One of the Bush administration’s most extraordinary counterterrorism programs had a fairly mundane start.

A Window Into C.I.A.’s Embrace of Secret Jails

Frank DiPascali, a longtime lieutenant who pleaded guilty this week, communicated directly with some large investors and feeder funds.

Madoff Aide Holds Key to Intrigue

Citibank may claim that an executive set to receive $100 million is exempt from federal review, executives said.

Huge Bonus Hangs Over Pay Review

Instead of waiting to be discovered, aspiring filmmakers are paying for their own marketing and distribution.

Independent Filmmakers Distribute on Their Own

President Obama has presented himself as aloof from the fray, but behind the scenes, the White House has made deals potentially at odds with his rhetoric.

Obama Is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan

The Soul seems to score off the meter with the young-driver demographic, one of the most desirable groups for auto marketers.

Kia’s Pitch: No Curves Ahead

In the late 1950s, fiberglass boat builders produced vessels with headlamps, tailfins and other flourishes borrowed from automotive design.

A Style Both Wet and Wild

Researchers have found a way to identify drugs that can specifically attack and kill cancer stem cells.

Screening Could Lead to More Potent Cancer Drugs

This smart, swift film takes the axiomatic question of the U.F.O. genre — what are they going to do to us? — and inverts it.

A Harsh Hello for Visitors From Space

This account of what happened to a Syrian-American man and his family after Hurricane Katrina is a powerful indictment of Bush-era policies — not a polemic, but a potboiler with a point.

After the Deluge

“Ponyo,” the latest masterwork from Hayao Miyazaki, places emphasis on the natural world, its tumults and fragility.

Forces of Nature, Including Children

Getting to the heart of Mexican Los Angeles via the narcocorrido, the “rap of modern Mexico,” as it moves through this sprawling, multilayered city.

In Los Angeles, Songs Without Borders

The new season of “Mad Men,” which begins on Sunday on AMC, stresses the darker side of its era’s innocence, leading viewers to marvel at a world so familiar and so primitive.

‘Mad Men’ Strains to Stay as Button-Down as Ever

“The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard” is a grubby-looking comedy about the art of the sale.

Stimulus Package: Crass for Clunkers

A rapidly growing bank that paid consistent dividends may soon become the largest bank to fail in 2009.

Teetering on Failure, but Meeting Standards

Now a prominent financier, Marc Andreessen is backing a start-up called RockMelt that is building a new Internet browser.

Netscape Founder Backs New Browser

The hedge fund controlled more than half the United States natural gas market before its collapse in 2006.

Amaranth Settles Charges of Market Manipulation

Most of the investment banks have generated their juicy gains from three favorable trends that may not last.

Trading Profits Helped by Trends

Arthur J. Samberg and his firm, Pequot Capital Management, told clients that federal regulators intended to bring an enforcement action.

Hedge Fund, in Dissolving, Braces for S.E.C. Inquiry

An article on Aug. 4 about a judge’s ruling granting permanent custody of Michael Jackson’s three children to his mother, Katherine Jackson, and an editors’ note last Thursday, said that lawyers for Mrs. Jackson were considering challenging the two executors of Mr. Jackson’s will on the grounds that they allegedly took advantage of addictions that incapacitated him and impaired his judgment. That allegation was attributed to “people close to the Jackson family who asked not to be named,” and in later copies of the newspaper the original article reported that a spokesman for the executors denied it. Times editors should not have published the anonymously made accusation, unsupported in the article by any evidence or publicly available corroboration  with or without a denial.

Editors’ Note

An article on Wednesday about a town hall meeting on health care in Pennsylvania presided over by Senator Arlen Specter described remarks by one attendee, Katy Abram, incorrectly. When she told Senator Specter, “This is about the dismantling of this country,” she was speaking in a forceful voice, but she was not shouting. (At another point in her comments, she did shout.)

Corrections

An article on Wednesday about the hiring of Pedro G. Espada, the son of New York State Senator Pedro Espada Jr., to a position on the Senate staff just weeks after his father helped resolve a legislative standoff by ending his alliance with Republicans and returning to the Democratic caucus referred incorrectly to the $120,000-a-year job. The post, deputy director of intergovernmental relations, was created recently; it is not a position that had been vacant.

An article in some editions on Monday about the restoration of a rare, 200-year-old Irish wooden harp found in a Dumpster in New York City misstated part of an address inscribed on a brass plaque attached to the harp. The business address for John Egan of Dublin, who made the harp, was Dawson Street, not Dawson Road.

An article on Tuesday about young American college graduates who are finding job opportunities in China referred imprecisely to the founding of Sophos Academic Group, a consulting firm started by American expatriates that helps Chinese students who wish to study in the United States. While Jason Misium started the firm, he did not do it alone; Matthew Young is a co-founder.

Lavelle R Felton was an American professional basketball player. In 2009, he was killed in an unsolved shooting.

August 13, 2009

Headlines from August 13, 2009

A Window Into C.I.A.’s Embrace of Secret Jails

Madoff Aide Holds Key to Intrigue

Huge Bonus Hangs Over Pay Review

Independent Filmmakers Distribute on Their Own

Obama Is Taking an Active Role in Talks on Health Care Plan

Billboard 200

Loso's Way (Soundtrack)

Leave This Town

BLACKsummers'night

NOW 31

The E.N.D.

Notable Deaths

Historical Context for August 13, 2009