F R O M T H E Pa G E

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

Tuesday November 3, 2009 Midnight in New York Nine pages © 2009 The New York Times

Visit The Times on the Web: www.nytimes.com

Gore’s Cause Is Also an Investment WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Al Gore thought he had spotted a winner last year when a small California firm sought financing for an energy-saving technology from the venture capital firm where he is a partner. The company, Silver Spring Networks, produces hardware and software to make the electricity grid more efficient. It came to Gore’s firm, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley’s top venture capital providers, looking for $75 million to expand its partnerships with utilities seeking to install millions of so-called smart meters in homes and businesses. Gore and his partners backed the company, and Silver Spring retained him and John Doerr, another Kleiner Perkins partner, as unpaid corporate advisers. The deal appeared to pay off in a big way last week, when the Energy Department announced $3.4 billion in smart grid grants. Of the total, more than $560 million went to utilities with which Silver Spring has contracts. Silver Spring is a foot soldier in the global green energy revolu-

tion Gore hopes to lead. Few people have been as vocal about the urgency of global warming and the need to reinvent the way the world produces and consumes energy. And few have put as much money behind their advocacy as Gore and are as well positioned to profit from this green transformation, if and when it comes. Critics, mostly on the political right and among global warming skeptics, say Gore is poised to become the world’s first “carbon billionaire,” profiteering from government policies he supports. Gore says that he is simply putting his money where his mouth is. “Do you think there is something wrong with being active in business in this country?” Gore said. “I am proud of it. I am proud of it.” He said his investment activities were consistent with his public advocacy over decades. “I have advocated policies to promote renewable energy and accelerate reductions in global warming pollution for decades, including all of the time I was in

public service,” Gore wrote. “As a private citizen, I have continued to advocate the same policies. Even though the vast majority of my business career has been in areas that do not involve renewable energy or global warming pollution reductions, I absolutely believe in investing in ways that are consistent with my values and beliefs. I encourage others to invest in the same way.” Gore has invested a significant portion of the tens of millions of dollars he has earned since leaving government in 2001 in a broad array of environmentally friendly energy and technology business ventures, like carbon trading markets, solar cells and waterless urinals. He has also given away millions more to finance the nonprofit he founded, the Alliance for Climate Protection, and to another group, the Climate Project, which trains people to present the slide show that was the basis of his documentary “An Inconvenient Truth.” Royalties from his new book on climate change, “Our Choice,” will go to the alliance, an aide said.  JOHN M. BRODER

In a Comeback, Ford Surprises With a Profit DETROIT — While its crosstown rivals stumbled through bankruptcy this summer, Ford Motor Co. pressed its advantage, and delivered surprising news Monday that its cost-cutting efforts and improving sales helped it earn nearly $1 billion in the third quarter. Now its faces new challenges in maintaining that lead. Both General Motors and Chrysler are moving ahead with their own comeback plans. G.M. is marketing a 60-day money-back guarantee on its vehicles that most likely will result in market share gains. And Chrysler and its new partner, Fiat, on Wednesday will disclose a five-year plan to streamline its product lineup and introduce more fuel-efficient models. Ford is also running into resistance from its unionized work

force as it tries to cut costs further. Its improving fortunes were the main reason cited by the United Automobile Workers on Monday for rejecting another round of labor concessions that would have roughly matched concessions that workers at Chrysler and General Motors approved in the spring. The U.A.W.’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, and its vice president in charge of the Ford unit, Bob King, said that the carmaker’s third-quarter profit was “evidence of the contributions that Ford workers have made.” Ford, which earned $997 million in the third quarter and made money in North America for the first time since 2005, has turned itself around largely by cutting costs and introducing cars that consumers want to buy, rather than resorting to deep discounts

to lure shoppers into showrooms. Ford also took advantage of the unfavorable perception that many consumers had of G.M. and Chrysler, which have needed huge infusions of federal aid to survive. Even Toyota has been losing money and, after significant recalls, been forced to defend its quality. Toyota, like G.M. and Chrysler, is plotting its own turnaround effort, with a new president, Akio Toyoda, focused on restoring its once-pristine reputation. Ford’s chief executive, Alan R. Mulally, joined the automaker three years ago from Boeing and has been the rare outsider to achieve success in Detroit. “This is not so much a turning point as it is a proof point of the value of the plan and the strategy we’ve been following for three years,” he said. BILL VLASIC

Obama Presses afghan leader on corruption WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday admonished President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan that he must take on what U.S. officials have said he avoided during his first term: the rampant corruption and drug trade that has fueled the resurgence of the Taliban. As Karzai was officially declared the winner of his country’s disputed presidential election, Obama placed a congratulatory call in which he asked for a “new chapter” in the legitimacy of the Afghan government. What he is seeking, Obama told reporters afterward, is “a sense on the part of President Karzai that, after some difficult years in which there has been some drift, that in fact he’s going to move boldly and forcefully forward and take advantage of the international community’s interest in his country to initiate reforms internally.” The administration wants Karzai and the Afghan government to put into place an anticorruption commission to establish strict accountability for officials at the national and provincial levels, administration officials said. In addition, some U.S. officials and their European counterparts would like at least a few arrests of what one administration official called “the more blatantly corrupt” people in the Afghan government. The international community’s wish list of potential defendants includes Karzai’s brother, Ahmed Wali Karzai, a suspected player in the country’s opium trade; Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, who is accused of involvement in the killings of thousands of Taliban prisoners of war; and one of Karzai’s running mates, Marshal Muhammad Qasim Fahim, a former defense minister who is also suspected of drug trafficking.  HELENE COOPER  and JEFF ZELENY

International

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Politics Hampers Iran on Nuclear Fuel Deal CAIRO — Iran’s leadership The announced agreement has once again equivocated after headed off efforts to impose agreeing to a deal that would ease tough new sanctions on Iran, its nuclear standoff with the West. yet patience may be waning. On But this time, that may be Monday, Secretary of as much a product of the State Hillary Rodham News nation’s political crisis as Clinton said that Tehran Analysis it is a negotiating tactic, had to accept the deal political analysts and Iran ex- in full, with no changes. And the perts said. British foreign minister, David Tehran has yet to state why Miliband, emerged from a meetit objects to the deal, in which it ing in Moscow with his Russian would ship its low-enriched urani- counterpart, Sergey V. Lavrov, um out the country for additional to declare, “We both want to see a processing and eventual return prompt response.” But that may as fuel rods. But Iran experts say not be forthcoming. the caustic nature of the debate “It is the worst-case scenario suggests that the divisions ce- because it can leave people with mented by the disputed presiden- the impression diplomacy has tial election have complicated, if been tried and failed, whereas not undermined, Iran’s ability to in reality it came at a point when resolve such a major issue. Iran is too politically divided and “Since the 1979 revolution it is incapable of making decisions of rare for the political elite to dis- this magnitude,” said Trita Parsi, agree so openly with an issue of president of the National Iranian this significance,” said Mehrzad American Association, an advoBoroujerdi, a political scientist at cacy group based in Washington. Syracuse University. At the center of Iran’s prob-

lems is President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has said recently that Iran should accept the deal, saying that his tough stance in past years had finally forced the West to implicitly accept Iran’s right to enrich uranium. However, Ahmadinejad has deeply alienated both reformist and conservative political leaders since his disputed re-election. Neither side is eager to see him and his nuclear negotiator, Saad Jalili, take credit for resolving the nuclear issue. Reformers led by Mir Hussein Moussavi, the former presidential candidate, have been looking to take a page from Ahmadinejad’s own playbook. “To have an opportunity to go at Ahmadinejad for not being nationalist enough, it looks like an opportunity for someone like Moussavi,” said Michael Axworthy, an Iran expert who lectures at the University of Exeter in England.  MICHAEL SLACKMAN

