Turks Can Agree on One Thing: U.S. Was Behind Failed Coup

Abstract: ISTANBUL — A Turkish newspaper reported that an American academic and former State Department official had helped orchestrate a violent conspiracy to topple the Turkish government from a fancy hotel on an island in the Sea of Marmara, near Istanbul. The same newspaper, in a front-page headline, flat-out said the United States had tried to assassinate President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the night of the failed coup . When another pro-government newspaper asked Turks in a recent poll conducted on Twitter which part of the United States government had supported the coup plotters, the C.I.A. came in first, with 69 percent, and the White House was a distant second, with 20 percent. These conspiracy theories are not the product of a few cranks on the fringes of Turkish society. Turkey may be a deeply polarized country, but one thing Turks across all segments of society — Islamists, secular people, liberals, nationalists — seem to have come together on is that the United States was somehow wrapped up in the failed coup, either directly or simply because the man widely suspected to be the leader of the conspiracy, the Muslim cleric Fethullah Gulen , lives in self-exile in the United States. “Whenever something shocking and horrific happens in Turkey, the reflex is conspiracy,” said Akin Unver, an assistant professor of international relations at Kadir Has University in Istanbul. Video President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey accused the West of supporting terrorism while criticizing his actions after an attempted coup against him last month. Credit Credit Adem Altan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images That response goes back almost a century, to the end of World War I, when the West carved up the defeated Ottoman Empire. A Western plan to divide what became modern Turkey failed after Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the country’s founder, waged war against the occupiers. But the effort forever ingrained in the Turkish psyche a fear of Western conspiracies. In the case of the failed coup, there is much more at play than fanciful conspiracy theories, many Turks say, because of the nearly universal conviction that it was engineered by Mr. Gulen, who for 16 years has lived in a secluded compound in the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania. In various interviews and statements, Mr. Gulen has strongly denied involvement in the coup. Yet because he lives in the United States, and because of other salient facts — including that a former C.I.A. official and a former American ambassador to Turkey helped Mr. Gulen receive a green card — many Turks believe Mr. Gulen is an American agent. From there, it is a short step to the conclusion that the United States conspired with him to bring down the Turkish government. “The U.S. is behind the coup, no doubt,” said Haluk Taylan, 48, a shopkeeper in Istanbul. “The deep state of the U.S., the C.I.A., had a role in it.” The theories have become so rampant that top American officials, including President Obama, have been forced to publicly deny trying to topple the government of a NATO ally. Image Mr. Gulen speaking to journalists last month in Saylorsburg, Pa., where he lives. Credit Charles Mostoller for The New York Times “I know there isn’t any real evidence yet, but I think it would be naïve to say that the U.S. has no involvement in the coup attempt,” said Bekir Karabulut, a software developer in Istanbul. “The U.S. likes to meddle in our business, and the C.I.A. has supported Gulen for years. They helped him flee from Turkey.” Turkey has demanded Mr. Gulen’s extradition, saying he commands the Fethullah Terror Organization. To back the claim, the Turkish government has sent a dossier of evidence to the White House, although it has not yet made a formal legal request. A delegation of Turkish lawmakers arrived in the United States this week to press the case, and the two countries appear to be on a collision course over the matter. In an interview on CNN Turk, John R. Bass, the United States ambassador to Turkey, referred to “the apparent involvement of a large number” of Mr. Gulen’s supporters in the coup plot. Analysts are doubtful Turkey will be able to provide evidence for extradition that will hold up in an American court. Turks, in their exasperation that the United States has not turned over Mr. Gulen, have made this analogy: What if Turkey, in 2001, had harbored Osama bin Laden? Given the widespread sentiment that Mr. Gulen was behind the coup, a failure to extradite him would probably provoke a popular backlash in Turkey against the United States, and would confirm for many that the Americans had conspired against Turkey. The Scale of Turkey’s Purge Is Nearly Unprecedented How the Turkish president’s sweeping purge of political opponents would look if Americans were targeted at a similar scale. “If they don’t give him back, that is the end of our relationship with America,” said Osman Arsan, a waiter in Istanbul. “They are backstabbing and insincere. They must show their true colors. If not, they should prepare themselves for the response of the Turkish people. We are all united for this cause. We will not forgive them.” Turks have also been rankled by what they see as the preoccupation of the United States and Europe with Mr. Erdogan’s post-coup crackdown , rather than standing by Turkey for facing down the existential threat the coup represented. The West has criticized the purges, in which thousands of soldiers have been arrested and tens of thousands of government employees dismissed from their jobs for supposed links to Mr. Gulen, as Mr. Erdogan has moved quickly against perceived enemies in the government. But many of Mr. Erdogan’s traditional opponents — Kurds, secularists, nationalists — have long worried about the influence of Mr. Gulen’s loyalists inside the state, and are largely united in believing Mr. Gulen was behind the coup. They not only support the purges, but also assume that the United States is taking Mr. Gulen’s side. Turkish leaders have been playing a double game with the notion of American involvement in the coup, sometimes encouraging the conspiracy theories publicly while privately assuring American officials that nothing has changed in the countries’ relationship. Ibrahim Kalin, Mr. Erdogan’s spokesman, recently told reporters, “We don’t think that the U.S. has any involvement in the coup attempt.” And this week, when Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, visited Ankara, the capital, Turkish officials assured him that their country was intent on maintaining a close relationship in the fight against the Islamic State. Last week, an American general said he was concerned about the relationship with Turkey because several Turkish officers who had been interlocutors with the United States on counterterrorism issues had been arrested after being accused of taking part in the coup. Mr. Erdogan seized on these comments and lashed out at the United States. “The U.S. general stands on the coup plotters’ side with his words,” he said. “He disclosed himself with his statements.” Saying the comments amounted to standing beside the coup plotters, Mr. Erdogan also referred to Mr. Gulen, saying: “The coup plotter is in your country. You are nurturing him there. It’s out in the open.”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Turkey
Fethullah Gulen
Coups D'Etat
US Foreign Policy


Tibetan Dies After Setting Himself on Fire

Abstract: BEIJING — A Tibetan man in China’s western Sichuan Province died on Saturday after setting himself on fire to protest Chinese policies in the region, according to Tibetan exile groups and Radio Free Asia, a news service financed by the United States government. The man, Shichung, was the first person to carry out a self-immolation protest in Tibetan areas in more than two months and the 122nd person to do so since the gruesome campaign of suicides began in 2009. Shichung, 41, who like many Tibetans uses only one name, was from Aba, a heavily Tibetan county that has been the scene of several self-immolations and antigovernment protests. The authorities have responded to the unrest by flooding the area with paramilitary police officers and closely monitoring Buddhist monasteries. A few days before his death, Shichung had complained to friends about such heavy-handed policies, saying, “It seems they won’t leave us in peace,” the group Free Tibet reported, citing local sources. On Saturday afternoon, shortly after returning home from a religious festival in a nearby village, he set himself on fire and then ran to the road, where he collapsed and died, according to Radio Free Asia and Tibet Watch, a research group registered in Britain. The reports said Shichung, who was described as a part-time tailor and farmer, had a wife and two teenage daughters.

