In Florida-U.C.L.A. Matchup, a Clash of Tempo

Abstract: The U.C.L.A. men’s team embraces an open-gym culture, playing fast and loose, with few rules. Sometimes the first pass is the last pass, and the pace contributes to U.C.L.A.’s robust scoring average of 81.5 points a game. On Thursday, in a Round of 16 game in Memphis, the Bruins’ bravura will face a stingy Florida team that has held teams to an average of 57.5 points a game. The Gators do not leave a safe spot on the floor with their relentless pressure and smooth defensive rotations. Top-seeded Florida (34-2) has knocked U.C.L.A. (28-8), a No. 4 seed, out of the tournament three times in the last eight years. The Gators beat the Bruins in the 2006 title game, in the 2007 national semifinals, and in a Round of 32 game in 2011. On Thursday, Florida’s top priority will be to unsettle Kyle Anderson, U.C.L.A.’s 6-foot-9 sophomore point guard. “You can’t let him operate at his own speed, you have to make him do what he doesn’t want to do,” Florida center Patric Young said. “He likes to throw the ball up to his faster teammates. He likes to rebound, he averages 9 a game, and then those guys go out for him.” Florida’s aim in most games is to throw double-teams at opposing point guards to rush their possessions. “It’s going to be a lot harder for our guards to deflect balls from him, because he’s 6-8, 6-9, but while he’s dribbling they can get into him, get low and make him feel uncomfortable,” Florida center Patric Young said of Anderson. “You’re not stealing the ball from him, even though he’s slow as molasses.” When the Gators scrimmage there is no whistle and anything goes as far as fouls. Their physical style will be an asset Thursday. “When you play a team like U.C.L.A. it all comes down to being tougher and being physical with them, take them out of their comfort zone,” Stanford forward Josh Huestis said. U.C.L.A.’s Anderson said, “We need to match their intensity and not be the one that is hit first.” QUESTION OF STATUS Are the basketball players in the tournament student-athletes or university employees? The question came up Wednesday when the San Diego State players Josh Davis, Dwayne Polee and Xavier Thames faced the news media on the eve of their West Regional game against Arizona in Anaheim, Calif. The interview session took place shortly after the Chicago district of the National Labor Relations Board ruled that Northwestern football players qualified as employees of the university and were free to unionize. Asked what they thought about possibly being part of a union, the players traded quizzical looks. “I’m not too familiar with it,” Polee said, “but if it’s going to benefit us in a positive way, then I’m all for it.” His teammates echoed his sentiment, with Thames adding, “We’re just focused on Arizona right now.” The moderator tried to steer the line of questioning back to basketball, but before they were dismissed from the podium, the topic again was broached. The players were asked if they consider themselves student-athletes or university employees. Polee was the first to speak up. As his teammates nodded their approval, he said, “Student-athletes, because at the end of the day I know my goal is to get a degree. I’m pretty sure Josh wants to get a degree. I know X wants to get a degree. We need something to fall back on because we can’t play basketball until we’re 50 or 60 years old.” KAREN CROUSE END OF A LONG ABSENCE The N.C.A.A. tournament returns to Madison Square Garden on Friday for the first time in 53 years, since a first-round triple-header in 1961. But those games were held at a different Garden, the one on Eighth Avenue at 49th Street, and most certainly in a different time. “The smoke was incredible,” said the former Princeton star Art Hyland, who played in that ‘61 tournament. “You’d stay there the whole day and watch through the cloud, because people were allowed to smoke inside.” Both the Garden and the tournament — not to mention health regulations — have been transformed in the intervening half-century. Although it once shared top billing with the rival National Invitation Tournament every spring at the Garden, the N.C.A.A. tournament is clearly dominant now. But in a way it owes its return to Manhattan to an assist from the N.I.T. The N.C.A.A. distanced itself from New York City in the wake of a 1951 point-shaving scandal involving city teams and as part of a long-running battle with the N.I.T. over which event could rightly claim to crown the national champion. But when the N.C.A.A. took control of the N.I.T. in 2005, that tournament’s long-running relationship with the Garden set the stage for the return of the N.C.A.A.’s marquee event. Garden officials, eager to bring back top events after a $1 billion renovation that was completed last year, pitched the idea to their counterparts at the N.C.A.A. and found willing partners. Friday’s regional semifinals — UConn-Iowa State and Virginia-Michigan State — are the fruit of those early talks. Is the Garden back on the N.C.A.A. rotation for good? Joel Fisher, a Garden executive vice president, certainly hopes so. “We’ll do everything possible to ensure that we’re part of the rotation,” he said, “and that it comes back here a lot sooner than 53 years.” ANDREW DAS HIGH-PROFILE VISIT Andy North, a two-time United States Open champion, attended Wisconsin’s open practice session Wednesday at the Honda Center on the eve of its game Thursday against Baylor. North, a golf analyst for ESPN and ABC and a Wisconsin native, is an enthusiastic supporter of Badgers basketball. A few years ago, he and his wife, Sue, donated money for a new home court at the Kohl Center. He planned to attend Thursday night’s game. KAREN CROUSE

College basketball
NCAA Men's Basketball,March Madness
University of California
Los Angeles
University of Florida


Spitzer Pardons Ex-Convict to Spare Him Deportation

Abstract: Gov. Eliot Spitzer announced the pardon on Friday of a 54-year-old Brooklyn man convicted of robbery 16 years ago, saying the pardon would spare the man from being deported to Jamaica. The man, Frederick Lake, entered the United States legally in 1987, but was facing deportation under a federal statute that calls for the removal of a lawful alien who is convicted of an aggravated felony. Although convicted of robbery in 1991 and released from prison in 1997, Mr. Lake has long maintained his innocence, and a judicial inquiry suggested that he might have been the victim of a miscarriage of justice. Mr. Spitzer said he issued the pardon at least in part so that Mr. Lake, who suffers from heart disease and diabetes, could remain with his wife and two young sons in East Flatbush, where he has lived since his release from prison 10 years ago. “Mr. Lake has fully served the sentence imposed upon him for his robbery conviction,” Mr. Spitzer said in a statement. “He had a perfect disciplinary record while in prison, he has had no other arrests or convictions during his lifetime, and he has been living safely and without incident in the community for the last 10 years. “No purpose would be served by separating Mr. Lake from his many family members who are United States citizens,” Mr. Spitzer added. Mr. Lake was arrested and charged with robbing a payroll company in Inwood, on Long Island, in 1989. At his trial in 1991, three people testified that Mr. Lake had committed the crime, even though the suspect was initially described as short and stocky and wearing an earring, and Mr. Lake was nearly 6 feet tall and did not have a pierced ear. He also produced airline tickets and passenger manifests that showed he had flown to Jamaica several days before the robbery and returned months later. “Lawyers dream about cases like this,” said one of Mr. Lake’s lawyers, John Lewis. “And it’s just an enormous privilege to be able to be there, and I think that Governor Spitzer has a lot of courage doing this. It would be hard to find a more worthy subject than Frederick Lake for this distinction.”

Pardons
Deportation
Spitzer Eliot L
Amnesties and Pardons
Immigration and Refugees


Fate of Estate Tax Imperils Obama’s Ambitions

Abstract: The death tax is the issue that simply will not die. Fifteen years after Republican strategists put Democrats on the defensive by sticking that pejorative label on the federal estate tax , Democrats are still struggling with how to handle the levy on assets left behind — the one that conservatives portray as the Internal Revenue Service reaching beyond the grave. Studies show that the tax hits merely a sliver of wealthy American families. A proposal by President Obama would leave it at current levels, affecting only estates valued at more than $3.5 million for individuals and $7 million for couples. But now some Democrats have joined Republicans to call for setting the threshold even higher, in a rebellion that could have important consequences not just for the future of the death tax but also for Mr. Obama’s efforts to pay for his ambitious policy agenda. If that Republican-backed plan is approved, it could deprive Mr. Obama of about $100 billion for his initiatives on health care, energy and education when alternative sources of revenue are already dwindling. That prospect is plain outrageous to top Democrats, who see efforts to spare the wealthy as particularly ill-timed given the economic pain being experienced by many of lesser means. “This isn’t for the wealthy, this is for the super-wealthy,” the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid , Democrat of Nevada , said as the Senate took up the estate tax issue during its budget deliberations. “Even in the best of times, there is no question that we could find a better use for an extra $100 billion.” But 10 Democrats, led by Senator Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas , defied Mr. Reid. They joined with Republicans to urge an increase in the value of estates exempt from the tax above the level backed by Mr. Obama (to $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples) and a cut in the maximum tax rate (to 35 percent from the current 45 percent). Unless Congress acts this year, the estate tax is scheduled to be repealed in 2010 for one year before snapping back to hit estates of $1 million or more in 2011 — an odd sequence dictated by the tax cuts passed under President George W. Bush . While nonbinding, the vote was a clear sign of Democratic division over the tax, with Ms. Lincoln arguing that it was devastating to family businesses that are a prime source of jobs in her state. “In a time when our government has handed out billions upon billions to failed Wall Street banks ,” she said, “it is time we provide a little relief to our businesses on Main Street.” But critics say her estate tax proposal represents a giveaway to the rich since very few estates built around small businesses or farms — always the poster children for repealing the estate tax — would actually be subject to the tax. “The real beneficiaries are indeed the same kind of people getting the big bonuses on Wall Street,” said Robert Greenstein, executive director of the liberal Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. A new analysis by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimated that only 100 farms and small businesses in the entire country would be subject to the estate tax under Mr. Obama’s plan, a number that shrinks to 40 under the proposal Ms. Lincoln sponsored with Jon Kyl of Arizona , the No. 2 Republican in the Senate. A subsequent analysis by the center raised the prospect that there may be no farms or small businesses in Arkansas vulnerable to the tax. A few opponents of repealing the tax have suggested that Ms. Lincoln, who is up for re-election next year, is looking out for the heirs of prominent Arkansas family businesses like Wal-Mart and Tyson Foods . She dismisses the notion, saying such wealthy Arkansans have the personal resources to contend with the estate tax on their own. Ms Lincoln and her aides say she is instead acting on the concerns expressed by the owners of Arkansas businesses like timber firms and floral shops who worry that what they have worked to build and expand might have to be sold to pay the tax. And they may well believe that. Since discovering in the 1994 elections that the “death tax” had real resonance as a political issue, Republicans have pounded on the subject and won a steady escalation in the tax threshold, though they have been unable to secure its repeal. They miss no opportunity to continue the drumbeat. “No one should have to visit the tax man and the undertaker on the same day,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky , the Republican leader, said during the floor debate. “It is the government’s final outrage.” Republicans and other critics consider the estate tax to be fundamentally unfair, saying it represents double taxation since those who accumulated the assets had already paid taxes throughout their lifetime. And they say it presents severe legal and financial headaches for surviving family members. Advocates of retaining some level of an estate tax say it is simply a capital gains tax on investments that never previously changed hands. They see it as a legitimate effort to require some of the nation’s most affluent families to share some of the rewards they have reaped. But they acknowledge that Republicans have already triumphed on the public relations front, turning the estate tax into a continuing hot-button issue for many people who could only hope that their heirs might someday have to pay it.


