Given Another Chance, Lorenzen Looks to Make an Impact

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J., Sept. 12 — Something happened to Jared Lorenzen in 2004, between the time he was signed as a rookie free agent in May and the start of training camp in July. He quit the Giants . Lorenzen stayed away the entire season, for family reasons he would rather not share. He left knowing that his N.F.L. aspirations might never recover. Now, three years later, the Giants are not sure if Eli Manning will play Sunday against the Packers because of a bruised right shoulder. They are preparing Lorenzen to make his first N.F.L. start. Coach Tom Coughlin wanted Lorenzen back in 2005. He saw untapped potential wrapped in an oversized package, a kid from Kentucky with a strong left arm and a soft side. Coughlin called in the spring of 2005 and gave Lorenzen a rare second chance to make a true impression. “Obviously, Coach saw something that he wanted to bring me back for. And God willing, fingers crossed, this is it,” Lorenzen said. “Nothing’s finalized or anything like that, but if I do get that opportunity, it would be a whole full-circle moment for me.” Manning did little at practice Wednesday. He lobbed a few soft tosses, preserving his sprained shoulder until the game draws closer. Coughlin said Manning was less sore than the day before and his swelling was down. But with nothing to gain by revealing too much, Coughlin declined to say how likely it was that Manning would play Sunday. Lorenzen, 26, took the snaps with the first team, and the sense around the locker room is that he is on the verge of making his starting debut. Lorenzen bubbled with excitement. He acknowledged that he was struggling to contain his smile and that he was sleeping less at night. “But that’s good,” he said. “If you’re not excited and if you’re not anxious about this opportunity, then you’re not alive.” More than one circle would be completed if Lorenzen starts. The opposing quarterback would be Green Bay’s Brett Favre, Lorenzen’s favorite player while growing up in Kentucky and still an object of adulation. “He’s everything I’ve ever wanted to be as a quarterback,” said Lorenzen, who has never met Favre. “It would be great to go out there and shake his hand.” Favre, 37, has heard that before from young quarterbacks, but he is not too old to have forgotten the feeling. During a conference call with reporters, Favre said he had similar adoration for Archie Manning — Eli Manning’s father, who played for the New Orleans Saints when Favre was growing up in Mississippi. Favre has made a league-record 258 consecutive starts (including playoffs) at quarterback, and a victory Sunday would give him 149, breaking a tie with John Elway for the all-time lead. Lorenzen, by contrast, threw his first three passes last week. He completed one of them as a late replacement for Manning in a 45-35 loss to the Cowboys. Yet Lorenzen carries a gunslinger’s mentality, learned from Favre and tempered by the Giants, who prefer a more structured approach to the position. Compared with Manning, Lorenzen is a couple of inches shorter (and shorter than his listed 6 feet 4 inches) and many pounds heavier (and heavier than his listed 285 pounds). He talks at about twice the pace as Manning, with half the clichés. He throws the ball so hard that Plaxico Burress said that Giants receivers needed to turn their head sooner to see the ball. What it all means for the Giants’ offense, which will play without the injured running back Brandon Jacobs, is uncertain. If he plays, Lorenzen expects the Packers to try to confuse him with extra doses of blitzes and alignments. He has sat in the film room and grilled Manning with questions. He spent extra time after Wednesday’s practice throwing to receiver Amani Toomer and worked on snaps with center Shaun O’Hara. The offensive line focused on pass-protection schemes, which are largely reversed since Lorenzen is left-handed, and Manning is right-handed. “I don’t think it’s as big a deal as it seems from the outside,” Toomer said of a possible quarterback change. “On the inside, I think we’re pretty confident in what we’ve got, either way.” Lorenzen said he has received phone calls this week from “everyone in my phone book.” He does not mind, because it is simply a show of support — an outpouring he could not have expected when he left the Giants three summers ago. Lorenzen shook his head at the thought of what he might be doing had he not received a call from Coughlin asking him to return to football. “I think he saw something in me that I had the possibility of doing,” Lorenzen said. “Hopefully, this was it.” EXTRA POINTS Defensive end Osi Umenyiora (sprained meniscus in left knee) did not practice. He is expected to miss at least a couple of weeks, though the Giants have not officially ruled him out for Sunday. ... Tom Coughlin said there were no plans to move Mathias Kiwanuka from linebacker to defensive end ... Kicker Lawrence Tynes (strained calf) sat out, too. If he does not heal, the Giants will call in another kicker, perhaps Josh Huston, who lost the job to Tynes in training camp. ... The Giants cut fullback Robert Douglas and claimed fullback Madison Hedgecock, released this week by the Rams, off waivers.

Football
New York Giants
Lorenzen Jared
Manning Eli
National Football League


Drug Safety Critic Hurls Darts From the Inside

Abstract: Back in the ’60s, when University of Michigan students were holding protests over civil rights and the Vietnam War, an undergraduate named Steven E. Nissen was at the center of the political dissent. Four decades later, that former campus activist is now Dr. Nissen, who is shaking up the nation’s pharmaceutical industry. His questioning of the safety of the Avandia diabetes medication in late May, for example, prompted a federal safety alert and led to a sales decline of about 30 percent for the drug, which brought in $3.2 billion for GlaxoSmithKline last year. Now, with a federal panel soon to decide whether it can remain on the market, Avandia’s future is uncertain. The drug is the latest example of why Dr. Nissen, 58, whose day job is chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, has emerged as a Naderesque figure and the nation’s unofficial arbiter of drug safety. Admirers laud him not only for raising safety questions about Avandia, but also for sounding early warnings about the painkiller Vioxx, as well as other drugs. By digging deeply into companies’ own clinical trial data — information that used to be available only to federal drug regulators who did not always mine it as aggressively — Dr. Nissen is among a new cadre of activist scientists demanding greater vigilance on drug safety. But Dr. Nissen also has critics, who say he seeks the spotlight as much as the safety of medicine. Others see a conflict of interest in his self-appointed role as the drug industry watchdog while he also presides over industry-financed research worth millions of dollars. “I’m an insider and an outsider at the same time,” Dr. Nissen says in an official Cleveland Clinic biography. His crusading for drug safety, and his recent informal advisory role to members of Congress on legislation to strengthen drug safety enforcement, have fostered speculation that Dr. Nissen, a Democrat who has worked with members from both parties, covets an official public platform. Some see him angling to be the commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration , an agency whose decision-making he has frequently questioned. Although Dr. Nissen denies that he is campaigning for the job, or even that he is really interested in it, he refuses to rule it out. “I want to fix the F.D.A.,” Dr. Nissen said in a recent interview. He also wants to influence health policy more generally. In one of his final acts this year as the president of the American College of Cardiology, a doctors’ group, Dr. Nissen gave a speech calling for universal health insurance. People listen to Dr. Nissen partly because of his unabashed self-confidence and outgoing personality. Friends from college remember his mischievous air, a demeanor that has endured alongside his willingness to raise tough questions. Dr. Nissen also has a statistician’s zeal for drilling deep into clinical data, seeking signs that some widely used drugs pose undisclosed risks to patients. In discussing his work, he describes sleepless nights poring over numbers. Dr. Nissen’s article in The New England Journal of Medicine, published in May, was based on his review of 42 clinical studies of Avandia involving nearly 28,000 patients. His conclusion, that the drug seems to raise the risk of heart attacks, was widely covered in the news media, including this newspaper. After the Nissen article appeared on the journal’s Web site on May 21, the F.D.A., which said it had been evaluating the drug’s risks, issued a safety alert advising Avandia patients to consult their doctors. The agency also scheduled a hearing on July 30, at which a panel of expert advisers could recommend restrictions, or even a ban, on Avandia’s use. The F.D.A. has asked Dr. Nissen to attend to answer questions. GlaxoSmithKline has challenged the significance of Dr. Nissen’s findings and has defended the drug’s safety. Avandia, which has been used by about seven million people, is merely the latest drug to become a target of Dr. Nissen, who describes himself as an advocate of patients. In 2005, for example, Dr. Nissen attacked the experimental diabetes drug Pargluva, from Bristol-Myers Squibb, saying it posed serious heart risks. Although an F.D.A. advisory panel had overwhelmingly recommended its approval, Pargluva never made it to market. Dr. Nissen, who had warned of the dangers of the painkiller Vioxx, from Merck, before it was withdrawn in 2004, challenged Merck’s follow-on product, Arcoxia, which failed to win approval this year. He called Arcoxia the “son of Vioxx,” telling a reporter, “This is a genie I don’t want to see let out of the bottle.” In his article on Avandia, Dr. Nissen was careful to note the limitations of his analysis. In some media interviews, though, he was less guarded. On the ABC television program “Nightline,” Dr. Nissen predicted that the deaths caused by Avandia could “dwarf” the carnage of Sept. 11, 2001. Dr. Michael A. Weber, a professor of medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center in Brooklyn, is among the doctors who worry that Dr. Nissen’s Avandia rhetoric has been inflammatory. Dr. Weber cited Dr. Nissen’s reference to the World Trade Center attack as “something that doesn’t need to be part of a good clinical scientific discussion.” GlaxoSmithKline complained about the same thing. “In some of his comments to the media, Dr. Nissen has gone beyond discussing the scientific findings of his study to language that frightens patients,” a company spokeswoman, Mary Anne Rhyne, said in an e-mail message. Even Dr. Delos M. Cosgrove, Dr. Nissen’s supervisor at the Cleveland Clinic, where his department of 90 cardiologists handled 234,000 patient visits last year, says he advised Dr. Nissen simply to talk about the science. Among his contributions to the clinic is his pioneering work in using ultrasound images to measure fatty plaque inside the walls of coronary arteries, a procedure known as intravascular ultrasound. While some other drug safety critics avoid all industry ties, Dr. Nissen actively seeks industry-financed research. To avoid undue influence, he says, he insists that charities be given any industry consulting and speaking fees that he would have personally received. Beneficiaries of the money, hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years, have included the American College of Cardiology. Another recipient has been the Cleveland Museum of Art, one of the major museums and galleries that has shown the work of his wife, Linda Butler, an award-winning photographer. Dr. Sidney M. Wolfe, the head of the consumer organization Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, is generally supportive of Dr. Nissen’s efforts on behalf of drug safety. “He’s very smart and he’s done a lot of good,” Dr. Wolfe said. But he says that Dr. Nissen’s diverting drug company money to charity is not an adequate buffer from industry influence. “It’s still a conflict of interest,” Dr. Wolfe said. Dr. Nissen’s industry ties have enabled critics to question his analysis of Avandia, for example, because he has served as a consultant for Takeda and Eli Lilly, the companies that together market Avandia’s main competitor, Actos. Pointing out that he does not personally receive money from any company, Dr. Nissen said his work for Takeda, Eli Lilly or any other drug maker does not affect his scientific detachment. “My involvement with any company does not bias my scientific perspective and I scrupulously avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest,” he said. And Dr. Nissen says he believes his alarms about drug safety have sometimes caused the Cleveland Clinic to miss out when companies award contracts for clinical research trials. But his adversarial reputation can also work the other way. Because of Dr. Nissen’s reputation, companies may seek him out for research projects. After the withdrawal of Merck’s Vioxx, for example, Pfizer chose Dr. Nissen to lead a 20,000-patient study of whether its similar drug, Celebrex, carries heart risks. “In the view of Pfizer, who is co-sponsoring the trial, they know that whatever we report will be believable,” Dr. Nissen said. The study, which will cost millions of dollars, is expected to be completed in 2010. A Pfizer spokesman, Raymond F. Kerins Jr., said the company picked Dr. Nissen because it seeks advice from leading experts. “These experts ask excellent — and often tough — questions,” Mr. Kerins said. Although he is the son of a doctor, Dr. Nissen initially rebelled against following that path. In college in the late 1960s and early ’70s, while working as an editor at his campus newspaper, The Michigan Daily, he became active in the antiwar movement, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement and the Human Rights Party, a largely student-run group that elected two members to the Ann Arbor City Council. One of those council members, Jerry DeGrieck, remembers the young Steve Nissen’s work in leading a voter registration drive. Those extracurricular activities left little time for classes, which is why Dr. Nissen likes to recall that he was on the “eight-year plan” at Michigan, and says he was lucky to have been accepted to the University of Michigan medical school after finally getting his bachelor’s degree, in 1974. Mr. DeGrieck, now a government public health policy adviser in Seattle, says he never imagined that his college friend would become one of the nation’s most influential doctors. But he says he is not surprised at all by Dr. Nissen’s activism. “He’s always questioned authority,” Mr. DeGrieck said.

