Queens Democratic Party Is Expected to Dump Monserrate

Abstract: With statewide elections a year away, the Queens Democratic Party will take the unusual step on Thursday of announcing its support for a primary challenger to embattled State Senator Hiram Monserrate , who was convicted of a misdemeanor assault charge two weeks ago. José R. Peralta, 37, an assemblyman from Jackson Heights who is considered one of the party’s rising stars, said he would announce his decision to run for the seat whether or not Mr. Monserrate, a fellow Democrat, resigned or was expelled. And Mr. Peralta will enjoy the backing of the Queens Democratic Party, whose leader, Representative Joseph Crowley, said he would unveil his endorsement during the party’s pre-election dinner. It is extremely rare for a party to seek to unseat one of its own incumbents, even those dogged by scandal. Mr. Crowley’s move against Mr. Monserrate — the political equivalent of an excommunication — reflects the growing frustration among many Democratic officials with Mr. Monserrate, who has rebuffed calls that he resign. “I’ve had enough,” Mr. Crowley said in an interview about his decision. “And it’s not just me. I think the community has had enough. José Peralta has considerable support within this district and is an accomplished member of the Assembly.” Mr. Monserrate was acquitted this month of felony charges after being accused of slashing the face of his companion, Karla Giraldo, but he was convicted of misdemeanor assault for dragging her through the lobby of his apartment building. A Senate committee is to begin its own inquiry later this year, which could result in a vote to expel Mr. Monserrate from the Senate. In that case, there would be a special election within a few months to fill his seat. But Mr. Crowley said he and other local party officials wanted to preemptively unify the party around Mr. Peralta, who has close ties to labor groups and whose Assembly district sits within Mr. Monserrate’s Senate district. In a meeting on Monday evening, the party’s executive committee in Queens voted overwhelmingly in favor of a resolution asking Mr. Monserrate to resign both his Senate seat and his position as a Democratic district leader in the borough. The party’s abandonment of Mr. Monserrate will make it much harder for him to raise money, gain endorsements and gather petitions to get on the ballot next fall. Mr. Monserrate reported having about $93,000 in campaign cash in his most recent campaign filing. Mr. Peralta reported about $10,000 at the time, but says he now has commitments from donors totaling at least $200,000 for a Senate run. In an interview, Mr. Peralta said that Mr. Monserrate’s legal and other troubles had made it impossible for him to serve the district effectively. “I get calls in my office from people who are angry that he is representing us,” said Mr. Peralta, who was first elected in 2002. “You need someone who is focused on the district and not focused on legal issues or soap opera issues.” Mr. Monserrate declined to comment through a spokesman. Though the Queens Democratic Party is among the most tightly disciplined county organizations in the state, Mr. Crowley’s backing does not spell automatic victory for Mr. Peralta. Other candidates have successfully challenged the organization’s preferred candidates, while Mr. Monserrate has the advantages of incumbency and a reputation for assiduous constituent service in his district, which stretches from La Guardia Airport to the Long Island Expressway and is one of the most ethnically diverse in the state. Indeed, it was largely to placate the district’s large and growing Latino population that Mr. Crowley last year nudged out John D. Sabini, the Democrat who had represented the district, clearing the way for Mr. Monserrate. In backing Mr. Peralta, who is of Dominican descent, Mr. Crowley will help ensure that the seat remains held by a Latino. Still, some Democratic officials are standing by Mr. Monserrate, including State Senator Rubén Díaz Sr. of the Bronx and Martha Flores-Vazquez, a Queens district leader. In a statement this week, Ms. Flores-Vazquez noted that the party had stood by other officials accused or convicted of wrongdoing, and accused Democrats of employing a “racist double standard.” Beyond Queens Democrats, Mr. Peralta is also likely to have the support of groups like the National Organization for Women and Naral Pro-Choice New York , an abortion rights organization. Naral’s president, Kelli Conlin, has been among those calling for Mr. Monserrate’s resignation. In an interview, she said the organization was poised to raise money and solicit grass-roots volunteers for Mr. Peralta. “We’re extremely proud of the Queens Democratic Party for standing up for women’s rights and women’s health,” Ms. Conlin said. “It is an important measure of Joe Crowley’s leadership. And we have no doubt that José Peralta is exactly the kind of person to lead this district forward.” Mr. Crowley also made clear that he and other Queens Democrats have not forgotten about Mr. Monserrate’s participation in a coup against Senate Democrats in June. The coup failed, but it cost State Senator Malcolm A. Smith of Queens his post as majority leader. (Mr. Smith remains the Senate president.) “Let’s not forget that the leader of the Senate before that coup was a member from Queens County,” Mr. Crowley said. “How did that help Queens?”

Democratic Party
Monserrate Hiram
Peralta José R
Queens (NYC)
Jackson Heights (NYC)
State Legislatures
New York State


Where the Sand Is Hot, and the Rubber Is Burning

Abstract: AVENAL, Calif. — When drag racing in sand, to wait for the green light is to lose. A light fixture separates two lanes of sand, each 100 yards long, clumped and stained with rubber and exhaust. A row of yellow bulbs shines, then another: On your marks. Less than a second passes, the exact duration unpredictable. Then an orange light flashes: Get set. This is the crucial moment of acceleration. In another four-hundredths of a second the green light will signal go, the front end of the dragster in the next lane will rise up like a taunted beast and an awful lot of dirty sand will color the sky. Two and a half seconds later the race will be over, parachutes will deploy and the drivers will take their finely tuned machines cat-tailing across the barren landscape in an effort to slow from velocities greater than 160 miles an hour. Anticipatory timing rules sand drag racing, the trying and treacherous country cousin of the motor sports family. In the high deserts of the American West, where the racing surface moves under the tires, the sand circuit has come to function as an unofficial minor league to the professionally financed asphalt drag racing of the National Hot Rod Association. But the sport, developed in dry riverbeds, has long resisted formal organization. Last year, an outfit called the National Sand Drag Association abandoned its arrangement to race on the reservation of the Soboba Band of Luiseno Indians after a series of gunfights between tribe members and sheriff’s deputies. This year, efforts to schedule races near San Jacinto, Calif., led to a dispute with conservation groups. One weekend in May, the search for isolation led promoters to the outskirts of this prison town about 60 miles southwest of Fresno. Too far from the interstate to qualify as a truck stop, Avenal lost the business of official race headquarters to a Super 8 several miles down the road. At the motel, seemingly constructed entirely of plaster, including the beds, the racers shouted encouragement at the end of a Friday of preliminary rounds. “You were great out there,” someone called across the parking lot. Twelve more hours of preliminary rounds started the next morning. Admission to the bleachers, delivered in the form of orange wristbands the organizers had purchased in bulk at Price Chopper, was offered for $10. But in strict numerical terms, the competition barely even qualified as a spectator sport. A few hundred onlookers found themselves pretty evenly matched by drivers who turned out to race Jeeps, quads, dune buggies, sand rails, motorcycles, pickup trucks and even a snowmobile. Some of the vehicles had been highly modified; others appeared to have been used all week to drop the kids off at school. Two by two, the drivers took turns tearing up the sand in prelude to the appearance of the Top Fuel cars, comically phallic custom-made dragsters that measure about 24 feet in length, run on nitromethane and deliver 6,000 horsepower. A cartoon superhero would not look out of place driving one across the sky. The chassis alone cost $50,000. Prohibitively expensive for weekend hobbyists, Top Fuel cars are the conveyance of choice for aspiring professionals. “It’s kind of gotten out of hand,” said Amos Satterlee, 79, a racing hand known around the circuit as Famous Amos. “It’s gotten so big, so expensive that unless you’ve got a big sponsor, you’re in trouble.” The reigning master of the previously described feat of timing is Geoff Gill, 20, a community college dropout from Visalia, Calif., who works for his father’s construction company. Gill’s still-cracking voice belies big ambitions. He carries his handwritten racing biography on loose-leaf paper. It says he put together a deal to drive a Top Fuel car last year, after a single season racing a Jeep. Gill found his patron in Joe Bettencourt, 50, an accomplished driver who holds down a day job at a Toyota dealership while serving as crew chief. Bettencourt was ready to step out of the driver’s seat. On racing team gear, he had Gill’s name printed above his own. “He’s a natural, man,” Bettencourt said. “Out of all the racing I’ve been around in my life, he’s probably one of the top 10 natural drivers I’ve ever seen, like somebody that can pick up a baseball and throw it 95 miles an hour.” In February, Gill set a new record of 2.284 seconds during the early rounds of an event near Yuma, Ariz. But he lost that event to Scott Whipple, 42, a veteran driver who has won dozens of Top Fuel races. Through his pet food company, Whipple sponsors several racing teams, including his own. He had held the speed record until Gill took it away. “I don’t own it now,” Whipple said, “but I will get it back.” The desert air was clear and windless. The temperature surpassed 90 degrees before 10 a.m. Gill drove a golf cart past Whipple’s tent, where he was greeted with a pair of outstretched fingers: You’re No. 2. “That’s Scott Whipple,” Gill said. “He’s got more money than God.” Both teams considered the conditions favorable for a new record. As the loudspeakers played a soundtrack heavy on ZZ Top, amateur cars with names like the Humbler, the Drag’n Lady and the Assassinator plied the sand. Beside a trailer stocked with every conceivable sort of wrench, Bettencourt led his crew through a series of engine firings. It made a fearsome noise, the sound of gears at war. The mechanics wore gas masks. They leaned over the silver dragster like surgical aides. In the downtime Gill’s mother polished the hull. Somebody told Gill to get some rest. “I didn’t sleep last night,” Gill said. “I don’t know if it’s anxiety or what. After races I just don’t sleep.” Gill dressed for the race in an 18-pound fire suit. On his helmet an American flag was painted beside the legend, “Cowboy Up.” Bettencourt lighted a cigarette and addressed the crew. He was expecting tough competition from Whipple. “He’s on kill right now,” Bettencourt said. “He’s not happy we took the world record.” Up in the bleachers the spectators looked dazed from the heat. They stirred to watch the Top Fuel cars take their places. By the end of the weekend the record would be safe, Gill would win the contest by a hundredth of a second and the racing would be done for the summer.

