Commodities Investing, With Less of the Risk

Abstract: IS there a way to invest in inflation-tracking vehicles that also benefit from growth in emerging markets? Commodities are often the answer, although not in the way most investors see them. Rather than latching onto the metals upsurge or even more fickle agricultural products, investors can find funds that offer a diverse basket of commodities. They can be essential parts of any wealth-building portfolio. In most years commodities show an inverse correlation to American stocks and the dollar and provide another layer of diversification for a portfolio. A weak or declining buck is one factor that has pushed dollar-denominated commodities prices higher. Commodities, viewed separately, are extraordinarily volatile. Subject to supply and demand and the vagaries of futures exchanges, they are among the riskiest short-term investments . Trading them is best left to professionals. Yet what about the direct connection between commodities and inflation? And what about the increase in demand because of the growth in emerging economies like China and India? Don’t these developing countries need all of the copper, coal and agricultural goods they can get? “As more and more people in formerly poor nations are entering the global middle class,” wrote Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize -winning economist, in his Op-Ed column in The New York Times on Dec. 27, “They’re beginning to drive cars and eat meat, placing growing pressure on world oil and food supplies. And those supplies aren’t keeping pace.” One prominent commodities advocate — Jim Rogers, chairman of Rogers Holdings — has been bullish on commodities since 1999. Like many international investors, he has seen demand escalate from emerging economies and does not expect that trend to ease — particularly with the potential for rising inflation. “Prices for raw materials are rising again,” Mr. Rogers told a meeting of the Executives’ Club in Chicago on Jan. 13, “which will just stoke the inflationary pressures caused by money printing.” Although commodities prices swooned in 2008 during the global financial collapse — along with just about every other asset class except for United States Treasury bonds — they have rebounded smartly in recent years. The Continuous Commodity Index, a benchmark maintained by the Commodity Research Bureau, was up 33 percent in 2009. That was a sharp contrast to 2008, when world demand plummeted and the index was off 48 percent. Last year, commodities prices gained about 17 percent over all, according to the Dow Jones-UBS Commodity Index. Until three years ago, commodities were on an uninterrupted bull run that began in 2001. The index peaked in 2008, having risen to a post-World War II record, posting a gain of 236 percent over the seven years. One surprise in the 2009 commodities rebound was the sectors that led the rally — not gold, silver or platinum. The leaders were cotton and copper, up 96 percent; cocoa, coffee and orange juice, up 63 percent; and crude/heating oil and natural gas , up 58 percent. While gold was up about 43 percent last year, it may not lead in 2011, with energy prices rising and the possibility of a gold bubble. To get an idea of how volatile commodity prices are, you need only look at the worst category last year, natural gas, which was down 41 percent. Normally, such price swings do not occur in bonds. There are too many market forces to contend with, so why take the risk of guessing wrong on the commodity that’s overbought? There are hundreds of ways to bet on commodity prices; almost all of them are ill advised for investors managing their own portfolios. You can buy individual futures contracts on commodities as different as gold and pork bellies. Or there’s the ever-expanding field of exchange-traded funds . Let’s say you wanted to bet on rare earth metals, which are essential in most high-tech products. You might explore a fund like the Market Vectors Rare Earth/Strategic Metals E.T.F. (REMX), which has nearly half of its holdings in mines in Australia, Canada and the United States. For most investors, though, it’s wiser to spread your money among a wide array of commodities and leave the management to professionals. Several broad-based funds offer lower-risk alternatives. One such fund is the PowerShares DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund E.T.F. (DBC), which is based on the Deutsche Bank Liquid Commodity Index. The fund tracks commodities like oil, gasoline, natural gas, gold, aluminum, silver, copper, corn, wheat, soybeans and sugar. The iShares S.& P. GSCI Commodity-Indexed Trust E.T.F. (GSG) is another, and is heavily weighted toward energy. Jeff Layman, who co-manages $1.7 billion for BKD Wealth Advisors in Springfield, Mo., favors the Pimco Commodity Real Return Strategy D fund (PCRDX), which mixes commodities with Treasury inflation-protected securities. (Disclosure: This fund is in my retirement portfolio.) Not only does he use the fund as a hedge against inflation, it is a play on growth in emerging economies and possible declines in the value of the dollar against foreign currencies. “Although commodities are extremely volatile, I think inflation is coming back,” Mr. Layman said. “I expect commodities prices will be higher 10 years from now, and there’s an expectation of a weakening dollar.” Mr. Layman allocates no more than 5 percent to commodities in his clients’ portfolios. As with any funds, there are robust debates about the best E.T.F. (and underlying commodity index) to choose, yet few will argue the need to protect against a falling dollar, rising inflation and the potential for another downturn in American stocks. Commodity funds are not a perfect hedge for any of these events. But their clear link to growth in developing nations is a bonus worth pursuing.


Automation Alone Isn’t Killing Jobs

Abstract: Although the labor market report on Friday showed modest job growth, employment opportunities remain stubbornly low in the United States, giving new prominence to the old notion that automation throws people out of work. Back in the 19th century, steam power and machinery took away many traditional jobs, though they also created new ones. This time around, computers, smart software and robots are seen as the culprits. They seem to be replacing many of the remaining manufacturing jobs and encroaching on service-sector jobs, too. Driverless vehicles and drone aircraft are no longer science fiction, and over time, they may eliminate millions of transportation jobs. Many other examples of automatable jobs are discussed in “The Second Machine Age,” a book by Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee, and in my own book, “Average Is Over.” The upshot is that machines are often filling in for our smarts, not just for our brawn — and this trend is likely to grow. How afraid should workers be of these new technologies? There is reason to be skeptical of the assumption that machines will leave humanity without jobs. After all, history has seen many waves of innovation and automation, and yet as recently as 2000, the rate of unemployment was a mere 4 percent. There are unlimited human wants, so there is always more work to be done. The economic theory of comparative advantage suggests that even unskilled workers can gain from selling their services, thereby liberating the more skilled workers for more productive tasks. Nonetheless, technologically related unemployment — or, even worse, the phenomenon of people falling out of the labor force altogether because of technology — may prove a tougher problem this time around. Labor markets just aren’t as flexible these days for workers, especially for men at the bottom end of the skills distribution. Through much of the 20th century, workers moved out of agriculture and into manufacturing jobs. A high school diploma and a basic willingness to work were often enough, at least for white men, because the technologies of those times often relied on accompanying manual labor. Many of the new jobs today are in health care and education, where specialized training and study are required. Across the economy, a college degree is often demanded where a high school degree used to suffice. It’s now common for a fire chief to be expected to have a master’s degree, and to perform a broader variety of business-related tasks that were virtually unheard-of in earlier generations. All of these developments mean a disadvantage for people who don’t like formal education, even if they are otherwise very talented. It’s no surprise that current unemployment has been concentrated among those with lower education levels. There is also a special problem for some young men, namely those with especially restless temperaments. They aren’t always well-suited to the new class of service jobs, like greeting customers or taking care of the aged, which require much discipline or sometimes even a subordination of will. The law is yet another source of labor market inflexibility: The number of jobs covered by occupational licensing continues to rise and is almost one-third of the work force . We don’t need such laws for, say, barbers or interior designers, although they are commonly on the books. Many expanding economic sectors are not very labor-intensive, be they tech fields like online retailing or even new mining and extraction industries. That means it’s harder for the rate of job creation to keep up with the rate of job destruction, because a given amount of economic growth isn’t bringing as many jobs. A new paper by Alan B. Krueger, Judd Cramer and David Cho of Princeton has documented that the nation now appears to have a permanent class of long-term unemployed, who probably can’t be helped much by monetary and fiscal policy. It’s not right to describe these people as “thrown out of work by machines,” because the causes involve complex interactions of technology, education and market demand. Still, many people are finding this new world of work harder to navigate. Sometimes, the problem in labor markets takes the form of underemployment rather than outright joblessness. Many people, especially the young, end up with part-time and temporary service jobs — or perhaps a combination of them. A part-time retail worker, for example, might also write for a friend’s website and walk dogs for wealthier neighbors. These workers often aren’t climbing career ladders that build a brighter or more secure future. Many of these labor market problems were brought on by the financial crisis and the collapse of market demand. But it would be a mistake to place all the blame on the business cycle. Before the crisis, for example, business executives and owners didn’t always know who their worst workers were, or didn’t want to engage in the disruptive act of rooting out and firing them. So long as sales were brisk, it was easier to let matters lie. But when money ran out, many businesses had to make the tough decisions — and the axes fell. The financial crisis thus accelerated what would have been a much slower process. Subsequently, some would-be employers seem to have discriminated against workers who were laid off in the crash. These judgments weren’t always fair, but that stigma isn’t easily overcome, because a lot of employers in fact had reason to identify and fire their less productive workers. In a nutshell, what we’re facing isn’t your grandfather’s unemployment problem. It does have something to do with modern technology, and it will be with us for some time.

Jobs
Unemployment
Part-time
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Layoffs
US Economy


Durable Goods Orders Rise, but Disappoint

Abstract: WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for manufactured goods at American factories rose only slightly in November, falling short of expectations for a much bigger gain and underscoring the strains on the economy from housing and credit problems. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that orders for durable goods — products expected to last at least three years — increased just 0.1 percent last month. Durable-goods orders fell 0.4 percent in October, and economists had hoped for a larger rebound in November. The November rise was the first increase in durable-goods orders in the last four months, but it fell far short of the 2.2 percent increase economists had forecast. In other economic news, more people signed up for unemployment benefits last week, a sign that the job market was softening as the economy lost speed. The Labor Department reported that new applications for unemployment insurance rose by a seasonally adjusted 1,000, to 349,000. Economists expected new filings for jobless benefits to dip to around 340,000 last week. A report from the Conference Board, however, indicated that consumers were slightly more confident in December, despite underlying concerns about the country’s economic health. The board’s Consumer Confidence Index rose to 88.6 in December, from 87.8 in November. It was the first increase since July. The factories report, which excludes orders in the volatile category of transportation equipment, showed that demand for all other durable manufactured goods fell 0.7 percent in November. It was the second consecutive monthly decline. Orders for machinery, computers and electronic products, communications equipment, defense aircraft and fabricated metal products all declined in November. Those losses were more than offset by gains in demand for electrical equipment and appliances, automobiles, commercial airplanes and primary metals like steel. That led to the small rise in overall durable-goods orders in November. Demand for capital goods excluding aircraft — a category considered a good proxy for business investment — fell 0.4 percent in November. It was the second consecutive month this category posted a decline. Nigel Gault, an economist at Global Insight, a research firm, pointed to this drop as an indication of “increased caution among businesses as financial conditions tighten and the economy slows.” With jobless claims drifting higher, “it seems that businesses are becoming more cautious on both capital spending and hiring,” he added. The economy, which logged its best growth in four years during the summer, probably slowed sharply to growth of 1.5 percent or less in the October-to-December quarter, according to analysts’ projections.