Food and Drug Administration
Nissen Steven E
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Avandia (Drug)
Law and Legislation
Medicine and Health
Vioxx (Drug)


In San Francisco, a Sinking Skyscraper and a Deepening Dispute

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — The developers of the luxurious Millennium Tower laid out the risks and potential defects of the 58-story building in minute detail when its apartments went on sale seven years ago. The color and texture of the marble and granite hallways “may not be completely uniform,” said a disclosure statement given to potential buyers. The streets below the tower could be “congested and noisy,” and the landscaping in the common areas could change, subject to availability of certain species of plants. But the 21-page disclosure document left out what owners of units in the buildings now say was a crucial detail: that the building had already sunk more than eight inches into the soft soil by the time it was completed in 2009, much more than engineers had anticipated. “If they had disclosed the defect, I would have never bought here,” said Jerry Dodson, the owner of a two-bedroom apartment on the 42nd floor that he bought with his wife for $2.1 million. “Never was there a hint that the building was sinking beyond design.” The Millennium Tower , which its developers say is the largest reinforced concrete building in the western United States, has now sunk about 16 inches and is leaning six inches toward a neighboring skyscraper. The building’s tilt has become a public scandal , a dispute that has produced a wide-eyed examination of whether or not San Francisco’s frenetic skyscraper-building spree was properly monitored by city authorities. In a city bracketed by two major earthquake fault lines, the possibility of engineering flaws generates particular unease. “This is the first sentinel telling us maybe we should be a little more careful,” said Nicholas Sitar, a professor of civil engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in how buildings respond to earthquakes. “Any time you have a tall structure leaning, you have to start looking very carefully.” Image The developers of the Millennium Tower say that the construction next door of a transportation hub, above, has caused the building to sink. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times As the scandal has unfolded in recent weeks, Senator Dianne Feinstein , a former mayor of San Francisco, wrote to the current mayor, Edwin M. Lee , expressing concern about the number of buildings like Millennium Tower that are not anchored in bedrock. Mr. Lee responded that he had instructed city officials to amend the city’s earthquake safety plan to require a review of soil conditions and mandatory earthquake evaluations during property sales. At a hearing on Thursday convened by a Board of Supervisors committee, city officials said the Millennium Tower situation had caused them to reassess the way buildings are vetted. The building spree in San Francisco has taken place for the most part in an area that used to be part of San Francisco Bay, land created using dredged soil as well as piles of detritus from the 1906 earthquake. Professor Sitar calls the soil conditions “very challenging” for engineers, especially when compared to the Manhattan schist that anchors New York’s skyscrapers. “For a long time you didn’t see very tall structures in San Francisco,” Professor Sitar said. With advances in engineering and by studying responses of buildings in earthquake zones, he said, engineers have grown more confident. “Is that confidence warranted? To some extent it is. At that the same time, there has to be an abundance of caution.” Outside the living room of Mr. Dodson’s apartment is a panorama of this new San Francisco, the collection of skyscrapers that are partly a byproduct of the technology boom and the foreign money pouring into luxury condominium buildings. The Millennium Tower sits across from the Salesforce Tower , which when completed will be the tallest structure in San Francisco. Image The San Francisco skyline on Wednesday. The Millennium Tower is to the right of the building framed by the tower cranes. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times Mr. Dodson is helping to organize a number of the owners of the more than 400 units to demand compensation from the developers, Millennium Partners . “City officials have said it’s at a critical point right now,” Mr. Dodson said of the building. He said the sewage connections to the building may no longer function properly if it continues to sink. And engineers fear that the building’s high-speed elevators may fail if the building tilts farther, he said. He fears that if it continues to tilt, it may become unlivable. A government agency, the Transbay Joint Powers Authority , that is building a transportation hub next to the Millennium Tower said the sinking and tilt of the building are due “exclusively to the deficient foundation system” of Millennium Tower. Millennium Partners, after a long period of silence, told reporters this week that while their own removal of groundwater had been responsible for the initial sinking of the building, the subsequent sinking was caused by the digging next door at the transportation hub. Chris Jeffries, a founding partner of Millennium Partners, blamed the “reckless behavior” of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority. At the hearings on Thursday, city officials were asked why correspondence with the engineers of the Millennium Tower project had disappeared from files. A city official replied that they were not required to keep them. Image Aaron Peskin, the San Francisco supervisor, right, with the city’s director of building inspections, Tom Hui, on Wednesday. Credit Jim Wilson/The New York Times Hanson Tom, the city’s principal engineer, said that at the time Millennium Tower was being constructed the developers had not agreed to a review by outside experts on the soil conditions or the foundations of the building and that the city had no laws to compel them to conduct these reviews. The city was not prepared to assess the structural integrity of the Millennium Tower because it was one of the first skyscrapers erected in the business district, officials said. “We didn’t have anything in place from a regulatory perspective on how to deal with buildings of this nature,” said Ronald Tom, the deputy director of the city’s department of building inspection. The city now relies on outside experts to verify the structural integrity of proposed skyscrapers because they do not have the technology to verify the computer models used by developers. But the hearing on Thursday did not clarify why city officials had declared the building safe for occupancy despite the problems with the foundation. Aaron Peskin, the San Francisco supervisor who called Thursday’s hearing, said the inquiry would continue in the coming weeks. The tilting tower has produced introspection among engineers in part because when the building was completed the developers received at least nine awards for “excellence in structural engineering,” among other citations. Mr. Dodson’s wife, Pat, said one of the possible solutions proposed by an engineer who homeowners have consulted is to lessen the weight of the building by lopping off the top 20 floors. Today, the only beneficiaries of the Millennium Tower appear to be the armies of lawyers mobilizing for what is expected to be years of litigation.

