At Elite Queens High School, PTA Calls Embattled Principal ‘Rude’

Abstract: Townsend Harris High School is one of New York City’s most prestigious public schools, where 100 percent of students graduate on time and all of them are prepared for college, according to city metrics. But in recent weeks, the academic powerhouse in Queens has felt a ripple of protest, as students, alumni and teachers have battled with the interim acting principal, agitating for her ouster. On Thursday, parents piled on. The school’s Parent Teacher Association passed a resolution enumerating a long list of grievances against Rosemarie Jahoda, who took over temporary leadership of the school in September when the previous principal, Anthony Barbetta, left to run Robert F. Kennedy Community High School , also in Queens. Parents denounced her management style and some of her dealings with students, and they demanded that she be removed. According to the PTA resolution, Ms. Jahoda has had little interaction with students in her three months at the school, and has a management style described by faculty as “condescending” or “rude.” “She has created an environment where people are afraid to approach her because they fear retaliation,” said Franco Scardino, a social studies teacher at the school and the chapter leader for the United Federation of Teachers union. Last week, students staged a sit-in in the school’s hallways to protest Ms. Jahoda’s appointment as the school was being visited by Leticia Pineiro, a deputy superintendent. Ms. Pineiro questioned the students in a “demeaning manner,” according to the PTA resolution, and Ms. Jahoda did nothing to intervene. The resolution demanded that Ms. Pineiro and the city’s Education Department apologize to Townsend Harris students, and asked that Ms. Pineiro and the district’s superintendent no longer oversee the school. “I supported the sit-in and believe that students have the right to engage in civil disobedience,” Ms. Pineiro said in an email. “To be critical thinkers, it’s essential for students to explore multiple perspectives.” Ms. Jahoda declined to comment for this article. This is not Ms. Jahoda’s first brush with controversy. In 2010, when she was an assistant principal at the Bronx High School of Science, another of the city’s elite schools, 20 of the 22 math teachers she oversaw filed complaints against her. In an official “fact-finding” report , an arbiter painted a jarring portrait of her dealings with teachers. The report said Ms. Jahoda had referred to one teacher as a “disgusting person,” and that teacher had called Ms. Jahoda a “dictator.” The head of labor relations for the Education Department at the time rejected the conclusions of the report. In a statement, Will Mantell, a spokesman for the department, said the selection process for hiring a permanent principal at Townsend Harris had not begun. “We are listening closely to the feedback and concerns of this school community, and will continue to engage them” as the hiring process moves forward, he said.

Queens
PTA
Townsend Harris High School
Teachers
Rosemarie Jahoda
K-12 Education
Principals School


Savannah State Hopes Payments Outweigh Likely Losses

Abstract: SAVANNAH, Ga. — On a resplendent afternoon in late August, when no college football team in the country had yet lost and no player blessed with youthful confidence expected to, the Savannah State Tigers were immersed in a spirited practice peppered by the language of positivity: “Good block.” “Nice tackle.” Just beyond one end zone, cheerleaders rehearsed the fight song. “Our team is strong,” it went. “Victory’s our guarantee.” This show of optimism spilled forth from a university that could justifiably claim — not that anyone would — that it had the worst Division I program since the turn of this century. Over 11 seasons, Savannah State, the self-proclaimed University by the Sea, in a charming city distinguished by oak trees that sprout Spanish moss, has won 17 games, just five against Division I teams. It has changed coaches six times — once because of a death — and had nine athletic directors, including interims. It has been placed on N.C.A.A. probation twice and faced a pair of embarrassing lawsuits that claimed racial discrimination. And it opens this season with two games that are expected to produce resounding defeats: at No. 19 Oklahoma State on Saturday and at No. 7 Florida State the next week. “I don’t like to see that we are a laughingstock,” said its most renowned football alumnus, Shannon Sharpe, a Hall of Fame tight end. Indeed, the gloom that has surrounded the team for more than a decade seemed to lift only for moments of almost surrealistic lunacy. Like the time a receiver bound for the end zone with no defender to stop him decided to celebrate in style and dived headfirst over the white stripe. Upon landing, he discovered the stripe was not the goal line but the 5-yard line. A certain touchdown was reduced to a field goal. Or the time that a former coach who was a plaintiff in one of the discrimination suits overshadowed his announcement on a settlement with the university by declaring himself a candidate for the United States presidency. He failed to secure the nomination of an obscure party, losing out to a fitness model. Now, Savannah State can make another claim — not that anyone here would — that the first two games on its schedule constitute perhaps the highest degree of difficulty ever for a team at the start of a season. Oklahoma State won the Big 12 last season, and Florida State is projected to win the Atlantic Coast Conference and contend for the national title this season. The Web site Beyond the Bets, which has projected point spreads for the 798 games involving at least one Football Bowl Subdivision team this regular season, listed Savannah State as a 52-point underdog in its opener and a 56 ½-point underdog to Florida State. There was only one other game in the country this season in which the projected spread exceeded 50 points. For the Tigers, these are hunger games. Payments from Oklahoma State and Florida State will total $860,000, which represents about 17 percent of the Tigers’ modest athletic budget. “They don’t call them money games for nothing,” said Coach Steve Davenport, who supported the scheduling decision by Athletic Director Sterling Steward. Despite his team’s struggles, Davenport, in his second year, remains at least outwardly confident. In the annual poll of coaches and sports information directors of the 11-team Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, his first-place vote went to the Tigers. That was even though they are coming off a 1-10 season that included losses by scores of 63-6, 41-6, 47-7, 45-3 and 59-3, in addition to a defeat at the hands of a team that had lost 29 conference games in a row. Most other voters listed Savannah State no higher than 10th. “I can’t ask my guys to follow me if I don’t step up for them,” Davenport said. He also picked the Tigers to win the conference last season and said he would continue to do so. “If they want that vote to change,” he said, “they’ll have to take our vote away.” Savannah State became a Division I program in 2002, but a lack of a conference affiliation hampered scheduling and recruiting for years. Financing for the program was so meager that barely half the current number of scholarships (63) were awarded some years. The Tigers have 88 players on the roster this season. In 2006, the university applied to join the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, a collection of historically black colleges and universities, but its admittance was delayed until a three-year N.C.A.A. probation expired. It joined the conference as a full member before last season. Then there were the lawsuits. In 2010, Robby Wells, who is white, said that he was compelled to resign as coach because of his race. Four players cited a similar motivation in accusing the university of reneging on scholarship offers. Savannah State had gone 5-7 under Wells in 2008, but it dropped to 2-9 the next season. Wells left before the 2010 season and said a university administrator had told him that his race would stop alumni from supporting the program. The university countered that Wells had fallen into disfavor for reasons ranging from accounting for expenditures to players’ academic deficiencies to a tendency toward self-promotion at the expense of the team. (He had proposed to his girlfriend while cameras were filming football-related interviews.) Those issues, it said, were detailed in performance evaluations, and it denied that race was a factor in the job reviews. “He was white when he started, and he was white when he left,” Joe Steffen, the university’s counsel, said. A settlement was reached late last year, with Wells receiving $240,000. The players’ lawsuit remains unresolved. A magistrate judge recommended dismissal of the suit, and the players have appealed the ruling. The university acknowledged that Wells offered scholarships to the players but maintained it was under no obligation because they had not completed the proper paperwork nor had their names submitted by Wells to the N.C.A.A.’s eligibility center. Some black players were equally affected for the same reasons, it said. The legal conflicts have played out against the backdrop of a larger issue: the role and relevance of historically black colleges and universities, known as H.B.C.U.’s. In 2009, a Georgia legislator proposed that all state-run H.B.C.U.’s, many of which have struggled financially, be evaluated to see if they should merge with other universities. For Savannah State, that would have meant combining with neighboring Armstrong Atlantic State, which has a student body that is predominantly white. Four pairs of institutions were consolidated this year, but the Savannah universities were not included, and a second round of mergers is not expected in the near future. Still, after facing the possibility of a merger and the lawsuits, Savannah State remains sensitive to the topic of race. In the athletic department offices recently, the coach of a team in a less popular sport was overheard explaining to a recruit that the university was ethnically diverse despite its H.B.C.U. label. Of the university’s students, more than 90 percent are black, while 4 percent are Caucasian. The football roster includes several white players, and the starting quarterback for much of the last three seasons was white. Davenport said he did not pay attention to race when he recruited, aside from hoping that the white players he signed would embrace the culture and appreciate the tradition of a historically black university. This year’s roster includes two cousins from American Samoa who chose to attend Savannah State after looking it up on Google and noticing its proximity to the ocean. Upon arrival, “I was kind of scared,” said Ioane Ioane, a 320-pound offensive lineman. At first, Ioane, who answers to John John, feared that he would not fit in. Now, he said, “it feels like home.” Soon, Ioane and his cousin Epafara Moananu, also a lineman, were comfortable enough to wear wraparounds, a customary garment for Samoan men that teammates often mistook for supersize towels. While the cousins have coped with unfamiliar food — Moananu has dropped 18 pounds, to 344 — and music like rap, the most daunting adjustment looms. Moananu is about to digest more defeats in two weekends than in three high school seasons combined. “I believe,” he said, “we are not going to lose any.” The cousins symbolize what Davenport hopes is a talent upgrade. The Tigers are inexperienced, however, with just four seniors who have stayed throughout the constant losing. One, defensive lineman James Brisco, said he never considered transferring, even as most of the players who came in with him as freshmen eventually moved on. Under Davenport, Brisco said, the players are expected to adhere to curfews and other rules. Practices are more up-tempo and organized; an emphasis has been placed on film study. Daily reordering of the depth chart keeps players on high alert. “I’d rather have that sense of urgency that I could lose my spot,” Brisco said. Davenport espouses patience. When he played at Georgia Tech, the Yellow Jackets won five games total in his junior and senior seasons after Coach Bill Curry left for Alabama. Two years later, under Coach Bobby Ross, Georgia Tech won a share of the national title. Eradicating player malaise, exemplified by tepid off-season participation in weight training before Davenport was hired, cannot be changed with a quick fix. “It’s going to take a little more time than anyone can imagine,” Davenport said. So the coach applies imaginary blinkers that block out the dreadful past. Before last season he viewed film of only one game to evaluate players, preferring a fresh start for all. A beacon of hope is the refurbished T. A. Wright Stadium, which reopened in October amid festivities that featured Sharpe. He left encouraged after conversations with Steward, the athletic director, and the university’s president, Cheryl D. Dozier, as well as by the team’s membership in the MEAC. “Only Notre Dame can be independent,” he said. “I feel good where Savannah State is headed.” But not where the Tigers are headed this week and next. “The likelihood of beating them,” Sharpe said of Oklahoma State and Florida State, “is not very good.” Steward, making no apologies, said he intended to schedule two games like that every season. When young graduates at an alumni barbecue asked why, he inquired if they were financial contributors. They shook their heads. “And that’s why,” he said, contending that several large paychecks are the simplest solution to growing the athletics budget by a desired 50 percent. Davenport acknowledged that “we have a level of concern” over possible injuries that could deplete the roster. If the score becomes one-sided, Plan B will be implemented: shortening the game with plays primarily intended to run out the clock. Following the two likely defeats, the next line on the schedule assures a different result. It is a line that many Tigers devotees, out of habit, welcome. It reads, “Open.”

