San Francisco Votes to Keep Shielding Immigrants From Deportation Officials

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — The Board of Supervisors upheld San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary for immigrants on Tuesday, unanimously passing a resolution that called on local law enforcement not to notify the federal authorities when unauthorized immigrants are released from custody. The city had been under pressure from critics of its policies on immigrants after Kathryn Steinle, 32, a tourist from Pleasanton, Calif., was fatally shot in the chest in July while walking with her father along the Embarcadero waterfront. The man accused of the shooting, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, is an unauthorized immigrant who has been deported to Mexico five times for various felonies, including drug charges, and had been released from a San Francisco jail shortly before the killing. At the same time, the board put off a vote on a hotly debated resolution that would have asked the San Francisco sheriff, Ross Mirkarimi, to rescind a March memo instructing staff members not to give information about detainees, such as immigration status, arrest records and release dates, to federal immigration officials. Policies regarding sanctuary cities vary, but San Francisco has generally protected unauthorized immigrants without criminal records from deportation agents. “If people in our community don’t trust law enforcement, no level of police staffing is going to make our community safe,” Supervisor Malia Cohen said as a crowd of about 250 mostly Hispanic protesters clapped and waved their hands in support. Ms. Cohen said she would not be swayed by pressure from the national news media, pundits and political candidates. “They don’t influence how I make my decisions here in San Francisco,” she said. Donald J. Trump, the billionaire real estate magnate running for the Republican presidential nomination, has blamed what he says is a lax stand on immigration for Ms. Steinle’s death, calling it “yet another example of why we must secure our border immediately.” Ms. Steinle’s brother, Brad, rebuked him, telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper that Mr. Trump was using his sister’s death for political gain. In September, Ms. Steinle’s family filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the sheriff and two federal agencies, citing their handling of unauthorized immigrants. Senator Dianne Feinstein of California, a Democrat and former mayor of San Francisco, has urged local officials to participate in the Department of Homeland Security’s new Priority Enforcement Program, which the supervisors resolved on Tuesday not to do. Ms. Feinstein wrote in a recent letter to Mayor Edwin M. Lee that further tragedies could be avoided if the city and county worked with immigration enforcement officials. Supervisor David Campos, who entered the United States illegally from Guatemala as a child, introduced the resolution reaffirming the city’s sanctuary status and warned of “hysteria” on immigration. He pointed to an audience member who he said had been in an abusive relationship but had not wanted to leave her husband, fearing she would be deported and her children left motherless. She now works with Mujeres Unidas y Activas , or United and Active Women, an organization that helps women who are victims of domestic violence. By not participating in the Priority Enforcement Program, Mr. Campos said, San Francisco is reaffirming the commitment it had made since 1989 to being a sanctuary. Earlier in the day, Senate Democrats blocked Republican-backed legislation that would punish jurisdictions that do not cooperate with federal immigration agents. Supervisor Mark Farrell, who wrote the resolution to rescind the sheriff’s memo, balked at the suggestion that his measure would weaken San Francisco’s status as a sanctuary, saying he believed the city would be safer if it cooperated more with federal officials. He added that the mayor and residents may not like the sheriff, but that changes should not be politically motivated. The union representing sheriff’s deputies filed a complaint against Sheriff Mirkarimi this year and asked that he rescind the memo. Mayor Lee also asked the sheriff to amend the policy. Neither the union nor Mr. Lee supports Sheriff Mirkarimi’s re-election bid. Instead, they back Vicki Hennessy, a law enforcement veteran who served as interim sheriff in 2012 when Sheriff Mirkarimi was suspended, having pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor after being charged with domestic violence for grabbing and bruising his wife’s arm.

Jose Ines Garcia Zarate,Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez:Francisco Sanchez


The Color of Royalty, Bestowed by Science and Snails

Abstract: We now take brightly colored fabric for granted. There were far fewer pigments available to the people of antiquity, and most of them were somewhat drab by today’s standards. Throughout the Mediterranean, the dye Tyrian purple was prized above all others. In ancient Rome, fabric dyed with Tyrian purple was worth its weight in gold. Its intense color, as well as its expense, made it a favorite of royalty and nobility and it was coveted as a status symbol. The association between purple and royalty that persists in many cultures today originated with this ancient pigment. Video The normal distribution crops up many places in nature. The central limit theorem explains how it provides a near-universal expectation for averages of measurements. To make Tyrian purple, marine snails were collected by the thousands. They were then boiled for days in giant lead vats, producing a terrible odor. The snails, though, aren’t purple to begin with. The craftsmen were harvesting chemical precursors from the snails that, through heat and light, were transformed into the valuable dye. The compounds that turn purple in this process serve a defensive role in the snail — they protect the egg masses from bacterial infection. The way that Tyrian purple is made affects its final color. Since many details of the manufacturing process were lost long ago, we don’t know today what exact shade was favored in antiquity. Video What if you had a tiny husband, about the size of a breath mint, that lived in a chamber within your body and produced sperm on an as-needed basis? This is how mating works in the green spoonworm. Nina Ruelle, a former student in my invertebrate zoology course at Brown University, introduces Tyrian purple in this episode of CreatureCast. The song is “ humm ok ” by Gablé. More animations and images can be found at nytimes.com/creaturecast and creaturecast.org , a project supported in part by the National Science Foundation.


U.N. Chief Ban Ki-Moon Says Assad Must Shift Syria’s Course

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — President Bashar al-Assad of Syria should not delude himself that he can survive the Syrian uprising without significant reforms, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon , said Tuesday. “If he thinks that he can weather this storm, then that is a serious misjudgment,” Mr. Ban said, dismissing the idea that any reform plan might work without engaging the opposition and dismantling the one-party state. “Reform while so many people are being killed daily?” Mr. Ban asked, adding, “Whatever they do — a referendum, or Parliament elections — is not important in these circumstances.” Mr. Ban’s comments, made at a lunch with reporters, came a day after foreign ministers from seven Security Council members, including all the permanent members except China , met at the United Nations on the Middle East and Syria. The crux of the talks involved trying to get Russia and China to shift their opposition to a Security Council resolution to a position supporting an Arab League plan to end the violence in Syria. If Russia and China backed such a resolution, it would have an important impact on Mr. Assad’s current “political psychology” that he does not need to change course, Mr. Ban said. Syria announced Tuesday that it would hold parliamentary elections on May 7 under a new Constitution passed by a referendum in February, although voting had been impossible in many cities under siege by government security forces. Mr. Ban again urged the Security Council members to overcome their differences and pass a simple resolution that strengthens the mandate of Kofi Annan, the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy and Mr. Ban’s predecessor as secretary general, to try to end the conflict. The resolution, Mr. Ban said, should also call for an end to the violence, for both sides to engage in political dialogue and for access to Syria for humanitarian aid. Mr. Annan received an initial response to his overture to the Assad government to open dialogue with the opposition, Mr. Ban said, but he would not discuss it until Mr. Annan’s news conference scheduled for Wednesday at 7 a.m. Eastern time. Other United Nations diplomats, however, described the response as “disappointing.” The United Nations humanitarian coordinator, Valerie Amos, briefed the Security Council on Tuesday on the need for immediate access to people in Homs and other cities besieged by the military. Ms. Amos, according to diplomats, said such access was especially important because government forces were placing mines along escape routes on major roads and at the border. Although the government rejected her overall plan, Ms. Amos told the diplomats that Syria did agree to a mission, which might begin as early as Thursday, to figure out what humanitarian aid was needed around the country. Mr. Ban said the Security Council needed to act faster both to press Mr. Assad and to stop the killing. “The longer time we take, the more people will be killed,” he said. The central issue in establishing a cease-fire is the sequence, Mr. Ban said. Since the government’s violence began as a response to a peaceful protest movement, its security forces should initiate the cease-fire, he said. “There is a serious disproportionate use of force,” Mr. Ban said. Reflecting the general consensus among Western and Arab nations, he said that once the government stopped using tanks, artillery and other heavy weaponry, the opposition could be pressed to put away its light weapons, too. “They do not have any means to fight,” he said. During the meeting of foreign ministers here on Monday, the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, spelled out the Russian position that a simultaneous, mutual cease-fire must occur, and his French counterpart, Alain Juppé, described any shift in positions that day as being by “millimeters.”

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Charles B. Rangel

Abstract: Mr. Rangel’s second term as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee is his first with a Democratic president. But while Mr. Rangel, a 20-term liberal from Harlem, is eager to help Mr. Obama, one of his first acts — questioning the president’s proposal to limit deductions by rich taxpayers to help pay for overhauling health care — underscores that Mr. Rangel’s priority is New York. The state’s lawmakers typically oppose limiting a break that allows affluent New Yorkers to deduct their high state and local taxes, as well as charitable donations, from their federal taxes. Mr. Rangel, 78, has jurisdiction over much of the Obama agenda, though he is likely to skirmish some with Representative Henry A. Waxman of the Energy and Commerce Committee over turf on health and energy legislation. Mr. Rangel’s hand could be weakened given the distractions of a continuing ethics inquiry, and Republicans’ regular reminders of it.

