Tensions Remain High in Crimea Amid Renewed Effort to Mediate

Abstract: MOSCOW — Even as Russia and Ukraine signaled a modest willingness to seek a diplomatic resolution to the widening crisis over Crimea on Saturday, there were new reports of Russian reinforcements there, and Russia raised the possibility of suspending inspections required under arms control treaties because of stepped-up operations by NATO. “We are ready to continue a dialogue on the understanding that a dialogue should be honest and partnerlike, without attempts to portray us as one of the parties in the conflict,” Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said during an appearance with his counterpart from Tajikistan. Hours after he spoke, however, Russia began moving new troops in unmarked uniforms in large trucks around Crimea, and a Ukrainian defense spokesman there said that witnesses had reported seeing amphibious military ships unloading about 200 military vehicles in eastern Crimea on Friday night after apparently having crossed the Strait of Kerch, which separates Crimea from Russian territory. The Ukrainian spokesman said that a convoy of about 60 military trucks was moving from Feodosiya toward an airfield near Simferopol, Crimea’s regional capital. A Ukrainian border patrol plane was also fired on near the boundary between Crimea and Russia, the Ukrainians said, but was not damaged. In Moscow, an unidentified military official told Russian news agencies that Russia was considering suspending inspections of its strategic nuclear arsenal required by the arms reduction treaties, as well as other military cooperation accords meant to build confidence and avoid confrontations. The official said the move was justified by “baseless threats” against Russia by the United States and NATO. A suspension of the inspections would undermine a pillar of international security and expand the confrontation beyond Ukraine itself. Although President Obama has made it clear that the United States does not want to escalate the Crimean crisis, the Pentagon stepped up training operations in Poland and sent fighter jets to patrol the skies over Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, three former Soviet republics with sizable populations of ethnic Russians. Mr. Obama, who was spending the weekend in Florida, also held phone consultations about Ukraine with the French president and the British and Italian prime ministers, then had a conference call with the presidents of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which are NATO members. He pledged that the United States, as a NATO ally, had an “unwavering commitment” to their defense, according to the White House’s account of the call. In a separate phone conversation on Saturday, Secretary of State John Kerry warned Mr. Lavrov that “continued military escalation and provocation in Crimea or elsewhere in Ukraine, along with steps to annex Crimea to Russia, would close any available space for diplomacy,” a State Department official said. Image People in Kiev’s Independence Square protested Russian intervention in Crimea. Credit Mauricio Lima for The New York Times In Kiev, Ukraine’s new foreign minister, Andrii Deshchytsa, said that some small progress had been made to form a “contact group” of foreign diplomats to mediate the country’s confrontation with Russia after the occupation of Crimea by Russian soldiers and local “self-defense” groups more than a week ago. Washington has sought to establish the contact group, which would include Russia, Ukraine, Britain, France and the United States, as a way to bring Moscow and Kiev to the negotiating table. Crimea’s regional assembly voted on Thursday to secede from Ukraine and apply to join the Russian Federation, and scheduled a referendum for March 16 to ratify its decision, significantly escalating the crisis between Russia and the West. Ukraine, along with the United States and Europe, declared the referendum unconstitutional and made clear it would not recognize the vote, though the prospect of Crimea joining Russia received an overwhelmingly positive reaction from Russian lawmakers on Friday. “We have a certain small progress and some hope that we will manage this in a peaceful way,” Mr. Deshchysta said in Kiev. “We need to create some negotiating mechanism” with Russia, “and we think it should be established as soon as possible.” He said Ukraine was open to talks with Russia in any setting “to stop the aggression and de-escalate the situation.” But Mr. Lavrov did not budge from Russia’s position that the new government in Ukraine was illegitimate and under the sway of “radical nationalists” who seized power in a coup. He insisted that any talks with Europe or the United States should begin with the agreement signed Feb. 21 between the ousted Ukrainian president, Viktor F. Yanukovych, and opposition leaders, even though that accord fell apart almost immediately. The diplomacy is likely to be complicated, however, because Russian officials have refused to recognize Ukraine’s new political leaders, though the Russian and Ukrainian prime ministers have spoken and Mr. Deshchysta said that messages were being exchanged through intermediaries. Even as Mr. Lavrov continued to denounce those Russia considers to be behind the ouster of Mr. Yanukovych’s government, the leader of a right-wing group that played a prominent role in the street protests staked a claim on Saturday for a larger role in the political future of Ukraine. The group, Right Sector, has not disbanded its quasi-military units, whose members now at times appear armed in public and have recently become more vocally critical of the interim government A day after declaring himself a candidate for president in the election now scheduled for May, the group’s leader, Dmytro Yarosh, provided the most detailed description yet of his political ambitions and goals. Mr. Yarosh said the Right Sector was not disbanding because it wanted to dissuade Russia from moving deeper into Ukraine. “Ukraine is practically in a state of war with Russia,” he said, “and it is too early to speak of pacification and disarmament.” In Crimea itself, tensions continued to mount. Poland evacuated its consulate in Sevastopol on Saturday “because of continuing disturbances by Russian forces there,” Poland’s foreign minister, Radoslaw Sikorski, said. There were new reports of Russian military maneuvers on Saturday, the morning after Russian troops tried to seize a Ukrainian Air Force base in the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Two Russian military vehicles smashed through the gate of the base, but there were no shots fired and the vehicles withdrew. “They came here because it was our turn,” said Lt. Col. Andrey A. Aladashvilli, an officer at the base. “They’ve already been everywhere, they’ve tried to block, seize and establish control everywhere. We’re practically one of the last.” Image Pro-Russia demonstrators attended a rally on Saturday in Donetsk, in eastern Ukraine. Credit Uriel Sinai for The New York Times Separately, hackers hit Ukraine’s Security and Defense Council with a denial-of-service attack devised to cripple its computers, the council said Saturday. Attacks on Internet and phone services have also been reported. An observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an international group with 57 member states, including Ukraine and Russia, has been trying to enter Crimea for days now, but has been stopped at a checkpoint controlled by armed men in uniforms without insignia. The Associated Press reported that warning shots were fired at the observers when they tried again to cross into Crimea on Saturday. A day after Russia signaled that it was prepared to annex Crimea — despite a denial by President Vladimir V. Putin only days before — Mr. Deshchysta, the foreign minister, flatly declared that Ukraine would never agree. “Crimea is and will remain a Ukrainian land,” he said. After days of pro-Russian protests in Crimea, supporters of the new government in Kiev also rallied in Simferopol, confronting Russian demonstrators and volunteer militiamen. Several hundred men and women, carrying Ukrainian flags and blue and yellow flower-shaped balloons, marched through the city’s center to deliver tulips to Ukrainian troops in celebration of Women’s Day. “I don’t want to live in Russia,” said Igor Klimenko, who took part in the demonstration. “Russia is not a free country — in Russia I can’t come out here and express myself like this.” In Bakhchysaray, the historical center of what was once the Crimean Tatars’ homeland, several hundred protesters, mostly Tatar women and children, marched against integration with Russia, waving Ukrainian and Tatar flags, and chanting “We’re for peace,” “Ukraine is inseparable,” and “Russian soldiers, go home!” “We want the aggressor to leave,” said Dilyara Seyt-Yaleeva, a member of the local teachers’ council. “Crimea is flooded with Russian troops, and we are very afraid.” She added: “If this becomes Russia, there will be cleansings here. I don’t know what the Crimean Tatars will do. We can’t leave our homeland.” Tatars make up roughly 12 percent of the population of Crimea, contributing to the ethnic and religious diversity in a region that is mostly Russian. With the referendum on rejoining Russia imminent, many of those marching recalled Stalin’s mass deportation of Tatars in 1944 after the Soviet Union recaptured the peninsula from the Nazis. “Once was enough,” said one marcher, Galina Seyt-Kharilova.

Crimea
Russia
Ukraine
NATO
Nuclear weapon
International relations
UN


U.S. Won’t Label Terror Suspects as ‘Combatants’

