Republicans Propose Budget Stopgap, Reducing Risk of a Federal Shutdown

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The prospect of an imminent federal government shutdown diminished Friday as House Republicans proposed a carefully calibrated stopgap measure that Democrats said could be acceptable. Under the proposal, the law now keeping the government open would be extended two more weeks, until March 18, at the price of $4 billion in new spending cuts. In the interim, House and Senate leaders would try to negotiate a broader plan to finance the government at reduced levels through Sept. 30. While the measure, which will be considered by the House and Senate next week, represents only a reprieve, it showed that both Republicans and Democrats were interested in easing the political tensions around the budget showdown. As they adjust to the new power structure on Capitol Hill, both sides have said they hope to avoid an impasse that could shutter federal agencies. To make it harder for Democrats to object to the temporary plan, Republican architects of the proposal tried to make the cuts relatively painless. They came up with the $4 billion by ending eight education, transportation and other programs that President Obama had previously sought to close down, a savings of almost $1.2 billion. They also reclaimed nearly $2.8 billion set aside for earmarks in the current budget; both the House and Senate have agreed to ban such pet projects. “We hope the Senate is going to finally join us in these common-sense cuts to keep the government open and not continue to play chicken,” said Representative Eric Cantor, the Virginia Republican and majority leader. Senate Democrats indicated they would be willing to go along with the proposal despite their insistence earlier this week that any temporary measure should be free of spending reductions. They had portrayed such a maneuver as a back-door way for House Republicans to begin enacting $61 billion in cuts that have met objections in the Senate. “We are encouraged to hear that Republicans are abandoning their demands for extreme measures like cuts to border security, cancer research and food safety inspectors,” said Jon Summers, a spokesman for Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader. If approved, the measure would buy time for more talks on the depth of spending cuts. If the House and Senate do not reach a deal by March 18 under the latest proposal, they will once again face the prospect of closing federal agencies or be forced to enact another temporary extension. Republicans said their willingness to fashion a measure that involved relatively uncontroversial cuts and was free of the more ideologically charged provisions included in the $61 billion plan showed that they were sincere when they said their main interest was reducing spending, not shutting down the government. “This is to get the government moving forward but to cut spending in government,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the No. 3 Republican. “I don’t see how Democrats can’t take these basic steps toward reining in government while keeping our government operational.” But Democrats said their efforts to raise the alarm about a possible shutdown due to Republican demands for deep cuts in a variety of federal agencies had paid off. They said Republicans instead chose to advance a temporary measure with the same kind of spending trims that Democrats had been advocating. "They feared a government shutdown, and so they are adopting some of our suggestions on what to cut," said Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the No. 3 Democrat in the Senate. The House is expected to approve the temporary measure on Tuesday, leaving a few days for the Senate to act and send a measure to President Obama before the current stopgap bill expires at midnight Friday. The time frame leaves little opportunity for the Senate to alter the measure and send it back to the House. Senate Republicans said Democrats had few good options with the clock ticking and encouraged them to accept the bill and move on to the negotiations over the broader spending legislation as well as the budget for 2012. “By supporting the House bill, our friends on the other side of the aisle will have the chance to ensure that the government remains operational while we work with them to identify additional ways to shrink Washington spending this year,” said Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader. Striking a final deal will not be easy. Democrats contend that the $61 billion cut by the House in its marathon floor debate earlier this month reaches far too deeply into essential federal programs and strikes out at favored Obama administration initiatives like the new health care law. Senate Democrats have begun assembling their own package of cuts and expect to bring it forward next week as an alternative to the Republican plan. At the same time, the new House speaker, John A. Boehner of Ohio, has little room for negotiation given the insistence by his rank and file, including 87 newly elected Republicans, on standing firm on the $61 billion in reduced spending that has already cleared the House. But both sides agree that federal agencies face some level of significant spending cuts from the budgets they are currently operating under, a result that could cause some disruptions.

House of Representatives
United States Politics and Government
Republican Party
Democratic Party
Federal Budget (US)


McCain Camp Says Obama Is Playing ‘Race Card’

Abstract: ORLANDO, Fla. — Senator John McCain ’s campaign accused Senator Barack Obama on Thursday of playing “the race card,” citing his remarks that Republicans would try to scare voters by pointing out that he “doesn’t look like all those other presidents on the dollar bills.” The exchange injected racial politics front and center into the general election campaign for the first time, after it became a subtext in the primary between Mr. Obama and Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. It came as the McCain campaign was intensifying its attacks, trying to throw its Democratic opponent off course before the conventions. “Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck,” Mr. McCain’s campaign manager, Rick Davis, charged in a statement with which Mr. McCain later said he agreed. “It’s divisive, negative, shameful and wrong.” In leveling the charge, Mr. Davis was referring to comments that Mr. Obama made Wednesday in Missouri when he reacted to the increasingly negative tone and negative advertisements from the McCain campaign, including one that likens Mr. Obama’s celebrity status to that of Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. “So nobody really thinks that Bush or McCain have a real answer for the challenges we face, so what they’re going to try to do is make you scared of me,” Mr. Obama said in Springfield, Mo., echoing earlier remarks. “You know, he’s not patriotic enough. He’s got a funny name. You know, he doesn’t look like all those other presidents on those dollar bills, you know. He’s risky. That’s essentially the argument they’re making.” With his rejoinder about playing “the race card,” Mr. Davis effectively assured that race would once again become an unavoidable issue as voters face an election in which, for the first time, one of the major parties’ nominees is African-American. And with its criticism, the McCain campaign was ensuring that Mr. Obama’s race — he is the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas — would again be a factor in coverage of the presidential race. On Thursday, it took the spotlight from Mr. Obama when he had sought to attack Mr. McCain on energy issues. The tactic could cut both ways: it might tap into the qualms some white, working-class voters in crucial swing states may have about a black candidate, or it could ricochet back against the McCain campaign, which has been accused even by some fellow Republicans of engaging in overly negative campaigning in recent days. The remarks put Mr. Obama’s campaign, which has tried to keep him from being pigeonholed or defined by race, in a delicate position. He did not address the matter himself on Thursday, and his campaign gingerly tried to tamp down the issue, saying he did not believe that Mr. McCain had tried to use race as an issue. “This is a race about big challenges — a slumping economy, a broken foreign policy and an energy crisis for everyone but the oil companies,” said Robert Gibbs, a campaign spokesman. “Barack Obama in no way believes that the McCain campaign is using race as an issue, but he does believe they’re using the same old low-road politics to distract voters from the real issues in this campaign. And those are the issues he’ll continue to talk about.” The sparring over race thrust an unpredictable element into the campaign. Contests have often been influenced by racial imagery, whether stark, like the Willie Horton advertisements run against Michael S. Dukakis in the 1988 presidential race, or subtle. In the 2006 Senate race in Tennessee, Republicans ran an advertisement against a black candidate, the Democrat Harold E. Ford Jr., that featured a white woman saying, with a wink, “Harold, call me.” Some have drawn parallels between that commercial and the McCain campaign’s advertisement juxtaposing Ms. Spears and Ms. Hilton with Mr. Obama. Mr. McCain addressed Mr. Davis’s “race card” comments later Thursday. “I agree with it, and I’m disappointed that Senator Obama would say the things he’s saying,” Mr. McCain said aboard his campaign bus in Racine, Wis., according to The Associated Press. Mr. Davis’s comments came as the McCain campaign has adopted a far more aggressive, negative posture toward Mr. Obama in recent days, trying to define him as arrogant, out of touch and unprepared for the presidency. But until this week, the McCain campaign had not invoked race. Mr. Obama has been the victim of some racist and racially tinged attacks this year, particularly during the primaries. Underground e-mail campaigns have spread the false rumor that he is Muslim and questioned his patriotism by falsely charging that he does not put his hand over his heart when the Pledge of Allegiance is recited. A button spotted outside the Texas Republican convention asked, “If Obama Is President ... Will We Still Call It the White House?” But Mr. McCain has condemned racist campaigning and has denounced Republican groups that tried to make an issue of inflammatory statements made by Mr. Obama’s former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and one of his own supporters who referred to Mr. Obama as “Barack Hussein Obama” at a McCain rally. Mr. Obama has been more explicit about the role of race in attacks against him in the past, but he is rarely specific about who is behind them. “We know what kind of campaign they’re going to run,” he said in June. “They’re going to try to make you afraid of me. ‘He’s young and inexperienced and he’s got a funny name. And did I mention he’s black?’ ” Steve Schmidt, who runs the day-to-day operations of the McCain campaign, said the campaign had been moved to issue the statement in part because it saw the damage done during the Democratic primary when Obama supporters made accusations that former President Bill Clinton had been racially insensitive, or worse. “The McCain campaign was compelled to respond to this outrageous attack because we will not allow John McCain to be smeared by Senator Obama as a racist for offering legitimate criticism,” he said. “We have waited for months with a sick feeling knowing this moment would come because we watched it incur with President Clinton. Say whatever you want about President Clinton, his record on this issue is above reproach.” In the Democratic primary campaign, Mr. Obama’s supporters at several occasions accused the Clinton campaign of using racially charged tactics, particularly after Mr. Clinton equated Mr. Obama’s victory in the South Carolina primary with the Rev. Jesse Jackson’s victory in the nominating contest there in 1988. Mr. Clinton himself then complained in a radio interview in April that the Obama campaign had “played the race card on me.” Howard Wolfson, who was the communications director of the Clinton campaign, said, “The McCain campaign has obviously been watching our primary very closely and recognized how damaging it had been to be tagged with the charge of race baiting.”

