Household Finances May Curb Holiday Spending

Abstract: It’s going to be a frenetic holiday sales season. Kmart has already begun its Christmas advertising blitz, and surveys show a resurgence of interest in Black Friday bargains. Across the country, retailers like Macy’s and Walmart are adding a projected 800,000 holiday workers to their ranks, their highest level of seasonal hiring since 1999, according to the outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas . But forecasters warn that businesses could ultimately struggle to persuade households to spend more this holiday season. Stagnant wage growth , coupled with the rising costs of health care, child care, housing and other essentials, means that many Americans simply have less money left at the end of the year for presents, experts say. Reflecting imbalances elsewhere in the economy, much of the holiday season spending will come from wealthier shoppers. PricewaterhouseCoopers projects that average holiday season spending per household will fall to $684 this year, from $735 in 2013, primarily because of sluggish salaries and rising costs of living. Households that earn less than $50,000 annually are expected to spend an average of $377 on holiday shopping, compared with $978 for households that earn more than $50,000, according to the report, based on a survey of 2,200 American consumers. In a survey to be published this week by the personal finance website Bankrate.com, two-thirds of respondents said they would limit how much they spend each month. That, Bankrate said, could be an ominous sign for the holiday shopping season. Of those limiting their monthly spending, 32 percent cited stagnant incomes as the main reason, and 29 percent the need to save more. The survey was based on telephone interviews this month with 1,007 adults in the United States. The National Retail Federation is more upbeat, saying it expected holiday sales to grow 4.1 percent from last year to $616 billion. Still, the federation — which bases its forecasts on consumer credit readings, disposable personal income and monthly retail sales — warned that shoppers would be “extremely price sensitive” to keep household budgets in line. “The vast majority of the country is finding they need to buy less stuff, or go down-market,” said Joseph Nathan Cohen, assistant professor of sociology at the City University of New York, who studies household spending patterns. “There’s pressure to spend on the holidays, but so many people are still so tight on cash.” Experts say the holiday shopping season will be marked by dogged bargain-hunting. Shoppers appear ready to go to lengths — trawling online, visiting multiple stores — to find deals that will stretch their dollars. Image Twins Tavaughn and Tiara Wynter, 6, in the Jack’s 99 Cent store on West 32nd Street. Credit Kirsten Luce for The New York Times For Helen Brezinski, 65, an administrative assistant at a New York commercial real estate firm, holiday shopping this year will focus on the dollar store. She started hunting for gifts for her three granddaughters this week at Toys “R” Us. She also checked for gifts online and at Jack’s World, a Manhattan dollar store that promotes heavy discounts. There, she found jewelry craft kits from Crayola for $10, compared with about $25 at Toys “R” Us . She bought three sets. “In today’s market, you have to shop around,” said Ms. Brezinski, who said the rising costs of living in New York were weighing on her spending. “Deals like this each week, and you have a good Christmas tree.” Not that bigger retailers are not doing their best to loosen consumers’ purse strings. Walmart is offering to match the lowest price for any toy on its Holiday List . Macy’s is introducing “ beacons ” that will send personalized deals, discounts and recommendations to the smartphones of customers in its stores via the shopping app Shopkick. And J. C. Penney is already offering 50 percent off Christmas trees and ornaments. But retailers are competing against many other rising costs that the American middle class is dealing with. Apartment rents have risen across the country for 23 straight quarters, according to Reis , the real estate research firm. Last year, the cost of child care rose by up to eight times the rate of increase in family income from the previous year, according to the group Child Care Aware of America . A new focus on practical spending, shaped by years of economic uncertainty, is also directing money toward big-ticket items like cars and homes, at the expense of stocking fillers, a recent survey by Consumer Reports suggests. The new iPhone 6, released just ahead of the Christmas season, could also take as much as $14 billion in retail sales by the year’s end — dollars that could otherwise have been spent on holiday gifts, according to economists at Wells Fargo Securities. “We know that Samsung, Apple and Amazon are taking a big chunk out of consumer spending,” Myron E. Ullman III, the chief executive of J. C. Penney, said at an analyst conference last Wednesday. The weaker spending is giving retailers thinner margins, prompting them to cut wages and benefits for workers, which contributes to stagnating wages, experts say. Retailers are increasingly locked in a war of attrition, they say, chasing volume with big discounts and trying to win market share from one another at the expense of margins and profits. A new study published Monday by the Center for American Progress underscores how big a threat the nation’s biggest retailers see in weak consumer spending and stagnating incomes. The study, which analyzed financial statements filed by the nation’s top 100 retailers, found that 68 percent cited falling or flat incomes as risks, double the percentage in 2006. Eighty-eight percent cited weak consumer spending as a risk to their share prices. “A lot of the items you buy during the holiday season are discretionary, and that’s what people cut back the most,” said Brendan V. Duke, a policy analyst at the center and the report’s lead author. “It’s simple. If incomes don’t rise, retail spending isn’t going to rise.”

Kmart
Retail
Black Friday,Cyber Monday
PricewaterhouseCoopers,PwC
Temporary Employment
US Economy
Consumer behaviour
Jobs


Wolves Are Set to Become Fair Game in the West

Abstract: A wolf hunt is set to begin in Idaho on Tuesday if a federal judge does not stop it. It would be the first time in decades that hunters have been allowed to pursue the gray wolf, an animal that has come to symbolize tensions over how people interact with wilderness in the West. On Monday, the judge, Donald W. Molloy of Federal District Court, will hold a hearing to determine whether to issue an injunction sought by wildlife advocates against the hunt and reopen the question of returning the wolf to the endangered list. Gray wolves were taken off the list five months ago, after being protected under federal law for more than 30 years. More than 6,000 hunters in Idaho have bought licenses for the chance to participate in the hunt, in which wildlife officials will allow 220 wolves to be killed. In 2008, the population stood at about 850. Montana will allow 75 animals to be killed, starting Sept. 15. The states’ hunts will be over when the limit is reached or when the season ends, which is Dec. 31 in most areas. “The first day is the best day when it comes to an animal as smart as a wolf,” said Nate Helm, president of Idaho Sportsmen for Fish and Wildlife. The resurgence of the wolf population, rooted in a federal effort to reintroduce the animals to the Northern Rockies in the mid-1990s, has long angered deer and elk hunters and cattle and sheep ranchers who say the wolves are depleting game and killing livestock. Federal wildlife officials said that in 2008 a record 264 wolves were killed in the region for the legal reason of protecting livestock. The clash illustrates a persistent divide in the West, where environmentalists and wildlife conservationists have long gone to court to fight laws they say favor powerful groups like hunters, ranchers and others. Wolves have been one of the most tangled issues of late, including in front of Judge Molloy. In March, the Obama administration announced it would remove wolves from the endangered list. The Bush administration made a similar decision the year before, but Judge Molloy, in a lawsuit by plaintiffs including Defenders of Wildlife and the Sierra Club, ordered wolves returned to the list last fall. In the years since they were reintroduced to parts of the Northern Rockies, including Yellowstone National Park, the wolf population had risen to more than 1,640 in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming as of 2008. Federal officials say the population has recovered and no longer needs protection as if it were endangered. Idaho and Montana game officials say their hunts will keep the population from growing and eventually reduce it, while the limits will make sure enough animals endure to keep them from becoming endangered. Idaho game officials say they would like to have a little more than 500 wolves in the state, though the official plan calls for at least 150. Wildlife advocates cite several reasons for wanting to stop the hunt. They say that the state plans do not have enough protections, that hunting will prevent the wolves from roaming the Northern Rockies freely enough to preserve genetic diversity and maintain access to the proper habitat. Part of the claim is rooted in the federal government’s continuing effort to protect wolves in Wyoming because it has not come to terms with that state on a management plan. “It’s a matter of whether we’re going to have a healthy recovered population or isolated animals that are always struggling to survive,” said Suzanne Stone, the Northern Rockies representative for Defenders of Wildlife, one of the parties seeking the injunction. Doug Honnold, the lead lawyer for the environmentalists in the case, said, “Our vision of recovery is 2,000 to 5,000 wolves in a connected population and with a legal safety net to keep them there.” State and federal wildlife officials overseeing the wolf population say the number of wolves is more than enough and that multiple studies, including those on genetic diversity, have established that the animals are roaming widely and intermingling with others elsewhere. “Clearly, wolves are restored in the Rocky Mountains,” said Ed Bangs, the wolf recovery coordinator for the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in Helena, Mont. “They’re always going to be here, and nobody is talking about getting rid of all the wolves. That’s never going to happen. The population is doing great. There are not genetic problems. There are not connectivity problems.” Mr. Bangs added, “But they’re starting to cause a lot of problems, and the question is what’s the best tool for the future management of wolves.” He said the wolves had caused about $1 million in livestock losses and other damage.

Wolves
Idaho
Montana
Hunting and Trapping
Endangered and Extinct Species
Environment
Molloy Donald W


To Ford, a Disaster. To Edsel Owners, Love.