Abstract: The Obama administration said Friday that it would abandon the Bush administration’s term “enemy combatant” as it argues in court for the continued detention of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay , Cuba, in a move that seemed intended to symbolically separate the new administration from Bush detention policies. But in a much anticipated court filing, the Justice Department argued that the president has the authority to detain terrorism suspects there without criminal charges, much as the Bush administration had asserted. It provided a broad definition of those who can be held, which was not significantly different from the one used by the Bush administration. The filing signaled that, as long as Guantánamo remains open, the new administration will aggressively defend its ability to hold some detainees there. “The president has the authority to detain persons” who planned or aided the 2001 terrorist attacks as well as those “who were part of, or substantially supported, Taliban or Al Qaeda forces,” administration lawyers wrote. The Obama administration said it was relying on existing principles of the international law of war. A public statement indicated that the government was moving away from claims of expansive executive power often used by the Bush administration to justify Guantánamo. The new administration took pains to try to point out that it was taking a different approach. It said the new definition “does not rely on the president’s authority as commander in chief” beyond the powers authorized by Congress. The filing, in Federal District Court in Washington, was meant to provide a definition of those detainees who can be held and bitterly disappointed critics of Guantánamo, who said it seemed to continue the policies they have criticized for more than seven years. It was the latest example of the Obama administration’s taking ownership of Guantánamo, even after having announced it would close the prison, where 241 men remain. “This seems fundamentally consistent with the positions of the prior administration,” said Steven A. Engel, who was a senior lawyer responsible for detainee issues in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel until the final day of the Bush administration. Mr. Engel added that the term “enemy combatant” was not the issue. “The important point is that they recognize that we can detain members of the enemy” during a war, he said. The new administration’s position had been the subject of wide speculation before a court deadline Friday for the administration to tell federal judges what definition it believes the courts should use in the habeas corpus cases reviewing detainees’ cases. Some detainees’ lawyers had hoped for a much narrower definition, perhaps one that would have eliminated simply “supporting” the Taliban or Al Qaeda as a ground for detention. Such a change, some of the detainees’ lawyers had predicted, could have undercut the government’s justification for holding as many as half of the remaining prisoners, including jihadists captured in Afghanistan who never fought the United States and others who the government has indicated may have had only tangential ties to Al Qaeda or the Taliban. The new definition did add a requirement that to justify detention a detainee would have to have “substantially supported” Al Qaeda, the Taliban or forces associated with them. But the administration did not define “substantial,” and the detainees’ lawyers said they doubted that the change would help many of their clients. The filing, which was made in some 40 habeas corpus cases of detainees’ challenging their imprisonment, is expected to be the government’s position in more than 200 such cases and to govern a separate review of all cases outside of court that has been ordered by President Obama . Some critics of Guantánamo said that Friday’s filing fitted a pattern of recent moves by the administration that seemed intended to undercut continued criticism of Guantánamo but did not make significant changes in detention policy. They noted that after Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. visited the detention camp last month, he proclaimed it “well run.” They said they had been stung as well by a Pentagon report commissioned by the new administration that said last month that the detention camp on the naval base at Guantánamo Bay meets the humane-treatment requirements of the Geneva conventions . Ramzi Kassem, a detainees’ lawyer who teaches at Yale Law School, said Friday that the new administration had yet to deal effectively either with efforts to release many of the detainees or to improve the conditions at the camp. Mr. Kassem said the filing Friday was an additional indication that the new administration had yet to grapple with the complexities of Guantánamo or the detainees’ cases. “I think they may be very much under the influence of the rhetoric of the outgoing administration,” he said. But the Department of Justice filing portrayed the adjustment of the government’s position in expansive terms. In a public statement accompanying its filing, the department said the government’s position had been devised to adhere closely to the requirements of the international law of war, longstanding principles that permit enemy fighters to be held until the completion of hostilities. The Bush administration made those arguments as well, but it also often included extensive assertions of broad executive authority. Obama administration officials have repeatedly argued in recent months that they intend to make decisions about detention policy that they see as more rooted in legal principles than their predecessors. Although the term “enemy combatant” had been used in a World War II Supreme Court case, critics of the Bush administration said officials used it to permit detentions that would not have been authorized under the international rules of warfare. In their court filing, Justice Department lawyers repeatedly cited the international law of war and its principle that “capture and detention of enemy forces” is authorized. But the filing made it clear that the Obama administration rejected arguments of detainees’ lawyers that it should sharply depart from many policies of the last seven years. The government lawyers noted that some detainees’ lawyers had argued that only those detainees who have been alleged to have directly participated in hostilities against American forces should be detained. The law of warfare does not limit the United States’ authority to hold only those with such direct involvement in fighting Americans, the filing said.

Terrorism
Justice Department
Detainees
Habeas Corpus
Guantanamo Bay Naval Base (Cuba)
United States Politics and Government
Obama Barack


Skull Fossil Offers New Clues on Human Journey From Africa

Abstract: Anthropologists exploring a cave in Israel have uncovered a rare 55,000-year-old skull fossil that they say has a story to tell of a reverberating transition in human evolution, at a point when and where some early humans were moving out of Africa and apparently interbreeding with Neanderthals. The story is of when the Levant was a corridor for anatomically modern humans who were expanding out of Africa and then across Eurasia, replacing all other forms of early human-related species. Given the scarcity of human fossils from that time, scholars say, these ancestors of present-day non-African populations had remained largely enigmatic. From the new fossil find, which could be closely related to the first modern humans to colonize Stone Age Europe, it appears that these people already had physical traits a bit different from the Africans they were leaving behind and many other human inhabitants along the corridor. Image Researchers working in the Manot Cave in western Galilee. Credit Israel Hershkovitz, Ofer Marder & Omry Barzilai, via Reuters Could this support recent genetic evidence that modern Homo sapiens and their Neanderthal cousins interbred, perhaps in the Middle East and most likely between 65,000 and 47,000 years ago? The discovery team urged caution on the interbreeding issue, but noted anatomical features of the cranium suggesting that some human-Neanderthal mixture had presumably occurred before any encounters in Europe and Asia. The discovery in Manot Cave in western Galilee, made in 2008 and subjected to years of rigorous analysis, was reported on Wednesday in the journal Nature by an international team of researchers led by Israel Hershkovitz of Tel Aviv University. They said this was “the first fossil evidence from the critical period when genetic and archaeological models predict that African modern humans successfully migrated out of Africa and colonized Eurasia.” The researchers further concluded that the Manot specimen “provides important clues about the morphology of modern humans in close chronological proximity to a probable interbreeding event with Neanderthals.” They also noted that the shape of the cranium established this as a fully modern human at a time when warmer and wetter conditions were favorable for human migration out of Africa. In other words, Dr. Hershkovitz said in an interview, the Manot cranium “is the missing connection between African and European populations.” Image From left, a Neanderthal skull, the Manot cranium and a complete modern human skull on display near the cave in Israel where the Manot cranium was found. Credit Jim Hollander/European Pressphoto Agency Scientists not involved with the research team praised the “fascinating new fossil” and the cautious interpretation of its broader implications in understanding the early migrations into Eurasia. “This fossil fits previous predictions,” said Eric Delson, a paleoanthropologist at Lehman College of the City University of New York, “which is a nice rarity in our field.” Dr. Delson, also a researcher at the American Museum of Natural History, added, “As always, we want more fossils to document variations in and details about this presumed fossil population.” In an email, Dr. Delson praised the journal authors “for hitting the mark with their analyses and interpretations, reaching all the possible conclusions one could think of: The partial skull combines a basically modern human form with a few features also found in Neanderthals.” In addition, he pointed out, the analysis “supports the similarity of its shapes” to those of modern Africans and early modern humans from Europe, such as the Cro-Magnons. The partial skull, designated Manot 1, is of a fairly small adult individual, its sex undetermined. The distinctive bunlike shape at the base of the skull resembles modern African and European skulls but differs from other anatomically modern humans from the Levant, and is thus a strong clue that these were among the first humans to settle Europe, scientists said. Dr. Delson agreed that the evidence “makes it possible that this individual is (or is descended from) a ‘hybrid’ between modern humans and Neanderthals, but as the authors note, such a conclusion cannot be reached from a single fossil, especially as hybrids between species of modern primates usually have some genetically related anatomical oddities.” One concern is that the fossil skull is fairly small, with a somewhat lower braincase capacity than in modern humans. With only one specimen, it is hard to know whether this is normal for the general population, scientists said. And Dr. Delson said it would be interesting to test for DNA in the skull to support its possible hybrid status in a time of overlapping modern human-Neanderthal populations when early humans were making their way, as he phrased it, to “that small zoological backwater of Eurasia known as Europe.” Excavations at Manot Cave are expected to continue through at least 2020, searching deeper for more fossils and artifacts from the migrating people. Israel, Dr. Hershkovitz said, “is like a Swiss cheese, lots of caves everywhere.” Several caves in the vicinity of Manot were occupied for long times by Neanderthals between 65,000 and 50,000 years ago. In this respect, Dr. Hershkovitz said, Manot is an excellent place to search for possible hybrids, but they may be difficult to recognize from surface features. “Only DNA study will solve the problem,” he said.

Fossil
Neanderthal
Manot Cave
Israel Hershkovitz
Tel Aviv University
Archaeology
Anthropology
Nature Journal


