Hagel Resigns Under Pressure as Global Crises Test Pentagon

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel resigned under pressure on Monday after President Obama determined that he had to shake up his national security team in the face of escalating conflicts overseas and hawkish Republicans reasserting themselves on Capitol Hill. It was a striking reversal for a president who chose Mr. Hagel two years ago in part to limit the power of Pentagon officials who had repeatedly pushed for more troops in Afghanistan and a slower drawdown of American forces from Iraq. But in the end, Mr. Hagel’s passivity and lack of support in Mr. Obama’s inner circle proved too much for an administration that found itself back on a war footing. Aides said Mr. Obama made the decision to remove his defense secretary on Friday after weeks of rising tension over a variety of issues, including what administration officials said were Mr. Hagel’s delays in transferring detainees from the military prison in Guantánamo Bay and a dispute with Susan E. Rice, the national security adviser, over Syria policy. The strains were evident in a stilted ceremony on Monday at the White House, where Mr. Obama called the defense secretary he had pushed out “exemplary” and lauded his status as the first enlisted combat veteran to hold the job, saying it had helped him to empathize with American soldiers. “He’s been in the dirt. He’s been in the mud,” Mr. Obama said. “He sees himself in them. They see themselves in him.” Video President Obama called Chuck Hagel “no ordinary secretary of defense” during a news conference at which Mr. Hagel announced his resignation. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times But as the president spoke of the “blood and treasure and sacrifices” of enlisted men and women like Mr. Hagel, turning several times to try to address his defense secretary directly, Mr. Hagel stared ahead fixedly, declining to make eye contact with Mr. Obama. When it was his turn to speak, Mr. Hagel described the president’s national security strategy as a “team effort,” and spoke of trying to “build teams and to work together to make things happen for the good of the country.” In reality, Mr. Hagel was never able to penetrate the president’s tight national security team of West Wing loyalists, officials at the White House and the Pentagon said. And faced with the calls for a shake-up of his national security staff to better deal with an onslaught of global crises, Mr. Obama balked at the idea of replacing Ms. Rice, Secretary of State John Kerry or the powerful White House chief of staff, Denis R. McDonough. The president is “too close to Susan Rice, and John Kerry’s in the middle of Iran negotiations,” said one administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “So he went for the low-hanging fruit” — Mr. Hagel, who was criticized by White House aides as largely silent in meetings, and who Mr. Obama had often bypassed in recent months for Gen. Martin E. Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a favorite in the West Wing. In the view of White House officials, Mr. Hagel has helped to thwart Mr. Obama’s pledge to close Guantánamo with his concerns about the security risks posed by the release of detainees. He recently pulled back from plans to repatriate four Afghans who had been approved for transfer, a decision that annoyed Ms. Rice, officials said. White House officials also expressed annoyance over a sharply critical two-page memo that Mr. Hagel sent to Ms. Rice last month, in which he warned that the administration’s Syria policy was in danger of unraveling because of its failure to clarify its intentions toward President Bashar al-Assad. Senior officials complained that Mr. Hagel had never made such a case in internal debates, suggesting that he was trying to position himself for history on a crucial issue as he was talking to Mr. Obama about leaving his job. Mr. Hagel’s defenders said he stayed quiet to avoid leaks. “When your cabinet officials feel like they have to write you a letter, that suggests a larger problem,” said Vikram Singh, who worked on Afghanistan policy at the Pentagon under Mr. Hagel and who is now at the Center for American Progress, a Washington research organization with close ties to the Obama administration. Rear Adm. John F. Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, credited Mr. Hagel for managing the Pentagon after it had spent more than a decade at war. “It’s easy to go from peace to war,” Admiral Kirby said. “It’s more difficult to go from war to peace.” He called Mr. Hagel “the first defense secretary in nearly two decades to be confronted with the reality of shrinking budgets as well as the actual impact” of automatic defense budget cuts. Video Chuck Hagel, whose resignation as defense secretary was announced Monday, said he would stay in the job and support the president until his successor was confirmed. Credit Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Mr. Hagel, he said, “led the department in making difficult budget choices, particularly in the military’s force structure, and compensation and benefits programs, while sustaining and expanding programs relevant for the future,” such as cyberwarfare and the Joint Strike Fighter. In many ways, Mr. Hagel’s demise was reminiscent of that of another marquee outsider who was never able to penetrate the inner circle — Gen. James L. Jones, the former Marine commandant whom Mr. Obama named as his first national security adviser, but who never struck a close bond with his boss or the rest of the national security team. If the ouster of Mr. Hagel was intended to minimize coming fights with Congress, the Republicans were not impressed on Monday. “The Obama administration is now in the market for their fourth secretary of defense,” Representative Howard (Buck) McKeon, Republican of California, said. “When the president goes through three secretaries, he should ask, ‘Is it them, or is it me?’ ” Mr. Hagel, who followed Robert M. Gates and Leon E. Panetta at the Pentagon, will continue to serve until Mr. Obama’s next defense secretary is confirmed, which could take some time. Administration officials said that the list of possibilities include Michèle A. Flournoy, a former under secretary of defense. But she is viewed as close to former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, and could find herself facing the same outsider issues as Mr. Hagel had. Ashton B. Carter, a former deputy secretary of defense, is also on the list, administration officials said. Image Mr. Hagel described Mr. Obama’s national security strategy as a “team effort” and spoke of trying to “build teams and to work together to make things happen for the good of the country.” Mr. Hagel, however, was never part of Mr. Obama’s inner circle. Credit Stephen Crowley/The New York Times Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island and a former Army Ranger, was also considered to be a contender, but his spokesman said that he was not in the running. “Senator Reed loves his job and does not wish to be considered for secretary of defense or any other cabinet post,” the spokesman said. Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, suggested the administration consider former Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, urging the president to give “full and fair consideration for this critical position.” But Mr. Lieberman’s views on national security echo those of Senator John McCain, who is sharply critical of Mr. Obama, and he would probably be viewed as far too conservative by the White House. In his two years in the job, Mr. Hagel’s national security views closely followed Mr. Obama’s, which made his dismissal more noteworthy. Mr. Hagel largely carried out Mr. Obama’s orders on matters like bringing back American troops from Afghanistan and trimming the Pentagon budget, without the pushback that characterized the tenure of Mr. Gates. “The next couple of years will demand a different kind of focus,” a senior administration official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity. He insisted that Mr. Hagel was not fired, saying that the defense secretary initiated discussions about his future two weeks ago with the president, and that the two men mutually agreed it was time for him to leave. Now, however, the American military is in escalating crises. Some 3,000 American troops are being deployed in Iraq to help the Iraqi military fight the Sunni militants of the Islamic State, even as the administration struggles to come up with, and articulate, a strategy to defeat the group in both Iraq and Syria. Even Mr. Hagel’s defenders say that articulating strategy is one of his biggest weaknesses. He never entirely gained traction in the administration after a bruising confirmation fight with his old Senate colleagues, when he was criticized for being tentative in his responses to sharp questions. In the past few months he has been overshadowed by General Dempsey, who officials said had won the confidence of Mr. Obama with his recommendation of military action against the Islamic State.

Pentagon
Chuck Hagel
US Military
Barack Obama
Appointments and Executive Changes
US Politics


Remember, Mattingly Played for the Boss

Abstract: Don Mattingly learned about the weight of expectations while playing for George Steinbrenner during the bad years. The Yankees won a lot of games in the 1980s, but not a single division title with Mattingly. Yet because of the way he played, he was beloved, more than many others in Monument Park. “I came from a small town, loved playing, came here and just played,” he said Tuesday. “Pretty much tried to keep it as simple as that, and they seemed to appreciate that. It was nice for me, because I didn’t have to do anything but just play.” The fans would have roared for Mattingly on Tuesday, his first day in uniform at the new Yankee Stadium as manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. But the game was rained out, forcing the Dodgers to play a doubleheader Wednesday before disappearing again. They have not played in the Bronx since the 1981 World Series. The Yankees lost the last four games of that series, and Steinbrenner brawled with fans in an elevator at his Los Angeles hotel, or so the story goes. It was a fitting symbol for the stormy years ahead. Mattingly, who made his major league debut the next September, would play for eight managers, from Clyde King to Buck Showalter, with three separate stints for Billy Martin and two for Lou Piniella in between. None of those managers could satisfy Steinbrenner, who believed that the talent he had paid for just needed the right leader. Now Mattingly knows the feeling. The Dodgers’ owners, led by Mark Walter, Magic Johnson and Stan Kasten, are not as irrational as Steinbrenner in the 1980s — who could be? — but they have not extended his contract past this season, either. Image Don Mattingly, right, coached for the Yankees, but Joe Girardi was picked to manage them. Credit Suzy Allman for The New York Times “I kind of grew up, in a sense, with it,” Mattingly said, referring to pressure on managers. “It still doesn’t really prepare you for when it’s on you. It does a little bit, and it prepares you that you just weather it and don’t take it personal and it kind of goes away, because it can only stay at that level for so long. Either you get fired or you don’t, and then it kind of calms down.” The arrival of Yasiel Puig, a rookie from Cuba hitting .479, has shifted the focus off the manager. The Dodgers won four of their first five games after promoting Puig, but they have dropped six of eight since. If the team cannot escape the National League West cellar soon, the Mattingly watch will intensify again. The comparison to the Yankees, baseball’s other $200 million team, is not flattering for Mattingly. Both teams have been battered by injuries, but the Yankees are contending despite their recent struggles. The Dodgers are 10 games under .500. Mattingly came to the Dodgers for the 2008 season, after losing the Yankees’ managing job to Joe Girardi. Previous managing experience, General Manager Brian Cashman said this week, was the most important difference. Mattingly headed to Los Angeles to serve on Joe Torre’s staff, and became the manager for the 2011 season. The Dodgers were 82-79 that year, but the dominant story was the financial war of their divorcing owners, Frank and Jamie McCourt. Nobody expected much from the players, and Mattingly recalled them fondly on Tuesday. “We felt like we did everything we could that year and we ended up like two or three games over .500,” he said. “But that club just kind of kept fighting and fighting and fighting. It was really a fun club to manage.” Image Under the former Yankee Don Mattingly, the Dodgers are 10 games under .500 despite their collection of high-priced talent. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times That season, Mattingly said, the Dodgers had few impact hitters. Their objective was simple: pitch well and build rallies around Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier. He still sounds proud of those 82 victories. Last year, under new ownership, the Dodgers won 86 games and started building one of those instant super-teams that rarely seem to work. In one way, the owners were giving Mattingly everything a manager could want. They traded for former All-Stars like Hanley Ramirez, Brandon League, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Josh Beckett. They spent lavishly on the free-agent starter Zack Greinke and on international talent like Puig and the South Korean left-hander Hyun-Jin Ryu. It has not meshed, and even with the injuries, the Dodgers never envisioned last place. Mattingly is easy to root for, but sentiment goes only so far. “I think when you sign a deal and become a manager, you pretty much are going to get second-guessed when things don’t go right,” he said. “They don’t change teams, they change managers. So I just have to keep that in perspective with what happens.” Mattingly is widely respected, not for his playing career, but for his work ethic, honesty and everyman sensibility. But the Dodgers actually have changed the team, presumably for the better, and the results on the field have been worse. Managers rarely survive such a circumstance. As a player, Mattingly saw the worst working environment possible for a manager. He chose that profession for himself anyway, and found that it suits him. He can live with the pressure, in Los Angeles or someplace else. “I want to do a great job for our organization and do the best job I can,” Mattingly said. “Now, if they don’t think I’m the guy for them, or the right guy, then I want to keep managing, I’ll say that. That’s for sure. I love what I’m doing. Even as tough as this year’s been, it’s something that I love.”