Tibet China Sichuan Immolation Fatalities,casualties


Misgivings Spoil Plans of Start-Up

Abstract: Three years ago, at a news conference at Tavern on the Green restaurant that featured a free-flowing bar, former President Bill Clinton helped introduce a new Internet search engine, Accoona, which was said to be powered by innovative artificial intelligence technology. The event in Manhattan was meant to build interest in the company, founded by Marc Armand Rousso, who had promoted penny stocks and sold stamps. Hoping to cash in on the excitement in the markets for Internet stocks and search engines in particular, this month Accoona registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission to sell its stock to the public. The $80.5 million initial public offering, managed by a little-known underwriter, moved forward despite the long history of Mr. Rousso, who has had several brushes with the law. He pleaded guilty to stock fraud charges in the United States in 1998 and was convicted of stock fraud in France in 1999. He has settled several suits brought by investors who claimed stock losses. On Monday, Maxim Group, the underwriter, pulled out of the offering, though it did not cite any specific reason for its change of heart. “After completing our due diligence review, we have chosen to disassociate ourselves with the company,” said Edward L. Rose, the firm’s vice chairman and general counsel. It was not the first time an offering had been withdrawn. This year, Accoona abandoned plans to list its shares on London’s AIM market. Accoona said it was in discussions with other potential underwriters and hoped to proceed with a public offering. Whatever the reasons for backing out, it is not just Mr. Rousso’s background, some of which is described in the company’s prospectus, that raises questions for potential investors. Very little of Accoona’s $149 million in revenue last year came from its search engine. Nearly all its revenue was from several online electronics dealers it also owns. Advertising very low prices, these sites have generated numerous consumer complaints about aggressively selling accessories, spotty product availability and poor customer service. “They are clearly not a search company,” said Joshua Stylman, the managing partner of Reprise Media, a search advertising agency that is part of the Interpublic Group. “In all likelihood, they want to capitalize on the multiple that search companies get.” Accoona.com attracted only 106,000 visitors from the United States in July, according to comScore, which monitors Internet traffic. To Danny Sullivan, the editor in chief of the blog Search Engine Land, the minuscule audience for Accoona can be traced to its search results, which he said were filled with links to second-tier sites and those of promoters trying to manipulate search engines with various tricks. “It’s been two years they have been saying they have a great search engine, and they are just not delivering,” Mr. Sullivan said. “They can’t say it’s because they didn’t have enough promotion. You can’t get any noisier than having the former president of the United States come out and pitch for you.” Valentine Zammit, Accoona’s chief executive, insisted in an e-mail exchange last week that the company had a valid strategy based on three businesses — search, electronic commerce and a new advertising exchange. “I can assure you that Accoona is a genuine company with legitimate operations, and one which is very excited about the potential of its products,” wrote Mr. Zammit, an accountant who once ran a division of True North Communications, an advertising company. He added, “If there are prospective investors who do not believe in judging each situation on its own merits or who don’t believe in new beginnings, then those people may choose to not invest in Accoona.” He said that Mr. Rousso was not part of the company’s management, though he was paid more than $3 million during the last three years as a consultant to Accoona and he owns 14 percent of the company’s stock. Moreover, Alessandra Coderoni, whom Mr. Rousso married in August 2006, was paid $1.4 million to serve as Accoona’s chief operating officer in the 15 months before the marriage. That was far more than any other Accoona executive had been paid. According to news accounts and court documents, Mr. Rousso’s recent legal troubles began when he started doing business in 1995 with Philippe V. Hababou, who was charged with check fraud in France and later convicted. The two took control of several companies, promoted them to the public, and liquidated their holdings at a profit through a series of brokerage accounts in various names. The dealings between Mr. Rousso and Mr. Hababou began to unravel when a cashier at the Trump Taj Mahal casino in Atlantic City noticed unusually large transactions in 1998, which turned out to be an effort by the two men to launder money stemming from their schemes. Mr. Rousso was arrested, and he pleaded guilty to securities fraud and money-laundering charges. He was sentenced to probation, a $200,000 fine and forfeiture of $4 million in assets. He was also banned from working in the securities industry. Mr. Hababou pleaded guilty to fraud and illegal campaign contributions. In 1999, Mr. Rousso was also convicted of securities fraud in France, related to selling American stocks to European investors at inflated prices. He was fined 120,000 euros. He was also caught up in the investigation over illegal campaign contributions to the 1996 Senate campaign of Robert G. Torricelli of New Jersey because he had raised money with a partner who later pleaded guilty in that case. Mr. Zammit also said that Mr. Rousso’s past legal troubles have no bearing on Accoona’s operations. Mr. Rousso did not return a call requesting comment for this article. Mr. Rousso has associated Accoona with many well-known figures besides Mr. Clinton. He attracted Eckhard Pfeiffer, the former chief executive of Compaq, to be Accoona’s chairman. Stuart Kauder, a former executive for DoubleClick, served as chief executive. Earlier this year, both Mr. Pfeiffer and Mr. Kauder, resigned from Accoona for what the company said were personal reasons. Neither man would comment on their reasons for leaving. Accoona’s prospectus concedes its search engine has struggled and it says the company is developing a new approach to search. The company is also counting on lead generation — finding prospects for mortgages, insurance and similar services — but it has yet to attract many advertisers. In 2005 and 2006, Accoona bought three companies based in Brooklyn that operate discount electronics retailers, including ButterflyPhoto.com , NYLiving.com , BestBuyPlasma.com , Digitaletailer.com , Lcdtvs.com and BuyersEdge.com , a price comparison service. ButterflyPhoto, the largest of these sites, has an unsatisfactory rating from the New York Better Business Bureau. Andre Brysha, the vice president of marketing for Ritz Interactive, a large Internet camera store, said that Butterfly was one of a group of online dealers that lure customers with low prices and then use aggressive tactics to get them to spend more money. “You will see prices online at $100 below cost,” Mr. Brysha said. “Then they will call you to say that with this particular product, you need to buy this expensive battery to go with it.” In an e-mail message, Mr. Zammit defended the practice. “Cross-selling and up-selling are legitimate business activities used by many companies and which many of our customers appreciate as this better enables our customers to determine and purchase the goods they want as well as the accessories they need,” he wrote, declaring the company is “committed to providing the highest level of service and observing the highest ethical standards.”

Securities and Exchange Commission
Computers and the Internet
Stocks and Bonds
Clinton Bill
Manhattan (NYC)
Frauds and Swindling


