District Attorney’s Boycott of a Judge Raises Issues

Abstract: Every Wednesday, prosecutors in Santa Clara County take part in a weekly ritual: as the new judges’ calendar goes online, they begin signing affidavit after affidavit to block cases from going before Judge Andrea Bryan. Since January, more than 100 cases originally assigned to Judge Bryan have been transferred to other judges in the San Jose courthouse at the request of the district attorney’s office. The district attorney, Dolores Carr, explained: “Our aim is to have our cases heard by a judge who will give us a fair shake.” While there had been earlier friction between Judge Bryan and Ms. Carr, the catalyst for the boycott came in January when Judge Bryan freed a convicted child molester. She ruled that a deputy district attorney on the case had lied about evidence and committed other “outrageous” acts of misconduct. In practice, a request for a judge to recuse herself is rare; it is almost never approached with the kind of single-minded ferocity seen in San Jose. There the effort has complicated the daily routine of administering justice and raised concerns that the prosecutor is exercising undue influence to sway judicial decisions. “If this is taken to its logical conclusion, you are talking about criminal defendants’ appearing before the judge chosen by the D.A,” said James Sample, a professor at the Hofstra Law School and the co-author of a 2008 report on recusal reform from New York University’s School of Law. “It’s turning the scalpel of recusal into a chain saw to undermine judicial independence.” A California law, mirrored in 18 states, gives parties a one-time right to insist that a judge recuse herself. The legal term is “peremptory challenge.” Colloquially, it is called “papering.” The challenges have stirred up judges in all corners of this courthouse, where personal histories and professional relationships have been intertwined for decades. Judge Bryan has been a prosecutor. Ms. Carr has been a judge. Many of the judges, prosecutors and public defenders have dealt with one another repeatedly over the years. Many face re-election periodically. Among legal scholars, the papering of a judge by ongoing players, whether a district attorney or a public defender, is frowned on. The judiciary typically handles the assignment of cases as it sees fit, and interference can appear to challenge judges’ independence. A boycott of one judge can be viewed as a warning to all. One judge felt so moved by the situation that he spoke from the bench about Judge Bryan. “I look to my colleague, who is now a subject of much public debate and in some quarters ridicule, and wonder whether or not I would have the courage to do what I thought was right,” Judge Eugene Hyman said last month as he made a ruling exonerating a man charged with murder. In the squat buildings in Santa Clara County’s civic center, the events have polarized what was already an adversarial process. For Ms. Carr, who is facing re-election in June, the fundamental issue may revolve around two people: Augustine Uribe, the convicted molester, and Troy Benson, her deputy, whom Judge Bryan accused of deceit. In 2006, Mr. Uribe was convicted of molesting his granddaughter and was sentenced to 38 years to life in prison. When video evidence of the girl’s medical examination emerged afterward — evidence that, the defense said, cast doubt on the conviction — Judge Bryan made her ruling. Mr. Uribe’s defense lawyer had argued that Mr. Uribe should not face retrial because his rights had been violated and asserted that Mr. Benson had lied and withheld information about the videotapes. In January, Judge Bryan agreed. She wrote in her opinion: “Mr. Benson’s numerous acts of misconduct, culminating with his false testimony in this proceeding, strikes at the foundation of our legal system and is so grossly shocking and outrageous that it offends the universal sense of justice to allow prosecution in this matter to proceed.” Mr. Benson faces an investigation by the state bar association that could lead to his suspension or disbarment. Mr. Uribe has been set free, although he may face retrial. Mr. Benson did not respond to requests for an interview. Judge Bryan declined to comment. In an interview, Ms. Carr said that her office had previous concerns about some of Judge Bryan’s rulings, which she declined to detail. The Uribe decision was “the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she said. After the ruling, Ms. Carr met with the court’s presiding judge, Jamie A. Jacobs-May, to lobby for Judge Bryan’s reassignment. Nothing changed and the papering campaign began. A 1957 state law gives any party involved in a case one chance to challenge a judicial assignment without giving a reason. It was upheld by the State Supreme Court in 1977, although the justices expressed “disapproval” of blanket challenges. In San Jose at least, the affidavits to bar a judge from hearing a case go directly to the judge in question, who is not permitted to ask the reason for the request. The weekly ritual of papering by the district attorney’s office has its mirror image in the office of Judge Philip Pennypacker, the supervising judge in the criminal division. His ritual involves keeping Judge Bryan busy with a few criminal cases that are exempt from the boycott. “We’re trying our best to deal with the roadblock thrown in our way,” Judge Pennypacker said. Ms. Carr is not alone in challenging a judge. Judges in San Diego County have reported that District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis papered them. A former judge, Ms. Dumanis said the challenges were not personal and were analogous to being called for jury duty and not being picked. While individual lawyers in Santa Clara County have asked judges to recuse themselves, the sheer number of challenges against Judge Bryan is believed to be unprecedented. In 2000, lawyers in the public defender’s office papered Judge Joyce Allegro, who had sat on a board of a victims advocacy group, to prevent her from hearing cases involving domestic violence. Judge Allegro was reassigned. Ms. Carr said there was little outrage then, although few knew about the papering until The San Jose Mercury News disclosed it several years later. Mary Greenwood, the county’s public defender, said there was a fundamental difference between challenges from the public defender and those from the prosecution. In criminal cases, the prosecution brings the judges their business. “The use of this tool can effectively force a judge out of the criminal division,” she said. “No other institution or individual has the power to do that. It creates an imbalance of power in the criminal justice system.” Alfonso Lopez, who was Mr. Uribe’s defense lawyer, said the fallout from Judge Bryan’s ruling had surprised him. “Now I understand why judges are afraid,” Mr. Lopez said. “It makes me think we are in a dictatorship.” The challenges have become an issue in Ms. Carr’s re-election campaign. In a debate, her opponent, Jeff Rosen, a deputy district attorney in her office, called the papering “un-American.” The decision, Mr. Rosen said, “does nothing for child molestation victims, nothing for Mr. Benson and nothing for my prosecutor colleagues’ going forward as we appear before an appropriately offended judiciary.” He added that he would refrain from such actions. Ms. Carr said she did not expect her challenge to Judge Bryan to influence judges’ decisions. “I have more faith in my colleagues on the bench to continue making decisions they think are right,” she said. “To imply that judges on our court may be somehow frightened doesn’t give them enough credit.” Among the judges, keeping Judge Bryan involves complicated logistics. Reassigning her other judges’ criminal cases has led to more roadblocks. Recently, she has been hearing a child molestation case, which was exempt from a peremptory challenge because she has heard an aspect of the case before. Once the jury is selected, the trial is expected to last three weeks. It is unclear if other major cases will be available to her.

District Attorneys
Boycotts
Public Defenders
Decisions and Verdicts
San Jose (Calif)


S.E.C. Charges 3 Ex-Officials Of Diebold With Fraud

Abstract: The Securities and Exchange Commission is pursuing fraud charges against three former executives of Diebold , a maker of A.T.M.’s, after reaching a $25 million settlement with the company on Wednesday. The agency filed civil charges against Gregory Geswein, Kevin Krakora and Sandra Miller, saying that they had manipulated the company’s books to meet earnings forecasts from 2002 through 2007. Mr. Geswein was a chief financial officer, Mr. Krakora was a controller and finance chief, and Ms. Miller was director of corporate accounting. Through their lawyers, the three disputed the S.E.C.’s charges. Diebold’s former chief executive, Walden O’Dell, agreed to pay back about $470,000 in cash, plus stock and options. He was not charged with fraud or other violations of securities laws, but the government was allowed to recapture his compensation under the so-called clawback provision of the 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley law.

Securities and Exchange Commission
Diebold Inc
Securities and Commodities Violations
Frauds and Swindling