Abstract: KINGSTON, N.Y., July 31 — Martin Lennox took out an ad in the local paper to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the day his car rolled off the assembly line. Then he gave a party. Mr. Lennox’s friend Steve Wyckoff arrived with a present, a bottle of transmission fluid. And, between swallows of soda and bites of chocolate-covered cupcakes, Mr. Lennox’s granddaughter Mercedes explained that she was named for an actress, not a car. Certainly not Mr. Lennox’s, which sat, gleaming, outside the garage he has rebuilt around it. It is not just another relic from the days when Detroit’s designers favored sofa-size back seats, blindingly shiny bumpers and two-tone paint jobs. Mr. Lennox’s car is a 1958 Edsel. To business-school types and drivers old enough to remember, the Edsel was such a disaster that it became synonymous with failure. But not to Mr. Lennox, who once gave a pair of Edsel earrings to his wife, Sharon. And not to Mr. Wyckoff. He owns 24 Edsels, although he drove a Toyota Tercel to the party. They are regulars at gatherings of the Empire State Chapter of the Edsel Owners Club — “we have them close to where the president lives, and thankfully, I’m the president,” Mr. Lennox said. But they did not bother with the 50th anniversary celebration last weekend organized by three national Edsel owners’ groups in Dearborn, Mich. Mr. Lennox, 63, a former telephone equipment technician who retired last year, said his Edsel was the 1,234th made. It had 59,602 miles on the odometer before he let the engine warm up — “that’s a big hunk of iron, and it likes to be hot” — and took it for a spin on Monday. For the record, the engine produces 345 horsepower, 5 more than a modern-day Chrysler 300 with a Hemi engine. Mr. Lennox aimed the long hood with the “E” ornament on the end — his car is longer than many sport-utility vehicles, and weighs 4,479 pounds. Rounding a corner and passing a monument he helped restore when he was commander of the local American Legion post, he said he enjoyed driving a car that has become a head-turner. “And,” he added, “I’m not a boastful person.” But there is something contrarian about indulging one’s infatuation with the Edsel, which was discontinued only two years after the Ford Motor Company introduced it as mid-priced competition for the likes of Oldsmobile and DeSoto. Mr. Wyckoff talked about using one of his Edsels as his daily car and being pulled over by a police officer who had seen him go by the day before, and the day before that, and maybe the day before that. “I’m tired of seeing this Edsel,” the officer told him. No problem, Mr. Wyckoff told the officer: “I’ve got one for every day of the week.” The Edsel was one of those ugly ducklings that never had a swan phase. “The Edsel was aesthetically against every single aspect of what, visually, a car should look like,” said Matt Haig, the author of “Brand Failures: The Truth About the 100 Biggest Branding Mistakes of All Time” (Kogan Page, 2003). “It was ugly next to Chevrolets and other cars that were looking quite beautiful.” And then there was the name. Never mind that Edsel Ford had been Henry Ford’s only son. “People had word associations of ‘pretzel’ or ‘weasel,’ ” Mr. Haig said. “It didn’t have the soaring, almost poetic evocation of, let’s say, ‘Thunderbird.’ ” Worse, the Edsel’s timing was all wrong. Bob Casey, the automotive historian at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Mich., said plans for the Edsel made sense when they were worked out in 1955. But by the time the Edsel was finally introduced in late August 1957 — after Mr. Lennox’s car had already been made — the United States was heading toward a recession, and the economic headlines were not the only ones that were ominous. As a cartoon put it after the Edsel went on sale: “My, it’s a big week for everybody! The Russians have the intercontinental ballistic missile, and we have the Edsel.” Things did not get better in 1958. The writer Robert Daines published what he called “the ultimate Edsel photograph” on the title page of his book “Edsel: The Motor Industry’s Titanic” (Academy Books, 1994). It showed Vice President Richard M. Nixon on a trip to Lima, Peru, in May 1958, riding in an Edsel convertible that looked a lot like Mr. Lennox’s. “Seconds after this picture was taken,” Mr. Daines wrote, “Nixon was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by demonstrators. Nixon later joked: ‘They were throwing eggs at the car, not me.’ ” In all, about 111,000 Edsels were built. There were three model years: 1958, 1959 and 1960. But Mr. Lennox came to Edsels later. He said he decided in the early 1980s that he had to have a car from the late ’50s or early ’60s. “Everything I looked at was cheap and in a basket” — meaning reduced to parts that would have to be restored — “or expensive,” he said. Then he saw a newspaper ad for a 1958 Edsel Citation. “Wow,” Mr. Lennox said. The seller wanted $3,500 — “an awful lot of money.” He estimated the car’s value now at $15,000 to $20,000. “The engine was filled with rust” until he had it rebuilt. “It looks good in photographs,” he said. “It’s got some flaws, but you can’t see them. Like us.” Mr. Wyckoff said there were four Edsels at his wedding, in 1978. “My mother-in-law thought it was ridiculous,” he said. “I thought, ‘This is not a good start. This is my life.’ ” “I never tell people how many I have,” Mr. Wyckoff said. “If they suspect I’m crazy, I don’t want to confirm it.”

Edsel Owners Club
Automobiles
Ford Motor Co


Who’s on Third? In Baseball’s Shifting Defenses, Maybe Nobody

Abstract: For more than 100 years, baseball looked pretty much the same from the grandstands. There were three players spread in the outfield, a pitcher on the mound, a catcher behind the plate, and four infielders neatly aligned, two on each side of second base. But a radical reworking of defensive principles is reshaping the way the old game is played, and even the way it looks. If you cannot find the third baseman, he might be the one standing in shallow right field. The second baseman? That’s him on the other side of the diamond, next to the shortstop. Some baseball positions as they have long been known are changing before our eyes. The cause is the infield shift, a phenomenon exploding this year as more teams are using statistical analysis and embracing a dynamic approach to previously static defenses. Now, armed with evidence that shows how a batter has a propensity to hit the ball to certain parts of the field, teams will position their infielders accordingly — at times taking them far from their traditional spots. “The shift is on the verge of becoming the norm,” said Joe Maddon, the manager of the Tampa Bay Rays and one of the early leading proponents of the shift. “When you’re not shifting now is almost going to be the anomaly defense.” From 2010 to 2013, infield shifts steadily increased, according to research by Baseball Info Solutions, which tracks every shift and the number of runs it saves. But from 2013 to this season, the rate of shifting in the major leagues has mushroomed. Last year there were 8,134 shifts on balls in play. Through the weekend, teams had already shifted 3,213 times, putting them on pace for nearly 14,000 for the season. Teams that shift regularly are lowering opposing teams’ batting averages by 30 to 40 points on grounders and low line drives. “You do it because it works,” said Mark Teixeira, the Yankees first baseman. As a batter, he has been a victim of the shift for the past few years, perhaps explaining, in part, why his batting average went from .290 over his first four years in baseball to .249 since 2010, when teams began shifting on him regularly. Ben Jedlovec is the senior vice president for product development and sales at Baseball Info Solutions, a company that was started by John Dewan, the author of the book “The Fielding Bible.” The company tracks every pitch and every play and provides software and tools to about two-thirds of major league teams. Image The Atlantics of Brooklyn and the Athletics of Philadelphia in 1866 had infielders play nearer the bases. Credit Photography Collection, The New York Public Library “There’s no end in sight,” Jedlovec said about teams’ willingness to employ the shift. At first, the natural targets of the shift were sluggers like David Ortiz, Jim Thome, Adam Dunn and Ryan Howard — all big left-handed hitters who regularly pull the ball to the right. Now, with statistical analysis influencing more managers’ decisions, even lightly regarded hitters like Kelly Johnson of the Yankees might see fielders shifting against them, and more right-handed hitters are seeing the shift as well. “Baseball isn’t big on change,” said Dewan, who began advocating defensive shifts about 10 years ago. “But once other managers and teams saw the Rays doing it successfully, perhaps they didn’t feel as if they were going out on a limb so much, and wouldn’t be criticized when someone happens to get a hit against the shift.” Following the Rays, the Houston Astros have embraced the shift with zeal, from the depths of their minor leagues up to the majors. As of the weekend they had employed 368 shifts, more than one per inning and far more than any other team, even the Rays. “It’s an epiphany,” Maddon said. “I much preferred it when all the other teams didn’t want to do those things.” The Astros began employing the shift early last year. But the pitchers objected, saying they did not feel comfortable with a defense overloaded to one side of the infield and a gaping hole on the other. The Astros’ management backed off, but it did not give up. In spring training, the Astros’ general manager, Jeff Luhnow, and his coaching staff came armed with data, presented it to the pitchers and discussed why they wanted to embrace the shift. That analysis included a look at the improved defense of the Pittsburgh Pirates over the previous two seasons. The Pirates had mostly the same infielders in those two years, and in 2012 the sum of players involved in double plays was 339 (a 6-4-3 double play would count as three), 13th in the National League. But in 2013, with the shift, the sum of players involved in double plays was 419, the fourth most in the league. Their pitchers’ earned run average dropped to 3.26 from 3.86. The Astros pitchers were persuaded, and Baseball Info Solutions estimated the shift had saved them 11 runs so far this year. Houston now uses the shift all the way down to its Class A club. “We’re confident that it’s helped us get more outs than we would have without it,” Luhnow said. The Yankees are second to the Astros with 223 defensive shifts in 2014. They were already steadily increasing their shifts over the past few seasons, but during the off-season their quantitative analysis department, headed by David Grabiner and Michael Fishman, was assigned to the matter. They eventually proposed a comprehensive plan that now has players in the majors and the minors shifting like never before. But as much as the shift is blossoming this year, it is hardly a new phenomenon. There is evidence of the shift going back more than 130 years. Artwork suggests that before the 1880s, basemen would stand on top of the bases. According to Tom Shieber, a historian at the Baseball Hall of Fame, that was because of different foul-ball rules that made first and third basemen responsible for greater swaths of foul territory. Image The Yankees deployed an infield shift recently against the Seattle Mariners. Credit Barton Silverman/The New York Times Once those rules changed in the mid-1880s, players took up the now familiar positions. But even back then, there were innovators. Shieber said that one of his colleagues at the Hall of Fame, Bill Francis, recently discovered evidence of an infield shift in a June 25, 1870, account in The New York Clipper of a game between the Atlantics of Brooklyn and the Cincinnati Red Stockings. “The Cincinnati fielders moved about in the field, according as the different batsmen came to bat,” the Clipper story said, noting that it was innovative. The most famous shift of the 20th century was used by Cleveland Indians Manager Lou Boudreau against Ted Williams, the Boston Red Sox left-handed slugger, in July 1946, although there are accounts of a shift against Williams dating to 1941. An earlier Williams, Cy, was a victim of the shift in the 1920s, and in Japan teams used the Oh-Shiftu against Sadaharu Oh in 1964. In his memoir, Boudreau said the shift was about not only defense but also the batter’s psychology. Maddon agreed. “You are trying to split someone’s desires, his concentration, his thoughts,” Maddon said. “It’s a psychological ploy as well. They grew up looking out from the batter’s box and the infield had a certain look to it. Now when you look out there, people are in different places. How’s that going to affect you in that at-bat?” What are the risks of shifting? “None,” Maddon said. Some might disagree. Last year at Fenway Park, Robinson Cano bunted toward an empty third base against a Boston Red Sox shift and ended up with a double. But Maddon pointed out that if Cano or any other dangerous hitter preferred to bunt, that was O.K. with him. Better a bunt than a home run. Dewan, the head of Baseball Info Solutions, said his company did not recommend shifting in the outfield because the data suggested that even pull hitters tended to hit the ball in the air to the outfield either straight away or even to the opposite field roughly 54 percent of the time. And the risks can be too great. A ball that lands against a shifted outfield could conceivably go for an inside-the-park home run by the time anyone runs it down. Dewan also did not recommend shifting the infield too often with men on base because it could leave fielders out of position to cover bases. In a recent game at Angels Stadium, the Yankees could not cover first base on a bunt because the second baseman was shifted too far up the middle. Luhnow, the Astros’ general manager, said that as teams saw more of the shift, they might discover ways to beat it. Bobby Valentine agrees. When he managed the Mets in 1999, he had his infielder run to set positions as the pitcher was delivering. He said that could be put into use by teams who want to disguise their defense until the last moment, much like a football team hiding its blitz. “Someone will come up with something new,” Valentine said. “It will probably be Joe Maddon.”

