F R O M T H E Pa G E

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

Tuesday October 6, 2009 Midnight in New York Nine pages © 2009 The New York Times

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Pakistan Resists Greater U.S. Influence as job loss rises, obama aides act to fix safety net ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Steps by the United States to vastly expand its aid to Pakistan, as well as the footprint of its embassy and private security contractors here, are aggravating an already volatile anti-American mood as Washington pushes for greater action by the government against the Taliban. An aid package of $1.5 billion a year for the next five years passed by Congress last week asks Pakistan to cease supporting terrorist groups on its soil and to ensure that the military does not interfere with civilian politics. President Asif Ali Zardari, whose association with the United States has added to his unpopularity, agreed to the stipulations in the aid package. But many here, especially in the powerful army, object to the conditions as interference in Pakistan’s internal affairs, and they are interpreting the larger American footprint in more sinister ways. American officials say the embassy and its security presence must expand in order to monitor how the new money is spent. They

also have real security concerns, which were underscored Monday when a suicide bomber, dressed in the uniform of a Pakistani security force, killed at least five people at a U.N. office in the heart of Islamabad, the capital. The U.S. Embassy has publicized plans for a vast new building in Islamabad for about 1,000 people, with security for some diplomats provided through a Washington-based private contracting company, DynCorp. The embassy setup, with American demands for importing more armored vehicles, is a significant expansion over the last 15 years. It comes at a time of intense discussion in Washington over whether to widen American operations and aid to Pakistan — a base for Al Qaeda — as an alternative to deeper American involvement in Afghanistan with the addition of more forces. The fierce opposition here is revealing deep strains in the alliance. Even at its current levels, the American presence was fueling a sense of occupation among Pakistani politicians and security officials, said several Pakistani

officials, who did not want to be named for fear of antagonizing the United States. The United States was now seen as behaving in Pakistan much as it did in Iraq and Afghanistan, they said. In particular, the Pakistani military and the intelligence agencies are concerned that DynCorp is being used by Washington to develop a parallel network of security and intelligence personnel within Pakistan, officials and politicians close to the army said. The concerns are serious enough that last month a local company hired by DynCorp to provide Pakistani men to be trained as security guards for American diplomats was raided by the Islamabad police. The owner of the company, the Inter-Risk Security Co., Capt. Syed Ali Ja Zaidi, was later arrested. The tensions are erupting as the United States is pressing Pakistan to take on not only those Taliban groups that have threatened their government, but also the Taliban leadership that uses Pakistan as a base to organize and conduct their insurgency in Afghanistan.  JANE PERLEZ

Vaccine Arrives, as Flu Fear Creates a Rush The fear of swine flu is being compounded by new worries, this time among primary care doctors who say that they are swamped by calls from patients seeking the new vaccine, and that they are illprepared to cope with the nationwide drive to immunize everyone, particularly children and chronically ill adults. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the first doses of vaccine on Monday. But many doctors, especially pediatricians, say they know little about the program and have been deluged with questions. At the same time, the pediatricians are struggling to figure out how to administer perhaps thousands of doses quickly in small offices with limited staff, while still dealing with other illnesses. Some said they were considering hiring nurses just for the vac-

cinations and setting aside days when children would be vaccinated in alphabetical order. At Westchester Pediatrics, an office with 6,000 to 8,000 families in Hartsdale, N.Y., exasperated doctors have added a new choice to the office answering machine: “If you have a question about the flu vaccine, please dial 6.” Pressing 6 produces a further message saying that the swine flu vaccine is not yet available, and to keep checking the CDC.gov Web site for updates. For those who are not satisfied, a sign in the office waiting room counsels patience. In Philadelphia, Dr. Shea Cronley of Advocare Society Hill Pediatrics said she was concerned that emergency rooms were starting to see a rise in flu cases, but she did not know when she would be getting her share of vaccine.

“We’re waiting,” she said. The Centers for Disease Control has embarked on an extensive immunization drive with a goal of producing 195 million to 250 million doses of vaccine. The vaccine is being distributed free to local jurisdictions, like city and state health departments, which are responsible for taking orders from doctors, hospitals, school systems and the like. Normally, doctors order vaccines directly from manufacturers. As of Monday, 62 states or localities had put in orders for a total of more than 1.7 million doses. Actual delivery will lag, however, adding to the confusion about when doctors will get their share. The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene said Friday that it expected to get only 68,800 doses by early this week.  ANEMONA HARTOCOLLIS

WASHINGTON — With unemployment expected to rise well into next year even as the economy slowly recovers, the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress are discussing extending several safety net programs as well as proposing new tax incentives for businesses to renew hiring. President Obama’s economic team discussed a wide range of ideas at a meeting on Monday, following his Saturday radio address in which he said it would “explore additional options to promote job creation.” But officials emphasized that a decision was still far off, and that the effort would not add up to a second economic stimulus package, only an extension of the first. “We’re thinking through all additional potential strategies for accelerating job creation,” said Obama’s senior adviser, David Axelrod. The latest deliberations occurred against a backdrop of worsening joblessness. While some economists and policy makers say the recession is easing, a report on Friday showed unemployment in September inched up to 9.8 percent, a 26-year high. Among the options for additional steps is some variation on Obama’s proposal during the stimulus debate to give employers a $3,000 tax credit for each new hire, which Congress rejected last winter. Another option would allow more businesses to deduct their net operating losses going back five years instead of the usual two. The search for further remedies is part of a two-track effort in the White House and Congress. Democrats are also considering plans to continue through 2010 the extra unemployment assistance and health benefits available to people who are out of work for long periods.  JACKIE CALMES

International

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

In Guinea Violence, Soldiers Prey on Women CONAKRY, Guinea — Cellphone snapshots, ugly and hard to refute, are circulating here and feeding rage: they show that women were the particular targets of the Guinean soldiers who suppressed a political demonstration at a stadium here last week, with victims and witnesses describing rapes, beatings and acts of intentional humiliation. “I can’t sleep at night, after what I saw,’’ said one middleaged woman from an established family here, who said she had been beaten and sexually molested. “And I am afraid. I saw lots of women raped, and lots of dead.” One photograph shows a naked woman lying on muddy ground, her legs up in the air, a man in military fatigues in front of her. In a second picture a soldier in a red beret is pulling the clothes off a distraught-looking woman half-lying, half-sitting on muddy ground. In a third a mostly nude woman lying on the ground is

pulling on her trousers. The cellphone pictures are circulating anonymously, but multiple witnesses corroborated the events depicted. The attacks were part of a violent outburst on Sept. 28 in which soldiers shot and killed dozens of unarmed demonstrators at the main stadium here, where perhaps 50,000 had assembled. Local human rights organizations say at least 157 were killed; the government puts the figure at 56. But even more than the shootings, the attacks on women — horrific anywhere, but viewed with particular revulsion in Muslim countries like this one — appear to have traumatized the citizenry and hardened the opposition’s determination to force out the leader of the military junta, Capt. Moussa Dadis Camara. Diplomats said the violence had irreversibly undermined Camara’s standing with other countries.

