For the Health Conscious, Fitness Gadgets for the Holidays

Abstract: LOOKING for something to place under the tree for the health buff in the family? Skip the Zumba DVDs and consider a fitness gadget. They can make a great present for anyone on your list, whether that person is an ardent athlete or simply wants a little help working off holiday indulgences like eggnog and pecan pie. These devices can help transform even a mundane workout into a fascinating scientific activity because they are rigged with small sensors to supply metrics, like the number of steps walked and calories burned. That numerical feedback functions as positive reinforcement to keep users aware of their progress and to motivate them to push a little further each day. Jawbone, a company known for its glossy selection of stylish and sophisticated accessories, including wireless speakers and Bluetooth headsets, has begun to extend its reach into personal health. The company recently released a product called Up, a slim rubber wristband outfitted with tiny motion sensors (similar to the ones in the Nintendo’s Wii remote) to track how much its wearer is walking and sleeping. The bracelet, which costs $100 and is waterproof so it can be worn in the shower, during a swim or on a run, works in tandem with an application on the iPhone . It is simple enough — users just press a silver button on one end of the band to activate the device and let it know whether they are in sleep, working or activity mode. The Up requires a little more work than some of its fitness hardware brethren — when users want to sync data, they plug one end of the bracelet into the headphone jack on an iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 or iPhone 4S. That information is then sliced and diced into a colorful readout showing hours slept, meals eaten, activities completed and calories burned throughout the day. The application also encourages users to keep a visual diary of their meals by snapping pictures of each dish with their iPhones. If wearers need a little extra workout motivation, the Up app provides challenges with rewards — walking an extra hundred steps a day might earn coupons — to help nudge them into action. Owners can also find, track and compare the progress of their friends who are using the system. The band can also be programmed to silently buzz at intervals throughout the day — a physical reminder to stand up, stretch and walk around the house or office for some exercise. In addition, the Up has a Smart Alarm feature that will find the optimal time each morning to rouse its wearer with a vibration. The Fitbit Ultra, which also costs $100, provides many of the same features as the Up, with one main difference. The device can wirelessly transmit data to a computer, making it much more convenient to use than its competitors. About the size of a flash drive, and designed to clip onto a waistband or sleeve, it is not as sleek as the Up bracelet. Users can log into the Fitbit Web site to see a handy breakdown of their activity. Striiv, developed by a small start-up in Redwood City, Calif., is a svelte pedometer that can easily fit into a pocket and tracks how much its owner walks each day. The keychain-size device, which costs $99, has a colorful LCD touch-screen display that shows encouraging stats like how many more steps its owner must take to burn off a cupcake or a sundae. The device can be synced to a laptop or desktop computer using a mini-USB cord that is included with the device. But perhaps the most distinctive feature of the Striiv is that using it is not unlike playing the popular game FarmVille, and that can, of course, keep people committed to their workout. People can choose to play a game called MyLand that lets them cash in their steps to build farms. Nonplayers who want to do social good can exchange their steps for donations to nonprofits. For those who need a little extra boost to get back into the gym, Fitocracy, a new Web-based service, lets people record their personal workouts and see how they compare to their peers. They can challenge one another and give encouragement through the site. At present, users have to document their progress manually, but eventually, Fitocracy plans to work with third-party applications and services to automatically port and aggregate their data on the site. Wahoo Fitness offers a heart-rate strap called BlueHR that can be worn during exercise to let users monitor their pulse rate and make sure it is in the optimal range during a workout. The device, which costs $120, syncs only with the iPhone 4S. It gives users an insight into the level of cardiovascular activity during a workout. The iPhone is already primed to be a fitness aid. Installing applications that allow it to track the miles logged on a run and let people share their best times with others can make it even better. The applications include RunKeeper, Runmeter, Cyclemeter and Nike +. With the Nike+ SportWatch ($200), you can track your time, distance, pace and heart rate and calories burned. It is also equipped with GPS, so you can chart your route and even changes in elevation. And you can upload data on your run to a computer using the USB port. Of course, getting a good night’s rest is also crucial to healthy living. Philips makes a cylinder-shaped creation called the Wake-Up Light that uses soft light to mimic the sunrise. The alarm, which costs $170, is programmed to start glowing softly 30 minutes before a preset wake-up time, helping rouse the brain from slumber. The WakeMate is another piece of hardware that tries to help its owner get a better night’s rest. The device, which costs $60, is a padded wristband that uses sensors to monitor the wearer’s sleep cycles and then chooses the best time to awaken the sleeper. The service also provides detailed metrics on a body’s movements throughout the night, indicating how much deep, restful sleep was attained.

Sensors
Jawbone
Sleep
Exercise
Fitbit
NIKE Inc
Watches and Clocks
Mobile Applications


U.N. Approves Peacekeepers for Darfur

Abstract: The United Nations Security Council voted unanimously yesterday to authorize the deployment of up to 26,000 peacekeepers to try to stop the violence in Darfur , in western Sudan, where some 200,000 people have been killed in four years of conflict. The resolution will create the world’s largest peacekeeping operation, costing about $2 billion in its first year and drawing on military and police forces from the African Union and the United Nations , a United Nations spokeswoman said. Though the resolution was toned down after objections from Sudan’s government, it will allow the peacekeeping troops to use force to prevent attacks on themselves, to protect civilians and aid workers, and to support putting in place a peace agreement. The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, described the mission as “historic and unprecedented.” “You are sending a clear and powerful signal of your commitment to improve the lives of the people of the region and close this tragic chapter in Sudan’s history,” he told the Security Council. The approval of the resolution, No. 1769, was widely expected and occurred after months of diplomatic wrangling. A breakthrough took place in June, when Sudan’s government, after long resistance, agreed to allow United Nations peacekeepers to enter Darfur. The Darfur conflict has been marked by brutal intertribal violence in which the Sudanese government has armed Arab militias to fight the non-Arab insurgents. That ethnic warfare has spilled into neighboring states and forced aid agencies to limit their work among some 2.5 million people who have been displaced by the fighting. The resolution now calls for a peacekeeping mission to begin no later than October, and cites Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, under which the Security Council is permitted to authorize the use of force to carry out the mandate. Most of the peacekeepers are supposed to be drawn from African nations, and would include a beleaguered force of some 7,000 soldiers already in Darfur from the African Union, placing it under a unified command and control with the United Nations force. The resolution authorizes a maximum of 19,555 military personnel and 6,432 civilian police officers. It does not spell out what role would be played by major powers, including the United States. As the resolution was approved Tuesday, the American ambassador, Zalmay Khalilzad, issued a stern warning to President Omar Hassan al-Bashir of Sudan to cooperate. “If Sudan does not comply with this resolution, the United States will move for the swift adoption of unilateral and multilateral measures,” Mr. Khalilzad said in a statement. “Now Sudan faces a choice,” he said. “Sudan can choose the path of cooperation or defiance.” Sudan’s ambassador to the United Nations, Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem Mohamad, told reporters that he was “comfortable” with the resolution and that the use of Chapter 7 powers was limited. In a speech before the General Assembly, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain also urged strong support for peacekeeping in Darfur, calling the war “the greatest humanitarian disaster the world faces today.” Mr. Brown, who took office in June, asked member nations to support the resolution, calling for the deployment of the peacekeeping force as part of efforts to achieve a cease-fire. Mr. Brown, who noted that the measure also had the support of the United States, called for an end to aerial bombing of civilians, and for greater effort to support peace talks and reconstruction. “But we must be clear that if any party blocks progress and the killings continue, I and others will redouble our efforts to impose further sanctions,” Mr. Brown said, according to a transcript of his speech. “The message for Darfur is that it is a time for change.” Mr. Brown, who held two days of meetings with President Bush this week, devoted most of his speech to a proposal for world leaders to work to reduce poverty in line with the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals, which call for action by 2015 to address poverty, and education and environmental problems. Seven years after the world’s nations pledged to meet the goals, Mr. Brown said, “It is already clear that our pace is too slow; our direction too uncertain; our vision at risk.” He said that while there had been some success in improving global health and education, the world was far from meeting the goals set in 2000, particularly on poverty and the environment.

United Nations
Security Council
African Union
Darfur (Sudan)
International Relations


Aviva to Drop 16 Lagging Divisions

Abstract: LONDON (Reuters) — Aviva , one of Britain’s largest insurers, plans to sell or close more than a quarter of its businesses in a shake-up aimed at regaining the support of investors upset by the group’s flagging share price. The company, whose weak stock market performance led to the removal in May of Andrew Moss, the chief executive, will jettison 16 businesses that account for 18 percent of operating profit, it said on Thursday. The assets earmarked for sale or closing include Aviva’s South Korean arm, its bulk purchase annuity unit and its stake in a Dutch rival, Delta Lloyd. “They’ve at last got to the nub of the matter, which is that they’ve got lots of business units that are not making a proper return on risk capital,” said Kevin Ryan, an Investec analyst. “But clearly there’s enormous execution risk in that this is not an environment in which to try and sell.” After the market closed in Britain, Aviva said that it would sell up to 25 million shares in Delta Lloyd, equivalent to a 14 percent stake. The insurer declined to name the other assets up for sale, as doing so might hinder efforts to sell them. Analysts said Aviva’s sizable United States arm, acquired for £2 billion in 2006, was probably also on the block. Aviva’s regulatory capital buffer fell by one-third between July and September last year as the escalating crisis in the euro area set off sharp declines in the value of bonds issued by heavily indebted governments. The insurer said it sold 2 billion euros ($2.5 billion) of Italian sovereign debt in June, reducing its holding to 5 billion euros. It also announced £400 million of cost cuts to be achieved in part by a cull of middle management. Aviva’s chairman, John McFarlane, who has been in day-to-day control since Mr. Moss resigned, said there would be no need to raise equity or cut the dividend provided economic conditions did not deteriorate, adding that the insurer would prefer to sell assets if they did.