Baseball
Joe Maddon
Tampa Bay Rays
Astros
Jeff Luhnow
MLB


Official Defends Cuomo Program That Has Created Only 408 Jobs

Abstract: ALBANY — New York’s chief economic development official faced sharp questioning on Wednesday from lawmakers who questioned the wisdom and effectiveness of one of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s signature initiatives. The official, Howard Zemsky , the chief executive of Empire State Development, repeatedly defended the program, Start-Up New York , despite its lackluster performance. Indeed, last month, Mr. Zemsky’s agency reported that Start-Up New York — which offers a decade of no taxes to companies in exchange for transferring, expanding or starting new businesses in the state — had created just 408 jobs since its start in 2013, despite an initial advertising push for the program that cost the state some $50 million. But on Wednesday, Mr. Zemsky said the governor’s efforts — and taxpayer dollars — were paying dividends to New Yorkers in more intangible ways, including reversing what he called the state’s decades-old reputation as a place unfriendly to businesses. “We dramatically changed the perception of New York State,” Mr. Zemsky said. “The world thought that New York State was not open for business.” But now, he added, “The world thinks New York State is open for business.” Mr. Zemsky made his remarks during an off-session hearing of the Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Job Creation, Commerce and Industry, and on the heels of troubling news for two other state economic development programs. Mr. Cuomo’s so-called Buffalo Billion plan, a billion-dollar investment project aiming to revitalize Buffalo and western New York, has come under federal investigation . And last month, the state’s Excelsior Jobs Program — which slightly predates the administration of Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat — was also the subject of an unflattering audit by Thomas P. DiNapoli , the state comptroller, who criticized the development agency for adjusting job creation requirements for tax breaks given to companies that had not hired as many as they had promised. Empire State disputed those findings, and Mr. Zemsky said on Wednesday his office was cooperating with the federal investigation of the Buffalo Billion program, which is being led by Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York. While Mr. Zemsky faced questions about both the Excelsior and Buffalo Billion programs, the vast majority of his time was spent defending Start-Up, which uses space on or adjacent to college campuses statewide. Again and again, Mr. Zemsky argued the program needed time, saying its approved companies would invest $230 million and eventually produce some 4,100 jobs over the next four to five years. But lawmakers on both sides of the aisle seemed unimpressed by such promises, in light of the meager job creation so far. “You said you want to look through the front windshield of what’s coming, not in the rearview mirror,” said Assemblyman Raymond Walter , a Republican from the Buffalo area. “But sometimes, if we don’t look through the rearview mirror we won’t see the wreckage behind us.” Mr. Zemsky shot back that the State University of New York at Buffalo, which is in Mr. Walter’s district, had actually been among the biggest beneficiaries of the program. “Are you interested in pulling the rug out from under them?” Mr. Zemsky, a successful real estate developer in Buffalo, said. But criticism did not come just from Republicans or those from western New York. Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell, a Democrat from a district on the Canadian border, argued there should be “a serious rethinking” of Start-Up New York. “At this point, we’re not seeing a whole lot of return on investment,” Ms. Russell said, adding: “I know the perception has changed markedly. But folks in my area are looking for jobs, not perception.” And noting the $50 million in promotion, she said, “We’d like there to be some substance to the program, beyond just advertising.” Empire State officials counter that the program’s participants have already paid some $32 million in wages and $13 million in investment. Still, on several occasions, Mr. Zemsky seemed frustrated by the focus on Start-Up New York, calling it a “very small piece of the puzzle” of how to spur economic activity upstate. “It’s one tool in the toolbox,” he said. “It’s not the entirety of New York State’s economic development efforts, by any stretch of the imagination. On the other hand, it gets all of the attention.” At other moments, Mr. Zemsky seemed amused by some of the complaints, including the fact that the 408-job number had appeared in a small-type footnote in the July 1 report. “I will assure you that we will make all the print the same size next time,” he said. “And if it would help to exorcise all of the emotion around the Start-Up New York program,” he added, “I would be willing to subject myself to any types of medieval torture, any other things that could make all the anger go away.”

