ROUGH RIDER USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71)
THURSDAY EDITION
air transfer office tr’s transfer logistics hub
SAILOR 2.0 Military families
BY THE NUMBERS hispanic heritage month
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
ARABIAN GULF (Sept. 23, 2015) – Seaman Kristen Young, from Washington D.C., performs duties as a phontewith the bridge of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) during a replenishment-atsea with the Military Sealift Command fast combat support ship USNS Arctic (T-AOE 8). (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jennifer Case/Released)
by MC3 D’Artanyan Ratley
air transfer office tr’s transfer logistics hub “I
t never stops; if I’m up, I’m working,” said Logistics Specialist 1st Class Jason Prushard. Prushard is a member of the small team that makes up the Air Transfer Office aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). ATO’s primary responsibility is to coordinate personnel and cargo transfers on and off the ship, via C2-A cargo aircraft flown by the Rawhides of Fleet Logistics Squadron 40, known as Carrier On-board Delivery (COD) and helicopters, or ‘helos.’ “We coordinate helo squadrons for [medical evacuations], and maintain the trackers,” said Prushard.“The database tells us who is approved to fly, who’s ready to go and who we are expecting to leave so we can coordinate that.” Tracking passenger and cargo transfers on and off the ship is one of the most important responsibilities of the ATO because of the high traffic nature of life aboard TR. “The biggest thing is, there are 5,000 people or so on the ship and we have a lot of people coming and going every day. It would be chaos if there wasn’t somebody tracking it,” said Lt. Christopher Iole, air transfer officer for TR. “We are that logistics hub, making sure we know exactly which personnel are off the boat and on the boat, and when they are going to transfer, so we can keep an accurate record.” Mail, cargo and personnel arrive by COD, and it’s up to
the Sailors at the ATO to make sure aircraft are unloaded quickly, so it doesn’t interfere with the rest of flight operations. “People end up looking for parts. They start looking for luggage. Supply sends a team up to assist in getting the cargo over to the elevator and make sure that everything ordered is here,” said Prushard.“If we don’t do our job correctly, then the COD doesn’t launch in time and it affects the rest of the air plan for the rest of the day and it’s a domino effect. We’ve got to make sure we do our job correctly, and we get the COD out of here on time.” ATO team members also try to make travel a pleasant experience for passengers, especially those service members travelling on emergency leave. “The best part about this job to me is helping out the [emergency] leave people who need to get off the boat,” said Prushard. “[We’re] just trying to help them out, try to make them smile once before they leave out of the office and off the ship. If I can get them to giggle a little bit, then at least for a second or two they weren’t upset or down, and I think it helps.” For Prushard, the variety of situations he faces every day is the reason he enjoys working at the ATO. “Every day is different. One day you’re helping with [emergency leave], and then the next you’re doing supply work loading cargo, so it’s a really versatile job, and you have to be willing to do all of it,” said Prushard.
Hispanic Heritage by the Numbers 2nd U.S. Hispanic Population
largest ethnic group in the U.S.
With More Than 54 Million People
Making up 17% of U.S. Population
Mexican Descendants Make Up
2/3
Of the Nation’s Latin Standing at About
Puerto Rican Descendants Standing at About With an additional
5 Million
3.5 Million on the Island of Puerto Ric
California, Texas, New York, Florida and Illinois make up
70%
of the U.S. Hispanic Population
H ispanic H eritage M onth E stablished in 1968
by law 90-498 passed by Congress
1 Million people in the U.S. have Cuban, Salvadoran, Dominican, Guatemalans and Colombian ancestry
The month runs from
September 15th
25 Million October 15
th
To represent the independence of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico and Chile Information collected from www.gru.edu and www.pewresearch.org Inforgraphic by MC3 Stephane Belcher
Hispanics were
eligible to vote in 2014
Up from 21 Million in
2010
Hispanic Health
to
Over 1 Million Hispanic Veterans in the U.S. Armed Forces
From
no Population
34 Million
2008 - 2009
Hispanics Earned 101% More Associates Degrees And
85% More Bachelor Degrees
Than In
1998 - 1999
n
More than
90% Of the Spanish Speaking World is Roman Catholic
Spanish With
Comparing Blood Type O
Is The Worlds #2 Languange
329 Million
People who speak Spanish as their 1st languange Behind Chinese With 1.2 Billion People
The blood that can be given to anyone
Hispanic Descent
60%
African American Descent
50%
Caucasian Descent
45%
Hispanics have lower cancer rates overall.
Dominant Household Language In The U.S.
co
38%
S panish D ominant
25%
E nglish D ominant
36%
B ilingual
Sailor 2.0 by: MC3 Taylor Stinson
“SAYING ‘I DO,’ to life as a military spouse gives ‘for better or worse’ a whole new meaning. These men and women are married to service members from every branch and rank, and make up the strongest support force behind the U.S. military. Here’s a look at who these amazing spouses are.”
Breakdown by the branch... NAVY 51%
ARMY 59%
AIR FORCE 58%
MARINE CORPS 46%
756,740 military spouses in 2013 what is the gender breakdown for military spouses?
88% 12%
of military spouses are women
of military spouses are men
77% military spouses who have deployed or will
34% will deploy 1-3 times 19% will deploy 3-5 times 7.3% are dual-military couples
SHOUTOUtS
Record a personal message that can be played over and over by your closest family members. USS THEODORE ROOSEVELT (CVN 71) media department conducts Saturday Shoutouts, so keep an eye open!