I.R.S. Official Will Decline to Testify Before House Panel

Abstract: WASHINGTON — The Internal Revenue Service official who tried to temper efforts to target conservative groups and then made the issue public will plead her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and decline to testify at a House hearing on Wednesday. The official, Lois Lerner, who heads the I.R.S.’s division on tax-exempt organizations, is scheduled to appear before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, whose leaders have accused her of lying to them. The committee’s chairman is Representative Darrell Issa, the California Republican who helped start the investigation of I.R.S. efforts to single out for special scrutiny Tea Party and other conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status. “The committee has been contacted by Ms. Lerner’s lawyer, who stated that his client intended to invoke her Fifth Amendment right and refuse to answer questions,” the committee’s spokesman, Ali Ahmad, said Tuesday. He said that Ms. Lerner remained under subpoena to appear at the hearing, and that Mr. Issa “remains hopeful that she will ultimately decide to testify tomorrow about her knowledge of outrageous I.R.S. targeting of Americans for their political beliefs.” In a letter to the committee, her lawyer, William W. Taylor III, wrote that Ms. Lerner had committed no crime or made any misrepresentations, but “under the circumstances she has no choice but to take this course.” On May 10, when Ms. Lerner first apologized for the targeting, she told reporters that she had learned of the improprieties from news reports in early 2012. But a Treasury inspector general’s audit indicated that she knew far earlier than that and tried to broaden the scope of the targeting efforts to include liberal as well as conservative groups. Her decision on testifying, first disclosed by The Los Angeles Times , came on the same day that two of her superiors at the I.R.S. appeared before the Senate Finance Committee and said they never discussed the targeting issue with Obama administration officials outside the agency during the campaign year of 2012. Steven T. Miller, the departing I.R.S. chief, joined the commissioner who ran the agency during the targeting of the conservative groups in saying that he never told Obama administration officials about the added scrutiny, either those at the Treasury Department or at the White House. The hearing, the first in the Senate on the matter, underscored how the targeting was disclosed. Mr. Miller took responsibility for planting a question May 10 at a closed-door meeting with tax lawyers that prompted the revelation about the targeting, an awkward step that led to the inquiries now moving ahead on Capitol Hill. Image J. Russell George, a Treasury inspector general, said he would look into how the I.R.S. enforced a law on tax-exempt groups. Credit Drew Angerer for The New York Times The hearing shed little new light on the origins of the targeting efforts or on whether the matter was known outside the independent I.R.S. Democrats on the committee pressed their case that Congress needed to step in with clearer rules that prevent tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations from primarily engaging in electoral politics. Republicans on the committee repeatedly pressed Mr. Miller and Douglas H. Shulman, who led the service from 2008 to 2012, on what they had shared with Treasury and White House officials. Each time, the men said they had shared nothing. But J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general for tax administration, made it clear that the issue and the underlying question about tax-exempt organizations would not go away soon. Mr. George told lawmakers that he would soon open a new inquiry into how the I.R.S. enforces the law that designates 501(c)(4) tax exemptions for social welfare organizations. If another look at political targeting is warranted, he said, he will do that too. “Suffice it to say this matter is not over, as far as we are concerned,” Mr. George said. For the first time in the case, the House hearing will include an administration official outside the I.R.S., Deputy Treasury Secretary Neal S. Wolin. Mr. Wolin learned of the inspector general’s audit into the targeting effort in the summer of 2012, and Republicans want him to say what he did with that information. But the House inquiry will probably focus more on the I.R.S.’s investigation into the issue in the spring of 2012, which brought detailed accounts of the misconduct to the top echelon of the I.R.S. that May. House Republicans want to refocus the questioning around events during the election year, when, they contend, the matter was kept under wraps to avoid the political fallout and hamper Republican groups. In March 2012, Mr. Miller, then the I.R.S.’s deputy commissioner for enforcement, dispatched an adviser, Nancy J. Marks, to the Cincinnati field office to investigate possible improprieties. Holly Paz, an I.R.S. official whom the House committee is seeking to interview, assisted with the inquiry. Ms. Marks presented findings to Mr. Miller on May 3, 2012, that found “a substantial bias against conservative groups,” according to the committee staff, a conclusion the inspector general would not reach for another year. Mr. Shulman indicated Tuesday that he had been aware of those findings. Republicans are not satisfied that those conclusions could have been kept from the broader Obama administration for nearly a year. The new details that emerged Tuesday revolved around who knew what over the last few weeks, a less politically charged time frame than 2012. Mr. Miller told the Senate Finance Committee that top I.R.S. officials knew that an inspector general’s audit was pending that would accuse the agency of misconduct. The agency wanted to pre-empt those findings, he said. “We thought we’d get out an apology,” Mr. Miller said. “Obviously, the entire thing was an incredibly bad idea.”

Internal Revenue Service Political Profiling


So Far, So Bad: Injury to Russell Westbrook Further Depletes Oklahoma City

Abstract: LOS ANGELES — Before the night was finished, and the Oklahoma City Thunder were down to eight healthy players, including players named Andre Roberson and Lance Thomas and a lone point guard who spent last season in China, General Manager Sam Presti had petitioned the N.B.A. for help. Perhaps LeBron James on his days off? Maybe a merger with the Lakers? Or simply a call to Seattle asking if the city wanted its team back. The Thunder, whose chances of contending this season are tied to the health of the league’s reigning most valuable player, Kevin Durant, and his fiery sidekick, Russell Westbrook, are about to learn what it is like to play with a pair of superstars tied behind their back. Durant, expected to be out six more weeks with a broken foot, will be joined in street clothes by Westbrook, who broke a metacarpal bone in his right hand Thursday night in a 93-90 loss to the Los Angeles Clippers. Westbrook, who left the game in the second quarter, was examined further Friday after the team’s return home. Presti said that Westbrook would be examined again Saturday and that surgery was an option. But this kind of injury, familiar to baseball players who are hit in the hand by a pitch, typically takes four to six weeks to heal. The Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez missed just over six weeks as a result of such an injury in 2012. “I don’t want to start thinking about that yet,” Thunder Coach Scott Brooks said after the game, which followed a season-opening loss at Portland the previous night. “I’ll think about that tonight as I leave the arena.” The Thunder’s injury woes do not end with their two best players. Joining Durant on the bench with a matching walking boot was the first-round pick Mitch McGary (broken foot), who sat between Anthony Morrow (knee sprain) and Grant Jerrett (ankle surgery). Reggie Jackson (sprained ankle) and Jeremy Lamb (lower back sprain) did not accompany the team, but Jackson — and maybe Lamb — could return Saturday against Denver. Image Kevin Durant, right, is expected to be out six more weeks with a broken foot, and will be joined in street clothes by an injured Russell Westbrook. Credit Steve Dykes/Getty Images “It’s really just pretty unbelievable,” said Nick Collison, the veteran forward. “It’s not funny at all, but you almost have to laugh about it because there’s so many guys.” A team that was just beginning to cope with the loss of Durant now must recalibrate again. Before the game, center Kendrick Perkins, who has been replaced in the starting lineup by Steven Adams, said that he would not be surprised if Westbrook, who scored 38 points against Portland, led the league in scoring. He compared him to Allen Iverson, with better athleticism. Afterward, Perkins was hoping the Thunder, in the stacked Western Conference, could cling to .500 until Durant and Westbrook returned. “We’ve got to make sure we stay afloat,” Perkins said. That will take some doing. If Durant is the Thunder’s engine, Westbrook is its coal. But while his fiery attitude can spark the team, he can also lead it off the rails. He showed a little of both sides Thursday, pounding Roberson in the chest after a layup at one point but stopping to confront a heckler on the way to the locker room at another. “I guess I got under his skin,” said the fan, Erik Torres, who sat above the exit tunnel. “I’ve sat courtside and never had a player respond like that.” If there is a saving grace for the Thunder, it is the schedule. Of their next 27 games, only seven will be against teams that reached the playoffs last season, though they also play Cleveland, which has added LeBron James and Kevin Love. There is no San Antonio, Dallas or Chicago, not even a Miami. But there is a heavy dose of Sacramento, Utah and Milwaukee. Presti is asking the N.B.A. for an injury hardship exception, which would allow the team to add players who would not count against the 15-man roster limit. To qualify, the Thunder must have four or more players who are out at least two weeks. But the league told Oklahoma City the exemption could not start until after the third game. So reinforcements could arrive Monday, when the Thunder visit the Nets. Few of the additions will be any more recognizable than some of the players the Thunder used Thursday. Image On the injury list, he joins his fellow Oklahoma City star Kevin Durant, near left with Coach Scott Brooks. Credit Frederic J. Brown/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Perry Jones, a talented but enigmatic forward, scored a career-high 32 points, and Roberson proved a scrappy defender. The injuries will provide a larger platform for power forward Serge Ibaka, who barely missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have forced overtime. But the most intriguing figure the Thunder can turn to is their only point guard at the moment, Sebastian Telfair, who a decade ago was a Sports Illustrated cover subject as a high school star at Brooklyn’s Lincoln High School. Telfair, who is 6 feet, was something of a test case when in 2004 he became the rare small point guard to make the leap straight to the N.B.A. He has had a nomadic career in the league, the Thunder being his eighth team (he had two stops in Minnesota). He spent last season playing in China. He signed on with Oklahoma City in part because, in more than a decade, he has never been to the N.B.A. playoffs. “We’ve got to put a lot more pressure on ourselves and execute everything Coach has asked us to do,” said Telfair, who has played with a sprained thumb. “The pace may be a little slower than what I’m used to, but I get it.” It was striking how differently the Thunder played without Westbrook and Durant. They sprinkled in some zone defense for the first time in memory, said Collison, who has been with the team since it was in Seattle as the SuperSonics. The offense could not have looked more different. Brooks has often been criticized, especially in the playoffs, for a system that puts the ball in the hands of his best players but features little movement. On Thursday, the ball moved crisply at times, Ibaka popping out for a 3-pointer and Telfair losing Chris Paul behind a screen for another 3-pointer, which brought Oklahoma City to within 89-88 with 1 minute 44 seconds left. But when the game was there for the taking, the Thunder had a pair of turnovers and two more misses by Telfair — one while fading away in the lane from the Clippers’ shot-blocking center, DeAndre Jordan. Westbrook left the locker room before it was opened to reporters. Durant, as he exited shortly after, had little to add. “I don’t know what to say,” he said. “I’m just a bystander today.” On this team, he has plenty of company.

Russell Westbrook
Oklahoma City Thunder
Kevin Durant
Mitch McGary
Reggie Jackson
Jeremy Lamb
Nick Collison
Basketball
Perry Jones III