A Life Selling Pontiacs, and Feeling Sold Out

Abstract: HOUSTON , Pa. The Arnold Pontiac dealership is not one of those glass-encased bazaars winking from the main drag, with a showroom the size of a parking lot and a name that sounds like a law firm with too many partners: “Acme Chevrolet Buick Jeep Hyundai Volkswagen Kia Saab . How may I direct your call?” No, Arnold Pontiac pretty much says it all. The dealership sits exactly where the Arnold family began a car business back in 1916: on the corner of North Main and East Pike in the pit-stop Western Pennsylvania town of Houston, right next to the First Presbyterian Church, where Arnolds are baptized. Small showroom downstairs, service and parts upstairs, free Pontiac calendars everywhere. Until a few days ago, the Arnolds had a plan. In the tradition of his father and grandfather, Bob the white-haired elder, 74, would be turning the dealership over to his son, Bob the dark-haired younger, 44. The handoff would have happened sooner if not for the embezzlement of $400,000 a couple of years ago by a longtime employee who was like family and who, it turned out, liked to gamble. But a far deeper betrayal came last week, the Arnolds say, when another family member and poor gambler, General Motors , announced that by 2010 it would close its Pontiac division and 2,600 of its 6,200 dealerships — all to convince a doubtful Obama administration that it had a business plan strong enough to beat a bankruptcy deadline of June 1 and to deserve more government loans . Pontiac: The Official Car of the 2009 Economic Crisis. Small, out-of-the-way Arnold Pontiac sells only Pontiacs, GMC trucks and used cars, so the Arnolds figure their G.M. warranty is about to expire. “It was just like getting kicked in the stomach,” says the elder Mr. Arnold, who sold his first car in 1950, to a local man named Paxton. (“Pontiac Catalina. Two-door hardtop. It was cream and rust.”) His son, who started working at the dealership when he was 6, using a step stool to dust the tops of gleaming Bonnevilles and GTOs, is still trying to process the apparent evaporation of this chunk of his inheritance. “I’m not going to entertain that just yet,” says the younger Mr. Arnold, who sold his first car in 1987. (“Green Sunbird.”) As Detroit and Washington work to save the car industry from going over a cliff like some roadster in a black-and-white melodrama, entire families have been upended — families that long ago linked their surname to the name of Pontiac in commercial banns of marriage. For example, the Arnolds are friends with the Mikans, a longtime Pontiac family in Butler, about 60 miles north of here. Robert Mikan, 76, and his son, David, 39, watched last Monday’s devastating news conference on a computer screen in their dealership, in a back room where an old plaque from the Pennsylvania Automotive Association hangs tilted on the gray paneled wall. After a while the son, whose first sale was a used white 1988 Pontiac Grand Prix , turned to his father, whose first sale was a gray 1946 Pontiac Torpedo, and said, “Dad, I think that’s it.” They knew the end had come to a legacy dating to Robert’s father, Ivan, who started a car business in the town of Trafford in 1924, sold Chryslers and Hudsons for a while, then settled on Pontiacs. That was 70 years ago. Such excitement back then. Every year Ivan Mikan would paper over his showroom windows, building excitement, before unveiling the new Pontiac models at a reception where men wore suits and women wore dresses. Ladies and gentlemen, introducing: Your 1951 Pontiac Chieftain! And yes, that hood ornament lights up! Your 1958 Pontiac Bonneville ! America’s No. 1 road car! Your 1968 Pontiac GTO ! We call it The Great One! “That’s a lot of years working for a brand and for a division that is now going to be defunct,” says Robert Mikan, who keeps a 1975 Pontiac Grand Ville convertible, red with white interior, in a garage out back. David Mikan, who runs the dealership now, says their sales of Pontiacs have steadily declined: 100 sold last year, compared with twice that in 2000. Although the emphasis has shifted to their Volkswagen line and their used cars, he says, the Mikans have always considered themselves a Pontiac family. Still, a few days ago he removed all the preening Pontiacs from the front of the dealership and replaced them with shiny Volkswagens. Partly out of anger, he says, and partly because Volkswagen, not Pontiac, is central to the Mikan future. Back in Houston, there is no Volkswagen fallback. The Arnolds have been hitched to Pontiacs since 1926, the year the car made its debut. Because of Pontiac, Bob Arnold the elder attended the General Motors Institute in Flint, Mich., more than a half-century ago. Because of Pontiac, then, he happened to meet his future wife, Angela, at an institute dance. “Girls got in free,” recalls Ms. Arnold, whose first car was a 1955 Pontiac Star Chief Catalina, turquoise and ivory. Now she drives a 2005 Pontiac Bonneville, candy-apple red. It is quiet now in the dealership’s office, save for the whoosh of passing cars outside, few of them Pontiacs. A man pops his head in long enough to say: “Thanks, Bob. That was a good deal you gave my sister.” The visit underscores what Mr. Arnold has been saying about how small dealerships have cultivated relationships that span generations. Yes, Pontiac made mistakes, but Pontiac traditionally enticed younger people to join the G.M. family. Mr. Arnold wonders about the future — what about their 20 employees? — and soon that wonder turns to complaint. G.M. should never have gotten rid of the Bonneville. G.M. sacrificed Pontiac to save Buick. It’s all about the Buick market in China , which comes at the expense of American jobs. In the end, G.M. betrayed its family. But Susan Garontakos, a G.M. spokeswoman, responds with a sobering perspective. The Pontiac line has been unprofitable for several years, she says. G.M. is trying to develop a survival plan under the government’s deadline. Plants are closing and people are losing their jobs — including her son-in-law. “It’s hitting everyone,” she says. Mr. Arnold walks across the still showroom, shoes squeaking on the treated floor. He passes a display case of family memorabilia. Portraits of his parents and grandparents. A row of souvenir pens. A hood ornament whose amber glow once announced to the night: Here comes another Pontiac. He starts talking about how discouraged he is, but interrupts himself long enough to hand a visitor a 2009 calendar, courtesy of Arnold Pontiac, Houston, Pennsylvania.

Family
Cars
Pennsylvania
Closings
Retail
Pontiac Division of General Motors
Economy


Blame the Borrowers? Not So Fast

Abstract: IT has become fashionable of late to say that America’s subprime borrowers themselves deserve a good part of the blame for the current mortgage mess. They were either greedy (looking for easy money in a bubbly real estate market) or irresponsible (assuming a debt whose terms they did not understand). They should be punished for their behavior, the argument goes — not rewarded with loan workouts. According to this analysis, while subprime lenders may not be blameless, they actually should be lauded for introducing the joys of homeownership to those who had not yet achieved that part of the American dream. Never mind that many lenders peddled the most abusive and costly loans to unsophisticated, first-time home buyers. Known as “affordability products,” the mortgages generated big commissions up front and were designed to require refinancing later on — which included yet another round of luscious fees for lenders. With refinancing no longer an option, it is becoming obvious that these loans were designed to fail. True to their design, they are. And those who thought they might get a chance at owning a home are headed back to the rent rolls. Figures from the Federal Reserve Board show that the share of subprime mortgages in default is more than 14 percent. And researchers at the Center for Responsible Lending say that 64 percent of foreclosures filed during the 12 months ended June 30 involved subprime loans. A September report from Banc of America Securities said that 93 percent of completed foreclosures this year involved adjustable-rate loans that were made in 2006, pooled and sold to investors. Regulators have recently stepped up their calls for lenders to be more aggressive in working out these loans. But lenders are pushing back, and borrower advocates — those nearest to the problem — say that not much is getting done. AS this workout war simmers, it seems worthwhile to consider both sides of this mess. Should greedy subprime borrowers take responsibility or should greedy subprime lenders get tagged? Nothing is ever black and white, of course. Undoubtedly, there are plenty of cases in which both borrower and lender are at fault, and others in which just one of the parties may bear greater blame. Still, it’s also important to examine some of our long-held assumptions about the sophistication and responsibility of low-income borrowers when trying to make sense of this debate. After all, nonprime borrowers in low-cost, fixed-rate mortgages — appropriate loans for low-income, first-time homeowners — can succeed. And there are figures to prove it. They come from NeighborWorks America, a nonprofit organization created in 1978 by Congress to deliver financial aid and training to troubled urban communities. Its affiliate, the Neighborhood Housing Services of America, makes loans to home buyers of low and moderate incomes, a group that resembles the typical subprime borrower. And it’s revealing to compare the delinquency and foreclosure rates for subprime loans made by traditional lenders with mortgages made by the Neighborhood Housing Services fund. The fund contains almost 3,000 loans totaling $205 million as of June 30. Its borrowers do not meet conventional credit standards, and their incomes average less than two-thirds the national median income. Some 93 percent of those receiving loans from the fund are first-time home buyers, and almost 90 percent are low- or moderate-income borrowers. Approximately 54 percent are minority households. And yet, the NeighborWorks borrowers aren’t experiencing the same mortgage woes as subprime borrowers elsewhere around the country. Why? As of June 30, the most recent figures available, 3.34 percent of NeighborWorks’ borrowers were at least 30 days’ delinquent on their loans, only slightly higher than the 2.63 percent delinquency rate on prime loans recorded in that period by the Mortgage Bankers Association. Compared with subprime loans over all, the NeighborWorks loans really outperform. Its 3.34 percent delinquency rate is well below the 14.54 percent on subprime loans nationwide. Foreclosure figures show a similar pattern. The NeighborWorks loans that went into foreclosure during the second quarter of 2007 totaled 0.56 percent, while subprime loan foreclosures came in at 2.45 percent during that period. The foreclosure rate for NeighborWorks loans was a little over double the 0.25 percent rate for prime loans in the period. “Our loans performed many times better than subprime,” said Kenneth D. Wade, chief executive of NeighborWorks. “It shows that you can serve this customer base and they can succeed.” Some of the success of these loans may be a result of an extensive mortgage education program conducted by the 130 loan counselors of NeighborWorks before and after a loan is made. But surely the biggest reason that the NeighborWorks loans outperform is that they were not the so-called affordability mortgages, with adjustable interest rates that skyrocket after several years or those that allow borrowers to pay none of their principal for an extended period. Those are the loans that are failing all around us. For example, according to data presented to an Office of Thrift Supervision forum last December, around 90 percent of subprime loans originated between 2004 and 2006 carried exploding adjustable rates. Some 70 percent of subprime loans have prepayment penalties, versus 2 percent of prime loans. The Center for Responsible Lending estimates that 52 percent of home purchase loans made to African-American families were subprime, and that 41 percent of loans to Latino borrowers were subprime. And what of the real estate speculators whom many lenders like to blame for the subprime problem? Banc of America Securities estimated in a report in late September that just 7 percent of foreclosures involving adjustable-rate loans were made to such borrowers. The report also noted that the difference in delinquency rates between speculators and resident borrowers was 0.1 percentage point. The NeighborWorks counselors are now advising borrowers trapped in problem loans made by other institutions. Mr. Wade said that in the third quarter of this year, his organization logged 57,000 calls, up 90 percent from the second quarter. One in five callers, he said, had income of $42,000 to $60,000 a year while 13 percent made more than $60,000 a year. Robert L. Gnaizda, policy director and general counsel of the Greenlining Institute, an advocacy organization in Berkeley, Calif., says he believes that lenders, not borrowers, should shoulder the blame for this debacle. “Lenders were like the worst stockbrokers peddling stocks in 1999 saying there is a new dynamic now,” he said. “We believe financial institutions have a fiduciary responsibility. They shouldn’t be promoting instruments that are high-risk and they know it.”


