Arizona State Women Top U.S.C. on a 3-Point Play

Abstract: Sophie Brunner’s 3-point play with 1.9 seconds left gave No. 8 Arizona State a 69-68 victory at home over short-handed Southern California on Sunday, keeping the Sun Devils tied with Oregon State atop the Pacific-12. Brunner took an inbounds pass from Elisha Davis and went straight to the basket, banking in a layup and drawing the fifth foul on Kristen Simon. Brunner’s free throw broke the tie as the Sun Devils (20-4, 11-1) recovered from a miserable start for their 17th win in 18 games. The Sun Devils trailed by 22-10 at the end of the first quarter and by 66-62 with 2 minutes 32 seconds left. Arnecia Hawkins had 12 points for Arizona State, Davis had 11 points and 6 assists, and Brunner scored 9 points. Sadie Edwards scored a career-high 26 points for the Trojans (17-7, 5-7), who dressed eight players, two of whom fouled out. U.S.C. has dropped five of eight since the starting guards Jordan Adams and Brianna Barrett were ruled academically ineligible. NOTRE DAME 66, LOUISVILLE 61 Madison Cable scored 5 straight points in the fourth quarter, including a big 3-pointer with two minutes remaining, to rally No. 3 Notre Dame (23-1, 11-0 Atlantic Coast Conference) past No. 13 Louisville (18-6, 10-1) on the road for its 16th straight victory. Cable and Brianna Turner each had 13 points for the Fighting Irish, who were led by Arike Ogunbowale’s 15 points. Lindsay Allen added 12 as Notre Dame won a tense showdown of unbeaten A.C.C. teams, each riding a 15-game winning streak entering the game. OREGON ST. 54, WASH. ST. 45 Ruth Hamblin scored 17 points, and Sydney Wiese had 11 of her 16 points in the fourth quarter to help ninth-ranked Oregon State (20-3, 11-1 Pac-12) rally past host Washington State (12-11, 3-9). The Beavers won their 10th straight game, but only after erasing a 34-28 deficit at the end of three quarters. Oregon State trailed, 24-22, at the half and did not take the lead for good until Wiese made the second of her three fourth-quarter 3-pointers with 4:59 left. FLORIDA STATE 75, CLEMSON 56 Shakayla Thomas scored 17 points, and Emiah Bingley added 15 as No. 10 Florida State (19-4, 9-1 A.C.C.) defeated visiting Clemson (4-19, 0-10). Men IOWA 77, ILLINOIS 65 Peter Jok scored 23 points, and Jarrod Uthoff added 18 points and 12 rebounds to lead No. 5 Iowa (19-4, 10-1 Big Ten) past host Illinois (11-13, 3-8). Jok took over early in the second half, scoring 7 of the first 10 points for Hawkeyes and leading them to a 48-36 lead with 16:48 to play. Iowa pushed the lead to as many as 20 points midway through the half. OREGON 76, UTAH 66 Dillon Brooks had 30 points and 9 assists, both career highs, to lead No. 16 Oregon (20-4, 9-2 Pac-12) over visiting Utah (17-7, 6-5). Chris Boucher added 15 points for the Ducks, and Elgin Cook had 12. Oregon won its sixth consecutive game and its 22nd straight at home, one shy of the program record. S.M.U. 92, S. FLORIDA 58 Shake Milton scored 22 points, and Nic Moore added 17 as No. 12 Southern Methodist (20-2, 9-2 American Athletic Conference) rebounded from its second loss with a rout at struggling South Florida (5-20, 2-10). The Mustangs shrugged off a 3-point road loss to Houston, matching a season high with 14 3-pointers and shooting 60 percent over all. They scored the game’s first 11 points and never trailed. S.M.U. hit its last six shots before halftime and opened the second half with an 8-0 run. MIAMI 75, GEORGIA TECH 68 Sheldon McClellan scored 22 points, and Ja’Quan Newton hit a big 3-pointer to lead No. 17 Miami (18-4, 7-3 A.C.C.) over host Georgia Tech (12-11, 2-8) for its fifth win in six games. UCONN 85, EAST CAROLINA 67 Shonn Miller and Rodney Purvis scored 16 points each, leading five Connecticut players in double figures, and the Huskies (17-6, 7-3 A.A.C.) beat visiting East Carolina (10-13, 2-8) to pick up their third consecutive win and the sixth in their last seven games. FAIRFIELD 80, MANHATTAN 70 Curtis Cobb scored 20 points, and Matija Milin added a career-high 19 points to lead Fairfield (13-11, 7-7 Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference) over Manhattan (9-12, 6-6) in Bridgeport, Conn. IONA 75, NIAGARA 61 Isaiah Williams scored 21 points, and Iona (14-9, 11-3 MAAC) used a big first half to defeat host Niagara (6-19, 4-10). MARIST 79, SIENA 73 Brian Parker scored 24 points to help Marist (5-17, 2-11 MAAC) end an 11-game losing streak with a victory over visiting Siena (16-9, 9-5). JAMES MADISON 98, HOFSTRA 95 Ron Curry had seven 3-pointers and a career-high 31 points, and Shakir Brown had 8 of his 15 points in overtime as host James Madison (18-7, 8-4 Colonial Athletic Association) defeated Hofstra (16-8, 8-4).

College basketball
Arizona State University
USC


GPS Snitch by BlackLine GPS

Abstract: In plenty of cinematic thrillers there is a scene where the villain attaches a tiny bug to the hero’s car and tracks it through the city. The GPS Snitch by BlackLine GPS lets you pull off a similar tracking feat over the Internet — showing, for example, where that villain who stole your car is headed. The $399 device contains a Global Positioning System unit and cellular radio. It lasts for seven days on one charge and begins tracking when it senses movement or leaves a preset location. You can view the device’s whereabouts online or send text messages to a special phone number to enable it, disable it or check its status. In addition to the price of the device, the GPS Snitch requires “tracking credits,” each worth one connection to the device to learn its location; the first 100 are free. A year’s supply is $170; monthly plans start at $15 for 50 credits. GPS Snitch is available online at gps-snitch.com , but hurry before your nemeses find out where they, too, can buy it. JOHN BIGGS

Global Positioning System
Automobiles
Computers and the Internet


Ford Plans Initiative to Cut Debt by $10.4 Billion

Abstract: DETROIT — The Ford Motor Company said on Wednesday that it hoped to eliminate as much as $10.4 billion in debt by giving cash and stock to debt holders as part of a revamping of its balance sheet. The moves Ford announced were similar to what General Motors and Chrysler were required to do under their multibillion-dollar loans from the federal government. As a result, Ford would reduce its overall borrowing by 40 percent. In a reflection of the financial stress on the auto industry, Ford is offering its bondholders far less than the debt was originally worth. But under the terms it is proposing, holders of its debt would still fare better than they would if they sold their debt for its current market value. G.M. and Chrysler bondholders have been forced to take such losses, but until now Ford bondholders have resisted similar actions. Ford, which has not taken any bailout money, has had more success initiating its restructuring than G.M. and Chrysler have achieved under government edict. Those companies are struggling to meet the terms of federal loans. Analysts said that Ford’s debt initiatives, and an earlier agreement it secured with the United Automobile Workers union, reinforce its status as the healthiest of Detroit’s automakers. “Ford is being proactive and showing that progress can be made and that things can be done expeditiously,” said Erich Merkle, an independent auto analyst in Grand Rapids, Mich. Ford said it would put up $2.2 billion in cash, including $1.8 billion from its lending arm, Ford Motor Credit, and 500 million shares of stock to persuade bondholders and other creditors to accept its restructuring offer. The action follows an agreement between Ford and the U.A.W. that will allow the company to substitute equity for as much as half of its required cash payments into a new retiree health care fund. Ford said it could not have won the concessions from the union without a corresponding plan to reduce its debt load. Ford said it had $25.8 billion in outstanding debt at the end of 2008, of which $20.7 billion is eligible to be restructured. The company hopes to reduce the $20.7 billion roughly by half, and, by doing so, cut its unsecured debt by two-thirds. The government has ordered G.M. and Chrysler to cut their unsecured debt by two-thirds as a condition of their federal loans. While Ford declined to seek government aid, G.M. has received $13.4 billion in loans and Chrysler has received $4 billion in loans. Since getting those loans, G.M. has requested an additional $16.6 billion in federal support and Chrysler an additional $5 billion. G.M. and Chrysler have until March 31 to cut their debt and negotiate a deal like Ford’s with the U.A.W. Neither G.M. nor Chrysler has publicly discussed their progress toward those goals. The companies met last week with President Obama’s auto task force to discuss their continuing talks with the union and their creditors. A Ford spokesman said Wednesday that the automaker was committed to strengthening its balance sheet even though it had no plans to seek federal aid. “Although we’re not bound by the term sheet of other companies’ government loans, our actions are consistent and in the spirit of the overall restructuring of the industry,” Mark Truby, the spokesman, said. Ford said that the debt eligible for its restructuring consisted of $4.9 billion in convertible notes, $6.9 billion in term loans and $8.9 billion in other debt. Holders of the convertible notes have been offered 108 shares of Ford common stock and $80 for each $1,000 in notes to be exchanged. The offer expires on April 3, Ford said. Shares of Ford stock were worth $1.87 at the close of trading on Wednesday. In a research note, Moody’s Investors Service said the exchange offer represents a payment of about $297 for each $1,000 in principal amount. The company also is starting cash tender offers to buy the term loans and other debt. Ford will pay 30 cents to 55 cents on each dollar of debt, depending on the type of note. Ford’s debt is trading publicly at about 20 cents on the dollar. Ford officials said the offers were not discussed in advance with its debt holders. The officials declined to predict the level of participation in the offers. By getting out in front of G.M. and Chrysler in the restructuring process, Ford is essentially increasing the pressure on its rivals to make similar moves. G.M. needs to reduce its unsecured debt of $27 billion by two-thirds. Chrysler must do the same with about $9 billion in debt. Both companies may have to offer better terms than Ford to get deals in place by the March 31 deadline. The Ford offers were necessary as part of its agreement with the U.A.W. to restructure payments to the retiree trust, known as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, as well as make other cost-saving changes in the union’s contract. “Both the operating-related and VEBA-related agreements would be conditioned on, among other things, Ford pursuing restructuring actions with other stakeholders, including meaningful debt reduction over time,” the company said. U.A.W. workers at Ford are voting this week on changes agreed to by the company and the union’s leadership.

