Clifford, a longtime N.B.A. assistant. Clifford replaced Mike Dunlap, who was a college assistant when he was given the job by Michael Jordan — a mistake Jordan essentially admitted in replacing Dunlap after one season. Clifford, the third coach in three seasons, appears to be the answer. “Obviously, different coaches bring different philosophies, styles,” said Gerald Henderson, one of three players left from that 2011-12 team along with Kemba Walker and Bismack Biyombo. (D J White, who was on that team, rejoined the Bobcats earlier this season.) “But there’s something to having experience in this league.” Clifford has helped the Bobcats improve defensively. They went into Wednesday’s game allowing 97.2 points per game, fourth lowest in the league. “I really didn’t know about wins and losses, but I was confident from the film that I watched before I interviewed that we had really good competitors, and that’s really played out,” Clifford said. For the Bobcats, the turnaround was in some ways even simpler than that. “We had no choice but to get better,” Henderson said.

Charlotte Bobcats
Basketball
Brooklyn Nets


Texas Woman Is Taken Off Life Support After Order

Abstract: HOUSTON — A Fort Worth hospital that kept a pregnant, brain-dead woman on life support for two months followed a judge’s order on Sunday and removed her from the machines, ending her family’s legal fight to have her pronounced dead and to challenge a Texas law that prohibits medical officials from cutting off life support to a pregnant woman. On Friday, a state district judge ordered John Peter Smith Hospital to remove the woman, Marlise Muñoz, from life-support machines by 5 p.m. on Monday. The judge ruled that the state law barring doctors from withdrawing “life-sustaining treatment” to pregnant women did not apply to Ms. Muñoz because she was brain-dead and therefore legally dead. The hospital had refused to honor the family’s request to disconnect her, claiming that the law prevented them from doing so until they could perform a cesarean delivery. But on Sunday, the hospital decided against appealing the judge’s decision and announced that it would follow his ruling. The J.P.S. Health Network, which runs John Peter Smith Hospital as part of the taxpayer-financed county hospital district, said in a statement that the past several weeks had been difficult for both the family of Ms. Muñoz and her caregivers, but it defended its handling of the case. “J.P.S. Health Network has followed what we believed were the demands of a state statute,” said a spokeswoman, Jill Labbe. “From the onset, J.P.S. has said its role was not to make nor contest law but to follow it.” At roughly the same time, about 11:30 a.m., Ms. Muñoz was disconnected from the machines as her family gathered at her bedside in the hospital’s I.C.U. Her body was released to her husband, Erick Muñoz, the family’s lawyers and a relative said. Image Marlise Muñoz with her husband, Erick, and her son, Mateo. Mr. Muñoz, 26, a firefighter in a town near Fort Worth, had found his wife on the kitchen floor in late November after she suffered an apparent blood clot in her lungs. He, as well as his wife’s parents, Lynne and Ernest Machado, had argued that she had died shortly after arriving at the hospital and they said they were disturbed by the move to keep her on life support. “The Muñoz and Machado families will now proceed with the somber task of laying Marlise Muñoz’s body to rest, and grieving over the great loss that has been suffered,” Mr. Muñoz’s lawyers, Heather L. King and Jessica Hall Janicek, said in a statement. “May Marlise Muñoz finally rest in peace, and her family find the strength to complete what has been an unbearably long and arduous journey.” The hospital did not dispute that Ms. Muñoz was brain-dead, saying in court papers that she met the clinical criteria two days after she was first brought to the hospital. But the hospital’s lawyer said the law still applied to her, insisting it was part of the Texas Legislature’s “commitment to the life and health of unborn children.” The lawyer, Larry M. Thompson, pointed to a section of the Texas Penal Code that states a person may commit criminal homicide by causing the death of a fetus. The law “must convey legislative intent to protect the unborn child, otherwise the Legislature would have simply allowed a pregnant patient to decide to let her life, and the life of her unborn child, end,” wrote Mr. Thompson, with the Tarrant County district attorney’s office, which represented the hospital. Ms. Muñoz, 33, was 14 weeks pregnant with her second child when she first arrived at the hospital, on Nov. 26, and on Sunday had been at the end of her 22nd week of pregnancy. The fetus was not viable, the hospital acknowledged in court papers. It suffered from hydrocephalus — an abnormal accumulation of fluid in the cavities of the brain — as well as a possible heart problem, and the lower extremities were deformed. One of Mr. Muñoz’s lawyers said medical records indicated some of the doctors treating his wife had recommended taking her off life support. Groups that oppose abortion had expressed support for the hospital’s legal argument. A statement released by the National Black Pro-Life Coalition and Operation Rescue said that the fetus deserved not to be killed, and that numerous people had expressed an interest in adopting the child when it was born, even if it had disabilities. It was unclear on Sunday who would end up paying the hospital bill. Hospital officials had said previously that they were focused on caring for Ms. Muñoz, and that it was inappropriate for them to comment on or estimate the cost of a patient’s care. “At the appropriate time, the finance department will pursue the customary avenues to identify payers and reimbursement,” Ms. Labbe said.

Texas
Hospital
Pregnancy
Abortion
Marlise Munoz
Withdrawal of Life Support
Erick Munoz
R H Wallace Jr


Lundqvist and Rangers Fall Short Again

Abstract: At first glance, it would seem to be an anomaly. As of yesterday morning, the Rangers' rookie goaltender, Henrik Lundqvist, had the best goals against average in the N.H.L. And since coming back from last month's Olympics in Turin, where he helped Sweden win the gold medal, he has played at basically the same level. But the 24-year-old Lundqvist has now lost all four of his post-Olympic starts after the Rangers lost by 3-2 in overtime to the Atlanta Thrashers at Madison Square Garden last night. The defeat stretched the Rangers' season-worst streak to five (0-3-2). All of the defeats were by one goal. The Thrashers rallied from a 2-0 deficit entering the third period to win on a power-play goal by Marc Savard, a former Ranger, at 2 minutes 45 seconds of overtime. "I think me and Kevin have let in the same amount of goals as we did before the break, but we don't score as many," Lundqvist said, referring to his backup, Kevin Weekes. Lundqvist has allowed eight goals in his four post-Olympic starts and has a goals against average of 2.00, slightly less than the league-leading 2.05 goals against average Lundqvist brought into last night's game. But the Rangers (36-18-10) have yet to score more than two goals during their five-game skid. "If you look at the goals against and you show anybody those numbers, you'd think it would be impossible to lose five in a row," the Rangers' Steve Rucchin said. For the first time during the losing streak, the Rangers had the lead. When Martin Straka opened the scoring with his 13th goal, at 5:39 of the second period, it marked the first time in 270:39 that the Rangers led. The Rangers took a two-goal lead into the third after Jaromir Jagr scored his league-leading 44th goal of the season at 7:28 of the second -- a power-play backhander from an almost impossible angle. Then the Rangers imploded. Ronald Petrovicky, a former Ranger, spoiled Lundqvist's shutout bid at 7:05 of the third period when he scored from the slot on an assist by another former Ranger, Bobby Holik. The Rangers were still clinging to a 2-1 lead with less than seven minutes remaining in regulation when Blair Betts (cross-checking) and Darius Kasparaitis (delay of game for shooting the puck over the glass) were whistled for two-minute minors just five seconds apart. That gave the Thrashers a two-man advantage for 1:55. Ilya Kovalchuk capitalized with just three seconds left in the five-on-three. The Rangers are now 3-8 in overtime. Excluding shootouts, but including overtimes, the Rangers are 11-20 in one-goal games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, the Rangers' 20 defeats by one goal are the most in the league. SLAP SHOTS Rangers left wing Martin Rucinsky left the game early in the third period after reinjuring his left knee in a collision with Atlanta's Slava Kozlov, who fell into Rucinsky after being hit by Jaromir Jagr. Rucinsky missed 15 games earlier this season with a left knee injury, but last night's injury was apparently not serious.

