George Beall, Prosecutor Who Brought Down Agnew, Dies at 79

Abstract: George Beall, a son and brother of United States senators from Maryland whose prosecution of Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, a former governor of the state, for bribery led to Mr. Agnew’s resignation in 1973, died on Sunday in Naples, Fla. He was 79. The cause was cancer, said his wife, Carolyn Campbell. Mr. Beall (pronounced bell) had been the United States attorney for Maryland for two years when he opened an investigation into systemic corruption in Baltimore County, specifically between public officials and those seeking architectural, engineering, and paving contracts. The inquiry took an unexpected turn when an engineer, Lester Matz, admitted that he had been paying Mr. Agnew kickbacks in exchange for contracts for years — first when Mr. Agnew was the Baltimore county executive, then when he was governor of Maryland and vice president. “I was absolutely stunned,” Mr. Beall said in a speech in 2003. “I, like everyone else in the country, thought the vice president was the pillar of rectitude. He was an imposing, handsome, well spoken, strong individual who spoke not just passionately but eloquently about principles and morality.” Mr. Agnew was more than that. A biting speaker, he zealously played the hatchet man for Richard M. Nixon, whose presidency was becoming imperiled by the widening Watergate scandal that would lead to his resignation in 1974. Mr. Agnew took on the news media with particular relish. Using speechwriters’ words, he called critics of the administration’s Vietnam War policy “ nattering nabobs of negativism ” and protesters an “effete corps of impudent snobs.” Mr. Beall and Mr. Agnew were both Republicans. Mr. Beall’s father, J. Glenn Beall, and his brother, J. Glenn Beall Jr., were United States senators. Mr. Agnew appointed Mr. Beall to the state’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Board. And a framed photograph of Mr. Agnew hung in Mr. Beall’s office. It was inscribed, “With very best wishes to George Beall — a very able U.S. attorney.” Barnet D. Skolnik, an assistant United States attorney who worked on the case against Mr. Agnew, said in an interview that party affiliation made no difference to Mr. Beall. “The bottom line,” he said, “is, we took it to George and he said: ‘Fellas, do what you have to do. Keep me posted on a more or less daily basis. But you’ve got a green light. Take it wherever the evidence takes you.’ He said what he should have said.” Mr. Skolnik added, referring to the investigation, “We didn’t care that Agnew was a Republican, but we were concerned it could be shut down for political reasons.” Two more witnesses came forward to further implicate Mr. Agnew. One of them, Jerome B. Wolff, who ran Maryland’s roads commission, had an attic filled with documentation that detailed “every corrupt payment he participated in with then-Governor Agnew,” Mr. Beall recalled in the speech. “It was a treasure trove that was tested to prove its authenticity,” he said. Mr. Beall’s fears that the case would be taken away by the Justice Department or handed off to Archibald Cox , the Watergate special prosecutor, were allayed by Elliot L. Richardson , the attorney general. Mr. Richardson was jolted by the evidence against the vice president and encouraged Mr. Beall and his team to continue their investigation. “It wasn’t a question of whether Agnew had been bribed,” Mr. Skolnik said. “There was little doubt of that early on. But the doubt had to do with whether admissible evidence of a quantity and strength and cohesiveness could be developed to the very high standard of what you would need to indict a sitting vice president.” Once the investigation became public, in August 1973, Mr. Agnew defended himself with characteristic vigor. He called the charges against him “damned lies.” He accused the Justice Department of trying to “indict me in the press” by leaking information that he was being investigated for possible bribery, extortion, fraud and conspiracy. Mr. Agnew conceded that he had received campaign contributions from contractors but said he had been unaware of any corruption. The facade fell away on Oct. 10, when Mr. Agnew resigned the vice presidency and pleaded no contest to one count of tax evasion for defrauding the government of $13,551.47 on his federal income tax return for 1967. He was fined $10,000 and avoided prison time. In federal court in Baltimore that day, Mr. Beall submitted a presentation of the evidence against Mr. Agnew, saying he had sought and received cash payments of more than $100,000 while in elective office. The 40-page document elaborated on what Mr. Beall said was Mr. Agnew’s “pervasive acceptance of payments for eight years.” Two days later, President Nixon nominated Representative Gerald R. Ford to replace Mr. Agnew. Even more eventfully, on Oct. 20, Mr. Nixon accepted the resignation of Mr. Richardson for refusing to fire Mr. Cox and dismissed William D. Ruckelshaus, the deputy attorney general, for not following an order to discharge Mr. Cox. President Nixon had the solicitor general, Robert H. Bork, fire Mr. Cox. George Beall VIII, whose family’s roots in America date to the 17th century, was born in Frostburg, Md., on Aug. 17, 1937. He was one of three sons of Senator Beall and the former Margaret Schwarzenbach, a homemaker. He graduated from Princeton University and the University of Virginia School of Law and was a clerk for Chief Judge Simon E. Sobeloff of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Mr. Beall was appointed United States attorney in 1970, at age 32, and resigned in 1975. He remained in private practice, specializing in commercial litigation. He was occasionally asked to run for senator, but declined. He was also a lawyer for the Baltimore Ravens until they were sold by Art Modell. “We were in a box for every home game for eight or 10 years,” Ms. Campbell said. In addition to his wife, Mr. Beall is survived by a daughter, Rebecca Beall DiSabato; two stepsons, James. C. Alban IV and Nicholas Guy Alban; a stepdaughter, Tobey Frederick; 16 grandchildren; and one great-granddaughter. Two previous marriages ended in divorce. Prosecuting Mr. Agnew was the most high-profile case in Mr. Beall’s career, but he rarely discussed it. Ms. Campbell said he spoke about it publicly only three times. Stephen J. Immelt, chief executive of the law firm Hogan Lovells, where Mr. Beall was a partner until his retirement several years ago, said in an interview: “You could, if you asked him enough questions at the right time of evening, get him to tell you a little bit behind the headlines. It was, in many ways, an unforgettable experience, and one that shaped him and gave him strength.”

George Beall
Maryland
Politics
Justice Department
Obituary
Bribery and Kickbacks
Spiro T Agnew


Google Zooms In Too Close for Some

Abstract: OAKLAND, Calif., May 31 — For Mary Kalin-Casey, it was never about her cat. Ms. Kalin-Casey, who manages an apartment building here with her husband, John Casey, was a bit shaken when she tried a new feature in Google ’s map service called Street View. She typed in her address and the screen showed a street-level view of her building. As she zoomed in, she could see Monty, her cat, sitting on a perch in the living room window of her second-floor apartment. “The issue that I have ultimately is about where you draw the line between taking public photos and zooming in on people’s lives,” Ms. Kalin-Casey said in an interview Thursday on the front steps of the building. “The next step might be seeing books on my shelf. If the government was doing this, people would be outraged.” Her husband quickly added, “It’s like peeping.” Ms. Kalin-Casey first shared her concerns about the service in an e-mail message to the blog Boing Boing on Wednesday. Since then, the Web has been buzzing about the privacy implications of Street View — with varying degrees of seriousness. Several sites have been asking users to submit interesting images captured by the Google service, which offers panoramic views of miles of streets around San Francisco, New York, Las Vegas, Miami and Denver. On a Wired magazine blog, for instance, readers can vote on the “Best Urban Images” that others find in Street View. On Thursday afternoon, a picture of two young women sunbathing in their bikinis on the Stanford campus in Palo Alto, Calif., ranked near the top. Another showed a man scaling the front gate of an apartment building in San Francisco. The caption read, “Is he breaking in or has he just locked himself out?” Google said in a statement that it takes privacy seriously and considered the privacy implications of its service before it was introduced on Tuesday. “Street View only features imagery taken on public property,” the company said. “This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street.” Google said that it had consulted with public service organizations and considered their feedback in developing the service, which allows users to request that a photo be removed for privacy reasons. A Google spokeswoman said the company had received few such requests. For instance, Google worked with the Safety Net Project at the National Network to End Domestic Violence, which represents shelters for victims of domestic violence nationwide, to remove pictures of those shelters. “They reached out in advance to us so we could reach out to our network,” said Cindy Southworth, founder and director of the organization. Not everyone believes the service raises serious privacy concerns. “You don’t have a right to ‘privacy’ over what can be seen while driving the speed limit past your house,” wrote a Boing Boing reader, identified as Rich Gibson, in response to Ms. Kalin-Casey’s complaint. Others dismissed her as a crazy cat lady. Edward A. Jurkevics, a principal at Chesapeake Analytics, a consulting firm specializing in mapping and imagery, said that courts have consistently ruled that people in public spaces can be photographed. “In terms of privacy, I doubt if there is much of a problem,” Mr. Jurkevics said. Still, the issues raised by the service, thorny or merely funny, were perfect blog fodder. The hunt was on for quirky or potentially embarrassing images that could be found by wandering the virtual streets of the service. There was the picture of a clearly identifiable man standing in front of an establishment offering lap dances and other entertainment in San Francisco. The site LaudonTech.com showed an image of a man entering a pornographic bookstore in Oakland, but his face was not visible. Others pointed to pictures of cars whose license plates were clearly readable. One pointed to images captured inside the Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, a controversial location for photography in this high-security era. On Lombard Street in San Francisco, various tourists who had come to photograph the famously curvy street were photographed themselves. Google said that the images had been captured by vehicles equipped with special cameras. The company took some of the photographs itself and purchased others from Immersive Media, a data provider. “I think that this product illustrates a tension between our First Amendment right to document public spaces around us, and the privacy interests people have as they go about their day,” said Kevin Bankston, a staff lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group. Mr. Bankston said Google could have avoided privacy concerns by blurring people’s faces. Back at her apartment, Ms. Kalin-Casey acknowledged that plenty of information about her — that she manages an apartment complex, that she was an editor at the film site Reel.com — is already easily accessible through Google and other search engines. “People’s jobs are pretty public,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean they want a shot of their sofa on Google.” She has asked Google to remove the image of her building, which was still online as of Thursday evening. When a reporter first arrived to interview her, Monty the cat was visible in the window.

