Details of a Trimmer Stimulus Emerge

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The new stimulus package seemed to defy Washington’s peculiar laws of physics, where numbers that go up don’t often come back down. But by producing a compromise with a sticker price of about $789 billion — less than the amount approved in either the House or the Senate — Congress appears to have ensured quick passage. Indeed, the Senate may begin debate on the package Thursday and may even pass it before the House, which would endorse it by the end of the week. The stimulus bill initially passed by the House had a projected cost of $820 billion, on the high end of the White House’s recommended range. The Senate then went even higher, to $838 billion. And yet Congressional leaders and the Obama administration have settled on a final deal that lopped nearly 4 percent off the House bill and nearly 6 percent from the Senate version. Not that the compromise satisfied all Congressional leaders. “This bill was meant to be a stimulus that was timely, targeted and temporary,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican minority leader, said Thursday on the Senate floor. “Unfortunately, it appears to be none of the above.” Since winning the White House and control of Congress, Mr. McConnell went on, “Democrats have been making up for lost time with a government spending spree on the taxpayer credit card.” The reductions in the two versions came after more than 24 hours of direct, rapid-fire negotiations between Congress and the administration, and after weeks of debate over the particulars in the legislation that helped officials quickly find the areas where they could pare back. All sides had to give, and some programs dropped like stones. That included even President Obama’s signature middle-class tax cut proposal, which he initiallypromised would give individuals up to $500 and families up to $1,000. In the end, those numbers fell to $400 for individuals and $800 for couples, lopping about $30 billion from the cost of the original plan. Social security and disability recipients will get a one time payment of $250, down from an original proposal of $300. One of the single biggest reductions was a cut of $25 billion from a state fiscal stabilization fund that will largely be used for education. The House had proposed $79 billion; the Senate reduced it to $39 billion. The final agreement fell in between, with an added adjustment demanded by House Democrats that will allow states to use some of that money for the renovation and repair of school buildings. That agreement came only after senators who were crucial to the deal insisted on removing a separate line-item that would have provided $16 billion for school construction. And while the cuts were designed to meet the demands of centrist senators, including three crucial Republicans who insisted on a smaller bill, it was far from clear if the reductions would ultimately be seen as either good politics or good economics. Some economists have warned that the package may be too small, given the grave condition of the economy. And, as Mr. McConnell’s remarks underscored, the cut of nearly $50 billion from the Senate proposal was not enough to quiet conservative critics who have said the package is still bloated and will only burden future generations of taxpayers. Other cuts could be found throughout the huge package of tax breaks and new government spending. The Senate had proposed a $15,000 tax incentive for all home buyers, a generous morsel that had real estate brokers smiling. But the final deal falls back to a House proposal that would provide much less money and would limit the provision to first-time home buyers within certain income limits. Although details were still being worked out, officials said that eligible first-time homebuyers would be able to claim a credit of $8,000. The House and Senate negotiators also agreed to scale back spending intended to help provide health insurance to the unemployed. The House originally proposed that the government subsidize 65 percent of private insurance, under a law known as Cobra, for one year after the loss of a job. The final deal calls for a 60 percent subsidy, and for only nine months. The House had also wanted to let states offer temporary Medicaid coverage to jobless individuals who did not qualify for Cobra coverage. That proposal was eliminated entirely. The bill did, however, retain an extension of unemployment benefits, and a Senate provision exempted the first $2,400 of jobless benefits from federal taxes. It also retained a $70 billion provision to protect millions of middle income taxpayers from having to pay the alternative minimum tax in 2009. As the House and Senate prepared for final votes on the measure, hoping to get the bill on President Obama’s desk for his signature by Monday, a broad array of industries and interest groups were trying to calculate the winners and losers within the 700-odd pages of legislation. The deal reflected a calculated gamble by Mr. Obama in the first weeks of his term. To win Republican votes, the final stimulus package is considerably leaner than what many economists say is now needed to jolt the economy, given its grave condition. But it is unclear if Mr. Obama will be able to claim credit for bringing change to Washington by trying to win bipartisan support for his first major piece of legislation. Not a single House Republican voted for the bill when it came to the floor two weeks ago, and despite many compromises in the Senate, only three Republicans came on board. House Democrats, who are angry over some cuts, particularly for school construction, initially balked at the deal, and delayed a final meeting on Wednesday between House and Senate negotiators. Democratic officials said that Speaker Nancy Pelosi felt that Mr. Reid went too far by announcing a deal before it had been vetted by her office or discussed by House members in an emergency caucus meeting, setting off the last-minute flare-up. Ms. Pelosi said at a news conference on Wednesday that the delay helped House Democrats win some final concessions, including the agreement to let states use some money in a fiscal stabilization fund for school renovations. “There is no question that one of our overriding priorities in the House was a very strong commitment to school construction,” she said. “That’s still in the bill.” But they soon relented, and the meeting got under way in the packed Lyndon B. Johnson Room on the Senate side of the Capitol. Despite the House Democrats’ show of pique, the stimulus bill is the most prominent display yet that their party now fully controls Washington. Their ability to push the package forward was a major change from the years of losing battles during President George W. Bush’s tenure. For Republicans, it underscored the limits of their party’s diminished ranks. Even trimmed to $789 billion, the recovery measure will be the most expansive unleashing of the government’s fiscal firepower in the face of a recession since World War II. And yet it seemed almost trifling, compared with the $2.5 trillion rescue plan for the financial system — a combination of loans to banks and incentives to bring private capital into the banking system — that was announced on Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner. Although the final legislative language of the stimulus bill was not immediately available, lawmakers said it contained more than $150 billion in public works projects for transportation, energy and technology, and $87 billion to help states meet rising Medicaid costs. After huddling in Ms. Pelosi’s office on Tuesday until nearly midnight, top White House officials and Congressional leaders had all but ironed out the differences between the House and Senate versions of the stimulus by noon on Wednesday. Even before the last touches were put to the bill, some angry Democrats said that Mr. Obama and Congressional leaders had been too quick to give up on Democratic priorities. “I am not happy with it,” said Senator Tom Harkin, Democrat of Iowa. “You are not looking at a happy camper. I mean they took a lot of stuff out of education. They took it out of health, school construction and they put it more into tax issues.” Mr. Harkin said he was particularly frustrated by the money being spent on fixing the alternative minimum tax. “It’s about 9 percent of the whole bill,” he said, “Why is it in there? It has nothing to do with stimulus. It has nothing to do with recovery.” But even as Congressional leaders and top White House officials went through the package with a carving knife, it was clear that the three Republicans who agreed to support the bill in the Senate wielded extraordinary power, and along with conservative Democrats, had put a firm stamp on the stimulus package. For instance, negotiators opted to keep many of the Senate’s reduced spending provisions, but they were careful to maintain an additional $6.5 billion for medical research that was inserted at the insistence of Senator Arlen Specter, Republican of Pennsylvania, who is a cancer survivor. He was one of the three Republican supporters of the recovery package. “I think it is an important component of putting America back on its feet,” Mr. Specter said, though he added that it was still a difficult vote “in view of the large deficit and national debt.” The Senate bill came together only after a bipartisan group of centrist senators, led by Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, and Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, reached a deal to trim the cost of the package to $838 billion from more than $920 billion. “These aren’t easy times, obviously for America,” said Senator Olympia J. Snowe, Republican of Maine, who was also a member of that group. “Given the gravity of the circumstances economically, I thought it was important to be part of a process that could yield a consensus-based solution.” But the majority of Republicans continued to criticize the stimulus measure on Wednesday as a bloated and ill-designed spending bonanza by Democrats on favored projects that would not help lift the economy out of recession but would permanently expand the federal government and plunge future generations of Americans deep into debt. Indeed, the formal House-Senate conference meeting, usually an elaborate parliamentary ritual with reams of legislative paperwork strewn across cluttered conference tables, instead served mostly as a live, televised forum for some of the most powerful Democrats and Republicans in Congress to trade barbs. Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, complained that despite Mr. Obama’s call for bipartisan cooperation, Republicans had largely been shut out. “We didn’t have a chance to negotiate,” Mr. Grassley said.

Senate
Obama Stimulus Plan
House of Representatives
United States Economy
United States Politics and Government