If internal opposition continues to grow, Camara may be forced either to leave power or to tighten his grip with an even more authoritarian government. Bernard Kouchner, the foreign minister of France, the former colonial power here, urged “international intervention.’’ The exact number of women who were abused is not known. Because of the shame associated with sexual violence in this West African country, victims are reluctant to speak, and local doctors refuse to do so. Victims who told of the attacks would not provide their names because they were afraid of retribution. But the witnesses were adamant. “I affirm, in categorical fashion, that women were raped, not just one woman,’’ said Mamadou Mouctar Diallo, 34, an opposition leader who said he had been severely beaten himself. “I saw many rapes.’’  ADAM NOSSITER

Search for Survivors Continues in Indonesia Towns LUBUK LAWEK, Indonesia — The arrival of heavy machinery in this tiny village on Monday allowed search teams to reach deeper into a region devastated by a series of landslides caused by the earthquake last Wednesday. But the delicate search for survivors gave way to large machines clawing away at wrecked buildings, twisted trees and mudcovered debris to find the dead. After heavy overnight rain, the Indonesian military and the police spent the day marching through thick mud, placing stakes wherever they could smell decomposing flesh. Several backhoes, provided by a local Indone-

sian business, managed to make their way to some of the most remote villages in the district of Padang Pariaman, like this one, about 50 miles from Padang, the provincial capital of West Sumatra. In the late morning, one crew here unearthed the bodies of a pregnant woman and her two young daughters. Others began digging out the bodies of about 40 people swept away as they were celebrating a wedding. The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck the western Indonesian island of Sumatra last Wednesday evening, devastating Padang, a city of 900,000, and set-

ting off landslides to its north. Emergency workers have so far focused most of their efforts on Padang, where hundreds of large buildings collapsed, trapping many people inside. The Indonesian government said it had counted more than 600 bodies, and that some 1,000 people were still missing. The death toll is certain to rise as workers penetrate the villages. An official with the Indonesian Health Ministry estimated that more than 600 people could have been buried by the landslides, raising the potential toll beyond the United Nations’ estimate of 1,100. PETER GELLING

State Forces Are Accused of Abuses in Honduras TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Rosamaria Valeriano Flores was returning home from a visit to a public health clinic and found herself in a crowd of people dispersing from a demonstration in support of the ousted president, Manuel Zelaya. As she crossed the central square of the Honduran capital, a group of soldiers and police officers pushed her to the ground and beat her with their truncheons.

She said the men kicked out most of her top teeth, broke her ribs and split open her head. “A policeman spit in my face and said, ‘You will die,’ ” she said. Valeriano, 39, was sitting in the office of a Tegucigalpa human rights group last week, speaking about the assault, which took place on Aug. 12. Since Zelaya was removed in a June 28 coup, security forces have tried to halt opposition with

beatings and mass arrests, human rights groups say. Eleven people have been killed since the coup, according to the Committee for Families of the Disappeared and Detainees in Honduras. The number of violations and their intensity has increased since Zelaya secretly returned to Honduras two weeks ago, taking refuge at the Brazilian Embassy, human rights groups say.  ELISABETH MALKIN

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in brief Pakistan Bombing ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — A suicide bomber dressed in the uniform of one of Pakistan’s security forces struck the U.N. World Food Program offices in Islamabad on Monday, killing at least five people in what the police said was a serious breach in a building tightly guarded by private security officers. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. The bombing was the first direct attack against a U.N. agency here in the Pakistani capital, and the agency immediately closed its offices in Pakistan. (NYT)

Deadly Storm in India NEW DELHI — More than 240 people have died, and hundreds of thousands have been left homeless in southern India after four days of heavy rainfall at the end of the monsoon season, the government said Monday. The sudden rains, coming after a severe drought, deluged villages and caused widespread disruption in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. Floodwaters are now thought to be receding, officials said. (NYT)

Deaths in Iraq BAGHDAD — A suicide bomber detonated himself among mourners at a funeral in western Iraq on Monday, killing 6 people and wounding 16 in Anbar Province, a region that has grown increasingly violent during the past few months. The funeral’s mourners included police officers, tribal sheiks and members of Awakening Councils, the Sunni militias that fight insurgents.  (NYT)

Failed N. Korea Deals North Korea has received the equivalent of about $2.2 billion under deals starting in 1994 aimed at persuading it to dismantle its nuclear facilities, a South Korean lawmaker said Monday, in what his office said was the first accounting of the cost of the failed strategy. North Korea abandoned its nuclear disablement process last year.  (AP)

national

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

In Debate on Health, It’s Coverage Vs. Cost WASHINGTON — As Democrats prepare to take up health care legislation on the floor of the Senate and the House, they are facing tough choices about two competing priorities. They want people to pay affordable prices for health insurance policies, but they want those policies to offer comprehensive health benefits. These goals collide in the bills moving through Congress. The different versions of the legislation would all require insurance companies to provide coverage more generous than many policies sold in the individual market today. That is good for consumers, Democrats say. But Republicans say the new requirements would mean added costs for some consumers and for the government, which would help pay premiums for millions of low- and middle-income people. That tension between keeping costs low and improving coverage is just one of many chal-

lenges facing Congress and the Obama administration as they head toward the final stages of the effort to pass health care legislation. Under the legislation, the government would not only require insurers to accept all applicants. It would also define the acceptable levels of coverage. Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the federal government had to specify coverage levels because the benefits under many existing insurance policies were inadequate. “We have more than 46 million people who are uninsured,” Bingaman said. “We also have a substantial number who are under-insured. Although they have coverage, it is so bad or so inadequate that if they really get sick, they find they cannot afford the health care they need.” But the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, Jon Kyl of Arizona, said it was “an act of hubris” for Con-

gress to prescribe the permissible coverage. The Senate Finance Committee had been scheduled to meet Tuesday to finish work on a sweeping health care bill that it put together over the last two weeks. But it postponed the session while it waits for a cost estimate from the Congressional Budget Office. Under the committee’s bill, there would be four levels of benefits — bronze, silver, gold and platinum — and all insurers would be required to offer, at a minimum, coverage in the silver and gold categories. Most employer-sponsored health plans already meet the proposed federal standards. But insurers and actuaries say that one-third to one-half of policies bought by individuals and families fall short. About 17 million people buy insurance on their own, in this individual market.  ROBERT PEAR

3 Americans Share Nobel for Work in Cell Biology The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded Monday to three American scientists who solved a problem of cell biology with deep relevance to cancer and aging. The three will receive equal shares of a prize worth around $1.4 million. The recipients solved a longstanding puzzle involving the ends of chromosomes, the giant molecules of DNA that embody the genetic information. These ends, called telomeres, get shorter each time a cell divides and so serve as a kind of clock that counts off the cell’s allotted span of life. The three winners are Elizabeth

H. Blackburn of the University of California, San Francisco; Carol W. Greider of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; and Jack W. Szostak of Massachusetts General Hospital. The discoveries were made some 20 years ago in pursuit of a purely scientific problem that seemingly had no practical relevance. But telomeres have turned out to play a role in two medical areas of vast importance, those of aging and cancer, because of their role in limiting the number of times a cell can divide. “I am thrilled that the basic science can be celebrated,” Greider said in an interview Monday.