Security Worker Is Sought in Shootings on Canadian Campus

Abstract: OTTAWA — Police officers throughout Canada were searching Friday afternoon for a security company employee after three of his co-workers were fatally shot and a fourth was critically wounded during an early morning robbery attempt at a university residence and student services center in Edmonton, Alberta. The shootings occurred in a four-block-long building on the University of Alberta campus, which is part shopping mall and part residence for 838 students, the Edmonton police said. G4S Cash Solutions , a company that provides armored-car services, confirmed that the victims were employees who had been servicing cash machines on campus. Chief Rod Knecht of the Edmonton police said at a news conference that a fifth G4S employee who was working on campus at the time of the shootings had disappeared, along with his dark blue Ford F-150 pickup truck. Several news outlets reported that a G4S armored car was found abandoned with its engine running on a road near the company’s local depot. The missing employee, Travis Brandon Baumgartner, 21, is being sought as a “person of interest,” Chief Knecht said, adding, “His involvement in this morning’s shooting is not clear to us at the moment.” American border guards have joined Canadian police forces in the search for Mr. Baumgartner. Based on students’ accounts, it appears that the killings took place near midnight local time. The students said volunteers with a student campus security program were unable to assist the victims because they had been locked in a service room behind a bank of cash machines. The police eventually had to break down the door. The police have not indicated how much money was taken. It does not appear that any students were present while the shots were fired. “The university is saddened by this loss of life and we extend our condolences to their loved ones,” Carl Amrhein, the acting president of the university, said in a statement. Students, many of whom are still taking exams, were locked into their residence rooms for several hours following the shootings, and the building where it occurred was shut down for the remainder of Friday. Although owners of cash machines have greatly expanded the use of armored-car services, armed robberies involving them are relatively infrequent in Canada . Armed robberies of any kind involving killings are similarly uncommon.

Canada
University of Alberta
School Shootings
Edmonton (Alberta)
Murders and Attempted Murders
Deaths (Fatalities)
Robberies and Thefts
Colleges and Universities


In Stronghold, a Gandhi Finds the Reception Is More Skeptical than Worshipful

Abstract: AMETHI, India — Naimesh Prasad Pandey, a 60-year-old farmer, can testify to the generations of love that people here have reserved for the Gandhi family. He remembers, with painful clarity, that he was working in his fields in 1984 when the news came over his transistor radio that Indira Gandhi had been shot by one of her bodyguards, an event that cast him into a state of despair that, he said, did not lift for more than a year. Seven years later, the same transistor radio — “my constant companion,” he called it — carried the news of her son Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination. After that “most heinous of crimes,” he said, he felt a swelling of love and loyalty toward Rajiv’s children, in particular the boy, Rahul, who, as an adult, would run for Parliament from the Amethi constituency. So it was noticeable this week, on the day voters went to the polls in Amethi, that Mr. Pandey’s face set into a cold mask when he was asked whether he would be voting for Rahul Gandhi , who is running for the third time in this constituency. Mr. Pandey pointed at the pools of stagnant, trash-clogged water that stand on the city’s main street, and the men gathered around him chimed in with their own complaints until it was difficult to hear anyone at all. The Nehru-Gandhi Dynasty 16 Photos View Slide Show › Image Associated Press “Amethi — what it was 30 years back, it is stuck in a time warp, and remains the same,” Mr. Pandey said. Asked about the political magic associated with the Nehru-Gandhi family, he grimaced. “We are just flowing along with the feeling that two of them have given their lives to the country, so we will give our votes back to them,” he said. “We want a change.” With a week left before votes are counted in India’s general election, the Indian National Congress is fighting to retain its grasp on traditional strongholds — few of them more time-honored than Amethi, which has stood firmly behind the dynasty for all but a few years since India won independence in 1947. Mr. Gandhi took the unusual step of visiting a series of polling stations around Amethi on Wednesday. He coolly told a reporter that winning his seat here was a “non-challenge,” and indeed most observers still expect him to win a majority of the votes here. But he is unlikely to win the commanding margin he received five years ago, and his reception was certainly not the worshipful one that visitors from the Gandhi family are used to. At one stop, he was heckled by a young man who came up behind him and asked, “Sir, did you feel the bumps while coming here, on the roads? Any bump on the head?” Mr. Gandhi turned around, touched the man briefly on the wrist, and said, matter-of-factly, “You, brother, should go and work with the B.J.P.,” the party headed by his rival, Narendra Modi . As Mr. Gandhi strode away, a cluster of young men began chanting “Har har Modi,” an echo of the prayerful chants to the god Shiva and when bathing in the Ganges, a river considered holy by many Indians. For months, Mr. Modi has systematically stripped away at the aura of reverence that has surrounded the family, in speeches that are by turns sneering and booming. His increasingly pugnacious attacks culminated on Monday, when he arranged a rally in Amethi, the family’s historical bastion. One speaker went so far as to raise the long-verboten topic of the rumored love affair between Jawaharlal Nehru, Mr. Gandhi’s great-grandfather, and Edwina Mountbatten, the wife of the last viceroy of the British Raj. Video Times correspondents report on the incumbent Congress party and the key players in the fight to lead the world’s largest democracy. Credit Credit Daniel Berehulak for The New York Times But the worst damage seemed to have come from Mr. Modi’s promise to overhaul the country’s infrastructure. A heavy rain had fallen the night before voting day, and as the temperature soared past 100 degrees, fetid water had collected on Amethi’s rutted roads and alleyways, in some spots so deep that some shopkeepers put down walkways made out of empty crates. Shailesh Pandey, 34, said that Mr. Gandhi had been his representative in Parliament for 10 years, and should have managed to arrange for a drainage system to be built. “I have to wade through knee-deep water to go to my shop, and I have waded through it for many years,” he said. “This year was the point in time when change has to be brought about. I will not wade through knee-deep water anymore.” Of the Gandhis, he said only, “I won’t vote for someone simply because he has that surname.” His complaint about drainage is not entirely fair; roads are a subject of the state government, and the state is currently headed by the Samajawadi Party, not the Indian National Congress. As a member of Parliament, Mr. Gandhi’s ability to overhaul infrastructure is limited to allocating an annual fund amounting to about $833,000. But that logic had limited value this week. Voters here are feeling the full effect of the political phenomenon known in Hindi as “hawa,” or wind — the growing realization that a winning side has now taken shape, drawing all those not firmly committed into its fold. Of course, a vast number of people in Amethi — about half of those approached for interviews — weren’t budging. Older voters were more likely to be loyal to Congress, as were women and Muslims. Rohit Karshal, 23, was among those who saw Mr. Modi’s promises on development as illusory ones, but he admitted that that did not make them any less enticing. “When a new sari shop opens next to an old one, everyone forgets about the old one,” he said, with a sigh. “That’s what is happening here.”

India
Indira Gandhi
Rajiv Gandhi
Rahul Gandhi
Election
Indian National Congress
Narendra Modi


Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders Attack in Iowa, but Targets Diverge

Abstract: DES MOINES — Hillary Rodham Clinton used a speech here to tie herself closely to President Obama and attack Republicans on Saturday, avoiding criticism of her two rivals for the Democratic nomination after a string of recent successes that have lifted her candidacy. In sharp contrast, Senator Bernie Sanders, after saying for months that he did not want to attack Mrs. Clinton, came at her hard on Saturday night, criticizing her as a shape-shifting politician and inconsistent progressive. Speaking at a party fund-raising dinner held 100 days before votes are cast at the Iowa caucuses, a forum that has traditionally inspired Democratic presidential hopefuls to sharpen their attacks on their rivals, Mr. Sanders, and to a lesser degree former Gov. Martin O’Malley, did so once again. In the wake of a strong debate performance, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s decision not to run and polls showing her on the rise, Mrs. Clinton gave a familiar address that hewed closely to her usual stump speech. While Mrs. Clinton’s supporters in the room enjoyed it — banging on glowing blue thunder sticks to show their approval — other Democrats seemed far less energized. Most of Mr. Sanders’s supporters had left the hall for waiting buses or after-parties by the time she was through. The former secretary of state appeared at the same dinner where eight years ago Senator Barack Obama delivered a forceful address implicitly criticizing her. It was the evening that galvanized Mr. Obama’s candidacy and vaulted him to a win in the caucuses here. The Hoopla of the Democrats’ Dinner in Iowa 10 Photos View Slide Show › Image Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Mrs. Clinton, who started slow but got more energetic as her speech went on, expanded on a theme she hit in the Democratic debate in Las Vegas almost two weeks ago, painting herself as a progressive who, unlike Mr. Sanders, could find ways to move pieces of legislation and make progress. Her advisers said her speech was not intended to mark a major new course; after a strong few weeks, they feel she is hitting her stride. She lacks the rhetorical power and electric presence of President Obama, but she has improved as a speaker since she appeared here eight years ago. She called for a country in which “there are no ceilings for anyone” and “where a father can tell his daughter, ‘You can be anything you want to be, including the president of the United States of America.’” And she was the only candidate at the dinner in the largely white state to use the phrase “Black Lives Matter.” “I know how to stand my ground and how to find common ground,” Mrs. Clinton said. Mrs. Clinton also offered an oblique criticism of Mr. Sanders over his record on guns. “I’ve been told to stop shouting to end gun violence,” she said, repeating a line she has begun using since Mr. Sanders said in the debate that “all the shouting in the world” would not keep guns out of the wrong hands. “I haven’t been shouting, but sometimes when a woman speaks out, some people think it’s shouting.” Video The former president and his wife campaigning in Des Moines. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times “How many more people have to die before we take action?” she added. The gathering, an annual ritual known as the Jefferson-Jackson dinner, draws about 6,000 die-hard Democrats, all of the candidates and throngs of their supporters, who compete to out-organize and sometimes out-shout one another. Earlier in the day, the singer Katy Perry and former President Bill Clinton led a rally in favor of the former secretary of state, while a plane buzzing overhead called for voters to “Feel the Bern” for Mr. Sanders. Mr. Sanders, while never mentioning Mrs. Clinton by name, criticized her for arriving late at positions he had long held. He highlighted his liberal stances on trade, gay rights, the Iraq war, Wall Street regulation and campaign finance reform, implicitly but unmistakably contrasting his consistency on such issues from Mrs. Clinton. He also took aim at the Trans-Pacific Partnership , the free trade pact among Pacific nations that Mrs. Clinton recently came out against after calling it “the gold standard” of trade agreements while she was secretary of state. “It is not now, nor has it ever been, the gold standard of trade agreements,” Mr. Sanders said. “I did not support it yesterday. I do not support it today. And I will not support it tomorrow.” Mr. Sanders’s shift to a more aggressive stance toward Mrs. Clinton comes after he was criticized by some political strategists after the first Democratic debate for declaring that the former secretary of state’s private email server — a key vulnerability for much of this year — was a nonissue. Mr. Sanders reveled in the strength of the grass-roots movement that has gathered behind him. A large and enthusiastic Sanders cheering section came to its feet and twirled glow strings in the hall. He evoked Mr. Obama’s 2008 campaign, when many had called him unelectable before he claimed a surprise victory in the Iowa caucuses. “Iowa, I think we’re going to prove the pundits wrong again,” Mr. Sanders said. “I promise you tonight as your president I will govern based on principle, not poll numbers,” Mr. Sanders added. The line was a conscious echo of one Mr. Obama delivered on the same stage eight years ago, when he said the Democratic Party “always made the biggest difference in the lives of the American people when we led, not by polls, but by principle.” While there is a tradition of not naming other candidates in speeches, Mrs. Clinton was the clear target for both men. After Mr. Sanders wrapped up his address, Mrs. Clinton’s press secretary, Brian Fallon, posted on Twitter , “Can you tell @HillaryClinton has had a very good month?” In his own speech, Mr. O’Malley, the former governor of Maryland, took a veiled swipe at both Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton on the issue of guns, but he saved most of his unnamed criticisms for the former secretary of state. He criticized NAFTA, the trade deal that passed under President Bill Clinton, and he repeatedly praised Mr. Biden. But his speech hewed closely to the standard message he delivers on the campaign trail. Mr. O’Malley, who has criticized Mrs. Clinton for changing positions during the primary and who has described his record as governor as one of “actions, not words,” said that “a weather vane shifts its position every time the winds change. Effective leaders do not. I know who I am, I know what I believe, and I am willing to fight for it.” “We need new leadership,” he added. “New ideas. Someone with the courage to stand up for what’s right — even when it’s not always popular.”