Maps
Privacy
Photography
Google Inc
Computers and the Internet
Roads and Traffic


Japan Warns of China and North Korea as Security Threats

Abstract: TOKYO — Japan sounded the alarm Tuesday on rising security threats in Northeast Asia, warning in a government report of a potential military confrontation with China over maritime disputes, as well as North Korea’s increasingly sophisticated nuclear weapons program. Japan’s annual defense paper, the first since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in December, also raised concerns that budget cuts in the United States and a range of other distractions would hinder Washington’s “pivot to Asia,” a strategic reorienting of American interests from Europe and the Middle East toward East Asia. “In its defense strategic guidance, the U.S. presented policies emphasizing a rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region,” the report drawn up by the Defense Ministry said. “But how its harsh financial situation will impact efforts to translate these policies into reality attracts attention.” Mr. Abe, a conservative, has been keen to revamp Japan’s military strategy to offset China’s growing military power and the continuing instability on the Korean Peninsula. In January, he ordered his government to replace its five-year military spending plan and to review guidelines adopted in 2010 by the left-leaning Democratic Party, which would have shrunk the military’s ranks. Mr. Abe plans to increase military spending for the first time in a decade. Mr. Abe has also sought to bolster military cooperation with the United States. But Japan has struggled to hold America’s attention. President Obama skipped a meeting with Mr. Abe on the sidelines of the Group of 8 summit meeting in Northern Ireland last month. Even as Washington has remained distracted by other matters, the report warned, the security situation in Northeast Asia has turned increasingly volatile. Officials in Japan are particularly worried by what the report called Chinese intrusions into waters around islands claimed by both countries. Since last year, Japanese and Chinese patrol ships have been engaged in a tense face-off near the Senkaku islands, uninhabited islets that China calls the Diaoyus. Though no clashes have occurred, some experts have warned that a clash at sea could inadvertently set off a wider military confrontation between the two powers. In January, Tokyo accused a Chinese military vessel of aiming a radar used to help direct weapons on a Japanese naval vessel near the islands. That came after Japan scrambled fighter jets in response to a Chinese military surveillance plane that had entered what Japan considers its airspace. The report cited what it said were China’s “intrusion into Japan’s territorial waters, its violation of Japan’s airspace and even dangerous actions that could cause a contingency situation, which are extremely regrettable.” It continued, “China should accept and stick to the international norms.” The Japanese government has also been rattled by renewed belligerence from North Korea, which fired off a long-range rocket in December and conducted its third nuclear test in February. Those moves suggest that it is pushing ahead with plans to develop more advanced and longer-range missiles that could ultimately carry nuclear warheads. Coupled with its nuclear tests, North Korea’s weapons program “has developed into a more real and imminent problem for the wider international community,” the report said.


Epiphanny and Equality of Excess

Abstract: ON the night a Kobe copycat broke a high school scoring record in New York, LeBron James secured a victory in Cleveland with a pass. How passé. In the lane late in the fourth quarter of the Nets-Cavaliers game Wednesday night, James could have taken a shot had he not spotted a teammate, Sasha Pavlovic, with a better one, alone in the left corner, behind the 3-point line. James's 10th assist of the game, to go along with 26 points and 11 rebounds, gave the Cavs a 7-point lead with less than three minutes to play. Teamwork -- what an insipid concept, compared to the current rage of going for the glory by playing one-on-five. No doubt inspired by Kobe Bryant, Epiphanny Prince of Manhattan's Murry Bergtraum High School broke Cheryl Miller's 24-year-old girls' scholastic record and made national headlines by scoring 113 points in a game against Brandeis. Her coach, Ed Grezinsky, said yesterday in a telephone interview, "there was some talk" about Bryant as Prince's point total soared to 59 by the end of the first half. "I had to make a choice -- do I take her out or leave her in, knowing there might be a record to be broken," said Grezinsky, who has coached the Bergtraum girls for 15 years and teaches physical education at the school. Phil Jackson, the Lakers' coach, had no alternative when Bryant more than doubled his average recently, scoring 81 points against Toronto in Los Angeles, the second-highest total in N.B.A. history behind Wilt Chamberlain's 100. Putting aside Kobe's role in fostering the Lakers' dependence on him, at least Jackson could explain that the Raptors refused to double-team and the game was close all the way to the end. Grezinsky's team, a powerhouse boasting seven city championships and three state titles, was in the process of beating Brandeis by the same number of points, 105, that Miller scored for Riverside (Calif.) Polytechnic High School in 1982. Grezinsky nonetheless had an epiphany for Epiphanny, granting her, as he said, "the opportunity to do something great." Amazing how the beauty of basketball is in the eye of the beholder. Vera Springer, the Brandeis coach, likened Prince's feat to "picking on a handicapped person," in an interview with The New York Post. The fact that Prince, like Miller, broke the 100-point barrier against woefully inferior competition didn't deter C. Vivian Stringer, the Rutgers women's coach, from saluting Prince, a 5-foot-9-inch guard, whom she has already recruited for next season. "No matter how it was done, scoring that amount of points is a phenomenal feat," Stringer said in a statement. Rutgers's football team will win the national championship before one of Stringer's players is granted the license to dribble through an overmatched defense for 50 2-point field goals. But if she called Prince's "feat" what it was -- a gross distortion of the game that Grezinsky should have apologized for -- Prince might dial Connecticut information and ask for Geno Auriemma's number. And so goes the indulgence of stars at the expense of sportsmanship and players who inhabit their orbit and even the common-sense development for the gifted and talented. Remember the last scholastic player celebrated for hitting triple digits? Five years ago, Dajuan Wagner of Camden (N.J.) High School dropped 100 on Gloucester Township Technical in a 90-point blowout, after which his coach, Glen Jackson, explained, "For all he has done for our program, I just couldn't refuse him." A coach who had Wagner's best interests in mind would have sat him down or set him straight: You are a small guard, just over six feet tall, and there is only one Allen Iverson. You want to be an impact player in the N.B.A.? Pass the ball. Make your teammates better. Pride yourself on creating a good shot for every one of these kids who can't. Predictably, before injury and illness sidelined Wagner the last two N.B.A. seasons, he was proving to be a one-dimensional player and was yesterday's news as soon as the diversely talented James arrived in Cleveland one year after him. On the telephone yesterday, Grezinsky said Prince was an accomplished playmaker who occasionally must be encouraged to shoot. "We played 16 girls and at the end of the game, she was out there with the last four," he said. "She's out there passing to girls who are not that good." So better she should run up the score than risk having girls who seldom play launch a few bricks in a lopsided game? Apparently, it is not just oil that we are hooked on, as President Bush noted Tuesday night. Americans are addicted to excess in cars, houses and box scores. While elevating statistical acts of self-glorification, we lower the bar for historical significance. We render context irrelevant. So impressed are we by Kobe's scoring 35-plus points a game while flying solo that we forget that he averaged 30 a game in 2002-3, when he shared the stage with Shaquille O'Neal, who was pouring in 27.5 a game of his own. Anyone who needed Bryant to score 81 points against the defenseless Raptors to validate him as a transcendent talent wasn't watching since the start of the decade. If Prince is lucky, her first college course will be Basketball Reality 101, where Stringer will teach her that no meaningful success is achievable without meeting true resistance. Sports of The Times E-mail: hjaraton@nytimes.com

BASKETBALL
NEW YORK CITY
PRINCE EPIPHANNY
RECORDS AND ACHIEVEMENTS
SPORTS OF THE TIMES (TIMES COLUMN)


Wheeler Rears Back and Strikes Out 12 in Mets’ Win

Abstract: SAN DIEGO — After each outing, the learning experiences take hold, the lessons crystallize, and the end result is that Zack Wheeler gets even more devastating. There is a process for any highly regarded prospect through which breathless scouting reports on him and his own inner belief converge. It may be happening now for Wheeler, who struck out a career-high 12 batters on Thursday night to lead the Mets past the San Diego Padres, 4-1, at Petco Park. According to Manager Terry Collins and catcher John Buck, the key has been that Wheeler, 23, is learning to trust his preternatural talent — his stuff, to use baseball lingo. He has seen that the same stuff that earned him raves throughout his amateur and minor league career can get big-league batters out, too. “He’s executing game plans better, and he’s learned how to back off pitches and just trust his stuff,” said Buck, who revealed that he always tells Wheeler: “Your stuff is that good. Just locate it.” Buck said, “It seems like every game he’s getting that more and more.” Wheeler, who made his debut June 18 this season, went six innings and gave up one run, six hits and one walk. He joined three other Mets pitchers who notched 12 strikeouts within their first 11 starts: Dick Selma, Nolan Ryan and Dwight Gooden. The 115 pitches he threw represented his highest total as a professional at any level. Since the beginning of July, he is 4-1 with a 2.87 earned run average. But more than the raw numbers, it was mental growth. Wheeler and Buck used a break during the game — when the umpires were reviewing replays for a potential home run — to go over the lessons again on the mound. During the third inning, both pitcher and catcher noticed that Rene Rivera, the Padres’ No. 8 hitter, was priming himself to catch up to Wheeler’s fastball, revving his motion up before the ball reached the plate. And yet, on a 1-2 count, Wheeler tried to throw the perfect slider to finish him off. The ball instead hung up and spun — “a cement mixer,” according to Buck — and Rivera pounded it to left field for a triple. “I tried to make that pitch way too nasty, that slider,” Wheeler recounted telling Buck. “I tried way too much with it when the guy was just swinging erratically out there. He had no chance. I could have thrown it in the other batter’s box, and he would have swung and missed that.” It became only the latest thing for Wheeler to process since his arrival to the Mets earlier this summer. Fortunately for the club, he has seemed to digest it all. “He’s a very astute kid,” Collins said. “I’m sure he’s seeing, it doesn’t always have to be on the corner, especially when you’ve got that kind of movement on your fastball and that kind of breaking stuff.” The right-hander Tyson Ross pitched seven strong innings for the Padres, giving up one run and five hits, striking out seven and not issuing a walk. And so, amid the strong pitching, the defenses — crisp for the Mets, wobbly for the Padres — represented the difference. With two outs in the eighth inning and runners standing on first and second, Marlon Byrd hit a line drive off the Padres right-hander Luke Gregerson toward right fielder Chris Denorfia. It seemed it would be the third out, but Denorfia misjudged the ball and was soon watching it zip over his head. Two runs scored on the double, giving the Mets a 3-1 lead. The Mets’ defense, meanwhile, made two very strong plays to help Wheeler keep runs off the scoreboard. In the third, Rivera pounded a slider — the one Wheeler and Buck were fixated on after the game — and it appeared it would clear the wall for a home run. But Eric Young Jr. elevated and got his glove to the ball, knocking it back onto the field, while he tumbled onto the warning track. It was ruled a triple, and Wheeler struck out the next two batters to end the inning. Two innings later, Yonder Alonso came up with two outs and two men on base and hit a hard grounder to center field. As Ross dashed toward home from second base, Juan Lagares whipped a perfect throw on one hop straight to Buck, who swiped his glove down to apply the tag for the third out. “It makes it easier on us to have guys that play their butts off out there in the outfield, go full speed all the time,” Wheeler said. “They aren’t scared to run into walls and stuff. I really appreciate it, and I’m sure all our pitchers do.” Wheeler gave up his only run on a fourth-inning sacrifice fly. The previous half-inning, Josh Satin knocked a two-out dribbler to shortstop, and the first-base umpire ruled him safe, apparently incorrectly, which allowed Daniel Murphy to score from second. Buck homered in the ninth to cap the scoring. Besides the fourth, Wheeler was sharp, but he said he wished he had been more efficient, so that he could have lasted longer than six innings. That perhaps represents the next lesson, another among the things even the biggest prospects need to learn. “That’s that darned human factor,” Buck said. “Even though they’re big, huge prospects and they’ve had success, it’s about coming up and having success here and also having failures and learning from it, and how you respond to that.” Wheeler’s response, lately, has been devastating. INSIDE PITCH LaTroy Hawkins on Thursday afternoon led a lighthearted discussion about an unfortunate injury. During the Mets’ Wednesday night loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers, a comebacker to the mound struck him around the groin area. Hawkins, 40, characterized the injury as a “testicle contusion.” Hawkins said he never wears a protective cup and insisted many pitchers around the league do not either. Hawkins said he would not start changing his wardrobe now. “I’ve thrown a lot of innings,” he said. “I’ve been in a lot of ballgames. This is the first time I got hit. It won’t change."

