F R O M T H E Pa G E

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

Saturday October 24, 2009 Midnight in New York Nine pages © 2009 The New York Times

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State May Put Prisons in Private Hands nato ministers support general | on afghan war FLORENCE, Ariz. — One of the newest residents on Arizona’s death row, a serial killer named Dale Hausner, poked his head up from his television to look at several visitors strolling by. They wore masks and vests to protect against the sharp homemade objects that often are propelled from the cells of the condemned. It is a dangerous place to patrol, and Arizona spends $4.7 million each year to house inmates like Hausner in a super-maximumsecurity prison. But in a first in the criminal justice world, the state’s death row inmates could become the responsibility of a private company. State officials will soon seek bids from private companies for 9 of the state’s 10 prison complexes that house roughly 40,000 inmates, including the 127 here on death row. It is the first attempt by a state to put its entire prison system under private control. The privatization effort demonstrates what states around the country — broke, desperate and burdened with prisoners and their associated costs — are willing to do to balance the books. Officials

here hope the effort will put a $100 million dent in the state’s $2 billion budget shortfall. Private prison companies generally build facilities for a state, then charge them per prisoner to run them. But under the Arizona legislation, a vendor would pay $100 million up front to operate one or more prison complexes. Assuming the company could operate the prisons more cheaply or efficiently than the state, any savings would be equally divided between the state and the private firm. The privatization move has raised questions about the ability of the private sector to handle the state’s most hardened criminals. While executions would still be performed by the state, officials said, the Department of Corrections would relinquish all other day-to-day operations to the private operator and pay a per-diem fee for each prisoner. “I would not want to be the warden of death row,” said Todd Thomas, the warden of a prison in Eloy, Ariz., run by the Corrections Corp. of America. The company, the country’s largest

private prison operator, has six prisons in Arizona with inmates from other states. “That’s not to say we couldn’t,” Thomas said. “But the liability is too great. I don’t think any private entity would ever want to do that.” Arizona is no stranger to private prisons or, for that matter, aggressive privatization efforts (recently, the state put up for sale several government buildings housing executive branch offices in Phoenix). Nearly 30 percent of the state’s prisoners are being held in prisons operated by private companies outside the state’s 10 complexes. Other states, including Alaska and Hawaii, have contracts with private companies to house their prisoners in Arizona. Under the legislation, any bidder would have to take an entire complex — many of them mazes of multiple levels of risks and complexity — and would not be permitted to pick off the cheapest or easiest buildings and inmates. The state also wants to privatize prisoners’ medical care. JENNIFER STEINHAUER

Mayor’s Political Quest Is the Costliest Ever NEW YORK — Michael R. Bloomberg, the Wall Street mogul whose fortune catapulted him into New York’s City Hall, has now spent more of his own money than any individual in U.S. history in the pursuit of public office. Newly released campaign records show the mayor, as of Friday, had spent $85 million on his latest re-election campaign, and is on pace to spend between $110 million and $140 million before the election on Nov. 3. That means Bloomberg, in his three bids for mayor, will have easily burned through more than $250 million — the equivalent of what Warner Bros. spent on the latest Harry Potter movie. The sum easily surpasses what his fellow billionaires have spent to seek state or federal office. New Jersey’s Jon S. Corzine has plunked down a total of $130 mil-

lion in two races for governor and one for U.S. Senate. Steve Forbes poured $80 million into his bid for president. And Ross Perot spent $65 million in his quest for the White House in 1992 and $8 million four years later. “I have never seen anything like this — it’s off the charts,” said Jennifer A. Steen, a lecturer in political science at Yale who has studied self-financed candidates for the last decade. “He’s in a league of his own.” Bloomberg has used his wealth, estimated at $16 billion, to establish what appears to be insurmountable financial dominance in the race. He has spent at least 14 times what his Democratic rival in the race, William C. Thompson Jr., has: $6 million. A Thompson campaign spokeswoman on Friday called the mayor’s spending “ob-

scene.” Bloomberg is now spending nearly $1 million a day. The bulk of the money is devoted to advertising on television, radio and the Web, but much of it bankrolls a first-class approach to parties, snacks and transportation. His lavish spending has confounded political consultants and campaign finance experts, who said that his popularity with New Yorkers, and his built-in advantages as a two-term incumbent, should be sufficient to win him reelection. “The main thing money does is allow you to get name recognition,” said Meredith McGeehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center, a watchdog group in Washington. “But in this case, with Bloomberg, because he’s so well known, it’s more like, he can do it, so why not?”  (NYT)

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia — Defense ministers from NATO on Friday endorsed the ambitious counterinsurgency strategy for Afghanistan proposed by Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, giving new impetus to his recommendation to pour more troops into the eight-year-old war. McChrystal, the senior U.S. and allied commander in Afghanistan, made an unannounced appearance here on Friday to brief the defense ministers on his strategic review of a war in which the U.S.-led campaign has lost momentum to the Taliban insurgency. “What we did today was to discuss General McChrystal’s overall assessment, his overall approach, and I have noted a broad support from all ministers of this overall counterinsurgency approach,” said NATO’s secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen. The acceptance by NATO defense ministers of McChrystal’s approach did not include a decision on new troops, and it was not clear that their judgment would translate into increased willingness by their governments, many of which have been seeking to reduce their military presence in Afghanistan, to contribute further forces to the war. But it was another in a series of judgments that success there could not be achieved by a narrower effort that did not increase troop levels in Afghanistan substantially and focused more on terrorists linked to Al Qaeda — a counterterrorism strategy identified with Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. The briefing thrusts McChrystal back into the debate over what President Obama should do about Afghanistan — a role that has raised tensions between the general and the White House in the past. THOM SHANKER and MARK LANDLER