Hillary Clinton
Iowa
Democrats
Primaries
2016 Presidential Election
Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders
Martin J O'Malley


Indictment Links Deutsche Bank to Tax-Shelter Inquiry

Abstract: Federal prosecutors have indicted a lawyer trained in accounting, charging that he sold questionable tax shelters named for the lead character of the show “The Simpsons.” The lawyer indicted in the case, John B. Ohle III, was an executive at Bank One before it was acquired by JPMorgan Chase in 2004. The case may put pressure on Deutsche Bank , which has been under criminal investigation over its tax shelter work from the late 1990s through 2001. Deutsche Bank, identified in the indictment unsealed late Friday as “Bank B,” arranged the financial transactions that Mr. Ohle sold. The shelter, known as Homer, allowed wealthy clients to falsely generate bogus tax losses of nearly $430 million, and to evade taxes of $103 million, according to the indictment from prosecutors for the Southern District of New York, who are also leading the inquiry of Deutsche Bank. Mr. Ohle, who is also an accountant by training, is accused of selling 36 abusive shelters in 2001 to wealthy clients of Bank One and Jenkens & Gilchrist, a national law firm that went bankrupt in 2007 amid scrutiny of its tax shelter work. Jenkens earned $12.1 million in fees, while Bank One earned $5.2 million from the Homer shelter, according to the indictment. Mr. Ohle worked for a Bank One unit in Chicago that focused on selling aggressive tax shelters. In 2002, he left to form his own tax shelter boutique, the Dumaine Group, with former colleagues. The indictment charges Mr. Ohle, a resident of Wilmette, Ill., and New Orleans, of multiple counts of tax evasion, conspiracy and obstruction of I.R.S. procedures. David Spears, a lawyer for Mr. Ohle, said on Sunday that his client “did not commit any crime, and we intend to defend the case vigorously at trial.” Since at least 2004, prosecutors have been examining Deutsche Bank for its role in two related, abusive tax shelters that were sold to investors and involved collaboration between banks, law firms and accounting firms. Homer and its cousin, Cobra, are both considered by the I.R.S. to be variations on one widely sold abusive tax shelter of the late 1990s, Son of Boss, itself related to Boss, or bond and options sales strategy. Cobra, which stands for “currency options bring reward alternatives,” was sold to more than 1,100 wealthy investors, while Homer, which stands for “hedge option monetization of economic remainder,” was sold to dozens of investors. The Homer and Cobra inquiries revolve around Deutsche Bank’s role in arranging what prosecutors contend are bogus trades and loans that were intended to lose money. Among the unnamed investors who bought Homers are a truck-stop owner from McComb, Miss., and the owner of an options-trading firm in Chicago, the indictment said.

Tax Shelters
Deutsche Bank AG
Accounting and Accountants


Using the President, but Carefully Going Only So Far

Abstract: PHOENIX — The last time the two met — 83 days ago — President Bush promised that he would do whatever Senator John McCain asked him to do to help elect him the 44th president. “You know, if he wants me to show up, I will,” Mr. Bush said in the Rose Garden. “If he wants me to say, ‘You know, I’m not for him,’ I will.” On Tuesday, Mr. Bush’s role became much clearer when he held his first event for Mr. McCain. He will show up to raise money (thank you very much), and he will say and do as little as possible, at least in public view. A large, and presumably public, fund-raiser at the Convention Center here was hastily rescheduled for the seclusion of a private home on Tuesday evening in Scottsdale. Mr. McCain’s main public appearance of the day was a foreign policy speech in Denver, not the visit by the president to his home state. Mr. McCain used the speech, like others in recent weeks, to draw differences between his policies and Mr. Bush’s, even as Democrats redoubled their efforts to lash them together into an inextricable McBush ’08. The senator and Mr. Bush avoided any meaningful public appearance together, planning just the briefest of photo opportunities at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport in the evening. Mr. McCain and Mr. Bush emerged from opposite sides of their limousine at the airport. They shook hands and waved, and Mr. Bush got on his plane without making a public statement. The joint appearance lasted less than a minute. For all the McCain campaign’s efforts to exploit the president’s trip and then minimize it, the question of Mr. Bush’s role as the head of the Republican Party for the last seven years hovered — like the elephant in the room, say —and will almost certainly do so until Election Day. Senator Barack Obama, inching closer to the Democratic nomination, seized on the occasion while speaking about the mortgage crisis in Nevada. “John McCain is having a different kind of meeting,” Mr. Obama said after meeting a family in Las Vegas on the verge of losing its house to foreclosure. “He’s holding a fund-raiser with George Bush behind closed doors in Arizona. No cameras, no reporters. And we all know why. “Senator McCain doesn’t want to be seen, hat in hand, with the president whose failed policies he promises to continue for another four years.” The politicking seemed far removed from the sunny day at the White House in March when Mr. McCain, still flush from his triumph over a crowded primary field, and Mr. Bush appeared like two old friends. Despite a bitterness attached to the 2000 primaries, Mr. McCain promised “to have as much possible campaigning events together.” More than once, though, he alluded to Mr. Bush’s “heavy” or “busy” schedule, which in hindsight perhaps had more significance than it might have seemed. Mr. Bush made an early fund-raising stop in New Mexico on Tuesday, but his “heavy schedule” otherwise included a visit to Silverado Cable, a company in Mesa, Ariz., that makes electrical wiring for aircraft. He did not mention Mr. McCain, nor did Mr. McCain mention him in Denver. For Mr. Bush, with seemingly irreversible public disapproval in the polls, the start of his campaign to help elect a Republican successor could hardly have seemed more humbling, though the White House maintained its typical enthusiasm and optimism. “He’s not bothered in the slightest,” the White House press secretary, Dana M. Perino, said. “He fully understands how campaigns for presidents work, and he’s comfortable in his own skin.” Bruce Bartlett, a conservative economist who wrote “Impostor: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Betrayed the Reagan Legacy,” said core supporters possessed a hardened realism about Mr. McCain’s prospects, understanding the challenges but not yielding to them. “Even diehard Bush supporters know he’s an albatross around the neck of the nominee,” Mr. Bartlett said in an interview. At the same time, he noted the president’s fund-raising prowess. Despite the efforts by the McCain camp to keep at arm’s length a president with an approval rating stalled at 28 percent, it is worth remembering that that 28 percent can be fiercely loyal and often wealthy. Even before Tuesday, Mr. Bush had raised $36 million for Republican candidates and committees in 19 fund-raisers this year, or nearly one a week. In addition to the fund-raisers on Tuesday, Mr. Bush has three more this week. “He is very popular with high-dollar donors,” Mr. Bartlett said of the president. Mr. McCain’s campaign has made clear its satisfaction with that arrangement, but it could be difficult to sustain through a year of campaigning. On the horizon is Mr. Bush’s role in the Republican convention in September.

