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Wednesday September 16, 2009 Midnight in New York

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Nine pages © 2009 The New York Times

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Legal Battle Over a Cache of U.S. Gold Roy Langbord had guessed that someone in his family might have hidden away a great treasure decades before, but not until his mother had him check a longneglected safe-deposit box did he realize just how great it was. Inside the box, opened in 2003, he discovered an incredibly rare coin, wrapped in a paper sleeve. It was a gold $20 piece with Lady Liberty on one side, a bald eagle flying across the other and, at Liberty’s left, the four digits that made it so valuable: 1933. The famous “double eagles” from that year were never officially released by the government. Only a few had ever made their way out of federal vaults, and only one had ever been sold publicly, in 2002. The price: $7.6 million. And there were nine more of them in the safe-deposit box. But after the Langbord family took the coins to the U.S. Mint to be authenticated in 2004, they got a rude surprise. The Mint said the coins were genuine and kept them. The government claims that they are government property stolen from the Mint, most

likely in the 1930s, by Langbord’s grandfather, Israel Switt, a Philadelphia jewelry dealer. The Langbords went to court and recently won an important ruling. A U.S. District Court judge has given the government until the end of the month either to give back the coins or go back to court to prove that they were in fact stolen by Switt. Nearly a half-million 1933 double eagles were minted before President Roosevelt, shifting the nation away from the gold standard, issued an order that made owning large amounts of gold bullion and coins illegal. Two of the coins went to the Smithsonian Institution, and almost all the rest were melted down. Some, however, escaped that fate, including the coin sold in 2002, which had made its way into the collection of King Farouk of Egypt and later the hands of a British dealer. The government had seized that coin, too, and arrested the dealer, Stephen Fenton. But Fenton’s lawyer, Barry H. Berke, reached a settlement that allowed that single coin to be issued officially and sold at auc-

tion, with the government taking half of the proceeds. Langbord, an entertainment industry executive, said he first learned about his family’s involvement with the storied coins in 2002 when he read an account of the Farouk coin’s odyssey. He was stunned, he said, to see that the dealer who first procured the coin was his grandfather. Langbord said he called his mother, Joan Langbord, and asked, “Do we have any more of these?” About a year later, the search turned up the safe-deposit box. The Secret Service has argued that all of the double eagles that escaped government control passed through the hands of Switt, working with a corrupt cashier at the Mint. The Langbords insist that Switt, who died in 1990, acquired the coins legitimately before the ban, most likely through a goldfor-gold exchange process used by the Mint in those days. “Nobody can prove conclusively what happened,” said Armen Vartian, the general counsel of the Professional Numismatists Guild. JOHN SCHWARTZ

U.N. Fact-Finders See War Crimes in Gaza UNITED NATIONS — A U.N. fact-finding mission investigating the three-week war in Gaza last winter issued a highly critical report on Tuesday detailing what it called extensive evidence that both Israel and Palestinian militant groups took actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity. While the 575-page report condemned rocket attacks by Palestinian armed groups against Israeli civilians, it reserved its harshest language for Israel’s treatment of the civilian Palestinian population, both during the war and through the longer-term blockade of the territory. The report called Israel’s military assault on Gaza “a deliberately disproportionate attack designed to punish, humiliate and terrorize a civilian population, radically diminish its local

economic capacity both to work and to provide for itself, and to force upon it an ever increasing sense of dependency and vulnerability.” The mission was led by Richard Goldstone, a South African judge and once the lead war crimes prosecutor for Yugoslavia and Rwanda. It did not attempt an exhaustive look at the war, instead focusing on 36 cases that it said constituted a representative sample. In 11 of these episodes, it said the Israeli military carried out direct attacks against civilians, including some in which civilians were shot “while they were trying to leave their homes to walk to a safer place, waving white flags.” The report cited other possible crimes by the Israelis, including “wantonly” destroying food production, water and sewerage

facilities; striking areas, in an effort to kill a small number of combatants, where significant numbers of civilians were gathered; using Palestinians as human shields; and detaining men, women and children in sand pits. It also called Israel’s use of weapons like white phosphorus “systematically reckless,” and called for banning it in urban areas. On the Palestinian side, the report said that firing rockets that either deliberately were aimed at Israeli civilians or were so inaccurate as to risk hitting civilians caused widespread trauma and constituted a war crime. It also singled out Palestinian actions within Gaza, including killings and other abuse of members of the rival Fatah political movement as a “serious violation of human rights.” NEIL MacFARQUHAR

officer suggests need to enlarge u.s. afghan force WASHINGTON — The nation’s top military officer pushed back Tuesday against Democrats who oppose sending additional combat troops to Afghanistan, telling Congress that success would probably require more fighting forces, and certainly much more time. That assessment by the officer, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, stopped short of an explicit request for more troops. But it signals that the military intends to have a public voice in the debate as many Democrats express reluctance to expand the war. Mullen, called before the Senate Armed Services Committee to testify for his nomination to serve a second term as chairman, said that no specific request for more troops had yet been received from Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal, the senior U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan. “But I do believe that — having heard his views and having great confidence in his leadership — a properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces, and, without question, more time and more commitment to the protection of the Afghan people and to the development of good governance,” Mullen said. Mullen’s comments were his most specific to date in a public setting on whether more troops would have to be sent to Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates previously expressed apprehension over a force so sizable that Afghans would view the Americans as occupiers. Now, his spokesman said, the defense secretary was taking to heart McChrystal’s “explanation that it’s not so much the size of the force, but the behavior of the force that determines whether or not it is accepted by the Afghan people.” THOM SHANKER