Commerce Department
Economic Conditions and Trends
Durable Goods (Economic Indicator)


Lawmakers Push Interrogation Inquiries

Abstract: WASHINGTON — With President Obama opposed to an independent investigation of harsh interrogation techniques approved by the Bush administration, committee leaders in both the House and Senate said Friday that they intended to press ahead with public inquiries. While the Senate Intelligence Committee has already begun a classified investigation into the interrogation and detention methods authorized by the Justice Department, Representative Jan Schakowsky, Democrat of Illinois, said on Friday that she would lobby for an open inquiry by the House Intelligence Committee, and was prepared to use her subcommittee on oversight and investigations to undertake one. “I would like to be sure that if not the full committee, the subcommittee can play a role here,” Ms. Schakowsky said in an interview. “One of the things I’d really like to focus on is how we can do this at least in part in open hearings, so that all of this once again isn’t pushed behind closed doors, so we can bring in witnesses and have this discussion before the American people.” A number of Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, say they remain in favor of an independent tribunal. But with Mr. Obama and Democratic leaders in the Senate against the idea, there may be little recourse than for regular Congressional committees to proceed on their own. Ms. Pelosi restated her position Thursday at a meeting at the White House. “Americans want the truth,” she said. Republicans, meanwhile, stepped up their demands that any inquiry also include a fuller release of documents showing the potential value of the interrogation methods, including important information that may have been gleaned as a result. And some Republicans, including Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the senior Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said there should also be an assessment of any damage to national security that might have been caused by Mr. Obama’s decision to release the memorandums, and also a clear picture of when lawmakers, including Democrats, were first briefed about the techniques. Mr. Hoekstra, in an interview, said he supported Ms. Schakowsky’s call for hearings. Democrats are preparing to move forward on several fronts. Senator Patrick J. Leahy, Democrat of Vermont and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has called for an independent commission, but has said that his committee will take action if an outside panel is not formed. And Representative John Conyers Jr., Democrat of Michigan and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, has announced that he will conduct hearings. “Critical questions remain concerning how these memos came into existence and were approved,” Mr. Conyers said in a statement. A number of Democrats said their main concern was not the particular venue of an inquiry but that the authors of the legal memorandums and other architects of the interrogation policies not be granted immunity. “We should not prejudge where these investigations might go,” Ms. Schakowsky said. “People who were conducting the interrogations, understanding that they were legal, should be immune.” But she said there was also the possibility that harsh techniques were used before they had been approved. “We need to follow the threads and let them take us where they go,” Ms. Schakowsky said.

Interrogations
Justice Department
Bush George W
House of Representatives
Senate Committee on Intelligence
House Commitee on Intelligence
Obama Barack
Schakowsky Janice D
Hoekstra Peter
Central Intelligence Agency


Judge Issues Injunction Blocking Broadway Triangle Plan

Abstract: A judge has ordered the city to temporarily halt the rezoning and development of a 31-acre site in Brooklyn called the Broadway Triangle, dealing a setback to the Bloomberg administration’s ambitious plans for the area, which were approved by the City Council on Monday. The plan would allow the construction of up to 1,851 units of housing on the blighted parcel, bordered by Throop, Flushing, Harrison and Union Avenues and Lynch Street. City planners said that more than 800 of those units would be set aside for low- and moderate-income families. Opponents said the rezoning process was secretive and the proposal did not go far enough to ease what they called a shortage of moderate-income housing. Justice Emily Jane Goodman of State Supreme Court in Manhattan issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday. Lawyers representing a coalition of community groups opposed to the plan said on Wednesday that the injunction prohibits the city from taking any further steps to carry out the rezoning plan until a hearing on the matter in March. The injunction came in response to a lawsuit the lawyers filed on Tuesday, claiming, among other things, that the process that led to the rezoning excluded and discriminated against minority groups around the Broadway Triangle site, including blacks Hispanics, and some Hasidic Jews, violating the United States Constitution and federal and state civil rights laws. In a statement, one of the lawyers, Martin S. Needelman, said, “Until we got to the court, no governmental agency was willing to overrule the politics of the situation and address the outrageous impropriety of the process.” For more than two years, the rezoning of the Triangle has attracted controversy and touched off old neighborhood rivalries , like those between Hispanic and Hasidic groups that have often fought over housing in the Williamsburg area. For its part, the city said the procedures that led to the rezoning were proper and inclusive. In a statement responding to the injunction, Gabriel Taussig, a lawyer for the city, said, “Although we are disappointed by yesterday’s development, we realize that the court was simply attempting to maintain the status quo and that this action was not any assessment of the merits of the plaintiffs’ allegations.”

Brooklyn (NYC)
Zoning
Affordable Housing


Lawyer for Brooke Astor’s Son Accuses Prosecutors of Stalling

Abstract: A lawyer for Brooke Astor’s son has accused prosecutors of purposely stalling the start of his client’s trial and has sent a letter to the judge presiding over the case asking him to deny any further delays. Mrs. Astor’s son, Anthony D. Marshall , 84, was indicted in November 2007 on charges that he defrauded his mother, once the cornerstone of New York’s social and philanthropic elite, out of millions in money and property as her health declined. Mrs. Astor died in August 2007 at 105. In his letter, Mr. Marshall’s lawyer, Frederick P. Hafetz , complained about a recent appeal filed by the prosecutors, who sought to overturn a judge’s decision that barred them from obtaining certain items and documents from the defense. Ultimately, the ruling by Justice A. Kirke Bartley Jr. of State Supreme Court in Manhattan could not be appealed, and Mr. Hafetz said in his letter that prosecutors knew that when they filed their appeal. Mr. Hafetz said he found the appeal suspicious because it was not filed until more than a week after Justice Bartley made his ruling. “This last-minute specious appeal of an 11-day-old order is designed to delay a trial that the district attorney for some unstated reason is not ready or willing to commence,” Mr. Hafetz wrote. Daniel J. Castleman, the chief assistant district attorney in Manhattan, denied that the appeal was a delay tactic. He said prosecutors had previously asked for a short delay, and that it was done “in good faith” as they prepared for trial. Both sides are expected to meet Thursday before Justice Bartley to discuss the issues raised in Mr. Hafetz’s letter. The trial, in which one of Mrs. Astor’s former lawyers, Francis X. Morrissey Jr., is also a defendant, is scheduled to start Monday but will probably be pushed back.

Astor Brooke
Frauds and Swindling
Marshall Anthony D


Republicans on Capitol Hill Have Reasons to Unify Behind Donald Trump

Abstract: WASHINGTON — After meeting with Donald J. Trump this week, Speaker Paul D. Ryan uttered the words many in his party longed to hear: “I do believe that we are now planting the seeds to get ourselves unified.” It is hard to win without party unity, as both Democrats and Republicans have learned. But neither party has confronted the prospect of a candidate denounced by some of its leading lights as a pathological liar unfit to be commander in chief and in need of therapy. Here are four reasons congressional Republicans are desperate for unity this year, and for Mr. Ryan to endorse Mr. Trump. 1. Do the math Congressional districts are far more gerrymandered than they were even 20 years ago; Republican members of Congress, by and large, come from very Republican districts. In the relatively few swing districts, Republicans cannot afford to alienate their base voters, many of whom may have voted for Mr. Trump in the primary (or other Republican presidential candidates) but could stay home in November if they are put off by party infighting. And in Senate elections, no-show voters are a threat to incumbency. “Parties want to win, and if they have sharp divisions it makes it that much more difficult” down the ballot, said Robert Dallek, a presidential historian. 2. The death of ticket splitting Republican senators in swing states — like Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania and Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire — can hope that the voters who reject Mr. Trump will still pull the lever for them. But the practice of splitting a ticket hit a low in 2012, when only 10 percent of voters divided their ballots between parties. 3. They think they can control him Then there is the nature of Mr. Trump himself, whose policy positions are most politely understood as flexible. Congressional Republicans hope that if he becomes president, it will be they, not he, setting the agenda in Washington. Why Republicans in Congress Are Opposing or Supporting Trump Lawmakers have grappled with whether or not to support the presumptive nominee. This stands in contrast to a candidate whose views were out of sync with the party faithful: Barry Goldwater in 1964. “People felt Barry Goldwater was a menace who could get the country in nuclear war,” Mr. Dallek said of the race between Mr. Goldwater and President Lyndon B. Johnson. “Republicans in the business community had to support Johnson because they thought Goldwater was reckless.” In contrast, Mr. Dallek said, “I think Republicans may feel they can control Trump because he is such a novice. Goldwater was just too principled, if you want to put it that way, and he would not bend. Trump is more an opportunist. If people see you in politics as an opportunist, it is destructive to your appeal. But if they see you as shifting in the service of some sort of broader pragmatic design, that’s an important distinction.” 4. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em The policy areas in which Mr. Trump has shown the most commitment — trade and immigration — are ones Congressional Republicans who oppose him realize they may not be able to win. They seem poised to cede them in the name of broad unity with Mr. Trump on other matters. “The party elites are in a far different place than the party faithful,” said John Feehery, a Republican strategist. He added: “The neo-cons hate Trump because the rap on him is that we won’t go to war. Well, a lot of Americans like that. The big problem Jeb Bush had was that he couldn’t figure out what to say about Iraq. Trump said it was wrong, and that’s where the country is.” The strongest — and increasingly isolated — foils of Mr. Trump are those who have no electoral risk. His biggest critics on Capitol Hill among Republicans are those not up for re-election — Senators Jeff Flake of Arizona, Ben Sasse of Nebraska and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Others who were not elected serve as reminders that many in the party once found, and continue to believe, that Mr. Trump’s behavior and statements demonstrate he is unfit for office. “I consider him to be a malicious and malignant figure on the American political landscape — cruel, crude, vindictive, obsessive, narcissistic, a nativist and xenophobe, a man who seems to relish demeaning and dehumanizing others,” wrote Peter Wehner, a former director of the White House Office of Strategic Initiatives under President George W. Bush and friend of Mr. Ryan’s, in an opinion article. Mr. Ryan has to weigh his conscience along with the party unity so many seek. It is a call that poses risks to him either way.