Networks Strive for Fresh Ideas for Fall Season

Abstract: Acknowledging that the crop of new television programs last year was almost a complete washout, the networks are spending big this year to promise, if not genuine excitement, at least something different. Some of the new series to be unveiled to advertisers in New York this week feature special-effects dinosaurs, an original musical, some period pieces and at least two importations of characters from Grimm’s Fairy Tales. The networks, conceding that last year’s shows generated yawns among many viewers, are hoping to reap a windfall of advance financial commitments. Advertisers are prepared to increase significantly, perhaps by more than 10 percent, their spending on the networks’ fall season shows. And the programmers are looking to send the message that they recognize they have to find something other than a new round of police procedurals and sitcoms. “We were looking for fresh,” said Bob Greenblatt, the new president of NBC Entertainment. “I really want people to see the concept for a show and go: ‘Oh wow. What’s that?’ ” Mr. Greenblatt joined NBC from Showtime, a channel known, like many in cable, for more ground-breaking ideas for series. In the case of Showtime those included “Dexter” and “Weeds.” “This doesn’t mean I want to put serial killers or pot-selling soccer moms on the air,” Mr. Greenblatt said. “But I do believe a little bit of bold, attention-getting ideas need to get to broadcast television. I think the audience that found cable to be really irresistible also believes it.” Paul Lee, the new president of ABC Entertainment, echoed that point, saying the lesson of last season was that the networks had to begin offering fresher ideas, or continue to have viewers drift off to cable channels. Mr. Greenblatt and Mr. Lee are fresh ideas themselves, having taken over the entertainment divisions of NBC and ABC at a point where change certainly seemed necessary. NBC has suffered through one of the most severe droughts in prime time of any network in the last 20 years. And ABC has struggled to keep from ceding the advantage it gained from an influx of big hits seven years ago. But all four major broadcast networks are turning up with a range of shows based on big, expensive ideas and talent. Fox will introduce Simon Cowell’s latest talent competition, “The X Factor,” as well as perhaps the highest-cost drama ever in “Terra Nova,” a lavish prehistoric epic with Steven Spielberg — and dinosaurs — participating. Mr. Spielberg is also one of the creative hands behind NBC’s “Smash,” a hugely ambitious fictional account of the process of mounting a Broadway musical — complete with original songs composed for the series by the Broadway stalwarts Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman (“Hairspray”). The series pilot has three original songs and the episodes will add more each week. Its debut will be later in the season. “Those guys are a songwriting machine,” Mr. Greenblatt said. Supernatural touches will be everywhere, from “Once Upon a Time” on ABC, a contemporary mystery populated by an anthropomorphized Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin and a host of other Grimm’s Fairy Tales characters, to “Grimm” on NBC, which will take a police detective into a dark world where he sees beastlike characters — like those in the fairy tales. On Fox, “Alcatraz” will have mysterious missing figures from the famous prison’s past reappearing in the present. It is one of several new shows developed by J. J. Abrams of “Lost” and starring a “Lost” alumnus, in this case Jorge Garcia. Even CBS , which generally steers clear of the supernatural, has turned to Mr. Abrams for a show its programmers are especially high on, called “Person of Interest.” It fits into CBS’s heavy rotation of crime procedurals in having a former C.I.A. officer trying to stop crime in New York; but the twist is that he is helped in stopping the crimes before they happen by a mysterious billionaire, played by Michael Emerson of “Lost.” Of course the networks are not entirely fleeing the familiar. Most of the new comedies — there are more this year than in any recent year — follow traditional premises of workplace comedies, romantic comedies, fish-out-of-water comedies and comedies based on the acts of stand-ups (Whitney Cummings on NBC) or about real stand-ups (Chelsea Handler on NBC) or comebacks by stand-ups (Tim Allen on ABC). Mr. Lee talked about the need to offer viewers “some candy,” and that’s where the remake of “Charlie’s Angels” comes in. The season also has the usual spin-off, with Fox extracting “The Finder” out of a rib from “Bones.” NBC is also remaking the classic British cop series “Prime Suspect.” The most-watched switch of the season will not be a show moved to a different night, but the substitution of Ashton Kutcher for Charlie Sheen on CBS’s biggest comedy “Two and a Half Men.” And NBC faces a switch of its own as it seeks a new lead to replace Steve Carell on its only true comedy hit, “The Office.” But the message from the networks will not be all about change. CBS will emphasize how solid and dependable its schedule remains, while pushing its pre-eminence in drawing the most viewers overall, and Fox will brag about its leadership in attracting younger viewers. “We’d like to see stability from the networks,” said Lisa Quan, a vice president and director of audience analysis at the media agency MagnaGlobal. “That’s always a good thing.” Fox, which presents to advertisers on Monday, is keeping one of the sitcoms it introduced last fall, “Raising Hope,” and adding at least two new ones that appeal especially to women. It is also promoting special advertising packages on “The X Factor,” which Fox says will be the fall complement to the winter-and-spring tour de force “ American Idol .” Analysts expect Fox to show “X Factor” two nights a week and nurture new sitcoms in its wake. CBS, which presents on Wednesday, will bring back “Mike and Molly,” “Hawaii Five-0” and “Blue Bloods” from this season. The network is weighing whether to cancel one of the three “CSI” procedurals in favor of “Person of Interest.” Among its other new offerings is a sitcom titled “Two Broke Girls” about a pair of 22-year-olds who move to Brooklyn. NBC, which revealed its schedule to reporters Sunday ahead of its presentation Monday, has wiped the slate almost clean, canceling all the dramas it tried last fall, like “The Event” and “Chase.” But it has renewed the David E. Kelley legal procedural “Harry’s Law” and the two-year-old “Parenthood,” and it is importing its holiday season hit “The Sing Off” to a regular spot from 8 to 10 p.m. on Mondays. That reality show will lead into one of its prominent new dramas, “The Playboy Club,” which is set in Chicago in the ’60s and mixes the glamour of the club with a mob story. In addition, NBC, in its first upfront since Comcast took it over, is adding a second comedy night, Wednesday, with two new comedies from 8 to 9 p.m., both about strained relationships: “Up All Night,” which stars Christina Applegate, and “Free Agents,” with Hank Azaria. NBC is also developing a newsmagazine to be hosted by the anchor Brian Williams, but a time slot has not been set. Like NBC, ABC is making sweeping changes to its schedule, which it will unveil during its presentation on Tuesday. This season no new sitcom was able to take advantage of an adjacency to “Modern Family” on Wednesday night, and no new drama was able to gain traction, with the exception of the midseason medical procedural “Body of Proof,” which has been renewed. Long-running shows like “Desperate Housewives” and “Grey’s Anatomy” continued to slowly shed audience. Mr. Lee, who was hired in July, is expected to add 13 new series, including “Pan Am,” about pilots and flight attendants on that fabled airline; “The River,” about a documentary team searching for a lost explorer in the Amazon that encounters the supernatural; “Missing,” a drama with Ashley Judd as a former C.I.A. agent searching for a child who is missing in Italy; and a soap titled “Good Christian Belles.” But it’s the sitcom category where ABC would like to take its biggest swing, creating a block of comedies, perhaps on Tuesdays, around “Last Man Standing,” starring Tim Allen, who helped to make “Home Improvement” a hit for the network two decades ago. “It feels like people are looking for that next big hit in sitcom-land,” Ms. Quan said.

Television
National Broadcasting Co
ABC Inc
Fox Broadcasting Co
CBS Corp


Newspaper Chain Agrees to a Sale for $4.5 Billion

Abstract: Knight Ridder, the second-largest newspaper company in the United States, agreed last night to sell itself for about $4.5 billion in cash and stock to the McClatchy Company, a publisher half its size, according to people involved in the negotiations. The deal, which is expected to be announced today, comes as the newspaper industry is gripped by uncertainty. Readers have begun to drift away from printed newspapers as their Web sites have experienced sharp gains in use. The sale may help assuage some investors who are nervous about the values of newspaper companies, however, because Knight Ridder commanded a premium of about 25 percent for its shares from the time it put itself up for sale in November under pressure from shareholders who were unhappy with performance of its stock. Still, McClatchy, which is based in Sacramento and publishes The Sacramento Bee and The Star Tribune in Minneapolis, among others, was the only major newspaper company to submit a final bid for Knight Ridder, publisher of 32 daily newspapers, including such venerable papers as The Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer and The San Jose Mercury News. While Knight Ridder attracted interest from some big publishers, including Gannett, the largest chain in the United States, most major newspaper companies passed on the auction entirely, underscoring just how unsettled the biggest players are about their own business. Under the terms of the deal, McClatchy agreed to pay about $67 a share in cash and stock for Knight Ridder, these people said. About 60 percent of the payment will be in cash, while the rest will be in McClatchy shares. On Friday, Knight Ridder's shares rose 4 percent in anticipation that a deal would be reached over the weekend. But those shares had been trading at about $53 a share when Bruce Sherman, a Knight Ridder shareholder, went public with his efforts to put pressure on the company to put itself up for sale. Because Knight Ridder is so much larger than McClatchy, the merger is likely to create some upheaval for both companies. McClatchy could sell or close some of the Knight Ridder papers and could take further cost-control measures in its own newsrooms to help finance the deal. It was uncertain when the deal would be completed. Knight Ridder, based in San Jose, Calif., has almost three times as many dailies as the 12 owned by McClatchy. Knight Ridder's $3 billion in revenue for 2005 was more than twice McClatchy's $1.2 billion. The company put itself up for sale partly at the urging of Mr. Sherman, a portfolio manager who runs Private Capital Management, a subsidiary of the brokerage firm Legg Mason. "McClatchy is a dolphin swallowing a small whale," said Chuck Richard, an analyst at Outsell Inc., a research firm for the information industry. Still, the prospect of a McClatchy takeover may bring some relief within Knight Ridder, where some had feared a takeover by investors who had little newspaper experience and were likely to strip down the properties and eventually sell them off. "I think most everyone in the newsroom has a great deal of respect for McClatchy and the papers it runs," said Michael Cassidy, a columnist for The San Jose Mercury News, who has worked at the paper for the past 20 years. "Given the various scenarios, including the private equity firms that were involved in the bidding, McClatchy would be a newsroom favorite." McClatchy has one of the strongest track records in the newspaper business, both for award-winning journalism in its generally small and medium circulation categories, and financially. The industry has faced declining circulation and falling stock prices in the last several years, but McClatchy, through the end of 2004, had 20 consecutive years of circulation increases and 10 consecutive years in which its shares grew at the highest rate of any newspaper stock. McClatchy's gains have slowed in the last several months as it confronts the same challenges other newspapers face, although analysts said its disciplined management had put it in a stronger position than many. McClatchy's operating profit margin was 22.8 percent last year, compared with Knight Ridder's 16.4 percent. While the Knight Ridder papers are profitable, some are more troubled than others and may be a drag on McClatchy's bottom line. Analysts speculate that the company could shut down The Philadelphia Daily News and possibly sell The Inquirer, since the business climate in Philadelphia is sluggish and the papers face tough competition from a ring of suburban dailies. On the other hand, they say, The Inquirer generates a lot of cash, something McClatchy will need as it goes into debt to pay for Knight Ridder. "I would hope that McClatchy would be able to understand the value of having two competing newspapers in one city and would keep the tabloid alive," said Theresa Conroy, who has been a reporter for The Daily News for 11 years. "But it seems that in most of the scenarios that all the analysts talked about, no matter who bought us, they were going to close The Daily News." Analysts have also suggested that McClatchy may sell Knight Ridder's St. Paul Pioneer Press. McClatchy already owns The Star Tribune in adjacent Minneapolis and could face an antitrust challenge if it kept the St. Paul paper. The Pioneer Press's profit margin is just 10 percent, relatively low for the industry, and selling it would also help McClatchy raise money to pay for the deal. "McClatchy is clearly an excellent company," said Mike Burbach, who became editorial editor of The Pioneer Press three weeks ago. "They're known for good business and good journalism. The concern in St. Paul is what happens to The Pioneer Press under McClatchy. "Everybody here wants to see St. Paul exist and be as vigorous and strong a newspaper as it has been," he said. McClatchy's philosophy has been to find papers in growth markets with no direct daily print competition, although Minneapolis and Anchorage, Alaska, were exceptions. The company bought The Anchorage Daily News in 1979 and went against The Anchorage Times, which it bought and shut down in 1992. Analysts also expect McClatchy to save on costs by consolidating some state and national news operations as well as advertising sales with Knight Ridder. For example, it could absorb the San Jose paper into its string of northern California papers, and merge operations at its News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., with Knight Ridder's Charlotte Observer. Such combinations would also greatly enhance McClatchy's presence on the Internet. In addition to several newspaper Web sites, Knight Ridder has a stake in the popular CareerBuilder.com site. It also operates the Real Cities Network, the largest national network of city and regional Web sites in more than 110 markets. The deal, if completed, would mean a rich payday for P. Anthony Ridder, the chief executive. Mr. Ridder is entitled to a lump-sum payment worth three times his salary and bonus, which was about $1.7 million in 2004. The deal would unite two storied newspaper companies. Knight Ridder was formed by the merger in 1974 of two family-controlled companies, Knight and Ridder. The Ridder company dates to 1892, when Herman Ridder bought The Staats-Zeitung, the leading German-language newspaper in the United States. The Knight empire began in 1903, when Charles Landon Knight bought The Akron Beacon Journal. The company now owns 32 dailies in 29 markets, with a daily circulation of 3.3 million. They have won 84 Pulitzer Prizes, including 14 for public service. The McClatchy chain was started in 1857 with The Bee in Sacramento by James McClatchy, who had fled Ireland during the potato famine. Today, four fifth-generation McClatchys sit on the company's 14-member board. The papers have won 13 Pulitzer Prizes, including five for public service. Mike Jacobs, publisher and editor of The Grand Forks Herald, a Knight Ridder paper in North Dakota, said: "Of course I'm familiar with McClatchy and I think highly of McClatchy. As we say in North Dakota, it could be worse."