Don Mattingly
Yankees
Dodgers
Baseball
George M 3d Steinbrenner


They Came to North Dakota and Went Away the Wiser

Abstract: ONE sunny afternoon a short while back, Geoff Mitelman and I strode into the trendiest java hut in Fargo, N.D. Our arrival came as a jolt to the tattooed hipster voguing by the front door, iBook at the ready, headset coiled around his diamond-studded ear. The Coolest Guy in Fargo was clearly thrown off his game by the arrival of two long, tall strangers from Westchester County — one 29, the other 56. At the time, I wondered if this was the most unlikely place my friendship with Geoff would lead me, or if even more implausible jaunts lay ahead. What had brought us to Fargo was a phone call from the Buckeye State a few weeks earlier. Geoff, whom I had met when he was 15, wished to know if I would be attending his impending ordination as a rabbi, upon graduation from the Hebrew Union College — Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati. No, I told him, I had been to Cincy once and that was quite enough for one lifetime. Closer to the truth was that, having spent a fruitless year in a Catholic seminary at age 13, I was jealous that Geoff had succeeded where I had failed. Even though I knew I would have made a terrible priest. I then told Geoff that, while I had no plans to visit Ohio, I was certainly interested in meeting up with him in North Dakota. Months earlier, Geoff’s father, Alan, who used to sublet a room in my office suite in Tarrytown, had apprised me that every month for the past year, as part of his training, Geoff had been flying to Grand Forks, a town that was big enough to have a synagogue but too small to have a permanent rabbi. The 38 families that made up the congregation — including several converts — were a tenacious group: “the Frozen Chosen,” as Geoff called them. When I heard this story, I was transfixed by the idea of flying to Grand Forks to see Geoff in action. It seemed like one of those once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, fusing the homespun, the mythical and the surreal, that was simply not be missed. When Geoff began stopping by my office after school in his middle teens, there were no signs of a rabbinical career on the horizon. He was simply fascinated that someone could make a living writing satire. He read my articles, he read my books, he was far more interested in my career than my children were. Our friendship continued as Geoff went through high school, then enrolled as a math major at Princeton. Whenever he came home, we would repair to my beloved local diner, Bellas, to resume our interrupted conversation. At first, we talked about history in a general way. Then we got to talking about ancient history. Pretty soon we were talking about Augustus Caesar, Jesus Christ, Titus, Vespasian, Moses, St. Paul, Barabbas, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, Constantine, Pontius Pilate and the destruction of the temple, in what amounted to a game of cultural Ping-Pong: Catholics versus Jews. We never talked about mathematics. Nobody else in Bellas ever talked about the destruction of the temple or mathematics; mostly they talked about the Knicks. My tête-à-têtes with this feisty, intellectually voracious youngster revived memories of dead-of-night conversations about the meaning of life in smoky Parisian cafes when I was 21, before life knocked the stuffing out of me. Geoff was at this point just about the only person I ever talked with about the meaning of life; in this commerce-crazed nation, this just isn’t done. Until I began my anomalous, intergenerational friendship with Geoff, I had no idea that anyone in the Ivy League was interested in the meaning of life. One day, half in jest, I remarked, “You should become a rabbi.” It was no joke. Devastated by his half-brother’s premature death, which occurred when Geoff was a freshman in high school, and wearying of the false certainty of mathematics, he had been drifting toward a career in the ministry for several years. After graduation, he went off for two years of study in Israel, then shipped out to Cincinnati to complete his training. Throughout this period, our ongoing diner colloquy, now entering its second decade, continued whenever he came home to Briarcliff. Geoff, growing more and more sure of himself, would recommend books I should read — “God: A Biography”; “Deuteronomy” — and I would recommend books he should read: “Darwin, Marx and Wagner,” “The Sentimental Education.” Meanwhile, desperate to get my space back, I was in the process of evicting his dad from my office. Throughout this period, Alan kept me posted on Geoff’s latest exploits, beaming with pride in a son who had decided to listen to his heart when choosing a career. I was proud of him too; I viewed him both as a protégé and a comrade-in-arms. But I evicted Alan anyway. I really wanted that space back. The Best Western Hotel in downtown Grand Forks boasts a miniature golf course, a postage-stamp swimming pool and a casino planted smack-dab in the middle of the lobby. Beguiled by our dadalike surroundings, Geoff and I continued our truncated conversation the entire weekend. We had to work it in around a farewell dinner held by grateful congregants on Friday night, then Shabbat, then Saturday morning Torah study, then a book discussion group, then a picnic and finally a blowout steak fiesta at the vaunted Brass Boot eatery. The high point of the weekend was when we borrowed a car from the synagogue’s president and drove 74 miles to Fargo. The congregation had trouble understanding why we were so desperate to see Fargo. We explained that long before the Coen brothers made their quirky film, Fargo was a mythical destination shrouded in romance. This was exactly what we found when we got there. The entire North Dakota jaunt was an experience I will never forget. It was, as the French put it, insolite: an occurrence that becomes extraordinarily memorable by virtue of its being so extraordinarily unexpected. Geoff himself was an insolite sort. Lots of kids grow up straight and strong, but most kids grow up generically. Geoff was an exotic. The studious 15-year-old boy who used to stop by my office after school had now grown into a man eager to climb into a glorified crop duster in the dead of winter and fly into the semitically bereft hinterland to help keep the flickering flame of an ancient religion alive. When Geoff paraded around the synagogue, holding a well-traveled Torah aloft, you could feel the entire, exhilarated congregation ripple with joy: The rabbi’s back in town! I too was thrilled to be on Cottonwood Street, in Grand Forks, among a couple dozen determined people who clearly would not take no for an answer. I was overjoyed to be participating in a cornerstone ritual of a faith I did not share, in a town out in the middle of nowhere that I never would have visited were it not for a young boy who used to knock on my door after school and ask if I wanted to come out and talk about the Romans.


Mets and Royals Reunite From Different Directions

Abstract: The Kansas City Royals return to Citi Field on Tuesday night for the first time since they ran away with Game 5 of the World Series and clinched baseball’s championship. The game turned on one play: Eric Hosmer’s daring dash to home plate in the top of the ninth with the Royals trailing by a run. Eight months later, a lot has changed for most of the Mets players who took part in that sequence, and not for the better. Hosmer was on third base with one out and the Mets trying to hold on to a 2-1 lead. Jeurys Familia was on the mound for the Mets; the Royals’ catcher, Salvador Perez, was at the plate. Perez hit a grounder to third, and David Wright fielded it, briefly looked Hosmer back to third and then threw to first baseman Lucas Duda for the second out. But as Wright threw to first, Hosmer, knowing Wright had lately been reduced to throwing the ball sidearm without much on it, took off for home. And Duda, seeing all of this unfold, hurried his own throw to the plate. The ball sailed wide of Travis d’Arnaud, the Mets’ catcher. Hosmer was safe, the score was tied, and a little while later, the Royals had an extra-innings victory and the championship trophy. ‘A Front-Row Seat. To Misery.’ Shock. Anger. Agony. Behold the faces of Mets fans in this picture, taken at the crucial moment in last year's World Series. We tracked down 11 of the people in the photo and asked them to relive the moment. Now consider the three Mets who handled the ball after Perez hit it. Wright, after struggling this season to remain relevant while playing with spinal stenosis, had an operation for a herniated disk in his neck and is not likely to play again until 2017. Before the operation, he had hit .226 in 37 games. Duda has not played since May after sustaining a stress fracture in his back. It is not clear when he will return. He was hitting .231 in 39 games when he went down. And the injury-prone d’Arnaud has appeared in only 13 games and batted .196 this season because of a strained rotator cuff that has kept him out of the lineup. He has not played for the Mets since April 25, although he is expected to rejoin the team in time for the Royals series. Familia? He is still doing fine. For that matter, so are Hosmer and Perez, who are both hitting over .300 for Kansas City and are likely to be starters in next month’s All-Star Game. The Royals enter Tuesday’s game with a respectable 38-31 record, just a game out of first place in the American League Central. If the postseason began right now, they would be the second wild-card team in the American League. In the National League East, the 36-32 Mets are simply a third-place team, at least for the moment. They have hit the wall of late and were six games behind Washington entering Monday. They are having trouble scoring when they do not hit home runs, have no speed to speak of to help create alternate forms of offense and have been plagued by injuries, most notably to the three players who could not keep Hosmer from scoring that tying run in the fall.

