South Africa Energy Needs Collide With U.S. Policy

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG — The Obama administration, caught in an awkward bind between its own ambitions on climate change and Africa’s pressing energy needs, is facing the first test of its new guidelines discouraging coal -fired power projects in developing nations. This week, the World Bank will vote on a $3.75 billion loan to South Africa , most of it to help build the world’s seventh-largest coal plant. The bank’s own experts concede that the giant plant will “produce large quantities of carbon dioxide that will contribute to global climate change.” But the bank’s largest shareholder — the United States — has enacted guidelines to push for “no or low carbon” ways of meeting the energy needs of developing nations that rely on international financial institutions. Construction of the plant is well under way, so it is too late for the steps advocated in the Obama administration’s guidelines to ensure that coal is a last resort. Treasury Department officials have declined to say how the United States will vote when the loan is before the bank’s board on Thursday, with one describing the decision as “challenging.” South African officials contend that the plant is desperately needed to help the country’s economy, the largest on the continent, and those of six neighboring nations generate growth and combat poverty. The loan is the first South Africa has sought from the World Bank since apartheid ended in 1994. Officials here also note that the project includes $745 million for wind and solar power and efficiency measures, in addition to $3 billion for the coal plant. Without the loan, South Africa would have to turn to commercial markets to finance the rest of the coal plant’s cost, a step that Public Enterprises Minister Barbara Hogan said would be “punitively expensive” and would probably delay the plant’s completion. “We run the most sophisticated economy in Africa,” she said. “We supply 60 percent of southern Africa’s energy. If we’re not able to come to the table, the consequences are huge. This is big. And renewable energy cannot provide us with that scale.” The fate of the loan matters to a group of developing countries that will continue to rely on coal in the coming years, even as researchers rush to devise cleaner, more commercially feasible alternatives, said Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister. He said officials from India, China, Brazil and South Africa would meet this month in Cape Town to coordinate their positions on just such climate change issues. “For the next five to seven years, we must not stop the use of present coal technologies, even as we work on developing new clean technologies,” Mr. Ramesh said. In 2008, during President George W. Bush’s administration, the International Finance Corporation and the Asian Development Bank provided $850 million to help finance an Indian coal-fired plant in Gujarat State. International public financial institutions, supported by the world’s richest nations, have invested $37 billion to help finance 88 coal plants over the past 15 years, many in Asia, according to a 2009 report by the Environmental Defense Fund. The plants’ annual carbon dioxide emissions equal three-quarters of those from coal-fired power in the European Union, the report said. The South Africa loan has set off the latest skirmish in a long-running conflict between multilateral lending institutions and environmental groups. The Environmental Defense Fund, the Sierra Club and Friends of the Earth, as well as a variety of South African civic groups, oppose the loan to Eskom, South Africa’s government-controlled utility. Environmentalists say that people in Africa, and especially its millions of poor farmers, have more to lose from warming temperatures — and the droughts and extreme weather they will bring — than people in any other part of the world. And coal plants also pollute scarce water, they say. Shadowing the debate here are memories of the weeks in 2008 when South Africa went dark for long stretches as Eskom ran out of juice. Businesses shut their doors. The mining industry virtually closed for days. Traffic clogged the roads as traffic lights blinked off. A combination of bad management and faulty planning led to the crisis, experts say. Eskom is now embarked on a $50 billion program to expand its capacity, paid for in part by a painful 25 percent to 26 percent annual electricity rate increase for each of the next three years. Still, the new power plant, known as Medupi, has drawn sharp opposition here on political as well as environmental grounds. Through its investment arm, the African National Congress, the governing party, has a 25 percent stake in the consortium that won a lucrative contract for boilers at the plant. A report by the public prosecutor, released two weeks ago in Parliament, found a conflict of interest in the awarding of the contract because a member of the tender committee was also on the party’s national executive panel, but the report turned up no evidence that this questionable situation had influenced the outcome. Helen Zille, who leads the opposition Democratic Alliance, wrote last week that if the loan were approved, profits would flow to into the governing party’s political operations. “The A.N.C. will entrench its single-party dominance and, in doing so, gravely weaken our democracy,” Ms. Zille said. World Bank officials reply that the bank’s loan will not pay for the component of the deal in question. And they defend the project’s environmental contributions, including the 100-megawatt solar project. They noted that South Africa had committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions 34 percent by 2020. Bank officials also say their commitment to environmentally sound energy policy has gotten short shrift. Of the $8.2 billion in energy projects it financed last year , the bank said 76 percent went for nonfossil fuels; 40 percent of it went toward renewable energy and efficiency improvements. “The question is how Africa can get the understanding and support of its partners to strike the right balance between two objectives — economic growth and climate change — so they can light up Africa rather than keeping it literally as the dark continent,” said Obiageli Ezekwesili, the bank’s vice president for Africa.

South Africa
Coal
World Bank
United States
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
Global Warming
United States International Relations


In Spain, Water Is a New Battleground

Abstract: FORTUNA, Spain — Lush fields of lettuce and hothouses of tomatoes line the roads. Verdant new developments of plush pastel vacation homes beckon buyers from Britain and Germany. Golf courses — dozens of them, all recently built — give way to the beach. At last, this hardscrabble corner of southeast Spain is thriving. There is only one problem with the picture of bounty: this province, Murcia, is running out of water. Swaths of southeast Spain are steadily turning into desert, a process spurred on by global warming and poorly planned development. Murcia, traditionally a poor farming region, has undergone a resort-building boom in recent years, even as many of its farmers have switched to more thirsty crops, encouraged by water transfer plans, which have become increasingly untenable. The combination has put new pressures on the land and its dwindling supply of water. This year, farmers are fighting developers over water rights. They are fighting one another over who gets to water their crops. And in a sign of their mounting desperation, they are buying and selling water like gold on a rapidly growing black market, mostly from illegal wells. Southern Spain has long been plagued by cyclical droughts, but the current crisis, scientists say, probably reflects a more permanent climate change brought on by global warming. And it is a harbinger of a new kind of conflict. The battles of yesterday were fought over land, they warn. Those of the present center on oil. But those of the future — a future made hotter and drier by climate change in much of the world — seem likely to focus on water, they say. “Water will be the environmental issue this year — the problem is urgent and immediate,” said Barbara Helferrich, a spokeswoman for the European Union’s Environment Directorate. “If you already have water shortages in spring, you know it’s going to be a really bad summer.” Dozens of world leaders will be meeting at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome starting Tuesday to address a global food crisis caused in part by water shortages in Africa, Australia and here in southern Spain. Climate change means that creeping deserts may eventually drive 135 million people off their land, the United Nations estimates. Most of them are in the developing world. But Southern Europe is experiencing the problem now, its climate drying to the point that it is becoming more like Africa’s, scientists say. For Murcia, the arrival of the water crisis has been accelerated by developers and farmers who have hewed to water-hungry ventures highly unsuited to a drier, warmer climate: crops like lettuce that need ample irrigation, resorts that promise a swimming pool in the yard, acres of freshly sodded golf courses that sop up millions of gallons a day. “I come under a lot of pressure to release water from farmers and also from developers,” said Antonio Pérez Gracia, the water manager here in Fortuna, sipping coffee with farmers in a bar in the town’s dusty square. He rued the fact that he could provide each property owner with only 30 percent of its government-determined water allotment. “I’m not sure what we’ll do this summer,” he added, noting that the local aquifer was sinking so quickly that the pumps would not reach it soon. “I come under a lot of pressure to release water, from farmers and also from developers. They can complain as much as they want, but if there’s no more water, there’s no more water.” Rubén Vives, a farmer who relies on Mr. Pérez Gracia’s largess, said he could not afford the black market water prices. “This year, my livelihood is in danger,” said Mr. Vives, who has farmed low-water crops like lemons here for nearly two decades. The hundreds of thousands of wells — most of them illegal — that have in the past provided a temporary reprieve from thirst have depleted underground water to the point of no return. Water from northern Spain that was once transferred here has also slowed to a trickle, as wetter northern provinces are drying up, too. The scramble for water has set off scandals. Local officials are in prison for taking payoffs to grant building permits in places where there is not adequate water. Chema Gil, a journalist who exposed one such scheme, has been subject to death threats, carries pepper spray and is guarded day and night by the Guardia Civil, a police force with military and civilian functions. “The model of Murcia is completely unsustainable,” Mr. Gil said. “We consume two and a half times more water than the system can recover. So where do you get it? Import it from elsewhere? Dry up the aquifer? With climate change we’re heading into a cul-de-sac. All the water we’re using to water lettuce and golf courses will be needed just to drink.” Facing a national crisis, Spain has become something of an unwitting laboratory, sponsoring a European conference on water issues this summer and announcing a national action plan this year to fight desertification. That plan includes a shift to more efficient methods of irrigation, as well as an extensive program of desalinization plants to provide the fresh water that nature does not. The Spanish Environment Ministry estimates that one-third of the county is at risk of turning into desert from a combination of climate change and poor land use. Still, national officials visibly stiffen when asked about the “Africanization” of Spain’s climate — a term now common among scientists. “We are in much better shape than Africa, but within the E.U. our situation is serious,” said Antonio Serrano Rodríguez, the secretary general for land and biodiversity at Spain’s Environment Ministry. Still, Mr. Serrano and others acknowledge the broad outlines of the problem. “There will be places that can’t be farmed any more, that were marginal and are now useless,” Mr. Serrano said. “We have parts of the country that are close to the limit.” While southern Spain has always been dry and plagued by cyclical droughts, the average surface temperature in Spain has risen 2.7 degrees compared with about 1.4 degrees globally since 1880, records show. Rainfall here is predicted to fall 20 percent from this year to 2020, and 40 percent by 2070, according to United Nations projections. The changes on the Almarcha family farm in Albanilla over the past three decades are a testament to that hotter, drier climate here. Until two decades ago, the farm grew wheat and barley, watered only by rain. As rainfall dropped, Carlo Almarcha, 51, switched to growing almonds. About 10 years ago, he quit almonds and changed to organic peaches and pears, “since they need less water,” he explained. Recently he took up olives and figs, “which resist drought and are less sensitive to weather.” Mr. Almarcha participates in a government water trading system, started last year, in which farmers pay three times the normal price — 33 cents instead of 12 per cubic meter — to get extra water. The black market rate is even higher. Still, his outlook is bleak. “You used to know that this week in spring there will be rain,” he said, standing in his work boots on parched soil of an olive grove that was once a wheat field. “Now you never know when or if it will come. Also, there’s no winter any more and plants need cold to rest. So there’s less growth. Sometimes none. Even plants all seem confused.” While Mr. Almarcha has gradually moved toward less thirsty crops, the government’s previous water transfer plans have moved many farmers in the opposite direction. The farmers have shifted to producing a wide range of water-hungry fruits and vegetables that had never been grown in the south. Murcia is traditionally known for figs and date palms. “You can’t grow strawberries naturally in Huelva — it’s too hot,” said Raquel Montón, a climate specialist at Greenpeace in Madrid, referring to the nearby strawberry capital of Spain. “In Sarragosa, which is a desert, we grow corn, the most water-thirsty crop. It’s insane. The only thing that would be more insane is putting up casinos and golf courses.” Which, of course, Murcia has. In 2001, a new land use law in Murcia made it far easier for residents to sell land for resort development. Though southern Spain has long had elaborate systems for managing its relatively scarce water, today everyone, it seems, has found ways to get around them. Grass on golf courses or surrounding villas is sometimes labeled a “crop,” making owners eligible for water that would not be allocated to keep leisure space green. Foreign investors plant a few trees and call their vacation homes “farms” so they are eligible for irrigation water, Mr. Pérez Gracia said. “Once a property owner’s got a water allotment, he asks for a change of land use,” he explained. “Then he’s got his property and he’s got his water. It’s supposed to be for irrigation, but people use it for what they want. No one knows if it goes to a swimming pool.” While he said his “heart goes out to the real farmers,” he did not have the personnel to monitor how people use their allotments. With so much money to be made, officials set aside laws and policies that might encourage sustainable development, Mr. Gil, the journalist, said. At first, he was vilified in the community when he wrote articles critical of the developments. Recently, as people are discovering that the water is running out, the attitude is shifting. But even so, people and politicians tend to regard water as a limitless resource. “Politicians think in four-year blocks, so it’s O.K. as long as it doesn’t run out on their watch,” said Ms. Montón of Greenpeace. “People think about it, but they don’t really think about what happens tomorrow. They don’t worry until they turn on the tap and nothing flows.”