Only eight women had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Asked how she felt about becoming No. 9, Blackburn replied, “Very excited, and hoping that nine will quickly become a larger number.” Thomas Cech, a Nobel Prize winner at the University of Colorado, said the discovery had had a broad impact on several fields of biology and medicine and had also provided a “fascinating insight” into the transition between the DNA world and the RNA world that preceded it in the origin of life. RNA is a close chemical cousin of DNA.  NICHOLAS WADE

After Failed Execution, Ohio Postpones Two Others CINCINNATI — In continuing fallout from a failed execution last month, Gov. Ted Strickland on Monday postponed two other executions to give corrections officials more time to revise lethal injection procedures. The announcement came just hours after a federal appeals court indefinitely delayed one of those executions, which had been scheduled for Thursday, because of similar concerns about proce-

dures. The state is looking into backup procedures in case the standard execution techniques fail, as they did on Sept. 15, when technicians at the state prison in Lucasville tried for over two hours to maintain an intravenous connection in order to inject Romell Broom with lethal drugs for the abduction, rape and murder of a teenage girl in 1984. A hearing to consider whether Broom can

be executed in conformity with constitutional requirements is scheduled for Nov. 30. “More research and evaluation of backup or alternative procedures is necessary before one or more can be selected,” Strickland said in his order. The state expects to have backup procedures in place in time to execute another inmate, Kenneth Biros, on Dec. 8, he said.  BOB DRIEHAUS

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in brief Cocaine Vaccine Scientists say they have developed a vaccine that can prevent cocaine addicts from getting high by blocking the drug’s effect on the brain, though it does not blunt cravings for the drug. Although the vaccine had only limited success, it created enough of an immune response in some subjects that many of them cut their drug use by half, researchers reported in a study to be published in Tuesday’s Archives of General Psychiatry. The vaccine stimulates production of antibodies that bind to cocaine and hold it in the bloodstream, preventing it from reaching the brain and other organs. The trial’s success is significant because some of the same principles are being used by other scientists in trying to create an antinicotine vaccine, which could have even broader appeal. (NYT)

Florida Gun Scare TAMPA, Fla. — The University of South Florida was locked down on Monday after someone reported a man with a gun and a bomb near the library. The police had one person in custody. No one reported shots being fired or injuries. Students were told to return to their normal routine about three hours after the lockdown began. Vincent T. McCoy, 23, a student at the university, was arrested and charged with making a false report. The Tampa Police Department’s bomb squad examined McCoy’s backpack and determined it was safe, the police said.  (AP)

High Court Refuses 2,000 Cases WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear appeals concerning the Pledge of Allegiance, the Confederate flag and license plates bearing the words “Choose Life.” In those and some 2,000 other cases that accumulated during the court’s summer break, the court let stand rulings from lower courts without comment.  (NYT)

business

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

DJIA

9,599.75

U 112.08

Dollar/YEN

NASDAQ

2,068.15

U 20.04

10-yr treasury 3.22%

89.51 D 0.12 Unch.

gold (ny) $1,017.30 U 14.50 crude oil

$70.41 D 0.46

The Hidden Costs of Prepaid Debit Cards Buying a prepaid debit card these days is just about as easy as picking up a bottle of shampoo or a candy bar. Walk into a WalMart or almost any major drug store, and rows of plastic worth $25, $100, and even $500 beckon from kiosks alongside prepaid phone cards and gift cards for retailers. “No Credit Check. Safer Than Cash. No Bank Account Needed,” says the Green Dot Visa Prepaid Card: Just pay at the register and the card is ready for A.T.M. withdrawals, store purchases and online shopping. For many people who don’t have bank accounts, or can’t get a credit card, the appeal is irresistible, making the reloadable cards among the consumer banking industry’s fastest-growing

products. But their convenience comes with a catch: fees, often hidden in the fine print. The MiCash Prepaid MasterCard docks cardholders a $9.95 activation fee. Like many competitors, it then charges numerous recurring fees, including $1.75 for each A.T.M. withdrawal, $1 for each A.T.M. balance inquiry, 50 cents for each purchase, $4 for monthly maintenance, $2 for inactivity after 60 days and $1 for a call to customer service. “It’s a very expensive way to bank,” said Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America. A cottage industry only 10 years ago, reloadable prepaid cards have tapped into the vast pool of about 80 million consumers who have little or no access to

bank accounts. Industry officials say the cards are a good deal for consumers who have been shut out of traditional banking, and that fees are starting to come down as the market grows. Because it is a relatively new industry, prepaid cards have not undergone the Congressional and regulatory scrutiny that credit and debit cards have. In the spring, lawmakers restricted interest rate increases and hidden fees on credit cards, and regulators are now examining stricter rules on overdraft fees on checking accounts. Congress has asked regulators to determine if prepaid cards warrant the same protections extended to debit and credit cards.  ANDREW MARTIN

Airlines Forge Global Ties to Expand Reach The sharp falloff in passenger traffic in the months after the 2001 terrorist attacks forced many airlines to file for bankruptcy or cut deeply into operations. When oil prices soared in recent years, carriers piled on new fees for baggage and fuel, and shut down unprofitable flights. Now airlines are thinking of ways to grow again — this time, by teaming up with global partners to expand their international reach. That is one reason a bidding war has broken out among airlines wanting to unite with troubled Japan Airlines, which is under orders from the Japanese govern-

ment to develop a survival plan. In another time, JAL might draw little interest from American players. But all are looking to find international partners, since the domestic market shows little sign of rebounding sharply, at least in the next few quarters. Wall Street, optimistic that the airlines have moved to fix their structural problems, is willing to provide new capital to pursue partnerships — not just as a growth strategy, but also in self-defense. American Airlines, which has long been in an alliance with JAL linking their flight systems, reportedly has recruited two other alliance members, Qantas and

