Court Upholds F.C.C. Rule on Use of Data Networks

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Cellphone companies must allow customers of competing wireless carriers to use their networks for the Internet and e-mail when outside their home territory, a federal appeals court said here on Tuesday. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia said that just as the Federal Communications Commission required wireless carriers to allow voice-service roaming by customers of other carriers, it also can require the same, at commercially reasonable rates, for data customers — in essence, those who use smartphones, tablets and other wireless devices. The judges’ 3-to-0 decision is a significant victory for the F.C.C. The agency has lost authority over Internet communications in recent years. And it is a big win for smaller cellphone companies, who now have the leeway to offer customers national calling and data plans, albeit ones that could generate extra charges. On the losing side is Verizon Wireless, which had challenged the agency’s data roaming order in 2011. The company argued that the agency did not have authority to oversee data communications on wireless broadband networks and that it was imposing “common carrier” regulations on companies — essentially, regulating them like public utilities, as it does with home phone service. Verizon said that it already had data roaming agreements so there was no need to codify the practice. “As we made clear throughout the case,” Ed McFadden, a company spokesman, said on Tuesday, “Verizon Wireless regularly enters into such data roaming agreements on commercially reasonable terms to meet the needs of consumers, and will continue to do so.” The decision has broad implications for the agency, analysts said. “This does bode well for the F.C.C.’s ability to assert its authority in regulating wireless services,” said Andrew Jay Schwartzman, senior vice president and policy director for the Media Access Project, a nonprofit law firm that promotes consumer choice. “This is the first time these issues have come up in the context of data, which obviously is our future,” he said. The F.C.C.’s chairman, Julius Genachowski, went further, saying the court’s opinion “confirms the F.C.C.’s authority to promote broadband competition and protect broadband consumers.” In 2010, in Comcast v. the F.C.C., the same appeals court rejected the legal theory that the agency was using to validate its regulation of broadband Internet service. While Tuesday’s decision does not reverse that ruling, it does signal that the agency may have found a justification for its broadband rules. Both Tuesday’s and the 2010 decisions were written by one of the appeals court’s more liberal members, Judge David S. Tatel. John Bergmayer, senior staff lawyer at Public Knowledge, which filed a brief supporting the agency, noted that many of the legal arguments Verizon made in the case are also part of another challenge in the same court. There, Verizon is trying to overturn the agency’s Open Internet order, a 2011 regulation that contains elements of net neutrality rules. Those rules require Internet service providers to treat all traffic equally, rather than favoring some transmissions over another. The Open Internet case is in its early stages and has not yet been argued before the appeals court. But agency officials say they think the appeals court, in Tuesday’s case, rejected at least one of the arguments Verizon makes in the Open Internet case. Many small wireless companies had supported the agency’s data roaming requirement, saying that it would provide more competition, particularly by allowing them to offer national service to compete with Verizon and AT&T. The large wireless providers argued that the data roaming order gave them less incentive to invest in their networks, because it would benefit rivals that would not shoulder any of the costs of building infrastructure.

Federal Communications Commission
Wireless Communications
Cellular Telephones
Tatel David S
Decisions and Verdicts
Regulation and Deregulation of Industry
Verizon Communications Inc


Honduran Security Forces Accused of Abuse

Abstract: TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Rosamaria Valeriano Flores was returning home from a visit to a public health clinic and found herself in a crowd of people dispersing from a demonstration in support of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya . As she crossed the central square of the Honduran capital, a group of soldiers and police officers pushed her to the ground and beat her with their truncheons. She said the men kicked out most of her top teeth, broke her ribs and split open her head. “A policeman spit in my face and said, ‘You will die,’ ” she said, adding that the attack stopped when a police officer shouted at the men that they would kill her. Ms. Valeriano, 39, was sitting in the office of a Tegucigalpa human rights group last week, speaking about the assault, which took place on Aug. 12. As she told her story, mumbling to hide her missing teeth, she pointed to a scar on her scalp and to her still-sore left ribs. Since Mr. Zelaya was removed in a June 28 coup , security forces have tried to halt opposition with beatings and mass arrests, human rights groups say. Eleven people have been killed since the coup, according to the Committee for Families of the Disappeared and Detainees in Honduras, or Cofadeh . The number of violations and their intensity has increased since Mr. Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras two weeks ago, taking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, human rights groups say. The groups describe an atmosphere of growing impunity, one in which security forces act unhindered by legal constraints. Their free hand had been strengthened by an emergency decree allowing the police to detain anyone suspected of posing a threat. “In the 1980s, there were political assassinations, torture and disappearances,” said Bertha Oliva, Cofadeh’s general coordinator, in an interview last week, recalling the political repression of the country’s so-called dirty war. “They were selective and hidden. But now there is massive repression and defiance of the whole world. They do it in broad daylight, without any scruples, with nothing to stop them.” Amid the crackdown, a delegation of foreign ministers from the Organization of American States is scheduled to arrive in the capital, Tegucigalpa, on Wednesday in an attempt to restart negotiations between representatives for Mr. Zelaya and Roberto Micheletti , the de facto president. In advance of the meeting, Mr. Micheletti lifted the decree Monday. The abuses could have a chilling effect on presidential elections scheduled for Nov. 29. The de facto government and its supporters argue that the elections will close the chapter on the coup and its aftermath, but the United Nations, the United States and other governments have said that they will not recognize the vote if it is conducted under the current conditions. “Elections are a risk because people won’t vote,” said Javier Acevedo, a lawyer with the Center for Research and the Promotion of Human Rights in Tegucigalpa. “The soldiers and police at the polls will be the same ones as those who have been carrying out the repression.” Investigators from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights visited in August, and found a pattern of disproportionate force , arbitrary detentions and control of information. The group asked the de facto government to provide protective measures for dozens of politicians, union leaders, teachers, human rights workers and journalists who say they have been followed and threatened. The de facto government responded that strong measures were needed against Mr. Zelaya’s supporters, whom they described as vandals, a point backed up by government television advertisements showing burning buses and street barricades. Some of the demonstrations have turned violent as some of Mr. Zelaya’s supporters have smashed storefronts and burned tires at street barricades. The government says that three people have been killed since the coup. Mr. Micheletti has said the investigators from the Inter-American Commission were biased, noting that its president, Luz Patricia Mejía, is Venezuelan. Much of Honduras’s political and economic elite feared that Mr. Zelaya was trying to copy Venezuela’s brand of socialism as he moved toward an alliance with that nation’s president, Hugo Chávez. The Honduran government’s human rights institutions have failed to respond to the violations with any vigor, advocates say. The human rights prosecutor, Sandra Ponce, is on vacation, according to news reports. Ramón Custodio, the government human rights commissioner who fought repression in the 1980s, has generally supported the coup, although he has criticized some actions of the de facto government. Groups that were vulnerable to human rights abuses before the coup face even more risk now. Since the coup, for example, there have been six murders of gay men or transvestites, according to gay rights groups. Until 2008, the average number of such killings each year was three to six. The day after Mr. Zelaya returned, the police broke up a demonstration by his supporters outside the Brazilian Embassy with tear gas. As people were fleeing, security forces tear-gassed the Cofadeh office, just blocks away. The action, Ms. Oliva believes, was aimed at preventing Cofadeh lawyers from intervening by taking testimony or seeking the release of people who were detained. Since Mr. Zelaya’s return, security forces also have been rumbling through poor neighborhoods that are the base of his support. “They are going into neighborhoods in a way to intimidate people,” said Mr. Acevedo, the lawyer. In that time, the center has documented an increasing level of violence. Investigators have seen more than two dozen people with bullet wounds in hospitals, and some detainees have had their hands broken and have been burned with cigarettes, he said. While the police and soldiers are looking for the activists who have been organizing resistance, the sweep seems to pick up anyone who gets in their way. Yulian Lobo said her husband was arrested in the neighborhood of Villa Olímpica and accused of having a grenade. “It came out of nowhere,” she said, adding that her husband, a driver, had not been to pro-Zelaya marches. Lesbia Marisol Flores, 38, is a resistance activist, but when the police beat her up, she was waiting at a bus stop after attending the wake of a 24-year-old woman who died after she was tear-gassed outside the Brazilian Embassy on Sept. 22. “There were eight policemen and their faces were all covered,” she said, adding that they had selected her at random from the group at the bus stop. “There was no motive. It is their hobby now.”

Honduras
Freedom and Human Rights
Police Brutality and Misconduct
Coups D'Etat and Attempted Coups D'Etat
Zelaya Rosales Jose Manuel
Micheletti Roberto


