Vinson Voice 7 Dec 10

VOL 1 / NO 49

December 7, 2010

Story by MC3 Jessica Robertson USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer

It’s two a.m. and many Sailors on board Carl Vinson have been tucked in their racks for a few hours at least…but one division is just wrapping up their day’s work.

The “Gear Dogs” of Air Department V-2 Division operate and maintain the ship’s arresting gear. They make sure the planes that land on Vinson’s flight deck are able to do it safely, without causing harm to Sailors or damage to equipment.

“We’re the safety observers for the arresting gear on the flight deck and we make sure there aren’t any discrepancies,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) 2nd Class (AW/ SW) Miguel Scatliffe, an arresting gear supervisor in V-2.

Not only do the Gear Dogs act as safety observers on the flight deck, they also stand watch below decks in the arresting gear engine rooms and topside on the flight deck during flight operations. These watches last as long as flight operations continue. The Gear Dogs are also responsible for daily preand post-flight operations maintenance on the arresting gear, as well as weekly and monthly maintenance on the machinery rooms.

It’s a dirty job, and one the Gear Dogs typically perform after a hard day’s work.

“We have to drink a lot of Monsters and coffee,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) Airman Taylor Johnson.

And like sleep, hot meals are just as hard to come by.

“We eat what we can, if we can, when we can,” Johnson said.

“It’s a very busy job… flight operations start at 11 and all day long we’re moving, moving, moving.”

Johnson is one of the green-shirts on the flight deck using a push-bar to keep the arresting gear wires between the foul See`GEAR DOGS` page 2 The Carl Vinson Voice is an internal document produced by and for the crew of the USS Carl Vinson and their families. Its contents do not necessarily reflect the official views of the U.S. Government or the Departments of Defense or the Navy and do not imply any endorsement thereby.

Sailors assigned to Air Department V-2 Division operate catapult rotary systems.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Luis Ramirez.

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Carl Vinson Voice

From`GEAR DOGS` page 1

STAFF

lines to avoid causing injury to his shipmates. He’s also responsible for keeping a watchful eye on his shipmates to ensure they stay out of harm’s way when there are aircraft in transit. But that’s not all he does.

“I’m on the flight deck all day with 20 to 30-minute breaks here and there, and when I’m not up there, I’m making flash cards to study for my quals as a deck-checker and a hook-runner,” he explained.

That makes for a pretty jam-packed day, but despite the long hours, there’s a high level of motivation among the Gear Dogs in V-2.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for these guys, because you know they’re running on very little sleep and food, but they’re still out there doing their job, and doing it well,” said Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) 2nd Class (AW) Will Heard, another of V-2’s arresting gear supervisors.

Johnson added the camaraderie is second-to-none.

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.

Even with the long hours, if they tried to move me somewhere else, I’d put up a fight,” he said.

Johnson and Heard agree that the most important part of their job is supporting the main mission of the ship.

“It’s the reason we’re here,” said Johnson. “It’s our job to bring back our pilots and aircraft safely so they can get their jobs done more effectively and efficiently. If we can’t safely launch

and recover aircraft, what good is our ship?”

“Those aircraft are our first defense.

We’ve got a huge impact on the ship’s mission,” said Heard.

Hearing his shipmates thank him for a job well done means a lot to Heard.

“Knowing people’s lives are in my hands is what keeps me going,” he said.

“Sometimes a pilot will stop by and say, ‘Thanks, you might not know it, but your job is very important.’ That makes it all worth it.”

Both Heard and Johnson said they love the work they do.

“We’re a team, and we’ve got each

other’s backs. I love being on the flight deck and being around the planes,” said Heard.

Johnson’s love of being a Gear Dog comes from the feeling he gets on the flight deck.

“Working up on the flight deck really wakes me up whenever I’m feeling tired,” he said. “It’s a breath of fresh air, it makes me feel alive.”

As for the name “Gear Dog,” Johnson says an old saying explains it best.

“Have you ever heard of the phrase, ‘It’s not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog?’ We have to keep up the fight despite the long hours. We’re dirty and tired and we’re working like dogs, but we have to keep up the fight.”

Publisher

Capt. Bruce H. Lindsey

Commanding Officer Executive Editors

Lt. Cmdr. Erik Reynolds

Public Affairs Officer

Lt. Erik Schneider

Deputy Public Affairs Officer Managing Editor MC2 Ashley Van Dien Photo Editor MC2 Adrian White Layout and Design MC3 Patrick Green

Staff Writers/Photographers MC2 Byron Linder MC3 Lori Bent MC3 Luis Ramirez MC3 Jessica Robertson MCSN Kevin Harbach

Aviation Boatswain’s Mate (Equipment) Airman Drew Croslow operates arresting gear machinery. U.S. Navy photo

by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Luis Ramirez.

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December 7, 2010

Carl Vinson Celebrates Hanukkah Story by MC2 Byron Linder USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer

Sailors on board Carl Vinson welcomed a visiting addition to the Religious Ministries Department, Dec. 2.

Commander Joel Newman, command chaplain for Marine Aircraft Group 39 in Camp Pendleton and one of six Jewish chaplains in the Navy, visited Vinson to help Sailors celebrate the Hanukkah festival.

Hanukkah, which commenced at sunset Dec. 1, and concludes at sunset on Dec. 9, is an eight-day celebration commemorating the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem following the Maccabean Revolt in second Century Before the Current Era. Hanukkah’s iconic ninebranched candelabrum, known as the menorah, commemorates the “miracle of the container of oil.” At the Holy Temple’s rededication, there was only enough consecrated olive oil to fuel the temple’s eternal flame for one day. The oil burned for eight days, allowing enough time to press, prepare, and consecrate fresh oil. This is symbolized by the center raised candle, the shamash, being lit each night to light the other candles.

Newman explained the facets of the traditional Hanukkah service on board Vinson.

“The service is very similar to what we do at home.

We’re going to make the potato pancakes in the galley, which is a tradition based out of Europe. We use the concept of the oil and fry potato pancakes in oil to cel-

ebrate the holiday. We will light the candles, say some prayers, and sing traditional songs.”

Newman emphasized the importance of ministering to Sailors deployed away from the typically familyoriented celebration.

“As busy as this ship is, no one feels like we’re into the holiday season. Because Hanukkah and all the Jewish holidays are on the lunar calendar, they fall when they happen to fall. The command found it important enough to find me, fly me out, take care of me, and fly me back. It’s a big deal to the crew members who are Jewish, and it sends the message to those who aren’t that says we take care of everybody.”

Vinson’s command chaplain Commander Keith Shuley explained the steps taken to make visits like Newman’s possible.

“When you look at how the Department of Defense and various Chiefs of Staff view the policy that provides opportunities for each servicemember to practice their faith, it’s possible to allow provisions to make the practice of faith more involved and meaningful. We build these trips into existing logistics and manpower transfers or personnel movement.”

Shuley added that the chaplain’s mission addressed several facets of a Sailor’s personal and professional development.

“We are here as chaplains to support the overall wellbeing, morale, religious, moral and ethical concerns of every servicemember.

With that in mind, we make these things possible using

Sailors sing traditional Hebrew songs as they celebrate the second day of Hanukkah.

U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Kevin Harbach.

existing resources and logistics channels as much as possible.”

By supporting religious ministries, Newman said, commands provide a reliable place for addressing servicemembers’ personal needs.

“There’s so much more

that deals with the ethics and morals that go with religion,” he said. “The person would not be complete on the ship if we did not have evening prayer, if we didn’t have opportunities for worship of all faiths on this ship.”

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Carl Vinson Voice

Satellite Bars to Speed Up Chow Lines

Lt. Cmdr. Mitch D. Eisenberg Command Judge Advocate

Aviation Boatswain’s Mate Airman Heidi Borchert serves herself food from the satellite bar. U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Luis Ramirez.

Story by MC3 Lori Bent USS Carl Vinson Staff Writer

Tired of waiting in long lines for meals? Carl Vinson’s Supply Department has implemented a speedier, and healthier, way to eat chow for Sailors on the go. The forward mess deck offers Sailors satellite-bar service, consisting of a variety of delistyle self-service meals. The service accommodates Sailors who want quick, healthy meals by offering deli, pasta, chicken, potato and fajita bars.

“The concept of the satellite bar is to minimize the wait time for the aft galley by providing Sailors healthy choices of food on the go,” said Culinary Specialist 1st Class (SW) Omar Sagrero, forward galley watch captain.

The quick and easy service allows Sailors to get a meal, eat and head back to work in a timely manner and could possibly save up to an hour of wait time.

According to Culinary Specialist 2nd

Class (SW) Latara Leblanc, forward mess deck assistant watch captain, grab-and-go meals are nothing new to Vinson’s galley crew.

“We understand the need to eat and go back to work”, said Leblanc.

“That’s how the galley operates. We understand that Sailors have to get back to work” Not only do the satellite bars save Sailors time, they also offer healthier food options.

“Everything is cooked using ovens,” said Leblanc. “Even though we serve breaded chicken patties or chicken wings, they are never deep fried.”

With a variety of choices including chicken and beef fajitas, chicken wings and breaded chicken patties, a variety of cold-cut meats for sandwiches, a selection of toppings for potatoes and different sauces for pasta, the healthy and quick option has something for everyone.

The satellite bars are open for lunch and dinner from 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

As if you needed more reasons not to roll the dice on Spice, the Drug Enforcement Agency is making five chemical compounds used to produce Spice Schedule 1 controlled substances.

What does that mean to you?

