news20090625BRT

[Biography of the Day] from [Britannica]
June 25
Antoni Gaudí
Born this day in 1852, Catalan architect Antoni Gaudí, whose distinctive style was typified by freedom of form and voluptuous colour and texture, spent much of his career building Barcelona's church of the Holy Family.

[On This Day] from [Britannica]
June 25
1950: Korean War begun
On this day in 1950, North Korea unleashed an attack southward across the 38th parallel, after which the UN Security Council (minus the Soviet delegate) passed a resolution calling on UN members to assist South Korea.

1943: The Smith-Connally Anti-Strike Act was enacted by the U.S. Congress, giving the president power to seize and operate privately owned war plants when a strike or threat of a strike interfered with war production.

1910: The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky and Michel Fokine premiered at the Paris Opéra.

1876: George Armstrong Custer made his last stand with the 7th Cavalry at the Battle of the Little Bighorn.

1870: Robert Erskine Childers—writer, Sinn Féin deputy, member of the Irish Republican Army, and Irish nationalist agitator—was born in London.

1530: The Augsburg Confession, 28 articles that constitute the basic confession of the Lutheran churches, was presented at the Diet of Augsburg to the emperor Charles V.

1447: Casimir IV, the grand duke of Lithuania, was crowned king of Poland.

1243: Cardinal Sinibaldo Fieschi was elected pope, taking the name Innocent IV.


[Today's Word] from [Dr. Kazuo Iwata]
June 25
The obstacles to hope are large and menacing. Yet the goal of a peaceful world must -- today and tomorrow -- shape our decisions and inspire our purposes.
John F. Kennedy.
（希望に対する障害は大きく、脅迫的である。しかし平和世界という目標は、きょうも明日も、常にわれわれの決断を定め、われわれの目標を励ますに違いない。）

news20090625JP1

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Funding scandal ensnares Yosano
LDP defector Watanabe also tied to dubious donations
Compiled from Kyodo, Staff report

Two reformist politicians widely considered free of scandal were forced Wednesday to answer allegations they received illegal contributions from a futures trading company via a dummy entity.

Caught up in the allegations were Finance Minister Kaoru Yosano, a Liberal Democratic Party bigwig at the forefront of the government's fiscal reform efforts, and Yoshimi Watanabe, former administrative reform minister who bolted from the LDP in January after clashing with Prime Minister Taro Aso over the government's slow progress on streamlining the bureaucracy.

According to sources, Tokyo-based H.S. Futures used a dummy political body to provide 55.3 million to Yosano and 35.4 million to Watanabe in campaign contributions over a period of more than 10 years through 2005. The firm, a commodities futures arm of H.S. Securities Co., was named Orient Trading until 2008.

If the allegations are true, it would be a violation of the Political Funds Control Law, which bans political donations under the name of a third party.

Yosano headed up the predecessor of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry from 1998 to 1999. METI oversees the commodities futures trading industry.

At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Yosano indicated he may return the donations but has no intention of resigning over the matter.

"If there are any problems, I would think about what I should do with the money but I'm not thinking about anything more than that," Yosano said.

"I'm convinced that there is no wrongdoing someone could point out," he said.

Yosano called Yukio Kato, the owner of Orient Trading, who also represents the political entity, "a goodwill supporter for more than 30 years" who has never asked anything of him.

Watanabe never held a Cabinet post before 2006, but he was one of the key LDP lawmakers involved in crafting financial regulatory reform in the late 1990s.

The company may have given money to other influential LDP lawmakers as well.

Watanabe told reporters he will return the money if the contributions were illegal.

The sources said the dummy entity was created as a policy study group also headed by Orient Trading owner Kato.

Yosano's office recommended that the group be designated as an entity whose political contributions are tax-exempt, the sources alleged, adding Watanabe's office made a similar recommendation.

Money for the political contributions came from the salaries of Orient Trading's top and middle managers to the tune of several thousand yen a month in tax-deductible donations, the sources said.

Some former managers said they were coerced into accepting the automatic salary cuts but were never told where the money ended up.

"I was asked by my boss to accept the (deductions), so how could I refuse?" one former middle manager said, adding it never occurred to him that Kato's group was a dummy organization.

Yosano defended himself when he was swarmed by reporters outside his Tokyo home Wednesday morning, saying the contributions were received in line with the law.

He also denied that the money constituted corporate payoffs camouflaged as political contributions.

Yosano said that Kato is an old friend and that he has no knowledge of the policy research body being a front.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said during his regularly scheduled news conference that Yosano will deal with the allegations in an appropriate fashion.

Already this year Ichiro Ozawa was forced to resign as president of the Democratic Party of Japan over a scandal in which his top aide was arrested for taking allegedly illegal political donations from Nishimatsu Construction Co.

The Nishimatsu scandal has also spread to the LDP, with current trade minister Toshihiro Nikai linked to shady donations from the general contractor.

Yosano's possible involvement in a similar case could have a big impact on political developments as Aso tries to determine the best timing to dissolve the Lower House and call the general election.

Officials of the LDP-New Komeito ruling bloc dodged reporters' questions as to whether the latest scandal would eventually cost Yosano his neck — a worst-case scenario for the ruling bloc that could deal a fatal blow to the Aso Cabinet ahead of the general election.

LDP Secretary General Hiroyuki Hosoda told reporters the first thing the LDP should do is probe the matter and explain it clearly to the public.

Tadamori Oshima, the LDP Diet affairs chief, also stressed that fact-finding efforts must come before raising doubts about Yosano's fund management.

Meanwhile, opposition forces in the Upper House agreed Wednesday they will take up the issue and grill Yosano during the chamber's budget committee meeting this week.


[BUSINESS NEWS]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
OECD cuts projection of '09 GDP fall to 6.

(Kyodo News) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development projected Wednesday that Japan will suffer a worse economic contraction in 2009 than earlier forecast, but the global economy is recovering and Japan will grow a real 0.7 percent next year.

The Paris-based club of 30 wealthy nations said efforts by the governments of the major economies appear to have averted the worst when it comes to the world economy.

