F R O M T H E Pa G E

F R O M T H E PA G E S O F

Friday October 23, 2009 Midnight in New York Nine pages © 2009 The New York Times

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Lone Cleric Loudly Defies Iran’s Leaders fed to monitor pay of bankers to curtail risk RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — A short midlevel cleric, with a neat white beard and a clergyman’s calm bearing, Mehdi Karroubi has watched from his home in Tehran as his aides have been arrested, his offices raided, his newspaper shut down. He has been threatened with arrest and, indirectly, the death penalty. His response: bring it on. Once a second-tier opposition figure operating in the shadow of Mir Hussein Moussavi, his fellow challenger in Iran’s discredited presidential election last June, Karroubi has emerged in recent months as the last and most defiant opponent of the country’s leadership. The authorities have dismissed as fabrications his accusations of official corruption, voting fraud and the torture and rape of detained protesters. A former confidant of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and a longtime conservative politician, he has lately been accused by the government of fomenting unrest and aiding Iran’s foreign enemies. Four months after mass protests erupted in response to the

dubious victory claims of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the opposition’s efforts have largely stalled in the face of unrelenting government pressure, arrests, long detentions, harsh sentences, censorship and a strategic refusal to compromise. But for all its success at preserving authority, the government has been unable to silence or intimidate Karroubi, its most tenacious and, in many ways, most problematic critic. While other opposition figures, including Moussavi and two former presidents, Mohammad Khatami and Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, are seldom heard now, Karroubi has been unsparing and highly vocal in his criticism of the government, which he feels has lost all legitimacy. Last week, a special court for the clergy began to consider whether Karroubi, 72, should face charges. His response, in a speech to a student group, was withering. “I am not only unworried about this court,” he wrote. “I wholeheartedly welcome it since I will use it to express my concerns re-

garding the national and religious beliefs of the Iranian people and the ideas of Imam Khomeini, and clearly reveal those who are opposed to these concerns.” Iran’s conservative leadership has so far not arrested him, apparently fearful of making a powerful symbol of a man so closely associated with the founding of the Islamic republic. If Karroubi restricted his complaints to the vote tally, he might have been ignored. But he has gone far beyond that with his accusations that state security officers raped, sodomized and tortured protesters. “If only I was not alive and had not seen the day that in the Islamic republic, a citizen would come to me and complain that every variety of appalling and unnatural act would be done in unknown buildings and by less-known people: stripping people and making them face each other and subjecting them to vile insults and urinating in their faces,” he wrote in a letter to the nation. “I said to myself, ‘Where indeed have we arrived 30 years after the revolution?’ ” MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Senate Leader Is Reconsidering a Public Plan WASHINGTON — Under pressure from the liberal wing of his caucus, the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, has told colleagues he may include a government-run health insurance plan in a health care bill he will soon take to the Senate floor, Democratic senators said Thursday. Reid’s latest thinking seemed to reflect a calculated gamble that the 60 members of his caucus could be persuaded to vote for the public plan, if it included some mechanism for states to opt out. His outlook was shaped, in part, by opinion polls showing public support for a government insurance plan, which would compete with private insurers. Speaker Nancy Pelosi said again Thursday that the House would definitely include a public option in its version of the legislation. At a meeting at the White House

on Thursday, Reid informed President Obama of his inclination to add the public option to the bill, but did not specifically ask the president to endorse that approach, an aide said. Just six weeks ago the public option appeared to be dying, under fierce attack by the insurance industry. A clear majority of Democratic senators favor a government-run plan. But public statements by other senators indicate that the proposal does not have the 60 votes ordinarily needed to secure Senate approval. Champions of the public plan, like Sen. Charles E. Schumer of New York, have urged Reid to take an aggressive posture, by putting the public option in the bill and forcing opponents to try to strip it out. “There is a growing sense that we need to lead on this issue and

not wait for it to be offered on the Senate floor,” a senior Democratic aide said. “The idea is that it’s better to show some fight.” As word of Reid’s plans spread Thursday, centrist senators from both parties said they had come together in an informal group to resist creation of a uniform nationwide public insurance program. Leaders of the group, including Sens. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., and Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, said they wanted to be sure the bill was not rushed to the floor. Reid is working closely with White House officials and two other Democratic senators, Max Baucus of Montana and Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut. “We have to make a decision pretty quickly,” Dodd said.  ROBERT PEAR and DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve announced Thursday that it would crack down on pay packages that encouraged bankers to take excessive risks, but officials acknowledged that the plan might not reduce the biggest paychecks on Wall Street. The Fed’s plan is one of the most far-reaching responses yet to last year’s financial crisis. It will subject executives, traders, deal makers and other employees of the biggest banks to regulatory scrutiny of their compensation and represent another increase in government intervention in the marketplace. The announcement was choreographed to coincide with the decision by the Obama administration this week to cut the pay of many high earners at the seven companies that received the most taxpayer help. “Compensation practices at some banking organizations have led to misaligned incentives and excessive risk-taking, contributing to bank losses and financial instability,” said Ben S. Bernanke, the Fed chairman. “The Federal Reserve is working to ensure that compensation packages appropriately tie rewards to longer-term performance and do not create undue risk for the firm or the financial system.” The Fed’s plan would use different approaches for the 28 biggest institutions and the thousands of smaller banks, which would be subjected to a review with their regular bank examinations. Money center bank holding companies like Goldman Sachs would have to present their compensation plans to bank regulators, who would then evaluate whether pay incentives properly balance goals of short-term growth and long-term stability. Regulators could demand changes, but the reviews would remain confidential. STEPHEN LABATON

International

Friday, October 23, 2009

Swedes Look to Diet to Cut Global Warming STOCKHOLM — Shopping for oatmeal, Helena Bergstrom, 37, admitted that she was flummoxed by the label on the blue box reading, “Climate declared: .87 kg CO2 per kg of product.” “Right now, I don’t know what this means,” said Bergstrom, a pharmaceutical company employee. But if a new experiment here succeeds, she and millions of other Swedes will soon find out. New labels listing the carbon dioxide emissions associated with the production of foods, from whole wheat pasta to fast food burgers, are appearing on some grocery items and restaurant menus around the country. Scientific experts say that changing one’s diet can be as effective in reducing emissions of climate-changing gases as changing the car one drives or doing away with the clothes dryer. “We’re the first to do it, and it’s a new way of thinking for us,” said

Ulf Bohman, head of the Nutrition Department at the Swedish National Food Administration, which was given the task last year of creating new food guidelines giving equal weight to climate and health. “We’re used to thinking about safety and nutrition as one thing and environmental as another.” Some of the new dietary guidelines may seem startling. They recommend that Swedes favor carrots over cucumbers and tomatoes, for example, because carrots don’t have to be grown in heated greenhouses here. They are not counseled to eat more fish, because Europe’s stocks are depleted. They are also advised to substitute beans or chicken for red meat, in view of the heavy emissions associated with raising cattle. “For consumers, it’s hard,” Bohman acknowledged. “You are getting environmental advice that you have to coordinate with,

