Surgery Returns to NYU Langone Medical Center

Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Senator Charles E. Schumer spoke at a news conference Thursday about the reopening of NYU Langone Medical Center.

NYU Langone Medical Center opened its doors to surgical patients on Thursday, almost two months after Hurricane Sandy overflowed the banks of the East River and forced the evacuation of hundreds of patients.

While the medical center had been treating many outpatients, it had farmed out surgery to other hospitals, which created scheduling problems that forced many patients to have their operations on nights and weekends, when staffing is traditionally low. Some patients and doctors had to postpone not just elective but also necessary operations for lack of space at other hospitals.

The medical center’s Tisch Hospital, its major hospital for inpatient services, between 30th and 34th Streets on First Avenue, had been closed since the hurricane knocked out power and forced the evacuation of more than 300 patients, some on sleds brought down darkened flights of stairs.

“I think it’s a little bit of a miracle on 34th Street that this happened so quickly,” Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York said Thursday.

Mr. Schumer credited the medical center’s leadership and esprit de corps, and also a tour of the damaged hospital on Nov. 9 by the administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, W. Craig Fugate, whom he and others escorted through watery basement hallways.

“Every time I talk to Fugate there are a lot of questions, but one is, ‘How are you doing at NYU?’ ” the senator said.

The reopening of Tisch to surgery patients and associated services, like intensive care, some types of radiology and recovery room anesthesia, was part of a phased restoration that will continue. Besides providing an essential service, surgery is among the more lucrative of hospital services.

The hospital’s emergency department is expected to delay its reopening for about 11 months, in part to accommodate an expansion in capacity to 65,000 patient visits a year, from 43,000, said Dr. Andrew W. Brotman, its senior vice president and vice dean for clinical affairs and strategy.

In the meantime, NYU Langone is setting up an urgent care center with 31 bays and an observation unit, which will be able to treat some emergency patients. It will initially not accept ambulances, but might be able to later, Dr. Brotman said. Nearby Bellevue Hospital Center, which was also evacuated, opened its emergency department to noncritical injuries on Monday.

Labor and delivery, the cancer floor, epilepsy treatment and pediatrics and neurology beyond surgery are expected to open in mid-January, Langone officials said. While some radiology equipment, which was in the basement, has been restored, other equipment — including a Gamma Knife, a device using radiation to treat brain tumors — is not back.

The flooded basement is still being worked on, and electrical gear has temporarily been moved upstairs. Mr. Schumer, a Democrat, said that a $60 billion bill to pay for hurricane losses and recovery in New York and New Jersey was nearing a vote, and that he was optimistic it would pass in the Senate with bipartisan support. But the measure’s fate in the Republican-controlled House is far less certain.

The bill includes $1.2 billion for damage and lost revenue at NYU Langone, including some money from the National Institutes of Health to restore research projects. It would also cover Long Beach Medical Center in Nassau County, Bellevue, Coney Island Hospital and the Veterans Affairs hospital in Manhattan.

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Unemployment Deepens the Loss from Hurricane Sandy

In the Rockaways, none of the 450 employees of the Madelaine Chocolate Company will receive a paycheck this week. Until a few days ago, the floor of the company’s 200,000-square-foot complex was a muddy, sludgy, chocolaty mess, and its factory has temporarily closed. Outside, foiled Santas and candy roses lay victim to the hurricane.

Not far away, the cash register at Fast Break, a local deli, is silent, its employees out of work. Next door, Browns Hardware will be shut until at least February.

The story is much the same throughout the region, where residents who lost their jobs as a result of Hurricane Sandy are streaming into career centers in New York and New Jersey, desperate for a paycheck.

“Here, it’s like anyone who didn’t lose his home lost his job,” said Juan Colon, 57, who worked at Madelaine for 26 years.

The devastating storm, which destroyed many businesses, left tens of thousands of New York and New Jersey residents unemployed. How long they will remain jobless is uncertain. In some cases, they may be able to resume their old jobs as their employers get back on their feet, assuming those businesses reopen.

The latest jobs reports from New York and New Jersey, for November, suggested the toll the storm took on the local labor force — New York State lost 29,100 private jobs, while New Jersey lost 8,100.