Mets
Zack Wheeler
Padres
Baseball
Marlon Byrd


U.S. to Include Home Care Aides in Wage and Overtime Law

Abstract: The Obama administration announced on Tuesday that it was extending minimum wage and overtime protections to the nation’s nearly two million home care workers . Advocates for low-wage workers have pushed for this change, asserting that home care workers, who care for elderly and disabled Americans, were wrongly classified into the same “companionship services” category as baby sitters — a group that is exempt from minimum wage and overtime coverage. Under the new rule, home care aides, unlike baby sitters, would be covered under the Fair Labor Standards Act, the nation’s main wage and hour law. In an unusual move, the administration said the new regulation would not take effect until Jan. 1, 2015, even though regulations often take effect 60 days after being issued. The delay until 2015 is to give families that use these attendants, as well as state Medicaid programs, time to prepare. Industry experts say most of these workers are already paid at least the minimum wage, but many do not receive a time-and-a-half overtime premium when they work more than 40 hours a week. About 20 states exclude home care workers from their wage and hour laws. “We think the workers providing this critical work should be receiving the same basic protection and coverage as the vast majority of American workers,” said Laura Fortman, deputy administrator of the Labor Department’s Wage and Hour Division. “We’ve seen a lot of turnover in this industry, and we believe that this new rule will stabilize the work force.” The nation’s home care workers usually earn $8.50 to $12 an hour, according to industry officials. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. According to the Obama administration, almost 40 percent of aides receive government benefits like food stamps and Medicaid. Ninety-two percent of these workers are female, almost 30 percent are black and 12 percent are Hispanic. Labor Secretary Thomas E. Perez said in a statement, “Today we are taking an important step toward guaranteeing that these professionals receive the wage protections they deserve while protecting the right of individuals to live at home.” But industry officials said the changes would cause increases in Medicaid and Medicare spending, raise costs for families that use such services, and result in fewer jobs for home care workers. Andrea L. Devoti, chairman of the National Association for Home Care and Hospice, said the new rule “will mean that people will receive less care.” She said the higher costs resulting from the new rule would lead many people to hire home care aides part time rather than full time. “Caregivers will in the end receive less pay,” she said. The newly issued rule was also criticized by Representative John Kline, a Minnesota Republican who is chairman of the House Education and the Work Force Committee, and Representative Tim Walberg, a Michigan Republican who heads the panel’s subcommittee on work force protections. They said it not only would raise costs, but would “limit access to in-home care for vulnerable Americans.” They added, “Faced with higher costs, some individuals will have no choice but to leave their homes and enter institutional living.” Long-term nursing home care, much of which is paid by Medicaid, is generally more expensive than home care. Ms. Fortman of the administration’s wage and hour division said 15 states now provided overtime and minimum wage protection to home care aides. “We have not seen any evidence that it has resulted in job loss or any serious negative impact for the workers or for the people using the services,” she said. The administration announced the change 21 months after first proposing the rule and after having received 26,000 public comments, many of them from for-profit home care agencies that opposed it. Many labor advocates criticized the administration for taking so long to issue its final rule, but Labor Department officials said reviewing the comments and holding related public meetings took time. The federal government says six million of the 40 million Americans older than 65 need some form of daily assistance to live outside a nursing home. Federal officials estimate that the number will double to 12 million by 2030. Under the new rule, any home care aides hired through home care companies or other third-party agencies cannot be exempt from minimum wage and overtime coverage. The exemptions for aides who mainly provide “companionship services” — defined as fellowship and protection for an elderly person or person with an illness, injury or disability who requires assistance — are limited to the individual, family or household using the services. If an aide or companion provides “care” that exceeds 20 percent of the total hours she works each week, then the worker is to receive minimum wage and overtime protections. The new rule defines care as assisting with the activities of daily living, like dressing, grooming, feeding or bathing, and assisting with “instrumental activities of daily living,” like meal preparation, driving, light housework, managing finances and assisting with the physical taking of medications. The companionship exemption will not apply if the aide or companion provides medically related services that are typically performed by trained personnel, like nurses or certified nursing assistants. Live-in domestic service workers who reside in the employer’s home and are employed by an individual, family or household are exempt from overtime pay, although they must be paid at least the federal minimum wage for all hours worked.

Overtime
Minimum wage
Wages and salaries
Home Health Care
Elderly care,Geriatrics


Parade in Chinatown Raises Spirits During a Record Plunge in Temperature

Abstract: It was worth asking whether it was jubilation stirred up by the Lunar New Year Parade or an attempt to ward off hypothermia that had people dancing on the sidewalks of Chinatown in Manhattan on Sunday. “Not cold. Happy!” shouted Jenny Zend, a 30-year-old originally from Fujian Province in China who stood on East Broadway in a floor-length champagne-colored fur coat as temperatures struggled to climb out of the single digits. “Happy New Year!” she added. The cold over the weekend had promised to be punishing, and Mayor Bill de Blasio had warned New Yorkers to stay indoors. And indeed, temperatures did drop — and kept dropping. By around daybreak on Sunday, the mercury had dipped below zero in Central Park, to minus 1, breaking a century-old record for the date, set on Feb. 14, 1916, when it was 2 degrees, according to the National Weather Service. At that early hour, the wind chill made it feel like it was minus 19. Amid the frigid conditions, police officers searched parks for homeless men and women, and an extra 300 New York City workers fanned out across the five boroughs to help shelters take people in from the cold, the mayor’s office said. Over the course of the day, the winds subsided and the temperatures rose slightly as sunshine spilled over the frozen city. Unlike the Central Park Ice Festival, which was canceled because of the cold, the Lunar New Year Parade stepped off as planned, and people bundled up to celebrate the Year of the Monkey. The crowd on hand for the parade may have been a bit thinner than usual, but whatever it lacked in numbers it made up for in purple-lipped, giddy joy: This was no ordinary day. Image Despite the extreme temperature, crowds gathered to ring in the Year of the Monkey, and the Lunar New Year Parade stepped off as planned. Credit Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times Performers seemed to move more quickly. Along with the rhythm of drums and gongs, the cold added a spring to the step of older women twirling fans on floats and young men hidden behind bobble-headed costumes. “Not cold,” shouted one, peeking outside the mouth of a lion. Michael Marrero, 27, danced on the Wonton Food Inc., float, wearing a 4-by-3-foot fortune cookie costume. Asked after the parade if the costume had kept him toasty, Mr. Marrero said, “It was surprisingly well ventilated.” He had layers on, he said, “but with all my extremities hanging out, the best way to stay warm was to dance and wave at everybody.” Many people in the crowd followed suit. Adan Kohnhorst, 22, broke into what he described as “New York swag dancing with a traditional Chinese rhythm” when a float passed playing a catchy pop tune. “It gives you a warm feeling in your heart,” Mr. Kohnhorst, a New York University student, said. But some said they might not have come to the parade if not for their children. “She demanded it,” said Misha Morse-Buck, 33, pointing to his daughter, Alma Morse-Buck, 4, who wore a floral-print puffer jacket as she sat on his shoulders. “My school told me about it,” she said, declaring the cold bearable and the “dragon dance” the best act. Along the route, paradegoers bought confetti cannons and party snaps. Bottles of water were not in high demand . A vendor at a newsstand on East Broadway shrugged and laughed when asked how many she had sold. Image The temperature dipped below zero on Sunday in Central Park, breaking a century-old record temperature for this date. Credit Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times Her plastic container, which sat on a table on the sidewalk, was still full of bottled water and aloe vera juice as the parade drew to a close. The beverages were frozen solid. Elsewhere in the city, couples snuggled close, though whether it was for warmth or out of affection on Valentine’s Day was not entirely clear. Jonah Sprung, 25, plucked at his date’s red nose on an uptown D train. “Cold beak, frozen beak,” he said. Mr. Sprung and his date, M. K. Thornberry, 23, watched the parade with friends and then shared some fish ball soup. Did the bitter cold make Valentine’s Day, in its way, more romantic? “I wouldn’t call it romantic,” said Mr. Sprung, removing a beanie to reveal matted hair pointing in every direction. Indeed, evidence of the lovers’ holiday was scant in Manhattan. Bouquets were not as prevalent in the streets as they are on a typical Valentine’s Day. Then again, neither were people. Near a sparsely populated Times Square, a couple walked, gloved fingers interlaced, shoulders squared against the wind. “It’s like our ski day,” said Cheryl Peters, 51, to her husband, Steve Peters, 47. “It’s really windy and bitter and exactly like when we were stuck on a chairlift,” she said. “It feels like that today.” Image The Lunar New Year Parade in Chinatown. Credit Caitlin Ochs for The New York Times The couple, an environmental engineer and a school secretary, were on vacation from Calgary, Canada. They said the cold might not have been so bad had they not turned up their noses at it and packed only thin coats. At Bryant Park in Manhattan, the fountain was nearly frozen solid, its spouting water transformed into a rococo pile of icicles. “It’s spectacular,” said Juan De Luca, 57, in Spanish. He had traveled with family members from Rio Negro, Argentina, where on Sunday it was close to 80 degrees. In New York, by the late afternoon, it was around 15. As they posed in front of the frozen fountain, he said, “We are suffering.” Nearby, the white expanse of the park’s popular skating rink was dotted with relatively few skaters. “This was a bad idea,” conceded David Ramirez, 22, hugging the guardrail. “We can’t skate for nothing. It’s freezing.” His wife, Lilo Rosario, 22, said, smiling, “This is what happens when you say, ‘Plan it, I’ll be down for whatever you decide.’” But nearby one skater, Eugene Kim, 58, twirled with delight in a quadrant he had almost to himself. After pirouetting to the tune of “When the Saints Go Marching In,” he declared it a perfect day. The cold did not bother him. All he needed was the music.