Treading Carefully in a Murky Estate Tax Landscape

Abstract: THE estate tax isn’t dead. It’s resting. The tax has been eliminated for 2010, but the estates of people who die before the year is out may still not pass free and clear to their heirs. The complexities of the tax system and the likely return of the estate tax next year — maybe even sooner — are creating confusion for accountants, lawyers and many families. Possibly greater expense, too, and not just for the wealthy. Odd as it may seem, tax specialists caution, the absence of an estate tax could result in greater liability on smaller fortunes than on bigger ones. Say that someone worth $10 million dies on Dec. 31 this year. Because there is currently no estate tax for this tax year, the beneficiaries divide the whole amount, although they may also inherit liability for capital gains tax on some of the assets. But what if the person in this example doesn’t die until Jan. 1, 2011 — when the estate, apart from a $1 million exemption, is due to be taxed at 55 percent? There will be a lot less to share. Estate planners say the tax hiatus has inspired jokes among their peers along the lines of “Throw Momma from the train in 2010.” Yet if Momma has a fortune of less than seven figures, her loved ones probably would be better off keeping her on board. Consider what happens when someone worth less than $1 million dies. There is no estate tax whether the death occurs this year or next, but capital gains on inherited assets are to be calculated in a much less favorable way in 2010. That is a result of a legislative compromise way back in 2001, which ultimately brought the respite from the estate tax this year and its resumption next year with a higher rate and a lower exemption than in the past. “In 2009 the estate tax hit the rich,” said Ian Shane, a tax specialist at the New York law firm Golenbock Eiseman Assor Bell & Peskoe. “Now not-so-wealthy people could also get hit.” Of course, Congress could belatedly enact an estate tax for 2010 or a portion of it. Any impact will depend on the details of the tax, including whether it is made retroactive. Mr. Shane expects no change for the rest of 2010. “The general view is that Congress wants to, and should, re-enact the estate tax retroactive to the beginning of this year,” he said. “In January, February or March that’s easy, but as the year goes on it becomes more difficult.” Justin Ransome, a partner at Grant Thornton, foresees some rules revision, but perhaps not an attempt to turn back the clock. “All indications on the Hill are that reform will be done in 2010,” he said, “but it’s not as certain that it will be done retroactively.” Tax specialists say that doing nothing would be the worst outcome, as it would increase the chance that rules approved for 2011, which call for more onerous conditions than in previous years, would be put into effect and remain. “The worst result, practitioners agree, is no action at all because then we go back to the highest rate and lowest exemption,” said Joanne Johnson, head of the American wealth advisory service of J. P. Morgan Private Bank. “If no action is taken, then at the stroke of midnight” next Jan. 1, “we go back to a $1 million exemption and 55 percent rate.” Whatever the legal backdrop, what can people do to ensure that the greatest amount of wealth possible goes to heirs and not to the Treasury? A few steps might put the odds more in their favor. “Give gifts as much as you can this year,” Mr. Shane suggested. “You want to give as much to the kids and grandkids this year as possible.” Gift givers will be taxed at 35 percent this year and probably 55 percent in 2011. As with the estate tax, exemptions apply. You can give up to $13,000 per recipient this year before the tax kicks in, up to a $1 million lifetime exemption. Ms. Johnson cautions against the creative vagueness that is often found in trust documents. Because bequests to a surviving spouse are exempt from estate tax, it’s common to find language like “I hereby fund this trust to the maximum amount I can shelter from federal estate tax,” she said. The rest can then pass tax-free to the spouse. Such wording is risky as long as the estate tax is off the books, she pointed out, because there is no maximum. “Now if you have that clause, everything goes to the kids,” she said. “The spouse says, ‘What about me?’ ” CONFUSION and ambiguity about the estate tax are likely to linger for some time. “There’s no ironclad trust for most people to take advantage of to shore up their estates against anything that might come along down the line,” said Elizabeth Ruch, a financial planner at Waddell & Reed. Her advice is to take the same basic steps to minimize estate tax as when the legal landscape is clearer. “Every estate plan should be reviewed every four or five years,” she said. “Make sure everything’s relevant, with the right beneficiaries in place. Know what you want to do and why you want to do it.”

Capital Gains Tax
Inheritance and Estate Taxes
Taxation
Wills and Estates
United States Politics and Government


China Juggles Tombs, Dragon Boats and Marx

Abstract: HONG KONG, Nov. 9 — A Chinese government panel announced plans on Friday to revamp the holiday schedule to re-emphasize traditional festivals at the expense of the Marxist May Day celebration. The new schedule aims to address the severe overloading of China’s air, rail and road links in the first week of May, when virtually the entire country goes on vacation. But gridlock may remain around the two other major holidays — essentially a week each — at the Chinese New Year and in the first week of October. Government officials, laborers and executives alike try to visit distant family members or vacation destinations during those holidays, frequently producing transportation nightmares. The panel’s plans were posted on the Internet for public comment on Friday and in theory could still be changed. But the official Xinhua news agency said the plan was ready to go into place early next year, suggesting that all relevant government agencies had reached a consensus that is unlikely to be altered. The plan calls for trimming the May 1 holiday to one working day from three. At the same time, three traditional Chinese festivals will each become one-day public holidays. The new holidays are Tomb-Sweeping Day in April, the Dragon Boat Festival in June and the Mid-Autumn Festival in September. The dates of the festivals vary on Western calendars, because they are determined by a lunar calendar. Chinese New Year, usually in late January or early February, and National Day, Oct. 1, will continue as three-day national holidays. They typically expand to seven days through the rearrangement of weekends: if the official holidays fall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, for example, then Thursday and Friday frequently become holidays as well, while the following Saturday and Sunday become workdays. Under the new schedule, the first official day of Chinese New Year will also be recalculated to fall one day earlier, making it easier for laborers facing cross-country bus and train rides to reach their families in time for the height of the celebrations. James Thompson, the chairman of Crown Worldwide Holdings, a major Asian moving company based in Hong Kong, said the current practice of taking nearly weeklong holidays posed severe problems for his industry. “We actually have to tell our overseas offices to avoid shipping into China during that period,” he said. “Everything is shut.” Mao tried to erase many traditional Chinese celebrations, but their popularity has re-emerged as Communist ideology has lost most of its influence in contemporary Chinese society. The Communist Party has increasingly tried to strengthen its position in recent years with nationalistic appeals for people to take pride in China’s 5,000-year history and culture. In many rural areas, tombs are once more decorated with flowers and other tributes on Tomb-Sweeping Day, even though the Communist Party still bans most burials in favor of cremation. The ban on burials, enforced particularly in or near cities, is intended to conserve land and prevent the reappearance of lavish burial ceremonies that sometimes bankrupted even affluent families.


Michigan Broadens Discrimination Protections

Abstract: LANSING, Mich., Nov. 22 (AP) — Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm has issued an order that bars discrimination against state workers based on their “gender identity or expression,” which protects the rights of those who behave, dress or identify as members of the opposite sex. The order, which Ms. Granholm, a Democrat, signed Wednesday, adds gender identity to a list of other prohibited grounds for discrimination that includes religion, race, color, national origin, age, sex, sexual orientation, height, weight, marital status, politics, disability or genetic information. “State employment practices and procedures that encourage nondiscriminatory and equal employment practices provide desirable models for the private sector and local governments,” the resolution says. The Triangle Foundation, a Michigan group advocating rights for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, praised Ms. Granholm’s action. “Coming out as transgender is a career-ender,” the foundation’s policy director, Sean Kosofsky, told The Detroit Free Press. “Transgendered people lose their jobs all the time.” James Muffet, president of Citizens for Traditional Values, expressed doubt about the seriousness of sexual identity discrimination in state government. Mr. Muffet said Ms. Granholm was more likely making a political gesture toward gay rights groups that backed her 2006 re-election bid.

Michigan
Discrimination
Transsexuals
Law and Legislation


Bill Summers, Car Builder Who Set a Speed Record, Dies at 75

Abstract: Bill and Bob Summers were hot-rodding high school students when they began souping up clunkers in their Southern California town in the 1950s and heading out to race them across dry lake beds. Bill would become a truck driver, Bob a welder — hardly high-tech engineers with aerodynamic design skills. And yet they built a spearlike vehicle that in 1965 set the world speed record for wheel-driven cars, a record that stood for 26 years. (Wheel-driven cars are in a class distinct from jet-powered cars that rely on engine thrust.) Bill Summers died of natural causes at his home in Ontario, Calif., on May 12, his daughter Maggie Peace said. He was 75. Bob, his younger brother, who had driven the car they built — the Goldenrod — died in 1991. It was on Nov. 12, 1965, on a stretch of the Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah, that the Goldenrod — zooming past the clock on two separate runs within an hour — set the record with an average top speed of 409.277 miles per hour. That broke the record of 403.135 set a year earlier, on July 17, 1964, by Donald Campbell, an Englishman. Before Mr. Campbell, the record had been held for 17 years by another Englishman, John Cobb, who had driven 394.196 m.p.h. on Sept. 16, 1947. The Summers brothers built the Goldenrod in an abandoned, sheet-metal-covered vegetable stand near their home. Despite their lack of technical training, said Bob Casey, curator of transportation for the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., “their car established the paradigm for future land-speed-record cars.” “They saw that the key to making a car go fast, aside from power,” Mr. Casey continued, “was having as little frontal area as possible, to be as low and narrow as possible so that you punch a smaller hole in the air.” The Goldenrod, which is in the Ford museum collection, is 32 feet long, 48 inches wide, 42 inches high, and weighs about 6,000 pounds. It holds four Chrysler engines of about 600 horsepower each. On Aug. 21, 1991, the Goldenrod record was broken by Al Teague, when his car averaged 409.986 miles per hour. The record now stands at 458.440, set by Don Vesco on Oct. 18, 2001. Before the Summers brothers, “the records typically were set by the British, who had huge budgets,” said Greg Sharp, curator of the National Hot Rod Association Museum in Pomona, Calif. “And here’s a couple of American hot-rodders who built their car in the backyard and took that record away.” The Summers brothers went on to own a company that produced high-quality driveline components, particularly high-strength axles, for drag racing cars. William Ray Summers was born in Omaha on Dec. 18, 1935, one of three children of Sherman and Mary Summers. The family later moved to Washington State, and then to California. Besides his daughter Maggie, his survivors include his sister, Susan Cunningham; two other daughters, Cheryl Cooper and Christina Lefevre; a son, Rick; 12 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren. His wife of 28 years, the former Joy Young, died in 2002. Mr. Casey, the Ford museum curator, said the museum has a film clip of the moment when the brothers found out they had broken the record. “Here they were scraping for money, living on a shoestring,” Mr. Casey said. “And when the official timer, Joe Petrali, handed Bob the timing slip and showed them that they had finally done it, brought this record back to the United States, the camera panned across this small group of people and you can see Bill grabbing his eyes, tearing up.”

