3-0 Hole Rangers Inhabit? Only 5 of 320 Teams Have Overcome It

Abstract: Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault was subdued and downcast Tuesday, like most of his players, standing on the brink of elimination, peering grimly into the abyss. “We’re down, 3-0,” Vigneault said. “We’re all lacking sleep. This is tough. I didn’t expect my players today to be cheery and upbeat. We’re in the Stanley Cup final and we’re down, 3-0. You don’t get a lot of these opportunities.” The Rangers are the 321st team in the N.H.L., N.B.A. and Major League Baseball to fall behind in a best-of-seven series by three games to none. On Wednesday at Madison Square Garden, they will start what they hope will be a long climb back against a Los Angeles Kings team that looks virtually unbeatable. “We know it’s not impossible,” defenseman Marc Staal said. “We’ve seen it be done.” Brave words, but the odds of rallying from such a deficit to win a series are daunting: only 5 of the previous 320 teams have managed to do so, just 1.6 percent, according to whowins.com. It has happened four times in N.H.L. history: the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs came back to win in the Cup finals against Detroit. The 1975 Islanders rallied to win a series against Pittsburgh. So did the 2010 Philadelphia Flyers against Boston. And — gallingly for the Rangers — these Kings, who clambered back from the edge of elimination to beat the San Jose Sharks in the first round earlier this spring. Image Ed Westfall, right, shaking hands with Pittsburgh’s Pierre Larouche in 1975, after the Islanders’ improbable comeback. Credit Gene Blyth/Associated Press The other instance occurred in 2004 when the Boston Red Sox stunned the Yankees in the American League Championship Series and went on to win the World Series, vanquishing of the Curse of the Bambino. Hockey has an ineffable quality that bestows teams the ability to rally against nearly impossible odds. After all, four N.H.L. teams have done it compared to one in baseball and none in the N.B.A. In baseball, 33 teams have fallen behind by 3-0. The Red Sox’ victory represents a 3 percent victory rate for those teams (1 in 33). Excluding the Rangers’ plight, 177 N.H.L. teams have fallen behind three games to none. The four that rallied to win the series represent a 2.3 percent victory rate (4 in 177). In the N.B.A., forget about it. All 110 teams to fall behind by three games to none went on to lose the series. Image The Flyers’ Simon Gagne scored a Game 7 goal that helped Philadelphia win four straight in 2010 against the Bruins. Credit Michael Dwyer/Associated Press But all those are dry numbers, humbled by the raw dejection that the Rangers could barely disguise on Tuesday. “I’m not going to lie to you, it’s pretty much impossible to be upbeat,” said Brad Richards, who sounded as heavy-hearted as he did last year when he was a healthy scratch in Games 4 and 5 of the Rangers’ Eastern Conference semifinals loss to the Bruins. “Today’s a tough day,” Richards said on the eve of what could be his last game as a Ranger. “Your mind’s racing on a thousand different things, on what you can do differently. And on what could have been.” Staal talked about the Rangers’ comeback from a 3-1 deficit against the Pittsburgh Penguins in the second round. “You get one game and you start feeling better about yourself, and you get another one and it kind of goes from there, and it just snowballs,” he said, conjuring the blossoming sense of self confidence that the Rangers hope to regain. Image Earlier in this season’s playoffs, Tyler Toffoli and the Kings bounced back after losing three games in a row to the Sharks. Credit Associated Press “We don’t want to end our season losing a game at home and giving the Stanley Cup to their team,” Staal said. “It’s not going to happen that way.” Martin St. Louis said: “You can’t see the big mountain. You just think of the first 300 or 400 meters to climb.” Henrik Lundqvist added: “I think both teams know it’s possible to turn this around. They’ve done it, and we know we can do it. It’s not like we’ve been outplayed here. That’s not been the case.” Vigneault knew what his players were trying to do, but he was a cold-eyed realist. “All the talk that we can have trying to spin this any way you want — 29 other teams would like to be in our spot, you know, we’ve played well, just need bounces — whatever talk you might use. At the end of the day for us right now it’s about one game,” he said. “That’s as simple and logical and realistic as I can put it for you. We have to focus on one game, and that’s what we’re going to do.” Vigneault said he appreciated his players and their competitive nature. “Everybody’s going to come out and say all the right things,” he said. “All that, like I mentioned, is just talk. What needs to happen is the actions on the ice. We’ve played some good hockey, but we haven’t found a way to win. That’s what we’ve got to do tomorrow.” Vigneault ended his news conference with as much of a pledge as any coach can make when down, 3-0. “Excuse us if today we’re not real cheery,” he said. “But tomorrow, I can tell you, we’re going to show up.”

Rangers
Stanley Cup
Los Angeles Kings
Ice hockey
NHL


Flyers Are Coping With Various Head Injuries

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — A standing-room-only crowd had already been forced to absorb an uncharacteristically merciless drubbing of the beloved Philadelphia Flyers on Saturday afternoon when a jarring replay flashed on the big screens above the ice late in the second period. The clip began with a slap shot from the point by Flyers defenseman Kimmo Timonen and ended quickly when the puck hit Sean Couturier , a 19-year-old rookie center for Philadelphia, in the back of his helmet, dropping him right where he had set up in the slot. The fans groaned at the replay as Couturier was tended to on the ice. The Flyers (20-8-4), who lead the Atlantic Division, have become accustomed to seeing their players fall to head injuries. At a time of increased scrutiny over hits to the head in the N.H.L., Philadelphia is among the teams most affected by a barrage of concussions that now has more than 20 players sidelined. The Flyers announced Thursday that Chris Pronger , their captain and top defenseman, had severe postconcussion syndrome and would miss the rest of the season . Their top scorer, Claude Giroux, was ruled out indefinitely last week because of a concussion. Center Brayden Schenn, 20, has been sidelined with a concussion since Dec. 3, when he collided with Phoenix’s Raffi Torres. Couturier, who was examined at a hospital, did not lose consciousness or encounter any kind of memory loss from being hit, Flyers General Manager Paul Holmgren said. But Couturier did not accompany the Flyers on their three-game trip, which began Monday with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Colorado Avalanche. “They’re like fingerprints — no two are the same,” Holmgren said, referring to concussions. “I think all teams go through cycles like this. I believe there are some other teams who have had as many injuries as we’ve had, and every team goes through this. You just hope you’re deep enough to maintain what you’ve got going.” Pronger, 37, may have played his final N.H.L. game, a blow for a team regarded as a Stanley Cup contender. He was perhaps the most indispensible Flyer. A two-time Olympic gold medal winner for Canada and a Stanley Cup champion with Anaheim in 2007, Pronger gave Philadelphia a hulking, ferocious presence and has been said to be a steady, wise mentor to talented young players on the team like Giroux. Pronger’s concussion appears to have stemmed from being accidentally hit in the face with a stick by Toronto’s Mikhail Grabovski on Oct. 24. Pronger missed six games with what the Flyers called “viruslike symptoms.” Pronger returned for five games, taking a hard hit into the boards Nov. 17, but has not played since Nov. 19. On Dec. 9, the Flyers announced that Pronger, who also had knee surgery in late November, had concussionlike symptoms. Last week Pronger visited concussion specialists in Pittsburgh who diagnosed severe postconcussion syndrome. Giroux, a 23-year-old center who has 39 points in 28 games, was the N.H.L.’s leader in points when he sustained a concussion Dec. 10 after being accidentally kneed in the back of his head by his teammate Wayne Simmonds. Originally, Giroux was said to have whiplash, but the diagnosis was changed to a concussion. Giroux has resumed skating and is traveling with the team but has not been cleared to play. Holmgren said Giroux would not return “until he’s 100 percent ready.” Philadelphia forward Danny Briere said: “You just can’t stop and think about it. It is what it is. We have lots of guys who can do the job. It’s scary when it happens. It’s scary for Chris and his career. The same thing with Claude.” After a pause, Briere added: “But you can’t feel like you can’t win without those guys. They’re going to be a tremendous help when they come back. But, in the meantime, nobody’s going to feel sorry for us. We have to keep moving ahead and winning games.” Before consecutive losses to the Boston Bruins and the Avalanche, Philadelphia had been playing extraordinarily well, winning seven games in a row and posting an impressive 12-3-2 record on the road. With five goals in his first 30 N.H.L. games, Couturier was one reason Philadelphia had continued to win despite the spate of injuries. But his jersey number — 14 — is a reminder of the damaging effects of concussions. It is the number that was worn by Ian Laperriere, the veteran Flyers forward whose career was sidetracked because of postconcussion syndrome. Like Holmgren, Philadelphia Coach Peter Laviolette said injuries were cyclical, coming in bunches, an issue that pops up and disappears, like a good power play or a bad power play. Briere, not altogether joking, said he hoped the Flyers were getting injuries out of the way now. “It’s tough, but one good thing about it is that it’s not the playoffs,” said Jaromir Jagr, the 39-year-old Philadelphia right wing who is in his 19th N.H.L. season. “It would be a lot worse if this were the playoffs.” Holmgren has said that, for now, Pronger will not be replaced as the Flyers’ captain. The Flyers have become accustomed to playing without their snarling defenseman. “We know he hasn’t been here for the last couple of weeks,” Timonen said. “It’s going to be for a little while, anyway. The good thing is that now we know he’s not here. We have to move on. We all wish him well and hope he can get better, month by month. But he’s not here. That’s an issue we don’t have to talk about anymore.” The Flyers still have to deal with the effects of players taking an unusual number of blows to the head. They are learning to be patient and girding for whatever comes. “Whoever we have as players, whoever is in the lineup, we go with that,” left wing James van Riemsdyk said.