Canadiens Trying to Regain Past Glory

Abstract: Correction Appended MONTREAL, April 26 - If there is any place where hockey is still a religion, it is here along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, where the National Hockey League was founded and where the Montreal Canadiens have taken home at least one Stanley Cup every decade since they won their first in 1916, before the league was even conceived. Every decade, that is, except this one. Since the N.H.L. was born, the Canadiens have won a league-record 23 Stanley Cups, second among North American professional franchises to the Yankees' 26 World Series championships. But Montreal has not won the Cup since 1993. The 11-season drought (the 2004-5 season was canceled because of a lockout) equals the longest in franchise history. "The mystique is gone," said The Montreal Gazette's Red Fisher, at 79 the acknowledged dean of N.H.L. sportswriters, whose first assignment covering the Canadiens was turned into the infamous Richard Riot in March 1955. "I don't see the mystique," Fisher said. "I don't feel the mystique. After all, the Rocket and the Pocket and Beliveau and Geoffrion and Moore and Harvey and Plante and Dryden and so on, they've retired. The mystique simply disappeared into the mist in the 80's." After a coaching change at the season's midway point, the Canadiens squeaked into the playoffs as the Eastern Conference's seventh-seeded team. They took a surprising 2-0 lead in their first-round series against the second-seeded Carolina Hurricanes before losing Wednesday night's Game 3, 2-1, in overtime. Carolina's Eric Staal scored the decisive goal on a power play 3 minutes 38 seconds into the overtime. Even though they are no longer known as the Flying Frenchmen, Le Bleu-Blanc-et-Rouge are relevant again, for the moment, at least. They now face the prospect of playing without Saku Koivu, their captain, who sustained an injury to his left eye after being hit in the face by the stick of Carolina forward Justin Williams in the second period. Before Wednesday night's game, Montreal's first home game of the playoffs, the Canadiens celebrated the 30th anniversary of the 1975-76 Cup champions with a nostalgic video montage that had the capacity crowd of 21,273 on its feet cheering wildly. The 1975-76 team lost just one game during the playoffs to begin the franchise's last real dynasty. Montreal won four consecutive Cups from 1976 to 1979. The Canadiens won again in 1986 and 1993 but have not advanced to the conference finals since. There is cautious optimism here that this year could be different, and much of it stems from the sudden emergence of the 30-year-old French-born goaltender Cristobal Huet. Huet has morphed from a journeyman backup for the Los Angeles Kings the past two seasons into an instant folk hero in Quebec. Huet earned the starting job for good at the start of February. He went on to lead the league with a .929 save percentage and carried the Canadiens to a playoff berth, evoking comparisons to the former Canadiens great Patrick Roy. Bob Gainey, the team's general manager, who took over behind the bench for Claude Julien in mid-January, said Wednesday morning that those comparisons may be premature. "Well, you can make any comparisons you want," said Gainey, a Hall of Fame wing who was a mainstay on the last Canadiens' dynasty and won his fifth and last Stanley Cup as a player in 1986, Roy's rookie season. "I think what you're trying to do is compare a great Bordeaux with grapes that haven't bloomed yet." That excitement, though, partially stems from the fact that, unlike most of the league's other cities, hockey is truly the only game in town here. "It's a different pressure," said the veteran defenseman Mathieu Dandenault, who won three Cups with Detroit and remembered what it felt like in 1997, when the Red Wings won their first Cup since 1955. Because the Canadiens long ago ceased to be Cup contenders every season, the expectations here have drastically changed. "I think the people here are pretty realistic," said Carolina forward Mark Recchi, who played parts of five seasons with the Canadiens from 1995 to 1999. "They want to see effort. And I think they enjoy this team." The fans especially appreciate Huet, whom they serenaded with chants of his last name Wednesday every time he came up with a big save. The Bell Center, which replaced the historic Montreal Forum in 1996, may still be the loudest arena in the league. The Canadiens sold out every game in the regular season. SLAP SHOTS The Richard Riot took place March 17, 1955, after the Canadiens' greatest player, Maurice Richard, was suspended for attacking a Boston player and a linesman. After tear gas was set off inside the Forum, the building was evacuated and the riot spilled into the city, causing extensive damage. HOCKEY Correction: April 29, 2006, Saturday A sports article on Thursday about the National Hockey League playoff series between Montreal and Carolina referred incorrectly in some copies to the length of the Canadiens' championship drought and its place in team history. It is 11 seasons, one short of the franchise record.

NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
MONTREAL CANADIENS
CAROLINA HURRICANES
HOCKEY ICE
PLAYOFF GAMES


M.T.A. Shortfall Renews Talk of Congestion Pricing

Abstract: The financial crisis at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority is breathing new life into an idea the Legislature rejected just months ago: congestion pricing . Facing a projected $900 million budget shortfall next year, the authority has proposed increasing transit fares twice in the coming three years, and has asked the city and state governments to provide hundreds of millions in additional aid. But city and state officials, struggling with their own multibillion-dollar deficits, have urged the authority to cut its spending and find alternative sources of revenue. They have said they are counting on a commission led by Richard Ravitch, a former transportation authority chairman, to devise a plan to rescue the agency from its deepening financial hole. Enter congestion pricing. Asked in a recent interview how seriously the commission was considering elements of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s traffic revenue plan to provide money that could bail out the authority, Mr. Ravitch replied, “Very.” “I’m looking at a whole series of possible sources of revenue,” he said. “It would be inappropriate to comment on that except that I have said before publicly that we would certainly go down and look at congestion pricing, and every member of the commission knows it.” At the heart of the changing dynamic are the politics of transit fare increases. Assembly Democrats killed a scaled-down version of Mr. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan in April when they refused to bring it to a floor vote, even though the plan would have made the transportation authority eligible for $360 million in federal assistance. That plan would have charged drivers $8 to enter a congestion zone in Manhattan south of 60th Street during peak hours. The revenues, projected to be more than $500 million annually, would have gone toward mass transit improvements. Now, the authority is proposing raising transit fares and bridge and tunnel tolls next year and again in early 2011 to help close huge shortfalls in its operating budget. It has said it may have to raise fares every two years after that to balance its books. In addition, the agency is facing a projected deficit of $15 billion to $20 billion in its forthcoming five-year capital plan. Transit riders are a powerful constituency, and given the strong political pressure to avoid, or at least minimize, fare hikes, proponents of congestion pricing are hopeful that Democrats in the State Assembly will be forced to reconsider it. Even some of the most ardent foes of congestion pricing acknowledge that the current problems seem to be reinvigorating the debate, though they wonder why that idea — and not other potential revenue sources — gets all the chatter. “Clearly I think that on many levels of the political class, this has support that other taxes, for example, the millionaires’ tax, doesn’t,” said Assemblyman Richard L. Brodsky, a Westchester Democrat who was a leader in opposing the plan. He was referring to a Democratic proposal, opposed by Gov. David A. Paterson, to raise taxes on the wealthy. “It’s an issue of fundamental fairness,” Mr. Brodsky added. “The millionaires’ tax raises more revenue solely from the super rich. Yet the political class in New York City, the mayor’s office being the head of it, comes back with congestion pricing again.” Mayor Bloomberg has said that he sees no alternative. “Congestion pricing will come, in New York and lots of other cities, because it is the only way where you were going to do the two things that you need to do: reduce people driving and find money for mass transit,” the mayor told reporters at the National Conference of State Legislatures in New Orleans last week. “Unless the commission, which is actually made up of some very smart people, unless they can discover the fountain of youth, I think that that’s exactly what is going to come out of it,” Mr. Bloomberg added. The transportation authority’s deepening financial troubles, combined with those of the city and the state, have set up a particularly difficult choice for the Assembly speaker, Sheldon Silver, whose constituents in Lower Manhattan would be hit by the fare increases. Mr. Silver never publicly came out against congestion pricing, but he yielded to legislators outside Manhattan and in the suburbs by not bringing it to the floor. Mr. Silver did strongly criticize the proposed transit increases last week, as did the mayor and the governor. But he declined to comment for this article except to say, through a spokesman, that he had “the highest regard for Richard Ravitch, and we await the recommendations.” Earlier this year, when the Assembly Democrats advanced the so-called millionaires’ tax, which would have added one percentage point to the income tax rate of New Yorkers making more than $1 million a year, they described it as a solution to the authority’s impending fiscal crisis. The Democrats estimated that the plan would provide more than $1.5 billion for mass transit and transportation projects. The proposal died in the face of opposition from the mayor, the governor and the Republican-controlled State Senate. And apart from a few grumblings from Mr. Silver and state Democrats, it has seldom been mentioned again. Assemblyman Rory I. Lancman, a Queens Democrat who opposed congestion pricing, said he would be surprised if the Ravitch commission proposed an idea that had been so roundly rejected by the Assembly. “If ever there was a dead horse that was flogged, flogged and flogged again, it was congestion pricing.” After all, he added, “I don’t think that when we rejected congestion pricing, we were unaware that the M.T.A. had financial problems.” In his and Mr. Brodsky’s view, congestion pricing would fall well short of rescuing the agency while burdening a narrow slice of mostly middle-class drivers from outside Manhattan. But stimulating the belief that it could re-emerge is the makeup of the Ravitch commission. Mr. Ravitch, who is expected to release a final report in December, was a known supporter of congestion pricing before being named to head the panel. The panel also includes Mark Page, the mayor’s budget director; Laura Anglin, the governor’s budget director; Elliot G. Sander, the authority’s executive director and a strong supporter of congestion pricing; Peter Goldmark, director of the Climate and Air program for the Environmental Defense Fund, a group that strongly backed the plan; and Douglas Durst, a major developer whose family foundation provided financial support to the congestion pricing campaign. Some analysts suggest that the Ravitch report, if it proposes congestion pricing, could provide a level of political cover to Assembly Democrats to support elements of the traffic plan, particularly if they do not have to vote on a plan until after the fall election. Mayor Bloomberg appeared to echo that view last week. “I think the politics of New York State are such that they will not do anything until after the election,” he said. “In fact, I believe the Ravitch commission was encouraged — I don’t know if they were told — but there’s an understanding they will be coming back, unfortunately, not before the next election.” Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler said that if a new effort to push the plan was undertaken in the near future, “the mechanism would have to be the Ravitch commission, because the administration isn’t going to mount another campaign for it.” Even if that happens, Mr. Brodsky, for one, said he didn’t believe it stood a better chance this time. “I think it goes nowhere,” he said.