Summers Bill
Automobile Racing
Deaths (Obituaries)
Automobiles


2 China Cities Move to Cool Overheated Housing Market

Abstract: SHANGHAI — In an effort to cool the resurgent property market, two of China’s biggest cities announced over the weekend that they would put in place a series of new restrictions and penalties on housing sales. In the nation’s capital, the Beijing municipal government said that unmarried individuals would now be allowed to purchase only one residence. The city also increased the minimum down payment for buyers of a second home and imposed a 20 percent capital gains tax on owners’ selling a residence. In Shanghai, an identical capital gains tax was announced and took immediate effect, and city officials pledged to install and enforce other measures aimed at stabilizing housing prices. The stiffer capital gains taxes take the place of a 1 percent to 2 percent transaction tax that was previously assessed on the final price of the property being sold. The announcements came weeks after China’s State Council, or cabinet, said the government would take stronger action to ensure that property prices do not continue to soar, fueling what many analysts believe is a real estate bubble that could seriously damage the economy and exacerbate social tensions between the rich and the poor. Property prices in China have been rising sharply in the last year, with housing prices in many big cities up an average of 3.1 percent in February, according to a government survey. In many cities, the cost of buying a new home has doubled in the last five years. In a country where investment options can be limited, property is considered a good store of value. Michael Pettis, who teaches finance at Peking University and is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said China was facing challenges that many other emerging markets were struggling with: It is awash in too much cash and credit. “China has a liquidity problem, and so it’s not clear to me changing the tax structure or fiddling around the edges addresses the real problem,” Mr. Pettis said. “Raising interest rates would be the single biggest thing they could do. But they also need to stop credit and monetary growth.” Some of the new measures detailed Saturday had been anticipated after the State Council’s announcement in early March. The threat of tougher rules had set off a nationwide rush to sell properties before city governments detailed the specific measures they would take, as well as their starting dates. Shanghai and other big cities had even seen a surge in the number of divorce filings at marriage bureaus, with many couples openly admitting that they were filing for divorce simply to get around property rules and that they would later remarry. It was clear in the announcements that the city governments were trying to close that loophole. China’s state-run news media also said over the weekend that the central government was planning to introduce a unified national property registration system by the end of 2014, which could eventually make it possible to impose an annual property tax on households — yet another way the authorities expect to fight housing speculation and fend off bubbles. Although Chinese cities do not impose annual taxes on holding residential properties, the government has rolled out detailed measures virtually every year for the past decade in an effort to penalize speculation in the housing market. The efforts have often been effective at temporarily holding down prices, but the market usually roars back as investors, homeowners — and even banks and property agents — identify loopholes in the restrictions, analysts say. Because China’s booming economy is tied so closely to the property market — and because the property market is a major source of income for banks, which issue mortgages, and local governments, which profit from land sales — any strong government measures to rein in the sector have the potential to affect the larger economy. In Shanghai, a city of about 22 million, banks are no longer allowed to offer loans to residents buying a third home; those seeking a second mortgage are now expected to make larger down payments and to pay higher mortgage rates. Shanghai officials also said they would make it tougher for foreigners, people from other cities in China and divorced individuals to buy homes, a clear hint that they intended to counter attempts by local residents to seek divorces in order to circumvent some restrictions. The authorities in Beijing and Shanghai also promised to build more moderately priced residences. This year, Beijing said it planned to build 70,000 units of such housing; Shanghai said it expected to build 10,000 units. “The central government is feeling the heat and not just for social reasons,” Joe Zhou, a property analyst at Société Générale, said in a report released last week. He said a push by Prime Minister Li Keqiang, who took office in March, to promote urbanization as a new key growth driver “only adds to the urgency to cap property prices, as the strategy implicitly requires housing prices to be within the reach of future migrants whose purchasing power is likely to be more limited than those who have already earned their way into the urban area.”

China
Housing
Shanghai
Beijing
Real Estate
Economy
Property tax


Guards in India Were Outgunned, Attack Survivor Says

Abstract: NEW DELHI — A survivor of one of the worst guerrilla attacks in India’s long-running Maoist insurgency said Sunday that the security force guarding the ambushed convoy of top state political leaders in the state of Chhattisgarh was outnumbered and outgunned during an hourlong firefight. The police officers assigned to protect the convoy ran out of ammunition during the assault on Saturday, said one of the dozens of survivors, Vivek Bajpai, a businessman and a member of the Indian National Congress Party. With the convoy’s guards unable to return fire, 200 to 300 guerrillas emerged from the forest and demanded that the survivors tell them where Mahender Karma and Nandkumar Patel, both top Congress Party leaders, were hiding. When the guerrillas found Mr. Karma they killed him, Mr. Bajpai said. “I didn’t see the killing, but I heard his cries,” Mr. Bajpai, 42, said. “They beat him with rifle butts and shot him many times. And then they celebrated his death, danced near his body, fired celebratory shots in the air and shouted slogans like ‘The enemy is killed.’ We thought our turn was coming next.” The attackers killed 24 people — 8 police officers and 16 civilians, including Mr. Karma and Mr. Patel — and wounded 37, said Mukesh Gupta, senior police officer. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the president of the Congress Party, flew to Chhattisgarh on Sunday to visit the wounded, console the grieving and condemn the attackers. “We will pursue the perpetrators of this crime with urgency, and I can assure the nation that the government is committed to bringing them to justice,” Mr. Singh said. Rahul Gandhi, the Congress Party vice president, said that the attackers hoped to intimidate the party, but that they would not succeed. “We are not scared,” Mr. Gandhi said in Chhattisgarh. “We will not run away.” The attack began with the detonation of a bomb, which forced the vehicles to stop, and continued with a barrage of automatic-weapons fire, Mr. Bajpai said. “Many of the Maoists were young girls, maybe 20 to 25 years old,” Mr. Bajpai said. The guerrillas, inspired by the Chinese Communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong, have been demanding land for tenant farmers and jobs for the poor for decades. The rebels are estimated to have thousands of fighters and a significant presence in at least six states. Mr. Karma had long been a target of their anger because he founded Salwa Judum, a local militia organized to combat the guerrillas that has been accused of atrocities against the local tribal population. Such tribal groups are among India’s most marginalized citizens and constitute the backbone of the Maoist insurgency in the eastern middle of the country. After the killings, the Maoists scolded the survivors for challenging their authority by moving through an area under guerrilla control. They ordered several survivors to put out a fire caused by grenade blasts. “They said that they were Adivasis and did not want to damage the forest,” Mr. Bajpai said. “Slowly, they started moving toward the jungle and left us behind.” The Adivasis are tribal people who consider themselves the first residents of India. A newspaper photographer was the first person on the scene after the attack, Mr. Bajpai said. Later, a contingent of local police officers arrived and took the survivors to Jagdalpur.

