Supreme Court May Be Open to Hotel Registry Checks

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed inclined to let the police in Los Angeles inspect hotel and motel guest registries without permission from a judge. A lawyer for the city, E. Joshua Rosenkranz, told the justices that such surprise inspections are vital to law enforcement. “This case is about whether to deprive scores of cities of one of the most effective tools that they have developed to deter human trafficking, prostitution and drug crimes that have seized the ground in America’s hotels and motels,” he said. That argument seemed attractive to a majority of the justices in light of Supreme Court decisions allowing only minimal constitutional protection for closely regulated businesses like junkyards and pawnshops . But Justice Sonia Sotomayor said those decisions stopped short of allowing inspection of the records of “virtually every public accommodation entity, whether it’s a telephone company or a day school or a hospital.” A group of motel owners challenged the Los Angeles ordinance, saying it violated their businesses’ privacy rights. Thomas C. Goldstein, one of their lawyers, said his clients did not object to the requirement in the law that they keep records about their guests. They wanted only, he said, the opportunity to challenge in court the rare searches to which they objected. Mr. Goldstein stressed the ordinance’s limited aims. It was not meant to detect crime, he said, but merely to deter it by discouraging criminals from using hotels and motels where they have to register. “They don’t look at the records to find criminals,” Mr. Goldstein said of the police. “All they do is look at the records to make sure we’re keeping records.” Court challenges should be allowed, he went on, to make sure the police do not harass motel owners or use their information improperly. Several justices said that was needlessly convoluted in light of what they said were the motels’ limited privacy rights. “This case does not involve the guests,” Justice Antonin Scalia said. “It’s just the hotel who’s objecting.” The motel owners’ position, he said, amounted to this: “You can’t see my register. It’s dear to me.” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy added that the ordinance was backed by historical practice. “Innkeepers have been regulated, not for decades, but they’ve been regulated for centuries, and they have duties to the public that are enforceable,” he said. Mr. Goldstein acknowledged that “we’ve kept these records and innkeepers have kept these records for time immemorial.” But he said they contained “quite proprietary information.” “They are every record of our business transactions,” he said. “We use this information to keep in touch with our customers.” Justice Scalia sounded doubtful. “Motel 6 does this?” he asked. “Jeez, I’ve never received anything from them.” Mr. Goldstein responded that Justice Scalia may not have signed up for the Motel 6 frequent guest program, adding that “this is an ordinance that applies to the Four Seasons and the Ritz-Carlton and everything else.” Justice Elena Kagan asked whether the Fish and Wildlife Service could conduct surprise inspections at hunting lodges. Her question suggested that a ruling in favor of the city might allow those inspections, too. But Justice Scalia, her occasional hunting companion , said hunting accommodations were different. “I think there would be a big dispute,” he said, “with regard to private hunting lodges, whether you could require them to keep the records.” Michael R. Dreeben, a lawyer for the federal government who argued in support of the city, seemed to think it best not to take sides. “I will have to defer to members of the court on hunting lodges,” he said, adding that “there may be Second Amendment concerns that the court would weigh in the balance.”

Hotels
Los Angeles
Search and seizure
Supreme Court,SCOTUS


U.S. Lawmakers in Moscow in Inquiry on Boston Suspects

Abstract: MOSCOW — Members of a Congressional delegation visiting Moscow to investigate the background of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects said Sunday that the attack might have been prevented by greater cooperation between the United States and Russia on intelligence issues and counterterrorism efforts. But the lawmakers said they could not point to any specific misstep by the American or Russian intelligence services, and they did not offer any new insights into what motivated the suspects, two brothers with family ties in Russia’s North Caucasus, to commit the attack. “Yes, it could have been averted,” said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, Republican of California, who led the delegation and is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia and Emerging Threats . “Not just by one mistake by the United States or one mistake made over here in Russia, but instead by making sure that both countries were working together on a much higher level.” The six-member delegation received a rare high-level briefing at the headquarters of the Russian Federal Security Service , known as the F.S.B., in which they were told about the agency’s efforts to warn the American authorities about the older suspect, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, and his mother, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, and the likelihood that they harbored extremist views. The lawmakers praised the cooperation they received from Russian authorities but said that they had been unable to get an answer to a question about the circumstances of Mr. Tsarnaev’s return to the United States after a six-month visit last year to the southern republic of Dagestan in the Caucasus. They said Russian officials confirmed reports that Mr. Tsarnaev left Dagestan two days after an acquaintance, who was a member of a Muslim rebel group, was killed during a security operation. But the lawmakers said that the Russian authorities could not tell them when Mr. Tsarnaev had purchased his plane ticket or whether he had left in a rush, fearing for his life. “You wonder, was that a cause and effect, but nobody here seems to have thought about that,” said Representative Steve Cohen, Democrat of Tennessee, a member of the delegation. Mr. Rohrabacher, speaking at a news conference at the American Embassy here, said that he had no reason to conclude that the Federal Bureau of Investigation or the Obama administration had mishandled the warnings from Russia. Rather, he said, the relationship with Russia in general should have been stronger. “I can’t blame them for not doing right within the context of the status quo, but these are people who are supposed to be changing and trying to reform the status quo,” Mr. Rohrabacher said of the administration. “And I would blame them for that. I would say both the Obama administration as well as the Republican administration before Obama — that we have allowed attitudes, maybe the attitudes from the cold war, to remain in place that have prevented a level of cooperation that is justified.” In his criticism of both Republicans and Democrats, and his calls for much closer collaboration with the Russians, potentially including joint military exercises, Mr. Rohrabacher strayed far from his own party’s traditional distrust of the Kremlin. And he said that President Vladimir V. Putin had been unfairly maligned in the United States. “Everything that the Russians do that can be described in sinister words and anything that Mr. Putin does that can be described in sinister words are described in sinister words in the United States,” he said. After Mr. Cohen took a moment to criticize Russia for its prosecution of members of Pussy Riot , the band that carried out a “punk prayer” protest in Moscow’s main cathedral, Mr. Rohrabacher said he disagreed. Representative Steve King, Republican of Iowa, also said the prosecution seemed justified. “If anyone came into my church,” Mr. King said, “and did that, it would be difficult for me to stand up and say they had a human right to do that.” Adding an odd celebrity touch, the action-film star Steven Seagal, who has a following in Russia, joined the lawmakers. Mr. Seagal helped to arrange meetings and even offered to take the lawmakers to Chechnya to meet its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, who has been accused of human rights abuses. The Chechnya visit was called off for logistical reasons, but Mr. Rohrabacher thanked Mr. Seagal, saying he had been instrumental in securing some meetings, including one with Dmitry Rogozin, a deputy prime minister. “I don’t know that he would have been available to us if not for Steven’s role,” Mr. Rohrabacher said. Mr. King said that America and Russia could be formidable partners in fighting terrorism. “If Americans and Russia can conquer space together, we can defeat radical Islam together,” he said, “and that’s why I came here, to advance that.”

Boston Marathon Bombings
Russia
Dana Rohrabacher
House of Representatives
Congress
Spying and Intelligence Agencies


Federal Prosecutors Declare European Banker a Fugitive

Abstract: A European banker indicted in a widening investigation of the Swiss banking giant UBS over its private banking business was declared to be a fugitive Thursday, putting further pressure on the bank’s operations. The banker, Mario Staggl, is not an employee of UBS, but was indicted by federal prosecutors in Florida on April 10 along with Bradley Birkenfeld, a former private banker at UBS, on charges of helping a wealthy American property developer evade taxes. In a court filing made Thursday with the United States District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., federal prosecutors said that because Mr. Staggl had not appeared in court after his indictment, he was now a fugitive. Mr. Staggl, 43, a citizen and resident of Liechtenstein, as well as an associate of Mr. Birkenfeld, is an executive at a trust company in Liechtenstein, the New Haven Trust Company. The move casts another shadow over UBS, the world’s largest manager of private wealth. UBS is under mounting scrutiny by Florida prosecutors for its Swiss-based work for clients in the United States. Its private bank, based in Zurich, does much of its business through Liechtenstein. In May UBS acknowledged that one of its top private bankers had been briefly detained in connection with the investigation. The bank did not name the executive, but a person briefed on the matter said that he was Martin Liechti, UBS’s top private banker for the Americas, and that he had been detained as a material witness. Mr. Liechti, based in Zurich, is the former supervisor of Mr. Birkenfeld. Prosecutors may next seek an extradition warrant for Mr. Staggl. The United States has an extradition treaty with Liechtenstein, but it is unclear if Mr. Staggl is now there. Calls and e-mail messages to Mr. Staggl brought no immediate response. The indictments of Mr. Staggl and Mr. Birkenfeld, which were unsealed last week, accuse the two men of working together to help the American developer, Igor Olenicoff, evade taxes on $200 million held in bank accounts in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, both known as important tax havens. Mr. Staggl and Mr. Birkenfeld are accused of creating bogus trusts and corporations to hide the ownership and control of offshore assets. They are also accused of advising clients to destroy bank records and of helping them to file false tax returns.