KNIGHT RIDDER
MERGERS ACQUISITIONS AND DIVESTITURES
NEWS AND NEWS MEDIA


U.S. Olympic Roster Is Complete

Abstract: The United States rowing squad for the London Games was completed after three crews won finals at the Olympic trials in West Windsor, N.J. Ken Jurkowski easily won the men’s single sculls to qualify for his second straight summer Games. Sara Hendershot and Sarah Zelenka rallied to beat the five-time national team members Jamie Redman and Amanda Polk in the women’s pair event. Silas Stafford and Tom Peszek won the men’s pair.

Rowing
Olympic Games
Olympic Games (2012)
Jurkowski Ken
Hendershot Sara
Zelenka Sarah
London (England)


The Life Celestial: A Lot of Work, a Little Play, Plenty of E-Mail

Abstract: Clayton Anderson is an orbital hitchhiker. When the mission of the space shuttle Discovery comes to an end, Mr. Anderson — who has been living aboard the International Space Station since June — will get a ride home. Daniel Tani, who came up with the rest of Discovery’s crew last week, will stay behind for his rotation aboard the station. In orbit, Mr. Anderson has worked on the station and walked in space — and even pushed a 1,500-pound, refrigerator-sized ammonia container away from the station to burn up in the atmosphere. He has also brought an amiably goofball sensibility to the orbiting laboratory, engaging the ground crew in daily trivia contests that often include questions about Nebraska, his home state, or challenging them to provide the punch lines to jokes. (Example: What’s the difference between roast beef and pea soup? The answer: Anyone can roast beef.) Nearing the end of his stay, he agreed to answer questions, via e-mail: Q. What’s it been like spending so much time in a relatively small space? A. Surprisingly, I have had no feelings of “claustrophobia.” The current volume is approximately the size of a three-bedroom home, so with a typical crew size of three, it is an ample amount of space and you can find places for privacy if you need it! Q. Some critics of the space agency say the program is just going in circles in low-earth orbit. What’s the value of the station for the people who are footing the bill? A. Our station crew has been doing valuable science onboard...not enough to suit me personally, but it’s important stuff. We are performing combustion experiments to enable us to develop better smoke detectors for spacecraft, and the spin-offs from those advances will one day be in our homes. We are working on new atmospheric monitoring technologies, which may one day enable miners to quickly and accurately assess the atmospheric compositions deep in their mines. It just takes a bit of time to see these things come to fruition. Q. How have you kept your relationship with your wife and kids strong over this long absence? A. Life on the I.S.S. today is considerably better than that of the astronauts who lived here when the outpost first became “manned.” Today we have e-mail, weekly video conferences with our families and the opportunity to make telephone calls to anywhere in the world through an Internet protocol telephone! I estimate that I talk to my wife daily and my two children at least twice every week. It has made a big difference for me to be able to “keep up” with their activities, problems and successes. I am also able to receive electronic files from home that include photographs, videos and music. Q. What’s the best part of walking in space? A. Being able to be a small part of such a huge assembly task as building the International Space Station is quite a thrill for me. And, the views that I experienced while outside of the I.S.S. were absolutely spectacular. I will remember forever my first EVA [extravehicular activity] and our pass northwest to southeast over the United States. Entering near Seattle, Wash., and crossing over the Rockies and then catching the Great Salt Lake, all while riding on the Canadian arm carrying a 1,500-pound soon-to-be-piece of space junk, it just doesn’t get much better than that! Q. You’ve been shown playing a music keyboard up there. What have you been playing and singing? A. I dabble in songwriting and have been trying to write a new composition. My time has been limited, and I have not made much progress. Q. Did you have the problems with nausea that many first-time astronauts experience? A. I was very fortunate and did not feel any inkling of any kind of “space adaptation syndrome (S.A.S.).” When we reached orbit and zero gravity on STS-117, I was ready to go to work and kept asking when it was time to eat! Q. What are some of the things that surprised you about orbital life? A. I was really surprised at how difficult simple tasks can become without gravity. Just trying to write something down on a piece of paper is somewhat of an ordeal until you “figure it out” in your brain. Also, working with tools that I have often used on the ground presented challenges in zero G, as your ability to “anchor” yourself becomes very challenging...but it’s also kind of fun to spin around while you try to use a ratchet wrench! Q. What have you missed the most? A. Well, I knew that I would miss my wife and children and close friends...that was a given. But I guess one of the things I miss the most is the “outdoors.” The smells, the feel of the breeze, the changes in temperature after a good front passes through. Those are things you simply cannot experience up here. Q. How does it feel having been unable to take a shower for so long? A. We keep quite clean using “sponge baths.” We have liquid soap and shampoo that allows us to stay almost “squeaky” clean. I haven’t really thought about a shower, but now that you mention it...a nice long, hot shower will feel mighty good!

International Space Cooperation and Ventures


New Hampshire: Deal Reached in Hepatitis Case

Abstract: A hospital technician accused of causing a multistate outbreak of hepatitis C will plead guilty in exchange for a prison term of 30 to 40 years, according to a plea agreement filed Monday in federal court. The defendant, David Kwiatkowski, a cardiac technologist, will avoid criminal charges in Kansas, Maryland and Georgia, where authorities say he injected himself with painkillers then put saline back in the tainted needles. Dozens of patients were infected; one patient in Kansas died. According to the agreement, Mr. Kwiatkowski diverted drugs at Exeter Hospital in New Hampshire, among other facilities.

New Hampshire
Hepatitis
Criminal Sentence


Former Greek Defense Minister Convicted in Corruption Case

Abstract: ATHENS — A former Greek defense minister, Akis Tsochatzopoulos, was convicted and sentenced on Monday to eight years in prison for concealing assets from the authorities. It was the second high-profile corruption conviction in a week in Greece, a country where prosecutions of senior political figures are very rare. Mr. Tsochatzopoulos, 73, was a founding member of the country’s once-dominant Socialist Party, but the party expelled him in 2010. The court found that he submitted “inaccurate” information about his personal wealth to the authorities, notably by failing to report the purchase of a neo-Classical mansion near the Acropolis. Prosecutors have connected that property to a money-laundering scheme in which they accuse Mr. Tsochatzopoulos of concealing millions of euros in under-the-table payments from military procurement contracts. Mr. Tsochatzopoulos, who has been in custody since April 2012, faces a separate trial on money-laundering charges that is expected to start in May, and may result in a stiffer sentence if he is convicted. In addition to the prison term handed down on Monday, the court also fined Mr. Tsochatzopoulos 520,000 euros, about $675,000, and ordered the seizure of the Athens mansion. Last week, a court in Salonika, Greece’s second-largest city, sentenced a former mayor , Vassilis Papageorgopoulos, to life in prison for embezzling about 18 million euros, about $23 million, from city coffers. With many Greeks disgusted and angered by three years of crisis, austerity and dysfunction, the government of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has pledged to crack down on political corruption.

