Brown Presses NOAA For Policing Documents - Gloucester Daily Times

U.S. Sen. Scott Brown Monday formally asked the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration for all memoranda and documents used by Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to reach his decision not to discipline or punish the then- director of federal fisheries law enforcement or any of his agents and litigators involved in the mistreatment of fishermen documented by investigators.

In a letter to Eric Schwaab, administrator of the National Marine Fisheries Service, Brown specifically asked for "41 documents you located but did not release in response" to a private attorney, whom the Times has identified as Paul Muniz, of Burns & Levenson, Muniz represents the Gloucester Seafood Display Auction.

The auction was one of 11 businesses or individuals identified by Locke as having been victimized by overzealous law enforcement or miscarriages of justice and given apologies and reparations in May.

Brown also specifically asked for "all memoranda from the Commerce Department Office of Assistant General Counsel for Administration Barbara Frederick (or staff) regarding the possibility of discipline for current or former leadership at the NOAA Office of General Counsel for Enforcement Litigation."

In his letter, Brown expressed anger at what he perceived as NOAA's decision to flout previous requests for documents in preparation of a Senate subcommittee hearing into NOAA practices. And the senator asserted that the attitude is that of an agency that considers itself "above congressional oversight."

It was Brown's idea to bring a Senate subcommittee to Boston for a June hearing on NOAA spending and law enforcement abuses. The Faneuil Hall hearing came after findings by both the Commerce Department inspector general and a special judicial master assigned by Locke detailed cases of potentially reversible miscarriages of justice."

Brown's letter to Schwaab probed substantively for the answer to a question he asked that came to define the Faneuil Hall hearing: "What does it take to get fired at NOAA?" Brown asked.

Brown quoted from the decision memo released by Locke in May when he apologized to 11 businesses and distributed nearly $700,000 in reparations based on the report of Special Master Charles B. Swartwood III.

Locke found a "systemic failing," yet that finding warranted no punishment to any NOAA personnel although Dale J. Jones Jr., the director of law enforcement, and the entire Northeast Office of agents and ligitators, based in Gloucester. Jones has been reassigned, while the key Gloucester agents have been reassigned or allowed to retire.

"At bottom," Locke wrote, "these problems were not the product of individual bad acts, but rather the result of conduct enabled and even encouraged by the management and enforcement culture in place at the time."

"In order to better understand Secretary Locke's decision," Brown wrote, "I am requesting that you provide me with all documents related to that legal review," Brown wrote.

He also expressed frustration at NOAA's refusal to provide documents sought as early as May 27 in preparation of the subcommittee hearing.

"Today is July 29, and I have not received the missing documents or the answers necessary to complete the hearing record...," Brown wrote. "While NOAA's initial unwillingness to provide certain documents was an unfortunate situation with a number of plausible explanations, I must now consider the logical conclusion that your agency feels itself to be above congressional oversight."

Brown added that such "behavior is disrespectful to the American people, Congress and the Massachusetts fishermen who have suffered because of NOAA's mismanagement of the fisheries.

"It is clear that NOAA has thus far failed to honor President Obama's stated commitment to transparency," he added.

The Brown letter also contains a refutation of what apparently was NOAA's argument that congressional requests for information are covered by the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

"Obviously," wrote Brown, an attorney, "in their private capacity, members of Congress have the same rights under FOIA to obtain government information enjoyed by 'any person.'... But as the legislative history of FOIA makes clear, 'the Congress has the additional rights of access to all government information which it deems necessary to carry out its functions."

Brown is the ranking Republican on the Senate Subcommittee of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that came to Boston's Faneuil Hall on June 20.

Sen. Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat, and chairman of the subcommittee, who came to Boston for the hearing, did not respond to questions about Brown's letter, and Schwaab, through his spokeswoman Monica Allen, also declined to answer questions posed the Times regarding Brown's letter.

"Eric Schwaab will respond directly to the senator's letter," Allen said in an email.