Drag Racing
Automobile Racing
National Hot Rod Assn


G.O.P. Recruits Street People to Run on Green Ticket in Arizona

Abstract: TEMPE, Ariz. — Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk. Mr. Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission , which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick. Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates. “These are people who are not serious and who were recruited as part of a cynical manipulation of the process,” said Paul Eckstein, a lawyer representing the Democrats. “They don’t know Green from red.” But Steve May, the Republican operative who signed up some of the candidates along Mill Avenue, a bohemian commercial strip next to Arizona State University, insists that a real political movement has been stirred up that has nothing to do with subterfuge. “Did I recruit candidates? Yes,” said Mr. May, who is himself a candidate for the State Legislature, on the Republican ticket. “Are they fake candidates? No way.” To make his point, Mr. May went by Starbucks, the gathering spot of the Mill Rats, as the frequenters of Mill Avenue are known. “Are you fake, Benjamin?” he yelled out to Mr. Pearcy, who cried out “No,” with an expletive attached. “Are you fake, Thomas?” Mr. May shouted in the direction of Thomas Meadows, 27, a tarot card reader with less than a dollar to his name who is running for state treasurer. He similarly disagreed. “Are you fake, Grandpa?” he said to Anthony Goshorn, 53, a candidate for the State Senate whose bushy white beard and paternal manner have earned him that nickname on the streets. “I’m real,” he replied. Gathered around was a motley crew of people who were down on their luck, including a one-armed pregnant woman named Roxie whom Mr. May befriended sometime back and who introduced him to the rest. The Democratic Party is fuming over Mr. May’s tactics and those of at least two other Republicans who helped recruit candidates to the Green Party, which does not have the resources to put candidates on ballots around the state and thus creates the opportunity for write-in contenders like the Mill Rats to easily win primaries and get their names on the ballot for November. Complaints about spurious candidates have cropped up often before, though never involving an entire roster of candidates drawn from a group of street people. “It’s unbelievable. It’s not right. It’s deceitful,” said Jackie Thrasher, a former Democratic legislator in northwest Phoenix who lost re-election in 2008 after a Green Party candidate with possible links to the Republicans joined the race. “If these candidates were interested in the democratic process, they should connect with the party they are interested in. What’s happening here just doesn’t wash. It doesn’t pass the smell test.” Arizona, where Democrats, Republicans and independents each represent about a third of the populace, is known for its political hardball. Challenging nominating petitions is common. Election-related lawsuits are filed with regularity. This is not the first election in which a party has accused another of putting forth candidates to hoodwink voters. Besides the Mill Rat candidates, the Democrats smell a rat in other races, including one in which a roommate of a Republican legislator’s daughter ran as a Green Party candidate in a competitive contest for the State Senate. They cite a variety of state and federal election laws that the Republicans may have violated in putting forward “sham” candidates for the Green Party. The view, though, is different along Mill Avenue, where the first-time candidates appear to have been emboldened by the exercise, as Mr. Pearcy’s street corner campaign speech last Thursday night attests. Dressed up spiffily, he described himself as the illegitimate son of a stripper who had had run-ins with the law and a tough childhood but who had pulled his life together. “I’ve been homeless,” he said, his eyes darting back and forth. “I got a place. Anyone can do it. We’re all good enough.” There was nodding all around, more than when he went into his pitch to solve the budget deficit through the installation of solar panels. As Mr. Pearcy went on, Mr. May whispered “focus, focus, focus” into his ear to get him back on track and help prepare him for a debate in early October, which will be televised across the state. Reading tarot cards has taught Mr. Meadows, who is known for his purple and green jester hat, to talk a good game. “This is not the land of the free,” he told the loungers on the sidewalk, pitching himself for treasurer. “It’s the land of what’s for sale.” Grandpa, widely known in the area through the pedicab he drives for hire, is against higher taxes and for God in the classroom. The other night, he was supposed to debate his Democratic and Republican rivals in the race but after seeing only the Democrat on stage, he decided to watch from the back. “I got a bad vibe,” he said. Mr. May, who served as a Republican legislator from 1998 to 2002, said, “Even if I wanted to control these guys, they’re uncontrollable.”

Arizona
Green Party
Elections
Republican Party
Homeless Persons


Using Innovative Storytelling to Illuminate the World

Abstract: The digital revolution has upended the economics of news, creating challenges for publishers around the world. But this new era also offers the potential for substantially better journalism. Today, we can track down information that was once all but hidden, and we can tell stories in ways that we couldn’t just a few years ago. As a result, The New York Times is producing a stronger news report. This week, The Times is celebrating a milestone in our digital evolution : We recently passed one million digital-only subscribers. With this support from our readers, we are creating vibrant forms of storytelling that are digitally native on any platform or device. The Times’s newsroom is full of developers, designers and others with deep visual and technical skill. They work side by side with reporters and editors. Consider how we cover the Olympics. Last year, when we profiled the American skier Ted Ligety, we did not rely on just text and photographs. We put together an interactive graphic that brought readers onto the slopes to explain his approach to the giant slalom, turn by breathtaking turn. After Ligety won the gold medal, he was repeatedly asked how he did it. He responded by directing people to look at The New York Times. You can find similar examples every week. A series of map projects, each regularly updated, has allowed for dynamic coverage of stories that range from local prison escapes to the rise of ISIS , from the recent advance of the Taliban in Afghanistan to Russian airstrikes in Syria . An online calculator that lets people compare the costs of renting and buying a home has been used millions of times. A review of a major new museum, the Whitney, became a kind of living article , with multimedia that took readers inside and outside. All of these projects illuminate the world — and none existed in the 20th century. They don’t use technology for the sake of technology or merely to make our journalism look more appealing. They use technology to solve problems. The Internet isn’t a magical machine that automatically creates good journalism. Only journalists can do that. But all of the questions about the future of journalism, legitimate as many are, have obscured the good news. When we do our jobs right, we are able to produce an even better version of The New York Times than our predecessors could.

The New York Times
News media,journalism
Newspaper


U.S. May Have Way to Cover Bills After Deadline, for Week

Abstract: WASHINGTON — It turns out the federal government is sitting on some extra cash. Thanks to an inflow of tax payments and maneuvering by the Treasury Department , the government can probably continue to pay all of its bills for several days after Aug. 2, providing potentially critical breathing room for Congress to raise the debt ceiling , according to estimates by several Wall Street banks and a Washington research organization. The consensus is that the government will not run short of money until Aug. 10, when it would be unable to cut millions of Social Security checks without borrowing more money. President Obama has described Aug. 2 as a “hard deadline” for Congress to increase the maximum amount that the government is allowed to borrow. “We have to do it by next Tuesday, Aug. 2, or else we won’t be able to pay all of our bills,” Mr. Obama told the nation in his speech on Monday night. Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, restated that position on Tuesday. “That’s not a guess. That’s not a political opinion,” Mr. Carney said. “It is the judgment of career analysts at the Treasury Department. We give up our borrowing authority without action by Congress. And the result of that risks default for the United States for the first time in our history.” That description, however, conflates two distinct events. The government will exhaust its ability to borrow more money on Aug. 2, which is equivalent to maxing out a credit card. But there still will be cash in the federal wallet. Some Republicans have expressed skepticism about the Aug. 2 deadline, describing it as an artificial line drawn by the Obama administration for political reasons. Analysts emphasize, however, that the deadline is real; it’s just the date that is inexact. “Should policy makers wait till Aug. 10 to come to an agreement? If they can agree sooner, absolutely not. There are no definites in this case,” analysts for Barclays Capital wrote in a note to clients entitled “Is August 2 really ‘August 2’?” Analysts also said that all of the estimates, including those from Treasury, were necessarily inexact, because they relied on variables like incoming tax payments. That means each passing day without a deal increases the risk that money will run out. “This is more like predicting the weather than predicting the sunrise,” said Jay Powell of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a nonprofit in Washington that has analyzed the issue. There are other risks in waiting. The Treasury must continue to repay debts as they come due, then borrow the same amounts anew. Officials are concerned that it will become harder to find investors for United States government securities, and that remaining buyers will demand higher interest rates. The Treasury plans to auction about $87 billion in short-term securities next Monday and Tuesday. The following week it plans to hold a much larger auction of long-term debt. All told, the government plans to borrow almost $500 billion in August. If interest rates climb by even a tenth of a percentage point, the annual cost would rise by $500 million.