Philadelphia Flyers
Concussions
Hockey Ice
Pronger Chris
Giroux Claude
Couturier Sean


Cuomo Commutes Sentence of Judith Clark, Driver in Deadly Brink’s Robbery

Abstract: Judith Clark, who drove a getaway car in the infamous 1981 robbery of a Brink’s armored car in Rockland County, N.Y., that left a guard and two police officers dead, went into prison defiant, with seemingly little chance of getting out. The judge who sentenced her saw her as beyond rehabilitation, giving her a minimum of 75 years in prison and all but ensuring she would die there. But Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, citing what he called Ms. Clark’s long sentence and “exceptional strides in self-development” commuted her sentence on Friday. Mr. Cuomo’s action does not undo Ms. Clark’s conviction on second-degree murder and robbery charges, but it reduces her sentence to 35 years to life and makes her eligible for parole in 2017. If Ms. Clark is freed, it would be in recognition of her evolution from radical to model prisoner, and serve as a coda to a notorious case that was among the last gasps of violent left-wing extremism seen in the 1960s and 1970s. Ms. Clark, 67, must still win over the parole board, and law enforcement groups are expected to fight her release. Ms. Clark’s efforts to obtain clemency have gained wide attention in recent years, particularly as other participants in the Brink’s robbery have been released or granted parole hearings. Two of those involved, Mutulu Shakur, the stepfather of the rapper Tupac Shakur and described as the ringleader of the holdup, and David Gilbert, a leader of the Weather Underground who was also involved, remain incarcerated. Mr. Cuomo noted that Kathy Boudin, now a professor at Columbia University, was released in 2003 after receiving a 20-year-sentence as part of a plea deal. The commutation was part of a raft of clemencies announced by the governor on Friday, which were hailed by a wide swath of criminal justice advocates. About 100 people who had finished serving time for nonviolent crimes they had committed as minors were pardoned, and the sentences of several other inmates were commuted. The clemency actions were the largest number by a governor in the state’s history, a spokesman said. The governor met Ms. Clark, who had one of the longest sentences of those in the Brink’s case, during a prison visit this year. A range of people have attested to Ms. Clark’s transformation, including Elaine Lord, former superintendent of the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for women, the maximum-security prison where she has spent almost all of her 35 years behind bars. Ms. Lord wrote to then-Gov. David A. Paterson in 2010 that she had seen Ms. Clark “change into one of the most perceptive, thoughtful, helpful and profound human beings that I have ever known, either inside or outside of a prison.” A group of 13 former presidents of the New York City bar association signed a letter seeking clemency for her this year. Image Judith Clark after she was taken into custody in connection with the robbery of a Brink’s armored car in Nanuet, N.Y., in 1981. Credit David Handschuh/Associated Press In the years before the robbery, Ms. Clark had bounced from mainstream civil rights causes to a group called the May 19th Communist Organization, an offshoot of the Weather Underground that believed a black-led revolution was in the offing. She did not quickly renounce her radical ideology once in prison. Deemed a major security risk, she spent two years in solitary confinement after being caught helping to plan an escape. But her attitudes began to change. She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees while incarcerated, and led educational programs for inmates, including a prenatal course and an HIV/AIDS program. Her release has been opposed by law enforcement groups and by some relatives of the men who were killed in the robbery and ensuing search : Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Officer Waverly Brown of the Nyack police, and Peter Paige, a Brink’s guard. Ed Day, county executive of Rockland County, called the push for clemency for Ms. Clark, “a vicious slap in the face to every member of law enforcement.” “The blood of Nyack police Sgt. Edward O’Grady, Officer Waverly ‘Chipper’ Brown and Brinks guard Peter Paige will be on her hands until the day she dies,” he said in a statement on Friday. “Judith Clark is a domestic terrorist. Her only place in a civilized society is behind bars.” Ms. Clark’s lawyer, Steven Zeidman, said on Friday that his client was aware of the concerns of the victims’ families. “She’s grateful for this opportunity and is very ecstatic, but is very fully aware that it’s painful and difficult for those who lost loved ones that day,” he said. Though Ms. Clark did not fire any shots, she was a willing participant in the robbery, which the militant group viewed as an “expropriation” for what they called the Republic of New Afrika. According to her account from that day, she had parked in a corner of a mall in Nanuet where other members of the group attacked an armored car, grabbing $1.6 million while leaving Mr. Paige dead and another guard in a pool of blood. Gunfire was also exchanged later with the police. Ms. Clark’s radicalism had hardened by the trial. She called herself a “freedom fighter” and called the court officers “fascist dogs.” In an email on Friday, Edward J. O’Grady III, the son of the slain officer, said that he was still processing the news. He called his father a hero and said he felt the pain of his loss every day. But, he said, “the release of Judith Clark will take no more away from me and will bring no more hurt to my life.” He also wrote about Ms. Clark’s daughter, Harriet, a lecturer at Stanford , who was 11 months old when her mother was arrested. “She did no more to deserve her lot than my sisters and I did to deserve ours,” he wrote. “If it brings an end to the suffering that Harriet has to deal with every day, then perhaps I can be happy for both of them, and I can assure you, I’ll still be able to sleep at night.”

Judith Clark
Robbery
New York
Amnesties Commutations and Pardons
Andrew Cuomo
Attacks on Police


Mexico: Identity of a Detainee Is Questioned After Arrest

Abstract: Mexican and United States authorities said Friday that they were checking DNA and photographs of a detained suspect whom they introduced as the presumed son of the drug kingpin Joaquín Guzmán Loera. The Mexican Navy presented a man amid great fanfare on Thursday, identifying him as Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, who is believed to be a son of Mr. Guzmán Loera, the leader of the Sinaloa drug gang. But by Friday, officials were scrambling after the detained man’s lawyer and his wife said that he was Félix Beltrán León, a car salesman who has no relationship to Mr. Guzmán Loera. The Mexican Attorney General’s Office said information identifying him as Mr. Guzmán Loera’s son came from the United States. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration said it came from Mexico .

Mexico
Detainees
United States
Drug Enforcement Administration
Guzman Loera Joaquin
Drug Abuse and Traffic
Drug Cartels


Daily Report: New York Searches for Its Anchor Tech Company

Abstract: Shopping malls need anchor stores, those giant retailers that bring in shoppers with money to spend and some time to browse all the nearby little stores. Likewise, a high-tech region needs an anchor company, that giant or at least influential company that draws in technical talent and generates the know-how and cash for another generation of start-ups and — just maybe — the next big thing to come along. Silicon Valley and the surrounding region have had these companies for decades, from Hewlett-Packard and Intel to Facebook and Google. The Seattle area has its giants in Microsoft and Amazon. Even Austin has had its own tech powerhouse in Dell, though that company has seen better days. But New York? The biggest city in the country has plenty of tech companies and plenty of tech workers and it is second — though a distant second — among regional tech investment. A giant that can compete with behemoths of Silicon Valley, however, remains elusive. This week, a group of New York tech executives and investors will unveil an effort some hope will help create an environment where a homegrown company can join the ranks of tech’s biggest companies. New York may not be able to lure tech minds with the promise of Silicon Valley’s sunny weather. But these days, it’s probably a cheaper place to live. And that’s a good start.

Silicon Valley
NYC
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Science and Technology


Rockies Sign Catcher to a 2-Year Deal

Abstract: The free-agent catcher Nick Hundley and the Colorado Rockies completed a two-year, $6.25 million contract. Hundley, 31, hit .243 last year with 6 homers and 22 runs batted in in 83 games for San Diego and Baltimore.


‘Land of the Lost’ Haunts Universal in Unexpected Way

Abstract: “Land of the Lost” is the gift that just keeps on taking for Universal Pictures. The American Medical Association Alliance, a volunteer arm of the powerful health organization that focuses on family issues, on Friday released its scorecard for the depiction of smoking in mass-appeal summer movies. Universal was the biggest offender because of “Land of the Lost,” the big-budget failure that helped cost the co-chairmen of the studio their jobs this month. The alliance said it counted 18 shots of Will Ferrell holding a pipe in the movie, resulting in about 124 million tobacco impressions. (The industry generally calculates an “impression” by multiplying the number of incidences by the film’s total gross, then dividing by the average ticket price.) “ ‘Land of the Lost’ wasn’t just a flop at the box office, it was also a real loser for public health,” said Nancy Kyler, president of the American Medical Association Alliance. The group did not name the second- and third-place offenders. A Universal spokeswoman declined to comment. The studio did catch a break, however. In May, the organization, working with the Los Angeles Department of Public Health, announced that the studio found to be the biggest smoking offender would be publicly shamed on nearby billboards. But billboard vendors throughout Los Angeles — which the alliance said are heavily dependent on entertainment industry advertising — refused to run the ad, according to Ms. Kyler. “It’s a sad day when movie studios can promote smoking to youth, but public health advocates cannot find a billboard in the whole city of Los Angeles that will run an ad to alert the public about the problem,” she said. BROOKS BARNES

Movies
Smoking and Tobacco
Advertising and Marketing
Medicine and Health


Harvey Schultz, 66, Head of Environmental Agency, Dies

Abstract: Harvey W. Schultz, New York City’s commissioner of environmental protection during the last of Mayor Edward I. Koch’s three terms, died in Brooklyn on Sept. 6. He was 66 and lived in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn. The cause was a heart attack, his wife, Nanette Rainone, said. Mr. Schultz was chosen to lead the Department of Environmental Protection in 1986. During his four years as commissioner he dealt with several major issues, including a federal ban on dumping sewage in the ocean; imposition of city restrictions on water use during a drought in 1989; and a 10-year program to install water meters in all residences. He was also at the forefront of an unsuccessful 1987 proposal by Mr. Koch (similar to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s congestion-pricing plan) to reduce pollution in Manhattan by charging a $10-a-day fee on vehicles entering the borough below 59th Street. Earlier, Mr. Schultz held several senior positions in the City Planning Department: director of economic development, director of the Brooklyn office and director of land-use planning and environmental management. From 1977 through 1985, he was an executive assistant to Howard Golden, the Brooklyn borough president. Mr. Schultz was later president of a development company that built 7,500 homes in the Rockaways; a partner in several real estate consulting companies; and a senior partner with Muss Development, a real estate company. Born in Brooklyn on Nov. 12, 1940, Mr. Schultz was the son of Milton and Ruth Klein Schultz. In the 1960s, he earned an undergraduate degree in political science and then a master’s degree in city planning, both at Hunter College. Besides his wife, Mr. Schultz is survived by his sister, Sharon Price; three sons, Jason, Matthew and Daniel; and two grandsons.