Republicans
Donald Trump
2016 Presidential Election
Paul D Ryan Jr
US Politics


Jets Turn Backs on Game That Slipped Right Through Their Hands

Abstract: FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — On the ninth play of a 14-play drive that ate up more than 10 minutes of the fourth quarter, Pittsburgh running back Isaac Redman took a handoff and proceeded to shrug off what seemed like half the Jets ’ defense. His right knee appeared to scuff the grass at Heinz Field while he was trapped in the backfield, and safety Yeremiah Bell wrestled the ball from Redman as he made the tackle. After an officials’ review, the Steelers kept the ball, and Redman got 6 yards. Unless all the sacks Ben Roethlisberger avoided are lumped together, no other play in the Jets’ 27-10 loss to the Steelers on Sunday was a better example of their less-than-overpowering defensive performance than Redman’s modest gain. “If we’re going to be a dominant defense, we can’t allow people to break that many tackles, to extend plays that long,” outside linebacker Aaron Maybin said Monday. “You’re not going to play a perfect game. You’re going to have things like that happen. But this is one of those days we come in and try to pay as much attention to details like that as possible.” Less than three weeks after linebacker Bart Scott brazenly told a Web site that the Jets could have the best defense in franchise history this year , they were among the bottom 10 teams in 8 of 19 defensive categories. They are 31st, next to last, on third down, having stopped only 10 of 24 third-down conversions in two games. Pittsburgh was 8 of 15 on third down, but 4 for 4 on the game-icing touchdown drive that included Redman’s run. The Jets (1-1) have given up 58 points in two games — tied with St. Louis for 22nd in the league. The Jets’ offense has hardly been capable of long drives, having had the ball for only 23 minutes 24 seconds Sunday. Their marauding defense, it appears, was drained late. “Bet against us, that’s all I’m saying,” Coach Rex Ryan said Monday. “Bet against us, we’ll see where it ends up. I tell you every year, it’s the same thing.” But then he said: “We’ve had some issues. We couldn’t get off the field on third down, and that hurt us.” A moment later, he said: “In this game, I think we did a lot of good things. I thought we were much more physical than we were the previous week, and that was good. And we stopped the run against a team that can run the football. Obviously, we have to improve on third down, and we will.” They will not face Roethlisberger every week, for one thing. One play before he threw a 1-yard touchdown pass to Heath Miller to give the Steelers the lead, he slipped safety LeRon Landry. Jets linebacker David Harris missed Roethlisberger before he lofted a 37-yard touchdown pass to Mike Wallace, who adjusted to the flight of the ball better than cornerback Antonio Cromartie before catching the ball and landing inbounds. “We just didn’t execute,” Harris said. “There are some things here and there. They made plays, and we didn’t. They got momentum going on that last drive. They had the ball for 10 minutes, and it seemed like no matter what we did, we couldn’t stop them. It’s kind of disheartening, but we watched the film, and we’ve got to learn from our mistakes and move on to Miami.” Roethlisberger might not have thrown the ball at all had Wallace been covered by Darrelle Revis, instead of Cromartie. Revis missed the game with a concussion. Although he said Monday that he feels “a lot better,” and Ryan hopes he will play Sunday in Miami, Revis has not been cleared for contact. Revis stood at his locker Monday and answered far more questions about the tests he needs to pass before he can play than he did about the game he played, the game he missed — or the games he may end up missing. He said many of the tests include reciting lists of words, shapes or numbers. “It almost sounds like you’re in first or second grade,” he said. Revis, not surprisingly, said again that he would like to pitch in as soon as possible. Sunday’s loss was hard for him to watch, but he said, “Moving forward, the only thing we can do is try and improve as a whole secondary and a defense out there.” Ryan has other problems. The Jets scored 41 points in the first 35 minutes 22 seconds of the season, but have only 17 in the last 84:38. He said opponents were rolling coverages toward wide receiver Santonio Holmes. But the Jets knew in training camp that their new offense would be a work-in-progress. The defense would be the punishing constant, as it has been since Ryan joined the Jets. But they rank 16th after two games, right in the middle of the pack. “We were lucky enough to get the one intentional-grounding call,” Maybin said of Sunday’s game, “but we can’t expect calls like that all the time. As a defense, those are the kind of situations you want to hang your hat on.”

Football
New York Jets
Pittsburgh Steelers
Revis Darrelle
Maybin Aaron


N.H.L. Lockout Talks to Be Joined by Federal Mediators

Abstract: The N.H.L. and its players association have agreed to mediation in an effort to break the stalemate in negotiations between the two sides, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service announced. “At the invitation of the F.M.C.S., and with the agreement of both parties, the ongoing negotiations will now be conducted under our auspices,” George H. Cohen, the service’s director, said in a statement Monday, the 72nd day of the N.H.L. lockout. Three mediators will be involved in the negotiations, including the deputy director Scot L. Beckenbaugh and the director of mediation services John Sweeney. Commissioner Guy Serota was originally assigned to the talks, but Cohen announced his removal later Monday because of off-color comments made on a Twitter account with Serota’s name. Beckenbaugh served as a mediator during the 2004-5 N.H.L. lockout, when the season was canceled. “While we have no particular level of expectation going into this process, we welcome a new approach in trying to reach a resolution of the ongoing labor dispute at the earliest possible date,” Bill Daly, the N.H.L.’s deputy commissioner, said in an e-mail. “We have no further comment on the upcoming meetings at the current time.” The two sides last met last Wednesday, when the N.H.L. rejected most parts of a union proposal that moved in the owners’ direction on several issues. A league spokesman, Gary Meagher, said no negotiating sessions were scheduled as of Monday afternoon. Donald Fehr , the executive director of the N.H.L. Players’ Association, said in a statement that the union looked forward to the mediators’ involvement. William B. Gould IV, a former chairman of the National Labor Relations Board and a professor emeritus at Stanford Law School, said it was impossible to say whether mediation would help bring a settlement. “You can’t gain any hope as a result of this, per se,” said Gould, who has served as an arbitrator in baseball and will appear as an expert witness for the N.H.L. at a Quebec labor board hearing next week on whether the lockout is lawful under the province’s laws. “But look, it’s better than the alternative. If the parties had said they don’t want to go to mediation, that would be downright discouraging. So the fact they’re willing to do it, that they have some things to discuss, is in itself hopeful.” Federal mediators, who also were involved in the N.F.L. and N.B.A. lockouts last year, did not lead to a successful resolution of the 2004-5 N.H.L. lockout. On Feb. 13, 2005, Beckenbaugh, then the acting director of the federal mediation service, ordered the league and union to meet in Washington one day ahead of a deadline for cancellation of the season imposed by Commissioner Gary Bettman. It was the third time, all in February, in which mediators intervened in the lockout. At that bargaining session, the union agreed for the first time to discuss acceptance of a salary cap. Over the next two days of talks, the league offered a salary cap set at $42.5 million a team, and the union offered a salary cap set at $49 million. But the gap was too wide for the owners, and Bettman announced the season’s cancellation Feb. 16. That 2005 gap, calculated leaguewide, came to $195 million for the season. Mediators in the current talks will try to close an estimated gap of $182 million over five seasons, or $36.4 million a season. But issues pertaining to free agency, arbitration and contract limits also remain unresolved. Cohen said in his statement that he “had separate, informal discussions with the key representatives of the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association during the course of their negotiations.” Cohen will not take part in the mediation. He did participate last year during the N.B.A. and N.F.L. lockouts and in 2010, when he helped avert a strike by the Major League Soccer players union. According to his biography on the F.M.C.S. Web site , Beckenbaugh has mediated agreements in the cereal, heavy equipment manufacturing, aluminum and meatpacking industries. Calls to Beckenbaugh and Sweeney were referred to John Arnold, the service’s director of public affairs. “The goal of mediation is to assist the parties in reaching a mutually acceptable agreement,” said John Arnold, the service’s director of public affairs. He added that federal mediators were neutral third parties and would say little about negotiations, even though Cohen made fairly extensive comments following bargaining sessions during the N.F.L. and N.B.A. lockouts.