Mets
Kansas City Royals
Baseball
Eric Hosmer
David Wright
Lucas Duda
Travis d'Arnaud


Mo Yan Calls for Fellow Nobel Laureate’s Freedom

Abstract: BEIJING — Mo Yan , the new Nobel laureate who strenuously avoided antagonizing the Communist Party during much of his literary career, stepped into a political minefield on Friday by calling for the release of Liu Xiaobo , the imprisoned writer and fellow Nobel winner who is serving an 11-year sentence for subversion. “I hope he can achieve his freedom as soon as possible,” Mr. Mo, 57, told reporters during a news conference held a day after he won the 2012 prize for literature. He spoke not far from his family’s home in rural Shandong Province, the setting for many of his epic novels. Even if Mr. Mo’s remarks were spare and decidedly nonconfrontational — he went on to suggest he was not an admirer of Mr. Liu’s pro-democracy essays — they are nonetheless likely to infuriate China ’s leadership, which has been exulting in the Swedish Academy’s decision to give China its first Nobel in literature. Beijing considers Mr. Liu a criminal, and the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to him in 2010 has long been seen here as an effort to meddle in China’s internal affairs. Despite the throng of Chinese reporters attending the news conference, Mr. Mo’s comments did not appear in the state-run news media. But they quickly spread via Twitter, electrifying Chinese literati, many of whom had been critical of his close relationship to the Communist Party, especially Mr. Mo’s role as vice chairman of the government-run Chinese Writers’ Association. Ai Weiwei , the dissident artist who a day earlier had criticized Mr. Mo for cooperating with the authorities and refusing to stand up for persecuted writers, said he was heartened by the remarks. Murong Xuecun, a prominent writer who frequently jousts with the censors, said Mr. Mo probably felt protected by his newly acquired Nobel mantle. “Maybe all the glory has made him more courageous and more outspoken,” he said in an interview. Mr. Mo’s comments are not expected to derail his celebrity status, at least in the eyes of the government. On Thursday, Li Changchun, the nation’s propaganda chief, issued a congratulatory letter heralding the prize as a sign that China’s cultural influence was finally catching up to its size and economic heft. “Thus Chinese writers can contribute more to the prosperity and development of Chinese culture, as well as the progress of human civilization,” Mr. Li wrote, according to the official Xinhua news agency. On Friday, Mr. Mo’s face was splashed across the front pages of most Chinese newspapers. By morning, bookstores throughout the capital had already set up special display sections for his works. By the evening, many stores, as well as commerce Web sites like Amazon, were already out of stock. The Global Times, a party-owned tabloid, made a point of describing Mr. Mo as a “mainstream” writer — as opposed to figures like Mr. Liu who are often ostracized at home but lionized abroad. “This suggests that the West doesn’t only embrace individuals that are against the Chinese system,” it wrote in a commentary. “No matter what inspired the award this time, it is a welcome decision. We hope such appreciation of Chinese mainstream ideas can extend further.” Even if Mr. Mo has strenuously avoided taking a stand on censorship or other politically delicate matters, those who follow his work say branding him as “mainstream” may be inaccurate. Eric Abrahamsen, a literary translator and publishing consultant in Beijing, noted that many of his richly detailed stories are subversive in their depiction of Chinese officialdom, even if couched in the magical realism that has become his trademark style. “He doesn’t keep bashing himself against the wall by writing about forbidden topics, but most of what he has written is critical of party politics,” Mr. Abrahamsen said. “His work is essentially a chronicle of how the Communist Party has messed up China.” Ran Yunfei, a sharp-tongued writer persecuted for his pro-democracy views, said he was heartened by Mr. Mo’s comments but doubted that he would become a crusader for human rights and free expression. “He has become very skilled at walking on a tightrope,” Mr. Ran wrote in a microblog post. “Now that he has become a household name with the government’s backing, it’s only going to become harder for him to be a real critic of the government.”

Mo Yan
Liu Xiaobo
China
Ai Weiwei
Nobel Prizes
Communist Party of China
Prisons and Prisoners


Jets (1-0) at Colts (0-1) Preview

Abstract: 8:30 p.m., ESPN, Ch. 11 Matchup to Watch Brandon Marshall vs. Vontae Davis In his Jets debut, Marshall beat Cleveland’s Joe Haden on five of his six catches, including one for a touchdown. Marshall figures to draw another strong cornerback in Davis, who held Buffalo’s Sammy Watkins without a reception in Week 1. Marshall knows Davis from their time together in Miami, where during a tumultuous 2011 season they were involved in an altercation in which Marshall, furious with Davis for showing up late to practice after going out the night before, reportedly threw a football in his face. Number to Watch 39.1 Andrew Luck’s completion percentage last week when Buffalo blitzed him, according to Pro Football Focus. On the 25 times he faced blitzes when dropping back to pass, Luck completed nine throws, was sacked twice and tossed two interceptions. He can expect to encounter more pressure from Coach Todd Bowles and the Jets, who sent 20 blitzes in last week’s victory against Cleveland. Only two teams, Buffalo (26) and Green Bay (23), blitzed more, according to ESPN Stats and Information. Quotation of the Week ‘We can talk in code and the other receivers don’t really know. We’ll use binary sometimes, but he’s the only one who really understands it.’ Jets quarterback RYAN FITZPATRICK, a Harvard graduate, above, describing his connection with receiver Chris Owusu, a Stanford man.

Jets
Colts
Brandon Marshall
Football
Andrew Luck


As Turmoil Persists, Mubarak Returns to Courtroom in Egypt

Abstract: CAIRO — Hosni Mubarak, the former president of Egypt, was back in court in Cairo on Saturday, appearing healthy, and grinning and waving as his trial resumed on charges related to the killings of about 900 protesters during the 2011 uprising that led to his ouster. Mr. Mubarak, 85, was sentenced to life in prison for failing to stop the killings, but his sentence was overturned on appeal this year, and a retrial was ordered. Image Former President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, seated and flanked by his sons, attended a hearing in a Cairo court on Saturday. Credit Ahmed Omar/Associated Press The retrial comes against the backdrop of continued turmoil in Egypt. Unrest has increased since the popularly backed July 3 military ouster of President Mohamed Morsi. The military-backed government has targeted his supporters among the Muslim Brotherhood, killing hundreds in mass shootings and arresting thousands. Mr. Morsi, who was Egypt’s first freely elected president, remains detained in an undisclosed location. Mr. Mubarak; his sons, Gamal and Alaa; and a business aide also face corruption charges in the same case. Mr. Mubarak’s sons were in the Cairo court with him on Saturday for an initial hearing in the retrial. In previous courtroom appearances, the former president was on a gurney and was said by allies to be very frail. But he has appeared more confident since his release from prison last month. After his release, Mr. Mubarak was ordered detained at a military hospital pending trial in other corruption cases. Judge Mahmoud el-Rachidi ordered a news media blackout of the next three sessions, scheduled to run from Oct. 19 to Oct. 21.