Beefeaters Accused of Bullying Female Guard LONDON — For centuries, the jailers at the Tower of London known as Beefeaters had a grim reputation. Guarding three Tudor queens who were beheaded and dispatching numerous others to the gallows or the scaffold, they helped make the tower’s bloodstained history. After 524 years of service, the last century as a ceremonial yeomanry, that bill of attainder must now be expanded to include the more modern offense of misogyny, according to a report published in the Sun newspaper on Monday. The paper reported that three of the tower’s guard of male Beef-

eaters are under investigation for bullying Moira Cameron, the first woman named to their ranks. The Sun said her uniform had been defaced, “nasty” notes left in her locker and her entry in Wikipedia tampered with. Officials confirmed that two Beefeaters had been suspended and a third investigated by Scotland Yard, where a spokesman said “a 56-year-old man” had received a formal caution for “inappropriate use of the Internet.” Cameron, a 44-year-old retired army warrant officer from Scotland, became the first woman named to the tower’s guard in 2007. She had qualified like all

candidates by serving a stipulated 22 years in the British forces, and won her position in competition with five male candidates In interviews, the new Beefeater, one woman alongside 34 men, described the job as “magical” and said: “It’s just a wonderful job and I’m very, very lucky to have it.” She added: “You wake up in the morning and you know you’re going to have a good day.” The Beefeaters’ privileges include subsidized apartments in the tower. Their duties include guarding the crown jewels, performing the daily Ceremony of the Keys and giving tours.  JOHN F. BURNS

Mt. Kilimanjaro Ice Cap Continues Its Rapid Retreat The ice atop Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania has continued to retreat rapidly, declining 26 percent since 2000, scientists say in a new report. Yet the authors of the study, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reached no consensus on whether the melting could be attributed mainly to humanity’s role in warming the global climate. Eighty-five percent of the ice cover that was present in 1912 has

vanished, the scientists said. To measure the recent pace of the retreat, researchers relied on data from aerial photographs and from stakes and instruments installed on the mountaintop in 2000, said Douglas R. Hardy, a geologist at the University of Massachusetts and one of the study’s authors. The lead author, Lonnie G. Thompson, a glaciologist at Ohio State University, has concluded

that the melting of recent years is unique. But Georg Kaser, a glaciologist at the Institute for Geography of the University of Innsbruck in Austria, said that the ice measured was only a few hundred years old and that it had come and gone over centuries. He suggested that the recent melting had more to do with a decline in moisture levels than with a warming atmosphere.  SINDYA N. BHANOO

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in brief Pakistan Bombings Suicide bombers on Monday attacked Rawalpindi and Lahore as the Pakistani army claimed control of two strongholds of Uzbek militants in South Waziristan, officials said. The Rawalpindi bomber struck a few hundred yards from the headquarters of the army and outside a branch office of the National Bank of Pakistan, where soldiers and civilians had gathered to collect their monthly salaries and pension payments. At least 35 people were killed. In the evening, an explosives-laden vehicle blew up at a police checkpoint near the entrance to Lahore, the city’s police chief said. The two bombers were killed and 15 people were wounded, most of them police officers. (NYT)

War Crimes Trial Radovan Karadzic was absent again on Monday, the third day of his trial, but he sent a letter to the chief judge of the international tribunal saying he would be “pleased” to come on Tuesday. Karadzic, the former Bosnian Serb leader, is on trial in The Hague on charges of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity. (NYT)

Moscow Shooting Gunmen shot dead on Monday a former K.G.B. agent turned basketball entrepreneur while he was riding in his car a few hundred yards from the office of Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin in Moscow, law enforcement officials said. The former agent, Shabtai von Kalmanovic, organized a Michael Jackson concert in Moscow, and he helped two basketball clubs win Europe’s top championship.  (Reuters)

Minister Dismissed Facing rising criticism over the quality of schools and a crush of jobless college graduates, China’s legislature announced Monday that it had removed the minister of education, Zhou Ji, after six years on the job and replaced him with a deputy. (NYT)

national

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Urban Hospitals Fearful of Medicare Cuts As Congress struggles to rein in health care costs, hospitals in New York City and other urban areas that provide some of the most expensive care are among the primary targets. The issue pits hospitals in more rural states like Iowa and Minnesota, where spending tends to be lower, against those in areas like New York and Los Angeles, and revolves around a question that has bedeviled the medical establishment for decades: How much money do hospitals need to provide adequate care for patients, especially poor people who have not had regular access to health care? A provision in the House health care bill, included over the objections of city hospitals, would order a neutral group, the Institute of Medicine, to conduct a twoyear study of regional variations in Medicare spending. The bill requires the institute to recommend changes that would reward “qual-

ity and value,” and those changes would take effect automatically unless Congress objected by May 31, 2012. Proponents say the institute’s findings could prove crucial to efforts to slow costs. They cite researchers at Dartmouth Medical School, who contend that Medicare could save $1.42 trillion by 2023, and eliminate a looming deficit, by reducing annual growth in per patient spending to 2.4 percent from the national average of 3.5 percent. The recommendation that New York hospitals fear most is that Medicare should reduce payments to areas where costs grow fastest and increase payments to those who are best at controlling them. They argue that some of the most efficient hospitals are in affluent and rural areas that do not face the same challenges. “This line of inquiry is destructive to urban centers,” said Dr. Kenneth L. Davis, chief executive

at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York. “Unless we deal with the problems of poverty in underserved areas, health care will be expensive in urban areas.” The study was so important to the Blue Dog Democrats that they made it a condition of their support for the public option health insurance plan. House members from the West and Midwest argued that they had been historically shortchanged by Medicare. “This agreement rewards states like Iowa who have put patients and their care first,” Rep. Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa. Two weeks ago, hospitals from New York and other urban areas succeeded in adding language that prevents the institute’s recommendations from reducing payments for medical education, or from reducing so-called disproportionate share payments for hospitals that serve large numbers of low-income patients.  ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