Locke was confirmed last week by the Senate to be the new ambassador to China.

California utility executive John Bryson, has been nominated to succeed Locke at Commerce but has yet to be confirmed.

Richard Gaines can be reached at 978-283-7000, x3464, or at rgaines@gloucestertimes.com.

The Night El Bulli Danced: The World's Most Influential Restaurant Shuts Down - TIME

Ferran Adrià, chef and co-owner of El Bulli, at a press event marking the closing of his world-famous restaurant. Behind him are top chefs, many of whom trained at the restaurant over the years

Albert Gea / Reuters

This past weekend, a handful of the world's best chefs, including Rene Redzepi, Joan Roca and Grant Achatz, gathered in the speckled morning sunlight of Spain's Cala Montjoi to commemorate a passing. It should have been a sad occasion. But the man who had brought them all together emphasized that there was no death, only transformation. "My brother Albert said we had to kill the monster," said Ferran Adrià. "But I said, No, we have to tame it."

The monster to which Adrià referred is El Bulli, the restaurant that he and his brother — along with, over the past 25 years, roughly 2,000 other chefs, cooks, waiters and captains — have made the most acclaimed and influential of our time. As anyone even mildly interested in food knows by now, El Bulli served its last meal as a restaurant on July 30. But for the journalists who came from around the world for that morning's press conference, as well as for the close friends and longtime patrons lucky enough to dine that night, the occasion felt like anything but a wake. (See why making a reservation at El Bulli was so challenging.)

Admittedly, some of the chefs were in a reflective mood. Massimo Bottura of Modena's Osteria Francescana remembered the long hours he put in as an apprentice in 1999. "We would start at 8:30 in the morning and work straight until 1:30 a.m.," he said. "But I never got tired because the commitment to the group was so strong." Recalling the impact of his own apprenticeship, Redzepi, whose Copenhagen restaurant Noma is currently ranked first in the world, observed, "The courage and freedom to do what we do in Noma came from here. I thank El Bulli for helping free my imagination."

But any pensiveness dissolved in the face of the 90-lb. meringue bulldog (the restaurant's emblem) that master pastry chef Christian Escribà had made for the occasion, adorning its neck with a sugar-paste collar that hid appropriately culinary references like oysters and fried eggs. As Adrià took congratulatory calls from admirers like French master chef Michel Guerard, his front-of-house staff — dressed in T-shirts bearing the words "The Last Waltz" — passed celebratory glasses of cava. They were aided by minibar chef José Andrés' three young daughters, who did a stellar job serving air baguettes and brie-stuffed blini.

The festive air could be attributed in part to the knowledge that, in 2014, El Bulli will reopen as a foundation dedicated to culinary creativity. Blueprints for the new center, which will be located on the same site as the restaurant, were on display at the press conference. They depicted a spectacular new structure with archives and an audiovisual room as well as spaces dedicated to more esoteric things like an "empathic tree experience." Construction on the center is scheduled to begin in January 2012. (See more on Ferran Adrià's plans for El Bulli now that it has closed.)

For Adrià, the foundation — that "taming" of which he spoke — represents an opportunity to free himself and his staff from the obligations and drudgery that accompany the running of a high-end restaurant. Now they will be able to devote themselves to what they do best, which is create. "I'm not nostalgic at all," he told TIME. "In fact, I'm happier than ever. It's almost as if we're going back to our origins in 1993, '94, '95, when we were just boiling over with new ideas. Now we have the chance to make El Bulli into something new every day."

But the happiness also stemmed from the knowledge of what had been accomplished. El Bulli was born as a beachside snack bar in the 1960s, though by the time Adrià joined it in 1983, it had become a respectable restaurant specializing in French nouvelle cuisine. About a decade later, Adrià, having risen quickly through the kitchen's ranks, began the radical experiments that would transform not only his own menu but also the face of haute cuisine. Among the general public he is perhaps most famous for the new techniques, like liquid nitrogen and foam, that he applied to cuisine. But among chefs his supreme accomplishment was more philosophical. By interrogating fine dining's assumptions — does soup have to be liquid? Does dessert have to be sweet? — Adrià opened the way for food as a form of artistic expression.