International

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

in brief

Indian Women Find New Peace in Commute PALWAL, India — As the morning commuter train rattled down the track, Chinu Sharma, an office worker, enjoyed the absence of men. Some of them pinch and grope women on trains, or shout insults and catcalls, she said. Her friend Vandana Rohile, 27, said: “Sometimes they just stare at you.” Up and down the jostling train, women repeated the same theme: As millions of women have poured into the work force, they have met with obstacles in a tradition-bound culture, but few are more annoying than the basic task of getting to work. The problems of taunting and harassment, known as eve teasing, are so persistent that the government has decided to remove men altogether. Eight new commuter trains exclusively for women have been introduced in the largest cities, New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Calcutta. The trains are known as Ladies

Specials, and on one recent roundtrip in which a male reporter got permission to board, the ladies commuting between the industrial town of Palwal and New Delhi were very pleased. “It’s so nice here,” said a teacher, Kiran Khas, who has commuted by train for 17 years. Khas said the regular trains were thronged with vegetable sellers, pickpockets, beggars and lots of men. “Here on this train,” she said, “you can board anywhere and sit freely.” Mumbai started operating two women-only trains in 1992, yet the program was never expanded. Then, with complaints rising from female passengers, Mamata Banerjee, the new female minister of railways, announced the eight new Ladies Specials. “It speaks of their coming of age and assertiveness,” said Mukesh Nigam, a high-ranking railway official. Many men are not thrilled. Sev-

eral female passengers said eve teasing was worse here in northern India than elsewhere in the country. As the Ladies Special idled on Track 7 at the station in Palwal, a few men glared from the platform. The Ladies Special was far less crowded, with clean, padded benches and electric fans, compared with the dirty, darkened train on Track 6 filled with sullen men. Vandals sometimes write profanities on the Ladies Special, or worse. The eight new trains represent a tiny fraction of the nation’s commuter trains. Only one Ladies Special serves New Delhi, though the Railway Ministry has announced future Ladies Special service. Dr. Ranjari Kumari, director of the Center for Social Research, said the service was an astute move, if not a long-term solution. “You really need to make every train as safe as the Ladies Specials,” he said.  JIM YARDLEY

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Afghan Recount One out of every seven ballots in last month’s Afghan presidential elections — and possibly many more — will be examined as part of a huge recount and fraud audit that may force the incumbent, Hamid Karzai, into a runoff, Afghan election officials said Tuesday.  (NYT)

Journalist Freed Hours after his release from prison, the Iraqi journalist who hurled his shoes at former President George W. Bush said Tuesday that he had been tortured while in jail. At a news conference, the journalist, Muntader al-Zaidi, said that he was beaten with pipes and steel cables, and that he received electric shocks. Later, his brother Uday said that Zaidi flew to Greece, where he would receive medical care.  (NYT)

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national

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Regulator Is Caught in the Cancer Crossfire Politicians and researchers have predicted for nearly four decades that a cure for cancer is near, but cancer death rates have hardly budged and most new cancer drugs cost a fortune while giving patients few, if any, added weeks of life. For this failure, Dr. Richard Pazdur, the man atop the regulatory agency for new cancer drugs, increasingly gets the blame. Patient advocates have called Pazdur, director of the Food and Drug Administration’s cancer drug office, a murderer; conservative pundits have vilified him as an obstructionist, and guards are posted at the agency’s advisory meetings to protect him. “The industry is not producing that many good drugs, so now they’re looking for scapegoats in Rick Pazdur and the F.D.A.,” said Ira S. Loss, a pharmaceutical industry analyst. In 10 years at the F.D.A., Pazdur, 57, has helped to loosen ap-

proval standards for medicines and made it easier for dying patients to get experimental drugs. But he demands that drug makers prove with near certainty that their products are beneficial, a requirement that he repeated at a hearing on Sept. 1 in the slow, loud tones of someone disciplining a dog. After he spoke, the committee of experts voted to reject two drugs. “Patients are right to be angry and frustrated with Richard Pazdur,” said Steven Walker, cofounder of the Abigail Alliance, a patient advocacy group. “He is a dinosaur.” But neither the controversies swirling about him nor his years as an oncologist treating terminal patients have dented Pazdur’s naturally sunny disposition. He likens his tenure at the F.D.A. to that of a Catholic priest from the 1960s who had to translate the Latin liturgy into plain language. “You can’t win in this job,” Paz-

dur said. “If you approve a drug, they accuse you of lowering standards. And if you don’t approve it, you’re the worst thing since the Nazi death camps and should be killed.” No cancer medicines can be sold to or even tested on people without the imprimatur of Pazdur and his staff of about 150 oncologists, toxicologists and other specialists. But pressure from advocacy groups and cancer researchers frustrated with failure have led the agency to abandon many of the usual approval requirements. Federal law requires that the agency demand two “well controlled” trials before approving a drug; in cancer, the F.D.A. is often satisfied with just one. With many experimental drugs, the agency demands trials with thousands of patients, while for cancer, it has accepted studies with a few dozen. GARDINER HARRIS

A Pimp-Prostitute Video Is the Undoing of Acorn WASHINGTON — During the presidential race, the Obama campaign’s opponents sought to tar it with allegations of voter fraud and other transgressions by the national community organizing group Acorn, which had done some work for the campaign. But it took amateur actors, posing as a prostitute and pimp and recorded on hidden cameras in visits to Acorn offices, to send government officials scrambling in recent days to sever ties with the organization. Conservative advocates and broadcasters were gleeful about the success of the tactics in exposing Acorn workers, who appeared

to blithely encourage prostitution and tax evasion. In response to the Acorn videos, the Senate voted 83 to 7 on Monday to prohibit the Department of Housing and Urban Development from giving federal housing money to the organization. The undercover videos showed a young woman, Hannah Giles, posing as a prostitute, while a young man, James O’Keefe, played her pimp. They visited Acorn offices in Baltimore, Washington, Brooklyn and San Bernardino, Calif., describing their business and asking the advice of Acorn workers, including questions about how to buy a house to

use as a brothel serviced by Salvadoran girls. O’Keefe, 25, was dressed so outlandishly that he might have been playing in a high school play. But Acorn employees eagerly counseled the couple on how to hide their activities, avoid taxes and make the scheme work. At the Baltimore office, a helpful worker suggested describing the prostitute on a loan application as a “freelance performing artist” and said she and the pimp might want to claim some of the young Salvadoran prostitutes as dependents and collect the child tax credit for them.  (NYT)