Oil Surges Above $81, Amid Frigid Weather and Signs of a Stronger Economy

Abstract: HOUSTON — A combination of frigid weather, expectations of an improving economy and new tensions between Russia and Belarus catapulted crude oil prices above $81 a barrel on Monday to the highest close in nearly 15 months. Energy markets are beginning the year with a number of economic signs that could help push prices higher still. Traders viewed reports of increased manufacturing activity and passenger car sales in December as indications that the economy was on the mend. Meanwhile, India reported a substantial increase in oil imports. The eighth consecutive trading session of rising prices was also attributed to nervousness over reports that Russia might charge higher prices and raise export taxes on oil sent to Belarus for refining for European markets. And heating oil futures rose to the highest level in more than a year as cold weather was reported across much of Europe, China and the United States. Gasoline prices, which had been falling until recently, have reversed course to jump 6 cents in the last week. And with American stockpiles of crude oil sliding by 19.5 million barrels in the last month, higher prices at the pump could be coming in the weeks ahead. Still, most energy analysts said it was too soon to predict that crude and gasoline prices would go substantially higher. They pointed out that oil prices had been see-sawing within a relatively narrow range from $70 to just above $80 a barrel since the end of July. Oil prices closed above $81 on Nov. 4, before dropping again to as low as $70 a month ago. On Monday, oil for February delivery climbed about 3 percent to $81.51 a barrel, the highest settlement price since Oct. 9, 2008. Oil prices have gradually revived since mid-December, followed by gasoline prices in recent days. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline was $2.66 on Monday, a dollar above the price at the beginning of 2009, when the economy appeared to be in a tailspin. The jittery price of oil reflects conflicting trends. Economic performance is still weak and supplies are plentiful on the world market, with manufacturing activity and driving still at relatively low levels in many industrialized countries. “We’ve tried now three times to hold above $80 since October, and we have failed each time, largely because supplies remain so strong and demand remains fairly weak,” said Addison A. Armstrong, senior director of market research at Tradition Energy, an energy broker in Stamford, Conn. But at the same time, expectations of a stronger economy have encouraged investors to pour money into commodities, in anticipation of higher demand and as a hedge against inflation. “It’s a little bit of a sugar rush from all the money that comes into commodities at the beginning of every year,” said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service. “By next week we’ll know whether this is another typical false start, or whether it’s relevant and related to supply and demand.” Mr. Kloza predicted that the average price for regular gasoline would rise above $2.70 in coming days, higher than at any time in 2009. But he said that after peaking around $2.75, prices would drift lower as driving declined in the dead of winter. He said he expected a spring rally to $3 a gallon or higher. “The question I have is, will those prices stick around for awhile?” Some experts say a rising gasoline price could slow the economic recovery. As gasoline prices move toward $3 a gallon, Mr. Armstrong said, “consumers don’t take that extra trip shopping or to a restaurant, and the U.S. consumer is still responsible for two-thirds of the economy in this country.” Expectations among experts on oil prices for the coming year range widely, in part because no one can be sure how strong the economic recovery will be or what impact a potential crisis like an Israeli bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities would have on oil markets. In October, many energy experts predicted that the move to $80 would continue and that oil would break $100 by early 2010. Then when the price fell to $70 a month or so ago, few experts predicted the quick rebound that ensued. Many now say the best bet is for continued volatility. Adam E. Sieminski, chief energy economist for Deutsche Bank, said he expected an average price of $65 in 2010, although he would not discount the possibility of a “big spike in the event of a big geopolitical event.” “By the middle of the year we need the delivery of good news and not merely the expectation of good news about the economy” to support prices, he said. “It’s going to take a year or more before you change things enough to actually reduce the overhang of inventories and OPEC spare capacity.”

Oil (Petroleum) and Gasoline
Prices (Fares Fees and Rates)
Economic Conditions and Trends


Salvaging the Treasure Hunt

Abstract: PARIS — Expanding a small business abroad that sells nonessential services is tough enough in normal times. But when the world economy comes crashing down, the odds of failure multiply. That is the problem of Ravenchase Adventures, a Honolulu-based company with an office in Paris that designs intricate treasure hunts for corporate team-building events and individual adventure-seekers. Josh Czarda, 37, a former health care lawyer, started Ravenchase about five years ago with about $100,000 of his personal savings. The company counts some big names as past clients, including Nike, Microsoft and the Indianapolis Colts, the professional football team. Corporations pay, on average, $55 to $60 per participant for treasure hunts with clues that require players to test their brains and perform silly acts to reach goals. “These are people who are doctors and heads of businesses, people who have gone off to war and come back, and they were running up and down the street to sing a nursery rhyme to someone,” said Charlotte Cox, a development associate at the Hawaii Theater Center in Honolulu, for which Ravenchase recently sponsored a fund-raising event. About two-thirds of Ravenchase’s business comes from corporate team-building activities with anywhere from 20 to 1,100 participants. With employee titles like “Pirate and Creative Genius” and “Director of Gimmickology,” Ravenchase does not take itself too seriously. “I think it’s straight-up fun,” Mr. Czarda said. “We tell people up front, we’re not here to preach the gospel of teamwork.” Mr. Czarda devised the idea for Ravenchase when he set up a treasure hunt to distract his three young brothers while their mother was in the hospital with cancer in 2001. The boys loved it, and it became a family tradition. For a year and a half Mr. Czarda, then living in Virginia, developed treasure hunts part time while working in health care law. Nearly four years ago, he began running Ravenchase full time. The name Ravenchase is a tribute to Edgar Allan Poe, who wrote the poem “The Raven,” who lived in Virginia and who was a puzzle enthusiast. Treasure hunts are personalized. Participants solve clues that lead them around their cities, using ciphers and other word puzzles to understand instructions like shining a black light on a painting or finding a woman dressed in red. Gadgets, handmade maps and actors help. Most events last a few hours. Ravenchase also puts on public hunts throughout the United States, where it has four branches, and at its international office in Paris several times a year. Although these events are not great moneymakers, they help publicize Ravenchase. “People go out and play, and then they go back to their companies and they say, wow, we have to try this,” Mr. Czarda said. Duke Oishi, an attorney with the Honolulu-based law firm Cades Schutte, first participated in public events with a co-worker. They then hired Ravenchase to create a hunt to get summer interns to mingle with the rest of the firm. “We felt it would be a good opportunity for people who don't know each other to get to know each other quickly in a fun and competitive environment,” Mr. Oishi said. Mr. Czarda had planned to open branches in London and Brisbane, Australia, this summer, but the projects have stalled, along with the global economy. Experts are skeptical that companies like Ravenchase can survive the current climate, as businesses reduce spending on things like training and travel. “The basic statement is going to be, we have to cut costs on unnecessary spending to protect the business,” said Daniel Stelter, a senior partner at the Boston Consulting Group. Companies that provide team-building programs must adapt to their clients’ needs, Mr. Stelter added, either by creating activities to lift morale during difficult times or adjusting the prices of the programs. Mr. Czarda said Ravenchase had done just that. “We’ve been a lot more flexible in pricing structures,” he said. “I think giving corporate groups the option up front — What do you want from us? What are you comfortable spending? — has actually worked pretty well.” Despite those measures, some customers have backed out of events in recent months. “We have had about $50,000 in business in Hawaii alone cancel or reschedule,” Mr. Czarda said. “While we have witnessed a significant decline in traditional corporate teambuilding events we have had an increase in requests for fundraising events from nonprofits and charities.” Mr. Czarda is confident that his company will make it through the downturn. Many clients, rather than canceling outright, are merely postponing events until the first or second quarter of next year. “Our overall gross sales have declined around 20 percent this year,” Mr. Czarda said, “But we are starting to get a number of bookings for 2010.”

Small Business
Economic Conditions and Trends
Entrepreneurship


Congestion Pricing Plan Is Panned in Albany

Abstract: A plan to ease traffic in Manhattan received harsh reviews this week in Albany. Just 48 hours before a state commission is expected to recommend a proposal that would charge drivers an $8 daily fee to enter the area of Manhattan below 60th Street, the panel’s chairman, Marc V. Shaw, heard Democratic members of the Assembly speak out against it on Tuesday. The traffic commission is expected to vote on the plan, which would raise money to pay for mass transit, on Thursday. The plan is a slimmed-down version of a proposal made last year by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg . “I think people expressed their concerns,” Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said, in typical low-key fashion, of the meeting on Tuesday between Mr. Shaw and dozens of Assembly Democrats. Others had a less measured view of the exchange. “I would say that the idea of congestion pricing and the commission’s proposals got hammered, and it was in a comprehensive way,” said Rory I. Lancman, a Queens assemblyman who attended the meeting. “Every aspect of the proposals were hashed out, were analyzed and were found to be wanting.” Mr. Shaw has been making the rounds in Albany as he tries to drum up support for a traffic-busting plan in advance of the commission’s vote. “Marc stood there for three hours and took his beating like a man,” Mr. Lancman said. He said more than 30 legislators expressed objections, and only one spoke in favor of the plan. The chorus of opposition from Assembly members, most of them from the city and its suburbs, is significant because the support of the State Legislature is needed to carry out congestion pricing. The Assembly is also far less likely to pass legislation opposed by members whose districts would be directly affected. State law requires that the commission’s recommendation on how best to reduce traffic in Manhattan to go first to the City Council. If it wins approval there, and from Mayor Bloomberg, the Legislature would be authorized to take it up. Mr. Shaw said the Tuesday meeting allowed the legislators to raise “legitimate concerns.” And he portrayed the commission’s expected recommendation as merely the start of a new phase in the process, which will focus on how the approximately $500 million a year raised by congestion pricing would be used to improve mass transportation in the region. “It’s not surprising that the members’ concerns are about how this money’s going to be spent,” he said. But others who attended the meeting said that many objections centered on the details of how a congestion pricing plan would be structured. “There was considerable opposition” said Hakeem Jeffries, an assemblyman from Brooklyn who attended part of the meeting. “Not to the notion of doing something, to dealing with congestion or even to congestion pricing. But there’s opposition to the way it has been presented and developed so far.” Mr. Jeffries said the plan unfairly favored drivers entering Manhattan from New Jersey because it would give them a credit for tolls paid on the tunnels or bridges across the Hudson River. With tolls during rush hours on those crossings set to rise to $8, that would mean that those drivers would not make any additional payments under the congestion plan and would not have an incentive to avoid driving into the city. And while drivers who pay tolls on bridges and tunnels within New York City, like the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge or the Midtown Tunnel, would also receive a credit, Mr. Jeffries said he was concerned about the many city drivers who currently pay no toll by using the free crossings over the East River. Those drivers, he said, most of them city residents, would feel the greatest impact from the charge. “For the plan to have a chance to gain majority support, then, I would think it should be balanced in terms of who bears the burdens of trying to reduce congestion,” he said. Mr. Shaw said that the issue of how to treat drivers entering from New Jersey needed to be addressed but that a solution to the problem was probably not going to be in the plan that the commission will vote on. Mr. Shaw has also received a letter signed by 16 of the 18 members of the Assembly delegation from Queens opposing the congestion pricing plan.

