AMID DEFECTIONS, ONE ALLY STANDS BY TRUMP: N.R.A.

Transcription

Late Edition
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VOL. CLXV . . . No. 57,321
© 2016 The New York Times Company
$2.50
NEW YORK, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
Wider Damage AMID DEFECTIONS,
Seen in Hack ONE ALLY STANDS
Of Democrats
BY TRUMP: N.R.A.
Fears of New Release of
Embarrassing Data AN UNLIKELY ALLIANCE
By ERIC LICHTBLAU
and ERIC SCHMITT
MAURICIO LIMA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Olympic Shooting Event (Selfie Division)
A sculpture of the Olympic rings on Copacabana Beach is a popular spot for spectators at the Rio Games. Page B9.
In Broken Iraq, Driven to Suicide by Pressure to Sell Medicine
to pursue sales at virtually any
A Nursery Fire
— in violation of Indian law,
Unethical and Illegal cost
medical standards
Kills 13 Infants INDORE, India — Leaving his Tactics at a Drug professional
and the company’s own ethics
By GEETA ANAND
and FREDERIK JOELVING
This article is by Falih Hassan,
Omar Al-Jawoshy and Tim Arango.
BAGHDAD — If there were one
safe place in Iraq, it should be a
hospital nursery, locked down for
the night with dozens of babies
nestled inside.
But here, not even that is a given. When a fire started late Tuesday night in the maternity wing of
one of Baghdad’s main hospitals,
it quickly engulfed the babies’
room. And then, in another Iraqi
tragedy in a horrifying line of preventable ones, nothing worked.
Hospital workers raced to save
the infants, but no one could find
the keys to unlock the nursery. Inexplicably, no nurses seemed to be
inside. Apparently, none of the fire
extinguishers functioned. It took
nearly an hour and a half for firefighters to arrive.
Some thought the initial cause
may have been an oxygen tank explosion that set off an electrical
fire. But on Wednesday morning,
only one thing was certain: At
least 13 infants were dead, and
with them a small piece of Iraq’s
future.
There was Yaman Muaad, a
baby boy born by cesarean section on Tuesday who died a few
hours later. There was Jafar Kahtan, a baby being treated for
breathing difficulties. There was
Zahra Hussein, a baby girl born on
Monday, whose grandfather was
frantically looking for her on
Wednesday.
Many more were still unaccounted for. And at least 25 people,
mostly infants, were being treated
for burns or smoke inhalation.
All Iraqi officials could manage
was what they typically do in the
Continued on Page A8
wife and two young children home
on a recent Sunday, a 27-year-old
salesman for Abbott Laboratories’ operations in India — in fact,
one of the American health care
company’s top performers there
— rode his motorcycle to a remote
railroad track and jumped in front
of a train.
In his pocket, a note in blue ink,
handwritten in a mix of Hindi and
English, said, “I’m going to commit suicide because I can’t meet
my company’s sales targets and
my company is pressuring me.”
Ashish Awasthi’s death last
month resonated across India and
through the halls of the health
care giant. More than 250 fellow
Giant in India
Abbott drug representatives in India walked off the job for a day,
protesting what some called the
company’s overly aggressive
sales policies. A national union of
drug sales workers called for new
government rules to rein in sales
practices industrywide, saying
they compromised patient health.
A six-month investigation by
The New York Times found that in
the push to win customers in India’s chaotic and highly competitive drug market, some Abbott
managers instructed employees
guidelines.
Sales jobs with global powerhouses like Abbott are highly
prized positions in India. But they
can also be extremely demanding,
putting employees under inordinate pressure to cut corners, according to interviews with more
than a dozen current and former
sales representatives and managers and a review of internal Abbott
communications provided by two
of them.
In one of the most common
practices, The Times found, Abbott managers told sales staff to
hold what the company called
health camps, where representatives would perform tests
Continued on Page B6
The Obama administration is
planning to remove a major roadblock to marijuana research, officials said Wednesday, potentially
spurring broad scientific study of
a drug that is being used to treat
dozens of diseases in states across
the nation despite little rigorous
evidence of its effectiveness.
The new policy is expected to
sharply increase the supply of ma-
WASHINGTON — A Russian
cyberattack
that
targeted
Democratic politicians was bigger
than it first appeared and
breached the private email accounts of more than 100 party officials and groups, officials with
knowledge of the case said
Wednesday.
The widening scope of the attack has prompted the F.B.I. to
broaden its investigation, and
agents have begun notifying a
long list of Democratic officials
that the Russians may have
breached their personal accounts.
The main targets appear to
have been the personal email accounts of Hillary Clinton’s campaign officials and party operatives, along with a number of
party organizations.
Officials have acknowledged
that the Russian hackers gained
access to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee,
which is the fund-raising arm for
House Democrats, and to the
Democratic National Committee,
including a D.N.C. voter analytics
program used by Mrs. Clinton’s
presidential campaign.
But the hack now appears to
have extended well beyond those
groups, and organizations like the
Democratic Governors’ Association may also have been affected,
according to Democrats involved
in the investigation.
Democrats say they are bracing
for the possibility that another
batch of damaging or embarrassing internal material could become public before the November
presidential election.
The attack has already proved
politically damaging. On the eve
of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia last
month, Representative Debbie
Wasserman Schultz resigned as
D.N.C. chairwoman after WikiLeaks released a trove of hacked
internal emails showing party ofContinued on Page A12
By NICK CORASANITI
and ALEXANDER BURNS
Donald J. Trump’s candidacy
has driven away throngs of Republican elected officials, donors
and policy experts. But not the
National Rifle Association.
With Mr. Trump increasingly
isolated and hobbled by controversies of his own making, the
powerful gun-rights group has
emerged as one of his remaining
stalwart allies in the Republican
coalition: the institution on the
right most aggressively committed to his candidacy, except for the
Republican National Committee
itself.
The association has spent millions of dollars on television commercials for Mr. Trump, even as
other Republican groups have
kept their checkbooks closed and
Mr. Trump’s campaign has not run
any ads of its own. The N.R.A.’s
chief political strategist, Chris
Cox, gave a forceful testimonial
for Mr. Trump at the Republican
convention; Mr. Trump has repeatedly praised Mr. Cox and the
association’s executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre.
And on Tuesday, when Mr.
Trump roiled the presidential race
anew with a rough comment — his
critics interpreted it as a suggestion that “Second Amendment
people” could attack Hillary Clinton or the judges she would appoint if elected president — the association rushed to defend his remark as no more than an attempt
to rally gun enthusiasts to vote in
November.
Allies of Mr. Trump and the association describe their political
alliance as a marriage forged out
of urgent necessity: an unlikely
pairing of a former gun-control
ELECTION
2 016
QUEST FOR SECURITY Shouldering her family’s financial burdens,
Hillary Clinton has appeared eager to make money. PAGE A13
CONTEXT FOR CONTACT A billionaire explains why he sought a State
Department contact through the Clinton Foundation. PAGE A12
No-Tolerance Tactics in Doubt
After Baltimore Police Rebuke
By TIMOTHY WILLIAMS
and JOSEPH GOLDSTEIN
ATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Gargy, Ashish Awasthi’s 7-year-old daughter, with a photo of her father, who died last month.
Obama Administration Will Lift a Barrier to Marijuana Research
By CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS
and MATT APUZZO
Gun-Rights Association
Spending Millions as
G.O.P. Donors Sit
rijuana available to researchers.
And in taking this step, the
Obama administration is further
relaxing the nation’s stance on
marijuana. President Obama has
said he views it as no more dangerous than alcohol, and the Justice Department has not stood in
the way of states that have legalized the drug.
For years, the University of
Mississippi has been the only institution authorized to grow the
drug for use in medical studies.
INTERNATIONAL A4-9
This restriction has so limited the
supply of marijuana federally approved for research purposes that
scientists said it could often take
years to obtain it and in some
cases it was impossible to get. But
soon the Drug Enforcement Administration will allow other universities to apply to grow marijuana, three government officials
said.
While 25 states have approved
the medical use of marijuana for a
growing list of conditions, includ-
ing Parkinson’s, Crohn’s disease,
Tourette’s syndrome, Alzheimer’s, lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, the research to back up
many of those treatments is thin.
The new policy could begin to
change that.
“It will create a supply of research-grade marijuana that is diverse, but more importantly, it will
be competitive and you will have
growers motivated to meet the demand of researchers,” said John
The Justice Department has
criticized a string of police departments nationwide for unfairly targeting blacks, but in its report on
the Baltimore police, issued Wednesday, it used its most scathing
language to date to denounce the
zero-tolerance policing approach
that has spread from New York to
many departments big and small.
The broken-windows style of
policing that New York evangelized with particular fervor during
William J. Bratton’s first term as
police commissioner is increasingly viewed more as a source of
tensions with minority communities than as a successful crimefighting strategy.
Taking up too much space on a
park bench in New York. Spitting
in public in Minneapolis. Moving
household goods at night in Atlanta. Focusing on small violations to
prevent bigger crimes has grown
into a cornerstone of policing over
recent decades.
But the Justice Department
found that critical elements of that
approach led to a breakdown in
GABRIELLA DEMCZUK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kevin Davis, the police commissioner in Baltimore.
A SENSE OF VALIDATION
A Justice Department report is a
wrenching moment of self-examination for Baltimore. Page A10.
police-community relations in
Baltimore and prompted a frenzy
of unconstitutional policing aimed
at African-Americans that was
more about racking up statistics
than reducing violent crime.
Baltimore’s “pattern of making
unconstitutional stops, searches
and arrests arises from its longstanding reliance on ‘zero tolerance’ street enforcement, which
encourages officers to make large
NATIONAL A10-16
BUSINESS DAY B1-8
THURSDAY STYLES D1-8
A Voter ID Rule Is Reinstated
At Fox News, Scandal Persists
Interior Motives
A federal appeals court prevented a
lower court from ordering Wisconsin to
allow registered voters to cast ballots
without photo identification. PAGE A10
More women have come forward to
describe a culture of intimidation and
misogyny under Roger Ailes, leaving
the embattled network on edge. PAGE B1
Staging a home is a favorite real estate
sales strategy, but one seller didn’t
recognize the place afterward. PAGE D1
NEW YORK A18-21
Amazon’s Passion for Drones
Recapture of ISIS Stronghold
Aide’s Text Says Christie Lied
Pro-government Libyan militias claim
to have seized Surt, the Islamic State’s
last stronghold in the country. PAGE A9
A text message accused Gov. Chris
Christie of lying about George Washington Bridge lane closings.
PAGE A18
Mining-Murder Scam in China
Trump Tower Climber Snared
Gangs have killed mining workers in
China and used the deaths to defraud
mine owners, the police say.
PAGE A4
A man’s ascent up Trump Tower became
a televised New York spectacle before he
was seized on the 21st floor.
PAGE A18
The online giant’s talk about drones
isn’t a gimmick, it’s part of a strategy to
transform the way packages are
shipped, Farhad Manjoo writes. PAGE B1
A Tech Checklist for Students
When it comes to computers, coffeemakers and other gadgets for students, making the right choices can be
tough.
PAGE B4
On the Scent Trail
ARTS C1-6
A New Kind of Smoke Break
Instead of pushing competitive buttons,
low-stakes games like Pokémon Go can
PAGE C1
feel like charming interludes.
As Louis Vuitton plots a return to the
fine fragrance market, Christian Dior
tries to strengthen its position. PAGE D2
EDITORIAL, OP-ED A22-23
Gail Collins
PAGE A23
The Poor Who Love Trump
“Hillbilly Elegy” offers a compassionate
look at the white underclass and the
politics of rebellion. A review. PAGE C1
U(D54G1D)y+%!%![!=!.
A2
THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
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Inside The Times
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MELANIE DUNEA
Veterans’ Saffron Start-Up
MADISON AVENUE 57TH STREET SOHO SHORT HILLS
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Afghanistan is not the easiest place to form a start-up. But that is what the four founders of Rumi Spice, a two-year-old company that deals in saffron, did. Above, Kimberly Jung, left, processing saffron in Herat, Afghanistan. Business Day, Page B1.
INTERNATIONAL
NEW YORK
SPORTS
Political Shift Has Poland
Reassessing Its Values
De Blasio May Be Vulnerable Wealthy Donors Endow
American Wrestlers in Rio
To Third-Party Bid in 2017
Many Poles are questioning
whether the European identity and
freedom that meant so much after
the fall of Communism hold the
same value today. Memo From
Poland. PAGE A4
A poll released by Quinnipiac University suggested that there may be
an opportunity for a Democrat
running as an independent against
Bill de Blasio in the 2017 mayoral
race. PAGE A20
QUOTATION OF THE DAY
OYSTER
PERPETUAL 31
Migrant Abuse on Nauru
Leaked documents reveal extensive
details about the harsh conditions
faced by asylum seekers who have
tried to reach Australia by boat and
are being held on the remote Pacific
island of Nauru. PAGE A5
Gay Egyptians Targeted
Since the 2013 military intervention
in Egypt, at least 250 lesbian, gay,
bisexual and transgender people
have been arrested in a quiet crackdown that has shattered what had
been an increasingly vibrant and
visible community. PAGE A6
Reversal on Nuclear Power
A city government in eastern China
said that it had halted any plans to
build a nuclear fuel plant there. The
reversal was the latest indication of
how public distrust could hold back
China’s plans for expanding its
nuclear power industry. PAGE A8
BUSINESS
Greek Debt Crisis
Remembered in Books
As the anniversary of Greece’s
bailout deal approaches, memoirs
and essays about that nation’s
economic crisis abound. PAGE B1
Bridgewater Settles Claim
The world’s biggest hedge fund,
Bridgewater Associates, said it had
resolved a harassment claim filed
against it by an employee who
recently left the firm. PAGE B3
Makeup, on the Screen
Beauty apps promise virtual
makeovers that let you try new
looks in seconds, using the smartphone’s front-facing camera and
screen. App Smart. PAGE B4
NATIONAL
Mayor’s Arrest Unsettles
A Struggling California City
rolex oyster and perpetual
are ® trademarks.
A string of episodes have placed the
mayor of Stockton, Calif. under
intense scrutiny, upending a community of nearly 300,000 people
that is already struggling to repair
wounds inflicted by violent crime
and the 2008 foreclosure crisis.
OBITUARIES
A fraternity of well-heeled former
wrestlers has endowed the sport
with rich payouts for American
medalists, like $250,000 for an
Olympic gold. PAGE B14
Investigating Green Water
Officials said that after extensive
tests, they had finally pinpointed
the reason two Olympic pools
turned green: a chemical imbalance
caused by too many people using
the water. PAGE B10
Women’s Soccer in Brazil
With the men’s soccer team looking
listless, the wheels of change are
turning in Brazil’s macho society as
fans express a respect for the
women’s game, and chagrin that it
took so long. Sports of The Times.
She was a tennis mom who founded
and directed the junior tennis tournament known as the Easter Bowl,
a leading testing ground for young
players on their way to college and
pro careers. PAGE A16
ARTS
Flashes of Excitement
Amid All the Darkness
To turn up, in Southern rap parlance, is to go over the top. For the
last two years, no hip-hop artists
have taken this idea as a mandate
more than the brothers Swae Lee
and Slim Jxmmi, who form Rae
Sremmurd, writes Jon Caramanica.
A Bond Onstage
MusiCorps Wounded Warrior Band
is a group whose members all lost
limbs on the battlefield. They’ve
relearned how to walk, how to
exercise, and they’ve learned how
to jam. PAGE C3
PAGE A16
Helen Delich Bentley, 92
Messaging President Obama
Two Women in Comedy
She was a former Maryland congresswoman who was an expert on
the maritime industry and a
staunch advocate for port improvements — so much so that the Port of
Baltimore was named in her honor
in 2006. PAGE A16
Rhea Butcher and Cameron Esposito, comedians and a real-life married couple, play versions of themselves in “Take My Wife,” which has
its premiere Thursday on the comedy streaming service Seeso. Television Review. PAGE C4
FRONT PAGE
NATIONAL
An article on Wednesday about
Donald J. Trump’s remarks about
Hillary Clinton and gun control
misidentified the position held by
Al Baldasaro, a New Hampshire
lawmaker who supports Mr.
Trump, and who recently said that
Mrs. Clinton deserved to face a firing squad over the use of a private
email server. Mr. Baldasaro is a
state representative, not a state
senator.
An article on Saturday about a
decision by the State Department
to suspend a teaching program in
Turkey misidentified the program
that was canceled. It is the Fulbright English Teaching Assistant
Program, not the Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant Program.
opment in a historic district of St.
Paul misstated the century in
which the Rayette building was
built. It was the early 20th century, not the early 19th century.
People have another way to send
notes, advice, criticism or well
wishes to President Obama, officials
at the White House said in announcing the opening of a Facebook
messaging account. PAGE A16
’’
CHUCK WEXLER,
executive director of the Police
Executive Research Forum, on
the zero-tolerance approach to
urban policing, which was
harshly criticized in a Justice
Department report on the
Baltimore police. [A14]
THURSDAY STYLES
PAGE B11
PAGE C1
Seena Hamilton, 92
‘‘
The dilemma for
police chiefs is how do you
impact crime in high crime
neighborhoods without
the overreach of violating
the rights of people who
have done nothing
wrong.
An Exalted Choreographer
Steps In Front of the Camera
Among choreographers, Tricia
Miranda was one of pop music’s top
movers and shakers. But that wasn’t enough. In an era when dance
has exploded thanks to social media, Ms. Miranda wanted to share
her dance moves, unfiltered, with
the rest of the world. PAGE D1
The Rhinestone Strategy
Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn are
stylists who have come to specialize
reading the minds of a certain sort
of star: women known as much for
their product lines and brand extensions as their music. PAGE D5
OP-ED
Nicholas Kristof PAGE A23
Crossword C3
Obituaries A16-17
TV Listings C6
Weather B16
Classified Ads B15
Commercial
Real Estate Marketplace B5
Corrections
An article on Wednesday about
a Justice Department report on
the Baltimore Police Department
misstated, in some editions, part
of the name of the organization led
by Scott Thompson, who commented on the report. It is the Police Executive Research Forum
(not Foundation). The article also
misstated the surname of the
president of the research forum in
some editions. He is Scott Thomson, not Thompson.
NEW YORK
An article last Thursday about
challenges awaiting James P.
O’Neill, the incoming New York
police commissioner, gave an incorrect date from city officials in
some editions for the date of his final interview with Mayor Bill de
Blasio. It was Saturday, July 30 —
not Sunday, July 31.
BUSINESS DAY
An article on the Square Feet
page on Wednesday about devel-
SPORTS
A chart on Aug. 1 about firsttime winners of all four golf major
titles misstated the surname of
the 1969 Masters champion. He
was George Archer, not Arthur.
THE ARTS
An opera review on July 30
Report an Error:
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1-844-NYT-NEWS
(1-844-698-6397).
Editorials: [email protected]
or fax (212) 556-3622.
Public Editor: Readers concerned
about “The Exterminating Angel”
by Thomas Adès, at the Salzburg
Festival in Austria, misidentified
the source of a set of variations
Mr. Adès wrote in the work. It is a
song from the Landino tradition of
Sephardic Jews, not a song by the
14th-century composer Landini.
A picture caption on Wednesday with a film review of “An Art
That Nature Makes: The Work of
Rosamond Purcell” carried an erroneous credit. The photographs
are by Rosamond Purcell/
BOND/360, not by Rosamond
Purcell/BOND & 360.
about issues of journalistic integrity
may reach the public editor at
[email protected] or (212) 5568044.
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N
.
TIFFANY T
Food and Exercise Studies
Have One Big Problem
BORN IN NEW YORK
By GINA KOLATA
Nearly everything you have
been told about the food you eat
and the exercise you do and their
effects on your health should be
met with a raised eyebrow.
Dozens of studies are publicized
every week. But those studies
hardly slake people’s thirst for answers to questions about how to
eat or how much to exercise. Does
exercise help you maintain your
memory? What kind? Walking?
Intense exercise? Does eating
carbohydrates make you fat? Can
you prevent breast cancer by exercising when you are young? Do
vegetables protect you from heart
disease?
The problem is one of signal to
noise. You can’t discern the signal
— a lower risk of dementia, or a
longer life, or less obesity, or less
cancer — because the noise, the
enormous uncertainty in the
measurement of such things as
how much you exercise or what
exactly you eat, is overwhelming.
The signal is often weak, meaning
if there is an effect of lifestyle it is
minuscule, nothing like the link
between smoking and lung cancer, for example.
And there is no gold standard of
measurement, nothing that everyone agrees on and uses to
measure aspects of lifestyle.
The result is a large body of
studies whose conclusions are not
reproducible. “We don’t know how
to measure diet or exercise,” said
Dr. Barnett Kramer, director of the
National Cancer Institute’s division of disease prevention.
His division is working on ways
to sort out inconsistencies in research used to generate health advice, hoping to improve what has
become a real mess: “You can ask
people how many times a week or
how many times a month they eat
bread or berries or ask them to
keep a diary of what they ate in
the last 24 hours.” But, he said, it
should be no surprise that people
misremember or give researchers
an answer they think makes them
sound good.
“I can’t remember what meals I
ate a week ago,” Dr. Kramer said.
“Now ask me what meals I had as
an adolescent, or how much I exercised.”
David Allison, director of the
nutrition obesity research center
at the University of Alabama at
Birmingham, says the same problems plague obesity research,
with only two things known with
certainty. All other things being
equal, if you eat more calories, you
will gain weight. And all other
things being equal, if you exercise
enough, you will lose a small
amount of weight.
Adding to the confusion is a cacophony of poorly designed re-
PHILIPP DORNBIERER
search, the tendency for different
researchers studying the same effect to use different measurements and report outcomes
differently, and researchers’ tendency to selectively report positive
or “interesting” results.
The result is what Dr. Kramer
calls whipsaw literature. “One
week drinking coffee is good for
you, and the next week it is lethal,”
he says.
The situation is so bad that
what gets published tends to be
what the scientists believe ahead
of time, says Dr. John Ioannidis, a
professor of medicine and of
health research and policy at
Stanford University’s medical
school. “There are so many nutrients and so many diets,” he said.
“So many outcomes — heart disease, cancer, stroke. What kind of
data do you collect? A follow-up at
two months, six months, two
years, 10 years? You end up having millions of choices.”
And the scientists get to pick
the one they want. “I can get you
any result you want in any observational data set,” he said.
There have been rigorous lifestyle studies, but they are few and
far between. A large diet study in
Spain found that a Mediterranean
diet, with fruits, vegetables, fish
and olive oil or nuts, decreased the
risk of heart attacks and strokes.
Two large federal studies looked
at a high-fiber diet but failed to
find evidence it protects against
colon cancer.
Then there are the seemingly
contradictory but well-done studies. One large federal study found
that — contrary to all assumptions — diet and weight loss did
not prevent heart attacks and
ONLINE: NEW AT THE UPSHOT
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strokes in people with Type 2 diabetes. Another large federal study
found that people at risk for Type 2
diabetes could stave it off by losing a modest amount of weight
and exercising.
A few years ago, two researchers decided to ask just how
crazy the cancer and diet literature was. They began with a cookbook, “The Boston CookingSchool Cookbook,” and randomly
selected recipes, listing the ingredients, until they had 50 distinct
ingredients. Then they did a literature search asking if those ingredients were associated with cancer.
Four out of five were linked to
cancer, the researchers reported,
either increasing or decreasing
the risk. Often the same ingredient that increased risk in one
study decreased it in another.
Those ingredients not associated
with cancer risk tended to be odd,
like terrapin, and had not been
studied by nutrition researchers.
But when the authors, Dr. Jonathan Schoenfeld, a radiation oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and Dr. Ioannidis,
looked at meta-analyses of the ingredients, which combined data
from all the studies, the effects
generally went away.
They titled their paper, “Is everything we eat associated with
cancer?”
That study is no surprise to a
group that puts together an authoritative guide, the Physicians
Data Query, for the National Cancer Institute. The group’s screening and prevention board wants to
make some sort of statement
about whether diet affects cancer
risk. But the studies are just so unreliable that it is hard to draw conclusions. The board’s feelings
about whether diet has any link to
cancer “are pretty consistently
negative,” said Dr. Donald Berry, a
biostatistician at M. D. Anderson
Cancer Center in Houston, who is
a member of the board.
“Were I to write a paper on the
subject, I might use this variant of
their title: ‘Is anything we eat
associated with cancer?’” Dr.
Berry said. “And my answer
would be ‘No. The preponderance
of the evidence is either negative
or unreliable and subject to falsepositive conclusions.’”
Some medical experts say the
problems with lifestyle studies are
so overwhelming — and the
chance of finding anything reproducible and meaningful so small
— that it might be best to just give
up on those questions altogether.
“They may not be worth studying,” said Dr. Vinay Prasad, a cancer researcher at Oregon Health
and Science University. “People
want certainty, but, boy, we have
no good answers.”
As for Dr. Kramer, he has not
given up on rigorous research.
What is needed at the point, he
says, is a little more humility
among researchers in interpreting and reporting the implications
of their own evidence.
Driving Smarter to Minimize Traffic Jams
By DAMON DARLIN
It’s summer, and more Americans are on the road. The crowded
road. So here are a few tips you
may never have learned or have
forgotten.
Some advice should be obvious,
like getting out of the left lane on
expressways if you are driving
well under the speed limit. (Some
states are cracking down on drivers who don’t understand this.)
And don’t slow down to look at
an accident or police car on the
side of the highway. What would
you hope to see? Just keep moving.
This is less obvious: Don’t
change lanes so much; studies
have shown it doesn’t pay off in
time saved. And don’t put yourself
in positions where you have to
brake so much.
Have you ever been in traffic
that slowed to a crawl? You assume there must be a bad accident
ahead — but sometimes when
traffic finally gets moving again,
there is no sign of trouble. What
most likely happened is that drivers had to brake either to be safe
or because they are bad drivers
who sped and then braked and
sped and then braked. This
caused the driver behind to brake,
and the person behind that driver
to brake.
Soon you have a peristaltic action for miles down the highway
as drivers touch their brakes.
Even a slight variation in speed
can do it, as Japanese scientists
discovered when they asked drivers on a closed-loop track to maintain their speed. Eventually there
was a jam.
Sometimes traffic slows because two lanes narrow to one.
This situation calls for a technique
known as zippering, or zipper
merging. You may call it cutting in
and cheating, but you have to get
over that. The goal is, again, maintaining speed with less braking.
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The Route 101 freeway in Los Angeles. Traffic is an inescapable feature
of modern life, but some driving techniques can minimize the pain.
Instead of trying to merge as
soon as signs warn of an impending lane drop, drivers should keep
using both lanes as long as possible, then remember an important
lesson from kindergarten: Take
turns. A few car lengths from the
lane ending, cars from each lane
should alternate in filling in the
open lane and resuming full
speed. Approaching the final
merging point, drivers should
leave even more space between
cars.
The nice people in Minnesota
made an extra effort to teach the
method to motorists there with a
video.
City driving has challenges of
its own. Like parking.
Anyone who hated having to
feed parking meters and carry a
pile of coins is grateful that cities
large and small have adopted
parking apps like Parkmobile or
Pango. You park; you let the app
that’s linked to your credit card
know you are there; and you go
about your business.
The downside? As cities removed meters, they eliminated
marked parking spaces. Cars are
no longer evenly spaced. On any
block it is easy to find half a car
length of wasted space behind a
parked car, and a similar half a car
length in front of it. Or even more.
This can happen when a mammoth Ford F350 pulls out and a little Fiat 500 pulls in. But sometimes it’s because it’s hard to know
how much space you need in front
and in back of you. Here’s the tip:
It’s not as much as you might
think. Thanks to a formula worked
out by a British mathematician,
we know it is about two and a half
feet in front and the same in back
for a typical sedan.
I won’t bother to tell you how to
parallel park. Eventually, automatic parallel parking will be
standard on all new cars.
Finally, the pet peeve of a pedestrian: It’s a right turn on red —
after a stop. (And in New York
City and some other locations, of
course, it’s illegal to turn at all on a
red light.) When they have the
crossing light, pedestrians have
the right of way over a giant hunk
of steel and glass. Few fatalities
are caused by drivers who forget
that second part, according to a
study, but still, be nice, even Minnesota nice.
PA U L M O R E L L I .C OM
895 M ADISON (72ND & M ADISON )
BERGDORF GOODMAN
212 . 5 8 5 . 4 2 0 0
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THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
MEMO FROM POLAND
As Political Crosscurrents Buffet Europe, Poland Assesses Its Values
By ALISON SMALE
WROCLAW, Poland — Mayor Rafal
Dutkiewicz of Wroclaw has presided
over city hall in the magnificent old
center since 2002. As he watches
Poland’s politics take a rightward and
nationalistic turn — a phenomenon
playing out to varying degrees across
much of Europe — Mr. Dutkiewicz, an
early supporter of Solidarity, cites
history ancient and modern to argue
that Europe is good for Poland.
“It makes everybody bigger,” he said
in an interview. “We don’t need to be
alone — we are Europe.”
In Poland, the biggest former Communist nation in the European Union
and NATO, the question is whether the
liberty and European identity that
meant so much to those who toppled
Communism carry the same value
today. The question applies especially
for young people with no memory of
divided Europe and Soviet bloc oppression.
The debate is playing out in various
ways across the country. It has a special resonance in Wroclaw, a city of
630,000 that brims with tourists, Polish
and foreign, and is home to more than
130,000 students. This year, it is a European capital of culture, a title bestowed
by Brussels on one or two cities each
year that brings publicity, hundreds of
millions of euros in subsidies and
scores of special events.
Two stand out for the mayor. One is
an exhibit honoring the city’s former
archbishop, Boleslaw Kominek, who in
1966 wrote a then-utopian vision of a
federal Europe that would bring peace
and prosperity and bury the bloodshed
of the past.
The second is the United Nations’
designation of a local medieval script,
the Book of Henrykow, as world heritage.
Building history is important in Central Europe, the scene of so many shifts
of fate and governance through the
centuries. So the mayor likens the
United Nations honor to an Oscar nomination for the manuscript, which he
said was written mostly in Latin by a
German monk who also penned the
first sentence written in Polish: a remark from a Czech peasant to his Polish wife.
That early multiculturalism is the
essence of a city like Wroclaw, until 1945
perhaps better known by its German
name, Breslau. It was one of the largest
cities to undergo population exchange
after World War II, with Germans
expelled and Poles brought in.
Krzysztof Mieszkowski, the director
of Wroclaw’s prominent avant-garde
theater, is quite clear about where he
sees Poland going and who is taking it
there.
He believes that Jaroslaw Kaczynski,
head of the governing Law and Justice
party, which won both presidential and
parliamentary elections last year, “likes
authoritarian rule and is in love with
dictatorship.”
Mr. Mieszkowski, who is also an
opposition lawmaker in Parliament,
added, “He has always been dreaming
about this.”
Critics inside and outside Poland say
Mr. Kaczynski, who holds no elected
office, and his camp have moved decisively to undo the constitutional court,
curb the news media, make abortion
harder to obtain, and fan a new chauvinism that could cause social conflict
and hurt one of Europe’s few vibrant
economies.
Already, Mr. Mieszkowski said, Poland “has lost the thing that is most
important for democracy, which is
thinking about civil society.”
Like Prime Minister Viktor Orban in
post-Communist Hungary, Mr. Kaczynski is depicted as a dictator by his foes.
In the view of his many supporters, his
government helps poorer Poles with
welfare subsidies and is rediscovering
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MACIEK NABRDALIK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Market Square,
above, in Wroclaw, a
city of 630,000.
Left, Wroclaw Racecourse, which dates
to 1907. This year,
Wroclaw has been
designated a European capital of culture, a European
Union label that
brings publicity,
special events and
hundreds of millions
of euros in subsidies.
vital national values when the notion of
a united Europe seems more distant
and less appealing.
Like governments across Central and
Eastern Europe, Poland’s has been
opposed to resettling substantial numbers of refugees from Syria and other
poor and war-torn nations, another
point of stress in its relations with
Brussels.
In some cases, toeing the new line in
Warsaw has involved a sharp shift in
standpoint. Mateusz Morawiecki, deputy prime minister and head of economic
development, led the Polish operations
of the Spanish bank Santander for eight
years.
Now, he is sounding the alarm about
globalization, suggesting that Poland’s
growth is stagnating and that Poles are
captives of uncontrollable foreign
forces that have condemned them to
worse wages and conditions than in
Western Europe.
“We have been in this model for 27
years,” Mr. Morawiecki told the Rzeczpospolita newspaper, dating these
developments back to 1989, when the
Solidarity movement triumphed over
Communism. “And that is why we have
reached the trap of medium development, the trap of low profit margin and
the trap of dependent development,” he
added. “We are, to an enormous extent,
dependent on foreigners.”
Similarly, Ryszard Legutko, a deputy
in the European Parliament for the Law
and Justice party, said the European
Union had lost political appeal and was
passing unfair judgment on Poland
because its government dared to defy
European institutions.
“Nowadays, when people say Europe, they do not mean Sophocles, or
Descartes, or Bach, or Roman law,” Mr.
Legutko said in a telephone interview.
“What they mean is a very particular
set of institutions,” a self-perpetuating
alphabet soup of bodies “more experienced in social engineering” than
groundbreaking thoughts.
In Wroclaw, Mayor Dutkiewicz
proudly showed photos with famous
visitors, including Vaclav Havel, the
former dissident and Czech president,
and Fritz Stern, the prominent GermanAmerican historian who fled Breslau
and the Nazis with his Jewish family in
1938. He settled in New York, where he
died in May.
When he turned 90 in February, Mr.
Stern sounded strong warnings about
democracy, Donald J. Trump and Europe’s slide rightward.
“I grew up with the death of a democ-
racy,” Mr. Stern told German television,
“and now I see democracy only in danger.”
“Democracy,” he added, “must be
defended.”
Certainly, Mr. Dutkiewicz concurred,
but first it “needs to be built, as well.”
Across town, Mr. Mieszkowski, the
theater director, was more strident.
“Polish democrats fell asleep,” he said.
“They forget that democracy is something that needs to be cultivated.”
Although Mr. Mieszkowski’s theater
and its sellout performances show that
Poland is no totalitarian society, he and
others compared the present to George
Orwell’s novel “1984.” The book has
special resonance in Poland because
that actual year fell during the Communist suppression of Solidarity, just after
two years of martial law.
For Mr. Kaczynski’s camp, the more
salient date is 2010. That April, his twin
brother, Lech, then president, was
killed with 95 others when their plane
crashed in Smolensk, Russia, en route
to a memorial for the Polish military
elites killed in the 1940 Katyn massacre.
Two investigations have found the
crash to be an accident. But the Kaczynski camp still sees a conspiracy by
a menacing Russia. The resulting narrative of beleaguered Poland fending
off foes to the Russian east and European west is “a best seller,” said a Warsaw media analyst, Jacek Wasilewski.
In the heart of old Wroclaw, the head
of the city’s small Jewish community,
Alexander Gleichgewicht, mulled today’s turmoil and what it signifies for
his 97-year-old father; his Norwegian
wife, Bente Kahan; and their globetrotting student children.
Developments include the possibility
that Poland will be treated as “a second-class country” where “a radical
element feels encouraged by the government,” Mr. Gleichgewicht said. For
now, he added, it is simply “a time of
ghosts, a time of redefinitions.”
Chinese Gangs Kill Drifters
In an Elaborate Mining Ruse
By CHRIS BUCKLEY
SHISUN VILLAGE, China — The
three miners befriended a lonely, luckless man and offered him work down an
iron mine in eastern China.
After working together for 10 days, the
three pushed a 220-pound boulder down
a steep tunnel, crushing the man to
death. They reported it as an accident.
Days later, three men and a woman
turned up at the mine, saying they were
the dead man’s relatives and demanding
compensation. The mine owner offered
them $110,000 if they agreed not to report
the death to officials.
Prosecutors and the police now say
that this death, in Shandong Province in
2014, was one of many in which a sophisticated network of grifters dispatched isolated, hard-up men, some
mentally impaired, and dressed up their
deaths as accidents to swindle compensation from mine owners.
The investigation led the police to
Shisun Village in southwestern China,
where mine murders for cash appear to
have become a cottage industry. Of the 74
suspects indicted in late May in 17
killings, up to 40 were from Shisun Village, prosecutors said. The police said
they were still investigating reports of 35
more possible victims.
But Shisun is not the only place where
such cases have cropped up.
A search of court judgments online
and news reports of court verdicts turns
up dozens of instances across China of
gangs killing vagrants and workers in
dark, isolated chambers far underground, and using the deaths to defraud
mine owners. There have been at least 34
such cases over the past two decades,
Caijing Magazine, a prominent business
weekly, estimated in June.
The allegations have prompted anguished debate across China about the
social and legal failings that led people to
make a living by murdering vulnerable
strangers, and fanned speculation about
whether the crimes were inspired by a
bleak cult movie with a similar plot.
Shisun is a hardscrabble, hollowed-out
farming village of 5,000 people nestled in
the corn-and-bamboo-covered hills of
Yunnan Province.
Many villagers work in factories and
on building sites in distant provinces,
leaving farming and child care to aging
parents and grandparents. Those who
GILLES SABRIE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The closed iron ore mine in Shandong Province, in eastern China, where the police say a man’s murder was disguised
as an accident. There have been at least 34 such cases over the past two decades in China, by one estimate.
THE NEW YORK TIMES INTERNATIONAL THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
A5
WHAT IN THE WORLD
Space-Age Food Product
Cultivated by the Incas
By SIMON ROMERO
What did the Incas and NASA
have in common?
They both faced the problem of
long journeys through harsh, forbidding territory. And remarkably, centuries before NASA’s
quest for ways to feed astronauts
in space, the Incas had already
found the answer.
Their empire ran up and down
the spine of the Andes, with a network of roads, terraced farms and
breathtaking mountaintop outposts stretching the same distance as Stockholm to Cairo. They
needed nourishing foods that
traveled well and could be stored
in bulk for a long time.
Enter chuño, one of the Incas’
discoveries that persists to this
day.
Chuño (pronounced CHOONyoh) is essentially freeze-dried
potatoes, developed by a culture
that had none of today’s food-processing technology. Villagers in
the altiplano, the high tablelands
of Bolivia and Peru, still make it
the way the Incas did, using the
warm days and frosty nights of
June to repeatedly freeze and
thaw the potatoes, and stomping
them with their bare feet to remove the skins and liquids. Chuño
Chuño is a staple that can be
stored and eaten for years.
can be stored and eaten for a decade after it has shrunken and
dried.
“It was the food that sustained
Inca armies,” said Charles C.
Mann, an author who has written
extensively on the Americas before the European conquest.
Chuño, largely unknown outside the Andes, takes a little getting used to. Newcomers who try
it often remark that it tastes nothing like a potato, likening its, um,
unusual flavor to Styrofoam or
chalk. What about the smell? It’s
better not to ask, though chuño’s
aroma has been compared to dirty
socks. It does win some style
points for its earthy appearance,
akin to truffles.
The descendants of the Incas
PHOTOGRAPHS BY JUAN KARITA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ramona Bustos walking barefoot on potatoes to create chuño, a freeze-dried Andean staple, near La Paz, Bolivia, in 2013.
still prize chuño, which is often
served spiced with ají, an Andean
chile. When money runs short to
buy canned foods, or there are no
llamas available to turn into jerky,
or the harvest from their farms
and gardens disappoints, Andean
families can always rely on chuño.
“This ability to store food is important in a region where periodic
droughts can destroy a year’s
crop,” said Clare A. Sammells, an
anthropologist who wrote an ode
to the often-shunned freeze-dried
staple. “Chuño provides the food
needed to survive.”
Leaked Documents Detail Abuse of Asylum Seekers Sent to Nauru by Australia
By AUSTIN RAMZY
Leaked documents published
Wednesday reveal extensive details about the harsh conditions
faced by asylum seekers who
have tried to reach Australia by
boat and are being held on the remote Pacific island of Nauru.
More than 2,000 incident reports, written by detention-center
staff members and published by
The Guardian, describe episodes
of violence, including sexual assault, and self-harm. Most of the
cases involved children, the newspaper said, although children
made up just 18 percent of the people in detention at the time of the
reports. The files extend from
May 2013 to October 2015.
While the difficult conditions in
the island nation have long been
known, the documentation will
give new evidence to opponents of
Australia’s policies toward asylum seekers.
Under those policies, migrants
who try to reach Australia by boat
without a valid visa are held offshore in Nauru and Papua New
Guinea. Even if given refugee status, they are prevented from resettling in Australia.
The Australian authorities say
such tough measures are necessary to discourage attempts to
make the risky voyages by sea,
which have sometimes ended in
mass drownings. The number of
attempted boat arrivals has declined sharply since the Labor
Party government of Julia Gillard
revived a program of offshore detentions in 2012, and the policy is
maintained today under Prime
Minister Malcolm Turnbull of the
conservative Liberal Party.
Human rights advocates and
some Australian politicians say
the policy is unnecessarily harsh
and puts vulnerable people at further risk of physical and mental
harm.
Among the episodes outlined in
the documents are multiple cases
of people cutting themselves; security officers propositioning and
harassing female detainees; and
one instance of an officer putting
his hand into a boy’s shorts during
a car ride. According to that report, the boy’s father, who was
also in the car, pulled the boy away
but did not say anything to either
of the two Nauruan officers
present for fear of their reaction.
The documents spurred renewed criticism of the detention
policy. “These files paint a disturbing picture of continuing
abuse on Nauru, especially abuse
of children,” Elaine Pearson, the
Australia director at Human
Rights Watch, said in a written
statement.
She said that just as revelations
of the abuse of juvenile detainees
in the Northern Territory of Aus-
tralia set off an investigation in
July, the Nauru leaks should
prompt steps to end the abuse of
people there.
Mr. Turnbull said at a news conference on Wednesday that Australia would “continue to support
the Nauru government to provide
for the health, welfare and safety
of all transferees and refugees on
Nauru.”
He added that the documents
would be reviewed to see whether
“there are any complaints there or
issues there that were not properly addressed.”
The Department of Immigration and Border Protection of Australia said all of the cases had been
forwarded to the Nauru police for
investigation. “The documents released this morning are historical
in nature and have been the subject of previous reporting by the
department in relation to the overall number of recorded incidents
over time,” the department said in
a written statement.
“It’s important to note many of
these incident reports reflect unconfirmed allegations,” it added.
Later Wednesday, a group of
former employees for the aid organization Save the Children who
had been stationed at Nauru when
the reports were written said in a
statement that many other reports from that period had apparently not been released. A former
teacher for the group, Jane Willey,
said the leaked material was “just
the tip of the iceberg.”
“The content of these reports
does not surprise us,” Alyssa Munoz, a former child protection
worker for the organization, said
in the statement, which was also
published by The Guardian. “It is
simply the documentation of the
extreme harm caused to children
that we saw every day.”
The former staff members, who
said they were not the source of
the leaks, have called for the offshore detention to end and for the
asylum seekers and refugees to be
transferred to Australia.
There are 442 people living in
the Australian-run processing
center at Nauru, according to the
most recent government figures
released at the end of June. More
than 500 other asylum seekers, including people who have been
granted refugee status, live outside the center on the eightsquare-mile island.
The asylum seekers come from
several countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Iran, Iraq,
Pakistan and Somalia. The program on Nauru cost Australia $314
million last year, according to Amnesty International.
Cambodia has taken a handful
of the refugees from Nauru, but
Cambodian officials have called
that initiative a failure.
A6
N
Putin Accuses Ukraine of Plotting Terrorist Attacks in Crimea
By IVAN NECHEPURENKO
MOSCOW
—
President
Vladimir V. Putin of Russia accused the Ukrainian government
on Wednesday of plotting terrorist
attacks in Crimea, and threatened
to respond. His Ukrainian counterpart called the accusations
“fantasies.”
Mr. Putin, speaking at the
Kremlin, said two Russian
servicemen had been killed while
confronting people he described
as the plotters.
“There is no doubt that we will
not let these things pass,” Mr.
Putin said in remarks broadcast
on state television.
“But I would like to turn to our
American and European partners,” he said. “I think it is clear
now that today’s Kiev government is not looking for ways to
solve problems by negotiations,
but is resorting to terror. This is a
very worrying thing.”
The Russian president accused
the
Ukrainian
intelligence
services of trying to stage attacks
in Crimea to distract attention
from their country’s economic
problems.
“The attempt to provoke violence, to provoke conflict is nothing else but the desire to divert
public opinion from the people
who captured power in Kiev, continue keeping it, and continue robbing its own people,” Mr. Putin
said. “This is a very dangerous
game.”
In denying Mr. Putin’s accusations, President Petro O. Poroshenko of Ukraine and his subordinates said they did not want to
forcibly reclaim the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed in
March 2014.
“These fantasies are just a pretext for another portion of military
threats against Ukraine,” Mr. Poroshenko said in a statement.
“It is Russia who has been generously funding and supporting
terrorism in the territory of
Ukraine for a long time and raising it to the level of its state policy,”
he said.
Ukraine’s United Nations ambassador,
Volodymyr
Y.
Yelchenko, called Russia’s accusations “completely groundless”
and said the timing echoed the
prelude to Russia’s fight with
Georgia exactly eight years earlier over the disputed breakaway
regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
“The scenario looks very similar,” he told reporters. “That’s why
we stand ready for any further
Rick Gladstone contributed reporting from New York.
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
BRENDAN HOFFMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ukrainian soldiers and an armored personnel carrier in Avdiivka, Ukraine, an area of fighting with Russian-backed rebels.
provocative developments.”
Tensions have been high recently in eastern Ukraine, as the
18-month cease-fire between government forces and Russianbacked insurgents has seriously
eroded.
Although the Kremlin has repeatedly accused Ukraine of not
putting the cease-fire into effect, it
was not immediately clear why
Mr. Putin had ramped up his message.
The deployment of Russia’s military to seize Crimea, as well as
Moscow’s support for the insurgents in the east, led Western
countries to impose economic
sanctions on Russia. Given its economic problems, Moscow has
been trying to distance itself from
the fighting in Ukraine in hopes
the sanctions will be lifted.
Even so, Mr. Putin has kept Russia embroiled in foreign conflicts,
not only with Ukraine but also,
more openly, in Syria.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Federal Security Service announced
that one of its agents and a Russian soldier had been killed recently in clashes with what it de-
scribed as Ukrainian forces in
Crimea who were planning to
carry out terrorist acts there.
A group of Ukrainian saboteurs
was discovered over the weekend
in the Crimean town of Armyansk,
near the disputed border with
Ukraine, the security agency,
In Kiev, suspicions
of a ‘pretext’ for
military action.
known as the F.S.B., said in a
statement on its website.
Homemade explosives, mines,
munitions and other weapons
used by Ukraine’s military were
discovered in the area, the statement said.
In another episode, the statement said, armed members of
Ukraine’s special forces made two
attempts to penetrate Crimea on
Monday morning, helped by
“massive shelling” from the
Ukrainian territory.
Residents had reported unusual
activity in that area of Crimea recently, including armed checkpoints.
The statement from the F.S.B.,
the successor agency to the Soviet-era K.G.B., said that a Ukrainian spy network had been dismantled and that several Russian and
Ukrainian citizens had been arrested. One was identified as
Yevgeny A. Panov, an employee of
Ukraine’s military intelligence
service.
“The aim of terrorist acts and
subversive actions was to destabilize the sociopolitical situation in the region ahead of federal
and regional elections,” the security agency said in the statement.
Mr. Panov’s friends said he had
been missing for three days, according to Vesti-ukr.com, a
Ukrainian news website.
Russia’s state-owned Rossiyskaya Gazeta newspaper reported that the alleged plotters
were planning to blow up the Simferopol-Yalta highway that runs
from the regional capital to resorts on the Black Sea.
Video footage of the F.S.B. oper-
ation, broadcast on Russia’s state
television, showed a backpack,
full of explosives, as well as multiple wires, scattered on the ground.
Russia closed checkpoints at
the Ukrainian border with Crimea
over the weekend, leading to speculation that Russia was concentrating heavy weaponry there. Internet providers said they had
blocked web access in northern
Crimea at the request of government officials.
In recent weeks, international
monitors from the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in
Europe have reported increased
tensions in Ukraine’s east, where
pro-Russian separatists have
been fighting the Ukrainian Army.
More than 9,500 people have
been killed since April 2014 in the
conflict in eastern Ukraine, the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said in a
statement last week.
The latest cease-fire, brokered
by Mr. Putin with leaders of
Ukraine, Germany and France,
came into effect in February 2015.
Each side has accused the other of
multiple violations.
Crackdown Drives Gays
In Egypt Back Into Hiding
By LIAM STACK
CAIRO — The last days of the
government of Hosni Mubarak
and the turbulent revolution that
followed were tense, occasionally
gut-wrenching times for many in
Egypt. But for gay and transgender Egyptians, it was also a period
of unaccustomed freedom.
They socialized in bars and
sidewalk cafes and met partners
over cellphone dating apps with a
greater degree of openness and
comfort than they had known.
But that era came to an abrupt
end with the return of military
rule.
Since the 2013 military intervention that established former
Gen. Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as the
country’s ruler, at least 250 lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender
people have been arrested in a
quiet crackdown that has shattered what had been an increasingly vibrant and visible community. Through a campaign of online surveillance and entrapment,
arrests and the closing of gayfriendly businesses, the police
have driven gay and transgender
people back underground and, in
many cases, out of the country.
Before the crackdown, “there
was no deliberate campaign of arrest and monitoring,” said Dalia
Abdel Hameed, a researcher at
the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. “But now the police
are going out of their way to arrest
gay men and trans women.”
Between the unraveling of the
Mubarak government and the
overthrow of Egypt’s first democratically elected president, Mohamed Morsi, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people faced
little threat from the police, who
were focused on other matters
and largely ignored what happened at house parties or bars in
Cairo’s crumbling, bohemian
downtown.
The crackdown began in
earnest when a military curfew
imposed after the removal of Mr.
Morsi ended in fall 2013, said Scott
Long, a human rights activist who
lived in Egypt for many years and
wrote a landmark report for Human Rights Watch on the last major crackdown.
At the time, control of Egypt’s
streets was passing from the
army, a relatively trusted institution, to the police, a hated symbol
of the Mubarak government.
“Somebody in the Ministry of
Interior realized this was a way to
Safari Guide
Is Accused
Of Killing
Kenya Tourist
get good publicity for the police,”
Mr. Long said.
The arrests signaled the return
of an aggressive approach by the
morality police division, which
has participated in a larger crackdown that has jailed tens of thousands of people since 2013. Using
tools last deployed in a campaign
against lesbian, gay, bisexual and
transgender people over 10 years
ago, the division has reasserted
the authority lost by the police before and during the revolution.
Other branches of the security
forces have also flexed their muscles since the return of military
rule, arresting protesters or
clamping down on unlicensed
street vendors, activists said.
“The police want to show they
have a strong grip on society,” Ms.
Abdel Hameed said. “So this is the
morality police having their own
campaign to arrest L.G.B.T. people.”
There is no law in Egypt
specifically banning homosexual
acts, so gay and transgender people are charged with “habitual debauchery” under a 1961 law that is
used to prosecute men for homosexuality and women for prostitution, Ms. Abdel Hameed said. So
far, the sentences have ranged
from two to 12 years.
The crackdown has primarily
targeted gay men and transgender women, some of whom have
been arrested in raids on private
homes or picked up on the street if
their appearances raised suspicions. (Transgender women are
usually prosecuted as men because the police, courts and news
media in Egypt, unlike those in the
West, make no meaningful distinction between gay men and
transgender women, activists
said.)
Most, however, have been arrested after officers entrapped
them on dating apps like Grindr,
which now greets its users when
they log in with a warning message about a possible police presence on the site.
Ms. Abdel Hameed said the police used the apps to flirt with people, engaging in sexual banter and
asking for risqué photos that
could be used as evidence in court
before asking them out on dates.
When the unsuspecting targets of
the stings arrive for the dates,
they are swiftly arrested.
This is not the first time these
tactics have been used against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgen-
NAIROBI, Kenya — In the
vaulted dining room of the Keekorok Lodge, guests gathered Monday night for a feast overlooking
one of the most spectacular vistas
in Africa: the game-studded Masai Mara National Reserve.
Suddenly an argument broke
out at one of the tables, apparently
over who was going to sit where.
The authorities said an enraged
Chinese safari guide whipped out
a pocketknife and sank it into the
chest of a Chinese tourist, killing
her.
On Wednesday, Kenyan police
officials said they were holding
the safari guide, whom they identified as Li Changquing, 47, a Chinese citizen who speaks little English but decent Swahili, on suspicion of murder.
“I won’t say we are surprised —
we are shocked,” said Abdi Jillo
Galgalo, a Kenyan police commander. “This is a place where
you go to relax with the family and
leave the stress behind. We’ve
never heard of anyone even slapping someone out here.”
The Masai Mara reserve is one
of Africa’s brightest jewels. It is an
undulating sheet of wavy grass
and thorn trees covering hundreds of square miles, home to lions, leopards, cheetahs, rhinos,
zebras, elephants, gazelles, vultures, crocodiles and hippos.
At this time of year, it also hosts
thousands of tourists. They flock
in from all corners of the world to
witness the “Great Migration,”
when an estimated 1.5 million
wildebeests and zebras trudge
across the Masai Mara in seemingly endless herds looking for
fresh grass to eat, while being
stalked by lions and other
predators.
Mr. Galgalo said that he had
spoken to the assailant.
“He looks like somebody who
has a lot of anger,” Mr. Galgalo
said, adding that the assailant was
“strong and stout” and did not
show much emotion.
The Kenyan authorities said
that Mr. Li also attacked the victim’s husband, who remains hospitalized with stab wounds to his
stomach. They said that members
of the Keekorok Lodge staff
rushed to stop Mr. Li before he
could kill him.
Mr. Li, who the Kenyan authorities said was a professional safari
guide who had been in the country
for several years, is being held in a
jail in Narok, a town near the Masai Mara. The reserve is about a
six-hour drive west of Nairobi, the
capital.
Australia Stops
ACensus Effort
After Attacks
By AUSTIN RAMZY
NARIMAN EL-MOFTY/ASSOCIATED PRESS
A gay Egyptian in Cairo. Since 2013, at least 250 gay and transgender people have been arrested
in a crackdown that has shattered what had been an increasingly visible community.
HASSAN AMMAR/ASSOCIATED PRESS
There is no law in Egypt specifically banning homosexual acts,
so charges are labeled “habitual debauchery” under a 1961 law.
der people in Egypt. A crackdown
that began in 2001 is still remembered for a raid on the Queen Boat,
a nightclub where the police arrested dozens of men accused of
being gay. Their trials dominated
Egypt’s headlines for months and
sent a wave of terror through gay
circles.
“There was the Queen Boat and
its aftermath, then there was our
normal life, and now this is the
biggest crackdown after the
Queen Boat,” Ms. Abdel Hameed
said.
Perhaps the crackdown’s greatest physical manifestation is in the
proliferation of police checkpoints
in downtown Cairo and the clos-
ings of cafes and other businesses
that were gathering spots for
activists, intellectuals and gay
people during the heady days of
political upheaval.
One 24-year-old gay man, who
asked to be identified by only his
middle name, Ali, for fear of arrest, said the police campaign had
devastated his community.
“Everything leads to getting arrested,” Ali said. “The huge threat
is being arrested or losing your
friends to prison, because after
the failed revolution there was a
huge crackdown on the downtown
community, especially. This is my
community, and it is being destroyed.”
Many gay and transgender people who are able to leave the country have done so or still hope to,
Ali said, adding that he wanted to
move to Europe or North America. “I am running out of friends
because they are all being arrested or they are leaving Egypt,”
he said.
The police also seize detainees’
phones and “search their data to
find others,” Ms. Abdel Hameed
said. When they find them, they
often torture them to produce lists
of gay friends and former sex
partners. Detainees are also subjected to forced anal examinations, a form of torture that the
police believe can prove if a person has engaged in homosexual
conduct, a contention that Egyptian jurists have said is false.
Mr. Long said that online entrapment had become especially
effective in the last two years, because the shutdown of gayfriendly spaces had left many with
no place to go.
“There aren’t many queer
places left in downtown or in the
rest of the city, so people become
more reliant on apps and social
networks,” he said. “People are
lonely and they meet someone
who seems like they’re interested,
and bang, they’re arrested.”
Ali agreed that despite the dangers, the internet was one of the
few public spaces left for gay and
transgender people.
“There is no other way,” Ali said.
“It is Egypt.”
Australia has halted online collection of national census data after a website where citizens could
upload information was subjected
to repeated cyberattacks.
The Australian Bureau of
Statistics said its website had experienced four denial-of-service
attacks, in which a torrent of automated requests is sent to overwhelm a site. The last attack, just
after 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, contributed to the overloading of a
router, which led to the decision
that night to close down online
data gathering.
The census, which occurs every
five years, has been the subject of
intense criticism and questions
this year over whether the introduction of online data collection
could leave Australians’ personal
information at risk.
Australian officials said on
Wednesday that the census system had not been infiltrated and
that no data had been compromised. Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull said he had been given
“unequivocal advice” from government agencies on the safety of
citizens’ filings. “The site has not
been hacked. It has not been interfered with,” he said at a news conference. “Their data is safe.”
Officials did not describe the
source of the attack, but they said
it appeared to have been intended
to disrupt the census process.
Alastair MacGibbon, the prime
minister’s special adviser on
cybersecurity, said it was an attack common to government systems. “A denial of service is not a
breach. It’s not designed to take
data,” he said. “A denial of service
is designed to frustrate.”
Senator Nick Xenophon, an independent, and at least five
Greens party senators had said
earlier that they would not put
their names on their census filings, to protest the data gathering
and storage methods. Failing to
complete census forms in Australia is punishable by fines, but Mr.
Xenophon said he was willing to
be a test case to raise questions
about information security.
N
A7
A8
N
Chinese City Backs Down on a Nuclear Fuel Plant Drifters in China Killed
In an Elaborate Ruse
By CHRIS BUCKLEY
BEIJING — Bowing to days of
passionate street protests, a city
government in eastern China said
Wednesday that it had halted any
plans to build a nuclear fuel plant
there. The reversal was the latest
indication of how public distrust
could hold back China’s ambitious
plans for expanding its nuclear
power industry.
The government of Lianyungang, a city near the coast of
Jiangsu Province, announced the
retreat in a terse message online.
“The people’s government of
Lianyungang has decided to suspend preliminary work for selecting a site for the nuclear cycle
project,” it read, referring to a proposed plant for reprocessing used
fuel from nuclear plants.
No reason was given, but it appeared clear enough. In recent
days, residents have taken to the
streets to oppose any decision to
build the plant nearby. The main
urban area of Lianyungang is just
20 miles southwest of a large and
growing nuclear power plant on
the coast, but the idea of a nuclear
fuel reprocessing facility also being built in the area seemed to
push public unease to a new
height.
A 21-year-old Lianyungang resident with the surname Tang said
Wednesday that demonstrators
had been chanting “Oppose nuclear waste, defend our home.” Like
other people contacted there, she
did not want her full name used,
citing fear of reprisal for talking to
reporters.
“Nobody wants this kind of
Adam Wu contributed research.
thing built in their own home,” Ms.
Tang said.
China’s authoritarian leaders
are wary of local protests escalating into broader challenges to
their power. But local governments have often given ground in
the face of growing public opposition to chemical plants, waste incinerators and other potential
sources of pollution. Now proposed nuclear projects are also
becoming increasingly troublesome.
“While the Chinese govern-
Bowing to the
thousands of people
who had taken to the
streets in protest.
ment does not hesitate to arrest
the few political dissidents, it
spends more time and energy to
appease public demands,” Wenfang Tang, a professor of political
science at the University of Iowa,
who studies public opinion and
politics in China, said in emailed
comments.
“The high level of government
sensitivity and responsiveness to
public opinion further encourages
political activism in Chinese society,” Professor Tang said. “The
louder you are, the more quickly
the government will respond.”
In Lianyungang and across
China, the nuclear calamity in
Fukushima, Japan, in 2011 has
hardened public wariness of nuclear power, although the government argues that expanding the
industry is essential for weaning
the economy off coal, with all of its
dangerous pollutants.
The biggest protest in Lianyungang took place on Saturday,
when many thousands of people,
including families with children,
marched through the downtown
area.
Despite warnings from the government, protests continued on a
smaller scale this week, as
residents defied ranks of riot officers with shields, according to
news reports and video that people shared through social media.
“I told my daughter that she
must go to this protest,” one resident said, according to Sixth Tone,
an English-language news website based in Shanghai. “With every extra person, the momentum
will get bigger.”
The announcement does not
mean the nuclear fuel-reprocessing proposal is dead. The project is
a collaboration between the China
National Nuclear Corporation and
a French company, Areva, and it
has high-level government support, although no final agreement
to build it has been signed. Five
other Chinese provinces are under consideration for the initiative, and Lianyungang could lift
its suspension. The two companies have said that they want to
start building in 2020 and finish by
2030.
But in China, suspensions of
contentious projects have a way of
quietly turning into permanent
cancellations, and Lianyungang
appears likely to follow that pat-
tern. The big question now will be
whether
public
opposition
coalesces in the five other areas
under consideration.
All but one — Gansu Province in
the northwest — is a heavily populated coastal province. Gansu is
already home to China’s first civilian nuclear reprocessing plant, a
small facility that has been held
back by technical problems.
In 2013, officials jettisoned plans
for a nuclear fuel fabrication plant
in the southern province of
Guangdong after protests. Preliminary proposals to build nuclear power plants inland have also
ignited intense opposition.
The Chinese government has
said that as it expands its fleet of
nuclear power plants, it needs a
plant for reprocessing spent fuel,
a practice that separates unused
plutonium and some uranium
from waste. That unused material
could be used to generate power,
but critics have warned that the
plutonium could be deployed for
weapons. Japan has also built a
full-scale reprocessing plant, but
it has not started up yet.
On Chinese social media, and
even on news websites, commentators said that the contention in
Lianyungang showed that the
public should have a bigger say in
nuclear energy planning.
“In just a few days, the official
stand of Lianyungang has undergone a sea change,” read a comment on Sohu.com, a Chinese
news website. “Don’t underestimate just how determined the
public is in opposition to nuclear
waste, which is far more dangerous than wastewater from any paper pulp mill.”
SABAH ARAR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
Incubators scorched in the nursery fire outside Yarmouk hospital on Wednesday in Baghdad. The Iraqi state is still dysfunctional.
In a Broken Iraq, a Nursery Blaze Kills 13 Infants
From Page A1
face of tragedy: establish a committee.
“A committee has been formed
to investigate the incident, and so
far we don’t know the reasons of
the incident,” Dr. Ahmed alHadari, a spokesman for the
Health Ministry, said at a news
conference on Wednesday. “We
are awaiting the results of the investigations.”
After years of unsolved tragedy
and unanswered demands for improvements, hardly anyone here
believes official promises anymore.
“Such tragedies have become
normal to Iraqi officials, and this
case will be closed, just as the
other ones,” said Adnan Hussein,
the acting editor in chief at Al
Mada, one of Baghdad’s daily
newspapers.
In their agony and tears as they
gathered outside Yarmouk hospital on Wednesday morning, families of the dead babies were inconsolable. Some even made accusations of arson, though there
was no evidence to support that
claim.
“There was screaming,” said
Mariam Thijeel, the mother of Yaman, describing the scene at the
hospital early Wednesday. “The
power was cut off, and then the
doors got locked on us, and there
was no man in the newborn section, and we could not save any babies.”
She described a scene of panic
and chaos, and said that people in
the hospital had tried desperately
to find someone with keys to the
hospital wing that was on fire, the
doors of which were locked. “We
asked the help of one of the
employees, but she said, ‘I cannot
help you with anything, because
it’s a fire,’” Ms. Thijeel said.
Zainab Ali, Jafar’s mother, said:
Falih Hassan and Omar Al-Jawoshy reported from Baghdad,
and Tim Arango from Istanbul.
KARIM KADIM/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Families of the newborns killed in the hospital nursery blaze
gathered outside the maternity ward on Wednesday.
“Today I have come to see him and
I was told, ‘A fire happened in the
newborn unit, and your baby
died.’ ” She said she had heard that
none of the fire extinguishers
worked.
A third mother, Shayma Husain,
came to the hospital looking for
her infant son, Haider Mohammad Azeez, who had not been accounted for. Angry and tearful,
she compared the leaders of the
government-run hospital to the
militants of the Islamic State —
saying, in effect, that politicians
and terrorists were both responsible for Iraq’s endless trauma.
Painful reminders of the Iraqi
state’s degradation are all around.
The United States spent tens of
billions of dollars of reconstruction money in Iraq to build hospitals and schools and improve electricity. Yet the lights are on just a
few hours a day from the public
grid. Generators, if Iraqis can afford them, provide the rest. Hospitals are facing deprivation not
seen since the economic sanctions
of the 1990s, in part because plummeting oil prices have left the government impoverished in the middle of a war against the Islamic
State.
“The structure of the system of
the state is wrongly built, and
there is no seriousness in building
state institutions,” said Ahmed
Saadawi, a prominent writer who
chronicled Baghdad’s tragedies in
his prizewinning novel, “Frankenstein in Baghdad.”
Many Iraqis say the state’s dysfunction is caused by a political
system the Americans helped establish that is based on sectarian
quotas. People are given jobs in
ministries based on patronage
and sect, not competence, and corruption is rampant.
And then bad things happen,
like a fire breaking out in a hospital maternity ward and terrorists
driving car bombs through checkpoints staffed by police officers
with fake bomb detectors.
“We have good medical competence and good doctors, but there
are problems and defects in the
state
administration,”
Mr.
Saadawi said. “They always put
the wrong people in the important
places.”
The last big news out of Iraq
was a devastating truck bomb last
month in Baghdad that killed
close to 300 people, the worst terrorist attack in the capital since
the American invasion of 2003.
The bombing set off an inferno
that engulfed a shopping mall
where families and young people
were celebrating one of the last
nights of the holy month of Ramadan — eating with friends, shopping, watching a big soccer game
on television.
In that attack, many more died
from the fire than from the bomb
blast, and in the aftermath officials
blamed
poor
safety
procedures and a lack of fire exits
for the number of deaths.
Like the bombing, the fire at the
hospital would probably have
been less deadly had the government put in place adequate safety
measures or responded sooner.
“I was at the incident today and
saw the disaster with my own
eyes,” said Mohammed al-Rubaie,
a member of the security committee on Baghdad’s provincial council. “There was clear negligence
from the administration of the
hospital, and there were no safety
measures.”
There were no protests in Baghdad on Wednesday as there were
after last month’s terrorist attack,
only muted outrage and a tragic
sense of familiarity.
One man, Mohammed Sameer,
wrote on Facebook, “A crime after
a crime, death followed by death,
and the government keeps silent.”
He added, “Oh my God, what a
big crime today.”
There was also the usual violence on Tuesday and Wednesday,
the sort that has long been a feature of the city’s routines. According to the Interior Ministry, a suicide car bombing at a checkpoint
in the neighborhood of Dora killed
four soldiers and injured 11 people;
a roadside bomb killed four people
at a public market in the
Nahrawan district; and a suicide
bomber killed four soldiers in the
Rasheed district.
As Mr. Hussein, the newspaper
editor, put it: There is “no safe
place in Iraq at all.”
From Page A4
stay behind often live in crumbling homes of mud and wood.
But on the main street, rows of
three-story concrete houses suggest budding prosperity.
Wang Fuxiang owns one of
those houses, as well as a restaurant in a nearby city. With his dapper suits and loud, casual wear,
the kind seen more often on suburban golfers than on dirt farmers, Mr. Wang, 39, appeared to be
among the lucky few who had escaped the hard life.
But it did not go unnoticed that
Mr. Wang and several other villagers would abruptly disappear
for days, weeks or months, and return flush with cash, which they
often squandered on gambling
binges, neighbors recalled. Some
thought the men might be selling
drugs.
“He never told me what he did,”
said Mr. Wang’s daughter, Hu Yun,
17. Nor, apparently, did she try to
pin him down on the question.
About two years ago, she
started to sense that something
was amiss. “I began to get the feeling that there was something not
right about the way he’d been
making money,” she said recently
in an interview at her home.
A middle-aged farmer who
lived nearby was blunter. Asking
that his name not be used for fear
of recriminations, he wrote a letter in case he was ever asked
about the cases, which said,
“There are eight homes in this little village that have been built
from human blood.”
The mystery began to unravel
two years ago, when the Yunnan
police received an anonymous
message saying that the man
killed in the Shandong iron mine
had been working under another
man’s identity. (The victim’s real
identity, if it has been determined,
has not been announced.) Another mine killing late that year in
Inner Mongolia, a region of northern China, also left clues pointing
to Shisun Village and nearby areas.
Detectives
descended
on
Shisun and began questioning villagers. What they found were organized gangs devoted to serial
killing for cash.
Some participants recruited
and killed the victims, having won
their cooperation by promising
good wages, friendship, even marriage. Others posed as the grieving family members who turned
up at the mine to demand compensation, the police have said.
The gangs disguised the identities of their victims, using stolen
or bought identity papers that
they persuaded or tricked victims
into using, ensuring that their real
families would not learn of their
fate. Most victims were quickly
cremated by their fake families,
making identification even harder
and erasing clues about their
deaths.
Discovery is further complicated because the families of marginalized drifters are unlikely to
file a missing-person report. Even
if they did, they would be unlikely
to know when or where the men
had last been seen alive — or
when simply being out of touch
had turned into their being missing or dead.
The other side of the equation
that kept the business humming is
the mine owners, who paid handsome sums to the impostor families in order to keep the deaths
quiet. If a fatal accident were reported, the owners feared, safety
regulators would shut down the
mine for months while they investigated, several mine owners told
the police after the killings came
to light.
If these killings sound like the
plot of a thriller, that may be no coincidence.
A similar case inspired the 2003
film “Blind Shaft,” a Chinese
drama about two men who kill fellow miners for their compensation. In what seems to be an endless loop of life imitating art imitating life, some officials have said
that the movie became an instruction manual for the recent killings.
Adam Wu contributed research.
“Some viewers saw the film
‘Blind Shaft’ and found a way to
get rich,” the township government that oversees Shisun Village
said in a notice posted outside the
village committee office. “The culprits showed no compassion at all
for life, and in particular kin and
friends who were mentally impaired became assets used to
make money.”
The movie’s director, Li Yang,
dismissed as “ridiculous” the idea
that suspects in isolated corners
of the countryside had seen his
film. Because of its grim plot, the
Chinese authorities banned the
film before it was released, and it
has rarely been seen except by urban film enthusiasts. Even Mr. Li
had difficulty tracking down bootleg DVDs of it, he said.
Still, many people have heard of
the movie, and when the cases
started coming to light, they were
immediately described as “Blind
Shaft killings.”
Similar cases first entered China’s national consciousness in the
late 1990s, when a gang with
dozens of members was convicted
of killing 28 migrant workers in
Shanxi Province. Those killings
inspired the movie, Mr. Li said.
Since then, the Blind Shaft
scheme has been firmly implanted in the national psyche of a
country peppered with thousands
of notoriously dangerous mines.
Most likely, the Shisun gang heard
of it by word of mouth.
According to available court
records, the pace of such killings
appears to have picked up in recent years, possibly because compensation payments have grown.
As China’s regulators have
clamped down on mine safety,
driving down the number of accidents, the stricter regulation has
perversely encouraged some
mine operators to hide fatalities
and pay off victims’ families, in-
Asking whether a cult
movie with a similar
plot has inspired
killings.
creasing the incentive to carry out
the crimes.
In 2011, nine men from Leibo
County in Sichuan Province were
convicted of similar crimes, and
the police said gangs from there
had committed at least 20 murders in mines. In 2014, 21
defendants were convicted in
Handan, northern China, of killing
four migrant workers in faked
mine accidents. Last year, 10 men
were convicted in the Ningxia region of killing five people in the
same way.
The recent killings have veered
from the movie version in at least
one conspicuous way. In the movie, the killers extorted 30,000 renminbi, or about $4,475 at today’s
rates, in hush money for one
death. The Shisun Village gangs
extracted payments of $75,000 to
$120,000 from mine bosses, according to news reports.
If he were to remake the film today, Mr. Li said in a telephone interview, “it wouldn’t have anything different, except the
amounts of money scammed
would be larger and the perpetrators would be gangs.”
The charges against the Shisun
suspects include homicide, faking
accidents, swindling compensation, fraud and hiding crimes,
though the police have not said
publicly who is being charged
with what.
Long prison terms, and death
sentences for the ringleaders, are
likely, if similar cases are a guide.
Chinese courts almost invariably
convict, and the suspects have not
been allowed to publicly answer
the charges.
Mr. Wang was arrested early
last year. His daughter, Ms. Hu,
now acknowledges that he may
have innocent blood on his hands.
“I think he did do something,
but I don’t blame him,” she said.
“He was doing it so that we could
live a better life.”
Watch memorable
TimesTalks programs
on YouTube.
YOUTUBE.COM/TIMESTALKS
N
A9
U.S.-Backed Militias in Libya Claim to Take Surt, an Islamic State Stronghold
By ROD NORDLAND
CAIRO — Pro-government
Libyan militias backed by American air power said Wednesday
that they had seized the Islamic
State’s last stronghold in the country, in the seaside city of Surt.
If confirmed, the capture would
be a severe blow to the militant organization’s expansion into North
Africa, and extend the string of
territorial retreats it has suffered
this year in Syria and Iraq.
Militia announcements quoted
by Libyan news agencies and television outlets said the militia
fighters were still hunting remnants of the Islamic State forces
hiding in residential neighborhoods in Surt.
But the militias claimed to have
taken the heavily fortified Ouagadougou Center, which the Islamic State had used as its headquarters.
In a statement broadcast on
Misurata TV, a station based in the
nearby city of Misurata, Mohamed al-Ghassri, a spokesman
for the attacking militia force, said
that the Ouagadougou Center and
a nearby hospital had been captured.
Al-Ahrar TV, a Libyan broadReporting was contributed by Declan Walsh, Rukmini Callimachi
and Rick Gladstone from New
York, Helene Cooper and Eric
Schmitt from Washington, and Aurelien Breeden from Paris.
caster, posted on its Twitter account photos of what appeared to
be triumphal fighters outside the
center posing with their flag.
The center was heavily fortified, with underground bunkers
and fortifications dating from the
era of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi,
the longtime leader of Libya overthrown nearly five years ago.
The Islamic State’s loss of Surt
would signify the culmination of a
summer-long offensive by militias
from Misurata, under the auspices of the Government of National Accord, the Tripoli-based
authority backed by the United
Nations.
It comes against the backdrop
of other military setbacks for the
Islamic State, which once held
wide areas of Syria and Iraq but
has been forced to relinquish territory in recent months. Iraqi forces
retook control of the city of Falluja
from the Islamic State in June.
The Syrian Army, backed by Russia, expelled the Islamic State
from the ancient city of Palmyra in
March. Syrian insurgents and
Kurdish militias, including some
American-backed factions, have
been squeezing Islamic State
positions in northeast Syria near
Raqqa, the organization’s headquarters.
Over the last 10 days, the
militias fighting the Islamic State
in Libya have been supported by
heavy American airstrikes, using
drones based in Jordan. The
GORAN TOMASEVIC/REUTERS
Libyan forces during a battle with Islamic State fighters in Surt
last month. Its capture would be a severe blow to the militants.
United States Africa Command
has reported 28 airstrikes from
the beginning of that campaign,
Aug. 1, to Monday.
The Islamic State, also known
as ISIS or ISIL, had held Surt for
the past year. Its occupation of the
city represented the organization’s most brazen expansion from
its power bases in Iraq and Syria.
While the American military
did not specify exactly where its
airstrikes had been aimed, it is believed that they were concentrated in and around Surt. The
militias’ offensive against the Islamic State had reduced the area
they controlled from 150 miles of
coastline to the area immediately
around the city.
The birthplace of Colonel
Qaddafi, Surt is also where the
Libyan dictator was killed by antigovernment militia fighters in
2011.
Officials at the Pentagon said
they could not confirm that the Islamic State’s headquarters in Surt
had fallen, but one senior official,
speaking on condition of anonymity under military rules, said
he had no reports suggesting the
militia claims were untrue.
Libya’s hodgepodge of militias,
answering to three different factions claiming to control the coun-
try, have often been prone to exaggerated claims.
Pro-militia factions also reported that a Libyan Air Force
warplane had been shot down by
Islamic State fighters in Surt on
Wednesday.
The territory seized by the Islamic State in Libya had been considered the most important of the
group’s overseas wilayats, or
provinces.
As early as October 2014, extremists in the Libyan city of Darnah pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, and a month later, the
Islamic State leader, Abu Bakr alBaghdadi, named Libya as one of
the group’s official provinces.
That province was eventually
centered in Surt, which became
the axis of the Islamic State’s
power in Libya.
The organization sought to give
its Libya province the trappings of
a state, modeled after the one it
was trying to run in Iraq and Syria. Early on, senior Islamic State
members arrived by boat to help
administer the territory, creating
a degree of connective tissue that
has mostly been lacking in other
areas the group has seized.