‘How can I eat healthier?’ ” Many Swedish diners say it is just too much to ask. “I wish I could say that the information has made me change what I eat, but it hasn’t,” said Richard Lalander, 27, who was eating a Max hamburger (1.7 kilograms of carbon dioxide emissions) in the shadow of a menu board revealing that a chicken sandwich (0.4 kilograms) would have been better for the planet. Earlier studies of food emissions focused on the environmental costs of transporting food and raising cattle. But more nuanced research shows that the emissions depend on many factors, including the type of soil used to grow the food and whether a dairy farmer uses local rapeseed or imported soy for cattle feed. If the new guidelines were heeded, some experts say, Sweden could cut its emissions from food production by 20 to 50 percent.  ELISABETH ROSENTHAL

Biden Urges Eastern Europe to Spread Democracy BUCHAREST, Romania — Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. used a visit to Romania on Thursday to hail Eastern Europe on all that has been accomplished in the 20 years since the Iron Curtain fell and to challenge the countries to serve as models for other emerging democracies. In a speech at the restored Central University Library, where a fire set during Romania’s 1989 revolution destroyed 500,000 books, Biden paid tribute to “freedom’s defenders” who were killed and called the liberation of the old Eastern bloc “one of the greatest achievements in modern history.”

“Twenty years ago, the world watched in awe and admiration as the men and women of this region broke the shackles of repression and emerged a free people,” Biden said. Now, he said, Romania and its neighbors must help countries like Armenia and Azerbaijan develop their own democracies. “You delivered on the promise of your revolution. You are now in a position to help others do the same,” he said. Biden’s stop here came in the middle of a three-day swing through the region aimed mainly at reassuring Eastern European allies that the Obama administration stood behind them de-

spite efforts to “reset” relations with Russia. As he did in Warsaw, Biden denied that the decision to cancel a proposed missile defense system in Eastern Europe was made to appease Moscow. While Biden praised Romania’s “thriving democracy,” he made no mention of the fact that its government fell just last week after a vote of no confidence in Parliament. When the vice president sat down in Victoria Palace with Prime Minister Emil Boc, he was speaking with a caretaker leader amid disputes over who should take over. PETER BAKER

U.N. Calculates Death Toll of Afghan Heroin Trade UNITED NATIONS — The Afghan opium harvest has grown into a $65 billion annual trade in heroin that now kills many more people in NATO countries in a year than the number of NATO soldiers who have died on the battlefield in Afghanistan since 2001, Antonia Maria Costa, the senior U.N. official on drugs and crime, said Thursday. “If we do not address this, it will be hard to solve all the other prob-

lems in Afghanistan,” Costa said, noting that the trade is creating a “narco-cartel” in Afghanistan. It is easier to try to uproot the heroin trade at its source, where opium is grown, he said, particularly because heroin trafficking is disrupted less effectively in affluent Western countries. Costa was summarizing a report from the office he heads, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. The opium crop from Afghani-

stan is refined to produce 375 tons of heroin, which makes up the bulk of the trade worldwide. Europeans consume about 88 tons of heroin per year, and the authorities seize only 2 percent of the heroin that enters Europe, mostly through Bulgaria, Greece and Romania, according to the report. The annual death toll in all NATO countries from heroin is estimated to be more than 10,000. NEIL MACFARQUHAR

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in brief Pakistani Officer Assassinated Two assailants on a motorbike fired on a Pakistani Army jeep in Islamabad, killing a brigadier and his driver, a security official said. The assassination of the brigadier, Moinudin Ahmed, was believed to be the first targeted attack on a senior military officer in Islamabad, and suggested a new tactic in the war between the government and militants. The assailants fired with automatic weapons and then disappeared into traffic, according to witnesses. The brigadier had recently returned from Sudan, where he was leading the Pakistani contingent attached to the U.N. peacekeeping force. (NYT)

China-India Dispute Despite protests by the Chinese government, the Dalai Lama is going ahead with plans to visit a heavily militarized area in northeast India that is the focus of a territorial dispute between China and India, a Tibetan official in India said Thursday. The Dalai Lama is expected to visit the state of Arunachal Pradesh from Nov. 8 to Nov. 15. The dispute centers on the mountainous region of Tawang, a forested area bordering Bhutan and Chinese-ruled Tibet that is dominated by the ethnic Monpa people, who practice Tibetan Buddhism. (NYT)

Attack in Somalia The Shabab, a Somali insurgent group, attacked the main airport in Mogadishu with mortars on Thursday as the president prepared to board a plane to Uganda, officials said. President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed was unharmed, but the attack was followed by an artillery strike on the nation’s biggest market that left at least 18 people dead, according to witnesses and ambulance workers. Members of Parliament denounced the artillery barrage, which they said was launched by African Union peacekeepers, but a spokesman for the troops denied that they had fired the artillery. (NYT)

national

Friday, October 23, 2009

Drug Case Tries to Disrupt a Cultlike Cartel HOUSTON — Staging raids in 19 states, the Justice Department struck this week at one of Mexico’s most ruthless drugtrafficking organizations, a cultlike group known as La Familia Michoacana and notorious for beheading its enemies. Calling it the largest strike ever undertaken against a Mexican drug cartel, Attorney General Eric Holder announced the arrests of 303 people in the past two days, the latest action in a fouryear investigation. Law enforcement officials said the arrests and indictments would deal a major blow to a distribution network that trucked methamphetamine and cocaine to major cities in the United States, then sent cash and arms in the other direction. La Familia controls much of the drug traffic in central Mexico and terrorizes the population there, the authorities said, torturing and killing its enemies, includ-

ing police officers, and leaving the bodies in public with cryptic religious messages saying the dead suffered divine retribution. “The sheer level and depravity of violence that this cartel has exhibited far exceeds what we, unfortunately, have become accustomed to from other cartels,” Holder said. He added: “While this cartel may operate from Mexico, the toxic reach of its operations extends to nearly every state within our country.” The arrests were made Wednesday and Thursday in 38 cities, with major distribution rings targeted in Dallas, Atlanta and Seattle. The raids were part of a larger push against La Familia, Project Coronado, which had led to about 900 arrests in the past four years, Holder said. As the raids were carried out in the United States, the Mexican authorities on Thursday arrested six members of the cartel, including two mid-level commanders

in the towns of Taretan and Morelia. None of those arrested in the United States were major figures in the upper echelons of the organization, law enforcement officials said. They ran the gamut from people who oversaw city distribution networks to street-level dealers and gun-smugglers. The authorities said the sheer number of arrests would seriously disrupt the cartel’s distribution system. In addition, Holder said, the authorities have seized more than $32 million in American currency, 2,700 pounds of methamphetamine, 4,400 pounds of cocaine, 16,000 pounds of marijuana and 29 pounds of heroin. “These are drugs that were headed for our streets and weapons that often were headed for the streets of Mexico,” Holder said. “That’s why we are hitting them where it hurts the most — their revenue stream.”  JAMES C. McKINLEY Jr.