Spain
Water
Deserts
Global Warming
Drought
Agriculture


Patriots’ Tom Brady, After Weeks of Simmering, Returns to Roast the Browns

Abstract: CLEVELAND — Tom Brady looked at no one, spoke to no one, nodded at no one as he stalked toward the New England Patriots’ locker room early Sunday morning. One fan said, “Go, Blue,” referring to Brady’s alma mater, Michigan. Nothing. Another said, “Go, Browns.” Not even a chuckle. Brady’s suspension for his role in a scheme to deflate footballs ended last week, but his fury lingers. He loves playing, and he had four games taken from him. He loves being with his teammates, and he had four weeks of camaraderie, of teaching and learning, taken from him. He simmered. He seethed. He fought to overturn his punishment and lost, and now the rest of the N.F.L. will incur his wrath. Brady’s prey Sunday were the winless Cleveland Browns, and he shredded their defense on New England’s first series — and second, third and fourth, too. On this sunny afternoon, when Brady threw for 406 yards and three touchdowns in his return from exile, the final score was immaterial — except in one sense. The margin of New England’s 33-13 victory illuminated just how much the Patriots had missed Brady, regardless of how they had fared in his absence. Brady inherited a team that went 3-1 during his suspension, and that success fueled a perception that he, to some degree, was a product of Coach Bill Belichick’s genius, and that quarterbacks were interchangeable within an organizational machinery that squeezed multiple victories from a backup, Jimmy Garoppolo, and a third-string rookie, Jacoby Brissett. Under Brady, though, the offense gained more yards in the first half on Sunday — 321 — than it did in all of last week’s game, a shutout loss to Buffalo. Brady maximized Rob Gronkowski’s coverage mismatches to facilitate yards after receptions. He took advantage of New England’s two-tight-end sets, connecting with Martellus Bennett for three touchdowns. He tormented the Browns with short, precise passes and then tormented them with long, precise passes, like the 43-yarder to Chris Hogan that led to the Patriots’ third touchdown. Image Fans with Brady cutouts. The difficulty of the Patriots’ schedule increases over the next few weeks, but Brady’s presence has them in position for yet another postseason march. Credit David Richard/Associated Press “I mean, it’s Tom Brady, so you don’t expect anything less,” receiver Julian Edelman said. Gronkowski, asked if he thought Brady had seemed at all out of sync, volleyed the question back at the reporter. When he was told “no,” Gronkowski, who caught five passes for 109 yards, smiled. “Me, neither,” he said. Gronkowski, hampered recently by a hamstring injury, said he had been waiting awhile to feel healthy again. Brady, though, had endured more than just four weeks of misery. He had endured nine months. The final pass Brady threw last season, in the Patriots’ A.F.C. title game loss at Denver, was intercepted, denying him — denying them — a chance to repeat as a champion. In the interim, he turned 39, an age of demarcation among quarterbacks. Only seven have thrown more than 10 touchdown passes at age 39 or older, according to Pro Football Reference . Of that group, only two — Brett Favre and Warren Moon — tossed more than 17. Brady, now in his 17th season, has expressed a desire to continue playing into his 40s and burnish his legacy — which may or may not have been tarnished by his nasty dispute with the N.F.L. “This isn’t the time for me to reflect,” Brady said. Later, when asked about the impact of the suspension on his reputation, he said, “I’ve just moved on, man.” Whether Brady is branded as a cheat for conspiring to gain a competitive advantage or as a victim of Commissioner Roger Goodell’s broad authority on discipline matters, he has adamantly maintained his innocence, denying that he was, as the investigation said, “generally aware” of a plot to deflate footballs before the 2015 A.F.C. championship game. The Patriots had professed for a week, as they did Sunday, that this was a normal game — that nothing seemed different, that Brady did not seem at all vengeful — and perhaps that was indeed true. But Brady, with his character and his integrity questioned, cannot be blamed for viewing this season as anything less than an opportunity for a 12-game spree of individual excellence and New England dominance. During training camp, Brady received fewer repetitions than normal because New England needed to prepare Garoppolo for the season. Brady missed the first two preseason games and took his final snaps for a month on Sept. 1, in the Patriots’ exhibition finale. While suspended, he was prohibited from having any contact with the Patriots. In his weekly Westwood One interview, he acknowledged that he had worked on mechanics and pocket mobility and brought in people to hit him with bags and chase after him. He also served as an honorary captain at Michigan, shot television commercials and vacationed in Italy, where he was photographed sunbathing nude. Leaving the paparazzi for the Belichick bunker, Brady did not speak to the news media at all last week, although his coach expressed reservations cloaked in gamesmanship. “How do you get ready for the speed of the game when you haven’t been at the speed of the game?” Belichick said last week, when he was in a more voluble mood than he was Sunday. Speaking generally of players who miss time, he added, “Maybe their first game will be the best game, but most likely the third, fourth, fifth, sixth games will probably be better than the first.” That very well could have been an attempt to temper expectations. But in all likelihood, it was a ploy. No one at Patriot Place knows Brady’s work ethic better than Belichick. No one understands Brady’s competitiveness and ruthlessness better than Belichick, either. About an hour before kickoff, Brady emerged from a tunnel for warm-ups. He jogged nearly the length of the field with Garoppolo before stopping by the 10-yard line to unleash a windmill fist-pump toward a brigade of Patriots fans in the stands behind the end zone. A standing ovation preceded his first series, and across his first three drives, Brady threw only two incompletions — and they both came on drops. The 13 passes he did complete went for 185 yards and two touchdowns. Belichick pulled Brady with 6 minutes 2 seconds left in the game, after he had completed 28 of 40 passes, and off Brady went to bask in imminent victory — the first, he hopes, of many. Brady, so stoic when he arrived, had to suppress smiles seven hours later at his postgame news conference. He called teammates by their nicknames (Jules, Gronk, Hoges). He praised the offensive line (“so great”). He delighted in being 4-1. “It’s fun to come out and play, and fun to win,” Brady said. “That’s the most important thing.” The last time New England felt this slighted, after the so-called Spygate scandal in 2007, it went 16-0 before losing to the Giants in the Super Bowl. That defeat, like every other that Brady has absorbed, bedevils him with an intensity few others can comprehend. But in the Patriots’ world, the present is all that matters. Unless the past does, too.