Jets Won’t Bring Back Quarterbacks Coach

Abstract: Mark Sanchez — or whoever quarterbacks the Jets next season — will be working with a different position coach next season. The Jets opted not to retain Matt Cavanaugh, whose departure is the first of what will probably be an overhaul of the coaching staff. As the embattled offensive coordinator Tony Sparano remained in limbo, Cavanaugh learned his fate on Monday, when coaches returned from a weeklong break. Cavanaugh was almost fired after last season, when the Jets interviewed potential replacements. He survived that, but not another poor season by Sanchez, who committed 26 turnovers and was benched twice. Sanchez’s 52 turnovers over the last two seasons are the most in the N.F.L. Cavanaugh’s dismissal allows the Jets to hire someone who can help reshape their passing game, a weakness under Sparano, whom the team is considering firing after he oversaw the league’s 30th-ranked offense. Cavanaugh, 56, was known among the Jets’ quarterbacks for his attention to detail and his dry, sarcastic sense of humor. Although he was fiercely protective of Sanchez, Cavanaugh, who rarely gave interviews, spoke more candidly about Sanchez’s shortcomings than Coach Rex Ryan and Sparano. Cavanaugh arrived in 2009, leaving the offensive coordinator’s post at his alma mater, Pitt, to join Ryan, who worked with him in Baltimore. The defensive coordinator Mike Pettine, another member of Ryan’s original staff, may also not return in 2013. He rejected a contract extension earlier in the season, and he is a candidate for the same job in Buffalo. REID TAKES OVER CHIEFS Andy Reid was introduced as the new coach of the Kansas City Chiefs on Monday, one week after he was fired following 14 mostly successful seasons in Philadelphia. Reid, 54, takes over for Romeo Crennel, who went 2-14 in his first full season as coach, the worst season in the Chiefs’ 53-year history. Crennel was fired last Monday, the same day Reid was dismissed after an Eagles tenure that included 130 wins, six division titles and an appearance in the Super Bowl. “Sometimes change is good,” said Reid, who coached the Eagles to a 4-12 record this season, dragging down his career record of 130-93-1. “It could be tremendous for the Philadelphia Eagles, and at the same time, I think it’s going to be tremendous for the Kansas City Chiefs,” Reid said. (AP) SYRACUSE COACH TO BUFFALO Doug Marrone is the Buffalo Bills’ new coach. Hired after going 25-25 in four seasons at Syracuse, Marrone, a 48-year-old from the Bronx, takes over a week after Chan Gailey was fired following three consecutive losing seasons. Marrone becomes the Bills’ fifth coach in 12 years. Buffalo’s 13-season playoff drought is the N.F.L.’s longest active streak, and the team has not had a winning record since 2004. “I had said that the Syracuse job was my dream job, and I meant what I said,” Marrone said. “Today, I’m experiencing another dream come true,” he added. “I’ve chosen to be here. I can’t tell you how excited I am.” (AP) COLTS’ ARIANS OUT OF HOSPITAL The Colts’ offensive coordinator, Bruce Arians, returned to Indianapolis after being released from a Baltimore hospital following a 36-hour stay for an undisclosed illness. The team’s owner, Jim Irsay, told The Associated Press in a text message that Arians was accompanied by two team doctors, had been medicated and appeared to be on the mend. “He was in good spirits” and was trending in the “right direction,” Irsay wrote. Arians was admitted to the hospital Sunday morning after complaining he felt ill at the team breakfast before its 24-9 season-ending loss to the Ravens. (AP) EAGLES TO INTERVIEW A GRUDEN The Philadelphia Eagles received permission to interview the Cincinnati offensive coordinator Jay Gruden for their coaching vacancy. Gruden, the younger brother of the former Tampa Bay Buccaneers and Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden, just finished his second season with the Bengals. (AP)

Coaches
Matt Cavanaugh
Andy Reid
Kansas City Chiefs
Football


Tom Brady Suspension Appeal Runs for 10 Hours

Abstract: After being suspended by the N.F.L. for four games in the aftermath of the deflation of footballs in last season’s A.F.C. championship game, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady has appealed. Some questions and answers about the case: What’s the Latest? Brady’s appeal took place on Tuesday at N.F.L. headquarters on Park Avenue in New York. The hearing, closed to the public and news media, took more than 10 hours. “I think we put in a very compelling case,” Brady’s lawyer, Jeffrey L. Kessler, told The Associated Press afterward. Other principals were not available for comment. Who Is Involved? Despite the objections of the players’ union , the man hearing the appeal was Commissioner Roger Goodell, who authorized the suspension. Goodell has said that he has the right to hear appeals involving “conduct detrimental to the integrity of the game.” Brady was represented by Kessler , who has represented the suspended players Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson. Kessler has also been involved in an antitrust lawsuit against the N.C.A.A. that seeks to gain better compensation for athletes. What’s at Stake? The lawyer Ted Wells produced an N.F.L.-financed report on the case, which found that Brady probably knew about a scheme by team personnel to deflate game balls. Brady is looking to have his resulting four-game suspension overturned or reduced. If he does not succeed, he will miss the first four games of the regular season, and New England will probably have to start the untested backup Jimmy Garoppolo . The Patriots were also penalized with a $1 million fine and the loss of two draft picks. The team owner Robert K. Kraft elected not to appeal, saying, “I’m going to accept reluctantly what he has given to us and not continue this dialogue and rhetoric.” What Are the Issues? At the closed hearing, Brady and his lawyers were expected to dispute the findings of the Wells report and argue that the science of measuring the air pressure in the footballs was flawed. A recent report by the American Enterprise Institute called into question some of the findings by Wells. Brady was also expected to argue that his penalty was too severe in comparison with others handed out by the league. The players’ union has said that the league executive Troy Vincent, who signed the letter handing down the punishment, did not have the power to do so under the collective bargaining agreement. What’s Next? After the hearing, the N.F.L. gave no indication of how long it might take to rule. A lawsuit is a possibility if Brady is not satisfied with the outcome. Taking sports suspension cases to federal court is unusual, but it can be successful. In February, a federal judge overturned the suspension of Peterson, the Vikings running back who was disciplined for hitting his 4-year-old son with a switch. Peterson was reinstated in April.


Top American Pair Splits

Abstract: The two-time United States pairs champions Marissa Castelli and Simon Shnapir, who finished ninth at the Olympics, ended their partnership. Both skaters are looking to continue their careers with another partner.

Marissa Castelli
Simon Shnapir
Figure skating


Sheriff’s Fight With Paper Flares Up Again

Abstract: A long-running dispute between a weekly newspaper in Phoenix and law enforcement officials took a series of sharp turns over the last two days, including the arrest of the newspaper owners, followed by the dismissal of charges against them and an investigation into their paper. For years, prosecutors in Maricopa County weighed whether to take the rare step of charging the leaders of the paper, The Phoenix New Times, with a crime for publishing an article with the home address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County. This week, that conflict abruptly escalated. On Thursday, the newspaper accused the authorities of abuses of power in their investigation into The New Times, reporting that a prosecutor had obtained a subpoena for the Internet browsing records on thousands of its readers. On Thursday night, the two principal owners, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, were arrested and charged with illegally disclosing the inner workings of a grand jury, a misdemeanor. But by late afternoon yesterday, it was all over. The owners were free, the charges against them were dropped, and the underlying investigation ended. “It has become clear to me the investigation has gone in a direction I would not have authorized,” County Attorney Andrew P. Thomas said. Mr. Thomas dismissed the new charges, the original investigation and the special prosecutor who was working on the case. Mr. Lacey said he was stunned by the turnabout. “I thought when I first heard this from one of our reporters that he was pulling my leg,” he said. Mr. Larkin and Mr. Lacey have run The Phoenix New Times since the 1970s, and they control its parent company, now called Village Voice Media, which also owns The Village Voice in New York and other papers. Mr. Lacey is the executive editor and Mr. Larkin is the publisher. In 2004, The New Times reported on the real-estate holdings of Sheriff Arpaio. The paper said he had concealed his ownership of some properties and questioned how he could have afforded them on his salary. One article included, in print and online, Sheriff Arpaio’s home address. A state law makes it a felony to disclose the home address of a law enforcement figure on the Internet — though not in print. Allies of the sheriff said the publication had endangered him because he has been the subject of death threats. The New Times said the address was available through multiple public sources, including government Web sites. Mr. Thomas is a political ally of Sheriff Arpaio who has also clashed with The New Times. He recused himself from the question of whether the newspaper had committed a crime. Last summer, Dennis I. Wilenchik, a lawyer who had done extensive work for Sheriff Arpaio and Mr. Thomas, was named a special prosecutor to handle the investigation, working under Mr. Thomas. On Thursday, the paper published an article by Mr. Lacey and Mr. Larkin reporting the existence of Mr. Wilenchik’s grand jury investigation and of the subpoena he had obtained for the paper’s records. The subpoena, reproduced on The New Times Web site, sought the names and Internet addresses of all people who have viewed the site since Jan. 1, 2004, whether or not they had read about the sheriff’s real-estate holdings. The subpoena also demanded information on readers’ “cookies,” which would show what other Web sites they had visited. “That subpoena is grossly, shockingly, breathtakingly overbroad,” said James Weinstein, a professor of constitutional law at the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University. “This is a case of harassment of the press.” Professor Weinstein also questioned whether any charges brought in the original case, for publishing the sheriff’s address, would stand up to a legal challenge. Clint Bolick, litigation director at the Goldwater Institute, a conservative policy study group, said The New Times was correct that the subpoena was an abuse of power and right to risk prosecution by exposing it. “This is the most sweeping deprivation of privacy and First Amendment rights I’ve ever seen in a subpoena, on the basis of what appears to be a relatively slight legal infraction, the publication of the sheriff’s address,” Mr. Bolick said. The New Times article also described an effort by Mr. Wilenchik to set up a private conversation with the judge overseeing the case that the judge disclosed and criticized as improper in a closed hearing. The Arizona State Bar said yesterday that it had begun an investigation into Mr. Wilenchik’s conduct. The bar is already investigating him and Mr. Thomas for publicly criticizing Maricopa County judges this month. That incident drew a rebuke of the prosecutors from the editorial page of The Arizona Republic, the largest newspaper in the region. Calls to Mr. Wilenchik’s office yesterday were not returned. A spokesman for Sheriff Arpaio said he would not comment. Mr. Thomas said yesterday that he had not been aware of the extent of the subpoena and other elements of the case until the last two days.