In the same month, New Jersey processed an unprecedented number of first-time claims for unemployment insurance: 138,661, surpassing the previous record of 83,518 established in December 2009, which came at the height of the recession. And in New York, 158,204 individuals filed initial claims for unemployment, nearing the record set in January 2009, also at the height of the recession.

The unemployment problem has eased a bit as “Grand Reopening” signs have popped up at mattress stores, gas stations and other businesses. And the number of people filing for unemployment for the first time has slowed significantly in recent weeks.

But there are still many people struggling to pay their bills, finding themselves out of a job at a time when the overall unemployment picture remains bleak.

“We were spared the storm, but not the repercussions,” said Hector Valle, 57, who lives on Staten Island. The hurricane left Mr. Valle’s home untouched, but dealt his family a mighty blow: His wife worked at Bellevue Hospital Center as a nurse’s assistant for the last 25 years. When the hurricane shuttered Bellevue, she was transferred to Woodhull Medical Center — a move that caused her to lose her overtime work, as well as part of her night differential pay.

The couple’s income fell to $1,400 a month from $2,200 a month.

“There’s nobody coming to my house to help,” said Mr. Valle, who has been unemployed for three years, “because they’re like, ‘You’re fine.’ We’re not fine.”

Those most affected are the people who already have trouble finding jobs: older workers, single parents with child-care concerns and immigrants who speak little English.

And the storm has further handicapped many of those looking for new work: Interview outfits lie moldy in Dumpsters; computers have been destroyed, résumé files gone forever. Many lack access to transportation. “There are a lot of barriers to employment, from no phone to no home,” said Thomas Munday, director of a city-run Workforce 1 Career Center on Staten Island.

When they do get jobs, many residents will face new, longer commutes, and fewer benefits.

At the Madelaine chocolate company this month, Jorge Farber, the president and chief executive, shuffled past ribbons of ruined Reese’s foil, wearing yellow rubber shoe covers slicked with slime. He intends to reopen, but could not estimate a date.

The company is the largest employer in the Rockaways, and normally pumps out 100,000 pounds of chocolate a day. It was started 64 years ago by two men fleeing the Holocaust, and about a quarter of its employees are Haitian immigrants. Many had family members who died in the 2010 Haitian earthquake.

Some of the laid-off employees have packaged chocolate here for decades. For them, Mr. Farber said, the company is a good provider: Line workers, many of whom do not speak English, make about $15 an hour, plus benefits. It would be difficult for them to find new jobs with the same salary and benefits.

Over nearly three decades, Mr. Colon rose to a supervisor position, earning about $900 a week.

When the storm left him without a job, he signed up for unemployment benefits. But he is getting only $325 a week, he said.

“I don’t know what I will do,” said Mr. Colon, who lives in a fourth-floor apartment in Far Rockaway with his wife, 22-year-old daughter and a grandchild. “Nobody can survive on $300.”

There is no telling when the company will be able to bring him back.

Some may find work related to hurricane recovery. New York State qualified for a federal grant that will allow it to hire 5,000 temporary cleanup workers for jobs that last about six months and pay $11 to $15 an hour. The city has already hired 788 people to fill some of those temporary jobs, according to Angie Kamath, deputy commissioner of work force development for the city’s Department of Small Business Services. And it will hire 400 more in the coming weeks, she said.

“We hope and expect that that number will continue to grow,” Ms. Kamath said. “The state has every intention to go after additional funding.”

The storm’s aftermath has also created private jobs. Areas hit by hurricanes almost always see a temporary boost in employment because of rebuilding activities, said Allison Plyer, chief demographer at the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center, which tracked employment after Hurricane Katrina. “There will be no doubt billions of dollars of private and flood insurance to rebuild homes and businesses,” she said.

But few of those jobs will last. Many will go to out-of-state contractors. And not everyone who is out of work can fill labor-intensive cleanup positions.

Ms. Plyer also cautioned against using the experience of Hurricane Katrina to predict what will happen after Hurricane Sandy.

After Hurricane Katrina, residential areas were destroyed, while New Orleans’s business district remained relatively intact. Businesses bounced back, but the housing stock and the area’s population did not, leaving employers seeking workers. “Unemployment rates sunk to their lowest level,” Ms. Plyer said, continuing: “All the McDonald’s were offering signing bonuses. You couldn’t find anyone to work for them.”