Military Families CHILDREN OF THE MILITARY 15% 18+ years older
42% 5 years or younger
43%
31% 6-11 years old
of military people have children
22% 12-18 years old You’re bound to move a lot...
about every
2.9 years to be exact
How to support your spouse or a spouse you know be a friend
prepare a meal
Sources: U.S Department of Defense http://www.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/2013_Demographics_Report.pdf http://www.militaryonesource.mil/12038/MOS/Reports/Report_to_Congress_on_Impact_of_Deployment_on_Military_Children.pdf http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/12/military-family-spouses-unemployment_n_846825.html http://www.militaryhomefront.dod.mil/12038/Project%20Documents/MilitaryHOMEFRONT/Reports/2010_Demographics.Report.pdf http://vets.syr.edu/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/MilitarySpouseEmploymentReport_2013.pdf
listen
midnight in New York F R O M T H E PA G E S O F
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015
Diesel Scandal At VW Spreads To Core Market FRANKFURT — A scandal that has battered Volkswagen’s image in the United States spread to the automaker’s core market in Europe on Tuesday, when the company said 11 million of its diesel cars were equipped with software that could be used to cheat on emissions tests. That was more than 20 times the number of cars disclosed. The company also said it would set aside about $7.3 billion — the equivalent of half a year’s profits — to cover the cost of making the cars comply with pollution standards. In the United States, pressure was ramped up on Volkswagen, with attorneys general in several states saying that they were forming a group to investigate the deceit and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., asking the Federal Trade Commission to begin an inquiry. The automaker’s chief executive, Martin Winterkorn, faced mounting pressure to take responsibility for the scandal and resign. [Page 5.] On Tuesday, he seemed intent on fixing the blame on others, yet to be identified. Winterkorn issued a statement on the company’s website, saying the misconduct was a result of “the grave errors of very few” employees, and promised to cooperate with officials on a “ruthless examination” of how vehicles were programmed to evade emissions tests. Volkswagen declined to say where the 11 million affected vehicles were. But analysts said that as many as 10 million were probably in Europe. “There really aren’t many diesel cars outside of Europe and North America,” said Philippe Houchois, head of European auto industry research at UBS in London. The United States, as the second-largest car market after China, is crucial to Volkswagen’s long-term strategy. But it accounts for only 6 percent of unit sales, compared with 40 percent in Europe and Russia. Problems in Europe are potentially a far greater threat to Volkswagen’s financial strength. JACK EWING
© 2015 The New York Times
FROM THE PAGES OF
Plan on Migrants Strains Europe’s Unity LONDON — After weeks of indecision, the European Union voted on Tuesday to distribute 120,000 asylum seekers among member states, a plan meant to display unity in the face of the largest movement of refugees on the Continent since World War II. Instead, the decision did as much to underline the bloc’s widening cleavages. Nearly half a million migrants and refugees have arrived in Europe this year, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. The crisis has tested the limits of Europe’s ability to forge a consensus. It has set right-wing nationalist and populist politicians against Pan-European humanitarians. Leaders from across the 28-member bloc will meet Wednesday in Brussels for further discussions. Jean Asselborn, the foreign minister of Luxembourg, said even countries that voted against the distribution of asylum seekers — the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia — must
comply. But with the prime minister of Slovakia threatening to defy the plan, the outcome was more than an example of the bloc’s inability to coordinate its policies. It’s been a bad few months for brand “E.U.,” and the reputation of Brussels and the “European project” has rarely been lower, with sharp and vocal divisions among member states and continuing doubts about Greek economic sustainability. The migrant crisis “risks bursting the E.U. at its weak seams,” said Stefano Stefanini, a former senior Italian ambassador. “It’s more dangerous than the Greek drama and more serious than the euro, because it challenges fundamental European accomplishments and beliefs.” With Tuesday’s vote, he said, “the cleavages only get deeper.” In practical terms, those achievements are most manifest in the bloc’s single currency and the freedom of movement within the passport-free zone known as the Schengen area. Both are being put to the test as never before.
The chaos over the refugees has raised questions about not only how the European Union functions but what it stands for, not least its aspirations to balance justice and security. “People want to see both compassion and competence from the E.U., and those two things should not be at odds,” said David Miliband, director of International Rescue Committee, a nongovernmental agency that helps refugees. “If the E.U. is incompetent, compassion is not enough.” Seen as the peaceful answer to the blood bath of World War II, the bloc has always prided itself on its commitment to decency, including a welcome among member states to accepting refugees. But the surge of migrants has shredded that welcome and challenged the principles — and many of the practical benefits — of the Schengen zone. Germany, Hungary, Austria and Slovenia have all re-established border controls, at least temporarily, in recent weeks. STEVEN ERLANGER and JAMES KANTER
Los Angeles Declares a Homeless Emergency LOS ANGELES — Flooded with homeless encampments from its freeway underpasses to the chic sidewalks of Venice Beach, municipal officials here declared a public emergency on Tuesday, making Los Angeles the first city in the nation to take such a dramatic step in response to its problem with street dwellers. The move stems partly from compassion, and in no small part from the rising tide of complaints about the homeless and the public nuisance they create. Experts on homelessness say Los Angeles has had a severe and persistent problem with people living on the streets rather than in shelters — the official estimate is 26,000 people in such straits — and the mayor and City Council proposed on Tuesday to spend at least $100 million in the next year on housing and other services. They plan to increase the length of time shelters are open and to provide
more rent subsidies to street people and those in shelters. “Every single day we come to work, we see folks lying on this grass, a symbol of our city’s intense crisis,” Mayor Eric Garcetti said on Tuesday. “This city has pushed this problem from neighborhood to neighborhood for too long, from bureaucracy to bureaucracy.” In urban areas throughout the country, rising housing costs and an uneven economic recovery have helped fuel a rise in homelessness. In places known for good weather — Honolulu and Tucson, for instance — and for liberal politics — like Madison, Wis. — frustration over homelessness has reached a boiling point, prompting crackdowns on encampments. Some cities have tried setting aside designated areas for homeless encampments. But to date, no city has boasted of finding the perfect solution.