It means that if you are caught using, possessing, or selling Spice you can now be charged with a Violation of Article 112a - Wrongful use, possession, etc., of a controlled substance, instead of just a violation of Article 92 – Disobeying a Lawful General Order.

That means that when you are kicked out your DD214 will reference drug abuse instead of just your failure to obey lawful orders. In addition, should you find yourself at Court-Martial, the maximum punishment for a violation of 112a is five years confinement vice the two years confinement for an Article 92 violation.

The other reason not to try Spice is that the Navy Drug labs are now up and running and accepting samples to test for Spice. Not that Spice use ever made sense, but now that it will be illegal for everyone in America to use or possess and not just the Military.

Understanding the Navy drug labs are testing for Spice, you have to be an idiot to roll the dice on Spice.

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December 7, 2010

PSSN Kenneth Kirlin Personnel Specialist Seaman Kenneth Kirlin is the Gold Eagle of the Day for Nov. 30. During the span of two days prior to deployment, Kirlin worked extra hours to single-handedly process 12 administrative separations and 12 regular separations. His efforts directly contributed to reducing the number of personnel that would be left in San Diego upon departure.

Deckplate Dialogues “What do you think of the new satellite bars?”

“It’s quick. I make a sandwich, eat, and head to watch on time. It cuts out standing in line.”

MM2(SW) Asa Tedford

“The line is usually faster. It’s not loud or clustered. The food’s not bad either.”

AOAN(AW) Mosuela Rodel

“The line back aft was longer.

This was so much faster.”

OSSN Katelyn Staley

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Carl Vinson Voice

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

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Obama Urges China to REIN IN North Korea WASHINGTON — In a sign of mounting tension between the United States and China over North Korea, President Obama telephoned President Hu Jintao and warned that China was emboldening its unruly neighbor by not publicly challenging its behavior, a senior administration official said Monday.

In a frank, 30-minute discussion on Sunday night, Obama urged China to put the North Korean government on a tighter leash after a series of provocations, most recently its shelling of a South Korean island, which has stoked fears of a wider military confrontation in the Korean Peninsula.

Obama, the official said, told Hu that “it was important for the North Koreans to understand that their actions would have consequences, including in their relations with China.” He reminded the Chinese leader of a tense meeting they had in Toronto last June, after which the president publicly declared that China was guilty of “turning a blind eye” to North Korea’s military provocations.

Since then, North Korea has lobbed artillery shells at South Korea, killing four people, and disclosed the existence of a clandestine uranium enrichment complex.

Still, China, North Korea’s most powerful ally, has not spoken out against the government. Even Obama’s phone call with Hu took several days to set up, though the White House insisted that it was a scheduling issue, not an attempt

by China to duck the president.

Hu did not offer any specific assurances to Obama, the official said, but he also did not complain about joint American-South Korean military exercises in the Yellow Sea. Nor did he suggest that the United States was partly to blame for North Korea’s belligerence because of its unwillingness to negotiate with Pyongyang.

“The call was meant to be more forward-looking than pointing fingers at the past,” the American official said.

MARK LANDLER

© 2010 The New York Times

from the pages of

Deal Extends Tax Cuts and Jobless Aid WASHINGTON — President Obama announced a tentative deal with Congressional Republicans on Monday to extend the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels for two years as part of a package that would also keep benefits flowing to the long-term unemployed, cut payroll taxes for all workers for a year and take other steps to bolster the economy.

The deal appeared to resolve the first major standoff since the midterm elections between the White House and newly empowered Republicans on Capitol Hill.

But it also highlighted the strains Obama faces in his own party as he navigates between a desire to get things done and a retreat from his own positions and the principles of many liberals.

Congressional Democrats pointedly noted that they had yet to agree to any deal, even as many Republicans signaled that they would go along.

Obama said that he did not like some elements of the framework, but that he had agreed to it to avoid having taxes increase for middle class Americans at

the end of the year. He said that in return for agreeing to Republican demands that income tax rates not go up on upper-income brackets, he had secured substantial assistance to lower- and middle-income workers as well as the unemployed.

“It’s not perfect, but this compromise is an essential step on the road to recovery,” Obama said. “It will stop middle-class taxes from going up. It will spur our private sector to create millions of new jobs, and add momentum that our economy badly needs.”

The package would cost about $900 billion over the next two years, to be financed entirely by adding to the national debt, at a time when both parties are professing a desire to begin addressing the nation’s long-term fiscal imbalances. It would reduce the 6.2 percent Social Security payroll tax on all wage earners by two percentage points for one year. For a family earning $50,000 a year, it would amount to a savings of $1,000. For a worker slated to pay the maximum tax, $6,621.60 on income of $106,800 or

more in 2011, the cut would mean a savings of $2,136.

The deal also includes continuation of a college-tuition tax credit, an expansion of the earned income tax credit and a provision to allow businesses to write off the cost of certain purchases. The top rate of 15 percent on capital gains and dividends would remain in place for two years, and the alternative minimum tax would be adjusted so that as many as 21 million households would not be hit by it. In addition, the agreement provides for a 13-month extension of jobless aid for the long-term unemployed.

But Obama made substantial concessions to Republicans. In addition to dropping his opposition to any extension of the current income tax rates on income above $250,000 for couples and $200,000 for individuals, Obama agreed to a deal on the federal estate tax that would ultimately set an exemption of $5 million per person and a maximum rate of 35 percent — a higher exemption and far lower rate than many Democrats wanted.

DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

and JACKIE CALMES

U.S. Prods and Protests but Can’t Halt Arms Flow WASHINGTON — Just a week after President Bashar al-Assad of Syria assured a top State Department official that his government was not sending sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Obama administration lodged a confidential protest accusing Syria of doing precisely what it had denied doing.

“In our meetings last week it was stated that Syria is not transferring any ‘new’ missiles to Lebanese Hizballah,” noted a cable sent by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in February, using an alternative spelling for the militant group. “We are aware, however, of current Syrian efforts to supply Hizballah with ballistic missiles. I must stress that this activity is of deep concern to my government, and we strongly caution you against such a serious escalation.”

A senior Syrian Foreign Ministry official, a cable from the

American Embassy in Damascus reported, flatly denied the allegation. But nine months later, administration officials assert, the flow of arms had continued to Hezbollah. According to a Pentagon official, Hezbollah’s arsenal now includes up to 50,000 rockets and missiles, including some 40 to 50 Fateh-110 missiles capable of reaching Tel Aviv and most of Israel, and 10 Scud-D missiles.

The newly fortified Hezbollah has raised fears that any future conflict with Israel could erupt into a full-scale regional war.

The Syrian episode offers a glimpse of the United States’ efforts to prevent buildups of arms — including Scud missiles, Soviet-era tanks and antiaircraft weapons — in some of the world’s tensest regions. Wielding surveillance photos and sales contracts, American diplomats have confronted foreign governments about shadowy front companies,

secretive banks and shippers around the globe, according to secret State Department cables obtained by WikiLeaks and made available to several news organizations.

U.S. officials have tried to block a Serbian black marketer from selling sniper rifles to Yemen.

They have sought to disrupt the sale of Chinese missile technology to Pakistan, the cables show, and questioned Indian officials about chemical industry exports that could be used to make poison gas. But while American officials can claim some successes — Russia appears to have deferred delivery of the S-300 air defense system to Iran — the diplomats’ dispatches underscore how often their efforts have been frustrated in trying to choke off trade by Syria and others, including Iran and North Korea.

MICHAEL R. GORDON and ANDREW W. LEHREN

International

In Brief Bombers Kill 40 at Anti-Taliban Meeting Two suicide bombers dressed as police officers detonated explosive vests at a meeting of hundreds of people with the top civilian official in the tribal agency of Mohmand, killing more than 40 and wounding at least 100, government officials said. The meeting in Peshawar, Pakistan, called a peace jirga, had been assembled to plan strategy to stand up to the Taliban, who have carved out a haven in the strategic tribal region on the Afghan border, resisting a nearly two-year campaign by the Pakistani military. (NYT)

Boy’s Water Pipe Linked to Israeli Fire A 14-year-old boy was arrested Monday as the prime suspect in the largest fire in Israel’s history, a four-day inferno that left 42 people dead, devoured 10,000 acres of forest and forced Israel to request international assistance. The boy, from the Carmel area, where the fire began, admitted under questioning that he had been smoking a tobacco water pipe and had thrown away a hot coal that set off the fire, said Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman. He fled the scene, and went back to school, Rosenfeld said.

(NYT)

21 Bodies Found in Colombia Mudslide Colombian rescue teams on Monday recovered 21 bodies of victims killed by a mudslide that ripped through a poor hillside area above Medellín, but they feared that more than a hundred other people, including dozens of children, might have died in the disaster. The mudslide, which occurred Sunday even as a clear blue sky prevailed over Medellín, was induced by heavy rains in recent weeks that have damaged as many as 200,000 homes across Colombia. The rains, considered the worst in decades, have killed more than 200 people. Óscar Andrés Pérez, the mayor of Bello, the district in which the mudslide struck, said in a phone interview, that many of the victims were children.

(NYT)

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Top Test Scores From Shanghai Stun Educators With China’s debut in international standardized testing, students in Shanghai have surprised experts by outscoring their counterparts in dozens of other countries, in reading as well as in math and science, according to the results of a respected exam.

American officials and Europeans involved in administering the test in about 65 countries acknowledged that the scores from Shanghai — an industrial powerhouse with some 20 million residents and scores of modern universities that is a magnet for the best students in the country — are by no means representative of all of China.

About 5,100 15-year-olds in Shanghai were chosen as a representative cross-section of students in that city. In the United States, a similar number of students from across the country were selected as a representative sample for the test.