Congestion Pricing
Metropolitan Transportation Authority
Tolls
New York City
Transit Systems
Politics and Government
Finances
Manhattan (NYC)


Italian Premier Appoints Women to Lead 3 Major Company Boards

Abstract: ROME — Underscoring his stated ambition to shake up Italy and enact social and economic reforms, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi proposed this week that women lead the boards of three of Italy’s largest state-controlled companies: an oil giant, the largest public utility and the postal service. The appointments of Emma Marcegaglia at Eni, Patrizia Grieco at Enel and Luisa Todini at Poste Italiane were highlighted Tuesday by the Italian news media as a significant sign of change. But even as commentators welcomed the new crack in the glass ceiling, they also underscored that no woman had been nominated to become chief executive, where the effective power and remuneration lie. Since his meteoric rise to national prominence as the leader of the Democratic Party in February, and then prime minister, Mr. Renzi has actively promoted women. Under his watch, the party’s 13-member secretariat became predominantly female; eight of the 16 ministers in Mr. Renzi’s cabinet are women; and last week Mr. Renzi appointed women to lead his party’s ticket in the main districts for the European Parliament elections next month. The companies, which are publicly traded, are owned in whole or in part by the Ministry of Economy and Finances. The nominees will be up for votes by shareholders at annual meetings scheduled for May. Anticipation had been high for weeks over which candidates would be named to some of Italy’s most powerful posts, including positions at the defense group Finmeccanica. The nominations to the four state-controlled firms — the first of a slew of appointments to come — included 10 women out of 29 candidates. “Nominations, women at the top,” blazoned one headline in Turin daily newspaper La Stampa. Other Italian news media heralded a “Pink Revolution,” while the left-leaning Manifesto newspaper more dryly described the nominees as “Renzi’s Angels.” Ms. Marcegaglia, who was the first woman to lead Italy’s main business lobby, Confindustria, and Ms. Todini have been prominent in their family businesses, while Ms. Grieco is president of the information technology group Olivetti. Ms. Todini currently sits on the board of the state broadcaster RAI. The nominations are a further move toward gender equality in a country that has the third lowest employment rates for women in Europe — 47 percent, well below the European average — and where many women stop working when they have children. Experts have pointed out that Italy offers little support — in terms of day care and other services — to working mothers. Mr. Renzi said Monday evening that he was “particularly satisfied” by the “strong female presence” in the public sector that his government had promoted through the nominations. Susanna Camusso, the first woman to lead Italy’s largest trade union, CGIL, wryly noted that to counter protests about exorbitant wages at state controlled companies, the government had capped the salaries of the board chiefs, also known as presidents in Italy, at 238,000 euros, or $329,000. “Coincidentally, the presidents are women,” said Ms. Camusso, the news agency Ansa reported. The government did not cap the salaries of chief executives. The nominations were mandated by a contentious law that came into effect in August 2012, under which at least 20 percent of board seats in all Italian companies must be held by women. With the second renewal, women must fill 30 percent of all board seats, putting Italy at the forefront of most other European countries. Executives at state companies are nominated every three years. “I think his merit is that he went beyond what the law states,” and nominated women to key posts rather than just the boards, said Lella Golfo, a former center-right lawmaker. Ms. Golfo spearheaded the heated parliamentary battle that led to the approval of the law, which has already raised the percentage of women in boardrooms from under 5 percent in 2010 to around 18 percent last year, a change she described as an “epochal revolution.” Paola Profeta, a professor at Bocconi University in Milan, said “the process of selection has become more meritocratic,” with managers culled from a broader field “rather than from the closed circle” that used to dominate the managerial class. Mr. Renzi said that the choices were made on merit and that two employment placement firms assisted an ad hoc nomination committee in coming up with candidates.

Matteo Renzi
Democratic Party Italy
Jobs
Appointments and Executive Changes


Deadly Standoff Leaves Burkina Faso Stunned

Abstract: OUAGADOUGOU, Burkina Faso — Terror came to this sleepy city this weekend, as armed fighters descended on a road nicknamed the Champs-Élysées, where friends meet for coffee and foreigners relax in a familiar hotel. After a 15-hour siege, the assailants left behind more than the dead and wounded scattered across the charred road amid shell casings. The rampage at the Splendid Hotel and Cappuccino Cafe here in the capital forced this nation to face the awful realization that the violent Islamic extremism that it for years avoided finally had crept across its borders. Twenty-eight people were killed and 56 were wounded in the attack that loudly announced the end to a long, mostly peaceful stretch in Burkina Faso. A State Department statement on Saturday identified an American, Michael James Riddering , as one of the casualties. Mr. Riddering, 45, worked at the Les Ailes de Refuge Orphanage in the town of Yako, 70 miles from the capital, according to the organization that runs the orphanage, Sheltering Wings. It said he moved to Burkina Faso from Florida in 2011 with his wife, Amy, and daughter Delaney to do missionary work. Image Burkina Faso’s troops patrolling outside the Splendid Hotel. Credit Issouf Sanogo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The mayhem at the center of town here carried out by at least three militants followed two other related episodes near the border with Mali, government officials said. In one, gunmen attacked a police convoy, killing two people. Also in the north of the country, an Australian couple were kidnapped. Officials blamed an affiliate of Al Qaeda for the attacks, dragging this tiny nation into the global war on terrorism, where governments struggle to combat jihadists who blow up restaurants and storm into concerts and shopping malls, guns blazing. And so on Saturday, in the wake of the attacks, the nation’s leaders delivered speeches in Ouagadougou (pronounced wah-gah-DOO-goo), denouncing terrorism and the loss of lives, in a familiar day-after mantra. Yet the words of the newly elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, had a particular sting as the nation that just congratulated itself for a peaceful democratic election faced a startling crisis. Image A wounded woman at a hospital in Ouagadougou. Credit Issouf Sanogo/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “For the first time in history our country was the victim of a series of barbarous terrorist attacks, ignoble and on a scale without precedence and an unheard-of cowardice,” Mr. Kaboré said. “The struggle against terrorism,” he said, “is now part of our daily life.” The attack on the Splendid Hotel was the latest in a series of assaults on so-called soft targets that terrorists have begun employing at an alarmingly rapid clip in recent weeks, unleashing mayhem in mundane settings of everyday life across the world. A shopping mall and cafe in Iraq, a terrace outside a Starbucks in Indonesia, a public square near the Blue Mosque in Turkey and other attacks on hotels popular with Westerners and local elites in both Egypt and Mali have all become battlefields. Until now, Al Qaeda’s regional affiliate has carried out minor attacks in Burkina Faso, but it has for the most part trained its sights on Algeria and Mali. Video A hotel favored by Westerners in Ouagadougou was hit by what officials called a terrorist attack. Credit Credit Ahmed Ouoba/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The chaos that erupted Friday night in Ouagadougou was an affront to everyday life in this city with a nightly curfew, where order reigns, evident even in the shirts in roadside markets displayed carefully on hangers and parked bicycles and scooters spaced apart just so. “It’s shocking,” said Alexandre Sanfo, the general director of Blaise Compaoré Hospital, which treated dozens of the people wounded in the attacks. Mr. Sanfo said the nation was known for its religious tolerance and its warm welcome to foreigners. He recited a local saying that all Burkinabes give up their beds and sleep on the floor when guests arrive in their homes. “I’m afraid now that people will be suspicious of each other, especially of Muslims,” he said. On Friday night, David Kokuvi was at the Cappuccino Cafe with friends when explosions rang out. “Everyone said, ‘Get down! Get down!’ ” said Mr. Kokuvi, 43, from his hospital bed, where he was awaiting surgery for a bullet wound to his shoulder. Image French forces on Saturday near a hotel occupied by gunmen in Ouagadougou. Credit Ahmed Yempabou/European Pressphoto Agency The force blew him to the floor, and the cafe filled with smoke, which he crawled through to get to an exit. He never saw the fighters who had rushed inside and started shooting. When he stumbled outside, still half crawling, he saw bodies everywhere. He could not tell if the people were dead. Dozens of people were held hostage in the Splendid as chaos broke out on the street and the assailants barged in. The governments of France, Switzerland and the Netherlands said some of their citizens were among the dead, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said six Canadians died in the attack. Clément Sawadogo, a government minister, was in a fourth-floor meeting inside the hotel when he heard shots ring out. He dropped to the ground and lay still as attackers entered the room, shooting two or three people, he said. He was still playing dead when one returned to shoot the bodies, apparently to make sure that those who were on the floor were really dead. Somehow, Mr. Sawadogo said, he was spared.