Like other urban mayors, Garcetti has made promises to end chronic homelessness in the city. Yet the homeless population here has grown about 12 percent since he took office in 2013. He, too, has been criticized for taking a heavy-handed approach to enforcement while doing too little to help people find and pay for housing. Some advocates for the homeless here have said that the rising street population has created a public health crisis on Skid Row downtown, where about 5,000 people now live outdoors. “It’s a humanitarian crisis and a moral shame,” said José Huizar, a council member who represents the area. “It has reached a critical breaking point, that the sea of despair that we witness on the streets of Los Angeles each and every day must end, and it begins with all of us here today.” JENNIFER MEDINA
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 2
INTERNATIONAL
Ex-Commander Syrian Refugees Settle Into Lives Far From West Sharply Criticizes ZAATARI REFUGEE CAMP, dan’s border with Syria in its fourth Until recently, virtually every Jordan — Bicycles are the new year. Chaos and desperation have family imagined an imminent return to Syria as soon as President basics for the largest concentra- settled into an orderly grind. Policy on Syria As the West grapples with a new Bashar al-Assad fell. Now, many tion of Syrians who have fled their
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration’s Syria policy came under sharp criticism Tuesday from one of its own former top military commanders and C.I.A. directors — Gen. David H. Petraeus — even as the White House is weighing new options for fighting the Islamic State in Syria. Petraeus told a Senate committee that the United States should establish safe havens in Syria where a moderate rebel force could operate and Syrians could find refuge under the protection of American and allied airpower. He also urged that steps be taken to strengthen the military effort against Islamic State militants in Iraq, including by exploring the use of small American teams to call in airstrikes. But his most severe criticism was that the United States and its partners had done little to build up military leverage against the Assad government sufficient to bring about a political solution. “It is frequently said that there is ‘no military solution’ to Syria or the other conflicts roiling the Middle East,” Petraeus said. “This may be true, but it is also misleading. For, in every case, if there is to be any hope of a political settlement, a certain military and security context is required, and that context will not materialize on its own.” The criticism comes as Obama administration officials have been holding meetings this week to try to figure out ways to strengthen their military effort against the Islamic State. A Pentagon effort to train rebel forces to take on the Islamic State has produced only a handful of fighters. The administration is weighing how to capitalize on the gains that Syrian Kurds have made against the Islamic State, especially in the northeastern part of the country. The Kurds have driven the Islamic State from a stretch of territory south of the Turkish border and east of the Euphrates River, starting with the town of Kobani. The idea under consideration by the Obama White House is to build on that effort by expanding the American support to a group of 15 Arab militias, which have a total of some 5,000 fighters. MICHAEL R. GORDON and ERIC SCHMITT
country’s bloody civil war. Thousands traverse this camp, souped up with extra seats and milk crates to ferry groceries, bulky fans and small children. Grown men ride hot-pink numbers to jobs in the sprawling souk or grunt work for aid groups. Boys adorn theirs with streamers and stickers, feathers and heartshaped mirrors. The hourlong trudge to the supermarket on the camp’s edge takes 10 minutes. “This is what we have,” Louay Al Hajj Ali, 37, said as he pedaled a bike with his 1-year-old daughter and 4-month-old niece in a crate. Ali’s five simple words could serve as a motto for Zaatari, the eight-square-mile camp near Jor-
flood of asylum seekers bursting across Europe’s borders, the majority of Syrian refugees remain in the region: 1.9 million in Turkey, 1.2 million in Lebanon and 630,000 here in Jordan. Underfunded aid agencies and overburdened host countries have been struggling for years to support them. With the World Food Program having cut vouchers this month to 229,000 Syrians living in Jordanian cities — where it is illegal for them to work — the once-reviled Zaatari is increasingly seen as the most stable spot for refugees. While growing numbers yearn to join the exodus to Europe, many in the camp have all but surrendered to a life of limited possibilities.
see their beloved homeland as lost, and grudgingly accept that Zaatari is somewhere they will be a while. Ali Al Humsi, 25, moved to Zaatari nine months ago after trying for two years to scratch by in Jordanian cities. He and a friend commute on a single bicycle to the center where he teaches barber skills in the morning; afternoons, he cuts hair in his own shop. “We are like living in the Dark Ages mentally,” he said. “The other day I said a verse of Arabic poetry to a friend that means, ‘How hard life would be if not for hope.’ My friend said, ‘Forget about hope, let’s go buy some tomatoes.’ ” JODI RUDOREN
China’s Premier Pledges to Help U.S. Stop Cybercrimes SEATTLE — President Xi Jinping pledged in a speech here on Tuesday night to work with the United States on fighting cybercrimes, saying that the Chinese government was a staunch defender of cybersecurity. “The Chinese government will not in whatever form engage in commercial theft, and hacking against government networks are crimes that must be punished in accordance with the law and relevant international treaties,” Xi told American business executives. At the end of his first day of a
state visit to the United States, Xi told his audience, which also included Chinese business leaders, “China is ready to set up a high-level joint dialogue mechanism with the United States on fighting cybercrimes.” Xi appeared to be attempting to reassure his audience, many of its members from tech industries, but how far his words would be believed by the Obama administration remained to be seen. At a briefing for reporters in Washington on Tuesday, a senior China adviser to President Obama said
that “we won’t paper over those differences,” a reference to cyberspace and economic issues. There would be “very robust discussion” with Xi, said the adviser, Daniel J. Kritenbrink. On Wednesday, Xi will meet with more than a dozen business leaders, including the head of General Motors, Mary T. Barra, and Apple’s chief executive, Timothy D. Cook, whose company is doing spectacularly well in China — the company’s revenues are expected to soon surpass those in the United States. JANE PERLEZ
In Brief Airstrike Kills an ISIS Leader The Pentagon said Tuesday that coalition forces killed a senior leader of the Islamic State, Abu Bakr al-Turkmani, in an airstrike two weeks ago in northern Iraq. A Pentagon spokesman, Peter Cook, described Turkmani as an “administrative emir” of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL, and a close associate of the group’s leaders. Cook also confirmed the death of a French jihadist, David Drugeon, in an airstrike in July in Syria. Drugeon was a member of the Khorasan Group, an offshoot of Al Qaeda, and an explosives expert, Cook said. Drugeon “trained other extremists in Syria and sought to plan other attacks against Western targets,” Cook said. (NYT)
President's Reinstatement Sought West African leaders called on Tuesday evening for the reinstatement of Burkina Faso’s interim
president, Michel Kafando, who was overthrown in a coup last week. Leaders of several nations in the region said they would travel to Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, on Wednesday to try to broker a peaceful resolution to the political crisis. Army units entered Ouagadougou on Tuesday in an attempt to reverse the coup, but the leader of the coup, Gen. Gilbert Diendéré, refused to surrender. (NYT)
Greek Leader Appoints New Cabinet Greece’s newly re-elected prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, decided on Tuesday on a new cabinet with few new faces and returned the critical job of finance minister to Euclid Tsakalotos, the low-key economist who made headway with his eurozone peers in bailout negotiations. Under pressure from Greece’s European partners to start work on a barrage of economic reforms underpinning the country’s third bailout, Tsipras kept his core economic team essentially intact. (NYT)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015
NATIONAL
Pope’s Arrival Is a Low-Key Prelude to Pageantry WASHINGTON — Pope Francis landed to a red-carpet welcome on Tuesday as he opened his first visit to the United States determined to press the world’s last superpower to do more to care for the planet and its most marginalized inhabitants. His white robes flapping in the breeze and his skullcap held in his hand, the pontiff was greeted by President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and their families. Hundreds of guests cheered, an honor guard stood at attention and a high school band performed the Pharrell Williams song “Happy.” Four children from local Roman Catholic schools greeted him, with one handing him flowers. “Ho, ho, hey, hey, welcome to the U.S.A.,” the crowd chanted at one point. At another, it chanted, “We love Francis, yes we do. We love Francis, how about you?” But there was little of the pageantry that awaits him at the White House on Wednesday.
President Obama and his family welcomed Pope Francis at Joint Base Andrews near Washington. Francis became only the third pope to visit Washington, and the capital was abuzz over his arrival. A vast seDOUG MILLS/THE NEW YORK TIMES curity cordon was The pope’s arrival inaugurated established from the Capitol to a journey spanning six days that the White House to the Apostolic will take him from here to New Nunciature. Tens of thousands of York and Philadelphia and feature residents and visitors prepared to several Masses celebrated before converge at his various planned huge crowds, the first canoniza- stops, and politicians of all stripes tion on American soil, an address were busy claiming his moral auto Congress and not a small de- thority for their causes. “The pope is a singular figure, gree of tension over his message. Many of his themes coincide with and he has really stirred the souls those of Obama, but some diverge of people all around the world,” in significant ways that could fla- said Josh Earnest, the White House press secretary. (NYT) vor the visit.
First Steps in Effort to Avoid Government Shutdown
3
In Brief Emanuel Urges Raise In Taxes in Chicago Faced with a toxic combination of mounting pension payments and plunging credit ratings, Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Tuesday called for tax and fee increases unprecedented in Chicago’s modern history, including a “last resort” property tax increase of more than $500 million to be implemented over four years. Emanuel warned that if aldermen opted for cuts alone to cover pension payments, then they would have to limit trash collection, close fire stations and lay off thousands of police officers and firefighters. But the proposed tax increases, as well as new taxes on e-cigarettes and other fees brought criticism from Chicagoans loath to pay more for city services at a time when the state of Illinois and the Chicago school system are facing their own fiscal crises. (NYT)
Saudi at Guantánamo Is Repatriated
months. On Tuesday, Senate Republicans failed to advance a bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks, legislation that the House has approved. The fight has posed the greatest threat yet to John A. Boehner’s leadership as House speaker, with some Republicans saying they will try to oust him if Planned Parenthood does not lose its funding. Other members of the House leadership have played down that possibility. If stripped of the Planned Parenthood language, the Senate spending measure will probably win approval in the House with support from Democrats. (NYT)
The Pentagon announced on Tuesday that it had repatriated a Guantánamo Bay detainee who intelligence analysts had concluded was probably once a bodyguard for Osama bin Laden. The United States held the man as a wartime prisoner for more than 13 years, government files show. The former detainee, Abdul Rahman Shalabi, 39, is from Saudi Arabia, and he was one of 32 men who were captured by the Pakistani military along the Afghanistan border in 2001 and turned over to the United States. (NYT)
Declaring Her Opposition, Clinton Enters Fray Over Pipeline
A Central Florida deputy shot a man to death during a standoff after the authorities said the man pointed a stapler at the deputy. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said deputies responded to a call Monday about suspected drug activity at an Auburndale home. Officials say Dominic Fuller, 34, who was suspected in a shooting earlier this month, ran. After repeated commands to surrender, Judd said, Fuller pointed a black and chrome object at the deputy. Police say the deputy feared for his life and fired five times. (AP)
WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leaders on Tuesday took the first steps to avert a government shutdown by scheduling a vote on a temporary spending measure that would keep agencies functioning through Dec. 11. The move marked a breakthrough, even though Democrats were certain to block the spending bill because of a provision cutting off federal financing for Planned Parenthood. The Planned Parenthood provision is expected to be dropped from the Senate’s spending bill. That would allow the underlying legislation to move forward with bipartisan support.
Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday that she opposed building the Keystone XL oil pipeline, revealing her position on an issue that divides two Democratic constituencies, organized labor and environmentalists. In announcing her opposition, Clinton said the pipeline was “a distraction from the important work we have to do to combat climate change.” She added: “I oppose it, because I don’t think it’s in
Still, the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, urged Democrats to adopt the measure and accused them of pushing the country to the brink of a government shutdown in a bid to strongarm Republicans into accepting spending increases. As for Planned Parenthood, McConnell said the group would lose financing for one year, while $235 million in savings would be redirected to health clinics. The Senate Democratic leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, complained that Republicans were wasting time. Abortion has become a flash point in Congress in recent
the best interest of what we need to do.” She declared her position during a campaign appearance in Iowa and on the day Pope Francis, who has challenged the world to act decisively on climate change, arrived in Washington. An aide to Clinton said that the campaign had briefed the White House. Clinton said that building the nearly 1,200-mile pipeline, which would carry heavily polluting oil
from Canada to refineries on the Gulf Coast, was not “in the best interest of what we need to do to combat climate change.” Anticipating criticism from backers of the project that her opposition would cost construction jobs, she pledged to soon detail a “North American clean energy agenda” that would put thousands of Americans to work repairing leaky existing pipelines and improving train tracks. (NYT)
Brandishing a Stapler, Man Is Killed by Deputy
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 4
BUSINESS
THE MARKETS
Health Insurance Deductibles Outpacing Wages $900 in 2010 for an individual plan to above $1,300 this year, while employees working for small businesses have an average of $1,800 a year. While the Kaiser survey examines plans provided by employers, Altman said many of the insurance policies being sold under the federal health care law through the state exchanges also rely on high deductibles to keep premiums low. The prospect of the so-called Cadillac tax, a new tax created under the law on high-price health plans, is causing more companies to consider changes like increasing the size of their employees’ deductibles. The tax, which is expected to go into effect in 2018, could change the steady increase in deductibles into a “spurt,” Altman said.
But asking employees to cover more of their medical bills through high deductibles raises questions about whether some workers are being discouraged from seeking the care they need. Companies have relied on higher deductibles to reduce premiums, both to lower their own costs and to reduce what they take out of the employees’ pay, said Laurel Pickering, the chief executive of the Northeast Business Group on Health, an employer group. “Clearly, it’s the go-to solution,” she said. Total premiums are increasing modestly. The cost of a plan for both a single person and a family rose an average of 4 percent this year, according to Kaiser, well below the double-digit increases that were the norm a decade ago. REED ABELSON
The Pharmaceutical Chief Behind the Price Increase Martin Shkreli is either the boy genius or the bad boy of pharmaceuticals, depending on one’s point of view. Shkreli, the 32-year-old founder of two drug companies, has proved to have a sharp eye for finding obscure drugs that can be turned into lucrative moneymakers, rewarding some of his investors. But after years of attacking drug company executives, he was vilified on social media and became the symbol for price gouging after his company, Turing Pharmaceuticals, raised the price of a 62-year-old drug that his company had acquired to $750 a pill from $13.50. While not the first huge overnight price increase for a drug,
this one touched a public nerve and intensified calls from lawmakers for measures to control the rising cost of medicines. After fiercely defending the price increase in interviews and on Twitter for two days, Shkreli backed down a bit Tuesday. He told television news networks that the price of the drug, Daraprim, would be lowered, though he did not specify what the new price would be. This is not the first time that Shkreli, a former hedge fund manager with a reputation for outspokenness, has been at the center of a controversy. While in his 20s, he drew negative attention for urging the Food and Drug Administration not to
approve drugs made by companies whose stock he was selling short. He was among a group of investors ordered by a New York judge to pay $2.3 million to Lehman Brothers to cover a losing bet on the markets in 2007. Two former employees sued him for not paying their wages, while another former employee accused Shkreli of taking over his personal email and Facebook accounts and harassing his family through social media. The board of his first pharmaceutical company accused him of using the company as his personal piggy bank to pay back angry investors in his hedge fund. ANDREW POLLACK and JULIE CRESWELL
Goldman Sachs Chief Announces He Has Lymphoma It seemed to be no big deal when Gary D. Cohn, the president of Goldman Sachs, spoke at a panel event Monday night. But Cohn, who had just returned from Singapore, was appearing on short notice. Unbeknown to the audience, he was filling in because his boss, Lloyd C. Blankfein, had hours learned he had cancer. Blankfein, who is Goldman’s chairman and chief executive, revealed Tuesday morning on the firm’s website that he had what he described as a “highly cur-
able” form of lymphoma. Blankfein, 61, will remain in charge as he undergoes chemotherapy over several months. Still, the disclosure thrusts into the spotlight the future of Goldman as it enters a ninth year of leadership under Blankfein. Analysts and investors have long wondered who waited in the wings as a potential successor. Now that question has acquired greater urgency. The current group of likely candidates has come down to a small cadre of Goldman executives,