Maker of Snus, a Smokeless Tobacco, Says It's Less Harmful Than Cigarettes

Abstract: On a recent morning at a Starbucks in Richmond, Va., Patrik Hildingsson ordered a latte and, between sips, tucked a pouch of tobacco into his upper lip. Mr. Hildingsson, 46, lean and sandy-haired and wearing a slim-fitting Tiger of Sweden suit, doesn’t fit the image that many people associate with smokeless tobacco users — the cowboy or baseball player, say, with dark juice oozing from his mouth. The pouch in Mr. Hildingsson’s lip contained snus (pronounced “snoose”), a discreet cousin of chewing tobacco that doesn’t require spitting. He is vice president for communications and public affairs at Swedish Match, a company that sells snus. As tobacco companies go, it is a pipsqueak. Snus, its main product, is banned in the European Union and is relatively obscure outside exempted Sweden, its home country. And as a smoking substitute, snus has fewer users in the United States than a much newer product, electronic cigarettes. This makes it all the more peculiar that Swedish Match is in a position to do something that no company has done before: spur a reshaping of American tobacco policy and regulation, and the conventional wisdom around it. The company is doing this by asking American regulators to say that its snus is less harmful than cigarettes. While Swedish Match concedes that snus carries health risks — and some see those risks as unacceptable — Mr. Hildingsson, who is Swedish, prefers to think of it as a useful stimulant. He thinks it should be considered a “daily pleasure” that, unlike smoking or using chewing tobacco, passes societal muster. In asking the United States government to bless its snus as less toxic, the company is raising a broader question: Should warning labels on tobacco products — from chew to e-cigarettes — take into account varying degrees of harm? It’s a move that many in public health have long resisted. The traditional view has been black-and-white: All tobacco products are harmful and addictive. Period. To say that some products are less dangerous, the thinking goes, risks encouraging nicotine addiction, eventually leading to the undeniably lethal habit of cigarette smoking. Image Margareta Bloom Sandeback took a snus break in Stockholm. Credit Magnus Laupa for The New York Times Some public health scholars argue that while snus is addictive and harmful and Swedish Match self-interested, the company is still raising a reasonable question about harm reduction. Under this harm-reduction doctrine, which acknowledges that people do things that are bad for them and tries to limit the damage, snus could be seen as a less dangerous way to consume nicotine. Of course, harm-reduction strategies can also work in the other direction. Offering clean needles to heroin addicts, while preventing the spread of H.I.V., potentially encourages drug use. The harm-reduction question for tobacco has taken center stage recently because of the surge in popularity of e-cigarettes, which deliver a nicotine-laden vapor rather than the soup of known carcinogens produced by a burning cigarette. E-cigarettes are relatively new, though, and there is little long-term health data on their use. So there is a greater chance that the harm-reduction policy question will be addressed in the near term not by these new electronic nicotine systems but by the smokeless tobacco made in Sweden by Swedish Match. “Snus is the Swedish e-cigarette,” said Karl Olov Fagerstrom, an expert in nicotine addiction who has been a consultant to Swedish Match. Sweden, he said, “could actually stamp out tobacco smoking faster and easier than anyone else because we have snus.” Swedish Match has filed a 122,000-page petition with the Food and Drug Administration to alter warning labels on the snus its sells in the United States. The warning now says that the product can lead to mouth cancer and is not a safe alternative to cigarettes. The company’s proposed warning is this: “No tobacco product is safe, but this product presents substantially lower risks to health than cigarettes.” To back up this claim, Swedish Match tells a story it calls the “Swedish Experience”: Since the 1970s, the use of snus in Sweden has grown steadily, but rates of smoking have plummeted — and, more important, so have rates of tobacco-related diseases, including lung and oral cancer. Swedes have done a remarkable job of reducing smoking through bans and hard-hitting public health messages; Swedish Match argues that snus contributed significantly to the decline. Since 2009, when Congress passed a law allowing the F.D.A. to consider such “modified risk” warnings, a few requests have come before the agency. The Swedish Match application is the first to receive full consideration. Should the application be approved, it would be a watershed moment. “Imagine a tobacco company being able to advertise saying, ‘We were reviewed by the F.D.A., and the F.D.A. has confirmed this product is significantly less harmful than cigarettes,’ ” said Scott J. Leischow , a behavioral scientist and professor at the Mayo Clinic. “It would be unprecedented.” Such a new warning would be applicable only to the Swedish Match product, but it could pave the way for e-cigarette and American smokeless tobacco makers to present harm-reduction research in the future. For now, American chew is generally seen as more harmful than Swedish snus. Many tobacco scholars and policy makers argue that replacing a harmful tobacco product with another harmful tobacco product is wrongheaded policy. But a growing number of heavy hitters in public health, while stopping far short of endorsing Swedish Match’s view, say the time has come for a new conversation about the regulation of nicotine. Mitchell Zeller, who heads the Center for Tobacco Products — the F.D.A. agency that will rule on the Swedish Match application — has said that what kills smokers is combustion, not nicotine. Mr. Zeller has suggested endorsing strategies that permit the cleanest, least harmful methods of nicotine delivery. “We need to have an open mind,” he said, speaking broadly about nicotine policy. Hundreds of millions of people use nicotine, Mr. Hildingsson noted, most of them smokers, and public policy should reflect the reality of their addiction. “We do strange things,” he said. “We marry each other, we have religion, we have sex without reproduction, we enjoy theater and culture. We enjoy a drink now and then, and we enjoy our nicotine. It’s what makes us human.” Image Snus is popular in Sweden. Credit Magnus Laupa for The New York Times His vision, however, as outlined in a recent internal Swedish Match memo, goes well beyond snus as a smoking-cessation tool. It describes a future that would deeply disturb many in public health — one in which “a pinch of snus” — an addictive product with cancer-causing agents — “is regarded much like a cup of coffee.” Return of the Snussers The Swedish Experience refers to Sweden’s efforts to curb smoking, which exploded in popularity there, as in the rest of the world, around World War I. Before that, Swedes had been avid users of snus. But smoking, which lets nicotine quickly enter the bloodstream through the sensitive lining of the lungs, gave a more satisfying nicotine hit, and snus was abandoned in favor of the intensely marketed, newly fashionable cigarette. Then, by the second half of the 20th century, as the risks of smoking became clear, Sweden took a particularly active role in discouraging smoking, banning all tobacco advertising, restricting sales to youths and hammering the message that smoking was deadly and uncool. And there was that history of snus. Its popularity grew again, not by government fiat but by “neighbor talking to neighbor, family members sharing experiences,” according to a report presented to the F.D.A. in 2012 by a scientist from Swedish Match. Mr. Hildingsson joined Swedish Match, the remains of a former government monopoly called Swedish Tobacco, in 1997. It was a time of major change for the company, which decided not long after to stake its business on snus and to drop its cigarette brands, though it continued to distribute cigarettes on behalf of foreign companies. There were plenty of skeptics, including Mr. Hildingsson’s mother. He recalled her once saying at dinner: “Do you see anyone using snus? I don’t see anyone.” Today, about 19 percent of adult Swedish men use snus daily, up from 16.8 percent in 1988; snus use by women has risen to 3 percent from less than 1 percent. By 2011, the percentage of men who were daily smokers had dropped to 12.7 percent from 35.1 percent in 1980 (some also use snus); among women, it dropped to 14.7 percent from 27.9 percent. That compares with a European Union average of 29 percent for men and 18 percent for women. (In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated in November that 13.7 percent of American adults were daily smokers, but it did not break down the data by sex.) Image Oskar Gumesson at work in the Svenskt Snus store in Stockholm. Credit Magnus Laupa for The New York Times One Swedish convert is Charlotta Davies, 48, a hotel manager in Stockholm, who was a longtime smoker until she had her first child in 1994. She quit cigarettes but still craved nicotine. In 2002, she tried snus. “It was a little embarrassing. It wasn’t so feminine,” she said, pulling a white pouch from a circular container and tucking it underneath her lip. Now, although she resents the addiction, it starts her day. “It’s really stupid, but it’s better than smoking,” she added. “Our generation, we were smokers, but now we’re more snussers. It’s not socially acceptable to smoke anymore, but it’s acceptable to snus.” Tax policy has helped encourage snus use, at least relative to cigarettes. A pack of 19 Marlboro cigarettes costs 56 kronor, or about $7.50, of which 75 percent is tax, while a 24-pouch tin of General, Swedish Match’s most popular snus brand, costs $7.15, about 55 percent of it tax. But Swedish health authorities haven’t endorsed snus. Gabriel Wikstrom, the Swedish health minister, said he believed that snus “has something to do with” the country’s remarkable record on tobacco-related disease — but that he thought the best policy was for no one to use tobacco products of any kind. (In Sweden, 10 percent of deaths are attributable to tobacco, versus 23 percent in the United States, according to the World Health Organization.) To some experts, Sweden’s experience is an excellent example of harm reduction. Overall tobacco use in Sweden is similar to that of other countries in Europe, but more of it is snus. It “is a huge success story that hasn’t received enough attention,” said David B. Abrams , executive director of tobacco research at the American Legacy Foundation , a research and education group focused on reducing cigarette use and related diseases. It shows that “other forms of nicotine” that aren’t as lethal as cigarettes “can be used to reduce death and disease.” “The evidence we have from Sweden is the most solid we have in the world,” Dr. Abrams said. Others have a different interpretation. Snus appeals mostly to men, but smoking rates have fallen for women too, though less so. It suggests to some health experts that smoking rates can fall even without use of snus. And in the United States, smoking rates have fallen by roughly half for women and men since the mid-1970s, thanks to education campaigns, tobacco ad restrictions, indoor smoking bans and other efforts — but not snus. Image Men gathered at a “snus bar.” Credit Magnus Laupa for The New York Times Margaretha Haglund, former head of tobacco control for the Swedish public health agency, and now an anti-tobacco activist, said snus was “not a magic bullet for smoking cessation,” noting that large numbers of Swedish men have quit smoking without using snus and that others use snus but also smoke, which keeps disease risk high. “The most important thing is to stop smoking,” she said. “But I don’t think another product from the tobacco industry will solve the problem. It will just create new users.” Norwegians have recently taken up the snus habit, too. Karl Lund, research director at the Norwegian Institute for Alcohol and Drug Research , said that surging use of snus has led smoking rates for those ages 16 to 74 to fall to 15 percent in 2013, from 37 percent in 1985. This happened in the face of concern from European Union authorities, who banned all oral tobacco, including snus, in 1992, citing concerns that it would be used “above all by young people.” Sweden, which joined the European Union three years later, received an exemption. (Norway is not a member.) While the ban remains, the European Union agreed in 2001 to remove the warning in Sweden that snus causes oral cancer. The current European Union-approved warning there says snus “can damage your health and is addictive.” Mr. Lund, who was once skeptical of snus and harm reduction, is now a believer. “Without a doubt, this is beneficial for public health,” he said. But, he added: “It’s the experience we’ve had in Scandinavia. That, of course, is very hard for tobacco-control people to acknowledge.” Danger of Dual Use Congress has set a high bar for Swedish Match, or any others, to get the F.D.A.'s blessing for a gentler warning on a tobacco product. The company must prove two things: that the products are not as harmful to individual users as the current warnings state and that, if the warnings change, it will lead to a health benefit for the population as a whole. Image Dorothy Hatsukami of the University of Minnesota is conducting studies on the health effects of snus. Credit Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times The first requirement is simpler to address. And the evidence, though it can be hard to untangle, offers Swedish Match hope. A number of studies show that Swedish snus increases only modestly the risk of mouth cancer, which is fairly rare to begin with; snus users also face a greater risk of pancreatic cancer. The relatively low risks — at least when compared to smoking — from Swedish snus appear to reflect a manufacturing process that limits levels of nitrosamines, important cancer-causing chemicals. American smokeless tobacco products, including loose chewing tobacco and pouches of snus, aren’t made the same way and generally contain more toxins, said Dorothy Hatsukami , a psychologist and expert in tobacco science at the University of Minnesota. “The epidemiology doesn’t seem to suggest in Sweden or Norway that there is increased risk of oral cancer,” Dr. Hatsukami said. But she is quick to add that Swedish snus is not harmless; it is addictive and may have other cancer and cardiovascular risks. And she offers another caveat: The risks for snus are low only if users don’t also smoke cigarettes, which confer a larger risk for oral cancer along with a 15 to 30 times greater chance of lung cancer compared with the risk for nonsmokers. Showing health benefits for the population is trickier. Swedish Match submitted company-funded studies to the F.D.A. suggesting that Americans would adopt snus if the warning label said that using it was less harmful than smoking. But Dr. Hatsukami doubted that American smokers would switch to snus, no matter what the warning said. “Snus is a harm-reduction product on an individual basis,” she said. “But what we need to think about is what will be the overall effect.” She added, “Sweden found that people switched to snus and didn’t see it as a gateway to cigarette smoking, but that’s in a Swedish environment.” Image On a Stockholm street, a classic sign of a snus user. About 3 percent of Swedish women are now using snus, compared with less than 1 percent in 1988. Credit Magnus Laupa for The New York Times Dr. Hatsukami has a particularly keen view of the American environment. She is conducting several studies on the health effects of snus and users’ reaction to it. To do so, she needs research subjects — but merely recruiting volunteers has been a struggle. “There was a ‘yuck’ factor, " she said. “We almost had to market the product to them to get them to engage.” One volunteer, Susan Rothman, said her image of smokeless tobacco was “disgusting, aesthetically, especially for women” and would mean “brownish little drool down the lip.” She joined the study for two reasons: She learned that snus wasn’t like chew you had to spit, and she wanted to quit smoking. “I’m spending a lot of money to kill myself,” she said. On a recent afternoon, in Dr. Hatsukami’s research clinic at the University of Minnesota, Ms. Rothman allowed that snus had grown on her. But although the little packets satisfy Ms. Rothman’s nicotine craving, they don’t give her the powerful feeling of “nicotine hitting the nerves in my head” that she gets from cigarettes. So she has been unable to give up the first morning cigarette, and she acknowledges smoking several others during the day. This kind of dual use is exactly what concerns public health officials about harm-reduction strategies. A paper by researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, published in the journal Tobacco Control in 2010, laid out the quandary. “Smokeless tobacco causes less pulmonary disease than cigarettes, so if a smoker immediately and permanently switched to low nitrosamine smokeless tobacco, their risk would be reduced,” the paper said. But “snus promotion may encourage uptake among non-tobacco users, lead to smoking, or lead smokers who would have quit to become dual users.” In other words, the paper argued, snus use could lead to greater population harm, not greater health. Gerry Roerty, the general counsel for Swedish Match in the United States, said the company would face a kind of Catch-22 if, as a requirement for reducing the warning’s severity, it had to prove that people would quit cigarettes and switch to snus. “We say, ‘What if we tell you that this product is 98 percent safer than a cigarette?’ ” he said. “Most consumers would say, ‘You tell me in a health warning that this causes mouth cancer, and it causes my teeth to fall out. Say whatever you want to me, but unless the government changes its warning, I’m not buying it.’ ” Image Martin and Charlotta Davies at home: “Our generation, we were smokers, but now we’re more snussers,” Ms. Davies said. Credit Magnus Laupa for The New York Times Dr. Hatsukami agreed that consumers need more accurate information. She hoped that the F.D.A., which might make a decision about snus as early as next summer, would allow some change to the warnings, but not necessarily the one Swedish Match wants. For instance, she thinks the label should also warn consumers that risks substantially increase when snus is used with cigarettes. “It’s not a good thing for people to be misled into thinking smokeless tobacco is as bad as cigarettes,” she said. “People have the right to make informed decisions and, as a result, have to have the right information.” Cigars, Cigarettes and Snus On a recent afternoon in Richmond, Mr. Roerty sat in his 15th-floor office in the United States headquarters of Swedish Match. He looked out at the James River, where in the 19th century boats loaded with tobacco leaves floated through the heart of the South. Mr. Hildingsson sat in a chair opposite. In the corner was a humidor packed with cigars made by a company in which Swedish Match has a minority interest. Given that the company says its mission is to create less harmful tobacco products, Mr. Hildingsson conceded that it was a “fair question” whether it was hypocritical to sell cigars and also distribute cigarettes for other companies in Sweden. Mr. Roerty’s opinion is that cigars are different from cigarettes because they “are not inhaled” — and besides, he said, the cigar business is needed to subsidize the snus effort, “which is currently losing tens of millions of dollars in the U.S.” He added: “We use them at political fund-raisers. Members of Congress and the senators smoke cigars, the same ones who say they hate tobacco.” The American snus retail business is puny — perhaps $200 million for the overall category, versus $90 billion for cigarettes. Swedish Match had total sales of snus and snuff of about $700 million in 2013, with more than two-thirds in Scandinavia and most of the rest in the United States. Invoking these sorts of business realities — putting profits first while saying they have the public interest in mind — might make these executives sound little different from those at tobacco companies whose products they say they want to make obsolete. But Mr. Abrams, from the Legacy Foundation, says Swedish Match is a different kind of tobacco company, one that stopped making cigarettes and works to limit nitrosamines. “They actually decided to stop selling a lethal product so they wouldn’t have a conflict,” he said. “That’s really something to be said.” Still, Mr. Hildingsson sees a world arrayed against the idea that nicotine addiction should be accommodated. “The most preventable disease we have in the world is tobacco, perhaps besides sugar,” he said, “and imagine that you had the answer and there are so many people who, for political reasons, are proactively working against it.” “We’re coming to a point where regulators and politicians need to adjust,” he added. “Nicotine will never go away.”