Tolls
Roads and Traffic
Commuting
Bloomberg Michael R
Manhattan (NYC)


Fifth Avenue Bus Signs Along the Park to Change to ‘East’

Abstract: Fifth Avenue has never divided the city quite like this. A geographic tiff broke out last week after Scott M. Stringer, Manhattan’s borough president, noted that the bus signs along Central Park on Fifth Avenue identified the streets as west, not east. This seemed peculiar for an area normally known as the Upper East Side. But students of the street grid insisted that the signs, on the western side of the avenue, were correct: anything west of Fifth Avenue, after all, is technically the West Side of Manhattan. On Thursday, an official verdict was issued: East it is! Along the 50 blocks of Fifth Avenue that border the park, “there are no intersections with streets having the prefix ‘West,’ ” the city’s transportation commissioner, Janette Sadik-Khan , wrote in a letter to Mr. Stringer. Ms. Sadik-Khan conceded that the signs had “incorrectly” identified the cross streets, and she pledged that the proper prefix, “East” would appear by the end of April. Mr. Stringer, reached by telephone on Thursday, declared himself pleased. “There was a real contradiction on the streets,” he said, noting that some blocks had multiple signs that read both East and West. “It made sense to clarify what was west and what was east.” But told of East’s triumph, some grid purists cried foul. “The D.O.T. can put up whatever signs it wants,” said Samuel I. Schwartz, a former transportation commissioner and the traffic engineer believed by many to have coined the term gridlock. “I will always refer to the west side of Fifth Avenue as the West Side of Manhattan. This won’t change a thing in my mind.” The Transportation Department has received tens of thousands of service requests from the public since the signs first went up in 1997, but, Ms. Sadik-Khan wrote, “We are unaware of previous requests to make this particular change.” One prominent New Yorkologist observed that, in this case, the city may have taken the more pragmatic approach. “The Department of Transportation is putting practice above principle,” said Mitchell L. Moss, director of the Rudin Center for Transportation at New York University. “This reflects the way New Yorkers perceive the city, not the rules of the grid.” “The Constitution is subject to interpretation,” Mr. Moss added, “and so is the street grid of New York.”

Fifth Avenue (NYC)
Transportation Department (NYC)
Sadik-Khan Janette
Traffic Signals and Signs


Judith S. Kaye, First Woman to Serve as New York’s Chief Judge, Dies at 77

Abstract: Judith S. Kaye, the first woman named to the highest court in New York and the first to serve as the state’s chief judge — a job she held longer than any of her 21 male predecessors — died on Thursday at her home in Manhattan. She was 77. Her death, from cancer, was confirmed by her granddaughter Sonja Hagemeier. Judge Kaye presided over the seven-member Court of Appeals for nearly 16 years and also supervised the $2.5 billion, 16,000-employee statewide judicial system, which she modernized by making jury service more equitable and convenient and by establishing boutique courts concerned as much with problem-solving as with punishment. In specialized courts that focused on community quandaries and on crimes involving drugs and domestic violence, New York judges now have alternatives to sending a defendant to jail, among them ordering treatment for addiction and mental illness and providing social services for victims of abuse. Keeping a campaign promise to name a woman, Gov. Mario M. Cuomo, soon after taking office in 1983, appointed Ms. Kaye , a fellow Democrat and then a commercial litigator, as an associate judge of the Court of Appeals. She distinguished herself on the court by writing majority opinions that voided the state’s mandatory death penalty for murderers already imprisoned for life, and broadening news media access to pretrial hearings. A decade later, the governor elevated Judge Kaye to chief judge when Sol Wachtler abruptly resigned in disgrace after his arrest on charges of blackmailing his former lover and her daughter in a bizarre attempt to win back the older woman’s affections. As chief judge, Judge Kaye was esteemed as a collegial consensus builder, but she was best remembered for a dissent she delivered in 2006 in Hernandez v. Robles, when a four-judge plurality ruled that same-sex couples had neither a constitutional nor a statutory right to marry. Judge Kaye, invoking the equal protection clause of the United States Constitution and refusing to consign the issue to the State Legislature, wrote, “I am confident that future generations will look back on today’s decision as an unfortunate misstep.” The Legislature acted to legalize same-sex marriage five years later. Rejecting overtures to join the Clinton administration after 1992 as attorney general and a possible Supreme Court nomination, Judge Kaye served until 2008, when she reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 . She was born Judith Ann Smith on Aug. 4, 1938, in Monticello, N.Y., a village in the foothills of the Catskill Mountains. Her parents, Benjamin Smith and the former Lena Cohen, were Jewish immigrants from Poland who lived on a small farm and later opened a women’s clothing store in the village. Image Ms. Kaye in 2013, in private practice. She left the court in 2008. Credit Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Skipping two grades, Judith graduated from high school at 15 and graduated in 1958 from Barnard College, where she hoped her degree in Latin American civilization would lead to a job in journalism. She got as far as The Hudson Dispatch in Union City, N.J., where she, like many women in a male-dominated industry, was assigned to society news. She left The Dispatch to pursue a legal career. To enhance her employment opportunities, she worked as a copy editor for a news service during the day and attended New York University Law School at night. She graduated in 1962, one of 10 women in a class of nearly 290 (she graduated sixth in the class). She was soon hired by Sullivan & Cromwell, one of New York’s most venerable firms. She also married a colleague at the law firm, Stephen Rackow Kaye. He died in 2006. She is survived by their three children, Luisa, Jonathan and Gordon Kaye; seven grandchildren; and a brother, Allen Smith. Ms. Kaye left Sullivan & Cromwell after two years to join the IBM legal department. While raising a family, she worked part time as an assistant to the N.Y.U. Law School dean. She was later hired by Olwine, Connelly, Chase, O’Donnell & Weyher in New York, and there, in 1975, she became the first woman to be named partner. A list of potential appointees submitted to Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, by the New York State Commission on Judicial Nomination for the first Court of Appeals vacancy in 1983 included no women. When another vacancy occurred shortly thereafter, the commission’s list of seven candidates included two women: Justice Betty Weinberg Ellerin of State Supreme Court, a former president of the Women’s Bar Association; and Ms. Kaye, whom the association, in contrast to other bar groups, rated not qualified. After interviewing her twice, the governor appointed her anyway, to a 14-year term. From the beginning, Judge Kaye proved ready to invoke the State Constitution whenever it provided greater protections on civil liberties issues — matters of free speech and unreasonable searches, for example — than the United States Constitution. In one case, she ruled that the state was liable for not providing New York City public school students with the “sound basic education” required by the State Constitution. She voted four times against the death penalty. Writing a majority opinion, she went beyond the scope of a United States Supreme Court ruling in giving defendants greater latitude to accuse prosecutors of withholding evidence. She sided with the defendant in an important libel case. And she agreed with the majority in granting gay men and lesbians the right to adopt their partners’ children. Judge Kaye prided herself on nudging her fellow jurists toward a unanimous opinion, though that became more challenging in 1997, when Gov. George E. Pataki, a Republican, began filling vacancies. “She was in the mainstream of thinking in New York,” said Jonathan Lippman, her chief administrative judge and successor as chief judge, “and her view was that the court should speak with one voice, to create consensus around a pragmatic view of what the law should be.” As an administrator as well as a judge — “each of these jobs took 80 percent of my time,” she said — she was instrumental in the creation of courts devoted to specific problems, like drug abuse, as well as locally focused courts, including the Midtown Community Court in Times Square, which has dealt with panhandling, prostitution and other neighborhood issues. “Judith Kaye essentially started a revolution,” Judge Lippman wrote in 2009 in The N.Y.U. Law Review, “that has redefined the traditional role of the judiciary in addressing the difficult social problems reflected in our record-breaking court dockets: drug abuse, family violence and dysfunction, mental illness and so many more.” Judge Kaye expanded the jury pool by eliminating virtually all automatic exemptions, reducing the average length of service and ending the automatic sequestration of juries in criminal cases. She also lobbied for no-fault divorce laws and for lawyers to be held to higher standards. But she failed on two fronts that required the politically divided Legislature’s full cooperation. One was the complete overhaul of New York’s convoluted court system. (The Supreme Court, despite its name, is the third-highest jurisdiction.) The other was an overdue raise for judges after a decade. She finally joined other judges in suing Gov. David A. Paterson and the Legislature in 2008, arguing they had been denied their constitutional right to an adequate salary. The Court of Appeals eventually agreed, and while it did not recommend a remedy, the next year lawmakers approved a raise. Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said on Thursday that Judge Kaye “believed in the fundamental promise of equal rights for all New Yorkers, and dedicated herself to strengthening our judicial system and our juries.” After she retired as chief judge, Judge Kaye became of counsel to Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in New York. She was also appointed by Governor Paterson to the 12-member Commission on Judicial Nomination. She was named its chairwoman in 2009. In 2010, Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat who was then the state’s attorney general, named her independent counsel to investigate several alleged ethics violations by Mr. Paterson. She found that Mr. Paterson had misled state investigators about his acceptance of free tickets to the World Series and forwarded her findings to the Albany County district attorney to determine whether there was sufficient evidence for perjury charges. He declined to prosecute. Judge Kaye also investigated a case involving a top Paterson aide whom a woman had accused of domestic violence. Witnesses said the aide and a top State Police official had tried to discourage the woman from pressing charges. Judge Kaye found that Governor Paterson and his advisers had made errors of judgment in their handling of the case, but that their actions had not been criminal. When Mario Cuomo appointed Judge Kaye, Marjorie E. Karowe, then the president of the women’s bar group, called his decision “unfortunate.” By 2008, Ms. Karowe had reversed her verdict. “Judge Kaye,” she said, “has proved herself to be a remarkable chief judge.”