House Committee on Ways and Means
Rangel Charles B
Federal Budget (US)
United States Politics and Government


The Ironmen (and Women) of Mexico

Abstract: Long before Luis Alvarez became a top Ironman and an advocate for the sport of triathlon, he was a self-described big, fat lazy couch potato who smoked too much. Alvarez was 21 when he put out his last cigarette in 1983, and he got off his couch a year later to begin participating in 10-kilometer races and a half-marathon in his hometown, Monterrey, Mexico. “I was always in the back of the pack,” said Alvarez, now 45 and living in Mexico City. “But I didn’t care about the competitive side of it. All I cared about was getting in shape.” Alvarez kept running, and began swimming and biking as part of his training. By the time he turned 24 in 1986, he competed in his first triathlon, in Laredo, Tex. “I finished fourth in my age group,” he said. “It was a wonderful experience, not just in terms of exercise, but in terms of all of the socializing that went along with it.” By 2000, Alvarez said, he felt strong enough to compete at a full Ironman event in Camp Pendleton, Calif., composed of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride and a 26.2-mile run. He reached out to friends in and around Mexico City by e-mail and telephone, and urged them to throw their sombreros into the ring. “I wanted to share with them all the joys and the satisfaction that come from participating in these kinds of events,” said Alvarez, who persuaded 35 others to join him. “Everyone had a great time,” he said. “They went home and began convincing even more friends to go out and compete.” In 2001, Alvarez led a contingent of 45 to the Florida Ironman in Panama City Beach. The next year, 50 competed in Salt Lake City. Alvarez, the chief executive of Grupo Aloymex, a producer of fuel tanks in Mexico City, took on another responsibility two years ago. He gave his team of triathletes a name, Ironmex, and started recruiting fellow Mexicans on a Web site, ironmex.com . He also reached out to sponsors like Timex, Reebok and Gatorade. “Our goal is to compete in one major Ironman competition each year, whether it be in the United States or anywhere else in the world,” said Alvarez, whose team now has 400 members, ages 18 to 67. “We’re not a part of any federation or sanctioned club; we’re just a bunch of friends who enjoy traveling together and being a part of this sport.” By 2005, Alvarez’s team had 70 members who participated in an Ironman in Tempe, Ariz. Last year, 200 took part in an Ironman in Klagenfurt, Austria. On Sept. 9, Team Ironmex was 350 strong — 80 of them women — for a race in Madison, Wis. “Many of our athletes brought along family and friends, so there were about 800 of us in Wisconsin who were either on the course or rooting on the sidelines,” Alvarez said. “Other people were rooting for us, yelling ‘Speedy Gonzalez’ or ‘Tequila’ or ‘Viva Mexico’ — anything Mexican to get our attention and keep us motivated.” Alvarez’s team is training for two Ironman events next year: in Nice, France, on July 27; and in Louisville, Ky., on Aug. 31. “I’m planning on sending 300 of us to Nice and maybe 150 to Louisville,” he said. “The numbers aren’t exact yet because I’m still recruiting.” Alvarez, a divorced father of a 12-year-old, Jose Manuel, said he was also training 18 to 27 hours a week for the Ironman World Championship on Oct. 13 in Kailua-Kona, Hawaii, which will be his 51st full Ironman competition. “His athletic accomplishments on the Ironman circuit are something to be celebrated,” Blair LaHaye, the director of communications for Ironman, said. “His passion for the sport has become contagious.” Alvarez has competed in every country that has conducted a full Ironman race. In 2005, he conquered grueling courses in Arizona, Wisconsin, Hawaii, England, South Africa, France, Germany, Japan, Canada and Australia. “Every time I do an Ironman, I’m inspired to do another,” he said. “And there’s nothing better than competing in the company of good friends.”


Economic Stimulus, Without More Debt

Abstract: THE $858 billion tax package signed into law this month provides some stimulus for our ailing economy. With the unemployment rate at 9.8 percent, more will certainly be needed, yet further deficit spending may not be a politically viable option. Instead, we are likely to see a big fight over raising the national debt ceiling, and a push to reverse the stimulus we already have. In that context, here’s some good news extracted from economic theory: We don’t need to go deeper into debt to stimulate the economy more. For economists, of course, this isn’t really news. It has long been known that Keynesian economic stimulus does not require deficit spending. Under certain idealized assumptions, a concept known as the “balanced-budget multiplier theorem” states that national income is raised, dollar for dollar, with any increase in government expenditure on goods and services that is matched by a tax increase. The reasoning is very simple: On average, people’s pretax incomes rise because of the business directly generated by the new government expenditures. If the income increase is equal to the tax increase, people have the same disposable income before and after. So there is no reason for people, taken as a group, to change their economic behavior. But the national income has increased by the amount of government expenditure, and job opportunities have increased in proportion. During the Great Depression , there was a debate about “pump priming” — about whether the government had to go into debt to stimulate the economy. John Maynard Keynes , who originated the Keynesian theory in 1936, liked to emphasize that the deficit-spending multiplier was greater than 1, because the income generated by deficit spending also induces second and third rounds of expenditure. If the government buys more goods and services and there is no tax increase, people will spend much of the income that they earned from these sales, which in turn will generate more income for others, who will spend much of it too, and so on. In contrast, the balanced-budget multiplier theory says that there are no extra rounds of expenditure. You get just one round of spending — meaning that the multiplier is 1.0 — but sometimes that is enough. Paul Samuelson, an economist at M.I.T., first drew national attention to the balanced-budget multiplier in 1943 , seven years after Keynes introduced his theory. The multiplier was an immediate consequence of the Keynes theory, but Keynes didn’t articulate it himself. Economists embraced this multiplier because it seemed to offer a solution to a looming problem: a possible repeat of the Great Depression after wartime stimulus was withdrawn, and when new rounds of deficit spending might be impossible because of the federal government’s huge, war-induced debt. It turns out that this worry was unfounded. The Depression did not return after the war. But in the early 1940s, economists justifiably saw the possibility as their biggest concern. Their discussions have been mostly forgotten because they didn’t have much relevance for public policy — until now, that is, when we again have a huge federal debt and a vulnerable economy. Of course, the balanced-budget theorem is only as good as its assumptions. Other possible repercussions could make its multiplier something other than 1.0. The number could be less, for example, if people cut consumption because of psychological reactions to higher taxes. Alternatively, it could be greater if income-earning people who are taxed more cut their consumption less than newly employed people increase their spending. We can’t be sure what will happen. Researchers haven’t pinned down the deficit-spending multiplier either, even though that has been the focus of their efforts. In fact, a recent survey article on the effects of government stimulus by Alan Auerbach at the University of California, Berkeley, and two of his colleagues has found that “the range of mainstream estimates for multiplier effects is almost embarrassingly large.” Last month, a Congressional Budget Office study revealed similar uncertainty. The trouble comes in estimating how people will react in generating those subsequent rounds of spending. But the balanced-budget multiplier is simpler to judge: If the government spends the money directly on goods and services, that activity goes directly into national income. And with a balanced budget, there is no clear reason to expect further repercussions. People have jobs again: end of story. What kind of jobs? Building highways and improving our schools are just two examples — as cited in 1944 by Henry Wallich, an enthusiast of balanced-budget stimulus who would later become a Yale economist and a Federal Reserve Board governor. AT present, however, political problems could make it hard to use the balanced-budget multiplier to reduce unemployment. People are bound to notice that the benefits of the plan go disproportionately to the minority who are unemployed, while most of the costs are borne by the majority who are working. There is also exaggerated sensitivity to “earmarks,” government expenditures that benefit one group more than another. Another problem is that pursuing balanced-budget stimulus requires raising taxes. And, as we all know, today’s voters are extremely sensitive to the very words “tax increase.” But voters are likely to accept higher taxes eventually, as they have done repeatedly in the past. It would be a mistake to consider the present atmosphere as unchangeable. It’s conceivable that an effective case will be made in the future for a new stimulus package, if more people come to understand that a few years of higher taxes and government expenditures could fix our weak economy and provide benefits like better highways and schools — without increasing the national debt.

Unemployment
Economic Conditions and Trends
Taxation
Labor and Jobs
Keynes John Maynard


Gaza-Bound Aid Ship Is Delayed

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — A Lebanese aid ship destined for Gaza delayed its departure on Saturday after Cyprus refused to allow the ship to sail through its waters or to use its ports, organizers and Lebanese officials said. The ship, the Mariam, was to have left the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli on Sunday bound for Cyprus, the first leg of the trip. Organizers said that they had been negotiating with Turkey and Greece for the use of ports and waters and that they could reach a deal by Monday. Cyprus’s refusal came after Israel said it would use force against the vessel. On May 31, Israeli commandos killed nine Turkish activists aboard a ship that was part of a Turkish aid flotilla that the commandos had boarded as it approached Gaza. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, said in a letter to Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that the Mariam’s stated intention was “to violate the existing naval blockade of Gaza.” She warned, “Israel reserves its right under international law to use all necessary means to prevent these ships from violating the aforementioned naval blockade.” Lebanon had initially said it would defy Israel and let the aid ship sail. But on Saturday, Transportation Minister Ghazi Aridi said Beirut banned the boat from leaving its waters because Cyprus would not welcome it. “The ship cannot leave the port of Tripoli if Cyprus denied it entry,” Mr. Aridi told reporters. “If they find another way or another agreement with another country or another port, then we will permit them to leave immediately.” The trip’s organizers, a group of more than 50 women, most of whom are Lebanese, said the Mariam, which sails under the flag of Bolivia, was carrying food and medical supplies. Its goal, they said, is to break the naval blockade of Gaza that Israel imposed after the militant group Hamas was elected to power. Another Lebanese aid ship, the Naji al-Ali, aims to sail to Gaza through Cyprus, said journalists who organized the effort. They said it had also not received permission from Lebanon to leave.

Gaza Strip
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
Palestinians
Ships and Shipping


China’s President Congratulates Taiwan Leader on Election as Chairman of Party

Abstract: BEIJING — President Hu Jintao of China congratulated the Taiwanese leader Ma Ying-jeou on Monday, after his election this weekend as chief of Taiwan ’s governing party, a victory that analysts said could bolster Mr. Ma’s efforts to pursue engagement and economic ties with China. Mr. Ma ran uncontested on Sunday in the election for Kuomintang party chief. He won 92.5 percent of about 300,000 votes cast, with a turnout of 58 percent, the party said. Since his election 14 months ago as Taiwan’s president, Mr. Ma has pursued warmer relations with China, but not always with the wholehearted support of his own party. “As party chairman, he can try to renovate the Kuomintang,” and try to overcome that opposition, said Bruce Jacobs, who directs Taiwan research at Australia’s Monash University . China’s state-run media suggested that Mr. Ma’s election could set the stage for a historic meeting between him and Mr. Hu as party chiefs. In addition to being president, Mr. Hu is general secretary of China’s governing Communist Party. Any meeting between them as heads of state would immediately raise the delicate issue of Taiwan’s sovereignty. Contacts between the sides on a party-to-party basis might be more politically acceptable. Beijing claims sovereignty over Taiwan, which has been ruled separately since 1949, when the Chinese civil war ended with the defeat of Chiang Kai-shek’s Kuomintang forces. Mr. Ma has ruled out any meeting for now, saying that the Taiwanese people are split over the issue. Mr. Jacobs said a meeting was unlikely. He characterized the exchange of messages between Mr. Hu and Mr. Ma about the election as “probably more of a formality.” In his congratulatory telegram to Mr. Ma, Mr. Hu said, “I hope our two parties can continue to promote peaceful development of cross-strait relations, deepen mutual trust, boost the well-being of compatriots on both sides and create a glorious resurrection of the Chinese race.” Mr. Ma’s reply said in part, “We should never stop efforts to consolidate peace in the Taiwan Strait, resume regional stability and sustain prosperity based on the principles of facing reality, building trust, shelving disputes and creating a win-win scenario.”