according to people inside the company. His most logical replacement is his longtime lieutenant, Cohn. One rung below Cohn is a generation of younger Goldman officials. Among them are Harvey M. Schwartz, the firm’s chief financial officer, and David M. Solomon, a co-head of investment banking and longtime deal maker. Michael Sherwood, a co-head of the firm’s European division, has long been considered a potential successor. MICHAEL J. de la MERCED
NASDAQ
DJIA 179.72 ↘ 1.09% 16,330.47
72.23 ↘ 1.50% 4,756.72
S & P 500 24.23 1.23% 1,942.74
↘
EUR OPE BRITAIN
GERMANY
FRANCE
FTSE 100
DAX
CAC 40
172.87 ↘ 2.83% 5,935.84
377.85 ↘ 3.80% 9,570.66
156.99 3.42% 4,428.51
↘
ASIA/PACIFIC JAPAN
HONG KONG
CHINA
NIKKEI 225
HANG SENG
SHANGHAI
Market Holiday
39.65 0.18% 21,796.58
↗
↗
29.78 0.94% 3,186.32
AMER ICAS CANADA
BRAZIL
TSX
BOVESPA
288.35 ↘ 2.09% 13,491.09
325.59 ↘ 0.70% 46,264.61
MEXICO
BOLSA 386.08 ↘ 0.89% 43,232.06
COMMODITIES/BONDS
GOLD
↘
8.10
$1,125.00
10-YR. TREAS. CRUDE OIL YIELD
↘
0.07 2.13%
↘
0.60 $46.36
FOREIGN EXCHANGE Fgn. currency in Dollars
Australia (Dollar) Bahrain (Dinar) Brazil (Real) Britain (Pound) Canada (Dollar) China (Yuan) Denmark (Krone) Dom. Rep. (Peso) Egypt (Pound) Europe (Euro) Hong Kong (Dollar) Japan (Yen) Mexico (Peso) Norway (Krone) Singapore (Dollar) So. Africa (Rand) So. Korea (Won) Sweden (Krona) Switzerland (Franc)
.7088 2.6555 .2470 1.5362 .7537 .1569 .1492 .0221 .1277 1.1133 .1290 .0083 .0592 .1207 .7062 .0732 .0008 .1191 1.0261
Dollars in fgn.currency
1.4108 .3766 4.0487 .6510 1.3268 6.3750 6.7041 45.1500 7.8300 .8982 7.7493 120.12 16.8871 8.2865 1.4160 13.6624 1184.5 8.3994 .9746
Source: Thomson Reuters
ONLINE: MORE PRICES AND ANALYSIS
Æ
It may not seem like much — just an extra hundred dollars or so a year. But the steady upward creep in health insurance deductibles has outpaced the average increase in wages over the last five years, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser calculates that deductibles have risen more than six times as fast as workers’ earnings since 2010. “It’s a very powerful trend,” said Drew Altman, Kaiser’s chief executive. Four of five workers who receive their insurance through an employer pay a deductible, in which they must pay some of their medical bills before their coverage starts, Kaiser noted. Those deductibles have climbed from a yearly average of
Information on all United States stocks, plus bonds, mutual funds, commodities and foreign stocks along with analysis of industry sectors and stock indexes:
nytimes.com/markets
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 5
BUSINESS
E-Book Sales Slip, and Print Is Far From Dead Five years ago, the book world was seized by collective panic over the uncertain future of print. As readers migrated to new digital devices, e-book sales soared, up 1,260 percent between 2008 and 2010. Print sales dwindled, and bookstores struggled to stay open. “E-books were this rocket ship going straight up,” said Len Vlahos, a former executive director of the Book Industry Study Group, a nonprofit research group. “Just about everybody you talked to thought we were going the way of digital music.” But the digital apocalypse never arrived. While analysts once predicted that e-books would overtake print by 2015, digital sales have slowed sharply. Now, there are signs that some e-book adopters are returning to print, or becoming hybrid readers. E-book sales fell by 10 percent in the first five months of this year, according to the Association of American Publishers, which collects data from nearly 1,200 publishers. Digital books accounted last year for around 20 percent of the market, roughly the same as a few years ago. E-books’ declining popularity may signal that publishing will weather the tidal wave of digi-
Penguin Random House last year doubled the size of its distribution center in Crawfordsville, Ind., to speed up book distribution. A J MAST FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
tal technology better than other forms of media, like music. E-book subscription services, modeled on companies like Netflix and Pandora, have struggled to convert book lovers into digital binge readers, and some have shut down. Sales of dedicated e-reading devices have plunged as consumers migrated to tablets and smartphones. And according to some surveys, young readers who are digital natives prefer reading on paper. The surprising resilience of print has provided a lift to many booksellers. Once-battered independent bookstores are showing strong signs of resurgence. The American Booksellers Association counted 1,712 member stores in 2,227 locations in 2015, up from
1,410 stores in 1,660 locations five years ago. “The fact that the digital side of the business has leveled off has worked to our advantage,” said Oren Teicher, chief executive of the American Booksellers Association. “It’s resulted in a far healthier independent bookstore market today than we have had in a long time.” But some publishing executives say the world is changing too quickly to declare that the digital tide is waning. “Maybe it’s just a pause here,” said Carolyn Reidy, chief executive of Simon & Schuster. “Will the next generation want to read books on their smartphones, and will we see another burst come?” ALEXANDRA ALTER
Volkswagen’s Chief Finds His Empire Under Attack Striding past a car show model, Martin Winterkorn, trailed by aides, examined a Hyundai i30. He squeezed his stocky frame into the driver’s seat. He fiddled with the adjustable steering wheel. “It doesn’t clank,” Winterkorn said to a member of his entourage, with a note of Martin annoyance Winterkorn in his voice. “BMW can’t do it. We can’t do it. They can.” The scene from the Frankfurt auto show in 2011, captured on a YouTube video that has gone viral, has become famous as an illustration of the Volkswagen chief executive’s attention to detail and insistence on excellence. It was a display of the determination that helped Winterkorn lead Volkswagen past Toyota in