Smoking
Sweden
Swedish Match
Label
FDA
Head and neck cancer


Erdogan, Syrian Rebels’ Leading Ally, Hesitates

Abstract: ISTANBUL — From the start of Syria’s civil war, rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad have had no better ally than Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has effectively kept Turkey’s border with Syria open, allowing fighters a haven in the south of his country as weapons, cash and other supplies have flowed to the battlefield. He has even fired on Mr. Assad’s forces. But now, Turkey finds itself in the same position as many of the rebels’ early backers, including the United States — concerned that Islamist radicals have come to dominate the ranks of the Syrian opposition. It shelled rebel positions this week for the first time since the war started, in yet another positive turn for Mr. Assad, who has found his position increasingly stable, if not secure. Mr. Erdogan was one of the first world leaders to call for Mr. Assad to step down, and from the start he provided a lifeline to the rebels. But with radical Islamists controlling territory along the Turkish border, and the United States working with the Assad government to rid it of chemical weapons, his policy is in turmoil and his country without a viable ally in Syria. Mr. Erdogan has himself been criticized for allowing weapons to get into the hands of jihadists. The shelling of rebel positions this week “was a signal that they wanted to show everybody that they wanted to take a different line on this,” said Henri J. Barkey, an expert on Turkey and a professor of international relations at Lehigh University. “It’s just symbolic. It’s a way of telling the rest of the world that we are taking a stand against these Al Qaeda-type guys.” While many countries — including the United States, which recently contemplated military strikes against Syria in response to the use of chemical weapons there — have called for Mr. Assad to go, the focus has lately shifted to seeking and carrying out a political solution, or what Washington has referred to as an orderly transition of power. On Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry reinforced that position when he said in an interview with NPR that a political solution would seek to “maintain the institutions of state.” At the same time, a Syrian government official said that long-delayed peace talks might finally be held in Geneva next month. Image Turkey’s border has been open to refugees and fighters. Credit The New York Times The shift in international sentiment has been particularly challenging for Mr. Erdogan, who continues to support the rebels but is concerned about security along the border as a flurry of Turks have crossed into Syria to join the ranks of the jihadists. At the same time, Turkey is struggling with cascading crises that have undermined its regional role, forcing it to look more inward. At the height of the Arab Spring, Mr. Erdogan offered Turkey as a model of democracy and Islam for Egypt and other nations that had cast off dictators. But he has had to confront widespread demonstrations at home criticizing his authoritarian style, and abroad he has seen allies in Egypt ousted by the military. The strikes by the Turkish Army this week, in response to a shell that landed inside Turkey without causing damage, seemed aimed at countering criticism that Turkey had fostered the growth of jihadist groups. But they also seemed to underscore Turkey’s troubled Syria policy as it seeks to recalibrate its tactics, supporting yet targeting the rebels, all while calling for Mr. Assad to step down. “They still feel that the only way to solve the crisis is to force Assad from power, and that the only way to do that is to funnel weapons to the opposition,” said Aaron Stein, an associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies who writes on security issues in Turkey. “They only have buyer’s remorse because they depended on the Obama administration to come to the rescue.” By now, Turkey had expected that the United States and its Western allies would have increased military support for the rebels. While the United States has provided some training and arms, Mr. Obama called off the missile strikes he had threatened in response to a chemical attack in August. Turkey was angered when the tide shifted from imminent military action to diplomacy, Mr. Stein said, because the chemical weapons pact suggests that Mr. Assad “will be around a long time to implement the deal.” He added that Turkish leaders “felt they were hung out to dry” when the Obama administration shelved its plans for military action. Image Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Credit Associated Press Turkey’s Syria policy is also deeply unpopular among the Turkish public and has become a domestic political challenge for Mr. Erdogan, who has been in power for more than a decade and is considering a campaign for the presidency next year. Nearly from the beginning of the Syrian uprising, Turkey has sought to shape its outcome by pushing Mr. Assad to liberalize the political process. But when the rebellion turned violent, Turkey opened its borders to Syrian refugees, whose ranks within Turkey have swelled to more than 500,000, earning the country praise from the international community but raising ethnic tensions in the border region. In contrast to countries like Jordan, which has kept its border tightly controlled, Turkey initially allowed the free flow of fighters and weapons to support the opposition, which was dominated at first by moderate groups but eventually overtaken by more experienced, and more extreme, jihadist fighting groups. “They weren’t necessarily arming Al Qaeda, but they just weren’t policing their borders,” Mr. Stein said. Kadri Gursel, a political analyst here and a columnist for the newspaper Milliyet, said, “Turkey continues to deny any support for the Al Qaeda rebels, but the fact that so few precautions have been taken against them, and no obstacles have been put into place, is support in and of itself.” Referring to the strikes on Islamist militant positions in Syria, Mr. Gursel said, “With this latest move, Turkey is trying to rebuild the image of its Syria policy and show that no security threats will be tolerated from anyone.” More broadly, many analysts here see the failure of Turkey’s policy to result in a peaceful outcome in Syria as a rebuke to the efforts by Mr. Erdogan’s Islamist governing party — the Justice and Development Party, known by its Turkish initials, A.K.P. — to present Turkey as a pivotal player in shaping regional affairs. Particularly when seen alongside events in Egypt, where the military overthrew a Muslim Brotherhood-dominated government that had close ties to the A.K.P., many say the course the Syrian conflict has taken represents a severe blow to Turkey’s regional aspirations. “It seems that Turkey’s influence in the region is not being viewed positively in the wake of the Syrian and Egyptian crises,” Fuat Keyman, a columnist, wrote this week. “The Turkish model is not being discussed anymore. And in the context of the Arab Spring and ongoing developments in the Middle East, that means Turkey risks losing its place and role in regional politics.”

Syria
Bashar al-Assad
Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdogan
Arab Spring
Free Syrian Army


Guidelines on Bailouts Said to Be in the Works in Europe

Abstract: DAVOS, Switzerland — The European Central Bank is working on guidelines to prevent bailout plans from one country from being significantly more generous than plans from another, a central bank official said Saturday. The central bank official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the guidelines have not been completed. The new guidelines are an attempt to prevent countries from carrying out rescue plans that favor their banks over others, a tactic the British prime minister, Gordon Brown, called “financial protectionism” at the World Economic Forum here Saturday. European officials are considering more capital injections into banks in addition to buying bad assets from banks and issuing guarantees of their value. Buying or guaranteeing these assets would remove worries that the banks would be hurt further if the assets continued to lose value. But it would also raise issues of fairness if the prices paid for the assets, or the value guaranteed, appeared to be too high. The difficulty of determining the value of such assets was one reason the Bush administration changed course after Congress passed the Troubled Asset Relief Program , which had the government buying distressed assets from banks. Instead, the administration began investing directly in financial institutions. Now the Obama administration is considering whether to return to the original plan. There is also concern overseas about whether the United States, which is considering several options for a new round of bailouts, will have an advantage with its plan because of its greater access to capital markets or will push banks to restrict foreign lending in favor of lending to American companies and consumers. In his speech Saturday, Mr. Brown warned of a repeat of the 1930s, when nations raised tariffs to protect their own industries and damaged the world economy. But, he added, “the bigger problem is financial protectionism.” Mr. Brown said he hoped the next meeting of the major economic powers would lead to an agreement on avoiding such protectionism. Some European finance officials privately questioned Mr. Brown’s sincerity, saying they believed the British government had pressed the Royal Bank of Scotland, which is now majority-owned by the government, to reduce foreign lending. Some also say it is too late to prevent such protectionism, given the political pressure to assure that taxpayer money provides benefits for those who are putting up the cash. “It’s too late to steer against this,” said Daniel Gros, director of the Center for European Policy Studies in Brussels. He added, “Finance ministers like their control.”

Europe
World Economic Forum
Subprime Mortgage Crisis


Green Bay’s Andrew Quarless Out for Eight Weeks

Abstract: The Packers placed tight end Andrew Quarless on short-term injured reserve with a sprained left knee. Quarless will miss at least eight weeks, meaning he would be eligible to return in Week 12, against the Chicago Bears on Thanksgiving. He will be allowed to start practicing with the team in six weeks. Quarless was injured during the Packers’ win on Monday night against Kansas City. Green Bay did not announce a corresponding roster move. The Packers have two other tight ends on their active roster: Richard Rodgers and the rookie Kennard Backman. LUCK EXPECTED TO PLAY Colts Coach Chuck Pagano gave Andrew Luck most of Wednesday’s practice off to rest his sore throwing shoulder. Pagano said that the move was a precaution and that he expected Luck to play Sunday against Jacksonville. Indianapolis’s offensive line played so poorly in the first two weeks that Pagano made three lineup changes in Sunday’s victory against Tennessee. Luck was still sacked three times and hit four more times, and the Colts drew five holding penalties. Luck, who was hit more than any quarterback in the league in 2013 and 2014, has been sacked five times this season and has taken 21 additional hits, according to the statistics agency Stats L.L.C. The only quarterbacks who have been hit as often as are Philip Rivers (22), Ryan Tannehill (22) and Russell Wilson (21). PATRIOTS ACQUIRE HICKS The New Orleans Saints traded defensive lineman Akiem Hicks to the New England Patriots for tight end Michael Hoomanawanui. The trade was confirmed by Hicks’s agent, Frank Murtha, and Hoomanawanui’s agent, Rick Smith. Hicks, a third-round draft choice by New Orleans in 2012, had been a starter since 2013 and was at Saints practice Wednesday. Recently, however, Saints Coach Sean Payton had trimmed Hicks’s playing time. Hoomanawanui started 12 games for New England last season, making three catches. He has played in two games as a reserve this season without a catch. VIKINGS DEFENDER RETURNS Minnesota cornerback Xavier Rhodes passed his postconcussion tests and resumed practice with the team after a scary collision on the field last week. Rhodes fully participated in practice Wednesday, three days after he smacked into safety Andrew Sendejo as they tried to make a tackle in a game against San Diego.