Audit of Home Credit Shows Errors and Abuses WASHINGTON — Just as Congressional leaders are calling for an extension of a popular $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers, or even an expansion to all homebuyers, government investigators reported Thursday that audits suggest widespread abuse and errors in the program. A report from the Treasury Department’s inspector general said that as of Sept. 30, the Internal Revenue Service had identified 167 possible criminal schemes and had begun some 107,000 examinations of potential civil violations. On Wednesday, in the first successful I.R.S. prosecution, a tax

preparer in Jacksonville, Fla., James Otto Price III, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison for fraud in 2008. According to the Justice Department, he claimed the credit for ineligible clients, many of whom were unaware of the action, and electronically paid himself $1,000 of the credit’s value each time. While officials said many suspect claims could turn out to be simple errors, the report found examples of claimants who already owned homes or had not yet bought one. Some 582 taxpayers were under 18 years old — as young as 4. Of the 1.4 million people who have claimed nearly

$10 billion in credits for 2008 and 2009, 60 percent had incomes below $50,000, raising questions about whether some could afford a home. The $8,000 credit is available to individuals earning up to $75,000 a year and couples up to $150,000. It is refundable, so taxpayers get a check for any amount beyond their tax liability. The Obama administration is lukewarm about extending the credit and opposes increasing it, officials say. But the housing industry is lobbying hard to expand the credit to as much as $15,000 and to include all homebuyers.  JACKIE CALMES

Senate Votes to Expand Hate-Crimes Protection WASHINGTON — The Senate voted Thursday to extend new federal protections to people who are victims of violent crime because of their sex or sexual orientation, bringing the measure close to reality after years of fierce debate. The 68-to-29 vote sends the legislation to President Obama, who has said he supports it. The measure, attached to an essential military-spending bill,

broadens the definition of federal hate crimes to include those committed because of a victim’s gender or gender identity, or sexual orientation. Opponents argued that the measure was unnecessary in view of existing laws and might interfere with local law enforcement. Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C., said he agreed that hate crimes were terrible. “That’s why they are already illegal,” he said, as-

serting that the new law was an “Orwellian” step toward “thought crime.” Ten Republicans voted for the bill. The only Democrat to oppose it was Sen. Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, who said it “does nothing to bring our open-ended and disproportionate military commitment in Afghanistan to an end and/or to ensure that our troops are safely and expeditiously redeployed from Iraq.” (NYT)

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in brief N.Y. Court Rejects Rent Increases New York State’s highest court dealt a blow on Thursday to the owners of the sprawling Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village complexes in Manhattan when it ruled that they improperly began charging market rents on thousands of apartments. The current owner, a partnership of Tishman Speyer Properties and BlackRock Realty, and the former owner, Metropolitan Life, may be liable for $200 million in overcharges and damages owed to tenants of about 4,000 apartments. (NYT)

Child Killer Sought Investigators intensified their search for evidence in the slaying of a Florida girl whose body was discovered in a southeast Georgia landfill after a nationwide two-day hunt. The authorities in Clay County, Fla., identified the body as that of Somer Renee Thompson, 7, of Orange Park, Fla. “There is a child killer on the loose, and that’s why we’re going to catch this person and bring him to justice,” said Sheriff Rick Beseler.  (NYT)

Plane on Autopilot Federal safety officials are investigating why a Northwest Airlines flight from San Diego to Minneapolis overshot its destination by about 150 miles on Wednesday evening and did not respond to radio calls from controllers. The plane, an Airbus A320 carrying 144 passengers, was cruising at 37,000 feet when the crew stopped responding about an hour and five minutes before its scheduled arrival of 8:01 p.m. The plane finally arrived at 9:15 p.m. (NYT)

Soupy Sales Dies Soupy Sales, whose zany television routines turned the smashing of a pie to the face into a madcap art form in the 1950s and 60s, died Thursday night. He was 83. Sales’s former manager, Dave Usher, said he died in a hospice in New York City.  (NYT)

business DJIA NASDAQ

Friday, October 23, 2009

10,081.31

U 131.95

Dollar/YEN

2,165.29

U 14.56

10-yr treasury 3.41% U 0.02

91.29 U 0.23

gold (ny) $1,060.10 U 1.10 crude oil

$81.19 D 0.18

Freddie Mac’s Secrecy Pacts Face Court Test WASHINGTON — One year after the government took over and bailed out Freddie Mac, the giant mortgage finance company, federal regulators are blocking former employees from revealing information to investors who are suing the company for fraud, lawyers for shareholders say. The Treasury has propped up Freddie Mac with more than $50 billion since the company nearly collapsed more than a year ago, and officials warn that the company will probably need additional billions in the months ahead. Federal prosecutors in Virginia and the Securities and Exchange Commission are already investigating whether the company misled investors about the risks it was taking with securities backed by subprime mortgages.

But in a battle that will surface Friday in a federal courtroom in New York, the company and its primary government overseer, the Federal Housing Finance Agency, are trying to enforce secrecy agreements that scores of former employees signed as a condition for receiving severance payments when they left the company. In their class-action lawsuit against Freddie Mac, three big union-based pension funds charge that Freddie Mac executives defrauded investors by concealing the company’s exposure to highrisk mortgages, its mounting losses and its inadequate capital position. At the hearing on Friday, attorneys for shareholders will argue that Freddie Mac’s secrecy

agreements amount to buying silence from willing witnesses who may have crucial information about what the company’s top executives knew at the time they were assuring investors that all was well. “Federal dollars are being used to bribe people, to buy their silence,” said David George, an attorney representing the pension funds in a class-action lawsuit. Under the secrecy provisions, former employees would be permitted to answer questions from government prosecutors and investigators in any criminal case or in a regulatory proceeding. But the former employees are prohibited from cooperating with anyone involved in a civil lawsuit against Freddie Mac.  EDMUND L. ANDREWS

A Vanishing Breed: The Cellphone Refusenik Not so long ago, we all lived in a world in which we decided where to meet friends before leaving the house and we hiked to the nearest payphone if we got a flat tire. Then we got cellphones. Well, not everyone. For a hardy few, life is a pocketful of quarters, missed connections and a smug satisfaction of marching to a different ring tone. For many people, cellphones have become indispensable appendages. After 20 years, 85 percent of adult Americans have cellphones, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Those who still do not have them, according to Pew, tend to

be older or less educated Americans or those unable to afford phones. “These are people who have a bunch of other struggles in their lives and the expense of maintaining technology and mastering it is also pretty significant for them,” said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew project. But there is also a smaller subset who resist cellphones simply because they do not want them. “It’s a luxury not to be reached when I’m out and about,” said Gregory Han, a 34-year-old writer and editor living in Los Angeles. Life for him is a lot more planned than most, the consequence of

not having a cellphone — or even a landline — at home. When his mother recently went to the hospital, his mother called his sister, who sent him an instant message on his computer, to which he replied with a call using Skype over the Web. When he travels for work, he gives his boss a list of ways to reach him and colleagues to call if he is unreachable. Han initially got rid of his cellphone to save money, but “I feel I benefit by living in the moment and not having a ring or a buzz or an inclination to always look at the screen.”  CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Russia’s Oil Industry Surges After Break With OPEC MOSCOW — Improbably, Russia’s oil sector has emerged as one of this country’s few growth industries. While the 12 nations of OPEC have limped through the last year, painfully cutting production as the global economy slumped, Russian oil companies have had an extraordinary run. Profits and share prices at companies like Lukoil and Rosneft are up, and the Russian budget deficit is coming down, in part because of oil revenue.