number of cars sold this year. But Winterkorn’s detail mania could become a liability, as he faces scrutiny over the revelation that millions of diesel models contained software designed to evade emissions regulations. Until the deception became public on Friday, Winterkorn’s future with Volkswagen had seemed more or less secure after he emerged the victor of a bitter power struggle this year that ended with the ouster of his onetime mentor, Ferdinand Piëch, the company’s longtime chairman. Piëch, a member of the powerful Porsche family that owns a significant stake in Volkswagen, began pressing for Winterkorn’s ouster in March — ostensibly because he was unhappy with the company’s failure to expand its U.S. market share. But Piëch’s campaign to remove Winterkorn failed to win the support of other key Volkswagen shareholders. In April, Piëch
stepped down. With Piëch’s influence diminished, Winterkorn pushed ahead with a strategy of improving profit margins at Volkswagen, which continues to struggle to make inroads in the United States and whose growth has stalled in emerging markets. The plan includes the discontinuation of unprofitable VW models and the slashing of about $5.5 billion in operating costs. Just two weeks ago, a steering committee of the board had voted unanimously to extend Winterkorn’s mandate, which was due to finish in 2016, until the end of 2018. Volkswagen’s traditional culture of highly centralized decision-making could make it difficult for Winterkorn to deflect suspicions that he and other senior managers were unaware of the software manipulations at the heart of the scandal, experts say. NICOLA CLARK and MELISSA EDDY
MOST ACTIVE, GAINERS AND LOSERS Close
Chg
% chg
Volume (100)
Bankof (BAC) FCX (FCX) Weathe (WFT) Apple (AAPL) Genera (GE) FordMo (F) Facebo (FB) HP (HPQ) RiteAi (RAD) Intel (INTC)
15.57 10.59 9.31 113.40 25.11 13.92 92.96 25.65 7.17 28.67
◊0.13 +0.06 +0.90 ◊1.81 +0.02 ◊0.40 ◊2.59 ◊0.79 ◊0.16 ◊0.49
◊0.8 +0.6 +10.7 ◊1.6 +0.1 ◊2.8 ◊2.7 ◊3.0 ◊2.2 ◊1.7
919729 914463 687709 502593 441615 440078 368039 319324 288759 282242
Stock (Ticker)
Close
Chg
% chg
Volume (100)
Vascul (VBLT) Agile (AGRX) NatlSe (NSEC) ZAISGr (ZAIS) Medall (TAXI) Weathe (WFT) Telado (TDOC) Axovan (AXON) Boingo (WIFI) Nathan (NATH)
9.88 8.16 15.74 8.10 8.07 9.31 24.50 15.61 8.51 42.77
+1.78 +1.13 +1.64 +0.81 +0.80 +0.90 +2.26 +1.15 +0.56 +2.80
+22.0 +16.1 +11.6 +11.1 +11.0 +10.7 +10.2 +8.0 +7.0 +7.0
70100 1241 130 212 14227 687709 4969 4439 5078 925
Stock (Ticker)
Close
Chg
% chg
Volume (100)
21.28 46.66 25.13 35.02 24.18 26.05 25.52 44.95 10.48 38.60
◊4.12 ◊8.74 ◊4.36 ◊5.92 ◊3.51 ◊3.76 ◊3.47 ◊5.90 ◊1.37 ◊4.72
◊16.2 ◊15.8 ◊14.8 ◊14.5 ◊12.7 ◊12.6 ◊12.0 ◊11.6 ◊11.6 ◊10.9
2238 12632 5219 9246 24828 7144 123608 22718 2105 4379
Stock (Ticker) 10 MOST ACTIVE
10 TOP GAINERS
10 TOP LOSERS Tantec (TANH) ANIPha (ANIP) Bluepr (BPMC) Mirati (MRTX) Depome (DEPO) Regenx (RGNX) Horizo (HZNP) ITI (ITCI) Dicern (DRNA) Seres (MCRB)
Source: Thomson Reuters
Stocks on the Move Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Tuesday: Goldman Sachs Group Inc., down $3.63 to $179.72. The Wall Street firm's C.E.O. and Chairman Lloyd Blankfein has lymphoma, but says that it is "highly curable." ConAgra Foods Inc., down $3 to $39.40. The maker of Chef Boyardee, Hebrew National hot dogs and other packaged foods reported mixed fiscal first-quarter results. CarMax Inc., down $2.94 to $59.72. The used car dealership chain reported better-than-expected fiscal second-quarter profit, but revenue fell short of forecasts. The J.M. Smucker Co., down $3.83 to $113.22. The food products company said Blue Holdings will sell nearly 8.3 million shares of stock in a secondary offering. The Mosaic Co., down $2.56 to $33.88. The maker of fertilizer products cut its production and sales outlook, citing delayed purchases in Brazil and North America. Groupon Inc., down 9 cents to $4.08. The e-commerce and online deals company said it is cutting 1,100 jobs in the coming year, roughly 10 percent of its workforce. Sky Solar Holdings Ltd., up 23 cents to $7.28. The solar power company entered a partnership with Hudson Energy Partners to fund up to $100 million in solar projects. (AP)
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2015 6
FOOD
When Dinner Proves Divisive: One Strategy, Many Dishes Back when I cooked only to please myself and one or two other consenting adults, choosing recipes was a breeze. Nothing was off limits. Then I began cooking for kids (picky, omnivorous and otherwise). With them came their nut-allergic friends, vegan guitar teachers and chile-fearing in-laws. Forced to adapt my NC-17 cooking style to a G-rated audience, I paged through cookbooks in search of “crowd pleasers” that proved elusive. Eventually, I realized that the quest for a perfect recipe that pleases everyone at the table, including oneself, was fruitless. But in the process, a workaround solution emerged: recipes that could be configured to produce many different dishes at one meal. Like fantasy football teams, these meals are both modular and complete, constructed from parts that can be added or subtracted on a whim. Suddenly, my weeknight repertoire increased exponentially. It’s easier on the cook when the week assumes a familiar pattern — pasta one night, a main-course salad another night, beans on a third — but to prevent boredom, the dishes themselves needn’t be exactly the same. Just like taco night or baked-potato night, the meal starts with a base element: pasta, beans, fluffy greens. After that, it’s
MELINA HAMMER FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Ingredients that can be assembled to produce many options at one meal is a solution to having to please picky eaters. about piling on, or politely passing along, the garnishes. The definition of a garnish may need some stretching: This is not a shy sprinkling of parsley or a scattering of sesame seeds. The garnish that makes a meal must be full-throated and filling. Half of a ripe avocado is a garnish. Likewise, a soft-yolk egg (boiled, poached or fried). Bacon lardons, shredded chicken and diced steak. Crushed chiles and leftover roast-
ed vegetables. With enough garnishes, even the plainest foods — pasta with butter and cheese — can balloon into a lively meal. Dishes like this are adaptable to many life stages, like the children’s furniture systems that supposedly allow you to turn a crib into a bed, then into a desk. But the building-block system cannot always be contained in a straightforward recipe: Much of the action happens at the table.