Race
Presidential Election of 2008
McCain John
Obama Barack


In the Cold at Yankee Stadium, the Rangers Are in Their Element

Abstract: Maybe it was the midwinter cold. Or maybe it was the chipped ice, or even the jovial atmosphere among the fans. Whatever the reason, the Rangers and the Devils played a game of old-fashioned pond shinny in the Bronx on Sunday. The Rangers won, 7-3, scoring six straight goals to secure the victory. But the enduring memory will be of blue-clad Rangers fans and red-clad Devils fans — an announced crowd of 50,105 — under a light snowfall at the first hockey game at Yankee Stadium. “It was just a great day,” Rangers Coach Alain Vigneault said. “I know we won, and it’s easy to say after you’ve won it, but it was an unbelievable atmosphere, and I’m really fortunate to have been part of one of these.” The Rangers’ seven goals — their highest total against the Devils in a regular-season game since 1993 — were the most scored by an N.H.L. team in an outdoor game. That helped the Rangers improve to 2-0 in outdoor games, with a victory at Philadelphia in the 2012 Winter Classic. They will have a chance to further improve their record when they play the Islanders at the Stadium on Wednesday night. Mats Zuccarello led the Rangers’ attack with two goals, and Anton Stralman and Marc Staal, a defensive pairing, each had a plus-4 differential. The Devils were making their first appearance in the elements, and goalie Martin Brodeur was chased from the net. He was replaced by Cory Schneider — the first in-game goaltending change the Devils have made all season. Brodeur may not remember the afternoon in quite the same way as the Rangers. Facing 21 shots in his 40 minutes, he allowed six goals, the most the Rangers had scored on him in their 100 regular-season games against him. But Brodeur still found positives in the experience. “The atmosphere and the mixed fan colors — the aura of it all was special,” he said. “The whole thing was unbelievable, beside the hockey game.” Coach Peter DeBoer said Brodeur requested that he be replaced so that Schneider could have “the experience of a period in this environment.” The start of the game was delayed some 40 minutes because of the glare of the sun off the ice surface. But by the opening face-off, at 1:41 p.m., the sky was overcast, with the temperature at 24 degrees. Play was held up twice in the first period for ice repairs, and the puck bounced constantly, with players struggling to control it. The Devils jumped to a 3-1 lead in the first period, with Patrik Elias scoring twice and Travis Zajac once and Jaromir Jagr collecting two assists. That gave Jagr 1,035 career assists, lifting him above his old Pittsburgh Penguins mentor Mario Lemieux into 10th place on the N.H.L.’s list. Devils fans were roaring, but 52 seconds after the team’s third goal, Brodeur allowed a Staal shot from a bad angle to trickle between his pads, cutting the Rangers’ deficit to 3-2. Snow started to fall lightly as the second period began, and 2 minutes 48 seconds in, the Rangers pulled even as a John Moore pass bounced into the Devils’ net off the left skate of Zuccarello. The Devils crumbled, allowing several two-on-one and three-on-one breaks. Zuccarello scored on a three-on-one, and then Carl Hagelin scored, and then Rick Nash scored to make it 6-3 at the second break. Derek Stepan closed out the scoring in the third period, beating Schneider on a penalty shot. The victory was the Rangers’ first over the Devils in four meetings this season. “Most of the time when we play these guys, there’s no room,” Staal said. “But they tried to press in the second period, and we caught them almost every time and made them pay.” Rangers forward Brad Richards said: “If you would have asked me before the game what the score would be, I would have said 1-0 or 2-1. It just works out this way sometimes.” Goalie Henrik Lundqvist, wearing special pinstriped pads for the occasion, recovered from early troubles in making 19 saves. “I’m not going to lie: When they scored the third one, I had a bad feeling about it,” Lundqvist said. “My first thought was, Am I going to be able to finish this game?” The game was important for both teams in the Eastern Conference’s jammed Metropolitan Division. The Devils, who began the day tied for fifth in the division with 55 points, would have drawn even with the Rangers if they had won in 60 minutes. Instead, the Rangers kept their hold on second, opening a 4-point lead on the Devils. Even though the game was played in New York, the Devils were designated the home team, perhaps in part because the Madison Square Garden Company could lose its property tax exemption if the Rangers were to play as the home team anywhere outside the Garden. The Devils wore their home reds (although with green trim and green pants, their original uniforms), their organist played, and their goal song blared over the public-address system when they scored. With the Rangers’ victory, though, road teams have gone 8-1-1 in N.H.L. outdoor games. The Rangers will also be the designated visitors when they play the Islanders on Wednesday. Commissioner Gary Bettman attended both Sunday’s game at Yankee Stadium and the Kings-Ducks game Saturday at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles. He lauded the events, set in “two wild extremes of climate.” “The games were spectacular, the images were unforgettable, and the sheer energy our sport creates was unmistakable,” Bettman said.

Rangers
Devils
Martin Brodeur
Patrik Elias
Rick Nash
Henrik Lundqvist
Ice hockey
Yankee Stadium NYC


Coach K Will Win and Lose

Abstract: HOUSTON — Coach K wants Duke to beat Utah. Coach K also wants Utah to beat Duke. No matter what happens, Coach K will be pleased. It is less confusing than it seems. That sobriquet, long synonymous with the Blue Devils boss Mike Krzyzewski, belongs to another coach of Polish extraction, Larry Krystkowiak, whose fourth-seeded Utes play top-seeded Duke in a South Regional semifinal Friday in Houston. “On the sideline, you might have to watch out for that,” Duke guard Tyus Jones said. Jones said Krzyzewski never told his players to call him Coach K. It was just understood, he said, and, besides, it was easier than saying Krzyzewski over and over. Answering a question about the coaches Thursday, Utah center Dallin Bachynski paused to collect his thoughts. “I’ve got to make sure I say Krzyzewski and Krystkowiak so I don’t get them mixed up right now,” Bachynski said. The coaches share heritage and consonant-loaded surnames, and each endured a humble start in his current job before finding success. But they did not meet until last summer, in Las Vegas. Krystkowiak said he bumped into Krzyzewski at a 7-Eleven. Perhaps, Krzyzewski said. “I’m not saying it didn’t — I would never diss another Polish-American,” Krzyzewski said. “Probably give him our secret handshake. I’m not going to tell you what it is.” These matters came up earlier this season, when Krystkowiak called in to Krzyzewski’s weekly program on Sirius XM, “Basketball and Beyond with Coach K.” They chatted about their backgrounds as much as basketball. At one point during their conversation, Krystkowiak told Krzyzewski that in the early 1980s, when he played at Montana, he would flip the channel during Duke games because the Blue Devils were not “exactly dazzling anybody.” “Now it’s the opposite,” Krystkowiak said. “When they’re on, it’s hard for me to change the channel because I really respect what they’ve done.” UTAH PREPARES FOR OKAFOR Utah has played against some talented centers. Josh Smith of Georgetown. Tony Parker of U.C.L.A. Kaleb Tarczewski of Arizona. There are others. None compare to Jahlil Okafor of Duke. “I don’t think I’ve played against a versatile post player like that before,” Utah center Jakob Poeltl said. Okafor, 6 feet 11 and 270 pounds, combines grace and dexterity with touch and instinct. Only once has he scored fewer than 10 points this season — in Duke’s first two N.C.A.A. tournament games, he torched Robert Morris and San Diego State for 54 points on 21 of 27 shooting — and he leads the Blue Devils in rebounding. Finding someone to simulate Okafor during practice is almost as difficult as guarding him. That task has fallen mainly to the backup centers Dallin Bachynski and Jeremy Olsen, who try to accentuate Okafor’s tendencies. Olsen described his responsibility as: “I have to use the left hand and right hand; be able to have great vision; to pass if I’m getting pressure. But he can also dribble and handle a bit if he senses pressure, so he might back down and try to take you 1-on-1 on the perimeter.” Olsen and Bachynski said it was not easy emulating Georgetown’s Smith, who is 7 feet and 350 pounds. But Utah held him to 8 points, below his season average, in its victory last round. An N.C.A.A. Bracket for Risk-Takers For this bracket, the more unusual that your picks are, the more points you’ll receive — so long as those picks are correct. “We’re always pretty prepared for the teams we’re playing,” Olsen said. “When we get there, it’s like we know everything the other team’s trying to do and we’re able to do take it away. That’s why we’re one of the best defensive teams in the country. We pride ourselves on taking away what the other teams want to do.” GONZAGA CELEBRATES, AS USUAL Coach Mark Few listened to the question and winced, genuinely unamused that Gonzaga’s inner sanctum had been breached. His locker-room handstand to celebrate the second-seeded Bulldogs’ victory against Iowa was captured on video by forward Kyle Wiltjer and posted on Twitter, where it quickly acquired a name and directed attention to the person Few dislikes most being in the spotlight: himself. “Do the Few” became an instant sensation, and students were suddenly breaking into spontaneous handstands across the Spokane, Wash., campus. But Few stopped as he walked to practice ahead of Friday’s South Regional matchup with No. 11 U.C.L.A. and wanted to set the record straight. “Lost in that whole thing was, we’ve been celebrating with stuff like that for seven, eight years now,” Few said. Amid all of Gonzaga’s success and what has become a run of 17 consecutive trips to the N.C.A.A. tournament — 16 of those under Few — he believed expectations were so burdensome that the Bulldogs were becoming joyless in victory. “It was borne out of the moment and borne out of the expectations for Gonzaga to always win,” Few said. “It was like everybody was working in a mill and grinding through the day, and we finally get off our shift at 4 o’clock and nobody’s feeling any emotion.” Few cannot pinpoint exactly when he did his first handstand or when the players and coaches began breaking into celebration, but it has become a tradition of sorts, an unscripted moment when the Bulldogs bond in a group setting. He said it could happen just as easily after a last-second shot to beat a last-place team as it could occur after beating a top-ranked opponent. “Let’s celebrate these times and being together and have players feel good about themselves,” Few said. “We want to encourage that enthusiasm. Especially with this group. They’re a pretty stoic group.” Few could not recall which games elicited the behavior, but he estimated that players and coaches broke into a similar celebration seven or eight times. He said he did not “Do the Few” after Gonzaga’s 87-74 victory at U.C.L.A. in December. Gonzaga made its first tournament appearance in 1995 and has reached it every year since 1999, 18 in all. Five times the Bulldogs have reached the round of 16, but they have never been able to crack the Final Four, which would warrant a few handstands. TOM SPOUSTA BRUINS SEEK REVENGE U.C.L.A. has won two games to face Gonzaga in a South regional semifinal here Friday night, but it is still miffed at the disrespect and criticism it received for being invited to the tournament. “Two weeks ago, it was how you didn’t deserve it,” Bruins Coach Steve Alford said. “Now it’s a love-fest.” Revenge will be part of the narrative against Gonzaga, too. “They picked us apart and were pretty physical,” forward Kevon Looney said. The Bruins say that loss was a turning point in their season, and they morphed into a team that should not have had to sweat out a tournament bid. “A lot of teams were on the bubble,” Looney said. “We were the only ones that got that kind of backlash. We want to prove everybody wrong.” TOM SPOUSTA