Republican Party
Bush George W
McCain John
Presidential Election of 2008
Finances


W. Howard Lester, Williams-Sonoma Owner, Dies at 75

Abstract: W. Howard Lester, who in 1978 bought Williams-Sonoma , a small supplier of items for gourmet kitchens with four stores and annual sales of $4 million, and transformed it into a retail home furnishing and mail-order giant with 609 stores and annual sales of $3.4 billion, died Monday at his home in Indian Wells, Calif. He was 75. The cause was cancer, Williams-Sonoma said. Under Mr. Lester, Williams-Sonoma also expanded to include five more brands: Williams-Sonoma Home, Pottery Barn, Pottery Barn Kids, PBteen and West Elm. And it came to have seven direct-mail catalogs and six retail Web sites. Mr. Lester, already a wealthy entrepreneur, and a partner bought the company from its founder, Chuck Williams, who had helped elevate the American table by selling specialized, often European utensils to make the gourmet dishes that chefs like Julia Child and James Beard were introducing to Americans. Mr. Williams began the business in 1956 in a converted hardware store in Sonoma, Calif., then moved to a bigger, more upscale outlet in San Francisco. He expanded to three more stores. After his catalog business boomed, he attracted Edward Marcus, of the Neiman Marcus retail family, as a partner in 1972. When Mr. Marcus died four years later, Mr. Williams, who did everything from keeping the books to sweeping the sidewalk, knew he needed someone with business expertise. Around this time Mr. Lester, a lanky Oklahoman who had retired from the computer business as a multimillionaire at 41, was bored with golfing. He had looked at 60 or 70 business opportunities in search of something “to make me excited about getting out of bed in the morning.” He and a partner, his friend James McMahan, whose businesses included furniture stores, each put up $50,000 to buy a majority interest in the four stores. Mr. Lester took an active role as president and chief executive, while Mr. McMahan stayed in the background as a company director. Mr. Lester asked Mr. Williams to preside as chairman and to continue to hunt for new merchandise, not least because Mr. Lester looked forward to accompanying him on buying trips to Paris. Mr. Lester, who later became chairman, sold stock in the company to the public in 1983. His “grand vision” was to position Williams-Sonoma as an “aspirational store” for baby boomers eager for a more luxurious, creative way of life. He told San Francisco Business magazine in 1989 that no other housewares retailer had such national focus. “We’ve defined the niche,” he said. Tactics were as important as strategy. Drawing on his experience of developing computer software for banks, Mr. Lester developed a highly sophisticated database of 4.5 million customers to track 150 pieces of information per customer. “With a few keystrokes,” Forbes magazine reported in 1991, “the company can tell you what you’ve bought from each of its five catalogs (an estimated 60 percent of customers have bought from more than one), what time of the year you tend to buy, what category of merchandise you lean toward, and so on and so forth.” Mr. Williams continued to work with Mr. Lester for more than three decades. In a statement after Mr. Lester’s death, he said, “Howard was a shopkeeper at heart.” Mr. Lester was born on Aug. 14, 1935, in Durant, Okla., and grew up doing jobs like mowing lawns and working as a bricklayer’s helper to bolster his family’s frayed finances. He attended the University of Oklahoma, dropped out and was drafted into the Army. He served in Europe before returning to the university to finish his degree. He got a job selling office machines for I.B.M., then helped start a company to aid banks in providing computer services to their customers. He started other companies, including an employment agency. He became wealthy enough not to care about money, he said in an interview for “How They Achieved: Stories of Personal Achievement and Business Success” (2001), by Lucinda Watson. He said he yearned for a calling. Mr. Lester’s philanthropy included founding the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation within the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1991. Mr. Lester, who retired this May, becoming chairman emeritus, is survived by his wife, Mary; his daughters, Kathryn Lindlan and Kristen Rio; his son, Kirk; and five grandchildren. Unlike hundreds of thousands of its customers, Mr. Lester was not drawn to Williams-Sonoma to season his cooking skills — although he judged himself to be “pretty good at barbecuing,” as he told The Daily Oklahoma in 1998. “I just thought the company could do better,” he said. “I felt like I could run it better.”

Pottery Barn
Shopping and Retail
Williams-Sonoma Inc
Mail Order Companies
Deaths (Obituaries)
High Net Worth Individuals
Interior Design and Furnishings


N.C.A.A. Investigates Role of Top Football Recruit’s Adviser

Abstract: The saga of the nation’s top football recruit, Bryce Brown, and his controversial adviser and mentor, Brian Butler , took some new twists Thursday, with the University of Miami saying it was no longer interested in Brown and the N.C.A.A. beginning an apparently unrelated investigation of Butler. The assistant director of the N.C.A.A.’s amateurism certification staff, Mike DeCesare, is in Wichita, Kan., investigating Butler, who trains and advises Brown and other players in the Wichita area. Butler, a former rapper and cellphone call-center manager, has emerged as a polarizing figure in the recruiting community by acting as a third party for numerous high school football prospects and briefly charging for updates on their recruiting on his Web site, PotentialPlayers.com . Colby Duranleau, a lineman at Wichita Northwest High School who worked out with Butler, has a meeting scheduled with DeCesare at his home on Friday. “It’s about Brian Butler,” Duranleau said Thursday in a telephone interview, referring to his meeting with DeCesare. “They said they had heard some news and they wanted to get some information on it.” Duranleau’s mother, Karen Powell, confirmed the meeting but declined to elaborate. “I don’t feel comfortable tinkering with their investigation,” she said. Butler, whose role in Brown’s recruiting was reported by The New York Times earlier this month, said in a telephone interview on Thursday that the N.C.A.A. had not contacted him. “They’d be more than welcome to talk to me if they needed to, because we’ve kept everything 100 percent legit,” Butler said. Brown, a tailback, has narrowed his college choices to Oregon, Louisiana State, Kansas State, Southern California and Tennessee. He is verbally committed to Miami, Butler said, but a Miami official said Thursday that the program was no longer recruiting Brown and would not offer him a scholarship, even though it had scholarships available. Butler said Brown was still considering Miami. Brown and Butler will not be in Wichita on Friday because they are driving to L.S.U. Brown attended Wichita East High School, graduating a semester early. “I’m not doing anything,” Butler said. “If the N.C.A.A. comes, then I’ll give them any information that they want and that’s available.” An N.C.A.A. spokesperson said that its amateurism certification office — as distinct from its enforcement section, which often examines the recruitment of high-profile athletes — typically looks at the amateur status of prospects before they enroll in college. The N.C.A.A. is probably checking to see if Butler has done anything to jeopardize the amateur status of any of his clients. Once a player enrolls in college, investigations into a player’s amateur status are turned over to the N.C.A.A.’s agent, gambling and amateurism department. Amateurism issues are rare in football because, unlike in sports like basketball, tennis and golf, there is no immediate professional option available to young athletes. The N.C.A.A. does not comment on specific investigations. Duranleau, who will attend Coffeyville Community College in hopes of landing a Division I scholarship, and others questioned Miami’s scholarship offers to Butler’s clients in the recent article in The New York Times. “I didn’t want to mess with some of the stuff that he was talking about, like not going to our high school practices or lifting at our school and paying him to work out and for his recruiting services,” Duranleau said on Thursday, referring to Butler. Numerous college football coaches said they backed off recruiting Brown and his brother Arthur Brown Jr., a linebacker entering his sophomore year at Miami, because of having to deal with Butler. Some football coaches cling to the notion of not wanting to recruit through third parties. Butler caused concern in college coaching circles by charging for recruiting updates from his Web site. He has since stopped. Butler also expressed his displeasure in the former Kansas State coach Ron Prince for encouraging Wildcats boosters not to donate to his nonprofit organization. (It would violate N.C.A.A. rules for a booster to donate money to Butler to help recruit a player.) Brown’s situation has generated a lot of publicity because he did not sign a letter of intent on national signing day, Feb. 4, when nearly all recruits signed letters. Butler said Brown would announce his college destination March 16 at the Kansas Sports Hall of Fame in Wichita.

Football
Butler Brian
National Collegiate Athletic Assn
Draft and Recruitment (Sports)
College Athletics