The divergent fortunes of Russia and the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries suggest that the Kremlin will never revive the proposal it floated a year ago, then withdrew, that Russia and OPEC coordinate production limits. Already the world’s largest oil-producing nation, Russia has become the biggest exporter, too, surpassing Saudi Arabia as the Saudis reduced production to stay within OPEC’s limits. “OPEC made a concerted ef-

fort to stem its exports,” Alex Fak, an oil analyst at Troika investment bank in Moscow, said. “The result of that action was higher oil prices. So Russia was encouraged to produce more and sell more. Which is what it did.” The jump in oil prices to $82 a barrel on Wednesday only added to Russia’s good fortunes; unlike the members of OPEC, it is banking the full benefits of this price increase because it is pumping at full volume.  ANDREW E. KRAMER

nikkei ftse 100

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10,267.17 D 66.22 5,207.36 D 50.49

N.Y.S.E. Most Active Issues Vol. (100s) Last Chg. Citigrp 2902274 BkofAm 2310135 SPDR 2109468 GenElec 1229703 SPDR Fncl 1157700 MarshIls 1030048 DirFBear rs 966442 WellsFargo 732006 iShEMkts 698357 SprintNex 630120

4.46 16.52 109.33 15.34 15.32 6.10 18.61 30.17 41.10 3.38

Nasdaq Actives Vol. (100s) PwShs QQQ 767261 Intel 658151 Microsoft 600852 eBay 510574 ETrade 366422 SunMicro 361960 TriQuint 341606 Cisco 335040 FifthThird 330905 Apple Inc 276464

Bid 43.31 20.12 26.59 23.97 1.67 8.44 5.84 24.18 10.80 205.20

Amex Actives Vol. (100s) Last Oilsands g 148279 GoldStr g 47927 Taseko 44316 CelSci 40990 LucasEngy 32370 Sinovac 29032 NovaGld g 28647 Nevsun g 26195 GranTrra g 25977 CardiumTh 23586 KodiakO g 22600

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0.17 0.26 0.01 1.06 0.05 0.27 2.26 0.22 0.69 0.28

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1.52 + 0.09 3.52 – 0.01 3.09 + 0.29 1.33 unch 1.03 + 0.20 7.48 + 0.18 5.05 – 0.23 3.04 – 0.06 5.37 + 0.32 1.01 – 0.09 2.51 + 0.04

Foreign Exchange Fgn. currency Dollars in in dollars fgn.currency Thu. Wed. Thu. Wed. Australia .9268 .9311 Bahrain 2.6521 2.6521 Brazil .5798 .5802 Britain 1.6624 1.6631 Canada .9537 .9624 China .1464 .1464 Denmark .2018 .2020 Dominican .0277 .0277 Egypt .1829 .1828 Europe 1.5026 1.5036 Hong Kong .1290 .1290 Japan .01096 .01098 Mexico .07724 .07750 Norway .1808 .1807 Singapore .7174 .7201 So. Africa .1352 .1355 So. Korea .00085 .00085 Sweden .1470 .1464 Switzerlnd .9952 .9953

1.0790 1.0740 .3771 .3771 1.7248 1.7235 .6015 .6013 1.0486 1.0391 6.8300 6.8284 4.9554 4.9505 36.05 36.10 5.4666 5.4703 .6655 .6651 7.7500 7.7500 91.29 91.06 12.947 12.903 5.5320 5.5346 1.3940 1.3887 7.3964 7.3795 1180.0 1181.0 6.8027 6.8306 1.0048 1.0047

Delta Posts a Loss Delta Air Lines posted a thirdquarter net loss on Thursday, joining other large American carriers, as tumbling passenger revenue during the recession offset benefits from lower fuel prices. US Airways Group, the sixth-largest airline by traffic, reported a net loss, while JetBlue Airways and Alaska Air Group posted profits. (Bloomberg)

Business

Friday, October 23, 2009

Message From Pay Czar: Greed Is Not Good You’ve heard the details. The was that when he made his rulpay czar slashed cash compen- ings, he would help change the sation. He insisted that stock ethos of executive pay, not just at compensation be held for two to the seven companies that came four years. Guaranteed bonuses? under his purview, but all across Gone. Retention bonusWall Street. Talking es? Eliminated. But the truth is, it Business “The strategic conwon’t. No pay czar can struct is that their comdo that. That’s someJoe pensation should be tied thing only shareholders Nocera to the performance of the can do. company,” the pay czar, In fact, Feinberg’s Kenneth R. Feinberg, said. “strategic construct” differs only This all sounds reasonable. in degree from pay policies that Clearly, Feinberg tried hard to already exist on Wall Street. Last balance the desire among angry year, Morgan Stanley overhauled taxpayers to see pay curbed at the its compensation plan to give the companies they had to save last top executives 65 percent of their year, and the executives’ wish to pay in stock — and much of that retain talent and pay competitive deferred. What’s more, Morgan salaries. (Not to mention the gov- Stanley employees have to defer ernment’s desire to get back the a chunk of their cash compensabillions of dollars used to bail out tion, so that it can be clawed back these companies.) For this nar- if the deals they have made go row goal, he largely succeeded. sour. Over at Goldman Sachs, But there was always a loftier partners made no more than goal. When Feinberg first took $220,000 in cash last year and the this assignment in June, the hope rest in stock. And the firm’s part-

ners have to hold onto 75 percent of their stock until they retire. In other words, much of Wall Street has already moved to better align pay with longer-term performance. But that isn’t exactly keeping pay down, which is what most of the country really wants to see, given how the nation’s bankers helped put us at the brink of financial ruin. And it’s worth noting that certain contentious pay issues were either ignored or shoved under the rug. Ken Lewis, the soonto-be-retired chief executive of Bank of America, has declined to take a salary in 2009, at Feinberg’s urging. But he is still going to get around $70 million in retirement pay — which Feinberg could do nothing about. So Lewis will soon join the ranks of other top Wall Street executives who walked away with millions after doing a miserable job. That’s the kind of pay practice that makes people justifiably angry.