Duke
Mike Krzyzewski
Larry Krystkowiak
College basketball
University of Utah
NCAA Men's Basketball,March Madness


Matsui Plays With a Sense of Duty

Abstract: Tampa, Fla. - HIDEKI MATSUI had plans last night. Believe it or not, they weren't to be in front of a television set for the first pitch of the World Baseball Classic championship game between Cuba and Japan. "Dinner," he said yesterday at his back corner dressing stall in the Yankees' clubhouse at Legends Field. More specifically, dinner with reporters who cover the Yankees for the New York-area newspapers. This has become an annual rite of spring training, the only such arrangement with a member of George Steinbrenner's lineup of the financially blessed. "It started as kind of a joke," Matsui said through a translator. "I had never done that in Japan, at least not with all the writers at once. But it kind of helped me create a relationship, so we could understand each other better, and now it's become a tradition." And it has become part of Matsui's way of life, as an athlete who acknowledges what he considers a responsibility to his public and meets it with almost metronomic precision. Many major league players have been helping to grow the game this month by sacrificing time from their preseason preparation, launching what has been an appealing international tournament, though one with inherent scheduling flaws. While far from the only player to skip the Classic, Matsui might have been the most surprising, given his stature in Japan. Godzilla, as Matsui is known there, towers above Ichiro Suzuki, another homegrown star who sought fame and fortune in the United States and found it. Some fans and critics in Japan and New York were rankled by Matsui's decision, though in the latter case probably more because he appeared to be buckling to Scrooge Steinbrenner's wishes that the Yankees not participate. When asked yesterday if not playing was a concession to the Boss, reciprocation for the four-year, $52 million contract Matsui was given after the expiration of his original three-year deal, he said: "The contract had nothing to do with my decision. I've said all along it was the strong feeling of wanting to win a championship and knowing this time of season is very important in preparing yourself." Buy his logic or not, the last thing Matsui deserves is to have those contrived charges of athletic treason thrown under his chin, given all he has done for the reputation of Japanese baseball. "He plays for Japan every day," said Brian Cashman, the Yankees' general manager. "Three hundred and sixty-five days a year, this is one of the guys who goes above and beyond." Twelve months of satisfying sportswriters is too much to ask, even of Matsui, but let there be no doubt about his accountability to those who have shadowed him from his first day in pinstripes. Even with last night's conclusion of the Classic in San Diego, there were still more than a dozen Japanese reporters breathlessly waiting for Matsui (who did not travel with the Yankees to Lakeland for yesterday's game with the Tigers) to finish his workout and beguile them on a day as routinely uneventful as Florida sunshine. Whether he doubles in the winning run or strikes out looking with the bases loaded, Matsui faces the music, answers the questions. We could all name his teammates -- and other superstars from a variety of sports and nations -- who, under these conditions, would have by now dug secret tunnels under Legends Field, all the way to their condominium developments. "We all knew we were getting the Japanese Michael Jordan, and everyone predicted it would be a huge distraction because there would be so many extra people here," Cashman said. "But the reality has been like you almost don't feel them here because Hideki goes out of his way so much to make sure they're taken care of." In the process, while competing on baseball's most pressurized stage, Matsui has, with Ichiro, merely given lie to the belief that the everyday Japanese player can't compete in the major leagues. He has hit with more than adequate power. In three seasons with the Yankees, he has not missed a game. He has become part of the bedrock of their lineup, and may be their most reliable 100-plus run-producer, given Jason Giambi's trials and tribulations, Alex Rodriguez's existential angst and now Gary Sheffield's contractual distractions. Matsui deserves the benefit of the doubt -- and even praise -- for making a priority of winning the World Series, which, in case people hadn't noticed, is beginning to look as diverse as the Stanley Cup finals. Whoever said that a sports event has to be about nationalism to be global? He has watched some, not all, of the Classic, enough to identify one of the problems that made for the Americans' undoing. "Japan and other countries, they practice more of the fundamentals," Matsui said. "No doubt about that." And no one, he added, should question his fidelity to his country and the elevated appreciation of Asian baseball over all. "I have no regrets in making the decision that I made, but as a Japanese citizen I'm very happy," he said. "I'm still a fan." A fan figuring that he would "catch up" on the game last night, given that it wouldn't end until early morning, with Japan winning. Even Godzilla can only eat -- and tolerate reporters -- for so long. Sports of The Times E-mail: hjaraton@nytimes.com

WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC
BASEBALL
JAPAN
NEW YORK YANKEES
MATSUI HIDEKI
SPORTS OF THE TIMES (TIMES COLUMN)


Court Bars Sale of Billions in Oil Assets by Venezuela

Abstract: CARACAS, Venezuela — The oil giant Exxon Mobil has won court orders freezing as much as $12 billion in petroleum assets controlled by Venezuela’s government in an escalation of a dispute over efforts by President Hugo Chávez to assert greater control over the country’s oil industry. Venezuela’s dollar-denominated bonds suffered their steepest drop in six months on Thursday on concerns that Mr. Chávez’s government could face a protracted legal battle with Exxon, preventing the government from raising cash through the sale of refineries abroad if the economy here slows after years of torrid growth. Investors are also increasingly concerned about the financial health of the national oil company, Petróleos de Venezuela, amid reports that its debt is ballooning as its output declines. The oil company is the largest single source of revenue for Mr. Chávez’s government, financing an array of social welfare projects and foreign aid to leftist allies. “This is a big blow against Venezuela,” said Pietro Pitts, an oil analyst who publishes Latin Petroleum, an industry magazine based here. “It could set an important precedent for other multinationals threatened by Venezuela’s government.” After Mr. Chávez’s move to take control of large oil ventures last year, Exxon dug in for a fight. While Chevron and other companies accepted the terms imposed by Mr. Chávez, Exxon aggressively sought to prevent Venezuela from transferring control of foreign-based oil assets to entities here ahead of arbitration proceedings. In recent days, Exxon won a court order from the High Court of London prohibiting Petróleos de Venezuela from selling assets worldwide up to a value of $12 billion, Margaret Ross, an Exxon spokeswoman in Houston, said in a statement. Exxon won similar orders in the Netherlands and the Netherlands Antilles for assets worth up to $12 billion. And in New York, Exxon won an order freezing $300 million of Petróleos de Venezuela’s assets. Despite a deterioration of political relations between Caracas and Washington, Venezuela remains a major trading partner with the United States, ranking as its fourth-largest supplier of imported crude oil. Venezuela’s government also controls Citgo Petroleum of Houston, which operates refineries in Illinois, Louisiana and Texas. Mr. Chávez’s government has compensated American companies in previous nationalizations of their assets when it was faced with the possibility of losing control of Citgo and other foreign assets in retaliation. A spokesman for Petróleos de Venezuela did not return calls seeking comment. The company is expected to appeal the rulings. The dispute may raise borrowing costs for Petróleos de Venezuela, which is being reconfigured by Mr. Chávez to focus on pressing social concerns.

Venezuela
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Chavez Hugo
Exxon Mobil Corp
Petroleos de Venezuela SA
Chevron Corp


With Separate Styles, Two Defenders Merge as a Force for the Predators

Abstract: The Nashville Predators’ captain, Shea Weber, has a granite grip, while his defense partner Roman Josi lends an elegant touch with just a hint of firmness. Two very different styles in the postgame handshake line. One very big problem for opponents on the ice. Defenseman Cam Fowler, who locked hands with Weber, Josi and the rest of the Predators after they eliminated his Anaheim Ducks in seven games on Wednesday, had this to say about the challenges of facing the tandem: “Josi plays hard and he competes, but he’s more positional, using his stick and his skating. Weber’s the big body, the bruiser, the guy that can make you pay.” Josi and Weber put their contrasting but complementary styles on display again Friday in Game 1 of their Western Conference semifinal series against the San Jose Sharks, a 5-2 loss. In the first round against Anaheim, Weber tied for the team lead in points, Josi finished right behind him, and both players continued to lead the Predators in ice time. They fell just short of becoming the third pair of defensemen in N.H.L. history to finish first and second on their team in scoring during the regular season. “They have everything,” Ducks forward Andrew Cogliano said during the series. “They play good defense. They can rush the puck up ice. They have big shots from the blue line. They’re as good as it gets; they’re probably the best pairing in the league.” Fowler concurred. “If you were to separate both of them, they’re superstars,” he said. “Then you put them together — the chemistry they have is a pretty tough thing to handle.” Josi and Weber skate together at even strength, where they make plays consistently all over the ice; on the penalty kill, where Weber’s strength and Josi’s range are on full display; and on the power play, where Josi’s mobility creates space for Weber’s booming slap shot, almost unanimously considered the hardest in the N.H.L. “They are pretty much our backbone,” said Nashville goalie Pekka Rinne, who is second to Weber in seniority on the roster. “They eat up a lot of minutes, and they do a great job both ways, offensively and defensively. The last two years, Roman really made a name for himself. This year, he had 60 points. Shea has been an all-star in this league for years now.” In their 17-year history, the Predators had won just two playoff series, in 2011 and 2012, before eliminating the Ducks. “We’ve been here for a long time and we haven’t gone too far in the playoffs,” Rinne said after his team’s 2-1 victory on Wednesday. “It’s a great feeling, and it was the first time for both of us going to Game 7.” The marriage of Weber and Josi on the blue line was forged from a bit of calamity. The Predators and General Manager David Poile were troubled by the departure of Ryan Suter, Weber’s longtime defensive partner, who signed as a free agent with the Minnesota Wild in 2012. They experimented with different fits for Weber. An initial trial with Josi lasted just five games. “He was playing with Suts for a lot of years, so to play with a new partner takes some time,” Josi said. “It was my second year in the league. There were still a lot of things I could learn and do better.” Their reunion proved fruitful for the Predators, who this season saw the pair combine for 112 points, a league best for an actual tandem. They finished behind only San Jose’s Brent Burns and Marc Édouard Vlasic, whose 114 points were tops for two defensemen on the same team. Josi, a stylish Swiss player who conducts postgame interviews in multiple languages, said that Weber, a rough-and-tumble Western Canadian, had become not only a mentor to him at the rink but also one of his good friends away from it. He lauded Weber’s leadership by example in terms of his preparation, attention to detail and consistent performance. Weber said Josi brought a unique dimension as a partner who could carve out room for him while providing a scoring threat of his own. He also said it was a pleasure to see Josi develop over time and that their personal relationship strengthened the chemistry between them. “It’s a nice thing to have,” Weber said. “You get to know each other out there, and you know what each other are doing beforehand.” Their complementary games have raised the Predators’ sights under Coach Peter Laviolette. He took over before last season after Nashville parted ways with Barry Trotz, who had been the only coach in franchise history. Weber and Josi were both in the top 10 in average time on ice this season. The Predators’ play-by-play announcer Willie Daunic also noted on NHL.com that the quality of the opponents they matched up with was near the top of the league, that they were frequently deployed on defensive-zone face-offs and that they often played behind defensive-minded, bottom-six forwards. “They are always drawing a heavy assignment out there,” Laviolette said. “It’s never an easy job. They feed off of each other.” Facing Game 2 on Sunday, the Predators now look to advance to the conference finals for the first time. Forward Colin Wilson had a redemptive series, tying Weber with 5 points after a disappointing regular season. Wing James Neal provided a threat on offense, as did the midseason acquisition Ryan Johansen, whom the Predators received in exchange for the promising young defenseman Seth Jones. Still, they scored 14 goals in seven games, including an empty-netter, meaning they had to lean heavily on Rinne and a deep defensive corps. “Every time they’re out on the ice, they’re difference makers, making an impact each and every shift,” Johansen said. “Between the two of them, they have so many different assets. If we’re successful, they’re going to be two of the guys we look at to carry a lot of the load.”

