NASA Awards $269 Million for Private Projects

Abstract: The National Aeronautics and Space Administration announced Monday that it was distributing $269 million to four companies to develop spacecraft to take its astronauts to orbit in the future. The awards, part of what NASA calls its commercial crew development program, are a bet, pushed by the Obama administration, that commercial companies will be able to get people to and from orbit more quickly and less expensively. Philip McAlister, acting director of the program, said NASA received 22 proposals and sought additional information on 8 of them before deciding on the winners. The Space Exploration Technologies Corporation , or SpaceX, of Hawthorne, Calif., which already has a contract to carry cargo to the International Space Station, will receive $75 million toward making its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon capsule suitable for passengers. SpaceX had two successful launchings of its Falcon 9 last year, the second with an empty Dragon capsule that successfully orbited the planet before parachuting back to Earth. The Sierra Nevada Corporation of Louisville, Colo., will receive $80 million for its small space plane design, and Boeing will receive $92.3 million for a capsule design. Blue Origin , a quiet, enigmatic company started by Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com, will receive $22 million to work on its capsule design. For each of the companies, the money will finance one year of work beginning in May, and the companies will be paid as they meet milestones outlined in their proposals. Another winner — even though NASA did not give it any money — may be the United Launch Alliance , a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin. Except for SpaceX, the other companies need a rocket to fly their spacecraft, and the alliance’s Atlas V rocket is a likely choice. NASA also passed over a proposal from Alliant Techsystems Inc. to develop a commercial version of the Ares I rocket, which Alliant said would cost much less than an Atlas V. This second round of commercial crew development awards is NASA’s biggest step so far in breaking away from its past practice of developing and operating its own spacecraft like the space shuttles and before that the behemoth Saturn V rocket. After the shuttles are retired this year, the United States will have to rely on the Russians, at a cost of more than $50 million a seat, for taking NASA astronauts to orbit. Mr. McAlister said NASA was aiming for commercial providers to begin flying astronauts to the International Space Station in the “middle part of the decade,” although that depended on future financing from NASA and the companies meeting their technical goals. “We are hopefully going to make a lot of progress over this next year so we can get there as soon as we can,” Mr. McAlister said. In the next phase, NASA is to hold a competition to provide crew transportation services, which will be open to all companies, not just the ones that received money in the current round. NASA is still working on details of how the competition would be set up. “The strategy is still in development,” Mr. McAlister said. NASA had been developing its own follow-on rocket to the shuttles, the Ares I, as part of an ambitious program to send astronauts back to the Moon. But the Obama administration decided that effort cost too much and moved to cancel it and the Ares I last year. Instead, it wanted to spend $6 billion over five years to finance commercial crew efforts. Last year, NASA awarded $50 million in its first round of financing for commercial crew development. In his request for the next fiscal year’s budget, President Obama asked for $850 million. But many members of Congress remain skeptical of the commercial crew approach. While a blueprint for NASA’s priorities over the next three years passed last year includes money for commercial crew, it also includes much more money for NASA to develop a larger capsule and a big rocket for missions beyond low-Earth orbit. Congress also wanted the NASA rocket and capsule as a backup in case the commercial efforts failed. “While I know that commercial companies could eventually become successful,” Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, Republican of Texas, said during a hearing last week, “I do not feel that the information available justifies such a large investment of federal dollars this year for commercial vehicles.” With tight budgets, it is not clear how NASA can accomplish everything it has been asked to do.


E.U. Warns Euro Zone Heavyweights on Deficits

Abstract: BRUSSELS — The European Union on Wednesday warned Germany, France, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands that they are relying too much on a strong economic recovery to meet debt reduction targets. Reports by the European Commission say that the five largest nations that use the euro have “rather optimistic” growth forecasts in their programs to cut budget deficits to the E.U. limit of 3 percent of gross domestic product. It said budget figures could be worse than they expect if growth remains slow. Germany’s “budgetary strategy is not sufficient to bring the debt ratio back on a downward path,” the E.U. executive warned. Berlin needs to reconcile possible tax cuts — promoted by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Free Democrat coalition partner — with the need to reduce budget spending, it said. It also warns that Berlin hasn’t spelled out what cuts it would make after this year. Europe’s largest economy isn’t facing rocketing debt and deficit levels but still needs to act because debt is mounting and the rising cost of pensions and social security could make it hard to fund public finances in the longer-term. France’s budget plans don’t leave “any safety margin if economic developments turn out worse than projected” by the government’s “markedly favorable” growth assumptions, the commission said. It calls on France to specify spending cuts and show exactly how it will bring down its deficit and its debt — which will keep increasing until 2012 as France takes out a “grand loan” of €35 billion, or $48 billion, to fund a stimulus program. Spain may need to draft extra measures to reduce its huge deficit — estimated at 11.4 percent this year — by 2013 because it may be too optimistic about growth after this year, the E.U. report said. It also cautioned Madrid to make pension reforms to reduce spending. The Spanish government faced protests when it tried to do that by raising the retirement age from 65 to 67. The commission told Italy that its debt and deficit could be higher than targeted because the government’s growth outlook is likewise too high, it hasn’t described how it plans to make reductions and it could spend more than it assumes. It also says Italy needs “a swift and durable recovery in productivity growth” to get the country’s economy growing again. That implies developing more lucrative industries that could generate higher profits from exports. The E.U. told the Dutch government to lay out more details on how it will reduce its deficit and debt by 2013.

European Union
Germany
France
Spain
Italy
Economic Conditions and Trends


Details Are Revealed in Brothers’ Terror Case

Abstract: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — One of two brothers accused of conspiring to use weapons of mass destruction traveled to New York City last month to scout targets for his plan to set off a bomb, a federal prosecutor said in court on Tuesday. The brother also searched for ways to acquire the same explosive used by the “shoe bomber” and sought to detonate the bomb to avenge military drone strike deaths in Afghanistan , the prosecutor said. Raees Alam Qazi, 20, the younger brother, pedaled around New York City on a bicycle over Thanksgiving weekend trying to pick a site but never selected one, the prosecutor, Karen Gilbert, said. While there, Mr. Qazi, who slept at a mosque and in a restaurant, asked about the crowd size on Wall Street, in Times Square and at nearby theaters, returning home to Florida by bus after he ran out of money, Ms. Gilbert added. Mr. Qazi and his brother were arrested on Nov. 29 because agents believed there was “an immediate threat,” the prosecutor said. For this reason, he was questioned without being read his Miranda rights against self-incrimination. A federal agent said later in the hearing that no specific attack had been in the works. Tuesday’s court appearance offered the first details of the events leading up to the brothers’ arrest. Mr. Qazi and his brother, Sheheryar Alam Qazi, 30, also have been charged with conspiracy to provide material support to terrorists. Both men are naturalized United States citizens of Pakistani descent, and lived for years in Broward County. They have pleaded not guilty. The judge denied Raees Alam Qazi’s request to be released pending trial. His brother did not appear in court and may request a bond hearing at a later date. In arguing for his detention, Ms. Gilbert told the judge that Mr. Qazi “was reaching out to Al Qaeda ,” and “is a danger to this community.” In their search of Mr. Qazi’s house, federal agents said, they found batteries taped together, stripped Christmas light wire and a magazine, Al Qaeda Inspire, with an article on how to make a detonator using Christmas lights. One article carried the headline “Make a bomb in the kitchen of your mom.” Additionally, they found parts of a remote control car that Ms. Gilbert and an F.B.I. special agent said could be used to blow up a bomb remotely. Agents also seized Mr. Qazi’s computer and found searches for PETN, which they describe as the explosive used by Richard C. Reid , the so-called shoe bomber, who tried to blow up a jetliner with explosives in his shoes in December 2001. Agents said Mr. Qazi had told them that he tried to make a bomb at his home but did not succeed. “He was researching the different types of ingredients and detonation for a bomb,” said Ms. Gilbert, an assistant United States attorney. Mr. Qazi also hoped to persuade his brother to finance the bombing operation, she said. Daniel Ecarius, Mr. Qazi’s lawyer, said his client had no prior criminal history and no bank account, worked at a swap shop and a local mosque as a handyman, and bought and sold bicycles online. His brother worked as a taxi driver. Mr. Ecarius also questioned whether there was truly a “specific attack.” An F.B.I. special agent, Kristine Holden, responded in court that “he didn’t specifically plan one.” Federal agents offered up multiple recorded phone conversations between the defendants and two confidential informers. In one recorded conversation, Mr. Qazi’s brother described him as a “lone wolf.” In another, Mr. Qazi’s sister-in-law complained about Mr. Qazi. “In summary,” Ms. Gilbert said, “it’s nice that he’s going to do jihad, but he still has to pay rent and help out.”

Terrorism
Al Qaeda
Qazi Sheheryar Alam
Qazi Raees Alam
Federal Bureau of Investigation


Ireland: New Prime Minister Is Sworn In

Abstract: The Irish Republic on Wednesday swore in its new prime minister, Enda Kenny, after an election that wiped out the longtime ruling party, Fianna Fail. Mr. Kenny’s center-right Fine Gael party will now govern in a coalition with the center-left Labour Party. Ireland has been traumatized by the collapse of its economy and recently accepted a $93 billion loan from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund. Mr. Kenny pledged to enter into a “covenant with the Irish people” in which “honesty is not just the best policy; it’s our only policy.”