Burkina Faso
Ouagadougou
Terrorism
Splendid Hotel
Michael James Riddering
Al Qaeda
Kidnapping and Hostages


Joe Biden Speech From 1992 Gives G.O.P. Fodder in Court Fight

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Senate Republicans on Monday seized on a 1992 speech by Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a senator, in which he argued against any Supreme Court appointment during a presidential campaign, grabbing an early advantage in what is likely to be a protracted battle to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. The vice president’s remarks are unlikely to deter the White House from submitting a nominee in the coming weeks, and Republicans may still face public pressure to allow the confirmation process to go forward, especially if Mr. Obama’s pick is respected and has been confirmed by the Senate to other posts. Nonetheless, Republicans appeared to take the upper hand in a fight that stands to dominate Capitol Hill for months. The outcome could tilt the ideological balance of the court and reshape American life for generations. “It is my view that if a Supreme Court justice resigns tomorrow or within the next several weeks, or resigns at the end of the summer, President Bush should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not — and not — name a nominee until after the November election is completed,” Mr. Biden, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, argued on June 24, 1992. Mr. Biden was making the same point that Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, has made — a position opposite to the one that he and President Obama have taken. The video upended a day when Senate Democrats had hoped to attack the Republican position as obstructionist. Mr. Biden, in a statement, said his comments in 1992 had been misinterpreted. He noted that in the same speech, he had called for the Senate and White House to “overcome partisan differences.” “Some critics say that one excerpt of my speech is evidence that I oppose filling a Supreme Court vacancy in an election year,” he said. “This is not an accurate description of my views.” Mr. Biden’s remarks resurfaced as the Senate reconvened for the first time since Justice Scalia’s death, and as the Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, gave his own floor speech criticizing Republicans for obstructionism and insisting that any nominee put forth should be given fair hearings and a swift confirmation vote. Video Joseph R. Biden, while a senator in 1992, said that if a Supreme Court vacancy occurred, President George Bush should not appoint a nominee until after the election, or should compromise on a nominee with the Senate. “Once the president has sent a nominee to the Senate, it’s our responsibility to act,” Mr. Reid said. “Unfortunately, it appears that the Republican leader and his colleagues have no intention of filling this important vacancy.” “In recent years, the Republican leader and Republican senators have done everything possible to grind the will of government to a halt,” he continued. “But now we’re seeing something from the Republican leader that is far worse than his usual brand of obstruction. We’re seeing an unprecedented attempt to hold hostage an entire branch of government.” Mr. Reid apparently did not see Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee, sitting behind him, waiting to take the floor. Earlier, Mr. Grassley’s staff had released the draft of a floor speech that offered only praise for Justice Scalia and his defense of individual liberties. That text was largely replaced by a focus on Mr. Biden. “The presidential election year was 1992,” Mr. Grassley said. “We had no Supreme Court vacancy. No justice had passed away unexpectedly. No justice had announced his or her intention to retire. Rather it was the fear of an unexpected resignation that drove this former chairman.” “These are the Biden rules,” Mr. Grassley said. “The Biden Rules recognize that under these circumstances, quote, ‘The president should consider following the practice of a majority of his predecessors and not name a nominee until after the November election is completed.’ ” Moments earlier, Mr. Reid had accused Republicans of distorting the truth by suggesting that it was improper for a president to nominate a Supreme Court justice in his final year in office. “Senate Republicans would have the American people believe that it is a long-held practice to deny the president the right to fill a Supreme Court vacancy — this is simply not true,” Mr. Reid said. “It grieves me to say it, but when Republicans repeat this statement they’re clearly spreading a falsehood.” But in a sign of the confounding nature of the politics surrounding the court, even as Republicans seemed to gain ground, they suffered a first defection on Monday as Senator Mark Kirk, Republican of Illinois, broke with his party in an op-ed in The Chicago Sun-Times that said he was willing to consider any nominee submitted by Mr. Obama. Aides to Mr. Reid noted that Mr. Biden, in the 1992 speech, expressed a willingness to cooperate with President George Bush. Image Senator Harry Reid at his office on Monday. “Once the president has sent a nominee to the Senate, it’s our responsibility to act,” he said on the Senate floor. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times “Therefore, I stand by my position,” Mr. Biden said. “If the president consults and cooperates with the Senate or moderates his selections absent consultation, then his nominees may enjoy my support as did Justices Kennedy and Souter.” Mr. McConnell initially took a different approach on Monday. He opened his remarks by calling for a moment of silence in memory of Justice Scalia, and he gave a speech focused on praising the justice, who died Feb. 13, calling him “one of a kind.” Later in the day, however, he said Mr. Biden’s 1992 remarks validated the Republicans’ current position. The focus of the day then shifted from the late Justice Scalia to the young Mr. Biden. At the White House, Mr. Obama pored through a thick binder of potential nominees with an eye toward choosing one within weeks. The White House on Monday said Mr. Obama had called senators in both parties to consult about the process. Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary, declined to put a time frame on the president’s decision-making, but officials have said he hoped to make a nomination within four to six weeks, matching his previous two Supreme Court vacancies. “This is not a process that has to be rushed, but I think everybody understands that there is a sense of urgency in putting forward a nominee,” Mr. Earnest said. He referred to the reticence of some Republicans to consider a nominee from Mr. Obama as an “unreasonable position.” “It’s inconsistent with their constitutional responsibility, and it certainly is inconsistent with the American people’s conception about what it means to do your job,” he said. Mr. Earnest said there was some time-related pressure for the president to act, given that it would be “unprecedented” for a vacancy to span two court terms. As that argument was being made, Republicans were circulating C-SPAN video clips of Mr. Biden arguing the risk of leaving the court short of its full complement of nine justices was no reason to rush a confirmation. “Others may fret that this approach would leave the court with only eight members for some time,” Mr. Biden said then, but “the cost of such a result — the need to reargue three or four cases that will divide the justices four to four — are quite minor compared to the cost that a nominee, the president, the Senate, and the nation would have to pay for what would assuredly be a bitter fight, no matter how good a person is nominated by the president.” “In the end,” he said, “this may be the only course of action that historical practice and practical realism can sustain.”

Joe Biden
Antonin Scalia
Mitch McConnell
Supreme Court,SCOTUS
2016 Presidential Election
US Politics


File-Sharing Site Violated Copyright, Court Says

Abstract: PARIS — A court in Sweden on Friday convicted four men linked to the notorious Internet file-sharing service The Pirate Bay of violating copyright law, handing the music and movie industries a high-profile victory in their campaign to curb online piracy. The court found that the men — the three founders, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde, as well as Carl Lundstrom, who provided financing — had aided copyright infringement by operating the site, which provides links to thousands of songs, films, video games and other material, and helps users download them. They were each sentenced to a year in prison and were also ordered to pay 30 million kronor, or about $3.6 million, in damages to leading entertainment companies. The case has drawn a huge amount of attention among Internet users and media companies alike because of the size of The Pirate Bay — it is estimated to have more than 20 million users — and the defiant stance of its operators. The trial this winter took place amid a carnival atmosphere in Stockholm , with bands playing outside the courtroom and bloggers Twittering away. John Kennedy, chief executive of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, one of the groups that had supported the case against The Pirate Bay, said the decision “sent a strong message about the importance of copyright.” “We are not triumphant,” he said. “But we are satisfied that the court has clearly said that what they were doing was wrong.” In the near term, however, the decision may have little effect on the day-to-day operations of The Pirate Bay, as the defendants have vowed to continue running the service as they appeal the ruling. Kennedy said music and movie industry groups planned to file additional litigation to try to get The Pirate Bay shut down. He said that while he expected the defendants in the case to “hand over the baton” to others, that might now be more difficult. “There will be less people willing to step up to the plate,” he said. Over the last decade, media companies have won a series of court victories around the world against file-sharing services like Napster — before it reinvented itself as a legal site — Kazaa and Grokster. But unauthorized copying of remains a big problem for record business, in particular, with the music industry federation estimating that 95 percent of music downloads involve pirated work. Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research , said the decision Friday would not result in a “meaningful” decrease in piracy. Internet users are turning to new ways to share music, including streaming and messaging services, which are harder for copyright owners and enforcement officials to detect than downloads. But he said the ruling was “good p.r.” for the music and movie industries. “There’s a lot of value out of it, even though its value is not going to be a meaningful reduction in file sharing,” he said. “They have to be seen to be doing something, in the same way that customs fights drug trafficking — as a deterrent.” Mr. Mulligan said the decision could encourage more music listeners to turn to a growing number of services that provide “free” digital music legally, as part of a broadband subscription or with the support of advertising, for example. “The best way to fight free is with free,” he said. The decision could also help alter perceptions of Sweden as a haven for piracy. A new law that took effect this month makes it easier for copyright owners to pursue illegal downloaders through the courts. Figures from Netnod, which operates Internet exchanges in Sweden, show that the volume of Internet traffic plunged as the law took effect — suggesting, analysts said, that some file-sharers may have been deterred. The Pirate Bay could not immediately be reached for comment on the decision Friday. On the site, a notice was posted calling the decision a “crazy verdict.” “But as in all good movies, the heroes lose in the beginning but have an epic victory in the end anyhow,” it said. “That’s the only thing Hollywood ever taught us.” The Pirate Bay is one of the largest so-called Bit Torrent trackers, which facilitate downloads of large digital files by enlisting the help of other computers. The defendants had maintained that they were innocent because they did not actually host any of the copyrighted material on their own servers. As the media industries battle pirates in court, they have also been lobbying for tougher legislation against unauthorized file-sharing — but with more limited success. In France , the National Assembly last week rejected a government proposal to cut off the Internet connections of persistent copyright pirates, in a surprise vote. President Nicolas Sarkozy has said the government will reintroduce the measure at the end of the month.