BlackBerry Chief Admits Release of New Phones in U.S. Was Flawed

Abstract: OTTAWA — Thorsten Heins, the president and chief executive of BlackBerry, acknowledged on Tuesday that the company’s new line of phones, which he originally promoted as something that would revive its flagging brand, had a flawed release in the United States. But Mr. Heins, speaking at the company’s annual meeting, told investors BlackBerry just needed more time for a turnaround — and he again sought their patience. Not everyone was biting. One shareholder, referring to one of the new phones, the BlackBerry Z10, told Mr. Heins: “My sense is that the rollout of the Z10 was a disaster.” “Were we perfect at the launch?” Mr. Heins responded. “Probably not. Was it a disaster? I don’t think so.” After more than two years of development, the new phones and their new operating system were supposed to give BlackBerry smartphones capabilities similar to those of phones made by Apple and Samsung, the dominant forces in the market. But hopes have vanished that the new phones would swiftly increase market share in the United States — now just 0.9 percent, according to a survey from Kantar Worldpanel ComTech. Image A BlackBerry Z10 smartphone, part of a new line the company had high hopes for. Credit Mario Anzuoni/Reuters Late last month, BlackBerry said that it had shipped just 2.7 million of the new models, about a million fewer than analysts expected. That disappointing news set BlackBerry’s stock sharply downward and eliminated the possibility that the annual meeting would be a turnaround celebration. When Mr. Heins introduced the company’s new phones in New York this year, he spoke to an excited crowd, a situation that was repeated at a meeting this spring with enthusiastic developers. But on Tuesday, when he faced a crowd of shareholders and questions about the weak sales of those phones, the reception was far more muted. And maybe that is the best he could have hoped for. A few weeks ago, when the shipment numbers were released, the company also reported an $84 million loss in the latest quarter. BlackBerry shares still have not recovered — and a chorus of harsh questions about the direction of the business have not gone away. Mr. Heins again warned investors to expect more losses during the current quarter, while the company increases its spending on marketing and other promotions for the new BlackBerry 10 line of phones. And although the company has spent the last two years saying the phones were the centerpiece to its future, Mr. Heins repeatedly said on Tuesday that “we are not a devices-only company,” and he outlined his hopes for growth in its data services business. He attributed the disappointing reception for BlackBerry 10 to the United States market. “It is really a challenge in the U.S.,” Mr. Heins said at the meeting, which was webcast from the University of Waterloo in Ontario. When another shareholder asked him why the company had been unable to win over American investors, particularly ones based in New York, he said: “I would absolutely admit that this is an uphill battle.” Richard Piasentin, the managing director of sales and marketing for the United States, left BlackBerry last month, Adam Emery, a spokesman for the company, said on Tuesday. Image Thorsten Heins, the chief executive of BlackBerry, acknowledged that its rollout of a new line of phones in the United States was flawed. Credit Jon Blacker/Reuters Some of problems with the BlackBerry 10 release seemed more related to the products than to advertising or lack of prominence in carriers’ stores, which had been cited as problems. Some buyers of the Q10, a model that includes BlackBerry’s signature keyboard, have said they were disappointed to discover that it initially could not synchronize calendar and contact information with corporate systems that use Microsoft Outlook. Others discovered mail syncing issues that they had not had with previous BlackBerrys. And although BlackBerry continues to expand the apps offered for the phone, many important ones are missing, and assessments of their overall quality are mixed. Among the disappointed was Mark R. McQueen, the president and chief executive of Wellington Financial in Toronto. While Mr. McQueen is a BlackBerry loyalist, his frustration with the Q10 became so great that he wrote two detailed posts enumerating its problems on his blog , which is widely followed in Canada’s financial community. He wrote that the phone’s shortcomings had prompted him to sell his BlackBerry shares at a loss. “The sad reality is that BlackBerry management has failed to deliver on the incredibly modest expectations of someone who has held shares in the company, on and off, since the late 1990s,” Mr. McQueen wrote. Many technology reviewers praised several features of the new phones. Mike Gikas, the senior editor for electronics at Consumer Reports, said the new phones were “pretty good but they don’t have the pizazz of top-shelf performers. No one’s dying for these phones.” He said that whenever he was asked for his thoughts about the new BlackBerrys, “the next question is: ‘Do you think they’re going to be around?’ And that’s a consideration for people on a two-year contract.”


Pivotal Point Is Seen as More States Consider Legalizing Marijuana

Abstract: A little over a year after Colorado and Washington legalized marijuana, more than half the states, including some in the conservative South, are considering decriminalizing the drug or legalizing it for medical or recreational use. That has set up a watershed year in the battle over whether marijuana should be as available as alcohol. Demonstrating how marijuana is no longer a strictly partisan issue, the two states considered likeliest this year to follow Colorado and Washington in outright legalization of the drug are Oregon, dominated by liberal Democrats, and Alaska, where libertarian Republicans hold sway. Advocates of more lenient marijuana laws say they intend to maintain the momentum from their successes, heartened by national and statewide polls showing greater public acceptance of legalizing marijuana, President Obama’s recent musings on the discriminatory effect of marijuana prosecutions and the release of guidelines by his Treasury Department intended to make it easier for banks to do business with legal marijuana businesses. Their opponents, though, who also see this as a crucial year, are just as keen to slow the legalization drives. They are aided by a wait-and-see attitude among many governors and legislators, who seem wary of pushing ahead too quickly without seeing how the rollout of legal marijuana works in Colorado and Washington. “We feel that if Oregon or Alaska could be stopped, it would disrupt the whole narrative these groups have that legalization is inevitable,” said Kevin A. Sabet, executive director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana , which is spearheading much of the effort to stop these initiatives. “We could stop that momentum.” Despite the drug still being illegal under federal law, the Obama administration has said it will not interfere with the rollout of legal marijuana in the states for several reasons, including whether the state is successful in keeping it out of the hands of minors. At least 14 states — including Florida, where an initiative has already qualified for the ballot — are considering new medical marijuana laws this year, according to the Marijuana Policy Project , which supports legalization, and 12 states and the District of Columbia are contemplating decriminalization, in which the drug remains illegal, but the penalties are softened or reduced to fines. Medical marijuana use is already legal in 20 states and the District of Columbia. An even larger number of states, at least 17, have seen bills introduced or initiatives begun to legalize the drug for adult use along the lines of alcohol, the same approach used in Colorado and Washington, but most of those efforts are considered unlikely of success this year. The allure of tax revenues is also becoming a powerful selling point in some states, particularly after Gov. John W. Hickenlooper of Colorado said last week that taxes from legal marijuana sales would be $134 million in the coming fiscal year , much higher than had been predicted when the measure was passed in 2012. In Rhode Island, which is struggling financially, national and local advocates for legalization say the Colorado news is sure to help legislation introduced in February to legalize the drug. “Some feel it’s not an appropriate issue for an election year, and others want to wait and see what happens in Colorado,” said State Senator Joshua Miller, a Democrat who is sponsoring the Rhode Island legalization law. “But a lot of other people are very anxious to take the revenue part of this very seriously.” Opponents of legalization, meanwhile, are mobilizing across the country to slow the momentum, keeping a sharp eye on Colorado for any problems in the rollout of the new law there. “Legalization almost had to happen in order for people to wake up and realize they don’t want it,” Mr. Sabet said. “In a strange way, we feel legalization in a few states could be a blessing.” California had been considered a possibility to legalize marijuana this year through a ballot proposition — one to do just that failed in 2010 — but the Drug Policy Alliance , which had been leading the effort, decided this month to wait until 2016. Image Kevin A. Sabet is the executive director of Smart Approaches to Marijuana, which is spearheading much of the effort to stop legalization initiatives. Credit Matthew Ryan Williams for The New York Times While much of the recent attention has focused on these legalization efforts, medical marijuana may also cross what its backers consider an important threshold this year — most notably in the South where Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina are among the states considering such laws. John Morgan, an Orlando lawyer whose firm includes former Gov. Charlie Crist, has spent $3.6 million of his own money to get a medical marijuana initiative on the November ballot in Florida, where a Quinnipiac University poll conducted in November showed that eight in 10 Florida voters support medical marijuana. State law requires 60 percent to pass. Mr. Morgan insists that his initiative is not intended to help Mr. Crist, a Republican turned Democrat, reclaim the governorship. Election data, compiled by Just Say Now, a pro-marijuana group, showed that the percentage of the vote that came from people under 30 increased significantly from 2008 to 2012 in states that had marijuana initiatives. This youth vote, predominantly Democratic, rose to 20 percent from 14 percent in Colorado, and to 22 percent from 10 percent in Washington, both far above the 1 percent rise in the national youth vote. “If it benefits Charlie Crist, it’s certainly an unintended consequence,” Mr. Morgan said. Mr. Sabet said his conversations with Democratic leaders around the country convince him that there is little enthusiasm for being high-profile on the issue. “For the moment, I think by and large, Democrats are uncomfortable with that,” Mr. Sabet said. In Maryland, though, the marijuana issue is already playing a role in the governor’s race, where all three leading Democratic candidates are talking about how much and how fast to ease marijuana laws, not whether to do it at all. A narrow majority of Americans — 51 percent — believe marijuana should be legal, according to a New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week, matching the result in a CBS News poll the previous month. In 1979, when The Times and CBS first asked the question, only 27 percent wanted cannabis legalized. There were stark differences in the new poll, though. While 72 percent of people under 30 favored legalization, only 29 percent of those over 65 agreed. And while about a third of Republicans now favored legalization, this was far below the 60 percent of Democrats and 54 percent of independents who did so. In Alaska, sufficient signatures have been collected to get the legalization initiative on the ballot. “Alaska is a red state, but with a heavy libertarian streak,” said Taylor Bickford, spokesman for the Campaign to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol in Alaska. “The idea of personal freedom and responsibility is uniting Alaskans on both sides of the aisle.” Under state law, however, the vote will occur during the Aug. 19 primary, not in the general election. “The support in Alaska is very strong, but how do you poll on an issue like this for a low-turnout primary election?” asked Ethan Nadelmann, executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. That is why he thinks Oregon really has the better chance this year. Anthony Johnson, the director of New Approach Oregon , a coalition that is leading the drive there, said advocates are trying to persuade state legislators to put the issue on the November ballot while simultaneously preparing to collect the roughly 88,000 signatures that would be needed to force it onto the ballot if the legislators demur. “At the moment, I’d say the odds are no better than 50 percent that the Legislature will act,” Mr. Johnson said. “But if they don’t, we will just gather the signatures. I am pretty confident we will be able to get them.” Mason Tvert, director of communications for the Marijuana Policy Project, a leading advocate for legalizing marijuana, said campaigns were already underway to stage aggressive legalization drives in several states over the next couple of years, including Arizona, California, Maine, Massachusetts, Nevada, and possibly Montana. “It is certainly important to maintain the momentum,” Mr. Tvert said, “But I don’t think we can look at any one election cycle and see what the future holds. This is going to be a multiyear effort.”