New York
Judiciary
Obituary
Women and Girls
Legislation
Judith S Kaye


Rental Building’s Good Karma Nurtures Success

Abstract: PALO ALTO, Calif., Sept. 13 — The building at 165 University Avenue here has been so good to the Amidi family that Saeed Amidi says it is blessed with good karma. There are some high-technology entrepreneurs who would agree. Over the years, the nondescript two-story building, which the Amidis have owned since the early 1990s, has been home to a series of Silicon Valley start-ups that became stars. The Amidis, a family of Iranian immigrants, along with their partner Pejman Nozad, also own an Oriental rug store here that has put them in contact with many more entrepreneurs and investors. The store and the building have helped them forge an unusual path into the ranks of Silicon Valley’s kingmakers. “We believe in good karma, good energy, good feeling, and we believe some buildings have good energy,” Mr. Amidi said, speaking in a slow, accented lilt. Like many other landlords in the dot-com boom, Mr. Amidi demanded a chance to invest in some of his tenants. One was PayPal, the online payment company, whose sale to eBay for $1.5 billion gave the Amidis a multimillion-dollar payout and a taste for more technology investing. Logitech, the maker of computer peripherals, and Danger, which created the T-Mobile Sidekick smartphone, have also been tenants. And it was in that building that Google went from toddler to budding technology titan. Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad have tried to capitalize on the reputations of those companies by marketing the University Avenue offices as a “lucky building.” But they have also sought to take whatever magic the building had, real or perceived, and reproduce it on an industrial scale. “Our idea is how we can bring the good charm down to Sunnyvale,” Mr. Amidi said. Sunnyvale, some 12 miles southeast of Palo Alto, is where they created the Plug and Play Tech Center, a three-story 150,000-square-foot building where they rent space and provide other amenities to start-ups. Since it opened early last year, it has become a hub of entrepreneurial activity that now houses 108 fledgling companies. Their position as landlords gives Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad an early look at such businesses, and with that, a chance to invest before others get to them. The investment fund they created, Amidzad, has helped bankroll 40 companies, putting $25,000 to $1 million into each. Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad refuse to discuss their returns, beyond saying that seven of their portfolio companies have been acquired. They acknowledge that at least one of them was sold at a loss. Still, their power-broker status has impressed some longtime Silicon Valley figures. “They really get the way Silicon Valley works,” said Ron Conway, an investor who has helped finance dozens of high-tech companies, including Google. “They started as landlords to technology companies and then worked their way up the food chain.” The Amidis ran a string of successful businesses in Iran, then fled after the Islamic revolution. They arrived in California in 1979 and quickly set up a number of new businesses under the umbrella of the Amidi Group. These included the rug store, the Medallion Rug Gallery; an international water distribution business, which, according to Mr. Amidi, brings in $150 million a year; and large real estate holdings, which are mostly managed by his brother, Rahim Amidi. But as the boom in technology gathered force in the late 1990s, its lure proved irresistible. Medallion Rug and the University Avenue building proved ideal entry points for a family with scant background or connections in the technology world. It was at Medallion Rug, for instance, that Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad met Andy Rubin, Danger’s founder, when he came in to buy a carpet. The sale turned into a lengthy negotiation during which they learned of Mr. Rubin’s start-up plans. Once the deal for the carpet was settled, Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad told Mr. Rubin that they invested in start-ups and wanted him to meet Mr. Amidi’s father, now deceased. “He came over to our offices and we showed him what we were planning on doing,” said Mr. Rubin, who has worked at Google since it acquired another start-up he founded. “He looked at us, and he told Saeed and Rahim that he wanted to invest.” Their investment fund put $400,000 into Danger, and the Amidis gave the company a discount on office space. Mr. Amidi says the decision was more a bet on Mr. Rubin’s abilities — as demonstrated during negotiations over the rug — than on the technology itself. “Any time you do a financial transaction with someone, you get to know how they think, how they negotiate, what are their parameters,” Mr. Amidi said. “We kind of value that as a big advantage.” Little by little, Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad turned the people they met at Medallion Rug into a network of friends and advisers that includes scores of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists. But if Medallion Rug provided a place for the Amidis to befriend some of Silicon Valley’s technology elite, it was the building at 165 University Avenue that gave them a sort of celebrity. Google was lured to the building by a “for lease” sign that mentioned some of the previous tenants, like Logitech. “I said jokingly, ‘Maybe one day they’ll have the same sign with Google’s name on it,’ ” said Craig Silverstein, the first employee to be hired by Google’s two founders. When it moved into the building early in 1999, Google had six employees. By the time it left six months later, about 10 times that many were crammed into the space. More important, the company had secured financing from two of the best-known venture capitalists in Silicon Valley and had signed its first big partnership, with the Internet browser maker Netscape. The Amidis did not have a chance to invest directly in Google, though they did so through a fund run by Mr. Conway. They did insist on getting shares in their next tenant, PayPal, though not before asking a tech-savvy acquaintance to interrogate the company’s founders. “I thought I would sit down with a guy who was very good at figuring out drywall and he would ask how you plug computers in,” said Max Levchin, a founder of PayPal. “But they brought in a guy who was a very strong engineer. The due diligence far exceeded our expectations.” The success of Google and PayPal brought more tenants to the Amidis. Kevin McCurdy, for instance, worked across the street from the building when Google was a tenant. In 2004, he helped found Picaboo, a maker of custom photo books. “When we started Picaboo, we specifically targeted that space because Google had been there,” he said of the building. “It was a magic space.” The magic has yet to produce another blockbuster hit. But Mr. Amidi and Mr. Nozad have refocused their energy on the Plug and Play center, where they try to eliminate logistical headaches faced by entrepreneurs. They provide flexible space with no long-term leases, and ready access to data centers and telecommunications infrastructure. They also offer amenities that only larger companies can typically afford. They are installing a gym, and they set up the cafeteria with the help of Charlie Ayers, the chef who started Google’s well-regarded cafeterias. Omid Kordestani, a top Google executive, said Mr. Amidi had a knack for “learning from what is around him.” “This is where his sweet smartness comes in,” said Mr. Kordestani, who described Mr. Amidi as a friend. “The Plug and Play has a lot of the elements of Google, the cafeteria, the colors.” Mr. Amidi has helped promote Plug and Play with a seemingly constant string of events that put its start-ups into contact with other entrepreneurs, as well as investors and larger companies that may become partners or acquirers. The introductions have helped their tenants attract some $200 million in financing. On a recent tour of Plug and Play, Jeff Crowe of Norwest Venture Partners bumped into the chief executive of Lending Club, one of the center’s start-ups. The two started talking, and last month, Norwest helped lead a $10.26 million round of financing in Lending Club. It was one of half a dozen investments that Norwest has made in Plug and Play tenants. Mr. Crowe saluted Mr. Amidi’s venture capitalist skills, “As an early-stage V.C.,” he said, “he is certainly someone you want to have a relationship with.” The reputation of Plug and Play, however, has yet to eclipse the reputation surrounding 165 University Avenue. “I’m not especially superstitious, so I wouldn’t say the building has luck per se,” said Peter Thiel, another PayPal founder. But he said the building was just in the right location. Like many others who worked there, he spoke fondly of the terra-cotta tile patio, revolving around a small fountain, that was a natural spot for socializing. “If I was starting a company again,” Mr. Thiel said, “I would definitely want to use that office space again.”

Office Buildings and Commercial Properties


Australia to Review Charges of Sexism in Its Military

Abstract: SYDNEY, Australia — After weeks of embarrassment over sexual scandals in the Australian military, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s government appears intent on giving the armed forces their biggest shake-up in more than a decade, including making all combat roles available to women. In the most notorious example of the sexual scandals, a male cadet at the elite Australian Defense Force Academy was caught streaming video of himself having sex with a female colleague to his friends via Skype, without the colleague’s knowledge. The female cadet was reported to have been hauled before a disciplinary committee on charges of drinking and being absent without leave, and she was told to apologize to the other cadets for having gone to the news media with her story. The Australian Defense Force has encountered controversy before — a report released this year found that sailors aboard the naval supply ship Success had routinely engaged in “predatory sexual and drunken misconduct.” More recent problems have included Australian soldiers in Afghanistan posting racist epithets about Afghan civilians and crude taunts against Ms. Gillard on Facebook, as well as a page on that Web site dedicated to singling out gay soldiers for attacks. The government is now ordering a number of inquiries intended to crack what critics say is a culture of sexism in the military. Defense Minister Stephen Smith has ordered Elizabeth Broderick, Australia ’s sexual discrimination commissioner, to conduct a “comprehensive review of the culture” in the armed forces and the elite academy, focusing on the treatment of women, as well as the use of alcohol and social media. The country’s senior military officer, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, acknowledged the depth of the problems and strongly endorsed the planned overhaul. Marshal Houston, who is chief of the defense force, said in an e-mail that the military would act on government recommendations to open all posts to women. “Women will be able to work in any position in which they meet the demands of the job — including roles involved in direct combat,” he said. More than 10,000 women currently serve in more than 300 capacities across the services, according to the military. Marshal Houston said that 93 percent of positions in the services were currently open to women. But combat roles in infantry, artillery, engineering, airfield defense and special operations units, as well as work as clearance divers in the navy, have been out of bounds. If combat roles are also made available, Australia will join Canada, New Zealand and several European nations among those that allow women to serve in all frontline combat roles. Women make up 14 percent of the United States armed forces, but they cannot serve in certain combat positions, including in the infantry and Special Forces. There are signs that the Australian military could still prove highly resistant to change. Neil James, executive director of the Australia Defense Association, an independent research organization widely seen as expressing the viewpoint of more conservative elements within the military, accused the news media of devoting too much attention to the sexual scandals. He called the investigations “a public witch hunt worthy of Salem, Massachusetts, in the 17th century.” “In each case, the incident is either a very isolated one or it’s otherwise explicable,” he said. “It’s not indicating a systemic problem.” As for expanding the opportunities for women in combat, Mr. James said: “In certain types of jobs, they are likely to disproportionately suffer a higher rate of casualties. And our point that we keep making to some of the more ideological feminists is, ‘How is that equitable?’ ” Ben Wadham, a senior lecturer at Flinders University in Adelaide and a former infantry corporal, called the response to the scandals “the most significant expression of public concern with A.D.F. culture” he had seen in three decades of study. He warned that the “us against the world” mentality that the military promoted to encourage unit cohesion could make any investigation extremely difficult. “There’s a dark side to that mateship,” he said. “And the dark side of it is when it begins to wheel and turn on its own logic and we get this very closed, secret culture of denial.” He contended that the military’s culture could prove dangerous if the reforms were pushed through without addressing the armed forces’ deep-seated sexism. “The A.D.F. isn’t ready for women in the front line,” Mr. Wadham said. “There has to be a lot of preparation going forward.”