House Rebukes Wilson for Shouting ‘You Lie’ WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Wilson was formally rebuked by the House on Tuesday for his outburst during President Obama’s health care address. In a mainly party line vote of 240 to 179, the House held that by shouting “You lie” during the president’s speech, Wilson, a South Carolina Republican committed a “breach of decorum and degraded the proceedings of the joint session, to the discredit of

the House.” The resolution was the latest — and many lawmakers hoped final — development in an episode that generated significant public attention after Wilson’s surprising act. It attracted millions of dollars in political contributions to both parties and made Wilson a hero to some and an embarrassment and symbol of Republican disrespect to the president to others.

Seven Republicans joined 233 Democrats in approving the resolution; 12 Democrats joined Wilson and 166 other Republicans in opposing it. Wilson briefly argued his own case Tuesday and defiantly refused to offer the apology demanded by House Democrats, saying Obama had already accepted his regrets and that should have ended the matter. CARL HULSE

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in brief Medical Donation The government of Abu Dhabi is giving $150 million to the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, with the aim of developing tools and processes to reduce the pain children experience before, during and after surgery. The hospital will establish the Sheikh Zayed Institute for Pediatric Surgical Innovation.  (NYT)

Fund-Raiser Dead The death of Christopher Kelly, once a top fund-raiser for Rod R. Blagojevich, was an apparent suicide, the police chief in Country Club Hills, Ill., a Chicago suburb, said on Tuesday. Kelly, a 51-year-old roofing contractor, was charged along with Blagojevich and others this year in a federal corruption indictment. He had pleaded not guilty, but had been due later this week to begin serving a prison sentence in a separate conviction on fraud and tax charges. On Friday, he was found in his SUV in the parking lot of a hardware store, and died Saturday at a local hospital.  (NYT)

Manhattan Election Cyrus R. Vance Jr., the handpicked successor to Robert M. Morgenthau, 90, won the Democratic primary for Manhattan district attorney, all but ensuring that he will become the fourth person to run that office since 1941. (NYT)

Student Stabbed A dispute between two teenage boys at a South Florida high school Tuesday left one dead from a knife wound and the other in police custody. Coral Gables High School was locked down and students were forced to remain in classrooms after the stabbing.  (NYT)

Renewable Energy Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed an order Tuesday requiring that California draw 33 percent of its electricity from renewable sources like solar and wind power by 2020.  (NYT)

business

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

DJIA

9,683.41

U 56.61

Dollar/YEN

NASDAQ

2,102.64

U 10.86

10-yr treasury 3.45% U 0.03

91.10 U 0.20

gold (ny) $1,007.55 U 7.35 crude oil

$70.93 U 2.07

Fight Looming on Tax Break to Buy Houses DALLAS — When Congress passed an $8,000 tax credit for first-time homebuyers last winter, it was intended as a dose of shock therapy during a crisis. Now the question is becoming whether the housing market can function without it. As many as 40 percent of all homebuyers this year will qualify for the credit. It is on track to cost taxpayers $15 billion, more than twice the amount that was projected when Congress passed the stimulus bill in February. In the view of the real estate industry and some economists, all that money is well spent. They contend the credit is doing what it was meant to do, encouraging a recovery in the housing market. Analysts say the credit is directly responsible for several hundred

thousand home sales. Skeptics argue that most of the money is going to people who would have bought a home anyway. And they contend that unless it is allowed to expire on schedule in late November, the tax credit is likely to become one more expensive government program that refuses to die. The real estate industry, including the powerful 1.1 millionmember National Association of Realtors, wants Congress to extend the credit at least through next summer. The group hopes to expand the program to $15,000 and to allow all buyers to qualify. The price tag on that plan: $50 billion to $100 billion. Joseph and Chassity Myers are among the two million buyers eligible for the credit this year. The

newlyweds heard they could get money from the government for something they were tempted to do anyway. “It was a no-brainer,” said Mr. Myers, a commercial underwriter. The couple bought a two-bedroom condominium here in the spring for $171,000 and amended their 2008 taxes immediately, receiving their windfall by direct deposit a few weeks later. Their home is a monument to the government’s generosity. They bought a couch, a kitchen table, a bed, a television stand, a china cabinet, a kitchen table, a coffee table, a grill and a patio set. “We did exactly what the government wanted us to do,” said Ms. Myers, a third grade teacher. “We stimulated the economy.”  DAVID STREITFELD

Bernanke Says Growth Is Starting to Return WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, said Tuesday that it was “very likely” that the recession had ended although he cautioned that it could be months before unemployment rates drop significantly. “Even though from a technical perspective the recession is very likely over at this point, it’s still going to feel like a very weak economy for some time as many people will still find that their job security and their employment status is not what they wish it was,” Bernanke said in response to a question about unemployment trends.