Savannah State University
Football (College)
Davenport Steve
Oklahoma State University
Florida State University


Market’s Troubles Echo in a Building’s Vacant Floors

Abstract: The elevators work fine, the views are great, the offices have been refurbished and no one is complaining about rats. In so many ways, the green-tinted, 41-story office tower overlooking Bryant Park seems a desirable address. So why are tenants who rushed to rent space a year ago in the building, at 1095 Avenue of the Americas, rushing to break their leases now? The answer says much about the increasingly precarious state of Midtown Manhattan ’s real estate market at a time when once-mighty financial companies like Lehman Brothers are disappearing and the slowing economy is driving the vacancy rate up and commercial rents down. Though the building, once owned by Verizon, just went through a two-year, $250 million makeover , several financial firms that signed leases in 2006 and 2007 say they no longer can afford the rents or the cost of outfitting new spaces. Others are laying off workers or reorganizing their offices and no longer need as much room. The first sign of trouble came over the summer when iStar Financial, a real estate finance company, decided not to move into the 100,000 square feet of space that it had rented on the 36th, 37th and 38th floors. Several weeks later, Metropolitan Life Insurance, whose name is now in block letters over the tower’s front doors, quietly began shopping for tenants to sublease 100,000 square feet of its space in the building, a quarter of what it signed up for in 2006. And last month, Centerline Capital Group, a suddenly struggling commercial property finance and investment company, confirmed that it would not be moving into its 100,000 square feet of space on the third, fourth and fifth floors. The company is negotiating with the landlord, the Blackstone Group, to buy out its lease or to sublet the space, said real estate executives who have been briefed on the talks. The companies signed leases for as much as $132 a square foot, when the market was near its peak. Despite the building’s new glass skin, refurbished space and prime location at the corner of 42nd Street, many brokers say they would be lucky to get $95 a square foot today. The difference would translate into millions of dollars a year. Neither iStar nor MetLife have found any takers. For landlords and brokers, the building has become a closely watched barometer of the commercial real estate market in Midtown, where the mercury is clearly falling. Although the rents being asked have hardly moved, brokers say that landlords are providing a menu of concessions that are substantially reducing the effective price. “It’s definitely a microcosm of the last few years in the New York real estate market,” said Peter Riguardi, president of Jones Lang LaSalle, a real estate brokerage and advising company. The problems at 1095 Avenue of the Americas are not hurting Blackstone so far. The combined unused space of Centerline, MetLife and iStar accounts for roughly one-third of the 1.06 million square feet owned by Blackstone in the building, and the three companies are obligated to pay full rent even if they are unable to sublease the space. Brokers say that Blackstone would require the companies to pay dearly to break their leases. But trouble could emerge if any of the companies tumble into bankruptcy court and stopped paying rent. Other tenants seem to be staying put. Dechert L.L.P., a law firm and the first tenant to sign a lease in 2006, is moving onto floors 25 through 31, and Bank of Scotland is occupying its two floors, 34 and 35. MetLife is moving into its space at the top of the tower, even as it tries to sublease its space in the middle. And Robert Alexander, chairman of the New York office of CB Richard Ellis, the real estate brokerage for the tower, said he had pending deals for two other vacant floors, 32 and 33. “We’re signing smaller deals at premium rents, and we look forward to finishing our leasing program,” he said. Brokers familiar with the space offered by iStar, MetLife and Centerline say competition for tenants in Midtown is growing in part because there is ample renovated space available in other buildings. As a result, many companies are demanding rent concessions from landlords or are refusing to take on the cost of adding walls, carpeting and bathrooms to newly renovated space. “What’s missing right now is the demand for raw space,” said one broker, who requested anonymity because he was active at the former Verizon building and he did not want to alienate the landlords or other brokers. The building was constructed in 1974 with vertical white marble slabs and few windows to house switches and other equipment for New York Telephone, which became Verizon. In 2005, as rents and sales prices for commercial buildings were skyrocketing, the company put the tower on the market, with the exception of 234,000 square feet on Floors 6 through 12. Equity Office Properties, one of the largest commercial real estate owners in the country, won a hotly contested auction with a bid of $506 million, more than Verizon had anticipated. At the time, many analysts suggested that Equity Office had overpaid, especially after the new owner started a $250 million renovation that included replacing the marble exterior with a glass skin. Equity Office, however, was betting that the tower would lure prime tenants and generate rents as high as $90 a square foot. And it was right: Rents escalated even higher as the vacancy rate in Midtown plunged and investors clamored to buy properties. Blackstone bought Equity Office for $39 billion in early 2007, at what turned out to be the height of the market. It sold most of Equity’s New York buildings but held on to 1095 Avenue of the Americas. The firm signed leases last year with Bank of Scotland and Centerline for as much as $150 a square foot, brokers active at the tower said. MetLife’s average effective rent, for floors in the middle and at the top, is about $100 a square foot, or $40 million a year, according to real estate executives familiar with the deal. The insurance giant had moved most of its New York employees to Long Island City in 2002, where rents were as low as $30 a square foot. But in 2006, MetLife reversed course, signing a lease to move about 1,300 employees from Queens into the former Verizon building. But this year, the company reassessed how many employees were actually in the office at any one time and determined that it needed only 9 of the 12 floors it had leased in the tower. So early next year, MetLife plans to formally market three of its floors, said John Calagna, a spokesman for MetLife. Mr. Calagna said that the same number of people who moved into 1095 Avenue of the Americas two years ago, about 1,300, are now “moving to less space.”

Office Buildings and Commercial Properties


A D.H. in Baseball’s Hall of Fame? It’s a Numbers Game

Abstract: Ever since the designated hitter was introduced in 1973, the role has vexed baseball purists, who complain about its babying effect on pitchers and its dumbing down of managerial strategy. This year, for the first time, the Baseball Writers’ Association of America will have to decide whether to admit a serious Hall of Fame candidate who spent most of his career as a D.H. The case of Edgar Martinez will force voters to answer a difficult question: What is the intrinsic value of playing defense, however poorly? How much better must a D.H. hit than, say, an oafish, immobile first baseman before their contributions are considered equal? Two statistical methods can determine the relative worth of baseball’s positions. One is examining players who occupy multiple spots on the field, and observing how the quality of their fielding changes depending on where they are stationed. Since 1987, when modern play-by-play defensive statistics were introduced, those who spent at least three-quarters of the time as a D.H. fielded about 11 fewer balls per season when playing first base than a league-average defender would have reached. Thus, one can subtract 11 hits per year (mostly singles and some doubles) from a D.H.’s batting line to compare him fairly with first basemen. The other approach is to look at replacement players any team can sign for peanuts, and use their production as a baseline. In a study of players older than 27 earning less than twice the league minimum salary, Nate Silver , formerly of Baseball Prospectus, found that D.H.’s posted a combined on-base and slugging percentage (O.P.S.) of .781, and the first basemen compiled a .744 mark. That gap is equivalent to 13 hits (with the same mix of singles and doubles) per season. But the first basemen were also good defensively. They got to about three balls per year that a league-average first baseman would not have fielded. Thus, the total spread is 10 hits a year. One additional element must be considered. Hitters typically perform worse at D.H. than they do when playing the field. Frank Thomas, for example, had an O.P.S. 179 points lower as a designated hitter than as a first baseman. Many players, like David Ortiz , defy this pattern, and some of the drop-off is because of managers who put ailing batters at designated hitter. Because of this uncertainty, statisticians differ over whether to give hitters extra credit in the D.H. role. But those who do value the so-called D.H. penalty at some six hits a year. Taking Martinez’s career batting line and subtracting nine singles and two doubles per year, giving no extra credit for the D.H. role, his career O.P.S. drops to 37 percent above the league average from 47 percent. An average-fielding first baseman with Martinez’s 8,672 plate appearances at that rate would be in the neighborhood of Norm Cash, Boog Powell or Jack Clark — good, but short of the standard for the Hall of Fame. But there are two extra arguments for Martinez. First, he arrived in the majors late. The Mariners were committed to Jim Presley, so they did not make Martinez a starter until 1990. According to calculations by Dan Szymborski of Baseball Think Factory , Martinez’s minor league numbers in 1988 and 1989 suggest he would have accumulated 469 plate appearances at an O.P.S. 12 percent above average had he played in Seattle . Second, Martinez played a perfectly good third base through 1992, and was relieved of his glove only to keep his bat in the lineup after a series of injuries. If Martinez is to be docked for being a D.H. in his later years, he needs to be credited for being a two-way threat early on. The position-switcher and the replacement-player methods each find that playing third base is worth 19 hits per year more than playing first. After adding on the minor league years and four seasons of credit for playing third base, Martinez winds up with the same value as an average defensive first baseman with 9,141 plate appearances and an O.P.S. 44 percent above average. That translates to one notch below Harmon Killebrew (9,830 plate appearances and an O.P.S. 43 percent better than average) or Willie McCovey (9,686 plate appearances and an O.P.S. 47 percent better than average) — or near the bottom of deserving Hall of Famers but worthy of induction. Analysts who do give extra credit for the D.H. penalty would see Martinez as a peer of those sluggers, and an obvious selection for Cooperstown . It is important to note, however, that like Paul Molitor, Martinez’s career as a designated hitter alone would not be sufficient to justify his enshrinement. The game is still waiting for a pure D.H. candidate to truly test the voters.

