Byline: By danny hakim section: Section B; Column 0; Metropolitan Desk; Pg. 1 Length

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: PAINTING (90%); ART & ARTISTS (90%); MUSEUMS & GALLERIES (90%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (90%); ARTS FESTIVALS & EXHIBITIONS (89%); SCULPTURE (89%); VISUAL & PERFORMING ARTS (79%); ANIMATION (75%); RETAILERS (72%); RELIGION (65%); PUBLISHING (55%)
COMPANY: LVMH MOET HENNESSY LOUIS VUITTON SA (68%)
TICKER: MC (PAR) (68%); LVM (LSE) (68%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS316992 WOMEN'S HANDBAG & PURSE MANUFACTURING (68%); NAICS312140 DISTILLERIES (68%); NAICS312130 WINERIES (68%); SIC3171 WOMEN'S HANDBAGS & PURSES (68%); SIC2085 DISTILLED & BLENDED LIQUORS (68%); SIC2084 WINES, BRANDY, & BRANDY SPIRITS (68%)
GEOGRAPHIC: NEW YORK, NY, USA (90%) NEW YORK, USA (90%) JAPAN (91%); UNITED STATES (90%)
LOAD-DATE: April 18, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
CORRECTION-DATE: April 21, 2008

CORRECTION: An art entry in the Listings pages on Friday for an exhibition of Gregory Crewdson's photographs, at the Luhring Augustine gallery in Chelsea, misstated the title of the series to which the photographs belong, which is also the title of a book published by Abrams in conjunction with the exhibition. It is ''Beneath the Roses,'' not ''Behind the Roses.''
DOCUMENT-TYPE: Schedule
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

855 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 18, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

As HUD Chief Quits, a Look At Close Ties
BYLINE: By RACHEL L. SWARNS; Rachel L. Swarns reported from Hilton Head, S.C., a week ago and did additional reporting afterward from Washington. Barclay Walsh and Kitty Bennett contributed research.
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; National Desk; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1774 words
DATELINE: HILTON HEAD, S.C.
Most of the time, the prominent men hovered in different orbits and different cities. Yet for years now, their lives have converged here on this resort island of white beaches and rippling sea.

There was William Hairston, a local builder whose wife is active in Republican circles here. There was Michael R. Hollis, an Atlanta lawyer, entrepreneur and presidential history buff who vacations here.

And there was President Bush's housing secretary, Alphonso R. Jackson, who golfed and socialized here and led the federal agency that gave hundreds of thousands of dollars in business to friends and acquaintances, including Mr. Hairston and Mr. Hollis.

One such friend, an Atlanta developer, received a $127 million contract last year as part of a joint venture to rebuild a New Orleans public housing project. That developer's company has paid Mr. Jackson more than $250,000 in fees since Mr. Jackson joined the Bush administration in 2001, for work done before Mr. Jackson joined government, the developer's lawyer said.

Mr. Jackson, who announced his resignation in March, leaves office on Friday as federal authorities continue to investigate whether he enriched himself and friends with lucrative contracts. The inquiry has also laid bare the connections between Mr. Jackson, who was determined to expand opportunities for minority contractors, and the ambitious men who benefited from those opportunities.

It is the story of a small circle of black businessmen linked by their financial interests in the revitalization of troubled public housing and, in most cases, a shared affinity for conservative politics, and how those connections may have helped force the housing secretary from public life.

In 2003, the year before Mr. Jackson was named secretary, 14 percent -- or $134 million -- of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's contracts went to black-owned firms, officials say. By 2007, black-owned businesses were receiving 25 percent of the department's contracts, or $195.6 million.

Mr. Jackson has proudly promoted such statistics, saying that ''a good bottom line with small and minority businesses helps to build a stronger America.''

Indeed, some of Mr. Jackson's supporters deride the scrutiny of his casual friendships as a racist effort to undermine a prominent black official and several respected black businessmen, noting that no one has been charged with a crime.

Representative James E. Clyburn of South Carolina, the No. 3 Democrat in the House, said he believed the investigation was fueled by officials determined to derail Mr. Jackson's efforts to expand affirmative action.