Newspapers
Phoenix New Times
Phoenix (Ariz)
Lacey Michael
Larkin Jim
Police


European Court Sides With Drug Companies Over Pricing Matter

Abstract: BRUSSELS — Europe’s highest court handed the pharmaceutical industry a victory on Tuesday, saying that regulators should reconsider whether efforts by drug makers to prevent traders from exploiting price differences across Europe should be allowed. The decision, in a case involving GlaxoSmithKline, is a blow to governments in northern Europe that like the discount trade, which helps them cut the price of medicines they buy in bulk for their national health services. The case concerned discounters who buy bulk batches of medicines in southern European countries like Spain and sell surpluses in northern nations like Britain, where drugs generally command higher prices. To combat the discounters, Glaxo introduced a policy in the late 1990s to put higher prices on dozens of drugs sold in the Spanish market, but which it had determined were destined for export. Shortly after, the European Commission ruled that the company was restricting competition within the European Union . The commission has long favored building a seamless single market for goods, including prescription drugs, with the aim of lowering prices. A lower court overturned the decision in 2006, saying that the commission had failed to consider Glaxo’s evidence properly. On Tuesday, the European Court of Justice upheld that ruling. “The commission must reconsider whether GlaxoSmithKline ’s general sales conditions in Spain may be exempted from the community competition rules,” the European Court of Justice said in a statement. Trade in discounted medicines is one of the most fiercely contested practices within the pharmaceutical industry in Europe. The pharmaceutical industry has long complained that the practice undermines its ability to recoup the costs of developing drugs, and a final victory for Glaxo could be significant at a time when big drug companies are facing stiff price competition. “On the whole, today’s judgment is good news for pharma companies,” said David Hull, the head of the European Union competition practice at the law firm of Covington & Burling. Even so, pharmaceutical companies should remain wary of adopting systems similar to the one used by Glaxo in Spain, he said, because regulators now need to carry out a “more detailed analysis of the evidence required by the E.U. courts.” Traders said they were disappointed by the verdict, and they urged European regulators to stick by earlier findings that Glaxo’s system was anticompetitive. “We trust that the European Commission will have the courage of its convictions,” said Andreas Mohringer, the president of the European Association of Euro-Pharmaceutical Companies, which represents the traders. Allowing the system in Spain to stand would mean competition would suffer in Europe, “with the losers being national social security systems, taxpayers and patients,” Mr. Mohringer said.

Europe
European Union
Drugs (Pharmaceuticals)
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Decisions and Verdicts
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
GlaxoSmithKline PLC


Rather Than Fight or Flee, Take Responsibility

Abstract: I was in a large meeting at my company, sharing an idea that had occurred to me, when one of my younger colleagues raised her hand and jumped in. “I’m feeling like we’re getting off track,” she said with some impatience. “We have an agenda, and I think we ought to stick to it.” Stung, I fired back with righteous indignation. My colleague went silent, but the tension hung between us like a thick, humid fog, which quickly enveloped the room. We moved on with the meeting, but I felt uneasiness in my stomach, and my attention kept returning to the interaction. I had every right to feel irritated, I told myself. She interrupted me. I was making an important point. I hadn’t been speaking for long. She was being rude. Blah, blah, blah. In truth, I was trying to make myself feel better by silently marshaling a case for why my reaction was justified. It wasn’t working. I took a couple of deep breaths, and it occurred to me that evaluating what she had done was beside the point. We weren’t in a court of law. This was not about proving my point or brokering a compromise. Whatever she did or didn’t do, I was responsible for the way I reacted. Not partially responsible, but completely responsible. I needed to let her off the hook. Paradoxically, this insight made me feel lighter and more in control. How often, in the course of a week at work (or at home), are your responses triggered by something someone else says or does? How often do you feel irritated, defensive or silently resentful because you’ve had your time wasted or you’ve been misunderstood, undervalued or treated unfairly? And how much energy does all this consume? What happens when we feel a sense of threat in our environment is primitive and predictable. Unconsciously and automatically, we move into the physiological state known as “fight or flight.” Our prefrontal cortex begins to shut down, and the sympathetic nervous system takes over so we can react more quickly and instinctively. If a lion is charging at us, this response is appropriate. But when the perceived threat is subtler and more subjective —- as it nearly always is in modern life — we’re still limited to the same zero-sum reactions. We can attack in an effort to vanquish the threat, or retreat and feel like resentful victims. Neither reaction serves us well if we have to keep working and living with the people who sometimes trigger the response. Taking responsibility changes all that. When the “fight or flight” response is triggered, the first move is to focus on your physiology, so you don’t react automatically. The mantra we use with clients is, “Whatever you feel compelled to do, don’t.” Breathing deeply is the most reliable way to quiet the nervous system and return control to the prefrontal cortex. Only then are you in a position to make a conscious choice about how to respond. Almost invariably, the reaction is triggered when our sense of worthiness feels threatened. What I realized in the moments after my colleague interrupted me was that I had to take responsibility for holding my own value. If I didn’t, I was leaving it in her hands. Only when my value no longer felt at threat did it make sense to have a conversation. Once I got my faculties back, my first responsibility was to examine my own role in our small drama. Without judging her reaction or feeling compelled to get her to respond in any particular way, how had I helped to create the conflict? As I reflected, it dawned on me that talking about my idea was partly an effort to bring attention to myself, when the agenda was about something else. Reacting the way I did made me neither the leader, the colleague nor the person I wanted to be. It also escalated the conflict rather than helping to resolve it. No one benefited. The problem is that none of us ever wants to feel wrong, at fault or even uncomfortable, if we can avoid it. When we feel threatened, and the consequence is conflict and unhappiness, it’s easier to look outside ourselves and blame someone else. Truly taking responsibility — the notion that we’re in charge of how we respond no matter what comes at us — requires self-acceptance. It’s about the capacity to value and appreciate ourselves in spite of our countless missteps and limitations — to say, “Yes, I messed that up but that’s not all of who I am.” Shunryu Suzuki, author of “Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind.” captured this dual challenge in a wonderfully wry observation he made to his followers: “All of you are perfect just as you are,” he told them, “and you could use a little improvement.” It was the improvement part I had in mind when I walked over to my colleague during a break and took responsibility for what I did. I felt better for it, and so did she.