Egypt
Hosni Mubarak
Arab Spring
Judiciary


Warnings Missed Before Soldier’s Lonely Afghan Death

Abstract: WASHINGTON — A gentle snow fell on the funeral of Staff Sgt. David Senft at Arlington National Cemetery on Dec. 16, when his bitterly divided California family came together to say goodbye. His 5-year-old son received a flag from a grateful nation. But that brief moment of peace could not hide the fact that for his family and friends and the soldiers who had served with him in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, too many unanswered questions remained about Sergeant Senft’s lonely death in a parked sport utility vehicle on an American air base in Afghanistan, and about whether the Army could have done more to prevent it. Officially, the Army says only that Sergeant Senft, 27, a crew chief on a Black Hawk helicopter in the 101st Airborne Division’s aviation brigade, was killed as a result of “injuries sustained in a noncombat related incident” at Kandahar Air Base on Nov. 15. No specific cause of death has been announced. Army officials say three separate inquiries into the death are under way. But his father, also named David Senft, an electrician from Grass Valley, Calif., who had worked in Afghanistan for a military contractor, is convinced that his son committed suicide, as are many of his friends and family members and the soldiers who served with him. The evidence appears overwhelming. An investigator for the Army’s Criminal Investigative Division, which has been looking into the death, has told Sergeant Senft’s father by e-mail that his son was found dead with a single bullet hole in his head, a stolen M-4 automatic weapon in his hands and his body slumped over in the S.U.V., which was parked outside the air base’s ammunition supply point. By his side was his cellphone, displaying a text message with no time or date stamp, saying only, “I don’t know what to say, I’m sorry.” (Mr. Senft shared the e-mails from the C.I.D. investigator with The New York Times.) With Sergeant Senft, the warning signs were blaring. The Army declared him fit for duty and ordered him to Afghanistan after he had twice attempted suicide at Fort Campbell, Ky., and after he had been sent to a mental institution near the base, the home of the 101st. After his arrival at Kandahar early in 2010 he was so troubled that the Army took away his weapon and forced him into counseling on the air base, according to the e-mails from the Army investigator. But he was assigned a roommate who was fully armed. C.I.D. investigators have identified the M-4 with which Sergeant Senft was killed as belonging to his roommate. “I question why, if he was suicidal and they had to take away his gun, why was he allowed to stay in Afghanistan?” asked Sergeant Senft’s father. “Why did they allow him to deploy in the first place, and why did they leave him there?” Defense Department officials have frequently spoken about how suicide prevention has become a top priority, and in interviews, officials noted that the National Institute of Mental Health was now leading a major study of Army suicides. Ever since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq began, suicides among American troops have been soaring, as military personnel become mentally exhausted and traumatized from repeated deployments to combat zones. In 2004, the Army reported that 67 soldiers on active duty committed suicide; by 2009 that number had jumped to 162. The Army has reported 144 suicides in 2010 through November, and officials say it is now beginning to see a sharp rise in suicides among nonactive duty National Guard and Reserve personnel who are not currently deployed. It is unclear how much the Army knew of Sergeant Senft’s deterioration. But Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy director of the Army’s health promotion and risk reduction task force, which handles suicide prevention programs, said that a medical determination of cause of death, a law enforcement review of the matter by Army investigators, and an internal review of both Sergeant Senft’s personnel history and the handling of his case by his chain of command were all continuing. “We are trying to get answers to these questions, answers to many of the same questions that the family is raising,” said Colonel Philbrick, who has personally reviewed Sergeant Senft’s case. Interviews with friends and family members suggest that for Sergeant Senft, prolonged exposure to two wars may have been too much to bear for a friendly and sweet, but emotionally fragile young man filled with insecurities resulting from a badly splintered family life. His parents divorced when he was about 3 years old, and the rift between his father and mother never healed. Home life for David and his brother and sister became intertwined with a series of stepparents and divided families around Northern California. David’s younger brother, Andrew, is now in prison in California for armed robbery. The first signs of trouble for David Senft came when he was 18 or 19 and living with a stepmother who had divorced his father and remarried. He ran away and threatened to kill himself, recalled his stepmother, Tina Norvell. Her husband, Steve Norvell, found him and took him home. David Senft joined the Army in early 2002, just months after the Sept. 11 attacks. After basic training, he was assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division based at Fort Bragg, N.C., and in 2003 he was sent to Iraq as a member of a helicopter crew. His experiences during that first combat deployment had a major impact on him, according to close friends. In one episode that he often recounted to both his family and friends, he told of witnessing the crash of an evacuation helicopter filled with medical personnel and wounded soldiers that had been shot down by insurgents. He and his Black Hawk crew were ordered to the crash site, and the gruesome scene haunted him. “He changed after he went to Iraq the first time,” recalled Ana Ochoa, one of his closest friends. After returning to Fort Bragg in 2004, David Senft confided in another soldier, Lynette Hager, that he wanted to kill himself. “I reported it to the chain of command,” recalled Ms. Hager, who has since left the Army. “When you come back from a deployment, they have briefings and make you watch PowerPoints, but if you need help, you have to go get it yourself.” Ms. Hager and David Senft later began dating, and in 2005 she gave birth to their son, Landon. She said that during a fight over child support payments, he threatened to kill himself rather than make further payments and that because of the suicide threat, the court ordered that he be allowed only supervised visitation rights with their son. “He was a really good guy, fun, nice, and he loved being in the military,” Ms. Hager said. “But he didn’t have the coping skills to get out of his depressive states.” In 2007, he was deployed again with the 82nd Airborne Division, this time to Afghanistan. After his return, he transferred to the 101st Airborne Division and re-enlisted in the Army. “I told him not to re-enlist; I told him to get out, his personality was changing. I told him, ‘You are making me uncomfortable,’ ” Ms. Ochoa said. “After each deployment he seemed to get needier, sadder, and he would be talking deeper.” While at Fort Campbell in 2008, he attempted suicide by swallowing a bottle of sleeping pills. The pills only knocked him out for two or three days, and when he awoke in his apartment, he called friends, who urged him to get help. He agreed to be admitted to a mental hospital in Hopkinsville, Ky. He told Ms. Ochoa that he had tried to kill himself twice while at Fort Campbell. “He was depressed,” she said. “He said he had seen a lot of crazy stuff and seen a lot of friends die, and he was unhappy; he had a lot of failed relationships.” His suicide attempts and hospitalization finally got the attention of the Army, which kept him back from a scheduled deployment to Iraq. Instead, he was given a desk job at Fort Campbell. “I remember he told me he had tried to kill himself and had been taken off the deployment roster for Iraq,” recalled Matt Davis, who served with Sergeant Senft in the 82nd Airborne Division. But he could not get out of his unit’s next scheduled deployment, to Afghanistan in early 2010. Colonel Philbrick said that he could not answer why Sergeant Senft was allowed to deploy to Afghanistan after he had been held back from Iraq after his suicide attempt. He apparently did well for the first few months of the Afghan deployment, because he went home on leave in July and, without telling many friends and relatives, quietly married another soldier he had recently met. But his mental state seemed to worsen again after his return to Afghanistan, and his commanders took action. He was placed in regular counseling in Kandahar, apparently for the first time in his military career, and met regularly with an Army chaplain on the base. His weapon was taken from him several months before his death, according to the e-mails from the Army investigator. On the morning of Nov. 15, Sergeant Senft’s roommate woke to find his weapon missing. After Sergeant Senft failed to show up for duty that morning, another member of his unit discovered his body. Ms. Ochoa said: “As soon as I heard he was dead, I just said to myself, he did it. He did it.”

United States Defense and Military Forces


Teamwork Will Take Butler Only So Far

Abstract: Houston Anyone looking for a deeper meaning to Monday’s national championship game between Butler and Connecticut need look no further than one simple truth: there is no substitute for talent. We often write about teamwork, hard work, dedication and talent as if they are mutually exclusive. They are not. Coaches, especially at the college level, try to convince us that genius begins with them. In fact, no championship, including Connecticut’s 53-41 victory over Butler on Monday, has been achieved without a deft blend of the four traits. Players must work hard, be dedicated and work as a team. And they must have talent. “A lot of times, it’s not the X’s and O’s, it’s the Jimmys and Joes,” said Micah Shrewsberry, a Butler assistant. This was early Tuesday after Butler had lost to UConn in a brutal-looking national championship game. After the loss, Butler Coach Brad Stevens talked emotionally about how his team had done so much with so little. He talked about how Butler had one senior who had been a prized recruit. “There are four others that were not recruited by a lot of people and played in two national championship games,” he said. “It’s remarkable when you think about it.” Remarkable, indeed, and part of an attractive Butler story line: the Bulldogs’ hard workers against a talent-laden UConn team. Stevens acknowledged that Connecticut, which started three freshmen, had worked pretty hard, too. “UConn is the best shot-contesting team that we’ve played all year, and it’s not even close,” Stevens told reporters during an informal interview session. “They contested shots better than anyone we played all year — and in the last two years. They were long, they were athletic, they were active, they were really in tune.” In the wake of a second consecutive loss in a national championship game, Butler, which lost a 2-point game to Duke last year, must now decide how vigorously it wants to go about the task of getting better — of getting “long and athletic.” UConn started three freshmen, but they didn’t play like freshmen. As Stevens said: “He had freshmen playing like seniors out there, defensively. The way Lamb contested shots was better than I’d seen on tape.” Lamb was Jeremy Lamb, a baby-face freshman who this time last year was a high school senior in Georgia. On Monday, Lamb helped Connecticut win its third national championship. In the past three seasons, Butler was fortunate to have three pro-caliber players: Gordon Hayward, who left for the N.B.A. after last season, Matt Howard and Shelvin Mack. Finding replacements is Shrewsberry’s job. Shrewsberry cried along with everyone else in the Butler locker room after the loss, but now, as he walked down a long corridor in Reliant Stadium, he was already in recruiting mode. “We need to try to get a couple guys who can play anywhere in the country and then surround them with great role players,” Shrewsberry said. “Being on these runs will help in that area, where we can stretch out in different parts of the country, and even internationally.” Butler recently signed Jackson Aldridge, a hard-nosed scoring point guard from Sydney, Australia. Like hundreds of other basketball assistants, Shrewsberry will hit the recruiting trail beginning Wednesday in search of the One: a player with the ability to transform a team. The Bulldogs signed Khyle Marshall last year out of Davie, Fla. His signing and Aldridge’s mark an important shift for Butler away from a regional approach to recruiting. Butler’s success on the court is opening doors into recruits’ homes. The question is whether they will be opened wide enough to achieve the sort of national fairy tale that many had hoped for. “A run like this helps us tell our story a little bit,” Shrewsberry said. “We’re getting a lot of publicity from a lot of different areas and people can see the kind of kids we got, the kind of coach we got. It really will help broaden our areas of where we can reach and get guys.” Stevens is 34; he has a young family and a lot of basketball ahead of him. There will come a point when getting close every four or five years will not be sufficient. Feel-good stories are fine, every once in a while. But in the realm of national championships and top-flight Division I competition, you can count on one incontrovertible truth: there is no substitute for talent.

Butler University
College Athletics
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
Howard Matt
Basketball (College)
NCAA Basketball Championships (Men)
University of Connecticut
Stevens Brad (1976- )


Contador’s Lead Shrinks

Abstract: Alberto Contador’s overall lead decreased by 38 seconds in the 19th stage of the Giro d’Italia, although he remained solidly on course for the title. Fabio Aru won the grueling 147-mile mountain stage from Gravellona Toce to Cervinia with a late breakaway and moved back into second place over all, 4 minutes 37 seconds behind Contador.


2 Marines Disciplined After 4 Die at Pendleton

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — An explosion during a training exercise that killed four Marines at Camp Pendleton last year was most likely caused by a dropped or kicked grenade, and two Marines have been relieved of duty as a result, military officials announced Thursday. The accident occurred while about 50 Marines were removing unexploded ordnance from an artillery range on Nov. 13. Jeffrey Nyhart, a spokesman for Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, outside San Diego, said ordnance collection had finished for the day, and Marines were preparing to safely explode the rounds they had collected when the accident happened. An investigation concluded that a grenade was most likely dropped or kicked. About 350 nearby rounds, which the Marines were preparing to safely explode, blew up. The captain and master sergeant who were in charge of the ordnance disposal training were relieved of their duties Tuesday, because of a “loss of confidence in their ability,” and a “lack of adherence to established norms,” Mr. Nyhart said. “The exact cause is indeterminate, because the deceased Marines were really the only individuals who were directly observing what’s going on in that area,” Mr. Nyhart said. The blast killed Staff Sgt. Mathew R. Marsh, 28, of Long Beach, Calif.; Gunnery Sgt. Gregory J. Mullins, 31, of Bayou L’Ourse, La.; Sgt. Miguel Ortiz, 27, of Vista, Calif.; Staff Sgt. Eric W. Summers, 32, of Poplar Bluff, Mo. All four were ordnance disposal specialists who had served in Iraq or Afghanistan. Three other military personnel also suffered minor injuries in the explosion. In the wake of the accident, Brig. Gen. John W. Bullard, the commanding general at Camp Pendleton, ordered a review of explosive ordnance disposal training at Camp Pendleton and other Western Marine bases. The Marines are required to conduct proficiency training on ordnance disposal at least once a year. The base’s Zulu Impact Area, where the accident occurred, had not been cleared of unexploded ordnance since 2007, Mr. Nyhart said. More than 3,000 rounds of unexploded ordnance were collected from the range before the explosion. The blast was the second fatal accident last year involving Marines on a domestic military base. Last March, seven Marines were killed and several others were injured when a mortar round exploded during a training exercise in Nevada. “Many of the training evolutions we conduct are inherently dangerous, especially when dealing with explosives and munitions,” General Bullard said in a statement. “We are deeply saddened by the tragic loss of four Marines.”

Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton
Miguel Ortiz
Military Bases
US Military
Bombs
US Marines
Mathew R Marsh
Gregory J Mullins
Eric W Summers


Hospital in Gaza Is a Scene of Pain, Despair and Defiance

Abstract: GAZA CITY — The emergency room in Shifa Hospital is often a place of gore and despair. On Thursday, it was also a lesson in the way ordinary people are squeezed between suicidal fighters and a military behemoth. Dr. Awni al-Jaru, 37, a surgeon at the hospital, rushed in from his home here, dressed in his scrubs. But he came not to work. His head was bleeding, and his daughter’s jaw was broken. He said Hamas militants next to his apartment building had fired mortar and rocket rounds. Israel fired back with force, and his apartment was hit. His wife, Albina, originally from Ukraine, and his 1-year-old son were killed. “My son has been turned into pieces,” he cried. “My wife was cut in half. I had to leave her body at home.” Because Albina was a foreigner, she could have left Gaza with her children. But, Dr. Jaru lamented, she would not leave him behind. A car arrived with more patients. One was a 21-year-old man with shrapnel in his left leg who demanded quick treatment. He turned out to be a militant with Islamic Jihad. He was smiling a big smile. “Hurry, I must get back so I can keep fighting,” he told the doctors. He was told that there were more serious cases than his, that he needed to wait. But he insisted. “We are fighting the Israelis,” he said. “When we fire we run, but they hit back so fast. We run into the houses to get away.” He continued smiling. “Why are you so happy?” this reporter asked. “Look around you.” A girl who looked about 18 screamed as a surgeon removed shrapnel from her leg. An elderly man was soaked in blood. A baby a few weeks old and slightly wounded looked around helplessly. A man lay with parts of his brain coming out. His family wailed at his side. “Don’t you see that these people are hurting?” the militant was asked. “But I am from the people, too,” he said, his smile incandescent. “They lost their loved ones as martyrs. They should be happy. I want to be a martyr, too.”

Hamas
Israel
Civilian Casualties
Gaza Strip
Palestinians


In a First, Asian Autos Outsold Detroit’s in May

Abstract: The three Detroit automakers were outsold for the first time ever by their Asian rivals in May, and a sedan was the top-selling vehicle in the United States for the first time in 16 years. General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler combined for a record low market share of 44.4 percent, compared with 48.1 percent for 10 Asian brands, according to the Autodata Corporation, the industry statistics firm. Toyota Motor of Japan pulled to within 10,000 vehicles of overtaking G.M. in United States sales, and Honda posted its highest monthly sales total ever. Not since December 1992 has a car — not a truck — been the country’s top-selling vehicle. But in May, the Honda Civic, a compact car available with either a hybrid or gasoline engine, displaced Ford’s F-series pickup truck as the month’s best-selling vehicle. Honda’s midsize offering, the Accord, and two Toyota sedans also outsold the F-series, whose sales plunged 33 percent. “Clearly, for people who are shopping for a new car today, the only thing that matters is its fuel economy,” said Ron Pinelli, the president of Autodata. “The big vehicle that they once loved is now a source of pain for them when they fill up at the pump.” The Detroit automakers conceded Tuesday that they no longer expected consumers to change their behavior if gas prices recede, as happened after spikes in the 1970s and ’80s. “May was a watershed month,” said James D. Farley, Ford’s marketing chief. “We are as an industry catching up with the breathtaking choices that customers are now making.” Even Ford’s own compact car, the recently redesigned Focus, outsold the company’s flagship F-series on a retail basis, which excludes sales to fleet operators that often buy pickups in bulk. Compact cars, which accounted for about a quarter of all sales by automakers in May, have “now become clearly the core segment in the U.S. industry,” Mr. Farley said. The sharp drop in sales of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles caused overall American auto sales in May to fall 30 percent at G.M., 28 percent at Chrysler and 19 percent at Ford. G.M. claimed a market share of only 19.1 percent, about a third of the company’s peak four decades ago. Across the industry, sales were down 14 percent. Toyota posted an 8 percent decline, though its market share increased. The head of Toyota Motor sales, Bob Carter, said the company had been hindered by production constraints and that its most fuel-efficient cars, including the Prius hybrid sedan, were selling as quickly as they could be built. “Dealer stock for Prius is best measured in hours rather than days,” Mr. Carter said. Jesse Toprak, senior director of industry analysis at Edmunds.com, said everyone was scrambling to keep up with one of the most rapid sea changes ever for the auto industry. “The shift was so swift that it caught everybody by surprise, including Toyota,” Mr. Toprak said. “Dealers we’ve talked to said they could have sold twice as many Priuses easily, basically resulting in a record month.” Mark LaNeve, G.M.’s vice president for North American sales and marketing, maintained that the outlook for the months ahead was better, though not significantly. “We’re somewhere near the bottom,” Mr. LaNeve said. Chrysler and Ford are each introducing redesigned versions of their full-size pickups later this year. Mr. Farley said Ford was confident that its new F-series could succeed, because many of the people who buy pickup trucks need them for work and cannot buy a smaller vehicle regardless of gas prices. But Mr. Farley also acknowledged that Ford would have a difficult time selling its inventory of the current F-series. He said the company would offer an “employee pricing” discount this month on the F-series, resurrecting a sales gimmick that all three Detroit automakers used several years ago. The discounts created a temporary spike in demand followed by a slump after they expired. Neither G.M. nor Chrysler signaled that they would match Ford’s promotion, though Chrysler has extended until July 7 its own highly publicized offer, which allows buyers of its vehicles to purchase up to three years’ worth of gas — based on driving 12,000 miles a year — at $2.99 a gallon.


N.H.L. Could Face Life With Owner It Opposes

Abstract: The N.H.L.’s worst fears loom on Thursday as the Phoenix Coyotes go up for auction in United States Bankruptcy Court with only two bidders participating: the N.H.L. and the man whom league owners voted unanimously to exclude from their ranks, the Canadian billionaire James L. Balsillie. A defeat in the case would be the latest in a string of embarrassments for the league related to the Coyotes’ bankruptcy . Despite the N.H.L.’s claims this summer that several potential buyers beyond Balsillie were interested in the Coyotes, only two stepped forward. But one dropped out in August, prompting the league to enter its own bid, and the other dropped out this week. Now the N.H.L. faces the possibility of Judge Redfield T. Baum’s ruling in favor of Balsillie’s $242.5 million offer, which would move the Coyotes to Hamilton, Ontario, over the league’s $140 million bid, which would keep the team in Arizona pending a projected future sale to another party. Spokesmen for the N.H.L. and for Balsillie’s group, PSE Sports and Entertainment, said Wednesday that officials had no comment. Baum said in court last week that he might not make a final ruling on Thursday, adding that there would be one “certainly before the start of the season” on Oct. 1. The N.H.L. has fought hard against Balsillie’s purchase of the club, citing his attempts to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Nashville Predators in recent years. The Penguins’ deal fell apart when he would not promise to keep the team in Pittsburgh, and the Predators’ deal crashed when he started a season-ticket drive in Hamilton without informing the league. In July, the owners voted by 26 to 0 to exclude Balsillie from their ranks because he “lacked the good character and integrity” to join them, as Jeremy Jacobs, the Bruins’ owner and chairman of the Board of Governors, put it. On Tuesday, however, a part-owner of the Predators, William Del Biaggio III, was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to fraud in connection with his purchase of a 24 percent stake in the team. At least two other N.H.L. owners have pleaded guilty to or paid fines for securities violations in the last year and a half. Compounding the league’s embarrassment, news of the withdrawal of the third bidder for the Coyotes, Ice Edge Holdings, became public in a statement from N.H.L. Commissioner Gary Bettman that was buried in a footnote in court papers filed on Tuesday. “I was advised today that the Ice Edge Group does not intend to participate in the auction,” Bettman said in the footnote. Despite the disparity between the two remaining bids, a complicating factor is the position taken by the city of Glendale, Ariz., which says that its 26-year lease with the Coyotes at Jobing.com Arena cannot be broken unless the team pays in the neighborhood of $500 million in damages to compensate for economic losses. Over the Labor Day weekend, Balsillie offered to pay the city $50 million to get out of the lease. But on Wednesday Glendale officials discounted that offer as being worth considerably less because of what City Attorney Craig Tindall called “multiple contingencies” attached to the amount. City officials said they remained firmly opposed to Balsillie’s bid. Peter S. Kaufman, president of the Gordian Group, a New York investment bank and a bankruptcy and restructuring expert, said that in a bankruptcy sale, “all things being equal, a judge is not going to be terribly excited about taking less for the creditors,” which seemed to give the advantage to Balsillie. Kaufman also said that the N.H.L. “is likely wearing too many hats” in bidding for the Coyotes while at the same time deciding whether Balsillie, an opposing bidder, can join the league. That left it open to charges of conflict of interest, which Balsillie’s lawyers made in court last week. Baum will also have to rule on how much the Coyotes will pay in relocation fees if they move to Hamilton, a figure Balsillie puts at about $12 million and the N.H.L. puts at $101 million to $195 million. “The notion that a team in Hamilton would be worth only $11.2 million to $12.9 million more than a team in Phoenix is patently absurd,” the N.H.L. said in a court filing.