Corruption
Akis Tsochatzopoulos
Greece
Pasok Panhellenic Socialist Movement
Decisions and Verdicts


He Can Act, but Can He Debate? Untested Thompson Faces Rivals for First Time

Abstract: In an unusual political season that seems to offer up a presidential debate every week or so, the Republican debate tomorrow is expected to offer something new: Fred D. Thompson . Untested in debate against his opponents until now, Mr. Thompson, a late entrant to the race, chose to skip the last contest in favor of announcing his candidacy on “The Tonight Show” early last month — a decision for which he was roundly criticized. Many have been wondering how Mr. Thompson, a former senator from Tennessee, will do. By his own admission he is “a bit rusty” when it comes to debating, and he has said he hopes he will be able to “hang in there” with the other candidates, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the sharp-tongued former New York mayor, and Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, who is known for his polished delivery. A look at some of Mr. Thompson’s debates years ago offers a mixed picture, with the candidate mostly projecting calm and confidence against Representative Jim Cooper, his Democratic opponent for the Senate seat in 1994. Mr. Thompson’s delivery back then was usually smooth and expressionless, not a monotone but not displaying much charisma, either. He sounded articulate, speaking in full, well-rounded sentences, but stopped short of eloquence. Even when he was on the attack, or firing back at a rough question, he rarely lost his cool. Speaking of Mr. Cooper, he deadpanned, “There’s nothing more desperate than a career politician facing the prospect of having to get a real job for the first time in his life.” In one of the only heated exchanges in a debate broadcast on WMC-TV Memphis in October 1994, Mr. Thompson responded to charges that he was a rich, out-of-touch Washington lobbyist by continuing that same line of attack about Mr. Cooper’s career. “You know, you’ll never be a lobbyist and you’ll probably be few other things either,” he told Mr. Cooper, not even raising his voice. “You were born to great wealth and privilege. You’ve never had a real job in your life.” In another debate, at the University of Memphis, Mr. Thompson was similarly measured, even when Mr. Cooper provoked him, mocking his use of a rented pickup truck on the campaign trail as a Hollywood-style gimmick. “Lay off my pickup,” Mr. Thompson said flatly, adding a quick defense: “The pickup’s good for me. It reminds me of my roots, and growing up down in Lawrence County. It reminds me of my daddy. It’s a good way to campaign. And another advantage is it just seems to bug the dickens out of Jim.” In one radio debate in 1994, however, things were different. Mr. Thompson showed his teeth. As one radio announcer put it, “Thompson appeared to rattle his Democratic opponent by relentlessly and aggressively mocking him.” At one point, Mr. Thompson was sarcastic: “Today is Thursday, Jim. What’s your position on term limits today?” At another point, Mr. Cooper asked Mr. Thompson whether he lobbied Congress on behalf of foreign companies. Mr. Thompson lashed out, losing his cool. “The answer is no,” he said, before being interrupted and adding, “Shut up! Just shut up just a minute!” Then he called Mr. Cooper a liar. Tomorrow, Mr. Thompson will be facing a field of candidates who are already veterans of numerous other presidential debates and well-versed on the issues. But so far on the campaign trail, Mr. Thompson has stumbled at times when pressed for his views on certain local and national issues, like not knowing of the fight over oil drilling in the Everglades and in referring to Russia as the Soviet Union. To help prepare, Mr. Thompson, who has also been an actor, has enlisted the aid of Alfonse M. D’Amato, the former senator from New York, who has been playing the role of Mr. Giuliani. But whether these rehearsals will help is an open question. “There’s the expectation that if you’re a performer, you’ll be good at any kind of performance, but that’s not true,” said Shannon Jackson, a professor and chairwoman of the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. “Certain performers are used to having scripts that they can practice and rehearse. They find challenges when they don’t have a script, or the required script changes and they have to improvise.”

Debating
Presidential Election of 2008
Thompson Fred Dalton


Greece Struggles Continue, Despite Vows of Aid

Abstract: ATHENS (AP) — Markets drove up Greece ’s borrowing costs again on Tuesday, despite last week’s promise of a financial backstop from other European countries, indicating the country’s debt crisis was far from over. Greece tapped another 390 million euros ($524 million) from bond markets on Tuesday by reopening — or selling more of — an existing 20-year bond. But its success in raising money from bond sales was darkened by the continuing high interest rates markets were demanding to hold Greek debt. The interest rate spread between Greek 10-year bonds and equivalent German issues — considered a benchmark of solidity — rose back to above 3.35 percentage points on Tuesday, about the same as before the rescue plan’s announcement last Thursday and up from the 3.06 percentage points on Monday. A wider spread means weaker confidence in a country’s debt as investors demand a higher risk premium to hold it. That means Greece is paying roughly twice in interest what Germany must to borrow, despite the promised backstop from the 16 countries that use the euro. Athens hopes the rescue plan — in which the 16 euro zone countries promised loans together with financing from the International Monetary Fund to assist Greece if it were unable to borrow or pay its debts — will help restore market confidence and bring down the spreads. The European Central Bank also extended relaxed rules that keep downgraded Greek bonds eligible. But no money is being made available to Greece right now and any loans would require the approval of all the other euro zone countries. The Greek finance minister, George Papaconstantinou, has said he expects the spreads will narrow gradually. If borrowing costs remain high, the savings from painful austerity measures that Greece announced a few weeks ago could be drained by paying high interest rates on debt. Monday’s successful bond issue “is another step forward for Greece, but the crisis is far from over,” said Ben May, European Economist at Capital Economics Ltd. Greece sold the 390 million euros by reopening a 5.9 percent bond that comes due on Oct. 22, 2022, the Public Debt Management Agency said Tuesday. The agency had said it had been seeking to raise up to 1 billion euros with Tuesday’s sale, which it said had a cutoff price of 99.05. The sale came a day after Greece raised 5 billion euros with a seven-year bond issue, in a crucial first borrowing test after the euro zone unveiled a rescue last week to help Athens cope with its acute debt crisis. Monday’s bonds were sold with a coupon of 5.9 percent. The high yield comes before April and May deadlines to refinance about 20 billion euros in debt, with total borrowing needs at 54 billion euros this year.

Greece
Interest Rates
International Monetary Fund
Credit


Turkey: 10 Suspects Held in Attack Plot

Abstract: Turkish police officers detained 10 people with suspected links to Al Qaeda in operations conducted in Bursa and Istanbul, following tips that the group was plotting attacks ahead of New Year’s Eve , the semiofficial Anatolian Agency reported. During security operations on Wednesday, the antiterror units in Bursa, a town in the northwest, rounded up eight people, one of whom was the suspected leader of a local Qaeda cell, the report said.


U.S. Defeats Switzerland in Olympic Men’s Hockey Opener

Abstract: VANCOUVER, British Columbia — It was convincing but hardly a blowout, and proof that a team composed mostly of players from European hockey leagues is more than a challenge for a group of elite N.H.L. players and that Team USA is a real contender for an Olympic medal. The United States had its hands full for much of the men’s tournament opener Tuesday but finally emerged a 3-1 winner over Switzerland, a team usually ranked as the sixth best in Europe. “The first 10 minutes, they came hard and we had to gut-check,” said David Backes of the St. Louis Blues, who scored the second American goal on a brilliant rush while playing most of the game with a bloody nose. “These guys aren’t going to roll over for anyone.” United States Coach Ron Wilson added: “It was a good start. Some of the younger players seemed a little tight and nervous.” The first 27 minutes were evenly matched, and the Americans led by 2-0 only because of great individual-effort goals from Bobby Ryan of Anaheim and Backes. Ryan scored unassisted with 1 minute 1 second left in the first period after cleverly outdueling the Swiss defenseman Thierry Paterlini from his knees for a loose puck along the boards. The puck bounced off a group of players in front and fell to Ryan in the high slot. He snapped a shot over the right shoulder of goalie Jonas Hiller, an Anaheim teammate of Ryan’s, to put the Americans in front. Backes scored in the second period, also unassisted, on a Bobby Orr-like rink-length dash. Picking up a rebound near his net, Backes accelerated down the left-wing boards and went right around defenseman Yannick Weber, beating Hiller as he cut across the goal mouth. Weber is not a player in the Swiss National League A, as 17 of his Olympic teammates are. He is a Montreal Canadien, one of three N.H.L. players on the Swiss team. Ralph Krueger, the Swiss coach, said he was pleased with his team’s playing “eye to eye” with the Americans. The players from the Swiss league were strong, led by forwards Julien Sprunger of Fribourg-Gotteron and Ivo Ruthemann of S.C. Bern. Another, Roman Wick of Kloten Flyers, pulled Switzerland to 3-1 halfway through the third period when his centering pass was accidentally knocked in by United States goalie Ryan Miller. “In the first and second period, we were running around a little and maybe ran out of gas,” Wilson said. The United States, which is the youngest team in the tournament and whichhad only one practice together, on Monday, looked more cohesive as the game went on. Wilson put together line combinations consisting of Zach Parise, Paul Stastny and Patrick Kane; Ryan Malone, Joe Pavelski and Phil Kessel; and Jamie Langenbrunner, Ryan Kesler and Dustin Brown; along with tandems consisting of Backes and Ryan — whom he called the team’s best combination — and Ryan Callahan and Chris Drury. “We’re a chemistry experiment, and it’s going to take time,” Wilson said. CANADA FLEXES MUSCLE Norway goalie Pal Grotnes stood up against wave after wave of attackers but failed to hold back the red tide of Team Canada as the Canadians skated to an 8-0 victory. Grotnes, who stopped 51 Canadian shots in a 2-1 loss at the 2008 World Championship, stymied the Canadians in the first period with 14 saves. But early in the second, he was beaten by Jarome Iginla’s power-play slap shot and Dany Heatley’s tip-in at even strength. Grotnes made 28 saves before being taken out with 15 minutes left. Canada goalie Roberto Luongo stopped 15 shots. U.S. WOMEN ROLL AGAIN Jenny Potter scored three goals for her second straight hat trick and Natalie Darwitz had 5 points as the United States women (2-0) routed Russia (0-2), 13-0. . The Americans, who beat China, 12-1, in their opener, formally earned an expected berth in the playoffs. (AP)