British Airways, to help rescue the Japanese airline and fend off a competing offer from Delta. American has been waiting more than a year for federal approval of a proposed flight-sharing deal with British Airways and the Spanish airline Iberia. United and Continental struck a marketing agreement more than a year ago after their merger talks failed. “You want to be friends with as many people so they don’t crush you or try to buy you,” said Philip A. Baggaley, an airline analyst with Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services.  MICHELINE MAYNARD

A New Web Tool to Take Control of Your Health The national health care debate right now is all about giving more people affordable access to doctors and hospitals. Yet the vast majority of health care decisions are really made by individuals, instead of medical professionals, whether choices are about diet and exercise or ways of managing chronic conditions like diabetes and heart disease. The long-term answer to improving the health of the nation’s population and curbing costs, experts agree, is to help people

make smarter decisions day in and day out about their own health. And the most powerful potential tool in the march toward intelligent consumerism in health care may be the Web. That is why on Tuesday, a startup company led by Adam Bosworth, former head of the Google Health team, plans to become the newest entrant to the online consumer health business. Already, surveys show that a majority of adults in America routinely scour the Internet for

health information. But the Web is still mainly a vast trove of generalized health information. The ideal, health experts say, would be to combine personal data with health information to deliver tailored health plans for individuals. That is what Bosworth and his San Francisco-based company, Keas (pronounced KEE-ahs) Inc., mean to do. Although success is far from certain, Keas has some big partners, including Google Health and Microsoft HealthVault.  (NYT)

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nikkei

9,674.49 D 57.38

ftse 100

5,024.33 U 35.63

N.Y.S.E. Most Active Issues Vol. (100s) Last Chg. Citigrp 2808601 BkofAm 1496523 SPDR 1397020 CIT Gp 1197111 SPDR Fncl 962149 GenElec 730164 iShEMkts 702610 DirFBear rs 609871 WellsFargo 540070 LVSands 457388

4.67 16.96 104.02 1.12 14.74 15.83 38.74 21.30 28.09 17.45

Nasdaq Actives Vol. (100s)

Bid

BrcdeCm 1163972 PwShs QQQ 902974 ETrade 860217 Microsoft 596268 Intel 556551 Cisco 369537 Oracle 336983 Comcast 290438 ApldMatl 284095 Dell Inc 283422

9.09 41.21 1.72 24.64 19.10 22.94 20.39 15.34 12.76 15.15

+ + + – + + + – + +

Chg. + + + – + + + + + +

Amex Actives Vol. (100s) Last CelSci 133223 EldorGld g 48450 Hemisphrx 31087 NwGold g 24260 NovaGld g 23969 GoldStr g 22965 InovioBio 19514 NthgtM g 19228 KodiakO g 18634 Sinovac 17536 Rentech 16560

1.62 10.93 1.80 3.88 5.10 3.27 1.65 2.68 2.50 7.48 1.62

0.15 0.62 1.53 0.05 0.45 0.47 0.88 2.04 1.81 1.32

1.44 0.33 0.04 0.32 0.13 0.27 0.05 0.17 0.08 0.11

Chg. – + – + + + – + + + +

0.04 0.33 0.08 0.27 0.25 0.03 0.04 0.09 0.14 0.23 0.01

Foreign Exchange

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

Australia .8794 .8654 Bahrain 2.6528 2.6522 Brazil .5672 .5632 Britain 1.5947 1.5919 Canada .9348 .9233 China .1465 .1465 Denmark .1969 .1959 Dominican .0277 .0277 Egypt .1823 .1822 Europe 1.4661 1.4588 Hong Kong .1290 .1290 Japan .011173 .011158 Mexico .07319 .07308 Norway .1743 .1724 Singapore .7098 .7074 So. Africa .1339 .1315 So. Korea .00084 .00084 Sweden .1428 .1423 Switzerlnd .9696 .9666

1.1372 1.1556 .3770 .3770 1.7630 1.7755 .6271 .6282 1.0697 1.0830 6.8275 6.8275 5.0787 5.1046 36.05 36.15 5.4840 5.4870 .6821 .6855 7.7503 7.7505 89.51 89.63 13.663 13.683 5.7359 5.8005 1.4089 1.4136 7.4710 7.6026 1177.5 1177.5 7.0028 7.0274 1.0313 1.0345

Shake-Up at Disney The Walt Disney Co. has hired one of its star TV executives to overhaul its struggling motion picture studio. Rich Ross, president of Disney Channels Worldwide, will immediately take over the top job at Walt Disney Studios, according to people briefed on the matter but who asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the news media.  (NYT)

business

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Will Health Insurance Exchanges Work? It is the sleeper issue in the current health care debate. Despite all the disagreement in Washington, every proposal now before Congress to overhaul the nation’s health care system includes creation of an insurance “exchange” — a marketplace that would operate something like a Travelocity Web site for insurance policies. In theory, the exchange would fix a fundamental flaw in the present system by giving small businesses and individuals a broad choice of insurance policies at competitive prices. Right now, such buyers typically have few affordable options. The idea of an exchange has support from the White House and many in Congress — from people who also advocate including a government-run insurance plan in the marketplace and from those who oppose letting the government compete with commercial insurers.

But policy experts say few lawmakers have yet paid enough attention to what that new marketplace should look like — and whether it would actually work as promised. Without careful design and adequate rules of fair play, and without letting enough buyers participate to create a robust market, the exchange might not actually stimulate new competition among the nation’s health insurers. In other words: What happens if you build an exchange and insurers do not flock to it with new, well-priced wares? The risk is that many local markets could end up looking much as they do today — with small businesses and individuals at the mercy of too few insurers wielding too much power in their regions. “We may not be able to improve competition in the short run through the exchange,” said Len Nichols, a health economist

at the New America Foundation, a Washington research group that supports an overhaul of the insurance market. So far, the House proposal calls for the creation of a national exchange where someone in Iowa, for example, may have the same choice of health plans as buyers in Maine and California. Because insurance is now a state-by-state patchwork, such an approach would conceivably enhance competition by creating an interstate market. But critics worry that the result may be a few big providers of one-size-fits-all plans, still leaving many small businesses and consumers with products that do not meet their needs or budgets. Both Senate proposals, meanwhile, favor the creation of statebased exchanges, where a state may have the choice of deciding whether its residents can also buy from a national or regional exchange.  REED ABELSON