Oregon
Alaska
Legislation
Florida
Medical Marijuana
Drug Policy Alliance
Marijuana,Pot,Weed
US states


Overseas Sales Help Tiffany Beat Expectations

Abstract: Strong overseas sales and cost-cutting helped Tiffany & Company post better-than-expected quarterly results on Wednesday and to raise its profit outlook for the full year. Tiffany reported earnings of $43.3 million, or 35 cents a share, for its third quarter, which ended Oct. 31, down 1 percent from a year earlier. Earnings from continuing operations were 34 cents a share, topping the average Wall Street forecast of 24 cents. The luxury goods sector has experienced sharp declines in sales during the recession, but Tiffany’s results signaled that the high end of the market could be on the mend, said Matt Arnold, an analyst at Edward Jones & Company. “The main thing that sticks out to me is that trends continue to improve, and this should persist for a while,” Mr. Arnold said. Sales declines in the United States were slowing and overseas sales were coming in better than expected, Tiffany said, while sales of lower-priced items were faring better than more expensive jewelry. Revenue dropped 3 percent, to $598.2 million. Sales at stores open at least a year fell 6 percent. That figure is a key indicator of retailer performance because it measures growth at existing stores rather than newly opened ones. Tiffany sales in the Americas declined 9 percent, with revenue at its flagship New York store down 8 percent. Even though overseas tourists were not traveling as much to New York, they were still spending at Tiffany stores in their own countries, Mr. Arnold said. Asia-Pacific sales rose 10 percent and European sales climbed 12 percent during the quarter. Tiffany has tried to offset some of its sales weakness with cost-cutting and inventory management. Selling, general and administrative expenses declined to $261 million from $265.6 million, while net inventories were 6 percent below the previous year at quarter’s end. For the full year, Tiffany said profit from continuing operations would be as much as $1.98 a share, up from a previous estimate of $1.75 a share.


An Earthly Realm for a Soccer God

Abstract: BUENOS AIRES — “Soccer has a god. That god is Argentine, and his name is Diego Armando Maradona,” proclaims the Web site of the Church of Maradona, an online fan club of Argentina’s unrivaled athletic icon that claims some 20,000 members. But this month, Diego Maradona , the country’s 48-year-old sporting titan, will try his hand at an all-too-earthly task: coaching Argentina’s men’s national soccer team, which has failed to reach the semifinals of the World Cup since “El Diego” himself starred for it in 1986 and 1990. After retiring 11 years ago, Maradona has remained in the spotlight primarily as the country’s leading real-life soap opera star, waging a series of well-publicized battles with drugs, obesity, the news media and past lovers. Now, the hopes and dreams of 40 million soccer-mad Argentines will rest on the shoulders — much-slimmed after a stomach-stapling operation in 2005 — of a man who, in the words of the local newspaper columnist Horacio Pagani, will be “the least prepared manager in the history of international soccer.” Given Argentina’s string of disappointing World Cup performances, the country certainly seems as if it could use a supernatural savior. The team was sent home by Romania in the round of 16 in 1994, by the Netherlands in the quarterfinals in 1998, and by Germany in the quarterfinals in 2006. In 2002, Argentina failed to qualify for the knockout stage. But handing Maradona the reins represents a profound, if not reckless, leap of faith. His managing résumé is thin and checkered. In 1994 and 1995, he piloted two Argentine club teams to just three wins in 23 games, and he was once forced to call the shots from the stands because a suspension for ephedrine use prevented him from sitting on the bench. Moreover, his personal track record hardly suggests he is fit to keep a 23-man team playing in lockstep. As recently as March 2007, rumors of his death circulated wildly while he was hospitalized for alcohol-related hepatitis. The controversial selection became official Tuesday, when the executive committee of Argentina’s national soccer federation met. But that group serves as little more than a rubber stamp for the decisions of the organization’s president, Julio Grondona, and his pick of Maradona is considered a fait accompli. Grondona, who also serves as a vice president of FIFA, the game’s international governing body, is widely thought to run the national sport as a personal fief. During his 29 years in office, he has been accused of using his influence over referees, the news media, and the distribution of revenues to guarantee obedience from the club presidents who elect him — and to advance his business interests. The courts have ordered some 50 searches of his offices during his presidency, but few formal proceedings have ever been filed against him, and he has never been found guilty of a crime. The leading candidate for the coaching job, which became available after Alfio Basile resigned in October, was Carlos Bianchi. As the manager of Boca Juniors — Argentina’s most popular club, for whom Maradona played from 1981 to 1982 and from 1995 to 1997 — Bianchi won four domestic titles, three continental titles and two intercontinental titles. But his poor relationship with Grondona appears to have disqualified him for the post. Sergio Batista, who coached Argentina’s under-23 team to the Olympic gold medal in Beijing, was also passed over. Maradona has, predictably, brushed off concerns about his readiness, noting that he spent two decades on the national team. “Soccer hasn’t changed,” he told reporters in Argentina. “I don’t think anything will surprise me.” The choice of Maradona is sure to increase the international profile of the Argentine team, which will probably increase its revenues. Tickets for his first match in charge, on Nov. 19 against Scotland in Glasgow, have sold briskly. Public opinion, while divided, seems to lean against the choice: an Internet poll conducted by Clarín, Argentina’s largest newspaper, found that 74 percent of nearly 50,000 voters were opposed. Purists were particularly appalled, arguing that Maradona’s indubitable star power was no substitute for the years on the bench accumulated by other candidates, and that his postretirement antics put the country’s image at risk. “He was a great player, but nothing more,” said Oscar Pereira, a union employee in the stands at a local league game on Friday night. “We need someone more serious. You see him running around with Hugo Chávez talking about Che Guevara.” Moreover, accusations of cronyism against Grondona are flying more freely than ever. “Whatever money they make off Maradona, Grondona and his friends will keep it for themselves,” said Raúl Gámez, a former president of the club Vélez Sársfield and one of Grondona’s most outspoken critics. But Maradona’s stature among Argentines still leaves many believing he deserves a shot — or at the very least, that his all-too-public campaign for the position forced Grondona’s hand. “We’ve had a lot of experienced managers, and they haven’t always done well,” said Alejandro Fabbri, a broadcaster for the TyC Sports network. “If Maradona wanted the job, he should get it. “He’s the greatest Argentine player ever. At least they won’t be able to say he never got the chance.” To compensate for Maradona’s lack of training, Grondona has also appointed a team of veteran tacticians to support Maradona, led by Carlos Bilardo, who managed Maradona on Argentina’s 1986 World Cup championship team. With capable assistants, Maradona’s devotees say, he will be able to focus on providing the players with his special brand of leadership and inspiration. “He’s the biggest name there is,” said Pereira’s son, Nahuel, who accompanied him to the game. “He’ll pass on some of his magic to them.” While Argentines disagree over the merits of the decision, they share a concern for Maradona’s well-being in his new role — perhaps a concern greater than their worries about the direction of the team as a whole. Will Maradona the deity survive Maradona the manager? “I told him he was too big for this job,” Pagani said. “Right now, everyone loves him. Once he starts making decisions for the team, he’ll be held to account. He’s risking his legend. But he said that he wanted to do it.”


Israel Defense Forces Kill 4 ISIS-Linked Attackers in Golan Heights

Abstract: JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said it killed four militants linked to the Islamic State on Sunday after they attacked Israeli forces in the Golan Heights. The confrontation appeared to be the first of its kind between Israel and Islamic State-affiliated forces based in Syria. It was not immediately clear if the militants’ attack had been spontaneous or if it signaled a possible change of policy by extremist groups. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a spokesman for the Israeli military, described the exchange as “unique” in magnitude. He said jihadist fighters, riding in a vehicle with a machine gun mounted on its roof, had assaulted an Israeli reconnaissance unit with gunfire and mortars on the Israeli-controlled side of the contested territory. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the soldiers had “successfully repelled an attempted attack on the triangle of borders,” or the point where Israel, Syria and Jordan converge. Using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State, he added, “We will not let Daesh elements or other hostile elements use the cover of the war in Syria to establish themselves next to our borders.” Israel has generally tried to keep out of the Syrian civil war, declaring neutrality in the struggle between President Bashar al-Assad and rebel forces. But Israel has carried out a covert campaign to prevent the transfer of sophisticated weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite militant group that is aiding Mr. Assad and is an enemy of the Islamic State. And, intentionally or not, the fighting in the Syrian Golan Heights has occasionally spilled over into the Israeli-held part. Israel and Hezbollah-affiliated militants have exchanged fire, and Israel has acknowledged retaliatory strikes against Syrian government positions. Israel has also extended medical and humanitarian aid to what it calls more moderate rebels across the border. Until now, though, there had been little direct engagement with the jihadist forces who control the southern section of the frontier with Syria and have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. Fractured Lands: How the Arab World Came Apart The story of more than a decade of war, terror and revolution in the Middle East, seen through the eyes of six people whose lives were changed forever. The attack on Sunday occurred in a pocket of land between the Israeli-constructed security fence and the decades-old armistice line that serves as a border, Colonel Lerner said. He gave no specific reason for the mission, but said the military’s activities in the area were based on threat assessments and were intended to maintain Israeli sovereignty west of the border. “They have said they will come to Jerusalem,” Colonel Lerner said of the Islamic State, whose various branches have issued such threats. “We have no intention of letting them come to Jerusalem.” Around 9 a.m., he said, gunmen from an Islamic State-affiliated group — the Yarmouk Martyrs Brigade, which recently linked up with, or changed its name to, the Army of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, according to local experts — fired at the Israeli forces, and the forces responded. In the exchange, the militants launched mortars at the Israeli soldiers, the air force was called in, and an airstrike hit the vehicle carrying the fighters, killing its four passengers. Nitzan Nuriel, a former director of Israel’s counterterrorism bureau, said that since the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israel had acted, based on intelligence, in what he called the “gray area” between the Israeli security fence and the official boundary lines separating Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The militants’ decision to open fire was probably made locally, not from above, Mr. Nuriel said. “I believe the message was strong enough and simple enough: We do not cross the border, and if you open fire at us you will pay the price,” he said. With the jihadists’ efforts focused on fighting Mr. Assad and his Hezbollah allies, he said, opening a new front against Israel was “the last thing ISIS needs at this stage.” But Israeli officials have long said it was only a matter of time before the Islamic State-affiliated forces along the Syrian frontier turned their attention to Israel. Amos Yadlin, a former Israeli military intelligence chief who directs the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, said it was too early to say whether the clash reflected a change in strategy by Islamic State-affiliated forces. If there has been a change, Mr. Yadlin said, it may have been prompted by the need for “some propaganda element, some sympathy in the Arab world.” He said of the Islamic State, whose strongholds in Iraq and Syria are under assault: “They are under pressure everywhere.”

