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Magazine
Mitch McConnell Is Headed Down the Stretch
A lifelong race to become the Senate majority leader comes down to whether he can make one last sprint.
World
Turkey: Chinese Workers Abducted
Kurdish separatists kidnapped three Chinese engineers in an area near a power plant in Turkey’s southeast, a regional government official said Tuesday.
We are not allowed to own people.
Children have an anomalous position in society.
You must lead if we are to use this system.
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Business Day
Michael Bloomberg’s Harder Sell
Stepping up his philanthropy, the former mayor of New York still pushes big ideas, but on a much wider stage. Turkey’s smoking rate is just one of his targets.Business Day
Blood Industry Shrinks as Transfusions Decline
Medical advances have increased efficiency, but the trend is forcing an enormous wave of mergers and job cutbacks.The Upshot
Don’t Get Mad if Burger King Gets Canadian
Sometimes a corporate merger is just a corporate merger,
Maybe.
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Fashion & Style
Video: Vows | Love From Tragedy
Colin Goddard, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, met his fiance, Gabriella Hoehn-Saric, while they were both working at The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.World
South Sudan: U.N. Helicopter Goes Down, Killing Three in Crew
A United Nations helicopter carrying cargo in South Sudan crashed on Tuesday, killing three of its four Russian crew members, the United Nations Mission in South Sudan reported.U.S.
Obama Tells Veterans He Will Fix Health System, as New Report Lists Lapses
President Obama spoke to an American Legion convention Tuesday with a promise to do more to improve veterans’ access to health care and housing.N.Y. / Region
Sheep Are Given Room to Roam, and in Return, They Manage the Land
A partnership between a nonprofit farm and the Rockefeller State Park Preserve in Westchester County uses privately owned ewes to mow and maintain publicly managed land.
There will be no water without a price.
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World
Liberian Leader Reported to Fire Officials for Defying Ebola Order
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf had ordered cabinet ministers and senior officials to return home to help confront the outbreak.
U.S.
Safety Advocates Call for Florida to Curb Floating Watering Holes
Florida, with the most boaters and boating accidents, requires little training to operate a craft in its increasingly crowded waters.World
A Door Into U.S. for Chinese Investors Closes — for Now
For the first time, the quota for visas available to Chinese investors hoping to obtain permanent residency status in the United States has been filled before the end of the fiscal year.
U.S. Court to Hear Case on Voting Restrictions as Arizona Prepares for Polls
A Denver panel will hear arguments about a policy in Arizona and Kansas that bars some without paper proof of citizenship from voting in state and local elections.Technology
California’s Embrace of Anti-Theft Technology in Smartphones Puts a Squeeze on Thieves
The devices, which allow an owner to remotely deactivate a phone that has been stolen, appear to have been a factor in a decline in thefts.U.S.
Alaskans Uphold Tax System for Oil Companies
A hard-fought ballot referendum that would have overturned Alaska’s system of taxing oil industry profits has narrowly failed, with absentee ballots determining the outcome.
Time to tell him what I think.
I will vote for the Democrat in November.
I hope I have to travel.
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U.S.
Nebraska: Ex-Federal Official Guilty in Pornography Case
Timothy DeFoggi, the former acting director of cybersecurity for the Department of Health and Human Services, was convicted in Nebraska on Tuesday on federal child pornography charges.World
Peter Theo Curtis, Released by Al Qaeda’s Syrian Branch, Flies Home to His Family
Peter Theo Curtis, who had been held captive for nearly two years by the Nusra Front, was released after the government of Qatar intervened on his behalf, his family said.U.S.
Ohio: Abortion Clinic Drops Fight Over License
The development will leave just one facility in the Cincinnati area offering surgical abortions and none offering late-term abortions.Magazine
My Parents Paid for My Education — Does That Mean I Need to Take a Soul-Crushing Job?