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in brief New Blogger Rules On Monday, the F.T.C. said it would revise rules about endorsements and testimonials in advertising that had been in place since 1980. The new regulations are aimed at the rapidly shifting new-media world and how advertisers are using bloggers and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to pitch their wares. The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter.  (NYT)

journal

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

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In Overcrowded Moscow, Even the Dead Can’t Find a Resting Place MOSCOW — Aleksei Orlov’s grandfather was buried in Moscow’s Danilovskoe Cemetery in 1946. His grandmother was laid to rest there four decades later. And, about 11 years ago, Orlov buried his father there. But when his mother died unexpectedly last August, he found there was no room for her in the family plot. Or almost anywhere else. Moscow, it turns out, is largely closed to the dead. Of the 71 cemeteries in the Russian capital, only one is open to new burials. The deficit has left relatives without room in family plots to choose between burial far from the city and cremation, a practice that is frowned upon by the Russian Orthodox Church.

crossword ACROSS 1 Christine’s lover in “The Phantom of the Opera” 5 Onetime science magazine 9 Philosopher with a “razor” 14 “___ Lama Ding Dong,” 1961 hit for the Edsels 15 Paper purchase 16 Best-selling author Bret Easton ___ 17 “The Lord ___ shepherd …” 18 Only common word in the English language with the consecutive letters MPG 20 Wild animal track 22 Command to a person holding a deck of cards 23 ___ lily 24 What colors may do in hot water 26 Moves back, as a hairline 28 … ADQ … 31 Carney of “The Honeymooners” 32 Catch some Z’s 33 “This tastes horrible!” 37 Really ticked 39 Circus stick

Edited By Will Shortz PUZZLE BY MATT GINSBERG

“Comin’ ___ the Rye” 43 Actress Winona 45 Captain for 40 days and nights 47 “___ approved” (motel sign) 48 … KSG … 52 “I don’t want to hear about it!” 55 Perform really badly 56 Golfer Isao 57 Escape clauses, e.g. 60 Pair of lenses 62 … ZKR … 65 Cheese sold in red paraffin 66 Cowboy star Lash, who taught Harrison Ford how to use a bullwhip 67 Boat in “Jaws” 68 Trick 69 Rub out 70 Butterfly catchers’ needs 71 German admiral Maximilian von ___ 42

DOWN of discord 2 … SPB … 3 Burned ceremonially 1 Goddess

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE T A W S J E R K M A G M A

R A I L

A R L O

I G L U

T H I C K A M E S L A T E I G H T A I S A U S T S N N O Y R O V E I R E G E S

A H E M

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“Mama was a Christian and wanted to be buried according to Christian tradition,” Orlov, a Moscow business analyst, said. “On the other hand, it wasn’t possible to bury her. New plots are either far away, expensive or both.” Much of a Muscovite’s life is spent jockeying for space. Officially, some 10.5 million people live in the capital, though unofficial estimates, which include the city’s undocumented immigrants, put the figure at millions more. On the roads, drivers become knotted in enormous traffic jams, while masses of people twist and tumble through the metro at rush hour. Housing is so sparse that feuds

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71 10/6/09 (No. 1006)

4 Walloped

but

What Evita asked good Argentina not to do for her 5 “The Lord of the Rings” baddie 28 Fur 6 Lake ___, created 29 First anti-AIDS by Hoover Dam drug 7 ID 30 Freshen, as a stamp pad 8 Bestow 34 Fettered 9 Not ’neath 10 Narrowly spaced, 35 … NKC … as the eyes 36 Romance/ suspense 11 Aware, with “in” novelist Tami 12 All-Star Danny 38 Rubble, e.g. who played for the 1980s Celtics 40 The “L” in L.A. 13 PC platform 41 Marks with graffiti released in 1982 44 Baseball 19 Mirth summary inits. 21 Necessary: Abbr. 46 The middle part 25 Pairs of 44-Down 27

Crazedly 50 One of about 100 billion in the human brain 51 Snakes 52 Expensive fur 53 Arctic or antarctic 54 “Seven Samurai” director Kurosawa 58 Tucker out 59 Zen Buddhism, e.g. 61 Right-hand man for a man with no right hand 63 Capital of Zambia? 64 Tankful 49

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.

over property deeds are common — and sometimes end in bloodshed. But, for the families of the 120,000 people who die annually in Moscow, the search for an afterlife dwelling is a singular challenge. The 18th century Danilovskoe Cemetery in southern Moscow, where Orlov’s family plot is located, is a tightly-packed jumble of headstones and monuments. The graves’ occupants stare out ghostlike from portraits engraved on headstones, a Russian custom. Small plots can be crammed with relatives — mothers, fathers, children, their spouses. Even in the prestigious Novodevichy Cemetery, the likes of Nikita Khrushchev, Anton Chekhov and the composer Dmitri Shostakovich seem to jostle with generals, actors and the relatives of czars for a slice of eternal ground to rest on. The city government here has said there is no more room for cemeteries in Moscow, and many citizens believe it is unwilling to free up valuable land that could be used for other purposes. Russian attitudes toward burial also complicate the search for cemetery space. Unlike many Americans, who tend to approach cemetery real estate as they would, say, a new condo, many Russians still believe funerary arrangements to be the government’s responsibility, as it was in Soviet-era times, and often fail to plan ahead, said Anton Avdeyev, director of the Union of Funeral Agency Workers. “Our people are not ready for a marketbased funerary industry,” he said. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the government deregulated and privatized much of the funerary business in Russia. This has led to an explosion of private funeral agencies. Funerary agents largely operate free of oversight, and can easily take advantage of grieving families desperately seeking a burial plot. “The number of agents, licensed and not, exceed the number of people who die daily in Moscow,” said Aleksandr V. Yegorov, the general director of Ritual, the quasi-governmental agency that oversees Moscow’s cemeteries “This leads above all to corruption, to commercial sale of information, which we are fighting against.”  MICHAEL SCHWIRTZ

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opinion

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

7

editorials of the timeS

BOB HERBERT

Salvaging Immigration Detention

Does Obama Get It?