Jobs
New York
Empire State Development
Andrew Cuomo


Giants’ Melky Cabrera Barred 50 Games for Doping

Abstract: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Melky Cabrera was suspended 50 games Wednesday following a positive test for testosterone, putting an abrupt end to what had been an MVP-caliber regular season and throwing the San Francisco Giants’ playoff hopes into doubt. Cabrera leads the National League with 159 hits, and is second in batting average behind Pittsburgh‘s Andrew McCutchen. Cabrera’s penalty was the first for a high-profile player since last year’s NL MVP, Ryan Braun, had his suspension overturned by an arbitrator last winter. “My positive test was the result of my use of a substance I should not have used,” Cabrera said in a statement released by the union. “I accept my suspension under the Joint Drug Program and I will try to move on with my life. I am deeply sorry for my mistake and I apologize to my teammates, to the San Francisco Giants organization and to the fans for letting them down.” The suspension would extend into the playoffs if the Giants advance. Cabrera is batting .346 with 11 home runs and 60 RBIs in his first season with San Francisco and is five hits shy of 1,000 in his big league career. Flashing bright orange spikes, he singled and hit a two-run homer last month in the National League’s 8-0 win in the All-Star game, earning MVP honors for the game and securing homefield advantage for the World Series. “It’s disappointing. Obviously, Melky means a lot to all of us, was part of our championship and provided some really good moments here,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s something that everyone has to deal with and it’s something baseball is trying to stay away from and it happened.” Cabrera could still win the NL batting title. He has 501 plate appearances, one less than the minimum required to win a batting championship for a player on a team playing 162 games. However, under 10.22(a) of the Official Baseball Rules, he would win the batting title if an extra hitless at-bat is added to his average and it remains higher than that of any other qualifying player. He will miss the final 45 games of the regular season and serve the remainder of the suspension at the start of next season or during the postseason, depending on whether the Giants make the playoffs and how far they advance. If the Giants wanted him to become active in the middle of a playoff series, they would have to play a man short from the start of the series until the suspension ends because rosters can’t be altered mid-series. “We were extremely disappointed,” the Giants said in a statement. “We fully support Major League Baseball‘s policy and its efforts to eliminate performance enhancing drugs from our game.” Cabrera became the second Giants player to receive a drug suspension this season. Reliever Guillermo Mota was penalized for 100 games in May, becoming just the third major league player disciplined twice for positive drug tests. Mota is eligible to return Aug. 28, barring rainouts, and began a minor league rehabilitation assignment Tuesday with the Giants’ rookie team in Arizona. It was not immediately known whether Cabrera’s positive test occurred before the All-Star game. The union initially filed a grievance, which would have caused the case to go before an arbitrator, but then dropped it, a person familiar with the process said. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because that detail was not announced. Cabrera told CSN Bay Area on July 27 that he had been tested for performance-enhancing drugs the previous week, though it’s unknown whether the test he referenced resulted in the positive test. Drug-testing labs check urine for its ratio of testosterone to epitestosterone, which usually is 1 to 1 in adult males. If the lab notices any abnormality, it conducts an isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IRMS) test to determine whether the testosterone is exogenous, or came from outside the body. There have been four suspensions under the major league drug program this year, with Philadelphia infielder Freddy Galvis and free agent outfielder Marlon Byrd also suspended 50 games apiece. There have been 70 suspensions under the minor league drug program. In mid-May, MLB and the players’ union agreed to drop the 100-game suspension imposed on Colorado catcher Eliezer Alfonzo for a positive drug test because of the same procedural issues that came up in the case of Braun. Alfonzo missed 48 games — the final 15 of last season and the first 33 of this year. Braun’s 50-game suspension for a positive test was overturned in February by arbitrator Shyam Das after Braun’s lawyers argued his urine sample was not handled in the manner specified by baseball’s drug agreement. Das, who had been baseball’s permanent arbitrator since 1999, was fired this spring. The Braun case led to revisions in the drug agreement between owners and the players’ association to better define procedures for handling the urine samples. Last December, slugger Manny Ramirez received a 50-game suspension for a second positive drug test. The 12-time All-Star signed a one-year minor league contract with the Oakland Athletics on Feb. 20, but was released in June per his request while playing for Triple-A Sacramento before even reaching the big leagues with the A’s. Ramirez retired from the Tampa Bay Rays in April 2011 rather than serve a 100-game suspension for a second failed drug test. The penalty was cut to 50 games because he sat out nearly all of last season. The 28-year-old Cabrera, who became a marketing phenomenon this year with nicknames like “Got Melk?” '‘Melk Man” and “Melky Way,” produced a 51-hit month in May. Cabrera batted .429 in May with three homers, five triples, seven doubles and 17 RBIs. He hit safely in 25 of 29 games. The 51 hits matched Randy Winn for most hits in a month since the club came to San Francisco in 1958. Cabrera also set the San Francisco record for most hits in May, passing Hall of Famer Willie Mays’ 49 from 1958. “My first reaction, extremely saddened — a great kid who’s having a great run,” former Yankees teammate Alex Rodriguez said. “Just sadness overall.” A-Rod tutored both Cabrera and Robinson Cano when they were coming up, even inviting Cabrera to Miami to work out with him in recent years. “I’m sure he’s sad and confused,” Rodriguez said. “He’s a young man and has a great opportunity — and challenge — to turn a negative into a positive.” Cabrera came to the Giants in a trade with Kansas City last November that sent left-hander Jonathan Sanchez to the Royals. Cabrera — who signed a $6 million, one-year deal to avoid salary arbitration — batted .305 with 44 doubles, 18 homers and 87 RBIs last season. He is a big reason San Francisco began play Wednesday tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers atop the NL West. Cabrera had been listed in the original lineup for the series finale with the Washington Nationals, batting third and playing left field. Gregor Blanco replaced Cabrera. San Francisco said it will not make a roster move until Thursday’s off day before opening a weekend series at San Diego. The clubhouse was closed before the game when the news of Cabrera’s suspension broke. “Sad, man,” Cano said. “He’s a friend. I’m going to be there for him. I never talked to him about anything like that. Sad day.” ___ AP Sports Writers Ronald Blum and Howie Rumberg in New York contributed to this report.

Testosterone
Baseball
Cabrera Melky
Suspensions Dismissals and Resignations


Boy, 16, Kills Mother in the Bronx, Police Say

Abstract: A 16-year-old Bronx boy was charged on Wednesday night with second-degree murder in the killing of his mother earlier in the day, the police said. The victim, Tihesha Savage, 34, was found dead near her apartment on Macombs Road in the Bronx at 9:15 a.m. Wednesday. She had a severe wound on her head, and her body had been stuffed into a bin. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The police investigation quickly focused on Ms. Savage’s son, Darwin Jackson, 16. He was arrested several hours later, around 6 p.m., the police said. The authorities declined to discuss what led them to believe the son had killed his mother. They would not comment on what might have sparked the violence nor on whether there had been any history of domestic abuse in the family.

Murders and Attempted Murders
Domestic Violence
Bronx (NYC)
Savage Tihesha
Jackson Darwin


With Talent Abundant, U.S. Makes Tough Cuts

Abstract: ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Jack Johnson, an American-born defenseman, is a 10-time national team member who played on the 2010 United States Olympic team that won a silver medal at the Vancouver Games and came within one goal of the gold. Johnson’s patriotism runs so deep that he traveled to Canada at his own expense four years ago to march in the opening ceremony ahead of the hockey competition. Johnson played a pivotal role in the development of United States men’s hockey into a perennial world power, but as the nation tries to take the next step at next month’s Sochi Games and win Olympic gold for the first time since its improbable victory in 1980, Johnson finds himself the odd defenseman out. Johnson, 26, of the Columbus Blue Jackets, was one of a few players from the 2010 squad under consideration for inclusion on this year’s team who did not make the final cut. The 25-player roster was unveiled Wednesday at the conclusion of the Toronto Maple Leafs’ 3-2 shootout victory against the Detroit Red Wings at the Winter Classic. Other players left out included Colorado Avalanche defenseman Erik Johnson (no relation); Ottawa Senators forward Bobby Ryan, who is on pace for his fifth 30-goal season; and goaltender Tim Thomas. The Olympic team features three members of the Rangers: defenseman Ryan McDonagh and forwards Ryan Callahan and Derek Stepan. Callahan is one of 13 holdovers from the squad that competed in Vancouver. A 14th player, Paul Martin, made the team in 2010 but did not play because of a broken arm. Martin, 32, broke his leg in November but is expected to return this month. “We’re fortunate to have probably the deepest talent pool we’ve ever had in our country, and that made for some very difficult decisions,” said David Poile, the general manager of the 2014 United States Olympic men’s hockey team. The roster has 14 forwards, 8 defensemen and 3 goaltenders. Goaltender Ryan Miller, 33, the standout performer of the 2010 Olympic team, is the oldest member. Justin Faulk, a 21-year-old defenseman, is the youngest. The average age is 27. The United States women’s team was introduced during the second intermission Wednesday. It features 11 holdovers from the squad that won a silver medal in Vancouver and includes Amanda Kessel, a prolific scorer whose brother, Phil, a member of the Maple Leafs, was named to the men’s team. Faulk, who plays for the Carolina Hurricanes, is part of the new wave sweeping some American veterans aside. At the 2013 world championships in Sweden, he contributed six assists to help the Americans win the bronze medal. Poile, the general manager and president of hockey operations for the Nashville Predators, recognized Faulk and another young defenseman, Cam Fowler, 22, as being emblematic of what he called the “good news/bad news” state of United States hockey. “The quality of the U.S. players is growing at a fantastic rate,” Poile said. In the final analysis, he added, his decisions rested not on what players were lacking, but on what they had to offer. In choosing the team, Poile said, he was looking not for the 25 best players, but for the 25 players who would mesh the best. When he scouted players, little things mattered: face-off success rates, skating speed, chemistry. There are two forwards on the United States team whose ability to work together is not in doubt. The Maple Leafs’ James van Riemsdyk and Phil Kessel are linemates and expect to play together in Sochi. As if to seal the deal, van Riemsdyk scored in the second period Wednesday on an assist from Kessel. Poile mentioned a few players left off the team, a group that included Tampa Bay goaltender Ben Bishop, who are having fine seasons. Bishop has posted better numbers than the Red Wings’ Jimmy Howard. While acknowledging that Bishop “has played fabulous,” Poile noted Howard’s experience with playoff pressure. Howard was the third goaltender chosen, along with Miller and the Los Angeles Kings’ Jonathan Quick, who is poised to return from a groin injury. “This is the first time we’re having to make the kind of decisions that Canada’s been making for years,” Poile said. “Tough, tough decisions.”