Ireland
Kenny Enda
Politics and Government


Mike Scioscia’s Long Drives to Success

Abstract: ANAHEIM, Calif. — The Los Angeles Angels open their division series at home this week against Boston, so their manager, Mike Scioscia , will be hitting the road. Around noon on the days of Games 1 and 2 at Angel Stadium, he will squeeze into his Toyota Prius for the 70-odd-mile drive from his home in Westlake Village. Scioscia is reducing his carbon footprint but also, possibly, his circulation, his fit so snug that his daughter fondly calls him Mr. Incredible , after the pudgy Pixar character. It’s a sight gag straight out of Hollywood, a place Scioscia studiously avoids — and not just on his commute. Whenever possible, he circumvents U.S. 101, the freeway that is the town’s main artery, dismissing it as too congested. Scioscia is not comfortable with the star scene, keeping such a low profile it is as if he were in a celebrity-protection program. Last Monday, Scioscia was just another Southern California driver trying to outsmart traffic during a commute that spanned three counties and four freeways and delivered him to the stadium in a trouble-free 75 minutes. It isn’t always smooth sailing. Scioscia said it once took him nearly four hours to reach the ballpark on the Friday of a holiday weekend. Scioscia, 50, used the drive to strategize for that night’s game against the Texas Rangers. The lanes were open, but his mind was gridlocked with images of batters who weren’t getting hits and pitchers who weren’t getting outs. Win or lose, the drive home tends to be mellower. “It’s really therapeutic,” he said. “I relive every pitch. I go through every out.” The Angels were closing the regular season with 50 games in 52 days, and everybody seemed to be running on fumes. The team had lost four of its previous five games, but Scioscia did not gaze at the rearview mirror. He arrived at the ballpark at 1:15 p.m., six hours before the first pitch, and by 2 o’clock, he was on the field with Bobby Wilson and Ryan Budde, catchers who started the season with Class AAA Salt Lake City. They were working on blocking balls and catching pop-ups. “I love it,” Scioscia said. “It’s the most fun part of my day for me to be out there one-on-one with the players.” He added: “That’s the point of coaching. Through your experience, you pass it on to players to help them achieve their potential.” Wilson, who may be the Angels’ third catcher in the postseason, said he was thrilled. “Someone like me, I’m a 48th-round pick; I have to work for anything I get,” he said. “Scioscia taught me that you can’t take days off. If he hadn’t been working with me, I don’t think I’d be the player that I am, especially mentally.” Everyone has the occasional mental lapse, even the manager. One day over the summer, Scioscia arrived at Angel Stadium in the early afternoon. He pulled into the employees’ parking lot, threw his car into reverse to back into a spot and hit the Cadillac Escalade driven by reliever Brian Fuentes. It is the only accident he has had in his 10 years of commuting to and from Orange County, Scioscia said. The Prius got the worst of it, but Fuentes said, “He was more upset about my car.” According to Scioscia’s wife, Anne, all the asphalt under his wheels helps him stay grounded. She ought to know; he proposed to her shortly after they picked up burgers at the drive-up window of an In-N-Out . As was true during his days as an All-Star catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Scioscia fiercely guards his home base. In his decade at the helm of the Angels, Scioscia has made the 150-to-160-mile round-trip commute gladly rather than uproot Anne and their two children. This season, he protected his baseball family the way he once did the plate, throwing his heart and soul into the task. Scioscia kept a firm grip on the Angels after they were blindsided in the first week by the death of their best young starting pitcher, Nick Adenhart. A few hours after he had thrown six scoreless innings against the Oakland Athletics, Adenhart, 22, was killed with two friends when their car was broadsided by a minivan operated by a suspected drunken driver. Adenhart’s death became the driving narrative of the Angels’ season. They kept his corner locker untouched, carried his No. 34 jersey into their dugout at home and on the road, and dedicated the season to his memory. The Angels went through pitchers like tissues, using 25 over all, including 14 starters. But however bad it seemed on the field, Scioscia was always quick to remind his players that Adenhart’s parents had it worse. “There is no template, no instruction manual, for dealing with what has happened,” said Scioscia, who won two World Series titles as a player and one, in 2002, as manager of the Angels. “But this game has a way of focusing you on the field.” As a parent, he couldn’t mourn Adenhart without missing his own son, Matt, who just turned 21 and is a junior on the Notre Dame baseball team. Scioscia put on a stoic face for his players. But Adenhart’s death changed the way he looks at life, starting with his commute. Scioscia is more attuned to the hazards of the road, taking conscious notice of signs he did not pay much attention to before, like the electronic message board that reads: “Report Drunk Drivers. Dial 911.” The defeats still eat at him, but Scioscia learned to lean on his family for support. After his players struck out 13 times in a shutout loss at home to the Athletics, Scioscia received a text message from his wife because the high school volleyball team had upset a powerful rival to win a tournament, and their daughter, Taylor, a 17-year-old senior, had been named the most valuable player. The text message actually read, “We just beat the Red Sox!” — an allusion to the spell Boston has cast over the Angels, beating them in the first round of the playoffs in 2004, 2007 and 2008. Scioscia’s reply, Anne said, was: “Thank God! If it hadn’t been for your text about Taylor, I wanted to drive the car off the freeway.” Taylor, a 5-foot-10 outside hitter, wears her father’s number, 14, and is as intense during games as her father ever was. She had a match last Monday in Los Angeles, and after her team won, a parent approached Anne to say, “I have a nickname for your daughter: Thumper.” Taylor’s match ended as the Angels and the Rangers were getting under way 30 miles south on Interstate 5. On the 40-minute drive home, Taylor, in a nod to the game’s importance, let Anne tune the radio to the Angels’ network instead of the rap station she prefers. The Angels routed Texas, 11-0, to become the first team to win three consecutive American League West titles since the 1988-90 Athletics. Scioscia’s players danced and doused one another with Champagne and beer. They raced out to the center-field wall, to the larger-than-life photograph of Adenhart pitching, and took turns patting it. Earlier, Scioscia gathered the players in the clubhouse. According to reliever Kevin Jepsen, he told them: “No matter what happens, everywhere we go, Nick is with us. He’s been with us the whole way, and he’s pulling for us.” And, “He can’t be here to celebrate with us, but he’s in our hearts.” All season Scioscia had driven this point home to his players: there was no bringing Adenhart back, but they could keep his memory alive by winning. After they clinched the division, he told them, “This is the first step.”

Los Angeles Angels
Baseball
Scioscia Mike


Democratic Candidates Grow More Vocal in Supporting Health Law

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Representative Allyson Y. Schwartz, Democrat of Pennsylvania, did the seemingly unthinkable on Tuesday: She ran a television ad expressing how proud she was of President Obama’s signature health care law. “I worked with President Obama on the Affordable Care Act and getting health coverage to all Americans,” Ms. Schwartz, who is running for governor, said in the 30-second commercial. “It was my legislation that said insurance companies can no longer deny coverage for kids with pre-existing conditions.” Ms. Schwartz — whose campaign paid more than $500,000 to show the ad in the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh media markets — is one of a small number of Democratic candidates offering a wholly supportive message on a law Republicans want to repeal. (In Ms. Schwartz’s case, she is trying to gain traction in her state’s Democratic primary and hopes her support of the law will help with the party’s base, as well as in the general election.) So far, 76 percent of all Republican-sponsored general election spots in House and Senate races this year have attacked the Affordable Care Act, making the law the most mentioned issue in such ads, according to Kantar Media/CMAG, which tracks political advertising. But Democrats, who this cycle have run largely on a “fix, don’t repeal” strategy concerning the law, are now gingerly experimenting, mostly in primaries and through outside groups, with ads that endorse the law and also say what could be lost if Republicans repeal it. “There’s definitely a shift on the Affordable Care Act from defense to offense,” said Representative Steve Israel of New York, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “Republicans have this political fantasy about repeal, but the facts of repeal are hard for people to swallow.” Video Lisa Keller is a mother, a runner, a lifelong Alaskan and a cancer survivor. She says she has health insurance again because of Mark Begich, her Democratic senator. For some Democrats, the strategy is two-pronged — to continue talking about their plans to fix and improve the law, and to highlight the negative consequences for Americans if it is repealed outright. In Alaska, an outside group is running a commercial supporting the re-election bid of Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat, that features a breast cancer survivor running on the state’s snowy tundra as she talks about how Mr. Begich “fought the insurance companies so that we no longer have to.” In West Virginia, House Majority PAC recently bolstered Representative Nick J. Rahall II, considered a vulnerable Democrat, with an ad that talks about the protections that could be lost — such as the so-called black lung benefits for coal miners. And a radio spot by Elisabeth Jensen, who is running in the Democratic primary in Kentucky to challenge Representative Andy Barr, criticizes Mr. Barr for repeatedly voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “We really have a good thing, and I think it’s time Democrats start standing up for it,” Ms. Jensen said in a phone interview, noting that Kentucky’s state health exchange was one of the more successful in the nation (she also said she was considering TV ads supporting the law as soon as she raised more money). Charlie Crist, a Republican-turned-Democrat who is running to get his old job back as the governor of Florida, even called the health care law “great” several times at a luncheon this week. Andrea Bozek, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee, said the recent spate of ads Democrats were running in support of the law would “be great for Republicans” in November. “We’re going to be able to take those ads that they’re wasting their money on, and use that footage and put it in our attack ads this fall,” Ms. Bozek said. Video An ad in West Virginia stressed that so-called black lung benefits for miners could be lost if the law is repealed. Stuart Stevens, Mitt Romney’s chief strategist in the 2012 presidential campaign, said the fact that some of these ads did not mention the Affordable Care Act by name was an indication of the challenges Democrats still face. “If there’s a defense of Obamacare that doesn’t mention Obamacare, that’s not exactly a real defense,” he said. “It’s sort of like your parents trying to get you to eat vegetables by saying they’re not vegetables.” At the White House, there is no sense of a sweeping change in tone among Democrats. “I wouldn’t make the case there’s been a seismic shift of the politics around the Affordable Care Act,” said Josh Earnest, a White House spokesman. “But what I think is happening is those candidates who are inclined to capitalize on some of the more prominent, positive impacts of the law can now do so on much stronger ground. We have been saying that good policy eventually leads to good politics, and this is an early — but strong — indication of that.” With the botched rollout of the law’s website receding, and with several pieces of good news — the higher-than-expected number of sign-ups, with eight million people enrolled for health insurance on the new marketplaces — Democrats say they see an opportunity for their candidates to marshal evidence in support of the law. A recent New York Times Upshot/Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that a majority of people in three Southern states (Kentucky, Louisiana and North Carolina) would rather Congress improve the law than repeal and replace it. Last month, one slide in a 17-page PowerPoint presentation the White House made to Senate Democrats was titled “Peace of Mind Guarantees,” and included positive results of the law — “women can no longer be charged higher premiums just because they are women,” for instance — that Democrats could use on the stump or in their ads. It is a theme Ms. Schwartz has adopted. “I worked on it and helped pass it, and I’m proud of it, and I want to talk about it,” she said in an interview. “I do think it’s a winner among the people of Pennsylvania.”