Japan's real gross domestic product is likely to shrink 6.8 percent this year, the OECD said. Three months ago it projected a contraction of 6.6 percent. For 2010, however, it expects the economy to get back on a growth path and expand 0.7 percent, against the earlier forecast of a 0.5 percent contraction.

Among other advanced economies, the United States is projected to contract 2.8 percent in 2009. The figure was upgraded from a 4.0 percent shrinkage in the March projection.

The world's biggest economy is expected to grow 0.9 percent in 2010, also revised up from a zero growth forecast, the OECD said in its Economic Outlook report.

The 16-nation euro zone is likely to slide 4.8 percent this year, downgraded from the earlier forecast of a 4.1 percent contraction, before achieving a zero percent GDP growth next year, up from minus 0.3 percent.

"The ensuing recovery is likely to be both weak and fragile for some time," the OECD warned in the biannual report, adding the negative impact from the global economic crisis will be "long-lasting."

But it also said the current result "could have been worse."

"Thanks to a strong economic policy effort an even darker scenario seems to have been avoided," it said.

For the OECD economies as a whole, the report predicts they will shrink 4.1 percent this year but grow 0.7 percent next year.

As for Japan, the report says the sharp recession triggered by the global crisis may be "the most severe in Japan's postwar history."

Uncertain prospects overseas have caused a number of risks, including falling output, downward pressure on economic activities and a rising unemployment rate, the OECD said.

The government's fiscal stimulus measures, the equivalent of 4 percent of GDP, are likely to lift output growth into positive territory from the second half of this year, it said, while also warning that the growth rate will remain below 1 percent through next year.

Although the stimulus is important, the government also needs to focus on fiscal consolidation, given the large budget deficit and high public debt ratio, the organization said, adding that reforms in taxation and social security systems are a key to that end.

Recovery in exports against the backdrop of a faster than expected rebound in world trade as well as some weakening of the yen against other major currencies "would result in stronger than projected export and output growth in Japan," it said.

news20090625JP2

[TODAY'S TOP STORIES] from [The Japan Times]

[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Parents of tots get eased work hours

(Kyodo News) A bill allowing employees with children under age 3 to work fewer hours and avoid overtime cleared the Diet on Wednesday.

Companies will be required to introduce a system in which employees raising young children can work about six hours a day and have the choice of not working overtime.

Until now, companies have been allowed to choose from several options, including fewer work hours, overtime exemptions and installation of a nursery.

The new law allows both parents to take a leave of absence until their child turns 14 months old, up from the current period of 1 year.

It also features creating a nursing care system in which employees can take five to 10 days a year to help family members.

Companies that violate the revised law will receive instructions or warnings from prefectural labor bureaus and their names will be publicized if they ignore the instructions.

The changes won unanimous approval by the Upper House after clearing the Lower House on June 16 with similar support.

The original bill was amended by the ruling and opposition camps to enhance measures to prevent unfair layoffs of workers with young children in the current recession.

Komeito's platform
New Komeito has outlined its platform for the coming general election, promising to beef up child care measures and support for low-income households, according to party members.

The junior partner in the ruling coalition is expected to approve the platform at a meeting of party executives Thursday.

The platform includes making kindergartens and nurseries free of charge; extending the age limit for child care benefits to the third year in junior high school, up from the current sixth grade in elementary school; doubling the amount of child benefits; and introducing a tax exemption plan with cash stipends for low-income households, according to the party members.

The free kindergartens and nurseries would be provided to children for three years before they enter elementary school. According to an education ministry study panel, this policy alone would cost around 790 billion.

Because government spending on current child care benefits is expected to reach 1 trillion in fiscal 2009, finding the money to pay for these proposals would require a significant reallocation of resources.

New Komeito will also pledge to reduce or exempt tuition for high school students who face financial difficulties by staying in school and to introduce scholarships that would not have to be repaid.

On foreign relations, the party wants to strengthen the drive for nuclear nonproliferation and Japan's leadership role in developing a new international framework to fight climate change, according to the party members.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Coastal whaling ruling gets put off for a year

MADEIRA, Portugal (Kyodo) The International Whaling Commission agreed Tuesday to postpone for one year its decision on whether to allow Japan to hunt whales in its coastal waters in return for scaling down or ending its research whaling in the Antarctic Ocean.

On the second day of the IWC's annual general meeting on the Portuguese island of Madeira, IWC members unanimously supported the postponement in line with an agreement by an IWC panel.

The latest IWC action dashed Japan's hope that whaling in its coastal areas could resume soon.

In Geneva in May, the IWC panel, comprising representatives from 33 countries, agreed to postpone the debate over the proposed Japanese coastal whaling due to differences between Japan and antiwhaling nations, including Australia.

Australia and other antiwhaling nations have bitterly criticized Japan's research whaling, calling it a cover for commercial whaling.

According to the proposal, the IWC would allow whalers from the four traditional whaling ports of Abashiri, Hokkaido; Ayukawa, Miyagi Prefecture; Wada, Chiba Prefecture; and Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture — to catch minke whales in coastal waters.

In return, Japan would phase out its minke hunt in the Antarctic.

During Tuesday's general meeting, Australia's environment minister, Peter Garrett, called for a revision to the current research whaling system, which he accused of allowing a country to engage in whaling without any permission from the IWC.

Akira Nakamae, who heads the Japanese delegation, countered by saying the IWC's efforts to reach a compromise among members would be hampered because "a certain country" is sticking to the idea of suspending research whaling.

Speaking at the outset of the IWC meeting, Chairman William Hogarth said, "The biggest thing . . . is going to be to reduce the number of whales" Japan catches for scientific purposes in the Antarctic Ocean to reach a compromise with the antiwhaling camp.

The IWC general meeting is slated to run through Friday.


[NATIONAL NEWS]
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Saito defends midterm plan for greenhouse gas reduction
By ERIC JOHNSTON
Staff writer

Environment Minister Tetsuo Saito defended Japan's plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, saying Wednesday they were scientifically valid and the economic benefits of a new low-carbon society the government is aiming for will eventually outweigh any financial burdens incurred.

"I believe Japan's decision on midterm greenhouse gas reduction targets does not by any means run counter to the scientific requirements set forth by the IPCC. It's duly within the considerations they presented," Saito told a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Taro Aso announced Japan would seek to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 15 percent of 2005 levels by 2020. The decision was immediately criticized by Japanese and international nongovernment organizations as insufficient.