Automobiles
Ford Motor Co
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


After the Shouting, the Dow Hardly Budges

Abstract: Investors evidently had trouble making up their minds about the market last week. Stocks moved up and down, but when trading was over on Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average was less than one point from its starting place at the opening bell on Monday. Some traders stayed on the sidelines, waiting for the meeting of Federal Reserve policymakers on Tuesday. While the Fed is expected to raise its benchmark short-term interest rate again, it's less certain where it will be heading in the future, and a policy statement at the meeting's close might shed some light on that issue. Among the Dow industrials, General Motors shares gained 7.2 percent, the biggest weekly increase. To trim its labor costs, the company said that it would offer buyouts and early retirement packages to all its unionized employees. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 0.03 points, only 0.003 percent, to close at 11,279.97. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index dropped 4.3 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 1,302.95. The Nasdaq composite index gained 6.34 points, or 0.3 percent, to close at 2,312.82. In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell slightly, to 4.66 percent from 4.67 percent the previous week. JEFF SOMMER

DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE
INTEREST RATES
STANDARD & POOR'S 500-STOCK INDEX
NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX
FINANCES
CREDIT
STOCKS AND BONDS
GOVERNMENT BONDS
DOW JONES STOCK AVERAGE


Small Savings on the Backs of Foster Children

Abstract: In 1853, Charles Loring Brace, a patrician reformer, devised a plan to remediate the circumstances of New York City’s 30,000 homeless children, many of whom passed their days as desperate salesmen hawking rags and newspapers, and who had acquired the label, absent a world of ethnic sensitivities, of “street Arabs.” Founding the Children’s Aid Society , Brace controversially arranged for abandoned children to be sent, by rail, to farm families — “kind, Christian homes in the country” as he put it, typically where they would work. By 1929, approximately 100,000 city children had been relocated across the country, often with no sense of where they would be going, in what became known as the Orphan Train movement and was the precursor to the American foster care system. In the last quarter of the 20th century, child welfare evolved, both in theory and legislative practice, to place greater emphasis on the needs and interests of the child. Significantly, in 1977, a Seattle judge named David Soukup , who had become frustrated that the foster care system was not providing adequate representation for children in courts, organized a program called Court Appointed Special Advocates , or CASA, which trained volunteers to give children a voice in legal proceedings, and crucially to provide a holistic picture of the children’s lives that would help judges make more informed decisions about the cases. Over time, CASA has grown to more than 930 branches across the country, and the role of volunteers has expanded. Last week, in a proposed state budget otherwise admirably mindful of the needs of children, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo eliminated CASA’s financing in New York State for the coming fiscal year. This is particularly unfortunate given that, according to a 2009 study by the advocacy group Children’s Rights , New York ranks 40th among states in how quickly it returns children home and 44th in terms of adoption. CASA is hardly a social-services program to which one could attach an adjective like “bloated.” The $800,000 a year the state was contributing was keeping CASA branches in operation across New York. Now, the New York City affiliate is at risk of closing. City children make up 63 percent of the state’s foster care population, and CASA in New York City had been receiving more than one-third of the state’s financing. Image Peggy Grauwiler, the executive director of CASA in New York City, which may lose state financing. Credit Elizabeth D. Herman for The New York Times It has managed to serve about 1,500 children a year on a budget of a little over $1 million annually, with Peggy Grauwiler, the executive director of CASA in New York City , performing many roles, including development chief. The staff itself is tiny, with only two administrators and a small team of social workers spread across five boroughs; it depends on a network of 120 volunteers who each give 10 to 20 hours a month to help children struggling in foster care. When children move from foster home to foster home, they lack what is known in social-service parlance as continuity of care. In an overburdened system, there is often no one to notice changes in a child’s behavior, or eating pattern or study habits. The CASA volunteer aims to be a consistent presence. Last year, when an 8-year-old boy in the Bronx who had been in the foster system for two years was having sudden difficulty reading, it was his CASA aide who figured out that he simply might need a new prescription for his glasses. The burden of logistics — which consume hours, and for which caseworkers rarely have the time — is picked up by CASA volunteers and staff members, as well: finding parenting classes that a mother seeking to regain custody of her child can get to easily, arranging for siblings in different foster families to regularly see one another, connecting children with incarcerated parents whom the foster system has lost track of. CASA workers help children aging out of foster care with G.E.D. exams, homework and college applications so that they have a chance at going on to productive lives. If you spend any time in family court, you begin to see how much — how many seemingly small things — is required to move a child’s life along. Last week, I attended a hearing in Manhattan involving an 18-year-old girl who had spent most of her life in the system. Her transition to adult life had been stymied by an inability to get a state identification card, for which she needed a birth certificate. It resided somewhere in Puerto Rico, and she had no idea how to access it. CASA does not have grand finale goals; it does not set out to send forgotten children to the Ivy League. And for this reason, Ms. Grauwiler explained, fund-raising is difficult. It is hard to convey in a sound bite what is gained. Additionally, she said, a fair number of her individual donors had money tied up with Bernard Madoff, the man behind the largest Ponzi scheme in history, and, in recent years, the annual $1,000 and $5,000 checks she had come to depend on have fallen away. Still, in 2011, for instance, 42 percent of CASA graduates in New York City were reunited with their parents; an additional 15 percent were adopted, half of those by relatives; and 4 percent went on to live independently. In a meta-study of CASA programs across the country, published several years ago in The Journal of the Center for Families, Children and Courts, researchers’ most profound finding was that children with CASA support were half as likely to re-enter the system. The bad outcomes for children who spend endless years in foster care don’t have to be recounted. But they ought to be quantified, so we can all remember how costly they are.

Children
New York
Foster care
Budget
Court Appointed Special Advocates CASA
NYC
Andrew Cuomo
Juvenile delinquency


Steel to Begin Rising to Frame Trade Center Memorial

Abstract: Forty years ago this summer, construction workers began erecting the steel framework of the World Trade Center. On Tuesday, a new generation of them will begin erecting the steel to frame its memorial. Columns and beams from Owen Steel Company’s job No. 7-06 — the National September 11 Memorial and Museum at the World Trade Center — started arriving at ground zero last Thursday on flatbed trailers. They are the first of more than 8,000 tons of steel that will be shipped to Lower Manhattan from the Owen fabrication plant in Columbia, S.C. “To have it on site and to begin construction is a lift — a necessary lift,” said Joseph C. Daniels, the president and chief executive of the memorial and museum. As the seventh anniversary of 9/11 approaches, the arrival of steel is a tangible sign that the new trade center is finally taking form, though long after it was supposed to and at a far higher price. “We’ve worked hard to get the memorial back on track and on budget, and to raise necessary funding from many generous donors,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is also the chairman of the memorial and museum. “Now we must all ensure it is our collective top priority, so that it’s open by the 10th anniversary.” The memorial will be a formally landscaped plaza wrapping around two square voids where the twin towers stood. The names of the victims will be displayed around the voids, which will contain waterfalls and pools. The museum will be entered through a pavilion at plaza level, but most of it will be underground. Visitors will descend gradually past remnants of the twin towers’ columns, a staircase used by hundreds of survivors on 9/11 and an exposed section of the existing slurry wall. The memorial and the museum are costing $530 million, financed by private donations and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. The $80 million pavilion is to be paid for by New York State. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is building the memorial, museum and pavilion, which have been designed by Michael Arad, Peter Walker & Partners, Davis Brody Bond and Snohetta. The hope is to have the memorial plaza ready for visitors by Sept. 11, 2011, Mr. Daniels said, with pedestrian access all along West Street and, ideally, at the corners of Church and Vesey Streets and Church and Liberty Streets. The museum will follow a year later. Because the museum structure underpins the plaza, it must be constructed first. The building will start on Tuesday, with the erection of a 24-foot-9-inch, 7,700-pound steel column. David Zalesne, the president of Owen Steel, said welders and fitters welcomed the job, even though many pieces were especially heavy and complex to fabricate. “They certainly take a special pride in putting their hands and their craftsmanship into the World Trade Center memorial,” he said. On learning of the coincidental 40th anniversary of the original steel work — and in a nod to the concern that underlies any discussion of the trade center’s future — Mr. Zalesne said quietly, “Let’s hope we never have to build anything new at the site again.”