In Brief shaped like bagels, which are called bisgels, a name trademarked by Kimmel, whose business partner is Snoop Dogg: 11 Stanton Street (Chrystie Street), 212-477-7047. (NYT)
Stephanie Teekaram, left, and Kathy Johannes of Kitty’s-aGo-Go.
Tomatoes From the West
EMON HASSAN FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES
Jewish Food With a Taste of the South Become a restaurant known for your matzo-meal fried chicken, and people will want to take some home. So, Richard Kimmel is opening a food shop, Kitty’s-a-Go-Go, next door to Kitty’s Canteen, his red-curtained boîte that serves the chicken. Jewish food with a Southern drawl is the specialty, inspired by the recipes of Kitty Kimmel, Kimmel’s grandmother who worked for a talent agency in New York. Jazz musicians taught her how to cook soul food. Kathy Johannes and Stephanie Teekaram, the chefs at Kitty’s, now make the chicken, hush kitties (hush puppies filled with pastrami), matzo-ball soup with mustard greens, and biscuits
If you’ve been buying tomatoes at farm stands and farmers’ markets, you’ve probably been delighted; it has been a terrific season. As it winds down, you may appreciate Early Girl tomatoes from California, available until early October. The variety is not new; home gardeners have been growing them for a few years. But now they are being sold commercially, and not just on the West Coast, where they thrive because they are cultivated by dry-farming without irrigation. Early Girl Tomatoes, $4.99 a pound (sold in one-pound boxes) at Eataly and Agata & Valentina stores. (NYT)
TONY CENICOLA/THE NEW YORK TIMES
These are my back-pocket dinners that lend themselves to this approach: s Buttered pasta with grated cheese; lemon zest; pine nuts cooked in butter; bits of bacon or pancetta; crushed chiles; parsley s Vegetarian chili with crumbled queijo fresco or feta; cilantro; toasted tortillas or crushed chips; sour cream; pulled or roasted pork; cooked rice or whole grains; salsa s Cold sesame noodles with thinly sliced cucumbers, carrots, cabbage, scallions and bell peppers; sriracha or sambal; poached chicken or shrimp; cilantro leaves; crushed peanuts s Latin-style yellow rice and beans with chorizo; fried eggs; sliced avocado; leftover roasted potatoes, sweet or white; hot sauce mixed with minced scallions s Minestrone soup with a dollop of pesto; shaved Parmigiano-Reggiano; chopped drained fresh tomatoes; toasted sesame bread for dipping s A mix of fluffy salad greens with halved cherry or grape tomatoes; batons of red bell pepper, cucumber or fennel; toasted Marcona almonds; lardons of bacon or diced cooked steak; poached or hardboiled eggs; leftover roasted vegetables; baguette croutons. JULIA MOSKIN
An All-Purpose Home Wine List Just as a meal can generally be cobbled together from ingredients on hand, so, too, should you always have a few versatile wines available that can go with almost anything. A dry but pleasing red like a good cru Beaujolais and a dry white like a St.-Véran or Chablis are essentials that can match up with any of these recipes. You can easily add on, though, to the bare minimum. A Chianti would be great if you tossed together a dish of pasta and tomato sauce. German spätlese rieslings are wonderful if you call for Chinese food rather than cook. I like to have a fino sherry in the fridge for cheese and nuts, and one must always have a Champagne on hand, just because. ERIC ASIMOV
HOMETOWN HERO
Travis Matney
Chief Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (handling)
DEPT/DIV: Air/V-1 HOMETOWN: Grundy, Virginia WHY HE CHOSE THE NAVY:
I wanted to travel and make money.
HIS FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB:
Working on the flight deck with my V-1 Sailors.
PROUDEST NAVY MOMENT: Making Chief. SHOUT OUT: V-1 Yellow shirts, best in the fleet!
FUN
FACT
I’m a musician, I play the drums and guitar.
HOMETOWN HERO
Austin Komperda
aviation boatswain’s matE (Equipment) Airman
DEPT/DIV:
Ops/OSF
HOMETOWN: Cove, Oregon WHY HE CHOSE THE NAVY: To serve my country and it’s a family tradition. HIS FAVORITE PART OF THE JOB: Traveling the world. PROUDEST NAVY MOMENT: Getting the chance to get in and out of rate qualifications to gain experience.
SHOUT OUT: To ecurity, rove them deck plates Sea Warriors.
FUN
FACT
I love to ride motorcycles.
WHAT’S ON underway mov i e schedule
THURSDAY
SEPTEMBER 24, 2015
Staff Commanding Officer
Capt. Craig Clapperton Executive Officer
Capt. Jeff Craig Public Affairs Officer
Lt. Cmdr. Reann Mommsen Media Officer
Lt. j.g. Jack Georges Senior Editor
MCC Adrian Melendez MC1 R. David Valdez Editor
MC2 Chris Brown MC2 Danica M. Sirmans rough rider contributers
MOVIE TRIVIA
Q: This film features an epic scene that was actually inspired by an award-winning military photograph. What oscar-winning movie
MC3 D’Artanyan Ratley MC3 Taylor Stinson MC3 Stephane Belcher Theodore Roosevelt Media command ombudsman
cvn71ombudsman@gmail.com
features this scene?
A: See in the next edition of the Rough Rider.
Previous Question:what was the first animated film to feature an openly gay character? Answer:paranorman
friday
SEPTEMBER 25, 2015
WHAT’S ON underway mov i e schedule
The Rough Rider is an authorized publication for the crew of USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71). Contents herein are not necessarily the views of, or endorsed by, the U.S. government, Department of Defense, Department of the Navy or the Commanding Officer of TR. All items for publication in The Rough Rider must be submitted to the editor no later than three days prior to publication. Do you have a story you’d like to see in the Rough Rider? Contact the Media Department at J-dial 5934 or stop by 3-180-0-Q.
check us out online!
about.me/ussTheodoreRoosevelt