Andrew Quarless
Packers
Chicago Bears
Football


On ESPN, ‘House of Steinbrenner’ Ultimately Disappoints

Abstract: In “The House of Steinbrenner,” the Academy Award-winning documentarian Barbara Kopple created an enormous storytelling challenge for herself: describe the generational shift in the Yankees family, from George to Hal Steinbrenner, and from the old Yankee Stadium to the new one. But Kopple attempts too much in this Sept. 21 edition of ESPN ’s “30 for 30” by following too many narrative strands (is it about the Steinbrenners, stadiums, fans, construction workers, fathers and sons, and Yankees employees?) and talking to too many people with predictable things to say. There is little new here about the Steinbrenners — except for Hal’s love of flying, which prompts a single new revelation about his father’s behavior in a situation that he could not control. But Kopple’s inescapable problem was the unavailability of the elder Steinbrenner through illness (his death in July concludes the film) and the publicly colorless personality of the younger one. “We knew George was taking a back seat,” Kopple said in a recent interview. “But something more beautiful happened: a film about fans and generations at the end of an era. It moved me.” It could be suggested that a lot of people reside within the metaphorical house of Steinbrenner, and that the variety of those interviewed by Kopple were vital to give heft to the shift from old to new in the Yankees universe. But if the old Boss, the patriarch of the house of Steinbrenner, can be summoned only in video clips saying familiar things about his impatience to win, and the new Boss does not generate quotable bites for a future archive, the narrative heart is weakened. Hal Steinbrenner’s interview with Kopple shows why he engages in so few of such sessions. He was friendly, even a little playful. But not much more open than he is in his news conferences. “I like budgets,” he tells Kopple. And, “I do well with rules and with discipline.” Also, he adds, “I was a mama’s boy.” He cannot match his father’s rhetorical skills, showman’s instincts and willingness to be loathed. So he does not try. His older brother, the once-loquacious Hank, declined to speak to Kopple, despite her sending him some of her past documentaries, including “Wild Man Blues,” about Woody Allen on tour in Europe as a jazz musician. One of Hal and Hank’s sisters, Jenny, is seen in two cheerful if unilluminating stadium scenes, but she does not answer any questions. “I would have liked more of Jenny,” Kopple said. “She’s so attractive and warm.” A family in a public transition that cannot describe the impact of that change is, at best, a difficult subject for a documentary. So the film suffers for their introspection or lack of availability. Kopple said in my interview with her that she did not want a film packed with wild stories of the Boss, like those in Bill Madden’s recent biography . “Everybody knows that stuff,” she said, although the book was a lively mix of old and new tales that would have translated well on screen. She added, “I wanted to go on a journey, like Eloise at the Plaza, into the bowels of Yankee Stadium.” Documentaries soar when they reveal something new and send viewers on new paths. From the start of “One Night in Vegas,” the ESPN “30 for 30” film that had its premiere Tuesday night, you clearly see how deftly the director Reggie Rock Bythewood is using his hypercreative arsenal — graphic comics, hip-hop music and commentators as diverse as Maya Angelou and Mickey Rourke — to tell the story of the day in Las Vegas in 1996 when Mike Tyson beat Bruce Seldon and Tyson’s friend Tupac Shakur was fatally shot on the Las Vegas Strip after attending the bout. That kind of verve is absent in “The House of Steinbrenner.” Yet in the scenes when Kopple’s cameras follow the razing of the old stadium, the film comes to life. But there is not enough of it. Kopple said that she received access from the city to film the stadium’s destruction, which the rest of the news media had to observe from rooftops and the subway platform. She shot the upper deck being torn down, the seats being removed and Derek Jeter’s locker being taken apart — and the emotion of longtime team employees like Debbie Nicolosi as a beloved stadium died to give life to one that cost more than a billion dollars to build. Here was a vivid, colorful, noisy, political, financial, generational change, a blue-collar story that would have formed a sports connection to Kopple’s Oscar-winning documentaries about striking coal miners (“Harlan County U.S.A.”) and meat packers (“American Dream”). Here in the stadium saga was something potentially akin to Ken Burns’s “Brooklyn Bridge” and Gay Talese’s reporting about the builders of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. Kopple spoke to some demolition workers but used their words sparingly to punctuate their Yankees devotion or hark back to their fathers. Some Yankees fans will identify — and feel a sense of affirmation — from the words of their brethren in “The House of Steinbrenner,” regardless of how foreseeable their sentiments are. But the story of the tear-down of the House That Ruth Built is the film that needs to be made.

ESPN
Documentary Films and Programs
New York Yankees
Kopple Barbara
Steinbrenner Hal
Television
Yankee Stadium (NYC)
Steinbrenner George M 3d


Fossilized Skull of Giant Crocodile From Cretaceous

Abstract: A giant crocodile with a bulging shield of thickened skin on its forehead lived among dinosaurs, a new study reports. The reptile, which researchers are calling Shieldcroc, lived about 95 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period. A partial specimen suggests its skull was five feet long, said Casey M. Holliday , a paleontologist at the University of Missouri who led the study. “An animal with a head that big,” he said, “is looking at a body 25 to 35 feet.” Today’s crocodiles are much smaller, seldom exceeding 20 feet. Blood-vessel scars on the fossilized skull suggest the presence of a large shield on the crocodile’s forehead. “It was a thickened skull spot, to signal to mates or target adversaries,” Dr. Holliday said. The findings , by Dr. Holliday and Nick Gardner, an undergraduate at Marshall University, in Huntington, W. Va., are reported in the journal PLoS One . The fossil was originally uncovered in Morocco, and then sold to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, where the skull will be put on display this year. Shieldcroc is the earliest African ancestor of the modern crocodile, Dr. Holliday said. During the Cretaceous, many more species of crocodiles existed than do today, he said, adding that discovering ancient species may help explain why some went extinct while others survived. “We’re finding that not only were crocodiles living in the water, but they were living on land and not only chasing animals, but also eating plants,” Dr. Holliday said. “Crocodiles were operating a whole suite of niches that they don’t know today.”

Crocodiles
Dinosaurs
PLoS One
Paleontology
Science and Technology


Strip Clubs in Tampa Are Ready to Cash In on G.O.P. Convention

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — Over at the back door of the 2001 Odyssey, a limo-size tent with flaps — especially designed for discretion and camera-shy guests — is ready to go up. Déjà Vu is welcoming extra “talent” from around the country in its V.I.P. rooms. And Thee DollHouse is all Americana: women plan to slip out of red, white and blue corsets and offer red, white and blue vodka. The headliner that week is expected to bear an uncanny resemblance to a certain ex-governor from a wilderness state, known for her strong jaw and devotion to guns and God. “She’s a dead ringer for her,” said Warren Colazzo, co-owner of Thee DollHouse. “It’s just a really good gimmick to get publicity.” As Tampa gears up for the Republican National Convention, the biggest party it has ever held, the city and its businesses are primping and polishing for the August arrival of tens of thousands of visitors. Like it or not — mostly not, for city officials — Tampa’s well-known strip clubs have joined the welcome wagon. Club owners here say they have schmoozed with their counterparts in former host cities, like Denver, and have been told that revenue pours in during conventions, sometimes quadrupling earnings from a Super Bowl week. As for party affiliation, this is one place where the country’s caustic partisan differences fall away, owners say. Angelina Spencer, the executive director of the Association of Club Executives , which serves as a trade association for strip clubs, said an informal survey of convention business in New York and Denver had determined that Republicans dropped more money at clubs, by far. “Hands down, it was Republicans,” she said. “The average was $150 for Republicans and $50 for Democrats.” As further evidence of the clubs’ nonpartisan appeal, Don Kleinhans, the owner of the 2001 Odyssey, said when the Promise Keepers , a male evangelical group, came to town years ago, business was rollicking. “We had phenomenal numbers all weekend, and they walked in wearing badges and name tags and weren’t shy at all,” he said. James Davis, a spokesman for the Republican National Convention, declined to discuss Tampa’s prominent strip clubs. “We’re expecting to have a great convention,” Mr. Davis said. “We’re focused completely on having a great convention.” To be fair, Tampa is known for other things: cigars, Ybor City — the historic district where Cuban and Spanish cigar makers first settled in the late 1800s — three major sports franchises, four Super Bowls and beautiful beaches a short drive away. It is the Florida Gulf Coast’s economic engine and hosts a raucous pirate party every year called Gasparilla . But Tampa cannot shed its national reputation as the strip club capital of the country. “It’s not true,” said Joe Redner, the owner of the renowned Mons Venus and a man famous for fending off local attempts to close his club. “It would be nice, though.” The Tampa Bay Times has reported there are 20 strip clubs in Tampa and 30 in the Tampa Bay area. Tampa does not have as many strip clubs as New Orleans, Atlanta, Houston, New York and Las Vegas, owners said. Miami boasts quite a few, too. Mr. Redner, who has repeatedly brandished the First Amendment, has been arrested 150 or so times and has run often for public office, may be one reason for the city’s reputation. Savvy and colorful, he took on the city in 2000 when it tried to cripple his club; instead, it bolstered his reputation. A Tampa councilman back then, Bob Buckhorn , who is now Tampa’s mayor, backed an ordinance to ban lap dances by keeping customers six feet away from dancers. The rule, intended to curb prostitution and drugs, passed but is mostly not enforced. During that fight, Mr. Buckhorn recalls saying that he “did not want Tampa to become the lap dance capital of the country.” But the statement got truncated and twisted, like in a game of telephone, then repeated, most recently during the debate over gambling in Florida. “We wanted Tampa to be a place where we were proud to call home,” said Mr. Buckhorn, a Democrat. “But we have grown so much bigger and moved beyond that small city we were. We don’t think about it anymore.” Yet he is not without a sense of humor. “I wonder whether the look-alike will be able to see Russia from the stage,” he asked, a question meant for the ex-governor’s doppelgänger. The spaceship, a much-talked about private V.I.P. room perched atop the 2001 Odyssey like a wedding-cake embellishment, has also helped burnish Tampa’s louche label. It is white, oval, with round windows, a rare prefabricated Futuro house designed by the Finnish architect Matti Suuronen in the 1960s and 1970s. “It was named one of the seven wonders of Tampa Bay,” said the Odyssey’s manager, Todd Trause. The provenance of that distinction is hard to decipher. Inside, Jazmin, 19, prepared to live-chat on a webcam to a faraway customer, one of the club’s new features. She is also preparing for the convention. Given the opportunity to stand up before a politician, she will do her job, naturally, but also share her own tale of financial struggle, as many voters here would do. Laid off from a job in the Medicaid billing industry, she scraped by as a cashier at a grocery store. The paycheck scarcely covered her car payments, she said. Then a friend of a friend told her about the strip club, and now there she is, saving her money (the most she’s ever made) for nursing school. “With the economy,” she said, “it’s hard.”