International

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Ancient Artifacts Become Political Pawns BERLIN — As thousands lined up to catch a glimpse of Nefertiti at the newly reopened Neues Museum here, another skirmish erupted in the culture wars. Egypt’s chief archaeologist, Zahi Hawass, said his country wanted its queen handed back forthwith, unless Germany can prove that the 3,500-year-old bust wasn’t spirited illegally out of Egypt nearly a century ago. Hawass also recently fired a shot at France, demanding the Louvre return five fresco fragments that belonged to a 3,200-year-old tomb near Luxor. Egypt suspended the Louvre’s long-term excavation at Saqqara, near Cairo, and said it would stop collaborating on Louvre exhibitions. France got the message and promised to send the fragments back tout de suite. It didn’t go unnoticed in Paris, Berlin or Cairo that Hawass pressed his case about Nefertiti

and suspended the excavations just after his country’s culture minister, Farouk Hosny, lost a bid to become director general of Unesco. The U.N. post went to a Bulgarian diplomat instead. Hosny would have been the first Arab to land the job, and Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, had banked his own prestige on the minister’s getting it. But Jewish groups and prominent French and German intellectuals campaigned against Hosny. When asked in Egypt’s Parliament last year about the presence of Israeli books in Alexandria’s library, Hosny said, “Let’s burn these books. If there are any, I will burn them myself before you.” That prompted Elie Wiesel, Claude Lanzmann and BernardHenri Lévy to urge that he not be selected. In fact, what may have ultimately done Hosny in was his suspected role, as a diplomat in 1985, in protecting the perpetrators of

a terrorist attack on the Achille Lauro, during which a Jewish tourist in a wheelchair was shot and pushed into the sea. In any case, days after the Unesco decision, Hawass went after France and Germany. For the Egyptian public, Hosny’s defeat was another condemnation of the country’s leadership. “Defeat and failure and regression will keep following this regime, whose members’ policy is to stay in office forever,” said Muhsin Radi, a Muslim Brotherhood member of Parliament. The country’s only potent weapon left may be antiquities. It plays to popular sentiment. While the art world likes to ponder the merits or misfortunes of seeing art from one place in another place or the inequities that have resulted from centuries of imperialist collecting, the real issue behind the Egyptian claims, as with so many others, is nationalism.  MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

Iran Delays a Decision on Nuclear Fuel Stockpile WASHINGTON — Iran missed its deadline on Friday to declare whether it would accept a nuclear deal that would ship much of its uranium to Russia for processing, but said a decision would be announced next week. The International Atomic Energy Agency said that Iran had suggested in discussions with the agency’s director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, that “it is considering the proposal in depth and in a favorable light.” But all day Iranian state television beamed the opposite message to its domestic audience, insisting that it was waiting for Russia and France to sell it new

nuclear fuel for a reactor in Tehran that makes medical isotopes. Iran’s answer may well determine the course of the Obama administration’s effort — through negotiations, and perhaps ultimately through harsh sanctions — to force the country to give up the material it would need to produce a nuclear weapon. Under a plan put forth this week by the agency, Iran would ship about three-quarters of its known stockpile of nuclear fuel, about 2,600 pounds, to Russia for further processing so that it could refuel the Tehran reactor. President Obama and ElBaradei say they have a common ob-

jective of making sure that Iran does not have the fuel on hand to threaten to manufacture a nuclear weapon. But the deal would offer only a temporary solution because Iran has the capacity to replace the 2,600 pounds of nuclear fuel within a year. Negotiations concluded in Vienna on Wednesday between Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s permanent envoy to the atomic energy agency, and officials from the United States, France and Russia. Soltanieh cautioned on Wednesday that although he had finished negotiations, the deal was subject to approval by Iran’s leadership. DAVID E. SANGER

Reports Press Sri Lanka on Possible War Atrocities NEW DELHI — Pressure is mounting on Sri Lanka’s government to investigate atrocities that may have been committed during the final stages of its war with the Tamil Tiger insurgency. Two new reports from the European Union and the State Department, detailing abuses, were released this week. The reports come as Sri Lanka also faces intensifying criticism for its decision to keep more than 250,000

Tamils who were displaced by the fighting in closed camps that critics have likened to internment camps. The government says it plans to allow 80 percent of these people to return to their homes by the end of January, but insists that it must first weed out any remaining Tamil Tiger rebels. The European Union report could lead to the withdrawal of trade concessions worth tens of millions of dollars to Sri Lankan

garment and fisheries industries. It represents the first threat of a serious sanction against the Sri Lankan government as a result of its conduct of the war. Economists said the loss of the concessions, known as GSP-plus, could be a serious blow. Sri Lanka’s garment industry will probably bear the brunt of the impact because as much as 60 percent of the country’s apparel exports go to the European Union.  (NYT)

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in brief China Executions A Tibetan exile group in India says that the Chinese authorities have executed four people convicted for their roles in the riots in Tibet last year. According to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, the four were put to death on Tuesday, more than six months after they were tried and convicted of starting fires in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, that killed seven people. At least 18 people died in March 2008 during violence that was directed at Han Chinese migrants.  (NYT)

Iranian Arrests Iranian authorities arrested the wives and family members of a number of high-profile political detainees at a religious ceremony in Tehran, reformist Web sites reported Friday. A relative of some who were arrested said 60 people had been arrested, which would make it the largest mass arrest in recent months. Grand ayatollahs Hussein Ali Montazeri and Yousef Sanei denounced the raid.  (NYT)

Pakistan Bombing A suicide bombing at Pakistan’s premier aeronautical manufacturing complex killed seven people on Friday. The bomber blew himself up at the checkpoint at the entrance to the complex, 40 miles northwest of Islamabad, said a police official, Fakhur Sultan. Two guards and five civilians died. The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at Kamra is the country’s main air force maintenance and research hub, where engineers and workers build and overhaul fighter jets and radar systems.  (NYT)

Aristocrat Freed Thomas Cholmondeley, a white aristocrat, was released from prison on Friday after more than three years in jail for killing a black poacher on his estate in Kenya. The judge had reduced the charge from murder, saying he believed that Cholmondeley’s attempts to give the man first aid helped prove that the shooting was accidental.  (AP)

national

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Disney Offers Refunds on ‘Einstein’ Videos Parent alert: Walt Disney Co. is now offering refunds for all those Baby Einstein videos that did not make children into geniuses. The unusual refunds appear to be a tacit admission that they did not boost infant intellect. “We see it as an acknowledgment by the leading baby video company that baby videos are not educational, and we hope other baby media companies will follow suit by offering refunds,” said Susan Linn, director of the Campaign for a CommercialFree Childhood. Baby Einstein, founded in 1997, was one of the earliest players in what has become a huge electronic media market for babies and toddlers. Acquired by Disney in 2001, the company expanded to a full line of books, toys, flashcards and apparel, along with DVDs including “Baby Mozart,” “Baby Shakespeare” and “Baby Galileo.” The videos — simple produc-

tions featuring music, puppets, bright colors, and not many words — quickly became a staple of baby life: According to a 2003 study, a third of all American babies from 6 months to 2 years old had at least one “Baby Einstein” video. Despite their ubiquity, and the fact that many babies are transfixed by the videos, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time at all for children under 2. In 2006, Linn’s group went to the Federal Trade Commission to complain about the educational claims made by Disney and another company, Brainy Baby. As a result, the companies dropped the word “educational” from their marketing. But the group didn’t think that was enough. “Disney was never held accountable, and parents were never given any compensation. So we shared our information and research with a team of pub-

lic health lawyers,” Linn said. The Baby Einstein Web site still describes its videos with phrases like “reinforces number recognition” or “introduces circles, ovals, triangles, squares and rectangles.” Last year, those lawyers threatened to file a class action lawsuit for deceptive practices unless Disney agreed to refund the full purchase price to all those who bought the videos since 2004. The lawyers noted that Baby Einstein controls 90 percent of the baby media market, and sells $200 million worth of products annually. They described studies showing that television exposure at ages 1 through 3 is associated with attention problems at age 7. In response, the Baby Einstein company will refund $15.99 for up to four “Baby Einstein” videos per household, purchased between June 5, 2004 and Sept. 5, 2009, and returned to the company.  TAMAR LEWIN