“Katrina entailed a massive population displacement that basically emptied out the city,” she added.

On Staten Island, unemployed residents inundated a city-operated career center in St. George after the storm. About 500 people showed up during two days to apply for 240 storm cleanup jobs. (Normally 350 individuals will seek employment assistance during a five-day week.)

Mr. Valle, who once worked as a customer service representative, waited outside the center hoping to land one of those cleanup jobs. He left when all the positions had been filled.

“That was like an audition for ‘American Idol,’ ” he said. “I have never been in line with 500, 600 people for a job in my life.”

His wife, he said, had been their support for the last three years. “Sandy just yanked that from under us,” he said.

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Toyota to pay big to settle suits

Toyota Motor Corp., moving to put years of legal problems behind it, has agreed to pay more than $1 billion to settle dozens of lawsuits relating to sudden acceleration.

The proposed deal, filed Wednesday in federal court, would be among the largest ever paid out by an automaker. It applies to numerous suits claiming economic damages caused by safety defects in the automaker's vehicles, but does not cover dozens of personal injury and wrongful-death suits that are still pending around the nation.

The suits were filed over the last three years by Toyota and Lexus owners who claimed that the value of their vehicles had been hurt by the potential for defects, including floor mats that could cause the vehicles to surge out of control.

ROAD TO RECALL: Read The Times' award winning coverage

In addition, Toyota said it is close to settling suits filed by the Orange County district attorney and a coalition of state attorneys general who had accused the automaker of deceptive business practices. The costs of those agreements would be included in a $1.1-billion charge the Japanese automaker said it will take against earnings to cover the actions.

"We concluded that turning the page on this legacy legal issue through the positive steps we are taking is in the best interests of the company, our employees, our dealers and, most of all, our customers," Christopher Reynolds, Toyota's chief counsel in the U.S., said in a statement.

Toyota's lengthy history of sudden acceleration was the subject of a series of Los Angeles Times articles in 2009, after a horrific crash outside San Diego that took the life of an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer and his family.

Under terms of the agreement, which has not yet been approved in court, Toyota would install brake override systems in numerous models and provide cash payments from a $250-million fund to owners whose vehicles cannot be modified to incorporate that safety measure.

In addition, the automaker plans to offer extended repair coverage on throttle systems in 16 million vehicles and offer cash payments from a separate $250-million fund to Toyota and Lexus owners who sold their vehicles or turned them in at the end of a lease in 2009 or 2010. The total value of the settlement could reach $1.4 billion, according to Steve Berman, the lead plaintiff attorney in the case.

The lawsuits, filed over the last several years, had been seeking class certification.

News of the agreement comes scarcely a week after Toyota agreed to pay a record $17.35-million fine to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to report a potential floor mat defect in a Lexus SUV. Those come on top of almost $50 million in fines paid by Toyota for other violations related to sudden acceleration since 2010.

The massive settlement does not, however, put Toyota's legal woes to rest. The automaker still faces numerous injury and wrongful death claims around the country, including a group of cases that have been consolidated in federal court in Santa Ana, and other cases awaiting trial in Los Angeles County.

The first of the federal cases, involving a Utah man who was killed in a Camry that slammed into a wall in 2010, is slated for trial in mid-February.

The California cases are set to begin in April, among them a suit involving a 66-year-old Upland woman who was killed after her vehicle allegedly reached 100 miles per hour and slammed into a tree.

Edgar Heiskell III, a West Virginia attorney who has a dozen pending suits against Toyota, said he is preparing to go to trial this summer in a case that involved a Flint, Mich., woman who was killed when her 2005 Camry suddenly accelerated near her home.

"We are proceeding with absolute confidence that we can get our cases heard on the merits and that we expect to prove defects in Toyota's electronic control system," he said.

Toyota spokesman Mike Michels said the settlement would have no bearing on the personal injury cases.

"All carmakers face these kinds of suits," he said. "We'll defend those as we normally would."

The giant automaker's sudden acceleration problems first gained widespread attention after the August 2009 crash of a Lexus ES outside San Diego.