Parade
Lunar New Year
Weather
Chinatown Manhattan


Bill Cosby Ordered to Testify in Second Sexual Assault Case

Abstract: Bill Cosby will be questioned under oath in October in a second case involving accusations that he sexually assaulted a young woman, a judge said on Wednesday. The deposition of Mr. Cosby, 78, in the case involving Judy Huth, a California woman who said she was molested by the entertainer in 1974, when she was 15, was allowed to go forward last month, when the California Supreme Court denied Mr. Cosby’s petition for review. But the date had not been set, and Monique Pressley , one of Mr. Cosby’s lawyers, indicated there would be further efforts to fight it. One issue before the court was whether Mr. Cosby or Ms. Huth would be questioned first. But on Wednesday, the judge said Mr. Cosby’s deposition would take place on Oct. 9 and Ms. Huth’s on Oct. 15. Ms. Huth’s case is one of the few complaints against Mr. Cosby that can proceed in civil court because, she says, the alleged abuse happened when she was a minor. The statute of limitations in California is extended for adults who claim they were victims of sexual abuse as children, said her lawyer, Gloria Allred . Ms. Huth has claimed that Mr. Cosby forced her to perform a sex act on him at the Playboy Mansion. “We are pleased that we will now be able to move ahead without further delay on Ms. Huth’s case, and we look forward to taking Mr. Cosby’s deposition on Oct. 9, 2015,” Ms. Allred said in a statement. Ms. Pressley could not immediately be reached for comment. Andrew Wyatt, a spokesman for Mr. Cosby, declined to comment. Mr. Cosby’s deposition now appears to be set, unless there is a move by his side to delay the proceeding. More than two dozen women, including Ms. Huth, have accused Mr. Cosby of assault. He has consistently denied the accusations and has not been charged with a crime. In an earlier deposition involving another woman, Andrea Constand , taken in 2005 and 2006, Mr. Cosby acknowledged that he gave drugs to women he wanted to have sex with. He has portrayed both the drug-taking and the sex as consensual. The 2005-6 deposition became public this year. The court case involving Ms. Constand was settled in 2006, with Mr. Cosby paying an undisclosed settlement. In addition to the civil case in California, Mr. Cosby also faces two defamation cases, in Massachusetts and California.

Bill Cosby
Judy Huth
California
Rape
Lawsuits


Signs of Earnest Bargaining and Softer Tone in N.H.L. Talks

Abstract: Negotiations to end the N.H.L. lockout passed a critical point Wednesday, as the players’ association negotiated with the league deep into the night. At the same time, the union’s executive board allowed a self-imposed deadline for dissolving the union to pass, assuring that talks will continue without the immediate threat of lawsuits. The union membership voted last month to authorize the leadership to disclaim interest, but only until midnight Wednesday. A disclaimer of interest would have effectively dissolved the union and allowed individual players to file antitrust suits against the N.H.L. for continuing the lockout. But midnight passed with no indication that the union had notified the league of a disclaimer. That suggested that the rancor and bitterness that marked the first three and a half months of the lockout had finally gone, replaced by earnest bargaining. A federal mediator was present for the long day’s talks, according to Donald Fehr, the union’s executive director, and the N.H.L.’s commissioner, Gary Bettman -- further evidence that the negotiations have reached a constructive stage. Bettman said the mediator, Scott Beckenbaugh of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, requested that the two sides resume talks at 10 a.m. Thursday. “The players retain all the legal options they have always had, and I don’t talk about any internal matters,” Fehr said cryptically when asked whether the union had notified the league of a disclaimer. He spoke at 1 a.m. Thursday, after the end of almost five hours of talks at the league office in Midtown Manhattan. However, the N.H.L.’s Bettman, speaking a few minutes later, was more direct. “The word ‘disclaimer’ has yet to be uttered to us by the players’ association,” Bettman said. “When you disclaim interest as a union, you notify the other side. We have not been notified, and, as I said, it has never been discussed. So there has been no disclaimer.” But the long bargaining session and the banishment of a disclaimer threat did not necessarily mean that a settlement was close. The players’ pension fund was among several issues standing in the way of a quick resolution to the lockout, which Bettman has said he wants settled by Jan. 11 so a 48-game schedule can begin no later than Jan. 19. Fehr’s negotiating team included more than a dozen players as talks continued for a seventh straight day. Bettman’s team contained no owners, as it has throughout this latest round of bargaining. The presence of some owners in previous sessions had been seen as incendiary, particularly the participation of Jeremy Jacobs, the hard-line Bruins owner and chairman of the N.H.L. Board of Governors. The union presented its latest proposal at around 3 p.m., during a one-hour meeting with the league. It was the fourth offer exchanged between the two sides since Dec. 27, when the N.H.L. extended a proposal that jump-started the current round of bargaining. After league officials weighed the offer, the union returned for more talks at 8 p.m. Bettman said the presence of a mediator was jointly requested by the league and the union. “Can’t hurt,” Bettman said when asked why a mediator was requested. Bettman said the two sides “made some progress but were still apart on some issues” but added that he was “hopeful” as long as talks were continuing. “On some issues we agreed, on some we moved toward each other, and on some we said no,” Bettman said. “I think that applies to both sides.” Fehr was similarly guarded, adding that differences remain on some core economic issues. “The parties moved closer together on some issues, but there is still a ways to go, if an agreement can be reached,” Fehr said. Neither Fehr nor Bettman would discuss specific areas under negotiation, but Bettman called pensions a “complicated issue” that was “still a work in progress.” The union has proposed that players finance the pension plan, but owners would be responsible for covering any potential shortfalls that might arise. The owners appeared to be balking at assuming that risk. “The way it works is the players are still funding the pension,” the Los Angeles Kings forward Kevin Westgarth, a member of the negotiating committee, said in an interview last month. “The only issue is if there is a possible underfunding at some point — owners don’t want that on their books.” Last month, Westgarth said an improved pension plan was the players’ biggest gain in the negotiations. “I think the fact that we sold it as extremely important to players may have worked against us,” he said, citing the owners’ reluctance to bail out the pension fund in case of a shortfall. Negotiators also haggled over the salary cap for the 2013-14 season, which the owners wanted to drop from $70.2 million to $60 million while the players sought a cap closer to $67 million. Also under negotiation were limits on escrow payments made by players in case revenues drop sharply, the length of the collective bargaining agreement and other issues. Thursday marked the 110th day of the lockout.

Lockouts
Donald Fehr
Gary Bettman
Ice hockey
NHL


Additional Four Charged in Florida Prison Escape Scheme

Abstract: MIAMI — Anxious to defuse a scandal involving two prison inmates who obtained their freedom by forging release orders, Florida officials said Thursday that they had traced the scheme to an inmate who taught others how to carry out the deceptions. The scheme originated in the computers of prison libraries and relied on former inmates on the outside to “fine tune” and print the phony documents, officials said. Gerald M. Bailey, the commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, told reporters in Tallahassee that four additional suspects — all current or former Department of Corrections inmates — had been identified as participants in the scheme. The investigation was set off in October when two inmates, Joseph Jenkins and Charles Walker, both 34 and serving life sentences for murder, were recaptured in a Panama City motel room after being released from the Franklin Correctional Institution in Carabelle, Fla., under orders that turned out to be fraudulent. One of the four additional suspects, Terrance Goodman, a 37-year-old former inmate who befriended some of the others in prison, was said to have driven Mr. Jenkins and Mr. Walker to the motel and obtained a room for them there. He was arrested in Panama City earlier Thursday and charged with harboring fugitives and conspiracy to commit escape. Image Joseph Jenkins Credit Bay County Sheriff's Office Mr. Goodman was the only man in the scheme who had remained at large, although officials said the investigation was still in progress and that there might be other arrests. The news that inmates had been able to write their own tickets out of prison was deeply embarrassing to state officials, who are grappling with high crime rates and a growing prison population. “The Department of Corrections takes very seriously its primary mission of protecting the safety of Florida’s families,” the department’s secretary, Michael Crews, said Thursday. He added that in the wake of the most recent escapes, there were new procedures in place to prevent bogus releases of inmates, including a requirement that any release order be verified by the judge who imposed the sentence at trial. “Until that verification if received, we will not release that inmate,” Mr. Crews said. He added that the department was also reviewing the amount of access inmates have to computers and documents in prison libraries. “Those things that are not required constitutionally, we’ll be moving pretty quickly to remove those,” Mr. Crews said. A major factor in the deceptions was the inmates’ ability to communicate with accomplices on the outside via smuggled cellphones, Mr. Crews said. “Yes, we are watching them,” he said, “but to say that 24 hours a day you have an eye on every one — we just can’t do it.” Mr. Bailey, the Department of Law Enforcement commissioner, said prisoners also make use of a privilege called legal mail, which is uncensored and unedited and is intended for communications between inmates and their lawyers. “We think they were using that,” he said, to send the text of release orders to others outside the prison system. They, in turn, would print the text on paper for eventual delivery by mail to a clerk of the court. The scheme, Mr. Bailey said, appears to have been confined to current and former inmates. Image Charles Walker Credit Bay County Sheriff's Office “We have no indication that anyone in the prison system or the clerk’s office was involved in this fraud,” the commissioner said. He identified as the “engineer” of the scheme an inmate named Nydeed Nashaddai, who used forged documents to leave a Pinellas County jail in 2009. He was captured 16 hours later and sentenced to 20 years for escape. He was then sent to the same Franklin County prison from which the two most recent escapes occurred. Mr. Bailey said Thursday that Mr. Nashaddai, 48, who was in prison for forging checks, had taught the elements of his release-order forgeries to fellow inmates, including Mr. Walker and Mr. Jenkins, and that additional charges had been levied against him as a result. In 2011, two years after his brief fling with freedom, Mr. Nashaddai tried to escape again using fake paperwork, and involved two other inmates, officials said. One was Jeffrey Forbes, 30, who had been convicted of trying to kill a police officer and was charged Thursday with forgery and attempted escape. The other was Mr. Jenkins, who like Mr. Nashaddai was unsuccessful on that occasion, but who managed to get out for three weeks this fall. As soon as Mr. Jenkins was free, he forged release documents for Mr. Walker, officials said. A former inmate named Willie Slater Jr. received Mr. Jenkins’s and Mr. Walker’s fraudulent documents in the mail and ensured their delivery to the Orange County clerk’s office, officials said. Mr. Slater had been serving time for a home invasion when he met Mr. Jenkins in prison, officials said. Mr. Jenkins, who was serving a life sentence for killing Mr. Slater’s brother, appears to have reached a deal with Mr. Slater to get them both out of prison. Mr. Jenkins claimed responsibility for Mr. Slater's home invasion, and Mr. Slater was released. In helping with Mr. Jenkins’s fraudulent release, officials said, Mr. Slater was returning a “significant” favor.