House Panel Votes for Financial Oversight Agency WASHINGTON — The House Financial Services Committee voted Thursday to create an agency to protect consumers from predatory lending, deceptive credit card terms and other abuses. By a 39-to-29 vote, the panel moved regulatory legislation a crucial step forward on what was likely to be a long road. President Obama has said he wants a bill on his desk before the end of the year. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who

heads the committee, said he was optimistic of final passage either late this year or early in 2010. Frank also said he was confident that the pillars of the legislation would remain intact. “No bill I’ve ever had to share with anyone else has been everything I liked,” Frank said, predicting that action in the House would create momentum in the Senate. The House panel also approved a provision to impose new regulations for credit cards by Dec. 1 instead of mid-February, af-

ter Democratic members complained that lenders had been raising interest rates in anticipation of the legislation. Obama immediately issued a statement lauding the committee action. “This bill has now passed a major hurdle, and this step sends an important signal to the American people that we will not stand by and allow big financial firms and their lobbyists to mobilize against change,” the president said. DAVID STOUT  and STEPHEN LABATON

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in brief Drug Makers Profit Cost-cutting measures helped drug companies shore up profits in the third quarter, but concerns over sustainable revenue growth continued to worry investors. Merck earnings easily beat Wall Street expectations on Thursday, while rivals Novartis and Bristol-Myers Squibb posted profits largely in line with projections. But the drug companies posted modest increases in sales and face patent expirations to their biggest products in the next few years, a problem endemic to the industry. (Reuters)

Amazon Profits Soar SAN FRANCISCO — Amazon. com shares surged Thursday after the company said its thirdquarter profit soared 62 percent. Throughout the recession, shoppers have flocked to Amazon for deals on all kinds of products, from books to baby strollers, even while offline competitors were struggling. The results and outlook sent Amazon shares up $11.20, 12 percent, to $104.65 in after-hours trading.  (AP)

Jobless Claims Rise WASHINGTON — The number of newly laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits rose more than expected last week, after falling in five of the last six weeks, as employers remained reluctant to hire even with the economy showing signs of recovery.  (AP)

Federal Investigation Finds Research Flaws at an Illinois Cancer Center URBANA, Ill. — Two years after becoming vice president at the biggest hospital in this university town, Dr. Suzanne Stratton said she had seen enough. She had clashed repeatedly with a doctor who oversaw the local patients enrolled in more than 130 federally sponsored cancer studies — work that the hospital promoted in local television advertisements but that Stratton, who has a Ph.D. in cancer biology, said was too often putting patients and science at risk. In a meeting with Carle Cancer Center administrators late last

year, Stratton cited an outside audit that had found “major deficiencies” in 12 of 29 experiments being overseen by that doctor. Stratton says her bosses responding by firing her. But federal officials, alerted by Stratton, have corroborated many of the shortcomings she found. They are continuing to investigate — an inquiry with implications that go far beyond the Carle Cancer Center. In the last quarter century, of the hundreds of thousands of people who have enrolled in federally financed trials of cancer

drugs and treatments, more than one-third have come through local medical centers like Carle. Together, these nearly 400 federally designated community research sites and the network of 3,400 participating physicians amass more evidence for cancer science than any of the giant cancer centers like Memorial Sloan Kettering in Manhattan. Because the patients at community centers tend to be older, sicker, less affluent and generally more diverse than those treated at big academic medical centers, they are considered more repre-

sentative of the national population. So, over the years, the community centers have played important roles in developing new treatments for breast, lung and prostate cancer. But federal officials have never conducted a systematic review of the community research program. And if Carle’s problems turn out to be any indication, the community centers may not always be adhering to the rigorous protocols of research medicine that the National Cancer Institute expects them to follow.  DUFF WILSON

journal

Friday, October 23, 2009

6

Film Depicting Bloody Dolphin Hunt Makes Its Debut in Japan TOKYO — For years, dolphin hunts off the seaside town of Taiji, which turn coastal waters red with blood each winter, have drawn the ire of Western activists. But few among the Japanese public seemed to care, or even know, about the slaughter. That could change with the first public screenings here of “The Cove,” an American documentary that used hidden cameras to film Taiji’s annual dolphin hunts. On Wednesday, Japanese moviegoers got their first glimpse of it at the Tokyo International Film Festival, held here this week. Taiji is not the only community that hunts dolphins, thousands of which are killed

crossword ACROSS

Edited By Will Shortz PUZZLE BY BARRY C. SILK

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across the world either by intent or by becoming ensnared in fishermen’s nets. But Taiji’s fishermen are notorious drive hunters, banging on metal poles to herd panicked dolphins into a cove, then spearing them to death in what protesters describe as a gory bloodbath. Japan killed about 13,000 dolphins in coastal waters in 2007, according to the fisheries agency, of which about 1,750 were captured in Taiji. Japan also hunts whales by using a loophole in the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling that allows whales to be killed for research, though the catch from its research fleet ends up in Japanese

For answers, call 1-900-289-CLUE (289-2583), $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5550. Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 5,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year). Mobile crosswords: nytimes.com/mxword. Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

supermarkets. “I was outraged. The footage of the sea turning bloody red was especially shocking,” said Yukiko Ishizawa, 18, a college student in Tokyo who saw the film on Wednesday. “I’d seen the meat sold on the market, but had no idea Japan was a big dolphin-hunting nation,” said Taro Oguchi, 29, an office worker. “Whether or not Japan should stop is one thing,” he said. “But we should at least be aware these hunts take place.” Despite the film’s enthusiastic reception at the festival — a round of applause broke out at the end — it is unclear whether it will spark a wider public debate. Whale and dolphin hunting are considered an important part of Japan’s traditional livelihood and culinary culture, a practice to be defended against foreign interference (even though only a minority of Japanese eat whale meat, and even fewer eat dolphin). There is also a strong taboo in the Japanese news media against any criticism of the country’s farmers and fishermen, often depicted as heroic defenders of a way of life that is fast disappearing. Coverage of the film has been sparse, and its producers have yet to find a distributor willing to put it on wider release. The Tokyo Film Festival initially rejected “The Cove” as too controversial, but reversed its decision at the last minute after lobbying from Hollywood heavyweights like Ben Stiller, who has taken a personal interest in it. The festival, however, screened a disclaimer stating it had nothing to do with the film’s production. “The feeling here is that the world needs to respect cultural differences,” said Tetsu Sato, a professor in environmental management at Nagano University. “Why should there even be a debate on this issue?” The fishing cooperative at Taiji had demanded that the festival drop “The Cove” from its program, accusing the producers of trespassing on private property to film footage and of making false assertions. The town has hired a lawyer and was preparing to take legal action, an official said Wednesday. HIROKO TABUCHI

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opinion

Friday, October 23, 2009

editorials of the timeS

paul krugman

Counting Backward

Chinese Disconnect

America’s top diplomat in Iraq, Christopher Hill, and America’s top commander there, Gen. Ray Odierno, have been wrangling for months over how much U.S. officials should get involved in Iraqi politics. Hill, it is said, wants to give the Iraqis more of a chance to find their own way. Odierno — with his eye on the troop drawdown clock — has been arguing for a more hands-on approach. The stalemate over Iraq’s election law should settle that debate once and for all. Iraq’s political leaders need a strong shove ahead, if there is to be any hope of withdrawing U.S. troops on time and ensuring that the country doesn’t once again unravel. Iraq’s Constitution says national elections must be held before Jan. 31, 2010. When President Obama pledged to pull out all combat troops by the end of August, it was with the understanding that there would be a new government solidly in place. Every week of delay makes that harder. Without a law, there can be no vote, no new government and no real progress on the issues that continue to roil Iraq’s divided society, including a law to equitably share oil revenues and a decision about who — Kurds or Arabs — will control Kirkuk. After Saddam Hussein’s brutal dictatorship and the recent years of near civil war, it is a relief to see Iraq’s Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish communities fighting things out in Parliament, not in the streets. But the situation is still highly fragile, and the forces eager to reignite the killing have not given up.