Phoenix Coyotes
Hockey Ice
Balsillie James L
National Hockey League


At Sony, a Plan to Link Entertainment and Devices

Abstract: TOKYO — Sony ’s chief executive, Howard Stringer , has a grand idea: an all-in-one online network that pipes Sony’s films, music, games and other content to its TVs, Walkmans and PlayStation game machines. If only this were 1999. In an interview on Thursday with reporters, Mr. Stringer promised to put the ailing Sony back on the technology map with its anticipated networked universe, the Sony Online Service, which will combine the company’s digital content and hardware. The strategy of linking Sony’s content — like its collection of Michael Jackson hits and its popular Spider-Man franchise — with the company’s electronic gear has a familiar ring. Since the mid-1990s, Sony has proclaimed the benefits of matching its content and hardware, but bickering between its engineers and programmers, as well as clunky software linking the two, has meant the vision has been largely ineffective. This time, however, it will be different, Mr. Stringer said. A revamping announced in February has been completed, and Sony’s engineers and programmers are already working better together, he said. He is confident that Sony has developed a winning formula that will outdo the Apple iPod business. “We have a supreme advantage once we get software right, because the quality of our hardware is exceptional,” Mr. Stringer said. “I think our hardware is more durable than Apple. You don’t want something that breaks down every 10 minutes.” “Sony has the strategic intent, but it’s never executed,” said Sea-Jin Chang, a business professor at the National University of Singapore and an author of a book on the company. The company is desperate for a winning formula. The global economic crisis has decimated Sony’s bottom line, as consumers everywhere cut back on electronics. The company, based in Tokyo, expects to book its second consecutive annual loss in the fiscal year that ends in March, after losing 98.9 billion yen, or $1.12 billion at the current exchange rate, last year. Sony’s woes started long before the recent downturn, however. In the last decade, Sony has been overtaken by rivals in areas it once dominated: Sony now trails Samsung in flat-panel TVs, and the Wii game console from Nintendo has overtaken the PlayStation 3. Even in the camcorder market, a traditional Sony stronghold, the company is finding itself besieged by upstarts like Flip Video, which offers pocket-size recorders for less than $150. Mr. Stringer said the new Sony Online Service would give a lift to the company’s products across the board. The service builds on Sony’s PlayStation Network, which lets users download games, TV shows and movies onto their PlayStation game consoles, the company’s most successful platform so far, with 33 million registered users and expected revenue of $500 million this year. The network will add music, e-books and software applications to the mix and link that to a wider range of devices. Sony has not divulged much else about the network, and questions about its execution remain. In 1999, two years before Apple burst onto the scene with the iPod , Sony had introduced not one but two digital music players intended to take advantage of the company’s large stock of music content. But the two players were made by separate development teams, one within Sony’s Walkman unit and the other in its Vaio laptop group, and neither cooperated with the other. The devices required separate software. The music players flopped, and Sony soon lost the market to Apple. This year, Sony abandoned another hardware-software project, a video-sharing site that linked directly to Sony gadgets. The EyeVio site, which Mr. Stringer called “Sony’s quiet software revolution,” was intended to let users upload video from their Sony camcorders and digital cameras and then download clips to their Sony TVs, mobile phones or Walkmans. But the site, which operated only in Japan, failed to catch on, with a mere one million unique visitors a month. When Sony transferred the site to Sprasia, a Tokyo start-up, it left a generation of Sony equipment with redundant EyeVio plug-in functions. One problem Sony has faced in trying to go online is that its software engineers, who tend to be younger, are often largely ignored by their older and more established colleagues in hardware, Mr. Stringer said. That means the company has remained too focused on hardware to give software engineers a chance, said Yasuyuki Hattori, a Sony alumnus who now runs Connecty, a software company. “At Sony, all software development had to be linked to a hardware project from the start,” he said in an interview this year. “That stifles the freedom you need to develop good software.” And with a mind-boggling array of gadgets, Sony’s online vision remains blurry at best. Is the new Idou Internet-ready phone from Sony Ericsson its most important network product? Or is it the Walkman X series from Sony proper? Or maybe it is the PlayStation Portable machine, which also comes with Web browsing, from Sony’s games unit. That confusion within Sony is why the company finds competitors like the iPhone — part phone, part music player, part gaming platform — such a puzzle. Sony would need divisions within its company to work together, perhaps at the expense of their own product lines. Mr. Stringer insists all parts of Sony are cooperating. “Ten years ago, different parts of Sony didn’t speak to each other,” Mr. Stringer said. “Now, there are no silos.”

Sony Online Service
Electronics
SONY Corporation
Computers and the Internet
Computer and Video Games
PlayStation 3 (Video Game System)
Stringer Howard


A Back-to-School List With Cameras, Bulletproof Walls and More Deadbolts

Abstract: In his Cold War childhood, Bill Ferguson and his schoolmates at St. Elizabeth’s in Ozone Park, Queens, drilled for air raids that never came. “You hid under the desk, or went to certain places in the building, laid down and covered your eyes,” he said. Now Mr. Ferguson, 69, is the principal of the school he attended as a boy. For the past two weeks, he has watched construction crews harden seven classrooms in the century-old building where 4-year-olds go to prekindergarten. “Bulletproofing walls,” Mr. Ferguson said on Thursday. “Two deadbolt locks on every door. Metal frame to reinforce the doors. A 50-inch monitor arrived Thursday.” Surveillance cameras — 29 just went in — would ideally supply a stream of images not only to the big-screen monitor, but also to police officers who will be able to watch on smartphones or tablets. The labor and materials for the entire project came to about $150,000 and was completed in two weeks at no cost to the school, according to John Scotti, who oversaw the work, and Mr. Ferguson. Image A security camera was mounted to the outside of St. Elizabeth's Catholic Academy in Ozone Park, Queens. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times St. Elizabeth’s — now known as St. Elizabeth’s Catholic Academy — is the first school to accept a no-strings offer from Alert Inc., a nonprofit that seeks to make schools safer from armed assailants without turning them into bunkers. The money for the work was provided by Sandya Shetty, 51, who said she has interests in real estate, insurance, construction and hotels. She and Mr. Scotti, 55, her husband, said their motivation was to protect children, school staff members and the police during mass gun attacks like those at Columbine High School in Colorado, and at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. “Whenever there is one of these crises, everybody cries and nobody does anything,” Mr. Scotti said. They have sent 4,000 offers to schools, districts and states across the country, Ms. Shetty said, and although there has been some interest, only St. Elizabeth’s responded affirmatively. “It’s strange,” she said. “I don’t understand why they wouldn’t want it.” Mr. Ferguson said he initially found the proposition odd, too, and noted that as terrible as the mass shootings were, anxiety about them was not plaguing St. Elizabeth’s. “I was a little skeptical, and so was the board,” he said. “I called the diocese. We got it in writing that it would not cost us anything.” (It is not surprising that people at St. Elizabeth’s would exercise caution; in 2002, a former pastor pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $95,000 from parish funds. In an unrelated matter, Mr. Scotti said he pleaded guilty to a count of tax fraud more than a decade ago.) With written assurance that the project would not be a drain on school finances, Mr. Ferguson said: “Why not make it safer for the children? You never know what is going to happen.” Image Surveillance cameras inside and outside the school will supply a stream of images to a 50-inch monitor. Credit Uli Seit for The New York Times Despite massacres, the local and national political processes have done little to curb the availability of guns or ammunition. What about the buildings? “People were talking about safe rooms in schools, but the ideas were ridiculous,” Mr. Scotti said. “A steel room in the basement. How are you going to move them from the classroom to the basement with an active shooter in the building?” In effect, the work at St. Elizabeth’s is intended to make each classroom a safe space, by strengthening the walls, and making the doors stronger, including the two deadbolts. “I said, ‘Why isn’t one deadbolt enough?’ And the answer was, ‘No, with one, you can still break down the door,’ ” Mr. Ferguson said. The windows on the doors are being fitted with bars so they will not provide an easy opening into the classroom. During the construction, some classroom decorations were disturbed and will be restored, but for the most part the changes are not obvious. “They’ve done nice work,” Mr. Ferguson said. “They’ve been very neat about it.” St. Elizabeth’s has two buildings. The newer one, built in 1961, has classes that run from prekindergarten through eighth grade for about 285 children, Mr. Ferguson said. The older one, built in 1913, houses seven classes of New York City’s universal prekindergarten program, with about 130 children. It was in that building that the first phase of work was done. “We took an old school building and in two weeks converted it into the safest school there is, without looking like a military installation,” Mr. Scotti said. These precautions might turn out to be the 21st-century version of the air raid drill. But mass shootings at schools are a reality, not a worry. Perhaps the armored schoolhouse will be an answer to the armed nation.

Queens
Construction
Security
K-12 Education
School Shootings and Attacks
Alert Inc
Private Schools
St Elizabeth's Catholic Academy
Ozone Park Queens


Belgium and the Netherlands Swap Land, and Remain Friends

Abstract: From Cyprus to Ukraine, Israel to the Balkans, conflicts over land have long turned bloody. But on Monday, the Netherlands and Belgium managed to settle a festering territorial problem , without firing a single bullet and with an unlikely spur: a headless corpse. In a signing ceremony attended by their respective royals, Belgium agreed to cede about 35 acres of scenic land by the Meuse River in exchange for about seven acres of land from the Netherlands. The two countries had formalized their border in the Treaty of Maastricht in 1843. In a region that has long known geopolitical and linguistic squabbles, and where Belgium has lived in the shadow of its neighbor, the land swap was anything but inevitable. That apparently is where the headless body comes in. The land belonging to Belgium — equivalent to about 15 soccer fields — is linked to a hard-to-reach peninsula belonging to the Netherlands. In 1961, when the Meuse was reconfigured to aid navigation, it had the side effect of pushing three pieces of land onto the wrong side of the river. According to the Dutch news media, the uninhabited area subsequently gained a reputation for lawlessness, wild parties and prostitution. However, several years ago, when a couple accidentally stumbled on a headless body and called the Dutch authorities, they were informed that the strip of land was under Belgian jurisdiction. But the Belgian authorities could not get there by land without crossing Dutch territory, which required special permission. The only alternative was a difficult river crossing. Referring to the discovery of the body, Jean-François Duchesne, the police commissioner of the Lower Meuse region, told The Associated Press last year that the journey to the area had been arduous. “So we had to go there by boat with all that was needed — the prosecutor, the legal doctor, the judicial lab — we had to do round trips over the water,” he said. “It really was not very practical.” The two nations then decided to head off future jurisdictional problems by negotiating a peaceful exchange of parcels of land each country had that were stranded on the wrong bank of the river. Belgium’s foreign minister, Didier Reynders, said on Monday that the agreement reflected excellent Belgian-Dutch relations and was proof that “borders can be peacefully changed.” A similar agreement gained traction over the summer in Nordic countries, but that hit a snag. Norway was considering an unlikely birthday present for neighboring Finland : an Arctic mountain peak on Mount Halti, the highest mountain in Finland, whose 4,478-foot summit is in Norway. To mark the 100th anniversary of Finland’s declaration of independence from Russia, a group of Norwegians was urging the government to move a point on its border with Finland about 490 feet to the north and 650 feet to the east. But that ran afoul of an article of the Norwegian Constitution that states unequivocally that the Kingdom of Norway is “indivisible and inalienable,” and the friendly gesture was called off, at least for now.