Air Controller Strike in France Causes Cancellations

Abstract: PARIS — The scene at Charles de Gaulle Airport on Tuesday underscored an all-too-familiar trope about France. With air traffic controllers on strike, tourists from around the world arrived in Paris to find themselves stranded, many unable to make connecting flights to other parts of the Continent. The three-day strike, which began Tuesday, sought to protest a proposal to accelerate the integration of air traffic management systems across the Continent. But for some it mainly served to highlight France’s stubborn singularity, which has made the country increasingly uncompetitive in European and global marketplaces. “These strikes always happen, especially during the months of June and July,” said Britt-Marie Stromer, a 70-year-old Swedish retiree. “It doesn’t work like this in other European countries.” Some 1,800 flights — roughly half of all scheduled flights — were canceled across the country Tuesday, while hundreds more were delayed and disrupted by the spillover in Europe. French aviation officials said they expected as many as 50 percent of flights to be canceled again Wednesday until at least midday Thursday. The controllers are protesting Brussels’s plans to accelerate the integration of the European Union’s fragmented air space, meant to improve transportation efficiency and lower the cost of air travel. The terminals at Paris area airports were largely calm, because most airlines had managed to warn passengers well in advance. But many travelers still had not gotten the word. But many passengers said they could not comprehend why France, one of Europe’s biggest tourist destinations, appeared so resistant to changes that economists say have the potential to bolster travel and, with it, economic growth. “I’m on vacation, which is supposed to be a relaxing time,” said Brittany Beaton, a 28-year-old social worker from Canada who had planned to fly to Barcelona. An alternative flight Air France offered her was too expensive, she said, “so I’m going to try to take a train.” French airports, airlines and traffic controllers tend to have the reputation of being more strike-prone than their European peers. In reality, analysts say, a number of similarly disruptive labor actions have been undertaken in recent years by workers in Germany, Spain and Britain. Nonetheless, Tuesday’s events seemed to follow mounting opposition by workers in other sectors of the French economy who continue to resist structural changes aimed at shaving labor and operating costs. While it was hard to tell on Tuesday, the government of France’s Socialist president, François Hollande, says it actually strongly supports the idea of a unified regional airspace. But French officials do not like the way Brussels is trying to cajole its 27 member states toward that goal. Since the fall, Siim Kallas, the European transport commissioner, has been trying to turn up the heat on member states like France that are seen to be dragging their feet. It was a decade ago that European officials proposed legislation to replace a crazy quilt of air traffic control fiefs that officials say account for about $6.5 billion in unnecessary costs each year. The measure was passed by the European Parliament in 2009 and subsequently endorsed by France and all other member states. Last year, Mr. Kallas threatened legal action and fines against member states for not meeting key milestones of the legislation. On Tuesday, he proposed ways to to inject fresh momentum into the process by granting significant new decision-making powers to Eurocontrol, an agency in Brussels that is already responsible for coordinating air traffic flows across the Union and an additional 12 nearby countries. His proposals include a measure to separate national regulation of air travel from traffic management services, as well as a mandate that state-owned monopoly providers of navigation, weather forecasting, surveillance and other services be privatized. But Mr. Kallas’s proposals require approval from the European Parliament and member states. It is these proposals that have angered Paris. In an interview Tuesday, France’s transport minister, Frédéric Cuvillier, said the initiative amounted to “regulatory harassment.” He accused Brussels of trying to rush through one-size-fits-all changes that did not take into account differences in the way member states have historically managed their own airspace. “It is necessary that these things happen in a spirit of respect for differences in national organization,” Mr. Cuvillier said. “We have to give it time.” And just to show France was not alone, Mr. Cuvillier said he had persuaded his German counterpart, Peter Ramsauer, to sign a joint letter to Mr. Kallas, asking him to delay presenting his new proposals to the European Parliament. But Mr. Kallas said France, Germany and others have already had plenty of time. “Our airlines and their passengers have had to endure more than 10 years of reduced services and missed deadlines,” he said Tuesday in Strasbourg. “We need to boost the competitiveness of the European aviation sector and create more jobs in the airlines and at airports.” For passengers like Alexander Eliassem, a 38-year-old Norwegian, patience with France’s philosophy was wearing thin on Tuesday. He and his exhausted family were off to search for a place to stay for the night after their Lufthansa flight to Oslo was canceled. “I have a 9-year-old child with me so, yes, it’s a little difficult,” Mr. Eliassem said. He said the airline would partly reimburse him, but only if he stayed in a hotel of no more than three stars in the notoriously generous rating system. “This is France, so that isn’t saying much.”

France
Air traffic control
Strikes Labor
EU
Airlines,airplanes


David Cameron Defends Flood Record as Northern England Is Drenched

Abstract: LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron walked the flooded streets of York on Monday as Britain’s Environment Agency warned that the country needed “a complete rethink” of its flood defenses. Thousands of people in the north of England spent another day dealing with what they called unprecedented flooding , with roads in York and in nearby Leeds still underwater and some electricity cut off. David Rooke, the deputy chief executive of the Environment Agency, said that “we are moving from known extremes to unknown extremes.” Some scientists speculated that the effects of climate change could be evident in a year of record flooding. “We are having more severe floods in the U.K. than 10 years ago,” said Reza Ahmadian, a lecturer on water management at Cardiff University. “This is not something just happening in the U.K. — and we will see more and more of this.” He added, “We need to be more creative about flood defenses.” Mr. Ahmadian suggested that building temporary reservoirs for flood relief in less populated areas could be more effective than building ever-higher and more expensive flood walls, which “just create further problems downstream.” Mr. Cameron defended the government’s record on flood defenses, saying that it had committed to spending 2.3 billion pounds, about $3.4 billion, over the next six years and that he would consider doing more. Image A bar window held back floodwaters from the rivers Foss and Ouse on Monday in York. Prime Minister David Cameron defended the country's flood defenses. Credit Justin Tallis/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “Let’s have a look and see whether more needs to be done and whether the flood defenses need to be made even higher than they are already,” he told Sky News . Over the weekend, he had deployed several hundred soldiers to help with flood defenses. Officials in Leeds, about 25 miles southwest of York, criticized Mr. Cameron for not coming there and said his government blocked a more expensive flood-prevention plan in 2011. Judith Blake, the Labour Party leader of Leeds City Council, said the government had favored the south of England over the north, echoing the Yorkshire Evening Post, which wrote on its front page on Monday , “A northern powerhouse is nothing when it is under several feet of mucky water.” Mr. Cameron rejected the claims of southern bias. “We spend more per head of the population on flood defenses in the north than we do in the south,” he said. “The key thing is to spend the money where it is needed.” There was a lull in the heavy rain on Monday, and the Environment Agency said river levels were stabilizing or starting to fall. But nine severe flood warnings remained in place, and more rain was expected Wednesday. Estimates of the cost of this recent flooding reached up to several billion pounds. Extreme weather events are becoming more common, and more expensive, representatives of the British insurance industry said. “Flood events have become more likely than 20 to 30 years ago,” said Malcolm Tarling, a spokesman for the Association of British Insurers, an industry group. “What was once classified as extreme is now being classified as normal.” The group estimated that flooding in Cumbria in northwest England this month would cost insurers about £520 million. More recent flooding had the potential to cost more because flooded areas like the center of York and parts of Leeds include more businesses, Mr. Tarling said, and the average business insurance claim is higher than the average household claim.

David Cameron
Flood
England
York
Leeds
Weather
Great Britain
Met Office


In Washington, Brisk Sales for First Look at Strasburg

Abstract: Stephen Strasburg has yet to throw a pitch for the Washington Nationals , but he already is being hailed in the news media, at the box office and online as the team’s savior. So far, Strasburg, the college phenomenon who was the No. 1 overall draft pick last year, has lived up to expectations — and to his record $15.1 million contract. Considered by some scouts as the best pitching prospect in decades, Strasburg, with a 100-mile-per-hour fastball, was 7-2 with a 1.30 earned run average in 11 starts in the minor leagues this season. Fans in Washington have been swept up in the hoopla. They have scooped up tickets to Strasburg’s major league debut Tuesday against the Pittsburgh Pirates, and some of them have been trying to resell those tickets online for hundreds and even thousands of dollars. The game is a rare sellout for the Nationals, and requests for news media credentials have reached World Series proportions. The buzz has not stopped there. A baseball card of Strasburg recently sold for more than $16,000 on eBay . Versus, the cable network known for covering the N.H.L., last week broadcast Strasburg’s final tuneup in the minor leagues, the first baseball game shown by the network. Though he has not taken the mound in the major leagues, Strasburg is owned by 86 percent of players in Yahoo’s fantasy baseball leagues, the same percentage who own San Francisco’s Barry Zito, who has six wins this season. “It’s captured everyone’s imagination,” Stan Kasten, the president of the Nationals, said of Strasburg. “This is the biggest thing since the inauguration.” Because of the volume of interview requests, the Nationals limited access to Strasburg, fueling his mystique further, Kasten said. Sales of Strasburg’s jersey at Nationals Park have been brisk throughout the year, he added. Strasburg, of course, is not the first new arrival to make a splash. About 150 members of the news media, 4 Japanese television crews and 50,000 fans came to see Jim Abbott, who was born with no right hand, start his first game at Anaheim Stadium in 1989. Four years later, he threw a no-hitter for the Yankees. About 36,000 fans came to see David Clyde make his debut for the Texas Rangers in 1973. Clyde ended up winning the game, but he earned only 18 career victories in five seasons because of arm trouble. In the Washington area, the excitement about Strasburg has caught many Nationals fans off guard. Tickets are often so plentiful and cheap that fans often buy their seats at the stadium on game day. This season, the Nationals have averaged 21,600 fans, half their stadium’s capacity and 24th in the league. Like many Nationals fans, R. J. Robinson, who lives in Reston, Va., has eagerly awaited Strasburg’s arrival. He says he sees the Nationals play at home about 10 times a year and usually decides whether to go based on the opponent and the weather on the day of the game. When tickets to Strasburg’s debut sold out in advance, Robinson bought a package that included two $34 tickets to the game, seats to two other games of his choice and vouchers for tickets to a fourth game. He will also receive a Nationals cap, part of a sponsor’s promotion . “I thought it was a pretty brilliant idea on their part to make sure that real fans were in the seats instead of scalpers buying up all the tickets,” Robinson said. Robinson ended up spending $204, more than he expected. He thought about reselling his tickets to the Strasburg game on the hunch that the profit would be enough to cover the cost of the entire ticket plan. But when he went online to resell his tickets, he discovered that many fans had the same idea. Indeed, the average price of second-hand tickets to Tuesday’s game hit a peak of $109.73, according to FanSnap, a Web site that surveys more than 50 online ticket resellers. But because so many tickets flooded the market, the average price has since fallen to $68.73. Ticket holders might have also felt burned. Some fans bought tickets to the Nationals game on Wednesday believing Strasburg would pitch then. As a result, the average ticket price jumped to $132.72, according to FanSnap.com . After it was announced that Strasburg would start Tuesday, the average price of tickets to Wednesday’s game plunged, to $22.52. Still, Strasburg’s addition to the roster, and the team’s improved record (27-31), is likely to buoy prices for a while.