Vietnam’s Sacred Turtle Dies at an Awkward, Some Say Ominous, Time

Abstract: HANOI, Vietnam — A giant turtle, a mythic symbol of Vietnamese independence and longevity that had quietly paddled around Hanoi’s central lake for decades — some say centuries — is dead, official state news media has reported. The turtle, known as Cu Rua, or Great-Grandfather Turtle, weighed an estimated 360 pounds and was believed to have died of natural causes. Its precise age was unknown. It would be difficult to overstate Cu Rua’s spiritual and cultural significance in this deeply superstitious and Confucian country, where the news of the turtle’s demise prompted an outpouring of sadness and hand-wringing. And its timing, as a Communist Party congress opened to choose Vietnam ’s top leaders for the next five years, was widely interpreted as a bad omen for both the party and the nation. Image The Ngoc Son temple in the middle of Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, Vietnam. “People say the turtle’s death is bad luck,” said Nguyen Thien Hung, the caretaker of another temple near the lake. Credit Justin Mott for The New York Times “People say the turtle’s death is bad luck, and a way for the gods to show that something’s about to happen,” said Nguyen Thien Hung, the caretaker of the Vu Thach Buddhist temple, which lies a few steps from the lake. “If I were to discuss the political implications of this, the government would think I was trying to destabilize it,” he said. “But everyone thinks this is bad luck for the government.” For many here, Cu Rua was sacred, the earthly embodiment of the legendary turtle of the lake. In the 15th century, the legend says, a nationalist hero borrowed a magic sword — possibly from a dragon king — fought with it to drive out occupying Chinese forces, and returned it to a turtle that surfaced in Hoan Kiem Lake, the “Lake of the Returned Sword,” in central Hanoi. Cu Rua’s death was a loss for biological history as well. It was one of the last of the Yangtze giant soft-shell turtles, species Rafetus swinhoei, which now has just three known specimens, two in China and one in a lake outside Hanoi. Video At Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi, many gathered on Thursday to pay their last respects to a revered turtle that died this week. Credit Credit European Pressphoto Agency “The loss of this critically important animal brings the species one step closer to extinction,” Peter Pritchard, an international turtle authority and author of the book “Rafetus: The Curve of Extinction,” said in an email from his home in Florida. But for the Vietnamese, biodiversity may have been the least of Cu Rua’s attributes. Of the four animals that many Vietnamese consider sacred, including the dragon, phoenix and unicorn, the turtle is the only one that exists in real life, said Pamela McElwee, a Vietnam expert and a professor of human ecology at Rutgers University. As a result, she added, Hanoi’s giant turtle was seen as an important link between “the here and now, the earthly world and the spiritual world.” It was also a symbol of the capital’s endurance in the face of decades of war and upheaval. Whenever a train rumbles into the Hanoi Railway Station, the conductor plays a patriotic song that chronicles Hanoi’s recovery after the Vietnam War and ends with an ode to one of the city’s most famous monuments: a shrine in the center of Hoan Kiem Lake built in the 1880s to honor the sacred turtle. Nguyen Thi Van Anh, 40, a customer service agent at the Hanoi Railway Station, said she had never seen the turtle but always thought of it as an important symbol of her hometown. Image Visiting Ngoc Son temple, home to a large sculpture of the lake’s revered resident. Credit Justin Mott for The New York Times “Now I feel like I’m missing something, but I can’t describe what,” she said. If the sacred turtle was a national symbol, it is hardly surprising that it had a troubled relationship with China, Vietnam’s giant neighbor and longtime Communist ally. Thanks to the legend of the lake, the turtle is Vietnam’s clearest symbol of resistance to Chinese aggression. Cu Rua’s death was discovered the day the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry lashed out against China for sending an oil rig into disputed waters of the South China Sea and during a heated national debate about the country’s political and economic dependence on China. But the turtle’s relationship with China also has an element of codependency. The only known remaining female Yangtze giant soft-shell turtle lives in China, and her male partner there may be infertile, several turtle experts said in interviews this week. The species’ last best hope may be to breed Vietnam’s last surviving turtle with China’s female. So far, there has been no effort to do so, according to Nguyen Quang Truong, a herpetologist at the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources in Hanoi. For one, the sex of the remaining Vietnamese turtle is not yet clear, he said. But even if it turns out to be male, planning a cross-border turtle tryst, or even a sperm shipment for artificial insemination, would require high-level bilateral collaboration, piles of paperwork and the cooperation of nature. “It’s quite complicated,” Mr. Truong said.

Vietnam
Turtles
China
Endangered Species
Superstition


Sabathia Is Keeping Yankees’ Offer in His Pocket

Abstract: There was an episode of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" in which Larry David desperately tried to give away a sweaty $50 bill he got from a friend's sneaker. The money was legal tender, but nobody wanted it. The Yankees know the feeling. On Friday, it will be three weeks since they barreled into the free-agent negotiating period with a six-year, $140 million offer to starter C.C. Sabathia. His response has been silence. Derek Jeter had already called Sabathia by then, and Alex Rodriguez has called him since. Yet the offer sits there, an anomaly in a depressed free-agent market, begging to be accepted but met with indifference. Brian Cashman, the Yankees' general manager, seems prepared to do something about it. According to an Associated Press report, Cashman has scheduled a meeting with Sabathia before the winter meetings start on Monday in Las Vegas. The report also said Cashman has met with Scott Boras, who represents the free agent starters Derek Lowe and Oliver Perez, and first baseman Mark Teixeira. Typically, the Yankees do not need to beg free agents to accept. The Yankees' strategy is usually to identify their target, overwhelm him with an early offer, intimidate the competition and get their man. They have done the first three things, but Sabathia is still a free agent. "If they went to Sabathia with $140 million, he could go back to them and say, 'Give me $170 million and I'm there,'" said one major league general manager, who was granted anonymity so he could freely discuss another team's plans. "He hasn't done that. The Yankees aren't his first choice. Why isn't he jumping on their offer?" The Yankees have continued to negotiate with Sabathia, and they would like to sign him next week. But they have not sensed the usual enthusiasm that accompanies a splashy Yankees offer. Mike Mussina signed quickly after the 2000 season, and a year later, there was never much doubt about Jason Giambi's intention. Both times, the Yankees had just been to the World Series. Both players wanted to be in New York – or in Mussina's case, somewhere close to his Pennsylvania home -- and both had a veteran agent, Arn Tellem. Sabathia is a different case entirely, and the reason he is stalling, to those who know him, is just as the general manager suspected: his first choice is not New York. Sabathia is from Vallejo, Calif., near the Bay Area, and it is well known that his preference is to play for a team on the West Coast. But the money is elsewhere. "It's not that he doesn't want to be a Yankee; that's not it at all," said a friend of Sabathia's, who was granted anonymity because Sabathia had not authorized him to speak on his behalf. "It's just the aspect of being out there, his family, that kind of stuff." Sabathia and his agent, Greg Genske, have made no public comments lately. Genske has kept a low profile since taking over Jeff Moorad's agency when Moorad left to run the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004. Sabathia is the most prominent free agent Genske has represented; he was fired in February by Manny Ramirez, who hired Boras. The presence of Boras looms over Sabathia, too, because of Teixeira, the free agent first baseman for the Los Angeles Angels. Teixeira is seeking a 10-year contract worth $200 million, and Boras often waits until deep into the winter before making a deal. If the Angels sign Teixeira – as they insist they are trying to do -- they would probably not sign Sabathia. But if Teixeira leaves, the theory goes, they might. That seems unlikely, especially after the Angels offered salary arbitration to starter Jon Garland, who may very well take it after a poor second half. But the hope of an overture from the Angels, apparently, explains Sabathia's delay. The Yankees have long understood that Sabathia might be reluctant to sign, but they assessed the market and believed no other team could approach what they could offer. The Milwaukee Brewers, the team Sabathia carried to the playoffs last season, have offered $100 million for five years. Just as the Yankees suspected, there are no other known suitors. The San Francisco Giants have been aggressive this winter, guaranteeing more than $16 million for next season to shortstop Edgar Renteria and relievers Jeremy Affeldt and Bobby Howry. They also have five years left on Barry Zito's seven-year, $126 million contract, and annual debt service to finance their ballpark. In other words, there may not be much money left for Sabathia – certainly not $23 million per season, and probably no more than a $90 million guarantee. Brian Sabean, the Giants' general manager, said as much on Thursday. "We're not actively out there swimming with the sharks," Sabean said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Until Sabathia is convinced there are no lucrative offers on the West Coast – and with Cashman coming out for a visit, that time may be soon -- there is no urgency for him to sign with the Yankees. Hal Steinbrenner, the Yankees' controlling partner, said on Nov. 21 that the Sabathia offer was "not going to be there forever." But with no other starters having signed with the Yankees – not even their own Andy Pettitte – it is hard for the team to have leverage until the winter meetings begin on Monday. The Yankees seem content to let A.J. Burnett sign with the Atlanta Braves, who may offer $60 million for four years with a vesting option for a fifth year. Two Boras clients – Derek Lowe and Oliver Perez – are probably the next-best free agent starters, with Ben Sheets and Brad Penny coming off injuries. "I'm not getting anxious," General Manager Brian Cashman said on Thursday, before the AP confirmed his travel plans. "It's part of the process, that's all." It is a process being stalled by Teixeira, Sabathia and the economy, with teams that depend on credit suddenly turning frugal. The Yankees' thriving cable network and new stadium give them more cash than their rivals. They proved it to Sabathia three weeks ago, and now they are intensifying their effort.

Sabathia C C
New York Yankees
Baseball
Free Agents (Sports)


The New York Blade Suspends Publication

Abstract: The New York Blade, one of the two major gay and lesbian newspapers in New York City, has laid off its editor in chief and suspended publication, the chief executive of its publishing company said on Wednesday. “Everyone was let go, but the people on The Blade know that they may come back if The Blade is coming back,” said the executive, Matthew Bank, of HX Media, which was formed in 2005 by the merger of The Blade and HX Magazine. The moves came on Tuesday after HX was sold to undisclosed buyers. The Blade, a biweekly paper with a free circulation of 22,000, was left with an uncertain future. “It doesn’t have an issue scheduled until a week from Friday.” Mr. Bank said. “There are a lot of things that can happen between now and then.” The decision to suspend publication comes at a particularly active period for journalism concerned with gay issues: the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots and the gay pride parade on Sunday, the proposed same-sex marriage bill in the State Senate and discontent over the Obama administration’s performance on gay-rights issues. “It is an incredibly exciting time for gay journalism,” said Kat Long, who had been editor in chief of The Blade since February. “It’s important that gay papers are around to document it.” Paul Schindler, editor in chief of Gay City News, the rival New York City gay newspaper, said The Blade had “made good contributions over the years.” While a minority owner in HX Media has gone into receivership, Mr. Bank said that had little to do with the decision to sell the magazine. Instead, he pointed to the advertising climate: “The economy and the future of print media being more difficult was definitely weighing on us.” The Blade’s recent gay pride issue had been a relatively slim 28 pages. “Gay pride is to gay publications what Christmas is to retail,” Mr. Schindler said. “When I pick up The Blade and it’s in 28 pages, then this is a business that is in serious problems.”