Israel
Golan Heights
Military
Syria
Terrorism
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State
Khalid Ibn al-Walid Army
Martyrs of Yarmouk


Pennsylvania: Biden’s Son Improves

Abstract: Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ’s older son, who is Delaware’s attorney general, made progress Wednesday as he recovered from a mild stroke and hopes to return to work in the near future, his office said. Joseph R. Biden III, who is known as Beau, was being treated at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia a day after suffering the stroke. Mr. Biden is 41. The vice president and his wife, Jill, visited Mr. Biden on Wednesday morning.

Delaware
Stroke
Biden Joseph R III
Biden Joseph R Jr


Egyptian Judo Athlete Refuses Handshake After Losing to Israeli

Abstract: RIO DE JANEIRO — An Egyptian judoka declined to shake hands with his Israeli opponent after their match on Friday, eliciting jeers from the crowd. Or Sasson, the Israeli, defeated Islam El Shehaby, the Egyptian, in a first-round match in the heaviest weight class, over 100 kilograms (about 220 pounds). After a moment of prayer, El Shehaby got up and seemed reluctant to perform the traditional bow to his opponent. Eventually, he gave a quick nod and left the mat. A judge and a referee urged him to return. Sasson then approached El Shehaby with his hand extended, but El Shehany backed away. A Day of Finals Won and Records Broken 16 Photos View Slide Show › Image Quinn Rooney/Getty Images. Throughout the competition, as at all judo matches, opponents have bowed to each other, often multiple times. To decline a handshake is a serious breach of judo etiquette. “That is extremely rare in judo,” the American coach Jimmy Pedro said. “It is especially disrespectful considering it was a clean throw and a fair match. It was completely dishonorable and totally unsportsmanlike on the part of the Egyptian.” A judo federation spokesman said in an email to The Associated Press that a bow was mandatory but that shaking hands was not. He said El Shehaby’s “attitude will be reviewed after the Games to see if any further action should be taken.” Before the match, El Shehaby had faced pressure on social media not to show up, the news site NRG reported . “You dishonor Islam if you lose to Israel,” he was told. “How can you cooperate with a killer?” Image Or Sasson of Israel, in white, defeated Islam El Shehaby, an Egyptian, in a first-round match in the heaviest weight class. Credit Markus Schreiber/Associated Press There is a history of animosity between Israeli and other Middle Eastern athletes at the Olympics, including in judo. Israeli and Lebanese athletes got into a dispute about sharing a bus to the opening ceremony last week. The Lebanese team admitted preventing Israeli athletes from boarding, but said it was because the bus had been reserved for the Lebanese athletes. When a Saudi judo player forfeited a match on Tuesday, the official reason was that she was injured, but the Israeli news media claimed it was because she would have faced an Israeli in the next round. At the 2004 Athens Games, Arash Miresmaeili, a gold medal favorite in judo, was disqualified for showing up over the weight limit for his first-round match against an Israeli. It was reported that he had gone on an eating binge to intentionally forfeit, and he said, “I refused to fight my Israeli opponent to sympathize with the suffering of the people of Palestine , and I do not feel upset at all.”

Judo
Or Sasson
Islam El Shehaby
Israel
2016 Summer Olympics
Egypt


Ushering In Open Space on Governors Island

Abstract: In New York, where demolition and construction occur at a furious pace, often amid the cries of competing interests, hardly a peep was heard on Friday afternoon when a giant steel claw began to tear through a set of unremarkable three-story buildings on Governors Island. A couple dozen spectators quietly cheered the beginning of a project that will turn eight acres of the island into park space by next year. But Theresa Petersen, who drove all the way from Michigan with her husband, Steve, gazed at the destruction occurring before her eyes and began to shed tears. “We were the first people to live there after they were built,” said Mr. Petersen, holding a video camera. They lived in a four-bedroom apartment with their three children in one of the buildings when Mr. Peterson was stationed on Governors Island as a chief warrant officer with the United States Coast Guard. The 10 buildings that began to come down on Friday made up Liberty Village, housing built in 1988 for Coast Guard officers. The Coast Guard stopped using the island in 1996, and since the last residents left the next year, the buildings have been vacant. The federal government transferred the site to the state and city of New York in 2003, at which time more than 20 acres on the north end of the island were turned over to the National Park Service. This area includes Fort Jay and Castle Williams. The rest of the 172-acre island, including a 92-acre historic landmark district to the north, is run by the Governors Island Preservation and Education Corporation and includes 16 acres of recreational areas and a one-mile esplanade for jogging and walking. The buildings of Liberty Village will be replaced by a picnic area, and the project will for the first time open up the island’s entire 2.2-mile perimeter to bicyclists and pedestrians. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said that the city expected more than 125,000 people to have visited the island by the time the island’s season, which begins in May, ends on Sunday, some of them drawn by one of the waterfall installations by the artist Olafur Eliasson, on the island’s north end. In contrast, he said, only half that number of people visited the island in 2007. Barbara Blackwood, a 65-year-old Astoria resident, said she visits the island once a week. The retired chambermaid used a walker to slowly make her way down the island from the ferry terminal to see her first demolition. She said she is eager to see the entire island converted for recreational use. “It’s open to the public, and you can see all these houses — things that were built in 1812. My God,” she said, stopping to take a breath. Mr. Bloomberg said that by the time the island reopens next spring, new amenities will include a seasonal entertainment and dining venue on the north end of the island. The site will also have artists studios and space for art exhibitions, he said. Other plans for the island include a new home for the 425-student New York Harbor School, a public high school in Bushwick, Brooklyn, that focuses on marine science and technology. Despite her sorrow, Mrs. Petersen said she was glad that the apartments where she once lived would be turned into a picnic area. Mrs. Petersen watched as a huge excavator, fitted with a powerful grapple on the end of its black boom, shredded the blue roof gable and white porch where she often visited friends and other families almost 20 years ago. Her former building is scheduled to be demolished soon. The Petersens said those few years living on Governors Island were, for them, the “ideal way to experience New York City.” They had a commissary, a bowling alley, a golf course, a Burger King, a movie theater and a school that went up to sixth grade. Meanwhile, the world-famous novelty of Manhattan’s urban frenzy was a mere minutes away by ferry. The building they were watching come down, in grinding twists of metal and loud cracks of posts and plywood, was where a friend of their daughter had lived. They said they had not been back since 1991, when Mr. Petersen was transferred to Michigan. “It’s just very sad to see it happen,” Mrs. Petersen said.

Demolition
Governors Island (NYC)
Parks and Other Recreation Areas
Historic Buildings and Sites