That accident set off a string of recalls, an unprecedented decision to temporarily stop sales of all Toyota vehicles and a string of investigations, including a highly unusual apology by Toyota President Akio Toyoda before a congressional committee. Eventually Toyota recalled more than 10 million vehicles worldwide and has since spent huge sums — estimated at more than $2 billion, not including Wednesday's proposed settlement — to repair both its automobiles and public image.

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Google Music Self-Censoring Naughty Lyrics for Some Users

Cee-Lo’s F*#$ You has a great beat and all, but it’s not the type of thing you want queuing up with grandma in the room. No worries. Google’s got you covered. Some Google Music users complain the service is randomly replacing expletive-intensive songs with the duller, cleaner versions.

The Google Music Scan and Match feature has earned the wrath of some users by replacing explicit versions of songs with the kid-friendly clean versions. Even less fun, Droid Life reports that some people are seeing clean versions of songs replaced with explicit versions. That’s bad news when you expect to hear the sanitized version of Radiohead’s Creep while hanging out with your kids. Now you have to spend the rest of winter vacation explaining to them why they can’t sing how so f’ing special they are on the playground.

Google Music isn’t the first service to experience trouble determining which version of a song is being matched. Apple’s iTunes Match experienced the same issue when it launched. The problem stems from a few issues. First, the metadata for a particular song might not be correct, or it might be missing vital information. Like which version of the album the song was ripped or purchased from.

Also, it’s tougher for Google Music and other song-matching services to determine if a song is clean or explicit if a curse word only appears once or twice during the song. Cee-Lo’s F*#$ You is easier to rate because the change takes place throughout the entire song.

If you find that your favorite 2 Live Crew songs are completely unlistenable, Google told Wired that listeners could change the version of the song from within the Google Music player. In the Google Music Player, right-click the track with the incorrect version. Select “Fix incorrect match” from the contextual menu. The actual song file will be uploaded to the service instead of using Google’s matching system.

Not exactly user friendly, but better than listening to beeps over your favorite swear words. Everyone knows all the best music is full of swear words.

Roberto is a Wired Staff Writer for Gadget Lab covering augmented reality, home technology, and all the gadgets that fit in your backpack. Got a tip? Send him an email at: roberto_baldwin [at] wired.com.

Read more by Roberto Baldwin

Follow @strngwys on Twitter.

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DC police investigating ‘Meet the Press’ incident

WASHINGTON (AP) — District of Columbia police say they are investigating an incident in which NBC News journalist David Gregory displayed what he described as a high-capacity ammunition magazine on “Meet the Press.”

Gun laws in the nation’s capital generally restrict the possession of high-capacity magazines, regardless of whether the device is attached to a firearm. Gregory held up the magazine as a prop for Sunday’s segment, apparently to make a point during an interview, even though D.C. police say NBC had already been advised not to use it in the show.

“NBC contacted (the Metropolitan Police Department) inquiring if they could utilize a high capacity magazine for their segment. NBC was informed that possession of a high capacity magazine is not permissible and their request was denied. This matter is currently being investigated,” police spokeswoman Gwendolyn Crump said in a written statement. She declined to comment further.

While interviewing National Rifle Association CEO Wayne LaPierre for Sunday’s program, Gregory held up an object that he said was a magazine that could hold 30 rounds.

“Here is a magazine for ammunition that carries 30 bullets. Now, isn’t it possible that if we got rid of these, if we replaced them and said, ‘Well, you can only have a magazine that carries five bullets or ten bullets,’ isn’t it just possible that we could reduce the carnage in a situation like Newtown?’” Gregory asked, referring to the December 14 shooting in which a gunman massacred 20 children and 6 adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut.

LaPierre replied: “I don’t believe that’s going to make one difference. There are so many different ways to evade that even if you had that” ban.

It was not clear how or where Gregory obtained the magazine, and an NBC News spokeswoman declined to comment Wednesday.

“Meet the Press” is generally taped in Washington.

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Elwood V. Jensen, Pioneer in Breast Cancer Treatment, Dies at 92

Elwood V. Jensen, a medical researcher whose studies of steroid hormones led to new treatments for breast cancer that have been credited with saving or extending hundreds of thousands of lives, died on Dec. 16 in Cincinnati. He was 92.

The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son, Thomas Jensen, said.

In 2004 Dr. Jensen received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, one of the most respected science prizes in the world.