San Francisco
Buildings
Engineering
Millennium Partners
Real Estate
Housing


Girl, 15, Is Arrested in Deaths of Mother and Her Boyfriend

Abstract: The 15-year-old daughter of a woman who was killed along with her boyfriend in Brooklyn was arrested on Monday and charged with two counts of murder, the police said. The police found the bodies of Rosie Sanchez, 38, and Anderson Nunez, 40, who shared an apartment on Batchelder Street, in a public housing complex, on Sunday night. Ms. Sanchez’s body was found by officers in an easy chair with multiple gunshot wounds; Mr. Nunez, found on the floor, had gunshot and stab wounds, the police said. “We have arrested a 15-year-old in regards to that homicide; she is the daughter of the woman,” the chief of detectives, Robert K. Boyce, told reporters. The killings occurred in the final days of last year, but the bodies were not discovered until Sunday when police officers were brought to the apartment, Mr. Boyce said. The girl, Destiny Garcia, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of criminal possession of a weapon, the police said. Shortly before midnight on Monday, Ms. Garcia appeared in Brooklyn Criminal Court, where prosecutors read the charges against her. They said she had acted in concert with another individual to shoot and stab her mother and her mother’s boyfriend. Prosecutors said the boyfriend had been stabbed 30 times, adding that Ms. Garcia had made a videotaped confession. A judge ordered her held without bail, over her lawyer’s objections. Chief Boyce said that Ms. Garcia had told detectives that her mother “was abusive, physically abusive, to her in the past,” but Chief Boyce said that “we don’t believe that this is at all, initially, an act of self-defense.”Mr. Boyce said the investigation is focused on whether other people were in the apartment with the teenager, and on the origins of the gun used in the killings. The police were alerted to the murders when a man approached a squad car near the building to report that he had passed the apartment and seen that the door was ajar. Police officers declared the two victims dead at the scene. The double homicide brought the preliminary count of murders last year to 350, up from 333 the year before, officials said. Neighbors in the Sheepshead Bay neighborhood were left reeling at the killings and the charges against the female victim’s daughter, saying the family had seemed happy and lively. As investigators went through the apartment, 5A, on Monday morning, the door still had an abundance of Christmas decorations: pictures of Santa and snowmen; red, gold and blue garlands; and a portion of a wall covered in wrapping paper decorated with red bells. Residents of the red brick building said they were shocked by the killings. “They were a unit,” one neighbor, 52, who lived upstairs from the family and who did not give her name, said about the victims and Ms. Garcia. Ms. Sanchez was an effervescent woman who seemed to have a happy life, neighbors said. She always introduced her boyfriend, Mr. Nunez, as her husband, and together they hosted house parties, played with their young relatives, and regularly went to the beach with Ms. Sanchez’s daughter. “I can’t believe it was right here in this building,” said another neighbor, Tiffany Jackson, 21. Ms. Jackson said she saw Ms. Sanchez and her daughter together often. Ms. Sanchez left for work in the mornings alongside Ms. Garcia, who was heading to school nearby. Ms. Jackson said that while both were friendly, the daughter seemed distant. “She had an I-don’t-want-to-be-here-type attitude, like, ‘I can’t wait until she leaves,’ ” Ms. Jackson said. She added that the daughter seemed happiest around her peers. The 52-year-old upstairs neighbor said that in the summer she watched the daughter join her mother and Mr. Nunez on their regular trips to nearby beaches, the whole family dressed in their swimsuits, carrying coolers. In the fall Ms. Sanchez and Mr. Nunez helped two young boys, who the woman thought were relatives, collect fallen leaves for a school project. She said Ms. Sanchez seemed to enjoy time with family, and regularly had relatives over for house parties. “She was very outgoing and warm,” the woman said.

Rosie Sanchez
Anderson Nunez
Destiny Garcia
Murders and Homicides
Sheepshead Bay Brooklyn


Ex-Employee of C.I.A. Held in Abduction

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — A former C.I.A. station chief who was convicted in Italy for his role in snatching a Muslim cleric off a Milan street and turning him over to Egypt has been arrested in Panama. The arrest was confirmed Thursday by diplomatic officials in Italy, who said that the agent, Robert Seldon Lady, was detained on the border between Costa Rica and Panama, after Panama acted on a request by Interpol for his arrest. Panamanian and American officials did not respond to requests for comment. The 2003 abduction of the Egyptian-born cleric, Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, also known as Abu Omar, was emblematic in the debate over the American intelligence practice of “extraordinary rendition,” in which people suspected of being Islamic terrorists were abducted and then turned over for questioning in other countries where torture is often common. The Obama administration did not end the practice, began under the Clinton administration in the 1990s and accelerated under the Bush administration after Sept. 11, 2001, although it placed conditions on it intended to prevent detainees from being subject to torture. Mr. Nasr’s abductors flew him first to Germany and then to Egypt, where he vanished. He was eventually released after four years and said that he had been tortured. Mr. Lady was the C.I.A. station chief in Milan when the abduction occurred. In 2009, a Milan judge convicted Mr. Lady and 22 other American intelligence officials in absentia of the kidnapping. The convictions were the first in an extraordinary rendition case. Three other former C.I.A. agents, including the former Rome station chief at the time of the abduction, were convicted in February. The same month, the court convicted five former Italian intelligence officials, including Nicolò Pollari, Italy’s former military intelligence chief, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison for the abduction. Mr. Lady, 59, was arrested on an international warrant issued by Italy last December, after the highest appeals court confirmed his nine-year sentence. He had disappeared from Italy shortly after the investigation began. It was unclear whether Italy would request Mr. Lady’s extradition, since it has no extradition treaty with Panama. Panama could choose to send Mr. Lady to Italy, officials in Italy said. An Italian Justice Ministry spokesman could not be reached for comment. A few months before his 2009 conviction, Mr. Lady told the Italian newspaper Il Giornale: “Of course it was an illegal operation. But that’s our job. We’re at war against terrorism.”

Milan
Robert Seldon Lady
Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr
Kidnapping
CIA


Police Question Why Hospital Did Not Report Burress’s Wound

Abstract: The New York police said on Monday that a hospital failed to notify them when Giants receiver Plaxico Burress arrived there early Saturday morning with a gunshot wound to his thigh, despite a state law requiring a doctor or hospital to report such violence to the authorities “at once.” As a result, it took police detectives more than 13 hours to learn that Burress had been taken to the hospital, NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell , after he accidentally shot himself in the right leg in a Manhattan nightclub. “We are investigating the hospital’s failure to notify us, as required by law,” Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said Monday evening. The shooting occurred sometime between 1:20 and 1:50 a.m. Saturday inside the Latin Quarter, a nightclub on Lexington Avenue at 48th Street, and Burress arrived at the hospital, at York Avenue and 68th Street, at 2:04 a.m., Browne said. It was not until hours later, when detectives heard news reports about the shooting, that they began contacting hospitals , Browne said. The detectives arrived at the hospital at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday, he said, but Burress had been discharged about 1 p.m. A hospital administrator initially declined to give information to the detectives from the 17th Precinct, citing federal privacy statutes. “They initially cited a statute that does not apply,” Browne said, “in trying to resist releasing information. But they were persuaded otherwise.” Referring to Section 265.25 of the state penal law, Browne said the statute cited by the administrator did not “trump the law in gunshot cases.” Later on Monday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg , who has made stemming gun violence a priority of his second term, harshly criticized the hospital for failing to notify the police about Burress’s wound. He called on the Manhattan district attorney’s office to pursue criminal charges in the case, saying: “It is just an outrage that the hospital didn’t do what they’re legally required to do. It’s a misdemeanor, it’s a chargeable offense, and I think that the district attorney should certainly go after the management of this hospital.” Myrna A. Manners, the hospital’s vice president for public affairs, said it was investigating why a report was not made. “It’s clear that not reporting a gunshot wound is a violation of our policies and procedures,” Manners said. Late Monday night, Manners said that a person responsible for not reporting the gunshot wound had been suspended. Manners would not say whether Burress had checked into the hospital under an assumed name, citing privacy concerns, but she and Browne said the identity of a patient was irrelevant in terms of calling the police. “When a patient comes into the E.R. with a gunshot wound, it does not matter who the patient is or may be,” Manners said. “The gunshot wound is supposed to be reported.” Asked if hospital staffers had made a conscious effort to protect a celebrity, she said, “There was no cover-up on the part of the hospital.” A lawyer for Burress, Benjamin Brafman , said there had been no delay on Burress’s part and that it was reasonable for him to seek medical treatment before going to the police. He said Burress had called him by Saturday evening, after Burress had been released from the hospital. “Getting medical treatment was the foremost concern, and then getting a lawyer so you can get proper legal guidance was the next thing he did,” Brafman said. “I think everything he did was consistent with reasonableness and the actions of a responsible adult.” Brafman said he could not speak for the hospital’s actions. “What the hospital does is their own business,” he said. Browne declined to say if detectives were focusing on physicians in the emergency room, hospital administrators or both in their inquiry. Daniel J. Castleman, the chief assistant Manhattan district attorney, said, “It’s fair to say the investigation will cover everyone’s conduct, including the hospital’s.” Burress is charged with two counts of second-degree criminal possession of a weapon. One count accuses him of possessing a loaded handgun with the intent to use it against another. The other charge was that he possessed a loaded gun outside his home or place of business. Upon conviction, both penalties call for a mandatory minimum sentence of 3 ½ years in prison and a maximum of 15 years. Speaking at an appearance in the Bronx , Bloomberg also had sharp words for the Giants, for neglecting to notify the authorities, and for Burress. “Our children are getting killed with guns in the streets,” Bloomberg said. “Our police officers are getting killed with guns in the hands of criminals, and because of that, we got the State Legislature to pass a law that if you carry a loaded handgun, you get automatically 3 ½ years in the slammer. “I don’t think that anybody should be exempt from that, and I think it would be an outrage if we didn’t prosecute to the fullest extent of the law, particularly people who live in the public domain, make their living because of their visibility; they are the role models for our kids.”

Plaxico Burress
Guns
New York-Presbyterian Hospital


Man Suspected in Phoenix Shooting Is Found Dead

Abstract: PHOENIX — A man who opened fire at an office complex here was found dead on Thursday from a self-inflicted gunshot wound in the nearby city of Mesa, the police said. One of his victims, a lawyer, was placed on life support and “will not survive,” according to a statement from the firm where he worked. Image Credit Agence France-Presse — Getty Images A landscaper found the body of the gunman, Arthur Harmon, before 8 a.m., said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a spokesman for the Phoenix Police Department. A rented Kia Optima, his getaway car, was parked nearby. On Wednesday, Mr. Harmon, 70, killed a businessman, Steven Singer, 48, whose company he had sued, and critically injured the lawyer, Mark Hummels, 43, who was representing Mr. Singer. Nichole Hampton, 32, who came upon the shooting as she was leaving the building, was shot in the hand. The shooting happened as the three men left a mediation session to resolve their dispute, over payment for furniture repair services that Mr. Harmon had provided at a call center Mr. Singer owned in California. Sergeant Thompson said that the shooting was “not random,” and that Mr. Singer and Mr. Hummels were Mr. Harmon’s targets.