Baseball
Edgar Martinez
Baseball Hall of Fame


Serbia May Reinstate Envoys Despite Disputes Over Kosovo

Abstract: PARIS — Serbia ’s government may reinstate ambassadors it recalled from countries that recognized an independent Kosovo , a policy shift that senior Serbian officials said Belgrade was considering to show its commitment to the West. Serbia recalled ambassadors from several countries — including France, Germany, Britain, Belgium, Italy and the United States — to protest their decision to recognize Kosovo, which declared independence from Serbia in February. Serbia considers Kosovo its medieval heartland and has called its unilateral declaration of independence a reckless breach of international law. But Vuk Jeremic, Serbia’s foreign minister, said in an interview here on Wednesday that his country’s new pro-Western government was determined to mend ties with Europe and Washington, even if its opposition to Kosovo’s independence remained as emphatic as ever. He said the possibility of reinstating Serbia’s ambassadors, which he planned to discuss over the weekend with President Boris Tadic, would potentially affect about 20 ambassadors. “The two foreign policy priorities of our new government are integrating Serbia into the European Union and continuing our diplomatic struggle to defend our sovereignty and preserve our territorial integrity,” Mr. Jeremic said. He added that Serbia was prepared to engage with all parties, including Kosovo’s ethnic Albanian leaders, to solve the impasse over Kosovo. The pro-Western coalition government, which was formed last week, is the product of an unlikely union between Mr. Tadic’s Democrats and the Socialist Party, once led by the strongman Slobodan Milosevic. While some Western diplomats and Serbian liberals have expressed alarm about the inclusion of the Socialists in the government, Mr. Jeremic, a leading Democrat, said he was convinced that the party was committed to taking Serbia into the European Union. He said the Democrats had also received assurances that the Socialists, the party that was at war with the West in the 1990s, would not stand in the way of the union’s demands that Serbia hand over war-crimes suspects for trial in The Hague. “The Socialists are no longer Milosevic’s party — Milosevic is dead,” he said. “The party joined with us to pursue European integration.” While Belgrade appeared to be moderating its tone on Kosovo, Mr. Jeremic made it clear that Serbia’s policy of opposing Kosovo’s independence had not changed. He said he had recently been engaged in diplomacy on several continents to lobby countries not to recognize what Serbia considered a false state. So far, 43 of the United Nations’ 192 members have recognized Kosovo, according to Kosovo’s government. The newborn country received a significant lift last week when an international donors’ conference in Brussels raised nearly $1.9 billion in aid. Western diplomats have been hopeful that the new Serbian government’s pro-European Union stance will temper the opposition to Kosovo’s independence. Although Serbians remain upset over the West’s support for Kosovo, analysts say economic concerns have since trumped emotions, with most Serbs indicating that prosperity is their priority. Serbia is one of Europe’s poorest nations, with many of its people earning about $500 a month.


Michigan to Appoint Emergency Manager for Detroit

Abstract: DETROIT — Over the fierce protests of this city’s elected leaders, the State of Michigan plans to send an emergency manager to repair the deeply troubled finances of Detroit, one of the largest cities ever to reach such a dire point or to face such a level of oversight. “There is probably no city that is more financially challenged in the entire United States,” Gov. Rick Snyder said on Friday as he explained why he had deemed Detroit’s woes too fundamental, too lasting and too large to be solved by the city itself. Mr. Snyder’s call for an emergency manager, who would wield sweeping powers to reshape the city, underscored a long, troubling arc for Detroit. Once the cradle of the American auto industry and the nation’s fourth most populous city, it is now less than half the size it was decades ago and has a public sector plagued by more than $14 billion in long-term liabilities and annual worries of cash shortfalls. Image A neglected home in Detroit. Credit Fabrizio Costantini for The New York Times The notion set off a flurry of pointed and sometimes emotional reactions here, including an unavoidable racial and political component. Detroit is a mostly black city dominated by Democrats in a mostly white state where Republicans, including Mr. Snyder, control the capital. At a time when many municipalities are struggling financially, five cities and three school districts in Michigan alone are already under supervision from a state-appointed emergency financial manager. But municipal finance experts pointed out that Detroit is on a different scale. “Detroit is a huge and prominent American city, so anything that happens with Detroit will set a much bigger precedent,” said Matt Fabian, a managing director at Municipal Market Advisors. “There isn’t a lot of precedent with the state taking control of a city this size.” For decades, states have used a range of methods, including oversight boards and appointed receivers, to step in and stabilize cities that appeared to be headed toward bankruptcy or default. The methods — and the powers and roles of those charged with overseeing a troubled city — vary widely from state to state, as do opinions about whether they work. A financial control board helped New York City return from the edge of crisis in the 1970s, but such intense state involvement is more often needed in smaller cities. For more than a year, Detroit leaders had raced to ward off an emergency manager. With a similar possibility looming last spring, city officials entered into a legal deal, giving the state some oversight as Detroit tried to cut spending and staff members and collect more tax revenue. It was not enough, said state officials, who re-examined the city’s books in recent weeks and said they found a pattern of overly optimistic revenue estimates, poor and conflicting record-keeping and endless borrowing to make up for shortfalls. Image Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan. Credit Rebecca Cook/Reuters “There have been many good people that have had many plans, many attempts to turn this around — they haven’t worked,” Mr. Snyder said on Friday during a town hall meeting broadcast on local television, the start of a concerted state effort to sell the notion of an outside manager to city residents. “The way I view it, today is a day to call all hands on deck.” While some Detroit residents saw state intervention as one more very public indication of a city crumbling, others hailed it as the first promising sign of real repair. The city’s business leaders lauded the plan, noting that Detroit’s private sector had experienced tangible signs of growth and reinvestment — including newly filled downtown offices and young entrepreneurs opening dress shops — even as the public sector had lagged. “Bring it on,” Sandy K. Baruah, the chairman of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce , said of state management. “This sends a positive message to business that Detroit is fixing its problems.” But Detroit city officials, who have 10 days to seek reconsideration from the governor before a state board formally appoints a manager as early as this month, objected strenuously. Under a much-debated state law, an appointed manager would ultimately hold powers to cut city spending, change contracts with labor unions, merge or eliminate city departments, urge the sale of city assets and even, if all else failed, recommend bankruptcy proceedings. In an election year for mayor and the City Council, many candidates, incumbents and community leaders denounced the move as an affront to democracy and a state takeover, and called for legal action. Image The former Packard Plant in Detroit in February. Credit J.D. Pooley/Getty Images “For one individual to be able to wipe out the duties of our duly-elected officials, that’s more or less a dictatorship, and it’s against everything that America is supposed to be about,” said the Rev. Wendell Anthony, the president of the local N.A.A.C.P. “If you come into Detroit,” Mr. Anthony said, “you own Detroit. You own education. You own police and fire.” Mayor Dave Bing, who has not said whether he would seek re-election, was more tempered than most in his critique, suggesting that while he opposed an emergency manager, there might be a way for the state and city to work together. “I will look at the impact of the governor’s decision as well as other options, to determine my next course of action,” he said. Michigan’s emergency manager law — and the possibility that Detroit, the state’s largest city, might be affected by it — has been a matter of contention for several years. After Mr. Snyder became governor in 2010, he and the Republican-held Legislature approved changes to the state’s two-decade-old law, giving such managers more wide-reaching powers, including the ability to drop union contracts with cities. In November, voters rejected that new version of the law, but the Legislature quickly passed a third version, which also allows relatively broad powers to change the terms of labor contracts and which will take effect this month. But many here wonder whether any emergency manager, under any version of the law, will be enough to solve Detroit’s woes, which are in some way a reflection of the city’s own story. Beyond the nagging budget questions and the mounting debt is a place that grew with the auto industry into a city of more than 1.8 million residents and 139 square miles, then shrank decade after decade even as the city’s boundaries and infrastructure did not. With a tax base of some among about 713,000 remaining residents, Detroiters complain of late buses, high crime and darkened streetlights.