''Is there something wrong with trying to make sure African-Americans participate in the contracting program with the American government?'' asked Mr. Clyburn, who vacations here regularly and knows Mr. Jackson, Mr. Hairston and Mr. Hollis.

But over time, concerns have grown -- first among some housing officials and later among federal investigators -- as it became clear several men who interacted with and had business deals with Mr. Jackson became beneficiaries of his efforts to further integrate the contracting corps.

Mr. Hairston, who golfed with Mr. Jackson here, received at least $610,000 in contracts from the New Orleans housing authority, which HUD took over in 2002, for reconstruction work on public housing complexes that were battered by Hurricane Katrina, officials say. (Mr. Hairston did not shy from talking up his personal ties to Mr. Jackson, according to housing officials who worked with him. And Mr. Jackson rebuked department employees who challenged Mr. Hairston's contracts and authority, the officials said.)

Mr. Hollis, an acquaintance of the housing secretary, owns a law firm that was paid at least $1 million by HUD for running the Virgin Islands housing authority, government contracting records show. (Maynard H. Jackson Jr., the former mayor of Atlanta who died in 2003, introduced Mr. Hollis to Alphonso Jackson more than a decade ago.)

The Atlanta developer, Noel Khalil, who occasionally dined with Mr. Jackson in Atlanta and in Washington, runs Columbia Residential, a development company that received the $127 million contract from the New Orleans housing authority last year as part of a joint venture hired to redevelop the St. Bernard housing project.

Mr. Khalil, who does not vacation on Hilton Head, hired Mr. Jackson as a partner in 1998 for development deals in Texas, before Mr. Jackson joined HUD as deputy secretary in 2001. (The two men met in 1994, also via an introduction from former Mayor Jackson, when Mr. Jackson was running the housing authority in Dallas.)

From 2001 to 2007, Columbia Residential paid Mr. Jackson over $250,000 in developer fees on three housing complexes for work that he completed before he entered government, said Mr. Khalil's lawyer, Buddy Parker.

Mr. Jackson listed only one payment -- of $35,000 -- from Columbia Residential in the financial disclosure forms he filed for 2001 to 2006. Investigators have been looking into whether Mr. Jackson steered contracts to Mr. Khalil to ensure that Mr. Khalil could make those payments.

Mr. Jackson declined to comment on his ties to the three men, citing the ongoing investigation. Mr. Hairston did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Pressuring subordinates to award contracts to specific firms could be a crime, according to government officials briefed on the inquiry. The officials said investigators were also trying to determine if Mr. Jackson received payments in exchange for any help he gave friends. But the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said investigators had not found evidence of such an arrangement.

Mr. Hollis and Mr. Khalil denied that they asked for or were offered any special treatment because they were friendly with Mr. Jackson. They say they believe federal investigators know that their contracts were legitimate.

Mr. Parker said he had turned over documents and spoken with investigators. He said a Justice Department official told him that his client was considered a witness in the investigation.

''When you pay money that's clearly traceable to a sitting secretary of the cabinet,'' Mr. Parker said, ''it's not a shocking idea that you're going to be investigated.''

''But the fact is that he has nothing to hide,'' he said. ''I feel comfortable in saying that they've checked our facts out.''

Mr. Hollis said federal investigators had not contacted him about his contracts to manage the Virgin Islands housing authority, which extended from February 2006 to May 2007. The authorities have subpoenaed records from Smith Real Estate Services, an Atlanta firm that retained him as a special adviser for a Virgin Islands contract with the department in 2004.

Pamela Smith, president of Smith Real Estate Services, declined to comment. Her lawyer, Ralph Caccia, said she cooperated fully with the authorities.

But Mr. Hollis said he had improved the troubled Virgin Islands housing authority, imposing financial accountability, rehabbing 300 public housing units, negotiating for efficient and cost-effective water service and removing hundreds of abandoned cars from the properties, among other steps.

Carmen Valenti, a HUD official who oversaw Mr. Hollis's work, called him ''dedicated, very conscientious and really hard-working.'' Mr. Valenti said Mr. Hollis's contract required several approvals and was extended several times by HUD officials.