The assessment came at the end of a speech at the Brookings Institution observing a year after a market crisis that was precipitated by the collapse of the investment bank Lehman Brothers. Shortly before the speech, the Commerce Department reported that retail sales had surged in August as consumers swapped old cars for new ones under the “cash for clunkers” program. The increase, by a seasonally adjusted 2.7 percent rate over the previous month, widely surpassed analysts’ expectations. Bernanke said the consensus of forecasters was for moderate economic growth for the re-

mainder of this year and next, as credit markets thaw, consumer confidence takes time to heal and the government begins to unwind spending and lending programs intended to mend the economy. “The general view of forecasters is that growth in 2010 will be moderate, less than you might expect given the depth of the recession,” Bernanke said, because of several issues, including continuing financial and credit problems, deleveraging by households and the need to end the economic stimulus programs. All these elements will “make the 2010 recovery moderate,” he added.  STEPHEN LABATON

Chinese Taste for Chicken Feet May Save U.S. Exports China is threatening to cut off imports of American chicken, but poultry experts have at least one reason to suspect it may be an empty threat: Many Chinese consumers would miss the scrumptious chicken feet they get from this country. “We have these jumbo, juicy paws the Chinese really love,” said Paul W. Aho, a poultry economist and consultant, “so I don’t think they are going to cut us off.” Chicken exports were thrust to the forefront of American-

Chinese trade tensions on Sunday when China took steps to retaliate for President Obama’s decision to levy tariffs on Chinese tires. The Chinese announced that they were considering import taxes on automotive products and chicken meat, a development that some trade experts feared could escalate. American executives expressed concern about losing what recently has become the largest export market for their chickens, one that is expanding

rapidly as the Chinese population grows more prosperous. But the executives also expressed relief that, so far, Chinese importers have told them to keep the feet and wings coming. “We were told by our customers in China to continue to pack and ship product,” said Michael D. Cockrell, chief financial officer of Sanderson Farms, a major poultry producer based in Mississippi. “It gives us a little bit of optimism that we will get over this.”  CLIFFORD KRAUSS

nikkei ftse 100

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10,217.62 U 15.56 5,042.13 U 23.28

N.Y.S.E. Most Active Issues Vol. (100s) Last Chg. Citigrp 12644735 GenElec 2059385 SPDR 1718912 BkofAm 1531227 SPDR Fncl 997091 SprintNex 846063 DirFBear rs 803781 LVSands 784551 RegionsFn 682282 MGMMir 664392

4.12 16.00 105.72 16.79 14.75 4.06 22.02 19.56 6.06 13.37

Nasdaq Actives Vol. (100s)

Bid

ETrade 1396643 PwShs QQQ 812724 Yahoo 617026 Cisco 497738 Intel 470157 Microsoft 432744 HuntBnk 386790 DryShips 366279 FifthThird 244296 Comcast 244211

1.80 41.81 16.41 22.98 19.55 25.20 4.35 7.01 10.30 17.42

Amex Actives Vol. (100s) Last Rentech 502090 PSCrudeDL 70510 HicksAcq 60891 KodiakO g 42856 InovioBio 25872 LibertyAcq 25670 Hemisphrx 19301 NwGold g 18684 GoldStr g 15677 Rubicon g 14146

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Chg. 0.44 0.11 0.02 0.14 0.04 0.02 0.01 0.27 0.04 0.09

Foreign Exchange Fgn. currency Dollars in in dollars fgn.currency Tue. Mon. Tue. Mon. Australia .8633 .8610 1.1583 1.1615 Bahrain 2.6523 2.6523 .3770 .3770 Brazil .5526 .5520 1.8095 1.8115 Britain 1.6490 1.6574 .6064 .6033 Canada .9316 .9223 1.0734 1.0842 China .1464 .1464 6.8300 6.8299 Denmark .1969 .1963 5.0787 5.0942 Dominican .0277 .0277 36.05 36.05 Egypt .1812 .1810 5.5184 5.5234 Europe 1.4659 1.4614 .6822 .6843 Hong Kong .1290 .1290 7.7500 7.7502 Japan .010978 .011000 91.10 90.90 Mexico .075157 .074736 13.3055 13.3805 Norway .1699 .1692 5.8849 5.9096 Singapore .7036 .7030 1.4213 1.4225 So. Africa .1355 .1340 7.3795 7.4609 So. Korea .00082 .00081 1216.2 1221.5 Sweden .1438 .1431 6.9541 6.9881 Switzerlnd .9661 .9660 1.0351 1.0352

Adobe Buys Omniture Adobe Systems said Tuesday that it would buy the Web analytics software company Omniture for about $1.8 billion, giving the maker of content-creation software a way to let marketers monitor the effectiveness of such content. Adobe will pay $21.50 a share in cash, a premium of 24 percent over Omniture’s closing stock price Tuesday.  (AP)

business

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Hidden Amid Job Loss News, a Bright Spot Last winter, stories of compa- fected. But the pain has been connies cutting their workers’ pay centrated within groups. were everywhere. For the first People who have lost their jobs time since perhaps the Great De- are struggling terribly to find pression, it seemed posnew ones. Since the sible that average hourly downturn began in 2007, Economic pay would begin falling, companies have been Scene even before inflation was extremely reluctant David taken into account. to hire new workers, Leonhardt But that’s not what has and few new compahappened. nies have started. The Wage growth has picked up in economy and the job market are the last several months, accord- churning very slowly. ing to two government surveys. Almost five million of the ofYou don’t hear or read nearly as ficially unemployed — those still many stories about pay cuts these looking for work — have now been days. Even though unemploy- out of work for 27 weeks or longer. ment has reached its highest level In the six decades that the Labor in 26 years, most workers have re- Department has been keeping received a raise over the last year. cords, that group has never been That contrast highlights what I a larger share of the work force think is one of the more overlooked than it is today. features of the Great Recession. Yet there is a flip side to the lack In the job market, at least, the re- of churn. Instead of doing lots of cession’s pain has been unusually firing and some hiring, many concentrated. companies have done only some Nearly every region and every firing and virtually no hiring, the demographic group has been af- statistics show.

And inflation-adjusted pay is up 2 to 3 percent. Amazingly enough, that’s almost as big as the peak increases during the late 1990s boom. I realize how strange this sounds. House values have sunk, and 401(k) accounts remain battered. In the years leading up to the recession, pay increases for most families were meager. The Census Bureau reported last week that median real household income was lower last year than a full decade earlier. But we’re still in unusual territory. The economy is just emerging from a severe recession, yet the pay of most workers has been rising. That wasn’t the case at the end of any other recent recession. I hope you can keep this in mind if you’re one of those fortunate enough to be working. The economy surely doesn’t feel healthy right now. But just imagine how it feels to everybody who has borne the brunt of the recession.