Lockouts
National Hockey League
Hockey Ice
Arbitration Conciliation and Mediation
National Hockey League Players' Assn
Fehr Donald


iYule Video

Abstract: In 1966, WPIX in New York broadcast a video loop of a burning Yule log on Christmas Eve, creating a tradition that has stood the test of time and, it seems, technical advances. In 2007, we have iYule, a 30-minute downloadable video of a burning Yule log for cellphones, computers and HDTVs. IYule, created by Cali Lewis, a video blogger, and Geoff Smith, a musician, comes in several video formats. A $5 low-resolution package is just right for iPods and small video players, while a $10 package comes with multiple files, including versions with and without Mr. Smith’s calming holiday-themed soundtrack. The video itself is simply a cozy shot of a burning log, complete with pops, hisses and sizzling sap. It is available online at iYule.tv and is compatible with most phones that have video playback ability, along with Apple TV and the Xbox 360. While it doesn’t beat the real thing, it’s nice to have a little holiday cheer right on your Zune for the long subway ride to Grandma’s apartment. JOHN BIGGS

WPIX
Yule Log
Christmas
Recordings and Downloads (Video)
Cellular Telephones


T.C.U.’s Move to Big East Is Latest Geographical Absurdity

Abstract: Today we have decided to begin a nationwide effort to rename all of the college conferences in response to the latest geographical absurdity that is Texas Christian University joining the Big East . It is not the first absurdity, geographical or otherwise, in college powers’ continuing game of Risk, of course, and it won’t be the last. But it seems like a good time to give one last flush to the notion of tradition and make a statement for truth in advertising. The Big East, for example, could now be called the Saving Ourselves from B.C.S. Obscurity Because Notre Dame Won’t Love Us Conference, although we do admit that’s a bit unwieldy in a logo. (A Times colleague of mine has presciently predicted what’s next is selling naming rights, so no matter how fantastic your new ideas are, you will most likely be uttering the phrase Chik-fil-A Conference with a straight face someday.) T.C.U.’s decision to ditch the Mountain West (new name: Woe Is Us) for the Bigger Not-So-East was the ultimate in shotgun weddings, writes ESPN.com’s Ivan Maisel , or the equivalent of everyone diving to safety, as Andy Staples writes on SI.com . While plenty of folks lauded the move for both sides — including Dennis Dodd of CBSSports.com — Tim Cowlishaw of The Dallas Morning News believes T.C.U. may not be getting the all-sports bonanza it expects, and Dick Weiss of The Daily News warns the Big East may be sowing the seeds of its eventual demise. Nonetheless, Yahoo.com’s Dan Wetzel sings the praises and suggests the Big East should go ahead and add Boise State next, now that this geography thing is completely out the window. It would certainly be the best thing to happen to Boise State all week. Losing to Nevada had people angry enough to be sending threats to its poor kicker , and it is now facing a dismal conference future, as Brian Murphy writes in The Idaho Statesman . You may also entertain yourself with new names for the former Big Ten (Dangerous Dozen, perhaps?) or the Southeastern Conference (Busy Turning Each Other In to the N.C.A.A.), or muse over Alabama’s firing the guy who played “Take the Money and Run” in honor of Auburn’s Cam Newton before the game last Friday. On the appalling meter, that did not come anywhere near the fierce brawl staged in an N.F.L. game by Houston’s Andre Johnson and Tennessee’s Cortland Finnegan, but while the N.F.L. fined them both , it did not suspend them. This prompts Fanhouse.com’s Kevin Blackistone to wonder what exactly it takes to get suspended in this league. Mischievous pregame songs, perhaps? Someone should be suspended over the simple fact that a National Football Conference West team is going to get a playoff berth. Watching Monday night’s, uh, clash between San Francisco and Arizona did not exactly inspire any confidence in the division, writes Michael Silver on Yahoo.com . Its most entertaining moment came afterward, when Cardinals quarterback Derek Anderson staged a Dennis Green-worthy interview tirade when asked about why he was laughing on the sideline during the blowout loss. It’s not an instant classic , but far better than watching the actual game. For fireworks these days, though, it is far better to pull up a lawn chair and gaze toward Miami, where the bottle rockets just keep flying around the Heat. This spectacle is exceeding even the fondest hopes of those who hated this team the minute the Big Three clustered there, writes Pat McManamon on Fanhouse.com . While LeBron James and Coach Eric Spoelstra staged a pregame make-nice meeting Monday night and have played down the bumping incident , James’s answering a question about Spoelstra by saying, “This is who we have,” didn’t exactly quiet any of the howling, writes Ben Reiter on Foxsports.com . As Adrian Wojnarowski writes on Yahoo.com , this is what Spoelstra gets for trying to stop enabling James, and Chris Mannix of SI.com lays much of the blame on Dwyane Wade’s abandoning his coach as well. Soccer tried to match the Heat for colossal disappointments on Monday, with Barcelona turning the latest El Clasico against Real Madrid into a 5-0 blowout. This one had more lowlights than highlights and managed to rally much of Spain into annoyance with the new Real Madrid coach Jose Mourinho . Hockey, meanwhile, got caught up in Sidney Crosby’s rather cheap shot in Pittsburgh’s victory over the Rangers on Monday night, although the former Rangers goalie Kevin Weekes proved he is still plenty agile while dodging a Zamboni while doing a standup for “Hockey Night in Canada.” But no one is quite so agile as America’s new Super Conferences, soon to be brought to you by McDonald’s. Follow Leading Off on Twitter: twitter.com/zinsernyt

Texas Christian University
Southeastern Conference
Football
College Athletics
Big East Conference
Boise State University
Big Ten Conference
James LeBron
Wade Dwyane


Owl Hugs Man*

Abstract: They call Doug Pojeky the bird whisperer. And now that photos of Mr. Pojeky, 40, being hugged by an owl have been shared thousands of times on Facebook, “they” have expanded from a small group of rescue workers to people around the world. “My phone has never rang so much,” said Mr. Pojeky, who is retired from the United States Navy and volunteers for the nonprofit Wild at Heart Rescue in Vancleave, Miss., northeast of Biloxi. “It’s really rewarding in a sense because we work really hard at what we do.” What the organization does entails answering hundreds of calls every day, but usually about an animal in need. Mr. Pojeky said Wednesday that the call about the owl, dubbed GiGi because of her gigantic size, came from the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in May. GiGi, a great horned owl, had a concussion and two types of infections — and she was unable to stand up. “She was knocking on death’s door,” Mr. Pojeky said. “Of all the animals I’ve rehabbed, I did not think she was going to make the recovery.” Days after GiGi came into the group’s care, Mr. Pojeky left to visit his home state, Michigan. The now internet-famous hug happened upon his return. Image Mr. Pojeky said that many birds of prey tended to feel comfortable around him. Credit Missy Dubuisson of Wild at Heart Rescue “The first morning I was back, I got the bird out, and instead of kicking and trying to scratch, she kind of just curled her feet up and went into my chest really easy,” Mr. Pojeky said. She danced a little bit, bobbing around, before nuzzling her head into his shoulder and draping her wings around him. Missy Dubuisson, the group’s founder, snapped the photo. “It was pretty cool,” Mr. Pojeky said. “It’s a bond. I’m not saying that I tame it for a pet, but the bond is that the animal trusts me enough to put down its defenses so I can help it.” Mr. Pojeky said he was not sure what it was about him that had such a calming effect on birds of prey. But whatever it is, it has earned him the “bird whisperer” nickname. “Bird-of-prey whisperer,” Ms. Dubuisson clarified. “That’s what we’ve called him for years and years.” * John E. Parks, the founder and director of the Cornell University Raptor Program, had some doubts about whether the bird was displaying an affinity for its handler. “My understanding and experience with great horned owls is, if it’s an adult bird, which it appears to be, the older they are, the more recalcitrant they are,” Dr. Parks said. “They can be very stubborn and difficult.” An owl may spread its wings around its young to shelter them, or if it’s overheated, he said. “I would be surprised if it had anything to do with its reaction to its handler,” Dr. Parks said. But Ms. Dubuisson said Mr. Pojeky just had a gift for handling birds of prey. “He is the only person that can handle them in the way he does,” she said. “It’s crazy to see.” Soon after the photos were taken, GiGi was released near where she was found in Seminary, Miss., about two hours north of the rescue center. She circled a little bit and glanced back at her rescuers before flying off into the woods, Mr. Pojeky said. Many of the animals released by Mr. Pojeky and Ms. Dubuisson tend to look back before heading back into the wild, he said. “In our minds, that’s them saying thank you,” he said.

Owl
Wild at Heart Rescue
Social Media
Mississippi


Ajax Fails to Advance

Abstract: The four-time European Cup winner Ajax Amsterdam failed to advance to the Europa League round of 32 after drawing, 1-1, at home to Molde of Norway, as the nine remaining qualifying places for the knockout stage were decided. With so many places still available in the 12 groups, 20 teams were in contention before kickoff. Ajax’s draw handed the initiative back to Fenerbahce of Turkey, which went through in second — behind Molde — in Group A after drawing, 1-1, with Celtic. The former European Cup winner Marseille fared better, withstanding a late comeback to win, 4-2, at Slovan Liberec to qualify in Group F. The Senegalese striker Khouma Babacar grabbed the winner midway through the second half to send host Fiorentina of Italy into the knockout stages with a 1-0 win against Belenenses of Portugal in Group I behind F.C. Basel. In Group H, Sporting came from behind to beat visiting Besiktas, 3-1, to qualify. Lokomotiv Moscow joined Sporting in the next round as group winners after a 3-0 win away to Skenderbeu. The remaining four places went to the Swiss team Sion, the Belgian side Anderlecht, the Danish champion Midtjylland and Augsburg of Germany. REAL MADRID DISQUALIFIED The Spanish soccer federation confirmed Real Madrid’s disqualification from the Copa del Rey because of an ineligible player. Real Madrid was eliminated in its opening round for fielding Denis Cheryshev in a first-leg win over Cadiz on Dec. 2. Cheryshev was carrying a one-match suspension for yellow cards last season, when he played for Villarreal on loan from Madrid.

Soccer
France
Karim Benzema
Extortion and Blackmail


Jobs and Service Sector Data Point to Modest U.S. Growth

Abstract: Companies in the United States added more jobs than expected last month while activity in the vast services sector picked up, suggesting the economy remained on track for modest growth. The ADP National Employment Report showed private employers added 162,000 jobs in September. While the gain topped economists’ expectations, it was still fewer than the 189,000 new hires seen in August. Separate data showed the Institute for Supply Management’s purchasing managers index for the service sector rose to its highest level since March at 55.1 from 53.7 as new orders accelerated. “It looks more like things are heading in the right direction. It is this new reality. We don’t have robust growth; we just have very moderate growth,” said William Larkin, a fixed-income portfolio manager at Cabot Money Management in Salem, Mass. The ADP report comes ahead of the Labor Department’s more comprehensive employment report on Friday, which will include both public and private sector employment. That report is expected to show job growth improved slightly, with employers adding 113,000 jobs. Private sector payrolls are seen rising by 130,000. “While the economy isn’t plunging into recession, it still isn’t creating enough jobs to drive the unemployment rate lower either,” Paul Ashworth, chief United States economist at Capital Economics, wrote. Small businesses, firms with fewer than 50 workers, added half of the jobs in September, according to ADP, with 81,000 new workers. Large companies with 500 or more workers added 17,000 jobs, while companies in the middle created 64,000 jobs. The increase in private payrolls in August was revised down to 189,000 from the previously reported 201,000. July’s rise was also revised down, to 156,000 from 173,000. Last month the Federal Reserve introduced an aggressive new plan to bolster the economy, saying it would buy $40 billion in mortgage-backed securities a month until the outlook for the job market substantially improved and as long as inflation remained under control. The I.S.M.’s forward-looking new-orders index jumped to 57.7 from 53.7, but growth in employment eased to 51.1 from 53.8. Exports also waned, to 50.5 from 52. Services firms, which range from agriculture to real estate companies, avoided the contraction that hit their manufacturing counterparts over the summer.