Rikers to Consolidate Its Academic Programs

Abstract: A pair of longstanding academic programs for young inmates on Rikers Island , including one dating to the Koch administration that was a first for a United States correctional facility, are being merged into a single system, city officials said. The move is aimed in large part at recalling the roots of the policy’s educational mission from the mid-1980s: It will reintegrate curriculums so that students can stay on track to recover credits, take Regents exams and earn high school diplomas or equivalency diplomas in their time behind bars. As a practical matter, blending the two programs — known as the Horizon and Island Academies — will also involve consolidating an array of disparate classroom spaces at the jail, in part to give more students greater access to core schooling materials, like computers, officials said. Currently, many of the 13 locations around the nine jails on Rikers Island where teachers are assigned are “under capacity,” said Timothy F. Lisante, the deputy superintendent of District 79, who said that consolidating would also cut costs. Under the plans, the merger will be completed in time for the start of the new academic season in September. Summer classes will not be affected. Michael Mendel, the secretary of the United Federation of Teachers , the union representing teachers, said he was loath to criticize the substance of the policy changes and voiced support for any effort by the city’s Department of Education to improve the program. But the process was flawed, he said. In particular, he said the timing of the announcement, with the news circulating at the close of the school year, was jarring to many educators who did not see it coming. The teachers, who are part of the staff of roughly 200 serving both schools, were notified of the planned merger last Monday, after administrators were told the preceding weekend, Mr. Mendel said. “It is irresponsible to do this the last day of school,” Mr. Mendel said. “They did not wake up and decide these programs were no good in June.” Consequently, he said, teachers will have to reapply for their positions on Rikers Island, and there will be a hectic time over the summer to prepare for the new system. Also, the consolidated classroom space and academic curriculum will require a smaller staff, so some teachers will have to move to other schools within the district, officials said. While Mr. Lisante said there would be an effort to staff the new programs with as many current educators as possible, he said, “We want the best and brightest teachers.” Mr. Lisante defended the timing of the announcement, saying it was meant to minimize distractions and to “keep the focus on the students and use the summer to plan the redesign.” Dora B. Schriro, the commissioner of the Department of Correction, said a better educated population in the jail contributes to the “day-to-day safety and security of the correctional system.” While head of corrections in Arizona, she said, she found higher educational achievement linked to less recidivism. She said the new city program would offer a “richer and more sophisticated set” of academic offerings. Longer school days are being contemplated, she said. When Island Academy opened in 1986, it was in response to parents who did not want jail to derail the high school education of children sent there, Mr. Lisante said. That program serves students 16 to 19. The Horizon Academy was set up for 19-to-21-year-olds, with an emphasis on equivalency diplomas. Under one combined program, all students, regardless of age, will have more seamless experiences during usually brief incarcerations, he said. Credits will be earned in a more concentrated period, he said. And admissions will be more tightly controlled, to assess individual inmates’ language, academic and other needs. Jessica Scaperotti, a spokeswoman for the Bloomberg administration, hailed the collaboration by officials from the city’s education and correction departments to revamp a school system she characterized as not working properly. “What the city was looking to do was overhaul the system so that we could bring together the expertise of educators, youth development specialists and correction professionals so they can better support the distinctive academic and social needs of students that are incarcerated,” Ms. Scaperroti said.

Education and Schools
Rikers Island Prison Complex
Prisons and Prisoners


In Factory Sit-In, an Anger Spread Wide

Abstract: CHICAGO — The scene inside a long, low-slung factory on this city’s North Side this weekend offered a glimpse at how the nation’s loss of more than 600,000 manufacturing jobs in a year of recession is boiling over. Workers laid off Friday from Republic Windows and Doors, who for years assembled vinyl windows and sliding doors here, said they would not leave, even after company officials announced that the factory was closing. Some of the plant’s 250 workers stayed all night, all weekend, in what they were calling an occupation of the factory. Their sharpest criticisms were aimed at their former bosses, who they said gave them only three days’ notice of the closing, and the company’s creditors. But their anger stretched broadly to the government’s costly corporate bailout plans, which, they argued, had forgotten about regular workers. “They want the poor person to stay down,” said Silvia Mazon, 47, a mother of two who worked as an assembler here for 13 years and said she had never before been the sort to march in protests or make a fuss. “We’re here, and we’re not going anywhere until we get what’s fair and what’s ours. They thought they would get rid of us easily, but if we have to be here for Christmas, it doesn’t matter.” The workers, members of Local 1110 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, said they were owed vacation and severance pay and were not given the 60 days of notice generally required by federal law when companies make layoffs. Lisa Madigan, the attorney general of Illinois , said her office was investigating, and representatives from her office interviewed workers at the plant on Sunday. At a news conference Sunday, President-elect Barack Obama said the company should follow through on its commitments to its workers. “The workers who are asking for the benefits and payments that they have earned,” Mr. Obama said, “I think they’re absolutely right and understand that what’s happening to them is reflective of what’s happening across this economy.” Company officials, who were no longer at the factory, did not return telephone or e-mail messages. A meeting between the owners and workers is scheduled for Monday. The company, which was founded in 1965 and once employed more than 700 people, had struggled in recent months as home construction dipped, workers said. Still, as they milled around the factory’s entrance this weekend, some workers said they doubted that the company was really in financial straits, and they suggested that it would reopen elsewhere with cheaper costs and lower pay. Others said managers had kept their struggles secret, at one point before Thanksgiving removing heavy equipment in the middle of the night but claiming, when asked about it, that all was well. Workers also pointedly blamed Bank of America , a lender to Republic Windows, saying the bank had prevented the company from paying them what they were owed, particularly for vacation time accrued. “Here the banks like Bank of America get a bailout, but workers cannot be paid?” said Leah Fried, an organizer with the union workers. “The taxpayers would like to see that bailout go toward saving jobs, not saving C.E.O.’s.” In a statement issued Saturday, Bank of America officials said they could not comment on an individual client’s situation because of confidentiality obligations. Still, a spokeswoman also said, “Neither Bank of America nor any other third party lender to the company has the right to control whether the company complies with applicable laws or honors its commitments to its employees.” Inside the factory, the “occupation” was relatively quiet. The Chicago police said that they were monitoring the situation but that they had had no reports of a criminal matter to investigate. About 30 workers sat in folding chairs on the factory floor. (Reporters and supporters were not allowed to enter, but the workers could be observed through an open door.) They came in shifts around the clock. They tidied things. They shoveled snow. They met with visiting leaders, including Representatives Luis V. Gutierrez and Jan Schakowsky, both Democrats from Illinois, and the Rev. Jesse Jackson . Throughout the weekend, people came by with donations of food, water and other supplies. The workers said they were determined to keep their action — reminiscent, union leaders said, of autoworkers’ efforts in Michigan in the 1930s — peaceful and to preserve the factory. “The fact is that workers really feel like they have nothing to lose at this point,” Ms. Fried said. “It shows something about our economic times, and it says something about how people feel about the bailout.” Until last Tuesday, many workers here said, they had no sense that there was any problem. Shortly before 1 p.m. that day, workers were told in a meeting that the plant would close Friday, they said. Some people wept, others expressed fury. Many employees said they had worked in the factory for decades. Lalo Muñoz, who was among those sleeping over in the building, said he arrived 34 years ago. The workers — about 80 percent of them Hispanic, with the rest black or of other ethnic and national backgrounds — made $14 an hour on average and received health care and retirement benefits, Ms. Fried said. “This never happens — to take a company from the inside,” Ms. Mazon said. “But I’m fighting for my family, and we’re not going anywhere.”