India
Indian National Congress
Terrorism
Fatalities,casualties


Huge Phone Deal Seeks to Thwart Smaller Rivals

Abstract: The AT&T Corporation, in announcing plans yesterday to buy BellSouth Corporation for $67 billion after months of speculation, took the offensive against low-cost rivals in the free-for-all for phone, wireless and television customers. With cable providers and technology companies entering the phone business, the former Baby Bells starting to sell television programming and more and more services available on mobile phones and on the Internet, companies like AT&T are trying to bulk up and turn themselves into one-stop shops for all communications needs. "We literally have hundreds of competitors coming in every day; it's nothing like the old days," said Edward E. Whitacre, Jr., the chairman and chief executive of AT&T, the country's largest phone company. "If we're going to have the strength to compete, we better get our companies together." The new company, with $120 billion in sales, about 317,000 workers and 71 million local phone customers in 22 states, would recreate a big chunk of the former AT&T monopoly that was broken up a generation ago. With the deal, only three Baby Bells would remain: AT&T, the former SBC Communications that provided service in the Southwest and elsewhere; Qwest and Verizon, the $90 billion company which is AT&T's chief rival. The latter two might now face renewed pressure to build themselves up. The merger, one of the dozen largest deals ever, was long the subject of speculation and got a major push in January when the chiefs of both companies went bird hunting together in Georgia. The deal still must pass muster with regulators and it will probably face close scrutiny from consumer groups and AT&T's main competitors who argue the merger would give AT&T too much power and will ultimately lead to higher prices. But while AT&T -- which was formed last year when SBC bought the long-distance carrier, AT&T -- might look much like its old self, the landscape where it competes is completely different. In 1984, when the old Ma Bell was broken up, the Internet and cellphone service barely existed and the cable industries was far smaller. The new, more complex environment is a big reason why anti-trust watchdogs have not blocked large phone deals in recent years. Regulators in the Bush Administration have also been generally sympathetic to mergers, which has not escaped AT&T's attention, analysts said. Indeed, AT&T and BellSouth consider themselves complementary partners because they compete very little for local phone and Internet customers, and they jointly own Cingular Wireless. As a result, consumers buying services from AT&T, BellSouth and Cingular are unlikely to see much immediate impact. Ultimately, the companies hope that their new size will help them hold down their prices and potentially undercut cable and satellite companies with cheaper television programming, which they are just beginning to introduce. Any benefits to customers notwithstanding, consumer groups expressed concern about a deal to merge the two companies. "Things were already quite bad, but this eliminates any possibility of phone companies competing against each other," said Gene Kimmelman, the vice president for federal policy at Consumers Union, which publishes Consumer Reports. "The bottom line for consumers is that you can kiss goodbye the declining cellphone and long distance prices that people have become used to." Investors have considered a union between AT&T and BellSouth likely because of their mutual stake in Cingular and because of their shared history as Baby Bells. Mr. Whitacre has not been shy about paying top dollar for rivals to scare away other bidders. In the past decade, he bought three other local phone companies, Pacific Telesis Group, Southern New England Telecommunications and Ameritech Corp. In 2004, Cingular bought AT&T Wireless for $41 billion, and last year, SBC bought AT&T for $16.8 billion and adopted its name. "The empire-building continues," said Jeffrey Halpern, an industry analyst at Sanford Bernstein. "He has a track record of gobbling competitors at premium prices." AT&T said it would pay $37.09 for BellSouth's shares, which is 17.9 percent above the closing stock price on Friday. The company, whose headquarters will remain in San Antonio, said it expected to save about $2 billion a year by buying BellSouth, some of which would come from an unspecified number of job cuts. AT&T planned to keep its name if the merger is approved, and Mr. Whitacre would remain at the helm. With the deal, Duane Ackerman, the chairman of BellSouth, and several of his top lieutenants stand to collect hefty special payments, according to the terms of their employment contracts. Mr. Ackerman, who 63 years old and nearing retirement, could sell $28,374,000 worth of restricted stock and options if he is asked to leave the company, according to publicly filed documents. Mr. Whitacre and Mr. Ackerman have been inching closer to a deal for years. In the fall of 2004, the companies held extensive negotiations, but the talks collapsed after BellSouth pushed for a price that included a premium of more than 30 percent, people involved in those talks said. Mr. Whitacre then turned his attention to buying AT&T. Just days before that deal was signed, BellSouth tried to return to the bargaining table, seeking a premium of slightly more than 20 percent, these people said. But it was too late for Mr. Whitacre to turn back. When SBC absorbed AT&T in November, Mr. Whitacre turned once again to BellSouth because, among other reasons, the two companies were having trouble managing Cingular. In mid-January, Mr. Whitacre sent one of his bankers, Roger Altman, who worked in the Treasury Department under President Clinton, to approach Mr. Ackerman again and make an informal proposal. The next day, Mr. Whitacre and Mr. Ackerman went bird hunting, these people said. After their day out, the men promised to go to their boards and pursue a deal. Several weeks later, the executives met again privately and shook hands on a deal, setting off another three-week marathon of conference calls and meetings. The deal was given the code name Project Mountain, while AT&T was referred to as Aspen, BellSouth was called Birch and Cingular Cedar. The mountain theme was chosen because, as one person put it, "This deal has been a long climb." Over the last three weeks, both sides camped out at the midtown Manhattan offices of Sullivan & Cromwell, which represented AT&T. Mr. Whitacre called in from Turino, where he was watching the Olympics. On Saturday, the boards of both companies met to approve the transaction. The new company would dwarf its nearest competitor, Verizon, which has in the past reacted to Mr. Whitacre's deals by following with ones of its own. After SBC bought AT&T last year, for example, Verizon outbid Qwest Communications for control of MCI Inc., the long-distance carrier. Verizon's next move will probably be to try to dissolve its relationship with Vodafone, which owns 45 percent of Verizon Wireless. Verizon has expressed interest in buying Vodafone's share, but the price tag is likely to be steep because Verizon Wireless is extremely profitable. Less likely, Verizon could also pursue Qwest, the primary local phone provider in the western United States, which is saddled with heavy debts. Verizon may also look more closely at Alltel, the country's fifth-largest wireless carrier. "Verizon's business plan remains unchanged," said Peter Thonis, a Verizon spokesman. "We are focused on integrating MCI, divesting our directories business and working to acquire from Vodafone the remaining 45 percent of Verizon Wireless." Verizon, like AT&T, is also trying to head off its rivals by offering its own television services. But the construction of the networks to carry their programming is proving expensive and the carriers have had to acquire permission from municipalities to sell their service. The Bells have asked lawmakers in Washington to help them streamline the process, alarming cable companies that have moved closer together to defend themselves. In addition to selling home phone lines, Comcast, Time Warner Cable and other cable companies are working with Sprint-Nextel, the third-largest cellphone company, to introduce mobile phone services that compete with Cingular and Verizon Wireless. Cable companies are also using Sprint's long-distance network to carry its phone calls to rely less on AT&T and Verizon. "Cable and Sprint are the counter force to the Bells," said Daniel Berninger, an analyst at Tier 1 Research. "The cable guys may get more aggressive and stick it to the Bells" as a result of an AT&T-BellSouth deal, he said. Mr. Berninger said cable companies might distance themselves from a plan by the Bells to charge content providers like Amazon and Yahoo to guarantee that their content is delivered to customers faster. Consumer groups, technology companies and lawmakers worry that such a service would destroy the open nature of the Internet.

AT&T CORP
BELLSOUTH CORP
MERGERS ACQUISITIONS AND DIVESTITURES
TELEPHONES AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS


Four Seasons on Shaky Ground at Park Avenue Home

Abstract: The Four Seasons, the restaurant on Park Avenue that is a lunchtime haunt for movie stars, wealthy financiers and titans of real estate and media, may have to vacate its space over something faced every day by far less renowned establishments: a steep rent increase. The restaurant’s lease in the Seagram Building, the bronze-toned masterpiece that was designed by Mies van der Rohe, runs until 2016. Offices in the building command some of the highest rents in the city. But the landlord contends that the rent for the restaurant, where lunch in the Grill Room easily runs over $100 per person, is woefully below the market rate. And now negotiations between the restaurant and its landlord suggest that the restaurant will have to pay three times as much rent to remain in the Seagram Building. Talks between the two sides continue, but the Four Seasons is also scouring the neighborhood for a suitable but less expensive home. “It’s a shame, but I think the Four Seasons will have to establish itself elsewhere,” said one real estate executive who had been briefed on the negotiations for the restaurant’s lease but asked not to be identified because he was divulging private discussions. The negotiations come as constantly escalating real estate values are reshaping the city’s restaurant landscape. The restaurateur Alan Stillman announced last year that he had lost the lease for the Park Avenue, a restaurant in a landmark building at 100 East 63rd Street, and would be forced to close. His Post House restaurant on East 61st Street also closed last year. The Four Seasons has hired Michael R. Laginestra, a vice chairman of CBRE, a commercial real estate firm, as its representative. The negotiations were reported by The New York Post . “That’s an old story,” said Julian Niccolini, an owner of the Four Seasons. “I think we should be here, no? Nobody’s contemplating any move unless they want us to move.” When he was asked if the landlord’s side had suggested that the Four Seasons leave the space it has occupied since 1959, Mr. Niccolini said, “Of course not.” Mr. Laginestra said he would not comment on the negotiations. Aby J. Rosen, the developer who controls the building, said in an email that no decisions had been made about the future of the Four Seasons. But he said he was intent on raising the rent to “fair market value,” or about $3 million a year, plus a percentage of revenue, up from its current level of $1 million a year plus a percentage of revenue, about $500,000. The Four Seasons’ current rent is $27 per square foot, according to a report on the building’s finances by Fitch, the rating agency, and dates to 1959 and the property’s original owners, the Seagram family. “That’s a very low number,” said Jeffrey D. Roseman, a retail broker at Newmark Grubb Knight Frank, a real estate firm. “It’s got to be worth four times that. It’s not kept up with the times.” Some real estate executives suspect that Mr. Rosen may decide to set up his own restaurant, as he did in 2010 at Lever House, the glass-box skyscraper diagonally across Park Avenue, which he also controls. Despite its windowless space, the restaurant, Casa Lever, has been a huge success. Mr. Rosen and his partner Michael Fuchs, along with the investors Harry Lis and Peter Brant, paid $379 million for the Seagram Building in 2000. But beginning in 2011, Mr. Rosen and Mr. Fuchs broke up with their investors, ultimately buying Mr. Brant’s and Mr. Lis’s shares for undisclosed amounts. Mr. Rosen and Mr. Fuchs refinanced the property last year, getting the mortgage and $270 million in additional loans, according to Real Capital Analytics, a real estate data firm. Mr. Brant said on Thursday that when he still had a stake in the building, “the rent was on the low side.” He added that “there was never a negotiation” with the owners of the Four Seasons, who include Mr. Niccolini and Alex von Bidder. “It was a grandfathered lease,” he said. The negotiations come as the building is preparing to take down a Picasso tapestry, “Le Tricorne,” that is closely identified with the restaurant. Mr. Rosen’s company has told the New York Landmarks Conservancy, which owns the mural, that the limestone wall behind the mural needs repairs and could give way. The conservancy is worried that removing “Le Tricorne” could ruin it. “Le Tricorne” was excluded when the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission gave the Four Seasons landmark status in 1989, recognizing van der Rohe’s work on the building and Philip Johnson’s work in designing the restaurant. Mr. Niccolini of the Four Seasons maintained that the negotiations had not focused on how much the restaurant’s rent should be. “We haven’t gotten to that point yet,” he said. The talks so far had been “about being here,” he said. “I’m not allowed to say anything else,” he said. “We are not going to negotiate the lease in the press. This restaurant was designed by Philip Johnson. The building was designed by Mies van der Rohe. I don’t think anybody is going to take the Philip Johnson away from the restaurant.” He was asked if anyone could take the restaurant away from the Philip Johnson. “I can’t say,” he said. “Life goes on. We’re happy we’re here.”