Australia
Discrimination
Defense and Military Forces
Women and Girls


Chief Justice Roberts Prods Congress on Fiscal Matters

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. used his year-end report on the federal judiciary to give Congressional budget negotiators a little nudge. “Our country faces new challenges, including the much-publicized ‘fiscal cliff’ and the longer-term problem of a truly extravagant and burgeoning national debt,” he wrote. “No one seriously doubts that the country’s fiscal ledger has gone awry. The public properly looks to its elected officials to craft a solution.” The chief justice said that his branch of the government provided an example of doing much with few resources. The federal judiciary makes do with a budget appropriation of about $7 billion, he wrote, “a mere two-tenths of 1 percent of the United States’ total budget of $3.7 trillion.” “Yes,” he went on, “for each citizen’s tax dollar, only two-tenths of one penny goes toward funding the entire third branch of government!” Image Chief Justice John G. Roberts Credit Tim Sloan/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In the report, Chief Justice Roberts said the judiciary was doing what it could to cut costs in rent, salaries and computer services. The Supreme Court “continues to set a good example,” he said, asking for a smaller appropriation in the last fiscal year than in the previous one. This fiscal year, the request rose slightly, “largely in response to new judicial security needs,” he said. He did not elaborate. An appendix to the chief justice’s report on the workload of the federal courts showed decreases in the Supreme Court’s docket and in the number of cases it is deciding. In the term that ended last year, the number of requests for Supreme Court review dropped by almost two percent from the previous term. The justices issued just 64 signed opinions in the most recent term, down from 75. The federal courts went to great lengths last year in trying circumstances, notably after Hurricane Sandy. “As just one example,” he said, “the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York conducted emergency hearings in Lower Manhattan the day after the storm hit, working in a building without heat or hot water that was only sparsely lit by gas-fueled emergency generators.” Though Chief Justice Roberts did not say so, the Supreme Court also showed fortitude the day the storm hit, hearing arguments when the rest of official Washington was closed. He called on President Obama and Congress “to be especially attentive to the needs of the judicial branch and provide the resources necessary to its operation.” “Because the judiciary has already pursued cost containment so aggressively, it will become increasingly difficult to economize further without reducing the quality of judicial services,” he wrote. “Virtually all of the judiciary’s core functions are constitutionally and statutorily required. Unlike executive branch agencies, the courts do not have discretionary programs they can eliminate or projects they can postpone.” The number of judicial vacancies does not help matters, he went on. “At the close of 2012, 27 of the existing judicial vacancies are designated as presenting judicial emergencies,” he wrote. “I urge the executive and legislative branches to act diligently in nominating and confirming highly qualified candidates to fill those vacancies.”

Justice Roberts
Supreme Court
Federal Budget


Taking to Twitter, Iran’s President Argues for Rapid End to Sanctions

Abstract: LAUSANNE, Switzerland — While American negotiators maintained tight secrecy at the nuclear talks here, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran took to Twitter late Thursday to describe a letter he sent to President Obama and other world leaders justifying Iran’s positions. Mr. Rouhani’s unusual digital diplomacy was accompanied by telephone calls to the leaders of Britain, France and Russia urging the rapid removal of “unjust sanctions against the Iranian people” if and when a nuclear accord was reached. Yet he did not speak to Mr. Obama, who has repeatedly said that sanctions could be lifted only gradually as Iran carries out an agreement that would limit its nuclear production and open itself to far-reaching inspections. The division between Iran and the West over the sanctions, however, still appears to be wide and it was unclear how the gap can be closed by Tuesday, the deadline that has been set for an initial agreement outlining the parameters of the accord. Once that outline has been agreed upon, a comprehensive agreement is to be completed by the end of June. The Tuesday deadline, however, appears to be far more important to the White House and Congress than it does to the Iranians. Video Can the West trust Iran? Can Iran trust the West? A look at the bet each side is making in the nuclear talks, along with the challenges and risks that they face. Iran’s supreme leaders, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , made it clear in recent weeks that he was not eager to formalize an initial accord this month and was prepared to wait until the detailed agreement was fleshed out by the end of June. The Iranians have preferred instead a more general statement of “understanding” before the June accord, according to Western diplomats. That leaves the Obama administration in a potentially tricky political situation. Senior American officials have said that the administration wants to be able to outline the specifics of the initial understanding that has been reached with Iranian negotiators to rebuff any congressional moves to impose new sanctions. Yet the administration faces the prospect that it may be describing its understanding of a deal that, according to Iran, is still under negotiation. After the Twitter message appeared, a National Security Council spokeswoman confirmed that a letter to Mr. Obama from Mr. Rouhani had been passed by Iranian officials to the United States negotiating team, which is meeting in a luxury hotel overlooking Lake Geneva. The spokeswoman, Bernadette Meehan, declined to provide any details about the correspondence. Mr. Rouhani, however, was far more talkative, and in his Twitter posts described the points he had made in a phone conversation with Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain and President François Hollande of France. “Iran’s nuclear program peaceful,” Mr. Rouhani wrote. “Lifting all unjust sanctions main step to reach a deal.” “Emphasized role of Britain & France in building trust & preparing for future cooperations, rather than resorting to pressure & opposition,” he wrote in another post, appealing over the heads of the Americans to the Europeans, who have a strong desire to renew trade with Iran. Image Mr. Moniz in Switzerland. Credit Pool photo by Brendan Smialowski Just hours before Mr. Rouhani issued his public appeals, Secretary of State John Kerry resumed his high-level talks with his Iranian counterparts as the State Department expressed hope that an initial accord could be reached by early next week. “We very much believe we can get this done by the 31st,” said a senior State Department official, who declined to be identified under the agency’s protocol for briefing reporters. “We see a path to do that.” Still, the official emphasized that the talks could yet be stymied by an array of complex issues. In a speech in London on Wednesday, Philip Hammond, the British foreign secretary, also asserted that an accord was within reach. “Agreement is deliverable if we continue on this track,” Mr. Hammond said. During the previous negotiating round, disputes emerged over what limits would be placed on the research and development of new types of centrifuges, how long an accord should last and the pace at which the economic sanctions that have been imposed on Iran might be suspended or removed. Given Iran’s reluctance to sign an initial agreement this month, the form of an initial agreement that might be concluded here over the coming days is still uncertain. “We do not know what form this will take if we can get there at the end of March,” said the State Department official. “We believe and know that we will have to share as many specific details publicly as we can,” the official added.

Iran
Hassan Rouhani
Nuclear weapon
Embargoes Sanctions
Barack Obama
US Foreign Policy
US


Flyby of Mercury Answers Some Old Questions

Abstract: Mercury , the smallest planet, bakes in the heat of the Sun , but it has water in some form. It has volcanoes. It appears to have an active magnetic field generated by a molten iron core. And it has shrunk more than scientists thought. Those are some of the findings gleaned from the flyby of NASA ’s Messenger spacecraft in January, the first close-up look since Mariner 10 flew by three times in the 1970s. “After five months of analysis, we’ve got some fascinating new results, and some of them have resolved debates that are more than 30 years old that go back to the time of Mariner 10,” said Sean C. Solomon, the principal investigator for Messenger, during a NASA telephone news conference on Thursday. “All of which bodes very well for the rest of the mission.” Messenger will make two more flybys, the next one on Oct. 6, before entering orbit around Mercury in 2011. Eleven papers describing the Messenger findings on Mercury appear in the current issue of the journal Science. The first flyby has already answered one question, about the presence of volcanoes, by discovering a huge one, 60 miles in diameter. “Which is larger than the state of Delaware and over twice the size of Rhode Island,” said James W. Head III, professor of geological sciences at Brown University and the lead author of one of the papers in Science. Atop the volcano is a kidney-shaped crater 14 miles in diameter. “This is equivalent to a huge hole in the ground extending from the Washington Monument out to well past the Beltway,” Dr. Head said. “Imagine lavas coming out of this vent and covering the surrounding suburbs out to about Baltimore and the West Virginia border. The greater Washington, D.C., region would be covered with lavas to depths that would bury the Washington Monument.” The volcano appears to have been long dormant, perhaps last erupting three billion years ago, Dr. Head said. The scientists have not seen any signs of recent activity, but “You never know,” Dr. Head said. “That’s why we’re exploring Mercury.” Mercury has a large iron core, believed to still be molten, that fills three-quarters of its radius and accounts for 60 percent its mass. Another longstanding question was whether Mercury’s weak magnetic field, about 1 percent as strong as Earth’s, is generated by the flow of the molten iron or whether it is leftover magnetism frozen into the rocks billions of years ago. Magnetic fields measured during the flyby fit the pattern of a simple bar magnet, suggesting that they are being actively generated by the interior of Mercury, Dr. Solomon said. Frozen fields would likely have become fragmented and irregular, more like what is observed at Mars, he said. Then there is the matter of shrinking. As the planet’s interior core cooled, it contracted, causing the surface crust to fracture into a rugged topography including steep cliffs. The cliffs were first spotted by Mariner 10, leading to estimates that Mercury was once up to a couple of miles wider than its current diameter of 3,032 miles. With better lighting and a sharper camera, Messenger spotted many more cracks. Mercury’s shrinkage is at least one-third greater than previously estimated, Dr. Solomon said. “The surface geology preserves the history of the cooling,” he said. “We have no other example in the solar system.” An instrument aboard Messenger sampled Mercury’s surface composition by catching some of the charged atoms that have been knocked into space. Silicon, sodium and sulfur were detected. So was water. “Which is a real surprise,” said Thomas H. Zurbuchen, an associate professor of atmospheric, oceanic and space sciences at the University of Michigan and lead author of another paper in Science. “The first time we took a whiff of the planet, it’s right there.” One possibility is that the water exists as ice in the shaded parts of craters in the polar regions.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration


The Perils of Investing Too Close to Home

Abstract: THERE’S no place like home, but staying too close to home can have unintended consequences for investors. Americans tend to put a disproportionate share of their money into shares of companies based in their own states, new research has shown, and that bias that can be exploited by sophisticated traders. These insights come from “Long Georgia, Short Colorado? The Geography of Return Predictability,” a study by George M. Korniotis, an economist on the staff of the board of governors of the Federal Reserve, and Alok Kumar, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Texas, Austin. The tendency of investors to favor their home countries has been well documented. The new study goes beyond such “home bias,” using the term “local bias” to refer to investors’ tendency to favor companies from their home states. The researchers were able to measure this bias by studying the stock holdings from 1991 to 1996 of more than 75,000 individual investors at a major national discount brokerage firm. (The data were provided in a way that ensured the investors’ anonymity.) Strong evidence of local bias was found in each of the 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia. Consider investors in New York. They invested in companies whose headquarters were 750 miles from home, on average. Had investors picked stocks randomly, without regard to where the companies were based, that average distance would have been 1,055 miles. The difference was explained by a disproportionately large dollop of New York stocks in the investors’ portfolios. Of course, there are many reasons for local bias. But one is undoubtedly very basic: Faced with the daunting task of choosing among thousands of publicly traded companies, investors turn to companies with which they are familiar. Often, the investors who buy shares of small companies — particularly those that aren’t tracked by Wall Street analysts — are those who live nearby. Where there is bias, there is trading opportunity. The study found that it is possible to exploit investors’ parochialism to beat the stock market. In fact, Professor Kumar, said in an interview that he had already been approached by several hedge fund managers to assist them in doing exactly that. He did not disclose the names of the managers or of their funds. The key to exploiting local bias, according to the researchers, is to pay attention to local economic conditions, which generally follow a fairly predictable cycle. For example, after a state’s economy starts performing worse than the national average, the disparity is likely to persist. Because a disproportionate share of investors in that state’s companies are state residents, its worsening economic climate will often translate into a decline in these investors’ wealth. As a result, they tend to sell their shares and drive down the price, and the state’s stocks are likely to underperform the overall market for several successive quarters. The reverse tends to occur, according to the professors, when a state’s economy is improving at a faster rate than the national average. TO illustrate the market-beating potential of this insight, the researchers built a hypothetical market-neutral portfolio that, at the end of each quarter from 1995 through 2004, bought all the stocks of the four states whose companies were predicted to perform the best and sold short an equal dollar amount of the stocks of the four states whose companies were predicted to lag the furthest behind. This portfolio produced an average annualized return of 8 percent, according to the researchers, without having to bet on the direction of the overall market. That’s a winning combination. Professor Kumar acknowledged that the complex calculations required for this strategy were beyond the reach of individual investors; but he said professional money managers at hedge funds or other investment firms might have the computer power to do so. For everyone else, the primary investment implication of the study may be that it’s important to guard against local bias. Otherwise, you may be missing opportunities in the broad market, all while rendering your portfolio vulnerable to the economic conditions of your own little corner of the world.

Stocks and Bonds
Foreign Investments
Economic Conditions and Trends
Personal Finances


Russian Moves in Syria Widen Role in Mideast

Abstract: WASHINGTON — Russia has sent some of its most modern battle tanks to a new air base in Syria in what American officials said Monday was part of an escalating buildup that could give Moscow its most significant military foothold in the Middle East in decades. Pentagon officials said that the Russian weapons and equipment that had arrived suggested that the Kremlin’s plan is to turn the airfield south of Latakia in western Syria into a major hub that could be used to bring in military supplies for the government of President Bashar al-Assad. It might also serve as a staging area for airstrikes in support of Syrian government forces. “We have seen movement of people and things that would suggest the air base south of Latakia could be used as a forward air operating base,” Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said Monday. American military specialists analyzing satellite photographs and other information said Russia had about half a dozen T-90 tanks, 15 howitzers, 35 armored personnel carriers, 200 marines and housing for as many as 1,500 personnel at the airfield near the Assad family’s ancestral home. And more is on the way as Russia appears to be trying to increase its influence in Syria amid the civil strife there, the officials said. “There were military supplies, they are ongoing, and they will continue,” Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies on Sunday. “They are inevitably accompanied by Russian specialists, who help to adjust the equipment, to train Syrian personnel how to use this weaponry.” The Russians have not sent attack planes to the airfield, and the Kremlin has not said whether they will. But the military buildup by Russia, which has been supporting Mr. Assad throughout the four-and-a-half-year Syrian civil war, adds a new friction point in its relations with the United States. Image Russia has military presences near Latakia and in Tartus. Credit SANA, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images “I don’t believe Western governments are prepared to do very much to slow down or block the risky course the Russians are going on,” said Andrew S. Weiss, vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is a former Russia expert for the National Security Council, the State Department and the Pentagon. Indeed, efforts by the United States to stop the flow of supplies have fallen short. At least 15 giant Russian Condor transport planes have in the past week used an air corridor over Iraq and Iran to ferry military equipment and personnel to the base, said American military officials who agreed to speak about confidential intelligence assessments on the condition of anonymity. Bulgaria closed its airspace to the Russian flights last week at the request of the United States. But Iraq did not, even though American diplomats raised concerns about the Russian flights with the Iraqi government on Sept. 5. Although the Obama administration’s warnings to the Russians have been made public, American officials have refused to openly discuss their appeals to the Iraqis. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi of Iraq assumed his post with the support of the United States but is still trying to establish his authority at home, and American officials are wary of undercutting him. Compounding the difficulties for Mr. Abadi is his effort to maintain good relations with the United States, Iran and Russia all at the same time. While about 3,500 American advisers have been sent to help the Iraqis combat the Islamic State, Iraq has also received military support for that fight from Iran, which like Russia is backing Mr. Assad. Iraq is also buying weapons from Moscow, which Mr. Abadi visited in May. With few aircraft, Iraq is extremely limited in its ability to defend its airspace. But it could tell the Russians that they do not have the clearance to fly through its airspace and ask for American help in detecting and discouraging Russian flights. “Regardless of what air corridor is being used, we’ve been clear about our concerns about continued material support to the Assad regime,” said John Kirby, the State Department spokesman. “We don’t talk about our diplomatic conversations, but we’ve asked our friends and partners in the region to ask tough questions of the Russians.” A spokesman for Mr. Abadi in Baghdad declined to comment. The Russian military buildup in Syria could serve the Kremlin’s interests in several ways. It could help strengthen Mr. Assad, whom Russia has long backed but whose military fortunes have declined in recent months. “It looks like the continuing process of building up an expeditionary or significant combat force in Syria,” said Jeffrey White, a former Defense Intelligence Agency officer who now studies Syria at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It could give the regime a decisive edge on the battlefield.” The buildup also dramatizes Russia’s call to fight the Islamic State with a new coalition that would include Iran and the Syrian government. It could also put Russia in a better position to influence the formation of a new government if Mr. Assad eventually left power. Russia also appears to be cementing its strategic interests in Syria and greatly enhancing its ability to project power in Syria and neighboring states — with a new airfield to complement the naval base it has long had in the coastal city of Tartus — regardless of how events in the country unfold. “This is the most important Russian power projection in the region in decades,” said Stephen J. Blank, an expert on the Russian military at the American Foreign Policy Council. He compared it to Russian deployments to Egypt in the 1970s, adding, “It will enhance Russia’s influence throughout the Levant.” The next phase of the Russian plan may become clearer when President Vladimir V. Putin comes to the United Nations later this month and outlines his proposals for coping with Syria. “The Russians have done a masterful job of changing the subject on the eve of Vladimir Putin’s arrival in New York for the 70th commemoration of the U.N. General Assembly,” Mr. Weiss said. How Syrians Are Dying Over four years of war has forced more than four million to flee the country, fueling a migrant crisis in the Middle East and Europe. “Instead of accepting a brushoff from the White House about Putin’s desire for a meeting with Obama, the Russians are trying to argue that you have to talk to us about Syria,” Mr. Weiss added. “It was the Iranians who ponied up before by deploying the Quds Force by sending in proxies like Hezbollah. It is Moscow’s turn now to play that role, which is largely intended to prop up the regime.” The Russian efforts appear to be facilitated by Iran, which also backs the Assad government and gave permission to the Russians to fly over its territory. In late July, Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force, who has been directing Iran’s military support for Mr. Assad, is believed to have gone to Moscow despite a United Nations travel ban. Russian officials have denied that the visit occurred, but two American officials who asked not to be identified because they were discussing classified intelligence said they were convinced General Suleimani had made the trip. Secretary of State John Kerry has twice called Mr. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, to warn that the military buildup could add to the chaos inside Syria and might even lead to an inadvertent confrontation with United States-led forces that are carrying out airstrikes against the Islamic State. “What we would like to see is movement toward a political transition in here,” Mr. Kirby said Monday. “We still believe there’s an opportunity to pursue that kind of transition in concert with Russian authorities.” “But it can’t start with open and continued aiding and abetting of the Assad regime,” he added. Senator John McCain, the Arizona Republican who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, complained Monday that the Obama administration should have done more to discourage the Russian flights. “Capitalizing on American inaction, Russia is now engaged in a dangerous military buildup in Syria, which has been supported by supply flights, through Iranian and Iraqi airspace, despite expressions of ‘concern’ from Secretary Kerry and other administration officials,” he said in a statement. But Mr. McCain did not specify what action he thought the United States should take at this point.