Experts noted the obvious difficulty of using a standardized test to compare countries and cities

of vastly different sizes. Even so, they said the stellar academic performance of students in Shanghai was noteworthy, and another sign of China’s rapid modernization.

The results also appeared to reflect the culture of education there, including greater emphasis on teacher training and more time spent on studying.

The test, the Program of International Student Assessment, known as PISA, was given to 15-year-old students by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Parisbased group that includes the world’s major industrial powers.

The results are to be released officially on Tuesday, but advance copies were provided to the news media a day early.

PISA scores are on a scale, with 500 as the average. Two-thirds of students in participating countries score between 400 and 600.

On the math test last year, students in Shanghai scored 600, in Singapore 562, in Germany 513,

and in the United States 487.

In reading, Shanghai students scored 556, ahead of second-place Korea with 539. The United States scored 500 and came in 17th, putting it on par with students in the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and several other countries.

In science, Shanghai students scored 575. In second place was Finland, where the average score was 554. The United States scored 502 — in 23rd place — with a performance indistinguishable from Poland, Ireland, Norway, France and several other countries.

“We have to see this as a wakeup call,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said on Monday. “I know skeptics will want to argue with the results, but we consider them to be accurate and reliable, and we have to see them as a challenge to get better. The United States came in 23rd or 24th in most subjects. We can quibble, or we can face the brutal truth that we’re being out-educated.” SAM DILLON

Iran’s Divorce Rate Soars, as More Women Say No TEHRAN — The wedding nearly 1,400 years ago of Imam Ali, Shiite Islam’s most revered figure, and Fatemeh al-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, is commemorated in Iran’s packed political calendar as a day to celebrate family values.

But in a sign of the Iranian authorities’ increasing concern about Iran’s shifting social landscape, Marriage Day, as it is usually known in Iran, this year was renamed No Divorce Day. Iran’s justice minister decreed that no divorce permits would be issued.

Whether the switch was effective or not, the officials’ concerns are understandable. Divorce is

skyrocketing in Iran. The number each year has roughly tripled in a decade, to a little more than 150,000 in 2010 from around 50,000 in 2000, according to official figures. Nationwide, there is one divorce for every seven marriages; in Tehran, the ratio is 1 divorce for every 3.76 marriages, the government has reported.

While the change in divorce rates is remarkable, even more surprising is the major force behind it: the increasing willingness of Iranian women to manipulate the Iranian legal system to escape unwanted marriages.

The numbers are still modest compared with the United States,

which typically records about a million divorces a year in a population about four times as large.

But for Iran, with a conservative Islamic culture that strongly discourages divorce, the trend is striking, and shows few signs of slowing. In the last Iranian calendar year, ending in March, divorces were up 16 percent from the year before, compared with a 1 percent increase in marriages.

Conservative commentators call the problem a social ill on par with drug addiction and prostitution. Senior officials have increasingly referred to the issue as a “crisis” and a “national threat.”

WILLIAM YONG

Continental Airlines Found Guilty in Concorde Disaster PARIS — A judge ruled Monday that Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics were guilty of involuntary homicide for their role in the 2000 crash of an Air France Concorde jet outside Paris that killed 113 people and hastened the end of commercial supersonic travel.

The French court ordered Continental to pay civil damages of more than $1.3 million to Air France and a fine of

$265,000. The mechanic was fined $2,650 and given a suspended 15-month prison sentence. Continental called the ruling “absurd” and said it would appeal.

A 2002 report by French air accident investigators concluded that a small strip of metal that fell off a Continental DC-10 that took off minutes earlier punctured a tire of the Concorde as it accelerated on the runway on July 25, 2000. The tire disintegrated in seconds, in-

vestigators said, sending shards of rubber into the fuel tanks. The plane crashed into a hotel near the airport. All 109 passengers and crew members were killed, along with 4 people on the ground.

The court faulted the mechanic, John Taylor, 42, for using titanium, rather than a softer metal, to construct a replacement piece for the DC-10. It also accused him of improperly attaching the strip to the aircraft.

(NYT)

national

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Service Members’ New Threat: Identity Theft The government warns Americans to closely guard their Social Security numbers. But it has done a poor job of protecting those same numbers for millions of people: the nation’s soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.

At bases and outposts at home and around the world, military personnel continue to use their Social Security numbers as personal identifiers in dozens of everyday settings, from filling out health forms to checking out basketballs at the gym. Thousands of soldiers in Iraq even stencil the last four digits onto their laundry bags.

All of this is putting members of the military at heightened risk for identity theft.

That is the conclusion of a scathing new report written by an Army intelligence officer turned West Point professor, Lt. Col. Gregory Conti. The report concludes that the military needs to rid itself of a practice that has been widespread since the 1960s.

“Service members and their

families are burdened with a work environment that shows little regard for their personal information,” the report says, adding that the service members, “their units, military preparedness and combat effectiveness all will pay a price for decades to come.”

Representatives for the military say they are aware of the problem and are taking steps to fix it, with the Navy and Marines making efforts in the last few months. The Defense Department said in 2008 that it was moving to limit the use of Social Security numbers, and in a statement last week it said the numbers would no longer appear on new military ID cards as of May. In 2009, Social Security numbers were used in 32 percent of identity thefts in which the victims knew how their information was compromised, according to Javelin Strategy and Research, which tracks identity theft.

In June, the Richmond County district attorney in Staten Island

announced the indictment of a gang of identity thieves who victimized, among others, 20 soldiers at Ford Hood, Tex. According to the district attorney’s office, the soldiers’ Social Security numbers were stolen from the base by a former Army member who moved to New York, and the thieves then made 2,515 attempts to abuse the soldiers’ identities, obtaining checkbooks or credit cards in their names.

Officials said some of the soldiers had been singled out because they were stationed in Iraq or Afghanistan where they would be slow to catch on to the fraud. That is the fear of military officials concerning the vulnerability of soldiers.

“If you’re operational and you’re out there, you can’t do anything about the harm being done in the United States,” said Steve Muck, the Navy’s chief information officer in charge of privacy policy for Marine and naval personnel. “It’s a significant issue.”

MATT RICHTEL

3 Republicans in Race to Lead Appropriations Panel WASHINGTON — The thick binder is dominated by a drawing of a chubby Uncle Sam, shirt buttons straining against his girth, with a fleshy hand open and outstretched.

“Uncle Needs a Diet,” declares the package assembled by Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Calif., one of three candidates in the race for one of the most powerful, and now paradoxical, jobs in government: leading the House Appropriations Committee in the new Congress as the Republican leadership tries to transform the panel from a fountain of federal spending into ground zero for budget cutting.

Selecting a chairman — a party

vote is expected Tuesday — is the first step in perhaps the most audacious aspect of the plan by Rep. John A. Boehner, the incoming Republican speaker, to alter the way the House works. Like Lewis, the other two leading candidates, Reps. Harold Rogers of Kentucky and Jack Kingston of Georgia, are campaigning to convince their party’s leadership that they can cast aside their own histories as earmarkers and pork-allocators and lead a shift in focus from how to spend it to how to save it.

To make the effort more than a slogan will mean upending one of the most entrenched cultures in Washington, a bipartisan tradi-

tion of directing money to favored causes with an eye as much to political gain as to policy outcome.

Leading the committee toward a belt-tightening mandate would also mean taking on an entire industry that has been built up around the federal trough, a complex of lobbyists, consultants and corporations.

“It has been a favor factory for years, and now it is going to become a slaughterhouse,” said Rep. Jeff Flake, an Arizona Republican and longtime antagonist of the Appropriations Committee who on Monday was endorsed by Boehner to be seated on the panel.

“It is going to get ugly.” (NYT)

Legal Challenge to the Death Penalty Begins in Texas HOUSTON — The death penalty went on trial Monday in Texas, a state where more prisoners are executed every year than in any other and where exonerations of people on death row occur with surprising regularity.

Lawyers for John E. Green Jr., who stands accused of murdering a woman in front of her children, are arguing that the death penalty as carried out in Texas violates the Constitution because there is

a high risk innocent people will be executed.

The hearing stems from a routine argument defense lawyers make in most death penalty cases.

Judges rarely grant the motion, however, because the Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld the death penalty as outside of the ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

But Judge Kevin Fine shocked many Texans by giving the argument serious consideration. As a

result, his courtroom became a forum Monday for defense lawyers to present an indictment of problems in the criminal justice system that they say lead to wrongful convictions. They said they hoped to prove that some tools in the prosecution’s arsenal were frequently unreliable and led to mistaken convictions: eyewitness testimony, fingerprint evidences and the testimony of informants.

JAMES C. McKINLEY

In Brief Same-Sex Marriage Debate Before Panel A federal appellate panel heard animated arguments for and against California’s ban on same-sex marriage on Monday, and seemed alternately skeptical of some the ban’s justifications and concerned with the legal standing of its defenders. The oral arguments were made to a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco, which is the second federal court to consider the case, which was brought last year by two gay couples who want to marry. In August, a lower district judge, Vaughn R. Walker, ruled that the ban — Proposition 8 — did indeed violate their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process, but its supporters appealed.

(NYT)

Bell-Ringing Limits Cut Into Donations Donations to the Salvation Army in the Washington, D.C., area have fallen 15 percent below last year’s in the first two weeks of its Christmas season bell-ringing campaign, officials from the organization said, dragged down by the continuing recession and a new limit on ringing outside Giant Food stores. Giant announced the limit in October, in what it said was an effort to allow more nonprofit groups access to its customers. The Salvation Army had exclusive rights from Nov. 12 to Dec. 24, but now is limited to one week in November and one week in December.