At a meeting in Bonn earlier this month, Yvo de Boer, general secretary of the U.N. Convention on Climate Change, said he was speechless after hearing Aso's announcement, noting pledges so far from industrial countries like Japan fell far short of the 25 percent to 40 percent in greenhouse gas reductions, based on 1990's levels, that the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the leading body of scientists studying the issue, says are necessary to prevent climate catastrophes from occurring in the coming decades.

The leaders of the Group of 77 developing countries also used the Bonn conference to criticize not only Japan, but also other industrialized countries for adopting midterm reduction targets they said were scientifically invalid.

Quantified targets from developed countries will form the basis of an international agreement on reducing global greenhouse gas emissions between 2013 and 2020, when a U.N. meeting on climate change to replace the Kyoto Protocol convenes in Copenhagen this December.

"As we approach Copenhagen, it's extremely critical to engage America, China, and India and to show leadership so they participate in a new agreement. It's absolutely critical for the U.S. to join, and so we had a coordinated approach with the U.S. (in setting our midterm targets)", Saito said.

The U.S. is looking at a 14 percent cut from 2005 levels. The European Union has announced at least a 20 percent cut as compared with 1990.

At the same time, the minister had pushed for a higher target than many, especially in industries deemed major polluters, originally wanted.

After Aso's announcement, major business organizations, led by the Japan Business Federation (Nippon Keidanren) and The Federation of Electric Power Companies of Japan, warned that meeting the goal of reducing emissions by 15 percent by 2020 by switching to a society based less on carbon will be quite expensive. Steel mills and coal and gas-burning power stations accounted for the majority of Japan's greenhouse gas emissions in fiscal 2007.

news20090625LAT

[Today's Newspaper] from [Los Angeles Times]

[National News]
South Carolina Gov. Sanford ends disappearance and admits affair
'I've been unfaithful to my wife,' he says after returning from South America and capping a weeklong drama.
By Richard Fausset
June 25, 2009

Reporting from Atlanta -- So this was how the bizarre story of South Carolina's missing governor would end: with a sad and shocking South American twist.

It turns out there was another woman for Gov. Mark Sanford, the married champion of conservative values -- a woman in Buenos Aires, one whom his hometown paper has identified only as "Maria."

Their romance blossomed a year ago, after seven years of friendship and the exchange of ideas. This was why he had disappeared, Sanford explained: to go see her, and to cry with her.

In e-mails between the two obtained by the State, South Carolina's largest newspaper, she called their relationship "a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation." He, in turn, wrote about her "erotic beauty" as she held herself "in the faded glow of the night's light."

The tenderness was still evident Wednesday in the governor, even as he made his contrite and tearful announcement of his marital infidelity in a nationally televised news conference. With his Statehouse in crisis, his picture-perfect family on the precipice and his national party bracing for another cycle of sex and scandal, he made a point to speak warmly of her.

"The bottom line is this: I've been unfaithful to my wife," he said in Columbia, hours after returning from South America and touching down at Atlanta's international airport. "I've developed a relationship with a dear, dear friend from Argentina."

The story was big news in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital, where unconfirmed reports suggested that the woman was a government worker living in the trendy Palermo neighborhood, an upscale district full of bars, restaurants, shops and diplomatic residences.

But there was no official word on the woman's identity. The U.S. Embassy put out a curt statement to the local press saying the governor had not informed the embassy of his visit as a "private citizen" to Argentina.

Sanford's admission capped a weeklong drama that has played out in newspapers and national cable news shows, and has brought one of the GOP's rising stars crashing back to Earth.

Sanford reportedly left Columbia, the state capital, on June 18; a few days later, state lawmakers began publicly fretting that his whereabouts were unknown. Law enforcement officials reported that he was not responding to phone and text messages.

His wife told reporters her bookish husband wanted to get away from their four boys so he could think and write. His staff said he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail.

At his Wednesday news conference, Sanford said he had misled his staff members, telling them he might go hiking in the mountains. Fighting back tears, the gaunt, sad-eyed governor asked for forgiveness from his staff, his family, and the "moral people of the nation."

"I've let down a lot of people," he said. "In every incident, I would ask for forgiveness."

Sanford's wife, Jenny Sanford, 46, is a canny former investment banker who worked closely with her husband on both politics and policy. They married in 1989.

His 20-minute news conference left open a number of questions about the personal and political future that awaits Sanford, 49, a second-term governor whose recent refusal to take a chunk of federal stimulus money for his state earned him the respect of America's fiscal conservatives, but enmity among liberals in a state with a woeful public education system and the nation's fourth-highest unemployment rate.

Sanford did not say Wednesday whether he would resign as governor, though as a congressman he had urged President Clinton to step down because of his affair with a White House intern. Sanford did say he was stepping down as chairman of the Republican Governors Assn.

He said he was not formally separated from his wife. Jenny Sanford later said in a statement that the couple had agreed to a "trial separation . . . with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage."

"When I found out about my husband's infidelity, I worked immediately to first seek reconciliation through forgiveness, and then to work diligently to repair our marriage," the statement said. "We reached a point where I felt it was important to look my sons in the eyes and maintain my dignity, self-respect, and my basic sense of right and wrong. I therefore asked my husband to leave two weeks ago."

In the last six years, South Carolinians have grown accustomed to the quirks of Marshall "Mark" Sanford, a wealthy real estate entrepreneur and former congressman who has prided himself on being an unconventional politician: With the governor, a conversation about the flux of daily politics could easily segue into a disquisition on 18th century historian Edward Gibbon.

He was serious about his fiscal conservatism, even clashing with fellow Republicans who didn't meet his standards: In 2004, he brought squealing pigs to the floor of the Statehouse to protest members' "pork" spending.

"He has a lot of enemies in the Republican Party in South Carolina and has taken a lot of shots at people that they feel were undeserved," said Q. Whitfield Ayres, a Republican strategist who is personally friendly with Sanford and his wife. "This is not a good time to have created many enemies in your own party."

Some of his longtime Republican rivals, including Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer, joined Democrats in criticizing a disappearance that could have left the state with a fuzzy chain of command in the event of an emergency.