David Poile
Ice hockey
2014 Winter Olympics
US


As Health Premiums Jump, Obama Wields an Imperfect Shield

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Urging people to sign up for coverage under the Affordable Care Act, President Obama said last week that while premiums might be rising, most consumers need not worry. “Premiums going up,” he said, “don’t necessarily translate into higher premiums for people who are getting tax credits.” Federal subsidies will generally grow with premiums, the administration says, even as rates soar 25 percent to 50 percent or more in some markets. “Most people are going to be pleasantly surprised at just how affordable their options are,” the president said. But left unmentioned in the pitch to consumers are what economists and health policy experts describe as possible reasons to be concerned about rising premiums: ■ Higher subsidies mean higher costs for taxpayers. ■ Many people buying insurance on their own do not receive subsidies. And for many others, the subsidies are small. ■ Premium increases indicate the magnitude of cost increases for insurers. The continued increases in these costs help explain why the marketplace has been unstable and some insurers have pulled out. “You should be concerned anytime prices go up rapidly,” said Robert D. Reischauer, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office. “This is increasing costs to the government.” Moreover, federal officials say, publicity about rising sticker prices may discourage some people from seeking coverage in the marketplace, whose annual open enrollment period begins Tuesday. Research by the government and insurers suggests that many of the uninsured are unaware of the subsidies they may be able to obtain through the marketplace. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that federal spending on premium subsidies will total $43 billion in the current fiscal year and $672 billion over the coming decade — costs that could increase if premiums and subsidies continue to rise. Still, the subsidy costs are much less than the budget office originally predicted because enrollment is much lower and health costs have grown more slowly. In his remarks last week on the Affordable Care Act, made in a conference call with thousands of supporters and health insurance counselors, Mr. Obama said that after subsidies are taken into account, “more than seven in 10 consumers will be able to find a plan for less than $75 a month.” But 15 percent of the 10 million people with marketplace coverage under the 2010 health law do not receive subsidies, mainly because their incomes are too high. And the administration estimates that 6.9 million people buy insurance on their own outside the marketplace, so they cannot obtain subsidies, which are available only through the exchanges. One-third of them might qualify for tax credits if they bought insurance through the exchange, federal officials said. Emily Odza, a part-time librarian in Oakland, Calif., said the monthly premium for her Kaiser Permanente plan was rising next year to $900, from $800. Subsidies cover about half of the cost. She recently took a second part-time job. “I worry most about the fact my income may rise slightly above the cutoff point,” Ms. Odza said. “If you want to earn as much as you can just to survive, the government takes away the subsidy.” Financial aid becomes unavailable when an individual has income of more than $47,520 a year. The Obama administration says people can usually avoid a big increase in premiums if they shop around. Ms. Odza called that advice “totally maddening.” “It took me several years to settle down with my doctors at Kaiser,” she said. “They expect me to switch every year to find the best price?” Angela Gehm, a retired school administrator in Long Beach, Ind., said the increase in her premiums for 2017 outstripped the expected increase in her subsidy. Ms. Gehm said she had recently received a notice from her insurer, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, saying the premium for her midlevel “silver” plan would rise to $1,007 a month next year, from $827 this year. The subsidy, $583 a month, will be the same, she said, so her cost will rise 74 percent, to $424 a month, from $244. It was not immediately clear how her subsidy had been calculated, but the subsidy is based on the cost of a reference, or benchmark, plan. Ms. Gehm said she remained a staunch supporter of the Affordable Care Act. She said her views of the 2010 health law were informed by personal experience. She was treated for breast cancer in 2011-12 and benefited from a special insurance program created by the law for people with pre-existing conditions. Two years before the law was enacted, she recalled, she sought insurance for herself and her son. He had Type 1 diabetes, she said, and the insurance company “said flat-out, ‘That’s an automatic denial.’” The law now forbids such discrimination. The White House says the cost of the subsidies is small compared with the overall savings of the health care law. Health costs are lower than expected, and “we should use some of that money, some of those savings to now provide more tax credits for more middle-income families,” Mr. Obama said in a recent speech in Miami. George C. Halvorson, a former chief executive of the Kaiser Permanente health plan, said the rate increases were a reflection of the problems insurers faced. The premium, he said, reflects the average cost of care for an insured population. “Every insurance company in the exchange has to figure out how to bring down that cost,” he said. “They can manage care better, pay less for each service or bring in a healthier population.” Dr. David T. Feinberg, the president and chief executive of the Geisinger Health System, in Pennsylvania, said, “We are going through bumpy waters, but I think the market is stabilizing.” The Pennsylvania insurance commissioner has just approved rate increases averaging slightly more than 40 percent for Geisinger’s health plan in 2017. State insurance regulators have reviewed and approved most of the big rate increases taking effect in January. Insurers submitted data showing that they had lost tens of millions of dollars in the exchanges because customers were sicker than expected and, in some cases, dropped their coverage after receiving expensive care. Many Democrats, including Mr. Obama and Hillary Clinton, who hopes to succeed him as president, want to increase subsidies to protect consumers against further increases in insurance costs. But some Democrats say that is not enough. “Subsidies and more taxpayer dollars are not the only answer,” said Jamie Court, the president of Consumer Watchdog, a liberal advocacy group. “Insurance companies that get more subsidies will just keep asking for more subsidies, without controlling costs.”

Tax Credits Tax Deductions Tax Exemptions


Blasts Kill at Least 12 Mourners at Funeral of Iraq Sunni Leader

Abstract: BAGHDAD — Three blasts struck mourners at a funeral in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least 12 people and wounding 42, security officials and medical workers said. The mourners in Diyala Province, northeast of Baghdad, were burying Mudher Shalal, a leader of the province’s Sunni Awakening movement, the units of fighters who were paid to switch sides and fight alongside the United States against Al Qaeda at the height of the war in Iraq. Mr. Shalal was killed by a bomb placed in his car on Saturday. Abu Kareem, one of the survivors of the attack on Sunday, said: “We were on our way to bury the martyr, while we were near the gate of the cemetery. Then there was a blast. I saw people who were carrying the coffin wounded on the ground, and the Iraqi flag that was covering the coffin was on fire.” Also on Sunday, in eastern Baghdad, unidentified gunmen stormed a house and killed five members of a Sunni family, including two women and two children. In western Baghdad, a roadside bomb exploded near a police patrol, killing three police officers and wounding six others. In Falluja, in the western province of Anbar, gunmen killed the leader of antigovernment protests by Sunnis in the city, Khalid al-Jumeili, and his driver.

Funerals
Iraq
Sunnis
Diyala Province
Awakening Movement
Bombs
Terrorism
Fatalities,casualties


Shadowy Rebel Wields Iron Fist in Ukraine Fight

Abstract: SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Late one afternoon last month, as separatist militia fighters and Ukrainian forces exchanged fire, a small-time thief by the name of Aleksei B. Pichko left his home on the southern edge of Slovyansk and headed for an abandoned residence at 17 Sadovaya Street. He had been drinking, and wanted to “see what could be stolen from there,” according to documents recovered at the rebel headquarters after their retreat over the weekend. Mr. Pichko, 30, never returned. An order signed and stamped by the rebels’ powerful commander, Igor Strelkov, detailed Mr. Pichko’s fate: death by firing squad for pilfering a pair of pants and two shirts. “They told me they took him to the S.B.U.,” said his mother, Maria Pichko, referring to the headquarters in this former separatist stronghold. “I don’t know anything more.” The death sentence makes reference to a Stalin-era Soviet law, and in it Mr. Strelkov warns ominously that crimes “committed in the zone of military activity will continue to be punished ruthlessly and decisively.” Mr. Strelkov, a native Muscovite whose real name is Igor Girkin, is a figure as mysterious as he is fearsome. On Thursday, he made his first public appearance after months of fighting, attending a news conference in the provincial capital of Donetsk alongside Alexander Borodai, another Russian citizen leading the uprising here. Having lost Slovyansk, Mr. Strelkov has moved to assert his authority over the fractious separatist militias that are gathering in Donetsk and Luhansk, the other major city in the rebellious east, rallying them for an urban war that would be both bloody and destructive — not to speak of suicidal, in the eyes of many analysts. “The enemy is putting Donetsk under siege,” Mr. Strelkov said, unsmiling, with his hands folded. “The situation overall is tense, but the militia are ready to defend Donetsk. They are counting on holding their positions on the edges of the city and on preventing the enemy from coming inside the city.” An ultranationalist and reactionary, Mr. Strelkov fits an increasingly familiar profile in Russia, one that has emerged strongly with the re-election of President Vladimir V. Putin. Messianic and militaristic, such figures combine a deep belief in Russia’s historic destiny with a contempt for the “decadent” West, while yearning for the re-establishment of a czarist empire. “Strelkov is almost a caricature of the Putin era,” said Mark Galeotti, an expert on the Russian security services at New York University. A former intelligence agent, Mr. Strelkov fought in the post-Soviet conflicts in Transnistria, Serbia and Chechnya. Yet his ideological rigidity precedes any connections he has to Russia’s security services, stretching back at least to his days at the Moscow State Institute for History and Archives. There, Mr. Strelkov obsessed over military history and joined a small but vocal group of students who advocated a return to monarchism. “This is a person who lives in the beginning of the 20th century,” said Aleksei Makarkin, who studied with Mr. Strelkov in college. “He was like this even back then.” Were it not for the Ukraine crisis, he might have followed his passions mostly in obscurity. But he joined in the Russian takeover of Crimea and after that moved on to eastern Ukraine — with or without authorization from Moscow — where he consolidated control over the rebel military wing by imposing a system of dark and ruthless justice. Kiev and its Western allies have said he is an active Russian agent , but they have offered no proof, and Mr. Strelkov has often seemed to follow his own counsel, rather than Moscow’s dictates. “When he moved into eastern Ukraine, I suspect, it was him taking his own initiative,” Mr. Galeotti said. “We saw him doing things that didn’t fit Russia’s direct game plan,” such as holding hostage for weeks military observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. With the Kremlin now talking about peace and ratcheting down the volume on its anti-Kiev propaganda, Mr. Strelkov may be facing a bleak future. He has been openly critical of Moscow for failing to provide more aid to the rebels, and has been criticized for it lately by Russian officials. But many analysts fear that Mr. Strelkov could go rogue, making it difficult even for the Kremlin to bring the warring parties in eastern Ukraine to the negotiating table. From the documents left behind in his headquarters, it is obvious that he ran his own iron-fisted show in Slovyansk. In the fetid basement of his headquarters in the local security services building, which served as a dungeon for some of his dozens of hostages, a ceramic bowl full of prison food remained, uneaten and curdled. Socks still hung to dry from wooden sticks wedged into the wall. A plastic bottle collected drippings from the ceiling — water the detainees likely used to wash themselves with a single shared bar of soap. Alongside Mr. Pichko’s file were documents detailing two other trials by “military-field tribunal,” which include handwritten witness statements addressed to Mr. Strelkov. In one case, a man accused of shining a flashlight to inform Ukrainian troops of rebel positions was acquitted. In another, however, Mr. Strelkov ordered the execution of two militiamen who allegedly kidnapped a local man and looted his home. In all three, Mr. Strelkov emerges as a man willing to take extreme measures. “They shot him for two shirts,” Ms. Pichko said on the dirt road outside her home, tears welling. “It’s not right.” As Mr. Strelkov spoke on Thursday, rebel forces were engaged in an assault at the Donetsk airport, where black smoke rose into the evening. A Ukrainian military spokesman said that the attack was repelled, but reported the deaths of three soldiers elsewhere in the east — one killed in an ambush outside Luhansk and two by a land mine in a village near Donetsk. And along the border with Russia, Ukrainian forces seized control of a crossing at Chervonopartyzansk, according to the presidential administration. Rebel leaders announced that they would be evacuating “tens of thousands” of people from certain neighborhoods of Donetsk in the coming days. Mr. Borodai declined to say which neighborhoods, but said the evacuations would be voluntary, and were necessary to prevent a “humanitarian catastrophe.” At the news conference, Mr. Strelkov appeared resolute, despite the Ukrainian military’s new momentum and the apparent change of strategy in the Kremlin. He revealed that he had indeed served in the Russian F.S.B., the successor to the K.G.B., up until March 31, 2013, but that he had left the service. Western governments say that he is controlled by Russia’s military intelligence service, the G.R.U. Either way, there can be little doubt that he relishes the battlefield, and that he will be highly reluctant to give it up. He wrote about his attachment to war in his memoirs of the fighting in Bosnia, published in 1999. “After the first euphoria — we’re alive! — came the sensation familiar to most professional fighters: the desire to risk it again, to live a ‘full’ life,” he wrote. “It’s the so-called ‘gunpowder poisoning syndrome.’ ”