Steeled by Adversity, Penn State Quarterback Is Hoping for a Breakout Year

Abstract: STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — With all his physical gifts, and few college quarterbacks have more, Christian Hackenberg was still at a loss to fix Penn State’s problems last season. New coaches. New offense. Inexperienced teammates. Hackenberg was not at his best, and the players around him did not provide much help. Hackenberg, the player with the arm that screams future franchise quarterback, often had Nittany Lions fans screaming something different. Hackenberg said the bumps and bruises to his body and psyche had made him stronger. He enters his third — and possibly final — season at Penn State as the Nittany Lions’ trump card. If they can give Hackenberg the support he needs, he could become a hero in Happy Valley and accelerate the restoration of Penn State football since the Jerry Sandusky scandal. If not, it could be another season-long lesson in how to deal with adversity for Hackenberg. “Over all, the entire thing that has happened, it’s been an awesome experience, though it wasn’t ideally what I pictured,” Hackenberg said. “It was one of the best experiences for me because not only in football, but in life, there’s going to be changes, there’s going to be things that don’t go your way or not exactly how you planned it. And you’ve got to be able to adjust to that and make the best out of it.” For Hackenberg, growing up meant being around sports. His mother, Nikki, was a star college volleyball player. His father, Erick, played college football. Both have coached. Erick’s father, Barry, was a longtime high school football coach in Pennsylvania. When Barry Hackenberg died eight years ago, Erick was touched by how many of his father’s former players shared stories about the way he had shaped their lives. The coach-player relationship goes far deeper than playbooks and practices in the Hackenberg family. Image Hackenberg running against Rutgers last season. “It wasn’t ideally what I pictured,” he said of his college career. Credit Alex Goodlett/Getty Images “I have a profound respect for the profession,” Erick Hackenberg said. At Penn State, Christian Hackenberg found a coach he could connect with in Bill O’Brien. But after Hackenberg’s record-setting freshman season, O’Brien left to become the Houston Texans’ head coach. James Franklin took over. Erick Hackenberg said, “We did go through a slight vetting process” when Franklin was hired. He said he owed it to his son to make sure Penn State was still the best place for him. “He loves Penn State so much,” Erick Hackenberg said of Christian. It did not always look that way last season. Shackled by N.C.A.A. sanctions related to the revelations in 2011 that Sandusky, a former Penn State assistant, had molested teenage boys over a 15-year period, the program had to piece together an offensive line and rely on freshman receivers. Blocks were missed, routes were blown. Hackenberg threw more interceptions and fewer touchdown passes than he did as a freshman. He was sacked more than any quarterback in the Big Ten. He was booed at home. He could not conceal his disappointment. “Has he shown signs of frustration with that at times?” Franklin asked. “Yeah, but that’s natural. I don’t think it ever got to a point where it was a problem on our team.” As Penn State lost six of its final eight games, Hackenberg took it upon himself to fix the sputtering offense. He admitted he made mistakes. “The biggest thing had nothing to do with what anyone saw,” Hackenberg said. “It was how I acted throughout it. When that happens, I just kind of shut down as a person. There was a point where I didn’t talk to my parents for like two weeks. “My high school coach called me, and he’s one of the biggest influences in my life, and it took me four, five, six phone calls before I gave him a call back.” Worst of all for Hackenberg, he struggled to find the best way to lead his teammates. Tough love or positive reinforcement? “I honestly didn’t know what to do,” he said. The transfer rumors ramped up, but Hackenberg said that never crossed his mind. The end of the season brought hope. Hackenberg threw for 371 yards and four touchdowns in Penn State’s 31-30 victory over Boston College in the Pinstripe Bowl. Franklin saw the performance as validation of the point he was making all season. “If we give the guy time, he will pick them apart,” Franklin said. Despite the poor numbers Hackenberg had last season — 12 touchdowns, 15 interceptions and a 55.8 percent completion rate — talent evaluators recognize his vast potential. “I see I guy who could be everything — I see a guy who could be the No. 1 pick in the draft,” said Charles Davis, a football analyst for Fox and NFL Network. For now, it is all about Penn State. “This spring, he has just been a totally different leader for us,” center Angelo Mangiro said. “He’s one of the most competitive people I’ve ever been around. I think that competitiveness was getting to him a little bit last year. He was almost competing with himself.” No longer hampered by scholarship penalties, Penn State has more depth and experience. Hackenberg, now a team captain, should have more help and be better equipped to lift the players around him. “I think, this year, I’m so much more comfortable because I know what to expect from these guys,” Hackenberg said. “I know when to kick a guy in the butt. I know when to pat them on the back.”

Penn State
Christian Hackenberg
College football
James Franklin


Giants’ Bomar Is Hoping for a Backup Job

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — As a baby, Rhett Bomar’s first word was “ball.” In grade school, he worked as a water boy and ball boy for his father, a high school football coach in Texas. If ever a man was bred to be a professional quarterback, it was young Rhett. “The N.F.L. has been my goal since I’ve been a little kid,” Bomar said last weekend at Giants Stadium during rookie camp. Now 23, Bomar has his foot in football’s biggest door, although the path he took there was hardly straight and narrow. As a top high school recruit from suburban Dallas, Bomar chose Oklahoma and was impressive there as a redshirt freshman in 2005. But he was kicked off the Sooners in 2006 for taking money for hours not worked at a car dealership. He was suspended a year, transferred and played two seasons at Sam Houston State. Although the Giants already have a star quarterback, Eli Manning, they drafted Bomar last month in the fifth round because they were surprised that a player with Bomar’s skill and potential was still available. Bomar said he was also surprised. “To be honest, I thought I’d go sooner,” said Bomar, who expected the third round or maybe the fourth. “The whole experience is stressful.” Jim Ferguson, the offensive coordinator at Sam Houston State, said in a telephone interview that Bomar had the talent to succeed as a professional and that people should stop asking Bomar about the major transgression at Oklahoma that almost derailed his career. Ferguson said he told Bomar to “get up and walk out” when reporters posed those questions. “How many times you got to tell that story?” Ferguson said he asked Bomar. But Bomar seems to understand that his mistake continues to define him, at least at this stage of his life, and he has ready answers. Without Bomar, the Sooners played for last season’s Bowl Championship Series title behind quarterback Sam Bradford, who won the Heisman Trophy. “You’ll probably drive yourself crazy thinking about what should have been and what could have been,” Bomar said. “And I know what would have been if I’d stayed there. If I watched it, I’d probably have, you know, thoughts about it, regrets, whatever.” Bomar, 6 feet 2 inches and 220 pounds, certainly will not get the millions of dollars that go to first-round draft choices. He is not assured even of making the Giants. Jerry Reese, the general manager, said Bomar would compete with David Carr and Andre Woodson for a backup spot. Bomar’s father, Jerry Bomar, said in a telephone interview that his son “was treated like a rock star” at Oklahoma and “lost consciousness of what was right and wrong.” Jerry added, “He had the world by the tail and had it yanked out.” Rhett said: “I’ve grown up a lot since then. It kind of humbles you. I’m a different person from it.” Ferguson and Jerry Bomar said Rhett could have revealed more to the N.C.A.A. for a lighter punishment. Ferguson said Rhett told him there were “multiple people involved in this.” Jerry Bomar said, “The N.C.A.A. came in to interview him and tried every way in the world to get him to rat them out and he wouldn’t do it.” Jerry Bomar said they were bitter at the time and he told Rhett, “You ought to. But he wouldn’t. We’re not low-rent people here.” Only Bomar and a lineman, J. D. Quinn, were exposed and barred. “It was a pretty high price to pay,” Jerry Bomar said. “He lost a lot. He had some heartaches.” When Bomar returned to college football with the Bearkats, he was booed, heckled and cursed at games, his father said. People mocked him by throwing coins, but both Bomars indicated that Rhett’s troubles toughened him. A review of mostly glowing newspaper stories from Bomar’s early career include just a few weeds in the garden. There are references to two incidents involving underage drinking at Oklahoma and suggestions that his self-confidence bordered on cockiness. But earlier accounts befit a high school legend. In 2002, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram wrote, “Bomar is a college recruiter’s ultimate fantasy.” In 2004, The Oklahoman wrote, “Something has got to be wrong with Rhett Bomar,” adding: “Bomar can’t be perfect. Can he?” Once his perfection was disproved, Bomar wrote a contrite letter to the N.C.A.A. “I am embarrassed and truly sorry,” he wrote. “ I know the difference between right and wrong.” Bomar, who had knee surgery in 2007, passed for 3,355 yards and 27 touchdowns last season. While practicing with the Giants’ rookies and tryouts last weekend, Bomar showed nimble footwork. Coach Tom Coughlin praised Bomar’s quick release but noted what he saw as a flaw. “We are really going to have to work hard to get his momentum going into his throws, especially off to the left,” Coughlin said. “The deeper it has to travel, then it seems to lose a little.” His father and his college coordinator said that Bomar was a quick learner and that he had shown the ability to reform himself. Last weekend’s constructive criticism was only about football technique. He can handle that, and more. “It’s something easy we can get corrected,” Bomar said.

Football
Bomar Rhett
New York Giants
University of Oklahoma
College Athletics


Rose Bowl Gets Top TV Rating

Abstract: The 41-38 victory by Texas over Southern California in the Rose Bowl on ABC produced a 21.7 Nielsen rating, with 35.6 million viewers, the best for a national championship game. It exceeded the 1995 Orange Bowl game between Nebraska and Miami that posted an 18.9 rating with 30 million viewers. The 21.7 rating was also the highest for a Bowl Championship Series game and the biggest rating in college football since the 25.1 for Penn State's 14-10 victory over Miami in the 1987 Fiesta Bowl. The Rose Bowl had not had a rating as big since the 1986 U.C.L.A.-Iowa game, which produced a 22.7. Last year, the Texas-Michigan game was rated a 12.4. Ratings for the national championship game have been declining, sliding to a 13.7 (21.4 million viewers) last year for U.S.C.'s romp over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl from a 14.8 (23.9 million viewers) for the 2004 Louisiana State-Oklahoma Sugar Bowl. The Rose Bowl rated higher than any World Series game since Arizona beat the Yankees in Game 7 in 2001 (a 23.5). And while the rating is generally lower than nearly all N.F.C and A.F.C. championship games, it exceeded the 2001 Giants-Minnesota N.F.C. game (a 20.6) and the 2002 New England-Pittsburgh game (a 21.2). The Rose Bowl was also ABC's highest-rated non-Super Bowl football game since a Miami-Kansas City playoff game in 1994 generated a 24.5 rating.