Washington Nationals
Baseball
Strasburg Stephen
Draft and Recruitment (Sports)


Fungus May Be Cause of Die-Offs in Bats, Researchers Say

Abstract: Something is killing the little brown bats of the Northeast, and researchers may have fingered the culprit: a fungus. David S. Blehert of the United States Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Wisconsin and colleagues identified a fungus linked to white-nose syndrome, a condition that has affected bats in recent winters in upstate New York, Massachusetts and Vermont. The fungus, a newly described member of the genus Geomyces, is unusual in that it grows in the cold, dotting areas of the bat’s skin with white strands. It penetrates the skin through hair follicles and sweat glands and may cause the bats to starve as they hibernate, the researchers said. “We do have good circumstantial evidence that this could be the primary pathogen” causing the deaths of large percentages of populations of little browns and other bats in caves in the region , Dr. Blehert said. The die-offs are one of the worst calamities to hit bats in the United States. It had been thought that the fungus was a secondary symptom of whatever was killing the animals — a virus or a toxin like an environmental contaminant. But the fact that the identical organism was found in bats from several caves “kind of rules out the possibility that there are all kinds of fungi out there and that opportunistically they are infecting the animals,” said Alan C. Hicks of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, a co-author of a paper on the fungus published online by Science . Dr. Blehert said the infection could have led to starvation because of the way bats hibernate — they cycle through two-week stages of deep torpor interrupted by brief wakeful periods. The fungal infection may make the bats wake up more often, and since each period of wakefulness uses up vast stores of fat, the bats may deplete their energy reserves much sooner than normal. More research is needed to determine how to combat the die-offs, but one thing is clear, Dr. Blehert said: just spraying a cave with fungicide could do more harm than good. “Wiping out all the fungal organisms in a cave probably would be a bad idea,” he said.

Bats
Fungi
Caves and Caverns
Science and Technology


Kansas Schools Fight Plays Out Against Backdrop of Debate on Judiciary

Abstract: TOPEKA, Kan. — This state’s judicial and legislative branches are on course for a constitutional clash after a state appellate court suggested that it might block a school financing plan that lawmakers passed. The plan, championed by the conservative-dominated Legislature and the Republican governor, Sam Brownback, cut tens of millions of dollars in aid intended to close disparities between rich and poor districts. The measure passed this month even as a three-judge panel hinted that it might stay the measure while it determines whether the Legislature was breaching its financial obligations. Republican leaders have denounced the court as overstepping its bounds. “Anybody with an elementary understanding of separation of powers should be shocked to have one branch of government come over and say they’re going to impede the process of the other,” said State Senator Ty Masterson, the Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee. “That’d be no different than us passing a law that says, ‘You can render an opinion, but if we do not agree with it, it shall not be published.’ It’s ridiculous on its face.” The legal wrangling over the roughly $4 billion measure taps into a larger debate over Kansas’ judiciary, as Mr. Brownback seeks greater power in selecting the state’s Supreme Court justices. The controversy also speaks to the state’s larger budget battle, with moderate Republicans and Democrats saying that large income tax cuts shepherded through by the governor have hampered the state’s ability to pay for essential services. Critics also say the bill, which finances schools through a block grant, flies in the face of the State Constitution and subverts previous court rulings that the state was not adequately financing its K-12 school system. Just a year ago, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that lawmakers needed to provide additional aid to poorer districts, and the Legislature passed a law to do that. The ruling stemmed from a years-old lawsuit filed against the state by school districts and parents arguing that education was underfunded. But months later, when schools calculated their budgets, it became clear that the legislation would cost more than lawmakers had anticipated. So they scaled back on the additional aid to poorer districts by revising the so-called equalization formula, and passed it as part of the new block grant bill, which Mr. Brownback is expected to sign. “I think those that were pushing this bill thought that it would somehow derail the lawsuit, and it does no such thing,” said John S. Robb, a lawyer for the school districts and parents suing the state. “It’s even more unconstitutional, and this bill destroys the equity solution that we all thought we had last May.” The bill establishes a block grant to allocate money to districts through 2017. It sets aside a broader decades-old formula that has been used to determine the overall amount of money that the state provided to schools. Supporters of the block grant approach say it is a necessary timeout from the current system, and that it will give lawmakers a chance to rewrite the school financing formula to make it more current and applicable to present-day conditions. But critics say there is nothing wrong with the formula and that the problem all along has been that the Legislature simply has not allocated enough money. Two years ago, a district court ruled that lawmakers needed to add about $440 million to education funding to satisfy constitutional requirements. The State Supreme Court is still considering this element of the lawsuit. The block grant provides roughly the same level of overall state aid for schools — going to $4.17 billion in 2017 from $3.98 billion this year, though most of that increase is going to teacher pensions. Opponents say the block grant locks in spending and, therefore, does not provide for flexibility to get additional money for things like increasing enrollment or providing for additional special needs students. But supporters say that the bill, meant to be a stopgap measure while a new school funding formula is worked out, establishes a fund that districts could tap if they needed additional money. And they say the block grant frees districts to use various cash reserves set aside for nonclassroom expenses on classroom-related needs. “It’s taken away the micromanagement that had occurred from the state,” said Shawn Sullivan, the governor’s budget director. Yet the most controversial part of the block grant is the reduction by about $63 million of money intended to help poorer districts. “This bill is defying the court order that we’re under right now,” said State Senator Anthony Hensley, the Democratic leader. The bill cleared the House by just seven votes, 64 to 57, with 31 Republicans voting against it. The Senate passed it 25 to 14 last Monday. The measure ignored “the changing needs of our students,” said a written statement by three Republican representatives, Melissa Rooker, Barbara Bollier and Diana Dierks. They said they had heard from hundreds of their constituents “and their message is clear: Vote no on this bill, fix our revenue problem and adequately fund our schools.” The district court scheduled a hearing for May to hear arguments on the issue of equalizing aid for poorer districts. In the meantime, the court said in an order issued last Friday that it “may agree or elect to impose such temporary orders to protect the status quo.” “In constitutional litigation, that very often includes a stay against the implementation of a law,” said Richard E. Levy, a constitutional law professor at the University of Kansas. The court also asked the plaintiffs to add certain defendants to the case, including the state’s treasurer and secretary of state, whom the court might need to rely on to carry out a stay. “I’m guilty before I had a chance to plead my case because you’re the one who says I’m a defendant,” said State Representative Scott Schwab, a Republican, adding that the case needed to be appealed to the federal courts. The latest court order has only raised longstanding tensions between judges and Republican lawmakers. Mr. Brownback has advocated moving closer to the federal model for appointing judges to the Supreme Court, in which he would make a nomination and the State Senate would vote on whether to confirm it, arguing that it would be a more democratic process. The governor also has suggested the possibility of going to direct elections for Supreme Court seats. Under the current system, the governor chooses from three nominees put forth by a nine-member committee that includes lawyers and appointees of the governor. But opponents of the governor’s plan say that Mr. Brownback’s intent is to make the court more conservative. During a recent budget hearing, State Representative Jerry Lunn, a Republican, asked a state judge to consider how the judiciary’s pocketbook might be affected if the courts ruled that more money needed to go toward the education system. “You will be forced to have dramatic cuts, and the judiciary is part of the rest of that pie,” Mr. Lunn said in an interview of his message to the judge. Later, he added, “I asked them, basically, ‘Do you understand the repercussions of that?’ It’s not a threat. It’s a reality.”

Kansas
Judiciary
Republicans
Sam Brownback
Budget
State supreme court
K-12 Education
State legislature


Supreme Court Ruling on Sentencing Yields Split Interpretations

Abstract: WASHINGTON — If people who are too young to vote commit crimes short of murder, the Supreme Court said in 2010, they should not be sentenced to die in prison. That sounds straightforward enough. But there are two ways to understand the decision, Graham v. Florida . One is formal. The court may have meant only to bar sentences labeled “life without parole.” On that understanding, judges remained free to impose very long sentences — 100 years, say — as long as they were for a fixed term rather than for life. That is how Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., in dissent, urged lower-court judges to interpret the decision. “Nothing in the court’s opinion affects the imposition of a sentence to a term of years without the possibility of parole,” he wrote. The other way to understand the decision is practical. If the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment requires that young offenders be left with a glimmer of hope that they may someday be released, it should not matter whether they were sentenced to life in so many words or as a matter of rudimentary actuarial math. The lower courts are split on how to interpret the Graham decision, and the Supreme Court seems to be in no hurry to answer the question. Last week, the justices turned away an appeal from Chaz Bunch of Ohio, who was convicted of kidnapping and raping a woman in a carjacking when he was 16. He was sentenced to 89 years. Even assuming he becomes eligible for early release, he will be 95 years old before he can leave prison. Image Chaz Bunch was given 89 years in prison. Credit Ohio State Penitentiary The United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, in Cincinnati, upheld the sentence , even as it acknowledged that there were two ways to approach the matter. “Some courts have held that such a sentence is a de facto life without parole sentence and therefore violates the spirit, if not the letter, of Graham,” Judge John M. Rogers wrote for a unanimous three-judge panel. “Other courts, however, have rejected the de facto life sentence argument, holding that Graham only applies to juvenile non-homicide offenders expressly sentenced to ‘life without parole.’ ” Until the Supreme Court speaks, Judge Rogers wrote, there is no “clearly established federal law” to assist Mr. Bunch, who was challenging his state conviction in federal court. Applying the reasoning of the Graham decision to long fixed sentences, Judge Rogers added, “would lead to a lot of questions.” An appeals court in Florida last year listed some of them in upholding a 76-year sentence meted out to Leighdon Henry, who was 16 when he committed rape. “At what number of years would the Eighth Amendment become implicated in the sentencing of a juvenile: 20, 30, 40, 50, some lesser or greater number?” Judge Jacqueline R. Griffin wrote for the court. Mr. Henry is black and was born in 1989. The life expectancy of black males born that year was 64, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . Life expectancy in prison is shorter than it is outside. Wherever the line is, then, a 76-year sentence would seem to be past it. “Could the number vary from offender to offender based on race, gender, socioeconomic class or other criteria?” Judge Griffin asked. Image Leighdon Henry was a teenager when he was given 76 years in prison. Credit Suwannee Correctional Institution That is a reasonable question. But Bryan Stevenson, the executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Ala., said it was the wrong one. “The idea isn’t to get the person as close to death as possible before you deal with the possibility of their release,” he said. It is, rather, to give juvenile offenders a sporting chance, perhaps after decades in prison, to make the case that they deserve to get out, he said. Those pleas might well be rejected, Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote for the majority in the Graham decision. But there ought to be, he said, “some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation.” So far, we have been talking about crimes that did not involve killings. Last year, in Miller v. Alabama , the Supreme Court struck down laws that required mandatory sentences of life without parole for juvenile offenders convicted of homicide. Judges remain free to mete out such sentences, but state laws cannot require them to do so. Judges must instead take account of the defendant’s age in the mix of sentencing factors. By international standards, the American approach to juvenile justice is an oddity. “There is no other country in which a person is serving a life-without-parole sentence for a crime committed before the age of 18,” said Alison Parker, the director of United States programs for Human Rights Watch . Before the Miller decision, there were about 2,500 juvenile offenders serving sentences of life without parole. The current number is hard to nail down, but it is presumably dropping. On Thursday, for instance, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered a new sentencing hearing for Kuntrell Jackson, who had received a mandatory life sentence for his involvement in a murder when he was 14. What was called for after the Miller decision, the court said, was “a discretionary sentencing range of not less than 10 years and not more than 40 years, or life.” The number of juvenile offenders serving de facto life terms because of very long sentences is probably in the hundreds. Some of the appeals court judges who have upheld such sentences did not sound enthusiastic about the task. “Without any tools to work with, however, we can only apply Graham as it is written,” Judge Griffin wrote. “If the Supreme Court has more in mind, it will have to say what that is.”