N.C.A.A. Tournament: Ohio Ousts No. 4 Michigan

Abstract: NASHVILLE — The Michigan football coach Brady Hoke dismissively refers to rival Ohio State as Ohio, a mocking nickname that’s a quirk of one of the country’s fiercest rivalries. But after Michigan lost to the actual Ohio University, 65-60, in its first game of the N.C.A.A. tournament, No. 4 Michigan may need to find a new dismissive term for its rival to the South. No. 13 Ohio pulled off its second N.C.A.A. tournament upset in the past three years, leading for nearly the entire game and beating Michigan. Ohio University was ranked as the country’s No. 1 party school this year , but the basketball Bobcats have helped the college forge a different national identity. The junior guard D. J. Cooper acted as the catalyst, scoring 21 points on 7-for-11 shooting. The left-handed Cooper proved effective both on the drive and shooting from the outside. Michigan never could muster a defensive answer for him. (As a freshman, Cooper was instrumental in Ohio’s upset of No. 3 Georgetown in the first round the N.C.A.A. tournament in 2010, scoring 23 points on just 12 shots.) “I think they should respect us now,” Cooper said. “They should show us a little more respect.” Cooper was the best guard on the floor, a compliment considering that the Michigan freshman Trey Burke was considered one of the top young guards in the country and a contender for the Big Ten freshman of the year. “He’s a spectacular talent,” Ohio Coach John Groce said of Cooper. “I’m so proud of how much he’s grown up.” Burke led Michigan with 16 points on 5-for-15 shooting. But he missed two 3-pointers that could have tied the score in the final minute with Michigan trailing, 63-60. Michigan’s Evan Smotrycz then turned the ball over on an awkward crossover attempt with less than 10 seconds remaining. The Ohio State transfer Walter Offutt scooped up the loose ball and swished a pair of free throws with 6.8 seconds left to ice the game. Ohio may not be satisfied with this victory. “It’s exciting to be able to advance in the N.C.A.A. tournament,” Cooper said, “but we got a different mind-set this year.”

Ohio University
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)
Basketball (College)
University of Michigan


Cavaliers’ Sense of Urgency Spurs James, O’Neal and Owner

Abstract: CLEVELAND — The video scoreboard at Quicken Loans Arena, known to locals as the Q, delivers entertainment in loud, mischievous bursts. A dance number from “Scrubs.” A gust of huh-huh-huhs from “Beavis and Butt-Head.” An inspired rendition of “Don’t Stop Believin’ ” — as sung by the dad from “Family Guy.” The spots are aimed at one of the N.B.A.’s most raucous crowds, and Cavaliers fans howl in delight. The volume at the preseason opener last week dipped only once — when a modest-looking man in a shirt and tie filled the 28-foot screen. Then fans listened intently as Dan Gilbert, the Cavaliers’ energetic owner, urged voter support for a downtown casino that he hopes to build. “Keep the jobs here in Cleveland,” said Gilbert, sounding more like a mayoral candidate. “Keep the tax money here in Cleveland.” Gambling and civic pride are urgent themes these days. LeBron James , the greatest player in Cavaliers history , is rumbling toward free agency. His future could hinge on a Cavaliers championship — the theory being that no one walks away from his own parade. So the franchise made the ultimate risk-reward play this summer. They traded for Shaquille O’Neal , banking that a 37-year-old almost-certain Hall of Famer will help James find titles and contentment. Preferably next June. “I suppose if you were a poker player, it’d be the all-in moment, right?” Gilbert said with a soft chuckle. It certainly looks that way. Consider the possible outcomes: James and O’Neal bond quickly, the Cavaliers end the city’s 45-year championship drought and, amid the delirium, everyone signs new contracts. Or they fail and James becomes a Knick next July. There are other possibilities, but those are the two that will frame the Cavaliers’ season, and their one-year experiment with O’Neal and James. The goals and consequences are left unspoken. “Great players don’t always need to talk about what needs to be done,” O’Neal said last week. “We know.” The partnership got off to a promising start last Tuesday at the Q in a preseason victory over Charlotte. O’Neal and James played 14 minutes together and provided more teases than results. But the potential was clear. On the first play of the night, James drove hard and dished to O’Neal, who was fouled on a layup attempt. In the second quarter, James elevated and zipped a cross-court pass to O’Neal, who might have torn down the rim had he not been fouled by Vladimir Radmanovic. It took until late in the first half for fans to have their payoff. O’Neal spun away from his defender, leapt for a high lob from James and tossed in a bank shot. “We definitely hope that will be the first of many,” James said afterward. James reached the finals in his fourth season and has been to the Eastern Conference finals twice, largely on the strength of the Cavaliers’ defense. But he has been waiting for a worthy co-star since the day he was drafted in 2003. So the Cavaliers did not hesitate when the budget-slashing Phoenix Suns made O’Neal available. After failing to make a deal in February, Cleveland acquired him in June for two spare parts — Sasha Pavlovic and Ben Wallace, both of whom were bought out by the Suns. O’Neal has four championship rings — three earned with the Los Angeles Lakers, one with the Miami Heat — but also a legacy of chafing with his co-stars, most famously Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles and Penny Hardaway in Orlando. Even the laid-back Suns made veiled remarks indicating they were happy to see O’Neal leave. The Cavaliers professed no concerns with O’Neal’s age or his ego, only how he would mesh with a team that had the N.B.A.’s best record last season. “The deliberation was we had a 66-win team,” General Manager Danny Ferry said. “But every year you have to try to do something to get better.” Chemistry is rarely an issue with James, a basketball savant who can score whenever he wants to, but is just as likely to make a great pass. He averaged 28.4 points and 7.2 assists last season. It is up to James, who turns 25 in December, to make the partnership work. “He’s a team player,” O’Neal said. “We all know he dominates the ball a lot. But he also makes his teammates better. That’s all you can ask for.” O’Neal has taken three franchises to the finals, failing only in his season and a half with Phoenix. Although he is clearly entering his twilight, he remains a dominant force. O’Neal averaged 17.8 points and 8.4 rebounds last season, in just 30 minutes per game. He played in 75 games, his highest total in nine years, and appeared in his 15th All-Star Game. “Every time we play against him, we talk about how we’ve got to guard him,” Bobcats Coach Larry Brown said. “So he commands my attention.” O’Neal is typically at his best when he has something to prove. He has heard the doubts about his conditioning, his longevity and his ability to play nicely with co-stars. He reported to training camp looking fit and sounding eager to play a supporting role to James, the reigning most valuable player. “I kind of right now feel like the old Kareem, when he had all those young studs around him,” O’Neal said, referring to the Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar , who played until he was 41. “On paper, it’s probably the best team I’ve been on.” Gilbert, with a knowing smile, offered another observation about why O’Neal would be at his best this season: “I think Kobe winning the championship has put another kind of motivational factor behind him.” Cleveland has patched up its most glaring weaknesses since losing to the Magic in the conference finals. O’Neal provides muscle inside, where Dwight Howard punished them last spring. The Cavaliers signed swingmen Jamario Moon and Anthony Parker to shore up their perimeter defense and outside shooting. With his larger-than-life personality and quick wit, O’Neal will also provide cover for his teammates. He can lift the burden of being the No. 2 star from Mo Williams, who was miscast in the role last season. He can draw controversy away from James. He can bend the spotlight away from Delonte West, who is coping with difficult personal issues. The question is whether O’Neal still has the stamina, the patience and the will to take a third franchise to the championship — and keep James within city limits. As Gilbert considers the stakes, his sentiment again drifts toward civic concerns. He mentions the recession and its brutal effects on the region. He references the disappointment of the city’s football and baseball franchises. Then he mentions Shaq and LeBron. “For these guys to pull this off and make this happen, you cannot underestimate for this region and this city what that’s going to do for this town,” Gilbert said. “This is just something that they need right now. To me, it’s the most motivating factor in the whole thing.”

