But he grew old. With cancer of his spine, maybe elsewhere, he was no longer interested in food and his bladder and bowels were embarrassingly out of his control. Sadly I watched the doctor shave his thin forearm, stroked his soft, vibrating side as the needle was prepared. Gov didn’t even flinch when it slid in. About five seconds, the gold eyes glazed, then half-closed and the purr stopped. No pain....
I keep thinking about the months of learning missed. The months of relationships, development and fun missed. I keep thinking about the joy and the play and the things that make life worth living taken from them. Sports, concerts, school dances, first dates, parties—all of it has been suspended. Even their spiritual lives have been disrupted, as churches, synagogues and mosques have been shuttered across America. I keep thinking about the loneliness they’re experiencing....
Restrain yourself. This is the time of year when many employers ask us to sit down and fill out all those bothersome 401(k) investment forms. As you do, remember: your job is to implement a plan, not outwit a fiendishly unpredictable market. Self-discipline will be paramount this year because the future is so cloudy. Will the economy continue to serve up that golden elixir–robust corporate profits mixed with quiescent inflation–that makes the market dance?...
Weisselberg, 75, the longtime chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, reached a deal with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, pleading guilty on Thursday to 15 felonies. He admitted to failing to pay taxes on some $1.7 million in income and is expected to face five months in prison as well as five years of probation. He will be required to testify at a trial related to charges against the Trump Organization—set to begin in October—if prosecutors call on him to do so....
No final decision is expected until April, and some analysts view the presidential buzz surrounding Fernández as an elaborate smoke screen on the part of Kirchner, who has held elected office continuously for nearly 20 years. Either member of Argentina’s ultimate power couple should easily win next year’s vote: the country’s thriving economy has bolstered Kirchner’s approval ratings since he took office, and Fernández demonstrated her own clout in a 2005 senate election when she trounced the wife of Kirchner’s predecessor as president....
Not really. Gwelle and his men were deft extortionists. Relief agencies, known locally as NGOs (nongovernmental organizations), had paid them $20,000 a week to keep the airport open. After the handover, Gwelle said he wanted to work with the allies, but he added: “I still expect the NGOs to keep paying us, naturally.” In a villa across from the airport gates, he had hidden another, larger arsenal, including heavy machine guns and mortars....
That’s a strange sentiment, but it’s on the rise. Three years after Congress held televised hearings over charges of rampant taxpayer abuse, there’s a kinder, less scary IRS. “They used to be like pit bulls, but now they’re like lap dogs,” says Eliot Kaplan, a former IRS lawyer who’s now in private practice. The new attitude is driven by several factors. As the IRS has shrunk (it has 31 percent fewer employees than in 1988) and Congress has demanded better customer service, the agency has more people working to help taxpayers (by manning taxpayer-assistance hot lines) and fewer doing audits....
The highly-regarded Okon has swung an axe through the squad - making a mammoth 11 changes - as the club seek to qualify for the finals for the first time since 2013. 2016-17 finishing position: 8th Coach: Paul Okon INS AND OUTS Ins: Tom Hiariej, Alan Baro, Antony Golec, Andrew Hoole, Ben Kennedy, Kye Rowles, Josh Rose, Daniel De Silva, Thomas Glover, Asdrúbal, Wout Brama. Outs: Paul Izzo, Roy O’Donovan, Fabio Ferreira, Ivan Necevski, Nick Montgomery, Jacob Poscoliero, Jacques Faty, Scott Galloway, Mickael Tavares, Michael Neill, Jake Adelson....
New Dutch coach Darije Kalezic has been appointed to change the club’s fortunes but has to deal with a swag of experienced, quality players departing. 2016-17 finishing position: 7th Coach: Darije Kalezic INS AND OUTS Ins: Scott Galloway, Goran Paracki, Dario Vidosic, Daniel Mullen, Andrija Kaludjerovic, Ali Abbas. Outs: Roly Bonevacia, Shane Smeltz, Jacob Tratt, Glen Moss, Kosta Barbarouses, Alex Rodriguez, Vince Lia. STAR PLAYER - Dario Vidosic Wellington will be Dario Vidosic’s fourth A-League club, after stints at Brisbane Roar, Adelaide and Western Sydney, but there is definitely no doubting his quality....
An Important Book that you admit you haven’t read: “Moby-Dick.” It’s just too long. The book you cared most about sharing with your kids: I read the Iliad and the Odyssey to my daughter more than once. They say everything that can be said about human motivation.
A Certified Important Book you haven’t read: The list is so long. I’ve never read Edward Gibbon’s “The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.” I’d like to, although it’s a lot to take on. My tastes run to fiction. The book you want your kids to read: Shakespeare, especially “The Merchant of Venice,” because there’s the ethnic hook. Once you learn to decode him, you enter a realm of unbelievable wisdom and power....
The protesters stayed busy. Last Monday they attacked at least 10 offices of ex-dictator Suharto’s Golkar Party in East Java, smashing windows and ransacking the interior. The next day they stormed a port in the town of Ketapang, forcing officials to halt ferry service to the nearby island of Bali. On Wednesday tens of thousands of people helped raze a two-story Golkar office in Surabaya, East Java’s capital. They burned effigies of Wahid’s rivals and demanded they be executed....
Zhu, in fact, politically one-upped the master himself, Bill Clinton. Seeking to gain entry for Beijing into the World Trade Organization, Zhu brought along stunning concessions on market- access issues that have bogged down U.S.-China negotiators for years. He agreed to slash agricultural tariffs, grant distribution to U.S. service companies and open up direct investment in telecommunications. Clinton told Zhu on April 7 that even that might not be enough given the poisonous atmosphere on Capitol Hill....
Working for nearly five years for investment banker Lazard Freres & Co., Ferber was applauded by many for pulling off almost Milkenesque deals. But federal and local authorities are investigating allegations that he was engaging in a conflict of interest, while working for such clients as the U.S. Postal Service and local government agencies around the nation. Ferber’s job was to often advise those agencies on how to raise money by floating bond issues....
Krayzelburg immigrated to the United States at 13, but his success is due to more than an immigrant’s work ethic. Perhaps more than any other American swimmer, he has learned from science. “I’ve become a lot more educated about how to find my ideal stroke,” says Krayzelburg, now 24. After every big race he and his coach, the University of Southern California’s Mark Schubert, analyze spreadsheets that break his race down into 10 elements–from the speed of his turns to his stroke rate every 50 meters....
Sources familiar with the contents of the vicious home movie, obtained by the FBI on Friday, say Pearl’s throat is then suddenly slit with a knife. A hand is shown holding his severed head. The tape cuts to his captors repeatedly stabbing his lifeless body. Pearl’s head is then shown lying on a pile of newspapers as a message scrolls in the foreground: “If our demands aren’t met, there will be more scenes like this....
GEN. RICHARD MYERS Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Back in August, when Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers was to become the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the biggest military issue facing the Bush administration was space-based missile defense–which just happens to be Myers’s area of expertise. Then came Sept. 11 and the war against terrorism, forcing the Pentagon into a conflict much more like the French and Indian Wars than Star Wars....
WINGERT: Higher standards for all students is one of the rare reforms that Democrats and Republicans agree upon. Why are you opposed? MEIER: I’m for high standards. I’m not for standardization. I’m not in favor of more multiple-choice tests, or important decisions being made using only one instrument–while ignoring the input of the teachers who know these kids… There is no evidence that standardization produces more equality. This is a lazy and cheap way of trying to provide equity....