When Dr. Jensen started his research at the University of Chicago in the 1950s, steroid hormones, which alter the functioning of cells, were thought to interact with cells through a series of chemical reactions involving enzymes.

However, Dr. Jensen used radioactive tracers to show that steroid hormones actually affect cells by binding to a specific receptor protein inside them. He first focused on the steroid hormone estrogen.

By 1968, Dr. Jensen had developed a test for the presence of estrogen receptors in breast cancer cells. He later concluded that such receptors were present in about a third of those cells.

Breast cancers that are estrogen positive, meaning they have receptors for the hormone, can be treated with medications like Tamoxifen or with other methods of inhibiting estrogen in a patient’s system, like removal of the ovaries. Women with receptor-rich breast cancers often go into remission when estrogen is blocked or removed.

By the mid-1980s, a test developed by Dr. Jensen and a colleague at the University of Chicago, Dr. Geoffrey Greene, could be used to determine the extent of estrogen receptors in breast and other cancers. That test became a standard part of care for breast cancer patients.

Scientists like Dr. Pierre Chambon and Dr. Ronald M. Evans, who shared the 2004 Lasker prize with Dr. Jensen, went on to show that many types of receptors exist. The receptors are crucial components of the cell’s control system and transmit signals in an array of vital functions, from the development of organs in the womb to the control of fat cells and the regulation of cholesterol.

Dr. Jensen’s work also led to the development of drugs that can enhance or inhibit the effects of hormones. Such drugs are used to treat prostate and other cancers.

Elwood Vernon Jensen was born in Fargo, N.D., on Jan. 13, 1920, to Eli and Vera Morris Jensen. He majored in chemistry at what was then Wittenberg College in Springfield, Ohio, and had begun graduate training in organic chemistry at the University of Chicago when World War II began.

Dr. Jensen wanted to join the Army Air Forces, but his poor vision kept him from becoming a pilot. During the war he synthesized poison gases at the University of Chicago, exposure to which twice put him in the hospital. His work on toxic chemicals, he said, inspired him to pursue biology and medicine.

Dr. Jensen studied steroid hormone chemistry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology on a Guggenheim Fellowship after the war. While there, he climbed the Matterhorn, one of the highest peaks in the Alps, even though he had no mountaineering experience. He often equated his successful research to the novel approach taken by Edward Whymper, the first mountaineer to reach the Matterhorn’s summit. Mr. Whymper went against conventional wisdom and scaled the mountain’s Swiss face, after twice failing to reach the summit on the Italian side.

Dr. Jensen joined the University of Chicago as an assistant professor of surgery in 1947, working closely with the Nobel laureate Charles Huggins. He became an original member of the research team at the Ben May Laboratory for Cancer Research (now the Ben May Department for Cancer Research) in 1951, and became the director after Dr. Huggins stepped down.

He came to work at the University of Cincinnati in 2002, and continued to do research there until last year.

His first wife, the former Mary Collette, died in 1982. In addition to his son, Dr. Jensen is survived by his second wife, the former Hiltrud Herborg; a daughter, Karen C. Jensen; a sister, Margaret Brennan; two grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.

Dr. Jensen’s wife was found to have breast cancer in 2005. She had the tumor removed, he said in an interview, but tested positive for the estrogen receptor and was successfully treated with a medication that prevents estrogen synthesis.

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The iEconomy: Signs of Changes Taking Hold in Electronics Factories in China

The iEconomy: Factory Upgrade:
Change comes to factories in China.

CHENGDU, China — One day last summer, Pu Xiaolan was halfway through a shift inspecting iPad cases when she received a beige wooden chair with white stripes and a high, sturdy back.

At first, Ms. Pu wondered if someone had made a mistake. But when her bosses walked by, they just nodded curtly. So Ms. Pu gently sat down and leaned back. Her body relaxed.

The rumors were true.

When Ms. Pu was hired at this Foxconn plant a year earlier, she received a short, green plastic stool that left her unsupported back so sore that she could barely sleep at night. Eventually, she was promoted to a wooden chair, but the backrest was much too small to lean against. The managers of this 164,000-employee factory, she surmised, believed that comfort encouraged sloth.