(NYT)

Schwarzenegger Proposes New Cuts Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger proposed $7.4 billion in new spending cuts — most on social services — on Monday as he sought to deal with a $6 billion deficit that has opened up in the budget California adopted two months ago. Schwarzenegger called a special session of the Legislature to deal with what he described as a fiscal emergency, urging cuts in spending on welfare, health care and child care.

(NYT)

business

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

the markets

Justices to Hear Wal-Mart Discrimination Case WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear an appeal in the biggest employment discrimination case in the nation’s history, one claiming that Wal-Mart Stores had discriminated against hundreds of thousands of women in pay and promotion. The lawsuit seeks back pay that could amount to billions of dollars.

The question before the court is not whether there was discrimination but rather whether the claims by the individual employees may be combined as a class action. The court’s decision on that issue will almost certainly affect all sorts of class-action suits, including ones asserting antitrust, securities and product liability.

If nothing else, many pending class actions will slow or stop while litigants and courts await

the decision in the case. Arguments in the case are likely to be heard this spring, with a decision expected by the end of June.

Wal-Mart, which says its policies expressly bar discrimination and promote diversity, said the plaintiffs, who worked in 3,400 stores in 170 job classifications, cannot possibly have enough in common to make classaction treatment appropriate.

There has been no ruling yet on the plaintiffs’ claims that they were discriminated against, and the ground rules for how those claims will be heard have not yet been determined. Resolution of the merits of the plaintiffs’ case will now await a decision about whether it may go forward as a class action.

In their brief urging the justices to deny review, the plaintiffs said

Wal-Mart’s objection to classaction treatment boiled down to the enormous size of the class.

But size is “legally irrelevant,” the brief said. “The class is large because Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest employer and manages its operations and employment practices in a highly uniform and centralized manner.”

Brad Seligman, the main lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Monday that plaintiffs welcomed the court’s review of the limited issue and were confident that the justices would rule in their favor.

“Wal-Mart has thrown up an extraordinarily broad number of issues, many of which, if the court seriously entertained, could very severely undermine many civil rights class actions,” Seligman said.

ADAM LIPTAK and STEVEN GREENHOUSE

Treasury Selling Last of U.S. Stake in Citigroup Citigroup is finally wriggling free from Uncle Sam. Two years after the financial giant was bailed out by the federal government, the U.S. Treasury is selling its remaining shares in the company.

The move, announced late Monday, largely ends the remarkable federal rescue of Citigroup, whose downfall came to symbolize all that was wrong with Wall Street. It also represents another milestone in the post-bailout era.

While the government would retain a vestigial interest in Citigroup after the offering, the sale would effectively free the giant company from modest federal pay restrictions and lift a cloud that has hung over its chief executive, Vikram S. Pandit. “We

are very appreciative of the support provided by the UST during the financial crisis,” the company said in a statement, referring to the U.S. Treasury.

Emboldened by strong investor interest and the recent initial public offering of General Motors, another bailed-out giant, the Treasury announced Monday evening that it would start selling 2.4 billion shares of Citigroup common stock. The deal was expected to be priced at $4.35 a share, a 2 percent discount, according to a person briefed on the transaction who asked for anonymity because the deal had not yet closed. All told, that means that taxpayers will reap about a $12 billion profit on the Treasury’s multibillion-dollar investment in

Citigroup.

While the final accounting of the government broader bailouts will not be known for years, major banks and the Detroit automakers have emerged from the rescues far faster than many had expected.

Proceeds from the Citigroup sale would mark the single biggest profit yet from the government bailout programs. Few saw such a quick windfall two years ago. Many doubted the wisdom of using taxpayers’ money to rescue Citigroup, which was devastated when the home mortgage market imploded. Citigroup was the biggest user of several emergency support programs that the Federal Reserve put in place during the crisis.

ERIC DASH

Asset Firm’s Founders Fight Amid S.E.C. Investigation A fast-growing California money-management firm is wrestling with a deep rift between its founders as well as an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The firm, Aletheia Research and Management of Santa Monica, Calif., manages more than $7 billion in assets and recently drew attention for its role in the shareholder fight at Barnes & Noble.

Now a lawsuit brought by an Aletheia cofounder, Roger B.

Peikin, may throw an unwanted spotlight on the firm.

The complaint, filed against the firm and chief executive Peter J. Eichler Jr. in state court in Los Angeles, describes a bitter split between Peikin and Eichler, who together started Aletheia in 1997.

Peikin says that he and Eichler clashed over Eichler’s “trading practices, general disregard for regulatory controls, wanton expenditure of corporate assets for Eichler’s personal benefit, and overall neglect of the business

side of Aletheia’s operations.”

“Mr. Peikin’s claims are meritless,” said Mark D. Kemple, a lawyer at Jones Day representing Aletheia in the lawsuit.

The S.E.C. investigation relates to the books and records of Aletheia, say two people with knowledge of the inquiry who requested anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss it.

The agency is close to reaching a settlement with the firm, according to these people.

PETER LATTMAN

DJIA

NASDAQ

19.90 0.17%

D

11,362.19

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U

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2,594.92

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EURO P E BRITAIN

GERMANY

FRANCE

FTSE 100

DAX

CAC 40

24.96 0.43%

U

5,770.28

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1.32 0.04%

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6,954.38

3,749.23

AS I A/PAC I F I C JAPAN

HONG KONG

NIKKEI 225 11.09 0.11%

D

10,167.23

CHINA

HANG SENG SHANGHAI 82.83 0.36%

D

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AMER I C AS CANADA

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97.06 0.74%

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13,276.01 69,551.80 37,737.13 COMMOD I T IE S / BON D S

GOLD

U

10-YR. TREAS. CRUDE OIL YIELD

9.68

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D

0.08

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2.93%

0.19 $89.38

Foreign Exchange

Fgn. currency Dollars in

in dollars fgn.currency Mon. Fri. Mon. Fri. Australia .9906 .9903 1.0095 1.0098 Bahrain 2.6521 2.6518 .3771 .3771 Brazil .5939 .5879 1.6837 1.7010 Britain 1.5721 1.5741 .6361 .6353 Canada .9960 .9955 1.0041 1.0045 China .1504 .1500 6.6507 6.6676 Denmark .1787 .1794 5.5960 5.5741 Dominican .0268 .0269 37.26 37.20 Egypt .1729 .1727 5.7840 5.7887 Europe 1.3322 1.3375 .7507 .7477 Hong Kong .1289 .1288 7.7610 7.7640 Japan .0121 .0125 82.60 82.90 Mexico .0807 .0809 12.3890 12.3600 Norway .1668 .1670 5.9941 5.9880 Singapore .7673 .7679 1.3033 1.3022 So. Africa .1454 .1458 6.8790 6.8582 So. Korea .0009 .0009 1133.50 1133.25 Sweden .1461 .1464 6.8446 6.8306 Switzerlnd 1.0189 1.0228 .9815 .9777

Online: MORE PRICES AND ANALYSIS

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

business

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Kraft Seeks to Enforce Starbucks Contract A billion-dollar brouhaha between Starbucks and Kraft over supermarket coffee sales is turning into the venti latte of corporate divorces — with a double shot of espresso and extra foam.

On Monday, Kraft took the fight to court, asking a federal judge in Manhattan to stop Starbucks from breaking the 12-year partnership under which Kraft distributes Starbucks’ packaged coffees, including whole beans and ground coffee, to grocery stores and other retailers.

The war of words has been escalating for days, as the two sides traded charges and countercharges. Kraft claims that Starbucks unilaterally decided to end their agreement, and Starbucks says that Kraft failed to aggressively promote its brands, which include Seattle’s Best Coffee, in stores.

The bitterness has also spilled into the fast-growing market for single-serve coffee machines, with Kraft accusing Starbucks of undermining sales of its Tassimo coffee system ahead of the peak holiday season.

Starbucks offered Kraft $750 million in August to terminate the partnership, according to the court filing, but Kraft declined.

Under the contract, Starbucks can walk away if it pays Kraft fair market value for the business, plus a premium of as much as 35 percent, Kraft said in its legal

papers. Analysts have estimated that fair market value alone could be well over $1 billion.

Robert Moskow, a senior analyst for Credit Suisse, said a breakup is inevitable — the only question was how big the settlement would be. “Kraft knows the thing is over,” he said. “They’re going to go to arbitration and try to get as much value out of it as they can, and the way to do that is to get your

A fight escalates over the supermarket sales of the famous coffee. lawyers out there and say Starbucks violated the agreement.”

Kraft, maker of the well-known Maxwell House brand of coffee, is the largest food manufacturer in the country, with $48 billion in annual revenue. The Starbucks deal involves about $128 million in yearly profits split evenly between the partners, according to an estimate by Credit Suisse. As a result, Moskow said, executives at Kraft were not likely to lose much sleep over the loss of the deal.

But for Starbucks, which has seen the once-exponential growth of its signature coffeehouses slow in recent years, supermarket sales are

an important area for expansion.

The company has already had unexpected success this year with its new instant coffee line, VIA. Starbucks said it manages its own relationships with retailers for VIA sales, in coordination with a national distributor, Acosta. The company now wants to use those relationships to peddle ground coffee and beans directly, cutting out Kraft as a middleman.

At an investor conference in New York City last week, the chief executive of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, said the company would aggressively look to push sales of its products in grocery stores, including whole beans, ground coffee and VIA. He said the company was confident it could get out of the deal.

In a news release on Monday, Starbucks dismissed the Kraft court filing as a delay tactic. Starbucks, which is based in Seattle, said it plans to take over distribution of its supermarket packaged coffee sales March 1.