The New York Blade
Newspapers
New York City
Gay City News
Homosexuality


Supreme Court Asked to Rule on Marriage Act

Abstract: The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to settle the legal fight over a law that denies federal benefits to married gay couples. The Justice Department on Tuesday asked the court in its next term to hear an appeal of lower court rulings striking down a part of the Defense of Marriage Act. The earliest the justices might decide to hear the case is in late September. Arguments would probably take place over the winter, with a decision returned by late June. The administration said it agreed with the lower court rulings, but wants prompt Supreme Court review because President Obama has instructed federal agencies to continue to enforce the law’s ban on federal benefits to married gay couples until there is a final ruling.

Same-Sex Marriage Civil Unions and Domestic Partnerships


Humana’s Profit Drops 21%

Abstract: LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Humana Inc. said Monday that its first-quarter profit fell 21 percent as the health insurer paid out more in claims and increased spending to handle expected growth in its lucrative Medicare Advantage membership. The company, based in Louisville, nudged up its earnings expectations for the full year to a range of $7.55 to $7.75 a share, from its previous forecast of $7.50 to $7.70 a share. But the first-quarter results and the increased forecast were short of Wall Street expectations. The company’s shares fell 8.1 percent, dropping $7.14 to $80.68. For the three months ended March 31, Humana reported net income of $248 million, or $1.49 a share, down from $315 million, or $1.86 a share, in the same period last year. Revenue rose 11 percent to $10.2 billion. Wall Street analysts expected earnings of $1.52 a share on revenue of $10.14 billion. Humana cited favorable claims trends from previous periods in raising its forecast. In essence, Humana set aside more money in previous quarters than was needed to pay claims during a slowdown in the use of health care services by consumers who felt pinched during the recession.

Health Insurance and Managed Care
Humana Inc
Company Reports


Mayor de Blasio to Make Lunar New Year a School Holiday

Abstract: Mayor Bill de Blasio ’s administration is expected on Tuesday to add the Lunar New Year to the New York public school calendar, allowing the city’s Asian families to celebrate an important holiday with their children without tarnishing attendance records. Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, pledged to make the change during the 2013 mayoral campaign, but by agreeing to the move now, he avoids a potentially political embarrassment. With a pending bill in Albany that would have added the holiday to the calendar, the mayor faced the uncomfortable prospect of the State Legislature’s enacting his own campaign pledge for him, without the imprimatur of City Hall. The Lunar New Year is celebrated throughout many parts of Asia. When it falls on a school day, some city schools with large Asian populations have more than half their students absent that day. “Finally, students of Asian descent will not be forced to choose between observing the most important holiday of the year and missing important academic work,” Councilwoman Margaret Chin, a Democrat of Lower Manhattan, said in a statement. “Lunar New Year is a deeply important cultural observance for nearly 15 percent of public school students, and this designation gives Lunar New Year the respect and recognition it has long deserved.” This move comes just three months after the de Blasio administration added two Muslim holy days to the school calendar, Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha. Mr. de Blasio’s predecessor, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, had declined to do so, saying children needed more time in school. In New York State, schools must have at least 180 days of instruction each year. To accommodate the new time off without losing time in the classroom, the de Blasio administration said it planned to convert two half-days to full days. The new schedule will go into effect this coming school year, with the holiday falling on Feb. 8. State Senator Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat whose district includes Manhattan’s Chinatown, said the inclusion of the holiday signaled, in part, the increased political presence of the city’s Asian community. “There’s no question this reflects the changing city and the changing significance of the holiday to this city,” Mr. Squadron said. New York is not the first city to add this holiday to its school calendar. Public schools in San Francisco, for example, have observed the holiday for several years. The de Blasio administration made the announcement about Lunar New Year on Twitter on Monday evening, saying it was “working toward a more inclusive city.” The city also posted the news in traditional Chinese and Korean.

Lunar New Year
Bill de Blasio
K-12 Education
Asian American
NYC


Figueroa, Santana’s Fill-In, Helps Stabilize Mets for a Day

Abstract: CHICAGO (AP) — Nelson Figueroa had command of all his pitches Sunday, and that was too much for the Chicago Cubs . Figueroa struck out a career-high 10 and added a run-scoring single to help lead the Mets to a 4-1 victory against the Cubs at Wrigley Field. “We used all of them — I think that was one of the keys,” Figueroa said of the pitch selection. “They never could sit on one certain pitch, looking for a slider with two strikes. I was able to throw my fastball and move it around to different spots on the plate. Just really expanded the zone and taking advantage of some of their aggressive swings.” Figueroa (2-3), who took Johan Santana ’s spot in the rotation , allowed one run on six hits in seven-plus innings, and won his first start since April 27, 2008. Mets Manager Jerry Manuel said he was impressed with how Figueroa attacked the hitters. “He is the epitome of getting secondary pitches over,” Manuel said. “And it also looks like to me he’s kind of a cerebral guy, where he has a good memory out there as to what he did before to get a particular guy out and able to command his fastball enough to be able to attack them in different spots.” The Mets’ leadoff hitter, Angel Pagan, had three hits against his former team as the Mets won for just the second time in their last nine games. Brian Stokes pitched a perfect eighth inning and Francisco Rodriguez pitched a scoreless ninth for his 28th save in 33 opportunities. The Cubs had a chance in the ninth against Rodriguez, with Kosuke Fukudome on first. Right fielder Jeff Francoeur dropped Jake Fox’s short pop-up, but second baseman Luis Castillo recovered the ball and forced out Fukudome at second. Starter Carlos Zambrano (7-6) could not get through the fourth inning for the Cubs, who failed to complete a three-game sweep of the Mets. Zambrano has not won since July 22 at Philadelphia. Zambrano allowed 4 runs and 11 hits in three and a third innings. It was his second poor outing since being activated from the disabled list with a sore back. In his first start back, Zambrano yielded a season-high eight runs in four and a third innings Tuesday, in a 15-6 loss to Washington. “I pitched O.K. today; I didn’t make too many mistakes,” Zambrano said. “It looked like they came ready to hit today. I made some good pitches to Pagan and Castillo, and they were able to get the head of the bat on the ball.” With the Mets trailing by 1-0 in the third inning, Pagan walked and advanced to second on Castillo’s single. Zambrano tried to pick off Pagan at second, but his throw went into center field, moving Pagan to third and Castillo to second. Daniel Murphy and Francoeur followed with back-to-back singles to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. The Mets added to their lead in the fourth inning. After getting Fernando Tatis to fly out, Zambrano allowed five consecutive hits before being pulled by Manager Lou Piniella and booed by the fans at Wrigley. After Brian Schneider singled, Anderson Hernandez followed with a run-scoring triple. Figueroa then helped himself with a single to score Hernandez. Zambrano’s outing ended after he gave up two consecutive singles to load the bases. Reliever Tom Gorzelanny limited the damage by getting Murphy to fly out, and got Francoeur to hit into a fielder’s choice. Piniella said he was concerned with Zambrano’s mechanics. “He is opening up his front shoulders,” Piniella said. “They’re getting a good look at him, because they’re not swinging and missing at all. That’s usually a pretty good indication you’re showing the ball to the hitter a little prematurely and you’re giving the hitter a longer look.”