Nick D’Aloisio, 17, Sells Summly App to Yahoo

Abstract: One of Yahoo’s newest employees is a 17-year-old high school student in Britain. As of Monday, he is one of its richest, too. That student, Nick D’Aloisio, a programming whiz who wasn’t even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to the company on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own mobile apps, with Mr. D’Aloisio’s help. “I’ve still got a year and a half left at my high school,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. But he will make arrangements to test out of his classes and work from the Yahoo office in London, partly to abide by the company’s new and much-debated policy that prohibits working from home. Mr. D’Aloisio, who declined to comment on the price paid by Yahoo (the technology news site AllThingsD pegged the purchase price at about $30 million), was Summly’s largest shareholder. Summly’s other investors, improbably enough, included Wendi Murdoch, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono. The most important one was Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, whose investment fund supported Mr. D’Aloisio’s idea early on, before it was even called Summly. “They took a gamble on me when I was a 15-year-old,” Mr. D’Aloisio said, by providing seed financing that let him hire employees and lease office space. The fund read about Mr. D’Aloisio’s early-stage app on TechCrunch, the Silicon Valley blog of record, found his e-mail address and startled him with a message expressing interest. The others signed up later. “Because it was my first time around, people just wanted to help,” he said. For teenagers who fancy themselves entrepreneurs — and their parents, too — the news of the sale conjured up some feelings of inadequacy, but also awe. For Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, a mobile rewards company, the reaction was downright laughable: “I feel old!” A few years ago, Mr. Wong was described in the news media as the youngest person ever to receive venture capital funding. But a couple of younger founders came along — “and then Nick broke all of our records,” Mr. Wong said on Monday. Among the attributes that helped Mr. D’Aloisio, he said, was a preternatural ability to articulate exactly what he wanted Summly to be. “There were no umms, no uhhs, no hesitations, no insecurities,” Mr. Wong said. Mr. D’Aloisio, for his part, sounded somewhat uninterested in answering questions about his age on Monday. He acknowledged that it was an advantage in some pitch meetings, and certainly in the news media, “but so was the strength of the idea.” He was more eager to talk about his new employer, Yahoo, which is trying to reinvent itself as a mobile-first technology company (having dropped the digital media tagline it used before Marissa Mayer became chief executive last year). “People are kind of underestimating how powerful it’s going to become and how much opportunity is there,” he said. For a company that badly wants to be labeled innovative, those words are worth a lot. Mr. D’Aloisio’s father, who works at Morgan Stanley, and his mother, a lawyer, had no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their son’s fascination with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an app with what he calls an “automatic summarization algorithm,” one that “can take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it.” In other words, it tries to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation tl;dr: “too long; didn’t read.” Summly officially came online last November. By December, Mr. D’Aloisio was talking to Yahoo and other suitors. Yahoo said in a statement that while the Summly app would be shut down, “we will acquire the technology and you’ll see it come to life throughout Yahoo’s mobile experiences soon.” Other news-reading apps have attracted corporate attention as of late, reflecting the scramble by media companies to adapt to skyrocketing traffic from mobile devices. The social network LinkedIn was said to be pursuing an app called Pulse earlier this month. Still, the eight-figure payday for a teenage entrepreneur on Monday struck some as outlandish and set off speculation that Yahoo was willing to pay almost any price for “cool.” Mr. D’Aloisio, though, will have plenty of time to prove his and his algorithm’s worth. As for the sizable paycheck from Yahoo, he said he did not have any specific plans for the sudden windfall. “It’s going to be put into a trust fund and my parents will help manage it,” he said. He did say, however, that “angel investing could be really fun.” When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular — and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.

Mobile Apps
Nick D'Aloisio
Yahoo!
News media,journalism


For Survivor of Political Strife, the Journey Continues in the Bronx

Abstract: When they came for Angele Nogue, she was wearing a nightgown. Then 33, she was asleep with her family at their home in Douala, Cameroon, when the police arrived at her door, she says, and took her away. It was February 2008, and the nation was roiling. Douala was among the cities wracked by violent demonstrations over escalating food and fuel costs, made more furious by President Paul Biya’s announcement that he would seek to amend Cameroon’s constitution to extend his more than 25 years in office. (He has been president since 1982.) That night was the last time Ms. Nogue ever saw her home. Though she found asylum and now lives safely in the Bronx with her children, she dreams of going back to Cameroon to pick up the pieces of the life she so abruptly left behind. “It’s not that easy with my age, to start again what you have done already,” she said. As a businesswoman in Cameroon, Ms. Nogue built a successful interior decorating firm that employed 18. In 2003, she started an orphanage for street children. She says she was motivated by the realization that women without resources could not afford to pay for proper hospital care, and often lost their lives during childbirth. Later, she helped organize marches in support of women and children as she saw the number of orphans increase amid the country’s chaos. Her arrest, she says, was in retaliation for her getting too close to the country’s volatile political sphere. Her husband had warned her about becoming involved in politics, she says, but she failed to understand the risks. “I was defending women and children’s rights,” she said. “I was not doing anything bad.” After the police arrested her in 2008, she says, she was taken to a prison. She does not like to talk about it. The government shut down her business. Eventually, she was able flee the country with the help of a friend. “I was lucky,” she said. “People died in front of me.” She came to the United States that November and was granted asylum in 2011. Her three children, now ages 9, 12, and 17, were reunited with her the next year. From the homeless shelter where they live in the Bronx, Ms. Nogue, 39, keeps in touch with those who remain in Cameroon. Besides her grandmother, she has lost nearly every vestige of her former life. Her husband, who also lost his business, now lives in Benin, where he cared for two of their children until they came to the United States. He and Ms. Nogue are not on good terms; he has not forgiven her for ignoring his warnings, she said. In December, a friend in Cameroon died from complications of AIDS, which Ms. Nogue says her friend contracted after being raped by police officers. Around the same time, Ms. Nogue says, her uncle was killed while trying to re-enter Cameroon from a nearby country. She worries about the more than 200 children she left behind at the orphanage. “I always think that I’m the only mother that can take good care of the kids in the world,” she said. Ms. Nogue is fighting to find a way back on her feet. She worked as a nurse’s assistant for three years until October 2012, when she was laid off. She currently receives $200 a month in food stamps, $159 a week in unemployment benefits and $58 a month in public subsidies. She enrolled in Hostos Community College in September, and is studying for an associate’s degree in nursing. Her goal is to become a registered nurse, which she hopes will give her the income and stability she needs to better support her family. In November, the Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New York, one of the organizations supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, provided her with $370 to purchase a laptop for her studies, as well as $80 for blankets she needed in the homeless shelter. “They don’t have anything there, they just give us a room,” she said. After five years, she has adjusted to life in New York City. She says she enjoys the security here, the small moments of connection with strangers in the street, and the city’s colorful tapestry of people. She admits, however, that she cannot stand the snow. “I can see so many colors in the streets,” she said. “Back home, it’s not the same.” Two summers ago, she helped inaugurate a community garden run by the International Rescue Committee in the Bronx. She sings in church on some weekends. She sometimes lets her mind wander back to better days in Cameroon, growing up a carefree child on her grandmother’s farm. “That’s a good time in my life. I was with my grandma. I never had a problem,” she said. If she is able to return, she would like to work in a hospital, to help those who have been denied care. But she knows her return is a faraway project. “I’m fighting to survive,” she said. The temperament that has prompted her to stick up for others is for the time being redeployed, on herself. She compares her current life to the experience of being on an airplane under duress. “They say wear your vest first before you wear it for your kid,” she said. “I have to save myself first, before saving other people.” Still, she is pulled by the thought of helping others once again. “I have my kids, and I have to take care of them again,” she said. “And I have other kids back home to take care of. That’s why I have to work. I don’t have time to waste.”