ATLANTA THRASHERS
NEW YORK RANGERS
HOCKEY ICE


Andy Pettitte Latest Yankee to Join Disabled List

Abstract: The mounting list of injured Yankee stars added another member on Friday when Andy Pettitte was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a strained trapezius muscle. The 40-year-old Pettitte felt pain in his upper back during Thursday’s 3-2 loss against the Seattle Mariners. The Yankees say the injury is not serious, and they expect Pettitte to return as soon as he is eligible to come off the D.L. “I understand that I probably need a few days to let it calm down so I can throw a bullpen, and I’d need to pitch on Tuesday,” Pettitte said. “They don’t want to send me down there in Baltimore on Tuesday and then warm up and have it lock up and we won’t have pitching. We’re in a tough stretch right now, so I understand.” The Yankees recalled Vidal Nuno from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Nuno had been sent down to the minors on Tuesday, a day after throwing five shutout innings against the Cleveland Indians. Pettitte felt pain in his upper back early in Thursday’s game and received a massage in the clubhouse after the fourth inning. Although the massage seemed to alleviate the problem, Pettitte felt his back tighten again when he threw his first pitch in the fifth. He was taken out of the game with two outs in the inning when Manager Joe Girardi saw dip in velocity. Image Andy Pettitte felt pain in his upper back early in Thursday’s game and received a massage, which seemed to alleviate the problem. But he felt his back tighten again when he threw his first pitch in the fifth. He was taken out of the game with two outs in the inning. Credit Al Bello/Getty Images The bullpen had been taxed after having to pitch recently through a rain-shortened C. C. Sabathia start in Colorado, and Phil Hughes’s less-than-one- inning start Wednesday against the Seattle Mariners. “If we had like two off days in the next 10 days, then we could manipulate things with the schedule, come up with a different angle,” General Manager Brian Cashman said. “But this is the safe play. I didn’t expect him to give us 200 innings anyway. But thankfully it’s minor.” While the Yankees did not expect 200 innings from Pettitte, he said he was disappointed to have to pause his season. After missing almost half of last season with a fractured fibula, Pettitte had hoped to give the Yankees a full season. “I had a full off-season to train,” he said. “I worked extremely hard this off-season to get ready for this year. I expected to make every one of my starts.” Pettitte, who missed a start earlier this year with lower back pain, said he realized that perhaps age had caught up with him. Although he is a creature of habit, Pettitte said it might be time for him to change his routine. In between starts, he usually throws two bullpen sessions and does a fair amount of running. That schedule is something he would reconsider. Pettitte will take the next four to five days off to rest his body. “I had high expectations for this season, especially pitching a full season,” Pettitte said. “But now, this is a bump in the road. I want to get everything right and not have anything else go wrong the rest of this season.” INSIDE PITCH The Yankees received better news on catcher CHRIS STEWART, who left Thursday’s game after experiencing discomfort in his groin while running the bases. A magnetic resonance imaging test revealed no damage. The Yankees expect Stewart will be ready to play after a few days of rest. ... The rookie Austin Romine started Friday’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, but Manager Joe Girardi said Stewart would be available in case of an emergency.


3 Men Plead Not Guilty to Causing a Malibu Wildfire

Abstract: LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three men pleaded not guilty on Friday to causing a wildfire that destroyed 50 homes in Malibu, and their lawyers said outside court that the men were being made scapegoats by an outraged community. The lawyers entered not guilty pleas for the men, Brian D. Franks, 27; William T. Coppock, 23; and Brian A. Anderson, 22; all of Los Angeles. They are among five men accused of recklessly causing a Nov. 24 fire that swept through 4,000 acres of Malibu canyon land. Six firefighters were hurt battling the blaze, and 50 homes and 35 other buildings were destroyed. The other two men, Dean A. Lavorante, 19, and Eric M. Ullman, 18, will be arraigned in February. They and Mr. Anderson are free on bail. The five are charged with recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury and recklessly causing fire to inhabited structures. They could face more than a decade each in prison if convicted. Judge Michael K. Kellogg of Superior Court, who works in the San Fernando Valley but lives in Malibu, took the unusual step of denying from the bench that his Malibu neighbors had put pressure on him. “Nobody’s putting pressure on me,” Judge Kellogg said. Judge Kellogg scheduled a preliminary hearing for Jan. 7 to determine if there is enough evidence to hold the three for trial. After the hearing on Friday, defense lawyers said their clients were being made scapegoats. “The Malibu community and the political pressure by the governor and other factors,” led to charges being filed, said Andrew Reed Flier, who represents Mr. Coppock. Arson investigators said food wrappers and precut logs led them to determine the blaze started with an illegal campfire in a cavelike depression on state park land in Corral Canyon that was known as a favorite partying spot for young people.

Forest and Brush Fires
Los Angeles (Calif)


59th Street Bridge Singer

Abstract: For most of its users, the Queensboro Bridge is something to be traversed as quickly as possible, but for Sue Hassel , it is a place to linger. To Ms. Hassel, 69, an operatic soprano from Queens, the bridge is not simply an artery between that borough and Manhattan, but an ideal voice studio. Every weekday morning, while bicycling to her job as a legal secretary in Midtown Manhattan, Ms. Hassel maximizes her time on the bridge by slowly walking her bike across and indulging in an exhilarating 20 minutes of dramatic vocalizing. High above the East River, as the city chugs to life, she sings arias along the trashy, sooty span, even as trucks rumble and subways clatter and screech. “Even in the snow, it’s wonderful,” she said. “And people think I’m crazy, but that’s O.K. We’re all just going to work.” To Ms. Hassel, the rush hour roar is a welcome challenge for her powerful voice, and when her piercing vocals rise above the noise, it tends to attract attention. She has become a fixture among the many bicyclists, walkers and joggers on the path beside the bridge’s lower level. Some wave or slow down to listen. Others strain to hear if the pervasive sound is really emanating from that woman with the bowed head walking her bike. “Someone once came up to me and said, ‘You’re the soprano on the bridge? You know, people think you’re a ghost,’ ” Ms. Hassel said on Tuesday morning as she walked through a light drizzle onto the bridge and pulled out a pitch pipe. She launched into some Verdi arias — first from “La Traviata,” then “Rigoletto” — accompanied by the rush hour cacophony from the N and Q trains, and the five lanes of car and truck traffic to her left. To her right, through a chain-link fence, were broad views of Queens, Roosevelt Island, the Upper East Side of Manhattan and the East River. With papers and trash blowing past her feet, she leapt ever higher, to the F above high C, and back down. Her voice resonated over the Queensbridge housing projects and had pedestrians on Queens Plaza North looking up. Ms. Hassel said she grew up on a farm in Merrill, Wis., and sang constantly while working outdoors. Even as a child, she was driven, she said, and she held up her left hand, showing half a pointer finger, the result of a kick from a horse during a horseback race against her sister. With a sheared-off, bleeding finger, she hung on to win, she said, “and I was back on the horse three days later.” She went from singing solos in church choirs to devouring opera books at the library, and earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in voice, she said. Much of her 20s and 30s were spent working in European opera houses. She settled in New York City in 1978, performing in recitals and with small opera companies. Ms. Hassel said she began singing on the bridge six years ago, after her voice had become “dried up” by medication and “misaligned by bad teaching.” The fresh air, and humidity coming up from the river, helped rehabilitate her voice and also helped with her pulmonary problems, asthma and allergies. “The bridge saved my voice, and to this day, it maintains my voice,” said Ms. Hassel, who performs in voice and piano recitals. The bridge noise “forces you to sing within yourself and develop feel and comfort,” she said, adding that, when singing Wagner, “you have to cut through a 100-piece orchestra with heavy brass, so the bridge noise is nothing.” Her physical exercise includes carrying her mountain bike up and down four flights of stairs in her building. Ms. Hassel practices ballet at home, and also paints and plays piano. Her apartment is nearly unfurnished, to leave space for her keyboard, painting easel and ballet barre. Her walls are covered with her own paintings, many of them of female opera characters. She pointed to one of her paintings, a frantically brushed rendering of a screaming woman wielding a bloody ax. It was Electra from the Richard Strauss opera, her favorite operatic role, and one whose fierce vengeance resonated with her own drive as an artist. Ms. Hassel said her various personal relationships never resulted in marriage, partly because she is a driven artist, not a softy. On the bridge on Tuesday, as an oil barge made its way underneath, and a Roosevelt Island Tramway gondola passed alongside, Ms. Hassel sang the cadenza from a “Rigoletto” aria. “I feel safe up here — it’s my New York castle,” she said, adding that sometimes she is recognized off the bridge. “When I stop at a light on Second Avenue and someone pulls up and says, ‘You know, I just love your voice,’ ” she said. “Well, this is why we sing.”