G.M. Reports Its Market Share Is Increasing

Abstract: DETROIT — General Motors executives said Wednesday that October would be the company’s third consecutive month of market share gains, proof that consumers were returning to its showrooms after G.M.’s humbling tour through bankruptcy court this summer. The company will reveal more about its financial condition this week, when it details how it spent a portion of its $50 billion in federal loans on Delphi, its former parts division, which also recently came out of bankruptcy. G.M.’s improving sales in the United States, which the carmaker said would give it a 21 percent market share in the nation, are an indication that the overall vehicle market is starting to recover after slumping to its lowest point in more than 25 years. G.M. forecast this month an annual selling rate for the industry of 10.5 million — the highest rate posted this year outside the July-to-August period, when the government’s cash-for-clunkers program bolstered sales. Auto sales in the United States were down 27 percent over all through September. But Michael C. DiGiovanni, G.M.’s chief market analyst, said consumer confidence was gradually improving and increasing demand for new vehicles. “We think our industry is in recovery, but we know we’re not out of the woods yet,” he said. G.M.’s sales dropped sharply in the months leading up to its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing on June 1. Even after it emerged from bankruptcy in mid-July, industry surveys showed that consumers remained wary of G.M.’s products. Mr. DiGiovanni said that G.M was “cautiously optimistic” that it turned a corner in October. Its market share rose for a third consecutive month, and the carmaker will post its first year-over-year monthly sales increase since January 2008. Susan Docherty, G.M.’s new head of United States sales, said the company was seeing sales momentum in the four core brands — Cadillac, Chevrolet, Buick and GMC — that the company was focusing on. “Our sales mix is a lot healthier,” she said. G.M., which is 60 percent owned by American taxpayers, was forced to shed its Saturn, Pontiac, Saab and Hummer brands as a condition of receiving federal aid. A year ago, the four core brands accounted for about 85 percent of G.M.’s overall sales, Mr. DiGiovanni said. But in October, that figure was 95 percent. G.M. also spent heavily to advertise its 60-day, money-back guarantee on its models. So far, the program has increased showroom traffic. And of the 142,000 vehicles sold since it began, only four have been returned, Ms. Docherty said. Forty-nine consumers are in the process of bringing their vehicles back. Ms. Docherty conceded that G.M. still had far to go to improve its reputation. Its sales incentives remain among the highest in the industry, and only a dozen of its vehicles were judged reliable in a recent Consumer Reports survey. “We are not here to declare victory,” she said on Wednesday at a sales forum with reporters. “We’re here to talk about progress.” Its latest entry in the small crossover-vehicle market, the Chevrolet Equinox , has sold so well that G.M. has only a 10-day supply in its inventory. A 60-day supply is considered ideal by industry standards. The company recently moved to add a third shift to its joint venture plant in Canada, which it operates with Suzuki, to increase production of the Equinox and the GMC Terrain. The decision was arrived at quickly by G.M. management — something that would not have happened in the old G.M., Mr. DiGiovanni said. The sales forum was part of an effort by G.M. to be more accessible to the news media and the public. Ms. Docherty said she and other executives were spending up to two hours a day answering questions on Web sites and e-mail from consumers.

General Motors
Bankruptcies
Sales
Automobiles


Kris Jenkins’s View of Life in the N.F.L. Trenches

Abstract: The Carolina Panthers selected Kris Jenkins in the second round of the N.F.L. 2001 draft. He was on four Pro Bowl teams and named All-Pro three times in seven seasons with them. In 2002 and 2003, he was a dominant player on the Panthers’ defensive line, helping them reach the Super Bowl for the first time. The 6-foot-4 Jenkins, who was 360 pounds in his playing days, made tens of millions of dollars in salary over his 10-year career with the Panthers and then with the Jets . A series of major operations (one shoulder, three knee) forced him to retire. In his final two seasons, 2009 and 2010, he played seven games. He intended to return in 2011 after the Jets released him but ultimately decided to move into broadcasting. He works for the New York-based SNY cable channel, among other outlets. Jenkins, 32, lives with his wife, Tashia, and his three sons. He does Pilates and takes herbs and roots to recover from injuries sustained on the field. In the future, he said, he wants to host a football camp for linemen, covering everything from finances to proper technique. He also hopes to return to the University of Maryland to complete his degree in kinesiology. Here are excerpts from recent interviews with Jenkins, who said he wanted to share the often untold stories of life as a professional football player. GREG BISHOP N.F.L. fans, people outside, they have no clue what goes on. This isn’t like playing Madden. This isn’t like being the popular kid in high school. When you do those things in the real world, and it don’t work out, you still have your health. The thing about football is you’re directly playing with your life, the quality of it and the longevity of it. The stakes are up there. You ever been in a car crash? Done bumper cars? You know when that hit catches you off guard and jolts you, and you’re like, what the hell? Football is like that. But 10 times worse. It’s hell. I got my first N.F.L. concussion against Green Bay , my rookie year. I jumped, and my feet got clipped, and I hit the ground face-first. Bang! No shoulders. No chest. Nothing. Just my face hit. I got up, and I had the punch-drunk feeling, seeing starbursts and feeling giddy. I knew where I was. I knew what was going on. I also knew I had my bell rung. I made tackles back to back, and I remember one coach saying, the way he’s playing right now, the concussion probably did him some good. I played the whole game. The debate about concussions wasn’t there yet. I’ve had more than 10, including college and the pros. Nobody cared. And that’s the thing. We play football. I remember one game, at Carolina, my second year. We played Arizona, and the double team weighed 780 pounds combined. They just kept double-teaming me, hoping I would fold and cave in. I didn’t. But that was probably the most painful day I had. From the double teams, over the years, I wore the left side of my body down. I was past hurt. I was at the point of numb. Like my body was shutting down nervous systems, so I didn’t have to deal with pain. The numbness started at the very beginning. I couldn’t feel part of both arms. I couldn’t feel part of both legs. It was worse on the left. I’m just starting to get feeling back in my left side. Look, football is no joke. But I’m going to say this much: somebody has to be the grunt. That’s why there’s no better position on the field than interior defensive line. Forget quarterbacks or specialists. They’ve got it easy. If we don’t come to play, nobody else on defense can do their job. We’ve got the toughest job on the field. We don’t care about our facial hair. We play a grimy position. Piles, oh, my God, they’re brutal. I’ve had my ankles twisted. I’ve been bit. I’ve done stuff. I’ve tried to break guys’ elbows, pinching people, twisting ankles, trying to bend up their arms, pop an elbow out. Why? I had to fight back. Mentally, we’re conditioned to be tough. We’re conditioned to feel no pain. The only injury I ever felt while playing was when one of my knees tore. That’s the only time I felt pain and was like, O.K., that hurt. But Mondays, you wake up, and it’s hard to get out of bed. It hurts wherever you got hit. I remember one time getting hit by Edgerrin James. He put his head in my chest. I woke up, and I couldn’t even move, because it felt like my chest was going to collapse. It was sore for days. All you want to do is get the blood circulating. Hot tub. Cold tub. Hot tub. Cold tub. The brain fog? It still hasn’t stopped. It feels like you’re punch-drunk, like someone hit you over the head. It’s like you knock yourself stupid. When you have to concentrate on things, then it becomes an issue. My head gets foggy to the point where I really can’t function. Then I get acupuncture . I get massage treatments. We know it’s going to hurt. We know because pain in football is consistent over time. You’re still hurting in the off-season. You’re hurting when the next season starts. I saw [the former Panthers linebacker] Dan Morgan go through the head injuries . If anybody I played with hit harder than me, it was Morgan. That man was a monster. Unfortunately, he paid the price. I mean, guys play hurt, but it’s a choice. They do a pretty good job now, with all the scrutiny around concussions. On the line, it’s still painful. By the end of the year, half an offensive line might be getting shots, draining fluid from their knees. Most stay away from cortisone now, because it’s degenerative. Everything gets off center. Bulging disk. Herniated disk. For linemen, it starts in the lower back. Throws everything off. I can’t blame anybody for my death. I made the choice to play football. I made the choice to walk through the concussions. I could have stopped. I could have said, my head hurts. It was my choice, as a man. We consider football a gladiator sport because we understand you’re going to get hurt. You’re putting your life on the line. You might not die now, like in an old Roman arena, but 5, 10 years down the road, you could. You know that. I wouldn’t change anything. The Warnings During my career, I kept my mouth shut. This now, speaking out, it’s about telling you my life. There’s no agenda, no vendetta. This is what football’s really like. When I was a little kid, I got picked on. I didn’t start hitting my growth spurts until high school. I was the smallest kid in my class in junior high. When you get bullied, you either cower and shy away from the world, or you go ballistic. I didn’t get to the point where I felt like shooting people. But I fought back once I could. I’m going to be absolutely honest with you. When I stepped into the game, I was an idiot. The issues they had with me in Carolina, some were misconstrued, some were blown out of proportion, some were spot-on. I didn’t have an issue with the game. I had an issue with trying to figure out how to live in the real world while I’m playing. When we come into the N.F.L., we’re idiots. Because you’ve been groomed from childhood to think the rules don’t apply to you. So this is what happens. You’re going to be warned. The first warning is the first meeting you have with an agent, when you realize this is real. My choices count at this point. I’m going to be prostituting myself for the next 18 years of my life. That’s the first warning. The next one is that good old combine. That’s when you realize, when you march in that room half naked, I’m a number now. They’ve changed the recruiting process to a percentage. That’s what you are. The third warning is when you get that contract. Most of the language in there is standardized. The gist of it is, stay in line, or else. Your last warning is in training camp because there’s no learning curve. That’s when you realize that it all ties in together, and it will be that way as long as you’re playing. I went through so much in Carolina, it was ridiculous. People checking up on us in clubs. Concerns with the locker room. John Fox was our coach. He was a big cliché guy. He’d say, do as I say, not as I do. That didn’t make sense to me. On New York and Ryan I loved New York. I loved playing there. I loved the spotlight. I was fine in New York, but I also played for Eric Mangini . We started 8-3, Brett Favre , all of that. Everybody told Mangini, stop with the long practices, you’re killing us. You practice too hard. We’re on turf. I’ve got a bulging disk in my back. That was when my whole career started going down. People don’t understand this, but the most important person in the building for a lineman is a strength coach. Rex Ryan is a trendsetter. Rex grew up in the game. His dad was a coach. He picked up on it. Players like Rex. They respond to coaches like Rex. They want a coach who knows what it feels like. Violence and Madness Roger Goodell said something to me that always stuck in my head: We’re ambassadors for the game. O.K., well, if we’re ambassadors for the game, then we should be able to have a voice. We should be able to stand up and say, I’m union, I’m proud of that. Where I grew up near Detroit , people were proud to be in unions. They had a voice. What you hear from guys like Ray Lewis , James Harrison, what they’re saying is we’re well aware what we’re signing up for. The violence, we love it. The madness, we love it. We love measuring ourselves in it. Those guys express themselves with their pads. You soften the game, you’re taking away their freedom of expression. Nobody wants to see flag football, and now, you might as well give guys flags, tell them to hug afterward, all that. The violence is what I remember. Like against Buffalo in 2009 , when I had the game of my career. Or the time I slapped a lineman out of the way in Houston with one arm. Winning, the physical part, the mayhem, finding the line between insanity and sanity, that’s the exact reason why you play. That’s the reason fans like football in the first place. A guy like James Harrison, he’s possessed, and that’s the guy you love to play with, love to watch. He doesn’t need to be babied. Now the game is so profitable, the opportunities off the field are so tremendous, guys aren’t even maximizing football for what it was like in the first place, what you loved about it as a kid. Now, the game is about money. It’s not even about our health. Guys now are always looking for the easy way out. Body hurts, take a painkiller. Sore knee, take a muscle relaxer. I get tired of seeing all these polished idiots. Chad Ochocinco. Terrell Owens . Go on Twitter and brag about how pretty your stomach muscles look. What happened to football? Silence on Drugs I never saw anyone take drugs, but you get a sense of the guys that you think are. My first years in the league, before they really started testing for masking agents and things like that, it seemed like more guys were on enhancers. Now, it’s about 20 percent, and I don’t think most guys are doing steroids . They’ve moved on. They were supposed to do the H.G.H. testing; they keep putting it off. I think that might be for the amount of people doing H.G.H. It might have been more than they thought. Nobody is going to say anything in the locker room because it’s still a brotherhood. The guys don’t want to feel like you’re going to tell on somebody, even if they’re doing something wrong. The N.F.L. is too big to fail. If that happened, it would be a slow death. It’s still the ultimate game. For us, it’s like legal prison rules. You have to protect your manhood, your well-being. You’re going to be challenged. You’re going to be tested. There aren’t too many places a 400-pound guy with an attitude can go and beat the crap out of somebody and not get locked up for it. I have a violent streak. I have to fight it out of my system. We signed up for it. All of it. We’re not trying to be sane or rationale. It’s not all from the league. Health is something that players are responsible for as well. I mean, there’s so much crap these guys are putting in their body. You’ve got creatine. You’ve got supplements. Most of them aren’t hydrating properly. Mix that with alcohol. For linemen, it’s the worst. You’re already going to be overweight and miserable while you’re playing. Everybody looks at it like, oh, I’m glad I’m fat. I’m not. I don’t want to be 400 pounds. With a lot of teams, the methods of strength and conditioning across the N.F.L. are outdated. I’m a kinesiology major. Teams aren’t focused on core stability. You’re doing intense lifting, and you’re top-loading yourself. There’s no base. That’s why a lot of guys have knee problems, hip problems. Those are the things that get neglected, based on this outdated strength system. Right now, it’s more important than ever for guys to take care of themselves off the field. The Patriots do it right. They have an acupuncturist on staff. They do Pilates. That’s one secret to their success: recovery. You can do a lot off the field. You can lift. You can run. But that trauma, that rattling, that impact, there’s nothing you can do to stop it. Your body is going to naturally react. Your muscles will tighten up. Fluid builds. The unfortunate thing is the timing of the off-season. You don’t have enough time. You get a month off, and you use that to mentally relax. But your body is still tense from all that impact, from all that pain. I don’t think the science is keeping up with the changes in the game. We’re not on grass anymore. We’re on turf, which is disgusting for fat people. I hate turf. It’s the worst thing ever invented for a lineman. Your knees absorb the impact. It’s being bounced up through your body through the concrete. Into your lower back. Into your lower spine. People don’t want to put up with the gunk and the mud, but that was one of the best parts of the game. Playing in mud, when you can’t get a grip, when it’s disgusting. That’s football. The entertainment value was just fine back then. The thing is, when guys retire, then stuff happens to their body; they’re coming back, screaming like we’re the martyrs in all this. It’s almost like, well, you’re supposed to take care of yourself. Players should focus more on recovery, but in the N.F.L., every herb is like a masking agent, or could result in a positive test. No one pays attention to alternative methods. The first thing I did when I retired was I went to a health store. I believe in Eastern medicine. I literally bought a whole bunch of roots. My life is too important. My family is too important. I want to get into public speaking, maybe put together a camp, for big guys, linemen in particular. Nobody prepares linemen for what will happen. Someone should.