Democrats
Health Insurance
Obamacare,Affordable Care Act
Campaign advertising
Allyson Y Schwartz
US


What a Deal: Trash for Treasuries

Abstract: SAVING the nation’s financial system from reckless banks and brokerage firms is an enormous job, heaven knows. But somebody’s got to do it, so the Federal Reserve Board , with its taxpayer-funded balance sheet, stepped in. To grease the gears of the nation’s seized-up credit markets, the New York Fed in recent months created three new lending entities. Together, they allow banks and financial firms to swap up to $350 billion of securities they cannot sell for cash or United States Treasuries. The entities will stay in business as long as the markets for mortgage securities and other orphaned “investments” are closed, the Fed said. This allows institutions to exchange their trash for cash that they can turn around and lend to corporations or individuals. The nature of these new Fed lending facilities is not without risks, of course. One of those risks is that taxpayers may have to cover losses if a firm or bank fails to repay a loan. So far, the Fed’s noble experiment seems to be working. Back in March, when two of the entities were set up, banks and brokerage firms fairly beat down the Fed’s door to swap unwanted securities for cash or Treasuries. In early April, for instance, the Fed had to turn away many of the nation’s largest brokerage firms when they showed up, trash bags a-bulging, at the lending entity created just for them. These firms hoped to unload securities valued at almost twice what the Fed was offering to lend. Things are a bit calmer now. Last Thursday, the Fed said the brokerage firms applying to the entity put up securities valued at only $7.24 billion, less than one-third the amount the Fed was willing to exchange for Treasury securities. To be sure, the Fed is fairly well protected against the possibility that a commercial bank will renege on the loans. These institutions provide excess collateral — typically 100 percent of their borrowings — when they tap the entity, and the Fed can go after their other assets if need be. But deals with brokerage firms are another story entirely. And the particulars of those transactions worry Josh Rosner, an analyst and expert on mortgage securities at Graham-Fisher, an independent financial research company in New York. For starters, brokerage firms swapping securities at their new Fed window — the Term Securities Lending Facility — do not supply the excess collateral that commercial banks do. And look at the securities the Fed accepts in these swaps: residential and commercial mortgages and other asset-backed issues. Sure, the Fed requires that the securities must be rated triple-A to qualify for a Treasury swap. But as we’ve learned over the last year and a half, such ratings are unreliable. SOME Fed officials agree. Last month, Donald L. Kohn, vice chairman of the Federal Reserve, addressed bankers at a credit market symposium in North Carolina. “I think part of the work-list for the regulators is to re-examine the extent to which we ourselves are relying on these rating agencies to gauge the risks that you guys are taking,” he said. “I think there was far, far too much reliance on credit ratings all round.” And in a speech on April 10, Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman, said: “Investors must take responsibility for developing independent views of the risks of these instruments and not rely solely on credit ratings.” Yet the Fed is doing precisely that when it accepts triple-A rated mortgage securities. “This is classic ‘do as I say, not as I do,’ ” Mr. Rosner said. More worrisome, he added, is the fact that the Fed doesn’t examine the basis for bestowing a triple-A rating on these securities. Are they triple-A based on the soundness of the issuer? Or because of an insurance policy guaranteed by M.B.I.A. or the Ambac Financial Group, the troubled financial guarantors? Both M.B.I.A. and Ambac currently carry triple-A pedigrees from Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s. Fitch, the other major rating agency, cut them both to double-A earlier this year. But as long as the guarantors carry triple-A’s, the securities they guarantee carry them as well. But what if the guarantors themselves are downgraded? That brings us back to the Fed’s lending entity. If securities posted by brokerage firms at the Fed lose their triple-A rating, they will no longer be accepted as collateral. The brokerage firm would either have to come up with other acceptable collateral or repay that part of the loan immediately. And if the firm could do neither? The Fed could go after the firm’s other assets. Or taxpayers could get stuck with the bill. Such a possibility may be farfetched — let us hope it is. But stranger things have happened recently — Bear Stearns disappeared overnight, remember? And a downgrade of the financial guarantors would result in major market upheaval as enormous amounts of securities formerly considered triple-A would have to be downgraded, too. How much of the collateral posted at the Fed by brokerage firms is triple-A solely because of financial guarantors’ insurance, which is known as a wrap? The Fed won’t say. But Mr. Rosner said it only stands to reason that much of the mortgage and asset-backed collateral posted at the Fed falls into that category. “Investment banks who are posting the collateral know if the securities are natural triple-A or only triple-A because of the wrap,” he said. “Obviously the incentive would be for them to post triple-A collateral of lower quality to the Fed.” LAST week, Moody’s said that worsening losses on second lien residential mortgage securities might have an impact on its triple-A ratings on M.B.I.A. and Ambac, known as the monoline insurers. The insurers have significant exposure to these mortgage securities, Moody’s said. Also, incurred losses within both firms’ portfolios are meaningfully higher now, elevating the rating agency’s concerns about capital levels relative to the guarantors’ triple-A ratings. Both companies disputed Moody’s view that they may need to raise capital to keep their triple-A ratings. Clearly, it is in the Fed’s interest to make sure that M.B.I.A. and Ambac are well capitalized and deserving of triple-A ratings. In a speech last Thursday, Mr. Bernanke urged banks to keep raising capital to shore up their loss-ravaged balance sheets. He should add the financial guarantors to his list. Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary, said last week that the credit crisis was abating. If he truly believes this, then the Fed should tighten its lending entities’ collateral requirements and stop being what Joan McCullough, a macro strategist at East Shore Partners in Hauppauge, N.Y., called “a monetary bordello.” To be sure, crisis times call for creative measures. But as long as Wall Street is allowed to swap trash for Treasuries on the taxpayers’ dime, don’t try to tell me this horror show is over.

Credit
Federal Reserve System
Banks and Banking
Brokers and Brokerage Firms
Ratings and Rating Systems
Stocks and Bonds


U.S. Housing Prices Remain Weak

Abstract: Home prices in the United States rose slightly for the second consecutive month in May, but the real estate market still has a long way to go before a recovery, analysts said on Tuesday. The private Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index, a closely watched measure of home prices, was up 1 percent compared with April, according to the broadest measure of data tracking 20 cities. Prices rose in 16 of the cities; they fell in Detroit, Las Vegas and Tampa, Fla., and were unchanged in Phoenix. Separately, in Census Bureau data from the Commerce Department for June, the median sales price for a new home increased 5.8 percent in June to $235,200. Prices rose 7.2 percent year over year, the agency said. Sales of new single-family houses in June were at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 312,000, according to estimates, a rise of 1.6 percent from June 2010. The rise in May for Case-Shiller came after the index edged up a fractional 0.6 percent in April, which was the first time prices were higher in eight months. But the trend in the 20-city composite index, while positive, was attributed to seasonal factors, and analysts were hesitant to read too much into one or two months of data. Demand is typically stronger in the spring, and continued weakness was evident in other barometers of housing health, such as contract cancellations, tightened lending standards and sales of new homes in June. “We have now seen two consecutive months of generally improving prices; however, we might have a long way to go before we see a real recovery,” said David M. Blitzer, the chairman of the index committee at S.& P. home price indexes. “Sustained increases in home prices over several months and better annual results need to be seen before we can confirm real estate market recovery,” he said in a statement released with the survey. The data showed that prices in Detroit, Las Vegas and Tampa reached new lows, down nearly 50 percent or more since the peaks of 2005-6, the survey shows. The overall index in May was down compared with May 2010, by 4.5 percent. That reflected a decline in prices in 19 of the 20 metropolitan areas when compared with the previous year. The District of Columbia was the area with the only annual price increase, while Minneapolis, where home prices were up 2.6 percent in May and 0.1 percent in April, had the biggest fall in prices from May last year, with an 11.7 percent drop. Barbara T. Jandric, the president of Edina Realty in Minneapolis, said that the drop from last year reflected prices of many foreclosed homes. But in recent months the profile of houses being sold was starting to grow sounder, with fewer foreclosure sales as a percentage of the whole. “We still have quite a few of those sales in our market, but we see that we maybe hit our peak,” she said. In addition, the firm has noticed more buyers on the higher end of the market, she said. “So for the first time in many, many years, in that segment of the market we are seeing shortages of listings,” she said. “For us, it is another glimmer of hope that the market is really slowly, slowly trying to come back.” Analysts said that the spring uptick started in April and was likely to dwindle by October, when weak demand typically drags down home prices. In addition, other variables in the economy are deflating hopes for a housing rebound, including a struggling jobs market in which the unemployment rate is at 9.2 percent and consumer confidence is at depressed levels, said Chris G. Christopher Jr., senior principal economist for IHS Global Insight. “Things do not look very favorable on the housing front since the employment situation has taken a turn for the worse in May and June,” he said in a research note. “Going forward, the Case-Shiller indexes are likely to post increases during the home-buying season, and then turn down again.”

Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller Home Price Index


Parade Truck in Fatal Train Crash Crossed Tracks Against Signal, Investigators Say

Abstract: MIDLAND, Tex. — Federal officials investigating the collision of a train and a truck that killed four people at a parade here said Saturday that the vehicle carrying veterans and their spouses tried to cross the tracks seconds after the railroad crossing’s bells-and-lights warning system was activated. Mark R. Rosekind, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board, told reporters on Saturday that investigators had examined video and mechanical train data from the accident. That evidence showed that 20 seconds before the collision, the crossing’s warning system came on, as they were required to under federal railroad regulations. Eight seconds later, Mr. Rosekind said, the truck’s front crossed the first of the track’s two rails as the arm guards began slowly coming down and the crossing lights flashed and bells were sounded. Investigators with the transportation board have not identified the truck’s driver, and they said they had not yet interviewed him. Because officials are still conducting their on-scene investigation, they stopped short of blaming the truck driver for the crash. “We’re not going to analyze it, we’re just going to stay with the facts,” Mr. Rosekind said. “There are a matter of seconds that the truck is actually in that area when the warning lights are going off.” The crash killed four Army and Marine veterans who were all wounded in action while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. Sixteen other veterans and civilians were injured, though only five people remain hospitalized. Only one of the injured, a veteran’s spouse, is in critical condition. One of the injured veterans, Shane Ladner, released a statement on Saturday expressing support for the volunteer group that sponsored the parade and a hunting trip that has now been canceled, Show of Support Military Hunt . “Prayers have been and continue to be answered,” said Mr. Ladner, an Army veteran who is now a police officer in Holly Springs, Ga. As residents prepared to gather for a prayer vigil at a downtown plaza on Saturday evening, federal investigators described the final 21 seconds before the collision, providing some answers but raising more questions about the truck driver’s attempt to cross the tracks after the warning lights came on as well as about the train crew’s actions. Mr. Rosekind said the train’s emergency braking was not applied until five seconds before the collision. The collision occurred at 4:36 p.m. Thursday, as the parade crossed over train tracks at South Garfield Street and West Industrial Avenue. The parade featured two trucks that carried wounded veterans and their spouses on seats attached to open flatbed trailers. The first truck crossed over the tracks, but the second — carrying 12 veterans, 12 spouses and two escorts — was struck by a Union Pacific freight train bound for Louisiana. Witnesses said the gate arms had been up as the vehicles and motorcycles at the front of the parade passed the rail crossing. And they said the arms came down on the people seated on the trailer as the truck made its way across the tracks. Federal investigators on Saturday confirmed some of what witnesses reported, saying that seven seconds before impact, the gate arms struck the flag poles lining the flatbed trailer. They also said that examinations and inspections of the tracks and the locomotive engine found no defects or anomalies. Officials said that as the truck tried to cross the tracks, the gates had started coming down but were not yet horizontal. There is a delay of a few seconds between when the warning lights and bells come on and when the gates are completely down. But investigators said federal regulations require traffic to stop once the warning system comes on. “Once the crossing becomes active, when the bells and the lights start to flash on the mast, traffic is required to stop,” said Robert Accetta, the transportation board’s investigator in charge in Midland. “The gates come down in a delayed fashion there so that any traffic that may be crossing the tracks can clear the tracks, but they would be required initially to stop once the crossing becomes active.” Other questions remain about when the train sounded the horn. A Union Pacific spokesman, Tom Lange, said the train crew had properly sounded the horn, but witnesses said they heard the horn only a few seconds before impact, and parade participants near the front of the procession said they did not even realize a train was coming. Mr. Rosekind said that nine seconds before the collision, the train engineer sounded the horn. Officials with the Federal Railroad Administration said that in most cases, the horn on a train must sound 15 to 20 seconds before the train arrives at the crossing. However, in designated quiet zones, the train engineer does not have to blast the horn but can make that call if it appears to be necessary. The crossing in Midland was one of those quiet zones, and traffic signs on nearby streets read “No train horn.” The train was traveling 62 miles per hour at the time of the accident. Union Pacific changed the speed limit for trains in Midland to 70 m.p.h. from 40 m.p.h. in 2006. A company spokeswoman said that the changes were approved by federal railroad officials, and that the company had not had any accidents at that crossing since the speed limit increased. A 16-member team from the transportation board has been testing the signal system, inspecting the truck and checking to see if parade permit procedures were followed by the city, event organizers and Union Pacific. The authorities said the truck driver voluntarily supplied a blood sample to the police. Investigators plan to look at his qualifications, training and medical status.

Parades
Veterans
Railroad Accidents and Safety
Traffic Accidents and Safety
Texas
Midland (Tex)


Bill Wade, Star Quarterback Who Led Bears to the N.F.L. Title, Dies at 85

Abstract: Bill Wade, a quarterback who was the National Football League’s No. 1 overall draft pick in 1952 and helped the Chicago Bears win the 1963 championship, died on Wednesday in Nashville. He was 85. His death was confirmed by Sharon Wade Kinser, his daughter. She did not specify the cause. A star quarterback at Vanderbilt University, Wade was selected by the Los Angeles Rams in the 1952 draft and, after serving two years in the Navy, played 13 seasons in the N.F.L. He threw for 124 touchdowns and 18,530 yards while playing for the Rams from 1954 to 1960 and for the Bears from 1961 to 1966. He also rushed for 1,334 yards and 24 touchdowns. He threw for 2,301 yards and 15 touchdowns in the Bears’ 1963 championship season, and rushed for the Bears’ two touchdowns as they defeated the Giants, 14-10, in the title game. Wade, the son of W. J. Wade, a captain of a Vanderbilt team that went 7-0-1 in 1921, played for Vanderbilt from 1949 to 1951. He was the Southeastern Conference player of the year and an Associated Press all-American second-team selection in his final season. He threw for 3,397 yards and 31 touchdowns during his college career. As a junior at Vanderbilt in 1950, Wade threw 16 touchdown passes, which remained a program single-season record until Whit Taylor threw 22 in 1982. William James Wade was born on Oct. 4, 1930, and grew up in Nashville. Complete information on his survivors was not immediately available. His death came nine days after the death of Rudy Bukich , Wade’s backup on the 1963 Bears team. Bukich, who was also 85, played nine of 14 N.F.L. seasons with the Bears and was named All-Pro in 1965.

Bill Wade
Football
Chicago Bears
Los Angeles Rams
Obituary


Qualifier Beats Wawrinka

Abstract: Dominic Thiem, an Austrian qualifier, scored the biggest victory of his young career when he rallied for a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over third-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka at the Madrid Open. Roger Federer pulled out of the event because of the birth of his second set of twins, boys named Leo and Lenny.


Police Department Employee Is Stabbed to Death in Queens

Abstract: For the last nine months, Michelle Lee, a graduate of John Jay College, had pored over forensic evidence for the New York Police Department, trying to help solve crimes. On Monday morning, the police learned that the 24-year-old criminologist had herself become a victim — of homicide. She was found stabbed to death, in the bedroom of her Sunnyside, Queens, apartment, a knife jutting from her throat, the police said. Ms. Lee, who began working with the Police Department as a civilian employee in September, was found by her roommate about 8 a.m. inside the three-story brick apartment building at 45-23 41st Street, the police said. The roommate had come home Sunday night and saw that Ms. Lee’s bedroom door was closed and assumed that she was sleeping, said Paul J. Browne, the chief spokesman for the Police Department. But when Ms. Lee failed to get up for work on Monday morning, the roommate looked in on her, and found her dead, Mr. Browne said. Mr. Browne said there did not appear to be any signs of forced entry. Ms. Lee’s killing is “under investigation,” he said, with no known suspects. As of late Monday night, the police said no arrest had been made. “It’s very upsetting,” said Christine Roldan, 28, who lives two blocks from the murder scene and was on her way home Monday night with a friend. “I’ve always taken pride in Sunnyside being a really safe neighborhood. It makes me nervous now. It makes me rethink coming home alone late at night.” Neighbors along the quiet, residential block where Ms. Lee lived described her as quiet and polite. She had lived in the building only a few months, neighbors said. “She kept to herself,” said Shane Michael, a neighbor. The last time he saw the victim, he was with his 3-month-old son, and Ms. Lee was cooing and saying how cute the boy was. “The shock is just starting to set in,” said Mr. Michael, 31. “I went out today and bought a deadbolt lock for the front door. I’m putting a gate on the fire escape tonight.” People who live in the neighborhood described it as mostly sedate during the week but much different during the weekend. There is a liquor store on one end of the block, a park at the other and a bunch of bars around the corner. “The street gets a lot of drunk traffic,” said John Walter, a musician who lives in a building next door to Ms. Lee’s. “I don’t know her. I don’t know her situation. But if it’s a domestic issue it makes us feel a little bit safer than if it’s someone on the loose,” Mr. Walter said. Erick Pulido, 29, who lives in a condominium three buildings down, said he measured his shock over the killing with the realities of city life. “Things happen all the time, it’s a big city,” Mr. Pulido said. Mr. Pulido said that while on his way to work on Monday morning he noticed the police swarming around Ms. Lee’s building. “I thought they might have been filming a movie so I just left,” he said.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Police Department (NYC)


Man Indicted in Stabbings

Abstract: A drifter has been indicted on charges of attempted murder, assault and attempted robbery in the stabbing of a tourist from Texas on a subway train and three other people last week, Robert Morgenthau, the Manhattan district attorney, said yesterday. The suspect, Kenny Alexis, 20, is a Haitian immigrant who had been living in Boston on a student visa, prosecutors said. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of attempted murder.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Manhattan (NYC)
Alexis Kenny


N.C. State Improves to 3-0

Abstract: Russell Wilson threw for 333 yards and 3 touchdowns, and North Carolina State beat Cincinnati, 30-19, to improve to 3-0 for the first time in eight years. The Wolfpack never trailed Cincinnati (1-2).