For the national Republican Party, however, the affair is one of a string of embarrassing sex scandals and less-than-stellar performances from younger officeholders who have been eyed as potential leaders to guide the GOP back into power.

South Carolina's Democrats reacted with a range of emotions -- from compassion and restraint to white-hot rage. South Carolina Democratic Party chairwoman Carol Fowler said Sanford "should be given time to focus on his family right now. There will be other opportunities in the weeks ahead to discuss his effectiveness as our state's governor."

But Dick Harpootlian, the former Democratic chairman, tore into the governor. "I'm ashamed, embarrassed and disgusted with the governor of my state," he said.

Harpootlian, an attorney, filed one of the lawsuits that forced Sanford to accept the stimulus money this month. Much of the money will go to the state educational system.

"This is a guy who's shown a callowness and shallowness unmatched by any public official I've ever encountered," he said. "Does this surprise me? No. It's certainly consistent with the personality traits we've seen for the last six years."

Sanford, at the news conference, described his affair as "selfish." Now, speculation will likely turn to whether he will step down.

Harpootlian wants the governor to resign, but allies, such as Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, are already urging Sanford to finish out his term, which expires in January 2011.

After Sanford, then a congressmen, called for Clinton to step down in 1998, he voted for impeachment.

"I come from the business side," Sanford told the Charleston Post and Courier in 1998. "If you had a chairman or president in the business world facing these allegations, he'd be gone."

news20090625NYT

[Today's Newspaper] from [The New York Times]

[U.S.]
Sanford Case a New Dose of Bad News for Republicans
By JIM RUTENBERG
Published: June 24, 2009

The news that Senator John Ensign had had an affair with a former aide who was married to another former aide was fading. Polls showed some voter impatience with President Obama’s policies, if not with the president himself. And the Politico, the insidery Web site that is widely read in the capital’s political precincts, even featured an article exploring the possibility of a Republican Party comeback.

Then Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, a fiscal conservative seen by many Republicans as an attractive standard-bearer for the next presidential campaign, went missing. Worse, he returned.

His confession on Wednesday that he had been in Argentina with a woman not his wife — and not hiking the Appalachian Trail as his staff had said Monday — was another jolt of bad news for a party that has struggled to get off the ropes all year.

That it was the second such confession in little more than a week from a potential Republican presidential contender — Mr. Ensign had been exploring a run in 2012 as well — left party leaders dazed. They spent Wednesday alternating between gallows humor and yet another round of conversations about what the party stands for and who will give it its best shot to retake the White House.

“Personal circumstances over the course of the last week have managed to shrink the front line of the 2012 possible-contender list by 30 percent,” said Phil Musser, a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association.

Speaking of Mr. Sanford’s confession, Mr. Musser said, “The concern here is that this continues a broader narrative that is completely unhelpful to the Republican Party’s rebuilding — that’s life, but it’s a personal tragedy that fairly or unfairly compounds a series of problems.”

That series of problems has become so chronic that even the party’s most pragmatic members could be forgiven for wondering whether being named “possible 2012 contender” is like winning the movie role of Superman, long believed by some to carry a curse for those actors who don his blue tights.

One by one, those who have been publicly discussed as possible Republican candidates in 2012 have stumbled.

Gov. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana suffered a political setback after even his fellow conservatives harshly critiqued his televised response to Mr. Obama’s prime-time address to Congress in February. The speech, which was supposed to provide a moment to shine in front of a national audience, instead became fodder for late-night comedy.

Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska, the former Republican vice-presidential nominee who was eviscerated by some of her own political aides at the end of last year’s presidential race, continued to get national attention, but hardly the kind likely to help convince voters that she would be a substantive candidate. The father of her unwed teenage daughter’s baby feuded openly with the Palin family, and the governor exasperated some Republicans in Washington with her off-again, on-again plans for headlining a fund-raiser there.

After basking in glowing reviews among political pundits this year, Newt Gingrich, the former House speaker, had to apologize for a post on Twitter in which he called Mr. Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, Sonia Sotomayor, “racist” for saying that she hoped Latinas would be generally better equipped to make judicial decisions than their white male counterparts.

Another possible Republican presidential candidate in 2012, Gov. Jon M. Huntsman Jr. of Utah, fell out of contention when he accepted Mr. Obama’s offer to become ambassador to China, robbing the party of a rising star.

All of their troubles have served to improve the prospects of other contenders who have generally stayed out of the spotlight this year, or have ventured into it only gingerly, like former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Gov. Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

Some prominent party members argued that criticism in the mainstream news media of Ms. Palin, Mr. Gingrich and Mr. Jindal did not reflect their standing among the conservative voters who decide primaries and caucuses — and that the confessions of Mr. Ensign and Mr. Sanford would be viewed in isolation.

“I disagree with the idea that this shows problems for the modern Republican Party,” said Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, a group that applauded Mr. Sanford’s attempt to refuse some federal stimulus funds earlier this year. In reference to the fiscally conservative philosophies of Mr. Ensign and Mr. Sanford, he joked, “I think instead it shows that sexual attractiveness of limited-government conservatism.”

As television pundits noted on Wednesday, confessions by former Gov. Eliot Spitzer of New York that he had been involved with a prostitute and by former Gov. Jim McGreevey of New Jersey that he had been unfaithful to his wife with a gay lover did not hurt Democrats nationally, although both men resigned.

But other senior Republican strategists and leaders said they were concerned that their party’s large segment of evangelical voters makes the party more vulnerable to political damage from scandal, especially when it involves politicians like Mr. Sanford and Mr. Ensign, who had both been harshly critical of the infidelities of former President Bill Clinton and others.

“When we do these kinds of things like what happened with Ensign and now with Sanford it hurts our credibility as a party of good governing and of values,” said Ron Kaufman, a Republican lobbyist who is close to Mr. Romney. Mr. Kaufman is among those in his party who believe that the news that former Representative Mark Foley of Florida had sent sexually explicit e-mail messages to male Congressional pages cost the party in 2006 and 2008.