Supreme Court
Prison
Criminal Sentence
Children
Juvenile delinquency


Two Years After a U.S. Open Upset, CiCi Bellis Is Back for More

Abstract: After CiCi Bellis advanced through three rounds of qualifying at the United States Open, she had a request: How about an upgrade to a suite at her hotel? “I had my dad do that for me,” she said. Bellis, a 17-year-old Californian, extended her stay in New York on Monday afternoon with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Viktorija Golubic of Switzerland in the first round of the main draw. It was a high-energy scene on Court 6, which — given its proximity to a bustling plaza on the grounds here — tends to be as much public spectacle as playing surface. Bellis took it all in. “I just love the atmosphere,” said Bellis, whose given name is Catherine. “If I didn’t have that support, I don’t know if I’d be doing as well as I am right now.” Her name may sound familiar. Two years ago, as a 15-year-old making her first appearance in the main draw, Bellis became a first-week sensation by winning her first-round match against 12th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova. In anticipation of Bellis’s second-round match against Zarina Diyas, fans camped out for hours . Bellis wound up losing to Diyas, but she has seldom looked back. “It was so long ago,” Bellis said of her earlier experience at the Open. “I don’t think it really has anything to do with me or my game right now.” Bellis has continued to sharpen her play, mostly by entering lower-level tournaments, hopscotching among tennis hotbeds like Dothan, Ala., and Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., even as she maintains her amateur status with an eye on attending Stanford. At least, that is the plan for now. “I think I’ve grown as a person and as a player the last couple of years,” Bellis said. “I think my game has matured a lot. I think I’ve improved pretty much everything in my game a lot.” On Monday, in the wake of another solid win, Bellis said that she was waffling about whether to turn professional. Bellis can use prize money to cover expenses and still keep her college eligibility — thus, the upgrade to a hotel suite this week. But with the exception of a small annual stipend, she must forfeit any additional winnings, per N.C.A.A. rules. Prize money for players who advance to the second round at the Open is $77,188. Bellis was asked if there were any factors that could potentially sway her to turn pro. “It used to be ranking-wise,” said Bellis, who entered the tournament ranked No. 158. “I used to think of it the past couple of years as, you know, I should be close to the top 100, and stuff like that. But I think now it’s more just me being confident that I can compete at this level consistently.” Entering her match against Golubic, Bellis was flush with confidence after defeating Alison Van Uytvanck, a 2015 French Open quarterfinalist, in her third and final qualifying match. Bellis said that surviving three rounds of qualifying helped her find her rhythm. “I think just playing three matches made me so much more comfortable,” she said. That much was clear against Golubic, a fellow baseliner who struggled to match Bellis’s aggression. “I didn’t manage to surprise her or really put her under pressure, and I think that was the difference,” Golubic said. “She was using her chances better in the rallies. She went for it.” After Bellis closed out the match by breaking Golubic’s serve, she yelped with joy, thanked the crowd and proceeded to pose for a series of selfies with young fans. She soon retired to a nearby practice court to hit balls for nearly 40 minutes, a postmatch ritual. “Unless I’m on the ground dying tired, then I’m going and practicing,” she said. “That hasn’t happened yet.” In the second round, Bellis will face Shelby Rogers, a 23-year-old American who advanced Monday with a straight-sets victory over Sara Errani, the No. 27 seed. Rogers made a recent splash at the French Open, appearing in the quarterfinals. “She was playing unbelievable there,” Bellis said. “It was really great.” Bellis would love to make a similar mark here at the Open. She acknowledges she can be tough on herself. But she thinks it works for her, so she will continue to push. “Because I think that I can do big things in tennis,” she said.

Tennis
US Open Tennis
Catherine Bellis, CiCi Bellis


Remaking a Manhattan Block, Right Down to the Ground

Abstract: When was the last time you took a good look at the sidewalk? And not just while glancing away from your smartphone on a crowded Midtown street. Matthew Van Damm finds himself staring at the sidewalk a lot these days. As vice president for marketing and design at the Naftali Group , a four-year-old development firm, he has become something of a concrete connoisseur. “It can really make the block pop,” Mr. Van Damm said last week, standing on West 77th Street just off Broadway. “We want everything about our projects to be special, and that extends beyond the building.” Image A second condominium the firm is building on the same block. “We want everything about our projects to be special, and that extends beyond the building,” a vice president for the firm said. Credit Christopher Lee for The New York Times His palette is limited, given that there are only three New York City-approved styles of sidewalk finishes. They include the standard mix of overcast-skies cement seen in front of most buildings; a darker version, “landmark gray,” meant to evoke the slate or bluestone slabs of yore; and a special mixture that is basically either of the first two with tiny pieces of obsidian-colored mica added in. Under sunshine or lamplight, the sidewalk can twinkle. “It’s what you’ll find on Fifth Avenue, outside of Cartier or Rockefeller Center,” Mr. Van Damm said. Or outside one of the numerous new condominiums being built by his company. Developers often speak of transforming a block or a neighborhood with their projects, where the buildings serve as a glorified coat of fresh paint. The Naftali Group has taken this approach to a new level on West 77th Street, trying single-handedly to give the short stretch between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenue a face-lift, though it owns only two of the eight properties there. The decision came out of necessity as much as pride or marketing prowess, though there is certainly plenty of both. Image A view of the construction site at 221 West 77th, on the north side of the block, seen through the barriers. Credit Christopher Lee for The New York Times What attracted the firm to the block in the first place was that, like other short and irregular blocks along Broadway on the Upper West Side, it has commercial enterprises, and most crucially, it sits outside the 12 historic districts in the neighborhood under preservationists’ microscope. These bedraggled Broadway side streets, unlike the townhouse-stuffed blocks to the east and west, are where the residents once stabled their horses — and now their Hondas and Mercedes-Benzes. West 77th Street happened to become a rental car hub, with a Hertz on the south side and an Alamo on the north. Two years ago, Naftali bought the Hertz garage, after a fierce, monthlong bidding war that drove the price of the property up by $10 million, to $55 million. After a year of working out the zoning, design, apartment layouts and finishes, Miki Naftali, the firm’s founder and chief executive , and Mr. Van Damm were standing in front of the run-down garage, looking at the equally run-down one across the street. Wondering how they could give the block a luxurious feel, they realized the easiest way would be to buy the hulk cater-corner from their own. The Alamo garage was as wide and deep as their property, with identical zoning. The price was $8 million more, but the difficult design work, itself a multimillion-dollar undertaking, was already done. The only real difference in the designs for the two 18-story buildings, which have similar zigzagging rooflines, is a balcony here and there and the finishes, inside and out. Image A building on West 25th Street where the Naftali Group previously used a special, sparkly mix of cement for the sidewalk. Credit Christopher Lee for The New York Times The building at 210 West 77th Street , the former Hertz garage on the south side, will have hand-laid bricks and mahogany window frames, and more open kitchen layouts. Its sibling — fraternal twin, really — at 221 West 77th Street will be finished in patterned concrete panels and black metal windows, giving it what the developers consider a slightly more downtown look. In all, the two properties will have 51 units, ranging in size from two to five bedrooms and priced from $4 million to about $22 million for the penthouses. Apart from the uniform facades, the buildings gave the company a chance to create a more uniform block. “It meant we could begin to define how the street would look and feel for our buyers, if we controlled both sides of the street,” Mr. Naftali said in an interview. This is the curious problem for the city’s developers . As they scour Manhattan for whatever remaining bits of undeveloped, or underdeveloped land may exist, they find that almost every dowdy block has been claimed and polished, even sandblasted, to luxury perfection. That is where the special cement comes in. The Naftali Group had already employed it at a new condominium building on West 25th Street in Chelsea, another tumbled-up corner of Manhattan. Image A pedestrian walkway on West 77th Street, where the Neftali Group has two projects underway. Portions of both sides of the street are closed, a concern for some residents. Credit Christopher Lee for The New York Times “You might not be focused on what you’re walking on, but it triggers that connection with Greenwich Village or Brooklyn Heights that is so desirable,” said Michael Koontz, a landscape designer who worked on the projects at 25th and 77th Streets. Uptown, given the relatively short block, the Naftali Group has gone further. Not only will it make its own sidewalks shimmer, it has also offered to repave its neighbors’ walkways as well. Negotiations have begun with the owners of a hotel, two new luxury buildings and a prewar rental building. The company also wanted to plant new street trees, and even install new lampposts (all the better to make the sidewalks sparkle). The Transportation Department has resisted that so far. “They don’t want just a single block to have special treatment,” Mr. Naftali said. Some worry about the loss of parking with the garages gone, but in Manhattan, an improved pedestrian experience may be paramount. “The luxury even extends to the sidewalk now,” said Page Cowley, an architect and co-chairwoman of the local community board’s land-use committee. “They want to highlight their entrances and signal that their building is special.” Yet building a better street can make it worse in the meantime. A neighboring fire company, Ladder 25 and Engine 74, on the north side of the block, has had to keep one of its trucks on the street in a chain-link cage built by the Naftali Group, so that construction on either side of the street would not block the vehicle during emergencies. The Naftali Group wants to cover the cage with a watercolor rendering of what the street will look like once the construction is complete, a paradise in pastels and pavement. Children from the local Jewish Community Center recently painted a mural over the sidewalk construction fence at No. 221, and the artist James Gulliver Hancock has created a wrap for the scaffolding above No. 210, with cartoon versions of King Kong, Rapunzel, Romeo and Juliet, and dozens of other characters. Many residents are more concerned about the immediate changes than those to come. “I do question the wisdom of having these two projects proceed simultaneously,” said James Byrne, who lives on West 77th Street just across Amsterdam Avenue. “Both sidewalks are effectively closed with a narrow pedestrian area on the north side that is sometimes closed for construction. People wind up walking in the street.”