Ukraine
Slovyansk
Military
Russia
Hostage
Igor Strelkov,Igor Girkin
Donetsk Ukraine
Terrorism


A Carriage Horse Dies After Bolting Onto a Sidewalk

Abstract: A carriage horse was killed near Central Park yesterday after it became startled by a loud noise and darted onto a sidewalk, where it became stuck between two poles and died as it tried to lunge forward, the police and witnesses said. The events began about 4:50 p.m. on Central Park South between Fifth Avenue and Avenue of the Americas, where several carriage horses were parked in a row. According to witnesses, a man walked past the horses while beating a small drum, which caused a brown horse that was hitched to a carriage to bolt onto the sidewalk, darting between two poles that were about two feet apart. The horse made it through but the carriage did not, and as the horse struggled to move forward, it collapsed and died, witnesses said. “It fell into a panic and then fell on the ground, kicking,” said Roger Watkins, who was walking by and tried to help. “He kept shaking and then went into shock and collapsed.” At the same time, a second horse ran into the street and leaped onto the hood of a passing Mercedes-Benz, witnesses said. That horse survived, and the passengers in the car, which was badly damaged, said they were not injured. “It ran across the hood, along with the carriage,” said Lakesha Heidelberg, 19, who was sitting in the passenger seat. “Then it stopped in the middle of the street. I was so shook up, you have no idea.” Carolyn Daly, a spokeswoman for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York, said the death of the first horse, a 12-year-old mare named Smoothie, was “devastating.” “This afternoon’s freak accident was overwhelming to all of us in the industry who so dearly love our horses,” she said. “The history of our industry is that we take great pride and tremendous care for our horses, which makes this incident all the more tragic.” The accident came only a week after the comptroller’s office criticized the city for the way it polices the carriage horse industry. An audit by the comptroller found that the city had permitted owners to maintain their horses in substandard conditions and that monitoring by the health department and other agencies was inadequate, leading to health hazards for horses and putting them at risk of injury. Last year, one horse that was pulling a Central Park carriage to a stable on the West Side became startled in traffic and darted into a car, injuring the carriage driver. The horse was later euthanized. It was among several accidents involving carriage horses in recent months. Victor Hernandez, 25, a pedi-cab driver who was near Central Park at the time of yesterday’s accident, said he heard a loud drumming sound and then saw the first horse run off. He said it was on the ground for about 45 minutes before it was taken away. “New York deserves to have horses and carriages, but these horses deserve a better life,” he said. “It’s romantic, sure, but they work too long and are tied up for too long. I think there’s a problem with how they’re treated in the city.”

Horses
Accidents and Safety
Central Park (NYC)
New York City
Animals
Cruelty to Animals


N.C.A.A. to Allow Family Travel Aid for Top Title Games

Abstract: COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio State Coach Urban Meyer reiterated a theme on Tuesday that he had sounded loudly after the Buckeyes secured a spot opposite Oregon in the first College Football Playoff title game, to be played Monday. Players’ families, he said, should not have to pay to travel to Arlington, Tex., to watch those players compete for a championship. The $800 stipend that Ohio State planned to offer its athletes’ families out of its student opportunity fund was not enough, Meyer argued. “My family couldn’t go there for $800,” he said at a news conference. Less than a half-hour later, in emails sent within minutes of each other, the Playoff announced that it had received an N.C.A.A. waiver allowing it to reimburse parents or legal guardians for travel, hotel and meals up to $1,250 per parent, and the N.C.A.A. announced that as part of that pilot program, it would also reimburse family members up to $3,000 for semifinals and $4,000 for the title game during the men’s and women’s Division I basketball tournaments. An Ohio State spokesman interrupted Meyer to tell him the news. “I’m really fired up over that,” Meyer told the large contingent of reporters who had gathered at Ohio State’s training center. “That just kind of made my day.” The move is the latest concession by the N.C.A.A. in its running dispute with critics who contend that football and basketball players competing at the highest levels of college athletics deserve a bigger share of the growing profits. In recent months, a series of changes has set the course for a reshaping of the relationship between universities and athletes. The high costs for families to attend championship games have long been an issue raised by those calling for more benefits for athletes. Aided by outside criticism; by high-profile lawsuits like the Ed O’Bannon case , which sought compensation for the use of college players’ images; and by a unionization drive among Northwestern football players, college athletes have steadily won more resources from their colleges, conferences and the N.C.A.A. Last year, the association removed limits on meals and approved substantial autonomy for the five major football conferences. At the annual N.C.A.A. convention this month, those conferences are expected to approve giving athletes the full cost of attendance — an amount several thousand dollars greater than a typical scholarship. Tuesday’s announcement was notable in that the N.C.A.A., confronted with a call for change, responded without consulting its membership and assumed costs to benefit players. “I think it’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Ramogi Huma, the president of the College Athletes Players Association. “I think you have Northwestern players and Ed O’Bannon to thank. There’s a lot of pressure on the system right now, and the result is some of the smarter people in N.C.A.A. sports are trying to make things a little better for the players.” After Ohio State and Oregon made it known that they wanted expenses reimbursed for their players’ families, the N.C.A.A. worked quickly to initiate the program, according to both the N.C.A.A. and Ohio State Athletic Director Gene Smith. “They heard our plea,” Smith said Tuesday. “They get it, and they were able to find a way.” Mark Lewis, the N.C.A.A.’s executive vice president for championships and alliances, said: “Parents, or family members, want to see their kids play. What we’re trying to do is find a way to help that.” In a statement, Oregon Athletic Director Rob Mullens thanked the organizations for “recognizing the importance of the families of student-athletes.” The university “will continue to support legislation that benefits student-athlete welfare and opportunities for parents to be a part of these special moments with their children.” What allowed the N.C.A.A. to authorize the pilot program without new legislation, Lewis said, was the fact that it will not involve individual universities reimbursing families. Rather, College Football Playoff L.L.C., which is owned by the 10 Football Bowl Subdivision conferences and Notre Dame, and the N.C.A.A. will write the checks. “That’s a distinction,” Lewis said, “because it’s not providing a competitive or recruiting advantage for any school.” It is up to the universities to verify which families are eligible for reimbursements, according to Smith. The N.C.A.A. estimated that covering the expenses for parents or guardians who travel to the men’s and women’s Final Four would cost $300,000 to $350,000. The N.C.A.A. is in the midst of a 14-year broadcast deal for the men’s tournament that is worth $10.8 billion. The playoff’s 12-year broadcast deal is worth $7.3 billion. The N.C.A.A. does not administer the championship in football’s top division, which is why the Playoff will reimburse families. “In essence, the organizer of the event is paying for it,” Lewis said. Smith credited the “shift to a more student-athlete welfare benefit culture” for paving the way for reform. The next step will be to pass legislation, which Ohio State and Oregon have pledged to introduce, to make the pilot program permanent. Such legislation would quite likely have to go through all of Division I’s roughly 350 members. But Smith said he would prefer that the legislation be passed by all the universities acting in concert. “Our position,” Smith said, “was to take this out of the schools and put it with the College Football Playoff to manage the money, take the money off the top, don’t have the money coming through the school, don’t have us writing anybody checks and getting trapped in our bureaucracy.” In the meantime, Lewis said, “the pilot program’s going to last until the membership tells us how long to do it — or not to do it.” Some universities with fewer resources have opposed giving athletes more benefits, citing financial constraints as well as the principle of amateurism. A few years ago, a controlling minority of Division I institutions narrowly defeated a proposal to allow a $2,000 stipend to athletes. In August, two of 18 presidents on the Division I board of directors, representing the Colonial Athletic Association and the Ivy League, opposed autonomy. Lewis said reimbursing families for travel expenses would not push big-time college athletics further toward professionalization. “People want to do better for student-athletes, and there’s money to do that,” he said. “So we want to do that — but within the collegiate model.”