Florida
Prison escape
Prison
Joseph Jenkins
Charles Walker
Terrance Goodman
Nydeed Nashaddai
Jeffrey Forbes
Willie Slater Jr


Peppering Net With Shots, Blackhawks Slip Two Into It

Abstract: CHICAGO — The Blackhawks shot high, and they shot low. They shot glove-side and stick-side, from close range and long range. They tried one-timers and wristers. They screened, and they chipped. And finally they cracked Jonathan Quick. For a period and a half on Saturday, the Blackhawks peppered the Los Angeles Kings’ net with nothing to show for it. They outshot the Kings by 17-2 in the first period, yet trailed by a goal. Patience, though, trumped frustration. The Blackhawks found their offense and grabbed Game 1 of the Western Conference finals, 2-1. Game 2 is Sunday at United Center. The series set up as a contrast in styles: the up-tempo offense of the Blackhawks against the size of the Kings’ defense and Quick, the most valuable player in last year’s Stanley Cup playoffs. Game 1 fit the billing. The Kings did not register a shot for the first eight minutes, while the Blackhawks dominated the puck, the pace and the possession. “He does some things in the net that you try to overcome,” Blackhawks Coach Joel Quenneville said. “Volume and traffic on shots is the only way to get this guy.” At 12 minutes 29 seconds of the second period, the Blackhawks’ relentless pressure paid off. Johnny Oduya fired a shot from the point that Quick saved with a blocker. But the rebound bounced to the stick of Patrick Sharp as he streaked toward the net. Sharp beat Quick with a put-back for his team-high eighth goal of the playoffs. “He’s going to make those saves from the outside,” Sharp said. “It’s about getting to the inside. It’s about outworking their defensemen to get those second and third opportunities.” Four minutes after Sharp’s goal, Duncan Keith took a pass from Bryan Bickell at the point and fired a shot at Quick. Marian Hossa, posted in front of the goal, held out his stick and deflected the puck past the screened Quick. The Blackhawks had the lead, and what had been a subdued crowd came alive. Chicago killed a penalty midway through the third period, and Corey Crawford, who had 21 saves, made the lead hold up. The Blackhawks even flexed a little muscle with a big hit from Dave Bolland on Mike Richards in the final minutes that brought the home fans to their feet. Before the series, the Blackhawks talked about the bounces that would be needed to beat Quick, who entered Game 1 leading the playoffs with a .948 save percentage and a 1.5 goals against average. Those breaks eventually went Chicago’s way Saturday, but only after the Kings were the recipients of the puck’s first critical hop late in the first period. After a failed clearing attempt, Crawford tried to sweep the puck away from his crease, and Bolland also got a stick on it in an attempt to clear the zone. But the puck ricocheted off the stick of Justin Williams and skipped past Crawford into the net. It was Williams’s third goal in two games; he scored both goals for the Kings in Game 7 against the San Jose Sharks in the second round. Saturday’s goal, though, did little to change the game’s flow, as the Blackhawks tested Quick from the opening face-off. In the early part of the game, Quick was equal to Chicago’s many challenges. In the first period, he stuffed Patrick Kane during a four on four, as Kane skated alone through the goal mouth after a pass from Jonathan Toews in the corner. Kane measured a shot, but Quick turned it away with his stick hand. Later in the first, Quick stopped a one-timer from Sharp and then a good chance on the rebound from Brandon Saad. In the second period, Quick gloved a laserlike wrist shot from Keith. “Shift after shift, the waves of pressure, we didn’t have them at all it seemed,” Kings center Jarret Stoll said. “We didn’t have that consistent push we wanted to, so therefore we didn’t get a lot of scoring opportunities.” Both teams entered the series battle-tested, having won two of the past three Stanley Cups. The Blackhawks won it in 2010 and had a league-high 77 points in this lockout-shortened regular season. The Kings are the defending champions and peaking again in the postseason. Each team also survived a seven-game series in the second round, the Kings taking out the Sharks, and the Blackhawks needing overtime to eliminate the Detroit Red Wings. The Kings welcomed the return of Stoll, who missed the final six games of the series against the Sharks after a hit to the head from Raffi Torres in Game 1. But the Blackhawks left the arena knowing they were the team that imposed its style and speed on the Kings and on Quick, their seemingly invincible goaltender. “Quick’s a good goalie,” Sharp said. “We try not to talk about him too much and go out there and control what we can control.”

Jonathan Quick
Los Angeles Kings
Playoffs
Ice hockey
Chicago Blackhawks


Vettel Wins Japanese Grand Prix to Close In on Title

Abstract: SUZUKA, Japan — Any race that has a world drivers’ title as a possible outcome should be suspenseful. But the Japanese Grand Prix went far beyond expectations, as the two remaining contenders for the title drove controlled, strategic and tense races to the end, both rising up from difficult starts to excellent finishes. Through multiple changes of position and with different race strategies, worn tires that gripped poorly on the roller coaster track of Suzuka, Sebastian Vettel of Red Bull and Fernando Alonso of Ferrari ensured that the Formula One season would continue for at least one more of the remaining four races without the naming of its 2013 world champion. Still, Vettel, the reigning three-time world champion, did what he needed to on Sunday to make sure his task will be a little bit easier next race, by winning the Japanese Grand Prix and taking his ninth victory of the season, the 35th of his career and his fourth in Suzuka. It was also his fifth victory in a row this season, a feat accomplished by only five drivers in Formula One history. And with four races left in the season, he needs to finish only in the top five places at the next race, in New Delhi in two weeks, to take 10 points to win his fourth drivers’ title in a row. He currently lies 90 points ahead of Alonso in the standings, and 25 points are awarded for a victory. “I’m already looking forward to next year,” Vettel said, referring to racing in Suzuka, but in response to a question about how close he now sits to winning the title. “We’ll still keep pushing, and we will never give up,” he added. “It is looking very good now at this stage, but it is not over until it is over.” Before the race, both Kimi Raikkonen, of Lotus and Lewis Hamilton, of Mercedes, also had mathematical chances to win the title. But Hamilton retired after only seven laps, after colliding with Vettel at the start and damaging his car on the long drive back to the pits with only three tires. Raikkonen finished only fifth. Alonso started eighth, and drove a tense but controlled race to finish in fourth position. Vettel leads the series with 297 points, Alonso is second with 207, and Raikkonen is third with 197. Hamilton has 161 points. Mark Webber, who finished the race in second in the other Red Bull, is fifth with 148 points. So the last four races are a duel between Alonso and Vettel, with Vettel virtually certain of winning his fourth title in a row — barring disaster. Image Sebastian Vettel of Germany after winning the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday. Credit Koji Sasahara/Associated Press It looked far from that clear at the beginning, however. Webber scored pole position in the other Red Bull, with Vettel starting second, Hamilton starting third and Romain Grosjean of the Lotus team starting fourth. Both Red Bull vehicles got off to a poor start, and as Vettel tried to prevent Hamilton from passing him, Grosjean slipped in the inside of the track and passed all three drivers, to come out of the first corner leading the race. In the end, though, despite leading for more than half of the race, Grosjean’s Lotus was not a match for the Red Bulls, and the Frenchman first lost the lead to Vettel after his pit stop on Lap 28, before losing second place to Webber with less than two laps left in the 53-lap race. “A horrible start, but then a fantastic comeback,” Vettel said. “We started already to try to go longer than Romain and Mark already in the first stint, and then extend the second stint to really put them under pressure at the end. That was the game plan.” It worked perfectly. But things might have ended differently had Red Bull not decided to change Webber’s strategy to three pit stops instead of the two pit stops of all the other top seven finishers. “We tried to race Romain at the start, and then we switched to a three stop,” Webber said. “I was a little bit surprised; I asked whether it was the right thing to do.” In the end, the strategy favored Vettel, but nevertheless allowed Webber to pass Grosjean to finish second. Webber finished 7.1 seconds behind his teammate, with Grosjean 2.7 seconds behind the Australian. Grosjean, who had left Suzuka in disgrace last year after shoving Webber off the track and being called a “first-lap nut case” by the Australian, was beaming in delight at his result. “We were the only car able to follow them, and we did not even think of racing them before the race,” Grosjean said. Vettel, who knew that a victory could give him the title if Alonso failed to score more than three points, said that he had not asked his team for the Spanish driver’s finishing position until after the race. “I didn’t ask, and I didn’t want to know,” he said. “Because there are still things that can happen in the end. I was struggling enough with the car.” For his part, Alonso has elected to shut out all thoughts of taking the title, despite his mathematical chances. “If Sebastian didn’t win the championship here, he’ll win in India or Abu Dhabi,” Alonso said.