Republican National Convention
Tampa (Fla)
Strip Clubs and Strippers


Fertilizers Meet Fire, With Disastrous Consequences

Abstract: While it is still not clear what caused the explosion at a fertilizer plant that killed at least 14 people and destroyed or damaged much of West, Tex., last week, the disaster is a reminder that for all the good that fertilizers do in increasing crop yields, they can also prove lethal under certain conditions. The plant had large amounts of two commercial fertilizers, anhydrous ammonia and ammonium nitrate. Both chemicals have been linked to explosions in the past. Anhydrous ammonia is a colorless, corrosive gas that is stored as a liquid under pressure; farmers inject it into the soil. “People mostly think of it as a toxic chemical that can cause breathing problems,” said Sam Mannan, a professor of chemical engineering at Texas A&M University. “But it’s also a flammable and explosive material.” The gas must mix with air in relatively high proportions to ignite, so it is less dangerous than natural gas or gasoline under ordinary conditions. But Dr. Mannan suggested one way an anhydrous ammonia explosion might occur: If during a fire an ammonia tank were to be breached, the gas would mix with the air until it reached the proper concentration, at which point it would be ignited by the fire. The catastrophe at the West plant began with a fire. Ammonium nitrate, which is usually sold in granular form, can be mixed with fuel oil to become a powerful explosive that is used often in industry and occasionally by terrorists. But Dr. Mannan said that even by itself the chemical can explode under the right conditions — if it is heated in a confined space during a fire, for example.

Fertilizer
Explosion
Texas
West Chemical and Fertilizer
HazMat
West TX


Review of N.Y.P.D. Monitoring of Muslim Communities Is Sought

Abstract: Lawyers in a federal lawsuit that has governed how the New York Police Department investigates political and religious groups for more than 25 years asked a judge on Monday to let them collect information to see if the department had violated his orders in how they monitor Muslim communities. In papers filed in federal court, the lawyers cited a series of recent news articles that detailed the use of undercover officers and informants to gather and maintain information about political activity among Muslims in circumstances in which there was no indication that crimes had occurred. “These accounts, if true, suggest that the N.Y.P.D. is conducting surveillance and maintaining records of such surveillance in violation of the terms of the Modified Handschu Guidelines,” the lawyers wrote, referring to the court-ordered guidelines in effect as a result of the class-action lawsuit. The guidelines were first set forth in a 1985 consent decree and significantly loosened in 2003 after the Police Department asked that they be thoroughly revamped because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The lawyers on Monday also asked the judge in the case, Charles S. Haight Jr. of United States District Court in Manhattan, for an order requiring the department to preserve its records and databases. The changes to the original 1985 Handschu Guidelines allowed law enforcement agencies to exchange information more freely and no longer required the police to file statements on its investigations of political and religious activity with the Handschu Authority, a panel made up of two senior police officials and a civilian. To ensure that constitutional rights are respected, the guidelines require the police to follow a 22-page set of F.B.I. guidelines issued in 2002. Judge Haight said in 2003 that he would allow greater police powers because the nature of public peril had changed. His ruling led to a rewriting of the decree that established the original guidelines governing police investigations of political activity, which were known for the name of the original plaintiff in the 1971 lawsuit , Barbara Handschu. In their court papers, the lawyers said the news articles — two lengthy and detailed articles published by The Associated Press in August and September and two columns by the blogger Leonard Levitt on his NYPD Confidential Web site — described a Police Department policy of focusing on Muslim communities in New York to identify “hot spots,” including mosques, social gathering places and student organizations based on college campuses. One of the lawyers, Jethro M. Eisenstein, noted in the papers that the surveillance of political activities detailed in the articles might not violate the Modified Handschu Guidelines, which say that for “the purpose of protecting or preventing terrorist activities, N.Y.P.D. is authorized to visit any place and attend any event that is open to the public, on the same terms and conditions as members of the public generally.” But he wrote that keeping records about “protected speech and behavior heard and seen during those operations is a violation of the Modified Handschu Guidelines,” as “no information obtained from such visits shall be retained unless it relates to potential unlawful or terrorist activity.” Celeste Koeleveld, the executive assistant corporation counsel for public safety, who is representing the city, said through a spokesman that her office had just received the papers and was evaluating them. Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, did not respond to a telephone call and an e-mail seeking comment. The relaxed guidelines initially went into effect in early 2003 as internal department rules, leaving the class-action plaintiffs with what they said were no means to enforce them; previously, they could go to Judge Haight if they thought the department had violated the consent decree. But in August of that year, just six months after the new guidelines went into effect, it was revealed that the department had been debriefing arrested Iraq war protesters about their political views and affiliations and recording their responses on a debriefing form, a violation of the new rules. Judge Haight then incorporated the new guidelines into the consent decree, prompting a lengthy battle over whether the plaintiffs’ lawyers had the power to bring what they believed were violations of the guidelines to the attention of the court. The department opposed any role for the court, but Judge Haight ruled that the plaintiffs had the power to complain about Police Department policies that they believed violated the modified guidelines. If they prove the policies violate the guidelines, the court has the power to order their end.

Modified Handschu Guidelines
Surveillance of Citizens by Government
Police Department (NYC)
Suits and Litigation
Muslim-Americans


Johnson & Johnson Reports Consistent Growth

Abstract: Johnson & Johnson reported better-than-expected third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, as strong growth for prescription drugs overshadowed weaker contributions from its medical device and consumer products businesses. “The company’s pharmaceuticals division is really well placed with lots of new drug launches at a time when the company is not facing many patent expirations on its other medicines,” a Morningstar analyst, Damien Conover, said. “And we expect to see more of this strength in the next several quarters.” Global drug revenue jumped almost 10 percent to $7.04 billion. But sales of the company’s medical devices were hurt by patients’ continuing reluctance to undergo elective surgeries and other procedures in a weak economy. Division sales fell 2 percent to $6.93 billion. “The weakness in devices appears to be broad-based, with not just one thing bringing them down,” Judson Clark, an analyst at Edward Jones said, adding that the unit’s weakest category was medical diagnostics. J.& J.’s chief financial officer, Dominic J. Caruso, said on a conference call with analysts and investors that there had been a pickup in overall economic activity, “but certainly not to the level we had hoped.” Johnson & Johnson reported net earnings of $2.98 billion, or $1.04 a share, for the third quarter, compared with $2.97 billion, or $1.05 a share a year earlier. Excluding one-time items, J.& J. earned $1.36 a share. Analysts on average, had expected $1.32 a share, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters. The company took special charges of about $900 million in the quarter, related largely to legal expenses and merger-related costs. Overall company sales rose 3.1 percent to $17.58 billion in the quarter, above Wall Street expectations of $17.46 billion, but would have risen 4.7 percent if not for the stronger dollar. J.& J. said it expected earnings this year, excluding special items, of $5.44 to $5.49 a share, up from its previous view of between $5.40 to $5.47. The company earned $5.10 a share last year.

Johnson & Johnson
Pharmaceuticals
Earnings Reports


San Antonio Built Community Coalition to Land Cyberwarfare Headquarters

Abstract: SAN ANTONIO — When Kelly Air Force Base was ordered shut down in 1995, more than 17,000 jobs left town. Now the military presence is growing again. This time, though, the new force will not comprise fighters, bombers or boots on the ground. Instead, the city is hosting the fastest-growing domain of government and military spending: cyberwarfare. The Air Force’s new military command for computer-network offense and defense, activated in late summer, is expected to require 5,500 to 7,000 jobs, including Air Force personnel, Defense Department civilians and private-sector contractors. Lackland Air Force Base here was named home for the new Air Force cyberwarfare operation after a competition that pitted San Antonio against communities with better-known bases in Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska and Virginia. In fact, when the Air Force began looking for a place to base its new headquarters for computer-network warfare, officially called the 24th Air Force , San Antonio was not even on the list. “But we had a secret weapon — a lot of retired colonels, lieutenant colonels and majors who had shed their uniforms and now are in key positions at the Chamber of Commerce and all across the business community,” said John B. Dickson of Denim Group, a computer software and network security firm here. “They were able to make the business case very strongly in San Antonio’s favor.” The Obama administration this year elevated computer-network warfare to be its high frontier of national security priorities, with far-reaching effects on military operations — and how the Pentagon does business. San Antonio’s experience in lobbying for the new headquarters proved how the traditional “Iron Triangle” of military contracting — the Pentagon, Congress and the military industry — is being replaced by a new silicon circle that requires harnessing the efforts of municipal governments, business leaders and universities to ride the next wave of large military contracts. “You have to pull together all the disparate interests in your community — academic interests, public-sector utilities, the military, other federal agencies already operating in town and the business community,” said Matt Pirko of ManTech Security and Mission Assurance, another local computer-network firm. Julian Castro, the mayor of San Antonio, said community leaders found it easy to sell the lobbying effort, not just in Washington but to their own citizens. San Antonio has a history of energetically supporting its military bases, he said. But even more, cyberoperations are viewed as a more intellectual and clean, even “green,” sector of the American military than traditional combat. Mr. Castro said the effort to sway decision makers was built on arguments that San Antonio not only offered excellent computer security expertise and the municipal infrastructure to support it, but was producing network warriors for the future through new programs at its high schools and local colleges. Ravi Sandhu, executive director of the Institute for Cyber Security , at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said the recession had forced the state to cut back money for a number of academic programs, but not in computer security, and not here. One draw for the Air Force was the institute’s Center for Infrastructure Assurance and Security, which developed the “Dark Screen” exercise adopted by municipalities in 11 states to learn how to protect critical city infrastructure from computer-network attacks. The center’s assistant director, Dwayne Williams, said his program was being used in so many cities, including several that competed for the new Air Force command, that his organization was prohibited from assisting hometown officials in making the pitch to the Air Force because of insider knowledge on weaknesses in computer security systems of those other cities. At Lackland Air Force Base, signs have been going up, identifying the new 24th Air Force headquarters and its subordinate units, the 688th Information Operations Wing and the 67th Network Warfare Wing. The new headquarters will command two other communications groups, based in Galveston, Tex., and Oklahoma City. Maj. Gen. Richard E. Webber, commander of the 24th Air Force, said the choice of San Antonio was based on “proximity to other cyberoperational missions, as well as access to communications and bandwidth capabilities, infrastructure and the local scientific and technical base.” It did not hurt that the National Security Agency already has significant operations in San Antonio, including a unit of its Central Security Service, whose missions include protecting government computer systems and producing foreign signals intelligence. Within the alphabet soup of American spy agencies, the N.S.A. takes the lead in electronic intelligence and computer-network warfare. Its director is expected to be assigned the second task of being in charge of the Pentagon’s new United States Cybercommand, overseeing militarywide computer-network operations. The 24th Air Force will be the service’s operation in support of that command’s mission.