Sidewalk
Construction
Miki Naftali
Real Estate
Housing
Upper West Side Manhattan


Sit-In That Led House to Recess Will Be Hot Topic Upon Its Return

Abstract: House Republicans and Democrats are gearing up for their return to the Capitol next week — the first time they will be reunited since a Democratic sit-in led to a premature adjournment for a 10-day recess a week ago. On a conference call with fellow Republicans on Thursday, the House speaker, Paul D. Ryan, said that the Republican leadership was continuing to review Democratic activities during the protest that disrupted House proceedings and that Republicans could still take action in response. Mr. Ryan, accusing Democrats of trying to shift the discussion to guns from terrorism, said the House would take up a series of terrorism measures upon its return, including one on keeping terrorism suspects from buying guns — a plan that would seemingly meet the Democratic demand for a gun vote. But Mr. Ryan also said he had concerns about protecting the due process of those on terrorism watch lists, raising the possibility that he intends to move forward with a measure similar to a Senate proposal backed by the National Rifle Association. Senate Democrats rejected that legislation as unworkable, and House Democrats said holding a vote on an equivalent approach would not be satisfactory at all. “House Democrats will keep up our efforts to push for the majority to allow a vote on gun violence legislation, but bringing up a bill authored by the N.R.A. just isn’t going to cut it,” said Drew Hammill, a spokesman for Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader. The speaker’s office would not detail the legislation he has in mind, but it sounds like the debate over guns will be back on the House floor regardless.

Terrorism
US Politics
House of Representatives
Congress
Gun Control
Civil Unrest


China’s Embrace of Foreign Cars

Abstract: CHONGQING, China — For more than a decade, Chinese automakers have been talking about starting large-scale exports to North America and Europe, prompting periodic worries in the West that companies like General Motors, Ford and Volkswagen might be crippled by Chinese competition the way they were by Japanese imports a generation ago. Now there are calls for protectionism, but from an unexpected direction: the biggest, most politically influential Chinese automakers. Multinational corporations are steadily clawing market share from Chinese brands in their home market, as a succession of global brands have pushed their way into China. The latest insurgent is Ford Motor, which has a joint venture based here in Chongqing and has nearly doubled its market share to 4.5 percent in the last two years by introducing new models and expanding output, selling more than 100,000 cars and light truck in March for the first time in a single month. Ford plans to double production again in the coming year by opening two more assembly plants and one of the world’s largest automatic transmission factories. Chinese consumers increasingly favor American brands, which have a reputation for safety, youth and international flair. The domestic brands have tended to lag in surveys of initial quality and engineering, although they are starting to close the gap. In long-term reliability, they are far behind and falling even further. Rising affluence has left consumers reluctant to accept cheaper, spartan models from domestic manufacturers. The domestic brands have been further hurt by poor crash test results for some Chinese-designed models and a series of food safety scandals that have dented public confidence in Chinese regulations. “Now that I have a child, I’m considering shifting to a safer car like a Ford,” said He Hai, a 29-year-old real estate salesman, as he browsed at a dealership. He was preparing to pay 254,800 renminbi ($41,500), including hefty Chinese taxes, for a light green Ford Kuga. China’s mostly state-owned automakers have responded with an unusually public campaign of news conferences and statements by the industry trade association. They want to persuade China’s Commerce Ministry to retain a requirement seldom found in other top manufacturing nations: Foreign automakers may assemble cars in China only through 50-50 joint ventures with domestic partners. The multinationals have not asked to be set free. Instead, the Commerce Ministry raised the idea of dropping the requirement last autumn, fearing that industrialized nations would use the restrictive rules as justification for protectionism someday if China starts exporting large numbers of cars. But the big state-owned companies are less interested in exports than in having the multinationals tied to their partners indefinitely — and collecting the sizable profits that come with those relationships. “If there is a loosening of the restrictions on foreign ownership in automotive shares, it will instigate massive changes in the configuration of our country’s automotive industry,” Dong Yang, the executive vice chairman and secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, warned in a statement at a recent news conference. The industry is not entirely in agreement. Slightly smaller automakers started by entrepreneurs do not have the same incentives to maintain the status quo since they generally don’t have joint venture partners. They are also much more eager to move into foreign markets, through exports and overseas acquisitions. Image A Changan Ford factory in Chongqing, China. Changan Ford’s second plant in Chongqing, opened in 2012, is among the most modern anywhere in the world. Credit Jonah M. Kessel for The New York Times Li Shufu, the chairman and founder of the privately held Geely Holdings Group, wrote in an email interview last month that he thought the 50 percent cap should be abolished. “The cap has hindered fair, open and transparent competition, which undermines the interests of consumers and the overall competitiveness of the Chinese auto industry,” he wrote. Mr. Li’s personal holding company bought Volvo Cars from Ford for $1.5 billion in 2010, a bargain price during the financial crisis. State-owned automakers have been more cautious, with one of the largest, Dongfeng Motor, agreeing on Feb. 26 to pay $1.1 billion for a 14 percent stake in Peugeot — a holding that cements the two companies’ venture in China but gives Dongfeng little say in Peugeot’s management. Wary of offending their state-owned partners, multinationals have defended the joint ventures. “It is our common goal to further develop these and to be successful together in the Chinese automotive market,” Volkswagen said in a statement. China has been trying for more than two decades to build the country’s auto industry into an export powerhouse. The original goal of the joint venture requirement was to force multinationals to work with big, state-owned automakers with ample access to credit from state-owned banks. The ministry’s hope has been that the state-owned automakers would learn from their partners to build world-class cars that they could then export. Image Chinese consumers are attracted to American brands for quality and safety. Credit Mark Ralston/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images But instead of creating the next Toyota, the Commerce Ministry has created companies more like Foxconn, the Taiwanese contract electronics manufacturer that makes tablets and smartphones for Apple and other consumer electronics companies. State-controlled giants largely provide the labor and government connections for the joint ventures: Shanghai Automotive is a partner for General Motors and Volkswagen; Guangzhou Automobile is the partner for Toyota; Changan Automobile is a partner for Ford; and Dongfeng Motor juggles partnerships with Nissan, Honda, Peugeot and Kia. The multinationals have continued to provide most of the designs, engineering and marketing. They build essentially the same cars that they sell in the rest of the world. In Chongqing, for example, Ford makes the Kuga and Mondeo, which are sold as the Ford Escape and Ford Fusion in the United States. The Chinese automakers’ association, dominated by state-owned enterprises, insists that the industry is too important to the country’s economic future to be exposed to head-to-head competition with foreign companies. “Automobile manufacturing is not a standard manufacturing sector. It is a strategic asset that supports the transformation and upgrading of the national economy,” said Mr. Dong of the association. Chinese brands’ share of their home market for cars and light trucks has fallen at much the same pace that American automakers lost share over most of the last three decades, about a percentage point or two each year, down to 45.1 percent last year. Exclude the bare-bones pickup trucks and minivans that make up the separately regulated light commercial vehicle market, and domestic brands had only 29.5 percent of the car market last year, according to LMC Automotive, a global consultancy. Image Dozens of complex robots and 15,000 human workers assemble 600,000 cars a year at Changan Ford factories in Chongqing. Credit Jonah M. Kessel for The New York Times Most of the state-owned giants have experimented with their own brands, but with limited success. Their offerings frequently look a lot like the cars from their partners. Marin A. Burela, the president of Ford’s joint venture here, the Changan Ford Automobile Company, said Mazda and Changan had decided to end their collaboration for business reasons that had nothing to do with Changan’s car designs. He denied that Changan’s own brand cars looked like Fords or Mazdas. “I’ve heard that said, but I also go back and look at the vehicles and I don’t see it,” he said. Ford’s rapid expansion in China over the last two years, with more to come, offers a case study of how China’s own automakers have gone from feared to hapless. Ford’s joint venture here in western China has 15,000 employees who assembled more than 600,000 vehicles last year, making it Ford’s largest operation outside southeastern Michigan. Ford is about to open an enormous factory here to manufacture 400,000 automatic transmissions annually, with room to expand to one million, followed by a third large car assembly plant at the end of the year. A fourth assembly plant is set to open in Hangzhou, in east-central China, in February. Changan Ford opened its first assembly plant in Chongqing in 2003 and its second in 2012. The second factory is among the most modern anywhere in the world: Steel coils go in one end and finished cars come out the other just eight hours later. Rows of 15-foot-tall orange robots resembling huge, long-necked vultures lift, assemble and weld large body panels — basic tasks that have been automated at many factories around the world. But the newer Ford factory also has robots do delicate, precise tasks like installing and gluing the rear windows of compact cars, which are seldom automated except in high-wage countries. The second factory has 160 robots, compared with about three dozen in the older factory. Domestic Chinese automakers have also bought robots for their operations from international suppliers. But they have tended to rely much more on using huge teams of workers for manufacturing, and they have struggled to figure out how to integrate robots efficiently into assembly lines — a task that took decades for multinationals to master, even as they were working on customer research that Chinese manufacturers are still learning. “We’ve ticked all of those boxes” on Chinese automotive preferences, Mr. Burela said, “and the Chinese consumer has absolutely bought into that, which has fueled our growth.”