ADP Employer Services
Labor and Jobs
United States Economy


Scion Aims Online Videos, From Wry to Racy, Directly at Young Buyers

Abstract: IN Toyota ’s view, its Scion brand of automobiles is not just for anyone. The cars are for the young and fashionable — they are called “influencers” these days — who spread the word about the vehicles after encountering the company’s art, music or comedic marketing. That is why Scion’s newest model, the iQ, is arriving nationally today with humorous online vignettes, which range from wry to a bit racy, and other digital offerings like an interactive car brochure and an online museum that highlights underground movements like Chicano punk music in Los Angeles. Ever since Scion, which is a Toyota division, was introduced nine years ago, the brand has fielded offbeat marketing approaches to build an 18- to 34-year-old fan base. In introducing the iQ, its first new model in three years, Scion is hewing to the ahead-of-the-pack marketing approach that particularly appeals to youthful urbanites and the fuel-conscious. “We are trying to hit the younger market since this is usually a first new car for our buyers,” said Owen Peacock, Scion’s national marketing manager. Some 75 percent of the iQ’s buyers are new to the Scion brand, according to the company’s most recent data. The center of the “iQ Therefore i Am” campaign is a series of 12 brief online skits, called “Park!” The episodes, available on YouTube and on scion.com , include one in which an orange iQ — a color Scion calls Hot Lava — whips easily into a parking space that most drivers would have to spend considerable time maneuvering into to achieve. Three episodes will be posted weekly, beginning Monday. Later episodes include one called “Presidential Park,” where a Barack Obama look-alike emerges from a Scion that has pulled up between two American flags. Suited men rush to open the car door, and the “president” steps out with swagger befitting an exit from a stretch limousine. Another set of videos called “Donuts,” which will appear starting in early April, stresses the iQ’s roominess and tight turning radius. In “Babes and Donuts,” for example, four scantily clad young women are seated in a Scion while eating doughnuts and drinking milk, which splashes around as the car careens in circles around a parking lot. “We are pushing the boundaries,” said Simon Needham, co-founder and executive creative director of Attik, a San Francisco digital and design agency that is part of Dentsu. “But we had to get over that the car has an amazing, small turning radius and emphasize the car’s size by showing how easily it parks.” In the Donuts episodes, he said, “we wanted to show that four people could fit easily even if they are burly bikers.” And “we had to think about what was fun to watch,” he added. The light-hearted approach, said Mr. Needham, who has been working with Scion since its 2003 beginning, “is different from our earlier more creative, dark and mysterious approach. The youth market changes, and this type of content raises awareness.” Attik devised the online skits, and Bon, the creative content agency of the Malbon Group, created the Scion iQ interactive brochure, which supplants the traditional printed car brochure for the model. Interested buyers can use the interactive brochure to view videos of the features, performance, safety and other aspects of the iQ model. A dozen musicians and other artists made the videos, said Stephen Malbon, the founder of the Malbon Group. The videos are available on scion.com and scionav.com , the Scion audiovisual Web site. As part of its wide lifestyle marketing net, the Scion iQ digital museum, which the Bon agency organized, will feature information on influential artists like the hip-hop producer Prince Paul, and the defunct Strata Records in Detroit, said Mr. Malbon. “The collector who has 5,000 fliers about a subculture in a shoebox isn’t going to be able to put them on the Internet,” said Mr. Malbon, who is planning more digitized exhibits of underground movements, “so this is a way for that to be done and shared.” Scion did not disclose the spending for its ads for the iQ, which is one of four Scion models available. Figures from Kantar Media show that Scion spent almost $20.5 million in 2010 on its television, radio, magazine, radio, Internet and outdoor advertising. Last year, from January to September, the company stepped up its spending, to $18.1 million over the nine-month period. Also in Scion iQ’s marketing mix are a test-drive program this spring in markets including Los Angeles, Chicago and Austin and “art cars,” where various artists design iQ cars, a project of the Beyond Marketing Group in Irvine, Calif. In addition, the Scion iQ campaign plans some “seeding” events in its main markets to showcase Scion’s involvement with art and music. As part of the lifestyle packaging, the campaign has also created the Scion eMagazine 20, for the work of 10 artists asked to create their ideal life/work space that is no larger than 10 feet long, 10 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The Scion iQ fits into the same dimensions. Print versions of the magazine will be available at certain Scion iQ events. “The iQ is going down the digital marketing trail,” Mr. Peacock said, “but we’re not forgetting about television, print and billboards because at the end of the day the customer does not buy virtually.”

Automobiles
Online Advertising
Toyota Motor Corporation
Advertising and Marketing
Computers and the Internet


Push by Chávez to Abandon Term Limits on Presidency

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela, Aug. 15 — President Hugo Chávez outlined a proposed overhaul to the Constitution on Wednesday night that would allow him to remain in power indefinitely through perpetual re-elections, an intensification of his efforts to assert greater state control over political and economic institutions. Taking aim at opponents who say he is assuming too much power, Mr. Chávez said, “I recommend they take a pill, what do they call it, a Valium.” During a meandering, theatrical speech at the National Assembly here, he said, “We have broken the chains of the old hegemonic oligarchy.” Mr. Chávez, whose current term ends in 2012, also laid out a dizzying array of other proposed changes to the Constitution, all to be put before a congressional vote and a national referendum. He called for a work day of no longer than six hours, the power to designate military regions for “defense reasons,” the creation of regional governing entities that would be managed by vice presidents appointed by the president, and demarcating Venezuela’s sovereignty in parts of the Caribbean by possibly building artificial islands. The president’s opponents see such proposals as window dressing to accompany Mr. Chávez’s polemical re-election ambitions, which include expanding presidential terms to seven years from six. Manuel Rosales, the governor of Zulia State and the main opposition candidate in the presidential elections last December, said in televised comments that after Mr. Chávez’s call to abandon term limits, the other proposals were “adornments.” Criticism of the effort to change the Constitution has sharpened around fears that Mr. Chávez, who has been in office since 1999, could use it to diminish the power of elected governors and mayors, of which a handful in the country still oppose him. Seemingly undeterred by the criticism, which he described as lies coming from counterrevolutionaries, Mr. Chávez delivered a speech sprinkled with references to Machiavelli and Aristotle and more recent Marxist Italian philosophers like Antonio Gramsci and Antonio Negri. State television championed his proposals Wednesday, and supporters gathered before television cameras near the National Assembly to chant “Fatherland, Socialism or Death!”

Constitutions
Elections
Referendums
Chavez Hugo
Politics and Government


Nonprofit Masks Source of Ads Backing Rubio

Abstract: DOVER, N.H. — When Senator Marco Rubio of Florida was confronted by a voter at a New Hampshire town hall meeting this year about the torrent of cash flowing into the presidential election through outside groups, he offered a note of sympathy. “Full disclosure and sunlight into all these expenditures is critical to getting to the root of this problem,” Mr. Rubio told the voter. He added, “As long as you know who’s behind the money and how much they’re giving and where they’re spending it, I think that’s the sunlight that we need.” But as the fall campaign unfolds, voters in states like New Hampshire and Iowa have been left largely in the dark about who is putting the most money behind Mr. Rubio. Of all the television advertisements aired in support of the Florida senator so far this year — $5.5 million worth — none have been paid for by Mr. Rubio’s own campaign. Even the “ super PAC ” supporting him has not yet spent a dime on ads. Instead, the money has flowed through a political nonprofit group called the Conservative Solutions Project, formed by a former Rubio aide and now overseen in part by a Republican strategist who is close to Mr. Rubio’s campaign manager. Unlike candidates and super PACs, the nonprofit — which has raised more than $18 million — will never be required to disclose anything about its donors. Who’s Winning the Presidential Campaign? History suggests that each party’s eventual nominee will emerge from 2015 in one of the top two or three positions, as measured by endorsements, fund-raising and polling. The group’s spending has opened a potentially risky new front in the regulatory battle around outside groups in the presidential campaign, where a cadre of lawyers and strategists have already aggressively pushed the legal boundaries between candidates and the supposedly independent super PACs who support them. While all of Mr. Rubio’s competitors are supported by a super PAC, no one is relying on a secretive nonprofit for the bulk of its advertising. Unlike the super PACs, which are allowed to focus exclusively on elections, groups like the Conservative Solutions Project — known as a 501(c)(4) organizations, after the tax code provisions that govern them — are granted tax exemptions in exchange for devoting themselves to the promotion of “ social welfare .” While social welfare groups may spend some of their time and money educating voters, they are not allowed to function as auxiliaries for a particular candidate. Asked how Conservative Solutions was dedicated to promoting public welfare, a spokesman insisted it was not aimed at boosting Mr. Rubio’s prospects. “Conservative Solutions Project was created nearly two years ago to help the conservative movement most effectively communicate with American families so that we win the battle of ideas and are able to enact conservative solutions to the problems they face,” said Jeff Sadosky, the spokesman. All of the advertising, Mr. Sadosky said, counted as tax-exempt activity. But the group’s commercials all focus on Mr. Rubio. The senator’s picture is prominently featured on its website , and a video featuring Mr. Rubio speaking is the first thing shown to the site’s visitors. The group is now run by Pat Shortridge, an adviser on Mr. Rubio’s 2010 Senate campaign. J. Warren Tompkins, a South Carolina-based Republican consultant who was once a business partner with Mr. Rubio’s campaign manager, is on its board. Mr. Tompkins also oversees the super PAC backing Mr. Rubio — which is called Conservative Solutions PAC and which shares fund-raising consultants with the nonprofit. Mr. Rubio’s heavy reliance on the group effectively keeps secret the identities of some of his biggest supporters, making it impossible to know whose agenda the senator may be embracing. Mr. Rubio has avidly courted the casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson, for example, even signing on in June as co-sponsor of an Adelson-backed bill that would restrict Internet gambling. “It doesn’t comport with tax law, but the problem is that the I.R.S. budget has been so constrained that they don’t have a lot of resources in this area,” said Marcus S. Owens, a Washington lawyer who specializes in campaign finance. “So if somebody is comfortable being aggressive, they’re just betting that the audit lottery won’t call their number any time soon, which is probably a safe bet.” Asked in an interview last week if the group ought to disclose its donors — as he said earlier this year that such groups should — Mr. Rubio initially noted that the group is set up as a nonprofit and that he could not coordinate with them. Pressed on whether he believes they should reveal their funding, Mr. Rubio said: “I think they should follow the law. And if people want to change the law to provide disclosures for groups that participate in the political process, I’m open to that idea, but that’s not the law right now.” Republican officials have been increasingly reliant on political nonprofits in recent years, as boycotts, public outrage and shareholder activists put pressure on businesses to avoid donating to super PACs. Jeb Bush supporters have created a nonprofit that has a similar name to the super PAC supporting the former Florida governor. But the nonprofit supporting Mr. Bush has yet to air ads. Democrats have focused more on super PACs to handle their independent expenditures in campaigns, though they also have employed the more secretive 501(c)(4) vehicles. The primary super PAC backing Hillary Rodham Clinton, for example, Priorities USA Action, has not ruled out using its now-dormant nonprofit arm during the 2016 election. Most such groups — wary of run-ins with the Internal Revenue Service — work carefully to create the appearance that they are not focused on elections or designed to support a specific candidate. They tend to operate across multiple election cycles or run ads supporting or attacking a wide swath of candidates, for example. Some other major outside groups have also become more cautious, relying more on affiliated super PACs or other groups. Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies, a 501(c)(4) founded in 2010, has been among the largest spenders on behalf of Republican Senate and presidential candidates in the past. But Crossroads has faced difficulty winning I.R.S. recognition, which could make some donors wary. This year, Crossroads officials took over another organization, now known as One Nation, which has spent millions of dollars in advertisements defending vulnerable Republican senators. The difference? One Nation, founded in 2010 by a pair of Republican consultants, already had the I.R.S. seal of approval . Unlike Crossroads, Conservative Solutions has decided not to seek I.R.S. approval in advance, which means its political activities will not face the possibility of agency review until after the group files its next tax return, probably long after the Republican primary season is over. Mr. Sadosky suggested that the group had decided to avoid that step, which it is permitted to do, because it did not trust the agency to treat the group fairly. “After seeing what the I.R.S. has done to conservative groups since 2010, we felt that a (c)(4) with ‘conservative’ in its name could be subject to abuse by the I.R.S.,” Mr. Sadosky said. “So we decided to forgo the application.”