Urban Meyer
College football
NCAA
College basketball


An Ill Mother Struggling to Pay the Rent Finds Help

Abstract: Connie Nelson is in love with the view from her 18th-floor balcony: The glittering towers and spires of Lower Manhattan have beckoned her each day for 20 years. “This is what made me take the apartment,” she said one evening as she gazed upon the distant skyline. But Ms. Nelson, 52, is not exactly basking in luxury. She lives in a federally subsidized high-rise complex in Brooklyn on the border of East New York and Canarsie, two struggling neighborhoods just blocks from where she grew up. One of nine siblings, she is a product of the area’s troubled schools, but her poise and reserve bear none of the marks of a turbulent childhood, a fact she attributes to solid parenting. “When I was a kid, I used to see other kids getting severely beaten by their parents,” she said. Her mother told her that such conduct was wrong. “It really did something to me,” Ms. Nelson said. “I never hit my kids.” Her father was a production manager in the fashion district, and her mother was a home health attendant, who, she said, taught her daughters “that we were to work — don’t go waiting on a man” for support. Ms. Nelson married after high school and balanced raising four children with clerical work. But her husband left after the birth of their youngest child, and hers were the only guiding hands left to instill values in her children. “I took my kids around the junkies and bums and told them what can happen if they go off course,” she said. “I told them, you have to be a plus in life and not a negative.” Her older daughter, also named Connie, 26, is studying business management but “she wants to be a doctor, a neonatal I.C.U. doctor,” Ms. Nelson said. Her other daughter, Karen, 16, is an honor-roll student at Williamsburg Charter High School, tackling a schedule filled with advanced-placement courses. Her son Craig, 36, is a police officer in Manhattan, and her other son, Kevin, 31, is a Marine who served 11 years as a communications specialist in Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq before returning to New York this year. “He used to call me and tell me he was living on a net 80 feet in the air,” Ms. Nelson said, describing how his unit made beds in the treetops during missions. “I’m glad he made it back safe. His whole platoon made it out. I couldn’t breathe, but I kept holding on to my faith.” Her eyes welled up with tears. “He doesn’t tell me much,” Ms. Nelson added. “He knows I’m sensitive.” Six years ago, she was on her way to the supermarket when she tripped on a crack in the street, fell, and dislocated two disks in her back. She embarked on a rigorous course of physical therapy and returned to her $9.25-an-hour job at the United States Open, where she worked in merchandise display. But one morning in 2009, Ms. Nelson awoke and could not move. The diagnosis was rheumatoid arthritis. She was also found to have essential tremor, a progressive neurological disorder marked by involuntary spasms. There is no cure, but the tremors can be soothed with medication. She could not return to work because of pain that radiates from her ankle to her hip, she said. In January, Ms. Nelson’s ex-husband was laid off, and a judge lowered his child support payments to $69 a week from $223, throwing her finances into dire straits. Her son Kevin helps with the phone bill, and Ms. Nelson receives $628 in Social Security disability benefits and $347 in food stamps each month, but that was not enough to cover her $461 rent and buy essentials. “I had to sell my TV so we could eat,” Ms. Nelson said quietly. Ms. Nelson was referred to Catholic Charities of Brooklyn and Queens , one of the seven agencies supported by The New York Times Neediest Cases Fund, and received a month’s rent from the fund. Soon after, she was able to get her rent lowered by $200, but is still struggling to provide for her younger daughter. Ms. Nelson misses working. But she has Mugzy, a 2-year-old Shih Tzu, who is therapeutic for her. “Right now, all I do is try to go outside and get some exercise because they told me to keep moving,” she said.

Catholic Charities
New York Times Neediest Cases Fund
Philanthropy
Brooklyn (NYC)


How to View Five Planets Aligning in a Celestial Spectacle

Abstract: Five planets paraded across the dawn sky early Wednesday in a rare celestial spectacle set to repeat every morning until late next month. Headlining the planetary performance are Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. It is the first time in more than a decade that the fab five are simultaneously visible to the naked eye, according to Jason Kendall, who is on the board of the Amateur Astronomers Association of New York . Admission to the daily show is free, though stargazers in the Northern Hemisphere should plan to get up about 45 minutes before sunrise to catch it. City dwellers can stay in their neighborhoods to watch, as long as they point their attention to the east, according to Mr. Kendall, who took his telescope to Inwood Hill Park in Manhattan around 4 a.m. Wednesday. Mr. Kendall said he immediately saw Jupiter, Mars and Saturn after looking into the crystal clear sky. Venus glowed as bright as an airplane against the darkness when it rose. Aided by his telescope, he also saw Jupiter’s moons and Saturn’s rings. “For Mercury you will need binoculars,” he said. “It will not jump out at you, but everybody should be able to see Venus and Jupiter.” NASA’s Next Horizon in Space Since New Horizons beamed back photos of Pluto, the question has loomed: What’s next? More than 1,600 Times readers shared their ideas. He said that Mercury, which was too low to see clearly, will most likely become more visible on Feb. 5 or 6 when it is at its greatest distance from the sun along the horizon. The hardest task for viewers is discerning the planets from stars twinkling in the sky. But Mr. Kendall offered a simple trick : close one eye, stretch out your arm and slowly pass your thumb over a bright dot in the sky. If the dot slowly dims out when your thumb passes over it, it’s a planet. If it quickly blinks out, it’s a distant star. The show was expected to run from Jan. 20 until Feb. 20, but the peak time to see all five is from the end of January until the first week of February, when Mercury is at its highest points, according to Sky & Telescope . The display is made possible by the uncommon alignment of all five planets along what is called the “ecliptic” plane of their orbits, according to Jim Green , the planetary science division director at NASA. Over five weeks, each planet will appear one by one across the sky of the Northern Hemisphere. As it did Wednesday morning, Jupiter will rise first, emerging sometime at night, while the other four planets will make their debuts in the wee hours of the morning. Mars rises second, then Saturn and then Venus — the brightest orb — followed finally by Mercury, which appears about an hour before sunrise. Each morning display will last until the sun comes up and makes it too bright to see the planets, typically around 7 a.m. It is possible to find specific times when each planet will rise on a given city’s horizon by checking The Old Farmer’s Almanac . “It’s not super-often you get to see them all at the same time in the sky, it’s like seeing all of your friends at once,” said Jackie Faherty , an astronomer from the American Museum of Natural History. “There they are, the other rocks or balls of gas that are running around the sun.” Those who miss the planetary alignment in the next few weeks will have another opportunity from Aug. 13 to 19, when the cosmic motley crew gives an encore performance, according to EarthSky.org. That show will take place in the dusk sky, giving stargazers in the Southern Hemisphere the best vantage points.

Planet
Venus
Mars
Saturn
Jupiter
Space
Mercury Planet


Ruggiero, U.S. Hockey Player, Has Road Map to Future

Abstract: VANCOUVER, British Columbia — How to live life after hockey is a question elite female hockey players must face a lot sooner than elite male players, given the absence of a professional women’s league. At 30, the four-time United States Olympian Angela Ruggiero is already preparing for it, even if some of the work she has done may come back to haunt her. Ruggiero has had several nonprofit jobs since graduating from Harvard in 2004. One of them was as a director of Project Hope, the cultural-exchange program run by Charles Wang , the Islanders’ owner, that fosters the growth of hockey in Heilongjiang , the icy province in northeastern China that provides the majority of that country’s winter athletes — including the Chinese women’s ice hockey team the Americans will face in their Winter Games opener on Sunday. “Linuo Wang, who’s their captain, I know well,” Ruggiero said Thursday. “I was speaking with her, and a couple of the girls actually I met when I went up to Qiqihar and Harbin with Project Hope.” China, which has only about 200 registered female players, is not expected to seriously challenge the Americans. Still, did Ruggiero think she had made her job harder by helping the Chinese? “For me, it’s really cool,” she said. “If China takes hold of hockey, they could be very good, especially because they have a cold-weather climate in the north. So if it takes off and the Chinese program succeeds, that’s great.” Such work seems to be the trajectory of Ruggiero’s career after hockey. She is one of nine candidates for two positions on the International Olympic Committee’s athletes commission. ( Miroslav Satan , a wing for the Boston Bruins and Slovakia, is another.) The result of the vote, for which all Olympic athletes are eligible, will be announced Feb. 24. Ruggiero’s main concern is winning a gold medal for the United States, preferably by beating Canada in the gold medal game here, just as Canada beat the United States in the 2002 final in Salt Lake City. “It’s a rivalry that never goes away,” she said. She holds a collection of honors, including being named the best female hockey player in the N.C.A.A. and the world; the top player on defense at four world championships and two Olympics; and, of course, gold medals in the 1998 Olympics, and the 2008 and 2009 world championships. Despite playing more games (246) in a United States uniform than any other woman or man, she said the Olympics “never get old.” But she has also carved out an impressive résumé alongside her playing career. She runs a summertime hockey school for girls, is a board member of the Women’s Sports Foundation and has worked for Right to Play, a humanitarian organization for children in impoverished areas of the world. “I think about my history and my education and all the nonprofits I’ve been a part of, and it has all fused together into something like the Olympic movement,” said Ruggiero, who received her undergraduate degree in government and needs five credits for a master’s degree in sports management at the University of Minnesota. “I have a passion for sports and getting boys and girls involved, and all the benefits that you get through sport.” She has seen her sport come a long way since 1998, the year of the first Olympic women’s hockey tournament. She said the current team was as good as that gold-medal-winning team, but different. “Then, we all came to the team after growing up playing on boys’ teams,” Ruggiero said. “This team has a lot more opportunities because of Title IX and because of women’s hockey in the Olympics and the N.C.A.A. Depth of the talent pool is much deeper because you have a lot more girls participating, for us and in other countries, and hopefully, that’ll continue to grow.” Ruggiero is one of four four-time Olympians on the team. The others are forwards Natalie Darwitz, the captain; Julie Chu; and Jenny Potter, at 31 the team’s oldest player and, with 3- and 8-year-old children, its only parent. Ruggiero said she would evaluate whether to continue playing after the Olympics, and did not want to “pull a Brett Favre” and waver on her decision. Noting that she almost retired after the Americans’ disappointing bronze medal in 2006, she said: “I found a new love for the game, and I’ve really enjoyed the last two years preparing and training with my team. It obviously helps when you win a couple of world championships along the way. “I know it’ll be a bit of a tough transition when I finally do hang up the skates, but I think I’m in a good position when it finally does happen.”