World Trade Center (NYC)
Monuments and Memorials
Buildings (Structures)
Manhattan (NYC)
Steel and Iron


The Resurrection of Greenwich Street

Abstract: A quarter-mile stretch of Greenwich Street disappeared from the map of Lower Manhattan in 1967, then from the face of New York on Sept. 11, 2001. Now, it is reappearing as an important boulevard. Three of the four World Trade Center towers have their entrances on it, as does Santiago Calatrava ’s Oculus, which is the Westfield shopping mall and the trade center transit hub. Mr. Calatrava’s St. Nicholas National Shrine is taking form in the elevated Liberty Park , reached by a broad staircase from Greenwich Street. Diners overlook the street from the recently opened Eataly . The future of Greenwich Street includes a performing arts center in 2020, named for and bankrolled in part by the billionaire businessman Ronald O. Perelman . That will stand opposite 2 World Trade Center , to begin construction when the developer Larry A. Silverstein finds a major tenant. The Cortlandt Street subway station on the No. 1 line, damaged in the 2001 terrorist attack and closed since then, should reopen in two years, with entrances on Greenwich Street. Greenwich Street is also where the last unresolved battle over the future of the World Trade Center is being fought. The city and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation favor the construction of housing on a parcel known as Site 5, where the Deutsche Bank building stood. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey believes the site should to be used for offices, a conference center and a hotel. Image The Oculus, a transportation hub and shopping mall in Lower Manhattan, which was designed by Santiago Calatrava. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times All this activity is occurring along a roadway that dates to the early 1700s, when a route was carved along the Hudson River from the southern tip of Manhattan Island to the village of Greenwich, about two miles north. New York City swallowed up Greenwich Village. Landfill separated shoreline and roadway. But Greenwich Street kept its name and its role as a north-south thoroughfare, until the first World Trade Center came along. Parts of Greenwich, Fulton, Cortlandt, Dey and Washington Streets were closed a half century ago to create the 16-acre superblock on which the center was constructed. Greenwich Street was further cut off by the 7 World Trade Center tower and a Consolidated Edison substation immediately north of the superblock. Critics deplored the trade center’s insular nature. No one imagined there would be a chance to rethink it. Once presented with the opportunity, however, many planners agreed that streets should crisscross the site again and knit the new trade center into the fabric of its surroundings. Image From a cafe, the view south over Greenwich Street and a park at 7 World Trade Center. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times Greenwich Street was the test case. It was vital to the recovery of downtown that the electrical substation be rebuilt quickly . That drove the timing of office tower No. 7, ahead of the rest of the trade center. David M. Childs of Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects of the tower, understood that if the new building could be squeezed in a way that would accommodate Greenwich Street, a helpful precedent could be set for the larger project. This was the subject of my first Building Blocks column (then called Blocks) in 2002. As it has emerged since then, the new Greenwich Street is largely traffic free. Security barriers limit it to authorized vehicles. It functions as a pedestrian zone but feels like an eerily and inexplicably abandoned thoroughfare, since the paving is neatly stenciled with lanes, turning arrows and crosswalks. Yet it also offers a jumble of incongruous impressions, as the best city streets do. A cafe in the new Fiterman Hall of the Borough of Manhattan Community College, at Barclay Street, overlooks an urbane, little private park at 7 World Trade Center, with a balloon sculpture by Jeff Koons. Image Signs along Greenwich Street. Credit Damon Winter/The New York Times The cosmopolitan tone set by the park and cafe is broken by a welter of security obstacles at Vesey Street, where Greenwich Street turns into a pedestrian chute squeezed between ventilating equipment for the transportation hub and the abandoned former PATH station. At Fulton Street, the Oculus spreads its enormous wings. To the west, a dense grove of swamp white oak trees and a silvery polygonal pavilion mark the National September 11 Memorial and Museum . Opposite the south memorial pool are Mr. Silverstein’s 3 World Trade Center , under construction and 28 percent leased, and 4 World Trade Center , which opened last year and is now 80 percent leased. At Liberty Street are the quarters of Engine Company 10 and Ladder Company 10 , with a bronze relief dedicated to the 343 firefighters who were killed on Sept. 11. Nearby, table tennis players are drawn to the Albany Street Plaza, maintained by the Alliance for Downtown New York and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation. This is part of the contested Site 5. Amanda M. Burden, who was then the chairwoman of the City Planning Commission, told me in 2002: “Greenwich Street is not only symbolically important, but it is an important first step. It’s about beginning to interconnect the totally disconnected elements of Lower Manhattan.” Flaws and all, it feels as if the connections are taking hold. And given how this column began 14 years ago, that is as good a note as any on which to bring it to an end.

World Trade Center
9/11,Sept 11
Urban Planning
Architecture
Financial District Manhattan


Queens Group Spent City’s Cash, but Has No Receipts Showing How

Abstract: A Queens community group that is under investigation for possible political work on behalf of Councilman Hiram Monserrate could not produce paperwork to show how it spent nearly $250,000 in city money that the councilman had directed to it in recent years, city audits show. The group, Libre, which was overseen by Mr. Monserrate’s chief of staff, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in discretionary funds from the councilman over the past five years to provide English language instruction, job placement assistance and other services to the immigrant and Latino community in the Corona area of Queens. But the group was unable to produce time sheets, expense receipts, canceled checks or board meeting minutes to document its expenses for the two fiscal years, 2006 and 2007, examined in the audits. Libre told the auditors in an e-mail message that it had shut down. Investigators for the Queens district attorney this spring began reviewing allegations that the organization had spent a portion of its time promoting Mr. Monserrate’s political career. In May, as part of a separate review, private auditors hired by the city’s Department of Youth and Community Development began examining how Libre spent grant money the agency gave it. The money had been directed to the group through Council earmarks secured by Mr. Monserrate. Based on the audit findings, the agency will now seek to recover Libre’s grant money, according to Ryan Dodge, an agency spokesman. He declined to say how that could be done with the group shut down. The audits were released by the city in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by The New York Times. In interviews in the spring, Rodolfo Herrera, who was then the director of Libre, acknowledged that the agency had bookkeeping issues, but he did not indicate that records were missing or that the group had plans to shut down. Instead, Mr. Herrera said he planned to file delinquent tax returns for the group and hoped to find a new headquarters and build a community center with $2.1 million in capital funds earmarked by Mr. Monserrate. That money was approved but never appropriated by the city. Mr. Monserrate, who is now running unopposed for the State Senate, referred questions about the accounting to his chief of staff, Julissa Ferreras, who was Libre’s chairwoman during the period examined by the audits. “She’s the person to have the conversation with,” he said. “I wasn’t the director. I don’t know what paperwork was there, what books were there.” He said he did not understand how the group got the money in the first place if it did not submit paperwork and receipts to the Youth and Community Development Department. “How would the agency pay out on any contract without paperwork being submitted?” he said. “That doesn’t sound right to me.” Ms. Ferreras, who is running to fill the seat Mr. Monserrate will be vacating on the City Council, said in a brief telephone interview on Saturday that the records should be in Libre’s offices. “I personally don’t keep the records,” she said. Echoing Mr. Monserrate, she said it was hard to imagine that the agency would pay a contract and give out a subsequent contract if no paperwork had been submitted. “Honestly, I believe the onus is on the agency,” she said. The youth department said it had received expense reports from Libre at the time the money was distributed but did not, by agency policy, require it to submit receipts or canceled checks. Under city contracts, however, nonprofit organizations are supposed to keep spending records for six years, Mr. Dodge said. Libre, which stands for Latino Initiative for Better Resources and Empowerment, was incorporated in July 2003, but has filed only one tax return since then. It has never registered as a charity with the state, as required. The review by the Queens district attorney’s office is focused on allegations that more than two dozen workers for Libre collected signatures to help get Mr. Monserrate on the ballot in 2006 for his unsuccessful bid for the 13th District Senate seat in Queens. That investigation is continuing, a law enforcement official said last week. In a separate inquiry, city and federal investigators are reviewing a swath of nonprofit groups that were financed by the City Council. As part of that inquiry, they have requested information about dozens of the groups, including Libre. The review, by the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan and the city’s Department of Investigation, is examining the relationship between council members and their staffs and the groups they finance through the $360 million in discretionary money the Council doles out each year. Neither agency has commented on whether Libre is a particular focus of that inquiry. The joint city-federal inquiry has led to the indictments of two former aides of Councilman Kendall Stewart on charges that they embezzled more than $145,000 in city funds. It has also forced the Council and city agencies to impose stricter controls on discretionary spending. No council members have been implicated in any wrongdoing. Mr. Monserrate has disavowed any role in the affairs of the nonprofit he helped to finance, saying he had no control over the group’s operations or money. He said he had not been questioned by authorities about it and was not aware of any efforts by the group to collect signatures for him. In an interview in May, he said Libre was just one of several groups he financed and was proud of the work they did. “This is ground zero of a high-needs district,” he said. “My role is to support groups. And yes, there are challenges. And are some of those community organizations challenged? Yes, but they do good work. Their hearts are in the right place, and I’m not backing away from that.” Ms. Ferreras said she had not been questioned by investigators, and declined to answer questions about the allegations. She is one of several members of Mr. Monserrate’s current and former Council and campaign staffs who have also done work for Libre. Mr. Monserrate and Ms. Ferreras said she never worked for the councilman and the group at the same time, despite city records that show an overlap of a few months in 2005. They insisted the records were incorrect. The audits examined contracts administered through the youth department from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2007, totaling more than $260,000. A majority of the money supposedly went to pay the executive director and the program director. Another $36,000 was meant to be passed down to smaller community groups, and some $56,000 went for consultants and stipends. But the auditors said they were unable to verify any of that spending because the group did not provide any supporting documentation. Javier Cardenas, who was listed as the group’s executive director during the period examined, did not return phone calls seeking comment. Mr. Herrera, who had been Libre’s treasurer since its inception, said in an interview in the spring that he did not monitor the books. That job, he said, fell to Mr. Cardenas. Mr. Herrera said he became aware of the group’s problems in November 2007, when Ms. Ferreras asked him to become director to help clean things up. He did not return phone calls or e-mail messages seeking comment last week. According to the audit reports, Libre sent an e-mail message on June 4 telling auditors that it accepted their findings and did not want an exit interview to discuss them. According to Mr. Dodge, the youth department spokesman, the agency sent a follow-up letter to the group seeking corrective action. The letter was returned, he said, because of an invalid address, and the listed phone number was no longer in service. The department declined to say what efforts it was taking to recover the money. Libre also received money through the Department for the Aging, again at the direction of Mr. Monserrate. In all, the councilman has allocated more than $420,000 to the group for operating expenses since 2004. Christopher Miller, a spokesman for the Department for the Aging, said the agency had not audited Libre. But given the findings by its sister agency, he said, it was reviewing its options.