Nashville Predators
Shea Weber
Roman Josi
Playoffs
Ice hockey


Derek Jeter Takes In, and Provides, a Memorable Final View at Shortstop

Abstract: BOSTON — He got cowboy boots in Texas, a surfboard in California and adulation everywhere. But the one gift Derek Jeter wanted most from his final season was the same thing he has wanted since he was a boy growing up next to a baseball field in Kalamazoo, Mich. Jeter wanted the best view in New York City. He wanted something that cannot be bought and something he can never have again. In the end, it meant everything to him. “I want to take something special from Yankee Stadium,” Jeter said late Thursday night. “The view from shortstop here, tonight, is what I want to take from it.” So that was where Jeter went, after the spine-tingling ending to his New York baseball career, when his signature hit — opposite-field single, first pitch — beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-5 , in the bottom of the ninth inning. He raised his arms in triumph, smiled widely, embraced teammates past and present. And then he went for a walk. Image Derek Jeter after his single to right field with one out in the ninth inning that ended the game, a 6-5 Yankee victory. 1 / 17 The point of baseball is to go home. Jeter, who understands the game as well as anyone ever has, did just that. He went to his home, shortstop, the position he played his entire career, never straying for even an inning to another spot. He will hit this weekend in Boston, he said, out of respect for the fans there, and the rivalry; the Yankees opened the series Friday with a 3-2 victory. But he will not play shortstop again. This was it. For the last time as an active player, Jeter stopped at the edge of the outfield grass and squatted there for a moment, his head bowed, his back to the pitcher’s mound, his hat near his face. He said a prayer. “I basically just said thank you, because this is all I’ve ever wanted to do, and not too many people get an opportunity to do it,” Jeter said later. “It was above and beyond anything that I’ve ever dreamt of. I don’t even know what to say. I’ve lived a dream since I was 4 or 5 years old, and part of that dream is over now.” Jeter chose his words carefully; he always does. Only part of his dream is over. He has belonged to the Yankees for more than half his life, but he is only 40. He has started his own publishing imprint. He wants to own a baseball team, someday, and to start a family. But for now, he said here on Friday — when he asked for a day off for the first time in his career — he is eager for a life with no schedule. “If I want to do something in the afternoon, I can do it,” Jeter said, “and not have to worry about what time I have to be at work.” He said it had felt strange to be present, in a way, at his own funeral this season, to show appreciation for the tributes while forcing himself not to focus on what he is losing. The emotions have been there all along. “I have ’em,” Jeter said. “I try to hide ’em. I try to trick myself and convince myself that I’m not feeling those particular emotions, whether it’s nerves, whether I’m injured, pain. I just try to trick myself that I don’t have it.” Image Jeter took the field Thursday at the only position he has ever played. Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times When his teammates presented him with a painting in a private ceremony before Thursday’s game, Jeter had to look away. He did not want the ball hit to him at shortstop, he said, a new and unsettling feeling. He forgot his elbow guard, misplaced a batting glove, called out plays to the second baseman with nobody on base. He ducked back to the clubhouse bathroom during the game, he said, and cried where nobody could see him. Jeter said these things in two 20-minute news conferences, after Thursday’s game and before Friday’s, that were easily the most introspective and revealing he has ever been in public. He was confessional and self-deprecating, reflective and raw. Basically, he was spent — emotionally, for sure, and probably physically, too. Someone asked Jeter on Thursday how he defined Frank Sinatra’s “My Way,” the song he chose as his personal anthem in his farewell Gatorade commercial and over the Stadium loudspeakers after his winning hit. Usually quick with his answers — he gets many of the same questions, and thus has many automated responses — Jeter paused to think this over. “I know there’s a lot of people that have much more talent than I do throughout the course of my career, not just now,” he said, finally. “And I can honestly say I don’t think anyone played harder. I don’t. Maybe just as hard, but I don’t think anyone had more of an effort. Highlights and Milestones: Derek Jeter The longtime Yankees shortstop is in his 20th and final season. His many milestones and career highlights are compiled here with related video, and articles and photos from the Times archive. “Every single day I went out there and tried to have respect for the game and play it as hard as I possibly could. And I did it here in New York, which I think is much more difficult to do. And I’m happy for that.” The Yankees have used “My Way” to accompany scoreboard highlights of Reggie Jackson, the showman of the team when Jeter was a toddler. Suzyn Waldman, the Yankees’ radio broadcaster, noted that the song was intended to apply to such mavericks and that, ordinarily, it would not fit Jeter. But these days, she said, Jeter is the maverick, because he stands apart for not seeking attention. His next Twitter or Instagram post will be his first. His professionalism has compelled him to be the face of the team, and the sport. Extreme self-confidence has helped, too, even at the end, as a .255 hitter. “I still feel as though I could play,” Jeter said. “I just don’t want to. I want to call it a career.” Image Jeter said it had felt strange during his final season to be present, in a way, at his own funeral. Credit Michelle V. Agins/The New York Times He was gracious, to the end, a grown-up in a child’s game. As he fielded grounders before the first inning Thursday, he took a moment to tip his cap to Bobby Dickerson, the Baltimore third-base coach. In his postgame interview on the field, he congratulated the Orioles and wished them well in the playoffs. The Mets’ Matt Harvey was there (he mentioned it on Instagram). So was the Astros’ Dexter Fowler, before his team’s series at Citi Field (he posted on Twitter about it). Many more than the paid crowd of 48,613 will say they were there. The exorbitant ticket prices on the secondary market? All worth it. Even Jeter, who does not like watching baseball on television, said he wanted to see this game again. He said he might host a screening for friends and family. He willed his way through it in a daze. “I’d like to see how it went, because I think I missed a lot of it,” he said Friday. The replay will not let him down. For two decades, Jeter was a better show than anything on Broadway, a character of grace and skill whose story seemed too good to be true. Except it was. His final act was the only game he ever played in New York with the Yankees eliminated from playoff contention. Yet he made it unforgettable. “Take a good look,” said Buck Showalter, the Orioles’ manager, who brought Jeter to the majors with the Yankees in 1995, “because there’s not going to be many like this to come our way again.”


Rogers Trains Again

Abstract: Robbie Rogers, the soccer player who announced he was gay in February and retired, trained with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Under Major League Soccer rules, his rights would be held by the Chicago Fire if he were to return to play. Chicago’s coach, Frank Klopas, said the team would be interested in signing Rogers.