A recent graduate seeks advice; a volunteer committee chair questions the ballots.World
Iran Frees Photojournalist
The Iranian-American photojournalist, a woman with dual citizenship, was detained last month along with a reporter for The Washington Post and his wife.N.Y. / Region
Bronx Caregiver Is Charged With Manslaughter in the Death of a Toddler
Athena Skeeter, a licensed child care worker, is facing charges in the death of 19-month-old Cardell Williamson, who was found unresponsive in her home.Business Day
Meat Prices Continue to Rise, but Corn and Soybeans Slip
Retail prices for many meats in the United States continue to rise on a combination of drought and disease, but overall food cost increases remain near long-term averages.U.S.
Blackwater Jurors Urged To Give Iraqis Justice
A federal prosecutor in the case against four former Blackwater guards accused in the killings of Iraqi civilians said a U.S. court ‘levels the playing field.’N.Y. / Region
Ex-Officer Pleads Guilty in Disability Fraud Scheme
Prosecutors said Joseph Esposito was one of four men who helped scores of police officers, firefighters and other city workers bilk the government out of more than $27 million.Opinion
Bill O’Reilly and White Privilege
We can’t expect equality of outcome while at the same time acknowledging inequality of environments.Business Day
Ex-Minister Fires Back After Ouster in France
Arnaud Montebourg, who bucked the French government’s line on austerity, warned that Europe must overcome an obsession with budget deficits.
As I mentioned this morning,
France’s President Hollande, after years of passivity, has finally
taken strong action – firing anyone who questions his subservience to
German and EC demands for ever more austerity. But what’s actually going
on in the French economy? It is, of course, a catastrophe – hugely
uncompetitive, failing to create jobs, etc. etc. – that’s what everyone
says, so it must be true, right?
Actually looking at the data, however, reveals a number of surprises.
Let’s start with jobs.
France has low labor force participation by the relatively old, thanks
to generous retirement programs, and by the young, partly because
generous aid means that few need to work while in school, partly perhaps
because a high minimum wage and other factors discourage youth
employment. What about prime-age workers? Figure 1 compares France and
the United States. It’s a good thing we know that France is the country
in crisis, isn’t it? Because otherwise you might get confused by
employment performance that looks much better than ours.
Still, we know that
France is highly uncompetitive on world markets. Figure 2 shows the
French current account balance as a percentage of GDP, which is in, um,
mild deficit, nothing like the deficits the United States ran during the
“Bush boom”.
It’s interesting to
note, by the way, that in the great European divide during the euro’s
boom years, when costs in southern Europe surged relative to Germany,
creating a huge problem of adjustment, France was – as you can see in
Figure 3 – right in the middle, with no particular sign of getting out
of line. This puts it in a somewhat awkward situation now that southern
Europe is deflating while Germany refuses to inflate, causing an overall
deflationary bias in Europe. But this isn’t a French problem so much as
a euro problem.
Speaking of deflation,
France – as you can see in Figure 4 — is well below the conventional 2
percent target (which is too low) and falling fast. Mr. Hollande may
like to say that the French problem is supply-side, but it sure looks like demand-side by this criterion.
Still, France has to
worry about bond vigilantes. After all, international investors are so
worried about French prospects that they won’t lend to the country
without being paid … well, the lowest rates in French history (Figure
5).
OK, you get the picture. French economic data look nothing at all like the story everyone tells. Yes, you can tell stories of excessive regulation,
but they don’t dominate the macro picture. Yet Mr. Hollande is meekly
going along with demands for ever more belt-tightening, reserving his
wrath for those who want France to stand up for itself. And the result
is a sort of multiplier process in which austerity causes growth to
falter, which worsens the budget prospect, which leads to even more
austerity.
World
Army Know-How Seen as Factor in ISIS Successes
ISIS leaders have augmented traditional military skill with terrorist techniques refined though years of fighting American troops.Home & Garden
Mother Nature’s Daughters
Why are women doing most of the work on so many urban farms?
"Born
and raised on the Lower East Side, Ms. Abraham, 40, recalls visiting
her family’s black farmstead in Alabama. She said: “My grandfather grew
row crops: cotton, soybeans and corn. He worked the fields. My grandma
was home with a large vegetable garden and chickens.”
Put
another way: “My grandmother grew the food; he grew the money. And I
think maybe the scale of what we do in the city relates more to this
kitchen garden.”"
U.S.
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