Atlanta’s Childress Leaves N.B.A. for Europe and Reverses a Trend

Abstract: Josh Childress is leaving the Atlanta Hawks for the Greek club Olympiakos, reversing the path of the many international stars who have signed with N.B.A. teams. Heading overseas will allow Childress to make more money than he could have as a restricted free agent in the N.B.A. The Hawks had the right to match an offer from another N.B.A. team, but not one from an international club. One of Childress’s agents, Jim Tanner, said Wednesday that the three-year deal was worth about $20 million. The money is guaranteed, but Childress can opt out of the contract after each year. N.B.A. Commissioner David Stern told The New York Times he saw the move as a positive for the league. He said the presence of a player like Childress could only help promote basketball in Europe, where soccer remains the primary sport. “We think that this actually may encourage more people to play basketball, and in the long run it’s only going to benefit the N.B.A.,” Stern said. He added, “It encourages more kids to bounce the ball, rather than kick it.” Childress, a 6-foot-8 guard/forward, averaged 11.8 points and 4.9 rebounds last season. DONAGHY’S RESTITUTION SET A federal judge ruled that the disgraced referee Tim Donaghy and his co-conspirators had to pay $217,266.84 in restitution in connection with their guilty pleas to gambling on basketball games. The restitution, determined by Judge Carol B. Amon in United States District Court in Brooklyn, is significantly less than what the N.B.A. had demanded. In June, the league asked that Donaghy pay about $1.4 million for expenses ranging from past wages to legal fees it was forced to incur because of the federal investigation into his ties to bookies. But on July 7, the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn, which accepted guilty pleas from Donaghy and his two co-conspirators, said that the restitution for Donaghy and his two co-conspirators should be only $233,317. Donaghy is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday and could face up to 25 years in prison. MICHAEL S. SCHMIDT

National Basketball Assn
Childress Josh
Free Agents (Sports)
Athletics and Sports
Stern David
Greece


Britain Criticized for Plan to Target Corporate Tax Avoiders

Abstract: LONDON — Business groups warned Britain’s government on Wednesday that it risked undermining international efforts to rewrite tax rules after officials published plans to target multinational companies, including Google, that use complex strategies to cut their British tax bills. Details of a new measure, which has become known as the “Google tax,” were released on Wednesday, a week after George Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, promised a crackdown on tax-avoidance strategies. The unilateral nature of Britain’s action came in for sharp criticism from the Confederation of British Industry, the country’s main business lobbying group. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, which is seeking an international agreement on tax-avoidance issues, said it would have been better for the British government to await the outcome of its talks. The low level of taxes paid by some multinational companies has become a big issue in Britain, which has a general election in May. A number of well-known companies use subsidiaries and offshore operations to push profits to jurisdictions where corporate taxes are low. Often this is done through complex transactions including payments made within corporations for interest, royalties or patents. Some companies set up their operations so as not to have a taxable presence in countries where they generate considerable revenue. Under the highly complicated changes the government outlined Wednesday, the British tax authorities will have extensive powers to levy a special “diverted profits tax” of 25 percent, higher than the normal corporate tax rate of 21 percent. One consequence may be that companies change their structures so they pay more corporate tax, rather than risk exposure to the higher rate. John Cridland, director general of the Confederation of British Industry, highlighted the work of the O.E.C.D. to revise international rules. “It is unfortunate that the U.K. has decided to go it alone with a Diverted Profits Tax, outside this process, which will be a real concern for global businesses,” he said in a statement. “The legislation will be complex to apply, and if other countries follow suit, businesses will have a patchwork of uncoordinated unilateral rules to navigate, which risks undermining the whole O.E.C.D. approach.” There was a similar reaction from Julian David, chief executive of techUK, which represents technology companies. “By moving ahead of other countries, with what seems to be a complicated new measure, there is a risk that the U.K. could undermine the good progress that it has been leading through the O.E.C.D.,” he said. Pascal Saint-Amans, tax director at the O.E.C.D., said that Mr. Osborne’s measure showed “the relevance of the work we have started because countries’ governments are getting nervous and tempted with unilateral action.” Mr. Saint-Amans said it would have been “optimal” for Britain to have waited for an international agreement. “There are political imperatives in countries when you have elections which may trigger some faster changes than what a purely rational, technical, approach would result in,” he added. If approved by Parliament, which is likely, the tax would go into effect in April. The government said it expected the new tax to generate 1 billion pounds, or $1.5 billion, over five years. “It will put pressure on people who know they are pushing the envelope,” said Chris Morgan, head of tax policy at the accounting firm KPMG. But he added that it did not appear to be structured specifically with Google in mind because, if it had been, then the potential revenue would have been higher. Ben Jones, a tax partner at Eversheds, a law firm, described the move as clever politically before an election. “I can’t see it costing in terms of multinationals’ not doing business in Britain because Britain is a vital market,” Mr. Jones said. “I think the tax authorities will look at the turnover of these business from accounts that are filed, look at what tax they pay, and apply a sort of smell test that will give them a sense of whether to investigate further.”


Dr. W.V. Cordice Jr., 94, a Surgeon Who Helped Save Dr. King, Dies

Abstract: On Sept. 20, 1958, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., then emerging as the leader of the civil rights movement, was autographing copies of his new book in a Harlem department store when a woman approached to greet him. He nodded without looking up. Then she stabbed him in the chest with a razor-sharp seven-inch letter opener. Dr. King , then 29, was taken to Harlem Hospital, where three surgeons went to work. The blade had missed his aorta by millimeters, and doctors said a sneeze could have caused him to bleed to death. After mapping out a strategy, they used a hammer and chisel to crack Dr. King’s sternum, and repaired the wound in two and a half hours. On Dec. 29, the last surviving surgeon from that hospital team, Dr. W. V. Cordice Jr., died at 94 in Sioux City, Iowa, his granddaughter Jennifer Fournier said. He had moved to Iowa in November to be near family. “I think if we had lost King that day, the whole civil rights era could have been different,” Dr. Cordice said in a Harlem Hospital promotional video in 2012. New York’s governor at the time, W. Averell Harriman, who raced to the hospital to observe the surgery, had requested that black doctors be involved if at all possible, Hugh Pearson reported in his 2002 book, “When Harlem Nearly Killed King.” Dr. Cordice and Dr. Aubré de Lambert Maynard, the hospital’s chief of surgery, were African-American. The third surgeon, Dr. Emil Naclerio, was Italian-American. Over the years, Dr. Maynard was widely credited with saving Dr. King — and he accepted that credit — but in a 2012 interview with the public radio station WNYC, Dr. Cordice said that he and Dr. Naclerio had performed the surgery. “We were not going to challenge him, because he was the boss,” Dr. Cordice said of Dr. Maynard. Alan D. Aviles, the president of the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation, suggested that Dr. Cordice’s modesty may also have kept him from getting the credit he deserved. “It is entirely consistent with his character that many who knew him may well not have known that he was also part of history,” Mr. Aviles said in a statement. At the time of the stabbing , Dr. King was promoting his book “Stride Toward Freedom: The Montgomery Story,” which recounted the successful boycott he helped lead to desegregate buses in Montgomery, Ala. His assailant was a mentally disturbed black woman who blamed Dr. King for her woes. Dr. King forgave her and asked that she not be prosecuted. He later learned that she had been committed to a hospital for the criminally insane. John Walter Vincent Cordice Jr. was born in Aurora, N.C., on June 16, 1919. His father, a physician, worked for the United States Public Health Service there, fighting the flu epidemic of 1918. The family moved to Durham, N.C., when John was 6. He graduated from high school a year early, and then from New York University and its medical school. With the outbreak of World War II, he interrupted his internship at Harlem Hospital to serve as a doctor for the Tuskegee Airmen, the famed group of African-American pilots. After the war, and after completing the internship, he held a succession of residencies. In 1955-56 he studied in Paris, where he was part of the team that performed the first open-heart surgery in France. Dr. Cordice later became chief of thoracic and vascular surgery at Harlem Hospital, the position he held when he treated Dr. King. He went on to hold the same post at Queens Hospital Center. He was president of the Queens Medical Society in 1983-84. Dr. Cordice, who lived in Hollis, Queens, for many years before moving to Iowa, is survived by his wife of 65 years, the former Marguerite Smith; his daughters, Michele Boykin, Jocelyn Basnett and Marguerite D. Cordice; his sister, Marion Parhan; six grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Dr. Naclerio died in 1985, Dr. Maynard in 1999. Dr. King wrote thank-you letters to all three surgeons. In his last public speech before his assassination in 1968, he reflected on the implications of his surviving the stabbing. “If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around in 1960, when students all over the South started sitting in at lunch counters,” he said. “If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been around here in 1961, when we decided to take a ride for freedom and ended segregation in interstate travel. “If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have been here in 1963, when the black people of Birmingham, Ala., aroused the conscience of this nation, and brought into being the Civil Rights Bill. If I had sneezed, I wouldn’t have had a chance later that year, in August, to try to tell America about a dream I had.”