The Islamic State set up offices
mirroring those in Syria, including a media office, which put out
content tailored to a Libyan audience, according to Aymenn Jawad
al-Tamimi, a research fellow at the
Middle East Forum.
The production techniques
used
in
execution
videos
produced in Libya were so similar
to ones emerging from Syria that
some experts theorized that the
Islamic State must have dispatched a cameraman from Syria
to Libya to achieve that congruence.
The latest developments in Surt
came as the Government of National Accord has been struggling
with other resilient threats to
A defeat, if confirmed,
would add to a string
of territorial retreats
this year.
Libya’s frail stability. Fears have
risen that militias in eastern Libya
that have refused to recognize the
government could attack the
Zueitina oil export terminal,
where Libya petroleum officials
hope to resume disrupted shipments.
The governments of France,
Britain, Spain, Germany and the
United States on Wednesday issued a statement expressing
“concern at reports of increasing
tension” near Zueitina and supporting the government’s efforts
to “resolve the disruptions to
Libya’s energy exports.”
Russia Plans Cease-Fires
To Allow Aid Into Aleppo
MOSCOW (Reuters) — Russia
said Wednesday that there would
be daily three-hour cease-fires in
the Syrian city of Aleppo starting
on Thursday to allow aid convoys
to enter the city safely, a proposal
that the United Nations said it
would consider.
The Syrian government and
rebel forces control different portions of Aleppo. The rebel-held
east, where about 250,000 people
are thought to be living, was surrounded in early July after government forces cut the main supply route into the district.
On Friday, rebels staged a major assault southwest of Aleppo to
Concerns that daily
breaks may not be
enough to meet
humanitarian needs.
break through the siege. Fighters
managed to pierce the ring of government-controlled territory, but
a safe corridor for civilians and
aid has not yet been established as
fierce fighting continues.
Speaking at a televised briefing,
Lt. Gen. Sergei F. Rudskoi, a senior Russian Defense Ministry offi-
cial, said the cease-fire would run
from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. local time.
General Rudskoi said the question of joint control over the delivery of humanitarian aid was being
discussed with the United Nations
and the United States.
He said “all military action, air
and artillery strikes” would be
halted for the three-hour periods.
“This is to ensure that all interested organizations have the opportunity to deliver their humanitarian assistance to the residents
of Aleppo,” General Rudskoi said.
He added that Russia, an ally of
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, would work with the Syrian
government to ensure the safe delivery of aid.
A spokesman for a rebel group
fighting inside Aleppo said he was
skeptical of the Russian plan.
“Is this publicity that Russia is a
neutral party?” said Abd al-Salaam Abd al-Razzaq, the spokesman for the Nour al Din al-Zinki
Movement. “What is three hours?
In those three hours they will just
be bombing Idlib,” he said, referring to another rebel-held area.
Airstrikes killed at least 19 people and wounded dozens in Idlib
Province, southwest of Aleppo, on
Wednesday. One town, Saraqeb,
has been hit daily with airstrikes
since a Russian helicopter was
shot down nearby 10 days ago.
OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
An armored vehicle in the rebel-held eastern portion of Aleppo. The area has been besieged by government forces for three weeks.
Concerns are growing for the
roughly 250,000 people believed
to be trapped inside eastern
Aleppo, where food supplies, infrastructure and medical services
are immensely strained.
The United Nations aid chief,
Stephen O’Brien, said on Wednesday that he was willing to consider
the Russian plan, but that a 48-
hour pause in fighting was needed
to meet all the humanitarian
needs in Aleppo.
A State Department spokeswoman, Elizabeth Trudeau, said
the United States would welcome
any pause in fighting in Syria to
facilitate the delivery of vital humanitarian aid, but a truce must
be observed by all parties.
How Did People Migrate to Americas? Bison DNA Helps Chart Way Two Gymnasts,
By NICHOLAS WADE
Two teams of scientists have
succeeded in dating the opening
of the gateway to America, only to
disagree over whether the Clovis
people — one of the first groups
from Siberia to reach the Americas — ever used the gateway to
gain access to the New World.
About 23,000 years ago, in a period of intense cold that preceded
the end of the last ice age, glaciers
from west and east merged to cut
off Alaska from North America.
With so much of the world’s water
locked up in ice, sea levels were
much lower and a now-lost continent, Beringia, stretched across
what is now the Bering Strait to
join Siberia to Alaska. But people
who had trekked across Beringia
to Alaska could go no farther because of the ring of glaciers that
blocked their way south.
Ten thousand years later, the
glaciers started to retreat and an
ice-free corridor, roughly 900
miles long, opened between
Alaska and the Americas. In the
middle of the corridor lay a body
of water, 6,000 square miles in
area, fed by the melting glaciers
and known as Glacial Lake Peace.
Not until the lake had drained
away, and plants and animals had
recolonized the corridor, would
early peoples have been able to
support themselves as they
traversed the corridor between
the glaciers.
Using new methods for analyzing ancient DNA, the two teams of
scientists have each developed ingenious ways to calculate the date
at which the corridor first became
fit for human travel. A group led
by Peter D. Heintzman and Beth
Shapiro of the University of California, Santa Cruz, regards bison
as the ideal proxy for assessing
human travel through the corridor, given that bison were a major
prey of early hunters.
When the glaciers merged
BERINGIA
ALASKA
Ice-free
corridor
Coastal
route
UNITED
STAT E S
MIKKEL WINTHER PEDERSEN
The present-day southward view of the area where retreating
ice sheets created an ice-free corridor, for bison and humans.
23,000 years ago, the bison populations in Alaska and North America were separated and started to
evolve minor variations in their
mitochondrial DNA, a genetic element that survives well in ancient
bones. Dr. Shapiro’s team collected ancient bison bones from
up and down the corridor, analyzed their mitochondrial DNA
and looked for Alaskan bison that
had traveled south through the
corridor and American bison that
had traveled north.
The corridor was “fully open”
for bison traffic about 13,000 years
ago, Dr. Shapiro and colleagues
reported on June 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of
Science, and human populations
could have traversed it at the
same early date. “Our chronology
supports a habitable and traversable corridor by at least 13,000”
years ago, “just before the first appearance of Clovis technology in
interior North America,” they
write.
The Clovis culture was long
thought to belong to the first people to reach the Americas. But ar-
chaeologists have now detected
human presence in the Americas
as early as 14,700 years ago. Since
the corridor was closed at that
time, presumably those first immigrants took a coastal route and
arrived by boat. But the Clovis
people could have arrived later
A gateway from
Siberia to North
America, ‘fully open’
13,000 years ago.
through the corridor. Also, Dr.
Shapiro’s team notes, people already in North America could
have used the corridor to travel
north.
A second team of researchers
agrees with Dr. Shapiro on the
general chronology of the corridor
but puts its earliest possible opening some 500 years later, enough
to tilt the scales against any signif-
Prehistoric
glaciers
Sources: Nature; PNAS
THE NEW YORK TIMES
icant use of it by the Clovis people.
A team led by Mikkel W. Pedersen
and Eske Willerslev of the University of Copenhagen has examined
ancient DNA and pollen from sediments of lakes thought to be the
remnants of Glacial Lake Peace.
DNA sequences from so many
species have now been decoded
that the snippets of ancient DNA
can be identified by looking for
matches in DNA databanks. The
researchers infer that as the lake
shrank, grasses and sedges
started growing around it, followed by sagebrush, buttercups,
birch and willow. About 12,500
years ago, DNA from bison, voles
and jack rabbits appears in the
lake sediments, Dr. Willerslev’s
team reports in Wednesday’s issue of Nature.
They say that 12,500 years ago
is the first date at which the corridor would have been able to supply bison for human travelers. The
corridor therefore “opened too
late to have served as an entry
route for the ancestors of Clovis,”
who were present in North America by 13,400 years ago, the Willer-
slev team states. It prefers a date
400 years earlier for the Clovis
culture than that of the Shapiro
team.
The two teams, though agreeing on the general date for the
opening of the corridor, have each
found reason to suppose the other
is wrong on the issue of its use by
the Clovis people.
Dr. Willerslev argues that the
Alaskan and American bison
lineages analyzed by the Shapiro
team could have become distinct
before, not during, the merger of
the glaciers 23,000 years ago. “If
bison could move north and south
through the interior ice-free corridor, why should they not also have
been able to do so before the ice
caps completely blocked the
way?” he said. If so, the presence
of northern bison in the south or
vice versa cannot be used to date
the opening of the corridor.
A member of the Shapiro team,
John W. Ives of the University of
Alberta, said its dating of the split
in bison lineages was more plausible. He also questioned whether
the present-day lakes sampled by
Dr. Willerslev were true remnants
of Lake Peace. They could have
formed many hundreds of years
after Lake Peace disappeared, in
which case they would omit the
earliest sediment layers and evidence of an earlier opening of the
corridor, Dr. Ives said.
A recent genetic survey of Native Americans concluded that
their ancestors had arrived in the
Americas as part of a single migration but that this group had
split in two by around 13,000 years
ago. The Shapiro and Willerslev
teams agree that this migration
must have arrived by some route
other than the corridor, presumably along the coast. It remains to
be seen what role, if any, the corridor played in the population split
that occurred around the time of
its opening.
Two Koreas,
One Big Selfie
By CHOE SANG-HUN
SEOUL, South Korea — Lee
Eun-ju was not expected to be one
of South Korea’s big names at the
Rio Olympics. She joined the
country’s gymnastics team as a
last-minute replacement after another athlete was injured. Indeed,
she failed to advance to the finals.
But Ms. Lee, 17, has found herself in the spotlight at home and
abroad, thanks to a symbolically
significant selfie.
Last week, before the Games
started, Ms. Lee approached a
North Korean gymnast, Hong Unjong, 27, during a training session.
As the women from opposite sides
of Korea’s divide posed, smiling,
for a photograph on Ms. Lee’s
phone, journalists snapped pictures of the moment, which has
since been hailed as capturing the
Olympic spirit.
“This is why we do the
Olympics,” Ian Bremmer, president of the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group and a frequent commentator on Korean issues, wrote on Twitter.
It is hardly unprecedented for
athletes from the two countries,
which have technically been at
war for decades, to mingle at international sporting events. But in
recent years, inter-Korean relations have been at a low point.
So, when the two athletes put
aside national differences in a
friendly encounter, many found it
unexpected and heartwarming.
A South Korean news report
said that despite Ms. Lee’s elimination, she was being “reborn as
an Olympic icon.” Despite such
sentiments, the photo has not led
to a noticeable thaw between the
two Koreas, and neither government has commented on it.
A10
N
DREW ANGERER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Officers in Baltimore responded to reports of a gun being fired in May 2015. A Justice Department report released Wednesday found a long pattern of racial discrimination by the police in the city.
Police Bias Found in Baltimore, and Many Ask What Took So Long
By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG
BALTIMORE — As a black man and a
lifelong resident of this city, Ray Kelly
has been stopped by the police more
times than he can count. And as a community organizer who tried to document
police bias after the death of Freddie
Gray, Mr. Kelly, 45, had always expected
that a federal investigation would uncover a pattern of racial discrimination.
Even so, the scathing report that the
Justice Department unveiled here on
Wednesday — a data-rich indictment of
how Baltimore police officers have for
years violated the Constitution and federal law by systematically stopping,
searching (in some cases strip-searching) and harassing black residents —
gave him a jolt.
“Hearing the actual numbers, like on
the traffic stops, is blowing my mind,”
Mr. Kelly said.
Release of the 163-page report, at a
packed City Hall news conference here,
was another wrenching moment of selfexamination in this majority black city.
Even as Mayor Stephanie RawlingsBlake and the police commissioner, Kevin Davis, accepted the findings — both
vowed to turn the Baltimore Police Department into a ‘‘model for the nation’’ —
there was relief, but also rage and skepticism among black residents here who
wondered if anything would change.
“Mere words by officials mean little
when it’s people on the ground who are
living with these material conditions every day,’’ said the Rev. Heber Brown III, a
Baptist pastor who was among a small
group of community leaders who met
privately last year with Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch. “From the streets
to the suites, everybody is skeptical and
furious.’’
How Racial Bias Plays Out in Policing
With its searing rebuke of Baltimore’s police department, the Obama administration has added another chapter in an
expanding catalog of investigations that lay plain these systemic patterns of racial bias in police departments around the
country. Here is a sampling of what those Justice Departmemt investigations found. More details of how bias played out in
nearly two dozen cities is at nytimes.com/national.
ERIC THAYER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
TED S. WARREN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
RUSSELL CONTRERAS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Investigations by the Justice Department have discovered policing bias issues in nearly two dozen
cities around the country, including, from left, Cleveland, Seattle and Albuquerque.
Pedestrian Stops
Traffic Stops
Unreasonable Search
Justice Department investigations have
repeatedly found that a zero-tolerance
approach toward even minor offenses, a
strategy widely adopted in the early
2000s, results in aggressive tactics that
target largely minority neighborhoods.
The most routine interactions between
citizens and police officers are traffic
stops. Investigations found that
minorities who are stopped by police
officers face far more searches, arrests
and fines.
Minorities are treated with heightened
suspicion in pedestrian and traffic stops,
leading to unlawful searches, the
investigations showed.
Use of Excessive Force
Poor Supervision
Fines
Routine encounters with the public
often unnecessarily escalate into
violent situations, the reports showed.
Poor documentation of officers’
interactions with civilians and the lack of
supervisory review is another common
thread in the investigations.
In some communities, police and court
officials focus on generating revenue
from municipal fines, often issuing
expensive fines for minor offenses.
In one stark statistic after another, the
department’s report helped validate the
experiences of Mr. Brown, Mr. Kelly and
countless others in poor African-American neighborhoods who regard the police as an occupying force. Many wanted
to know what took so long.
“It’s like a huge taste of ‘too little, too
late,’ ” said Brandon Scott, 32, a member
of the Baltimore City Council, who said
he ran for office to correct police abuses
that have been going on since before he
was born.
In Baltimore, a city that is 63 percent
black, the Justice Department found that
91 percent of those arrested on discretionary offenses like “failure to obey” or
“trespassing” were African-American.
Blacks make up 60 percent of Baltimore’s drivers but account for 82 percent
of traffic stops. Of the 410 pedestrians
who were stopped at least 10 times in the
five and a half years of data reviewed, 95
percent were black.
“Seeing it all collected and pulled together really hit me in the solar plexis,’’
said Sherrilyn Ifill, president of the
NAACP Legal Defense and Educational
Fund, who lived here for 15 years while
teaching law at the University of Maryland. But what most infuriates her, she
said, is that city leaders — including a series of black mayors — have ignored the
problem for decades.
“African-Americans have not been silent about this,’’ she said. “It’s so rampant, it’s so widespread, this kind of harassment of the African-American community in a city that’s majority AfricanAmerican, that you really have to ask
yourself, Why did it take this?”
The report is a first step toward a negotiated settlement, known as a consent
Appeals Court Issues Injunction on Order to Allow Voting Without ID in Wisconsin
By MICHAEL WINES
A federal appeals court on Wednesday
blocked a lower court from allowing
voters in Wisconsin to cast ballots without photo identification, stating that the
lower court had been too lenient in
loosening a state voter ID law that had
already been declared discriminatory.
The injunction, issued by a three-judge
panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit in Chicago,
adds a new measure of confusion into a
fierce battle over the 2011 law in a battleground state, three months before the
presidential election.
But it did not affect a second federal
court ruling in July that loosened Wisconsin’s photo ID law in a different manner: allowing any registered voter struggling to get one of the accepted forms of
ID to obtain voting credentials at any
state motor vehicle office. The July ruling also broadened the types of ID that
college students can present at polling
places.
The second ruling , which additionally
struck down a host of other voting prerequisites as discriminatory, is also being appealed to the Seventh Circuit. It
was unclear when the court would rule
on that challenge.
Nor was it clear whether the lower
court judge, Lynn Adelman of the United
States District Court in Milwaukee,
would be able to fashion a change in the
photo ID law that would meet the appeals court’s objection in time for the
election in November.
“The election is looming, and everyone understands the importance of finality,” said Myrna Pérez, the deputy director of the democracy program at New
York University’s Brennan Center for
Justice. But “the timing is going to be
very tight,” she added.
Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican, called the appeals court injunction “a step in the right direction.” “Our
administration will continue to work to
make it easy to vote and hard to cheat,”
he said.
But an official with the American Civil
Liberties Union, which was a plaintiff in
the lawsuit, said that there was still time
to overturn an appeals count injunction
that he called an “outlier” among recent
voting rights decisions.
“The decision is really out of step with
other courts in the country that have
considered voter ID laws,” said Dale Ho,
the director of the A.C.L.U.’s Voting
Rights project.
Wednesday’s injunction was a setback
for voting rights advocates after a series
of federal court rulings in recent weeks
had effectively invalidated similar voter
ID laws in Texas, North Carolina and
North Dakota. In the Texas case, a Federal District Court on Wednesday accepted an agreement by both sides in the
lawsuit that allows voters without an accepted form of ID to vote after signing an
affidavit saying they could not reasonably obtain one.
Among other actions, that district
court also rejected a request by Texas
state officials to include language in the
agreement stating that it was but an in-
JOHN EHLKE/THE WEST BEND DAILY NEWS, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jim Michels, right, showed his identification to his wife, Diane, a poll
worker, before voting in the Wisconsin primary on Tuesday in West Bend.
terim accord that could be changed later
by the State Legislature.
The Wisconsin law, one of the more restrictive of dozens such laws nationwide,
bars registered voters from casting ballots unless they possess one of eight
photo ID cards, including a Wisconsin
driver’s license, a state ID card, a United
States passport, a military ID card, certain kinds of college student IDs, a naturalization certificate or a photo ID from a
Native American tribe in the state.
Voting rights advocacy groups have
long said — and some Republicans have
agreed — that Republicans wrote the law
largely to make it hard for traditionally
Democratic voters, such as minorities
and students, to cast ballots.
Judge Adelman said in July that the
law lacked a “safety net” for voters who
had trouble obtaining one of the cards,
and ordered Wisconsin to allow any registered voter lacking an ID to cast a ballot by swearing on an affidavit that he or
she could not reasonably obtain one.
On Wednesday, the appeals court said
that standard appeared too broad because even registered voters who had
never tried to obtain an ID could vote by
signing the affidavit. The three-judge
panel issued the injunction after concluding that they were likely to strike
down the order on appeal.
ELECTION
0N
A11
2 016
Amid Defections, One Ally Remains Loyally Behind Trump: The N.R.A.
From Page A1
proponent who lives in a Manhattan skyscraper with an advocacy
group typically seen as speaking
for gun manufacturers and the
hunters and sportsmen of Middle
America.
But Mr. Trump has effectively
romanced the pro-gun community
with a message of fierce support
for Second Amendment rights.
And the N.R.A., spurred by concern about Mrs. Clinton’s power to
name Supreme Court judges, has
reciprocated his overtures with
enthusiasm.
Helping to establish that connection have been Mr. Trump’s
sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, avid
hunters with ties to the N.R.A.
Donald Jr., Mr. Trump’s oldest son,
spoke about the importance of
gun rights on a visit to Capitol Hill
in the spring.
On the campaign trail, Mr.
Trump makes a show of embracing the association and its leadership, while accusing Mrs. Clinton
of seeking to do away with the Second Amendment.
“We’re going to help the N.R.A.,
who are great people,” he said on
Tuesday in Fayetteville, N.C.
“They’re fighting hard, they’re
fighting hard. Chris and Wayne
and all their people at the N.R.A.,
these are people that love our
country.”
The alliance with Mr. Trump
comes at a moment of peril for the
N.R.A. and its agenda, as
Democrats threaten to take control of the Senate and polls show
the public increasingly supportive
of at least modest new limits on
the sale and possession of
firearms.
Mrs.
Clinton
and
other
Democrats have run explicitly
against the N.R.A. in this election,
attacking the gun lobby for opposing laws intended to restrict gun
sales to people with mental illnesses or whose names are on the
federal terrorism watch list. They
have held up the N.R.A. as a
uniquely sinister organization,
and cast themselves as opponents
of the group rather than of gun
owners in general.
In her acceptance speech at the
Democratic
convention
last
month, Mrs. Clinton said the country could not have a president “in
the pocket of the gun lobby.”
“I’m not here to repeal the Second Amendment,” she told the
crowd in Philadelphia. “I’m not
here to take away your guns. I just
don’t want you to be shot by someone who shouldn’t have a gun in
the first place.”
Mrs. Clinton, who has campaigned with gun-control advocates like the former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and her
husband, Mark Kelly, told a crowd
in Iowa on Wednesday that Mr.
Trump’s provocative remark
about
Second
Amendment
supporters showed he was unfit to
be president. She called it “the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that
cross the line.”
The N.R.A. is expected to intensify its efforts on Mr. Trump’s behalf, association officials said, increasing its spending on television commercials and wielding its
extensive network of activists to
help turn out voters sympathetic
to Mr. Trump.
The N.R.A. has spent nearly $6
million this year on advertising
supporting Mr. Trump, focusing
its latest efforts on the swing
states of Nevada, North Carolina,
Ohio and Pennsylvania, where Mr.
Trump and his running mate, Gov.
Mike Pence of Indiana, have been
campaigning heavily. That sum —
a tiny fraction of what has been
spent on commercials backing
SCOTT MCINTYRE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
A rally for Donald J. Trump in Sunrise, Fla. Mr. Trump has embraced the N.R.A. while accusing Hillary Clinton of wanting to scrap the Second Amendment.
Mrs. Clinton — is the largest expenditure for ads helping Mr.
Trump in the general election.
At this point in the last two presidential elections, the N.R.A. had
not spent a single dollar on commercials backing the Republican
nominees, John McCain in 2008
and Mitt Romney in 2012, according to the ad tracking firm Kantar
Media/CMAG. In 2004, the rifle
association spent just $61,000 aiding President George W. Bush’s
re-election bid, and only in Washington.
Rebuilding America Now, a super PAC supporting Mr. Trump’s
candidacy, also appears to be
ramping up its activities, with
roughly $1 million added to its advertising plans for the next six
days in four battleground states.
Grover Norquist, an anti-tax activist who sits on the rifle association’s board, said the 2016 race was
uniquely explosive because control of the Supreme Court hangs in
the balance and Mrs. Clinton has
spoken critically of judicial decisions that take a broad interpretation of the right to own guns.
“Trump in his public statements, in his speech at the con-
vention, is the most pro-Second
Amendment presidential candidate of either party in living memory,” Mr. Norquist said. “And we
haven’t had a presidential candidate declare war on the Second
Amendment community as aggressively as Hillary.”
Mr. Norquist said that the
N.R.A. and other Second Amendment groups were determined to
reach voters who are concerned
about crime and self-defense, and
who might hold permits to carry
concealed weapons but were not
recreational gun users like
hunters and sportsmen. They
may not fit the conventional profile of gun owners, he said, and
may be more likely to live in battleground states like Florida,
Michigan and Pennsylvania.
“They are more suburban,” Mr.
Norquist said. “They are more
likely to be swing voters and not
necessarily N.R.A. members.”
The N.R.A.’s ads have focused
on themes of self-defense and fear
— and on persuading gun owners
that they should fear Mrs. Clinton: Its latest commercial, released Tuesday, accused her of hypocrisy, saying she surrounded
TY WRIGHT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Maggie Haberman and Kitty
Bennett contributed reporting.
The N.R.A. convention in Louisville, Ky., in May. The group is
spending millions on ads, not all on gun issues, for Mr. Trump.
Trump Calls Obama ‘Founder of ISIS’
By NICK CORASANITI
SUNRISE, Fla. — A day after
remarks that appeared to suggest
that gun rights advocates harm
Hillary Clinton, Donald J. Trump
sprayed his fire at President
Obama on Wednesday, accusing
him of creating the Islamic State
and saying the terrorist group
“honors” him.
“In many respects, you know,
they honor President Obama,” Mr.
Trump told a raucous and rowdy
crowd in Florida on Wednesday
night. “He’s the founder of ISIS.
He’s the founder of ISIS. He’s the
founder. He founded ISIS.” He
added, “I would say the cofounder would be crooked Hillary
Clinton.” During an extended riff
on the crisis in Crimea, Mr. Trump
added extra emphasis on the president’s full name, saying that it occurred “during the administration
of Barack Hussein Obama.”
Mr. Trump’s statement was an
escalation in his recent criticism
of the Obama administration’s
handling of the terror threat, as he
had previously accused only Mrs.
Clinton of having a “founding”
role in the terror group. His sugAlan Rappeport contributed reporting from Washington.
gestion that the president was
honored by ISIS recalled an earlier controversy when Mr. Trump
seemingly implied that the president had some connection to the
terrorist massacre of 49 people at
the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
“He doesn’t get it, or he gets it
better than anybody under-
Escalating criticism of
the White House on
the terror issue.
stands,” Mr. Trump told Fox News
in June. And the use of the president’s middle name recalled Mr.
Trump’s questioning of Mr. Obama’s faith during his crusade several years ago to prove that Mr.
Obama, who is Christian, was not
born in the United States.
Mr. Trump also found himself in
an awkward camera framing immediately after criticizing the
Clinton campaign for the appearance of Seddique Mir Mateen, the
father of the Pulse gunman, at
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign event
this week. “Wasn’t it terrible when
the father of the animal that killed
these wonderful people in Orlando
was sitting with a big smile on his
face right behind Hillary Clinton?” Mr. Trump said.
Yet sitting behind Mr. Trump
was Mark Foley, a former Republican congressman who resigned
after being confronted with
sexually explicit messages he had
sent to underage congressional
pages. Mr. Trump seemed not to
be aware of the disgraced former
congressman’s presence as he
tried to cast doubt on the Clinton
campaign’s account that it had not
known who Mr. Mateen was.
“When you get those seats, you
sort of know the campaign,” Mr.
Trump said.
The boisterous rally here was a
marked change from his rally earlier on Wednesday in Virginia,
where a relatively subdued Mr.
Trump promised he would be the
best candidate to save the coal industry. He also said his remarks
on Tuesday, in which he seemed to
suggest that “Second Amendment
people” could take matters into
their own hands if Mrs. Clinton
were elected, had been misconstrued. “They can take a little
story that isn’t a story and make it
into a big deal,” he said.
herself with armed guards while
trying to take away Americans’
firearms, leaving them “defenseless.”
At times, the association has
taken its advocacy for Mr. Trump
well beyond gun rights. With no
well-funded “super PAC” running
ads for Mr. Trump, the N.R.A.
stepped into that role in late June,
releasing an ad on an entirely unrelated issue. The commercial featured a survivor of the 2012 attack
in Benghazi, Libya, criticizing
Mrs. Clinton’s handling of it. It
made no mention of guns or any
other domestic policy issue.
And the N.R.A. has used its
digital channels, which reach
more than five million members,
to echo Mr. Trump’s messages:
Ginny Simone, a reporter for NRA
News, the association’s online
channel, recently offered a glowing video package showcasing Mr.
Trump’s convention speech and
trumpeting his support among
gun owners.
Mr. Trump has not always been
such a clear ally of the gun lobby.
When he considered a bid for
president in 2000, he repeatedly
expressed support for a crackdown on gun ownership, and criti-
cized Republicans who, he said,
“walk the N.R.A. line and refuse
even limited restrictions.”
But this year, Mr. Trump has
gone to unusual lengths to get
along with the organization. When
the group offered rare criticism of
him in June, for suggesting after
the nightclub massacre in Orlando, Fla., that patrons there should
have been armed, Mr. Trump took
the unusual step of walking back
his remarks.
His intention, he insisted, had
been to suggest that more armed
guards at the nightclub would
have been helpful.
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Explanation Given for Clinton Charity Donor’s Seeking Out State Dept.
By ERIC LIPTON
and STEVE EDER
WASHINGTON — Douglas J.
Band, a longtime aide to Bill Clinton after he left the White House,
sent an email to two of Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton’s top aides
with a “Very imp” message: The
State Department needed to make
one of its senior officials available
for a conversation with a billionaire businessman — who also was
a major donor to the Clinton Foundation.
The billionaire and donor,
Gilbert Chagoury, wanted to
speak to the State Department’s
top official on Lebanon, Mr. Band
wrote in the April 2009 email to
the two aides, Huma Abedin and
Cheryl Mills. Mr. Chagoury is a Nigerian-based hotel and real estate
developer whose family is from
Lebanon.
“As you know, he’s key guy
there and to us and is loved in Lebanon,” Mr. Band wrote.
Ms. Abedin emailed back that
the person Mr. Chagoury should
speak with was Jeffrey Feltman,
who had recently left his post as
the United States ambassador to
Lebanon. “I’m sure he knows
him,’’ Ms. Abedin said in her email
to Mr. Band. “I’ll talk to Jeff.’’
The exchange of emails
emerged this week as a result of a
lawsuit over emails sent on the
Clinton family’s private server.
They were immediately cited by
conservative activists as more
proof that Mrs. Clinton, while secretary of state, ignored an agreement to keep Clinton Foundation
matters separate from her State
Department duties.
“This is a violation of that
agreement, on its face,” said Tom
Fitton, the president of Judicial
Watch, the conservative group
that sued to get the emails.
But Mark Corallo, a Washington-based spokesman for Mr.
Chagoury, said in a statement
Wednesday that Mr. Chagoury
had been seeking to contact someone in the State Department to offer his insight into the coming
elections that June in 2009 in Lebanon, where he has deep ties and
experience. He had not been seeking official action by the State Department.
“He was simply passing along
his observations and insights
about the dire political situation in
Lebanon at the time,” Mr. Corallo
said.
Mr. Corallo said no conversations ever took place.
Mr. Chagoury, he said, “has had
no personal contact with Secretary Clinton or any of her staff
since 2006. He has never met or
had any contact with Ambassador
Feltman. He had no contact of any
Eric Lipton reported from Washington, and Steve Eder from New
York. Jo Becker and Steven Lee
Myers contributed reporting from
New York.
SAM HODGSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Hillary Clinton boarded a charter plane in Des Moines, Iowa, on Wednesday. More emails have emerged that critics say show lapses of judgment by the candidate.
kind with anyone from the State
Department regarding the subject
matter of the emails between Mr.
Band and Ms. Abedin.”
Mr. Feltman, in an email exchange with The New York Times
on Wednesday, confirmed that he
never met with Mr. Chagoury or
spoke to him.
Ms. Abedin, now serving as vice
chairwoman of the Clinton campaign, did not respond to a request
for comment made through a
campaign spokesman.
Mr. Band, who declined on
Wednesday to comment, had the
credentials to get the State Department’s attention.
After serving on Mr. Clinton’s
White House staff, Mr. Band became his chief adviser after he left
office, helping him create the Clinton Global Initiative, a part of the
Clinton Foundation and its global
charitable efforts, which has gathered billions of dollars in donations and commitments from a
sprawling collection of affluent
donors and foundations.
Mr. Chagoury was someone Mr.
Band had reason to want to help
out. A longtime donor, Mr.
Chagoury contributed from $1 million to $5 million to the Clinton
Foundation, and in 1996, donated
$460,000 to a voter registration effort benefiting Democrats.
Mr. Chagoury, according to Mr.
More email content
emerges as a result of
an active lawsuit.
Corallo, said that his contributions
to the Clinton Foundation were
based on the “good philanthropic
work around the world — especially in Africa.”
A follow-up email Mr. Band sent
to the State Department in May
2009 suggests that the conversation he was trying to set up still
had not taken place, even given
Mr. Chagoury’s clout. “You con-
nect with Joseph re: Chagoury,”
Mr. Band, most likely referring to
an aide to the businessman, wrote
Ms. Abedin, who responded: “Left
him a message. He hasn’t called
yet.”
The controversy over the
emails released this week comes
in part because of earlier emails
that have hinted that Mr. Clinton’s
staff or the Clinton Foundation
had contacted the State Department while Mrs. Clinton was in
charge, even if just to get approval
for paid speeches that Mr. Clinton
was about to give.
A cache of emails that the State
Department released to the activist group Citizens United, for example, showed an invitation to Mr.
Clinton to speak at a United
States-China energy summit
meeting in 2012 organized by Luca
International Group, which was
later fined $68 million by the Securities and Exchange Commission
for defrauding investors.
Another email sought approval
for Mr. Clinton to accept a
$650,000 fee for speaking at a
Forbes Emerging Markets conference in Brazzaville, Congo, in 2012.
“This did not clear our internal
vet, but WJC wants to know what
state thinks of it if he took it 100%
for the foundation,” Amitabh Desai, the foundation’s director of
foreign policy, wrote, referring to
the former president by his initials.
Mr. Fitton said that even if Mr.
Chagoury was not seeking a favor
from the State Department, the effort by Mr. Band to help a donor to
the Clinton Foundation get highlevel access to the United States
government was improper.
“In the fund-raising community,
you call this donor maintenance,”
Mr. Fitton said. “Whether or not
they were able to get the final call,
the explanation still does not pass
a smell test given financial ties between Chagoury and the Clinton
Foundation. Politicians who receive contributions from wealthy
patrons and then do something on
their behalf always say it is a just a
matter of helping out a friend.”
Mr. Fitton also pointed out that
Mr. Chagoury was hardly the kind
of businessman whom the Clinton
family should be trying to assist.
Mr. Chagoury was an associate
of Sani Abacha, a powerful Nigerian general in the 1990s who
was believed to have stolen large
amounts of public funds.
In 2000, Mr. Chagoury was convicted of money laundering in
Switzerland in connection with
the Abacha family, court records
show. The PBS program “Frontline” reported in 2010 that his
record was expunged after he
paid a fine.
Josh Schwerin, a spokesman for
Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, said Mr.
Fitton was trying to create a conspiracy where none existed.
“The right-wing organization
behind this lawsuit has been attacking the Clintons since the
1990s, and no matter how this
group tries to mischaracterize
these documents, the fact remains
that Hillary Clinton never took action as secretary of state because
of donations to the Clinton Foundation,” he said.
Wider Damage Is Seen in a Russian Hack of Democrats’ Accounts, Officials Say
From Page A1
ficials eager for Mrs. Clinton to
win the nomination over Senator
Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
American intelligence agencies
have said they have “high confidence” that the attack was the
work of Russian intelligence
agencies. It has injected a heavy
dose of international intrigue into
an already chaotic presidential
campaign as Democrats have alleged that the Russians are trying
to help tilt the election toward the
Republican nominee, Donald J.
Trump.
Mr. Trump stunned Democrats
and Republicans when he said last
month that he hoped Russian intelligence services had successfully hacked Mrs. Clinton’s email,
and encouraged them to publish
whatever they may have stolen,
although he said later that he was
being sarcastic.
Intelligence and law enforcement officials, however, are taking
the issue seriously.
F.B.I. officials briefed staff
members of House and Senate Intelligence Committees last week
on the investigation into the theft
of emails and documents from the
Democratic National Committee.
Briefings for other congressional
committees are expected in the
coming days.
Much of the briefing to the committee staff focused on the fact
that American intelligence agen-
cies have virtually no doubt that
the Russian government was behind the theft, according to one
staff member, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss elements of the confidential briefing.
The extension of the hack’s
scope beyond the D.N.C. and the
House Democratic committee
added a troubling new element to
the case, the staff member said.
American authorities remain
uncertain whether the electronic
break-in to the committee’s computer systems was intended as
fairly routine cyberespionage or
as part of an effort to manipulate
the presidential election.
Russian motives are still an
open question, said a federal law
enforcement official, who also
spoke on condition of anonymity.
There is no evidence so far that
the theft penetrated the emails of
lawmakers or staff members who
serve on the Intelligence Committees, two staff members said.
The F.B.I. says it has no direct
evidence that Mrs. Clinton’s private email server was hacked by
the Russians or anyone else. But
in June, the F.B.I. director, James
B. Comey, said that intruders had
tried, and that any successful
intruders were probably far too
skilled to leave evidence of their
intrusion behind. Law enforcement officials said he had the Russians in mind.
Mrs. Clinton’s aides were concerned about the possibility of an
outside breach after a hacker call-
It still isn’t known if
manipulating the
election is a goal.
JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz at the Democratic National Convention last month.
ing himself “Guccifer” got into the
email account in 2013 of Sidney
Blumenthal, a longtime confidante of Mrs. Clinton’s who often
emailed her on her private server,
according to new documents released Wednesday.
Cheryl D. Mills, a lawyer and
adviser for Mrs. Clinton, said she
discussed the 2013 hack with the
technician who ran Mrs. Clinton’s
private server and considered
“whether this event might affect
Secretary Clinton’s email,” according to a written account Ms.
Mills provided to Judicial Watch, a
conservative legal group that is
suing the State Department.
So far, it does not appear that
the Russian hackers sought or
gained access to any computer
systems used by Mr. Trump, who
is known to avoid email, officials
said.
Since news of the D.N.C. hack
broke in June, a number of
Democratic organizations have
been scrubbing their files to determine what internal information
might have been compromised.
They have also been shoring up
their cybersecurity defenses to
guard against another attack.
An official with the D.N.C.,
speaking on condition of anonymity, said the committee took
the threat very seriously, but
would not comment on specific security steps taken.
WikiLeaks, the group that put
out the D.N.C. emails publicly last
month, interjected itself into the
hacking case again this week
when it offered a $20,000 reward
for information on the shooting
death last month of a former
D.N.C. staff member, Seth Rich,
outside his Washington home. His
killing fueled speculation on the
internet that he was somehow tied
to the hacked emails, but the police have not given any credence
to that speculation.
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian
Assange, has made it clear that he
would like to hurt Mrs. Clinton’s
bid for the White House, opposing
her candidacy on policy and personal grounds. He has hinted that
he has more material about the
presidential campaign that he
could release.
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ANDREA MORALES FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Strained Finances
Left Clinton Juggling
Necessity and Ideals
Accused of Defying Her Principles
As She Shouldered Family’s Burdens
By AMY CHOZICK
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Losing the
governor’s race here in 1980 so shattered
a young Bill Clinton that he could not face
his supporters, so he sent his wife around
to thank campaign workers instead. He
later gathered with close friends for dinner but quietly sulked, playing the country song “I Don’t Know Whether to Kill
Myself or Go Bowling” on the jukebox.
But his wife had a more pressing concern: money. The ousted governor
needed a job, the family needed a place to
live, and moving out of the governor’s
mansion meant losing the help they had
as they raised their 9-month-old daughter, Chelsea.
The morning after the election, Hillary
Clinton worked the phones from the
mansion, calling wealthy friends and
asking for help.
“The world changed. There was a tectonic shift,” said Thomas F. McLarty III,
a friend of Mr. Clinton’s who served as his
White House chief of staff.
Mr. Clinton was of little use as he fixated on voters’ rejection. And for the first
time, friends said, Mrs. Clinton glimpsed
fragility in the future she had moved to
Arkansas to pursue. She worried about
saving for Chelsea’s college, caring for
her aging parents, and even possibly
‘He was never interested
in money, ever. She is the
one who had to be sure
Chelsea was going to be
able to afford college.’
James B. Blair, a friend who offered
Hillary Clinton investment advice
supporting herself should the marriage
or their political dreams dissolve.
“It was up to her to just keep holding
things up,” said Nancy Pietrafesa, a
college friend of Mrs. Clinton’s who
moved to Arkansas to work for Mr. Clinton in the 1970s.
Hillary Clinton’s relationship with
money has long puzzled even some of
her closest supporters: Despite choosing a life in government, she has appeared eager to make money, driven to
provide for her family and helping amass
a fortune of more than $50 million with
her husband.
But Mrs. Clinton can seem blind to
how her financial decisions are viewed,
and has suffered repeated political damage and accusations of conflicts of interest as a result — from serving on the corporate board of Walmart while her husband was governor to initially accepting
a $1.35 million mortgage personally secured by a top fund-raiser for the family’s
home in Chappaqua, N.Y.
Her collection of more than $21 million
in speaking fees from a range of groups,
including Wall Street firms and other interests, led to one of the most potent attacks against her in this election cycle,
given voters’ anger about economic inequality. Half of all voters said it bothered them “a lot’’ that Mrs. Clinton
gave numerous speeches to Wall Street
banks, according to a Bloomberg Politics
poll conducted in June.
Donald J. Trump has called Mrs. Clinton “totally owned by Wall Street.”
Mr. Trump, whose own finances have
drawn extensive scrutiny, may be an imperfect messenger, but “Republicans can
say, ‘This undercuts everything she is
saying about what she wants to do to regulate Wall Street and her economic populist stance,’ ” said Anna Greenberg, a
Democratic pollster.
Even some of Mrs. Clinton’s allies privately say they are mystified by her
choice to make the Wall Street speeches,
given the likelihood that they would become an issue in a presidential campaign. And to some of them, her financial
moves clash with the selfless Methodist
credo to do good for others that she so
often says guided her toward a life of
Kitty Bennett contributed reporting from
Seattle, and Steve Eder from New York.
public service.
But her longtime friends say the contradiction is rooted in Mrs. Clinton’s
practicality and the boom-and-bust cycles that have characterized her life with
Bill Clinton.
At no time did those stresses fall more
squarely on Mrs. Clinton’s shoulders
than in the difficult two-year period in
Arkansas when she and her husband
found themselves cast out of office, financially strained and deeply uncertain
about the future. And the memory of that
time shaped her desire to be free from financial burden.
“Hillary had a couple years of the taste
of what it means to be a working mother,
without any help, to have to take care of a
small baby and care for your job,” said
James B. Blair, a close Clinton friend and
lawyer who offered Mrs. Clinton investment advice in the 1970s.
The Clintons’ unexpected ouster from
their comfortable life occurred at a time
when Arkansas was swirling with new
money and get-rich-quick schemes as
companies like Tyson and Walmart
minted millionaires and new savings and
loan institutions were spreading
throughout the South.
A generation of Ivy League-educated
young people like Mr. Clinton had returned to their home state to make their
mark. Money seemed to be all around the
Clintons, but they did not have much of
their own. And unlike Mrs. Clinton, a
worrier by nature, Mr. Clinton, consumed with his dreams of a political career, seemed indifferent to securing a financial future.
“He was never interested in money,
ever,” Mr. Blair said. “She is the one who
had to be sure Chelsea was going to be
able to afford college.”
People close to Mrs. Clinton don’t begrudge her desire to provide generously
for her family, and certainly many presidential candidates and public servants
acquire vast personal wealth. Asked in
an interview whether earlier financial
stresses had prompted her to pursue the
lucrative speechmaking, Mrs. Clinton
said, “I really think it’s much simpler
than that,” adding that it is typical for
secretaries of state to share their views
in speeches after leaving office.
Thrift Store Décor
It was one of the smallest houses on
the block in Little Rock’s Hillcrest section, and Mrs. Clinton largely bought it
with her own money, the month after that
devastating 1980 election loss.
She filled the rooms with mismatched
furniture bought at thrift stores and borrowed from her flamboyant mother-inlaw. She converted the windowed attic
into a bedroom for Chelsea, parked her
Oldsmobile Cutlass in the weedy driveway and chased after the family’s cocker
spaniel, Zeke, who liked to chew through
the fence.
The Clintons had stretched their finances to afford the $112,000 home,
which was down the hill from the city’s
old-money mansions. The sprawling estate of Winthrop Rockefeller, the celebrated former governor, was so close
that it practically cast a shadow on the
Clintons’ grassy backyard.
Friends described the décor as unsightly, a jarring departure from the governor’s mansion.
“That couch just jumped out at me,”
said Bobby Roberts, a former aide to Mr.
Clinton, describing a scarlet-colored
Victorian chaise that Mr. Clinton’s
mother, Virginia Kelly, had lent them. “It
was in some bright, violent color.”
And with no parents or in-laws in Little
Rock, Mrs. Clinton turned to friends and
neighbors for help. She persuaded
Carolyn Huber, who had helped run the
governor’s mansion while Mr. Clinton
was in office, to continue to help care for
Chelsea, who had grown fond of her.
A neighbor, Manuel J. Lozano, recalled: Hillary “was running around, and
my wife took care of Chelsea here and
there whenever she needed help.”
Mr. Clinton had turned down out-ofstate job offers in academia and
Democratic politics, and instead took the
only offer he had in Arkansas, to serve
“of counsel” for $55,000 a year at the
Wright, Lindsey & Jennings law firm,
where Mr. Clinton’s longtime adviser
VIA CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
Above, Hillary and Bill Clinton in 1980 with a newborn Chelsea in Little Rock, Ark. Below: left, the couple at
Wellesley College in 1979; right, his swearing in as governor that year. Top left, the couple’s Hillcrest house.
BROOKS KRAFT/SYGMA, VIA GETTY IMAGES
Bruce R. Lindsey was a partner.
But he spent most of his time on the
road, often accompanied by Mr. Lindsey,
trying to win back the hearts of voters.
“He had to go all over that state, touch
base and apologize, and listen to why he
lost,” Mrs. Pietrafesa recalled, “and every one of those visits was a two-, threeor four-hour ordeal.”
Mrs. Clinton had become a partner at
the Rose Law Firm in 1979, and during
these lean years, she balanced her work
there with caring for Chelsea, who celebrated her first birthday and learned to
walk in the Hillcrest house, on Midland
Street. She often felt on her own as Mr.
Clinton crisscrossed the state, friends
said.
She increased her hours to bring in
work for the firm, with business not as
easy to come by now that she was no
longer the governor’s wife.
“The whole time period was a point of
learning, after the defeat,” Jerry C.
Jones, Mrs. Clinton’s colleague at the
firm, remembered.
Friends said she would have focused
on public service and charitable work
and not gone to work at the firm — a
practice known for representing the
business and political elite — had she not
been concerned about her family’s finances. Ann Henry, an Arkansas friend,
described Mrs. Clinton as an “oddity”
there, where other women, mostly secretaries and paralegals, gawked at her
curls and thrown-together clothes.
(Mrs. Clinton worked at the Rose Law
Firm for roughly 15 years, the longest she
has worked at any job, though it is not on
her official campaign biography.)
“I’m not sure she ever planned to be a
corporate lawyer,” said Lissa Muscatine,
a friend and former chief speechwriter to
Mrs. Clinton. But she did the work because “she had the earning capacity that
he didn’t have as governor.”
A Frugal Father
Growing up in the upper-middle-class
suburb of Park Ridge, Ill., Hillary Rodham — whose mother had been raised in
poverty and whose Depression-era father preached frugality — babysat and
held summer jobs beginning when she
was 13. Her father, Hugh Rodham, taught
his only daughter fiscal responsibility
and how to read stock tables in the newspaper. But he was not one to shower his
children with material things.
“Her mother came from nothing and
her father was self-made, so there’s always been an awareness of working hard
to earn a living,” said Lisa Caputo, a
friend and former White House aide.
There was anxiety, too. The family was
never comfortably affluent, and even as
Mr. Rodham bought himself a Cadillac,
he insisted that his wife and children live
modestly. Hillary and her brothers
helped at his drapery business, which
eventually closed after sales slowed.
By the time she was a student at Wellesley College, Mrs. Clinton and many in
her generation were expressing skepticism about the pursuit of money. In her
1969 commencement speech, she denounced materialism and corporate
greed. “We’re searching for more immediate, ecstatic and penetrating modes of
living,” she declared.
When she moved to Fayetteville, Ark.,
and later married Mr. Clinton in 1975, the
Yale Law-educated couple lived happily
earning about $18,000 a year each in
their positions as professors. But several
years later, as Mr. Clinton planned his
run for the governor’s office and the couple worried about starting a family, Mrs.
Clinton grew increasingly uneasy about
their incomes and started to think more
seriously about how to build a nest egg.
“She had been the chief breadwinner
and financial decision maker,” her best
friend, Diane D. Blair, wrote in notes she
kept about the era.
Arkansas was a small state with overlapping circles of the politically and economically powerful — and many of the
Clintons’ contemporaries were getting
rich. “The smart guys who were politically active would make that interesting investment that would push them
from the ranks of the upper middle class
into the wealthy and powerful,” said
William K. Black, a former financial regulator and professor at the University of
Missouri-Kansas City.
Mrs. Clinton began seeking out investment opportunities, and in 1978 she made
one of the most lucrative, if seemingly
risky, financial decisions of her life.
Mr. Blair, the Clintons’ close friend,
had made several million dollars in the
commodities market, and urged Mrs.
Clinton to begin trading, too. With an initial investment of just $1,000, she made
nearly $100,000 trading cattle futures in a
10-month period, which helped pay for
the down payment on the Midland Street
home. But the move later haunted her
when the investment became the subject
of scrutiny in the early years of the Clinton presidency.
It still trails her occasionally: Mr.
Trump raised it at a rally last month in
North Carolina, as he attacked her for being “crooked.” “Look at her cattle futures!’’ he called out to the crowd.
Also in 1978, another friend, James B.
McDougal, persuaded Mrs. Clinton to invest in another venture: the Whitewater
real estate development on a plot of land
in the Ozarks. The Clintons ultimately
lost money on the deal, but the development led to an investigation when Mr.
Clinton was in the White House.
The deals were certainly tempting,
given the couple’s income at the time. In
1978, Mr. Clinton became one of the
youngest, and lowest paid, governors, in
the country, earning $33,519.14 his first
year in office. Mrs. Clinton’s income from
the Rose Law Firm brought their combined wages in 1978 to $51,173.
Even though she reaped big rewards
on the commodities market, the experience was unnerving. Shortly after
Chelsea was born, Mrs. Clinton told her
VIA CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY
broker she wanted out. “I couldn’t take
the stress,” she said at a campaign stop in
June.
She would, however, continue to shoulder her family’s financial worries.
Not long after Mr. Clinton won re-election in 1982, the Clintons sold the yellow
house on Midland Street and moved
back into the governor’s mansion, where
they once again had free housing and the
assistance of a small staff.
Two years later, the state increased the
governor’s term to four years, and the
Clintons’ finances appeared more stable.
Mrs. Clinton went on to join the board of
Walmart, and she continued to work at
the Rose Law Firm. By the time Mr. Clinton was running for president, they reported $297,177 in total income on their
1992 tax returns, a sum that would put
most Americans in the upper income tier
but seemed meager compared with the
wealth of his opponents, George Bush
and Ross Perot.
“When we moved into the White
House, we had the lowest net worth of
any family since Harry Truman,” Mr.
Clinton has said.
The White House years offered a
respite from financial worry. As first
lady, Mrs. Clinton wrote a book, “It Takes
a Village,’’ for which she did not accept
an advance and donated the proceeds to
charity. “HRC insists she will have time,
wants it to have impact (of course, also
wants it to make huge bucks),” Mrs. Blair
wrote at the time.
Still, the couple’s earlier financial decisions resurfaced in damaging ways.
What started as an investigation into the
Whitewater investment spun into
revelations of Mr. Clinton’s relationship
with a White House intern, which led to
the president’s impeachment by the
House of Representatives.
When the Clintons left the White
House after the 2000 election — the first
time they were without the safety net of
public office in 18 years — they owed $5
million in legal fees and once again felt
financial uncertainty. In 2014, Mrs. Clinton described her family’s situation at
the time in words that have bedeviled
her candidacy: “Dead broke.”
Once again, the Clintons needed a
house, and once again they turned to the
help of a wealthy friend. This time it was
Terry McAuliffe, a longtime Clinton campaign fund-raiser, who offered to guarantee the mortgage on the home they
would move into after leaving the White
House.
But this time, the home — a $1.7 million, 11-room Dutch Colonial in Chappaqua, a rich suburb — was not one of the
smallest houses on the block. Mrs. Clinton did not have to call the Roto-Rooter
every time the old pipes clogged or run to
a neighbor’s house to borrow milk and
eggs, as she had done in the house on
Midland Street.
And now it was Mrs. Clinton, eyeing a
Senate seat from New York, who left her
husband at home as she hit the road,
crisscrossing the state for her campaign.
A14
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
Rebuke of Baltimore Police Revives Doubts on Zero-Tolerance Approach
From Page A1
numbers of stops, searches and
arrests for minor, highly discretionary offenses,” the report said.
“These practices led to repeated
violations of the constitutional
and statutory rights, further eroding the community’s trust in the
police.”
In an interview, Mr. Bratton
said that the excesses of the Baltimore police should not discredit
an approach to policing that he argued, far from being outdated or
in disrepute, remained “the fundamental principle on which police
operate.”
He distinguished between his
policing approach, which requires
officers to confront disorderly behavior but not necessarily to
make arrests, and a zero-tolerance approach that measures success by arrest figures.
Mr. Bratton said the key was to
adjust the level of police enforcement based on the security of the
city. He noted that in recent years,
as public safety improved, the
number of arrests and police
stops in New York dropped.
“We don’t do zero-tolerance policing,” he said, adding that he
took “umbrage” at the Justice Department’s suggestion that zerotolerance policing had migrated
from New York to Baltimore and
elsewhere. “Since we didn’t apply
it,” Mr. Bratton said, “how did it
migrate out of New York?”
Departments across the country, including those in Minneapolis; Atlanta; New York; and
Tampa, Fla., have rolled back noholds-barred enforcement of laws
that criminalize minor offenses
like spitting, riding bicycles on
sidewalks, panhandling and public drinking.
The approach grew out of the
war on drugs in the 1990s and
record levels of murders, criminologists say, as departments
sought to use renewed vigor by
patrol officers to prevent major
crimes.
In practice, however, data from
police departments around the
Sheryl Gay Stolberg contributed
reporting.
country shows that officers using
the zero-tolerance strategy focused their arrests on AfricanAmerican men in poor neighborhoods, while ignoring the same offenses in wealthier white neighborhoods.
One study, for example, showed
that from 2008 to 2011, New York
police officers issued eight citations for riding bicycles on sidewalks in Park Slope, a predominantly white Brooklyn neighborhood, but 2,050 in nearby BedfordStuyvesant, which is primarily
African-American and Latino.
“A whole generation of police officers has come up under this approach: ‘Arrest. Arrest. Arrest,’”
said David A. Harris, a professor
and expert in police accountability at the University of Pittsburgh
School of Law. He said the federal
government’s
denunciation
“might signify a kind of turning
point in law enforcement.”
Others pointed out, however,
that the practice is standard in
hundreds of police forces across
the nation and that officers often
win awards and promotions based
on the number of arrests they
make, including for minor offenses.
On Wednesday, Vanita Gupta,
the head of the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department,
said the Baltimore police had pursued “a quest to produce large
numbers of enforcement actions,
pedestrian stops in particular,”
which created “caustic damage to
community relationships.”
Ms. Gupta added that even as
the idea was discredited, “many in
the B.P.D. continue to follow this
strategy.”
While some police officials have
credited broken-windows policing
with the large drops in crime nationally since the 1990s, a number
of academic studies have questioned its effectiveness, and some
officers have blamed the practice
for the lack of public cooperation
they receive in trying to solve violent crimes.
“We’ve been spending the past
two decades trying to prove something, but there’s zero evidence
for its efficacy,” said Michael A.
Wood Jr., a former Baltimore po-
Kevin Davis, the Baltimore police commissioner, spoke about the Justice Department report.
lice sergeant who now advocates
police reform.
The frequency with which police officers — from Seattle to Oakland, Calif.; from Ferguson, Mo.,
to Philadelphia; and now in Baltimore — have been found to have
infringed on the constitutional
Concerns about
antipathy between the
police and residents.
rights of citizens has led some police leaders to reject the practice
in favor of community-based policing.
“The dilemma for police chiefs
is how do you impact crime in
high-crime neighborhoods without the overreach of violating the
rights of people who have done
nothing wrong,” said Chuck
Wexler, the executive director of
the Police Executive Research
Forum, an organization that provides technical assistance to law
enforcement agencies.
Ronal Serpas, who has been a
police chief in New Orleans, Nashville and Washington State, said
that zero-tolerance policing had
been losing adherents among
chiefs for years, even before the
2014 riots in Ferguson, which were
prompted by the fatal police
shooting of Michael Brown.
Mr. Serpas said that police
chiefs during the 1990s had imitated New York City’s broken-windows strategy under Mr. Bratton
by intensifying efforts on low-level crime enforcement.
“Those policing strategies became a beast that fed itself,” Mr.
Serpas said, noting that the rise in
stop-and-frisks, arrests and tickets had become increasingly burdensome and intrusive. “In the
years, we found out that we lost
these people whose kids started
getting caught up in these dragnets.”
In New York, the Police Depart-
ment’s crime-fighting strategy
had grown increasingly reliant on
a particular component of brokenwindows policing: the investigative stop, often called “stop, question and frisk.”
But police data showed that officers rarely found any evidence of
criminality. In one precinct, only 4
percent of the stops resulted in an
arrest or summons. In Brownsville, a predominantly AfricanAmerican neighborhood of Brooklyn, young black men were
stopped so often on their way
home after school that members
of a high school football team began carrying their helmets home
with them so the police would
view them with less suspicion.
By the time Shira A. Scheindlin,
a federal judge, concluded in 2013
that the department’s policies had
led to widespread constitutional
violations, the police commissioner at the time, Raymond W.
Kelly, had already begun abandoning the strategy.
And since Mr. Bratton’s return
as commissioner under Mayor
Bill de Blasio, he has signaled to
officers that a warning for a minor
infraction is sometimes preferable to handcuffs. Mr. Bratton has
announced that he will resign in
September to take a job in the private sector.
The New York City Council considered decriminalizing numerous petty offenses, including public urination and public drinking.
But, facing stiff opposition from
the Police Department, it softened
the legislation this spring, and the
law now leaves it up to officers to
decide whether to treat petty offenses as criminal or civil matters.
In Atlanta, Kwanza Hall, a City
Council member, introduced legislation this year that would decriminalize a series of low-level crimes
— including spitting, panhandling, moving household goods at
night and loitering around railroad tracks — that he said had
been used to target African-Americans.
And in June 2015, the Minneapolis City Council repealed laws
against lurking — an offense similar to loitering — and spitting in
public after an A.C.L.U. report
showed that African-Americans
and Native Americans were nearly nine times more likely than
whites to be arrested on minor offenses.
While officers are given wide
discretion in whether to make arrests, issue tickets or ignore minor crimes, they are often ordered
by sergeants and lieutenants to
confront every violation they see,
a practice that the Justice Department said was called “clearing
streets” in Baltimore.
This often meant, according to
the federal report, that the police
confronted people hanging outside of shops, searching them and
checking for open warrants, even
though the officers lacked the legal authority to do so.
“Zero-tolerance policing was
not keeping us safer,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal
Defense and Educational Fund,
and a Baltimore resident. “It’s not
rocket science. We knew that this
was devastating.”
Findings of Police Bias
Have Baltimore Asking
What Took So Long
From Page A10
decree, in which police training
and practices will be overhauled
under court supervision. The city
has already entered into an
‘‘agreement in principle,’’ the
mayor said, adding, “We have a
very long journey ahead of us.’’
Mr. Davis, who described himself as “very, very concerned” by
the findings, said he had already
fired six officers who had engaged
in misconduct uncovered by Jus-
The U.S. says officers
have harassed black
residents for years.
tice Department investigators.
“Those who choose to wear this
uniform and choose to blatantly
disregard someone’s rights absolutely should be uncomfortable,”
he said, “because we are not going
to tolerate it.”
The report took 14 months; the
mayor invited the Justice Department in after the April 2015 death
of Mr. Gray, a 25-year-old black
man who sustained a fatal spinal
cord injury in police custody, set
off riots. As the inquiry has progressed, she said, Baltimore has
worked closely with the department to change police practices.
City officials have revised 26
policies, she said, including the
one governing use of force, and officials are engaged in ‘‘active discussion’’ about giving residents a
role in determining how officers
are punished — a central demand
of civil rights advocates. The city
has also retrofitted its transport
vans — officials say Mr. Gray was
injured while riding unbuckled in
a van — and has begun issuing
body cameras to officers.
But none of the steps can substitute for the wholesale change in
culture that people here agree is
required. Mr. Brown could barely
contain his rage as he cited one
anecdote from the report — about
a teenage boy who reported having been strip-searched, in front of
his girlfriend. The officer denied
strip-searching the teenager during a drug arrest, and the charges
were later dropped for lack of evidence. After the teenager filed a
complaint, he told investigators
that he was strip-searched again
by the same officer who, he said,
then grabbed his genitals.
“What that officer did is not just
violate a body, but he injured a
spirit, a soul, a psyche,’’ Mr. Brown
said. “And that young boy will not
easily forget what happened to
him, in public with his girlfriend.
It’s hard to really put gravity and
weight to that type of offense.’’
Tensions over race and policing
here date to at least 1980, when the
N.A.A.C.P. called for a federal investigation into police brutality,
and they continued with a crimefighting strategy known as “zerotolerance policing,” which was
singled out by the Justice Department.
“Hearing the actual numbers, like on the traffic stops, is blowing my mind,” Ray Kelly said of a report on police discrimination.
“People say, ‘driving while
black, walking while black,’” Mr.
Scott, the city councilman, said.
“When you’re talking about zero
tolerance, it’s breathing while
black.”
Baltimore is now among nearly
two dozen cities that the Obama
administration has investigated
after they were accused of widespread unconstitutional policing.
Once Baltimore reaches a settlement, an overhaul of the Police
Department will take years and
will cost millions; Ms. RawlingsBlake and her aides put the price
tag at $5 million to $10 million a
year for five to 10 years.
Jonathan Smith, a former Justice Department official who supervised a similar inquiry in Ferguson, Mo., said reports like the
one issued Wednesday were a required step toward community
healing.
“I’ve often thought of the re-
ports as a necessary cathartic moment, maybe an act of witness,
where you give voice to people
who wouldn’t otherwise have a
voice,” Mr. Smith said.
Mr. Kelly, the head of the No
Boundaries Coalition, an advocacy group in Sandtown-Winchester, the West Baltimore neighborhood where Mr. Gray grew up,
agreed. After Mr. Gray died, his
organization convened hearings
and conducted dozens of inter-
views for a report, “The People’s
Findings,” that he submitted to
the Justice Department. He was
among those providing testimony.
“You are just hoping that you
don’t get arrested for loitering or
something crazy like that, and you
get 23 hours in central booking for
something that never even makes
it to a courtroom,” he said. “That’s
been routine my whole life. I can’t
remember a time when that wasn’t the way it was.”
Obama Administration Is Set to Lift a Barrier to Expanded Research on Marijuana
From Page A1
Hudak, a senior fellow at the
Brookings Institution.
The new policy will be published as soon as Thursday in the
federal register, according to the
three officials, who have seen the
policy but spoke on condition of
anonymity because they were not
authorized to discuss it.
It is unclear how many additional universities would receive
licenses to grow marijuana, but
the new policy does not set a cap
on the number who could qualify.
Any institution that has an approved research protocol and the
security measures needed to store
dangerous drugs can apply.
Researchers will still have to receive approval from federal agencies to conduct medical studies of
marijuana, including from the
D.E.A. and the Food and Drug Administration.
Those
whose
projects are funded by the Na-
tional Institute on Drug Abuse
will also need its consent.
But drug policy advocates, experts and researchers predicted
that increasing the number of institutions growing marijuana will
have a significant practical effect.
Action on a drug
increasingly used to
treat diseases.
The University of Mississippi’s
monopoly on that role has been a
barrier.
“It’s clear that this was a significant hurdle in limiting the quantity of clinical research taking
place in the U.S.,” said Paul Armentano, the deputy director of
the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws.
Researchers often had difficulty getting some kinds of marijuana, including ones with large
amounts of THC, the main ingredient in the drug that gets people
high. Under the University of Mississippi monopoly, Mr. Hudak of
Brookings said: “If you were a researcher who thought a product
with high THC would help someone with a painful cancer, you
were out of luck. You couldn’t access high THC marijuana in the
same way you could buy it in a
market in Colorado,” where it is legal.
As recently as June, Dr. Steven
W. Gust, a special assistant to the
director of National Institute on
Drug Abuse, had disagreed with
critics who say the monopoly has
stifled research. “In the past,
NIDA has been able to provide
marijuana for every federally
qualified research project,” he
said recently in an emailed re-
sponse to questions.
Earlier this year, the D.E.A. had
suggested that it would possibly
remove marijuana from the list of
the most restricted and danger-
ous drugs by end of June. But this
week, the agency did not take
such a step.
Dr. Orrin Devinsky of the Comprehensive Epilepsy Center at
LANCE MURPHEY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The University of Mississippi has for years been the only institution authorized to grow marijuana for medical studies.
New York University Langone
Medical Center called it “deeply
disappointing” that the agency
had not done so. He said the scientific data overwhelmingly indicated it should not be listed as
such a dangerous drug.
The federal government still
classifies marijuana as a highly
addictive drug without medical
value, as it has for 46 years. The
D.E.A. did not say when it will answer two petitions demanding a
change of that policy, filed separately in 2009 and 2011.
Others were relieved that the
D.E.A. had moved to allow more
institutions to grow marijuana for
research, but not taken it off the
list of the most dangerous drugs.
“They’re looking at the science,
taking a nuanced view,” said Kevin A. Sabet, a former Obama administration drug-policy adviser
and president of the group Smart
Approaches to Marijuana. “It’s a
good day for science.”
N
A15
A16
THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
K
OBITUARIES
Seena Hamilton, 92, Who Founded
‘Super Bowl of Junior Tennis,’ Is Dead
By BRUCE WEBER
CLIFFORD OTO/THE RECORD, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Anthony Silva, mayor of Stockton, Calif., was accused of secretly recording a group of teenagers.
Mayor’s Arrest and Link to the Death
Of a Boy Have Divided a California City
By JULIE TURKEWITZ
First, the residents of Stockton,
Calif., learned that their mayor
was the owner of a stolen gun
linked to a homicide. Days later,
he was arrested at a camp he runs
for disadvantaged youths, accused of secretly recording
teenagers playing strip poker,
providing alcohol to minors and
endangering children there a year
earlier.
Those were the latest in a string
of episodes that have placed
Stockton’s mayor, Anthony Silva,
under intense scrutiny, upending
a Northern California community
of nearly 300,000 people that is already struggling to repair wounds
inflicted by violent crime and the
2008 foreclosure crisis.
The mayor’s arrest and the gun
revelation, episodes extensively
covered by The Record and other
local news media, have divided a
community that many believed
was finally on the mend. Several
City Council members have called
for Mr. Silva to resign, while a vocal group of residents has rallied
to his side.
On Tuesday night, a packed City
Council meeting began with
cheers for the mayor, and included
more than a dozen speakers who
came to his defense.
Days before the mayor’s Aug. 4
arrest at the camp, a document released by the district attorney’s
office in San Joaquin County
showed that a gun registered to
Mr. Silva — one he had reported
stolen — had been linked to a 2015
homicide: the death of a 13-yearold boy, Rayshawn Harris.
Nearly a month after the boy
was fatally shot, Mr. Silva reported the gun had been stolen
from a home he owned, according
to the Stockton Police Department. Mr. Silva, 41, was not accused of criminal wrongdoing in
the gun case. But the boy’s father,
Willis Harris, questioned why the
mayor had waited several weeks
to make a report. “I’m just really
tore up right now,” said Mr. Harris,
60, in an interview. “Why didn’t he
report it? My child could still be
here.”
At a news conference on Aug. 5,
after his release on $20,000 bail,
the mayor proclaimed his innocence of the camp-related
charges.
“One, everyone there was 18
years old,” Mr. Silva said. “No. 2, I
Susan C. Beachy contributed research.
have never ever, ever, ever endangered a child. Ever.”
But that assertion did not satisfy some of the mayor’s critics.
“What is the mayor doing playing
strip poker with 18-year-olds?”
said Michael Blower, 48, a City
Council member and lifelong resident of Stockton. “Whether or not
he’s guilty of all the crimes he’s
charged with, he’s certainly guilty
of poor judgment. And I just want
my city to be able to heal, move on
from this.”
In an interview, a lawyer for Mr.
Silva, Mark Reichel said that his
client would ultimately be cleared
of the charges. “They forced these
kids to say this stuff,” Mr. Reichel
said, accusing local and federal investigators of pressuring minors
A blow for Stockton,
hit hard by crime and
foreclosures.
into saying they were naked and
drinking as Mr. Silva recorded.
“They are drunk with power.”
In an affidavit filed in the superior court of Amador County, investigators said that they had confiscated Mr. Silva’s cellphone in
2015, and that they found 23 pictures and four videos from the
camp. According to the document,
one video features a clothed Mr.
Silva being accompanied by four
teenagers, including a 16-year-old
boy, in various stages of undress.
Mr. Silva was elected in 2012,
calling himself the “people’s mayor” and pledging to restore the
city’s reputation. A former chairman of the school board in Stockton, he also led the local Boys &
Girls Club and has been active in a
nonprofit organization called the
Stockton Kids Club.
Known for less-than-typical political activities, Mr. Silva wore a
gladiator helmet to deliver his
first State of the City address,
telling residents that he was ready
to fight for them. This year, he was
photographed in his bathrobe,
hanging campaign signs around
Stockton at 2 a.m.
Mr. Silva has run a sleep-away
camp for a number of years, inviting at-risk youths for a week of
bonfires and water sports.
Campers, ages 7 to 17, sleep in
cabins and can participate in a talent show. Parents pay on a sliding
scale, with support from the
Stockton Kids Club.
In 2005, according to The
Record, a police report said that
Mr. Silva had bragged about recording girls’ using the restroom
and changing their clothing at his
home. In a 2012 police report, a 19year-old woman accused him of
sexual battery.
More recently, a limousine
driver sued the mayor and four
other people after a ride that began at a property owned by Mr.
Silva, according to court documents. The event ended with a
damaged vehicle and resulted in
the arrest of a passenger, who said
he flew into a rage and struck his
fiancée after Mr. Silva had
touched her. Mr. Silva’s lawyer
said the mayor reached an out-ofcourt settlement with the limo
driver for an undisclosed amount
of money.
Mr. Silva is running for re-election in Stockton against Michael
Tubbs, 26, a City Council member
who, in 2014, pleaded no contest to
a misdemeanor charge of driving
under the influence. Mr. Tubbs did
not respond to a request for comment.
In the gun case, the district attorney’s office released a document in late July that showed that
a semiautomatic pistol stolen
from Mr. Silva had been used in
two crimes — the shooting of a
home in January 2015, and the
killing of Rayshawn Harris in late
February 2015. But the mayor did
not report the gun’s theft until
March 22, 2015.
Mr. Silva’s lawyer said the mayor had waited to report the absence of the pistol and another
gun because he was unsure
whether the firearms had been
stolen or misplaced.
Some residents have rallied to
the mayor’s defense, and have
called the investigation a plot to
sway the election. “Don’t give up
Anthony,” wrote a woman named
Teresa Sannicolas on Facebook,
adding that her son was at the
camp during the arrest. “My son
and family suport you and are
proud to have you as our Mayor.”
Others, however, say they have
lost faith in the man they elected
to lead them.
“We already have a pretty
tainted view of our city,” said
Andie Garvin, 35, a Stockton resident who once campaigned for Mr.
Silva but now wants him out. “It
seems like we’re making strides,
and then something like this
comes out and it just knocks us 10
steps back.”
Facebook Members Can Message Obama
By GARDINER HARRIS
EDGARTOWN, Mass. — The
White House receives thousands
of letters each day, but now people
have another way to send notes,
advice, criticism or well wishes to
President Obama, officials at the
White House said on Wednesday
in announcing the opening of a
Facebook messaging account.
“Our goal is to meet people
where they are,” Jason Goldman,
the chief digital officer at the
White House, wrote in a news release announcing the new account.
Since the beginning of his administration, Mr. Obama has insisted on having at least 10 letters
included in his daily briefing book.
He sees the letters as a reality
check in a city and a political environment that can sometimes lose
touch with the rest of the country’s day-to-day concerns.
“And what’s interesting is not
only do these letters help me to
stay in touch with the people who
sent me here or the people who
voted against me, but a lot of times
they identify problems that might
not have percolated up through
the various agencies and bureaucracies,” Mr. Obama said in the
news release. “And more than
once, there have been occasions
where these letters inspired action on real problems that are out
there.”
In recent years, Mr. Obama has
increasingly reached into his letter bag to tell stories of how his administration has changed lives for
the better and to give an emotional element to his speeches and
appearances.
But as the habit of letter-writing
wanes and a new generation
comes of age enamored of social
media, the White House has focused on tending to a new audience with new tools.
Mr. Obama has his own Twitter
account, and Michelle Obama, the
first lady, created a Snapchat account recently.
Tended by a bevy of digitalsavvy aides in the White House,
the accounts have little of the awkwardness of parental efforts at being cool. Some of the videos and
other messages uploaded into the
digital universe by the White
House have gone viral, burnishing
Mr. Obama’s image with younger
people.
“Technology makes it possible
for anyone with an internet connection to send a message to the
president and his administration,”
Mr. Goldman wrote.
Facebook and Google together
claimed nearly two-thirds of the
$60 billion online advertising market last year and are on course to
take more this year. Facebook has
become among the most important sources of news, with a recent
survey finding that about half of
those in 26 countries received
their news from social media.
Serial Killer Known as ‘Grim Sleeper’ Is Sentenced to Death
By KAREN WORKMAN
A Los Angeles man whose murders of nine young women and a
teenager over three decades
earned him the nickname the
Grim Sleeper was sentenced to
death on Wednesday.
The man, Lonnie D. Franklin Jr.,
63, was convicted this year in the
killings, which took place from the
mid-1980s to 2007. Long breaks between killings — he appeared to
stop from 1988 to 2002 — brought
him the sobriquet.
Mr. Franklin was arrested in
2010 at the home he shared with
his wife, not far from the South
Los Angeles alleyways where the
bodies had been found. A DNA
sample gathered from his son af-
ter an arrest in 2008 tipped off the
police to a familial link. A detective posing as a busboy collected
pizza partly eaten by the elder Mr.
Franklin to obtain his DNA.
Hundreds of photographs of
women were found at his home,
including one of Enietra Washington, believed to be the killer’s only
survivor.
Seena Hamilton, a tennis mom
who founded and directed the junior tennis tournament known as
the Easter Bowl, a leading testing
ground for young players on their
way to college and pro careers,
died on Saturday in Kingston, N.Y.
She was 92.
The cause was cardiac arrhythmia, a complication of Alzheimer’s
disease, said her son, Bryan
Fineberg.
A trade journalist and a marketing specialist, Ms. Hamilton found
in the 1960s that she was the
mother of a tennis prodigy, Mr.
Fineberg, who was ranked among
the top 12-year-olds in the Eastern
United States. At the time, however, there were no national tournaments for junior players in the
East, so Ms. Hamilton, whose
family lived in New York City,
started her own.
In April 1968, the first Easter
Bowl, as the new tournament was
called, was held at the Midtown
Tennis Club in Manhattan. Its star
attraction was a 15-year-old from
East St. Louis, Ill.: Jimmy Connors.
“I remember he stayed at our
house,” Mr. Fineberg said. (Mr.
Connors did not win the 16-andunder title that year, however; another future pro, Harold Solomon,
did.)
Now nearly 50 years old, the
Easter Bowl is the only national
tournament with competitions for
boys and girls in 12-and-under, 14and-under, 16-and-under and 18and-under divisions. It attracts
more than 600 participants annually as well as, not incidentally,
coaches from a variety of college
programs on the lookout for recruits.
After a decade in New York City,
the tournament has moved
around a bit — to New Jersey, Arizona, Florida and Southern California, where it was held this year
in Indian Wells. The future stars
who followed Mr. Connors included John McEnroe, Vitas Gerulaitis, Pete Sampras, Andre
Agassi, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, Tracy Austin and,
more recently, Andy Roddick,
John Isner and Sloane Stephens.
Ms. Hamilton’s ingenuity and
tenacity are often credited for establishing the Easter Bowl (now
ROBERT KENAS
Seena Hamilton with Arthur Ashe in the 1980s at an event for
the Easter Bowl, a youth tournament she started in 1968.
known officially as the Asics Easter Bowl) as perhaps the nation’s
pre-eminent tennis event for junior players — “the Super Bowl of
junior tennis,” as the current tournament director, Lornie Kuhle,
said in a phone interview on Monday.
A relentless publicist and marketer for junior tennis in general
and the Easter Bowl in particular,
Ms. Hamilton attracted corporate
sponsorships and made the families of the young players into
participants in the tournament’s
ancillary activities, arranging social events and seminars for
mothers and fathers flummoxed
by the exigencies of parenting
gifted and ambitious players.
Mr. Kuhle said he had long
known about the tournament but
had never attended until the late
1990s.
“My first encounter with the
Easter Bowl was when my daughter Jennifer played in the event,”
he said. “And it was only when I
experienced it through the eyes of
my child that I realized what an
impact Seena Hamilton had on
youth tennis in America. She was
a pioneer.”
Seena Madeline Hamilton was
born in Manhattan on Feb. 8, 1924,
and grew up in Washington,
where her mother, the former Helen Brahms, ran a nightclub. Her
father, Leonard, was a lawyer.
Ms. Hamilton attended the
College of William and Mary in
Williamsburg, Va., although she
left a year or so before graduating
and began a variegated career
that included stints as a newspaper copy girl, a radio scriptwriter,
a record publicist, a radio show
host and a magazine editor; she
spent a decade as the editor of a
hospitality industry publication
called
Hotel
Gazette.
She
eventually founded two marketing consulting companies, Seena
Hamilton & Associates and Creative Tennis Marketing.
Ms. Hamilton married S. K.