In Mexican Slum, Pope Francis Laments Economic Gap

Abstract: ECATEPEC, Mexico — Pope Francis stepped into the heartland of Mexican inequality on Sunday, presiding over an enormous outdoor Mass in the impoverished outskirts of the capital and urging the joyous crowd not to fall prey to the wealth, vanity and pride that can create “a society of the few, and for the few.” By coming to Ecatepec, one of the country’s largest, poorest and most violent cities, the Latin American pope placed himself at the center of Mexico’s identity crisis. Nagging economic disparity has left nearly half of the country living in poverty while a mere sliver of society controls the rest — even as drug traffickers terrorize large parts of the nation. Standing on a gigantic stage before several hundred thousand people, Francis told his listeners that the Lenten season, which began last week, is one of conversion, and that Mexico needed conversion. He asked Mexicans to turn their nation into “a land of opportunities, where there will be no need to emigrate in order to dream, no need to be exploited in order to work, no need to make the despair and poverty of many the opportunism of a few, a land that will not have to mourn men and women, young people and children who are destroyed at the hands of the dealers of death.” Francis arrived in Mexico on Friday night, and on Saturday met President Enrique Peña Nieto at the National Palace in Mexico City before addressing Mexico’s bishops. His trip to Ecatepec was barely 20 miles away, yet it delivered Francis to a different world, one emblematic of what he often calls “the peripheries,” the neglected places at the edges of wealth or political power. “They take advantage of us with lies, while they sell the country bit by bit,” said Valdomero Guzmán Peros, 60, a resident of Ecatepec who rode his bicycle to the Mass, describing the government. “We are all hoping that the pope will bring a message to the powerful of our country that they must work for both the rich and the poor.” Image Hundreds of thousands attended Pope Francis’s Mass in Ecatepec, Mexico, on Sunday. Credit Tomas Bravo/Reuters The Mass marked the beginning of Francis’s tour of the Mexican peripheries, touching down in locales his predecessors largely skipped before his planned departure on Wednesday evening. Among other places, he will go to the southern border to meet with Mexico’s indigenous people, and to the north to address immigration. In Ecatepec, violence by organized crime is on the rise even as chunks of the city are being transformed into luxurious shopping centers well out of reach of its residents. During his years as archbishop of Buenos Aires, Francis dedicated much time to working in slums that had many of the same problems. While not the poorest of the cities and towns surrounding the capital, Ecatepec, population 1.7 million, is home to the largest number of people without access to health care and social services in the State of Mexico. “Ecatepec gathers victims at the economic and urban level,” said Sergio Aguayo, a political analyst in Mexico, “a place that symbolizes the devastation of the quality of life of most of its population. It is also a symptom of the way in which organized crime is slowly penetrating Mexico’s biggest cities and how this has resulted in a spike of murder rates, kidnapping and extortions.” The crowds pulsed with energy early Sunday, walking miles down closed highways from across the region to attend. For the Mass, officials designated a giant open field, which had been covered in gravel and outfitted with more than 30 giant television screens and towering speakers to pump out the pontiff’s message. Families gathered in the heat, using blankets strung up on the fencing for shade. In his homily, Francis warned against the “three temptations” of wealth, vanity and pride, and, in what could be interpreted as an oblique swipe at the Mexican elite, warned against societies in which the few enrich themselves and take the “bread” on the “toil of others.” Video Pope Francis arrived in Mexico City on Saturday, where he offered a message of inclusion at the Basilica of the Virgin of Guadalupe. Credit Credit Alessandro Di Meo/European Pressphoto Agency “This is the bread that a corrupt family or society gives its own children,” Francis said. Upon his arrival, Francis traveled through a new development of tidy condominiums, as well as a megamall with stores like Starbucks, Sears and Burger King less than a mile from one of the country’s worst slums. Many Mexican commentators said the picture of prosperity that the government hoped would be validated by Francis’s presence was false. Later in the day, Francis was again swept into the economic divide while visiting a hospital for children in Mexico City. There, he was joined by the first lady of Mexico and, according to the event itinerary, the son of the richest man in Mexico, Carlos Slim. Along the route in Ecatepec, industrious street vendors created a bustling papal market, where hundreds of entrepreneurs spent the morning hawking plates, T-shirts and key chains bearing Francis’ image. And yet even that commerce, to some degree, reflected Mexico’s split reality. More than 60 percent of Mexico’s economy remains informal, and workers say the burden of taxes and bureaucracy prevents them from joining the formal sector. “I know these people are coming to ask for help, but who is there to help them?” asked Claudia Rodriguez Ayala, 46, a vendor selling sandwiches, water and cigarettes along the papal route. “Most feel if they come, they can get some manner of help through faith.” As throngs of people marched past, she smiled and fished out a bottle of water from her cooler. “Or at least lower taxes ordered by the president,” she said.

Pope Francis
Ecatepec
Mexico
Organized crime
Income Inequality
Catholic Church


Prosecutors in Iraq Case See Pattern by Guards

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Private security guards who worked for Blackwater repeatedly shot wildly into the streets of Baghdad without regard for civilians long before they were involved in a 2007 shooting episode that left at least 14 Iraqis dead, federal prosecutors charge in a new court document. While traveling through Baghdad in heavily armored vehicles, at least one of the guards, under contract with the State Department to provide security for United States Embassy personnel, fired an automatic weapon “without aiming” while another deliberately fired into the streets to “instigate gun battles in a manner that was inconsistent with the use of force and escalation of force policies that governed all Blackwater personnel in Iraq,” the federal prosecutors stated. The new accusations were included in a document filed by prosecutors last week in the criminal case against five former Blackwater guards who have been charged with manslaughter in federal court in Washington in connection with the shootings in Nisour Square , in Baghdad, on Sept. 16, 2007. The guards have pleaded not guilty and have argued that they did not fire their weapons with criminal intent in the Nisour Square case. The prosecutors are trying to prove that the shootings were part of a larger pattern of reckless behavior. “These prior bad acts are relevant to establish that the defendants specifically intended to kill or seriously injure the Iraqi civilians that they fired upon at Nisour Square,” the court document says. Part of the evidence relates to the states of mind of the Blackwater guards, and whether statements they allegedly made about killing Iraqis were factors in the shootings. The document says, for example, that one of the guards, Nicholas Slatten, told people that “he wanted to kill as many Iraqis as he could as payback for 9/11 and he repeatedly boasted about the number of Iraqis he had shot.” The new allegations also seem to raise questions about whether there was adequate oversight of the security details by either Blackwater or the State Department. Defense lawyers have not formally responded to the government’s latest document, and a defense lawyer for one of the guards reached on Sunday declined to comment. Previously, the defense stated that the government’s evidence was weak and that its case was without merit. The trial is set to begin in February. The guards were indicted by a federal grand jury last December after a criminal investigation by the F.B.I. in Iraq and were arraigned in federal court in Washington in January. The case involves by far the bloodiest episode in Iraq linked to private security guards protecting American diplomats, and it has transformed the debate in both Washington and Baghdad over the proper role of private contractors in a war zone. The Blackwater guards, assigned to a four-vehicle convoy known as Raven 23, drove into a traffic circle at Nisour Square in downtown Baghdad around noon that day and opened fire with a sniper rifle, machine guns and grenade launchers. After the episode, Blackwater officials said that the guards had been responding to fire from insurgents, but prosecutors charge that they fired on unarmed civilians, including many who were shot in their cars while they were trying to flee. The government points to specific prior incidents to make the case that the Nisour Square shootings were not isolated. In May 2007, one guard, Evan Liberty, fired his automatic weapon without aiming from the turret of a Blackwater vehicle near Amanat City Hall in Baghdad, according to the document. That September, it states, Mr. Liberty was driving a vehicle near the same city hall and fired an automatic weapon without aiming and while still trying to drive. That second incident occurred just one week before the Nisour Square shootings. Mr. Liberty and two other guards, Paul Slough and Mr. Slatten, were also said to have routinely thrown frozen water bottles, frozen oranges and other items at unarmed civilians and vehicles as they drove through Baghdad, “in an attempt to break automobile windows, injure and harass people, and for sport,” the court document states. The two other guards named in the case are Dustin L. Heard and Donald W. Ball. The document does not specify the source or sources of information for the new accusations. But in prosecuting the men, federal lawyers appear to be relying heavily on testimony from a sixth guard, Jeremy P. Ridgeway, who has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with the government. Blackwater, which has changed its name to Xe Services, has not been charged in the case, but the shooting aftermath has hurt the company’s business deeply. This year, Xe (pronounced “zee”) lost its contract to provide diplomatic security for United States Embassy officials in Baghdad, and its longstanding, but more secret, ties to the Central Intelligence Agency have come under new scrutiny as well. The shootings have caused a deep-seated political reaction in Iraq against private security contractors, leading the Iraqi government to demand successfully that the United States agree to make the contractors subject to Iraqi law. Previously, the contractors had been granted immunity from Iraqi law, even while it was unclear which American laws governed their behavior. The company also faces a civil lawsuit filed in the United States on behalf of the Iraqi victims that day. This summer, Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A. director, told Congress that he had found that during the Bush administration, the agency had once considered using Blackwater in a covert assassination program . Officials have said that the plan was never implemented. But the company still has other contracts with the C.I.A., including one that calls for Xe’s personnel to handle and load bombs and rockets on Predator drones at secret bases in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

United States Defense and Military Forces


Protesters in California Clash With Police and Vandalize Stores

Abstract: BERKELEY, Calif. — Raucous demonstrations hit Berkeley’s streets for a second night as protesters angered by police killings in Missouri and New York clashed with officers, vandalized businesses and even fought with each other. Sunday’s protest began peacefully on the University of California, Berkeley, campus but eventually grew rowdy and spilled into Oakland. Activists made their way onto a freeway and blocked traffic. The California Highway Patrol said officers fired tear gas after protesters threw rocks and bottles and tried to set fire to a patrol vehicle. The police also said explosives were thrown at officers, but there was no information immediately available on how potent they were. Officers eventually chased protesters off the roadway. The demonstrations were the latest of several in the Bay Area — including in Oakland where activism is strong — to protest grand jury decisions in Missouri and New York not to indict white police officers in the deaths of two African-American men. As hundreds of protesters began marching through downtown Berkeley, the unrest that marked protests Saturday night was touched off again as someone smashed the window of a RadioShack. When a protester tried to stop vandalism, he was hit with a hammer, Officer Jennifer Coats, the spokeswoman for the Berkeley Police Department, said. The police said groups of protesters began roaming through the downtown area late Sunday, throwing trash cans into streets and lighting garbage on fire, smashing windows on buildings, and damaging and looting businesses. There also were reports of vandalism at City Hall. Television footage showed protesters smashing door windows and breaking into buildings and setting trash piles ablaze. Officer Coats said the police made five arrests in connection with the demonstrations. She said two officers sustained minor injuries Sunday night. “Significant damage” was done to several Berkeley businesses, Officer Coats said in a statement. She said the demonstrations had ended by 3:30 a.m. The San Francisco Chronicle said that at midnight, there were still a few hundred people on the streets. At one point, the RadioShack on Shattuck Avenue at Dwight Way was ransacked. Later, a Whole Foods store on Telegraph Avenue was looted, with people taking and passing around bottles of champagne. There was no immediate word of any serious injuries. During the protests a day earlier, three police officers and a technician were hurt and six people were arrested when the protest became unruly.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


