As big shareholders gain more sway over director elections, the S.E.C. would do well to require more disclosure.

With Power, the Risk of Abuse

Bonnie Fuller, a longtime magazine chief, shelves plans to run her own company in favor of taking on a crowd of online competitors.

Seasoned Celebrity-Watcher Turns From Print to Web

On her influential blog, Nikki Finke writes about the business side of the entertainment industry.

A Hollywood Blogger Feared by Executives

For many cancers, early detection efforts offer little benefit at high expense, and present a real risk of harm.

In Push for Cancer Screening, Limited Benefits

Abandonment of a so-called card check provision was an example of the power of moderate Democrats to constrain their party’s more liberal legislative efforts.

Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions

A former Iranian president, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, called for the release of hundreds of democracy advocates and protesters who have been arrested recently.

Tehran Losing Iranians’ Trust, Ex-Leader Says

Behind the reports was a sober reality: Those robust profits were driven by billions of dollars in one-time gains.

Citigroup and BofA Profits Aided by Asset Sales

After an erratic start to the second round, Tom Watson was tied with Steve Marino for the lead as Tiger Woods missed the cut.

Woods Misses Cut; Watson Storms Back

Despite progress, Democrats face a tight legislative deadline and basic questions about whether their health proposals might do more harm than good.

Democrats Grow Wary as Health Bill Advances

Levi Leipheimer, who had surgery for a broken right wrist, had been one of Astana’s strongest riders. Meanwhile, Heinrich Haussler of Germany won Friday’s stage.

Leipheimer Is Out, and Astana Feels the Pain

If older people choose to remain in houses where they are comfortable, there are many ways to shore up their homes’ safety.

Making Home a Safer Place, Affordably

Natalya Estemirova was a leading human rights investigator in the Caucasus.

A Fearless Activist in a Land of Thugs

For some homeowners, life has gotten in the way, and they have no choice but to wade into the storm-tossed market.

Gotta Move, Gotta Sell

The City Council has a plan that would allow developers to hang onto their permits if they keep their sites safe and secure.

Fighting Eyesores Before They Start

Marijuana’s increased potency is the opening for a debate on addiction, treatment and legalization.

Marijuana Is Gateway Drug for Two Debates

At Green-Wood Cemetery, the final resting place to half a million bodies, surveyor Kestutis Demereckas searches for a few more plots.

Where the Bodies Aren’t Buried

Homeowners and local groups are trying to guard against the disarray and the devaluation of their neighborhoods.

Battling the Decay of Foreclosures

The recollections of influential Nancy Drew fans capture the impact of a formulaic, ghostwritten series.

Nancy Drew’s Granddaughters

Die in public, and your body becomes a canvas for other people’s stories.

Fuller Measure of a Man Shot to Death by the Police

Seven years after winning the Man Booker Prize for “Life of Pi,” Yann Martel has sold a manuscript featuring a donkey and a monkey in an allegory about the Holocaust.

‘Life of Pi’ Author Is Said to Get $3 Million Deal

Robert Isabell, who was found dead in his Greenwich Village town house last week at 57, was a master party planner who captured the spirit of his time, in tuberoses.

He Said It With Flowers

An Italian appeals court has upheld the conviction of Giacomo Medici, an art dealer who helped sell illegally excavated artifacts to private collectors and art institutions including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Bloomberg News reported. Mr. Medici was convicted in 2004 on charges of smuggling, handling stolen antiquities and conspiracy, and sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined about $14 million; on Wednesday an appeals court reduced the prison sentence to eight years. Many artworks that Mr. Medici helped sell to museums in the United States were repatriated, including a sixth-century B.C. krater, above, by the Greek artist Euphronios, which was returned by the Metropolitan Museum to Italy. Two defendants indicted with Mr. Medici, Robert Hecht, an American art dealer, and Marion True, a former curator at the Getty Museum, have been on trial in Rome since 2005 for conspiracy and handling looted antiquities.

Conviction Is Upheld for Antiquities Looter

No other network came close to matching NBC’s audience for “America’s Got Talent” on Wednesday, as the reality competition lifted the network to No. 1 for the night.

‘Talent’ Tops the Night

Philip Pullman, near right, the British author whose books include the “His Dark Materials” trilogy and “The Golden Compass,” said he would no longer visit schools in Britain because of a rule that requires him to register with an antipedophile database, Reuters reported. Beginning in October, adults who work regularly with children must register with a database run by the British government’s Independent Safeguarding Authority; the requirement will also apply to writers and others who regularly visit schools. “It’s actually quite dispiriting and sinister,” Mr. Pullman said in an interview with BBC Radio, adding that he was not to blame if children missed his visits. “It’s the fault of the government that set up this absurd rule,” he said. The Independent of London reported that other writers and illustrators of children’s books supported Mr. Pullman’s position, including Anthony Horowitz, far right, author of the “Alex Rider” spy novels.

Authors Object to British Antipedophile Registry

Delphi, the long-struggling auto parts maker, has reached a deal with its lenders and onetime parent General Motors over a new plan that would lift the company out of bankruptcy.

Delphi Is Said to Have a New Deal to Leave Bankruptcy

Walter Leland Cronkite Jr. was an American broadcast journalist who served as anchorman for the CBS Evening News from 1962 to 1981. During the 1960s and 1970s, he was often cited as "the most trusted man in America" after being so named in an opinion poll. Cronkite received numerous honors including two Peabody Awards, a George Polk Award, an Emmy Award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Walter Cronkite, American journalist and actor (born 1916)

Walter_Cronkite

Leszek Kołakowski was a Polish philosopher and historian of ideas. He is best known for his critical analysis of Marxist thought, as in his three-volume history of Marxist philosophy Main Currents of Marxism (1976). In his later work, Kołakowski increasingly focused on religious questions. In his 1986 Jefferson Lecture, he asserted that "we learn history not in order to know how to behave or how to succeed, but to know who we are".

July 17, 2009

Headlines from July 17, 2009

With Power, the Risk of Abuse

Seasoned Celebrity-Watcher Turns From Print to Web

A Hollywood Blogger Feared by Executives

In Push for Cancer Screening, Limited Benefits

Democrats Drop Key Part of Bill to Assist Unions

Billboard 200

NOW 31

American Saturday Night

Cradlesong

Wilco (The Album)

The E.N.D.

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for July 17, 2009