Fineberg, known as Sy, a doctor
specializing in obesity and diabetes, around 1950. Dr. Fineberg,
whose initials stood for Seymour
Koeppel, died in 1993. Their son,
Bryan Fineberg, attended Furman University on a tennis
scholarship, played professionally in small tournaments and succeeded his mother as Easter Bowl
director from 2007 to 2013.
In addition to him, Ms. Hamilton is survived by a granddaughter.
In an interview on Monday, Mr.
Fineberg recalled his mother
fondly as something of a human
juggernaut who had zealously
supported the tennis aspirations
that, as a 12-year-old, he perhaps
did not know he had.
“The Easter Bowl was a monument to that kind of overinvolvement,” he said with a laugh. “As a
kid, I would have preferred if she
had kept to her own thing.”
Bernard Farrelly, 71, First World Surfing King
By DANIEL VICTOR
Bernard Farrelly, a pioneering
Australian surfboarder who won
the sport’s first world championship, in 1964, died on Saturday.
He was 71.
Farrelly’s death was reported
by Surfing Australia, the country’s surfing organization, which
did not say where he had died. The
cause was stomach cancer, according to the Encyclopedia of
Surfing.
Farrelly, who was known as
Midget although he was 5 feet 8
inches tall, was among the top
surfers of the 1960s, when the
sport gained in popularity worldwide. As a 17-year-old in 1962, he
won the Makaha International,
considered an unofficial world
championship, in Hawaii.
Then, in 1964, Farrelly won the
first official championship, at
Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia.
In an interview with the
Australian National Surfing Museum in 2014, Farrelly said that it
had taken him at least 20 years to
appreciate the victory.
“My surfing always came first,”
he said. “It was my freedom from
a world that I didn’t think was necessarily made for me.”
He added an Australian national title in 1965 and then placed
sixth in the 1966 world champiChristopher Mele contributed reporting.
DALLAS KILPONEN/THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD/FAIRFAX MEDIA, VIA GETTY IMAGES
Bernard Farrelly at Manly Beach in Sydney, Australia, in 2004.
onships and second in the 1968
world championships.
With surfing taking its place
alongside tennis and cricket
among Australian pastimes, Farrelly emerged there as a prominent pop-culture figure, starring
in surf films, writing a newspaper
column and posing for cover
shoots for magazines. He was inducted into the Sports Australia
Hall of Fame in 1985 and was added to the Surfing Walk of Fame in
Huntington Beach, Calif., in 2007.
But he had also been an outsider in the surfing world. In 1969,
he editorialized against illicit drug
use, which had become ingrained
in the surfing culture.
“Does the beach take dope, do
the waves take dope, do the sea
gulls take dope?” he wrote in Surfing World. “Man, if you’re part of
that scene, you won’t, either.”
Farrelly helped create the International Surfing Federation,
which staged some of the first
championship events. He was an
influential designer of short
boards and started Farrelly Surfboards and Surfblanks Australia,
both of which remain in business.
He began designing boards at 14.
Farrelly was born on Sept. 13,
1944, in Sydney. He is survived by
his wife, Beverlie, and their three
daughters.
The magazine Surfing Life said
on its website that he had surfed
until a few weeks before his death.
Helen Delich Bentley, 92, Ex-Congresswoman
By The Associated Press
Helen Delich Bentley, a former
Maryland congresswoman who
was an expert on the maritime industry and a staunch advocate for
port improvements — so much so
that the Port of Baltimore was
named in her honor in 2006 — died
on Saturday at her home in Timonium, Md. She was 92.
Key Kidder, a family spokesman, said the cause was brain cancer. Gov. Larry Hogan ordered
state flags flown at half-staff in her
honor.
Mrs. Bentley, a Republican,
served in the House of Representatives from 1985 to 1995. She
was known for a tenacious and
gruff political style that produced
results, especially when it came to
her beloved Port of Baltimore.
By the end of her first term, she
had helped pass a bill allowing a
50-foot channel to be dredged into
the Baltimore port, making it the
only East Coast port with that distinction. The port was named in
her honor in 2006 on its 300th anniversary.
“That deep channel is a major
reason why the Port of Baltimore
is well positioned today to accommodate the largest ships in the
world,” James White, executive
director of the port, said.
Before entering politics, Mrs.
Bentley, who had earned a journalism degree at the University of
Missouri, was a reporter and editor for The Baltimore Sun from
1945 to 1969.
She was the first woman to
cover maritime news for The Sun
and quickly proved she could hold
her own on the Baltimore waterfront. In 1954, when a dockworker
compared her nose to a ski jump,
Mrs. Bentley punched him in the
jaw.
In 1969, President Richard M.
Nixon appointed her to a six-year
term as chairwoman of the Federal
Maritime
Commission,
making her the highest-ranking
woman in his administration. After her term was up, she established her own maritime consulting business.
Mrs. Bentley first ran for public
office in 1980 and lost to Representative Clarence Long. She lost
again two years later, but in 1984
JASON LEE/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Helen Delich Bentley of Maryland in 1988. The Port of Baltimore was named in her honor.
she defeated Mr. Long.
She ran for governor of Maryland in the 1994 Republican primary but lost to Ellen Sauerbrey.
Mrs. Bentley was born Helen
Delich on Nov. 28, 1923, in Ruth,
Nev. In 1959 she married William
Roy Bentley, a teacher. He died in
2003. The couple did not have children. No immediate family members survive.
THE NEW YORK TIMES OBITUARIES THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
A17
N
Patrice Munsel, a Soprano
Who Made Her Met Debut
As a Teenager, Dies at 91
By KATHRYN SHATTUCK
Patrice Munsel, a coloratura soprano who as a teenager became
one of the Metropolitan Opera’s
youngest stars and later crossed
over into television and musical
theater, died on Aug. 4 at her home
in Schroon Lake, N.Y. She was 91.
Her death was confirmed on
Wednesday by her daughter Heidi
Schuler Bright.
Ms. Munsel was 17 when, in
March 1943, she won a Met contract and $1,000 after tying for first
place in the eighth annual Metropolitan Auditions of the Air, a precursor to the Met’s National Council Auditions, a program to discover promising young opera
singers and nurture their careers.
(The other first-place winner
was Christine Johnson, who
originated the role of Nettie
Fowler in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “Carousel”
when it opened on Broadway in
1945.)
By November Ms. Munsel had
signed a three-year contract with
the impresario Sol Hurok for a
guaranteed $120,000. On Dec. 4, at
A singer and actress
who decided at a
young age to become
an opera star.
18, she made her Met debut as the
temptress Philine in Ambroise
Thomas’s “Mignon,” wearing a
good-luck ring and a crown lent to
her by the soprano Lily Pons.
The audience gave Ms. Munsel
a standing ovation of several minutes. The critics were generally
less kind.
“For this part her voice is neither sufficiently big, or developed,
or brilliant enough,” the critic Olin
Downes wrote in The New York
Times.
“In plain words,” he said, “she
was cruelly miscast, in this, one of
the most exacting roles in the coloratura soprano’s repertory.”
More than 40 years later, in a
Los Angeles Times interview, Ms.
Munsel said simply, “I didn’t have
a clue as to what the part was
about.”
Daniel E. Slotnik contributed reporting.
She performed a total of 225
times at the Met, excelling as the
maid Adele in Strauss’s “Die Fledermaus” and earning praise from
Downes for her “virtuoso singing”
and “very amusing acting.” He declared her born for the role “by
personality, wit, temperament.”
Rudolf Bing, the company’s
general manager during Ms.
Munsel’s tenure, is said to have
called her “a superb soubrette.”
But Ms. Munsel had given up
touring the moment she became
engaged to Robert C. Schuler, an
adman
turned
television
producer, whom she married in
1952. Not long after returning from
their summer-long European honeymoon, she did a star turn on
movie screens as Dame Nellie
Melba,
the
19th-century
Australian soprano, in the 1953
biopic “Melba,” produced by the
Hollywood legend Sam Spiegel.
From there, she strutted her
way into the Las Vegas nightclub
scene, peeling off a voluminous
silk skirt mid-aria at the New
Frontier in 1955 to reveal a halter
and bejeweled pink capris. Two
years later, Ms. Munsel embarked
on a television career with “The
Patrice Munsel Show,” a variety
series on ABC, joining guests like
Eddie Albert, Andy Williams,
Tony Bennett and John Raitt in a
mix of light opera and pop, though
she admitted to hating “doubleentendre lyrics.” It was canceled
after one season.
Ms. Munsel last performed at
the Met in 1958 as Mimi in “La Bohème,” a role she had long
coveted. She then focused on
motherhood, traveling and musical comedies, performing splits in
the 1965 Lincoln Center Theater
presentation of “The Merry Widow” and occasionally turning productions of “The Sound of Music”
and “The King and I” into family
affairs with her four children.
Besides her daughter Heidi,
two other children survive: another daughter, Nicole Schuler,
and a son, Scott Schuler, as well as
two grandsons and two greatgranddaughters. Her husband,
who in 2005 chronicled his 50-year
marriage to Ms. Munsel in the
book “The Diva & I: My Life with
Metropolitan Opera Star Patrice
Munsel,” died in 2007. Their son
Rhett Carroll Schuler died in 2005.
Patrice Beverly Munsil was
born on May 14, 1925, in Spokane,
Wash. (She later changed the
spelling of her surname to Munsel
at the Metropolitan Opera’s re-
THE METROPOLITAN OPERA ARCHIVES
quest.) Her father, Dr. Audley J.
Munsil, was a dental surgeon; her
mother, Eunice Munsil, was a
homemaker and an accomplished
piano player.
Ms. Munsel had a lifelong comedic streak. “I’m sure when I
emerged from my mother’s
womb, the doctor slapped me, I hit
a high C and slapped him back,”
she wrote in a biographical sketch
on her website.
She began studying ballet and
tap at 6 and soon, inspired by Walt
Disney, decided that she wanted
to be a professional whistler.
“There were always birds
whistling in the background” of
films like “Cinderella” and “Snow
White,” she explained, “so I decided to whistle my way to Hollywood.”
Her parents, eager to encourage any and all of her artistic aspirations, managed to find her a
whistling teacher.
But it wasn’t long before listening to Met radio broadcasts convinced her that her true destiny
was to become an opera star. By 15
she had moved with her mother to
New York, where twice-daily
voice lessons were supplemented
with piano, harmony, theory,
French and Italian classes, as well
as fencing lessons and gym workouts three times a week.
Within two years Ms. Munsel’s
ALLEN KEE/ESPN IMAGES
John Saunders interviewed Coach Nick Saban during a trophy presentation after Alabama won
the College Football Playoff in 2016. One colleague called Mr. Saunders “a voice of reason.”
John Saunders, 61, Measured Voice at ESPN
By DANIEL VICTOR
John Saunders, a widely known
ESPN and ABC sportscaster who
guided viewers through many
premier sporting events over the
last 30 years, has died, ESPN announced on Wednesday. He was
61.
The network provided no details on when and where he died or
on the cause of death.
Mr. Saunders was a familiar
presence on fall Saturdays as the
host of ABC’s studio coverage of
college football and the ESPN
show “College Football Live.” He
anchored coverage of the College
Football Playoff national championship game and hosted the
postgame trophy presentation.
On Sundays, he was the host of
“The Sports Reporters,” an ESPN
round table of journalists that
largely resisted the shouting and
argumentative style of shock
jocks in favor of measured, one-ata-time takes on sports issues, personalities and events.
There was no trace of bombast
in his presentation. As other
sports broadcasters yelled progressively louder, Mr. Saunders
was calm, steady and good-na-
The Times Book Review,
every Sunday
tured — “a voice of reason in our
often unreasonable discourse,” as
Mike Greenberg, an ESPN host,
said on Twitter.
Since starting at ESPN in 1986,
Mr. Saunders had been at the center of the network’s biggest franchises. He hosted the channel’s
studio coverage of college basketball and had called play-by-play
for college basketball since 1990.
He also hosted “Baseball Tonight”
from 1990 to 1993.
He was frequently involved in
ESPN’s coverage of major games.
A veteran sports host
remained calm while
colleagues shouted.
He hosted the N.H.L. Stanley Cup
playoff broadcasts from 1993 to
2004, the “SportsCenter” coverage of the N.C.A.A. basketball
tournament’s Final Four from 1991
to 1993, the World Series broadcasts from 1990 to 1992 and the Major League Baseball All-Star
Game broadcasts from 1990 to
1992.
Mr. Saunders was a founding
member of the V Foundation for
Cancer Research, named for Jim
ABC
Left, Patrice Munsel in her first role at the Metropolitan Opera as the temptress Philine in Ambroise Thomas’s “Mignon” in 1943.
Right, Ms. Munsel performing on “The Patrice Munsel Show,” a variety series on ABC that was canceled after one season.
Valvano, a former North Carolina
State basketball coach and ESPN
broadcaster, who died of cancer in
1993.
“John was an extraordinary talent, and his friendly, informative
style has been a warm welcome to
sports fans for decades,” John
Skipper, the president of ESPN,
said in a statement. “His wide
range of accomplishments across
numerous sports and championship events is among the most
impressive this industry has ever
seen.”
Mr. Saunders was born on Feb.
2, 1955, in Ajax, Ontario. He was an
all-star defenseman in junior
league hockey and played at
Western Michigan University
from 1974 to 1976 with his brother,
Bernie, before transferring to Ryerson Polytechnical in Toronto.
He had broadcast jobs in Ajax
and Toronto before moving to Baltimore, where he anchored daily
sports reports. He was hired by
ESPN in 1986 to anchor “SportsCenter.”
On “SportsCenter” on Wednesday, Hannah Storm struggled to
report the news of Mr. Saunders’s
death, calling him “our generous
and talented and beloved colleague.”
Mr. Saunders is survived by his
wife, Wanda, and two daughters,
Aleah and Jenna.
vocal coach, Giacomo Spadoni,
urged her to audition at the Met,
where he was chorus master, and
she agreed.
“After all, at the age of 17, how
long can one wait?” Ms. Munsel
wrote. “I stepped on the stage and
sang my first aria on the Metro-
Deaths
Deaths
Cuttner, Janet
Houghton, Jim
Aidinoff, M. Bernard Gelblum, Seth
Leeser, Emily
Bell, Gladys
Gussoff, Arnold
Sweeney, J. Clement
Coudert, Margaret
Hoffman, Arthur
Abeles, Anne
ABELES—Anne L., PhD,
on August 9, 2016. Beloved
wife of the late Julius. Devoted mother of John (Nancy),
Susan (Paul) and Richard
(Jill). Doting grandmother of
Julia, Rachel, Lauren, Hannah, Anne and Charlotte.
Loving aunt of Ralph (Wendy), Robert (Beth) and Ellen
(Dino). A memorial service
will be held Friday, August 12,
2016 at 11am at Riverside
Nassau North Chapels, 55
North Station Plaza, Great
Neck. Donations in her memory may be made to
Temple Judea of Manhasset
or City Harvest.
AIDINOFF—M. Bernard,
1929-2016
Merton
Bernard
(Bernie)
Aidinoff of New York City,
Amagansett, NY and Lyme,
CT died peacefully at home
surrounded by his family on
August 8, 2016. He was 87
years old. Born in Newport, RI
in 1929, Bernie remained a
member of the Touro Synagogue community, returning
regularly for the annual reading of George Washington's
Letter to the Jews of Newport on religious tolerance.
He graduated from the
University of Michigan (Phi
Beta Kappa) and the Harvard
Law School (Magna Cum
Laude) where he was an editor of the Harvard Law Review. A first lieutenant in the
Army Judge Advocate General Corps, he then became
a law clerk to Judge Learned
Hand. Bernie joined the law
firm of Sullivan & Cromwell
in 1956. An internationally respected tax expert, he loved
the practice of law and took
great pleasure in mentoring
younger
lawyers,
before
mentoring was a term. As
chairman of the American
Bar Association Section of
Taxation, he testified multiple times before the Senate
Finance Committee advocating for a progressive tax
code. Bernie also served as
chairman of the American
Law Institute Tax Program
Committee, as editor-in-chief
of The Tax Lawyer, as chairman of the Executive Committee of the Association of
the Bar of the City of New
York and on the Commissioner's Advisory Committee of
the Internal Revenue Service.
More than a tax specialist,
Bernie was a trusted business
advisor to the leadership of
many clients including Goldman Sachs and British Petroleum. He served on several boards including American
International
Group
and
Goldman Sachs Philanthropy
Fund. Dedicated to the rule of
law, Bernie served as a leading board member at Human
Rights First, Foundation for a
Civil Society (chair), and the
Harvard Law School Visiting
Committee and Alumni Association (chair). He leaves a
significant philanthropy legacy at organizations including
Touro Synagogue Foundation (chair), St. Luke's Orchestra (chair), Guild Hall,
East Hampton Historical Society,
The
Metropolitan
Opera Association, and the
Spence School. A committed
Democrat, Bernie was counsel to the Clinton Legal Defense Fund. He was a member of the Council on Foreign
Relations, The Century Association, India House and the
Metropolitan Club (Washington, DC). Bernie married Celia Spiro Aidinoff in 1956. They
were returning from their
honeymoon on the Andrea
Doria when—despite his insistence that it was impossible—the ship began to sink.
They were rescued by the Ile
de France. Cissie predeceased him in 1984. Twelve
years later, he fell in love with
Elsie Vanderbilt Newburg.
They were married Thanksgiving weekend, 1996, in
Lyme, CT. He is survived by
his wife, Elsie; his children,
Seth
(Lucie
Livingston)
Aidinoff, Gail (Ted) Aidinoff
Scovell;
his step-children,
Michael
Newburg,
Anne
Newburg,
Daniel
(Anna
Smith) Newburg and Thomas
(Catherine
Featherston)
Newburg; his sisters, Judith
Aidinoff and Ruth Elkind; and
many loving grandchildren,
nephews and nieces. The
funeral service will be private. A memorial service will
be held in the fall. Contributions in his memory may be
directed to: Storefront Academy Harlem (formerly The
Children's Storefront), 70 E.
129th Street, New York, NY
10035 or Orchestra of St.
Luke's, 450 West 37th Street,
Suite 502, New York, NY
10018.
politan Auditions of the Air without a nerve in my body. I won, and
I was on my way to fame and stardom.”
BELL—Gladys,
85, devoted wife to Philip,
mother to Jack and Robert,
grandmother
to
Jesse,
Samantha and Sadie, died
quietly in her sleep on August
9 at Englewood Hospital. She
was predeceased by Philip
and Robert. Loving and generous, Gladys was one of a
kind and will be missed by
those she loved and those
who loved her. A graveside
service will be held at 1pm on
Sunday, August 14 at Mount
Lebanon Cemetery in Glendale, Queens, NY. Shiva will
be at a family member's
home on Sunday, August 14
and Monday, August 15.
COUDERT—Margaret R.,
of New York City on August 9,
2016. Beloved wife of the late
Frederic R. Coudert, Margaret and her late husband
spent much of their time in
community services and supporting many philanthropic
causes. She was the devoted
sister of Ann Marie Cavinee,
Theresa Martz, Charles and
Thomas McInnis; stepmother
of Cynthia and Sandra Coudert. Also the loving aunt of 19
nieces and nephews. Calling
hours at the Fred H. McGrath
& Son Funeral Home between the hours of 2 to 4pm
and 7 to 9pm Friday. Mass of
Christian Burial St. Joseph's
Church, Bronxville, Saturday,
August 13 at 9:15am. In lieu of
flowers, donations may be
made to the Kips Bay Boys
and Girls Club and to Sloan
Kettering Memorial Hospital
Breast Cancer Center. Marge
leaves this world a better
place through her generosity
and genuine concern for the
well being of others.
CUTTNER—Janet, M.D.
We at the Mount Sinai Health
System are saddened by the
passing of Janet Cuttner,
M.D., a devoted physician, investigator, and mentor who
had a profound effect upon
the study of hematology. Dr.
Cuttner, Clinical Professor of
Medicine (Hematology and
Medical Oncology), had been
a faculty member in the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology for more than
50 years. She was an expert in
the field of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP)
and was involved in the seminal studies of the treatment of acute leukemia and
lymphoma. She was the author of more than 100 peerreviewed publications and
trained hundreds of hematology fellows who went on to
become leaders in their field.
Dr. Cuttner served as Chief of
the Hematology Protocol
Service from 1966 to 1999 and
was the Director of the Cytochemistry Laboratory in
Hematology from 1974 to
2002. She was a dedicated
physician who continued to
treat patients up until the
time of her death. In 1999, the
Mount Sinai Alumni Association presented Dr. Cuttner
with the prestigious Jacobi
Medallion in recognition of
her distinguished achievement in the field of medicine
and her extraordinary service to The Mount Sinai Hospital and the Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai. Dr.
Cuttner will be sorely missed
by her Mount Sinai colleagues.
Kenneth L. Davis, M.D.,
President and Chief
Executive Officer,
Mount Sinai Health System
Dennis S. Charney, M.D.,
Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz
Dean, Icahn School of
Medicine at Mount Sinai,
President for Academic
Affairs, Mount Sinai
Health System
CUTTNER—Dr. Janet.
Dr. Harvey Wolinsky deeply
mourns the passing of Dr.
Janet Cuttner, a dear friend
and a superb physician.
GELBLUM—Seth D.
Loeb & Loeb mourns the
passing of our close friend
and partner Seth D. Gelblum.
A force in the theater community for more than 30
years, Seth provided legal
counsel to producers, writers,
directors, composers and other rights holders involved in
many of the most significant
theatrical productions in recent decades. As recipient of
the Tony Honor for Excellence in Theater, a Lifetime
Achievement Award from
New Dramatists, and numerous
other
accolades
throughout
his
illustrious
career, Seth's passion for the
stage, his commitment to his
clients and his contributions
to the theater were extraordinary. In addition to his remarkable legal practice, we
remember Seth for his unwavering dedication to pro
bono and nonprofit causes.
Seth gave his time tirelessly
to numerous charities, including New Dramatists, Lawyers
for Children and the Canavan
Foundation. Seth was an exceptional lawyer, a dedicated
friend and an incredible human being who has left an indelible mark upon our firm
and upon all who knew him.
GELBLUM—Seth.
It is with great sadness that
we mourn the passing of one
of the original founders of the
Canavan Foundation, Seth
Gelblum. We admired his
leadership, his loyalty and devotion to the Canavan cause.
We cherish his gentle smile,
guidance and wisdom. Over
the past 24 years it was our
pleasure to work alongside of
him as members of the Canavan Board. Our sincere condolences to his wife, Orren Alperstein, and their children,
Madeleine and Ravi, and Aiden. Rest in peace, dear friend.
GUSSOFF—Arnold M.,
of White Plains, NY and Boca
Raton, FL died Monday. He
was 85. Mr. Gussoff is survived by his beloved wife of
58 years, Anne; his children
Laura Brown and Larry
Gussoff, his son-in-law and
daughter-in-law Doug Brown
and Kay Gussoff, and four
grandchildren, David, Richard and Sarah Brown and
Brett Gussoff. Mr. Gussoff
was an options trader and a
30-plus year member of the
American Stock Exchange.
He was also a Lieutenant in
the U.S. Navy. He will be
dearly missed by his family
and friends. In lieu of flowers,
please make donations to the
Anti-Defamation League.
HOFFMAN—Arthur S.,
on August 9, 2016. PresidentThe Leir Charitable Foundations. Beloved husband of
Dassie, devoted father of
Rachel and Douglas, cherished grandfather of Johanna, Joda and Juliet. Service
Thursday, August 11, 11:15am
at “The Riverside,” 76 St. and
Amsterdam Ave.
HOFFMAN—Arthur S.
The Board of Directors and
Staff of The Leir Charitable
Foundations mourn the untimely passing of their President, Arthur S. Hoffman. A
highly regarded attorney and
tax authority, he led The
Foundations with a rare combination of high intellect,
broad vision and personal dedication. Under his guidance,
The Foundations embraced
the sponsorship of humanitarian causes ranging from
childhood and youth education, to social services, the
arts, medicine and scientific
research, and fostering international understanding and
diplomacy. Arthur Hoffman
leaves a legacy of accomplishment that has benefited
thousands of people here and
abroad. We deeply regret the
death of our esteemed colleague and friend. We will
miss his boundless magnanimity, enduring charm and
ever-present humor. He was
above all a man of high intellect and a humanist with respect and concern for the ills
of the world. With commitment and strength he successfully led The Leir Charitable Foundations until his final day. Mr. Hoffman was
awarded the distinction of
Commandeur de L'Ordre de
Merite du Grand-Duche de
Luxembourg. He also received the Arthur J. Dixon
Memorial Award, the highest
award given by the accounting profession in the area of
taxes. He was Chairman of
the Tax Executive Committee of the Tax Division of the
330,000 member American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and chaired numerous other committees at the
national and state levels. He
was a member of the Internal
Revenue Service's Commissioner's Advisory Group and
chaired its subgroup on
Ethics and Integrity. He was
Co-chairman of the National
Conference of Lawyers and
Certified Public Accountants;
a member of the Council of
the AICPA; the President of
the Estate Planning Council
of New York; Vice President
and Member of the Board of
the New York State Society
of CPAs; and was a member
of the Board of the Rogosin
Institute, an affiliate of New
York Hospital. He was a
member of the American
and New York State Bar Associations, the American Institute and New York Society
of CPAs, and the Estate Planning Council of New York. We
extend our deepest condolences to his wife Hadassah,
daughter, Rachel, son, Douglas, and to his beloved
grandchildren. Services will
be held at 11:15am on Thursday, August 11, 2016 at Riverside Memorial Chapel, located at 180 West 76th Street,
New York, NY 10023 (Phone:
212-362-6600).
The Officers, Directors
and Staff of The Leir
Charitable Foundations
Deaths
HOFFMAN—Arthur S.
Selfhelp Community Services
is deeply saddened by the
passing of Arthur Hoffman, a
philanthropic leader who, as
President of the Leir Charitable Foundations, has greatly enriched the lives of thousands of vulnerable seniors.
Carrying forward the charitable mission set forth by
Henry J. Leir, Arthur's foresight made possible the establishment
of
Selfhelp's
Henry J. and Erna D. Leir
Center for Holocaust Survivor Services along with myriad other life-affirming programs that proudly bear the
Foundation's name. He will
be greatly missed. We extend
heartfelt condolences to his
wife, Dassie, his children,
Rachel and Douglas, and the
entire family.
Raymond V.J. Schrag,
President;
Stuart C. Kaplan, CEO
HOFFMAN—Arthur S.
It is with great sadness that
we mourn the passing of
Arthur S. Hoffman, a decades-long supporter of the
American Folk Art Museum.
Both as President of the Leir
Charitable Foundations and
from his personal knowledge
of art and philanthropy, Arthur was an inspiration to the
Board and staff of this
museum. His generosity and
guidance were key elements
of our success, and we will
miss him dearly. Our sympathies are extended to his
family and many friends.
Dr. Anne-Imelda Radice,
Executive Director
Monty Blanchard,
President, Board of Trustees
American Folk Art Museum
HOUGHTON—Jim, was one
of the most beloved people in
the American Theater. He
was open-hearted, gracious,
and generous. Every time I
encountered Jim, I left with a
brighter spirit. He had an astonishing ability to share happiness, and to remind people
of the best part of themselves. For a quarter of a century Jim pursued the idea of a
theater devoted to the writer,
and he created an institution
that is one of the few irreplaceable theaters we have
in this country. Jim changed
what it means to be a playwright in America. He was
also a loving father and husband, and his family were
constantly in his heart and in
his conversation. Jim died far
too young, but he has left behind an amazing legacy, both
in his family and in his field.
Artistic Director, teacher, director, friend: like many, I will
miss him more than I can say.
Oskar Eustis,
Artistic Director,
The Public Theater
LEESER—Emily “Emy,”
died peacefully on July 13,
2016 at age 96 at her longtime home on East 57th
Street in Manhattan, in the
care of her loyal supporter of
many years, Louise Gordon.
Born Emily Stern in Vienna
on December 5, 1919, Emy
was sent as a teenager to live
with relatives in New York
before the war. She finished
her education in New York
before marrying her first husband, Maurice Schnelling, a
transplanted Dutchman. Remarried to the love of her life,
Paulus Leeser, a commercial
and editorial photographer
(Time-Life Books), and also a
Dutch emigre, Emy operated
the business side of his photography studio for almost thirty years. Emy was a true
New Yorker: cosmopolitan,
socially active, intellectually
curious, and culturally involved. She enjoyed skiing in
Vermont, and for some 50
years she summered at the
beloved,
mid - century
modern, lakeside cottage she
and Paulus built on Mount
Desert Island. There she
minded their dog, Jason,
hosted friends, played tennis
at the Causeway Club, served
for many years as a member
of the Board of Trustees of
the MDI Biological Laboratory, and was well-known
among the Sand Point Road
community for her early
morning swims au naturel in
Long Pond. Emy was predeceased by Paulus in 1993, and
in 2009 by her son, Tony
Schnelling. Emy was proof
that age is no barrier to an
engaged life. She leaves behind a circle of devoted
friends and relatives, all of
whom assumed the middle
name “darling” in her presence, and all of whom will
miss her greatly.
SWEENEY—J. Clement,
of Rockville Centre, NY on
August 9, 2016. Beloved husband of Margaret (nee: McElroy). Loving and devoted
father of James C. III, (Kathleen), Frank M. (Eileen), Edward C. (Jennifer), William H.
(Emily), Charles S. (Sarah),
Peggie H. and the late John
O. Sweeney. Adored grandfather of 13. Reposing Macken
Mortuary,
Rockville
Centre Chapel, 52 Clinton
Avenue, Friday 2-4pm, 7-9pm.
Funeral Mass St. Agnes Cathedral, Saturday 11am. Interment St. John's Cemetery,
Middle
Village,
NY.
mackenmortuary.com
In Memoriam
SCHNEIDER—GMS 17.
5 years later.
Love,
Lois, Karen & Jonathan
A18
N
Christie ‘Flat Out Lied’ in George Washington Bridge Case, Aide Said
By PATRICK McGEEHAN
Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey lied
to reporters when he said he did not believe any senior member of his staff
knew about the plot to block traffic to the
George Washington Bridge, one of his
aides told a colleague in a text message
included in a federal court filing on
Wednesday.
“Are you listening?” the aide,
Christina Genovese Renna, texted a colleague while Mr. Christie spoke at a news
conference. “He just flat out lied,” Ms.
Renna wrote. Then she added that if certain emails were discovered, “it could be
bad.”
Ms. Renna’s text exchange, submitted
as part of a filing in United States District
Court in Newark, is the first piece of evidence to surface that suggests that Mr.
Christie may have known more about the
scheme than he has admitted.
A former ally of the governor, David
Wildstein, who pleaded guilty to two
counts of conspiracy in the case, has contended that evidence exists to show that
Mr. Christie knew about the plot as it was
being carried out. But Ms. Renna is the
first former member of Mr. Christie’s
staff to accuse him of lying about the
MEL EVANS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
An aide’s text messages in 2013 accused Gov. Chris Christie of lying about
whether any senior member of his staff knew about the lane-closing plot.
matter.
Ms. Renna sent the texts on Dec. 13,
2013, as Mr. Christie was fielding questions from reporters about his knowl-
edge of the scheme to tie up traffic three
months earlier on the New Jersey side of
the bridge. The filing was made by
lawyers for Bill Baroni, who was Mr.
Christie’s top executive appointee at the
Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the bridge.
Federal prosecutors contend that two
lanes leading to the bridge were abruptly
closed to punish the Democratic mayor
of Fort Lee, N.J., for declining to endorse
Mr. Christie’s bid for re-election. Mr.
Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly, a former
deputy chief of staff to Mr. Christie, a Republican, are scheduled to stand trial in
the case next month.
Mr. Christie, speaking to reporters
Wednesday morning after filling in as a
host of a sports talk radio show in New
York City, disputed Ms. Renna’s claim,
according to The Associated Press.
“I absolutely dispute it,” he said. “It’s
ridiculous. It’s nothing new. There’s
nothing new to talk about.”
But the text messages from Ms. Renna
had not come to light before Wednesday,
even when she testified before a legislative committee in Trenton that was investigating the scheme. During that testimony, in May 2014, Ms. Renna said she
had deleted an email at the request of
Ms. Kelly, who was her superior.
But Ms. Renna made no mention of the
text messages, nor did she turn them
over to the committee. “All available information strongly indicates that Ms.
Renna deleted those texts and never
turned them over to the Legislature or
the U.S. Attorney’s Office,” the court filing
states. It is unclear
when
they
were
deleted and whether
it was before or after
federal prosecutors
announced on Jan. 9,
2014, that they were
investigating the matter, the filing states.
Christina
That was weeks afGenovese
ter the legislative
Renna
committee
issued
subpoenas to seven
people, including Mr. Baroni and Mr.
Wildstein. The day after those subpoenas were issued, Mr. Christie held a news
conference and said he had been assured
by his senior staff members that they
had been unaware of any plot to punish
Mark Sokolich, the mayor of Fort Lee.
Mr. Christie said his campaign chief,
Bill Stepien, had also vowed that he had
no knowledge of such a plot. “Oh, yeah,
SANTIAGO MEJIA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Police Pluck Climber Off Trump Tower as the Internet Watches
By ELI ROSENBERG
and MEGAN JULA
A lone man’s climb up the side of Trump
Tower became a New York City spectacle on
Wednesday afternoon after thousands
watched his ascent in real time on television,
through social media and in person.
The man was pulled off the building’s facade
and apprehended by police officers who had
removed a glass panel on the 21st floor about
three hours into his climb. By then, he had become a social media sensation, as people
watched live videos posted on Facebook and
Periscope, a live video-streaming app. A
stream on Facebook from WABC-TV in New
York received more than four million views,
and people commented along with the action.
Clad in shorts and a T-shirt, the climber began
to scale the building around 3:30 p.m., the police said, wearing a harness and using what appeared to be suction cups to aid his climb.
William Aubry, the New York Police Department’s assistant chief of the Manhattan South
detective squad, told reporters that the man
was a 20-year-old from Virginia who had told them he
sought to scale the tower
with one purpose: to gain a
personal meeting with Donald J. Trump, the Republican
presidential nominee. Police
officials said he told them
about a YouTube video he posted on Tuesday
that explained his motives. In the widely
shared video that matched the police’s description, titled “Message to Mr. Trump (why I
climbed your tower),” a hooded man claimed
he was an “independent researcher.” “Believe
me, if my purpose was not significant, I would
not risk my life pursuing it,” the man said
solemnly. “The reason I climbed your tower
was to get your attention.”
Police did not release the name of the man,
whom they took to Bellevue Hospital Center
for an evaluation.
On Wednesday night, Mr. Trump expressed
his appreciation for the police on Twitter, writing, “Great job today by the NYPD in protecting the people and saving the climber.”
Livestreaming, which increasingly draws
wide audiences, has helped turn the outland-
ish events that occur periodically in a place
like New York into viral public events. In June,
a broadcast primarily seen on Periscope of a
naked man whom the police described as
“emotionally disturbed” became a similar public spectacle.
With the climber’s image being broadcast —
and commented on — far and wide on Wednesday, the man perched, if only briefly, at the intersection of two unpredictable worlds: the
combustible presidential campaign and the
chaotic city beneath him.
The climb and frenzy that followed were also
the latest instance in which Trump Tower has
starred in a noteworthy role during the campaign. The building on Fifth Avenue, the site of
Mr. Trump’s campaign launch and his residence, has prompted some of the same strong
emotions as those inspired by the candidate
himself.
It has been a magnet for those making political statements: a protester in a Ku Klux
Klan-style hood who tussled with security
guards in September; 200 marchers in December; anti-gun activists in the spring. It has also
been the site of a zoning tussle, magnified by
the stakes of the presidential election, after the
Trump Organization was forced to remove a
Trump kiosk from its lobby, which had been
designated as a public space as part of an
agreement that allowed the developer to add
20 stories to the building’s height.
And it has burnished its status as a tourist
attraction, drawing more than one million visitors every year from around the globe.
On Wednesday, hundreds of people gawked
from the streets below, filming the climb with
cameras and phones, oohing after the man
dropped a water bottle. Some cheered for him,
remarking on the difficulty of his climb. “You
will never believe what I just saw,” a woman
leaving the commotion said into her cellphone.
Aaron Hesseltine, 17, in town with his family
from Saranac Lake, N.Y., to see Alex
Rodriguez’s last game with the Yankees,
watched for an hour and a half, documenting
the experience on Snapchat for his friends at
home. His last missive showed the moment the
climber disappeared into the opening.
”They got him,” it read.
A man from Virginia
tries to meet with a
presidential hopeful.
GEORGE ETHEREDGE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
A man’s slow
ascent of the
68-story
building in
Manhattan
became a
social media
sensation.
Below, people
watched his
climb — and
documented
it.
THE NEW YORK TIMES NEW YORK THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
A19
A Sidewalk Vendor Amasses Books, Lawsuits and Nearly 200 Summonses
By COREY KILGANNON
Since the first flimsy folding table appeared in 1986 bearing a few
tattered paperbacks, Kirk Davidson’s book-vending displays
have become part of the permanent landscape along a sidewalk
on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
He charges a few dollars apiece
for used books, magazines and
recordings donated by residents
who see him as a local institution
and a staple of the area’s longtime
intellectual life.
While sidewalk booksellers
have long been part of the fabric of
New York City, especially on the
Upper West Side, few would dare
leave their inventory out unattended overnight. But Mr. Davidson has always done so, covering his books in plastic each night
on the west side of Broadway near
73rd Street and simply leaving
them there around the clock.
Even as the number of sidewalk
booksellers has dwindled, Mr. Davidson’s bookselling empire has
grown, extending at times to more
than 10 tables — longer than a city
block. Mr. Davidson, 58, calls the
expansion the perfect marriage of
the American dream and New
York City street hustle.
“It takes a certain man to have
the persistence to build his own
craft for all these years,” Mr. Davidson said, looking over his domain, a bustling stretch of Broadway opposite the 72nd Street subway station.
Many neighbors, however, call
his persistence a nuisance, describing Mr. Davidson’s tables as
an eyesore and an obstruction of
one of the neighborhood’s most
congested sidewalks.
“He’s been super at gaming the
system for years and years,” said
Ian Alterman, a longtime resident
and former president of the community council for the local police
precinct.
Complaints about Mr. Davidson
were brought up at every monthly
meeting of the council for more
than a decade, said Mr. Alterman,
who added that he had spoken to
several local police commanders
and each had described the painstaking process of seizing Mr. Davidson’s books, vouchering them
and transporting them to storage
facilities.
During the seizures, Mr. Alterman said, “you’ll have five people
yelling, ‘Why are you picking on
the guy?’ and another five people
yelling, ‘Do it — we’re glad to see
him going.’ ”
Mr. Davidson has managed to
PHOTOGRAPHS BY YANA PASKOVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Kirk Davidson selling books at 73rd Street and Broadway in
Manhattan. In July, the police began another crackdown on his
business, which draws complaints and praise from neighbors.
preserve his bookselling street
business, outlasting many cycles
of local elected officials and police
commanders who have tried to
oust him with summons after
summons.
By his own admission — or really, boasting — Mr. Davidson has
received nearly 200 summonses
over the years for violations that
include occupying excessive sidewalk space and leaving books unattended as well as more serious
crimes involving fights with other
vendors.
In July, the police started their
latest crackdown, deploying a
team of officers and trucks to seize
books from 10 tables on the block,
which included a couple of tables
kept by smaller vendors. Officers
issued Mr. Davidson a summons
for leaving more than 2,000 books
unattended on the sidewalk.
“They showed up on the Fourth
of July,” Mr. Davidson said. “That
makes it an American story.”
The recent seizure hardly deterred Mr. Davidson, who put out
two new folding tables and hired
people to help tend them and to fill
in when he headed to the room in
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the Bronx that he rents mostly to
sleep.
At a recent administrative hearing, the summons was dismissed
after Mr. Davidson pointed out to
the hearing officer that it cited the
wrong section of the city’s administrative code.
Mr. Davidson, an Army veteran,
said he wore his dog tags outside
his shirt in plain view at the hearing. The hearing officer saw them
and discussed his own Army service and then told Mr. Davidson he
was familiar with that cluttered
stretch of sidewalk.
“He said, ‘The problem is, it’s
like a third-world country up
there,’” Mr. Davidson recounted,
adding that he has almost always
won dismissals by pointing out errors on the summonses and noting that free speech laws permit
him to sell printed material without the city permits that other
vendors must obtain.
“It’s called the First Amendment,” Mr. Davidson said, adding
that enforcement has intensified
over the years as both residential
and commercial rents have
soared. He blamed the most re-
cent crackdowns on a Bloomingdale’s outlet that had recently
opened on the block.
Helen Rosenthal, the city councilwoman who represents the
area, said her office had received
many complaints about bad behavior by vendors on the block
and about the tables becoming unsightly encampments.
She said she had met with
neighborhood groups as well as
co-op boards from nearby buildings, “and they are just at their
wits’ end — I told them to tell their
residents not to buy anything”
from the vendors.
Lacking the regulations to address the problem, Ms. Rosenthal,
a Democrat, said she was pushing
for new legislation that would allow the Council to make certain
high-traffic sidewalk segments off
limits to vending.
Regarding Ms. Rosenthal’s legislation, Mr. Davidson said, “By
that time, I’ll be retired.”
John Levy, a Manhattan lawyer
who has long represented Mr. Davidson in his lawsuits, called him
“the uptown miniature open-air
version of the Strand Book Store,”
referring to the renowned mainstay at Broadway and 12th Street.
He called Mr. Davidson’s recurring bouts with the police “a dance
that’s been going on for a long
time.”
Mr. Davidson said he began
selling at his spot in the late 1980s
when, by his own admission, he
was a drug addict hanging around
Verdi Square, which was popularly known then as Needle Park.
He would sleep under his tables at
night, or in a nearby A.T.M.
vestibule, and often fought to defend his spot from competing vendors. Mr. Davidson says he is now
drug-free.
He habitually fires back after a
dismissed summons by suing the
city for unlawful enforcement and
seizure of his books. His settlements, he said, have exceeded
$80,000 over the years.
“It’s a job in itself,” Mr. Davidson said of the civil suits.
“That’s what he lives off of — he
actually wants us to take them,”
Ms. Rosenthal said, referring to
the books.
The city’s Law Department referred questions to the Police Department, which said in a brief
emailed statement that Mr. Davidson still faced a fine for a second summons issued in July. The
Police Department “will continue
to take appropriate enforcement
action as necessary” regarding
his selling, and appeal any dismissal with which the police disagreed, Deputy Chief Edward
Mullen, a spokesman, said in the
statement.
After Mr. Davidson set up his tables again recently, police officers
reminded him that city regulations limited each vendor to one
table no larger than 8 feet long and
3 feet wide. Two officers were
posted in rotating shifts around
the clock to make sure the tables
were not left unattended.
“Now, what do you think that
cost the taxpayers, assigning cops
to watch my tables around the
clock?” Mr. Davidson said. “Then
when you figure the 35 cops
making overtime to take my
books away, we’re talking maybe
$200,000 they spent in the past
month on me and my books. For
that amount, they could have just
paid me to leave.”
Sitting in his usual scavenged
office chair near his tables, Mr.
Davidson listened to his radio and
greeted passers-by. The police
presence was gone, but Mr. Davidson said he had decided to limit
his business to four tables — “just
enough to pay my bills and live
on.”
A20
0
N
De Blasio May Be Vulnerable to a Third-Party Challenge by a Democrat in ’17
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Maybe it was Mayor Bill de Blasio’s rough week at the
Democratic National Convention,
when he was relegated to a daytime speaking slot and upstaged
by his archrival, Gov. Andrew M.
Cuomo, and his predecessor, Michael R. Bloomberg.
Maybe it was the drumbeat of
bad news related to the multiple
federal and state investigations
swirling around City Hall. Or maybe it was a recent poll suggesting
that half of New York City voters
believe Mr. de Blasio does not deserve to be re-elected to a second
term.
Whatever the reason, members
of New York’s political class have
turned their attention to the 2017
mayoral race, or more precisely, to
the question of whether Mr. de
Blasio will even face a serious
challenge when he seeks re-election.
While the recent poll, released
Two members of the
mayor’s party could
fare better outside it.
this month by Quinnipiac University, found that a majority of
respondents disapprove of Mr. de
Blasio’s performance as mayor,
none of his obvious potential opponents fared well against him in
hypothetical matchups.
The poll’s findings, however,
suggested that there may be an
opportunity for a Democrat running as an independent against
Mr. de Blasio in the general elecJ. David Goodman contributed reporting.
tion, perhaps after a strong but
losing run in the Democratic primary or after skipping the primary altogether.
The poll results showed that Mr.
de Blasio would handily beat two
prospective challengers — Christine C. Quinn, the former City
Council speaker who ran against
him in 2013, and the city comptroller, Scott M. Stringer — in a primary. But it also showed a closer race
if either Ms. Quinn or Mr. Stringer
ran as an independent in the general election, although the survey’s questions did not reflect the
presence of a Republican candidate, which may have affected
some voters’ responses.
“I am certain somebody somewhere is going to challenge the
mayor,” said Rachel Demarest
Gold, acting state chairwoman of
the Women’s Equality Party, a
third party closely aligned with
Mr. Cuomo. “He is a lightning-rod
mayor and he has whipped up extreme feelings on both ends of the
spectrum and people are going to
respond to that.”
Ms. Gold said she did not know
whether a Democrat would take
on the mayor in a primary, or if a
strong Republican or independent
challenger would emerge.
“We have not discussed a candidate on our line challenging him,”
she said, adding, “It is absolutely a
conversation that somebody may
have with us.” She said the party
did not have a position on the
mayoral race and was not encouraging a challenge to the mayor.
Bradley Tusk, a onetime political
operative
for
Mr.
Bloomberg, has embarked on a
push to defeat Mr. de Blasio next
year. He hopes to recruit a viable
candidate, whom he would support with a barrage of positive ads
as well as negative ads aimed at
the mayor.
DAMON WINTER/THE NEW YORK TIMES
CHRISTOPHER GREGORY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
BEBETO MATTHEWS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mayor Bill de Blasio, left, does not yet face a strong challenger to his re-election. Bradley Tusk,
center, who worked for former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, hopes to recruit one. Shaun Donovan, right, President Obama’s budget director, said he was “not currently considering” running.
“The search for that mythical
person continues,” Mr. Tusk said.
“I don’t know if we’ll find that person or not.”
Mr. Tusk said he thought the
ideal person to fill the role would
be a Democrat able to take votes
from Mr. de Blasio’s base while
also appealing to more conservative New Yorkers, including
independents and Republicans.
That, he said, could be a
Democratic politician or a
wealthy businessman in the mold
of Mr. Bloomberg.
The most likely course, Mr.
Tusk said, would be for such a candidate to challenge the mayor in a
primary. A strong but unsuccessful showing there, he said, could
set up a third-party run in the November election.
Such a campaign could be made
with an existing party, like the
Women’s Equality Party or the Independence Party. Or a candidate
could create a new party and secure a place on the ballot through
a petition drive — a step that
would need to be taken before the
primary to have the ballot line in
place as a fallback.
“The other route is skip the
Democratic primary and just run
in the general and you try to make
that the Democratic primary, effectively, with a bigger electorate,” Mr. Tusk said, adding that he
thought that route was unlikely.
He acknowledged that there
were numerous obstacles to his
plan, including the reluctance of
many Democrats to vote outside
their party, even for a candidate
with strong Democratic credentials who had chosen to run on a
third-party line.
“For it to work, you need someone who’s really known as a Democrat,” he said.
Phil Walzak, a senior adviser to
Mr. de Blasio, said the mayor’s
performance merited a second
term. Mr. Walzak cited a “record
of achievements that are good and
strong” and said the latest Quinnipiac poll numbers were relatively unchanged from an earlier
poll in May. He suggested that the
slide in the mayor’s popularity
had ended.
“If someone can’t beat the mayor in a Democratic primary on
things like police reform, jobs,
housing, wages and benefits, then
I think they’ll be very hard
pressed to do that on an independent line in a shorter amount of
time from September to November,” he said, referring to the period between the Democratic primary and the general election. “I
don’t think it’s very realistic.”
For now, Democrats are waiting
to see whether Mr. de Blasio stumbles and also what happens with
the federal and state investigations, many of which focus on the
mayor’s fund-raising efforts, and
whether any aides close to the
mayor are indicted in connection
with those inquiries.
Among the politicians frequently identified as potential
challengers are Mr. Stringer, who
has a large campaign war chest
and has already won a citywide
election; Letitia James, the public
advocate; and Ruben Diaz Jr., the
Bronx borough president.
Another Democrat who has attracted attention, Shaun Donovan, President Obama’s budget director and a former federal housing secretary, sought to tamp
down speculation that he might
enter the race. While Mr. Donovan
could be perceived as an outsider
because of his White House role,
he did serve as the city’s housing
commissioner
under
Mr.
Bloomberg.
“I’m focused on my work at
O.M.B. and I’m not currently considering a bid for mayor,” Mr. Donovan said in an emailed statement
this week, referring to the federal
Office of Management and Budget.
As Democrats wait and see, Republicans have begun to make
moves.
Paul Massey, a wealthy real estate executive, has declared his intention to run for mayor — although he filed his initial paperwork with the state’s Board of
Elections improperly this month
and has declined to give any interviews, despite not being well
known.
Michel Faulkner, a Harlem minister who once played for the New
York Jets, has also declared his
candidacy for mayor as a Republican. Other possible Republican
candidates include John Catsimatidis, the supermarket magnate,
and Eric Ulrich, a City Council
member from Queens.
“In five of six past mayoral elections, the mayor was elected on
the Republican ticket,” said Edward F. Cox, chairman of the
state’s Republican Party, referring to Mr. Bloomberg and his
predecessor, Rudolph W. Giuliani.
“The way de Blasio is doing, we’ve
got a real shot at it.”
Owners of Grand Central Terminal Drop $1.1Billion Suit
By CHARLES V. BAGLI
The owners of Grand Central
Terminal ended a long-running
feud on Wednesday with the developer of a planned 1,401-foot-tall
skyscraper across 42nd Street on
Vanderbilt Avenue in Manhattan.
Midtown TDR Ventures, the investment group that owns the terminal, withdrew a $1.1 billion federal lawsuit filed last September
against the developer, SL Green
Realty Corporation, the New York
City Council and the administration of Mayor Bill de Blasio.
In return, SL Green paid the investment group a sum, which executives who had been briefed on
the deal but requested anonymity
because they were not authorized
to discuss the details described as
“de minimis.”
The settlement removes the
last legal hurdle to construction of
the office tower, known as 1 Vanderbilt.
Midtown TDR Ventures, which
was originally led by Andrew S.
Penson, purchased Grand Central
in 2006 for roughly $80 million.
The terminal itself was of little value, since it is under a long-term
lease to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority at a relatively
modest rent that decreases over
time.
The investors were hoping to
reap a fortune from the 1.2 million
square feet of unused development rights, or air rights, above
the terminal.
Several years ago, as the city
Removing the last
legal hurdle to a
tower’s construction.
©2016 California Closet Company, Inc. All rights reserved. Franchises independently owned and operated.
sought to change the zoning
around Grand Central to allow for
much taller towers, Mr. Penson
negotiated to sell a large block of
those rights to SL Green. But the
talks foundered, with each side
describing the other in derogatory
terms.
The de Blasio administration ultimately rezoned a strip of Vanderbilt Avenue, allowing SL
Green to build a 65-story office
tower in exchange for $220 million
in transportation improvements.
Mr. Penson and his group sued,
claiming that the city’s action,
which gave SL Green the air
rights it needed to build, deprived
his group of its property rights.
Those rights, which it had purchased for $60 a square foot, were
now worth $880 a square foot,
Midtown TDR Ventures said.
Aside from damages, the suit
sought to stop the project and the
transit improvements.
Despite the legal challenge, SL
Green had nearly completed demolition of four buildings on the
block where 1 Vanderbilt is
planned. But the suit, which could
have made it difficult to pay for
construction of the tower and
could have scared off potential
tenants, had cast a shadow over
the project.
Marc Holliday, the chief executive of SL Green, said in a statement on Wednesday that the settlement was a “major milestone.”
Carl Weisbrod, the chairman of
the city’s Planning Commission,
also welcomed the settlement,
saying that the de Blasio administration believed that it had no
merit.
The settlement of the once bitter dispute follows changes in the
ownership of Midtown TDR Ven-
SL GREEN
A rendering of 1 Vanderbilt, a 1,401-foot-tall skyscraper planned
in Midtown Manhattan opposite Grand Central Terminal.
tures. Last month, one of Mr. Penson’s partners, Lehman Brothers
Holdings, sold its stake to MSD
Capital, a firm controlled by Michael Dell, the founder of Dell, for
$63 million, according to city
records.
MSD Capital then joined with
the brothers K. Thomas and
Frederick Elghanayan to buy out
another partner, Fortress Investment. The Elghanayans, who own
TF Cornerstone, are prominent
residential builders and owners in
New York City. The new partners
promptly abandoned the litigation
strategy.
A spokesman for MSD Capital
declined to comment.
Mr. Weisbrod said the city
planned to begin the public review
of its rezoning proposal for a wide
swath of Midtown surrounding
Grand Central, known as East
Midtown, soon, and “looked forward to working with the newly
constituted partnership.”
“We’re very excited about the
new zoning,” Jon McMillan, an executive at TF Cornerstone, said.
“It should provide plenty of new
opportunities.”
In its notice of dismissal of the
lawsuit, filed on Aug. 10, TDR preserved its right to refile claims
against the city in the future.
City’s 8 Medical Schools Will Stop Using Unclaimed Bodies
By NINA BERNSTEIN
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The eight medical schools in
New York City will no longer accept the city’s unclaimed bodies
as cadavers, forswearing a practice that dates back to the 19th
century, the schools announced on
Wednesday. And a group representing the 16 medical schools in
the state is withdrawing its opposition to a recently passed bill that
would end the educational use of
bodies with no known survivors.
The announcements, made in a
statement by the Associated Medical Schools of New York, reflect
the changing politics and practicalities of acquiring bodies for dissection in a time of public sensitivity to inequality and informed consent.
New
York-based
medical
schools, which train more students than those in any other
Watch memorable TimesTalks
programs on YouTube.
state, have had a dwindling need
for unclaimed bodies in recent
years as their body donation programs grew. Still, the association
strongly opposed a bill this year
that would require written consent from a spouse or next of kin
before city officials could release
an unclaimed body to a school, unless the deceased had already registered as a body donor. It cited a
current shortfall of 38 cadavers
out of about 800 typically used to
teach future doctors each year.
But the bill passed both houses
overwhelmingly in June, a month
after a New York Times investigation highlighted provisions in the
current law that give families as
little as 48 hours to claim a relative’s body before the city must
make it available for dissection or
embalming practice.
That bill is awaiting the signature of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a
Democrat, to become law, but officials at Albert Einstein College of
Medicine in the Bronx, one of the
few medical schools that have
continued to rely on significant
numbers of unclaimed cadavers,
decided to stop the practice after
The Times’s article was published.
Now, the association says that
medical schools can make up any
shortfall by promoting their body
donation programs. The two
schools without such a program —
CUNY College of Medicine and
Touro College of Osteopathic
Medicine — have both begun developing them, the association
said.
Traditionally,
medical
schools share donated cadavers
with schools that run short.
“Donating your body to science
is the ultimate gift a person can
make,” Jo Wiederhorn, president
of the medical schools association,
said. “We can’t train future doctors without these donations and,
in many cases, we can’t make
medical discoveries that lead to
cures and life improvements without them.”
The announcement leaves the
only mortuary school in the city,
the American Academy McAllister Institute of Funeral Services,
pressing for a veto.
“McAllister is recommending
and pleading with the governor to
not sign the bill,” said Brian
Sokoloff, the lawyer who represents the mortuary school. He
said it had trained most of the funeral directors and embalmers in
the city and many throughout the
United States.
“Those who support this bill
should explain how they expect
people to be able to do the practice
embalmings that they’re required
to do to get a license,” Mr. Sokoloff
said, calling the proposed law “a
terrible idea.”
“Anybody with any degree of
foresight could see that this could
in future create a shortage of funeral directors and embalmers,”
he added.
The city temporarily stopped
supplying unclaimed bodies to
medical schools and to the mortuary school in 2014, after a series of
scandals
at
the
medical
examiner’s
office
involving
mixed-up bodies and lawsuits by
distressed relatives. But the medical examiner’s office was forced to
resume the flow of corpses after
the century-old McAllister Institute successfully sued the city under current state law.
When the practice resumed, the
city lent 145 bodies it considered
unclaimed to McAllister in April
and May 2015 alone, according to
records obtained under the state’s
Freedom of Information Law. The
bodies were driven from the city
morgue in Queens to the school’s
Midtown Manhattan classrooms
in the morning and returned the
same evening after students practiced incisions, drainage of bodily
fluids and injection of embalming
fluid.
The city has offered at least
4,000 bodies to medical or mortuary programs in the past decade,
records show. Among these, more
than 1,877 were selected for use
before burial in mass graves on
Hart Island, the city’s potter’s
field.
Practices in the United States
regarding the unclaimed dead
vary widely from state to state
and even from county to county,
experts say, with many jurisdictions still governed by laws
rooted, like New York’s, in 19thcentury efforts to curtail grave
robbery.
Dr. John Prescott, the chief academic officer at the Association of
American Medical Colleges in
Washington, said the association
had no policy regarding the use of
unclaimed bodies versus donated
ones. He added that the group did
not track the numbers used nationally as cadavers by its members, which include 145 medical
schools in the United States and 17
in Canada.
“Just about every medical
school in the United States uses
cadavers,” Dr. Prescott said. “We
do believe the use of cadavers is
critical for training.”
A Bar’s Age Policy Differs for Men and Women. Is It Legal?
Christie Lied
In Addressing
Bridge Case,
Aide Claimed
By ARIELLE DOLLINGER
ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. —
It is a nightly ritual. Men and
women head to the rooftop bar at
Kasey’s Kitchen and Cocktails
here on Long Island, only to be
turned away because they are not
old enough. But there is a quirk in
the establishment’s policy for its
rooftop bar, which states men
must be at least 30 and women,
just 25.
The motivation behind the disparity might be fairly transparent
to the average bar patron. But is it
legal?
A co-owner of Kasey’s, Anthony
Geraci, said that in his bar he
could set whatever policy he liked.
“If you build a house, you decorate it the way you want,” said Mr.
Geraci, who opened Kasey’s with
Tom McNicholas in 1999. “I could
open a bar tomorrow and it could
be an over-40s bar.”
Mr. Geraci was partly right, according to Donna Lieberman, the
executive director of the New
York Civil Liberties Union, but she
said separate policies for men and
women amounted to gender discrimination. Mr. Geraci could
open an over-40s bar, Ms. Lieberman said, as long as everyone,
man or woman, was allowed in at
the same age.
“What we have here is a classic
case of gender discrimination that
is built on and perpetuates stereotypes from a bygone era,” she
said. “And it’s unlawful.”
The policy at Kasey’s, Ms.
Lieberman said, violates New
York State’s Human Rights Law.
The law she cited, Executive Law
296, prohibits the owner of “any
From Page A18
PHOTOGRAPHS BY YANA PASKOVA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
The rooftop bar at Kasey’s
Kitchen and Cocktails in
Rockville Centre. Anthony
Geraci, who opened Kasey’s
with Tom McNicholas in 1999,
said that in his bar he could
set whatever policy he liked.
At Kasey’s on Long
Island, women must
be at least 25 to enter,
but men must be 30.
place of public accommodation,
resort or amusement” from denying anyone entry “because of the
race, creed, color, national origin,
sexual orientation, military status, sex, or disability or marital
status of any person.”
“They can do whatever they
want, as long as it’s legal, and this
isn’t legal,” Ms. Lieberman said.
Mr. McNicholas said that 20 to
50 men and women were routinely
turned away from the rooftop bar
because they were too young.
Mr. Geraci said his policy did
not discriminate against anyone.
“Women mature earlier,” he said.
“I don’t think it’s sexist.”
Mr. McNicholas agreed.
“At the end of the day, they’re
private establishments, and each
place can make their own rules to
a certain extent,” he said.
Kevin Dugan, the New York
City regional director of the New
York State Restaurant Association, said he was “baffled” by the
idea that a bar would have different age requirements for different
sexes.
“Some clubs have it 18 to get in
and 21 to drink, which is fairly
commonplace in different parts of
the state,” he said. “This is a new
one.”
Mr. Dugan said he imagined a
A21
N
policy like this was “very uncommon.”
But even in Rockville Centre,
Kasey’s is not alone.
Several doors away on North
Park Avenue, at Cabo, a Mexican
bar and restaurant, an owner said
women have to be 23 and men 25
to be admitted after 10 p.m. on
weekends.
Angelo Ramunni, an owner for
14 years, said that some people
complained, but that women and
men mature at different rates and
his policy played to that.
“Women usually go for men
maybe a year or two older than
them anyway,” Mr. Ramunni said.
And he said the policy provided
for “more of a quality crowd.”
“The more mature of an age
group, the more of a controlled
crowd it is,” he said. “We never
have issues with fights.”
Mirian Perez, 43, of Freeport,
and Crystal Gardner, 41, of Woodmere, were surprised to learn of
Grand Opening
Cabo’s policy on a recent Wednesday night.
“Long Island, it’s pretty much,
they have their own rules, it’s like
their own world,” Ms. Gardner
said as she stood outside the door.
“And no one challenges anything,
so, it won’t change.”
The mayor of Rockville Centre,
Francis X. Murray, declined to
comment on the policies. The village attorney, Thomas Levin, directed inquiries to the village
spokeswoman, Julie Grilli, who
said the village had no comment.
A 2010 agreement between
Rockville Centre and Kasey’s during the permitting process for the
rooftop bar states that all patrons
must be over age 25 to be on the
roof in the presence of alcohol.
Mr. McNicholas estimated that
the average age of the rooftop bar
crowd was between 45 and 50,
while at the downstairs bar, it was
about 25.
At the rooftop bar last month,
Allison Kanner and Danielle Dicocco, 28-year-olds from Oceanside, said they appreciated the restrictions.
“I like the older atmosphere,”
Ms. Kanner said. “I also really like
older men.”
Justin Ferrara, 35, of Oceanside, said in a phone interview
that he had been going to Kasey’s
since he was 21. He said the different age requirements for men and
women were “absolutely” justified.
“Women tend to cause less
problems at an earlier age than
men do,” Mr. Ferrara, who owns
the Hair Machine salon in
Rockville Centre, said. “Every
time the planters are vandalized
in front of my business or my windows broken, it’s guys under 25.”
Janine Schleicher, 35, a fifthgrade teacher from Queens Village, disagreed with the policy
and said it was based on “oldschool thinking.”
“I think it should be equal,” she
said. “Maybe raise it for women,
too. Make it 30/30.”
Lisa Powell, 23, of Jamaica,
Queens, and Kristin Corry, 24, of
Far Rockaway, Queens, both under the age limit, were heading to
the rooftop bar when a bouncer redirected them to the staircase that
leads to the dining area of the roof.
Once there, they sat down to dinner, Ms. Powell’s back to a line of
potted trees that separated them
from the bar.
“We’re literally separated by
trees,” Ms. Powell said. “It would
be nice to be over there.”
Joanna L. Grossman, a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law, took
issue with the policy. “It’s a place
of public accommodation,” she
said. “It’s either open to people or
it’s not.”
The law that prohibits places of
public accommodation, such as
hotels and restaurants, from discriminating based on gender is
the same one that prohibits discrimination based on race, she
said.
“Imagine if the same person
said, ‘I let white people come in at
25, but black people not until 30,’ ”
said Ms. Grossman, who taught a
seminar on sex-based discrimination at the Maurice A. Deane
School of Law at Hofstra University in Hempstead before moving
to Texas.
The Kasey’s case is “just pure
stereotype,” Ms. Grossman said,
“in this case against men, though I
suspect it’s also that 30-plus-yearold men don’t want only 30-plusyear-old women to meet.”
The Height of Glenwood Rental Luxury
I’ve spoken to Mr. Stepien, who’s
the person in charge of the campaign, and he has assured me the
same thing,” Mr. Christie said during the news conference.
That is when Ms. Renna texted
Peter Sheridan, a member of Mr.
Christie’s campaign staff, suggesting that the governor was not
telling the truth. “He just flat out
lied about senior staff and Stepien
not being involved,” she texted.
Mr. Sheridan responded that
Mr. Christie was “doing fine” and
“holding his own up there,” according to the filing, which says
that Mr. Sheridan turned over the
messages.
Ms. Renna replied: “Yes. But he
lied.”
Kevin Marino, a lawyer for Mr.
Stepien, said in a statement that
any suggestion that his client was
“involved in a conspiracy to close
access lanes to the George Washington Bridge based on a text
message exchange that has been
in the government’s possession
for years is categorically false and
irresponsible.”
The revelation of Ms. Renna’s
text messages may pose a legal
problem for her, said John S. Wisniewski, a Democratic assemblyman who was a leader of the committee that investigated the matter. Mr. Wisniewski, a lawyer, said
the messages should have been
provided to the committee, which
asked for all relevant documents.
“In my opinion, there’s an issue
for her in having intentionally destroyed evidence,” Mr. Wisniewski said, citing a New Jersey
Text messages cast
doubt on a statement
that staff members
knew nothing.
statute that makes it a crime for a
person to destroy a record to
make it unavailable to an official
investigation.
At the time, the committee was
more concerned with Ms. Renna’s
deleted email. She had received
an email from Ms. Kelly, who
wrote a one-word response —
“Good” — upon hearing that Mr.
Sokolich was upset about the traffic jam in his town. Ms. Renna testified that Ms. Kelly called her one
evening and asked her to delete
that message. Ms. Renna testified
that she did so — after she “protected” herself by saving a copy.
Henry Klingeman, a lawyer for
Ms. Renna, said she would “answer questions publicly when she
testifies at the upcoming trial, not
before.”
Other points of view
on the Op-Ed page
seven days a week.
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A22
THE NEW YORK TIMES EDITORIALS/LETTERS THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
‘The Second Amendment People’
TO THE EDITOR:
ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER JR., Publisher, Chairman
Founded in 1851
ADOLPH S. OCHS
ARTHUR HAYS SULZBERGER
ORVIL E. DRYFOOS
ARTHUR OCHS SULZBERGER
Publisher 1896-1935
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What Russia and Turkey Bring to Syria
President Vladimir Putin of Russia and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey are major players on opposite sides of the Syrian civil war. Mr. Putin has provided
the crucial military support that is keeping Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, in power; Mr. Erdogan has helped
arm opposition groups seeking Mr. Assad’s overthrow.
So when the two men met in St. Petersburg on Tuesday to patch up their nine-month-long feud over a variety
of issues, one question was whether they could make any
progress toward ending a conflict that has reportedly
killed more than 470,000 Syrians and displaced millions
more. Tragically for Syria, the answer was no.
After the meeting, the Turkish foreign minister told
the state-run news agency the two sides had “common
views” on the need for a cease-fire in Syria, deliveries of
humanitarian aid and a political solution to end the crisis.
But there was no suggestion they had narrowed their fundamental differences — which include Russia’s bombing of
Turkey’s rebel allies as well as Mr. Assad’s fate — even as
the situation in Syria continues to deteriorate.
For now, the focus is on Aleppo, which was Syria’s
largest city until the civil war erupted five years ago and is
now split between rebel- and government-held sectors.
Mr. Assad’s army and its Russian allies closed the last access roads to the rebel-held eastern sector of Aleppo in
July. Then over the weekend, fighting escalated when
rebel forces and their jihadist allies — notably the Nusra
Front, an affiliate of Al Qaeda — broke the monthlong
siege. Their success emboldened the Assad forces to intensify airstrikes on rebel targets. United Nations officials
say that two million people have been put at risk and in
desperate need of water, food and medicine. Whether the
rebels can continue to hold their part of the city is unclear.
On Wednesday, Russia, which has taken part in the
bombing of rebel-held areas, said there would be threehour cease-fires daily to allow aid convoys to enter Aleppo
safely, though experts said that amount of time would be
too short to be effective. Certainly, skepticism is warranted. Mr. Putin has been a duplicitous partner, failing to
fulfill previous commitments.
The proposal may have been an attempt to deflect
criticism unleashed on Monday when the United Nations
Security Council heard testimony from two American doctors who had just returned from treating dying and
wounded children in Aleppo. A Russian diplomat immediately attacked the testimony as “propaganda” that would
block movement “toward a political settlement in Syria.”
The Security Council’s goal has been a negotiated political solution that would end the war by putting into place
a coalition government of pro-Assad and opposition forces
to govern the country as Mr. Assad is eased out of power.
But years of talk and failed diplomatic efforts have resulted in no progress in reducing civilian suffering, much
less an end to the fighting.
Now, the United States and Russia are again trying to
restart negotiations by proposing a deal under which Syria would end its bombing of rebel forces, there would be a
cease-fire and the Americans would share intelligence
with Russia for targeting airstrikes against the Islamic
State as well as the Nusra Front. Some American officials
say intelligence sharing, which comes with its own risks,
is necessary to prevent the Nusra Front from gaining control over more territory.
Although President Obama is gradually ratcheting up
the battle against the Islamic State, he has refused to involve the United States in a military fight with Mr. Assad,
and is expected to maintain that policy until his successor
takes office. How Donald Trump, the Republican nominee,
might approach the problem is very unclear, but Hillary
Clinton, the Democratic nominee, has talked about more
military intervention, including a no-fly zone to protect
civilians. American voters need to hear much more about
their intentions. But the only real hope of ending the carnage is a resumption of negotiations.
ANGUS GREIG
A Policing Culture Built on Racism
The scathing federal report this week on the reality of
racist abuse by the police in Baltimore was hardly news to
the African-American neighborhoods most victimized by
ironhanded law enforcement. Community leaders have
been complaining for years about police policies that
swept up innocent black citizens beyond all bounds of constitutional justice — stopping, frisking and arresting
residents without justification, then releasing them without criminal charges or so much as an apology.
The 14-month study, prompted by the death of Freddie
Gray, a 25-year-old black man who died last year of a broken spine suffered while in police custody, confirmed the
black community’s harsh daily experience at the hands of
Baltimore police officers, who are driven by an aggressive
“zero tolerance” policy that federal investigators found to
be “alienating the civilians they are meant to serve.” This
was the complaint heard in the mass protests and street riots that followed the death of Mr. Gray — a theme echoed
in similar deadly confrontations across the nation.
Baltimore is 63 percent African-American, yet black
residents accounted for 84 percent of police stops — and
95 percent of 410 individuals found to have been unjustifiably stopped at least 10 times in a five-and-a-half-year period, according to the report. In that period, officers
stopped 34 black residents at least 20 times each, and seven 30 times or more. No individuals of any other race were
stopped more than 12 times each.
Without cause or a legitimate suspicion, officers routinely stopped and questioned individuals posing no crimi-
nal threat, the report emphasized. No charges were filed in
26 of every 27 pedestrian stops. Citizens could be arrested
unlawfully when officers simply “did not like what those
individuals said.” One supervisor advised a patrol officer
who protested: “Make something up.”
Some police officers are being fired as the city’s law
enforcement and political leaders embark on a sweeping
reform of police practices — a difficult task that will take
time and millions of dollars to retrain officers on such crucial standards as the legitimate use of force. City and federal officials are negotiating a reform plan that would be
monitored by a federal judge for compliance.
It is no coincidence that the Baltimore report was issued just as the Justice Department began moving forward with a plan to better track killings of civilians by police officers. Repeated protests over police killings in black
communities have laid bare the fact that there is little real
oversight or accountability for such deaths. The Justice
Department is aiming for a system of quarterly reports
from the nation’s more than 25,000 local police forces and
medical examiners.
Investigations similar to the one in Baltimore have
begun in nearly a dozen cities, including Chicago, Cleveland and Ferguson, Mo. Whether the Justice Department
in the next administration will maintain this pressure for
reform very much depends on the outcome of this year’s
presidential election, where Hillary Clinton is the only candidate who has shown commitment to carrying out the
tough remedies needed to rein in police abuses.
EDITORIAL OBSERVER ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON
Running Mates Playing Defense
In 2008, Sarah Palin assured Republicans backing John McCain that the only
difference between a hockey mom like
her and a pit bull was “lipstick.” In 2012,
Vice President Joseph Biden Jr. warned
an African-American audience that
Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan were
“gonna put y’all back in chains.”
By tradition, vice-presidential candidates are expected to be attack dogs —
Spiro Agnew pops quickly to minds that
go back that far. By that tradition, Tim
Kaine should be leading the charge on
Donald Trump, and Mike Pence should
be doing the same on Hillary Clinton.
But so far, both are behaving less like
attack dogs than horse whisperers,
promising skeptical voters that with a
little grooming, two candidates with
very high unfavorable ratings could
work out just fine as president. This is a
tricky task for Mr. Kaine. For Mr. Pence
— now laboring to explain that Mr.
Trump didn’t call for Mrs. Clinton’s assassination — it’s a herculean lift.
The Clinton campaign knows that Mr.
Trump’s bizarre pronouncements and
sketchy ideas have given it an opportunity to land a crippling blow. On Monday, unions, business leaders and economists allied with the campaign blasted
the economic plan Mr. Trump rolled out
and advertised as his long-promised
pivot toward substance. Meanwhile,
dozens of national security experts
from Republican administrations have
declared Mr. Trump unfit to lead.
But instead of joining the offensive,
Mr. Kaine has been deployed as humanizer in chief, aiming to shore up Mrs.
Clinton’s low marks for trustworthiness, and to answer questions she could
answer herself, except that she hasn’t
held an open news conference since De-
A tough job of selling
a candidate.
cember. Last week, Mrs. Clinton and
her surrogates doubled down on her
claim that James Comey, the F.B.I. director, said her public statements about
her emails were truthful. He did not,
and they were not.
On Sunday, Mr. Kaine was asked on
NBC News’s “Meet the Press” to explain Mrs. Clinton’s serial misstatements about her emails. He struggled,
saying he had heard Mrs. Clinton say, “I
made a mistake and I’ve learned something,” adding, “I’ve heard her apologize.” If Mrs. Clinton becomes president, Mr. Kaine said, “We’re going to be
real transparent, absolutely.”
A far more onerous rescue effort is
taking place on the Trump side, where
Mr. Pence has spent three weeks struggling to convince his own party that Mr.
Trump is not only trainable, but sane.
As Mr. Trump’s insults and incoherent
statements pile up, Republicans have
begun calling for Mr. Pence to leave the
ticket, or pressure Mr. Trump to quit.
On Monday, as Mr. Pence was headed
to Detroit for Mr. Trump’s big economic
speech, the conservative radio commentator Charlie Sykes — whom Mr.
Trump has called a “dope” — asked the
vice-presidential nominee, “Can you or
anyone else get Mr. Trump to stop saying crazy and offensive things for the
next three months?”
Mr. Pence replied: “Ha ha, well, um
yeah, you always hear these rumors. It
just, you know, I guess it makes for good
fodder on the internet. On a regular basis going forward, you’re going to see
Donald Trump laying out specific policy
proposals for how we rebuild this country at home and abroad.” That was
Monday, before Mr. Trump invited gun
owners to devise some way of stopping
Mrs. Clinton’s agenda.
Historically speaking, it is surreal
that Mr. Pence’s chief task is selling Mr.
Trump as being emotionally fit to hold
office. That’s something Mr. Kaine
could easily run with if he were not so
busy defending Mrs. Clinton.
Re “Trump Suggests Gun Owners Act
Against Clinton” (front page, Aug. 10),
about Donald Trump’s comment that
“the Second Amendment people” might
be able to do something about the
prospect of Hillary Clinton’s nominating
a Supreme Court justice:
It is critical to understand that it doesn’t matter how most of the people who
heard that statement perceive it. It doesn’t matter what I think or what The
Times thinks or what commentators or
pundits say or what Donald Trump says
he thinks or how he backtracks and corrects what he says once he hears the reaction.
All it takes for a tragedy to happen is
for one mentally unstable person to interpret that remark as permission to
break the law. Just one person out of millions. And Mr. Trump deep down inside
knows this.
So if a lone nut uses his statement as
permission and something awful happens, Mr. Trump will immediately say he
didn’t mean it and feel that this will get
him off the hook. But incitement is incitement no matter how it’s phrased.
BENJAMIN H. BLOOM
Philadelphia
ters with no reputation to lose. They
would have no standing to confront him
when he is wrong; those who dared
would be quickly fired. To those who say
that Mr. Trump’s cabinet would curb his
excesses, stop deceiving yourself and
others.
ILYA SHLYAKHTER
Cambridge, Mass.
TO THE EDITOR:
Regardless of what Donald Trump
meant by his “Second Amendment”
comments, do we want someone with his
speaking habits, open to dangerous interpretations by so many people, to
speak as the president of the United
States?
DANIEL CRUPAIN
New York
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Trump’s Ambiguous Wink Wink,”
by Thomas L. Friedman (column, Aug.
10):
With each new ugly step by Donald
Trump, one question looms larger: What
decent person would join his administration? He or she would be stained for life.
Therefore, a Trump administration
would be staffed by second-rate charac-
What makes me saddest about Donald
Trump’s “Second Amendment people”
remarks is the damage he is inflicting on
young Americans, especially those who
might aspire to a career in public service.