Boston Marathon Inquiry Shifts to Suspect’s Russia Trip

Abstract: WASHINGTON — With one suspect dead and the other captured and lying grievously wounded in a hospital, the investigation into the Boston Marathon bombings turned on Saturday to questions about the men’s motives, and to the significance of an overseas trip one of them took last year. Federal investigators are hurrying to review a visit that one of the suspected bombers made to Chechnya and Dagestan, predominantly Muslim republics in the north Caucasus region of Russia. Both have active militant separatist movements. Members of Congress expressed concern about the F.B.I.’s handling of a request from Russia before the trip to examine the man’s possible links to extremist groups in the region. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who died early Friday after a shootout with the police in Watertown, Mass., spent six months in Dagestan in 2012, and analysts said that sojourn might have marked a crucial step in his alleged path toward the bombings. Kevin R. Brock, a former senior F.B.I. and counterterrorism official, said, “It’s a key thread for investigators and the intelligence community to pull on.” The investigators began scrutinizing the events in the months and years before the fatal attack, as Boston began to feel like itself for the first time in nearly a week. On Monday, the twin bombings near the finish line of the Boston Marathon killed three people and wounded more than 170. The tense days that followed culminated in Friday’s lockdown of the entire region as the police searched for Mr. Tsarnaev’s younger brother from suburban backyards to an Amtrak train bound for New York City. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, 19, was taken into custody Friday night after he was found, bloody and weakened, hiding on a boat in a driveway in Watertown. He was still too wounded to speak on Saturday, said Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts. Special counterterrorism agents trained in interrogating high-value detainees were waiting to question him, according to a law enforcement official. An issue arose about the administration’s decision to question him for a period without giving him a Miranda warning, under an exception for questions about immediate threats to public safety. Image A news conference in Boston on Thursday during which images of the two bombing suspects were released to the public. Credit Gretchen Ertl for The New York Times The brothers’ motives are still unclear. Of Chechen heritage, they had lived in the United States for years, according to friends and relatives, and no direct ties have been publicly established with known Chechen terrorist or separatist groups. While Dzhokhar became a naturalized American citizen last year, Tamerlan was still seeking citizenship. Their father, Anzor, said Tamerlan had made last year’s trip to renew his Russian passport. The significance of the trip was magnified late Friday when the F.B.I. disclosed in a statement that in 2011 “a foreign government” — now acknowledged by officials to be Russia — asked for information about Tamerlan. The request was “based on information that he was a follower of radical Islam and a strong believer, and that he had changed drastically since 2010 as he prepared to leave the United States for travel to the country’s region to join unspecified underground groups.” The senior law enforcement official said the Russians feared he could be a risk, and “they had something on him and were concerned about him, and him traveling to their region.” Chechen extremists pose a greater threat to Russia than they do to the United States, counterterrorism specialists say, though some of the groups have had ties to Al Qaeda. But the F.B.I. never followed up on Tamerlan once he returned, a senior law enforcement official acknowledged on Saturday, adding that its investigation did not turn up anything and it did not have the legal authority to keep tabs on him. Investigators are now scrambling to review that trip, and learn about any extremists who might have influenced, trained or directed Tamerlan while he was there. President Obama and Republican lawmakers devoted their weekly broadcast addresses to the Boston attack, with both sides finding a common voice. Mr. Obama also met with his national security team for an update on the investigation. “Americans refuse to be terrorized,” Mr. Obama said. “Ultimately, that’s what we’ll remember from this week.” Since 1994, Russia and the United States have routinely exchanged requests for background information on residents traveling between the two countries on visa, criminal or terrorism issues. The F.B.I. responded to the request in 2011 by checking “U.S. government databases and other information to look for such things as derogatory telephone communications, possible use of online sites associated with the promotion of radical activity, associations with other persons of interest, travel history and plans, and education history,” it said in a statement. Image Investigators worked near the location where a suspect in the marathon bombings was arrested. Credit Matt Rourke/Associated Press In January 2011, two counterterrorism agents from the bureau’s Boston field office interviewed Tamerlan and family members, a senior law enforcement official said on Saturday. According to the F.B.I.’s statement, “The F.B.I. did not find any terrorism activity, domestic or foreign,” and conveyed those findings to “the foreign government” by the summer of 2011. Federal officials said on Saturday that the Department of Homeland Security, however, had decided not to grant a petition from Tamerlan for United States citizenship after officials found a record in his files that he had been interviewed by the F.B.I. His petition was held for further review. As the law enforcement official put it, “We didn’t find anything on him that was derogatory.” The Russian state news agency RIA Novosti quoted the father of the Tsarnaev brothers recalling the F.B.I.’s close questioning of his elder son, “two or three times.” He said they had told his son that the questioning “is prophylactic, so that no one sets off bombs on the streets of Boston.” In an interview in Russia, Zubeidat Tsarnaeva, the mother of the two men, said that the agents had told her that Tamerlan was “an excellent boy,” but “at the same time, they told me he is getting information from really extremist sites, and they are afraid of him.” After Tamerlan’s visit to Dagestan and Chechnya, signs of alienation emerged. One month after he returned to the United States, a YouTube page that appeared to belong to him was created and featured multiple jihadist videos that he had endorsed in the past six months. One video featured the preaching of Abdul al-Hamid al-Juhani, an important ideologue in Chechnya; another focused on Feiz Mohammad, an extremist Salafi Lebanese preacher based in Australia. He also created a playlist of songs by a Russian musical artist, Timur Mucuraev, one of which promoted jihad, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors statements by jihadists. The Boston bombings have led to increased cooperation between Washington and Moscow, a jarring shift coming amid weeks of rancor over American criticism of Russia’s human rights record. Presidents Obama and Vladimir V. Putin spoke by telephone late Friday night, in a conversation initiated by the Russian side, the Kremlin announced. The Kremlin’s statement said both leaders expressed “the building of close coordination between Russian and American intelligence services in the battle with global terrorism.” Nevertheless, there were glaring questions about the case, among them how Tamerlan had escaped scrutiny. A Russian intelligence official told the Interfax news service on Saturday that Russia had not been able to provide the United States with “operatively significant” information about the Tsarnaev brothers, “because the Tsarnaev brothers had not been living in Russia.” Video On the streets of Watertown, Mass., residents and police officers celebrated after a suspect was brought into custody. Andrei Soldatov, an investigative journalist who specializes in Russia’s security services, said he believed that Tamerlan might have attracted the attention of Russian intelligence because of the video clips he had posted under his own name, some of which were included on a list of banned materials by the Federal Security Service, or F.S.B. On Saturday morning, federal prosecutors were drafting a criminal complaint against Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was wounded in the leg and neck. An official said the criminal complaint would most likely include a constellation of charges stemming from both the bombings and the shooting, possibly including the use of weapons of mass destruction, an applicable charge for the detonation of a bomb. That charge, the official said, carries a maximum penalty of death. Though Massachusetts has outlawed the death penalty, federal law allows it. The F.B.I. and local law enforcement agencies continued on Saturday to gather evidence recovered from the suspects’ home and the cars they used. Investigators found five pipe bombs and three grenades after the firefight Friday, and they were seeking to identify the origins of the explosives. Agents fanned out to interview family members and others who knew the brothers to determine any motive, as well as clues about what or who radicalized them. Three Kazakh citizens who were acquainted with Dzhokhar Tsarnaev contacted the Kazakh Embassy in Washington, reporting that they had been questioned by the F.B.I. and asking for consular assistance, said Ilyas T. Omarov, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic. None of the three were held, he said. Muslim leaders in many cities rushed to hold news conferences and preach sermons at mosques denouncing the bombing suspects, mourning the victims and praising the response of law enforcement and the community in Boston. They were eager to dissociate their faith from the Muslim suspects, and to head off a backlash against Muslims in the United States. Anzor Tsarnaev and his younger son first came to the United States legally in April 2002 on 90-day tourist visas, federal law enforcement officials said. Once in this country, the father applied for political asylum, claiming he feared deadly persecution based on his ties to Chechnya. Dzhokhar, who was 8, applied for asylum under his father’s petition, the officials said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the United States later, and applied for American citizenship on Sept. 5 last year, federal law enforcement officials said.

Russia
Boston Marathon Bombings
Tamerlan Tsarnaev
Police
Dzhokhar A Tsarnaev


Oosthuizen and Caddie Represent South Africa at Open

Abstract: ST. ANDREWS, Scotland — They have been walking and working together on some of the world’s finest golf courses for the last seven years, but on Sunday, Louis Oosthuizen and his longtime caddie, Zack Rasego, will experience something new. They will walk and work the Old Course at St. Andrews for the final round of the British Open with the golf world’s full attention. Oosthuizen has a four-shot lead and the chance of a lifetime after shooting under 70 for the third consecutive round Saturday, with a three-under 69. “Today I felt like I went out with a good temperament, and my caddie helped me quite a bit on it,” Oosthuizen said. “It’s also for him a big thing. You know, tomorrow, I think for the two of us, it will be a great experience.” Rasego, who once caddied for the South African icon Gary Player, has been with Oosthuizen since 2003, when Oosthuizen’s management company helped put them in contact. They have developed a close working relationship and communicate frequently on the course in Afrikaans. The faltering image of South Africa as a “rainbow nation” has regained some of its luster with the successful staging of soccer’s World Cup and a renewed sense of common purpose between the country’s black majority and white minority. Rasego, who is one of the few black caddies on tour, and Oosthuizen, who is white, are aware that they reinforce that image but do not wish to focus on it. “As South Africans, we are a rainbow team,” Rasego said. “But really it’s politics aside. It’s a sport. We cannot put politics into sport.” Rasego said he and Oosthuizen did not emphasize race in their relationship. “When I look at Louis, I look at him as a person, and he looks at me as a person,” he said. “It’s not our backgrounds or anything. At the end of the day, he’s my boss, and I respect him as a boss, and it’s not about color. I mean, if I do good, then he appreciates what I do. It’s totally not about color.” The two men share a similar drive, said Tobie Mostert, a 50-year-old South African from Johannesburg who has known them both for years and was cheering them around the Old Course on Saturday, with Rasego even throwing him a water bottle from one of the players’ coolers late in the round. “Both come from a very modest background,” Mostert said. “Together they make a fantastic team because they’re both very hungry. Humble but hungry.” Oosthuizen’s father was a sheep farmer in Mossel Bay on South Africa’s southern coast, and Oosthuizen was able to make the leap from promising youth to professional only with the financial help of the star golfer Ernie Els’s foundation. Rasego said he became a caddie at the South African resort of Sun City as a way of escaping poverty. “It’s true that I come from a very poor family, a family of six kids, and I’m the oldest, so we had to work hard to make a living,” he said. “That’s how I started caddying, because my parents couldn’t afford to take me to school, but through caddying I managed to move a little step forward. I caddied at Sun City for many years. I’m still there now, and I always go there.” Rasego comes from the countryside near Rustenburg, one of the cities that staged matches during the World Cup. “It did do great for the country,” he said. “I was a bit excited to see what had happened, especially after all the Western countries thought that we can’t do it, and then we did it in style. “I’m really, really happy we got it because everywhere we go, then people start saying ‘South Africa, South Africa,’ which is very, very nice. People talk about crime. They talk about this, about that, accommodation, transport, and we managed to deal with all those problems. So yes, job well done to the local organizing committee and the government.” One imagines that South African authorities will be returning the compliments if Oosthuizen, with Rasego’s help, can manage to hold his lead Sunday. “You know in golf it’s always possible for someone to do wonders,” Rasego said. “People like the history, and sometimes history doesn’t count. It’s what is there at the time. It’s about what he does tomorrow.”

South Africa
Golf
British Open (Golf)
Oosthuizen Louis
Rasego Zack


Gillibrand’s District to Vote for a Successor: Murphy or Tedisco

Abstract: A hard-fought race in New York’s 20th Congressional District will be decided Tuesday, when voters choose between a Democratic newcomer, Scott Murphy, and a veteran Republican assemblyman, James N. Tedisco. The two are vying to succeed Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand, a Democrat who was elected in 2006 and remains highly popular in the district. Her seat was vacated when she replaced Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Senate. Mr. Murphy, 39, a venture capitalist who says he has created 1,000 jobs, has made the economy the focus of his campaign, boosting the federal stimulus package at every step and hammering Mr. Tedisco first for equivocating on where he stood on it, then for coming out against it. Mr. Tedisco, 58, the minority leader in Albany who has long represented Saratoga, positioned himself as a champion for cutting government waste. He has assailed Mr. Murphy for supporting the stimulus package despite a provision that allowed the payout of bonuses at American International Group, the insurer that received a federal bailout. At the start of the short campaign, in early February, Mr. Tedisco seemed the clear favorite, given his long political experience and the built-in Republican advantage: a registration margin of about 75,000 voters. And the new Republican national chairman, Michael Steele, vowed to make the election the start of a comeback for the party after the November blowout. By contrast, Mr. Murphy’s main drawing card, in some Democrats’ eyes, was his ability to pay for his campaign himself. But Mr. Murphy’s wealth was overblown as an advantage: he lent his campaign only $250,000, while Mr. Tedisco came up with $200,000.

Elections
Tedisco James N
Murphy Scott
New York State


French Ex-Mayor Found Dead as Trial Starts

Abstract: PARIS — The city of Tours had a simple plan: Lure Chinese couples to marry in the heart of the Loire Valley in France, with its romantic castles, as a way to improve the region’s economic fortunes. But it went awry, and the project got bogged down in corruption allegations. Then on Tuesday, the city’s former mayor, Jean Germain, apparently committed suicide as he was to go on trial with four other defendants in a case involving allegations of kickbacks and the misuse of public funds. The Senate, where Mr. Germain, a Socialist, was serving when he died, held a moment of silence to honor his memory on Tuesday. President François Hollande expressed his sadness, saying Mr. Germain had taken his own life “because he didn’t want his honor sullied.” Prosecutors began looking into the case in 2011 after news reports said the city was luring some already married Chinese couples for fake weddings. Minutes into the trial on Tuesday, Mr. Germain’s lawyer announced that a colleague had found a suicide note. The former mayor’s body was found later. The court abruptly adjourned until Oct. 13. The trial centers on accusations of kickbacks linked to $815,000 that Tours spent to lure Asian visitors from 2008 to 2011, officials said. The city spent tens of thousands of dollars on expenditures like a stand at the Shanghai World Expo in 2010 and sending a delegation to China, one defense lawyer said. Mr. Germain, 67, was facing charges that included the misuse of public funds, according to court documents, but he was not charged with benefiting financially himself. A City Hall employee who devised the plan, Lise Han, and her associates were the main suspected beneficiaries of the plot. As mayor for nearly two decades until 2014, Mr. Germain presided over the weddings and spoke publicly about the broad media coverage of them. The city’s effort to lure Chinese newlyweds ended after allegations of wrongdoing came to light.

Tours
Loire Valley
Jean Germain
Suicide
Bribery and Kickbacks


Russia: 2 Activists Sent to Prison Colony

Abstract: A Moscow court on Thursday convicted two prominent activists and sentenced them to four and a half years in a prison colony for their roles in organizing a protest a day before President Vladimir V. Putin’s inauguration in May 2012. The protest against Mr. Putin ended in violence between the police and demonstrators. A three-judge panel concluded that Sergei Udaltsov, the leader of the Left Front, had tried to organize “mass riots” in regions across Russia using money provided by a lawmaker from Georgia, with which Russia fought a war in 2008. The prosecutors’ case was partly based on information from a television special called “The Anatomy of a Revolution” that was broadcast on a state-funded television station. Mr. Udaltsov, the most prominent of 11 opposition activists sentenced to prison since the May 2012 protest, said the case was politically motivated. Mr. Udaltsov’s co-defendant, Leonid Razvozzhayev, accused Russian agents of kidnapping him while he was seeking asylum in Ukraine.

Russia
Sergei Udaltsov
Leonid Razvozzhayev
Political prisoner
Vladimir Putin
Civil Unrest
Criminal Sentence


Illinois: Blagojevich Leaves the Stand

Abstract: Former Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich ended the most important campaign of his life Tuesday, stepping down from the witness stand at his corruption retrial after speaking for seven days. In often long-winded answers, Mr. Blagojevich insisted before jurors that he never sought to sell or trade President Obama’s vacated United States Senate seat for a top job or campaign cash, or ever tried to shake down executives for contributions. He argued that his talk captured on F.B.I. wiretaps was merely brainstorming, and that he never took the schemes seriously or decided to carry them out. As he stepped off the stand, Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, tried to shake hands with the prosecutor who had been questioning him, but the latter turned away. Judge James Zagel told jurors not to read anything into the matter, saying it was protocol for prosecutors not to interact with defendants once they were off the stand.

Illinois
Blagojevich Rod R
Campaign Finance


McCain Showcases His Environmental Side

Abstract: Senator John McCain of Arizona began running this commercial on Tuesday on cable news and in closely contested states like Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania, where his advertisements have been running for the past couple of weeks. PRODUCER McCain campaign. ON THE SCREEN The spot opens with a frenetic series of images of industry and nature: Smoke stacks and mountains, traffic and streams and, finally, a huge, orange setting sun. It then shows Mr. McCain at a lectern with an image of a newspaper headline — “McCain Climate Views Clash with G.O.P.” — below him and in the background. It then shows images of alternative energy sources — wind turbines, a solar panel — before switching to a shot of Mr. McCain standing on a mountain. Before the commercial ends with the standard candidate approval, it flashes a new slogan against the bright blue sky beside Mr. McCain, “Reform. Prosperity. Peace.” THE SCRIPT A female announcer says, “John McCain stood up to the president and sounded the alarm on global warming five years ago. Today, he has a realistic plan that will curb greenhouse gas emissions. A plan that will help grow our economy and protect our environment. Reform. Prosperity. Peace. John McCain.” Mr. McCain says, “I’m John McCain, and I approve this message.” ACCURACY In 2003 Mr. McCain joined with Senator Joseph I. Lieberman, then a Connecticut Democrat, to draft a bill requiring industries to cut emissions of carbon dioxide. The White House frowned on the bill, and it did not win Senate approval. Mr. McCain has also joined with Democrats in supporting the idea of a system allowing power plants and other industrial polluters to buy credits from more efficient producers that fall well below limits on emitting heat-trapping gases. But Democrats and some environmentalists have criticized him for missing votes on bills setting stricter fuel standards and for opposing incentives devised to promote energy conservation and the development of energy alternatives, like the wind turbines and solar panels shown in this commercial. (Mr. McCain’s campaign did not respond to requests for comment on those criticisms on Tuesday, but he has generally favored market approaches to foster energy alternatives.) SCORECARD This spot does a good job promoting a major policy difference between Mr. McCain and President Bush (not to mention most of the rest of his party.) Promoting that rift could certainly help increase Mr. McCain’s appeal to the independent voters over whom he and Senator Barack Obama are expected to fight intensely this fall. But his call this week to lift the federal moratorium on oil and gas exploration and give individual states the right to decide if they wanted to allow drilling off their coasts, which is also being considered by Mr. Bush and is not highlighted in this commercial, may undercut its message. Regardless, the spot, with its “reform, prosperity, peace” tagline, is decidedly more upbeat than Mr. McCain’s last commercial, which was somber in tone and focused on war.

Environment
Global Warming
McCain John
Political Advertising
Presidential Election of 2008


Strike Hits G.M. Plant That Makes a Big Seller

Abstract: DETROIT — General Motors workers who build the Chevrolet Malibu , one of G.M.’s most popular and important new vehicles, went on strike Monday at a plant in Kansas after they were unable to reach an agreement with the company on local work rules. It is the second strike by a United Automobile Workers local against G.M. this spring after a decade without any single-plant work stoppages. Workers at a plant that builds crossover vehicles, which are big sellers for G.M., near Lansing, Mich., have been on strike for nearly three weeks. Together, the plants employ about 4,500 people. The two walkouts are in addition to a long strike at one of G.M.’s parts suppliers, American Axle and Manufacturing, which forced G.M. to close many of its truck and sport utility vehicle factories in March and April. Though U.A.W. officials deny it, some labor experts say that the union is singling out critical G.M. plants for strikes in hopes that G.M. will prod American Axle to reach a deal with its workers. Gary N. Chaison, a professor of industrial relations at Clark University in Worcester, Mass., noted that several other G.M. plants that were less important to the automaker’s turnaround efforts threatened to strike weeks ago but continued negotiations without picketing. “It’s very rare that you get strikes on issues like this,” Professor Chaison said. “They’re trying all ways possible to put pressure on American Axle, having found themselves at a disadvantageous position in that strike. They’re still showing that they’re a party that must be reckoned with, that they still have some influence and leverage in negotiations.” A message posted on the Web site of U.A.W. Local 31 in Kansas City, Kan., said workers at the G.M. plant in nearby Fairfax walked out because of at least nine unresolved issues, including concerns about management at the plant, job security and seniority rights. Wages and benefits are set by the national agreement that the U.A.W. signed with G.M. last fall. “General Motors left us with NO alternative after ALL weekend meetings and NO progress to speak of — the choices were none,” the Web site said. “This local union has worked very hard in the last 20 years negotiating these important issues and can NOT step backwards by giving into these management concerns.” Fairfax is one of two plants where G.M. builds the Malibu, which was overhauled for the 2008 model year. G.M. will be able to continue making the sedan in Orion Township, Mich., but even with both plants running it was having trouble keeping up with demand. Sales of the Malibu were up 43 percent in April, even though G.M.’s overall daily selling rate was down 23 percent. On average, G.M. says buyers are paying about $4,000 more for the new version of the Malibu than the old one, which was sold in large numbers to rental car companies and other fleet operators. Reviews of the car have been overwhelmingly positive, and G.M. hopes it will finally challenge Honda and Toyota at the top of the intensely competitive midsize car segment. G.M. has only about one month’s supply of the Malibu in inventory, compared with two to three months for most other cars and four or five months for many slow-selling trucks. So a decline in production caused by the strike could quickly result in dealers’ not being able to find a car with the options that a customer wants. “G.M. is disappointed that U.A.W. Local 31 took strike action at Fairfax Assembly,” said a G.M. spokesman, Dan Flores. “We remain focused on reaching an agreement as soon as possible.” About 3,650 workers at American Axle factories in Michigan and New York went on strike Feb. 26, saying the company’s demands that wages be cut nearly in half were too harsh. The company says it cannot afford to continue paying its workers about $28 an hour while rivals like the Dana Corporation, which also has a U.A.W.-represented work force, pay about $14 for similar work. Progress has been reported in the negotiations recently, but the sides remain in a tense standoff. American Axle recently warned the striking workers that if the union did not agree to reduce wages and benefits, the company would be “forced to plan for the potential closure of some, or all, of these uncompetitive facilities.”