Chicago
Closings
Layoffs
Bank of America
Recession and Depression


Baseball’s Game of Telephone

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — In Atlanta, there are televisions in the dugouts to help the manager monitor the action in his team’s bullpen — who is warming up, and how ready a pitcher might be to enter the game. Another National League team, in an effort to improve communications between the dugout and the bullpen, experimented with specially designed mobile telephones in recent years. That ended because the team’s coaches weren’t happy with them, although it didn’t help, either, that players had run up $70,000 in Internet usage charges. Over the decades, though, baseball teams have stuck mainly to the landline dugout phone. But if St. Louis Cardinals Manager Tony La Russa is to be believed, that most commonplace of communication options helped decide Game 5 of the World Series on Monday night. According to La Russa, the first-year Cardinals bullpen coach, Derek Lilliquist, amid the din of the crowd at Rangers Ballpark in Arlington, twice misheard his requests as to which pitchers should get warmed up. As a result, the wrong pitcher was in the game at the wrong time. The mishaps led to a two-run eighth inning and a 4-2 victory for the Texas Rangers, and a three-games-to-two deficit for St. Louis in the best-of-seven series. On Tuesday, La Russa stuck to his story, and accepted blame. “It comes down to who has the responsibility when there’s those kind of miscommunications,” he said. “It’s mine.” Baseball has been trying to bridge this oddly enduring communications gap since its first games. Various techniques have been used: shouting toward the bullpen, using players as messengers, hand signals both secretive and straightforward. It is an effort that has not been made easier by more sophisticated technology or more expensive ballparks. Regular cellphones are banned from the dugout, and some of the newer stadiums have located the bullpens out of the managers’ eyesight — thus the televisions in the dugouts in Atlanta. In 1920, there would have been no communications issue. According to Peter Morris, a baseball historian and author who researched the history of dugout telephones in major league baseball, when a manager needed a relief pitcher back then — which wasn’t often — bullpens were usually in foul territory, close enough so a few steps and a few shouted words accomplished the task. Who needed something fancy like a telephone? “If you were in the front office of a team, and the manager said, ‘Let’s install a phone,’ you’d probably say: ‘That’s a waste of money. Let’s do something that can help us win,’ ” Morris said in a telephone interview from Haslett, Mich. Morris’s research showed that telephones have been used in major league dugouts and bullpens since at least 1930. Perhaps the most famous dugout-to-bullpen call occurred on Oct. 3, 1951, at the Polo Grounds, when Brooklyn Dodgers Manager Charlie Dressen needed someone to quell a ninth-inning rally by the New York Giants in the deciding game of their National League playoff series. The Dodgers’ bullpen coach, Clyde Sukeforth, got the call and told Dressen that Carl Erskine was bouncing his curve, leading the manager to summon Ralph Branca. Two pitches later, Bobby Thomson hit his Shot Heard Round the World. So far, baseball has resisted anything more technologically advanced than a telephone. In addition to cellphones, laptop computers are also banned for dugout-bullpen communication, according to the baseball spokesman Pat Courtney. A pre-approved form of walkie-talkie can be used if a landline fails, Courtney said, provided the affected team alerts the umpiring crew. Peter Woodfork, a senior vice president for baseball operations, said last week that the only real restriction baseball placed on communication between the dugout and the bullpen was that it be conducted through a direct line with no outside-calling capabilities. (The mobile phones used by the National League team had a secure direct line, but the Web-surfing function had not been disabled, hence the large bill at the end of the experiment.) Despite concerns about spotty cellular service in a crowded stadium, experts say that teams would have little trouble establishing a reliable connection for limited wireless communication. A team’s mobile phones might struggle if a cellular network became overloaded during a critical point at a game — as, say, when fans were using their own phones to debate a late-inning pitching substitution. But teams would almost certainly still be able to send text messages, said Charles S. Golvin, a wireless industry analyst at Forrester Research . Another option for teams would be to avoid the cellular networks altogether by establishing a private wireless network, which managers could use to send encrypted communications across the ballpark to the bullpen through an instant messaging program. And while managers might not like the idea of text-messaging, Golvin said that such conversations would be easy enough to type out. “It’s not like the dialogue between Tony La Russa and his bullpen coach is the equivalent of letters exchanged in the 17th century,” he said. “It’s more like, ‘Get Motte up.’ It’s three words.”

Baseball
World Series
Telephones and Telecommunications
St Louis Cardinals
la Russa Tony


Secular Turkish Government Permits Religious Symbol

Abstract: ANKARA, Turkey — Before Thursday, the last time a female lawmaker entered Turkey’s Parliament wearing an Islamic head scarf was in 1999. She was taunted, expelled from the building and later stripped of her Turkish citizenship after it was revealed that she also carried an American passport. But today there is a different Turkey, reshaped over a decade of governing by the Justice and Development Party, which has its roots in political Islam, and so when four of the party’s female members entered the Assembly on Thursday wearing head scarves they were largely accepted, even as it represented, for some, an unwelcome break with Turkey’s secular traditions. For many others, inclined to see the issue as one of personal freedoms, it was an important marker of Turkey’s maturing democracy. After the session, Mevlut Cavusoglu, a senior lawmaker in the governing party, sat in a garden outside Parliament and said, simply, “This is democracy.” Earlier, Gulay Samanci, a member of Parliament from Konya, a religiously conservative town in central Turkey, had walked into the Assembly, watched by a horde of Turkish journalists, wearing a black-and-white silk scarf on her head and was greeted by colleagues with hugs, kisses, handshakes and the snapping of cellphone cameras. The issue has long been a divisive one in Turkish society, pitting secularists versus Islamists. But the entrance of female lawmakers wearing head scarves on Thursday was seen as a milestone for Turkey. And it underscored the depth of change within the society over the last 10 years under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an Islamist leader whose party, known by its Turkish initials A.K.P., has sought to allow a great role for religion in the public sphere. The lifting of the head scarf ban was part of a package of democratic changes Mr. Erdogan unveiled in September. While some opposition lawmakers from the secular Republican People’s Party, or C.H.P., expressed opposition, much of the Turkish public seems ready to move beyond the issue: More than 70 percent of the public, in an October survey, supported lifting the ban, according to Ozer Sencar, the director of Metropoll, an Ankara-based polling firm. “It’s an unnecessary and useless debate,” said Saban Kardas, a professor at Ankara’s University of Economics and Technology. “C.H.P. is digging itself deeper.” “Last weekend, I was at a wedding and the bride was wearing a head scarf and the witness was wearing modern dress and a short skirt,” Dr. Kardas added. “This is modern Turkey.” Still, some lawmakers protested: one female member of C.H.P. wore a T-shirt that bore the face of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Turkish republic from the remnants of the Ottoman Empire after World War I and imposed a secular system. Another C.H.P. member made a different argument: that the head scarf issue, while portrayed by the governing party as an advancement for individual liberties, has served to mask a spotty record on women’s rights. “I expect them to explain why my country is 120th in a global ranking on women’s rights,” the lawmaker, Safak Pavey, said in Parliament. She added, “The greatest insurance for religious freedom is not about controlling our future with religious guidance but providing flawless secularism.” The ban on head scarves in Parliament was not enshrined in law but part of the Assembly’s traditional dress code. The code also bans pants for women. The lifting of the head scarf ban comes at a time of deep polarization here, even if the country is not as divided as it once was over the matter of female dress. Those divisions — between the rural, pious classes and a more secular urban elite — were laid bare by violent protests that began in May in Istanbul and swept across the country. The protests represented the most severe political crisis faced by Mr. Erdogan in his decade in office, and highlighted the degree of anger against his style, which a growing number of Turks view as authoritarian. While advancing democracy on a number of counts — including overcoming a history of coups by securing civilian authority over the military — he has alienated a significant segment of the population by telling women how many children they should have (sometimes it is three, sometimes five), and involving himself personally in controversial urban development projects in Istanbul, the original catalyst for the protests. Still, Mr. Erdogan, who maintained his core constituency of religious conservatives, who make up about half the electorate, emerged from the protest crisis with much of his domestic power intact, even as his image was tarnished abroad. The C.H.P. chairman, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, said the lifting of the head scarf ban was timed by Mr. Erdogan to rally his base before an election cycle that will begin in the spring with a vote for municipal leaders, followed by a presidential election in the summer and end in 2015 with parliamentary elections. Outside Parliament on Thursday afternoon, Nurcan Dalbudak, an A.K.P. lawmaker, cast it in different terms. “There is no longer this issue in Turkey, it has been excluded from the agenda,” she said. “Today is a historical, beautiful day.”

Turkey
Gulay Samanci
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Nurcan Dalbudak
Muslim Veiling
Legislature
Justice and Development Party Turkey


Chipotle Posts Another Quarter of Billion-Dollar Sales

Abstract: Earnings reports on Tuesday from three prominent restaurant operators, including Chipotle Mexican Grill , illustrated the impact of the changing preferences of American consumers. Sales at Chipotle, the restaurant chain that has come to symbolize the tastes of the millennial generation, continued to break the billion-dollar barrier in a single quarter, despite a problem with its pork supply that caused some of its more than 1,800 stores to run short on carnitas. Brinker International, which operates Chili’s and Maggiano’s, said it was hoping further investments in technology to build customer loyalty would help it sustain and build sales, which climbed 3.3 percent, to $784.2 million, in its third quarter, which ended March 25. Yum Brands, the company behind KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut, continued to struggle to regain its footing in China, where sales remain weak after one of its meat suppliers was hit last year with a food safety scandal. So-called fast-casual restaurants like Chipotle, which allow their customers to tailor their meals, and still have them ready in a flash, are booming right now, playing to consumer tastes for customization, speed and ingredients from sources that adhere to animal welfare, organic and other standards. Sales in its stores open at least one year were up 10.4 percent in the first quarter, which ended March 31. Overall sales were up 20.4 percent to $1.09 billion, compared with $904.2 million in the same period last year. Profits jumped 47.6 percent to $122.6 million. “We are very proud of our start to 2015, as our average sales volumes reached a record $2.5 million per restaurant,” Steve Ells, Chipotle’s co-chief executive, said in a statement. Investment analysts, however, had been expecting stronger comparable sales, and the company’s shares, which rose 0.8 percent on Tuesday, fell more than 5 percent in after-hours trading. John R. Hartung, the company’s chief financial officer, said in a conference call with the analysts that the shortage of pork and how it was dealt with, along with harsh weather in some parts of the country, had reduced comparable store sales by 1 to 2 percent. Chipotle has rotated supplies of pork around the country so that all stores have carnitas at some point. “This rolling blackout has caused confusion among our customers, and where and when we’re out of carnitas,” Mr. Hartung said. “Starting later this month, we’ll stop the rolling blackout.” Yum’s chains are fast-food restaurants, the segment of the business that has been hardest hit by the rise of Chipotle and others. Its sales fell 4 percent, to $2.6 billion, in its first quarter, which ended March 21. The company struggled to turn the tide in its KFC and Pizza Hut stores in China, where same-store sales dropped 12 percent — an improvement, according to Jonathan Blum, Yum’s chief of public affairs. “Our sales continued to improve, and while still down, are down less this quarter than they were last,” Mr. Blum said. “So the trajectory is in the right direction.” Outside China, comparable store sales were up 5 percent at KFC and 6 percent at Taco Bell, while flat at Pizza Hut. Profits dropped 9 percent, to $362 million, compared with $399 million in the same quarter last year. Still, that was better than investment analysts had predicted, and the share price of Yum Brands was up more than 3 percent in after-hours trading. Brinker is among the restaurants at the forefront in using technology to build ties with consumers, as well as make kitchens more efficient. In a call with analysts on Tuesday, Wyman Roberts, chief executive of Brinker, said that the company’s new loyalty program would soon begin allowing customers to use points accrued in their American Express accounts to pay for their meals, and that improvements to its apps and software in stores was aimed at reducing wait times. Mr. Roberts said there was nothing worse for a restaurant than “having a customer make the decision to get to your restaurant and then decide the wait is too long, turn around and walk out.” Brinker said its sales in stores open at least a year rose 1.9 percent. Profits rose 16.4 percent, to $65.4 million, compared with $56.2 million in the same period a year ago. Its shares fell 3.7 percent to $56.84.