The Obama administration is unveiling on Tuesday an ambitious plan to repair the immigration detention system, a scandalplagued mix of federal, state and local lockups that grew vastly and rotted under the enforcement crusade led by former President George W. Bush. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and John Morton, the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or I.C.E., deserve credit for proposing to clean up a system notorious for shabby and abusive conditions, poor or nonexistent medical treatment and a trail of preventable injuries and deaths. The reforms, if they work and are maintained, would be a necessary corrective to years of willful neglect. Napolitano and Morton say that they want to make the system more efficient, more accountable and less costly. The whole point of detaining immigrants, after all, is to quickly figure out which ones should be deported and to deport them, not to let them languish and certainly not to inflict punishment or undue suffering. But immigration detention has strayed far from that basic mission. Today’s announcement includes statements of “core principles” so fundamental that you have to wonder what they are replacing. Consider these: • “I.C.E. will detain aliens in settings commensurate with the risk of flight and danger they present.” That means the government has finally come to understand that detainees are not all violent criminals. They include young

mothers and their children, asylum seekers, upright members of communities who, but for a lapsed visa or bureaucratic snafu, would not be in trouble with the law. Those who can make no case for staying here should be deported. But it’s gratifying to hear Napolitano and Morton acknowledge that nonviolent noncriminals should not be warehoused behind bars. • “I.C.E. will provide sound medical care.” This fundamental government responsibility has been shamefully neglected in centers around the country. The reform plan refers vaguely to a new “medical classification system” for detainees that should improve treatment and reduce unnecessary and disruptive medical transfers. Perhaps the most important principle behind these reforms is the reassertion of central control over the sprawling, subcontracted system. The new plan asserts that central control is not only smarter and more efficient but also cheaper. “Each of these reforms,” the agency says, “are expected to be budgetneutral or result in cost savings through reduced reliance on contractors to perform key federal duties.” Immigration detention is a prime example of things going bad when the government subcontracts a vital mission to poorly supervised outsiders. The Obama administration, like its predecessor, is under ferocious political pressure to be seen as tough on people who have been unfairly depicted as a fundamentally criminal, dangerous crowd. It is pushing back with an effort to be sane and proportionate.

Animal Cruelty and Free Speech The First Amendment protects even disturbing speech, a point the Supreme Court should keep in mind on Tuesday when it hears arguments in the case of a man convicted of selling videos of dogfighting and other animal cruelty. A federal appeals court reversed his conviction, ruling that the federal law under which he was prosecuted is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court should uphold that wellreasoned decision. Robert Stevens, who ran a business called “Dogs of Velvet and Steel,” sold videos of pit bulls engaging in dogfights and attacking other animals. He did not participate in the attacks personally, but he was charged under a federal law that makes it illegal to sell depictions of acts of animal cruelty that are themselves illegal in the state where the depiction is sold. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, based in Philadelphia, reversed Stevens’s conviction. The Supreme Court has created narrow exceptions to the First Amendment for a few kinds of speech, including obscenity and, more recently, child pornography. The appeals court rightly declined to create another category for depictions of

animal cruelty. This is not the only deeply offensive speech protected by the Constitution. Nazis are allowed to march, and racists are allowed to spew racism. If legislatures have the power to disapprove certain categories of unpopular speech, a lot of expression could become illegal. The government seems to think it is enough that the harm caused by the animalcruelty depictions outweighs their social value, but the First Amendment does not say that Congress can restrict speech if it fails a balancing test. It is also extraordinarily difficult to carve out free-speech exceptions. Animal cruelty is often depicted in videos and on Web sites that seek to call attention to the problem of animal abuse. The law makes an exception for certain depictions that have serious political, journalistic or other value, but there is no clear way to sort through all of the covered expression to determine who should be held criminally liable and who should not. All 50 states have laws against animal abuse. The best way to fight animal cruelty is to enforce these laws more vigorously and to increase the penalties.

The big question on the domestic front right now is whether President Obama understands the gravity of the employment crisis facing the country. Does he get it? The signals coming out of the White House have not been encouraging. The Beltway crowd and the Einsteins of high finance who never saw this economic collapse coming are now telling us with their usual breezy arrogance that the Great Recession is probably over. Their focus, of course, is on data, abstractions like the gross domestic product, not the continued suffering of living, breathing human beings struggling with the nightmare of joblessness. Even Obama, in an interview with The Times, gave short shrift to the idea of an additional economic stimulus package, telling John Harwood a few weeks ago that the economy had likely turned a corner. “As you know,” the president said, “jobs tend to be a lagging indicator; they come last.” The view of most American families is somewhat less blasé. Faced with the relentless monthly costs of housing, transportation, food, clothing, education and so forth, they have precious little time to wait for this lagging indicator to come creeping across the finish line. Americans need jobs now, and if the economy on its own is incapable of putting people back to work — which appears to be the case — then the government needs to step in with aggressive job-creation efforts. We’re running on a treadmill that is carrying us backward. Something approaching 10 million new jobs would have to be created just to get back to where we were when the recession began in December 2007. There is nothing currently in the works to jump-start job creation on that scale. We seem to be waiting for some mythical rebound to come rolling in, magically equipped with robust jobs creation, a long-term bull market and paradise regained for consumers. It ain’t happening. While the data mavens were talking about green shoots in September, employers in the real world were letting another 263,000 of their workers go, bringing the jobless rate to 9.8 percent, the highest in more than a quarter of a century. The number of people officially unemployed, including those who dropped out of the labor market — 15.1 million — is, as The Wall Street Journal noted, greater than the population of 46 of the 50 states. The Obama administration seems hamstrung by the unemployment crisis. No big ideas have emerged. No dramatically creative initiatives. If that does not change, these staggering levels of joblessness have the potential to cripple not just the well-being of millions of American families, but any real prospects for sustained economic recovery and the political prospects of the president as well. An unemployed electorate is an unhappy electorate.

sports

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

in brief

Torre’s Steady Hand Points Way to Playoffs LOS ANGELES — Adjacent to a clubhouse where Bob Marley’s “Redemption Song’’ pulsated and grown men in ski goggles, swim goggles and scuba masks drank and doused one another with beer and Champagne, a more serene acknowledgment of the Dodgers’ National League West division championship took place. Inside Manager Joe Torre’s office the host poured Champagne into glass flutes that had been passed around the crowded room. They celebrated with a toast and firm embraces. It was the celebration of someone who had been there before, which, of course, Torre had, many times. After taking the Yankees to the playoffs in each of his 12 seasons as their manager, he has led the Dodgers to the postseason in his two years in Los Angeles. The 14 consecutive playoff ap-

pearances equal the record set by Atlanta Manager Bobby Cox. Just as impressive is that only 2 of those 14 Torre clubs made it to the postseason as a wild-card team. For Torre, there was a connoisseur’s appreciation of a six-month grind and a grueling final week in which the Dodgers, who were assured of a playoff berth, needed seven days to win the game that clinched the division title. If Torre’s work was ultimately taken for granted in New York, or diminished because he did not win a World Series in his final seven seasons, that has not yet happened in Los Angeles, where the team’s $100 million payroll to start the season was baseball’s ninth highest, or less than half of the Yankees’. The Dodgers led the division from April 15, but they had to make do with a suspended, then

diminished, Manny Ramirez; endured three injuries to their opening-day starter, Hiroki Kuroda; coped with an inconsistent offense; and had to repel late-season charges by the San Francisco Giants and the Colorado Rockies. “They’re the familiar fingerprints of being very, very steady,’’ Frank McCourt, the Dodgers’ owner, said of Torre’s influence. “Joe provides a certain leveling ingredient that prevents the team from getting too carried away in one direction or the other.’’ If the Dodgers do their part, then end up beating the Yankees, it is easy to picture a reprise of the scene from Saturday night. Not the celebration in the manager’s office, but the one next door, where the soundtrack — to Torre’s ears — would be a redemption song, indeed.  BILLY WITZ