Robbie Rogers
Soccer
Los Angeles Galaxy
Homosexuality
Chicago Fire Soccer Team


In Nokia, Microsoft Bets on Apple-Like Revival

Abstract: SEATTLE — With its purchase of Nokia’s phone business, Microsoft is taking inspiration from Apple’s way of making products, bringing hardware and software under a single roof where they can be more elegantly woven together. But Microsoft already bears a striking resemblance to Apple — the Apple of two decades ago, not the trailblazer of the mobile era. The $7.2 billion Nokia deal, which was reached late Monday, is unlikely to change that and catapult Microsoft up the ranks in the smartphone market. That is because Microsoft, with its Windows phone operating system, is stuck in third place in that market, where all the oxygen has been drained by more established players. Apple and Google have won the hearts and minds of developers, who design the apps that lure consumers to their devices, while Samsung is the dominant maker of mobile phones, most of which run Google’s Android operating system. Even though Microsoft’s and Nokia’s products have won praise for their quality, they have arrived late. “What matters is not the phone per se but a dynamic app and services ecosystem,” said Brad Silverberg, a former senior Microsoft executive who is now a venture capitalist in the Seattle area. Microsoft’s predicament is a flashback to the situation Apple found itself in during the early 1990s. At that time, Apple arguably had a superior computer product, the Macintosh, but it languished as PCs running Microsoft’s Windows operating system engulfed most of the market. One of the biggest problems for Apple then was that Microsoft had succeeded in gaining the allegiance of software developers, who produced a bounty of applications. “They’re stuck in the same vicious cycle that Apple was in 20 years ago,” said Benedict Evans, an analyst with Enders Analysis, a research firm, and a former strategist in the wireless industry. The challenges for the marriage of Nokia and Microsoft go far beyond support from developers. Microsoft is in the midst of the biggest organizational changes in its 38-year history. In mid-July, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, unveiled a plan to restructure the company’s often clashing fiefs into business groups intended to cooperate more. While the new organization seemed to set up Mr. Ballmer as the maestro in charge of keeping the various groups in harmony, he stunned the tech industry late last month by announcing his plans to retire from Microsoft within 12 months. Mr. Ballmer said he was leaving earlier than planned because he felt the company needed a leader prepared to stay longer. That fueled speculation that Mr. Ballmer had been encouraged to leave by Microsoft’s board. Blending a major acquisition into a company is challenging enough in times of calm. Doing so with the unexpected management change at Microsoft could make it even harder, tech industry executives and analysts said. Image Steven A. Ballmer, left, Microsoft’s chief executive, with Risto Siilasmaa, chairman of Nokia, during Tuesday’s news conference. Credit Sari Gustafsson/Lehtikuva, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “The issue I wonder about is the amount of complexity Microsoft is taking on its business by absorbing Nokia at the same time it is reorganizing at the same time Windows 8 is faltering,” said Michael Mace, a former executive at Palm and Apple who now runs an app development company in Silicon Valley, Zekira. “It’s scary from that standpoint.” While Mr. Ballmer plans to leave Microsoft after a successor is found, he was very much involved in cutting the Nokia deal. Over the last several months, Mr. Ballmer and his deputies met in places like Redmond, Wash., London and Helsinki with counterparts in the talks, led by Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia’s chairman. The style of Mr. Ballmer, an exuberant leader with a booming voice, was a stark contrast to the reserved, gentlemanly manner of Mr. Siilasmaa, according to a person present during many of the meetings. Microsoft is under enormous pressure to reinvent itself for a world where mobile devices are the animating force in technology, rather than personal computers. Sales of PCs are suffering the most prolonged decline in their history. Two powerful pistons of Microsoft’s business — Windows and the Office suite of applications — are tied to closely to the health of the PC market. The Nokia deal plunges Microsoft deeper into hardware than ever before. It is a business with enormous complexities — managing sprawling overseas supply chains, for one — that are not as prevalent in the software business. While it has had success in hardware through its Xbox video game console, Microsoft has also badly stubbed its toe in this area. It recently took a $900 million charge stemming from slow-moving sales of Surface, a tablet computer it created to compete with the iPad. Unlike some companies like BlackBerry that have missed technology shifts, Microsoft still has vast financial resources that could give it a lot of room to develop a mobile strategy that produces results. Because of the huge profits it makes from its flagship software business, “Microsoft has choices most companies don’t,” said Bill Whyman, an analyst at ISI Group. Nokia remains the second-biggest maker of cellphones in the world, when inexpensive feature phones are considered as part of the calculation. The company has footholds in large emerging markets like India that could eventually move to smartphones. Microsoft and Nokia became partners over two years ago, when Nokia agreed to standardize its smartphones on Microsoft’s mobile operating system. In an interview on Monday night, Mr. Ballmer said he believed that Microsoft and Nokia had “done incredibly well in the last couple of years” in the mobile market and that the Windows Phone operating system had emerged as a “clear No. 3” in smartphones. But that is far from No. 1 in this arena. Microsoft’s software ran on 3.7 percent of the smartphones shipped during the second quarter, compared with 13.2 percent for Apple and 79.3 percent for Android, according to IDC. Microsoft has argued that the selection of apps available for its phones is improving all the time. There are still big developers that have not produced software for Windows Phone, like Facebook’s Instagram, but far fewer than there used to be. The company says there are more than 170,000 Windows Phone apps. One unsettling possibility for Microsoft in mobile is what has occurred in the Internet search market, where the company’s Bing search engine lags far behind the market leader, Google. Microsoft has conducted exhaustive research showing that Bing search results are equivalent or better than those of Google. But the affinity for the Google brand is strong for most people. The question is whether a similar perception dooms Microsoft’s mobile phones to the margins of the industry. “They’re making something arguably very well designed, but it doesn’t matter,” Mr. Evans, the analyst, said. “I think they’re late.”

Nokia
Microsoft
Smartphone
Mobile phone
Mergers and Acquisitions
Steven A Ballmer


Business Travelers Adapt to Airline Fees and Selected Perks

Abstract: AT the airline departure lounge, I sometimes feel as if I’m some rube from the sticks, lined up with the hopeless mob outside a hot Hollywood nightclub. The red rope does not open for me or any of the others. I am not on the List because, like many business travelers , I have let my elite status lapse on various airlines since it is no longer worth the effort. On the other hand, I can now buy my way in to a small degree of status — in a method similar to tipping the bouncer to raise that rope. I slip US Airways an extra $15 when I check in, for instance, and not only do I get an aisle seat near the front of coach, but I also get a level of priority boarding that used to require elite status. And priority boarding means I get an early chance to stow my carry-on in an overhead bin somewhere near my seat. As I noted here last week, there is a constant tug of war between those who pay the bills (employers) and those who venture forth into the growing discomforts and indignities of air travel (employees). And not all business travelers click their heels and salute every time the company says they have to travel more cheaply, because that often means they will be traveling less comfortably and less efficiently. Sometimes, paying those additional fees, like $15 for a better seat or $30 to $50 to get into an airline lounge to work between flights, makes sense on both personal and business levels. And, it seems, many companies agree. A report to be released this week by Orbitz for Business challenges the conventional wisdom that everybody hates airline fees. In fact, many business travelers see them as a way to tailor a trip to their needs. The study finds that companies and corporate travelers increasingly seek “a balance” between compliance with strict company travel policies and the requirements of a traveler on a specific trip, said Frank Petito, the president of Orbitz for Business, the business travel management unit of Orbitz.com . Orbitz for Business, working with Business Traveler magazine, found strong support among business travelers for having the option of paying for various services. The three services they considered most important were an aisle seat, priority boarding and access to airline lounges. A majority say they “always” abide by company travel policies, and of those who don’t, most cited airline and hotel options as the primary reason for going outside policy. This doesn’t necessarily mean that companies and travelers are locked in conflict over fees. But company executives who approve travel spending are under growing pressure not only to justify expenses, but also to budget for them better. The proliferation of add-on fees simply makes that more difficult. Travel agents and corporate travel management companies have been trying to pressure airlines to make those fees more transparent when the ticket is booked, since many show up only when a traveler opts for the service at check-in. There is a lot of commotion, and confusion, about the huge amounts of money that airlines are generating through fees. In all, airlines raised $7.8 billion in ancillary fees last year , up from $5.5 billion in 2008. About $2.7 billion came from fees for checking bags, and $2.4 billion from penalty charges for changing reservations, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, part of the Transportation Department. Most of the rest of the ancillary-fee revenue reported to the Transportation Department came from airlines’ sale of frequent flier miles to credit card companies. Within that category, called miscellaneous operating revenue, there is no breakout of the fees that airlines receive for selling things like preferred seats, a sandwich, a pillow and blanket, a day pass to the airport lounge or a few hours of in-flight video or Wi-Fi. “In leisure travel, what you hear about most is baggage fees,” Mr. Petito said. “That’s really not much of a factor in corporate travel, where travelers are usually carrying their own bags. The things most important to the corporate traveler are getting the aisle seat, getting into airline lounges to do some work, getting to the front of the plane so they can get out and arrive at their meeting earlier, and having a little bit of extra legroom, because they’re probably working on a laptop the whole time.” Most travel managers have no problem with paying for that, he said. They would just like to have a better idea of what it actually costs, in advance.


Red Sox Front Office Describes Process of Hiring Valentine

Abstract: BOSTON — Larry Lucchino, the Boston Red Sox president, recently took Ben Cherington, the team’s new general manager, to a conference in Hartford to meet Bobby Valentine for the first time. During that Nov. 3 meeting, they discussed what at the time seemed like the remote possibility that Valentine might replace Terry Francona as the team’s next manager. The perception in Boston, and around baseball, was that Lucchino dragged Cherington by the ear, forcing him to meet the man that Lucchino had already picked. That perception surfaced because before that meeting, Cherington had never expressed an interest in Valentine, or anyone even remotely similar to him, while Lucchino was a Valentine admirer. Four weeks later, an overjoyed Valentine was introduced as the 45th manager of the Red Sox at Fenway Park. He called it “the most different day of my life.” And when he was done expressing his delight and gratitude on Thursday, members of the Red Sox front office were left to explain how and why this day had come, and whether the front office was divided over this critical hire. “I think that reflects a misunderstanding of the process,” Lucchino said. “This was a rigorous, collaborative process. That’s the way we do things around here. If there is anything that ownership should be actively involved in, it certainly would be the selection of the general manager and the field manager.” Before settling on Valentine, Cherington focused on Dale Sveum, the Milwaukee Brewers’ hitting coach, who was later hired as manager of the Chicago Cubs. Cherington was said to have settled on Sveum, but that choice was vetoed after a meeting with the owners in Milwaukee on Nov. 16. Cherington had also looked at other candidates, like Torey Lovullo and Sandy Alomar Jr., who did not have the kind of background or experience that Valentine had. Cherington, it appeared, was seeking a young manager with whom he could grow into the job. But on Thursday, Lucchino acknowledged that he was always looking for someone like Valentine. For better or worse, there is no one like Valentine. “I was, personally,” Lucchino said. “That’s what I was looking for.” During the news conference, Cherington said that after meeting Valentine and then interviewing him, he was so impressed that he in turn recommended him to Lucchino and his fellow owners, John Henry and Tom Werner. “We made a decision, I made the decision on Monday to recommend that we offer the job to Bobby,” Cherington said. The decision was made final Monday, and on Tuesday at 8:37 a.m., Cherington sent an e-mail to Valentine in Japan (where it was 10:37 p.m.) to expect another e-mail soon. The second e-mail contained the job offer, and while he was visiting with his former players in a Tokyo restaurant, Valentine negotiated a two-year contract with team options for 2014 and 2015. On Thursday, he chose to wear uniform No. 25 in honor of his old roommate and the former Red Sox star Tony Conigliaro. Cherington said he did consider Valentine, who was working as an analyst at ESPN at the time, soon after the Nov. 3 meeting. But he just did not make his views public, as he had with the other candidates. “We felt that because of the position he was in at ESPN and the public forum he had and knowing a little bit about my own style, that it was going to take maybe even longer than I was hoping it would when it first started — that including him in a public way at that point might be difficult for everyone involved,” Cherington said. The process played out in the wake of the Red Sox’ September collapse on the field and the revelation of disorder in the clubhouse. The front office was presented as equally dysfunctional and incapable of arriving at a decision. It is a perception that Henry labeled as false. “That there is some sort of instability, or that we don’t know what we’re doing here,” Henry said. “I’ve been reading some of these things and I think it’s just opinion. If you’re on the inside, Ben ran a terrific process.” Henry and Lucchino met with Valentine in New York on Nov. 17, the day after Sveum was rejected. Henry came away sharing Lucchino’s vision, which is now shared by Cherington. “He’s the right man for the job,” Henry said. “The right man at the right time for this particular team. We are set to win, we should have won last year. We’re built to win. We thought in the end that Bobby was the person most capable of taking us to where we want to go.” Meanwhile, Valentine said he wanted the job so badly that he was afraid to allow himself to think too much about it for fear of the disappointment should it go to the other finalist, Gene Lamont, the one other candidate with previous big-league experience. “During the process I would wake up at night thinking there was a chance,” Valentine said, “and then say don’t go there, you’re going to get your heart broken.” In the end Valentine’s heart was not broken, but people in this city cannot help wondering if Cherington’s was.