Pilot Denies Sleeping as Jet Missed Minneapolis Safety investigators are skilled at solving the mystery of plane crashes. But with Northwest Flight 118, which landed safely, they are tackling a different puzzle: what went on in the cockpit to cause it to fly for 500 miles without radio contact and well beyond its destination? On Friday, investigators sought to explain why the two pilots, bound from San Diego to Minneapolis, did not begin a normal descent when they should have on Wednesday night. The pilots Capt. Timothy B. Cheney, 53, of Gig Harbor, Wash., and First Officer Richard I. Cole, 54, of Salem, Ore., said they had

been involved in a heated discussion about airline policy and lost track of where they were. Skepticism about the explanation resounded through airline and aviation safety circles, which wondered whether the pair had fallen asleep. Cole denied that the two had been asleep but declined to elaborate. Aviation officials said that Wednesday’s flight was the first of the day for both pilots, who had had a layover of approximately 17 hours. Instead of landing the Airbus A320, with 144 passengers aboard, the pilots flew past Minneapolis to

the skies above Eau Claire, Wis., despite repeated radio calls from controllers and other pilots in the area. Finally, when the plane was 110 miles past the airport, they responded, according to a report from the airport police department. The plane turned around and returned for a safe landing. The pilots have have been suspended by Delta Air Lines, which merged with Northwest last year and operates its flights, pending the outcome of investigations. Both passed breath analysis tests to check for alcohol, according to a police report. MICHELINE MAYNARD and MATTHEW L. WALD

Pelosi Pushes for Public Option in Health Care Bill WASHINGTON — Speaker Nancy Pelosi stepped up the pressure on House Democrats on Friday to support her preferred version of legislation that would require the federal government to sell health insurance in competition with private insurers. Her action came amid indications that she had not locked down the votes for the proposal, the most contentious element in a bill that would provide health

insurance to more than 35 million people, at cost of nearly $900 billion over 10 years. At a meeting with Pelosi on Thursday night, liberal Democrats spoke forcefully for a robust public option. Pelosi told them that she had well over 200 votes, but that it was proving difficult to reach the goal of 218. The Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, D-Nev., is going

through a similar exercise. In a shift, Reid told colleagues on Thursday that he was inclined to include a government-run insurance program in the bill he will take soon to the Senate floor. States would be allowed to opt out if they wanted. Asked about Reid’s idea, Pelosi said, “I don’t think there’s much problem with that.”  ROBERT PEAR and  DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

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in brief Alaska Corruption Documents filed in federal court directly link Rep. Don Young to a wide-ranging investigation of corruption in Alaska for the first time. Young is identified as “United States Representative A” in the documents filed in connection with the sentencing next week of Bill Allen, a key figure in the corruption investigations of state lawmakers and former Sen. Ted Stevens. The filing says Young, a Republican first elected in 1973, illegally received gifts totaling up to nearly $200,000 over 13 years from Allen’s oil field services company.  (AP)

Lawmakers’ Deals After resisting for weeks, Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House oversight committee, said on Friday that he would subpoena documents from Countrywide Financial about its program to offer special mortgage deals to preferred customers — including members of Congress. Aides to Towns have said that he received a mortgage from Countrywide, and Sens. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Kent Conrad of North Dakota admitted earlier that they had been in the V.I.P. program.  (NYT)

Shipboard Crash An Army Black Hawk helicopter crashed on a Navy ship during training, killing one service member and injuring eight, the Navy said. Service members were rappelling down a rope from the helicopter to the combat support ship Arctic around 8 p.m. Thursday off the Virginia coast near Fort Story when the crash happened, a Navy spokeswoman said.  (AP)

Hawaii Protest Angry parents protested on the first day of Hawaii’s statewide public school closings on Friday. The parents rallied at the Capitol in Honolulu as 256 schools shut down to help balance the state budget. In all, 17 furlough days are planned for this year and next, cutting the school year to 163 days.  (AP)

business

Saturday, October 24, 2009

DJIA

9,972.18

D 109.13

Dollar/YEN

NASDAQ

2,154.47

D 10.82

10-yr treasury 3.49% U 0.08

92.10 U 0.81

gold (ny) $1,064.30 U 7.20 crude oil

Seniors Are Struggling in the Job Market It is well known that during the nation’s gale-force recession, many older Americans who dreamed of retirement continued to work, often because their 401(k)s had plunged in value. In fact, there are more Americans 65 and older in the job market today than at any time in history, 6.6 million, compared with 4.1 million in 2001. Less well known, though, is that nearly half a million workers 65 and older want to work but cannot find a job — more than five times the level early this decade and this group’s highest unemployment level since the Great Depression. The situation is more dire because of numerous trends: Many people over 65 have lost their jobs as seniority protections have weakened, and like most other

Americans, a higher percentage of them took on debt than in previous generations. This financial squeeze is one reason President Barack Obama has proposed a special $250 onetime payment to all Social Security recipients. Many out-of-work older Americans complain that they face foreclosure or have had to give up their car. Another force pushing Americans to delay retirement is that the percentage of companies that provide health coverage to retirees is half what it was two decades ago. Moreover, the age to obtain full Social Security benefits has increased to at least 66 for people born after 1942, from its traditional 65. The unemployment rate for older Americans is still much bet-

ter than for other workers — 6.7 percent compared to 9.8 percent in the general population. But 6.7 percent is more than double the level of two years ago — and far higher than the 1.9 percent rate early this decade. Patricia Warmhold, 67, of Bethpage, N.Y., would love to retire but says that is out of the question. A year ago she was laid off from a job as an interpreter for a law firm. “I’ve been looking for jobs ever since. In a month’s time, I sent out 101 job applications,” she said, to no avail. Many older job seekers say they are losing out because of age discrimination. Last year, nearly 25,000 filed age discrimination complaints, a 29 percent jump over 2007.  STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Witness Has 10-Year History of Tips to Galleon MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — The central witness of a federal insider trading case against Raj Rajaratnam, founder of the Galleon hedge fund, has a more than 10-year history of passing on privileged information to the large hedge fund, according to federal court documents. Roomy Khan, the witness, faxed confidential sales and pricing information for computer chips sold by Intel to Galleon in 1998, according to documents in U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. At the time, Khan worked at Intel and had responded to requests for the information from a repre-