Over the last few weeks, as I have
watched Mr. Trump and his supporters
escalate their jeers and vitriol directed at
Hillary Clinton, from chants of “lock her
up!” to what certainly sounds like an incitement to use arms, I’ve been deeply
saddened to think about what all this
must look like to a bright young girl or
boy who might one day dream of serving
as an elected leader.
These repeated disturbing images
from Mr. Trump’s rallies would certainly
give me pause about pursuing this path.
He is an incredibly damaging role model
for young Americans.
HELEN WAN
Maplewood, N.J.
Alumni Giving at Amherst
Build High-Speed Rail
TO THE EDITOR:
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Amid College Protests, Alumni
Are Less Fond and Less Giving” (front
page, Aug. 5):
There is nothing new about intense
discussion and protest of societywide
problems on college and university campuses. At Amherst, they are part of the
fabric and always have been.
Your article blames the objections of
some alumni to campus protests — and a
consequent fading of their fondness —
for a decrease in philanthropic giving to
elite colleges this year.
Regardless of the multiple factors that
affect philanthropic giving in any one
year, I know firsthand that alumni fondness for their alma maters does not fade
easily. The loyalty, generosity and engagement of our alumni are indisputable
and have persevered through many controversial changes, including the college’s decision to enroll women 40 years
ago.
The support of our alumni allows Amherst to identify, recruit and develop talent, regardless of means, wherever it exists. It allows us to set and ensure that
students meet the highest intellectual
standards, while also providing a residential experience where they can
bridge differences in background and
point of view and develop openness and
understanding in place of closed-mindedness and fear.
Alumni giving — of opinion and financial support — has always been critical to
the college’s success. That has not
changed, and it never will.
BIDDY MARTIN
President, Amherst College
Amherst, Mass.
Re “E.P.A. Moves to Regulate Emissions in Air Travel” (news article, July
26):
Rather than trying to make aircraft reduce carbon emissions, we should endeavor to replace all trips of 500 miles or
less with high-speed rail. In 2015 there
were 5.8 million flights in the United
States, of which two million were under
500 miles.
Building high-speed rail to replace
those flights would dramatically reduce
air transportation emissions and probably eliminate the need for airport expansion and expensive upgrades to the air
traffic control system. Since rail is city
center to city center, it would also reduce
travel times and improve the quality of
life for all travelers.
High-speed rail would also replace
many automobile trips. A side benefit
would be the creation of hundreds of
thousands of construction jobs, new
manufacturing jobs at plants to build
trains in the United States and thousands of permanent jobs operating the
system.
MICHAEL PALUSZEK
Plainsboro, N.J.
TO THE EDITOR:
Bias by Computer
TO THE EDITOR:
No Homes and No Cars
TO THE EDITOR:
Re “Homes, Cars and the Broader
Economy” (editorial, Aug. 2):
Homeownership is at a 50-year low in
part because of economic policy, but also
because people live different lives.
The 30-year mortgage is a relic of a
time when we had one job, lived in one
town and owned one home — days that
are long gone. Similarly, auto sales are
down in great measure because the desire to own cars is declining. It is cheaper
to travel with the tap of your Uber app
when and where you need it than endure
the hassle of parking, maintenance and
insurance.
Ask 20-year-olds how they feel about
car or even homeownership, and you will
hear a very different answer from their
parents’ generation. For today’s younger
generation, experiences matter as much
as ownership. The Facebook post from
the vacation in Rome matters more to
their self-esteem than the McMansion
with a luxury car in the driveway.
Does this mean that the economy is
less strong, or that it is actually healthier? Our cars get used 10 percent of the
time at best, and innovative businesses
like Uber and Lyft save both money and
the environment. When we travel, if we
rent our houses on Airbnb, we earn
money and reduce waste.
The pillars of the economy aren’t
houses and cars. For the last several
thousand years there has actually been
only one pillar: human innovation.
Sometimes it means that we own certain
things, sometimes it means that we
don’t.
JOHN MARSHALL
New York
The writer is the chief strategy officer for
Lippincott, a creative consultancy.
Re “Make Algorithms Accountable”
(Op-Ed, Aug. 1): Julia Angwin makes a
strong argument that there is a growing
need to make algorithms accountable.
Control over automated decision-making
is at the core of modern privacy law. It is
the reason that privacy scholars and advocates often speak in terms of “fairness”
and “due process” rather than “secrecy.”
But Ms. Angwin greatly understates
the significance of the recent European
privacy law. That law prohibits automated decision-making that results in
discrimination and requires that companies provide information about how decisions are made. That provision has its
roots in a 1995 law that required access to
the “logic” of the processing.
That is the right approach. We should
require “algorithmic transparency” and
make open and accountable computerbased decisions. The Electronic Privacy
Information Center has launched a national campaign to pursue this goal.
Among our objectives: Open the Code,
Stop Discrimination by Computer, and
End Secret Profiling.
Algorithmic accountability is a complex topic, but the impact cuts broadly
across life in America, from jobs and credit to housing and criminal justice.
MARC ROTENBERG
Washington
The writer, president of the Electronic
Privacy Information Center, is the editor
of “Privacy in the Modern Age: The
Search for Solutions.”
The Times welcomes letters from readers.
Letters must include the writer’s name, address and telephone number. Those selected
may be edited, and shortened to fit allotted
space. Email: [email protected]
NEWS
EDITORIAL
DEAN BAQUET, Executive Editor
JAMES BENNET, Editorial Page Editor
TOM BODKIN, Creative Director
SUSAN CHIRA, Deputy Executive Editor
JAMES DAO, Deputy Editorial Page Editor
TERRY TANG, Deputy Editorial Page Editor
JANET ELDER, Deputy Executive Editor
MATTHEW PURDY, Deputy Executive Editor
BUSINESS
KINSEY WILSON, Editor for Innovation and Strategy
Executive V.P., Product and Technology
MARK THOMPSON, Chief Executive Officer
REBECCA CORBETT, Assistant Editor
STEVE DUENES, Assistant Editor
IAN FISHER, Assistant Editor
JOSEPH KAHN, Assistant Editor
CLIFFORD LEVY, Assistant Editor
MICHAEL GOLDEN, Vice Chairman
JAMES M. FOLLO, Chief Financial Officer
KENNETH A. RICHIERI, General Counsel
ROLAND A. CAPUTO, Executive V.P., Print Products
MEREDITH KOPIT LEVIEN, Chief Revenue Officer
ALEXANDRA MAC CALLUM, Assistant Editor
WILLIAM T. BARDEEN, Senior Vice President
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TERRY L. HAYES, Senior Vice President
R. ANTHONY BENTEN, Controller
LAURENA L. EMHOFF, Treasurer
DIANE BRAYTON, Secretary
THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
GAIL COLLINS
NICHOLAS KRISTOF
You
Choose
Or You Lose
If you’re a Republican politician, announcing you’re not going to vote for
Donald Trump is a little like declaring
that you’re not going to rob a bank to finance your next campaign. Really, you
don’t get any credit unless you say what
you’re going to do instead.
“I truly don’t know,” said Senator Susan Collins unhelpfully.
Collins made news this week when she
penned an op-ed for The Washington
Post, announcing that she couldn’t support her party’s nominee because “Mr.
Trump’s lack of self-restraint and his barrage of ill-informed comments would
make an already perilous world even
more so.”
It’s tough being a high-profile Republican these days. People are always demanding to know what you think about
your candidate’s latest horrific remark.
But unless you come up with an alternative, disavowing a candidate is more like
a sulk than a solution.
There’s been a lot of this going around.
Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska, an early
evacuee from the Trump train, said he
was going to wait until October to deal
with the problem. Senator Lindsey Graham said he might “just pass — I may
write somebody in.” Mark Kirk, who’s
generally regarded as the Senator Most
Likely to Be Defeated in November, gave
Ralph Nader
reveals his plan
for November.
Illinois voters an excellent example of
his leadership capacity when he announced that he was going to write in David Petraeus or maybe Colin Powell.
Obviously, all these people are trying
to avoid taking responsibility for Donald
Trump without being accused of betraying their party. But it’s very strange to
hear elected officials embracing various
versions of a don’t-vote strategy. Nobody
knows better than they do that politics is
a world of imperfect choices.
Collins freely admits that she’s worked
well with Hillary Clinton in the past. But
she ruled out voting for the Democrat,
telling CNN that Clinton wanted to spend
too much money. (“Promises of free this
and free that, that I believe would bankrupt our country.”) Faced with a choice
between a guy who could compromise
national security and a woman who
wants universal early childhood education, the former chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee
claimed to be at a loss for an answer.
Here’s the bottom line: There are only
three things you can do when it comes
time to elect a president. You can stay
home and punt; you can choose between
the two major party candidates; or you
can cop out by doing something that
looks like voting but has no effect whatsoever on the outcome of the race.
That includes strategies about writing
in the name of a retired general, leaving
the top line blank, or voting for a thirdparty candidate who has as much chance
of winning as the YouTube Keyboard Cat.
The only third party that might have a
line on all state ballots is the Libertarian,
whose platform includes eliminating Social Security, ending gun control and wiping out drug laws. This year’s Libertarian candidate is Gary Johnson, the former governor of New Mexico. Johnson
does not seem to agree with the platform
on many points, but to be honest, he’s not
the world’s greatest explainer. Libertarians like the idea of a charisma-free candidate, since he’d be incapable of getting
much done.
But truly, this is a silly choice. Voting
for Johnson is exactly the same as staying home, except that it involves going
outdoors. Ditto for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, a doctor who appears to
have a rather ambiguous attitude toward
childhood vaccinations.
Susan Collins said she could support
the Libertarian ticket if only it had been
reversed, with vice-presidential candidate William Weld on top. You can’t totally dislike Weld, who once told me that
being governor of Massachusetts was
pretty much a walk in the park. (“I used
to go on vacation for a week at a time and
I wouldn’t even call in.”) However, he’s
been out of office for nearly 20 years. He
is not the presidential candidate. And the
Libertarians are never, repeat, never going to be elected.
Right now we live in a world that’s
been messed up by the bad decisions
George W. Bush made about invading
Iraq. He was elected president in 2000
thanks to a few hundred votes in Florida.
A state where Green Party candidate
Ralph Nader got 97,488 votes.
Most of the Green voters undoubtedly
thought they were showing their disdain
for both Bush and the deeply imperfect
candidacy of Al Gore. And Nader is a
man of fine principles. But look where
those 97,488 votes got us.
Nader himself doesn’t feel guilty. I
talked to him on the phone the other day,
and he argued, basically, that if Gore
couldn’t win his home state of Tennessee,
it’s not Nader’s fault that he couldn’t win
Florida.
And he’s not voting for either Donald
Trump or Hillary Clinton in November.
“They’re not alike,” he said, “but they’re
both terrible.”
0
A23
Obama’s
Worst
Mistake
Stop Killing
Coyotes
JOE SUTPHIN
By Dan Flores
O
NE morning in the late 1930s,
the biologist Adolph Murie
stood near a game trail in
Yellowstone National Park
and watched a passing coyote joyously toss a sprig of sagebrush in
the air with its mouth, adroitly catch it,
and repeat the act every few yards. At
the time, Mr. Murie was conducting a
federal study intended to prove, definitively, that the coyote was “the archpredator of our time.” But Mr. Murie,
whose work ultimately exonerated the
animals, was more impressed by that
sprig-tossing — proof, he believed, of the
joy a wild coyote took in being alive in the
world.
Today, more than 80 years later,
coyotes are the most common large
predators in America, and an increasingly common sight in our cities and suburbs. If we paid attention, we might
share Mr. Murie’s fascination with an intelligent, playful creature. Instead, according to Project Coyote, an animalwelfare organization, we kill roughly half
a million of them a year.
No other wild animal in American history has suffered the kind of deliberate,
and casual, persecution we have rained
down on coyotes. For a long stretch of the
20th century, coyotes were, along with
gray and red wolves, the rare native
American species designated by the federal government for eradication.
In 1931, just a handful of years after the
extirpation of gray wolves in Yellowstone, the federal Animal Damage Control Act appropriated $10 million for the
erasure of coyotes in America. From 1945
to 1972, when a presidential proclamation by Richard M. Nixon curtailed the
war of extermination, a Department of
Agriculture agency now called Wildlife
Services collected the carcasses of 3.6
million coyotes. Many in the agency believed its poisons had killed an additional
three million coyotes whose bodies were
never found.
Amid this coyote war, a pair of biologists, Fred Knowlton and Guy Connolly,
published a study explaining how it was
possible for coyotes to withstand such
withering, scorched-earth warfare. “The
Effects of Control on Coyote Populations” was a mind-bending revelation.
Under persecution, the biologists ar-
Dan Flores is the author, most recently, of
“Coyote America: A Natural and Supernatural History.”
gued, evolved colonizing mechanisms
kicked in for coyotes. They have larger
litters. If alpha females die, beta females
breed. Pressured, they engage an adaptation called fission-fusion, with packs
breaking up and pairs and individuals
scattering to the winds and colonizing
new areas. In full colonization mode, the
scientists found, coyotes could withstand
as much as a 70 percent yearly kill rate
Why do we single out
these joyful creatures for
destruction?
without suffering any decline in their total population.
As modern studies in places like Yellowstone have shown, when coyotes are
left alone, their populations stabilize.
The only real effect a half-century of
coyote killing produced, then, was to introduce coyote Manifest Destiny, as they
spread out of the West and into the East
and South and big cities.
Despite Nixon’s decision, Wildlife
Services continues its pursuit, spending
$140 million a year to kill coyotes and
other “undesirable” animals. The agency
exists to serve one constituency, a dwindling American sheep industry, for
which it still sends planes and
helicopters after 80,000 coyotes a year.
On behalf of our nation’s sheep, from
2006 to 2011 the agency “retired” 512,710
coyotes.
The government isn’t the only one going after coyotes. Hundreds die each
year in weekend hunting “competitions,”
often for prizes or gambling pots, that
are promoted as a way to attract young
people to hunting. Their victims are not
only coyotes but the very image of rural
America, tarnished by widespread photos of beefy, middle-aged men in camouflage, with guns in hand and dead animals no one is ever going to eat piled up
in the backs of pickups.
Coyotes are not endangered, and they
don’t need our help to survive as a
species (though recovering populations
of wolves, which are often mistaken for
coyotes during hunts, could use it). But
there is something perverse in the government, and society, marking a species
for death, setting it outside the bounds of
even our wildlife protection laws.
We know coyotes are intelligent, social
creatures. They do not enjoy death. No
thoughtful human being, considerate of
other life, should sacrifice for pleasure or
a bet an animal like the one Adolph
Murie observed in Yellowstone in the
1930s. Doing so is immoral — not in a religious sense, but in reference to
morality’s origins, the evolution of a
sense of fairness among members of a
social species, which early on came to include a human recognition that other
creatures enjoy being alive and that depriving them of life is a very serious matter. Over 2,000 years ago, the philosopher Bion of Borysthenes elucidated
why modern, competitive hunts for
coyotes are an absolutely abominable
idea: “Though boys throw stones at
frogs in sport, the frogs die not in sport,
but in earnest.”
Killing an animal that for five million
years has had an important role to play
in nature is an act of adolescence. As long
as urbanites keep their dogs and cats inside at night, coyotes pose no unique or
overwhelming danger, certainly no more
than other wild predators. So why do we
continue to mark them as targets for our
blood sports?
0
What Mandatory Sentences Won’t Fix
By Alexandra Brodsky
and Claire Simonich
W
HAT should we do with
the anger inspired by
Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer
who was sentenced to
just six months in jail for sexual assault?
A movement to recall the judge who ordered that sentence, Aaron Persky,
continues to gain support, with a celebrity-studded fund-raiser this month.
In California, legislators have proposed
several bills meant to prevent short sentences for sexual assaults, including one
that would require a mandatoryminimum term for anyone convicted of
sexually assaulting an intoxicated or unconscious person.
We share in the outrage at Mr. Turner’s
actions, but worry that this law could
cause more harm than good. History
shows that this reform would not deter violence and most likely would perpetuate
punitive racial and class disparities.
Under California law, most instances of
rape are punishable by a mandatory
minimum sentence of three to eight years.
However, for certain kinds of sexual assault, judges can opt out of the mandatory
punishment. If a defendant did not use
physical force, a judge may have him
serve some of that time as probation.
Of course, Mr. Turner had no need to use
such force. The victim was blacked out,
unable to resist. California legislators are
correct to recognize an injustice here:
Why does it matter if a rapist uses a gun or
alcohol to facilitate an assault? Either
way, the victim was denied autonomy. The
proposed bill seeks to close what these
legislators see as a loophole.
But inflexible mandatory minimum
sentences, like the kind the California legislators want, are not the answer to our anger. During the second half of the 20th century, federal and state governments established mandatory minimum sentences,
with a special focus on drug offenses.
Alexandra Brodsky, a senior editor at
Feministing, and Claire Simonich are recent graduates of Yale Law School.
Many supporters saw minimums as a way
to be “tough on crime,” but some also saw
an opportunity to reduce disparities in
sentences. Reformers worried that people
like Brock Turner, white men with access
to expensive lawyers, received more lenient sentences than minorities and poor
people charged with the same crimes.
These advocates hoped that minimums
might make sentences fairer.
Unfortunately, mandatory minimums
have proved a failed experiment, contributing to prison overcrowding, racial imbalances and overly punitive sentences —
all without, studies show, reducing crime.
Because criminal laws are written expansively, mandatory minimums shift
sentencing power from judges to
prosecutors, who can effectively choose
Rape victims deserve
more justice, but stale
policy doesn’t help.
the sentence when they decide which of a
range of eligible charges to bring against a
defendant. And while defendants can appeal judges’ opinions, decisions made by
prosecutors are nearly impossible to challenge.
Although mandatory minimums were
meant to reduce disparities, in practice
they hurt the populations some reformers
sought to protect. Minorities and people
with lower incomes are more likely to be
arrested, and then more likely to be
charged with crimes that carry higher
mandatory minimums than others who
commit the same act.
Consider, for example, Raul Ramirez, a
Salvadoran immigrant whose rape case
was also assigned to Judge Persky. Some
advocates have pointed to Mr. Ramirez’s
prison sentence — years longer than Mr.
Turner’s, for a strikingly similar act — as
evidence that the judge gave a light punishment to Mr. Turner because he was
white. But Judge Persky didn’t choose the
sentence: a prosecutor charged Mr.
Ramírez with a more serious crime accompanied by a mandatory minimum,
and Mr. Ramirez accepted a plea agreement. Prosecutorial discretion empowered by inflexible sentencing, not judicial discretion, produced the inequity.
With mandatory minimums, the privileged can still get off easy. Leading victims’ groups oppose mandatory minimums in part because judges and juries
may be less likely to convict at all if they
are uncomfortable with imposing a long
sentence on a “sympathetic” (read: white
and wealthy) person.
Repeated studies also show that mandatory minimums do not significantly reduce crime because it is the likelihood of a
sanction, not its severity, that deters potential wrongdoers.
The country is moving away from mandatory minimums. Groups as diverse as
the American Civil Liberties Union and
the conservative Koch brothers have
banded together to fight them. The
Obama administration has instructed federal prosecutors not to use particularly
devastating mandatory minimum laws
against certain drug offenders.
None of this is to say that Mr. Turner
and the judge are not worthy of our disgust. There are better ways, though, to
make courts responsive to rape and its
victims. Some states have revised their
criminal codes so that physical force is not
a defining metric of the harm wrought by
sexual assault and California should do
the same. Consistency in sentencing can
come through setting a ceiling, not a floor,
for prison time.
We also have to look outside criminal
law. The high visibility of the Turner case
obscures the extreme rarity of rape
prosecutions. Justice and accountability,
then, will require increased access to the
civil legal system where victims, not
prosecutors, can decide whether and how
to bring a case. The law in California
makes it easier to take sexual abusers to
court than it is in most other states, but legal representation is often prohibitively
expensive. We need better state and private funding for legal services for survivors.
Tolerance for rape is an old but freshly
infuriating story. Victims deserve a new
solution, not a stale policy.
0
A crazed gunman’s attack on an Orlando club in June, killing 49 people, resulted in blanket news coverage and national trauma.
Now imagine that such a massacre unfolds more than five times a day, seven
days a week, unceasingly for five years,
totaling perhaps 470,000 deaths. That is
Syria. Yet even as the Syrian and Russian governments commit war crimes,
bombing
hospitals
and
starving
civilians, President Obama and the
world seem to shrug.
I admire Obama for expanding health
care and averting a nuclear crisis with
Iran, but allowing Syria’s civil war and
suffering to drag on unchallenged has
been his worst mistake, casting a shadow over his legacy. It is also a stain on all
of us, analogous to the indifference toward Jewish refugees in the 1930s, to the
eyes averted from Bosnia and Rwanda in
the 1990s, to Darfur in the 2000s.
This is a crisis that cries out for American leadership, and Obama hasn’t shown
enough.
In fairness, Obama is right to be cautious about military involvement, and we
don’t know whether the more assertive
approaches favored by Hillary Clinton,
Gen. David Petraeus and many others
would have been more effective. But I
think Obama and Americans in general
are mistaken when they seem to suggest: It’s horrible what’s going on over
there, but there’s just nothing we can do.
“There are many things we can be doing now,” James Cartwright, a retired
four-star general who was vice chairman
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told me. “We
can do many things to create security in
selected areas, protect and stabilize
those safe zones and allow them to rebuild their own country even as the conflict continues in other parts of the country.”
Cartwright, who has been called Obama’s favorite general, acknowledges that
his proposal for safe zones carries risks
and that the American public should be
prepared for a long project, a decade or
more. But he warns that the risks of doing nothing in Syria are even greater.
Madeleine Albright, Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, agrees that we can do
more, like set up safe zones. She emphasizes that the U.S. should be very careful
in using force so as not to make problems
worse, but she adds that on balance, “We
should be prepared to try and create
these humanitarian areas.”
This critique is bipartisan. Kori
Schake, director of defense strategy in
the George W. Bush White House, says,
“Yes, there is something that we can do.”
Her recommendation is for safe zones
modeled on Operation Provide Comfort,
which established the highly successful
no-fly-zone in northern Iraq in 1991 after
the first Gulf war.
Many experts recommend trying to
ground Syria’s Air Force so it can no
longer drop barrel bombs on hospitals
and civilians. One oft-heard idea is to fire
missiles from outside Syria to crater military runways to make them unusable.
One aim of such strategies is to increase the odds of a negotiated end to the
war. Obama’s reticence has robbed Secretary of State John Kerry, who is
valiantly trying to negotiate a lasting
Syrian cease-fire, of leverage. The U.S.
was able to get an Iran deal because it
held bargaining chips, while in Syria we
have relinquished all clout. And Obama’s
dithering has had a real cost, for any
steps in Syria are far more complex now
that Russia is in the war.
Two years ago, Obama faced another
daunting challenge: an impending genocide of Yazidi on Mount Sinjar near the
Iraq-Syria border. He intervened with
Yes, there are steps
we can take in Syria.
airstrikes and may have saved tens of
thousands of lives. It was a flash of greatness for which he did not get enough
credit — and which he has not repeated.
While caution within Syria is understandable, Obama’s lack of public global
leadership in pushing to help its refugees
who are swamping Jordan, Lebanon and
Turkey is harder to explain. The international appeal for Syrians this year is only
41 percent funded.
“If you care about extremism, you’ve
got 200,000 Syrian kids growing up in
Lebanon with no education,” notes David
Miliband, the former British foreign secretary, now head of the International
Rescue Committee.
Perhaps it’s unfair to reproach Obama
when other politicians and other countries are also unmoved — and the U.S.
has been generous with financial aid —
but ultimately the buck stops on Obama’s
desk. He will host a summit meeting on
refugees next month and I hope will
seize that chance to provide the global
leadership needed to address the crisis.
I met recently with two brave American doctors who, at great personal risk,
used their vacation time to sneak into
Aleppo, Syria, to care for children injured
by barrel bombs. They described working in a makeshift underground hospital
and their quiet fury at the world’s nonchalance.
“Sitting idly by and allowing a government and its allies to systematically and
deliberately bomb, torture and starve
hundreds of thousands of people to
death, that is not the solution,” Dr. Samer
Attar, a surgeon from Chicago, told me.
“Silence, apathy, indifference and inaction aren’t going to make it go away.” 0
A24
N
Modest Losses in the Market
Tech Fix
SportsThursday Pages 9-16
Energy Shares Tumble
Student Shopping List
There’s Gold in Gold
A drop in oil prices starts a
retreat; banking, health care and
3
tech stocks also decline.
A review of the best computers,
mobile devices, audio accessories
4
and food gadgets.
Jordan Burroughs and other U.S.
wrestlers could make a big bonus
14
if they win medals in Rio.
N
B1
The Drumbeat of Harassment Allegations at Fox News Is Not Fading
This article is by Michael M. Grynbaum,
Emily Steel and Sydney Ember.
When the anchor Gretchen Carlson filed a
bombshell lawsuit accusing the Fox News
chairman Roger Ailes of sexual harassment,
Fox’s corporate masters moved fast.
A major law firm was hired to investigate.
Two weeks later, Mr. Ailes was gone, ousted
from the network he ran for two decades. Rupert Murdoch stepped in as chairman, send-
ing a clear message: This is a fresh start.
But the grim tales about life under Mr. Ailes
keep coming. More women have come forward — the latest was a former daytime host,
Andrea Tantaros — describing a culture of intimidation and misogyny, and telling of settlements they received to leave the network.
Some of Mr. Ailes’s top deputies who remain
in charge at Fox News have been accused of
aiding his behavior. Inside the newsroom,
employees are still on edge about what new
Andrea Tantaros
stories might surface and which executives
could be ensnared.
If the Murdoch family wanted to leap ahead
of this scandal, it is now at risk of falling behind. Some people at Fox News are asking if
meaningful change can occur inside a workplace still stocked with loyalists to Mr. Ailes.
“People are waiting to see,” one staff member
said.
Leaders at 21st Century Fox, eager to contain the fallout from Mr. Ailes’s departure —
and keep the profitable news network humming during a ratings-magnet election —
have remained quiet amid the new accusations.
The company is also facing scrutiny over
whether it knew, or should have known,
about Mr. Ailes’s alleged behavior.
“What this has illustrated quite well is, if it
wasn’t understood before, there was clearly a
Continued on Page 2
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MELANIE DUNEA
Saffron fields in Ghoriyan District of Herat Province in Afghanistan. Saffron is produced from the stigmas of a crocus. Kimberly Jung, below left,
a Rumi Spice founder, was an Army engineer officer in Afghanistan. Abdul Shakoor Ehrarri, below right, manages a processing plant in Herat.
Cultivating Spice and a Land’s Renewal
A start-up founded by U.S. Army veterans
is developing a market for Afghan saffron.
By AILI McCONNON
Bomb-blasted roads, frequent blackouts,
shortages of basic equipment and an untested consumer market are hardly conditions that make for natural entrepreneurial
opportunities.
But three Army veterans and one civilian
who all served in Afghanistan have taken
on those challenges in their new venture.
Their company, Rumi Spice, buys saffron
from Afghan farmers and sells it to international customers.
Their business is part of a small crop of
efforts to help develop Afghanistan’s resource economy.
“We wanted to create something to empower everyday Afghans long after we
left,” said Kimberly Jung, one of Rumi
Spice’s founders, who said the company’s
name was inspired by the 13th-century
Persian poet.
Started two years ago, Rumi Spice now
sells saffron that is used by chefs in renowned restaurants like French Laundry
in California and Daniel in New York. It appeared on the shelves and website of the
luxury food seller Dean & DeLuca this
month.
Saffron is one of the most expensive
spices in the world, costing $2,500 to
$30,000 a kilogram. A staple in Indian, Moroccan and Persian cuisine, it is also a crucial ingredient in European dishes like
Spanish paella and French bouillabaisse.
As Americans search out the latest artisanal trends, Afghan saffron is starting to
make inroads.
“As overall aid money to Afghanistan has
Continued on Page 2
In Drones, Amazon Sees Dollar Signs
Amazon is the most obscure
large company in the tech industry.
It isn’t just secretive, the way
Apple is, but in a deeper sense,
Jeff Bezos’ e-commerce and cloudstorage giant is
opaque. Amazon
rarely explains either
STATE OF
its near-term tactical
THE ART
aims or its long-term
strategic vision. It values surprise.
To understand Amazon, then, is
necessarily to engage in a kind of
Kremlinology. That’s especially
true of the story behind one of its
most important business areas:
the logistics by which it ships
orders to its customers.
Over the last few years, Amazon has left a trail of clues suggesting that it is radically altering
FARHAD
MANJOO
STUART GOLDENBERG
how it delivers goods. Among
other moves, it has set up its own
fleet of trucks; introduced an
Uber-like crowdsourced delivery
service; built many robot-powered
warehouses; and continued to
invest in a far-out plan to use
drones for delivery. It made another splash last week, when it
showed off an Amazon-branded
Boeing 767 airplane, one of more
than 40 in its planned fleet.
These moves have fueled specu-
lation that Amazon is trying to
replace the third-party shipping
companies it now relies on —
including UPS, FedEx and the
United States Postal Service —
with its homegrown delivery
service. Its logistics investments
have also fed the general theory
that Amazon has become essentially unbeatable in American
e-commerce — no doubt one reason Walmart, the world’s largest
retailer, felt the need this week to
acquire an audacious Amazon
rival, Jet.com, for $3.3 billion.
So what’s Amazon’s ultimate
aim in delivery? After talking to
analysts, partners and competitors, and prying some very
minimal input from Amazon itself,
I suspect the company has a twotiered vision for the future of
Continued on Page 5
Crisis in Greece, the Book.
Or Actually, Several of Them.
By LANDON THOMAS Jr.
In May last year, James K. Galbraith, a
left-leaning American economist, sent an
email to Greece’s finance minister, Yanis
Varoufakis, in which he argued that an exit
from the eurozone would benefit Greece.
Mr. Galbraith, who was advising Mr. Varoufakis at the time, made the case that a new
currency would wash away the country’s
debts, solve Greece’s competitiveness problem and ultimately create what he called a
“good society.” Though the step was opposed by most Greeks, he had drawn up a
contingency plan for Greece under Mr.
Varoufakis’s direction, in the event the country was forced to leave the currency zone by
its creditors.
In the end, there was not a so-called
Grexit. One year ago this month, after the
polarizing finance minister left his post,
Greece agreed to its third bailout with Europe, accepting yet another round of brutal
austerity measures as the price for a new
round of loans.
Mr. Galbraith’s vision of a sun-kissed
utopia of powerful unions, small businesses
and cultural exchanges was published in
June in his book of essays, speeches and assorted memorandums (“Welcome to the
Poisoned Chalice”; Yale University Press)
describing the five months he spent as an
unofficial member of Mr. Varoufakis’s inner
policy circle.
A starry-eyed embrace of all that Mr.
Varoufakis said and did, the book also highlights the extent to which unorthodox, if not
unrealistic, economic thinking reached the
highest levels of the Greek government as it
battled with its creditors last summer.
Continued on Page 3
B2
THE NEW YORK TIMES BUSINESS THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
N
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
A Start-Up Cultivates Spice and a War-Torn Land’s Renewal
From First Business Page
decreased, a new mind-set of entrepreneurship has taken hold,”
said Ahmad Fahim Didar, the director of the new Afghan chapter
of Startup Grind, a global start-up
community that works with
Google for Entrepreneurs.
The Rumi Spice founders decided to focus on farmers because
80 percent of the Afghan population works in agriculture, according to the United States Embassy
in Kabul.
Still, starting a business, even a
small one, is filled with challenges
in Afghanistan. Much business is
done based on trust or relationships rather than contracts or
agreements. In their case, the
founders discovered that some of
the contacts they made during
their military deployments were
receptive to working with them.
In addition, electricity blackouts are common, which can render the dryers used in processing
useless. The main national highway is both damaged by war and
still a prime target of improvised
explosive devices, or I.E.D.s,
making travel risky.
Saffron is expensive because it
is difficult to grow and painstaking to harvest. Each amethystcolored saffron crocus produces
just three stigmas. The stigmas
are separated by hand from the
blossom and then dried into rustyred threads.
About 150 flowers are needed to
produce a single gram of saffron.
Afghan saffron has a reputation
for being particularly flavorful —
in part because of the terrain and
harsh climate around Herat,
where it is grown.
In 2014, Keith Alaniz, an Army
engineer officer who worked with
regional governments in Afghanistan, approached his friend
Ms. Jung, whom he had met while
working for the Army Corps of Engineers after Hurricane Sandy in
New York, about the idea of marketing Afghan saffron.
Ms. Jung had been an Army engineer officer who searched for
roadside bombs in Afghanistan.
She was then at Harvard Business
School with Emily Miller, also a
former Army engineer officer,
who had assisted Special Operations on night raids.
The company’s fourth founder,
Carol Wang, had worked in Afghanistan on a World Bankbacked rural development pro-
DAVID KASNIC FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Standing, Kimberly Jung, left, Emily Miller and Keith Alaniz, Rumi Spice founders, and a worker, Mohammad Mohammadali.
Saffron gives Afghan
farmers a valuable
crop, an alternative
to opium poppies.
gram.
One of the arguments for bringing saffron to an international
market is that it could give Afghan
farmers an alternative to growing
opium poppies, a source of heroin.
The farmers were skeptical at
first, Ms. Jung said, because they
had seen “people come and go
with many promises.”
But Ms. Miller said, “Once they
started seeing we could really sell
the product, the farmers started
knocking on our doors.”
Rumi Spice worked with 34
farmers in 2015. The company
plans to work with more than 80
farmers for this year’s harvest in
October and November.
The next step was to open a processing plant. In April 2015, Rumi
Spice began a Kickstarter campaign and raised nearly $33,000 in
less than two months.
The processing plant, based in
Herat, employed 75 Afghan women in 2015. The company paid their
wages directly to them rather
than following the more common
Afghan practice of paying the
male head of the household. About
300 to 400 women will be hired for
the 2016 harvest.
Rumi Spice was initially set up
as a limited liability company. A
year later, the founders switched
it to a public benefit corporation.
They were drawn by the idea that
the company would be “required
by law to report profit and impact
every two years” to shareholders,
Ms. Miller said.
In 2016, Rumi Spice is on track
to reach its projected revenue of
$500,000 for the year. The
founders say that it became profitable three months ago.
Two of the founders, Ms. Jung
and Ms. Miller, are full time and
based in the United States, while
the other two work with them part
time. The company also has two
additional full-time employees
based in Chicago and Afghanistan.
Bringing investors on board
was no easy feat because of concerns over continued Taliban violence. Most of the government’s
budget depends on foreign aid,
and the Taliban still control large
swaths of the country.
“It seemed dangerous and
crazy to source saffron out of Afghanistan,” said Douglas Doan,
the founder of Hivers and Strivers, an angel investing group that
finances start-ups created by military veterans. The group waited
six months to invest.
Hivers and Strivers and Golden
Seeds, an investing group that
backs start-ups created by women, have invested a combined
$272,000.
Rumi Spice has hired locals to
help provide security for the operations in Afghanistan.
Abdul Shakoor Ehrarri, an agricultural specialist, manages the
saffron processing plant. He also
meets with new farmers and helps
recruit female employees by going for tea with their husbands, fathers or brothers to assure them
that they will be safe in the workplace.
It also helps that Herat, the saffron region where the plant is
based, is one of the most stable in
Afghanistan.
Beyond security, the Rumi
Spice team says that another challenge is educating American consumers about saffron. “The average consumer is very skeptical of
anything from Afghanistan,” Ms.
Miller said.
Chefs, however, have been re-
ceptive. Many already used highquality saffron and were curious
to try the Afghan variety.
In 2015, soon after Ms. Jung returned from a trip to Afghanistan,
she took some saffron to the New
York chef Daniel Boulud.
“I was very pleased by the high
quality and the purity of the pistils
of Rumi Spice saffron, and the
taste was exceptional as well,”
said Mr. Boulud, who has been using Rumi Spice saffron in his signature restaurant, Daniel, for over
six months. “It immediately appealed to us to aid the veterans
and help the economy in Afghanistan.”
Another big break came from
Bunker Labs, a national nonprofit
group that helps support start-ups
run by veterans. Bunker Labs introduced Rumi Spice to FamilyFarmed, which runs accelerators
and incubators for food start-ups.
The nonprofit group connects new
companies with retailers like
Whole Foods and United Natural
Foods, a large organic and specialty food distributor.
FamilyFarmed has helped
Rumi Spice refine its brand. “Initially they were helping Afghan
farmers by paying a premium
price for saffron and displacing
opium production,” said Jim
Slama, the president of FamilyFarmed. “We helped them simplify their story. Now they are an
ethical luxury brand.”
Rumi Spice is also exploring
new channels to reach customers,
such as meal delivery services.
“We are also looking into superedgy product development,” Ms.
Miller said, such as “premium saffron butter that could go with a
fresh Maine lobster.”
But more than the business aspect, Ms. Jung said that the connection to Afghan people has been
the highlight of the venture.
She remembers a special moment during the saffron harvest
last fall. At one point, the younger
women working in the new processing plant, some of them
teenagers, shyly asked Ms. Jung
to play Beyoncé’s song “Irreplaceable” on her phone.
They shut the door, held an impromptu dance party — and then
returned to the time-consuming
task of separating the fiery red
stigmas from the purple saffron
blossoms.
Quoting an Afghan saying, Ms.
Jung said, “Drop by drop a river is
made.”
At Fox News, Drumbeat of Allegations of Harassment by Ailes Is Not Fading
the claims of a hostile work environment made by other female
employees after Ms. Carlson filed
her lawsuit, Mr. Brown said: “We
have demonstrated a willingness
to act.”
The calculus for Mr. Murdoch
and his management team is, to
say the least, complex.
Officials at 21st Century Fox
think that removing Mr. Ailes sent
an unequivocal signal — to
employees and the outside world
— that the company is taking har-
corporate control problem with
respect to Fox News,” said Brian
Wieser, a media industry analyst
at Pivotal Research in New York.
A spokesman for 21st Century
Fox, Nathaniel Brown, said in a
statement on Wednesday, “The
fact is, we have a robust compliance structure and strong controls embedded across our company.”
In response to questions about
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assment concerns seriously. They
say that lawyers from Paul, Weiss
are pursuing an aggressive internal investigation.
Investigators so far have been
focused on accusations of improper behavior by Mr. Ailes, not by
others, according to people
briefed on the inquiry. But the people have said the investigation is
also looking at others who might
have known of that behavior and
not acted on it. Several women
who have come forward with accusations said that investigators
had not contacted them.
In an interview, Ms. Tantaros, a
former daytime host, said that the
former chairman, in one-on-one
meetings, complimented her figure, asked questions about her
dating life and requested a hug,
making her uncomfortable.
Ms. Tantaros said that Fox
News managers dismissed her
complaints, then demoted her.
Fox News officials denied this,
saying that Ms. Tantaros was removed after publishing a book
without previous approval, a
breach of contract.
“The real issue that makes
women so fearful and so afraid is
what comes next,” she said. “At
Fox, you have a company that not
only sexually harasses, but is willing to empower its executives and
use company resources to carry
out ongoing harassment in the
form of retaliation.”
Complicating matters for 21st
Century Fox, Ms. Tantaros
claimed that several Ailes
lieutenants ignored her concerns,
including the current general
counsel, Dianne Brandi, and Bill
Shine, a veteran producer who is
now overseeing Fox’s newsroom
alongside Mr. Murdoch.
Ms. Tantaros said in the interview that she complained about
Mr. Ailes’s behavior and subsequent retaliation to Mr. Shine, who
she said told her, “Don’t fight this.”
Through a spokeswoman, Mr.
Shine replied: “Andrea never
made any complaints to me about
Roger Ailes sexually harassing
her.” Ms. Brandi also disputed Ms.
Tantaros’s assertion.
Mr. Shine is a popular figure
with some of the network’s veteran anchors. Removing Mr.
Other points of view
on the Op-Ed page
seven days a week.
The New York Times
CARLO ALLEGRI/INVISION, VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Andrea Tantaros, far right, with some of her Fox co-hosts in 2013, says she was retaliated against.
Shine, temporarily or not, could
reagitate the newsroom just as the
fall presidential campaign begins,
with tens of millions of dollars in
advertising on the line.
Corporate governance and
ethics experts say that 21st Century Fox and its board ought to
have been aware of problems in-
Questions on how
much the network
knew about Roger
Ailes’s behavior.
volving sexual harassment accusations at the network, as well as
any payouts related to them.
If the parent company was unaware of the settlement, it would
indicate “lax oversight,” Lucy P.
Marcus, a corporate governance
expert, wrote in an email. “If they
had been aware of it, they should
have investigated it years ago.
The board and executive team
needs to dig deeper into the culture to root out the cliques and culture that allowed this to carry on
for so long.”
Of particular issue is a $3.15 million settlement that Laurie Luhn,
a former booker at the network,
said she received in 2011. In an interview with New York magazine,
Ms. Luhn said that Mr. Ailes
forced her into a yearslong sexual
relationship.
Executives at 21st Century Fox
have said they were only made
aware of the settlement recently.
On Wednesday, when asked to
clarify exactly when it learned of
it, the company declined to respond.
“One would hope that a $3 million settlement for sexual harassment would flow up the line to
somebody in corporate management,” said Kirk O. Hanson, executive director of the Markkula
Center for Applied Ethics at Santa
Clara University. “At least today,
that kind of settlement should
come to the attention of the audit
committee of the board.”
Mr. Hanson added: “The question is, did they have procedures
in place to look at issues like this?
And secondly, did they have someone try to report this that was then
quashed by Rupert Murdoch or
anyone else?”
Fox News officials said that Ms.
Tantaros reported accusations of
sexual harassment — and not directed toward Mr. Ailes — only after she was informed that she was
in breach of contract for publishing a book, featuring a provocative cover, without advance approval. Barry Asen, an outside
counsel for Fox News, said in an
interview that the network investigated her claims and found them
baseless.
“We wound up interviewing 12
or 15 people, all of whom denied
everything she was alleging,” Mr.
Asen said.
Ms. Tantaros maintains that
she was within the terms of her
contract and that the network is
using it as an excuse to diminish
her complaints about sexual harassment.
Fox’s parent, 21st Century Fox,
is a global corporation, with $27.3
billion in revenue and thousands
of employees. Some on Wall Street
have appeared unbothered by the
scandal, which merited little mention on a recent earnings call.
“Most investors would just
hope that there wasn’t a bigger
problem and move on to the next
thing,” said Mr. Wieser, the media
analyst. The company’s stock
closed on Wednesday at $25.58 a
share, down nearly 8 percent
since Mr. Ailes’s ouster.
N
B3
Big Fund Settles Harassment Claim That Described a ‘Caldron of Fear’
By MATTHEW GOLDSTEIN
The world’s biggest hedge fund,
Bridgewater Associates, said it
had resolved a harassment claim
filed against it by an employee
who recently left the firm.
Christopher Tarui, 34, who
worked as an adviser to several
large institutional investors in
Bridgewater, filed his harassment
complaint in January and had
been on paid leave since the beginning of the year. He took a job
this week as a director with
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company, the large private equity
firm, a move it confirmed on
Wednesday.
Mr. Tarui also is dropping any
claims he has against Bridgewater, and the hedge fund agreed
to waive his employment restrictions, allowing him to move to his
new job, a Bridgewater spokesman said on Wednesday.
Bridgewater, like many financial services firms, includes noncompete clauses in some of its em-
ployment contracts.
The spokesman for Bridgewater added that Mr. Tarui “did
not receive any payment of compensation in connection with his
decision to withdraw his claims.”
Douglas Wigdor, a lawyer for
Mr. Tarui, declined to comment. It
is not clear what Mr. Tarui’s new
job at K.K.R. will entail.
The resolution of Mr. Tarui’s
claims was first reported by Business Insider.
In early January, Mr. Tarui filed
a sexual harassment complaint
with the Connecticut Commission
on Human Rights and Opportunities, in which he claimed his male
supervisor had repeatedly propositioned him for sex.
Mr. Tarui also had claimed that
Bridgewater officials tried to persuade him to retract his allegations after he raised them with the
hedge fund’s human resources department and other top managers.
The harassment complaint,
first reported by The New York
Times, painted an unflattering
portrait of life at Bridgewater, a
Westport,
Conn.,
company
founded by the billionaire investor
Ray Dalio that operates as one of
the more secretive firms in the $3
trillion hedge fund industry.
The complaint described the
working environment at Bridgewater as a “caldron of fear and intimidation,” noting that all meetings are recorded and security
guards patrol the facilities. Mr.
Tarui said in his complaint that the
firm’s policy of recording meetings and its surveillance culture
had led him to delay reporting the
harassment because he was concerned the matter would not stay
private.
Mr. Dalio responded angrily to
The Times’s characterization of
the firm and its reporting on Mr.
Tarui’s allegation in a lengthy letter posted on LinkedIn. Mr. Dalio
said the article was a “distortion”
of life at Bridgewater and “intentionally strung together a series of
misleading ‘facts’” in order to
“create the most sensationalistic
story.”
In March, Mr. Tarui and Bridgewater jointly asked the Connecticut human rights commission to
halt its investigation, and his complaint was withdrawn. It is believed Mr. Tarui agreed to pursue
A complaint provided
a grim view of what it
was like to work at
Bridgewater.
his claims through arbitration.
Bridgewater’s
employment
agreements require employees to
submit disputes to binding arbitration.
The Bridgewater spokesman
would not comment on whether
the claims it said Mr. Tarui had
withdrawn this week were related
to an arbitration proceeding.
The spokesman also declined to
comment on a related complaint
filed by the National Labor Relations Board that contends the
hedge fund “has been interfering
with, restraining and coercing”
employees like Mr. Tarui from exercising their rights — one of
which is the ability to file a complaint or give testimony to the federal labor board.
Michael Cass, a supervising
lawyer with the federal labor
board, said in an emailed statement “there are ongoing settlement discussions” with Bridgewater “but nothing has been finalized.”
The N.L.R.B. has scheduled an
Oct. 4 hearing on its claims before
an administrative law judge in
Hartford.
The publicity over the sexual
harassment complaint and the fo-
cus on Bridgewater’s unusual culture comes during a difficult time
for the firm, which has long
ranked as one of the world’s most
successful hedge funds.
Over the last two years, Bridgewater, which draws in money from
many public pension funds and
sovereign wealth funds, has
posted mixed returns in its two
main portfolios. The firm’s assets
under management have declined
to about $150 billion from $169 billion over that time — in part a result of the firm’s uneven investment performance.
The firm’s two main investment
portfolios are Pure Alpha II and
All Weather II. The Pure Alpha
fund is down 11.6 percent for the
year through July, while the All
Weather portfolio is up a little over
13 percent over the same period.
This summer Bridgewater,
which employs about 1,500 people,
began slowing its hiring, canceling numerous interviews it had
scheduled by outside recruitment
firms.
Crisis in Greece, the Book. In Fact, There’s a Fairly Wide Selection of Them.
As the anniversary of Greece’s
bailout deal approaches, there
have been several memoirs, essays, a blistering critique of the
International Monetary Fund’s
policies in Europe and even a book
of poetry that, from various perspectives, examine Greece’s torturous struggle to avoid bankruptcy.
The history of Greece in the eurozone is by no means complete,
and the latest financial rescue
package is still being worked out.
But the accounts do offer up a
number of piquant revelations on
that nation’s crisis, including outright policy mistakes, dubious
conduct, personal agendas and
tragedies.
And as the negotiations between Greece and its creditors
slowly press on, these works
serve as a reminder that an agreement allowing Greece to pay off its
debts without strangling its econ-
For the anniversary
of a bailout,
memoirs, critiques
and tell-alls.
omy is unlikely to be reached any
time soon.
“There is a fog-of-war atmosphere here that inhibits good policy making,” said Paul Blustein, a
former Washington Post reporter
and the author of “Laid Low: Inside the Crisis that Overwhelmed
Europe and the I.M.F.,” which will
be out in October. “But there are
no villains — just people fighting
their corner and kicking the can
down the road.”
Besides Mr. Galbraith’s work,
Mr. Varoufakis and George Papaconstantinou, the finance minister
during the saga’s early days, have
come out with books. Nick Papandreou, the brother of former prime
minister George Papandreou, has
written a searing personal essay
about the Greek press attacking
his family. And a collection of poems, “Austerity Measures,” examines the crisis.
Without question though, the
most comprehensive examination
has been a series of papers put out
as a report by the International
Monetary Fund’s internal watchdog — the Independent Evalua-
tion Office.
The report reveals how I.M.F.
staff members operated outside
official channels, kept sensitive
papers in personal files, withheld
crucial documents from the
watchdog agency and did not
keep the fund’s board fully informed during the crisis.
The secrecy was such, I.M.F.
board members said, that at times
they learned more of what was going on in Greece from media reports than their own staff.
The I.M.F. has a mandate to
serve as an objective lender of last
resort to troubled economies. The
report by the watchdog agency,
which also examines the crises in
Ireland and Portugal, highlights
just how difficult it was for the
fund to fulfill its mission in developed Europe as opposed to the
emerging world where it usually
operates.
I.M.F. economists did not foresee the crisis in Europe — from
bank blowups in Spain and Ireland to sovereign bankruptcy in
Greece — because of “groupthink
and intellectual capture,” the report said.
The I.M.F., after all, has always
been run by a European, and
many of its top executives, hailing
from Italy, Spain, France and Portugal, had complete trust in the
sanctity and strength of the euro.
It was not until mid-2010, the
watchdog points out, when the
Greek crisis was in full swing, that
I.M.F. economists first accepted
that excessive borrowing by
smaller countries using the euro
— Greece and Ireland — could
have a destabilizing effect on the
currency zone.
Time and again, the review
highlights this unwillingness of
the fund to challenge European officials as a persistent flaw in its
policies, leading to its highly controversial decision to lend money
to Greece in 2010, even though
economists at the fund believed
that the near-bankrupt country
had little chance of paying the
money back.
In blunt language, Susan
Schadler, a former top official at
the I.M.F., writes that the I.M.F.
was too easily swayed by European officials who argued that not
lending to Greece, or requiring it
to restructure its debt, would create a systemic panic in the markets.
In a response to the watchdog
agency’s report, Christine Lagarde, the managing director of
I.M.F., called the fund’s involvement in Europe a qualified success. She said Greece’s problems
YANNIS KOLESIDIS/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Anna Kousoula was among Greeks who struggled under austerity measures, which became the topic of a collection of poems.
Left, the former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis.
LOUISA GOULIAMAKI/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE — GETTY IMAGES
were unique and that the bottom
line was that the country had remained in the euro.
But Ms. Schadler has a different
view, seeing the decision and the
secretive way it was handled as
damaging to the fund’s reputation.
“By not following an open,
transparent process, the fund created the perception that a decision
made in Europe had been imposed on it,” she wrote in her pa-
per.
A self-published memoir by
George Papaconstantinou, the
Greek finance minister at the
time, looks at why the I.M.F. had to
lend to Greece in the first place in
2010.
Mr. Papaconstantinou bills his
chronicle (“Game Over: The Inside Story of the Greek Crisis”) as
a political thriller, and for those interested in who was saying what
to whom as Greece fell apart, his
account is a valuable one.
One tends to forget just how absurd Greek finances were when
he took over.
One example: The Greek Finance Ministry spent 35,000 euros a month on buying newspapers alone.
And there are some juicy vignettes, such as a warning from
Jean-Claude Trichet, then the
head of the European Central
Bank, that a restructuring of
Greek debt would have the same
effect on global markets as allowing Lehman Brothers to fail.
Mr. Papaconstantinou also relates how he came to be seen as a
scapegoat for Greece’s ills. He
was personally blamed for the
austerity measures and brought
to trial on what turned out to be
spurious charges relating to how
he handled sensitive files about
Greek taxpayers.
Mr. Papandreou’s essay, “Taming the Dogs of War,” which he pre-
sented in April at a conference on
media pressures from business
and government, covers some
similar ground.
He recounts how the newspapers in Greece, which are controlled by powerful businessmen,
attacked him as well as his
brother, the former prime minister, accusing him of hoarding
money overseas and driving him
to the brink of suicide.
Mr. Varoufakis also has a book
out, which asks: “And The Weak
Suffer What They Must?”
For the many who are waiting
for his promised tell-all about his
experiences battling with European and I.M.F. officials over
Greece’s debt, this is not that
book.
Fans of Mr. Varoufakis will lap
up his fiery criticisms of European
and American economic policy
making, but other readers will
prefer to wait until next summer
when his blow-by-blow account is
scheduled to be published.
STOCKS & BONDS
Sell-Off in Energy Companies Drags Wall Street Lower
A sharp sell-off in energy companies pulled Wall Street indexes
modestly lower Wednesday, wiping out small gains from the day
before.
Another slide in crude oil prices
weighed on the energy sector.
Banking, health care and technology companies also declined,
while consumer-focused stocks
and phone companies posted
gains.
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 37.39 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,495.66. The Standard &
Poor’s 500-stock index shed 6.25
points, or 0.3 percent, to close at
2,175.49. The Nasdaq composite
index lost 20.90 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 5,204.58.
Investors mostly focused on
company earnings from retailers,
restaurant chains and other companies.
“We’re still down year-overyear for the quarter, but there’s a
growing conviction that the headwinds from the energy bust and
strong dollar are increasingly fad-
ing,” said David Lefkowitz, senior
equity strategist at UBS Wealth
Management Americas.
In the absence of major economic news, in what is a
seasonally slow period for the
markets, investors have been
monitoring company earnings for
clues about how the second half of
the year is shaping up for corporate America.
A strong jobs report last Friday
bolstered investors’ confidence in
the United States economy.
Traders are looking ahead to Friday, when the government delivers its latest monthly retail sales
figures.
Most companies have already
delivered their quarterly report
cards, and earnings and revenue
have been relatively good. Some
90 percent of the companies in the
S. & P. 500-stock index have already reported second-quarter results, and approximately 65 percent posted earnings that beat
Wall Street’s expectations, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Even so, earnings over all are
10-Year Treasury Notes
The Dow Minute by Minute
High yield in monthly refunding
auction.
Position of the Dow Jones industrial average at 1-minute intervals on
Wednesday.
18,560
2.6%
Previous close
18,533.05
18,520
2.2
1.503%
1.8
18,480
1.4
’15
Source: Treasury
Department
18,440
’16
10 a.m.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
expected to be down 2.1 percent,
dragged down by the energy sector, which has been struggling
with a steep drop in oil prices.
A report showing a bigger-thanexpected increase in oil stockpiles
last week weighed on the price of
crude, reversing an early gain.
Benchmark crude oil fell $1.06,
or 2.5 percent, to close at $41.71 a
Noon
Source: Reuters
barrel in New York. Brent crude,
used to price international oils,
slid 93 cents, or 2.1 percent, to
close at $44.05 per barrel in London.
Several companies reported
disappointing quarterly results or
outlooks on Wednesday.
The clothing company Michael
Kors slid 2.8 percent after it fore-
2 p.m.
4 p.m.
THE NEW YORK TIMES
cast weaker sales for the current
quarter and lowered its outlook
for sales at established stores. Its
shares fell $1.40, to $48.71.
The pharmaceuticals company
Perrigo sank 9.6 percent after it
cut its guidance for the year, citing
growing competition and falling
prescription drug prices. Perrigo
lost $9.09, closing at $86.
SunPower, a solar products and
service company, tumbled 30.2
percent after it said its power
plant business was struggling in
the face of growing competition
and project delays. It lost $4.47, to
close at $10.31.
Markets overseas were mixed.
The DAX in Germany and CAC
40 in France each dipped 0.4 percent. In Britain, the FTSE 100 rose
0.2 percent.
In Japan, the Nikkei 225 lost 0.2
percent despite a report showing
private sector machinery orders
rebounded in June from May. The
Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged
up 0.1 percent, while the S&P ASX
200 in Australia fell 0.2 percent.
Stocks in Taiwan and Singapore
also were higher, but markets in
China, Indonesia and New Zealand declined.
Bond prices rose. The yield on
the 10-year Treasury note fell
to 1.51 percent from late Tuesday.
In currency markets, the dollar
weakened to 101.27 yen from
101.90 on Tuesday. The euro
strengthened to $1.1173 from
$1.1109.
B4
N
PERSONAL TECH
TECH FIX
Shopping List for Students Gets Complicated
smartphones more juice throughout the
day. Anker’s PowerCore Slim 5000,
about $20, is affordable and provides
about two full charges to a smartphone
in a compact battery pack.
By BRIAN X. CHEN
W
HEN Vanessa Arreola, 18,
starts her freshman year
at Stanford University this
fall, the top item on her
back-to-school wish list is a MacBook
Pro.
She said she wouldn’t consider a
tablet because she prefers a traditional
keyboard. She relies on apps like
Google Docs for documents and Google
Slides for presentations, which are
available through a web browser.
“A tablet is just like your cellphone,
but bigger,” she said. “I don’t see a
point of getting a tablet.”
But Claire Ashcroft, 19, who studies
public health at Brigham Young University in Idaho, said the opposite. Half of
her textbooks are digitized, and she
uses apps like Microsoft Excel and
Word — so her ideal school device
would be a Windows machine with a
touch screen, like a Microsoft Surface
tablet.
The polarizing responses illustrate
how back-to-school shopping for technology gadgets has become increasingly complex for parents. In the past,
the dilemma for most students was
whether to get a Windows PC or a Mac.
Now, because of a proliferation of different computing forms with the rise of
mobile devices, the debate has shifted
toward whether to buy a computer or a
tablet — and which operating system
on top of that.
Then there are the different types of
software and tools that students use,
like flashcard apps or readers for digital
textbooks, some of which are for mobile
devices and others for computers.
To make back-to-school season easier, parents should have a conversation
with their children about what devices
and which operating system to buy
based on their student’s area of studies
and the apps they use.
I also compiled a guide to some of the
best back-to-school products, including
computers, mobile devices, audio accessories and food gadgets. The list was
curated after testing dozens of products
and interviewing five college students
about the tools that help them do homework and get through cramming sessions. (While this list focuses on college
students, many of whom will be getting
their own computers for the first time,
some items would also be a good fit for
high schoolers.)
Laptop Versus Tablet
The students I polled were split on
whether a laptop or tablet would be the
best study tool. In general, students in
science-oriented fields would probably
benefit from a laptop, which can handle
multitasking more easily and run more
powerful apps than tablets. For designers and liberal arts majors who are
using more lightweight apps for writing
essays or drawing sketches, a tablet
may be a better fit.
For students in science-oriented
fields, like Ms. Arreola, the $899 MacBook Air stood out as the most versatile
and convenient computer. It can run
both the Mac and Windows operating
Audio Accessories
High-quality audio gear is a sound
investment for students. Roommates
can be loud distractions from schoolwork and sleep, plus a bit of music can
ease the pain of typing out a tedious
essay.
That makes it worthwhile to invest in
a pair of noise-canceling headphones.
My favorite set is the Bose QuietComfort 35. They are wireless, comfortable and extremely effective at
filtering out noise, plus they sound
great. At $350, they are pricey but will
provide comfort and nice sound for
many years.
Another useful audio device is the
$180 Amazon Echo, the internet-connected speaker that responds to voice
commands. It can stream music from
services like Spotify and Pandora and
also dictate a student’s calendar events.
When set up with an internet-connected power outlet, like TP-Link’s
Smart Plug, the Echo could even be
used to turn on an electric kettle for
boiling water for tea or coffee first thing
in the morning, if you say, “Alexa, turn
on the kettle.”
Coffee and Food
MINH UONG/THE NEW YORK TIMES
systems, weighs only 2.4 pounds and
has at least nine hours of battery life. It
also has an excellent keyboard and
ports for plugging in accessories like a
display, mouse or phone charger.
For those seeking a tablet, devices
like the $599 iPad Pro or $499 Microsoft
Surface 3 should work well. The ability
to remove the keyboard for reading
digital books or to use a stylus to make
drawings would come in handy on
either of these devices.
Smartphones
Chances are that your son or daughter already has a smartphone, given
that on average, children are getting
their first smartphones at age 10. But if
they have a hand-me-down, four-yearold iPhone or Android device, it may be
a good time to get a speedier, more
capable phone.
The best ones on the market come
from Apple and Samsung Electronics:
the iPhone 6s and Samsung Galaxy S7.
Which one you pick should partly depend on your child’s computing device,
since iPhones are more tightly integrated with Apple devices and Android
devices generally mesh better with
Windows computers.
There are two caveats. First, Apple is
expected to release a brand-new iPhone
this fall; so if you go the Apple route, it
would be wise to wait a few months.
Second, these are high-end phones that
cost roughly $700, which could easily
blow your budget.
If price is a concern, there are plenty
of excellent lower-tier smartphones.
The iPhone SE, which has most of the
same guts as the iPhone 6s but a
smaller 4-inch screen, is a solid option
at $399. For Android devices, I like
Huawei’s Nexus 6P, which also costs
$399. It has a nice look and feel and
works with Project Fi, Google’s low-cost
cellular service.
With the amount of shuffling around
that students do on campus, I also
recommend a battery pack to give
Speaking of water kettles, a food
gadget or two will not go amiss in students’ lives, especially if the devices
offer a shortcut to downing some caffeine or gobbling up ramen.
A great electric kettle for quickly
boiling water is Bonavita’s $55
BV3825B Gooseneck. The stainless
steel kettle can boil up to a liter of water and has a long gooseneck spout that
lets you smoothly pour water into a
teapot, french press or cup of noodles.
For a fast and inexpensive gadget to
make coffee, check out the $30 AeroPress. You place the AeroPress chamber on a mug, add one scoop of ground
coffee, add hot water and plunge the
coffee through a filter into the mug. It
makes cheap coffee taste delicious.
For heating up food, I recommend a
toaster oven instead of a microwave. A
well-made toaster oven is not only
capable of heating up microwave dinners, but it can also toast bagels and
leftover slices of pizza or even roast a
chicken leg. Breville’s $150 Mini Smart
Oven evenly heats up foods and will get
students through times of desperation.
In the end, it’s up to students to use
their imaginations to get the most out
of their back-to-school gear. Ms.
Ashcroft, the Brigham Young student,
said her favorite study tool during her
freshman year was her iPhone 5 — she
uses the apps Quizlet and StudyBlue to
study with digital flashcards and notes.
But she would like a Microsoft Surface tablet.
“If we’re talking wishful here, I would
choose that,” she said. “I have a couple
of friends with those, and I think
they’re pretty nice.”
APP SMART
Experiment With a Makeover, No Cold Cream Needed
I
By KIT EATON
N addition to being a flashlight and
camera, the smartphone has another nifty feature: It is a digital
mirror that can help you apply
makeup.
Many beauty apps promise virtual
makeovers that let you try new looks in
seconds, using the smartphone’s frontfacing camera and screen. But the
quality of these apps varies, so here are
some of the best that can give you a
glamorous look, rather than make you
look like a circus clown.
MAKEUP GENIUS from L’Oréal is one of
the best of these apps because of its
ease of use. It uses your device’s camera to look at your face, and then calibrates where it thinks your eyes, mouth
and other features are. You then have a
choice between premade looks — combinations of makeup put together by
L’Oréal — or individual products, one
by one.
At this point you see a live view of
your face wearing the digital makeup,
and it is impressive. Like one of
Snapchat’s popular weird live filters,
but with more finesse, the digital special effects follow your face in real time
as you move, and even adjust to the
contour of your eyes and mouth as you
open or close them.
The upshot is that you can see how
you look wearing digital eyeliner, lipstick, blush or eye shadow in real time.
You can even turn and angle your face
or smile just as you would if you were
applying real makeup in a mirror.
The menus to choose new looks are
clear and there are lots of options — all
L’Oréal products, of course. A button
lets you buy the makeup through the
app, which is free for iOS and Android.
If you are not a fan of the automation
built into Makeup Genius, ModiFace’s
MAKEUP app has some of the same
Modiface Makeup, at far left,
provides a wide range of
digital makeup effects, and
can be calibrated to different
faces. YouCam Makeup
Virtual Makeover, left, goes
a step further, allowing people to change hair or skin
color and minimize existing
imperfections, like a blemish. Makeup Genius lets
people choose from a list of
premade looks, then buy the
necessary cosmetics from
L’Oreal.
powers, but offers you more control
over the digital makeup effects it applies to your images. This app works
from a photo of your face, instead of
using live video. It guesses the location
of your facial features, but you can
calibrate it precisely by moving indicators to line up with the corners and
shape of your eyes and mouth.
Then the app applies digital makeup,
which you choose from a dial-like interface. The options include the ability to
choose hairstyles and colors. And if the
look of, for example, the artificial eyeliner is not right, you can fine-tune the
shape of each effect.
Makeup also has a live makeup effects option that is like Makeup Genius,
Apps that let you try out
makeup, don jewelry and
even hide a pimple.
but not quite as polished, and the digital
makeover may not be as realistic.
Makeup has looks copied from celebrities (you choose the look by tapping
on a celebrity’s face, and the digital
makeup is instantly applied to your
image) — but you must pay for some of
the looks. ModiFace’s Makeup is otherwise free for iOS and Android.
YOUCAM MAKEUP VIRTUAL MAKEOVER
AND BEAUTY STUDIO is similar to ModiFace’s app in that it involves adding
makeup effects to a static image of your
face. But it has an automated system
for detecting your facial details, which
makes things easier. It also has prearranged looks, and the interface for
these is clearer than in rival apps.
Unlike its peers, YouCam includes
special features like party makeup
looks and the chance to add accessories
like earrings. It also lets users enhance
features (for example, de-emphasizing
your nose or minimizing blemishes).
The interface is clear and minimalist,
which makes it feel more professional
than Makeup Genius.
YouCam also has a live video makeup
effect and a neat Makeup Mashup
system that applies a random assortment of looks to your face in real time,
and records a video for you. The app is
free, and you can find it for iOS and
Android.
Quick Call
Bitly is a well-known service that
helps you shrink web links to make
them easy to share on social media.
Now, an official BITLY app for Android
has the same features. It borrows
Google’s minimal design cues and
focuses on showing you analytics about
the links you have already shortened,
including graphs on how many people
are visiting. Bitly’s app is free.
N
B5
PERSONAL TECH
In Development of Drones, Amazon Sees Dollar Signs
shipping.
First, it’s not trying to replace thirdparty shippers. Instead, over the next
few years, Amazon wants to add as
much capacity to its operations as
possible, and rather than replace partners like UPS and FedEx, it is spending
boatloads on planes, trucks, crowdsourcing and other novel delivery
services to add to its overall capacity
and efficiency.
Amazon’s longer-term goal is more
fantastical — and, if it succeeds, potentially transformative. It wants to escape
the messy vicissitudes of roads and
humans. It wants to go fully autonomous, up in the sky. The company’s
drone program, which many in the tech
press dismissed as a marketing gimmick when Mr. Bezos unveiled it on “60
Minutes” in 2013, is central to this future; drones could be combined with
warehouses manned by robots and
trucks that drive themselves to unlock
a new autonomous future for Amazon.
There are hurdles to realizing this
vision. Drone delivery in the United
States faces an uncertain regulatory
future, and there are myriad technical
and social problems to iron out. Still,
experts I consulted said that a future
populated with autonomous drones is
closer at hand than one populated with
self-driving cars.
“It’s a vastly easier problem — flying
than driving,” said Keller Rinaudo, the
co-founder of Zipline, a drone-delivery
start-up that will begin deploying a
system to deliver medical goods in
Rwanda this fall. “If we had regulatory
permission, we’d be delivering to your
house right now,” he added, referring to
the San Francisco Bay Area.
If Amazon’s drone program succeeds
(and Amazon says it is well on track), it
could fundamentally alter the company’s cost structure. A decade from now,
drones would reduce the unit cost of
each Amazon delivery by about half,
analysts at Deutsche Bank projected in
a recent research report. If that happens, the economic threat to competitors would be punishing — “retail
stores would cease to exist,” Deutsche’s
analysts suggested, and we would live
in a world more like that of “The Jetsons” than our own.
Shipping has always been at the core
of Amazon’s strategic investments. In
its earliest days, as part of an effort to
avoid collecting sales tax from most
customers, Amazon purposefully
Email: [email protected];
Twitter: @fmanjoo
AMAZON
MARK LENNIHAN/ASSOCIATED PRESS
placed warehouses in low-tax, lowpopulation states, and then shipped
goods to populous areas within three to
five days.
The 2005 introduction of Amazon’s
Prime subscription program, which
gives customers two-day delivery on
many goods for an annual price of $99,
changed Amazon’s shipping needs.
Prime encouraged customers to buy a
lot more stuff, and it also forced Amazon to deliver packages more quickly.
That explains why Amazon abandoned its tax-avoidance strategy earlier
this decade and began building dozens
of warehouses in populous areas. It also
ramped up a system called “postal
injection,” in which it uses prediction
algorithms and complicated network
Amazon drones, top and above, and packages, at
left, in a warehouse in New York. The online giant
has said little about its drone project, Prime Air,
apart from handout images and videos. But it seems
intent on transforming the way goods are shipped.
analysis to figure out how to deliver
every package to the United States
postal facility nearest a customer’s
house. According to Deutsche, postal
injection has allowed Amazon to slash
the cost of the most expensive leg of
shipping an item, the “last mile” from a
warehouse to customers’ homes. So
despite shipping most goods faster,
between 2010 and 2015 Amazon cut its
shipping costs from $5.25 per box to
$4.26, Deutsche estimates.
But that’s still not low enough.
Though Amazon has released a string
of stellar earnings reports recently, its
shipping costs are rising, and it faces
capacity constraints. During the holidays two years ago, a surge of online
orders overwhelmed UPS, leading to
missed deliveries.
A more severe problem looms in the
long run: The transportation infrastructure in the United States is aging, and
the Department of Transportation has
warned that unless urgent and expensive fixes are made, roads, waterways,
airports and other systems will become
alarmingly clogged by the 2040s.
For Amazon, that projected future is
catastrophic: Pretty much all of
Amazon’s current investments in shipping — in trucks, planes and crowdsourced delivery cars — depend on the
traditional shipping infrastructure.
All, that is, except for drones —
which explains why they are integral to
Amazon’s vision of the future of retail.
I was first clued in to the importance
of Amazon’s drone initiative, called
Amazon Prime Air, when I met Gur
Kimchi, the head of the program, at an
industry conference a few months ago.
Though our conversation was off the
record, Mr. Kimchi’s detailed answers
to my questions suggested I had been
too quick to dismiss the initiative.
When I began talking to others in the
drone industry about Amazon’s interest
in autonomous flight, they all pointed
out that drones offer a way to leapfrog
roads. Because they operate in a new,
untrammeled layer of physical space —
below 400 feet, an airspace that is currently unoccupied in most of the country — they open up a vast new shipping
lane.
Beyond posting several videos, Amazon has not revealed much publicly
about its drone program, but it has
been working with regulators worldwide to set up tests of the system. It
envisions drones being able to deliver
packages up to five pounds in weight,
which account for 80 to 90 percent of its
deliveries.
Amazon also said it has built many
different kinds of prototypes for different delivery circumstances. The first
rollouts will likely be in low- and medium-density areas like suburbs, where a
drone might land in a backyard to drop
off shoes. But the company said it was
also working on systems to deliver to
cities — for instance, drones could
deliver packages to smart lockers positioned on rooftops.
As it happens, the shipping company
DHL has tested just such a drone-tolocker delivery system in Germany; a
representative told me that the test was
a success and that it plans to expand
the technology depending on regulatory approval. Amazon’s patent filings
hint at even more fanciful possibilities
— drones could ferry packages between
tiny depots housed on light poles, for
example.
Others project even wilder ideas.
Ryan Petersen, the founder of the logistics software company Flexport,
pointed out that Amazon had filed
patents that envision using trucks as
mobile shipping warehouses. Such
self-driving trucks, prestocked with
items Amazon has determined a given
neighborhood might need, could roam
around towns. When an order comes in,
a drone might fly from the truck to a
customer’s house, delivering the item in
minutes.
Scenes like that are most likely in the
far-off future. But according to Amazon,
the earliest incarnation of drone deliveries will happen much sooner — we
will see it within five years, somewhere
in the world.
TECH TIP
Slowing Down
Windows Express
Q. When I downloaded the new Windows
10 update, I just clicked the Use Express
Settings button during the installation.
But what exactly are Express settings
and can I change them after the fact?
A. Like other major upgrades, the Win-
dows 10 Anniversary Update that was
released earlier this month has a few
configuration screens for you to set your
system preferences. On the blue “Get
going fast” screen, Microsoft presents a
page of text that describes all the things
Personal Tech invites questions about
computer-based technology to
[email protected]. This column will
answer questions of general interest, but
letters cannot be answered individually.
the company would like to do with your
data if you click the Use Express Settings button, but reading it can take
some time.
Many of the Express settings are
designed to make using Windows 10 as
convenient as possible. If you click the
button, you agree to let Microsoft collect
data about how you interact with Windows for inputting information through
voice, typing or stylus — which the
company says is to “improve the suggestion and recognition platforms.”
Among other things, using the Express Settings button also allows Windows and its apps to request your location data, see your location history,
target you with personalized advertising, share your browsing data and let
Skype calling software use your contacts list. “Automatically connect to
suggested open hot spots” is another
setting you get if you go Express, despite the next sentence that notes, “Not
all networks are secure.”
Even if you clicked the Express Settings button — instead of the smaller
Customize Settings link in the lower-left
corner of the “Get going fast” screen —
you can go back into the main Windows
10 Settings app from the Start Menu and
change things. Microsoft’s site has a
collection of articles about Windows 10
and privacy at support.microsoft.com/
en-us/help/12456, including explanations and a how-to guide for adjusting
individual settings.
Google’s Source
Of Traffic Data
Q. How does the Google Maps app know
there’s a car stopped by the side of the
highway or a jam up ahead?
A. Google pulls in traffic data from
multiple sources for its Maps app, including information from police and
local transportation departments. Many
reports concerning real-time events —
like cars stopped on the highway shoulder, debris on the road, construction,
congestion and accidents — come from
the users of its Waze service.
Waze, a company Google acquired in
2013, has mobile apps for Android and
iOS devices. Waze members can use the
app for navigation to a destination and
to report traffic observations and incidents along the route. One screen within
the Waze app provides a set of icons for
users — typically passengers in the car
— to update the app’s maps with new
information, including stopped vehicles.
These Waze reports then get incorporated into the Google Maps navigation, too.
Google has been collecting traffic and
map data for more than a decade and
gathering crowd-sourced congestion
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BUSINESS
OPPORTUNITIES
reports since at least 2009. The collection has given the company a lengthy
history of patterns and trends for its
software to analyze. Google Maps users
themselves contribute to the traffic
database too, as speed and location
information from devices using the app
(inside the moving cars) are shared
with the company.
The app uses a color code on routes to
indicate current traffic conditions, including green for no delays, orange for a
moderate amount of traffic and
deepening shades of red as road congestion gets worse and progress slows
to a crawl. Last year, Google Maps added new traffic alerts that preview the
conditions between you and your destination — and suggest alternate roads to
get you there faster if an accident or
other incident has occurred on your
original route.
J. D. BIERSDORFER
REFEREE’S NOTICE OF SALE IN FORECLOSURE
SUPREME COURT – COUNTY OF BRONX
WELLS FARGO BANK, N.A., AS TRUSTEE OF THE OPTION
ONE MORTGAGE LOAN TRUST 2007-FXD1 ASSET-BACKED
CERTIFICATES, SERIES 2007-FXD1,
Plaintiff
– against –
DALE A. SMITH, et al
Defendant(s).
Pursuant to a Judgment of Foreclosure and Sale entered
on July 15, 2015. I, the undersigned Referee will sell at
public auction, at the Bronx County Courthouse, Room
600, 851 Grand Concourse, Bronx, Bronx County, New
York on the 12th Day of September, 2016 at 2:00 p.m.
All that certain plot, piece or parcel of land with the
buildings and improvements thereon erected, situate,
lying and being in the Borough and County of Bronx, City
and State of New York.
Premises known as 1932 Bronxdale Avenue, Bronx, (City
of New York) NY 10462. (Section: 15, Block: 4263, Lot: 25)
Approximate amount of lien $514,999.91 plus interest
and costs. Premises will be sold subject to provisions of
filed judgment and terms of sale.
Index No. 382132-10. Melissa Lucas, Esq., Referee.
Davidson Fink LLP
Attorney(s) for Plaintiff
28 East Main Street, Suite 1700
Rochester, NY 14614-1990
Tel. 585/760-8218
Dated: June 27, 2016
(3400)
Foreign Connections
3416
ST. BARTH (French W.I.) Business for
sale. Includes transfer of company and
current lease contract for office facility. Brand new, fully furnished office of
860sf, prime location. $2,500,000 (Euros)
Phone: +1-721-527-4517
E-mail: [email protected]
Miscellaneous
3454
Car Wash
Nets $300k/yr, land avail,long lease,
must see, will finance, must sell due to
illness, best offer (516)672-3822
Watch memorable TimesTalks
programs on YouTube.
B6
N
Driven to Suicide
By Pressure to Sell
More Medicine
From Page A1
on patients for various ailments in
an effort to drum up business for
doctors, who would then prescribe Abbott drugs. The camps
were typically held at doctor’s offices or as community events.