Braves’ Medlen Has a Little Man on His Shoulder and Fire in His Right Arm

Abstract: ATLANTA — The hottest starting pitcher in baseball is a 5-foot-10 right-hander with spiked hair, a flat-brim cap, a rebuilt elbow and a little man on his shoulder giving him all the answers. At least, that is what Don Sutton imagines when he watches Kris Medlen pitch, and Sutton should know. Sutton earned 324 victories across 23 seasons as a Hall of Fame pitcher. He has spent another 22 years calling games for the Atlanta Braves . He wishes he had been teammates with Medlen. “The compliment I gave Greg Maddux once is, ‘I wish I could have played with you,’ ” Sutton said the other night at Turner Field, referring to the four-time Cy Young Award winner. “He said, ‘Why?’ I said: ‘Because I would have won more games. I would have learned from you.’ “And I would have liked to have played with Kris Medlen, because I do think he has a communication with a force in pitching that most of us can’t talk to. It’s an awareness; it’s a sixth sense. I believe he will do all the right things and smile and say yes and thank-you and listen to everybody, but in the end, when he steps in and stares into that catcher, that little man on his shoulder’s going to take over and tell him what to do. And he’s done it well.” Medlen has done it so well that the Braves have won each of his last 22 starts, dating to 2010. That is the longest such streak in major league history, tied with two of Sutton’s Cooperstown teammates: Whitey Ford, from 1950 to 1953, and Carl Hubbell, from 1936 to 1937. Medlen and the Braves can break the record on Sunday, when he is scheduled to start against the Mets , but his much more important start could come next Friday, when the Braves may host the first National League wild-card game. Manager Fredi Gonzalez altered his rotation to put Medlen on track to start that game, with the veteran Tim Hudson also available. “You really can’t ignore what he’s done throughout the course of the summer,” Gonzalez said. “He pitches like he’s pitching in his backyard.” Two years ago, Medlen could not pitch at all. He had a reconstructive elbow operation on Aug. 18, 2010, and did not pitch again until last September, when he relieved twice for the Braves. His success this year is only the latest advertisement for the wonders of Tommy John surgery. “My arm feels good; I guess that’s one thing,” Medlen said. “Coming back from Tommy John, my arm finally is really, really feeling good, feeling normal. It’s easy to trust it.” Medlen underwent the procedure the same month as Stephen Strasburg, the All-Star right-hander of the playoff-bound Washington Nationals, who led the N.L. East by four games through Thursday. The Nationals stuck with a rigid plan for Strasburg, using him as a starter until early September, when they shut him down at 1591/3 innings. Medlen, who turns 27 in October, is nearly three years older than Strasburg, whose age was a critical factor in the Nationals’ plan. The comparison is irresistible, but Medlen rejected it. “He’s a starter; I’m a bullpen guy who became a starter,” Medlen said. “I just don’t even think it’s fair to him to compare our situations. Obviously it’s tough for him — he wants to be part of the winning and all that. But they had their plan and they’re sticking to it, which is cool to see. They put the player first, instead of the organization.” The wisdom of the Nationals’ decision will not be known for years. But the Braves, who planned to hold Medlen to 165 innings, are thrilled with how their program is working. Medlen did not make his first start until July 31, after opening the season in relief to help a bullpen that wore down last September. While Strasburg will not pitch in October, Medlen is rolling. In 11 starts, Medlen is 8-0 with a 1.04 earned run average, striking out 80, with 9 walks, in 772/3 innings. He has allowed more than one run only twice and has not yet surrendered more hits than innings pitched. “He hits his location more consistently than anybody I can remember,” said Miami’s Greg Dobbs, a nine-year veteran who struck out twice against Medlen on Tuesday . “He stays out of the heart of the plate; he’s aggressive; he changes speeds effectively. I can’t remember facing a better changeup.” Braves General Manager Frank Wren said he knew that whenever Medlen entered the rotation, he would be among the team’s top starters. Medlen looked so sharp in spring training that the pitching coach Roger McDowell gave a warning, of sorts, to Gonzalez: if you put him in the rotation now, he will be so good that you will never want to take him out. Wren said he devised the 165-inning limit not in response to Medlen’s operation, but because of his previous workload. Medlen’s previous career high for innings was 1201/3, at Class AA in 2008, and the Braves did not want to increase that by much more than 20 percent. Even so, it was tempting to use him as a starter in April. “It came up in our meetings: why is this guy not in our rotation?” Wren said. “And in our discussions, we said that if we use him now, then he’s going to run out of innings and we won’t have him in the second half. So he could really serve two purposes for us: he could spell the bullpen, and he could be available as a solid starter in the second half.” As Medlen waited his turn, the rotation kept spinning. Jair Jurrjens pitched his way to the minors. Brandon Beachy blew out his elbow. Randall Delgado and Julio Teheran developed slower than the Braves had hoped. Medlen made three minor league starts in June, preparing for a starting role that finally came after 17 more outings in relief. He has shown uncanny command down in the strike zone, with a fastball, a curve and the cartoon changeup that Sutton said “just dives in a hole.” Twice this month, Medlen has fanned at least 12 in a game. “It’s just so fun to catch that guy,” catcher David Ross said. “You’re trying to set up a game plan, and sometimes you have to deviate from it if a guy doesn’t make a pitch, or if he can’t. With Medlen, you’re always able to stick to the plan you want. It’s a blast.” Medlen said he was the same pitcher he was at Santa Ana (Calif.) College, where he was a shortstop and closer. Yet only four teams talked to him before the 2006 draft, when the Braves took him in the 10th round and signed him that night for $80,000. They used him in relief at first but believed that he could be a starter in the mold of Hudson and Roy Oswalt, smallish right-handers with stuff and smarts. Hudson, who is listed at 6-1 but is easily two inches shorter, was a sixth-round pick who has won nearly 200 games. He nodded knowingly about Medlen. “That’s just what everybody perceives to be successful: as a right-hander, you need to be a bigger, strong guy with nice angle on your pitches,” Hudson said. “But he’s got a lot of heart; he has guts; he competes as much as anybody. He’s a little fella out there, but he’s a bulldog.” Sutton was another right-hander without imposing size — 6-1, 185 pounds — but he tried to follow the wisdom of a coach, Red Adams, who said pitchers should wear the game around them like a jacket. Medlen, he suggested, was born with the jacket on. “You could learn to dance by stepping on the steps on the floor — one, two, three, four,” Sutton said. “But there are some people who just walk out there and know how, without having the steps. Kris Medlen just needed a chance to show that he knew what he was doing.”

Baseball
Atlanta Braves
Sutton Don
Records and Achievements
New York Mets
Medlen Kris


The I.M.F.’s Tool, and What It Means for World Trade

Abstract: The United States dollar was once the standard reserve currency for the International Monetary Fund. But in the 1960s and early ’70s, as the Vietnam War dragged on and the United States ran persistent trade deficits, the dollar came to be seen as overvalued . A New Means of Exchange Rising trade in the 1960s was putting stress on the supply of two key assets – gold and the United States dollar – that were needed to support the global monetary standard developed at Bretton Woods after World War II. To ease the strain, the I.M.F. in 1969 created special drawing rights. Each S.D.R. was equivalent to 0.888671 gram of fine gold — which, at the time, was the amount of gold one United States dollar could buy. Although an S.D.R. is not a “currency” as such (it is really just an accounting entry), it can be used by member countries as a reserve asset. S.D.R.s may also be used when the I.M.F. lends money to its member countries or is repaid for loans. A country holding S.D.R.s converts them into one of its component currencies (like dollars or sterling) before they can be spent on goods or services. The Collapse of a Standard The dollar’s peg to gold formally ended on Aug. 15, 1971, when President Richard M. Nixon said the government would no longer convert foreign-held dollars into gold. The new policy, announced in a televised speech to the country, was part of a sweeping new economic plan aimed at reducing inflation and unemployment. By 1973, all the major world currencies were floating in value against each other. Responding to the changes, the monetary fund in 1975 based its system on a basket of 16 widely used currencies. Six years later, the basket was simplified to the currencies of the Group of Five industrial nations: the United States dollar, the Japanese yen, the German mark, the British pound and the French franc. The Euro Joins the Basket In 1999, the collection of reserve currencies was juggled again when the euro was introduced. The euro replaced the French franc and German mark as part of the special drawing rights. The change would be the last until the addition of China’s renminbi, which will take effect on Oct. 1, 2016. After the change, the weightings of one S.D.R. will be: 41.73 percent for the American dollar, 30.93 percent for the euro, 10.92 percent for the Chinese renminbi, 8.33 percent for the Japanese yen and 8.09 percent for the British pound. Using S.D.R.s According to the I.M.F. , as of today, 204.1 billion S.D.R.s (equal to about $285 billion) have been created and allocated to member countries. Many central banks use the system in calculating the value of their reserves. By adding the renminbi to this group, the I.M.F. effectively considers the currency to be safe and reliable. Besides the symbolic weight the inclusion carries, there are ways China will gain greater global clout. For example, China will have somewhat more influence in international bailouts, like Greece’s debt deal.