“I think there is somewhat of an identity crisis in the Republican Party,” said Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, an evangelical group in Washington. “Are they going to be a party that attracts values voters, and are they going to be the party that lives by those values?”

news20096025WP

[Today's Newspaper] fom [The Washington Post]

[Transportation]
'Anomalies' Found in Metro Control System
Accident Probe Turns Up Possible Cause of Deadly Crash
By Lyndsey Layton, Maria Glod and Lena H. Sun
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, June 25, 2009; 7:46 AM

Federal investigators said yesterday that they found "anomalies" in a key component of the electronic control system along the Metro track north of Fort Totten, suggesting that computers might have sent one Red Line train crashing into another.

A senior Metro official knowledgeable about train operations said an internal report confirmed that the computer system appeared to have faltered.

Investigators stopped short yesterday of saying that the equipment malfunctioned or that it caused Monday's crash, which killed nine people and injured 80. But Debbie Hersman of the National Transportation Safety Board said investigators are looking closely at a 740-foot-long circuit near the crash site that malfunctioned during testing. "These circuits are vital," she said. "It's a signal system. It's providing information, authorization and speed commands to the following train."

Investigators are continuing to run tests, trying to determine whether the circuit failed to detect the train that was idling on the tracks north of the station and was rear-ended by a southbound train shortly after 5 p.m. Monday. Hersman said the operator of the stationary train was released from the hospital yesterday and investigators plan to interview him today.

They also are working to determine how fast the train operated by Jeanice McMillan was traveling when it barreled into the idling train. McMillan, the novice operator of the striking train, was among those killed in the wreck. The steel rails show evidence that McMillan activated the emergency brakes 300 to 400 feet before the pileup, which occurred on a curved section of track between the Takoma and Fort Totten stations, Hersman said.

Hersman said investigators are closely examining McMillan's actions.

The NTSB has asked that any survivors, witnesses, or anyone who has photos or video of the accident contact officials at 866-328-6347 to arrange to be interviewed. "There are a number of steps we have to take before we come to any determination," Hersman said.

Red Line trains began traveling past the crash site this morning for the first time since the collision, but investigators dd not want rail cars on the track where the crash had occurred. Instead, trains in both directions are sharing a single track between the Fort Totten and Takoma stations, and are only traveling between those stations during peak hours -- 5 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. to 10 p.m. During off-peak hours, no trains will run between Fort Totten and Silver Spring. Shuttle service is available, but riders should expect delays.

Yesterday morning, crews hauled away the last of the wreckage, a pile of metal, wires, battered orange and yellow seats and train doors. Someone left a bouquet of pink roses on the side of the bridge overlooking the crash site.

Last night, investigators planned to run a train similar to the one involved in the crash to test the circuit. In coming days, another simulation will be conducted to determine whether the curve, or anything else, might have obstructed McMillan's view of the idling train.

The speed limit where the crash occurred is 59 mph, the top speed on the Metro system. If the track circuit failed to detect the idling train, computers onboard McMillan's train would have set her train's speed at 59 mph, making it difficult for her to hit the emergency brakes in time to avoid a crash. The impact pushed the idling six-car train forward seven feet, Hersman said. An empty six-car train weighs about 237 tons.

McMillan, 42, had been running trains without supervision for a few months.

Metro's automated trains are controlled by several electronic systems. The train protection system is made up of circuits embedded along the track, anywhere from 150 feet to a half-mile apart. As trains cross the circuits, signals are transmitted down the line to following trains. The signals automatically set speeds, slowing or stopping a train so that it doesn't crash into the one in front.

The railroad is divided into blocks, and the computers are set to keep two blocks of distance between trains. As an added layer of control, another electronic system regulates train speeds and spacing and stops the trains as they enter stations. A third system controls overall train movements to maintain proper routing and keep trains on schedule; it is monitored by workers in Metro's downtown central control room.

If the train protection system is working as designed, when one train begins to enter the two-block buffer behind another, the computers automatically deploy the brakes on the second train and force it to stop.

When investigators used a "shunt," a device that simulates a train on the tracks, to test the six circuits in the stretch near the crash, five worked properly and one did not, Hersman said. Hersman said that maintenance was done on the one circuit this month and last year and that those records will be examined.

In another development, the FBI recovered several cellphones from the crash site and are working to determine whether one was McMillan's, Hersman said. She said a preservation order has been issued for McMillan's cellphone records

Hersman also reiterated that the NTSB is concerned about the type of cars involved in Monday's crash. Purchased from Rohr Industries in 1974-78, they are Metro's oldest and have a tendency to fold into themselves, like a telescope, during a crash.

Jackie L. Jeter, president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 689, which represents train operators, said the union is demanding that Metro make several immediate changes, including using Rohr cars only when they are sandwiched between newer-model cars. The striking train in Monday's crash was composed of Rohr cars; the leading car incurred the worst damage and was compressed by two-thirds.

The union also wants operators to be given more control over their trains. "These demands are based on my belief that this accident should have never happened," Jeter said.

Investigators said yesterday that anti-climbers -- devices that should have prevented the first car of the striking train from vaulting onto the car it hit -- engaged in the crash but that the moving car "failed to stay intact . . . and it climbed up."

The first lawsuit against Metro as a result of the crash was filed yesterday, and more are expected. The parents of Davonne Flanagan, 15, of the District sued in federal court, charging "negligent operation" and "negligent maintenance" on the part of Metro and the train's operator.

Davonne was in the first car of the moving train, toward the back, when it struck; his leg was fractured, said his attorney, Lawrence Lapidus. Lapidus said the family is seeking $950,000 for medical expenses, pain and suffering, and other restitution.

"Depending on what is found, there are grave possibilities for liability for the . . . agency," said Paul Rothstein, a professor of tort law at Georgetown University.

Metro has created an emergency fund for survivors and families of the victims to help with medical, funeral and other expenses, the agency said.

Meanwhile, a top official at Boston's transit system called Metro the night of the crash to discuss the signal system, according to Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority spokesman Joe Pesaturo. He declined to say what was discussed.

Boston uses an automated train protection system similar to Metro's.

Last month, the MBTA experienced what Pesaturo described as an "isolated" signal system failure when a faulty circuit board along the track in one section of Boston's Orange Line failed to detect trains. Engineers discovered the problem and immediately stopped using the automated system while they checked all circuit boards. Trains had to be dispatched by radio for 12 days, and MBTA personnel were posted at each station to give the go-ahead for trains to proceed. That caused delays.