South Korea Hunts for Army Shooter

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — A South Korean Army sergeant killed five of his fellow soldiers and wounded five others on Saturday when he opened fire along the border with North Korea, military officials said. A hunt for the soldier was underway late Saturday. “He is still at loose, armed with a weapon and ammunition,” said a spokesman for the South Korean Defense Ministry who spoke on the condition of anonymity, citing the ministry’s policy. The shootings took place at a guard post of the 22nd South Korean Army Division, which patrols the eastern section of the heavily armed border with North Korea. It was not immediately known what drove the soldier, a sergeant whose name was not released, to kill his colleagues. South Korea is still technically at war with North Korea because the Korean War ended in 1953 with an armistice, not a peace treaty, so the South pays keen attention to any signs of trouble or a lack of discipline in the ranks of its military. In 2011, a marine corporal who investigators say was bullied by other marines in his barracks killed four marines and wounded a fifth. The episodes highlight the challenge for South Korea in maintaining its 650,000-member military, a largely conscript force that is intended to deter aggression from the North. North Korea regularly threatens to attack the South and has launched occasional surprise armed provocations across the border. Increasingly, the military’s ranks are filled with young men who no longer consider their 21-month compulsory service a “sacred duty,” but rather an inconvenient interruption of their civilian life and careers. In the past, corporal punishment was more widespread but also more accepted, supported by an overriding conviction that the country needed a disciplined military to protect it from the North. But South Korea’s younger generation, accustomed to six decades of relative peace on the divided peninsula, tends to be more reluctant to tolerate the strict, often harsh, enforcement of hierarchy and seniority among enlisted men, a practice that has led to instances of brutality. Beatings have drastically declined in recent years. But after the shooting in 2011, the Defense Ministry announced a renewed crackdown on beatings and other abuses in the military.

South Korea
North Korea
Military
Korean War
Murders


Unscrambling the Alphabet of Fund Fees

Abstract: WHEN stock markets climb, the fees associated with equity ownership are easy to shrug off. But with the stock market ailing in 2008 — the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index is down 9.75 percent as of Friday — mutual fund investors are right to wonder and worry about the costs they are paying to own their shares. Tallying these costs is especially hard for investors in load funds — those with sales charges — bought through a broker. These are the funds of the alphabet-soup share classes, A, B, C and so on, whose fees vary because of differences in the sales charges and when they are levied. While the bulk of mutual fund investors wisely choose no-load funds — 73 percent in 2006, according to the Investment Company Institute — $37 billion went into funds with loads. Some 80 percent of mutual fund investors consult with brokers and other advisers when buying mutual fund shares outside of their retirement plans, the organization said. Fund prospectuses, nobody’s idea of easy reading, don’t help investors understand what they are paying in expenses, either. Many prospectuses show total return figures that do not factor in sales charges, for example. Even expense ratios, the numbers that most investors look to as a proxy for costs, do not give shareholders what they probably want: an estimate of their account’s value after deducting fees and sales charges. Happily, such a number can be found on the Web site of Finra (the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority), the private regulator of brokerage firms and their employees, which was formerly known as the NASD. The organization’s mutual fund expense analyzer, which can be found at http://apps.finra.org/investor_Information/ea/1/mfetf.aspx , is a nifty tool that allows investors to compare the costs of various funds and share classes in a way that is tailored to their expected holding period and estimated returns. Finra cautions that its cost analyzer generates hypothetical results because the data that goes into it involves estimates both for holding periods and returns. But it is easy to use and far more illuminating about fees than most prospectuses. Any investor who has been persuaded by a broker to buy a load fund should consult the fee analyzer first to see which share class is cheapest. One message comes through loud and clear from a trip through the analyzer: There is no such thing as the right share class for all investors. Indeed, one of the most intriguing findings is that Class A shares, the most commonly sold class today and the one usually characterized as the best value for individual investors, are often more expensive than B and C shares. Class A shares have front-end loads, meaning that the sales charge is paid at the time of purchase. Class B shares have loads that decline over time, eventually disappearing, and are payable upon selling shares. Class C shares typically have higher asset-based sales charges levied annually, but no front- or back-end loads. Class A shares are typically viewed as cheaper because their lower operating expenses are thought to offset their upfront sales loads, which can run to 5.75 percent. In 2006, such shares accounted for 51 percent of all load fund sales, versus 13 percent in 2002. Finra’s fee analyzer shows how wrong this conventional wisdom can be. That Class B shares can be a better value may also surprise anyone who has paid attention to regulatory actions against fund brokers in recent years. In many such cases, Class B shares were central to investor abuses — brokers sold large numbers of the shares to investors who would have done better with Class A shares. The scandals led so many to view Class B shares negatively that some financial services firms now limit the sales of the share class. But for an investor placing $40,000 or less into a fund for a five-year period, Class B shares often result in lower fees than A shares. One reason is that the high front-end load of the A shares means investors have less money working for them right out of the gate. In any case, brokers pushing Class A shares because of the problems with the Class B shares are laughing all the way to the bank. Here are some hypothetical examples of how fees can affect returns in different share classes: The analyzer shows that a $40,000 investment in the Lord Abbett All Value fund, to be held for five years with an estimated return of 5 percent a year, would generate the lowest account value if held in Class A shares: $45,532. The C shares would produce the highest, $46,787, and an investor in the B shares would wind up with $45,987. If the Franklin Large Cap Value fund returned 5 percent annually for seven years and you invested $10,000 for the period, the A shares would again generate less. An investor in the A shares would have $12,065; a holder of B shares would receive $12,241 and the C class would produce $12,250. A third example is the Columbia Acorn International fund. A $20,000 investment held for three years that returned a hypothetical 5 percent a year would generate $21,785 in the Class C shares and $21,307 in Class B. And Class A brings up the rear, with an account value of $21,011. For all their notoriety, Class B shares can be even more attractive because brokers will often waive the back-end loads when sales occur as a result of a divorce, disability or required minimum distributions in an individual retirement account. After comparing account values in a variety of funds and circumstances, C shares seem to be the cheapest of the alternatives most of the time. But not always. A $40,000 investment in the Alliance Bernstein International Value fund held for seven years with a hypothetical annual return of 7 percent would eke out the best result in Class A, at $56,614, while the B and C classes would turn in the same $56,303. And the Class A shares of the Davis New York Venture fund would produce the best outcome when $25,000 is invested and held for eight years, assuming an 8 percent annual return. In that circumstance, the A shares would generate $41,190 while the B shares would produce $40,917 and the C shares $40,691. All of this illustrates that the conventional wisdom — that Class A shares are the “best” for investors — is not always wise. Every case is different, which is why the Finra analyzer is so helpful. It allows investors who insist on buying load funds to enrich themselves first, their brokers second.

Mutual Funds
Investment Company Institute
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority
Stocks and Bonds
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Brokers and Brokerage Firms
Standard & Poor's Corp


Defense Lawyer Describes Murder Case Full of ‘Half-Truths’

Abstract: The defense lawyer stood alone. A hundred pairs of eyes watched him from the gallery; nearly a hundred police officers waited in the dress blues and golden lapel pins of the 70th Precinct in Flatbush, Brooklyn. After weeks of testimony in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on the killing of one of their own, the officers were ready for a verdict yesterday. The room was tense. The defense lawyer, Edward Friedman, looked out on the officers and spoke of what he considered another crime, conducted during the investigation “at the 70th Precinct.” “This evidence that you heard from the witness stand this past month is full of fraud, misrepresentation, half-truths and lies,” Mr. Friedman said, addressing the jury. He continued: “To make their case, ladies and gentlemen, to make their case.” His client, Allan Cameron, 29, sat silent and stiff at the defense table, dressed in a dark suit and pink tie. He has been charged with an array of crimes including first-degree murder, intentional murder, drug and weapons possession and running a red light. The jury is to continue deliberating today. By the account of prosecutors, the traffic violation provided a motive for the killing, committed at a time when Mr. Cameron was on probation and had a gun and a couple of ounces of marijuana in the car. As the police chased his red Infiniti Q45 early on Nov. 28, 2005, prosecutors say, Mr. Cameron fired six shots from a 9-millimeter handgun into a police car. “He needs to get away,” an assistant district attorney, Mark Hale, said in his closing argument. “Because if he doesn’t get away, he goes to jail.” One officer, Dillon Stewart, 35, was struck through the heart. He died later that morning. Prosecutors said Mr. Cameron fled to a parking garage, abandoned the car and ran to the apartment of a girlfriend, who threw away the gun. At the trial, Officer Stewart’s partner testified that he had never seen the gunman’s face. Lacking an eyewitness, prosecutors built a circumstantial case on the testimony of ballistics and DNA experts, investigators and civilian witnesses. One man told of selling Mr. Cameron the car. One man described Mr. Cameron’s frequent use of the garage. The girlfriend, Maritza Nicolas, recounted throwing the gun out a window. When the testimony was done, Mr. Friedman suggested an alternate interpretation of the evidence: Perhaps Officer Stewart had been struck by the police gunfire directed at Mr. Cameron. Mr. Friedman reminded jurors of testimony by one of the officers who had fired on the fleeing car, Officer Mark Pihlava. In court, Officer Pihlava had shown how he had tried to fix a jammed weapon during the chase by shaking it and pulling the slide. “Almost immediately, Officer Stewart says, ‘I’m shot,’” Mr. Friedman told the jury. From that moment, Mr. Friedman said, the police built a faulty case against Mr. Cameron. Mr. Friedman questioned the ballistic evidence by showing the jury a police report of a bullet that was recovered but later lost. He also challenged the validity of evidence in Ms. Nicolas’s apartment. “I’m not saying everybody got together at 4 in the morning and said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to frame this guy,’” Mr. Friedman said. “But these are unanswered questions.” Displaying a photograph of Mr. Cameron bandaged in police custody and a hospital report that said he had been kicked in the eye, Mr. Friedman asked jurors to disregard statements the police took from Mr. Cameron. The prosecution case had “no eyewitnesses, no physical description, nothing,” Mr. Friedman concluded. When his turn came to address the jury, Mr. Hale defended the integrity of the investigation. “This is not about vengeance, this is about justice,” he said. He went on: “Here, a New York City police officer, a human being, was shot and killed, and only justice is going to make up for that.” Had the police intended to frame Mr. Cameron, Mr. Hale said, Officer Stewart’s partner would have identified him by face. “All of this evidence,” Mr. Hale said, “was just waiting there where Allan Cameron left it.”