Nonprofit Organizations
Monserrate Hiram
Ethics
Queens (NYC)


China and Australian Miner Reach Price Agreement

Abstract: BEIJING — The Australian miner Fortescue Metals Group broke ranks with its larger rivals Monday to agree on a slightly lower iron ore price with Chinese steel mills in exchange for up to $6 billion in funding, giving Beijing’s beleaguered industry group a much-needed victory. But analysts said it was unlikely that the surprise deal to sell ore to China at 35 percent below last year’s price — touted by the Chinese side as a new “reference” for price negotiations with the top three suppliers — would coax a compromise out of the larger miners, which are insisting on the 33 percent price cut agreed upon earlier. Rio Tinto said the Fortescue deal was not relevant to its pricing for this year. At stake in the fraught negotiations that have dragged far beyond their June 30 deadline are billions of dollars in revenue for Rio, BHP Billiton and Vale, as well as the core cost component for Chinese mills that now make roughly half of the world’s steel. “Chinese iron ore price talks have achieved an important and periodical success, but are not at all finished,” CISA’s vice chairman Liu Zhenjiang told reporters. Mr. Liu said the price — effectively 3 percent lower than the benchmark that Rio set with Japanese and South Korean mills in May — was reasonable and benefited all parties. While the Fortescue price cut is well short of the 40 to 45 percent reduction that the China Iron and Steel Association, or CISA, had hoped to win from miners when negotiations began nearly a year ago, it will bring a reprieve for the association’s secretary general, Shan Shanghua, who had staked the body’s reputation on winning a better deal. And while it will allow China to claim a small victory, analysts said the agreement was more of a coup for Fortescue. Unlike its Australian rivals, Fortescue sells its ore only to China, is part-owned by a Chinese mill and will now turn to China to raise the financing it desperately needs to expand. The deal is conditional on the completion of $5.5 billion to $6 billion in Chinese financing by Sept. 30, Fortescue said. It also said it was seeking advisers for a Shanghai listing and would get “priority” in any annual 2010 price negotiations. “Fortescue are trying to be the good guys for the Chinese,” said Mark Pervan, a senior commodities analyst at ANZ. “They are the new kid in town and want to secure relationships with the big consumers. They are in ramp-up mode, so they want the cash flow.” Fortescue agreed to supply iron ore fines at 94 cents per dry metric ton unit and iron ore lumps at $1 per dry metric ton unit for the second half of 2009. That compares to a benchmark of 97 cents a metric ton that Rio set for its fines sales in May. Mr. Shan said the agreed-upon prices include a 35.02 percent drop on year for fines and a 50.42 percent drop on year for lumps, besting the 33 percent and 44 percent declines in agreements major Asian mills — and some Chinese mills — have reached with BHP and Rio. The deal, for 20 million metric tons of ore in the rest of 2009, will cover only a small portion of China’s iron ore imports, which are running at more than 50 million metric tons a month. “By sticking to our own strategy, we’re not a pawn in anyone’s game,” Fortescue’s chief executive, Andrew Forrest, told reporters Monday in a conference call after the announcement. Fortescue signed the pact with CISA and with Baosteel, China’s top steel mill, which had led annual pricing talks until CISA took over this year. Mr. Shan said that although CISA was the organizer of the negotiations, Baosteel was the real representative for the mills, a suggestion that he might be backing away from a leading role. By agreeing on prices for only the second half of this year, both sides left themselves open for an improvement should market conditions change, as well as marking another departure from the 40-year-old benchmark pricing system. Mr. Shan said next year’s conditions would determine whether China continued to negotiate on a half-year basis. The deal will allow CISA to point to a success, its talks with the bigger miners appearing to have reached a stalemate. Those negotiations are mired in a diplomatic row over the arrest of four Rio employees suspected of stealing commercial secrets and of bribery. CISA will negotiate with the three biggest miners using the Fortescue prices as a reference, Mr. Shan said. He said Fortescue had promised to supply all Chinese clients at “one price.” But analysts were doubtful that the price would hold up as a reference, with spot market prices having surged 50 percent since the initial 33 percent deal and a number of Chinese steel mills having already broken away from CISA to reach their own agreements.

China
International Trade and World Market
Steel and Iron


Police Say Early Detonation of Bomb Averted Disaster in Sweden

Abstract: STOCKHOLM — Two days after a bomber killed himself and slightly wounded two people in a commercial district here crowded with Christmas shoppers, investigators offered glimpses of a suspect who, in the pattern of other Islamist terrorists, moved unobtrusively between Europe and the Middle East as he prepared to martyr himself, only to botch the operation in a manner that suggested a clumsy do-it-yourself attack. The bomber was identified Monday as Taimour Abdulwahab al-Abdaly, a 28-year-old Swede of Iraqi origin, who reportedly had been living with his wife and children in a house in Luton, just north of London, until as recently as three weeks ago. The town is notorious now as the early morning starting point for the four bombers who attacked the London transit system on July 7, 2005, killing 56 people, including themselves. Police investigators searched the Luton house as well as an apartment in Stockholm’s northwestern suburbs, and carried away potential evidence, including a family car that was mounted on a flatbed and taken away from the Luton home. The Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter reported in its Monday editions that Mr. Abdaly had also recently visited Jordan. A sound recording delivered by e-mail to a Swedish news agency minutes before the explosions included an apology to his family for having lied to them about previous trips to the Middle East, which he said had not been for business but for jihad, or holy war. Swedish and British investigators, who appeared to be working in close cooperation, were careful for the time being not to point to Al Qaeda or any other terrorist organization as having played a part. But at a Stockholm news conference, Tomas Lindstrand, Sweden ’s chief prosecutor for terrorist offenses, said that while the bomber was “definitely on his own in the execution” of the explosions, “from experience, we know that there are usually more people involved in such actions.” The case recalled that of Faisal Shahzad, the 30-year-old American of Pakistani origin who botched his attempt to set off a powerful bomb in Times Square in May and was sentenced to life in prison. He received training from the Taliban and financing from abroad, but tried to carry off the bombing alone. The two explosions set off by the Stockholm bomber occurred on side streets crossing the pedestrian mall called Drottninggatan, the city’s principal shopping street, and suggested that a catastrophic outcome had been narrowly averted. Mr. Abdaly appeared to have started by igniting an assembly of gas canisters in a white Audi 80 Vantage car bought for about $1,500 from a second-hand dealer in late November in the provincial city of Vadstena, causing an eruption of flame but limited damage. He then walked 200 yards up Drottninggatan before turning into another side street where he appeared to have detonated at least one of the 12 pipe bombs strapped to his waist. Swedish newspapers reported that the police believed that he may have been heading to the nearby Ahlens department store, one of Stockholm’s busiest, or possibly for the city’s main railway station, when he accidentally triggered the belt-bomb. Swedish newspapers said that in addition to the belt-bomb, he appeared to have been carrying more explosives and a satchel of nails in his backpack. A witness quoted by the newspaper Espressen said the bomber appeared to drop a black object as he walked, pausing to pick it up, before rounding a corner, just before the second blast. Among the theories floating in local papers was that he stumbled on the snowy surface of the side street, or that the object he dropped was the cellphone found beside his body, a possible trigger for the belt-bomb that he might have accidentally activated on retrieving the phone. As with several other terrorist bombings across Europe, closed-circuit video from security cameras appeared likely to play a major part in the investigation. Video taken from a camera mounted on the roof of a building directly overlooking the second blast, and broadcast on Swedish television, showed the bomber lying face-up on the pavement after the explosion, his feet widely splayed, with a khaki-colored vest over his chest and waist, and pools of blood accumulating beside him. The images showed several passers-by hastening to kneel beside him, followed by shouts of “Bomb! Bomb! Bomb!” that caused many in the gathering crowd to pull back. Within minutes, a police vehicle could be seen pulling up at the entrance to the side street. Witnesses said that the man appeared to be alive for several minutes after the explosion, but that he died before an ambulance arrived. The theory of an accidental detonation appeared to have gained some traction with the police. “It’s not unreasonable to think that he could have made a mistake, so that a portion of the bomb detonated and caused his death,” Mr. Lindstrand, the chief terrorism prosecutor, said at the Stockholm news conference. “There is speculation that he was on his way to a place where there were a lot of people. This was in the middle of Stockholm, in the middle of Christmas; it’s not a daring guess.” While several other European countries have suffered bombings since 9/11 opened a new era of terrorist attacks, Sweden, until now, has been something of a safe haven. But in interviews over the last 48 hours, Western intelligence officials said that Sweden was regarded as an increasingly likely target in recent years, partly because a number of well-known Islamic militants have traveled to the country. One American intelligence operative spoke of an established Qaeda cell here. For more than 36 hours after the bombings, Swedish officials were reluctant to confirm that the dead man was Mr. Abdaly. At the news conference on Monday, Mr. Lindstrand said, “There hasn’t been a formal identification yet, not by DNA, or by his parents, or by some other people who are very familiar with him,” though the police were “98 percent sure” who the man was. But Anders Thornberg, the chief of operations for the security police and the head of the investigation, appeared impatient with the evasions. Asked by a reporter if the bomber was Mr. Abdaly, he answered curtly, “Yes.”