The dispute over the election law centers first on the question of whether voters can cast their ballots for parties or individuals. Voting for individuals is preferable because it offers a more direct connection between politicians and their constituents and helps weaken ethnically based parties. The second issue is who should be eligible to vote in Kirkuk. Hussein drove Kurds out of the region; Arabs now charge that the Kurdish regional government is flooding the city with Kurds to bolster its territorial claims. The broader Kirkuk problem could take years to resolve. The way to break the election logjam would be to use the current voter list with an understanding that it will not prejudice the decision on Kirkuk’s future. The election law’s deadline was Oct. 15, and planners say it will take several months to get a vote organized. Iraqi politicians need to get serious about making a deal. U.S. officials need to marshal all of their resources to pressure and cajole them into coming up with one. We are mystified as to why Prime Minister Nouri Kamal al-Maliki chose to be in Washington for an investment conference this week. Iraq needs foreign investment; but without the hope of some stability, nobody is going to invest. Obama promised that even as America prepared to leave, it would be an “honest broker in pursuit of fair and durable agreements on issues that have divided Iraq’s leaders.” Iraq clearly needs an honest broker — and a good deal more.

Credit Card Chicanery Congress blundered badly when it gave the credit card industry as long as 15 months to phase out the deceptive and predatory practices that were outlawed in a new law enacted in May. Instead of backing away from exploitation, credit card companies have intensified it. They have driven up already outrageous interest rates by an industrywide average of about 20 percent, according to a report scheduled to be released next week from the Pew Charitable Trusts’ Safe Credit Cards Project. The companies have also used sleight of hand to more than double rates on customers who spent prudently and paid their bills on time. The Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility and Disclosure Act would end a great many odious practices. The companies, for example, could no longer deluge unemployed teenagers with credit cards, driving them deeply into debt that they have no way of paying off. The companies will have to verify the young person’s ability to pay or get a signature from a responsible adult before credit is issued. The law prohibits arbitrary rate increases, penalties for customers who are late paying

an unrelated bill — known as universal default — and scams in which companies charge cardholders new interest on debts that they have paid a month or two earlier and rig due dates so that payments are late by definition and subject to penalty. The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben Bernanke, acknowledged recently that moving up the effective date to Dec. 1 would allow consumers to get benefits and protections sooner. But he also expressed misgivings that the move might be difficult for companies that need to create new billing and accounting systems. Bernanke’s opinion will hold less sway in the House than in the Senate, where lawmakers are notoriously deferential to regulators and to the banks. But pressure for action is clearly building in the House and among the voters, who have grown weary of being gouged, especially at a time when many of them are having trouble feeding and housing their families. In any case, it is time that Congress looked out less for the credit card companies and more for consumers. That means passing bills that would move up the effective date of the credit card law.

7

China’s outrageous currency policy is posing a growing threat to the rest of the world economy. The only question now is what the world will do about it. Some background: The value of the China’s currency, unlike, say, the value of the British pound, isn’t determined by supply and demand. Instead, Chinese authorities enforce a target by buying or selling their currency in the foreign exchange market — a policy made possible by restrictions on the ability of private investors to move their money either into or out of the country. The crucial question is whether the target value of the yuan is reasonable. Until around 2001, you could argue that it was: China’s overall trade position wasn’t too far out of balance. From then onward, however, the policy of keeping the yuan-dollar rate fixed came to look increasingly bizarre. First of all, the dollar slid in value, especially against the euro, so that by keeping the yuan/dollar rate fixed, Chinese officials were, in effect, devaluing their currency against everyone else’s. Meanwhile, productivity in China’s export industries soared; combined with the de facto devaluation, this made Chinese goods extremely cheap on world markets. The result was a huge Chinese trade surplus. If supply and demand had been allowed to prevail, the value of China’s currency would have risen sharply. But Chinese authorities didn’t let it rise. They kept it down by selling vast quantities of the currency, acquiring in return an enormous hoard of foreign assets, mostly in dollars, currently worth about $2.1 trillion. Although there has been a lot of doomsaying about the falling dollar, that decline is actually both natural and desirable. America needs a weaker dollar to help reduce its trade deficit. But China has been keeping its currency pegged to the dollar — which means that a country with a rapidly recovering economy, a country whose currency should be rising in value, is in effect engineering a large devaluation instead. And that’s a particularly bad thing to do at a time when the world economy remains deeply depressed. The biggest victims are probably workers in poor countries. In normal times, I’d be among the first to reject claims that China is stealing other peoples’ jobs, but right now it’s the simple truth. U.S. officials have been extremely cautious about confronting the China problem, but right now this caution makes little sense. Suppose the Chinese were to do what Wall Street seems to fear and start selling some of their dollar hoard. Under current conditions, this would actually help the U.S. economy by making our exports more competitive. The point is that with the world economy still in a precarious state, beggar-thy-neighbor policies can’t be tolerated. Something must be done about China’s currency.

sports

Friday, October 23, 2009

Angels Rally for a 7-6 Win Over the Yankees ANAHEIM, Calif. — The American League Championship Series turned twice on Thursday, toward the Yankees and then away from them, both times at similar moments. Seven outs from winning Game 5, the Los Angeles Angels lost a four-run lead in the top of the seventh inning. Then in the bottom of the inning, needing seven outs to clinch their 40th pennant, the Yankees gave the lead back. The Angels rallied for a 7-6 victory, forcing Game 6 at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night. The Yankees lead the series, three games to two, and will pitch Andy Pettitte against Joe Saunders. A.J. Burnett allowed four runs in the first inning on Thursday, and though the Yankees stormed ahead with six runs in the seventh, Burnett and Phil Hughes allowed three runs in the bottom of

the inning. The Yankees had a chance in the ninth, when Brian Fuentes walked Alex Rodriguez intentionally with two out, and then walked Hideki Matsui and hit Robinson Cano with a pitch to load the bases. But Nick Swisher popped out to shortstop to end the game. The Angels led the major leagues in batting average, at .285, but they hit .201 across the first four games of the A.L.C.S. They had not scored before the fourth inning all postseason. “Get some early runs,” Manager Mike Scioscia had said Wednesday. “Get some leads and then hold them. I think that’s the only template that’s going to work against a team like the Yankees.” It worked on Thursday. Starter John Lackey survived a jam in the first by retiring the Yankees’

3-4-5 hitters in order after two singles. The Angels rewarded him by blitzing Burnett. Burnett walked Chone Figgins on five pitches. Bobby Abreu doubled Figgins to third, and when Burnett tried a curve ball, to Torii Hunter, it went for a two-run single through the middle. Vladimir Guerrero hammered a first-pitch fastball for a double, scoring Hunter. Then Kendry Morales smacked the ball to left to score Guerrero. It was 4-0 Angels, and the Yankees were facing a motivated pitcher. Lackey will be a free agent this winter, and the start shaped up as perhaps his last as an Angel. He made the most of it. After the singles in the first, Lackey retired 13 of 14 hitters, frustrating them with curveballs off the plate and fastballs at the knees.  TYLER KEPNER

Phillies Making a Rare Return to the World Series PHILADELPHIA — As corks flew, Brad Lidge, the Philadelphia closer, retreated to what on Wednesday night passed for a serene corner of the Phillies’ clubhouse. He was celebrating a second consecutive trip to the World Series. “This doesn’t happen to teams very often,” Lidge said. “It just doesn’t.” The last time was in 2001, when the defending champion Yankees lost a seven-game Series to the Arizona Diamondbacks. That defeat heralded the end of the Yankees’ dynasty. The Phillies may be just begin-

ning. Like those Yankees teams, these Phillies are strong-willed and relentless, and they have excelled at closing out teams quickly. Of their five playoff series in the last two years, all of which they have won, none have required the maximum number of games. Each time, the Phillies won the opener, then lost once, but not again. Over the last two postseasons, they are 11-0 after losses. “We don’t have quitters,” shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. Three of those 11 victories came this week at Citizens Bank Park, where the Phillies overwhelmed

WEATHER

High/low temperatures for the 20 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches) for the 18 hours ended at 2 p.m. yesterday. Expected conditions for today and tomorrow. Weather conditions: C-clouds, F-fog, H-haze, I-ice, PCpartly cloudy,R-rain, S-sun, Sh-showers, Sn-snow, SSsnow showers, T-thunderstorms, Tr-trace, W-windy.

U.S. CITIES Yesterday Today Tomorrow Atlanta 73/ 50 0 71/ 59 Sh 61/ 54 PC Albuquerque 57/ 43 0 66/ 41 S 69/ 40 S Boise 57/ 44 0 64/ 42 PC 56/ 46 PC Boston 59/ 49 0 50/ 45 PC 63/ 46 Sh Buffalo 61/ 52 0 49/ 40 Sh 60/ 49 C Charlotte 75/ 39 0 73/ 57 PC 71/ 63 Sh Chicago 59/ 48 0.14 57/ 48 R 48/ 42 C Cleveland 68/ 54 0 60/ 48 Sh 58/ 52 C Dallas-Ft. Worth 61/ 54 1.34 66/ 44 PC 76/ 48 S Denver 44/ 31 0.04 55/ 30 PC 64/ 34 PC Detroit 64/ 52 0 58/ 43 R 51/ 45 C

Houston Kansas City Los Angeles Miami Mpls.-St. Paul New York City Orlando Philadelphia Phoenix Salt Lake City San Francisco Seattle St. Louis Washington

75/ 69 61/ 54 81/ 59 86/ 73 43/ 37 74/ 54 81/ 64 72/ 50 80/ 61 59/ 45 64/ 55 54/ 50 61/ 55 72/ 52

3.17 0.68 0 0.19 0 0 0.01 0 0 0 0 0 0.09 0

the Los Angeles Dodgers to win the National League Championship Series in five games for a second straight year. The Dodgers’ pitchers were the stingiest in baseball in the regular season, but the Phillies bludgeoned them for 35 runs in five games. The Dodgers’ bullpen boasted the best regular-season earned run average but was outpitched by the Phillies’ supposedly ragtag group. The Dodgers had the most victories in their last atbat in the N.L. this season, but the Phillies thrived in the clutch, batting .400 with runners in scoring position. BEN SHPIGEL 72/ 51 S 44/ 40 C 87/ 60 S 88/ 75 PC 42/ 37 Sh 55/ 53 C 88/ 68 PC 59/ 53 C 90/ 63 S 62/ 39 PC 72/ 56 PC 57/ 50 R 55/ 50 C 66/ 56 C

77/ 50 S 58/ 34 S 82/ 62 S 89/ 75 PC 49/ 33 PC 68/ 52 R 88/ 70 PC 70/ 51 R 88/ 62 S 59/ 44 PC 72/ 57 PC 55/ 47 C 51/ 41 PC 72/ 59 T

FOREIGN CITIES Acapulco Athens Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo

Yesterday Today Tomorrow 93/ 75 0 88/ 77 PC 88/ 75 R 72/ 55 0 77/ 61 PC 75/ 61 T 75/ 46 0 70/ 50 S 72/ 52 PC 47/ 39 0 46/ 41 R 54/ 39 PC 70/ 45 0.47 82/ 48 Sh 64/ 43 PC 82/ 68 0 81/ 64 PC 86/ 64 S

Cape Town Dublin Geneva Hong Kong Kingston Lima London Madrid Mexico City Montreal Moscow Nassau Paris Prague Rio de Janeiro Rome Santiago Stockholm Sydney Tokyo Toronto Vancouver Warsaw

8

in brief Devils Top Rangers Martin Brodeur entered Thursday’s game seeking his 103rd career shutout to tie Terry Sawchuk’s N.H.L. record, but he was after a more immediate target: he had not been the winning goalie in regulation at the Garden since Dec. 17, 2006, an eight-game stretch. Brodeur lost the shutout early in the second period, but he realized his greater ambition as the Devils survived a wild game with a 4-2 victory that boosted their road record to 4-0 while sending the Rangers to their second straight loss after a seven-game winning streak. (NYT)

Dodgers Dispute A lawyer for Jamie McCourt, the chief executive of the Los Angeles Dodgers, said she had been fired by the team owner, her estranged husband, Frank McCourt. The McCourts separated this month. The lawyer, Dennis Wasser, said Jamie McCourt learned Thursday that she was no longer employed by the Dodgers. Wasser said Jamie McCourt would address her firing in court.  (AP)

NHL scores WEDNESDAY’S LATE GAME Dallas 4, Anaheim 2 THURSDAY Philadelphia 4, Boston 3, SO Washington 5, Atlanta 4 Montreal 5, Islanders 1 Devils 4, Rangers 2 Nashville 6, Ottawa 5, OT Tampa Bay 5, San Jose 2 85/ 61 0 57/ 52 0.59 58/ 43 0.28 85/ 77 0 89/ 79 0 66/ 60 0 61/ 48 0.01 64/ 50 0.31 75/ 55 0 46/ 36 0.18 47/ 39 0.08 86/ 73 0 61/ 50 0.20 49/ 36 0 89/ 72 Tr 68/ 64 0.35 75/ 52 0 46/ 43 – 69/ 64 0 71/ 59 0 62/ 46 0.11 52/ 46 0.27 45/ 39 0.06

79/ 59 S 57/ 48 PC 52/ 43 PC 84/ 73 S 84/ 77 T 70/ 61 C 64/ 50 PC 66/ 46 PC 72/ 57 R 43/ 28 PC 50/ 41 C 89/ 77 S 64/ 50 PC 54/ 46 C 82/ 64 PC 72/ 57 R 63/ 48 C 45/ 39 C 86/ 57 PC 68/ 59 C 48/ 39 Sh 57/ 46 R 46/ 41 R