Basketball
Cleveland Cavaliers
James LeBron
O'Neal Shaquille
Free Agents (Sports)
Ferry Danny


With Power Ruling the Game, Monica Niculescu’s Slicing Forehand Stands Out at the U.S. Open

Abstract: As flat power and topspin increasingly dominate tennis, one woman dares to be different. Very different. Monica Niculescu, a right-handed Romanian ranked 68th, hits a normal, flat, two-handed backhand, but she hits a slice on nearly every forehand. Making the stroke even more unusual, Niculescu typically hits it while leaping — a technique normally used for powerful shots but almost unheard of for a slice. In a recent New York Times survey of tennis insiders, Niculescu’s forehand was voted the strangest shot in the women’s game. “I’m just trying my best, trying to have great results,” Niculescu said. “I feel slicing the forehand makes me be better. I don’t know if it’s correct.” When Niculescu played Caroline Wozniacki last year in Beijing, her forehand’s average speed was measured at 53 miles per hour, at least 10 m.p.h. slower than the average in the women’s game. Serena Williams, who has one of the most powerful forehands among female players, usually averages about 70 m.p.h. The drastic difference in velocity between Niculescu’s forehand and backhand can be perplexing to even the best players. Second-ranked Simona Halep, a fellow Romanian, was often baffled by Niculescu during a semifinal match in July in Bucharest, Romania. “It’s very confusing because you never know when the ball is coming flat or sliced,” Halep said. “With the backhand, she’s playing very fast and very flat. She takes the ball very fast, and she can make some good winners with the backhand. Her slice is just a special thing and amazing, and she has talent, I think, to do this.” Halep added: “It’s not easy. I tried, to be honest, in the practices, but it’s not easy. She’s special, and she’s fighting a lot. She’s a great, great player, and for sure she can do better now.” Niculescu, who lost in the second round of the United States Open on Thursday to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, began to rely on a forehand slice when she was a child without a coach, playing with only her sister. Despite the unorthodox style, she found major success at the junior level, winning the prestigious Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl tournaments. Coaches have tried to change her game, promising her that a topspin forehand would put her in the top 10. But each time she has reverted to the comfort of the slice. Video Ernests Gulbis, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Sara Errani, and Agnieszka Radwanska have some of the most interesting shots in tennis. Credit Credit Julian Finney/Getty Images “I had the whole off-season, and I would think, O.K., let’s do it,” she said. “But no. This was in my blood, you know. I feel comfortable, and I can move and I can adjust. If I play topspin, I feel like I can lose to anybody.” Niculescu compares her style to those of Roberta Vinci and Kirsten Flipkens, who hit a slice with nearly every backhand, though that is a more conventional model of play that has been used even by top players like Steffi Graf. “It’s not that different,” Niculescu said. “I mean, I know everybody’s shocked — wow, sliced forehand. But I repeat, O.K., it’s on the forehand — but it’s the same game, if you ask me.” Unlike a flat, powerful shot, which will generally challenge an opponent as long as it is in the right place, a slice is less certain to be effective. Niculescu has frequently faltered in critical moments; she has lost after having match point four times this year, something she blames on nerves especially affecting her forehand. “When I am so relaxed, the slice is going like unbelievable,” she said. “But if I get tight, it just floats, and she can use backhand, forehand, whatever she wants,” she added, referring to her opponent. “She has time.” Niculescu said she could learn from Maria Sharapova, who “just hits it — doesn’t matter the score.” “She knows what she has to do,” Niculescu said. “I have a lot of options, and sometimes I choose the wrong option.” Niculescu conceded that playing such an unusual-looking style had led to feelings of insecurity at times. “At the beginning, I didn’t feel too comfortable,” she said. “Everybody was looking at me — ‘What is this?’ ” She felt most accepted when she beat Li Na in Beijing in 2011, a tournament in which she eventually reached the semifinals. “All the Chinese loved me,” she recalled. “I remember one time they asked me to do press or kids day or something. And they were asking: ‘Please, let us know how you play this. It’s amazing, you know.’ “I mean, at the beginning, yes, I was a bit embarrassed,” Niculescu said. But she added: “This is me. Now everybody knows. They have to play really well that day to beat me, I feel.”


E.U. Employment Benchmark May Be Difficult to Meet

Abstract: THE HAGUE — Jacky Limvers has been guiding graduates of Utrecht University in the Netherlands into employment for more than a decade. As a career counselor, she finds that an increasing number of students come to her for help with their first jobs out of school. “It has been more difficult for students to find jobs right away,” she said. Though she is working at one of the best-known universities in one of the European nations relatively unscathed by the fiscal crisis, Ms. Limvers’ experience is not unusual on a continent where more people enroll in postsecondary education and fewer get the jobs they trained for. From the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 to 2010, the average employment rate of recent European graduates 20 to 34 years old dropped 4.5 percent, according to data from the European Commission . In May, the Council of the European Union introduced its first graduate employability benchmark. It calls for an 82 percent employment rate for all graduates who have successfully finished postsecondary education or training in the past three years. “This is an ambitious goal,” said Helena Gomes, a media officer for the Council of the European Union. The benchmark is part of the European Commission’s strategic framework for cooperation in education and training, or ET 2020, and is considered a part of the commissions’s strategy to emerge from the recession. Ms. Gomes explained that while the actual benchmark number was important — one percentage point higher than the rate was before the financial crisis struck Europe — the process of reaching the benchmark goal was just as important. “These are not individual targets for all member states,” Ms. Gomes said by telephone. “This is an average and a goal that we try to work toward.” Member states will report back to the commission every two years on their findings at getting more graduates to work. “It is useful to universities,” said Michael Gaebel, head of the department of higher education policy at the Brussels-based European University Association. Under the benchmark proposal, individual European nations will mine the data from their technical colleges and universities, analyze the trends, and develop policies and incentives to ensure that postsecondary institutions deliver graduates who are ready to serve the job market. The reports to the commission ensure communication between member states on how best to increase the graduate employment rate. “Member states are asked to collect data and exchange good practices,” said Ms. Gomes of the E.U. council. Mr. Gaebel of the European University Association said, “We expect that governments take transition into employment from university more seriously.” Mr. Gaebel indicated that the strength of the benchmark was that it forced European nations to better understand the role of universities in providing employees to national economies. While he admitted that external factors like economics and job markets influenced graduate employability, it was also important for university curriculums and training programs to fit real-life needs. “It will bring up the discussion: What are the reasons for youth unemployment?” Mr. Gaebel said. Even in the comparatively robust economy of the Netherlands, graduates are waiting longer to get their first jobs after their degrees, said Ms. Limvers, who started a job-application support group this summer at Utrecht University for the students who sought her help. In the late 1990s, graduates tended to find employment within a month of finishing school, Ms. Limvers said. That is not the case today. “In nine months, most people will have a job that requires higher education,” she said. Ireland , whose economy has greatly suffered since the heady boom days of the Celtic Tiger, is one of the 27 E.U. member states participating in the benchmark. With a youth unemployment rate close to 40 percent, and 55 percent of young people enrolled in postsecondary education, the jobs available for young graduates simply are not there, said Cat O’Driscoll of the Union of Students in Ireland. “The numbers don’t look as bad as the situation is,” she said, noting that unemployment among graduates was so low that many Irish graduates left the country in search for jobs. Despite the commission’s assurances that the benchmark is a Europe-wide average rate, Ms. O’Driscoll fears that those who have no chance of getting close to the benchmark rate will simply give up trying. “I would like to see a bit more collaboration on what can be done to help the country,” she said. The Union of Students in Ireland does extensive lobbying and awareness campaigning on the issue of graduate employment. “You can’t tar all the countries with the same brush,” Ms. O’Driscoll said.

Europe
Education
European Commission
Colleges and Universities
Unemployment
Ireland
Utrecht (Netherlands)
Careers and Professions


Clinton Renews Her Message of Health Care for All

Abstract: This spot for Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton began running yesterday in New Hampshire and Iowa and is part of a rotation of advertisements she has been showing in those states promoting her health care record and proposals. PRODUCER Clinton media team. THE SCRIPT A male announcer says: “Hillary stood up for universal health care when almost no one else would, and kept standing until six million kids had coverage. She stood by ground zero workers who sacrificed their health after so many sacrificed their lives, and kept standing until this administration took action. She stood by our National Guard and Reserve, and kept standing until they received health care they deserved. So now that almost every candidate is standing up for health care for all, which one do you think will never back down?” Mrs. Clinton says, “I’m Hillary Clinton, and I approve this message.” ON THE SCREEN The spot relies on grainy, black-and-white still photography throughout, with inspirational strings playing in the background. It opens with Mrs. Clinton, in profile, holding a microphone, switches to her holding a toddler and then focuses on a photograph of a young African-American girl looking directly into the camera. Then the screen shows a photograph of firefighters, some wearing protective masks, on a downtown street hours after the Sept. 11 attacks, followed by a shot of Mrs. Clinton in a similar mask standing among uniformed officials. These are followed by shots of Mrs. Clinton hugging a man in a baseball cap; a man on crutches in a dark hallway, and a woman holding a sign reading “Universal Health Care.” The spot ends with a shot of Mrs. Clinton’s face in profile. ACCURACY Mrs. Clinton’s work on health care is well known and not in dispute. Aides to Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, have credited her with persuading a wavering President Bill Clinton to support the creation of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program in 1997. (Though one can attribute to typical campaign hyperbole this spot’s implication that she was somehow a lone voice for universal coverage; most of the Democratic field was for it in 1992.) And as a senator she has worked on providing special health services and benefits for emergency workers at ground zero. SCORECARD In a mere 30 seconds this advertisement establishes for Mrs. Clinton what Rudolph W. Giuliani has in spades: some Sept. 11 bona fides; it subtly criticizes Mr. Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who has come under scrutiny for his handling of health concerns at ground zero, while seemingly taking indirect digs at Senator Barack Obama in saying “almost” all of the Democratic candidates have offered “health care for all.” Some opponents have needled Mr. Obama’s plan as falling short. Its Sept. 11 imagery is an attention grabber — though, with it, Mrs. Clinton risks alienating those Democrats who hold the day sacrosanct.