See pictures of Grant Achatz's culinary masterpieces.

Moss Retires After Career Of Thrills And Conflict - New York Times

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: August 1, 2011

Wide receiver Randy Moss is retiring after 13 seasons as one of the most dynamic and polarizing players the N.F.L. has seen.

Moss’s agent, Joel Segal, said Monday that Moss, 34, had been considering offers from several teams, but made the decision to retire. Segal declined to comment specifically on the offers, instead saying Moss felt the time was right to step away.

“Randy has weighed his options and considered the offers and has decided to retire,” Segal said.

If this indeed is the end for Moss, he leaves the game with some of the gaudiest statistics ever posted by a receiver. His 153 touchdowns are tied with Terrell Owens for second on the career list, and he is fifth in yards (14,858) and tied with Hines Ward for eighth in receptions (954).

Those numbers, and his status as perhaps the best deep threat in N.F.L. history, will make him a strong candidate for the Hall of Fame. But voters will also be weighing those numbers and his six Pro Bowl seasons against a history of boorish behavior and a penchant for taking plays off when he lost interest during games.

His career started with seven electric seasons with the Minnesota Vikings before he went dormant for two years in Oakland. He re-emerged as a force with the New England Patriots in 2007, hauling in a single-season record 23 touchdown passes from Tom Brady to help the Patriots reach the Super Bowl. Moss was traded back to the Vikings in October of last season, but the reunion lasted just four weeks. Fed up with his behavior, Vikings Coach Brad Childress cut Moss in November, a stunning move that played a role in Childress’s dismissal a few weeks later.

Moss finished the season with eight games in Tennessee but made little impact. Segal said this summer that Moss was training hard and determined to prove to the doubters that he could still dominate.

Moss’s combination of size, speed and intelligence has rarely been seen in a player at his position, and he deserves some credit for the influx of Cover 2 defenses throughout the N.F.L. that were designed in large part to prevent Moss from wreaking so much havoc down the field.

Trouble off the field in high school prevented Moss from attending Notre Dame or Florida State, so he landed at Marshall and scored 54 touchdowns in two electrifying seasons with the Thundering Herd.

The off-field questions hurt Moss in the 1998 draft. He fell to the Vikings at pick No. 21 and spent the next seven years making every general manager in the league who passed on him regret it. He scored 17 touchdowns as a rookie to help the Vikings reach the N.F.C. title game and only once failed to score at least 10 touchdowns in a season in his first tour with the team.

He was also involved in several controversies, bumping a traffic cop in downtown Minneapolis, squirting a referee with a water bottle during a game and leaving the field early in a game against Washington, among other incidents. The Vikings traded Moss to Oakland in 2005, where he spent two quiet seasons before his career was revived in New England.

MEETING ON RETIREES ORDERED The N.F.L., its players union and lawyers for a group of retired players have been told to meet this month with a federal judge, who is likely to order them into mediation to address concerns raised by the retired players.

A group of retired players, led by Carl Eller, joined the players’ antitrust lawsuit against the N.F.L. But on Monday, the retired players sent a letter to the National Labor Relations Board saying the current players had prevented retired players from negotiating directly for retiree benefits, even though they were supposed to be part of mediated talks earlier this summer. It also said that the union had improperly negotiated retiree benefits while it was decertified as part of a negotiating strategy.

While the antitrust case, Brady v. N.F.L., will be withdrawn as part of the new collective bargaining agreement, the Eller group said it would not willingly dismiss its case. The group wants retiree benefits, which total nearly $1 billion in the new deal, separated from the new collective bargaining agreement. JUDY BATTISTA