Football
College Athletics
North Carolina State University


Serena Williams Opens Bid for 9th Florida Title

Abstract: Serena Williams began her bid for a ninth Miami Open title by beating Christina McHale, 6-3, 5-7, 6-2, in Key Biscayne, Fla. Williams, seeded No. 1, earned her 19th consecutive victory in the tournament and has not lost there since the 2012 quarterfinals.


Jeweler to Pay $400,000 in Online Auction Fraud Settlement

Abstract: A Manhattan jewelry dealer who directed his employees to secretly place bids that inflated the price of goods his company auctioned on eBay has agreed to pay $400,000 to settle a civil fraud complaint, the New York attorney general, Andrew Cuomo , said yesterday. The settlement also bars the merchant, Ezra Dweck, and his company, the EMH Group, from participating in online auctions for four years, according to a statement by Mr. Cuomo’s office. The settlement includes a $100,000 fine and $300,000 in restitution. EMH deals in “large quantities” of diamonds, gold and platinum jewelry and supplies “most of the major U.S. chain stores,” according to the company’s Web site. Mr. Cuomo’s lawsuit said Mr. Dweck listed items on eBay as having no reserve price — meaning they would be sold no matter how low the highest bid was — but that he distributed spreadsheets to employees instructing them on what bids they should place to drive up the final sale price. Mr. Cuomo said the company placed 232,000 bids totaling more than $5 million over a one-year period. The deceptive practice of insiders posing as bidders, known as shill bidding, has a long and notorious history in traditional auction markets. It has become a growing concern for the operators of online markets and regulators. Ebay, the nation’s largest online auction marketplace, with more than 200 million registered users, brought the suspicious bidding patterns involving EMH to the attention of the attorney general — at the time Eliot Spitzer — late in 2005. The office took more than a year to complete its economic analysis before filing the complaint. Ebay has installed a number of policies and surveillance tactics aimed at curbing shill bidding. State and federal authorities have brought civil and criminal charges involving shill bidding against online auctioneers selling goods including computers, artwork and automobiles. Mr. Cuomo’s office estimated that Mr. Dweck’s practices had inflated the prices on the jewelry that EMH sold by 20 percent. Mr. Dweck could not be reached for comment yesterday.

Auctions
EMH Group
Frauds and Swindling
eBay Inc
Jewels and Jewelry
Computers and the Internet
Manhattan (NYC)
Cuomo Andrew M
Dweck Ezra


Not All Ad Clicks Are Created Equal

Abstract: In the last quarter, an estimated 17.1 percent of all clicks on Internet advertisements were fraudulently generated, according to Click Forensics, a firm that analyzes traffic on behalf of advertisers and ad networks. Web sites practice “click fraud” by running Internet ads, soliciting clicks, receiving payments from advertisers for the clicks, and then kicking some money back to the clickers. About a third of the clicking is done by botnets, enormous networks of personal computers that are harnessed and controlled using viruses. Tom Cuthbert, the president of Click Forensics, said this was the highest rate of click fraud that the company had seen in its three years of monitoring. He said that rates of click fraud, and especially of botnet activity, had risen sharply. “We think the increase in click fraud is definitely tied to the downturn in the economy,” he said. One fraud making a comeback is the “click farm,” workers who are paid to browse sites and mimic the patterns of a normal user. ALEX MINDLIN

Online Advertising
Frauds and Swindling
Computers and the Internet


Carroll Addresses the Tension Over Sherman’s Postgame Actions

Abstract: RENTON, Wash. — Before their game against the Giants on Dec. 15, the Seattle Seahawks stayed at a Westin hotel in Jersey City. That is where the N.F.C. representative will be staying for the Super Bowl, and Coach Pete Carroll wanted his players to get acclimated for their return. “Yeah, we did,” Carroll said, smiling, on Monday. It was a bold move. It was also pragmatic. Carroll’s four-year tenure in Seattle has been defined by similar tactics that have escorted the Seahawks to the cusp of the first Super Bowl title in the franchise’s 38 seasons. His players perform yoga. They meditate. They are told who they will start at quarterback, as Russell Wilson learned two training camps ago, while Carroll shoots 3-pointers. The Seahawks are also free to express themselves, which is why Carroll on Monday found himself handling several questions about the emotional outburst tumbling from the mouth of his star cornerback, Richard Sherman, in a Fox interview immediately after their 23-17 victory over the 49ers, and later, after a cooling-off period, in the team’s interview room. Sherman, whose acrobatic tip of a Colin Kaepernick pass in the end zone led to the interception that sealed their victory, repeatedly derided the intended receiver, Michael Crabtree, in both interviews. “I’m the best corner in the game,” Sherman said. “When you try me with a sorry receiver like Crabtree, that’s the result you’re going to get. Don’t you ever talk about me!” Carroll, a father of three, said he spoke to Sherman as if he were his son. “There’s some stuff that I think you should think about,” Carroll said he told Sherman. “Did you really want it to come out the way it did? We talked our way through it, and he didn’t. He was really clear that the last thing he wanted to do was to take away from the accomplishments of the team.” Players were not made available on Monday, but Sherman told selected reporters that he apologized for funneling attention toward him instead of his team’s first Super Bowl berth in eight years. Carroll was asked whether he must handle emotional, outgoing players differently. “Some guys have personalities that would fit in some places and they might not fit with other teams,” Carroll said. “In our situation, we’re pretty open to be flexible to the uniqueness that guys bring to our program,” he added. “We celebrate them being themselves,” Carroll said. “We cheerlead for them to be themselves and we try to bring out the very best that they have to offer. Sometimes, we go overboard. Sometimes they go out of bounds and you have to step back and go back in bounds. I understand that. That’s how we kind of operate.” It was how he also operated at Southern California, where Carroll led the Trojans to two national championships. This will be his first Super Bowl as a head coach, but his experience coaching in college prepared him for this opportunity. Comparing this two-week lull until Super Bowl XLVIII to the break between the end of the Trojans’ season and the upper echelon of bowls, Carroll said the preparation — and anticipation — is similar. Addressing his players on Monday morning, Carroll allowed himself to linger on their accomplishments, their ascent. “It’s later than we think, than what we wanted it to be, but we’re still on track for something really special,” Carroll said. “If we had to wait a little bit, it might be worth it.” The fans celebrated long into the Seattle night, honking their horns and chanting, “Sea! Hawks!” through the streets of Pioneer Square. That Seattle defeated a hated rival intensified the satisfaction. Now it must muster similar emotion for the Denver Broncos, whose top-ranked offense will pose a supreme challenge for their top-ranked defense. “If we be normal and be ourselves, I think people make the game bigger than what it is,” Seahawks safety Earl Thomas said after Sunday’s game. It is still big, very big, to Carroll, who said he grew up dreaming about reaching the Super Bowl — but as a player, not necessarily as a coach. Now he will lead what could wind up being the best team in franchise history. “That statement that defense wins championships, it’s been out there for a long time,” Carroll said. “I don’t know that it ever went away. We’ll find out.”

Seahawks
Super Bowl
Pete Carroll
49ers
Michael Crabtree
Football


Massachusetts: Defense Lawyers in Bombing Case Say the Government Is Withholding Information

Abstract: Lawyers for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the man accused in the Boston Marathon bombing last year, said in court papers on Friday that the government was withholding a wealth of information that would show that his older brother, Tamerlan, instigated the bombing plot. The defense lawyers are seeking to show that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was under the influence of his brother, who was ideologically driven and had a history of violence, and that Dzhokhar should therefore be spared the death penalty. They want the government to release the family’s applications for asylum in the United States as well as documents of F.B.I. contacts with Tamerlan Tsarnaev before the bombing in which, the lawyers said, the F.B.I. asked him to be an informant on the Chechen and Muslim communities. The government has said it has no evidence that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was subsequently killed in a police shootout, was solicited to be an informant.