Russia
Syria
Military
Middle East
Iraq
Iran
Military Bases
US Military
Sergey V Lavrov
Barack Obama


Stanford Surprises Connecticut

Abstract: Chasson Randle scored 22 points as visiting Stanford handed No. 10 Connecticut its first loss of the season, 53-51, on Wednesday night. Josh Huestis added 13 points, and Dwight Powell had 10 points and 15 rebounds for Stanford (8-2). DeAndre Daniels had 15 points for UConn (9-1). TEXAS 86, N. CAROLINA 83 Demarcus Holland scored on a rebound of his own free throw with 4.1 seconds left to help visiting Texas beat No. 14 North Carolina. Holland finished with 15 points for the Longhorns (10-1). Paige scored 23 points to lead U.N.C. (7-3). OHIO STATE 76, DELAWARE 64 LaQuinton Ross scored 19 points, including 8 in a decisive 15-0 run, to lead No. 3 Ohio State past visiting Delaware. Lenzelle Smith Jr. added 14 points for the Buckeyes (11-0). Devon Saddler had 17 points for the Blue Hens (5-6). UMASS 83, OHIO 71 Maxie Escho had 16 points and 10 rebounds as No. 22 Massachusetts remained undefeated with a victory over host Ohio. Sampson Carter added 14 points for the Minutemen (10-0). Maurice Ndour scored 16 points for Ohio (7-3). Women BAYLOR 87, MISSISSIPPI 80 Odyssey Sims, the nation’s top scorer, had 39 points as No. 9 Baylor held off Mississippi (8-5) to extend its home winning streak to 66 games. Nina Davis had 18 points and 15 rebounds for the Lady Bears (9-1). N. CAROLINA 74, S. CAROLINA 66 The freshman Stephanie Mavunga had 20 points and 12 rebounds to lead visiting No. 14 North Carolina (10-2) over No. 10 South Carolina (9-1), ending the Gamecocks’ perfect start. OKLAHOMA 79, FAIRFIELD 51 Aaryn Ellenberg scored 23 points as No. 20 Oklahoma (8-3) beat host Fairfield. Alexys Vazquez led the Stags (5-4) with 17 points. PURDUE 49, GREEN BAY 45 K K Houser hit three of four free throws in the final 11 seconds and scored 17 points as No. 18 Purdue (8-2) escaped with a win at Green Bay (6-4).

Stanford
College basketball
UNC
University of Texas at Austin
University of Connecticut


At Ford Field, Final Four’s Big Stage Looks Tiny

Abstract: DETROIT — When Connecticut basketball Coach Jim Calhoun arrived at Ford Field for the Final Four last week, he called the vast, covered football stadium a gym and quickly explained why. “I call every place a gym, even if it holds 72,000,” he said. “That’s because I’m older.” Calhoun is old enough to remember when the Final Four arena had seats for 15,410, as it did in Salt Lake City in 1979. That year Magic Johnson and Michigan State defeated Larry Bird and Indiana State to win an N.C.A.A. championship that propelled the tournament to a higher level of public consciousness and into bigger arenas. The current Spartans beat Calhoun’s Huskies on Saturday night before a Final Four record crowd of 72,456. They will play North Carolina on Monday night for the title, an event that will mark another milestone for the sport. Although the championship has been held before in domed football stadiums, this will be the first one played entirely “in the round,” with the court in the center of the arena floor. Another capacity crowd is expected for the title game and it could be heavy with Spartan partisans, as it was Saturday. The scene Saturday might have been surreal in some respects, but not unpleasant for most fans. Even the last rows in the corners of the upper deck offered direct sight lines to the floor, a view enhanced by giant television screens on the end walls. “It’s good to be part of the ambience,” said Mary-Beth Michailoff, a hospital worker from Windsor, Ontario. She sat with her daughter, Alex, in the second-to-last row: Section 315, Row 20, Seats 1 and 2. She said she watched both the court and the TV screen, but, “I find myself watching the screen more.” One of the surrealistic touches came over the sound system. To create an atmosphere of intimacy, sounds from microphones on the floor and the backboards were piped into the speakers, meaning the squeak of sneakers and the rattle of the rims could be heard clearly even in the seats farthest from the floor. Greg Shaheen, a senior vice president for the N.C.A.A., said “we view this as a bit of a laboratory” and that the experiment was well-received. Conversely, with cheering not reverberating on the court as it does in smaller arenas, the audio environment surprised some players, including Durrell Summers of Michigan State. “It’s a different kind of loud, it’s an echoing loud, it’s amazing,” he said of the cheering. With a large group of Spartans fans behind the Michigan State bench and another group far behind the basket at the opposite end, their voices sometimes mixed in delayed waves. Kalin Lucas, a Spartans guard, said he could hear a loud echo as the ball bounced off the floor, and that the acoustics made it difficult for his teammates to hear him call plays. “I had to do hand signals,” he said. Some of the worst seats were close to the floor, in the rows directly behind the baskets where students sat. Because the court was raised a couple of feet, television cameras and other baseline obstructions blocked their views. At the start Saturday, a security guard tried to force the Connecticut students to stay seated because, by standing up, they blocked the views of those behind them. But this was like telling an ocean to stop making waves; the guard soon gave up. The large capacity of the arena, along with the recession, might have affected the secondary market for tickets. A fan from Lansing, Al Clark, said his tickets cost $100 each, a modest markup from their $75 face value. Shaheen said more seats meant the N.C.A.A. would get a larger percentage of the revenue. Russ Levere of Colchester, Conn., sat in Row 35 of the lower level, opposite the Connecticut bench. He compared it to the XL Center in Hartford, which holds about 16,000 for UConn games. “This is four times bigger,” he said. “This place is huge. When you have this much crowd involvement, it tends to be more exciting than a smaller venue.” All of Ford Field’s seats appeared filled for Saturday’s first game, but at least a third of them were empty early in the second half of the second game between North Carolina and Villanova, even though the outcome was still in doubt. Moving into one of them was Diana Mercer-Pryor, a retired Chrysler employee who left a private suite to sit with friends in the back of the lower deck, far behind one of the baskets. “They did a good job with the arrangement, it’s great to have 72,000,” she said. “But there would be a little more spirit with less folks.” Like many fans, Mercer-Pryor said the event was important for economically troubled Detroit. “I could have seen it better at home on my flat screen,” she said. “But it’s all about being here. It brings us together. It brings some happiness. It’s fun. It’s marvelous.”

Basketball
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Men)
College Athletics
NCAA Basketball Tournament (Women)
Detroit (Mich)


New York Passes Rent Rules to Blunt Gentrification

Abstract: The New York City Council passed sweeping changes to the zoning code on Tuesday, compelling private developers to build low-cost rental units and handing Mayor Bill de Blasio a victory on the centerpiece of his efforts to blunt neighborhood gentrification. The passage of the proposals capped more than two years of behind-the-scenes planning and organizing by the de Blasio administration, which developed a coalition of unions, business organizations, developers and groups representing older residents while wooing skeptical members of the Council. In the end, the mayor’s plan, which changes zoning requirements across the city, survived opposition from community boards and building trades unions, as well as from New Yorkers concerned that the changes would encourage the very transformation of low-income areas they were meant to head off. The vote was halted soon after it began, by a group of protesters on the balcony of the Council Chambers. “City Council, vote no; M.I.H. has got to go,” they chanted, referring to one of the two proposals, known as mandatory inclusionary housing. As a few were guided out, others joined hands — possibly stuck together with Super Glue, Council officials said — and remained seated before being removed by police. At least two were carried away; the police said there were no arrests. One man who was suffering from “back spasms,” according to Council officials, was taken to a nearby hospital. The roughly 20-minute interruption did nothing to derail the voting. Each passed with at least 40 votes of the 51-member body. Image Mayor Bill de Blasio was expected to hold a rally on Wednesday in Lower Manhattan. Credit Hiroko Masuike/The New York Times In the days leading up to the vote, Mr. de Blasio, a Democrat, took to the airwaves to frame the proposals as a robust attempt by city government to counter escalating rents that would leave a lasting, decades-long imprint on the city. “Our plan mandates the creation of affordable housing,” Mr. de Blasio said on Monday. “It’s what is so powerful about it.” He is expected to hold a rally on Wednesday in Lower Manhattan. Negotiations with the Council on the major points of the plan, which was made final last week , ensured the inclusion of units affordable to more lower-income residents — including those making 40 percent of the area median income or less — in new developments that benefit from zoning changes, a major concern in poor communities where the mayor’s plan is likely to spur development. The deal, which also includes neighborhood-specific changes to the zoning codes and the creation of housing for older adults, assured the plan’s passage on Tuesday. City officials compared the adopted proposals to those in other cities, noting that New York’s plan went further by including mandatory creation of below-market rental units that are permanent and reach residents making well under the area median income of $86,300 for a family of four. The Council speaker, Melissa Mark-Viverito, called it a “landmark plan.” Under New York’s plan, developers benefiting from rezonings for either residential growth or greater height and density are, for the first time, required to include units for those with earnings below the median income. The decision about what level of affordability to apply to a given development — between 40 percent and 80 percent of the median income — is to be determined by the local council member. The plan also provides for the creation of units for those making 115 percent of the median income, provided a portion be for those earning much less. The set-asides range from 20 percent to 30 percent of all of the new units. Though the ultimate effect on the city will most likely not be seen for years, the de Blasio administration has already identified seven areas planned for rezonings that would fall under the new rules, including East New York, Brooklyn; Bay Street on Staten Island; parts of Flushing and Long Island City in Queens; Jerome Avenue in the Bronx; and East Harlem and Inwood in Manhattan. It may be hampered by a lack of a property tax abatement, known as 421-a , that lapsed this year and can be replaced only by the State Legislature. Mr. de Blasio’s broader housing plan, aimed at creating 80,000 new rental units below the market rate, was conceived based on the existence of the exemption. Roughly 12,000 units are expected to directly come from the new zoning mandates approved by the Council through 2024, City Hall officials have said. “While in the absence of an overall tax abatement program its effectiveness is diminished, it’s still a valuable tool in the belt of the mayor,” John Banks, president of the Real Estate Board of New York, said.