Gold
Renminbi,Yuan
IMF
International trade
US Dollar


Man Charged in Theft of Food Aid

Abstract: The former director of a Brooklyn nonprofit agency was arrested on Wednesday on charges that he stole more than half a million dollars in federal aid that was supposed to go to buy food for poor children. The man, Andre A. Lewis, was executive director of the Better Brooklyn Community Center, an agency that ran after-school programs and a day care center in Brooklyn Heights and Downtown Brooklyn until it closed in January after its funding dried up. From January 2005 to August 2006, federal prosecutors say, Better Brooklyn, under contract to the city’s health department, claimed to be preparing and serving more than 350 meals and snacks a day to children at its centers and received $520,000 from the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Child Food Program for its costs. In reality, the United States attorney’s office said, the agency gave the children only about $18,000 worth of snacks in 2005. When confronted with the discrepancy, prosecutors said, Mr. Lewis, 24, told investigators the rest of the money went to pay staff members who prepared the food. But on an unannounced visit to Better Brooklyn’s centers, city health officials found neither staff nor facilities for food preparation, prosecutors said. Mr. Lewis, who did not enter a plea on Wednesday, faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted. He was released on $100,000 bail and declined to answer questions outside the courtroom, but his lawyer, Peter Kirchheimer, said, “I’m shocked that the government would proceed in a case where, as far as I can tell, there’s no evidence of personal liability.” Mr. Lewis’s mother, Heather Reed, said only, “My son is a good kid.”


What to Expect During Juno’s Mission to Jupiter

Abstract: With the exception of the sun, Jupiter is bigger than everything in the solar system put together. But little is known about the interior beneath its colorful cloud stripes. Now that Juno has arrived at its destination , it will orbit the planet 37 times over the next 20 months, with the hopes that it will collect data and images that offer clues to the origins of our solar system and the formation of the planets and moons. Image An artist’s conception of the a NASA probe descending into Jupiter in December 1995 while the NASA’s Galileo orbiter passed overhead. The probe sent back data for almost an hour, providing a glimpse of the atmosphere. Credit NASA The Mysteries of Jupiter Several spacecraft have flown past Jupiter, beginning with Pioneer 10 in 1973 . NASA’s Galileo spacecraft, entering orbit in 1995, dropped a 750-pound probe into Jupiter’s atmosphere, sending back data that showed Jupiter had strong, turbulent winds and offering details about the composition of its atmosphere. During its eight years at Jupiter, Galileo confirmed ideas of how Jupiter’s diaphanous rings formed out of dust particles blasted off Jupiter’s small inner moons. It measured the sizzling 2,800-degree temperatures of volcanoes on Io, one of the planet’s four large moons, and it found evidence of under-ice oceans on the other three moons of Europa, Callisto and Ganymede. Unlike Galileo, Juno will be in an orbit passing over Jupiter’s poles, providing a first close look at those regions. With repeated close passes over the cloud tops, the spacecraft will measure microwave emissions, the gravity field and the magnetic field, offering glimpses into what is deep inside Jupiter. Jupiter and Its Moons Spinnable maps of Jupiter and the Galilean moons. The Search for Water It might seem odd to care about the water on Jupiter, but it is one of the main issues that Juno scientists are focusing on. “That’s in some ways our premier measurement,” said Steven Levin , the mission’s project scientist. On Mars, NASA’s strategy seeks to find out whether there was water there that would have ever made Mars cozy enough for life. Jupiter, with its crushing gravity and ultra-intense radiation, clearly is not a hospitable place for life, but that’s not why scientists are interested about water there. Rather, the question is, “Where’s the oxygen?” Jupiter has greater concentrations than the sun of most of the heavier elements like nitrogen and carbon, except for oxygen, which is scarce. Thus, scientists expect that oxygen atoms have each been tied up with two hydrogens to form water molecules. The measurements collected by Juno of microwave emissions emanating out of Jupiter will tell both the temperature and how much water there is, because water molecules absorb microwaves. If Juno finds a lot of water, that suggests Jupiter formed farther from the sun in the colder, icier regions and later migrated to its current orbit. Why does Jupiter have more of the heavier elements, anyway? That’s a mystery, too. One hypothesis is that the heavier elements came from comets that crashed into Jupiter and it absorbed them. Image A false-color image created by combining multiple infrared images taken of Jupiter. Credit Leigh Fletcher/European Southern Observatory At the Heart of the Matter Does Jupiter have a rocky core at its center? Measuring Jupiter’s gravity field will tell the distribution of mass within. If there is a rocky core, planetary scientists will have to explain how rocky bodies formed that early in the solar system. If there is not, then Jupiter formed out of a collapse of a gas cloud, much as the sun did. The Mysteries of Metallic Hydrogen Jupiter is almost entirely hydrogen and helium, the two simplest and most abundant elements in the universe. Cool these two gases, and they change to a liquid. Inside Jupiter, hydrogen is believed to undergo another transformation, to a metal. Scientists have not been able to recreate metallic hydrogen on Earth. In laboratory experiments, hydrogen, squeezed to tens of millions of pounds per square inch between two diamonds, has remained stubbornly nonmetallic. The pressure inside Jupiter is hundreds of millions of pounds per square inch. By studying Jupiter’s magnetic fields, probably generated by currents of metallic hydrogen, scientists will receive hints about the properties of this elusive substance. Image An artist’s conception of the Juno spacecraft passing over Jupiter’s north pole. What Could’ve Gone Wrong? Lots. “I’m confident it’s going to work,” Scott Bolton, Juno’s principal investigator, said before the announcement Monday night that the spacecraft had arrived, “but I’ll be happy when it’s over and we’re in orbit.” Some of the ways that this could have turned into a bad day: If Juno blew up. In August 1993, NASA’s instrument-packed Mars Observer spacecraft vanished . An inquiry concluded that a fuel leak caused the spacecraft to spin quickly and fall out of communication. While Juno’s setup is different, there is always a chance of an explosion with rocket fuel. If the engine did not fire at all. The Japanese probe Akatsuki was all set to arrive at Venus in December 2010, but its engine didn’t fire properly, and Akatsuki sailed right past Venus . Last year, Akatsuki crossed paths with Venus again, and this time, using smaller thrusters, it was able to enter orbit. If it crashed into something. Jupiter does not possess the majestic rings of Saturn, but it does have a thin ring of debris orbiting it. Juno passed through a region that appeared clear, but that did not mean it actually was. Even a dust particle could cause significant damage, as Juno was going 130,000 miles per hour relative to Jupiter. If it flew too close to Jupiter and was ripped to pieces. In one of NASA’s most embarrassing failures, the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft was lost in 1999 because of a mix-up between English and metric units. Climate Orbiter went far deeper into Mars’ atmosphere than planned. Juno traveled within 2,900 miles of Jupiter’s cloud tops, so a miscalculation could have been catastrophic. If the computer crashed. On July 4 last year, the mission controllers of the New Horizons spacecraft that was about to fly by Pluto experienced some nervous moments when the spacecraft stopped talking to them. The computer on New Horizons crashed while trying to interpret some new commands and compressing some images it had taken, the electronic equivalent of walking while chewing gum. The controllers put New Horizons back in working order within a few days, and the flyby occurred without a hitch. For Juno, the scientific instruments have been turned off for its arrival at Jupiter. “We turn off everything that is not necessary for making the event work,” said Dr. Levin, the project scientist. “This is very important to get right, so you don’t do anything extra.” The intense barrage of radiation at Jupiter could have knocked out Juno’s computer, even though it is shielded in a titanium vault. Usually, when there is a glitch, a spacecraft goes into “safe mode” to await new instructions from Earth, but in this case, that would have been too late to save Juno. The spacecraft had been programmed to automatically restart the engine to allow it to enter orbit. “If that doesn’t go just right, we fly past Jupiter, and of course, that’s not desirable,” Dr. Bolton said. The Approach Juno has been executing an automated sequence of actions since Thursday. A timeline of Juno’s arrival (all Eastern time): 9:13 p.m. Start of transmission of single frequency “tones” that will provide updates on the spacecraft’s condition. 9:16 p.m. Juno begins turning away from the sun to position the engine in the right direction to slow the spacecraft for its arrival at Jupiter. 10:41 p.m. With the main antenna pointing away from the sun, Juno switches to a smaller antenna for sending the tones. 10:45 p.m. Juno adjusts itself to eliminate any wobbling. 10:56 p.m. Juno speeds up its spin rate from two rotations a minute to five rotations a minute, a process that takes about five minutes. 11:18 p.m. The main engine begins firing. 11:38 p.m. The spacecraft has slowed down enough to be captured into orbit around Jupiter. 11:53 p.m. The main engine shuts off, leaving Juno in the desired orbit. 11:55 p.m. The spacecraft starts slowing its spin rate back down to two revolutions per minute. 12:07 a.m. Tuesday Juno changes direction to point its antenna back at Earth. 12:11 a.m. Juno ends the transmission of status tones and switches to its medium-gain antenna. 12:16 a.m. Juno begins transmitting detailed telemetry, although it may take 20 minutes or longer to lock into the signal. What Happens Next? The first two highly elliptical orbits will be 53 days in duration, lasting until mid-October. Then Juno will fire its engine again on Oct. 19 to move to a 14-day orbit when the science measurements begin in earnest. Three 30-foot solar panels provide a mere 500 watts to power Juno and its instruments. On Nov. 3, people will be able to start voting on where Juno should point its camera. On the 37th orbit, on Feb. 20, 2018, Juno is to make a suicidal dive into Jupiter, ending the mission, the same way the Galileo spacecraft was disposed in 2003. That is to ensure there is no possibility that Juno would crash into Europa and contaminate it with microbial hitchhikers from Earth. Europa is regarded as one of the most likely places in the solar system to look for life. Why Only 20 Months in Orbit? It took five years to get to Jupiter, and the mission costs $1.1 billion, yet Juno will have a far shorter stay than the eight years Galileo spent exploring Jupiter in the moons. The close approaches to Jupiter means Juno will pass through intense bombardment of the radiation belts. As the mission progresses, Juno’s orbits will receive more direct hits of radiation. In the best outcome, the mission might be extended for a few months. But over time, the spacecraft’s electronics will fail.