sentative of Galleon, left unidentified in the documents. Little more can be learned about the case because it was sealed by a federal court. The San Jose Mercury News reported the links between Khan, Intel and Galleon on Friday. It reported that she pleaded guilty to wire fraud and that in 2002 a federal judge ordered Khan to serve six months of home detention and to pay $150,000 in fines and restitution. Khan has been identified as “Tipper A” or the cooperating witness in the government’s case that accuses Rajaratnam of insider trading. Federal pros-

ecutors said Khan provided them with taped conversations she had with Rajaratnam and admitted to passing on inside information tied to Google and other companies. Khan has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy and securities fraud in order to receive a lighter sentence, according to a criminal complaint. Court filings in the most recent case say that Khan first met Rajaratnam in 1996, while she was still at Intel and he was at the investment bank Needham & Co. She worked at Galleon for a time in the late 1990s following the Intel incident. ASHLEE VANCE and  MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED

Food Industry Backpedals on ‘Smart Choices’ Program After intense pressure from state and federal authorities who feared it could mislead consumers, the food industry on Friday started backing away from a major nutrition labeling campaign that proclaimed health benefits of various products. PepsiCo said that it was cutting its ties with the troubled program, called Smart Choices, which features a green checkmark on the front of products that meet its nutritional criteria. Kellogg’s, which makes Froot

Loops and other sugary cereals that received the program’s seal of approval, said that it would begin phasing out packaging bearing the program logo as its inventories run out. Officials with the program said that Smart Choices would suspend most of its operations while they waited for the Food and Drug Administration to devise regulations for package-front nutrition labeling. Those rules could differ from the program’s criteria. “I regard it as a partial vic-

nikkei

$80.50 D 0.69

tory,” said Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, who recently began an investigation into the program, to see if the labeling campaign violated his state’s consumer protection law, which bars deceptive advertising. He called on more companies to pull out of the program. The Smart Choices logo began appearing on food packages this summer but immediately met with criticism from some nutritionists who felt its criteria were too lax.  WILLIAM NEUMAN

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N.Y.S.E. Most Active Issues Vol. (100s) Last Chg. Citigrp 2987673 SPDR 2208395 BkofAm 1783012 DirFBear rs 870815 GenElec 863273 SPDR Fncl 855203 iShEMkts 717924 iShR2K 632843 Pfizer 600663 SprintNex 573304

Nasdaq Actives Vol. (100s)

4.46 108.08 – 16.22 – 19.37 + 15.20 – 15.10 – 40.76 – 60.06 – 17.25 – 3.25 –

* 1.25 0.30 0.76 0.14 0.22 0.34 1.28 0.31 0.13

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+ 1.43 – 0.18 – 0.34 – 0.01 + 25.04 – 0.01 – 2.23 – 0.14 + 0.05 – 0.41

Amex Actives Vol. (100s) Last

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Oilsands g CelSci GrtBasG g Taseko GranTrra g GoldStr g UQM Tech NovaGld g SecureAm DenisnM g NthgtM g

72810 39960 31212 29709 27381 25788 22279 22248 21150 17338 17116

1.50 – 0.02 1.31 – 0.02 1.56 – 0.09 3.03 – 0.06 5.34 – 0.03 3.59 + 0.07 5.00 – 0.10 4.97 – 0.08 7.93 unch. 1.68 – 0.05 2.77 – 0.04

Foreign Exchange

Fgn. currency Dollars in in dollars fgn.currency Fri. Thu. Fri. Thu.

Australia .9214 .9268 1.0853 1.0790 Bahrain 2.6521 2.6521 .3771 .3771 Brazil .5833 .5798 1.7145 1.7248 Britain 1.6311 1.6624 .6131 .6015 Canada .9503 .9537 1.0523 1.0486 China .1464 .1464 6.8295 6.8300 Denmark .2015 .2018 4.9628 4.9554 Dominican .0277 .0277 36.12 36.05 Egypt .1827 .1829 5.4725 5.4666 Europe 1.5002 1.5026 .6666 .6655 Hong Kong .1290 .1290 7.7500 7.7500 Japan .01085 .01095 92.10 91.29 Mexico .07670 .07723 13.036 12.946 Norway .1799 .1808 5.5589 5.5320 Singapore .7171 .7174 1.3945 1.3940 So. Africa .1336 .1352 7.4850 7.3964 So. Korea .00084 .00084 1188.30 1180.00 Sweden .1473 .1470 6.7889 6.8027 Switzerlnd .9913 .9952 1.0087 1.0048

Lilly Settles With State South Carolina’s attorney general, Henry McMaster, said the state had reached a $45 million settlement with the drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. over the company’s marketing of an antipsychotic drug, Zyprexa. McMaster’s office said on Friday that the agreement was the second-largest settlement deal in state history.  (AP)

business

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Lord of Bunny Lair Considers His Legacy HOLMBY HILLS, Calif. — Hugh Hefner leaned back on a red loveseat and interlocked his fingers behind his head. A visitor had asked — more like shouted, since he has trouble hearing — a question about mortality. At 83, does he think about it? In a word, no. Hefner, the legendarily libidinous founder of Playboy, does not believe that his denouement is at hand. He doesn’t act like it, either. He still works full days on his magazine, flies to Europe and Las Vegas, pops Viagra, visits nightclubs with his three live-in girlfriends — each young enough to be his great-granddaughter — and is working with the producer Brian Grazer on a film. “This is one of the very best times of my life,” he said, grinning in pajamas and slippers. “It’s even better, richer than people know.” You want to believe him, but it is hard to ignore realities of his

business. Playboy Enterprises, hobbled by a shifting media landscape, is in need of heart paddles. On Tuesday, the magazine said it would cut the circulation numbers it guarantees to advertisers to 1.5 million from 2.6 million. The company has lost money for seven consecutive quarters. And perhaps most shockingly, the company said earlier this year that it would consider acquisition offers, something that was believed to be unthinkable while Hefner was still alive. In interviews over the years, Hefner has talked about how life wouldn’t be worth living without the magazine. “If I sold it, my life would be over,” he has said. But he may be coming around: “I’m taking more seriously the fact that I’m not 30 years old anymore. I need to think about the continuity of the magazine.” As a cultural force, Hefner still divides the country — 56 years after Playboy’s first issue. To his

supporters, he is the great sexual liberator who helped free Americans from Puritanism and neurosis. To his detractors, including many feminists and social conservatives, he helped set in motion a revolution in sexual attitudes that have objectified and victimized countless women and promoted an immoral, whateverfeels-good approach to life. Hefner will concede that there are dark consequences of what he helped set into motion, but said “it’s a small price to pay for personal freedom.” “People don’t always make good decisions. The real obscenities on this planet have very little to do with sex,” he said, adding that “it’s not as romantic a time.” Despite his chipper attitude, Hefner clearly has legacy on his mind. “We just literally live in a very different world and I played a part in making it that way,” he said. “Young people have no idea about that.”  BROOKS BARNES