Sales personnel who perform
screening tests could be accused
of practicing medicine without a
license, a criminal offense, said
Dr. Jayshree Mehta, president of
the Medical Council of India, the
country’s medical regulatory
agency. Indian medical ethics regulations also prohibit quid pro
quo, Dr. Mehta said.
Abbott India’s public affairs director, Anand Kadkol, said the
company’s marketing policies
“are aligned with applicable laws”
in India. He called the health
camps “disease awareness education programs” and said that Abbott’s policies did not allow the
camps to be conducted “in exchange for an explicit or implicit
understanding” to prescribe Abbott products.
The company declined to comment on individual employees.
Mr. Kadkol said Abbott was
“aware of a number of the allegations raised” and had addressed
them.
But Vivek Gupta, a former manager of a sales team in northern
India, said he was fired last year
under pressure to make his sales
representatives do more screenings of patients to promote a new
Abbott multivitamin for nerve
damage. He tried to resist, he said,
out of respect for the national
rules and the company’s own policies, which prohibit the use of
health camps to influence which
medicines are prescribed.
Dhirendra Yadav, 26, a former
sales agent in central India in the
neurology division, said he resigned in December 2013 under
what he called “immense pressure to conduct business in unethical ways.” He said his former
manager — who later became the
manager of Mr. Awasthi, the man
who committed suicide — insisted
that he use his own money to buy
medicines costing nearly 15,000
rupees, or about $220, to help his
group meet a sales target. That
would be more than half of a typical representative’s monthly pay.
Rajeev Khanna, who managed
six sales representatives for neurology medicines in northern India, said he was fired after complaining to Abbott’s office of ethics
and compliance that his team was
submitting fake invoices to increase sales. He described a practice of giving discounts intended
for government institutions to private wholesalers as a kickback.
Corruption, already pervasive
industrywide in India, has intensified with growing competition, according to the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives’ Associations of India, the largest union of drug sales personnel,
representing tens of thousands
nationwide, which called for the
new regulation.
Unethical marketing practices
are routine in the Indian pharmaceutical market, said Sanjeev
Khandelwal, a union secretary
who works as a drug salesman at
an Indian company.
India’s annual drug sales, estimated at $16 billion, may be small
by the standards of the United
States or Europe, but the market
is attractive because it has been
growing faster than 10 percent annually in recent years, placing it
far ahead of developed markets in
terms of growth.
It is also unusually competitive.
Until about a decade ago, Indian
intellectual-property
law
let
manufacturers
ignore
drug
patents — and thousands of
manufacturers cropped up. Today
India generally honors patents,
but its medical marketplace retains its Wild West roots in the
form of countless confusing
brands and extreme price competition. As a government expert
panel noted in a 2011 report, “The
market is flooded by irrational,
Geeta Anand reported from Indore, India, and from New Delhi
and Mumbai, and Frederik Joelving from Copenhagen. Suhasini
Raj contributed reporting from
New Delhi.
nonessential and even hazardous
drugs that waste resources and
compromise health.”
In this battle for sales,
employees like Mr. Awasthi are
the drug companies’ front-line
foot soldiers.
In an email, Mr. Kadkol, the Abbott India spokesman, said, “We
are deeply saddened to learn of
Ashish Awasthi’s tragic demise,”
describing him as “among the top
performers in 2015.”
The ‘Perfect Life’
As multinationals like Abbott
expand in India, they bring something powerfully attractive to the
nation’s emerging middle class:
jobs. The positions they offer become highly coveted, both for the
prestige of working for a global
company and because India’s
economy — despite its 7.6 percent
growth — still produces far too
few jobs for the one million people
who enter the work force each
month.
This sets the stage for fierce
competition for positions like
these — and a desperation to retain them.
Mr. Awasthi embodied these
ambitions. Hailing from a farming
town about 400 miles northeast of
Indore, he was one of the countless people who flock to India’s cities with hopes of climbing the economic and social ladder.
In December 2013, when Abbott
hired him as a salesman, he felt he
had won the lottery, said his 27year-old widow, Anita Awasthi.
He told her, “I can do everything
for you now,” she recalled recently
for visitors who had come to her
home to offer their condolences.
His job was persuading doctors
to use Abbott’s medicines for
neurological diseases, and he was
a disciplined salesman, according
to a former boss, Ramchandra Tiwari. It is a grueling job, Mr. Tiwari said, requiring aggressive efforts to catch doctors’ attention
early in the morning or late in the
evening.
Mr. Awasthi thrived, though. In
2015 he won a top salesman award.
The young couple had made many
close friends, his wife said, and
maintained a busy social life going
to movies and visiting area temples. She called theirs the “perfect
life.”
And they began to stretch financially. Mr. Awasthi bought a car —
a sought-after symbol of arrival in
the Indian middle class — and
proudly carried a snapshot of it,
garlanded with flowers. And he
took out a loan to buy a one-bedroom apartment for about
$20,000.
The purchases meant money
was tight, Ms. Awasthi said. Her
husband recently asked a friend
to borrow about $70 to pay their 7year-old daughter’s school fees.
Still, all was good, she said, until
this June, when he got a new manager. According to his previous
manager, Mr. Tiwari, the demands
on the sales staff rapidly built. Mr.
Tiwari described it as “inhuman
and unnatural” pressure to sell.
The day he was found dead, Mr.
Awasthi had been expected to attend a meeting with his new boss.
Ms. Awasthi believes her husband
— despite being a top performer
— expected to lose his coveted job
that day.
Top left, a family photo of
Mr. and Ms. Awasthi with
their two children. Above,
friends visiting the train
tracks where Mr. Awasthi
died. Right, the car Mr.
Awasthi bought as a salesman for Abbott India. He
proudly carried a snapshot
of the car with him.
the testing at no charge, and participating doctors get to increase
their business by advertising free
checkups. In return, the doctors
are expected to prescribe the drug
maker’s product.
Some experts say these practices raise the prospect that people may be inappropriately diagnosed and could receive unnecessary treatment.
Abbott promotes its health
camps nationwide as a core part of
its “corporate social responsibility” program, which is intended
partly to meet the Indian government’s requirement that companies contribute to the social good.
“If it’s corporate social responsibility, then it shouldn’t be linked to
the sales of the brand,” Mr. Gupta
said.
Mr. Kadkol of Abbott India said,
“Employees are not permitted to
perform diagnostic tests.” The
company denies that the purpose
of the health camps is to have doctors use its drugs.
“Abbott’s procedures clearly
state that disease awareness programs must not be conducted or
provided or offered in exchange
for an explicit or implicit understanding to purchase, order, recommend, prescribe or provide favorable treatment to any Abbott
products,” Mr. Kadkol said in an
email.
However, more than a dozen internal emails shared with The
Times by Mr. Gupta suggest that
Abbott viewed the camps as a
sales tool and that the strategy
came from Abbott management.
In a February 2015 email, a group
product manager informed the
sales force that January sales of
Surbex Star, a vitamin Abbott promotes to treat neuropathy in people with diabetes, were “way behind the expectations.”
“Now is the time to bounce back
and surpass February target for
Surbex Star,” the manager wrote.
“Herein below are the 6 easy steps
to conduct neuropathy camps.”
The manager did not return
phone calls and emails seeking
comment.
In another email from last year,
an Abbott marketing manager
told Mr. Gupta and other first-line
sales managers that their
representatives were supposed to
do a minimum of three neuropathy camps per quarter and that
they were behind in that goal.
“Camps will go a long way in
promoting Surbex Star,” the marketing manager said in the email.
Several senior managers were
copied on both emails.
Shrey Agrawal, who wrote that
email but is no longer with Abbott,
said in a telephone interview that
“there is no direct link” between
camps and drug sales. Asked how
this tracked with his email about
Surbex Star, he said he would respond by email. He never did.
In another email last year, an
Abbott sales agent boasted that a
neuropathy camp he had conducted was “a big success,” noting
that 30 of the 40 patients tested
positive, and that the doctor prescribed Surbex Star to all 30. He
did not respond to requests for an
interview.
A Dive Into Depression
As Mr. Gupta clashed with his
bosses, he says, they began calling him and sending messages
late at night and on Sundays, and
he became depressed. After one
particularly intense phone call, he
grabbed a hot iron that his wife
had just used and pushed it into
his hand, searing his flesh and
leaving a scar. He had thoughts of
killing himself, he said, and saw a
psychiatrist, who put him on an
antidepressant and an antipsychotic.
Soon afterward, his bosses told
him they wanted to transfer him
Camps for Checkups
Mr. Gupta, the 37-year-old manager for neurology products in the
northern city of Chandigarh, arrived at Abbott India from Solvay
Pharma India when the two drug
makers merged in 2011. Abbott India’s parent company acquired
Solvay Pharmaceuticals, of Belgium, for $6.2 billion in 2010.
From the start, a contentious issue between Mr. Gupta and his
managers was Abbott’s use of
sales personnel to perform medical tests at health camps.
In India, where many people
lack affordable care, these mass
screenings have become a common way for drug makers to lift
sales, according to current and
former
Abbott
sales
representatives and managers.
The industry-sponsored camps
typically focus on chronic ailments such as diabetes, thyroid
disorders, heart problems and
lung disease. Sales personnel do
“He told me, ‘The company is pressuring me.’”
Anita Awasthi, recalling her husband’s final weeks at Abbott India before he killed himself. Above, Abbott’s office in Mumbai.
N
B7
More Jobs Beckon in U.S.; Hiring Rises
Employers in the United States
advertised more openings and
hired more people in June, increasing evidence that the job
market has rebounded from a
brief soft patch in the spring.
The number of job openings
rose a modest 2 percent to 5.6 million in June from 5.5 million in
May, the Labor Department said
Wednesday. Still, that figure remains below the 5.8 million openings advertised in April, the highest in 16 years.
Hiring increased 1.7 percent in
June to 5.1 million, a solid level but
below a recent peak of 5.5 million
in February.
Businesses are hiring at a
healthy pace even as economic
growth has lagged, in part because the work force has become
less productive. The economy expanded at an annual rate of just 1
percent in the first half of the year,
though analysts expect growth to
accelerate to about a 3 percent annual rate in the current July-September quarter.
Still, with more Americans
earning paychecks, spending and
growth could strengthen in coming months.
The pace of job openings has
leveled off this year, though it remains at a healthy level.
“We see no sign of any downturn, suggesting employers remain fundamentally bullish,” said
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist
at Pantheon Macroeconomics, a
forecasting firm.
The government previously reported that employers added a net
total of 292,000 jobs in June, the
Paycheck growth is
seen as a good omen
for economic growth.
most in eight months.
Hiring was also strong in July,
when a net total of 255,000 jobs
were added, the government said
Friday. The unemployment rate
remained at a low 4.9 percent.
Wednesday’s figures track
gross hiring in June, as well as job
openings, and come from a report
known as the Job Openings and
Labor Turnover survey, or Jolts.
The monthly jobs report that was
released Friday calculated a net
total of job gains in July after subtracting those who quit, retired or
were laid off.
The job market’s health is a key
factor in the Federal Reserve’s deliberations over when it will next
raise the short-term interest rate
it controls. Fed officials noted after their most recent meeting in
July that hiring had picked up and
that the number of people seeking
work had fallen.
Friday’s robust jobs report for
July slightly increased the likelihood that the Fed will raise rates
at its September meeting, though
most economists say they think
the Fed won’t move until December.
In other economic news, the
Treasury Department said on
Wednesday that the deficit came
in at $112.8 billion in July, the highest since February’s $192.6 billion
but down from $149.2 billion in
July 2015.
For the first 10 months of the
budget year, which ends Oct. 1, the
deficit was $513.7 billion, up from
$465.5 billion a year earlier.
The Congressional Budget Office predicts the 2016 deficit will
total $590 billion, up from last
year’s budget gap of $439 billion,
largely because of lower-than-expected revenue.
Accumulating budget deficits
add to the federal debt, now nearly
$19.4 trillion. That figure includes
$5.4 trillion that the government
owes itself, mostly from borrowing from Social Security.
Setback for the F.C.C. on Public Broadband
1,500 miles away, to the city of
Chennai. He refused to go, he said,
interpreting it as an effort to make
him quit.
In an email to top leaders at Abbott India in August 2015, Mr.
Gupta laid out his concerns. He
told management that sales
representatives were instructed
to screen patients to increase
sales.
As proof that the medical
screening was happening, managers were instructing sales personnel to email photos of the tests
being performed, Mr. Gupta explained — but with someone else
posing as the tester, to conceal the
representatives’ involvement. He
said the practices violated Abbott’s code of ethics.
Mr. Gupta sent the allegations,
and supporting documents, to the
company’s office of ethics and
compliance in India as well. The
Times has reviewed the documents.
Last autumn, Mr. Gupta was
fired. He was told he had lost the
managers’ confidence, he said. Today he works for a hospital.
In response to allegations that
the camps were improperly used
to induce doctors to write prescriptions, Mr. Kadkol of Abbott
India said, “That just doesn’t happen.” He noted that such camps
were “not exclusive to a company,” adding, “They happen in
many companies across many geographies.”
Regarding Mr. Gupta’s other
claims, Mr. Kadkol said, “We don’t
comment on the details of internal
compliance investigations.”
Mr. Gupta’s former boss, Anup
Ray, said in an interview that the
purpose of the health camps was
for doctors to prescribe Surbex
Star. That made Mr. Gupta “uncomfortable,” Mr. Ray said. “I was
also against it.”
Suspicions of Kickbacks
Mr. Khanna, the former Abbott
manager who said he was fired after complaining about questionable sales made at discounted
government rates, oversaw a
team of neurology-medicine sales
representatives in Lucknow, in
northern India. Now 48, he had
worked for 25 years for Abbott,
Solvay and a company it acquired.
In 2013, he said, he began to notice the rapid rise in sales at the
government discount. Suspicious
that the sales were a form of a
kickback to wholesalers, to induce
more orders, he asked his sales
staff and the wholesalers to
produce original copies of the orders from government institutions, which they failed to do, Abbott emails show. Mr. Khanna
stopped approving the transactions, he said, but another manager then began approving them.
Mr. Khanna wrote to Abbott’s
ethics office in December 2013,
laying out his concern that government purchasing rules were
being violated. He said, “I am
afraid if I will continue to resist
these unethical practices any-
more I may get transferred or
may lose my job.”
On July 25, 2014, he says Abbott
asked him to resign and accused
him of a conflict of interest involving his wife. She had obtained a license the previous year to operate
a wholesale drug business in case
he left Abbott, where he felt increasingly insecure. Mr. Khanna
said that opening a drug company
would have violated Abbott’s
rules but that his wife had not
started a company.
He says he refused to resign.
Abbott fired him.
Asked about Mr. Khanna’s allegations, Mr. Kadkol cited the company’s policy of not discussing individual cases or investigations
into internal complaints.
Mr. Awasthi’s Final Days
Sitting on the floor of her tiny
living room just days after her
husband’s suicide, Ms. Awasthi
recounted the final few weeks of
her husband’s life.
“He told me, ‘The company is
pressuring me,’” she said, wearing a pink sari, her two young children
playing
among
the
mourners. “I said, ‘Change jobs.’
He said, ‘How will I get another
job?’ ”
Work pressure built quickly in
June after the new boss, Inder Kumar, took over managing Mr.
Awasthi’s sales team. His previous manager, Mr. Tiwari, had been
asked to transfer to a city in southern India, more than 1,000 miles
away from Indore. He declined the
transfer and lost his job.
According to two former
employees of the new manager, he
UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK
) Chapter 11
In re:
AOG Entertainment, Inc., et al.,1 ) Case No. 16-11090 (SMB)
Debtors. ) (Jointly Administered)
NOTICE OF (I) APPROVAL OF DISCLOSURE STATEMENT,
(II) DEADLINE FOR VOTING ON PLAN, (III) HEARING TO
CONSIDER CONFIRMATION OF PLAN, AND (IV) DEADLINE
FOR FILING OBJECTIONS TO CONFIRMATION OF PLAN
PLEASE TAKE NOTICE OF THE FOLLOWING:
APPROVAL OF DISCLOSURE STATEMENT
1. By order dated August 4, 2016 (the “Disclosure Statement
Order”), the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District
of New York (the “Bankruptcy Court”) approved the Disclosure
Statement for Second Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganization
for AOG Entertainment, Inc. and Its Affiliated Debtors (including all exhibits
thereto and as amended, modified or supplemented from time to time,
the “Disclosure Statement”) as containing adequate information
within the meaning of section 1125 of title 11 of the United States Code
(the “Bankruptcy Code”), and authorized the Debtors to solicit votes
to accept or reject the Debtors’ Second Amended Joint Chapter 11 Plan
of Reorganization for AOG Entertainment, Inc. and Its Affiliated Debtors
(including all exhibits thereto and as amended, modified or supplemented
from time to time, the “Plan”),2 annexed as Exhibit 1 to the Disclosure
Statement.
DEADLINE FOR VOTING ON THE PLAN
2. By the Disclosure Statement Order, the Bankruptcy Court established September 13, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. (prevailing Eastern Time)
(the “Voting Deadline”) as the deadline by which ballots accepting or
rejecting the Plan must be received. Holders of claims entitled to vote on
the Plan will receive ballots for casting such votes. To be counted, original
ballots must actually be received on or before the Voting Deadline by KCC,
by first class mail, overnight or hand delivery, or courier, at the following
address: AOG Entertainment, Inc. Ballot Processing Center, c/o Kurtzman
Carson Consultants LLC, 2335 Alaska Avenue, El Segundo, CA 90245. Except
as set forth in the Disclosure Statement Order, ballots cast by facsimile,
email or other electronic transmission will not be counted.
3. Holders of unimpaired claims under the Plan and Classes that are
deemed to reject the Plan are not entitled to vote on the Plan and, therefore, will receive a Non-Voting Creditor Notice (as such term is defined in
the Disclosure Statement Order) rather than a ballot.
CONFIRMATION HEARING
4. Commencing on September 22, 2016 at 10:00 a.m. (prevailing Eastern Time), or as soon thereafter as counsel may be heard, a hearing (the “Confirmation Hearing”) will be held before the Honorable
Stuart M. Bernstein, United States Bankruptcy Judge, in Courtroom 723 at
the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York,
One Bowling Green, New York, New York 10004 to consider confirmation of
the Plan and for such other and further relief as may be just or proper. The
Confirmation Hearing may be adjourned from time to time without further
notice to creditors or other parties in interest, other than by an announcement of such an adjournment in open court at the Confirmation Hearing
or any adjournment thereof or an appropriate filing with the Bankruptcy
Court. The Plan may be modified in accordance with the Bankruptcy Code,
the Federal Rules of Bankruptcy Procedure, the Plan and other applicable
law, without further notice, prior to or as a result of the Confirmation
Hearing.
DEADLINE FOR OBJECTIONS TO CONFIRMATION OF THE PLAN
5. Objections, if any, to confirmation of the Plan, including any
supporting memoranda, must be in writing, filed with the Clerk of the
Bankruptcy Court, together with proof of service, at One Bowling Green,
could be a tough boss. One of
them, Mayank Pandey, said he felt
so desperate to meet sales targets
that he bribed doctors with his
own cash to get them to prescribe
Abbott drugs. Mr. Pandey quit Abbott this year, describing himself
as “mentally broken.”
Mr. Kumar declined requests
for interviews, referring questions to Mr. Kadkol, Abbott India’s
public affairs director, who cited
the company’s policy not to comment on individual employees.
In general, Mr. Kadkol said, “retaliatory or denigrating behavior
of any kind is not accepted” at Abbott, which encourages an environment “devoid of any harassment or undue pressure.” He
said any suggestion that Mr.
Awasthi “was singled out for poor
performance is without merit.”
Ms. Awasthi said Mr. Kumar
had summoned her husband to a
Monday meeting. The day before,
she says, Mr. Awasthi was unusually quiet. He swept their apartment, bathed both of the children
and fed them. Then he napped by
his wife’s side. At about 6 p.m., he
went out, leaving behind his cellphone and wallet.
Police found his body the next
morning along the railroad track.
After Mr. Awasthi’s death, Abbott gave his family a check for
345,000 rupees, about $5,000,
which included his salary and
allowances for July, various reimbursements, as well as a “gratuity.” Though Ms. Awasthi does not
work and needs money, she has
refused to cash it.
“He died because of them,” she
said. “They must take responsibility.”
New York, New York 10004, or electronically using the Bankruptcy Court’s
Case Management/Electronic Case File (“CM/ECF”) System at https://ecf.
nysb.uscourts.gov (a CM/ECF password is required), and must: (a) state
the name and address of the objecting party and the amount of its claim
or the nature of its interest in the Debtors’ chapter 11 cases; (b) state with
particularity the provision or provisions of the Plan objected to and for
any objection asserted, the legal and factual basis for such objections; (c)
provide proposed language to remedy any objection asserted; and (d) be
served by hand delivery or in a manner as will cause such objection to be
received on or before September 14, 2016 at 4:00 p.m. (prevailing
Eastern Time), by: (i) AOG Entertainment, Inc., 8560 West Sunset
Boulevard, 8th Floor, West Hollywood, CA 90069 (Attn.: Peter Hurwitz); (ii)
counsel for the Debtors, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP, 787 Seventh Avenue,
New York, NY 10019 (Attn.: Matthew A. Feldman, Esq., Robin Spigel, Esq.
and Andrew S. Mordkoff, Esq.); (iii) counsel to the Official Committee
of Unsecured Creditors, Sheppard, Mullin, Richter & Hampton LLP, 30
Rockefeller Plaza, New York, NY 10112 (Attn.: Craig Wolfe, Esq., Malani
Cademartori, Esq. and Jason R. Alderson, Esq.); (iv) counsel to the ad hoc
group of lenders party to the Debtors’ prepetition first lien secured credit
agreement, Klee, Tuchin, Bogdanoff & Stern LLP, 1999 Avenue of the Stars,
39th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90067-6049 (Attn.: Lee R. Bogdanoff, Esq.
and David A. Fidler, Esq.); (v) counsel to Crestview Media Investors, L.P., as
lender under the Debtors’ prepetition first and second lien secured credit
agreements, Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, LLP, 865 S. Figueroa
Street, 10th Floor, Los Angeles, CA 90017 (Attn.: Eric Winston, Esq.); and (vi)
the Office of the United States Trustee, 201 Varick Street, Suite 1006, New
York, NY 10014 (Attn.: Richard C. Morrissey, Esq.). Any objections not filed
and served as set forth above will be deemed waived.
Dated: New York, New York, August 11, 2016, WILLKIE FARR & GALLAGHER
LLP, Counsel for the Debtors and Debtors in Possession, 787 Seventh Avenue,
New York, New York 10019, (212) 728-8000
1
The following are the Debtors and the last four digits of each Debtor’s
federal tax identification number: 19 Entertainment Limited (8517), 19
Entertainment Worldwide LLC (1986), 19 Entertainment, Inc. (0323),
19 Management Limited (8501), 19 Merchandising Limited (8512), 19
Productions Limited (8490), 19 Publishing Inc. (0800), 19 Recording
Services, Inc. (0641), 19 Recordings Limited (8507), 19 Recordings, Inc.
(9492), 19 Touring Limited (8499), 19 Touring LLC (7157), 19 TV Limited
(8511), 7th Floor Productions, LLC (9160), All Girl Productions (5760), Alta
Loma Entertainment, LLC (3015), AOG Entertainment, Inc. (4420), Brilliant
19 Limited (N/A), Clown Car Productions, LLC (5459), CORE Entertainment
Cayman Limited (4886), CORE Entertainment Offeror, LLC (2685), CORE
Entertainment UK Limited (2685), CORE Entertainment Inc. (4420), CORE
G.O.A.T. Holding Corp. (3459), CORE Group Productions Limited (8504),
CORE Media Group Inc. (8168), CORE Media Group Productions Inc. (8505),
CORE MG UK Holdings Limited (8518), CORE MG UK Holdings Limited
(8518), CTA Productions, Inc. (5879), Dance Nation Productions Inc. (9622),
Double Vision Film Limited (8492), EPE Holding Corporation (2295),
Focus Enterprises, Inc. (4396), Fresh Start Productions, LLC (2204), Gilded
Entertainment, LLC (4153), IICD LLC (N/A), J2K Productions, Inc. (2687),
Magma Productions, LLC (4711), Masters of Dance Productions Inc. (3417),
Native Management Limited (6634), Native Songs Limited (N/A), On the
Road Productions (3468), Pioneer Production Services LLC (4822), Sonic
Transformation, LLC (7828), Southside Productions Inc. (1908), Sunset
View Productions, LLC (1692), SYTYCD DVD Productions Inc. (1976), This
Land Productions, Inc. (9523). The Debtors’ executive headquarters are
located at 8560 West Sunset Boulevard, 8th Floor, West Hollywood, CA
90069.
2
All capitalized terms used but not defined herein have the meanings
given them in the Plan.
Ruling blocks cities’
attempts to extend
internet service.
halt the promise of jobs, investment and opportunity that community broadband has provided
in Tennessee and North Carolina.”
Commissioner Ajit Pai, a Republican, criticized the F.C.C. for
“wasting its time on illegal efforts
to intrude on the prerogatives of
state governments.”
USTelecom, the trade group
that represents internet service
providers including AT&T and Verizon Communications, praised
the decision as “a victory for the
rule of law.”
The group said the agency
should “concentrate on eliminating federal regulatory impediments to innovation and investment — where there remains to be
much that can and should be
done.”
The city of Chattanooga’s municipal electricity provider, since
2009, has offered high-speed
broadband to residential and commercial customers in its 600square-mile service area.
About 63,000 subscribe to the
service, and residents in neighboring communities have asked to
sign on.
Wilson, N.C., in 2005 constructed the backbone of a fiber-optic
network connecting all cityowned facilities that was expanded to a municipal broadband
network now known as “Greenlight.”
The city offers phone, internet
and cable services that it says are
cheaper than those of its privatesector competitors. The city also
provides free Wi-Fi service to its
entire downtown area and each of
the top seven employers in Wilson
is a customer. Individuals in five
neighboring counties have also
sought to join.
PHOTOGRAPH BY PAOLO PELLEGRIN/MAGNUM
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ATUL LOKE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A
federal appeals court said on
Wednesday the Federal Communications Commission could not
block two states from setting
limits on municipal broadband
expansion, a decision seen as
a win for private-sector providers
of internet service and a setback
for the F.C.C. chairman, Tom
Wheeler.
Cities in Tennessee and North
Carolina had sought to expand
municipal broadband networks,
but faced laws forbidding or placing onerous restrictions on the expansions.
The Federal Communications
Commission voted, 3 to 2, in 2015
to issue an order seeking to preempt those state laws, saying that
a 1996 law required it to remove
barriers to broadband investment
and that the municipalities
wanted to expand service into areas with little or no internet service.
Mr. Wheeler criticized the decision, which he said appeared “to
SUNDAY, AUGUST 14
THIS SUNDAY,
AN ENTIRE ISSUE
DEVOTED TO A SINGLE
STORY
NYTIMES.COM/MAGAZINE
ADVERTISERS: For information on advertising in The New York Times Magazine,
contact Andy Wright at (212) 556-1050 or [email protected].
IN THE MAGAZINE:
The collapse of the
Middle East, from the U.S.
invasion of Iraq through
the Arab Spring and
the rise of ISIS, as seen
through the eyes of six
individuals whose lives
have been forever altered.
B8
N
MARKET GAUGES
S.& P.
D
500
DOW
D
INDUSTRIALS
2,175.49
–6.25
NASDAQ
D
COMPOSITE
18,495.66
–37.39
Standard & Poor’s 500-Stock Index
5,204.59
–20.90
Nasdaq Composite Index
3-MONTH TREND
CRUDE
OIL D
1.51%
–0.04
10-YEAR
TREASURY YIELD D
GOLD
U
(N.Y.)
$41.71
–$1.06
THE
U
EURO
$1,344.30
+$5.30
Dow Jones Industrial Average
3-MONTH TREND
$1.1173
+$0.0064
3-MONTH TREND
20,000
2,300
+10%
+10%
+10%
5,200
19,000
2,200
+ 5%
5,000
+ 5%
0%
4,800
0%
2,100
2,000
+ 5%
18,000
0%
4,600
– 5%
June
17,000
– 5%
July
June
– 5%
July
June
July
When the index follows a white line, it is changing at a constant pace; when it moves into a lighter band, the rate of change is faster.
STOCK MARKET INDEXES
Index
Close
MOST ACTIVE, GAINERS AND LOSERS
%
Chg
Chg
52-Wk
% Chg
YTD
% Chg
Index
DOW JONES
Close
%
Chg
Chg
52-Wk
% Chg
YTD
% Chg
Stock (TICKER)
18495.66
7802.92
690.64
6438.83
◊ 37.39 ◊ 0.20 +
◊ 33.86 ◊ 0.43 ◊
+ 0.01
0.00 +
◊ 14.60 ◊ 0.23 +
5.00
6.80
17.54
3.57
+
+
+
+
6.14
3.92
19.53
7.70
Nasdaq 100
Composite
Industrials
Banks
Insurance
Other Finance
Telecommunications
Computer
STANDARD AND POOR’S
100 Stocks
500 Stocks
Mid-Cap 400
Small-Cap 600
963.78
2175.49
1556.98
742.13
◊
◊
◊
◊
3.15
6.25
5.52
3.73
◊
◊
◊
◊
0.33
0.29
0.35
0.50
+
+
+
+
3.91
3.39
3.09
4.57
+
+
+
+
5.74
6.44
11.33
10.48
NYSE Comp.
Tech/Media/Telecom
Energy
Financial
Healthcare
10774.98
7875.72
10374.55
6209.76
12917.39
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
29.53
11.81
143.70
29.85
58.67
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
0.27
0.15
1.37
0.48
0.45
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
1.20
3.20
4.89
9.33
4.41
+
+
+
◊
+
6.23
9.87
11.03
1.52
4.30
4783.39
5204.59
4367.86
2881.14
7669.10
5894.94
284.02
2792.83
◊
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
12.36
20.90
1.82
31.65
15.97
24.35
0.98
9.98
◊
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
0.26
0.40
0.04
1.09
0.21
0.41
0.34
0.36
+
+
+
◊
+
◊
+
+
4.60
2.01
4.48
1.48
7.12
0.94
4.52
9.61
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
4.14
3.94
6.50
0.98
6.16
5.60
13.17
7.17
Volume
(100)
Stock (TICKER)
2413.05
22566.71
4910.00
1223.27
112.73
772.82
69.05
160.37
+ 11.38 + 0.47 ◊ 0.51 + 12.28
◊ 72.55 ◊ 0.32 + 1.96 + 6.61
◊ 20.56 ◊ 0.42 + 4.80 + 12.65
◊ 8.47 ◊ 0.69 + 0.05 + 7.69
+ 1.63 + 1.47 + 128.94 +148.85
◊ 5.96 ◊ 0.77 + 18.41 + 16.48
◊ 0.89 ◊ 1.27 ◊ 13.18 ◊ 5.51
◊ 3.86 ◊ 2.35 ◊ 13.76 + 1.67
%
Chg
Close
Chg
27.60
5.35
21.36
27.75
11.21
36.83
29.29
16.08
12.70
103.14
153.50
5.65
10.44
5.19
32.22
5.14
8.76
9.07
13.01
8.41
+10.16
+1.23
+3.30
+3.75
+1.45
+4.19
+3.33
+1.71
+1.13
+8.07
+11.97
+0.41
+0.74
+0.36
+2.22
+0.34
+0.57
+0.59
+0.84
+0.53
Volume
(100)
Stock (TICKER)
20 TOP GAINERS
14.81
27.32
7.48
23.19
6.49
19.04
97.86
12.25
108.00
10.31
12.12
12.02
7.30
5.15
34.53
7.07
19.70
31.27
10.26
9.26
Bank of Ameri (BAC)
Valeant (VRX)
Rite Aid (RAD)
U. S. Steel (X)
AMD (AMD)
Twitter (TWTR)
Walt Disney (DIS)
Ford Motor (F)
Apple (AAPL)
SunPower (SPWR)
KeyCorp (KEY)
Freeport Mcmo (FCX)
Whiting Petro (WLL)
IAMGOLD Corp (IAG)
Intel (INTC)
Cliffs Natura (CLF)
Myriad Genet (MYGN)
GE (GE)
Transocn (RIG)
Regions Fincl (RF)
OTHER INDEXES
American Exch
Wilshire 5000
Value Line Arith
Russell 2000
Phila Gold & Silver
Phila Semiconductor
KBW Bank
Phila Oil Service
NEW YORK
STOCK EXCHANGE
%
Chg
Chg
20 MOST ACTIVE
NASDAQ
Industrials
Transportation
Utilities
Composite
Close
◊0.38
◊0.84
+0.42
◊1.08
◊0.11
+0.36
+1.19
◊0.06
◊0.81
◊4.47
◊0.12
◊0.07
◊0.33
+0.05
◊0.39
◊0.63
◊9.76
◊0.03
◊0.75
◊0.11
◊2.5
◊3.0
+5.9
◊4.4
◊1.7
+1.9
+1.2
◊0.5
◊0.7
◊30.2
◊1.0
◊0.6
◊4.3
+1.0
◊1.1
◊8.2
◊33.1
◊0.1
◊6.8
◊1.2
%
Chg
Chg
Volume
(100)
20 TOP LOSERS
DXP Enterpri (DXPE)
Magellan Pet (MPET)
Healthways (HWAY)
Cotiviti (COTV)
Resolute (REN)
Yelp (YELP)
Altisource (ASPS)
Hackett Grou (HCKT)
Exone (XONE)
Ralph Lauren (RL)
Coca Cola bo (COKE)
Papa Murphy’ (FRSH)
Oxford Lane (OXLC)
Catabasis Ph (CATB)
Kraton Prfrmn (KRA)
DHT Holdings (DHT)
Navigator Hl (NVGS)
Layne Christ (LAYN)
Energous (WATT)
Nexeo Soluti (NXEO)
788374
500333
421951
340475
290372
285625
271601
245183
238127
225887
220926
213299
212504
206968
195058
190788
189966
184881
182027
181516
Close
+58.3
+29.9
+18.3
+15.6
+14.9
+12.8
+12.8
+11.9
+9.8
+8.5
+8.5
+7.8
+7.6
+7.5
+7.4
+7.1
+7.0
+7.0
+6.9
+6.7
19.70
10.31
22.96
70.79
5.72
9.26
22.31
7.80
69.47
8.66
19.82
11.04
6.83
16.82
86.00
33.29
24.03
10.56
5.78
16.15
Myriad Genet (MYGN)
SunPower (SPWR)
APEI (APEI)
Orbital ATK (OA)
Spectrum Pha (SPPI)
Turning Point (TPB)
AMAG (AMAG)
TechTarget (TTGT)
KLA-Tencor (KLAC)
SkyPeople (SPU)
Civitas Soln (CIVI)
California Rs (CRC)
Novavax (NVAX)
Solaredge Te (SEDG)
Perrigo Comp (PRGO)
Diplomat (DPLO)
Sarepta (SRPT)
Minerva (NERV)
Hornbeck Offs (HOS)
Flowers Foods (FLO)
36952
12302
25978
8689
62735
149848
19154
6504
8675
37711
2060
12884
3530
429
14572
57424
8109
9067
4650
4773
◊9.76
◊4.47
◊5.84
◊17.98
◊1.35
◊1.66
◊3.20
◊1.05
◊7.94
◊0.98
◊2.20
◊1.20
◊0.74
◊1.80
◊9.09
◊3.50
◊2.51
◊1.10
◊0.58
◊1.60
◊33.1
◊30.2
◊20.3
◊20.3
◊19.1
◊15.2
◊12.5
◊11.9
◊10.3
◊10.2
◊10.0
◊9.8
◊9.8
◊9.7
◊9.6
◊9.5
◊9.5
◊9.4
◊9.1
◊9.0
189966
225887
4934
87064
37271
432
42684
2389
73677
2023
961
37773
110855
44643
137243
13912
33861
8891
12653
82588
S&P 100 STOCKS
Stock (TICKER)
52-Week Price Range
1-Day
1-Yr
YTD
Low Close (•) High Close Chg %Chg % Chg
Stock (TICKER)
52-Week Price Range
1-Day
1-Yr
YTD
Stock (TICKER)
52-Week Price Range
1-Day
1-Yr
YTD
Apple (AAPL)
AbbVie (ABBV)
Abbott (ABT)
Accenture (ACN)
Allergan (AGN)
AIG (AIG)
Allstate (ALL)
Amgen (AMGN)
Amazon.com (AMZN)
American E (AXP)
Boeing (BA)
Bank of Am (BAC)
Biogen (BIIB)
BONY Mello (BK)
BlackRock (BLK)
Bristol-My (BMY)
Berkshire (BRKb)
Citigroup (C)
Caterpilla (CAT)
Celgene (CELG)
Colgate (CL)
Comcast (CMCSA)
Capital On (COF)
ConocoPhil (COP)
Costco Who (COST)
Cisco Syst (CSCO)
89.47
45.45
36.00
88.43
195.50
48.41
54.12
130.09
451.00
50.27
102.10
10.99
223.02
32.20
275.00
51.82
123.55
34.52
56.36
92.98
50.84
50.01
58.03
31.05
117.03
22.46
108.00
66.43
44.81
113.22
252.18
59.00
69.42
171.23
768.56
64.74
132.28
14.81
308.87
39.84
366.44
60.58
146.69
45.45
82.65
112.53
74.84
67.22
66.85
40.60
168.29
30.85
CVS Health (CVS)
Chevron (CVX)
Du Pont (DD)
Danaher (DHR)
Walt Disne (DIS)
Dow (DOW)
Duke Energ (DUK)
EMC US (EMC)
Emerson El (EMR)
Exelon (EXC)
Ford Motor (F)
Facebook (FB)
FedEx (FDX)
Twenty-Fir (FOX)
Twenty-Fir (FOXA)
General Dy (GD)
GE (GE)
Gilead Sci (GILD)
GM (GM)
Alphabet (GOOG)
Alphabet (GOOGL)
Goldman Sa (GS)
Halliburto (HAL)
Home Depot (HD)
Honeywell (HON)
IBM (IBM)
81.37
69.58
47.11
77.34
86.25
35.11
65.50
22.66
41.25
25.09
10.44
72.00
119.71
22.65
22.66
121.61
19.37
77.92
24.62
565.05
593.09
138.20
27.64
92.17
87.00
116.90
97.11
100.14
69.08
81.22
97.86
53.45
83.79
28.36
53.44
35.53
12.25
124.88
164.65
26.18
25.58
151.47
31.27
78.90
31.25
784.68
808.49
162.19
43.76
135.60
116.03
162.08
Intel (INTC)
Johnson&Jo (JNJ)
JPMorgan (JPM)
Kinder Mor (KMI)
Coca- Cola (KO)
Eli Lilly (LLY)
Lockheed (LMT)
Lowes (LOW)
MasterCard (MA)
McDonalds (MCD)
Mondelez I (MDLZ)
Medtronic (MDT)
MetLife (MET)
3M (MMM)
Altria Gro (MO)
Monsanto (MON)
Merck & Co (MRK)
Morgan Sta (MS)
Microsoft (MSFT)
NextEra En (NEE)
Nike (NKE)
Oracle (ORCL)
Occidental (OXY)
Priceline (PCLN)
PepsiCo (PEP)
Pfizer (PFE)
24.87
81.79
50.07
11.20
36.56
67.88
181.91
62.62
74.61
87.50
35.88
55.54
35.00
134.00
47.41
81.22
45.69
21.16
39.72
93.74
51.48
33.13
58.24
954
76.48
28.25
123.82
69.82
50.60
120.78
325.00
64.50
70.38
176.50
772.60
81.66
150.59
18.09
333.65
45.06
375.95
77.12
148.03
58.25
84.29
132.60
75.34
68.36
82.08
57.24
169.73
31.25
◊
◊
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
+
+
◊
◊
+
◊
0.81
0.33
0.27
0.34
1.08
0.27
0.05
0.85
0.25
0.65
0.34
0.38
5.55
0.44
2.21
1.03
0.53
0.45
0.18
1.27
0.06
0.32
0.93
0.64
0.43
0.09
◊
◊
◊
+
◊
◊
+
+
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
4.84
2.67
11.07
9.31
20.57
6.81
9.37
1.58
45.71
20.41
8.17
16.75
1.90
10.81
11.04
3.32
2.72
21.15
5.91
13.88
9.64
14.34
17.34
19.44
15.35
10.10
+
+
◊
+
◊
◊
+
+
+
◊
◊
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
2.6
12.1
0.2
8.3
19.3
4.8
11.8
5.5
13.7
6.9
8.5
12.0
0.8
3.4
7.6
11.9
11.1
12.2
21.6
6.0
12.3
19.1
7.4
13.0
4.2
13.6
109.18
107.58
75.72
102.79
120.65
57.10
87.31
28.77
56.82
37.70
15.84
128.33
171.08
31.58
31.40
153.76
33.00
117.70
36.88
789.87
813.33
203.92
46.69
139.00
120.02
163.60
◊
◊
+
+
+
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
◊
+
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
+
0.34
1.18
0.28
0.02
1.19
0.06
0.94
0.22
0.89
0.32
0.06
0.18
0.32
0.00
0.10
2.90
0.03
0.43
0.18
0.42
1.01
1.25
0.29
0.51
0.23
0.31
◊
+
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
+
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
+
+
◊
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
10.15
16.74
29.39
17.68
9.39
18.02
11.29
7.06
9.22
10.72
16.67
33.39
2.24
11.94
14.88
0.58
21.63
31.75
1.36
N.A.
17.12
19.59
4.31
15.22
10.12
4.22
◊
+
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
+
◊
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
◊
◊
+
◊
+
+
+
+
0.7
11.3
3.7
15.4
6.9
3.8
17.4
10.4
11.7
27.9
13.1
19.3
10.5
3.9
5.8
10.3
0.4
22.0
8.1
N.A.
3.9
10.0
28.6
2.5
12.0
17.8
34.53
123.36
65.28
20.46
43.61
80.55
261.30
80.98
96.29
118.80
43.47
87.29
40.15
178.82
66.84
105.94
62.64
29.11
58.02
126.37
55.13
41.09
73.27
1406
108.82
35.13
35.93
126.07
69.03
34.81
47.13
92.85
263.37
83.65
101.76
131.96
47.42
89.27
55.75
182.27
70.15
114.26
64.00
38.54
58.50
131.98
136.39
42.00
78.31
1477
110.94
37.39
◊
◊
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
◊
+
+
0.39
0.07
0.59
0.01
0.14
0.95
0.64
0.36
0.41
0.49
0.05
0.45
1.13
0.43
0.22
0.56
0.15
0.23
0.18
0.30
0.64
0.01
0.41
0.73
0.54
0.05
+
+
◊
◊
+
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
+
+
+
◊
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
+
19.19
24.59
4.32
37.79
5.14
3.58
25.11
16.65
0.94
20.23
5.70
12.79
26.97
20.43
19.94
3.33
8.45
23.23
25.02
18.51
3.67
4.90
2.55
7.52
10.34
0.03
+
+
◊
+
+
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
+
+
+
+
◊
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
+
0.2
20.1
1.1
37.1
1.5
4.4
20.3
6.5
1.1
0.6
3.1
13.5
16.7
18.7
14.8
7.5
18.6
8.5
4.6
21.6
11.8
12.5
8.4
10.3
8.9
8.8
Stock (TICKER)
52-Week Price Range
1-Day
1-Yr
YTD
Procter Ga (PG)
PMI (PM)
PayPal Hld (PYPL)
Qualcomm (QCOM)
Raytheon (RTN)
Starbucks (SBUX)
Schlumberg (SLB)
Southern C (SO)
Simon Prop (SPG)
AT&T (T)
Target (TGT)
Time Warne (TWX)
Texas Inst (TXN)
UnitedHeal (UNH)
Union Paci (UNP)
United Par (UPS)
US Bancorp (USB)
UTC (UTX)
Visa (V)
Verizon (VZ)
Walgreens (WBA)
Wells Farg (WFC)
WalMart (WMT)
Exxon Mobi (XOM)
65.02
76.54
30.00
42.24
96.68
42.05
59.60
41.81
173.09
30.97
65.50
55.53
43.49
95.00
67.06
87.30
37.07
83.39
60.00
38.06
71.50
44.50
56.30
66.55
87.15
104.20
41.75
63.06
142.15
64.00
85.12
54.64
229.10
43.89
84.62
81.67
72.58
144.48
98.28
111.83
45.86
108.50
81.73
56.95
95.74
57.72
74.51
95.55
86.31
99.17
38.07
61.71
140.79
55.62
80.85
52.88
218.98
43.20
73.05
79.86
69.89
142.19
92.44
109.88
42.50
108.12
79.68
53.81
82.50
48.18
73.95
86.41
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
+
+
+
◊
+
◊
+
◊
◊
◊
+
+
◊
+
◊
0.32
0.77
0.03
0.28
0.67
0.42
0.98
0.04
1.65
0.12
0.44
0.70
0.36
0.37
0.63
0.23
0.33
0.22
0.38
0.15
1.61
0.75
0.41
2.29
+
+
◊
◊
+
◊
◊
+
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
+
◊
+
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
13.24
16.03
2.01
1.34
29.78
1.30
4.16
15.18
14.32
24.68
7.38
0.11
38.01
16.30
0.14
6.69
6.39
9.64
8.62
13.05
11.24
15.78
2.81
11.51
+
+
+
+
+
◊
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
◊
+
+
+
◊
◊
+
+
8.7
12.8
5.2
23.5
13.1
7.4
15.9
13.0
12.6
25.5
0.6
23.5
27.5
20.9
18.2
14.2
0.4
12.5
2.8
16.4
3.1
11.4
20.6
10.9
– indicates stocks
Prices shown are for regular trading for the New York Stock Exchange and the American Stock Exchange which runs from 9:30 a.m., Eastern time, through the close of the Pacific Exchange, at 4:30 p.m. For the Nasdaq stock market, it is through 4 p.m. Close Last trade of the day in regular trading. +
· or ·
that reached a new 52-week high or low. Change Difference between last trade and previous day’s price in regular trading. „ or ‰ indicates stocks that rose or fell at least 4 percent. ” indicates stocks that traded 1 percent or more of their outstanding shares. n Stock was a new issue in the last year.
GOVERNMENT BONDS
FINRA TRACE CORPORATE BOND DATA
Yields
52-Week Total Returns
FINRA-BLOOMBERG
CORPORATE BOND INDEXES
FINRA-BLOOMBERG
CORPORATE BOND INDEXES
10%
+10%
high yield +6.35%
8
+ 5
6
0
4
– 5
2
–10
0
2015
invest. grade +3.25%
2016
invest. grade +7.19%
2016
2015
Yest.
All
Investment High
Issues
Grade
Yield
high yield +8.54%
–15
Yield Curve
Market Breadth
Total Issues Traded
Advances
Declines
Unchanged
52 Week High
52 Week Low
Dollar Volume*
7,068
4,074
2,549
137
728
71
25,119
4,713
2,929
1,599
38
373
37
15,447
Conv
2,141
1,061
831
93
337
32
8,792
214
84
119
6
18
2
879
End of day data. Activity as reported to FINRA TRACE.
Market breadth represents activity in all TRACE eligible
publicly traded securities. Shown below are the most
active fixed-coupon bonds ranked by par value traded.
Investment grade or high-yield is determined using
credit ratings as outlined in FINRA rules. “C” – Yield is
unavailable because of issue’s call criteria.
*Par value in millions.
Source: FINRA TRACE data. Reference information from
Reuters DataScope Data. Credit ratings from Moody’s,
Standard & Poor’s and Fitch.
Most Recent Issues
Key Rates
1-mo. ago
1-yr. ago
4%
10-year Treas.
2-year Treas.
4%
3
Prime Rate
Fed Funds
Mat.
3
2
2
1
1
Maturity
0
3
6
2
5 10
Months
Date
Rate
T-BILLS
3-mo. Nov 16
6-mo. Feb 17
BONDS & NOTES
2-yr. Jul 18
5-yr. Jul 21
10-yr. May 26
30-yr. May 46
2015
2016
Years
Issuer Name (SYMBOL)
Credit Rating
Moody’s S&P
Coupon%
Maturity
5.875
3.700
3.000
3.950
3.050
5.625
4.450
4.375
2.800
5.000
May’45
Aug’46
Mar’20
Aug’56
Aug’22
Jan’46
Sep’27
Jun’46
Jul’23
Nov’45
Baa3
Aaa
Baa3
Aaa
Baa1
Baa3
Baa3
Baa2
Baa2
Baa1
2.650
3.750
7.250
1.800
7.250
8.375
6.850
4.500
8.750
6.625
Sep’26
Sep’46
Dec’18
Sep’21
Oct’20
May’21
Jun’15
Feb’27
May’26
May’23
NR
NR
Caa3
NR
Caa2
B3
B3
Ba1
B3
B1
2.625
1.750
4.250
1.000
3.250
1.000
1.000
1.625
3.250
3.500
Dec’19
Dec’16
Aug’18
Dec’18
Jul’23
Nov’21
Dec’20
Feb’25
Aug’39
Oct’19
NR
NR
Baa3
NR
NR
Fitch
Price
High
Low
Last
Chg
Yld%
95.600
103.790
104.233
104.600
105.561
98.375
107.526
105.690
101.545
110.635
90.870
102.418
103.500
101.408
104.556
94.800
104.452
104.644
101.085
109.641
93.100
102.979
103.888
104.600
105.561
96.000
105.401
105.207
101.210
109.641
0.800
–0.188
–0.337
3.049
2.713
0.750
0.189
0.334
0.119
–0.645
6.402
3.536
1.845
3.727
2.021
5.913
3.848
4.069
2.608
4.405
100.612
101.542
97.190
100.426
75.250
110.000
84.750
103.250
110.250
96.591
99.960
100.000
95.948
100.112
74.313
107.250
82.750
100.000
106.500
91.688
100.233
100.982
96.750
100.222
74.375
108.900
83.250
100.250
108.500
95.000
0.208
0.395
–0.500
0.028
–0.438
1.000
0.000
0.125
–0.375
3.375
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.
N.A.
15.880
6.189
8.227
N.A.
7.504
7.582
39.750
216.032
203.404
291.268
109.000
91.610
95.949
128.486
172.000
100.375
39.350
215.198
200.000
289.874
107.479
90.831
92.038
125.300
170.577
100.125
39.625
216.032
203.404
290.146
107.989
90.831
95.949
127.584
170.577
100.313
0.000
–0.262
0.988
2.146
–0.184
–0.794
0.949
–0.933
–1.540
0.188
34.821
–181.302
–29.758
–40.884
2.001
2.895
1.989
–1.417
0.129
3.394
INVESTMENT GRADE
Ecopetrol S A (ECOH)
Microsoft Corp (MSFT)
Actavis Fdg Scs (ACT)
Microsoft Corp (MSFT)
Duke Energy Corp New (DUK)
Petroleos Mexicanos (PEMX)
Citigroup Inc (C)
Aetna Inc New (AET)
Teva Pharmaceutical Fin Neth Iii B V (TEVA)
Halliburton Co (HAL)
BBB
AAA
BBB
AAA
BBB+
BBB+
BBB
A–
BBB
BBB+
BBB
AA+
BBB–
AA+
BBB+
BBB+
A–
A–
BBB
A–
D
B–
CCC
B+
B+
BBB–
B+
B+
NR
BB
BB
BB+
BB
CCC–
NR
BBB
BB+
NR
NR
BB+
NR
NR
BB+
B+
A
NR
NR
NR
HIGH YIELD
Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK.HP)
Intelsat Jackson Hldgs S A (I)
Petrobras Global Fin B V (PBR)
Hca Inc (HCA)
Chemours Co (DD)
Cobalt Intl Energy Inc (CIE)
Take-two Interactive Software Inc (TTWO)
Fidelity Natl Finl Inc New (FNF)
Nvidia Corp (NVDA)
Intercept Pharmaceuticals Inc (ICPT)
Isis Pharmaceuticals Inc Del (ISIS)
On Semiconductor Corp (ONNN)
Microchip Technology Inc (MCHP)
Intel Corp (INTC.GE)
Monster Worldwide Inc (MWW)
CONSUMER RATES
Yesterday
Year
Wednesday
Friday
Ago
0.40%
3.50
2.66
3.40
3.37
3.85
2.83
2.96
2.78
Foreign Currency
in Dollars
AMERICAS
Argentina (Peso)
Bolivia (Boliviano)
Brazil (Real)
Canada (Dollar)
Chile (Peso)
Colombia (Peso)
Dom. Rep. (Peso)
El Salvador (Colon)
Guatemala (Quetzal)
Honduras (Lempira)
Mexico (Peso)
Nicaragua (Cordoba)
Paraguay (Guarani)
Peru (New Sol)
Uruguay (New Peso)
Venezuela (Bolivar)
EUROPE
Britain (Pound)
Czech Rep (Koruna)
Denmark (Krone)
Europe (Euro)
Hungary (Forint)
Change from last week
Up
Flat
Down
0.25%
0.24
0.33
0.56
0.75
1.41
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10
5-YEAR HISTORY
+40%
Change from
previous year
June ’16
May ’16
.0683
.1456
.3198
.7659
.0015
.0003
.0218
.1146
.1327
.0439
.0543
.0350
.0002
.3024
.0345
.1003
1.3009
.0414
.1503
1.1173
.0036
Dollars in
Foreign Currency
14.6510
6.8700
3.1266
1.3056
648.50
2938.0
45.8000
8.7222
7.5370
22.7700
18.4154
28.5700
5541.0
3.3065
28.9600
9.9750
.7687
24.1810
6.6551
.8950
277.33
–6.3%
+2.4
Future
Corn
Soybeans
Wheat
Live Cattle
Hogs-Lean
Cocoa
Coffee
Sugar-World
Monetary
units per
Exchange quantity
CBT
CBT
CBT
Foreign Currency
in Dollars
0.27
0.42
–0.02
–0.01
0.31
0.44
100.12
100.24
101.02
105.81
100.13
100.25
101.03
105.84
+0.05
+0.16
+0.33
+0.72
0.71
1.11
1.55
2.26
101.68
+0.01 -0.21
100.79
+0.08
0.07
127.02
+0.14
0.31
111.23
+0.26
0.61
Source: Thomson Reuters
One Dollar in Euros
1.00 euros
$1 = 0.8950
0.95
0.90
0.85
0.80
2016
2015
Norway (Krone)
Poland (Zloty)
Russia (Ruble)
Sweden (Krona)
Switzerland (Franc)
Turkey (Lira)
.1210
.2623
.0154
.1181
1.0262
.3382
8.2665
3.8131
64.8495
8.4662
.9745
2.9566
Dollars in
Foreign Currency
ASIA/PACIFIC
Australia (Dollar)
China (Yuan)
Hong Kong (Dollar)
India (Rupee)
Japan (Yen)
Malaysia (Ringgit)
New Zealand (Dollar)
Pakistan (Rupee)
Philippines (Peso)
Singapore (Dollar)
So. Korea (Won)
Taiwan (Dollar)
Thailand (Baht)
Vietnam (Dong)
.7702
.1507
.1289
.0150
.0099
.2508
.7193
.0096
.0215
.7455
.0009
.0322
.0288
.00004
1.2984
6.6345
7.7557
66.7553
101.27
3.9880
1.3902
104.45
46.6100
1.3414
1095.0
31.0510
34.7600
22276
MIDDLE EAST/AFRICA
Bahrain (Dinar)
Egypt (Pound)
Iran (Rial)
Israel (Shekel)
Jordan (Dinar)
Kenya (Shilling)
Kuwait (Dinar)
2.6554
.1126
.00003
.2622
1.4128
.0099
3.3190
.3766
8.8799
30057
3.8141
.7078
101.40
.3013
CME
CME
NYBOT
NYBOT
NYBOT
COMX
COMX
COMX
NYMX
NYMX
NYMX
Lifetime
High
Low
Date
Open
Settle
Change
Open
Interest
490.50 319.50
1205.00 861.25
631.25 399.25
145.80 107.10
90.43
66.83
3392.00 2640.00
231.75 117.15
21.22
11.54
Sep
Aug
Sep
Aug
Aug
Sep
Sep
Sep
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
322.00 325.50 321.25 322.50
1027.00 1030.50 1008.00 1017.00
416.50 427.50 414.50 421.75
117.15 117.63 116.68 116.85
67.22
67.35
66.83
67.13
2980.00 3045.00 2947.00 3020.00
141.55 141.75 138.55 138.65
20.39
20.54
19.57
19.64
+ 0.25
◊ 5.00
+ 4.75
◊ 0.12
+ 0.20
+ 44.00
◊ 2.45
◊ 0.75
335,791
1,868
167,034
15,019
15,504
29,194
50,766
438,530
$/oz
$/oz
$/lb
$/bbl
$/gal
$/mil.btu
1377.50 1049.40
21.13
15.98
2.71
1.98
89.69
32.85
2.78
0.99
7.53
2.01
Aug
Aug
Aug
Aug
Aug
Aug
16
16
16
16
16
16
1344.80 1354.20 1344.70 1344.30
20.20
20.36
20.18
20.13
2.15
2.19
2.15
2.17
42.74
43.39
41.42
41.71
1.33
1.36
1.31
1.32
2.62
2.65
2.55
2.56
+
+
+
◊
◊
◊
2,581
190
848
352,351
80,711
183,482
4
5
6
7
8
9 10
June ’16
May ’16
+5.8%
+6.2
% Total Returns
+10%
0
’11
’16
+10%
Change from
previous year
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
–2.0%
–2.3
–5
’11
’16
9 10
Real Hourly Earnings
3.31%
3.14
+1%
Change from
previous year
0% 1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10
0.24%
0.25
0.37
0.61
0.81
1.46
*Credit ratings: good, FICO score 660-749; excellent, FICO score 750-850.
July ’16
June ’16
–0.3%
–0.3
’16
6
Annual Rate, in millions
Seasonally adjusted
Source: Bankrate.com
5.6
5.5
High
4
’11
’16
Type
YTD
1 Yr
100
90
2016
Lebanon (Pound)
Saudi Arabia (Riyal)
So. Africa (Rand)
U.A.E (Dirham)
.0007
.2667
.0754
.2723
1504.5
3.7501
13.2650
3.6726
Prices as of 4:45 p.m. Eastern Time.
Low
5.30
0.32
0.02
1.06
0.01
0.05
Crude Oil
$60
$41.71 a barrel
50
40
30
20
2015
2016
Vanguard Health Care Adm(VGHAX)
Vanguard REIT Index Adm(VGSLX)
T. Rowe Price Health Sciences(PRHSX)
Fidelity Select Biotechnology(FBIOX)
AQR Managed Futures Strategy I(AQMIX)
Fidelity Select Health Care(FSPHX)
DFA Real Estate Securities I(DFREX)
Vanguard Energy Adm(VGELX)
T. Rowe Price Real Estate(TRREX)
Cohen & Steers Realty Shares(CSRSX)
Fidelity Real Estate Investment Port(FRESX)
Franklin Utilities A(FKUTX)
T. Rowe Price Real Assets(PRAFX)
Nuveen Real Estate Securities I(FARCX)
Credit Suisse Commodity Return Strat I(CRSOX)
T. Rowe Price Media & Telecomms(PRMTX)
Fidelity Select Software & IT Svcs Po(FSCSX)
Diamond Hill Long-Short I(DHLSX)
Cohen & Steers Instl Realty Shares(CSRIX)
T. Rowe Price Science & Tech(PRSCX)
Fidelity Select Technology(FSPTX)
Vanguard Precious Metals and Mining In(VGPMX)
T. Rowe Price Global Technology(PRGTX)
% Total Returns
Exp. Assets
5 Yr* Ratio
(mil.$)
LARGEST FUNDS
Average performance for all such funds
Number of funds for period
–1
’11
Existing Home Sales
June ’16
May ’16
110
MUTUAL FUNDS SPOTLIGHT: SPECIALIZED STOCK FUNDS AND COMMODITIES
Producer Prices
June ’16
May ’16
120
Key to exchanges: CBT-Chicago Board of Trade. CME-Chicago Mercantile Exchange. CMX-Comex division of NYM. KC-Kansas City Board of Trade. NYBOT-New York Board of
Trade. NYM-New York Mercantile Exchange. Open interest is the number of contracts outstanding.
’16
Change from
previous year
3
$1 = 101.27
–20
’11
Consumer Borrowing
2
One Dollar in Yen
130 yen
2015
¢/bushel
¢/bushel
¢/bushel
¢/lb
¢/lb
$/ton
¢/lb
¢/lb
Fund Name (TICKER)
0% 1
3.19%
2.93
2
3.98%
3.91
4.20
4.18
CD’s and Money Market Rates
Money-market
$10K min. money-mkt
6-month CD
1-year CD
2-year CD
5-year IRA CD
0.29
0.43
FUTURES
Gold
Silver
Hi Grade Copper
Light Sweet Crude
Heating Oil
Natural Gas
Durable Goods Orders
0% 1
4.43%
4.36
4.07
4.04
A
NR
0.15%
3.25
3.00
3.85
3.83
4.27
3.07
3.90
2.65
Auto Loan Rates
36-mo. used car
60-mo. new car
0% 1
NR
A2
ECONOMIC INDICATORS
1-year range
Home Equity
$75K line good credit*
$75K line excel. credit*
$75K loan good credit*
$75K loan excel. credit*
◊
◊
◊
◊
Yield
CONVERTIBLES
Federal funds
Prime rate
15-yr fixed
15-yr fixed jumbo
30-yr fixed
30-yr fixed jumbo
5/1 adj. rate
5/1 adj. rate jumbo
1-year adj. rate
}
1[
1|
2ø
Chg
FOREIGN EXCHANGE
Most Active
Home
Mortgages
◊ ◊
◊ ◊
Ask
TREASURY INFLATION BONDS
[ ◊ 101.58
5-yr. Apr 21
[ ◊ 100.67
10-yr. Jul 26
2ø ◊ 126.77
20-yr. Jan 29
1.000 ◊ 110.91
30-yr. Feb 46
0
30
Bid
Fund Name (TICKER)
Type
YTD
1 Yr
Exp. Assets
5 Yr* Ratio
(mil.$)
LEADERS
SH
SR
SH
SH
13
SH
SR
EE
SR
SR
SR
SU
SN
SR
BB
SC
ST
LO
SR
ST
ST
SP
ST
◊0.4
+16.3
◊5.0
◊18.4
+2.8
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◊12.0
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◊8.2
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◊9.1
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+14.3
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+73.5
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+21.6
+16.3
+27.0
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+16.7
+14.8
+3.2
+15.8
◊11.8
+18.1
+21.3
+10.3
+15.7
+16.9
+15.7
◊8.6
+23.1
+13.7
459
+8.7
458
+9.9
428
0.31
0.12
0.76
0.73
1.21
0.72
0.18
0.31
0.76
0.98
0.79
0.75
0.83
1.05
0.80
0.79
0.76
1.12
0.75
0.84
0.76
0.35
0.91
39,161
19,353
12,033
10,677
9,312
7,928
7,917
6,628
6,226
6,206
5,563
4,367
4,249
4,134
3,861
3,776
3,675
3,330
3,287
3,257
3,222
3,009
3,004
US Global Investors World Prec Mnral(UNWPX)
Rydex Precious Metals Inv(RYPMX)
EuroPac Gold A(EPGFX)
American Century Global Gold Inv(BGEIX)
Gabelli Gold AAA(GOLDX)
OCM Gold Investor(OCMGX)
Oppenheimer Gold & Special Minerals A(OPGSX)
US Global Investors Gld & Prec Mtls(USERX)
Deutsche Gold & Precious Metals S(SCGDX)
Franklin Gold and Precious Metals Adv(FGADX)
Fidelity Advisor Gold I(FGDIX)
Wells Fargo Precious Metals A(EKWAX)
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
SP
+155.5
+144.2
+140.6
+128.3
+122.3
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+117.4
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+120.3
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+113.9
+113.4
+113.2
+111.1
+108.7
+107.3
+105.1
◊8.7
◊9.3
NA
◊9.8
◊6.4
◊8.4
◊12.0
◊7.1
◊11.6
◊10.0
◊10.2
◊9.5
1.81
1.25
1.50
0.67
1.62
2.84
1.20
2.05
1.00
0.96
0.88
1.10
205
106
85
520
281
50
883
148
107
207
85
353
LAGGARDS
Fidelity Advisor Biotechnology T(FBTTX)
ProFunds Biotechnology UltraSector Inv(BIPIX)
Fidelity Select Biotechnology(FBIOX)
Franklin Biotechnology Discovery A(FBDIX)
Prudential Jennison Health Sciences C(PHLCX)
Rydex Biotechnology Inv(RYOIX)
Prudential Financial Services A(PFSAX)
Fidelity Select Brokerage & Invmt Mgm(FSLBX)
Rydex Inverse Government Lg Bd Strat I(RYJUX)
Oppenheimer SteelPath MLP Alpha Plus A(MLPLX)
Invesco Global Health Care C(GTHCX)
Hennessy Large Cap Financial Investor(HLFNX)
SH
LE
SH
SH
SH
SH
SF
SF
ND
LP
SH
SF
◊19.2
◊13.7
◊18.4
◊16.0
◊13.0
◊12.6
◊9.3
◊7.2
◊17.3
+20.1
◊5.1
◊7.8
◊26.9
◊26.4
◊25.2
◊24.4
◊24.0
◊22.1
◊20.6
◊18.0
◊17.4
◊15.0
◊14.7
◊14.4
+26.9
+42.7
+28.5
+25.3
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+26.5
+5.1
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◊10.1
NA
+16.6
+12.5
1.36
1.48
0.73
0.98
1.88
1.32
1.47
0.78
1.40
1.93
1.83
1.63
131
362
10,677
1,169
222
267
75
313
124
120
81
63
*Annualized. Leaders and Laggards are among funds with at least $50 million in assets, and include no more than one class of any fund. Today’s fund types: 13-Managed Futures. AACommodities Agriculture. BB-Commodities Broad Basket. BM-Bear Market. CD-Consumer Cyclical. CC-Consumer Defensive. CE-Commodities Energy. CM-Commodities Miscellaneous.
CP-Commodities Precious Metals. CR-Multicurrency. EE-Industrials. FX-Single Currency. GY-Multialternative. IC-Trading-Inverse Commodities. ID-Equity Energy. IE-Trading-Inverse Equity.
IM-Commodities Industrial Metal. IS-Trading-Miscellaneous. LC-Trading-Leveraged Commodities. LE-Trading-Leveraged Equity. LO-Long-Short. LP-Energy Limited Partnership. MR-Miscellaneous
Sector. ND-Trading-Inverse Debt. NE-Market Neutral. SC-Communication. SF-Financial. SH-Health. SN-Natural Resources. SP-Equity Precious Metals. SR-Real Estate. ST-Technology. SUUtilities. VD-Trading-Leveraged Debt. VO-Volatility. XO-Infrastructure. XR-Option Writing. NA-Not Available. YTD-Year to date. Spotlight tables rotate on a 2-week basis.
Source: Morningstar
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SCORES
ANALYSIS
14 WRESTLING
13 SWIMMING
Jordan Burroughs
of the U.S. will make
$500,000 if he wins
a second gold medal.
Katie Ledecky earns
her third gold medal
in Rio, leading the
U.S. to a relay win.
COMMENTARY
0
B9
N
Air Ball
JAMES HILL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
To the dismay of the hometown crowd, Brazil (in yellow) was defeated by Argentina, 31-0, in group
play in rugby sevens at Deodoro Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Argentina advanced to the quarterfinals.
Rio at Street Level
BEHIND TV SCENES, MANY SOLDIERS, FEW SIGNS, LONG LINES
By DAVID SEGAL
RIO DE JANEIRO — At the women’s 3-meter
synchronized diving final on Sunday, there seemed to
be two events occurring at once. There was the one
displayed on a large video screen at the outdoor
arena, and there was the live one in
ESSAY
front of your eyes. The events were
identical except for one notable detail:
On the screen, the sun appeared to be shining, and in
real life, it was not.
The Olympics look different in the flesh. Television has a way of not just framing and editing the
action but also adding sheen and brightness. The lush
and immaculate tableaus served up by NBC and
other broadcasters are like faces that have been
tastefully daubed in makeup. They look great, but
they leave out all the uniqueness, all the texture.
What does it actually feel like to be here? The
A Brazilian
flag at Barra
Olympic Park.
“We are very
proud of our
country,” a Brazilian woman
said Sunday.
“We want people to see that.”
answer is that it is odd, sometimes maddening, possibly dangerous and frequently a hoot.
Safety first. There was a lot of angst about crime
as these Games approached, and there have been
reports of muggings since the athletes arrived. What
is now clear is this: Rio is the safest-feeling dangerous place you will ever visit. Nothing about walking
the streets here feels even remotely menacing —
until you walk the streets with someone from Rio.
At that point, you learn that you are surrounded
by a terrifying variety of perils, including knife-wielding muggers. The beaches of Copacabana seem like a
paradise of minimalist swimwear. Then you are told
about the very young bandits who occasionally
swarm the sand and steal everything that is not
hidden or bolted to the ground.
Oh, and those friendly yellow-cab drivers who
Continued on Page B12
JAMES HILL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
B10
N
NBC Thinks
Big Picture
As Viewers
Alter Habits
By RICHARD SANDOMIR
DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
A Smash, but Not a Victory
Cameroon’s Christelle Nana Tchoundjang (2) spiking the ball against Russia during a preliminary-round
volleyball match on Wednesday. The Russian women won in three sets, 25-19, 25-22, 25-23.
Compared With Nature, Pollution Is a Breeze
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
RIO DE JANEIRO — After all the concern about what might be floating in
Guanabara Bay during the Olympics, it
was finally time on Monday for the
sailors to start competing.
When they got to Marina da Glória,
they were much more worried about how
difficult the job was going to be than
about how dirty the job was going to be.
“It’s superchallenging, this place, and
I’m not talking about the pollution,” said
Juan Ignacio Maegli, a three-time Olympian from Guatemala who raced in the
men’s laser event Monday. “It’s especially challenging in the course inside the
bay, the course where we’re today.
There’s lots of current, and with the high
mountains, the wind shifts a lot.”
The bay is a natural amphitheater: a
spectacular one surrounded by 1,299-foot
Sugarloaf Mountain and other granite
monoliths, as well as beaches and manmade landmarks, including the Rio-Niterói Bridge, the Santos Dumont Airport
and numerous municipalities.
It is a particularly complex environment in which to race, made all the
more complex because the mouth of the
bay leading to the Atlantic Ocean is narrow and contains a small island.
“That little island has a great effect on
the current that comes in and out, and really makes it tricky,” said David Dellenbaugh, a tactical adviser for the United
States Olympic sailing team. “There are
a lot of back eddies and stuff around that
island, so when you are on those courses
that are close to it, that makes a big difference.”
There are seven courses in use at
these Olympics, and although the focus
has been squarely on Guanabara Bay because of pollution concerns, three of the
courses are in the open ocean off the city
of Niterói and the Atlantic beach of Copacabana.
Not all of the Olympic classes will compete outside the bay, but the majority
will.
“From a tactical point of view, Rio is
one of the most challenging venues to
sail at, and the main reason is these two
different types of racecourses,” said Josh
Adams, the managing director of United
States Olympic Sailing. “Inside the bay,
it’s a current-driven racecourse. It’s
CLIVE MASON/GETTY IMAGES
Finn dinghies sailed Tuesday near Marina da Glória off the coast of Rio de
Janeiro, with the 1,299-foot Sugarloaf Mountain in the background.
Sailors are challenged
by geography, currents
and shifting winds.
short chop, not a lot of big waves, and a
shifting wind because it’s inside the bay
and the wind is coming over some land.
“In contrast to that, there are the three
ocean racecourses, which are exposed to
the ocean swell, so the waves can be
quite large and round and the breeze
more steady. There is certainly current
out there, but it’s not as complicated. So
Rio really demands a complete sailor,
and ultimately, what these Olympic
Games will test is who is the most complete sailor.”
The importance of local knowledge appears to have its limits. Robert Scheidt, a
Brazilian star who is back in the laser
class to compete in his sixth Olympics,
finished 23rd out of 46 competitors in the
first race Monday, although he did
bounce back to win the second race.
There will be 10 preliminary races in all
before the medal races next week.
“The mountains on the Niterói course
were really affecting the wind, but that’s
part of the competition,” Scheidt said.
“Everyone knew the conditions would be
variable.”
Still, acquiring local knowledge has
been even more of a priority than usual
at these Games.
Basketball stars or tennis stars can
roll into an Olympic city with no prior
visits. A court is a court on any continent.
But sailors need to study their arena in
depth to have a reasonable chance of success.
“I would say it’s the most complicated
venue I’ve sailed at,” said Karl-Martin
Rammo of Estonia, who spent three
months here camping and training before the Olympic regatta.
The best-funded teams — Britain,
New Zealand and the United States —
had much more extensive reconnaissance programs. The Americans were
particularly eager students after failing
to win a sailing medal at the 2012 London
Games. Veterans like Paige Railey, who
is competing in the women’s laser radial
class, have spent more than 150 days
training in Rio.
“Rio is not a regular stop on the international sailing circuit, so there’s no existing body of knowledge about the
winds and the currents,” Adams said.
“When we saw how complicated the current was on the inside, we realized we
needed our own data, so we set about doing a comprehensive current and wind
study that took years. And we put together a team of the people we think are the
right people to evaluate the data and to
translate it to the athletes in a language
they speak.”
Enter Dellenbaugh, a bearded veteran
of America’s Cup sailing who was a tactician on the Cup-winning yacht America3
in 1992.
Although the traditional model is to
have a meteorologist on site, Dellenbaugh receives the weather reports in
Rio from a veteran meteorologist who is
working remotely, Chris Bedford, and
then interprets the data and presents the
American coaches and competitors with
a concise version — call it news they can
use — on the day of the race.
The Americans had three separate
training camps in Rio in May, June and
July, and they timed those camps to coincide with the tidal cycle that would be
in play during the Olympic races.
“So what the athletes and the coaches
saw today was familiar territory based
on all their experience out there,” Adams
said.
What the sailors did not see — at least
not on Monday — was much garbage in
the water.
“When I was heading out, I saw a couple of plastic bags, but not out on the
racecourse,” said Cameron Pimentel, a
laser sailor from Bermuda. “I think it
was pretty fair.”
There was natural debris, however.
The Italian windsurfer Flavia Tartaglini
struck a small branch and had to hop off
her board and into the water midrace to
clear it away.
When the racing was over, one of the
so-called ecoboats operated by the Rio
organizers chugged past with its single
engine, scooping up whatever was floating, even if the health risks also lie below
in a bay where superbacteria have been
found.
Tuesday’s rain could make the cleanup
task (and the racing) more complicated
by increasing the flow of polluted water
from local rivers into the bay. But at least
on opening day, the much bigger concern
among the Olympians was avoiding the
wrong tactical decision.
More Green Water? It May Be Clear Why: Too Many People
By SARAH LYALL
RIO DE JANEIRO — The problem of
the suddenly green water in the Olympic
diving pool worsened Wednesday as
whatever was ailing the pool migrated
(albeit in a lighter shade of green) to the
nearby pool used for water polo and synchronized swimming. But Olympic officials said that after extensive tests, they
had finally pinpointed the reason: a
chemical imbalance caused by too many
people using the water.
There had been speculation Tuesday
that algae was the cause, but that theory
was dismissed by officials.
“Midafternoon, there was a sudden decrease in the alkalinity in the diving pool,
and that’s the main reason the color
changed,” Mario Andrada, a Rio 2016
spokesman, said Wednesday morning.
He noted that a lot of people had been
in the pools in the past week at the Maria
Lenk Aquatic Center, and that their presence had touched off changes in the water’s chemical balance.
The alarmingly swift transformation
of the diving pool from aqua to swamp
green on Tuesday spurred the usual so-
CHANG W. LEE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
On Wednesday, a day after the water in the Olympic diving pool turned from
aqua to green, the water in the nearby water polo pool followed suit.
cial media hilarity, with much of the speculation focusing on the possibility of athletes’ using the pool for a bodily function
generally frowned upon at pools.
Nope, said Nate Hernandez, director
of aquatic solutions at VivoAquatics, a
pool care company based in California
whose clients include hotels and resorts.
“To be honest, people pee in the pool all
the time — this wouldn’t affect it,” he said
via email.
Pool experts said that with decent pool
maintenance, water in a pool should not
change color so drastically and quickly.
“If the pool’s systems are properly
sized with adequate filtration and using
appropriate chemical distribution, they
should be able to maintain clarity and
sanitation even during peak use,” Jamie
Novak, a brand manager at NC Brands, a
swimming pool and spa chemical manufacturer in Connecticut, said in an email.
A visit Wednesday afternoon showed
that the diving pool was still a fairly dark
shade of green while the pool for water
polo and synchronized swimming was
somewhat lighter. Officials said the alkalinity levels were already improving.
In the weeks before the Summer
Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, NBC officials
believed that the prime-time audience
for its 17-day event would match or exceed that of the London Games four
years earlier. With stars like Michael
Phelps, Katie Ledecky and Usain Bolt returning and a formidable United States
women’s gymnastics team, NBC saw
London’s overall viewership of 31 million
as an attainable goal.