Kraft said in a statement that Starbucks was “proceeding with flagrant indifference to the terms of the contract.” It asked the court to stop Starbucks from taking steps to terminate the agreement on its own and to bar Starbucks from communicating with retailers about a change in the coffee distribution deal.

WILLIAM NEUMAN

Google’s E-Bookstore Will Offer Some Books Free It’s official: the Google e-bookstore is open.

After years of planning and months of delays, the search giant Google started its e-book venture on Monday, creating a potentially robust competitor in the digital book market to Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Apple.

Google executives described the e-bookstore as an “open ecosystem” that will offer more than three million books, including hundreds of thousands for sale and millions free. More than 4,000 publishers, including large trade book companies like Random House, Simon & Schuster and Macmillan, have made books available for sale through Google, many at prices that are identical to those of other e-bookstores.

“We really think it’s important that the book business have this open diversity of retail points,

just like it does in print,” said Tom Turvey, the director of strategic partnerships at Google.

Customers can set up an account for buying books, store them in a central online, password-protected library and read them on personal computers, tablets, smartphones and e-readers.

A Web connection will not be necessary to read a book. However users can use a dedicated app that can be downloaded to an iPad, iPhone or Android phone.

A typical user could begin reading an e-book on an iPad at home, continue reading the same book on an Android phone on the subway and then pick it up again on a Web browser at the office, with the book opening each time to the place where the user left off.

The Google eBookstore could be a significant benefit to independent bookstores like Powell’s

Books in Portland, Ore., that have signed on to sell Google e-books on their Web sites through Google — the first significant entry for independents into the e-book business.

“This levels the playing field,” said Oren Teicher, the chief executive of the American Booksellers Association. “If you want to buy e-books, you don’t just have to buy them from the big national outlets.”

It is also an opportunity for independents to learn from past missteps.

“They were so overwhelmed with the competition that Amazon presented, they just didn’t know what they could do to be competitive in the digital arena,” said Peter Osnos, the founder and editor at large of PublicAffairs, an independent publisher. “Google’s giving them a real shot at doing that.”

JULIE BOSMAN

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Stocks on the Move Shares of the following companies may have unusual moves in U.S. trading: Citigroup Inc. (C US): The U.S. Treasury Department plans to sell the rest of its stake in the country’s third-largest bank by assets, using a public offering to dispose of 2.4 billion shares acquired during the taxpayer bailout.

Geron Corp. (GERN US) fell 7.8 percent to $5.64. The drugmaker said it will sell a number of shares in an underwritten public offering to repay debt and fund drilling expenditures.

Kodiak Oil & Gas Corp. (KOG US) declined 4.5 percent to $5.13. The oil and natural gas explorer plans to sell 20 million shares. Additional stock can dilute the value of existing shares.

Pep Boys - Manny, Moe & Jack (PBY US) jumped 6.5 percent to $13.80. The automotive part retailer and service chain reported third-quarter revenue of $496.4 million, beating the average analyst estimate of $488.6 million.

Spectrum Brands Inc. (SPB US) retreated 2.7 percent to $27.75. The maker of Remington razors and Rayovac batteries reported fourth-quarter profit excluding some items of 25 cents a shares, trailing the average estimate of three analysts.

(Bloomberg)

science

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Down, Across, and 5 Minutes Later, Done The cameras were set to shoot for only eight minutes.

“Oh, it won’t take that long,” Dan Feyer said, with the hint of a smile.

Hubris, anyone?

The pressure was on. Feyer, 33, a soft-spoken, balding musician, had come to a photo studio at The New York Times to demonstrate one of his odder talents.

With the clock ticking and the shutters clicking, he put pencil to crossword. Not just any puzzle, but the Saturday one from The New York Times — the hardest of the week, notoriously clever and tricky. There are people who won’t even touch it. And then there is Dan Feyer.

His left hand tracked the clues while his right skittered over the grid. He pressed his lips together and grimaced. He erased, and rapidly filled in more boxes. Then he paused, erased again, and resumed skittering. He mumbled once and erased three more times. Was he in trouble? He wrote something, looked up, put his pencil down.

Done. Five minutes, 29 seconds.

Penmanship, neat as a nun’s. Feyer, in jeans, sneakers and a black T-shirt, hadn’t broken a sweat.

Who is this guy? What kind of person knows the name of Mikhail Gorbachev’s wife (Raisa), a synonym for no-good (dadblasted), the Rangers coach in 1994 (Keenan), a platinum-group element (iridium) and the meaning of objurgation (rant)?

The kind of person who whips through 20 crosswords a day (at least 20,000 in the last three years),

Daniel Feyer doing a Saturday crossword at The New York Times offices.

Josh Haner/ The New York Times

who won this year’s American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and who has 100,000 puzzles saved on his computer.

“I feel I want to do them all, somehow,” Feyer said. “I’ve probably done more crosswords than anybody in the world in the last three years. I don’t know if that’s something to be proud of, but it’s a claim to fame.”

He does have another life, a freelance one as a pianist and music director for theater productions.

His most recent shows were “With Glee,” which ran Off Broadway last summer, and “Dracula, a Rock Opera,” which ran in Rochester, Mich., in October.

So how does that guy become a puzzle ace? Besides training like an athlete, Feyer said, it helps to have “underlying brain power and a head for trivia.” He always had high grades and test scores, he said. He excelled at math as well as music, abilities that he thinks go together with crossword solving.

What they all have in common,

he said, is pattern recognition — as he begins filling in a puzzle grid, he starts recognizing what the words are likely to be, even without looking at the clues, based on just a few letters.

“A lot of the time, crossword people are musicians,” he said, noting that Jon Delfin, who has won the tournament seven times, is also a pianist and music director. “Mathematicians and computer scientists are also constructors.”

Arthur I. Schulman, a crossword constructor and retired psychology professor from the University of Virginia, who taught a seminar called “The Mind of the Puzzler,” agreed that there is a strong correlation between skill at word puzzles and talent for math and music.

All, he said, involve playing with symbols that in and of themselves are not meaningful.

“There’s an underlying connection, but I’m not sure what it might be,” Schulman said. “It’s finding meaning in structure.”

DENISE GRADY

Filling in the Memory’s Blanks He did two crossword puzzles a day, sometimes more, working through the list of clues in strict order, as if to remember where he was.

And, perhaps, what he was doing.

H e n r y Gustav Molai- Henry son — known Molaison through most of his life only as H.M., to protect his privacy — became the most studied patient in the history of brain science after 1953, when an experimental brain operation left him, at age 27, unable to form new memories.

Up until his death in 2008, Molaison cooperated in hundreds of studies, helping scientists identify the brain structures critical to acquiring new information.

In between it all he did puzzles, books upon books of them. Near the end of his life he kept a crossword book and pen with him always, in a basket attached to his walker. His puzzle solving opened a window on the brain, and demonstrated puzzles’ power, and their limitations, in stretching a damaged mind.

“In a world that was buzzing by and not always so easy to understand, I think finding solutions gave him great satisfaction,” said Dr. Brian Skotko, a clinical fellow in genetics at Children’s Hospital Boston.

(NYT)

An 11-Letter Word for Perfectionist? Hint: Starts With a C PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Natan Last is making a crossword puzzle.

“The theme,” he says as he opens his laptop, “is Dr. Seuss books” — in particular “Yertle the Turtle,” “Green Eggs and Ham” and “Horton Hears a Who,” whose 15-letter titles will fit exactly across the blank grid he summons onto his screen. He writes one title across near the top, another at the middle and the third near the bottom.

“Now we have to put in the black squares,” he says. By the conventions of crossword making, or “constructing,” the design must be symmetrical.

The trick with black squares is to put them under letters that

often end words, like T’s and S’s, says Joey Weissbrot who, like Last, is a member of the Brown University Puzzling Association.

He and some other members of the group have gathered with Last in a student lounge to collaborate.

A junior at Brown and a creative writing major from Brooklyn, Last has been making crossword puzzles since he was in high school, and he was, for a time, the youngest constructor ever to have a puzzle in The New York Times.

Eventually, The Times’s puzzle editor, Will Shortz, took him on as an intern. His crosswords were “extraordinary,” Shortz said.

“Crosswords have this reputation of being for older people,” Shortz said. “That’s just

Mike Cohea/Brown University

Puzzle “constructors” at Brown University. not true anymore.”

There are similar groups at places like Yale, Harvard, Princ-

eton and Texas Christian University. But Shortz says Brown’s is the largest, and at Last’s suggestion he gave it the task of producing a week’s worth of puzzles in September.

Constructing puzzles is “mathematical,” said Aimee Lucido, a sophomore from Chicago who had her first puzzle in The Times during the Brown week. “You can do it for hours and kind of have your mind go away. But it’s creative — you are making something.”

Like about a third of the puzzling students, Lucido is a computer science major. “A very large percentage of crossword puzzle constructors are into computers or math as professions,” Shortz said.

CORNELIA DEAN

journal

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A Beatle at the Potluck: Residents Remember Life at the Dakota aging jazz musicians. It was no different for residents at the Dakota, who grew used to seeing the former Beatle pass through the building’s entrance in his fur coat. What made the Dakota different from other buildings, besides its distinctive gothic design, was that so many residents were also celebrities that it afforded Lennon a certain degree of privacy.

“This building is chockablock full of famous people,” said Roberta Flack, who lives in the Dakota next door to Yoko Ono. “Most artists like myself tend to keep to themselves.”

Lennon and Ono’s life in the Dakota began in 1973, when they were looking to move from their loft on Bank Street.