''I'm very proud of what we did,'' Mr. Hollis said. ''We pulled together a team that improved the housing conditions for nearly 15 percent of the people who live in the Virgin Islands, as well as the working conditions of nearly 300 public housing employees.''

''When our engagement started, V.I.H.A. was a highly troubled agency,'' he said, referring to the Virgin Islands agency. ''When our engagement was over, V.I.H.A. was a much stronger agency and poised for economic recovery.''

Senior Democrats in Congress, who urged Mr. Jackson to resign, say the deals smell of cronyism. Mr. Parker said there was nothing nefarious in the fact that several of the businessmen were acquainted with each other.

''There are a substantial number of successful African-Americans who know each other through business and politics,'' Mr. Parker said. ''That's how Noel Khalil knows Michael Hollis and Alphonso Jackson.''

Some African-Americans here bristle at the notion that Mr. Jackson's casual friendships with the black professionals who flock to this resort town have become part of a federal investigation.

''You get an African-American in a position where he can help black folks, and people just don't like it,'' said Larry Holman, president of the Beaufort County Black Chamber of Commerce, who knows Mr. Jackson and Mr. Hairston.

''It's unfortunate,'' Mr. Holman said. ''We have a lot of respect for Secretary Jackson here.''

Property records show that Mr. Jackson bought a house in an exclusive gated community here in 2004. Since then, local residents in this town of 33,000 people have watched his comings and goings with interest.

Mr. Jackson hobnobs with local businessmen, golfs, dines with friends and chats with neighbors who live alongside his vacation home, a cream-colored colonial with columns. He socialized with Mr. Hairston, who had been looking for work beyond South Carolina after his stucco business withered in the face of competition from Hispanic-owned companies here, according to people who know Mr. Hairston.

And he would occasionally bump into Mr. Hollis at parties or gatherings hosted by mutual friends.

Clifford Bush, a local lawyer, said Mr. Jackson made a point of mingling with black businessmen, even stopping by an event organized by the county's black chamber of commerce.

As a prominent black conservative, Mr. Jackson certainly stood out. Mr. Hairston and Mr. Khalil also share an affinity for the Republican Party. Mr. Hairston's wife, Starletta, is running for a seat in the South Carolina House, on the Republican ticket.

Mr. Hollis said he still admired Mr. Jackson, despite the housing secretary's troubles, because he climbed out of poverty to become a lawyer and a member of President Bush's cabinet. ''He pulled himself up by his bootstraps,'' he said.

Mr. Khalil said through his lawyer that he ''regrets the circumstances that Alphonso Jackson finds himself in.''

As for Mr. Jackson, he is planning on ''a few months of rest and relaxation'' after stepping down from office, said a HUD spokesman, Stephen C. O'Halloran.

Mr. O'Halloran said Mr. Jackson planned to continue vacationing here in Hilton Head.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: HOUSING AUTHORITIES (90%); PUBLIC HOUSING (90%); MINORITY BUSINESSES (90%); HOUSING ASSISTANCE (90%); SPECIAL INVESTIGATIVE FORCES (89%); TRAVEL HOSPITALITY & TOURISM (89%); US FEDERAL GOVERNMENT (89%); MINORITY BUSINESS CONTRACTING (89%); AFRICAN AMERICANS (74%); INVESTIGATIONS (87%); MINORITY BUSINESS ASSISTANCE (87%); CITY LIFE (78%); BEACHES (77%); US DEMOCRATIC PARTY (77%); US REPUBLICAN PARTY (77%); LAWYERS (76%); AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN EMPLOYMENT (76%); ENTREPRENEURSHIP (76%); SMALL BUSINESS (76%); PUBLIC CONTRACTING (75%); APPOINTMENTS (74%); CITIES (73%); RESIGNATIONS (72%); US PRESIDENTS (71%); AFFIRMATIVE ACTION (62%); JOINT VENTURES (54%)
PERSON: ALPHONSO JACKSON (93%); GEORGE W BUSH (57%); JAMES CLYBURN (51%)
GEOGRAPHIC: SOUTH CAROLINA, USA (93%) UNITED STATES (94%)
LOAD-DATE: April 18, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Alphonso R. Jackson will leave his post as federal housing secretary on Friday under a cloud.(PHOTOGRAPH BY WIN MCNAMEE/GETTY IMAGES)(pg. A22) CHART: The Housing Secretary's Scrutinized Contracts: Federal authorities are investigating whether Alphonso R. Jackson gave lucrative contracts to friends. Mr. Jackson has resigned as secretary of Housing and Urban Development, effective Friday. Chart details CONNECTION TO MR. JACKSON and CONTRACTS RECEIVED