Detroit
Rick Snyder
City council
Economy


Detroit Lions at Minnesota Vikings Preview

Abstract: Lions (0-1) at Vikings (0-1) 1 p.m. Line: Vikings by 3 Adrian Peterson struggled in his first week back from a tumultuous 2014 in a 20-3 loss to the San Francisco 49ers, leading some to question whether a 30-year-old running back with a ton of mileage on him could return to form after missing a season. Peterson’s patented burst was missing, and at times he seemed hesitant carrying the ball. Whether or not that’s just the product of a little rust that can be easily shaken off will very likely factor heavily in the kind of season the Minnesota Vikings will have. Peterson has had some big games against the Detroit Lions, who lost their star defensive linemen Ndamukong Suh and Nick Fairley in the off-season and gave up 483 yards to the San Diego Chargers last week, blowing a 21-3 lead in the course of losing, 33-28. So this matchup could be a good barometer of what type of season Peterson will have. Pick: Vikings

Detroit Lions
Minnesota Vikings
Football


Why the Orlando Shooting Is Unlikely to Lead to Major New Gun Laws

Abstract: WASHINGTON — It didn’t happen after a congresswoman was shot in the head at an official event. It didn’t happen after 20 children were gunned down in their elementary school classrooms. It didn’t happen after terrorists fired on a holiday party at an agency that provided services for people with disabilities in Southern California. Now, after the worst mass shooting in American history, major new gun control legislation is still not likely to pass in Congress. Senate Republicans are clearly feeling pressure to address the fact that people whose names surface on terrorist watchlists can easily buy guns. But they do not like a bill that Democrats intend to offer next week that would give the Department of Justice the authority to stop people on the watchlist and other terrorism suspects from buying a gun. A Republican bill would require the government to delay the purchase of a gun for 72 hours by anyone who is a terrorism suspect, or has been the subject of a terrorism investigation within the last five years, while a review takes place. “If Democrats are actually serious about getting a solution on that issue, they’d join us,” said Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader. Democrats have argued that the measure, which is approved by the National Rifle Association, is too onerous to have any impact. How Terrorism Suspects Buy Guns — and How They Still Could, Even With a Ban Senate Democrats are hoping to resurrect legislation to prevent those on the government’s terrorist watchlist from purchasing guns. Even less likely to pass is a measure that would extend background checks on gun buyers — largely because of hotly contested Senate races in a bitter election year. It seems possible that even Republicans who have supported a background check measure in the past will abandon it this time around. But unlike in December, when both measures were defeated, some Republicans have been more eager to find a compromise with Democrats. So far, those efforts have not produced a bill both sides can support. “We have to be serious about this,” Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, said Thursday. “We have to pass a real measure that actually keeps guns out of terrorists’ hands, not something that just makes it look like we’re addressing the problem.” In Orlando on Thursday, President Obama made yet another strongly worded public call — his third this week — for tightening gun restrictions, arguing that the latest mass violence should change the debate. During a two-hour private mourning session with families and friends of the victims at an arena, Mr. Obama said, “they pleaded that we do more to stop” gun violence. “Those who defend the easy accessibility of assault weapons should meet these families,” Mr. Obama said, calling on senators to “rise to the moment and do the right thing.” While Donald J. Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, said he would like it to be harder for those on a watchlist to get guns, it was unclear this week which measure he was endorsing, though most Republicans and Democrats said they assumed it was the Republican version. Why the Orlando Shooting Was So Deadly The mass shooting at an Orlando nightclub early Sunday was the deadliest in United States history. One out of every three people at the crowded Pulse nightclub was killed or injured. Election-year politics will make a bill to expand background checks an uphill climb. After the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., Senators Patrick J. Toomey, Republican of Pennsylvania, and Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, proposed legislation to extend federal background check laws to internet sales and gun shows. That bill failed , 54 to 46, with five Democrats opposing and four Republicans — Senators Susan Collins of Maine, Mark S. Kirk of Illinois, John McCain of Arizona and Mr. Toomey — voting yes. After the deaths of 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, the Senate again voted down the bipartisan bill 48 to 50. A measure to stop people on terror watchlists was also defeated. But Democrats have decided to scrap that background check measure in favor of one sponsored by Senator Christopher S. Murphy, the Connecticut Democrat who led a filibuster of an appropriations bill Wednesday night, that would expand background checks to all gun sales except loans and gifts between family members. Some prominent Democrats have told fellow party members not to work with Mr. Toomey, who is in a tough re-election fight, said three Republicans with knowledge of the conversations. Indeed, Mr. Toomey and other Republicans could end up even voting against Mr. Murphy’s bill. Democrats lost interest in working with Mr. Toomey on proposals to close the so-called terror gap in gun laws when he proposed legislation that gun safety groups did not support. Mr. Toomey will always have his old bill to run on, and the fact that he is now working with Everytown for Gun Safety — a group affiliated with former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg of New York — on legislation to prevent terrorists from obtaining guns. On Thursday, Republicans came out with their own background check measure, which was sponsored by Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa and chairman of the Judiciary Committee, and included a mental health component. Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, also plans to offer an amendment to prevent terrorists from getting guns. Votes on all the measures are scheduled for Monday. Gun politics infect much of what Congress tries to do; bills to advance changes to the nation’s mental health system are held up over the issue , and that is unlikely to stop. But bipartisan solutions will almost certainly have to wait until the election is over.

Orlando Shooting
Congress
Terrorism
Gun Control
Senate
Republicans
Democrats
US Politics


Janet Elkin, on Not Letting the Process Defeat the Purpose

Abstract: This interview with Janet Elkin, chief executive of Supplemental Health Care, a health care staffing firm, was conducted and condensed by Adam Bryant. Q. Were you in leadership roles or doing entrepreneurial things when you were younger? A. I was a magician when I was 12, and my parents were my assistants. How did that come about? My dad loved magic. He was a court reporter, and he would do tricks to calm down kids if they had to be witnesses. I must have said once to him when he was doing tricks at home, “I like that one,” and the next day he comes home with all these tricks for me. I started doing shows, and it was a great bonding experience with my parents, and a great way to earn extra money. It teaches you to have presence. I would do mainly birthday parties, but I also did larger events with hundreds of people. What was your first management role after college? I started a jewelry business in Texas, doing fund-raisers at hospitals. That grew to about $2 million in annual sales. But then I went through a divorce and basically lost everything. I had to stop traveling to take care of my kids. I had to do something to support myself, so I started working as a headhunter in the health care field. I built up a niche within the firm. That’s a big transition from jewelry sales. Yes, but I’m pretty good at getting people to tell me about themselves, and what they really want, as opposed to what they think they want, in a job. I had to connect with people over the telephone, and you can do it. You have to give something of yourself. It makes a difference if you talk a little bit about your own life. What were some early leadership lessons for you? I don’t think I was ever a micromanager, but sometimes you can get too involved. It’s about balance. I’m still working on it, but it’s about being able to ask enough questions to really know what’s going on. You develop that intuition. It’s not perfect, but you just get a feeling. Things could be going well, but you can see that train coming with some problem. The hard thing is guiding other people to see what you’re seeing. And you’re not always right. You jumped from vice president to C.E.O. at your current company. Did the board tell you why it chose you? When I got the call, I was surprised. They picked an insider during a really difficult time in the recession. They said the reason was that we had lost the spirit in the company, and we lost the focus. One of my favorite expressions — and people are sick of hearing it in the company — is “Don’t let the process overtake the purpose.” We generate thousands of reports, and we were in the middle of a recession when I took over in 2010. So it was about making people feel excited. On my leadership calls with the whole company, we’d talk about the results, which were really bad at the time, but we’d talk about them for only 20 seconds. Then I’d say: “Let’s talk about how we’re going to get better. Let’s get started.” Lessons you’ve learned from mentors? A former boss of mine would remind me: “Don’t take the credit. It’s easy to take the credit, but you don’t have to. Give it to somebody else. It will come back to you.” Even when things were your idea, nobody has to know that. People feel good about it, and then you give them a chance to feel that they can take the next step. How do you hire? The first thing I always ask is “Let’s start out with the questions you have for me. You’ve talked to a lot of people, but is there anything about the mission of the company, our board, my background, that you want to ask me about?” Believe it or not, seven out of 10 people say, “I’ve already gotten what I need.” Maybe they’re nervous, but I’m thinking: “You’re talking to the C.E.O. You don’t want to know what makes me tick?” The other deal killer can come at the end. I always give them my business card and say, “Please contact me with any questions.” And then I wait to see if they send me a thank-you email. What percentage send you that email? About 60 percent. What other questions do you ask? I like to know about things that have gone wrong. I’ll usually set that up by talking about mistakes I’ve made at the company. I’ve made a lot of them, and they kept promoting me. But the difference is that you learn from your mistakes, and then you go on because you want people to be willing to take chances on you. I do that first so they’ll feel comfortable, and then I’ll say: “Tell me about something, and it can be from any job you’ve had, where you look back and think: ‘I should have handled it differently. I wish it would have happened like this instead, but I’ve learned from it.’ ” How they answer that speaks to how open they’ll be. If they tell me they’ve never made any kind of mistake, then they’re out of there. In my company, you don’t usually make it if you’re defensive. It’s my No. 1 thing. Just be open and be able to acknowledge what didn’t go right so that you can make it better. Something’s always going to go wrong, and you’re going to make mistakes. That’s O.K., but you’ve got to go on and do the next thing. Then I ask a lot of questions about their former employers. If anyone starts talking really negatively about their bosses, I’m thinking: “You’re going to be saying that about me next. It’s only a matter of time.” They don’t have to be like me, but I want to feel that when they wake up in the morning, they feel good about where they’re going.