Kris Jenkins
Carolina Panthers
Jets
Football
Concussion
Sports injury
NFL Super Bowl Super Bowl 2015


Google to Offer Services for Businesses

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, Aug. 27 — Further extending its efforts beyond search technology, Google plans to announce Monday that it will offer software providing a range of online services for business users. The company, which has gradually been adding to its arsenal of services, says it will offer a package of software including its e-mail, calendar and chat programs and a Web site development tool for companies and organizations looking to avoid the high cost of providing such services on their own. Dave Girouard, vice president and general manager of Google’s enterprise business, called the move a “starting point” for Google in catering to business users. Initially, the package will be free, but later this year Google plans to begin selling a version that includes additional features as well as technical support. While the e-mail program, Gmail, is currently supported by online advertising, the other three programs contain no advertising. Mr. Girouard said Google’s immediate goal in offering the free services was to increase the number of people and companies using its technology. Mr. Girouard said he expected the pay service to appeal to larger organizations. He would not discuss any plans for pricing. Google’s software offerings beyond search are focused on communications and enabling workers to collaborate, but the company is testing spreadsheet software and a word-processing program called Writely that will soon be offered over the Web. When that happens, analysts say, the company will be in even more direct competition with the likes of Microsoft, which is moving to deliver more of its software to businesses over the Web. A number of smaller software companies already offer calendars, e-mail and other applications online. “I think it’s going to put Google head-to-head with Microsoft, especially when it comes to price-sensitive markets like small business and education,” said Matthew Brown, an analyst at Forrester Research in Boston. For small and medium-size businesses, the new Google services, called Google Apps for Your Domain, could produce huge savings in technology support costs, he said. As Google encroaches on the business software territory that Microsoft has traditionally dominated, Microsoft has responded by adding online Web services to its desktop software and beefing up its Web offerings, particularly in search services. Last year, Microsoft announced Office Live, a Web service aimed at helping businesses collaborate on spreadsheets and other documents. While each of the Google services has already been available to consumers, the package for businesses is aimed specifically at organizations that want to offer them in turn to their employees. Companies can use Google’s Gmail program, for example, to set up a corporate e-mail system with software for both the server computer and individual users. Providing technology to corporations and large organizations accounts for less than 2 percent of Google’s revenue, but the business is increasingly critical, Mr. Girouard said. Most of that involves selling “server appliances,” large computers that take on the job of conducting searches of large databases and company records. “We are a very small part of Google’s overall business, but we’re growing quickly,” he said.

Google Inc
Computers and the Internet
Microsoft Corp
Forrester Research Incorporated


Pilots in Brazil Collision Sentenced to Community Service

Abstract: SÃO PAULO, Brazil — A Brazilian federal judge on Monday sentenced two American pilots involved in a fatal air crash over the Amazon rain forest in 2006 to community service. Judge Murilo Mendes sentenced the pilots, Joseph Lepore and Jan Paul Paladino, to four years and four months of prison in a “semi-open” facility for their role in the collision between the Legacy private jet they were flying and a Gol Boeing 737-800, which resulted in 154 deaths. But the judge commuted the sentences to community service to be served in the United States, where the pilots reside. Brazilian authorities accused the pilots of turning off the Legacy’s transponder moments before the accident and turning it on again only after the crash. In a deposition taken in the United States by Brazilian authorities via videoconference the men denied that the equipment had been turned off. Judge Mendes, in the 86-page sentence, said the pilots had failed to verify the function of equipment for more than an hour, a length of time he called “an eternity” in aviation. An Brazilian air traffic controller had been previously convicted in the case of a crime equivalent to manslaughter.