Strikes
Kansas
United Automobile Workers
Automobiles
Labor
General Motors Corp
Wages and Salaries


After Rory Staunton’s Death, Hospital Alters Discharge Procedures

Abstract: NYU Langone Medical Center announced on Wednesday significant changes in its procedures after the death by septic shock of a 12-year-old boy who was sent home from the center with fever and a rapid heart rate . Three hours after the boy, Rory Staunton, left the emergency room, a laboratory test showed that his blood had extraordinarily high levels of cells associated with bacterial infections. He subsequently went into shock and experienced organ failure, and died three days later, on April 1. His parents said they were not told about the lab results and were unaware of how seriously ill their son was, having been assured that he was suffering from a typical stomach bug. In a statement, the hospital said that emergency physicians and nurses would be “immediately notified of certain lab results suggestive of serious infection, such as elevated band counts.” Rory Staunton’s bands, or a type of white blood cell, were nearly five times as high as a normal level. The hospital has developed a new checklist to ensure that a doctor and nurse have conducted “a final review of all critical lab results and patient vital signs” before a patient leaves, Lisa Greiner, a spokeswoman, said in the statement. “In the unlikely occurrence that a clinically relevant test is only available after the patient is discharged from the E.D., the patient will be called, and the information will be shared with referring physician,” Ms. Greiner said. The family pediatrician, who sent Rory to the hospital to be given fluids for dehydration , said she did not know about the blood work. Ms. Greiner said the steps were taken in direct response to Rory’s death. “Keeping our patients safe is our first priority, and we want to prevent this situation from happening again,” she said. Details of the boy’s treatment and death were reported in The New York Times last week and have provoked vigorous discussions online, and in medical-school classrooms and hospitals. Rory went into septic crisis a few days after cutting his arm while diving for a basketball at his school gym, most likely allowing bacteria into his blood. A consortium of 55 hospitals that has developed tactics for early diagnosis of sepsis will place “an enhanced focus on pediatric patients, for whom identification and treatment can be especially challenging,” said Brian Conway, a spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association, which is leading the initiative. Many doctors have maintained online that Rory’s symptoms when he was in the hospital, even if his blood results had been available, would not have distinguished him from run-of-the-mill ailments in children. Others, though, were alarmed by what they saw as evidence of glaring clues that were overlooked, poor communication, or a lack of flexibility in adjusting Rory’s diagnosis. Joshua Needleman , a specialist in pediatric pulmonology at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, said the implications of the Staunton case went beyond ferreting out a specific disease and showed how important it was for doctors to keep open minds. “The big questions are about how to integrate new information that doesn’t fit with the perception you have formed,” he wrote in an e-mail. “How to listen to the patient when they are telling you something that doesn’t fit with your internal narrative of the case. These are the hardest things to do in medicine and yet the most important.” Dr. Needleman said he planned to use details of the Staunton case to teach those points to medical students and was grateful that the boy’s parents had disclosed the painful details. Dr. Robert E. Lynch , the director of pediatric critical care at Mercy Children’s Hospital in St. Louis, said that Rory’s lab results were “virtually incompatible with a diagnosis of viral gastroenteritis ,” which is what Rory was being treated for. “It’s frustrating to be judged retrospectively,” Dr. Lynch acknowledged. “Nevertheless, this case is why E.D.’s exist — really good management saves lives. I know the boy may have died regardless, but all medicine does is change the odds.” Drawing lessons from what happened to Rory will require an exploration of all the factors that influenced his care, said Dr. Paul Spirn , a radiologist with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston . Among examples he mentioned were the extent of communication between the hospital and Rory’s pediatrician, and the procedures for alerting doctors and patients to urgent lab results after a patient has left the emergency room. “The Staunton case has the potential to yield far-reaching improvements in patient care,” Dr. Spirn said.

New York University Langone Medical Center


Top Aide to S.E.C. Chairwoman Mary Jo White to Step Down From Post

Abstract: Mary Jo White ’s top aide at the Securities and Exchange Commission is stepping down, the latest personnel move at the Wall Street regulator. Lona Nallengara, a veteran of the agency and Ms. White’s chief of staff, announced on Tuesday that he would depart at the end of June. His move will cap a four-year tenure in which he climbed from midlevel lawyer to Ms. White’s right-hand aide. “He is a trusted adviser who brings strong leadership, incredible intellect and a tremendous work ethic that is beyond compare,” Ms. White, the S.E.C.’s chairwoman, said in a statement, nodding to the odd hours he kept, often responding to emails she dispatched in the midnight hours and during the weekend. “I am deeply grateful for all he has done for me and the agency.” Under Ms. White, Mr. Nallengara played the role of ambassador to the agency’s four other commissioners, negotiating deals on regulations and other policy changes, including the so-called Volcker Rule . He also acted as Ms. White’s deputy to the Financial Stability Oversight Council, the body of regulatory tasked with preventing another financial crisis. Other times, deal-making proved elusive for Mr. Nallengara and the S.E.C. when the commissioners were sharply divided along party lines. The agency’s two Democratic commissioners typically advocate strict regulations and enforcement cases, but the two Republicans are decidedly more skeptical. That dynamic often leaves Ms. White, a political independent, to straddle the political divide and forced Mr. Nallengara into the center of the tension. It is a time of transition for the S.E.C. One of the Republican commissioners, Daniel Gallagher, is expected to leave the agency soon, as is one of the Democrats, Luis A. Aguilar. David Woodcock, the head of the agency’s Fort Worth office, also recently departed. Mr. Nallengara’s next move is unclear. But the typical path for S.E.C. lawyers is through the so-called revolving door, the metaphorical portal between government and the private sector. For Mr. Nallengara, a 44-year-old marathon runner, it would not be his first stint as a private lawyer. A Toronto native, Mr. Nallengara previously worked at a Canadian law firm and then as a partner at Shearman & Sterling in New York, where he worked on corporate deals and capital raising. Mr. Nallengara joined the S.E.C. in early 2011, starting as deputy director in the agency’s corporation finance unit, which handles corporate disclosures and rulemakings, including those arising from the Dodd-Frank regulatory overhaul in 2010 and the Jobs Act that focused on start-up financing. He eventually became the unit’s interim director before joining Ms. White’s staff in 2013. Mr. Nallengara lived in Washington during the week and commuted home to his wife, Joanne Wong, and their children, Benjamin and Jonathan, on Friday evenings after work. “It has been an incredible honor and privilege to serve Chair White and to work alongside the talented S.E.C. staff,” Mr. Nallengara said in the statement. “My time at the commission has been a highlight of my career.”

Mary Jo White
SEC
Regulation and Deregulation


Michael Gordon, Founder of Bumble and Bumble, Accused of Hiding $30 Million From I.R.S.

Abstract: The founder of the New York-based salon and hair-product company Bumble and Bumble lied about failing to pay taxes on $29.6 million he received after selling his stake in the company, federal authorities said in court documents filed last week. Prosecutors said the founder, Michael Gordon, an English-born hairdresser who oversaw Bumble and Bumble’s rise from an unknown salon to an international brand whose styling creams and sprays for that effortlessly undone look generate millions annually, had reported only his regular income — about $1.3 million — on his 2006 tax returns. Instead of paying taxes on the sale proceeds that year, he reported he was owed a tax refund of $39,298. When an Internal Revenue Service agent confronted him in October, the agent wrote in a court affidavit, Mr. Gordon, 61, said he had not known his tax forms failed to mention the sale income. But the agent, Eric Nieves, said he had found a confidential informer, described in the affidavit as a personal acquaintance of Mr. Gordon’s, who said that Mr. Gordon “was actively seeking ways to hide the money from the I.R.S.,” including sending it overseas, and ignored the acquaintance’s warnings that this was considered tax evasion. Investigators arrested Mr. Gordon last week at his Manhattan apartment, said Robert Nardoza, a spokesman for Christopher Caffarone, the assistant United States attorney prosecuting the case. Mr. Nardoza said that Mr. Gordon was charged with lying to a federal agent, but he declined to comment further on the case. Mr. Gordon was held after his arrest because a judge deemed him a flight risk; he agreed to a bond secured by $4 million in property and was released on Thursday. His lawyer, Michael J. Rosen of Miami, said his client’s arrest was “predicated upon the mistaken belief that he was leaving the country.” “We are in the process of amicably resolving the tax dispute,” Mr. Rosen said. Mr. Gordon, whose arrest was reported Friday by The New York Post, apprenticed with a series of exclusive salons in London before moving to New York, where he opened the first Bumble and Bumble salon on East 56th Street in 1977.