But in March, unbeknown to Ms. Pu, a critical meeting had occurred between Foxconn’s top executives and a high-ranking Apple official. The companies had committed themselves to a series of wide-ranging reforms. Foxconn, China’s largest private employer, pledged to sharply curtail workers’ hours and significantly increase wages — reforms that, if fully carried out next year as planned, could create a ripple effect that benefits tens of millions of workers across the electronics industry, employment experts say.

Other reforms were more personal. Protective foam sprouted on low stairwell ceilings inside factories. Automatic shut-off devices appeared on whirring machines. Ms. Pu got her chair. This autumn, she even heard that some workers had received cushioned seats.

The changes also extend to California, where Apple is based. Apple, the electronics industry’s behemoth, in the last year has tripled its corporate social responsibility staff, has re-evaluated how it works with manufacturers, has asked competitors to help curb excessive overtime in China and has reached out to advocacy groups it once rebuffed.

Executives at companies like Hewlett-Packard and Intel say those shifts have convinced many electronics companies that they must also overhaul how they interact with foreign plants and workers — often at a cost to their bottom lines, though, analysts say, probably not so much as to affect consumer prices. As Apple and Foxconn became fodder for “Saturday Night Live” and questions during presidential debates, device designers and manufacturers concluded the industry’s reputation was at risk.

“The days of easy globalization are done,” said an Apple executive who, like many people interviewed for this article, requested anonymity because of confidentiality agreements. “We know that we have to get into the muck now.”

Even with these reforms, chronic problems remain. Many laborers still work illegal overtime and some employees’ safety remains at risk, according to interviews and reports published by advocacy organizations.

But the shifts under way in China may prove as transformative to global manufacturing as the iPhone was to consumer technology, say officials at over a dozen electronics companies, worker advocates and even longtime factory critics.

“This is on the front burner for everyone now,” said Gary Niekerk, a director of corporate social responsibility at Intel, which manufactures semiconductors in China. No one inside Intel “wants to end up in a factory that treats people badly, that ends up on the front page.”

The durability of many transformations, however, depends on where Apple, Foxconn and overseas workers go from here. Interviews with more than 70 Foxconn employees in multiple cities indicate a shift among the people on iPad and iPhone assembly lines. The once-anonymous millions assembling the world’s devices are drawing lessons from the changes occurring around them.

As summer turned to autumn and then winter, Ms. Pu began to sign up for Foxconn’s newly offered courses in knitting and sketching. At 25 and unmarried, she already felt old. But she decided that she should view her high-backed chair as a sign. China’s migrant workers are, in a sense, the nation’s boldest risk-takers, transforming entire industries by leaving their villages for far-off factories to power a manufacturing engine that spans the globe.

Ms. Pu had always felt brave, and as this year progressed and conditions inside her factory improved, she became convinced that a better life was within reach. Her parents had told her that she was free to choose any husband, as long as he was from Sichuan. Then she found someone who seemed ideal, except that he came from another province.

Reclining in her new seat, she decided to ignore her family’s demands, she said. The couple are seeing each other.

“There was a change this year,” she said. “I’m realizing my value.”

An Inspector’s Push

“This is a disgrace!” shouted Terry Gou, founder and chairman of Foxconn, the world’s largest electronics manufacturer and Apple’s most important industrial partner.

Keith Bradsher reported from Chengdu and Chongqing, and Charles Duhigg from New York. Yadan Ouyang contributed reporting from Chengdu and Chongqing.

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Lakers snap Christmas Day streak with win over Knicks

Lakers 100, Knicks 94 (final)

The Lakers closed out the New York Knicks on Christmas Day to win their fifth in a row, avenging a Dec. 13 loss in New York, the low point of the season during a four-game losing streak. 

The Lakers haven't dropped a game since.

With the Lakers up by three points, Pau Gasol found a lane to the basket from the high post and flushed down a dunk to seal the victory with 11.6 seconds left.  Steve Nash, in his second game back from a leg injury, scored 16 points and dished 11 assists.

The Lakers shot 48.1% from the field but it was their defense that was instrumental in the victory, holding New York to only 16 points in the fourth quarter.

The Knicks shot 42.7% from the field despite 34 from Carmelo Anthony (13-23 shooting), who exploded in the third quarter to give the Knicks a nine-point lead.  The Lakers never led by more than five points.