Jupiter
Solar System
NASA
Galileo Spacecraft
Juno Spacecraft


Reactions to Breast-Feeding Plan Crosses Political Lines

Abstract: Perhaps it was inevitable that when Michelle Obama proposed something, Michele Bachmann would be the one to criticize her. The surprise is how many of the reactions crossed the usual political boundaries. On blogs and in interviews, some liberal Democrats found themselves agreeing with Representative Bachmann, a Tea Party celebrity from Minnesota , when she criticized the first lady for a campaign to promote breast-feeding . Some conservatives, meanwhile, stood up for Mrs. Obama for promoting what they said was a healthier choice. Mrs. Obama told reporters this month that she would promote breast-feeding, particularly among black women, as part of her campaign to reduce childhood obesity . The Internal Revenue Service then announced that breast pumps, which can cost several hundred dollars, would be eligible for tax breaks. Ms. Bachmann lashed out at the campaign on Tuesday on Laura Ingraham ’s radio show, saying that it reflected a “hard left” position that “government is the answer to everything.” While noting that she had breast-fed the five children she gave birth to, Ms. Bachmann said, “To think that government has to go out and buy my breast pump — You want to talk about nanny state, I think we just got a new definition.” While few if any of those who offered comments were against breast-feeding, many noted that some women were unable to breast-feed for medical reasons. Others said that many women without offices or flexible work hours were not offered the time or a place to use breast pumps. “Holy mackerel, I might have to agree with Michele Bachmann on this one!” noted one person on a blog. A new mother who called herself a progressive Brooklynite — and would not be identified for fear of scorn from her Democratic friends and other mothers — said that while she hated “just about everything to do with Bachmann’s politics, she is not completely wrong here.” “I support what the first lady is trying to do, but I also think there’s already enough pressure on working moms,” she said. “Yes, breast is best, but there are plenty of mothers who love and care for their children, but simply can’t pump — for time, work or physical reasons.” At the same time, people who said they did not like the Obamas applauded the first lady for her efforts. “I am a conservative,” said a writer to an Arkansas Times blog. “I am also a breast-feeding advocate. This is just stupid.” Ms. Bachmann was wrong that Mrs. Obama wants the government to pay for breast pumps; the I.R.S. would simply allow people to deduct breast-feeding expenses if they itemize, or use the pre-tax dollars in their medical savings accounts to pay for pumps. And the federal government is now one of the biggest buyers of baby formula, through its nutritional programs for women and infant children. So giving a tax break for breast-feeding might actually help reduce government spending, as Ms. Bachmann advocates. But the debate about breast-feeding goes well beyond questions of federal spending. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies be fed nothing but breast milk for the first six months, citing its benefits for the child, the mother and the environment. Still, some studies have found it hard to make a strong connection between obesity and bottle feeding , or breast-feeding and a higher I.Q. or a lower incidence of allergies . A spokesman for Mrs. Obama anticipated the debate, calling breast-feeding “a very personal choice.” By Thursday — perhaps, again, inevitably — Sarah Palin had weighed in. “No wonder Michelle Obama is telling everybody, ‘You better breast-feed your baby,’ ” she said at a speech on Long Island . “Yeah, you’d better, because the price of milk is so high right now.”

Michelle Obama
Breastfeeding
Michele M Bachmann


Hip Implant the F.D.A. Rejected Was Marketed Abroad

Abstract: The health care products giant Johnson & Johnson continued to market an artificial hip in Europe and elsewhere overseas after the Food and Drug Administration rejected its sale in the United States based on a review of company safety studies. During that period, the company also continued to sell in this country a related model, which earlier went on the market using a regulatory loophole that did not require a similar safety review. It is not known how many people overseas received the replacement hip after the agency decided in 2009 not to approve it, nor the number who received the closely linked implant sold in this country. During some eight years on the market, the two implants were used in about 93,000 patients worldwide, about one-third of them in the United States. Both models were based on the same component, an all-metal hip socket cup that experts say was faulty in design. The DePuy orthopedic division of Johnson & Johnson, citing declining sales, began phasing out both models of the device — formally known as an articular surface replacement device, which DePuy marketed under the name ASR — in November 2009 and formally recalled them in August 2010 amid reports in databases of orthopedic patients abroad showing they were failing prematurely at high rates. But in a confidential letter, the F.D.A. told Johnson & Johnson in August 2009 that company studies and clinical data submitted to gain approval in the United States to sell the model available overseas were inadequate to determine the implant’s safety and effectiveness, according to a summary of the letter reviewed by The New York Times . The agency also told the company it would need added clinical data to pursue the application, a process that would probably have taken a year or more. DePuy’s receipt of the notice came as regulators and surgeons abroad as well as doctors in this country were raising serious questions about growing failures of both models of the implant. A spokeswoman for DePuy confirmed that the company had received the agency’s so-called nonapproval letter. But the spokeswoman, Mindy Tinsley, declined to release the letter or to respond to questions about when, or if, DePuy disclosed the ruling to doctors, patients, investors or regulators abroad. A principal researcher on the clinical studies submitted by the company to the F.D.A. said he was not informed of the agency’s decision. Also, a review of publicly available information indicates that the company did not discuss the agency’s nonapproval letter in financial reports or in presentations to analysts while the device remained on the market. There is no suggestion that Johnson & Johnson broke the law. Regulatory standards in other countries, like those in Europe, for approving the sale of medical devices are typically lower than here. A spokeswoman for a British regulatory agency, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, said that companies like Johnson & Johnson were not required to notify it when the F.D.A. refused to approve a product that was used in patients there. However, the F.D.A.’s rejection may further deepen the company’s legal and financial problems surrounding the ASR. Last month, the company took a special $3 billion charge, much of it related to anticipated legal and medical expenses associated with the recall. An estimated 5,000 lawsuits involving the device are pending, including some from patients crippled by tiny particles of metallic debris shed by the implants. William Vodra, a lawyer who specializes in F.D.A. regulation, said that, in general, drug and medical device makers typically disclose nonapproval letters if they might have a material impact on a company’s finances. Mr. Vodra added that apart from that financial calculation, there was no hard-and-fast rule about making such rulings public. Mr. Vodra said that if a company decided to withhold a nonapproval letter that contained important safety information about a device used by doctors, it could face damage to its brand. “They have to think long and hard of the reputational impact,” he said. The handling of the ASR highlights how the F.D.A., by keeping its approval process confidential, may affect the health and safety of patients. An agency spokesman, Morgan Liscinsky, declined to disclose the letter on the ASR, saying the agency had a policy of not releasing such notices because they might contain confidential business information. The version of the ASR rejected by the agency was developed by DePuy for use in a hip replacement procedure called resurfacing, which is a bone-sparing alternative to standard surgery. DePuy started selling the implant abroad around 2003. But because resurfacing was a new procedure, the agency required the company to run clinical trials before selling the device here. In 2005, while those studies were under way, DePuy used a less rigorous regulatory pathway to win F.D.A. clearance to sell a version of the ASR based on the same metal hip cup for use in traditional joint replacement surgery. Because that version resembled hip implants already on the market, the agency was authorized to clear it for sale without clinical testing. It was apparently within weeks of getting the F.D.A. letter in August 2009 that DePuy executives began a strategy to slowly phase out ASR sales while shifting surgeons to other company implants. Three months after the letter, in November 2009, the company publicly announced its decision to phase out the ASR, attributing the move to declining sales. The company also said then that it had withdrawn its F.D.A. application for the resurfacing version of the device. In a statement, Ms. Tinsley, the DePuy spokeswoman, said the company “weighed the additional data that would be required for approval against the declining market demand for hip resurfacing.” It is not known precisely what the agency’s letter stated nor is it clear how, or if, the agency’s concerns about the resurfacing version of the hip implant applied to the model used in this country in standard replacement surgeries. The agency can reject approving a device for various reasons, including cases where it is seeking only small amount of added data. Copies of the letter that might have been provided to lawyers involved in litigation against Johnson & Johnson have been sealed by the court. But the summary of the letter to DePuy suggests that it was long and detailed — 13 pages in all. Before the recall, DePuy long defended the articular surface replacement device, saying that any failures associated with it reflected failures by surgeons to properly implant the hip cup. The surgeons who performed the study of the resurfacing version of the device that was rejected by the F.D.A. were handpicked by DePuy and included the model’s designers. Dr. Antoni Nargol, an orthopedic surgeon in England who worked on the study that DePuy submitted to the F.D.A. and later became a critic of the device, said in a telephone interview that the company had never informed him that its application for approval in the United States had been rejected. In March 2010, The Times disclosed that F.D.A. records showed that the agency had received 300 complaints about the ASR, virtually all of them involving patients who had to undergo replacement operation just a few years after getting the device. That number has since reached into the thousands. DePuy continued to insist then that it was safe, but in August 2010, after data in a British registry of orthopedic patients showed high failure rates for the ASR, the company recalled both versions of the device.