For an 'In-Between' Guy, Never a Dull Moment at Lotus F1 Team

Abstract: Paul Seaby of Britain is team manager of the Lotus F1 team. He has evolved with the team through its various name and ownership changes since he joined it in 1991, when it was called Benetton. Seaby worked his way up, occupying a number of roles on both the race and test teams, from No.2 mechanic on the race team in 1992 to No.1 mechanic on the test team in 1996 to No.1 mechanic on the race team in 1998. (In a famous photo taken during a pit stop at the 1994 German Grand Prix, Seaby is shown engulfed in flames after Jos Verstappen’s car caught fire during refueling; he wasn’t injured.) He was the team’s engineering coordinator from 2005 to 2011, and assumed his current post at the end of that season. The team, which is based in Enstone, England, won the drivers’ title as Benetton with Michael Schumacher in 1994 and the drivers’ and constructors’ titles with him in 1995; as Renault, it won drivers’ and constructors’ titles in 2005 and 2006 with Fernando Alonso driving. Seaby recently spoke with Brad Spurgeon of the International Herald Tribune. Q. What does a team manager do? A. The team manager’s heading differs from team to team. Certain team managers could be classed as a team manager, a team coordinator, even a sporting director. Or you can have parts of each. It’s a generalized term. In our team, Alan Permane is the trackside operations director, and he looks after the sporting side of things, whereas I manage the team. Basically, to start: I look at the personnel, so I’m the employer, any discipline. I just look after the people and make sure we have the right people. I look after the budgets, planning the budget for the team, for racing, and with that I have a lot of help from our travel office. The presentation of the team: I have to make sure that we look good. When I first came in we changed the garage, to make us look cleaner and sharper. You put all that hard work into making a good reliable car, so you’ve got to look good and professional along with it. Which we always have been. It’s just showing the world. Another important par of this is the pit stops. It’s my responsibility to get the guys trained up and get them quick, basically, constantly looking at pit stops to see how we can improve. On the pit wall during the races, I’m the guy that speaks to the engineers about what they want to do to the car, and I’m the guy that speaks to the pit crew, to let them know what’s going to happen, when it’s going to happen. To keep them up to date, also, during the pit stops I also have a “pit-lane clear button” that helps us know so that we always safe release, etc. Even though we try and go for the ultimately quick pit stop, we are also very much safety orientated. And then there’s forward planning. That’s the other thing I do. At the moment we are looking at next year. And then, also, I’m a sort of “in-between” guy. The upper management are asking me what they want from the company, from the race team. Then I’m translating that and giving them hopefully what they want, etc. So I’m a sort of an intermediary between the guys on the floor and looking after them and the top management and looking after them and making sure it all gels. Q. What’s your typical day? A. I don’t have a typical working day. And that’s what I like about it. If I wanted to go into the office and do something the same everyday, I couldn’t do it. That’s what the appeal of F1 is to me. I have got a wife and four children at home. And the sacrifice that I have is that I have a completely different working environment to a lot of people. And I enjoy that. I really love being at home, but I really love going away. That’s the thing with F1: every day is new. You’ve got a calendar that you work to. But you can come into the next day and something’s changed, and you have to deal with it. It’s problem-solving. And I think that’s one of my strengths. I love to problem-solve. Q. Do you and everyone on the team feel personally the results on the track? A. Absolutely. There are not many jobs in the world where everyone can see, where you have millions of people watching what you do. I have a Twitter account, and on there, you get all the good things and all the bad things from people. You get such a range of emotions from people that follow you, follow your team, follow your drivers. And they give it to you, they don’t hold back. And you know that every Sunday you go out there, and you’ve got people on both sides of this fence that are going to praise you or are going to slag you. All on the job you do. You are judged every two weeks. And you can go from hero to zero just like that. Q. You love the competition? A. Absolutely. Yes. I always love winning. I always love being better than everyone else. I mean the good thing is that we are not a big budget team. We are not a real big hitter. But we have always been the underdog that comes good. And I really like the underdog feeling of the team. It’s a great thing. And all the way through, whenever we have won a world championship it’s always, like, what’s this team winning? And there’s obviously something there, because we happen to be very good at what we do. Q. How much is people management part of this job? A. It’s a very big part. And one of the things that I have learned is that if you feel looked after then you’re going to want to work harder for the team. This team has been really good to me. Absolutely, through all the years I have worked here it has always looked after me. So you definitely feel a bond with the team. And I try to instill that in the people who work for me now — about the history of the team, about how much it has done — and I always try to look after them, on and off the track. Q. Instilling team spirit is key to the job? A. Yes, part of my job is to get the right personnel in the right places. What I don’t like is egos; I don’t like people to think they are bigger than the team; I don’t like people that are constantly demanding. I just like people to gel. If there is a problem, we’ll work it out as a team. If there are good times, then we’ll celebrate it as a team. It’s all part of the balance of keeping a good team spirit. And I think that people when they come to Lotus, or even come to visit Lotus, I think they get the feeling that we are a strong team, a friendly team. That we don’t have egos we are just hard working and want to do our job. Q. It is unique: The team has been based in Enstone for decades, it has had different names and entities, but it has always been the same team. A. Yes, and that’s why the car is now called an E20 or an E21: E for Enstone. We don’t have a B for Benetton or an R for Renault. We have an E for Enstone. And sometimes people don’t realize that it is the Enstone-based team that has done all of this all the way through. On Tuesday I’m doing a speech to new starters at the factory. And because the people coming in now are younger, they don’t realize that we started as Toleman and our first F1 race was in 1984. And we’ve had people like Senna driving for us, and Schumacher and Alonso, all these great drivers in great races. So I try to instill that you’re actually buying into a bit of history here. Q. Where to from team manager? A. Sporting director. I like sporting regulations, I like to get involved. I think I’m fairly normal, so it would be nice, everything needs a bit of normality.

Michael Schumacher
Formula One
Car Racing


In Cuts to Health Programs, Experts See Difficult Task in Protecting Patients

Abstract: WASHINGTON — President Obama and some members of Congress assert that, in cutting Medicare and Medicaid , they can whack health care providers while protecting beneficiaries. But experts say it is not so simple. Experience, they say, shows that some cuts in payments to providers hurt beneficiaries, as more doctors refuse to take Medicaid patients or limit the number of new Medicare patients they will accept. Hospitals curtail services. Beneficiaries may have more difficulty getting therapy services after a stroke, traumatic brain injury or hip fracture. By contrast, the experts say, other cuts force health care providers to become more efficient, saving money for beneficiaries, taxpayers and the government. Marilyn Moon, a health economist and former trustee of the Medicare program, said that “you have to be vigilant” in cutting Medicare payments to health care providers because “there is no bright line” between cuts that affect beneficiaries and those that affect only providers. The need to make such distinctions came into sharp focus this week as Mr. Obama and a bipartisan special Congressional committee intensified their search for ways to squeeze hundreds of billions of dollars out of federal health spending. In his recommendations to Congress on Monday, Mr. Obama proposed cutting health spending by $320 billion over 10 years: $248 billion from the projected growth of Medicare and $72 billion from Medicaid and other programs. The Congressional panel is expected to seek similar savings in health programs, or more, as it looks for ways to reduce federal budget deficits by a total of $1.5 trillion over 10 years. Even some of Mr. Obama’s allies said his Medicaid proposals could harm beneficiaries. “The Medicaid cuts in the president’s proposal shift the burden to states and ultimately onto the shoulders of seniors, people with disabilities and low-income families who depend on the program as their lifeline,” said Ronald F. Pollack, executive director of Families USA, a liberal-leaning consumer group. Matt D. Salo, executive director of the National Association of Medicaid Directors, representing state officials, said, “You would have a hard time cutting significant amounts from Medicaid payments to states without hurting beneficiaries.” States, experiencing severe fiscal problems in recent years, have reduced Medicaid payments to doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, pharmacies and other providers and have cut back services, including dental and vision care for adults. Beneficiary advocates express fewer qualms about cutting federal payments to drug companies or insurance companies, which manage care for millions of people in Medicaid and Medicare. John C. Rother , president of the National Coalition on Health Care, which represents consumers, employers and providers, said the new health care law “showed that it is possible to slow the growth of Medicare costs without hurting beneficiaries.” On the other hand, Mr. Rother said, “Medicaid shows that if you starve a program and provide inadequate reimbursement, access to doctors will be at risk.” It is possible to save money and provide better care at the same time — for example, by reducing the number of patients readmitted to hospitals within a few weeks after they are discharged, Mr. Rother said. Sometimes, cuts backfire. Medicare payments for home health care plummeted in the late 1990s, forcing many patients to spend more time in hospitals and nursing homes. When Congress cut Medicare payments to private insurers as part of Mr. Obama’s health care overhaul last year, Republicans predicted that insurers would increase premiums or pull out of the program. But the administration said last week that premiums for the popular private plans would decline in 2012 while enrollment was expected to rise. Doctors’ offices and hospitals say their finances are more precarious. Be “careful what you cut,” says an advertisement being run by teaching hospitals. “Reducing the deficit is important,” it says, but “cutting federal support for doctor training and medical research is a bad idea that would hurt everyone.” The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, an independent federal panel, has recommended increases of just 1 percent in Medicare payments to doctors and hospitals in 2012. It weighs many factors in deciding how much of an increase, if any, is needed. For several years, the commission has said that hospitals under financial pressure — because of competition or other factors — tend to reduce their costs. And the lower costs, it says, allow efficient hospitals to make money on Medicare patients without compromising the quality of care. In a recent report to Congress, the commission said that “profit margins on Medicare patients remain negative for 64 percent of hospitals.” But, it said, the supply of hospital beds appears to be adequate, and more hospitals are offering specialized services like robotic surgery and cardiac catheterization. Likewise, the commission said that most Medicare beneficiaries had “good access to physician care,” but that some, including minorities, reported problems, particularly when they were looking for new doctors. Doctors and health policy experts said these problems could quickly increase if Medicare freezes or cuts payments to doctors as part of a deficit-reduction plan. The jury is still out on a new system of competitive bidding that Medicare is using to buy home medical equipment like wheelchairs, walkers and oxygen tanks. The Obama administration says the lower payment rates have saved billions of dollars for taxpayers and beneficiaries. But suppliers say the changes have disrupted service to some beneficiaries.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (2010)


White Plains Mayor, Adam Bradley, Under Scrutiny in Assault Case

Abstract: WHITE PLAINS — Most of the time, the talk around the coffee shops in this Westchester County city has more to do with work, family, weekend soccer games or where to shop or eat. In the past nine months, though, local politics have crept into the conversation, after a domestic violence scandal involving the mayor became public. Soon after the mayor, Adam T. Bradley, was arrested in February on charges of third-degree assault, there were calls for his resignation. Those calls have somewhat subsided, but the intrigue over Mr. Bradley’s future has picked up again now that his criminal trial has begun. Since Monday, Mr. Bradley’s estranged wife, Fumiko Bradley, has been on the witness stand, describing what she has characterized as months of abuse. She testified that in January and February, her husband threw scalding tea on her and kicked and shoved her. The final straw, she said, was when he slammed a door on her hand, causing her to call the police because she “couldn’t take it anymore.” The case will be decided by Judge Susan M. Capeci of Westchester County Court, who is also handling the couple’s divorce. Each of Mr. Bradley’s six misdemeanor assault charges carries a maximum sentence of a year in jail. He also faces criminal charges of witness tampering, harassment and assault stemming from a later arrest. Even if Mr. Bradley were convicted, he would not be required to resign; state law bars those convicted of a felony from holding public office. There are no jurors to be swayed, but public opinions have clearly formed. “I think the whole city has an opinion of him, and it’s not a good one,” said Paula Piekos, a longtime White Plains resident and environmental advocate who has been attending the trial. “If he’s innocent, it’s detrimental because it’s so distracting, and if he’s guilty it’s terrible, too.” Were the domestic violence accusations not damaging enough, the Common Council and city ethics board began investigating Mr. Bradley soon after he moved out of his house and into an apartment owned by a real estate developer, with whom Mr. Bradley arranged meetings with city officials. Mr. Bradley, a White Plains native, was elected to the State Assembly in 2002. Seven years later, he ran for mayor and won handily on a campaign of legislative reform, environmental protection, education and fiscal responsibility. He was generally regarded as a rising star in the Democratic Party, but his arrest in February changed things. Ms. Bradley told the authorities that Mr. Bradley kicked and shoved her and then slammed a door on her hand on Feb. 28. At the trial this week, she testified that six weeks before that episode, Mr. Bradley had thrown at her a mug filled with jasmine tea she had brewed, burning her chest. Ms. Bradley testified that in early March she asked the district attorney to drop the charges against her husband because she wanted to try to salvage the marriage and his career. “I was scared, but at the same time, I didn’t want to hurt his career, and I had two little children,” she testified. “So I wanted things to work out.” The fact that Ms. Bradley dropped the charges is one of many examples of inconsistency that the mayor’s lawyer, Luis Andrew Penichet, said he intended to use to call into question her credibility and paint her as an aggressor. “She is the walking, talking textbook definition of reasonable doubt,” Mr. Penichet told Judge Capeci. The couple married in 2003 after they met through mutual friends in the late 1990s. He was an attorney, and she would go on to a career teaching Japanese to young children. The couple has two daughters, ages 7 and 5. Ms. Bradley also testified that she believed that her husband had an “inappropriate relationship” with the couple’s au pair and had earlier been “obsessed” with Assemblywoman Amy Paulin when they both served in Albany. She also testified that he once shook a caged cockroach in her face and another time told her to hang herself. Both parties filed for divorce in September, and many of Mr. Bradley’s constituents are asking if his personal problems would force him from public office. He is up for re-election in 2013. “He’s in a position where he should lead by example, and what kind of example is he setting?” Jenny Espinoza, 58, a teaching associate and one of Mr. Bradley’s constituents, said while eating dinner in the Galleria mall in White Plains. “He should resign immediately.”