Earnings Reports
Restaurant
Chipotle Mexican Grill
Brinker International
Yum Brands


Global Stocks Buoyed by Investor Faith

Abstract: World stocks rallied on Monday, led by a jump in Japan’s main index , as investors began to be encouraged by signs of more stimulus from central banks in Europe and Japan. The Nikkei 225, Japan’s benchmark, soared 7.2 percent, to close at 16,022.58, rebounding from last week’s slump to post its second biggest one-day gain in three years. That led to big gains in Europe, where the FTSE 100 of Britain closed 2 percent higher at 5,824.28, and the DAX of Germany gained 2.7 percent, to 9,206.84. The CAC 40 of France rose 3 percent, to close at 4,115.25. Wall Street was closed for Presidents’ Day. Stocks began to rally after government data showed that Japan’s economy shrank 1.4 percent on an annualized basis last quarter because of weak consumer demand and slower exports. It was a setback for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s economic revival program, but it gave the government more reason to expand stimulus measures to restore growth, economists said. Investor sentiment was also bolstered by comments from Zhou Xiaochuan, China’s central bank chief, in which he played down the likelihood of a one-off devaluation of the renminbi. Mr. Zhou, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, signaled in a Caixin magazine interview published over the weekend that there was no basis for further depreciation of China’s currency, providing relief for the country’s exporting neighbors. Later in the day, stocks were nudged higher and the euro fell sharply after the European Central Bank reiterated that more stimulus would be considered at the next policy meeting in March. The euro was down 1 percent to $1.1138 after Mario Draghi, the European Central Bank president, said on Monday there were “a variety of instruments” that policy makers could employ if they decided more stimulus was needed. They could pump more money into the economy or cut rates further, something that would weigh on the value of the euro. United States futures rose. Dow futures were up 1.3 percent. Those for the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index up 1.5 percent. Elsewhere, the Kospi of South Korea climbed 1.5 percent, to 1,862.20, and the Hang Seng of Hong Kong was up 3.3 percent, to 18,918.14. The S&P/ASX 200 of Australia rose 1.6 percent, to 4,843.50. Taiwan’s benchmark was flat, while markets in Southeast Asia gained. The Shanghai composite index in mainland China, though, lost 0.6 percent, to close at 2,746.20, after reopening after the Lunar New Year holiday. Chinese shares were also weighed down by the latest monthly trade figures. Exports fell 11 percent, while imports slid by nearly a fifth, according to customs data, highlighting persistent weakness in China, the world’s second biggest economy. Economists, however, were reserving final analysis until figures for February were out because the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday may distort China’s economic data at the beginning of the year. In energy trading, benchmark United States crude oil futures rose 29 cents, to settle at $29.73 a barrel, in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract climbed $3.23 on Friday. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils, gained 5 cents, to $34.04 a barrel, in London.

Japan
Europe
Economy
China
Stocks,Bonds
International trade


Saying Small Nations Count, Czechs Seek an Obama Visit

Abstract: PRAGUE — Czech officials are pushing hard for President Obama to come to Prague early in April to meet the 27 leaders of the European Union , of which the Czech Republic currently holds the presidency. The visit, Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said, would be important to every smaller country in the European Union. “It’s our impression that the new administration doesn’t just care about the fat cats — Germany, France and Britain — but they care about the small countries, too,” Mr. Schwarzenberg said in an interview. “It’s important that the United States also do this in a country that 20 years ago belonged to the Soviet pact.” Mr. Obama, who in Europe is viewed as something akin to a rock star, will make his first trans-Atlantic visit as president in early spring, when he goes to London for a summit meeting on April 2 of the Group of 20 large industrialized countries, a session intended to discuss overhauling the global financial system and coping with a nearly worldwide recession. On April 3 and 4, Mr. Obama will be in Strasbourg, France, and two towns in Germany — Kehl and Baden-Baden — for a NATO summit meeting marking the alliance’s 60th anniversary. That meeting, of which France and Germany are co-hosts, is also expected to mark France’s full reintegration into the military side of the alliance, more than 40 years after Charles de Gaulle quit the joint military command and kicked NATO out of Paris. That means Mr. Obama will have visited the main “troika” of the European Union — Britain, France and Germany — and met with the countries’ leaders. The Czech Republic — a country of 10 million people that has been struggling to hold the European Union together under the pressure of the economic crisis and a continuing spat with the previous holder of the presidency, France — very much wants Mr. Obama to then come to Prague to meet European leaders, instead of doing it in the European Union’s bureaucratic capital, Brussels. “There should also be a message from Washington that the United States also takes care of smaller and medium-size countries,” said Alexandr Vondra, a former Czech ambassador to Washington and currently deputy prime minister for European affairs. Mr. Schwarzenberg pressed that argument in Washington this month. The Obama administration has been encouraging but noncommittal so far, the Czechs say. It is likely that Mr. Obama, with a particularly large domestic agenda, does not want to spend too much time in Europe, where he might be accused of sightseeing or of neglecting the larger problems of America. Mr. Schwarzenberg also argues that an Obama visit to Prague would be an important message to Moscow, which has refused to withdraw its forces from the Georgian territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. The Czechs and the Poles have been willing to accept an early-warning radar and interception system against Iranian missiles, which the Russians object to. The Russians continue to view the Czech Republic and Poland as part of Eastern Europe, not Central Europe, Mr. Schwarzenberg said, adding, “It’s clear in their heads that we are in the eastern zone.” That is the kind of “old thinking that we shouldn’t miss,” he said, and that an Obama visit could counter.

European Union
Czech Republic
Summit Conferences
Obama Barack
European Commission
Vondra Alexandr


Applications for Asylum Are Surging, United Nations Says

Abstract: UNITED NATIONS — The war in Syria, now in its fifth year, has not only flooded countries in the region with millions of refugees. It has driven up the number of people seeking asylum across the world to a 20-year high, according to the United Nations. About 866,000 people sought asylum in the world’s industrialized countries in 2014, growing by 45 percent over 2013, according to numbers released Thursday by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. One in five asylum seekers were Syrians, with Iraqis and Afghans the next largest groups. Not since the peak of the war in the Balkans, in 1992, has the world witnessed such a surge of people arriving on foreign shores seeking protection. The United Nations refugee agency chief, António Guterres , nudged world leaders to be “just as generous” to Syrians now as they had been to the Balkans then. An asylum seeker is defined as someone who claims to be fleeing persecution at home. In 2014, the bulk of asylum seekers went to Europe, many of them paying smugglers to ferry them across the Mediterranean. They landed mainly in Greece and Italy and tried to make their way to more prosperous countries in northern Europe. Of every 20 who made it, one died at sea, according to the agency. Syria After Four Years of Mayhem A look at the conflict that has dismembered Syria and inflamed the region with one of the world’s worst religious and sectarian wars. Germany received the largest number of asylum applications: 173,000, with Syrians making up the largest group. Sweden and Italy were the other countries receiving large numbers of asylum seekers. Even Japan and South Korea saw a sharp increase, though their numbers were fairly small. Only Australia saw its asylum claims decline. Turkey, which is home to millions of Syrian refugees, took in nearly 88,000 asylum applications — the largest share from Iraqis, who in the past year have been fleeing the Islamic State. The United States recorded the second-highest number of asylum applications in the world. Syrians are still a small fraction of the total, though climbing fast. Last year nearly 1,600 Syrians filed for asylum in the United States, up from barely three dozen applications a decade ago, according to government figures. “It is no surprise that there has been a steep increase in asylum seekers from Syria, given the size and scope of this crisis — and the fact that some states in the region have begun closing escape routes and turning away refugees fleeing from Syria,” said Eleanor Acer, a director of Human Rights First , a New York-based legal advocacy group that has urged the United States to step up its refugee resettlement efforts. “Also, as the crisis has become prolonged, it has become tougher and tougher for refugees to survive in countries where they can’t work, unite their families and begin to rebuild their lives,” she said.


Illinois: Lesbian Is a Finalist for Bishop

Abstract: An openly lesbian priest is one of five candidates nominated by a search committee to be the next Episcopal bishop of Chicago. The nomination of the priest, the Very Rev. Tracey Lind, dean of Trinity Cathedral in Cleveland, came as a surprise because the Episcopal Church passed a resolution at its last general convention calling on dioceses to “exercise restraint” by not consecrating any more openly gay bishops. The Episcopal Church has been under pressure from fellow churches in the Anglican Communion to declare a moratorium on gay bishops, a response to the election in 2003 of an openly gay bishop by the Diocese of New Hampshire. The election in the Diocese of Chicago is Nov. 10.