Police Were Told of Violence at Home of Rapist The police in Cleveland were notified repeatedly about violence in the house of Anthony Sowell, a convicted rapist, where six decomposed bodies were found, a neighbor said Monday. Sowell was arrested Saturday night after the bodies were found. The neighbor, Fawcett Bess, 57, the owner of Bess Chicken and Pizza, across the street from the house, said that about two weeks ago he found Sowell, in the bushes alongside Sowell’s house, naked and standing over a woman who was bloodied, beaten and naked. Bess said he called 911, and an ambulance took the woman away. But the police showed up

two hours later and never interviewed him, Bess said. “Nobody did anything because she is a girl walking around the streets,” Bess said. Bess said that a month earlier, he had been approached by another woman who showed him bruises and blood on her neck that she claimed were from an attack by Sowell. That woman told Bess that the police took a report but appeared to do little investigation. Bess added, “If people had come to tell us about this guy’s history, then maybe we would have paid more attention.” The claims were supported by

police records that indicate Sowell was accused by one woman of choking and raping her in his house on Sept. 22. It was after this accusation that the police decided to conduct the search, in which they found the decaying bodies. Police records indicate it took several weeks to assign an officer to the case and to obtain a search warrant. Police records also show that on Dec. 8, 2008, another woman filed a report accusing Sowell of stopping her on the street in front of his house and forcing her to the back door where he punched, choked and tried to rape her.  IAN URBINA

Bright Billboards on the Ballot in San Francisco SAN FRANCISCO — Can neon save a neighborhood? On Tuesday, voters here will take up a proposition that, if passed, would allow a down-and-out two-block area of a central city thoroughfare to be ringed with a variety of electronic marquees, bringing a touch of Times Square to a city better known for its Victorians. Proposition D, sponsored by a developer, David Addington, would create an “arts revital-

ization and tourism special sign district” along part of Market Street, which runs from the San Francisco Bay to the hills west of the Castro district. The bill would exempt 52 buildings from a ban on new billboard advertising. It would also allow building owners to lease the signs. Addington, who owns two of the 52 buildings on that strip, known as Mid-Market, including the Warfield Theater, says he came

up with the idea while looking at old photos of the area, which connects the shopping friendly Union Square district with the area surrounding City Hall. “We’re just looking for something to make it look like an arts and theater district,” he said. Opponents say the plan opens the door for gaudy rooftop signage, potentially blunting future restoration efforts.  JESSE McKINLEY

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in brief Health Estimate As the House moved toward votes on legislation to remake the health care system, the Congressional Budget Office said Monday that middle-income families might be required to pay 15 percent to 18 percent of their income on premiums and co-payments under the proposal. Democrats cited the figures as evidence that the legislation would reduce premiums for many low and middle-income families who currently lack affordable coverage. Democratic leaders were drawing up ground rules for House floor debate on their bill, expected to begin late this week. (NYT)

E. Coli Kills 2 Two people, one from New Hampshire and another from upstate New York, have died after eating ground beef that may be responsible for an E. coli outbreak linked to illness in more than two dozen people. The beef was produced by a company in western New York State, Fairbank Farms, which issued a recall Saturday for 545,699 pounds of ground beef products. The products, stamped “EST 492,” went to retailers in eight states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.  (NYT)

Vaccine Dosages One dose of swine flu vaccine protects pregnant women against the flu, but children under 10 still need two doses, federal officials said Monday, announcing further results of clinical trials of the vaccine. The officials also announced the formation of a panel of experts to watch for any rare or unexpected side effects. As of Monday, 30 million doses of vaccine were available. (NYT)

College President Lynn Pasquerella, the provost of the University of Hartford, will become the 18th president of Mount Holyoke College this summer, succeeding Joanne Creighton, who has held the post since 1996.  (NYT)

business

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

DJIA

9,789.44

U 76.71

NASDAQ

2,049.20

U

4.09

Dollar/YEN

90.35 U 0.37

10-yr treasury 3.41% U 0.03

gold (ny) $1,059.50 U 14.10 crude oil

$78.13 U 1.13

Credit Monitoring Services Raise Concerns On television it’s hard to miss the wildly popular band of slackers singing ruefully from a shabby apartment or while waiting tables in pirate regalia. The ruined credit that led to their financial misfortune might have been sparkling if only they’d tracked their status on FreeCreditReport. com. The Federal Trade Commission is not amused. It has long believed that the company that owns FreeCreditReport.com is deliberately diverting people from a government-mandated site where consumers can get free credit reports by law, and using the reports as a lure for a $14.95 monthly service that alerts subscribers to important changes in their credit status. In an unusual salvo, the govern-

ment has even produced its own spoof videos featuring a trio remarkably similar to the gang in the earlier commercials, singing a warning: “Other sites may turn your head; they say they’re free, don’t be misled. Once you’re in their tangled web, they’ll sell you something else instead.” But while the government has taken issue with the ads, it has had little to say about credit monitoring services themselves, a rapidly expanding niche approaching $1 billion in sales for which millions of people have signed up, often unwittingly. The problem, say critics, is that most people really don’t need it. Credit monitoring provides customers with real-time updates about changes to their credit files that might affect how

lenders see them. These services can be useful for identity theft victims, for example, who want e-mail alerts about new accounts that thieves might have opened in their name. Yet for the vast majority of consumers whose credit status doesn’t change quickly or drastically, a monitoring service is a waste of money, these critics say. Keeping a close eye on your bills and checking your credit report several times a year is sufficient. And that can be done without spending a penny because the government requires that the three major credit bureaus — Experian (which owns FreeCreditReport.com), Equifax and TransUnion — provide one free report annually to consumers.  RON LIEBER

Stanley to Buy Black & Decker for $3.5 Billion For nearly three decades, Stanley Works and Black & Decker, two of the most recognizable names in home improvement, have talked about hammering out a merger. On Monday afternoon, the two finally succeeded. Stanley agreed to buy Black & Decker for about $3.5 billion in an all-stock transaction, creating a global tool maker worth about $8.4 billion. The combined business, to be called Stanley Black & Decker, will own many names familiar to do-it-yourself types, including the companies’ eponymous lines, Stanley’s FatMax and Bostitch and Black & Decker’s DeWalt and