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in brief Oversight Urged The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, prodded Congress on Friday to enact legislation overhauling the nation’s financial regulatory system to prevent a repeat of the banking and credit debacles. “With the financial turmoil abating, now is the time for policy makers to take action to reduce the probability and severity of any future crises,” Bernanke said at a Fed conference in Chatham, Mass.  (AP)

Microsoft Profits Microsoft reported on Friday net income of $3.57 billion, or 40 cents a share, for the quarter, which ended Sept. 30. Wall Street had expected Microsoft to earn 32 cents a share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.  (NYT)

journal

Saturday, October 24, 2009

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Shortages, Rumors and Confusion Reign in Fight Against the Flu A month ago, Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that the flu vaccination drive soon to begin would be “a little bumpy.” Good and bad news have alternated in the twice-weekly briefings from Frieden’s agency, and confusion has reigned across the country. Vaccinations started earlier than planned, then supplies began running short. The only flu circulating now is swine flu — seasonal flu is not expected to emerge for another month — but most of the vaccine available is against seasonal flu, because

crossword ACROSS

Edited By Will Shortz PUZZLE BY PAULA GAMACHE

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it was ready first; vaccine companies started making it in February, and swine flu emerged in April. Many doctors complain that they cannot get either vaccine at the same time, while supermarkets offer 10 percent off groceries to customers buying seasonal shots. Average Americans seem baffled by the choices: Nasal spray or needle? Thimerosal-free or not? No shot for my toddler, or just one, or two? All sorts of false rumors appear on the Internet — that the swine flu vaccine is untested, or that it is made from African green monkeys or aborted fetuses.

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10/24/09 (No. 1024)

DOWN

squads 57-Downs 3 Brief briefs? 4 Farmers’ needs 5 Got fed up? 6 Where César Chávez was born 7 Talked and talked and talked PREVIOUS PUZZLE 8 They have tops and bottoms S J I G S A W 9 Minds P A L T O O N A 10 Old yeller? R Z O O L O G Y A N T A T L I 11 Old World duck Y C E C A N Y O N 12 It begins where a person hails from C O K E D A S N H P A O O M F O R A R A G D E I O

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Routine delivery 14 Prepare for delivery 23 iPod attachments 25 Station skipper 29 Prussian prohibition 31 Soviet agency created from Rosta 32 Cover of the Colosseum? 33 ___ goal 34 Creation of the Economic Opportunity Act of 1964 35 Hangs up after agitating? 13

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Bargain hunter’s bonanza

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Stand where you lie

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Alternator driver

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Nonhuman baby sitter?

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Ugly Dungeons & Dragons figure

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Busy

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Like new ones

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Chrissie of the Pretenders

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Navigation rtes.

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It has a ball

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.

The conservative commentators Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh and the liberal commentator Bill Maher have advised their listeners not to get the new vaccine, suggesting it could be deadly or part of a plot by the Obama administration to dictate Americans’ health. “If somebody had the swine flu right now, I would have them cough on me,” Beck said last month. “I’d do the exact opposite of what the homeland security says.” Planners at the C.D.C., the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration are caught in a no-win situation. Having pushed private companies and themselves to make and approve a new swine flu vaccine as soon as possible, they now stand simultaneously accused of rushing an “untested” product to market and of not rushing enough of it. Despite the current confusion, top flu experts say they ultimately expect a different outcome: So much vaccine is being made that by January or February, there will be a lake of surplus, not a nationwide shortage. The shortfalls, they argue, are temporary. The problem recalls the fad for Beanie Babies, in that perceived shortages create a mad rush and exacerbate the shortages. As soon as the flu fades from the headlines (as some experts predict it will, because the pandemic’s fall wave may be peaking right now), so will the demand for shots. That means the government will eventually be able to donate tens of millions of doses of swine flu vaccine to poor countries. When the world’s richest countries wrote contracts with the big vaccine makers last spring, the poorest were promised enough to cover 2 percent to 3 percent of their populations. After it became clear that the new vaccine would protect a person with just one shot, the United States offered 10 percent more of its contracted purchases to the World Health Organization. But those doses presumably will not be available until midwinter. In the meantime, unhappy vaccine-seeking Americans are everywhere. DONALD G. McNEIL Jr.

620 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018 • Tom Brady, Editor e-mail: [email protected] • TimesDigest Sales Office phone: (212) 556-1200 fax: (646) 461-2364 e-mail: [email protected] • For advertising information and to request a media kit contact InMotion Media: phone: (212) 706-2700 e-mail: [email protected]

opinion

Saturday, October 24, 2009

editorials of the timeS

bob herbert

For Mayor of New York City

The Way It Was

The real test of any mayor is how well the city works. In his eight years in office, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has managed to make the unpredictable city of New York work astonishingly well. Bloomberg has been a first-rate steady hand during unsteady times. He guided the city out of the post-9/11 recession, then tucked away money during the boom years that followed. That foresight has helped New Yorkers weather one of the worst economic downturns in 80 years. The Democratic nominee, William Thompson, is a worthy opponent. Thompson has been a competent comptroller in a turbulent period and is a quiet, conciliatory man. But he has spent too much of his campaign attacking Bloomberg rather than explaining how he would manage the city, and Bloomberg is simply the stronger candidate. He has run the $60 billion government with a keen attention to accountability and efficiency. He has chosen some of the best people in the country to work for him, and he has mostly let them do their jobs. As a result, many city services operate better than they have for years. The garbage mostly disappears on time. The police and fire departments respond quickly. The 311 phone line allows New Yorkers to complain to a live human being. Often, they even see tangible results. Public education is better over all. Crime is down under Raymond Kelly, the police commissioner, although there is concern again about stop-and-frisk actions, which seem to