Sweden
Terrorism
Great Britain
Abdaly Taimour Abdulwahab al-


Forum Says Climate Shift Brings Deaths

Abstract: Global warming is causing more than 300,000 deaths and about $125 billion in economic losses each year, according to a report by the Global Humanitarian Forum , an organization led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary general. The report, to be released Friday, sifted data sets and existing studies of health, disaster, population and economic trends. It found that human-influenced climate change — mainly by exacerbating flooding and drought — was elevating the global death rates from illnesses including malnutrition, diarrheal disease, malaria and heat-related ailments. But even before its release, the report drew criticism from some experts on climate and risk, who questioned its methods and conclusions. Along with the deaths, the report said that the lives of 325 million people, primarily in poor countries, were being seriously affected by climate change. It projected that the number would double by 2030. Roger A. Pielke Jr., a political scientist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who studies disaster trends, said the forum’s report was “a methodological embarrassment” because there was no way to distinguish deaths or economic losses related to human-driven global warming amid the much larger losses resulting from the growth in populations and economic development in vulnerable regions. Dr. Pielke said that “climate change is an important problem requiring our utmost attention.” But the report, he said, “will harm the cause for action on both climate change and disasters because it is so deeply flawed.” However, Soren Peter Andreasen, a social scientist at Dalberg Global Development Partners who supervised the writing of the report, defended it, saying that it was clear that the numbers were rough estimates. The report appeared aimed at world leaders, who will meet in Copenhagen in December to negotiate a new international climate treaty. In a press release describing the report, Mr. Annan stressed the need for the negotiations to focus on increasing the flow of money from rich to poor regions to help reduce their vulnerability to climate hazards while still curbing the emissions of the heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. More than 90 percent of the human and economic losses from climate change are occurring in poor countries, according to the report. The next round of preliminary talks leading up to the December negotiations is scheduled to begin Monday in Bonn, Germany. Jeffrey D. Sachs, an economist, was one of 12 experts who vetted the report for the forum. He acknowledged that some of the report’s conclusions were oversimplified. Still, he said, he endorsed the report’s message. He and others who work in vulnerable regions like Africa, the Middle East and South Asia, he said, are convinced that global warming is already harming communities.

Global Warming
Global Humanitarian Forum
International Relations


Homeless Veterans Sue Over Neglected Campus in L.A.

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — It is a 387-acre campus of green fields and low-lying buildings in a prosperous neighborhood, donated to the federal government more than 100 years ago for use as a Pacific Coast home for wounded veterans. But over the last 20 years, as Los Angeles has become inundated with homeless veterans, advocates for the homeless say the campus has become a symbol of a system gone wrong: as veterans sleep on the streets, many of its buildings lie abandoned and one-third of the land has been leased for commercial use. On Wednesday, advocates for the homeless sued the Department of Veterans Affairs , seeking to compel federal officials to use the campus to care for and house mentally ill veterans. In the class-action suit, filed on behalf of four mentally distressed homeless veterans, lawyers contend that the department has violated the terms of the agreement in which the property was deeded to the government in 1888. They also contend that the department is required — under a federal statute barring discrimination against the mentally disabled — to provide housing to help mentally ill veterans. The scope of the lawsuit is, to a certain extent, limited: if successful, it would apply only to those homeless veterans deemed mentally disabled. Yet Los Angeles has the largest population of homeless veterans in the nation — 8,200 of the city’s estimated 49,000 homeless people, by one count — and the number is expected to swell as soldiers return from Afghanistan and Iraq. By any measure, the lawsuit — the first of its kind, lawyers said — is a significant escalation in a battle that has simmered here for years, as homeless advocates contended that the Department of Veterans Affairs was bowing to residents of the property’s prosperous Brentwood neighborhood and commercial interests by refusing to rehabilitate abandoned buildings and use them to help veterans. For the first 100 years of its existence, the campus was used entirely to provide housing and services to veterans; that began changing in the 1960s and ’70s, as some of the buildings were abandoned and the Department of Veterans Affairs leased about one-third of the property for use by, among others, a car rental agency, a laundry for the Marriott hotel chain, a golf course, a dog walk and a baseball stadium for the nearby University of California, Los Angeles. It now has a limited number of geriatric beds for veterans. “It is a piece of land that has accommodated the interests of powerful people in L.A. for a long time,” said Bobby Shriver, a member of the Santa Monica City Council and one of the people pushing the suit. “Now, we are going to make it accommodate the interests of these veterans.” Josh Taylor, a Veterans Affairs spokesman, declined to comment on the suit, referring questions to the Department of Justice. But in a statement, Mr. Taylor reiterated a pledge from Eric K. Shinseki, the Veterans Affairs secretary, “to end veteran homelessness by 2015. “We have a moral obligation to ensure that veterans and their families have access to affordable housing and medical services that will get them back on their feet,” Mr. Taylor said. “Though much work remains, V.A. is beginning to make good on that promise.” Two years ago, Mr. Taylor added, there were approximately 131,000 homeless veterans on any given night across the country. “Today, we estimate there are about 76,000 homeless veterans,” he said. The suit was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California. The plaintiffs include veterans from Iraq, Afghanistan and Vietnam. The suit asks the court to prohibit the federal government from using the land and buildings for any purpose but to help veterans. “Los Angeles is the homeless veterans’ capital of the United States,” Mark Rosenbaum, one of the lawyers in the case, said Wednesday morning, adding, “The V.A. could quite literally end veteran homelessness in Los Angeles if this land were used as it was intended.” “This spacious campus now housing empty buildings and rental car parking lots could be made suitable for these veterans in less than the five or so months it took to plan and invade Iraq,” he said. Steve Mackey, the president of the California state council of Vietnam Veterans of America, said the lawsuits were “a last resort.” “We have spent years working to persuade the federal government, and the V.A. in particular, to provide the services and accommodations,” he said. The lawsuit is the first to try to apply a 1973 law prohibiting discrimination by federal agencies on the basis of disability to the question of whether the government must provide housing to homeless veterans.

Veterans
Veterans Affairs Department
Suits and Litigation
Los Angeles (Calif)
Homeless Persons
Mental Health and Disorders
Public and Subsidized Housing