Porter-Cable offerings. The two companies have little overlap in their products, with Stanley best known for hand tools and construction equipment and Black & Decker for power tools. Combining the two companies made enough sense that talks about a potential merger stretch back 28 years. But successive generations of leaders raised the idea again and again, only to meet several obstacles, including who would run the merged entity. Then six months ago, the companies’ current chief executives — John F. Lundgren of Stanley and Nolan D. Archibold of Black & Decker, a 24-year veteran —

met over lunch to once again ponder a merger. The two had known each other casually, but had spoken to each other only three or four times, Lundgren said in an interview. “The more we looked at it, the more it made sense,” Archibold said in an interview, adding that they almost immediately recognized some $350 million in cost savings achievable within three years. “The synergies in this deal were so great that we thought both sets of shareholders should share in that,” Lundgren said.  MICHAEL J. de la MERCED  and ZACHERY KOUWE

Amount Insurers Spend on Care Called Into Question The health insurance industry likes to cite figures showing that 87 cents of every dollar in premiums is spent on medical claims. But a new Senate analysis suggests that for-profit insurance companies are spending much less than that, especially for policies sold to individuals and small businesses. Instead, as little as 66 cents of each dollar paid in premiums goes toward doctor and hospital bills, while the rest covers administrative expenses, marketing and company profits,

according to the analysis. The data come from an analysis of regulatory filings by the Senate Commerce Committee from the largest for-profit companies, including WellPoint, the UnitedHealth Group, Aetna and Cigna. They spent as little as 74 cents out of every dollar on medical care in the individual market, according to the information released by Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV, the West Virginia Democrat, who is chairman of the commerce committee.

The question of how much money insurers should spend paying medical claims is part of the health care debate in Congress. The legislation that may reach the House floor later this week would initially require insurers to spend at least 85 cents of every dollar in premiums on medical claims. Rockefeller said he planned to push for similar standards in the final legislation the Senate was now trying to merge from two separate bills.  REED ABELSON

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nikkei

9,802.95 D 231.79

ftse 100

5.104.50 U 59.95

N.Y.S.E. Most Active Issues Vol. (100s) Last Chg. Citigrp 6694688 BkofAm 2974715 SPDR 2401290 FordM 1752250 SPDR Fncl 1606145 DirFBear rs 1561461 iShEMkts 1326959 GenElec 995024 iShR2K 947438 SprintNex 751203

3.99 14.63 104.32 7.58 14.17 22.47 38.13 14.47 56.22 2.87

Nasdaq Actives Vol. (100s)

Bid

PwShs QQQ 1400109 ETrade 1103607 Intel 630408 YRC Wwde 546418 Cisco 545987 Microsoft 495790 RschMotn 367118 HumGen 356522 ActivsBliz 326181 Oracle 276653

41.13 1.39 19.01 1.32 23.00 27.88 55.74 25.29 10.37 21.09

Amex Actives Vol. (100s) Last Taseko Oilsands g GoldStr g GrtBasG g NovaGld g Hemisphrx NthgtM g NwGold g KodiakO g Rentech Sinovac

53132 43958 42633 37587 31928 23507 21996 21672 20286 20056 19663

3.03 1.19 3.27 1.52 4.39 1.33 2.62 3.75 2.39 1.21 7.64

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0.10 0.05 0.76 0.58 0.12 0.47 0.56 0.21 0.11 0.09

Chg. + – – – + + – + – –

0.17 0.07 0.10 2.33 0.19 0.15 2.99 6.60 0.46 0.01

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0.31 0.01 0.20 0.05 0.09 0.12 0.03 0.10 0.02 0.04 0.23

Foreign Exchange Fgn. currency Dollars in in dollars fgn.currency Mon. Fri. Mon. Fri. Australia .9016 .9007 Bahrain 2.6519 2.6521 Brazil .5663 .5703 Britain 1.6383 1.6447 Canada .9267 .9262 China .1464 .1464 Denmark .1982 .1978 Dominican .0277 .0276 Egypt .1827 .1828 Europe 1.4753 1.4730 Hong Kong .1290 .1290 Japan .01106 .01111 Mexico .07633 .07590 Norway .1735 .1748 Singapore .7144 .7139 So. Africa .1252 .1274 So. Korea .0008 .0008 Sweden .1413 .1413 Switzerlnd .9769 .9755

1.1092 1.1102 .3771 .3771 1.7660 1.7535 .6104 .6080 1.0791 1.0797 6.8302 6.8298 5.0454 5.0556 36.15 36.20 5.4745 5.4708 .6778 .6789 7.7501 7.7502 90.35 89.98 13.101 13.174 5.7649 5.7215 1.3997 1.4008 7.9848 7.8495 1182.5 1185.4 7.0771 7.0771 1.0236 1.0252

Clorox Profit Rises Higher prices and germ-wary shoppers who rushed to stock up on disinfectants helped the Clorox Co. post a 23 percent increase in quarterly earnings, the company said Monday. Clorox said its profit rose to $157 million, or $1.11 a share, from $128 million, or 90 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue declined less than 1 percent, to $1.37 billion. (AP)

business

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Coughing, Sneezing and Caring for the Public Public health experts worried about the spread of the H1N1 flu are raising concerns that workers who deal with the public, like waiters and child care employees, are jeopardizing others by reporting to work sick because they do not get paid for days they miss for illness. Tens of millions of people, or about 40 percent of all privatesector workers, do not receive paid sick days, and as a result many of them cannot afford to stay home when they are ill. Even some companies that provide paid sick days have policies that make it difficult to call in sick, like giving demerits each time someone misses a day. Public health experts say policies like these encourage many people with H1N1, commonly called swine flu, to report to work despite official warnings from the government and most companies that they should stay home. “For people who are really

caught on a weekly income, if they can’t make a go of it, they might say, ‘I’m desperate. I’m going to do what I have to do, and I’m going into work even though I’m sick,’ ” said Robert Blendon, a professor of health policy at Harvard. He warned that this might spread disease, and that these financially squeezed workers might send their flu-stricken children to school, infecting others. Well before President Obama declared H1N1 a national emergency, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was emphasizing that businesses should adopt “flexible leave policies” to allow workers with the flu to stay home. In one advisory, the C.D.C. encouraged employers “to develop nonpunitive leave policies.” Despite such recommendations, some employees say they have no choice but to go to work sick. Georges C. Benjamin, executive director of the American

Public Health Association, a group of 30,000 public health professionals, said, “Providing workers with paid sick days is essential if we’re going to get serious about the public health recommendations for swine flu — stay home until 24 hours after your fever is broken. That usually takes about five days.” For many businesses, H1N1 has created a dilemma. “This is a very difficult issue for companies,” said Nina G. Stillman, a lawyer with Morgan, Lewis & Bockius who advises companies on sick-leave policy. “Employers who do not offer sick days are not prepared to offer them now, and they recognize that this may result in not achieving what they say they would like, which is that people who are sick stay home.” The C.D.C. says that swine flu is widespread in 48 of the 50 states and has already hit as many as 5.7 million Americans.  STEVEN GREENHOUSE