Marco Rubio
PACs
Conservative Solutions Project
Campaign finance
2016 Presidential Election
Campaign advertising


Celebrating a Building That Has Stood for Decades as a Symbol of the Press

Abstract: The exhibition occurs within the genteel precincts of the Grolier Club on the Upper East Side. But the principal object is a muscular industrial fortress almost three miles downtown. That would be the landmark De Vinne Press Building at Lafayette and East Fourth Streets. Its presence is inescapable in the show, “The Dean of American Printers: Theodore Low De Vinne and the Art Preservative of All Arts,” which opened on Wednesday at the Grolier Club, at 47 East 60th Street. Few commercial structures of any era embody the personality and purpose of their occupants as well as this 19th-century masterpiece . The taut red brickwork looks as smooth as vellum. Deeply recessed windows could almost double as monumental type matrices. Round arches recall press cylinders. Terra-cotta ornaments are used as judiciously as a fine printer would employ fleurons. “This building is such an expression of De Vinne and his ideals of printing and craft,” said William J. Higgins, a Grolier member and a principal in Higgins Quasebarth & Partners , consultants in the restoration and rehabilitation of historical buildings. Image The De Vinne Press Building is now home to Astor Wines and Spirits. The cellar walls are thick in order to bear the weight of the building. Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times De Vinne (rhymes with Pliny) died 100 years ago this month. The exhibition explores his career as an innovator, especially when his fortunes were linked to those of the Century Company , publishers of the groundbreaking, 24-part Century Dictionary and of Century magazine, for which the still-popular Century typeface was originally designed. The exhibition also offers a chance to appreciate the enduring contribution to the cityscape made by De Vinne and his architects, Babb, Cook & Willard. Their building has been reinvented several times since it opened in 1886. Today it is home to Astor Wines and Spirits , André Balazs Properties , the Orchard digital distribution company, the Shootdigital photo studio and production company, and Helpern Architects , among others. It has lost none of its gravitas and little of its beauty. It did gain an annex in 1891 at 21-23 East Fourth Street that “was no doubt necessitated by the production of the massive Century Dictionary and its supplements,” Irene Tichenor wrote in her biography of De Vinne, “ No Art Without Craft. ” Image The De Vinne Press Building. Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times Ms. Tichenor and Michael Koenig curated the show at the Grolier Club, an organization of book lovers that counts De Vinne among its founders. The curators included numerous images of the building in the exhibition, underscoring how important it was as a symbol of the press. The building’s remarkable state of preservation owes itself partly to the continuity of ownership. In effect, it has changed hands completely only twice in 128 years. De Vinne originally had a 25 percent financial stake in the property. The rest was held by Roswell Smith, founder of the Century Company. In 1929, seven years after the press closed, De Vinne’s heirs sold their interest to Smith’s estate, which sold the property in 1938 to the Walter Peek Paper Corporation. Samuel Galewitz of Walter Peek decided in the early 1980s to sell the De Vinne Press building and a building on Astor Place in which Astor Wines was a tenant. Edwin Fisher, the proprietor of the wine store, could not afford to buy the Astor Place building. And his son Andrew counseled him not to buy the press building because the main retail space was several steps below sidewalk level. Image An exhibit about Theodore Low De Vinne at the Grolier Club on East 60th Street. DeVinne printed books on many subjects, such as President George Washington. Credit Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times But when Jeffrey Gural, the buyer of the Astor Place building, seemed indifferent to the prospect of signing a new and longer-term lease for the wine store, Mr. Fisher made up his mind on the spot to buy the De Vinne Press Building. By handshake, he sealed the deal with Mr. Galewitz in an elevator ride down from Mr. Gural’s office. Lean years followed, as the Fishers converted the factory into something suitable for office tenants. The architect David Paul Helpern arrived in 1989 from Midtown, where rents had become prohibitive. He loved the building itself, the enormous arched windows on the seventh floor, the abundance of public transportation and the proximity of New York University. Security, however, left something to be desired in those days. Responding once to an alarm, Mr. Helpern found that a brazen thief had opened a large hole in the office wall — rather than trying to jimmy the front door — and was helping himself to computer equipment, which he loaded into a handy shopping cart. Life is quite a bit different now on Lafayette Street. Astor Wines moved to the building in 2006, turning the basement pressroom into its main selling floor. Wines are stored in the subcellar among massive brick foundations, some in the form of upside-down arches through which roller conveyors are threaded. Now the proprietor of Astor Wines, Andrew Fisher shows a boundless affection for the building. Rather than install a dropped ceiling in the store and in the Astor Center upstairs, where classes and events are held, he revealed the shallow brick ceiling arches, which look like great inverted furrows. “You’ve got to expose this beauty,” he said. What that means is that visitors to the Grolier Club show can immerse themselves in the printer’s life and then take a quick subway trip to see where so much of his work was done. The building is easy to find. Over the grand entrance, it still says, “Theodore L. De Vinne & Co.”

Grolier Club
Andrew Fisher
Historic preservation
Architecture
Jeff Gural


In N.C.A.A., Money Matters for Students’ Academic Progress

Abstract: The latest Academic Progress Rate numbers from the N.C.A.A. show that a record number of athletes are staying in college and that money continues to play a key role in academic performance. According to the report, the four-year overall score of 979 was up one point over last year’s record high. Each athlete earns one point per semester for being academically eligible and another point each semester if they stay in school. A perfect score is 1,000. Teams falling below 930 can face penalties. This year, 81 percent of the teams scoring below 930 were described as “limited-resource” schools.


Manhattan: Atlantic Yards Can Proceed

Abstract: A State Supreme Court justice declined yesterday to issue a restraining order temporarily halting the demolition of nine vacant buildings to make way for the Atlantic Yards project near Downtown Brooklyn. The restraining order had been requested by Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, which opposes the scale of the 22-acre project that is to encompass housing, office and retail space and a basketball arena. The group had argued that the developer, Forest City Ratner, should not be allowed to begin demolishing buildings before May 3, the date of a hearing on a lawsuit challenging the state’s environmental review and approval of the project. Justice Joan Madden said that the plaintiffs had failed to substantiate their argument that the demolition would “irrevocably harm the neighborhood,” but that she was not judging the suit’s merits.