MAP: Mr. Jackson bought a house in Hilton Head, S.C., in 2004. (pg. A22)

PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

856 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 18, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

Music Industry Hitmaker Ceding Control at BMG
BYLINE: By JEFF LEEDS and ROBERT LEVINE
SECTION: Section C; Column 0; Business/Financial Desk; Pg. 3
LENGTH: 837 words
In a shake-up that reflects the new realities of the music business, the renowned hitmaker Clive Davis is making way for a younger executive known for having an ear toward the pop charts but also an eye on controlling costs.

On Thursday, Sony BMG Music Entertainment said that Mr. Davis would give up his corporate role as head of its BMG division and control of its RCA Label Group for a new creative post.

Barry Weiss, the chief of the company's Zomba Label Group, will become chairman and chief executive of the BMG Label Group, overseeing RCA and Zomba, and an array of artists like Justin Timberlake, Alicia Keys, OutKast and Kelly Clarkson.

The announcement surprised many in the music industry, as Mr. Davis, who has survived several executive suite setbacks only to rise again in a career that spans five decades, seemed to be playing a hot hand. This week's No. 1 album is the debut from Leona Lewis, the latest in a long string of divas that Mr. Davis, 76, has signed and shaped.

The latest album from Ms. Keys, who Mr. Davis mentors, has sold 3.4 million copies since its release last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and his division operated at a profit.

But the pop hits that Mr. Davis is known for delivering typically require the kind of expensive videos and marketing campaigns that labels are reluctant to finance at a time when music sales have been sliding. Sony BMG's decision to promote Mr. Weiss underscores the idea that hits alone cannot save the industry.

Mr. Weiss, 49, who also personally oversees many of his artists' creative decisions, has enjoyed his share of chart success with acts like Chris Brown and T-Pain. But he also has a reputation for tightly managing expenses, and being savvier about the digital revolution. T-Pain's hits, for example, have had considerable success as ring tones, the kind of high-margin, low-glamour products that are becoming more important to labels' bottom lines.

Besides a generational change, the reorganization signals yet another management shift at Sony BMG, a joint venture of Sony and Bertelsmann that has suffered several bouts of management discord since its founding in 2004.

As part of the move, the chief operating officer, Tim Bowen, is leaving the company, as is Mr. Davis' chief lieutenant, Charles Goldstuck. Richard Sanders, now president for global market, with become head of international.

Mr. Davis, who started at Columbia Records in the 1960s, became an industry legend for his ''ears,'' his ability to hear a hit, match singers with songwriters and create the kind of best sellers that major labels rely on. Like other executives of his generation, he also became something of a rock star in his own right.

Mr. Davis will continue to work with some acts and report directly to the Sony BMG chief executive, Rolf Schmidt-Holz.

Many of Mr. Davis's recent successes came from ''American Idol,'' which places certain artists with various divisions of BMG.

BMG tried to move Mr. Davis aside once before, in 2000, ostensibly because of a mandatory retirement policy. Antonio Reid succeeded him at Arista, the label Mr. Davis founded in 1975. But after vocal protests from artists and executives -- and a considerable amount of media coverage -- BMG executives made a deal to commit $150 million to start J Records as a joint venture with Mr. Davis. (BMG bought the remaining half of J in 2002.)

Although Mr. Davis's employment contract was not up until next year, this will give the company a succession plan.

''The business is under tremendous pressure, and it's very tough to maintain profits as they were in preceding years,'' said Danny Goldberg, a former record company president who now runs the management firm Gold Village Entertainment. ''So it's clarifying that they would turn to Barry Weiss, who is on the one hand responsible for signing talent and on the other hand has shown a discipline about cost-cutting.''