Pilots
Brazil
Airplane Accidents and Safety
Lepore Joseph
Paladino Jan Paul


Obama and Saudi King Sidestep Dispute Over Iran Nuclear Deal

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama and King Salman of Saudi Arabia moved to put their differences behind them on Friday in a long-delayed White House meeting amid months of tension over the nuclear agreement with Iran and a continuing schism over the way forward in Syria. King Salman, who refused Mr. Obama’s invitation to a regional summit meeting at Camp David in May in light of the discord over the Iran deal, arrived at the White House ready to accept the agreement and press ahead on other issues. In a show of respect, Mr. Obama greeted the monarch at the entrance of the West Wing and escorted him inside with a friendly hand on the back. In public comments opening their sessions in the Oval Office, neither leader directly addressed the rift over Iran or acknowledged their disagreements over Syria and Yemen. But they later issued a joint statement saying that the king supported the agreement with Iran and vowing to bolster mutual efforts to combat the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other radical groups in the Middle East. Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, said after the meetings that Mr. Obama had reassured the king that the Iran deal would prevent it from obtaining a nuclear weapon. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is satisfied with these assurances after having spent the last two months consulting with its allies in Europe and other places,” he told reporters. “We believe this agreement will contribute to security and stability in the region by preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear capability.” He added: “Now we have one less problem to deal with, with regard to Iran, and we can now focus more on their nefarious activities in the region.” He said this was a chance for Iran to become a responsible member of the world community. “We hope that the Iranians will take advantage of this agreement, which allows for a removal gradually of their isolation.” Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states have been wary of the agreement negotiated with Iran by the United States and five other world powers, seeing Tehran as a menacing force in the region that cannot be trusted. As much as they fear a nuclear-armed Iran in the long run, they are just as concerned about what Tehran will do in the short run with the billions of dollars that will be unfrozen by the lifting of sanctions and become available for financing terrorist allies like Hezbollah and Hamas, as well as Houthi rebels in Yemen. The Saudi embrace of the deal, however grudging the path in getting to this point, offered Mr. Obama a chance to begin moving past the debate over it. Just this week, he secured enough Democratic support to sustain a veto of legislation trying to block it. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado on Friday became the 38th Democrat in the upper house to announce his support, but Senator Benjamin L. Cardin of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, came out against the deal. King Salman’s decision to come to Washington was a signal that the Saudis are now focused on making the best of the situation. The king embarrassed Mr. Obama when he invited the leaders of six gulf states to Camp David in the spring to reassure them of American support for their security. The White House initially announced that King Salman would attend, only to be caught off guard when Saudi officials said that he would instead send two top princes to represent him. The Iran Deal in 200 Words A short overview of highlights from the Iran nuclear pact. Unable to block the Iran agreement, Saudi Arabia indicated that it would concentrate on countering Iran in other ways. The Pentagon is finalizing a $1 billion arms agreement with Saudi Arabia that will provide weapons for its war effort against the Islamic State and Yemen, according to administration officials. Neither side explicitly mentioned that publicly, but the joint statement said the two leaders “discussed fast-tracking the provision of certain military equipment to the kingdom.” Mr. Obama, however, pressed the king over the conduct of the Saudi-led coalition military operation to restore the government in Yemen, where American officials have expressed concern over the impact on civilians. The king committed to work toward opening Red Sea ports operated under United Nations supervision to allow in more international humanitarian assistance, but the Saudis insisted that any aid be inspected to ensure that weapons were not being provided to Houthi rebels. Addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Mr. Obama touched briefly on Yemen as well as on Syria, where the two sides cooperate against the Islamic State but have deep disagreements about how to handle the broader civil war. “This is obviously a challenging time in world affairs, particularly in the Middle East,” Mr. Obama said. “So we expect this to be a substantive conversation across a wide range of issues.” He added: “We share a concern about Yemen and the need to restore a functioning government that is inclusive and that can relieve the humanitarian situation there. We share concerns about the crisis in Syria, and we’ll have the opportunity to discuss how we can arrive at a political transition process within Syria that can finally end the horrific conflict there.” King Salman made no mention of disagreements. “Once again, Mr. President, I’m happy to come to a friendly country to meet a friend, and we want to work together for world peace,” he said. “Our region must achieve stability, which is essential for the prosperity of its people, and in our country, thank God, we are prosperous, but we want prosperity for the entire region. And we are willing to cooperate with you in order to achieve that.” Still, analysts said the friendly session only masked a fundamental stress in the relationship, as Saudi leaders worry that Mr. Obama’s outreach to Iran reflects a shift toward Riyadh’s historic rival in the region. “Beneath the smiles and cordiality of this visit lurks a far more complex dynamic,” said Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East peace negotiator now at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. “The Saudis see U.S. policy toward Iran in transition, from decades of containment and confrontation to acquiescence to Iran’s new influence, maybe even cooperation.” Tamara Cofman Wittes, a former State Department official under Mr. Obama who now directs the Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, said Iran’s nuclear program had never been at the forefront of Saudi concerns. “Much more worrisome to them is what they view as Iranian efforts at domestic subversion in Bahrain, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and, of course, in Saudi Arabia’s own Eastern Province,” she said. “Fundamentally,” she added, “the Saudis want to hear directly from the president that he remains committed to the U.S. role as security guarantor in the region and to helping them restore stability to a region in chaos.”

King of Saudi Arabia Salman,Salman bin Abdul-Aziz


Parents Worried About Flu Flock to the E.R.

Abstract: The staff wore green masks, the patients wore blue. As the sun set over Queens on Wednesday, the witching hour began in the pediatric emergency room at Schneider Children’s Hospital. Fathers came home from work, mothers thought twice about putting their children to bed with a fever , and as if under mass hypnosis, they headed for the hospital. They were a New York polyglot of unease, Orthodox Jews in sheitels and skullcaps, Muslim women in headscarves, Asian people, black people and white people. They all wanted one thing: to have their children checked for swine flu . “What brings you here?” said the swine flu “greeter,” a young medical resident, her voice muffled by her duck-billed N95 mask . If the answer was flu , whole families got masks and were sent to the left. For anything else, they went right. As officials announce the latest school closings each day — eight new ones on Thursday — and public officials tread a delicate line, trying to seem on top of the disease while not spreading panic, parents have turned to emergency rooms as the arbiters of the maddening ambiguity of the disease. To worried families, the H1N1 virus is like a bogeyman in the night, and the trip to the hospital the equivalent of checking under the bed. Is it a deadly scourge, a Stephen King novel come to life, or only a mild inconvenience? The emergency room is the place where public relations and public fears confront science, where families go to find peace of mind. The doctors try to suppress their cynicism and understand the fear, knowing that in most cases, they will not even bother to test for flu. The ritual of putting on masks, checking patients, then sending them home with kind words and an admonition to stay in bed and drink plenty of fluids is almost like a game of charades. “The doctor said to me, ‘I could look in your eyes and tell who’s really sick,’ ” said Esperanza Straughter, as she led her strapping 13-year-old son, Tyrell, out of the emergency room after his visit. Ms. Straughter, who carried a thermometer in her handbag, said she had retorted, “I’m glad you can, because I can’t.” The last reading on the thermometer had said 102, and her son had awakened coughing and nauseated . Still, she said, she had to accept the doctor’s verdict. Tyrell, a precocious ninth grader in gray sweatpants, looked bored by the whole experience, and eager to go home. Across New York, emergency room visits began to surge on Saturday, as schools closed like falling dominoes and word spread of an assistant principal who was in critical condition with swine flu; he died on Sunday night. At Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn , the pediatric emergency room usually averages 80 to 85 patients a day at this time of year. On Saturday, it treated 135 patients and on Sunday 145, a two-day record. On Tuesday, the number spiked to 169, according to Dr. Estevan Garcia, director of pediatric emergency medicine. At Schneider, in the Glen Oaks section of eastern Queens, there were 227 visits on Sunday, 262 on Monday and 273 on Tuesday, almost quadruple the norm. On Wednesday, 212 people walked in. From 6 p.m. on Wednesday until the wee hours on Thursday, Dr. Jill Leibowitz, a 27-year-old second-year pediatric resident, was designated the pediatric emergency room greeter. In deference to her long hours breathing in potentially contaminated air, Dr. Leibowitz wore the N95 mask, with its superior filtering power, rather than the standard surgical mask worn by patients and many other members of the staff. As “American Idol” played on the television overhead, Dr. Leibowitz repeated her introductory riddle — “What brings you here?” — over and over again. She managed to convey both authority and empathy, no small feat, given her tousled hair and glasses askew over the mask. As patients entered, they were “cohorted,” in medical lingo, meaning that they were separated from the general population and quarantined in a 40-foot hallway (normally a psychiatric emergency area), lined with molded plastic chairs, sealed by glass doors at either end, a giant fish tank of people in face masks. A sign was taped to one door with a message emphasized in yellow highlighter: “Not all patients seen will be tested or given prescriptions for medication.” In accordance with city guidelines, “We’re no longer routinely testing children who don’t have underlying conditions,” said Dr. Joy Nagelberg, chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Schneider. “The overwhelming majority, you would look at them and say that they’re fine,” she said. “You would be surprised that they’re here at all.” A resident, Dr. Adam Persky, rapped on a glass door to the quarantine area and asked for swabs. He had a woman who was six weeks pregnant with a fever in the adult emergency room and he was going to test her for flu. Nurses strode by carrying paper plates of ziti, pizza, broccoli and chicken cutlets ordered in for them by the administration. Raquel Cillacis, 18, arrived with her 6-year-old sister, Jasmine, around 8 p.m., having fled the crowd of people in masks at Queens Hospital Center. Raquel was disappointed when doctors told her they were not testing for flu; they said she had an “upper respiratory virus” and her sister was pronounced fine. Some patients asked for face masks even though they had come to the emergency room for other reasons, like Tami Pitre, who brought her 14-year-old son, Michael, after he was hit in the head by a lacrosse stick during a scrimmage. For others, the visit was an adventure. Rakin Ahmed, a boisterous 6-year-old in a blue face mask, happily rubbed Purell on his hands from one of the many dispensers around the hospital while his exasperated father tried to make him stop. His father, Mumazzad Ahmed, an electrical supervisor, said he had been unnerved by all the news reports about swine flu and wanted to have Rakin checked out. His wife was against it. But since they lived just a mile from the hospital, he brought the child in. Rakin was fine. “I wish I hadn’t come,” Mr. Ahmed said. “I think this whole thing is a hoax. I hope it all goes away.” A 16-year-old girl named Rachel came into the hospital already on Tamiflu . Her pediatrician had tested her for flu and prescribed the drug to everyone in her household, said her father, who asked that the family not be identified further for fear of alarming their neighbors. The family drove to Schneider from Brooklyn, saying they preferred it to their neighborhood hospitals . They were given a police escort after her father was stopped for running red lights and he told the officers that his daughter was sick. “The doctor listened to her breathing and told us to leave her alone, let her get back in bed,” Rachel’s mother said, as they left the hospital at about 11 p.m. The trip was worth it, just for peace of mind, Rachel and her parents agreed through their masks. Before midnight, admissions slowed to a trickle, and the swine flu greeter, Dr. Leibowitz, had slumped on a plastic chair. Her last flu case, a 12-year-old boy, arrived at 3:30 a.m. Half an hour later, she took off her greeter’s mask and signed out. But the patients kept coming.