But so far that figure is looking unreachable. NBC’s performance stumbled
early: Viewership for Friday’s opening
ceremony fell 35 percent compared with
four years ago, followed by a 28 percent
tumble in the first day of competition. Although NBC has done better since, the
average audience of 28.6 million after
five days is down nearly 20 percent from
the 35.6 million who were watching the
London Games.
And viewership among people ages 18
to 34 has fallen 32 percent.
Normally this would be a cause of
great anxiety at NBC, which has carried
every Summer Games since 1988 and has
$12 billion in deals to show all the
Olympics through 2032. The prime-time
broadcast on NBC brings in about threequarters of its Olympic advertising and
is counted on to attract hard-to-reach
millennials and older viewers and to
overwhelm rival networks in prime time.
“The main event on NBC is what we’re
most concerned about,” said Billie Gold,
the vice president and director of programming research at Amplifi, a division
of the ad agency Dentsu Aegis Network,
which has numerous clients advertising
on NBC’s Rio broadcasts. “That’s where
the big dollars are going.”
But NBCUniversal believes it has an
answer to where some prime-time viewers went: They are watching the
Olympics on two of the media giant’s cable networks, Bravo and NBCSN, and
streaming events online, reflecting how
consumers have changed their media
viewing habits.
On Tuesday night, 33.4 million were
watching in prime time on NBC, more
than five million fewer than those who
watched the comparable night in London. But another 2.3 million were watching on cable and the equivalent of
404,000 were streaming live video and
earlier events. The total of 36.1 million
was still below the nearly 38.8 million
viewers four years ago on NBC in London, when there was no parallel cable
viewing and streaming in prime time.
NBC calls its combined number the total
audience delivery.
The ancillary viewers — admittedly
not a huge bounty — are the result of
NBC’s pre-Rio planning.
“We consciously went into these
Olympics with a strategy to put content
across all platforms,” said Mark Lazarus,
chairman of the NBC Sports Group. “We
committed to stream every event live
and put Olympic content in prime time
on our cable networks for the first time.”
Lazarus and Alan Wurtzel, the president of research and media development
at NBCUniversal, said Wednesday they
were surprised about the falloff in viewership on NBC and the unexpectedly
good audiences on cable and online. Still,
as Wurtzel said, “The Olympics are not
immune to the tectonic changes in consumer media behavior.”
NBC’s streaming of all events (except
the opening ceremony) has been met by
a fan base that is increasingly tethered to
their smartphones, tablets and connected televisions and who want to view
events when it is convenient for them —
not when NBC schedules them.
And putting sports like judo, tennis,
soccer, fencing and basketball on cable
during prime time represents a new opportunity for viewers who prefer those
sports or do not want to see the same
core of elaborately produced sports that
dominate NBC in prime time, like swimming, diving, gymnastics, beach volleyball and track and field.
In a sense, some of NBC’s viewers are
fleeing the prime-time broadcast for
sports with less ratings appeal.
“I don’t like the word ‘cannibalization,’ ” Lazarus said. “But would some
watch NBC if we didn’t put the sports on
cable? Almost certainly. But they’re going to similar content — to the Olympics,
not to entertainment programming,
other sports programming or news programming.”
For advertisers and buyers, NBC’s
strategy is a sensible reaction to the
changing media landscape in which
more viewing is taking place away from
the living-room television.
Jack Hollis, group vice president of
marketing for Toyota Motor Sales in the
United States, said the automotive company wanted to reach car buyers wherever they are — and they are not always
watching television. “Clearly, I’d like the
Olympics to be up in prime time, but I’m
not worried,” he said in a telephone interview from Rio. “As long as we pick up lost
viewers elsewhere I’m pleased.”
Although NBC’s prime-time broadcast
is falling short of expectations — and will
almost certainly require the network to
offer free commercial time to make up
for the lower viewership — it is still giving NBCUniversal, a part of Comcast,
what it craves: large, smashing victories
over CBS, Fox and ABC.
“We need to keep reminding the world
that we still do 30 million people a night,”
Lazarus said, “which doesn’t happen
very often.”
THE NEW YORK TIMES SPORTS THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016
B11
0N
Role Models, Minus the Machismo
MANAUS, Brazil — Late Tuesday
evening, as the Amazon temperature
danced at 90 degrees with humidity in
step, Janine van Wyk, a defender with
South Africa’s women’s soccer team,
paused just a second to
take in the packed and
throbbing Amazônia
Arena, filled with 43,000
gloriously nuts fans.
SPORTS
She thought to herself,
OF THE TIMES “This is amazing, to realize
that all these people are supporting the
women’s game,” she told me later. “This
lets younger girls everywhere know our
sport is growing.”
She flashed a quick smile even though
her team had just been knocked out of
the Olympic tournament.
The wheels of change are turning in
what Brazilians freely describe as their
macho society. Their men’s team collapsed in a heap in the World Cup two
years ago and continues to play with a
listlessness and diffidence in these
Olympics. (Manauaras, the locals here,
say the male players “are walking on
high heels,” which means, roughly and
after consultation with eminent linguists,
“arrogant snots.”)
The women’s game — the Brazilian
women in particular, but with applause
left over for foreign teams as well — has
captured the collective imagination here.
As a colleague, Tania Franco, and I wandered around Manaus before the game,
and later as we walked through the
stands, the sense was that this nation’s
enraptured, besotted relationship with
soccer had finally lapped over onto the
women’s side.
Much of this is owed to the Brazilian
women’s players, who kick and run with
an artful joie de vivre, offering anklebreaking stutter steps and swashbuckling kicks. Marta, the ponytailed star
long known as the Pelé of the women’s
game, spent too much of her career as a
soccer prophet without much honor in
her own country. Now she hears loud
applause every time her foot touches the
ball.
We came upon Danyelle Christine da
Silva Beleza, 14, standing and jumping
and cheering in this stadium, which was
built at fantastical cost and sits like a
massive white orb astride northern
Manaus. Her family and their neighbors’
family had taken two cars and driven
from Rondônia to Manaus for this game.
That sounds easy enough; a map shows
mileage roughly equivalent to the sevenand-a-half-hour trip from New York City
to Cleveland. Except that they traversed
a “highway” that had been closed for 30
years and that remained a dirt track
through the Amazon jungle. The two
families bounced and jostled for 14 hours.
No matter. They wanted to see the
women play.
“Brazil is a macho-man society; it is
wonderful this is changing,” Danyelle
said, beaming. “I want Marta’s jersey
instead of Neymar’s.”
Neymar is the star of that other team,
the Brazilian men.
As it happened, the Brazilian women
could not deliver a grand victory on
Tuesday night. The South African women, by their own admission playing over
their heads in the drive-a-stake-throughthe-eye heat, held the Brazilians to a 0-0
tie.
A similar fate befell the favored American women in their game here on Tuesday as the Colombian women, riding two
brilliant free kicks by Catalina Usme, a
striker with a ponytail Mohawk, tied the
score at 2-2.
One kick went directly through Hope
Solo’s legs. It was that sort of night.
Both games were accompanied by
asterisks. The Brazilian and American
teams were already assured of spots in
the next round, and their coaches were
not willing to watch key players melt into
puddles in the Amazonian heat. So some
key players sat; others played part of the
game. Marta played only in the second
half, and only because another player
came up lame at halftime.
“I wanted to spare Marta this heat,”
the Brazilian coach, Vadão, said. “If I got
her hurt here. . . . ”
He allowed that thought to trail off
unspoken, no doubt figuring that had
Marta gone down, he’d have had to take
up residency under an assumed name in
a distant corner of the Amazon.
The American coach, Jill Ellis, offered
a wry, are-you-kidding look when asked
if her players had slowed toward the end
of their game. “Yeah, I would challenge
anyone to run around in that heat,” she
said.
There was another subtext, which
plays out everywhere the Americans
play in Brazil this year. Solo, at 35, is a
brilliant goalkeeper; she also tends to let
impolitic thought escape her subcon-
MICHAEL
POWELL
Email: [email protected]
LEO CORREA/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Where men’s soccer once
was king, the women’s
game now rules with fans.
LALO DE ALMEIDA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
MICHAEL DANTAS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
From top,
Marta, a star
on Brazil’s
women’s
soccer team,
on Saturday;
a view of
Manaus,
Brazil, host
of Olympic
soccer; and
Marta (10)
with her
teammates.
scious when she would be wiser to bar
the door. Before the Olympics, she posted
on social media a photo of herself wearing a black mosquito hat and holding a
big bottle of insect repellent. “Not sharing this!!!” she typed. “Get your own!
#zikaproof #RoadToRio.”
Solo tried to backtrack. She began
tweeting photos of the sunset over the
Amazon. That fooled no one. She has
been jeered since the Olympics began,
and a boom of boos lowered on her every
time she touched the ball on Tuesday. As
she ran off the field at the half, she was
washed over by chants of “Zika! Zika!”
Christiane Luizedo was one of those
lustful booers. “We know that some
people see Brazil as a third-world country,” she said. “She has disrespected our
nation. Now she has to deal with the
consequences.”
That Solo had one of the worst games
of her career was occasion for
paroxysms of joy. Although, in truth, that
anger did not feel deep. More striking
was the newfound support for the women. Wandering through downtown Manaus, a place of pastel-colored, colonialage buildings and perpetually busy markets that is ringed by a forest of office
towers, I heard again and again a respect
mixed with chagrin that fans had taken
so long to embrace the women’s game.
Renato Andrade da Silva, a cabdriver,
had the Olympics playing on a tiny
screen in his cab as he hurtled through
traffic. That night’s game was must-see
television.
“The women are such a great surprise,
and the men, not so much,” he said. “I
used to like the men more; that was my
mistake.”
At a cafe in a baroque old opera house,
I spoke with the barista Marcelo Gadhella, 30. “The women should be given a
lot more credit,” he said. “And the men
deserve less credit.”
At a nearby table, Karen Marinho, 25,
nodded. She is an aspiring archaeologist
and loves the women’s game. “There’s a
lot of women nowadays who go to watch,
and they bring their spouses,” she said.
“The macho men say: ‘Oh! Now the
women play like little men.’”
She rolled her eyes. More money, she
said, needs to go into promotion and
player development. The women’s championship games run only on obscure
cable channels; the men’s game is on all
public channels.
Vadão, the Brazilian coach, noted that
his team took a cheap flight to Manaus,
which is four hours by air from Rio de
Janeiro. There was no food, and his
players were crowded in economy.
Such problems are not unique to
Brazil. American female players have
filed suit seeking pay equity with the less
successful American men’s national
team. Players in women’s leagues in
Europe and elsewhere remain distinct
second-class citizens, their games underpublicized and spottily attended.
Perhaps Tuesday evening’s double bill
offered a window into a better future.
Such was the view of Vera Pauw, the lithe
Dutch woman who coaches the South
African team. She came to the interview
room with jaw set grim, her Olympic
road at an end. Then she spoke of the
artistry of the Brazilians and of the grit
of her team, and especially of all those
cheering fans.
“Brazil showcased a very mature
women’s play and pace; it was beautiful,”
she said. “Now we know what we could
do with a professional league in South
Africa.”
She smiled at herself. People, she said,
will tell you that she is not one to gush.
She could not help herself. “To see a huge
stadium filled, with fans behind every
women’s kick, was fantastic,” she said.
That is an Amazonian reverie right
there.
What to Watch: Thursday
GYMNASTICS Simone Biles brought down the
house when she and her American teammates
handily won the gold medal in the women’s team
final. Biles, who is considered the best in the world
in the sport, is heavily favored to collect a second
gold, this time in the individual all-around. She
earned the top score in qualification, nearly 2
points ahead of second-place Aly Raisman in a
sport often decided by tenths of a point.
SWIMMING Yulia Efimova of Russia, cast as a
villain during the 100-meter breaststroke, gets
another shot at a gold medal in the final of the 200
breaststroke, where she owns the second-fastest
time in the world.
Michael Phelps faces heats for the 100 butterfly
along with the final for the 200 individual medley,
where he will battle his longtime rival Ryan
Lochte and the Japanese duo of Hiromasa Fujimori and Kosuke Hagino, the gold medalist in the
Aly Raisman,
left, and Simone
Biles of the
United States
will compete in
the individual
all-around on
Thursday. Biles,
considered the
world’s top gymnast, is favored
to win.
400 I.M. In the women’s 100 freestyle final, the
Campbell sisters, Cate and Bronte, have the two
top times in the world and stand in each other’s
way for the gold.
GOLF At around 7:25 a.m., the Brazilian Adilson da
Silva will hit the opening tee shot of the first
Olympic golf tournament since 1904. The event has
been marked by the withdrawals of top PGA Tour
players, but the men’s field still features the recent
major winners Henrik Stenson and Danny Willett
and the leading Americans Bubba Watson and
Rickie Fowler.
TENNIS Rafael Nadal of Spain, who recently returned from a wrist injury, is scheduled to play
singles, doubles and mixed doubles matches.
ROWING After several disruptions because of
weather, the first rowing medals are expected to
be awarded.
B12
N
A match between Brazil and Cuba on Sunday in the Beach Volleyball Arena at Copacabana Beach, where visitors to the Games have found the richest urban experience.
ESSAY
Behind the TV Scenes, Experiencing Rio at Street Level
From First Sports Page
have been transporting you here and
there? Some of them will take your 50
reals (about $17) and assert that it was
5 reals — so cough up the rest of the
fare. Even some of the machines are
larcenous. Locals swear that they have
encountered ATMs that purport to spit
out money while spitting out nothing.
The less time you speak to Cariocas,
as natives of Rio are known, the more
you will enjoy this place. Lagoa Stadium, where rowing events are being
held, is near Leblon, one of the more
upscale parts of the city. All around you,
exotic mountains jut to the heavens. It
looks like a movie set. Until a local
points to an immense and somewhat
shabby white building, a few blocks
away, and explains that it is a housing
project where rival drug gangs occasionally lob homemade grenades at one
another.
Wait, that building right there?
“Right there,” a Carioca says. “They
sometimes shoot at each other on the
street, when kids are returning from
school.”
The general sense of dread and hazard seems to have reached fans before
they flew here. A gentlemen in his 50s,
who was exiting Lagoa with his wife
and some friends, said he had left his
wedding band at home — “First time in
27 years, I’m not wearing it,” he said,
holding up his left hand — just in case.
And all the people in his little group had
decided to keep their big stash of
money in their socks and a small stash
in their pockets.
There are some 85,000 soldiers stationed across the city, including plenty
of them at the Olympic venues. Some
carry machine guns and have their
fingers on their triggers, the ready-fortrouble mode you associate with guards
overseeing a cash drop near a Brinks
truck. Some of the soldiers travel in
dark green troop transport trucks
associated with war-zone invasions.
The projection of all this force is only
intermittently comforting. The abundance of weapons took on a frightening
cast on Saturday when a large-caliber
bullet landed in the media tent at the
Equestrian Center right after journalists heard a loud bang. Apparently it
was shot from a favela, at a police
blimp being used for security.
At a news conference, a spokesman
for the Games described the episode as
an “unfortunate event” and underscored that “all lives are important —
horses, dogs, people.”
A Logistical Challenge
Although they look on television like
a series of athletic contests, the Games
up close are the single most daunting
logistical challenge in the known universe. The more you see of them, the
crazier it seems that anyone would
voluntarily undertake them. To pull it
off is to create a modest-size city,
layered on top of an existing city, a
realm with a three-week life span in
desperate need of food, water and electricity as well as systems for transportation, waste removal, ticketing and
the management of countless
employees and volunteers, and the list
goes on.
DOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Army personnel were on hand for the opening ceremony of the Rio Games at the Maracanã stadium.
It is an event planner’s knottiest
puzzle, and the way countries solve it
has a way of reflecting their national
character. In Sochi, Russia, the Games
had a strange combination of incompetence (shabbily constructed housing
that was not finished, for instance) and
clockwork (transportation that ran on
time), which is exactly what you would
expect from an autocratic regime
plagued by corruption.
Brazil fares better on the World Democracy Audit list of corruption — it is
65th while Russia is 105th — but it does
not have a barrel-chested bully in the
Vladimir V. Putin vein to instill the sort
of fear that compels results. What it has
instead is a democracy, albeit one in
which about 60 percent of its members
of Congress currently face criminal
charges.
Whatever motivates Olympic
employees here, it is not fear. The atmosphere is kind of laid-back. A British
reporter trying to get to his hotel from
Deodoro, the event center in the West
Zone, was heard asking an Olympic
volunteer with a clipboard, “When will
the van arrive?”
“Ten minutes,” she said.
“You’ve been saying that for an hour,”
he countered, rolling his eyes.
At times, these Games are like an
elaborate recipe that is missing some
essential ingredients. Let’s talk about
the signs. It is not just the oopsy-daisy
translations. (A list of prohibited items
at a security check includes a ban on
“white weapons.”) What is odd is the
curious absence of basic “Here’s Where
to Go” markers, which has added degrees of difficulty to navigating that
seem totally unnecessary.
The buses, for instance. They are an
essential source of transportation, but
for the first few days, there were stops
that were nearly unmarked but for a
green pole.
Then there is the lack of signs that
simply celebrate the presence of the
Games. Typically, a host city is a riot of
bunting and street banners, making it
impossible to walk a block without a
reminder that the Olympics are in town.
In Rio, just 15 percent of promotional
signs had been delivered by the time of
the opening ceremony, according to
organizers, who had called an emergency meeting with the supplier.
In addition, you come across lots of
places that are absurdly understaffed.
In fact, until some indelible sports
memories are conjured, a suitable
bronze commemorating the Rio
Olympics would be a handful of people
stewing in line. There have been 90minute lines to enter venues and lines
for food that were so long that the
organizers announced a tenfold increase in manpower and then shed a
few menu items that were said to be
holding things up.
On Sunday night, the line to enter the
Mega Store in the Olympic Park, where
you can buy Olympic-branded merchandise, was so many hundreds of
yards long that it was hard to see
where it began.
Sprawled Out
All Olympics have their own character, but pinpointing Rio’s will be difficult
because the events are held in such
drastically different places. Beach
volleyball is played in Copacabana, a
dense neighborhood that has been a
party and beach scene for decades.
Track and field, a marquee attraction at
the Summer Games, will be held at the
Olympic Stadium in the Engenho de
Dentro neighborhood, about 12 miles
northwest.
Nowhere close to any of that is the
Olympic Park itself, what is supposed
to be the heart of the Games. It is in an
area in the West Zone known as Barra
da Tijuca, a newish suburb for the rich,
a region dotted with dozens and dozens
of indistinguishable residential apartment buildings, interspersed with
malls. (New York is the theme of one of
the larger malls, which features a huge
reproduction of the Statue of Liberty.)
Plus there are car dealerships for every
model you can imagine, and a few you
have forgotten. Which is apt because
this place is not designed for walking.
The park itself is a wide and largely
barren expanse of asphalt. In previous
Games, organizers enhanced their
Olympic parks with entertainment or
sculptures or benches. Not here. This is
a place to get from Point A to Point B
without worrying you will run into
Point C. There are places to buy food,
some tables, a McDonald’s that sells ice
cream, and that Mega Store. In the
middle, there is the studio for Globo,
Brazil’s multimedia giant. And that is
about it.
By contrast, when you walk out of the
Beach Volleyball Arena in Copacabana,
you will encounter urban living as its
richest and most joyful. Men selling
caipirinhas, the national cocktail. A
woman dressed as a mime, blowing
enormous bubbles with a bucket and
some twine. A guy taking bets from
people who think they can kick over
two carefully placed bottles with a
soccer ball. (Like Weebles, these bottles
wobbled but never fell down.)
Proselytizers handing out Bibles.
The Copacabana Hotel, which is
almost directly across from the volleyball venue, offered a high-tech show in
which butterflies seemed to flicker up
and down its exterior, their wings
painted the flags of different nations,
while a modern rendering of Vivaldi
boomed on huge speakers across the
street. This briefly brought the entire
parade of humanity to a standstill.
People gaped in awe and then applauded when the show was over.
Rio is not the first Olympic host to
spread venues around a city. But it is
the first to set one of those venues in a
place with soul to spare and another
without any soul at all. Unless it fixes
the transportation problem, these
might also be the first Olympics where
you simply cannot get where you need
to go in anything approaching a reasonable amount of time. Right now, the
Games’ transportation app is telling
users that if they want to get from
Copacabana to the Equestrian Center,
roughly 25 miles away, they are looking
at a two-hour journey.
But an Olympics is like a living organism, which is to say, it learns. The
same trip might take half that long in a
few days.
As for the venues, none of them feel
lavish. There is not a starchitect standout, like Beijing’s Bird’s Nest, in the
bunch. This is the just-enough
Olympics. You see plenty of scaffolding
around, including at the entrance to the
Olympic Park. It is as though the
organizers did not want to offend the
sensibilities of Brazilians already chafing at the price of this show. (Approximately many billions of dollars.)
The few signs heralding the Games
that you do see are emblazoned with
the motto “A New World.” It is an unfortunate phrase, given that the new world
referred to is the bustling, economically
expanding Brazil that in 2009 won the
right to host the Games, a place where
the gross domestic product had doubled
in a decade. The latest iteration of the
country’s new world is in both a funk
and a recession.
This gives Cariocas plenty to fume
about since much of the nation’s economic decline can be pinned on the
shenanigans of public officials. But the
locals you meet here come across as
eager to chat and happy you are here.
Perhaps if they had known where
their economy was headed a few years
back, they would have canceled this
shindig. But if the world is visiting, they
would like everyone to leave with a
positive impression.
“We are very proud of our country,”
said a woman dining at a food-by-thekilogram restaurant on Sunday. “We
want people to see that.”
She said that most of her friends
were given three weeks of vacation, so
they could stay home and keep the
streets as traffic-free as possible.
That is not exactly a sacrifice, but
Olympics-only lanes have been established around the city, to help move
athletes and the news media around
Rio’s already choked roads, which has
turned the non-Olympic lanes into
quagmires. In addition, police resources
have been funneled to the Games,
which has inevitably led to an uptick in
crime in areas that are not near the
events.
Longer commutes, a rise in crime —
those are sacrifices, and one reason
that bad-mouthing the signs and the
buses and the traffic seems almost
rude. It cost Brazilians a lot to throw us
this party. The least we can do is enjoy
it.
0N
B13
JEFFREY FURTICELLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
A Winning Reaction
Katie Ledecky celebrating with her teammates after winning the 4x200 freestyle relay. She already has three golds and a silver in Rio.
SWIM M ING
SCHEDULE AND RESULTS
Ledecky Anchors Americans to a Relay Gold
Katie Ledecky was the fastest swimmer in the pool, and
she brought her teammates along for the ride.
Ledecky, 19, turned in another overpowering performance to carry the United States to victory in the 4x200-meter freestyle relay on Wednesday night, capturing her third
gold at the Rio Olympics.
The Americans trailed through the first three legs of
the race, as Sweden, China and then Australia traded the
lead.
Then Ledecky hit the water, and blew the field away.
She turned in a split of 1 minute 53.74 seconds en route
to a final time of 7 minutes 43.03 seconds. Only one other
swimmer in the race, Australia’s Emma McKeon, got
within a second of Ledecky’s anchor-leg time.
Australia finished second and Canada was third.
PHELPS EYES ANOTHER GOLD Michael Phelps will seek his
fourth straight Olympic title in the 200-meter individual
medley after advancing as the top qualifier. Phelps put up
an effortless-looking time of 1 minute 55.78 seconds. His
longtime rival Ryan Lochte qualified second.
A NEW KING OF SPEED The 18-year-old Kyle Chalmers of
Australia dethroned the defending champion Nathan Adrian of the United States in the final of the 100-meter freestyle. Chalmers rallied on the return lap to win in 47.58 seconds. Pieter Timmers of Belgium was second in 47.80, and
Adrian was third.
(AP)
in his past.
“I’ve served that time,” said Gatlin, 34. “I’ve dealt with
that punishment. I’ve moved forward.”
Some athletes, including the American swimmer Lilly
King, have suggested that Gatlin is among the athletes who
should not be permitted to compete because of previous
sanctions for doping.
Gatlin, who won gold at 100 meters at the 2004
Olympics, tested positive for excessive testosterone in
2006 and was suspended for four years.
King was asked about Gatlin after her finger-wagging
display toward Yulia Efimova, a Russian swimmer who
was allowed to compete after a last-minute appeal. Efimova, like Gatlin, has served a doping ban but was
(AP)
reinstated.
CYCL IN G
A Third Gold, at Age 42
Kristin Armstrong of the United States won her third
consecutive Olympic time trial, joining the speedskater
Bonnie Blair as the only American women to win three gold
medals in the same event at any Olympics.
On the day before she turned 43, Armstrong covered
the course through driving wind and rain in 44 minutes
26.42 seconds to beat the reigning bronze medalist Olga
Zabelinskaya of Russia by 5.55 seconds.
(AP)
GYM NAST ICS
A Gold Repeat, by a Fraction of a Point
SO CCER
Kohei Uchimura of Japan repeated as the men’s allaround winner, barely edging Oleg Verniaiev of Ukraine by
less than a tenth of a point to become the first man to win
back-to-back all-around titles in 44 years.
Two nights after leading Japan to a team gold,
Uchimura trailed going into the final rotation on the high
bar. Uchimura, the six-time world champion, put on a spectacular show with four difficult release moves that earned
him a dazzling 15.8.
Verniaiev, knowing he needed a 14.9 to win, took a
slightly different approach in hopes of winning Ukraine’s
first ever all-around Olympic gold in the sport: an easier,
less risky routine. He earned a 14.8.
Uchimura finished with a total of 92.365, just ahead of
Verniaiev’s 92.266, to become the first man to successfully
defend his title since his countryman Sawao Kato in 1972.
“Six world championships and two Olympic wins in
eight years is a great victory,” Uchimura told Reuters.
Max Whitlock of Britain was third, just ahead of David
Belyavskiy of Russia. The American Sam Mikulak recovered from a fall on vault to finish seventh.
(AP)
Defending Champions Fail to Advance
B ASKETB ALL
Anthony Passes James in a Win
Carmelo Anthony scored 31 points to pass LeBron
James as the leading scorer in United States Olympic men’s
basketball history as the Americans held off Australia, 9888, in Rio de Janeiro.
The United States had won its first two games without
breaking a sweat but trailed early in the fourth quarter before Anthony hit a flurry of 3-pointers. Kyrie Irving, who
was born in Australia, had 19 points.
AMERICAN WOMEN WIN BIG Diana Taurasi knocked down t
six 3-pointers and finished with 25 points as the United
States routed Serbia, 110-84.
(AP)
T RACK AND F I E L D
Gatlin Defends Himself Over Doping
Justin Gatlin, the American who is considered the biggest threat to the reigning world-record holder Usain Bolt,
said he was not paying attention to those who say he should
not be competing in Rio because of the doping suspension
Mexico, which upset Brazil in the final of the 2012 London Games to capture gold, was eliminated from the 2016
Games with a 1-0 loss to South Korea in Brasília.
Kwon Chang-hoon scored in the 77th minute to finish
atop Group C with 7 points, 2 more than Germany, which
also secured a spot in the quarterfinals with a 10-0 victory
over Fiji in Belo Horizonte.
ARGENTINA ALSO BOWS OUT Argentina, a two-time
Olympic winner, was eliminated with a 1-1 draw against
Honduras in Brasília. Both teams finished group play with
4 points, but Honduras advanced on goal difference to join
Portugal in the quarterfinals from Group D.
(AP)
W EIG HT L IF TIN G
Chinese Lifter Dazed, but Undaunted
Xiang Yanmei shrugged off a glancing blow to the head
from a falling bar to capture gold in the women’s 69-kilogram event.
Xiang, who won world titles in 2013 and 2015, was already the favorite for gold in the event when she dropped
the 118-kilogram bar on her third attempt in the snatch.
Though she briefly appeared dazed and admitted to
having had some pain after being struck, Xiang was fully
alert as she closed out China’s fourth weight lifting gold of
the Rio Olympics.
Xiang lifted 116 kilograms in the snatch and 145 kilograms in the clean and jerk for a total of 261 kilograms.
(AP)
SHO OTIN G
Kuwaiti Officer Captures First Gold
Fehaid Al-Deehani, the most decorated Olympic athlete in Kuwait’s history, won the first gold medal of his career in the men’s double trap finals.
Al-Deehani, a Kuwaiti army officer competing as an independent because his country was suspended by the International Olympic Committee in October, defeated Marco
Innocenti.
Al-Deehani is the only Kuwaiti to to earn an Olympic
medal. He won bronze at both the 2000 Sydney Games and
the 2012 London Games.
(AP)
THE MEDAL TABLE
FIELD HOCKEY
MEN’S SOCCER
All Times EDT
Group A
Country
W D
Brazil . . . . . . . . 1 2
Denmark . . . . . . 1 1
Iraq . . . . . . . . . 0 3
South Africa . . . 0 2
Group B
Country
W D
Nigeria . . . . . . . 2 0
Colombia . . . . . 1 2
Japan. . . . . . . . 1 1
Sweden . . . . . . 0 2
Group C
Country
W D
South Korea . . . 2 1
Germany. . . . . . 1 2
Mexico . . . . . . . 1 2
Fiji . . . . . . . . . . 0 0
Group D
Country
W D
Portugal . . . . . . 2 1
Honduras . . . . . 1 1
Argentina . . . . . 1 1
Algeria . . . . . . . 0 1
Wednesday's Games
Portugal 1, Algeria 1
Honduras 1, Argentina 1
Germany 10, Fiji 0
South Korea 1, Mexico 0
Colombia 2, Nigeria 0
Japan 1, Sweden 0
Brazil 4, Denmark 0
South Africa 1, Iraq 1
L
0
1
0
1
Pt GF GA
5
4 0
4
1 4
3
1 1
2
1 2
L
1
0
1
1
Pt GF GA
6
6 6
5
6 4
4
7 7
1
2
4
L
0
0
0
3
Pt GF GA
7 12 3
5 15 5
4
7
4
0
1 23
L
0
1
1
2
Pt GF GA
7
5
2
4
5 5
4
3 4
1
4 6
RUGBY
Men
France 26, Spain 5
Australia 12, South Africa 5
Japan 31, Kenya 7
Britain 21, New Zealand 19
Argentina 31, Brazil 0
Fiji 24, United States 19
Placing 9-12
United States 24, Brazil 12
Spain 14, Kenya 12
Quarterfinals
Fiji 12, New Zealand 7
Britain 5, Argentina 0
Japan 12, France 7
South Africa 22, Australia 5
SWIMMING
WOMEN’S SOCCER
All Times EDT
Group E
Country
W D
L
0
Brazil . . . . . . . . 2 1
China . . . . . . . . 1 1
1
Sweden . . . . . . 1 1
1
South Africa . . . 0 1
2
Group F
Country
W D
L
0
Canada . . . . . . 3 0
Germany. . . . . . 1 1
1
Australia . . . . . . 1 1
1
Zimbabwe . . . . . 0 0
3
Group G
Country
W D
L
0
United States . . 2 1
France . . . . . . . 2 0
1
New Zealand . . . 1 0
2
Colombia . . . . . 0 1
2
Friday's Games
Quarterfinals
Brazil vs. Australia, Noon
United States vs. Sweden, 3
China vs. Germany, 6 p.m.
Canada vs. France, 9 p.m.
Men
New Zealand 9, Brazil 0
Australia 2, Britain 1
Women
New Zealand 2, Spain 1
Australia 6, India 1
Germany 2, South Korea 0
Britain 3, Argentina 2
United States 6, Japan 1
Netherlands 1, China 0
Pts GF GA
7
8 1
4
2 3
4
2
5
1
0 3
Pts GF GA
9
7
2
4
9
5
4
8
5
0
3 15
Pts GF GA
7
5 2
6
7 1
3
1
5
1
2 7
p.m.
MEN'S BASKETBALL
All Times EDT
Group A
Country
W
United States. . . . . . . . . .3
France . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Venezeula . . . . . . . . . . . .0
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
Group B
Country
W
Argentina . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Lithuania . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Croatia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
Nigeria . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
Wednesday's Games
France 76, Serbia 75
United States 98, Australia 88
Venezuela vs. China
Thursday's Games
Brazil vs. Croatia, 1:15 p.m.
Nigeria vs. Spain, 6 p.m.
Lithuania vs. Argentina, 9:30 p.m.
Friday's Games
China vs. Australia, 1:15 p.m.
United States vs. Serbia, 6 p.m.
France vs. Venezuela, 9:30 p.m.
Men
100m Freestyle
Final
1. Kyle Chalmers, Australia, 47.58.
2. Pieter Timmers, Belgium, 47.80.
3. Nathan Adrian, United States, 47.85.
4. Santo Condorelli, Canada, 47.88.
5. Duncan Scott, Britain, 48.01.
6. Caeleb Dressel, United States, 48.02.
7. Cameron McEvoy, Australia, 48.12.
8. Marcelo Chierighini, Brazil, 48.41.
200m Breaststroke
Final
1. Dmitriy Balandin, Kazakhstan, 2:07.46.
2. Josh Prenot, United States, 2:07.53.
3. Anton Chupkov, Russia, 2:07.70.
4. Andrew Willis, Britain, 2:07.78.
5. Yasuhiro Koseki, Japan, 2:07.80.
6. Ippei Watanabe, Japan, 2:07.87.
7. Marco Koch, Germany, 2:08.00.
8. Kevin Cordes, United States, 2:08.34.
Women
200m Butterfly
Final
1. Mireia Belmonte Garcia, Spain, 2:04.85.
2. Madeline Groves, Australia, 2:04.88.
3. Natsumi Hoshi, Japan, 2:05.20.
4. Cammile Adams, United States, 2:05.90.
5. Yilin Zhou, China, 2:07.37.
6. Yufei Zhang, China, 2:07.40.
7. Hali Flickinger, United States, 2:07.71.
8. Brianna Throssell, Australia, 2:07.87.
TEAM HANDBALL
L
0
1
1
2
2
2
Pts
6
5
5
4
2
2
L
0
0
1
2
2
2
Pts
4
4
3
3
2
2
VOLLEYBALL
Women
China 3, Puerto Rico 0 (25-20, 25-17, 25-18)
Netherlands 3, Italy 0 (25-21, 25-20, 25-20)
United States 3, Serbia 1 (25-17, 21-25,
25-18, 25-19)
Russia 3, Cameroon 0 (25-19, 25-22, 25-23)
South Korea 3, Argentina 0 (25-18, 25-20, 25-23)
Brazil 3, Japan 0 (25-18, 25-18, 25-22)
WATER POLO
Men
Australia 8, Japan 6
Hungary 8, Greece 8
United States 6, France 3
Italy 6, Montenegro 5
Brazil 6, Serbia 5
Spain 9, Croatia 4
WOMEN'S BASKETBALL
All Times EDT
Group A
Country
W
L
Australia . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
0
Japan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
1
France . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
1
Belarus . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2
Turkey . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2
Brazil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
3
Group B
Country
W
L
United States. . . . . . . . . .3
0
Spain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
1
Canada. . . . . . . . . . . . . .2
0
China . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1
2
Senegal . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
2
Serbia . . . . . . . . . . . . . .0
3
Wednesday's Games
Spain 89, China 68
United States 110, Serbia 84
Canada 68, Senegal 58
Thursday's Games
Belarus vs. Turkey, 11:15 a.m.
France vs. Brazil, 2:30 p.m.
Japan vs. Australia, 4:45 p.m.
Friday's Games
Serbia vs. China, 11:15 a.m.
Canada vs. United States, 2:30 p.m.
Spain vs. Senegal, 4:45 p.m.
Women
Spain 29, Brazil 24
Romania 25, Montenegro 21
Russia 36, Sweden 34
Norway 30, Angola 20
Netherlands 32, South Korea 32
France 27, Argentina 11
MULTI-MEDALISTS
Pts
6
5
5
4
4
3
Pts
6
5
4
4
2
3
MEN
Three
Michael Phelps, United States, swimming,
3 gold.
Two
Kohei Uchimura, Japan, artistic gymnastics,
2 gold.
Xuan Vinh Hoang, Vietnam, shooting, 1
gold, 1 silver.
Michael Jung, Germany, equestrian, 1 gold,
1 silver.
Astier Nicolas, France, equestrian, 1 gold,
1 silver.
Yang Sun, China, swimming, 1 gold, 1
silver.
WOMEN
Four
Katie Ledecky, United States, swimming,
3 gold, 1 silver.
Three
Katinka Hosszu, Hungary, swimming, 3 gold.
Madeline Dirado, United States, swimming,
1 gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze.
Emma McKeon, Australia, swimming, 1
gold, 1 silver, 1 bronze.
Penny Oleksiak, Canada, swimming, 1
silver, 2 bronze.
73 of 306 total medal events
Nation
G
S
B
United States
11
11
10
China
10
5
8
Japan
6
1
11
Russia
4
7
4
Australia
5
2
5
Britain
3
3
6
Italy
3
6
2
South Korea
4
2
3
Hungary
5
1
1
Kazakhstan
2
2
3
France
2
3
1
Canada
0
1
5
Thailand
2
1
1
Germany
1
2
1
Netherlands
1
1
2
North Korea
0
2
2
Sweden
1
2
0
Belgium
1
1
1
Taiwan
1
0
2
Ukraine
0
2
1
Brazil
1
1
0
Colombia
1
1
0
Slovenia
1
1
0
Vietnam
1
1
0
Greece
1
0
1
Spain
1
0
1
Switzerland
1
0
1
Indonesia
0
2
0
New Zealand
0
2
0
South Africa
0
2
0
Georgia
0
1
1
Egypt
0
0
2
Uzbekistan
0
0
2
Argentina
1
0
0
Croatia
1
0
0
Independent
1
0
0
Kosovo
1
0
0
Azerbaijan
0
1
0
Denmark
0
1
0
Malaysia
0
1
0
Mongolia
0
1
0
Philippines
0
1
0
Slovakia
0
1
0
Turkey
0
1
0
Czech Republic
0
0
1
Israel
0
0
1
Kyrgyzstan
0
0
1
Poland
0
0
1
Portugal
0
0
1
Tunisia
0
0
1
United Arab Emirates 0
0
1
Tot
32
23
18
15
12
12
11
9
7
7
6
6
4
4
4
4
3
3
3
3
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
MEDAL RESULTS
ARTISTIC GYMNASTICS
Men’s Individual All-Around
GOLD—Kohei Uchimura, Japan.
SILVER—Oleg Verniaiev, Ukraine.
BRONZE—Max Whitlock, Britain.
CYCLING (ROAD)
Men’s Individual Time Trial
GOLD—Fabian Cancellara, Switzerland.
SILVER—Tom Dumoulin, Netherlands.
BRONZE—Christopher Froome, Britain.
Women’s Individual Time Trial
GOLD—Kristin Armstrong, United States.
SILVER—Olga Zabelinskaya, Russia.
BRONZE—Anna van der Breggen, Netherlands.
DIVING
Men’s Synchronised 3m Springboard
GOLD—Britain (Jack Laugher, Chris Mears).
SILVER—United States (Sam Dorman, Mike
Hixon).
BRONZE—China (Yuan Cao, Kai Qin).
FENCING
Men’s Sabre Individual
GOLD—Aron Szilagyi, Hungary.
SILVER—Daryl Homer, United States.
BRONZE—Junghwan Kim, South Korea.
Women’s Foil Individual
GOLD—Inna Deriglazova, Russia.
SILVER—Elisa di Francisca, Italy.
BRONZE—Ines Boubakri, Tunisia.
SWIMMING
Men’s 100 Freestyle
GOLD—Kyle Chalmers, Australia.
SILVER—Pieter Timmers, Belgium.
BRONZE—Nathan Adrian, United States.
Men’s 200 Breaststroke
GOLD—Dmitriy Balandin, Kazakhstan
SILVER—Josh Prenot, United States
BRONZE—Anton Chupkov, Russia
Women’s 200 Butterfly
GOLD—Mireia Belmonte Garcia, Spain
SILVER—Madeline Groves, Australia
BRONZE—Natsumi Hoshi, Japan
Women’s 4 x 200m Freestyle Relay
GOLD—United States (Allison Schmitt,
Madeline Dirado, Leah Smith, Katie
Ledecky, p-Missy Franklin, p-Melanie
Margalis, p-Cierra Runge)
SILVER—Australia (Leah Neale, Emma
McKeon, Bronte Barratt, Tamsin Cook,
p-Jessica Ashwood).
BRONZE—Canada
(Katerine
Savard,
Brittany Maclean, Taylor Madison Ruck,
Penny Oleksiak, p-Kennedy Goss, p-Emily
Overholt).
TABLE TENNIS
Women’s Singles
GOLD—Ning Ding, China.
SILVER—Xiaoxia Li, China.
BRONZE—Song I Kim, North Korea.
B14
0
N
BASEBALL
Rodriguez Gets an At-Bat.
Unrelated: The Yanks Win.
By DAVID WALDSTEIN
Rooting for Rain
Staff members at Lagoa Stadium cheered after rowing events were postponed because of bad weather.
How Much Is Gold Worth?
For Some, Up to $500,000
By KEN BELSON
RIO DE JANEIRO — For most
athletes at the Olympics, a gold,
silver or bronze medal is the ultimate payoff for years of training
and sacrifice.
But when the American
wrestlers take to the mats at the
Rio Games, they stand to head
home with a lot of green, too. One
wrestler could earn half a million
dollars for winning a second consecutive gold medal, and his teammates could also take home substantial earnings for finishing
first, second or third, making their
potential paydays the envy of athletes not named Phelps or Bolt.
The bonuses would come courtesy of a fraternity of well-heeled
former wrestlers, several of
whom happen to have made it big
on Wall Street. Together, they
have endowed wrestling to a degree that other Olympic sports
can only dream about.
In other words, they are rich
and obsessed. Chief among them
are Michael E. Novogratz, a private equity tycoon who wrestled
at Princeton, and David Barry,
who wrestled at Columbia and is
the president of Ironstate Development Company. They aim to
give a lift to a sport that was
nearly booted from the Olympic
program several years ago.
“Wrestlers have to cobble
enough to live on to train for four
or eight years, so winning
$250,000 is nice,” Novogratz said.
“They can use it as nest eggs.”
Jordan Burroughs received
$250,000 for winning a freestyle
wrestling gold medal in the 74kilogram (163-pound) division at
the London Games four years ago
and would receive $500,000 for
successfully defending his title at
the Rio Games.
He used his London payoff to
buy a house and pay for his wedding, among other things.
“It’s great any time you get an
extra incentive, in addition to being the strongest man on the planet,” said Burroughs, who has received $415,000 for his Olympic
and world championship medals
since 2011. “There’s not a lot of
money floating around in the
sport, so it’s key for us to compete
at our best in the Olympic Games.”
The rewards offset the lack of
endorsement deals and American
government funding for the
Olympians.
While the Olympics once celebrated amateurism, nowadays
the biggest names at the Games —
like Michael Phelps in swimming,
the Jamaican Usain Bolt in track
and the American Kerri Walsh
Jennings in beach volleyball —
are able to secure multimilliondollar endorsement deals after
winning Olympic gold.
At least in the United States,
wrestling has few household
names, and wrestlers, like athletes in other low-profile Olympic
sports, must make do with far
less.
Participation
in
collegiate
wrestling has been in decline for
years, and those wrestlers interested in staying in the sport have
had little choice but to join World
FENG LI/GETTY IMAGES
Jordan Burroughs will be rewarded if he can defend his 74-kilogram freestyle Olympic title.
Wrestling Entertainment, which
is orchestrated, or mixed martial
arts, where the action is far from
the
ancient
grappling
at
wrestling’s roots.
In 2009, Novogratz and Barry
jump-started an existing but modest fund, which they rebranded
the Living the Dream Medal
Fund. It helps wrestlers continue
wrestling and motivates others to
keep trying.
They then recruited likeminded former wrestlers with
deep pockets, including Andrew F.
Barth, a portfolio manager at Capital Group who wrestled at Columbia; James G. Dinan, the founder
and chief executive of York Capi-
A gold medal earns
$250,000; a repeat
brings in twice that.
tal Management, who has sons
who wrestle; and David H. McCormick, who wrestled at West
Point and is the president of the
hedge
fund
Bridgewater
Associates.
So deep is their passion for the
sport that they sprinkle discussion of financial trades with
wrestling jargon like “takedown”
and “pin.”
“You have to find someone
who’s
wealthy
and
loves
wrestling,”
Novogratz
said.
“They’re out there, but you have
to find them. It’s like being an ancient Spartan, doing the right
thing.”
So far, the fund has dispersed
$1.225 million to male and female
wrestlers who have won medals at
the Olympics and the world championships, a windfall on top of the
prize money from the United
States Olympic Committee —
which pays $25,000 to gold medalists, $15,000 to silver medalists
and $10,000 to bronze medalists —
and from U.S.A. Wrestling, which
pays smaller amounts.
The Living the Dream fund
poured in tens of thousands of dollars more, bringing the total prize
money to $250,000 for an Olympic
gold, $50,000 for a silver and
$25,000 for a bronze.
“We wanted something that
would be an eye-popping number,” Barry, an all-Ivy League
wrestler at Columbia, said. “We
wanted to celebrate the spirit of
competition.”
The gold mine dwarfs what federations in other Olympic sports
pay American medalists. Rowers
who win medals, for instance, receive awards only from the United
States Olympic Committee, while
U.S.A. Shooting divided $198,000
among the four American medalists in London.
Backed by sponsors like Nike,
BMW and Visa, U.S.A. Track &
Field expects to pay its Olympians
a total of about $3 million this year.
Each of the 129 athletes who made
it to Rio was paid $10,000, and an
additional $1.3 million in bonuses
was paid based on where they finished at the Olympic trials. Medalists in Rio will earn even more.
On an individual basis, though,
Burroughs and Jake Varner hit
the jackpot at the London Games
four years ago: They each received $250,000 for winning a gold
medal. Two other wrestlers won
$25,000 for placing third. (The
awards for medals at the world
championships are far smaller.)
Novogratz was so excited about
Burroughs’s and Varner’s wins in
2012 that he offered to double the
prize if either wrestler won another gold medal in Rio. Varner,
who won in London at 96 kilograms (211 pounds), did not qualify for these Olympics, but on Aug.
18, Burroughs has a chance to earn
$500,000 for one day’s work.
As Burroughs tells it, after he
graduated from the University of
Nebraska, he was scraping by until he won gold at the world championships in 2011 and then struck
gold in London. Winning a second
Olympic gold, in Rio, would help
him continue wrestling through
2020, when the Summer Games
will be in Tokyo.
Burroughs tries to remain modest about his achievements, but he
said it was only fair that he and
other wrestlers were rewarded
given their long workouts, the injuries they face and the other sacrifices they make.
“I consider myself one of the
best athletes in the world, and
there’s a little bit of anger and jealousy to athletes in other sports
who perhaps put in a fraction of
the work as wrestlers,” he said.
The spoils can be even more
lavish in countries like Russia,
where wrestling medalists can receive apartments, cars and national acclaim. But even they have
taken note of the prize money
available to Americans, said
Elena Pirozhkova, who as a child
moved to the United States from
Russia and will wrestle in Rio for
the United States.
“Everybody talks about it, and I
can speak Russian, and they’re always asking what the U.S. pays,”
she said.
Pirozhkova, who will compete
at 63 kilograms (139 pounds), and
Burroughs said they occasionally
thought about the potential payday and how the money could
change their lives, but they have
to block out those thoughts once
their matches begin.
“Wrestling is such a tricky
sport,” said Pirozhkova, who has
used her $65,000 from the fund to
help her mother buy a house. “Everything has to be fast. Your life
can change in a couple of hours.”
BOSTON — Toward the end of a
sometimes tense news conference
on Wednesday about Alex
Rodriguez’s lack of playing time,
Joe Girardi noted that he often is
concerned
YANKEES
9
about a starting
pitcher’s health
RED SOX
4
early in a game.
He said he always crosses his
fingers in the first couple of innings, hoping a pitcher will not absorb a line drive off his ankle that
knocks him out of the game and
taxes the bullpen.
Sure enough, just a few hours
later, Nathan Eovaldi had to leave
after the first inning of Wednesday’s 9-4 win over the Red Sox,
compounding the myriad problems Girardi was already facing
as the manager of a team in transition.
The Yankees announced that
Eovaldi, a 26-year-old right-hander, had soreness in his pitching elbow and would return to New
York to have the joint evaluated.
Eovaldi (9-8) had Tommy John
surgery during his junior year at
Alvin High School in Texas, and he
was shut down for most of the final
month of last season with inflammation in the elbow.
Earlier in the day the Yankees
optioned Luis Severino, who had a
poor outing on Tuesday, to Class
AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
The anxiety about a starting
pitcher’s health in the news conference paled in comparison with
the consternation Girardi expressed over the coverage of
Rodriguez’s increasingly awkward situation. Facing mounting
pressure to play Rodriguez in his
last few games as a Yankee, Girardi lashed out at some reporters
for what he called a double standard. On Tuesday he defended leaving Rodriguez on the bench when
he could have pinch-hit for Aaron
Hicks, but on Wednesday Girardi
gave Rodriguez a chance.
With the Yankees trailing by 4-2
in the seventh inning, Rodriguez
pinch-hit for Hicks with runners
on first and second. When he
emerged from the dugout the fans
who had been chanting, “We want
A-Rod,” earlier in the game as well
as the night before, began to boo.
The calls intensified as Rodriguez
walked to the plate. Virtually every fan stood, eager to bear witness to one of Rodriguez’s final atbats. In what may have been his
last pinch-hit appearance, he
lifted a harmless fly ball to right
field and trotted back to the dugout with fans yelling at him every
step of the way.
One of the reasons for
Rodriguez’s inactivity has been to
give younger players like Gary
Sanchez more at-bats. Sanchez
delivered in the eighth, blasting
his first career home run.
Girardi has borne the brunt of
criticism for leaving Rodriguez
out of the starting lineup two
straight games, and his growing
weariness with the matter
seemed to bubble to the surface on
Wednesday.
“It’s difficult, and that’s why I
get partially angry here because I
believe people are playing both
sides of the fence,” he said. “Because it creates news. That does-
n’t help our situation. It doesn’t
help our clubhouse in a sense. It
doesn’t help our relationship that
we’ve built over so many years,
and that’s what angers me.”
For about two weeks Girardi
has been asked to explain why he
did not play Rodriguez in certain
games. The questioning has come
at the conclusion of nine years of
other uncomfortable queries that
Girardi has had to field about one
of the most high-profile players in
history.
But Girardi found himself in a
sticky situation because he had
promised Rodriguez he could
start in his final four games, only
to change his mind — or have it
changed for him by his superiors
CJ GUNTHER/EUROPEAN PRESSPHOTO AGENCY
Alex Rodriguez after making
the Yankees’ first out of the
seventh, with two runners on.
— and limit it to two.
Even fans at Fenway Park, who
generally loathe Rodriguez, were
appealing to see him play. Rodriguez called the chants, “surreal,”
but they made Girardi testy.
“My job description does not
entail a farewell tour,” he said.
“My job description is to try and
win every game and put everyone
in a position to do that.”
Girardi acknowledged that his
relationship with Rodriguez may
suffer in the short term, and
blamed the news media coverage
— not the change of plans that
wounded Rodriguez.
“I think that maybe in the long
run it won’t,” Girardi said, “but in
the short term it has been difficult.
I said it yesterday. When you are
the guy telling someone, ‘No,’ you
are usually the guy that people
vent their anger at.
“Whether you are the little boy
getting your hand slapped by your
mom and dad, or the player like I
was that was cut from my basketball team and told to go practice
baseball,” he added.
When he was a high school
sophomore, Girardi was cut from
the basketball team and told to
prepare for baseball instead. It
seems to still rankle him.
“I wasn’t happy about it,” he
said. “I had never been cut from
anything in my life.”
As a major leaguer he was let go
several times. Rodriguez will get
to experience that for the first
time on Friday, and then Girardi
will not have to answer any more
questions about why Rodriguez
was not in the lineup.
INSIDE PITCH
DAVID ORTIZ was hurt fouling a
ball off his right leg in the ninth.
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NEXT GAME: AUG. 26
N.Y.C.F.C.
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0N
B15
+
S C O R E B OA R D
BASEBALL
PRO FOOTBALL
A.L. STANDINGS
East
W
N.F.L. PRESEASON SCHEDULE
L
Pct
GB
Toronto
65
50 .565
—
Baltimore
63
49 .563
{
Boston
61
51 .545
2{
Yankees
57
56 .504
7
Tampa Bay
46
67 .407
Central
W
L
18
Pct
GB
Cleveland
63
48 .568
—
Detroit
61
52 .540
3
9{
Chicago
54
58 .482
Kansas City
53
59 .473 10{
Minnesota
46
67 .407
West
W
L
18
Pct
GB
All Times EDT
By WAYNE EPPS Jr.
Sunday's Game
Green Bay vs. Indianapolis at Canton,
Ohio, canceled, field conditions.
Thursday's Games
Jacksonville at New York Jets, 7:30 p.m.
Washington at Atlanta, 7 p.m.
Tampa Bay at Philadelphia, 7 p.m.
Carolina at Baltimore, 7:30 p.m.
New Orleans at New England, 7:30 p.m.
Denver at Chicago, 8 p.m.
Friday's Games
Miami at New York Giants, 7 p.m.
Detroit at Pittsburgh, 7 p.m.
Minnesota at Cincinnati, 7:30 p.m.
Cleveland at Green Bay, 8 p.m.
Oakland at Arizona, 10 p.m.
Saturday's Games
Seattle at Kansas City, 4:30 p.m.
Indianapolis at Buffalo, 7 p.m.
Dallas at Los Angeles, 8 p.m. (ESPN)
San Diego at Tennessee, 8 p.m.
Texas
68
47 .591
—
Seattle
59
53 .527
7{
Houston
58
55 .513
9
Oakland
50
63 .442
17
N.F.L. CALENDAR
Los Angeles
49
64 .434
18
Aug. 30 — First preseason cutdown date,
4 p.m. EDT.
Sept. 3 — Second preseason cutdown
date, 4 p.m. EDT.
Sept. 8 — Season opener, Carolina at
Denver.
Sept. — 11-12 Opening weekend.
Oct. 18-19 — Fall owners meeting,
Houston.
Nov. 1 — Trading deadline, 4 p.m. EST
WEDNESDAY
Yankees 9, Boston 4
Washington 7, Cleveland 4
Toronto 7, Tampa Bay 0
Texas 5, Colorado 4
Chicago Cubs 3, L.A. Angels 1
Houston at Minnesota
Chicago White Sox at Kansas City
Baltimore at Oakland
Detroit at Seattle
M.L.S. STANDINGS
Yankees (Pineda 6-10) at Boston
(Rodriguez, 2-5), 7:10
Houston (Fister 10-7) at Minnesota
(Berrios 2-2), 1:10
Colorado (Bettis 10-6) at Texas
(Harrell 3-2), 2:05
Baltimore (Tillman 14-4) at Oakland
(Triggs 0-0), 3:35
L.A. Angels (Skaggs 1-0) at Cleveland (Kluber 11-8), 7:10
Chicago White Sox (Gonzalez 2-6) at
Kansas City (Duffy 8-1), 8:15
FRIDAY
Tampa Bay at Yankees, 7:05
Houston at Toronto, 7:07
Arizona at Boston, 7:10
Chicago White Sox at Miami, 7:10
L.A. Angels at Cleveland, 7:10
Detroit at Texas, 8:05
Kansas City at Minnesota, 8:10
Seattle at Oakland, 10:05
Baltimore at San Francisco, 10:15
N.L. STANDINGS
East
W
L
Pct
GB
Washington
67
46 .593
—
Miami
60
54 .526
7{
Mets
57
56 .504
10
Philadelphia
53
63 .457 15{
Atlanta
43
71 .377 24{
L
Central
W
Pct
GB
Chicago
71
41 .634
—
St. Louis
60
54 .526
12
Pittsburgh
56
55 .505 14{
Milwaukee
50
62 .446
Cincinnati
46
67 .407 25{
West
W
L
Sunday, August 14
Houston at San Francisco, 7 p.m.
SOCCER
THURSDAY
21
Pct
GB
San Francisco
65
49 .570
—
Los Angeles
64
50 .561
1
Colorado
55
59 .482
10
San Diego
49
64 .434 15{
Arizona
47
66 .416 17{
WEDNESDAY
Arizona 3, Mets 2, 12 innings
San Francisco 1, Miami 0
Philadelphia 6, L.A. Dodgers 2
Washington 7, Cleveland 4
San Diego 4, Pittsburgh 0
St. Louis 3, Cincinnati 2
Texas 5, Colorado 4
Chicago Cubs 3, L.A. Angels 1
Milwaukee 4, Atlanta 3
THURSDAY
Arizona (Shipley 1-1) at Mets (Syndergaard 9-6), 12:10
San Diego (Friedrich 4-7) at Pittsburgh (Taillon 2-2), 12:35
Colorado (Bettis 10-6) at Texas
(Harrell 3-2), 2:05
Atlanta (Hernandez 1-0) at Milwaukee (Garza 3-4), 2:10
St. Louis (Martinez 10-7) at Chicago
Cubs (Lester 12-4), 8:05
FRIDAY
San Diego at Mets, 7:10
St. Louis at Chicago Cubs, 2:20
Atlanta at Washington, 7:05
Colorado at Philadelphia, 7:05
Arizona at Boston, 7:10
Chicago White Sox at Miami, 7:10
Cincinnati at Milwaukee, 8:10
Pittsburgh at L.A. Dodgers, 10:10
Baltimore at San Francisco, 10:15
EAST
W L
New York City FC10 7
Toronto FC
10 7
Red Bulls
9 9
Montreal
8 5
Philadelphia
8 8
New England
6 9
Orlando City
5 6
D.C. United
5 8
Columbus
3 8
Chicago
4 11
T Pts GF GA
7 37 40 40
6 36 33 24
6 33 40 32
9 33 37 31
7 31 38 37
8 26 29 40
11 26 36 39
9 24 22 28
10 19 26 35
6 18 20 30
WEST
W L
T Pts GF GA
FC Dallas
13 6
5 44 37 31
Colorado
11 3
8 41 26 19
Real Salt Lake 10 7
7 37 35 34
Los Angeles
9 3 10 37 37 22
Kansas City
10 11
4 34 28 28
Portland
8 8
8 32 36 34
Vancouver
8 10
6 30 33 39
San Jose
6 6 10 28 23 24
Seattle
7 12
3 24 24 29
Houston
4 10
8 20 24 28
NOTE: Three points for victory, one point
for tie.
Friday's Game
San Jose at Vancouver, 11 p.m.
Saturday's Games
Montreal at Red Bulls, 7 p.m.
New York City FC at Columbus, 7:30 p.m.
Portland at D.C. United, 7 p.m.
Philadelphia at New England, 7:30 p.m.
Sporting Kansas City at FC Dallas, 9 p.m.
Toronto FC at Houston, 9 p.m.
Colorado at Los Angeles, 10:30 p.m.
Sunday's Games
Orlando City at Chicago, 4 p.m.
Real Salt Lake at Seattle, 7 p.m.
1 for 5, getting his first career hit
with a leadoff single in the bottom
of the 10th. He reached second on a
fielder’s choice, but the Mets were
once again unable to get a timely
hit, and he ended the inning there.
Still, it was a homecoming for Rivera, a 27-year-old Bronx native
who graduated from Herbert H.
Lehman High School. He said he
would have at least 20 family members, plus some friends, at Citi Field
for Wednesday’s game.
Growing up, Rivera was a Yankees fan, although he said that he
also liked the Mets and that his father was a Mets fan. He said he had
gone to more Mets games than
Yankees games. The Mets signed
him as an undrafted free agent out
of Troy University in 2011. He had
also played at Wallace Community
College in Dothan, Ala.
INSIDE PITCH
With T. J. RIVERA being called up,
outfielder BRANDON NIMMO was
sent back down to Las Vegas. To
make room for Rivera on the 40man roster, first baseman LUCAS
DUDA was moved to the 60-day disabled list. . . . As he works back
from his left oblique strain, infielder JOSE REYES will begin a rehab assignment in Brooklyn with the
Class A Cyclones on Thursday. He
is expected to play there through
Saturday.
N.F.L.
CHICAGO BEARS — Signed OL Mike
Adams. Waived OL Nick Becton.
DETROIT LIONS — Signed CB Rashaad
Reynolds. Waived-injured CB Ian Wells.
MIAMI DOLPHINS — Signed CB Chris Culliver
to a one-year contract and then placed him
on the PUP list. Released C-G Jacques
McClendon and LB Danny Lansanah.
SEATTLE SEAHAWKS — Activated TE
Jimmy Graham from the PUP list.
GOLF
U.S. SOLHEIM CUP — Named Pat Hurst,
Wendy Ward and Nancy Lopez assistant
captains for the 2017 Solheim Cup team.
N.H.L.
YUYA SHINO/GETTY IMAGES
GROUP HUG Humberto Osorio Botello, second from right, of Independiente Santa Fe celebrating his goal in a soccer match in Japan.
BASEBAL L
NEW JERSEY DEVILS — Re-signed LW Reid
Boucher to a one-year, two-way contract.
SOCCER
CONCACAF — Named Guilherme Carvalho
chief legal and chief compliance officer,
effective Aug. 23, 2016.
Arizona
ab
Segura 2b
5
Bourn cf
5
Goldschmidt 1b 4
Lamb 3b
5
Drury lf-rf
4
Owings ss
5
Brito rf
4
Hudson p
0
Hathaway p
0
Gosselin ph
1
Delgado p
0
Hernandez c
5
Ray p
3
Burgos p
0
Barrett p
0
Loewen p
0
Weeks lf
2
Totals
43
New York
ab
Granderson cf-lf 5
Blevins p
0
Kelly lf
3
Johnson ph-ss 2
Walker 2b
5
Bruce rf
5
Flores 1b-ss
4
Familia p
0
Conforto lf
1
Rivera 3b
5
d'Arnaud c
4
Reynolds ss
2
Loney ph-1b
2
Colon p
2
Reed p
0
Goeddel p
0
Niese p
0
De Aza ph-cf
1
Totals
41
Arizona 001 000
New York 000 000
BATTING—Altuve, Houston, .361; Bogaerts,
Boston, .317; Escobar, Los Angeles, .315; Trout,
Los Angeles, .312; Cabrera, Detroit, .311; Betts,
Boston, .310; Ortiz, Boston, .309; Machado,
Baltimore, .305; Ramirez, Cleveland, .305;
Lindor, Cleveland, .305; Beltran, Texas, .305.
RUNS—Donaldson, Toronto, 90; Kinsler, Detroit,
89; Trout, Los Angeles, 88; Betts, Boston, 87;
Altuve, Houston, 82; Bogaerts, Boston, 80;
Desmond, Texas, 79; Machado, Baltimore, 77;
Springer, Houston, 77; Lindor, Cleveland, 74.
RBI—Encarnacion, Toronto, 94; Ortiz, Boston,
88; Pujols, Los Angeles, 86; Napoli, Cleveland,
79; Trumbo, Baltimore, 77; Donaldson, Toronto,
77; Cabrera, Detroit, 76; Trout, Los Angeles, 74;
Correa, Houston, 74; Betts, Boston, 74.
Ray had one of his best starts of the
season, pitching seven shutout innings and striking out four while
giving up three hits and no walks.
Bartolo Colon also delivered a
solid start for the Mets. He lasted
seven innings, struck out eight and
gave up seven hits, one run and one
walk.
The Mets added a new bat before
Wednesday’s game, calling up the
hot-hitting infielder T. J. Rivera
from Class AAA Las Vegas.
Rivera was leading the Pacific
Coast League with a .349 batting
average. He also had 11 home runs
and 80 R.B.I. in 97 games. Rivera
went 15 for 29 from Aug. 1 to 7 and
was named the league’s player of
the week.
He made his major league debut
Wednesday as the starting third
baseman and batted sixth. He went
Major League Baseball
OFFICE OF THE COMMISSIONER OF
BASEBALL — Suspended Cubs minor
league RHP Luiz Escanio (Dominican SL)
144 games, without pay, after testing
positive for a metabolite of Boldenone,
a
performance-enhancing
substance
in violation of the Minor League Drug
Prevention and Treatment Program.
American League
LOS ANGELES ANGELS — Optioned C
Carlos Perez to Salt Lake (PCL). Activated
C Geovany Soto from the 15-day DL.
MINNESOTA TWINS — Placed RHP Trevor
May on the 15-day DL, retroactive to
Aug. 7. Recalled RHP J.T. Chargois from
Rochester (IL).
NEW YORK YANKEES — Optioned RHP
Luis Severino to Scranton/Wilkes-Barre (IL).
Added RHP Blake Parker to the roster.
SEATTLE MARINERS — Optioned OF
Guillermo Heredia to Tacoma (PCL).
TEXAS RANGERS — Optioned OF Ryan Rua
to Round Rock (PCL). Activated OF Drew
Stubbs from the 60-day DL. Designated
INF Kyle Kubitza for assignment.
National League
SAN DIEGO PADRES — Selected the
contract of INF Nick Noonan from El Paso
(PCL). Optioned INF Jose Rondon to El
Paso. Waived INF/OF Hector Olivera.
New York
ab
Gardner lf
5
Ellsbury cf
3
Headley 3b
5
Teixeira 1b
3
Castro 2b
5
Gregorius ss
5
Sanchez dh
5
Romine c
4
Hicks rf
2
Rodriguez ph
1
Refsnyder rf
1
Totals
39
Boston
ab
Pedroia 2b
5
Bogaerts ss
3
Betts rf
4
Holt rf
1
Ortiz dh
2
Brentz ph-dh
0
Ramirez 1b
5
Bradley Jr. cf
5
Shaw 3b
1
Hill ph-3b
2
Leon c
3
Benintendi lf
4
Totals
35
New York
000
001
Boston
A.L. LEADERS
KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESS
Arizona’s Michael Bourn stole second base in the 10th inning,
beating the throw to Neil Walker. Bourn had two hits in the game.
However, Rivera said that going
undrafted was not something he often thought about.
“I knew once they signed me, I
was going to have a chance just like
everybody else, just like the guys
that were drafted,” he said. “I
might’ve had to prove myself a couple more times, but I knew it was an
opportunity, and I wasn’t going to
let up on it.”
Collins said he planned to give
Rivera a chance to play third base.
Rivera has played all four infield
positions in the minors, as well as a
handful of games in left field. This
season he has played mostly at
third base.
“I had heard a lot of minor league
guys talking about, this guy can really hit,” Collins said. “So I was interested to see his swing and see
what his approach was. And real
short swing. Not a lot of movement
in his swing.”
As the season went on and injuries to Mets players mounted, Rivera wondered if this was going to
be the year that he got the call to
come to New York.
“But you try to put that behind
you,” he said.
M.L.B.
DIAMONDBACKS 3, METS 2
LOB—New York 8, Boston 11. 2B—Castro
(21), Pedroia (27), Betts 2 (34). HR—
Gregorius (14), off Pomeranz; Sanchez (1),
off Tazawa. RBIs—Ellsbury (36), Headley
(39), Castro 2 (48), Gregorius (50), Sanchez
(4), Romine (19), Pedroia (50), Bogaerts
(69), Betts (75), Benintendi (4). S—Ellsbury.
DP—Boston 2
New York
ip h r er bb so np era
Eovaldi
1 0 0 0 0 0 12 4.76
Shreve
1Í/¯ 2 1 1 1 0 29 4.15
Parker
1Í/¯ 2 1 1 1 0 30 6.75
Goody
Î/¯ 1 0 0 2 0 20 4.23
Layne
Î/¯ 1 2 2 1 1 12 9.00
Clippard W3-3 1 3 0 0 1 0 30 2.25
Warren H8
2 0 0 0 0 2 28 0.00
Betances
1 0 0 0 0 2 14 2.32
Boston
Pomeranz
5Í/¯ 6 1 1 1 5 93 5.26
Buchholz H2 Î/¯ 0 0 0 0 0 3 5.64
Barnes H9
Í/¯ 3 3 3 0 0 15 3.48
Abad L1-6
Í/¯ 2 2 2 0 1 14 10.12
Tazawa
Í/¯ 2 2 2 2 0 20 3.96
Ross Jr.
1 1 1 1 1 1 25 3.89
Ziegler
1 1 0 0 0 0 10 0.87
T—4:15. A—37,779 (37,499).
Before Wednesday’s game, Manager Terry Collins said the Mets
needed to start getting some big
hits.
“I mean, we’ve been getting
some guys
in scoring
DIAMONDBACKS 3
position,
METS
2
and it goes
back to the
12 innings
same thing
we’ve been facing all year, is that
we’re just lacking that big two-out
hit,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be a
home run; it can be a single at
times.”
The Mets struggled to find any
hits at all Wednesday, but then
Kelly Johnson stepped to the plate
in the bottom of the ninth. With the
Mets trailing, 2-0, with one out and
a runner on first, Johnson pinch-hit
for Ty Kelly and belted a two-run
homer to the upper deck at Citi
Field to tie the score.
“I thought we were going to win
the game,” Collins said at his
postgame news conference.
Johnson’s home run was just the
Mets’ fourth hit of the night. Their
first hit had not come until the
fourth inning, on a single by Kelly.
Despite the clutch home run by
Johnson, Oscar Hernandez put the
Diamondbacks back in front for
good in the 12th with a solo home
run to left field off Jerry Blevins,
and the Mets lost their second
straight to Arizona, 3-2.
Collins acknowledged that it was
a difficult defeat but said: “You still
got to get ready for tomorrow because today is done. So if you can’t
get over it and you’re going to let it
linger in this league, you’re going to
have a tough time winning.”
Diamondbacks starter Robbie
TRANSACTIONS
YANKEES 9, RED SOX 4
r h bi bb so avg.
0 1 0 0 1 .265
1 1 1 1 0 .272
1 2 1 0 1 .257
0 1 0 2 2 .198
0 1 2 0 1 .258
2 2 1 0 1 .287
2 4 1 0 0 .321
2 2 1 1 0 .252
0 0 0 0 1 .191
0 0 0 0 0 .203
1 1 0 0 0 .264
9 15 7 4 7
r h bi bb so avg.
0 2 1 0 0 .298
0 0 1 1 0 .315
0 2 1 0 0 .312
0 0 0 0 0 .251
0 0 0 3 1 .307
0 0 0 0 0 .279
0 0 0 0 1 .268
1 2 0 0 0 .288
0 0 0 1 0 .261
0 0 0 0 2 .220
2 2 0 1 1 .371
1 1 1 0 0 .450
4 9 4 6 5
010 530—9 15 0
102 000—4 9 0
Clutch Home Run Not Enough for Hit-Starved Mets
r h bi bb so avg.
2 3 0 1 0 .311
0 2 0 0 1 .246
0 2 2 0 2 .297
0 0 0 0 4 .280
0 0 0 1 1 .258
0 3 0 0 0 .267
0 0 0 0 0 .186
0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 0 .273
0 0 0 0 0 .000
1 1 1 0 0 .200
0 0 0 0 3 .195
0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 2 .244
3 11 3 2 13
r h bi bb so avg.
0 0 0 0 2 .230
0 0 0 0 0 .000
0 1 0 0 0 .200
1 1 2 0 1 .283
0 2 0 0 1 .274
0 1 0 0 0 .188
0 0 0 0 0 .250
0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 1 .221
0 1 0 0 0 .200
0 0 0 0 1 .228
0 0 0 0 0 .203
0 0 0 0 0 .282
0 0 0 0 1 .075
0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 0
--0 0 0 0 0 .000
1 0 0 1 0 .199
2 6 2 1 7
010 001—3 11 0
002 000—2 6 1
E—d'Arnaud (1). LOB—Arizona 8, New
York 4. 2B—Segura 2 (26), Goldschmidt
(24), Owings (14). HR—Hernandez (1),
off Blevins; Johnson (7), off Barrett.
RBIs—Goldschmidt 2 (74), Hernandez
(1), Johnson 2 (21). SB—Segura 2 (22),
Bourn (10), Owings (11). CS—Segura (8),
Goldschmidt (5). SF—Goldschmidt. S—
Bourn. DP—Arizona 1
Arizona
Ray
7 3 0 0 0 4 98 4.57
Burgos H4
1 0 0 0 0 0 13 2.88
Barrett BS4-8 Í/¯ 1 2 2 1 1 15 3.80
Í/¯ 1 0 0 0 0
9 9.64
Loewen
Î/¯ 1 0 0 0 0 10 6.86
Hudson
Hathaway
Î/¯ 0 0 0 0 0
8 4.26
Delgado W3-1 2 0 0 0 0 2 20 4.50
New York
Colon
7 7 1 1 1 8 110 3.35
Reed
1 1 1 1 0 1 14 2.01
Í/¯ 0 0 0 1 0 12 2.88
Goeddel
Niese
Î/¯ 0 0 0 0 0
5 1.80
Familia
2 2 0 0 0 3 38 2.80
Blevins L4-2
1 1 1 1 0 1 13 2.73
T—4:03. A—31,277 (41,922).
With Tears in His Eyes, a Rangers Slugger Says Goodbye
Prince Fielder will not return after a second neck surgery.
Fielder, the Texas Rangers slugger, wept Wednesday as he said
that health issues were forcing him
to end his 12-season major league
career. He was still wearing a neck
brace 12 days after his second cervical fusion in a little more than two
years.
Fielder, 32, said it would be tough
to leave the game after being
around the majors since he was a
child with his father, Cecil, who
played 13 seasons for five different
teams. Prince’s two young sons sat
with him on the podium, mostly
with their heads down and also
shedding tears.
Fielder finished his career with
319 career homers, the same number that his father had in one more
season but 141 fewer games.
Fielder was only two years into a
nine-year, $214 million contract
when he arrived in Texas. The deal
is guaranteed through 2020, worth
$24 million each season.
While no longer playing, Fielder
did not formally retire, meaning the
Rangers would keep him on the 60day disabled list during the regular
season but would have to add him
to their 40-man roster each off-season until the end of the contract.
The Detroit Tigers, who traded
Fielder to the Rangers, owe Texas
$6 million per year as part of the
2013 deal. The Rangers are responsible for the remaining $18 million.
BAUTISTA LANDS ON D.L. AGAIN The To-
N.L. LEADERS
ronto Blue Jays placed outfielder
Jose Bautista on the 15-day disabled list because of a sprained left
knee.
BATTING—Murphy,
Washington,
.347;
Ramos, Washington, .337; LeMahieu,
Colorado, .327; Yelich, Miami, .323; Braun,
Milwaukee, .323; Prado, Miami, .321;
Gonzalez, Colorado, .321.
All news by The Associated Press
unless noted.
A free agent at the end of the season, Bautista is batting .222 with 15
home runs and 48 R.B.I. He was on
the disabled list from June 17 to July
25 with a sore left big toe.
Carlos Gomez was designated for assignment by the Houston Astros, ending a disappointing stint with the
team that traded four prospects in a
midseason deal last year for Gomez, a two-time All-Star center
fielder.
ASTROS DEMOTE GOMEZ
Brandon Crawford homered in the fourth inning
as the San Francisco Giants won a
series for the first time since the
All-Star break, beating the host Miami Marlins, 1-0. • Freddy Galvis
hit a three-run homer in the
seventh inning as the Philadelphia
Phillies beat the host Los Angeles
Dodgers, 6-2. • Jayson Werth hit a
three-run homer as the host Washington Nationals beat the Cleveland Indians, 7-4. • Troy Tulowitzki
hit a three-run homer and had five
R.B.I. as the host Toronto Blue Jays
beat the Tampa Bay Rays, 7-0. •
Aroldis Chapman struck out the
side in the ninth for his fourth save
since joining the Cubs as host Chicago beat the Los Angeles Angels,
3-1, for its season-high ninth
straight win.
AROUND THE MAJORS
PR O FO OTBAL L
Season Ends for Rookie
A torn knee ligament ended the
season of the rookie inside linebacker Reggie Ragland before it
had started, representing the latest
hit to a heralded draft class for the
Buffalo Bills.
Ragland was injured in practice
Friday. The Bills confirmed that
Ragland, who played for Alabama
in college, would have surgery for a
torn anterior cruciate ligament. He
is expected to miss the 2016 season.
Buffalo was already going to play
at least half the season without its
No. 1 draft pick, Shaq Lawson, who
had required surgery for an injured
(REUTERS)
shoulder.
Seattle Seahawks
tight end Jimmy Graham returned
to the practice field, marking a significant step as he tries to overcome a patellar tendon injury that
he sustained against Pittsburgh on
Nov. 29.
Graham, who was in full uniform
on Wednesday, began training
camp on the physically unable to
perform list.
(REUTERS)
GRAHAM RETURNS
CO−OPS & CONDOS
MANHATTAN
WESTSIDE
New Jersey
Houses for Sale
C O L L EG E BAS K E TBA L L
Wichita State Coach
Suspended for Outburst
Wichita State Coach Gregg Marshall was suspended for the last
game of an exhibition tour in Canada after receiving two technical
fouls and getting kicked out of a
game against McGill University.
Wichita State Athletic Director
Daron Boatright said in a statement that “while I understand the
competitive spirit that accompanies coaching, there remains a professional behavior that is inherent
in a position of leadership that we
must all meet.”