Mr. Weiss will now have to apply his touch across a far larger organization. ''The goal is to maintain separate label identities, but maybe we can bring some of our business-minded, entrepreneurial approach to the other side,'' Mr. Weiss said, referring to Mr. Davis's RCA division, ''and maybe there are some lessons from their side that I can bring to our side.''

Although Mr. Davis came to be known as the consummate record man, he began his career as a lawyer, and his first job in the music business was in Columbia's legal department. In 1967, he became president of the label, which he steered toward the then-emerging rock sound by signing artists like Janis Joplin, Laura Nyro and Chicago.

In 1975, after being fired from Columbia amid allegations, unproved, that he used company funds to pay for his son's bar mitzvah, Mr. Davis founded Arista. At that label, which was eventually acquired by the German company Bertelsmann as part of BMG, he signed Whitney Houston and started joint ventures with urban labels like Mr. Reid's LaFace Records and Sean Combs's Bad Boy Records.

URL: http://www.nytimes.com
SUBJECT: MUSIC INDUSTRY (96%); ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS (92%); RECORD REVENUES (90%); MOVIES & SOUND RECORDING SECTOR PERFORMANCE (90%); POP & ROCK (90%); ARTISTS & PERFORMERS (89%); CELEBRITIES (78%); EXECUTIVE MOVES (78%); RECORD PRODUCTION & DISTRIBUTION (76%); SONG WRITING (73%); MARKETING CAMPAIGNS (65%); INTERNATIONAL TRADE (60%); SINGERS & MUSICIANS (78%)
COMPANY: SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT (86%); BERTELSMANN AG (63%)
INDUSTRY: NAICS334612 PRERECORDED COMPACT DISC (EXCEPT SOFTWARE), TAPE & RECORD REPRODUCING (86%); SIC3652 PHONOGRAPH RECORDS & PRERECORDED AUDIO TAPES & DISKS (86%); NAICS515120 TELEVISION BROADCASTING (63%); SIC4833 TELEVISION BROADCASTING STATIONS (63%)
PERSON: JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE (57%); ALICIA KEYS (70%)
LOAD-DATE: April 18, 2008
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
GRAPHIC: PHOTO: Clive Davis at his traditional pre-Grammy party in February in Beverly Hills, with Alicia Keys, left, and Whitney Houston. Mr. Davis is celebrated for his ability to deliver best-selling albums.(PHOTOGRAPH BY VINCE BUCCI/GETTY IMAGES)
PUBLICATION-TYPE: Newspaper

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

857 of 1231 DOCUMENTS

The New York Times
April 18, 2008 Friday

Late Edition - Final

Sympathy on the Streets, But Not for the Tibetans
BYLINE: By ANDREW JACOBS
SECTION: Section A; Column 0; Foreign Desk; BEIJING JOURNAL; Pg. 11
LENGTH: 1087 words
DATELINE: BEIJING
She is the ''smiling angel in the wheelchair,'' a one-legged fencer from Shanghai who endured a gantlet of anti-Chinese demonstrators last week as she rolled through the streets of Paris clutching the Olympic flame.

Each time a protester broke through the barricades and lunged for the torch, the woman, Jin Jing, shielded it with her body. During one particularly ugly scuffle, she was bruised and scratched by a flailing woman wrapped in a Tibetan flag.

Ms. Jin, 28, a former switchboard operator who lost her leg to cancer as a child, returned home a hero. The news media have been filled with accounts of her bravery, using her actions to highlight what many here see as the cold-hearted cruelty of those who seek to spoil China's moment in the sun in August, the Olympic Games in Beijing.

''When Jin Jing protected the torch with all her effort, she was not only defending her motherland, but also the Olympic Games, which belong to the whole world,'' said Xinhua, the government news agency.

''Golden Girl Lifts a Nation,'' proclaimed a headline in China Daily.

The official Web site of the Beijing Games lauded her valor and posted a blow-by-blow account of the April 7 episode. ''With her frail body she was defending the Olympic spirit, which moved many people,'' it said.