Boston Red Sox
Baseball
Lucchino Larry
Valentine Bobby
Cherington Ben
Coaches and Managers


Death Does Not Deter Jellyfish Sting

Abstract: RYE, N.H. — The culprit sat in an open trash bag baking in the hot sun, raked to shore by a pitchfork-wielding lifeguard who paddled out on a surfboard. Staring down in wonder — and disgust — at the huge jellyfish carcass at Wallis Sands State Park, Simon Mayer of Rye asked, “Is that the monster?” It was to some, and it was doing plenty of posthumous damage. About 150 people were stung Wednesday by what officials said was a lion’s mane jellyfish weighing nearly 40 pounds, which turned the tranquil beach into a frenzied sea of screaming children and aching adults with red, sore feet and legs. It was not the blob of dead jellyfish, but rather pieces of its stinging tentacles that stung the waders, scientists said. Jellyfish can still emit toxins when dead or broken apart, said Renee Zobel, a marine biologist with the New Hampshire Fish and Game Department. “The cell type will keep on firing in the tentacles,” which also remain alive when separated from the animal, Ms. Zobel explained. Alycia Bennett of Hampstead, N.H., who was stung while wading with her 10-year-old daughter, Emma, said, “When we got to the bathhouse it was complete chaos, mayhem.” It took a while for the severity of the sting to set in, she said. “By the time you got up to the bathhouse it burned,” she added. “There were a lot of little kids, and understandably they were hysterical. It was so bizarre. So much for a peaceful day at the beach.” Officials said there were no serious injuries, though five children from a camp were taken to the hospital as a precaution with skin irritations but later released. “There were five ambulances and a hook and ladder here,” said the park manager, Ken Loughlin. “Seeing a hook and ladder was almost comical.” Lifeguards were sent to a nearby grocery store to buy vinegar and baking soda for emergency medical technicians, who set up a triage area. Mr. Loughlin and others at the beach said it took a while for everyone to realize what was happening, because jellyfish stings are so rare at the beach. “You couldn’t see it in the water coming at you,” said Kim Raiti of Atkinson, N.H. “You couldn’t see anything you would know to avoid.” Two of her four children were stung. “Everyone was getting stung at the same time,” she added. “Kids were crying. It was like a scene from a movie.” New Hampshire Fish and Game officials said lion’s mane jellyfish, which are common to the Gulf of Maine, rarely show up on beaches as far south as New Hampshire. Tides often detach tentacles from jellyfish that are washing toward shore, scientists said, but raking the jellyfish “probably broke it up into quite a large number of individual tentacles, still healthy, because these things don’t disintegrate,” said Larry Harris, a professor of zoology at the University of New Hampshire. The tentacles are like “loose spaghetti” floating around, he said. “When you’re talking about thousands of tentacles and little kids splashing about, it’s a recipe for chaos,” Professor Harris said. The beach reopened Thursday, and swimmers were back in the water. The tide washed all the tentacles out to sea, leaving only the carcass, which was guarded by a young beach employee who said he was not authorized to give his name. “I’m going to have to start charging you guys,” he said to the curious crowd gathered around the Dumpster, snapping photos. Lynn Nicholson, of Methuen, Mass., wanted to name the jellyfish Wally. “Wally from Wallis Sands,” she said. Ms. Nicholson told Mr. Loughlin that she should put the jellyfish under glass and preserve it as a tourist attraction. “No one wants to come see a pile of puke,” Mr. Loughlin said. “Yes they do,” the young employee shot back.


C.B.O. Cuts 2013 Deficit Estimate by 24%

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Since the recession ended four years ago, the federal budget deficit has topped $1 trillion every year. But now the government’s annual deficit is shrinking far faster than anyone in Washington expected, and perhaps even faster than many economists think is advisable for the health of the economy. That is the thrust of a new report released Tuesday by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, estimating that the deficit for this fiscal year, which ends on Sept. 30, will fall to about $642 billion, or 4 percent of the nation’s annual economic output, about $200 billion lower than the agency estimated just three months ago. The agency forecast that the deficit, which topped 10 percent of gross domestic product in 2009, could shrink to as little as 2.1 percent of gross domestic product by 2015 — a level that most analysts say would be easily sustainable over the long run — before beginning to climb gradually through the rest of the decade. "Revenues have been strong as the economy has outperformed a bit," said Joel Prakken, a founder of Macroeconomic Advisers, a forecasting firm based in St. Louis. Over all, the figures demonstrate how the economic recovery has begun to refill the government’s coffers. At the same time, Washington, despite its political paralysis, has proved remarkably successful at slashing the deficit through a variety of tax increases and cuts in domestic and military programs. Perhaps too successful. Given that the economy continues to perform well below its potential and that unemployment has so far failed to fall below 7.5 percent, many economists are cautioning that the deficit is coming down too fast, too soon. “It’s good news for the budget deficit and bad news for the jobs deficit,” said Jared Bernstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a left-of-center research group in Washington. “I’m more worried about the latter.” Others, however, are warning that the deficit — even if it looks manageable over the next decade — still remains a major long-term challenge, given that rising health care spending on the elderly and debt service payments are projected to eat up a bigger and bigger portion of the budget as the baby boom generation enters retirement. “It takes a little heat off, and undercuts the sense of fiscal panic that prevailed one or two years ago when the debt-to-G.D.P. ratio was climbing,” said Mr. Prakken, of referring to the growth of the country’s debt relative to the size of the economy. “These revisions probably release some pressure to reach a longer-term deal, which is too bad, because the longer-term problem hasn’t gone away.” With the government running a hefty $113 billion surplus in the tax payment month of April, according to the Treasury, analysts now do not expect the country to run out of room under its debt ceiling — a statutory borrowing limit Congress needs to raise to avoid default — until sometime in the fall. That has left both Democrats and Republicans hesitant to enter another round of negotiations over painful cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security and Medicare, and tax increases on a broader swath of Americans, despite the still-heated rhetoric on both sides. For the moment, the deficit is largely repairing itself. Just three months ago, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the current-year deficit would be $845 billion, or about 5.3 percent of economic output. The $200 billion reduction to the estimated deficit comes not from the $85 billion in mandatory cuts known as sequestration, nor from the package of tax increases that Congress passed this winter to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff. The office had already incorporated those policy changes into its February forecasts . Rather, it comes from higher-than-expected tax payments from businesses and individuals, as well as an increase in payments from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance companies the government took over as part of the wave of bailouts thrust upon Washington in the darkest days of the financial crisis. The C.B.O. said it had bumped up its estimates of current-year tax receipts from individuals by about $69 billion and from corporations by about $40 billion. The office said the factors lifting tax payments seemed to be “largely temporary,” due in part, probably, to higher-income households realizing gains from investments before tax rates went up in the 2013 calendar year. It also reduced its estimated outlays on Fannie and Freddie by about $95 billion. The mortgage giants, which have required more than $180 billion in taxpayer financing since the government rescued them in 2008, have returned to profitability in recent quarters on the back of a stronger housing market and have begun to repay the Treasury for the loans. But there is a darker side to the brighter outlook for the deficit. The immediate spending cuts and tax increases Congress agreed to for this year are serving as a partial brake on the recovery, cutting government jobs and preventing growth from accelerating to a more robust pace, many economists have warned. The International Monetary Fund has called the country’s pace of deficit reduction “overly strong,” arguing that Washington should delay some of its budget cuts while adopting a longer-term strategy to hold down future deficits. In revising its estimates for the current year, the budget office also cut its projections of the 10-year cumulative deficit by $618 billion. Those longer-term adjustments are mostly a result of smaller projected outlays for the entitlement programs of Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare, as well as smaller interest payments on the debt. The report noted that the growth in health care costs seemed to have slowed — a trend that, if it lasted, would eliminate much of the budget pressure and probably help restore a stronger economy as well. The C.B.O. has quietly erased hundreds of billions of dollars in projected government health spending over the last few years. It did so again on Tuesday. In February, the budget office projected that the United States would spend about $8.1 trillion on Medicare and $4.4 trillion on Medicaid over the next 10 fiscal years. It now projects it will spend $7.9 trillion on Medicare and $4.3 trillion on Medicaid.

Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp Freddie Mac

Federal National Mortgage Assn Fannie Mae


Kurds Close to Control of Northeast Syria Province, Portending a Shift in the War

Abstract: BEIRUT, Lebanon — Kurdish militias took a major step toward full control of a northeast Syrian province on Tuesday, signing a cease-fire with the government that gave them all but a few blocks of the provincial capital. The cease-fire, reached after days of deadly fighting with government forces in the province of Hasaka, brings the province closer to becoming the third to slip from the grasp of President Bashar al-Assad in the country’s five-year-old war. The neighboring province of Raqqa has been under the control of the Islamic State militant group for the past few years. Idlib, a northwestern province, fell to other insurgents last year. The battle for Hasaka was the first time the Syrian government had used airstrikes on Kurdish areas. It signaled a new, volatile period in the northeast, where fighting had mainly been between Kurdish-led, American-backed forces and the Islamic State. Kurdish control of the province and its capital, also named Hasaka, could shift some important allegiances in the conflict. Neighboring Turkey, which opposes Mr. Assad, could make an about-face and seek a partial reconciliation with him if it sees him as less of a threat than a Kurdish attempt to build a semiautonomous region along the Turkish border. Early on Wednesday, the Turkish prime minister’s office said that Turkish and American-led coalition forces had begun an operation to clear Islamic State forces from the border town of Jarabulus, in Aleppo Province. The operation seemed intended, in part, to prevent Kurdish forces from reaching the town first. The fighting in Hasaka also further muddled the American role in the conflict. American warplanes were scrambled to stop Syrian airstrikes on the Kurds, raising questions about why the United States has resisted calls by anti-Assad fighters in heavily bombarded cities like Aleppo to protect civilians with a no-fly zone. The Obama administration has called such an effort too risky, especially with Russian warplanes assisting the Syrian government. Kurdish groups and the Syrian government maintained a de facto nonaggression pact for much of the war. The government considered the Kurds, focused on self-government in the northeast, less of a threat than the insurgents — most of them from Syria’s Arab majority — trying to unseat Mr. Assad, and gradually ceded territory to the Kurds to focus on fighting elsewhere. While the amount of territory changing hands in the Hasaka cease-fire is not large, it appears to be an important step toward total Kurdish control. The Kurdish militias took over several key areas of the city of Hasaka, including a stadium, a prison and small military bases. They had already occupied much of the city and province. The government now occupies only a small area of the city that houses security and ministry headquarters, which, under the cease-fire terms, must be patrolled only by civilian police. But it still controls two important pieces of territory outside the city: an army base, where scores of soldiers were said to have defected or been captured, and an airport, which Kurdish leaders want to leave operational because they are otherwise hemmed in by the Islamic State. The government sought to play down the importance of the cease-fire, asserting in the state-owned news media that it retained security forces in the province. But the fighting — which left scores dead, including Kurdish and government fighters and civilians — embittered many Kurds, awakening memories of repression over the decades and lessening the prospects of reconciliation with the government. Video clips of the fighting showed the kind of chaos and violence that has more often been suffered elsewhere in the country: parents screaming after children were wounded in government airstrikes, smoke rising over bombed streets. Political prisoners cheered in jubilation as Kurdish militiamen liberated a government prison. “God save you,” one prisoner said in a video showing the forces from the People’s Protection Units, or Y.P.G., entering the prison, as a fighter posed by the cell where he said he had spent four years. Kurdish activists said that several hundred people were in the prison, notorious for torture and a deadly 1993 fire. The events show that the government, despite making gains in some areas with Russian and Iranian support, is still too stretched to take back full control of the country. But the government’s willingness to battle the Kurds also showed that it may have its eye on a bigger prize: rapprochement with Turkey, which has been one of its most powerful foes and a strong backer of opposition fighters, including radicals. Turkey long gave the Islamic State freedom to slip fighters across its border into Syria. But now, Turkey is reeling from an attempted coup , three million Syrian refugees, a renewed Kurdish insurgency in the southeast, and Islamic State attacks increasingly hitting its own soil . To Turkey, the biggest threat is Syria’s increasingly assertive Kurds, who control parts of the countries’ border. Now, with American air support and advisers on the ground, the Turks fear that the Kurds could strengthen their hold on the border area. The Syrian government shares Turkey’s antipathy for Kurdish autonomy. A shift in both Syrian and Turkish rhetoric could be seen in recent days as the Hasaka battle unfolded. Hours after government airstrikes rained on Hasaka, Turkey’s prime minister declared that Mr. Assad could stay in power during a transitional period, something Turkey had long opposed. His reversal brings Turkey closer to the Syrian government’s position on a political deal to end the war. At the same time, Syrian officials, who once commended the Kurds for “fighting terrorism,” started calling them members of the P.K.K.: the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which Turkey considers a terrorist group and which has ties to the strongest Syrian Kurdish militia. And it was Russia, which maintains friendly relations with the Kurds and is trying to agree on common goals in Syria with the United States, that helped broker the cease-fire in Hasaka. To some extent, all of the parties are still hedging their bets, awaiting the outcome of talks between Russia and the United States and a new American administration in January. “There is an attempt by the regime to please the Turks and the Americans at the same time,” said Himbervan Koussa, a Kurdish activist reached by phone. More tensions are inevitable, though, Mr. Koussa said, as Kurds try to establish self-rule. “You can’t have self-management power unless you have at least one area empty of the regime or shrink its power,” he said.

Syria
Kurdish
Bashar al-Assad
Turkey
ISIS,ISIL,Islamic State


No Clear Leader in Early Evaluation of 2016 Olympic Bids

Abstract: Chicago’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics received mostly praise, tempered by concerns over finances and transportation, in a report released Wednesday by the International Olympic Committee on the plans of the four cities vying to host the Games. The report did not single out a winner or loser among the finalists, underscoring the closeness of the race a month before I.O.C. members are due to vote on the host city in Copenhagen. Chicago is competing with Tokyo, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro. “Usually they mention a bid that is not yet ready, and none of that was talked about,” said Robert Livingstone, the producer of GamesBids.com , an independent Web site in Canada that focuses on the Olympic bid process. “This time there is no clear leader.” The report called Chicago’s $3.8 billion budget “ambitious but achievable” and said the bid had the support of national government officials as well as 67 percent of city residents, according to an I.O.C. poll. By comparison, 56 percent of Toyko residents supported that city’s bid. In Rio and Madrid, 85 percent of residents supported the bids in each city. The report noted, however, that the Chicago bid organizers had not provided a full financial guarantee in the event of an economic shortfall, which is “contrary to I.O.C. requirements.” The City of Chicago has promised up to $500 million to back the effort, and Illinois has pledged an additional $250 million. After I.O.C. members toured Chicago in April, Mayor Richard M. Daley pledged to sign the host city contract, which would place financial responsibility for the Games in the hands of the city. Patrick G. Ryan, Chicago’s bid leader, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that the City Council was close to authorizing the mayor’s pledge and that the organizers had arranged for up to $2 billion in private insurance. The report also questioned whether Chicago’s Metra rail system could handle the surge in Olympic traffic. In a statement , Chicago organizers said that $12 billion had already been allotted to improve the city’s infrastructure, regardless of whether the Olympics are held there. Ryan said representatives of the Chicago bid are spending the final month lobbying I.O.C. members at sporting events worldwide and preparing for their presentation in Copenhagen. “We’re not predicting victory, but we’ve got a very competitive bid, we’ve got a great city, and our team has done well,” he said. Livingstone cautioned against drawing too many conclusions from the report, noting that I.O.C. members often vote for a range of reasons. Past winners, including Beijing, have not come out ahead in the technical report. The competition to host the 2016 Games is considered particularly close. Rio de Janeiro is popular among many I.O.C. members because the Olympics have never been held in South America, but concerns about security have been raised. The report took note of the city’s “safety challenges,” but said organizers had shown that Rio hosts two million people every year during Carnival and New Year’s Eve celebrations. Although the report offered praise for the organizational efforts of each city, Madrid and Tokyo received relatively harsh criticism. Madrid, which is bidding for the second time after losing to London for the 2012 Games, submitted a plan that “lacked clarity and showed limited understanding of Olympic requirements” in budgeting of areas like transportation, the report said. Still, it found the city’s $2.67 billion budget to be achievable and said its overall concept was “well constructed.” Tokyo’s evaluation noted the low public support and found that some sites that the city had listed as existing would require extensive construction. In a statement released Wednesday, Tokyo’s organizers said domestic support for the Games had been steadily increasing.