Civil Rights
Surgery
Assassination
W V Jr Cordice
Obituary
Martin Luther King Jr
Harlem Hospital Center
Black People,African-Americans


Rangers’ Recent Struggles Start With the Top Skaters

Abstract: GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Less than a week ago, the Rangers were reveling in a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 1 against the Penguins in Pittsburgh. Penguins goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury was turning into his erratic postseason self, and the Rangers’ top scorers appeared close to a breakthrough. But after three desultory Rangers losses, including two at home, the Penguins are in control, taking a three-games-to-one lead into Game 5 at home Friday. “This game is built on confidence, swagger and momentum, and right now they have it,” said Rangers center Brad Richards, who scored early in last Friday’s win but has been smothered since by the Penguins. “You go to Pittsburgh and try to win a period, then keep building. The whole mood of everything can change if you win a game.” Goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who lifted the Rangers past the Philadelphia Flyers in Game 7 nine days ago, said the same approach must be used to force the Penguins back to Madison Square Garden for a Game 6 on Sunday. “We have to put all our focus on trying to play our best game of the series,” said Lundqvist, 32, who faces the prospect of another season ending short of the Stanley Cup finals. “It’s now or never. We have to leave everything out there. There’s no way around it.” Lundqvist has been in this position before. Every spring of his nine-year career with the Rangers has ended with Lundqvist’s leaving the ice in exhausted resignation or smashing his stick in a pique of fury, as he did Wednesday night after giving up a short-handed goal to Brandon Sutter late in the second period. This postseason has been agonizingly similar to 2008, the last time the Rangers and the Penguins met in the playoffs. Pittsburgh eliminated the Rangers in the second round with a 3-2 home victory in Game 5 on an overtime goal by Marian Hossa. For now, Lundqvist is speaking in measured tones. “We have to stick together and believe in what we’re doing,” he said. “We have to work really hard, and I know the bounces will come. I still feel like we can push them a little more.” Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault has fruitlessly tried myriad line combinations and power-play units over the past three games, two of which ended in shutouts for Fleury. Vigneault even criticized the stalwart defenseman Ryan McDonagh, often the team’s best player in a season in which he had a career-high 14 goals and 29 assists. But McDonagh, who missed the last five regular-season games with an injury to his left shoulder, has struggled in the playoffs. He has just one assist in 11 playoff games. “Ryan hasn’t had — he’ll be the first to say — a playoffs up to his expectations or ours,” Vigneault said. “Obviously, he hasn’t played very well.” The Rangers were able to score in Game 4, on goals by Carl Hagelin and Mats Zuccarello. But they were ultimately overwhelmed by Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin, who combined for two goals and three assists at the Garden. Rick Nash and Martin St. Louis, the two Rangers expected to match the Penguins’ stars, have not come close. Nash’s inability to score is so pronounced — no goals in 11 playoff games this year and one in 12 games last spring — that Rangers fans booed him each time he touched the puck late in Wednesday’s loss. St. Louis, who said Wednesday night that he was “very disappointed” in his play, has only three goals in 30 games with the Rangers. He had 33 goals in 63 playoff games with the Tampa Bay Lightning. St. Louis’s mother, France, 63, passed away Thursday after a lengthy illness. It was unknown whether he would play in Game 5. Vigneault, who experimented with new lines at practice Thursday with Chris Kreider back from a broken hand, is choosing to remain calm and supportive. “We’re putting Rick in situations where he’s had success, and he’s getting great looks,” Vigneault said. “Hopefully he’ll come out of this funk.” The Rangers can look to success away from home (25 wins in 41 games) for inspiration. “We’ve played well on the road, and the pressure is all on them to close it out,” Richards said. “A win and coming back to our building, who knows where that goes?”

Rangers
Playoffs
Ryan McDonagh
Rick Nash
Ice hockey
Pittsburgh Penguins


A Detroit Florist’s Vision Turns an Abandoned House Into Art

Abstract: HAMTRAMCK, Mich. — Eleven months ago, a derelict house here that is now filled with 36,000 flowers contained far grimmer things. A dead dog. Jammed toilets, untouched for years. Broken glass from beer bottles and shattered windows. Twelve thousand pounds of trash had to be hauled out before Lisa Waud, a florist who bought the duplex at auction for $250, could see what kind of canvas she had purchased. The house remains a structural wreck, but its atmosphere has been transformed. This weekend, some 2,000 visitors will tour Flower House , an art installation Ms. Waud and more than three dozen floral collaborators from around the country created on the site. Their goal is to cast a new light on the Detroit metropolitan area’s infamous blight , and on their own trade. The dwelling’s empty rooms — with their peeling wallpaper, exposed wooden beams and a few items of abandoned furniture left intact — have been turned into a series of still-life tableaus. All of the plants and flowers filling them are American-grown, a rarity in an industry that imports a majority of its wares from Colombia and elsewhere. Ms. Waud is the owner of Pot & Box , a floral design business. Like most independent florists, she earns her living almost entirely from weddings and work for corporate clients, but she lights up when she talks about the beauty that plants can add to daily life. Image Branches and foliage in the main room of the Flower House. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times The inspiration for Flower House struck in 2012, when she saw images from that season’s Christian Dior couture show , held in a Parisian mansion filled with flowers in a rainbow of colors. “It was stunning, and I knew immediately that I wanted to do that — but living in Detroit, I pictured it in an abandoned house,” she said. “I’m trying to rebrand abandoned houses as a resource.” Her vision began to become real last November, when she paid $500 at auction, sight unseen, for the house that was to become Flower House and its next-door neighbor. As she told other designers about her plan, seeking ideas and volunteers, what started as an artistic daydream became a formal project with budgets, permits, complicated logistics and deadlines. Ms. Waud estimated that she would need to raise $150,000 to cover the installation’s floral costs, but when she contacted her usual wholesalers, the California Cut Flower Commission , Mayesh and Nordlie , all three offered to donate their flowers. The 36 other florists designing rooms in Flower House were equally eager to contribute materials and their time. Sally Vander Wyst, the owner of Milwaukee Flower Company , heard about the project through a podcast and immediately contacted Ms. Waud to volunteer. She is designing a kitchen, covering the decaying cupboards and a salvaged table with artichokes, moss, hanging vines, ferns and a profusion of dahlias, gladiolas and foxglove. Image Helen Daley, a volunteer, working with potted flowers on Tuesday. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times “Our concept is post-apocalyptic spooky,” she said. “We want it to look like the world ended and nature took things back within seconds.” To make Flower House stable enough for her installation, Ms. Waud hired Reclaim Detroit , a nonprofit that specializes in deconstruction, a more expensive but environmentally minded alternative to demolition. Reclaim Detroit’s crews recycle and salvage whatever they can, reselling the materials to woodworkers and artisans. Like Ms. Waud, Craig Varterian, the executive director of Reclaim Detroit, views the area’s derelict buildings as an economic resource. “These structures range from horrible to an absolute disaster, but there’s still worth in them in terms of fixtures and lumber,” he said. “Pre-1930s, there’s a different type of wood. It has real value, and it doesn’t exist anymore.” Reclaim Detroit’s workers cleared the garbage from Ms. Waud’s house and stripped away its layers of filth. Mixed in with the debris, they found some hints of its past life. A thick stack of calendar pages tacked to a wall ends with January 1999 displayed on top. Photos of the former owners, identified by a neighbor, turned up in the attic. On a bedroom wall, Ms. Waud hung a china plate with a message that seemed tailor-made for her project: “This Is My House And I’ll Do As I Darn Please.” Flower House will be opened to ticketed visitors from Friday until Sunday. When the installation is finished, Reclaim Detroit’s crew will take down the house, leaving an empty field. The wood will be repurposed into new objects like tables, guitars and cutting boards. Image After a weekend of display, the Flower House will be demolished. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times “These materials will carry on the story of Flower House in a tangible way,” said Jeremy Haines, the Reclaim Detroit employee who coordinated the project. “It creates a legacy that people will have in their hands.” The house itself is not salvageable. Like so many of the derelict Detroit homes that sell for rock-bottom prices, this one would cost more to rehabilitate than it is ever likely to be worth. A construction engineer whom Ms. Waud spoke with estimated the repair costs at $1 million. Paying this year’s property taxes on Flower House and its neighbor cost Ms. Waud three times what she spent to actually buy them. When the lot is cleared, Ms. Waud plans to turn it into a seasonal farm to help supply flowers like peonies and dahlias for her business. Susan McLeary, the owner of Passionflower in Ann Arbor, Mich., and one of Flower House’s designers, said that was one aspect that drew her to the venture. Urban agriculture is gaining attention, but few people think of flowers as a cash crop. “Per square foot, flowers are one of the more profitable things you can do with dirt,” she said. “This might be an interesting idea to get into the consciousness, that you can be an urban flower farmer and bring money into your community.” Image A floral artist gazing at the ceiling in the Flower House, which will be open to the public Friday through Sunday. Credit Laura McDermott for The New York Times Other cities have experimented with that idea, most notably Baltimore, which recently commissioned a study on the economic viability of turning some of the city’s 14,000 vacant lots into leased land for small-scale flower farms. Those in the industry say they see rising demand for locally sourced flowers. Ms. Vander Wyst, who specializes in domestic plants, said an increasing number of her clients specifically seek her out for that reason. “We’re obsessed with the farmer, the maker, the organic grower, but for the longest time, flowers somehow got skipped in that dialogue,” said Debra Prinzing, a writer and lecturer who spearheads what she calls Slow Flowers , a parallel to the Slow Food movement . Last year, she created a directory of farmers and florists who specialize in American-grown foliage. It now has 600 members, a few dozen of whom are involved in Flower House. Ms. Waud said she hoped Flower House would inspire those who encounter it to think more critically about where the flowers they buy come from and about the diversity of American blooms. She was also excited about the pure fun of coating an entire site in flowers by the truckload. “Wedding work is fun, translating the vision into flowers, but to have this kind of creative freedom is really rare for florists,” she said. “The sheer scale of it is incredible, and I’m blown away by the community that came together for this. I’m going to be in happy, emotional tears the whole weekend.” Ms. McLeary, who recently toured the empty house to plan her room’s installation — succulents will be a prominent feature — said she couldn’t wait to see the structure brought back for its last, ephemeral bit of life. “It’s a beautiful ruin,” she said. “It’s charming, kind of scary and eerie, and beautiful in a dark way. To step into it is going to be surreal, and unforgettable.”