The incident, largely unpublicized in the West, has crystallized the outrage and humiliation felt by many Chinese who have been stunned by the torch's hostile reception as it hopscotches the globe. Although recent stops in Argentina, Tanzania, Oman, Pakistan and India went off smoothly, there were concerns about future stops, including Australia.

''It's just appalling that people would tarnish an event that the Chinese people have been awaiting for so long,'' said Wu Tianren, 79, a retired economics professor, walking in a park here freshly planted with petunias and marigolds. ''This makes us very sad.''

Many people here, reflecting the state-controlled media's point of view, believe that the demonstrators are acting at the behest of the Dalai Lama, who they say is seeking Tibetan independence, despite his assertions to the contrary. Another target of public anger is the French, who are accused of encouraging Tibetan rights advocates and failing to protect the torch.

Internet message boards have been brewing with anger. A text message campaign is urging a boycott of French products and companies, especially Carrefour, a supermarket chain here.

''The power of an individual is very small and limited, but if we get 1.3 billion Chinese united, anyone and any country would be shocked by our power,'' read a posting on Yahoo by someone identified only as Liuanna.

Foreign news outlets have been besieged by angry callers accusing them of running reports that glorify the Tibetan demonstrators and belittle the Chinese government. The state-controlled news media have stoked the fury through occasionally shrill coverage, feeding nationalist sentiment that often simmers beneath the surface of Chinese society.

On the capital's streets, the anger is palpable, lurching between indignation and wounded pride. Many people said they were unaware of the protests until they learned about the plight of Ms. Jin, the disabled torch bearer.

Until then, coverage of the relay within China had been glowing, mostly omitting images of the anti-Chinese protests that have been a staple of Western television broadcasts.

Those who knew about the demonstrations surrounding the torch relay seemed to conflate the chaos in Paris and London with foreign coverage of the rioting in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa. They said those news accounts of the riots had been blatantly sympathetic toward the Tibetans, despite their role -- according to official government accounts -- in the deaths of 19 people, most of them Han Chinese.

''The media should be telling the truth, not injecting their point of view into reports,'' said Yang Guang, 23, an electrical engineer. ''I think they're just trying to make China look bad''

Public protests are rare in Beijing, so the sight of screaming demonstrators on television seems all the more jarring. For most Chinese, the Olympics are a sacred event, which they hope will showcase their country's growing economic might and inspire new international respect.

There is little sympathy on the streets of Beijing for Tibetan rights advocates. The idea that Tibet is an inseparable part of China is firmly entrenched, and many people resent what they view as ingratitude among Tibetans, who receive subsidies from the central government. To the average Beijing resident, the concept of an independent Tibet is as outlandish as, say, the notion of making Arizona a separate nation for the Navajo Indians.

''You don't hear Chinese interfering in America's domestic affairs,'' said Jiang Shuisheng, 26, a computer salesman taking a cigarette break. He said he was particularly unhappy with the United States, which he accused of maintaining a double standard on human rights. He cited the war in Iraq, which he said had caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of innocent people.

Referring to a tense period between China and the United States over Taiwan, a close American ally, Mr. Jiang said, ''When you had your Olympics in Atlanta in 1996, you didn't see Chinese people ruining the event because they were unhappy about your government's policy.''

He acknowledged that the state media were using Ms. Jin to heighten national pride, but added that this was justified. ''I'm not a nationalist, but if this happened to an American, it would be no different,'' he said.

None of the dozens who were interviewed acknowledged a contradiction between their desire for China's acceptance as an equal among modern nations and the government's suppression of dissent. College students, retirees and those in the newly rich entrepreneurial class agreed that anyone seeking to spoil the Games should be silenced.

Bai Ru, 22, a business management student originally from Inner Mongolia, said she trusted the government to take whatever measures were necessary to ensure a seamless Olympics. She said personal sacrifice, including stifling one's dissatisfaction with the political status quo, was for the collective good.

''If the government takes harsh measures to crack down on protesters, of course I support that,'' she said. ''This is an issue of national pride and national esteem. The Olympics are our best opportunity for the outside world to see how far we've come.''