Rent
Gentrification
New York City Council
Zoning
Bill de Blasio
Housing
Affordable housing
Real Estate
Civil Unrest
NYC


In India, Singh and Obama Build on Friendship

Abstract: NEW DELHI — Three decades and two oceans stand between President Obama and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India . But on a dais here after a joint news conference on Monday, the two men, neither known for their social ebullience, were inseparable: the youthful, lanky American president’s arm firmly fixed on the older man’s shoulder, Mr. Singh grinning widely with his arm wrapped tightly around Mr. Obama’s waist. More than once during his three-day visit Mr. Obama called the relationship between India and the United States “the defining partnership of the 21st century.” But the relationship between the two men has evolved into something of a friendship as well. Mr. Obama has called Mr. Singh his guru, and on Monday Mr. Singh called Mr. Obama “a personal friend and a charismatic leader who has made a deep imprint on world affairs.” The long and complicated relationship between the United States and India has veered from warm embrace long before independence to the uneasy frostbite of the cold war to the reconciliation of recent years, built on shared democratic and multicultural values and a desire to balance the influence of a rising China. But even as broad historical forces have shaped the relationship, a personal bond appears to be forming between the leaders of the world’s two largest democracies, who developed an easy rapport in their numerous international meetings and have now given state dinners for each other on reciprocal visits. “The personal equation is very important,” said Ronen Sen, who until last year was India’s ambassador to the United States. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had a warm regard for India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. When the president went to India in 1959, the two visited villages together in a convertible, and Mr. Eisenhower was greeted by adoring crowds everywhere he went. Nehru’s daughter, Indira Gandhi, who became prime minister in 1966, easily charmed President Lyndon B. Johnson that year on her first visit to the United States. He found the elegant, youthful woman irresistible, overstaying so long at a meeting at the home of Ms. Gandhi’s cousin that he had to be invited to dinner. Mrs. Gandhi had notoriously noxious relations with President Richard M. Nixon. But when she and a newly elected President Ronald Reagan met in Cancún, Mexico, at a summit meeting on international development, they hit it off, to everyone’s surprise. Mr. Reagan invited Mrs. Gandhi for a state visit, and she took him up on it. “In the height of the cold war, because of personal chemistry, India and the United States managed to create a thaw in their frozen relations,” said Lalit Mansingh, a former foreign secretary and ambassador to the United States. The Hindu nationalist party of Atal Bihari Vajpayee, India’s prime minister from 1998 to 2004, had a center-right ideology that fit well with that of President George W. Bush. The two men eventually began negotiating an agreement that would end India’s nuclear exile. Mr. Bush and Mr. Singh cemented that deal in 2005. “They got on extremely well,” said Mr. Sen, the ambassador to the United States at the time. At first glance it seemed to be an unlikely bond between the informal, back-slapping Mr. Bush and Mr. Singh, a reserved academic 14 years his senior. But Mr. Bush’s deep interest in India impressed Mr. Singh, said officials who observed the relationship closely. Sunanda K. Datta-Ray, an Indian journalist who has written a book about relations between the United States and India, said he, too, was surprised by the rapport between the two men and had asked Mr. Singh about it. Mr. Singh replied that he appreciated Mr. Bush’s straightforward nature. “He said he was a very warm and human person,” Mr. Datta-Ray said. Mr. Singh set tongues wagging when he told Mr. Bush, after a White House meeting, “The people of India love you deeply.” That Mr. Obama and Mr. Singh have found common ground is perhaps less of a surprise. Both are better at the intricacies of policy than at the glad-handing of politics. Both enjoy adulation on the global stage that seems to have eluded them at home. Mr. Obama arrived in New Delhi fresh from the “shellacking” that voters had dealt his party in a midterm election cycle. Mr. Singh, a celebrated figure globally who was reappointed as prime minister when the Congress Party won parliamentary elections just a few months after Mr. Obama moved into the Oval Office, has faced harsh criticism at home for his handling of a crisis in Kashmir, rising food prices and perceived missteps in handling India’s archrival, Pakistan.

India
United States
Obama Barack
Singh Manmohan
United States International Relations


Millions With Chronic Disease Get Little to No Treatment

Abstract: Millions of Americans with chronic disease like diabetes or high blood pressure are not getting adequate treatment because they are among the nation’s growing ranks of uninsured. That is the central finding of a new study to be published Tuesday in the medical journal Annals of Internal Medicine. The study, the first detailed look at the health of the uninsured, estimates that about one of every three working-age adults without insurance in the United States has received a diagnosis of a chronic illness. Many of these people are forgoing doctors’ visits or relying on emergency rooms for their medical care, the study said. The report, based on an analysis of government health surveys of adults ages 18 to 64 years old, estimated that about 11 million of the 36 million people without insurance in 2004 — the latest year of the study — had received a chronic-condition diagnosis. “These are people who, with modern therapies, can be kept out of trouble,” said Dr. Andrew P. Wilper, the study’s lead author. Therapies for someone with diabetes and hypertension “are routine and widely available, if you have insurance,” said Dr. Wilper, a medical instructor at the University of Washington in Seattle. The most recent government estimate of the number of people in this country without health insurance is 47 million, which means that if the proportions found in the study have remained constant, there might be nearly 16 million people in this country with a chronic condition but no insurance to pay for medical care. Nearly a quarter of the uninsured with a chronic illness who were surveyed said they had not visited a health professional within the last year. About 7 percent said they typically went to a hospital emergency room for care. “A lot of people are suffering from a lack of health insurance,” said Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, another of the study’s authors, who is a physician and associate professor of medicine at Harvard. People with high blood pressure, for example, are at risk for catastrophic medical events like a stroke if they are not getting the drugs they need or having a doctor monitor their disease, said Karen Davis, the president of the Commonwealth Fund. The fund, a foundation in New York that specializes in health care research, has done its own research into the lack of adequate medical care among the uninsured. The study, being published Tuesday, may have underestimated exactly how many people who are uninsured have a chronic illness, because it includes only those who have already received such a diagnosis, the authors said. Individuals who have not had their conditions diagnosed because they are not seeing a doctor or nurse are not included. The study’s authors say that their findings cast doubt on the common assumption that many of the uninsured tend to be young and healthy, requiring little in the way of medical care. Because so many actually have chronic conditions that may be expensive to treat, the cost of covering the uninsured is often underestimated, said Dr. Woolhandler, who advocates a nationalized system of health care. In Massachusetts, she said, the state’s effort to overhaul its health insurance system to cover more residents is costing much more than expected and has not led to universal coverage because policy makers assumed that more people would be healthy. “The state experiments have all failed because of cost,” she said. The study describes harsh consequences for neglecting easily treatable diseases in so many people. “For some of the 11.4 million uninsured Americans with serious chronic conditions, access to care seems to be unobtainable; many may face early disability and death as a result,” the study’s authors said.

Diabetes
Blood Pressure
Annals of Internal Medicine
Chronic Illnesses
Medicine and Health
Health Insurance and Managed Care


Vote for African Union’s Leader Hits Stalemate

Abstract: JOHANNESBURG — A high-profile and bitterly fought race for the top post in the African Union ended inconclusively on Monday, with neither the incumbent, Jean Ping of Gabon, nor his main challenger, South Africa’s home minister, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, securing enough votes to win. The vote, which took place in the new glass-and-steel headquarters of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, underscored deep divisions in an organization created a decade ago to help Africa overcome its old colonial divisions and increase the continent’s power on the global stage. The narrowly contested secret ballot vote pitted Mr. Ping, who has served as chairman of the African Union Commission since 2008, against Ms. Dlamini-Zuma of South Africa, the country with sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest economy and a diplomatic heavyweight. South Africa’s government had hoped that Ms. Dlamini-Zuma would help give the African Union a more effective international voice. But other major African nations, like Nigeria and Kenya, had reservations about giving so much power to South Africa, and smaller nations fretted that their interests would be neglected. “There is considerable fear and resentment about South Africa’s role,” said Steven Friedman, a political analyst and director of the Center for the Study of Democracy, a research institution here. “There are very serious fears about being dwarfed.” South Africa had pulled out all the stops to lobby for the candidacy of Ms. Dlamini-Zuma, a highly respected government official who is also the former wife of South Africa’s president, Jacob Zuma. But neither she nor Mr. Ping, a senior diplomat and government official from the former French colony of Gabon, secured a two-thirds majority required to win. So the organization will hold a new election at its next meeting, in June in Malawi. Under African Union rules, neither Mr. Ping nor Ms. Dlamini-Zuma will be eligible to run for election then. The African Union was created a decade ago out of the ashes of the Organization of African Unity, a continental body that was often derided as a dictator’s club defending the prerogatives and excesses of Africa’s cold war-era strongmen. Thabo Mbeki, who was then South Africa’s president, hoped to revive the organization as part of what he called an “African Renaissance.” But the African Union has struggled to find a meaningful role, taking muddled stances on issues large and small. The organization has struggled to mount peacekeeping operations in Sudan — though it has made some headway with its operations in Somalia — and it has been inconsistent in responding to other crises on the continent. Mr. Ping faced harsh criticism last year for being slow to respond to the crisis in Libya. Until his ousting and death last year, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, Libya’s dictator, had been one of the African Union’s chief financial backers, a role now taken up by China, which built the organization’s $200 million headquarters.

African Union
Elections
Dlamini-Zuma Nkosazana
Ping Jean