Kobe Bryant also scored 34 points on 14-for-24 shooting.  Metta World Peace fouled out after scoring 20.  For the second consecutive game, Pau Gasol had six assists.

Knicks center Tyson Chandler also fouled out, finishing with six points and nine rebounds.  J.R. Smith helped carry the offensive load for New York with 25 points.

The Lakers will play on Wednesday night against the Nuggets in Denver.

Knicks 78, Lakers 77 (end of third quarter)

The Lakers survived a 17-point quarter from Carmelo Anthony to close to within one point after three quarters.

Falling behind by as many as nine points after halftime, the Lakers had a chance to go up by a point but Kobe Bryant missed a pair of free throws with 2.6 seconds left in the quarter.

Anthony climbed to 27 points for the game on 11-for-20 shooting while his Knicks shot 43.8% through three.  J.R. Smith contributed 20 points off the bench.

The Lakers were led by Bryant's 26 points on 11-for-18 shooting, while getting 18 points from Metta World Peace and 14 from Steve Nash.

Some of New York's lead was earned from behind the three-point line with eight makes in 22 tries.  The Lakers shot 48.3% from the field but only five of 18 (27.8%) from three-point range.

World Peace started the second half in place of Darius Morris but Anthony had the hot hand.

Lakers 51, Knicks 49 (halftime)

For the second consecutive quarter, the Lakers closed well against the Knicks. After New York's reserves had helped push the Knicks to a six-point advantage, the Lakers rallied to take a two-point lead at halftime.

Carmelo Anthony and Metta World Peace battled through a very physical period, challenging each other in the post. Anthony finished the half with 10 points while World Peace had a game-high 16 points after coming off the Lakers' bench.

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A Look Inside Tarantino's <em>Django Unchained</em> Comic Book

Django Unchained opens in theaters today, but the big screen isn’t the only way to see the newest work by Quentin Tarantino. The issue of the Django Unchained comic book mini-series from DC/Vertigo Comics is available now in comic book stores (and online), and in advance of tomorrow’s film debut, Wired has a look at the Tarantino’s introduction to the comic, along with the original character sketches by artist R.M. Guéra and a six-page preview of the first issue.

The comic is an incredibly faithful adaptation of Tarantino’s movie script – the first issue is the first few scenes of the film, almost line for line. Drawing on the director’s story, the book’s interior art comes from Guéra, who made characters that hew closely to their actor counterparts but are their own characters entirely. The artist’s Django, the slave that becomes a bounty hunter, has a more steely cowboy vibe than smooth, cool Jamie Foxx; ruthless plantation owner Calvin Candie looks even more maniacal than Leonardo DiCaprio; and Candie’s house slave Stephen looks far more jowly and grizzled on the page than Samuel L. Jackson does on screen.

“Growing up I read the adventures of Kid Colt Outlaw, TOMAHAWK, The Rawhide Kid, BAT LASH, and especially, Yang (which was basically the Kung Fu TV show done as a comic), and Gunhawks featuring Reno Jones (a Jim Brown stand-in) and Kid Cassidy (a David Cassidy stand-in), which for my money was the greatest Blaxploitation Western ever made,” Tarantino says in the first issue’s intro. “And it’s in that spirit of cinematic comics literature that I present to you Django Unchained.”

Tarantino’s version of the story hits theaters Dec. 25.

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NORAD says record number of calls to track Santa

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. (AP) — Most of the thousands of children who call the annual Santa-tracking operation at a Colorado Air Force Base on Christmas Eve ask the usual questions: “Where’s Santa, and when will he get here?”

So volunteer Sara Berghoff was caught off-guard Monday when a child called to see if Santa could be especially kind this year to the families affected by the Connecticut school shooting.

“I’m from Newtown, Connecticut, where the shooting was,” she remembers the child asking. “Is it possible that Santa can bring extra presents so I can deliver them to the families that lost kids?”

Sara, just 13 herself, was surprised but gathered her thoughts quickly. “If I can get ahold of him, I’ll try to get the message to him,” she told the child.

Sara was one of hundreds of volunteers at NORAD Tracks Santa who answered thousands of calls, program spokeswoman Marisa Novobilski said. Spokeswoman 1st Lt. Stacey Fenton said that as of midnight Tuesday, trackers answered more than 111,000 calls, breaking last year’s record of 107,000.