Uncle Mo Surprise Favorite in Breeders’ Cup Classic

Abstract: The Breeders’ Cup Classic usually shines a light on the horse of moment while the race run two before it, the Juvenile, tries to identify the colt whose name will be on everyone’s lips at the Kentucky Derby on the first Saturday of May. Those lines may have been blurred Monday at the post-position draw of the Breeders’ Cup when Uncle Mo was made the 5-2 morning-line favorite in the $5 million Classic. Last year, Uncle Mo was the favorite in the Juvenile and ran like one, dusting nine rivals by four and a quarter lengths to remain undefeated and win the 2-year-old championship. This year, however, he has won just twice — never in Grade I company — and a liver disease kept him out of the Kentucky Derby and the rest of the Triple Crown series. Uncle Mo, a son of the miler Indian Charlie, also has never been asked to go the Classic’s mile-and-a-quarter distance. He will have to do so Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., from the No. 12 hole, the second farthest outside. “He gets away from the gate pretty well,” said Uncle Mo’s trainer, Todd Pletcher. “It’s a tall order. We’ve come a long way since the beginning of May, and we’re hoping we can get all the way there. I wasn’t surprised he was made the favorite. I anticipated him to be in that range, somewhere at 3-1 or so.” The post positions were drawn for all 15 Breeders’ Cup races, which offer a combined purse of $26 million, and the Churchill Downs oddsmaker Mike Battaglia made the French filly Goldikova the biggest favorite, at 7-5, to win her fourth straight Mile. Battaglia tabbed the undefeated colt Union Rags as the 2-1 favorite in the Juvenile. Big Drama is a 5-2 favorite to repeat in the Sprint. It was Battaglia’s morning line on the Classic, however, that drew notice. The filly Havre de Grace was made the second choice at 3-1 despite winning five of her last six starts, including a victory over male horses in the Woodward Stakes, and is widely considered the horse to beat. Havre de Grace worked effortlessly Monday, rolling along for five furlongs in an unhurried 1 minute 2 seconds in what looked more like an open gallop. The filly is tractable and possesses an explosive turn of foot, giving her jockey, Ramon Dominguez, plenty of options. Uncle Mo and To Honor and Serve, another strong contender who drew the No. 13 hole, are going to have to be hustled early to clear the field and secure position. Game On Dude, who needs to be on the lead, will blast off from the No. 8 post. “Ramon can just drop inside and let those three go at it until he’s ready to let her loose,” said Rick Porter, the owner of Havre de Grace. “I think we’re sitting on ‘Go.’ She’s fit and ready and maybe just needs a little luck.”

Horse Racing
Breeders' Cup (Horse Race)
Pletcher Todd


With Surge of Chaos in Iraq, a Familiar Problem Knocks on Biden’s Door

Abstract: WASHINGTON — From the first summer of the Obama administration, Iraq has been considered Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s account. But when President Obama called a critical meeting on June 16 to confront the crisis that had suddenly erupted there, Mr. Biden was landing in Brazil to go to a World Cup soccer game. Mr. Biden, who had been sent to mend the rift left by the National Security Agency’s eavesdropping on Brazil’s president, instead found himself stuck on Air Force Two for 90 minutes, dialing in to deliberate over an issue both he and the president thought they had left behind. For a second-term vice president who had hoped to shift his foreign policy focus to new horizons in Latin America and Asia, the resurgence of chaos in Iraq is a decidedly mixed blessing. It has plunged Mr. Biden into a familiar grind of frustrating phone calls with Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the recalcitrant Shiite leader with whom Mr. Obama has little contact. Yet the fact that Iraq is fracturing along sectarian lines could allow Mr. Biden to claim vindication for a concept he proposed in 2006 and was widely dismissed at the time: that Iraq should be split into three largely autonomous regions. Either way, Iraq has again landed in Mr. Biden’s lap. How it weathers this latest strife will factor heavily in the legacy of a vice president who has used his long history and robust views on Iraq to position himself as an influential member of Mr. Obama’s war council. For now, Mr. Biden is saying nothing publicly about a federal, three-state Iraq, in keeping with the administration’s effort to prod the Iraqis to form a unity government. Speaking to reporters in Brazil, the vice president emphasized the need for cohesion, not partition. “He has not given up,” said Jake Sullivan, the vice president’s national security adviser. “He thinks, even at this late stage, there is the possibility that the Kurds, Sunnis and Shia can get through this government formation process.” Image President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden met with their national security team on June 15 to discuss the situation in Iraq. Credit Pete Souza/White House, via European Pressphoto Agency But another senior official was more blunt. “If Iraq is going to stay together, it is going to be close to the model he envisioned,” said the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation. “In putting together the government, there are going to be conversations about federalism and devolving more power to the local level.” In fact, the White House has quietly begun contingency planning for how the United States would deal with a scenario — considered likely by many officials — in which the three groups are not able to agree on a strong, inclusive government. There are not many palatable options. Any partitioning of Iraq, analysts say, could lead to even greater bloodshed than Iraq has seen in recent days, with the Sunni militant group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, seizing Mosul, Tikrit and other cities. Moreover, none of the options being weighed by the administration involve sending in American soldiers to stabilize the situation. When Mr. Obama was winding down the war in 2011, Mr. Biden was among those who argued for leaving a smaller residual force behind — one that would be narrowly focused on counterterrorism. Critics of the administration argue that this decision left Iraq vulnerable to the chaos that now afflicts it. To some, that outweighs whatever credit Mr. Biden deserves for recognizing the centrifugal forces in Iraq. “What he was saying about federalism and semi-independent areas, I think there’s nothing wrong with that kind of thinking,” Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said in an interview. “Obviously that was a de facto situation with the Kurds a long time ago. But very honestly, it pales in comparison to his zealous advocacy for getting everybody out.” Aides to Mr. Biden said it was the Iraqis who opposed keeping even a small American force. And a larger troop presence, they said, might not have prevented the gains made by the Sunni militants, since those troops would not have had a combat role. The vice president, officials said, negotiated with Mr. Maliki in 2012 about establishing a “fusion cell” in Iraq, a joint operation staffed by American and Iraqi intelligence officers that would have improved the capacity of the Iraqi security forces to detect terrorist threats. Some critics cite the White House’s descriptions of his calls with Mr. Maliki as evidence that the vice president was not tough enough. But Mr. Biden’s aides said these rosy “readouts” bore little resemblance to the blunt tone he actually took in the conversations. Iraqi Army Retakes Government Complex in Central Ramadi Efforts to stem the rise of the Islamic State. Certainly, Mr. Biden has been a faithful caller. He spoke by phone with Mr. Maliki 11 times in the past year and met with him twice. He called the Kurdish leader, Masoud Barzani, eight times, and the Sunni speaker of the Iraqi Parliament, Osama al-Nujaifi, six times. “He knows the players, he knows the names of the players’ grandchildren, and that is enormously valuable,” said Antony J. Blinken, a former top aide to Mr. Biden who is now the president’s deputy national security adviser. When Mr. Obama handed Mr. Biden the Iraq portfolio in June 2009, it was hardly a prize. The president had run for office on his opposition to the war, and he wanted a high-level official other than him to pay attention to it so he could focus on Afghanistan. By the time Mr. Biden visited Iraq in December 2011 to mark the departure of the last American combat troops, however, he expressed pride that his horse-trading between Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds had helped reduce sectarian violence in the country. “When Barack and I were elected,” Mr. Biden said in an interview, “we had an opportunity to provide what I thought was the missing piece here, which was a 24/7 focus on finding political accommodation among the parties, who looked as though they were on the brink of civil war.” Now, though, Iraq again looks like the hopeless case it was in 2006, when Mr. Biden’s famous article was published in The New York Times . The essay, co-written by Leslie H. Gelb of the Council on Foreign Relations, proposed dividing the country into a loose federation with a central government responsible for border defense, foreign affairs and oil revenues. At the time, it was rejected both by Iraqis and policy makers in Washington. “He still believes in it,” Mr. Gelb said. “But the administration, including Joe, stopped paying attention to Iraq after the U.S. got out. They got involved in other crises, and this fell off the radar screen.” Mr. Biden’s aides acknowledge that he was eager to turn to other foreign policy priorities after the first term. But, Julianne Smith, his former deputy national security adviser, said: “Nothing ever died down. He was always having to get on the phone with Maliki.” The question is whether Mr. Biden’s once-controversial views will make him a more persuasive messenger this time. “If he says to them, ‘you’re heading toward partition,’ I think they’re going to take him very seriously,” said Kenneth M. Pollack, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution .

Iraq
Nuri Kamal al-Maliki
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Joe Biden
US Military
US Foreign Policy
Barack Obama


Nancy Hicks Maynard Dies at 61; A Groundbreaking Black Journalist

Abstract: Nancy Hicks Maynard, who was one of the first black women to be a reporter at The New York Times and with her husband bought and published The Oakland Tribune, still the only major metropolitan daily to have been owned by African-Americans, died Sunday in Los Angeles. She was 61 and lived in Santa Monica, Calif. The cause was multiple organ failure, her daughter, Dori J. Maynard, said. Ms. Hicks Maynard, who was also a co-founder of an institute that has trained hundreds of minority journalists, was a 21-year-old former copy girl and reporter for The New York Post when she was hired by The Times in September 1968. Almost immediately, she was sent to Brooklyn to help cover the Ocean Hill-Brownsville school decentralization controversy, which led to a citywide teachers’ strike, accusations of racism and anti-Semitism, and eventually the creation of local school districts throughout the city. When promoted, Ms. Hicks Maynard became one of the first black female reporters at The Times. In 1974, at a black journalists’ convention, Ms. Hicks met Robert C. Maynard, a columnist for The Washington Post. Within a year they were married; they quit their jobs and in 1977, with seven other journalists, founded the Institute for Journalism Education. It was renamed the Maynard Institute for Journalism Education after Mr. Maynard died in 1993. Now based in Oakland, Calif., the institute has trained hundreds of minority journalists in the last 31 years. Ms. Hicks Maynard was the institute’s first president and a member of its board until 2002. As other organizations began similar programs for minority reporters, the Maynard Institute began shifting its focus to training editors and newsroom managers. In 1983, the Maynards bought the financially ailing Oakland Tribune from the Gannett Company. For nearly a decade, they were co-publishers, bringing a high degree of diversity to the newsroom. Mr. Maynard died a year after declining revenues impelled the Maynards to sell the paper to the Alameda Newspaper Group. Ms. Hunter-Gault, who became a correspondent for the Public Broadcasting Service, said Monday that Ms. Hicks Maynard was “a groundbreaker” at The Times at a time when “we were trying to effect change in the portrayal of black people.” “Nancy helped us survive even the inadvertent racism,” Ms. Hunter-Gault said. “And the thing about Nancy was that when so many of us were preoccupied with doing stories about black people, she paved the way in a new direction.” In her first few years at The Times, Ms. Hicks Maynard covered race riots, black student takeovers at Columbia and Cornell and a memorial for Robert F. Kennedy. She later wrote for the paper’s education and science news departments, specializing in health-care coverage. Her subjects included the complexities of Medicare , an explanation of the arrangement of whiskers on a lion’s face and coverage of the Apollo space missions. In 1973, she spent a month in China, analyzing its medical system. “One of her stories was on the use of acupuncture for surgical operations while the patients were wide awake and feeling no pain,” Ms. Hunter-Gault said of her China coverage. “This kind of reporting went off in a whole other direction for black reporters.” Nancy Alene Hall was born in Harlem on Nov. 1, 1946. Her father, Alfred Hall, known as Al, was a noted jazz bassist and her mother, the former Eve Keller, was a nurse. Ms. Hicks Maynard’s first husband, Daniel Hicks, died in the early 1970s. Besides her mother and her daughter, she is survived by her partner, Jay T. Harris; two sons, David and Alex Maynard; a sister, Barbara Guest; and a brother, Al Hall. Ms. Hicks Maynard received a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Long Island University in 1966. She first became interested in journalism as a teenager. When a fire destroyed her former elementary school in Harlem, she became outraged at the way her community was described by the news media. She decided she could make a difference.


Giuliani’s Daughter Shows Support for Obama, for a Time

Abstract: Rudolph W. Giuliani ’s daughter, Caroline, has done her best to keep out of the spotlight as her father runs for president, choosing to keep complicated family matters private. And for his part, Mr. Giuliani has tried to shield both her and his son, Andrew, from attention. But the very public nature of the way young adults socialize via the Internet, posting private musings for all the world to see, thrust Ms. Giuliani into the limelight yesterday with word that her online profile suggested she supported Senator Barack Obama ’s presidential bid. On her profile in Facebook, the popular online social networking site, Ms. Giuliani, 17, listed her political views as “liberal” and noted her membership in a group called “Barack Obama (One Million Strong for Barack).” As word of her supposed Democratic allegiances ricocheted across the Internet after the online magazine Slate broke the news, visitors to her profile found that she had already moved to alter history. She quit the Obama fan club at 6:01 a.m. and, after Slate posted their article, she took down her entire page. A spokeswoman for Ms. Giuliani, Joannie Danielides, said: “Before the presidential campaign got under way, Caroline added herself to a list on Facebook as an expression of interest in certain principles. It was not intended as an indication of support in a presidential campaign, and she has removed it.” Mr. Giuliani, whose strained relationship with his children has been widely reported, alluded to his daughter’s differing political outlook during a campaign stop in Iowa, noting, apparently with regret, that his children “don’t work on my campaign.” “My daughter, my daughter I love very much, I have great respect for her and I’m really proud of her,” he said. “I don’t comment on children because I want to give them the maximum degree of privacy.” Mr. Obama, who was campaigning in Le Mars, Iowa, was asked what he thought about the support from such an unexpected corner. “That’s very nice,” he replied. “We think it’s wonderful that we are attracting support from young people all across the country. I can’t wait to meet her.” Caroline Giuliani’s Facebook profile was available only to people who attended Trinity, her high school in Manhattan, or Harvard, where she will soon be enrolled. Mr. Giuliani, alone among the major presidential candidates in either party, has no Facebook profile. Even if his daughter wanted to “friend” him, she could not.

Giuliani Caroline
Facebook.com
Giuliani Rudolph W
Presidential Election of 2008
Families and Family Life
Computers and the Internet
Obama Barack


U.S. Regulators Push to Strengthen Oversight of Energy Markets

Abstract: Faced with enormous political pressure to tighten the oversight of energy trading, federal regulators said Thursday that they have been investigating oil and derivative markets for six months to look into potential price manipulation. The revelation came as the agency, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission , also announced a series of measures intended to heighten regulatory supervision of energy trading and bring “greater sunshine” into the commodities markets. The commission, which does not typically disclose ongoing investigations, said that since December 2007 it had been conducting a nationwide inquiry of “practices surrounding the purchase, transportation, storage and trading” of oil contracts. It did not say whom it was investigating, nor did it say when it expected the investigation to be completed. The commission seems keen to address concerns raised in Congress this year that oil prices have been somehow artificially lifted by investors’ enthusiasm for energy commodities. Oil futures have risen 32 percent this year and have more than quadrupled since 2003. On Thursday, oil futures fell $4.41 a barrel to $126.62 on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gasoline prices touched a national average of $3.95 a gallon, up from about $3.20 a gallon a year ago. The commission said the new measures would “improve oversight of the energy futures markets to ensure they reflect fundamental economic forces of supply and demand, free of manipulation and fraud.” But some analysts said the rules would do little to reduce volatility in the oil market, or lead to lower prices. The new measures include, for example, an extended agreement with the commission’s British counterpart to expand the surveillance of energy futures contracts with delivery points in the United States. The commission’s second set of measures would require institutional investors who manage so-called commodity index funds, which are meant to mimic oil prices, to provide monthly reports on their activities, a rule that so far applied only to farm commodities. The measure should help the commission determine whether adjustments to trader reporting or classification are required, it said. The commission said it would also review trading practices for index traders to ensure they are not “adversely impacting the price discovery process, and to determine whether different practices should be employed.” But John D. Dingell, Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House committee on energy and commerce, said the commission had failed to address specific mechanisms that allow commodity-linked funds to invest in energy markets with minimal amounts of money. Such practices have caused “rampant speculation,” he said. “For too long, C.F.T.C. has been operating in the dark,” Mr. Dingell said. “Unfortunately, the C.F.T.C. has not proposed how to close off the loopholes that allow commodity index funds and others to take such massive positions that they possibly distort oil futures markets.” In recent testimony to Congress, Jeffrey Harris, the commission’s chief economist, said that a weak dollar, strong demand from the emerging world economies, geopolitical tensions in oil-producing regions, supply disruptions, and unfavorable weather had contributed to the rise in the price of oil, not market manipulation.

Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)


Notable New Yorkers, Imported From Scotland

Abstract: The Staten Island Scot left us on Monday. Bobby Thomson died at age 86, almost 59 years after hitting the “shot heard round the world” out of the Polo Grounds and sending the New York Giants to the World Series. The truth is, Thomson left New York years ago, but the nickname always stuck and, as best as we can tell, it has not been granted to a successor. Thomson was only 2 when he left Scotland and arrived in the United States, but he was proud of his heritage and celebrated it in the city that celebrated him. “He was a speaker at the St. Andrew’s Society,” said Ed Collins, an investor in Manhattan and himself a member of that Scottish society, whose New York chapter — founded in 1756 — predates this country. The society’s meetings made the papers a century later. An item in The New York Times dated Nov. 10, 1860, announced the new leadership: “At the regular preparatory meeting of the St. Andrew’s Society of the State of New York, held at the St. Nicholas Hotel on Thursday evening, the following gentlemen were elected officers for the ensuing year: President, ADAM NORRIE ...” and so on. In a town of immigrants, the Scottish are not among the most storied. Today, there are 40,000 New Yorkers who describe themselves as being of Scottish descent, with about 2,000 actually hailing from Scotland. One of them used to play James Bond and keeps a town house on the Upper East Side. But what of the other Scots, past and present? Mr. Collins rattled off a list of well-known New Yorkers with haggis in their veins: Andrew Carnegie — heard of him? He was born in Dunfermline, a small town in Fifeshire, Scotland. Archibald Gracie, the shipping tycoon who built the mansion named after him on the Upper East Side, was born in Scotland. The house did not become the designated home of New York’s mayors in time for Cadwallader D. Colden, of Scottish descent, who left office in 1821, about 120 years too early to live there. Want to call the St. Andrew’s Society? Thank Alexander Graham Bell, also a member. So is the actor Cliff Robertson. Chancellor Robert R. Livingston, who was of Scottish descent and the cousin of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, Philip Livingston, is described in legend as wearing a kilt while swearing in President George Washington in Manhattan. But renderings of the event suggest all involved wore the short pants popular in the day. The Scottish actor Jimmy Finlayson had an early hit on Broadway in 1912 with “Bunty Pulls the Strings” before appearing in several Laurel and Hardy films. Matt Groening, the creator of “The Simpsons,” has said that the Scottish character/caricature Groundskeeper Willie was based in part on Angus Crock, a kilted chef played by Mr. Finlayson. Off wid ye, then, lads! If you find yourself near St. Anthony’s Restaurant and Bar on West 46th Street, hoist a Belhaven Scottish Ale and doff your tam-o’-shanter to the Scot who, one overcast day in 1951, stopped the world with the shot everyone heard.