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in brief Intel Disputes Fine BRUSSELS — The Intel Corp., the computer chip maker, is claiming in court documents that European Union regulators made serious mistakes in levying a record fine of 1.06 billion euros ($1.45 billion) last May on a charge of illegally restricting a competitor. In a legal plea published Tuesday in the European Union’s Official Journal, Intel is asking an E.U. court to overturn the antitrust decision or reduce the “manifestly disproportionate” fine. (AP)

Stanford’s Defense HOUSTON — R. Allen Stanford, the Texas financier accused of a $7 billion fraud, has no money to pay a lawyer, so a federal judge on Tuesday ordered a public defender to take over his defense. (Reuters)

journal

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

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Breaking In a New Sport, the Dutch Sweat the Small Stuff AMSTERDAM — People of this free-spirited Dutch city, known for its legal prostitution and easy marijuana, have found another pastime that flirts with convention and the law: picking locks. On a recent Wednesday evening, Jos Weyers sat hunched over a magnifying glass studying the contours of a key that was taking shape as he filed away at it. Across the table, Jos Meyer sat picking at a standard frontdoor lock with a set of tools that looked for all the world like a collection of slender dental instruments, painted black. Weyers, 39, is among 100 or so members of a club in the Netherlands called Toool, for The

crossword

Edited By Will Shortz PUZZLE BY MAURA B. JACOBSON

HALF-CENTURY PUZZLEMAKERS’ WEEK

Note: All the daily crosswords this week, Monday through Saturday, are by puzzlemakers who have been contributing to The Times for more than 50 years. Maura Jacobson, of Hartsdale, N.Y., published her first crossword in the Sunday Times on March 6, 1955. Her popular weekly series of puzzles for New York magazine began in 1978.

ACROSS

Fab Four member 44 Long, long time 45 “Waiting for the Robert ___” 46 First-string athletic groups 48 “Portnoy’s Complaint” author 50 High-fashion inits. 51 Internet access co. 53 Goad 55 Ol’ Blue Eyes’ family 60 Rash, perhaps 64 1962 Robert Mitchum/Shirley MacLaine film … or the outcome of 17- and 40-Across? 66 Vegetable on a vine 67 You can get a rise out of it 68 French 101 verb 69 There’s nothing like it 70 December ad word 71 Wild hog

5 Designer

Oscar ___ Renta 9 Last word in the Bible 13 Zippo 14 Athenian marketplace 16 Big, big, big: Prefix 17 Playground situation #1 20 Place for three men of verse 21 Where Springsteen was born 22 “Orinoco Flow” singer, 1989 24 “Right you ___!” 25 Give ___ go 28 Land of Esau’s descendants 30 As per schedule 35 ___ me tangere (touch-me-not) 37 “Was it ___ I saw?” (cat’s palindrome) 39 Drink you stir 40 Playground situation #2

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Open Organization of Lockpickers, that is dedicated to picking locks for fun. The movement has been growing steadily over the last five years, with a chapter now in Eindhoven in the east of the country and foreign branches in several places, including Germany and the United States. About 15 members, including Weyers, met recently around a long table piled high with boxes of locks in an artists’ cooperative on the east side of Amsterdam. Meyer is not a member, but her friend, Marco Zuiderveld, has been for the last six years, and she accompanies him occasionally to the club’s meetings. “It took a lot of time, one hour and a half,”

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71 9/16/09 (No. 0916)

DOWN 1 Voting no 2 Croquet locale 3 Mental flash 4 Oncle’s spouse 5 How diaries are written 6 Self-image 7 Anderson of “WKRP in Cincinnati” 8 Boxing venue 9 Femme friend 10 Restaurant reading 11 Coop finds 12 Rocketeer’s org. 15 The Jetsons’ dog 18 Whistler’s whistle 19 From what place 23 Circulation line

Part of IUD 26 Namely 27 Coeur d’___, Idaho 29 Bill who said of his TV monologues “It’s all been satirized for your protection” 31 Hit, of a sort 32 How you might respond to an offensive remark 33 Styles 34 Aid in show-andtell 36 Swenson of “Benson” 38 Scout unit 41 Marinara sauce ingredient 25

Gives over for safekeeping 47 “Apologies!” 49 Sharpen 52 Glove material 54 Hardly Mr. Cool 55 Battle town of 1944 56 “Heads ___, tails …” 57 Gold rush locale of 1898-99 58 Some distance away 59 Fake 61 Words in a ratio 62 Poet Teasdale 63 Washstand vessel 65 That, to Juanita 42

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said Meyer, a diminutive woman who runs a flower market in nearby Aalsmeer, after conquering her lock. She looked decidedly unamused when she added: “But it was an easy lock, they said.” The club’s members see lock picking as a sport and organize annual competitions, a sort of Olympics of lock picking, at which entrants compete in various categories — padlocks, mechanical locks and freestyle, in which contestants confront a variety of locks with any tools they choose, so long as they do not damage the lock. The next tournament will be held in May in Istanbul. Initially, the Dutch police were deeply skeptical about all this lock picking. “Their reaction was, at first, are they criminals?” said Han Fey, 46, a security expert and club member. Now, the authorities are more philosophical. “There’s been no increase in break-ins,” said Arnout Aben, a spokesman for the Amsterdam police, when asked how they viewed the club. “Since the invention of the lock, there have always been people trying to pick the lock,” he added with a laugh. “So there’s nothing new here.” Weyers, asked what drove club members to this odd exercise, replied: “It’s the puzzle; to open things not meant to be opened.” He reflected, then added: “It’s analog hacking.” And indeed, lock picking for sport, which sprang up over the last decade in the Netherlands and northern Germany, grew out of computer hacking. Most lock pickers attribute the beginning to Steffen Wernéry, a founding member of a notorious German hacker group, the Chaos Computer Club. Wernéry, now 47, branched out into lock picking, and in 1997 founded the Sports Enthusiasts of Lock Picking, a club based in Hamburg. “I gave lock-picking courses at Chaos gatherings,” he said in a telephone interview. “So, we thought, out of this experience let’s form an organization, purely sporting, just as a sports club.” JOHN TAGLIABUE