First lady Michelle Obama, who is spending the holidays with her family in Hawaii, also joined in answering calls as she has in recent years. She spent about 30 minutes talking with children from across the country, telling some who asked that her favorite toys growing up were Barbie dolls and an Easy Bake oven.

She also received an invitation to visit an 11-year-old boy in Fort Worth, Texas, and a request to put her husband on the phone. “He’s not here right now. But you know what, I will tell him you asked about him. OK?” she replied.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, a joint U.S.-Canada command responsible for protecting the skies over both nations, tracks Santa from its home at Peterson Air Force Base.

NORAD and its predecessor have been fielding Christmas Eve phone calls from children — and a few adults — since 1955. That’s when a newspaper ad listed the wrong phone number for kids to call Santa. Callers ended up getting the Continental Air Defense Command, which later became NORAD. CONAD commanders played along, and the ritual has been repeated every year since.

After 57 years, NORAD can predict what most kids will ask. Its 11-page playbook for volunteers includes a list of nearly 20 questions and answers, including how old is Santa (at least 16 centuries) and has Santa ever crashed into anything (no).

But kids still manage to ask the unexpected, including, “Does Santa leave presents for dogs?”

A sampling of anecdotes from the program this year:

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THE REAL DEAL: A young boy called to ask if Santa was real.

Air Force Maj. Jamie Humphries, who took the call, said, “I’m 37 years old, and I believe in Santa, and if you believe in him as well, then he must be real.”

The boy turned from the phone and yelled to others in the room, “I told you guys he was real!”

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DON’T WORRY, HE’LL FIND YOU: Glenn Barr took a call from a 10-year-old who wasn’t sure if he would be sleeping at his mom’s house or his dad’s and was worried about whether Santa would find him.

“I told him Santa would know where he was and not to worry,” Barr said.

Another child asked if he was on the nice list or the naughty list.

“That’s a closely guarded secret, and only Santa knows,” Barr replied.

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TOYS IN HEAVEN: A boy who called from Missouri asked when Santa would drop off toys in heaven.

His mother got on the line and explained to Jennifer Eckels, who took the call, that the boy’s younger sister died this year.

“He kept saying ‘in heaven,’” Eckels said. She told him, “I think Santa headed there first thing.”

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BEST OF: Choice questions and comments wound up posted on a flip chart.

“Big sister wanted to add her 3-year-old brother to the naughty list,” one read.

“Are there police elves?” said another.

“How much to adopt one of Santa’s reindeer?”

“What’s the best way to booby-trap the living room to trap Santa?”

“When you see Santa, tell him hello for me, I never see him.”

“How does Santa make iPads?”

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INTERNATIONAL FLAVOR: NORAD got calls from 220 countries and territories last year, and non-English-speakers called this year as well.

Volunteers who speak other languages get green Santa hats and a placard listing their languages so organizers can find them quickly.

“Need a Spanish speaker!” one organizer called as he rushed out of one of three phone rooms.

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HE KNOWS WHEN YOU’RE AWAKE: At NORAD’s suggestion, volunteers often tell callers that Santa won’t drop off the presents until all the kids in the home are asleep.

“Ohhhhhhh,” said an 8-year-old from Illinois, as if trying to digest a brand-new fact.

“I’m going to be asleep by 4 o’clock,” said a child from Virginia.

“Thank you so much for that information,” said a grateful mom from Michigan.

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CHRISTMAS EVE IN AFGHANISTAN: Five U.S. service personnel answered calls from Afghanistan for about 90 minutes through a conferencing hookup.

“They had a great time,” said Novobilski, the program spokeswoman.

NORAD wanted to set up a call center in Afghanistan but that proved too complex, she said.

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HEY, MR. ELF: “Mr. Elf,” said one caller, “This is Adam, and I’ve been really good this year.”

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FOR GEARHEADS: For people who want to know the specs of Santa’s sleigh, NORAD offers a trove of tidbits, including:

Weight at takeoff: 75,000 GD (gumdrops).

Propulsion: 9 RP (reindeer power).

Fuel: Hay, oats and carrots (for reindeer).

Emissions: Classified.

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Online:

Track Santa online at http://www.noradsanta.org

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Follow Dan Elliott at http://twitter.com/DanElliottAP

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