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in brief Enron Sentencing Kevin Howard, Enron’s former broadband finance chief, has received one year’s probation, including nine months’ home confinement, for falsifying company books. His sentence on Monday came under a deal with prosecutors for his June 1 guilty plea to falsifying books and records. He could have received up to 12 months’ home confinement. Prosecutors had counseled leniency, stipulating that Howard didn’t benefit personally from any fraud committed at Enron, which collapsed in December 2001 under the weight of faked accounting. Howard had been tried twice, first in 2005 in a proceeding that ended in a hung jury, then in a 2006 trial that ended in a conviction that was later tossed out. (AP)

journal

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

6

For Mexicans, a National Conversation in Words That Wound MEXICO CITY — Two teenage girls slurped iced coffee drinks at a sidewalk café the other day and chatted away about boys, clothes, weekend plans, whatever seemed to pop into their heads. They were clearly friends, repeatedly referring to each other with a Spanish word meaning “ox” or “steer” or “stupid.” The word — güey, also spelled buey — makes most lists of Mexican profanities, but it has been co-opted by the cool, young set as a term of endearment. One hears it constantly, as often as “dude” comes up in an English conversation. Like many Mexicans, though, the teenage

crossword ACROSS 1 With 73-Across, former New York governor 6 Enter unannounced, with “in” 11 Military mess workers, for short 14 Improve 15 Lucy’s friend on “I Love Lucy” 16 W.W. II female 17 Gila woodpeckers nest in them 18 Layers of paint 19 ___ crossroads 20 Start of a quote by 1-/73-Across 23 Rank below cpl. 25 Not talking 26 What Fred Ott did in the first movie to be copyrighted 27 Crème ___ crème 29 Astronaut’s work environment, for short 31 Actress Turner 32 Put down, as an uprising 34 Not ___ eye in the house 36 Brits call it “the pond”: Abbr. 37 Middle of the quote

girls also dipped into a well-stocked arsenal of more potent curse words, most of which referred in one way or another to sex. Even those were uttered so casually, however, that they did not seem to carry much sting. Mexicans, despite their reputation in Latin America for ultra politeness and formality, curse like sailors, a recent survey found. They use profanity when speaking with their friends, with their co-workers, with their spouses and even with their bosses and parents. On Independence Day, the thing to shout above all else is “Viva Mexico, Cabrones!” a patriotic exhortation directed at either bastards or buddies, depending on the

Edited By Will Shortz PUZZLE BY BARRY BOONE

“Gimme ___ ding!” 44 ___ gin fizz 45 Fires 49 Memo starter 51 Win the World Series in four games, say 54 Perlman of “Cheers” 55 Sign painter’s help 57 Crosses (out) 59 ___ McMuffin 60 End of the quote 63 Prefix with cycle or sex 64 Ancient Aegean region 65 Surgeon’s assistant 68 ___ City (Las Vegas nickname) 69 Standing at attention 70 Trojan War epic 71 “___ Te Ching” 72 Drawer holders 73 See 1-Across 41

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out 7 Basic building DOWN block 1 Start of many a 8 Gershwin Scottish family composed one name “in blue” 2 Flu fighters: Abbr. 9 Blow one’s top 3 One of the three 10 Elmer the Bull’s green R’s mate 4 Call ___ question 11 December 5 Hatred celebration 12 “Beware the fury of a ___ man”: ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE John Dryden F E M A S N A P H A S T A 13 Iran-Contra, e.g. A X E S P O L E A C T O R 21 Slangy response to “Why?” R I S K E D I T S Q U A T T H E E A S T E R B U N N Y 22 Hair goop 23 Instantly, for short D I K E R I S T P G O B F L O T S A M 24 Fire: Fr.

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6 Turned

Matterhorn, e.g. 30 ___ show (carnival attraction) 33 Part of U.C.L.A. 35 Casual greetings 38 “Hamlet” setting 39 Water-skiers’ holds 40 Former Mideast inits. 41 Emotion conveyed by wrinkling one’s nose 42 Willa Cather’s “My ___” 43 Golfer Lee 46 “Toodle-oo!” 28

Unit of gunpowder 48 Slump 50 Cincinnati-toPittsburgh dir. 52 Ones living abroad 53 Each 56 “I can’t remember if I ___” (“American Pie” lyric) 58 ___ the Hedgehog (video game) 61 Paper cut, e.g. 62 Navigator on the Enterprise 66 Uncle ___ 67 Old Tokyo 47

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.

tone employed. Consulta Mitofsky, a polling firm, asked 1,000 Mexicans about their use of groserías, as curse words are known in Spanish, and found that respondents estimated they used an average of 20 bad words a day. Those swearing the most, not surprisingly, were people younger than 30. Geographically, the worst offenders were in the north, near the border with the United States, and in the center of the country. Men were generally more foul mouthed than women, though not by much. People of higher socioeconomic levels were also more profane, the survey found, than those supposedly lower down the scale of success. Raul Trejo Delarbre, a sociologist at the National University of Mexico, said cursing could be done with creativity and could express emotions that are difficult to express with other words. But he also acknowledged that cursing could be just plain old cursing. Using barnyard language is certainly not a Mexican phenomenon, Trejo noted, unleashing a couple of common American curse words to make his point. It turns out there is plenty to curse about in Mexico these days. The economy is in the doldrums, with a decline of 8 percent, one of the worst contractions in the world, expected this year. The politicians are up to their usual antics, and drug traffickers continue to rampage, competing with each other to see who can kill their opponents in the most gruesome fashion. “I wouldn’t say that the tension of everyday life causes us to use bad words,” Trejo said. But then he seemed to reconsider, adding that an overabundance of overbearing situations could certainly lead one to express frustration by swearing. Octavio Paz, in his classic look at his country’s psyche, “Labyrinth of Solitude,” spent some time assessing Mexican curses. “The forbidden words boil up in us, just as our emotions boil up,” he wrote. “When they finally burst out, they do so harshly, brutally, in the form of a shout, a challenge, an offense. They are projectiles or knives. They cause wounds.” MARC LACEY