Boston Marathon Bombings
Boston
Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Murders
Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev


U.S. Says It Accidentally Killed 9 Iraqi Civilians

Abstract: BAGHDAD — American forces said Sunday that they had accidentally killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three in a strike aimed at militants of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia south of Baghdad, acknowledging what appeared to be one of the deadliest cases of mistaken identity in recent weeks. A military statement released late in the day said the accidental killings happened Saturday in Iskandariya, about 25 miles south of the capital, and that the wounded were taken to American military hospitals. The statement did not further identify the civilian victims, but the Iraqi police said American aircraft, responding to an attack on an American convoy, had erroneously bombed Iraqi civilian guardsmen who have contracted with the American military to fight Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia. Those guardsmen, predominantly Sunnis, are considered a major reason the American military has successfully reduced insurgent violence in Iraq . But in recent weeks scores of the Sunni guardsmen, known variously as Concerned Local Citizens, Awakening Councils and the Sons of Iraq, have been killed in clashes with Qaeda fighters and Shiite militia groups. Lt. Patrick Evans of the Navy, an American military spokesman, said that after the deaths in Iskandariya, American military officials met with a sheik representing the citizens of the local area and that the mistake was under investigation. “We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent life,” Lieutenant Evans said. He said he did not know whether the Iraqi victims were citizen guardsmen or precisely how they had been killed. News of the mistaken attack coincided with other scattered violence in Iraq and the final passage of a much debated law that will make it more difficult for former members of the Baath Party of Saddam Hussein to keep their government jobs. Lt. Col. Ahmad Ibrahim, a senior official in Iraq’s police commando force, was killed by a bomb placed under his car in the Mansour area of west Baghdad, the police said, and two of Mr. Ibrahim’s bodyguards were wounded in the blast. In Baquba, capital of Diyala Province, Hussein Zubaidi, chief of the provincial council security committee, was wounded by a bomb that had been secretly planted inside the Diyala provincial headquarters, the police said. Two other government employees outside of the room were also wounded by the blast, the police said. A military spokesman disputed a police account that two American soldiers had also been wounded. After the attack, American soldiers sealed off the building and imposed an indefinite curfew in Baquba. An Iraqi police official said Iraqi intelligence officials warned Mr. Zubaidi, a Sunni politician, two weeks ago that he might be a target of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, the largely home-grown Sunni insurgent group that the Americans say is foreign-led. Over the past three years, the provincial headquarters in Baquba has been a target of several attacks and assassination attempts. Diyala has been known as a haven for the Sunni Arab insurgency since Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the original leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, was killed in an American bombing attack in June 2006. In Baghdad, the anti-Baath legislation effectively became law when the 10-day constitutional deadline for President Jalal Talabani to formally object to it passed. The Justice and Accountability Law, as the anti-Baath legislation is known, is widely believed to be harsher than the old de-Baathification process, which barred high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein’s predominately Sunni Arab Baath Party from holding government jobs. The new law could prohibit even more former officials from government service and purge many suspected Baathists from the security ministries, which have struggled to integrate Iraq’s armed forces. According to some Iraqi officials’ estimates, as many as 38,000 government officials could be affected by the new law if it is strictly enforced. Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, Iraq’s leading Sunni politician, did nothing to stop the proposal from becoming law, despite having publicly criticized it during the past several days. Dhafir al-Ani, a lawmaker who is a member of Mr. Hashimi’s Sunni political party, said Sunni lawmakers had decided to let the measure become law to avoid a political crisis and because they hoped to change the law later. Ahmad Chalabi, a Shiite official who strongly supported the American-led overthrow of Mr. Hussein’s government and is a strong proponent of de-Baathification, said that with the new law, reversals of earlier purges from government posts were unlikely. People close to Mr. Talabani said the law, despite being distasteful to Sunnis, was probably the best legislation they could get. Mr. Talabani and Adil Abdul Mahdi, Iraq’s Shiite vice president, were reluctant to offer Baathists any concessions at all, including hard-won pensions for most dismissed former government members.


Campaigns for Electronic Cigarettes Borrow From Their Tobacco Counterparts

Abstract: IT has been decades since American consumers could watch cigarette commercials, which once filled the airwaves with pitches for brands like Camel, Chesterfield, Kool, Lucky Strike, Pall Mall, Viceroy and Winston. Now, they can watch cigarette spots again, to an extent: the smokes being advertised are electronic rather than made from tobacco. Marketers of e-cigarettes are introducing campaigns that echo the traditional appeals for tobacco cigarettes in both content and media placements. For instance, the ads have catchy themes that could be deemed on a par with “I’d walk a mile for a Camel” or “Only Viceroy has a thinking man’s filter ... a smoking man’s taste.” Ads for Njoy King carry the theme “Cigarettes, you’ve met your match” and ads for Blu eCigs carry the theme “Rise from the ashes.” Some e-cigarette ads feature celebrity endorsers, in the way that ads for conventional cigarettes once featured actors, athletes, doctors and even cartoon characters . The actor Stephen Dorff began appearing in October in a campaign for Blu eCigs , which was acquired this year by Lorillard, the maker of mainstay cigarette brands like Kent, Old Gold and Newport. Commercials for Blu eCigs, as well as brands like Njoy King, are running on cable networks, in the same way that spots for tobacco cigarettes were once shown on the ABC, CBS and NBC broadcast networks. (Because e-cigarettes are not tobacco products, they are not covered by the longtime restrictions on using commercials to sell tobacco cigarettes.) And while no e-cigarette has a jingle in its commercials in the way that consumers were once serenaded with tunes like “Winston Tastes Good Like a Cigarette Should” and “Be Happy — Go Lucky,” Njoy King is using the hit song by Foreigner, “Feels Like the First Time,” in its commercials. Njoy Inc., which also sells e-cigarette brands like OneJoy, is introducing this week the campaign for Njoy King, with a budget estimated at $12 million to $14 million through the next six months. The campaign, being handled by several agencies, includes the commercials; ads in print, in stores and online; sampling; the Njoy Web site, njoy.com ; social media; and events in clubs and restaurants. The campaigns for the various e-cigarette brands are “going to increase awareness and trial” and “bring some excitement to the category,” said Bonnie Herzog, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities in New York who follows the tobacco industry — and also, increasingly, the e-cigarette industry. “Let’s just say, my phone is ringing,” Ms. Herzog said. “It is not a fad.” “E-cigarettes are to tobacco what energy drinks were or are to beverages,” she added. “It is a small category that is growing very fast, embraced by retailers and consumers.” Annual sales for e-cigarettes in the United States are at $500 million, compared with $100 billion for tobacco cigarettes, Ms. Herzog estimated. But as “e-cigarettes continue to evolve in technology,” she said, and as additional large tobacco marketers “jump in” the category, it can become a “game-changer.” In addition to Blu eCigs and Njoy Inc., Ms. Herzog also follows e-cigarette makers that include Vapor Corporation , which sells brands like Fifty-One and Krave, and the Fin Branding Group , which sells Fin. Blu eCigs and Njoy Inc. are considered to be the sales leaders. “Our No. 1 objective is getting this product into people’s hands,” Andrew Beaver, chief marketing officer at Njoy Inc. in Scottsdale, Ariz., said of Njoy King. “The more like the real thing” it is perceived to be, he added, “the more smokers get into the category.” So the commercials describe Njoy King as “the first electronic cigarette with the look, feel and flavor of the real thing.” And print ads carry headlines like “The most amazing thing about this cigarette? It isn’t one.” The commercials have been accepted by cable channels owned by Discovery Communications and Viacom, Mr. Beaver said, as well as local broadcast stations in markets like Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle. So far, no broadcast networks have agreed to carry the spots, he said, adding: “We applaud those cable networks and spot stations working with us to provide adult smokers an alternative to cigarettes, and our loyalty to them will be self-evident. Other networks have yet to see the light and until they do, they won’t see our money either.” The Arcade Creative Group in New York, which is the creative agency for Njoy King, was asked to “let the product be the hero,” Mr. Beaver said, and “appeal to a broad audience of adult cigarette smokers, ages 21 to 45.” Arcade, part of Sony Music Entertainment, was hired in June. “It was the first time in a pitch probably in my life that I ever favorably referred to my cigarette experience as a young guy” in the business, said Adam Owett, president of Arcade, who worked on Lucky Strike Lights and Carlton at the Daniel & Charles agency in the 1980s and gave up smoking around 1988. “The way I’ve been thinking of it is as ‘The shock of the old,’ ” Mr. Owett said, in that “the classic cigarette ad cues and images have basically disappeared from the advertising and media landscape.” “This is a modern take on how you’d introduce a cigarette,” he added, that ought to “grab the attention of the committed smoker.” The other agencies working on the campaign include Horizon Media, for media services; Factory 360, for sampling; Sloane & Company, for public relations; and Forum Strategies and Communications, for public affairs and policy.

Advertising and Marketing
Smoking and Tobacco
Television
Online Advertising


Jordan Is Asked to Admit Thousands of Stranded Syrians

Abstract: AMMAN, Jordan — The United Nations and human rights groups on Tuesday called on Jordan to allow the entry of thousands of Syrian refugees stuck in a northeast desert holding area adjoining the Syrian border. The United Nations refugee agency spokeswoman, Melissa Fleming, said the number of refugees in that area had tripled to 12,000 since the start of November as the Syrian conflict intensified. “The population includes elderly people, others who are sick or wounded, children, women and others who are vulnerable and need help,” Ms. Fleming said. Human Rights Watch also released a statement calling on the Jordanian government to allow entry to the “thousands of Syrian asylum seekers at its northeastern border region in deplorable conditions.” In a telephone message, Jordan’s government spokesman, Mohammad Momani, said the country’s borders remained open and that the number of stranded refugees as reported by the United Nations had been “greatly exaggerated.” A Family Swept Up in the Migrant Tide This summer, as the Majid family left Syria for Europe, The New York Times followed the group through weeks of defeat and triumph, disillusionment and determination. He did not specify how many were stuck, but said that Jordan, which borders Syria and Iraq, “has security concerns and is entitled to scrutinize those refugees seeking entry.” The flow of Syrians permitted into Jordan has slowed substantially since last year as security concerns increased and Jordanians were overwhelmed by the number of refugees already in the country. According to data compiled by the International Organization for Migration, an intergovernmental group, Jordan has been permitting entry in batches of a few dozen at a time. More than four million Syrians have fled to neighboring countries since the war began in 2011, including more than 600,000 to Jordan. The influx has severely strained the resources of all host countries. According to the United Nations refugee agency, more than 80 percent of refugees in Jordan live outside camps and subsist below the poverty line of $3.20 per day. The United Nations just opened its biggest humanitarian aid appeal , seeking more than $20 billion for 2016. Much of that money is meant to deal with the Syrian refugee crisis. Refugees who are permitted to enter Jordan are sent to the Azraq camp, about 200 miles from the northeast holding area. Satellite images of the holding area taken this week revealed more than 1,450 refugee tents, compared with 175 in April, according to Human Rights Watch. The organization also expressed alarm about health and sanitation problems because of the crowded conditions. “Children are suffering from diarrhea, vomiting and acute malnutrition,” it said.