Detroit
Florists
Abandonment
Art
Lisa Waud
Pot & Box
Flowers and Plants
Small business


Looking for More Goals, Capitals Change Ovechkin’s View

Abstract: ARLINGTON, Va. — Alex Ovechkin wore gray as he took line rushes at practice here Saturday. Gray is the color designated for the Capitals’ second line. So it goes these days for Ovechkin, once considered Sidney Crosby’s lone rival for the title of world’s best player, but now just another Washington Capital, trying to keep his game from going stale. Ovechkin, 27, was the Capitals’ top scorer every season since entering the league in 2005-6, but coming into Sunday’s game against the Rangers at Madison Square Garden, he is only fourth in team scoring. He has been shifted from his accustomed position on the left wing to the right side because he became, in the words of his general manager, “a little too predictable.” Position shifts don’t generally happen to star players. It didn’t happen to Crosby, Lemieux, Gretzky, Hull, Howe or Richard. “To be honest with you, it was hard,” Ovechkin said after practice. “But you have trust in your coach. And I feel great.” Ovechkin’s goal totals in his first five N.H.L. seasons were sensational: 52, 46, 65, 56 and 50. His total fell to 32 in 2010-11 and rose only to 38 last season. All the goals came while he played left wing, most often with Nicklas Backstrom as his center. During those years, Ovechkin, a right-handed shooter, cruised in on the left side and snapped off drives, often using defensemen as screens. It was his bread-and-butter move, but a number of teams began to figure it out. Adam Oates, the Capitals’ coach and a former assistant with the Devils, decided to address the problem by switching Ovechkin to right wing at the start of this season. But Ovechkin struggled and so did the Capitals, who won only 2 of their first 11 games. He wandered out of position on offensive rushes and collided with teammates on the left side of the ice, yards from where he was supposed to be. Ovechkin did not score in his first four games, the longest season-opening drought of his career. He asked Oates if he could go back to left wing. Oates accommodated him — but made him play with two fourth-liners, Joey Crabb and Jay Beagle. After four games with Crabb and Beagle, Ovechkin agreed to return to the right side on the second line. With Mike Ribeiro at center and Jason Chimera at left wing, Ovechkin is finally getting the hang of it. He has scored in three of Washington’s last four games. Still, in 14 games over all, Ovechkin has only five goals, a total that would project to 29 over a full 82-game schedule, the lowest total of his career. “The game has changed a lot in the last three, four years,” said George McPhee, the Capitals’ general manager. “Coaches have found ways to make it much more difficult to come through the neutral zone with steam with one guy carrying the puck, and Ovie likes to do that. “In some ways he became a little too predictable,” McPhee added. “So now he’s making adjustments, and he’s really been effective the last few games.” Ribeiro, the Capitals’ leading scorer, said: “He’s getting used to it. My job is to try to get him the puck, especially early, so he gets in the game and gets his touches.” Oates said: “It’s obviously a huge transition for him. But he’s getting the puck a lot more and getting a lot more opportunities, so I take that as a huge positive.” McPhee explained that the switch was designed largely to get Ovechkin the puck on his forehand rather than his backhand. “That makes it easier to cut through the middle and take a pass,” McPhee said. “When you’re on your backhand, you’re going in a straight line up the boards. There are more opportunities for him to jump into the play and take a pass on his forehand.” McPhee also said that Ovechkin turns the puck over less often at the other team’s blue line when he is on his forehand. Statistics don’t necessarily support the contention that the switch has worked for Ovechkin. His differential is minus-7 this season, tied for the worst on the Capitals. He is minus-5 as a right wing. Despite his struggles, Ovechkin seems happy. The Capitals have won three in a row, he is getting used to the position switch and, maybe, his game is getting a little less stale. “Yeah, I feel good out there,” he said. “The most important thing is I have to feel all the time fresh. It means I have to know exactly what I have to do, not be confused about where I’m going.” There was a time when Ovechkin complained that reporters were always asking about him and not enough about his teammates. That could be changing now that he is a second-line wing instead of the team’s undisputed star. “I sometimes got tired of it, but it’s my life,” Ovechkin said, smiling. “I don’t want to say I don’t want to do it anymore. I love it.”


Justices Weigh Role Drug Played in a Fatal Cocktail

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Joshua Banka’s prodigious appetite for drugs killed him. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court considered whether to hold a drug dealer who had sold heroin to Mr. Banka responsible for his death. In 2010, just before Mr. Banka was scheduled to enter a court-ordered drug rehabilitation program, he decided to go on one last bender. He smoked marijuana; crushed, cooked and injected OxyContin; took a variety of prescription drugs; and topped them off with heroin he had bought from Marcus A. Burrage. Mr. Burrage was convicted not only of selling the heroin but also of being responsible for the death. That second charge carried a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison. At his trial, medical experts said the heroin had been a contributing factor in Mr. Banka’s death. But they could not say, given the other drugs he had ingested, that he would not have died anyway. On Tuesday, Justice Elena Kagan distilled the testimony this way: “Using heroin made it more likely that he would die, but we can’t say that using heroin killed him.” The question for the justices was the meaning of a federal law that requires a mandatory sentence “if death or serious bodily injury results from” drugs sold by a defendant. Did “results from” mean the drugs contributed to the death? Or did it require more? Angela L. Campbell, a lawyer for Mr. Burrage, said the words of the law required a straight line from her client’s drugs to Mr. Banka’s death. “Marcus Burrage is serving a 20-year mandatory minimum sentence for selling heroin that, according to the jury instruction that was given to the jury at the time of the trial, was not the primary cause of the death, but, rather, merely played a part in the death,” she said. That was not enough, Ms. Campbell said, and several justices seemed prepared to agree. “One little grain of heroin that you discover is in the body, and that person’s going away for, whatever it is, 20 years?” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked a lawyer for the federal government. The lawyer, Benjamin J. Horwich, said there was an exception for quantities of drugs that are “too insignificant or not important enough or too insubstantial.” But as a general matter, he said, prosecutors need only show that illicit drugs contributed to the victim’s death. Requiring prosecutors to prove more, he said, would have pernicious consequences. “A ‘but for’ test,” he said, could mean that “nothing and nobody was the cause of the victim’s death.” But Justice Antonin Scalia said the words of the statute might mean just that. “It says it has to result in the death,” he said of the law. “And I take that to mean at least, at least, but-for causality.” The chief justice appeared to agree. “This statute does not say if you die from taking drugs, then the person who gave you drugs, who gave you any kind of drugs, is responsible,” he said. “It says the death has to result from the heroin.” Justice Stephen G. Breyer urged caution, saying the court should not issue a broad decision in light of the complexity of the case, Burrage v. United States, No. 12-7515. “It’s so complicated to talk about,” he said, “that you are going to mix everybody up once we start to write on this.” “Why not just say ‘substantial’ ” — meaning the mandatory sentence would be proper if the defendant’s drugs played a substantial role in the death — “and let the lower courts figure it out, so we don’t confuse the entire bar and the entire Congress and everything?” he asked. Justice Scalia responded: “Because of that imprecision, some poor devils will have to go to jail for a longer period than otherwise. You know, tough luck.” In other action at the court on Tuesday, the justices declined to hear an appeal from a decision striking down an Oklahoma abortion law that required women to have an ultrasound image placed in front of them and to listen to a detailed description of the fetus before the procedure. The ultrasound typically required a vaginal probe and had to be performed even if women objected. Some doctors said the requirement that they recite the description was a violation of medical ethics. The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down the law in December, saying it conflicted with a 1992 United States Supreme Court decision protecting the constitutional right to abortion. In their brief to the justices, state officials said the law was consistent with the decision, which upheld part of a Pennsylvania law calling for informed consent from women seeking abortions. In urging the court not to hear the case, Pruitt v. Nova Health Systems, No. 12-1170, operators of Oklahoma abortion clinics said the law was “rare if not unique.” “This is no garden-variety ‘informed consent’ law,” their brief said. “It does not merely make information available to a woman who wishes to terminate her pregnancy; it compels women to undergo an invasive medical examination and listen to a state-scripted narrative even if they object.” As is their custom, the justices gave no reasons for their decision not to hear the case. Last week, the court dismissed an appeal from a decision striking down another Oklahoma law, an effort to limit medicinal abortions.

Mandatory sentencing
Oklahoma
Abortion
Supreme Court,SCOTUS
Drug Abuse


Celgene to Acquire Pharmion

Abstract: The biotechnology company Celgene said yesterday that it would pay $2.9 billion in cash and stock to acquire Pharmion, strengthening Celgene’s cancer drug portfolio and its distribution in Europe. It is one of the first big acquisitions for Celgene, a company most known for reviving the drug thalidomide, which caused birth defects in the 1950s and 1960s, as an effective cancer treatment. Celgene’s biggest-selling drug is Revlimid, a derivative of thalidomide intended to be more potent and have fewer side effects. The acquisition will help Celgene expand from mainly an American company to a global one. Pharmion distributes Celgene’s thalidomide in Europe under the brand name Thalomid. Buying Pharmion will also help Celgene sell Revlimid in Europe. Pharmion, based in Boulder, Colo., also sells the drug Vidaza, which is used to treat myelodysplastic syndromes, or MDS, a group of bone marrow diseases that can lead to cancer. Celgene’s Revlimid is also approved to treat MDS, as well as multiple myeloma , a form of blood cancer. Celgene, based in Summit, N.J., will pay $25 in cash and $47 in Celgene stock for each share of Pharmion, based on the present value of Celgene shares. The total value of $72 a share is a 46 percent premium over Pharmion’s $49.28 last closing price. Celgene, which has a market value of about $25 billion, is one of the most richly valued biotech companies relative to its earnings, a result of the growth in sales of Revlimid. In the third quarter, sales of Revlimid nearly doubled to $199.2 million from a year earlier. Sales of Thalomid were about flat at $111 million. Celgene said the acquisition of Pharmion, which is not yet profitable, would slightly reduce its earnings per share in 2008. The companies said they hoped to close the deal, which must be approved by Pharmion shareholders and regulators, by next June.