Janet Elkin
Supplemental Health Care
Management
Job Recruiting and Hiring


3 Are Shot to Death at a Township Meeting in Pennsylvania

Abstract: SAYLORSBURG, Pa. — A shooting during a township meeting Monday night left three people dead, and the gunman was tackled by a local official and shot with his own gun before being taken into custody, a witness said. The shooting, which also wounded at least two other people, happened shortly before 7:30 p.m. during Ross Township’s regular monthly meeting, said Guy Miller, the Monroe County emergency management director. The gunman, who appeared to be “shooting randomly,” was in state police custody at a hospital, Mr. Miller said. The state police in Lehighton, Pa., confirmed that three were dead and that the gunman had been captured, and said that he had a continuing dispute with township officials over the possible condemnation of his property. They said at about 15 to 18 residents and officials were at the meeting. The Pocono Record said that one of its reporters was in the township building and that a man armed with a pistol with a scope shot through a wall into the meeting, in northeastern Pennsylvania about 85 miles north of Philadelphia. Image The reporter, Chris Reber, told the newspaper that he saw holes open up in the wall, with smoke and plaster blowing out. He said he heard what sounded like automatic gunfire. “I ran out after the first round of shooting,” he said. “I dropped to the floor. That’s what everyone did.” “Then it stopped and I crawled out the side door,” Mr. Reber told the newspaper. “I was the only person who crawled out. Everyone got behind a table.” Mr. Reber said that a woman opened a door to the meeting room and that the gunman “was standing there. A man pushed her aside and was shot. People were shot inside the room.” The gunman had returned to his car and had come back inside with another weapon when an official at the meeting grabbed him, Mr. Reber said. He said that the official, Bernie Kozen, was helping the man who had been shot, and that the gunman did not see them. Mr. Kozen “bearhugged him and took him down,” Mr. Reber said, then used the man’s gun to shoot him. Ross Township has about 5,500 residents.


Tending the Boulevards of Broken Dreams

Abstract: FORT MYERS, Fla. The lawn mower’s whine disrupts the morning peace of Coconut Drive like an alarm clock no one remembers setting. It rises and falls and rises again, as the angry machine cuts across the front-lawn jungle of an attractive house with great location and move-in potential. Abandoned, in other words. Three years ago, sold for $660,000; today, a ghostly parcel of failure. The lawn mower returns the grass to short uniformity, then growls toward the back yard, passing a two-car garage housing forsaken gardening tools, a basketball hoop no longer conjuring jump-shot dreams and a door leading to a kitchen with a granite-counter island. Now it begins to clear around an in-ground pool brimming with viscous water the color of cash. The man operating the mower is not a landscaper making his weekly visit, but a city employee trying to stem the blight caused by a boom in property foreclosures. His name is Shayne Becher, and just two hours into his shift the 90-degree mugginess has saturated his city-issue cotton shirt. But that’s how it is here in Fort Myers, in this season of rain and recession. Mr. Becher works for the code enforcement division’s rapid response team, which tries to keep up with an ever-growing list of abandoned properties needing to be mowed and boarded up. He is the team’s foreman and its only member; his partner recently accepted the buyout the city was offering to reduce its budget. So Mr. Becher mows and hammers and sweats from 7 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon, five days a week, sometimes with help, sometimes not. He may be unable to reverse the plummeting national economy, but at least when he’s done, these deserted houses have a curbside appeal that neither offends neighbors nor attracts criminals. With perspiration beading at the tip of his nose, Mr. Becher uses a blower to clean the sidewalk and driveway, then piles fallen coconuts and other debris at the curb for public works to collect. Before climbing into his truck, he pauses to assess his handiwork at what was once someone’s dream house. “Beautiful,” he says. Then he drives a few blocks to another site of abandonment, on Sunset Place. Come to Fort Myers, population 60,000, the seat of Lee County. Walk the Gulf Coast beaches. Cruise the Caloosahatchee River. Witness what happens when banks dole out easy mortgages and homeowners forget that the money isn’t free. Drive down McGregor Boulevard, or Cleveland Avenue, turn left or turn right, and see the empty houses, the overgrown lots, the signs saying AUCTION and FREE RENT. Celebrate the fact that, according to RealtyTrac, a listing company, the Fort Myers-Cape Coral area no longer leads the country in foreclosure rates; that is so — July. In August the area ranked sixth, with one in every 66 housing units receiving notice of an auction, repossession or loan default. One of the fallouts is wholesale abandonment. Michael Titmuss, a former Fort Myers police officer who became the city’s manager of code enforcement seven years ago, is seeing new and disturbing trends in the city he loves. Failing condominium associations. Criminals renting deserted buildings they do not own to unsuspecting tenants. More and more no-shows at code enforcement hearings. “They’re desperate,” Mr. Titmuss said. “They feel hopeless and they don’t know where to turn. They’re good people in a bad position. They perceive themselves as unable to comply, as being surrounded by a pack of wolves.” He didn’t finish the thought because these days some things are understood: The homeowners walk away, leaving their properties to banks as unwanted parting gifts for having provided risky loans in the first place. Here in Fort Myers, the code requires that grass be no higher than 12 inches. Otherwise, neighbors complain about property values, rats and snakes receive sanctuary and lurking criminals find easy cover. If a lawn isn’t mowed, a process kicks in. The city mails a courtesy postcard, saying: Time to mow your lawn, neighbor. After that it sends the rapid-response team — that is, Mr. Becher — to mow. Then it bills the homeowner for the service, though these bills often become liens on property that no one wants and banks are not eager to reclaim. In July, the city mailed at least 600 courtesy cards — more than three times the number sent out the previous July. Still, codes must be enforced; lawns must be mowed. In hiring Mr. Becher several months ago, Mr. Titmuss passed on strange reassurance: “We will train you. And oh, by the way, we’ve never seen what you’re about to deal with.” Mr. Becher, 39, is like a lot of people here: He’s from someplace else. He moved a year ago from the small central Michigan city of Greenville, where he was a public works foreman. But his first marriage failed, his patience with small-town nosiness ran out and his side business as a builder came to what he calls “a screeching halt.” Just like the Michigan economy. Now here he is, driving a Ford pickup to Sunset Place, pulling a gasoline-perfumed trailer that contains two riding mowers, three chain saws, five weed whackers, two hedge clippers and a toolbox. He also has two jugs of water, a ham and cheese sandwich and a pages-long list of properties that need to be mowed or boarded up. He pulls up beside a small, one-story house. City records include a photograph of this house taken in December 2005 that depicts a white convertible and a black dog in the driveway; today the house is a shell, with gaping holes where air conditioners have been yanked out, probably for scrap. Mr. Becher sets down a foot-high traffic cone beside the knee-high grass, takes a “before” photograph to document the violation, and mounts his mower. He used to begin every job by tromping through the property, searching for debris or tree stumps that might damage the mower’s blades. But he saw a snake not long ago, he says. “I’m not much of a snake man.” The mower begins its cringing whine, a kind of keening over these tough times. Mr. Becher expertly maneuvers around corners and bushes, the machine an extension of himself and of bureaucratic efficiency. Until, that is, it lurches to a halt, its gears entwined with a hose hidden in the brush. “Holy smokes,” he says. Using willpower and a knife, he extracts the snakelike hose and gets on with the job. In the hours to come, Mr. Becher will mow two more lots. He will pass sign after sign saying FREE RENT. He will board up several buildings, including one house containing little more than auction brochures, and another, directly across from a public library, containing the detritus of a crack den. He will meet up with a code-enforcement officer, Ron Giddings, who will ask him: “Can you cut 4040 Rainbow tomorrow? It’s next to a day care center, and she’s complaining about rats and snakes.” But right now, he is immersed in tidying the messiness of failed plans. He finishes mowing, takes a photograph of a job well done, and closes the chain-link fence as though the property were his own. “Another day in paradise,” he says, standing on this street called Sunset.

Lawns
Housing
Foreclosures
Fort Myers (Fla)
Government Employees


Iran Executes Man Accused of Being Israeli Spy

Abstract: LONDON — Iran said Tuesday that it had executed a man accused of being an Israeli intelligence agent responsible for the assassination of one of its nuclear scientists. Press TV, an Iranian satellite broadcaster, identified the man as Majid Jamali Fashi and said he had been convicted of killing the scientist, Masoud Ali Mohammadi , in January 2010. Mr. Mohammadi was a 50-year-old professor at Tehran University whose role in Tehran’s nuclear program was unclear. At the time of his death, Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization said he had no role in the nuclear program . The case seemed to be part of a shadow war played out between Iran and Israel , which has shown growing impatience with Western efforts to employ diplomacy and sanctions in the enduring crisis over Tehran’s nuclear program. Iran says the program is for peaceful purposes, but Western leaders suspect that Tehran is seeking the capability to build a weapon. At the time of Mr. Mohammadi’s killing, state media in Iran reported that a remote-controlled bomb attached to a motorcycle was detonated outside his home in north Tehran. Iran blamed the United States and Israel for the attack. A State Department spokesman in Washington dismissed the accusation of United States involvement as “absurd.” Press TV said Mr. Fashi had been executed at Evin prison in Tehran. He had also been found guilty of “receiving training from Mossad” — the Israeli spy agency — inside Israel and of being given $120,000 to assassinate Mr. Mohammadi. He had also confessed to using forged documents, received in Azerbaijan, to travel to Tel Aviv, the broadcaster said. The Iranian state news agency accused Mr. Fashi of traveling abroad “on several occasions” to be trained. The killing was one of several apparently aimed at Iranians associated with nuclear research. The latest came in January when Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, 32, who was deputy director of the Natanz uranium enrichment plant, was killed on his way to work in rush-hour traffic in Tehran. While Israel generally declines to comment on such assassinations, Iran routinely accuses Israeli agents of seeking to derail its nuclear program. Iranian news accounts said that a motorcyclist slapped a magnetized bomb on Mr. Roshan’s car, killing him and mortally wounding his driver and bodyguard, identified as Reza Qashaqei. The execution of Mr. Fashi came weeks after Iran’s state media announced that 15 people, including Iranians and unspecified foreigners, had been arrested in connection with what the country’s Intelligence Ministry described as a “Zionist-regime-linked” plot to assassinate one of its “specialists.” The report by the state broadcaster IRIB also said Iran’s intelligence services had uncovered an Israeli spy base in a neighboring country, without elaborating. The execution also coincided with inconclusive talks in Vienna between Iranian envoys and officials from the International Atomic Energy Agency to discuss the agency’s desire to inspect facilities that it suspects have been used to test explosives capable of detonating a nuclear charge, which Iran denies. The talks are also seen as an informal precursor to talks scheduled this month in Baghdad between Iran, the United States and other nations. In a statement, the I.A.E.A.’s deputy director general, Herman Nackaerts, said the agency and Iranian officials “had a good exchange of views” and would meet again on Monday.