Hip
Implants
Johnson & Johnson
Medical device
Surgery
DePuy Orthopaedics
Regulation and Deregulation
Recalls and Bans
FDA


A Hartford Story Tries to Dodge an Abrupt End

Abstract: Hartford THE boy suspected where the conversation with his grownup visitor was heading. As a fifth grader at Fox Elementary School, after all, he had learned a thing or two. He was aware, for example, that he was having a hard time with reading — tests showed him at the third-grade level. And so now he had someone called a mentor. Carl Guerriere, executive director of the Greater Hartford Literacy Council, knew the boy’s proficiency level was not horrific by local educational standards, but it was worrisome enough in a city that has one of the lowest adult literacy rates in the nation. Mr. Guerriere asked, “What do you want to do when you grow up?” The fifth grader, picking at a lunch of Spanish rice and chicken (he ate the skin, not the meat), replied with a common dream for that age: “A policeman,” and then, not getting the cliché quite right, added, “I want to take drug dealers out of the road.” He meant, of course, off the streets. His mentor knew that the boy was living in a household where only Spanish was spoken — an impediment to reading and speaking proper English. Mr. Guerriere, 52, understood the difficulty from first-hand experience. In the working-class household where he grew up, Italian was spoken (by his father), and Ukrainian (by his mother). As the fifth son of parents who had dropped out of school, his speech was once rife with double negatives. Moreover, he understood precisely the boy’s vulnerability — because he had been in that chair himself. What could he tell the child? That though he’d eventually earned a bachelor’s degree from Trinity College and a master’s from Columbia, he had once been a punk on the road to nowhere? Or that by the age of 12 he and his aimless buddies were much more devoted to marijuana and Boone’s Farm wine than academics? It wasn’t cool, after all, to bring a book home. Or that, magically, school saved him. Eighth-grade teachers in Bristol discovered his promise, pushed him, and did what some urban teachers today find difficult because of overwhelming societal forces. Yes, Mr. Guerriere could have mentioned this, but instead concentrated on the task at hand — getting the boy to understand that in order to become a police officer he would have to become proficient in English. This circumstance at Fox may reasonably stand for what has been at stake in Hartford, where educational statistics over the years have set new standards for grimness, and where financial support for the work of the Greater Hartford Literacy Council, which Mr. Guerriere has headed since its inception in 2001, has dwindled to almost nothing. Indeed, when I visited his headquarters on the third floor of Hartford’s Union Station in early December, his multitasking had an eerie quality. On the one hand, he expressed the particulars of the city’s deep problem. On the other, he was packing posters and other materials to take them to, well, where? He wasn’t quite sure. And he prepared for a meeting later in the day with the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving that would determine whether his doors would be open much beyond New Year’s Day. The economic crisis and drop in corporate and political support have come at a critical moment — just as efforts to address the city’s literacy rate are gaining some traction. Mastery Test scores, never a source of pride in Hartford’s schools, are slightly up. One of the reasons is the work of Mr. Guerriere, his staff (now down to one) and the council’s confederation of dozens of nonprofits and schools in 35 towns. Those efforts have raised public awareness and begun something of a reading renaissance. Mr. Guerriere is particularly concerned about the vulnerable city around him — and has wanted to create a culture of reading in urban households — hence, the effort to place books in households. If the council’s doors close there will still be literacy programs. Books will be distributed to children by the statewide program Read to Grow, which recently attracted the Nobel laureate Toni Morrison to a fund-raiser. The author told the audience of 600 in New Haven that it was critical to teach children “the language they dream in.” But, as in the past, many other programs will be low profile and without regional support. This, to Mr. Guerriere, is not surprising. “Poor people don’t have advocates,” he says. Indeed, that afternoon, the meeting with the foundation, which in the past has been, along with the city, a primary benefactor, did not go well. Mr. Guerriere left with the prospect that the best his organization could do, as it dissipates, is distribute materials and guidance to other stakeholders. The meeting did not offer Mr. Guerriere a chance to talk about the boy he has mentored, and who puts a human face on the issue. At one of the mentoring sessions, he and the child played a table version of basketball, trying to coax a small plastic orb into a net. He let the boy keep score, and noticed the fifth grader had trouble adding two points to the total. Years from now, that could still be the case as he applies for jobs, without basic qualifications. Or, armed with inspiration and guidance from those like Mr. Guerriere, who knows that anything is possible, the boy may one day become a mentor himself, and pass along the magic of the written word.

Education and Schools
Illiteracy
Reading and Writing Skills
Hartford (Conn)