Pharmion
Celgene Corporation
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures


Stephen Hawking Calls Donald Trump a ‘Demagogue’

Abstract: Stephen Hawking, the great explainer of cosmic mysteries, is also known for sharing his wisdom on more earthly matters. He has weighed in on climate change ( bold action is needed ), boycotting Israel ( he favored it ), and the departure of Zayn Malik from the boy band One Direction ( he could still be in the band in a parallel universe ). But on ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” on Tuesday, Mr. Hawking, a theoretical physicist and best-selling author, acknowledged a mystery that he has found impenetrable. Asked to explain the political ascendance of Donald J. Trump, he said simply, “I can’t.” “He is a demagogue who seems to appeal to the lowest common denominator,” he said in prerecorded remarks. A message left with the Trump campaign on Tuesday was not immediately returned. The subject did not come up at a news conference that the Republican presidential candidate held in Manhattan on Tuesday. Dr. Hawking may be the smartest person to admit being baffled by Mr. Trump’s unlikely path to the presumptive party nomination, but he is certainly not the first . Last year, pundits from across the American political spectrum pegged Mr. Trump’s chances at slim to none. At another point on “Good Morning Britain,” Dr. Hawking, who is British, weighed in on the contentious debate over whether the country should remain in the European Union, a process often referred to as Brexit. “Gone are the days when we could stand on our own, against the world,” he said. “We need to be part of a larger group of nations, both for our security and our trade. The possibility of our leaving the E.U. has already led to a sharp fall in the pound, because the markets judge that it will damage our economy.” Those who favor leaving argue that the country’s membership in the bloc has diminished British influence and sovereignty. A referendum is scheduled for June 23. Dr. Hawking, who has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, has also been a bullish advocate for people with disabilities, a group that has been critical of Mr. Trump. During a campaign event in November, the candidate appeared to mock a reporter for The New York Times, who has a physical disability called arthrogryposis, which restricts the functioning of his joints. “Now the poor guy, you ought to see this guy,” Mr. Trump said, before jerking his arms around. Responding to criticism over the comments, Mr. Trump denied that he had intended to mock the reporter.

Stephen Hawking
Donald Trump
Physics
2016 Presidential Election


Mets Struggles at Home Continue in a Loss to Nationals

Abstract: The misery of the Mets has become all-encompassing, seeping through every aisle and empty seat at Citi Field. Their 5-1 defeat at the hands of the Washington Nationals extended their recent hapless run, and to the dismay of their fans, the worst of the team has emerged at home. With Monday’s loss, played in front of an announced crowd of 21,923, the Mets have lost 20 of their past 24 home games. Over all, they are 30-39 at Citi Field this season, compared with 35-37 on the road. “It’s too easy to sit back and be negative right now,” Manager Terry Collins said. “That’s obvious. We’ve got to think about things that can help us get better.” A most obvious concern has been the lack of run production in Queens. The Mets have gone 11 straight games at home in which they scored three runs or less, matching a franchise high set from the end of the 1966 season to the start of the 1967 season and tied during the 1979 season. To cast their futility in another light, the Mets have gone 106 innings at home without a multirun inning, the longest streak in baseball since the Washington Senators logged 119 such innings in 1909, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. “We’re in the situation that we’re in for a few different reasons,” David Wright said before Monday’s game, referring presumably to the team’s fourth-place standing in the National League East. “But one of the biggest is that we’re not taking care of business at home.” The spiral Monday began when catcher Kelly Shoppach dropped Kurt Suzuki’s pop-up in foul territory to start the third inning. Two pitches later, Suzuki belted a home run off Collin McHugh. “There are going to be drops behind you and there are going to be errors behind you all the time,” said McHugh, who gave up five runs, only two of them earned, in four innings. “But that doesn’t take away from the fact that I made a poor pitch there.” Three batters later, Ryan Zimmerman hit his 21st home run, a monstrous two-run shot that landed on the black batter’s eye in center field, where it was retrieved illicitly by a nimble fan. Then, in the fourth, Ian Desmond crushed a two-run shot of his own. With their listless play, the Mets squandered a chance to give an assist to R. A. Dickey, who is vying for the National League Cy Young Award. The Nationals left-hander Gio Gonzalez, one of Dickey’s chief competitors for the award, was far from his best for Washington, but still mostly cruised to his league-leading 19th victory. Gonzalez allowed five walks in six innings, but he did not give up the first of his three hits until the fourth, when Scott Hairston hit a leadoff homer to left field. The Mets have been trying to rattle themselves from a lengthy malaise. Before the game, Collins altered his team’s batting practice schedule, sending his players out later than usual and having his starters, who usually hit first, hit last. Collins said the Mets starters usually have 2 hours 20 minutes between batting practice and the game. On Monday, they had a little more than an hour. On the road, they have about 45 minutes of down time. Collins presented his latest plan with a knowing smile, emphasizing it was not a cure-all. “It’s a minor thing,” Collins said. “We’re kind of grasping at straws right now to see what works.” They may be running out of straws. INSIDE PITCH David Wright, continuing a yearly tradition, paid a visit to a local firehouse — this year, Squad 18 in Greenwich Village — on Monday in remembrance of the Sept. 11 attacks. ... During their pregame activities Tuesday, the Mets will wear caps representing the city’s first responder agencies. The caps will be autographed and auctioned for charity.

Washington Nationals
Baseball
New York Mets
Collins Terry L
Wright David


Johnson & Johnson to Remove Questionable Chemicals in Products

Abstract: Johnson & Johnson , which makes a range of personal care products like baby shampoo, acne cream and antiwrinkle lotion, announced plans Wednesday to remove a host of potentially harmful chemicals, like formaldehyde, from its line of consumer products by the end of 2015, becoming the first major consumer products company to make such a widespread commitment. The company had already pledged to remove certain chemicals from its baby products by 2013, but the latest announcement extended the program to its adult products, including well-known drugstore brands like Neutrogena, Aveeno and Clean & Clear. “There’s a very lively public discussion going on about the safety of ingredients in personal care products,” said Susan Nettesheim, vice president for product stewardship and toxicology for the company’s consumer health brands. “It was really important that we had a voice in that.” Environmental and consumer groups have for years pressured Johnson & Johnson and its competitors to remove questionable ingredients from their products. “We’ve never really seen a major personal care product company take the kind of move that they’re taking with this,” said Kenneth A. Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, one of the organizations that has been negotiating with company officials to change their practices. “Not really even anything in the ballpark.” In 2009, the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, a coalition that includes the Environmental Working Group, analyzed the contents of dozens of products for children and found that many items contained two substances of particular concern: formaldehyde and 1,4 dioxane. Consumers won’t find either listed on the back of their shampoos or lotions because neither is technically an ingredient. Formaldehyde, which last year was identified by government scientists as a carcinogen , is released over time by common preservatives like quaternium-15 and DMDM hydantoin, which do appear on labels. And 1,4 dioxane, which has been linked to cancer in animal studies, is created during a process commonly used to make other ingredients gentler on the skin. The company also plans to phase out other ingredients that have been linked to health problems, including phthalates, which have a variety of uses, like lessening the stiffening effects of hair spray; several fragrance ingredients; and triclosan, an antibacterial substance used in soaps. Johnson & Johnson will remove all parabens, a type of preservative, from baby products and some other parabens from its adult products. Ms. Nettesheim said the project was a major undertaking and would require extensive spending on research and development to find suitable alternatives to the ingredients, most of which are common in the industry. She said new suppliers needed to be located and vetted, and testing was needed to ensure the replacements were also safe. The company declined to say how much the project would cost. Then there’s the delicate task of tinkering with products that have been popular for generations. The company’s baby shampoo, for example, has been marketed for more than 50 years. “Consumer acceptance is really important,” Ms. Nettesheim said. “It really doesn’t help you if you reformulate products and people don’t like it.” Lisa Archer, director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, said her group would continue to press other cosmetics and consumer-goods companies to follow Johnson & Johnson, including the Estée Lauder Companies, Procter & Gamble, Avon and L’Oreal. In 2010, Procter & Gamble reformulated its Herbal Essences shampoos to limit the amount of 1,4 dioxane to only trace amounts, and its Tide laundry detergent came under scrutiny from some of the same groups because it contains small amounts of the chemical. Tim Long, a senior science fellow at P.& G., said the company communicates openly with consumers about the ingredients it uses. All of its products meet regulatory requirements, he said. In a statement, Estée Lauder said it adheres to stringent safety standards for all of its products and complies with regulations in every country in which its products are sold. Johnson & Johnson’s decision requires the company to navigate a public relations tightrope, by portraying itself as willing to make extensive changes while simultaneously reassuring consumers that its existing products are safe. The endeavor’s success is even more critical because the company has experienced serious recalls and quality lapses in recent years. On a new Web site that explains the changes to consumers, the company calls it “moving beyond safety.” “Even though as a scientist I will sit here and tell you these things are perfectly safe,” consumers are worried about reports that call her conclusions into question, Ms. Nettesheim said. “I understand that and we can’t ignore that.” Mr. Cook, of the Environmental Working Group, disagrees about the safety of the chemicals. But he agreed that there is avid interest in the ingredients on a shampoo bottle, noting that his group maintains a product safety database that has received hundreds of millions of page views. “This is them placing a bet that if they get out in front of this consumer interest, they’re going to win the marketplace,” he said.

Johnson & Johnson
Formaldehyde
Cosmetics and Toiletries
Shampoos and Hair Products
Hazardous and Toxic Substances