In N.B.A., Fantasy Fanfare for the Common Man

Abstract: It is a crying shame the Knicks and the Nuggets are not scheduled to meet again this season, unless miracles of Red Sea proportion were to occur east and west and the N.B.A. found itself with a New York-Denver finals attraction in June. No one should hold his breath, as both teams, given their current playoff standing, would be fortunate to survive a first-round series. David Stern should be so lucky. Kobe versus LeBron may be the corporate puppeteer’s preferred matchup, but Knicks-Nuggets would be a dream come true for the sophisticated basketball fan — and possibly Carmelo Anthony’s worst nightmare. Consider the compelling and contrasting franchise agendas: By winning 9 of their first 13 games to start the post-Carmelo era, the Nuggets instantly became a testimonial for the superstar-less collective via the power of 12 opportunistic men. By losing twice each to Cleveland and to Indiana, the Knicks made people at least pause to rethink the rush to marry any combination of the league’s most gifted and talented along the presumed path to championship bliss. These post-trade records are bound to even out some, but the Nuggets wasted little time in crowing about “playing the right way” and being rid of “sticky fingers” and making a full-blown “commitment to defense.” Meanwhile, after a 119-117 loss to Indiana on Tuesday, Anthony sniped at his teammate Jared Jeffries and questioned Coach Mike D’Antoni’s defensive schemes. During a defeat to the Pistons in Auburn Hills, Mich., Friday night, Anthony shot miserably, 2 for 12, looked distracted and annoyed with teammates and fans and blew off the news media afterward. Fourteen games into his instantly acclaimed Knicks career, these were disturbing signs if not yet a trend. Conversely, has there ever been a team as joyful as Denver has been in the aftermath of being stripped of its leading man? Impressive, the consensus voice of N.B.A. wisdom would argue. But in this league, those who command the maximum salaries — in this case Anthony and Amar’e Stoudemire — inevitably have the last laugh. A playoff showdown between these teams would carry the cachet of a classic N.C.A.A. tournament game between big-conference power and midmajor musketeer, only as much as times seven. Let’s take a quick look at the matchups and hazard a guess on how the hypothetical series would unfold. (Nuggets players are listed first.) POINT GUARD Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton vs. Chauncey Billups and Toney Douglas: Lawson may be an emerging star now that Billups is gone. The addition of Felton gives the Nuggets 48 minutes of youth and energy, a serious advantage in mile-high elevation. Billups is still Mr. Big Shot, a pro’s pro, but has struggled to keep quick guards in front of him. Douglas, a scoring point, is feast or famine. Edge: Nuggets, but a small one. SHOOTING GUARD Arron Afflalo and J. R. Smith vs. Landry Fields and Roger Mason Jr.: Under the radar, Afflalo was averaging 12.8 points on 49.8 percent shooting, 42.6 percent from 3-point territory, before the Nuggets’ loss Saturday night in Miami. Smith can be explosive off the bench, or a knucklehead. Fields. a rookie, had a 21-point, 17-rebound game at Denver in November and plays like a five-year veteran. Douglas is also likely to get minutes alongside Billups in the playoffs: Edge: Nuggets. CENTER Nene vs. Jeffries: Nene has become a solid big man, and was averaging 15.1 points and 7.5 rebounds. Chris Andersen, the tattooed windmill, provides shot-blocking off the bench. Jeffries, D’Antoni’s starter by default (for now), is offensively inept and undersized, despite his defensive positional know-how. Ronny Turiaf adds energy when he can stay on the floor. Edge: Nuggets. POWER FORWARD Kenyon Martin vs. Stoudemire: Martin is a rugged veteran and an experienced defender, playing on rebuilt knees. Stoudemire is in his prime, an athletic wonder, who can be slowed only by aggressive team defense. Unlike Anthony, he has demonstrated excellent leadership. Edge: Knicks. SMALL FORWARD Wilson Chandler vs. Anthony: In the two games between the teams before the trade, Chandler (27 and 23 points) and Anthony (26 and 31) played to a virtual draw, but Chandler was more efficient (18-for-33 shooting compared with Anthony’s 19-for-48). Chandler will work harder on defense, and Danilo Gallinari, out with a broken toe after scoring 30 in his second game with Denver, will be in the mix. But Anthony will be by far the most feared of the three with a close game in the balance. Edge: Knicks. BENCH, COACHING, INTANGIBLES The Nuggets handily win the bench matchup. Coach George Karl has reached the finals in Seattle and the conference finals in Milwaukee and Denver. He has his team playing defense every night. D’Antoni is dealing with major deficiencies on that end of the floor, but it is difficult not to indict his system as at least part of the problem. Edge: Nuggets. PREDICTION If most playoff series are carried by defense, rebounding and coaching, where is the argument for the Knicks? Evaluating the home-court advantage — which the Nuggets would right now have by virtue of their superior record — only San Antonio, Chicago and Boston have been better working familiar sightlines than Denver (27-7). The Melo factor would loom large: Would he rise to unstoppable heights because, to paraphrase him, that’s what he does? Or would he score a lot of points but ultimately exit without playoff glory because that’s what he’s done? Figure on something in between, not enough to stop the Nuggets from winning the series in six, Karl from shedding tears of joy and James Dolan from singing the blues.

Basketball
New York Knicks
Denver Nuggets
National Basketball Assn


Loss Widens at Cablevision, but Operating Income Gains

Abstract: Cablevision Systems reported a wider net loss for the third quarter yesterday, but operating income rose 59 percent as more cable TV customers signed up for high-speed Internet and digital phone services. Cablevision also trimmed its forecast for full-year growth in cash flow to 9 percent, from 10 percent, and said it expected to add fewer customers for premium services in 2007 than it had forecast three months ago. Cablevision, which also owns Madison Square Garden, Radio City Music Hall and the New York Knicks, posted a loss of $79.3 million, or 27 cents a share, compared with a loss of $59.2 million, or 21 cents a share, in the period a year ago. Revenue rose 9.4 percent, to $1.51 billion. Cablevision’s investors voted on Oct. 24 to reject a bid from the Dolan family, which controls Cablevision through a special class of stock, to take the company private at $36.26 a share. The Dolans had been trying to take the company private for two years. The Dolans gave notice in a regulatory filing Wednesday that they were formally terminating the offer. Investors pushed shares of Cablevision lower after the forecast cuts. The shares touched a new 52-week low of $25.57 and ended regular trading down 8 cents, at $26.45. The stock had traded as high as $39.75 over the last year. Shares of Cablevision have fallen in tandem with other cable companies over the last three months, partly over concerns about competitive threats from satellite TV providers and new offerings of video and high-speed Internet services from phone companies. Several nonoperating factors, including a higher tax benefit in the year-ago period as well as losses associated with retiring debt and from investments, affected the latest results. Operating income jumped 59 percent, to $202.1 million, driven by gains in its main business, cable TV. Cable earnings rose 22 percent, to $208.1 million, as the company added 52,000 Internet service customers and 91,000 phone customers, but basic video customers declined 16,000. Cablevision has about three million cable customers in the New York area.

Cablevision Systems Corp
Company Reports
Telephones and Telecommunications
Cable Television
Computers and the Internet


In Hollywood, Flights of Fancy

Abstract: NEW YORK — In a series of warehouse-size buildings, a few miles from the Burbank airport in Southern California, travelers crowd through airport terminals and stow their luggage in the overhead bins of airliners that never take off. If the passengers occasionally engage in histrionics, however, it’s not out of frustration: It is because the hangars and all the airline-related accoutrements in them belong to Air Hollywood — one of several studios where filmmakers go when the storyline calls for air travel. When Brad Pitt’s character Billy Beane went for his interview with the Boston Red Sox in the business-of-baseball film “Moneyball,” he was on an Air Hollywood flight — as was Tom Hanks playing a U.S. congressman in the movie “Charlie Wilson’s War.” From the comedy “Bridesmaids” to the suspense-filled “Red Eye,” more than 500 films have been shot in the studio since it opened in 2001, according to Air Hollywood’s chief executive, Talaat Captan. “There’s so many movies you never think about, people say, ‘There’s a plane in that movie?”’ Mr. Captan said. While surveys show that real-life passengers are increasingly frustrated with crowded airplanes and airport hassles, Air Hollywood and companies offering similar services report no downturn in business. In fact, travel angst is providing new story lines for the film industry. The Air Hollywood fleet consists of eight airplanes, both narrow and wide bodies that, with a little doctoring, can be made to look like any one of a number of airliner models, though the company’s set designers have not, so far, recreated the Boeing 787 Dreamliner with its large windows or the double-decker Airbus A380. “It takes an airplane manufacturer 15 years to design an airplane. We can replicate what it looks like in 15 weeks,” Mr. Captan said. One thing Air Hollywood cannot offer is an airplane crash — and sometimes that is just what a director wants. Enter Scroggins Aviation. Early in the season in the American television show “The Event,” a Boeing 767 goes down in the desert. To achieve the aftereffect, which is featured in two episodes, Scroggins, based in Las Vegas, sawed an airliner into pieces and transported them 320 miles, or 515 kilometers, on 12 trucks before reassembling the plane at Pinnacles National Monument in the California desert. For this project, the chief executive of the company, Doug Scroggins, called on his unusual experience as both a dismantler of airplanes for a salvage firm and as a film producer. “Right now I’m devoting all my attention to the film industry,” Mr. Scroggins said in an interview. That includes working on television shows and on the director Robert Zemeckis’s new movie “Flight,” which is scheduled to be released in November — starring two McDonnell Douglas MD-80s and Denzel Washington. Mr. Scroggins’s most challenging assignment to date was building the Boeing 707 flight deck featured in the short-lived television series “Pan Am,” a celebration of the glory days of air travel. The cockpit had to open like a clamshell to allow the filming of the pilots and the flight engineer at work. Every dial, gauge and breaker panel was checked for authenticity, Mr. Scroggins said, especially since the cockpit structure was really that of a Boeing 727. “It was a major job,” said Mr. Scroggins. “It was a big, big job. We made sure that the thing was 99.9 percent accurate. That’s how confident I felt about the build. I tell a lot of guys it was a 727, and they can’t believe it.” But building an authentic interior is often not enough: To create the effect of a plane crashing — as in “The Event” — or to add a static airplane to the scene of a busy airport tarmac — as needed for some sequences in Pan Am — takes sophisticated digital photographic techniques, said Sam Nicholson, chief executive of Stargate Studios, which specializes in visual effects and virtual environments. A frequent flier himself, Mr. Nicholson said he enjoyed the challenge of trying to recreate the world of aviation circa 1960 with digital special effects. “I like flying. I like traveling, and I’m glad every once in a while a movie comes along that wants to do it perfectly, historically real,” he said of the scenes in “Pan Am.” “They are a completely computer-generated environment based on historical photographs rendered by computer,” he said. “What we do looks like a plane and feels like a plane, but there’s nothing there.” It is just the opposite approach at Air Hollywood. To accommodate the range of demands for movies, television shows, commercials, even promotions for airlines, everything must be physically on hand: airliners; first- and coach-class seats; and a warehouse of check-in counters, meal trolleys and metal detectors. By Mr. Captan’s estimate, $3 million worth of props are housed in five buildings with 100,000 square feet, or more than 9,000 square meters, of space. Very soon, Mr. Captan plans to branch into a new line of business, opening the studio to public familiarization classes aimed at taking some of the stress out of the airport and airplane environment for potentially anxious passengers — not necessarily human. The first session starts this month when 50 puppies, destined to become help dogs for the blind, will be given an eight-hour schooling in simulated air travel. The program will be expanded in October with a two-day class for people who suffer from fear of flying. With a team that will include pilots, flight attendants and airplane mechanics, Mr. Captan aims to convince his students that flying is safe, no matter what they may see at the movies.