Restaurant
Rent
Landlord
Commercial Real Estate
Julian Niccolini
Mural
Four Season restaurant
Historic preservation
Park Avenue Manhattan


Rangers Fall Short Again in Ottawa

Abstract: OTTAWA (AP) — Daniel Alfredsson and Jesse Winchester scored late in the second period Saturday afternoon, and the Ottawa Senators beat the Rangers , 4-1, to end a six-game losing streak. Steve Valiquette made 32 saves for the Rangers, and Markus Naslund scored his seventh goal of the season. The Rangers have lost 9 of their last 11 games in Ottawa. Jason Spezza and Nick Foligno also scored for the Senators, who won for the first time since Nov. 6. Alex Auld stopped 18 shots. “I thought we played really hard and smart,” Ottawa Coach Craig Hartsburg said. “The guys kept their energy high over the week, which is important, and we said keep playing like this every night and we’ll win our fair share. Hopefully, this was a sign.” The Senators took control with two goals in 82 seconds late in the second. Winchester beat Valiquette with just over two minutes remaining for his second career goal. Alfredsson made it 3-0 with 45 seconds left in the period. Wade Redden, returning to Ottawa for the first time since signing with the Rangers in the off-season, helped set up Naslund’s wrist shot early in the third. Foligno tipped a shot by Jarkko Ruutu past Valiquette 10 minutes 48 seconds into the third to restore the three-goal lead. Redden was greeted with a video tribute at the six-minute mark of the first period, and the crowd of 19,619 gave him a standing ovation after the retrospective ended. Redden spent 11 years in Ottawa before joining the Rangers. “I didn’t know it was coming,” Redden said. “It was really nice of them to recognize my time here.” Spezza gave the Senators a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal five minutes into the game. The Rangers did not register a shot on goal until 13 minutes in.

Ottawa Senators
Hockey Ice
New York Rangers


2 From North Korea Arrested in Plot, South Says

Abstract: SEOUL, South Korea — South Korean security officials said Wednesday that they had arrested two North Korean agents who had posed as defectors in a plot to assassinate the highest-ranking North Korean defector by slitting his throat. The defector, Hwang Jang-yop, a former North Korean Workers’ Party secretary, has bitterly criticized the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, since his defection in 1997. Mr. Hwang tutored Mr. Kim and helped create the country’s ruling philosophy of juche, or national self-reliance. Mr. Hwang, now 87, lives at a secret site in South Korea under police protection. He occasionally emerges to give a speech or a lecture, as he did recently in Washington and Tokyo, and his talks are typically replete with biting assessments of Mr. Kim and the North Korean government. North Korea has called Mr. Hwang a traitor and “human scum.” He has received several death threats, including a package sent anonymously in 2006 that contained an ax stuck to his picture and splashed with red paint. The package was sent to a South Korean radio station that carried Mr. Hwang’s speeches. On April 5, Uriminzokkiri , a Web site run by the North Korean government, warned Mr. Hwang: “You must not forget that traitors have always been slaughtered with knives.” The men said to be North Korean agents, identified by officials as Kim Myong-ho and Dong Myong-gwan, arrived in South Korea early this year, traveling through China and Thailand and pretending to be defectors, said Oh Se-in, a deputy chief prosecutor in Seoul who oversaw the investigation with the National Intelligence Service, the main government spy agency. Each year, thousands of North Koreans arrive in South Korea after fleeing the North. Mr. Oh said the two agents, both 36, were army majors attached to the General Bureau of Surveillance, the North’s main army intelligence agency. Their mission, he said in a telephone interview, was to track Mr. Hwang’s whereabouts and “cut his throat because he was a thorn in the eye of the North.” “They said they were ready to commit suicide once their assassination mission was completed,” Mr. Oh said. “This case shows that North Korea is still plotting terrorism while giving lip service to exchanges and cooperation with the South.” South Korean officials said they caught the men during routine debriefings of defectors from the North. But the formal arrests on Tuesday and the timing of the announcement were notable. The South Korean authorities briefed local news outlets about the arrests late Tuesday, only hours after President Lee Myung-bak delivered unusually harsh criticisms of North Korea’s leaders. On Wednesday morning, the major South Korean daily newspapers carried nearly identical articles on the arrests. Opposition politicians raised concerns that the arrests would stir fears of North Korea as a way to rally conservative voters ahead of elections in June. In the past, conservative governments have been accused of stoking such fears during election years. Prosecutors said their investigation had nothing to do with domestic politics. Suspicion continues to grow that a South Korean Navy ship, which sank near the disputed border with the North, may have been hit by a North Korean torpedo. Mr. Lee tearfully vowed this week to find the cause of the sinking. North Korea has denied any involvement. The plot against Mr. Hwang, if confirmed, would not be the first such attempt by the North to kill a prominent defector. South Korea said that Lee Han-young, a nephew of a former wife of Kim Jong-il who defected to Seoul through Switzerland in 1982, was shot and killed by North Korean agents in Seoul in 1997. Mr. Lee was a bitter critic of the North and had revealed embarrassing details about Mr. Kim. During recent lectures and interviews in Washington and Tokyo, Mr. Hwang called Mr. Kim “a dictator 10 times worse than Kim Il-sung,” Mr. Kim’s father and the founder of the modern North Korean state. Mr. Hwang has said the government has abused the principles of the juche philosophy and driven the North into isolation and poverty. “They call me a traitor, but the real traitor is Kim Jong-il, who let his people starve and die,” Mr. Hwang told the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. In a lecture in Washington on March 31, Mr. Hwang said that Mr. Kim — during a drinking party — once ordered his military to attack a South Korean guard post because he was “bored by the silence along the border,” the South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo reported. Such provocations were aimed at increasing Mr. Kim’s leverage in negotiations with the South, Mr. Hwang said. The case brought fresh attention to the North’s General Bureau of Surveillance, which was created in February 2009 through a merger of three party and military spy agencies. The two agents in custody told prosecutors that the bureau’s chief, Lt. Gen. Kim Yong-chol, personally assigned them to the assassination mission last November.

Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations


A Patent Fever Over Smartphones

Abstract: A Patent Fever Over Smartphones  A battle has recalibrated the market for smartphone DNA. With Apple, Google and Microsoft jostling for control of the mobile market, each needs or desires more and better patents for supremacy. Without them, their devices are vulnerable to shakedowns for royalties or, worse, demands to stop using the innovations. This has led to a mad dash to acquire such portfolios for use as both a saber and a shield. The auction of some 6,000 patents from the bankrupt Nortel in late June lighted the fuse. Google’s stalking-horse bid set a floor price of $900 million. When the gavel came down, a group including Apple and Microsoft, as well as Ericsson, Research in Motion and others, walked off with the portfolio for an unexpected $4.5 billion. Since then, InterDigital, an owner of wireless intellectual property, put itself up for sale. Carl Icahn, the 75-year-old billionaire, has pressured Motorola Mobility to sell its patent portfolio. And Google recently bought over 1,000 patents from I.B.M. covering multiple areas of technology to bolster its relatively weak war chest. The valuation calculus has quickly changed. Such patents, which cover everything from app icons to address books, could very well dictate the future of the rapidly growing smartphone market. Though once appraised almost exclusively based on their royalty streams, mobile-related patents now command healthy strategic premiums. Qualcomm, the maker of wireless chips, illustrates this. The company owns an important collection of patents for next-generation 4G handsets. But with a $95 billion market capitalization, a takeover looks unlikely. Its value — and therefore presumably that of its patent portfolio, too — has hardly budged since the Nortel auction. Yet InterDigital’s has soared more than 60 percent and Motorola Mobility’s rose more than 20 percent on Icahn’s demand, before falling back somewhat. Potential buyers secure two major benefits from adding patents. First, the new owner pays fewer royalties and can protect itself against lawsuits. More important, tolls can be levied on rivals. Microsoft is asking Samsung to pay as much as $15 for each device using Google’s Android software because of accusations of infringement. With so many millions of phones being manufactured monthly, the cash can add up. The fees can also reduce a phone’s consumer appeal. An iPhone , say, might wind up costing less than a rival device or have more features because of fewer patent considerations. More significant, in lieu of earning a small patent royalty fee from a customer buying a rival phone, Apple could instead perhaps pocket 10 times as much profit upfront from an iPhone sale, and earn potentially much more from advertising, music, app and other sales. The winner-take-all nature of technology also plays a part. If control of intellectual property can nudge customers toward a particular smartphone, it might establish the shape of the market for a decade. That could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars. Just look at what the introduction of the iPhone did to Apple’s market capitalization. That explains why Google might dig deep to acquire InterDigital’s or Motorola’s intellectual property, and why Microsoft and Apple could pay to keep it out of the hands of rivals. The three tech giants combined have more than $160 billion of cash on their balance sheets. It’s no wonder Mr. Icahn has pushed Motorola to sell its portfolio and InterDigital is shopping itself. Motorola has more than 17,000 patents, mostly in wireless. InterDigital, meanwhile, has 50 percent more patents than Nortel did, yet its market value is less than $3 billion when adjusted for its cash. Even with the renewed fever for patents, there may yet be roadblocks to acquisitions. Motorola is an operating company. Selling its portfolio could leave its handset operations without protection against lawsuits from rivals. Structuring a deal could prove exceedingly knotty. As for InterDigital, and other similar patent holders, it’s a question of whether the inventions are sufficiently important. Can they, for example, be used to block Nortel’s? Assessments vary. After all, analyzing thousands of patents is a complex undertaking and the future of smartphones is still rapidly evolving. Either way, the final answers will almost certainly come from the executive suites of Google, Microsoft and Apple. Where they go, the future value of patents will follow. ROBERT CYRAN

Smartphones
iPhone
Inventions and Patents
Mobile Applications
Android (Operating System)
Telefonaktiebolaget L M Ericsson


Dakar Rally Opens in South America

Abstract: The Dakar Rally roared out of Buenos Aires with a ceremonial parade of hundreds of vehicles. The 16-day trek will take drivers 5,903 miles across northern Argentina, through the Andes, the Atacama Desert of Chile and back to the Argentine capital. The first leg is a ceremonial 230-mile cruise northwest to Victoria, where competitors will prepare for Sunday’s first full race day.