Bumble and Bumble
Internal Revenue Service
Tax Evasion
Gordon Michael


Movies Sell Slowly at Sundance

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — In a weakening entertainment economy, movie sales came slowly, but did not halt, at the usually far more exuberant Sundance Film Festival , which ended Sunday in Park City, Utah. Buyers proved fussy. Sellers were a bit frustrated. And despite some prominent deals — including Sony Pictures Classics’ buying the rights to “An Education,” a British coming-of-age drama set in the ’60s, for a reported $3 million — there was no blockbuster sale to match the $10 million that Focus Features spent last year on a single picture, “Hamlet 2.” But the action continued even as the 10-day festival closed Sunday, promising that total sales would match or exceed the $15 million or so spent on rights to Sundance movies in 2008. “Everyone is confident that quite a few more films will still sell,” said Richard Klubeck, a partner and independent film specialist with the United Talent Agency, who spoke Friday by telephone. Mr. Klubeck’s agency took three films to the market that accompanies the annual festival: “The Messenger,” a drama with Woody Harrelson among its stars; “Five Minutes of Heaven,” a drama with Liam Neeson; and “Paper Heart,” a romance with Michael Cera. None of the three had closed a sale as the festival headed toward its close, Mr. Klubeck said, but negotiations were under way with potential buyers. “It’s pretty clear that this was a really strong festival in terms of everyone’s ability to find films they loved,” said Mr. Klubeck. But among potential buyers, he added, “caution was in the air.” The festival’s bigger sales included “Black Dynamite,” an action comedy that quickly sold for about $2 million to a unit of Sony Pictures after a midnight screening on the festival’s first day, and “Adam,” a romance that went to Fox Searchlight soon after. But some of the festival’s hotter action involved the pursuit of niche films like “Humpday,” a comedy about straight men making a gay pornographic film. That one sold for about $100,000 to Magnolia Pictures, which plans to release the film via video-on-demand before taking it to theaters. “I imagine this is what Sundance was like 15 years ago,” said Kevin Iwashina, an independent sales and financing consultant who worked with Submarine Entertainment in negotiating the “Humpday” purchase. Going into the final weekend, Mr. Iwashina said, demand was soft for theatrical rights to any of the many documentaries offered at the festival, though Submarine announced early Sunday the sale of “Art & Copy,” about the advertising business, to Arthouse Films. Those still looking for a theatrical distributor as the festival was winding down included “The Cove,” a kind of environmental thriller about the slaughter of dolphins in a secretive Japanese village, and “Why We Laugh,” a documentary about African-American humor. Also still on the table were “I Love You Phillip Morris,” a gay-themed loved story with Jim Carrey. “Spread,” which featured Ashton Kutcher as a gigolo, was considered a hot title, but it did not sell until late Friday, for about $3.5 million, to Anchor Bay Entertainment. Some of the unsold films will eventually find distributors for prices lower than sellers would like. Others will wind up making their debuts on cable television rather than in theaters. Still others may land, as did “Humpday,” on video-on-demand services, which are beginning to transform the independent film market. One of the most robust video-on-demand distributors, IFC, owned by Rainbow Media and its parent, Cablevision, has said it expects eventually to pick up a significant number of movies screened at the overlapping Sundance and Slamdance festivals. For instance, on Thursday, IFC — which puts movies in a small number of theaters while adding them to its on-demand service — bought rights to “In the Loop,” a British political farce. The company was reported to have spent almost $1 million, though it often pays in the tens of thousands of dollars, rather than the hundreds of thousands, banking on the eagerness of filmmakers to get their work seen. “I’ve come to realize that my festival run is my theatrical run,” said Joe Swanberg, the director of “Alexander the Last,” a movie that is expected to make its debut in March simultaneously at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, Tex., and on IFC’s video-on-demand service. Mr. Swanberg spoke at Sundance last Monday, during a panel discussion of changing market dynamics in the independent film business. If Sundance was a lesson in diminished expectations for most, a few found reason to exult. One among them was Marco Weber, chief executive of Senator Entertainment, which will distribute its first films this year. Shortly before the premiere of “Brooklyn’s Finest,” whose stars included Richard Gere and Don Cheadle and which was directed by Antoine Fuqua, Mr. Weber had expressed hope that the film would not seem sufficiently commercial to interest the buyers from big studio units like Fox Searchlight and Focus Features. In the end, Senator had the winning bid, in partnership with Sony Pictures’ acquisition group, for an amount that Mr. Weber afterward characterized as being “in the low seven figures.” “I’m in love with this movie,” Mr. Weber said later, though he said that it needed some editing and a new score. Others who attended saw the slower pace and the lower bids as unhappy signs of the times. One of those was Jamie Patricof, whose Hunting Lane Films had no film of its own at Sundance but will be in the market over the next year with Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in a drama, “Blue Valentine.” “Unfortunately, everyone’s worst fear came true — that buyers wouldn’t be buying,” Mr. Patricof said.

Sundance Film Festival (Park City Utah)
Motion Pictures


Terror Through the Eyes of Innocents: The Children in Nice

Abstract: NICE, France — It was the first and last fireworks show in this seaside city that 4½-year-old Yanis Coviaux ever saw. He died in the carnage Thursday night. So did Brodie Copeland , 11, who was visiting from the United States. Haroun El Kamel, 12, survived but might never look at fireworks the same way. Then there was Laura Borla, 14, who came to see the fireworks with her twin sister and their mother but was separated from them in the chaos. After days of searching frantically for her, Laura’s family learned on Sunday morning that she was dead. “We miss you already; we will love you always,” her 19-year-old sister, Lucie, said in a Facebook post. The driver who plowed his truck into crowds at the conclusion of the Bastille Day fireworks in Nice killed at least 84 people and injured hundreds more. The trauma was exacerbated by the presence of a large number of children, whose deaths, injuries and psychological scars gave this attack — like the one in March that killed many children at a park in Pakistan, or the recent slaughter of families celebrating the end of Ramadan in Baghdad — an especially brutal feel and underscored its indiscriminate cruelty. At least 10 children were killed Thursday night, and at least 35 were treated for injuries at hospitals in Nice. Others were separated from their parents in the chaos, and some no doubt saw and heard things they might carry with them for a long time. No one who was visiting the waterfront that night could have imagined such a horrific ending. Going to the fireworks on July 14 is an annual family ritual in Nice, a time for picnics on the beach — and, when the beach is too full, for spreading tablecloths on the meridian of the waterfront road known for more than 150 years as the Promenade des Anglais. From there, people have a fine view of the sea and the extravagant fireworks display. “You have to bring your children because if you don’t, you will pay for it all year — all their friends are there,” said Raja El Kamel, 43, Haroun’s mother, who was with him and a close friend from Sweden and her two children to watch the festivities. In a city that enjoys a party, the July 14 fireworks are especially beloved because the entire community joins in: Christian and Muslim, religious and secular, but French above all. The presence of large numbers of tourists gives the evening even more of a festive feel. For 4½-year-old Yanis and his parents, Mickael and Samira Coviaux, the evening was a first. The parents, both truck drivers, live in Grenoble, and this was their first time seeing the July 14 fireworks on the Mediterranean as a family, said Yanis’s aunt Anaïs Coviaux, a law student in Paris, who came to support her brother and sister-in-law after Yanis was killed. “The children were playing among themselves, and they had their back to the road,” she said. “They did not hear the truck until just one second before it hit. It went up on the sidewalk; it struck Yanis and the mother of one of the other children with them.” The mother also died. There was no first aid nearby. Finally, Mr. Coviaux picked up his little boy and began walking with him until they found a person with a car who agreed to take them to the hospital. When they passed some firefighters, they stopped and asked them to try to revive him. But the child was dead. “He was my parents’ only grandson, the only grandson in the family,” Anaïs Coviaux said softly. She explained that her brother and his wife were too distraught to speak. “Yanis loved people,” she said. “He especially liked Sundays when all the family was gathered, and he would say, ‘Mamie and Papi, we are going to have a party.’” Later, Mr. Coviaux said in an email that “every single person that Yanis met in his short life fell in love with him.” The entire family gathered on the promenade Saturday to view the last sights he had seen. “It was important for us to come to the place he died to pay him a tribute,” Anaïs Coviaux said, “because we could not bear to say goodbye to him. We left a picture of him and flowers.” Identifying children and examining them has been difficult because of the level of trauma and because some were brought to the hospital without relatives, said Sylvie Serret, a child psychiatrist at the Lenval Foundation hospital, which treated at least 30 injured children on Thursday night. “A lot of the children coming in were in a state of shock; they were not speaking, for instance,” she said. Image A memorial on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice on Saturday. Credit Andrew Testa for The New York Times An emergency room nurse at Pasteur Hospital, Mejdi Chemakhi, cared for several children, including a boy and a girl who had been brought in without their parents. The boy was 4, Mr. Chemakhi said, and the girl was 6. The boy, Mr. Chemakhi recounted, spoke in a flat tone, apparently in shock. “My mummy is dead, but my daddy is still alive,” he recalled the boy saying over and over. The boy, expressionless, finally said, “I am tired, I need to sleep, I have no clothes,” Mr. Chemakhi recalled. “So I took him in my arms and tried to console him,” he said. “You don’t really know what else to do in those situations. It is really important to make them feel safe.” Later that night, a wounded man was brought to the hospital and told Mr. Chemakhi that he had lost his wife and could not find his children, a boy and a girl. Mr. Chemakhi realized the three belonged together and helped reunite them. On the Promenade des Anglais on Saturday, there were memorials of flowers and notes, sometimes every few feet, to mark where people had lost their lives. Nathalie Russo, 30, a Muslim who wears a hijab, came with her mother to retrace the steps she and her children, 5-year-old Mayssa and 2-year-old Emine, took on Thursday night. “My daughter is telling me that she does not want to see fireworks again,” Ms. Russo said, adding, “She kept asking me, ‘How did the bad people get from Paris to Nice?’” “She thought the man who did this was one of those who attacked the Bataclan,” she said, “and he had come here to do the same thing.” The Bataclan is the Paris concert hall where 90 people were shot dead by three Islamic State operatives on Nov. 13, when a total of 130 people were killed in and around Paris by terrorists. Some mothers and fathers who had not been near the fireworks brought their children to see the memorials on Saturday as a way of expressing unity with the community and defiance toward the terrorists. Nour Hamila, a Nice native who has converted to Islam, made a point of bringing her three children, who are 8, 5 and 3. “I told them not to be afraid because that’s what the terrorists want; we have to support each other,” she said as her 5-year-old son, Mohamed, placed flowers on one of the memorials. It is harder for those children who witnessed the killings. For Ms. Kamel’s 12-year-old son, Haroun, the moment is etched in his mind. “We saw it from far away, a white truck in this black night,” she said. She recalled thinking that the truck did not belong there because the street was closed to traffic. Her son and her friend’s 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter were playing and laughing. Then the driver accelerated and began to veer from one side of the road to the other, “plowing into people,” she said. Somehow she pushed herself and her son onto the sidewalk as the truck neared. Then it passed, and all she remembers was her son saying, “Mama, Mama, you must come to help the people.” She looked at the road and recognized a neighbor who was kneeling next to her husband, wailing his name. Ms. Kamel told her son to go with her friend and the other children. Everything was silent. “There was just this terrible wind,” she said. “To the left you saw bodies; you looked right and saw bodies; there were strollers, and people trying to save other people.” After trying to comfort her neighbor, she looked for her son, but by then the crowds were running, and it was chaos. Hours later, when she found him and her friend, her son said, “Mama, did you manage to save the man?” Ms. Kamel responded that the emergency services had come for him. “You know, children don’t have a global vision,” she said. “He saw all those corpses, but for him, the one at his feet was supposed to be saved.”

Terrorism
Children
Nice
France
Nice Attack