Boston uses signal systems made by the same manufacturer as Metro's, Alstom Transport. No problems were found with the other circuit boards, and the faulty one was replaced by the manufacturer, Adco Circuit, a subcontractor of Alstom's, Pesaturo said.

news20090825GDN

[Environment] from [guardian.co.uk]

[Carbon Emissions]
Scottish parliament agrees tougher 42% target to cut emissionsCampaigners say 'hugely significant' vote to cut emissions by 42% by 2020 sets new 'moral' standard for the rest of the industrialised world
Severin Carrell, Scotland correspondent
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 June 2009 15.43 BST
Article history

Scotland has set itself the world's most ambitious greenhouse gas reduction targets after the Scottish parliament voted today to cut the nation's CO2 emissions by 42% by 2020.

In a rare show of unity, all political parties at Holyrood unanimously agreed to fix the target as part of a radical climate change bill which also requires the Scottish government to set legally binding annual cuts in emissions from 2012.

The measures are tougher than the 34% target set in the UK government's climate change act last year, which has no statutory annual targets. In common with UK government aspirations, the new act also commits Scotland to an 80% reduction on 1990 levels by 2050.

The campaign coalition Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, which claims its 60 member organisations represent two million people, said this "hugely significant" vote set a new "moral" standard for the rest of the industrialised world.

It comes the day after the US stated that a 40% cut by 2020 was "not on the cards": developing nations have demanded this level of cut from rich nations.

Kim Carstensen, head of WWF International's global climate initiative, said: "At least one nation is prepared to aim for climate legislation that follows the science. Scotland made the first step to show others that it can be done. We now need others to follow."

However, the new measures are already under intense scrutiny. The act allows ministers to reduce the target later this year if the UK government's advisory panel on climate change says it is unrealistic, or the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen in December fails to agree on a global deal to replace Kyoto.

Environment groups are critical of the Scottish government's refusal to abandon road, bridge and airport expansion programmes, its plans for a new coal-fired power station, and its unwillingness to tackle directly increasing car use.

Furthermore, Scottish ministers only directly control about 30% of Scotland's total annual emissions of 68m tonnes of CO2 – which only equates to a 700th of the world's emissions. Most significant policies are controlled in Brussels and London, critics point out.

About 40% is covered by the European Union carbon emissions trading agreement, while the UK government has policy responsibilities for a further 30% of Scotland's emissions. That includes fuel taxation, low emission vehicles, VAT on energy efficiency and air taxes.

The Committee on Climate Change, the panel set up to advise Gordon Brown's government, has warned Salmond that Scotland is effectively jumping the gun by setting a 42% target in advance of a deal at Copenhagen.

In a letter to Stewart Stevenson, the Scottish climate change minister, the committee's chief executive, David Kennedy, said it believes Scotland should follow the UK strategy of waiting until the Copenhagen conference.

If a deal is reached, it should follow the UK government's lead and only then set a 42% target.

The Scottish government had also increased the pressure on itself by including emissions from international aviation and shipping in its target, Kennedy wrote, even though it has no control over policy for these sectors.

"I would therefore consider that an appropriate Scottish 2020 target could be set slightly below 34% to account for different treatments of international aviation under UK and Scottish approaches."

Despite these criticisms, the chairman of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, Mike Robinson, said the significance of the all-party consensus could not be underestimated.

"It means Scotland's climate change bill has the toughest target of any industrialised nation in the world and will be held up as an example, ahead of the climate talks in Copenhagen in December, of what can and should be done," he said.

"This is a moral commitment and we hope other developed nations will hear this call for action and follow Scotland's lead."

Although on renewable energy the Scottish National party is very likely to surpass its ambitious targets to deliver half of Scotland's electricity from renewables by 2020, ministers have failed to embark on any politically unpopular measures to combat car use or the growth in short-haul aviation.

It has authorised a second road bridge over the Firth of Forth and abandoned bridge tolls, paid to extend the M74 motorway, supports a new ring road around Aberdeen and dualing the A9 and wants a major new coal-fired power station.

Its most ambitious emissions-reduction policies, such as using carbon capture for all fossil fuel power stations, using marine energy, and a wholesale switch to green transport, either have targets set at 2030 or are largely UK-government controlled. The SNP has also completely ruled out any new nuclear power stations.


[Energy]
Could computers be used to heat our homes and offices?
IBM trials new technology that uses the heat produced by computers to warm buildings
Duncan Graham-Rowe
guardian.co.uk, Wednesday 24 June 2009 17.10 BST
Article history

The world's first large-scale test of new technology that uses the heat produced by computers to warm buildings is about to begin in Switzerland.

The hope is that the three-year trial of the system, called Aquasar, will lead to carbon emissions reductions of 85% through simultaneously cutting the energy used to cool the chips while also reducing heating bills.

Long-term, the main target for the technology is not desk-top computers in homes and offices but the growing number of data centres that form the backbone of the internet and keep businesses ticking over, according to Bruno Michel, who is heading the project at IBM's Zurich Research Laboratory, in Switzerland.

Precisely how much energy existing data centres consume is not clear, largely because companies like Google are reluctant to reveal just how many they have and how big they are. But according to Tom Dowdall co-ordinator of Greenpeace International's Green Electronics campaign they are consuming increasing amounts of energy. "Data centres are one of the main reasons why electricity use is rising in Europe and the US."

In 2005 data centres were responsible for 1% of global electricity consumption, double the figure of five years earlier, according to Jonathan Koomey, an energy expert at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, in California. And soaring internet traffic means this figure is set to rise rapidly.

Around half of the energy consumed by large computer systems is spent cooling the processors to prevent them from overheating – normally by blowing refrigerated air over them. In contrast the Aquasar system uses water to cool the chips, which is 4000 times more efficient at capturing heat.

IBM's new system uses a network of tiny tubes measuring just hundredths of a millimetre across to pump water to within a few hundreds of a millimetre of the chip itself. In the three-year pilot study, this heated water will be used to warm a separate water system to about 65C. This hot water will then be plumbed into the district heating system that serves 60 buildings in the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, in Zurich.