Assassinations and Attempted Assassinations


Protests Over Government and Economy Roil Bosnia

Abstract: PARIS — Thousands of angry Bosnians took to the streets on Friday for a fourth day of protests against the political paralysis and economic stagnation that have engulfed one of Europe’s poorest and most divided countries. In protests being called the Bosnian Spring for the sheer depth of their intensity, unemployed youths, war veterans and disgruntled workers, among others, set fire to government buildings in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital, and across the country. The Bosnian news media reported that hundreds had been injured during the protests, including dozens of police officers, with bursts of violence in Sarajevo, in the northern city of Tuzla, in Mostar in the south, and in Zenica in central Bosnia. Srecko Latal, an analyst at the Social Overview Service, a research organization based in Sarajevo, said in a telephone interview that the capital looked like a “war zone,” with cars set on fire and overturned, buildings burning, and smoke from tear gas billowing into the sky. He said protesters had attacked the headquarters of the Bosnian presidency on Friday, a potent symbol of the country’s chronic dysfunction. “We haven’t seen violent scenes like this since the war in the 1990s,” he said. “People are fed up with what has become total political chaos in Bosnia, with infighting over power, a dire economic situation and a feeling that there is little hope for the future. The protests are a wake-up call for the international community not to disengage from Bosnia.” The protests started on Tuesday in Tuzla, a former industrial center, when more than 10,000 factory workers gathered in front of a regional government building to voice their anger over factory closings and unpaid salaries, for which they blamed poorly executed state privatizations. The anger soon spread to other parts of Bosnia. The political and economic deterioration has its roots in the aftermath of the brutal ethnic war in Bosnia, which ended in 1995 after more than 100,000 people were killed. The Dayton Peace Agreement, brokered by the United States, ended the war. But it also divided Bosnia and Herzegovina, a former Yugoslav republic, into two entities — a Muslim-Croat Federation and a Serbian Republic — and created a complex and unwieldy power-sharing system that has helped engender political infighting and stagnation. Over the past several years, the poor and ethnically divided country has teetered from one crisis to the next. The political instability has undermined the country’s prospects of joining the European Union, and fanned economic hardship, including unemployment of more than 27 percent. In June, about 1,500 lawmakers, government employees and foreign guests were held hostage for hours after thousands of angry demonstrators formed a human chain around the Bosnian Parliament building in Sarajevo to protest an impasse over a law on identification documents. Mr. Latal said the current protests were primarily in the Muslim-Croat part of Bosnia but had also spread to its Serbian Republic. He said the disenchantment with the political paralysis transcended ethnicity, and paradoxically was unifying disparate ethnic groups around a common cause. As the protests flared this week, Nermin Niksic, the prime minister of the Bosniak-Croat Federation, acknowledged some of the grievances of the protesters, including that workers had been deprived of pensions and health benefits. But he said that hooligans were taking advantage of the situation to foment chaos. Suad Zeljkovic, the prime minister of the Sarajevo regional government, drew anger this week when he said that the people of Sarajevo were not justified in their dissatisfaction. “In Sarajevo, no one has reasons for unrest and actions like this,” he told reporters on Thursday. “There is not a single unpaid salary, nor does any sector of society have reasons for dissatisfaction.”

Unemployment
Sarajevo
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Jobs


He’s Traveling in First Class, but He’ll Still Look at Your Recipe

Abstract: SINCE I’m in the food and entertainment business, practically all my flights are business-related, flying from Atlanta to either New York City or Los Angeles. I am a pilot and have my own eight-seater Cessna, and when I fly my own plane it’s spectacular. But there are positives when flying commercial. I relish the relaxation of commercial flights and being able to sit back and enjoy the ride. I’m also very fortunate because I get to fly first class quite a bit, and it’s great. It’s one of the few times I can relax for a few hours or get some work done. Even though I am a pilot, I am not a back-seat driver. Sometimes I get a little jealous of the pilots flying those big commercial airlines, but I am at ease. Airliners are amazingly safe. I don’t have too many problems flying, but a few months after the Sept. 11 attacks, I flew up to Allentown, Pa., to cook at a big benefit event. I decided to do an omelet demonstration because I’d done it at several other events around the country and the crowds always seemed to enjoy it. It was also a good demonstration because it didn’t require any special equipment, just an eight-inch omelet pan that easily fit in my carry-on. Everything was great until I got to security at the Allentown airport. Security decided to stop me because of the pan. I did point out to them that I’ve flown to about 12 cities with this pan and had no trouble, but it didn’t matter. The head Transportation Security Administration gentleman said there was absolutely no way I was getting on a plane with something that dangerous. I didn’t quite know what to say. It was an omelet pan. Later that week, I wrote a blog post about the experience, and one week after that I received a box containing my pan. It was no worse for the wear, and I was very happy. I still have it, but now I always leave it at home. Some people do recognize me from “ Cutthroat Kitchen ” or “ Iron Chef America ,” and I don’t mind talking about food with people in airports or on the plane. Compared to 20 years ago, people have a lot more interest in food and are looking for ways to improve their meals. Before, all people wanted to do was follow a recipe; now they’re trying to gather knowledge on how to make a meal or a recipe better. Food connects people. People also ask me food questions. What’s really strange is that people ask me about their own family’s old recipes when they can’t decipher them. Sometimes it’s tough to do because they don’t remember certain things. One time, though, something pretty wonderful happened. I was flying from Atlanta to Los Angeles and an older gentleman stopped me at the baggage claim in Los Angeles. His wife of many years had died a few months before, and all he wanted to do was make scrambled eggs. Apparently, his wife often made him scrambled eggs for breakfast. For most of his marriage, the eggs were lousy, but for several years before she died, this gentleman really liked the eggs. He told me the recipe the best he could, so I got his address and rewrote the scrambled egg recipe by hand, telling him everything he needed to do, including adding some hot sauce, which is why he liked the eggs so much. A few weeks later I got a thank-you note from him. I still have it in my office.

Cooking
Airlines,airplanes
Business travel
Alton Brown


Susan Rice, Obama’s Security Adviser, Urges Pakistan to Do More Against Militants

Abstract: ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — President Obama’s national security adviser, Susan E. Rice , urged Pakistani civilian and military leaders on Sunday to do more to stop militants from using Pakistani territory to stage attacks in neighboring countries. In a daylong visit to the capital, Islamabad, Ms. Rice met with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif , Gen. Raheel Sharif, the army chief, and other senior government officials. Ms. Rice also formally extended an invitation from President Obama to Mr. Sharif to visit Washington in October. Image Susan E. Rice met with leaders in Pakistan on Sunday. Credit Mandel Ngan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images The Haqqani network , the militant faction that United States officials say is responsible for the recent increase in violence and suicide attacks in the Afghan capital, Kabul, figured prominently in the talks. American officials expressed concerns about possible future attacks inside Afghanistan and pressed the Pakistanis to take specific measures to avert them. Pakistani officials maintain that they have wrested North Waziristan, the tribal region bordering Afghanistan that had long been a redoubt of local and foreign militants, from the control of the Taliban . The military began an offensive in North Waziristan last year and is involved in a clearing operation in Shawal Valley , the last area in the region where ground troops had not moved in. The United States says that not enough has been done to rein in the Haqqani network, despite Pakistan ’s insistence to the contrary. A series of bombings in Afghanistan in August killed at least three Americans and many more Afghan civilians. A senior American official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it was a diplomatic matter, said that Ms. Rice noted during Sunday’s meetings that militant attacks have developed into a main point of regional friction. “Addressing this challenge will be imperative for Pakistan’s relations with its neighbors and with Washington,” the official said, “especially given the recent upsurge in violence in Kabul and the Taliban’s bloody campaign this fighting season in Afghanistan.” The visit was unrelated to the growing tensions between India and Pakistan. It had been scheduled weeks ago, the senior American official said. Pakistani and Indian troops have been trading fire across the border of the disputed Kashmir region, leading to civilian casualties on both sides. Pakistani officials say that while they are expected to do more against militants, there is also a need for Americans and Afghans to counter the threat. During the meeting, Pakistani officials expressed concerns over Washington’s possible withholding of $300 million in military aid if the United States decides that Pakistan is not doing enough to combat attacks emanating from within its territory. A senior Pakistani security official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said that the meeting between Ms. Rice and General Sharif lasted for two hours. “The discussion was very candid,” he said. “It discussed the part that has to be played by all stakeholders, including the Americans. The focus was on the way forward.”