Domestic Violence
Politics and Government
Bradley Adam T
White Plains (NY)


High Court in Zimbabwe Delays Ruling on Vote

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG — The High Court of Zimbabwe on Monday delayed a decision on whether to force the government to release the results of the March 29 presidential election, prolonging an impasse that seemed to be growing increasingly acrimonious at each turn. As President Robert Mugabe on Monday called on veterans of the nation’s fight for independence in the 1970s to “safeguard” the land seized from “the former colonizers,” a reference to the white-owned commercial farms his government has seized in recent years, news agencies reported that war veterans invaded the land of some of the country’s remaining white farmers. Morgan Tsvangirai , the opposition candidate who is believed to have won the most votes, appealed to South Africa, the United States and Britain to help loosen what he called “the white-knuckle grip of Mugabe’s suicidal reign.” In the midst of the political crisis, Mr. Tsvangirai left the country on Monday to fly to South Africa, the regional powerhouse and a mediator of past political disputes, where he met with Jacob G. Zuma, leader of the country’s governing party, the African National Congress. Mr. Mugabe, known for ruthlessly wielding power during his 28 years in power, has shown few signs that he is ready to let go. Instead, as one Western diplomat put it, he is “stirring up the nastiest cocktail of negatives he could find,” including using the old tactic of stoking racial animosities to win votes in a runoff election that may yet take place. Mr. Mugabe’s party, ZANU-PF, has sought to delay the announcement of the outcome of the March 29 presidential election — a contest independent monitors say he lost, though likely not by enough to be shut out of a runoff with Mr. Tsvangirai. The delay has stirred broad international criticism, with the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, urging the election commission on Monday “to discharge its responsibility and release the results expeditiously and with transparency.” In the capital, Harare, supporters of the ZANU-PF party of Mr. Mugabe and the Movement for Democratic Change party of Mr. Tsvangirai gathered outside the High Court, which the opposition had petitioned to order the immediate release of the results. Those with ZANU-PF held up their party membership cards, while just a few yards away, the opposition waved copies of the South African newspaper The Sunday Times, with its headline “Save Us From This Vampire!” Leaders in the region had hoped the election would give Mr. Mugabe, accused in past elections of rigging the vote and violently intimidating his opponents, either a legitimate victory or a definitive defeat. Neither happened. Now both sides have dug in their heels, making for a volatile situation in a country that has been plagued by political violence. Mr. Tsvangirai, 56, and dozens of his followers were beaten last year during a political crackdown. Mr. Mugabe, 84, has taken full advantage of his state-run newspapers. In the last few days, he and the editors have fueled fears that the opposition M.D.C. in majority black Zimbabwe would let white commercial farmers reclaim confiscated land, sometimes violently, from the veterans of Zimbabwe’s armed struggle against white rule — a charge the M.D.C. has repeatedly denied. “Our country is on a razor’s edge,” Mr. Tsvangirai wrote Monday in The Guardian newspaper in Britain. “How can global leaders espouse the values of democracy, yet when they are being challenged fail to open their mouths?” He was likely alluding to South Africa’s president, Thabo Mbeki, whom he and many others have criticized for not openly confronting Mr. Mugabe but pursuing a quiet diplomacy that they felt left Mr. Mugabe’s excesses unchallenged.

Zimbabwe
Mugabe Robert
Tsvangirai Morgan
Presidential Election of 2008


A Religious Candidate Is Ascendant in Turkey

Abstract: After being shut out of the presidency last spring, Abdullah Gul, a religious man in the assiduously secular realm of Turkish politics, allowed himself a little soul-searching. “Has the government limited women’s rights?” Mr. Gul, 56, asked a panel of newspaper editors on national television, hoping to persuade Turkey’s establishment that it had nothing to fear from his candidacy. After all, he argued, his party was already in power, but “has the government closed down places where young people or modern people go? Has the government done some secret things and those been disclosed? What happened?” As he saw it, he had done everything right. As foreign minister, he pushed for Turkey to join the European Union. He called for changes to a law that punished writers for “insulting Turkishness.” He raised Turkey’s profile abroad and helped devise a set of democratic reforms. But for Turkey’s secular class, all that was beside the point. Mr. Gul came from a party that espoused political Islam, his wife wore an Islamic head scarf and the fear that inspired outweighed his accomplishments. A high court blocked his candidacy at the request of the main secular opposition party. Four months later, he is running again, after Turks voted overwhelmingly for his party in a national election. This time, in today’s parliamentary vote, he is almost certain to win. Turkey’s secular class is still clearly uncomfortable with the choice. Turkey’s powerful military, which has ousted four elected governments, said on its Web site on Monday that there were “centers of evil” that “systematically try to corrode the secular nature of the Turkish Republic.” But Turkey’s secular elite won only a fifth of the vote last month, and Mr. Gul, an outsider from Turkey’s religious heartland, seems to be calculating that he no longer needs its consent. His approval will thrust a group of young, reform-minded members of the Islamic middle class into the upper echelons of secular power in Turkey, a fundamental reversal of the hierarchy in place since the founding of the state in 1923. For most of Turkey’s history, upper-class Turks have occupied the presidency and imposed Western values onto the conservative Anatolian heartland below. With Mr. Gul’s election, that heartland is on top. “The pupils of Anatolia have grown up,” said Joost Lagendijk, a member of the European Parliament who works on Turkish issues. “The ones that were taught by Ankara and Istanbul how to behave are now asking for their own representation in politics.” Metin Heper, a political science professor at Bilkent University, argues that despite Mr. Gul’s past participation in parties that espoused political Islam, he and his close ally, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s prime minister, did not. They have an entirely different motivation. A review of their political activity, Mr. Heper said, shows they want to build a strong economy and healthy society, and that Islam is a moral compass to achieve it. “They thought you need people who would be industrious, who would take things seriously, who would also act in an honest manner,” he said. “They thought religion would be a source for the internalization of such values and attitudes.” Mr. Gul was born in Kayseri, a conservative city of religious traders and merchants on the plains of central Turkey. The city had a strong part in Turkey’s current economic boom, creating a new Islamic middle class of which Mr. Gul was a part. His early life was more village than city. He married a woman his mother chose, and she was just 14 at the time they were introduced — half his age. But he waited for her to finish school and to reach the legal marriage age, 15, before they wed. In Kayseri, the art of selling was the important skill, but the young Mr. Gul was considered talentless. Mehmet Ozhaseki, an old friend and mayor of Kayseri, tells how Mr. Gul failed to sell soft drinks because he was too shy to sing the jingle, “cold enough to make your 32 teeth dance to the rhythm of the violin.” So he went into academics, putting him on track to compete for power with the secular establishment. He earned a doctorate in economics, which included study in London and Exeter. In 1983, he moved to Saudi Arabia, working in the Islamic Development Bank for eight years. In 1991, he ran for Parliament as part of the Welfare Party, an openly Islamist party. The party was banned after the military forced it from power in 1997. Several years later, he joined Mr. Erdogan in breaking with the conservative Islamic party and founding the Justice and Development Party, which came to power in 2002. “They became disenchanted with the undue attention that the party gave to religion,” Mr. Heper said. “They wanted to separate religion from politics altogether.” But many critics remain unconvinced. “There is a large group of people in Turkey who still think that the statements he has made as a member of the Islamic political movement are his fundamental thoughts and cannot change with time,” said Yilmaz Esmer, a professor at Bahcesehir University. His supporters argue that he is an agile politician who pursued the restructuring of the Turkish state needed for entry into the European Union. Mr. Gul calls the changes a “silent revolution.” He argues deftly before foreign audiences on topics like partition in Iraq (he is against it), and Turkey’s largely peaceful blend of Islam and democracy that makes it exceptional in its region. “For the Europeans, he is considered to be very competent and the driving force behind reforms that have taken place over the past few years,” Mr. Lagendijk said. The question ahead, he said, is will Mr. Gul manage to include all of Turkish society in his appointments to important posts, particularly in the judiciary. “The big challenge for him is to prove he’ll be the president for all the Turks,” Mr. Lagendijk said.