Project Hope
China
Olympic Games (2010)
Hockey Ice
Ruggiero Angela
Women and Girls
Awards Decorations and Honors
Wang Charles B


China Assails Nobel Peace Prize as ‘Card’ of West

Abstract: BEIJING — Accelerating its assault on the award of the Nobel Peace Prize to the Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo , China denounced the prize on Friday as a political tool of the West, and an official warned that countries acknowledging the honor would “bear the consequences.” A commentary in the principal party newspaper People’s Daily suggested that Mr. Liu’s award was a plot by the United States and other Western democracies that “fear the rise of China” and seek to subvert its political system. Vice Foreign Minister Cui Tiankai reinforced that critique, calling the prize a “highly politicized event” and telling foreign countries they had a stark choice between challenging China’s judicial system and developing friendly relations with Beijing , The Associated Press reported. China’s Communist hierarchy has bitterly criticized the award since its announcement nearly a month ago, calling Mr. Liu a criminal and asserting that giving him the award demeans the prize. Mr. Liu, an author and intellectual who issued a call for democratic reforms in China in late 2008, received an 11-year prison sentence this year for seeking to subvert Communist rule. His wife Liu Xia, under house arrest in Beijing, has invited scores of supporters to attend next month’s Nobel ceremony, but few believe the government will allow them or her to attend. The actions on Friday came on the heels of reports that China had pressured European nations in written démarches to boycott the Nobel ceremony next month in Oslo and to refrain from congratulating Mr. Liu on the award. China’s vigorous reaction to the award has been viewed by many outsiders as an effort to wield its newfound economic muscle to assert its political interests worldwide. The commentary published Friday said the award was a Western plot modeled on the Nobel prizes awarded to two figures who “spearheaded” the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The peace prize was given in 1975 to Andrei Sakharov , the leading Soviet dissident at the time, and in 1990 to Mikhail S. Gorbachev , the Communist leader whose efforts to reform the Soviet political model helped bring about its collapse. Those awards exposed the peace prize as “a political card played by the United States and some European countries” to weaken regimes that do not meet their standards, the article said. “Now, it has nothing to do with peace, and even runs in the opposite direction,” it said. “It is openly subversive under the name of the people.” The article argued that the only two Nobel peace prize recipients linked to China — Mr. Liu and the Dalai Lama , the Tibetan religious leader — seek to undermine the country’s established order. “Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to Liu Xiaobo once again reflects the strong attempts of Western countries to intervene in the political process in China,” the commentary stated. “It is a well-planned event, premeditated and long organized by Western countries, and is part of a series of actions by the U.S., its allies and companies to undermine China.” The article was signed Guo Shu, but it was not clear whether that was the real name of the author or, as if often the case, a pseudonym for a work written by a party committee. In China’s second attack on the prize on Friday, Mr. Cui, the vice foreign minister, issued a veiled threat to countries that recognize the award. “What image do they want to leave for the ordinary Chinese people?” he asked reporters, according to The A.P. “The choice is out there, and it will be their own judgment to make their choice. “If they make a wrong choice, they have to bear the consequences.” He did not elaborate on the consequences. The A.P. also reported Friday that a number of European nations had acknowledged receiving China’s appeal to boycott the Nobel ceremony in Oslo next month, but those nations nevertheless plan to send their diplomats.


Effects of Spill Spread as Tar Balls Are Found

Abstract: NEW ORLEANS — All along the Gulf Coast for the past two months, the threat of oil hitting shore has kept communities on edge. But the sight of oil on a Texas beach and at the passes leading into Lake Pontchartrain over the weekend has reinforced what many already suspected: nowhere along the coast may be left unstained by this huge spill. While the tar balls discovered in Texas appear to have been an anomaly, the tar balls in Lake Pontchartrain, a brackish body of water that is technically an estuary of the Gulf of Mexico, are another sign of the oil’s steady encroachment into inland Louisiana waters. Houses, marinas, restaurants and businesses line the lake, as does much of New Orleans. Local officials, including the mayor of New Orleans, had already taken measures like setting up barges to block the passes. Kevin Davis, the president of St. Tammany Parish, which lies along much of the north shore of the lake, has compared the wait for the oil to the “Jaws” music signaling a coming attack. Strong easterly winds, which are expected to continue, most likely pushed the tar balls in from the Mississippi Sound, bypassing the barges, said Anne Rheams, the executive director of the Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation. Once the small, heavily weathered tar balls came, crews went to work, gathering roughly 1,700 pounds of oily waste. But the fear has not dissipated. “When you look at the trajectories and you look at the wind patterns, we know that more of it will be moving in,” Ms. Rheams said. In Texas, the discovery of tar balls on beaches around Galveston was the first reports of oil on the state’s coast since the spill began. And with confirmation that the tar balls were from the BP spill, Texas joined every other Gulf Coast state in facing the spill’s impact. But at a news conference on Tuesday, Jerry Patterson, the Texas land commissioner, said the tar balls were only slightly weathered, suggesting that the oil had not drifted so far on its own. It is possible that the oil had leaked from a ship involved in the cleanup, he said, as some of the oil-water mix collected during the response operation is being taken to a processing company near Galveston. The Coast Guard is still conducting tests. For now, many people who live and work along the Texas coast say they are not in a panic, adding that tar balls wash up all the time. But that does not mean they think this will be the end of it. “I figure they’ve got their head buried in the sand if they don’t think we’re going to get it over here,” said Carol Dickerson, who works at Blue Water Bait Camp in Crystal Beach, Tex. “There’s just too much oil, and I know that we’re going to get it eventually.” The worries in New Orleans are more immediate. Since the spill began, the city has been in a difficult situation. It has become the headquarters for the area command and is frequently the backdrop for news reports. But the city has constantly had to give geography refreshers to hesitant tourists, reminding them that New Orleans has no beachfront and is a two-hour drive from the state’s southern coast, where most of the oil has washed up. Those messages are now more complicated. “The situation changes a little bit now that tar balls have hit the lake,” said Kelly Schulz, a vice president of the New Orleans Convention and Visitors Bureau. “We’re working on that as we speak.” The counterclockwise currents in Lake Pontchartrain suggest that if oil did enter in heavier concentrations, it would travel along the lake’s northern coast, which is heavily populated in some areas, before coming back around to New Orleans, Ms. Rheams said. Most of the lake, which is becoming a last refuge for the area’s hurting fishermen, remains open to fishing. But Greg Henry, who runs a charter boat company in New Orleans, said he was forced to put an end to his fishing trips in nearby Lake Borgne. He said he was going to have to stick to party cruises, at least as long as the water stayed clean. “I just don’t want to start doing tours of oil,” Mr. Henry said. “That’s not something I want to show people.”

Texas
Gulf of Mexico
Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
New Orleans (La)
Offshore Drilling and Exploration
BP Plc
Accidents and Safety


British Premier Against Lifting of Sanctions on Myanmar

Abstract: BANGKOK — In the first visit of a British prime minister to Myanmar in decades, David Cameron said Friday that he supported a suspension — but not a lifting — of European Union sanctions against the country, a nuanced position that received the support of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi , the democracy activist who recently won election to public office. Mr. Cameron also said he would oppose a lifting of the European arms embargo on Myanmar. Mr. Cameron met with both Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi and President Thein Sein , who is leading the country’s ambitious reform process after decades of military rule. The British leader’s cautious, carrot-and-stick approach to lifting the sanctions appeared to reflect the perceived fragility of the reforms and the threat of hard-line elements in the country rolling them back. Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi said at a news conference with Mr. Cameron that suspending sanctions instead of outright rescinding them would “make it quite clear to those who are against reform that should they try to obstruct the way of the reformers, then sanctions could come back.” Suspending the sanctions also preserves significant leverage for Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi in dealing with the government; she is regularly consulted by Western nations before decisions on sanctions are taken. The European Union is scheduled to take up the issue of sanctions on April 23, the same day that Ms. Aung San Suu Kyi is scheduled to take a seat in Myanmar’s Parliament. The United States has adopted a similar approach in response to the reforms of Mr. Thein Sein, a former general who became president a year ago. The Obama administration has waived but not rescinded a number of punitive measures, including travel bans on the nation’s leadership. The United States still maintains a complex web of sanctions against Myanmar, including restrictions on trade and investment, part of a raft of punitive economic measures imposed during successive crackdowns on democratic forces by the previous military junta. Even after the United States government waives some of those measures, many multinational companies will probably wait before re-entering Myanmar, said Priscilla A. Clapp, a former chief of mission at the United States Embassy in Myanmar. “Companies aren’t going to be willing to make an investment on the basis of waived sanctions,” she said, calling the situation “still very fragile.”

Myanmar
European Union
Aung San Suu Kyi
Thein Sein
Cameron David
Embargoes and Economic Sanctions
Politics and Government
Europe
Great Britain