Marshall had to be restrained
from chasing after two referees
Tuesday night.
Help Wanted
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B16
N
PRO FOOTBALL
Giants’ New Coach Sets a Practice Rhythm, and the Music Is Thumping
By BILL PENNINGTON
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. —
The soccer balls at the end of practice were the best demonstration
that this season’s Giants training
camp would be unlike any other in
the 91-year history of the franchise.
Coach Ben McAdoo, the successor to the team’s longtime leader,
Tom Coughlin, has introduced a
host of innovative features at
training camp, which is to be expected when a team makes the
transition from a coach born in
1946 to one born in 1977.
But soccer balls at a N.F.L. practice? McAdoo shrugged. He is just
getting started — in more ways
than one.
“You’ve got to pay attention,” he
said. “We have to try and keep it
as interesting as we can. Whatever the case may be: soccer
balls, tennis balls. We’ve got a little bit of everything out there.”
Welcome to Camp Millennial,
where the music is loud, the pace
is quick, the breaks are frequent,
GPS measures every step and the
coach is only a few years older
than the 35-year-old star quarterback.
Or as the new defensive end
Olivier Vernon said of the atmos-
a “TV timeout.”
At that point, the coaches and
players stop to hydrate, rest and
regroup as the theme music from
TV shows plays at a slightly lower
volume from the loudspeakers.
It might be the opening song to
“Happy Days” or “Batman” or
“House of Cards.” These are, after
all, TV timeouts.
After a couple of minutes, practice resumes, as does the louder
music. It is not much different
than the setting at a game, when
stadium audio systems are constantly booming music, commercials and announcements. Which
may be the point.
“That’s the type of atmosphere
the game is — it’s high energy and
it’s not quiet,” running back Rashad Jennings said. “You have
fans, you have music and you
have TV timeouts. So I think
putting us in that organized chaos
that the game presents, it causes
us to adjust to it. It helps tremendously.”
There are other practical applications as well. Players and
coaches must use hand signals
during practices to communicate
and yell over the music, just as
they do at games.
There are other benefits.
phere: “Just getting rid of all the
fluff. Hitting all the points we need
to get done and not wasting any
time.”
The practices under McAdoo,
who has never been a head football coach at any level, still contain the staples of an N.F.L. training camp. There are traditional
New sleep patterns,
and watch out for
those soccer balls.
drills in throwing, catching and
running the football. Periods are
set aside for tackling and blocking
techniques, and McAdoo, like
most football coaches, yells a lot.
But the changed culture of this
year’s camp would be audibly
clear to anyone within 200 yards
of the practices fields. Concertstage-size loudspeakers lining the
fields boom out the music of several modern genres. The music
does not ebb or stop except when
a disembodied, computer-generated voice declares that the proceedings should be interrupted by
REM sleep periods. He wants the
players to sleep in. In the past, the
team usually reviewed practice
video in meetings for three or four
hours before practice. Now, practicing begins about 100 minutes after players walk into the complex.
Eli Manning said he thought
practicing first and then meeting
to correct mistakes later in the
day kept the players more fresh
on the field.
Several players said that they
thought each of the changes was
in keeping with a young coach trying to put a state-of-the-art stamp
on a tradition-bound game.
“There’s a lot of innovation behind the scenes, too,” running
back Andre Williams said. “There
are a lot of different things that
they’re measuring now with GPS,
and they chart heart rates, hydration rates and all kinds of other
things with crazy names. The
weight room is completely different. It’s a different generation of
football.”
But, during one practice late
last week, the volume of the music
was decidedly lower. A break from
the new convention?
It was just a “teaching day,” McAdoo said with a smile.
“We’ll fix that,” he added. “We’ll
turn it back up next practice.”
SAM HODGSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ben McAdoo, the Giants’ new coach, has signaled a changed
culture at training camp that reflects new (and old) concepts.
“The music is just fun,” linebacker Mark Herzlich said. “And if
anything, it makes you focus out
the other distractions.”
Every new tactic or drill seems
based on forethought. Take the
soccer balls. McAdoo explained
their purpose, and it had nothing
to do with the traditional use of a
soccer ball. “We are trying to get
our guys used to handling the ball
as many different ways as we can
to improve hand-eye coordination,” he said.
The planning has extended to
the players’ daily schedule. Under
Coughlin, the team had to be at the
training facility by 8 a.m. This
year, the normal arrival time has
been delayed by an hour, and on
some days the players do not have
to be in the locker room until 10
a.m.
McAdoo refers to those days as
Weather Report
Metropolitan Forecast
6
60s
60
60s
Vancouver
70s
70s
Regina
a
Winnipeg
eg
Seattle
80s
90s
90
Portla
and
d
80s
Bismarck
M
s
L Minneapolis
St. Paul
S
Bo
Boise
80s
Pierre
90s
70s
Reno
o
Salt Lake
City
Las
Vegas
Fresno
Clevela
levelan
eveland
Chicago
o
Pho
hoenix
ho
Charleston
e
Little Rock
El Paso
P
Ft. Worth
90s
70s
s
Charlotte
Ch
Columb
bia
L Jacksonn
Dallas
Atlanta
Baton
on Rouge
80s
s
90s
s
90s
70s
0s Hilo
Hou
ouston
Mo
Mobile
New
Orleans
O
Orlando
Tampa
a
90s
Corpus Christi
C
90
0s
40
40s
70s
50s
Turning even warmer with sunshine and
clouds. Showers and thunderstorms will
develop, especially in the afternoon.
Daytime highs are forecast to be about 10
degrees above normal.
J
Jacksonville
San Antonio
io
Miami
80
80s
te rey
terre
re
90s Monte
Nassau
Weather patterns shown as expected at noon today, Eastern time.
Fairbanks
TODAY’S HIGHS
60s
<0
0s
10s
Anchorage
20s
H
Juneau
eau
COLD
WARM
STATIONARY COMPLEX
COLD
FRONTS
30s
40s
MOSTLY
CLOUDY
H
L
L
H
L
Unusually
warm
Unusually
cool
Thunderstorms will stretch from the southern Plains to the drought-stricken Northeast.
There may be localized flooding. Heat will build from the Southwest to the northern
High Plains.
Cities
High/low temperatures for the 16 hours ended at 4
p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in
inches) for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday.
Expected conditions for today and tomorrow.
C ....................... Clouds
F ............................ Fog
H .......................... Haze
I............................... Ice
PC........... Partly cloudy
R ........................... Rain
Sh ................... Showers
N.Y.C. region
New York City
Bridgeport
Caldwell
Danbury
Islip
Newark
Trenton
White Plains
United States
Albany
Albuquerque
Anchorage
Atlanta
Atlantic City
Austin
Baltimore
Baton Rouge
Birmingham
Boise
Boston
Buffalo
Burlington
Casper
Charlotte
Chattanooga
Chicago
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Colorado Springs
Columbus
Concord, N.H.
Dallas-Ft. Worth
Denver
Des Moines
Detroit
El Paso
Fargo
Hartford
Honolulu
Houston
Indianapolis
Jackson
Jacksonville
Kansas City
Key West
Las Vegas
Lexington
Yesterday
84/ 75 0.09
81/ 73 1.85
83/ 71 0.29
80/ 67 0.13
84/ 71 0.18
87/ 73 0.16
88/ 71 0.08
80/ 70 0.42
S ............................. Sun
Sn ....................... Snow
SS......... Snow showers
T .......... Thunderstorms
Tr ........................ Trace
W ....................... Windy
–.............. Not available
Today
90/ 78 PC
89/ 76 PC
89/ 74 PC
88/ 72 PC
88/ 75 PC
90/ 76 PC
89/ 76 PC
87/ 73 PC
Tomorrow
92/ 80 PC
90/ 78 PC
91/ 77 PC
90/ 73 PC
87/ 76 PC
92/ 79 PC
90/ 77 PC
89/ 76 PC
Yesterday
Today
83/ 69 0.36 92/ 73 PC
87/ 65 0.04 91/ 64 PC
62/ 53 0.08 61/ 53 C
85/ 72 0.03 87/ 73 T
85/ 77 0
87/ 77 PC
100/ 76 0
101/ 76 S
91/ 75 0
93/ 76 PC
89/ 76 1.23 85/ 76 T
85/ 76 0.30 85/ 75 T
81/ 56 0
87/ 59 S
79/ 73 0.29 92/ 75 PC
87/ 72 0.60 89/ 75 PC
86/ 71 0
93/ 73 PC
90/ 51 0
81/ 47 T
87/ 72 0.14 89/ 73 PC
90/ 75 0.22 92/ 75 PC
88/ 73 0
92/ 76 PC
92/ 74 0.09 88/ 74 PC
92/ 73 0.33 90/ 76 T
89/ 61 0
86/ 58 T
86/ 73 0.05 88/ 74 PC
81/ 65 0.11 96/ 67 PC
101/ 83 0
102/ 82 S
95/ 62 0
89/ 58 T
93/ 77 0.05 91/ 74 PC
94/ 73 0
90/ 75 T
90/ 71 0.02 90/ 71 PC
84/ 70 0.15 85/ 62 PC
82/ 69 0.86 95/ 73 PC
86/ 75 0
86/ 75 PC
99/ 79 0
100/ 79 PC
86/ 74 0.62 88/ 75 PC
90/ 75 0.04 87/ 74 T
92/ 73 0.04 92/ 73 PC
93/ 76 0
92/ 74 PC
90/ 81 0.04 90/ 80 C
100/ 78 0
98/ 79 S
88/ 74 0.04 88/ 74 PC
Tomorrow
90/ 74 T
92/ 62 PC
66/ 56 C
88/ 72 PC
88/ 79 PC
101/ 76 S
95/ 78 PC
81/ 74 T
86/ 73 T
92/ 61 S
93/ 76 PC
87/ 74 PC
88/ 70 T
82/ 47 PC
90/ 74 PC
92/ 75 C
85/ 72 T
88/ 74 PC
90/ 75 T
77/ 52 PC
88/ 75 PC
94/ 70 T
103/ 78 PC
81/ 54 PC
85/ 67 T
91/ 74 T
91/ 71 PC
79/ 56 C
95/ 75 PC
86/ 76 PC
100/ 79 S
89/ 74 T
83/ 72 T
92/ 72 PC
84/ 68 T
89/ 81 PC
102/ 83 S
89/ 75 PC
Little Rock
Los Angeles
Louisville
Memphis
Miami
Milwaukee
Mpls.-St. Paul
Nashville
New Orleans
Norfolk
Oklahoma City
Omaha
Orlando
Philadelphia
Phoenix
Pittsburgh
Portland, Me.
Portland, Ore.
Providence
Raleigh
Reno
Richmond
Rochester
Sacramento
Salt Lake City
San Antonio
San Diego
San Francisco
San Jose
San Juan
Seattle
Sioux Falls
Spokane
St. Louis
St. Thomas
Syracuse
Tampa
Toledo
Tucson
Tulsa
Virginia Beach
Washington
Wichita
Wilmington, Del.
Africa
Algiers
Cairo
Cape Town
Dakar
Johannesburg
Nairobi
Tunis
Asia/Pacific
Baghdad
Bangkok
Beijing
Damascus
Hong Kong
Jakarta
Jerusalem
Karachi
Manila
Mumbai
97/
81/
89/
95/
92/
86/
91/
91/
92/
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97/
94/
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92/
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85/
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86/
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89/
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91/
77
62
76
79
78
72
77
75
78
76
75
79
75
76
80
73
66
59
73
73
55
72
71
58
66
79
65
54
57
79
58
74
57
77
82
68
76
71
73
79
77
78
76
76
0.04 95/ 78 PC
0
80/ 61 PC
0
89/ 76 PC
0
91/ 77 PC
0.11 89/ 78 PC
0
91/ 74 T
0
86/ 72 T
0
89/ 75 PC
0.53 84/ 77 T
0
90/ 76 PC
0
98/ 75 S
0
95/ 73 PC
0
91/ 75 T
0
93/ 78 PC
0.68 96/ 81 T
0.18 88/ 74 PC
0.11 90/ 67 PC
0
88/ 62 S
0.52 92/ 74 PC
0
91/ 74 PC
0
91/ 57 S
0
91/ 74 PC
0.30 92/ 75 PC
0
94/ 60 S
0
88/ 64 PC
0
100/ 79 S
0
75/ 66 PC
0
72/ 55 PC
0
81/ 58 PC
0.08 89/ 79 S
0
81/ 59 S
0
89/ 66 T
0
84/ 60 S
0
95/ 78 PC
0.03 91/ 82 S
0.31 92/ 73 PC
0.13 90/ 76 T
0
89/ 73 PC
0.46 90/ 74 T
0.04 99/ 79 S
0
88/ 78 PC
0
93/ 78 PC
0
96/ 74 PC
0.04 89/ 78 PC
Yesterday
84/ 67 0
95/ 75 0
81/ 50 0
86/ 79 0
70/ 39 0
72/ 51 0
88/ 69 0
60s
SHOWERS T-STORMS
Highlight: The Weekend Outlook
H
50s
70s
80s
90s
100+
L
HIGH LOW
PRESSURE
92/
82/
89/
91/
90/
86/
86/
88/
84/
90/
94/
87/
91/
95/
102/
88/
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91/
97/
91/
101/
76/
72/
82/
88/
87/
85/
88/
91/
90/
88/
90/
89/
94/
95/
89/
93/
87/
91/
76
62
77
76
78
71
65
75
77
77
68
65
75
80
80
75
67
64
76
75
59
76
75
60
64
79
67
55
58
77
60
57
62
75
82
73
76
71
73
73
79
80
70
78
T
PC
PC
T
PC
T
C
PC
T
PC
T
T
T
PC
PC
T
T
S
PC
PC
S
PC
PC
S
S
S
PC
PC
PC
PC
S
PC
S
T
S
T
T
T
PC
T
PC
PC
T
PC
Today
84/ 64 W
95/ 78 S
72/ 50 S
85/ 78 C
71/ 39 PC
74/ 53 PC
87/ 69 PC
Tomorrow
84/ 63 S
95/ 78 S
62/ 48 R
87/ 79 C
70/ 39 S
73/ 56 PC
86/ 69 S
Yesterday
Today
115/ 79 0
117/ 83 S
95/ 79 0.04 94/ 81 T
94/ 76 0.03 93/ 78 T
104/ 69 0
100/ 66 S
86/ 81 0.86 90/ 82 T
91/ 77 0
90/ 74 PC
88/ 69 0
84/ 67 S
88/ 81 0
89/ 82 C
84/ 74 0.55 86/ 79 T
86/ 80 0.49 85/ 81 Sh
Tomorrow
116/ 84 S
92/ 80 T
92/ 77 T
100/ 66 S
91/ 80 Sh
91/ 76 PC
85/ 69 S
92/ 82 PC
85/ 79 T
86/ 79 Sh
90°
Normal
highs
80°
SATURDAY ...............A spotty thunderstorm
80s
100+
Honolulu
u
High 92. It will remain hot and humid with
partial sunshine across the area. A few
areas will see a shower or thunderstorm
develop in the afternoon and last into the
evening.
Raleigh
gh
Memph
phis
ph
B m
Birmingham
Lubboc
oc
ock
Record
highs
TOMORROW ...........Humid, a thunderstorm
N
Norfolk
Louisville
Nashville
Oklahoma City
Albuquerque
buq
bu
Tucson
80
80s
Phi
Philadelphia
Wash
Washington
ash
90s
s
Santa Fe
90s
0s
100+
Sa
Sa
an
n Diego
o
80s
Richm
chmond
Wichita
Lo Angeles
Los
A
Pittsburgh
Indianapolis
i
90s
TONIGHT ...................Partly cloudy, a storm
Low 78. Remaining warm and humid with
partly to mostly cloudy skies. Any lingering showers and thunderstorms will diminish in the early evening.
New York
N
Kansas
Sp
Springfield
i
City
St. Louis
Topeka
Colorado
Springss
Bos
Boston
Har
Hartford
a
D
Detroit
Omaha
Denver
Sa
San
an
n Francisco
co
M
Ma
Manchester
90s
9
0s
Albany
y
Buffalo
Milwauk
uk
kee
Des Moines
Cheye
ye
enne
Burl n on
Burlington
Toron
To
nto
Sioux
o Falls
Ca
asper
Por
Portland
Ottawa
Fargo
Billings
H
Halifax
Montreal
Mon
80s
Helena
H
a
TODAY ........Some sunshine, thunderstorm
High 90. Hot and humid air will surge
north across the area. With this hot and
humid air in place, a shower or thunderstorm will develop in the afternoon. Otherwise, expect sunshine and clouds.
Queb c
Quebec
Que
Spokane
okan
Eugen
ene
ne
e
Meteorology by AccuWeather
RAIN
FLURRIES
SNOW
ICE
PRECIPITATION
70°
Normal
lows
SUNDAY
MONDAY ...............A shower, thunderstorm
Sunday will be mostly cloudy and humid
with a shower or thunderstorm. The high
will be 91. Monday will be mostly cloudy
with a few showers and thunderstorms. A
high of 85 is expected.
S S M T W T F S S M
TODAY
60°
Actual
High
Low
National Forecast
Metropolitan Almanac
Hot, humid air with tropical moisture
may bring showers and thunderstorms
across parts of the Northeast, Middle
Atlantic and Ohio Valley today. The heaviest rainfall may occur along the central
Gulf Coast with flash flooding possible
from the Florida Panhandle to
southeastern Louisiana.
A storm will come across the Upper
Midwest and bring severe thunderstorms
across Minnesota and Wisconsin. Hot and
dry weather will continue across the
southern Plains. Across the Intermountain
West, moisture from what was once
Tropical Storm Javier will produce showers and storms with heavy rain across
Arizona and New Mexico. There may be
scattered showers in the central Rockies.
Dry weather will continue across the
West Coast.
In Central Park for the 16 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday.
New Delhi
Riyadh
Seoul
Shanghai
Singapore
Sydney
Taipei
Tehran
Tokyo
96/
107/
91/
93/
90/
77/
95/
103/
89/
79
81
76
83
81
59
82
70
81
0.31 88/ 79 C
0
111/ 83 S
0
94/ 76 S
0.13 94/ 84 S
0.05 86/ 80 C
0
65/ 45 S
0.19 91/ 82 C
0
100/ 74 S
0.02 87/ 73 C
89/
111/
95/
96/
88/
63/
90/
102/
89/
79
84
78
82
78
47
81
73
75
R
S
S
T
Sh
S
Sh
S
PC
Europe
Amsterdam
Athens
Berlin
Brussels
Budapest
Copenhagen
Dublin
Edinburgh
Frankfurt
Geneva
Helsinki
Istanbul
Kiev
Lisbon
London
Madrid
Moscow
Nice
Oslo
Paris
Prague
Rome
St. Petersburg
Stockholm
Vienna
Warsaw
Yesterday
63/ 51 0.22
95/ 78 0
63/ 50 0.14
60/ 48 0.09
72/ 57 0.07
63/ 52 0.28
60/ 50 0.76
58/ 45 0.38
64/ 49 0.06
70/ 50 0
64/ 55 0.16
90/ 79 0
84/ 56 0
91/ 65 0
68/ 51 0
86/ 60 0.05
79/ 57 0
79/ 69 0
57/ 48 0.31
67/ 51 0
59/ 50 0.08
82/ 66 0
70/ 59 0.01
62/ 50 0.04
62/ 55 0.84
60/ 54 0.53
Today
63/ 61 R
96/ 79 S
66/ 53 PC
62/ 58 Sh
68/ 47 PC
64/ 54 Sh
68/ 55 PC
63/ 56 R
69/ 57 PC
70/ 51 PC
65/ 47 R
92/ 75 S
88/ 53 PC
92/ 70 S
72/ 58 PC
88/ 61 S
81/ 63 C
77/ 68 PC
63/ 46 PC
73/ 55 PC
63/ 49 Sh
83/ 63 S
60/ 53 Sh
61/ 42 Sh
66/ 48 PC
66/ 46 PC
Tomorrow
71/ 61 Sh
94/ 73 S
68/ 59 Sh
74/ 56 PC
73/ 52 PC
67/ 58 Sh
69/ 54 PC
64/ 53 W
74/ 57 PC
76/ 56 S
65/ 52 PC
84/ 73 PC
62/ 50 T
92/ 71 S
77/ 59 S
92/ 64 S
73/ 52 T
77/ 68 S
61/ 56 Sh
80/ 56 S
62/ 57 Sh
83/ 62 S
64/ 51 PC
66/ 55 PC
66/ 59 PC
69/ 54 PC
North America
Acapulco
Bermuda
Edmonton
Guadalajara
Havana
Kingston
Martinique
Mexico City
Monterrey
Montreal
Nassau
Panama City
Quebec City
Santo Domingo
Toronto
Vancouver
Winnipeg
Yesterday
Today
92/ 76 0
90/ 77 T
84/ 78 0.06 85/ 78 S
67/ 48 0.01 74/ 50 PC
81/ 61 0
81/ 61 T
90/ 74 0.05 88/ 74 PC
91/ 80 0.08 90/ 80 PC
90/ 78 0.08 87/ 75 Sh
74/ 57 0
74/ 55 T
94/ 75 0
102/ 75 PC
88/ 66 0
91/ 72 S
91/ 79 0.10 91/ 78 PC
90/ 76 0
86/ 75 T
80/ 52 0
81/ 62 S
86/ 74 0.03 89/ 74 PC
94/ 71 0.15 91/ 75 PC
69/ 57 0
74/ 58 S
76/ 52 0.21 79/ 59 C
Tomorrow
89/ 78 T
85/ 79 PC
74/ 47 S
80/ 60 T
90/ 72 PC
91/ 80 T
88/ 77 Sh
76/ 52 T
100/ 77 PC
86/ 65 T
92/ 78 PC
87/ 76 T
82/ 56 T
89/ 73 PC
92/ 74 T
77/ 61 PC
69/ 53 C
South America
Buenos Aires
Caracas
Lima
Quito
Recife
Rio de Janeiro
Santiago
Yesterday
64/ 39 0
91/ 77 0.67
68/ 60 Tr
73/ 49 0.03
84/ 71 0.16
72/ 66 0.08
73/ 36 0
Tomorrow
67/ 49 S
88/ 77 PC
71/ 61 PC
74/ 51 R
83/ 72 PC
73/ 63 PC
71/ 45 PC
Today
63/ 45 S
88/ 76 PC
71/ 60 PC
77/ 52 R
83/ 70 PC
73/ 64 PC
69/ 39 S
Temperature
Forecast
range
High
Record
lows
Low
Precipitation (in inches)
Yesterday ............... 0.09
Record .................... 4.64
100°
Record
high 98°
(1949)
90°
84°
4 p.m.
Normal
high 83°
80°
75°
4 a.m.
70°
60°
TUE.
4
p.m.
Normal
low 69°
YESTERDAY
12
a.m.
6
a.m.
Avg. daily departure
from normal
this month ............. +0.3°
Record
low 55°
(1879)
12
4
p.m. p.m.
Avg. daily departure
from normal
this year ................ +2.0°
Reservoir levels (New York City water supply)
For the last 30 days
Actual ..................... 4.53
Normal .................... 4.70
For the last 365 days
Actual ................... 39.76
Normal .................. 49.92
LAST 30 DAYS
Air pressure
Humidity
High ........... 30.24 1 a.m.
Low ............ 30.12 4 p.m.
High............. 92% 1 p.m.
Low .............. 75% 2 a.m.
Cooling Degree Days
An index of fuel consumption that tracks how
far the day’s mean temperature rose above 65
Yesterday ................................................................... 15
So far this month ...................................................... 118
So far this season (since January 1)........................ 901
Normal to date for the season ................................. 750
Trends
Last
Temperature
Average
Below
Above
Precipitation
Average
Below
Above
10 days
30 days
90 days
365 days
Chart shows how recent temperature and precipitation
trends compare with those of the last 30 years.
Yesterday ............... 84%
Est. normal ............. 85%
Recreational Forecast
Sun, Moon and Planets
Beach and Ocean Temperatures
Full
Last Quarter
New
First Quarter
Aug. 18
5:28 a.m.
Aug. 24
Sep. 1
5:03 a.m.
Sep. 9
Today’s forecast
Sun
RISE
SET
NEXT R
Jupiter
R
S
Saturn
S
R
6:03 a.m.
7:59 p.m.
6:03 a.m.
8:59 a.m.
9:28 p.m.
12:59 a.m.
3:22 p.m.
Moon
S
R
S
Mars
S
R
Venus
R
S
12:15 a.m.
2:26 p.m.
12:52 a.m.
12:12 a.m.
3:03 p.m.
7:34 a.m.
8:51 p.m.
60s
Cape Cod
86/75 Mild with clouds and sun
L.I. North Shore
88/76 A thunderstorm in spots
L.I. South Shore
86/76 Spotty thunderstorm
Boating
From Montauk Point to Sandy Hook, N.J., out to 20
nautical miles, including Long Island Sound and New
York Harbor.
The wind will be from the southwest at 5-10 knots.
Waves will be 2-4 feet on the ocean and a foot or less
on Long Island Sound and on New York Harbor. The
visibility will be restricted in any thunderstorms.
High Tides
Atlantic City ................... 1:57 a.m. ..............
Barnegat Inlet ................ 2:18 a.m. ..............
The Battery .................... 2:58 a.m. ..............
Beach Haven ................. 3:41 a.m. ..............
Bridgeport ..................... 6:08 a.m. ..............
City Island ...................... 6:23 a.m. ..............
Fire Island Lt. ................. 3:09 a.m. ..............
Montauk Point ................ 4:04 a.m. ..............
Northport ....................... 6:07 a.m. ..............
Port Washington ............ 5:49 a.m. ..............
Sandy Hook ................... 2:23 a.m. ..............
Shinnecock Inlet ............ 2:13 a.m. ..............
Stamford ........................ 6:11 a.m. ..............
Tarrytown ....................... 4:47 a.m. ..............
Willets Point ................... 6:21 a.m. ..............
Kennebunkport
86/69 Clouds and sun
2:44 p.m.
2:55 p.m.
3:32 p.m.
4:16 p.m.
6:30 p.m.
6:18 p.m.
3:44 p.m.
4:37 p.m.
6:33 p.m.
6:14 p.m.
2:58 p.m.
2:48 p.m.
6:33 p.m.
5:21 p.m.
6:15 p.m.
N.J. Shore
87/77 Humid with clouds and sun
70s
Eastern Shore
90/76 Humid with some sun
Ocean City Md.
87/77 Partly sunny, humid
Virginia Beach
88/78 Partly sunny
80s
Color bands
indicate water
temperature.
Sunshine will mix with clouds as thunderstorms develop across the interior
throughout the day. Storms at the coast
will most likely be from southern Connecticut to New Jersey. Areas from Northern
Massachusetts to Maine and areas
across the Delmarva will be dry. Storms
will linger across similar areas on Friday.
N
C1
Hillbilly Elegy
A Memoir
of a Family
and Culture
in Crisis
‘I’m pretty much a fan of
everything the Beatles did.
A man of good taste!’
By J. D. Vance
264 pages.
Harper. $27.99.
PAUL McCARTNEY
A Compassionate
Analysis of the Poor
Who Love Trump
In late July, The American Conservative ran an interview with J. D.
Vance that drew so much traffic it
briefly crippled the central nervous
system of the magazine’s website.
The interviewer’s last
line implored readers
to have a look at Mr.
Vance’s publishing
debut, “Hillbilly EleBOOKS
gy: A Memoir of a
OF THE TIMES
Family and Culture in
Crisis.” Ever since, his book has
hovered at high altitude on Amazon,
seldom dipping below No. 10.
After reading “Hillbilly Elegy,”
you can easily understand why. This
is a historically peculiar election
cycle, boisterously disrupted by
outsiders, one of whom found the
perfect host body in the Republican
Party and became its presidential
nominee. An investigation of voter
estrangement has never felt more
JENNIFER
SENIOR
urgent, and we’re certainly not
getting one from the lacquered
chatterers on the boob tube.
Now, along comes Mr. Vance,
offering a compassionate, discerning sociological analysis of the white
underclass that has helped drive the
politics of rebellion, particularly the
ascent of Donald J. Trump. Combining thoughtful inquiry with firsthand experience, Mr. Vance has
inadvertently provided a civilized
reference guide for an uncivilized
election, and he’s done so in a vocabulary intelligible to both
Democrats and Republicans.
Imagine that.
On the checklist of modern privilege, Mr. Vance, 31, has the top four
in the bag: He is white, male,
straight and Protestant.
But his profile is misleading. His
Continued on Page 4
GEORGE ETHEREDGE/THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Pokémon Go app brings fans of the game to Central Park,
uniting two extremes of the mobile gaming universe.
JACOB BLICKENSTAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Paul McCartney brought his “One on One” tour to MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.
You Want the Hits?
He’s Happy to Oblige
By CARYN GANZ
When you’re an artist who started
releasing albums in the 1960s and never
stopped, you face a decision when
going on tour: How do you select a set
list?
That question may explain how Paul
McCartney, at a very spry 74, wound up
playing a nearly three-hour, 38-song
show on his current “One on One” tour,
which arrived on Sunday night at
MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford,
N.J., and continues in various cities
through October. He’ll play the Desert
Trip festival alongside Bob Dylan, the
Rolling Stones and Neil Young — “A
real nice little lineup,” he said — that
month, too.
Having spent decades on the road
with the Beatles, Wings and as a solo
artist, Mr. McCartney acknowledges
that concertgoers may have heard one
of his well-worn stories before. “If you
think of it like a Broadway show, they
don’t alter their lines or their jokes
every night,” he said. “Once you have
some idea of what goes down well with
an audience, you kind of stick to it. So if
I’m telling a story about Jimi Hendrix
that I’ve said before, then I’ll use little
phrases, like ‘As I say’ or ‘I often tell
the story’ to not sound like, oh my God,
he’s on auto-repeat.”
The set list on this tour is stocked
with 23 Beatles songs and six Wings
tracks. It reaches back to “In Spite of
All the Danger,” one of the first original
songs recorded by the Quarrymen, the
pre-Beatles band featuring John
Lennon and Mr. McCartney. And it
Flashes of Excitement
Amid All the Darkness
To turn up, in Southern rap parlance,
is to go over the top, to celebrate wildly,
to more or less explode with vim. For
the last two years, no hip-hop artists
have taken this idea as a mandate more
than the two brothers,
Swae Lee and Slim
Jxmmi, who form Rae
Sremmurd.
They have been exemALBUM
plars of exuberance,
REVIEW
pillars of partying. Their
full length, debut album, “SremmLife,”
was one of last year’s best, a pure distillation of social media-speed culture in
which practically every song either was
built on a catchphrase or hashtag, or
ended up becoming one. Nobody in
hip-hop since Lil Jon has thought harder, or devoted more creative energy to,
what it takes to deliver one gut-punch
thrill after the next, over and over
again.
But sometimes, when you have
turned up as much as is humanly possi-
JON
CARAMANICA
ble, the only turn remaining is the turn
left.
And so on their follow up, “SremmLife 2,” Rae Sremmurd have taken a
low-key approach to the same territory.
Any flashes of excitement are undercut
by swaths of musical darkness. The
party is ongoing, but it sounds like it’s
taking place in a fun house hall of mirrors — if “SremmLife” was the album
that instigated a wild night, “SremmLife 2” is the one that plays as it ventures into unpredictable, sometimes
harrowing territory.
That’s largely because of the production, which is more sinister and less
manic than last time around. Rae Sremmurd is particularly well-suited to the
carnival sounds of its debut, but in
many places here feels as if it’s getting
squelched. Almost all of the beats are
by Mike Will Made It or producers in
his EarDrummers camp (from which
Continued on Page 5
includes three songs off his most recent
studio album, “New” from 2013, along
with “FourFiveSeconds,” his 2015 collaboration with Kanye West and Rihanna (who were not in attendance).
In a phone interview, Mr. McCartney
discussed his philosophy for entertaining an audience and the re-emergence
of Beatles songs in his show. These are
excerpts from the conversation.
At your MetLife concert, there was a fan
sitting in front who has seen you over
100 times. How do you please both him
and a 20-year-old seeing you for the first
time?
You know, I’m kind of aware that
there are a few people that have seen
the show before. I must say the biggest
Continued on Page 5
The New Smoke Break:
Slow-Game Apps
By AMANDA HESS
All around the world, millions of
smartphone users are preparing for
war. Pokémon Go has sent players
scurrying outside their homes to hunt
cartoon critters, chuck virtual balls at
them, and then groom their captured
characters into a digital army. Advance far enough in the game, and
players are invited to join a Pokémon
team and stage face-offs at designated gyms — basically, virtual forts —
where battle-ready competitors descend to hold their phones with a
white-knuckle grip, stare unblinkingly at the screen and tap furiously
on one another’s Pokémon in a bid to
seize control of the territory.
Or not. Users can also just lazily
check for Pokémon as they proceed
throughout their days, stopping occasionally to scan the app for nearby
characters and snapping screen
shots on their commute or evening
stroll. Marinate on this lower level of
game play, and Pokémon Go feels less
like a competition and more like a
charming little interlude.
In this way, Pokémon Go has become the rare app to unite the two extremes of the mobile gaming universe. One, the compulsive, rank-obsessed land of Candy Crush and Clash
of Clans. The other, its antidote — the
serene, score-free world of so-called
slow games.
Slow games are less ubiquitous and
straightforwardly tantalizing than
traditional mobile games. They often
seem to lack any point at all. Instead,
they invite players to engage in simpler virtual pleasures — taking a
stroll, watering plants, feeding stray
cats.
In the game Mountain, the user
plays God, designs a world, then
watches powerlessly as “time moves
forward,” “things grow and things
die” and “nature expresses itself.”
Continued on Page 2
Rae Sremmurd Slim
Jxmmi, left, and Swae
Lee, who make up this
duo, have released the
album “SremmLife 2.”
CHAD BATKA FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
C2
N
JASON HENRY FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
PHOTOGRAPHS BY BENJAMIN NORMAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Pokémon Go fans include, clockwise from top left, Richard Leong and Wai Lam; Diego Escudero and Kay Collins, center; Anna Shelkin, with a Pokémon; and Ms. Shelkin, center, and Rachel Ward.
A New Kind of Smoke Break: The Slow-Game App
From First Arts Page
Download Viridi to start a succulent garden in your pocket. Then
just check in every few days to
collect new seedlings, water
thirsty plants and watch them
grow. And with the Japanese mobile sensation Neko Atsume:
Kitty Collector, you can fill a little
yard with toys and kibbles that attract stray cats. It’s like installing
a window into a cat cafe on your
phone.
In these games, the stakes are
lowered to nearly imperceptible
levels, eliminating the weight of
responsibility involved in actual
caretaking. Barmark, a mobile
app that invites users to play
groundskeeper to their own virtual ecosystem, promises “no goals,
no points, and no death.” And it’s
no coincidence that many slow
games are set in a virtual backyard. If Pokémon Go has brought
the thrill of video games into the
great outdoors, slow games bring
the feel of nature into offices, grocery aisles and subway cars. My
succulents and strays grow and
play for me in exchange for just a
few screen taps a day.
While the shiniest, most successful phone apps are designed
to push our competitive buttons
and light up our pleasure centers
with quick rewards, slow games
seek access to a different part of
our brains. They soothe rather
than excite. The author and game
designer Ian Bogost has referred
to this genre as video game Zen,
the mobile equivalent of running
a tiny rake across a desktop Japanese garden. David OReilly, the
filmmaker and digital artist who
designed Mountain, calls these
games “relax ’em ups,” a clever
play on their departure from the
ubiquity of first-person shooters.
ThatGameCompany, the studio
behind slow games like Cloud and
Journey, strives to create “positive change to the human psy-
che.”
On a very basic level, I find that
the simplistic tapping and swiping actions that propel the games
forward do provide an odd, unexpected comfort. In Mushroom
Garden, a middling game in
which you grow fungi on a log,
players swipe across the screen
to pop the mushrooms out, a sensation that approximates the
pleasure of pulling a Bioré pore
strip off your nose. Other games
manage to transmit a feeling of
even more passive self-soothing.
Neko Atsume is my coping
mechanism of choice. Six months
after downloading the app, the
simple act of checking in on my
cats a few times a day has relaxed
into a mindless habit embedded
amid all my others — check email,
check Twitter, feed cats. I’ve already collected each of Neko Atsume’s 56 cats — the ostensible
point of the game — but I keep
playing. It’s evolved from game
into ritual, or even atmosphere.
It’s the new smoke break.
While desktop and console slow
games have been around for years
(the dreamy, moody indie puzzle
game Cloud had its debut in 2005),
there’s something particularly entrancing about a slow game on a
mobile device. In the early days of
Low-stakes games
feel like charming
interludes instead of
blood sport.
the iPhone app store, Koi Pond became a surprise mobile blockbuster upon its release in 2008.
The app offers a placid setting
with just a touch of interactivity:
It invites you to stare down into a
clear pool of water, tap the surface
and watch as a school of koi scatter from sight and then slowly return to repopulate the screen. The
next year, the company behind
Koi Pond released Distant Shore,
a game in which you stroll along
an endless beach, collecting
seashells, writing messages to
put in bottles, then chucking the
bottles into the surf. As you walk,
you find bottles written by other
players from around the world
and read their messages, too —
it’s a random, rarefied form of
communication you can’t often
find on social media. Now, the app
store is sprinkled with dozens of
tranquil smartphone portals that
are antidotes to the maddening
intensity of traditional video
games and the quickening pace of
online life.
But in another way, slow games
are less a rejection of high-octane
internet culture than they are a
capitulation to it. By freeing up
gamers from the burdens of extreme concentration and physical
Finding
A Home
In Playing
Together
‘The Calais Sessions’
emerged from a
camp in France
known as the Jungle.
Refugees Unite
For an Album
By BENOÎT MORENNE
PARIS — “I am happy, like a
myna/Life in a caravan, thinking
about my friends/Let’s go to the
garden,” go the upbeat lyrics from
“Khandahar,” a poem first written
in English and then translated to
Farsi by two Afghan sisters, ages
9 and 12, who were living in a
trailer in the sprawling migrant
and refugee camp in Calais,
France, that is known as the Jungle.
“Khandahar” is one of 13 tracks
on “The Calais Sessions,” a benefit
album released on July 29 that
was recorded in the camp as a collaboration involving about 20
refugees and professional musicians. The music ranges from
Middle Eastern-inflected pop to
Iraqi rap to tunes from the
Balkans and Spain. Some pieces
are love songs. One mourns the
death of a Syrian brother. Others
are joyful instrumentals set
against a backbeat of traditional
percussion.
Although mostly amateurs, the
musicians who played on the album took the job seriously. “It is
hard work, because you want to
make something professional,”
Kasper, a 24-year-old Iraqi
refugee who sang on “University
Story,” a rap song about love, said
in a telephone interview from the
camp.
Kasper, who like many of the
control, slow games allow us to fit
a mobile game into every spare
moment, to seamlessly multitask
among Facebook monitoring and
texting and the game play.
And while Pokémon Go may
beckon casual players with the
opportunity to collect cute characters around town, the game can
also seduce many of them into
more advanced, obsessive, competitive play. These slow games,
as the Davidson College professor and video game researcher
Mark Sample told me, “fit into the
interstices of our lives.” The rise
of slow games on mobile has allowed us to “play games about
waiting while we’re waiting,” he
said, adding, “It’s kind of perverse: Slow games aestheticize
the experience of waiting.”
Slow games offer a release, but
their escape is on a screen, too.
Run out of lives in Candy Crush
and you can check on your aloe
plant, tend your garden and feed
the cats.
SARAH HICKSON
Vanessa Lucas-Smith (center), a cellist and the founder and artistic director of “The Calais Sessions,” walks through the refugee
camp known as the Jungle with members of the band Molotov Jukebox and residents of the camp who worked on the album.
musicians did not want his last
name used, was a jewelry maker
in Baghdad and an amateur rapper before he embarked on the
grueling route to Europe last year.
After a journey that lasted three
weeks, he arrived in Calais in October.
Recording the album, he said,
had brought a glimmer of hope
into his life. “I hope it changes
something,” he said. “I can’t do
anything for me here in the Jungle.”
The camp has been in place for
at least 10 years as a terminus for
asylum seekers trying to enter
Britain by any means possible,
but its numbers swelled last year
with the exodus of hundreds of
thousands of refugees from Syria
and Afghanistan through Europe.
After periodic crackdowns by the
authorities, an estimated 4,500
people are living there now.
In part because of its proximity
to London and Paris, charities, celebrities and artists have found
their way to the camp, offering
cultural activities like concerts,
theaters built from scratch and
even arts schools. The driving
force behind the album was
Vanessa Lucas-Smith, a cellist in
the Allegri Quartet in London,
who said in a phone interview that
the project sought to show a different side of those living in the Jungle and to empower them by allowing their talents to be heard.
Ms. Lucas-Smith and other musicians visited the camp in September, bringing with them instruments that included the
vaguely guitar-like oud, a flute
called a ney, and a daf, a Kurdish
drum that would allow refugees to
rediscover familiar sounds.
Percussion turned out to be the
calling card, she said, and soon the
project’s initiators found themselves jamming with refugees and
running music workshops. “When
you take the instruments to people, it sounds as if it’s bread or water or coal, something they really,
really need,” Ms. Lucas-Smith
said.
The idea of recording songs created by refugees and professional
musicians coalesced into an idea
for an album this spring. Most of
“The Calais Sessions” was recorded in a generator-powered
studio near the Jungle of Books, a
makeshift library.
It took a team of around 200
people, including volunteers from
Britain and Spain as well as from
the camp, to record the album. It is
available on Bandcamp for 10
pounds, or about $13, for a digital
download and £15 for a CD. As of
Aug. 2, about £4,000 had been
raised to benefit refugees and Citizen UK, a British charity, Ms. Lucas-Smith said.
While none of the refugees who
played on the album were professional musicians, some had received formal training, she said,
citing Mohealdeen, a singer from
Syria, and Ismail, an Afghani who
said he was persecuted by the Taliban for playing the dambora, a
long-necked stringed instrument.
“The Taliban heard me playing
one day in my house,” Ismail
wrote on the “Calais Sessions”
website. “They put my right arm
into boiling water saying it is because that is the arm that I make
music with.” On the album, he
plays a cello-like instrument
made from scraps found around
the camp.
Most of the recording took place
in February, around the time the
French authorities were poised to
dismantle part of the camp, a decision that affected some musicians
featured on the album.
“Yezus,” a spiritual, was recorded with a choir of Eritrean
women whom Ms. Lucas-Smith
and her colleagues met at a makeshift chapel in the camp. While reticent at first, the choir unexpectedly showed up at the studio a few hours later.
“When can we do the next
one?” the women asked after the
recording. Their church was bulldozed the next morning.
Learning How to Walk Again, and How to Jam
Arts, Briefly
By NICK CORASANITI
Stevens will also perform in New
York at the 2016 Global Citizen
Festival on Sept. 24. (In 2014, he
canceled a New York show, but
he did perform at the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame ceremony at
Barclays Center that April.)
Live Nation, the tour’s promoter, said that a portion of
every ticket sold would be given
via the artist’s charity, Through
Small Kindness, to Unicef and
the International Rescue Committee. Tickets go on sale at
livenation.com on Monday.
JIM WILSON/THE NEW YORK TIMES
Some Live Colbert Shows
Planned After Debates
JOE COSCARELLI
Stephen Colbert, above, is
going live again.
Following a successful string
of shows during the Democratic
and Republican conventions,
CBS announced Wednesday that
Mr. Colbert would have additional live shows after two of the
three presidential debates and
after the vice-presidential one.
(One presidential debate is on a
Sunday, when Mr. Colbert’s program, “The Late Show,” does not
broadcast.)
Mr. Colbert’s ratings spiked
during his live shows from the
Ed Sullivan Theater after the
Republican National Convention,
scoring two-month highs in total
viewers. More significant, Mr.
Colbert got the sort of praise and
buzz from critics that had been
noticeably elusive in his first 11
months on the air on CBS. He
scored viral hits with videos
featuring Laura Benanti as Melania Trump and an appearance
from Jon Stewart. CBS said those
clips were the show’s most successful videos online since Mr.
Colbert took over the show.
JonBenet Ramsey Case
To Again Haunt TV
Call it the O. J. Effect. A Lifetime original movie and a CBS
documentary series — both
about JonBenet Ramsey — are
coming to TV this year, the networks announced on Wednesday.
CBS said that it would air a
six-hour, three-part documentary
series, “The Case of: JonBenet
Ramsey,” next month. It will
center on the 20-year unsolved
mystery behind the killing of the
6-year-old beauty queen.
Lifetime said it was beginning
production for a TV movie called
“Who Killed JonBenet?” with a
premiere date in the fall.
The duel JonBenet Ramsey
projects are the latest examples
of TV executives mining sensational crimes from the 1990s for
material.
Part of this may be because of
the success of two O. J. Simpson
TV shows this year. FX’s limited
series “The People vs. O. J. Simpson,” which debuted in February,
scored the highest ratings for
any new show in the network’s
history. It garnered the second
highest number of Emmy
nominations of any show, behind
only “Game of Thrones.” ESPN’s
five-part documentary “O. J.:
Made in America” premiered in
June to rave reviews.
CBS’s documentary series will
include what the network describes as a careful re-creation of
the crime scene using full-scale
models of several rooms of the
Ramsey house in Colorado. The
series is produced by a former
“48 Hours” producer and begins
on Sept. 18 and concludes the
following Sunday. Lifetime’s
movie will be a dramatization of
the investigation into the killing,
beginning with a 911 call.
JOHN KOBLIN
Yusuf to Go on Tour
Yusuf, the singer-songwriter
best known as Cat Stevens, below, will play what his
representatives are calling his
first public
shows in New
York City since
1976 this fall at
the Beacon
Theater. The
concerts,
scheduled for
Sept. 19 and 20,
are part of a
short tour called “A Cat’s Attic.”
The tour begins in Toronto on
Sept. 12, and will stop in Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Nashville, Chicago, San Francisco and
Los Angeles. In addition to two
nights at the Beacon, Yusuf/Cat
C3
N
JOHN KOBLIN
PHILADELPHIA — Johnathon
Mullen lost both legs to an improvised explosive device in 2011
while serving in Kandahar, Afghanistan. Nathan Kalwicki and
Will Cook also lost limbs in battle:
Mr. Kalwicki in Afghanistan, when
an Afghan soldier turned on his
training corps; Mr. Cook in Iraq,
after stepping on an improvised
bomb at age 18.
They’ve relearned how to walk,
how to exercise, how to navigate
the changed world in front of
them. And they’ve learned how to
jam.
They’re now touring. At the Trocadero Theater in Philadelphia,
during the recent Democratic National Convention, Mr. Mullen laid
down the thumping, driving beat
to Avicii’s “Wake Me Up.” Mr.
Kalwicki and Mr. Cook took up
their acoustic guitars and hammered out the chords, forearms
chopping in unison. A few feet in
front of them stood the vocalist on
Avicii’s Top 10 hit himself, Aloe
Blacc, belting out the chorus.
Unlike Mr. Blacc, this group
hasn’t been on the Billboard
charts. But it has accomplished a
lot in its roughly four years of existence.
“The main thing is the band has
given me purpose and given me
goals that I can work towards,”
Mr. Mullen said. “I used to think,
‘What am I doing with my life?’
And now I can tell people what I’m
doing with my life.”
The band, whose official title is
MusiCorps Wounded Warrior
Band (MusiCorps Band for short),
spun out of a program, also called
MusiCorps, at the Walter Reed
Army Medical Center. MusiCorps,
the program, uses conservatorylevel music training to help
wounded war veterans from Iraq
and Afghanistan as part of their
recovery. But a year or so after
they had all enrolled in the program, they began playing together outside of classes. Soon
enough, they realized, they had a
band and were ready to take their
show on the road.
The MusiCorps program’s
founder, Arthur Bloom, a Juilliardand Yale-trained professional musician, offered to help out. And
some big opportunities — MusiCorps has played at the Kennedy
Center and the Grand Ole Opry,
alongside artists as famous as YoYo Ma — gave the group a boost.
“After playing with Roger Waters, we ended up getting more opportunities,” Mr. Kalwicki said.
“The group of us that could commit the time and put in that effort
to do music, we stuck around and
did it, to where we could do it on
our own and do shows, and support the MusiCorps cause.”
CHRIS HOLLO, VIA GRAND OLE OPRY
The MusiCorps Wounded Warrior Band at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville this May.
The band is paid for its
performances, through a sponsor
or through ticketing, and proceeds from most concerts also
help support the program that
gave birth to them, which Mr.
Bloom started at Walter Reed in
2007.
He had visited the hospital to
meet with a soldier who lost his
leg in Iraq and was desperate to
figure out how to play the drums
again. After “hours and hours” of
conversation, Mr. Bloom said he
saw the potential for a serious music program to help fill some of the
gaping hours many wounded veterans struggle with when they return home.
“These are largely young people who are active and smart and
had all this responsibility, and
then get blown up in every sense
of the word — and everything
comes to a halt,” he said. “Now
they’re a patient in the hospital for
years. I thought, ‘What if we
started a music program?’”
Soon enough, the living rooms
of the Fisher Houses at the old
Walter Reed, where Mr. Bloom
and other professional musicians
piloted the program, were filled
with music — occasionally a cacophony but mostly soaring melodies and beats. Some veterans
practiced for seven or eight hours
a day, becoming more sophisticated musicians in a few
months. More than 50 veterans a
year participate in the program,
and it is growing rapidly.
“They’re all severely injured,”
Mr. Bloom said, “but some of the
service members who were falter-
ing with some other things, this is
what really started the engines up
again.”
Mr. Cook, for example, had
never touched a piano before expressing interest during one of his
guitar sessions with the group at
Walter Reed. He had recently discovered an affinity for Beethoven,
and he began practicing.
Two months later, during a visit
by the Army’s head chaplain at a
holiday event, Mr. Cook sneaked
out and sat down at a piano in a
central hall. He began playing
“Moonlight Sonata.” Slowly, the
Injured veterans find
recovery in a band.
crowd began to gravitate toward
the piano to find Mr. Cook, his tattooed arms and hands gracefully
dancing across the piano keys,
working their way through the
progressions.
The program gave others a new
motivation for recovery.
“I have to work a lot on
strengthening my hips and being
able to be with everything in
time,” explained Mr. Mullen, who
said he had also had to test out
various prosthetics that conformed best with the foot pedal
and high-hat cymbal of his drum
kit. “I’ve gotten into better shape,
and I’ve become faster at drumming over time. The more I do it,
the more that I work on exercises,
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the faster I can play.”
The increasingly high level of
musicianship presented a welcome challenge: problem: how
best to showcase the talent. So Mr.
Bloom rounded up a few of the veterans and started the band.
When their regular singer fell
ill, Mr. Mullen stepped up, building his own percussive guitar so
he could stand at the front of the
stage to sing. Mr. Cook, who had
never sung in front of an audience,
studied and taught himself to sing
the Beatles number “Rocky Raccoon” for their Philadelphia gig.
“It was both terrifying and invigorating,” Mr. Cook recalled.
Musically, the band plays a
blend of Americana. Because each
musician learned in something of
a vacuum, coming raw to the experience with little more than past
musical tastes, any adherence to a
single style or tradition is absent.
But above all, it’s just an interesting group to hang out with.
“Playing the music is part of it,
but also just finding a group of
people that I like — and, like, fit in
with or like to be around,” Mr.
Kalwicki said in a video interview
the band recorded a few years
ago, which played on a giant
screen at their Philadelphia show.
“I think it’s helped, really, in pretty
much all the aspects of my life. My
overall happiness level has gotten
higher. I’m happier now, by a lot.”
He paused as he said that, his
lips beginning to quiver as he
choked back tears.
“There. I don’t have words.”
Then the screen rolled up, and
the band kicked off the next song.
11:00AM, 12:00, 1:00, 2:10, 3:10, 4:20,
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Crossword
ACROSS
Edited by Will Shortz
[See circled
letters]
1
44
Irritation reaction
14
46
Body ___
17
47
[See circled
letters]
52
Longtime
resident of New
York’s Dakota
apartments
23
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Standout
31
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Missing nothing
on
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Wise guy
40
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[See circled
letters]
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Band of
brothers?
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www.angelikafilmcenter.com
Corner of Houston & Mercer 995-2000
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One way to
stand by
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Trunks, of a sort
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ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS:
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CAFÉ SOCIETY
8/11/16
5 Font
akin to
Helvetica
6 Possessed
DOWN
of
savoir-faire
1A
shooting star
has one
7 No-holds-barred
24
8 Disaster
3 Halloween
shelter
9 Michael
(with)
45
Jerk
47
“Mission:
Impossible”
genre
Late start?
27
Northwest brew,
familiarly
48
Musical trio,
often
29
Singer Brickell
who fronted the
New Bohemians
49
Uncommon?
50
One of the seven
principles of
Kwanzaa
51
Blue wail?
55
Texting in a
theater, e.g.
58
Reuters
competitor
sight
handout
Mythical
eponym of
element #41
26
online Q&A
leader
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THE INNOCENTS
13
22
When José Martí
was born
R A W
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THE TENTH MAN
PUZZLE BY TIMOTHY POLIN
41
1 Capital
south of
Lake Volta
6 Qdoba offering
10 J. K. Rowling, by
residence
14 Show in
syndication, say
15 Without restraint
16 Something that
may crash and
break
17 [See circled
letters]
19 Like Antarctica
20 Passed out
21 ___ Dantès, the
Count of Monte
Cristo
23 No one in
particular
25 [See circled
letters]
28 Source of sake
30 Weight lifter
31 [See circled
letters]
33 Excites
38 Winston’s
tormenter in
“1984”
39 “Lincoln” or
“Nixon”
40 “It is better to
give than to
receive,” e.g.
CAFÉ SOCIETY
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of
“Caddyshack”
32
Exasperates
10
Wise guy
34
“___ tricks?”
11
Air when it’s cold
outside?
35
Storied endings?
36
Captain of
industry
37
Jerk
39
Back of a gun
barrel
59
Creature of
habit?
41
Reedy area
60
42
Biodegradable
neckwear
M.A. seeker’s
hurdle
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“Oh, really?!”
Parts of a Santa
Claus balloon
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W 18 Don, as a
chemise
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22 Stephen Colbert
L
forte
S
23 Cant
A
F
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Fill the grid with digits so as not to repeat a digit in any row or column, and so that the digits within each
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C4
N
K
Two Women in Comedy,
Just Seeking Punch Lines
Quite a few comedians have
turned their own lives into television series lately. Fortunately,
that didn’t discourage Rhea
Butcher and Cameron Esposito
from giving it a
try. Their “Take
My Wife” isn’t the
most polished
show in the genre,
TELEVISION
but it has a D.I.Y.
REVIEW
charm and a perspective that have long been
underrepresented on the small
screen.
Ms. Butcher and Ms. Esposito,
comedians and a real-life married couple, play versions of
themselves in “Take My Wife,”
which has its premiere Thursday
on the comedy streaming service
Seeso. They run a comedy showcase and are trying to establish
stand-up careers in a field that
often hasn’t been welcoming to
female comics and certainly not
to lesbian comics. At the same
time, they’re struggling to make
NEIL
GENZLINGER
their romantic relationship work
despite differences in their personalities and career status.
Ms. Esposito plays the confident one and is a little further
along in achieving career success
— a few episodes in, for instance,
she is hired as the opening act
for an established male comic
who is going on tour. Ms. Butcher’s character is still trying to
break in — some of the funniest
scenes show her rehearsing
jokes using a hairbrush or whatever as a microphone. And she
lacks the confidence and assertiveness needed to survive in
show business.
So the show has a lot of
themes to juggle; it’s not just
about the tribulations of being a
lesbian in the comedy world. But
it’s at its sharpest when it takes
on that subject, as when Cameron reads hateful comments about
herself on social media (something she seems addicted to).
“If @cameronesposito stopped
SEESO
Take My Wife Cameron Esposito, left, and Rhea Butcher, who have turned their lives into a series, streaming on Seeso starting Thursday.
joking about being gay, she
wouldn’t have any jokes,” someone types. Has any commenter
ever suggested that if Jim Gaffigan weren’t a straight married
man with children he wouldn’t
have any jokes? Maybe, but
“Take My Wife” makes clear that
women trying to do what Ms.
Esposito and Ms. Butcher are
doing face formidable obstacles.
Yet the show keeps this particular agenda understated. The
main plotline in any episode is
more likely to be lighthearted —
the two accidentally lock a
friend’s baby inside their apartment; they can’t agree on
whether to buy a couch; and so
on. Amusing guest stars like
Maria Bamford and Mary Lynn
Rajskub turn up to add interest.
Some comics are natural actors, but Ms. Butcher and Ms.
Esposito aren’t, which makes for
awkward moments, especially
when the show tries to hit a
somber or intimate note. But the
clunkiness also gives “Take My
Wife” a weird sort of honesty. It’s
as if the women are saying, “This
is us; like it or don’t.”
Analysis of the Poor
Who Love Trump
MARC BRENNER
Ralph Fiennes in “Richard III” at the Almeida Theater in London. This production feels especially politically relevant.
In London? Here Are Some Theater Tips
By BEN BRANTLEY
Below are answers to reader
questions about the London theater scene by Ben Brantley, the
chief theater critic of The New
York Times.
Any discussion on London stages
of American politics?
— Keith Reddin, New York
There’s not a lot of direct discussion of American politics,
though it’s not been hard to find
parallels to what’s been happening in the States as well as Europe this summer. The political
factionalism and infighting of the
Almeida’s production of “Richard
III,” starring Ralph Fiennes, feels
especially relevant in that regard. And an American play,
Jesse Eisenberg’s “The Spoils,”
at Trafalgar Studios, turns out to
be far more about xenophobia
and resentment of immigrants
than I thought it was when I first
saw it in New York a year ago.
As Americans traveling to London,
does it make sense to see West
End musicals that we can more
easily see back in the States? Is
there something special about
seeing them in London, or should
we spend our time seeing things
that are only available in London?
— Svitlana Kochman, Chicago
For the most part, I would say
it’s best to stick to the homegrown productions of American
musicals, especially new ones.
British creators and performers
of musicals have greatly expanded their vernacular and
understanding of the form during
the past several decades, but
certain inauthenticities continue
to crop up, especially if thick
American accents are required.
On the other hand, classic
Broadway musicals have been
revitalized and reconceived here
in surprising ways — from Nicholas Hytner’s “Oklahoma!” at the
National Theater in the 1990s to
John Doyle’s “The Color Purple”
at the Menier Chocolate Factory
(which usually does oddball
American musicals proud). Both
transferred to Broadway.
What do you recommend to see in
London in the fall? We do like to
go to London theaters that are Off
West End such as the Almeida, but
we are not familiar with any others. And, no, Harry Potter doesn’t
whet my whistle.
— Jean Conlon, New York
Of course I won’t have seen
much of what will be running
this fall (there’s a quick turnover
on British stages, especially
among the institutional theaters). But I would think that
Kenneth Branagh in “The Entertainer” might be a good bet. (It
will be on until Nov. 12 at the
Garrick.) There’s a new
“Amadeus” opening at the National Theater, if you’re a fan of
that play, and I’m intrigued by a
generations-sweeping work at
the Almeida, “Oil,” written by
Ella Hickson, directed by Carrie
Cracknell and starring AnneMarie Duff, all women of formidable talent.
The season’s big-event play
bids fair to be a new “King Lear”
at the Old Vic, starring Glenda
Jackson, a two-time Oscar winner and fierce stage performer
who retired from acting in the
early 1990s to become a member
of Parliament. Ian McKellen and
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Patrick Stewart, two titans always worth seeing, will be reprising their roles in Harold
Pinter’s “No Man’s Land.” A new
revival of Tom Stoppard’s intellectually antic “Travesties”
will be on at the Menier, directed
by the playwright Patrick Marber. If your tastes run to charismatic young leading men,
Dominic Cooper will be portraying the decadent Earl of Rochester in “The Libertine.”
What small theater company do
you always check up on? I’m a fan
of Menier Chocolate Factory and
Hampstead Theater, but know
there’s more out there.
— Mary Crowley, London
I, too, love intimate theaters,
and London has a lively selection. The Finborough Theater, a
tiny space above a pub not far
from Earl’s Court, always has a
tantalizingly adventurous schedule, often featuring plays (old
and new) you’d never get to see
otherwise. The Southwark Playhouse is another theater that
does wonders in transforming a
small space, and even dares to
reimagine big musicals (like
“Grand Hotel”) within its confines. And every fan of classical
theater should experience, at
least once, the candle-lighted
Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, the
magical winter home of Shakespeare’s Globe, where you can
pretend you’re a Renaissance
audience member, though without the attendant discomfort.
Who are the best directors of the
moment?
— Pablo Halpern, Bethesda, Md.
Among the mainstream establishment, I’d single out Michael
Grandage and Mr. Hytner (who
both now run their own theater
companies) for combining original theatrical wit and resourcefulness with commercial instincts. (Mr. Branagh’s new
company, in its first year, has
been a bit disappointing.) I’ve
loved what Josie Rourke, the
artistic director of the Donmar
Warehouse, has done with her
all-female interpretations of
Shakespeare, staged by Phyllida
Lloyd. Lyndsey Turner has a
vital imagination (the Benedict
Cumberbatch “Hamlet,” the
current revival of “Faith
Healer”) and a macrovision to
match. John Tiffany (the “Harry
Potter” wizard) combines poetry
and razzmatazz like no one else.
And Ms. Cracknell (whose “Doll’s
House” for the Young Vic was a
wonder) is someone whose work
I’d always want to see.
people — hillbillies, rednecks,
white trash, choose your epithet
(or term of affection, depending
on your point of view) — didn’t
step off the Mayflower and become part of America’s ascendant class. “Poverty is the family
tradition,” he writes. His ancestors and kin were sharecroppers,
coal miners, machinists, millworkers — all low-paying, bodywearying occupations that over
the years have vanished or offered diminished security.
Mr. Vance was raised in Middletown, Ohio, a now-decaying
steel town filled with Kentucky
transplants, which at one point
included his Mamaw and Papaw
— in newscaster English, that’s
grandma and grandpa — who
moved there shortly after World
War II. Though the couple
eventually managed to achieve
the material comforts of a middle-class life (house, car), they
brought their Appalachian values
and habits with them. Some were
wonderfully positive, like loyalty
and love of country. But others,
like a tendency toward violence
and verbal abuse, were inimical
to family life.
Papaw was forever coming
home drunk. Mamaw, “a violent
nondrunk,” was forever tormenting him, whether by serving him
artfully arranged plates of
garbage for dinner or dousing
him with gasoline. All this guerrilla warfare affected their children. Mr. Vance’s mother was an
empress of instability — violent,
feckless, prone to hysteria. A
long stint in rehab couldn’t shake
her addiction to prescription
narcotics (she’d later move on to
heroin). She spun through more
boyfriends than this reader could
count and at least five husbands.
The only reason Mr. Vance
made it out in one piece is because his grandparents
eventually reconciled, becoming
his unofficial guardians. (He also
spent a terrifically affirming four
years in the Marines.) Mamaw
was especially encouraging. She
was tough as snakeskin, foulmouthed as a mobster and filled
with love. In a town where many
children don’t finish high school,
she raised a grandson who managed to graduate from Ohio State
University and Yale Law School,
defying skyscraping odds.
“Hillbilly Elegy,” in my mind,
divides into two components: the
family stories Mr. Vance tells —
most of which are no doubt better experienced on the page than
they were in real life — and the
questions he raises. Chief among
them: How much should he hold
his hillbilly kin responsible for
their own misfortunes?
In Mr. Vance’s estimation, the
answer is: a lot. Economic insecurity, he’s convinced, accounts
for only a small part of his
community’s problems; the
much larger issue is hillbilly
culture itself. Though proud of it
in many ways, he’s also convinced that it “increasingly encourages social decay instead of
counteracting it.”
His frustration with the nonworking white poor is especially
acute. He recalls being a cashier
at a Middletown grocery store
and watching resentfully as his
neighbors, who had creatively
gamed the welfare system, jabbered on their cellphones as they
were going through the checkout
line.
He could not afford a cellphone.
“Political scientists have spent
millions of words trying to explain how Appalachia and the
South went from staunchly
Democratic to staunchly Republican in less than a generation,”
Mr. Vance writes. He suspects
those cellphones have a lot to do
with it. “I could never understand why our lives felt like a
struggle while those living off of
government largess enjoyed
‘Providing a civilized
reference guide for an
uncivilized election.’
trinkets that I only dreamed
about.”
Time and again, Mr. Vance
preaches a message of tough
love and personal responsibility.
He has no patience with an old
acquaintance who told him he
quit his job because he hated
waking up early, only to take to
Facebook to blame the “Obama
economy.” Or with a former
co-worker at a tile warehouse
who missed work once a week
though his girlfriend was pregnant.
Squint, and you’ll note the
incendiary nature of Mr. Vance’s
argument. It’s always treacherous business to blame a group
for its own misfortunes. Certainly, an outsider cannot say
what Mr. Vance is saying to his
kin and kind. But he can — just
as President Obama can say to
fellow African-Americans,
“brothers should pull up their
pants,” as he did on MTV.
The difference is that Presi-
NAOMI McCOLLOCH
J.D. Vance
dent Obama believes poverty,
though it may have a cultural
component, is largely a structural problem, one the government
can play a large role in fixing. Mr.
Vance, a conservative, takes a
far dimmer view.
Whether you agree with Mr.
Vance or not, you must admire
him for his head-on confrontation
with a taboo subject. And he
frames his critique generously,
stipulating that it isn’t laziness
that’s destroying hillbilly culture
but what the psychologist Martin
Seligman calls “learned helplessness” — the fatalistic belief, born
of too much adversity, that nothing can be done to change your
lot.
What he’s really writing about
is despair.
Never is Mr. Vance more
aware of this pessimism and
estrangement than when he
leaves for Ohio State University.
He’s plumped with hope; his
neighbors, left behind, feel its
opposite. “There was something
almost spiritual,” he writes,
“about the cynicism of the community at large.”
His friends and relations are
convinced that the media lies.
That politicians lie. That the
military, an institution they revere, is fighting two fruitless
wars. Universities feel “rigged”
and inaccessible; job prospects
are slim. For what purpose do
you live under such circumstances? When the stanchions of
your life have sunk into the
muck?
Mr. Vance doesn’t have all the
answers. But he’s advancing the
conversation.
The Times Book Review,
every Sunday
N
C5
KRISTA SCHLUETER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Above, Rae Sremmurd in New York in 2014. The brothers who make up this duo released their first album last year and have followed that up with a new one, “SremmLife 2.”
Flashes of Excitement Amid an Album’s Darkness
the duo took their name) —
their vision of night life now
takes in ominous piano, industrial noise and deflated tempos.
Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi are
still, by and large, ecstatic, but
the music is slurry.
As a musical exercise, this
tactic is fascinating. The interplay of joy and tension is intense
on this album, especially on
songs like “By Chance” and “Do
Yoga,” which take the duo’s
preferred subject matter —
parties that outdo all the other
parties, women that outdo all
the other women — and renders
it hazy, as if underscoring some
secret horror.
The brothers of Rae Sremmurd are still, despite a boat-
load of hits (“No Flex Zone,” “No
Type,” “Throw Sum Mo”), mildly
anonymous beneath their outlandish outfits and even more
outlandish catchphrases. For the
record, Swae Lee is the excitable
Venturing into
sometimes harrowing
musical territory.
one, his voice often contracting
into a scratchy squeal. Slim
Jxmmi is vocally burlier and
direct. They both rap with pregnant pauses between their lines,
which only serves to emphasize
how dramatically the production
environment around them has
changed.
There are songs here that
deepen the brothers’ lyrical
range — the spooky “Came a
Long Way” is a meditation on
overcoming difficult obstacles,
and on “Now That I Know” and
“Take It or Leave It,” they come
off as the scorned, not the
scorners.
That said, the brothers’ rapping is less interesting than it
was last time, at least in terms of
word choice. But they remain
committed to character, boisterously yelping about fame and its
perks. And even though they’re
slightly older now — Swae Lee is
23, and Slim Jxmmi is 24 —
they’re not above, depending on
your angle, playing to meme
culture or pandering to it. Lyrics
on this album nod to both the
“Get you a man who can do both”
and “New phone who dis?”
memes, a ripped-from-the-Instagram-captions strategy.
But the quieter innovation on
this album is how, thanks to the
more-meditative production,
“SremmLife 2” is at times a
commentary on and an updating
of decades of Southern club rap.
This is especially true midway
through the album, when “Shake
It Fast” segues into “Set the
Roof.” The first of those songs
sounds like a gothic take on
early bass music, the sound of
Atlanta and Miami in the late
1980s, and features Juicy J of the
jagged Memphis pioneers Three
6 Mafia. “Set the Roof” features
Lil Jon — the partystarter who
helped pave the path for Rae
Sremmurd — shouting party
chants in the rhythm of the Gap
Band’s “I Don’t Believe You
Want to Get Up and Dance
(Oops!).”
That Rae Sremmurd might be
part of a tradition — an inheritor
and remaker of history, not an
attacker of it — is something
that’s often lost on the duo’s
You Want
The Hits?
He’s Happy
To Oblige
Paul McCartney at MetLife
Stadium, where he played
his Wings hits but also
pulled liberally from his
Beatles catalog in a nearly
three-hour concert.
explaining you wrote the song
while watching the Civil Rights
struggles in the United States in
the ’60s. Has it taken on renewed
significance for you in a Black
Lives Matter world?
Yeah. Definitely. We have a
new film coming out that Ron
Howard has put together called
“Eight Days a Week” about the
touring years of the Beatles. In
doing his research, he brings out
the fact that we refused to play
in Jacksonville [Fla.] one time
because the audience was
segregated. And not only that,
he found the contract — it said,
like, point No. 12, the Beatles will
not play to a segregated audience. I felt so proud for us to
have done that then.
question I ask myself is, how
can they afford it? You’re like,
in the front row, and he’s been
107 times! What I really do for
both of them is try to do a show
that I would like to go and see.
So I first of all sit down and
think, if I was going to see him,
I’d want him to do this, and he
couldn’t leave out that, and I
really hope he’ll do this. So
those songs are the starting
point. And then we start to kick
things around in rehearsal, and
my band will sometimes suggest an idea, or I’ll hear something on the radio and think, we
should do that.
Are you familiar with the Guns N’
Roses version of “Live and Let
Die”? They played it at MetLife
two weeks before you got there
(but your pyro was much more
explosive).
Bob Dylan is also on tour now,
playing almost exclusively new
songs. Can you imagine doing
that?
I’ve thought about that a lot.
Theoretically, the philosophy is
good, because, well, you’re not
playing songs you’ve played a
lot. But my concern is for the
audience. I remember when I
went to concerts, particularly
when I was a kid, it was a lot of
money you had to save up. So I
imagine myself going to my
show: Would I like to hear him
play all new songs? No. I
wouldn’t want to do that. I
would do a smaller gig and
advertise the fact up front — I’d
probably call the tour “Deep
Cuts” or something, so you
knew it was going to be just
really deep cuts that only the
aficionados would know. I think
if I did that, it could be quite
fun.
It’s interesting how much you
many detractors. Along the way,
the two have become something
of a punching bag for hip-hop’s
conservative wing, an unlikely
flash point in the genre’s everroiling internal culture wars.
Their youth, their penchant for
Day-Glo themes and avoidance
of intricate rhyme schemes have
all been weaponized against
them.
Those critiques, as ever, are
tiresome and the product of the
value system of an earlier time.
In hip-hop, innovations in character, texture and presentation
are just as important as those in
lyrical dexterity and punch lines.
Maligning Rae Sremmurd for
prioritizing the extra-lyrical
portions of the genre reveals
only how nostalgia leaves unfillable holes in people’s hearts, and
taste.
JACOB BLICKENSTAFF FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
think about the audience being
entertained or disappointed.
Having been one, and having
spent what for me was a lot of
money. And that was very much
the Beatles’ philosophy. If you
think about our singles, there
was an A and a B side. Normally
people put a bit of rubbish on the
B side, but the Beatles B sides
are really always good. We used
to call it “value for money.”
Because we had all recently
been those teenagers that we
were now appealing to. It’s
funny, Phil Spector, we were
really sort of quite in awe of his
records, so we met him once,
and he said, “Why did you put a
good song on the B side?” We
said, come on Phil, you’ve got
kids out there, you got to give
them value for money. And he
said, no, what you want to do is
you want to put the A side out,
and you want to take the vocal
off, and put it on the B side, put
the backing track on the B side,
and call it “Sing Along With ‘She
Loves You.’” And we go, no way!
When you first toured after the
Beatles, you played very few
Beatles songs. Now, they constitute over half the set.
The only reason I didn’t want
to do them right after the Beatles was I had just started Wings,
and I thought, there’s no way I
can start Wings and still keep
playing Beatles songs. So I kind
of put an embargo on them, and
all the promoters were quite
upset. But then eventually we
got well known. Right about
1976, Wings had a big American
tour. And then I started to think,
you know what, it’s O.K. now.
Now that we’ve established
ourselves, I can now acknowledge my other group.
I never used to do anything
unless it was something that I
had done the main vocal on.
Which is still true, most of the
songs, but now I’ve started to do
things like “A Hard Day’s Night,”
which was mainly John’s vocal.
That I would have called a John
song, but you know, I helped
write it, and it’s a similar thing
for a song called “Being for the
Benefit of Mr. Kite!” In the end,
it’s just down to whether it’s a
good song to do. I had always
said I could never do that song
because it’s got such a complicated bass part that it’s almost
impossible to sing the melody,
which is kind of contrapuntal.
But in the end, I thought, stop
being a wimp, let’s try and see if
you can do it. And I manned up
and learned it.
Are there any Beatles songs you
can’t or won’t play?
There’s a lot that I probably
won’t play, just because there
are other songs that I would
rather play. I don’t have a sort of
hatred for any of them. I’m
pretty much a fan of everything
the Beatles did. A man of good
taste!
You introduced “Blackbird” by
It’s funny, because when their
version came out, my kids were
in school, and they had a lot of
defending to do, because all the
kids said, “Great song, ‘Live and
Let Die!’ ” They said, “My dad
did that!” “No way, it’s Guns N’
Roses!” I was happy they did it.
I thought it was a nice little nod.
I’m glad to hear our pyro is
bigger and better.
In times of chaos, fans gravitate
to the comfort and perspective of
a song like “Let It Be.” Have the
feelings you experience while
playing it changed over the years?
You know, strangely it hasn’t
changed that much. I always
expect to reach a point where
I’m really jaded, and I’ll think,
Oh, not again! But as I start it
up, I’m reviewing this young
guy’s work. And maybe a line or
a phrase will strike me, and I’ll
think, the kid was good!
C6
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E:60
ESPNCL College Football (6)
College Football From Sept. 19, 2009.
ESQTV
. Invictus (2009). Morgan Freeman. President and rugby coach become allies in South Africa. Rousing. (PG-13) . Invictus (2009). Morgan Freeman, Matt Damon. (PG-13)
NCIS: Los Angeles (14)
College Football From Jan. 1, 2013.
FOOD
Chopped “Big Fish, Small Basket.” Chopped “Cooking With Bass.” (G) Chopped “Truck Stop Stars.” (G)
The O’Reilly Factor (N)
The Kelly File (N)
Susteren (N)
FREEFRM Runaway Bride (1999). (PG) (5:30) . Forrest Gump (1994). Tom Hanks, Sally Field. (PG-13)
FOXNEWS On the Record With Greta Van
College Football
Beat Bobby Flay Beat Bobby Flay Beat Bobby Flay Beat Bobby Flay Chopped (G)
Hannity (N)
The O’Reilly Factor
The Kelly File
The 700 Club (G)
Kim Possible
FS1
Speak for Yourself
FUSE
FXX
Son of No One Out of Time (2003). Police chief suspected of arson. Enjoyably stylized but shallow noir.
Fast & Furious 6 (2013). Vin Die- The Hangover Part III (2013). Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms. Wolfpack resel, Paul Walker. (PG-13) (5)
turns to Vegas. This time there’s no cure. (R)
Act of Valor (2012). Roselyn San- X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart. A cure
chez, Jason Cottle. (R) (5:30)
for mutations divides the X-Men. Generically serviceable. (PG-13)
Snow White and the Huntsman (5) The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons
Gallowwalkers (2012). Gunfighter’s victims rise from the dead. (R)
Doing Hard
Sex&Drugs&
Sex&Drugs&
Sex&Drugs&
The Hangover Part III (2013). BradRock&Roll (N) Rock&Roll
Rock&Roll
ley Cooper, Ed Helms. (R) (11:39)
X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). Hugh Jackman, Patrick Stewart. A cure Chronicle
for mutations divides the X-Men. Generically serviceable. (PG-13) (9:53) (2012). (PG-13)
The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons The Simpsons Archer (MA)
FYI
Man vs. Child: Chef Showdown
Kitchen Nightmares (Part 2 of 2)
GOLF
P.G.A. Tour Golf
P.G.A. Tour Golf John Deere Classic, first round. From TPC Deere Run in Silvis, Ill.