N.B.A. Players Make Their Way Back to College As the N.B.A. opens its preseason, about 45 players — 10 percent of the league — had traded gym bags for backpacks in the off-season. The N.B.A. union began tracking the classroom migration this year. Debbie Rothstein Murman, the director for career development for the union, said the number was much higher than in the past, although she does not have earlier numbers. For elite athletes, who command seven-figure salaries, returning to college is both an investment and a hedge against what can be an uncertain future. Chris Paul of the New Or-

leans Hornets resumed classes at Wake Forest, and Westbrook’s teammate Kevin Durant continued working toward his degree at Texas. A league rule change in 2006 mandates that players be at least one year removed from high school and at least 19 years old to be drafted. For many players, that meant attending at least one year of college. The rule stopped the influx of players who entered the league directly from high school. But it might have had an inadvertent consequence: some are attempting to finish what they started.

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 62/ 54 1.58 66/ 55 C 76/ 65 T Albuquerque 79/ 57 0 73/ 50 PC 70/ 52 C Boise 45/ 39 0.17 58/ 37 S 62/ 40 S Boston 66/ 55 0 66/ 51 S 65/ 52 Sh Buffalo 57/ 46 0.08 60/ 43 PC 56/ 51 Sh Charlotte 61/ 55 0.54 67/ 54 C 79/ 60 PC Chicago 62/ 43 0 63/ 46 R 62/ 46 S Cleveland 63/ 43 0 69/ 45 PC 57/ 53 C Dallas-Ft. Worth 69/ 57 0 80/ 69 T 74/ 61 C Denver 59/ 42 0 59/ 36 S 74/ 34 S Detroit 59/ 45 0 65/ 49 Sh 60/ 50 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

83/ 71 69/ 46 70/ 57 91/ 81 52/ 39 67/ 53 88/ 72 67/ 50 79/ 66 49/ 36 69/ 48 64/ 44 69/ 45 70/ 54

0.52 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.13 0 0 0 0

“I had classes with regular students and went to study hall and caught the school bus to the gym,” Durant said. “It was everything I did when I was there before.” The average annual salary in the N.B.A. is $5.85 million, and players are generally secure in the near term. Their retirement years can be completely different. An estimated 60 percent of N.B.A. players are broke within five years of retiring, according to a report by Sports Illustrated in March. Professional sports leagues and unions have emphasized education as one way of helping athletes prepare.  JONATHAN ABRAMS 93/ 76 PC 63/ 59 PC 73/ 57 S 92/ 79 PC 49/ 43 R 70/ 52 S 88/ 74 PC 70/ 48 S 86/ 61 S 56/ 34 S 71/ 49 S 65/ 43 PC 68/ 54 Sh 72/ 52 PC

87/ 75 PC 70/ 38 S 73/ 59 S 91/ 78 PC 60/ 40 PC 70/ 57 Sh 92/ 75 PC 68/ 55 Sh 84/ 69 S 60/ 37 S 71/ 51 S 61/ 47 S 70/ 44 S 74/ 60 PC

FOREIGN CITIES Acapulco Athens Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo

Yesterday Today Tomorrow 94/ 79 0 88/ 77 T 86/ 77 T 79/ 59 0 81/ 63 S 81/ 63 S 79/ 46 0 66/ 52 S 54/ 46 PC 59/ 45 0 64/ 48 PC 72/ 63 C 77/ 63 0.28 61/ 50 PC 57/ 43 S 90/ 68 0 86/ 73 S 86/ 72 S

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

8

Manning Injured Eli Manning was found to have plantar fasciitis in his right foot on Monday, which means he will probably be able to continue playing, but it is going to be painful. Manning sustained the injury during the Giants’ 27-16 victory Sunday at Kansas City. He arrived at Giants Stadium on Monday wearing no protective boot or using crutches and said he was not worried about it as he headed for a magnetic resonance imaging test. That test revealed the extent of the inflammation in his foot.  (NYT)

Rangers Over Devils The Rangers came out flat in the opening minute against the New Jersey Devils, and Coach John Tortorella had seen more than enough. He burned his lone timeout 1:24 in and chewed out his club. The message got through, and New York gutted out a 3-2 victory on Monday night. (AP)

Vikings Top Packers A Minnesota Vikings defense that had 8 sacks, helped Brett Farve beat his old team the Green Bay Packers on Monday night, 30-23, in Minnesota. Favre threw for 271 yards and three touchdowns.  (NYT)

NFL scores SUNDAY’S LATE GAME Pittsburgh 38, San Diego 28 MONDAY Minnesota 30, Green Bay 23 68/ 59 60/ 41 72/ 43 90/ 79 89/ 75 67/ 61 58/ 54 84/ 52 78/ 57 59/ 52 55/ 48 91/ 79 69/ 55 62/ 48 80/ 72 77/ 61 66/ 41 50/ 36 67/ 55 70/ 66 63/ 46 60/ 43 57/ 46

0 Tr 0 0 1.02 Tr 0 0 0 0.03 0.03 0.16 0.01 0.02 0 0 0 0 0.08 Tr 0.04 0 0.04

70/ 54 S 63/ 45 R 73/ 63 C 82/ 75 PC 90/ 81 T 70/ 61 C 72/ 55 C 79/ 64 PC 81/ 56 PC 59/ 45 C 43/ 39 PC 93/ 81 PC 77/ 63 PC 66/ 50 C 95/ 61 PC 75/ 59 S 73/ 45 C 55/ 36 PC 66/ 56 R 70/ 64 R 61/ 46 PC 64/ 46 PC 57/ 43 PC

64/ 50 R 55/ 43 PC 81/ 66 C 86/ 73 PC 90/ 79 S 70/ 62 C 66/ 52 R 73/ 63 Sh 82/ 56 Sh 59/ 46 R 46/ 36 C 93/ 81 S 77/ 64 T 73/ 56 PC 95/ 66 PC 77/ 59 S 75/ 45 C 61/ 43 Sh 63/ 50 R 72/ 64 R 57/ 46 C 64/ 48 PC 64/ 48 C

sports journal

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

Drugs and the Derby Favorite Are Exposed Five months after the Kentucky Derby favorite I Want Revenge was scratched the morning of the race with a bad ankle, his owners are embroiled in a lawsuit that has exposed the fault lines of administering legal drugs to America’s thoroughbreds. IEAH Stables, which bought 50 percent of the horse in March, asserts that I Want Revenge was ailing as early as April 7 and that the co-owner David Lanzman, who managed the colt’s racing activities, failed to disclose the injuries to IEAH. Lawyers for Lanzman deny the charge and say an injury to a ligament in I Want Revenge’s right front ankle was discovered for the first time on the day of the Derby. On two occasions, veterinarians have testified, I Want Revenge’s ankle was injected with what amounted to new transmission fluid. The second time was just four days before the Derby and was done at the request of his trainer, Jeff Mullins. Regardless of the outcome of the dispute, the treatments are a striking example of how the use, and overuse, of legal medications have placed America’s thoroughbred population at ever greater risk of injury, and, in some cases, catastrophic breakdown.