United States Defense and Military Forces


No. 1 Duke Loses First as Wolfpack Win 10th Straight

Abstract: RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina State’s athletic program has a catchy marketing campaign these days: “This is our state.” When it comes to men’s basketball, that may finally be true. The Wolfpack had a chance to make that point Saturday when No. 1-ranked and undefeated Duke arrived at PNC Arena. And N.C. State did, holding off a late Duke rally for an 84-76 victory to hand the Blue Devils (15-1, 2-1 Atlantic Coast Conference) their first loss of the season. C. J. Leslie led all scorers with 25 points for No. 20 North Carolina State, and Richard Howell added 16 points and 18 rebounds, including a double-double in the second half when the Wolfpack (14-2, 3-0) pulled away. “Oh, man, it’s a great feeling,” said Leslie, who had 14 points in the second half. “This is what I came here for. I came here to beat those type of teams.” Guard Lorenzo Brown added 12 points and 13 assists for North Carolina State, which won its 10th game in a row and opened the conference schedule at 3-0 for the first time since 1988-89. Seth Curry had 22 points for the Blue Devils, and Mason Plumlee, a contender for national player of the year, had 15 points and 11 rebounds. This was Duke’s first game without the starting forward Ryan Kelly, averaging 13.4 points before he went out with a right foot injury against Clemson on Tuesday. So the game was in part a test of the Blue Devils’ depth, although hardly a measure of their postseason potential. Few doubt that Duke will again be in the mix for the conference and national titles. The stakes were far higher for North Carolina State, which has often been no better than the fourth-best team in the state behind Duke, North Carolina and even Wake Forest before the Demon Deacons’ recent decline. But before this season, North Carolina State was picked to win the A.C.C. title, raising expectations and the pressure on the team. Duke was a major test of North Carolina State’s status. “We drew some energy off our fans, no question about it,” Wolfpack Coach Mark Gottfried said. “Our guys played really hard; they knew this was a big deal.” Plumlee came in averaging 17.7 points and 11.4 rebounds and had 10 points and 8 rebounds in the first half. But N.C. State held its own, climbing back from an early 8-point deficit to take a 41-39 halftime lead behind 11 from Leslie and 10 from Scott Wood. Howell had 6 points and 4 rebounds in the first half. “We didn’t change anything,” Howell said of the second half. “Just effort. We felt like they couldn’t play with us, and we went out and showed it.” Including Howell, who had 10 points and 14 rebounds in a dominating second half for the Wolfpack. “He’s just a beast,” Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski said. North Carolina State was leading by 58-51 with 12 minutes 20 seconds to go, but the Blue Devils climbed back with a Curry 3-pointer from the wing that closed the gap to 58-57 with 10:32 remaining. But Duke never was able to take the lead. The Wolfpack, who blew a 20-point lead in a loss to Duke last season, built a 67-57 lead with 7:42 remaining. The Blue Devils closed to 71-67 with 3:53 to go with another 3-pointer from Curry. But Curry was hurt with 3:14 left, grabbing his left leg under the Duke basket, and the Blue Devils did not get closer than 4 the rest of the way. Krzyzewski said Curry slipped on a wet floor and injured his ankle, but did not indicate the injury was serious. As for Kelly, there was no telling when he might be able to return. “We don’t know Ryan’s situation,” Plumlee said. “We’re moving forward. This is who we have. We’re still Duke. We still have players. We’ll make do.”

Duke
North Carolina State
Basketball
College Sports
College basketball


Queens: Custody Battle Over Diplomat’s Children

Abstract: The arrest and release of a Kenyan diplomat who was accused of beating his 9-year-old son yesterday touched off a custody battle over the son and a daughter. The diplomat, Fred Matwanga, 38, was arrested at his Queens home on Saturday after allegedly beating his son with a stick and chasing him with a knife, The New York Post reported yesterday. A spokesman for the police, Paul J. Browne, confirmed that officers took Mr. Matwanga into custody but released him after discovering he was a diplomat. Despite Mr. Matwanga’s release, the Administration for Children’s Services took custody of his children while the city officials explored ways to prosecute him or have him removed from the country. A spokeswoman for the agency, Sharman Stein, refused to discuss the case.

Child Custody and Support
Child Abuse and Neglect
Queens (NYC)
Kenya


Fantasy Football Week 8: Mining for Waiver Wire Gold

Abstract: Doug Martin. Reggie Wayne. Jay Cutler. Those were just three of the big-name players who were injured during Week 7 as the bad news kept coming for fantasy owners. Football is a cruel sport, but as we talked about last week, a large part of fantasy football is finding opportunity among others’ misfortune. We’re starting to get pretty bare bones on the waiver wire as we head into Week 8, but there are still some pretty good options out there, and the aforementioned injuries have opened up some opportunities to find fantasy gold. Let’s look at this week’s waiver wire, as always, breaking down the options into four categories: Waiver Gems Players who are available on most waiver wires and have a chance to become weekly fantasy starters. Eureka! This is what you should be screaming if these players are available on your waiver wire. This category is more directed at eight-team leagues or leagues in which other owners might possibly be Rip Van Winkle. Digging Deep Players who are more bye-week fill-ins and/or high-upside players in deep leagues. Fool’s Gold Players who are coming off a good game but are not worth your FAAB or waiver priority. Quarterback Waiver Gems Jake Locker (TEN) — Locker has been a much-maligned player for his entire three-year N.F.L. career, but he’s finally starting to live up to the lofty expectations that made him the eighth overall pick of the 2011 draft. While I probably wouldn’t be writing about Locker being available if it weren’t for the hip injury that sidelined him for Weeks 5 and 6, he’s still available in the majority of leagues and has posted 14 or more fantasy points in four of his five games this season (and that includes two 20-plus games). Locker won’t help you in Week 8 as the Titans have a bye, but he has a fantastic schedule after that with cupcakes like St. Louis, Jacksonville and Oakland as three of his next four matchups. Mike Glennon (TB) — With Josh Freeman now using a Minneapolis ZIP code on all his written correspondence, the winless Buccaneers’ offense now runs through Glennon (and that seems to be a good thing for fantasy owners). I’ll preach a word of caution here as Glennon has had nice matchups against the Eagles and the Falcons, but it’s also hard to ignore back-to-back performances of 18 and 17 fantasy points, respectively. Despite losing Martin, Glennon still has weapons surrounding him in Vincent Jackson and Mike Williams and should make for a good bye-week fill-in or starter in a two-quarterback league. Eureka! Ben Roethlisberger (PIT), Terrelle Pryor (OAK). Digging Deep Josh Freeman (MIN), Carson Palmer(ARI), Josh McCown (CHI). Image Jordan Reed should be a regular target in the Washington Redskins' passing game going forward. Credit Alex Brandon/Associated Press Fool’s Gold Case Keenum (HOU). Running Back Waiver Gems Mike James (TB) — The Buccaneers don’t want to formally acknowledge it, but it looks as if Martin, a preseason consensus top five fantasy pick, will miss the rest of the season. Enter Mike James. After Martin left Sunday’s game with a shoulder injury, James, the Buccaneers’ sixth-round pick out of Miami, stepped in and ran for 45 yards on 14 carries. While those aren’t world-beater numbers (and the newly signed Bobby Rainey may factor into this equation), it’s tough to ignore any running back who will get 15 to 20 touches right now, with the fantasy running back position in shambles. Andre Brown (NYG) — Jacobs burned anyone who picked him up last week with a late-game scratch on Monday night, which forced Peyton Hillis and Michael Cox to play the headlining roles in the Giants’ ground game. With David Wilson’s return from neck injury up in the air and Jacobs/Hillis/Cox not being a long-term solution, it’s time for fantasy owners to look toward the guy who was supposed to be a 1A/1B option (with Wilson) before he broke his leg in the last game of the preseason. This is more of a long-term pickup since Brown cannot be activated until Nov. 10, but he has begun practicing with the Giants so he’s worth a look if you have room on your bench. Eureka! Ben Tate (HOU), Chris Ivory (NYJ), Zac Stacy (STL). Digging Deep Mike Tolbert (CAR), Daniel Thomas (MIA), Jonathan Stewart (CAR). Fool’s Gold Peyton Hillis (NYG). Wide Receiver Waiver Gems Jarrett Boykin (GB) — Boykin, a second-year player out of Virginia Tech, benefited from Randall Cobb and James Jones missing Sunday’s game and didn’t disappoint as he caught 8 balls for 103 yards and a touchdown (on 10 targets). Jones could return this week, but the Packers like to spread the ball around and Jermichael Finley’s injury could open the door for Boykin to continue seeing a consistent amount of targets. Boykin’s Week 7 performance will probably end up being his high-water mark for the season, but there is no reason he can’t be a consistent flex option going forward in deeper leagues. Darrius Heyward-Bey (IND) — After appearing in 189 straight games, Reggie Wayne will miss the rest of the season with a torn A.C.L. While T.Y. Hilton now becomes the Colts’ de facto top receiving option, Heyward-Bey should see an increase in snaps as Andrew Luck’s No. 2 wide receiver. The former Raider hadn’t seen more than five or six targets in any given week until last Sunday, when he saw a season-high seven looks and was able to turn that into 44 receiving yards and a touchdown. Heyward-Bey has struggled with holding onto the ball throughout his career (which makes him a risky start), but he’s worth a look. Eureka! Justin Blackmon (JAC), Rueben Randle (NYG), Golden Tate (SEA). Digging Deep Jeremy Kerley (NYJ), Brandon Gibson (MIA), Cole Beasley (DAL). Fool’s Gold Jason Avant (PHI). Tight End Waiver Gems Jordan Reed (WAS) — Without looking, who was the top-scoring tight end in Week 7? I probably just gave away that answer, but Reed surprisingly outscored the likes of Rob Gronkowski, Vernon Davis and Julius Thomas. Catching nine passes on nine targets is a little bit of a statistical anomaly, but Reed’s role in Washington’s offense should be solidified with rumors swirling of the Redskins trying to trade Fred Davis. While the odds of Reed finishing as any week’s best tight end going forward fall somewhere between my being elected president and aliens landing in Times Square, he should be able to squeak his way into the low-end TE1 range for the rest of the season. Eureka! Heath Miller (PIT), Charles Clay (MIA). Digging Deep Tyler Eifert (CIN), Jeff Cumberland (NYJ), Rob Housler (ARI). Fool’s Gold Delanie Walker (TEN).