focus too heavily on Hispanics and AfricanAmericans. Bloomberg also has been a national leader in gun control. The mayor’s environmental efforts — stalled in Albany — show admirable concern about the city’s future. And he has worked hard to improve the city’s health — most effectively with the smoking ban. Most New Yorkers are concerned about Bloomberg’s spending $85 million — so far — to win re-election. In his first campaign in 2001, he argued that he was spending so much to introduce himself. Now a nationally recognized figure, he argues that as a candidate running on Republican and Independent Party lines, he needs to fight for votes in a city that is so predominantly Democratic. We think Bloomberg exaggerates his vulnerability. New York City’s campaign finance system is one of the best in the country. He does everyone a disservice by not complying with the system’s limits on spending. Thompson also argues that the mayor unfairly worked to get rid of term limits so that he could run this third time. We supported his efforts to do so because term limits unfairly limit voters’ choices. But the mayor has sent signals that once he is elected, he will set up a charter commission to try to restore the limits. That is a bad call. Finally, like others, we worry about his difficulty brooking dissent. He should not allow that trait to spoil a third term. But those are small blemishes. We enthusiastically endorse Mayor Michael Bloomberg for re-election.

More Iranian Justice The journalist Maziar Bahari joined his pregnant wife in London this week after being freed from an Iranian prison where he had been held for five months. That is welcome news, but it would be a mistake to think that the mullahs who run the government have been seized with humanitarian spirit. If anything, they seem more determined to shift the blame for the unrest that followed the fraudulent June 12 election to “foreigners.” The Iranian-American scholar Kian Tajbakhsh, an urban planner with a doctorate from Columbia University, was arrested in July. He was prosecuted with more than 100 other defendants in show trials after the election. An Iranian court on Sunday convicted him of fomenting unrest and sentenced him to 15 years in prison. His offense? Working with George Soros’s Open Society Institute, which finances democracy-building programs, and hooking into a Gulf region Web site run by Gary Sick, a professor at Columbia. Experts say that Tajbakhsh has not been politically active for more than two years and was not involved in postelection unrest. We hope this outrageous verdict is reversed. Indeed, Tehran may be using him as a pawn

for negotiations with the United States on its nuclear program. But the new judiciary chief, Sadeq Larijani, will fail if he cannot direct a judiciary that is fair and consistent. The mullahs are twisting themselves into knots trying to prove that outside forces are at work when they are actually facing homegrown outrage. They also think they can solve the crisis with force, despite the refusal of many elites to condone the crackdown. On Friday, a leading opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, was attacked at a media fair. One day earlier, authorities stormed a prayer service at a private home and arrested 60 reformists. Many Iranians detained after the election protests linger in prison without charges. Two weeks ago, authorities sentenced four to death. Since July 31, Iran has been holding three American hikers who were seized along the Iran-Iraq border. Robert Levinson, a former F.B.I. agent, has been missing since 2007. These victims of Iran’s autocratic leaders must be released. Iran may sit at the negotiating table with the United States, but it will never earn the respect it craves if it continues these kinds of human rights abuses.

7

One of the successes of Mike Bloomberg’s tenure as mayor is that he has helped lower the racial temperature of New York. He has not tried to divide people along racial, ethnic or religious lines. The city has benefited from this. So it was truly disheartening to have the mayor turn his back on all that last Sunday during an appearance with Rudy Giuliani before an Orthodox Jewish group in Brooklyn. Giuliani, campaigning on Bloomberg’s behalf, warned that if the mayor is not elected to a third term, the city could become unsafe — a place of escalating crime and heightened fear. Giuliani suggested that an environment filled with danger might be right there on the next horizon if the voters were to elect “the wrong political leadership,” in this case Bloomberg’s opponent, City Comptroller William Thompson, who is black. Giuliani said he worries daily that the city might revert “to the way it was before 1993,” the year he was elected mayor. He then pointedly added, so that no one could mistake his not-so-coded meaning: “And you know exactly what I’m talking about.” It was vintage Giuliani, as subtle as a heart attack. And Bloomberg sat there, allowing that lousy message to be delivered on his behalf. Bloomberg has had many opportunities to disavow Giuliani’s remarks, but he has chosen not to. He chose instead, later that same day, to raise the specter of one of the worst big-city tragedies in American history: Detroit, which was laid low by every ill you can imagine, including a catastrophic race riot in 1967. Detroit, said Bloomberg, “went from a great city with lots of good-paying jobs to a city that’s basically holding on for dear life.” Well, that’s true. But what’s that got to do with New York City, or this year’s election? This had all the appearance of Bloomberg piggybacking on Giuliani’s fear-mongering. He picked the worst-case urban scenario available, a crime-ridden, destitute city from which most whites have long since fled, and offered it as a suggestion of what might be in store for New York, a thriving metropolis filled with people from virtually every ethnic group on the planet. Open a window, please. Some fresh air is in order. The Mike Bloomberg that New Yorkers came to know during his first two terms as mayor was not the same man who remained shamefully silent last Sunday, willing to benefit politically from Giuliani’s toxic remarks. One of the ironies at work here is that it is during the toughest economic times that a city, more than ever, needs a mayor who is committed to bringing people together, not playing them off against one another for short-term political gain. This is absolutely the worst time for that point to have slipped Michael Bloomberg’s mind.

sports

Saturday, October 24, 2009

in brief

N.F.L. Data Reinforces Dementia Links When a survey commissioned by the National Football League recently indicated that dementia or similar memory-related diseases had been diagnosed in its retired players vastly more often than in the national population, the league claimed the study was unreliable. But confidential data from the N.F.L.’s dementia assistance plan strongly corroborates claims of a link between football and later-life cognitive impairment. Records indicate that pro football’s retirees are experiencing moderate to advanced early-onset dementia at rates several times higher than the general population. As the House Judiciary Committee prepares to hold a hearing on Wednesday on the issue of brain injuries in football, this latest data further underscores the possible safety risks of the mod-

ern game at all levels, from the N.F.L. to youth leagues. The new information was collected by a lawyer for the 88 Plan, which the league and its players union began in 2007 to reimburse medical expenses of retirees being treated for dementia, and was presented to the union in a memorandum, which was obtained by The New York Times. The lawyer, Douglas W. Ell of the Groom Law Group, compared the age distribution of 88 Plan members with several published studies regarding dementia rates around the world, and wrote that “the numbers seem to refute any claim that playing N.F.L. football substantially increases” later risk for dementia. But the outside data on which he primarily based this conclusion was not only mishandled — the wrong numbers were taken from

one published study, grossly overstating worldwide dementia rates — but the analysis also included several faulty assumptions, experts said in later interviews. Correcting for these errors indicated rates of dementia among N.F.L. retirees about four to five times the expected rate. “This was a preliminary effort at the request of the union to understand the facts,” said Ell, adding that he was acting as a lawyer for the union. “I understand now that it was flawed.” Joe Browne, an N.F.L. spokesman, said in an e-mail message, “We have not seen this analysis in our office and, if it was done, it obviously was written for the N.F.L. player union’s own self-promotional and lobbying purposes in anticipation of next week’s Congressional hearing.”  ALAN SCHWARZ

Rain Could Affect Rotation of Angels’ Sciosia After several days of sunshine, the American League Championship Series returns to New York this weekend, and with it comes the obligatory forecast of gloom. Substantial rainfall is predicted throughout the day Saturday, and it could last well past the scheduled first pitch time of 7:57 p.m., soaking the field at Yankee Stadium and threatening to postpone Game 6 until Sunday, when the weather is expected to clear. The Penn State Department of Meteorology expects between one and two inches of rain in New York and said the storm may not pass through until after 10 p.m.