Scotland
New York Giants
Thomson Bobby
Staten Island (NYC)


A Long Island Enclave Where Skeet Shooting Is Legal, to the Surprise of Village Officials

Abstract: UPPER BROOKVILLE, N.Y. — The caller said he was thinking about buying a house and wanted to know: Could he go skeet shooting in the yard? The village clerk in this little lion-shaped enclave on Long Island , where the median price of a house is just over $1 million, thought guns and immediately said, “Absolutely not.” But the clerk, Tracy L. Lynch, decided to check the village’s laws, and opened a thick blue binder containing them. To her surprise, she discovered, right there in Section 115-3 , that skeet shooting was in fact legal. The revelation also astonished the mayor, Terry L. Thielen, who quickly put repealing the law at the top of her agenda. But this may be a case of a government solution in search of a problem: Though nobody knows for certain, the last time anybody blasted a clay target out of the skies over Upper Brookville might have been when Bill Clinton was president. Or maybe Ronald Reagan. Or maybe even Jimmy Carter. “I don’t think there’s a large population in our village that adheres to this sport,” Ms. Thielen said, a point seemingly underscored when a public hearing on the law attracted no one besides village officials. But beyond the boundaries of the village’s 4.2 square miles, where 1,447 people live, skeet shooting is a big deal. More than 3.83 million people went skeet or trap shooting in 2014, according to the Sports and Fitness Industry Association , a trade group for sports manufacturers and retailers. Skeet shooting has been an Olympic sport since 1968, and the National Skeet Shooting Association says that sporting clays, sometimes called “golfing with guns” because it is played on courses so large that competitors often drive carts from station to station, is the fastest-growing shooting sport in the country. The just-published first issue of Clay Target Nation , a magazine for the 36,000 members of the skeet-shooting group and the National Sporting Clays Association, features articles like “It’s All in the Eyes: Where Your Eyes Look and How They Focus Can Make or Break Your Shot.” Image Left, the Village Hall of the Village of Upper Brookville, N.Y. Right, the entrance to the Mill River Club, a country club in the village that does not offer skeet shooting. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times Skeet shooters say the sport appeals to families because they can shoot together; parents are not stuck on the sidelines, scrolling through their smartphones while cheering on their children. And the usual athletic assets — stamina and strength, for example — are not needed. “You don’t have to be strong, you don’t have to be tall, you don’t have to be fast, you don’t have to be quick,” said Michael Hampton, the executive director of the two associations. “You don’t have to be able to dunk a basketball or run with a football and get tackled.” For Ms. Thielen, the issue was less about gunplay than about density. In the 1970s, the last time village officials revised the skeet-shooting law, Upper Brookville still had wide-open spaces — large estates built before or after World War I. Now, it mostly has memories: memories of the gilded days when this stretch of Long Island was a playground for heirs to famous fortunes, memories of the tension between new money and old money that fascinated F. Scott Fitzgerald and, most of all, memories of the large estates. Most have been subdivided, Ms. Thielen said, and homes now stand on the two- to five-acre lots. Ms. Thielen, concerned that Upper Brookville residents now live closer to one another and that allowing skeet shooting risked putting guns too close to neighbors, scheduled a hearing last week to consider revising or repealing the law. “There’s no question this needs modification,” she said. (The caller who asked about skeet shooting did not identify himself, and it is not known whether he ended up buying a house.) The hearing was supposed to be held before discussions on property taxes, money for a new wood-chipping machine and work trucks that were violating village rules. But no one showed up to testify. Ms. Thielen went ahead anyway with an informal briefing and, in the end, postponed a decision. She told the two other village trustees who attended — two were absent — that she had heard from one resident after word of her proposal to change Section 115-3 began to spread. She said it was a man who acknowledged having shot skeet on his property. “Not recently,” she said. She did not say how much land he owned. But he apparently had not organized a large shooting party. No one, the mayor said, has applied for a permit when more than 12 people want to go skeet shooting together, as required in Subsection C. Brad Moyes, the director of the sporting clays association, said it was unusual for a town’s code to mention a specific sport like skeet shooting. Most municipalities phrase their firearms regulations in general terms, he said. Image A pile of clay targets at Suffolk County Trap Skeet and Sporting Clays. Credit Heather Walsh for The New York Times “Anytime someone wants to put a stop to shotgun shooting in general, it’s not something we’re pleased about,” Mr. Moyes said. But he added that people who shoot skeet competitively typically do so at a club or a shooting range, not in their backyards. At the hearing at Village Hall, originally an outbuilding where workers washed laundry for a 400-acre estate, Ms. Thielen said that some country clubs in the area offered skeet shooting, but not the Mill River Club , the only one in Upper Brookville, which built an 18-hole golf course on a 126-acre estate in the 1960s. Another local club, the Piping Rock Club , offers skeet shooting, she said, but it is about four miles away, in Locust Valley. The Creek , also in Locust Valley, dropped skeet shooting in the 1980s after a new neighbor in a new house went to court over noise from club members’ shotguns. Noise is usually the biggest complaint whenever sport shooting and suburbia are involved. Mark Wroobel, who owns Suffolk County Trap, Skeet and Sporting Clays, a gun range about 40 miles from Upper Brookville, has been fighting the Town of Brookhaven and his neighbors in Yaphank over the town’s attempts to enforce a noise law. “When you have gunfire, you have noise,” he said. “You have Yaphank, which has built up. The homes have encroached on the range. It’s been a shooting preserve from the early 1900s. That’s the crux of the issue. The range being there and the people being there, the question is who should be there. I think the law’s clear. We can be there.” In Upper Brookville, Peter Weiler, the village attorney, noted at last week’s meeting that “there are state laws that say you can’t discharge a gun within so many feet of a residence” — 500 feet, according to the New York State Police. The skeet shooting association recommends even more space, 300 yards, or 900 feet, as a safe distance. A five-acre lot would not be big enough. Mr. Weiler added that the ammunition used in skeet shooting is lighter than the shells used for, say, duck hunting, which have “some killing power.” Skeet shooting, he said, is “a fun sport.” But Antje Dolido, the deputy mayor, had a question. “Whether or not it’s a fun sport,” she said, “should it be done in your backyard?” “Obviously, if the shot that’s used, if it travels into another yard, you’ve got a problem,” Mr. Weiler said.


Boeing Earnings Take Hit Over Problems in Air Force Tankers

Abstract: Boeing said on Wednesday that it took $425 million in pretax charges against its second-quarter earnings over problems with the wiring in the refueling tankers it is developing for the Air Force. Boeing beat its rival Airbus for the hotly contested tanker contract in 2011 by bidding so low that it did not expect to earn a profit until it was well into full production. While Boeing executives said the wiring problems were under control, investors were concerned about the potential for greater problems on the tanker contract, which could be worth up to $50 billion. That helped drive down Boeing’s stock on Wednesday by 2.3 percent to $126.71 a share. Robert Stallard, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients that it was “worrying that Boeing is booking a charge of this magnitude at a relatively early stage in this long-term program, particularly given recent assurances from management that everything was going to plan.” Boeing’s chief executive, W. James McNerney Jr., said bundles of wiring had to be rerouted on the tanker, known as the KC-46A, and some of the manufacturing processes had to be changed. But he said the issue was “well defined and understood” and that it would not keep Boeing from meeting the performance milestones specified in the contract. The charges amounted to $272 million, or 37 cents a share, after taxes. Boeing disclosed the wiring problems as it reported that its overall earnings for the second quarter had topped analysts’ expectations. The Chicago-based company’s earnings per share were lifted by $524 million in tax-audit settlements, which also prompted it to raise its earnings guidance for the full year. Excluding pension expenses, Boeing said it now expected its core earnings to increase to $7.90 to $8.10 a share for all of 2014 from its earlier forecast of $7.15 to $7.35 a share. Boeing said its core operating earnings slipped by 2 percent to $1.99 billion in the second quarter, from $2.03 billion a year earlier, and revenues rose 1 percent to $22.05 billion, from $21.82 billion. The tax settlements, which are included in earnings per share calculations, and stock buybacks helped core earnings per share increase by 45 percent to $2.42, from $1.67. Boeing’s earnings also reflected continued strong sales of its commercial airplanes, with deliveries of new planes climbing to 181 from 169 in the year-earlier quarter. Deliveries of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, made substantially of lightweight carbon composites to save fuel, rose to 30 in the latest quarter, from 16 a year earlier. Even though some aviation analysts are now questioning how long the resurgence in new plane sales since the recession can continue, Mr. McNerney said that the fuel savings offered by the latest planes could extend the purchasing cycle for another decade or so. Boeing’s tanker design is an adaptation of its 767 commercial jets. The Air Force envisions building 179 of the tankers by 2028. It could also build more beyond that or seek bids on another new model.