Middle East and Africa Migrant Crisis,European Migrant Crisis


German Party Sees Shake-Up as Its Leader Steps Down

Abstract: BERLIN — In a shake-up at the top of Germany ’s No. 2 political party, the country’s popular foreign minister was chosen Sunday as its candidate to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in federal elections next year, and the party’s embattled leader stepped down. The selection of Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, 52, came after intense internal negotiations, said officials with the party, the Social Democrats. And it ended months of speculation over the fate of Kurt Beck, the leader, who resigned under pressure. Mr. Beck presided over a two-year stretch of disunity and plunging popularity for the party while it has been part of an uneasy governing coalition with Mrs. Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union. The Social Democrats have been torn apart by infighting between those who support welfare and employment reforms championed by former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder and liberals who support a more populist course. The party’s general secretary, Hubertus Heil, said Sunday that Mr. Beck would be replaced by Franz Müntefering, 68, who led the party in 2004 and 2005. Mr. Müntefering later left the political scene to care for his wife, who died of cancer in July. Mr. Steinmeier, who was once Mr. Schröder’s chief of staff, spoke to reporters about the need for unity, saying, “We need an end to the struggle between the various factions inside the party and among the personalities.” His selection is to be formally confirmed at a special party meeting here on Monday, party officials said.

Germany
Social Democratic Party (Germany)
Merkel Angela
Steinmeier Frank-Walter


Coburn to Leave Senate at Year’s End

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Senator Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican known for his blunt personality and distaste for government spending, will leave office at the end of the year as he battles cancer. Mr. Coburn made his announcement late Thursday night. Though he has been treated for repeated bouts with prostate cancer, he said that his decision to step down — two years before his term expires in 2016 — was not about his health or his prognosis. “Our founders saw public service and politics as a calling rather than a career,” he said in a written statement. Mr. Coburn, an obstetrician turned politician, had always intended to step down after two terms, a pledge he made when he first ran for the Senate. Mr. Coburn is one of the most conservative Republicans in the Senate, but he has prided himself on working with Democrats. His retirement is not likely to alter the Senate’s balance of power. Oklahoma has not sent a Democrat to the Senate since David L. Boren stepped down in 1994.

Senate
Tom Coburn
Oklahoma
Republicans
Prostate cancer
US Politics
Congress
US


West Memphis Three, a Year Out of Prison, Navigate New Paths

Abstract: ATLANTA — The list of things you learn about yourself when you get out of prison after 17 years is long: You’re allergic to shrimp, or you’re paralyzed by the choices in a grocery store or moved to tears by the softness of the night sky. The men known as the West Memphis Three thought they would die in prison, linked forever as the torturers and killers of three young boys. They have been free for a year now, living as little more than acquaintances in a world flooded with possibilities. Yet they are still linked, not only by a series of coming books and movies but by a legion of fervent supporters who hold them as a symbol of a flawed legal system. “Honestly, we all lived through this horrible time in our own way and got through it differently, so now I guess we all have a different way of healing,” said Jason Baldwin, 35, who went into prison a quiet, heavy metal-loving teenager ready to start a job as a grocery store bagger and came out — much to the amazement of most people who meet him — a sweet, optimistic and slightly goofy man who wants to help people who have been wrongly accused. Over the course of nearly two decades, their imprisonment grew into a much-examined narrative about wrongful conviction , class, conformity and the power of celebrity. It ended last August in a legally awkward deal that had them declaring their innocence but pleading guilty to the murders while the State of Arkansas essentially admitted the evidence against them was weak but possibly viable. On Saturday, supporters of the three will party on Beale Street in Memphis to mark the anniversary of their release. The three men will not be there. In the year that has passed, their paths have crossed mostly for media events or awards. Jessie Misskelley, 37 — then a hard-partying teenager with a low I.Q. and a penchant for fighting whose shaky confession led to their conviction in 1994 — headed back to his old Arkansas neighborhood to be near his father. He became engaged to a woman with two children and started to study auto mechanics. Mr. Baldwin, who taught classes to other inmates while he served a life sentence, is working toward a law degree in Seattle. He is deeply in love with Holly Ballard, a longtime supporter who wrote and visited him regularly. He, Mr. Misskelley and Ms. Ballard are listed as executive producers on “Devil’s Knot,” a feature film that was shot in the Atlanta area over the summer. Damien Echols, the brooding, charismatic star of the trio and the one who spent nearly two decades confined for 23 hours a day in a small cinder-block box on death row, could barely walk when he got out. Inside, he became a Zen Buddhist and married Lorri Davis, a Manhattan landscape architect who became the driver behind the effort to free him. He moved to New York and wrote “Life After Death,” a memoir that will be released in September. He got matching tattoos with his friend Johnny Depp and spent time with Eddie Vedder, the Pearl Jam frontman who was a lead supporter for his release. He also helped make a documentary, “West of Memphis,” with the New Zealand filmmakers Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh. And he learned about the power of social media, which did not exist when the men went in but which ultimately helped free them and continues to help Mr. Echols build a fan base. “Sometimes I still can’t believe I’m actually out. That I actually survived,” he wrote this week in a Twitter message. Who really committed the crime is still a mystery. Efforts of private investigators and lawyers and an avalanche of documentaries, investigative reports, books and the coming Hollywood movie, starring Reese Witherspoon and Colin Firth and directed by Atom Egoyan, all point to one version of the truth: whoever it was, it was not these three. Supporters, including some of the parents of the second-grade boys who were killed in 1993, want the case reopened. The men’s lawyers and supporters keep pushing for Arkansas’s governor, Mike Beebe, to pardon them, which a spokesman said he was unlikely to do. “This has so far been a very cynical and unsatisfactory end to a sinister prosecution,” said Mara Leveritt, an Arkansas journalist who wrote “Devil’s Knot,” the 2002 best-selling book that examined how an overmatched defense and what she called “satanic panic” led to the convictions. She is working on a new book about them, and her original book is becoming the movie. Mr. Firth plays an investigator, Ron Lax, and Ms. Witherspoon stars as Pam Hicks, the mother of Steven Branch, one of the boys who was found naked in a drainage ditch, bound with his own shoelaces. Ms. Hicks, who still lives in Arkansas, became deeply connected to the producer, Elizabeth Fowler, who spent nearly a decade trying to get the movie made. The two prayed together and cried together. Ms. Hicks also spent time showing Ms. Witherspoon around the old neighborhood and watching the movie being shot, worrying that the pregnant actor was too hot in the Southern humidity. Having a movie made about the most horrific thing to ever happen to you is kind of weird, Ms. Hicks said, “but I’ve been talking about it since Day 1, so it was a method of therapy for me.” Ms. Hicks has never been able to see the evidence in the case, including her son’s bicycle, so she filed a suit this month against the West Memphis Police Department and city officials. Like most of the people in the West Memphis area, Ms. Hicks first thought the teenagers were devil worshipers. But now she and the stepfather of Chris Byers, another victim, believe someone else committed the crimes. On the top of her list is her former husband, Terry Hobbs, whose DNA matched a hair that was found in one of the knots used to tie the boys. Mr. Hobbs, who lives in Memphis, has repeatedly denied it, and the police say he is not a suspect. Todd Moore, the father of one of the boys, has also insisted that no one other than the West Memphis Three had anything to do with the boys’ deaths. Those who think otherwise, he has said, are buying the hype that years of celebrity attention and an estimated $10 million or more in legal and investigative work can buy. Scott Ellington, the prosecutor who negotiated the plea arrangement and is running for Congress, said that his office was working on material provided by the men’s lawyers but that he had not seen anything definitive. “You don’t have dot to dot to dot,” he said. “And that’s what we need if we were to reopen the case.” Still, he said he was willing to do that if such evidence appeared. “I’m man enough to present that evidence to a judge and let the judge decide.” He has seen “West of Memphis,” but you will not see him in line for “Devil’s Knot,” and he does not plan to buy a copy of the third installment of the HBO documentary series called “Paradise Lost,” the first of which, produced in 1996, the men credit with ultimately bringing their freedom. How much the men will support one another’s projects going forward is unclear. Mr. Echols hated that he was portrayed as a blood-drinking devil in the original script for “Devil’s Knot,” and pushed for changes, said Lonnie Soury, a New York publicist who became part of his defense team. Then, in his book, Mr. Echols criticized Mr. Baldwin for not immediately accepting the deal, saying Mr. Baldwin had grown to love prison and was acting as if he was morally superior. That hurt Mr. Baldwin, who initially did not want to admit to something he says he did not do, preferring to take a chance on an upcoming hearing to examine new evidence that would have probably included DNA samples and charges of juror misconduct. But as the short timeline on the offer approached, he became convinced that Mr. Echols would not survive much longer. “I didn’t take the deal for me,” he said. “I took it for Damien.” The two currently are not speaking. Those around them hope the rift will heal. “Part of the downside of the Hollywood thing is there are so many people who claim this,” Mr. Soury said. “They want to own Damien and Jessie and Jason. Part of their struggle was trying to take back their lives and own their story.”