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opinion

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

editorials of the timeS

thomas l. friedman

A Long Way Down

The Solar Trade

In a recession, the poor get poorer and the middle class loses ground. But even a downturn as deep and prolonged as this one cannot fully account for the desperate straits of so many Americans. The Census Bureau reported last week that the nation’s poverty rate rose to 13.2 percent in 2008, the highest level since 1997. That means that some 40 million people in this country are living below the poverty line, defined as an income of $22,205 for a family of four. Median household income fell in 2008 to $50,300 from $52,200 in 2007. That is the steepest drop since the government began keeping track four decades ago; adjusted for inflation, median income was lower in 2008 than in 1998 and every year since then. Clearly, the recession has been brutal. But even before the recession, far too many Americans were already living far too close to the edge. As is now evident, the economic growth of the Bush era was largely an illusion. Poverty worsened and middle-class pay stagnated as most gains flowed to the top. In a recent update of their groundbreaking series on income trends, the economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez found that from 2002 to 2007, the top 1 percent of households — those making more than $400,000 a year — received twothirds of the nation’s total income gains, their largest share of the spoils since the 1920s. Because many if not most Americans gained little to nothing from the Bush years, they have found themselves especially vulnerable to the recession. Federal stimulus spending has helped

cushion the blow. The question going forward is whether an economic recovery, when it comes, will help the poor and middle class or whether the top-heavy favoritism of the previous expansion will reassert itself. The answer depends on how policy makers foster and manage a recovery. Economic growth alone does not guarantee job growth. Congress and the Obama administration must extend certain components of the stimulus package until employment does revive, including unemployment benefits, food stamps, tax breaks for working families with children and fiscal aid to states. Policy makers must also resist the reassuring but false notion that renewed economic growth can, by itself, raise living standards broadly. Government policies are needed to ensure that growth is shared. Reforming health care so that illness is not bankrupting — for families or for the federal budget — would be a major step in the right direction. The administration has also said that it would let the Bush-era tax cuts for the rich expire as scheduled at the end of 2010. More progressive taxation needs to be accompanied by more progressive spending, on public education, and on job training and job creation. Support for unions and enforcement of labor standards would also help to ensure that in the next economic expansion, a fair share of profits would find its way into wages. As the Bush era showed, the economy can grow without any of that happening. But it also showed that such growth is neither defensible nor sustainable.

Truth About Lending Congress has a chance, starting this week, to end the boondoggle that allows private lenders to earn a handsome subsidy for making risk-free student loans that are guaranteed by the federal government. It’s a wonderful deal for the lenders — and an emphatically bad one for the taxpayers. The House is expected to vote on Thursday on a bill that would simplify the loan system — and save the country nearly $90 billion over the next decade — by ending the subsidy program and allowing students to borrow directly from the government through their colleges and universities. To get this done, however, lawmakers will need to see through the spin and misrepresentations that have become all too common lately. In addition to being too costly, administering the privately run lending program is more trouble than it is worth. Consider, for example, the recent corruption scandal in which publicly subsidized lenders were found to be paying kickbacks to colleges. The subsidy program has not held up its end of the bargain from even a lending standpoint. It was supposed to keep running through eco-

nomic hard times. But it collapsed during the credit crunch and was bailed out by the government, which is still pumping money into the system. The direct lending system has gone on working with no bailout needed. The private lenders and those who do their bidding in Congress have recently taken issue with a Congressional Budget Office analysis, showing that the bill would save about $87 billion over the next 10 years. They argue, absurdly, for example, that the savings would be smaller if the system were analyzed under accounting rules other than the ones that the federal government is required to use. The aim is to mislead taxpayers and members of Congress into believing that the C.B.O. estimate is dishonest. The claim by critics that ending the subsidized program would expand government — and push private companies out of the business — is also nonsense. The loans would be handled through colleges but serviced and collected by private companies and nonprofits that stand to make a tidy profit. Lawmakers need to put aside all the noise and pass this bill.

7

In 2004, Applied Materials, which makes the machines that make microchips, decided to add a new business line to take advantage of the company’s nanotechnology capabilities: making the machines that make solar panels. Mike Splinter, the C.E.O., gave me a tour of the company’s Silicon Valley facility the other day, culminating with a visit to its “war room,” where Applied maintains global interaction with all 14 solar panel factories it’s built around the world in the last two years. Five of the factories are in Germany, four are in China; the others are in Spain, India, Italy, Taiwan and Abu Dhabi. Not a single one is in America. I suggested a new motto for the company’s solar business: “Invented here, sold there.” The reason these other countries are building solar-panel industries today is because most of their governments have put in place the three requirements for growing a renewable energy industry: 1) any business or homeowner can generate solar energy; 2) if they decide to do so, the power utility has to connect them to the grid; and 3) the utility has to buy the power for a predictable period at a price that is a good deal for the family or business putting the solar panels on their rooftop. Regulatory, price and connectivity certainty is what Germany put in place, and that explains why Germany now generates almost half the solar power in the world and, as a byproduct, is making itself the world center for solar research, engineering, manufacturing and installation. With more than 50,000 new jobs, the renewable energy industry in Germany is now second only to its auto industry. In America, federal and state subsidies for installing solar systems are largely paying for the cost of importing solar panels made in China, by Chinese workers, using manufacturing equipment invented in America. Applied sells its solar-panel factories for $200 million each. At Applied, making these complex machines requires America’s best, high-paid talent — people who can work at the intersection of chemistry, physics and nanotechnology. O.K., so you don’t believe global warming is real. Here is what is indisputable: The world is on track to add another 2.5 billion people by 2050, and many will be aspiring to live American-like lifestyles. In such a world, renewable energy will be in huge demand. China now understands that. It no longer believes it can pollute its way to prosperity because it would choke to death. That is the most important shift in the world in the last 18 months. China has decided that clean-tech is going to be the next great global industry and is now creating a massive domestic market for solar and wind, which will give it a great export platform. In October, Applied will open the world’s largest solar research center — in Xian, China. Gotta go where the customers are.