Chicago Cubs
New York Mets
Baseball
Figueroa Nelson
Santana Johan


A Mayor Stands by His Comments, and Gay Advocates Stand Against Him

Abstract: FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla., Aug. 15 — The uproar began last month, when Mayor Jim Naugle said that installing a single-occupancy restroom on a local beach could deter “homosexual activity.” Mr. Naugle, a six-term mayor in this city that draws legions of gay tourists and residents, went on to tell a local newspaper that he preferred the word “homosexual” to “gay” because he believed many gay people were “unhappy.” Soon after, he criticized a plan to house a private gay book collection in a public library because it contained pornography. Outraged local residents called for his resignation, started a “Flush Naugle” campaign and organized a protest rally that brought hundreds to City Hall in late July, a time of year when South Florida usually verges on comatose. That day, Mr. Naugle announced that he would issue an apology. And he did — to “the children and parents of our community,” for not being aware of “how serious the problem was of the sexual activity that’s taking place in bathrooms and public places and parks.” He questioned whether Broward County should continue telling tourists to “come on down,” citing 2004 statistics that found it led the nation in new AIDS cases. Outspoken gay residents say Mr. Naugle’s comments have prompted more activism and solidarity than this city of 185,000 has seen in years. A new group, Unite Fort Lauderdale, has formed to “reclaim the respect and dignity of our citizens and the reputation of the city of Fort Lauderdale,” according to its Web site. About 125 people attended the group’s first meeting Tuesday, said Dean Trantalis, a former city commissioner who is openly gay. “It wasn’t a hard sell,” Mr. Trantalis said. “It was almost as if people were waiting for this moment to come together and say, ‘We are a diverse and yet united people, and we are not going to stand for the bigotry and isolated point of view of this mayor.’ ” The group intends to cultivate candidates to replace Mr. Naugle, 53, who will leave office in 2009 because of term limits approved in 2000. A neighboring city, Wilton Manors, has a majority-gay commission and another, Oakland Park, has an openly gay mayor. And the metropolitan region anchored by Fort Lauderdale has a higher concentration of same-sex couple households than any other city on the East Coast, according to “The Gay and Lesbian Atlas,” published in 2004. Michael Albetta, president of the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Democratic Caucus, said that Mr. Naugle had rankled gay residents before, but that they had not actively sought a more inclusive mayor until now. “Shame on us,” Mr. Albetta said. “We’re definitely going to be more cognizant of which candidates are going to run for mayor next time.” In an interview, Mr. Naugle — who described himself as “extremely” conservative despite being a registered Democrat, like half the city’s registered voters — said he had received 4,000 e-mail messages in recent weeks, mostly supportive. A “climate of permissiveness” has developed in the city, he said, similar to when Fort Lauderdale was a magnet for rowdy spring breakers several decades ago. “It has become kind of like the days of spring break,” he said, “when we ended up clamping down because people were jumping off balconies and other things. We are kind of going in that direction with the gay tourism.” The city has many gay bars, guesthouses and other businesses, but its gay social scene is generally more spread out and laid back that of Miami, about 30 miles to the south. Gay newspapers and blogs around the country have blasted Fort Lauderdale in recent weeks; The Bay Area Reporter in San Francisco even urged gay tourists to boycott the city. “There’s a tidal wave that’s happening out there,” Mr. Albetta said, “and people don’t want to come down and spend their money in Fort Lauderdale.” Last week, the Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau and the Broward County Commission sent a letter to gay groups and meeting planners who have events scheduled here in the coming year. It describes the region as “a warmly welcoming destination that is safe, unbiased and gay friendly.” The bureau estimates that 950,000 gay tourists contribute $1.2 billion a year to the local economy. “I’m concerned about the $1 billion,” Mr. Naugle said in the interview, “but I’m more concerned about protection of parks for our kids and saving lives.” He said the yachting and boating industry was more lucrative for Fort Lauderdale than tourism was. But he also said he welcomed gay tourists and residents, adding, “I have longtime friends in the homosexual community.” Mr. Naugle said that only four people had been arrested since 2005 on charges of having sex in public restrooms, but that such arrests were somewhat more common in city parks. He encouraged residents to call the police if they spot “homosexual activity” in public places, he said, adding that an arrest was made recently across from a Little League ball field. “Frankly, people have been complacent with all this inclusiveness, political correctness,” Mr. Naugle said. “Our goal is to change behavior.” He said that while he once considered running for Congress, his current plan is to return to real estate, his longtime profession, and maybe work part-time as the host of a talk-radio program. “I wouldn’t say never,” Mr. Naugle said of running for higher office, “but I don’t have plans to run for anything other than a great dad and provider.”

Mayors
Homosexuality
Sex
Florida
Fort Lauderdale (Fla)
Politics and Government
Naugle Jim


Incoming Chief of Insead Sees the Strengths of Europe

Abstract: PARIS — As Europe cowers behind the shadow being cast by Asia in global markets, there are some words of optimism for the region from an unlikely source. Dipak C. Jain, who is preparing to take the helm at Insead, a premier business school, thinks Europe and France have strengths that they can still leverage in business and education. “Asia is young, energetic, bubbling,” he said during a recent interview. “But I wouldn’t give up my hope on the U.S. and Europe. They have built such a strong infrastructure that any time they need they can put a building over that foundation.” France, in particular, was “the first to come back,” he said, by announcing late last year that it would invest about €19 billion, or $25 billion, in higher education, training and research. A U.S. citizen of Indian origin, Mr. Jain, 53, will become the dean of Insead, based in Fontainebleau near Paris, next spring. In September 2009, he stepped down as the dean of the Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University near Chicago after eight years in that job and five years as deputy. His reputation as an accomplished teacher and fund-raiser and his homespun charm must have worked magic on Insead’s Wall Street alumni. His appointment has been welcomed by peers. “Business schools need leaders who, like Dipak Jain, emphasize the importance of understanding diversity and developing a borderless global view,” said Dominique Turpin, the president of the IMD business school in Switzerland. “He has a tremendous reputation for excellence.” After Kellogg, Mr. Jain had planned to focus on research, social projects and establishing a university in Mumbai on behalf of Mukesh Ambani, the chief of Reliance Industries. But the call from Insead to replace J. Frank Brown as dean proved compelling. “I was very intrigued by the concept of business school for the world,” he said. “It fits exactly with what I think a business school should be.” Founded in 1957, Insead gained a global reputation in part by opening campuses abroad: Singapore in 2000 and Abu Dhabi in 2007. “Insead’s not deep rooted in any one particular place,” Mr. Jain said. “If you’re a U.S. business school, you get tied to the U.S. norms, U.S. culture. Insead, from Day 1, never announced that it was a French business school. It just happens to be located here.” Insead has alliances, for example with Tsinghua University in Beijing, and partnerships, including with the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Jain plans to expand this web, though he believes that Insead has enough campuses and can better leverage its base. “We need to strengthen our presence in this part of the world,” he said. “We have not exploited Paris as we should have done. It’s such a global city.” Mr. Jain came from a family of teachers, and his road in education started in Tezpur, Assam, a tea-growing region of eastern India. “I always wanted to be a teacher,” he said. “Teaching is something I really worship — you get a feeling for the student, you see their thought processes.” His father lost his sight when the children were growing up, and his experience with the disability impressed upon his son the need to retain information, and dates. And from his mother came the ability to function on just a few hours of sleep. “I get up at 4 or 4:30 every morning,” he said, “I’m blessed. This comes from my mother. I never saw her sleeping, yet she was always fresh.” A series of awards propelled Mr. Jain through high school to the local college and on to university in Guwahati, which also involved taking a bus for the first time. He was offered a job teaching mathematics at a local college in 1979, the start of separatist upheaval in the region. But it was a letter that he had sent to a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and that was subsequently forwarded to another academic at the University of Texas at Dallas that was to propel Mr. Jain. The Dallas-based professor, R. Chandrasekaran, an expert in operations research, was so impressed with Mr. Jain’s transcripts that he offered him a place even though he had not taken the standard tests. Mr. Jain completed a post-doctorate at Dallas and then joined Kellogg in 1985, switching to business and marketing. His own success has enabled him to fulfill his own driving philosophy: “Do something that will make a difference.” He supports socially driven education projects in Angola and Bangladesh, where he is helping to set up a school of entrepreneurship and management at the Asian University for Women in Chittagong. That college, due to open in 2012-13, will help primarily Muslim women from conflict-affected countries. But entrepreneurship is lacking not only in developing countries, Mr. Jain believes, it is also a weakness in Europe, alongside demographics. “Entrepreneurs, they create wealth and jobs, they multiply skills. That’s something very important for any economy.” For Mr. Jain, another shortcoming here appears to be the quality of the tea, so he now travels with his own bags: English breakfast.