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opinion

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

7

editorials of the timeS

bob herbert

President Karzai’s Second Term

Glimpse of the Future

We regret the decision by Afghanistan’s opposition leader, Abdullah Abdullah, to withdraw from this week’s runoff election for the presidency. After President Hamid Karzai’s supporters tried to steal the first-round vote, Abdullah had strong reason to mistrust the process. But Afghan voters deserved another chance. And Afghanistan’s government desperately needed the legitimacy of a cleaner vote. Now that Karzai has been re-elected by default, he is going to have to do everything in his power to persuade his people, and the rest of the world, that he is deserving of their trust. The Obama administration, which had to twist Karzai’s arm to get him to agree to a runoff, is going to have to twist even harder to get him to build a viable government. President Obama’s characterization Monday of the Afghan election as “messy” was, to say the least, an understatement. We hope that he and his aides are talking a lot tougher in private. To start, Karzai must appoint a new group of ministers and provincial governors who are committed to rebuilding their country, not enriching themselves. (We hope rumors that he plans to fire the competent governor of Helmand Province, Gulab Mangal, are false.) The Interior Ministry, which oversees the corruption-plagued national police, must be reformed. The agriculture, energy and private development agencies all need better leadership. The Afghan people need to see their government working to protect them and improve

their lives if they are going to risk their lives and resist the Taliban. Karzai must also reach out to members of the opposition, choosing competent technocrats for senior jobs. The government would be stronger if some of Abdullah’s supporters decided to participate. Karzai must break ties with his most unsavory cronies. During the campaign, he allied himself with Gen. Abdul Rashid Dostum, a notorious warlord. Justice demands that Dostum stand trial for his crimes. And Karzai must finally cut his ties with Ahmed Wali Karzai, his brother who U.S. officials say is a big player in the opium trade. Washington must also cut its ties with the younger Karzai, a member of the Kandahar provincial council and the most powerful figure in an area where the Taliban insurgency is the strongest. The Times reported that he has received regular payments from the C.I.A. for the past eight years. That must end. Getting a credible government in place is only a first step. The list of problems that have been ignored or mismanaged is depressingly long. Karzai needs to work with the Americans to come up with a strategy to try to woo midlevel Taliban leaders in from the cold. The two governments need to develop a plan to accelerate training of the security forces. Karzai and the Obama administration don’t have much time to get this right. The Taliban’s strength is growing by the day, and Americans’ appetite for the war is evaporating nearly as quickly.

Freedom of the Press The Obama administration and Congress appear to be moving toward agreement on a federal shield law, which would protect reporters who refuse to reveal confidential sources. The bill that is emerging is not perfect, but it would help ensure that Americans get the information they need about the workings of government, business and other institutions that affect their lives. Senate Democrats and the administration have tentatively agreed on a bill that would, in some cases, allow judges to quash subpoenas asking reporters for information on confidential sources. Parties who want to force reporters to testify about sources would have to show that the information is essential to their case. Judges would then balance the desire to reveal a source against the public interest in newsgathering. In civil cases, the burden would be on the party that wants the information to show that the interest in disclosing it clearly outweighs the interest in protecting it. In criminal cases, the test would be tilted more toward disclosure. Reporters would have to answer a subpoena unless they could make a “clear and convincing” case that the public interest in the

free flow of information argued against it. Cases involving classified information would generally work the same way. But a judge would not be able to quash a subpoena if prosecutors could show that the information they wanted would help prevent a terrorist attack or other acts likely to cause significant harm to national security. It is gratifying that the Obama administration, which had been wavering, agreed to the compromise. Sen. Charles Schumer, Democrat of New York, deserves credit for helping get the deal done. Sen. Arlen Specter, Democrat of Pennsylvania, and Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, also provided support. Among the weakest points of the compromise is the standard for criminal cases, which puts too heavy a burden of proof on reporters. It is also unfortunate that the agreement does not protect nonconfidential material, such as information in reporters’ notes that does not make it into a newspaper article. Over all, however, the bill would be a clear improvement on the status quo. The House has already passed its shield bill. The Senate should pass this compromise bill quickly.

President Obama made an appearance in Florida last week that should have gotten more attention. Speaking at the opening of a solar energy center run by the Florida Power & Light near Arcadia in DeSoto County, the president touted his administration’s $3.4 billion investment in the smart grid, a potentially revolutionary advance in the way electric power is produced and delivered in the U.S. Obama said that the plant will produce enough power to serve all 6,000 residents of Arcadia. It was one of dozens of projects receiving grants from the government and private industry for the development of smartgrid technology. “Just imagine,” he said, “what transportation was like in this country back in the 1920s and 1930s, before the Interstate Highway System was built. It was a tangled maze of poorly maintained back roads that were rarely the fastest or the most efficient way to get from point A to point B. Fortunately, President Eisenhower made an investment that revolutionized the way we travel — an investment that made our lives easier and our economy grow. “Now it’s time to make the same kind of investment in the way our energy travels — to build a clean energy superhighway that can take the renewable power generated in places like DeSoto and deliver it directly to the American people in the most affordable and efficient way possible. Such an investment won’t just create new pathways for energy — it’s expected to create tens of thousands of new jobs all across America.” The president then made the conceptual leap to a bold new landscape of energy for all of America. “We can imagine the day,” he said, “when you’ll be able to charge the battery on your plug-in hybrid car at night, because your smart meter reminded you that nighttime electricity is cheapest. In the daytime, when the sun is at its strongest, solar panels like these and electricity stored in car batteries will be able to power the grid with affordable, emission-free energy. “The stronger, more efficient grid would be able to transport power generated at dams and wind turbines from the smallest towns to the biggest cities. And, above all, we can see all this work that would be created for millions of Americans who need it and who want it, here in Florida and all across the country.” They were stirring words. On the same day, Vice President Biden announced in Wilmington, Del., that a G.M. plant that had been shut down would be reopened by a company that plans to manufacture long-range, plug-in, electric hybrid vehicles. What was missing from these appearances was the feeling of excitement that should accompany the early stages of an important national mission. Obama’s vision, briefly glimpsed, seemed to vanish in an ocean of other concerns.

sports

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

in brief

Phillies Send Series Back to the Bronx PHILADELPHIA — The championship was in the Yankees’ grasp on Monday, and a reminder loomed over their heads at Citizens Bank Park before Game 5 of the World Series. As they lounged in their clubhouse, rolls of protective plastic wrap hung above their lockers. As party planners, the Yankees were prepared for a celebration. But the Philadelphia Phillies did not let it happen. They overwhelmed A.J. Burnett and survived a late Yankees charge for an 8-6 victory, sending the World Series back to the Bronx for Game 6 on Wednesday. Cliff Lee won and Chase Utley homered twice, exactly the formula the Phillies had used to win Game 1 at Yankee Stadium. Lee pitched nine innings that night, though, and he could not get an out in the eighth on Monday.