Turkey
Islam
Elections
Gul Abdullah
Politics and Government


A Stage Set for Savoring Autumn in New York

Abstract: THE Skylark is different from a lot of rooftop bars. It’s as inviting inside as out. Ambitious drinks are served in glassware with some heft. Women who are waiters wear dresses by Maria Pinto, a Chicago designer who has been a favorite of Michelle Obama’s. The music, which you can actually hear, is surprising in all the good ways. And the answer to the essential rooftop question, How are the views? Worthy of a few moments of silent contemplation. The Empire State Building. The tip of the Chrysler Building. Worldwide Plaza. A sliver of Central Park. The Hudson River. Maybe the Midtown office building in which you work. You’ll really appreciate that last one, because it means you’re not there but here, at a high altitude, cocktail in hand, as Evelyn (Champagne) King sings on the sound system. The Skylark is on top of 530 Seventh Avenue (between 38th and 39th Streets), a 490,000-square-foot Art Deco building designed by Ely Jacques Kahn. (Current tenants include Max Mara and Carmen Marc Valvo.) Image Eric Johannsen tending bar. Credit Willie Davis for The New York Times Bob Savitt, the owner of 530 Seventh, added a floor and a half to the building for the Skylark, which opened last October, and enlisted as a principal conductor the night-life veteran David Rabin (Lotus, now closed; the Lamb’s Club; and Jimmy at the James in SoHo, another year-round rooftop bar). Johnny Swet, with whom Mr. Rabin worked at Jimmy, was hired to create the drinks menu, and Mr. Rabin worked with the music programmer Jared Dietch, a former D.J. at Lotus, to assemble the playlist. (Mr. Rabin gave Mr. Dietch a list of 1,000 songs to start. “It’s a little bit all over the map, but very sort of rhythmic,” he said. “My attitude about our music is, it should be head-bopping but allow for conversation.”) Mr. Swet’s cocktails are interesting and full of flavor. The Rio Bravo, with Casamigos reposado tequila, Ancho Reyes ancho chili liqueur, agave nectar and muddled grilled tomatillos, has a smoky heat that fits the fall weather. On the same seasonal theme is a savory drink made with Laird’s apple brandy, tawny port, orange bitters and pumpkin butter. It’s called the Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, but I got away with requesting “the pumpkin cocktail.” The Perfect Manhattan here is terrific — George Dickel rye, the vermouths Carpano Antica and Carpano Antica bianco, and Angostura bitters — and the bar will make a martini as dirty as you want it (six olives, no problem). Most cocktails are $18, which is pricey, but they are substantial, and they work well for a gently paced evening during which the sky goes from light gold to the navy of those Maria Pinto dresses. Image Clockwise from top: the Perfect Manhattan; the Rio Bravo; the Peter, Peter Pumpkin Eater; and the Fort Knox. Credit Willie Davis for The New York Times A leisurely drink means more time to listen to the music (Carla Thomas’s “B-A-B-Y,” Fela Kuti’s “Water No Get Enemy” and Sharon Brown’s “I Specialize in Love” were among the songs I heard), enjoy the comfortable couches and ponder the seeming randomness of the black-and-white photographs of the model Jean Shrimpton. (More active customers can play pool in a sweet room on the Hudson side.) A few advisories. The Skylark is not open on Saturdays or Sundays, and it’s not open super-late on weeknights. Reservations are a good idea, and checking the website is, too; one or both levels are sometimes booked for private events. The entrance is around the corner from Seventh Avenue, on West 39th Street. There’s food: just-elevated-enough guacamole and chips, sliders (served in a Skylark box, something like the kind you get with a Big Mac), fries in a metal cone. And there’s a good-natured doorman stationed under the Creamsicle-colored Skylark marquee, who one evening assisted a couple of men with liquor deliveries. First guy shows up in a Ferrari convertible, unloads two boxes of Voli vodka. Second guy arrives a few minutes later in a Porsche convertible, unloads three boxes of Voli. (Note to self: Buy some Voli.) A fun moment, yes, but 30 floors up, that vodka comes in a glass, with a sweet soundtrack and an indelible view.

Skylark
Cocktail
bars,nightclubs
Midtown Area Manhattan


Clippers Defeat Pelicans

Abstract: Jamal Crawford hit seven 3-point shots on his way to 24 points, and the visiting Los Angeles Clippers beat the New Orleans Pelicans, 123-110. Chris Paul had 19 points and 13 assists in his latest return to New Orleans. ■ Stephen Curry had 19 points, 9 assists and 8 rebounds, and the visiting Golden State Warriors beat the Detroit Pistons, 104-96. The Pistons have lost five of seven since firing Maurice Cheeks as coach.

Clippers
Jamal Crawford
New Orleans Pelicans
Basketball


Nadal Reaches Quarterfinals

Abstract: Rafael Nadal was taken to three sets by Radek Stepanek before advancing to the quarterfinals at Queen’s Club, a tuneup for Wimbledon, with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-1 victory. Third-seeded Andy Roddick and second-seeded Andy Murray of Scotland also reached the quarterfinals. Roddick, bidding for his fifth Queen’s Club title, beat 15th-seeded Kevin Anderson of South Africa, 6-4, 6-4, and Murray overcame Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia, 6-4, 7-6 (3).


Expanding in Athletic Gear in a Tough Economy

Abstract: AS far back as his days as a University of Maryland running back, Kevin A. Plank figured there had to be something better than sweat-soaked athletic wear. In 1994, after earning a business degree, he began making moisture-wicking T-shirts in his basement, and has built his company, Under Armour , into one of the most recognizable athletic brands. Now Mr. Plank, 35, is expanding into athletic shoes and going up against the giants Nike and Reebok. In May, the company introduced its first line of performance training footwear. Fresh from a pep talk to Sports Authority sales people in Rockville, Md., Mr. Plank sat down to talk about the company: Q. At a time when retail sales and discretionary spending are down, why are you introducing three new footwear products? A. We certainly didn’t know that a year ago when we picked the date. But I don’t think that would have deterred us. We’re going after the fall sport athlete. Q. Why the cross-trainer category, which you say yourself has been a dormant footwear category? A. It’s the same reason we went after football cleats — because our customer asked us for it. We learn a lot online, we listen a lot and we hear they want something to train in because the way today’s athlete is training is very different than five or six years ago. There’s need for a lateral stability movement, and that requires something different than a linear built running shoe. So our campaign’s theme is: Stop training in running shoes. Q. So how is your shoe different? A. Walk into a gym today, and I bet eight or nine out of 10 people will be wearing a running shoe, but the activities that they are doing would be much more diverse. Our shoe allows you to run in a straight line like the running shoe, but it also gives you lateral stability that allows you to balance left and right, front and back, of course, and also gives you straight up and down movement. Q. How can Under Armour compete with goliaths like Nike? A. Under Armour controls its own destiny. We believe there are better fabrics, better technology and better innovations, and because of our big share of the market, people are going to try us. I’ve been in this business long enough to know our biggest competition is ourselves — making sure we can execute. Q. Under Armour reported a 75 percent drop in its second-quarter profit, after one nearly as big — 71 percent — in its first quarter. Is the sports apparel market saturated and a reason why you’re moving into shoes? A. It was all planned. We spent nearly 18 percent in marketing in the first quarter versus about 11 percent in the first quarter last year. And then we spent another 14.4 percent in the second quarter, which is also up. That was due to timing of the launch. Q. Even so, can you make up sales and profits with footwear, which is a lower-margin category than apparel? A. There’s investment required to enter the footwear market. To be the world’s No. 1 athletic sporting goods brand, we need to be a player in footwear. We’re in a growth and investment period right now, and we have five growth engines. The first is our core men’s apparel, which was up 14 percent over the first six months of this year. A second is our core women’s apparel, and that was up 27 percent in the same period. We also will grow our footwear business, and ultimately make it larger than apparel. Our international business is another component, and the fifth is our direct consumer business, including our Web site and factory stores. Q. Where are the shoes made, and with rising manufacturing costs, how will that affect you? A. In China. Any cost increase will be offset on our side by volume increases. Q. Your biggest increases in growth on a percentage basis have been apparel sales to women and children — how are you going to continue to build on that? A. The company grew 53 percent in 2006 and 41 percent in 2007. Our latest guidance says we’ll grow another 26 to 28 percent this year in a 95 percent U.S.-based business. We’ve felt the strain from the market, but we’ve continued to outperform all others in the spaces where we play. Q. Have you trimmed your plans to open retail and outlet stores? A. We have a full-priced store that opened in Annapolis, and another just outside of Chicago that opened in May. We’ll open a third outside Boston later this month. And we’ll have 25 to 26 factory stores by the end of the year. We’re moving forward.

Sales
Apparel
Sporting Goods
Under Armour Incorporated
Athletics and Sports
Shoes and Boots
Retail Stores and Trade
Sneakers
Plank Kevin A.