Susan Rice
Pakistan
Military
Nawaz Sharif
Haqqani Network
Taliban
Civilian casualties
Terrorism
Foreign Aid
US Foreign Policy


In East Harlem, a Rare Church Blends Into the Cityscape

Abstract: The transformation of the city over 30 years has probably been most profound where it has been least noticed by New Yorkers generally: those impoverished streets that are well known to neighbors but almost invisible to the public at large. Take East Harlem, in particular 101st Street, between First and Second Avenues. The point of the 1978 photograph, taken for Paul Goldberger’s “The City Observed: New York,” was to show the Church of the Resurrection, designed by Victor Lundy, which Mr. Goldberger said “might be considered poor man’s Eero Saarinen,” referring to the architect of the T.W.A. terminal at Kennedy International Airport . It seemed that the best way to depict the church in its beleaguered context was to shoot it from 100th Street. A weed-filled lot served as foreground. The monolithic forms of Metro North Plaza Houses provided the backdrop. In between was a plywood shack. Thirty years later, the scene has changed completely. First, the church is gone. Or, rather, its old building is gone. Both the congregation and the affiliated Booker T. Washington Learning Center outgrew their old space at 325 East 101st Street. But the church could not afford an expansion of its building. Instead, it struck an air-rights deal with a developer, who is constructing an eight-story apartment building on the site, with room for the church and the learning center at the base of the structure. Rather than looking out on an empty lot, future residents of 325 East 101st Street will effectively have skyboxes above a meticulously maintained baseball diamond, seen in the foreground of the contemporary picture. The field was built in 2005 for a nonprofit youth program known as Harlem RBI (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), under a deal in which a developer acquired an adjacent lot that the group had been using. On that lot, the developer constructed 1955 First Avenue, a seven-story apartment building. The rear of that U-shaped building fills the right side of the 2008 photograph. So there are 264 new housing units, a new ball field, a new learning center and a new church. Yet one cannot escape the feeling that something has been lost from the cityscape, too, when reading Mr. Goldberger’s appraisal of the now-vanished church: “It speaks strongly of the notion that a religious house should stand for a certain irrationality of form — for how else to know it from its banal neighbors?”

Harlem (NYC)
Architecture
Religion and Churches


Democrats Struggle for Unity on First Day of Convention

Abstract: PHILADELPHIA — Democratic Party leaders scrambled on Monday night to rescue their convention from political bedlam as supporters of Senator Bernie Sanders erupted in boos, jeers and protests against Hillary Clinton after an email leak showed that party officials had sought to undermine Mr. Sanders in their race for the nomination. Mr. Sanders, whose speech was shifted to a more prominent time in hopes of soothing delegates, struggled to unify the convention. His full-throated endorsement of Mrs. Clinton drew scattered boos, and his valedictory tone left some supporters in tears rather than rallying around the Democratic nominee. Another speaker, Michelle Obama, was far more electrifying, but while she drew affection from the crowd, her remarks did little to heal the lingering primary wounds. The venting among Sanders supporters reflected months of pent-up frustration after he lost the nomination to Mrs. Clinton, whom they see as too accommodating to big business and Republicans. Mr. Sanders tried to intervene by sending a text message asking delegates “to not engage in any kind of protest on the floor,” while Clinton and Sanders campaign officials worked on the convention floor to mollify delegates who might be disruptive. The tension reverberated from the floor of the hall to the stage. By 9:30 p.m., the outbursts were so loud and persistent that the comedian Sarah Silverman scolded the Sanders supporters who were shouting over her remarks. “Can I just say to the Bernie-or-bust people,” she said, adopting their own nickname, “you are being ridiculous.” Democratic Convention Night 1: Analysis How we analyzed in real time the first night of the Democratic National Convention, featuring Michelle Obama, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. As delegates streamed out, a handful of Mr. Sanders’s most dedicated supporters held up his signs and chanted, “Hey, hey, D.N.C., we won’t vote for Hillary.” Clinton campaign officials, in another bid to placate the party’s left wing, picked Senator Elizabeth Warren to deliver the keynote address on Monday night, hoping that her searing denunciations of Donald J. Trump, the Republican nominee, would unify the delegates in the hall. Mrs. Clinton had privately chosen Ms. Warren days ago, campaign officials said, but announced her on Monday morning to try to set a positive tone for the first day of the convention and start closing ranks against Mr. Trump. Mr. Sanders, who took the stage here at about 10:50 p.m. to a thundering three-minute ovation and chants of “Bernie, Bernie,” acknowledged the disappointment of his supporters and said, “It is no secret that Hillary Clinton and I disagree on a number of issues.” But he said the choice between his onetime rival and Mr. Trump was “not even close.” “Hillary Clinton will make an outstanding president, and I am proud to stand with her here tonight,” Mr. Sanders said as his supporters waved his blue campaign signs. Ms. Warren opened her remarks with a warm nod to Mr. Sanders, saying his campaign had advanced liberal causes and helped show that the political and economic systems were “rigged” in favor of the powerful. “Bernie reminds us what Democrats fight for every day,” Ms. Warren said. ‘Thank you, Bernie.” Yet even after Ms. Warren was well into her remarks, a handful of determined supporters of Mr. Sanders tried to interrupt her. “We trusted you!” they yelled, suggesting that she had betrayed them by supporting Mrs. Clinton. These catcalls, as well as the images of delegates in Sanders T-shirts waving placards that read “Hill No,” were not the sort of messages that the Clinton campaign wanted. Mrs. Clinton, who had a hand in choosing the speakers, had hoped that the convention would be the picture of unity, in contrast to the Republican convention last week. Instead, she was reminded that many Americans, including some die-hard Democrats, do not like her or believe that she will bring significant change to the government. The only speaker who brought the entire hall together in spellbinding fashion was Michelle Obama, who seemed to pour out feelings she had been keeping under wraps. She delivered an unusually pointed speech targeting Mr. Trump without mentioning him by name. “The issues the president faces are not black and white, and cannot be boiled down to 140 characters,” she said, taking a crowd-pleasing shot at Mr. Trump’s penchant for Twitter messages. She alluded to those who have questioned Mr. Obama’s “citizenship or faith” and scorned Mr. Trump’s slogan. “Don’t let anyone tell you that this country isn’t great,” she said. But she also turned emotional, her voice cracking, when she spoke of what Mrs. Clinton’s election would mean. “My daughters, and all our sons and daughters, now take for granted that a woman can be president of the United States,” she said. Throughout the day, more than 1,000 supporters of Mr. Sanders took to the scalding streets of Philadelphia to vent their frustration. Some targeted Mrs. Clinton with a taunting chant from last week’s Republican convention: “Lock her up!” Other protesters gathered outside the downtown Ritz-Carlton, where many major donors to Mrs. Clinton’s campaign were staying, and attacked her use of a “super PAC” and her reliance on big fund-raising events. Photographs From the Democratic Convention Protesters, reporters, delegates and security personnel converged this week in Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention. Even Mr. Sanders, who has vowed to do whatever it takes to stop Mr. Trump from winning, had little luck making the case to his followers that they should vote for Mrs. Clinton. In a rare display of rebellion at a lunchtime gathering of his delegates, he was drowned out by boos when he mentioned Mrs. Clinton, and seemed jarred by the response. “We have got to defeat Donald Trump, and we have got to elect Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine,” he said to a round of jeers. Several veterans of Democratic conventions said they had not seen anything at recent gatherings like Monday’s disruptions. From the moment the gavel fell to open the convention at the Wells Fargo Center on Monday afternoon, Mr. Sanders’s supporters let out boos and jeers at almost any mention of Mrs. Clinton’s name. Some Democratic officials said the fury was an illustration of the work that still needed to be done to unify the party behind Mrs. Clinton, as well as a sign of the dedication Mr. Sanders engendered over the last year. The Sanders supporters’ scorn was enough to prompt some of the speakers to gently scold them. “They both deserve our cheers,” said former Mayor Wellington E. Webb of Denver, repeating the phrase twice more to make his point to the crowd. But the liberal anger in the hall was not only due to the belief among Mr. Sanders’s supporters that the party establishment had treated him unfairly. It was also driven by policy disagreements, underscoring the rifts between progressive activists and some Democratic leaders. When Representative Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, one of the most prominent black Democrats in Congress and a close ally of Mrs. Clinton’s, recounted his father’s history as a sharecropper, he was nearly drowned out at times. Sign-waving progressives chanted in opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the trade accord that President Obama supports but Mr. Sanders and Mrs. Clinton oppose. Sanders supporters directed their fury most intensely at Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Florida, the departing Democratic National Committee chairwoman, as she spoke to Florida delegates on Monday morning. Hopes that Ms. Wasserman Schultz’s decision on Sunday afternoon to resign would calm nerves were dashed as she publicly addressed her delegation at breakfast. Among those who believed for months that she was rigging the nominating fight, nothing would be forgiven so quickly. They booed and screamed “fair elections” as Ms. Wasserman Schultz took the lectern and said: “It is so wonderful to be able to be here with my home state. All right, everybody, now, settle down. Everybody settle down, please.” They refused. And as the convention was called to order Monday afternoon, resentments bubbled to the surface. Some delegates booed every mention of Mrs. Clinton, while others waved Hillary buttons and chanted, “Hill-a-ry!” The number of protesters in Philadelphia was strikingly larger than in Cleveland, where Republicans gathered for their convention last week. By around 5 p.m., roughly 30 people had climbed over a barrier outside the Wells Fargo Center and been arrested. The protesters reached the arena after marching at least three miles from City Hall in temperatures that reached into the mid-90s. Pressing anti-Clinton signs up against a temporary fence, they shouted at arriving delegates and erupted in cheers when the occasional Sanders delegate passed through. Chants of “Bernie beats Trump” and “hell no, D.N.C., we won’t vote for Hillary,” echoed through the surrounding parking lots. “She’s crooked as all get out,” said Brianne Colling, of Canton, Mich. “All the proof that’s coming out is that she’s stolen this election from Bernie.”