Yankees’ Pineda Begins Work on Changeup Immediately

Abstract: CLEARWATER, Fla. — From the base of the palm to the tip of the middle finger, Michael Pineda’s right hand approaches 10 inches long, meaning his hand is almost a foot. So when a baseball is wedged in there, it resembles a Ping-Pong ball, and that is exactly the way the Yankees ’ pitching coach, Larry Rothschild, wants Pineda to hold the ball when he throws his redesigned changeup. He has asked Pineda to shove the ball deeper into his palm and spread out his fingers a bit so his changeup, or cambio as it is known in Spanish, can become a more significant part of his already impressive repertory. Learning that one pitch is probably the most important thing Pineda will do in spring training, and the early returns have been positive. “We’re trying to get him a grip that he’s comfortable with and just throw it, don’t think about it,” said Rothschild, who asked Pineda to make the adjustment as soon as he arrived at his first Yankees camp. Five of Pineda’s 30 pitches Monday were changeups, he said, including the one with which he struck out Shane Victorino of the Phillies. He also got Domonic Brown to line out on a changeup during Philadelphia’s 9-3 victory . “Every time I put it down, we got a good result,” catcher Russell Martin said, referring to the signs he put down calling for the changeup. Rothschild said he did not ask Pineda, 23 , to use the grip specifically as a way to take advantage of the length of his hands. But it could help. Pedro Martinez used a devastating changeup to help him become perhaps the best pitcher of his generation, and the coach who helped him master the pitch said his exceptionally long fingers were one of the critical elements to his success with it. The Mets coach Guy Conti was Martinez’s coach and mentor at rookie league Great Falls in 1990 . He was the one who first suggested that Martinez slow down the pitch without slowing down his arm action. Conti said that the length of Martinez’s hand enabled him to make minor adjustments with his fingers that would result in significant differences on his changeup, and other pitches, too. “I gave him a few things, but he’s the one who perfected it,” Conti said. “But you have to remember, Pedro was a borderline genius when it came to pitching. He used every tool in his arsenal to become such a great pitcher, including his hands. He would move his fingers just a little bit and get different movement. He knew exactly what he was doing, and what the hitters were doing, at all times.” Conti said when he began working with him in 1990, when Martinez was 18, he already had a rudimentary changeup. Similarly, when Pineda joined the Yankees after a trade in January that sent Jesus Montero to the Seattle Mariners, he already had a changeup that he would occasionally use in a game. But the Yankees say it can be more effective, especially when used in conjunction with his fastball, which should be at least 96 miles per hour once the regular season starts. On Monday, Pineda’s fastball was closer to 90 m.p.h., but that is to be expected for the first time out in spring training. “When his arm strength gets where it should be, we’ll see where the changeup is,” Rothschild said. “That’s when we’ll be able to tell better.” In two innings Monday, Pineda allowed no runs and one hit and struck out two in his Yankees Grapefruit League debut. Martin said that in their pregame meeting, he told Pineda that he would be calling for some changeups and that Pineda was eager to work on them. “It was great today; I threw a couple of changeups, and it was pretty good,” Pineda said, adding, “If you have a command for the changeup, you are pitching great.” INSIDE PITCH The backup infielder Eduardo Nunez was hit on the right hand with a pitch and had to leave Monday’s game. X-rays were negative, and Nunez said he hoped he would miss a couple of days at the most. Nunez could have a significant role this year as the Yankees look to give Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez more time off in the field. ... Mariano Rivera threw his first batting-practice session and is scheduled to throw one more, possibly Friday, before he pitches in a Grapefruit League game. Rivera threw 28 pitches, and afterward was asked if he would be ready, for his first spring training game or for opening day April 6. He declared, “I was born ready.”

Baseball
Pineda Michael
New York Yankees
Rothschild Larry


For Mobile Messaging, GIFs Prove to Be Worth at Least a Thousand Words

Abstract: Lucy Dikeou, a 21-year-old senior at Stanford University, has long used English and the pictorial images known as emoji to text on her iPhone. A few months ago, she started messaging in a third language: GIFs. When Ms. Dikeou recently wanted a friend to stop sending her pictures of food, she responded with a GIF — an animated image known as a graphics interchange format — of Christina Aguilera rolling her eyes, waving her hand and soundlessly mouthing “PLEASE STOP.” Ms. Dikeou’s mobile messages are now often textless, replaced by clips of Harry Potter applauding, or excited toddlers opening birthday presents. Her favorite one features the ensemble cast of “Seinfeld” elatedly dancing, which she sent upon hearing that a friend was coming into town. “I’m able to express these really complex emotions in the span of two seconds,” said Ms. Dikeou, who had never sent any clips with her phone before October, when she downloaded Riffsy, a mobile keyboard app designed to transmit the animated images. Just as smartphones drove the rise of emoji, mobile devices are propelling GIFs into a more widespread form of instant visual-messaging. Tumblr, the blogging site, said it had 23 million GIFs posted to its site every day. In March, Facebook began supporting GIFs, with more than five million of the animations sent daily through its messaging app. Slack, the workplace collaboration start-up, says it counts more than two million GIF integrations each month. In total, online searches for GIFs have risen by a factor of nine since mid-2012, according to Experian Marketing Services, an industry research firm. While the brief animations are not new — GIFs were created in 1987 by Steve Wilhite , a programmer at CompuServe, and have been omnipresent on desktops — major improvements in mobile technology and a surge of messaging applications are pushing GIFs to break out beyond the web forums of old. They have become a mainstream form of digital expression, a way to relay complex feelings and thoughts in ways beyond words and even photographs, making them hugely popular with young audiences who never leave home without their smartphones. The animated snippets are being spread on mobile devices by a new generation of GIF start-ups, which are backed by venture capital. Riffsy, which makes the GIF keyboard for smartphones, just raised $10 million. Giphy, which provides a search engine for a vast library of GIFs, has raised more than $23 million. And there are numerous other companies, like Imgur, PopKey and Kanvas, all eager to snip and remix video clips into short, ready-to-share packages. For now, few of these companies are profiting from GIFs as they focus on propagating the use of the clips. But the start-ups see potential for profit, especially as brands increasingly integrate the animations into advertising and other marketing. “Typing is an antiquated input method and you can’t express emotional dimension adequately with just a handful of emoji,” said Adam Leibsohn, the chief operating officer of Giphy, which is based in Manhattan. “GIFs have trumped all of it.” GIFs are marked by certain characteristics. They are typically a few seconds long, soundless and play in a loop. They are often culled from movie and TV clips and can include text on top of the animated image. Their use has seeped into professional venues, frequently replacing text. Google recently sent a reporter a GIF of a toddler throwing her hands up in response to a question. Digital publications like BuzzFeed regularly use GIFs as a storytelling method. And office workers like Jerrod Howlett, an employee at Google, regularly respond to email with GIFs. “I’m not that great with words,” Mr. Howlett said. “But if I find the perfect GIF, it nails it.” The trend echoes the rise of text-based emoticons, which eventually gave way to emoji, the pictographic language created in the late 1990s by NTT DoCoMo, a Japanese telecommunications giant. Use of emoji, filled with cartoony images, exploded in Asian countries and are now built into many smartphone keyboards. Instagram, which hosts more than 300 million users, said roughly 40 percent of all images posted now include at least one emoji in the accompanying text. GIFs, too, are benefiting from the adoption of mobile devices and faster cellular networks that enable the seamless transmission of visual animations. Last summer, Apple also opened its iOS mobile software to let developers install new keyboards that made it easier to insert GIFs into messages, leading to an explosion of new GIF companies. “We’re increasingly writing shorter and shorter amounts of text to be read on screens, be it your computer, smartphones, tablets or an Apple Watch,” said Naomi S. Baron, a professor of linguistics at American University and the author of “Words Onscreen: The Fate of Reading in a Digital World.” Image From left, Erick Hachenburg, David McIntosh and Frank Nawabi, the co-founders of Riffsy, a mobile keyboard app focused on GIFs. Credit Vivian Johnson for The New York Times A GIF, in many ways, can be an even more effective form of visual communication than emoji because of the movement in an animation that provides a greater range of expression. “A GIF packages your message for you, so you don’t have to figure out how to express yourself,” Ms. Baron said. While Riffsy, which reports more than four billion views of its GIFs every month, and Giphy, which says it has more than 50 million monthly unique users, said they were not currently focused on making money from the animations, they are working with brands on using the clips to promote products. Riffsy recently collaborated with 20th Century Fox during the release of “Taken 3,” an action movie starring Liam Neeson, and spliced its own GIFs for people to use as messages. One popular clip showed Mr. Neeson jumping out a window, on repeat, with the subtitle “YOLO” — shorthand for “you only live once” — in blocky white lettering. “People are sharing these brand GIFs like any other pieces of content,” said David McIntosh, the chief executive of Riffsy. “The ambition of our company is really to build a visible language open to everyone.” What’s Your Greatest GIF Moment? You text, you email, you tweet. We want to know how you use GIFs to communicate. Some in the advertising and entertainment industry are embracing the snippets, too. Pamela Reed and Matthew Rader, a Brooklyn couple who direct video shoots, have incorporated the clips into ad campaigns in recent years with some of their most prominent fashion clients, including Adidas, Diesel and Ray-Ban. While they were initially met with resistance, the two said GIFs were no longer a silly afterthought and were considered part of a full ad campaign. “People don’t always want to watch a video that’s four minutes long,” Ms. Reed said, adding that GIF-based branded content can quickly go viral because the format is suited to being small and easily shareable. “It’s really the native, inherent art form of the Internet,” Mr. Rader added. Social networks also see opportunity in the clips. Tumblr has introduced its own search engine to help people find animations across the site. Imgur, an image-hosting site and social message board, has made a GIF creator after seeing how frequently its users post the snippets. Both companies are experimenting with advertising models that include the promotion of GIFs. But Alan Schaaf, Imgur’s chief executive, said none of this would work as a business if the paid content were not as delightful as the millions of GIFs people send one another every day. “It’s like the best part of a joke, told over and over again,” said Mr. Schaaf, who has built a team to use GIFs inside the ads that Imgur’s 150 million regular users will see. “It’s just an instant emotional connection.”

Smartphone
Tumblr
Imgur
Text messaging
Video Recordings
Downloads and Streaming
Instant messaging


California: Brown Offers New Prison Plan

Abstract: Gov. Jerry Brown on Tuesday responded to a federal court order to significantly reduce the state’s prison population by proposing a $315 million plan to send inmates to private prisons in California and other states and empty county jail cells. The cost could reach $700 million over two years, with much of the money likely to come from a $1 billion reserve fund in the state budget. California has already released some 46,000 inmates to comply with the court’s orders. The judges have ordered the state to release an additional 9,600 inmates by the end of the year to improve medical and mental health treatment in prisons. The plan will now head to the Legislature. Assembly Speaker John Perez, a Democrat, was joined by the Republican leaders of both houses at the governor’s news conference. Mr. Perez said he expected lawmakers to act before their session ends in mid-September.