Despite Progress, Police Chief Still Struggles

Abstract: The next few months of warmer weather will be crucial for Jody Weis, whose job running the police department is as close as it gets to “Mission Impossible” in Chicago. Ever since he took over the department in early 2008, Superintendent Weis’s assignment has been to calm police officers who are angry at many things, including working without a contract since 2007 and a federal misconduct prosecution that put a Chicago policeman in prison with a 40-month term. Morale problems facing the chief will not be helped by a federal arbitrator’s recommendation Friday that the police get a 10 percent raise over five years, far less than the 16 percent Mayor Richard M. Daley offered during contract talks in 2008. In an interview in early April, Mr. Weis acknowledged that he had a rocky start as the second outsider ever to run the Chicago force. But he said that his relations with officers suspicious of his background as a former F.B.I. agent had reached a “turning point” and that he had presided over a reduction in crime. “Overall crime went down across the board in every category,” Mr. Weis said of statistics for 2009. “We’ve kept that pace up. We’re in the 15th consecutive month where crime has actually dropped compared to earlier years.” Mr. Weis is in the last year of a three-year contract for his $310,000-a-year job, and insiders at police headquarters are starting to speculate about whether Mr. Daley will renew the pact, particularly after a recent spike in crime revived criticism of the chief by the rank and file, including one former policeman who accused him of cowardice. Although Mr. Daley has not announced whether he will seek another term as mayor, which would start in February 2011, he is widely expected to run again, and he traditionally has liked stability on his team in the months before an election. Mr. Weis’s contract expires in March 2011, and many expect Mr. Daley to renew it. But that could all change if there is a scandal or a disproportionate spike in crime in warmer weather. The volatility of the situation became starkly evident Thursday on an unseasonably warm evening when 7 people were killed and 17 were wounded in multiple shootings. That came on top of a spate of fatal shootings in late March and early April. The superintendent has his defenders, including Alderman Anthony Beale (9th Ward), whom the mayor appointed last week as the chairman of the City Council’s Police and Fire Committee. “In my personal opinion, I think he’s done a wonderful job,” Alderman Beale said. “I think he should be renewed. He’s brought some energy, innovation, different ideas to the police department. If you look at the overall statistics, they show that the plan that he’s put in place is starting to be effective.” But Mr. Weis’s fan club does not include many police officers, said Mark Donahue, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, the department’s union. Mr. Donahue said he did not think the mayor would be swayed either way by the feelings of policemen, who do not think the mayor is on their team, either. And another police officer said Mr. Weis would always labor under the perception that he was the mayor’s sycophant as long as Mr. Daley remained on the fifth floor of City Hall. “If Mayor Daley made Jesus the superintendent,” said Michael Shields, a Chicago policeman and trustee on the department’s pension board, “the policeman on the street would say, ‘You know, that Jesus, he takes his orders from Mayor Daley.’ ” In tapping Mr. Weis in 2008 to bring in fresh leadership, Mr. Daley purposely selected a career agent from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, an agency anathema to the department’s rank and file because the F.B.I. usually takes the lead in police corruption investigations. A stocky body builder and 22-year F.B.I. veteran, Mr. Weis did not improve his image with officers when he promptly replaced or demoted 21 commanders from the team of his predecessor, Philip Cline, a career Chicago policeman known on the force as a “cop’s cop.” Mr. Cline resigned after several instances of police misconduct, including a widely viewed video of an off-duty policeman beating a female bartender. In the hourlong interview in his offices at police headquarters, Mr. Weis defended his leadership. “I try not to dwell on particular failures,” he said, “but I think that we could have done a better job of communicating my vision to folks. There will be a certain percentage who will never embrace me because of where I came from,” he said, adding that in recent months morale has improved because of policies he initiated. With the police union, he said, “we’re developing a positive relationship. I think they know that with me, I’m not bound by the prejudice or bias from being raised in the organization.” One problem he inherited was an unpopular work schedule that had many officers working six days without a break. He pushed to change the schedule so that they now work four days followed by two days off. “We went to it officially in January, and the officers have been coming up to me and thanking me because, you know, four days go by pretty quick,” Mr. Weis said. “You’re sharper. We’ve seen a decline in the number of complaints against our officers. They are not mentally drained; they are not run down. And it gives them greater safety on the street.” Mr. Donahue, the police union president, did not agree with Mr. Weis’s assessment of his relations with the union. He said the relationship between Mr. Weis and police officers remained frosty but acknowledged that the change in work rules was “more popular than anyone on our negotiating team ever imagined.” Mr. Weis said he also had improved training, reformed the performance-appraisal process so that honest mistakes by officers were not automatically treated as disciplinary problems and gotten better equipment, including new weaponry. “The officers never had the authority to carry a carbine or a rifle,” he said. After training, “they are now allowed to purchase and carry an AR-15 rifle, which, based on the weapons we see on the streets of Chicago, I think levels the playing field.” Although several people contacted for this article declined to speak on the record because of their ties to the superintendent and the department, many said resentment of Mr. Weis lingered because of a case the F.B.I. brought against William Cozzi, a former officer. A report by the Chicago Justice Project said Mr. Cozzi had handcuffed an elderly but combative criminal suspect with stab wounds to a wheelchair in a hospital and then beat him with a “non-issued club.” Mr. Cline, the former superintendent, had sought to fire Mr. Cozzi, but the Chicago Police Board overruled him and suspended Mr. Cozzi for two years. After Mr. Weis took over, the F.B.I. prosecuted the case, and Mr. Cozzi ended up with a 40-month prison term, prompting many officers to complain. The Cozzi episode remains “one thing he will never be able to overcome,” Mr. Donahue said. Police officers like Mr. Donahue believe that Mr. Weis referred the case to his old federal allies. But the police chief said the F.B.I. was already looking into the incident when he took office. Mr. Donahue countered, “That’s not my understanding.” The raw nature of the superintendent’s relations with some police officers surfaced in a recent spate of violence in the troubled Englewood neighborhood. When Mr. Weis, who has been given the nickname J-Fed by some officers, went to Englewood to hold a news conference on April 2, a shooting occurred a few blocks away as he was speaking to reporters. When Mr. Weis decided to return to headquarters instead of going to the scene of the shooting, John Northern, a retired Chicago police sergeant, publicly accused him of cowardice, and a police blogger started referring to him as “J-Fled.” “The scene had been secured,” Mr. Weis said. “The victims had already been taken to the hospital; the officers are there talking to witnesses and trying to develop some possible leads. I think if I show up there, I take them away from their work.” Mr. Weis said he drew a different lesson from the incident. He said it showed how criminals had become so brazen that they would attack at a crime scene populated by three dozen police officers and numerous concerned citizens. “I just think it’s a stark reminder of the dangers of police work,” he said. “A lot of times it’s dangerous, it’s dirty. And sometimes it’s deadly, and we have to be prepared for that.”

Police
Chicago (Ill)
Police Brutality and Misconduct
Labor and Jobs
Daley Richard M


11 Arrested in Nepal in Possible Ritual Killing of Boy

Abstract: KATHMANDU — The police found the boy’s body on the banks of a river in Kudiya, a farming village near the Indian border. His throat had been slit. The boy, Jivan Kohar, 10, had been missing since Tuesday, the same day that a neighbor hosted a gathering of villagers in which he said that his own son was ill, possessed by evil spirits, and would need a human sacrifice. “Nobody took him seriously,” said Ram Baran Kohar, Jivan’s paternal grandfather, who was at the gathering. Jivan’s body was discovered Friday. The police in the Nawalparasi District, which includes Kudiya, said Sunday that 11 people had been arrested in the boy’s death, including Bijay Chamar, 18, the son who had fallen ill, and members of his family. Inspector Jagat Bhandu Pokharel of the Beltari area police, who originally handled the case before it was transferred to the district police, said that Mr. Chamar’s father, Kodai Chamar, had confessed to the crime. Nepal is a majority Hindu country, and animal sacrifice is not uncommon — the country hosts a festival believed to involve the largest ritual slaughter of animals in the world. “People mainly from remote parts of the country have superstitious beliefs,” said Inspector Pokharel. Yet he said he had never seen anything like “this kind of human sacrifice.” Inspector Pokharel said that Jivan was lured from his home on Tuesday with a packet of biscuits and 50 Nepalese rupees, or about 50 cents. According to Inspector Pokharel, Kodai Chamar said in a statement that on Tuesday evening he summoned relatives along with a local holy man to his home for a prayer ritual for Bijay. During the ritual, he cut Jivan’s throat with a sickle, the statement said. The holy man, Ganga Chamar, was among those arrested. He is not believed to be related to the family. The superintendent of police for the Nawalparasi District, Nal Prasad Upadhyay, said that the investigation was continuing and that the suspects would be examined to determine whether they were “mentally fit.” Relatives of Jivan returned from the fields on Tuesday evening to find that he had vanished. The parents, having learned of the gathering that took place earlier that day, immediately confronted the Chamars, said Mr. Kohar, the grandfather. “They denied it,” he said. “We could not blame them without proof.” Jivan’s mother was too ill to speak, and Lal Bahadur Kohar, an uncle of the boy, said that he had been unable to eat. “They had never imagined this kind of madness,” Mr. Kohar said.

Nepal
Jivan Kohar
Murders and Homicides
Hinduism


Albany Again Has Stony Brook’s Number as Winning Streak Ends at 18

Abstract: ALBANY — As the wins pile up for Stony Brook again this season, the Seawolves remain haunted by the question that has troubled them for five agonizing years, beginning with when they first reached the cusp of the N.C.A.A. tournament: Can they finally win when it matters? Of all the story lines circulating through the midmajor conferences, the most compelling might be the one hanging over Stony Brook — no matter how many times Coach Steve Pikiell and his players insist that one year has little impact on the next, or the next, or the next. Having won 18 games in a row — the longest active streak in N.C.A.A. Division I — the Seawolves (22-5, 13-1 America East) certainly offered a sense entering Wednesday’s game against Albany that this might be the year that their torturous history in March would end. Twice, Stony Brook has had its N.C.A.A. tournament hopes dashed by Albany, which entered Wednesday’s game positioned, naturally, as the No. 2 team in the conference and surging. This time, the Great Danes harnessed the conference’s most dominating force, Jameel Warney, while shooting 54.7 percent from the field to win handily, 82-70. “When you’re on a streak like this, you’ve got a big bull’s-eye,” Pikiell said. “We took their best shot today.” The game was played at Sefcu Arena, also the site of last year’s conference title game, which verged on the miraculous — at least for the Great Danes, who beat the Seawolves on a 3-pointer after a rebound was tipped out to guard Peter Hooley in the closing seconds. Hooley’s mother, Susan, had died of cancer only weeks earlier, and his winning shot reverberated as one of the spine-tingling moments of March. The shock waves are still being felt at Stony Brook. “We’ve done a lot of great things,” Pikiell said. “Everyone talks about the one thing we haven’t done.” With four trips to the conference title game in five years, Pikiell has built Stony Brook into a consistent winner, recording five consecutive 20-win seasons, a 52-10 conference record since 2011 and a 61-7 record at home over that span. It would almost be easy to overlook the fact that all four of those championship-game appearances ended in losses, by a combined 20 points. Before Wednesday’s game, Warney tried to play down the significance of the matchup. But an edge to his voice hinted that there was still plenty left to prove. “If we do anything, people say, ‘O.K., but can you do it in March?’ ” Warney said. “We’re trying to put ourselves in position to be better at the best time.” With Warney — the reigning conference player of the year and defensive player of the year, and a good bet to repeat as both — the Seawolves returned their top seven scorers from a year ago. They had five freshmen and no seniors in last season’s rotation; now they have no freshmen and three seniors playing regularly. The experience has altered their identity. “In the past, we just had to kind of grind you and win on the defensive end,” Pikiell said. “I think we can outscore you, too.” Albany, on the other hand, has seemed to revel in its contributions to Stony Brook’s anguish. In a highlight reel shown on the video screen before tipoff, the Great Danes (22-7, 11-3) replayed the clip of Hooley’s winning shot, lingering on the postgame celebration for a couple of painful beats. Stony Brook jumped out ahead on Wednesday, 19-13, but Albany zoomed back to take a 6-point lead with two minutes remaining in the first half. As the Seawolves tried to increase the pace, Albany was content to keep the action subdued. “I told these guys this game would come down to one thing: toughness,” Albany Coach Will Brown said. “We made more toughness plays than them today.” Warney was held to just one field goal in the first half, on only three attempts. He made a more concerted effort to get involved in the second half but was muzzled at every turn by Albany’s Richard Peters, Greig Stire and Mike Rowley, who double-teamed him relentlessly and funneled him toward the baseline, where he had less room to maneuver. Warney finished with 14 points, 8 rebounds and 3 blocks. At halftime, Brown reminded his players that they needed to finish strong. Their lead grew to 15 with 8 minutes 44 seconds remaining. “If there’s one team in the league that can beat them, it would be us,” Brown said. “We are the one team in the league that enjoys playing them.” And by the end, the fans were enjoying another opportunity to twist the knife. They chanted, “N.I.T.”

Stony Brook
College basketball
Stony Brook University
SUNY Albany