State Children's Health Insurance Program (S-CHIP)


I.R.S. Offers a Settlement in Corporate Tax Shelter Cases

Abstract: The Internal Revenue Service , bolstered by recent court rulings, offered more than 45 corporations Wednesday the chance to settle disputes involving two tax shelters used to defer payment of billions of dollars in taxes. The questionable shelters, known as LILO and SILO, involve corporations leasing, on paper only, subways, bridges, sewers and other infrastructure, often overseas, and then leasing the facilities back to their owners or operators. I.R.S. officials said that the corporations, including many large banks, had bought more than 1,000 of the shelters, improperly deferring taxes and bolstering their balance sheets. Under the settlement, the I.R.S. said it would allow the companies to keep 20 percent of the deductions claimed through 2007 from use of the shelters — if they agreed to get out of them by December 2010 at the latest. The companies would have to pay the remaining 80 percent of the improperly claimed deductions — a level still likely to leave many with seven-figure tax bills. The proposal is the latest by the I.R.S. to use incentives to try to entice users of tax shelters to come forward. As the shelters have become increasingly sophisticated, the I.R.S. has had to invent ways to figure out who is buying and selling them. Corporations accepting the settlement would not have to pay penalties, which are typically 20 percent of the disallowed deductions. They would also be allowed to keep 20 percent of any interest income earned from investment funds set up as part of the shelters; the corporations would have to pay the remaining 80 percent to the government. The corporations have 30 days to accept the offer. “It’s an all or nothing offer,” an I.R.S. official said during a briefing. “Taxpayers cannot pick and choose which transactions they’d like to settle.” It was not clear Wednesday whether the more than 45 corporations were the only users of the shelters. LILO and SILO have attracted scrutiny from lawmakers in recent years, including from the Treasury and the Senate Finance Committee, which held an investigative hearing on them in 2003. The I.R.S. does not consider either shelter to be legitimate. It disallowed LILO, which is short for lease-in/lease-out, in 2000, and the related SILO, for sale-in/lease-out, in 2005. Despite the offer, I.R.S. officials said some corporations would not be eligible for the settlement. Several corporations are being investigated or audited over their use of the shelters, the officials said, adding that hundreds of transactions had yet to be fully examined. The settlement offer comes on the heels of three recent court victories for the I.R.S. in cases against corporations that used the shelters. In May, a federal judge in Cleveland rejected claims by Key Bank in Cleveland and PNC Bancorp in Pittsburgh that a joint partnership was entitled to more than $100 million in deductions stemming from its SILO deal with a power plant in Germany. Similar rulings in favor of the I.R.S. have come against Fifth Third Bancorp in Cincinnati and BB&T in Winston-Salem, N.C. In May, a month after the BB&T ruling was upheld on appeal, the Wachovia Corporation in Charlotte, N.C., said it would record charges of $800 million to $1 billion in the second quarter stemming from its use of SILO shelters. In announcing the settlement offer, Douglas H. Shulman, the I.R.S. commissioner, said that “we obviously have a strong hand, as we’ve been winning these cases in court.” John C. Rodney, a tax lawyer with Thorp Reed & Armstrong, said: “Taxpayers who refuse this offer are fighting a strong headwind. They might win, but I wouldn’t bet on it.”

Tax Shelters
Internal Revenue Service
Federal Taxes (US)


Fears About Drug Stall Lilly’s Trials

Abstract: Eli Lilly & Company said yesterday that it had stopped giving its most-watched experimental medicine, the blood-clot preventer prasugrel, to patients in two small trials because the dosage might need to be changed for certain patients. Lilly shares initially fell 4 percent in after-hours trading but later recovered part of that loss. The company said developments in the two trials “should not be interpreted to represent the outcome of the overall prasugrel clinical development program.” The company did not identify the types of patients for whom it might adjust dosages. Prasugrel is considered by Wall Street to be a linchpin of the drug maker’s future earnings growth and a serious potential rival to Bristol-Myers Squibb ’s widely used Plavix anticlot drug. Lilly, which is based in Indianapolis, said enrollment of new patients had been stopped in those two trials, which involved people with coronary artery disease taking either prasugrel or Plavix. The company said enrollment in the trials would not resume until new analyses of clinical data were completed and more was known about how the body processes prasugrel. Shares of Lilly fell to $53.58 in electronic trading from their closing share price of $56.15 yesterday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Lilly Eli & Co
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Stocks and Bonds


Europeans See Murkier Case for Sanctions

Abstract: PARIS, Dec. 3 — The Bush administration’s new intelligence assessment that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 is likely to complicate efforts to impose new sanctions on Iran at the United Nations Security Council , European officials said Monday. The officials, who declined to be identified under normal diplomatic rules, stressed that their governments were formally studying the new assessment of Iran’s nuclear intentions and capabilities by the administration’s intelligence agencies. But they added that they were struggling to understand why the United States chose to issue the report just two days after the six powers involved in negotiating with Iran — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — had decided to press ahead with a new Security Council resolution. “Officially, we will study the document carefully; unofficially, our efforts to build up momentum for another resolution are gone,” said one European official involved in the diplomacy. Another senior European official called the conclusions of the assessment “unfathomable.” Russia and China have resisted the passage of more punitive sanctions, and Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations, praised the report as vindication of Russia’s position. “We have always been saying there is no proof they are pursuing nuclear weapons,” Mr. Churkin told reporters. He added, however, that he did not know what impact the report would have on the new initiative for more sanctions. In Vienna, the American intelligence finding was embraced by the International Atomic Energy Agency as proof that its conclusions about Iran’s nuclear program were correct. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the Vienna-based nuclear watchdog agency, is seeking to resolve questions about Iran’s suspicious activities in the past, but has been criticized for not pressing Iran hard enough on curbing its current nuclear program and for conducting diplomacy that seemed at odds with Security Council strategy. “Despite repeated smear campaigns, the I.A.E.A. has stood its ground and concluded time and again that since 2002 there was no evidence of an undeclared nuclear weapons program in Iran,” a senior agency official said. “It also validates the assessment of the director general that what the I.A.E.A. inspectors have seen in Iran represented no imminent danger.” As the report was being released in Washington, the American mission to the International Atomic Energy Agency sent nuclear experts to the agency to brief officials on it. Gregory L. Schulte, the American envoy to the agency, telephoned Dr. ElBaradei, who was traveling in Uruguay, and told him that the American assessment is “close to what you’ve been saying,” the agency official said. Another official close to the agency said it was striking that the American assessment stated with certainty that Iran had a nuclear weapons program in the past, a conclusion the agency has never formally reached. Of the three Western European governments involved in diplomacy with Iran — France, Britain and Germany — Germany seemed to cast the American assessment in the most positive light. The finding “contains a number of interesting details,” a spokesman for the foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said. The minister believes that the dual-track approach “to give incentives on the one hand and impose punitive measures at the Security Council was the right approach,” the spokesman added. The British government was more cautious. “We will discuss the report with U.S. analysts in more detail in the coming days,” said a statement from the British Foreign Office. “But the report’s conclusions justify the action already taken by the international community to get to the bottom of the Iran nuclear program and to increase pressure on the regime to stop enrichment and reprocessing activities.” The French Foreign Ministry said there would be no comment until Tuesday. In Tehran, Foreign Ministry officials reached for reaction by telephone declined to comment, but raised the possibility that the government would issue a response on Tuesday. In Israel, officials said there would be no official response on Monday. But a senior Israeli official said that “the Israeli government is familiar with the report,” and that Iran was a major topic of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s meeting with President Bush last Wednesday, after the Annapolis meeting. The official, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the subject, said Israel remained extremely concerned. “We think there is enough information in the report to give a strong factual basis to our very real concerns about the Iranian nuclear program,” the official said.

Iran
Security Council
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
Atomic Weapons
European Union