4th Man Gets Prison in Killing of Long Island Teenager in 2011

Abstract: A 21-year-old man was sentenced this week to 18 years to life in prison for a 2011 attack in Queens in which he and five other teenage boys killed a man by stomping on him and beating him, prosecutors said on Wednesday. The man, Alex Velez, pleaded guilty last month in State Supreme Court in Queens to first-degree manslaughter, and is the fourth person to be sentenced in connection with the March 12, 2011, attack, prosecutors said. The three others, who all pleaded guilty to assault-related charges and were sentenced in 2013, faced penalties ranging from four to 16 years in prison. Two others have not yet been tried. Mr. Velez’s lawyer did not immediately return a message seeking comment. Anthony Collao, an 18-year-old from Long Island, was leaving a party at a house early in the morning in the Woodhaven neighborhood when the group of teenagers chased him while making homophobic remarks and carrying what investigators believed were a stick, a pipe and a cane, the authorities said. The group caught up with Mr. Collao on 90th Street, between 88th and 89th Avenues, where they punched, kicked and struck him, prosecutors said. The group also took his Atlanta Braves cap and his sneakers. Mr. Collao died from his injuries two days later.

Queens
Alex Velez
Anthony Collao
Murders and Homicides
NYC


Dominance of Texas Is Harder to Define in Softer Big 12

Abstract: With little drama left in college football until the national championship game on Jan. 7, the biggest question in college football is this: How good is No. 3 Texas? The Longhorns have long been projected to play in the Bowl Championship Series title game against the Southeastern Conference champion, either No. 1 Florida or No. 2 Alabama . Texas (10-0, 6-0) has been dominant in the Big 12, but the quality of that conference is not as high as it was last season. The lingering question is whether the Longhorns, who will host Kansas (5-5, 1-5) Saturday night, will have truly been tested by the time they arrive at the Rose Bowl . “Texas is probably going to get in the national championship game, and that’s when we’ll find out how good they are,” said Dennis Franchione, who coached Texas A&M for five seasons before resigning in 2007 . One of the most baffling aspects of this strange season is how quickly the reputation of the Big 12 has dropped. The defining debate of last season was whether the Big 12 or the SEC was the country’s premier conference. The debate lasted well into the final quarter of Florida’s 24-14 victory over Oklahoma in the national title game. This season, the Big 12 is a shadow of its former self. Adding to the mystery, Texas played a particularly weak out-of-conference schedule. The Longhorns’ only tight game came last month in a 16-13 victory in their annual neutral-site game against Oklahoma. The Sooners (6-4, 4-2), who have struggled this season, were ranked 20th at the time. “Texas has got a good football team, but I don’t know if we know how good for sure,” Franchione said. “They’ve had no tests out of conference, really.” No statistic better illuminates the Big 12’s downturn than the league’s scoring average: teams have gone from 35.6 points in 2008 to 29.4 points this year. The average yards per game for each team has dropped to 392.9 from 439.6. “It’s been bizarre,” Texas Tech Coach Mike Leach said. “There’s been no consistency to it.” Much of it is a result of players’ either turning pro or graduating, combined with injuries to key players who returned. The conference lost quarterbacks Josh Freeman of Kansas State, Chase Daniel of Missouri, Graham Harrell of Texas Tech and Stephen McGee of Texas A&M. Injuries to the 2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford and the Baylor sophomore Robert Griffin have also slowed their teams. Texas Tech has used several quarterbacks and Oklahoma State lost its star quarterback, Zac Robinson, to injury. Oklahoma State was further depleted by the loss of Dez Bryant, the conference’s most talented receiver. (He was suspended for an N.C.A.A. violation.) Oklahoma State is in contention for a B.C.S. berth, but its struggle to beat Colorado on Thursday, 31-28, epitomizes the drop-off among Big 12 teams after Texas. Longhorns Coach Mack Brown said he was not concerned about his team’s glut of blowouts . “We had a great test against Oklahoma in Dallas,” Brown said. “We had a decisive win over Oklahoma State on the road, and they are still under consideration for a B.C.S. bid. Any team that tries to win all of its games is tested every week because that’s not an easy thing to do.” Brown compares this Texas team to the one that shocked Southern California to win the B.C.S. title game at the Rose Bowl after the 2005 season. “That year, until the championship game, we had the one close game with Ohio State, otherwise we won handily,” Brown said. “That team has been a standard for this team.” It is debatable whether Texas is better than it was last season, when the Longhorns felt they deserved a spot in the national title game. Leach said Texas was better this season on the defensive line and in special teams than it was last season. But, he said, the Longhorns’ offensive line is not as good as it was a year ago. Wyoming Coach Dave Christensen , who was Missouri’s offensive coordinator last year, saw Texas when his team faced the Longhorns on Sept. 12, in a 41-10 loss . As Wyoming prepared to play No. 4 Texas Christian on Saturday, Christensen said it was a legitimate question to which team was better. “Texas may have a little more depth, but I would love to see them play,” Christensen said of a Texas-T.C.U. matchup. “I think it would be a very intriguing game. Both are very, very talented teams and different types of programs. When we evaluated T.C.U., we certainly feel they’re every bit as good as Texas.” The SEC, which has only three teams in the B.C.S. top 25 , does not appear as dominant as it was last year, either. But those three teams — No. 1 Florida, No. 2 Alabama and No. 8 Louisiana State — look good enough to make it seem as if the league is much stronger than the Big 12. Georgia Coach Mark Richt said that Texas’ 41-14 win over Oklahoma State in Stillwater was a sure sign of how good the Longhorns were. “The rules are set basically for how this B.C.S. is going to work, and Texas has done everything they can do within the rules,” said Richt, whose Bulldogs lost at Oklahoma State, 24-10, to open the season. “If they end up with the way the system works as No. 1 or No. 2, then they deserve to be in it.” Maybe only then will the college football world find out how good the Longhorns really are.

Football
Bowl Championship Series
University of Texas at Austin
College Athletics


Justice Department Calls Apple’s Refusal to Unlock iPhone a ‘Marketing Strategy’

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Justice Department, frustrated by its inability to unlock the iPhone of one of the attackers in the San Bernardino killings, demanded on Friday that a judge immediately order Apple to give it the technical tools to get inside the phone. Apple’s refusal “appears to be based on its concern for its business model and public brand marketing strategy” rather than a legal rationale, prosecutors said in a court filing that further escalated the confrontation between the Obama administration and Apple. “This is not the end of privacy,” the Justice Department declared, a mocking reference to Apple’s rationale for contesting the court order prosecutors obtained from a judge directing Apple to help them break into the phone. The sharply worded, 25-page motion to compel Apple’s cooperation seemed aimed as much at swaying public opinion as influencing the federal magistrate judge in Riverside, Calif., who issued the order to Apple. A blistering open letter this week from Timothy D. Cook, Apple’s chief executive, had rallied many privacy advocates behind the company, and law enforcement officials said that the latest volley from the Justice Department on Friday was meant largely to rebut Mr. Cook’s arguments and buttress the government’s own case. Apple executives, speaking with reporters after the filing on the condition that they not be identified by name, said they were puzzled by the Justice Department’s decision to rush back into court before the company even had a chance to respond to this week’s court order. They reiterated their concerns that the government’s novel demands would endanger the privacy and security of all of their iPhone customers in the future, and said they remained determined to fight the government’s demands. Apple has until next week to respond to an order by a California magistrate this week compelling it to provide the technical assistance that the F.B.I. says it needs to get into the phone. But the Justice Department sought to pre-empt Apple’s response with its own filing on Friday, saying Apple has already made its opposition publicly known and that the “urgency of this investigation” demands faster action. “Rather than assist the effort to fully investigate a deadly terrorist attack by obeying this court’s order,” prosecutors wrote, “Apple has responded by publicly repudiating that order.” They went on to accuse Apple of exaggerating how difficult it would be for the company’s computer engineers to come up with a way to get into the phone and to disable an “auto-erase” feature that permanently deletes the data inside after 10 failed password attempts. Justice Dept.’s Latest Legal Filing in Apple Case The Justice Department filed this motion on Friday asking a federal judge to immediately force Apple to help open an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers. “At no point has Apple ever said that it does not have the technical ability to comply with the order or that the order asks Apple to undertake an unreasonably challenging software development task,” prosecutors wrote. “On this point, Apple’s silence speaks volumes.” The Justice Department wants to force Apple to write software that would allow the government to try millions of random password combinations to get into the phone. Apple has described this as an unprecedented demand, one that would require the company’s engineers to build a new operating system from scratch and effectively hack into its own phone. The Justice Department said that was a significant overstatement. Prosecutors said the technology was no more difficult than passing a new software update to the phone — something the company does regularly. Apple executives acknowledged on Friday that it was technically possible but said it was still unwarranted for the government to demand it to create something that did not exist. In his 1,100-word letter to his customers early Wednesday, Mr. Cook said what prosecutors were demanding amounted to forcing Apple to create a “back door” to get around its own security protocols, and he vowed a fight. He accused the Justice Department of mounting a “chilling” attack on privacy and Internet security. Apple has taken a strong stand on privacy not only because of Mr. Cook’s strong personal beliefs on the issue, but also because the company’s business model encourages a bolder stance. Unlike other Silicon Valley tech giants, Apple’s business has a straightforward hardware model that hinges on selling physical devices like iPhones, iPads and Macs. Other tech companies, including Google, Facebook and Twitter, depend more on the online collection of large amounts of consumer data for their digital advertising-oriented businesses. With this week’s dispute generating wide attention on Capitol Hill, Republican and Democratic leaders from the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters to Apple and the F.B.I. on inviting their executives to testify publicly on the issue at a hearing. The lawmakers wrote in a joint letter that the public debate over encryption and its impact on law enforcement investigations “has now come to a critical juncture” with this week’s order regarding the iPhone 5c used by Syed Farook in an attack in December that resulted in 14 deaths. The Justice Department’s latest filing on Friday also offered new details about the unsuccessful negotiations between Apple and the government to resolve the encryption on their own before the dispute became public this week. Among other steps, the two sides discussed options that included using data backed up to the iCloud, other backup computers, separately held toll records or other databases to capture the information held in the cellphone. But for a variety of reasons, the F.B.I concluded, none of those options would work. Among other problems, the default system that backed up the phone on the iCloud had been disabled — apparently by Mr. Farook — in October, six weeks before the shootings. In its filing, the Justice Department suggested repeatedly that Apple has put its “marketing concerns” above its corporate responsibility to comply with a lawful order to assist law enforcement. “Apple is not above the law in that regard,” the filing said.

Justice Department
Apple
iPhone
Privacy
Government Surveillance
FBI
Timothy D Cook
Computer security