False Arrests Convictions and Imprisonments


Ex-UnitedHealth Chief Settles Case

Abstract: A former chief executive of the UnitedHealth Group , William W. McGuire , will pay $30 million and return stock options representing more than three million shares to settle a class-action lawsuit. A statement from Mr. McGuire said he would pay the money to a fund for the benefit of the class, and he would return options for 3.7 million shares to UnitedHealth. The $30 million will be added to the $895 million UnitedHealth agreed to pay this year to settle the lawsuit. UnitedHealth and Mr. McGuire were among several defendants named in the case. The securities class action accused company executives of wrongdoing over the backdating of stock options. Mr. McGuire said that he continued to deny the allegations, but that he was pleased to help bring the matter closer to resolution.

UnitedHealth Group
McGuire William W
Suits and Litigation


From Knicks Fans, Compassion and Old Enmity for Boston

Abstract: A smattering of boos began to form in the (relatively) cheap seats to the left of the press area as Paul Pierce was announced with Carmelo Anthony for a joint pregame salute to the besieged city of Boston. Quickly, and thankfully, the truly infantile among the Madison Square Garden crowd were hushed into submission. But when Pierce was reintroduced with the rest of the starting Celtics, harsh reality officially gave way to postseason fantasy. It was time, finally, for the playoffs to begin and for the Celtics to be hated once again, with impunity and a clichéd thirst for revenge. Red Auerbach could be remembered for his obnoxious victory cigar. Tommy Heinsohn could be ridiculed for his loud sport coats and scowling mug. Cedric Maxwell could be vilified for his profane comments on Bernard King. Larry Bird could be disparaged for being too good. In present company, Kevin Garnett could be cursed for being himself. Knicks fans had waited a long time for this, for the higher seeding and the upper hand in a playoff series against the Celtics. In the context of what happens between the lines, in the interests of escapist entertainment, it was perfectly all right to forget the horror of bombs exploding at the Boston Marathon finish line, and good folks locked in their homes, for the 2 hours 28 minutes it took for the Knicks to subdue the Celtics, 85-78, on Saturday in Game 1 of their Eastern Conference playoff series. It was all right because that is, in effect, what we do almost every day in gaudy sports arenas and stadiums — suppress the specter of an uncertain, scary and frustrating world to manufacture a pretend narrative of good versus evil. And one more thing: the Celtics, obvious underdogs, considered by many to be no more than seventh-place fodder, were just good and ornery enough to nudge the Knicks out of their late-season fast lane and lead them into the fourth quarter before collapsing in an 8-points-in-12-minutes heap. “Twenty turnovers and I think 10 offensive rebounds — that’s too much,” Garnett said. “Playing on the road and against a good team that’s energized, you don’t help yourself.” Actually, the Knicks offered the Celtics plenty of assistance in their attempt to steal a game in New York and turn Games 3 and 4 in Boston next weekend into a serious passion play. Anthony started fast but was drawn into that sketchy and dubious isolation game that J. R. Smith was all too willing to join. Tyson Chandler returned to the lineup after a prolonged absence with a neck injury and did not look healthy, barely playing in the second half. Image Carmelo Anthony, center, losing the ball against the Celtics, was drawn into an isolation game. Credit Suzy Allman for The New York Times That is a developing issue, but fortunately for the Knicks, they signed Kenyon Martin. Boston, just as plagued by injuries by midseason as the Knicks were, did not. Old man Martin played energetically in Chandler’s stead; ancient Jason Kidd showed off his career prime hands; and the Celtics’ Jeff Green, a 20-point scorer in the first half, did his best Jamal Mashburn impression with a virtual disappearing act in the second. It would not take a semester of Red on Roundball for observers of these teams to figure out that Green, a smooth and talented scorer who often looks as if he needs a caffeine transfusion, must have a playoff coming-out party for the Celtics to match the firepower of Anthony and the Knicks. The Celtics need scorers to become playmakers because they are in the postseason without the known Knicks killer Rajon Rondo. “I’ve never gone into a series without a point guard,” Celtics Coach Doc Rivers said. “Everyone’s going to pressure us, no doubt about it.” And if he had Rondo? “First of all, no one pressures Rondo,” he said, implicitly ridiculing the midseason critics who theorized that the Celtics might be better without the ball always in Rondo’s hands. Too many floated passes and turnovers later, that notion was put to rest, forever. Rivers added that Rondo, on the bench for Game 1, had taken to studying the Knicks so hard in recent days that Rivers told him, “If you weren’t so crazy, you could be a great coach.” Rondo was delayed in rejoining the Celtics after they flew to New York from Toronto, locked down at home with the rest of proud Boston. Rivers wasn’t kidding himself when he said of Game 1: “I think emotionally it could go either way. Yesterday was a strange day. Guys on the phone, yelling, ‘Stay in the house.’ I told the staff that we can’t expect our focus will be where it should be. We were right.” Green and gold patches with a heart and the message “Boston Stands as One” were sewn on their jerseys. Tribute T-shirts hung in their dressing stalls. The Garden cheered respectfully for the Boston Fire Department presenting the colors and mightily for Pierce, with Anthony, once the few idiots upstairs had been quelled. But there was also a game to be played before an arena full of fans starving for a playoff series victory, which they haven’t tasted in 13 years against anyone, much less the Celtics. It was time, then, for the full-throated treatment of contempt, for Boston to play itself in classic New York casting. By the end of this series, which shouldn’t last too long, Knicks fans might even feel pity for Rivers, former Knick that he is, and his team. Well, maybe for Rivers, just a little.

Knicks
Carmelo Anthony
Celtics
Playoffs
Basketball
Boston Marathon Bombings


In N.C.A.A. Lacrosse Semifinals, It’s Old Guard vs. New Blood

Abstract: FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — Flipping through the rosters of the teams in the N.C.A.A. men’s lacrosse semifinals, one notices a potpourri of geography unique to this generation. Some players are from untraditional lacrosse bases like Denver, Seattle and San Diego. But for all of the game’s growth over the last two decades, the old guard continues to dominate college lacrosse. Syracuse, Princeton, Johns Hopkins and Virginia have combined to win the last 17 national championships. Those teams and North Carolina have won the last 31. “I’ve gone to almost every final four since I was born,” Matt Abbott, a Syracuse midfielder, said. “And it’s pretty much been the same teams.” So, with No. 1 Virginia facing No. 5 Cornell and No. 2 Syracuse playing No. 3 Duke on Saturday afternoon to set up the title game Monday, the central tension this weekend will be whether some new blood can join the bluebloods. There is some mystery about the monopoly. Virginia Coach Dom Starsia, whose Cavaliers are the top-seeded favorites, says the dominance comes down to teams stockpiling top-tier skill players. “There are still only a limited number of really, really skilled offensive players, in particular,” Starsia said. “Those kids are mostly Northeast kids, and those kids still grow up wanting to go to Syracuse and Virginia and Hopkins and those schools.” Starsia should know. Cornell Coach Jeff Tambroni joked that Starsia’s Cavaliers include quite a few high school all-Americans who do not get to play often. Virginia’s midfield features six scoring threats, including the explosive twin sophomores Rhamel and Shamel Bratton. The team also has three savvy attackmen in Garrett Billings, Danny Glading and Steele Stanwick. It is the nuanced skill of those kinds of players, Starsia emphasized, that is lacking in players from nontraditional lacrosse areas. Players who receive top-flight instruction in junior high school in the mid-Atlantic states are the ones, he said, who typically end up as college all-Americans. “There are lots more athletes out there,” Starsia said. “We have two players from Illinois. We have a kid from Florida and a kid coming from California. There’s no question that those kids are out there. But you win with that really skilled middie and attackman. That kid that’s really good close to the cage. You would be hard pressed to find one of those kids in the emerging areas.” Syracuse Coach John Desko agreed with Starsia to a point. He feels the gap is shrinking. Desko recalled Syracuse’s first national lacrosse championship, in 1983, to illustrate his position. In the ’83 title game, Syracuse trailed Johns Hopkins, 12-5, in the third quarter, and Desko said a lot of fans began streaming for the exits at the old Rutgers Stadium. But Syracuse came back to win, 17-16, in one of the program’s seminal moments. “It’s getting there and getting the first one that is the toughest part,” Desko said. “In some ways it’s because of ability and in some ways it’s because we’ve been through it and experienced it.” Duke’s lack of experience in the national semifinals might have hurt it last year. The Blue Devils were seeded first and considered one of the sport’s greatest teams before being upset by Johns Hopkins in the semifinals. The Blue Devils have rebounded nicely, especially considering the firepower they lost from last year’s team, including Coach John Danowski’s son, Matt, who finished as the career scoring leader in Division I. Duke returns in a more familiar role: it joins Cornell as a potential spoiler. Syracuse and Virginia have won 7 of the past 10 titles, and if they meet Monday, it will be engaging because of their history of epic games. Duke lost in the championship game in 2005 and in the semifinals last year. To get the program’s first national title, it will rely on its two elite attackmen, Max Quinzani and Ned Crotty. Cornell won the last of its three national titles in 1977 but has reached the semifinals in two of the last three seasons. The Big Red is led by Rob Pannell, a freshman attackman, and a defense anchored by the long sticks Pierce Derkac and Matt Moyer. Although Duke and Cornell have flirted with the top echelon of the sport lately, they will not be considered true members of the present-day elite until they win a national title.

Rutgers The State University of New Jersey