sports

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

After the N.B.A., a Life of Duty Over There Every day, the 5-year-old son and namesake of the basketball player Tim James, a former first-round draft pick in the N.B.A., asks when his daddy is coming home. Betty James, who is looking after her grandson while James is gone, has a stock answer: “Soon, baby. Soon.” Last week, Tim Jr. returned home from kindergarten and broadsided Betty with a new question. “Is my daddy in a tank that shoots up people?” he said. Betty described the moment as “very heartbreaking.” Until then, she had consoled herself with the thought that Tim Jr. did not understand how this trip was different from all the basketball tours of duty that took his father far from home. After three seasons in the N.B.A. and a few more overseas, in Turkey, Japan and Israel,

James enlisted in the Army last September. He was three months away from his 32nd birthday. In July, he was deployed to Iraq. “I feel good when I wake up every morning,” James said. “I feel like I’m doing something important.” The connection faded in and out, but James’s voice was resolute. It was the middle of the night in New York, and James was on the phone after finishing a 12-hour overnight shift. For the past six weeks, he has been working in furnace-like heat fueling aircraft at Camp Speicher, an air base north of Baghdad. His unit, Task Force ODIN (Observe, Detect, Identify and Neutralize), conducts reconnaissance, surveillance, targeting and acquisition. So far he has not had to use his training in tossing grenades, laying mines or firing his M-15 rifle.

James, who earned more than $2 million playing in the N.B.A., is making less than $2,000 a month. His commander, Capt. Curtis Byron, said he was unaware that the 6-foot-7 soldier in his unit was a former professional basketball player until James sought permission to be interviewed for news articles. “Spc. James has always been very respectful and professional since being in the unit,” Byron wrote in an e-mail message. The transition has not been as smooth as a fast break. James initially had a hard time sleeping on the base. “I’d hear loud machine-gun fire going off in the middle of the night,” he said, “and I was just tempted to reach for my weapon.” He added, “At first it was quite nerve-racking, until I realized it’s like a normal situation.”  KAREN CROUSE

For del Potro, Open Has Altered His Landscape At some point between the mayhem of Monday night, when he lay crying on the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium, and the murmur of Tuesday morning, when he slowly waded through a string of interviews, Juan Martín del Potro remembered to shave. Gone was the russet beard that had sprouted across his cheeks through two weeks of the U.S. Open. And gone was the gritty buccaneer look that complemented his savage forehand. In the cool light of day, as he ate some pastry and doodled on a pad, del Potro was just a freshfaced 20-year-old making sense

of his first Grand Slam title. “I didn’t sleep much,” he said Tuesday morning. “The last two days, it was difficult to relax, to be, I don’t know, quiet. But this is part of the game, this is part of the champions. It’s unusual for me, but I’m learning from this one.” Over and over, del Potro has watched his final championship point, held his breath as Roger Federer’s backhand sailed long, exhaled as he watched himself collapse into tears. When he called his parents Monday night, they barely got past hello before they all started sobbing into their telephones,

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 79/ 71 0 80/ 67 T 80/ 68 T Albuquerque 80/ 61 0 75/ 60 PC 71/ 56 C Boise 79/ 59 0 91/ 63 S 87/ 62 S Boston 76/ 62 0 60/ 58 C 60/ 53 C Buffalo 74/ 60 0 68/ 54 PC 69/ 51 C Charlotte 84/ 64 0 84/ 65 PC 78/ 66 Sh Chicago 81/ 64 0 71/ 58 S 72/ 53 S Cleveland 79/ 63 0 71/ 56 S 72/ 53 S Dallas-Ft. Worth 81/ 70 0 78/ 68 Sh 80/ 66 C Denver 82/ 57 0 77/ 51 PC 79/ 50 S Detroit 81/ 63 0 73/ 55 S 76/ 50 S

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

82/ 73 79/ 64 81/ 64 91/ 80 83/ 59 78/ 63 90/ 73 80/ 64 96/ 78 72/ 57 74/ 57 75/ 59 79/ 68 84/ 66

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.10 0 0 0 0

overcome by emotion more than the 5,000 miles separating them. “It was difficult to speak, but they are so happy for me,” del Potro said. He had asked them to stay in Argentina for the match, leaving only three people in his private box at Ashe on Monday night, but he was scheduled to see them Tuesday night when he flew back home. Once he reaches his hometown, Tandil, a tiny village in the mountains where del Potro has about 150 relatives, he said the party could begin in earnest. “It’s going to be crazy,” he said.  JOSHUA ROBINSON 86/ 72 PC 85/ 71 PC 80/ 60 PC 79/ 58 S 84/ 63 PC 86/ 63 PC 91/ 78 PC 90/ 79 PC 79/ 57 S 82/ 57 S 69/ 62 Sh 64/ 58 Sh 91/ 74 T 92/ 75 PC 72/ 63 Sh 69/ 59 Sh 99/ 76 S 100/ 76 S 81/ 55 PC 83/ 59 S 75/ 58 PC 74/ 58 C 74/ 56 Sh 70/ 57 C 82/ 65 PC 81/ 62 PC 76/ 66 C 72/ 63 Sh

FOREIGN CITIES Acapulco Athens Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo

Yesterday Today Tomorrow 93/ 79 0 90/ 79 T 90/ 77 PC 81/ 70 0.16 84/ 64 PC 82/ 66 PC 86/ 57 0 79/ 61 PC 82/ 64 S 69/ 54 0 75/ 55 S 70/ 52 PC 71/ 54 0 68/ 54 C 70/ 54 PC 94/ 73 0 95/ 77 S 91/ 77 S

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

8

in brief Boxer Found Dead LONDON — Darren Sutherland, a boxer who won a bronze medal for Ireland at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was found dead Monday. He was 27. The Metropolitan Police said Sutherland was found hanged in his apartment and was pronounced dead. The police said his death was not being treated as suspicious.  (AP)

Semenya’s Case South Africa’s minister for women and children has filed a complaint with the United Nations over how the runner Caster Semenya’s case was handled. The minister, Noluthando Mayende-Sibiya, said the international athletics governing body failed to safeguard the confidentiality of Semenya, whose sex has been questioned. (AP)

Baseball — AL Tuesday Kansas City 11, Detroit 1 Baltimore 10, Tampa Bay 5 Boston 4, L.A. Angels 1 Toronto 10, Yankees 4 Oakland 6, Texas 1 Minnesota 5, Cleveland 4

Baseball — NL Monday’s late games Arizona 4, San Diego 2, 10 innings L.A. Dodgers 6, Pittsburgh 2 San Francisco 9, Colorado 1

Tuesday Philadelphia 5, Washington 0 Cincinnati 5, Houston 4 Atlanta 6, Mets 0 Florida 2, St. Louis 1 Chicago Cubs 13, Milwaukee 7 63/ 50 0.08 60/ 45 Tr 62/ 46 0 85/ 79 2.99 91/ 79 0.03 66/ 61 Tr 62/ 57 0.01 75/ 50 0 72/ 55 0.59 63/ 52 0.02 69/ 54 0 90/ 77 0.20 65/ 54 0.16 72/ 55 0.12 72/ 66 0.28 80/ 64 0.51 59/ 46 0 68/ 39 0 72/ 61 0 75/ 68 Tr 74/ 59 0 71/ 55 0 75/ 54 0

59/ 48 PC 63/ 52 PC 61/ 54 R 88/ 82 T 88/ 79 T 66/ 61 C 70/ 55 PC 68/ 54 Sh 68/ 52 R 66/ 43 S 68/ 48 S 93/ 79 S 66/ 59 C 75/ 55 C 81/ 64 PC 73/ 64 T 57/ 46 Sh 63/ 48 PC 73/ 59 PC 81/ 66 PC 64/ 50 S 71/ 57 Sh 70/ 55 PC

59/ 45 R 61/ 48 S 73/ 54 PC 90/ 81 S 86/ 79 S 67/ 61 C 68/ 54 PC 64/ 54 R 70/ 54 R 68/ 43 PC 68/ 52 Sh 93/ 81 S 64/ 61 R 68/ 59 C 84/ 63 C 75/ 63 S 60/ 42 C 59/ 45 PC 84/ 63 C 79/ 64 PC 70/ 48 PC 68/ 52 PC 68/ 52 PC

sports journal

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

9

One Standard for Athletes: Over the Line Is Over the Line The U.S. Open will be rememWith one stunning outburst, bered as one of the wildest Grand Williams barreled into the Men Slam events in recent memory. Only Hall of Intemperance Kim Clijsters completed a rereserved for John McEnroe markable journey, becoming the and Jimmy Connors and Ilie only unseeded woman Nastase, great players Sports to win the Open. Roger who became legendOf Federer had his amazary for their rampages The Times ing Open winning streak against line judges, umsnapped at five. pires and each other. William C. But this Open will be Let’s not soft pedal Rhoden remembered — thanks the Williams tirade. The to YouTube and “Sportscriticism and $10,500 Center” — as the Grand Slam in fine are deserved. A suspension which Serena Williams lost her seems unnecessarily harsh, givtitle and her cool. en her stature and the first-time She lost her semifinals match nature of the offense. But if the to Clijsters on Saturday night U.S. Tennis Association lowers when she was assessed a code the boom, Williams has no one to violation for verbally abusing a blame but herself. line judge on match point with Williams learned 100 lessons a ferocity not seen in women’s at the Open. Her greatest chaltennis. lenge is controlling her temper What made many uncomfortwhile harnessing her amazing able, beyond the tirade, is that competitive fire. On Sunday she Williams stepped so far outside issued a statement, through a of the box of acceptable behavior public relations agency, explainfor female athletes. ing her behavior, but did not

apologize. On Monday she issued an “amended” apology on her Web site. The footage of the outburst will follow Williams for the rest of her career. The larger question is what did the rest of us learn? What we should take away from this Open is the need for a fundamental shift in our view of women athletes. Bad behavior is bad behavior, but there was an undercurrent of sexism by some critics and fans in their denunciation of Williams’s behavior, as though her threatening gestures and raw language toward the line judge were made even worse by the fact that she is a woman. For all the advances brought about by Title IX, women athletes have been conditioned to avoid aggressive confrontation that may occur in the course of high-level competition. We often write admiringly about the male

athlete who is a teddy bear off the field, a tiger on it. In our heart of hearts, we still like sweaty women athletes to be ballerinas. Those days rapidly are disappearing. We can’t look at Serena’s outburst through a sexist prism. Boys will be boys, girls will be girls and competitive athletes will be competitive athletes. McEnroe’s youthful intemperance is celebrated in a series of entertaining commercials; Connors’s intensity is heralded as a symbol of competitive fire. Who knows how Serena’s outburst at the 2009 U.S. Open will be remembered in 20 years. It will probably depend on how many more Grand Slam titles she wins and she how conducts herself in pursuit of winning them. There is no room for a genderbased double standard. There is one code of conduct: civility in victory and graciousness in defeat.