U.S. Forgoes Salmonella Vaccine for Egg Safety

Abstract: Faced with a crisis more than a decade ago in which thousands of people were sickened from salmonella in infected eggs, farmers in Britain began vaccinating their hens against the bacteria. That simple but decisive step virtually wiped out the health threat. But when American regulators created new egg safety rules that went into effect last month, they declared that there was not enough evidence to conclude that vaccinating hens against salmonella would prevent people from getting sick. The Food and Drug Administration decided not to mandate vaccination of hens — a precaution that would cost less than a penny per a dozen eggs. Now, consumers have been shaken by one of the largest egg recalls ever, involving nearly 550 million eggs from two Iowa producers, after a nationwide outbreak of thousands of cases of salmonella was traced to eggs contaminated with the bacteria. The F.D.A. has said that if its egg safety rules had gone into effect earlier, the crisis might have been averted. Those rules include regular testing for contamination, cleanliness standards for henhouses and refrigeration requirements, all of which experts say are necessary. However, many industry experts say the absence of mandatory vaccination greatly weakens the F.D.A. rules, depriving them of a crucial step that could prevent future outbreaks. Salmonella bacteria is passed from infected hens to the interior of eggs when they are being formed. The salmonella vaccines work both by reducing the number of hens that get infected and by making it more difficult for salmonella bacteria to pass through to the eggs. “They are the only thing I’m aware of that really controls the problem from the inside out, at the source,” said Ronald Plylar, the former president of a company that developed an early salmonella vaccine. Many people in the American egg industry say they believe that the current outbreak and recall will tip the balance and force nearly all producers in the United States to begin vaccinating hens to reassure consumers. The F.D.A. said it considered mandatory vaccination very seriously. “We didn’t believe that, based on the data we had, there was sufficient scientific evidence for us to require it,” said Dr. Nega Beru, director of the agency’s Office of Food Safety . However, Dr. Beru says that the new rules encourage producers to vaccinate if they think it will help fight salmonella. Another F.D.A. food safety official, Nancy S. Bufano, said that despite the success of vaccination in Britain, the agency thought that because the vaccines used in the two countries were not identical, it made comparisons difficult. Vaccine company executives, however, said the differences were minor and the drugs used in both countries were equally effective. The drop in salmonella infections in Britain was stunning. In 1997, there were 14,771 reported cases in England and Wales of the most common type of the bacteria, a strain known as Salmonella Enteritidis PT4. Vaccine trials began that year, and the next year, egg producers began vaccinating in large numbers. The number of human illnesses has dropped almost every year since then. Last year, according to data from the Health Protection Agency of England and Wales, there were just 581 cases, a drop of 96 percent from 1997. “We have pretty much eliminated salmonella as a human problem in the U.K.,” said Amanda Cryer, director of the British Egg Information Service, an industry group. The F.D.A. estimates that each year, 142,000 illnesses in the United States are caused by consuming eggs contaminated with the most common type of salmonella. It has said the new rules would cut that by more than half. People who eat bad eggs that have not been cooked thoroughly to kill the bacteria can get diarrhea and cramps. Rare cases can be fatal. There are no laws mandating vaccination in Britain. But it is required, along with other safety measures, if farmers want to place an industry-sponsored red lion stamp on their eggs, which shows they have met basic standards. The country’s major supermarkets buy only eggs with the lion seal, so vaccination is practiced by 90 percent of egg producers, according to Ms. Cryer. Thomas Humphrey, a food safety professor at the University of Liverpool, said that producers in the United Kingdom turned to vaccination after other measures, similar to those now required by the F.D.A., failed to show significant results. One-half to two-thirds of American farmers already inoculate their flocks, according to industry estimates, and that number is likely to increase. While the new federal rules do not require vaccination, they do require testing for salmonella. If henhouses are found to be contaminated, then eggs must be tested. If eggs are tainted, then they would have to be broken and pasteurized, which would mean producers would get much less money for their eggs. The F.D.A. has estimated that it would cost farmers about 14 cents a bird to vaccinate, or about $31 million to cover hens at all the large farms in the country. But vaccine company executives said the cost can be just a few cents a bird, depending on the type of vaccine and how many doses are given. A single bird can lay about 270 eggs in its lifetime. After the current outbreak, “many producers that were trying to decide whether or not to vaccinate will now vaccinate,” said David Zacek, the chief executive of Lohmann Animal Health International , one of three companies that produce the vaccines in the United States. The two companies involved in the recall, Wright County Egg and Hillandale Farms, said that they began introducing vaccinated birds to their Iowa operations last year. But the companies have seven separate facilities in Iowa with a total of about 7 million birds, and it can take up to a year and a half to replace all the hens on a large farm. The companies would not say how many of their birds had been vaccinated when the outbreak started this spring. Wright County said that currently about three-quarters of its birds have been vaccinated and Hillandale said it has now vaccinated about 80 percent. Industry experts said that in a typical facility, eggs from different laying barns are commingled when they are sorted and packed, so it is possible that eggs from vaccinated and unvaccinated hens can be shipped out together. “That’s how a farm can be moving in the right direction but still only be partially protected,” said Dr. George Boggan, technical service veterinarian for CEVA, the vaccine company that works with Wright County Egg. The F.D.A. began working on its new egg rules more than a decade ago, and a review of agency documents suggests that officials formed a negative opinion about the effectiveness of vaccines early on. That opinion failed to change as time passed and evidence mounted that vaccines significantly reduced the occurrence of salmonella. Many small-scale trials show vaccines are effective. But the F.D.A. said that only large-scale field trials could prove that a vaccine would work in the real world of commercial henhouses. One such trial cited by F.D.A. officials was a 1999 Pennsylvania study that found little difference in salmonella levels between some vaccinated flocks and an unvaccinated control group. “Currently there is no vaccine that has been shown to be efficacious in the field,” the agency wrote in a public summary of its views last year. However, Dr. Sherrill Davison, the lead researcher on that 1999 study, said that the F.D.A.’s assessment did not reflect advances made since then. “That data was very preliminary data that used vaccine technology from the beginning of these programs, and that technology has changed and our understanding of how to administer them has changed,” she said. Dr. Davison was involved in creating a pioneering egg safety program in Pennsylvania that was the model for the federal rules that went into effect this year. While the Pennsylvania program is voluntary, she said the vast majority of producers there vaccinate their birds. “I personally believe it is essential for the program,” she said.

Eggs
Food and Drug Administration
United States
Salmonella (Bacteria)
Food Contamination and Poisoning
Great Britain
Vaccination and Immunization
Factory Farming


Renée James, President of Intel, Is Leaving the Company

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — The president of Intel is moving on, and the chief executive appears to be using the occasion for a sweeping reorganization of his company, the world’s largest maker of semiconductors. Renée James said in a memo to Intel employees on Tuesday that she was leaving “in order to pursue an external C.E.O. role.” She was named Intel’s president in 2013, at the same time that Brian Krzanich became chief executive. “When Brian and I were appointed to our current roles, I knew then that being the leader of a company was something that I desired as part of my own leadership journey,” she said in the memo. “Now is the right time for me to take that next step.” She will stay at Intel through 2015. Laura Anderson, an Intel spokeswoman, said Ms. James “is seeking a role,” but has not secured a new job. Ms. James lives in Portland, Ore., near a major Intel facility, and keeps a residence close to the Intel headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. Mr. Krzanich does not plan to fill the president’s job, Ms. Anderson said. The position has traditionally been closely associated with an executive hoping to ascend to the chief executive’s position, and the appointment of Ms. James, who had been seeking the chief job alongside Mr. Krzanich, was unusual for Intel. “She always talked a good game of supporting Brian and sharing executive roles, but it may not have played out the way she hoped,” said Mark Hung, a semiconductor analyst with Gartner. “Intel hasn’t had a separate president before and it’s not sure they needed one.” Ms. James’ responsibilities included work with chips for data centers, the fastest-growing of Intel’s major business lines, and software, which is considered important for Intel’s future but has shown relatively modest growth. Through a spokesman, Ms. James declined a request for an interview. In a separate memo, Mr. Krzanich said he was consolidating some of Intel’s financial operations, like venture capital and mergers and acquisitions. Mike Bell, a former Apple executive who ran Intel’s unsuccessful moves into mobile devices, and more recently was running its wearable technology business, is retiring. Hermann Eul, another relatively recent hire who was working in mobile, is also leaving. In 2014, Intel announced it was merging its mobile communications group with client computing, its huge business in chips for personal computers. “The transition is now complete,” Mr. Krzanich said in his memo.

Renée James
Intel
Brian M Krzanich
Computer Chip
Appointments and Executive Changes


Court Fight Presents Risks for Tom Brady and N.F.L.

Abstract: On its often twisted six-month journey, the N.F.L.’s case against Tom Brady and the New England Patriots has included a coach lecturing the news media on the physics of air pressure, an influential owner lashing out against the league he helps run and a star player denying all charges with a smile. On Tuesday, Commissioner Roger Goodell added a new wrinkle when he upheld Brady’s four-game suspension for his role in the deliberate deflation of balls used in the A.F.C. championship game: the destruction of potential evidence, a cellphone with about 10,000 text messages. With the season fast approaching, Brady and the Patriots predictably cried foul. “I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either,” Brady said Wednesday on his Facebook page. Robert K. Kraft, the team’s owner, called Goodell’s stance “unfathomable.” How Would You Destroy Your Cellphone? You’re Tom Brady. You have potentially incriminating text messages. Quick — how do you destroy your cellphone in a way that effectively obliterates all the text messages? The next phase of the showdown, though, will involve fewer theatrics because it has moved into the courtroom, where high-priced lawyers will argue their cases in front of federal judges. Soon after Goodell issued his 20-page ruling, the N.F.L. went to federal court in Manhattan to ask a judge to certify that the commissioner had the right to act as arbitrator in the Brady case. The move was designed to head off the N.F.L. Players Association, which is expected to claim that Goodell was an unsuitable arbitrator because he ruled on a penalty handed down by one of his subordinates, which the union considers a conflict of interest because he had an incentive to rubber-stamp the suspension. Late Wednesday, the players’ union took its case to federal court in Minnesota, where judges have sided with the players in the past. Image In a statement Wednesday, Tom Brady said, "I did nothing wrong, and no one in the Patriots organization did either." Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times The move to seek to have the Brady suspension overturned there could lead to a jurisdictional fight over where the case should be heard. Just deciding the jurisdiction could take weeks and bleed into the start of the regular season, when Brady is supposed to start his suspension. The union’s lawyer said Wednesday that it will try to convince a judge to issue an injunction, which would allow Brady to play while his case is being argued. But there is no certainty a judge will agree. “It’s always anyone’s game when we get into court and not an easy call,” said Mark Conrad, who teaches law and ethics at Fordham University. “Expect a nasty fight here.” The prospect of Brady having to serve his suspension while the players’ union and the league fight in court is one of the many risks that both sides face. In effect, Brady could lose on the field but win what amounts to a Pyrrhic victory in court. Roger Goodell Ruling on Tom Brady's Appeal N.F.L. Commissioner Roger Goodell’s 20-page statement upholding the four-game suspension of New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. “Of course, that’s a concern,” said George Atallah, a spokesman for the union. “But if there’s a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, we’ll pursue it to the end, win or lose.” The N.F.L. could lose, too. In April, a federal judge in Minnesota ruled that the league had violated the terms of the collective bargaining agreement when it suspended Vikings running back Adrian Peterson indefinitely for beating his 4-year-old son with a switch. The union successfully argued that the league retroactively suspended Peterson . The decision was a blow to Goodell, who has tried to take a hard stance against players who commit domestic violence. This time, the union said that there were no rules in its collective bargaining agreement with the league that specify how players should be penalized for tampering with footballs. Players, though, can be fined, but not suspended, for using too much sticky material on their hands to help them catch passes. Either way, the league acted capriciously in suspending Brady, Atallah said. “Why a four-game suspension for that and a fine for stickum?” he asked. No player has served a suspension for not cooperating with a league investigation, he added. Don’t expect judges to be lectured on how quickly footballs lose air pressure or whether text messages on Brady’s broken cellphone can still be retrieved. Judges in these cases typically stick to whether the terms of a labor agreement were violated, not the specifics that led to a suspension. “Judges are not going to review the substance or examine whether or not Brady was more probable or not or generally aware” that the footballs were doctored, said Jason Bonk, a lawyer at Cozen O’Connor who has represented teams, owners and athletes. Michael LeRoy, who teaches labor law at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, said he looked at 2,200 cases involving employers or unions challenging an arbitrator’s ruling and found that three-quarters of the time, judges affirmed the ruling. To overturn a ruling, judges need to find that the arbitrator “imposed his own brand of industrial justice,” or made a decision that was outside the boundaries of the labor agreement, he said. That, he said, will be a high bar for Brady’s legal team to clear.