Bloomberg Has Added, and Lost, Jobs in New York

Abstract: During much of his tenure, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has taken credit for helping to create hundreds of thousands of jobs in New York City , from high-paying construction work to sales jobs at dozens of new big-box stores. Even as the city plods through the recession, the mayor has set a goal to “retain and create” an additional 400,000 jobs over the next six years. The debate over how much influence a mayor, a governor or a president has over jobs is one that may never be settled. But if Mayor Bloomberg can be judged on the numbers he has used as evidence of his own success, those numbers, while generally accurate, also contain some warning signs about the future of employment in the city. Even in the downturn, the city has 130,000 more jobs than it had when Mr. Bloomberg became mayor, according to state labor statistics. Working-class New Yorkers who kept their jobs or stayed in the same field saw their pay rise faster than the rate of inflation. But the overall job market constantly shifts, particularly in a recession, when the economy sheds jobs and even whole industries. And in New York, middle- and working-class jobs that have disappeared — in fields like manufacturing, wholesale distribution and administrative services — have been replaced by jobs in sectors like retail, food service and home health care that generally pay less. “There’s been much more growth in lower-wage industries than in middle-wage industries,” said James Parrott, chief economist for the Fiscal Policy Institute , a liberal research group. “That’s a challenge for people struggling to maintain a decent livelihood in New York City, given the cost of housing and everything else.” Several research groups have concluded that jobs created for working-class New Yorkers will continue to be in these low-wage fields. A study by a nonpartisan group, the Center for an Urban Future , said that the two occupations that will have the most openings in New York City through 2014 are retail salesperson, with an average annual pay of $20,690, and cashier, with pay of $16,800. “Working-class people with limited educational backgrounds and limited skills are going to be fighting for scraps at the bottom,” said Jonathan Bowles, director of the Center for an Urban Future. By August 2008, Mayor Bloomberg oversaw a city with 3.244 million jobs, its highest number since 1969, according to Mr. Parrott. With roughly 227,000 more jobs than when the mayor took office, the city had surpassed national job growth rates, a point the mayor proudly noted in his 2009 State of the City address, when he said the city had added a quarter-million jobs before the slowdown. But much as boom times can make elected officials look like Midases, recessions can tarnish them. From August 2008 to August 2009, the city lost 96,739 private-sector jobs. These included 35,986 finance and insurance jobs, which paid $280,872 annually on average in 2008. They also included 10,712 construction jobs, which paid on average $68,119. Some trends predated the recession. The manufacturing industry, in steady decline for decades, lost 43 percent of its New York City jobs from January 2002 to August 2009. In 2008, these jobs paid on average $52,758 a year. According to the Center for an Urban Future, manufacturing accounts for about 3.2 percent of the job market in New York City, compared with 8 percent in San Francisco and 12.7 percent in Los Angeles . At the same time, New York City has a higher proportion of lower-paying jobs in health care and social assistance — 17.4 percent of the work force — than those cities. “New York used to be a place that really nurtured a middle class,” Mr. Bowles said. “There’s compelling evidence that we have done worse than other cities.” Seth W. Pinsky, president of the New York City Economic Development Corporation , the city’s business-development arm, defended the city’s efforts to create more middle-income jobs and says these jobs have not yet been fully realized for the long term. “The New York City economy is in some ways like an aircraft carrier,” Mr. Pinsky said. “You can’t change 50-year trends in five years.” The mayor has used several programs to try to keep or add jobs, including development projects like modernizing the Hunts Point Terminal in the Bronx , which supplies wholesale food for many of the city’s groceries and restaurants. He has created an emergency loan program for small businesses and streamlined the process of obtaining business permits. A construction boom — not only of private residential buildings, but also of public projects like schools, libraries and a new police academy — stimulated the building trades. The mayor has also invested tens of millions of city dollars to encourage the creation of a thriving biotechnology industry, seen by many as the growth sector of the future. The city has invested in a large research space at the Brooklyn Army Terminal in Sunset Park and is supporting the $700 million East River Science Park , a complex of office and lab space next to New York University Medical Center that is scheduled to open next year. To try to reserve new jobs for lower-income New Yorkers, he says he will push community colleges to do a better job of turning out students with job skills. Mitchell L. Moss , a professor of urban policy and planning at New York University who has been an informal adviser to Mr. Bloomberg, credited the mayor with creating jobs by taking on projects like the science park, the Hunts Point market, the Brooklyn Navy Yard and Homeport in Staten Island . “He took on some of the messiest and most complicated projects,” he said. “Economic development takes longer than educating a child in school. It doesn’t take eight years. It takes 15 years. The great successes of Bloomberg are getting things done that previous mayors were afraid to deal with.” But at the moment, opportunities are concentrated in lower-wage fields. Dale Grant, whose firm, Grant Associates, runs one of the city’s work-force training centers in Queens , said that her company used to be able to place people in entry-level jobs like bank teller, paying $10 to $12 an hour but eventually leading to bank careers paying $50,000 to $60,000 a year. Those jobs have virtually disappeared, she said, replaced by lower-paying jobs in high-end stores like Gracious Home and Banana Republic, where entry-level positions often pay $20,000 to $25,000 a year and assistant manager jobs pay $40,000 to $50,000 a year. Her firm also places people in education jobs that include teaching assistant positions in charter schools that pay $30,000 to $35,000 a year and tutoring jobs that would pay $30,000 to $40,000 if they were full time, but ordinarily they are not. But even retail jobs can be hard to find in this economy. Carlos Peralta, 37, of Bushwick, Brooklyn , worked in a warehouse from 2004 to 2009, earning $22,000 a year cutting phone company cable. Since he lost his job three months ago, he has been applying for jobs at retailers like BJ’s Wholesale Club . So far he has had no interviews. “I’m on the computer all night” looking for a job, he said. He is also considering going to college, and has been researching scholarships he learned about from the unemployment office. For New Yorkers who held onto their jobs, the last few years brought larger paychecks, at least through 2008, according to the Census Bureau ’s most recent income estimates. Adjusted for inflation, median income in New York City rose 8 percent, to $51,116, between 2002 and 2008, according to the bureau. Frank Zucco, 46, a painter from Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, watched his pay rise to about $65,000 in 2008, from about $45,000 in 2002. This year he is on track to earn $80,000, including about $20,000 in overtime because of demand for workers on public sector projects, like school construction. Mr. Zucco, who is also the financial secretary for his union local, said that he has found his fellow painters have been doing just as well. “There’s no more money in the private sector. Most of the work moved over to city work and public work,” he said. “As far as New York is concerned, Mayor Bloomberg has been doing pretty good in terms of creating jobs for us.” Many experts are hesitant to give too much credit, or blame, to mayors for job creation or losses. Steve Malanga, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, a conservative group, said that cities are their own economic engines and that politicians have little impact. “Most municipal economic development strategies matter only on the margins,” he wrote in an e-mail message. Some advocates for low-wage workers would like Mr. Bloomberg to exert one power that he, along with the City Council, does have: to create a city minimum wage that exceeds the federal minimum, currently $7.25 an hour. Cities that have done so, like San Francisco ($9.79) and Santa Fe ($9.85), have not suffered, according to Paul Sonn, legal co-director of the National Employment Law Project. Andrew Brent, a Bloomberg spokesman, said that the mayor favored a higher minimum wage everywhere, not just in New York; Mr. Pinsky, of the city’s economic development corporation, said that the minimum wage was a matter for the State Legislature to address. For now, minimum wage is the best that some workers can hope for. In her eight years in New York, Adela Valdez has watched her wages ebb from a $19,200-a-year job washing laundry in Manhattan and a $21,000-a-year factory job making lampshades to her current job, working as a home care aide in Queens for $14,400 a year. Julissa Bisono, an organizer with Make the Road New York, which gives legal assistance to low-wage workers, said Ms. Valdez is stuck. “She hasn’t found any job that pays better than what she is making now,” said Ms. Bisono.


Benched to Start Game, Davis Rescues the Orioles

Abstract: Chris Davis interrupted his frustrating season with a pinch-hit, three-run homer in the ninth inning to give the host Baltimore Orioles a 6-4 victory over the Chicago White Sox on Monday night. Davis was excluded from the starting lineup after batting just .130 in his previous 14 starts. Called upon by Manager Buck Showalter with runners on first and second and one out in the ninth, Davis launched a 3-2 pitch from Ronald Belisario (3-4) into the seats in right field. Davis, who led the majors in home runs and runs batted in last year, started the game in the dugout, with a .216 batting average and 78 strikeouts in 218 at-bats. Adam Jones and Caleb Joseph also homered for the Orioles, who trailed, 4-2, in the eighth before rallying to hand the White Sox their fifth straight defeat. Brad Brach (1-0) pitched two hitless innings for Baltimore. CARDINALS 8, ROCKIES 0 Lance Lynn allowed three hits in eight innings, and Matt Adams ignited the offense with two homers and a career-high six R.B.I. as St. Louis beat host Colorado. Lynn (8-5) struck out seven and walked none before being taken out for the ninth after throwing 108 pitches. ROYALS 5, DODGERS 3 Jeremy Guthrie pitched into the eighth inning, Jarrod Dyson drove in two runs off Zack Greinke and host Kansas City beat Los Angeles to end a four-game skid. Guthrie (5-6) allowed two runs and seven hits while winning his third straight start. He was buoyed by an offense that had scored only eight runs during its recent slide. MARLINS 4, PHILLIES 0 Casey McGehee hit a two-run double, Nathan Eovaldi pitched six-hit ball into the seventh inning and visiting Miami defeated Philadelphia. Eovaldi (5-3) went six and a third innings and got 12 of his 19 outs on fly balls. He had not won since May 26. NATIONALS 3, BREWERS 0 Gio Gonzalez combined with three relievers to hold Milwaukee’s potent lineup to three hits, and Adam LaRoche hit a three-run homer to help visiting Washington top the Brewers. REDS 6, CUBS 1 Devin Mesoraco hit a grand slam with two outs in Cincinnati’s five-run ninth inning, leading the visiting Reds over Chicago. PIRATES 8, RAYS 1 Pedro Alvarez hit a three-run homer to back the pitching of Edinson Volquez and lead visiting Pittsburgh past Tampa Bay.

Orioles
Chris Davis
White Sox
Baseball
MLB
Tampa Bay Rays
Pittsburgh Pirates


India Will Be Most Populous Country Sooner Than Thought, U.N. Says

Abstract: Demographers have known for some time that the number of people in India would surpass the number in China , the two most populous countries in the world. But they did not anticipate that the change would happen so quickly. The United Nations reported on Wednesday that India’s population will probably surpass China’s by 2022, not 2028, as the organization had forecast just two years ago. In its 2015 revision report , the population division of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs said China’s population was now 1.38 billion, compared with 1.31 billion in India. But in seven years, the populations of both are expected to reach 1.4 billion. Thereafter, the report said, India’s population will grow for decades, to 1.5 billion in 2030 and 1.7 billion in 2050, while China’s is expected to remain fairly constant until the 2030s, when it is expected to slightly decrease. Over all, the report said, the world’s current population of 7.3 billion is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, slightly more than the 9.6 billion forecast two years ago. The number could reach 11.2 billion by the end of the century. Much of the overall increase between now and 2050 is expected in high-fertility countries, mainly in Africa, or in countries with large populations, the report said. Half the growth is expected to be concentrated in just nine countries: India, Nigeria, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, the United States, Indonesia and Uganda. By contrast, the populations of 48 countries are expected to decline in that period, mainly in Europe, because of a slowdown in fertility rates that started decades ago. The report said several countries faced a population decline of more than 15 percent by 2050, including Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine. Among the 10 largest countries by population, one is in Africa (Nigeria), five are in Asia (Bangladesh, China, India, Indonesia and Pakistan), two are in Latin America (Brazil and Mexico) one is in North America (the United States), and one is in Europe (Russia). Among these, Nigeria’s population, currently ranked seventh largest, is growing the fastest, and it is expected to surpass the population of the United States by 2050, which would make it the world’s third most populous country. The population revision report also included some notable findings on aging. The number of people 80 or older is projected to more than triple by 2050 and increase more than sevenfold by 2100, the report said. In 2015, 28 percent of all people 80 and older lived in Europe, but that share is expected to decline to 16 percent in 2050 and to 9 percent by 2100, as the populations of other areas increase in size and grow older. The revision report confirmed that substantial improvements in life expectancy have been made in recent years. Globally, life expectancy has risen to 68 years for men and 73 years for women in 2010-15, from 65 years for men and 69 years for women in 2000-5. The highest levels of life expectancy in 2010-15 are in Hong Kong, followed by Japan, Italy, Switzerland, Singapore, Iceland, Spain, Australia and Israel. Globally, the report said, life expectancy is projected to rise to 77 years in 2045-50 and 83 years in 2095-2100, from 70 years in 2010-15. The population estimates and projections from the United Nations are an important benchmark for global trends, as well as for helping provide demographic data to calculate many other important indicators, including health data, around the world.