GSN
Family Feud
Family Feud
Family Feud
HALL
Last Man Standing Last Man Standing Last Man Standing Last Man Standing The Middle (PG) The Middle (PG) The Middle (PG) The Middle (PG) Golden Girls
Golden Girls
HGTV
Flip or Flop (G) Flip or Flop (G)
Mountain Men “Crash and Burn.”
Tom takes on the Snake. (PG)
Dr. Drew (N)
48 Hours on ID “Dangerous
Games.” (14)
Zombieland (2009). Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg. (R) (6)
. Julie & Julia (2009). Meryl
Streep, Amy Adams. (PG-13) (5)
The Preacher’s Sin (2015). J.R.
Bourne, Allie Gonino. (6)
FX
FXM
HIST
HLN
ID
IFC
LIFE
LMN
Family Feud
7:00
LOGO
M.L.B. Whiparound (N) (Live)
7:30
Family Feud
Family Feud
Open Wrap Up
U.F.C. Reloaded Stipe Miocic battles Mark Hunt.
Winsanity (N)
Winsanity (N)
Family Feud
Fox Sports Live Speak for Your
Kitchen Nightmares (14) (11:02)
Family Feud
High Stakes
Flip or Flop (G) Flip or Flop (G) Flip or Flop (G) House Hunters Hunters Int’l
House Hunters Hunters Int’l
Mountain Men “Concussion.” Eu- Mountain Men “The Bull & the
Ice Road Truckers “Feeling the
Mountain Men “Crash and Burn.”
stace must accept his injuries. (PG) Bear.” (N) (PG)
Heat.” (N) (14) (10:03)
Tom takes on the Snake. (PG) (11:03)
Nancy Grace (N)
Forensic Files Forensic Files Forensic Files Forensic Files Forensic Files Forensic Files
48 Hours on ID “Gone.” A man’s
Unraveled “Day of Reckoning.” A
Deadly Sins “A Vote For Death.”
48 Hours on ID “Gone.” A man’s
estranged girlfriend disappears. (14) family man commits a murder. (N) (N) (14)
estranged girlfriend disappears. (14)
Rush Hour 3 (2007). Jackie Chan, Chris Tucker. Carter and Lee battle Austin Powers in Goldmember (2002). Austin time-travels to 1970’s to
Chinese gangsters in Paris. Junky, clunky, grimly unfunny. (PG-13)
rescue his father. Bloated, decadent and down-and-out funny. (PG-13)
Friends With Benefits (2011). Justin Timberlake, Mila Kunis. Friends, both dumped, add
Dirty Teacher (2013, TVF). Josie Davis. A high school
sex to their menu. “Scream” of rom-coms. (R)
senior is framed for murder by her teacher. (10:32)
Bad Sister (2016, TVF). Ryan Newman, Devon Werkheiser. Woman
The Preacher’s Mistress (2013, TVF). Sarah Lancaster, Natalia Cigliuti.
poses as nun at boarding school.
Woman’s affair with cleric ties her to murder.
8:00
8:30
9:00
9:30
Man vs. Child
Rio Olympics Men’s Golf, first round.
10:00
10:30
11:00
11:30
Winsanity (PG)
Golden Girls
Flip or Flop (G)
Mountain Men
(PG) (12:03)
Forensic Files
Unraveled “Day
of Reckoning.”
. Austin Powers:
Man of Mystery
Friends With
Benefits (12:02)
Bad Sister
(2016, TVF).
MLB
MSG
Hahn & Humpty
MSGPL
World Team Tennis Springfield Lasers vs. Philadelphia Freedoms. (6:30)
. Jerry Maguire (1996). Tom Cruise, Cuba Gooding Jr. (R)
The Game 365
The Rachel Maddow Show (N)
The Last Word
MTV
Kingin’ Tyga
Wild ’n Out
Wild ’n Out
NBCS
Rio Olympics
Rio Olympics Table Tennis, Volleyball, Shooting. Table tennis; volleyball; shooting.
NGEO
Lockdown “Gang War.” (14)
Lockdown “County Jail.” (14)
NICK
Henry Danger
. Rio (2011). Pet macaw is kidnapped by smugglers. High-flying kids’ movie. Full House (G)
NICKJR
Bubble Guppies Bubble Guppies Shimmer Shine Wallykazam! (Y) Peppa Pig (Y)
NY1
Inside City Hall
OVA
Day in the Life
OWN
20/20 on OWN (14)
OXY
Nick Cannon: Wild ’n Out
Thundermans
Wild ’n Out
New York Tonight
Day in the Life
Wild ’n Out
Lockdown “Total Control.” (14)
Peppa Pig (Y)
The Call
All In With Chris Hayes
Rachel Maddow
Kingin’ Tyga
Kingin’ Tyga
Wild ’n Out
Sports
Lockdown “Sex Offenders.” (MA)
Full House (G)
TRIUMPH’S SUMMER ELECTION SPECIAL
2016 on Hulu. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog
reports from the conventions, photobombs
Anderson Cooper and commandeers a
Westboro Baptist Church demonstration.
LUTHER on iTunes. His beard is flecked with
gray now, his soul bedeviled by the ghost of
Alice Morgan. And you can’t help wondering
what’s lurking in his head. But when D.C.I. John
Luther regains his senses more than a year
after abandoning us on Southwark Bridge and
swaggers — as only Idris Elba can — into
London, you’ll swear you feel the world right
itself on its axis. Mr. Elba earned his fourth
Emmy nomination for this signature role, which
this season amounts to a two-episode
hide-and-seek with a cannibalistic serial killer.
And for more of Ruth Wilson after her delicious
turn as Morgan, check out “The Affair” on
Showtime.com and Amazon.
ZODIAK RIGHTS LIMITED
Tennis From Mar. 8, 2016.
Joking Off (N)
WHAT’S STREAMING
Hahn & Humpty
Tennis
MSNBC Hardball With Chris Matthews (N) All In With Chris Hayes (N)
CLOSE ENCOUNTERS OF THE THIRD KIND
(1977) 9 p.m. on Starz. An electrical lineman
(Richard Dreyfuss) in Indiana finds life
changed for the weirder after a run-in with an
unidentified flying object in Steven Spielberg’s
sci-fi classic. François Truffaut, one of Mr.
Spielberg’s film heroes, played the French
scientist at the helm of an international U.F.O.
team — and in his free time worked on the
script for “The Man Who Loved Women.” It’s
spectacular throughout, in a disco kind of way,
Vincent Canby wrote in The New York Times.
But the film’s last 40 minutes “are what it’s all
about — and they are breathtaking.”
12:00
House on Haunted Hill (1999). Geof- House on Haunted Hill (1999). Geoffrey Rush, Famke Janssen. Strang- The Stepford Wives (2004). Nicole Kidman. Couple moves to suburb
The Stepford
frey Rush, Famke Janssen. (R) (6)
ers offered $1 million to spend night in scary mansion. Junky remake. (R) where women seem strangely the same. Cheerfully robotic farce. (PG-13) Wives (2004).
M.L.B. Tonight (6)
M.L.B. Regional Coverage.
M.L.B. Tonight
Quick Pitch
Hahn & Humpty
COLUMBIA PICTURES
A scene from “Close Encounters.”
Lockdown “Total Control.” (14)
Lockdown (MA)
Friends (PG)
Friends (PG)
Friends (14)
Dora & Friends Go, Diego, Go!
Wallykazam! (Y) Team Umizoomi Blaze Monster
Inside City Hall
News
Sports on 1 The Last Word. (11:35)
The Man in the Iron Mask (1998). Corrupt Louis XIV displaced by twin. A clinker, despite riveting Leo. (PG-13) First Knight (1995). Camelot. Stiff and anachronistic.
20/20 on OWN “Lies of the Mind.” 20/20 on ID “Death by Driving.” (14) 20/20 on OWN (14)
20/20 on OWN “Lies of the Mind.”
. Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Robin Williams, Sally Field. (PG)
America’s Next Top Model (6:57) . Mrs. Doubtfire (1993). Robin Williams, Sally Field. (PG)
20/20 on ID (14)
Something’s
Eldar Skar
OCCUPIED on Netflix. In the near future in
Norway, the government decides to address
climate change by cutting off oil and gas
production, plunging Europe into a crisis and
prompting an intervention led by Russia. The
United States, meanwhile, has withdrawn from
NATO. Henrik Mestad stars as Prime Minister
Jesper Berg, determined to stay in power until
the situation calms down; Eldar Skar is Hans
Martin Djupvik, his bodyguard. The crime
writer Jo Nesbo conjured up the situation
behind this series, the most expensive ever
made in Norway.
SCIENCE Unearthed (PG)
Unearthed “Secrets at the Palace.” Unearthed (PG) (9:01)
Unearthed (PG) (10:02)
Unearthed (PG) (11:03)
Unearthed (PG)
SMITH
Mighty Cruise Ships “Le Soléal.”
Sinking the Lusitania: Tragedy
Mighty Planes “P-3 Orion.” (G)
Sinking the Lusitania: Tragedy
Hell Below (PG)
SNY
Amazin Finish
SPIKE
Step Brothers (2008). Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly. (R) (6:30)
STZENF
KATHRYN SHATTUCK
TRAV
Getting Even With Dad (1994). Ted Danson. (PG) (6:49) Dad (1989). Jack Lemmon, Ted Danson. (PG) (8:39)
The Princess Diaries (2001). Julie Andrews, Anne Hathaway. (G) (10:37)
Law & Order “Violence of SumLaw & Order “Jeopardy.” McCoy
Law & Order “Paranoia.” Dead
Law & Order “Humiliation.” A sur- Law & Order “Angel.” A woman
Law & Order
mer.” (PG)
suspects a judge of foul play. (14) coed’s roommate is suspect. (14)
geon is convicted of murder. (PG) says her baby was kidnapped. (PG) “Blood Libel.”
Hulk (2003). Eric Bana, Jennifer Connelly. Scientist transforms into pow- The Incredible Hulk (2008). Edward Norton, Liv Tyler. Big green hero battles evil. “AdPush (2009). Chris Evans, Dakota
erful brute. Incredibly tedious. (PG-13) (6)
equate Hulk” would be more accurate. (PG-13)
Fanning. (PG-13)
Seinfeld “The
Seinfeld “The
2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls
The Big Bang
The Big Bang
2 Broke Girls
2 Broke Girls
Conan Emilia Clarke; Jason Jones. 2 Broke Girls
Parking Space.” Keys.” (PG)
(14)
(14)
Theory (PG)
Theory (PG)
(14)
(14)
(14)
(14)
. Desk Set (1957). Spencer Tracy, . Judgment at Nuremberg (1961). Spencer Tracy, Maximilian Schell. Nazi trials. Strong and sterling, all
. Bad Day at Black Rock (1954). One-armed man shakKatharine Hepburn. (6)
hands.
ing up one Old West town. Strong, ugly, haunting. (11:15)
My 600-Lb. Life “Olivia’s Story.”
My 600-Lb. Life “Sean’s Story.”
600 Pound Mom (PG)
600 Pound Mom
My Big Fat Fabulous Life (PG)
600 Pound Mom
. 50 First Dates (2004). Adam Sandler, Drew Barrymore. (PG-13)
Castle “Kill Switch.” A man takes
Due Date (2010). Robert Downey Jr., Zach Galifianakis. Architect has to CSI: NY “Rush to
subway passengers hostage. (PG)
take road trip with rube. The joke is on us. (R)
Judgment.” (14)
Mysteries at the Museum (PG)
Mysteries at
TRU
Imp. Jokers
★ Recommended film
☆ Recommended series
New or noteworthy program
(N) New show or episode
(CC) Closed-captioned
(HD) High definition
Ratings:
(Y)All children
(Y7) Directed to older children
(G) General audience
(PG) Parental guidance suggested
(14) Parents strongly cautioned
(MA) Mature audience only
SUN
SYFY
TBS
TCM
TLC
TNT
Hell Below (PG)
M.L.B. Arizona Diamondbacks vs. New York Mets.
Imp. Jokers
Imp. Jokers
Imp. Jokers
SportsNite
N.F.L. Preseason Football Jaguars vs. Jets
Lip Sync Battle Lip Sync Battle Lip Sync Battle Lip Sync Battle Lip Sync Battle The Rundown (2003). (PG-13)
Imp. Jokers
Imp. Jokers
Imp. Jokers
Inside Jokes
Imp. Jokers
Imp. Jokers
Imp. Jokers
TVLAND Andy Griffith
WGN-A
Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith
Loves Raymond Loves Raymond Loves Raymond Loves Raymond Loves Raymond King of Queens King of Queens King of Queens
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Queen of the South “Billete de
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Mr. Robot (14)
“Undercover Blue.” (14)
“Legitimate Rape.” (14)
“Chicago Crossover.” (14)
Magia.” (N) (14)
“Denial.” (14)
. Friday (1995). Ice Cube, Chris Tucker. (R)
Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta (14)
The Wood (1999). Omar Epps, Sean Nelson. (R)
Friday (1995). (R)
Braxton Family Values “This Is Not Braxton Family Values “Trick Thy Braxton Family Values “Flippin’ the Cutting It: In the ATL “World Wide Braxton Family Values “Flippin’ the Cutting It: In the
About ReKindlerization.or Is It?”
Sister.” Gabe comes clean to Trina. Bird.” (N) (PG)
Web of Lies.” (N) (14)
Bird.” (PG)
ATL (14)
Cops (PG)
Cops (PG)
Cops (14)
Cops (PG)
Cops (PG)
Cops (PG)
Cops (PG)
Cops (14)
Cops (14)
Cops (PG)
Cops (PG)
YES
M.L.B. New York Yankees vs. Boston Red Sox.
USA
VH1
WE
New York Yankees Postgame
Yankeeography
M.L.B.
ONLINE: TELEVISION LISTINGS
Television highlights for a full week, recent
reviews by The Times’s critics and complete
local television listings.
nytimes.com/tv
Definitions of symbols used in the program listings:
The TV ratings are assigned by the producers or network.
Ratings for theatrical films are provided by the Motion Picture
Association of America.
4 SKIN DEEP
8 GEAR
How Madison Keys beats the
sun on court. BY BEE SHAPIRO
Practical issues for men’s tote
bags. BY GUY TREBAY
6 SCENE CITY
6 CHECKOUT TIME
Meryl Streep is a silent film
star. BY ALEX WILLIAMS
The Out Hotel can’t find its
audience. BY KATHERINE ROSMAN
FASHION
BEAUTY
NIGHTLIFE
D1
N
M IS S IN G W E R E
THE
S E N T IM E N TA L
AND THE
CO LLEC T IBLE .
MAR CERDÀ
The Twilight Zone of Staging
How my home was turned into an eerie domestic experiment
that I didn’t recognize and couldn’t imagine living in.
By PETER HALDEMAN
SANTA BARBARA, CALIF. — On a recent Fri-
day evening I pulled into the driveway of
the weekend home here that my partner
and I have shared for the last couple of
years — and registered the first in a series
of “Twilight Zone”-ish shocks. The car headlights swept the glass sliders of our modern
house, illuminating a reconfiguration of the
living room furniture so curious, I half-suspected slippage on the Ventura Fault.
I let myself in, flipped on some lights, and
discovered the room had been filled with
enough white moth orchids to stock a Home
Depot nursery. Our bookshelves, on the
other hand, were largely denuded, save for
the odd antler fragment or coffee mug. I
made my way to our bedroom: more orchids, draped chenille throws, stacks of decorative pillows. It looked like a suite at the
Marriott.
As disorienting (and puzzling) as any of
the additions to the rooms were the
deletions. The missing pieces included the
sentimental (photographs), the collectible
(a Nakashima table) and the indispensable
(the dog bed).
Dee-dee, dee-dee; dee-dee, dee-dee. Submitted for your approval: You return to
your home to discover it both is and isn’t
your home, an eerie domestic experiment
melding the familiar and the strange, beCONTINUED ON PAGE D7
The Choreographer Becomes the Star
Tricia Miranda is a den mother
to young dancers.
By ALEX HAWGOOD
KENDRICK BRINSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Celebrity Stylists
Rob Zangardi and Mariel Haenn work
with J. Lo and Gwen Stefani. Page 5
Among choreographers, Tricia Miranda
was one of pop music’s top movers and
shakers.
She had a hand in choreographing Missy
Elliott’s surprise appearance at the 2015 Super Bowl halftime show. She created several of Beyoncé’s in-your-face dance moves
from her “Diva” video from 2008. She even
appeared in front of the camera, in a promotional dance video for Iggy Azalea’s single
“Team.”
But that wasn’t enough. In an era when
dance has exploded thanks to social media,
Ms. Miranda wanted to share her dance
moves, unfiltered, with the rest of the world.
So in 2014, she hired a videographer to
tape her dance studio in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles, with
students performing her signature moves,
blending hip-hop swagger with a gymnastic
breakneck pace.
The first video, with a series of 20-something dancers strutting their stuff to Nicki
Minaj’s “Anaconda,” was uploaded to
YouTube and has gotten more than 27 milCONTINUED ON PAGE D5
NATHANIEL WOOD FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Tricia Miranda’s YouTube channel is a master class for aspiring music-video dancers.
D2
N
Vuitton and Dior on the Scent Trail
The brands embark on new
fragrance initiatives.
By ELIZABETH PATON
“Perfume today has lost its soul. It is far too
mass and too marketed, lacking in personality.”
That was Michael Burke, chairman and
chief executive of Louis Vuitton, talking last
month about why, after a 70-year hiatus, the
French luxury house has been quietly plotting a high-profile return to the global fine
fragrance market.
“We see a big growth opportunity in offering artisanal fragrance that harks back to
the ways they used to be conceived of and
purchased,” he said. “But that means doing
things the right way, and the right way
takes time.”
It also takes, apparently, a new home
base in Grasse, a picturesque town nestled
amid fields of roses, lavender, jasmine and
tuberose in the sun-soaked hills above the
French Riviera — and the perfume capital
of the world.
That’s where, in 2013, Vuitton bought Les
Fontaines Parfumées, a terra-cotta-hued
17th-century perfumery surrounded by lush
lawns, fountains and more than 350 species
of flowers and plants.
The estate had spent much of the 20th
century in a state of disrepair, having
opened its doors as a perfumery in 1640.
Vuitton renovated it and installed a state-ofthe-art laboratory on its top floor, with
Jacques Cavallier Belletrud, a third-generation Grasse-born perfumer and industry
supremo, at its helm.
There, Mr. Cavallier Belletrud, 54, was
given free rein: “no brief, no budget,” he told
reporters assembled in New York in July.
What scents have blossomed from these
hefty investments remain highly confidential. The expectation is that there will be
seven new perfumes, infused with notes including leather, tuberose and other florals,
housed in crystal bottles designed by Marc
Newson and unveiled this September in
Vuitton’s 473 boutiques worldwide.
“We cannot share exactly what will be inside these bottles with more than a handful
of people before they arrive in the stores,”
said the otherwise jovial Mr. Cavallier Belletrud, who is famed for past fragrance creations like L’Eau d’Issey by Issey Miyake,
Midnight Poison by Christian Dior and
Stella by Stella McCartney. “At the highest
end of the market, perfume is a world based
on secrets.”
“The best noses in the world are based in
these hills, but there are deep, deep rivalries in Grasse, as well as in the wider sector,” he said in the perfumery in Grasse,
framed by sun-soaked droplets of color
from a newly restored Art Deco stainedglass window. “What we are doing here is
not just chemistry. It is alchemy. We keep
our cards close to our chest.”
He held a bottle of jasmine extract in his
hand. With a value of over $130,000 for a 35ounce bottle, he said, the content is several
times more expensive than gold.
That said, some friendly faces linger.
Across the hall from Mr. Cavallier Bellutrud’s office is one occupied by François
Demachy, the perfumer for Parfums Christian Dior, which is (not coincidentally) also
owned by the parent company of Louis Vuitton, LVMH. Dior has similarly raised the
ante this year when it comes to
strengthening its position in the fragrance
market.
In the spring it unveiled its own blockbuster Grasse renovation project. About 12
miles from the town center lies Château de
La Colle Noire, a gorgeous Provençal house
and gardens bought by Christian Dior in
1951, which later became the countryside re-
PHOTOGRAPHS BY REBECCA MARSHALL FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Les Fontaines Parfumées, top, bought
by Louis Vuitton in 2013, now has a
state-of-the-art laboratory on its top
floor. Above, Jacques Cavallier Belletrud
testing a scent in the lab.
treat where he spent his twilight years before his death in 1957.
The house of Dior bought the estate in
2013 and set about painstakingly refurbishing all of the rooms, including Dior’s office
and the entrance hall, as well as reimagining 21st-century additions, such as the Chagall, Bernard, Picasso and Dali bedroom
suites, treats for the lucky few brand
ambassadors, LVMH executives and members of the press invited to stay overnight.
The chateau it is not open to the public,
but those curious to get a sense of the place
can pick up a new fragrance inspired by the
property, also called La Colle Noire and with
notes of Grasse’s local rose de mai, now on
sale at $210 a bottle.
Frederic Bourdelier, the heritage director
at Dior Parfums, said, “This project was essential for the house of Dior, because we realized how important it was that we understood and captured the taste of Dior the
man, and the mark he wanted to make on
the world, for generations to come.” He was
speaking days after a party at the chateau
in celebration of the house, attended by
Bella Hadid and Charlize Theron, among
others.
“This place, which he loved so dearly and
which proved so influential to him both
personally and professionally, is part of our
past, present and now our future,” Mr. Bourdelier said.
The re-establishment of these fragrant
roots in Grasse by two behemoth brands at
a time when a potent cocktail of geopolitical
unrest, exchange-rate volatility and economic uncertainty have weighed on many
parts of the luxury market is not surprising.
Global sales of premium perfumes are expected to hit $29 billion this year, and are set
to grow 3 to 4 percent annually through
2020, according to the research group Euromonitor International.
But beyond bolstering its product arsenal, Louis Vuitton also stresses that for
the company, perfume is the final piece of
the puzzle.
“Over the last 20 years, we have extended
our reach everywhere from shoes to accessories to jewelry and beyond,” said Mr.
Burke, the Vuitton chairman and chief executive. “And fragrance — a fundamental aspect of dressing, and telling the world who
you are every day — was our last major
frontier. It is of no real surprise we decided
to go into this in a big way.”
“Don’t forget that when it comes to scent,
we are in the business of carefully conjuring
up, then encapsulating, characters, dreams,
memories and emotions,” he said. “And
there are few things more powerful than
that. If we get the right formula, we will get
the lasting relationship, because our wearer
will keep coming back for her refill.”
Scouting
Report
.......................................................................................
Openings and Events
Here to steal your heart.
What does love sound like? Join us for our
new weekly podcast, featuring memorable
Modern Love essays read by such notables as
January Jones, Judd Apatow and Catherine
Keener, followed by intimate conversations
with host Meghna Chakrabarti, editor
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New episodes every Thursday.
Subscribe or download on iTunes®
or use your favorite podcast app.
On Friday from 4 to 7 p.m.,
meet the designer JONATHAN
SIMKHAI at the East Hampton
pop-up of TENET, the Southampton boutique known for its cool mix of
up-and-coming labels like Ellery, Lisa Marie Fernandez and Soludos. Mr. Simkhai, a
CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund winner, will
show pieces from his pre-fall collection, like
a neon-pink bubble dress in artfully embroidered organza ($845). At 51 Newtown
Lane, East Hampton, N.Y. . . . The next day,
head around the corner to FIGUE EAST HAMPTON, where, from 4 to 7 p.m., the local
jewelry designer SUSAN NIELAND will show
her designs inspired by the light and
beauty of the East End, like a double stone
lariat with a small black freshwater pearl
found on the beach in Sagaponack ($525).
At 55 Main Street, East Hampton. . . . On
Tuesday, WESTFIELD will celebrate the grand
opening of its World Trade Center mall with
a family day from noon to 6 p.m. There will
be hourly stage performances in the Oculus, including the Harlem Gospel Choir and
the “School of Rock” cast, hands-on workshops at Eataly’s newest marketplace and,
of course, shopping. You’ll find goods from
more than 100 fashion, beauty, lifestyle and
technology labels. At 85 Greenwich Street.
.......................................................................................
Hitting the Racks
Missed the annual Piaget Hamptons Cup
benefiting the Robin Hood Foundation?
Through the end of the month, PIAGET will
.......................................................................................
Send shopping suggestions to
[email protected].
WESTFIELD CORPORATION
The World Trade Center mall is opening Tuesday with a day of music and workshops.
make a $1,000 donation from each sale of
its new Piaget Polo S 42-mm timepiece
($9,350) to one of New York’s largest
poverty-fighting organization. At 730 Fifth
Avenue. . . . Liv Tyler’s 12-piece capsule
collection for the British heritage label
BELSTAFF, which includes a yummy leather
jacket with a shearling collar ($1,995), is
now in store. At 814 Madison Avenue.
. ....................................................................................
Sales
From Friday to Monday, the Williamsburg
boutique SWORDS-SMITH will have a “Great
Minds” sale with discounts up to 90 per-
cent. It will include bits like a Rodebjer
floral-print boxy top ($95, originally $345)
and a Samuji textured fringe jacquard
A-line skirt ($180, originally $540) from its
own roster of indie designer labels as well
as a few racks filled with goodies from
retailer friends like In God We Trust and
Creatures of Comfort. At 98 South Fourth
Street, Brooklyn. . . . All MZ WALLACE bags,
including the best-selling quilted Metro
tote (originally $215), will be $100 at the
label’s once-every-five-years sample sale
starting Tuesday. At 127 Grand Street.
ALISON S. COHN
D3
N
Browsing
E RI CA M. BLUME NTHAL
DARE TO WEAR
Cutting Out
For Ipanema
When it comes to swimwear,
Brazilians are fearless. The
popular local designer Adriana Degreas (she splits her time between
São Paulo and Miami), an up-andcomer known for her inventive
cutouts and clever shaping techniques, says that fearlessness comes
with the Brazilian lifestyle and “that
bossa nova feel and attitude.” So think
Gisele and suit up in one of her sexy
cutout pieces. The fashion set —
Kendall Jenner, Charlotte Olympia
and Suki Waterhouse, among them —
are already fans.
PERSONALIZE
A Bag Full
Of Attitude
Celebrate the carefree summer lifestyle with a
customizable straw bag from the aptly named
Poolside label. Not that these are the everyday monogrammed bags. The company prefers cheeky sayings
like, “Cute but Psycho,” “About That Life” and “Woke Up
Like This.”
Adriana Degreas faux velvet cutout
swimsuit, $415 at net-a-porter.com and
fwrd.com.
Poolside Collective handmade straw bag, $175 at
wearepooliside.com.
P L AY I T C O O L
Oh, I Just
Threw
This On
REVIVE
In the Footsteps
Of Jackie O.
It was 1946 when Amedeo Canfora opened his sandal shop on the Via Camerelle on Capri. Each pair
was handmade, starting with a sole constructed of several layers of Italian leather pressed and sewn together.
Among his glamorous fans over the years were Sophia
Loren, Princess Grace and Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis,
who often wore a chain-strap style. This year, to mark
the 70th anniversary of the original Capri sandal, the
company has reissued a number of archival styles, including ones worn by Mrs. Onassis. Available in gold,
rose gold and silver, they’re as fabulous now as they
were then.
Canfora Capri sandals, about $387 at canfora.com.
Caftans have had their
glamorous moments, championed as high fashion by Diana Vreeland in the ’60s, famously worn by
Elizabeth Taylor throughout the ’70s
and, in the last decade, paraded on
the red carpet by J. Lo, Angelina Jolie
and the Olsen sisters. But a caftan is
most handy when you’ve lost hope
that you can look chic in the dead of
summer. Breezy and lightweight, with
an inherent bohemian appeal, a caftan keeps you covered, yet free. And
there is one for every occasion: a
beach cover-up or a wedding or both.
Clockwise from top left: St. John
caftan in lace, crepe and satin, $2,395
at select Neiman Marcus stores,
neimanmarcus.com; Lemlem cotton
gauze caftan, $310 at farfetch.com and
lemlem.com; Fleur du Mal lace caftan
with lace-up sides, $498 at fleurdumal
.com and farfetch.com; Kaelen twotoned cupro caftan, $890 at kaelennyc
.com; Rhode Resort silk caftan, $310 at
rhoderesort.com.
ADRIANA DEGREAS
‘ T H AT BO S S A
N OVA F E E L
AND
AT T IT U DE .’
D4
N
SKIN DEEP
She’s Using Everything Under the Sun
Madison Keys has a regimen of
face and body care as exacting
as her fitness training.
The tennis player Madison Keys, 21, who is
competing for the United States in the Rio
Olympics, will also be one to watch at the
United States Open, starting at the end of
this month. The hard-hitting upstart has
been making waves with her baseline game
since she turned pro at 14 and has been
hailed as the face of the next generation of
American women’s tennis.
When it comes to tending to her actual
visage, Ms. Keys, who grew up in Iowa and
now lives in Boca Raton, Fla., says her
beauty regimen is a mix of her upbringing
and her demanding practice and travel
schedule.
BEE SHAPIRO
Skin Care
Since I practice early in the morning on
most days, I wake up and wash my face with
Clean & Clear Morning Burst. I feel like it
actually does wake me up a bit. Then the
first thing I put on is sunscreen. I do it
within 15 minutes of waking up so I’m protected by the time I’m out the door. I use the
Neutrogena oil-free sport formula for the
face. For the body, I use Neutrogena Wet
Skin spray. I try to get at least SPF 50 on me.
The American tennis
player Madison Keys
battles the tropical
Florida weather to
play and look her best.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY MELISSA LYTTLE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
FROM LEF T, CLEA N &
CLEAR MORN IN G
BUR ST; GIORGIO
ARMANI SÌ;
PHILOSOPHY R EN EW ED
HOPE IN A JAR; UR B A N
DECAY ONE & D O N E;
URBAN DECAY NA K ED
EYE SHADOW.
After practice, I hit the shower, of course.
I’m obsessed with the Bath & Body Works
Warm Vanilla Sugar line. Someone gave it
to me when I was 14, and I’ve been using it
ever since. I use the sugar scrub and body
wash and lotion. Sometimes you think maybe you should outgrow certain products and
try something else, but I still really like it.
I use moisturizer only at night — Philosophy Hope in a Jar. Two or three times a
week, I do a Caudalíe face mask. It’s a purifying one because I have combination
skin, and I’m sweating so often. It can be really tough to keep clear skin, especially if
you’re wearing a visor. It’s just sitting on
your head, and you break out underneath it.
It can be a disaster.
The first thing I put on is sunscreen. I do it within 15 minutes of
waking up so I’m protected by the time I’m out the door.
Makeup
I have pretty even skin tone, but being out in
the sun all the time, I get red cheeks and a
red nose. I don’t like heavy foundation, but if
I use something tinted, it helps blend everything together. I’ve been using Urban Decay One & Done — it has primer, SPF and a
tint in it.
For eyeliner, I use the Urban Decay 24/7
pencils. I use black or brown most of the
time, but if I’m going out, I like purple because it sets off my green eyes. I also use
Benefit They’re Real mascara.
For eye shadow, I love the Urban Decay
Naked palette because it has so many colors
all right there. Then I use the Urban Decay
setting spray. It’s so good. Otherwise, living
in Florida, you’ll go outside for 20 minutes
and realize, “Oh, my mascara is sliding off
my face.”
I tend not to wear blush, but I do love
highlighter: Benefit Watt’s Up. If I’m going
out, I put it on my nose, my cupid’s bow, under my brows and on my cheekbones.
I’ve always been more of an eye person,
but recently I’ve been really getting into lip
colors. I like the Tarte matte lip stains. They
travel well and stay all day. I’m on Instagram a lot. There are so many makeup
artists doing looks, and that’s why I’m so
into lip color now. Sometimes I’ll just go in
my “Explore” page and look for videos, but
mostly I follow @WakeUpandMakeup.
seven months now.
Fragrance
When I was at the Australian Open this
year, one of the player gifts was a department store voucher. I wanted a new fragrance. The second I tried Giorgio Armani
Sì, I loved it. I’ve been wearing it for six or
Other Services
I get manicures and pedicures every two
weeks. For my manicures, I get gel. Colors, I
usually go with black and dark purple, but
sometimes I do a navy. I really like Lincoln
Park After Dark by OPI.
Hair
It’s usually straight up into a bun when I
wake up. But at the end of the day, I let it
down. Every girl who has really curly hair
fights it at some point, but I’ve become way
more open to wearing it natural, and I’m
loving it. I use the Bumble and bumble curly
hair line — that’s shampoo, conditioner and
styling. I’m constantly in the sun, and my
hair is pulled back tight, which can cause so
much breakage. Sometimes I’ll just leave
the conditioner in for an entire day. I also
love putting in coconut oil.
My natural color is a really, really dark
brown. Right now, it’s dark at the roots, but I
wanted to go a little lighter for summer, so
there are some blond pieces, like balayage.
I have a physical therapist who travels
with me. He’s actually a chiropractor, but he
also does acupuncture, so I get acupuncture
almost every day. I’ve had lots of injuries in
the last couple of years, so I had to take that
extra step to hire somebody. I hate needles,
but this doesn’t hurt. It’s really interesting
how one day acupuncture can be used to
treat muscle soreness, and another day for
relaxation, and it’ll put me right to sleep.
Diet and Exercise
I have to eat pretty healthy to stay in shape,
but a big part of my diet is having that occasional dessert. My favorite is Ben & Jerry’s
Half Baked ice cream. But I have to watch it.
I’m lactose intolerant, so sometimes I’ll do
the Ben & Jerry’s lactose-free line.
For a tennis player, the toughest part of
training is the off-season. That’s when we’re
doing tons of tough fitness — maybe two to
three hours in the gym. Obviously as you
get closer to the tournaments, you spend
more time on the court. Right now, I’m
spending two and a half to three hours on
the court every day.
The Voyeur Olympics
By GUY TREBAY
Call them the “Magic Mike” Olympics.
The Games have always meant different
things to different people, whether they are
fans of popular sports, passionate adherents of niche activities like air rifle shooting
or the hammer throw, or those who enjoy
tracking any athletic endeavor at the championship level.
Another cohort following the Olympics,
though, does so without much knowledge or
even interest in the rules and arcana. They
are the armchair voyeurs, excited by the
sight of bodies at the peak of perfection.
That those bodies are often clad in uniforms
leaving little to the imagination is part of the
appeal.
It’s hard to imagine in earlier and more
puritanical times a feature like “36 of the
Greatest Summer Olympic Bulges” appearing in a mainstream American magazine,
even one as prurient as Cosmopolitan. Yet
fashions shift in all things. And a Cosmo
slide show that captures and rates the genital endowments of various male athletes almost immediately went viral across social
media. Unprintable here, the subheadline
even suggests awarding gold medals for exceptional, uh, performance.
Bulges are as inevitable a part of the
Summer Games as Bob Costas — still soothingly and reliably prating from the control
booth like an automaton from “Tomorrowland.” There is a decided change, however,
in the way performance fabrics have increased the visibility of virtually any body
part they purport to cover and equally in the
frankness of a contemporary viewer’s gaze.
Even before Sam Mikulak of the United
States men’s gymnastics team remarked to
The Wall Street Journal that his teammates
might garner something like the attention
paid their more obviously mediagenic female colleagues if they performed shirtless,
HARRY HOW/GETTY IMAGES
Mr. Mikulak and his teammate Jake Dalton
were regularly posting Instagram shots of
their ripped torsos during training.
“People make fun of us for wearing
tights,” Mr. Mikulak told The Journal. “But
if they saw how yoked we are maybe that
would make a difference.”
Consider “yoked” (Urban Dictionary:
“well muscled, powerfully built”) a keyword for an Olympics whose stark objectification of the male body is in line with the
runaway success of feminist stealth blogs
like “Hot Dudes Reading” and, for that matter, with the billions of images proliferating
across social media of hot dudes doing practically anything.
Women and gay men are assumed to be
the audience for these displays. The truth is,
everybody’s looking. You can judge that by
how quickly the image of the shirtless, oilslicked Pita Taufatofua — the Tongan taekwondo champion with the body of a bendable action figure — as the flag bearer for
his country’s Olympics delegation not only
stole the show at Friday evening’s Parade of
Nations but also soon enough thereafter
stoked the internet.
Much of the commentary after Mr.
Pita Taufatofua, the taekwondo
champion from Tonga who
caused an internet frenzy
during the Olympics opening
ceremony. Mr. Taufatofua then
appeared on “Today,” from
Copacabana Beach (above).
Taufatofua’s later appearance on “Today”
wearing traditional Tongan garb focused on
the giddiness of the show’s female hosts —
Hoda Kotb, Natalie Morales and Jenna
Bush Hager — as they lasciviously stroked
the shiny torso of an athlete who looked
ready to be deep-fried.
Yet there was Matt Lauer, stepping forward gingerly to run a finger over the athlete’s biceps. (Al Roker, who had eagerly
supplied the sunscreen with which his female co-hosts rubbed Mr. Taufatofua, stood
flummoxed on the sidelines.)
Role reversal has been an unacknowledged dimension of the Summer Games.
Now it is the men’s turn to be objectified as
hotties: divers like David Boudia, a gold
medalist in 2012, or the Briton Tom Daly —
each clad in suits so brief that they make the
modest swimwear of the 1960s look like girdles — or Michael Phelps, whose anatomical particulars are not only a subject
of ceaseless internet exegesis but are also
burned into many viewers’ brains.
A century ago, male swimmers wore singlets to compete in the Olympics. Male runners wore voluminous shorts. These days,
even the male equestrians, surely the most
fully attired of all Olympians, favor
skintight breeches over the flapping jodhpurs of yesteryear. Full body depilation for
all guys — not merely the swimmers who
shave to eliminate drag in the water — is so
widely accepted a cultural practice that an
“Access Hollywood” reporter in Rio submitted to a Brazilian waxing on the air.
Women are not the only ones expected
anymore to present themselves with what
the satirist Charles Ludlam once termed
“all the nudity of a statue.” Such is the modish feminization of even the world’s top
male athletes that the most startling sight
at the XXXI Olympiad may be a guy with
hairy pits.
D5
N
The Rhinestone Strategy
For two stylists to the stars,
playing good cop, bad cop can
help get the job done.
By SHEILA MARIKAR
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CALIF. — When Jennifer
Lopez hits the stage of the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas on
Saturday night, riding a makeshift No. 6
subway car and belting out that she is still
Jenny from the block, she will rotate
through 11 shimmering, bedazzled outfits,
some layered on top of one another so that
she can morph from hip-hop vixen to bedroom crooner in mere moments. The shortest costume change: 26 seconds.
The ensembles Ms. Lopez wears during
her “All I Have” show, a multiyear concert
that began in January and will go on hiatus
for three months after Saturday, are as
much of an attraction as her music: feathered Versace, beaded Balmain, barely there
Zuhair Murad. Last August, before Ms. Lopez even knew what songs she would perform, her stylists, Rob Zangardi and Mariel
Haenn, were plotting what she would wear.
“Before she even had song lists, before
the show was a show, we were trying to map
it out: ‘We know she’s going to have a Latin
section; we know she’s going to have a hiphop section,’ ” Mr. Zangardi said recently in
a dressing room behind Ms. Lopez’s Vegas
stage. “The show started based on the costumes.”
Mr. Zangardi and Ms. Haenn, known as R
and M, have worked with Ms. Lopez since
2011. Time has not eased their task.
“The whole idea is, get me the best of
what’s out there and let me choose what really suits me,” Ms. Lopez said in a telephone
interview. “That’s what I count on them for:
to be on top of all the young designers, the
old faithfuls, the proven ones we work with
all the time, to just run the gamut of what’s
out there. The best jewelry, the best fashion,
the best of what’s going on on the streets —
taking it all and putting it in front of me so
we can go, ‘That’s perfect for this, that’s perfect for that, that’s perfect for me.’ ”
Mr. Zangardi, 39, and Ms. Haenn, 37, have
come to specialize in reading the minds of a
certain sort of star: women known as much
for their product lines and brand extensions
as their music. The stylists also work with
Gwen Stefani and created four key costumes for her current North American tour,
“This Is What the Truth Feels Like.” For Ms.
Stefani’s recent “Misery” music video, they
dressed her in an array of edgy ensembles,
like a headdress reminiscent of Frida Kahlo.
Ms. Stefani and the stylists had complete
creative freedom, she said in an email.
“For me, that sometimes feels overwhelming,” Ms. Stefani wrote. “When you
have too much freedom, too much license to
move, but with them, they’re so relaxed
about it. We just started trying things on,
and everything’s always a ‘yes.’ ‘Can we cut
this off? Can we make these changes?’ And
they’re always like, ‘Yes, we can make that
happen.’ ”
“It’s the kind of thing where I don’t need
to think about the outfits that much anymore,” she added.
Egos abound on both sides of the celebrity styling business as the architects of A-list
facades have gained followings to rival their
clients (see: Jen Atkin, Kardashian tress
tamer). Stylists have publicists. Tag teams
are rare. But joining forces in 2007 allowed
Mr. Zangardi and Ms. Haenn, both former
stylists for MTV’s on-air personalities, to
play up their different strengths and sensibilities. Ms. Haenn veers toward hip-hop
(her first styling job was on the set of the
video for Trick Daddy’s “Take It to da
House”). Mr. Zangardi is more pop:
“Mandy, Britney, Christina Aguilera, the
ABOVE AND BOTTOM, KENDRICK BRINSON FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
na’s 2007 “Umbrella” music video, which
featured
computer-generated
water
splashes and a series of good-girl-gone-bad
ensembles (a leather romper, a low cut
baby-doll dress). More work for the singer
followed: a horned headpiece from Rihanna’s “Rockstar 101” video sits on a shelf in
the duo’s studio here, though Rihanna is no
longer a client. In 2009, Andrea Lieberman,
a stylist whom Ms. Haenn looked up to,
moved away from longtime clients like Ms.
Stefani and Ms. Lopez to start her own
clothing line, A.L.C. Ms. Lieberman said she
was relieved to see her star clients end up
working with a strong team.
“It was important to me that when I left
both women, they were in supremely good
hands,” Ms. Lieberman said about Ms. Stefani and Ms. Lopez. “I knew Rob and Mariel
had it. They seamlessly could edit the best
of the world of fashion with the world of music and had an incredible work ethic. It was
a no-brainer for me to suggest them both to
Jennifer and Gwen.”
Ms. Lopez recalled her first meeting with
Ms. Haenn and Mr. Zangardi, in 2011. “I
found them to be shy and kind of quiet, but
they had their point of view,” she said. “We
started working together, little by little, and
it worked really well. Those things you can’t
really force, you have a sensibility or you
don’t.”
Mr. Zangardi and Ms. Haenn have since
scripted many head-turning moments for
Behind the glamour,
making sure that zippers
actually zip.
DENISE TRUSCELLO
Top, as Mariel Haenn, center, watches, her
partner, Rob Zangardi, fits a costume for
Marquita Washington, a backup dancer;
above, Jennifer Lopez is a client; left,
dancers’ shoes in the stylists’ studio.
boy bands,” he said the other day over coffee with Ms. Haenn at the Soho House here
in West Hollywood. Ms. Haenn grew up in
Brooklyn, Mr. Zangardi in Ohio.
“Mariel is the bad cop,” Mr. Zangardi said.
Ms. Haenn said: “Look, I’m comfortable
being like, ‘No, that’s not my favorite,’ or,
‘No, I don’t like that,’ even if they do. They
get used to getting that from me and getting
what Rob brings.”
“It’s Ohio versus New York,” Mr. Zangardi said.
Their first joint effort was styling Rihan-
Ms. Lopez: the mustard colored, capecapped Giambattista Valli gown she wore to
the Golden Globes in January, the crystalstudded Dsquared2 bodysuit she opened
the American Music Awards with in 2015.
The bodysuit was displayed in a glass case,
along with Ms. Lopez’s other sartorial hits
(that green Versace dress), outside a recent
“All I Have” performance in Las Vegas. Mr.
Zangardi was there to ensure that the array
of outfits Ms. Lopez would wear that night
were ready for the spotlight. “She’s sliding
on the floor in boots that are rhinestone that
we have to recrystal every day,” he said.
(Ms. Haenn was in Japan with Ms. Stefani.)
They work out of a windowless, fluorescent-lit studio, jazzing up dancers’ mallbought outfits with safety pins and sequins
(the budget for the backup crew is not what
it is for marquee performers). In the back, a
dozen bins of Spanx are stacked next to
racks of old costumes worn by Ms. Lopez
and Shakira, a former client. Despite the
modest digs, clients like Ciara, Cara Delevingne, Rachel McAdams and Emily Ratajkowski often drop by to try on clothes.
At a recent fitting for the backup dancers
on Ms. Stefani’s tour, Ms. Haenn, Mr. Zangardi and their in-house tailor, Anna Kenaraki (poached, with blessings, from Ms.
Lopez), bopped along to reggaeton and debated the merits of side versus back zippers
(back zippers, Ms. Haenn said, are less
likely to get stuck during a frantic midconcert costume change). They discussed the
sartorial effects of “bum flaps,” rectangles
of fabric that frame the hips of Ms. Stefani
and her dancers and create the illusion of
movement even when they’re not doing
much of it. These are conversations Mr.
Zangardi and Ms. Haenn like to have.
“When you’re on a red carpet, you’re just
doing this,” Ms. Haenn said, strutting two
steps and squatting primly. “With what we
do, we need to make sure you’re not going to
get stabbed with a huge safety pin while
you’re running around on stage.”
When the Choreographer Becomes the Star
CONTINUED FROM PAGE D1
lion views. Another video, set to Rihanna’s
“Bitch Better Have My Money,” has been
viewed 41 million times.
Since then, Ms. Miranda’s YouTube channel, which shows a diverse set of dancers
(some as young as 6) performing new routines to the latest hits by Tinashe, Pitbull
and others, has racked up more than one
million subscribers.
Such attention has turned Ms. Miranda
into a budding celebrity, with strangers
coming up to her at hotels, grocery stores,
restaurants and on the street. “I had a waiter recently cry when he met me,” she said.
“He politely asked me for a picture and got
emotional because I have inspired him so
much.”
Her fame is about to get bigger. Ms. Miranda is starring in a new MTV series, tentatively titled “Going Off,” in which a new
young dancer will be crowned at her master
class studio in each episode.
“I’ve been a dance instructor for 15
years,” she said. “But it wasn’t until I got big
on YouTube that I started getting this much
attention.”
NOT SINCE Paula Abdul, a dancer who went
on to become a pop and TV personality, has
the role of the choreographer been so appreciated in popular culture. “Dancing is
language agnostic,” said Kevin Allocca,
YouTube’s head of culture and trends. “People around the world can watch, learn and
upload their own moves.”
Video-sharing platforms like YouTube,
Vine and Snapchat have not only expanded
the reach of seasoned choreographers like
Ms. Miranda, they have also turned
choreographers of all kinds, who traditionally toil behind the scenes, into stars in their
own right.
The new celebrity choreographers include Ryan Heffington, a 43-year-old dance
instructor from Los Angeles with a distinctive handlebar mustache and long curly
hair, who masterminded Sia’s “Chandelier”
video (which features the young performer
Maddie Ziegler dancing by herself in an
apartment).
Parris Goebel, 24, is the New Zealander
behind Justin Bieber’s “Sorry” video
(which features an all-female dance crew
dressed in ’90s neon). Elle magazine recently called Ms. Goebel the world’s most
in-demand hip-hop choreographer.
At 36, Ms. Miranda acts as a den mother
of sorts for the clutch of young dancers who
flock to the Basement of NoHo, her studio in
North Hollywood, a grittier neighborhood
in the San Fernando Valley that has become
an unofficial dance hub.
“These kids are becoming YouTube stars,
too,” she said, referring to up-and-comers
such as Jade Chynoweth, a 17-year-old
dancer and aspiring actress with model
looks and 359,000 Instagram followers, or
Kaycee Rice, a 13-year-old from Simi Valley,
Calif., who performed at Missy Elliott’s halftime show. Another, Aidan Xiong, an adorable 10-year-old break dancer, appeared on
Ellen DeGeneres’s show in 2014.
On a recent Saturday morning, Ms. Miranda was being filmed in her studio for a
TV commercial for Mania Jeans, an Israeli
streetwear brand. (“I have a huge following
in Israel,” she said.) Clad in baggy sweatpants, oversize gold hoop earrings, chocolate brown lipstick and two Willie Nelson
braids, she fired off a series of gibberishsounding commands to her pack of millennial dancers.
“Six, seven . . . and one and four,” she
called out, followed by a succession of
boom-tat-tat-tats punctuated by foot
stomps. After a feverish routine, she summoned her posse, many in midriff shirts emblazoned with slogans like “Keep It Real,”
for a group selfie, which she posted on Instagram.
Born in Arizona, Ms. Miranda started ballet and tap at age 4. By 19, she was teaching
hip-hop classes. She moved to Los Angeles
CHRISTOPHER POLK/GETTY IMAGES
Missy Elliott’s surprise
appearance at the Super Bowl
halftime show was
choreographed in part by
Tricia Miranda. Katy Perry is
at right.
in 2001 to be closer to the action, and she
made ends meet as a waitress and as a
dance instructor at Gold’s Gym.
Her big break came in 2004, when her
agent tipped her off that Beyoncé was looking for a backup dancer for her Ladies First
Tour. “I was a hostess at the time when they
called me to tell me I got the gig,” she said. “I
immediately took off my apron, turned to
my manager and said: ‘I’m going on tour
with Beyoncé. I’ve got to go.’”
Ms. Miranda has never looked back. Her
résumé includes dance credits with Gwen
Stefani and Taylor Swift, who are drawn to
her hard-hitting style, and Prince.
“I
liked
how
aggressive
her
choreography was,” Ms. Azalea said. “Even
the smallest movement dripped with confidence. I wanted dancers that could be un-
apologetic, and that’s what Tricia delivers.”
Her influence is such that some artists
now want their songs used on her YouTube
channel. “Tricia is recognizing the songs of
the moment and making them even bigger
songs of the moment,” said Amanda Taylor,
the chief executive of DanceOn, an entertainment network centered on dance that
counts Madonna as a founder.
Speaking in a hallway outside her rehearsal studio, Ms. Miranda said she was
still getting used to her fame. She laughed at
first when she received messages on Instagram and Facebook, with pictures of fans
parroting her harajuku-chola look. “It’s a little strange for me,” she said.
With that, she got up and returned to rehearsal. “All right, back to work everyone,”
she said with the clap of her hands.
D6
N
SCENE CITY
Seeking Fame, Hurting Ears
The premiere of a film about a
would-be opera singer brings
its stars to Midtown.
By ALEX WILLIAMS
And in a flash — well, several hundred
flashes — she was gone.
Wearing a teal and white printed shift
dress by Valentino and a vaguely surfer-girl
blond hairdo, Meryl Streep strode into the
press tent outside the Lincoln Square cineplex in Manhattan on Tuesday night for the
premiere of her new film, “Florence Foster
Jenkins.”
And as visibly giddy television reporters
perspired on the red carpet on a muggy
summer evening, awaiting the rare chance
to interview American cinema’s reigning
grande dame, Ms. Streep strode right out
again, walled off from the press corps by a
phalanx of hulking security guards in black
suits who looked as if they had consumed
the New York Jets’ offensive line for lunch.
“Did she just blow us off?” asked George
Whipple, NY1’s omnipresent red-carpet reporter, raising his famous caterpillar eyebrows incredulously.
It may not have been a rhetorical question. Her cometlike passing could have been
interpreted as a lapse in etiquette or an artistic statement in its own right. When an
actor has won three Oscars, after all, and
been nominated seemingly every year
since “The Birth of a Nation,” she has
earned the right to engage with the public
how she sees fit. Miles Davis played with his
back to the audience, and it only added to
his legend.
Even so, it was a shame, because Ms.
Streep’s Garbo act denied the press corps a
chance to ask an obvious question: Have
you ever flopped at anything? It was obvious given that the film, directed by Stephen
Frears, is a comedic tear-jerker based on
the real story of a irrepressible 1940s socialite who dreamed of opera glory but made
some of the most timelessly dreadful
recordings ever put to wax.
The other actors in the film had no trouble
recalling the times that they felt exposed,
artistically, just like poor Florence in her
Carnegie Hall debut.
“The worst time was in ‘Cloud Atlas,’” recalled Hugh Grant, who plays Mrs. Jenkins’s quasi-faithful partner, St. Clair Bayfield. The directors of that film, he recalled,
“asked me to play six hard-core villainous
characters from different parts of history. I
thought, ‘I can do that, I can show everyone
that there are more strings in my bow than
just romantic comedy.’”
“Suddenly,” he added, “I was standing on
a mountaintop dressed as a post-apocalyptic cannibal, and I realized I had no idea how
to play the part.”
At the after-party, held at the futuristic
Brasserie 8½ in the once-futuristic Solow
Building on West 57th Street, Simon Helberg addressed the same question.
A “Big Bang Theory” veteran who plays
Cosmé McMoon, Ms. Jenkins’s pianist, the
boyish actor actually played the complex piano parts in the film himself. So he did not
have to think hard about his most vulnerable moment as an actor.
“Making this movie, honestly,” Mr. Helberg said. “On top of doing scenes with
Meryl and Hugh and Stephen, I had to play
Mozart and Delibes and Bach and Chopin.
We did it all live. So it was this great gift to
work with everyone, but it was also: ‘By the
way, you’re also going to have to juggle
these chain saws.’ ”
Not far from the ivory-tinkling actor, in
the sleek subterranean space that felt like
the mother ship in “Close Encounters of the
Third Kind,” notables like Ric Ocasek, Regis
Philbin and Zac Posen milled about as
Meryl Streep, left, the star of the film
“Florence Foster Jenkins,” whose New York
premiere was Tuesday night, leaves the
after-party on West 57th Street. Above,
Andrew Keenan-Bolger.
PHOTOGRAPHS BY NINA WESTERVELT FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
From left at near right: Oliver
Ocasek, Paulina Porizkova,
Kelly Rutherford and
Jonathan Ocasek at the party
at Brasserie 8½; Simon
Helberg greets a guest; Nina
Arianda chats with Zac Posen.
S O M E AC TOR S
A R E C HAT T Y,
S O M E ARE N’ T.
guests nibbled on spinach-and-ricotta
crepes and spare-rib risotto.
Meanwhile, Ms. Streep showed up in
character as a great American actress who
was not doing interviews (or even photographs at the party). She nevertheless
found time for warm embraces and banter
with Arthur Levy, the vocal coach who had
trained her to sing — that is, sing terribly —
for the role.
It seemed fair to assume that Ms. Streep,
despite the fact that she has convincingly
played a steel-town Vietnam War bride, a
French lieutenant’s woman, a concentra-
tion camp prisoner and an Australian
mother whose baby became dingo dinner,
could not actually sing, too. Surely she can’t
do everything.
You know what they say about assuming.
“She was trained classically in her late
teens and early 20s,” Mr. Levy explained
later, recalling their rehearsals together.
“Every once in a while, she’d get to a stratospheric note and wince. But it was still better, and more on pitch, and more rock solid,
than Florence.”
Even when Ms. Streep is bad, it seems,
she is good.
At the Out Hotel, the Light Is Almost Out
By KATHERINE ROSMAN
It was a bright and sunny Wednesday afternoon in August, the kind that calls for a relaxing glass of rosé, enjoyed at an Instagram-worthy spot at your vacation hotel.
But at the Out Hotel in New York last
week, not a sipper was to be seen lounging
at the hotel’s outdoor courtyard, with its
white couches set on kelly-green AstroTurf
and its look-above cityscape views.
Down on the ground floor, someone at the
Lindeman, the restaurant and bar that can
be accessed directly through the hotel’s
lobby, must have agreed it was a pink-wine
sort of moment: The bar was offering a
rosé-and-oysters happy hour special.
There were a handful people at the bar —
including a woman in sneakers and shorts
who ate oysters as she skimmed Facebook
on her phone, with the help of a magnifying
glass she laid over it — and about five
employees of the hotel and bar.
A reporter was present as well, but upon
making her profession and affiliation
known, and asking questions about the hotel’s vitality, the group of employees disbanded and disappeared.
This, perhaps, is not the scene that Out
Hotel’s owners, Ian Reisner and Mati Weiderpass, pictured when they set out to create a gay-friendly hotel on West 42nd Street
in New York. And this, perhaps, is part of
the reason that the hotel is being sold, with
its buyer, Merchants Hospitality, planning
on rebranding as a general boutique hotel,
according to news reports. (A spokesman
from Merchants declined to comment for
this article.)
The hotel stands in something of a noman’s-land between Times Square and the
Hudson River. For a while, its big nightclub,
XL, drew a crowd. But its relative popularity was short-lived.
So, too, was that of Mr. Reisner and Mr.
Weiderpass in the gay community. The two
business partners (and onetime life-part-
Top, Joy and Regis Philbin. Above, from left:
Stephen Frears, Ms. Arianda, Mr. Helberg,
Ms. Streep, Hugh Grant and Tracey Seaward.
Above left, the restaurant.
TH E NE E D F OR A
G AY H OTE L I N
TH E CE NTE R OF
TH E CI T Y WA S
NEV E R F UL LY
CL E A R.
SANTIAGO MEJIA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
ners) learned the bitter taste of internet notoriety last spring after hosting an event at
their home attended by Sen. Ted Cruz, then
a Republican presidential candidate, who
has been an opponent of marriage equality
for gays and lesbians.
As The New York Times reported in May,
“gay activists went ballistic.” The businessmen, who said that the dinner was not a
fund-raiser but just an informal get-together, engendered more anger when Mr. Reisner, in an interview with New York magazine, blamed the Out Hotel’s intended clientele for its lackluster economic performance: “This has not been a profitable
venture. Gays are cheap.”
The hotel tried to play up its gay-branding in certain special events and in its lobby
The Out Hotel, a gay-themed
hotel in Midtown West, has
been sold, and its buyer is said
to be planning on rebranding it
as a general boutique hotel.
art. Earlier this summer, the lobby walls
were adorned with Barbie doll dioramas
that depicted various dolls in same-sex situations: two male dolls walking hand-inhand; two women — one in a white gown,
another in a white sleeveless tuxedo — at
their wedding.
The opening for the show, called “Legal
Vows” and created by the artist Pamela
Bennett Ader, took place just after the mass
shooting at a gay club in Orlando, Fla., attracting about 100 people, Ms. Ader said. “It
was poorly attended,” she said. “The community was sad and a little frightened about
coming out.”
Ms. Ader spent a lot of time at the hotel,
installing her art and looking in to witness
reactions to it. “It was a very mixed group of
tourists,” she said. “It wasn’t necessarily a place for the gay community.”
The necessity for a so-called gay hotel
in the center of New York City was never
entirely clear. “Gays travel a lot and for anyone who travels a lot, the hospitality industry goes out of its way to be very hospitable,” said Nathan Lump, the editor in chief
of Travel & Leisure and editorial director of
Time Inc.’s lifestyle group.
He added: “I have traveled with my husband in some countries that are not super
gay-friendly. But when you check in to an
international hotel, you know they are not
going to treat you terribly when you ask for
a king-sized bed. The industry as a whole is
very inclusive.”
Attracting gay travelers is an imperative
for hotel groups. Many hotels and hotel
chains have diversity officers who oversee
the process of educating employees and
making properties inclusive of all travelers.
Hilton published an advertisement in the
June isse of Travel & Leisure showing two
men, dressed, wearing wedding rings and
cuddling in bed. (A social-media backlash to
the ad developed several weeks after it was
published when a group called the American Family Association started an antiHilton petition.)
As for the future prospects of a new hotel
in the location of the soon-to-be-former Out
Hotel, there is potential, said Steven Kamali, the chief executive of the Hospitality
House, a food and beverage advisory firm.
Luxury hotels and apartment buildings are
being developed near the Hudson Yards,
and any nearby establishment offering
quality food, drink and ambience is positioned to benefit.
“The most interesting portion of the hotel
is the interior courtyard,” said Mr. Kamali,
who has toured the space. “Having access
to outdoor space in Manhattan that is off the
street is incredibly unique,” he said.
Certainly, a nice spot for a summertime
glass of rosé.
N
D7
The Twilight Zone of Staging
CONTINUED FROM PAGE D1
cause . . . your house has been staged!
A few weeks earlier, after realizing we
weren’t using the place as much as we had
hoped to, we had listed it with a real estate
agent in the area. It was at our second meeting with the agent that she gently raised the
subject of having the house professionally
zhooshed for sale. The agency routinely
staged its properties, she told us, using the
best stager in town. Staged houses (“decluttered and depersonalized”) sold faster.
They brought in more money.
My first thought had been: I did my own
zhooshing. I once spent an entire evening (a
purposeful, chardonnay-fueled evening)
finding the perfect spot in the house for a
piece of pottery the size of a radish. I used to
write for Architectural Digest! I was going
to let a stranger pimp my home with vanillascented candles and coffee-table books anchored by magnifying glasses?
Then I had an idea. Even our minimally
appointed house held a few extraneous
items: My collection of vintage shelter magazines. My partner’s Browning 20-gauge
shotgun (a gift on his ninth birthday from
his father, used once). The small expressionist sculptures our pug had created out
of rawhide chews.
I spent a weekend boxing stuff and moving it to the garage.
After that, the rooms were as spare as
haiku. A stager would have to conclude that
the only expendable was herself.
Then I met the Stager. A stylish, compact
blond woman, the Stager had the sphinxlike
air of a clairvoyant or a customs officer.
“What’s the room with all the books for?”
she asked, peering into our library. She proceeded to share her “50 percent rule” for
bookshelves: “More than 50 percent of shelf
space devoted to books equals clutter.”
Rattled, I followed the Stager and our real
estate agent into the bedroom. “We’ll
freshen the bedding, remove the sofa and
coffee table and repurpose the accessories,”
the Stager said, eyeing a carved koa bowl I
had picked up in Kauai, Hawaii. “Our goal is
a coherent visual narrative.”
“What’s wrong with the bedding?” I
asked, noticing a querulous tone creeping
into my voice. Our sheets were Pratesi (a
Christmas splurge).
She smiled patiently and shifted her gaze
to the floor (carpeted, thankfully, in seagrass, the Switzerland of floor coverings).
“This is always hard on sellers,” our real
estate agent said. “It’s all part of the lettinggo process.”
If so, I thought, surely time would help.
When, two weeks later, I drove back to
Santa Barbara from our home in Los Angeles, I was confident I had begun to let go,
eager to experience the coherent visual
narrative the Stager had woven.
I’ll spare the reader the rant our unwitting real estate agent endured. (I sounded
like Mrs. Howell on “Gilligan’s Island,” leaning on invective like “ghastly” and “appalling.”) Our real estate agent apologized
copiously. She said she would talk to the
Stager about destaging the house.
In the meantime, I decided to do a little
homework on staging.
The first stager, at least by her own reckoning, was Barb Schwarz, a Seattle real estate agent who started sprucing up homes
going to market in 1972. Her previous career
in the theater suggested a name for her new
MAR CERDÀ
As disorienting (and
puzzling) as any of the
additions to the rooms
were the deletions.
profession. “I’m the one who invented the
word ‘stage’ to describe fixing up houses for
sale,” Ms. Schwarz told me. “I have a federal
trademark on it, even though it’s broken all
the time.”
Staging, or staging®, has grown exponentially over the years. According to a survey
conducted by the National Association of
Realtors last year, 34 percent of sellers’
agents rely on staging to move all their
homes. And that is just in this country.
“It’s changing real estate all over the
world,” said Ms. Schwarz, who estimates
she has personally taught staging fundamentals (“green in every room whether it’s
a napkin or a plant”) to more than a million
students, in places as far-flung as Malta and
Japan.
There are staging Oscars: The annual
Real Estate Staging Association awards in
Las Vegas, honoring staging standouts in
the United States, Canada, Australia, South
Africa and the United Kingdom, has almost
as many categories as the Academy
Awards (Best Rising Star, Best Stager, Vacant Category, Canada).
Stagers range from graduates of two-day
certificate courses whose stock in trade is
room deodorizers, to fancy designers who
do only high-end spec jobs. A developerbuilt house in Beverly Hills, Calif., was re-
cently staged with Roberto Cavalli place
settings, Yves Saint Laurent fire extinguishers and a replica of James Dean’s Triumph motorcycle. It was sold to the
Minecraft creator Markus Persson for $70
million.
Staging today often means top-to-bottom
transformations. “We really will fill out
rooms to almost an Architectural Digest
level,” said Meridith Baer, who is the
Markus Persson of stagers (she has offices
in seven cities and some 250 employees to
help fluff homes for clients like Kanye West
and Bob Dylan). “We try to make them aspirational, to show buyers what kind of lifestyle they can have in the home.”
The go-to look is spare, modern and as
personality-free as a W Hotel suite or a
Restoration Hardware catalog layout. The
real estate section of this newspaper recently documented Ms. Baer’s restyling of
the New York apartment of Jean-Paul
Beaujard, a well-known designer and antiques dealer; she swapped his ornate Empire furniture and gleaming bare floors for
clean-lined sofas and chairs and textured sisal rugs. The place sold in a month and a
half.
I was starting to wonder if I had been
hasty in my personal dismissal of staging. A
statistic often cited by staging businesses
began to interfere with my sleep: Staged
homes fetch, on average, 17 percent higher
prices than unstaged homes. That figure is
attributed to the federal Department of
Housing and Urban Development.
I decided to call HUD, just to doublecheck the number. “HUD has done no such
research in the past 20 years,” said Jereon
Brown, general deputy assistant secretary
for public affairs. You heard it here first.
The effectiveness of staging was of
enough interest to a team of researchers at
the College of William and Mary, Johns
Hopkins University and Old Dominion University that they conducted a study in
which several hundred participants took
virtual tours of staged and unstaged homes
and were asked to estimate their worth. The
subjects favored the staged homes, but they
didn’t attach a higher value to them.
I was intrigued by the psychology of staging as much as its value. How was it, anyway, that home buyers had lost the ability to
look past dog beds and family photos? “Life
is just getting faster and faster and people
don’t have time or patience anymore,” Ms.
Baer theorized. “They want to have everything spelled out for them.”
Certainly staging mirrors branding, the
global trend toward marketing things less
for what they are than for what they represent — usually a lifestyle. (See also: the
Kardashians peddling ShoeDazzle.)
And if furnishings don’t adequately convey the lifestyle in question, one can employ
human props. Showhomes, a staging company based in Nashville, hires “home managers” to stay in houses for sale and add
that personal-but-not-too-personal touch —
clothes in the closet (as long as they’re organized by color), a car in the garage (provided the oil spots are removed).
But what does it say about us when we
can no longer acquire a home without being
shown how to live in it? I consulted Marjorie
Garber, the William R. Kenan Jr. professor
of English and visual and environmental
studies at Harvard University and the author of “Sex and Real Estate: Why We Love
Houses,” a kind of polymathic valentine to
(unstaged) homes. I assumed Ms. Garber
and I would be on the same page, stagingwise.
“Your question seems to imply some kind
of loss, whether of imagination, independence, will, or taste,” she wrote in an email.
“For me it’s not something missing but
something added . . . Advertisers have done
this for years, setting their clothing or perfume ads in exciting or provocative venues;
it was the ambience rather than the product
that sold. Why not houses? Certainly it’s
more fun this way.”
Well, maybe so. For the buyer, anyway.
For this seller, fun was hiring four laborers
to help move the Stager’s things out of my
home and my things back in. It was empowering. (Curiously, the destaging
process took only three hours, compared
with three days for staging. Don’t get me
started on the cost disparity.)
The practical ramifications of reclaiming
our house were another matter. But it
turned out we needn’t have worried. We received an offer on the property, a decent
one, within a month.
And that wasn’t even the most gratifying
part. The first serious buyer to come along
wanted to purchase the place furnished.
With our things. We happily declined.
More Than Pearls, a Bag and a Crown
A peek inside the wardrobe
of Queen Elizabeth II.
By ELIZABETH PATON
LONDON — The ball gown, cinched at the
waist with capped sleeves and a heartshaped neckline, practically glows thanks
to the multitude of pearls, crystals and sequins embroidered using gold and silver
silk threads onto the ivory duchesse satin
over eight painstaking months.
A step closer, and it becomes apparent
that the embellishments trace a gleaming
outline of English roses, Scottish thistles,
Welsh leeks and Irish shamrocks on the fold
on the stiff skirt — where they mingle with
Canadian maple leaves, New Zealand silver
ferns, Australian wattles and South African
protea.
Forget a trouser suit or sky-high stiletto.
Female leaders in search of a sartorial model need look no further than this gown:
power dressing at its most literal.
It was wearing this dress, with her nation’s history stitched atop her hemline, that
Queen Elizabeth II took to the British
throne in 1953, sending a message from the
monarchy via her appearance that was
broadcast to millions all over the world
watching the moment on TV.
The coronation gown, designed by the
British couturier Sir Norman Hartnell at
the height of post-World War II austerity, is
the centerpiece of an exhibition that opened
last month at Buckingham Palace: “Fashioning a Reign: 90 Years of Style From the
Queen’s Wardrobe.”
The show, part of a series of events being
held across Britain this year in celebration
of the queen’s 90th birthday, has turned five
gilded staterooms into some of the world’s
largest and most lavish temporary
wardrobes.
The second installment of a three-part exhibition of the queen’s clothes and the roles
they have played in enabling her to carry
out her responsibilities as the head of state,
head of the armed forces and head of the
Commonwealth, it showcases more than 150
looks, and is the largest display of the
queen’s dress in history. It explores not only
PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II 2016
her personal style, but also the various
strategies that have shaped the working
uniform of one of the most photographed
women in history.
Such as her preference for a bright blockcolor number and matching bold headpiece.
“The queen has always been aware that she
needs to stand out from the crowd, and it is
for this reason that millinery has always
played an important role in her wardrobe,”
said Caroline de Guitaut, the curator at the
Royal Collection Trust who organized the
exhibitions.
One gallery features 62 of the queen’s favorite hats, ranging from the turbanlike
styles favored in the 1970s to Bretons and
pillbox numbers, as well as wide-brimmed
top hats worn more recently.
The hats “enable people who want to
catch a glimpse of her to spot her immediately,” Ms. de Guitaut said. “Almost every
hat she wears is strategic, ensuring her face
is fully visible but also framed in a range of
styles over the years that were often considered very avant-garde for their day.”
Though the queen has remained loyal to
the British fashion industry and its designers all her life, when it comes to the 265 official overseas visits she has made during her
reign, her ensembles reflect fabrics fit for
the local climates. And, where appropriate,
the colors and insignia of a host nation,
acting as subtle yet prominent diplomatic
tools.
For a state visit to Ethiopia in 1965, for example, the queen wore a green Hartnell
dress with the Insignia of the Order of
Ethiopia; for a 1974 visit to Australia, she
chose a mimosa-yellow silk-chiffon dress
embellished with sprigs of wattle designed
by Ian Thomas.
And in 1965, when she became the first
British head of state to visit Germany after
World War II, she wore a turquoise organza
silk gown by the tailor Hardy Amies, who
used silver thread and beading for embroidery across the bodice inspired by the Rococo interiors of the Schloss Brühl palaces.
Indeed, while designers have looked to
the queen for inspiration — Ralph Lauren
has lapped up her fondness for tweeds over
the years, and in his latest collection
Alessandro Michele at Gucci paid homage
to her devotion to a floral kerchief head
scarf and oversize rimless spectacles when
tending to matters on her estates — she herself seems to value sartorial international
outreach above trend.
Queen Elizabeth II’s wardrobe
is on display at Buckingham
Palace. Clockwise from top left,
a portrait by Cecil Beaton in
1968; her hats; her coronation
dress by Sir Norman Hartnell;
a wool-crepe-and-silk coat by
Stewart Parvin and wool-crepe
hat by Rachel Trevor-Morgan.
“The queen and queen mother do not
want to be fashion setters,” Hartnell once
said. A former theater costume designer, he
created state gowns for the queen until his
death in 1979. “That’s left to other people
with less important work to do.”
Although trousers are far and few between (the Auxiliary Territorial Service
uniform of overalls and a cap worn when
she was serving as a car mechanic during
World War II being a rare exception), practical considerations also come into play in
the queen’s wardrobe, particularly in her
military regalia.
The scarlet red and brocade tunic she
wears as colonel in chief of the Grenadier
Guards is cut away from the waist to allow
her to ride sidesaddle, for example, and the
mantle of the Order of the British Empire
has a zipped-up overdress (selected by the
queen from designs contributed by students from the Royal College of Art).
“I have to be seen to be believed,” the
queen famously said, and just how she did
that is clear in this exhibition. Ball gowns,
car coats, wide-brimmed hats and brooches
have been her armory. Being seen, after all,
is what makes monarchy real.
D8
N
GEAR
Nice Tote, but Where’s My Pen?
The men’s bag market
is worth $2.3 billion.
Practicality is extra.
By GUY TREBAY
An urgent bulletin (well, email) came in the
other day from Madeline Weeks, the fashion
director of GQ. While in Los Angeles for a
shoot, Ms. Weeks had dropped into Barneys
New York in Beverly Hills for some occupational reconnaissance and got a jolt when
she stepped off the escalator at the thirdfloor shoe department only to find that it
had disappeared.
Where once she could count on spotting
the latest spiked Venetian slippers from
Christian Louboutin or taper-toe mules
from Tomas Maier, Ms. Weeks wrote, suddenly there was a sea of “über-cool designer
small leather goods.”
Über-cool or otherwise, “designer small
leather goods” is euphemistic retail-speak
for handbags. And the allocation of prime
real estate to a category once relegated to a
sad corner of department store basements
points to a shift in the way men consume.
Don’t take my word for it. Ask the retail
analysts at the NPD Group, which this year
reported that, just as sales of women’s
handbags slumped 5 percent in 2014,
growth among bags for men leapt by double
HERSCHEL SUPPLY Bamfield tote in Woodland Camo
pattern, $74.99, herschelsupply.com
KENZO Kanvas Tote Bag $395, kenzo.com and Opening Ceremony,
35 Howard Street, 212-219-2688
PAL ZILERI Shopping Tote, $1,895, [email protected]
PACIFIC TOTE COMPANY Leather and canvas Big Sur tote, $180, 1633
‘People always ask
“What is your
inspiration?” And the
answer is not going to
India on a camel. It’s
function.’
digits. Among men, sales of tote bags increased by 11 percent.
“Male or female, consumers are carrying
a lot of things around with them,” said Marshal Cohen, the NPD Group’s chief industry
analyst, “and they want a bag that looks
good while also meeting their multifunctional needs.”
Multifunctional needs were very much on
my mind the other day as I rooted around
for a pen at the bottom of my tote bag.
I knew it was in there somewhere, hidden
beneath the gym shorts, the T-shirt, the No.
16 Rhodia notepad, the two iPhones, the
ThinkPad and the battered Filofax I’m
surely among the last holdouts to employ,
down in one of those crevices where mysterious lint accumulates.
Surely if I had a properly designed tote
bag (or else were not so resolutely analog as
to use a pen for writing), I wouldn’t face this
issue. But I don’t.
I have, instead, a cruddy canvas tote from
some nameless maker that I was forced into
buying when the perfectly proportioned
bag I had used for years became too disreputably battered for me to be seen with it
anymore. I’d purchased it for a fraction of its
original price when Lambertson Truex announced it was going out of business.
Now, of course, I wish I had sprung for a
lifetime supply. Leather-bottomed and with
sturdy leather handles, the bag struck just
the proper proportional balance: not so
small as to look ladylike or so large as to
make me look as if I were running away
from home.
You may think that getting a tote bag
right is a simple matter. You would, anyway,
PHOTOGRAPHS BY TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
if you had never checked out the confounding array of designer satchels or obscenely
expensive “shopping” totes to be found on
e-tailing sites like Farfetch, or if you had
road-tested some of those selfsame designer items and found them lacking in almost every conceivable way.
Never mind the embarrassing verse embossed on a $1,519 leather “poem tote” from
Ann Demeulemeester. How would you ever
find your keys at the bottom of a sack as
deep as your arm is long?
I don’t mean to pick on Ms. Demeulemeester, who is far from alone in having designed a tote that fails at tests of both utility
and aesthetics. Hardly a designer alive has
missed the opportunity to get in on the $2.3
billion men’s bag market. Yet the shock (at
least to this male consumer’s mind) is how
few of those people have troubled themselves to consider a tote bag’s basic brief.
Reached in Detroit, where he and John
Truex have assumed the title of co-designers of leather accessories for Shinola, Richard Lambertson got to the root of it. “The
problem is that a lot of designers make the
totes a little too girlie or slick and fashiony,”
he said. They fail to do as he and Mr. Truex
always have, which is to design the totes
from the inside out.
Cosmo Street, Los Angeles, 424-246-7673, pacifictotecompany.com
“People always ask, ‘What is your inspiration?’” Mr. Lambertson said. “And the answer is not going to India on a camel. It’s
function.”
Thus — as with my trusty old brown canvas Lambertson Truex tote, now retired —
in a world of ideal tote bags, “There is always a place for your cellphone, side pockets for your airline tickets and zippered
compartments on the inside, so when your
bag falls over, everything doesn’t fall out,”
as the designer told me.
And the clever interior sleeve pockets are
made so that you never again have to wonder what the hell you did with your pen.

AMID DEFECTIONS, ONE ALLY STANDS BY TRUMP: N.R.A.

Transcription

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