There is a growing concern within the veterinary community that overmedication — with drugs like corticosteroids, antiinflammatories that can have dangerous consequences — and lax oversight are part of the reason the United States has the world’s worst mortality rate for thoroughbreds. In the weeks that I Want Revenge was being injected, The New York Times asked the owner or trainer of every horse running in the Kentucky Derby to share their veterinary records. Only 3 of the 20 produced the records. Mullins declined to provide the records. But according to veterinarian bills and the sworn depositions of Dr. Foster Northrop and Dr. Larry Bramlage. I Want Revenge was being treated with antibiotics, synthetic joint fluid and corticosteroids. While many in the industry have called for more transparency with the public and greater communication among veterinarians, trainers and owners, the testimony in the depositions shows that the good intentions have not always been followed by action. Northrop, who declined to comment, is the vice chairman of the American Association of Equine Practitioners’ Racing Commit-

tee, a group that has advocated taking the mystery out of what comes out of its members’ black bags. Still, when IEAH’s lawyer, Andre Regard, asked, “What do you think about the fact that one of the advertised issues of the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission is greater transparency and disclosure?” “I’m all for it,” he answered. Northrop also testified that he had not spoken with Lanzman or Michael Iavarone of IEAH before the morning of the Derby when I Want Revenge was scratched. Regard asked him who he believed was his client — the owner or the trainer. “The trainer,” he said. “Do you bill the trainer?” Regard asked. “No,” Northrop said. “Bill the owners. The trainer is the agent of the owners is my understanding of it, but with that said, I welcome all owners to communicate directly with me.” I Want Revenge, meanwhile, is convalescing at a farm outside Louisville, Ky. It is doubtful that he will ever return to the racetrack. This lawsuit, rather than a Derby victory, may end up being his greatest legacy.  JOE DRAPE

After Defeat, Jets Focus on Looking Ahead FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — On the plane ride back from New Orleans, the Jets mostly stewed in silence. But for those who remembered the collapse last season, when the team lost four of its final five games, this defeat, and the Jets’ reaction to it, felt different. “Last year when we lost, the expectations seemed so high,” cornerback Dwight Lowery said. “I mean, expectations are always high. But last year, everybody walked around on eggshells, really unsure how to react.” Perhaps no one exhibited the changed mentality better than the man who changed it. During the flight, Coach Rex Ryan sat briefly next to Mark Sanchez, the rookie quarterback, hours after he posted the franchise’s worst passer rating (27.0) in nearly three years. Can’t get much worse, kid, Ryan reminded him as they shared a laugh. The Jets’ first loss of the sea-

son, 24-10 to the Saints, served to highlight the difference between this team and the one that stumbled the year before. Because as poorly as Sanchez played Sunday, the Jets (3-1) believe they have established an identity. Players also believe that that identity, built on Ryan’s tough, attacking, boastful brand of football, will better prepare them to rebound after losses. “We’re not going to change who we are,” Lowery said. “That’s huge, to be able to say, this is who we are, this is how we play, this is what we do. The mood is different. The personality is different. Our expectations haven’t changed at all.” Whether that theory translates losses into victories — after all, the Jets were 8-3 last season — will be proved or dismissed over the next three months. But after their first four games under Ryan, the Jets stand tied with New Eng-

land for first place in the American Football Conference East and have already beaten the Patriots. The Jets have weathered what at the season’s outset appeared to be one of the most difficult parts of their schedule. Their next four games — at Miami, Buffalo, at Oakland, Miami — come against teams with losing records. And Ryan, nicknamed the Mad Scientist by his former charges in Baltimore, gains use of another key element with linebacker Calvin Pace returning from a suspension. “I wasn’t going to kiss him on the lips, but I thought about it,” Ryan quipped. No one at Jets headquarters seemed concerned about Sanchez. Instead, teammates said he impressed them with the instant recognition of his mistakes, and with the way he stepped in front of reporters and placed the blame squarely on his shoulders. (NYT)

9

n.h.l. standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic

W L OT Pts GF GA

Phila. Pittsburgh Rangers Islanders Devils

2 2 2 0 0

Northeast

W L OT Pts GF GA

Montreal Boston Buffalo Toronto Ottawa

2 1 0 0 0

Southeast

W L OT Pts GF GA

Wash. Atlanta Florida Tampa Carolina

2 1 1 0 0

0 0 1 0 2 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 2

0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0

4 7 4 7 4 10 1 3 0 4 4 2 1 1 0

2 5 7 4 8

6 4 8 6 1 2 7 10 2 5

4 10 2 6 2 4 0 3 0 2

5 3 7 6 9

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central

W L OT Pts GF GA

St. Louis Chicago Columbus Nashville Detroit

2 1 1 1 0

Northwest

W L OT Pts GF GA

Calgary Colorado Edmonton Minnesota Vancou.

2 2 0 0 0

Pacific

W L OT Pts GF GA

Phoenix San Jose Dallas Anaheim L.A.

1 1 0 0 0

0 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 1 2 0 1 0 1 1

0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0

4 3 2 2 0 4 4 0 0 0 2 2 1 0 0

9 7 2 3 6 9 8 3 1 3 6 6 2 1 3

6 4 1 2 9 6 2 4 2 8 3 6 3 4 6

Trial in Slaying A judge has ruled that the man accused of killing a legendary Iowa high school coach is mentally competent to stand trial. Judge Stephen Carroll of Butler County District Court filed an order that said the man, Mark D. Becker, 24, could appreciate the charges against him, understand the proceedings and assist with his defense. Becker is accused in the June shooting death of AplingtonParkersburg Coach Ed Thomas. Experts agreed that Becker hallucinates and suffers from paranoid schizophrenia, but offered different opinions on whether he was mentally fit to stand trial.  (AP)

Tebow Isn’t Cleared Florida Coach Urban Meyer said quarterback Tim Tebow had not been cleared to practice or to play against L.S.U.  (AP)