75/ 57 PC 61/ 52 R 63/ 43 PC 82/ 73 PC 82/ 77 T 70/ 61 C 66/ 54 R 72/ 55 PC 68/ 57 R 55/ 37 R 48/ 41 C 90/ 77 T 66/ 55 R 55/ 45 C 86/ 64 PC 68/ 57 PC 66/ 41 PC 45/ 39 C 77/ 57 S 68/ 59 C 59/ 46 Sh 52/ 43 PC 46/ 43 R

sports journal

Friday, October 23, 2009

Learning How the Other Half Wins in the SEC STARKVILLE, Miss. — The road to the Bowl Championship Series title game will wind through the most remote college town in the Southeastern Conference during the next month. By hosting No. 2 Florida this weekend and No. 1 Alabama on Nov. 14, Mississippi State will make appearances in the national championship conversation. And the drop-ins by the SEC fat cats will showcase for Mississippi State’s first-year coach, Dan Mullen, exactly what he is chasing in one of the most difficult jobs in all of college sports. When Mullen, 37, was hired by Mississippi State last year after spending four seasons as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Florida, he traded the Heisman Trophy winner Tim Tebow for a walk-on quarterback and went to a university with essentially half the athletic budget ($41 million compared with $89 million) and football budget (less than $8 million compared with $15.8 million). There is even a coordinator in the SEC, Tennessee’s Monte Kiffin, who is scheduled to make $300,000 more than Mullen’s $1.2 million salary this season. But as Mississippi State has shown pluck and promise by

starting 3-4 in Mullen’s rookie year, he has embraced his new home on the other side of the SEC’s financial tracks. “Maybe people would wonder why you come here, but when I did the research and looked at the talent within a five-hour radius, the vision of the athletic director and a new president, I felt like we could build a winning program here,” Mullen said. The tale of Mississippi State’s recent football history includes losses (two winning seasons this decade) and N.C.A.A. rules violations. Mullen is in charge of rewriting the narrative. Mississippi State had a shot to beat Louisiana State in September, but was stopped four times after having first-and-goal at the 2 in the final two minutes. And the Bulldogs played the ranked opponents Georgia Tech and Houston to the wire. With a patchwork roster that includes one of the SEC’s best tailbacks, Anthony Dixon, but had enough holes that Mullen installed five junior college transfers as starters, there has been consistent effort and an improved offensive game plan. After finishing No. 113 nationally in total offense last year (274.9 yards a game), Mississippi State

is No. 53 this year (390.3). “What Dan is allowing us to do is put us in position to win those games,” said Mississippi State’s athletic director, Greg Byrne. “We feel like we’re in a very positive position for the long term.” Mullen’s overhaul began with his strength coach, Matt Balis, who was such an important piece that Mullen said he would have considered not taking the job if Balis had not come. The next step has come with recruiting, especially of local talent. “We need to be the Oakland A’s,” the associate athletic director Scott Stricklin said, referring to the drafting of undervalued players by the frugal Oakland baseball team. Mullen said that Mississippi State’s senior class featured just one of the top 20 high school players in the state during their senior year. He also points out that perhaps the three greatest players at their positions in N.F.L. history — Brett Favre (Southern Mississippi), Walter Payton (Jackson State) and Jerry Rice (Mississippi Valley State) — all slipped through the recruiting cracks here. “What an impressive hall of fame that would be,” Mullen said.  PETE THAMEL

9

n.h.l. standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

W L OT Pts GF GA

Pittsburgh Rangers Devils Phila. Islanders

8 7 5 4 1

Northeast

W L OT Pts GF GA

Buffalo Ottawa Boston Montreal Toronto

5 5 4 4 0

Southeast

W L OT Pts GF GA

Wash. Atlanta Tampa Carolina Florida

5 4 3 2 2

1 3 3 2 4 1 2 4 5 6 2 2 3 4 5

0 16 33 19 0 14 37 26 0 10 22 21 1 9 25 22 3 5 18 31 1 11 23 14 1 11 27 22 1 9 26 29 0 8 22 26 1 1 14 32 2 12 34 28 1 9 25 20 2 8 22 29 2 6 18 26 0 4 16 27

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central

W L OT Pts GF GA

Chicago Columbus St. Louis Detroit Nashville

5 5 3 3 3

Northwest

W L OT Pts GF GA

Colorado Calgary Edmonton Vancou. Minnesota

6 6 5 4 2

Pacific

W L OT Pts GF GA

San Jose Dallas Phoenix L.A. Anaheim

5 4 5 5 3

3 2 3 3 5 1 2 2 5 6 4 2 2 4 4

1 11 31 26 0 10 21 18 1 7 20 20 1 7 22 25 1 7 18 31 2 14 30 21 1 13 36 31 1 11 30 22 0 8 26 27 0 4 18 27 1 3 0 0 1

11 11 10 10 7

34 29 18 28 18

31 26 10 29 25

Plodders Have a Place, but Is It in a Marathon?

Coach Not Charged

Every weekend during this fall marathon season, long after most runners have completed the 26.2-mile course — and very likely after many have showered, changed and headed for a meal — a group of stragglers crosses the finish line. Many of those slower runners receive a finisher’s medal just like every other participant. Having traversed the same route as the fleeter-footed runners they get to call themselves marathoners. And it’s driving some hardcore runners crazy. “It’s a joke to run a marathon by walking every other mile or by finishing in six, seven, eight hours,” said Adrienne Wald, 54, the women’s cross-country coach at the College of New Rochelle, who ran her first marathon in 1984. “It used to be that running a marathon was worth something — there used to be a pride saying that you ran a marathon, but not

Even by the standards of the Oakland Raiders, the accusation that Coach Tom Cable had broken the jaw of an assistant coach during training camp was bizarre. On Thursday, the Napa County district attorney announced that after a two-month investigation, Cable would not be charged. Cable is not completely in the clear. The N.F.L. announced Thursday night that it would review the district attorney’s decision and the surrounding investigation and then decide if Cable would face discipline under the league’s personal conduct policy. The assistant, Randy Hanson, had claimed that during a meeting of coaches Cable threw him from a chair, while screaming, “I’ll kill you,” according to an account that Hanson gave to Yahoo.com. Cable has denied assaulting Hanson.  (NYT)

anymore. Now it’s, ‘How low is the bar?’ ” Tens of thousands of runners are training for marathons this time of year. As the fields continue to grow — primarily by adding slower runners — so has the intensity of the debate over how quickly an able-bodied runner should finish the once-elite event. Purists believe that running a marathon should be just that — running the entire course at a relatively fast clip. They point out that a six-hour marathoner is simply participating in the event, not racing in it. Slower marathoners believe that covering the 26.2 miles is the crux of the accomplishment, no matter the pace. And besides, slow runners are what drive the marathon business, they say. John Bingham, a runner who is known as the Penguin, is often credited with starting the slowrunning movement, in the 1990s.

“The complainers are just a bunch of ornery, grumpy people who want the marathon all to themselves and don’t want the slower runners,” Bingham said. “But too bad. The sport is fueled and funded by people like me.” Trends show that marathon finishers are getting slower and slower — and more prevalent — according to Running USA, a nonprofit organization that tracks trends in distance running. From 1980 to 2008, the number of marathon finishers in the United States increased to 425,000 from 143,000. In 1980, the median finishing time for male runners in United States marathons was 3 hours 32 minutes 17 seconds, a pace of about eight minutes per mile. In 2008, the median finishing time was 4:16, a pace of 9:46. For women, that time in 1980 was 4:03:39. Last year, it was 4:43:32.  JULIET MACUR