Tom Brady
Patriots
Football
Cheating
NFL
Super Bowl
Super Bowl 2015
National Football League Players Assn


Pro Tennis Season Can Nearly a Year

Abstract: For many players at the United States Open , it all started the first week of January, maybe in Australia, maybe in Qatar, definitely after an off-season they hoped would be longer. That is when the long haul of the professional tennis season began, starting a seemingly never-ending timetable of tension-filled tournaments, tedious travel and, for some players, inescapable injuries. Some top players have had enough of it, saying the season is too physically demanding because the game simply has grown too fast to endure. “The schedule is crazy,” Rafael Nadal , the world’s No. 2 player, said in an interview before the Open. “It’s crazy now, it was crazy before and it will still be crazy next year. You can’t make your body go to the limit for the whole year. It’s just not possible.” At the Open this year, a record number of players could not even push their bodies through the first week. Fourteen players retired from matches because of injuries and another four withdrew before their matches began. For years, players have complained that the season is too long because it does not give them enough time to recover from injuries or recharge. While many of the top women say they are satisfied that the WTA Tour shortened its season by two weeks in 2009 to end in late October, the men’s schedule still stretches to the end of November, and to December if they are playing in the Davis Cup final. “It seems like they play forever,” Maria Sharapova said of the men. “So I guess we’re lucky.” On Saturday, fourth-seeded Andy Murray groused on Twitter , “Is the 18th pull out in the us open telling the tennis authorities anything??” But top male players are not necessarily playing more matches than their counterparts in the past — just more grueling ones. Nadal played 76 matches last year, compared with Jim Courier ’s 88 in 1992, Ivan Lendl’s 87 in 1989 and John McEnroe ’s 86 in 1984, according to ATP Tour statistics. But these days, players like Nadal and No. 1-ranked Novak Djokovic are griping that their matches grow more intense each year. And without a union to argue on their behalf for fewer tournaments, those players are forced to work through injuries if they want to stay at the top of the game, they say. Nadal grumbled about “the speed of the ball” when asked why the game has become so taxing. He said it would not help much that the ATP Tour will be two weeks shorter next year because the game will be faster and players advancing far into each tournament will have to suffer through it. “Because of it, we will all have to retire when we are young,” said Nadal, 25, who has battled nagging knee injuries. None of the Grand Slam events have thorough historical records to show how much faster different facets of the game have become over the decades. But the computer system at the Open does list the fastest serve speeds every year from tournaments that send their information to IDS, the company that keeps statistics for the Grand Slams and other tournaments. This year, Andy Roddick recorded the fastest serve, at 145 miles per hour. Seven players recorded serves faster than 140 m.p.h., according to the database. In 2001, Taylor Dent topped the serve chart with a 144 m.p.h. one, but only two players recorded serves of 140 m.p.h.-plus. Two decades ago, only one player served quicker than 130 m.p.h. On the women’s side, Sabine Lisicki had this year’s fastest serve, at 125 m.p.h., with four women serving faster than 120 m.p.h. In 2001, Venus Williams ’s serve was the quickest, at 125 m.p.h., but no other woman reached the 120s. In 1991, only two women’s serves were 110 m.p.h.-plus. But a better way to illustrate how much faster the game is now is to look at the speed of the ground strokes and return of serves, said Leo Levin, the director of product development for IDS. While the statistics of those speeds are not officially compiled into a database by IDS, Levin — who has worked at 102 Grand Slam events and helped design the game’s first computerized scoring system — said he often noted those speeds when testing the radar used to record serve speeds. “Back 20 years ago, a hard-hit ground stroke might have been 60 to 70 m.p.h. for the men, but now a hard-hit ground stroke is 90 to 100 m.p.h.,” Levin said, adding that the women’s ground strokes have made just as big a leap, going to 80 to 90 m.p.h., from 50 to 60 m.p.h. “When you look at the percentage of difference, it’s really amazing.” He said players now can return shots that would have been winners in the past because they can generate pace and spin with their high-tech rackets — and with a flick of the wrist or when they are slightly out of position, which was not necessarily the case 10 years ago. “They are playing longer points and the number of shots per point has suddenly gotten much longer, which makes a match so much harder on a player,” Levin said. “Now they are having to work harder on every single point, and that takes a toll.” With that, though, come more injuries. Kim Clijsters, last year’s Open champion, withdrew from the tournament this year with a pulled stomach muscle and has been plagued all year by shoulder, wrist and ankle injuries. Justine Henin, at 28, retired in January with an injured elbow she called too damaged and too fragile for her to stay on tour. For Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1, the latest problem was a shoulder injury that flared up two weeks ago from playing too much. For Andrea Petkovic, the Open’s No. 10 seed, it is sharp pain in her knee every four or five games, from torn cartilage. The increasing speed of the game has also changed the types of injuries. Chronic injuries, like tendinitis, were the most prevalent ones 20 years ago and athletes could play though them, said Kathleen Stroia, the WTA Tour’s vice president for sport sciences and medicine and player development. “Today we see more acute injuries, ones that happen with an episode on the court, like ankle sprains, for example, or a tear of a ligament and tear of a tendon that may need surgical repair,” Stroia said. “Different styles of stroke have made it a more powerful game. But while those advancements have made the game better, the demands on their bodies have also increased.” Hip, pelvis and back injuries are more common now because some athletes use the open-stance forehand to get to the ball faster, she said. But some athletes affected by those maladies feel as though they must play on, fueled by the fear that their rankings will drop if they take time off. Past No. 1 players, like Courier, McEnroe and Pete Sampras , said it had long been that way. “If I were king for a day, I’d end the season after the Open and try to eliminate the feeling that players are losing out on ranking if they need a break,” said Courier, who added that he could not bear to compete in a tournament in December 1992, even though it paid $2 million to the winner, because he was “too cooked from playing so much.” “I absolutely, unequivocally, if I had been given a proper schedule and stopped the season in October, could have played three, four or five years more,” said Courier, who retired at 29. “You’d rather change the schedule and, for the good of the game, see iconic players stick around longer, wouldn’t you?” McEnroe agrees that longevity among top players has suffered as the years have gone by, and he said today’s top players were treated like machines. The first few rounds of a tournament are harder on those players now because the lower-ranked players have improved so much, he said. There is only one way that will change, Sampras said, and that is if the top-10 players unite in efforts to shorten the schedule. But for those players to get on the same page might be impossible because they have different needs, he said, adding that the cruelty of the schedule might be an impossible cycle to break. “Right now, it’s much too much tennis, physically and mentally too much,” Sampras said. “Something’s got to give.”

Tennis
United States Open (Tennis)
Sharapova Maria
Djokovic Novak
Roddick Andy
Nadal Rafael
Courier Jim
Williams Venus
Sampras Pete
McEnroe John


Macarthur Coal Rejects $3 Billion Bid From Peabody Energy

Abstract: Macarthur Coal of Australia said Wednesday that it rejected a $3 billion bid by Peabody Energy, citing rising demand for coal as it tried to stave off the latest attempt by a foreign firm to invest in Australian energy reserves. In its refusal, Macarthur said the offer did not “represent an adequate premium to Macarthur’s recent trading prices.” Its shares have risen steadily from a year ago, when they were trading below 4 dollars. Macarthur’s shares climbed 16.21 percent, or 1.96 Australian dollars, to 14.05 dollars at the close, above the U.S. company’s offer of 13 dollars per Macarthur share, indicating that investors expected Peabody would raise its bid, equivalent to $3 billion. “Peabody’s proposal is highly conditional and does not fully value Macarthur and its significant growth prospects,” said Mr. Keith Delacy, the chairman of Macarthur. The bid by Peabody, based in St. Louis, Missouri, is just the latest example of a foreign company seeking a stake in the energy resources on the southern continent, and it rivals the purchase of Felix Resources, another Australian coal company, by Yanzhou Coal for 3.5 billion dollars in August. Just a week ago, the British company BG Group struck a deal with the Chinese company Cnooc to supply it with natural gas and sell it a stake in its coal bed gas assets. “Peabody believes that there is a strong strategic rationale for a combination of Macarthur’s operating assets and project pipeline with Peabody’s growing Australian platform of metallurgical and thermal coal production,” Peabody said late Tuesday. With its offer, Peabody is interrupting a deal already under way between Macarthur and Gloucester Coal, which is also listed on the Australian Stock Exchange. In December, Macarthur offered to buy the company in an all-share bid that valued Gloucester at 668.5 million dollars, in a deal involving Gloucester’s largest shareholder, Noble, which owns 87.7 percent of the target company. Macarthur shareholders are set to meet April 12 to decide on the Gloucester issue. Peabody said it was in talks with Macarthur’s three largest shareholders, and that its offer represented a premium to Macarthur share prices under the terms of the Gloucester deal. The U.S. company is the world’s largest private-sector coal firm, and if the Macarthur deal went through, it has said that the largest Macarthur shareholders could keep their stake in the company. With two mines in Queensland, Macarthur is one of the largest producers of pulverized coal injection, or PCI coal, which is used to make steel. Other mines are under development, and the company plans to double production in five years, it said.

Coal
Australia
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
Peabody Energy Corp