Dakar Rally
Automobiles
Sainz Carlos
Gordon Robby


With Great Pitching Comes High Expectations

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA It was just a joke. When the Phillies acquired their fourth star pitcher in December, the word went forth that they should never lose a game this year, should go 162-0. But that was just a way of putting them on the spot, letting them know the whole baseball world was watching. The Phillies are now 4-1 after hammering the Mets , 10-7, on Wednesday night as the Mets’ ace-by-default, Mike Pelfrey, and the Phillies’ fifth starter, Joe Blanton, were both knocked out of the game early. Anybody who knows anything about this daily and leavening sport knew that lurking early in April was just such a game as Tuesday night’s. Cole Hamels, who would be an ace for some teams we could mention, could not get out of the third inning in a 7-1 loss to the Mets , after the Phillies had won their first three games. Hamels could not get a grip on the ball or on himself, giving up six hits and six runs in that brutal inning and leaving to yowls of anguish from the sellout crowd of 45,365. The Phillies have some injuries and resultant holes in their lineup, but the locals seemed to believe the propaganda that the Phillies should never lose a game this season, and they were not happy. This is what happens when the fervent people of Philadelphia are handed high expectations by General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr., who reacquired Cliff Lee in December to go along with Hamels and Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt. These audacious and expensive moves gave baseball fans cause to imagine the best pitching staff of this time, perhaps matching great staffs of other ages. “What a shame; I feel bad for Charlie,” Mets Manager Terry Collins said before Tuesday’s game, talking about Charlie Manuel, the Phillies’ down-home manager. Collins praised Hamels, saying, “He’s a good pitcher,” then added: “So’s the guy tomorrow. He’d be two or three on some staffs.” He was talking about Blanton, who would be blasted out in the fifth inning Wednesday night. Handed a 7-0 lead after three innings, Blanton gave it all back in the next two innings and finished with no decision. Everybody agrees the Phillies are loaded. Their staff reminds baseball people of some great staffs they have seen, or studied in a record book. Collins compared this staff to the Atlanta Braves’ staff of Greg Maddux, John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Steve Avery in the mid-’90s. The first three went on to produce careers worthy of Hall of Fame consideration, but Avery was hurt early. “When he was healthy, he was the best of them,” Collins said. Other people are reminded of the Baltimore Orioles in 1971, when Dave McNally won 21 games and Jim Palmer, Pat Dobson and Mike Cuellar each won 20, the second staff in baseball to accomplish that. For all that, the Orioles won the pennant but lost the World Series to Pittsburgh in seven games. The only other team with four 20-game winners was the 1920 White Sox, the year after their intentional loss in the 1919 World Series and the year before the banishment of eight of them. In 1920, Red Faber won 23, Dickie Kerr won 21, and the two disgraced pitchers, Lefty Williams and Eddie Cicotte, won 22 and 21, and never pitched again. Palmer is just down the coast from here, broadcasting for the Orioles. People ask him about these Phillies. In those rudimentary times, the Orioles and their fans and even the news media — such as it was — did not gush about instant legends as easily as we do today, possibly because the salaries did not inspire exaggeration or comparison. “I don’t think we ever took anybody lightly, whether it was April or October,” Palmer said in a telephone message. The Orioles did not have much time to get giddy over their collective grandness, not with Manager Earl Weaver pecking away at them. “I don’t think we ever thought of each other as 1-2-3-4,” Palmer said, adding that the pitchers did try to outdo each other. The first three pitchers in the Phillies’ rotation are far too dour to indulge in much discussion about their collective talent. Hamels, 27, is a little more comfortable with public discourse. He stood around long after his sloppy outing Tuesday night and admitted he was pretty bad. His performance was the opposite of his three teammates, who in the first three games walked one batter in their first 19 innings (the slacker was Oswalt). Throwing strikes was just the way to start the season, Manuel said. “You don’t need a lot of time,” Manuel said, “meaning the game moves right along. The defense is always ready, and that’s a good thing. You’re more alert when he’s not going 3-2 on every batter. You sit there. It’ll kill a game. It’s a game of momentum.” Both managers talked about the competitiveness of major leaguers. Collins, who managed the Angels in 1997, 1998 and 1999, recalled how “we couldn’t wait to face Clemens.” He said, “He still struck out 16, but we loved to hit against him.” And Manuel, a marginal major league hitter, said he enjoyed hitting against the best pitchers, although he could not remember terrorizing any superstars. It was just the challenge of it. A few hours before game time, while he was still undefeated, Manuel praised the Mets, who have become back benchers in this division because of the rise of the Phillies. He praised their pitchers and their hitters, particularly David Wright, who then went out and got four hits against Hamels. Manuel knew there would be nights like this. Given the talent, it is his job to make sure there won’t be many of them.

Baseball
Philadelphia Phillies
New York Mets
Hamels Cole
Amaro Ruben Jr
Halladay Roy
Oswalt Roy
Lee Cliff


U.S. Says Many Apartments Violate Law on Disabled

Abstract: Facing potential lawsuits by the federal government, developers and landlords in New York City may need to spend tens of millions of dollars to renovate more than 100,000 apartments built since 1991 to comply with federal housing laws barring discrimination against tenants who use wheelchairs, real estate industry officials say. For 20 years, residential developers have complied with a city law requiring them to ensure that all the apartments they build are accessible to disabled tenants. Considered path-breaking legislation when it was enacted in 1988, the city law essentially meets the federal requirements of the Fair Housing Act, developers and city officials say. But the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan has sent letters to about a dozen of the city’s most prominent landlords and their architects saying that some of their buildings were “not accessible to persons with disabilities,” which would constitute discrimination under the Fair Housing Act. The recipients included Related Companies, the Durst Organization, Rose Associates, Rockrose Development and Silverstein Properties. The letters said that doors were not wide enough, and that kitchens and bathrooms were not big enough to allow someone in a wheelchair to maneuver. Also, the letters said, tenants could not install “grab bars” to lift themselves in or out of a tub, because the walls had not been reinforced. The federal prosecutor’s office, which began sending the letters in January, has asked owners for meetings, building inspections and all the records of the design and layout of the apartments in specific buildings. Until recently, the real estate industry had hoped that the matter would quietly go away. But last week, the United States attorney’s office filed a lawsuit against one of the recipients, AvalonBay Communities, and its architects, charging them with discrimination against disabled people by failing to provide sufficient access at Avalon Chrystie Place, a building on the Lower East Side with 361 apartments. Now other landlords and developers — virtually everyone who has built an apartment house in New York City since 1991 — fear they may be next. Along with city officials, they assert that compliance with what is known as Local Law 58 satisfies the standards set by the Fair Housing Act. “This is not limited to these 12 or 13 buildings,” said Steven Spinola, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, the industry’s powerful lobbying arm. “If there’s a decision that Local Law 58 does not meet the criteria for apartments’ being accessible, you could easily argue that every building built since 1991 wasn’t built in accordance with the federal guidelines.” Mr. Spinola estimates that 100,000 rental apartments have been built since 1991, as well as thousands of condominiums. The cost of renovating bathrooms and kitchens, one developer said, would be “astronomical.” Another said that his company was already redesigning apartments for future buildings in ways that would eliminate foyer closets to provide more room for entryways. City officials, who had scheduled a meeting with federal prosecutors for the day after the suit was filed against AvalonBay, promptly canceled it, furious that they had not been notified. “In light of the U.S. attorney’s lawsuit, we postponed our meeting so we could assess the matter,” Martha Mann Alfaro, a deputy chief in the city’s Law Department, said in a statement. “However, we anticipate having productive discussions with the U.S. attorney.” Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the United States attorney, Michael J. Garcia, declined to comment, saying the office did not confirm or deny the existence of current investigations. Edward M. Schulman, general counsel for AvalonBay, said the company’s housing was “fully accessible to persons with disabilities.” “Our buildings have been constructed in compliance with New York City’s Local Law 58,” he said. “We are at a loss to understand why the federal government is suddenly viewing New York City’s Local Law 58 as deficient and unsatisfactory.” This year, the landlords and architects enlisted the Bloomberg administration to help push back the federal prosecutors. And the Real Estate Board hired a former federal prosecutor, Sarah L. Shudofsky, to represent them. Jonathan Durst, co-president of the Durst Organization, described the investigation as “an incredible waste of government resources.” The Durst Organization got a letter concerning the Helena, a 600-unit apartment building at 57th Street and 12th Avenue. But Kleo King, senior vice president for accessibility services for the United Spinal Association, a nonprofit advocacy group, said that the federal government had never recognized Local Law 58 as an acceptable alternative, or “safe harbor,” to federal standards. She said that after Law 58 was in place, the city lowered clearance requirements for bathrooms and began allowing kitchen sink and cooktop installations that did not provide adequate floor space for tenants with wheelchairs. “Just because they were able to get a building permit, it does not mean they complied with Fair Housing,” said Ms. King, whose organization used to be known as the Eastern Paralyzed Veterans Association. “The real point that the Department of Justice is trying to make is that people building these buildings have to look at both laws to make sure that they’re in compliance.” Twenty years ago, advocates for the disabled hailed the stringent regulations in Local Law 58 while Mr. Spinola denounced it, saying it would drive up housing costs. It required that all new and renovated apartments be made accessible to the disabled, in contrast with federal standards at the time, which required that only 5 percent be accessible. “It was seen as a breakthrough,” said Marilyn Saviola, an advocate for the disabled who was part of a group that helped write the city law. “But it was a hard battle. There was tremendous resistance from the administration, initially, and there was a great deal of resistance from the real estate community.” In 1991, the federal government also raised its requirements for housing accessibility. But there is not a mandatory and uniform set of standards, although the Department of Housing and Urban Development cites the design standards set by the American National Standards Institute. The federal investigation in New York began with a 2006 survey by the Fair Housing Justice Center, a nonprofit New York group, covering 14 recently built apartment buildings in Manhattan, including AvalonBay’s Chrystie Place. Diane Houk, executive director of the fair housing center, said that her group found that all 14 buildings had interior apartment doors that were too narrow, 28 and 30 inches, thermostats as high as 63 inches from the floor and a lack of clear floor space in the bathrooms. “We found that none were in compliance with the Federal Housing Act and referred all the information to the U.S. attorney and briefed HUD,” she said. “I do not understand why New York City developers and architects thought they were exempt.” In a July 14 letter to the United States attorney’s office, however, Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s corporation counsel, wrote that the city’s law addressed all the features of accessibility required by the law. He acknowledged that it “does not impose precisely the same requirements,” but he added that the local law satisfied the intent of the law.