The drive for change, according to Dowdall, is coming not from a desire to reduce emissions but from the escalating electricity bills data centres are generating. "Companies can't keep increasing their capacity with the current costs," he said.

Google is already working on other strategies to reduce its power bill. One idea is to place data centres on barges and use sea water to cool them. Another suggestion is to make use of cooler temperatures undergound by placing data centres within old coal mines.

news20090625SAC

[Environment] from [scientificamerican.com]

[Environment]
June 24, 2009
Cap and Trade--For Fish
Oceanic agency wants to halt the "race for fish"
By Allison Winter

The National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration has created a task force to advance the use of cap-and-trade regulatory schemes for fisheries.

The "Catch Share Task Force," announced yesterday, includes 16 NOAA advisers and fisheries experts to shape a system for setting strict catch limits and distributing total catch shares to commercial fishers, usually based on their historical catch. Fishers can then buy and sell their shares.

The 2006 Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act authorized catch shares for the first time and added some safeguards for the environment and commercial fishers in the program. There are currently 12 catch-share programs, up from seven two years ago. Four more are in the implementation or development phase, according to the National Marine Fisheries Service.

Cap-and-trade advocates say such programs halt the "race for fish" -- when fishery managers set total allowable catches and fishers race to get the most they can before the fishery reaches the catch limit.

The new task force indicates an increased commitment from the Obama administration to advance fisheries cap-and-trade. The administration also requested significant new funding for fiscal 2010 budget for the effort. The House approved a NOAA spending bill last week with $18.6 million for "catch share" fisheries. A Senate panel will take up its version of the bill today.

The task force's goals include developing a new NOAA policy to ensure catch-shares are "fully considered" whenever fishery-management councils reconsider management plans. The group is also supposed to make sure there is enough support for councils that want to move forward with catch-share plans.

Monica Medina, a senior advisor to NOAA Administrator Jane Lubchenco, will lead the task force. The executive director is Mark Holliday, director of policy for the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS).

The task force includes six other NMFS officials: Jim Balsiger, the service's acting administrator; John Oliver, deputy assistant administrator for operations; Alan Risenhoover, director of the sustainable fisheries office; Pat Kurkul, Northeast regional administrator; Roy Crabtree, Southeast regional administrator; and Sam Pooley, director of the Pacific Islands Fisheries Science Center.

Other task force members: John Pappalardo, chairman of the New England Fishery Management Council; Lee Anderson, vice chairman of the Mid-Atlantic Fishery Management Council; Eric Olson, chairman of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council; George Geiger, member of the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council; Robert Gill, member of the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council; David Hanson, member of the Pacific Fishery Management Council; and Sean Martin, chairman of the Western Pacific Fishery Management Council.


[Clean Air Policy]
From the June 2009 Special Editions
5 Steps to Clean Up Air Pollution
These solutions can help improve air quality, whether it warms or not
By Janice Nolen

Even as the U.S. explores the complex challenges of global warming, air pollution remains widespread and dangerous. Millions of Americans live in areas that have recognized air pollution problems. Grave health effects—including death—are all too common. And the threat is not just to people: dirty air sickens and kills plants and animals and creates ugly haze that obscures spectacular views.

Five policy changes could make the air we breathe cleaner and healthier. The American Lung Association and other public health and environmental organizations recommend these steps as the core of a clean air agenda for the nation:

1. Clean up coal-fired power plants.
Coal plants are one of the largest contributors to atmospheric particulate matter and ozone—which are linked to worsened asthma and increased rates of heart attacks and premature death—as well as greenhouse gases and toxic substances, including mercury. We need to immediately reduce these emissions once and for all.

2. Strengthen ozone air standards voluntarily.
In March 2008 the Environmental Protection Agency issued new national air quality standards limiting ozone smog. Unfortunately, the standards allow far more ozone than the agency’s own science advisers unanimously recommended and far more than Clean Air Act requirements would allow. President George W. Bush overturned recommendations for stronger protections. The American Lung Association, along with several states and public health and environmental groups, challenged those decisions in court. But now the EPA could voluntarily remand its 2008 decision and issue new standards that truly protect people and ecosystems.

3. Clean up oceangoing vessels.
Cruise ships, container ships and tankers emit staggering amounts of smog-forming nitrous oxides, sulfur dioxide, heat-trapping carbon dioxide and particulates, among them black carbon (soot). New evidence shows that pollution from these vessels reaches surprisingly far inland. The U.S. government has requested that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) create an “emissions-control area” in American waters, including off Alaska and Hawaii. Although the U.S. signed the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships, it cannot enforce those requirements until the IMO grants the right to create the control areas along its coastlines.

4. Improve the pollution-monitoring network.
Numerous sensors regularly collect data about air quality that can be sent to an EPA database to determine if the air in a community meets national standards. Yet the instruments are installed only in about 1,000 of the nation’s 3,141 counties, and budget cuts have forced states to reduce the number of sensors or staff who maintain them and analyze the data. Emerging science indicates that some areas with no monitoring face serious health risks, particularly poor neighborhoods adjacent to highways or dirty industries. The EPA should work with scientists and state officials to lower monitoring costs and expand the ability to track pollutants.

5. Enforce the law.
Since 1970 the Clean Air Act has driven the nation’s ability to curb air pollution. But rules have eroded as political decisions have taken the place of scientific ones and as delay after delay in enforcing specific requirements have mounted until only costly lawsuits prompt action. By restoring a commitment to science and law, the nation can make great strides.