Democrats
Hillary Clinton
Email
Speeches
Michelle Obama
Elizabeth Warren
2016 Presidential Election
Democratic National Convention,DNC
Civil Unrest
Bernard Sanders,Bernie Sanders


UConn Beats Stanford for 38th Win and a Measure of Revenge

Abstract: ST. LOUIS — It turned out Connecticut’s passage into another championship game ran through Stanford after all. The victory against the Cardinal came a year later than the Huskies would have preferred, but it came nonetheless, and it came in impressive fashion. The top-seeded and still undefeated Huskies extracted a bit of revenge and moved a step closer to a sixth national championship, reasserting their dominance with an 83-64 victory against Stanford in a national semifinal. Such one-sided scores have become commonplace this season at Connecticut, where excellence is expected. “At Connecticut the only story is if we lose,” Huskies Coach Geno Auriemma said. “If we win, it’s not a story. It’s not a big deal. That story’s already been written 100 times. “It’s like coming to see the gladiators, you know? You know who is going to slaughter who but you go there, and the only way it’s going to be a big story is if we were to lose somehow, some way. And it’s a tough way to go through life. But, believe me, I wouldn’t want to be in any other situation.” Neither would his team. The victory set up a Big East final Tuesday, when Connecticut (38-0) will face Louisville (33-4). It will be the fourth time in tournament history that teams from the same conference have met in the championship game. The Huskies thrashed the Cardinals twice this season, by 93-65 in the regular season and by 75-36 in the Big East tournament final. Even with those scores as a backdrop, Auriemma said he was not counting his sixth title yet. “I wish we were playing anybody but Louisville Tuesday night,” he said. “Anybody. I don’t care. And the reason I say that is at least we’re going to have a Big East national champion, so that’s a good thing. The bad thing is the last team you want to play is a team that you beat the way we beat them the two times we played them. And especially the last time we played them.” If Connecticut is able to come remotely close to replicating those performances, the Huskies will complete the third perfect season in the program’s history. Connecticut also finished unbeaten in 1995 and 2002 . But this run has been more dominating in nature. The Huskies are trying to become the first team in tournament history to win all its games by double-digit margins. Stanford was the last team to beat Connecticut, defeating the Huskies in last season’s Final Four. On Sunday, the Cardinal became the latest casualty in a litany of lopsided victories for Connecticut. The Huskies capitalized on turnovers, doubling a 13-point halftime lead by scoring the first 13 points of the second half. They largely neutralized Stanford’s game with the exception of its imposing center, Jayne Appel. The Cardinal had no answer or equalizer for Connecticut’s all-American tandem of Renee Montgomery and Maya Moore. Leading up to the game, the Huskies said they would look to open the floor against Stanford by running and Montgomery and Moore did just that. And while it may sound implausible, Montgomery, a senior, is still in search of her first championship. She helped get a step closer with 26 points and 6 assists, including 15 points in the first half. Moore, a sophomore, added 24 points and 8 rebounds. “I’m extremely proud of our team,” Appel said. “We never gave up. We were down by as many as 30 points. We probably could have given up, but that’s not Stanford basketball.” The loss ended Stanford’s winning streak at 20 games. In last season’s semifinal victory, Appel and the sophomore forward Kayla Pedersen combined for 32 points and 17 rebounds. They nearly equaled those totals Sunday as Appel delivered 26 points and 6 rebounds and Pedersen added 10 points and 6 rebounds. The freshman Nnemkadi Ogwumike added 13 points and 12 rebounds. But the rest of the Cardinal lineup struggled, and Stanford was held well below its season average of 76.5 points. Stanford (33-5) led by 14-13 with 10 minutes and 46 seconds left in the first half behind Appel’s quick start. It was a small lead and it was fleeting. Connecticut outscored the Cardinal, 23-8, to end the half and started the second half with another run. Stanford was unable to absorb the blow. “One of the disappointments I had was as soon as I looked at the bracket, in some ways it’s like, I really feel like we could compete on a really good basis with those other two teams that were here,” Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer said. “But Connecticut was head and shoulders above us tonight.”

Basketball
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Women)
University of Connecticut
College Athletics
Stanford University
Auriemma Geno
Moore Maya
Montgomery Renee


Suspect Arraigned in Fatal Manhattan Fire

Abstract: The suspect in the deadly fire that engulfed a Manhattan apartment building on Thursday night told someone: “You die, I die, everybody dies,” just before igniting two beds in his apartment, a prosecutor said at his arraignment on Saturday. As he fled the burning apartment, the suspect, Wei Chu Hu, then said, “Call the police and have me arrested,” according to a criminal complaint filed by the Manhattan district attorney’s office. That account came from a witness, who was not identified. Mr. Hu entered Manhattan Criminal Court wearing khaki slacks and an untucked white button-down shirt. His left eye appeared to be black. Before the proceeding, he sat for several minutes with his head lowered between his arms, and during the arraignment showed no emotion. After he was taken into custody, Mr. Hu told detectives what he had done, the prosecutor, Craig Ortner, said. “The defendant, by his own admission, deliberately set a fire using a cigarette lighter,” Mr. Ortner told Judge Roger S. Hayes. Image Wei Chu Hu, charged with murder in the blaze that killed a woman, was ordered to be held without bail on Saturday. Credit John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times When firefighters and police officers arrived at the building, at 41 Spring Street, Mr. Hu blocked the front door and fought with them, Mr. Ortner said, also noting that the police later found the body of a person who had been burned beyond recognition on a fire escape. Ellen Borakove, a spokeswoman for the office of the city medical examiner, said on Saturday that the victim was a woman who had been killed by smoke inhalation and burns. Identification of the woman was still pending, she added. Judge Hayes ordered Mr. Hu, who was charged with murder, arson and assault, to be held without bail. His next hearing was set for Thursday. Mr. Ortner did not offer a motive. According to the complaint, the fire began in Apartment 2A, where Mr. Hu lived. The blaze, which sent thick plumes of gray smoke into the sky, practically gutted the five-story brick building in NoLIta, destroying staircases and collapsing internal walls. On Saturday evening, passers-by stopped to peer at the building. The front door stood ajar, revealing a soot-covered hallway.

Fires
Wei Chu Hu
Murders
Arson
NoLita Manhattan


Both Frail and Feisty, Fidel Castro Goes on TV

Abstract: MEXICO CITY — In one of his first public appearances since falling ill four years ago, a frail-looking Fidel Castro went on Cuban television on Monday night and warned in a near whisper that the United States was increasing the chances of nuclear war in the Korean Peninsula and Iran. Mr. Castro, who underwent emergency gastrointestinal surgery in July 2006, wore a flannel shirt and jogging suit and appeared at times to struggle to get his words out. But some of the feistiness he was known for in booming speeches that could stretch on for much of the day remained. Reading from a sheaf of papers and gesturing in the air, Mr. Castro rattled off statistics, gave his view of history and appeared cogent as Randy Alonso, a government journalist who is close to Mr. Castro, lofted softball questions at him. Since undergoing surgery and turning over the presidency to his brother, Raúl, Mr. Castro has slipped from the spotlight, but never completely disappeared. He has met frequently with foreign leaders, usually while wearing a jogging suit, and written regular commentaries for Granma , the Communist Party newspaper, on everything from the global financial crisis to the World Cup. But his Monday night appearance on “Mesa Redonda,” or “Round Table,” a public affairs program broadcast on Cuban television, was the first time since fall 2007 that Cubans could actually see and hear their once-omnipresent leader again. His attention to detail, even when it leaves listeners scratching their heads, is one thing that had not changed. The appearance came as Raúl Castro, who formally took over the presidency in 2008 after two years as the country’s interim leader, prepared to release dozens of political prisoners whom Fidel Castro had jailed in a crackdown on dissent in 2003. The first prisoner was released on Monday and placed on an airliner bound for Madrid, Reuters reported, with as many as a half-dozen others expected to follow shortly. The prisoners did not come up in the hourlong interview show on Monday, and it remains unclear if the Castro brothers agree on the release. Analysts said that it had always been difficult to interpret Fidel Castro’s motives, and that remains the case. Just why he would make such an appearance now was anybody’s guess. It followed the release of photographs over the weekend showing Mr. Castro greeting Cubans at a government-run scientific institute. “It’s more evidence that he continues to play a significant role,” said Brian Latell, a former C.I.A. analyst whose 2005 book, “After Fidel,” examined the transition in Cuba ’s leadership. Mr. Latell, now at work on another book about the long, slow-motion transition in leadership, noted that Fidel Castro, although no longer president or commander in chief, remained first secretary of the Communist Party and thus continued to wield influence in the Cuban bureaucracy. As for his health, the television appearance seemed to put to rest speculation that Mr. Castro, who turns 84 on Aug. 13, was incapacitated or even dead. Former President George W. Bush, a fierce Castro foe, had expressed frustration that the ailing Mr. Castro continued to hang on. “One day the good Lord will take Fidel Castro away,” Mr. Bush once said . President Obama’s words have been more restrained, but Cuba and the United States have nonetheless found themselves at odds on a number of issues.