There were weather-related concerns about Games 1 and 2 last weekend, and both those games proceeded without delay, despite chilly temperatures and some rain Saturday night. But at that time there was more pressure to play through adverse conditions because of concern the games might start to back up. Now, with the World Series not scheduled to begin until Wednesday, Major League Baseball has more flexibility to postpone Game 6 until Sunday, play a potential Game 7 on Monday and still not create any havoc with the overall schedule.

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 72/ 64 0.04 64/ 53 PC 71/ 43 S Albuquerque 60/ 39 0 69/ 41 PC 67/ 44 PC Boise 64/ 46 0 55/ 47 PC 55/ 37 PC Boston 57/ 39 0 65/ 46 Sh 61/ 53 S Buffalo 47/ 39 0.08 58/ 50 Sh 52/ 41 PC Charlotte 79/ 57 0 72/ 63 Sh 66/ 43 S Chicago 61/ 48 1.52 48/ 37 C 57/ 41 C Cleveland 62/ 54 0.15 52/ 50 C 53/ 38 PC Dallas-Ft. Worth 65/ 48 0 73/ 44 S 72/ 60 PC Denver 54/ 34 0 63/ 34 PC 44/ 33 C Detroit 56/ 44 0.63 50/ 46 Sh 55/ 38 PC

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

70/ 50 45/ 41 84/ 59 88/ 75 40/ 33 64/ 51 88/ 66 64/ 54 87/ 62 60/ 39 72/ 55 58/ 48 62/ 49 66/ 54

0 0 0 0 0.17 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.36 1.39 0

Should Game 6 be pushed back a day, it would provide the Yankees and the Angels additional options. Angels Manager Mike Scioscia said Friday that if Game 6 were delayed, he would consider bringing back Game 5 starter John Lackey, the Angels’ ace, for a Game 7 on Monday, since he would then be pitching on three days’ rest. Yankees Manager Joe Girardi took a different approach, saying he had no plans to swap the scheduled Game 6 starter Andy Pettitte with C.C. Sabathia, the starter for a potential Game 7.  DAVID WALDSTEIN 76/ 48 S 62/ 34 S 78/ 60 S 86/ 76 T 50/ 31 PC 68/ 52 R 88/ 70 PC 70/ 57 T 89/ 62 S 60/ 46 PC 70/ 56 PC 55/ 48 C 58/ 41 PC 72/ 59 T

80/ 58 PC 57/ 47 C 82/ 60 PC 88/ 76 T 49/ 41 C 62/ 52 S 87/ 69 PC 65/ 50 S 89/ 62 S 54/ 40 PC 73/ 54 S 54/ 47 Sh 62/ 47 C 63/ 50 S

FOREIGN CITIES Acapulco Athens Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo

Yesterday Today Tomorrow 93/ 79 0 88/ 75 PC 86/ 75 T 75/ 57 0 75/ 61 T 75/ 61 T 70/ 48 0 72/ 50 S 73/ 54 PC 45/ 43 0.04 54/ 39 PC 55/ 46 C 86/ 63 0 66/ 46 PC 72/ 48 PC 80/ 68 0 84/ 63 S 90/ 70 PC

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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

Gators Hurting Second-ranked Florida could be without three defensive starters Saturday at Mississippi State. Linebacker Brandon Spikes and defensive tackles Jaye Howard and Lawrence Marsh practiced sparingly this week, and Coach Urban Meyer said he did not know if any of them would play. Spikes reinjured his left groin last week against Arkansas and sat out much of the game. Meyer says Howard, who has an injured knee, and Marsh, who hurt his ankle, were doubtful. (AP)

Jamison Out a While The Washington Wizards have revised their estimated recovery time for Antawn Jamison, announcing that his shoulder injury will take much longer to heal than expected. The team said Jamison would probably miss 8 to 13 games in the regular season. Jamison partly dislocated his shoulder Oct. 14, when he tried to block a shot in a preseason game against Cleveland. The Wizards originally said he would miss the rest of the preseason.  (AP)

NHL scores THURSDAY’S LATE GAMES Edmonton 6, Columbus 4 Phoenix 3, Detroit 2, OT Los Angeles 5, Dallas 4, OT FRIDAY Pittsburgh 3, Florida 2, SO St. Louis 3, Minnesota 1 Colorado 5, Carolina 4 72/ 55 0 57/ 45 0.09 57/ 48 0.24 87/ 73 0 89/ 77 Tr 69/ 60 0 62/ 48 0.02 68/ 45 0 70/ 55 0 39/ 28 0.47 49/ 46 0.63 86/ 75 0.08 58/ 50 0.08 50/ 43 0.12 80/ 72 0.12 68/ 57 1.22 65/ 53 0 42/ 41 0 80/ 64 0 69/ 61 0 43/ 37 0.08 51/ 48 0.67 46/ 39 0.02

75/ 57 PC 63/ 52 R 63/ 41 C 82/ 73 S 88/ 77 T 72/ 66 C 66/ 54 R 72/ 55 PC 73/ 55 Sh 57/ 37 R 43/ 37 C 89/ 79 T 66/ 54 R 54/ 46 C 88/ 64 PC 68/ 55 PC 75/ 41 PC 45/ 36 C 75/ 57 S 70/ 61 Sh 59/ 43 C 55/ 43 PC 50/ 45 Sh