FOOTBALL
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
ABC INC
TELEVISION
RATINGS AND RATING SYSTEMS
ROSE BOWL (FOOTBALL GAME)


For Elderly in Rural Areas, Hard Times Get Harder

Abstract: LINGLE, Wyo. — Norma Clark, 80, slipped on the ice out by the horse corral one afternoon and broke her hip in four places. Alone, it took her three hours to drag herself the 40 yards back to the house through snow and mud, after she had tied her legs together with rope to stabilize the injury. A dutiful farm wife, Ms. Clark somehow even got to her feet to latch the gate. And her first call when she got to the house was not to 911, but to a daughter 30 miles away. “I told her she’d better come feed the horses,” said Ms. Clark, telling the story from her living room overlooking her 900-acre wheat farm. Growing old has never been easy. But in isolated, rural spots like this, it is harder still, especially as the battering ram of recession and budget cuts to programs for the elderly sweep through many local and state governments. Ms. Clark has been able to get help since her fall two winters ago because Wyoming , thanks to its energy boom, continues to finance programs for the elderly. But at least 24 states have cut back on such programs, according to a recent report by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington research group, and hundreds of millions of dollars in further cuts are on the table next year. The difficulties are especially pronounced in rural America because, census data shows, the country’s most rapidly aging places are not the ones that people flock to in retirement , but rather the withering, remote places many of them flee. Young people, for decades now, have been an export commodity in towns like Lingle, shipped out for education and jobs, most never to return. The elderly who remain — increasingly isolated and stranded — face an existence that is distinctively harder by virtue, or curse, of geography than life in cities and suburbs. Public transportation is almost unheard of. Medical care is accessible in some places, absent in others, and cellphone service can be unreliable. Even religion and the Internet are different here. Churches have consolidated or closed — a particular hardship for older people, who tend to be avid churchgoers. And a lack of high-speed broadband service in many rural areas compounds the sense of separation from children and grandchildren, as well as the broader world. The distance between friends is what gnaws most fiercely at George Burgess. Mr. Burgess, who has lived and worked for most of his 96 years in Wyoming and Nebraska as a hired farmhand and in later years as a machinist, still drives his truck almost every day into Torrington, Wyo., about eight miles from his home, for a hot lunch at the senior center. But his driver’s license expires in January, and he is deeply worried that he might not pass the test this time around. Mr. Burgess gets housekeeping assistance under a state program that helps older people stay in their homes and out of nursing care. But if he could not socialize in town, he said, he would be lost. “I might be on roller skates,” said Mr. Burgess, still cowboy-thin in cinched-up Levis, his booming outdoor voice filling his home on a recent snowy afternoon. He glanced around the tiny, cluttered living room — the coal stove, the broken television, the walls lined with pictures of his wife, Laura, who died just over a year ago after more than 60 years of marriage. “I wish it was different, but it isn’t,” he said. “So you endure it.” Some people who study rural America say the tough economic times and new budget woes could make it too difficult for many rural stoics to hang on. But others suggest the fortitude of the rural elderly simply runs too deep for that. “The people will remain, because they’re rooted and anchored to the land,” said Teresa S. Radebaugh, the director of the Regional Institute on Aging at Wichita State University. “They’ll stay no matter what.” Verna Bairn, 67, is a farm widow who has lived all her life in Oshkosh , Neb., about 115 mostly empty miles southeast of Lingle. She has seen the young people leave, she said, and the businesses on Main Street close. She has seen the median age in Garden County — where Oshkosh, population about 900, is the county seat — climb to 45 to 50 years old, according to the census, more than 10 years older than the nation’s as a whole. The counties in northwest Nebraska are now some of the oldest in the country. “One foot in the grave, the other sliding,” said Ms. Bairn in describing her town. Ms. Bairn has a daughter in Wyoming and a son in Wisconsin . Her husband, Edgar, died in 1998, of cancer , at 60. “He and I had one plan for our life, and God had another,” she said of her husband’s early death and the personally hard times that followed. “We played our cards the best we could.” It is in fact quite easy to find older people who take comfort in the surroundings they have known since they were young, however difficult things have become. Memory is everywhere, and hardship has been the norm in life, many say, so what’s new? But an equally important reality, gerontologists and psychologists say, is that people who have managed to reach great age in a tough environment have, in turn, been toughened by the experience. Frank Robinson, 92, embodies that life. He had to quit school at 16 and take over the family farm, near Oshkosh, upon the death of his father in 1934, in the depths of the Great Depression . He said he remembered times when the cash economy had all but broken down in rural Nebraska and barter was the only way to put food on the table — trading milk and cream from the family’s cows for what others in town had to spare. He worked the land for the next 61 years until retiring and moving into town in 1994. Now a widower, with his extended family and step-children far away, Mr. Robinson occasionally hears suggestions from friends that he might be happier in an assisted-living community somewhere. The idea, those friends say, goes in one ear and out the other; still, Mr. Robinson bemoans the increasing difficulty of staying where he is. “I don’t see how these towns keep on going,” he said, sitting ramrod straight in a housing-project meeting room, a feed-store cap on his head. “Years ago on a Saturday, Main Street was filled solid with people, and there was two or three cafes to eat at — it might be 10, 11 o’clock before they went home,” he said. “Now on Main Street on Saturday, there’s nothing.” Some people, like Jesse Cardona, just never stop working. He chose the cowboy’s life in Wyoming, and, at 88, said he had the scars to show for it , including being kicked by a bull in the late 1970s. Mr. Cardona has worked on the same 30,000-acre ranch — since divided into two 15,000-acre sections — near Torrington, Wyo., for more than 42 years. He lives in a house provided free by the ranch’s owners, for whom he still works mending fences in the summer. “I told them when I retired — no more cows, I’d had enough,” he said. And he works only short days now, he said, six or seven hours, and spends the winters watching movies, preferably starring John Wayne , on his television. “I don’t get lonely,” he said, sitting in his quiet kitchen. Ms. Clark, the 80-year-old with the bad hip, said she did not suffer from the solitude either. Her chair is positioned to look through the big picture window that dominates her living room. On a clear day, you can see across her land and all the way, 60 miles or so, to Laramie Peak. It is a landscape drenched with the memory, she said, of her husband, Leo, who died last year after a long illness, and the six daughters they raised together on the land. “I sit, and I look,” she said.

Rural area
Wyoming
Nebraska
Old age,elderly,senior citizens
Recession and Depression


Office of Congressional Ethics Survives G.O.P. Takeover

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Before the 2010 midterm elections, speculation was rampant that if the Republicans took over the House, they would kill the fledgling Office of Congressional Ethics , an independent body that investigates complaints of misbehavior. John A. Boehner, who is now House speaker, and other Republican leaders had vigorously opposed the creation of the office, which was the brainchild of Mr. Boehner’s predecessor, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in 2008. Anticipating its demise, Leo Wise, the office staff director and chief counsel, announced in October that he was leaving for a job with the United States attorney’s office for the District of Maryland. But since assuming control, House Republicans have left the office largely intact, much to the surprise of lawmakers in both parties. Omar Ashmawy , the new staff director and chief counsel, said the office would continue to pursue complaints as aggressively as it did under Mr. Wise . Good-government groups are taking a wait-and-see attitude on whether the office will be as persistent in going after Republicans now as it was in investigating Democrats when they were in the majority. “The question is how is the Republican leadership going to react when the O.C.E. starts going after its people,” said Norman J. Ornstein, an ethics expert at the American Enterprise Institute who lobbied for the creation of the office. In an e-mail, Michael Steel, a spokesman for Mr. Boehner, said the speaker had no plans to change the office’s mandate or mission. Mr. Steel also said its financing would not be cut. Mr. Ashmawy, who was appointed staff director on Friday after serving as acting director, said he did not feel the need to modify office operations. Several lawmakers have criticized the office for overreaching in its investigations. “Despite the controversies about the status of the office, in the 112th Congress we are going to do the mission we were asked to do before,” he said. “There will be no change.” Controversial cases are nothing new for Mr. Ashmawy, who joined the ethics office in 2009 as an investigator. As a former senior judge advocate general for the Air Force, he helped successfully try the case against Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a driver for Osama bin Laden, before the first United States war crimes tribunal since World War II . In 2007, Mr. Ashmawy won national attention when he defended a young airman, Cassandra Hernandez , who said she was gang-raped at a party but was herself charged with committing indecent acts with the men she said had attacked her. Those charges were dropped. Mr. Ashmawy will be working for the ethics office’s original board, although the two top board members have switched jobs. The board, largely made up of former members of Congress, is appointed by the House speaker and the minority leader. Porter J. Goss, a Republican who represented Florida in the House and is a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, will take over as chairman. The co-chairman will be another former congressman, David E. Skaggs, a Democrat from Colorado. Mr. Skaggs served as the board’s chairman for the past two years under the Democratic majority. The office has repeatedly clashed with the House Committee on Standards and Official Conduct, commonly known as the ethics committee. The office looks into cases against members of Congress and refers them to the ethics committee for further investigation. The committee has been accused of being soft on members of Congress, while some lawmakers have complained that the ethics office has been overly aggressive and inconsistent in deciding which allegations to pursue and which to ignore. No one has been more critical of the ethics office than the Congressional Black Caucus. At least eight black lawmakers have been the focus of its investigations, most prominently Representatives Charles B. Rangel of New York and Maxine Waters of California, both Democrats. One member of the black caucus, Representative Marcia L. Fudge, Democrat of Ohio, introduced a bill that critics said would have crippled the office. The legislation, which died when the previous Congressional session ended, would have prevented the ethics committee from issuing public statements in cases in which the ethics office had recommended that a complaint be dismissed. The existing rule gives the ethics committee discretion to release information in such situations. The measure also would have prevented the ethics office from looking into any matter except on the basis of “a sworn complaint from a citizen asserting personal knowledge of any alleged violation.” Currently, a preliminary review can be started if two board members, one from each party, ask for it. Representative Emanuel Cleaver II, a Democrat from Missouri who is the new chairman of the black caucus, said it continued to have issues with the ethics office. “We want to ensure justice and fairness,” he said. Mr. Cleaver and other caucus members did not respond to questions about what specific changes they would propose. Mr. Ashmawy said he had not tried to talk to caucus members; nor, he added, had they reached out to him. “We are very concerned about effects of an investigation on members’ reputations,” he said.

Office of Congressional Ethics
Ethics
Republican Party
United States Politics and Government
Senate
House of Representatives