Movies
Hollywood (Calif)
Airlines and Airplanes
Aviation Accidents and Safety


Islanders Continue to Struggle on Home Ice

Abstract: UNIONDALE, N.Y. — Tomas Plekanec and Max Pacioretty scored 2 minutes 15 seconds apart in the second period, and Carey Price stopped 35 shots as the Montreal Canadiens dealt the Islanders a 3-1 loss at Nassau Coliseum on Saturday. The Islanders are 1-3-1 in their last five games. At home, they have lost four straight in regulation, including three in the past week. Plekanec opened the scoring 58 seconds into the second period, and Pacioretty added a short-handed goal at 3:13. Price lost his shutout bid when Josh Bailey scored with 2:18 left in the third, but Lars Eller scored an empty-net insurance goal for Montreal in the game’s final minute. Michal Neuvirth, who stopped 27 shots, fell to 1-1-1 since joining the Islanders, who are 3 points behind the Rangers in the Metropolitan Division. The Canadiens are the only Eastern Conference opponent the Islanders have failed to beat.

Islanders
Max Pacioretty
Montreal Canadiens
Ice hockey


Monsanto Lifts Forecast, Citing 2nd Quarter Profit

Abstract: Monsanto, the world’s largest seed company, raised its full-year profit forecast on Wednesday after reporting better-than-expected earnings in its second quarter, driven by strength in its global corn and herbicide businesses. The company, a leading developer of genetically engineered corn, soybeans and other crops, said it expected to sell a record amount of corn this year as it expands product offerings and deepens market penetration in Latin America. If Monsanto achieves the higher profit it forecast on Wednesday, it will be the third consecutive year of greater than 20 percent growth in earnings per share, said Hugh Grant, its chairman and chief executive. “That is an important indicator of our momentum,” Mr. Grant said on a conference call. Still, some analysts were less enthusiastic about Monsanto’s results than they might have been because the gains that beat their already high earnings expectations stemmed not from seed sales but from the company’s smaller glyphosate herbicide business and a lower tax rate. Image Sales of corn seed and genetic traits led Monsanto to a 15 percent increase in net sales. Credit Seth Perlman/Associated Press Matt Arnold, an analyst at Edward Jones, said the quarterly performance warranted only modest applause. But he said Monsanto, which is based in St. Louis, appeared poised for continued growth. “They’ve got a great portfolio,” Mr. Arnold said. “The seeds and genomics business is performing quite well.” Monsanto officials said the strength of the second quarter gave them the confidence to raise the company’s fiscal 2013 earnings guidance by 10 cents to $4.40 to $4.50 a share before certain after-tax items. That compares with a goal set in January of $4.30 to $4.40 a share. Monsanto shares rose 0.85 percent on Wednesday to close at $104.51. Monsanto reported that its net earnings in the second quarter, which ended Feb. 28, were $1.48 billion, or $2.74 a share, up from $1.21 billion, or $2.24 a share, a year earlier. It earned $2.73 a share before one-time items, up from $2.28 a year earlier. Analysts sought $2.58, Thomson Reuters said. Net sales for the quarter rose 15 percent to $5.5 billion, led by corn seed and genetic traits, which rose more than 16 percent to $3.28 billion. A lower tax rate and a 37 percent increase in herbicide sales helped Monsanto.

Monsanto
Hugh Grant
Earnings Reports
St Louis


Just 2 Candidates, but Worries for Haiti’s Runoff

Abstract: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Mirlande Manigat walks and speaks with the slow grace of a sophisticated grandmother. She keeps a series of expensive pens in a glass case on her desk. Michel Martelly struts. A popular Carnival performer who is 21 years Ms. Manigat’s junior, he is best known for drawing young people into politics, and dropping his pants on stage. The stylistic contrast between the two candidates competing in the March 20 runoff to become Haiti ’s next president could not be more stark. Yet their differences may be the only predictable elements in the homestretch of a race that has sowed more doubt than faith. The Nov. 28 election, marred by fraud and incompetence, was just the beginning of an opaque process that has included delayed results, contentious protests by Mr. Martelly’s supporters, a review by international observers, and finally last week, after a visit from Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, a reversal by election officials that put Mr. Martelly in the runoff by discarding a government-backed candidate. Now many Haitians and experts worry that the second round will be just as rough. “I’m pessimistic, considering the state the country is now in and the effort of transcendence that Haiti needs to really become engaged in reconstruction,” said Michèle D. Pierre-Louis, the former prime minister who now heads the Open Society Institute in Haiti. “Unless there is something which I can’t foresee, we’re heading toward major problems.” In a nation devastated by an earthquake early last year, with tens of thousands of displaced people still living in tent cities, the challenges are both structural and political. Will the problems with disenfranchisement in Round 1, when only 28 percent of the electorate voted, be improved in the runoff? Will turnout be high enough to give the winner a mandate, or will the loser take his or her cause to the streets? President René Préval is another wild card. No one here seems sure whether he will hand over power on Monday, as he had promised, or stay on through the runoff. There is also the possibility of a jack-in-the-box surprise if he grants the recent passport request of his mentor, the deposed president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Despite such open questions, a smooth transition is still possible, said Mark L. Schneider, a Haiti expert at the International Crisis Group. But he said that would require a raft of urgent voting reforms and an expanded international role in the runoff. First, he said, Haitian election officials must fire and replace poll workers at the sites where they know fraud occurred in the first round. He added that the country’s election council, the C.E.P., also needs to accelerate training for poll workers, overhaul how it informs voters where they should vote and create a provisional voting system so that people who are registered but appear at the wrong location can still cast ballots. Jose Miguel Insulza, the secretary general of the Organization of American States, which made similar recommendations before the November election, said that the challenge would be to create a better system in time for the runoff. He said that while the O.A.S. planned to expand its corps of international observers to 200 from 120, the bulk of the effort needed to come from within Haiti. “The important thing is the quality of the workers in the polling places,” he said. “I’m not sure if in 40 days they will be able to do it.” The O.A.S. review of the election found that intimidation and potential fraud were not limited to Mr. Préval’s party and its candidate, Jude Celestin. Haitian officials, Mr. Insulza said, “will have to work really hard to regain people’s trust.” Elections officials have said they will try. Richardson Dumel, the C.E.P.’s spokesman, said Saturday that they planned to hold another training session for poll workers. He said they would also add more phone lines that voters could call to find their precinct, and increase the size of the lettering on posted voter lists on Election Day to make them easier to read. Still, criticism of the process continues to snowball. Several members of Congress, including Maxine Waters, Democrat of California, responded to Mr. Martelly’s advancement by reiterating earlier calls for a do-over, arguing that the election was flawed from the start. At least one of the eight C.E.P. members, Ginette Chérubin, also sent a letter to Haitian news outlets this week saying she and three of her colleagues did not sign on to the decision adding Mr. Martelly to the runoff, casting further doubt on its legitimacy. On the street, even among the usually engaged, disgust has become conventional wisdom. Thermidor Jon Jerome, 55, a high school French teacher reading at a bookstore in an alley downtown, was one of many who said the foul process had stripped Haiti of its sovereignty and dignity, as the United States and international donors have pressured Haiti to expedite the process. Though he voted in Round 1, he said, “I’m not going to vote in the second round because the next president will be chosen by the United States.” Young Martelly supporters may be the only ones who are excited. They celebrated in the streets after the announcement on Thursday that Mr. Martelly would advance to the second round, and among a group of Martelly-loving vendors hawking trinkets outside the presidential palace, the mere mention of his name provoked shouts and fist-pumping. “The international community fought for us,” said Samuel Saus, 22, one of the many vendors. “And now we have the result we wanted.” In terms of policy, Mr. Martelly, 49, and Ms. Manigat, 70, share similar goals; both are conservative and have campaigned on law and order. Haitian analysts said Mr. Martelly appeared to have gained momentum by successfully standing up to Mr. Préval and his handpicked successor. Ms. Manigat maintains that this is not the case, citing a rally outside Port-au-Prince in November with 45,000 supporters. But Robert Maguire, a professor of international affairs at Trinity University in Washington, said Mr. Martelly’s rebel reputation, confirmed by protests that helped changed the result, may fit the moment. “I’d think that irreverence would be attractive to youth who have grown up to become disillusioned with the political and economic establishment,” Mr. Maguire said. Pinnson Sévère, 25, standing near business books just a few steps from Mr. Jerome, the French teacher, said that was exactly right. “This is the time to take a chance,” said Mr. Sévère, a college student who voted for Ms. Manigat in the first round, but now plans to vote for Mr. Martelly. “The country is completely destroyed so it’s a new Haiti, and we want a new kind of person.”