70/ 55 PC 57/ 50 C 61/ 48 Sh 82/ 72 S 84/ 77 T 70/ 66 C 63/ 54 PC 70/ 55 PC 75/ 52 T 50/ 32 PC 39/ 34 C 89/ 77 T 64/ 52 S 61/ 45 PC 93/ 72 PC 72/ 57 PC 81/ 43 PC 45/ 39 C 79/ 57 Sh 70/ 63 C 50/ 37 PC 52/ 45 Sh 52/ 41 PC

sports journal

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Jets Executive Finds His Balance in Running Cancer did not slow Matt Higgins. If anything, it affirmed the depth of his resolve. He took one day off for surgery and plunged back into work, crying only when he had to tell his bosses. Cancer did not enlighten Higgins with fresh perspective. He treated it like another obstacle on his meteoric rise to the Jets’ executive vice president for business operations. Cancer did not change Higgins. Running did. As he prepares for the New York City Marathon, raising money for Lance Armstrong’s foundation, Higgins has lost 55 pounds and gained the balance that his success didn’t provide. “Running forces you to slow down,” Higgins said. “Because the only way you can finish is to allow time to elapse. That was important because I had never lived my life that way. I could always accelerate everything through the sheer force of will.” Higgins, 34, always achieved by pushing, pushing, pushing, never slowing down, never considering the consequences. He started working at age 14 and dropped out of high school two years later to care for his ailing mother, Linda. He spent what seemed like half

his life wheeling his mother into emergency rooms, where he sat outside on curbs studying for exams at Fordham Law School. He became president of the debate team and made law review, but his life was filled with contradictions, his career and his mother’s health spiraling in opposite directions. On the day he started as press secretary for New York Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani — at age 26, he was the youngest person to hold that job in New York — his mother died from congestive heart failure. His career continued upward. After he joined the Jets in 2004, Higgins received two promotions in the next four years. Crain’s New York tabbed him as a rising young business star in its 40 under 40 rankings. “Matt is the kind of guy who never appears like he’s struggling,” said Woody Johnson, the Jets’ owner. Or so it seemed. Three months after the birth of his first child, Matthew Jr., Higgins and his wife, Michele, went to Rhode Island. Higgins felt a nagging pain in his right testicle, and he went to the doctor only at his wife’s insistence, in April 2007. The exam took place on a Mon-

day. On Tuesday, he received the diagnosis of testicular cancer. On Wednesday, he had surgery. Shortly after, he went back to work. “I saw cancer as something that could derail everything I’d worked toward,” Higgins said. “I was proud of my response. But it’s ridiculous to be sideswiped by a potentially fatal disease and not learn anything.” But when his weight ballooned to 250 pounds, causing his feet to ache, Higgins discovered that he had “misread the tea leaves.” Instead of viewing cancer as another opportunity to conquer adversity, it should have served as an impetus for change. He met with a trainer, started running, shedding pounds. He changed his eating habits, switching to grilled foods, more vegetables. Through running, Higgins was committing to life beyond his grand ambitions. By running the marathon, Higgins hopes his story reminds men to be tested, to go to the doctor, to listen to their wives. He is cancer free, but is still tested every six months. In all aspects of his life, he has found new balance.  GREG BISHOP

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n.h.l. standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

W L OT Pts GF GA

Pittsburgh Rangers Devils Phila. Islanders

9 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 5 5

0 18 36 21 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 22 31 1 5 18 30

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central

W L OT Pts GF GA

Chicago Columbus St. Louis Detroit Nashville

5 5 4 3 3

Northwest

W L OT Pts GF GA

Colorado Calgary Edmonton Vancou. Minnesota

7 6 6 4 2

Pacific

W L OT Pts GF GA

Phoenix L.A. Dallas San Jose Anaheim

6 6 4 5 3

3 3 3 3 5 1 2 2 5 7 2 4 2 4 4

1 11 31 26 0 10 25 24 1 9 23 21 2 8 24 28 1 7 18 31 2 16 35 25 1 13 36 31 1 13 36 26 0 8 26 27 0 4 19 30 0 0 4 1 1

12 12 12 11 7

21 33 33 34 18

12 33 31 31 25

A Player’s Success Came From Dropping the Ball

Experience Required

SUGAR LAND, Tex. — As a running back his senior season here at Stephen F. Austin High, a school of 2,400 about 30 miles southwest of Houston, Jerry Hughes rushed for 1,412 yards and 19 touchdowns in 2005. He was also an all-district kick returner who played some defensive end. “He was their offensive threat,” Mike Ferrell, who coached against Hughes in high school, said in a telephone interview. “He could break it and go the distance on you. He was hard to tackle.” Despite Hughes’s offensive pedigree, universities recruited him to play different positions. Arizona State and Central Florida wanted him at running back, but Iowa State pursued him as a linebacker, while Texas Tech envisioned him as a linebacker and potentially a wide receiver. Although Texas Christian (60, 2-0 Mountain West) recruited Hughes as a defensive end, which

After several calls were shown to be inaccurate by television replays during the playoffs, Major League Baseball will assign only experienced umpires to the World Series. Usually baseball assigns one or two umpires to the World Series who have never worked at that level before. But according to a person in baseball familiar with the situation, this year’s World Series will feature only umpires with at least one World Series on their resume. As first reported by The Associated Press, the crew chiefs Joe West, Dana DeMuth and Gerry Davis, along with Brian Gorman, Jeff Nelson, and Mike Everitt, have been assigned. In baseball’s normal protocol, none of the umpires from the league championship series, including several who made obvious blunders, would have been assigned anyway.  (NYT)

he and his parents did not think was a good idea, he chose the Horned Frogs because Coach Gary Patterson was open to giving him a chance to play running back. That never happened, but Hughes is hardly complaining. Entering his 10th-ranked team’s game Saturday at No. 16 Brigham Young (6-1, 3-0) in a Mountain West matchup that has important Bowl Championship Series implications, Hughes has developed into perhaps college football’s best defensive end. The Horned Frogs’ best N.F.L. prospect since tailback LaDainian Tomlinson, he is fourth in the Football Bowl Subdivision with eight sacks this season and is projected to be a first-round pick in the N.F.L. draft. “No way, in a million years, could I have ever pictured anything like this,” said Hughes, a 6-foot-3-inch, 257-pound senior. Although other coaches pro-

jected Hughes all over the field, Patterson knew he would be a defensive end the first time that he saw him during a visit to his high school in the spring of 2005. When Hughes lined up at defensive end and caught a running back from behind on a counter play in seven-on-seven drills, Patterson turned to his assistant head coach, Eddie Williamson, and asked, “Who’s that guy?” “What he did,” Patterson said in a telephone interview, “was very hard to do.” Hughes was one of only four true freshmen who played for T.C.U. in 2006. He played in every game in 2007 before his breakout season in 2008, when he registered F.B.S. bests in sacks (15) and forced fumbles (6). “That guy’s the real deal,” Southern Methodist Coach June Jones said in a telephone interview. “He’s big time.”  THAYER EVANS