Boeing
Airbus
Military aircraft
Earnings Reports


Ford Promises Fleets of Driverless Cars Within Five Years

Abstract: In the race to develop driverless cars, several automakers and technology companies are already testing vehicles that pilot themselves on public roads. And others have outlined plans to expand their development fleets over the next few years. But few have gone so far as to give a definitive date for the commercial debut of these cars of the future. Now Ford Motor has done just that. At a news conference on Tuesday at the company’s research center in Palo Alto, Calif., Mark Fields, Ford’s chief executive, said the company planned to mass produce driverless cars and have them in commercial operation in a ride-hailing service by 2021. Beyond that, Mr. Fields’s announcement was short on specifics. But he said that the vehicles Ford envisioned would be radically different from those that populate American roads now. “That means there’s going to be no steering wheel. There’s going to be no gas pedal. There’s going to be no brake pedal,’’ he said. “If someone had told you 10 years ago, or even five years ago, that the C.E.O. of a major automaker American car company is going to be announcing the mass production of fully autonomous vehicles, they would have been called crazy or nuts or both.” The company also said on Tuesday that as part of the effort, it planned to expand its Palo Alto center, doubling the number of employees who work there over the next year, from the current 130. Ford also said it had acquired an Israeli start-up, Saips, that specializes in computer vision, a crucial technology for self-driving cars. And the automaker announced investments in three other companies involved in major technologies for driverless vehicles. For several years, automakers have understood that their industry is being reshaped by the use of advanced computer chips, software and sensors to develop cars designed to drive themselves. The tech companies Google and Apple have emerged as potential future competitors to automakers, while Tesla Motors has already proved a competitive threat to luxury brands like BMW and Mercedes-Benz with driver-assistance and collision-avoidance technologies. More recently, ride-sharing service providers like Uber have raised the competitive concerns of the conventional auto industry. The ride-hailing services aim to operate fleets of driverless cars that, in the future, might provide ready transportation to anyone, making it easier for people to get around without owning a car or even having a driver’s license. Image A Ford Fusion equipped with a lidar system, which is a type of radar based on laser beams. Credit Ford A Barclays analyst, Brian Johnson, recently predicted that once autonomous vehicles are in widespread use, auto sales could fall as much as 40 percent as people rely on such services for transportation and choose not to own cars. Mr. Fields said on Tuesday that the combination of driverless cars and ride-sharing services represented a “seismic shift” for the auto industry that would be greater than the advent of the moving production line was roughly a century ago. “The world is changing, and it’s changing rapidly,” he said, adding that Ford now sees itself as not just a carmaker but a “mobility company.” BMW and Mercedes-Benz are among the carmakers that have seized upon the concept of “transportation as a service,” as it is called, by starting ride-sharing services of their own. General Motors has teamed up with, and bought a stake in, Lyft, the main rival of Uber. GM and Lyft plan to have driverless vehicles operating in tests within a year. Initially, at least, those tests will be conducted with a driver in the car to take control from the self-driving technology, if necessary. Even some auto suppliers are focusing on ride-hailing services and driverless cars. This month, the components maker Delphi announced that it was working with the government of Singapore to develop a ride service to shuttle people to and from mass transit stations in the country’s business district. Even though Ford has committed itself to a date for a commercial introduction of its driverless cars, several questions remain about how it will move forward, said Michelle Krebs, an analyst with AutoTrader. For example, Ford does not have a ride-sharing partner as G.M. does in Lyft, Ms. Krebs said. In a research note on Tuesday, Mr. Johnson noted that it remained unclear how auto companies would make money from ride-sharing services. “These are a lot of promises, but we don’t yet know how they are going to evolve,” Ms. Krebs said. “There are still missing pieces.” One of the investments Ford announced on Tuesday was a $75 million stake in Velodyne, which makes sensors that use lidar, a kind of radar based on laser beams. The Chinese internet company Baidu said it was making a comparable investment in Velodyne. Ford also said it had made investments in Nirenberg Neuroscience, which is also developing machine vision technology, and Civil Maps, a start-up that is developing 3D digital maps for use by automated vehicles. Ford did not disclose the amount it invested in Nirenberg or Civil Maps.

Cars
Ford Motor
Driverless Cars,Self-Driving Cars
Car Service


Product Information on the Canon HG10 Camcorder

Abstract: As camcorders become smaller and better, hard drives are replacing tape storage and high definition is getting more affordable. The Canon HG10, for $1,299, will reach stores next month with a 40-gigabyte internal hard drive and will be able to hold 15 hours of video at standard quality. At the highest-quality setting, you can store 5.5 hours. All the usual suspects of modern-day video are here: a tenfold optical zoom range plus 200x digital magnification, image stabilization to quell the shakes and still photography on the side. Three-megapixel snapshots can be captured on the fly during video recording, but if you miss a shot you can still extract 2-megapixel images from the video action. The HG10 uses the up-and-coming AVCHD format, which gives roughly the quality of MPEG-2 video in half the storage space. The device itself is compact — 1.1 pounds and 3.2 by 3 by 5.1 inches, but with a 2.7-inch screen that has a wide angle view. It has a 24p cinema mode to give the look and feel of movie-theater film, to the benefit of budding Hollywood moguls. MARTY KATZ


Newark: Teen Sought in Stabbing Death

Abstract: A 33-year-old woman was stabbed to death yesterday in her Newark home, the police said. The woman, Jeanine Darby, was found stabbed multiple times in her torso at 84 North Munn Avenue at 8:38 a.m., the police said. She was taken to University Hospital, where she later died. Investigators said last night that they were seeking a 16-year-old boy, who had had previous disputes with the victim. No arrests had been made.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Newark (NJ)
Assaults


Yahoo’s Profit Triples Despite Sales Decline

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO — For much of her tenure as chief executive of Yahoo , Carol Bartz warned investors to expect a steep decline in the company’s business. It has not been as bad as she predicted. Aided by cost-cutting, the sales of some assets and better-than-expected revenue from display ads, Yahoo’s net income more than tripled in the third quarter. The results topped analysts forecasts, and investors sent Yahoo’s shares sharply higher in after-hours trading. But revenue fell 12 percent, a sign that many advertisers remain nervous about the pace of economic recovery. And the results showed that Yahoo was not benefiting from the budding economic rebound as much as its rival Google. Analysts said that the results were encouraging but cautioned that Ms. Bartz’s turnaround plan remained a work in progress. “The patient is off life support and back in the recovery ward,” said Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Company. “But it is certainly not out playing soccer again.” Yahoo executives, however, hailed the results as a relative success. “We had a solid third quarter that signals our major businesses have stabilized,” Ms. Bartz said in a statement. Yahoo said that revenue fell to $1.57 billion, from $1.79 billion a year ago. Net revenue, which excludes commissions paid to advertising partners, was $1.13 billion, down from $1.32 billion last year, and slightly up from analysts forecasts of $1.12 billion. Net income was $186 million, or 13 cents a share, up from $54 million, or 4 cents a share, a year ago, a 244 percent increase. On average, Wall Street analysts expected that Yahoo would earn 7 cents a share. Yahoo said that excluding the impact of currency fluctuations and of products it abandoned, revenue would have fallen 7 percent. In contrast, Google reported that its third-quarter revenue grew 7 percent. Ms. Bartz has bristled in the past at the comparison with Google, saying the two companies were in different markets. While Google derives a large majority of its revenue from search and other text ads, which have held up relatively well during the recession, Yahoo’s business is built on a mix of search and display ads. Its results tend to be a better indicator of the overall health of the online advertising market. But some analysts said they were particularly concerned that Yahoo’s search business remained in the doldrums. The company’s revenue from search ads on its own sites was down 19 percent from a year earlier, a stark contrast to Google’s relatively strong growth. “Something isn’t working right in their search business,” said Christa Quarles, an analyst with Thomas Weisel Partners. Ms. Quarles said that if Yahoo’s search business continued to erode, Yahoo’s plans for a turnaround could be derailed. In July, the company signed a blockbuster search and advertising partnership with Microsoft, which will take over the costly process of indexing and ranking Web sites. Using Microsoft’s search results, Yahoo said it planned to continue offering its own search service, with different features and a different user interface from Microsoft’s Bing. The deal, which is under review by antitrust regulators, is not expected to close until early next year. Yahoo’s display advertising business fell by 8.3 percent compared to last year, a lesser drop than the 14 percent decline in the second quarter. And the business has grown for two consecutive quarters. Ms. Bartz did not participate in a conference call with investors, as is customary, because she was ill, said Tim Morse, Yahoo’s chief financial officer. In a interview, Mr. Morse said that advertisers tightened their budgets significantly at the beginning of the year. “In the second quarter we saw a loosening. We were very encouraged that the third quarter continued that trend.” Analysts noted that Yahoo outperformed expectations in part because efforts to get rid of “low quality” ads cost the company far less than it predicted three months ago. During the quarter, Yahoo also unveiled a major ad campaign aimed at revitalizing the company’s tarnished brand. The “It’s You” tagline for the campaign, which is being backed with more than $100 million in television, print, outdoor and online ads, is intended to emphasize that some of Yahoo’s most popular products, like its home page, mail and search services, have become easier to personalize. Yahoo shares closed at $17.17, down 5 cents, on Tuesday. In after hours, they jumped more than 5 percent, topping $18.


Car’s Failed Inspection Costs Edwards Points

Abstract: The stock car driver Carl Edwards, who punctuates each victory by doing a back flip off his car, was docked 100 points by Nascar on Wednesday because his winning Ford failed an inspection last Sunday. The penalty dropped him out of first place, to seventh, in the standings. Edwards’s victory in the U.A.W.-Dodge 400 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway was his second in three Nascar Sprint Cup races this year. He will be allowed to keep the victory and a purse of $425,675, but should Edwards qualify for the season-ending championship Chase, he would not receive 10 bonus points for winning Sunday’s race. His crew chief, Bob Osborne, was fined $100,000 and suspended six races, and was placed on probation for the rest of the season as part of the most severe punishment in the two-year Car of Tomorrow era. Kyle Busch, who was 21 points behind Edwards after Sunday’s race, assumes the lead in the Sprint Cup standings. Busch will have a 20-point lead over Ryan Newman, the Daytona 500 winner, entering the Kobalt Tools 500 Sunday at Atlanta Motor Speedway. During the inspection last Sunday, Edwards’s car, which is owned by the racing mogul Jack Roush, was found not to have a cover on its oil tank, perhaps providing him with an aerodynamic advantage. Geoff Smith, the president of Roush Fenway Racing, said in a statement that the bolt holding the lid in place failed during the race, then added, “It’s a tough business for any race team to have to pledge $100,000, 100 points and a six-race crew chief suspension as an indemnity payment to Nascar against a promise forced from us by Nascar that no bolt will ever fail its purpose under race conditions.” It was the second time in less than six months that Edwards’s car failed an inspection after he won a race. He lost 25 points after winning last September in Dover, Del., because his car was found to be too low. This is the second consecutive year in which Nascar has punished a front-runner for tinkering with the Car of Tomorrow. Last June, Jeff Gordon was docked 100 points and his crew chief, Steve Letarte, was suspended for six weeks after failing an inspection. Osborne was selected the Crew Chief of the Race after Edwards won the Auto Club 500 on Feb. 25 in Fontana, Calif. Edwards took the lead from Jimmie Johnson with 13 laps remaining and coasted to victory. Edwards started second in the race at Las Vegas but held off Dale Earnhardt Jr. on two late restarts. Edwards escaped a penalty when Nascar determined a TV cameraman got in the way of Edwards’s crew, allowing a tire to roll free on pit road. In a news conference after Sunday’s race, Edwards said: “We just had a great Ford Fusion, and I’m starting to agree with Jack. He told me this week he’s going to start making Bob wear a helmet. I asked him why, and he said because the stuff that’s going on between his two ears is really important, and we need to protect it.” In another matter, the National Stock Car Racing Commission decided to reinstate 100 driver and owner points to the Sprint Cup driver Robby Gordon, and lift a six-race suspension on his crew chief, Frank Kerr, after considering their appeal. Gordon, one of the last independent stock car owners, was punished Feb. 8 at Daytona after his car failed an inspection because it had an illegal bumper cover he received from Dodge. “The facts presented during the hearing represented an extraordinary and unusual set of circumstances,” the commission said in a statement. With 100 points added to his total, Gordon will jump to 21st in the standings from 37th, which is meaningful for a single-car team owner like Gordon. The top 35 in the standings are assured spots in each Sprint Cup race.

Carl Edwards
NASCAR
Las Vegas Motor Speedway
Sports


Another Day Passes Without N.B.A. Deal

Abstract: The N.B.A. did not cancel the season on Friday, but it inched ever closer to deleting games from the calendar after another day passed without a labor deal. Ten owners and more than 20 players — including the superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony — met for nearly five hours at a Midtown Manhattan hotel as the parties began a last-minute push to broker a deal before endangering regular-season games. The tone in the room was alternately heated and cooperative, and the meeting ended without any progress on the two most critical issues: division of revenue and the structure of the salary cap. The parties will resume discussions on Saturday morning. “We discussed a little bit of everything,” said Derek Fisher, the president of the players union, with 14 players behind him. “We did not come out of here with a deal today.” In keeping with their month-long agreement, officials on both sides declined to offer details on the substance of their discussion, and they avoided making any predictions about whether a deal was possible this weekend. Time is growing short. The league needs three to four weeks to draft a deal, sign free agents, hold training camps and play one or two preseason games before starting the season. Opening night is scheduled for Nov. 1. If the parties do not have the framework of an agreement in the coming week, cancellations will be practically unavoidable. N.B.A. officials will not make that concession just yet, however. Commissioner David Stern also denied, in the strongest terms, that he had any intention of canceling the entire season if no deal was made this weekend. ESPN.com , citing anonymous sources, reported on Wednesday night that Stern intended to make that threat at Friday’s meeting. “Whatever the eventuality is, the idea that we would at an early stage cancel the season is as ludicrous today as it was” when it was reported, Stern said. “It’s just not in the cards. The only thing that we said is that it’s hard, in terms of negotiations, if you start to lose regular-season games, because both parties’ positions harden.” Fisher and Billy Hunter , the union’s executive director, also denied that any threat had been made, or even implied. Hunter called the report “way off base.” Friday’s meeting was the most heavily attended since the lockout began on July 1, and the first since then to involve so many elite players. Those present included Boston’s Paul Pierce and Ray Allen, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant, Cleveland’s Baron Davis and Philadelphia’s Andre Iguodala, in addition to James and Wade of the Miami Heat and the Knicks’ Anthony. They joined the union’s nine-man executive board, which includes the New Orleans star Chris Paul. The owners had 9 of 11 members of their labor committee present, plus the Miami Heat owner Mickey Arison. While the labor agreement remains out of reach, one critical piece of the N.B.A.’s new economy — a broader revenue-sharing plan — is nearly in place. Stern said the league would triple its revenue-sharing pool next season and quadruple it by the third year of a new labor deal. The league has presented the outline to the union, which had been demanding more information about the revenue-sharing plan as part of the negotiations. The league is still seeking major economic concessions from the players, however, to address a reported $300 million in annual losses. “As we’ve said before, revenue sharing doesn’t change the aggregate economics,” Deputy Commissioner Adam Silver said. “The union understands that as well.” The union has offered to reduce the players’ share of revenue from the current 57 percent to as low as 52-53 percent, with every point worth about $40 million. Owners want to start a new deal at closer to 50-50, with the players’ share declining in subsequent years, according to people monitoring the talks. The owners have dropped their demand for a hard salary cap, but they are seeking a multitude of new restrictions on the soft-cap system that the players oppose. In their most recent proposal, the luxury-tax threshold would decrease and come with much stiffer penalties, ranging from a dollar-for-dollar tax at the low end to a four-for-one tax at the high end. Fisher said such a system “still, in just about every sense, would be a hard cap for our teams.” He added, “It doesn’t mean that the negotiation is over. But it’s definitely not anywhere close to where we’d be able to agree to it.”

Lockouts
National Basketball Assn
Fisher Derek
Stern David
Hunter Billy
Labor and Jobs
Basketball


Formula One Prepares Another Major Overhaul

Abstract: SOCHI, Russia — Just two years after introducing a radical new technical formula with downsized, hybrid engines, Grand Prix racing is planning another new set of regulations that will completely change the appearance and concept of its cars next season. But as teams prepare for the Russian Grand Prix in Sochi this weekend, doubts are growing within the series as to whether the changes — designed to end the dominance of a single team, reduce costs and improve the show — will actually achieve any of those things. Worse, they may give the Mercedes team — or another top team — another chance to dominate. And yet not even this season’s leader of the series, the Mercedes driver Nico Rosberg, is happy about the new rules. “Our opinion was that it’s not the right direction to go, and we were hoping that they would definitely re-look into it and just make sure from a technical point of view to double check,” Rosberg said on Thursday in Sochi. “This is the way it is, so now all we can do is accept it and make the most of it and hope that there are going to be some surprises.” In fact, the series’ stakeholders have had such a difficult time agreeing on the new regulations that ratification was first delayed from the end of February to the end of April, and with Saturday as the final deadline, the team directors managed to make their final agreement on Friday in Sochi. The new rules are intended to make the cars look more dynamic, with wider bodies, wider wings and wider tires. The wings will give them more aerodynamic downforce and the tires more grip, and the engines will provide more power. As a result, the cars will go up to five seconds faster per lap to provide more spectacular, closer racing. Another part of the changes is supposed to be a rethinking of the philosophy behind the engines, making the power unit more affordable to give lower budget teams a better chance to compete. But after the series embarrassingly failed to spice up the qualifying format with new sporting rules this year, there has been concern that the new rules will also fail to achieve their goal. While he agreed with the changes to wider cars and tires to increase the mechanical grip of the cars, Esteban Gutiérrez, a driver for the Haas team expressed some doubts. “What I’m not fully convinced about is the increase in downforce, which will naturally make overtaking more difficult — or let’s say, following a car more difficult.” Some have noted that any overhaul of the regulations gives an advantage to the bigger teams, since a big, rich team can spend more money and devote more resources to exploiting a new set of rules than a small, lower-budget team. Felipe Nasr, a driver at the financially struggling Sauber team, said on Thursday that a new batch of regulations only added to the problems for his team. While the decision to change the formula came last year when Mercedes was untouchable, this season, the trailing teams have been catching up, and competition has been tight, with exciting racing in the first three races this year. And while in early 2014 the new six-cylinder, 1.6-liter hybrid turbo engines — which entirely changed the way drivers and teams approached car design and racing — were several seconds slower than the cars propelled by the previous 2.4 liter engines, the cars have now not only caught up, but they have gotten faster. During qualifying on April 2 at the Bahrain Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, the reigning world champion driver at Mercedes, set the track’s lap record. Even so, the cars remain less physically difficult to drive than cars in any previous period in the series’ history, and many people — including the drivers — are seeking more challenging, spectacular machines. “I think that from a driver’s point of view, the mechanical grip will be such a good thing for us drivers to have it back,” Nasr said. “But I agree with the others, what they are saying about the downforce; is it exactly what is going to improve the show?” And yet it was the engine part of the new rules that proved to be the most important sticking point in negotiations, as the series’ promoter, Bernie Ecclestone, and its rule-making body, the International Automobile Federation, pushed for the engine manufacturers to reduce costs (by nearly half, to 12 million euros, or about $13.7 million, for an engine), while bringing engine performance closer together from one manufacturer to another. The F.I.A. and Ecclestone also negotiated to force the four engine manufacturers — Mercedes, Ferrari, Renault and Honda — to agree to provide any team that may be without an engine with one, to avoid the kind of crisis the Red Bull team found itself in at the Russian Grand Prix last year, when it had no deal yet for an engine provider this year. Finally, Ecclestone also fought to ensure that something be done to make the engines louder. Since 2014 the hybrid cars reduced the ear-shattering scream of the V8 engines of the past to a purr not much louder than that of a road car. Eric Bouillier, the sporting director of the McLaren team, whose Honda engine manufacturer has just started to come to grips with the new hybrid engine formula after a disastrous first year last year, fears that changing the formula so soon could hurt Honda’s ability to improve the engine rather than help it. “As far as we are concerned on the engine, we are seeking some stability,” he said, referring to the regulations, “which would be the key to develop and have a better convergence in the future.”

Formula One
Nico Rosberg
Bernie Ecclestone
International Automobile Federation
Car Racing


After Several Missed Cuts, Michelle Wie Is a Contender at the U.S. Open

Abstract: KOHLER, Wis. — Not once but twice Michelle Wie said she was relieved she did not have to sweat out making the cut at the 67th United States Women’s Open. Turns out she was joking Friday after shooting a six-under-par 66 at rugged Blackwolf Run. But given her record in 2012, how could you not take her seriously? In 10 events, Wie, a onetime wunderkind, has missed six cuts, and has won a grand total of $19,013. Since bursting onto the scene as the youngest player to qualify for a United States Golf Association amateur event — the 2000 United States Women’s Amateur Public Links — as a precocious 10-year-old, she has won only two L.P.G.A. tournaments (the 2009 Lorena Ochoa Invitational and the 2010 CN Canadian Women’s Open). With temperatures in the mid-90s Friday, Wie, 22, established herself as a contender heading into the weekend, tied for second with Cristie Kerr, one stroke behind Suzann Pettersen. “I don’t know if anyone gave up on me or not,” Wie said. “I’m sure some did and some didn’t. But I never gave up on myself, and today was a good reminder to myself what I can do and I still have it.” Her 66 was two shots better than any player fired when the Women’s Open was held here in 1998 and when the course played approximately 500 yards shorter. Laura Davies, Hollis Stacy and Kim Williams had rounds of 68. “My goal coming in was to keep in contention,” Wie said. A balky putter has been the bane of Wie’s 2012 season, but on Friday it was her best friend. She averaged a paltry 1.28 putts, including 13 one-putts, while averaging 270 yards off the tee — a solid formula for scoring on the challenging 6,900-yard layout. Wie, who graduated from Stanford in June, recently switched from a belly putter to a more conventional style, but she credited a renewed confidence for her putting resurgence. She has been working with the former player Meg Mallon on the mental aspect of her short game. “I’ve just been working on my confidence, really,” Wie said. “Just I know my stroke is good when I look at it on the cameras or any time I put a number on it. It’s perfect. So I have to trust it and know I am a good putter. “That’s what I talked to Meg about a lot,” Wie said. “I have to trust myself. I know I’m a good putter. I’ve been a good putter and I can be.” Nobody would question that as Wie grinded her way to a seven-birdie round. She rolled in a 35-footer for birdie on the 200-yard No. 6 (her 15th hole), but her other six birdies were all from 15 feet or less. “It was pretty similar to yesterday actually, but I had a couple more shots get in there closer,” said Wie, who shot a two-over par 74 on Thursday. “Yesterday I felt like I was lagging on my putts because I was outside 30 feet most of the day. So being closer to the hole definitely helps.” The scores have been much lower this week than they were in 1998, when Se Ri Pak and Jenny Chuasiriporn qualified for an 18-hole playoff with their six-over 290 scores. But even Wie had no expectations that she could fashion a 66. “Honestly, I thought even par would be good for the day, would be really good,” she said. “But for starters, it wasn’t quite as hot, which is nice, and the pins are a little bit more in the center of the greens than yesterday. But over all it’s still a U.S. Open golf course.” Wie admitted Blackwolf Run’s brutish reputation from 1998 had her a bit worried as she approached the week. “I think going into this week, hearing that it was the highest score to win the U.S. Open, you get scared,” she said. “But this is a good golf course. I think it’s a golf course where you get rewarded if you hit good shots. If you don’t, you get kind of screwed.” Wie’s closest friends on the Tour would say that she is truly deserving of the good fortune that came her way on Friday. Once billed as the Female Tiger Woods, she has been scrutinized and sometimes criticized for every decision she has made, from playing in several men’s PGA events to putting her L.P.G.A. career on hold while attending Stanford. “She’s a great player; Michelle is awfully talented and has a lot of game,” said Pettersen of Norway, who shot a four-under-par 68, putting her at 139 for the tournament. “I think you should give her a break. She just graduated from college in four years. That’s pretty impressive to do that on the sideline of trying to compete out here.” Wie was able to shrug off criticism and concentrate on her game. “I don’t really think about it too much,” Wie said when asked about the scrutiny. “I’m grateful for all the opportunities I have had and all the accomplishments I did when I was younger. But I really can’t live in the past. “Nope, no regrets. I’m a tough person,” Wie said when asked if she had any regrets on the way she has handled her career. “I’ve made some mistakes along the way, but they’ve made me who I am today.”

Golf
Wie Michelle
United States Women's Open (Golf)
Pettersen Suzann


Google to Unveil New Devices, and Labor Dept. Will Report on Jobs

Abstract: Here’s what to expect in the week ahead: AUTO INDUSTRY Decline expected in new car sales. On Monday, automakers will report new car sales for September, and the industry is expected to have a down month for the second month in a row. The auto researcher Edmunds.com is forecasting sales of 1.4 million automobiles and light trucks. That would be a drop of about 1.7 percent from the same month a year ago. It would also follow the decline of about 4 percent that was reported in August . The auto industry remains at a healthy level, with full-year sales on track to exceed 17 million vehicles. But consecutive monthly declines would bolster the view that the six-year bull run in new car sales had reached its peak. Neal E. Boudette TECHNOLOGY Google to unveil its new devices. Google will hold an event in San Francisco on Tuesday to unveil a series of new hardware products before the holiday shopping season. It is expected to announce new smartphones, tablets and computers along with a Wi-Fi router. One of the most highly anticipated items is Google’s answer to the Amazon Echo. Google Home, which was previewed in May , is a speaker with an array of microphones used to summon a virtual assistant that can help users control connected home devices, send text messages and answer questions. Daisuke Wakabayashi LEGAL Supreme Court to hear insider trading case. The Supreme Court, which returns to the bench this week, will hear an insider trading case on Wednesday that is making prosecutors nervous. They fear that the justices will make it harder to prove insider trading when company insiders receive no cash or other tangible benefits for their tips. Federal appeals courts have taken differing approaches to the question . The Supreme Court, often skeptical of prosecutors in white-collar crime cases, is likely to question the government’s lawyer closely about whether a tip to a relative without any money changing hands is a crime. Adam Liptak ECONOMY Candidates eye latest job market figures. On Friday morning, the Labor Department will report the numbers on hiring and unemployment in September. Economists are looking for an increase of 170,000 jobs, up from a gain of 151,000 in August , with the unemployment rate remaining unchanged at 4.9 percent. While the consensus estimate for hiring is in line with the pace of payroll growth so far this year, economists are looking for a 0.3 percentage point improvement in average hourly earnings, which would bring the 12-month increase in wages to 2.7 percent, a fairly healthy level. This will be a closely watched report, both on Wall Street and in Washington, as it is the second to last snapshot of the job market before the presidential election next month, and both parties are likely to seize on the data to make their cases. Investors will also be watching to see if the job and pay gains are healthy enough to prompt the Federal Reserve to raise rates before the end of the year, as policy makers have suggested they might. Nelson D. Schwartz Image Christine Lagarde, the International Monetary Fund’s chief. The health of European banks will be among the financial and banking topics at talks this week. Credit Cliff Owen/Associated Press Annual I.M.F. talks to include bank prognosis. The annual fall meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank kick off early this week in Washington. The talks will be attended by finance officials and central bankers from around the world, and will take up issues including weak global growth trends, the increase of anti-trade measures and concerns that many have expressed about the financial health of European banks. Preliminary meetings start on Monday and the gathering concludes at the end of the week. Landon Thomas Jr. MARKETS I.P.O. could value Innogy at $22 billion. Innogy, the renewable energy unit of the German utility company RWE, is expected to begin trading on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange on Friday after its initial public offering. The offering could value Innogy at up to 20 billion euros, or about $22 billion, based on its market capitalization. The I.P.O. is expected to raise as much as €5 billion. Chad Bray

Google
Jobs
Unemployment
Banking and Finance
IMF


Comcast Results Buoyed by Strong Performance in Film Division

Abstract: Dinosaurs, fast cars and an a cappella singing group helped propel a 7.3 percent rise in earnings at Comcast during the second quarter as the media conglomerate benefited from the release of a blockbuster slate of films in its entertainment division. Total revenue increased 11.3 percent to $18.7 billion during the quarter compared with the same period last year, the company said on Thursday. In its filmed entertainment group, second-quarter revenue surged 92.7 percent to $2.3 billion, driven by the box-office success of movies like “Jurassic World,” “Furious 7” and “Pitch Perfect 2.” Net income attributable to Comcast was $2.1 billion for the quarter, up 7.3 percent from the same period last year. The results show how Comcast, the country’s largest cable operator, is focusing on its businesses and moving on after it abandoned its $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable in April because of intense regulatory scrutiny . Costs related to the deal came to $79 million during the second quarter. That brings the total costs related to the transaction to $415 million since the deal was announced in February 2014. “A quarter ago, we mused that in the go-go world of cable M&A, and in the wake of its own thwarted merger with Time Warner Cable, Comcast might just need a new story,” Craig Moffett, a media analyst with MoffettNathanson Research, said in a note. “Well, they seem to have found one. It has dinosaurs and foul-mouthed teddy bears, furious car crashes, train wrecks and a bunch of little yellow Minions in it. It turns out it’s a really, really good story.” Image Chris Pratt in “Jurassic World.” Credit Universal Pictures Mr. Moffett’s comments were in reference to the slate of movies out of Comcast’s film group, including “Jurassic World,” “Ted 2” and “Minions.” Even though Comcast stepped away from the megamerger with Time Warner, a wave of deal activity continues to sweep across the industry, and is likely to add pressure to the company’s dominant position in the media landscape. Regulators are expected to approve AT&T’s $48.5 billion takeover of DirecTV with conditions. That deal would create the country’s largest television distributor, with about 26 million subscribers, surpassing Comcast, the current leader. Regulators also are scrutinizing a pair of deals by Charter Communications totaling $67.1 billion that, if approved, would create a new force in the country’s video and broadband market. Brian L. Roberts, Comcast’s chief executive, said in a conference call on Thursday that in the face of new competitive pressure, the company was committed to following its road map and improving its offerings and customer service. “It’s a competitive market as we’ve always said, and we’re learning to compete better all the time,” Mr. Roberts said. “We’re very prepared to compete in the future.” The Comcast results point to the continued transformation of the media business, where broadband now stands as an important gateway to entertainment and information. A milestone occurred during the second quarter at Comcast, where the number of people who subscribe to the company’s high-speed Internet service surpassed its total cable TV subscribers for the first time. Comcast now counts 22.5 million high-speed Internet subscribers and 22.3 million video subscribers. To that end, Comcast recently announced a new service called Stream that offers a bundle of broadcast networks and the premium channel HBO for an extra $15 a month added to a Comcast Internet subscription. Viewers will have access to live and on-demand programming on computers and mobile devices. Mr. Roberts called the new service an entry platform, upon which the company was hoping to “upsell” customers to other video services. “It’s part of the whole panoply of having a range of offerings, which is very, very different from where we were a few years ago,” he said. During the quarter, revenue in Comcast’s cable group increased 6.3 percent to $11.7 billion. The company lost 69,000 video subscribers for the quarter, an improvement from the same period last year, when the company lost 144,000. At the same time, it gained 180,000 high-speed Internet subscribers. Revenue in the NBCUniversal entertainment group at Comcast increased 20.2 percent during the quarter to $7.2 billion. In addition to the growth in the filmed entertainment group, revenue in the theme parks division climbed 25.7 percent to $773 million. Offsetting those gains was lackluster performance at the NBCUniversal cable and broadcast television units. Cable network revenue declined 1 percent to $2.5 billion, and broadcast revenue was essentially flat at $1.8 billion.

Comcast
Movies
NBCUniversal
Cable television
Earnings Reports