Bob Gruen, who photographed Lennon

Long before its history was marked by the sound of bullets, thousands of fragrant flowers and crowds grievously singing “Imagine,” the Dakota was just another historic Manhattan co-op where among its famous inhabitants lived a musician named John Lennon.

Before he was gunned down in front of the building 30 years ago Wednesday, he was the seventh-floor resident who brought sushi to the building’s October potluck. He was known as a protective father and an enterprising real estate collector, irking a few neighbors by buying up five apartments in the building.

One of the many quirks and privileges of living in Manhattan is finding neighbors who are famous poets, celebrated scientists and

crossword

Edited By Will Shortz PUZZLE BY ANDREA CARLA MICHAELS AND KENT CLAYTON

ACROSS 1 Neighbor of Kuwait 5 Sugar source 10 Ice Follies venue 14 Half of Mork’s sign-off 15 Volunteer’s cry 16 Arabian Peninsula sultanate 17 Governor in Austin?

19 Area that may have stainedglass windows 20 Come together 21 Card player’s boo-boo 23 All the world’s one, to the Bard 25 Unwelcome result of a shopping spree?

27 Chow down 28 Give kudos 30 “Black gold” 31 Sluggers’ stats 33 Life stories, for short 35 Nut jobs 39 Bit of Sunday TV scheduling … or a hint to 17-, 25-, 50- and 59-Across 42 Aid in finding sunken ships 43 Part of a wedding cake

Jackson or Winslet 45 Sock hop locale 47 Galifianakis of “The Hangover” 49 Actress Farrow 50 Airport baggage handler?

54 Like half of a pair of dentures 56 Do the work of a florist or an orchestrator 57 “S O S,” e.g.

58 Belly laugh 59 Sheep’s accuser?

64 Cut and paste, say 65 Pungent-smelling 66 Lowdown 67 Say isn’t so 68 Presidents Tyler and Taylor, for two 69 Plastic brick brand 44

DOWN at the end of a co. name 2 Cheerleader’s cry 3 Walt Disney’s specialty 4 “The Caine Mutiny” captain 5 Oven user’s aid 6 Leave dumbstruck 1 Abbr.

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE C O L E A S C H S Y S T

A R I D

J A K E

U T E N S R T I H E L E L A L T M O H E E A M H O E A R S S E E

N E D

L A S P E H A R E S L S H P A R S H O P S H T H O S H I I S N T

I M H E P O T O E R N I E

P P A A A C I P S H R A T S H O O R A C K F I I I R T S H E L A A R E R N S D E S H R S A A E T

S M A R T M O N E Y A R C H

T E P E E

S E A R

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14

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31

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62

63

22

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12

26

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69 12/7/10 (No. 1207)

7 Snapshots,

for

Burden of the short consciencestricken 8 Cousin of an alpaca 26 Put on a pedestal 9 Weather29 Attorney’s org. affecting current 32 Event that may 10 Place for a include blue films “Bridge Out” sign 34 Dirty campaign 11 Rock and Roll tactic Hall of Fame 36 Bubbly drink architect 37 Protruding navel 12 Like Fran Drescher’s voice 38 Gaff, to a fisherman 13 Mournful peal 18 Have a hunch 40 Orator William Jennings ___ 22 Bit of equipment for a circus clown 41 Rainbow shape 23 Feudal drudges 46 Dr. Phil’s last 24 Verboten name 25

Hip-shaking dance 50 Actor Leto of “American Psycho” 51 Chip away at 52 Choo-choo 53 Stacy who played Mike Hammer 55 Danger 57 Degs. for many profs 60 CAT scan alternative 61 A smoker might bum one 62 Trio after D 63 Kanga’s baby 48

For answers, call 1-900-289-CLUE (289-2583), $1.49 a minute; or, with a credit card, 1-800-814-5550.

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 5,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/crosswords ($39.95 a year).

Z E Annual subscriptions are available for the best of Sunday crosswords from the last 50 years: 1-888-7-ACROSS. E W R E Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

O S Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/learning/xwords.

when he lived in New York City, said the couple wanted a home with better security. He said they looked at homes in Greenwich, Conn., and on Long Island before buying the apartment at the Dakota from the actor Robert Ryan, making it past the building’s notoriously picky board.

While their early days in the Dakota were rocky and Lennon briefly left his wife for May Pang, Gruen said that Lennon returned by late 1974 and the couple settled into the throes of nesting. Flack recalled hearing them rehearsing music. Sean arrived in 1975.

Their home “wasn’t particularly stylish,” recalled Stephen Birmingham, author of “Life at the Dakota: New York’s Most Unusual Address.” But Flack, who agreed to be interviewed with Ono’s consent, said the apartment was always uncluttered and tasteful.

The Lennons socialized with neighbors who also had children. Sean was friends with the children of Warner LeRoy, who owned Tavern on the Green. Most neighbors remember Lennon being preoccupied with raising his son.

Birmingham said that when he visited, Lennon had wrapped packing twine around the staircase to protect Sean.

The Lennons generated the most criticism from neighbors over their real estate purchases. In addition to two seventh-floor apartments, they bought three other apartments, to use for storage, a work studio for Ono and an apartment for guests.

But the real estate purchases did not color the opinions of one Dakota resident. Leonard Bernstein’s daughter Nina Bernstein Simmons, whose family moved into the Dakota in 1975 when she was 13, said her “great brush with John Lennon” took place at the building potluck when the Lennons brought a platter of sushi. When Bernstein Simmons stood next to Lennon at the dessert table, he stared at the sweets and said, “I want something mushy and disgusting,” she said.

“I think I muttered something about the pecan pie looking good,” she said.

CHRISTINE HAUGHNEY

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OPINION

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

e d i t ori a l s o f t h e t i m eS

DAVID BROOKS

The Tax Cut Endgame

Social Science Palooza

President Obama’s deal with the Republicans to extend all of the Bush-era income tax cuts is a tactical win for the Republicans and a disappointing retreat by the White House.

We suppose it could have been worse. The deal could help to stimulate the weak economy.

And if the Republicans had blocked an extension of unemployment benefits, as they were threatening to, millions of Americans would have suffered greatly.

But the country can’t afford to continue tax cuts for the rich indefinitely. And by kicking the issue down the road to 2012 — a presidential election year — it all but guarantees more craven politicking then.

Speaking on Monday evening, the president said that the deal would extend for two years all of the tax cuts, both those from the Bush years and those from last year’s stimulus law for lowincome workers. Recently expired benefits for the long-term unemployed would be extended for another 13 months. The agreement also includes a one-year cut in payroll taxes that will put a relatively modest, but much needed, $120 billion in workers’ pockets, and a year of bolstered write-offs for business investments.

On a decidedly sour note, he also said he had agreed to cut estate taxes even more than in the last year of the Bush administration. That is not compromise. It is capitulation.

The Republicans gave up very little except for their unconscionable stance of holding up all other Congressional action until they ensured that the richest Americans keep their tax cuts.

The tax cuts were not affordable when they were passed and are even less affordable now — with unpaid-for wars, with a weak economy crying out for recovery efforts, with the nation’s infrastructure and education system increas-

ingly decrepit, and with retiring baby boomers inexorably driving up health costs and the budget deficit in the decades to come.

A thoughtful approach would have been to extend most of the tax cuts for another year or so, letting the high-end tax breaks expire and using the money to help pay for policies that would do more than income taxes to generate growth. In the meantime, lawmakers and the administration could have undertaken tax reform to bring revenues in line with spending.

Until Monday night, both sides were silent on the fate of one of the biggest high-end tax cuts of all — the estate tax on multimillionaires and billionaires. Now Obama seems to have given in to largely Republicans demands on those taxes.

The deal validates the Republican strategy of obstruction — and invites more. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, has never wavered in his stance that all of the Bush tax cuts should be extended. Now that they have a temporary extension, McConnell and the Republicans will undoubtedly push to make it permanent. Obama said on Monday night that he still believed extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy was a bad idea. He defended his retreat by predicting that they would be undone in two years, when it becomes apparent to everyone that it was a bad idea. But that assumes that Obama and the Democrats are willing to confront the Republicans on high end tax cuts in 2012, demonstrating courage that was not on display this year. Unfortunately, if history is any indication, extending them now will make it considerably more difficult to undo them later.

Obama said that he was not willing to fight anymore over the tax cuts for the wealthy because that would be “playing politics.” He should have fought harder.

Freshman Party Adam Kinzinger of Illinois is one of the new Republican lawmakers swept into office last month on a promise to change the ways of Washington. “If we look like we’re doing business as usual,” the congressman-elect told a reporter last month, “then obviously the American people will say, ‘Well, what was that all about?’”

That’s a good question because one of the first things Kinzinger and many of his fellow freshmen did after examining their new offices on Capitol Hill was to hang out an “open for business” sign to the world of big-money lobbying and corporate fund-raising.

To pay off his campaign deficit, Kinzinger held a “debt retirement breakfast” on Nov. 19 at the Capitol Hill Club. Suggested donation: $5,000 for political action committees, and $2,400 for individuals. The political action committee of the National Automotive Dealers gave him $2,500 after the election, among other corporate givers.

As The Washington Post reported on Monday, several dozen freshman lawmakers have held these fund-raisers around town in the days after the election, raising at least $2 million in just the

last month.

The high-spending campaign that ended in November was odious enough, but there is something even more unsavory about giving to a candidate after the election, when the outcome is known and the link between power and currying favor is even more evident. That didn’t stop Bill Flores, a newly elected representative from Texas who held a fund-raiser to collect money from ExxonMobil and the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors. Or Chris Gibson and Michael Grimm of New York, Francisco Canseco of Texas, and David Schweikert of Arizona, among many others. Rep. Eric Cantor, the incoming Republican leader who has also vowed to shake up the ways of Washington, is having a fund-raiser this week at a high-end Washington restaurant.