Tom Coughlin, as Before, Insists on Looking Forward

Abstract: EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — At the end of team meetings the night before particularly big games, Giants Coach Tom Coughlin has tried to pump up his players by showing motivational material: footage of mixed martial arts fights. “He’s shown some good fights, guys getting beaten up pretty good,” tight end Kevin Boss said. “I didn’t even know if he was sure U.F.C. was in existence.” Whether it is martial arts videos or artful quotations, Coughlin, 64, has an array of inspirational tactics that he keeps in stock. It is one part of who he is, and his demeanor — fiery, occasionally funny, both straitlaced and surly — is certainly another. But overshadowing everything, perhaps, is that when he loses it a little bit, as he did last Sunday when he screamed at his young punter after the Giants’ nightmarish loss to the Eagles, he becomes controversial Coughlin all over again. When the Giants (9-5) face the Packers (8-6) in Green Bay on Sunday, they will be playing for a chance at a playoff berth. But they will also be trying to shake off that 38-31 loss to the Eagles, a game that left Coughlin stewing in a dark room for two hours and his players staggered. Whatever motivational gimmick Coughlin prepared for Saturday, his players could probably use it. At the same time they seemed ready, even eager, to push last week’s fiasco out of the way, and perhaps to get Coughlin back out of the spotlight. After all, they have precedent to go on. During Coughlin’s tenure with the Giants, his teams have often responded well to adversity, whether it was an improbable 2007 Super Bowl run or an abrupt turnaround earlier this season. So a victory in Green Bay would just be the latest comeback chapter in Coughlin’s run. It would ensure the Giants a wild-card spot, and it might get fans to stop brooding about DeSean Jackson’s game-ending 65-yard punt return, the play that left Coughlin yelling “Out of bounds!” at his rookie punter, Matt Dodge. A loss to the Packers, however, would clearly complicate matters. The Giants’ playoff fate would become uncertain, as would Coughlin’s footing with the franchise. When Coughlin arrived in 2004 after eight seasons with the Jacksonville Jaguars, he had built a reputation based on winning and strict discipline. He led the Jaguars to four playoff appearances, including two trips to the A.F.C. title game. But things did not start well with the Giants, and Coughlin reached a crossroad after compiling a 25-23 record in his first three seasons. His family was so unsure about whether he would be retained that when he returned home one night, two of his four grown children were there to greet him, simply to show their support. But Coughlin was able to partly reinvent himself. He took the team bowling in training camp. He smiled a little more. He laughed. He let the team practice without pads and showed more patience with reporters. But his coaching precepts and patterns have not really wavered. He works with metronome consistency, keeping his schedules the same, harping on things like teamwork and introducing motivational phrases in meetings. “We’re open; we’re focused,” Coughlin said last week. “All of the coaches are on the same page in terms of how we proceed throughout the week, and you just try to build that energy in always looking forward.” And while it doesn’t always work — after starting 5-0 in 2009, the Giants collapsed, losing 8 of their last 11 games — there is a pretty successful body of work for Coughlin and his defenders to point to. In 2006, after a 42-30 loss to the Seattle Seahawks, tight end Jeremy Shockey told reporters that the Giants were “outplayed and outcoached,” an unvarnished critique that threatened to divide the locker room. The Giants promptly won five in a row. In 2007, the Giants needed to claw into the playoffs, gaining entry as a wild-card team. They won three games on the road before toppling the undefeated New England Patriots in the Super Bowl. This season, the Giants won their opener but then dropped two in a row, seeming to continue the 2009 slide that had led the co-owner John Mara to put the franchise on notice. Once again, the Giants then won five straight. “It starts at the top, with Coach Coughlin,” the longtime center Shaun O’Hara said. “From there, it’s a trickle-down effect. I think our coaches and players do a great job absorbing that mind-set. That mind-set is we’re going to fight.” Or as defensive end Justin Tuck defiantly said last week: “We don’t care where we play, who we play and when we play. We just want to have an opportunity to play.” As the Giants prepared for the Packers last week, Coughlin made an effort to appear upbeat. He involved himself in the daily happenings for the different position groups, poking his head into the meeting rooms. As the week progressed, he insisted on looking forward, cutting off one reporter who tried to ask one more question related to the loss to the Eagles. “I think guys can lean on that example and recognize that this is a week-to-week existence,” Kevin Gilbride, the offensive coordinator, said of Coughlin’s determined behavior. “Your success or failure really is to a large measure controlled by your ability to learn from what happened and let it go and not be bogged down by it. I think he does a great job of making it difficult to continue to live in the past.” The forecast for Green Bay on Sunday is for temperatures in the 20s and possible snow flurries. Not as bad as the minus-23 wind chill when the Giants beat the Packers in overtime in January 2008 in the N.F.C. championship game. Nor is where Coughlin and the Giants now find themselves anywhere near as daunting as some past challenges. They have been this way before and prevailed.

Coughlin Tom
New York Giants
Green Bay Packers
Football
Philadelphia Eagles


U.S. Plans Border ‘Surge’ Against Any Drug Wars

Abstract: The soaring level of violence in Mexico resulting from the drug wars there has led the United States to develop plans for a “surge” of civilian and perhaps even military law enforcement should the bloodshed spread across the border, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Wednesday. Mr. Chertoff said the criminal activity in Mexico, which has caused more than 5,300 deaths in the last year, had long troubled American authorities. But it reached a point last summer, he said, where he ordered specific plans to confront in this country the kind of shootouts and other mayhem that in Mexico have killed members of warring drug cartels , law enforcement officials and bystanders, often not far from the border. “We completed a contingency plan for border violence, so if we did get a significant spillover, we have a surge — if I may use that word — capability to bring in not only our own assets but even to work with” the Defense Department, Mr. Chertoff said in a telephone interview. Officials of the Homeland Security Department said the plan called for aircraft, armored vehicles and special teams to converge on border trouble spots, with the size of the force depending on the scale of the problem. Military forces would be called upon if civilian agencies like the Border Patrol and local law enforcement were overwhelmed, but the officials said military involvement was considered unlikely. Mr. Chertoff has expressed concern in recent months about the violence in Mexico, but the contingency plan has not been publicly debated, and the department has made no announcement of it. Department officials said Mr. Chertoff had mentioned it only in passing. Aides to members of the House Homeland Security Committee, which oversees the department and has often clashed with Mr. Chertoff over his border policies, said Wednesday that they had heard little about the plan, though they welcomed it. “We support almost anything to secure our border,” said Dena Graziano, a spokeswoman for the committee. Mr. Chertoff said that he had advised Gov. Janet Napolitano of Arizona, nominated by President-elect Barack Obama to succeed him as homeland security secretary, that “I put helping Mexico get control of its borders and its organized crime problems” at the very top of the list of national security concerns. Ms. Napolitano’s confirmation hearing begins next week. Her office denied requests for an interview. In the wide-ranging interview with Mr. Chertoff, two weeks before he leaves office, he suggested that his controversial efforts to rapidly build a fence along nearly 700 miles of the Mexican border, as well as his bolstering the size of the Border Patrol, were part of the push to defend against drug violence, not just to control illegal immigration . “That’s another reason, frankly, why I have been insistent on putting in the infrastructure and fencing and stuff like that,” he said. “Because I don’t want, God forbid, if there is ever a spillover of significance, to have denied the Border Patrol anything they need to protect the lives and safety of American citizens.” He said the Border Patrol had reached a target of more than 18,000 agents by December, though some are still in training and not yet patrolling. Officials of the agents’ union contend that the rapid buildup, to a size double that of less than a decade ago, and the agency’s turnover have resulted in a largely inexperienced corps. Fencing has gone up on 580 miles of the 2,000-mile border, short of the planned 661 miles, but Mr. Chertoff said he expected it to reach the final mark sometime in the coming months. And though he said he regretted not seeking more advice initially from the Border Patrol on developing the “virtual fence,” the much-publicized and much-delayed system of cameras and sensors to supplement border personnel, Mr. Chertoff predicted that it would gain widespread use in the coming years. Mr. Chertoff said the department’s efforts to increase enforcement at the border and conduct immigration raids at workplaces had led to the lowest level of illegal immigration in decades, though he acknowledged that the recession had also had an impact on the number of illegal border crossings. He expressed no regret over the department’s tactics, often criticized by immigrants’ advocates as draconian and a cause of family separation, and disputed critics who suggest that the department is sprawling and in need of “reform.” Mr. Obama used that word in introducing Ms. Napolitano and describing what she would bring to the job of overseeing a department created in 2003 out of 22 agencies and now employing more than 200,000 people, making it the third-largest cabinet-level department. There has been speculation in Washington that the Obama administration will reinstate the Federal Emergency Management Agency as an independent body outside of the department. But Mr. Chertoff said that as part of the Homeland Security apparatus, FEMA had redeemed itself after an admittedly poor response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005. He pointed to more recent disaster responses, including the generally praised federal reaction to Hurricane Gustav on the Gulf Coast last summer. “What I would not do,” he said, “is start to monkey around with the major working parts, because that is only going to set us back.”

Mexico
United States
Homeland Security Department
Drug Abuse and Traffic
Border Patrol (US)
Crime and Criminals
Immigration and Refugees


David Makol, Known for Pursuit of Insider Trading Cases While at F.B.I., Joins S.E.C.

Abstract: Before David Makol scared insider trading suspects into cooperating with the F.B.I. , and long before he helped investigate the Boston Marathon bombing, he was a low-level examiner at the Securities and Exchange Commission . Now, after more than a decade as an F.B.I. agent, he is back at the S.E.C. Mr. Makol, 44, rejoined the S.E.C. last month as a forensic accountant in its market-abuse unit, according to agency officials. As he did at the F.B.I., where he was known to warn suspects that he “would be watching,” Mr. Makol will investigate insider trading. His move is an unusual twist on the so-called revolving door. While the typical path through that metaphorical portal leads to lucrative jobs at law firms and auditors, Mr. Makol has instead jumped from one federal agency to another. Or, as one former colleague put it, rather than cashing out, “he gets to stay on Team America.” Still, the salary might have been a draw to the S.E.C. Although the thought of joining a government agency in part for money might sound laughable, a senior F.B.I. agent’s salary maxes out around $150,000, while the S.E.C. can pay more than $200,000. And unlike at the F.B.I., Mr. Makol, who has a 7-year-old son, will now rarely have to travel from his home base of Boston. Mr. Makol, who grew up in Springfield, Mass., as the son of a forklift operator, has arrived at a crucial period for the S.E.C. market-abuse unit. The unit, run by the S.E.C. veteran Daniel M. Hawke, is tasked with investigating some of the most prominent yet least understood corners of the financial markets, including high-frequency trading and the private stock trading systems known as dark pools. The unit, which recently filed cases against the Swiss banking giant UBS and the trading platform Direct Edge, worked alongside the F.B.I. and federal prosecutors on the insider trading crackdown that swept through Wall Street the last few years. “David Makol had an outstanding career with the F.B.I., working in parallel with us on pathbreaking insider-trading cases,” Andrew J. Ceresney, the agency’s enforcement chief, said in a statement. “We are delighted that he has decided to rejoin us.” Mr. Makol declined to comment. According to his colleagues, Mr. Makol once pursued a career in finance, gaining experience at Fidelity. He then earned an M.B.A. In the early 2000s, after roughly two years at the S.E.C., he joined the F.B.I. in New York, where he helped drive the insider trading inquiries. Mr. Makol, known to arrive at work at 4:30 a.m., specialized in the art of the flip, coaxing suspects into cooperating against their colleagues. It became a central component of the insider trading investigations that led to more than 80 convictions. Mr. Makol is credited with turning David Slaine, a former trader at the hedge fund Galleon Group, into a cooperating witness. Mr. Slaine provided critical evidence that enabled federal authorities to place wiretaps on phones used by the Galleon co-founder Raj Rajaratnam, who was eventually convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison. “He’d watch them from the minute they’d put their kids on the school bus,” recalled David A. Chaves, the F.B.I. agent who supervised Mr. Makol. “He’d follow them on the train on their way to work. He was relentless at understanding these people, probably better than they understood themselves.” But not every suspect flipped, and some defense lawyers complained that the F.B.I. would pounce at their clients’ most vulnerable moments. F.B.I. overtures to John Kinnucan, who ran Broadband Research, backfired when he sent an email to clients alerting them to an investigation. Mr. Kinnucan’s email, in which he mocked Mr. Makol and another agent as “eager beavers,” effectively halted certain undercover investigations. (Despite his taunts, Mr. Kinnucan eventually pleaded guilty.) And Jonathan Hollander balked when Mr. Makol tried to turn him against his former employer, the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors. It was not for a lack of trying. After confronting Mr. Hollander outside an Equinox gym, people briefed on the matter said, F.B.I. agents showed him a sheet of paper with pictures of employees at SAC, which the agents likened to a criminal enterprise. Eventually, as the insider trading investigation waned, Mr. Makol transferred to the F.B.I. office in Boston, where he continued to work insider cases. He also led a team of investigators searching for suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing. And even now that he has joined the S.E.C., a token of his F.B.I. cases remains: Some of his insider trading cooperators still send him holiday cards.


Syria Fires Official Who Tried to Broker Peace

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Syrian government on Tuesday fired a deputy prime minister who has lately been its most outspoken voice in favor of reform and who recently held meetings with American and Russian officials about peace talks that world leaders are trying to arrange to end Syria’s civil war. The official, Qadri Jamil, was dismissed for spending too much time outside Syria, neglecting his duties and holding meetings “without coordinating with the government,” state television said. Mr. Jamil was fired shortly after he told the Russian news media that he had met with United States officials. Meetings between Syrian and American officials have been rare since the Syrian uprising began in 2011. A State Department spokeswoman confirmed on Tuesday that the United States ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford, met with Mr. Jamil on Saturday in Geneva, calling the encounter one in “a long list” of meetings with people directly or indirectly connected to the Syrian government to discuss the potential peace talks. Mr. Jamil, a Soviet-educated economist, was one of two members of tolerated opposition parties appointed to the government last year in a move billed as broadening its base. In an interview last month in Damascus, the Syrian capital, he blamed corrupt people on both sides for prolonging the war, and he said that despite his post, he was part of the “patriotic opposition,” which has not supported the armed uprising. Behind the scenes, American and Russian officials have been meeting with Syrians inside and outside government to set up the planned talks. But there is little sign of movement, with the main exile opposition group demanding the departure of President Bashar al-Assad as a precondition and Mr. Assad saying he will not talk with those bearing arms against him. The State Department spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, said the firing did not represent any broader message about the Syrian government’s willingness to participate. But opposition activists called it a ploy that would allow Russia to present Mr. Jamil as a representative of the opposition during peace talks. And analysts said it could be a strong warning that Mr. Assad planned to remain fully in control of any peace talks or political transition — a message delivered as Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint United Nations-Arab League envoy on Syria, visits Damascus to try to catalyze a peace process. Randa Slim, a Syria expert at the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington, said the firing of Mr. Jamil served to remind the United States and Russia that any peace talks “must go through Assad.” “Sacking Qadri Jamil is also a sign of how strong #Assad feels today,” Ms. Slim posted on Twitter . “Jamil was very much #Russia’s man.” Analysts in the region and supporters and opponents of Mr. Assad alike say that with the Syrian government holding its own and the rebels divided, it appears increasingly likely that the talks, if they take place, will work toward a deal in which Mr. Assad stays on, at least for an initial transition phase. Image Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil was fired Tuesday, three days after he met with the United States ambassador to Syria, Robert S. Ford, in Geneva. Credit Hassan Ammar/Associated Press Mr. Jamil, speaking from Moscow to the Lebanese television channel Al Mayadeen after being fired Tuesday, said that his disagreements with the government were mild and declared that the demand for Mr. Assad to step down was “crippling” the dialogue before it could start. “The idea of Assad stepping down is out of the question,” he said. Mr. Jamil said it made little sense for the government, which has said it will attend the Geneva talks, to blame him for meeting with the talks’ sponsors, adding that he was working to “end the blood bath in Syria.” But he said that while he did not want to work with the Syrian government as a full-time partisan, he would go to Geneva as part of a loyal opposition and would eventually return to Syria. At their meeting last week, Mr. Jamil tried unsuccessfully to persuade Mr. Ford to allow him to attend the meeting as an opposition member, Reuters reported, citing a Middle Eastern official. Neither the armed opposition nor the main umbrella group for the nonviolent opposition, the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change, accept Mr. Jamil as an opposition member. And in recent weeks, he had been stripped of his economic portfolio and scapegoated by state-controlled media for Syria’s inflation and food and fuel shortages. In another move that appeared aimed at positioning the government for Geneva, Mr. Assad on Tuesday issued an amnesty lifting criminal penalties for those who deserted the army, provided they turn themselves in and rejoin the service within 30 days if they are in Syria and 60 if they are abroad. While the government says small numbers of fighters have accepted amnesties, fighters and opposition activists said the offer was unlikely to win broad acceptance. Ryan C. Crocker, a former United States ambassador to Syria, called the deal “a good gambit before Geneva, if it ever happens.” “It would require the opposition to admit to being criminals, which of course they won’t do,” he said, adding that Mr. Assad could then argue, “They had their chance and must be pursued as unrepentant enemies of the state.” Maher, a former Syrian political prisoner who is now in Lebanon and gave only his first name for fear of reprisals, said in a telephone interview that such an amnesty, if accepted, would be “a coronation of Assad’s victory over the revolution.” But many Syrians are still cautiously exploring deals to ease the bloodshed. The persistence — and fragility — of such attempts was underscored again on Tuesday as hundreds more civilians left the Damascus suburb of Moadhamiya , which has been blockaded for months by the government. They departed under a cease-fire brokered between rebels there and a delegation including a Roman Catholic nun and Syria’s minister of social affairs. But within hours, residents of Moadhamiya were reporting that scores of evacuees had been immediately detained at a nearby military base.

Syria
Qadri Jamil
Bashar al-Assad
Military
Arab Spring


Knicks Rest Several Starters Against Celtics

Abstract: ALBANY — Knicks Coach Mike Woodson had conflicting thoughts. Before Saturday’s preseason game against the Boston Celtics , Woodson declared there was no reason to play the veterans Amar’e Stoudemire, Carmelo Anthony , Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd in the second of back-to-back games. Two minutes later, Woodson acknowledged that his starters needed more time on the court to develop chemistry. With the regular season set to begin, the Knicks — who lost, 109-98, to the Celtics on Saturday — have a growing concern: they have yet to have all five of their projected starters play together. “I haven’t had an opportunity to have them on the floor,” Woodson said. “It’s not life and death, but it’s important. I want to get a feel for what I have in terms of rotations, and I don’t have that yet.” Woodson understands his players need rest; the Knicks are the oldest team in N.B.A. history , after all. But he also needs his team to be ready for its season opener, on Nov. 1 against the Nets. Injures have forced Woodson to be especially cautious with his players. Ronnie Brewer, who was expected to start at shooting guard, has not scrimmaged since having arthroscopic knee surgery six weeks ago. Stoudemire, who missed two preseason games with a left knee bruise, played his first game Friday, against the Toronto Raptors in Montreal. Woodson made sure not to push Stoudemire’s knee on Saturday: he and Brewer — as well as Anthony, Chandler and Kidd — were held out of the game. Now, Woodson has two preseason games left for his starting lineup to get into a rhythm — and that is assuming Brewer is healthy enough to play Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers. “If he tells me he’s fine,” Woodson said of Brewer, “I’m going to play him on Monday.” It is unusual for N.B.A. teams to practice amid a stretch of three games in four nights, but Woodson is making the Knicks hit the court, mostly because Brewer needs to participate in drills. “My knee feels pretty good,” said Brewer, who ran before Saturday’s game. “I’m trying to get back in shape. I just want to play with confidence in the scrimmage.” Woodson spoke with urgency after Saturday’s loss about having his other starters play with Brewer in the preseason. “We just have to get some work time on the floor together where they know each other,” Woodson said. The Knicks already have several areas in which they can improve before the regular season starts. They did not do a good job of getting back on defense in transition Friday against the Raptors, who had 16 fast-break points, and they did not rebound the ball well, either. Woodson, a coach known to focus more on defense, says it is essential that his starters get more time to practice their defensive assignments. On offense, Stoudemire needs more minutes to work on the low-post moves he learned this summer from Hakeem Olajuwon. Woodson also wants Stoudemire to go through more conditioning drills after he missed five practices because of his knee injury. “It’ll come,” Woodson said of Stoudemire’s scoring in the low post. “When you’re doing something new like that, you’re so anxious to make something happen, and a lot of times it’s not there.” Woodson said his reserves had played better than his starters for the majority of the preseason. “If you notice in that second unit, when they get out there, the ball just moves freely,” Woodson said. “I have to get that first unit to think like that.” If all five starters are not able to play Wednesday against the Nets, in the Knicks’ final preseason game, Woodson will be left with only a week of practices, in which the scrimmages will not come close to the speed of a game, to get his top players in sync with one another. “I should have everybody back and ready to go,” Woodson said of Wednesday’s game. “If they tell me the guys are hurting and can’t go, then we have to go to plan B.”

Boston Celtics
New York Knicks
Woodson Mike
Stoudemire Amar'e
Anthony Carmelo
Kidd Jason
Basketball


Hedge Fund Manager Found and Jailed in Fraud

Abstract: FRANKFURT — Florian Homm, a flamboyant former hedge fund manager who spent the last five years in hiding, was arrested in Italy and faces extradition to the United States on securities fraud charges which could expose him to a lengthy prison sentence, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. The Italian police arrested Mr. Homm, a 53-year-old German who holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Harvard University, on Friday at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, the F.B.I. said. Mr. Homm is accused of defrauding investors of at least $200 million, the F.B.I. said. The most serious of the four felony charges carry maximum sentences of 25 years in prison. Mr. Homm was one of Germany’s best-known financiers before he disappeared in 2007 as his portfolio of hedge funds, Absolute Capital Management Holdings, was collapsing. Until then, Mr. Homm had been a symbol of predatory capitalism in Germany. In 2004, he bought 26 percent of Borussia Dortmund, a beloved but nearly bankrupt soccer team, and forced management changes. Mr. Homm seemed to relish his role as a so-called locust — the label one German politician gave to buyout firms — appearing on German television talk shows holding a fat Cuban cigar or posing for photographs in front of his villa on the Spanish island of Majorca. Since 2011, Mr. Homm has been the target of a civil suit by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which accused him of manipulating share prices by buying and selling thinly traded shares between entities he controlled. Last week, prosecutors in Los Angeles filed criminal charges against Mr. Homm based on the same circumstances. The Italian police arrested Mr. Homm at the request of the U.S. authorities. According to the F.B.I., Mr. Homm earned commissions as a result of trades between a broker in which he owned a stake and the hedge fund. The trades inflated the prices of penny stocks and made Absolute Capital Management look more valuable than it was, the F.B.I. said in a statement, in a practice known as “portfolio pumping.” Mr. Homm and people he worked with are accused of earning $53 million through the scheme. Mr. Homm faces charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit securities fraud, and securities fraud. In a telephone interview in November, Mr. Homm admitted he had behaved badly and committed many sins. “I’ve always said I’ve been a rogue operator in much of my life,” he said. But he said his fund, which at one point had $2 billion under management, was highly profitable for investors most of the time. The charges against him were based on lies told by former associates, Mr. Homm said. Prior to his arrest he had been contesting the civil suit filed by the S.E.C. Mr. Homm resigned as head of Absolute Capital in the middle of the night on Sept. 18, 2007. By his own account, he boarded a private plane in Majorca, his Calvin Klein underwear stuffed with cash, and made his way to Colombia, where he lived under an assumed name. But Mr. Homm said he was never a fugitive. He said he dropped from view because he wanted to find himself, and also because some dubious people with whom he had done business were trying to kill him. Mr. Homm reappeared in November when he gave clandestine media interviews to promote a book he wrote, “Rogue Financier: The Adventures of an Estranged Capitalist.” The book was intended as a cautionary tale, Mr. Homm said in a November telephone interview. “The pursuit of happiness is not correlated with the pursuit of money,” he said. In the book and interview, Mr. Homm insisted he was no longer the same person who once owned a stake in a Berlin brothel and lived in a $5 million residence on Majorca with a Russian table dancer. He said he prayed daily and was devoting his energy to charity work. Given Mr. Homm’s flair for drama, it was perhaps fitting that he was arrested at the Uffizi Gallery, famous for an exquisite collection that includes works by Michelangelo, Rubens, Tintoretto and Rembrandt. At the time, he was accompanied by his ex-wife and son, according to the Italian news agency ANSA. But it is unclear why Mr. Homm, who is 201 centimeters, or 6 feet 7 inches, tall and something of a celebrity in Germany, would appear in a place where there are many German tourists and he was likely to be recognized. Mr. Homm’s lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Hedge fund
Florian Homm
Italy
Securities fraud


Bloomberg Criticized for Storm Response in City Tour

Abstract: On Thursday, the fourth day after the blizzard that inundated New York, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg toured the city and took his lumps. The mayor visited the four boroughs beyond Manhattan, delivering the message that every street had been plowed and every stranded car and bus would soon be pulled or pushed out of the mire. But this was hardly a victory tour. At each stop, Mr. Bloomberg admitted that his administration had failed to respond adequately to the storm that struck on Sunday, and everywhere he went, officials heaped more criticism upon him. After the mayor appeared at a home in Marine Park, Brooklyn, on Thursday morning, the borough president, Marty Markowitz , said that “the city handled this horribly” and that the City Council should investigate why it took more than three days to clear many streets. When Mr. Bloomberg arrived in Queens for a news conference, the borough president, Helen M. Marshall, was waiting to tell him that the local bus routes should have been cleared first. “Nearly every single community has called and said, ‘Where is the plow?’ ” Ms. Marshall said as the mayor was trying to leave. In the Bronx, James Vacca, a councilman who had lunch with the mayor at George’s restaurant in Pelham Bay, said “something definitely went wrong here.” Mr. Vacca criticized the mayor for designating residential streets a low priority to be cleared, because those “tertiary streets are tax-paying streets.” So it went for the mayor for much of the day. Despite the concessionary tone he had adopted on Wednesday, New Yorkers were in no mood to spare him their harsh sentiments as they continued trudging through the slushy residue of the blizzard, the sixth-worst snowstorm in the city’s history. Mr. Bloomberg said he was still unsure of the reasons behind the delays in cleanup and again promised there would be a “thorough review.” But he and the sanitation commissioner, John J. Doherty , dismissed widespread speculation of a slowdown by plowing crews upset about cutbacks in their department. “As of now, I can’t confirm that, and I have no reason to,” Mr. Doherty said, standing next to the mayor in a recreation center in South Jamaica, Queens. Gov. David A. Paterson suggested in a radio interview on Thursday that there should be an inquiry into the allegations of a slowdown. Later in the day, Harry Nespoli, president of the Uniformed Sanitationmen’s Association, said he would welcome any such investigation, adding that the problem was not with the hard work of his union members, but with the lack of workers. “We didn’t have enough manpower,” Mr. Nespoli said. “The whole force was working.” The city had deployed about 1,600 plows and other pieces of snow-moving equipment on Thursday, as well as about 2,000 day laborers with shovels, Mr. Bloomberg said. To ensure that no street had been overlooked by the plows, the mayor said, a “three-star chief” of the Sanitation Department had been using binoculars to monitor their progress from a helicopter. Still, many city residents complained on Thursday that the city’s promise to have every street plowed by 7 a.m. had not been met on their blocks. On Union Street in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, relieved residents gathered around 11 a.m. — shortly before the mayor spoke in Queens — to watch an orange plow clear a block between Brooklyn and Kingston Avenues, while neighbors on the next block, which was still covered, looked on enviously. After having breakfast on Staten Island, Mr. Bloomberg went to Brooklyn to pay a visit to the home of Mary Lyons, a former opera singer who still teaches music in Marine Park. Ms. Lyons said her street, Fillmore Avenue, was always one of the first to be plowed because it led away from a firehouse on Flatbush Avenue. “The street gets plowed out but the cars get plowed in,” she said. Yet Ms. Lyons, who said her advanced age was a “military secret,” still needed help from several of her neighbors, who shoveled the snow away from her doorstep and dug her car out of a drift the plows had created. Among those who helped was Ryan Merola, 25, who had been visiting his family around the corner during a break from studying for a master’s degree in violence and terrorism at Queen’s University in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Mr. Merola told someone he knew on the mayor’s staff about assisting Ms. Lyons. He said he had seen plows try to clear the frozen streets, but they had failed. “They were completely useless because there was no salt on the ground,” Mr. Merola said. The city’s poor preparation perplexed Ms. Lyons, who said that she had known as early as 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, when she had spied the first “little tiny, fine, fine flakes,” that a large snowstorm was coming. “People just disregarded it,” she said. Mr. Markowitz, the Brooklyn borough president, who joined the mayor in Ms. Lyons’s living room, said some nearby streets had received less attention. He said a member of his staff lived on another block in Marine Park that had not been not plowed until Thursday morning. “All of us, we’ve all failed the city of New York,” Mr. Markowitz said. “The folks that are angry are absolutely justified in their anger.” In Astoria, Queens, the anger was typified by a curbside mound of snow that resembled a miniature Matterhorn; at its base, someone had left a sign bearing a hostile suggestion about the mayor. Nearby, residents were focused on the next looming annoyance: all the bags of trash that had been accumulating since before Christmas. Pradeep Mady, 35, an engineer who works out of his apartment on 42nd Street in Astoria, said his neighbors had not been hauling their trash downstairs “because there’s trash from a week ago still on the sidewalk.” But if they do not put their trash out soon, the building will start to smell. “The fallout from all of this trash buildup, I don’t know what it will be,” he said, “but it’s definitely not going to be pleasant.”

Snow and Snowstorms
Markowitz Marty
Doherty John J
Bloomberg Michael R
New York City