That was a problem for the Phillies, who trusted a three-run lead to Ryan Madson, not Brad Lidge, who had allowed three runs in the ninth to lose Game 4. Jorge Posada greeted Madson with a double off the right field wall, and Hideki Matsui singled to left. Derek Jeter came up as the tying run and Madson fell behind, 2-1, before inducing a double-play grounder to short. A run scored, but the Phillies happily took the trade-off. Johnny Damon fell behind, 0-2, then fouled off two pitches and ran the count to 2-2. He singled up the middle, bringing Mark Teixeira to the plate. A home run would tie it, but Madson struck out Teixeira on a changeup. Teixeira is 2 for 19 in the World Series. The Phillies had twice before faced a fifth game at home with

the visitors trying to clinch. In 1993, they held off elimination when Curt Schilling shut out Toronto. Ten years earlier, they were blanked by Scott McGregor of the Baltimore Orioles. That World Series began on the same path as this one. The 1983 Phillies won Game 1 on the road, lost Game 2, and then dropped three at home to end their season. These Phillies, at least, will not go down so ingloriously. Burnett was no McGregor. For the second time this postseason, he was blitzed in the first inning on the road in a possible clincher. Whatever the cause of Burnett’s struggle, it was epic. Only twice before had a starter allowed at least six runs and four walks while working no more than two innings in the postseason.  TYLER KEPNER

Slumping Giants Are Struggling to Communicate EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Giants defensive end Justin Tuck was blunt Monday when he expanded on comments made Sunday by middle linebacker Antonio Pierce about how the defense had a communication problem during a 40-17 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles. Pierce refused to elaborate, but Tuck said he knew it was true “when a guy scores a touchdown and guys are looking at each other like ‘I thought this’ and ‘I thought that.’ ” This seemed to suggest, in part, the positioning of the defensive backs, who did not always seem

sure of whom to cover as Donovan McNabb threw three touchdown passes. Tuck’s words also hinted that players were not always quick to follow the instructions of Bill Sheridan, the defensive coordinator who sends in the plays, or the adjustments of Pierce, who can revise a play before the snap of the ball. “We’re out there thinking too much,” Tuck said. “We do so many checks.” The checks are revisions made by Pierce off Sheridan’s calls once Pierce sees offensive alignments. Someone asked Tuck if it would help to simplify things. “Who

WEATHER

High/low temperatures for the 21 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches) for the 18 hours ended at 1 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 64/ 44 0 67/ 46 S 66/ 44 S Albuquerque 71/ 40 0.04 68/ 42 S 69/ 42 S Boise 55/ 30 0 57/ 34 S 63/ 36 S Boston 52/ 42 0 55/ 42 PC 50/ 37 S Buffalo 52/ 33 0 45/ 41 C 46/ 34 C Charlotte 64/ 48 0 69/ 40 S 61/ 37 S Chicago 59/ 43 0.01 46/ 30 S 45/ 34 C Cleveland 55/ 30 0 46/ 40 PC 46/ 31 C Dallas-Ft. Worth 75/ 48 0 74/ 50 S 75/ 54 S Denver 42/ 34 0 64/ 30 S 61/ 33 S Detroit 52/ 36 0 46/ 35 PC 47/ 31 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/ 52 63/ 48 83/ 55 88/ 73 50/ 36 55/ 47 82/ 68 57/ 48 88/ 57 60/ 37 78/ 56 54/ 39 69/ 46 60/ 51

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

knows?” Tuck replied. “It doesn’t matter what I think. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll have to think about it and see what happens.” Coach Tom Coughlin last week groused that Eli Manning’s offense took too much time with “the chess game” before the snap. The return of Michael Boley and Chris Canty could help. Boley, a linebacker, has missed four games after having knee surgery. Canty, a defensive lineman, has missed seven games with a calf injury. Coughlin said Boley and Canty should practice Wednesday.  JOE LAPOINTE 77/ 53 S 55/ 37 PC 83/ 55 S 87/ 73 PC 47/ 27 PC 58/ 44 PC 79/ 64 PC 63/ 44 PC 94/ 59 S 65/ 40 S 74/ 54 S 54/ 42 PC 54/ 40 S 62/ 45 PC

77/ 52 S 57/ 42 S 80/ 55 S 85/ 73 PC 44/ 35 C 52/ 38 S 83/ 64 PC 53/ 39 S 92/ 60 S 69/ 40 S 67/ 53 PC 62/ 44 PC 57/ 44 PC 54/ 40 S

FOREIGN CITIES Acapulco Athens Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo

Yesterday Today Tomorrow 91/ 75 0 88/ 75 T 91/ 77 PC 57/ 46 0 72/ 48 Sh 72/ 54 PC 36/ 25 0 48/ 28 S 55/ 36 S 42/ 34 0 41/ 37 R 46/ 37 R 72/ 64 0.55 66/ 55 PC 68/ 52 PC 75/ 63 0 72/ 64 PC 77/ 63 S

8

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

Record for Serena Serena Williams has set a single-season record for prize money in women’s tennis with $6.5 million. She broke the WTA mark of slightly under $5.5 million, set by Justine Henin in 2007. Williams’s career prize money is now a record $28.5 million.  (AP)

Saints Beat Falcons New Orleans withstood a furious Atlanta rally, then nailed down a 35-27 victory on Monday night. The Saints are now 7-0.  (NYT)

Golfer Suspended Doug Barron has been suspended from the PGA Tour for one year for using a performance-enhancing drug. He is the first player to violate the doping policy since testing began in July 2008. Barron, 40, has not played a full PGA Tour schedule since 2006 and competed only four times on the Nationwide Tour this year.  (AP)

NBa scores SUNDAY’S LATE GAME L.A. Lakers 118, Atlanta 110 MONDAY Charlotte 79, New Jersey 68 New York 117, New Orleans 111 Houston vs. Utah, late

NHL scores SUNDAY’S LATE GAME Vancouver 3, Colorado 0 MONDAY Philadelphia 6, Tampa Bay 2 N.Y. Islanders 3, Edmonton 1

86/ 55 49/ 41 53/ 52 83/ 72 89/ 75 71/ 61 55/ 43 65/ 54 75/ 50 49/ 32 34/ 23 88/ 72 53/ 46 38/ 32 85/ 72 62/ 43 60/ 54 43/ 37 75/ 64 61/ 55 51/ 34 47/ 41 41/ 27

0 0.43 0.51 0 Tr 0 0.55 0 0 0 Tr 0 0.55 0 0.39 0 0 0 0 0.43 0 0 0

86/ 59 PC 55/ 43 Sh 50/ 39 R 73/ 61 PC 86/ 79 C 70/ 63 PC 59/ 46 R 66/ 48 S 68/ 46 C 46/ 30 Sh 32/ 27 PC 90/ 77 S 59/ 46 R 43/ 37 Sh 90/ 72 T 64/ 50 Sh 70/ 37 PC 43/ 36 S 95/ 64 C 55/ 45 S 45/ 37 C 52/ 41 C 36/ 28 S