Landlords
New York City
Housing
Discrimination
Handicapped
AvalonBay Communities Incorporated


Pitfalls for the Unwary Borrower Out on the Frontiers of Banking

Abstract: Silicon Valley has helped enhance just about every aspect of modern life. Naturally, Mohammad Mansour figured it could help solve his money problems, too. Mr. Mansour borrowed $7,680 from Lending Club, a San Francisco lender offering loans more conveniently and with lower interest rates than a traditional bank. He then obtained a $10,000 loan from Prosper, another online lender based in Northern California. An accountant from Queens, Mr. Mansour earns about $64,300 a year. He took out a third online loan and then a fourth. He now owes $31,600 to three virtual lenders. And he is struggling to pay off the debts. He is one of more than a million Americans who have tasted what many believe is the future of finance, in which big, lumbering banks with outdated branches and skittish risk departments are being replaced by lenders that operate mostly online and match borrowers with investors who buy up large chunks of the loans. Using the latest data and credit algorithms, the lenders can approve loans in a matter of minutes. “Silicon Valley is coming,” the chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, Jamie Dimon, wrote in an annual letter to the bank’s shareholders, warning of the competitive threat these lenders pose to traditional banks. The loans win plaudits from consumer groups and regulators for their low costs and straightforward terms. The companies say that they are providing affordable credit to families and small businesses and that losses on the loans are low. But some of these upstart companies are exhibiting their own troubling traits, according to interviews with borrowers, legal aid lawyers and consumer advocates. Marketed as a way to improve people’s credit scores, the loans are instead worsening some people’s financial troubles. And when these people run into trouble, borrowers and their lawyers said, some of the new lenders are unwilling to modify their loan terms. Some borrowers also took issue with how their loan payments were collected. The lending process takes place almost entirely online. Borrowers are matched through an online “marketplace” with investors, like hedge funds, mutual funds and even individuals who add the loans to their retirement portfolios. The lenders operate without some of the regulations that govern mainstream banks, such as rules on how much capital they must set aside for potential losses. But they do have to follow federal lending laws that require disclosure of loan terms and nondiscrimination, among other things. And they are now being studied by the Treasury Department, which is weighing both the benefits and the risks associated with this booming industry. Moody’s Investors Service, the credit-rating firm, warned that the marketplace industry bears some similarities to mortgage lending in the period leading up to the 2008 financial crisis because the companies that market the loans and approve them quickly sell them off to investors. Marketplace companies do not suffer losses directly if the borrowers default, which may embolden them to lower their credit standards, Moody’s said. The lenders say that unlike mortgage bankers during the financial crisis, they still have plenty at stake if something goes wrong. Lending Club, for example, does not earn a fee servicing loans that are written off, giving it less incentive to make risky loans. Servicing accounts for 20 percent of its revenue. More important, investors will stop buying the loans if the company takes too many risks. “I do believe there is promise here, but the industry needs monitoring,” said Gary Kalman, executive vice president at the Center for Responsible Lending, which is based in Durham, N.C. “The question is whether these companies will continue to use technology to provide fair loans or use it to gouge people like traditional small-dollar lenders.” One complaint among some borrowers and consumer lawyers is the way certain companies collect loan payments. In signing up for loans from Prosper — one of the largest marketplace lenders — borrowers must allow the company direct access to their bank accounts so it can electronically deduct loan payments. Banks and credit card companies offer electronic withdrawals as an option, but they do not always require them. Moody’s noted in a report this year about Prosper that the automatic withdrawals made it more likely that “strapped borrowers” would pay their marketplace loans ahead of other expenses. Prosper says that is not the reason for the electronic withdrawals. The company says having access to borrowers’ bank accounts allows the company to deposit the loan funds quickly and allows borrowers to make loan payments conveniently. A spokeswoman for Prosper, Sarah Cain, said borrowers could contact the company to stop the electronic bank withdrawals. But Prosper needs to update its website to reflect that borrowers can pay by personal check, she said. The lenders’ technological efficiency can also have a dark side. New Innovative Products, a maker of specialty carrying cases in North Carolina, borrowed $70,000 in December from OnDeck, an online lender whose largest shareholders include a venture capital unit affiliated with Google. OnDeck was allowed to withdraw $604 from the company’s bank account each day. But OnDeck crossed the line, according to a bankruptcy judge, when it kept collecting payments after being informed multiple times that the company had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. In July, a bankruptcy judge imposed sanctions on OnDeck and ordered the lender to return the money. Last month, OnDeck was chided by a different judge for taking cash from Wayco Ham, a company in Goldsboro, N.C., that cures and sells hams and that also filed for bankruptcy protection. After its filing, Wayco Ham opened a new bank account. In a move the judge called “particularly willful and malicious,” OnDeck tapped Wayco Ham’s new bank account and took out the loan payments. The bankruptcy judge had not granted permission to OnDeck for access to the new account, according to court documents. In a statement, OnDeck said: “We are taking all corrective actions to rectify the situation, including complying with the court and making any required payments. Additionally, we have instituted further internal process improvements and controls to prevent such lapses in the future.” When borrowers sign up for a Lending Club loan, it defaults to automatic bank withdrawals. The Lending Club website informs borrowers that they can opt out of the electronic withdrawals by either calling or emailing the company, but they have to pay a $7 processing fee for each paper check. “It is more cost-efficient for us, and we pass those savings along to borrowers,” Renaud Laplanche, the chief executive of Lending Club, said of the automatic withdrawals. Image Renaud Laplanche, center, founder of Lending Club, on a racing trimaran in New York Harbor. Credit Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times Some borrowers like Mr. Mansour said they ended up closing their bank accounts because they thought it was the only way to stop the lenders from taking out the money. “It can lead to people feeling trapped,” said Peter Barker-Huelster, a lawyer at MFY Legal Services in New York, who has advised clients with marketplace loans. “They don’t approach the lender to work out a lower payment because they think there is no way around it.” Although the $12 billion in marketplace loans issued last year represents only a fraction of the overall consumer and small-business lending market, the industry has all the ingredients to become systemically significant. Billions of dollars of investments from hedge funds and other Wall Street firms are flowing into these marketplaces, creating a seemingly endless capacity to extend more loans. Marketplace lenders are also forming partnerships with the same banks they are seeking to disrupt. Smaller banks are buying up marketplace loans as investments, while others are offering co-branded loans with the online lenders. One big bank, Citigroup, is teaming up with Lending Club to provide up to $150 million in loans to low- and moderate-income borrowers. The deal may allow Citigroup to satisfy regulatory requirements for making loans in poor communities. Analysts said the deal could be a model for how other banks could essentially outsource some lending, required by the Community Reinvestment Act , to the marketplace industry. Citigroup said regulatory obligations did not drive the deal. Some banks have been cashing in on the boom since the start. Wells Fargo, through its venture arm, Norwest Venture Partners , was one of Lending Club’s earliest investors. Today, Norwest is among the company’s largest shareholders. Marketplace lenders say the loans often help borrowers straighten out their finances and improve their credit scores . Lending Club’s proportion of bad loans is generally in line with credit card losses at many other banks. The company says most of its borrowers have good credit scores and low debt-to-income levels. And the company says its surveys show that the vast majority of its customers have positive experiences with their loans, which carry an average interest rate of 11.25 percent, compared with the average credit card interest rate of about 15 percent. Credit cards are an apt comparison to marketplace loans because both are unsecured forms of credit, unlike mortgage or car loans, which are backed by real assets. Lending Club, one of the few marketplace lenders that are public, was founded in 2006 by Mr. Laplanche. A French-born lawyer, Mr. Laplanche was inspired to start Lending Club after seeing how little banks paid people to deposit their money and how much those same banks charged to lend. “We wanted to lower the spread,” he said. The industry’s nonbank qualities appealed to Eric Kim, 33, who lives outside San Francisco. “I liked that it wasn’t a bank,” said Mr. Kim, who took out a $21,000 loan from Lending Club with a roughly 9 percent interest rate to clear out his credit card debt. “It felt more like people helping people,” he said, “not some multibillion-dollar conglomerate.” Lending Club says most of its borrowers, like Mr. Kim, indicate they are using their loans to pay down credit cards. Mr. Kim prefers that his payments are automatically deducted from his bank account every month because it forces him to stay on a budget. “It adds a level of responsibility, and I don’t have to monitor it,” said Mr. Kim, who works in operations for a large retail company. At first, a marketplace loan also seemed like a great idea to Vella Parker, 59, a lab technician who is out of work on disability. She could roll up thousands of dollars of debt from her five credit cards into one Lending Club loan and pay a lower interest rate. But instead of paying off her credit cards, she spent much of her $8,375 loan to keep up with everyday expenses, including health insurance co-payments and taxis to her doctor’s visits. “I fell into the same trap as before,” said Ms. Parker, who lives in the Bronx and had a previous bankruptcy. Her $288 monthly loan payment was far more than she had to pay each month as a minimum payment on her credit cards. She stopped making her payments. Lisa Giordano’s payments to Lending Club were even larger, about $740 a month. Unable to persuade the company to grant her a permanent loan modification , she stopped making her payments last year. Ms. Parker’s lawyer, Charles Juntikka, said an increasing number of his bankruptcy clients had marketplace loans. “Up until a few months ago, I had never heard of these companies,” he said. Lending Club said it tries to work with struggling borrowers, including Ms. Giordano, who lives in Brooklyn. But it is also obligated to investors to honor the terms of their investments. “By and large, our borrowers are using us responsibly,” Mr. Laplanche said. “Some people will make bad decisions or they are in a situation where they will have to make bad decisions.” Mr. Mansour, the Queens accountant, readily admits that he made some financial mistakes trying to raise two children on a single salary in New York. He said the ease with which he could borrow from marketplace lenders — he took out four loans within 19 months in addition to his multiple credit cards — enabled him to live far beyond his means. In July, Mr. Mansour filed for bankruptcy. “I made my mistakes,” he said. “And I am paying for it now.”