Making It Better

Abstract: It was 1:36 p.m. on a frantic fall day, and the school nurse was missing. Outside her office, three girls with runny noses and blinking tennis shoes spun in circles. Inside, 8-year-old Maha slouched in a miniature wooden chair, moaning about a headache and sore throat. Soon, a slender boy with teary eyes wandered in, looking for relief from a lunchtime punch to the gut. Then, just as the groans and teasing reached a peak, she appeared: Nasim Akhtar, 48, full-time nurse, occasional therapist and stand-in mother to the 1,100 students at Public School 70 in Long Island City, Queens . Nurse Akhtar, who had tiptoed upstairs to the lounge a few minutes before for a cup of tea — she prefers coffee from the Dunkin’ Donuts around the corner, but this was not a day to abandon her post — immediately began scurrying around, sticking thermometers under tongues. In a black blazer, pink-framed glasses and henna-tinged hair, she locked eyes with each student, put her hands on her hips and leaned forward. “What’s wrong?” My head hurts! He was trying to hit another kid but hit me instead! I want to throw up! Nurse Akhtar is sympathetic but skeptical. She pampers students with stickers and pats on the back, and is an eager accomplice in games of fantasy. (“Now you’re scooting like a train and whistling!”) But she also has a knack for puncturing holes in logic and seizing on inconsistencies. (“I thought you said the aching started yesterday? Are you sure you are sick?”) In short, she knows a faker when she sees one, and she does not hesitate to deliver the dreaded diagnosis: “You are going to be fine. You can go back to class.” For the 10 years Nurse Akhtar has been working in schools, the last five at P.S. 70, she has treated 10 to 15 children daily for problems ranging from paper cuts to epilepsy. On one wall of her tiny medical room is a poster outlining the importance of washing hands and feet (cartoon fungus included); on another, reminders of the perils of fatty foods and a guide to the various species of asthma inhalers. But this year, Nurse Akhtar and New York’s 1,229 other school nurses have been tapped as soldiers on the front lines of a public health crisis, thrust into a battle against the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu , which tore through dozens of city schools last spring . Across the country, school nurses are serving as both soothers and sentinels as the government tries to prevent not just an epidemic but also mass hysteria. It is a role they have not played on such a scale since the polio vaccinations of the 1950s. For the first time in her career, Nurse Akhtar will soon start delivering a vaccine, free to all children who want it. And, on a daily basis, she must track the number of children who come to her with symptoms of influenza — fevers, coughs, sore throats — hoping to prevent the illness from leaving its crib. If the resurgence is bad, Nurse Akhtar will be one of the first to know. And just how bad it gets will depend, in large part, on how she and other school nurses respond.  It began with a tooth. Her mother’s tooth. Severely decayed, it had been yanked from her jaw the day before by a dentist not far from their hometown in Pakistan. But the bleeding would not stop, and nobody in their rural village — not the friends who had gone to university, not the next-door neighbors — knew what to do. When she peered into her mother’s mouth, she saw an open capillary. She was only 6 and knew nothing about medicine, but she drew on her instincts and told her mother to drink cold water. Soon, the bleeding stopped. It was at that moment, Nurse Akhtar recalled, that she decided her future career. “I knew I had to become the person who could help people,” she said. “I didn’t know how, but I wanted to make people feel good.” Several years later, on a visit to an ailing relative, she grew enamored of the robotic efficiency of the hospital: doctors popping from one room to the next, nurses arranging tools and checking charts. And she loved the bleached white uniforms. She studied and worked for a decade at the Mayo Hospital in Lahore , completing an intensive nursing program that included stints treating victims from bombings and floods. In 1992, at age 31, she left Pakistan for Queens to join her husband, who had come a year earlier and found work at a gas station. The initial years in their East Elmhurst home were lonely, and she coped by studying for nursing exams, sometimes taking breaks only to sleep, hoping that a medical credential would help her earn citizenship (she has a green card). She took her books everywhere — the fifth edition of the Lippincott Manual of Nursing Practice became her bible — and memorized concepts like arterial blood gases by writing the words out in a neat blue cursive. In 1997, five years after arriving, she earned her license as a registered nurse: No. 488407 in New York State. For the next few years, she was a personal nurse to patients with severe illnesses like cerebral palsy and Lou Gehrig’s disease. It was depressing, grueling work, and as her two daughters started school, she wanted a schedule that matched theirs. Nurse Akhtar began at a Catholic middle school, and, in 2004, landed at P.S. 70, one of the city’s true melting pot schools. It is a place where nearly half the students are Hispanic, and virtually all are poor enough to qualify for lunch assistance; where fliers are available in five languages and outsiders, upon visiting a classroom, often marvel to the principal, “This is really New York!” On a recent day, an hour in the nurse’s office drew students with roots in Morocco, Egypt, Guatemala, Bangladesh and Korea. Nurse Akhtar, who speaks four languages — Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu and English — is the ambassador to parents, reminding them to fill out their emergency contact forms, refill prescriptions or update immunization records. She encounters about as many medical philosophies as countries of origin. Take bedbugs . Some parents could not care less about the little pink bumps; others expect aggressive treatment. The diplomatic challenge is to please everybody and keep the school environment healthy. So when a first grader showed up the other day with what looked like the telltale bites on her hands, Nurse Akhtar bandaged her finger. “People think this is such a big deal, but in many countries, we say, ‘What does this tiny thing do to you? There are many other things to worry about in life,’ ” she noted. “But it is not my role to decide these questions. With Christians, I am Christian. With Jews, I am Jewish. With Muslims, I am Muslim. With Arabic, I am Arabic. I have to serve all.”  Parental relations, it seems, have always been a stumbling block for school nurses. In 1902, the nation’s first school nurse, Lina L. Rogers, was hired in New York City as part of an experiment to reduce absences at four schools. A few years later, in the American Journal of Nursing, she recalled a mother who turned irate after being told by her son that “his eyes had to be taken out and scraped.” “The nurse on entering this home was greeted with a tirade of abuse,” she wrote, “but, after holding her ground, succeeded in making the explanation.” In that era, nurses traveled door to door checking up on absent children with the goal of getting them healthy enough to return to school. They taught parents how to treat a variety of conditions, including lice, which required dousing a child’s head in kerosene and sweet oil. By 1905, New York had 44 school nurses , and other cities — Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and Chicago — soon followed suit. The idea was that many more children would pass their classes if they did not have to go home for every minor ailment. Today, there are more public school nurses than ever: 56,239 nationwide, many of them part time. New York’s 1,230 school nurses are paid a starting salary of $46,000 to $50,000; private hospital jobs pay more like $65,000, and climb much faster. Virtually all are female, and many are near retirement, raising concern amid a broader shortage of nurses. Over time, their duties have shifted considerably. As Nurse Akhtar put it, in the last decade alone, “everything has changed totally.” For instance, at 10:25 a.m. on a recent day, she encountered a patient who probably would have been shut out of the school system a generation before: a mentally retarded girl, sniffling and clinging to the school aide who brought her in. The aide worried that the girl’s red nose might mean she had a cold, but there was no way to tell. The girl does not speak intelligibly, and Nurse Akhtar could not take her temperature without a special thermometer. So she set about determining whether there was indeed a medical issue or if the girl just needed some stimulation. “Give me a five,” she shouted, hurtling her palm toward the girl’s hand. “Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!” After a few minutes, the girl giggled and started scooting forward in her chair, seeming to forget her itchy nose. Nurse Akhtar sent her back to class. “It can be hard not knowing what the problem is,” she said. “They need someone to watch them, to make sure they are not in danger.” Along with increases in the number of disabled students, there are more children with asthma, diabetes and obesity, and more with behavioral problems, leaving Nurse Akhtar to oversee Ritalin regimens. And there are so many children with food allergies — peanut, kiwi, fruit punch — that she obsessively keeps a cache of EpiPens locked away in a cabinet. There is also more paperwork these days, as city health officials try to monitor health trends, so much of a nurse’s time is spent verifying records and tracking symptoms she sees daily. In middle schools and high schools, nurses must also deal with drug abuse, sexually transmitted disease, pregnancy and student violence. About 1 in 10 of New York’s public-school students are uninsured, making school nurses, their didactic posters and the annual personal hygiene assemblies their main — or perhaps only — sources of health advice and care. Sometimes, nurses must also be counselors, and visits to Nurse Akhtar occasionally take on elements of a therapy session. A third-grade boy named Ahmed walked into the medical room the other day with scrapes on his neck and a bruise on his arm, the marks of a playground fight. “Today you have learned something very important,” Nurse Akhtar told him. “Do not hit anyone. Ever. “Why do people fight? It is pointless. They like to show their power,” she continued. “The tiger does not kill the tiger to make food in the jungle. It kills the weak animals.” The boy looked shaken by the implications of her words. Nurse Akhtar, standing at the sink, wiped a cold washcloth across his wounds.  On that busy fall day at P.S. 70, the spectacle of the afternoon was Maha, the one who complained of head and throat pain. Maha was not the type to draw attention to herself, aside from her Twinkle Toes shoes, but the electronic thermometer sticking out of her mouth and the nurse’s intense focus captured the attention of the boys. They crowded around. “If it’s over 100 degrees it’s swine flu,” said a third grader named Jesse. “That’ll get ya!” teased Adam, his classmate. Nurse Akhtar brushed the banter aside. “It’s 99.3,” she announced. “It’s not a fever. Check it again before you come to school tomorrow. You will be fine.” She tore a sheet from her notebook — a letter to Maha’s parents — and sent the girl out the door. She turned to the boys. “You know, I have a video on hand washing,” she said. “It’s very good.” The boys said they were all planning to get the swine-flu vaccine, fearful of a return of the spring’s chaos. As the virus spread through younger populations, Queens was the epicenter. In total, 59 schools citywide closed their doors, and many others faced long lists of absent students. P.S. 70 stayed open, but as many as 150 of its 1,050 students were absent on a single day in May, with attendance dropping in all grades, pre-kindergarten through fifth. Over two weeks, 49 students were sent home sick, most with flulike symptoms, and several staff members also became ill. Nurse Akhtar refers to that period as the “crazy days.” There were moments when dozens of coughing, feverish children lined the hallway outside her door. She had to send some to the main office, where sick students spread out on the benches. There was no time for lunch or bathroom breaks. “Other people were driving me crazy, panicking me,” she said. “I said, ‘This is life.’ ” Swine flu is the latest in a long line of health emergencies that have tested school nurses, from the 1918 influenza pandemic to the polio outbreaks of the 1950s and, most recently, the anthrax scares after Sept. 11. But the unpredictable nature of the H1N1 virus, the already strained resources of today’s nurses, and the tendency of the flu to spread like wildfire through schools, makes some health officials nervous. Nurse Akhtar says she is unfazed. Sitting in her living room, sifting through photos from her days in nursing school in Pakistan, she recalled a night of bombings, in the late 1980s, when the hospital in Lahore was flooded with bits and pieces of human beings: faces without jaws, torsos with no arms, legs without owners. Everyone sprang to action, she said. There was no time to panic. “If someone cannot devote themselves in nursing,” she said, “they should not be in nursing.” She headed for the closet to retrieve a navy blue uniform, a relic from her first days as a school nurse that she keeps with pride. It was pristine: creased in all the right places, gold buttons still gleaming. “We have a special power,” she said. “We can handle all of this.”

New York State
Nursing and Nurses
Education and Schools
Medicine and Health
Swine Influenza
Long Island City (NYC)
Queens (NYC)