79/ 59 PC 52/ 45 PC 52/ 43 R 79/ 63 PC 86/ 77 Sh 72/ 61 C 55/ 45 PC 63/ 46 PC 68/ 46 C 41/ 28 PC 32/ 25 PC 88/ 77 S 52/ 48 R 48/ 39 R 90/ 72 T 68/ 48 PC 68/ 34 PC 37/ 32 PC 72/ 63 Sh 64/ 45 PC 43/ 36 PC 57/ 41 C 37/ 28 PC

sports journal

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

A Lesson for Redemption in the Steroid Era Aided by his bat and an astute Roger Clemens have chosen, or apology, Alex Rodriguez is endremain silent as McGwire has. ing the baseball season not as But beginning with the admisa former steroids user but as a sion last season by Pettitte that home run hero. In the process, he he had used human growth hormay be clearing a path mone, a third option has Analysis forward for himself emerged: quickly apoloand his much-maligned gize and move on. Harvey sport. “Obviously, success on Araton This may go down as the field has helped, but the season that the fans isn’t it something how forgave baseball — or perhaps they beautifully and effectively just grew tired of worrying about transcended their humiliation?” performance-enhancing drugs. said Richard Emery, one of the Rodriguez and Andy Pettitte, lawyers representing Brian two high-profile Yankees stars McNamee, the physical trainer who were exposed as past users, who cited Pettitte and Clemens are shining in the 2009 World in George J. Mitchell’s investiSeries. gation into steroids for Major The St. Louis Cardinals recentLeague Baseball. ly announced they were hiring Emery added: “Watching Mark McGwire, who went into the way all this has unfolded seclusion for much of this decade makes me believe that it was the after refusing to answer quesstark juxtaposition of Clemens tions about steroids, as their hitand Pettitte that changed the ting coach. And although neither game. Alex had an easy road has shown much repentance, because Pettitte showed you David Ortiz of the Boston Red exactly what you do when you’re Sox and Manny Ramirez of the caught.” Los Angeles Dodgers continued Will others who made a less to play to adoring crowds even judicious choice when they came after both were implicated this to a fork in the road learn from summer as past or present users. Rodriguez? Until recently, players ac“There has always been a cused of cheating selected from tremendous compulsion in the two popular options: vehementAmerican DNA to cover up, and ly deny, as Barry Bonds and lie, going all the way up to the

White House,” the former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent said. “McGwire got terrible advice, and I think coming back almost certainly leads to him handling this better. But with this issue, it’s so obvious what to do now that maybe it even leads to Bonds and Clemens waking up, too.” Partisanship often plays a role in the steroid discussion, one city’s hero being another city’s target of abuse. But across a fairly wide spectrum, Rodriguez has already drawn, beyond leniency, a standing ovation from the court of public opinion. “I never thought Alex Rodriguez was very interesting, but when a sports hero is forced into this admission of wrongdoing, it humanizes him,” said Orin Starn, the cultural anthropology department chairman at Duke University. “We want these athletes to astonish us, but we also want to imagine them as someone like us.” Flawed and accountable is what he meant. And although Starn said he was not sure Rodriguez’s remorse and confessional version of drug consumption were as sincere and thorough as they might have been, “he made the gesture.”

To Some, American Winner Not American Enough As soon as Mebrahtom Keflezighi, better known as Meb, won the New York City Marathon on Sunday, an uncommon sports dispute erupted online, fraught with racial and nationalistic components: Should Keflezighi’s triumph count as an American victory? He was widely celebrated as the first American to win the New York race since 1982. Having immigrated to the United States at age 12, he is an American citizen and a product of American distance running programs at the youth, college and professional levels. But, some said, because he was born in Eritrea, he is not really an American runner. The debate reveals what some academics say are common assumptions and stereotypes about race and sports and athletic achievement in the United States. Its dimensions, they add, go be-

yond the particulars of Keflezighi and bear on undercurrents of nationalism and racism that are not often voiced. “Race is still extremely important when you think about athletics,” said David Wiggins, a professor at George Mason University who studies blacks and sports. “There is this notion about innate physiological gifts that certain races presumably possess. Quite frankly, I think it feeds into deepseated stereotypes. The more blatant forms of racial discrimination and illegal forms have been eliminated, but more subtle forms of discrimination still exist.” There are few cases parallel to Keflezighi’s in American sports. Some are noteworthy because of how little discussion, by comparison, they generated over the athlete’s nationality. For example, the Hall of Fame basketball player Patrick Ewing (Jamaica) and the gold medal gymnast Nastia Liukin

(Russia) were born abroad, but when they represented the United States in competition, they seemingly did not encounter the same skepticism that Keflezighi has. Richard Lapchick, the director of the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida, said the argument about Keflezighi “tells us there are people that still have racial red flags go up when certain things happen.” He added: “Many people think that with an African-American president, we are in a postracial society. Clearly, we are not.” The online postings about Keflezighi were anonymous. A comment on The New York Times’s site said: “Keflezighi is really another elite African runner by birth, upbringing, and training. Americans are kidding themselves if they say he represents a resurgence of American distance prowess!”  GINA KOLADA

9

n.h.l. standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Pittsburgh Rangers Devils Phila. Islanders

W L OT Pts GF GA

11 9 8 7 5

3 5 4 4 4

0 1 0 1 5

22 19 16 15 15

48 50 31 45 37

31 39 28 34 42

Northeast

W L OT Pts GF GA

Buffalo Montreal Ottawa Boston Toronto

8 7 6 6 1

Southeast

W L OT Pts GF GA

Wash. Tampa Atlanta Florida Carolina

8 4 5 4 2

2 7 4 6 7 2 4 4 7 8

1 0 2 1 4

17 14 14 13 6

33 38 37 33 30

24 45 37 35 50

4 20 52 44 4 12 32 42 1 11 34 29 1 9 32 44 3 7 28 50

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central

W L OT Pts GF GA

Chicago Columbus Nashville Detroit St. Louis

8 7 6 5 5

Northwest Colorado Vancou. Calgary Edmonton Minnesota

Pacific San Jose L.A. Phoenix Dallas Anaheim

4 5 6 4 6

1 1 1 3 1

17 15 13 13 11

39 42 28 38 29

31 46 38 42 33

W L OT Pts GF GA

10 8 7 7 5

3 7 4 7 9

2 0 1 1 0

22 16 15 15 10

45 42 44 45 31

34 41 39 46 42

W L OT Pts GF GA

10 9 9 6 4

4 4 5 3 6

1 2 0 5 2

21 20 18 17 10

52 51 38 48 34

38 45 30 45 42

Agassi Fallout The World Anti-Doping Agency has asked the ATP to investigate Andre Agassi’s admission that he took crystal meth in 1997. Agassi wrote in his soonto-be-released autobiography, “Open,” that he ingested crystal meth, then lied to the governing body of men’s tennis to avoid a suspension after failing a doping test.Tennis and doping authorities expressed disappointment when Agassi admitted to the drug use but said it was too late for sanctions because of an eight-year limitation rule.  (AP)

Surgery for Met Jeff Francoeur had surgery to repair a torn ligament in his left thumb on Monday but is expected to be ready for spring training. Francoeur, acquired by the Mets from Atlanta on July 10, was injured while making a diving catch July 23. (AP)