Haiti
Elections
Politics and Government
Frauds and Swindling
Manigat Mirlande H
Martelly Michel


Debuting on Grand Stage, Montero Shows He Belongs

Abstract: Rafael Montero sat at his locker Wednesday afternoon, hours before his major league debut, checking his phone and keeping to himself. This was a new setting for him, and Montero seemed to be trying to process it all. He was making his major-league debut against the Yankees and Masahiro Tanaka. Later, as Montero first took the mound, a cameraman followed his every move. He threw his warm-up pitches and went to work. Montero showed poise and maturity all night, pitching six solid innings. He looked older than 23. If not for a few momentary lapses, he maybe could have kept pace with Tanaka, who was dominant. Ultimately, Tanaka finished with a four-hit shutout, and Montero took the loss as the Mets fell, 4-0. “Yes, of course, I feel like I can pitch here,” Montero said afterward through an interpreter. Montero had arrived Tuesday, along with Jacob deGrom, and the room turned giddy as teammates rushed to greet them. General Manager Sandy Alderson had finally deemed Montero and deGrom ready for the big leagues. And once Dillon Gee was placed on the disabled list with a strained right latissimus dorsi muscle in his back, deGrom was slated to start Thursday. They would be the first Met starters to make their major league debuts in consecutive games, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. The Mets, of course, are waiting on a third much-anticipated starting pitching prospect, Noah Syndergaard, who has posted a 3.92 earned run average in eight starts with Class AAA Las Vegas this season. Alderson declined to speculate when Syndergaard might be called up, saying, “I don’t want to create a Noah watch here.” With Montero, Alderson sounded sure. Manager Terry Collins compared him to Matt Harvey and Zack Wheeler. After 24 starts with Las Vegas, Montero had nothing left to prove, the Mets said. Alderson seemed unconcerned that Montero would make his debut against Tanaka and the Yankees in the Subway Series. Montero had gained a reputation within the organization for his perfect mechanics, pinpoint command and quiet demeanor. “He won’t be overawed by the situation or the environment,” Alderson said before the game. “In some ways this is a David and Goliath matchup. One guy’s never lost. The other guy’s never pitched.” He added, “We’ll see how many rocks Rafael’s got.” Montero pitched fairly well, but made a few amateur mistakes. In the fourth, after getting two quick outs and trailing by 1-0, he left a 3-1 fastball high and over the plate that Yangervis Solarte smashed for a solo home run to right field. Still, Montero was going well enough that Collins let him start the sixth, having thrown 97 pitches. His fastball seemed a tick slower, though, and Mark Teixeira ripped one for another solo home run. The Mets trailed, 3-0, and Montero responded by striking out Brian McCann and retiring Alfonso Soriano and Solarte. He finished with a respectable line: six innings, five hits, three earned runs, two walks and three strikeouts. “I was very impressed,” Collins said. “This kid’s going to be good.” INSIDE PITCH The Mets outrighted reliever Kyle Farnsworth to Class AAA Las Vegas, removing him from the roster before the rest of his $1 million salary could be guaranteed. Farnsworth, who had a 3.18 earned run average and three saves, said he was angry, surprised and “very bitter.” His plan, he said: “Hopefully to find a team to play against this team.” The Mets will promote the left-hander Josh Edgin to take Farnsworth’s place in the bullpen. They also expect to add catcher Juan Centeno on Thursday if Travis d’Arnaud, who was hit by a backswing on Tuesday, needs to be placed on the seven-day concussion disabled list.


As Regulators Weigh AT&T Deal, a Look Abroad

Abstract: For Americans, complaining about big cellphone bills that seem to only get bigger is standard practice. But they may actually be getting a pretty good deal — globally speaking. While cellphone customers in the United States tend to pay more every month than consumers in other developed countries, they get more for their money in terms of voice and data use. For example, Americans pay an average of 4 cents for a minute of talk time, while Canadians and the British pay more than twice that, according to recent data from Merrill Lynch and Bank of America. In Japan, where the top three wireless carriers control 97 percent of the market, locals pay 22 cents a minute. “Pricing is what sets the U.S. apart from the rest of the world,” said Sam Paltridge, an analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. “Americans spend less than average on communications.” The question for regulators in Washington is how AT&T ’s $39 billion bid to buy T-Mobile might change that. Analysts and industry experts worry that the deal could hurt consumers, in particular by eliminating T-Mobile’s low-cost phone plans. Some are urging regulators to block the acquisition, which would leave two major companies, AT&T and Verizon, with nearly 80 percent of the wireless market, followed by the much smaller Sprint. AT&T has said the merger will benefit consumers, in part by improving network quality and reach. As they consider the deal, regulators may look abroad to see how competition affects wireless markets. With only three major network operators, the market in the United States would function similarly to some European markets, like France, which also has three operators, said J. Scott Marcus, the former chief technology officer at the telecommunications company GTE and former Internet policy adviser at the Federal Communications Commission. “It will definitely become an oligopoly market,” Mr. Marcus said. “That will be less good than what one had before, but not awful.” Of course, using other countries as a guide to how consolidation may play out is tricky, because every market is shaped by local cultural and business factors. In Japan, for example, the average amount that consumers spend on data is the highest in the developed world — but not because of a lack of competition in the mobile industry. Japanese cellphone owners like to do a lot of browsing on their cellphones, and they are prepared to pay for that, said Steven Hartley, an analyst at Ovum, a research firm in London. Mr. Hartley said over 40 percent of mobile operators’ revenue in Japan comes from data services, compared with 25 percent in the United States. Americans tend to talk nearly twice as much as people in most other developed countries, which led to the popularity of bigger buckets of voice minutes. And plans that offer nationwide calling with no roaming fees have also kept prices low. In Europe, which in theory is one market but is actually divided into many smaller national markets, roaming charges are a frequent and bothersome reality. Europeans and Asians were quicker than Americans to embrace so-called prepaid phone service, in which customers do not have a contract and pay for chunks of voice minutes and data capacity as they go. This means phone owners are generally not tied to a single wireless company and have more flexibility to switch among services. Some even carry around multiple SIM cards, the fingernail-size chips that activate a cellphone for use, and decide which one to install based on which offers the cheapest rate for the country they are calling or visiting. For example, someone living in Spain who often visits family in France might purchase SIM cards for wireless services in both countries. And phone customers outside the United States tend to have more handset choices, since cellphones are less likely to be “locked” for use with one particular carrier. But they have fewer opportunities to upgrade cheaply, because carriers are less likely to offer a free or discounted phone to those who commit to a one- or two-year contract. Some of that is beginning to change, said Chris Jones, an analyst at Canalys. “Smartphones are beginning to get more popular in the U.K., so more people are buying smartphones and the contracts that come with them,” he said. Even so, those contracts can cost around £30 or £35 a month, or $48 to $56, and they do not include data, he said. In general, the breadth of options in Europe has not yet led to significantly cheaper service, said Roger Entner, an analyst at Recon Analytics in Dedham, Mass. “It only drives down prices if competitors are willing to compete on price,” he said. “The market is more or less equally divided up, so there isn’t the same hypercompetitiveness that we have in the U.S.” Heike Troue, the director of a public policy institute in Berlin, said that she was satisfied with the range of mobile choices available there. An iPhone 4 owner, she pays T-Mobile 90 euros a month, or $127, for her all-inclusive contract, which provides 1,000 calling minutes, three gigabytes of data transfers and 1,500 text messages . Since she signed up for the plan last November, she has never hit those limits. “One can only talk so much,” Ms. Troue said. At times, high costs abroad have prompted lawmakers and regulators to step in. European and British telecom companies are bowing to such pressure by lowering or planning to lower termination fees — the fees that the caller’s carrier must pay to the recipient’s carrier. The goal is to give carriers more flexibility to compete by selling more generous packages with larger chunks of talk time, text allotments and cheaper data services. European regulators have also ordered that limits be placed on roaming charges for calling and texting, and are working on a similar limit on data roaming charges. In South Korea, the government has put pressure on the three major carriers — SK Telecom, KT and LG Telecom — to cut rates on text messages and calls, and it also limits the amount of subsidies the companies can offer on new phones. Regulators in the United States could require AT&T to make some concessions for the T-Mobile deal to be approved, like giving up wireless spectrum in some cities. The review by the Justice Department and the F.C.C. could take several months, and analysts say it could be a year before the full effect of the deal is clear. Some analysts say that the combined company might actually lower prices to better compete with Verizon. But others warn of side effects. Mr. Paltridge of the O.E.C.D said that the overall consequence of combining AT&T and T-Mobile might be broader than most consumers think. For example, it would leave only one American carrier using GSM, the world’s most common cellular standard. That means AT&T could raise rates for Americans using their phones overseas and for foreigners visiting the United States. “If the two merged, there would be an international angle to the competition issue,” he said.

United States
T-Mobile
Europe
Cellular Telephones
AT&T Inc
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures