Congregation Tifereth Israel in Corona, Queens, is Restored and Rededicated

Abstract: Twenty years ago, it seemed that Congregation Tifereth Israel in Corona, thought to be the oldest synagogue in Queens , was headed for a date with a wrecking ball. Its Ashkenazi Jewish congregation — whose early members included the teenager who would become Estée Lauder — had dwindled to just a few. The wooden building, coated in 1929 with an unfortunate blanket of stucco, was in disrepair. But in the late 1990s, a charismatic kosher butcher and rabbi from Central Asia moved to the area and slowly transformed the synagogue into the spiritual home of a community of impoverished Bukharan Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet Union. Soon, the rabbi’s wife figured out that in America, there was a way to save such a historic building. Esther Khaimov, the rabbi’s wife, called the New York Landmarks Conservancy for help and combed through city records to find the building’s original 1911 architectural plans, according to Ann-Isabel Friedman, who guided the project for the conservancy. After years of work, the building was given city landmark status in 2008 and then raised enough state, city and private grants to pay for a $1.6 million exterior renovation. On Wednesday, Mrs. Khaimov and her husband, Rabbi Amnon Khaimov , helped preside over a ribbon cutting for their restored synagogue. At 5 p.m. Rabbi Khaimov nailed the final nail into a mezuza, the ritual prayer scroll Jews affix to entranceways, on the synagogue’s front door frame. There is still no boiler in the building — that might have to wait until next year — but the restored siding glows sky blue, and the decorative ornament at its gabled parapet, at one point lost to time, is back in gleaming gold. “I believe that the best miracles are the miracles we make with our own hands, and this is such a miracle,” Rimma Kharlamov, the coordinator of the Council of Jewish Émigré Community Organizations , said while standing before the bimah, the raised prayer dais in the middle of the sanctuary. The synagogue was built a century ago by a congregation of Jews who had moved to Corona from the Lower East Side. Even though the Queens site was surrounded by open space, the congregation chose to construct a long, narrow two-story building, much like the synagogues that had been crammed between tenements and commercial buildings in their old neighborhood. By the 1960s, Corona’s Jews began to move away, and over the decades, the area became one of the city’s most diverse, with African, Chinese, Mexican, Filipino and Puerto Rican residents, among others. The yeshiva affiliated with Tifereth Israel was shuttered and converted into a basic residence and music studio where Madonna lived briefly in the late 1970s, the conservancy said. Rabbi Khaimov moved into the neighborhood in about 1997, saying he wanted to be with the poor, instead of the more successful Bukharan community flourishing in nearby Lefrak City. He held prayers in his living room and then the basement of Tifereth Israel, amid peeling paint and no heat. But the old guard at the synagogue did not like what felt like a takeover by Bukhori-speaking strangers with very different ways of praying. The last remaining member locked them out, until ordered to allow them back. There were termites in the basement and rotting window frames that let snow in, Ms. Friedman said. But the building began winning preservation grants to restore its roof and exterior beginning in the early 2000s, including about $400,000 from the state and $1.1 million from the Queens borough president’s office. Repairs had to be done “four feet at a time” because the building was so structurally unsound, said Richard Loduca, who along with Barry Lipsky served as general contractor for the site. Its unusual window components, like Alaskan cedar and pebbled, amber-toned Florentine glass, had to be procured from far-flung corners of the country. Its decorative cornice was missing chunks; some them replaced with auto-body putty and fiberglass. The light blue color was deduced by analyzing faded paint chips once hidden under the stucco, since the only photo of the original, taken in 1939, was in black and white. That photo revealed a Jewish star at the building’s crown that was long gone. It has been replaced. The inside, however, has not been restored. The paint puckers on the ceilings, chunks of plaster are missing from the walls and only a fragment of a floral fresco remains on one wall. At the ceremony, Helen M. Marshall, the Queens borough president, said that because of rules separating church and state, work on the interior could not be financed as part of the project. The synagogue is now trying to raise money to fix the dilapidated sanctuary. The community, at a height of around 200 families when the rabbi arrived in the ’90s, has dwindled considerably, his wife said. Corona is now a predominately Latino community. Mrs. Khaimov said she hoped the restored house of worship would attract more congregants. “We hope to build community,” she said, standing in the foyer of the synagogue. “We will start again.”

Synagogues
New York Landmarks Conservancy
Historic Buildings and Sites
Jews and Judaism
Restoration and Renovation
Corona (NYC)
New York City


Georgia Tech Fires Coach

Abstract: Georgia Tech fired its men’s basketball coach, Brian Gregory, less than 48 hours after a disappointing season ended in the N.I.T. Gregory had a record of 76-86, including a 27-61 mark in the Atlantic Coast Conference. ■ Stanford hired Jerod Haase, formerly the University of Alabama at Birmingham’s coach, as its new coach, a week and a half after firing Johnny Dawkins. U.A.B. reached the N.C.A.A. tournament last year, then lost in the first round of the N.I.T. this season.

Coaches
College basketball
Georgia Institute of Technology


Hong Kong Retailers Plan for One Holiday and Two Worlds

Abstract: HONG KONG — To prepare for the National Day holiday, retailers here have been stocking up on merchandise like designer bags, gold jewelry — and banned books. Big downtown bookstores and airport kiosks alike carry paperbacks detailing the latest gossip about Communist Party cadres. More serious fare can be found at the city’s tiny “upstairs” political bookstores tucked above ground-floor storefronts. Inside are stacks of books on the Cultural Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989 and almost everything else Beijing does not want people reading. Twelve years after Hong Kong passed from British to Chinese rule, the territory retains many freedoms unknown in mainland China , an arrangement called “ one country, two systems .” In particular, political writings censored in the mainland circulate widely here, and they are hot souvenirs among the nearly 17 million mainland tourists who visit here every year. “The more mainland customers we had, the more we realized that they wanted things they couldn’t get back home,” said Lai Pok, a staff member at the People’s Recreation Community bookstore , which shares its abbreviation with the People’s Republic of China. “Now we specialize in Hong Kong-published books that are banned on the mainland. The business is better.” Next to a promotional poster of “ Prisoner of the State: The Secret Journal of Premier Zhao Ziyang ” — detailing the political struggles leading up to the Tiananmen Square crackdown — were tubs of imported Japanese baby formula, a popular tourist buy after the scandal over Chinese melamine -tainted dairy products last year. Mainland tourists can also exchange currency, check their e-mail and sip a caramel mocha latte. At the nearby Causeway Bay Bookstore, Lam Wing-kee was unloading new titles on President Hu Jintao and other Chinese leaders. “We probably get two new titles a week, mostly political, and mostly from Hong Kong publishers,” said Mr. Lam, who has been running his shop for almost 15 years. When asked to point out a book that was banned in mainland China, Mr. Lam paused and plucked a slim volume out of a large selection. “Here,” he said with a laugh. “It’s the only one in that pile that is actually allowed.” Still, even given Hong Kong’s legal freedoms, the publishing industry feels some limitations that filter through from the mainland. The publisher of the Chinese-language edition of the Zhao secret journal, New Century Press, ran into difficulties recently with another controversial book, “Chinese Civilization Revisited,” by Xiao Jiansheng, a newspaper editor in Hunan Province. The book retells Chinese history from a modern perspective, emphasizing democracy and pluralism. According to New Century’s editor, the rights activist Bao Pu, the book was originally to be published last year by the Social Science Academic Press, which is based on the mainland and affiliated with the state Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The manuscript was edited, the cover was designed and it was being advertised online. Then it was pulled. In August, Mr. Bao and the author discussed publishing it in Hong Kong instead, and they agreed on a release date just before the National Day holiday. Less than a month ago, Mr. Bao said, he got a telephone call from Mr. Xiao. “He was under some pressure from the authorities,” Mr. Bao said. A government official went to the offices of the newspaper where Mr. Xiao worked, and his boss spoke to him about the issue as well. Mr. Xiao was warned that Mr. Bao was using him to “ruin National Day celebrations.” “It’s true that I wanted to get the book out before Oct. 1,” Mr. Bao said. “But it wasn’t to crush National Day celebrations. As a businessman, I simply timed it to when there would be the most buyers in town. “It’s strange, as a Hong Kong publisher, to be in the same sort of situation that a mainland publisher might be in,” he said. “We’re under similar pressure because I don’t want the author to get into trouble.” The two men finally decided to go forward with publishing anyway. The book came out on Friday. Mr. Bao has had considerable experience with mainland pressures. His father, Bao Tong, who was one of Mr. Zhao’s top aides , has been under police surveillance for years. Beijing tightly controls whether Bao Pu is given visas to visit his family on the mainland. One of the bigger players in the industry is Mirror Books, which was founded in Canada in 1991 and is now based in the United States. Mirror has published more than 200 volumes on Chinese politics and history. Its creator, Ho Pin, a Hunan Province native who once worked for Chinese state media, said, “Our books are the most popular secret reading materials in China. “If the Chinese government bans a book,” he said, in a telephone interview from New York, “it’s like they’re informing all of their officials that Mirror has another new title worth reading.” The mainland authorities, he said, “aren’t going to fine or arrest an individual” caught with a banned book. “The worst that would happen is that the book will be confiscated,” he said, “and it’s probably because the customs staff want to read it themselves.”

Hong Kong
China
Zhao Ziyang
Hu Jintao
History
Books and Literature


Belgium: Parliament Passes Burqa Ban

Abstract: The lower house of Parliament overwhelmingly backed a measure on Thursday that would ban burqa -type Islamic dress in public. The bill must be passed by the senate in order to become law.

Belgium
Muslim Veiling
Legislatures and Parliaments
Politics and Government


Tax Preparers Targeting Poor With High Fees

Abstract: BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — In December, they begin showing up in empty storefronts in neighborhoods where empty storefronts are easy to come by. Cars with phone numbers brightly displayed on the doors roll down the streets, and signs pop up along the sidewalks promising fast money. For millions of low-income Americans, tax season means the biggest one-time influx of money all year. It also means the annual sprouting of commercial tax preparers: some of them big-name franchises, some mom-and-pops and some, as 20-year-old Brittany Dixon discovered this year, shockingly expensive. Ms. Dixon, a supermarket cashier and college student, took her tax documents — a W-2 form and some education expenses — to the first place she saw, in a storefront near the interstate. The preparation took about a half-hour, and Ms. Dixon was told the amount of her refund — and that she would be charged nearly $400, about a quarter of the total, in fees. She told the preparer not to file, she said, and found a service willing to do her taxes at no cost. But by then, the first preparer had already filed and taken its cut. “That was my whole car note,” Ms. Dixon said. There are as many as 1.2 million tax preparers nationwide, and reports have shown that a large majority of customers felt they were well served by their tax preparers. But with almost no regulation in the tax preparation industry and a tax code that is forbiddingly complex, the billions flowing into low-income households this time of year, primarily in the form of the earned-income tax credit, present a ripe target for the unscrupulous. Stephen Black, the director of Impact Alabama , a nonprofit based at the University of Alabama that trains college students to provide free tax help, said his volunteers routinely saw low-income taxpayers who had paid hundreds of dollars to commercial preparers, often for inaccurate returns, and were often unaware that the prices are excessive. “Exorbitant pricing is rampant,” he said. Mr. Black and many consumer advocates have been pushing for years for more oversight of tax preparation, describing a range of problems from excessive fees to incompetence to outright fraud . On Tuesday, the Senate Finance Committee will hold a hearing on the issue, which Senator Ron Wyden described as a priority for him as committee chairman. Image Brittany Dixon, a supermarket cashier and college student, was charged nearly $400 in fees by a storefront tax preparer in Alabama. Credit Bob Miller for The New York Times “I’m open to a variety of different approaches for how to do this,” said Mr. Wyden, a Democrat, whose home state of Oregon is one of four that have regulatory requirements for preparers. “But there should be a floor of basic consumer protection and fairness.” The tax-preparation business has been bumping up against the government frequently in recent years. After prolonged efforts by federal regulators, the once-prolific refund anticipation loan, a kind of cash advance that often came with staggeringly high interest rates, has become all but extinct . And last fall, the owners of two national chains aimed at low-income customers — Mo’ Money Taxes, of Memphis, and Instant Tax Service, of Dayton, Ohio — were permanently barred from the business after being charged with a litany of abuses, including encouraging fraudulent tax returns and charging “deceptive and unconscionable” fees. But one of the federal government’s most aggressive efforts did not fare so well. In 2009, the Internal Revenue Service introduced a plan to require tests, continuing education and registration for tax preparers. Some professional groups and tax preparation businesses, like H&R Block, supported the rules, but many small tax preparers denounced them as unfair and protectionist. “How can you tell me who can fill out my income tax?” asked Albert Turner Jr., a tax preparer in rural Perry County, Ala., which once had one of the country’s highest rates of refund loan use. He said concerns about fraud were overblown given ever stricter documentation requirements. “Each year it’s getting tighter and tighter,” Mr. Turner said. “It’s hard to defraud the government now.” Last year, a federal court ruled that the I.R.S. had overstepped its authority in mandating the new regulatory regime, a decision affirmed by an appeals court this February. Supporters of the rulings said the rules would have done little to stop unscrupulous tax preparers anyway. “The solution to the predatory pricing issue is more competition, not less competition,” said Dan Alban, a lawyer at the Institute for Justice who represented tax preparers who sued over the regulations. “We shouldn’t be forcing hundreds of thousands of people out of business with these burdensome regulations that aren’t being imposed on them because of anything they’ve done that’s wrong, but because there are a few bad apples we’re trying to catch.” The challenge for many customers is telling the bad apples from the good. A majority of earned-income tax credit filers use preparers, according to a report by the I.R.S.’s taxpayer advocate , but only about a quarter of those preparers are certified public accountants, lawyers or federally licensed tax specialists. Prices are often not disclosed up front, and many places do not mention the option of paying fees separately, rather than having them automatically, and more discreetly, deducted from the refund. “It’s one of these areas where normal market forces just don’t work,” said Brett Theodos, a senior research associate at the Urban Institute . “You don’t have competition to modulate prices because of the lack of transparency.” Image A temporary sign rose at a Birmingham strip mall. Credit Bob Miller for The New York Times The federal focus has been on fraud and incompetence rather than prices, and while Mr. Wyden said “the lines blur,” opponents of new regulations question how much overlap there is between the two issues. Some consumer advocates have proposed fee disclosure requirements , while others have suggested caps on how much money can be deducted directly from a refund. There are plenty of stories here in Alabama of tax fraud in which the taxpayer is complicit. There are also many in which taxpayers find out only after being audited that their refunds had been fraudulently inflated by preparers, who since then has disappeared. “A lot of times they don’t even sign it,” Mr. Black said. Cedrick R., 57, who did not want to give his full name because he was embarrassed about his predicament, learned from a volunteer in Mr. Black’s organization this year that his preparer, who worked out of a strip mall near Tuscaloosa, Ala., had been claiming a full-time college credit on his returns, inflating his refund and taking half for herself. “I didn’t get any paperwork,” he said, adding that the preparer had stopped returning calls after he asked about the discrepancy. Nicole Todd, 40, a mother of three who works at the Y.W.C.A. in Birmingham, said her brother had a similar experience involving falsely claimed school credits. Ms. Todd considered herself a savvy consumer, at least until a couple of years ago. On the recommendation of a friend, she went to an office set up in a building between an oil-change place and a pawnshop. “They said they’d give you the hookup,” she said. “That’s what they called it.” After a half-hour of work, the preparer told Ms. Todd that she would be receiving a refund of just over $6,000. Happy with the payout, Ms. Todd looked through the sheaf of papers only later to find the fees that had been discreetly subtracted: $550 for tax preparation, an “electronic filing fee” of $99, a “service bureau fee” of $25, a “transmitter fee” of $99 and an “electronic refund product processing fee” of $32.95. Ms. Todd, who now does her own taxes, went by the building not that long ago, she said. There is nothing there.

Income tax
Alabama
Fraud
Ron Wyden
Consumer protection
Federal Taxes
Regulation and Deregulation


Derek Jeter Says Contract Talks Made Him Angry

Abstract: TAMPA, Fla. — The news conference had just ended. Television spotlights fell dark, and reporters dispersed. Derek Jeter still lingered behind a podium, where Jennifer Steinbrenner Swindal, a general partner of the Yankees , wrapped him in a lengthy embrace. Her brother Hal, the team’s managing general partner, came over and extended his hand. As they shook, photographers clicked and snapped. “We’re a big, happy family,” Jeter said later. That handshake was transmitted around the Yankees’ universe, physical proof of a mended relationship. Jeter’s comments made it clear, however, that he was angry that the negotiations on a new contract had become so public and so contentious, with the Yankees expressing concerns about his age and declining performance and with some commentators portraying him as greedy and unreasonable. What particularly irked him, Jeter said, was the Yankees’ suggestion, through the news media, that he explore free agency if he was not satisfied with their offer. “To hear the organization tell me to go shop it when I just told you I wasn’t going to — if I’m going to be honest with you, I was angry about it,” said Jeter, whose three-year deal was completed Tuesday. Anger is not an emotion Jeter almost ever conveys to the news media, at least not beyond the confines of the clubhouse. He is a public figure but a private man, happy to accommodate but loath to offer anything revealing or provocative. As negotiations grew testy, Jeter said he never felt tempted to respond because doing so would have broken a silence he had kept on the subject for nine and a half months. “The negotiations were supposed to be private,” Jeter said. Instead, he endured sniping between his agent, Casey Close, and the Yankees in which his shortcomings were batted around for all to comment on. Asked whether any resentment remains from how the negotiations proceeded, Jeter said that “any issues I’ve had with anyone, they’ve been addressed.” He added: “It was an uncomfortable position that I felt I was in. It was not an enjoyable experience.” That sentiment was echoed by General Manager Brian Cashman , who said, “The process can stink at times.” In his own comments Tuesday, Cashman made it clear that he did not view the negotiations in the same light Jeter did, and that asking him to see what offers were out there was perfectly logical. “There was a disagreement in the process from their perspective about worth that just comes down to what the market would bear,” Cashman said. “And the only way to do that is to go test the market. It’s not supposed to be insulting. It’s supposed to speed up the process.” He added: “We were very honest with each other. That’s the way it’s going to be. Sometimes, honesty is difficult. But we’re all professionals, we all know what our jobs are and what our interests were and are. It’s all good as far as I’m concerned.” Progress on a deal was first made a week ago, when Close and Jeter met in Tampa with club officials. Steinbrenner, who was present, said those discussions were the turning point. A more amiable tone was established, and each side left with a deeper understanding of the other’s position. Negotiations intensified Thursday and Friday, leading to Saturday’s agreement. “It was absolutely imperative, I think, at that point that we sit down face to face,” Steinbrenner said of that meeting, “and kind of not leave the room until we get closer and closer and closer.” The contract is worth a guaranteed $51 million with a player option for 2014 that, if Jeter reaches all of the incentives from a bonus system that rewards high finishes in award voting, would max out at $65 million. Jeter remains the highest-paid shortstop in baseball, but he accepted almost a $3 million pay cut from his previous average annual salary of $18.9 million. That was mandated by the Yankees, whose initial offer, for three years and $45 million, was rooted in concerns about Jeter’s productivity last season , when he posted full-season career lows in batting average (.270), on-base percentage (.340) and slugging percentage (.370). “You’d like to think that last year was a hiccup, so to speak, but it’s my job to go out there and prove that it was,” said Jeter, who will be 37 in June. “I understand any concerns that anyone has, especially from an organizational standpoint. I’m sure they have concerns about a lot of people throughout the year, so they’re entitled to those concerns. It’s my job to go out and change that opinion.” One of the Yankees’ primary concerns is Jeter’s long-term viability at shortstop. In talks with Close, Cashman said they never discussed a change of position. It did come up, however, in separate discussions with Jeter. “He can play shortstop still for us, right now; there’s no doubt in my mind about that,” Cashman said. “We signed him to a deal that, if we have to move him from shortstop, if we believe that’s the case, if he plays himself off the position, we’ll adjust. But I don’t need to talk about that now because that’s not an issue now.” It is likely to arise, though, if not in 2011, then in 2012 or in 2013. As long as Jeter is having fun, he said he would continue playing. He did not rule out the possibility of another set of negotiations after the 2014 season. “And I promise you,” he said, “you won’t hear about that one.”

Derek Jeter
Yankees
Brian Cashman
Baseball


Eddie Plank: A Favorite Son of Gettysburg

Abstract: GETTYSBURG, Pa. — This week’s commemoration of the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg, the turning point in the Civil War, might also bring renewed attention to Eddie Plank, a relatively unappreciated baseball star in the early 20th century who spent most of his life here. The battle, fought on the first three days of July in 1863, stamped Little Round Top, Seminary Ridge and Pickett’s Charge into America’s military lexicon. Plank’s pitching legacy is far less monumental. He never led the American League in victories, earned run average or strikeouts, his critics say, and he did not have the presence on the mound of his Philadelphia Athletics teammates Rube Waddell and Chief Bender. “He wasn’t really colorful, but he got the job done,” said David Jordan, a former president of the Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society. “And he did it on a consistent basis.” Plank had eight 20-win seasons. With 326 victories, he ranks 13th on the career list and 3rd among left-handers, after Warren Spahn and Steve Carlton. He also threw 69 shutouts (fifth on the career list), completed 410 games (16th) and posted a 2.35 E.R.A. (21st). So tied was Plank to his hometown that he was nicknamed Gettysburg Eddie for much of his 17-year major league career, nearly all with the Athletics, who won three World Series titles and five American League pennants from 1905 to 1914. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, across the street from a restaurant called Gettysburg Eddie’s that displays photographs of Plank, many of them donated by Brian Kennell, the cemetery’s superintendent. Image Plank, center, with his Athletics manager, Connie Mack, right, at Devil’s Den about a month after Plank threw a two-hitter to clinch the 1913 World Series. Credit Tipton Photo, via Adams County Historical Society “Certainly he’s a big part of our history here,” Carl Whitehill, a spokesman for the Gettysburg Convention and Visitors Bureau, said of Plank. “The Civil War is the big draw, but people who visit are very history-minded, so learning about things other than the battle is very attractive.” A number of Gettysburg buildings linked to Plank offer opportunities for baseball tourism along with military tribute. A state historical marker stands opposite the three-story brick home with a white portico at 343 Carlisle Street, where Plank lived and where he died of a stroke at age 50 in 1926. It is now a fraternity house at Gettysburg College, for which Plank pitched in 1900 and 1901, although he was not enrolled there. Plank’s widow, Anna Cora Plank, and their son, Edward Jr., moved around the corner, to 42 Lincoln Avenue, after his death. A vacant white brick building at the corner of York and Stratton Streets was the Buick dealership and garage that Plank owned. One block up York Street is a Chinese restaurant that was once the Ford dealership of his brother Ira, Gettysburg College’s longtime baseball coach. Image Credit The New York Times Eddie Plank is also remembered on the college’s campus. A stately building that opened in 1927, Plank Gymnasium was home to many of the college’s teams. Now, it is used for activities like pickup games and swing dance classes, said Emily Hauck, a student who works in the recreation department. Plank has also been honored with a plaque in the Hall of Athletic Honor at the college’s new athletic center. In 2011, the borough presented an award named for Plank to the college women’s lacrosse team for winning the Division III championship. Although Plank was born in 1875, 10 years after the Civil War ended, his family has ties to the fighting at Gettysburg. His grandson Edward Plank III, 68, said that a cannonball in his living room in Harrisburg, about 40 miles north, once rested in a bucket in the hearth of Anna Cora Plank’s Gettysburg home. “When I was a kid, we used to throw it in the backyard as a shot-put,” he said. He said that according to family lore, the cannonball, and musket balls he also owns, came from the farm just north of Gettysburg where Plank was born. “When you grow up in a town like Gettysburg, you see these artifacts all your life,” he added. Part of the farm is now a housing development called both Plank’s Field and HOF Estates, a nod to Plank’s election to the Hall of Fame in 1946. Cars traveling north on Old Harrisburg Pike turn left onto the property at Double Play Drive after passing the former home of his baseball coach at the Good Intent Country School, Robert Major. Image Plank, top row, second from left, with Gettysburg College teammates. A gym at the college is named for him. Credit Musselman Library Special Collections/Gettysburg College Union and Confederate troops once marched past various Plank family homes. Coming from northeast of Gettysburg on July 1, 1863, Maj. Gen. Jubal Early led a Confederate division toward Cashtown, where he had been ordered to assemble. At 1 or 2 in the afternoon, Early’s division passed the farm where Plank was eventually born, said John Heiser, a historian at Gettysburg National Military Park. The next afternoon, Brig. Gen. George Armstrong Custer’s Michigan cavalry brigade pursued the rear guard of a Confederate division commanded by Maj. Gen. J. E. B. Stuart. The forces clashed near Hunterstown, and Custer was nearly bludgeoned after being trapped under his horse, which had been shot. From the home where she grew up, Plank’s mother, Martha McReary, probably witnessed the Confederates’ advance west along Hunterstown Road. “They would have seen the first Confederates coming by in that column: 3,000 officers and men,” Heiser said of the McRearys. “They’d have been marveling at it. The first thing they’d have seen were the dust clouds kicked up by the horses.” The farmhouse near Willoughby Run Road where Plank’s father, David, was raised was used briefly as a Confederate hospital, said Linda Cleveland, an amateur historian. Plank was known to take visiting teammates on tours of the battlefield. On Nov. 6, 1913, less than a month after he pitched a two-hitter that clinched the team’s World Series victory over the New York Giants, Plank was photographed with Connie Mack, the A’s manager, and three other men in an automobile alongside a boulder. The photograph was snapped at Devil’s Den, where on July 2, 1863, the Confederates seized Union-held high ground. Oddly, the vehicle in which they sat, displaying the team’s championship banner, was a 1914 Oakland. Nearly a century later and 2,500 miles away, the Athletics’ successors now call Oakland, Calif., home.

Eddie Plank
Baseball
Gettysburg PA
American Civil War
Historic preservation


Knicks Add Kenyon Martin at N.B.A. Trade Deadline

Abstract: Knicks Coach Mike Woodson wanted a roster infused with experience and passion. Lately, the experience has looked more like old age, and the passion has turned to volatility. The Knicks are not just losing games — three in a row and four of their last five — they are losing their heads. In a 125-91 rout by the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday, J. R. Smith was ejected, Amar’e Stoudemire picked up a technical foul, and Raymond Felton committed a flagrant foul. “Unacceptable,” Woodson said. “I’m disappointed about that.” With that debacle still fresh, the Knicks got a little older and possibly even more volatile Thursday, when they agreed to terms with Kenyon Martin. Martin, 35, has established a reputation for combustibility in his 12-year career with the Nets, the Denver Nuggets and the Los Angeles Clippers. Martin is expected to sign a 10-day contract this weekend, and the Knicks hope to keep him for the rest of the season, General Manager Glen Grunwald said. Martin joins a locker room that already includes the tempestuous Rasheed Wallace, the unpredictable Smith and a roster full of short fuses. “We have a veteran team, and they know where they need to improve on some things,” Grunwald said in a conference call. He added, “Keeping composure is one of the things they’ve all talked about.” Martin will replace Ronnie Brewer, whom the Knicks traded to Oklahoma City in exchange for a second-round pick. Brewer began the season as a starter, but he never produced much and fell out of the rotation. The Knicks hope that Martin will help shore up their defense, which has ranked in the league’s bottom half for most of the season. They also view him as insurance behind Wallace and Marcus Camby, both of whom are in their late 30s and have missed huge chunks of the season because of injuries. Martin can guard both forward spots and possibly some shooting guards. “We’ve always liked Kenyon,” Grunwald said. “He’s a great competitor and a good defender, and he’s played with a number of our players on the Knicks. So we think there will be some synergies already built into the mix.” Martin played with Carmelo Anthony, Camby, Smith and Felton in Denver. Martin played last season with the Clippers, who declined to bring him back, and he spent the last several months unsigned, despite his defensive abilities. Many teams are wary of his reputation. The Knicks have racked up 39 technical fouls, one of the highest totals in the league. Anthony leads the team with 10, and Tyson Chandler and Smith each have nine. Most of this misbehavior is coming with Wallace, a player known for racking up technical fouls, not even playing because of a left foot injury. Over the course of the season, teams have learned they can send the Knicks in the wrong direction by pushing them around with physical play. Image Kenyon Martin, left, with Denver in 2009. The Knicks agreed to terms with Martin, a 35-year-old forward, on Thursday. Credit Rick Giase/European Pressphoto Agency The Chicago Bulls have taken that approach in beating the Knicks three times. In the second meeting, the Bulls jumped out to a big lead and continued to stay physical. Anthony became so frustrated that he was ejected. Woodson and Chandler were also ejected. The Boston Celtics also bumped Anthony off his rhythm, and Kevin Garnett unsettled him with trash talking, in a Jan. 7 game. The Knicks lost that game, and afterward Anthony tried to pursue Garnett , first at the Celtics’ locker room and then at the team’s bus. The Pacers picked up where the Bulls and the Celtics left off, pushing around the Knicks while building a 30-point lead by halftime Wednesday. Stoudemire received a technical when the Knicks were down by 16 points in the second quarter. Smith was ejected after his second technical in the third quarter. “We didn’t play well, and it got to us,” Smith said Wednesday night. “I just think getting down so much was frustrating for our team. We just didn’t know how to handle it.” Anthony, who remained mostly calm as his teammates unraveled, said the Knicks had to expect that teams would try to be aggressive and get a large lead early in the game to challenge their psyches. “It was a time where it got a little chippy out there,” Anthony said. “We should have known that with Indiana it was going to turn out to be a physical game.” Aside from dumping Brewer and announcing their intent to sign Martin, the Knicks stood pat as the trading deadline passed. Grunwald declined to say how active the Knicks were in trade discussions, but he denied that the Knicks ever considered dealing Iman Shumpert, a promising young swingman who had been attached to a number of rumors in recent weeks. “A lot of teams are interested in him, but no one more than the New York Knicks,” Grunwald said, calling Shumpert “a key part of our future.” For now, the Knicks are trying to win with experience. Martin becomes their sixth player 35 or older, joining Camby, Wallace, Kurt Thomas, Jason Kidd and Pablo Prigioni. Martin will bring an undeniable passion but also an element of unpredictability to an already unpredictable lineup. The Knicks are committed to this path, though. And although they have played at a .500 level for the last two months, Grunwald said he still saw them as a title contender, saying, “That’s our goal.” “We’ve had some difficult games, and teams will go through that,” Grunwald said. “I’m optimistic that Woody, the coaching staff and the players will find a way to get back to their winning ways.” First, they must learn to keep their cool.

Knicks
Kenyon Martin
Ronnie Brewer
Basketball
Sports Trades


W.T.O. Reaches First Global Trade Deal

Abstract: NUSA DUA, Indonesia — The World Trade Organization reached its first trade reform deal on Saturday to a roar of approval from nearly 160 ministers on the Indonesian island of Bali who had decided on the agreement, which could add $1 trillion to the global economy. The approval came after Cuba backed off from a threat to veto the package of measures. The talks, which began on Tuesday, nearly derailed when Cuba refused to accept a deal that would not help open the United States embargo of the Caribbean island. That forced negotiations into Saturday morning. Cuba later agreed on a compromise with the United States. But there was skepticism on how much the deal had achieved. “Dealing with the fracas on food security sucked the oxygen out of the rest of the talks,” said Simon J. Evenett, professor of international trade at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The talks began under a cloud because of India’s insistence that it would back an agreement only if there was a compromise on food subsidies because of its huge program for stockpiling food to feed its poor. An eventual compromise was welcomed by India’s trade minister, Anand Sharma. While India had insisted on a permanent exemption from the W.T.O. rules, the final text aimed to recommend a permanent solution within four years. The agreement is a milestone for the 159 members of the W.T.O., which was created in 1995. It rescues the W.T.O. from the brink of failure and will rekindle confidence in its ability to lower barriers to trade worldwide after 12 years of fruitless negotiations. The deal would speed the passage of goods through customs. Analysts estimate that it could eventually bolster the world economy by billions of dollars and create more than 20 million jobs, mostly in developing countries. It still requires the approval of each member government.

World Trade Organization
Bali
Cuba
International trade
Sanctions
Third World


Google Courts Small YouTube Deals, and Very Soon, a Larger One

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, March 1 — Google has been frustrated in its efforts to reach comprehensive deals with major studios and networks to put their video on YouTube. But in the meantime, it is forming partnerships with hundreds of smaller media companies that see value — or at least a valuable experiment — in contributing to the site. Some of the partnerships have been announced publicly. On Monday, for instance, YouTube, which was purchased by Google in October, said it had teamed up with the National Basketball Association to create a channel where the league would show authorized clips and where fans could upload short videos showcasing their best moves. A day later, YouTube said it had reached a deal with an independent label, Wind-up Records, to stream music videos and allow YouTube users to incorporate music tracks into their own videos. And on Friday, YouTube is to announce a partnership with a larger company, the BBC, according to people with knowledge of the negotiations. Under the multiyear deal, the BBC will create two entertainment channels and one news channel on YouTube. Two of the channels will include ads placed by Google’s advertising system, known as AdSense. But most of YouTube’s licensing deals have been done quietly. It says it has firmed up more than 1,000 partnerships with content owners ranging from the Sundance Channel to small independent video producers. Without specifying how many of those deals have been signed since their site was acquired by Google last fall, YouTube officials say they are adding more than 200 media partners a quarter. “We are creating channels on YouTube for each of these content owners,” said Jordan Hoffner, the head of premium and information content partnerships. “Those who do deals with us will have an opportunity for monetization.” The executives say the deals are a sign that a growing number of companies are becoming comfortable with displaying their content on the site. Those with channels on it now include Hollywood Records , Hilary Duff’s label; the YES Network , a New York-based sports television network; AskTheBuilder.com , a home-improvement site; and the Ford Motor Company . Mr. Hoffner said a small team at YouTube had been busy courting partners. He would not describe the specific financial terms of the deals — nor would the partners — other than to say they typically involved splitting advertising revenue between the content owner and YouTube. For now, that sort of revenue is small. In an e-mail response to questions, Chad Hurley, YouTube’s co-founder and chief executive, said its success with smaller media companies “validates the business model that we offer them and all partners,” which he said included “a platform for distribution, promotion and monetization of their content, and an opportunity to reach a whole new audience.” Industry analysts say it is far easier for YouTube to persuade small media companies to license their content than it is to get NBC or Viacom, two of Google’s vocal critics, to give up control of their most-prized content and the advertising revenue associated with it. “Smaller guys want mass distribution and are willing to face the risk of copyright infringement for access to this huge audience,” said Allen Weiner, an analyst at Gartner. “It is a relatively low-risk deal for them.” Still, there are signs that courting small media players may be paying off for YouTube. In the two weeks after YouTube acceded to Viacom’s demand that it take down more than 100,000 clips from Viacom properties like MTV and Comedy Central, traffic on the site nonetheless increased by 14 percent, according to Hitwise, an Internet research firm. Bill Tancer, general manager for global research at Hitwise, said an analysis of the search terms generating visits to YouTube indicated that clips created by users were the main drivers of growth. But he said premium content from professional producers could be a factor, too. “To the extent that it is short and has high entertainment value, it can only help YouTube grow,” he said. And as the audience grows, YouTube becomes an increasingly attractive outlet for media companies craving distribution. “You fish where the fish are,” said John Caplan, president of the Ford Models agency, one of YouTube’s content partners. “YouTube has an outstanding reach. It is one of many great places for us to be.” Ford Models is not a media company in the traditional sense. But as Internet video has become increasingly popular, it has begun to produce a growing amount of programming. Its channel on YouTube includes clips of models sharing “beauty secrets” or tips on fitness, video blogs created by models taking part in a beauty contest and a feature called “changing-room confessions,” where models go into dressing rooms and make videos of themselves trying on clothes. YouTube’s deal with the BBC is to include specially created clips, blogs from celebrities, behind-the-scenes video, and popular shows like “Fawlty Towers,” “Doctor Who” and “Life on Earth” by David Attenborough. Still, many of the agreements that YouTube highlighted suggest that the relationships are tentative and that media owners are treating online video as an experiment. YouTube’s agreement with the N.B.A., for instance, does not include the league’s most-prized content, the recaps of the games, which will continue to be shown on NBA.com . And the agreement lasts only through the end of the current season. “We want to see how this works out, and we will adjust and see whether it makes sense for us both,” said Steve Grimes, vice president for interactive efforts at the N.B.A. Similarly, YouTube’s partnership with the Sundance Channel lasts through this year. “The digital media landscape is constantly evolving, so we want to make sure we have the ability to re-evaluate,” said Christopher Barry, vice president for digital media and business strategy at Sundance. What’s more, most of YouTube’s deals are not exclusive. Ford Models, for instance, is making its content available on YouTube competitors like Revver and Veoh, and some of the Sundance Channel content is also on Yahoo Video. And YouTube’s success in courting smaller media companies may not be unique. Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of Brightcove, a YouTube competitor that licenses and distributes content on behalf of media companies, said his company had signed up about 3,000 commercial video publishers. “We are having success with small, medium and large companies,” Mr. Allaire said. Still, some of those who have become partners with YouTube say they are pleased with early results. Mr. Barry of the Sundance Channel said there had been more than two million views of its content on YouTube in a little more than a month. “We have had significant growth on our Web site as well, and some portion of that growth we attribute to our YouTube partnership,” he said. Whether that kind of success persuades large media companies to collaborate more broadly with YouTube remains to be seen. In November, a month after starting a limited trial of its own channel on YouTube, CBS hailed the effort, saying that its more than 300 clips were among the most viewed on YouTube. Yet a broader deal between the companies has proved elusive.

Partnerships
Television
Google Inc
YouTube.com
BBC Worldwide Ltd
Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Computers and the Internet
Advertising and Marketing


On Soccer — For Alex Ferguson, a Fitting Farewell at Old Trafford

Abstract: The Manchester rain fell relentlessly on the end of Alex Ferguson’s extraordinary reign at Old Trafford. For the 723rd and final time in the stadium where he has built a surely unsurpassable record of team management, Ferguson, the knight of British soccer, walked out Sunday to a double guard of honor: his United players to the left, the visiting Swansea City team to the right, friend and foe, applauding him. In his familiar old gray coat, chewing gum as always, his stride busy and quick, he looked straight ahead with the air of a man wishing this were all over. The stadium was a riot of color, more than 70,000 red flags denoting that, once again, his team was England’s champion; and 6,000 white flags thoughtfully provided for the Swansea fans, whose team had won the League Cup, the first major trophy in its history. They forget nothing at Old Trafford. There will be one more United match with Ferguson in charge — his 1,500th for the club — next weekend, but at West Bromwich in the English Midlands. So this was the big farewell. Players of Ferguson’s past, including the former stalwart captains Steve Bruce and Bryan Robson, were in the stands, alongside Bobby Charlton. Also among the spectators, dropped after submitting a transfer request, was Wayne Rooney. To the bittersweet end, Ferguson was making a point. Rooney had asked to leave United , and as much as Ferguson had admired his talent, as much as they had shared great times, there was no place at the final Ferguson party for anyone who broke the team essence that had been the manager’s credo throughout his 50 years of playing and coaching. He was ruthless to the end, yet sentimental, too, because Ferguson’s final Old Trafford lineup placed youth side by side with players of a venerable status. At the heart of the team, also retiring, was Paul Scholes — chosen to start his 717th United game. Scholes is 38 and has a persistently injured knee, but Ferguson regards him as one of the most talented and selfless players he has ever employed. So Scholes just had to play. Ryan Giggs, another magnificent loyalist, came on in the second half, but in every area of the field there were the players Ferguson regards as the future, the legacy he is handing on. The recipient of that legacy, David Moyes, could not be at the party. A consummate professional in the Ferguson mold, Moyes was at Goodison Park, a 40-minute drive down the road, where he was seeing Everton to a 2-0 victory over West Ham, the last home game of Moyes’s 11-year career there. As Moyes took his own lap of honor in a packed stadium , Manchester United was coming out of the tunnel for a tumultuous second half. United’s Javier Hernández, known as Chicharito, had poached a goal in the first half, but Swansea mounted an honorable resistance. Its leading scorer this season, the Spaniard Michu, stole in with a typically sweet equalizer, volleyed in off the outside of his left foot. Now the game was rousing; now the Ferguson gum was being punished. And now his players were moving mightily to get that winner. It came from the least expected source, from the foot of Rio Ferdinand. Ferdinand, a defender who had not scored in five years, lurked at the far post after a corner kick, and the ball fell to him to make that final touch, the final home goal under the management of Alex Ferguson, for a 2-1 victory. Then, in the rain, Ferguson took the microphone and addressed the crowd. “I’m going home,” he said. “Well, I’m going inside for a while. Eleven grandchildren,” he added, as if that were explanation enough for what his future holds. He isn’t going away. He is going upstairs to the boardroom, where his presence will be a comfort and a pressure to Moyes, the successor he recommended to the Glazer family, the team’s owners. Thanking the crowd, thanking the players, thanking everyone, it seemed — including the back-room staff at the training complex that has been his empire — Ferguson finally asked them to give the same support to “our new manager.” With that, he came in out of the rain: a manager whose time had come, at 71, to close his active career of being at every training session, every game, every inquisition and every party in a run that lasted 2,153 games — 1,251 won and only 412 lost — in Scotland and, for 26 years, at this Manchester club. When he said he was going home, most were baffled. Old Trafford was, and will always be, his home away from home. We heard his voice break during that impromptu final speech, and that was a first.

Soccer
Alex Ferguson
England
Coaches
Retirement
Manchester United
Swansea City Soccer Team


Pirates Widen Range Off Somalia, Straining Naval Patrols

Abstract: PARIS — Pirate attacks on shipping lanes around the Horn of Africa have shown no sign of relenting, and the nations policing the seas are struggling to find solutions in a mission that seems to be covering a growing area and time frame. The attacks have moved deeper into the Indian Ocean and along the African coast from Somalia toward the Mozambique Channel, away from the well-policed Gulf of Aden. Pirates are using captured ships and learning to evade confrontation by, for example, disposing of their weapons if the odds are against them, experts say. The European Union responded Tuesday by expanding its support for Somalia’s interim government and pledging to retain flexibility in its operations against pirates . The larger zone makes responses slower and deterrence harder, and when pirates are captured, courts must contend with a host of thorny issues, including age, jurisdiction and detention. “Much like Afghanistan, it’s easy to get in and much more difficult to get out,” said Peter Lehr, an expert on terrorism and political violence at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, “And I fear it will get much worse before it gets better. It’s ultimately a land-based problem.” About 20,000 commercial ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year. The International Maritime Bureau, which monitors pirate raids, reported 359 attacks or attempts this year, with 195 attributed to Somali pirates. Eleven ships and 262 crew members are believed to be detained by pirates right now. The bureau reported 293 total attacks last year. “We are worried about the situation in the Indian Ocean,” Capt. Pottengal Mukundan, the director of the maritime bureau, said in an interview. “It will only get resolved by more robust action being taken” by international forces, he said. Although the main channel in the Gulf of Aden is relatively secure, pirates are now threatening ships planning to berth at Mombasa, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, he said. Last week, pirates attacked the MV Nele Maersk, a container ship flying under the Danish flag about 1,100 miles east of Mogadishu, Somalia. It was the farthest recorded attack off the Somali coast and took place close to where another tanker, BW Lion, was attacked a day earlier. Lt. Nate Christensen, a spokesman for the United States Fifth Fleet, said international forces had been “aggressively trying to counter” the pirates’ expansion. Patrols cover one million square miles from the Gulf of Aden to the Arabian Sea and around the Seychelles, he said. “We won’t put any time limit on operations,” he said, “We’ll continue to conduct them for years to come.” Cristina Gallach, a spokeswoman for the European Union foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said the European commander, Rear Adm. Peter Hudson of Britain, moved operations south and east during the summer, responding to attacks in the Indian Ocean and the start of the fishing season and would consider expanding operations again. “We’ll try to adapt the operation as much as we can, but no one can have 100 percent control of the ocean,” she said. Three flotillas help patrol the area: one from the European Union, one from NATO and one led by the United States, Combined Task Force 151, which falls under the Combined Maritime Forces based in Bahrain. Twenty to 30 naval vessels monitor the waters, protecting merchant vessels and have sometimes coming to the aid of fishing boats and yachts. The European mission, the union’s first joint naval operation, also escorts food aid to Somalia. The international forces are backed by satellites, information from merchant vessels, reconnaissance planes and remote-controlled aircraft operated by United States forces. Other nations, including Japan, China, Russia and Malaysia, have also sent vessels. Naval officers say merchant ships have increased their ability to protect themselves by reporting suspicious vessels, imporving their evasive maneuvers and installing water cannons and razor wire. The European Union’s operation, which began last December, has been extended another year to December 2010. Another mandate will not be discussed until July, officials said, adding that the mission was only one part of a “comprehensive approach” to the region. Ms. Gallach said this included political backing for the shaky Somali administration of Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed; financing to African Union peacekeepers in the country; and — after a decision Tuesday by European foreign and defense ministers — training in Uganda for Somali forces, probably by the end of this year. The three coalitions’ ships have the power to arrest and detain pirates, but their record in doing so has been patchy because of legal complexities. Agreements signed by the European Union, Kenya and the Seychelles allow for processing of captured pirates in those countries. Europe has also discussed extending this to Tanzania. Puntland, an autonomous region of Somalia from which many pirates operate, has also incarcerated suspects. Some of those captured have also been sent for trail and detention in coalition member countries, like France, Spain and the United States. But there is little appetite to start filling Western jails with pirates. In April, the Dutch Navy was criticized for disarming then freeing captured pirates who had been holding hostages. Spain became embroiled in a dispute after it brought two captured pirates to Spain for trial; the pirates’ colleagues, who were holding a Spanish crew hostage, demanded the two be freed. On Tuesday, the crew was freed; the two pirates remain in Spain. “Navies cannot currently pursue wholesale detention and trial — given legal ambiguities — nor do they want to increase risks to merchant shipping, so most governments err on the side of caution,” said Jonathan Wood, analyst at Control Risks, a company in New York that provides security consulting. Some countries, like the Netherlands, have embraced the idea of an ad hoc international criminal tribunal on piracy. “The gathering of evidence would be more unified and secured while the rights of suspects would be more uniform,” said G. J. Alexander Knoops, an international defense lawyer and professor of international criminal law at the University of Utrecht. “Trials against alleged pirates take place on a rather arbitrary basis, which goes to the detriment of both the rights of suspects and the consistency of the law enforcement system on piracy,” he said.

Africa
International Maritime Bureau
Piracy at Sea
Maersk Line


A New Flexibility With Thin Solar Cells

Abstract: Photovoltaic cells, the basic building blocks of solar panels, are more efficient and less costly than ever. But manipulating cells (which are usually made of semiconductor materials) and incorporating them into different panel designs is not necessarily easy. John A. Rogers of the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and colleagues have come up with a novel method for creating extremely thin solar cells that can be combined in flexible, even partially transparent, arrays. Described in Nature Materials, it could be called the rubber-stamp approach. The technique involves creating a series of precisely spaced “microbars” on a block of single-crystal silicon. These bars, which have a thickness of a few micrometers, have doped regions that create p-n junctions, the main feature of most photovoltaic cells. Through an etching process, the bars are undercut so they can be lifted off the remaining silicon using a block of rubbery material. They can be transferred to a substrate of another material, and this transfer-printing process can be repeated many times to build a cell. A metal grid is overlaid to create electrical connections. The technique may allow the fabrication of solar arrays with a variety of characteristics. For example, the researchers say it would be possible to print the cells on rollable plastic sheets that would be easy to transport and install. Or by printing the cells on glass in different densities, solar arrays could be incorporated into windows that have a specific level of transparency.

Photovoltaic cells
Silicon
Solar Energy
Science and Technology


‘Dancing Granny’ Is Shot, but Don’t Expect the Music to Stop

Abstract: BEIJING — With the din they make, they are often mocked and berated and worse. Dogs have been loosed on them. Rocks flung, water sprayed. Yet those “dancing grannies,” the middle-aged and elderly outdoor dance enthusiasts who crowd sidewalks, parks and squares across China , have shimmied on. Not even the excrement lobbed by irate residents has deterred them. But last week, opposition to their boisterous line dancing took a violent turn, when a man in the southern region of Guangxi opened fire on a troupe near his home, wounding a woman in the leg, according to news reports on Friday. The assailant fled but was captured Wednesday by the police, according to Xinhua, the state news agency. The man was apparently riled up by the din, and he turned apoplectic when the women mocked his request to simmer down. It was the most serious unpleasant episode associated with the “dancing grannies,” a social phenomenon that has polarized many Chinese over the very public — and audible — nature of their activities. In recent years, the media has documented each outburst directed at the ladies — and quite a few men — who take their dance moves and amplified music to coveted slivers of urban public space. In 2014, residents in the southeastern city of Wenzhou spent $42,000 on a sound system that blasted dancers with warnings about violating noise pollution laws. In 2013, a Beijing man released a snarling trio of Tibetan mastiffs on one troupe; a few months earlier, residents of a high-rise in Wuhan dumped feces onto a group of gray-haired women. Such disorder has alarmed the Chinese authorities, who tend to look unfavorably upon any kind of unregulated public activity. Last March, the central government issued a set of 12 “official” routines meant to supplant the throbbing disco music, electro-folk tunes and Bollywood-influenced dance numbers that are often blasted over tinny loudspeakers. The new routines were described as “a nationally unified, scientifically crafted new activity that brings positive energy to the people,” Xinhua reported at the time. Many people ridiculed the government online, saying it should instead spend more money creating recreational spaces for retirees who crave the exercise and camaraderie that dancing provides. Some said the model routines were too complicated. Others said the regulations made no attempt to reduce the noise. In the end the effort failed, with most groups refusing to adopt the officially sanctioned routines. The conflicts, though, have raged on. According to media reports that described the March 3 episode in Guangxi, the man first became angry when a group of women gallivanting across a square in the scenic town of Yangshuo refused to help push his car after it became stuck nearby. The news reports, which gave only the man’s surname, Mo, said he then took out an air rifle and opened fire, apparently with the goal of silencing the party. “He was aiming at the stereo speaker,” Xinhua said, “but accidentally shot a woman who was operating the machine in the leg.” Mr. Mo fled to neighboring Guangdong Province and was captured six days later.


U.N. Peacekeepers Wounded in Southern Lebanon Attack

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — A bomb exploded near a United Nations convoy helping patrol southern Lebanon on Friday, wounding five peacekeepers in the third attack on the contingent this year, a United Nations spokesman and security officials said. No one was killed in the attack, but it underlined a growing sense of unease in Lebanon, as the country braces for repercussions from the nine-month uprising in neighboring Syria . Lebanon is divided between factions opposed and allied to the Syrian government, and many have worried that a proxy war of sorts could be fought here. As on past Fridays, Syria witnessed another round of protests and crackdowns, and a London-based opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said 14 people were killed there. Ten of them died in and around Homs, a city near the Lebanese border where protests have proven resilient, even amid a worsening in sectarian strife among religious communities. Opposition activists have accused the government of stoking the strife, while acknowledging an increase in tit-for-tat kidnappings and killings. The violence came amid what residents described as deteriorating conditions in the city, Syria’s third largest. Fuel shortages endemic in the country are pronounced there, and many fear that the government may try a large-scale assault to reimpose its control. “We couldn’t offer medical treatment to the wounded,” said a 40-year-old activist there who gave his name as Abu Ammar, speaking by phone. “We don’t have medical stuff and equipment to help the wounded who are hospitalized in private clinics.” The attack in Lebanon occurred at 9:30 a.m., when the bomb exploded on the southern outskirts of the port of Tyre, the officials said. The United Nations declined to identify the nationality of the peacekeepers but officials here said they were French. “It’s difficult to say anything more,” said Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for the United Nations force. “It’s still early to speculate on reasons behind it.” Lebanese security officials said the bomb weighed nearly seven pounds, was detonated remotely and had been left in a trash bin along the route. The bombing was the first this year against the United Nations force in the region it actually patrols, an area that straddles the Lebanese-Israeli border. In May, six Italian peacekeepers were wounded by a roadside bomb in Sidon, another port city north of Tyre. In July, six French soldiers were wounded in an attack in the same region. Lebanon’s prime minister, Najib Mikati , condemned the attack, echoing a sentiment heard often here that the violence plays into the region’s broader tension. “Such attacks don’t only target Unifil but also Lebanon’s stability and security,” Mr. Mikati said in a statement, using the acronym for the peacekeeping force. “The blast is related to the dynamic in the region,” said Elias Hanna, a former Lebanese general and military analyst. “Today’s attack is a message to the main players.” The United Nations force was created after Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, then expanded in 2006 after a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah, which fought to a standoff that year.

Middle East and North Africa Unrest (2010- )


Officer’s Conviction in Cannibalism Case Overturned

Abstract: The 2013 conviction of a former New York City police officer in a plot to kidnap, torture, kill and eat women was overturned late Monday by a federal judge who said there was not sufficient evidence to support it. The judge, Paul G. Gardephe of Federal District Court in Manhattan, granted the former officer, Gilberto Valle, a verdict of acquittal on the most serious count that he faced, kidnapping conspiracy. He could have faced life in prison on that count. “The evidentiary record is such that it is more likely than not the case that all of Valle’s Internet communications about kidnapping are fantasy role-play,” Judge Gardephe said in a 118-page opinion issued late Monday night. Mr. Valle, who was convicted in March 2013, had not yet been sentenced, and his federal public defenders had asked Judge Gardephe to grant him a new trial, arguing that the Constitution granted people — including police officers — “the right to fantasize about whatever and whomever they like, free from government interference.” No women were ever abducted or harmed in the plot, but prosecutors told the jury that Mr. Valle had “crossed the line” while immersing himself in a fetish website where he communicated electronically with others about how he wanted to abduct women, butcher and cook them, and eat them. Mr. Valle’s lawyers had argued that his plot was all part of a twisted fantasy — “no more real than the alien invasion” featured in the 1938 radio drama “War of the Worlds,” one defense lawyer, Julia L. Gatto, said in her closing argument. Image Julia L. Gatto, a lawyer for Gilberto Valle, outside a courthouse in Manhattan in March 2013 after Mr. Valle was found guilty. Credit Brendan McDermid/Reuters But federal prosecutors argued that Mr. Valle had taken “concrete steps” to further his plans, including illegally looking up potential victims in a law enforcement database, carrying out surveillance of them, and using the Internet to research ways to abduct, subdue and cook potential victims. “He left the world of fantasy; he entered the world of reality,” one prosecutor, Hadassa Waxman, said in her closing argument. But Judge Gardephe wrote that “once the lies and the fantastical elements are stripped away, what is left are deeply disturbing misogynistic chats and emails written by an individual obsessed with imagining women he knows suffering horrific sex-related pain, terror and degradation. “Despite the highly disturbing nature of Valle’s deviant and depraved sexual interests, his chats and emails about these interests are not sufficient — standing alone — to make out the elements of conspiracy to commit kidnapping.” The case had drawn widespread attention both because it involved a police officer and because it raised the question of when does a virtual crime, discussed and plotted in Internet chat rooms, cross over into actual criminal activity, including what kinds of additional steps are needed to create an actual crime. The judge said in “the unique circumstances of this extraordinary case,” he had concluded that the evidence offered by prosecutors at trial was not “sufficient to demonstrate beyond a reasonable doubt that Valle entered into a genuine agreement to kidnap a woman, or that he specifically intended to commit a kidnapping.” The judge said in an order issued earlier on Monday that he would hold a hearing on Tuesday, presumably to discuss the status of Mr. Valle, who has been imprisoned since his arrest in late 2012. Judge Gardephe upheld Mr. Valle’s conviction on a second count, of illegally gaining access to the law enforcement database, which carried a maximum sentence of one year. Mr. Valle was fired by the Police Department upon his conviction.