Broncos Beat Chargers, 39-38, on 2-Point Conversion

Abstract: DENVER (AP) — The Denver Broncos were on such a lucky streak, why not roll the dice? Showing ultimate confidence in his offense and maybe an equal dollop of distrust in his defense, Mike Shanahan went for a 2-point conversion with 29 seconds left and Jay Cutler hit the rookie Eddie Royal over the middle to give the Denver Broncos a 39-38 win over the San Diego Chargers on Sunday. “Sometimes you have to go with your gut,” Shanahan said. “I just felt like it was a chance for us to put them away. I didn’t want to count on the coin flip. I wanted to do it then, and obviously it worked out.” It was the third successful 2-point attempt from a team going for the win instead of a tie in the waning seconds of a game since the 2-point conversion was added in 1994, and the first since Tampa Bay beat Washington, 36-35, on Mike Allstott’s run on Nov. 13, 2005. The Chargers (0-2) were both stunned and steamed at their second straight loss in the waning seconds. The Broncos (2-0) had the ball because an errant whistle had erased a fumble by Cutler two plays earlier. Trailing by 38-31, the Broncos reached the 1-yard line, but on second-and-goal, Cutler reared back to throw. The ball slipped out of his hands, bounced off the grass and into the arms of linebacker Tim Dobbins. “Fumble, I think,” acknowledged Cutler, who blamed the slick, new ball. The referee Ed Hochuli blew his whistle when the ball came out, ruling it an incomplete pass. A review showed that it should have been ruled a fumble. Instant replay rules, however, do not allow the opponent to gain possession in such situations. “All we can do to fix it is put the ball at the spot that it hit the ground, which is why we moved it back to the 10-yard line and the down counts and it becomes third down,” Hochuli said. That explanation was not good enough for Chargers Coach Norv Turner. “On the last play, it was clearly a fumble,” he said. “Ed came over, the official, and said he blew it. And that’s not acceptable to me. This is a high-level performance game and that’s not acceptable to have a game decided on that play.” The call the Broncos wanted to talk about was not the referee’s, but their coach’s. “You don’t play this game to tie,” fullback Michael Pittman said. “You play this game to win.” Two plays after his fumble was overruled, Cutler hit Royal from 4 yards to make the score 38-37. With more than 75,000 fans at Invesco Field holding their breath, Cutler again found Royal in the end zone for the winning points on the same route, his dart splitting three defenders.

Denver Broncos
San Diego Chargers
Football


Catholic Paper Apologizes for Homosexuality Column

Abstract: The official newspaper of the Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston has apologized for a column that said that homosexuality is caused by Satan. The column’s author, Daniel Avila, is a lawyer and policy adviser at the Catholic bishops’ conference in Washington, where he works in the office that opposes the spread of same-sex marriage . Mr. Avila wrote, “The scientific evidence of how same-sex attraction most likely may be created provides a credible basis for a spiritual explanation that indicts the devil.” The church’s Boston newspaper, The Pilot, apologized for “having failed to recognize the theological error in the column before publication,” and it deleted the column from its Web site. A spokeswoman for the bishops’ conference said that Mr. Avila’s column was not approved by the bishops, and that the church does not have a definitive theory on the origins of same-sex attraction.

Homosexuality
Newspapers
Roman Catholic Church


Despite Wave of Piracy, Filipinos Crave Work as Sailors

Abstract: MANILA — Under the shade of the tall trees that line the sidewalk at Rizal Park, Marlon Arguelles scanned the job notices posted on the recruiting booths. The laser printouts were marked with huge American dollar signs. The park, just off Manila Bay, is where Filipino merchant sailors go to seek work. Recruiters from international shipping companies come here each weekday to bid for their services. There has always been an element of risk in the seafaring life, but with a surge in piracy off the Horn of Africa, the dangers have seldom been more glaring. And with so many Filipinos making their lives at sea — the government estimates that one-third of the world’s merchant sailors are from the Philippines — the risks are especially apparent here. More than 100 Filipinos are being held by the Somali pirates who have made the Gulf of Aden a terrifying place to sail. So far, the government says, none have been killed, but some of the sailors have been held for months. The added dangers did little to faze the men who showed up at the recruitment market on a recent day to search for jobs. Recruiters say they have seen little falloff in demand for jobs on even the most dangerous routes, and a private agency that counsels sailors concurred. Salvador Santos, assistant general manager of that agency, the Luneta Seafarers’ Center , said that economic considerations almost always trumped concerns for personal safety among the sailors. Mr. Arguelles, 28, who was scanning the job notices, was looking for work as a ship’s cook. Many of the recruiting agencies were offering $1,000 to $2,000 a month for the position. But he said he needed more than that to help care for his mother, who suffers from hypertension, and to pay for the education of his three younger siblings. So he perked up when he heard that one recruiter was looking for crewmen for an oil tanker that would pass through the Gulf of Aden. “I know it’s dangerous, but the agency is offering twice the salary,” Mr. Arguelles said. “Besides, think about it: the pirates haven’t killed any crew members so far, so it could be harmless.” Indeed, some news reports have contributed to the cavalier attitude. After the all-Filipino crew of the Greek-owned tanker Centauri was released last month, the sailors told news agencies that the pirates had treated them well, even playing cards with them and sharing meals during the two months that the crew was held. In late November, of the approximately 300 sailors being held captive by Somali pirates, 134 were Filipinos, according to the Philippine Department of Foreign Affairs. Twenty-six of them were from the Centauri; the other 108, who manned seven ships, were still in the hands of the pirates. While some legislators and government officials in the Philippines have called for restrictions on the maritime recruiting market, the idea has received little support. With about 10 percent of the population of the Philippines working abroad, and with many families here relying on remittances that émigrés send home, there has been no public outcry about the sailors. Mr. Santos of the seafarers’ center — which dispenses advice about the various recruitment agencies from a two-story building beside the row of booths in the recruitment market — said he did not think the men were being exploited. “It’s up to the sailor whether to accept the offer,” he said. “The important thing is he knows what he’s getting into.” A sailor who boards a ship bound for Somali waters often gets double the usual wage, plus hazard pay, Mr. Santos said. That could mean more than $3,000 a month for a cook, more than a minimum wage-earner in the Philippines would make in a year. Mr. Arguelles, the would-be sailor, said he had always wanted to be a teacher, but teaching is one of the lowest-paid jobs in the Philippines. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration says that about 270,000 Filipinos are merchant sailors. The country’s population is about 96 million. The Department of Foreign Affairs said that it was trying to help those who fall prey to pirates. “The Philippine government is doing its best to protect its sailors, whom we consider heroes,” said Crescente Relacion, executive director of the department’s Office of Migrant Workers Affairs. “We are in constant communication with the shipowners, with foreign authorities and with the families of the sailors who remain in captivity.” Mr. Santos said that it would be hard for the government, or anyone, to try to keep Filipinos from heading to Africa’s troubled waters. And the sailors’ bravery in the face of the well-armed pirates is becoming legendary at home. In one recent episode, according to several security contractors, Filipino crew members pelted pirates with tomatoes in an attempt to stop them from scaling the hull of their ship. The sailors’ efforts failed.


Software Maker Triples Its Profit

Abstract: BOSTON (Reuters) — CA Inc. , the maker of business software, reported Thursday that quarterly profit more than tripled as it cut expenses and the weak dollar helped bolster revenue from overseas operations. The company posted fiscal third-quarter net income from continuing operations of $163 million, or 31 cents a share, compared with $50 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 10 percent, to $1.1 billion, during the quarter, which ended Dec. 31. The company said that total revenue would have climbed 4 percent in constant currency. North American revenue was up 5 percent in the third quarter while revenue from international operations was up 17 percent, or 4 percent on a constant currency basis, compared with the period last year. Expenses before interest and income taxes fell to $851 million, from $907 million. Cash flow from continuing operations fell 60 percent, to $233 million.

Software
Company Reports
CA Inc
Computers and the Internet


Typhoon Kills at Least 25 People in China, Reports Say

Abstract: BEIJING — A powerful typhoon that had threatened Hong Kong brushed past the southern Chinese city on Sunday night and crashed into Guangdong Province. The local news media said at least 25 people were killed. Typhoon Usagi, described as among the region’s most dangerous storms in three decades, forced the cancellation of hundreds of flights in Hong Kong and delayed the opening of financial markets on Monday. But it weakened as it approached the densely populated Pearl River Delta with winds that topped out at around 110 miles per hour. More than half of the deaths occurred in and around the coastal city of Shanwei on Sunday night. The dead included seven railroad construction workers, two people who drowned when their fishing boat capsized, and a man hit by a window dislodged by gale-force winds, the state-run media said. Flooding and strong gusts brought down power lines, leaving 170,000 people without electricity. Across Guangdong, the official Xinhua news agency said, the storm destroyed 7,100 homes and forced the evacuation of around 226,000 people. Damage was estimated at more than $500 million. In Shantou, another coastal city, rising floodwaters helped a two-ton hippopotamus escape from its enclosure at the city zoo. Photographs posted on the Internet showed the animal bobbing in a nearby canal, but it was reportedly coaxed back by zoo workers by Monday afternoon. Earlier in the week, Usagi — which means rabbit in Japanese — plowed through the Luzon Strait, which separates Taiwan and the Philippines, killing at least four people. For a while on Friday, the storm qualified as a supertyphoon, a Category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, but it began to lose some of its punch on Sunday. According to the Hong Kong Observatory, the storm injured 13 people across the city and forced the cancellation of 370 flights, leaving hundreds of travelers stranded at the city’s airport. On the Chinese mainland, high-speed train service between Guangzhou and Beijing was suspended and 540 flights were canceled just as millions of travelers were returning after a three-day national holiday. By Monday evening, the storm, still packing heavy wind and rain, was sweeping northwest to China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Typhoon
China
Hong Kong
Guangdong
Hurricanes