China
Cars
Manufacturing
International trade


A Manhattan Studio That Stores, and Restores, the Past

Abstract: God’s work — at least as it appeared two weeks ago inside an oak-paneled studio on West 44th Street in Manhattan — consisted of the following acts: A musical archivist removed from its case the sole extant copy of some 1941 session takes of Billie Holiday crooning “All of Me.” A recording engineer received this disc and placed it very gently on a turntable. The studio itself then did the rest: Its speakers cracked with static, a quick piano vamp followed, the horns came in on cue and then there was that voice — you were instantly transported to the eve of World War II. Five days a week, musical journeys much like that one occur inside this studio, where a small team from Sony Music Entertainment performs the divine digital act of preserving the company’s archives. While the rest of the business spews out the latest candy pop song for consumption on the market, the team from the Sony archives digs into a storehouse of recordings, from Sousa and Caruso to Dylan and Miles Davis, protecting the unique and the endangered from the erosions of the past. “Everything falls apart,” said Marc C. Kirkeby, an archivist and self-described “professional ear.” Records warp; metal plates rust. “We want to be the last best place in the world where all this stuff can be preserved.” “All this stuff” is a staggering cache of 1.5 million items — perhaps the world’s best playlist — that Sony has accrued over the years by acquiring such legendary labels as Columbia Records and RCA Victor. Mr. Kirkeby refers to his job as “preserving the life expectancy of the source material,” and the material that he and his partners work with might include a one-of-kind recording of the heavyweight Jack Johnson narrating his 1910 title fight against James J. Jeffries, or the last known copy of Simon and Garfunkel’s final concert tour. Historic work demands historic quarters, and the studio itself — digital sound board, leather chill couch, a garbage can that overflows with empty coffee cups — was custom built in the 1970s as the Record Plant Studio for a man named Roy Cicala, a celebrated recording engineer. Springsteen worked here, as did Aerosmith, Kiss and Billy Joel. John Lennon used to catch naps in the session booth. In fact, Mr. Kirkeby said, he left the studio one night in 1980, headed home to the Dakota and was killed. The toolbox is extensive: a tackle box of needles, numerous Studer tape decks, a huge device that plays old steel recordings and goes by the name “the Tank.” There is also what is universally known as “the World’s Most Expensive Turntable” — an 800-pound, $65,000, granite-based, pneumatic Rockport Technologies special. Mr. Kirkeby said that only four like this were ever made. With overhead so high, it makes a certain sense that the studio — while mainly dedicated to the archivist’s art — must also respond to the pressures of the market. “We try to be responsible to what’s going on in the culture, but also to the needs of the company,” Mr. Kirkeby said. So, for instance, if Ken Burns does a PBS documentary on jazz, the team is there to dig up old Fats Waller numbers; if a Toscanini bio-pic is in the works, it will find his music, too. But mostly the studio is where the past lives on through its music — where Billie Holiday still breathes. Still, as Mr. Kirkeby put it, “Every recording is an illusion.”

Music
Jazz
Manhattan (NYC)
SONY Corporation
Documentary Films and Programs


Man, 51, Dies in the Custody of the Police

Abstract: Several hours after his arrest on burglary charges, a 51-year-old man died in the custody of the New York Police Department on Sunday morning. The police said that initial indications were that he hanged himself in his cell. The man, Edward Soto, of the Bronx, was found unconscious at 10:08 a.m. by the arresting officer in a holding cell inside the 19th Precinct station house on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, the police said. He appeared to have hanged himself with a cord from his coat, the police said. Mr. Soto had been living with his sister in the Soundview neighborhood of the Bronx, a daughter said. Relatives described his behavior as increasingly erratic since the death of his wife in March, and a niece said he had expressed interest in dying. The police said Mr. Soto, who had previous arrests on drug and burglary charges, was arrested on Saturday about 6:35 p.m., charged with attempted burglary and brought to the station house for processing. It was not clear when he was last checked on in his cell. He was pronounced dead at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital a short time after he was discovered on Sunday. His death was being investigated by the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau. Though rare, it is not unheard-of for prisoners to hang themselves while in police custody. Two have hanged themselves in recent years, creating nooses from their clothes, at precincts in Sheepshead Bay and East New York, both in Brooklyn. Some of Mr. Soto’s children gathered at his home on Boynton Avenue on Sunday evening. His stepdaughter, Mercedes Colón, 21, said, “He always said he was going to hurt himself, after my mother passed away.” According to Ms. Colón, Mr. Soto and his wife, Antoinette, had been married for 17 years. They had seven children. Mr. Soto’s niece Mariana Cancel said that after his wife’s death, he stopped visiting his parole officer. Another daughter, Miriam Soto, 17, said she believed that someone else had killed her father. Neither daughter knew if Mr. Soto was taking medication or struggling with substance abuse.

Edward Soto
Prison
Suicide
NYPD
Upper East Side Manhattan
Robbery


Warrant Is Issued for Haitian Police Chief

Abstract: PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti , Nov. 3 (Reuters) — A judge said Friday that he had ordered a top Haitian police chief arrested on suspicion of conspiring with kidnappers. Judge Napela Saintil said a warrant for the arrest of the chief, Inspector General Michael Lucius, was now in the hands of a prosecutor because he had ignored a summons. Mr. Lucius, barred from leaving Haiti, is in charge of units fighting organized crime and is the lead officer in the fight against kidnapping, drugs and gangs. He has denied accusations of having ties to kidnappers. “I am ready to appear before a judge, but not Napela Saintil because he is biased against me,” he said. Mr. Lucius has not gone into hiding and travels around Port-au-Prince surrounded by police guards. Haiti’s police force is riddled with corruption and poorly equipped. Several suspected kidnappers have said they worked with Mr. Lucius and shared ransom payments with him. Mr. Lucius has been accused of providing weapons in a scheme to use gangsters to dismantle criminal gangs. His lawyer, Samuel Madistin, said the allegations were unfounded.


World Cup Withdrawal

Abstract: WASHINGTON — If you are like me, you are suffering from post-World Cup depression. Like so many viewers around the world, for the last month I have been glued to my television, enthralled by the excitement, skill and tension playing out in Brazil. Now I’m suffering from withdrawal. If someone had written a script for this World Cup, I doubt it could have encompassed as much drama over the past weeks in Brazil. Heroes were made — like the 23-year-old Colombian James Rodríquez, who scored a tournament-high six goals. And so were villains — the bite seen around the world by Uruguay’s Luis Suárez overshadowed much of his brilliant play on the field. Powerhouses (Spain) were easily overthrown, while underdogs (Costa Rica) threatened the traditional hierarchy. The flamboyant and emotional host nation was stunned and silenced by the perfectly executed game plan of German y. Cultures and playing styles clashed, individuals surprised and disappointed, fans screamed in celebration and wept with disappointment, all for a game that transcends the playing field. During the tournament, some questions came to mind: Why Is the Beautiful Game So Beautiful? I’m obsessed with this sport. Beyond my career as a player, and fascination with mastering the skills and athletic qualities to compete, soccer/football/futebol, whatever you call it, has captivated me as a spectator. I often find myself trying to explain and defend the game to the part of the American public who still cannot quite wrap their minds around what makes the sport special. “It’s so boring!” “There isn’t much action.” “I can’t stand all the diving and faking injuries.” I still contend that soccer is well worth all the hype. The beauty is in the details. The nuances are what make the long games with frequent low scores so fascinating and enthralling. The game is a constant battle of vastly different athletic abilities and skills. Technique, ingenuity, speed, strength, quickness, agility and stamina are on a constant sliding scale as teams compile their best mixture to match opponents. I constantly observe how team tactics can combat individual brilliance, which can come in so many forms, and vice versa. The sheer number of avenues to success breeds a sporting competition like no other. A low-scoring game allows for more chance of an upset. This World Cup highlighted the importance of last-minute goals and that no underdog can be underestimated. This adds an element of tension unique to the sport. Image Argentina's Lionel Messi was named the best player in the World Cup. Credit Antonio Lacerda/European Pressphoto Agency How Could I Be So Disappointed by the Golden Ball Winner? I am a huge Leo Messi fan. I think he is possibly the greatest player ever to play the game and I wanted Argentina to win the World Cup solely so that he could add it to his résumé. I am not one of those who think that everyone on the field must put equal effort and work hard defensively. I don’t mind Messi saving energy for the important moments of brilliance he is able to produce. I watched in disbelief, however, as the minutes of the final ticked away and his effort did not change. And then Argentina was down a goal. Still no change. There was no longer anything to rest for, yet Messi walked and waited for his moment. That moment never came. As the final whistle blew, I was happy that Germany had won. The greatest player in the world, who I had once seen chase down opposing defenders and win the ball back for his team or lay off the ball on the halfway line and work to get into the box to get on the end of a cross, did nothing of the sort. I don’t care how tired he was, how frustrated. … I cannot fathom walking through the last five minutes of the World Cup final. I think Messi is brilliant and capable of things that no other player on the planet can do. But in my estimation he was not the best player at the World Cup, nor did he deserve to hoist the trophy. Will the Hype Last in the U. S.? As I looked on Twitter to see the lineups for Germany-Argentina, I said: Can you imagine what it would feel like to be warming up, about to start in a World Cup final? One of the people I was with laughed and said, referring to the video game, “Yeah, I do it like every day on FIFA.” The sad truth is that, to a lot of Americans, soccer is still only a fun game to play on Xbox, a weird foreign fascination to get hyped about once every four years. In the wake of the biggest sporting event in the world, which permeates cultures everywhere, perhaps the United States has bounced back most quickly. “SportsCenter ” has an abundance of news from other sports to cover, with relatively minimal residual World Cup analysis. That being said, I have a lot of hope. Despite the Jimmy Kimmel segment , in which a handful of self-proclaimed serious soccer supporters erroneously commented in-depth on Landon Donovan’s performance in the World Cup, I do think our country is starting to fall in love with the game. Walking through Dupont Circle in Washington during the U.S.-Germany game gave me a sense of the passion felt around the world. The soccer jerseys I saw on the metro, worn everywhere and pervasive comments on social media also signified the unprecedented support for the American team. It was important that we emerged from group play, because after all, our society is obsessed with winners. My hope is that the drama, tension, and excitement has made more people fall in love with the game I have loved for years. Maybe true love takes a while, but this World Cup was surely a good first date. Yael Averbuch plays for the Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League. Her website is yaelaverbuch.com.