What Led Up to the Arrest of a Bombing Suspect

Abstract: The keys found in the ignition of the sport utility vehicle that was left to explode in Times Square on Saturday evening did more than just start cars: one opened the front door to Faisal Shahzad ’s home. The young woman in Bridgeport who last month sold Mr. Shahzad the rusting 1993 Nissan Pathfinder prosecutors say he used in the failed attack did not remember his name. But she had his telephone number. That number was traced back to a prepaid cellular phone purchased by Mr. Shahzad, one that received four calls from Pakistan in the hours before he bought the S.U.V. It was 53 hours and 20 minutes from the moment the authorities say Mr. Shahzad, undetected, left his failed car bomb in the heart of Manhattan until the moment he was taken off a plane at Kennedy Airport and charged with trying to kill untold numbers of the city’s residents and tourists. “In the real world,” said the New York police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, whose detectives investigated the case with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “53 is a pretty good number.” In the most basic calculus, the success of the investigation of the attempted car bombing in Times Square is measured by the authorities only one way: a suspect was caught and charged, and now faces life in prison if convicted. But based on interviews and court records, those 53 hours included good breaks, dead ends, real scares, plain detective work and high-tech sophistication. There were moments of keen insight, and perhaps fearsome oversight. The police detectives and federal agents of the Joint Terrorist Task Force, for instance, interviewed the occupants of 242 rooms of the Marriott Marquis and 92 staff workers. They spoke to theatergoers from the stages of two Broadway plays to determine if anyone had glimpsed a man fleeing the Pathfinder shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Saturday. They did a 24-hour street canvass and fanned out to Pennsylvania and other places to talk to manufacturers of the bomb’s components: two clocks, three propane tanks, gas cans, a gun box, M88 firecrackers. But according to several people with knowledge of the investigation, federal agents who had Mr. Shahzad under surveillance lost him at one point, a development that probably allowed him to make it to the airport and briefly board the plane bound for the Middle East. Spokesmen for the F.B.I. in New York and Washington would not comment on any possible lapse in surveillance. If the lapse occurred, it was not final, or fatal. Mr. Shahzad, according to court papers, confessed to trying to set off a bomb in Times Square shortly after he was taken off the plane. The route to that capture began in Midtown Manhattan, just off Broadway on a warm night of high drama. At 6:28 p.m. on Saturday, the authorities say Mr. Shahzad steered his newly acquired Pathfinder west on West 45th Street, in Times Square, a move caught on film by a police security camera as it crossed Broadway. He bailed out seconds later. Then a street vendor — wearing an “I love New York T-shirt” — waved down a mounted officer, who saw the white smoke collecting inside the still idling vehicle and made a call that got the bomb squad there by about 7 p.m. It took the bomb squad, according to court papers, eight hours of work simply to render the S.U.V. safe enough to approach. Once the authorities did, they found keys hanging from the ignition. Hours later, after they towed the car to a Queens forensic garage, they found an even more important clue when a police Auto Crime Unit detective crawled underneath the vehicle. “The break in this case took place when a New York City detective was able to go under the vehicle and get the hidden VIN number,” Mr. Kelly said at a news conference in Washington on Tuesday. “This identified the owner of record, who in turn, as we know, sold it to the suspect.” It had been something of a feat to get the city’s most senior officials to the scene of the attempted bombing. Mr. Kelly had been in Washington, for the annual White House Correspondents Dinner, when his cellphone rang. At 8 p.m., he walked over to where his boss, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, was sitting and spread the news. At 10:55 p.m. the two men left, taking the mayor’s private jet and touching down at 12:20 a.m. at La Guardia Airport. Fifteen minutes later, the two men, still in fancy suits, were inside a drab storage area of a building on West 44th Street, pulling up folding chairs with police and F.B.I. investigators around a Formica table and reviewing X-ray photos of the Pathfinder’s contents. And soon, investigators fanned out to find the driver. All Sunday afternoon, the agents and police searched for the Pathfinder’s owner of record — a man they knew had bought it used from a lot in Connecticut. By 6 p.m., they found the man, in Bridgeport. He said it was his daughter they needed. “I give it to her,” the man, Lagnes Colas, said in an interview, noting that she had decided to sell it recently so she could get a better car. Within 20 minutes, the investigators were talking with his daughter, Peggy. She said she met on April 24 with a man who answered her online advertisements. He bargained the price down to $1,300 from $1,800, she told investigators. He paid with $100 bills. He looked Middle Eastern or Hispanic. And it was, investigators learned, a strange transaction: one conducted in a supermarket parking lot, without paperwork or receipts, and involving a man who explained that a bill of sale was unnecessary and who seemed uninterested in the vehicle’s long-term prospects. Mr. Shahzad, according to court papers, “inspected the interior seating and cargo area” but not the engine. He was told the chassis was not in good shape, but he bought it anyway. “I thought maybe he might bring the car back,” Mr. Colas said in an interview. The investigative trail was warming up. Later Sunday, a sketch artist was brought in from the Connecticut State Police to work with Ms. Colas on a portrait of the man who had bought the S.U.V. The work was promising. On Monday, police and federal agents were back. Now, they had photographs of six men. She picked out the one of Mr. Shahzad, the court papers said. Meanwhile, officials dug through Verizon Wireless records to learn more about the number she provided, one they found was attached to a prepaid phone activated April 16. Though they declined to say precisely how they tracked such an anonymous number, they established not only that Mr. Shahzad was the buyer of the Pathfinder, but also that he got four phone calls from a Pakistani number associated with him in the hour before he made his final calls to arrange the purchase of the vehicle, according to the papers. But there was more. The records had logged a call made by Mr. Shahzad’s disposable cellphone on April 25, the day after he bought the Pathfinder. It was to a rural Pennsylvania fireworks store, “that sells M-88 fireworks,” the court papers said. Such fireworks were a part of the bomb in the Pathfinder: the would-be detonator. On Monday, F.B.I. agents spoke to Mr. Shahzad’s landlord in Bridgeport, the court papers said. In an interview, the landlord, Stanislaw Chomiak, 44, said his tenant had signed a one-year lease for a two-bedroom apartment on the second floor around three months ago. “He said he’d recently come from his country,” Mr. Chomiak said. Soon after interviewing the landlord on Monday, investigators first “got eyes on” Mr. Shahzad, according to law enforcement officials. He was in another car, one registered in his name, returning to his apartment from the grocery store. Exactly how long investigators had him under surveillance is unclear. But officials said investigators watched him come home and go inside his house. He emerged later to get back in his car, headed south. It seems clear, according to interviews with a variety of officials, the investigators must have lost track of Mr. Shahzad at some point. He made it all the way down the jetway and into his seat. Before the plane pulled away from the gate, though, investigators had caught up with him. He was taken out of his seat and into custody. The 53 hours of work and uncertainty were over.

Bombs and Explosives
Times Square and 42nd Street (NYC)
Shahzad Faisal
Terrorism


Florida State’s Jameis Winston Performs Admirably Under Scrutiny, at Least on the Field

Abstract: TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — About 45 minutes after leading Florida State to a thrilling 31-27 victory against Notre Dame on Saturday, Jameis Winston entered a crowded postgame interview area where a mix of news media, university officials and F.S.U. supporters waited. In his navy blazer and peach shirt complemented by a patterned tie, Winston looked presidential. “Good evening,” he said as he sat down. Winston had turned in an outstanding performance, outdueling Notre Dame’s Everett Golson in a call-and-response battle of quarterbacks before a crowd of 82,431 at Doak Campbell Stadium: You score, I score; you respond, I answer. This was a great shootout between two immensely talented college quarterbacks. Golson finished 31 of 52 with three touchdown passes and seemed primed to lead the Irish to an upset. But as he has done throughout his two seasons at Florida State, Winston rallied the Seminoles, not just with his arm but with his fire on the sideline and in the locker room at intermission with the Seminoles trailing. Winston led Florida State to three consecutive scoring drives in the second half, completing 15 of 16 passes in a display that is likely to make N.F.L. scouts forget any concerns of character issues come the draft in June. In many ways, Golson and Winston illustrate the talent-first imperative in the high-stakes, multibillion-dollar business of intercollegiate athletics. Both Golson and Winston have survived off-field transgressions — Golson missed the fall semester in 2013 at Notre Dame for academic reasons; Winston has faced numerous accusations, and missed one game last month for his behavior off the field — and the display of talent on Saturday helps suggest why. It seems unlikely either would be back on the field if he were a marginal player. Perhaps neither would still be a student at his current university if he were not an enormously talented athlete. Florida State is in the process of scheduling a student judiciary hearing for Winston in connection with a rape accusation from December 2012, when he was a freshman. On Friday, the university announced that it had not found any wrongoing by Winston in an investigation into whether he was paid for his autograph. Stan Wilcox, Florida State’s athletic director, said in a statement at that time that the university had no evidence that Winston took money in exchange for signing memorabilia. After Saturday’s game, the only acknowledgement of controversy hanging over Winston or the university was an F.S.U. official’s announcement to the news media that it keep its questions focused on football. While no one asked directly about the investigation — or the autographs — there were questions about how the team was holding up “with everything going on.” The 2014 Heisman Watch A look at the top players in contention for college football’s highest honor. “One thing we are consistently proving is that we are winners,” Winston said. “And no matter what type of adversity we may face, we are family here at Florida State, and we play hard. “The one thing people need to realize about the Seminoles team is when we’ve got our backs against the wall, we always rise.” For all of Winston’s prowess as a quarterback, his versatility and charisma, the 20-year-old appears to be tone-deaf to the responsibility that comes with being one of the most highly visible athletes in the country. Perhaps it is too much to expect from a college student to soak in the limelight on the field and avoid the spotlight off it. But only some of the accusations surrounding Winston can be explained away as youthful transgressions. And Florida State has not always helped his cause by allowing him back on the field. Last month, Winston was suspended by Florida State after he shouted an obscenity of a sexual nature in the student union. The suspension was initially for the first half against Clemson, then for the game after a video of the incident spread quickly online and increased pressure on the university. Given what it took to get the punishment up from two quarters to four, I doubt that there was ever a conversation about sitting Winston for the season. And, after experiencing the electric atmosphere of Saturday night’s game against Notre Dame, one could see why the university wants to keep him on the field. Florida State understands what an undefeated season, and perhaps a second Heisman Trophy for Winston, could mean to the F.S.U. brand. Fund-raising initiatives always go better when a university is winning. Through a spokesman, Garnett S. Stokes, Florida State’s interim president, declined to speak with me about the Winston investigation as did Wilcox. Winston is expected to declare for the N.F.L. draft after this season, and who can blame him? He has made enough money for the university; now it is time for the quarterback to get paid. I only hope he will learn the lesson of personal responsibility before then. Some of what he has done off the field — stealing soda from a fast-food restaurant, shooting squirrels with BB guns — has been viewed as typical acts of 19- and 20-year-olds. A number of Florida State officials and coaches I spoke with over the weekend pointed out that such things were no different from what many others, athletes or not, had done in their college years. That may be true, but it is also the sort of enabling rationalization that allowed Winston to get on a table last month and shout obscenities. The people at Florida State have not done a very good job of getting their Heisman winner to realize that he is the face of college football, and not just on the field.

Jameis Winston
Everett Golson
College football
University of Notre Dame
Florida State University