Police Brutality,Police Misconduct,Police Shootings


For Google, Advertising and Phones Go Together

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 7 — For more than two years, a large group of engineers at Google has been working in secret on a mobile phone project. As word about their efforts has trickled out, expectations in the tech world for what has been called the Google phone, or GPhone, have risen, the way they do for Apple loyalists ahead of a speech by Steven P. Jobs . But the GPhone is not likely to be the second coming of the iPhone — and Google’s goals are very different from Apple’s. Google wants to extend its dominance of online advertising to the mobile Internet, a small market today, but one that is expected to grow rapidly. It hopes to persuade wireless carriers and mobile phone makers to offer phones based on its software, according to people briefed on the project. The cost of those phones may be partly subsidized by advertising that appears on their screens. Google is expected to unveil the fruit of its mobile efforts later this year, and phones based on its technology could be available next year. Some analysts say that the Google project’s effect on the wireless industry is not likely to be as profound, at least initially, as that of Apple’s iPhone, whose revolutionary look and features have redefined consumer expectations for mobile phones. “The iPhone was a milestone in terms of how people use a mobile device,” said Karsten Weide, an analyst with IDC. “The GPhone, if it does come out, will help Google with distribution for their online services.” At the core of Google’s phone efforts is an operating system for mobile phones that will be based on open-source Linux software, according to industry executives familiar with the project. In addition, Google is expected to develop mobile versions of its applications that go well beyond the mobile search and map software it offers today. Those applications may include a Web browser to run on cellphones. While Google has built phone prototypes to test its software and show off its technology to manufacturers, the company is not likely to make the phones itself, according to analysts. In short, Google is not creating a gadget to rival the iPhone, but rather creating software that will be an alternative to Windows Mobile from Microsoft and other operating systems, which are built into phones sold by many manufacturers. And unlike Microsoft, Google is not expected to charge phone makers a licensing fee for the software. “The essential point is that Google’s strategy is to lead the creation of an open-source competitor to Windows Mobile,” said one industry executive, who did not want his name used because his company has had contacts with Google. “They will put it in the open-source world and take the economics out of the Windows Mobile business.” Some believe another major goal of the phone project is to loosen the control of carriers over the software and services that are available on their networks. “Google’s agenda is to disaggregate carriers,” said Dan Olschwang, the chief executive of JumpTap, a start-up that provides search and advertising services to several mobile phone operators. Google declined to comment on any specifics of its mobile phone initiative. But its chief executive, Eric E. Schmidt, has said several times that the cellphone market presented the largest growth opportunity for Google. “We have a large investment in mobile phones and mobile phone platform applications,” Mr. Schmidt said in an interview this year. Industry analysts say that Google, which has little experience with complex hardware, faces significant challenges. “Running a Web site and a search engine is one thing,” said Mr. Weide of IDC. “But developing a phone is a whole different game. It will not be easy for them.” Mr. Weide added that Google’s impact on the industry will depend to a large extent on its ability to sign deals with wireless carriers that distribute hundreds of millions of phones each year and often control what software and services run on them. Some carriers, especially in the United States, are likely to give Google a cool reception. Companies like Verizon Wireless and AT&T have spent billions of dollars building and upgrading their networks, establishing relationships with customers, subsidizing handsets and creating their own mobile Internet portals. Now they want to make sure those investments pay off, in part, through mobile advertising, and they see Google and other search engines, who are after the same ad dollars, as competitors. As a result, most carriers in the United States have chosen to shun the major search engines for now. Instead, they have promoted the search engines and ad systems of small technology companies like JumpTap and Medio Systems, whose services they can stamp with their own brands. Most carriers declined to comment on Google’s plans. But Arun Sarin, the chief executive of Britain’s Vodafone Group, which offers the Google service on its phones, said it was not clear what compelling functions Google would offer that are not already available. “What is it that is missing in life that they are going to fulfill?” Mr. Sarin said. “It is not a no-brainer. You can reach Google already through a number of devices. You don’t need a Google phone to do that.” Google’s desire to loosen the carriers’ control over their networks has hardly been a secret. The company recently lobbied the Federal Communications Commission to impose rules on any carrier who wins a coming auction for valuable wireless spectrum. The rules, which the F.C.C. adopted despite opposition from Verizon and others, require that the network using a portion of that spectrum be open to any handset and software applications from any company. Google said it is considering bidding for some of that spectrum. But regardless of who wins it, phones based on Google’s software would be able to take advantage of it. Google’s lobbying, as well as its work on a phone software platform that would be open to other applications, represent an effort to bring to the mobile Internet the dynamics of the PC-oriented Internet, which is free of control by network operators. Google is hoping that it can beat competitors in an open environment. The mobile phone project at Google was built in part around Android, a small mobile software company it acquired in 2005. An Android co-founder, Andy Rubin, had founded Danger, which created the popular T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone. Mr. Rubin works at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, but another part of Google’s team is reported to be in Boston, where Android’s co-founder, Rich Miner, another veteran of the mobile phone industry, is based. Some analysts say there are no guarantees that Google will be able to replicate its online success in the mobile world. “The wireless market does not have the same global scale and scope efficiencies, nor the lack of transactional friction, of software on the Internet,” said Scott Cleland, a telecommunications industry analyst who recently testified before the Senate against Google’s proposed acquisition of DoubleClick. “It is a completely different world and completely different set of economics,” said Mr. Cleland, who has opposed Google on a number of policy issues. Microsoft, whose mobile operating system has been available for years, has distribution agreements with 48 handset makers and 160 carriers around the world. Still, only 12 million phones sold this year will be based on Microsoft’s software, giving it 10 percent of the smartphone market, according to IDC. Microsoft declined to comment on potential competition from Google. “The market is huge, and our partners are really motivated to bring Windows Mobile phones to market,” said Doug Smith, director for marketing of Microsoft’s mobile communications business. Mahesh Veerina, the founder and chief executive of Celunite, which makes cellphone software based on Linux, said Google’s offering was likely to be attractive to small carriers, who may see it as a competitive weapon. But if Google-powered phones prove to be a hit with consumers, other carriers may feel pressure to follow suit, said Richard Doherty, director for the Envisioneering Group, a consulting firm. “No one wants to be the last carrier to endorse Google,” Mr. Doherty said.

iPhone
Google Inc
Wireless Communications
Apple Inc
Schmidt Eric E
Jobs Steven P


United’s Profit Falls on Continental Merger Problems

Abstract: United Continental Holdings said Thursday that absorbing Continental Airlines pushed its second-quarter profit down 37 percent as workers and passengers were faced with changes like new software and fewer spare planes. Jeff Smisek, chief executive of United , acknowledged during a conference call about the earnings that “we added new stress to the system” with all the changes the airline tried at once. He said there was an “aggressive effort” under way to get it fixed. United is adding maintenance workers and airport staff members, restoring spare airplanes, and trying to make the software that its ticket agents use to check in passengers easier to use, he said. The airline is flying under the United name now, but behind the scenes, some of it still operates like two separate airlines, and Continental flight crews still fly Continental planes. United acquired Continental in 2010. “I know we caused some customer disservice because of all the changes we’ve made so quickly, and I apologize for that,” Mr. Smisek said. This was the second consecutive quarterly conference call in which he had to apologize for merger problems. Computer issues have also made it harder to estimate ticket pricing. At United, per-seat passenger revenue rose just 3 percent for the quarter, in part because of integration problems. United Continental earned $339 million for the quarter , or 89 cents a share. Excluding integration costs and other items of $206 million, United would have earned $545 million, or $1.41 a share. A year earlier, United earned $538 million, or $1.39 a share. Revenue rose 1.3 percent to $9.94 billion. The merger troubles led Jim Corridore, an analyst at S.& P. Capital IQ, to downgrade United Continental shares to hold, from buy. “While we think long term the merger will bring great benefits, we have less confidence in management’s ability to manage the integration in the near term,” he wrote. Shares of United Continental fell $1.21, or about 6 percent, to close at $19.20.

Continental Airlines
Company Reports
United Continental Holdings Inc
Airlines and Airplanes
Mergers Acquisitions and Divestitures
United Airlines


At Wimbledon, Grass Is Green, but Slow

Abstract: WIMBLEDON, England — Nine days before his defeat, Roger Federer was convinced that the grass at the All England Club no longer lived up to its reputation for speed. Despite the immaculate appearance of Centre Court on opening day, he said, “Obviously, they’re not the fastest courts anymore.” Eddie Seaward, the head groundskeeper for 20 years, saw it differently. “The ball comes off the same speed, but I think it comes a little bit higher,” he said. “So you get a little bit higher bounce.” What is the difference? About a tenth of a second, Seaward calculated. This may seem insignificant to fans and ordinary players, but not to the world’s top players. They noticed that the soil, seeded with a strain of rye grass that allows the sun to dry the ground more deeply, had changed the speed of play. Twenty years ago, the ball traveled from Stefan Edberg’s racket to Boris Becker’s a tenth of a second faster. So Tomas Berdych had a split second longer to read Federer’s serves in their quarterfinal matchup this year. Federer had the same benefit, of course, on Berdych’s serves. In its way, this barely perceptible lengthening of points, Seaward said, may have helped prevent the elimination of grass-court tournaments from the international circuit, a prospect that he said loomed in the 1990s. “The talk was very much about ‘grass court tennis is finished’ because it was all hard, bang, crash, wallop, and all the rest of it,” Seaward said. Coaches consulted in the 1990s by the All England Club asked that the surface be adjusted to accommodate a different style of play. “They said, actually, if you could slow the ball down by a tenth of a second, from one end to the other,” Seaward said, “that’s what they needed.” Fans of the old school may disagree, but Seaward insists that this has benefited the sport. It has helped preserve the brief grass-court season that begins after the French Open and ends before the United States’ hardcourt and clay-court season, which follows Wimbledon’s finale on grass. “You’re getting the longer rallies,” Seaward said. “You’re getting different people winning the court championship, you’re getting different players coming through, which is good, I think.” Clay-court specialists, who once shunned Wimbledon, have been lured back. Seaward oversees a small company of groundskeepers, numbering 16 at the height of Wimbledon, when they trim the grass on every court by a fraction of an inch each morning. The current favorite grasses at the All England Club, named Pontiac and Jessica, Seaward said, wear longer and recover more quickly from the pounding to which Federer and others subject it. And the soil hides no ragged bounces, which can cause the ball to skitter to one side or skip low near the surface. Here, Federer, Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic agreed. “There’s no bad bounces,” Federer said. “You can just stick at the baseline, half volley, not panic when a guy moves in.” Murray said after defeating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga to reach the semifinals: “The courts are very firm so the ball’s bouncing pretty high. There’s not too many bad bounces.” When he first played at Wimbledon, Djokovic said, it was “the fastest surface in the world.” Now, he said, “in my opinion, it got slower.” The poet William Blake famously found the universe in a blade of grass. Seaward suggested that the blades of rye growing on Wimbledon’s 19 courts form their own perfect world. Still, he keeps an eye on test beds planted about 200 miles north of Wimbledon in the region of Yorkshire. At his request, a company called the Sports Turf Research Institute plants experimental grasses, subjecting them to tennis-style poundings for two weeks at a time to replicate the Wimbledon competition. “Some of the grasses don’t have names, some of the grasses have got code numbers,” he said. Asked for his favorite code number, he said, “Aha, I’m not telling you.”


French Parliament Debates Weight Standards for Fashion Models

Abstract: PARIS — France, which often seems to have style and elegance written into its genetic code, is again confronting one of the dark sides of fashion: the glamorization of too-thin women. The French Parliament is debating legislation that would effectively set minimum weights for women and girls to work as models, a step that supporters of the bill say is necessary to combat the persistence of anorexia. If it becomes law — it is backed by President François Hollande’s Socialist government — modeling agencies and fashion houses that employ models whose body mass index measurements do not meet minimum standards would face criminal penalties. Israel already bans the use of underweight and underage models, while other countries, including Italy and Spain, have weighed legislation similar to the one under consideration in France but for now continue to rely on voluntary pacts with the fashion industry. If France approves the legislation, it would almost certainly raise the debate to a new level, especially in Paris, the spiritual capital of the fashion world. An effort to pass similar provisions in 2008 failed after heavy criticism from the fashion industry. “We can’t resolve it with a law but we can begin a public health policy to prevent and protect and limit the number of those suffering from anorexia,” said Olivier Véran, a neurologist and a member of the National Assembly, the lower house of Parliament. He is the author of the anti-anorexia provision, which is part of a comprehensive health law being debated in the National Assembly. He estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia. The proposed legislation would use as its base internationally accepted body mass index standards to determine whether a model was too thin and would set criminal penalties for hiring models who fell below the standards determined by the law. The index suggests that a woman who is 5 feet 7 inches tall should weigh at least 120 pounds. But the final legal standards would be determined by the French health authorities, who could adjust them for factors such as bone size. Violators would have to pay a fine of about $83,000 and serve as many as six months in prison. The struggle over the appearance and health of fashion models is hardly a new one. It became more public in 2006 after the deaths of two models, a Brazilian and a Uruguayan, which set off a spate of voluntary standards in the industry and the effort in some places, including New York, to use healthier looking models. The death in 2010 of a French model and actress, Isabelle Caro, who at one point weighed just 55 pounds, fueled further calls for steps to address anorexia. So far the fashion industry has opposed legislation to address the issue, although a number of designers have spoken out in favor of using “healthy models” and promoting healthful lifestyles. There is no official database of models’ heights and weights, and with regulations against using underweight models on the rise, most models and agencies are close-mouthed about the subject. Many in the industry say, however, that a number of the top models would likely weigh less than the healthy threshold set by the body mass index of about 18 or 18.5. Image French lawmakers are debating legislation that would set minimum weights for women and girls to work as models as a way to combat the persistence of anorexia. Credit Patrick Kovarik/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Widely publicized figures for weights of models like Kate Moss at the height of her fashion career indicate she would have had a body mass index of 15 to 16, which was similar to that of Twiggy, a 1960s supermodel. More recent models, such as Naomi Campbell and Gisele Bündchen, are reported to have body mass indexes between 16 and 17. A body mass index of less than 18 does not necessarily mean that someone has an eating disorder. The National Union of Modeling Agencies in France issued a statement saying it was complying with a voluntary charter that discourages the use of anorexic models and that was approved by the government in 2008. The statement also said that an appropriate minimum weight for models had yet to be determined. “Anorexia is a mental illness that cannot be fought by a ‘arithmomania,’ ” the union’s statement said. It called on the fashion world to take a uniform approach internationally and deplored the use of “selectively repressive” measures, referring to those now under consideration. Calls to 10 modeling agencies with offices in Paris found none willing to respond to questions on the issue. Elite, a top international agency, said through the secretary of its spokeswoman in Paris, Celine Rousseau, “We do not wish to comment on this news.” When some international designers have been questioned about the problem, such as Karl Lagerfeld in a 2012 interview , they have denied having ever worked with anorexic models. Even a glance through photos from the recent Fashion Week in Paris reveals many women whose bodies are almost without curves and whose faces have hollows where there should be cheeks. But whether there is a connection between fashion’s images of women and the continuing phenomenon of tens of thousands of primarily but not exclusively young women in Western developed countries suffering from anorexia is hard to determine and unlikely to be halted just by an increase in the weight of models, French psychiatrists said. They recommended an array of steps to attack the problem. “It’s not having a model weigh three kilos more that will resolve the problem,” said Marie Rose Moro, a child psychiatrist and the director of the Maison de Solenn, a residential facility that treats eating disorders and other mental health problems in young people. One kilogram is 2.2 pounds. There is a “transnational sort of tyranny of thinness,” Dr. Moro said, adding that unlike in previous eras, to have a “rounded” shape today is equated with a lack of self-control and with “excess, obesity, poor health.” Marcel Rufo, a psychiatrist with a clinic in Marseille for adolescents with anorexia or other troubles, said he believed that the public was searching for an explanation for children’s pursuit of thinness. He noted the proliferation of posts on blogs and on Twitter promoting the idea that girls should have a space between their thighs when standing with their legs together and that their stomachs should be concave. “Parents, the public authorities, deputies in the National Assembly want to find a cause, something to blame,” Dr. Rufo said. “So, one designates fashion as to blame, but I believe that it is much more complicated than that,” he said.

Weight Fashion Models France Legislation Anorexia Legislature


Casinos Look to Video Games as a Draw for Millennials

Abstract: Forget slot machines and money wheels. American casinos may soon look more like video game arcades. In February, Nevada and New Jersey passed legislation allowing for the introduction of skill-based games in casinos as a way to draw in younger players. Imagine Angry Birds and Candy Crush machines next to a high-stakes poker table at Bellagio. The idea is that one day, different types of skill-based games will exist on casino floors, including games that look and feel more like console video games, from shooters to racing games. They could be games where single players go against the house, cooperative games like blackjack, or player versus player games like poker. Eric Meyerhofer, the chief executive of Gamblit Gaming , a California company that makes skill-based games for casinos, said the biggest attractions could even be well-known franchises like Call of Duty . “It won’t be a sea of slot machines. You’ll see smaller, more intimate areas with specialized themes,” he said. Dr. Tony Alamo, the chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission, said the speed with which the legislation to introduce skill-based games in Nevada passed — it was introduced in January 2015 and was signed in June the same year — is a testament to how hungry the casino industry is for something new. “Everyone feels the urgency,” he said. “I’m hoping that next year, the whole floor will be full of these games.” Image Brew Caps League is a game made by Gamblit Gaming. Credit Peter Bohler for The New York Times It seems not even the gambling industry was prepared for how quickly things moved. Dr. Alamo said that so far, he had seen products from only two slot machine manufacturers. “We are waiting, and we are here, our arms are open. We want to see product,” he said. Tom Mikulich, senior vice president of business development at MGM Resorts International, which owns a number of Las Vegas casinos and resorts, including Aria, Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand and The Mirage, said the company was “excited” to attract a younger demographic of players and hoped to introduce various skill-based and arcade-style games inside its casinos by the end of this year. As casino hotels and resorts have steadily upgraded their amenities in the last decade to appeal to a wider demographic, the unintended consequence is that fewer people are actually gambling. Visitors to places like Las Vegas and Atlantic City now have nightclubs, restaurants, spas, entertainment and sporting events all vying for their attention. In 2014, gambling accounted for 37 percent of total revenue of Las Vegas casino resorts and hotels with more than $1 million in total revenue, down from 58 percent in 1990, a ccording to a 2015 report on the Las Vegas casino and hotel market from the consulting company HVS . Survey data and visitor reports gathered by the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority support this: The percentage of visitors who gambled while in Las Vegas in 2014 was 71 percent, down from 87 percent in 2006. Young people are already flocking to Las Vegas. The problem for operators is how to get them to spend more time on the casino floor. In 2014, millennials made up 27 percent of all visitors to Las Vegas, but only 63 percent of them actually gambled, compared to 78 percent of baby boomers and 68 percent of Generation X visitors. Image MGM Resorts International’s New York New York casino in Las Vegas. The company is expected to introduce skill-based and arcade-style games inside its casinos by the end of this year. Credit MGM Resorts International “The majority of visitors to Vegas are under the age of 50, while the majority of those who play slot machines are over 50,” Mr. Meyerhofer, the Gamblit Gaming executive, said. “Casino operators are seeing 100 percent of their floor wired for a population group that is no longer the majority.” While almost everything else in Las Vegas has had a face-lift, slot machines have remained largely untouched since the 1970s: You put money in and push a button, and you either win or lose. Casino operators have upgraded visual displays in recent years, introducing plasma screens and themed cabinets based on television shows and films, but the technology has stayed the same. With the new legislation, casino operators and slot machine manufacturers hope to create games that mirror the emotional demand and investment of console and mobile video games. “Millennials have grown up in an era of digital media and games. The passive experience of a slot machine does not resonate with them,” Mr. Meyerhofer said. Gamblit’s current skill-based games are simple, casual experiences. One, called Smoothie Blast, gets players to make smoothies using different types of fruit. Unlike a random slot machine, players can choose which fruits go into the smoothie; some combinations are better than others, resulting in more points and an improvement in the original bet. Image A Gamblit game station. “Millennials have grown up in an era of digital media and games,” said Mr. Meyerhofer. “The passive experience of a slot machine does not resonate with them.” Credit Peter Bohler for The New York Times Mr. Meyerhofer said Gamblit was working with a number of video game publishers interested in making skill-based games for casinos. For example, the company has partnered with Wicked Witch, an Australian mobile video game developer, to produce a casino version of the developer’s hit mobile game, Catapult King , which has been downloaded over 35 million times and has 250,000 daily active players. According to Dr. Alamo, the draw of video games has already led a number of casinos in Las Vegas to look into introducing betting opportunities on e-sports — competitive online video game tournaments — as early as in the next few months. “Imagine that you can walk into a Vegas sportsbook and you can either bet on an N.B.A. playoff game, or an e-sports game like StarCraft . Everyone is on board,” he said. Still, Tomer Perry, a research associate at the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University, said there were moral issues to consider when using video games to attract young people to gambling. “If gambling tends to have a bad influence on its users, and millennials don’t currently engage in much gambling, then the plan to introduce video games to casinos just expands the reach of gambling,” Mr. Perry said. “We might worry specifically that they are trying to attract younger crowds that might be more vulnerable, have less disposable income and be more susceptible to manipulation. Video games are just an instrument here, but they signal that casinos are going after weaker targets.” Mr. Perry, who is also a gamer, said that using video games for the purposes of gambling eliminates the psychological benefits that video games can have. “The point of failure in games is to provide an opportunity for growth — to develop skills, and get it right the next time,” he said. “If a game is house-backed, it’s not even letting you do that.” However, Mr. Meyerhofer added that skill-based games are not about “hooking people in,” like the current generation of slot machines, and are not products “where you’d go if you want to gamble hard,” he said. “They are more about entertainment.”

Casino
Millennials
Gambling
Las Vegas
Atlantic City
Computer and Video Games
Youth