The corrupting power of money in Washington is an old, bipartisan game. But this year’s Republican class ran with such virulence against the establishment that this rush to the trough seems especially hypocritical. What was that all about, Kinzinger, and friends?

Every day, hundreds of thousands of scholars study human behavior. Every day, a few of their studies are bundled and distributed via e-mail

by Kevin Lewis, who covers the social sciences for The Boston Globe and National Affairs. And every day, I file away these studies because I find them bizarrely interesting.

In this column, I’m going to try to summarize as many of these studies as space allows. No single study is dispositive, but I hope these summaries can spark some conversations: Female mammals tend to avoid close male relatives during moments of peak fertility in order to avoid inbreeding. For the journal Psychological Science, Debra Lieberman, Elizabeth Pillsworth and Martie Haselton tracked young women’s cellphone calls. They found that these women had fewer and shorter calls with their fathers during peak fertility days, but not with female relatives.

Classic research has suggested that the more people doubt their own beliefs the more, paradoxically, they are inclined to proselytize in favor of them. David Gal and Derek Rucker published a study in Psychological Science in which they presented some research subjects with evidence that undermined their core convictions. The subjects who were forced to confront the counterevidence went on to more forcefully advocate their original beliefs, thus confirming the earlier findings.

Physical contact improves team performance. For the journal Emotion, Michael Kraus, Cassey Huang and Dacher Keltner measured how frequently members of N.B.A. teams touched each other. Teams that touched each other frequently early in the 2008-2009 season did better than teams that touched less frequently, even after accounting for player status, preseason expectations and early season performance.

People remember information that is hard to master. In a study for Cognition, Connor Diemand-Yauman, Daniel Oppenheimer and Erikka Vaughan found that information in hard-to-read fonts was better remembered than information transmitted in easier fonts.

Would you rather date someone who dumped his or her last partner or someone who was the dumpee? For an article in Evolutionary Psychology, Christine Stanik, Robert Kurzban and Phoebe Ellsworth found that men will give a woman a lower rating when they learn that she dumped her last boyfriend, perhaps fearing they will be next. But women rated men more highly when they learned that they had done the dumping, perhaps seeing it as a sign of desirability.

These studies remind us that we are strange, complicated creatures — deeply influenced by primordial biases and our current relationships.

But you don’t have to settle for my summaries of these kinds of studies. Go to the National Affairs Web site, where there are links to Kevin Lewis’s daily batch of studies.

A day without social science is like a day without sunshine.

sports

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Hall of Fame Taps Gillick but Not Steinbrenner ORLANDO, Fla. — When Pat Gillick left the Yankees’ front office in 1976 to build the expansion Toronto Blue Jays, George Steinbrenner was upset. He did not like a new American League East rival poaching his scouting director.

“He wasn’t pretty happy when I left,” Gillick said last week. “He wanted me to stay. But I thought about the opportunity to go up with an expansion club, and you don’t get that too often.”

Gillick and Steinbrenner did just fine apart. Both went on to careers filled with championships, and both appeared on the veterans committee’s Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this year. But only Gillick was elected in voting results announced Monday.

Gillick, the former general manager of the Blue Jays, the Baltimore Orioles, the Seattle Mariners and the Philadelphia Phillies, was

named on 13 of 16 ballots, with 12 needed for election. Steinbrenner, who owned the Yankees from 1973 until his death on July 13, was named on fewer than eight ballots. The Hall of Fame would not specify exactly how many votes Steinbrenner received.

“He’s already in the Hall, as far as I’m concerned,” Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said. “He’s a Hall of Famer. They just haven’t made it official yet.”

Marvin Miller, the former executive director of the players union, missed election by one vote. Miller, 93, was on the ballot for the fifth time and received 11 votes, the closest he has ever come to induction.

“I think he should be in,” said the Hall of Fame player Tony Perez, who voted in the election. “He missed by one vote, and that’s hard to take. Marvin did a great job for baseball, at the time, for the

players. He helped baseball, and I think he should be in the Hall of Fame. But I think if he comes back again, he might make it.”

Meanwhile, one of Perez’s former Cincinnati teammates, shortstop Dave Concepcion, received eight votes. None of the other players on the ballot — Vida Blue, Steve Garvey, Ron Guidry, Tommy John, Al Oliver, Ted Simmons and Rusty Staub — received that many.

Gillick, a former minor league pitcher who has retained a passion for scouting, said he accepted the honor on behalf of people like him.

“It really recognizes a lot of people that don’t get recognized all the time,” Gillick said. “The guys in scouting, the player development people are very important, and I just feel like I represent them.

TYLER KEPNER

Meredith, Cowboys’ Quarterback and Cosell Foil, Dies Don Meredith, a former star quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys who helped change the perception of professional football with the easy Texas charm and provocative wit he brought to its first prime-time telecasts on Monday nights, died on Sunday in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 72.

The cause was a brain hemorrhage, his lawyer, Lisa Fine Moses, said.

Meredith always thought of himself as the small-town kid from Mount Vernon, Tex., where his parents, Jeff and Hazel, owned a dry goods store and where his mother swung a tire so he could practice throwing a football at a

moving target. He spent much of his life backing away from the nickname Dandy Don, particularly during his secluded later decades in New Mexico.

As a boy, Meredith dreamed of playing in the Cotton Bowl, 100 miles to the southwest in Dallas, and that was where he played many home games in high school, at Southern Methodist University in Dallas and in the pros. He set passing records for the Cowboys that still stand, including the one for most yards in a single game, 460, set on Nov. 10, 1963, against San Francisco.

But it was his sparkling, funloving personality that seemed

WEATHER High/low temperatures for the 21 hours ended at 4 p.m. yesterday, Eastern time, and precipitation (in inches) for the 18 hours ended at 1 p.m. yesterday. Expected conditions for today and tomorrow.

Weather conditions: C-clouds, F-fog, H-haze, I-ice, PCpartly cloudy, R-rain, S-sun, Sh-showers, Sn-snow, SSsnow showers, T-thunderstorms, Tr-trace, W-windy.

U.S. CITIES

Yesterday Today Tomorrow Albuquerque 59/ 32 0 53/ 29 S 56/ 30 S Atlanta 40/ 27 0 40/ 20 S 41/ 23 PC Boise 43/ 26 0.23 42/ 29 C 43/ 32 Sh Boston 38/ 27 0 38/ 28 W 37/ 21 W Buffalo 29/ 24 0.44 26/ 18 SS 26/ 17 SS Charlotte 40/ 21 0 38/ 16 S 40/ 19 PC Chicago 22/ 8 0.03 22/ 11 PC 22/ 12 C Cleveland 28/ 26 0.04 28/ 18 SS 29/ 17 SS Dallas-Ft. Worth 51/ 31 0 58/ 34 PC 54/ 37 S Denver 51/ 20 0.03 50/ 25 PC 63/ 32 PC Detroit 31/ 24 0.02 27/ 16 SS 30/ 18 SS

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

56/ 35 38/ 14 69/ 51 65/ 51 21/ 14 37/ 30 56/ 38 38/ 31 79/ 52 44/ 30 63/ 53 49/ 38 32/ 18 42/ 31

0 0 0 0 Tr 0 0 Tr 0 0.05 0 Tr Tr 0

to define him. As a quarterback he sometimes irked the buttoneddown Cowboys coach, Tom Landry, by breaking into a country tune in the huddle, and as the first color commentator on ABC’s “Monday Night Football” he made his down-home ribbing of the loquacious Howard Cosell, one of his two broadcasting partners, a hallmark of the show.

Their spirited banter helped make “Monday Night Football” one of the most popular programs on television, one that soon took its place in the television pantheon, alongside classics like “M*A*S*H,” in terms of longevity, ratings and cultural influence.

(NYT) 58/ 41 PC 38/ 18 PC 73/ 50 S 62/ 42 S 16/ 5 PC 36/ 27 W 56/ 31 S 36/ 28 W 74/ 48 S 42/ 26 PC 59/ 48 C 49/ 43 R 32/ 16 PC 37/ 23 W

59/ 36 PC 45/ 28 PC 73/ 49 S 68/ 46 S 17/ 10 C 35/ 26 PC 56/ 35 PC 35/ 24 PC 74/ 46 S 44/ 31 C 59/ 50 R 50/ 41 R 34/ 26 PC 35/ 22 PC

FOREIGN CITIES

Acapulco Athens Beijing Berlin Buenos Aires Cairo

Yesterday Today Tomorrow 92/ 70 0 90/ 72 S 88/ 73 S 63/ 43 0 67/ 59 S 69/ 60 S 42/ 25 0 44/ 30 S 44/ 27 S 36/ 27 0.03 35/ 24 C 28/ 22 Sn 90/ 61 0 90/ 63 PC 81/ 57 S 71/ 59 0 70/ 57 PC 72/ 58 Sh

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

Newton Leads 4 Heisman Finalists Auburn quarterback Cam Newton and Oregon running back LaMichael James will meet up in New York before heading to Arizona for the Bowl Championship Series title game Jan. 10. Newton and James were announced as finalists for the Heisman Trophy and will be joined by Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck and Boise State quarterback Kellen Moore for Saturday’s announcement.

Newton overcame a pay-to-play scandal with a superb season, piling up nearly 4,000 combined yards and 48 touchdowns for the top-ranked Tigers. James had more rushing yards and touchdowns than anyone in the Football Bowl Subdivision, helping the Ducks to their first national championship game.