Birthright Citizenship Looms as Next Immigration Battle

Abstract: NOGALES, Ariz. — Of the 50 or so women bused to this border town on a recent morning to be deported back to Mexico , Inez Vasquez stood out. Eight months pregnant, she had tried to trudge north in her fragile state, even carrying scissors with her in case she gave birth in the desert and had to cut the umbilical cord. “All I want is a better life,” she said after the Border Patrol found her hiding in bushes on the Arizona side of the border with her husband, her young son and her very pronounced abdomen. The next big immigration battle centers on illegal immigrants’ offspring, who are granted automatic citizenship like all other babies born on American soil. Arguing for an end to the policy, which is rooted in the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, immigration hard-liners describe a wave of migrants like Ms. Vasquez stepping across the border in the advanced stages of pregnancy to have what are dismissively called “anchor babies.” The reality at this stretch of the border is more complex, with hospitals reporting some immigrants arriving to give birth in the United States but many of them frequent border crossers with valid visas who have crossed the border legally to take advantage of better medical care. Some are even attracted by an electronic billboard on the Mexican side that advertises the services of an American doctor and says bluntly, “Do you want to have your baby in the U.S.?” Women like Ms. Vasquez, who was preparing for a desert delivery, are rare. Still, Arizona — whose tough law granting the police the power to detain illegal immigrants is tied up in the courts — may again take the lead in what is essentially an effort to redefine what it means to be an American. This time, though, Arizona lawmakers intend to join with legislators from other states to force the issue before the Supreme Court . This coalition of lawmakers will unveil its exact plans on Wednesday in Washington , but people involved in drafting the legislation say they have decided against the painstaking process of amending the Constitution. Since the federal government decides who is to be deemed a citizen, the lawmakers are considering instead a move to create two kinds of birth certificates in their states, one for the children of citizens and another for the children of illegal immigrants. The theory is that this could spark a flurry of lawsuits that might resolve the legal conflict in their favor. “This is not a far-out, extremist position,” said John Kavanagh, one of the Arizona legislators who is leading an effort that has been called just that. “Only a handful of countries in the world grant citizenship based on the GPS location of the birth.” Most scholars of the Constitution consider the states’ effort to restrict birth certificates patently unconstitutional. “This is political theater, not a serious effort to create a legal test,” said Gabriel J. Chin, a law professor at the University of Arizona whose grandfather immigrated to the United States from China at a time when ethnic Chinese were excluded from the country. “It strikes me as unwise, un-American and unconstitutional.” The 14th Amendment, adopted in 1868, was a repudiation of the Supreme Court’s 1857 ruling, in Dred Scott v. Sandford, that people of African descent could never be American citizens. The amendment said citizenship applied to “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” In 1898, the Supreme Court, in United States v. Wong Kim Ark, interpreted the citizenship provision as applying to a child born in the United States to a Chinese immigrant couple. Still, some conservatives contend that the issue is unsettled. Kris Kobach , the incoming secretary of state in Kansas and a law professor at the University of Missouri - Kansas City who has helped draft many of the tough immigration regulations across the country, argued that the approach the states were planning would hold up to scrutiny. “I can’t really say much more without showing my hand,” Mr. Kobach said in an e-mail. “But, yes, I am confident that the law will stand up in court.” The legal theories are lost on Laura Gomez, 24, who crossed into Arizona from Mexico five years ago while expecting and is now pregnant with her second child. But like many other pregnant women in Arizona who are without papers, she has been following the issue with anxiety. “It doesn’t seem fair to just change the rules like that,” Ms. Gomez said. Despite being called “anchor babies,” the children of illegal immigrants born in the United States cannot actually prevent deportation of their parents. It is not until they reach the age of 21 that the children are able to file paperwork to sponsor their parents for legal immigration status. The parents remain vulnerable until that point. Maria Ledezma knows as much. Just off a bus that deported her from Phoenix to the Mexico border town of Nogales, she was sobbing as she explained the series of events that led her to be separated from her three daughters, ages 4, 7 and 9, all American citizens. “I never imagined being here,” said Ms. Ledezma, 25, who was brought to Phoenix from Mexico as a toddler. “I’ll bet right now that my girls are asking, ‘Where’s Mom?’ ” Blended families like hers are a reality across the United States. A study released in August by the Pew Hispanic Center found that about 340,000 children were born to illegal immigrants in the United States in 2008 and became instant citizens. In April, Representative Duncan Hunter , Republican of California , one of those pushing for Congressional action on the issue, stirred controversy when he suggested that children born in the United States to illegal immigrants should be deported with their parents until the birthright citizenship policy was changed. “And we’re not being mean,” Mr. Hunter told a Tea Party rally in Southern California . “We’re just saying it takes more than walking across the border to become an American citizen. It’s what’s in our souls.” Immigrant advocates say intolerance is driving the measure. “They call themselves patriots, but they pick and choose which parts of the Constitution they support,” said Lydia Guzman, a Latino activist in Phoenix. “They’re fear-mongerers. They’re clowns.” Like many states, Arizona is suffering a severe budget crisis, prompting even some lawmakers who have supported immigration restrictions in the past to question whether it is the right time for another divisive immigration bill. They say the state’s fiscal issues need to be resolved before Arizona jumps back into a controversial immigration debate. “I was born and raised in New York,” responded Mr. Kavanagh, who is chairman of the Appropriations Committee of the Arizona House. “I can ride a subway, drink coffee, read the newspaper and make sure my pockets are not picked all at the same time.” Scholars who have studied migration say it is the desire for better-paying jobs, not a passport for their children, that is the main motivator for people to leave their homes for the United States. Even Ms. Vasquez, who was preparing for a desert delivery, agrees with that. While she preferred to have her child be born in the United States, she said, it was the prospect of a better economic future, with or without papers, that had prompted her and her family to cross when they did. “I’ll try again — but once the baby’s born,” she said.

Citizenship
Arizona
Illegal immigration
14th Amendment
US Politics
US states


Tight Credit Turns Franchisers Into Lenders

Abstract: When Remi Tessier recently decided to open a pizza franchise, he got a big surprise: it was not going to be easy to get financing from a bank. Mr. Tessier had owned a liquor store for nearly a decade. He had a good credit score and a solid track record as a businessman in central Georgia. He assumed lenders would be happy to help. “I went to several banks and they acted like they could do loans,” Mr. Tessier said. “But when it came down to it, it was ridiculous. Ultimately, the terms and conditions were just outrageous.” So Mr. Tessier turned to another source of capital, his franchiser. He financed the $250,000 cost of opening his pizza restaurant though a leasing program established by Marco’s Pizza to help franchisees unable to obtain traditional loans. The case is one example of a trend that is rattling the chains of franchising: facing a $3.4 billion credit shortfall, franchisers are trying to spur growth by offering franchisees new financing approaches and incentives. “When you talk to anybody in the franchising industry, financing is the No. 1 concern,” said Sean Fitzgerald, vice president for franchise development at Wireless Zone , a cellphone retailer that has introduced in-house financing programs to cover part of its franchise fee and opening costs. “And it’s not going to get better anytime soon.” Chains are facing the worst credit squeeze since the franchise model boomed in the years after World War II. This year, the franchise industry is expected to seek $10.1 billion in capital, but banks are expected to lend only $6.7 billion, according to the International Franchise Association . The big national companies that dominated franchise lending before the 2008 collapse have stopped or reduced financing. The remaining lenders — often local banks — have been more restrictive in their credit underwriting, and they have been demanding more collateral (like home equity), more cash liquidity, more experience in the industry and outside sources of income, like rental income or a working spouse. “Banks have hit the reset button,” said Reginald Heard, president and chief executive of Bankers One Capital , a company in Danbury, Conn., that specializes in financing franchises. “They’re just holding onto capital and being conservative on how they approach new deals going forward. The franchisee who left I.B.M. and now wants to open a Dunkin’ Donuts or Subway, those deals are a lot more challenging to get done.” Robert C. Seiwert, senior vice president of the American Bankers Association , said the tighter credit standards affected first-time franchisees in particular (especially those trying riskier ventures like restaurants). Beyond the concerns about lacking collateral, experience and cash flow, lenders are often wary of franchisees who are unable or unwilling to make a large equity investment in their business. And lenders are likely to be especially cautious with newer chains that lack a track record. That is why the franchisers are getting involved, Mr. Seiwert said. “Financing for franchisees has always been tough,” he said. “But in today’s economy, it’s even tougher.” Some franchisers have gone a step further and put their own balance sheets to work by creating captive financing programs, pooled credit support or leasing programs. Others have tried “credit enhancement” in which the franchiser guarantees part of a loan to encourage tight-fisted lenders to free capital. Some franchisers are submitting themselves to the bank credit report process — essentially getting their credit-risk language translated into banking terms — so that franchisees have a lender-friendly package ready to take to banks that might have never seen a loan application from a particular chain. Besides financing, many franchises have also taken steps to help potential franchisees by reducing fees, waiving royalties or reducing square-footage requirements. Whatever the tactic, the motive is the same: playing a more active role in helping franchisees gain access to capital. “We had to get into the financing space to be able to deliver a solution to our franchisees,” said Peter Taunton, founder and chief executive of Snap Fitness , a national gym chain based in Chanhassen, Minn. Marco’s Pizza is one of the most aggressive franchisers. A 200-store chain based in Toledo, Ohio, Marco’s has ambitions to grow fivefold in the next five years. Those plans — which will require $100 million in capital — ran into a major roadblock when banks curtailed lending. So Marco’s has introduced three financing programs. It assembled a group of investors and created a $5 million private equity fund for new pizzerias and invests up to $100,000 per restaurant. It formed a subsidiary called Marco’s Assurance that provides a limited guarantee of bank loans to its franchisees and pays to relocate stores that end up in bad locations. It also has a leasing program that will finance up to $200,000 in opening costs. “Any small businessman is going to be very challenged getting financing without franchiser assistance,” said Ken Switzer, chief financial officer of Marco’s Franchising. “It’s virtually impossible on their own, without our help.” That is what Remi Tessier found. After 10 years in the liquor business and four children, he had decided he wanted to switch to a more family-friendly business. Pizza seemed a good bet because he thought it was recession-proof. At least that is what he thought until he tried to get financing. A decade earlier, he had obtained a business loan for his liquor store with 10 percent down. When he decided to open a 1,600-square-foot Marco’s Pizza franchise in Warner Robins, Ga., he assumed he was a better candidate for a loan with $300,000 in the bank, $9,000 monthly income from the sale of his liquor store and a credit score around 800. But Mr. Tessier said the lenders told him they had tightened policies and were willing to finance only the equipment for a five-year term. That would force him to reach into his own pocket for $150,000 for renovations, franchise fees and other expenses. “I thought it was going to be a cakewalk,” he said. “I was just shocked at how tough it was.” So he turned to the franchisers of Marco’s Pizza and applied for its leasing and assurance programs. He financed the $250,000 cost of opening his store by putting 25 percent down and will repay the rest to his franchiser over eight years. “I was approved within a week,” he said. In April, he opened the first of three planned locations. Few companies have been as aggressive as Marco’s. But Darrell Johnson, president and chief executive of FRANdata , a leading franchise analysis business, predicted that the tighter lending environment would impose a new form of natural selection on franchisers. Until recently, financing has been available to both poor performers and high performers, but it will increasingly favor the latter. To survive, he said, franchisers need to “think like bankers.” “Banks are defining who can play and who can’t play on the basis of risk analysis,” Mr. Johnson said. The stronger franchisers “are going to survive and do well because they’re going to get access to capital,” he said. “But it’s going to require the performance of franchise systems to change to meet the standards that banks are requiring. It’s going to be a system-strengthening process.”

Franchises
Banks and Banking
Small Business
Recession and Depression