Manhattan: Survey on Apartment Vacancies

Abstract: The vacancy rate for rental apartments in nearly every Manhattan neighborhood remained below 1 percent for all of 2006, according to data released yesterday by the rental brokerage firm Citi Habitats Inc. Last year was the first time in the five years that Citi Habitats has been collecting this data that the vacancy rate was below 1 percent throughout the whole year. In the West Village, the vacancy rate shrank as low as 0.49 percent. Prices for studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments throughout Manhattan jumped by about 9 percent from the previous year, and prices for three-bedroom apartments rose by nearly 14 percent. Citi Habitats surveyed 60,000 units for its report.


Russia Sends Mixed Signs on Pullout From Georgia

Abstract: POTI, Georgia — Russia showed small signs of moving a few troops away from Georgia on Tuesday. But Russia retained its grip on the country, and Russian forces bound and blindfolded 21 Georgian soldiers at the Black Sea port of Poti, parading them with five seized Humvees belonging to Georgia’s backers — the United States. Two days after President Dmitri A. Medvedev of Russia promised that the pullout would begin, there were signs of movement, however minor. A platoon of armored infantry moved away from Georgia through the narrow mountain passes on the Russian side of the border. Near the central city of Gori, Russia and Georgia exchanged prisoners, including two Russian pilots who had been shot down by Georgian forces. Yet a Russian engineering platoon was also building reinforced trenches for a checkpoint just north of Gori, suggesting that Russian troops expected to be in Georgian territory for some time. Russian armored vehicles held high ground overlooking Gori and Igoeti, and a network of Russian forces took up positions along Georgia’s main highway. Some of the troops who on Monday packed their equipment and said they were ready to leave Gori had unpacked and moved back to checkpoints at the city’s edge. A large part of the conflict area remained lawless and in need of water and food, several residents remaining in four villages said. In Tkviavi, a Georgian village near Tskhinvali, the capital of South Ossetia, most of the remaining Georgian residents were in hiding, fearful of looters. The foul smell of bodies decomposing in the heat emanated from several houses on the main thoroughfare, and residents had buried several victims in basements and courtyard gardens. Perhaps the most telling image of the day came from Poti, where, after a four-hour blockade of the port, the Russians transported Georgian soldiers in white blindfolds on top of armored personnel carriers. They drove their captives in a show of force past a crowd of residents, some of whom shouted “Swine! Swine!” at the Russians. They went to the Georgian military base they had occupied in Senaki with a caravan of seized American Humvees, which later appeared to move down the road toward Abkhazia, deep in Russian-held territory. A local priest in black Eastern Orthodox robes entered the base, seeking to negotiate the soldiers’ release. In the west of Georgia, far from the center of the conflict in South Ossetia, Russian forces have maintained an overt presence. Russian soldiers patrol villages daily with tanks and armored personnel carriers and have deployed artillery along major highways between Abkhazia and Poti, where a Russian bomb attack about a week ago killed seven civilians. “They want everything — our bases, our ports, our roads,” said Shalba Kuchava, a driver for the port, who waited outside in the hope that the men would be freed. A top Russian military official said the Georgians had been detained at a checkpoint, armed and driving the Humvees, in what he contended was a violation of the six-point cease-fire agreement brokered last week by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France. But the Georgians said that the soldiers were guarding the port against looters, and that the Humvees were United States property that had been used in a joint exercise this year. They said the vehicles had been packed in a container at the port, ready to be shipped back to the United States. Col. Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of the Russian general staff, said that Russia would lay claim to whatever Georgian armaments it considered useful. “We will not leave a single barrel, a single cartridge for Georgia, which initiated this bloodshed,” General Nogovitsyn said in an interview with the Interfax-AVN news agency. “Part of these arsenals, especially ammunition, will be destroyed and are already being destroyed,” he said. “And as for the rest of the war trophies, we will use them as we please, in particular will take for ourselves part of the tanks and other armored vehicles that are in good condition.” Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said his country was “very disappointed” that Russia had not withdrawn its troops from Georgia, as agreed in the cease-fire he helped negotiate. “Three times Medvedev has said they are starting the withdrawal, and they have not,” he said Tuesday. “We cannot accept this kind of blindness, not accepting international law and their own words.” General Nogovitsyn said that Russian troops would be pulled out from the rear, beginning with heavy combat equipment, and that movement out of Georgia would speed up Friday. But Russian forces were building new checkpoints on Tuesday a few miles north of Gori, using backhoes to cut deep trenches and cranes to stack concrete blocks into barricades at the edge of the town of Karaleti. The new Russian checkpoints seemed to be consistent with information the Russian Foreign Ministry released on Monday, which clarified the scope of its pullback. A 1999 document written by the Joint Control Commission, an international body that monitored tensions in South Ossetia, the breakaway enclave over which hostilities between Russia and Georgia flared this month, gives peacekeepers access to a “security corridor” that extends about five miles in each direction from the enclave’s perimeter. Under that document, the corridor reaches into Georgian-held territory, including portions of the country’s main east-west highway, and right through Karaleti. Mr. Medvedev has said Russian peacekeepers will pull back from other Georgian territory but remain inside the security corridor. Mr. Sarkozy amended the cease-fire agreement to state that Russia was not permitted to occupy urban areas or block main roads. Even so, this interpretation would grant Russian forces an unprecedented position in central Georgia, said Sabine Freizer, who has monitored events in Georgia for the International Crisis Group, an organization that seeks to stop deadly conflicts. “It’s a complete shift, because in practice, Russian troops have never crossed into Georgia,” said Ms. Freizer, the organization’s Europe director. At the United Nations on Tuesday the Security Council considered a new, abbreviated resolution demanding that Russia withdraw all of its troops from Georgia. But during the acrimonious session, Vitaly Churkin, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, declared that his nation could not support a resolution that did not endorse all six points of the cease-fire agreement, which he said should be included “verbatim.” Momentum on an earlier resolution stalled, also over Russian objections, the diplomat said. As one of the five permanent Council members, Russia wields veto power over resolutions. In Moscow, the leader of Russia’s Federal Security Service said Tuesday that he had received intelligence about Georgian-planned terrorist attacks on Russian soil, and had tightened security at transportation hubs, industrial plants and densely populated areas in Russia’s southernmost district, Interfax reported. Meanwhile, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe agreed to immediately add 20 international monitors to the 8 already in place in South Ossetia. The new monitors will be allowed in the region adjacent to South Ossetia, and could begin to arrive Thursday, said Martin Nesirky, a spokesman for the organization.

Russia
Georgia (Georgian Republic)
Armament Defense and Military Forces
Medvedev Dmitri A