(AP)

nfl scores MONDAY New England 45, Jets 3

NHL scores SUNDAY’S LATE GAMES St. Louis 3, Vancouver 2 MONDAY Toronto 5, Washington 4, SO Columbus 3, Dallas 2, SO Pittsburgh 2, Devils 1 Atlanta 3, Nashville 2, OT San Jose 5, Detroit 2

nBA scores SUNDAY’S LATE GAMES TPortland 100, L.A. Clippers 91 MONDAY Indiana 124, Toronto 100 Atlanta 80, Orlando 74 Knicks 121, Minnesota 114 Chicago 99, Oklahoma City 90 Miami 88, Milwaukee 78 84/ 53 37/ 21 48/ 36 82/ 68 82/ 73 75/ 61 31/ 27 65/ 39 67/ 36 30/ 25 19/ 9 79/ 64 37/ 33 31/ 23 84/ 73 63/ 45 73/ 49 32/ 23 81/ 64 61/ 50 27/ 23 47/ 30 35/ 21

0 0.01 0.84 0 0 0.01 0 0.36 0 0.21 0.04 0 0.12 0.32 0 0.08 0 0.20 0.07 0 0.04 0 0.02

88/ 61 S 37/ 30 Sn 49/ 47 Sh 66/ 54 S 82/ 75 S 75/ 57 Sh 34/ 30 PC 57/ 46 R 72/ 39 S 32/ 18 SS 27/ 19 Sn 72/ 61 W 37/ 37 R 36/ 31 Sh 89/ 77 PC 64/ 55 S 81/ 50 S 28/ 19 PC 79/ 66 PC 54/ 40 C 28/ 12 SS 48/ 42 R 35/ 20 SS

86/ 64 S 36/ 30 PC 54/ 40 R 68/ 57 S 82/ 74 S 75/ 57 C 34/ 28 PC 59/ 46 Sh 73/ 39 S 29/ 12 SS 29/ 18 C 73/ 63 PC 38/ 28 Sh 35/ 28 R 88/ 75 PC 65/ 54 PC 84/ 52 S 25/ 14 PC 81/ 69 Sh 51/ 44 S 28/ 10 W 47/ 39 R 30/ 30 Sn

sports

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

When Patriots’ Empire Began Unraveling FOXBOROUGH, Mass.

In the days leading to his team’s showdown with New England, Jets Coach Rex Ryan went out of his way to praise Bill Belichick, the Sports Patriots’ dour Of coach.

Ryan called The Times Belichick the William best in the C. Rhoden business and a respected opponent.

“I think he’s the No. 1 coach in this league,” Ryan said. “That’s undisputable. He’s smart. He gets his team going every year.

He’s a great evaluator of talent.

I do admire him, as a son of a coach. Do I want to be like him?

No, I want to be like myself, but I want to have the success that he’s had through the years.”

Normally unrestrained in heaping praise on his team, Ryan was careful with his remarks about Belichick and the Patriots.

It was as if he wanted to play down the perception that a shift in power was taking place.

Too late. The shift has occurred: the Jets are in ascendancy and New England is in retrograde, although it has nothing to do with one game, one season, injuries or upheaval.

The shift was set in motion three seasons ago by a moral misstep by Belichick. The Patriots’

empire began to unravel the day New England was caught cheating. After the season-opening game between the Jets and the Patriots in September 2007, Eric Mangini, the Jets’ coach at the time, reported New England to the N.F.L. for videotaping the Jets’ defensive signals. The Jets confiscated the tape and turned it over to the N.F.L. The scandal, which came to be called Spygate, put New England and Belichick under a cloud, although by 2007, several teams had begun to suspect the Patriots were taping opposing coaches.

The Green Bay Packers caught New England in the act in 2006 but never took the complaint further. Belichick was thought to be taping opponents when Mangini was a member of the Patriots’ defensive staff under Belichick from 2000 to 2005.

The N.F.L. fined Belichick $500,000 and the team $250,000 and took away a first-round pick in the 2008 draft. But the Patriots and Belichick lost more than money. New England lost some of its luster as a first-class organization. No one doubts Belichick’s coaching genius, but he lost a measure of respect for violating the sanctity of sportsmanship and the integrity of competition.

Belichick also sent a troubling message to his protégés.

One of them, Mangini, reacted

by turning in his old boss. But another, Josh McDaniels, was caught in the ambition trap — perhaps as Belichick was.

And on Monday night, McDaniels was fired as the Denver Broncos’ coach less than two weeks after the N.F.L. fined him $50,000 and the franchise another $50,000 when it learned the team’s director of video operations had recorded six minutes of the San Francisco 49ers’ walk-through the day before the teams met on Oct. 31 in London.

Why were the Patriots fined $750,000 in 2007 and stripped of a draft pick and Denver only $50,000?

In explaining the differences in penalties in a recent conference call, the N.F.L.’s general counsel, Jeff Pash, offered a chilling indictment of the Patriots. He said the league thought the Denver episode was isolated and perpetrated by a single person who did not receive direction from a superior. “You have a single incident as opposed to years of activity,” Pash said.

Years of activity.

On the other hand, New England has not won a championship since the Jets turned Belichick in for cheating. Is this a coincidence? Or in a league in which winning and losing hang by such a slender thread, can the loss of a camera be the difference?

Debt Escalating, Hornets Are Purchased by N.B.A. The N.B.A. took the extraordinary step Monday of buying the New Orleans Hornets, one of the league’s most financially troubled franchises, after a deal for the sale of the club fell apart.

The league said it would spend about $300 million to purchase the team from George Shinn, the longtime owner who was no longer able to cover the team’s losses.

The league will pay for the team with its own money and take on the Hornets’ debts.

Commissioner David Stern said in a conference call that the league did not have a timetable for selling the franchise. He said the league would have discussions with the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana about reworking the team’s lease at the New Orleans Arena, which expires in 2014.

Shinn was trying to sell his stake in the franchise to Gary

Chouest, a minority owner. But Shinn’s difficulty reaching a deal with Chouest, coupled with the team’s financial losses and poor attendance, has led to speculation that another investor would buy the team and move it to Seattle, Kansas City or somewhere else.

Stern, however, said the league’s purchase of the team, subject to the approval of a vote by the N.B.A.’s board of governors next week, “remains the best chance for the franchise to remain in New Orleans in the long term.”

While Stern was confident that a buyer for the team would be found and that he or she would keep the team in New Orleans (where the Jazz played for five years before departing for Utah in 1979), the league is moving into potentially choppy waters in buying a team for the first time.

In recent years, the N.H.L. and

Major League Baseball have been embroiled in the complex, expensive and often embarrassing process of owning or financing teams. The N.H.L. has taken over several clubs in the past decade or so, most recently the Phoenix Coyotes.

M.L.B. owned the money-losing Montreal Expos for several years before moving the team — by then stripped of its stars — to Washington, where the franchise became the Nationals.

Major League Baseball helped keep the Texas Rangers afloat last season while their owner, Tom Hicks, tried to sell the club.

Sinking in debt, Hicks pushed the team into bankruptcy, leading to more months of awkward financial revelations and courtroom showdowns.

KEN BELSON

and HOWARD BECK

n.h.l. standings EASTERN CONFERENCE

Atlantic Pittsburgh Phila.

Rangers Devils Islanders

Northeast Montreal Boston Ottawa Buffalo Toronto

Southeast Wash.

Tampa Atlanta Carolina Florida

W L OT Pts GF GA

19 8 17 7 16 12 8 17 5 15

2 4 1 2 5

40 38 33 18 15

91 95 83 50 53

67 69 77 81 83

W L OT Pts GF GA

17 8 14 8 12 14 11 13 10 12

2 3 2 3 4

36 31 26 25 24

71 72 61 68 59

53 50 81 73 76

W L OT Pts GF GA

18 8 15 9 15 10 11 12 11 14

3 3 3 3 0

39 33 33 25 22

96 84 88 75 64

79 94 80 84 66

WESTERN CONFERENCE

Central Detroit Chicago Columbus St. Louis Nashville

Northwest Vancou.

Colorado Minnesota Edmonton Calgary

Pacific

W L OT Pts GF GA

17 5 15 12 15 10 13 9 12 8

3 2 1 4 6

37 32 31 30 30

86 90 70 67 65

67 84 71 72 68

W L OT Pts GF GA

14 8 13 10 11 11 10 12 11 14

3 3 4 4 2

31 29 26 24 24

80 91 63 70 74

64 82 76 93 82

W L OT Pts GF GA

Dallas 16 8 2 34 76 69 Phoenix 13 7 6 32 74 72 L.A. 15 10 0 30 69 61 San Jose 13 9 4 30 78 73 Anaheim 13 13 3 29 71 87 NOTE: Two points for a win, one point for overtime loss.

Game No Contest: Patriots Bury Jets FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Jets strutted into Gillette Stadium with a heightened amount of hubris, primed to wrestle control of their division and the American Football Conference from New England. All those years in the shadow of the Patriots, all those seasons of expectations unfulfilled, all that was supposed to end on Monday night. Instead, the Patriots were the Patriots. Tom Brady was Tom Brady. And the Jets, well, they looked like the Jets often look here, embarrassed, battered, confused, a class below their hated rivals. If Coach Rex Ryan were to tell his team to eat a snack on Tuesday, he would serve humble pie — to the players, coaches and himself. New England led 17-0 after one quarter, 24-3 at halftime, and at the end, 45-3, in front of a full stadium.

(NYT)