Football
Mike James
Andre Brown
Peyton Hillis
Fantasy sport


Amid Drought, a Water Fight Spills Into Legal Territory

Abstract: As Texas’ rivers run dry and lakes fall to record low levels, part of the fight over water supplies is moving underground. Neighbors who pump water from the same formations beneath their land have long argued over that water. But the stakes are rising as cities and industries see groundwater as a solution to the demands of explosive population growth. But Texas law governing groundwater is murky, and a recent state appeals court decision signals that only years of expensive legal battles will provide clarity. “This whole issue will ultimately be resolved by litigation and not legislation,” said Andrew Sansom, executive director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University. “A lot of it will be between private landowners, both of whom have been told by the state that the water is theirs.” Texas owns the water in rivers, streams and lakes above ground, and governs its allocation. Below the surface, different rules apply. In 1904, the Texas Supreme Court declared that groundwater was subject to the “rule of capture,” generally meaning landowners could pump as much water as they wanted from under their properties and were not liable for depleting a neighbor’s underground supply. Image A recent appeals court ruling favored the property rights of Glenn and JoLynn Bragg, who operate a pecan farm, over restrictions on groundwater use. Credit Spencer Selvidge for the Texas Tribune It was not until 2012 that the same court specified that the regulations limiting those pumping rights could result in a “taking” of property rights under the Texas Constitution. And last month, a state appeals court for the first time decided there was such a taking in South Central Texas. The ruling in Edwards Aquifer Authority v. Glenn and JoLynn Bragg fuels an already fiery debate over whether groundwater can be protected alongside private property rights. “Despite our best efforts, the aquifers are dropping,” said Greg Ellis, a former general manager of the Edwards Aquifer Authority , one of the state’s largest and most powerful groundwater regulation bodies. The authority has asked its users, which include the city of San Antonio, to reduce demand by 35 percent this year amid the drought. “The district has to have the ability to cut people back,” he added. The authority’s existence illustrates Texas’ underground conundrum. A federal judge ordered its creation in 1993, finding that over-pumping from the aquifer without proper management was threatening endangered species. But Glenn and JoLynn Bragg had invested more than $2 million to grow pecans over the aquifer long before that. When the authority restricted the amount of water they could pump, they sued, saying their property rights had been violated. The state’s Fourth Court of Appeals agreed. Writing the court’s opinion, Justice Sandee Bryan Marion said last month that the restriction “forces the Braggs to purchase or lease what they had prior to the regulation — an unrestricted right to the use of the water beneath their land.” Some environmentalists and water lawyers now fear that every attempt to protect aquifers will end up in court. Property advocates disagree. “Pay them,” said Paul Terrill, the Braggs’ attorney. “You took their property. Just pay them.” (How much the Braggs are owed is still up for debate, according to the ruling.) But cities and industries looking for new groundwater are unlikely to be satisfied with compensation. They are pushing state lawmakers to limit local groundwater regulating abilities. Still, said Ronald A. Kaiser, a professor of water policy at Texas A&M University,“these cities are going to continue to grow. Drought is going to continue to happen.” (Texas A&M University and the Texas State University System are corporate sponsors of The Texas Tribune.)

Drought
Water
Texas
JoLynn Bragg
Edwards Aquifer Authority
Aquifer
Land use
Lawsuits
Glenn Bragg


Necessity Is the Mother of Reinvention as Players Shift Roles During the Postseason

Abstract: DETROIT — Need and comfort often clash in the postseason, when a manager places a player in an unfamiliar role or asks him to perform a seldom-required task. Detroit Tigers Manager Jim Leyland provided an example of that on Sunday when he announced that Jhonny Peralta, his defrocked shortstop, would start Monday in left field against the Oakland Athletics in Game 3 of the teams’ American League division series. Peralta had been a dependable starter from his arrival in a July 2010 trade from Cleveland until early August, when he accepted a 50-game suspension from Major League Baseball for his involvement with the Biogenesis anti-aging clinic in Coral Gables, Fla. Detroit had acquired Jose Iglesias from Boston on July 30 to play shortstop, leaving Peralta out of a job when he returned Sept. 26. The usually powerful Tigers have been stagnant offensively against the A’s, held scoreless the last 17 innings, with a 1-0 loss in Game 2. And this is a team that managed only three runs in its final three regular-season games, in Miami, capped by Henderson Alvarez’s no-hitter. So with the series tied at one win apiece, Leyland opted for Peralta’s bat over his inexperience in left field, a position he had never played in the majors until that Miami series. “We’ve got to try to score some runs, obviously,” Leyland said. “We’re still pitching-oriented, and you’re still taking a little bit of a chance because, defensively, you never know what’s going to happen. But there comes a point where you say, well, you might have to give up something to get something.” Leyland and A’s Manager Bob Melvin faced similar quandaries in Game 2, when the uncommonly poised Oakland rookie Sonny Gray matched the former A.L. most valuable player Justin Verlander zero for zero. With runners on first and second in the fifth and none out, Melvin asked Josh Reddick to sacrifice, something Reddick has done successfully just twice in 1,517 regular-season plate appearances. And in the ninth, Leyland summoned the right-hander Rick Porcello, normally Detroit’s fifth starter, out of the bullpen with the bases loaded and nobody out. The key, of course, is never asking a player to do something he cannot. “It’s your awareness of the player and what they’re all about,” Melvin said. Reddick, for instance, practices bunting all the time. Reddick was not available for comment Sunday, but after Saturday’s game, he told The San Francisco Chronicle that he considered himself an elite bunter. Besides, Reddick was 0 for 5 in the series, with three strikeouts. Reddick, however, lined out to third baseman Miguel Cabrera. “Up until that point, Red wasn’t swinging his best,” Melvin said. “He’s a pretty talented guy whether it’s at the plate, whether it’s in the field, running the bases. I felt confident in him getting that bunt down, even though he doesn’t do it very often.” Porcello relieved last postseason for the Tigers, making two scoreless appearances covering one and a third innings. This season, he relieved twice in the final three games once Leyland had settled on Max Scherzer, Verlander, Anibel Sanchez and Doug Fister for his playoff rotation. On Sunday, Leyland hoped Porcello could induce a double-play grounder with his hard sinker. But Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt, a left-handed better, sliced a game-winning single to left. Those moves were subtle, but not unprecedented in the postseason. In one of the best-known role switches, in 1950, Philadelphia Phillies Manager Eddie Sawyer started the ace reliever Jim Konstanty against the powerful Yankees in Game 1 of the World Series. The Yankees won behind Vic Raschi, 1-0, but Konstanty went eight innings in his first start since 1946. Relievers were hardier in those days, so that was not that much of a stretch for Konstanty. That season, he made 17 appearances of three or more innings, topped by a 10-inning stint in the second game of a Sept. 15 doubleheader against Cincinnati. In 74 games, Konstanty threw 152 innings. Fans of certain teams remember the failures more than the successes. In 1977, the year after Chris Chambliss homered off Mark Littell to win the A.L. Championship Series for the Yankees, Kansas City Royals Manager Whitey Herzog entrusted a 3-2 lead in the deciding Game 5 to Dennis Leonard, his 20-game winner. Leonard gave up a hit and a walk as the Yankees rallied for three runs to win, 5-3. Another starter, the Yankees’ Jack McDowell, lost the deciding Game 5 of a 1995 A.L. division series in relief to Seattle. And then there was Pedro Martinez of Boston, whose six hitless innings of relief in Game 5 of a 1999 division series in Cleveland ranks as one of the great postseason performances. So how does a manager weigh what he needs against what a player is comfortable doing? At times like this, Leyland often cites the 1968 World Series, when Detroit, managed by Mayo Smith, beat the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games with the Gold Glove center fielder Mickey Stanley at shortstop. Mainly, it comes down to trust and a bit of desperation. “I always cop out by saying in 1968, Mayo Smith took his center fielder and played him at shortstop in the World Series, and they won,” Leyland said. “So I guess that’s my answer.”

Detroit Tigers
Jim Leyland
Jhonny Peralta
Oakland Athletics
Baseball
Josh Reddick
Rick Porcello