Lending Club
Interest rate
Debt
Credit card
Computers and the Internet
Tech Industry
Moody's
Banking and Finance
Personal finance


In N.C.A.A., Question of Bias Over a Sickle-Cell Test

Abstract: Twenty-one college football players have collapsed and died as a result of training over the past decade. At least eight were carriers of the sickle-cell trait, a genetic disorder that can unpredictably turn deadly during rigorous exercise. A blood test to screen for the trait costs about $5, and many university team doctors and athletic trainers support compulsory testing, arguing that it could save lives. Yet a proposal to make such testing mandatory for all N.C.A.A. Division I athletes is not a sure bet to pass when it comes up for a vote by member conferences as early as Monday in Indianapolis. The measure is questioned by the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America , which argues that athletes should know their own status but raises concerns that those with the trait could be denied the chance to compete. Leading sickle-cell researchers have also resisted calls for mandatory testing, saying that changing training practices for everyone would minimize the risks to athletes with the trait. “There’s not any data that shows that screening can save lives,” said Dr. William Roberts, who co-edited a set of recommendations by six medical organizations on preseason physicals. “A lot of the kids who have died, they’ve known they have sickle-cell trait and they still run them to death. It should just be a change in the training program to protect everyone and not just the kids with sickle.” A vote on the issue in January failed to gain a necessary two-thirds majority, with some of the most influential football conferences — including the Pacific-10 and the Big East — opposing it. Concerns include the cost of testing athletes less likely to carry the trait and those competing in lower-intensity sports, as well as whether the test would lead the N.C.A.A. to require other, more-costly tests for other characteristics. One proposed amendment would allow athletes to opt out of testing, an idea that some opponents said they supported. People with sickle-cell trait have one abnormal hemoglobin gene and typically lead normal lives — many do not even know they are carriers. The trait is found in about 8 percent of African-Americans, but in less than 1 percent of white Americans. Those with two mutated genes are said to have sickle-cell disease , which can cause a lifetime of health problems like severe pain, anemia, stroke and damage to tissue and organs. During extreme exercise, some blood cells in an athlete with sickle-cell trait elongate into sickle shapes that can disrupt blood flow to parts of the body, potentially causing damage. Heat, altitude and dehydration increase the risk of sickling, according to the National Athletic Trainers’ Association, which recommends easing athletes into workouts, giving them regular breaks and modifying intense conditioning tests. The risk of death among college football players with sickle-cell trait was first documented in 1974, when Polie Poitier, a sophomore defensive back at Colorado, collapsed during a workout. After his death, the N.C.A.A. described the risk of sickle-cell trait in its medical handbook, and for a time, the guidelines recommended that all African-American athletes be offered testing for sickle-cell trait. Screening policy has since been left up to individual universities. In 2008, the N.C.A.A. took its strongest stance and formally recommended testing — a result of a legal settlement with the family of Dale Lloyd II, a Rice football player whose death in 2006 was linked to the trait. The proposal before Division I members was initiated by Rice as part of its settlement with the Lloyd family. “We were just hoping and praying that we could make a difference,” said Bridgette Lloyd, Dale’s mother. “Someone had to say, enough is enough.” In 2006, a survey of athletic programs in the top tier of college football found that 21 percent of the 92 respondents screened all athletes for the sickle-cell gene, with 64 percent having some policy in place. As awareness has grown, several programs have begun testing, said Scott Anderson, the head athletic trainer at the University of Oklahoma. Oklahoma began testing all athletes in the late 1990s. So far, 20 football players have tested positive, including six on the current roster. Anderson said only 2 of the 20 had known they carried the trait, although all 50 states now test infants at birth. “Really, a basic tenet of sports medicine is to know your athlete,” Anderson said last week in his office. “You don’t want to be surprised.” At the Sooners’ training center, some players who tested positive for the trait said the news came as a shock. “I’m not going to lie, it terrified me,” said Brian Simmons , a senior who was Oklahoma’s starting left guard last season. “My first year here, it just had me thinking about things a little bit more than it should.” It is unclear whether screening all athletes would prevent deaths. Of the eight football deaths linked to sickle-cell trait in the past decade, four occurred after a university knew that the player had the disorder, said Anderson, who keeps the statistics. Dr. M. A. Bender, the director of the Odessa Brown Comprehensive Sickle Cell Clinic in Seattle, said scant research had been done on the connection between exercise and the sickle-cell trait. “There isn’t the data in terms of how often it occurs, what the real risk is, and what underlying factors may be involved,” he said. One of the few studies looked at military recruits from 1977 to 1981. It concluded that those with the trait were 40 times more likely to die during basic training than those without it. The National Institutes of Health is hosting a meeting in June to plan further research. Anderson said medical examiners often missed the trait as the cause or a contributing factor to death because it was easily confused with heat exhaustion or heart ailments. Others say the trait can be overreported because all blood cells tend to take on the telltale sickle shape when they are removed from the body and deprived of oxygen. Some worry that coaches and the N.F.L. will discriminate against athletes who are singled out as carriers. In the 1970s, the Air Force Academy barred people with sickle-cell trait, and some airlines refused to hire them as pilots and flight attendants. “Does it now slide from protection of the athlete who has S.C.T. by sitting them out, to maybe losing a scholarship, to maybe not being recruited at all?” asked Dr. Lanetta Jordan, the chief medical officer for the Sickle Cell Disease Association of America. Many researchers say the best solution is to use training practices that protect everyone from the risks associated with overexertion. One model is the Army, which no longer screens for the trait but takes across-the-board precautions. Since the change in practices, studies have shown, soldiers with the trait have no higher risk of dying in basic training than those without. “It may not be necessary to select a subset of athletes for special treatment,” said Dr. Susan Shurin, the acting director of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health. “The most serious complications of sickle-cell trait can probably be prevented if they just drink water whenever they need to, and you avoid really extreme exertion.” But Anderson said what worked for soldiers might not work for student-athletes. “The military has a command-and-control structure that college athletics does not,” he said. At Oklahoma, trainers keep a close eye on athletes with the trait and modify grueling workouts like wind sprints or conditioning tests. Anderson acknowledged that this singled out players with the trait. Three Oklahoma football players who have the trait said they had endured some good-natured ribbing. Pryce Macon , a defensive end, said his roommates called him Sickle. But none said they felt discriminated against, and they pointed to former Oklahoma players with the trait, including Atlanta Falcons linebacker Curtis Lofton, who were drafted by the N.F.L. The league requires all participants in its scouting combine to be screened for the trait, but whether other players are tested is left up to each team. One study found that the incidence of the trait in the N.F.L. was consistent with that of the general population. After a 2007 game in Denver, Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark’s spleen and gallbladder were removed as a result of complications from sickle-cell trait caused by the altitude. Clark said that he supported the N.C.A.A. legislation but that the trait was an issue during his free agency this off-season. Some teams were concerned about his ability to play at altitude. “Anything that can negatively impact, of course they’ll bring those things up because they’re trying to get players as cheap as possible,” he said. “It’s business.” Anderson said it was time for the N.C.A.A. to act. “We’re 35 years down the road, at least,” he said. “Athletes who have sickle-cell trait have already been discriminated against by not being protected. They have not only lost opportunity to participate in sport, but they have lost their life. And that is what we seek to change.”