Argentine President Denies Cover-Up in Bombing Inquiry

Abstract: BUENOS AIRES — President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina made an impassioned defense on Sunday of her role in the investigation into the fatal bombing of a Jewish community center here in 1994, days after a judge dismissed criminal allegations against her. In her annual State of the Union address to Congress, Mrs. Kirchner accused others of using the case for political gain. “If there are delays or a cover-up of A.M.I.A., look somewhere else, not here,” she said, using the Spanish acronym for the Argentina Israelite Mutual Association, the bombed community center. A judge dismissed on Thursday a criminal complaint brought by a federal prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, shortly before his mysterious death in January of a gunshot wound to the head. Investigators are trying to determine whether he was killed or had shot himself. In an emphatic rebuke of Mr. Nisman’s complaint, which was revived by a second prosecutor, Gerardo Pollicita, Judge Daniel Rafecas wrote that there was no evidence pointing to Mrs. Kirchner and faulted the evidence provided by Mr. Nisman. Mr. Pollicita can appeal the decision. The Mysterious Death of Alberto Nisman A prosecutor in Argentina accuses the president of attempting to cover up a secret deal to shield terrorists. Days later, the prosecutor is found dead and the president alleges a conspiracy. An overview of key developments in the case. Mrs. Kirchner had been accused of conspiring to shield Iranian officials from responsibility in the bombing, which left 85 people dead, in exchange for trade benefits. Bolstered by the judge’s decision after weeks of turmoil here following Mr. Nisman’s death, Mrs. Kirchner dedicated a large part of her address to Congress, which lasted almost four hours, to defending her record over the investigation into the bombing. Tens of thousands of supporters gathered outside Congress in a show of support for the beleaguered president. Mrs. Kirchner suggested that Mr. Nisman was manipulated by forces trying to destabilize her. She pointed to documents, cited by Mr. Rafecas, in which Mr. Nisman had highlighted her government’s role in helping the investigation just weeks before he filed the criminal complaint. “Which Nisman do I believe?” Mrs. Kirchner said, before questioning the circumstances under which he returned to Buenos Aires from Europe in January to accuse her. “I don’t think Nisman wanted to attack the president.” There were nationwide marches last month to honor Mr. Nisman and express anger with Argentina’s political establishment. Many Argentines believe the government had a hand in Mr. Nisman’s death. But Mrs. Kirchner and her inner circle have cast suspicion on a former spymaster who worked with him on the bombing investigation. “She painted herself as the hero of the A.M.I.A. case and presented her administration in a triumphant way, but what emerges is a very dubious legacy,” said Federico Finchelstein, an Argentine historian at the New School for Social Research in New York, referring to divided public opinion over Mr. Nisman’s death and economic problems.

Argentina
Alberto Nisman
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner
Terrorism


Divvying Scholarship Dollars Can Divide a Team

Abstract: An athlete’s worth to a college is often negotiated behind the closed door of a coach’s office with the scholarship amount kept a guarded secret, like a salary in a workplace. But the figures have a way of eventually getting out, as they do in any office. What happens next is not surprising: scholarship envy. “It tends to come out when someone is either playing really well or really bad,” said Jillian Loyden, a senior goalkeeper on the Villanova University women’s soccer team. “If someone has a few really poor games, you hear girls during a bus ride saying: ‘And she’s on 75 percent scholarship. What is the coach thinking?’ ” Joe Taylor, a standout member of the Villanova men’s soccer team whose athletic aid represents more than half his college expenses, agreed. “Playing badly and getting a lot of money will usually lead to resentment,” he said. “I guess it’s normal, but it’s not very good for the team concept.” Cortney Barry, a freshman swimmer at the University of Delaware who was granted an athletic scholarship worth $10,000 annually, added: “Groups can divide a team based on the amount of money everyone is getting. People talk about it secretly. They’ll say: ‘I’m faster. Why is she getting more money?’ ” Barry, who has had a spectacular first season, wondered if the disharmony might stem from the competitive pursuit of scholarship money that began when the athletes were young swimmers seeking the attention of college coaches. “I knew girls who had grown to hate swimming and hated just getting into the pool,” Barry said. “They wanted to quit, but they felt pressure from their parents, who had invested a lot in their swim careers. It was a means to eventually get college money. Some of those girls are at other colleges now, and you know, it’s like it’s still about the money — am I getting enough? “You can never win that way. The real reward is getting to do your sport in college.” Coaches do what they can to keep the money issue underground. “We ask them to avoid the subject,” said Joanie Milhous, Villanova’s longtime field hockey coach. “But we have a lot of girls who are roommates. It’s a long year — how many things do you keep from your roommate?” Delaware’s women’s lacrosse coach, Kim Ciarrocca, said she worried most about scholarship envy when recruiting players from the same high school. “You don’t want them comparing offers, because one of them is most likely getting less,” Ciarrocca said. “You ask them not to say anything, but if the kids are close, you know they will talk. It’s the same on a team.” Several coaches said the parents of athletes also sometimes compared notes on financial packages, usually with disquieting results. But there are some teams that seem to have developed a culture in which scholarship money does not come up too often. “We’re friends, and I wouldn’t ask my friend what her family income was,” said Katie Lee, a senior softball player at Delaware. “Although I have noticed that everyone comes onto campus thinking that everyone else is on full scholarship. I was the same way. You do find out pretty quickly that almost no one is on full scholarship. That gets out right away.” Stephanie Campbell, a Villanova field hockey player, said athletes were instructed not to discuss scholarship totals for good reason. “It tends to rank us and define our worth,” she said, frowning. “We’re supposed to be one team.” Campbell, who received an athletic scholarship worth roughly half of Villanova’s $40,000-plus price tag, had another perspective on the inevitability of players comparing amounts. She said it motivated and humbled her. “There were girls on the team doing all the same work as me — driving themselves to exhaustion — and I knew they weren’t getting a lot of money,” she said. “I had so much respect for them. I thought, ‘Well, I can’t let up.’ ”

Villanova University
Scholarships and Fellowships
College Athletics
Draft and Recruitment (Sports)


A President Kicked Out, but Not Alone in Defiance

Abstract: OCOTAL, Nicaragua — When Ángel Hsiky, a farm worker, heard his ousted president’s call for supporters to help him return to Honduras , he threw a change of clothes in a knapsack, kissed his wife and 9-month-old boy goodbye and headed to the Nicaraguan border. Defying a military-enforced curfew, Mr. Hsiky and a caravan of about 200 supporters of the deposed Honduran president, Manuel Zelaya , crossed precipitous hillsides covered with coffee plantations and dense cloud forest, skirting military roadblocks by taking dirt back roads. When that became impossible, the group abandoned cars and trucks and walked through mud and rain to the mountain-ringed outpost of Las Manos, Nicaragua. “We’ve come to bring our president back home,” said Mr. Hsiky, 23, who is from Mr. Zelaya’s Olancho Province in central Honduras. Since Mr. Zelaya arrived here on Friday to taunt the de facto government that exiled him a month ago, hundreds of Hondurans have answered his call to join him just across the border in Nicaragua. Arriving here in mud-caked jeans and ripped shirts, after sleeping on soaked mountaintops and hiding among the coffee plants from patrolling helicopters, they have set up camps in the border towns of Las Manos and Ocotal. They are teachers, students, the self-employed and laborers. Many said they came to support Mr. Zelaya because his policies benefit the poor. At one of the main encampments in Ocotal, about 20 miles from the border, they eat chicken dinners supplied by a Nicaraguan aid group and listen to revolutionary folk songs on loudspeakers trucked in by the Nicaraguan government, a staunch ally of Mr. Zelaya’s. Rules have been posted to keep the place clean: no spitting on the floor. This is the front line in what Mr. Zelaya calls his “rebellion.” In the weeks after Mr. Zelaya was awakened by soldiers on June 28 and put on a plane to Costa Rica, he tried to regain his presidency through international diplomacy. He jetted around Central America and the United States, addressed the United Nations, attended regional summit meetings and was received with the pomp of a president. But negotiations with the de facto government led by Roberto Micheletti have stalled , and the attention of the international community seems close to spent. Mr. Zelaya is here because he has little place else to go. Hard against the border, he can rally Hondurans here to try to keep some internal pressure on those who ousted him and stage political theater that, laced with an implicit threat of violence, helps keep the crisis from falling off Washington’s radar. When he arrived Friday, after weeks of promising to return to Honduras, he dramatically stepped across the border , but just a few feet, not far enough to allow the government to make good on its pledge to arrest him. On Saturday he returned to the border, taking his supporters with him in three old school buses, followed by a motorcade of reporters and television cameras. “You’ve each walked hours with soldiers tailing you and police harassing you, having left your families behind,” he told supporters in Ocotal on Sunday night. “You’ve left everything, and many of you have no money. You’ve felt all the repression.” Carlos Eduardo Reina, Mr. Zelaya’s organizer here, said Mr. Zelaya would ask the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees to grant refugee status for the Hondurans who have crossed to Nicaragua. Mr. Reina said that 1,000 protesters had crossed the border, a number that was difficult to verify because they are spread among several encampments. The de facto government in Honduras responded to Mr. Zelaya’s presence by calling for a 24-hour curfew in the border departments that began Friday. At checkpoints on major roads to the border, soldiers stopped traffic to conduct searches while more soldiers and police officers in riot gear blockaded roads before the border. The soldiers have turned back hundreds of protesters. “We want to cross the border, but as you can see, we’re being oppressed,” said one protester, Mario Tercero, standing in front of a military blockade in El Paraíso, Honduras, this weekend wearing a cowboy hat that said, “Mel, the people support you.” Hondurans arriving in Nicaragua said Monday that the military was tightening enforcement of the curfew, telling people to stay in their homes. About 30 mayors and other political leaders have driven groups of supporters across the border. “We’re putting pressure on the acting government until it restores Zelaya,” said Marco Antonio Mendoza, the mayor of San Marcos de Colón. “The Micheletti government has no support. It can’t sustain itself. It will run out of aid and money to pay government workers.” Tension mounted Saturday morning when the body of a protester from El Paraíso was found near the site of a protest. Mr. Zelaya’s supporters accused the authorities of being involved in the death of the man, who had been stabbed in the back and was last seen by friends at protests here in Ocotal on Friday. The mayor of El Paraíso, Alan Funes, appeared with Mr. Zelaya on Sunday and offered fighting words. “We will take back El Paraíso,” he said. “We won’t let the military install itself there. If it’s our turn to die, so be it, but the coup leaders will die first.” One protester, Johnny Rodriguez, a teacher who followed a guide on a nine-hour hike across the border, said that, like many others, he would stay as long as he felt he was needed. “It’s frightening to leave behind your family,” he said, “but when you’re scared, you have to remember what’s really best for them and understand that it requires an effort.”

Nicaragua
Honduras
Zelaya Rosales Jose Manuel
Coups D'Etat and Attempted Coups D'Etat
Defense and Military Forces