The full list of needed steps is more detailed (see www.lungusa.org/cleanairstandards). But these five actions will go a long way toward breaking the pattern of weakening clean air safeguards by ignoring science and delaying actions. America must continue to reduce air pollution; the health and lives of people and ecosystems depend on it.

news20090625SLT

[Today's Paper] from [Slate Magazine]

Gov. Kissed an Argentine (And He Liked It)
By Daniel Politi
Posted Thursday, June 25, 2009, at 7:20 AM ET

The New York Times (NYT) and Los Angeles Times (LAT) lead with Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina admitting that he has been having an extramarital affair with a woman in Argentina, where he spent the last few days. Sanford's confession in a rambling news conference ended the mystery about the governor's whereabouts. He had last been seen Thursday, and after some contradictory statements, his wife said she didn't know where he was and his staff assured the public he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail. But it turns out he was in Buenos Aires, seeing a woman with whom he has been having a romantic relationship for about a year. Sanford, a social conservative who was seen as a rising star in the Republican Party and considered a possible presidential candidate, said he would resign from his position as chairman of the Republican Governors Association. But he refused to state whether he would resign from the governor's office.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) leads its world-wide newsbox with the continuing clashes between demonstrators and security forces in Tehran. State media reported that one of the three presidential candidates who had disputed the election results, Mohsen Rezaie, withdrew his objections in what was the first important division in what had been the opposition's united front. USA Today (USAT) leads with a Pentagon survey that reveals around 60 percent of military parents say their children exhibit more behavioral problems, and have more fear and anxiety when a parent is sent to war. One-third say their children's grades suffered in school. Another study has shown that these problems don't always go away when the parent comes back. The Washington Post (WP) leads with word that problems have been found in the subway's electronic control system, suggesting that it might have been malfunctioning computers that "sent one Red Line train crashing into another." Rails show evidence that the train operator pressed the emergency brakes about 300 to 400 feet before the crash.

It was unclear whether Sanford would have acknowledged the affair had he not been met at the airport by a reporter. Regardless, he did talk about the affair, at length and with "stark frankness," as the WP puts it. The LAT emphasizes that during his tearful apology Sanford "made a point to speak warmly" of the woman he described as a "dear, dear friend" that he knew for seven years before their relationship turned romantic. It seems this was their third romantic rendezvous, and there was a strong implication that he had gone to Buenos Aires to end the affair. "The one thing that you really find is that you absolutely want resolution," he said. "And so oddly enough, I spent the last five days of my life crying in Argentina." Sanford said his wife found out about the affair five months ago. In a statement, Sanford's wife, Jenny Sanford, said they had agreed to a "trial separation … with the goal of ultimately strengthening our marriage."

Last night, the State newspaper published e-mails that were supposedly exchanged between the governor and the woman in Argentina, identified only as "Maria." The paper had received the e-mails from an anonymous source six months ago, but couldn't verify their authenticity. The NYT notes that reporters were skeptical of the e-mails, because "despite the governor's sometimes odd behavior, the whiff of adultery had not followed him." In the e-mails, she calls their relationship "a kind of impossible love, not only because of distance but situation." Sanford made at least one state-sponsored trip to Argentina, when, about a year ago, he met with the governor of Buenos Aires Province.

Sanford had recently attracted national attention after a high-profile bid to try to reject some money from the federal stimulus package. He was eventually forced to accept the money after much pressure from legislators and a court order, but he was galvanized by fiscal conservatives for his efforts. Adding the fact that he had also become one of the most high-profile critics of Obama's administration, Sanford looked like a potential presidential contender. But yesterday, it wasn't clear whether the man who, as a congressman, had voted to impeach President Bill Clinton— "He lied under a different oath, and that's the oath to his wife," Sanford said at the time—even has a political future. Some Republican state lawmakers are already distancing themselves from the governor.

Sanford's confession came a mere eight days after Sen. John Ensign of Nevada, who was also seen as a possible 2012 contender, admitted that he had had an extramarital affair. "For Republicans, the long winter continues," writes the Post's Dan Balz. "Personal circumstances over the course of the last week have managed to shrink the front line of the 2012 possible-contender list by 30 percent," said a former executive director of the Republican Governors Association. The NYT says Republicans could be forgiven for seeing the label of potential presidential contender as a curse. "One by one, those who have been publicly discussed as possible Republican candidates in 2012 have stumbled."

During Sanford's news conference, it became clear that "he was working these issues out in front of the microphones before he had worked them out in his head," writes the Post's Dana Milbank. And while crisis managers would no doubt dub his confession "a disaster," there was still "something compelling in the raw and messy nature of his confession." Whereas most politicians who are in this type of situation follow a set script, "here was a powerful man wiping tears from his cheeks and talking about the intimate details of his shameful behavior." (Slate's William Saletan writes that Sanford failed to follow the rule that politicians should always minimize their affairs and never admit they loved the other woman. "It beats the hell out of seducing somebody, kicking her to the curb, and pretending she was nothing to you—or really meaning it.")

Iran's supreme leader made it clear yesterday that the election results are final and he called for the "restoration of order." Ayatolla Ali Khamenei said that "neither the system nor the people will yield to pressure under any circumstances." Hours after Khamenei said that "everyone should respect the law," demonstrators who had gathered outside the Parliament were met by a large number of security personnel who appear to have beaten and arrested people indiscriminately. Mir Hossein Mousavi's wife said the situation in Iran was akin to "martial law." Still, the Post says there seem to be "outlines of a political coalition" against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad taking shape that includes the head of Iran's parliament and Tehran's mayor. The LAT says that Khamenei's statements were widely seen as a way to prevent more lawmakers from defecting to the opposition.

The NYT says that Khamenei's statement suggested that "Iran was now, more than ever, a state guided not by clerics of the revolution but by a powerful military and security apparatus." In an analysis piece inside, the NYT states that the reason why Ahmadinejad seems to have been able to keep such a low profile since the election is because of his success in "creating a pervasive network of important officials in the military, security agencies, and major media outlets." This network is particularly powerful considering it appears to have Khamenei's full support. In a front-page piece, the LAT points out that many analysts believe Khamenei's son, Mojtaba Khamenei, is "orchestrating the crackdown."

Early morning wire stories report that Moussavi released a statement on his official Web site saying that he's being pressured to withdraw his challenge to the election results and complaining that his access to the public has been "completely restricted." Around 70 professors were arrested late yesterday after meeting with Mousavi.

The LAT fronts news that the best picture category at the Oscars will now have space for 10 nominated films, rather than five. This marks a return to the award's early years, and is a clear attempt to broaden the show's appeal after years of sagging ratings. The idea is that Hollywood's biggest night could now include "well-regarded popcorn films," as the LAT puts it. "You know how long the Academy Awards broadcast is every year?" writes the Post's Lisa de Moraes. "It just got longer."