Breaking Up Is Easy to Do at Liberty

Abstract: Gregory B. Maffei knows a thing or two about strong personalities. He spent seven years working closely with Bill Gates at Microsoft as chief financial officer. Last summer, Lawrence J. Ellison of Oracle hired him as president and chief financial officer. A few months later, he resigned to become chief executive of the Liberty Media Corporation, succeeding its chairman and major shareholder, John C. Malone. "I'm just attracted to those strong billionaire types," Mr. Maffei joked. Mr. Maffei joined Liberty at a busy if not chaotic time as the company continues a path it began last year by spinning off its international businesses and interest in the cable channel group Discovery Communications. In a few weeks, Liberty Media plans to effectively split itself again through the creation of two new tracking stocks separating its various assets and interests. The $23 billion company is, meanwhile, taking a more active stance toward its investments in other major media companies. One new entity will be Liberty Interactive, holding the QVC home-shopping channel and the company's 22 percent interest in the IAC/InterActiveCorp and Expedia, and other online ventures. The other will be Liberty Capital, which will house a grab bag of interests, including the Starz pay-television business, half ownership of the Court Television Network and the Game Show Network, and equity stakes in the News Corporation, Time Warner, Sprint Nextel and Motorola. In an interview this week, Mr. Maffei discussed Liberty's plans for its vast and ever-shifting media interests. Following are excerpts: Q. Jean-Bernard Levy, the chief executive of Vivendi, recently said, "If I had 35 billion euros, I would probably not acquire the businesses I run," but that he was making the best of it. I wonder if you feel similarly -- that your job is to make sense of something that doesn't make as much sense as it once did. A. There's been a process under way for a while -- with, for different reasons, the spinouts of Liberty Global and Discovery -- to put crisper focus on the assets and let investors choose which of those assets they want to hold. Now you've got the same thing happening with Liberty Interactive. We have a set of focused video commerce and e-commerce businesses that are attractive and probably not being fully valued inside Liberty. Q. Liberty Media itself was at one point a tracking stock of the old Tele-Communications Inc., the cable company that Mr. Malone sold in 1999. Isn't the tracking stock model -- where the company remains legally intact but various parts of it trade separately -- and the trend of splitting media companies unproven in the current market? A. Clearly tracking stocks have had their time when they were exalted and less than exalted, and we're in the latter phase. But Liberty and TCI have had success with them to the benefit of investors. There are logical reasons we have a tracking stock structure planned rather than other choices. Firstly, it's more tax efficient. We have operating income today at Liberty Interactive -- it's a cash taxpayer but that will be shielded by tax losses of an operating nature at Liberty Capital. We don't have tax losses forever, but at least for some period it makes no sense to try to separate them. Q. Paying as little tax as possible is something of an obsession for Mr. Malone -- is obsession too strong a word? A. Clearly the Doctor is focused on tax efficiency. But first and foremost, the idea is that strategically and operationally both, we have an enormous asset in QVC that is probably underutilized. The power of video and the power to use it to promote other e-commerce businesses or brands that could be owned by Liberty is enormous, and we've probably not yet accomplished all that's available there. People talk about Web 2.0 and where the Web is going. Integral to that is increased broadband, and increased use of video. No company out there has more experience, more footage and more history of using video to sell products than QVC. Q. What gives QVC a leg up in this era of fragmenting choices and consumers having ever more control over how they consume media, not to mention how they buy things? A. We don't get hit by a digital video recorder skipping the ads; you don't get hit by a family programming issue; if you end up with à la carte cable channels, we're going to be in the base package because instead of it costing the cable operator to carry us, we're giving them a 5 percent commission on our sales. So a lot of trends that are threatening traditional cable operators play to QVC's benefit. We've seen the Internet rise to being 19 percent of the domestic business in the fourth quarter and we expect that trend to continue. Q. The most intriguing part of your job and business is obviously those investments where Liberty is no longer content being a passive shareholder. What's going on with the News Corporation, where you own 16 percent and Mr. Malone has been in a much-publicized standoff with its chairman, Rupert Murdoch? A. Both of us have enormous respect for him. I think they have done a better job of molting their old media skin and transforming themselves into a forward-looking, well-positioned, Internet-savvy media company as anybody around. So we are a large shareholder. Is that the ultimate form that all things will take? Maybe, maybe not. We have a lot of confidence in holding that investment. It's a very comfortable place to be. Q. That did not seem to be the view last year, culminating in the News Corporation's putting in place a contentious poison pill to keep you from raising your stake. Mr. Malone wanted to pressure Mr. Murdoch to sell assets to Liberty in exchange for the stock so that he could sell the stake without paying tax. A. At all times we're weighing what is best for our shareholders. We have a lot of confidence in what the management is doing, but we're a large holder and when you're a large holder you sometimes want a voice. We're looking at alternatives for our shareholders versus holding News. What alternatives do we have in terms of getting a tax-free deal done? What alternatives do we have in terms of what else can we put the money in? Q. What is the current state of discourse with Mr. Murdoch and his executives? A. We have frequent and friendly discourse. Q. As part of a proposed legal settlement, the News Corporation has agreed to put its poison pill to a vote at its next annual meeting. How would Liberty vote? A. I can't see much logic in us voting for a pill that restricts our flexibility. Q. Similarly, why did you apply to antitrust regulators to try to accelerate the conversion of Liberty's 4 percent nonvoting interest in Time Warner into a voting stake a year ahead of schedule? At the same time, you applied to increase your interests in IAC/InterActive and Expedia, where you indirectly own 22 percent of the equity and 54 percent of the voting shares, but an arrangement with Barry Diller gives him the iron-clad right to vote your shares. A. In the same vein, in the case of seeking to regain our right to vote the Time Warner shares and applying for antitrust clearance to increase our ownership of IAC and Expedia, the goal is to maintain maximum flexibility that may benefit our shareholders. Q. You've held talks to buy the Atlanta Braves from Time Warner in a tax-free swap where Liberty will also get a lot of cash and Liberty would trade its shares back to Time Warner. What would Liberty do with a baseball team? A. If we own the Braves, I doubt we'll be telling Bobby Cox when to pull John Smoltz. Q. In creating the Liberty Interactive tracking stock, you have QVC, which you own outright, housed in a new business along with its most significant competitor, IAC, which owns the Home Shopping Network. Does this suggest that you probably want to do something with IAC besides continue to hold it as a passive investment? A. The reason we put those investments inside Liberty Interactive is those businesses are complementary. And ultimately we have the control share in those businesses, and they will come back to Liberty Interactive, and they belong there. Q. Are they ultimately merged? A. Who knows? John is fond of saying: "Humans are finite. Corporations are forever."

LIBERTY MEDIA
MEDIA
LIBERTY MEDIA CORP
MAFFEI GREGORY
EXECUTIVES AND MANAGEMENT
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION


Study Says West Germany’s Athletes Used Doping

Abstract: A report by German researchers said that West Germany’s athletes were systematically doped with government backing from the 1970s, and possibly earlier. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper published details from an 800-page report titled “Doping in Germany From 1950 to Today,” revealing the extent to which West German politicians were reportedly willing to promote drug use among athletes to ensure international success. The report was compiled by researchers at Berlin’s Humboldt University on behalf of the German Olympic Sports Confederation. It was completed in April but has yet to be published because of privacy concerns and legal issues over naming athletes, doctors and politicians.


Maple Leafs’ Season, Like Fans’ Discarded Jerseys, Lands in a Heap

Abstract: TORONTO — In the final stretch of a season that flirted with promise but has degenerated into a sideshow, the Maple Leafs arrived here last week for a rare three-game homestand. The Leafs had not played more than two consecutive home games since mid-December, when they were surging and held sixth place in the Eastern Conference. In the ensuing three months, the Leafs won only eight games, plummeted out of playoff contention, fired Coach Randy Carlyle and endured fans at Air Canada Centre and on the road tossing team jerseys onto the ice in protest over poor play. Phil Kessel, the team’s star player, sparred with the news media. The Leafs (26-35-6) have the N.H.L.’s second-worst road record at 8-21-5. But home has hardly provided a refuge. On Saturday night, the St. Louis Blues jumped to a 3-0 lead at the end of the first period, chasing goaltender Jonathan Bernier, on the way to a 6-1 win . “You never want your team to come in to play a game without the highest possible effort,” Peter Horachek, the interim coach, said Saturday. “There’s no real excuses for it, so I’m not going to make any. It’s unacceptable for me, and I’m not happy about it.” Unhappiness and its synonyms have become a theme for the Maple Leafs. “We’ve got to be very disappointed in the way that we played at home, in front of our fans,” defenseman Dion Phaneuf, the team’s captain, said after the loss to St. Louis. “To play the way that we did, it’s not even close to acceptable.” It got worse Monday, when the Leafs took a 3-1 lead in the third period against the Metropolitan Division’s first-place team, the Islanders, but lost, 4-3, in overtime. Toronto, the most lucrative franchise in the N.H.L., has not won a Stanley Cup since 1967, the longest drought in the league. In the off-season, seeking a new identity and direction after a late-season collapse that caused them to miss the playoffs for the ninth time in 10 seasons, the Maple Leafs hired Brendan Shanahan as team president. But this season was rocky from the start. The Leafs’ already rancorous relationship with their fans took a hit in November during a stretch when jerseys were being thrown onto the ice. After a home victory, the players departed from tradition and did not gather at center ice to raise their sticks in a salute to the crowd. The incident became known in Toronto as Salutegate. Criticism of the team’s attitude and play has focused on Phaneuf and Kessel, a keg-shaped right wing, for his perceived indifference to fitness, defense and tact. Kessel has 23 goals, and only four in his last 25 games, putting him on pace for his lowest total in a full season since he joined the Leafs in 2009. A lack of scoring has exacerbated defensive shortcomings for him and his linemates James Van Riemsdyk and Tyler Bozak. Kessel called this season the most challenging of his nine-year career. An anti-Kessel campaign began last spring, when fans questioned his priorities because of a Twitter message — since deleted — that read, “Night fishing with friends doesn’t get much better.” At the time, the playoffs were underway, and Toronto had failed to qualify. Then at training camp in September, Kessel told reporters that he had skated perhaps 10 times all summer, raising further questions about his commitment. On Jan. 6, Carlyle was fired amid a 3-7 slide as Toronto clung to the final wild-card spot in the East. Carlyle’s predecessor, Ron Wilson, who coached the Leafs from 2008 to 2012, implied in an interview that the team’s troubles were not Carlyle’s fault and that Kessel and other players were “uncoachable.” Asked later if he was difficult to coach, Kessel referred to the reporter who posed the question as an “idiot.” The latest flare-up happened March 3 in Florida, when Kessel complained about mistreatment of Phaneuf, who was thought to be on the trading block before the March 2 deadline. “The way the media treats Dion Phaneuf in this city is embarrassing,” he said, adding, ”a lot of people should be ashamed of themselves.” Kessel’s outburst was presumably a response to one of the season’s more bizarre turns. An inappropriate Twitter message about Phaneuf, his wife — the actress Elisha Cuthbert — and Leafs wing Joffrey Lupul was broadcast on TSN, a Canadian sports television network, during coverage of the trade deadline. Phaneuf, Cuthbert and Lupul threatened a lawsuit . TSN called the incident a regrettable mistake and apologized on air. The author of the message, not affiliated with the network, also apologized. Kessel’s comments might have made him even less popular with fans and the media, but they scored points in the dressing room. “I think, as a team, that’s a thing where all of our players have to have each other’s backs,” Horachek said. “We need to stand up for each other, and that was his version of doing that, so I applaud him for that.” While the Leafs were able to unload the expensive contract of the struggling forward David Clarkson in a trade, one of the biggest surprises of the season was that Toronto did not deal Kessel, Phaneuf or any other high-priced stars at the deadline. Those players remain candidates to move in the off-season as General Manager Dave Nonis rebuilds. In the meantime, the Leafs have recalibrated their goals with 15 games remaining. Although “it’s never fun,” Lupul said, to play out the string with no hope for the postseason, young players will be looking to secure a roster spot in the N.H.L. Veterans have an incentive with coming contracts. And the Leafs can hope to play the spoiler against teams with playoff aspirations. In many recent years, Toronto was the team having its season spoiled. The homestand concludes with the last-place Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday before a run of three games on the road. Expect the Leafs to be traveling with the usual baggage.

Maple Leafs
Phil Kessel
Dion Phaneuf
Joffrey Lupul
Ice hockey