International Olympic Committee
Olympic Games


China Alters Its Strategy in Dispute With Japan

Abstract: BEIJING — After allowing anti-Japanese demonstrations that threatened to spin out of control, China has reined them in and turned instead to hard-edged diplomacy over disputed islands in the East China Sea to lessen any potential damage the conflict might have inflicted on the nation’s softening economy and a delicate leadership transition. With relations between the two Asian powers at a low point, China decided to go ahead with a scaled-back reception here on Thursday night to honor the 40th anniversary of the resumption of their diplomatic ties on Sept. 29, 1972. A member of the Politburo’s Standing Committee, Jia Qinglin, attended with several other Chinese officials. But Beijing sent a not-so-subtle message to Tokyo by not granting clearance to the plane that would have brought in an important Japanese guest, the chairman of Toyota. Other Japanese attended the event, though, and at the United Nations in New York, the two sides met in private and sparred in public. Around the disputed islands in the East China Sea, called the Diaoyu by the Chinese and the Senkaku by the Japanese, a large flotilla of Chinese patrol boats was being monitored Friday by about half of Japan ’s fleet of coast guard cutters, the Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun reported. The protests in more than 80 cities, including in urban centers where Japanese car dealerships and electronics plants were damaged, suggested that the Chinese leadership approved the outpouring of nationalism in part as insulation against criticism of the party itself during the transition of power that formally is scheduled to take place at the 18th Communist Party Congress, now set to begin on Nov. 8. But the protests threatened to turn against the Chinese government itself, diplomats and analysts said. Even though China has overtaken Japan as the biggest economy in Asia, Beijing’s handling of the dispute, precipitated by the Japanese government’s decision to buy three of the islands from their private Japanese owners, highlighted the interdependence of the Chinese and Japanese economies, and the limitations on what the leadership could allow. Notions of punishing Tokyo economically for buying the islands, whose status was left unclear after World War II , are unrealistic, said Hu Shuli, editor in chief of Caixin Media and one of China’s chief economic journalists. So many Chinese workers are employed at Japanese-owned companies, she said, that any escalation of tensions leading to a boycott of Japanese goods could lead to huge job losses. This would be disastrous in an already shaky Chinese economy, Ms. Hu wrote in the Chinese magazine Century Weekly. At a time when overall foreign investment in China is shrinking, Japan’s investment in China rose by 16 percent last year, Ms. Hu noted. The Japan External Trade Organization reported $12.6 billion of Japanese investment in China last year, compared with $14.7 billion in the United States. Not just China, but all of Asia, could face a serious economic downturn if Japanese investments in China were threatened, said Piao Guangji, a researcher at the China Academy of Social Sciences. Exactly how the anti-Japanese protests were organized, and by whom, remained murky. A rough chronology showed that immediately after the Japanese government announced it had bought the islands, protests began in Beijing and other cities. The protests then spread, reaching a peak on the anniversary of the Sept. 18, 1931, Mukden Incident, which led to the Japanese invasion of Manchuria. After that, the protests were shut down. It appeared that permission for the weeklong protests had been discussed at very high levels, said one foreign diplomat who had followed the events closely. Analysts said the protests might have been used as a weapon by one party faction against another as part of the internal machinations over who would win positions on the Standing Committee, but precisely how those possibilities played out, if at all, was not clear. Bold color photographs on the front pages of state-run newspapers, particularly of the protests outside the Japanese Embassy in Beijing, were evidence that senior leaders approved of the demonstrations, and suggested that, in some respects, they were even organized by the government, diplomats said. Photographs of protests are rarely seen in the state-run news media, they noted. By running them, the government sent a message to the Chinese people that joining the demonstrations was acceptable, said a foreign diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with protocol. Municipal workers in Beijing who normally guard local neighborhoods were called by their superiors at 4 a.m. on the day of one of the protests, directed to board buses that took them to the protest site outside the Japanese Embassy and provided with box lunches, one of the workers said. Their job was to provide security, alongside the police. As the demonstrations grew in intensity, there were increasing signs that they might get out of control. Several protesters in Beijing carried signs saying “Diaoyu belongs to China, Bo belongs to the people.” That was a reference to Bo Xilai, the disgraced former Communist Party boss of the western city of Chongqing, who had developed a populist following before he fell from power this year after his wife was accused of murdering a British business associate. Those signs were quietly removed from the hands of the protesters by plainclothes security men stationed around the crowd, said a person who watched one of the protests outside the Japanese Embassy. A few placards bearing portraits of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong stood out among the Chinese flags carried by most of the demonstrators. A protester in the southern city of Shenzhen was heard on television shouting, “Down with Communism!” The end of the protests, however, did not mean the end of the fury against Japan. At a meeting in Beijing this month, Western academics were taken aback by the depth of hostility toward Japan among Chinese foreign policy experts. There was talk of “conflict” to teach Japan a lesson, said John DeLury, an assistant professor at Yonsei University Graduate School of International Studies in Seoul, for making what the Chinese see as an unacceptable grab of territory that historically has belonged to them. With the new leadership in Beijing set to assume full control soon, even as Japan may turn to a conservative Liberal Democratic government under the more hawkish Shinzo Abe in elections next year, a reduction in tensions looks remote, said Ren Xiao, a former Chinese diplomat who served at the Chinese Embassy in Tokyo. “I think it will be less likely for the new Chinese leadership to make concessions,” said Mr. Ren, now a professor of international politics at Fudan University in Shanghai. “The same goes for a possible Liberal Democratic Party government in Japan. That’s why I am very worried about the Sino-Japanese relationship.”

China
Japan
East China Sea
Senkaku Islands
International Relations


Uneasy on Wolves’ Bench, McHale Is the Reluctant Coach

Abstract: MINNEAPOLIS — Clad in dark gray sweatpants and a dull gray sweatshirt, white athletic shoes and no socks, his cheeks and chin coated with stubble, his lanky body wedged into an end-zone seat, Kevin McHale is the portrait of a grizzled basketball warrior. For the next 15 minutes, McHale will speak gruffly but eloquently about short rotations and short players, the relative benefits of low-post play and up-tempo offense and his still-burning (albeit playful) disdain for the Knicks. He is blunt and wry and without any filter. It takes only one question to stanch the cascade of words: So, do you view yourself as a coach yet? “Nope,” said McHale, the reluctant coach of the reeling Minnesota Timberwolves . Hours later, McHale appears just as uneasy in a dark suit and tie as he presides over a 102-94 loss to the Knicks, a defeat that drops the Timberwolves’ record to 19-46. (They are now 20-46.) This was never where McHale wanted to be, literally or figuratively. He was hired in 1995 to be the team’s architect, a back-office manager of talent and payroll. He strayed from that comfort zone only once voluntarily — in 2005, when he fired Coach Flip Saunders and took his place for the final 31 games of the season. He made it clear then that the move was temporary. “The chances of me doing this long term are slim to none,” McHale told Sports Illustrated in 2005. “I just don’t think I’m cut out to be a career coach.” A reassessment is necessary. McHale was removed as vice president for basketball operations and shoved to the bench by the team’s owner, Glen Taylor, on Dec. 8, when the team fired Coach Randy Wittman. The move was reminiscent of the Knicks’ demotion of Isiah Thomas three years ago (although Thomas retained his team presidency when he moved to the bench). McHale, like Thomas, was ordered to fix his own mess. McHale accepted the change graciously, if unenthusiastically. Now, as unlikely as it seems, he may take up permanent residence in the coach’s office. Despite a generally dismal season, Taylor has indicated that the job is McHale’s to keep, if he wants it. McHale, who generally disdains talking about himself, will not entertain the discussion publicly. But there is a sense that McHale is much more open to coaching than his curmudgeonly demeanor and curt answers would suggest. In the past, McHale has bemoaned the hectic schedule required of coaches, particularly the travel. His players said they never hear the complaint, except from inquiring reporters. “We heard that when he first came in,” point guard Sebastian Telfair said, “but he’s definitely putting the time in. We haven’t had much days off. I thought we’d have more days off for a guy that’s so laid-back,” he added with a chuckle. The job of teacher and mentor suits McHale, who was a Hall of Fame forward for the Boston Celtics. Even as an executive, he could often be found on the Timberwolves’ practice court, passing on advice to young players and occasionally giving instruction to the big men. “You feel that he wants you to do good,” Telfair said. There is some evidence that he may even be a good head coach, the current record notwithstanding. McHale guided the team to a 19-12 record after replacing Saunders in 2005. The youthful Timberwolves had begun to thrive this season before Al Jefferson, their gifted power forward, sustained a season-ending knee injury Feb. 8. Minnesota won 12 of 16 games from Dec. 26 to Jan. 26 and posted a 10-4 record in January, the club’s best month since March 2005. Jefferson, the key acquisition in the Kevin Garnett trade two summers ago, was posting All-Star numbers, averaging 23.1 points, 11 rebounds and 1.66 blocks. “We were playing great,” the reserve forward Mark Madsen said. “Al went down and it changed the dynamic of our team.” The Wolves have gone 3-13 since Jefferson tore his right anterior cruciate ligament, and the rotation has been crimped by injuries to Randy Foye, Rodney Carney, Telfair and others. Through Friday, the Timberwolves had used 18 starting lineups, and McHale was still trying to find the right style of play for his team without Jefferson as his anchor. As an executive, McHale struggled for years to surround Garnett with sufficient talent, until his acquisition of Latrell Sprewell and Sam Cassell helped get the Timberwolves to the Western Conference finals in 2004. McHale believes strongly that the 22-year-old Jefferson can lead the team’s revival. But the task of finding the right supporting cast is no longer his. “It’s harder to get one, I can tell you that, than it is to get the other guys,” McHale said. “But like on all teams, you have one, and you need two, you need three, you need a pecking order established, you need all that stuff.” That process will have to start next fall, quite possibly with McHale still roaming the bench. The fans turned on McHale long ago, for failing to win with Garnett and for failing to keep him. But the mood is different in the locker room. “Guys want him back, especially me,” Telfair said. “I feel when he came in, we started playing basketball the right way.” Coaching the Timberwolves back to respectability could provide a measure of redemption, even if it is not the career path McHale chose.

Basketball
Minnesota Timberwolves
McHale Kevin
Coaches and Managers


Cesium Found in Japanese Baby Formula

Abstract: TOKYO — Traces of radioactive cesium thought to be from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were detected in Japanese baby formula on Tuesday as concerns about food safety continue almost nine months after the accident. Meiji, the Tokyo company that makes the powdered formula, announced the recall of 400,000 cans of it as a precaution, but said the levels of cesium detected were well below the government’s safety limits. Tests found a combined 30.8 becquerels per kilogram of cesium 134 and cesium 137, the company said, compared with the government limit of 200, the company said. (A becquerel is a frequently used measurement of radiation.) Babies could still “drink the formula every day without any effect on their health,” Meiji said in a statement. Infants and young children are thought to be especially vulnerable to radiation exposure, which can increase risks of cancer and other illnesses. Since the Fukushima Daiichi plant was heavily damaged by the tsunami that followed the March 11 earthquake, radioactive particles have made their way into vegetables, beef, fish and the nation’s staple, rice . Readings have been reported voluntarily by producers and consumers because Japan does not require radiation testing for most foods. According to local news reports, a citizen’s group in Fukushima first detected the radiation in Meiji’s baby formula and pressed the company for tests. A Meiji spokesman said airborne cesium particles might have entered the formula at a factory in Saitama, north of Tokyo. He said the company had been diligent in checking radiation levels in the water, but had not taken enough care to filter for airborne radioactivity. Eriko Matsuda, an official at the government-affiliated National Institute of Health Sciences, told the public broadcaster NHK that there was no need for panic because formula is diluted before being fed to babies.

Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant (Japan)