New York City to Restrict Powerful Prescription Drugs in Public Hospitals’ Emergency Rooms

Abstract: Some of the most common and most powerful prescription painkillers on the market will be restricted sharply in the emergency rooms at New York City’s 11 public hospitals, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said Thursday in an effort to crack down on what he called a citywide and national epidemic of prescription drug abuse. Under the new city policy, most public hospital patients will no longer be able to get more than three days’ worth of narcotic painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet. Long-acting painkillers, including OxyContin, a familiar remedy for chronic backache and arthritis, as well as Fentanyl patches and methadone, will not be dispensed at all. And lost, stolen or destroyed prescriptions will not be refilled. City officials said the policy was aimed at reducing the growing dependency on painkillers and preventing excess amounts of drugs from being taken out of medicine chests and sold on the street or abused by teenagers and others who want to get high. “Abuse of prescription painkillers in our city has increased alarmingly,” Mr. Bloomberg said in announcing the new policy at Elmhurst Hospital Center, a public hospital in Queens. Over 250,000 New Yorkers over age 12 are abusing prescription painkillers, he said, leading to rising hospital admissions for overdoses and deaths, Medicare fraud by doctors who write false prescriptions and violent crime like “holdups at neighborhood pharmacies.” But some critics said that poor and uninsured patients sometimes used the emergency room as their primary source of medical care. The restrictions, they said, could deprive doctors in the public hospital system — whose mission it is to treat poor people — of the flexibility that they need to respond to patients. “Here is my problem with legislative medicine,” said Dr. Alex Rosenau, president-elect of the American College of Emergency Physicians and senior vice chairman of emergency medicine at Lehigh Valley Health Network in Eastern Pennsylvania. “It prevents me from being a professional and using my judgment.” While someone could fake a toothache to get painkillers, he said, another patient might have legitimate pain and not be able to get an appointment at a dental clinic for days. Or, he said, a patient with a hand injury may need more than three days of pain relief until the swelling goes down and an operation could be scheduled. Dr. Rosenau said that the college of emergency physicians had not developed an official position on the prescribing of painkillers in emergency rooms and that he appreciated Mr. Bloomberg’s activism in the face of a serious public health problem. But he said pain clinics in states like Florida and California, states where prescription drug abuse is rampant, as well as the household medicine cabinet, were probably a more common source of unneeded painkillers than emergency rooms. City health officials said the guidelines would not apply to patients who need prescriptions for cancer pain or palliative care, and drugs would still be available outside the emergency room. They said that in this era of patient-satisfaction surveys, doctors were often afraid to make patients unhappy by refusing drugs when they are requested, and the rules would give those doctors some support when they suspected that a patient might be faking pain to get drugs. “There will be no chance that the patients who need pain relief will not get pain relief,” said Dr. Ross Wilson, senior vice president and chief medical officer of the Health and Hospitals Corporation, which runs the city’s public hospitals. Similar rules have been adopted in Washington State and Utah. Dr. Thomas A. Farley, the city’s health commissioner, said opioid painkillers were not much different from highly addictive and more taboo street drugs like heroin. He called them “heroin in pill form.” More than two million prescriptions for opioid painkillers are written in New York City each year, the equivalent of a quarter of the city’s population, Dr. Farley said, and about 40,000 New Yorkers are already dependent on painkillers and need treatment. Painkillers were involved in 173 accidental overdose deaths in New York City in 2010, a 30 percent rise from five years earlier. Officials could not say how many prescriptions were written at emergency rooms. Libby Holman, a spokeswoman for Purdue Pharma, which manufactures OxyContin, declined to comment. Dr. Farley said the city lacked the regulatory authority to impose the new guidelines on its 50 or so private hospitals. But several private hospitals, including NYU Langone Medical Center in Manhattan and Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn, said they would adopt them voluntarily. Dr. Hillary Cohen, medical director of emergency medicine at Maimonides, said that even now, OxyContin was rarely prescribed in the emergency room.

Hospital
Drug Abuse
Emergency medicine
Opioids
NYC
Mike Bloomberg
Thomas A Farley


Delightful Night for Newcomers in Champions League Soccer

Abstract: LONDON — What would you give young apprentices of Barcelona for Christmas? They belong to an elite school. They enter the academy at nine years of age, but they wait and they wait while Barça’s first team, full of world champions, plays dream soccer. And then, with 84,000 at the Camp Nou stadium, the coach Pep Guardiola says “Boys, this is your call. Take your chance.” The Barcelona story is set to run and run. On Tuesday, with the club already assured the top place in its Champions League group, the coach fielded a largely second-string squad, and still Barça beat the Russian champion, Rubin Kazan, 2-0. Thiago Alcántara, the already vaunted midfield understudy to Xavi, excelled again. Defender Andreu Fontàs overcame nerves to score in his Champions League debut. And then Víctor Vázquez, a reserve to the reserves, came on to curl the ball into the Kazan net. Seldom do you hear Guardiola single out a player for specific praise, but he made an exception for Vázquez who, at 23, has come through harrowing knee injury to finally share the nectar of a big victory at the Camp Nou. “You notice that they are from the Barcelona school of football, and they all know exactly what to do in each moment,” said Kurban Berdyev, the Rubin coach. “We fielded our best side, but still we found it very hard against Barcelona’s second team. “Tonight we played the Barça the whole world will know in a few years.” Perhaps, or perhaps not, because the established Barcelona first string, Lionel Messi et al., are not much older than the young men who wait in the wings. They are exceptional products of a scheme specialized in the exceptional. But the Champions League is open to teams from more than 50 countries, and the group phase that draws to a close this week is largely dominated by the usual big hitters. The draw for the knockout stages resonates with the rich and fabulous: Real Madrid, Manchester United, Milan, Chelsea, Bayern Munich etc., etc. There are players, like Manchester United’s Ryan Giggs, who on Tuesday made his 126th appearance in the Champions League and his 850th in a United first-team shirt. There are men who have waited a players’ lifetime just to step up to this level. Sander Boschker comes to mind. At 40, Boschker is having some year. The goalkeeper became the oldest man to debut for his country, the Netherlands, just before the World Cup last summer. He went to that tournament as a backup and he made another milestone debut, in the Champions League, for Twente Enschede on Tuesday. Fortunately, Boschker seems a resilient character. He needed to be philosophical to shrug off a terrible own goal in the 12th minute against Tottenham Hotspur in front of his own supporters. Defender Peter Wisgerhof passed the ball back along the ground, Boschker took a swing at it with his left foot, missed by the proverbial mile, and had to watch as it bobbled into his net. “I feel sorry for him,” said the Spurs’ Brazilian goalie, Heurelho Gomes. “I was close to doing the same in the second half because of the pitch.” The pitch. Goalies always blame the turf when they take their eye off the ball and produce a comical air shot. It doesn’t help that Tottenham is the most adventurous in the competition. For fifty years, the Spurs of London have waited to be back in Europe’s top tournament. So far, whoever Tottenham plays, it has gone out there with a spirit of devil-may-care attitude. “We tend to score plenty of goals,” said Spurs coach Harry Redknapp. “And we seem to give ’em away as well. But I’m delighted.” Delighted that Tottenham, despite leading Twente three times, ended the night in Holland 3-3. Delighted that the point gained meant that his cavaliers finished the group ahead of Inter Milan, which lost 3-0 at Werder Bremen. And delighted that Spurs created its own little piece of history, the first side in the Champions League to score at least two goals in every match in the group phase. Inter’s problems are mounting. The team that won a historic treble of Champions League, Italian league and Italian Cup under José Mourinho last May is now paying the price. Its squad, including aging and experienced South Americans, is decimated by fatigue injuries. Inter’s new coach, Rafael Benitez, is under pressure to hold the spirit together. And its next extra duty is to fly to Abu Dhabi to represent Europe in the Club World Cup next Wednesday. On Tuesday, Inter lost 3-0 against Werder Bremen, which played commendably for pride after being eliminated earlier in the competition. “We had already qualified,” Benitez said on Italian television, referring to the fact that Inter progresses as the group runner-up. “We tried young players tonight because we did not want to risk more injuries.” That excuse bodes ill compared with Barcelona’s victory with its B team. But European soccer is not just about the big boys who in the end usually win all the prizes. In the Stade Gerland on Tuesday, Hapoel Tel Aviv came within minutes of a famous victory over Lyon. The French club was saved by a teenage substitute, Alexandre Lacazette, scoring to make it 2-2 at the final whistle. Before that, the Israeli Eran Zahavi had scored with a truly memorable work of instinct and agility. With his back to goal, Zahavi leaped into the air and shot into the top of the net with a bicycle kick over his own head. Top that, he seemed to say. Well, in Copenhagen, the home team did. Never before had a Danish club reached the last 16 of the Champions League. F.C. Copenhagen did it with a 3-1 victory over Panathinakos, with goals from Martin Vingaard, Jesper Gronkjaer and a deflected own goal from Djibril Cissé. “Its fantastic,” Gronkjaer said. “Really fantastic. We have written history. We fully deserve it.”

FC Barcelona
UEFA Champions League (Soccer)